Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:15 That's night. Got a little messed up on whiskey. Got home way late. Crawled in through the window. Cause I lost my keys. Big mistake this morning when came in, she wouldn't even kiss me. Said she didn't fall in love with this me girl. I know, I'm,
Speaker 2 00:00:41 I know I've
Speaker 1 00:00:55 Nothing
Speaker 2 00:00:56 Left to say. You got every
Speaker 1 00:01:04 Reason to feel this way. I'm sorry babe, but come on, it's Friday.
Speaker 3 00:01:24 Hell yeah.
Speaker 4 00:01:38 What's up everyone? We got a very special guest with us. A guy that I've been tr I told about the, when I first had the idea for the podcast, when I first moved here in October, there were a couple guys and girls that I immediately wanted to try to have on. Like, people that I was like, these guys are are badass songwriters. And they, they're huge in town and it's just like, I want to get that, get that exposure out there and I wanna have a conversation with 'em. Cause they seem like badass people. Yeah. <laugh>
Speaker 3 00:02:01 And Ryan,
Speaker 4 00:02:02 Freaking Nelson was on that list. And my first time coming down here visit when I, when I visited right before I moved down. I saw you play Whiskey Jam and uh, it's awesome to have you here dude. Thanks for taking time out. Cause you're a busy man, you're always running around and doing stuff, so thanks for taking time out. I know it's probably pretty early too. We always said it on Mondays at like one or two o'clock in the afternoon. It's like the equivalent of like nine or 10 in the morning.
Speaker 3 00:02:25 Yeah, it kind of is. Yeah. Cuz you know, people still party on Sunday, dude.
Speaker 4 00:02:29 Sundays when
Speaker 3 00:02:30 Everyone gets back it's like, know.
Speaker 4 00:02:31 Yeah. But everybody gets back from the road. Or for us, Sundays tend to be our, like our shittiest night, so to speak where we end up.
Speaker 3 00:02:38 And for us it's our Friday.
Speaker 4 00:02:39 So Yeah. For us, for us, yeah. We get done working a weekend of security and we all go out and get Wow. How was your weekend? What were you doing this weekend,
Speaker 3 00:02:44 Man? Where were you at? I was watering my garden. <laugh>. Watering your garden? Yeah. I was watering my garden. That's what I was doing. Okay. Uh, hopped around and ate at some good restaurant. I ate some good food this weekend. I was pretty excited about it. Oh, where, where at? What? Where'd you dude, I ate Distillery for the first time. Have y'all had that distillery
Speaker 5 00:03:02 Is the fucking shit,
Speaker 3 00:03:03 Dude. How did they, how did they do that? Like, I, I was looking at the menu. What's, what'd you have? Well, I was looking at the menu and everything was so damn expensive. And I'm like, are you sitting? They think they can get away with this. Like, we're in Tennessee. Damn it. Yeah, I know. We're in Nashville, but damn. Like $16 for an entree. Yeah. And then I got the, the hot chicken sandwich. Oh yeah, dude. Holy shit.
Speaker 5 00:03:24 Dude. The hot chicken, mac and cheese.
Speaker 3 00:03:26 Oh bro, bro, I hadn't even had that yet.
Speaker 5 00:03:28 That's the game changer. Which sauce did you have though? Cause they have like that n
Speaker 3 00:03:31 I got the Nashville Hot. I'm like, they're like house hot. I'm like, what's that mean? That house, that
Speaker 5 00:03:35 House hot's like a buffalo sauce. It's not really like anything Nashville thing.
Speaker 3 00:03:38 Oh yeah.
Speaker 5 00:03:39 Yeah. See it's not my favorite, but yeah. No, I see. I see. No, and dude, they
Speaker 3 00:03:42 No way. I want the hot chicken. They had
Speaker 5 00:03:44 The, uh,
Speaker 3 00:03:44 Their salad, dude, they, they like sprinkled Parmesan and like they did the whole thing. Oh man.
Speaker 4 00:03:49 Wow.
Speaker 3 00:03:50 It was all flaked on there. It was like, man, this is nice. Damn a good
Speaker 5 00:03:54 Job. They have the, uh, they have the jink there, they're like 10 bucks, but it's like a big mason jar. And those are, yeah. Sold. They have the uh, the whiskey float. Yeah. And dude, that is like, probably one of my favorite drinks in town.
Speaker 3 00:04:07 And and the cool thing about that place too was like, it actually looked like a, like, kind of like a barrel house or something. You know? They had like the raw, everything was real raw. Yeah. Man, this place is cool. Dude.
Speaker 5 00:04:18 Downtown or midtown.
Speaker 3 00:04:20 The one right there in Midtown. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was cool, man. Yeah.
Speaker 4 00:04:23 So you'd say Midtown, that's where we see you the most. Like, that seems to be the spot where like, original music in Nashville just freaking thrives. Like whether we see, I see a sport in the revival hat. That's bad. I love, I love those freaking hats. Um, and I love what, what Big Rob and those guys do over there or we see at Whiskey Jam and bouncing around Midtown Nashville. Dude, it's a fun place to be.
Speaker 3 00:04:43 You know, Midtown is cool man. I I definitely have, uh, done a lot of my growth in Nashville in Midtown and you know, another place that I really have always liked is going to East Nashville. Yeah. Uh, cuz there's a lot of really cool spots there, but it's, it's not really, uh, I don't know the, the music scene would probably like, uh, not be too fond of me there. Maybe, I don't know. It's just not, not Yeah. They, they seem kind of unapproachable over there in East Nashville to me. Yeah. To some degree. Like, you know, it's
Speaker 4 00:05:13 Different than, than when you're at, when you're at like Jam or you're at one of those, one of the rounds or something that's going on over in Midtown. It's def definitely a different crowd. Right. So you,
Speaker 3 00:05:22 I figured I'd, I'd rather stick out like a sore thumb and a crowd full of people that uh, are like, you know, couldn't be more different than everybody. Everybody's just like a unique individual. Yeah. You know? Yeah. I'd rather be in a place where there's a bunch of unique people and find my unique people and then we stick out like a sore time, you know?
