NASHVILLE, TN. (Sawyer Brown Fans Website) - Whether it was the Bluegrass Christian Campground or the Dirt Road Farm,
Sawyer Brown put creeks to work in the very DIY clip for their upcoming song of redemption and blind compassion "They Don't Understand." Directed by indie rocker/auteur Lark Watts - who'd opened for
Lisa Marie Presley in Nashville the night before the band's performance was filmed - "
They Don't Understand" attracted local affiliates in both cities, CMT and Country Weekly for the abstract shoot, which underscored how callous we can be to each other without even realizing.
"We were looking for something to tie the pieces together," explains whirling dervish frontman/creative catalyst Mark Miller, who is decisively serious in this clip. "And when we started shooting at the creek in Kentucky, I KNEW we had to do the performance in the creek at our farm. That put the music in the very place the song resolves… and aside from looking incredibly cool, I think it makes a point about renewal being available no matter where you are."
The band had to don knee high scuba socks to maintain body temperature in the water that fell anywhere from mid-ankle to knee high -- and Greg "Hobie" Hubbard was treated to a full-sized grand piano that was lowered into the creek bed and placed in the midst of the current for his performance. Still as cold as the water in Nashville was on the impossibly sunny day, it was positively tropical compared to the Kentucky shoot -- where two people were actually baptized by a preacher in a full-immersion ceremony.
"There was talk of me coming out of the water, too," Miller reports, "but there was just no way you were gonna this Florida boy into water that cold! It was raining. It wasn't more than 50 degrees. It was amazing… Because you had 80 people in church clothes standing on the banks of this pretty raging creek - at first without even umbrellas - to see the people they loved get baptized.
"And it's a funny thing, because even as cold as it was, when those two guys came up out of the water, the look of joy on their faces… Lark said something about how you need real people for this video that there was an authenticity it needed, and for me, there was nowhere that was clearer than at those moments. These were people who were ready to take that step of faith - and when they did, their elation was incredible! I can't wait to see it on film."
Starting the year out in turbo-power-rotation - alongside Shania Twain, Tim McGraw & Nelly, Kenny Chesney, John Mellencamp and Julie Roberts - on CMT with the big budget Sean Silva-directed clip for Paul Thorn's "Mission Temple Fireworks Stand" - featuring sacred steel sensation Robert Randolph and the Fisk Jubilee Singers - this gritty independent clip is every bit as startling in its impact. Given the universal message - and response on the concert trail and secondary markets where the song is already picking up momentum - "They Don't Understand" is shaping up to be every bit as powerful as its predecessor from a video standpoint. Look for it on CMT, GAC and anywhere else country clips are show in the coming weeks.
