Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:13 What is up? How we doing? Welcome back to the, in the Round podcast, you got Matt and
Speaker 2 00:00:18 Tyler.
Speaker 1 00:00:18 We got the Coda Bear, and we have a very special guest episode, lucky number 13. And it is one that is, uh, different from our usual guests that we've had on. Huh, Tyler?
Speaker 2 00:00:28 Yeah. So I'm gonna give you a little bit of backstory here. Um, when, whenever I was working one day, I had this guy walk in, me and him were talking like I knew him. He goes, it's cool that you get to run sound for a Nashville legend. And now I looked at him and I was like, who? And he goes, our guest name is Greg Gehring. He said, Greg, the fiddle player. And I go, me and me and Matt, like, kind of had joked and I was like, the one that is like, maybe like semi homeless looking.
Speaker 1 00:01:01 The one, the one that, that looks like the older style country. Honky tonk musician. Yeah. He looks like he got out of a time machine and is all of a sudden in 2019. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:01:11 And he goes, yeah, Greg is a Nashville legend. If it wasn't for Greg, none of us would have our jobs down here. And so I kind of like looked at him and like, really? He goes, yeah, do your homework on this dude. So I went home that night. I think even while in the bar I started about it. I definitely went home that night and I listened to an album we're going to talk about a lot. Came out in 1997, called Alone. And it just blew me away. And then I did more research, um, watched the documentary kinda on him a little bit. And like, there was a lot to learn of this dude. And basically this dude, as he talks about, was the first guy in the early nineties to start playing on Broadway here in Nashville and really brought the scene here to Nashville and Matt and I that work now on Broadway, we have our jobs thanks to what he did in the early nineties. Yeah,
Speaker 1 00:02:02 It's really cool sitting back and hearing the stories the guy's been in. Been in and outta Nashville for about 30 years now. And, uh, just sitting back and listening to what he's, what he's experienced, uh, what the music scene was like on Lower Broadway, in downtown Nashville when he got here. And kind of the impact that him and some of the guys in his generation, um, had. And, and he, he speaks, he's very, very well spoken. He, he has a lot of opinions and a lot of thoughts on this one. So it's a really interesting conversation. Definitely different. It's a guy by the name of Greg Gehring, uh, bluegrass. Legend Tyler, yeah. A songwriting guy that's, that's been around for a minute. Lived pretty much everywhere from United States to Mexico, to New York, to Pennsylvania, to DC
Speaker 2 00:02:48 To those are part of the United States, buddy.
Speaker 1 00:02:50 No, I'm, I'm saying he's not. I know, I
Speaker 2 00:02:53 Know. He's
Speaker 1 00:02:53 Our first guest that we have that we've had that's not from south of the Mason Dixon line. So that is something too. So, uh, sit back, enjoy this one. At the end, we are gonna be playing track number six off the alone record a record off of Giant Records. A little throwback there back in 1997 called Alone. The track is called Walk Away From Me. Without further ado, let's go in the round with Mr. Greg Garry. Tyler hit that music. What is up everyone? Welcome back to the In the Round podcast. You got the whole crew here and we have a very special guest with us. We have a guy that is been in Nashville for a hot minute. Tyler.
Speaker 2 00:03:41 Yeah. Um, you know, I said, you know, Steve was probably the, you know, guy that's been here the longest as Greg. When did you move to town?
Speaker 3 00:03:50 I, I started coming here about 86. I was here full time, so
Speaker 1 00:03:55 He's been here full-time by 88. So he's been here eight here since, so he's been here since 1986. He's been coming here since 86. He's been a part of a lot of changes that have had like the music downtown. It wasn't always the way that it is now. And this guy that we've got with us, uh, we get to see him play downtown a lot over the weekend. He plays a lot of the, of the classic style country that's just so good. Like, there's songs that I hear these guys play when he is out gigging anywhere downtown, whether it be Whiskey Row or he's playing over at Layla's or he is playing anywhere. Roberts, he's bouncing all around. It's a guy by the name of Greg Garing and, uh, Greg, I gotta say, dude, it is really cool and it is an honor to have you here, uh, given your involvement with music in Music City. It's, it's pretty badass. When Tyler and I first started sitting down there was a day, um, Tyler could probably tell the story better. Yeah. We went to that store.
Speaker 2 00:04:43 Yeah. We went out to McKay's out here out west. And the day before I was running sound, you know, for you and James and all those guys. And, uh, somebody walked in and goes, it's really cool that you get to run sound for somebody that's kind of a national legend like that. And I go, what do you mean? And he's like, go do your homework on Greg Gehring. And so that night, like, I honestly did it in the bar, I think, but uh, you know, did a lot of research on you and, you know, I was like, oh, wow. You know, walking down the street, you know, you wouldn't necessarily always know, but, you know, definitely a Nashville legend. And, uh, I told Matt the next day, I was like, dude, we gotta to, we gotta have this guy on the podcast. Like, we gotta talk to him about, you know, the influence that he left on Nashville, really.
Speaker 1 00:05:33 And where your influences come from and just your story just in general with music, like, and as, as a writer and all this stuff. So let's start from the very beginning. So Greg Garing, where are you? Where originally are you from? Cause we learned you're from like everywhere.
Speaker 2 00:05:47 Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:05:48 Um, born, born and pretty much raised in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1 00:05:51 Western pa, Western pa. Might as well be Ohio or Western New York. You're right on that. So you, how close are you to the canal and the lake and all that stuff?
Speaker 3 00:06:00 Well, the canal does, doesn't really exist anymore, but the lake was about 30 blocks from where I grew up.
Speaker 1 00:06:07 Oh, wow. So you were right on there. So you know what I'm talking about when I say that Winters get cold up. Oh. Cause all my Southern brother and down here, they don't, they, they, Hey,
Speaker 2 00:06:15 I know
Speaker 1 00:06:16 He lived in Connecticut for like a year and a half, maybe two
Speaker 2 00:06:18 Years. No, no, no, no. I lived there for a winter.
Speaker 1 00:06:21 Okay. So he lived in
Speaker 2 00:06:22 Connecticut for a winter. Yeah, it was the year that, uh, Boston set the sew record. Oh,
Speaker 1 00:06:25 Geez. Yeah. But yeah. So you know about, so like this heat down here, does it get like this all the time in the summer? Is Nashville just that hot?
Speaker 3 00:06:33 Well, things are changing in the world. You don't know what's coming these days. Yeah. Um, we had a pretty mild winter though, that's for sure. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:06:41 It, it was definitely probably the, uh, mildest winter I've had since being here. Damn.
Speaker 1 00:06:46 Well, now talk about, talk about the music stuff. So, so why, why we got you here and everything. Um, so when did music start for you? So you, you started first coming to Nashville in 86, I would imagine you were doing some music stuff before that, and was it direct jump from Erie, Pennsylvania to Nashville, Tennessee?
Speaker 3 00:07:03 Yeah, I, I've, uh, it's just something I've always done. I can't really remember not playing music. Um, but by the time I was 10 I was playing VFW posts and, and you know, coffee houses and things like that.
Speaker 1 00:07:20 So as far as like coming to Nashville, what was your initial, what made you wanna jump from Western PA down to Music City?
Speaker 3 00:07:30 Well, in about 83, 82, 83, um, I started touring on the Bluegrass circuit around the country. And, uh, just as a teenager, you know. And, uh, but I got to know so many of the guys on the road from the festivals. You know, you spend the weekend with him and then two weeks later you'd all be together somewhere else. So it was just a natural progression for me to just eventually move down here.
Speaker 1 00:07:58 Okay. Now Bluegrass, that's something I don't know a whole lot about. Yeah. But, uh, Bubba over there, he, um, he used to do some bluegrass stuff, didn't you?
Speaker 2 00:08:05 Yeah. So actually whenever I started learning, I moved from Atlanta down to Alabama. And that's, you know, the only guys we could find that would teach us was bluegrass. So probably for, I don't know, eight, nine years. You know, I was on the bluegrass circuit also, and all the guys that I hung out with and, you know, played with and all, they're all now playing the Opry and like with big acts and stuff like that. So, you know, I ran with a pretty good crew of guys. Um, but yeah, bluegrass is one of those things where it's a very tight-knit family, you know, like they, they all stick together, you know?
Speaker 1 00:08:44 Yeah. What was it like coming up in that circuit while you have So 86 in terms of country that's popular at that point, that's a lot of who in the eighties. That's like Vince Gill is doing his thing at that point. Right.
