Dana Cooper - Summer in America (Click to watch the video)

2 August 2020

This summer in America, Dana Cooper has released a lyrically sharp and moving reflection on his country’s crisis with the aptly titled “Summer in America.”

The singer/songwriter takes the listeners on an emotional tour of history, beginning with a reflection on the 1967 Summer of Love, when social movements, shifting mores, and explosions of political activism

were signaling hope for a divided nation on issues of civil rights, women’s rights, gay rights, environmentalism, and war and peace. “That summer in America,” Cooper sings, “I loved you and you loved me.”

In the second verse, Cooper, like many Americans, is lamenting how so much promise could disappear so quickly. “This summer in America / I fear you and you fear me,” he sings after describing the resurgence of racism, and a politics that threatens to turn tyrannical.

Cooper plays a soft and tender acoustic guitar, and with the support of a steady drum march that matches the movement he delineates, he tells his story with a modest, effective, and plaintive vocal melody. When he concludes the third verse, predicting a resurrection of the summer of love spirit, the listener cannot help but sing along, and feel grateful that Cooper has captured our hope and dread.

David Masciotra (www.davidmasciotra.com) is the author of four books, including Barack Obama: Invisible Man (Eyewear Publishing, 2017) and Mellencamp: American Troubadour (University Press of Kentucky, 2015).

To read all of David's reviews, click here 

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