The 21 Best Local Music Videos of 2016

Over the course of 2016, we at Nashville Cream shared with you dozens of music videos — it was a year full of phenomenal local releases, many of which had outstanding visual treatments to match. Some made us laugh, some made us cry, and others were simply trippy af. Follow along below as we count down our 21 favorites of the year, in no particular order.

Adia Victoria, “Horrible Weather”

Adia Victoria’s Alex Bittan-directed video for "Horrible Weather" is a beautiful visual treatment full of shots of historic and culturally significant locales throughout Nashville, including Spruce Street Baptist Church and this W.E.B. DuBois mural. Together with the theme of the song, it illustrates the importance of preserving a city's cultural heritage, particularly in regard to people of color.

Honorable mention: Victoria’s “Dead Eyes.”

Jonny Fritz, “Stadium Inn”

Here, the ever-goofin’ Jonny Fritz takes over a room at the titular Stadium Inn — an extended-stay hotel with a long history that includes a recent stint as the home of the United States Wrestling Organization — and engages in some pantsless shenanigans. It looks like he's trying to get someone's attention, and it turns out that someone is Birdcloud's Makenzie Green. Check it out above, and grab a copy of Sweet Creep here.

Honorable mention: Fritz’s “I Love Leaving.”

Chris Stapleton, “Fire Away”

Directed by Tim Mattia and conceived by Chris Stapleton himself (who makes a cameo as a bartender), the video for “Fire Away” features Ben Foster and Margarita Levieva as a couple experiencing a great deal of hardship and heartbreak as the result of mental illness. "The video aims to bring attention to the culture of mental health awareness throughout the country," read a press release sent out with the video, "specifically through

. The organization, which was introduced to Stapleton through Foster, strives to start a common language about the five signs of suffering emotionally."

Savoy Motel, “Souvenir Shop Rock”

Savoy Motel’s “Souvenir Shop Rock” is a winner, built on loose but engaging grooves and frontman Jeffrey Novak's falsetto vocals, and the Dylan Carver-directed video is sleek as hell, full of disco duds and babes with bullwhips. Not to mention tiki drinks.

Honorable mention: Savoy Motel’s “Hot One.”

Sturgill Simpson, “Breakers Roar”

Sturgill Simpson’s Matt Mahurin-directed video for "Breakers Roar,” like the song itself, is steeped in metaphor — we follow a surfer on his journey to the bottom of the sea, his downward descent marked by the signs of tragedy and loss and heartbreak all along the way. It's heavy stuff, and beautiful.

Lera Lynn, “Image”

Lera Lynn’s video for “Image” — which was directed by Alysse Gafkjen with creative direction from Lynn herself — features Lynn in a variety of roles. She's the paranoid pageant queen, the manic gossip reporter, the saintly mother, all of them shining a light on our obsession with what Lynn calls "toxic, vapid people and ideas."

Honorable mention: Lynn’s “Drive.”

Sun Seeker, “Georgia Dust”

Directed by Brad Holland and produced by Harry Kagan, Sun Seeker’s video for “Georgia Dust” follows along as a witchy young woman — portrayed by Chelsea Culbreath — leaves her coven to play puppet master over Sun Seeker's members, each of whom is blindfolded and suspended in a sort of zombie-like state. It's a beautifully shot, cinematic visual treatment, and one that plays well against the pleasant, wintry tone of the song.

William Tyler, “Highway Anxiety”

Shot by William Tyler’s sister Elise Tyler and edited by Zack Hall, “Highway Anxiety” largely features William wandering through the Salton Sea, "a man-made lake," as Elise describes it, "meant to be a tourist destination in the California desert but whose salt content is so high that no life can survive its waters. The abandoned beaches are full of rotting fish, man’s vision destroyed by the power of nature."

Cage the Elephant, “Trouble”

Cage the Elephant’s video for "Trouble," from the Dan Auerbach-produced album Tell Me I'm Pretty, was directed by CtE singer Matt Shultz. It's like a psychedelic Western flick, with shootouts, exploding clowns and powdered wigs. Shultz claimed in a statement that he "really wanted to make a video that was like John Wayne or a young Clint Eastwood acting in a Cocteau Play or Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries.”