Speaker 3 00:08:56 Well, that was one good thing about the Bluegrass circuit is, and just bluegrass music in general is, uh, like you said, it was, is like kind of like a family. And so we just pretty much ignored everything else. <laugh>
Speaker 1 00:09:10 And Yeah. But I, yeah, but I'm saying like, for you to be getting into like, coming into Nashville, what's coming out of Nashville at that time while you're coming down with the bluegrass circuit?
Speaker 3 00:09:20 Well, it was coming out of Nashville. Sure. But especially in those days, it was just kind of made in a laboratory on Music Row and you didn't see it. Like that's the big change that's happened. People would always say to me around the country, oh, you're from Nashville. That's where that pop music garbage comes out of and says, yeah, it does, but you don't see it. It's invisible. It's not in the clubs, it's not on the local scene. But now Broadway's just crawling with that stuff. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:09:46 So now you talk about Broadway,
Speaker 3 00:09:48 But, but in those days, when I first moved out here, what else was coming out of Nashville was Bill Monroe and Ruff and Hank Snow and all the greats still on the Opry and touring out of here, you know, so it was still very much alive.
Speaker 2 00:10:00 Bill Monroe is definitely a huge influence on, you know, growing up in bluegrass of, you know, he's the father,
Speaker 3 00:10:07 Everybody. Yeah,
Speaker 2 00:10:08 Yeah, yeah. Like, you don't think you can be in bluegrass and not, it's like listening in country and not knowing who Johnny Cash is.
Speaker 1 00:10:16 Yeah. Which for you coming in at that time while those guys are doing their thing, so did you know those guys before coming down here?
Speaker 3 00:10:22 Or
Speaker 1 00:10:22 I, right. I, what was your relationship as far as coming into town? You knew people already listening.
Speaker 3 00:10:27 I had known, I had known Bill since I was, I guess 16, 17 years old. And, um, went and played his festival every year up at Bean Blossom, which is still going on in the middle of June every year.
Speaker 2 00:10:38 Yeah. It's up in Indiana, right?
Speaker 3 00:10:41 Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Bean Blossom Indiana. And, uh, just all the guys, I mean, there's so many greats still going at that time. And the, the majority of them lived in Nashville. And this what lured me here in the first place was to, you know, when I first came here, it wasn't uncommon for me to be around Bill five nights a week. Wow. Four or five nights a week. And I just wanna learn everything from him. I could, you know,
Speaker 1 00:11:09 So just, you come down and you're just sucking everything up like a sponge.
Speaker 3 00:11:12 Yes, sir.
Speaker 1 00:11:13 So with that, what for you were like, what was the thing you, what was, what were you trying to accomplish? Were you trying to do like a solo career thing and at that point, when you initially come down 86, are you coming down looking to, right, are you coming down looking to do fiddle or play an instrument? Or are you coming down to try and make Greg Gehring a, a household name as an artist?
Speaker 3 00:11:32 Well, I had actually gone to DC first because Washington was a big bluegrass hub in those days. There's three radio stations that only played bluegrass music. Really? Yeah. The Bur Smear was a very famous club for bluegrass music and the Seldom Scene and, you know, that whole scene. And so a lot of people lived in the DC area. Well, about the time I got there, um, everybody had moved here, <laugh>, so I packed up and followed suit and
Speaker 2 00:12:01 DC is actually having kind of a revival of the bluegrass scene. My old guitar teacher actually moved from Alabama to DC and is one of the guys up there that's kind of reviving the bluegrass scene in, uh, DC
Speaker 1 00:12:12 I would DC Yeah. Would not, I would not have guessed that. DC of all places for Yeah. Heavy Bluegrass. Like I know upstate New York, there's a lot of big festivals that go on and, and in New England and stuff like that, but so, so DC to Nashville. But what was your goal coming down the Nashville? Were you, what were you doing at that point?
Speaker 3 00:12:28 Well, to tell you the truth, even bluegrass music was changing greatly at that time. And, uh, I loved old country music as well. And so I had it in my head that I was gonna be some kind of a writer, you know? Okay. And I was gonna come and interview all the old timers and get all the stories down and, and kind of preserve something. And, uh, about six months into being here, they all kind of pulled me aside and said, nah, son, you're one of us. You're stuck <laugh> and you've gotta, you've gotta perform this kind of music and try to help keep it alive when we're gone.
Speaker 1 00:12:59 So not as, so not as a songwriter, you're talking as, as a journalist that's trying to preserve the, the art that was coming out
Speaker 3 00:13:05 Didn't happen. Never happened. <laugh>
Speaker 1 00:13:07 <laugh>, I would say it worked out pretty well for you though. I mean, being, being with the music stuff, so what's that in? So they say you're one of the guys, what's next after that? What happens after, after the, like, you're stuck with us, Greg, Gabby. Well
Speaker 3 00:13:20 Then, then it was just kind of the war of, okay, well Nashville is in shambles and it's, it was, you know, there's a revival going on right now, but it was almost impossible to perform or give that kind of music away in those days. And, you know, bluegrass has always been its own thing, and it continues to go to this day, but in the late eighties, I realized, um, nobody's playing traditional country music. Like, there was no one my age in Nashville doing that style that, that built this town. You know, that late forties, early fifties sound honky tonk music. And so I slowly started to jump ship from Bluegrass over to that cuz I felt like somebody, somebody needs to be doing this. You know? And uh, and of course a lot of the session players that were on those records in the fifties and forties were still very much playing and around and, and in the late eighties, but, you know, they weren't really working or doing anything because the music had faded away. And so, of course, except on the Opry, you know, and Hank No and all those guys were performing but around town, no. You know.
Speaker 1 00:14:34 Have you gotten to play the Opry? No,
Speaker 3 00:14:35 Sir. No.
Speaker 1 00:14:36 Okay.
Speaker 3 00:14:37 No,
Speaker 1 00:14:38 I was just curious. Well,
Speaker 3 00:14:39 Too traditional for that.
Speaker 1 00:14:40 Okay. Yeah, yeah. No, I was, I was just curious as, as to how, as to how things were back then with, with Plant with the, now the Opry was at the Rman at that point, correct?
Speaker 3 00:14:51 No, the Opry was out in the suburbs and, you know, where it still is most of the time now, but it is the reason why downtown died off. I mean, yeah. When they pulled out of the Rman, everything around it was built on the tourism from that. And so downtown just became, and most downtowns in America with the invention of the shopping mall, you know Yeah. Just became barren wastelands for a while there.
Speaker 1 00:15:20 Yeah, no, that all, that definitely, definitely paints like a picture because just to see what, cause I've, I've never gotten to see the Opry at Thery. I've only been to the Ryman once. It was to see Cody Johnson a couple weeks ago. And that was, that was like the ri the Ryman as a whole. It's just got such this thing to it. I don't, I guess there must, what, what was the decision behind that you think, to pull the Opry out of the Ryman? What went into all that stuff? Or is that a
Speaker 3 00:15:42 Political conversation? Well, it was, it was always pretty chaotic having the Rman be where the Opry was because it was so popular in those days. I'm sure you've seen pictures of people lying down the street and around the corner Yeah. Waiting you can to get in the Rman and it caused so much traffic congestion and cuz this also the state capitol, you know? Yeah. And it was a much, it was a much smaller quieter town at that time. And so all of a sudden Saturday nights just erupted into chaos. And so they finally decided, okay, let's move this thing somewhere where we've got plenty of parking and there won't, you know, it won't shut the town down for the night.
Speaker 1 00:16:20 Yeah. So when did you start giggling on Broadway? How did that all, how did that all start for you?
Speaker 3 00:16:26 Well, see I had a, I had a few places downtown at, at various times, um, of my own. And I'd always toyed with doing something on Broadway, but it was still so rough in those days and I just didn't wanna be responsible for bringing people down there <laugh>
Speaker 1 00:16:47 With that. Yeah, yeah. No, I mean, I mean, yeah, I mean, also as a player, when did you start, like what, what was your first gig playing music? Like, you're like, people are going to see Greg Garry, like your first set gig on Broadway.
Speaker 3 00:17:01 Well, in about 94 I started playing in the back room at Tootsie's and I thought it was just gonna be for the evening, just for nostalgic purposes, you know, um, but it just kind of ishly caught on really fast. And we wound up playing there every weekend. Lucinda Williams had something to do with that. She was a friend of mine and she started telling everybody, come down there, come down there. And uh, but within two or three weeks we had that place packed. And I mean, there had been nobody going, there had been locals going downtown in 30 years, you know, so all of a sudden all the newspapers and everybody started writing oath. So, you know, somebody's actually playing at Tootsie's again. People are going down there and for the first time in years. Um, but it was a little rough <laugh> and there were moments where I was like, I don't know if this is a good idea, but, um, it just kind of started feeding itself.