Speaker 4 00:05:38 Yeah. So you've been in Nashville for how long now? You're originally a Florida country boy, like you are the definit Like, like Yeah, cause like we went down, we did a vacation in Florida. We went down to Cedar Key for
Speaker 3 00:05:47 A couple days, Cedar Keys. Oh, nice.
Speaker 4 00:05:48 And we, we went and we were out in boats and we probably shouldn't have been out in boats. And we went out and did some crazy, we went island exploring. We did all this crazy, all this cool stuff. Florida's very country and I didn't know that. Oh yeah. I didn't know that. Coming from New York. Like, so what was that like growing up in Florida?
Speaker 3 00:06:03 Yeah, it's interesting. Uh, a lot of people have no idea that it's even that way. And uh, I would say like the, the coast is obviously gonna be more the tourist, you know, spots and there's big hotels and there's, you know, big resorts and stuff. But once you get inland from the coast, pretty much like all the state is very like very country cowboys trailer. Trailer parks everywhere, baby. That's what I'm talking about. Yeah. You know, big hogs. Yeah. Big
Speaker 4 00:06:33 Gators. So hog big snakes. So hog hunting and gator hunting. A good buddy of ours. I know he is a good buddy of yours. Chad Bishop. We've had talks with him. Chad's him about alligator hunting 1 0 1 and stuff. Oh,
Speaker 3 00:06:43 Chad's a gee.
Speaker 4 00:06:44 Yeah, so, so go in gator hunting. What is that like? Cause I'm not,
Speaker 3 00:06:47 I
Speaker 4 00:06:48 Didn't do that growing up in New York. Tyler's told me about it growing up in, in south Alabama, on Florida.
Speaker 5 00:06:52 It didn't really gator hunt that much cuz it was like, I don't know, maybe seven or eight years ago whenever Alabama like started the lottery for gator hunting and stuff. But they're just all, they're down there, you
Speaker 3 00:07:03 Know. Well, I'll tell you what, Chad's, Chad's done more like what? I don't know how, I don't know how to explain it. Chad's done more like actual gator hunting Yeah. Than me. All the gators I've killed, I, I caught them on a, uh, uh, like a, essentially like a ocean setup on a fishing pole.
Speaker 4 00:07:21 Oh really? Yeah. Ocean. So you're out
Speaker 3 00:07:23 With a, with a heavy weight. So it goes really far.
Speaker 4 00:07:25 Yeah. So are you, are you out there fishing for gators or they just, you just happen to
Speaker 3 00:07:29 Catch 'em? I mean, you're just fishing and there's
Speaker 4 00:07:31 Gator then all of a sudden you're, you're looking for a fish that happens. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:07:34 Don't, don't tell another anybody I did that though. Yeah. No
Speaker 4 00:07:36 <laugh>. No, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 3 00:07:39 But no, no. You actually literally like, yeah, you throw, I remember, uh, one time a buddy of mine actually, he was, he was the one fishing for this particular gator and I, I helped him catch it cuz it took like 30 minutes and he, he had a really big, like, pyramid weight and he threw that thing over. Its back at like 40 yards, like so far it was, it was out there. And he was a big guy. He threw it far and very accurately. And I was like, man, hell a cast. And then, you know, you pull it back and when the weight bumps the gator, you just yank it, you know? Yeah, yeah, man. And dude, they'll fight you for a long, it's, it's like, I'm sure when you're catching 'em like that, it's like catching the, the biggest fish you ever caught, basically. Yeah. With
Speaker 4 00:08:22 A lot of fight. A ton. A lot of fight.
Speaker 3 00:08:24 30 minutes, like, you know, minimum.
Speaker 4 00:08:26 So growing up down there, what brought you to Nashville and um, and how long have you been here?
Speaker 3 00:08:32 Um, man, I was in the music industry when I was younger and I did a lot of really cool stuff that's still monumental in my life and my mind. And had a couple bad situations happen when I was doing that. And I just was like, man, uh, I don't even wanna do music anymore. So I went to college, I went to Florida State.
Speaker 4 00:08:55 Oh, you're gold Knowles.
Speaker 3 00:08:57 Go Knowles baby. All
Speaker 4 00:08:58 Right. I I grew up a big Virginia Tech fan. Okay.
Speaker 3 00:09:00 Yes. You know about Yeah, we know about each other.
Speaker 5 00:09:02 Roll Tide. So <laugh>,
Speaker 3 00:09:04 Dirty Bama, Bama boy, he always, they always there.
Speaker 5 00:09:07 I've been cheering for him since they were bad, so. That's
Speaker 3 00:09:09 Right. I
Speaker 5 00:09:09 Enjoy the good, I respect
Speaker 3 00:09:10 I can respect that. That's like da you know, Dalton Stanley, he plays guitar for me and he plays guitar for, he played last night for Meg Patrick or something. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. He's a, he's a big band fan. I give him a ton of shit about it. Dude,
Speaker 4 00:09:22 You have to. And he gives me tons
Speaker 3 00:09:23 Of shit. Cause my team sucks sometimes. And he is just like, y'all suck. And I'm like, you know what? We do suck. Yeah. So, but, uh, been a tough go. But it's weird because I've never seen Florida State actually suck like in my whole life. And then all of a sudden, like last two years, we just
Speaker 5 00:09:36 Sucked. Well the last, it was the longest streak of straight ball games that got snapped. Telling you last year.
Speaker 3 00:09:42 I'm telling you it was like it right now. Seminoles fans are in shock mode cuz we just never seen anything like that. But, uh, anyway, so I wouldn't have, I went to school there and when I was at school there, I uh, I was starting to fall kind of back in love with music again cuz it was a break from my studying, you know? Yeah. And uh, when I was doing that I was like, man, this Jason Isabel Southeastern record might be the greatest thing ever. That was right when I was, yeah. About to, I was in my junior year when that came out. Okay. And man, I was just like, this might be the fucking best record I've ever heard. You know? And I had been getting into country again anyway, starting like around, uh, when Eric Church was doing his first records and Yeah. Uh, you know, Josh Thompson and Justin Moore's first album. Josh
Speaker 4 00:10:36 Thompson Beer on the table. Fucking shit.
