Lee Ann Womack knew she didn’t want a literal video for the title track to The Way I’m Livin’, due Sept. 23. She knew, too, in that enlisting director Roger Pistole she could get something edgier than people expect from the 6-time Country Music Association and Grammy award-winning vocalist. But she wasn’t expecting free range cows, three snakes and a still-factory perfect 1963 gold Chrysler Imperial at the 2,300 acre cattle ranch.
“I told Roger I trusted him, and to evoke whatever the song made him feel,” laughs the East Texan. “Adam Wright wrote a pretty strong song about how addiction pulls you under, you know, just takes you right out of your life...and you don’t want to fight it. So Roger dug into a lot of stuff that evokes the tumult and never actually says who’s to blame."
“And no, I didn’t wanna play with the snakes! I was happy to just sit in the back of that big ole car – and be driven away from the farm house!”
With temperatures over 90 degrees, the ranch’s cows wandered by to check the action. Her band featured Robert Plant + Band of Joy/Buddy Miller vet Marco Giovino, on drums, Sam Grisman, son of legendary mandolinist David Grisman, on upright and emergent composer, Ethan Ballinger, on guitar for the sultry clip that boiled over onto some fairly taken by the spirit dancing.
“That was part of Roger’s notion: we all have the potential to have the devil inside us,” Womack marvels. “For all of us, the battle may be inside, and in that, we can be driven to some pretty crazy places. I’m just glad – hot as it was – my outfit was a pair of slips, because the boys looked soooo hot!”