Speaker 1 00:18:00 And then so, so, so there was a time period. So I'm, because I'm, I'm new to still new to town, still learning all this stuff. So how long was the break in between when Broadway was rocking to when it kind of stopped up until 94? When did they
Speaker 3 00:18:14 Well, things
Speaker 1 00:18:14 Started and what and what was going on.
Speaker 3 00:18:15 Things instantly started going down 10 down downhill. Now I wasn't there for those days, of course. Okay. But, you know, of course I've heard all the stories and everything, and this
Speaker 1 00:18:24 Is back when, this is like the fifties, the sixties. Are we talking like forties, like way back?
Speaker 3 00:18:29 Well, I mean it had always been a thriving business district in those days. Um, printer's Alley was where more of the clubs and things were. But by the late eighties it was pretty much just like that seedy part of town. You know, anyone there was either an alcoholic or looking for drugs or prostitution. It's just that simple. Yeah. And so nobody really went down there, but I would go down there all the time and pace up and down the alley. Yeah. Between the Ryman was, they were constantly threatening to tear down really. And, and, and Tootsie's on the other side, which was just a bar full of derelicts thinking something something. Why don't people appreciate their history in this town? Cuz they never have. And you know, Tootsie's itself is a historic landmark. I think it, you know, it leaks. It was in the past on the state register of Historic Places.
Speaker 2 00:19:24 I think it still is.
Speaker 1 00:19:25 Yeah. It's still on there.
Speaker 2 00:19:26 I think all of downtown pretty much at this point is
Speaker 1 00:19:28 Like our, our building over on where, where we work at. Um, that building as a whole, it used to be the Guitar factory that's, well you
Speaker 2 00:19:36 Speak groom guitars, they
Speaker 1 00:19:37 Used to grooming guitars. Now that, that's where we've got the historic building status on our door too. Like where you can't,
Speaker 2 00:19:42 So like, if we want to do anything, like, we have to go through a bunch of red tape to get,
Speaker 1 00:19:46 But Ima but imagine they ripped all those buildings down and just redid Broadway entirely. What, what that would've looked like. That would've been insane. It
Speaker 2 00:19:53 Probably looked like something that's happening right there where they tore the, tore the old, uh, civic center down and they building that fifth and Broadway building now. Yeah. Probably honestly looked like that. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:20:03 Well, I mean, okay, I'll just tell the story though. The whole reason I started playing down there was the threats of wiping out our history. Okay. You know, they were trying to turn two seasons into a sports bar. Really, when I heard that, I just became furious. And, um, they were covering up the pictures on the walls with beer signs and Oh, this stuff's coming down. This is gonna be a sports bar now. So I kind of snuck in, so to speak, under the radar and started playing in the back room of Tootsie's. And we managed to get a crowd down there pretty fast. And all of a sudden it became a scene and it was in all the papers. It was in Billboard Magazine. Even that, you know, something was finally going on in that historic spot again. And just about that time they made plans to rebuild the Ryman and open it up again.
Speaker 3 00:20:55 But in the eighties when they were constantly threatening to tear it down, I would go in there with a bag lunch in my guitar every day and I would sit on the stage and, and sing. And they had these old timers that would walk people around and give a tour for so you could pay 75 cents Wow. To get in the rhyme it, but it was still magical in there at that time. The walls were gray and all the old signs and you know, not all the carpet and everything that's in there now, but it just felt like a, you could just feel the ghosts in there.
Speaker 1 00:21:24 Really. Now, now for you, when you talk about those ghosts for, for you, so coming up in the bluegrass circuit, I'm sure there were influences on that end of traditional bluegrass. When you're talking about the old style country, the the real honky tonking country. Who are some of your big influences for that?
Speaker 4 00:21:43 Uh,
Speaker 3 00:21:44 I was always a big Roy Acuff fan. He was,
Speaker 1 00:21:47 He was your guy.
Speaker 3 00:21:48 Okay. Well, you know, one of them. But he was, you know, he was kind of everybody's guy. There wouldn't have been a Hank Williams if it wasn't for Roy Acuff. Yeah. But, um, Roy would actually let me use the band around town. I first came to town, so I had the Smokey Mountain Boys were my first band here in shit in Nashville. No shit. Wow. <laugh>. And uh, you have to remember at that time it didn't make me very cool. And uh, yeah. And no one was doing anything like that. No one young was embracing the old, there was some young ones playing the Bluegrass, you know, and working with some of the guys at the Opry. But I just felt like there's this big hole and nobody's, and Okay, you don't have to preserve it in the sense that there's always records and you can always go back and listen to the old recordings, but tradition is about passing something on.
Speaker 3 00:22:36 And I was learning from Roy Acuff and, and I mean everybody, Clive Moody was one of my big guys. People don't even remember his name anymore. He had the first gold record in world history, not country music, world history period, 38 million records. Wow. He sold on King Records, uh, pre Hank Williams, you know. Yeah. And, uh, just so many of the guys I got to be close with and learn from. And I knew that there'd be a big gap when a revival did happen again, cuz it's always bound to happen. And sure enough is happening right now, but so many of these kids had that. They're just, they're just putting on the clothes and learning it off a record and not really getting the point of the whole thing
Speaker 1 00:23:23 <laugh>. Yeah. Cuz they're not living it. Like you got to you, you were fortunate to be in that, that time period where you're able to, to watch these guys do, do play those songs
Speaker 3 00:23:33 A lot. Well live the music and, and you know, you don't learn to play bluegrass going to college. You learn it in the back of a limousine with Jimmy Martin for three days on the way to Wow. California. Yeah. <laugh>
Speaker 1 00:23:45 <laugh>, fuck.
Speaker 3 00:23:48 There's many liquor Tour stops.
Speaker 1 00:23:50 Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:23:50 Oh yeah. No, and like for me, that's one of the things that was always, I think one of the biggest things for bluegrass is like growing up, growing to festivals and all that kind of stuff. Even now, they still really, like if they see a young kid interested, like it doesn't matter who it is, like the biggest of the stars will stop and will listen and be like, Hey, let me show you something. Let me teach you something. Like they stop and they kind of teach their own and they take care of their own. Especially if you're a young kid, like some of the guys I've shared a stage with in bluegrass for the new wave of bluegrass, you know, were big names, but they didn't care. Like, they didn't say like, oh, who are you? They saw potential and they saw this is a young kid that's wanting to carry on a tradition of bluegrass music and they embrace it and they help.
Speaker 1 00:24:42 It's just that big on tradition where you, you don't wanna see it die. Like you wanna pass it down and there's an appreciation for a kid doing it that that's really cool. There's not a lot of genres that that do that. I don't think there's really any other genre No. That does that.
Speaker 2 00:24:56 Maybe blues would be the only thing, but like Yeah. With the bluegrass scene even now still like, you know, it's very big on, Hey, let's pass this down, let's keep this going so that future generations can still enjoy what we enjoy, you know?
Speaker 3 00:25:12 Yeah. I was, I was so lucky with that myself as a kid, you know, and that's why I've always tried to always encourage and teach the younger generations coming up. Um, one of the edges bluegrass has over that is you just pick 'em up and go. Yeah. You know, it's, it's one of the only forms of American music that's just, you just pick the instrument up. It doesn't matter where you are. You can be on the top of a mountain or in a grocery store. Yeah. And you can just play. And so we would play for days. I mean play and play and play and, and you, you can really absorb a lot in that situation. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:25:52 Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:25:52 Well as opposed to setting up the gear for an hour, playing for 20 minutes, tearing it all down, going home. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:25:57 Yeah. It's a whole, that's a whole process. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:25:59 It's a whole process.
Speaker 1 00:26:00 Now what was the first instrument you learned how to play? Um, I've seen you play a lot of different instruments and I've only known you for a couple months now.
Speaker 3 00:26:08 I guess. I started on the piano actually really? Um, as really little, like having to reach up to get the keys at first <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:26:16 Um,
Speaker 3 00:26:18 I've, I've, my grandmother on my father's side was this little old lady that sat in the chair next to the piano and had a little bell. And I don't even remember her speaking. She was very, very old. And, uh, I was watching television. I was about three years old and the silent movie was on and there was like the music, the piano music behind it. And my father come up and he said, he said, that's what your grandmother used to do. She used to play piano in the silent movie houses. And oh, I just, I went running over and begged her to play the piano and she just started crying. And I asked my father, what's wrong? He said, well, she can't play anymore. And so I, I said, well, I'm gonna learn to play for you granny. You know. Wow. That's awesome. That's really cool. So that's how that mess started.
Speaker 1 00:27:04 So you go piano and then when did you start picking up the fiddle? Cause that's what I see you play the most. I see you play the fiddle the most, but I'm sure you know, I'm sure you know quite a few other instruments.
