Brother Earl and the Cousins — “Down With My Ship”
Americana Highways brings you this video premiere of Brother Earl and the Cousins’ song “Down With My Ship,” the title track of his latest EP, which was released on August 13th. All songs on the EP were written by Noah Berberea, aka, Brother Earl. The EP was recorded at The Canyon Hut in Laurel Canyon; poduced by Grammy winner Tim Hutton (Jimmy Cliff), mixed by Mike Pepe (Bayside, Taking Back Sunday) and mastered by CJ Blair (Khalid).
The video was filmed all in one continuous shot driving through rural areas of coastal California. Quite a feat. Watch the scenery flow past and a very natural progression of singing and then playing the song unfolds from a truck bed. This is a respectable upbeat country rock song with everything you need, from catchy hooks to a memorable refrain and layers of musical titillation. “Don’t you give me no lip, I’ll go down with my ship.”
The video for ‘Down With My Ship’ was filmed on the outskirts of where I call home in Ventura County, CA. It was directed, shot, and edited by Scott Toepfer, a great friend and one of my favorite visual storytellers, who recently worked with Nikki Lane on her new project with Gibson Guitars. Scott had the idea of doing the video in one fluid shot, with just me and the landscape behind helping to tell the story of a lonely traveller who’s committed to his path, and unapologetic about it. At first I was nervous about the idea. All I could think was, ‘that’s a whole lot of me’, but I jumped in and gave it a go anyhow and couldn’t be happier that I did. We only took an hour to film, and after about seven or eight takes Scott smiled and said “we got it”, and we headed off to get some breakfast. — Noah Berberea
Find the music here: https://brotherearlandthecousins.bandcamp.com/