Starry Southern Nights video from Rock Hearts

In celebration of last week’s release of their debut album, New England’s Rock Hearts have produced a music video for the title track, Starry Southern Nights.

It’s a tender and somewhat sombre track, telling the story of a lonely old man who has lost his beloved wife, still visits their favorite dance hall, and waltzes to their favorite song, all on his own.

Alex MacLeod, who wrote and sings this song, explains how the story came to him.

“Shortly after returning from Nashville, I was sitting in a corner booth of a local restaurant hosting Bluegrass Night. As the band was playing a waltz, I observed an older man walk through the crowd to the dance floor, and he began to dance by himself. While others snickered and commented to each other, my heart immediately softened as I started thinking about the old man’s ‘story.’

Maybe he had too much to drink, maybe it was time for him to head on home, and yet maybe, that was his way of staying connected to the one true love of his life who had departed. I rested on that idea, and went home that night to write Starry Southern Nights.

Losing someone you love is one of the toughest events to deal within life. During these unprecedented and difficult times, it’s important to keep a soft heart, be slow to judge and take time to get to know other peoples stories.”

The music video was shot by Victoria Ng and Neal Howland at Boucher’s Wood River Inn in Rhode Island, with Neal handling the final edit. Tori Deetz served as producer/director.

Members of Rock Hearts all appeared: Alex MacLeod on guitar, Joe Deetz on banjo, Billy Thibodeau on mandolin, Rick Brodsky on bass, and Alex Daiwan on fiddle.

Starry Southern Nights is available wherever you stream or download music online.

Share this:

About the Author

John Lawless

John had served as primary author and editor for The Bluegrass Blog from its launch in 2006 until being folded into Bluegrass Today in September of 2011. He continues in that capacity here, managing a strong team of columnists and correspondents.