By Andrew Ellis, Editor-in-Chief
Jake Nelson’s first single saved a life. Now it’s time to celebrate life with his next single “Whiskey Burns,” an idea that came to him while he was doing a full weekend of shows.
“On the drive I had this melody in my head that had a Zac Brown Band or Alabama vibe to it,” he says, and adds that he was writing in his notebook and bouncing ideas off his girlfriend and friend. “And I was thinking to myself, ‘Well, this one is sounding pretty country.’”
The rest of the song came together when he got home. He also got Ben Goeb to lay down some guitar and fiddle, and then brought in Curt Trisko to add some pedal steel.
Then it was time for the video. He enlisted cinematographer Roland Nisben who also shot Nelson’s powerful “You’re Not Alone” video. Then Nelson took to Facebook looking for a barn close to the cities. He was swarmed with over 100 responses until he was messaged by a fan from Northfield, MN saying she and her husband would love to host the video shoot.
“She sent me some photos of the barn and property, and it was beautiful,” he says. “I scrolled through the photos and then the goats appeared, which were followed by alpacas, cats, and dogs. Basically at that point I was sold. We had to do this video here.”
He drove out to Northfield with Nisben and another friend to meet the couple. They took all of Friday and part of Saturday to clean the barn and get it ready, and then got ready for the shoot. Nelson says the concept is pretty simple.
“We wanted to leave it up to interpretation and just have fun with it,” he says. “Long story short, a few buddies head out to the local barn bar for a casual drink and then the night turns wild.”
The night was a success with about 100 people attending the video shoot, and then staying for the rest of the concert after. And Nelson says the crowd’s enthusiastic reaction to the song in the video is pretty much what has been happening at his shows.
It’s also featured on TOTAL Country BOB FM’s fourth volume of Minnesota Country Salutes with proceeds going to the Military Family Foundation and Tribute to the Troops. It’s even getting overseas attention.
“The song has received international airplay over in the UK charting on an independent radios station, too,” he says. “It has only been out for a few months, but seems to quickly be becoming a fan favorite.”