On its sixth album, Tampa Bay’s Have Gun, Will Travel turned a page and adopted a rock and roll sound influenced by classic acts Tom Petty, the Pretenders and ‘80s Springsteen as well as newer ones like Nada Surf, Dinosaur Jr. and the War On Drugs. And while Strange Chemistry’s sonics may have started to walk away from the Americana sound Have Gun became famous for, the group is still in love with the road and the venues it calls home.
The sentiment is alive and well on an album highlight, “Blood On the Stage,” where frontman Matt Burke sings about “all the late nights in the 813, at the Crowbar and the New World Brewery” as well as what it’s like to bare your soul in the barlight night after night.
“That's one where I'm not really being cryptic or metaphorical. It's a very direct song,” Burke, 43, told CL. “It's basically just saying, ‘This is where we’re from. This is where we’re doing our thing, and we’re not going anywhere.’”
In a new video for the road warrior anthem, Have Gun stitches together studio footage, lots of live photography from CL Tampa expat Nicole Kibert and live footage from a myriad of venues including the aforementioned Crowbar.
The underlying message underneath the whole four-minute clip is the idea that Have Gun is choosing a harder life on the road because it wouldn’t want to do anything else, and there’s no way the band could do it without its family, fans, friends and supporters.
“It's a lot of work to put out a record on your own, and it’s even more work to promote and market. So we really are running our own ship,” Burke added. “We definitely appreciate everybody's help, and it's it's a grassroots operation. We really need we need our fans, and we need our friends, to help us kick this thing off the ground.”
If you’ve seen more than a handful of Have Gun, Will Travel shows, then the video might even bring a tear to your eye. Have a look below.
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This article appears in Jul 25 – Aug 1, 2019.