Claire Lynch has released a music video for Black Flowers, a song written by Lynn Miles and included on Claire’s latest album, North By South.
Both the video and the entire record have a specific theme guiding them. North By South is Lynch’s celebration of Canadian songwriters, which Claire told us grew out of a running conversation between she and her now-husband before they got married. Like many Canadian artists, he felt that US performers and our wider music industry, give scant attention to what is going on north of our border. Claire eventually agreed, and decided to use this most recent project as her effort to make that right.
For the Black Flowers video, she wanted to match the dark mood of the song, which tells of the pain of a mining community wracked by death, with visuals from actual coal mining experiences provided by her fans. So she asked them all to submit still images that their own families may have collected to help her tell the story.
The stark, black & white photos are set against video of a carefree young girl dancing through a bleak cemetery. It’s a very effective presentation of a somber subject.
Well done, Claire!
