KAYLENS Rain aimed to tug at the heartstrings with their comeback single, One Song Brings You Back, but they never expected how emotional the track would become.
The Lake Macquarie pop-country trio recently filmed the clip for the single in Catherine Hill Bay with videographer Jackson James.
As part of the video they hired a vintage Ford F-150 truck and "brain-stormed" the concept of a man and his granddaughter driving around together remembering places he used to visit with his late wife.
Unbeknown to Kaylens Rain and James, the truck owner, Garry Perry, had lost his wife Sharyn only four weeks prior.
"Naturally will were taken aback," Kaylens Rain guitarist-vocalist Glen Harrison said.
"He [Perry] said, 'he would absolutely love to do that'. Knowing his story and how it's portrayed in the video, the director did an amazing job.
"It's become really emotional as the story for him is so true, even though he's acting out this part.
"Having that personal surreptitious touch has made it more special."
One Song Brings You Back also carries a wealth of emotion for Kaylens Rain.
The track was written by Nashville's Brett Rutledge and Jessica Campbell Waterman and was originally pitched to Kaylens Rain in 2018.
The band last released new music in 2016, when they unveiled their second album In Our Blood.
Since then Glen and his sister and vocalist Kaylee Stewart (nee Harrison) have each become parents and invited Kaylee's husband Joel Stewart to officially join Kaylens Rain as their bass guitarist.
Original music had taken back seat in recent years to corporate and weddings gigs, but their single launch show on Thursday at Earp Distilling in Carrington marks their comeback to the scene.
"We kicked it pretty hard a few years ago and we kind of missed that a bit," Glen said.
"We stayed relevant and a lot of our peers in the industry up until very recently had been asking 'what are Kaylens Rain up to?'"
The single launch almost had to be cancelled after Kaylens Rain were caught up in 48 Watt Street's sudden closure, which left dozens of couples without a venue for their impending wedding.
"Just with the media attention it got, we had a bunch of venues contact us wanting to help out, which was pretty special," Glen said.
"Everyone was so generous and we were spoilt for choice."
When the two-time Golden Guitar-nominated Kaylens Rain formed in 2010 and released their first album Found in 2012, pop-country was very much a niche genre.
However, the success of artists like US stars Morgan Wallen and Luke Combs and Newcastle's own Morgan Evans - who recently sold out two Civic Theatre shows - has brought country back to the mainstream.
"We felt like there was this movement happening and it's just continued to skyrocket and snowball, the whole country music scene," Glen said.
Kaylens Rain play Earp Distilling on Thursday.
