Rebecca Frazier has never been one to do as she’s told, starting with “girls don’t play Tony Rice-style lead guitar.” This small but power-packed young woman has shown herself a force to be recognized in the flatpicking world, and her most recent album, When We Fall, proved again what a strong songwriter and lead vocalist she is as well.
Now she has created a music video for one of the tracks from that record, 40 Blues, which breaks another rule. It’s not a simple thing to create a compelling narrative arc for an instrumental number, but Rebecca and Alison Goedde of Gravel Road Picture Show in Nashville have pulled it off.
It’s a gritty, backroads story that finds Rebecca hitchhiking with her “Will pick for ride” sign and a guitar case, while a bearded boy in a ’72 Ford pickup truck gradually makes his way to her roadside location. She plays the hillbilly hottie with a drop-D guitar, and Graham Spillman, drummer for Nashville-based Americana band, the Cordovas, drives the truck.
Frazier said that this is the feel she always got from this tune, since she wrote it more than a decade ago.
“I wrote 40 Blues in September 2004, cruising with my guitar along I-40 in the back of the band van, headed to perform at the Brewgrass Festival in Asheville. 12 Septembers later, after much love, laughter, loss, and life, I’ve decided to get the story of 40 Blues on film. The guitar tune has always felt like driving music to me, and through life’s ups and downs, one thing has remained a constant comfort: time with my guitar.”
You can keep up with Rebecca’s comings and goings online.
