THE WILD BUNCH FILM FESTIVAL 2026 REVIEW! It’s tears for beers time in the excellent western music video Thirsty & Blue, written and directed by John Marrs for the song by Chancey Williams. Back on the tour bus after that night’s show, Chancey Williams finds an empty fridge where the beer should be. Going to bed thirsty, Williams bunks down in the back of the bus and conks out. In his dreams, he is riding a horse into an Old West town, heading straight to the saloon for some John Barleycorn. Inside is a pretty saloon girl, and all the dream beer he could want. But a fight breaks out, and that first cool sip keeps being pulled out of his grasp.
“Back on the tour bus after that night’s show, Chancey Williams finds an empty fridge where the beer was supposed to be.”
While the devil traded me whiskey for my soul decades ago, my name on the contract was signed in beer. So while I have been happily on the wagon for over three decades, I understand the gravitational pull of an ice-cold mug. Any night without beer was dark and unhappy, so fleeing to the six-pack in your subconscious is a brilliant notion for a music video. I also like how Marrs with Thirsty & Blue gives Williams a story instead of just a setting, like so many other videos. Just like Ray Charles said about country songs, what works best with music videos is when they tell a story, especially when the end goal is beer.
Williams is the genuine modern model of the classic singing cowboy, as he is also a rodeo star with a pile of buckles. He does a great job with his on-screen performance, especially his reaction during the twist at the end. I would love to see him step into Gene Autry’s cowboy boots for a reboot of The Phantom Empire, a sci-fi western serial with Autry running a radio station 20,000 feet above an underground civilization. In Thirsty & Blue, ace cinematographer Derek Carlson pulls great shots like a sharpshooter on the famous Mescal Movie Set in Benson, Arizona. Thirsty & Blue is a high-kicking good time chasing a bottle over a rainbow, which is as pure Saturday night as you could ask for.
Thirsty & Blue screened at the 2026 The Wild Bunch Film Festival.
"…a high kicking good time chasing a bottle over a rainbow..."
