Denim, national parks, and folk singers; these are the cast members of Lucky Brand’s new series, Play for the Parks. The Southern California-based clothing monolith has teamed up with Iron & Wine and Andrew Bird to create performance clips that highlight the magnificence of our national parks as these artists sing near beautiful lakes, mountains, and other landmarks. And the videos themselves? Breathtaking. Both Andrew Bird and Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam are known for their intimate, stirring songs, and to see them perform with a backdrop like Tenaya Lake or Cathedral Beach in Yosemite National Park compounds the richness of the music and the brilliance of the land.
Filmed by La Blogothèque, these videos not only feature the acoustic music of these two artists, but also prompted a $25,000 donation to support the preservation of our parks. About the endeavor, Andrew Bird says, “As a performer, reacting to my environment has been a constant driver. From my Echolocations series to Gezelligheid concerts to Play for the Parks, the idea is simple: be flexible and wait for your environment to tell you what it wants to hear. With Sam Beam and Yosemite as collaborators, this was an ideal environment.” Meanwhile, Beam adds, “No photograph can prepare a person for the scale and beauty of Yosemite, it was my first visit and I was completely overwhelmed! What a blessing to be able to spend it making music with Andrew Bird — and ankle deep in water to boot!”
