Video Premiere: Eilen Jewell, “Rio Grande”
Sometimes, no matter how much you love a place, no matter how deeply it seems to speak to you, no matter how much it seems like home, it’s simply not the right place for you. And sometimes, the healthiest thing you can do is pack up, put your boots on and leave to make a new home somewhere else. That’s the realization Eilen Jewell came to awhile back. And that’s what inspired her to write “Rio Grande,” which you’ll find on her new album ‘Sundown Over Ghost Town.’
Jewell describes the album as a whole as “very autobiographical.” And it’s true – there are lots of personal reflections and introspective musings throughout. The real beauty of this recording, however, lies in Jewell’s ability to take what’s relevant to her life and turn it into something that’s relevant to the lives of anyone who chooses to listen.
“Rio Grande” is a perfect example of the personal becoming universal. After all, who among us has not had the experience of longing for and despising a place at the same time? You know: that push-pull-back-forth-I-want-it-no-I-don’t kind of feeling – we’ve all experienced it. And through the spaghetti western-esque stylings of Eilen Jewell, guitar master Jerry Miller and trumpeter Jack Gardner, we get to experience it again, this time from the outside looking in.
The video perfectly highlights that feeling, too. Shots of Jewell and the band, nearly expressionless, interspersed with landscapes that look bright and dull at the same time, that seem beautiful and desolate all at once, only serve to emphasize the contradiction she feels – I love this place so much, I want so badly to be happy and healthy here…and, sadly, it just isn’t right.
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‘Sundown Over Ghost Town’ is out now on Signature Sounds Records, and is available here at iTunes and Amazon.com.
