Personally, my tastes in country music run to the most gloriously ersatz pop in twangy clothing, but I’ll never turn up my nose at a great tune in a more traditional mold.
That’s just what Charles Latham and the Borrowed Band provides—with a laidback indie-rock veneer—in “Left on Red.” The local country-rock band’s first-ever music video, for a song from their fine new self-titled album, has its official premiere at 7:30 p.m. tonight, just before the band livestreams a show from the Pour House, but we’re dropping it a bit early this afternoon.
Filmed at Shadowbox Studio by Alex Maness, the video, which has a fun retro vibe, features Abby Sheriff on vocals and rhythm guitar, Steve Anderson on drums, Luis Rodriguez on lead guitar, and Gordon Hartin on pedal steel. (Borrowed Band member Roland Ottewell is the invisible bassist.)
Taking cues from MTV before 120 Minutes and the Flying Burrito Brothers’ “Hot Burrito #1” video, the clip finds the band lounging around a bedroom set with a rotary phone and a kooky traffic light prop, picking up on the title’s play on words to draw heartbreak from the mundane, a classic country trope. The video is charming, but it’s the song’s gleaming chords and sailing leads that stick with you, bearing up Latham’s sneaky earworm of a vocal melody.
Charles Latham and the Borrowed Band is available for download now, and CDs and vinyl should be ready in time for the band’s Wake Forest Listening Room show on Saturday, October 4.
Tune in tonight for the Pour House show at 7:30.
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