Nicholas Jamerson is one of Appalachia’s best-kept secrets, and this session is exactly why I keep saying that. In this video, I filmed Nick performing “Hindman,” a raw, real live take that hits the heart of what I love about Appalachian music—songs that sound like they were lived in before they were ever sung. Nick shares the story behind it: he wrote the song for his grandparents’ 50th wedding anniversary, with his granddad from Johnson County and his grandmother from Letcher County, and Hindman being that place in between—“common ground,” as he puts it. The performance itself is all longing and gratitude—“life after war and life after wine,” that nervous walk into the diner, and the kind of love that makes a person want to clean up their mouth and their habits just to hold somebody’s hand. After the song, we get a candid moment where Nick talks about how heavy and dark the record was for him, and how getting it off his chest has been good. This is one of my favorite things I’ve ever filmed—because it’s not chasing a spotlight, it’s building a fire and letting you find the warmth.