See Tim McGraw’s Spiritual ‘Neon Church’ Video

A drifter, a sheriff, a preacher and a single mom walk into a bar — it sounds like the start of a poorly conceived joke, but it’s actually the plot of the somber and spiritual new video for Tim McGraw’s “Neon Church.” Out today, the Shane Drake-directed clip offers a colorful tribute of sorts to the classic 1987 Wim Wenders film, Wings of Desire.

Mixing lyrical shots of Johnnie Walker and “unholy water” with visual shots of its main characters, a group of world-weary characters who gather at a local bar where they seem to leave their worldly concerns behind them, the clip finds them eventually trading their troubles for — spoiler alert — some impressive sets of angel wings before returning to their workaday lives. McGraw functions in the clip as a one-man Greek chorus, singing the pleading, contemplative lyrics from a church pew with strands of neon lights behind him.

Written by Ben Goldsmith, Ross Ellis Lipsey and Ben Stennis, “Neon Church” is one of two new songs McGraw released last month from a forthcoming album. The new project will be the country superstar’s first solo LP since 2015’s Damn Country Music and follows 2017’s The Rest of Our Life, the first-ever duets album with wife Faith Hill, who, like McGraw, is now signed with the Sony Music Nashville label.