When you see a title like “Shine on the Highway”, you might think sunshine and happiness. But Ben de La Cour doesn’t write a lot of happy songs – it is, in fact, what makes him such a compelling artist. His catalog is littered with dark and riveting tales that resonate with tension and vivid detail.
De la Cour’s description of “Shine on the Highway” proves the point:
“Shine on the Highway” is a pretty atypical song for me in the sense that most of the lyrics came before the music. I just had this image of an older woman who has kind of lost everything driving down a desolate highway in the upper Midwest in the dead of winter. It’s some kind of suicide note maybe.
Not so happy go lucky, eh? Yet it’s a story that de la Cour brings to life in uncompromising fashion. He goes on to provide some insight into the creative process:
The recording is a good example of me and Jim White’s creative process in the sense that I came in with this song that was almost like a Leonard Cohen, “Dress Rehearsal Rag” type thing but Jim heard it as something completely different and we took it from there. We had the idea to bring in a woman to double the vocals and I immediately thought of Elizabeth Cook. She came in and sang the other vocal part and just killed it in like two takes.
The mostly black and white video, which Twangville is honored to premiere today, is as stark as the song. Sweet Anhedonia, the album on which the song appears, will be released on 14 April.
Photo credit (Will Payne Harrison)
About the author: Mild-mannered corporate executive by day, excitable Twangville denizen by night.