Thanks to Scott Marshall for posting the lyrics to, "Wasteland of the Free. " Think Steve Earle, was on that album of DeMent's, who People's Weekly World had an interview with a year or two ago. Earle quite explicitly slammed capitalism, and the death penalty in PWW, Steve's favorite cause. Steve Earle is definitely a great musician and lyricist, too.
Here is a URL for an interview with DeMent on the WSWS site, http://www.wsws.org/arts/1998/apr1998/irs2-a18.shtml
http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/mar1999/wast-m12.shtml
And add Patti Smith to the lefty musician list. The song and esp. the video for her song, "People Have The Power, "show her to have solid left-populist politics.
Michael Pugliese