Billy Bragg releases album about plight of Spring Hill homeowners facing foreclosure

By Frank Fencil | frank.fencil@springhillcourier.com

SPRING HILL, Florida — Famed folk singer Billy Bragg has lent his everyman’s voice to many causes, but none that will hit so close to home for Nature Coast residents.

The busker has released a 12-song album titled “Bloke on Broke” in which he chronicles the lives of Hernando County residents coping with home foreclosures.

“I’ve traveled the world and seen so much heartbreak and so much love, but nothing has been as soul crushing as seeing the families pushing a shopping cart in the median of Spring Hill Drive,” Bragg said. “They’re living in storm drains under driveways when there are empty 2,000-square-foot homes just a few meters away.”

Songs on the new album include “You Can Bankrupt Anything but my Love,” “Mortgage Melancholy,” “I’m Not Looking for a McMansion, I’m Just Looking for an Apartment Home,” “Bank of America is Fascists,” “I Am the Milkman of Unpaid Taxes,” “Help Save the Roofs of America,” “Living in Lien Times” and “The Ballad of Phil-ing Chapter 11 Ochs.”