THERE IS A ROAD (ROUTE 50)
I saw Mike Oberst and Sean Geil (of the Tillers) busking on Ludlow Ave. in the gaslight district of Cincinnati once. They made a lot of sense standing on the street corner strumming their guitars and singing their harmonies for everyone and anyone walking by. They seemed really...real.
For the 'Route 50' video, it made sense to make it really...real. We scouted a bunch of locations on the actual real-life route 50 between Cincinnati and about halfway across Indiana. We found the endless row of empty box cars, the abandoned house, the harvested fields and it all made a lot of sense.
So for the shoot, we just spent a day driving along route 50, stopping at various locations, running through the song then continuing along to the next great spot. And the shot of the guys walking down the road carrying their instruments really was the last shot of the day. The sun was setting and we were all sunburnt.
So we got back in our cars and route 50 led us home, just like the song says.
Special thanks to Mandy and Melinda for driving us around!
The Tillers’ on Myspace
The 'official' version, and the one I prefer, is in black & white. But, since the locations were also pretty wonderful in color, I'll share that as well...