Speaker 3 00:27:12 Well, I had an older sister and at the time I was too young and she didn't want me touching her fiddle. So that's the one I wanted to play the most <laugh> and I didn't have one, so I would sneak into her room when she wasn't there and pick that thing up and play it.
Speaker 1 00:27:25 It's like step brother's with the drum set. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:27:27 <laugh>. I really didn't get serious into the fiddle till I was about 17, which was later for me with instruments. But as you know, we were poor. I didn't have much and we, you know, I didn't have one.
Speaker 1 00:27:39 Yeah. So you, I mean, I'm sure you know how to play. I've seen you play guitar. Do you do, what are the other bluegrass instruments? Do bro? Right? Do
Speaker 2 00:27:46 Bro banjo, mandolin, upright bass, any of those?
Speaker 3 00:27:51 Yeah, I mean, I kind of play all the bluegrass instruments. Um, that was one thing about being around all these guys that I could, you know, it was too big an opportunity not to learn Yeah. From them when you're around them five days a week and everybody's hanging out all the time. And I mean, we would have, in those days we'd have parties and usually somebody hosted one. And so any night of the week somebody was having a picking session somewhere. And it would be Jesse McReynolds and M Wiseman and Uncle Josh Graves and Kenny Baker, and Vassar Clements, Betty Martin, I mean all the greats, you know. But what do you do when you get a little older and you're not playing as much tour dates and stuff, you just want play all the time. Yeah. So, you know, and some of those folks were still hitting the road a lot. But, um, we had a picking session just about every night and there's not, there's no way to not learn when you're sitting next to somebody playing all the time, you know?
Speaker 1 00:28:51 Yeah. And from those guys, like that's a hefty list Yeah. That you, that you just dropped. Now in terms of writing, so with this, with this podcast, we like to do we, it's in the round term, like, like writers round, like we focus a lot on songwriters and whatnot. So for you, what, how old were you when you wrote your first song, would you say? Um, thinking way back,
Speaker 3 00:29:11 I didn't start writing really. I mean, I fooled with it when I was a kid, but I don't think I ever even finished anything. Um, when I first started writing, I was here in Nashville. Um, there's a fellow named Roy Duke, and he's another forgotten Nashville hero. He was an influence on so many people. He started playing around in Nashville. He was from Nashville. He started playing around about 1940. Wow. Um, but he was a real honky tonk hero around town and a incredible ahead of his time. Kind of prolific songwriter. And, you know, without going into detail, you know, I firmly believe that even a lot of Hank songs, Roy did a lot of the writing. Yeah. And, uh, and was famous for, you know, give him a bottle of vodka and he'd hand you all the lyrics for a song that you, you know, <laugh>. Wow. Just kinda, so a lot of, a lot of credit didn't go to Roy on stuff that he wrote over the years,
Speaker 1 00:30:12 So you got to meet.
Speaker 3 00:30:13 So, but, but Roy was about my best friend and I kind of pulled him out of obscurity and we were kind of inseparable for a while. Um, but he was just such an incredible writer that I just wanted to start doing that. And his best friend back in the day was a fellow named Glenn Douglas Tub, actually his Ernest nephew. And he changed his name to Glen Douglas when he was a recording artist and a writer in the early days. Um, I also wound up being really close with him and he's written a Skip A Rope, which is one of the most controversial country songs of all time. Uh, home of the Blues for Johnny Cashman could Go on and on and on. But he, and he's still around and I still see him all the time. And, uh, he was a big influence on me wanting to become a writer. That's
Speaker 1 00:31:10 Awesome. So, so writing, so writing bluegrass and writing traditional and writing the style of country that you were doing, those have to be pretty different, right? How, how was the style? What was it like going from bluegrass to doing some, doing some more country stuff?
Speaker 3 00:31:25 See that's just it. Or,
Speaker 1 00:31:27 Or balancing these,
Speaker 3 00:31:27 These days Bluegrass is unrecognizable as anything from the, you know, what bluegrass music actually is. Yeah. And, and people could deny that, but it's true. And in those days, cuz we're talking about late forties, early fifties, and the heyday of bluegrass music Bill, bill Monroe was on the Opry just like Hank Williams. And they toured together and they wrote together and they hung out together. And the music was so similar, you know, there wasn't a whole lot of difference except one had acoustic instruments and one had electric instruments. Yeah. But they pretty much had interchangeable parts in those days. And to prove that they all recorded those same songs, you know? And so I look at it as, you know, they're like brother and sister.
Speaker 1 00:32:18 Yes. Country
Speaker 3 00:32:18 And real
Speaker 1 00:32:19 Country and bluegrass. You get so for your originals. And, and I gotta say, when there was that day when me and Tyler, what was the place called again? McKays McKay. We were at McKays and we were looking at like old vinyl and just stuff. It was my first time going there. And Tyler was like, this is the spot you gotta go. If you ever need any, any like random thing, they got it here. So it was cool. And then we got back in the car and he told me, told me how he had heard. And he was saying, do your research on Greg Garing. And he had told me what he had found. I was like, oh shit, let's look him up on Apple Music. And I find a record called Alone from 1997 with a song called My Love Is Real. And I clicked play on that thing and I was like, whoa, this is, this is as different as anything. It jams. It's, it's got a great vibe to it. The vocal line's really cool, like that style. And it was, it's just so different from what was coming out in that time. So tell me the little story about this. How did like, alone and kind of that your, your, your career as a, as an artist?
Speaker 3 00:33:16 Well see I've always liked all kinds of music and I mean all kinds of music. Um, if I weren't in Nashville right now, I probably wouldn't be doing this to be honest. Um, we were talking earlier before we started taping about how many various places I've lived. Yes. And it's always been chasing after the music. You know, like I, a lot of people will make a jazz record or, you know, but I've kind of tried to delve into everything head first, you know, and I spent a, if a, anything that I perform or make records in that genre, I, I've not only listened to my whole life, but I've jumped in the scene for two, three years at a time really
Speaker 1 00:34:00 Experiencing
Speaker 3 00:34:01 It, really experienced it and play like, like at one point I was doing for about three years, I did nothing for the most part, but play with all the old jazz guys in Harlem that were still going. And I mean, guys that went back to the thirties and forties playing with Armstrong and Fatz Waller and, you know, count Bassy and Duke. I had Count Bassy and Duke Ellington's drummers switching with me week to week. Wow. Playing in punk clubs in New York, believe it or not, playing the old stuff,
Speaker 1 00:34:29 Playing old, old style jazz in a punk club in New York City. Wow. Yeah. That's, so is that before Nashville or was that after?
Speaker 3 00:34:37 No, that was in the late nineties.
Speaker 1 00:34:39 Okay. So that was in the, so what, so you left and came back. What was the, what's the story behind that?
Speaker 3 00:34:45 Well, I've always kind of come in and out of Nashville. Um, I don't make a secret that I've had health issues over the years and that's dictated a lot of Yeah. Of my decisions. Um, I had taken some time off, not really willingly, but to heal up and, uh, and when I was, felt like I was back on my feet again, I was trying to decide between here and New York and just some folks found out come kidnap me and about five years ago and drug me down here. I'm still here. <laugh>
Speaker 1 00:35:22 <laugh>. Well that's funny. I'm actually from New York originally, as I was telling you before. So that New York scene. So you're in New York what years?
Speaker 3 00:35:32 I am left here in the summer of 96. Okay. To go up there. Um, well anyway, I I got off on tangent. You asked me about the alone record. I just have
Speaker 1 00:35:43 Always loved Yeah. The alone record. Yeah, the record.
Speaker 3 00:35:44 I loved all kinds of different music and, and I, you know, at that point I was about 30, 29 30 and uh, that's when you're, I wanna do my own thing. So I was like, okay, let me see what I can come up with. Let me cram everything that I like together and see if I can't make something new out of it. Cuz you have to start somewhere. Nothing comes outta nowhere. So I just took all my influences that I, but I had also saw no future as far as career goes for, for doing the traditional thing. Cuz even though I'd broke the scene down here and people were starting to copy it and Broadway started taking off, I I, it
Speaker 3 00:36:25 Still just wasn't the right time, you know, this, the whole Americana thing was just starting to blossom in those days. And I just decided, well, you know, I had this big buzz going on from doing what I was doing downtown. And every label in the country was after me. And it finally occurred to me, nobody's heard me <laugh>, it's all based on buzz. I can do anything I want. So I just started listening to the radio and waiting to hear something that I liked. It's like, okay, there's gotta be something going on these days that I dig that I can kind of, you,
Speaker 1 00:37:01 You weren't, you
Speaker 3 00:37:01 Weren't embrace, you know, you,
Speaker 1 00:37:03 You, you weren't a big Backstreet Boys fan. No
Speaker 3 00:37:05 Sir <laugh>. And so
Speaker 1 00:37:06 I'm not either
Speaker 3 00:37:08 Anyway, tooling down a country road somewhere just chilling out with a bunch of kids and, and Portis Head came on one of the local college stations. I like, that's it. That's it. I don't know what that is, but I like that. And that's different. Like, you know, so that was kind of, and I actually wound up being friends with all those guys on that Bristol scene over in England. But I was like, okay, this is something I could embrace. Like I could do my own version of this. And, uh, it didn't quite come out like that. <laugh>. Yeah. But I remember I had to go to Memphis to get a sampler cuz nobody even knew one, what one was here.
