Nashville-based singer-songwriter duo The Danberrys (Dorothy Daniel and Ben Deberry) sing an anthem of persistence on the bluesy folk song "The Road," featured on their recently released LP Shine.
The song's video, which Wide Open Country is premiering today, features a large group of people walking down East Nashville's streets.
"Making this video was possibly the most fun we've ever had. 'The Road' is a statement about our collective journey as human beings, so we wanted to show different 'voices' singing the song in an intimate way, and we also wanted to show all of these same people walking down a road together reminiscent of a soldiers' march. We recruited a large group of friends and family and did most of the shooting in one long day. It was a huge undertaking, but we think we pulled it off," Deberry tells Wide Open Country. "We did the group shots in the street in front of our East Nashville home, so that posed several unexpected challenges. We had this vision of a group of people walking together and forming all kinds of shapes in the street, but that level of coordination took all morning to nail (in the freezing February weather while dodging traffic to boot). Most people had never been on camera before, so there was a lot of liquid courage being passed around, especially for the dancing shots. Even though Dorothy was five months pregnant at the time, she ran around playing cheerleader all day, trying to make everyone feel loose and comfortable in front of the camera by acting completely ridiculous off camera."
Deberry says creating the video was a huge undertaking, but worth every second.
"Once we finally got the group shots we wanted, we headed to the directors' (Anana Kaye and Irakli Ganbriel) home studio in the afternoon to film everyone individually singing the song. We asked everyone to actually sing the song (versus lip-syncing) because it looks more realistic, so Dorothy literally sang every word at the top of her lungs with all twelve people (for multiple takes each) so nobody would feel self-conscious about their voice. While she sang and danced around behind the camera, I held up huge cue-cards with the lyrics. We probably did this for 40+ takes. It was exhausting, but totally worth it."
Watch the video for "The Road" below.
For more information on The Danberrys, visit their official website.
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