DANNY CLINCH
“Speak your mind,” says Adam Weiner of the band Low Cut Connie.
Low Cut Connie’s Adam Weiner has described the group’s upcoming Livin in the USA — pointedly scheduled for release on July 3 — as a protest album. Yet its current single “Can’t Be Wrong” (watch video below) is joyful in a way that protest music rarely is. “The world is on fire, so let’s get wild,” Weiner said in a press release, when the single was released. “Part of making this protest album was trying to answer the question of how do we activate when things are going so so wrong in America and around the world. For me, the answer is to protest during the day, and party at night.”
But the singer-songwriter and pianist sometimes makes more overtly political music, too, as when he sang about “terroristic putzes in the castle” in his song “Death and Destruction” at the main Light of Day WinterFest concert at The Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank, in January. Of all the artists in that marathon show, he was the one to address the state of the world most directly, both in his music and in between-song commentary, as when he talked about the need to “be tough and compassionate at the same fucking time.” In a spoken word-segment during his song “Revolution Rock ‘n’ Roll,” he added: “This is going to be a hard year. We’re gonna need each other, boys and girls.”
The cover of Low Cut Connie’s upcoming album, “Livin in the USA.”
Raised in Cherry Hill and now living in Philadelphia, Weiner has led various incarnations of Low Cut Connie, and uses that name when he performs solo, as well. Especially over the last 10 years, he has become a contender for the title of the hardest-working man in show business, recording prolifically and touring all the time with one of the most high-energy dynamic shows around. During the pandemic, he created a popular series of internet broadcasts, “Tough Cookies.”
In February 2025, with President Trump having just recently started his second term, he made national news by cancelling a booking at the Kennedy Center because of Trump’s behind-the-scenes machinations there. Many others did the same, in the weeks and months to come. “Our little rock n roll act stands for diversity, inclusion, and truth-telling,” he said in a statement, at the time.
Low Cut Connie has lots of touring planned for the rest of this year, and has two New Jersey shows scheduled. The band will be at The South Orange Performing Arts Center, May 28, and participate in “250/The Concert,” taking place at ParkStage in Freehold, July 3, with Little Stevie & the Disciples of Soul, Jake Clemons, Joe Grushecky & the Houserockers and others.
I interviewed Weiner by phone earlier this month.
Q: I know you’ve called Livin in the USA protest music. But your definition of protest music seems to be really different from most people’s, in that it’s not just political. It seems to be more about expressing a kind of feeling, or sensibility. How would you define protest music?
A: Well, like you said, it means different things to different people. I think one of the greatest protest songs of all time is “Respect” by Aretha Franklin, and I don’t know that the general public would call that a protest song. But I do, because that song commented on society, but did it in an extremely entertaining way. When you think about where the country was when that song came out and how that song was released during segregation, during the civil rights movement … and it was such an incredible, fun song that people want to play at their weddings and dance to it, whether they were white, Black, rural, urban, red, blue, whatever. People didn’t realize how that word “respect” was getting into the lexicon and affecting the way that people were thinking. So for me, there can be topical protest songs, but there can be songs that you don’t even notice are socially conscious but that have an effect on us and mirror our experience, and elevate our experience.
Adam Weiner and Low Cut Connie bandmate Amanda “Rocky” Bullwinkel in the “Can’t Be Wrong” video.
Q: So a song like “Can’t Be Wrong” … is that a protest song in some way?
A: (laughs) It’s only a protest song in its desire to find joy during a time when there’s very little to be had. That in and of itself is a revolutionary act. I have a balance of material on this album. Some more explicitly socially conscious, like “Livin in the USA” or “Human Condition.” But this summer, having fun with your friends and partying and dancing and skinny dipping … in some ways, in a time that is becoming more fraught by the day, where we’re living more and more under an authoritarian regime, finding a moment to be with other people and have joy and connection … that in and of itself can be a revolutionary act.
Q: Do you find there’s a difference in the mood of the crowd at shows now, given the stuff that’s hanging over all of our heads?
A: Yes. In fact, over the last couple of months I’ve been doing a solo tour … I did 15 cities and at the beginning of the show I asked people, “How you’ve been feeling lately?” And people yell out all kinds of things. And throughout the tour, I don’t care what city I was in, what state, and what night of the week it was, every night people yelled out, “pissed off,” “depressed,” “angry,” “exhausted,” “over it.” Over and over and over again, these were the responses I got from every crowd in every state. Even on a Saturday night, when people are out on a date, trying to have a fun night out, going to see a concert, having some drinks.
Most of the people I know are depressed on some level these days. They’re feeling angry. They feel helpless. And if you’re a performer and you’re going to walk out onstage every night and try to put on a good show, you have to understand where your audience is at, and try to work with it. How are they feeling? What are you walking out onstage to?
Q: Not that your shows were not energetic before, but does that make you try to put even more energy into the shows, to try to lift them out of that?
