“God bless the working man,” sings Alan Jackson in “Hard Hat and a Hammer,” the latest hit single from his acclaimed Freight Train album. Award-winning director Theresa Wingert (Carrie Underwood, Dierks Bentley, Taylor Swift) traveled all across the Southeast to film real working men and women on construction sites and in mines, at fire stations and in restaurants, to star with Jackson in the new video for “Hard Hat and a Hammer,” which makes its world premier this Friday, June 18, on CMT’s Big New Music Weekend.
Wingert captured imagery of Americans “getting the job done” as a celebration of the great workforce that is “the glue that keeps the world together.” Featured are miners from Stilhouse mining in Benham, KY, workers from the Bayou La Batre, AL shipyard, railroad workers from TRR Railroad in Mobile and more. She filmed at paper mills, foundries, taxi stands, Nashville’s Fire Station No. 16 and Bar-B-Cutie and more than a dozen other locations.
“Hard Hat and a Hammer” is the latest of Jackson’s songs to honor his working class roots and family upbringing. Last month he honored the fallen miners and rescue workers from April’s Upper Big Branch mining disaster with a benefit concert performance at the Charleston, WV Civic Center. The 31 families affected and 230 rescue workers who were on site at the mining disaster were offered free tickets to the show. Jackson met with the families who lost loved ones and raised over $150,000 for the Montcoal Mining Disaster Fund.
Just last week, Billboard Magazine announced that Jackson was voted in the top 5 of the top 25 country artists of the last 25 years.
VIDEO LOCATIONS:
Rock Slide, TN
Stilhouse Mining, Benham, KY
Yeehaw Industries (printing press), Knoxville, TN
Domtar Paper Mill, Kingsport, TN
Golden’s On The Square, Newnan, GA
Royale Cafe, Columbus, GA
Golden Foundry, Columbus, GA
All State Port Authority, Mobile, AL
Shipyard in Bayou La Batre, AL
TRR Railroad, Mobile, AL
Farmers Market, Nashville
Nashville Fire Station No. 16
Johnson’s Hardware, Nashville, TN
Nashville Yellow Cab
Nashville Intercity Ministry
Bar-B-Cutie, Nashville
