The Downtown Little Rock Partnership’s staff members have had time on their hands lately, what with downtown sidewalks virtually empty the past couple of months. So Gabe Holmstrom, executive director, teamed up with Angela Paradis of the band The Going Jessies to churn out a ditty called “We Don’t Want the Covid,” written to the tune of Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire.”
Then, the song needed a video, and technology allowed one to be made while being socially distant. The whole project took about three weeks, Holmstrom says. Here’s how “The Downtown Update,” a newsletter from the Partnership, describes the project.
“During this pandemic, people were encouraged to develop new hobbies, hone new skills, and use their time in quarantine for good. Is making a music video a skill we can say we’ve ‘honed’? Not necessarily. Is it something we will do again? Don’t count on it. Did we have fun doing it and get to showcase a bunch of Arkansas musicians? Yep. This was written, performed, and produced entirely by Arkansans! Please enjoy our 2020 pandemic production ‘We Don’t Want The COVID’ (created with far too much time at home), to the tune of Billy Joel’s ‘We Didn’t Start The Fire’ (our sincerest apologies to Billy).”
Rodney Block and his horn are the first on view as the video opens. It also features the voices and/or faces of Jamie Bryant, Chris DeClerk, Amy Garland, Trey Johnson, Randa Matkin, Paradis, Damarcus Pettus, Cliff Prowse and Susin Erwin Prowse. Aaron Farris plays banjo; Mary Parker plays fiddle; Mr. Pig plays percussion; and Derek Wood, singer and guitarist for The Going Jessies, plays guitar and bass. The music and video were edited together by Wood and Ellen Lampe, the Partnership’s director of communications.
Watch the video here: arkansasonline.com/528downtown/.