Rachel Grimes is a Louisville-based musician who was a founding member of post-classical chamber ensemble Rachel’s (incidentally, not named after her) and, since the mid-2010s, has been staking a bold claim as a composer to watch.

Today, as the world debates whether Columbus “discovered” America or merely raided it, we here at MusicTAP provide the world premiere for a video featuring a song off her new folk opera, The Way Forth, which is coming out Nov. 1 via Temporary Residence.

Want a quick summary of the video’s content? Here’s what Grimes had to say about it: “A contemporary man reflects on the disorienting pain and loss that is the emotional legacy of generations of the colonial American patriarchal family structure.”

Heady stuff, indeed. She recently told MusicTAP she intended to jostle listeners’ thoughts about history and memory. This video surely is a shot fired in that direction.

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By Justin Vellucci

Justin Vellucci is a staff writer at MusicTAP and Popdose, a contributor to Pittsburgh City Paper and Punksburgh, and a former staffer at Delusions of Adequacy and Punk Planet. His music writing has appeared in national publications such as American Songwriter and PopMatters, alt-weeklies The Brooklyn Rail and San Diego CityBeat, blogs Swordfish and Linoleum, and the Gannett magazine Jetty. He lives in Pittsburgh.