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Album of the Week: Low Cut Connie, 'Private Lives'

Low Cut Connie, 'Private Lives'
Low Cut Connie, 'Private Lives'Contender Records
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by Jim McGuinn

November 30, 2020

With the new album Private Lives, Low Cut Connie's Adam Weiner has found his calling. "I'm here to write and sing for the underdogs.. for the people who skirt the edges. Maybe they've been rejected by society, maybe they've isolated themselves on purpose. Whatever the case, they're my people." That a new songwriting mark had been reached was apparent from Look What They Did, the first track dropped at the beginning of the year, documenting the economic and emotional frustration and destruction that hit Atlantic City specifically, but really, millions of Americans in recent years. It courses thru the album, reminding us that the chain that is America is only as strong as its weakest link, that we're all in it together, and need to rise together, as hard as that seems at times.

Many artists get on the stage to have that bright spotlight shine on them - to make a spectacle, to cause a ruckus. Adam is no exception, which anyone knows who's seen Low Cut Connie's dynamic shows. Part preacher, part Killer (as in Jerry Lee Lewis), part punk, part mischievous kid, it's nearly impossible to leave a Low Cut Connie show with anything but a wide grin, drenched in sweat.

Over time the empathy for his song's characters has climbed into the front seat of his writing. He's still the hilariously contagious performer, visible twice weekly during 2020 with his riotous Tough Cookies sets streaming from his South Philly living room. But for the first time on record, there's a quality that puts Weiner's songs in the same league as his heroes like Bruce Springsteen and Elton John, both of whom are also his fans, and rightly so. In an era marked by too much computerized and sanitized pop music, we need artists like Adam Weiner and Low Cut Connie to pick up that passing baton - writing and fighting for us all to make sense and beauty out of a messed up world.