Americana Highways presents this video premiere of Sean Harrison’s song “Halfway From Nashville.” This song is the title track of his recently released debut album, co-produced by Michael Brinson, Paul Carabello and Sean Harrison. “Halfway From Nashville” is Sean Harrison on vocals; Michael Brinson on guitars and bass; Don Martin on drums; and Jerry Roller on pedal steel.
With a crisp, stripped down production style, this song pays homage to songwriting greats in an intimate style, thanking music for the answers it provides. Set within an expert, aesthetic treasure of a video, we suggest watching it as you sip coffee and map out your day. You can’t go wrong watching this, it’s well worth the time.
I partnered with a newly formed music-development/video-production company in my own town of Fayetteville, Arkansas, LensAudio, which consists of a small group of talented folks with similar goals to mine – to grow and nurture our local/regional music artists community.
They were familiar with the title song from my new album, Halfway From Nashville. We got together over coffee to talk about visual ideas, and I asked them to help me find a handsome fellow to play the role of the song’s character – a down-and-out songwriter who turns to his Country songwriting heroes for answers to his bedraggled life. They said, “oh, you should play the role yourself – you’re good looking, and … “. They are liars! But I decided I’d do it anyway because I thought it would be fun. And I was right. It was fun.
I had several ideas for a parallel storyline that would not simply take the song’s storyline directly, but carry along with it. The idea we ended up with has me, as the character, struggling to start an old lawn mower so he can try to mow some high grass – that would be an accomplishment for this fellow. Meanwhile, the character flips through some old family photos showing his younger self with a smiling young daughter. Regrets from a cherished former life. And we see a buddy arrive carrying a brown paper sack, the promise of temporary relief from our character’s sorrows.
In another brief section of the video, I am myself playing the song live in a studio setting, smiling in the process to sort of offset the real me from the character I portray in the rest of the video.
I feel like the LensAudio Team did a fantastic job of capturing the forlorn mood of the song by using a slow-motion effect in key sections, and of holding the viewer’s attention with some interesting angles and pans for their shots.
As an actor, I keep getting the juicy roles: first, as a truck-stop porn shop stalker in the 3rd season of HBO’s “True Detective”; and now as a burned out songwriter circling the drain in the music video “Halfway From Nashville.” Yeah! — Sean Harrison
Order physical CDs: https://www.seanharrisonsongs.com/product-page/halfway-from-nashville-cd
and digital: http://itunes.apple.com/album/id/1493761433
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