Low Cut Connie Releases New Video for Classic Rock Inspired Song “Charyse”

American rockers Low Cut Connie shared a music video for “Charyse” off their October 2020 record Private Lives. It’s directed by photographer Skylar Watkins.

“Charyse” is a Bruce Springsteen-like anthem about a girl who’s found rough times in a big city. “Say Charyse/I couldn’t take it/Couldn’t stand just to see you/Sleeping out on the street/No I couldn’t leave ya /Couldn’t leave you lying like you’re dead/On the cold concrete,” frontman Adam Weiner sings in the chorus. The lyrics tell much of the story, so all Weiner stated about the track is, “There are 8 million stories in the Naked City. Charyse is just one of them. I love singing about her.”

The video is set at night and switches between shots Weiner, guitarist Will Donnelly and three models, all brightly lit by reds, greens, blues and purples. It commits to the aesthetic with one model driving an interior-lit car and all of them wearing artistic makeup and fashionable outfits. Superimposed lights float out of focus across the frames.

Low Cut Connie’s previous music video for “Wild Ride” and the video for their other recent single “Stay As Long As You Like” similarly have lot of nocturnal footage and city lights, but aren’t as set on the aesthetic as this video is. The band formed in 2010, named after a waitress that Weiner sketched at a diner in New Jersey. Private Lives is their sixth studio album, mainly a collaboration between Weiner and Donnelly but recorded with the help of thirty other musicians across its 17 tracks.

They’re also promoting their biweekly livestream show Tough Cookies, a partnership with the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. For the show, Weiner recently interviewed original Sly and the Family Stone members Jerry Martini, Larry Graham, Freddie Stone and Greg Errico, plus Sly Stone and Cynthia Robinson’s daughter Phunne Stone.

“I’m so happy to be able to help tell the story of one of the greatest bands of all time,” Adam Weiner stated via press release. “Sly & the Family Stone expanded our minds and moved our asses like no other before, and I’m just so impressed that the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame trusted me and Tough Cookies with this project.”