Speaker 3 00:10:38 Shit dude. He's one of my favorite. I mean, he's one of my absolute favorite artists. But those guys, music at that time kind of got me back in the country cuz I grew up listening to country cuz I'm in the deep south, you know, everybody listens to country. So I heard it all the time. And then, you know, when I turned like 13 or 14, I was like, well fuck that. I wanna play rock and roll man. You know, I was listening to ac dc and Leonard Skinner with my dad all the time. I wanted to fucking bang my head against the wall. So I, I played some heavy music for a while and I really didn't listen to much Country. And then I think around that, oh 9, 10, 11, I got pulled sort of back into it, falling in love with it again.
Speaker 5 00:11:18 Hey, our Postmates is on those way. Oh
Speaker 4 00:11:21 Yeah, yeah. We got, yeah, we got special treats for Toast.
Speaker 5 00:11:24 We got some pizza here. Sweet. Shout out to Five Points Pizza.
Speaker 3 00:11:27 Yeah. It's like, oh no, all five points. Ooh
Speaker 5 00:11:29 Dude. Five Points is like literally a half mile from my house. Oh. They have this new location and it's the most dangerous thing in the world.
Speaker 4 00:11:36 They come, that's what we get. We get, we get it all the time. So we're excited. We'll get to eat
Speaker 3 00:11:39 Pizza. Pizza. That's dangerous. That is dangerous, bro. Yeah. But, uh, yeah, I forgot where I was.
Speaker 4 00:11:45 <laugh>. David. Tyler. Tyler. Where was I
Speaker 3 00:11:47 Though?
Speaker 4 00:11:48 You were talking about getting back in the country around
Speaker 3 00:11:50 Oh yeah. So around, yeah, it's all good, dude. I'm such a stoner, I forget where I'm all the time. No, dude,
Speaker 4 00:11:54 You're fine.
Speaker 3 00:11:55 And, and
Speaker 4 00:11:56 Then, and then, and then, and then getting into the rock and roll. You're 13, 14 being like, I wanna rock. And then coming back into it, I was like,
Speaker 3 00:12:02 Screw you mom. I'm gonna, I'm gonna
Speaker 4 00:12:03 Play the the
Speaker 3 00:12:04 Shit you hate the most. Yeah. You know, or whatever. No, I don't think it was cuz of that, but it was a big scene at the time in Florida, you know, we were kind of, we were at the forefront of that scene anyway. Yeah. So it was like an easy thing to kind of find yourself in as a young person in Florida. So were
Speaker 5 00:12:20 You a, uh, warp tour kid?
Speaker 3 00:12:23 Um, man, I, I did go to Warp tour quite a few times. Uh, I, I listened to like, my, my like alignment in heavy music is like hardcore punk. Okay. I like, I like grimy stuff.
Speaker 4 00:12:35 So going way back to like Dead Kennedy's kind of stuff.
Speaker 3 00:12:37 Sure. Dude. Yeah. Love stuff like that. And, and all the way up to combat kid and stuff, man. That's my stuff. Yeah. If it comes to heavy music, I like it raw. And
Speaker 4 00:12:45 Which is something we see in your style of music, like Absolutely. Man Drunk is just like, ba ba like, it just, it just freaking rocks, bro. Like, it, it's a thank it. It's a badass. Like, you're like your concert, like when we see you play out live, it's like we're at a, at a mixture of a southern rock show, but then you throw in like, some deeper country songs. Yeah. Like, like the writing style. It's just so long. Well,
Speaker 3 00:13:07 I always was like, man, I, I was listening to a lot of these bands that were coming out post Eric Church, Josh Thompson, that era coming out after that that were going so far away from what I, you know, thought of as being country music. And I'm like, man, I feel like, you know, when I heard Southeastern, I'm sitting there going, well this guy understands.
Speaker 4 00:13:28 What song was it for you on that record? I mean, the whole record as a whole is just, it's just badass.
Speaker 3 00:13:34 I mean, I know it's really trendy right now, but I think the first one was Cover Me Up since the first one on the album. God. And I put that album on and I just put the first song on, you know, and I was just like, holy shit. And then I think after that, uh, new South Wales is probably, I fucking love that song. Relatively easy. Yeah, dude, the whole out. I mean, I can't, it's hard to even pick Different Days was a life-changing song for me. I definitely, when I fell in love with different days, I was like in love with that song for, you know, three weeks or something. Like straight listen to that.
Speaker 4 00:14:04 Yeah. With a guy like Isabel, it's so hard to pick like a favorite song. It's almost like he's got so much stuff out there and it's all so fricking good. You gotta pick favorite album,
Speaker 3 00:14:11 Right? It's an album. No. Isn't it like each one is in its own thing too? Yeah, I
Speaker 5 00:14:16 Got it on, on the next album to Isabel and, uh, for me it was Speed Trapp Town.
Speaker 3 00:14:22 Oh yeah, dude. Because like, that's a great song. Oh dude, that's a oh man. A crushing song. All his songs though, like even if they're like, he's got some fun songs like Super Eight Motel, but there's like some, there's depth in that song. There's serious depth there, you know,
Speaker 4 00:14:36 Finds a way to do
Speaker 3 00:14:37 It. Yeah, I love that. And I, I always wanted to be the kind of person where when you take your first glance at it, it's easy to understand it. I don't wanna be too complex at the surface level where you don't understand it. Right. But then if you, you dig deeper than just a search level, you'll end up finding a lot of depth where it didn't seem like maybe there was at first.
