[Cover photo credit to Irene Young]
Don Arbor’s early days as a songwriter and performer took him through clubs in the northeast, and even to Paris, where he became accompaniment for Gordon Heath, a Black expat Folk singer. While later attending law school, he continued his musical pursuits, imbuing his songs with social issues. His legal career subsequently represented the under-represented, championing important causes.
Despite his intense legal career, Arbor has never given up on his musical path, continuing to write and record. His autumn 2025 album, Hope Is Hard To Kill, is a reflection of that. The title track carries a “message of strength and resilience in hard times” and arrived with an award-winning video.
Today, we’re very pleased to premier Don Arbor’s newest song, “Kind”, here on Wildfire Music + News. It arrives on streaming this Friday, January 16th, 2026. Unsurprisingly, given what has always concerned Don Arbor most in his songwriting, “Kind” carries a social message that’s very much in need right now, in an era of persecution and othering of those who seem to be different in any way from one’s own walk of life. It’s also an era of economic struggle where, whether its apparent or not, many people could be on the poverty line, or below it, and help and empathy have never been so desperately needed. Added to that, the continual pressure from media and social media to find targets for our anger and frustration. We are currently surrounded by powder-kegs in our daily lives, online and in-person, and stopping to remember our own humanity, and those of the humans we interact with, is rarely encouraged.
Thankfully, music is an art that has often taken up a counter-balance to our one-sidedness in life, and Don Arbor and his fleet of top-notch collaborators have stepped in to use that capability to the full. The song “Kind” threads the needle between the simple and the specific, building in its choruses a kind of marching mantra that could well work its way into the public psyche in a very helpful way. The song bursts with energy from the start, driven by uplifting horns, and presents its unassuming but clear message in terms that anyone could understand. When we think of the word “kind”, we may associate it with passivity, but the song reframes kindness as an energetic position, recommending an active kindness, and the music has a lot to do with upholding that idea. This active kindness is seen in lyrics like “won’t turn a blind eye.”
Arbor also presents a simple contrast and a nod to the realities of the world by pointing out that some people think it’s “cool to be cruel.” Even that language choice could suggest that those who are the taste-makers right now are supporters of cruel attitudes, so that kindness becomes a radical reaction against any other prevailing trends. But a big part of the extra punch in the song is that Arbor allows a little diversion, an admission of just what kindness is up against, a “world spinning out of control”, the presence of despair, and the need to actively find beauty. With that, the idea of kindness is further brought into our current experience. And that little bit of darkness shows this positive resistance even more brightly.
The song allows itself a fair amount of repetition, but this takes the constraints off the instrumentalists and really allows them room to breathe and develop the musical themes of the song, dancing them to a more and more expressive place as the song goes along. It also reinforces the idea that this is a song that could be sung together, or chanted, expressing unity but also, in a more practical sense, creating it.
Arbor’s new track “Kind” is described as “an uplifting message that speaks to our common humanity, with a catchy tune, a great dance beat, and a killer band.” It’s also a song that “reminds us of our universal connections, while providing an antidote to the claim that empathy and kindness are signs of weakness.”
On the song “Kind”, we have Don Arbor on words, music, lead and background vocals, and Stef Burns (Huey Lewis and the News) on lead and rhythm guitars. Marc Russo (The Doobie Brothers) plays alto and tenor sax. The horn arrangement for “Kind” was written by Marc Russo and he put together the horn section that included Marvin McFadden on trumpet (formerly with Huey Lewis) and Mike Rinta on trombone (Sly and the Family Stone, Santana, Herbie Hancock). Curtis Ohlson (Ray Charles) plays bass.
Kevin Hayes (Robert Cray Band) plays on drums and percussion. John R. Burr (Alison Brown) plays keyboards. Singer/songwriter and writer Jill Suttie performs background vocals. Steve Savage, the Founder and Chair of The Blue Bear School of Music, is the co-Producer and sound engineer.
