See Workingman Country Singer Pat Reedy’s ‘Nashville Tennessee at 3 AM’ Video
Steel-toed country throwback Pat Reedy closes down Music City’s honky-tonk scene in his new video for “Nashville Tennessee at 3 AM,” a bleary-eyed standout from Reedy and his band the Longtime Goners’ new album That’s All There Is.
Filled with gritty firsthand experience, steel guitars and twangy baritone vocals, Reedy describes the album as his first real Nashville project – although he’s been blowing through town to record and busk for tips on Broadway for years. With “Nashville Tennessee at 3 AM,” the sharp-tongued songwriter sounds like a spiritual descendent of the town’s famed outlaw generation.
“I grew up with country music and listening to the radio,” Reedy says. “I’m 36 so there was actual country music on the radio when I was a kid, and I kind of rebelled against that and became a punk rocker as a teenager just like practically everybody else in my generation, then got into roots music with Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Son House, this old stuff. From there it progressed in this weird circle that ended up back in country music.”
Written about the desolate feeling of late night Lower Broadway – after the bars have closed and tourists have all gone back to their AirBnb rentals – “Nashville Tennessee at 3 AM” is a prime example of Reedy’s scrappy approach to country. He also works construction when he’s not onstage, and the track’s new video highlights the opposing forces of Reedy’s hard-working lifestyle.
“Music and construction are both a jealous bitch. They don’t really want you to be good at anything else,” he says with a laugh. “I don’t intend to write songs … They just come uninvited into my head when I’m supposed to be doing something else – generally moving someone else’s dirt around.”
This particular song was born after a night of busking for tips on Nashville’s neon-lined streets, buying a six-pack and climbing to the top of the Shelby Street Pedestrian Bridge to drink it. But its video takes a less extreme approach. Directed by Blake Judd (Blackberry Smoke, Shooter Jennings), it follows one of Reedy’s worksite buddies spending his hard-earned dollars and searching for love into the early morning hours before heading back to the job for another day’s work.
Pat Reedy’s That’s All There Is is out now. In May, he’ll head to Europe for more than a month of concert dates in Norway, Sweden, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland.