Check out the beautifully-shot video of ‘Jane, Come Down from Your Room’ by American folk-rock group Goodnight, Texas. Directed and edited by Kassy Mahea, it’s an excellent, cinematic accompaniment to a song that sounds gorgeously tuneful but still tackles challenging subjects. With direct, open-hearted lyrics, the band address issues of parenthood, broken relationships and regret: “I’m sorry I shouted at you like I did // I need to remember you’re only a kid // Whose family’s in shambles, before she turned eight // My baby should never have to carry that weight.” Stunning locations and the fine details of a dilapidated home turn this into a memorable short film. Meanwhile, delicately finger-picked guitar provides a foundation for Avi Vinocur’s (formerly of The Stone Foxes) clear, tuneful vocal, full of heartfelt emotion. As the song builds, layers of strings add real warmth and depth, with a particularly rich-sounding bass holding everything together.
Vinocur told AUK about the song’s background: “This song is a complex and painful one. It can hurt to play or even hear it sometimes. It doesn’t come from personal experience, but from the experiences of several people close to me that I love very much. I never had an abusive or alcoholic father, but I did grow up fatherless – my dad died of cancer when I was 3 years old. I think in some way I channelled that absence into this song. I wrote this in 2011, but the arrangement never matched the words and it felt incomplete. Our drummer Scott Padden adding his bowed bass, Adam Nash his double-stop fiddle and Patrick Wolf his delicate vocal harmonies really brought the sentiment of the song to life and left space for me to tell the story.”
Charmingly, the band is named after the tiny town of Goodnight, Texas, which is the mid-point between the work-bases of leading band members Avi Vinocur and Patrick Dyer Wolf (vocals, guitar, banjo). Both talented musicians, they are joined by Scott Griffin Padden (Drums), Adam Nash (Guitars) and Chris Sugiura (Bass). Look out for the new album, ‘How Long Will it Take Them to Die’, which is due for release on 21st January; you can expect more fine songcraft and tales to transport you to other places and other lives. Check it out.
