Local musician highlights Wilmot land assembly in new song

A local singer, songwriter released a new song called 770 Acres that protests the land assembly happening in Wilmot.

The artist is Steve Todd, known as Punkeydoodle Steve on YouTube.

Todd was on The Mike Farwell Show July 3 to discuss his new single, saying he aimed to include lyrics like “unwilling hosts” and “fight for farmland” to emphasis the issues.

“A threat to expropriate the land if council gets their way. industry is moving in, they don’t get a say,” reads lyrics from 770 Acres.  

Todd lives in Wilmot County and says the land assembly issue hits home.

“There was certain words I really wanted to do or phrases, such as unwilling host I thought it was important to have those two words in the song because that’s kind of a response to Doug Ford saying we have to be willing hosts. I really wanted to have the fight for farmland the opening of the course I thought that was important.”

The song questions the secrets, lack of transparency and non-disclosure agreements involved with 770 acres of land being assembled in Wilmot. Todd sings, “farmers feel left out. Their unwilling hosts that no one cares about.”

During summer months, issues like what’s happening in Wilmot tend to be forgotten about and wanted to find a way to keep it at the forefront of people’s minds, he said.

Todd wrote, recorded and released the song last week.

“I just sort of did a data dump of some of the news articles and I’ve been following it along since March, like everybody else. I just tried to boil down the lyrics. I talked to some people about it on Thursday just for some inspiration. I already played it live on Friday night at a little bar,” he said.

Todd isn’t affiliated with the Fight for Farmland protest group but wants to perform the song live at upcoming rallies.