Bailey James at 19, is a hot southern rocker, with songs on Music Row’s Country Breakout Chart several times, and she is a member of the Song Suffragettes female songwriting showcase in Nashville. Her 2021 single “Finally Free” was written to honor her brother Zane and bring awareness to mental health and suicide prevention issues. That single was named Opry Circle Release of the Week and charted on the Billboard at #42.
Her new video “The Spell” shows how versatile the singer is. The footage shows her innocence in a white floral sundress by day, then in a sheer black risqué dress by night. In her black dress, she sits barefoot on a quilt in the sunlight, reading from a book of spells and burning a sage smudge into a small smoking cauldron. You get the sense she’s preparing for her evening of casting spells by the fire.
"The Spell" opens with a closeup of fire, then shows her singing in the firelight, telling us she "ain’t trying to sound religious, but all my kin were raised by witches." The guitar is playing fast licks, copying the pattern of the flames, yet still sounding like a country song. When she sings about being baptized in a river full of serpents under a blood moon, the music takes on an aggressive rock sound.
There’s nowhere to run
when the darkness comes
so boy you better treat me good
or you wish you never would fell
under my spell
I can put the devil through hell
The fire is superimposed across her face throughout the video, almost as if she’s standing in the fire while she sings. Her long blond hair covers her lace bustier, but she moves it a couple time to let us see her witchy dress. They do a great job editing the video, where she’ll lean over the fire at night, then stand back up in the daylight as if time didn’t exist.
The second verse tells him that their relationship could be magic, as long as he doesn’t cross her, or then he’ll be the one getting baptized in the river. After the second chorus, she gets quiet and mysterious and vocalizes the melody of the verse. As the heavy rock guitar takes over again, she leaves us to wonder if she’s the innocent girl she appears to be, or the witch who’s about to cast “The Spell” on him.
To watch "The Spell" Video click here!
"The Spell" Song Credits:
Performed By: Bailey James
Written By: Bailey James Koehler, John Allen Miller, Nolan Neal
Produced By: Justin Bandolon
Source: Heart Songs Music Group
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