Singer-songwriter Shay Martin Lovette gets back to nature for the video for the sparse and stirring "Never Felt So New," from his forthcoming album Scatter & Gather (out May 15).
"'Never Felt So New' was written around the feeling of being invigorated by human connection and having faith in humanity," Lovette tells Wide Open Country. "The narrator is watching someone dear to them experience an inner awakening and, in the process, also recognizes a shift in their own world and life views. As for influences on this tune, Nick Drake comes to mind. I've always admired how his songs stand up on their own with just a voice and guitar in an open tuning. We wanted to capture something like that in the studio and then decided on adding a little more of a groove with the treated piano, bass, and drums."
The serene video was filmed near Lovette's home in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.
"The video was filmed/edited by my friend, Rebecca Branson Jones. Rebecca is a super talented filmmaker and documentarian and worked with Ken Burns on his 'Country Music' documentary," Lovette says. "Rebecca and I spent about two hours wandering on the Mountains to Sea Trail near my house in Boone, North Carolina and then took a quick trip up to the Blue Ridge Parkway on a beautiful summer evening in June of last year and this is what came of it."
Watch the video for "Never Felt So New" below.
Produced by Joseph Terrell of North Carolina's indie roots band Mipso, Lovette says Scatter & Gather is a "collection of songs that drift between the reals of Americana, indie-folk, and homestyle roots music."
"I believe that it's my best work thus far and had a great time capturing these tunes in the studio with my pal Joseph Terrell of Mipso at the helm as producer," Lovette says. "We both share a love for all things roots music as well as experimenting with those roots and that made things easy and exciting as we chased down the sound we were searching for from song to song."
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