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Philly band Low Cut Connie releases Trump protest song 'Livin in the USA'

Dan DeLuca, The Philadelphia Inquirer on

Published in Entertainment News

PHILADELPHIA — Bruce Springsteen isn’t the only New Jersey-raised artist using his music to protest against the Trump administration.

Add Adam Weiner of Philly band Low Cut Connie to the list. Weiner, who grew up in Cherry Hill and lives in South Philly, has released a new song, “Livin in the USA,” which speaks to the anxiety and discontent many Americans are feeling in these turbulent times.

The song which Low Cut Connie released Tuesday, with a video directed by Bob Sweeney, plays like a brooding inversion of Chuck Berry’s 1959 hit “Back in the U.S.A.” in which the rock and roll progenitor, and a hero of Weiner’s, sang “I’m so glad to be livin’ in the U.S.A.”

Weiner’s “Livin in the USA” takes a darker turn. The first song Low Cut Connie has released since the band canceled a performance at the Kennedy Center earlier this year, is presented from the point of view of an immigrant whose life is now filled with dread and worry over the prospect of deportation.

“Livin’ in the USA, but it ain’t my home,” Weiner sings, over a mournful piano strings accompaniment that’s a collaboration with legendary Philly string arranger Larry Gold. “My kind of people, they ain’t never gonna leave us alone.”

“I’ve been traveling across this country for many years, and I’ve never seen so many people terrified of the future,” Weiner said in a statement. “People are looking at each other sideways, not knowing who is good, who is bad, and who might jump out of the shadows.

“It reminds me of the feeling of being a child on Halloween — the seasons are changing, it’s getting darker, and you don’t know who is lurking. I wanted to capture these feelings of sadness and disorientation in ‘Livin in the USA.’”

 

Weiner canceled a March show that was scheduled to be part of the Kennedy Center’s Social impact series after Trump took over as the cultural institution’s chairman.

“I’m going to do a show at an institution that Donald Trump is the chairman of?” he asked rhetorically, speaking to The Inquirer. “If I had been asked, with $10 million attached to it, to play the tiniest inaugural party with no cameras allowed — for $100 million — I wouldn’t have done it.”

Weiner’s “Living in the USA” protest follows an ongoing spat between Springsteen and Trump that began when Springsteen spoke out on the opening night of his European tour in Manchester, England, this month, calling the Trump administration “corrupt, incompetent and treasonous.” He has repeated the speech on all his subsequent tour dates and included it on his new hit "Land of Hope and Dreams" EP.

Trump responded by labeling Springsteen “a dried 'prune' of a rocker” and posted a manipulated video that made it seem like he was hitting Springsteen with a golf ball. He has also said on Truth Social that he plans to open an investigation into Springsteen, Beyoncé, Oprah and U2 singer Bono, among others.

On "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" on Tuesday, Bono was asked, “Whose side are you on, Trump or Bruce Springsteen?” He replied, “I think there’s only one Boss in America,” and added, “To be in the company of Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé and Oprah, I’d play tambourine in that band.”

Low Cut Connie tour dates include the Sundown Music Series in Haddon Township on June 4, Rocking the Docks at Lewes Ferry Grounds on June 12 and Concerts Under the Stars in King of Prussia on Aug. 1.


©2025 The Philadelphia Inquirer. Visit inquirer.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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