A: I would say a different energy. Because when you have people who are feeling that way, I feel like my job is, in 90 minutes or two hours, to try to give them some processing and some catharsis, because when you talk about “cathartic” … it’s not an escape. “Cathartic” means you process a feeling and then are released from it. So if people are feeling angry and depressed at the beginning of the show, then we have to talk during the show about why — what is making them feel so bad — and try to acknowledge it and talk through it a bit, and then by the end of the show, try to be released, to some degree, of the pain and anxiety associated with it, and feel better.
So I’ve been diving in to talking about issues onstage and acknowledging what’s going on outside the club or the theater, and then slowly trying to edge my way forward, to feeling good.
JOHN CAVANAUGH
Adam Weiner at the Light of Day concert on Jan. 17 at The Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank.
Q: At the Light of Day show at the Basie this year, you really stood out: A few of the people mentioned what’s going on (politically) briefly, or made some kind of reference to it, but you were the one who spoke the most directly to it.
A: That was an amazing night. During the show, I had friends texting me, “How’s that show going?” I said, “Just read the news tomorrow. You’ll see.” It felt like the stakes were high.
Look, I’m a performer. As much as I’m a musician, I’m really a performer. If I have 10 minutes to work with, it doesn’t matter if I’m playing songs, telling jokes, giving a pep talk, dancing … whatever I’m doing, it’s all towards the goal of having a great, effective performance that’s going to make people feel something that I want them to feel. When I walked out onstage in that Light of Day, I didn’t really know what I was going to do or what the crowd was going to be like, but it became clear to me right away that we needed to talk: I needed to say some things. And I’m glad that it resonated with people.
Q: On another subject … the song on the album, “Let Me Speak to Bobby” … who is Bobby?
A: It’s funny: In all these interviews I’m doing for this album, that’s the question I keep getting over and over (laughs). I’m going to be very diplomatic and just say Bobby is, you know, “the man.” And by “the man,” I mean … there’s so many tropes that we are seeing these days of empowered, entitled, mega-rich white men who are lording over our society, with no moral compass. And that can be anybody from a political figure to a tech mogul … it’s just we’re in this age of entitlement and oligarchy. So Bobby can be someone who’s in that position, and the person in the song is ready to speak truth to power and really bring it to Bobby.
That could be anybody, and it could be historical or it could be real or it could be imagined. But I think we all know Bobbys in our lives.
Low Cut Connie at The Stone Pony.
Q: Got it.
So you have a lot of touring coming up this year. Is it going to be all with your band, or some solo? How is that gonna work?
A: It’s all band. I’ve completed my solo tour, which was a smash and my first proper national solo tour. But now it’s time to go back to my day job with the band. We’re going to do about 35 to 40 shows starting Memorial Day Weekend, throughout the summer and fall with this album release. And it’s a new show. Obviously, a lot of these new songs, but I’m always changing and evolving, and, I feel pretty good about this new show.
Q: Right. So who is in the band at this point?
A: Well, it’s six people. My right arm in the band is Rocky (Amanda Bullwinkel). She’s been with me a bunch of years now, and she sings with me throughout the show. And then there’s Kelsey Cork, who’s been with me a couple years and sings, and plays guitar and saxophone. She also plays bass once in a while. She’s just an amazing multi-tool. Jarae Lewis has been in the band now for seven years, and he’s the drummer. He’s one in a long line of incredible Philadelphia drummers. And then Rich Stanley plays lead guitar, and Nick Perri plays bass.
Q: I see you have a lot of shows for the first couple of months of the tour, and then you’re off a little bit, and then you’ll be touring heavily again in, like, October and November. Is that because you wanted to do a lot of shows around Election Day?
A: It worked out that way, and I’m going to be working throughout both tours to promote voting and raise awareness about voting rights and how they’re under siege. I’m working with an organization throughout this tour called Western States Center. The program called CultureLabs is all over the country now. They’re doing this amazing work that’s anti-racism work, basically. One of the things they do is, all the venues where we play, they work with the venues to prepare themselves for bad actors. And that is anything from ICE raids in the venue; mass shootings, God forbid; or white supremacist groups infiltrating the venue or their online spaces, A lot of these venues are experiencing a lot of these activities, and they don’t know how to react. Especially the independent venues, a lot of which are the ones we play. And it’s trying desperately to keep these spaces safe for everybody: Safe from violence, safe from racism, safe for everyone and inclusive. If you are trying to put a concert on, you want everybody to be able to come to the show.
I just did a show in Minneapolis, and there were people who had their immigration papers in their pocket. I spoke to them afterwards at the meet-and-greet and they said, “This is the first concert we’ve been to this year. We’ve been afraid to go out, but we really wanted to come. We have to bring our papers everywhere.” So we shouldn’t lose sight of the risks that people take on, to just go to a concert.
So yeah, there’s some intention behind (the touring schedule). But we tour every year: election years and non-election years. And we’re dealing with these types of issues all the time, whether it’s an election year or not.
GAB BONGHI
ADAM WEINER
Q: I’m glad you’re framing this as a protest album, even though, obviously, the whole show is not going to be political. But I have to say I’m a little disappointed that there hasn’t been more of this kind of stuff in the rock world, in general. Do you feel that, too — that there’s a lack of people out there trying to carry the protest banner?