Speaker 1 00:37:47 Wow. Yeah. That's so, that's so na so Nashville very different place at that point than it is now. And then it was when you first got there, so the nineties was different than, than it was in 86. Was there like a difference from when you first got here to when you, to when you were going in that process of making a record?
Speaker 3 00:38:08 Well, I bailed outta here pretty quick. I went, I was up in New York, like I said, by 96. Um, and things slowly progressed here, I'll be honest. I mean, a big part of my decision I did put years and years of effort into trying to see downtown become something civilized, you know, and something that really respected the music and, and the history of what happened here. Well as soon as they announced those two sports stadiums going in, I got mad and left cuz I knew exactly what was coming and it's what we have now. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:38:41 Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:38:42 And you know, they had a whole city to deal with. Why did they have to put it either end of the one small couple blocks that our music has in the world, you know? Yeah. Didn't make any sense to me. Um, it's making dollars and sense, but it's, it's pretty much plowed over the music,
Speaker 1 00:39:03 You know. Yeah, yeah. No, it and what, for me, coming down again, it's so different from what's, what's in new, like what's in New York where I'm, I'm from the suburbs outside the city. So for me it still feels like it's such like a musical place. But I get what you're saying, like the back in those days it was people going out for the music, not going out to party. Not none of the pedal taverns or any of the big tourist stuff that's there. Well even it was people for the music.
Speaker 2 00:39:29 Even now like, you know, people aren't coming to Nashville to listen to bands play original music. They're coming to Nashville to party and to listen to cover bands. Yeah. Um, you know, and that's, I I imagine that you could probably agree with this, but that's one of the great tragedies of Broadway right now is that a lot of the bars won't let bands play original music.
Speaker 3 00:39:54 No, I mean, it, it is two different things from, from our scene in the old days, but it was a small scene. It was a local scene. Um, but like I said, as soon as I knew those ball teams were coming in, that was, I I was like, okay, I need to get outta here for a minute, <laugh>. Yeah, yeah. Because I'm about to watch everything I worked hard for just completely go to hell.
Speaker 1 00:40:13 And where in New York did you go first? You said you were in Harlem?
Speaker 3 00:40:16 Um, no, and when I first got there, I, uh, I had gone up there to make the alone record. I had made all the demos and the original concept of the record here, um, I was considering Seattle or New York and I had never been to New York, even though I was in a, for a while. I was in a kind of famous New York City bluegrass band. It was the first, first successful northern bluegrass band called the Greenbriar Boys. They started in the late fifties Yeah. Up in New York, the early nineties. They asked me if I would become the, there was always three members officially in the band and then like the trio, the folk trio thing in New York, you know? Yeah. And then they would hire Sidemen. But I started working with them in the early nineties, but I'd actually never been to New York. Um, so I went out to Seattle for a minute.
Speaker 3 00:41:05 There's a fellow named Mark Walk, and he was, uh, is one of the early pioneers. And it, when they first come up with Pro Tools, they were using it in movies and things to do sound effects and everything. And Mark is really the first guy to go, I'll make a record on this thing. And uh, so he made a record on this Scottish gal, um, called Ruby. The record of the band project was called Ruby. It was, it was just, uh, it was really just him and her locked up in his studio and I had heard about what he was doing. And so I went out there and, uh, we made some demos and did some things, but we both agreed that it wasn't gonna be a great fit because he didn't, he, he was used to calling all the shots and just building all these tracks and having someone sing over top of it. And
Speaker 1 00:41:54 So yeah. Were you were, you want the creative control, you want your players in there.
Speaker 3 00:41:57 Yeah. And it was, it was mutually agreed and that, you know, maybe in the future we do a project together, but then I found this fellow named David Cohn, who was a great producer and arrange, but was willing to, you know, kind of follow my lead, so to speak. And so I went to New York expecting to hate it, and within two days I was in love. And I don't think I ever did leave. Like I didn't even, I had my stuff sent up there.
Speaker 1 00:42:24 Wow. Wow. So, so that scene, so you were in, I'm assuming like the Brooklyn area of New York City?
Speaker 3 00:42:30 No, I was living right in Soho.
Speaker 1 00:42:32 Oh, you're right in soho.
Speaker 3 00:42:33 Right in in the, in the, yeah. I didn't, I didn't move up there to look at the city. I wanted to Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:42:38 Talk about a creative space to be living. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:42:40 In those days, it's a
Speaker 1 00:42:41 Lot of creativity around that time, that late nineties, that late nineties pre nine 11 era of like Right. It
Speaker 3 00:42:47 Was, it was still affordable and it was such an artistic place. Yeah. And it was just, and just a hops skim and a jump from the East Village and there was still just so much going on there in those days.
Speaker 1 00:42:58 Now what'd you, what was your, um, what was your initial reaction when you realized, wow, I'm in New York City and people are digging this, this folky, bluegrass country thing that I'm doing. What was that reaction like for you when you were out and when you were playing out or when you were showing people what you were thinking about doing kind of thing and you're, you're in the last place you expect to hear, to hear bluegrass kind of thing.
Speaker 3 00:43:22 Well see in those days when I had moved up there, you know, that that record was anything but bluegrass really had had a lot of influence. But, you know, it
Speaker 1 00:43:31 Was Yeah,
Speaker 3 00:43:32 Yeah, yeah. Obviously, you know, the drummer from Cyprus Hill and Mike Wado on the bass. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:43:37 But being me, I couldn't help playing bluegrass. And, and, and, and so I instantly found, and I knew some players and things from up there, from over the years, meeting 'em different places, but there was a few bluegrass jams and things going on. So I would go on my off time and go and meet some folks and do some playing. And, uh, I technically wasn't supposed to be playing out because, you know, labels had lots of rules in those days and they didn't want you doing anything they didn't know about or want you to do. So I was kind of sneaking off and playing some little bluegrass gigs and doing stuff just to keep my sanity Yeah. And, and still be playing all the time. And I started playing in this little corner bar called, I think it's called Barcode, which is a horrible name and, uh, just for fun, you know, and did that for a few months.
Speaker 3 00:44:33 And then I went on tour in Europe to tour the Alone record. And when I come back, there was a line down the street waiting to get into that place and people had come, I don't know, quite, it's just another one of those things, just like Broadway just kind of happened, you know, make good music and people show up. But all of a sudden I had a scene on my hands up there of traditional music with a line down the block for two solid years. And boy did I get in trouble with Warner Brothers for that. But it, it got, you know, I had, I had, I had country music on the front page in the New York Times art section
Speaker 1 00:45:12 That Yeah. Which, which is
Speaker 3 00:45:13 Playing it outta the East Village in New York, which was just unheard of at that
Speaker 1 00:45:17 Time. Time. That's, that's a big deal. And that, that is very, that is very unheard of. And for you to go out there and be doing creatively what you wanna be doing and just, and to start something, to see it catch and that scene and everything. So when did you, so when did you make your way back here? How long ago? How long is this stint of Greg Garing in Nashville been? Well,
Speaker 3 00:45:37 I guess, well this time I've been here for five years. Okay. That's the longest I've stayed. Lots
Speaker 1 00:45:42 Happened here in five years
Speaker 3 00:45:43 Since I, yeah. Lot's happened here in five years. Um, yeah,
Speaker 2 00:45:45 I moved here six years ago and it's a totally different town than when I moved here.
Speaker 3 00:45:49 Yeah. It's shocking. I moved here about seven years ago for just a minute, and I wound up, I, I believe going the Carolinas for a minute for a project. I can't remember. But I came back a about a year later and I was just shocked and appalled. Like, I couldn't believe that things happened that fast.
Speaker 2 00:46:08 Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:46:09 And, and the skyline has changed so drastically.
Speaker 2 00:46:12 Well I remember I, uh, I did like a one one day run with somebody. Like we went outta town, I think it was the Evansville and I left town in the Civic Center, was still standing. And I came back and it was just rubble, you
Speaker 3 00:46:28 Know, don't take long.
