Among other things, there’s been a lot of talk about hope and love around here. And those are important and necessary things! But, if you’re paying attention at all, there’s a lot of grief wrapped up in this moment, and a lot of reckoning. Over the past four or so years, many people – particularly white people – have been experiencing an unfolding series of realizations about just how much work we have to do as a country, just how deeply racist and damaged this nation is. Many of us hoped for a strong, clear rebuttal of the current administration in this election, and instead we found out many millions of our fellow Americans are still just fine with it, and would have loved four more years. (Indeed, an appalling number are still clinging to the idea that there should or will be four more years.) Put simply, a lot of scales have been falling from a lot of eyes – even for those of us who thought they’d fallen as far as they could.
In “America!,” Tekla Waterfield wrestles with this mess in blunt, unvarnished terms. The country we thought this was, or were raised to believe it was, and the country as it has revealed itself. The hope for some kind of reconciliation, and the knowledge that it’s unlikely to come any time soon. The song is beautiful because when Tekla picks up a guitar and starts singing the result can’t help beautiful, but it is also uncomfortable and awkward and doesn’t leave you feeling great about anything, which is, now that I think about it, exactly what a musical representation of this moment should be.