An American country music star’s latest music video – filmed in large part around the Whakatipu – is a “love letter on film to New Zealand”.
Caroline Jones boasts more than 10 million Spotify streams, has a massive following in the United States, and this month became the first female to join Grammy award-winning Zac Brown Band – known for hits like Chicken Fried, Someone I Used to Know and As She’s Walking Away.
Named one of Rolling Stone’s ’10 New Country Artists You Need to Know’ in 2017, Jones has been described as an “ambitious, entrepreneurial guitar heroine, primed to bring back the pop-country glory of the nineties”.
She’s currently touring the US with the Zac Brown Band for The Comeback Tour, having previously toured with the likes of Jimmy Buffett & The Eagles, OneRepublic, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, Kenny Chesney and Lee Brice.
The New Yorker says she fell in love with New Zealand after she got stuck here in 2020 when borders shut due to Covid, living in Auckland for seven months during 2020-’21.
While there, she wrote and recorded the bulk of her 13-track sophmore album, Antipodes, and fell in love with her now-fiance, pro sailor Nick Dana, who was in the country training and competing with American Magic in the America’s Cup.
Before she headed back to Nashville, Jones says she wanted to capture the land that inspired the music as part of the album’s visual representation, so filmed two music videos.
“The first is Come In (But Don’t Make Yourself Comfortable), a music video I shot in Auckland with Fish N Clips Productions, and a cast of Kiwi actors and dancers.”
That song, written and co-produced with Grammy and Academy Award-winning producer Ric Wake, who’s worked with Mariah Carey, Celine Dion and Whitney Houston, went to the Top 30 on the US Country Radio Chart this year and his since become a viral sensation on Tik Tok.
The second music video, If I Don’t Love You, saw Jones filming on a beach in Otara, at Glenorchy’s Dart River, Garston’s Lorne Peak Station, and in the Southern Alps.
Released this month, Jones says the music video comprises “some of the most beautiful landscapes I’ve ever seen on screen, let alone in person”.
“I would love for New Zealanders to see this video – I am so excited to share it with the people and the place that holds such a special place in my heart.”
Antipodes includes features and credits from an all-star group of artists Jones, a multi-instrumentalist, has met during her career, including the likes of Zac Brown, guitarist Joe Bonamassa, Old Dominion’s lead vocalist Mathew Ramsey and singer-songwriter, session musician and producer Mac McAnally.
