"Flaming Star" (Elvis Presley song) – Queen City Sounds and Art

Still from the music video for Dan Sartain’s “Flaming Star”

Dan Sartain invites us for a journey into the myth of the Old West as embodied in American popular music on his new album Western Hills (due out in the Fall on Earth Libraries) but it’s one that subverts the paradigm a bit in presentation and execution. The debut single from the record “Flaming Star” is a cover of the song originally recorded by Elvis for his 1960 movie of the same name in which he plays a half Native American, half European American character in arguably one of The King’s greatest roles. But in the music video directed by Sarah Orr we do not even see Dan Sartain, we see an older black actor performing the song in surreal lighting and commanding your attention like a legendary Vegas performer playing a private room like a rock and roll magician, like Sun Ra of countrified rockabilly. It is both haunting and endearing precisely because of this experience of the song. The song itself and what it promises for the rest of the album gives us a different side of Sartain who, while not a household name, has built a mystique as a performer with his fans including the likes of Jack White and John Reiss (Rocket From The Crypt/Drive Like Jehu/Hot Snakes). The single is an example of a psychedelic cowboy ballad. Which you can’t say about too many songs. So take a gander at the video for “Flaming Star,” follow Sartain at the links provided and look out for Western Hills when it drops in the Fall.