This year of Music Video Mondays ends with a note of holiday melancholy.
Folk rock supergroup supreme Memphis Dawls has announced that their show tomorrow night at Lafayette’s will be their last for the foreseeable future. It’s sad news for Memphis music fans that is happening for a happy cause: singer/guitarist Holly Cole recently got married and is moving to Hawai’i with her new hubby.
The Memphis Dawls (left to right) Jana Missner, Holly Cole, and Krista Wroten Combest
The three high school friends leave behind a rich, if too short, legacy of songs, and a couple of great music videos, like last year’s “Skin LIke A Cage”, directed by Jared B. Callahan. The video was shot at Midtown musical landmark the Buccaneer and stars Memphis actress Annie Gaia.
Memphis Dawls – Skin Like a Cage from Second Light on Vimeo.
Music Video Monday Special Edition: Memphis Dawls (3)
The Dawls first video was for “Hickory”, from their self-titled debut EP. The haunting video, which artfully combines archival footage from the 1960s and live images of the band shot at Beale Street Studios, was directed by Laura Jean Hocking.
Music Video Monday Special Edition: Memphis Dawls (2)
Since the director of “Hickory” also happens to be my wife, I was at the video shoot, which took place just before Christmas, 2011. After we’d wrapped, we were celebrating and the band started talking about the cover of a holiday standard they had worked up for their next show. We convinced them perform the song while we turned on the camera one last time. This is the result.
Music Video Monday Special Edition: Memphis Dawls
Best wishes to the Dawls, and Happy Holidays from the Memphis Flyer film blog. Next week, we’ll reveal our Best Memphis Music Video of 2015. If you have a music video you shot in 2015 which you would like to put into consideration for the Best Memphis Music Video, please email a link and details to cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.