While Americans are firing up their grills and filling up their beer coolers for the first almost post-pandemic 4th of July, folk singer-songwriter Josie Bello is pouring on some deliciously satirical BBQ sauce with her new single, “Happy Independence Day” — available now.
With bright country swing from her Kit House Band and lyrics tinged with dark, ironic humour, Bello paints the holiday with red, white and Americana blues all over. While enthusiastically wishing everyone a “Happy Independence Day,” she skewers what has become the hallmark of American summer celebrations, BBQ and beer drinking, by pointing out the side dish of blind indifference that can go along with them.
“So, Happy Independence Day
We’re gonna celebrate it the American way
With beer in our glasses and our heads up our…
Happy Independence Day!”
“The lyrics take a humorous jab at how Americans are celebrating their independence while beholden — yet indifferent — to the economic and social inequities of our time, including political corruption, food insecurity, under-employment and disparity in truth-telling by cable news commentators,” says Bello.
“You recently got a promotion and a raise
Found your take home was less than you gained
You saved twenty years to send your kid to college
Now, he’s a barista with graduate knowledge”
“Happy Independence Day” is the second holiday-focused single the Long Island-based musician has released in the past six months, following up her Christmas 2020 release “Come Home.” Both songs are creative postscripts to Bello’s second solo album, 2020’s Have Purpose Live Long, which spent eight weeks at #1 on the Roots Music Report’s Top 50 Contemporary Folk Albums Chart from December 2020 through February 2021.
“Happy Independence Day” also marks the first time Bello has recorded with members of her live band, the Kit House Band. In addition to her husband Frank Bello on bass guitar, she’s joined by Shawn Cullinane on acoustic guitar and vocals, Mike Nugent on electric guitar and Shawn Murray on drums. Nugent plays double duty as Bello’s producer in studio for all her recordings including this one at Huntington, New York’s Melts in Your Ears Studio with Kevin Kelly of The Workshop East Studio engineering.
Aptly described at “Part Baez/Part Emmylou” by Fatea Music Magazine UK, Bello’s songs from Have Purpose Live Long and 2018’s “Can’t Go Home” have received extensive U.S. and international airplay on Roots, Folk and Americana-centric channels. Individual tracks have appeared on and climbed radio charts including the aforementioned Roots Music Report Chart, the Folk Alliance International Chart, the EuroAmericana Chart and the Americana Albums Chart.
A timely, tongue-in-cheek takedown of the American socio-political state of affairs, “Happy Independence Day” from Josie Bello is available now!
