Megan Keely - "Define American"

One of the risks of political or topical music is that it hits you over the head with its message. That's not the case, however, of Megan Keely's "Define American." The understated song delivers a big fuck you to the sub-human freaks running the country (my words, not hers) by maintaining an elegance typically reserved for yogis eating cucumber sandwiches on Mount Tam.

The drums - courtesy of the Punch Brothers' Gabe Witcher - set a somber tone, like torchbearers of the military beat threaded through Otis Redding's cover of "A Change is Gonna Come." Both Keely and Steve Wyreman's guitar work is fabulous; melodic and sweet while still barreling ahead. But it's her vocal performance that steals the show. Keely, whose mother immigrated from the Philippines in 1960, uses the verses to remind her listeners that undocumented immigrants ain't too different from um, anyone. Then, in the chorus, still without raising her voice, she calls out the nativist shitbirds with her stately language, effectively reminding the ding dongs that they have truly lost sight of the place they call home.