The Tenors, Newfoundland, and a Jeep Cherokee | Matthew Guy

Special Feature

The Tenors,

Newfoundland, and a Jeep Cherokee

There are times when an inanimate object is as much of a character in a story as the human players themselves. If you’re reading this magazine, chances are you’re a gearhead like us, and for folks with gasoline coursing through their veins, that inanimate object is often a car. It could be Sonny Crockett’s white Ferrari in Miami Vice, or the 1967 Chevy Impala in Supernatural.

The Tenors are a trio of Canadian lads – Clifton, Fraser, and Victor – who have been thrilling audiences around the world for years with their powerful singing and impeccable harmony. They blend classical and contemporary music to produce some of the most beautiful renditions of timeless songs these jaundiced ears have ever heard. As if being imbued with that level of talent wasn’t enough, it’s also apparently impossible to take a bad picture of them.

Story: Matthew Guy

This comes in handy when filming videos to accompany their songs. Last year, the group produced an album called Christmas Together, filled with their own takes on traditional Christmas songs. Capping the ten-track record is the seminal song Auld Lang Syne.

In a music video the group filmed to accompany their song, it’s clear the lads planned for a vehicle to play a part in their cinematography. A red Jeep Cherokee (the classic old-school XJ) pops up about a minute in, then again, then again, appearing at several prominent occasions in the Newfoundlandbased film. Its perfect red paint popped against the rugged island blue and brown landscape, adding visual drama from an unexpected source.

As gearheads, we knew the Jeep’s placement was intentional. But why a Cherokee? Were the film sequences planned? And how’d the group settle on Newfoundland for a setting? Fortunately, Clifton Murray from the trio generously spoke with us about the project.

“I’ve deep roots in Newfoundland,” said Murray, waxing nostalgic about how he’d spend every other summer or winter on the island with his passel of cousins and relatives.

“So choosing Newfoundland as the site for our video was an easy choice. The beautiful vistas of British Columbia have an equal in the geography of Newfoundland.”

Not to mention the dawn of the New Year first kisses the eastern shores of Newfoundland before anywhere else on our continent, tying it in beautifully with the spirit of Auld Lang Syne. “We got up at 5:00 am in order to catch North America’s first sunrise of the day in Cape Spear. We thought how fitting it would be to be there, metaphorically and physically, as the world sees the New Year,” he said. “By 9:30 am, we were on the road to travel across the island, chasing the sunset.”

This is where the Cherokee comes into play. It was indeed a deliberate decision to include a vehicle in the film. During development, the lads were unsure what to choose, so an associate scoured the island for off-road themed machines they could rent during the shoot.

“The production company sent us back a bunch of options,” Clifton explained animatedly. “On the list was a Hummer, a modern Range Rover, a Wrangler, and a lifted truck. All were cool but too blinged-out and ostentatious for our taste. It would’ve ruined the video’s vibe. Then we found the Cherokee.”

It was a great choice, he explained, and absolutely perfect for the vision they had in mind. The workaday nature of that Cherokee represented their humble beginnings, as normal Canadian boys who have simply found their niche and feel fortunate with their lot in life.

A jacked-up Hummer is as essential to the rural Canadian economy as a diamond-encrusted Rolex. But honest, blue-collar machines? They’re its backbone.

“...that Cherokee represented their humble beginnings...”

Clifton went on to say that using a common fourwheeler from that era facilitates a feeling of making the viewer go back in time to just before the proliferation of smartphone technology, allowing a reconnect with nature and each other.

This explains why anyone who’s ever taken a road trip with friends will instantly identify with the video; it’s a genuine depiction of three buddies hitting the road for a bonding experience that ultimately brought them all closer together as friend and bandmates.

Their plan worked beautifully, as the well-loved Cherokee, with its imperfect aftermarket running boards and definitely-not-new BF Goodrich Long Trail T/A tires on old-school ‘phone dial’ wheels, is a machine one could easily imagine ferrying its owner to work in a rural Canadian snowstorm or a budding young Gretzky to the rink at 6:00 am.

“...the Cherokee became a character of its own in the video and turned into an old friend along the way...”

All hands agreed the Cherokee became a character of its own in the video and turned into an old friend along the way, carrying them all the way to the island’s West Coast, where the group visited several rural areas before heading to see the jaw-dropping beauty of Western Brook Pond.

The film also features a few segments of the lads singing and having a good time with patrons at Quidi Vidi’s Inn of Olde, a landmark pub in the capital city. The crowd shown, about 25 people, was a good mix of Murray’s family and people simply “out for a nip”, Murray said.

One could easily imagine any of the down-toearth souls at the bar having a hard-working Jeep Cherokee parked at home in their driveway.

The Tenors will be back in Newfoundland on October 11th for a performance with the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra. Their last performance in the province sold out and this one surely will as well.

Who knows? There just might be a red Jeep Cherokee in the parking lot waiting to take them back to their hotel after the show.

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