Alan Arena: "Cape Cod Girl" (2026) CD Single Review

"It's ninety degrees on the Cape Cod beach," Alan Arena sings at the beginning of his new single, "Cape Cod Girl," and I'm hooked at that moment. It's been in the nineties here in Los Angeles for a while now, and that kind of heat makes you want to be at the beach. It also makes you want to slip back to your youth when the heat didn't matter all that much, and the beach meant a certain kind of freedom, and promises of a certain kind of action. I grew up in Massachusetts, and every summer my parents would take my brother and me to Cape Cod for a week. The hope was always meeting a Cape Cod girl, and it usually seemed to happen too. There was that kind of magic then, wasn't there? And girls were everywhere. This song has that kind of vibe, that kind of youthful enthusiasm and energy.

Alan Arena is a blues artist based in Massachusetts. Last year he released Deceived, an album featuring a lot of original material, and followed it with a holiday single, "Gritty Holiday Ditty," a song that mentions Chuck Berry. And on this new single, "Cape Cod Girl," there is a fun rock and roll thing happening, with some delicious stuff on keys and saxophone. The musicians backing him include Brooks Milgate on piano and organ, Gordon Beadle on saxophone, Mike Welch on guitar, Brad Hallen on bass, Marty Richards on drums, and Joe Russo on backing vocals. "When she gets up from her blanket, everybody looks/With just a little smile, everybody's hooked/Ain't nothing gonna matter in this whole wide world/When you fall in love with a Cape Cod girl." And of course the girl doesn't care about all the attention she attracts. She just wants to enjoy the beach, the day. That sounds about right, eh? This track also features some really nice guitar work. The song feels like summer, like all the best things about summer. It's good that folks are still writing numbers like this. "She wants to live today like it's all she's got."

CD Track List

1. Cape Cod Girl

Cape Cod Girl was released on June 12, 2026. Alan Arena is working on his next full-length release, which is due out in early 2027.