“My country, ‘tis of thee, sweet land of liberty” sings Susan Cattaneo in her latest single, but her reference to the patriotic anthem is anything but celebratory. Rather, as her song title suggests, it’s a statement about the decline of discourse and civility in America. More to the point, Cattaneo isn’t optimistic. “Once a beauty, now a shame,” she laments, “our thoughts and prayers can’t save her now”. It’s a sad tale that unfortunately rings true.
Says Cattaneo about the song and its accompanying video:
Like many artists, I believe music can empower, bring about awareness and maybe even change the world. With the stakes so high in the upcoming election, I realized I couldn’t be creatively silent anymore. Combining gritty electric guitars, a melting string section and powerful lyrics and vocals, “Elegy” is my musical response to witnessing an America that I don’t recognize because of its cruelty and intolerance. It is also a call to vote for every generation of women who have fought for women’s rights.
The song features Kevin Barry (Roseanne Cash) on guitar, Marco Giovino (Band of Joy, Buddy Miller) on drums and Joe McMahon on bass. To give the single a cinematic feel, I worked with LA composer Jonas Peterson who wrote and played the string parts. My long-time collaborator, Lorne Entress (Lori McKenna) engineered the guitar and vocals and mixed the track.
The lyrics to “Elegy” use metaphor to describe a woman who is the personification of America. She is someone with “an emoji heart/a big smile and K-mart smarts/All dressed up in stripes and stars/With nowhere to go”. Since the song is female-focused, I decided the video should portray different female versions of me as “America” having dinner together. At the table, we meet America from the 50’s, 60’s, 80’s and 2000’s all lamenting about the state of our country. The characters interact with each other and sing lines like she “don’t play fair, don’t play nice/smiling as she steals our rights” referring to the overturning of Roe vs Wade. The song concludes with all the characters looking to me as I sing lines from “My country Tis of Thee”. While Elegy presents the idea of a troubled nation, I’m also hoping that the song and video are a call to action to all women to vote for Democracy in November.
Finally, to bring full circle the theme of women working together to amplify an important cause, I had the pleasure of working with my daughter, Charlotte Cattaneo who directed, designed and co-produced the video with me. It was filmed by Bill Hurley and Maribeth Arena of the Extended Play Sessions at the Fallout Shelter and edited by Bill Hurley.
Twangville is honored to premiere “Elegy” from Susan Cattaneo.
About the author: Mild-mannered corporate executive by day, excitable Twangville denizen by night.