Lonely Leesa & the Lost Cowboys – New American Dream

“Hands up, don’t shoot. It’s my country. It’s yours, too.”

That’s the emphatic closing refrain of Lonely Leesa & the Lost Cowboys’ powerful new single “New American Dream,” a soulful and atmospheric protest song and rallying cry through a cathartic shot of anthemic rock and roll Americana, set for release on Friday, October 16.

Later that night, Leesa Coyne and the gang celebrate with the official release party at The Jungle in Somerville, an interactive show for the band and audience where each person in the venue will be able to relay their own personal definition of what a “New American Dream” means in 2026. 

For Coyne, the outspoken and fearless Boston musician, songwriter, and powerhouse vocalist who is no stranger to using her voice to speak out against injustice and oppression, her “New American Dream” is a simple one. And it’s one shared by many as we watch the daily horrors unfold across a once-proud country, with seemingly no end in sight.

“To me, the ‘New American Dream’ is for everyone to have some comfort and freedom,” Coyne says. “To be able to have those moments of not having a care in the world. To not constantly worry about some impending doom coming around the corner: ‘Am I going to be assaulted?’ ‘Am I going to be deported?’ ‘Am I going to be broke?’” 

She adds: “I hope that dream can be about freedom and equity, where anybody can have their basic needs taken care of. I thought that’s what this was supposed to be about. But the conditions in this country right now have lost that. So my American Dream would be that moment of freedom and equity – being able to not have a care in the world, feeling like all your needs are met, and you’re good.”

At the Somerville release party, which also features Big Limo, A Pleasure to Have in Class, and Mel G Lederman, attendees will be able to declare their “New American Dream” through cut-outs, poster boards, and other audience interaction measures. Coyne wants the audience to visualize a better tomorrow as we slowly creep towards the Midterm elections here in the United States, another moment that’s positioned to be a pivotal one in our nation’s history.

While these individual dreams may be specific to each person’s hopes and fears, there is a connective tissue that binds us as our rights, freedoms, and safety become increasingly under attack.

“I don’t think the American Dream has served everyone,” Coyne asserts. “It definitely hasn’t served people of color, those immigrating here, or the LGBTQ+ community over the years. And women were an afterthought in the constitution, and I feel at times are still an afterthought in society – globally, as a whole – on so many levels. So this song was about that and about the current crisis, but also leaving it as a question: What’s the ‘New American Dream’? Does that still exist? Is there another dream we can all have collectively? Because right now, I just feel like it’s not really working for anyone.”

Melancholic and dark but with an undeniable groove, “New American Dream” is a call for coping and a call for clarity. And it continues a singles streak for Lonely Leesa & the Lost Cowboys that confronts social issues with a deeper understanding of what it means to be human. In early 2024, the band unveiled “Stayed ‘17,” a tender alt-country acoustic ballad and personal reflection from Coyne about her own experiences with domestic violence, and for the 2020 presidential election, the bluesy and brash “The Reckoning is Here” aimed to rally the country at the ballot box.

With “New American Dream,” all the pressures and stresses of the modern day are packed within a slow-burning anthem that stirs a captivating cocktail of Americana and rock and roll, with elements of psych and classic rock woven in for a song with a timely message and timeless sound.   

“The American Dream is being lost through the death of a thousand paper cuts – the deaths of despair, the loneliness crisis, how expensive healthcare and college and the cost of living have become,” Coyne adds. “Everybody’s working not one job but two or three jobs just to feel like they haven’t gotten anywhere. There’s also the whole myth of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, when that’s really something that’s meant to keep people down and keep people in place.”

The seeds to “New American Dream” were first planted when Coyne’s father fell ill and spent months receiving inpatient treatment, and ultimately recovering, at Mass General Hospital while battling acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Here was someone who always worked two jobs, raised a family, and played by the rules.

And suddenly, he was now faced with losing everything. It was an experience where Coyne balanced personal difficulties with those shared by others across the country. It made a massive impression on her.

 “Being in that environment, there’s so much fight in there – people really trying to stick around, and families and loved ones trying to support them,” Coyne reflects. “For me, from a personal view, my parents have just worked and worked and worked, and they never really got to see the fruits of that labor. But at the same time, there was the Trump election, riots in the street, and Black people in the community being shot by police. What does that look like?”

In the time since, life has become even more stressful, with ICE terrorizing our neighborhood streets, the cost of living skyrocketing, and AI threatening our collective lives and livelihoods. The lyrical reference in the song to John Mellencamp’s “Pink Houses,” where our collective turmoil is not always readily visible on the surface, is deeply intentional.  

