Front Country combine their acoustic instrumental prowess with a message to make an impassioned rock & roll anthem in “Amerikan Dream,” the group’s latest release from an upcoming third album. Titled Impossible World, it’s the band’s first album recorded in Nashville since the trio of Melody Walker, Adam Roszkiewicz and Jacob Groopman relocated to Tennessee from the San Francisco area.
“Running on credit, but the shipping is free/You’re free to believe in the American dream,” Walker sings in the opening line, setting up a discussion about the way that dream was designed to be out of reach for the working classes. She touches on factory conditions, immigration, religion, and the various structures that keep the flawed system intact, singing soulfully while the band’s hypnotic mix of banjo and fiddle kicks its way to an insistent, stomping rhythm that’s part post-punk and part E Street Band gallop.
“From our racist colonial roots to our economically divided present, the ‘American Dream’ has never really been accessible to all,” Walker explains of writing “Amerikan Dream.” “Since it is a belief more than a fact, the first step in changing it is to dismantle the dogma within ourselves so we can be free to imagine a better country together.”
“American Dream” follows Front Country’s other 2020 releases, “Black Crow” and “Do Re Mi.” Impossible World will be the full-length follow-up to 2017’s Other Love Songs.