Watch it here
Sophomore Album, Cry About It Later, Available on April 20
Brooklyn honky-tonk band, Bourbon Express, releases the video for “Devil’s Angel,” the second track off of their upcoming album, Cry About It Later. Watch it on The Alternate Root.
The idea for the video was hatched on the subway as Katie Curley (vocals, rhythm guitar), Brendan Curley (guitar), and Sarah Kinsey (vocals) rode home from rehearsal one Sunday. While discussing how they’d like to visually depict the song “Devil’s Angel,” they decided that in keeping with a tradition of corny country music videos, it should be a literal representation of the lyrics and that each band member would play several roles.
The video begins while Katie’s nerdy husband (played by Brendan, who is married to Katie in real life) is away on business. Katie goes to a bar, and when her friend Sarah walks in with a handsome cowboy (also played by Brendan), she can’t help but want to steal him away.
After combing through a myriad of eighties and nineties country music videos on YouTube with director Phil Chernyak, other tropes were incorporated into the story to be subverted and exaggerated.
Underlying the main storyline is a theme of nostalgia for the music and technology of an earlier era. Sarah’s character seems to be trapped in the eighties, while Katie’s is stuck in the present day.
The video was made on a shoestring budget, and the band depended on the generosity of friends and strangers alike. Anthony LoPorto of The Bean Post, a neighborhood bar in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, offered his bar for a full two days of filming after meeting Katie and Brendan only once. His ten-year-old son, Anthony A. LoPorto chatted up the crew, and by the second day, a part had been written in for him.
Last month, The Daily Country described Cry About It Later as “an original twelve track collection permeated by the classic country sounds of pedal steel, fiddle, and mandolin resulting in a project that is both contemporary yet timeless.” The website premiered the song “Pick Me Up.” “Led by a lighthearted shuffling melody, Katie’s distinctively delicate vocals, and Brendan’s subtle guitar work, ‘Pick Me Up’ conveys that all too familiar feeling of living paycheck to paycheck and needing something to raise the spirits and ease the worry, if only for a little while.” You can listen here.
Cry About It Later is set for release on April 20th. It was recorded at Cowboy Technical Services Recording Rig and produced by Eric “Roscoe” Ambel (Steve Earle, Joan Jett). In addition to Katie, Brendan and Sarah, Bourbon Express invited Jonny Lam (Sinkane, Honeyfingers) to play pedal steel, and Melody Berger (Ganstagrass, The Berger Sisters) to play fiddle. Other instrumentation includes vocal harmonies by Andrew Dykeman, captured by engineer Tim Hatfield; Dykeman on bass; Brendan on piano, mandolin, baritone guitar, electric 12-string, and electric guitars; Katie on harp on “Dream Girl;” and Jason Mercer on bass on “Cold Quiet Drink.”
Bourbon Express will celebrate the release of their new album with a performance at Hank’s Saloon in Brooklyn on Saturday, April 21st. They will head out on a mini tour in May. Tour dates are below.
Catch Bourbon Express live:
April 21 – Hank’s Saloon, Brooklyn NY – Album Release Show
May 23 – Gypsy Sally’s Vinyl Lounge – Washington D.C.
May 24 – WDVX Blue Plate Special – Knoxville, TN
May 24 – Southgate House Revival – Newport, KY
May 25 – Dee’s Country Cocktail Lounge – Madison, TN
May 26 – Model City Taproom – Kingsport, TN
May 27 – The Underground – Lansdale, PA