“The best musical satirist working today.” - Bay Area Reporter

In the current national nightmare, we need to laugh. And we need to hope. Roy Zimmerman’s signature blend of heart and hilarity has never been more necessary.

In a career spanning more than thirty years, Roy’s songs have been heard on HBO and Showtime, and his videos have garnered tens of millions of views on social media. With his satirical folk quartet The Foremen he recorded for Warner/Reprise Records. Roy has shared stages with Bill Maher, Ellen DeGeneres, Holly Near, Robin Williams, Arlo Guthrie, John Oliver, The Roches, Andy Borowitz, The Chambers Brothers, Kate Clinton and George Carlin.

Roy has done several shows with The Pixies' Black Francis, swapping songs in a solo acoustic setting. He provided comic commentary to the live premiere performance of Francis' score for the classic silent film "Der Golem."

RiZe Up is Roy’s tenth album release as a solo artist. It’s a funny and forceful expression of resistance in the age of Trump. “Satire empowers people,” says Roy. “To laugh is to fight back. To hope is to fight back.”

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Roy co-writes these songs with his wife, Melanie Harby. Melanie is a three-time West Coast bluegrass guitar champion. She was an original Broadway cast member of Quilters, and performed the show at regional theaters across the country.

Melanie was Joni Mitchell's guitar tech and her research assistant on the Hits and Misses project. She was also research assistant for the Fox Movie Channel's Legacy series with Tom Rothman, reconstructing how the deals for many classic Fox films were put together with particular  emphasis on how casting decisions were made. Melanie’s children’s picture book All Aboard for Dreamland is published by Simon and Schuster.

Roy and Melanie collaborated with the late great Anita O'Day, the Jezebel of Jazz, on her final song "No Man of My Own," and Melanie co-directed the documentary of Anita's life, O'Day at The Races. Roy and Melanie have written hundreds of children's songs for Disney, Warner Bros, Looney Tunes, and McGraw and Hill. By far, Roy and Melanie's best collaborations are their sons, Joe and Sam.

Roy and Melanie tour the country constantly, bringing laughter and encouragement to the “Blue Dots” - the most progressive people in some of the least progressive places in the nation. "I get accused of preaching to the converted," says Roy, "but that's not how I think of it. I think of it as entertaining the troops."

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Six years ago I wrote a song called “DWB (Driving While Black).” I wrote it after Eric Garner was choked to death by Staten Island police as he repeated the phrase “I can’t breathe” 11 times before slipping into unconsciousness. But the song is not about that one incident - it’s a song about the ongoing struggle for equality under the law within a structurally racist justice system.

In the wake of the murders by police of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and Rayshard Brooks and the worldwide movement their deaths have inspired, Melanie and I knew we wanted to present “DWB” again, but this time as a dialog - to balance the voice of white authority with the pain of black suffering. Our dear friend Clovice Lewis graciously supplied the second voice by way of his gorgeous cello playing. -- RZ