Rascal Flatts Premieres New Video For "Banjo"

Rascal Flatts has just released the brand new music video for their newest single, "Banjo," the first single from country music group's upcoming eighth studio album, "Changed" which is due in stores April 3rd. The band sounded refreshed and that the song itself was well-produced. The new video was obviously shot in Nashville, and the lead singer Gary LeVox actually sounds like he's enjoying the ride here.
"Banjo" is an up-tempo pop-rock country song in which the narrator invites his lover to escape with him to a faraway place that "ain't on the map." He tells her to "go-go-go / 'Til you hear a banjo." The new track should fit nicely into the trio's live set when they hit the road for the Thaw Out Tour. It's loud and rowdy and it makes you want to hop from your office chair, dial up the Zippo lighter app on your iPhone, and hold it in the air. Like many things in life, this song should be enjoyed for what's on the surface. Don't go digging too deep, or you'll ruin the experience.
The banjo is a four or five stringed plucked instrument with a long neck and circular drum-type sound box, which is usually associated with country, folk, Irish traditional and bluegrass music. It originated in Africa as a nine-stringed instrument with a gourd body and a wooden stick neck, before making its way to America, where it has long been associated with the culture of Southern African-Americans. According to Rascal Flatts bass guitarist Jay DeMarcus, the banjo has become an elusive, endangered species.
DeMarcus explains the song as, "a sentiment about getting away from it all, getting away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life and sort of breaking out and finding a spot way out in the country and drivin' and drivin' and drivin' until you go so far you start to hear a banjo." The lead guitar Joe Don Rooney feels like the song taps into a bit of a different sound for the band but he loves it and he thinks the fans will too because "it's got that raw countriness to it that's just so fun." And he also thinks once Rascal Flatts starts playing it live the fans will latch onto it. "I think everybody by the first chorus will get it, they'll be singing along to it and it's just fun stuff."