What’s the state of the American Dream in 2026? Who is it for? Who’s living it? Does it still exist? Hell, did it ever exist? If you’re looking to ponder those questions in song form—really, really good song form—then cue up the latest track from Milwaukee treasure Ellie Jackson, “American Dream.”
“What part of God’s image was I made in?” Jackson asks at one point. “One nation under him making everything great again? / I can’t believe.” And yet there’s still hope amidst the disbelief—hope in friendship, hope in art, and hope in taking a dip in a freezing lake. “Today I stood on a frozen winter beach, basking in Espolòn,” Jackson sings near song’s end, referencing Milwaukee’s annual New Year’s Day Polar Bear Plunge. “Thirty five degrees, with friends who never sleep.”
Musically, “American Dream” is appropriately nervy and scuffed-up, a distinct mood change from Jackson’s 2023 and 2024 singles. She’s joined here, as always, by a murderers’ row of Milwaukee musicians: Caley Conway, Emily Wagner-Morrow, Devin Drobka, Barry Paul Clark, Andrew Koenig, and Josh Evert. Friends who never sleep, indeed.
Looking to ponder “American Dream” in video form? Then cue up this clip, featuring cross-country Amtrak footage from another Milwaukee treasure, Adam Carr.
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