Who wants to be in a music video?
Country musician seeks area residents for concert scene

By Frank Ruggiero

Nashville musician Steve Virginia is coming home to Boone, and all his friends and neighbors are invited – along with a few thousand other people.

Virginia, who grew up in Boone, is shooting his first music video in town, and he’s seeking between 2,500 and 3,000 extras for a concert scene to be shot at the Horn in the West amphitheater this May.

Virginia hopes the video – to be shot in high definition with multiple cameras, jibs and lighting – for his latest single, “Country Kind of Life,” will be picked up by the GAC (Great American Country) television channel and, perhaps later, CMT (Country Music Television).

“It’s all about growing up here, playing music,” he said. “I thought if we’re going to cut a video for this, why not come do it in Boone, because it’s the perfect place to do it. It’s so beautiful here, and I’d much rather be around all my friends, all my family.”

The idea evolved from a small camera shoot in the field behind his mother’s house to a live concert at Horn in the West, the footage from which will be incorporated into the rest of the video, to include scenes in Banner Elk and other High Country locales.

“So, we need to get a few people to fill that amphitheater up so it’s standing room only, which is a lot for a no-namer right now,” Virginia said.

However, Virginia’s been making his name known in Nashville, playing with a variety of band members of some of country’s greatest stars, including fiddler Jimmy Mattingly, who has played with Garth Brooks, and Ilya Toshinsky, former guitarist for Bering Strait, Brooks & Dunn and Bela Fleck.

Though born in Myrtle Beach, S.C., Virginia moved grew up in Boone, attending Watauga High School and Appalachian State University. He moved to Nashville in 2002, shortly after graduating from ASU, and for his first two years there, he tried to establish himself with income to support his musical ambitions.

“Then, I hooked up with a really weird series of events,” Virginia said. “It turns out my insurance agent’s wife’s manager’s management company’s music director took me to meet my current producer, so it was really one of those things you feel was meant to be.”

His producer is Los Angeles-based Allen Morgan, who has worked with numerous big acts, including U2, Christina Aguilera and the Backstreet Boys.

“I was kind of struggling with my identity as an artist in Nashville and did not know where I wanted to go,” Virginia said. “I’d found three songs I wanted to cut, none of which I had written.”

Instead, country musician Eric Church, a native of Granite Falls, N.C., let Virginia cut some demos off his song catalogue. Virginia took a demo to Asheville and revamped it with Morgan.

“It formed this friendship that kept going, and it’s just getting to the point where I feel I’m a viable writer and someone who can compete with the big fellows,” he said. “It was one of those things where we developed each other as we went along, because he hadn’t been a country producer … until he came on to my stuff. Even when you listen to my music, it doesn’t sound too terribly country, but country enough to be considered country music.”

Virginia is now signed to Morgan’s production company and plays in Nashville as much as possible. “Anywhere I could get on stage, I’d play,” he said.

When playing with Mattingly, Toshinsky and others for his live performances, Virginia would have to pay them their regular studio rate, meaning on several occasions he was out a thousand bucks. So, he started playing acoustically and writing his own songs.

“I got better as an artist, played places like the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Bluebird Café, some pretty well-known places throughout the country,” he said.

Virginia has just recently assembled a new band of musicians he calls his band of brothers and sisters, who are more than willing to perform with him for the sake of playing.

“What I think is neat about what we’re doing up here is that everybody’s so willing to embrace the project and come together to help out a hometown boy,” he said. “It’s another dream come true. I’ve always wanted to come back to Boone and play a big show, after we’ve had some amount of success in Nashville, and I think it’s time.”

Virginia said he and Morgan are in talks with a couple major labels to pick up his music after the video is shot, “So, who knows what will happen?”

Those involved in the video shoot will also enjoy a complimentary concert, following five or six takes of video. Afterwards, local favorite Amantha Mill will perform for 30 to 40 minutes, followed by Virginia and his band for about an hour and a half.

“It’ll be a pretty cool event to come out to the Horn, hang out for the day, maybe get the chance to be on TV, and listen to some good music for a couple hours,” Virginia said.

A secondary shoot will follow, and Virginia expects about 50 audience members at the Horn to be selected to participate in a bonfire night scene elsewhere.

The video shoot is scheduled for May 7, and Virginia said those interested should show up around 3 p.m. For more information and to RSVP, e-mail tsw0520@yahoo.com.