True lyricism is an artists’ expression of emotion in an imaginative and beautiful way through writing and music and it is key that the words are impactful for their readers and listeners. There are legends in all genres of music who claim to wear the crown including Bernie Taupin, Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan and Kanye West. Truthfully, the list is endless, and we have these poets to thank for the music that has shaped the world. Ellie Holcomb is a beautiful nouveau CCM artist from a line of song writing royalty and her 2020 single ‘Constellations’ has struck an evocative nerve that has shaken me to my core. Simultaneously, she released a professional lyric video that is equally as soul-stirring as the former.
Ellie Holcomb is no stranger to the music industry. Born in Nashville, Tennessee, this singer/songwriter is the daughter of 14-time Grammy Award winning producer and songwriter Brown Bannister. Formerly a high school English and Language teacher, Ellie began her career touring as a part of the band, Drew Holcomb & The Neighbours. Touring did not fit the schedule for the life of a new mom once she began starting a family with husband Drew Holcomb and began focusing her time on her solo career. In 2014, Ellie released her debut studio album, ‘As Sure as the Sun’ and in the same year was awarded Best New Artist at the 2014 GMA Dove Awards. Ellie cites her major musical influences being the likes of legendary Carole King and Patty Griffin as well as bluegrass country singer, Alison Krauss. Known for her traditional Christian contemporary and folk style, her success as an independent artist has garnered her over 15 million streams on Spotify and her fan base is spread around the globe.
In 2020, Ellie released a very intimate track titled ‘Constellations’ via CCM independent label, Full Heart Music. Speaking from her soul, this song tackles the struggles of loneliness and isolation and those feelings in life where you think you just might break, a feeling that all of us can more than relate to during these trying times. ‘Constellations’ was written with the help of singer/songwriters David Leonard and Jon Guerra and due to the pandemic, the song was released featuring the recordings of her vocals that were captured on the first take during the writing session and boldly enough, the first time she ever sang the song. This melancholic energy is not typical of Ellie’s signature upbeat and bouncy sound. Instead, it is brutally honest and in her passionate vocals her fans can feel the raw emotion that defines this track.
In May 2020, Ellie Holcomb released a professional lyric video to pair with her single release for her powerful folk ballad, ‘Constellations’. This music video is clearly heavily influenced by the single cover art which features a moonlit starry night sky over a long country road and has pulled the soft blue and pink gradient overlay as an artistic feature used to clearly display the lyrics. Throughout this lyric video, there are multiple poignant outdoor sceneries under a rapidly moving starry night sky. These scenescapes really help capture the overall mood of the song, drawing focus to the stillness and serenity of what awaits the nighttime under a busy blanket of chaos. The still visuals in this lyric video epitomizes the tribulations of loneliness and effectively represents the powerful emotions that Ellie has written about when she sings “out here in the dark, underneath a canopy of stars”.
Hope and peace is restored when she sings “I can’t see the truth, help me see the truth” and the sun begins to rise and shine on the rocks symbolizing that we are in fact not alone and we can truly overcome anything as people and as a community. The lyrics are displayed in a simple font over the gradient overlay and change from black to white (or reverse) as she sings the lines. Choosing a simpler font was a great decision as it aims to pull focus to the colours and movements of the starry sky and is able to keep the viewer concentrated on the story that is being told and the meaning of the words without being distracted by fancy brush strokes or transitions. Ellie Holcomb set out to restore hope with her song ‘Constellations’ through a time of uncertainty and when the whole world was feeling lonely and unsure of the future. Her veracious lyricism and raw vocals reached out to the hearts of her fans, offering a reassuring embrace and a promise that we are never truly alone. The professional lyric video was equally as impactful at representing the brand of this folk song using stunning imagery and artistic techniques to set an emotional mood that I could not take my eyes off.
Check out the dazzling lyric video for ‘Constellations‘ on Ellie Holcomb’s YouTube channel here: