I would love to feature this as Song of the Day again as when I featured it back in September this video wasn’t out. It features a stirring vocal performance from the late actress/singer Karen Black who passed away late last year.
The video was made as a homage in tribute to her and was directed by Black’s surviving husband Stephen Eckleberry, compiled of archive footage from her films. He says of the video:
“Cass McCombs emailed me in late November 2013 and asked if I would create a music video for ‘Brighter!’ using classic clips from her movies. It struck me as an opportunity to explore a theme that interests me – the relationship of film and memory. We watch a movie and the images from that movie become part of our memory stream.” An image came to me: Cass himself becoming a screen for the projection of images of Karen – as if his memories of her were playing themselves out over his body. I found a clip I had shot with my iPhone when Cass was over at our house rehearsing the song with Karen, and I combined that with clips of her movies, some iconic, some more obscure.”