This intimate video puts you right in room with Nashville singer-songwriter Drew Green, killer musicians, and emotions we can totally relate to.
The first thing that grabs your attention in the video of Drew Green’s rendition of the Sammy Kershaw song “Politics, Religion, and Her” is the red rose tattoo on the strumming arm of the guitar player sitting next to Green on the bulky, peeling leather couch. Then the capo on the first fret. Then the saloony light fixture over what you guess might be a pool table beyond the couch in another part of the rec-roomy spot they’ve set up to play.
But when Green starts to sing the old Sammy Kershaw heartache tune and the good-looking percussionist wearing headphones starts to play bongolike what he’s sitting on, you get it that for the next several minutes, you’re going to be as close to the music as it gets.
“Hey, old buddy, how you been? … I don’t think she’s coming back — I’d rather not get into that. … Let’s talk about Nascars, Hollywood movie stars. Talk about anything, anything in this world, but politics, religion, and her. …”
“The Politics, Religion, and Her 1996 album was one of my biggest introductions to country music,” says Green, who grew up in the small town of McMinnville, Tennessee, about an hour and a half from Nashville. “I used to listen and sing to every song top to bottom when I was working on the farm in the summer as a kid. It was really hard picking my favorite song, but this one feels current 20-plus years later, so I had to cut it.”
Written by Byron Hill and Tony Martin, the song went to No. 28 on the Billboard country chart when Kershaw did it 25 years ago. Green’s new version packs just as much emotional punch.
Green’s is a voice you want right in your ear — pitch-perfect, resonant, a little twang, a lot of feeling — and the slow, sad song showcases it to perfection. Guitarist Brent Anderson picks up the picking so tastefully, rhythmically, and melodically you forget about the rose tattoo and fixate on his fleet fingers. The drummer, biceps engaged, at one point even plays his own thigh.
And you are there in the room just a couple of feet away experiencing the music, not just witnessing it performed.
Small-town-guy Green is a big Sony Music Nashville artist now. He recently went viral on TikTok, quadrupling his followers and amassing millions of views in just days. His current single, “She Got That,” is indeed hot on the Spotify Hot Country playlist chart (it peaked at No. 8), and his track “Little More Be Alright” is getting airplay on SiriusXM’s The Highway.
Billboard, Taste of Country, and American Songwriter have been singing his praises. Watch this premiere of “Politics, Religion, and Her” and you will be, too.
For more on Drew Green, visit his website, or follow him on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok.
Photography: Header image by Matthew Berinato
