As the sun rose over the hills of Tennessee and the fog gathered over the catfish pond in front of her, country artist Karen Waldrup looked out and felt a peace and tranquility that she had never felt before.
Videos by American Songwriter
And it felt good.
“There was an indescribable magic that morning,” Waldrup recalls in a recent interview with American Songwriter of the video shoot for her current single “Me Again.” “I’m usually one of those people that plan all the shots out for a music video, but this time, I just knew that I shouldn’t overthink it. I should just sing the song and let the camera capture the beauty and see what God gives us.”
And God gave them a beauty of a music video.
But it didn’t last long.
Soon, the world would find themselves in a battle against the spread of the coronavirus, and the peace and tranquility of that January morning amongst the foothills of Tennessee would become a memory. And for Waldrup, and so many artists like her, she would soon find herself thrown into a thunderstorm of uncertainty as shows were cancelled, money became tight and the future turned into a very scary place.
But Waldrup is determined not to sit in that scary place too long.
Instead, for the Louisiana native who became a viral sensation via her various country music covers that have racked up millions and millions of views through the years, the time is now right to share the peace and tranquility with the world who are craving a glimmer of hope and contentment…through a simple, 3 1/2-minute music video directed by videographer Victoria Metzger.
“I hope it gives them peace,” explains Waldrup, who has been playing live music for her fans in recent weeks as part of her Cabin Fever series of concerts. “I hope that the vibe and the fog and the steel guitar of this music video allows them to escape to a different place for a little while.”
And now that coronavirus has pulled the rug out from under a collective nation, Waldrup says she is seeing this song and this video in a whole new way.
“The song is about becoming and moving into a new phase of yourself and knowing that you are going to be alright,” she explains. “But the song and its lyrics are also there to remind you of those people in your life that have your back, the ones that have you no matter what, the ones that are by your side no matter what changes in your life.”
That visual is crystal clear during a touching piece of the video, courtesy of her friend and “Me Again” duet partner William Michael Morgan.
“There is a part where he takes off his cowboy hat and puts it on me, and I know we are in this together,” says Waldrup, who has been friends with Morgan for a number of years and even opened for him in Texas years ago. “There is a lot of symbolism like that in this video. The song is not really a love story. The song is more about everyone who is there for you, not just people who are there for you romantically.”
“The video for “Me Again” is such an inspiration and is a sign of how a real true blue friend can really help you find you again, or in this case, me again,” Morgan adds.
In fact, even during the writing of the song, Waldrup wasn’t thinking of the lyrics taking a romantic turn.
“The song just fell out of me,” she says of the song, which she co-wrote with Phillip White and Danny Wells. “There was a very natural feeling to the lyrics. And the video has a very natural feeling to it. And it’s that natural feeling that feels really good right about now.”