“Things are not equal here,” Coyne continues. “Some people – the one percent – are very comfortable, and then the rest of us are struggling and stressed out. What does it look like to stand up for immigrants in this country and then get shot at or killed? What does it look like to be deported without any notice, with no contact with your family? And now, what does the future look like? Is everybody going to be replaced by a robot?”

And we’re all in this together, despite what certain powers-that-be want us to believe: “But more than anything, it’s about safety. What does it mean to feel safe in this country? What does it mean to feel safe knowing you have enough money to eat, a place to live, a safe place to raise a family, and the freedom to love who you want to love? Or just to walk down the street alone or down the block? There just seems to be a lot of turmoil right now.”

Aligned with our societal slide, “New American Dream” has been dancing around in Coyne’s head for nearly a decade. But with a new lineup in Lonely Leesa & the Lost Cowboys – Jim Collins on bass and vocals; John Bragg on lead guitar and vocals; and Randy Creasi on drums and vocals supporting Coyne on vocals and guitar – paired with our recent societal descent into chaos, the song finally found its rhythm and its voice. 

And it became the powerhouse track that it is after it was recorded at Rare Signals in Cambridge, Massachusetts, produced and engineered by the acclaimed studio’s Brian Charles and Annie Hoffman.

“This felt like the perfect song to record now, considering everything going on in the world,” Coyne says. “The icing on the cake was getting to work with Brian and Annie. They’re just so great. It’s such a wonderful studio to record in, and both of them brought nothing but good vibes and their years of expertise. They really got what we were trying to accomplish with the recording, and everything came together seamlessly with good energy and good intention.”

Coyne also credits her outspokenness in music to coming up in the open-mic universe of Club Passim, the legendary Cambridge folk music club that in the 1960s became a hotbed for songwriting commentary and activism, helping launch the careers of outspoken icons like Joan Baez, Tom Rush, and Bob Dylan. 

“Coming from that Passim lineage, especially at this point in time, I want to honor that community and write songs that stand up for something,” she adds. “I write plenty of love songs, but lately the stuff has been a lot more political and topical. Beyond that, we just want to continue to rock and play music, be positive, be good to each other as a band, be good humans, support the community, and create a safe space for people to come, engage and listen.”

And that fearlessness is needed now more than ever as fascism takes over our American way of life. Coyne understands the power of music and a microphone, and the ability for people to rally around a cause – or in this case, several – through the potency of a song.

“Artists over the years have been a strong vocal force for the people, and on a local level, I hope I can reach some folks,” she says. “Some of my other songs have reached people who might be struggling with something difficult in their lives, whether that be domestic violence or political stuff. Artists can tell it more like it is sometimes. If you’re a really established artist, you often have a big platform to communicate that message. But even on a local level, what does it mean to be someone who has a voice, is politically active, or uses art as a vehicle for activism? I think it’s part of the journey of the artist.”

And for Coyne, music has continued to be a coping mechanism and a form of therapy. She hopes the “New American Dream” release party at The Jungle can have a cathartic effect for those craving community, solidarity, and the ability to have a voice – to declare their “New American Dream.”

Because without it, life is one big doomscroll – until there’s a knock on the door.

“There’s always something to worry about if you go down the rabbit hole. Anxiety is on the rise. Why is that? Is it because we’ve manufactured this always-on news cycle, social media is always on and in our pockets, or is the world just a way more messed-up place right now? I think everybody wants to feel safe and comfortable and be able to relax – to not have to worry about where your healthcare is coming from, where your housing is coming from, where your food is coming from, whether somebody’s coming after you, or going to put something in your drink or what the future is going to look like for your kids.”

That message comes to a powerful climax in the song’s conclusion, where the declaration of “Hands up / Don’t shoot / It’s my country / It’s yours, too” underscores the seriousness of what’s going on. 

“I think at some point the protest call of ‘Hands up, don’t shoot’ came to mind because it was a rallying call,” Coyne adds. “Then I added ‘It’s my country, it’s yours too,’ meaning anyone that is here should be treated with the same respect, care, and dignity as anyone that was born here. And I was just like that is it. It needs to end that way.” 

This is the “New American Dream.” And Lonely Leesa & the Lost Cowboys want to know what yours is. It’s a shared vision, with each of us providing our own unique perspective. Whether they define it while listening to the song by themselves in private, or with a crowd at the release party, the dream is both individualized and communal. 

“I hope the listener comes away thinking about what the world would look like if they could build it themselves,” Coyne concludes. “What can you do? How can we think about this differently? How can we collectively bring the American Dream back for everyone, not just the wealthy one percent or those born here? And even in your own life, how can you recognize those moments of peace and freedom and embrace them more? Smell the roses even when you are in the shit.”

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