Experiencing Interruptions?

Won't Be Around

"Won't Be Around" is a song written and performed by singer-songwriter Terry Blade. At its core, the song is about leaving an abusive relationship by having the will to speak it, the courage to do it, and the strength to never return to it. The music video follows three individuals who are descendants of African-American sharecroppers, and who confront the racial history of sharecropping in the American south by showing that black bodies can exist and subsist on land in the south without the exploitation of black labor.

  • Terry Blade
    Director
  • Terry Blade
    Writer
  • Bobby Cole
    Writer
  • CottonBro Studio
    Producer
  • Bobby Cole
    Producer
  • Terry Blade
    Producer
  • Larry Robertson
    Producer
  • Genres:
    Music Video
  • Runtime:
    2 minutes 24 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    June 30, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    2,500 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Student Project:
    No
  • The Tribeca Festival
    New York
    United States
    June 9, 2024
    NY Premiere
    Official Selection
Director Biography - Terry Blade

Terry Blade is a singer-songwriter based in Chicago, Illinois. He has received more than 100 music, film and video awards, nominations and honors. In 2023, his song Won't Be Around won first place in the Blues category at the American Songwriter Annual Song Contest; Best Blues Recording at the 2023 Radio Music Awards; Best Song at the 2023 Music Video Awards; Best Singer of the Future at the 2023 Cannes World Film Festival; and Best Sing at the 2023 Europe Music Video Awards. The song also won the runner up in the Open Acoustic Category at the 20th Annual Acoustic Music Awards.

Won't Be Around was nominated for a 2023 Hollywood Music in Media Award in the Music Video category, earning Blade his second nomination. The song was also nominated at the inaugural 2023 Hollywood Independent Music Awards in the Americana/Roots category. The song received an honorable mention in the Vocal Performance category of the 2023 Unsigned Only Music Competition.

Won't Be Around appears on Blade's third studio album Ethos: Son of a Sharecropper, which was nominated for Best Folk/Americana Album of the Year at the 2023 Josie Music Awards. The album was featured on The Boot.com's "Most Wanted Music: 2023's Country and Americana Album Releases" along with album releases by Shania Twain, Margo Price, John-Allison Weiss, Elle King, and Mark Erelli.

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Director Statement

Won't Be Around is about leaving an abusive relationship and never returning to it. In the song, I speak to a loved one. I tell them I'm fed up and moving on. I ask "Who you gonna run to?" "Who you gonna lie to?" "Who you gonna rescue?" when "I won't be with you," "I won't hear you," and "I won't even need you" because "I won't be around." Won't Be Around is about doing what I said I would do. That is part of my ethos. When I say I’m going to do something, I mean it.

"Won't Be Around" is a song from the album "Ethos: Son of a Sharecropper." The album's title is a reference to my being a descendant of African-American sharecroppers from Colerain, North Carolina. Sharecropping was a system developed in the American South after the end of the Civil War. Many formerly enslaved black American families became sharecroppers on farms and plantations.

The official music video for "Won't Be Around" aims to remain true to the song and the historical/social themes of the album. Sharecropping in the American South is captured in the video's rural/pastoral setting. The black suits worn by the performers represent racial blackness and the professionalism and dignity with which black American sharecroppers performed their work. Leaving the abusive relationship of sharecropping is shown by the performers not working the land, but defiantly standing/resting on it (looking directly at the viewer). In this way, the video illustrates that abusive relationships can take many forms, even economic and socioeconomic ones.