Let me tell you something straight: CHRIS OLEDUDE doesn’t dance around the point. His latest single “SAVE THE CHILDREN” — dropped May 1 on CESO ENTERPRISES, INC. — is an in-your-face punch to the gut that names the devil and doesn’t flinch. This is the seventh single off his album PREACHER MAN – VOL. 1, and holy hell, it lands like a boot stomping through a glass coffee table.
First, the history. This guy isn’t some fresh-faced studio puppet. Chris Owens — yeah, that’s his birth name — is a Puerto Rican-born, African American, white-Jewish artist who grew up harmonising with his two brothers while his late mother Ethel Werfel Owens taught him music and his late father Major R. Owens — a librarian turned elected official — became his first political hero. You don’t get that kind of DNA by accident.
Back in the 1980s, Chris was out there busking on New York City streets, playing dance bands, and even jamming with his brother Geoffrey Owens (yes, that Geoffrey Owens). He dropped a cassette called Anyone’s Revolution in 1984 that was pure Reagan-era frustration. And get this — folk legend Pete Seeger caught wind of it, gave him a nod, and told him to keep writing songs for peace and justice. Chris joined the People’s Music Network for Songs of Freedom and Struggle, and he’s still in it today.
Then life threw the hard stuff. His dad died. That pushed Chris to form a band with his brothers and get back on stage. Then his wife Sandra Dixon passed away. That broke him open and rebuilt him. In 2020, he came back as CHRIS OLEDUDE — reborn for the digital age with old-school guts.
Now, “SAVE THE CHILDREN”? The original 1983 version was a galloping 6/8 rocker that hit like a missile. But Chris had the balls to step back and say, “Nah, the message needs more weight.” So he mashed it up into a blend of reggae, rock, jazz, and folk. And let me tell you — it works. It’s got that slow-burn tension that makes you lean in.
And the subject? War. Indiscriminate violence. The horror shoved onto kids. Chris doesn’t pick sides like a coward. He says a plague on all the houses — whether you’re firing rockets into Israel or bombing Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, Tehran. Whether you’re taking hostages or torturing political prisoners. He calls out the whole damn “collateral damage” mindset. That’s a rock-n-roll move if I’ve ever heard one.
“SAVE THE CHILDREN” is a sermon from a man who earned the right to preach. And don’t you dare look away.