Singer-songwriter Jake Manzi isn’t the star of his new music video — the city of Northampton is.
The track, “It’s Northampton,” marks the first single from his upcoming album “Getting Somewhere.” The hometown tribute sets the stage for Manzi’s official album release concert at The Parlor Room in Northampton on Saturday, June 13.
“It’s a town with such charm,” Manzi sings in the video. “It keeps me hanging on.”
The song features Manzi walking past a number of locally familiar places in and around downtown Northampton. As he sings “Walking Pleasant and Strong / feeling so wrong,” he passes Moshi Moshi, Ink & Toner Solutions, and Pearl Street Nightclub before walking into the Cooley Dickinson Hospice Shop to buy a pair of shoes, after which he cuts through a few alleyways. Later in the video, he drives past Nuttelman’s Florist, North Shore Seafood, Soup Noodle Bowl, a Cumberland Farms gas station and a Dunkin’.
Other local landmarks like Interstate 91, Look Park, King Street Convenience, and Northampton Tire also make brief cameos. Even the Daily Hampshire Gazette and its sister publication, The Greenfield Recorder, share the screen: copies of their Dec. 16 editions appear briefly when Manzi plays inside the WRSI studio.
Manzi and video director Elliot Hartmann-Russell purposely omitted Main Street to avoid making a generic promotional video. Instead, the project serves as a “love letter” focused on localized, “townie” spots. Manzi said they wanted to highlight all the places that he knew from living there, rather than tourist destinations. Filmed entirely on a camcorder, the music video carries the nostalgic feel of a 90s home movie.
Manzi took the song’s chorus — “Aw, it’s Northampton / We both know what can happen there” — from a voicemail he’d gotten from a local music promoter in 2024.
“He had left me this voicemail saying, ‘Hey, Jake, I’ve got a date for you. And it’s in the afternoon, and you’re going to pretty much be in the middle of the audience. And the money’s a little short. It’s a little short[er] than what you’re asking for, but we’ll get you the check, and you have to mail me 10% of that check, also, and you get one alcoholic soft drink and a bite to eat — and it’s Northampton! You know what can happen there!’” Manzi said.
“It’s true — Northampton is beautiful … where lots of things can happen, but it’s not necessarily like, ‘Oh, if you play a gig in Northampton, you’re going to become a rock star,’” Manzi said. He thought the last line of the voicemail was funny, but it stuck with him — just like the city of Northampton did, too.
As a child growing up outside of Springfield, Manzi knew Northampton as a “charming” city and a family visit to stores and restaurants there was something of “a big event.” He moved to Northampton for a few years in his early 20s, where he met and performed with the band LuxDeluxe, whose members he still collaborates with.
With this song, he said, “I hope that people see Northampton as this magical place that I did when I was a kid, and even when I was living there [as an adult].”
Yet, despite his love for Northampton, Manzi actually doesn’t live in the Valley anymore — he moved to Los Angeles in January 2025. A few months after that, though, he started to feel a bit of homesickness and nostalgia for Northampton, and, with the promoter’s voicemail in mind, he began crafting the song “It’s Northampton.”
While Los Angeles offers obvious advantages, Northampton holds its own perks. Manzi noted the western Massachusetts city’s lower cost of living, distinct seasons and tight-knit creative community. Furthermore, its proximity to major metro hubs like New York City and Boston makes it an ideal base for touring musicians.
When Manzi spoke to the Gazette in late April, he and LuxDeluxe guitarist Caleb Rosazza had just wrapped up a two-week tour of the American Southwest, where “It’s Northampton” was already winning over audiences.
“Going to Texas, going to New Mexico,” Manzi recalled. “I would introduce this song, and people, at the end, would say, ‘Oh, man, I want to go to Northampton now!’”
Tickets to Jake Manzi’s show at the Parlor Room are $18 via ironhorse.org. Erin Cassels-Brown will open. For more information about Jake Manzi, visit jakemanzi.com.
