She surfs, she sings and she plays guitar. North Shore sites star in
Sheryl Crow music videoBy Tim Ryan
tryan@starbulletin.comSheryl Crow's new music video, "Soak Up the Sun," filmed in Hawaii over five days in February, will give the state exposure beyond the VH1 crowd because some of the footage is being used for a new American Express Blue Card advertising campaign.
"Soak Up the Sun" is a bubbly but knowing paean to the simple things in life, co-written with Crow's guitarist Jeff Trott and featuring backing vocals by Liz Phair. It's the first song on Crow's "C'mon, C'mon" CD, to be released April 16.
The three-minute, 50-second video was filmed at several North Shore locations, including Haleiwa, Chun's Reef, Waimea Falls Park and Sharks Cove, and at Makaha.
At Waimea Falls, Crow, in denim cutoffs and red bikini top, jumps 25 feet from a rocky ledge into the pool beneath the waterfall. She jumped four times to get the final shot. Filming was interrupted when heavy rain caused a flash flood warning while Crow was singing on the cliff.
Crow's main "set" for the five-day shoot was Chun's Reef, where she sang and played guitar under a coconut palm that was brought to the beach.
Crow also was filmed paddling a surfboard at Puaena Point, just north of Haleiwa Beach Park. When the singer celebrated her 40th birthday on Feb. 11 during the filming, producers gave her the longboard she uses in the video.
Crow's outfits in the video mostly are 1960s retro. One scene has her sitting in a vintage green-and-white VW bus.
Also featured are pro surfer Conan Hayes and his wife, pro surfer Malia Jones, shown leaping hand in hand from Waimea Falls into the pool.
North Shore photographer Ron Condon was director of photography for the water footage. Condon has worked on several made-in-Hawaii TV productions, as well as the film "Pearl Harbor."
Some Makaha surfing footage was by Hawaii photographer Larry Haynes, who carried a camera while surfing. A jet ski carrying a videographer was used for some of the Chun's Reef footage, Condon said.
There are also some helicopter shots by Condon of surfers riding huge waves at Phantoms outside of the Velzyland surf spot.
Crow started recording "C'mon, C'mon" nearly two years ago. The album also features Don Henley (for whom she used to sing backup), Stevie Nicks, Lenny Kravitz, the Dixie Chicks' Natalie Maines and Emmylou Harris.
Crow's association with American Express Blue Card began when she performed at a Central Park concert in New York to launch the new credit card. The event was later released in 1999 as "Sheryl Crow & Friends: Live from Central Park."
The new Sheryl Crow video can be viewed on the Internet at www.sherylcrow.com.
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