Speaker 4 00:14:58 Yeah. And one of those, you know? Yeah. And there's a song that you just put out that's very much like that. Uh, the way My heart Breaks
Speaker 3 00:15:04 Dude. Yeah, yeah, dude. <laugh>,
Speaker 4 00:15:06 Dude, I remember sitting out on the back porch and having a cigar and I remember seeing, I saw all your posts about it and, um, I was out super late the night before, so I woke up in the morning, I lit up, lit up a cigar, and, uh, shout out to my roommate Brandon for bringing back some great Cubans. He was just out and getting out. Just got back from serving. I like it, dude. The Cubans were badass. But I put that song on and I was just like, holy shit. This is the same guy that put out Show Up drunk and he's got, and it was holy shit. So how do you go from one end where you're rocking, you're the party man, you're, you're that guy. Front row watching your friends like Laney Wilson and Meg Patrick and those guys at Whiskey Jam banging your head, front row, life of the party to writing something like that.
Speaker 3 00:15:45 Uh, man, I just like, when it comes to songwriting, you know, like, like talking about BLE and stuff like that, like, you know, my mom grew me up on James Taylor and, uh, Jackson Brown and stuff like that, you know, when I was young. Yeah. So, man, I, I got to hear like some of the best songwriters ever, you know, throughout my life. And I just, I took so much from the, like, seeing how much depth they were able to put in sometimes relatively simple songs. James Taylor's not simple at all. No, no. Nor is Jim Cro or any of those guys. But, but like a si you could take a simple three chord song and make a simple melody and break someone's heart to pieces with it. Yeah. And that is, I've always really loved that. But I also love to bang my head against the wall and get wilded and yell and get everybody fired up. You know, I played football forever, so that's kinda like, like when I was a kid, that was my sport, you know? I always played football and like, it's just such a hype. Like, you gotta get, you gotta be hyped or are you gonna lose <laugh>, you know? Yeah,
Speaker 4 00:16:49 Yeah. No,
Speaker 3 00:16:50 You gotta go full speed ball. I'm saying I I want to go full speed every time
Speaker 4 00:16:53 You, whether it's a show
Speaker 3 00:16:55 Or whether it's being a fan at a show or, you know, whatever it is,
Speaker 4 00:16:58 Which is the best way to do it, you know, that, that, that is the, the best way to do it, I think. But
Speaker 3 00:17:02 When you're drinking, it's a little scary <laugh>. Yeah, yeah. No, sometimes I get drunk faster than I want to and I'm like, whoa, that happened quick <laugh>.
Speaker 4 00:17:12 It, it does, it does happen like that. Now, now, whiskey, whiskey Jam. What was your, what was your first experience with those guys, like, with Ward and the boys over there?
Speaker 3 00:17:19 Man Ward Ward, uh, was one of the first people I ever like introduced myself to in town. And, uh, I remember my friend Haley was in town with, uh, my buddy Chris Dobro, we call him Do Bro Dobro, Chris, you know, Dobro Chris,
Speaker 4 00:17:36 I haven't met, I haven't had the pleasure of meeting him, but I know who he is, big fan of what he does. So we
Speaker 3 00:17:40 Were with Dobro, his sister, Kylie and Haley, and we all went to Whiskey Jam and I didn't know what it was and Haley was like, Hey, that's Ward, you should go. You need to, you need to go introduce yourself to him. And I'm like, I gotta introduce myself to him. Like, I don't even know any of these people. Like who do you, who you think I am? I'm not, I'm not just gonna like, dude, I'm, I'm live at the party. Sure. But I don't like to just walk up to him and be like, Hey, I'm Ryan. They're like, uh, who? Okay. Yeah. You know? So I didn't wanna walk up to the ward and just be like, Hey dude, I'm running. But Haley was like, you better go do this shit. Like, she was like getting her eyes like, look, her eyes was like, you better do this.
Speaker 3 00:18:16 And I'm like, shit, okay, uh, alright, I'll do it. So I walked up, I introduced myself, the ward, and then from there, you know, I just started emailing him and I sent him some stuff and, you know, over time just being there, playing stuff, playing revival. He was bartending at Tinder at the time, so he saw every revival pretty much. And, uh, he was like, man, like a certain point when I got a certain point, he was like, we should, you should bring your band up and let's, uh, let's get you on a whiskey jam. And some of the first times I played Whiskey Jam were some of the craziest performances I've had. <laugh> Damn. I broke my hand during one really? And broke, broke my bass too. <laugh> Damn. And like, different stuff. It was crazy. We had a blast. And, uh, yeah, ward just kept, he just kept having me back over time, you know? And, uh, now, now we've become great friends and we write together. And so it's, it's kind of a, it's become a big, a big part of my career. And, and those people, man, I I love all those people so much. And this business, there's so many, so many characters, you know? Yeah. So would have them as there,
Speaker 4 00:19:24 There really, there really are in that, that stage that, again, my first time going to Whiskey Jam, I, I got to see you. I think Greg Pratt was on the stage. Uh, there were quite a few, quite a few people on that lineup that were, when the whole lineups are always great. It's, yeah, it Ward knows what he is doing. That team knows what they're doing. But when you play that stage, it seems like it's a different stage than other places. Like, and it's not that big of a stage, but at the same time, that crowd is just such a big crowd to win over.
Speaker 3 00:19:50 I've always described it as like, you know, they say about this business, they say it's not a sprint, it's a marathon. Yeah. That's what I, you know, they, I've been hearing that since I moved to town. And the, the really, the great thing about Whiskey Jam is it is a fucking sprint. It is not a marathon. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's, it's a sprint. Yeah. I can literally exhaust every bit of energy I have in three songs. Whereas when I play a two hour set somewhere, I gotta make sure I sleep enough. We're traveling, I'm, I'm like, you know, trying to drink enough water and get enough sleep and regulate myself and, you know, then you got a couple hours you gotta place, you gotta, you know, pace yourself and stretch your energy out. Dude, whiskey Jam, it's like three songs to the face. Boom. Yeah. And so I just, man, I just go hard. Yeah. And I just go hard as hell every time.
Speaker 4 00:20:43 And the crowd appreciates that <laugh>, they, they're there to, they are there to party and there to have a great time on a Monday and a Thursday night, which in other places in the country, that doesn't happen. Only in Nashville. Can you like really? I mean, you can party your ass off. It's just not gonna be as fun.
Speaker 3 00:20:59 Absolutely.