Speaker 2 00:46:30 No,
Speaker 1 00:46:30 No, it does not. It does not. Especially with all those cranes going, going around town and stuff. So in terms of, in terms of writing and everything, uh, what do you, what do what kind of, with that, with that record with, um, my Love, my Love Israel, that song, what went into that song, because for me, that's just such a cool driving song and it's got, got that little intro to it that's pretty cool. And, and all that. What went into that record for you, that song?
Speaker 3 00:46:56 Um, well these days I, I guess I put more of my personal life into songs or someone I know or something. But in those days it was just, you know, John Hartford was a big influence on me and my first producer and big influence on my writing, not stylistically, but just as being a writer, you know. And he used to say to me that he only wrote words to his songs, so he didn't have to go da da da da da da da da because it was all about the melody to John and I, I thought more like that in those days. And so, as far as like a story behind the song or something, that really isn't one. But, um, as far as putting it together, I just wanted, I I, I was working with his fellow for a minute named BP Fallon, and he's, uh, he's way more known overseas, but he's, uh, calls himself the vibe master and he has been involved in an awful lot of things.
Speaker 3 00:47:55 Phil in it from then Lizzie had a great line about bps. He said he would say that he wasn't quite sure what BP Fallon did, but apparently he's really good at it. <laugh> <laugh>. Cause he was kind of a self-promoting kind of character. He's probably still alive. I bp he's probably still, but he worked with everybody from the Beatles to Zeppelin is kind of a, a PR guy and a, you know, a publicist and uh, and also kind of, you know, setting the stage, so to speak. But I guess subconsciously I was hearing some, some of the loops and things that were filtering into music in those days and subconsciously putting it in my music just by having someone play. Like Kenny Vaughn worked for me in those early days of, you know, my recording career. And I would just have him play this really repetitive lines over and over again.
Speaker 3 00:48:47 And BP said to me one day, well, those are just loops. If you're gonna do that, you might as well just work with loops and samples. And I said, what, what's that? And so the whole alone record, the whole concept is, okay, there's this whole new thing to play with, you know, you take all these loops and pieces and put 'em together and then you put music over top of it. So each track individually just came out different. Yeah, it was because it was still experimental at those stage, right? Yeah. But we were trying to keep it song oriented and, and you know, not just some, you know, psychedelic mess.
Speaker 2 00:49:22 And even to go from like the first song to the second song on the record, you know, it's kind of more your, your traditional country styling, you know, at least it starts off that way and stuff. And it seems more like, you know, traditional country bluegrass is, you know, like you said, for every song on that record, it's another landscape kind of. Um, you can definitely tell like the influence on the record a lot of, you know, having the loops and industrial sounding stuff at the time along with having like the man jo and the mandolin and all that kind of stuff still worked in there. You know, it was something when I heard it the first time, like, I actually gotta sit down and listen to it, you know, I was taken back. Cause it was like, man, that still, even today, like that kind of music still kind of holds true with what's happening now in music, you know? Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:50:21 It sounds like I, I heard like, like bands that came or acts that came out way later than that. I heard that sound in what you were doing in 97. Like, like a band that, that really imi that reminded me like the band Muse. Like where it's just very, it's like that melodic, there's like a power to it. There's real emotion to it. Like, I felt that with my love is real and I was immediately like, this is, this was the same style that people were doing so many years later. It was like ahead of its time, so to speak. Ki it kinda had that feel to it where it was that experimental where just people weren't doing that. Blending those kind of sounds together.
Speaker 3 00:50:58 Yeah. I mean, it's a time when I made that record the press and people were saying that, and I didn't, didn't quite sink in with me, but now 20 some years later, I get it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:51:10 <laugh>. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:51:10 It's, I tend to be places too early. I'm always at the party too early and then I leave and then all the food gets served. You're always
Speaker 2 00:51:18 The guy that gets the party started and has to leave at 10:00 PM Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:51:21 You
Speaker 3 00:51:21 Get the
Speaker 1 00:51:21 Party. Yeah. You got, you got work in the morning cur curfew, you gotta go home to somebody. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, and then your more recent projects, so you, you've put out a couple, you've put out some recent projects. Correct. And that's been more the traditional style or more along bluegrass?
Speaker 3 00:51:35 Yeah. My last two records have been a little more traditional. Um, yeah, I just, I I hadn't really done too much of that actually, and a lot of people were on me about
Speaker 1 00:51:50 It. Yeah. Wash The Wash, the Her Away I see was one of them. And it's listed as, um, it's categorized on here as like, uh, as traditional folk. Um, so with that, was that how you, is that how you had seen the record? Did you see it more as, more as that folky style? Or is folk now the term for what was Bluegrass?
Speaker 3 00:52:09 Yeah, I mean, I don't know about terms anymore. <laugh>. Yeah. Well that's, they don't seem to mean anything. Everything's
Speaker 1 00:52:15 So blended. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:52:16 I think America, America is the perfect term because it means absolutely nothing. I mean, it sounds like a red, white and blue doily to me, <laugh>. And, and so you can just cram anything in there. But, you know, I've never loved putting things in boxes in the first place. And it's funny for me being such a traditionalist, you know? Yeah. But is interesting. The problem is, is styles changed. They wanna hang on to names. And like I said, you know, bluegrass music is something that started in the, pretty much in the early forties with being the concept of one guy, you know, which is why the name, it's named after his band Bill Man Monroe, and the Bluegrass Boys, you know, bluegrass music. And it was bluesy and twisted and his whole point was to take the Delta Blues and what he was picking up in the French Quarters in New Orleans, cuz they'd hang out down there all the time, incorporating that music into their string music. And so early bluegrass was very much black music. He played to as many black audiences as white audiences when they wouldn't mix in those days. Yeah. And, uh, and it went from that to this white sounding candy face. I don't know what music, but they still call it bluegrass. And so all the genres don't really mean, I don't know what they mean anymore.
Speaker 1 00:53:38 Yeah. Now, um, now if it turns of music today, and I know you said you flip around the radio, you don't particularly like what's, what's out there today? And it's just, it's not, not what you would, not what not. For you, what was good music growing up? Is there any band or act or, or artists that you're kind of vibing with? Any genre that you kind of will sit back and listen to? I dunno if you listen to Spotify at all, or how you, how you intake new music?
Speaker 3 00:54:02 To tell you the truth, I'm so out of the loop. I really don't pay attention these days.
Speaker 1 00:54:08 Okay. I wasn't sure because I was talking about the Americana term. If you were, if you had listened to like Surg Simpson or Tyler Childers or, or, um, or Jason Isle or any of those guys. Well,
Speaker 3 00:54:18 I mean, without going into details of who or what or where, I just don't hear any heart in it. Okay. And therefore I don't hear it as real music.
Speaker 1 00:54:28 Okay.
Speaker 3 00:54:29 You know, um, you know, I, I've worked very closely with, um, and been friends with Lilly Mae, Richie and her family forever. They're, they're what always comes to mind. I mean, I really couldn't say anything else coming out of this town at least that's blowing me away.
Speaker 1 00:54:48 Yeah. Well, even international, just some, some kind of artist or some, some kind of music that you're liking that's new that's more recent or you just listen to the old stuff at this point?
Speaker 3 00:54:58 I like the, an word, but I don't think that's new.
Speaker 1 00:55:01 Okay.
Speaker 3 00:55:02 Yeah. No, I'm, I'm serious. I haven't, nobody's come to me and said, Hey, you gotta hear this. That's in the old days, people, Hey, you gotta hear this. And Oh wow, that's innovative. That's different. Yeah. I just haven't had that experience. Maybe I'm missing something, but I just, I just feel like, I don't know, I think things repeat themselves. And if you go back to the last century, right in this time was when things were trying to come together and become something and then all of a sudden music started getting really good for a while. Yeah. And continued on for a while, but I just feel like it's in a confused state right now. And, and the technology has made it so anyone could make a record and anyone could put out a record. And so it's, there's just no filter anymore. You had to jump through hoops of actually being talented for the most part in the old days to even get in a studio and record much less.
Speaker 1 00:55:56 Now. Now it's, now it's just what do you got in your wallet
Speaker 3 00:55:59 Now? Yeah, exactly. And so the market is so incredibly inundated with amateur nonsense there. I said it. Yeah. That it's really hard to, it's really hard to find things to float to the surface these days.