A: Yes. I wouldn’t put it only in rock music. It’s throughout all of the music world — and also entertainment, in general.
Now, there’s a lot of protest art happening. A lot of it is not reaching the masses, which is another problem, and I’m experiencing this problem: My YouTube account was recently banned for a week because I made a video about diversity, and it’s been reinstated (watch below). I made this video — and by the way, I don’t curse at all (in the video), and I say “motherfucker” 900 times every show. But I made this very simple video of me walking around South Philly talking about my neighborhood and talking about diversity and inclusion and how it’s a working class, immigrant neighborhood for a couple of hundred years. And the video got flagged and we lost our ad status, and we had to have a meeting with a Google rep to get it back. But we’re basically, like, under review right now, and that’s because of the word “diversity.” And, by the way, it’s not like a person is sitting there all day looking at this. It’s an AI program that flags the word “diversity.”
There’s a lot of art and speech to this end, that’s being suppressed. So that’s point No. 1. But point No. 2: I agree with you that there isn’t enough (protest) music. Obviously, Lucinda Williams came out with a nice protest album and there’s a lot of artists. It’s just that there isn’t a ton. And actually, the title track of Livin in the USA came out as a single a few months ago … I’m amazed we did get played on 40 or 50 radio stations, and some of them played it in pretty heavy rotation, but there’s a lot of radio stations that wouldn’t play it, and we’ve been speaking with these stations, because a lot of them are our pals. And they explained to us that their funding is going away. They’re listener-supported. They don’t want to ruffle feathers. And in some cases they have corporate policies about not putting anything perceived as quote-unquote political on the air or on their social media. It’s like there’s a chilling effect. It’s really taken hold.
But I’ll tell you what: I’m an independent artist. We run our own label. I say what I want. So I’m able to release the music I want to and say the things I want to onstage, and I am disappointed that there aren’t more artists doing the same thing, just like I was disappointed … when I canceled my show at The Kennedy Center, I said, “I can’t believe there hasn’t been 500 cancellations already.” On the very first day, we were debating it, and I ended up being the first. But I should have been the 50th. And I was one of the smallest artists to be playing at The Kennedy Center. It shouldn’t have come down to me. But sometimes you have to be the change that you want to see.
SHERVIN LAINEZ
ADAM WEINER
Q: Another artist, of course, who has been very political on tour is Bruce Springsteen. I’m wondering if you’ve seen that show, and what you thought of it, if you did.
A: Well, obviously, we were together backstage at Light of Day, and hearing him speak that night was a preview of what he’s now doing every night onstage. I mean, he’s always been that guy leading the charge. But there’s something about what he’s doing right now that’s very special: He has managed to stick his neck out for causes that he cares about, but he’s actually been able to keep people at the table while he’s done so.
If you think back to when Bruce put out “American Skin,” the song about police brutality … I remember seeing it in New York City and seeing all these NYPD and security and people in the audience turned their back to the stage when he sang it. But five minutes later, Springsteen is playing “Glory Days” and those same people are dancing in the aisles. And I think it’s something to be analyzed. I think there’s a lot of artists in this day and age who think that if they speak on issues that they care about … if they say “Fuck Trump,” if they say “Fuck this authoritarian fascist regime,” if they say these things in their songs or in their speech or on social media, that they’re going to lose a bunch of fans. No. Look at Bruce. In rock ‘n’ roll, he’s as big as you get. He’s bigger than artists of his generation that had more commercial success than him (in the past). And he continues to speak on these things and maybe he loses some people, but actually what’s happening is people are arguing over it and discussing it. It’s a conversation starter. He has so many conservative fans that have stuck with him and they say, “I don’t like when he says this,” but they still go and they still listen to it.
I grew up in New Jersey (laughs); I grew up listening to Bruce, seeing his shows. So I’m from the same school. You know: speak your mind. And so I have lost some people, but I’ve gained more than I’ve lost, and I feel better about the work I’m doing at the end of the day.
I’m going to tell you a very short story to this point. I did a meet-and-greet in Nashville a couple of weeks ago, after my concert, and I had a dad, a mom and a daughter come up to me. And the dad said, “I want you to know I used to be your biggest fan. And then you started to get political and I tuned out for a while. I was one of those ‘shut up and sing’ guys. But you know what? You keep spreading your message.” He said, “We’ve been through a lot with my daughter. And I want you to just keep spreading the love and spreading your message.” It was a conservative couple that had a trans daughter. And you could see this journey that they’re on, and how they didn’t like some of the things I said, probably during the pandemic with “Tough Cookies,” and here they were. You just never know like how art affects people and maybe some people drift, maybe some people come back, but I think people continue to listen.
Q: What else can you do? If you water things down, you’ll lose people that way. So you might as well just say what’s on your mind.
A: That’s how I feel.
Low Cut Connie will perform at The South Orange Performing Arts Center, May 28 at 7:30 p.m. (visit sopacnow.org); and at “250/The Concert,” taking place at 4 p.m. July 3 at ParkStage in Freehold (visit ticketmaster.com).
For more on the band, visit lowcutconnie.com.
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