Speaker 4 00:20:59 Unless you're, you're at a place, dude,
Speaker 3 00:21:00 Monday night Whiskey Jam is like industry night whiskey jam. Like everybody that's, you know, in the industry, whether they're back from the road or whether they work on Music Row or whatever, they're all Monday night Whiskey jam is a big thing for everybody. And, and it has been since I moved to town. Yeah. Um, and the Thursday night Whiskey jam is like a newer thing and it's not as much of an industry thing. Cuz by Thursday everyone's going home taking a nap. You know, Friday's like a three hour day. So, you know, Thursday's kind of people chill a little bit more. Yeah. And they're not gonna go out, you know, as much. But then you get all the tourists coming in, they all fly in on Thursday night and they're ready so they can have a full weekend. They're ready. I'm saying cuz they all gotta leave Sunday.
Speaker 3 00:21:43 They all leave Sunday. Yeah. So, you know, if you think about Sunday as a travel day, you got, if you come on Thursday, you at least got a whole Friday, a whole Saturday. So it's always Thursday night people come in and winners gets packed, it gets packed as hell. And it's, and it's not industry people, it's, it's a bunch of country music fans that wanna find a new favorite country act while they're actually in Nashville at the, at like the hub of it. Yeah. So I feel like Thursday night Whiskey Jam, some people like, act like it has a bad connotation, but I don't think that at all. No. I, Thursday night Whiskey Jam is where you make actual fans for that come that go with you later, you know?
Speaker 4 00:22:21 Yeah. That are gonna find you and get you into those newer markets. Sure. Get you into those
Speaker 3 00:22:25 Different markets. Yeah. Tell their bartender like, we need to get Ryan Nelson here. Yes. Tell your bartender they will make sure it happens, I
Speaker 4 00:22:31 Promise. Yes. Yeah. So speaking of like diehard fans and the fan bases and stuff, uh, uh, group of guys that I've gotten to know pretty well over the last, like, since moving here, uh, the raised rowdy boys. Yeah. You've got a good, you've got a, a long standing relationship with those guys. Was it a birthday party that you played up in Pittsburgh?
Speaker 3 00:22:48 Yeah. That was Nicky's birthday.
Speaker 4 00:22:49 What was that experience like?
Speaker 3 00:22:51 It was, dude, I'd never been to Pittsburgh before and so that was cool. I was like going to places I've never been. And uh, I don't know how, I've never been to Pittsburgh, honestly, but I never went there and it was really badass coming through the tunnel onto the bridge. I was already like, well hell yeah. This place is dope. And then we get to their spot and they're like up on this like hill and I'm like, damn, this is cr Like I never, the city's so big, you know? Yeah. And in the south we don't really have like huge cities like that. Yeah. You know, Atlanta's like the closest thing we got. So I was just like, holy shit. And, uh, everyone that, that was hanging out with the, the raised rowdy crew and every man, such nice people, we had a blast. I, uh, me and Nicky <laugh>, did
Speaker 4 00:23:38 You drink all the beers?
Speaker 3 00:23:39 Oh man. Like they, everybody went to Tequila Cowboy afterwards, which I did not know that Tequila Cowboy had other like locations and
Speaker 4 00:23:46 Stuff. Yeah. They're big in the upper Midwest. Right.
Speaker 3 00:23:48 I didn't know that. So everyone's like tequila cowboy. I'm like, damn they have that here. That's sweet. And then by the time I got done playing, I was like, I needed to get in bed. <laugh>. Yeah. And usually, I don't know, I do not like to drink while I'm playing. Yeah. You know, because it just like, I like to drink before I play and then try to drink some water so my voice doesn't be terrible. Yeah. And then maybe after I play, but like while I'm playing I'm like, it's not gonna help me any. Yeah. And we were <laugh> I play for like three hours and we drank. People were bringing me shots. I was, I started the show sober. I ended the show hammered playing. So I went through the whole progress Yeah. Playing the show. And it was, it was something else, man. Everyone was, everyone was elevating their level as quickly as I was though. So it was like we all got drunk together. Yeah. So when I got super shitty at the end of the night and then I sounded awful, they all were like, yeah. Sounded awful. So it was, man, it was great
Speaker 4 00:24:53 <laugh>. Yeah. That Yeah. And that, that's a crew that <laugh> was doing so much for country, for country music right now. Especially you guys and girls that are really pushing it hard in that, that midtown scene that, that that jam fam the guys and girls that are playing revival, that are playing Why not, that are playing all those gigs. They're the they're spreading your names out there. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:25:14 Absolutely. Out. And there has been, there's been that underbelly for a long time and there was really no one to, you know, bring it to the rest of the world or the rest of the fans that like country music. So they, I mean, when I saw what they were doing when I first saw the thing, I was like, man, that's pretty genius. I love it. Cause I went on there and they're like, all their posts were like covering like my friends. I'm like, uh oh, no way. Josh Phillips, Laney Wilson. Like, and you know, like, I mean literally like Jordan Yeah. Shanon. I'm like, damn, these guys are literally covering all my friends. This is pretty crazy. Yeah. I have to know them. Right. They have to live in Nashville. So I messaged 'em one day. I was like, dmd, I'm like, Hey, who, who, like, who is this? Do you live in Nashville? Who is this? And they're like, oh no, I'm, my name's Nick. I live in uh, Pittsburgh. I'm like, how the fuck does this guy in Pittsburgh know about this? Because there was really, it seemed like nothing at the time Yeah. To, unless you followed the whiskey jam or revival. Like that's really, I mean, so you're right, it is, it is a spawn from that. But for them to be a, like a whole media team doing specifically, that is a pretty genius idea. Yeah.
Speaker 4 00:26:25 And the memes that they put out, like the, like I think I saw one last night where it was a little kid getting his haircut, little kid was rocking the mullet and it was like captioning saying, um, the, the dad saying to the barber, have you ever seen Morgan Walland? I want that haircut on my son kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah. I'm like, that's just, that's just, it's funny as shit. It it, it's big with country right now. Like it's, they're, they make good posts. Like I, I enjoy this stuff. Oh, I love it man. And I'm excited to see them for CMA Fest this week.
