Exclusive video premiere of ‘I Wish I Could Say I Was Sorry’, the second single and first music video from Chris Church’s debut album, ‘Darling Please’.

The tune, emblematic of the visceral guitar sound of ‘Darling Please’, evokes touchstones from Crazy Horse to Teenage Fanclub, owing much of its involving looseness to Church’s having played all the instruments himself when the record was originally tracked in 2011.

Shelved at the time as too personal and rough around the edges, the album was fortunately revived by Chris for 2022, given a sonic makeover by studio maestro Nick Bertling and adorned with empathetic backing vocals from Lindsay Murray (Gretchen’s Wheel).

<a href="https://bigstirrecords.bandcamp.com/album/darling-please">Darling Please by Chris Church</a>

Like the album and the track, the video for the single – made by Church’s wife and frequent creative collaborator Lori Franklin — is something at once vintage and fresh. Against evocative footage of fireworks in a night sky, Church can be seen performing the song for a live audience in images that predate even the album’s recording.

“The live footage was shot January 1, 2011 by Bradley Edwards and Sam Edmisten at the (now defunct) Alibi, a club in Lenoir NC where we not only had a brilliantly odd, wild Thursday ‘Open Mic Nightmare’, but also where I did quite a few of my weirder performance art things,” explains Church.

“There’s much more to tell about that period, and that place, but I’ll finish up by saying this particular performance, ‘Chris Church’s Exoskeleton,’ was the first time I played any of the then brand new Darling Please songs”.

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