Becky Warren's War Surplus, detailing the heated relationship involving an Iraq-bound soldier and his girlfriend, was one of my favorite albums of 2016.
As a result, the Nashville-based musician who made her solo album debut (covered here in October) was named singer-songwriter of the year two months later in my article revealing "Music's Sweet 16."
So it's a thrill that Warren is presenting the exclusive 24-hour video premiere of the album's opening cut, "Call Me Sometime," today (Jan. 12) at The Huffington Post.
The powerful song introduces us to June, "a woman who thinks she'll never fall in love," Warren said in a series of quotes provided exclusively for this article by her publicist. "Of course, she falls in love almost right away after this, but I wanted it to be clear that she wasn't the kind of woman who finds falling in love easy, to help underscore how seriously she takes falling in love with Scott, the soldier character in the album." (Photo by Neilson Hubbard.)
The video, created by Neilson Hubbard and Joshua Britt of Neighborhoods Apart, was shot in the shed behind Warren's East Nashville house and in a swimming pool at the Kentucky home of Britt's parents.
In the song "Call Me Sometime," Becky Warren introduces us to "a woman who thinks she'll never fall in love." (Photo by Joshua Britt)
"I got the idea for the song after listening to Springsteen's song 'All The Way Home' from Devils & Dust," Warren said. "The guy in Springsteen's song lays out all his faults as he asks a woman if he can walk her home. I started thinking about June. ... She's really jaded about love, and Springsteen's song got me thinking about how she might respond if a guy approached her at a bar for her number."
After taking several unsuccessful shots at writing "Call Me Sometime," an unhappy Warren nearly shelved the song before playing at a show where everyone just happened to rave about it. Since then, " 'Call Me Sometime' has been really good to me," Warren said.
With lyrics delivered through June such as "If you want to drown your heart in gasoline," Scott should realize that he's playing with fire. It's a theme that becomes a burning issue throughout the video, too, though Warren lightens the mood by revealing, "I had a LOT of trouble lighting the matches that I throw over my shoulder at one point. I was trying hard to look cool but really I was feeling like an idiot for my lame match-lighting abilities."
Besides making a striking video, the shoot eventually paid off in other ways for Warren.
"Josh and Neilson saw all my John Prine posters when they were at my house shooting in the shed out back, and it turned out they were about to shoot a video for him," she said. "So I got to go back to Kentucky with them a couple weeks after this to be in John Prine's video for 'Color of the Blues.' Major highlight of my life."
Obviously, Warren is on a hot streak. How hot? Just check out her video for "Call Me Sometime." And feel the burn.