Speaker 3 00:26:50 Like I know, uh, Nicky gets in town tonight, bro.
Speaker 4 00:26:52 Oh shit. So losers whiskey.
Speaker 3 00:26:54 Yeah.
Speaker 4 00:26:54 Losers and jail. We'll, we'll be over there hanging out with those guys. Tonight's gonna be at night, man. Whiskey
Speaker 3 00:26:59 Don't get started early on this though. Ginger beer and whiskey. Yeah,
Speaker 4 00:27:02 Dude. Um, this, uh, outdoor whiskey jam. I haven't gotten to experience it yet. What's it like?
Speaker 3 00:27:07 Oh man, it's my fav it's my favorite ones of the year. If it doesn't, well, even if it rains sometimes, but if it doesn't rain and the sky's beautiful and it's like setting all night, it's, it's quite glorious. And uh, actually one of the, like the second, I think the second whiskey jam I ever went to, it was an outdoor one and it was like, uh, Adam Craig played Oh shit. And he played, uh, yeah, he played, uh, church Pure Barstool that they had written with, uh, Josh Thompson. Wow. And that was one of my, that was one of my favorite songs on that Audi and album. I was like, man, that's, that's the gem of the whole album. You know? Yeah. And he played that and I was like, damn, this is crazy. Like, like I didn't even know who Adam Craig was, but like, I'm just like, holy shit. Like you can just write this song in this town and then just be playing pig stages and like Yeah. I might not even have heard of you Yeah. Where I come from, but you're somehow still like crushing it, you know? Yeah. And I saw like, wow, there's like room for good stuff to exist.
Speaker 4 00:28:11 Yeah. And there's room for that, especially that songwriter community.
Speaker 3 00:28:14 Absolutely. Man,
Speaker 4 00:28:15 There's so much, there's so much where there's where um, like I knew who, who Ryan Nelson. I knew who? Jordan. Jordan Fletcher. Um, that's good on a lot of those guys. A lot of your buddies. I was able to find through wa through following Whiskey Jams page through following like different Yeah. Pages like that. And up in New York I was working radio and country radio in New Jersey.
Speaker 3 00:28:33 Right. That's
Speaker 4 00:28:33 Right. You told me that. So I'm only, so I'm only getting, um, what's being sent out by the labels and I'm like, wait a second, there's all these people just rocking out great tunes and they've got followings on social and they've got followings building and growing on social media. Yeah. Yeah. Like why aren't they getting played on the radio, but then you've got Spotify playlists and things like that. Well
Speaker 3 00:28:50 That's definitely, I mean, like the me and the crowd that I, I mess with, I think we're like all in the mindset of it's not about, I mean the radio format is still very viable and there's still a ton of money to be made and I totally get it. Yeah. But for somebody like me, I'm not on a big record deal. I'm not, you know, heavily entrenched in any of that stuff. I wanna make, I'm personally trying to make the dopest product in town. Yeah. That's my goal every time that when I played football, that was my goal. I'm just want to be like, as good as I could possibly be. I want to shut down people that people never thought I'd shut down. Yeah. I wanted like, I wanted to do that. Yeah. So when I came here, the same thing. And um, I think now with the thing going the way it is with Playlisting and um, you know, the singles, everybody's putting out singles all the time. Well that's cuz when you put out a single, you can get it Playlisted better. It's not like they have a, a list of songs they gotta listen through and like pick which one's their favorite. Like it's one song, it's easy to digest. Playlists are likely to wanna pick it up and, you know. Yeah. It just, it makes it, it's an easier format I think for right now. Especially with people's attention spans being so yes, so low. There's
Speaker 4 00:30:10 So much thrown at us too,
Speaker 3 00:30:12 Right. All the time. There's always ads, there's always all the stuff. So it's hard to keep your mind on one thing and to have it be as easily like packaged as possible, I think is the key. And that's why with this, this album that I recorded and I'm totally an album guy, like you said, like with Jason is Bull, like all you could tell where he was at, like based off of the different albums and if you're a fan of this album, like it's cause of a certain reason something that was going on in it. And I recorded this album to be like my own short like comprehensive album that could like give you a feeling. Yeah. And then when it came to releasing it, it was like, well yeah, it is an album to me like it is, but dude, that's just not where music is right now.
Speaker 3 00:31:03 At least for an album for an artist like myself. Yes. Yeah. If you're Tim McGraw dude, make your album. Yes. Yeah. Please. I if you're Tim McGraw, please make me an album so I can listen to the whole album. Yeah. But um, you know, that's not where an artist like me is at right now in the kind of underbelly where we're making our own industry outside of the labels and stuff. Yeah. So I, I definitely think that people I mess with the idea is like, okay, how do we crush the new thing? Yeah. The old thing. We can't buy into that. We don't have the money for that. Yeah. How do we, how do we get on top of the new thing and like figure it out or whatever. Yeah, yeah. No, no,
Speaker 4 00:31:45 No, dude, that, that's very true. And it, it makes a whole lot of sense and it, it very much speaks to to why there's such a, such a push coming out of the Ian division. I say that because that's where I see you guys play. That's Yeah, absolutely, man. That's where if I'm out one night and I'm hanging out at like the dog, if I'm hanging at Doghouse or I'm hanging out at, what was Persky Frog still weird to call it Live Oak or Yeah. I see you guys out there anyway. Even when you're not playing, that's like the spotted town where everybody hangs out,
Speaker 3 00:32:11 Man. It's definitely, uh, it's definitely its own hub. Like, you know, when I, when I was moving to town, you know, there was, I, I moved here in 2014, so you had a lot of like the Florida, Georgia line tree vibes guys were really, really hot. You know, Cole Taylor was really, really hot. Yep. And a lot of these Georgia guys were just on fire, just crushing it. And the music I make just isn't really like that. Yeah. And so it was like, well, you know, you just got to do you as good as you can and just see where that takes you. And everyone always gave me that advice. And coming into the Midtown scene, I saw that scene and I'm like, well, I I don't really fit with that necessarily. But then, like I said, with East Nashville, like I went there and it felt a little unapproachable or something like that. I don't even wanna say that. Cause I know so many like awesome people in East Nashville. I dont, I I don't wanna like put East Nashville down. I love East Nashville, but like,
Speaker 4 00:33:07 It's just not yours thing.
