Trailer Park Tuesday: The Lost Saints of Tennessee by Amy Franklin-Willis

Welcome to Trailer Park Tuesday, a showcase of new book trailers and, in a few cases, previews of book-related movies. Unless their last name is Grisham or King, authors will probably never see their trailers on the big screen at the local cineplex. And that's a shame because a lot of hard work goes into producing these short marriages between book and video. So, if you like what you see, please spread the word and help these videos go viral.

Today's trailer is a little something different--it's a full-fledged music video inspired by Amy Franklin-Willis' debut novel The Lost Saints of Tennessee.  The song was written and performed by Andrew Castro who accompanied Franklin-Willis on part of her recent book tour.  At her website, the author gives the backstory behind the music:

In the summer of 2011, I asked my neighbor musician Andrew Castro if he'd be willing to read Lost Saints and, if he felt inspired, write a song or two that I could then use on my website and maybe on a book trailer. Two of Andrew's favorite things are music and basketball. In the spring of 2011, he suffered an injury during a basketball game that severely damaged his vocal cords and was told he might never sing again. He couldn't even speak for several months. My Lost Saints proposal provided him with a welcome distraction. Andrew ended up loving the book, lucky for me. And instead of just one or two songs, he composed and recorded nine songs that are each inspired by a theme, character, or scene from the book.

The Lost Saints of Tennessee tells the story of 42-year-old Ezekiel Cooper who's having a hard time getting over the loss of his twin brother in a drowning accident ten years earlier.  Distraught, he heads out onto the road with his dog and a vague plan to commit suicide.  The music video picks up where Ezekiel (a younger, Hollywood version for the video) has checked into a hotel and is "sinking like a stone."  He reaches for the pills and the booze, hoping to douse those ghosts who haunt him.  I won't give away what happens in the novel, but I can tell you that Franklin-Willis handles the scene with remarkable poise and poignancy--not unlike Castro's hauntingly-beautiful acoustic music.  The trailer is a terrific marriage between literature and song.  So, today I'm urging you to not only buy the book, but to buy the music as well.