Speaker 2 00:56:13 That's why whenever somebody new comes out that actually has talent, they rise so quickly, you know, is because you got,
Speaker 3 00:56:24 Well, I mean, I, I don't know. I kind of disagree. I mean, without saying names, I do know of quite a few very talented people that just are getting nowhere. One probably won't get anywhere because Yeah. It's there. You know, you maybe bragging a little bit, but even myself, when I first came to town, um, Peter Cooper wrote an article in the newspaper saying the Chamber of Commerce is lining the streets as Greg Garing has moved back to town. And they throw as they throw roses at his feet and then dot, dot, dot. Just kidding. But they should be, and we really need Greg back here, but he probably will have no success because no one wants him to raise the bar. And that's just it, in my opinion, this town has turned into a bunch of mediocre, nothing in so many ways. And there are, there are talented people out there, but they're just lost in the shuffle of something. Yeah. Um, Vince Gil said it the other day, it seems like this generation listens with their eyes instead of their ears.
Speaker 1 00:57:27 That's an interesting perspective right there. And
Speaker 2 00:57:30 It's true.
Speaker 3 00:57:31 Yeah. And it's true. And it's very sad.
Speaker 2 00:57:33 Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:57:34 Yeah. Wow. That's, that's, that's some heavy I some heavy stuff right there.
Speaker 2 00:57:39 You know, we're in the age of auto tune and stuff where, you know, a lot of the labels are looking at, okay, what does the artist look like? We can fix the sound. And they even have stuff because of certain artists that, you know, live, they can tune an artist. Like there's plugins that you can get for your computer that you can run live that are in real time tuning the artist to make
Speaker 1 00:58:04 A touching pitch and tone and things like
Speaker 2 00:58:06 That. Yeah. And stuff like that. So that like, you know, it's insane. Now you have the whole, uh, multi band EQs or used to, you might have three or four knobs to filter out EQ and stuff. Um, and it was all by ear. And now, you know, with my job as a sound guy, like, you know, if my ears are shot, I can read a graph and know what will sound good and what won't. You know, that's the generation we live in now. And it's, uh, like he said, you know, it's very much of what does the artist look like? What's their aesthetic? We
Speaker 1 00:58:37 Can, will they sell? Will they sell? Yeah. Will they sell?
Speaker 3 00:58:39 I mean its, well, I mean it's always been like that, but it's just so much easier these days cuz of all the technology Right. To fake something. And
Speaker 1 00:58:52 Yeah, the gen, the genuine feel of the music and the authenticity, those those days have passed is what is what what you're getting is what you're kind of getting at.
Speaker 3 00:59:01 Well, like everything else, things are constantly changing and the, the, the whole, the new technology and the internet itself was and is such an incredible disruption of how things were for so long. You know, that it's still settling and balancing itself out. But I think that eventually, you know, things always come around one way or another.
Speaker 1 00:59:27 Yeah. You were saying
Speaker 3 00:59:28 Are constantly changing,
Speaker 1 00:59:30 Evolving. You were, you were saying that there's, there's a revival going on right now, like a, like a renaissance so to speak, that you, you see things kind of changing a little bit.
Speaker 3 00:59:38 Well, I mean there's just a whole, there's a lot of retro miss going on right now, which is good in a way and bad in a way, but at least there's
Speaker 1 00:59:48 A lot. How would, how would, how would, how would it be bad if it, what, what's the good side and the bad side of that?
Speaker 3 00:59:54 Well, whether it's, whether it's country or rockabilly or bluegrass or this or that. I feel like, again, like Vince Gill said, with the eyes, they're more concerned about what they're wearing <laugh> than what the music actually sounds like. And if they got the words down and sort of are singing the melody and that's close enough and som it's hard enough to recreate something that was really great. But if you put very little effort into it, then you have to put that retro stamp on it. And it's just, you know, like in the fifties and early sixties you had all these Dixieland jazz bands, well that's not what they called it in the day, it was jazz. But when there was a revival of the old twenties jazz, they had to call it something cuz it was retro. Right, right. So they called it Dixieland. So there are stacks of Dixieland jazz records in every thrift shop in America up to the ceiling that jazz collectors don't want cuz they're just, uh, you know, fame, fa, memory of the past. I don't know what I'm trying to say. They're not too real deal. No,
Speaker 1 01:00:56 You're good. They're
Speaker 3 01:00:57 Not a real deal. Not a real deal. You're
Speaker 1 01:00:59 Good. Yeah, no, that I, I totally, totally get and understand that and, uh, and everything. So now looking forward, what's next for you in terms of potential projects coming out? Or what are you trying to, is there a, do you have a plan of, of helping with this revival that is potentially coming or what's next for Green Air?
Speaker 3 01:01:19 Well, I mean, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm doing a lot of work with a group called the Cow Polks right now. Okay. Um, and it's made up of, you know, some of the better players around town. So, so
Speaker 1 01:01:30 What, so what, what are they all about? How how'd that come to be? How'd you get involved in that?
Speaker 3 01:01:33 Well, it just was kind of a natural progression. Again, there's, there's not that many of us doing the traditional thing in, in, in the following the tradition, so to speak. And so we always all wind up playing together in one band name or another.
Speaker 1 01:01:51 <laugh>. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cuz we, we get to, we get to see you every, almost every Saturday and Sunday morning, pretty much with the exception of this past weekend, cuz you were out on the road and whatnot with the Shoe Shine Boys, which is a group that it, it, it changes pieces from day, from Saturday to Sunday. Yeah. But it is something when people walk in that front, walk in our front door, I know Coda can attest to this too, the look on people's faces where they're like, whoa, we didn't think that people were doing this anymore. And there's such an appreciation for it when certain people walk in and like Tyler had said that one day when the guy was like, it's pretty cool you get to run sound for, for a Nashville legend. And Tyler's like, oh, like it's, it like, it's so cool that you guys and you guys give like the real show. You guys are all dressed up, the boys are wearing their, their um,
Speaker 2 01:02:39 Suspend white shirts and suspenders, suspend white
Speaker 1 01:02:41 Shirts and suspenders look looking like Shoe shine boys. And to get to hear that eight hours a week, we, that's, it's really cool to see what you guys do now. How'd you get to meet all those guys?
Speaker 3 01:02:52 Um, well I'm kind James saying Yeah. Is that, that's his little thing. Um, like I said, I like to work with the younger folks and kind of show 'em the ropes and break 'em in. So James is one of those for me right now. Yeah. And uh, and uh, and it gets me to keep my fiddle chops up cuz I don't get to do that very often anymore. But, um, yeah, I, I know James through working with him, you
Speaker 1 01:03:20 Know. Yeah. Do you play with any of those other guys in any other projects or, or I guess will you see them around the circuit just going at the bars and go up, up towards like Tootsie's and Layla's and up in that way?
Speaker 3 01:03:30 Yeah, well, you know Broadway <laugh>. Yeah.
Speaker 1 01:03:33 Oh yeah. Everybody kinda knows everybody. Yeah. Yeah. Cuz like I'll see, I'll see Chuck crazy, Chuck out Chuck, Chuck the fuck as they call him.
Speaker 2 01:03:41 Um, good time
Speaker 1 01:03:41 Charlie. Good time Charlie. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3 01:03:43 Well, but again, I mean, just to get, you know, back to being negative, um, <laugh>, um, it's not easy to be on the road these days. You know, I have many friends that are, you know, I, I've, I haven't toured for a minute now, um, probably next year, but, um, oh, awesome. Um, you got about pay to play these days and I have friends packing out opera houses and playing big theaters and coming home, even if they're lucky, it's just not the same as it used to be. A lot of it based on record sales, you know, you just don't have that income anymore. So, you know, you'd be surprised if he's playing on Broadway these days because, well, it's, you just drive downtown and it's easy money and it's not always pleasant playing the bachelorettes throwing up on you, but <laugh>
Speaker 1 01:04:35 Know, it's, it's, yep. What
Speaker 3 01:04:36 Is, it's, it's part of why the scene is thriving right now is people, you know, some of the better musicians in town are like, well, I got out on the road, I come home even and, and it's a lot of hard work or I can just stay here and, and, but that's another danger, that's another, you know, it's starting to turn into one big band that doesn't rehearse Yeah. In Nashville. And I'm not talking about the traditional scene as much as, as
Speaker 1 01:05:01 It's the cover scene.
Speaker 3 01:05:02 It was all these tourist bars, you know? Yeah. You know.
Speaker 2 01:05:05 Yeah. No. Um, there's a lot of bands that they don't have rehearsals anymore. You know, their rehearsal is on stage and they started calling it a Nashville rehearsal.
Speaker 3 01:05:15 Yeah. That one really bothers me. I was thinking of that in the shower this morning. I hate it when somebody says
Speaker 1 01:05:20 It. Really? Why is that?