Speaker 3 00:33:07 It didn't seem as approachable to what I was doing musically. Yeah. <laugh> like, or whatever. So, uh, when I came to Midtown, the thought was, well look, I'm not anything like this, but I don't wanna deal with the unapproachable vibe and I know that here if I do me, I'm gonna stick out like a sore thumb. So hell yeah. Carly Rogers, <laugh> <laugh>. Hey, send her a picture of me. I just did. Oh, nice.
Speaker 4 00:33:41 Oh man. Yeah. Car. Yeah, car. How, how do you know, how do you know Carly
Speaker 3 00:33:45 <laugh>? What <laugh> Nice.
Speaker 4 00:33:51 How how'd you meet? How'd you meet Carly Rogers?
Speaker 3 00:33:55 Dude,
Speaker 4 00:33:55 Because we met, I met
Speaker 3 00:33:56 Dude, I, I've known Cardi for like three or four years. Like, I don't even, I can't even, she probably would remember that, you know, women like remember weird shit like that. Yeah. I never can remember anything like that. Like,
Speaker 4 00:34:10 Oh no.
Speaker 3 00:34:11 Oh God. My girlfriend's like, oh you're uh, you were wearing this when I met you. I'm like, how the fuck do you know that? Like, I can't, I cannot do like,
Speaker 4 00:34:20 I can't remember what I wore yesterday, you know,
Speaker 3 00:34:22 I'm saying, you asked me earlier, what'd you do this week? And I'm like, what the fuck did I do <laugh>? But dude, I just smoked hella weed man. I'm a Florida boy. Yeah
Speaker 4 00:34:30 Dude. And uh, and and honestly there is a cool scene coming out of coming outta that Florida, south Alabama, like that
Speaker 3 00:34:37 Area. Well man, we've always had our own thing going on down there. Yeah. And no one ever wanted to give it any, uh, like people that came out of my region, I'm honestly bummed that they didn't rep the region harder. You know? Yeah. Like Easton Corbin, dude, he's from right down the road. He's from, he's a country ass Florida boy, but I don't think he ever like really went hard. Like Yeah, I'm from Florida boys.
Speaker 4 00:34:58 Yeah. Working in radio. I had no idea he was from Florida. I would've seen like the Midwest, like Oklahoma or something.
Speaker 3 00:35:03 And then, uh, like Jake Owen I know recently he's embraced that a little bit more. Yeah. But early on in his career they like didn't want you to know that
Speaker 4 00:35:10 Michael Ray, another Florida guy.
Speaker 3 00:35:12 Yeah. Another Florida guy. He doesn't super rep it hard or nothing. Yeah. His bass player does got a Florida sticker on his, uh, bass. I saw that. I thought that was pretty cool. Yeah. But, uh, yeah man, I'm, I'm repping man. And
Speaker 4 00:35:23 You got like a swamp. Like I'm
Speaker 3 00:35:25 Repping bro, like
Speaker 4 00:35:25 Easy now that to me is like a Florida dude. I'm trying, I'm just, that's like, and, and what Chad puts out, you and Chad kind of have that Florida vibe thing. Did you guys know each other down in Florida or did you meet when you moved up here?
Speaker 3 00:35:36 Actually, funny enough, the same girl that told me to introduce myself to Ward Haley, she, uh, had like texted me, Hey, I got this friend from Gainesville cause she was going to school in Gainesville and he was gonna school in Gainesville and I went to school in Tallahassee. Yeah. So I, I'm from the other side, you know, but they were both gonna school in Gainesville and she was like, this guy, you know, Chad, he's gonna move up and uh, y'all probably, you know, hit it off. And I'm like, hell yeah. Well thanks for letting me know. I was like, I guess send me his number or something. So I texted Chad, I was like, Hey man, Haley uh, gave me your contact and you know, heard you're gonna move up. Like, let me know when you get up and we'll, you know, we'll, uh, we'll see how, you know, see how it goes.
Speaker 3 00:36:17 Whatever. Listen, we met revival. We met at Revival. His parents were in town. I met his parents same night. I met him and then, uh, we set, we set up a riot and Jordan Fletcher was living with me at the time. So we're, you know, we're from the same town, me and Jordan. Like I, I grew up like a mile from him. So you've known him for Yeah, I've known him for a long time. And Chad was like, yeah dude, I'd love to come write with you guys. Shows up, you know, just a bunch of Florida boys all together in this house, you know. And uh, I was like, I mean we smoke hella pot when we write songs. So I was like, yo man, do you smoke weed? And he's like, duh, <laugh>. And I was like, this guy's so from Florida. They love it dude. So we, we hit it off immediately and then same. Right. We're sitting there talking about how scary the difference is between an eight foot and a nine foot gator because at eight feet they still kind of, they look like a bigger version of their adolescent self. Okay. And then at nine feet to 12 feet they look like a fucking monster, like a dinosaur. Like they at eight feet, some eight footers are not that intimidating. Yeah. Some eight footers are more intimidating, but a nine footer is fucking intimidating.
Speaker 5 00:37:34 Dude, we've been, uh, so I'm from South Alabama. Yeah, yeah. And we've like pulled up around the river bin before and there be a gator on the bank that's as big as our boat.
