<h3>Brantley Gilbert’s <em>More Than Miles</em> Is A Story Worth Investing In &#8211; Video Review.</h3>
<p><strong><a title="Brantley Gilbert" href="https://countrymusicontour.com/brantley-gilbert-concert-tour-tickets/">Brantley Gilbert</a></strong> may be a tough country rock star, but he’s certainly good at love songs. Take &#8220;<em>My Kind Of Crazy</em>&#8221; for example, from 2010. It’s songs like that that really capture the essence of people’s emotions. Also, &#8220;<em>You Don’t Know Her Like I Do</em>&#8220;, from 2011, was another one that really hit the ball out of the park. Now, with &#8220;<strong><em>More Than Miles</em></strong>&#8220;, his latest release, Brantley sings of the agony of leaving the one he loves to go follow his dream, before realizing that he’s made the wrong decision. I read somewhere that this song was about his ex-girlfriend (fun fact: she was featured in the video for &#8220;<em>My Kind Of Crazy</em>&#8220;). Either way, for such an emotionally-charged song as this, it would have to have a good video, and I’m pleased with the results.</p>
<h3>The Video: Step by Step.</h3>
<p>For once I can actually say a country music video just follows the story of the song (simplicity is<br />
underrated these days), and depicts Brantley parking his truck in the drive of a motel, just outside<br />
Nashville’s city limits, almost like he can’t bear to go beyond. Though I think the sign for Nashville<br />
being right by a motel is a little unrealistic, but hey, we’ll go with it, it’s a music video! The story continues as Brantley stares at the photo on the dashboard of a girl, as shown in the<br />
lyrics, and he goes to get a room (in true slow motion dramatic style, of course).</p>
<p>Again and again during the video it cuts back to a close-up of Brantley playing guitar and singing the song in the motel room, and we really get a little suspense of disbelief that he’s written the song in a motel<br />
room just like that. Because the video follows the song so well, it makes us believe the lyrics were<br />
written in truth (particularly given the ex-girlfriend theory mentioned above), and this is really the<br />
fundamentals of a country music video.</p>
<p>We get shots of Brantley attempting to write songs, but screwing up the pieces of paper because<br />
he supposedly can’t write without the inspiration of his girl, he can’t focus because of the break-up.<br />
The filter on the camera is a grayish blue, and this symbolically sets the deepening mood as Brantley<br />
stares into the mirror in his room, and paces around leaning into walls and staring into space. When<br />
actually called out like that it seems a little false, but it works within the context of the video.</p>
<p>Later, we get Brantley walking to a bar, where a band are playing, but he’s distracted by the lovers<br />
kissing and becomes contemplative. He even rejects the advances of a very attractive woman , who<br />
then seems to be approached by another guy ‘wanting a go’ as it were, and Brantley gives him the<br />
pass to go ahead. I was a little confused by this part in the video, it wasn’t clear whether he was<br />
her boyfriend and she was trying to ‘play away’, or what. The body language was a little confusing,<br />
although I suppose this doesn’t matter within the rest of the video, because it’s articulating a mood<br />
and these are just examples of scenes and situations in which his emotions play out. After the bar<br />
Brantley sits outside by himself, drinking a beer wrapped in brown paper.</p>
<p>He then tries to call his ex, and she answers, but he hangs up, then proceeding to smash up a mirror<br />
in the motel room with a chair, and punch another one, leaving obvious cuts on his knuckles. I feel<br />
like this part would have worked better if she had been more angry, at first I didn’t hear what she<br />
said and I’d thought she’d said “really?!”, as if to say, “you’re really coming crawling back to me?”.</p>
<p>If she had been more antagonistic I think the drama of the smashing glass would have been more<br />
justified, but perhaps the idea is he’s frustrated that he doesn’t know what to say and hung up<br />
because he’s scared and wants to run away. For a lot of this video they seem to be leaving things up<br />
to our interpretation and that’s quite nice in a way, because everyone can take their own story and<br />
meaning from it. It also means they don’t have to be concrete about anything.</p>
<p>Brantley uses this random motel vandalism to motivate him into leaving and he pauses in his truck,<br />
waiting to either drive into Nashville or drive in the opposite direction, back where he left his girl. He<br />
looks at the photo on his dashboard, then chooses to go back.</p>
<h3>Why This Video Is So Good.</h3>
<p>There’s a few things I like about this video. He’s actually starring as the character in the narrative.<br />
A lot of country stars don’t these days, and I feel like if you want us to believe that you mean every<br />
lyric in the song, you need to play the part too. Not just sing in a separate shot. Performing is a form<br />
of acting, so I’m sure they can manage in a music video. Another thing as I said, that I like about this<br />
is how it follows the song so carefully and pays attention to detail, yet also is vague enough to let us<br />
interpret certain scenes how we want. Despite this, we still end up at the same point, and that’s a<br />
sign of a well-directed video.</p>
<p>And finally, we believe it. I couldn’t tell you exactly how they have constructed it so that we do, but<br />
it is very believable and I think it’s a very good effort all round. It’s simple and doesn’t get overly<br />
creative when it comes to representing the song, but sometimes these things don’t need to be. I’m<br />
pleased with this video and I think it’ll do well on the charts, giving Brantley a great start to 2013.</p>
<h3>See for yourself! Watch Brantley Gilbert&#8217;s &#8220;More Than Miles&#8221;.</h3>
<p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/4BGhA1dhMzY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<h4>Vickye is a guest contributor! Find her on Twitter: @planmymistake or her own site: www.forthecountryrecord.tumblr.com!</h4>