Video Premiere: Melody Walker & Jacob Groopman, “We Made it Home”

Melody Walker, of the popular California bluegrass band Front Country, recently won the MerleFest songwriting contest for “Black Grace.” That song is featured on her new duo album with musician Jacob Groopman, We Made It Home. The album was produced by Grammy-winning bluegrass artist Laurie Lewis. Laurie Check out this woodsy video from the album’s title track.

“‘We Made It Home’ started off as an idea for a simple one-shot live video, with us playing around our signature single mic in a forested setting,” Walker tells us. “Little did we know that we would meet Chip Yamada and end up making a stunning video in his crazy beautiful backyard in the Santa Cruz mountains. Chip and Michael Thomas ( the cinematographer) shot different angles of us performing the song for the birds and the trees, while his friend George captured the sound on his laptop and our friend Daniella held reflectors to help with the lighting. Things started to get really cool though when we went to do some B roll of us walking around their backyard creek and neighborhood in Ben Lomond, California, and what started out as a lyric in the song became a shot of Daniella and George as our body-doubles.

“We made this video for ‘We Made It Home’ before we had even recorded the new tune for the duo record, so the key has since changed, along with some of the phrasing, but we love the freshness of the video since we made it when the song was still brand new. It’s a joyful song about finding home in yourself, nature and other people; pretty much everywhere you are! We like to say our music is where the transcendent meets the traditional and this song reflects that well. ”