Brantley Gilbert has just released the official music video for his latest single, “What Happens in a Small Town.” The song, which is a duet with Lindsay Ell, is from Gilbert’s still-untitled upcoming new album.
Renowned video director Shaun Silva directed the video, which shows Gilbert and Ell reliving their former lives when they were still happily in love.
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“It happened to me,” Gilbert said in a statement about the song. “But it happens to a lot of people out there. Whether you’ve found your way back to them, or not, those feelings don’t always stop just because you’ve broken up. ‘What Happens in a Small Town’ is as much about the memories as it is the fact you’re going to keep running into each other. So, maybe this song will help some people save time.”
The song was inspired, at least in part, by Gilbert wondering about the woman he dated before he moved from his native Georgia to Nashville to pursue music full-time. In an ironic twist, the woman who inspired the song, Amber, is now married to Gilbert.
“Every word of this is true,” Gilbert said of the song. “You know, it’s not the big things that really get you when you break up with someone you love in a place like this; it’s the small stuff. That’s what tears into you.”
Ell was proud to lend her powerful voice to the song, which she became a fan of the first time she heart it.
“Music, especially music that rocks like this, crashes through pride, ego and whatever else is in the way,” Ell said. “Being able to play on this opened up the feelings to me. When I went in to do the vocal, it was all about really channeling that pain.”
Not a lot of artists would introduce their next record with a ballad, but Gilbert said it was the best choice to lead off his upcoming set of tunes.
“I think everybody’s lived this,” Gilbert said of the song. “There’s that one person, and you can’t quite shake ’em. You can break up, but you don’t let go. And you know, it’s never worse than at the holidays. So, when we were talking to [Big Machine Label Group CEO Scott Borchetta] about the song, we realized it needs to be out now, when it can – maybe – do people some good.”
Download “What Happens in a Small Town” on iTunes.
Photo Credit: BMLG/Joseph Llanes
