Video Premiere: Kalen Nash, “White Oak”

Kalen Nash is best known for his work with the Atlanta-based rock band Ponderosa, but last year, Nash smoothed out some of that Southern grit for his debut solo album. With a more acoustic bent, Nash gets nostalgic on Urked, paying homage to his musical family tree, specifically great grandfather Euquid “Urked” Lee Nash, a man whose memory inspired many songs and even authored “Don’t You Love Me Baby.” Says Nash, “‘White Oak’ is loosely based on the idea of seeking guidance from my grandparents reincarnated in the form of the trees surrounding my home.”

The video, directed by Erez Horowitz, is all kinds of unusual, yet at the same time distinctly in line with the nostalgia and memory themes. Alternating eerie shots of Nash looking forlorn in a cabin and digging (and measuring) out a grave, Horowitz ups the ante with heavily processed overlays of an older couple acting out a past that plays behind them on home video. Accentuated by the music’s rolling drums and riffs – not to mention the titular haunting refrain – song and video work in tandem, drawing the viewer into the dark and inquisitive narrative.