Ron Gallo, “Please Yourself”

Gallo walks up the alley behind Margaritaville as he recites "All the Punks are Domesticated," which appears on his album Heavy Meta. Then they go down to Broadway, where Gallo climbs aboard a pickup that's blocked the intersection. His trio RG3 is ready and waiting, and they rip through the song "Please Yourself" before dashing off. This one took some guts.

Honorable mention: Gallo’s “Young Lady, You’re Scaring Me.”

Noah Kittinger, “Away From the Noise”

Kenny Wu directed a reverent and meditative vid for Noah Kittinger’s song "Away From the Noise." Follow along above as it traces the lives of a young black man and a young white woman, living parallel lives in New York City.

Nikki Lane, “Highway Queen”

For the video for the forthcoming Highway Queen's driving, desert-tinged title track, Nikki Lane crushed some junk cars with a monster truck. So that’s cool.

The Mute Group, “Brainplate in Eb”

The Mute Group’s “Brainplate in Eb” is a low-key dose of sparse and minimal down-tempo electronic pop, and it's got a striking video to match. The clip was made by _1_2_7 — that's the project of local artist Juliana Horner — and it's full of colorful and beautifully framed shots. Simple, pleasant, nice to look at and listen to.

How I Became the Bomb, “Break Hearts”

HIBTB’s “Break Hearts” is a stunning piece of cinematic storytelling, directed by David Shamban and director of photography Hayden Mason. It begins with an uneasy-looking patient (played by Ryan King) settling in for a hypnosis session with his psychotherapist (played by Jamie Bradley). Turns out that his unconscious mind is a whole other immersive world.

Earl Burrows, “Our Song”

Earl Burrows’ "Our Kind," directed by Mark Watrous and Jo McCaughey, likens the journey between cities to being shot across the galaxy from your home world. In this case, it’s a futuristic Fortress of Solitude-esque installation populated by the band and a host of stern-faced elders, played by some folks you might recognize: Julian Dorio of The Whigs and Eagles of Death Metal, Jem Cohen of The Ettes and Fond Object, and more.

ELEL, “Automatic”

This one is especially relevant given the recent news of historic local institution United Record Pressing’s upcoming move. In ELEL’s vid for "Automatic," a cut from their debut LP Geode, the band and their buds portray a group of URP staffers, two of whom find themselves engaged in a little workplace romance. How will they handle it when the boss finds out?

Honorable mention: ELEL’s “Kiss Kiss.”

Essential Tremors, “The Visitor”

The title track from Essential Tremors’ The Visitor is a paranoid vision of being invaded and overrun by a sinister force called The Visitor. Using Reagan-era video processing techniques, James Cathcart (aka DJ Space is the Place, aka curator of Third Man's Light and Sound Machine film screening series) directed an appropriately claustrophobic video, depicting the band performing on top of itself as layers of the image begin to disintegrate.

Struggle Jennings feat. Joshua Hedley, “Like Father, Like Son”

Local hip-hop artist (and grandson of Waylon) Struggle Jennings is no stranger to trouble — he shot one video while in lockup, as a matter of fact. But his latest video — the Tyler Wolff-directed clip for "Like Father, Like Son," which features vocals from excellent local country crooner Joshua Hedley — has a little bit more going on in the production-value department. It's also got a pretty captivating story arc.

Okey Dokey, “Congenial Man”

Okey Dokey’s “Congenial Man” uses vintage techniques to split the faces of core members Aaron Martin and Johny Fisher and send them careening through the digital void like spaceships in Galaga. The clip was filmed and edited by video artist Mike Kluge.

Margo Price, “Hands of Time”

Margo Price’s Ben Chappell-directed video for "Hands of Time” was shot in Price's hometown — Aledo, Ill., which has a population just shy of 4,000. Fitting for the themes explored in the song, it's a nostalgia-fueled clip that sees Margo visiting with family, looking at old photographs and spending time with her husband (and band member) Jeremy Ivey and their young son.

Western Medication, “Witch Parade”

There’s something about Western Medication’s "Witch Parade" video that evokes the very decade from whence the band’s influences largely come. But the Noah Miller-directed video doesn't feel outmoded — rather, it's playful and daydreamy, thanks in large part to its VHS-quality shots of the band playing amid dozens and dozens of flowers.

A final honorable mention goes to Protomen’s “Light Up the Night” — which is technically a short film and not a music video, but is phenomenally done.