Amy Ray becomes a mama bear as she rolls through Georgia and Tennessee with the ghosts of Martin Luther King Jr. and Medgar Evers in the video for ‘Joy Train’. The animated video is the brainchild of North Georgia artist, Julie Best, to provide the animation set against a rural background filmed near her home. Woodland creatures dance as this dobro-fueled track simmers. Mama Bear Amy rides in a car with her baby behind a chicken truck as woodland creatures dance and cavort. The simplicity of the animation lends itself perfectly to the warm track from Ray’s band. This single is from Ray’s tenth solo album ‘It All Goes South’. Her voice remains comforting and familiar as she growls into vowels in the same way she does in her long-term duo The Indigo Girls.
About the video ray says, “The song is about faith, compassion and joy in the face of struggle, and I knew her drawings would provide that. Julie said, ‘Do you wanna be a mama bear of wolf?” I said “a mama bear”, and that’s how it began. The song starts with me and my baby bear in the back seat, we are travelers. We ultimately pickup the myriad of beings that we come across, and journey on to what I think of as redemption and healing, all under the watchful gaze of Martin Luther King Jr, Medgar Evers, and some heavenly hounds and horses. I asked Julie to add a banjo player because Allison Brown’s banjo is key to the song, and I think a cricket is the perfect character for Allison.”
Amy will be hitting the road in the U.S. with the Amy Ray Band in the Spring of 2023.
