Billy Strings’ new song “In the Morning Light” premieres with a music video that captures both undying love and insufferable loss. It’s a montage of couples, all of them in various stages of their relationships, but one romance stands out as the clip’s centerpiece: an elderly husband and wife in the final days of their time together.
When the wife dies, the widower is haunted by her memory and the physical things she’s left behind: her coffee cup, her pill bottles. Directed by Stephen Kinigopoulos and Running Bear Films, the video is the very definition of heart-rending.
“All the praise that I could earn means nothing without hers/I’m not sure that I deserve all the love that I receive/but I give it all to her,” Strings sings in “In the Morning Light.” The latest track off the bluegrass singer-guitarist’s upcoming album Renewal, it follows the brooding first release “Fire Line.”
Renewal will be released September 24th on Rounder Records. Strings recorded the album in Nashville at Sound Emporium Studios with producer Jonathan Wilson, who released his own superb LP, Dixie Blur, in 2020.
“I listen to this album now and it’s emotional. I could sit there and tweak it forever, but there’s a point where it’s like building a house of cards,” Strings said of Renewal in a statement. “Yeah, I could add an extra tower on top, but it might collapse. I’ve always doubted myself, and I still do, but this album makes me think, ‘Hey, you’re doing all right, kid. You just need to keep going.’”