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As if we didn’t already love Dariann Leigh’s ‘Jackson’ enough, now it has a super adorable heart-melting video to go with it too. No, you’re crying!!
Filmed at her family farm, it’s a down-through-the-years look back at growing up in Karlstad, Minnesota – population 513 – pulled together from pages of diary entries and time spent contemplating life’s big questions.
“Growing up I always thought that things that happened in life were either faith or fate,” she says. “Maybe it was meant to happen, or maybe it was a message from the big man upstairs. I’ve realized that a lot of what happens is really never either, or it’s a mixture of the two.”
Mixing old home video footage into the video, it’s a tale of big dreams and a small-town girl: ballet recitals and makeshift home recordings; strapping on a pink guitar that’s still too big for her and singing into a hairbrush in front of the mirror; those first steps out onto stages that feel so much bigger when you’re just starting out.
“The music video for ‘Jackson’ is a special one,” she explains. "It was filmed at my family farm that goes back to my great-great-great grandparents. I grew up going out there to help pick rocks, build deer stands, listen to my great uncles’ stories, hunting and so much more.”
“Being able to film at our family farm was really important to me because it’s one of the places that feels like home to me. ‘Jackson’ is full of lyrics inspired by different chapters of my life, and places like that are where I have a lot of memories. Nearly everyone I grew up with has a place like that. An old family farm where family members before you grew up and made a living. Our family farm isn’t active anymore, but there’s still so much love there.”
A regular fixture on our Holler office stereo when it came out last year, Dariann Leigh takes us deep into Carly Pearce territory with ‘Jackson’, a beautiful watery-eyed pop country ballad that isn’t afraid to wear its heart on its sleeve and let it all come gushing out.
“I've got a couple bucks in my back pocket / A few lines that are worth the walk-in / A spiral notebook full of songs / Where I try to find out what went wrong.”
Watch the video for 'Jackson' exclusively on Holler below.
“Adding home videos to the music video was an idea I had from finishing writing the song,” explains Leigh about the video. “The entirety of the song feels reminiscent of watching an old home video. Minus the moments where you cringe, and fast forward and question why your kindergarten track awards program where you took fifth in everything was documented. (On a side note, thank you Mom and Dad for caring and documenting those things).”
“I hope when people watch this music video, they’re reminded of memories they have from growing up,” Leigh says. “And find joy in that, even the times you placed fifth in nearly every event at the track and field day in kindergarten… in my defence, I had little legs.”
These are happy tears!
