VALENTIGER premiered a new video on Sunday, March 25th. It was produced for the annual NPR Tiny Desk Contest and features Shirey in a solo performance with acoustic guitar. Outside and donning a jacket in cool Spring temps, he both gently plucks and seems to strum with a sense of urgency on the new track, "No Good Time." Shot at dusk, the video captures that feeling of the swelling sunlight, as the birds call their day to an end; a very nice fit with this call to action. Shirey comments on the video itself:
"It was coming down to the deadline for the video and we just decided it would be the best use of our resources for me to make the video myself. So, I tried a few locations and this one stuck right from the get-go; leaning back, with the feet up in the shot and everything. The sunglasses became practical as the sun went down and also relaxed the shot and performance. If you know a thing or two about videos, you know making them by yourself can be a pretty daunting task - especially when audio is a lot of the focus and performance is involved. There were two microphones, the recording setup, the camera, the set, the lighting - the list goes on before you even perform the song. And to top if off, I chose to play a newer song that I'm not even all that familiar with...because that's what I was most excited about playing. But, outside of it being a characteristically boring, single-shot video, I think a lot of things came together. The lighting, the birds, the raw take, the colors and the text work in post; not bad for a one-man operation on short notice."
Previous NPR entries can also be seen via YouTube. In 2015, the group chugged out a full-band, live version of "CONNECTION" in cahoots with Jen Fodor of I Love Music podcast. 2016 found Shirey solo again with a live take on "Ugly Side of Town (Neither Here Nor There)" - it just may rival the album version. Rider and Shirey teamed up to create an all-analog entry for "The Dawn Just Ain't Enought Anymore" in 2017. Shot with a VHS camcorder, Shirey gives a solo performance recorded with two SM57s into a 1/2" reel-to-reel.