Chosen by Monk
My latest choice is something a little different from gritty Los Angeles blues rockers Dirty Honey and this tale of life of the road – co-incidentally the quartet are in the midst of their third consecutive sold out ÜK/European headline tour. ‘Coming Home (Ballad of the Shire)’ is the latest single to be lifted from the band’s current album ‘Can’t Find The Brakes’.
With lyrics by vocalist Marc LaBelle, the song is a deeply personal, heartfelt tale of love and life’s everyday challenges: the insecurities, the misunderstandings, the words spoken that you wish you hadn’t, and the hurt inflicted that you can’t magically erase. But, in the end, the realization is that no matter the challenges, home is where your heart is, home is where you belong, and home is just a few more miles ahead.
Said LaBelle:
Being musicians that live on the road, ‘Home’ has become wherever it is that we’re playing music, rather than a particular place. We wanted to showcase our separate journeys, knowing full well that the music will always call us back home.
The accompanying video offers an unexpected element from a band best known for its high-energy, sexy, bluesy rock’n’roll and reflects the song’s message about navigating through the peaks and valleys of life. Directed, shot, and edited by cinematographer Mark Christy, it was was filmed in January, taking the band – LaBelle, guitarist John Notto, bassist Justin Smolian, and drummer Jaydon Bean – to various ÜS locations.
Explained LaBelle:
We went to Snoquamish for the snow and to Durango and Flagstaff for the train scenes. And we knew Monument Valley was an epic, very American West-looking landscape symbolic of both America’s beauty and the struggle of and vastness of traveling through the American West.