Speaker 3 01:05:22 Well, you know, I'm old school and we were very disciplined in, in the old days about rehearsing and having everything tight and, and, and now it's just, Hey, can you come play with us? And then to me, whenever a band, what they make that joke about the Nashville rehearsal when they try to pull something off and it doesn't go so well. <laugh> Yeah. Because they haven't rehearsed it and nobody knows the parts and they say, oh, well that's what you call a Nashville rehearsal folks. And I'm always thinking, well, why don't we just rehearse?
Speaker 1 01:05:55 Yeah,
Speaker 2 01:05:56 Yeah. <laugh>.
Speaker 1 01:05:57 Yeah. Well, why don't, why don't we just rehearse? Absolutely. Now a real quick question, and I definitely wanted to ask you. So being that you've been playing Broadway for, for quite a while now, and that you've gotten to see it in a few different stages of what it is now to what it, what it used to be, what's the wildest story that you have while you're on stage playing that you've seen happen in the crowd?
Speaker 3 01:06:20 Oh.
Speaker 1 01:06:20 Because you've seen a lot of, you, you've played, you've seen a lot of faces playing those stages on Broadway. So it's like the thing that you remember where it's like, oh shit, I remember when that happened.
Speaker 3 01:06:33 Oh, I don't know. You put me on the spot with that one. I just immediately saw a bunch of crazy violent stuff from the old days,
Speaker 1 01:06:39 <laugh>. Oh no. Still pretty days ies. Oh. And like those bars were like rough.
Speaker 3 01:06:44 I mean, we were in there playing one night and it was very civilized, but like I said, you, it's gonna be hard to imagine, but when I played at Tootsie's, I carried pins in my jacket pocket and if I couldn't hear that pin hit the ground in front of me off the stage, I'd walk out the back door and wait till the audience was quiet. I mean, it was about performing music in those days to me. Yeah. It's very different now.
Speaker 1 01:07:09 Yeah, it is. I would say the complete opposite. Wow. It's
Speaker 3 01:07:12 Complete the, the
Speaker 1 01:07:13 Opposite. Yeah. Unless you're at a writer's round, there's, unless you're in like a certain venue, like the listening room, it was dead quiet, the Rying. And when I went for Kojo a couple weeks ago, it was dead quiet. Like there's certain venues where they'll really appreciate it. But yeah. Downtown now, no,
Speaker 2 01:07:27 You Yeah, no
Speaker 1 01:07:28 Been, and I've be quiet listening at Tootsie's that's,
Speaker 2 01:07:30 I've been at the Ryman before, um, for a show that wasn't a country show, it was a rock show and, uh, the opening band, all their, well, there was a double headliner. Both bands were like fairly well known and the band that played first, their fans were like talking to each other and the second band set, and like, there was fights breaking out in the crowd of people that were, you know, like, hey, this shows that the Ryman shut up, sit down and respect. And then at one point, like the singer of the other band came on the stage, like to do a song and you saw like what was happening and he was like, guys like respect these dudes. Like this is a craft. Like you gave us your attention. They, their fans gave us their attention. You do it too. This is the rying. Like don't fool around. Yeah. But you know, even at writer's rounds now, like there's a lot of times you'll go and people are just talking to each other, you know, the music's the background kind of thing. And it sucks because
Speaker 1 01:08:28 That's not how it's supposed to be. Right. In this city, especially, this is the city where it's supposed to be music above everything. And it's, and it seems like, it's, seems like it's, it's kinda lost that feel, um, that that you're describing where it was music, it's, it's mu supposed they still call it Music City, but now there's so much other things going on around it. Like,
Speaker 3 01:08:49 Whoa, I'm afraid we're gonna lose that rating.
Speaker 1 01:08:52 Yeah.
Speaker 3 01:08:55 Well it's, it's certainly gearing a different way. Um, I'm not sure where the, I I, I know there's still a scene somewhere here. Yeah. But it's Broadway is just such a, a beast.
Speaker 1 01:09:11 It's now, now is east, is East Nashville where the new music's coming from, you think? Or would you say Midtown? I mean, it's hard to find.
Speaker 3 01:09:18 Well, I guess if anything it's East Nashville, you know? Okay. You know, basement and then the five spot and uh,
Speaker 2 01:09:26 Yeah.
Speaker 1 01:09:27 But yeah, which those, those are
Speaker 3 01:09:28 Nashville's always been a everybody always the music city. Music city. You know, back 30 years ago we had like five venues, that was about it. And no one played downtown. That was just like that, you know, that was just going into the ghetto. There was no point in it. Right.
Speaker 1 01:09:46 Yeah. And so, so yeah man, hey, it was an absolute pleasure, um, getting to do this with you. Like, honestly we learned so much. Like this is the kind of thing when you sit back, like there's, there's always those cliches like you, you learn from those who have, who've come before you. Like you learn a thing or two from, from your elders not calling you my elder, nothing. You're still, you're one of the guys I get to see every weekend. We have a good time. Um, but seriously, thank you for sharing some of those stories and experiences and if it's all right with you, what we're gonna do, Tyler, what do, what would, you would arrange something here.
Speaker 2 01:10:19 So, uh, you know, we've, we've heard a lot and we've talked a lot about your album that came out in 97. Um, you know, I wanna give our listeners a little bit of taste of that.
Speaker 3 01:10:30 Yeah. And just a footnote here, I'm working on another record. You are, it's probably gonna be about a year in the making, but wow. I'll probably put something else more country before that, but yeah, probably about this time next year.
Speaker 1 01:10:41 And what kind of feeling are you feeling for that record?
Speaker 3 01:10:43 Something similar to this? Just a just a 20 year later version. You can see if I can't be ahead of my time again somehow, but
Speaker 2 01:10:53 Yeah.
Speaker 3 01:10:53 And again, I like to shoot myself in the foot <laugh>
Speaker 2 01:10:56 <laugh>.
Speaker 1 01:10:57 Yeah. Amen. But yeah. What track would you like for us to play off of this record?
Speaker 3 01:11:01 Um, you know, I've, I've always liked walk Away from Me the, the best of
Speaker 1 01:11:06 Pack six on the record. Well, you got it. So we're gonna throw it to that. Uh, Greg Garing, thank you so much.
Speaker 2 01:11:12 Thank Yeah, thank you a lot for coming home, you
Speaker 1 01:11:14 Know, and, and thank you for what you've done for this city. Thank you. Thank you for, and honestly, if, if it weren't for that one, one we wouldn't have, the three of us wouldn't have a place to work. But also more importantly, people wouldn't have a place to go to hear music. That it wouldn't have this, this grit to it. It wouldn't be a place where, what attracted me to this city was the fact that there's musicians
Speaker 3 01:11:32 In those. Well, for all the negatives that I said it, it is, we are still currently Music city. Yeah. Oh, oh yeah. And there is nowhere else in the world where you can
Speaker 1 01:11:40 Go. Yeah. People come from all over the world. I can confirm, I see Germany IDs all the time at work. People come from Australia. Australia, people come from all over the place because what we do here, something that you got to be a part of in starting is unique to this. They don't have this other places, they don't have music with the window, p bars with the windows open, with just bands playing nonstop. So thank you for that. And um, giving us one hell of a cool city. Seriously.
Speaker 3 01:12:06 Thank you boys. Oh,
Speaker 1 01:12:07 No problem. Now without further ado, as always, Tyler, do you wanna do the wrap up this time?
Speaker 2 01:12:14 So without further ado, we're gonna play you the song off the 1997 album alone, uh, from Mr. Greg Gehring. Greg wants, again, thank you for coming on. Um, is there anywhere that they can find you on social media at
Speaker 3 01:12:28 All? Greg Garing, G a r i n g. And I'm the only one of those on Facebook, Instagram, all that good stuff.
Speaker 2 01:12:35 So go check him out. Go give him a follow, go give him some likes, you know, he's gonna be, uh, releasing new music probably next year. Be on the lookout for that cuz it's gonna be something special. Um, once again, follow us on Instagram and Facebook in the round podcast. Um, Matt Bar on Instagram, Facebook, just a wondering. Tyler, w a n d e r n g, not
Speaker 1 01:13:00 W o n d. <laugh>. Yeah.
Speaker 2 01:13:02 And uh, Tyler Sar on Facebook, Instagram for just a wandering Tyler. And uh, that'll do it for the day boys. Thank you for, uh, listening. Now it's time to go in the round with Mr. Greg. Gary.
Speaker 9 01:13:37 Walk away. Walk away. Walk away from
Speaker 8 01:13:43 In too.
Speaker 9 01:13:54 Walk away from, walk away from walk away from
Speaker 8 01:13:57 Now. Tears, cries for pain. Walk, walk.
