Will anyone recognise this description of a video and song?

[rosegoldwatcher]

I think that this song was within the last 15 years. I remember it on a Youtube video.
The singer is a white man in his 20s(?)
The song is about a young man revisiting his home - a place of abuse for him(?) and his mother(?) at the hands of a (step)father.

The video was of the singer outside the rustic home.

I have searched Google and can find nothing. Driving myself crazy!
Are there any musical savants out there in MN land?

Could it be something by Rag’n’bone Man? A few comments you have made lead me towards his music style

Not Daughtry or Rag'n'bone man.

I spent hours this afternoon on Letssingit, reading through pages of songs generated from keywords such as 'house', 'home', 'walls', 'family'...

Got me precisely nowhere.

I wish that I could draw well so that I could present to you all the picture in my mind!

Not sure this helps: but this is a YouTube listing someone put together called "sad songs childhood".... there's 63 songs here: not sure any of them fit your description but it might lead to something!

Ok, I'm very invested in this now!

It's hard to google because although you said about the video suggesting abuse it might not lyrically be too obvious, and when you search songs about abuse etc it's the same ones coming up each time! Have you looked at this website?

spinditty.com/playlists/Songs-About-Domestic-Violence-and-Child-Abuse

There's a long list of songs on there, my immediate thought was nickle back but none of their songs/videos seem to fit!

Somewhere I belong linkin park

Hold on good charlotte

Apocolytica I don't care

I'm 99% sure they're not right but I want to be the one who wins! 😂

When the angels cry by Scott Coner?

@LynnAnneBenfield - Please don't lose sleep over this!

Not any of those.
It was a solo male singer, American, a little bit portly with scraggly facial hair.

None of the, many, songs in the 'songs about abuse' list fitted.
My best recall is that the lyrics pointed towards a man returning to his childhood home and referenced a bad domestic situation. Decent lyrics, being a bit poetic, can be somewhat oblique and open to interpretation from the listener so maybe there were no actual words within that read clearly 'abuse'.

I fear he might have been a bit of a 'blink and you'll miss him' sort of act. He wasn't your usual perfect physical specimen that 'show-biz' seems to promote.

Again - thank you to everyone who is trying to solve this puzzle.

Anyway - I need to stop thinking about him (whoever he is) so am listening to Agnes Obel. Lovely!

Was it Chris Stapleton?

Not Chris. He's far larger and more country than my mystery man.

Just listened to his 'I Was Wrong' - he's good!

Is it called When the Angels Cry by Scott Coner? Video is in black and white.

Blake Shelton / Tim McGraw / Gavin DeGraw are my initial suggestions. Guessing that the first two are too country.

My other thought is Chris Cornell. When Bad Does Good?

What sort of tone of voice are we taking about?

I hope this is it!

Contemporary Country? Is the genre Perhaps either “indie” or “folk pop”?

For a second I thought you might be talking about Philip Phillips (home) but having just googled the music video, it’s far more uplifting than what you are talking about.

I both love and hate threads like this. 🤣
Could it be 22 by Gavin James. He’s not American but the video has an abusive father in a house and you said you thought he may have been called James so the surname fits. It’s probably not but it’s a lovely song anyway.

None of those either!

You know the sort of stuff that Mumford and Sons sing? that kind of genre I think.
I love songs that I can sing along to so his tone would not have been deep.

John Grant - Greatest Motherfucker?? Chubby, beardy man. Ace song.

One of James Bays songs? Hold back the river, maybe?

Long shot but could it be puddle of mudd blurry

How long ago was it? Would you say it was a popular song?

I HAVE FOUND IT!

I put folk rock 2010 in to the search on Youtube and several tries later there he was! - Welcome Home by Radical Head.

Not plump at all but definitely beardy.

Thank you so much everyone - for your suggestions, for honing the genre and for keeping me searching.

Update -

I Wikied Radical Face and the link page for his real name, Ben Cooper.
I had definitely read them before.

On the Ben Cooper page these sentences caught my attention -
"When Ben Cooper was 14, he came out as gay to his parents. His step-father then kicked him out of his home. In his adulthood, Cooper found out that his step-father sexually abused his niece. Ben ended up adopting his niece, and gave testimony at his step-father's trial."

Of course that doesn't necessarily mean that Welcome Home is about abuse, except for the line
'Peel the scars from off my back I don't need them anymore"

Thank you Mumsnet Music Savants
I promise to never forget this song!

Ahhh it's from the Nikon advert on tv!

From your description, I wouldn't have had that song.

I first heard it on the first Eddie Izzard Sport Relief documentary as he was finishing the round Britain endurance marathon feat in London.

You're right. It's sublime.

Me neither. And it is one of my favourite songs! In my defence, I’ve never watched the video though.

Glad you found it OP. 😊