'Christmas Out East' music video by Brady Rymer and friends 'nails' Long Island holiday experience
Grammy nominated musician Brady Rymer (left to right) and songwriter Glen Hoffman, both of Southold, with Karl Schmitt of Port Washington, filmed a holiday music video called "Christmas Out East" at the Greenport Harbor Brewery in Peconic. Credit: Randee Daddona
Three Long Island friends and musicians — including Grammy-nominated Brady Rymer, a children’s music artist from Southold — have released a new music video called "Christmas Out East," which has garnered more than 4,500 views on YouTube in seven days.
The song features familiar Long Island scenarios — hoping the dog counts as a second person on the Long Island Expressway's HOV lane, passing frost on the vines at the North Fork vineyards, and making sure to snag a crisp apple crumble for the holidays from Briermere Farms in Riverhead.
The friends have been collaborating on quirky music videos at Christmastime since the pandemic, when video producer and songwriter Glen Hoffman created The Hunkerdowns, choosing that name because the group launched when the world was in lockdown. The first year The Hunkerdowns sang about wearing masks to get on Santa’s nice list; last year they filmed a Christmas video in New York City called "Salty Boots."
"This year, I wanted to write one that captured the holiday spirit and pride of the North Fork and came up with ‘Christmas Out East,’ " says Hoffman, who also lives in Southold. The third member of the trio is Karl Schmitt, of Port Washington.
The video was filmed over two days in December. The trio rides down the North Fork’s Oregon Road in the back of a vintage pickup truck borrowed from North Fork Vintage Cars as they sing. The group also incorporates regular North Fork folks who happened to be at the sites where they filmed, including the Greenport Harbor Brewery in Peconic, The Broken Down Valise bar and the North Fork Donut Company in Mattituck, and the Southold Fish Market. "Everybody was super into it," Hoffman says. They mixed the song at Rymer’s home studio. The song is available for download on digital music platforms.
Rymer’s least favorite part of the filming, he jokes, was riding around on the bed of the vintage truck. "Just because of the cold," he says — the singers are wrapped in coats and scarves. It is Christmas season, after all.
But the filming at the Greenport Harbor Brewery more than made up for it — it was Rymer’s favorite part. The Hunkerdowns set up in front of the fireplace and performed the song for the crowd there that day. "We played it twice. By the second time, people were clinking glasses and singing along," Rymer says. "It was really, really great, really fun."
Richard Vandenburgh, owner of the brewery, appears in the video along with the crowd. "It was very festive," he says of the filming. "It was a lot of fun to be a part of. They pretty much nailed it about being on the North Fork at Christmas, all the iconic places to see and places to be."
Beth Whitehouse writes about families, parenting and great things to do with the kids on Long Island. She’s been a Newsday editor and shared a 1997 Newsday staff Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the crash of TWA Flight 800.