Kentucky author speaks on his involvement in new music video
LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - Tyler Childers’ new music video has taken the world by storm, garnering more than 2 million views on Youtube in just a few days.
Rolling Stone calls it “the music video of compassion and caring we need right now.”
Childers penned the song with fellow Kentuckian Geno Seale.
“He wanted it to be a gay love story, and he thought it important that a gay writer do that,” said Silas House, Kentucky Poet Laureate.
Silas and his husband, Jason Kyle Howard, wrote and provided creative direction for the video. It depicts the love story of two 1950′s coal miners.
“It’s a symbol of the region,” said Jason. “Also, I loved the idea of playing with the notion of them being underground, having a secret...being in kind of darkness and then coming up to the light.”
In the video, the couple faces backlash for their relationship. Now, the music video is receiving some backlash too.
“Some people are outraged,” said Silas. “When you’re raised rural, one of the main things you’re told is ‘we take care of our own’ and it makes me wonder if those people have misunderstood to mean ‘you only take care of your own if they’re just like you.’”
With the outrage has also come gratitude from folks seeing themselves represented in country music for the first time.
“It’s struck a chord for people whose stories have not been told or who have been overlooked or swept under the rug because we know that gay people have always been in Appalachia,” said Jason.
The video comes at a time where we’ve seen an increase in anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and legislation in the commonwealth.
“We hear so much...we see so much division today and to be able to listen to and experience a song that is just grounded in good old fashioned deep love is pretty remarkable,” said Jason.
With the release of ‘In Your Love,’ Childers announced his new album ‘Rustin in The Rain.’ It’s set to be released on September 8th.
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Source: WKYT
