DESCRIPTION:
Fired up, fed up and powerfully incisive as ever, maverick performer Ellen Bukstel, found herself ahead of the curve with her latest infectious opus, “Who’s The Pusher Now?” releasing the pro-pot legalization, Government Drug Wars hypocrisy themed song (which she co-penned with good friend Nick Annis and her music producer son Brett Segal) and being nominated for a Hollywood Music In Media Award (HMMA) before Colorado and Washington State made recreational pot legal.

Even before Bukstel started her amazing streak of close to 50 music video and songwriting awards, nominations and acknowledgements, from an impressive variety of prestigious organizations since 2002, Ellen Bukstel was challenging us to laugh, dig deep and embrace this crazy emotional rollercoaster we call life. She’s done it with every daring turn of phrase, her diverse community involvement and an activist musical and lyrical heart that harkens straight back to the 60s. In the colorful words of one of her thousands of fans who has been touched and transformed by her music, she’s “folkin’ hot.”

Cleverly rhyming the names of FDA approved drugs (“Methadone, Fentynal, Halcion, Phenobarbitol…Percocet, Thorazine, Opiates, Amphetamine”) to make its biting points, the tune chronicles the United States’ foolish history of supporting the proliferation of severely addictive and deadly drugs while punishing those who possess and use pot, still a Schedule 1 drug despite medical marijuana laws in many states. Her powerfully conceived, edgy and provocative video for the folky, New Orleans flavored song – which features compelling, colorful and often hypnotic original motion graphics created by her award winning filmmaker son Todd Segal – also finds a dynamic way to slay her second, lesser-known-to-the-public dragon: the fact that private, corporate owned prisons make big profits when they are filled with non violent low level drug users. In her own words, “it is obscene modern day slavery!”

Ellen and her band of musicians (“The Criminals”) are shown behind fast moving cell bars dressed in orange prison jumpsuits – with images filmed on a green screen, all sharing the same jumpsuit! The clip also shows a bright, animated stamping “Drug money machine” and cell manufacturer assembly line as she sings “Let the government take a bow.” There are images of headlines on yellowing newspapers made to look like hemp, with inserted photo graphics of Harry Anslinger, the first commissioner of the Treasury Department’s Federal Bureau of Narcotics in 1930! There are also crafty images of grinding gears, pill manufacturing and film clips of social protests. Truly, the viewer has to stay glued and watch multiple times to catch all the clever visual nuances that match the blistering lyrics note for note.

The opening and closing images of this provocative video frame the tale brilliantly, as the clip launches with the words “We The People” from the United States Constitution stamped on a slow burning joint, and wraps up with an incendiary image of Bukstel singing in front of fire-orange graphic of our Capitol building

A bold and persistent voice in the wilderness, Bukstel is fast becoming a national treasure – and the video for “Who’s The Pusher Now?” is an endlessly fascinating representation of what she is capable of when injustice once again pushes her creativity to the limit.

• LICENSED for DOCUMENTARY "Mary Janes: The Women of Weed"
• USA SONGWRITING COMPETITION / FINALIST / NOVELTY
• GOLD DAVEY AWARD for Music Video
• GOLD DAVEY AWARD for POLITICAL / COMMENTARY
• SILVER DAVEY AWARD for Annimation
• NOMINATED: 2014 (HMMA) Hollywood Music Video Award
• NOMINATED: 2013 (HMMA) Hollywood Music In Media Award
• HONORABLE MENTION: 2014 (PMN) People’s Music Network Song of the Month – July
• FINALIST: 2014 IAMA International Acoustic Music Awards
• VIDEO JUKBOX PICK OF THE WEEK: 8/12/14 Whereforarts.com
• SONG on PRELIMINARY GRAMMY BALLOT: 2013
• NOMINATED: 2014 LIBBY AWARD (The Libby’s) Best Music Video

WRITTEN & PERFORMED BY ellen bukstel
CO-WRITERS / nick annis / brett segal

MOTION GRAPHICS & EDITING / todd segal
PRODUCED / ARRANGED / ENGINEERED / SOUND DESIGN / MIXED brett segal
MASTERED / mike couzzi
GUITARS / BANJO / dan warner
DRUMS / VOICE OVER / brett segal
BASS / shawn saul
KEYBOARD / alejandro elizondo
TROMBONE / stephen szabadi
TRUMPET / jared hall / francisco (cisco) dimas
CLARINET / SOPRANO SAXOPHONE / dan andrews
RECORDED & FILMED AT / shack in the back productions
VIDEOGRAPHER / robert baldwin
MAKE-UP & WARDROBE / margo segal
THE CRIMINALS / shawn saul / zack grail / brett segal

Who's The Pusher Now
© Ellen Bukstel (co-writers Nick Annis & Brett Segal)