Speaker 3 00:37:42 Oh yeah. They're big boat. Oh, they get big as hell. Yeah. Well they get really big, especially
Speaker 5 00:37:46 Cause Alabama, like until recently you couldn't hunt 'em. So they were just like, they were chilling
Speaker 3 00:37:50 Dude. That, I mean they, you'll get like I've, I think the biggest one I've ever seen had to be, there's an old pitcher at Whitey's Fish Camp in Jacksonville of this guy and his son having caught this gator and they're hanging it from a tree. And I swear the thing is like 14 fucking feet long or something. Yeah dude,
Speaker 5 00:38:10 Those were fucking dinosaurs
Speaker 3 00:38:11 So big. Yeah. It's like Jesus. But yeah, once it gets to nine feet they're fucking scary dude. Yeah. They get scary. And me and Chad like had like a, like a real like conversation about that and we were like, yeah man, they do get scary at nine feet. And I was like, dude, we're having a conversation about the intricacies of gator scariness. Like this guy's my fucking guy dude. Yeah. And how long, how long ago was that? This guy's my
Speaker 4 00:38:35 Guy. When did Chad move up here?
Speaker 3 00:38:38 I think that was like 2016. May. May,
Speaker 4 00:38:42 Yeah. So about two years
Speaker 3 00:38:43 Ago was made Chad. Yeah, it was <laugh> Chad, where are you? No, probably you're probably Buzz May.
Speaker 4 00:38:49 That's awesome man. So you've been, so you've been able to write with those guys for, for a little while now. Who are some other people that you, you enjoy getting in a room with and
Speaker 3 00:38:57 Getting it done with? Yeah, man, I, I think between Chad and Jordan, I think me and them both probably have like a combined like 40 or 50 a piece with, with each other. Like me and Chad probably have like solid 30 or 40. Me and Jordan probably have 50 or something. Yeah. Um, and then me and Tyler Chambers probably after those two guys have written the most songs together and he's super good. I love Tyler and uh, I think he's uh, he compliments my style well and um, hell been uh, right with Rob Snyder and Joe Fortner a
Speaker 4 00:39:35 Lot. What is that like? Cuz those are two names that a lot of peop those are two, two names that have had a lot of, lot of success recently. Job been doing some, some big dates obviously with Make Wake and Yeah. Crazy seeing what Big Rob's been doing. Uh, fellow Northeastern guy Rob Repping.
Speaker 3 00:39:49 Yeah. Philly Boy. Yeah. Sick <laugh>.
Speaker 4 00:39:53 I can, I said they suck too cause I'm from New York. New York and Philly did not get along <laugh>, but how'd, what's it like working with those guys?
Speaker 3 00:39:59 Dude, Rob is, uh, been a huge part of my career. Like Ward since the beginning. He believed in me when really nobody else did and gave me a shot when nobody else, you know, would. And uh, I really owe a lot to Rob. But on top of that we've just become great friends and uh, you know, we've been rotten for a couple years together, but recently we've kind of been finding our own thing because we know each other so well now. So that's really cool. And, and then Job, me and Job have written shit. I mean next to Tyler, him and Tyler Chambers are probably competing for about having written the same amount of songs with me. Uh, so yeah, me and Job have written a ton and then me and Job and Rob will write. Yeah. You know, so that's getting the man, it really, it really makes a big difference when you got people who are all good friends
Speaker 4 00:40:52 Together. Yeah. Yeah. Chemistry I've heard, again, I don't do this writing thing. Tyler writes a little bit and does does his own thing too. But I feel I've heard chemistry is so important. Like when you're just going and randomly like, I guess like with publishers they book do they, they book rights for you kind of thing? Is that how that
Speaker 3 00:41:06 Happens? Yeah. A publisher will a lot of time fill your calendar up with,
Speaker 4 00:41:09 Okay, so let's fill that up. But they'll fill it up maybe with somebody that you're not gonna vibe with. Like they don't know. They're just somebody that's had a lot of success. Whereas writing with your boys or writing with writing with one of those badass girls that hangs out mid that like, you guys have such a tight knit group that's gotta make things, I don't wanna say easier, but gotta make it more fun when you're in a room thinking of an idea together.
Speaker 3 00:41:27 It it, it definitely does. And I think, you know, a lot of the music Row game is like who you write a song with matters, you know, so if if they want you to succeed and you're on their on their label, they're gonna wanna put you with guys who've had successful songs, whether y'all are gonna work together or not. We'll see. Yeah. In the room. So you don't know you're going in blind, but a lot of times you're going in people who are like proven so it's, they
Speaker 4 00:41:55 Know what they're doing.
Speaker 3 00:41:56 Yeah. So you're not gonna get bad, you know, bad songs or anything. You'll probably get a song that'll get you a big cut that'll, you know, maybe make your career or something. Yeah. But, um, for sure like when I'm writing artist stuff, like stuff for me that I'm gonna write, that I'm gonna sing and want to sing live, most of the time it's with people who are great friends with me. Cuz I can just say whatever I want and I'm like, Hey, this concept is kind of out there. But you know, that's something I would say. Yeah. You know? Yeah.
Speaker 4 00:42:27 And, and for you as a writer, you do the artist thing and you've got some great shit out there right now. Thank you. Thank you. It it's really awesome. It's well produced. It's, it's bumping it, it brings out the fuels. Whatever you're going for you, you're hitting it, man. So when you're writing for your own kind of stuff, like this album you were working on or writing for say somebody else to cut it, what's that difference like for you?
Speaker 3 00:42:48 I think when, when I'm going in with another person who's like an established artist, I'm always trying to write to them. Okay. Because I want cuts <laugh>. Yeah. And I feel like I can get cuts and I feel like the artists that I am, that I find myself in rooms with are usually people that I'm friends with already. Yeah. So that's already happening. So we already got that chemistry and then I'm thinking, okay, if it's this buddy of mine or this friend of mine, like what are they needing right now? I hear what they have. Okay. What kind of song do they need? And then I try to pinpoint that and when they get together with me I'll say, Hey, I noticed you got a bunch of songs that are like in this vein and in that vein let's, let's do one in this vein. So I'll kind of like, because I'm friends with 'em, I kind of know their si their songs and their like situation with what, what they've cut what they have. Yeah. So, dude, that's, that's so much fun. I, I have a blast doing that cuz I feel like I can write a song with anybody. Like any genre, you, you gimme a genre, you gimme a person like an artist, I can make something in their vein. And
Speaker 4 00:43:52 How long you been doing the writing film? I'm guessing you were doing some writing when you were down in Florida.
Speaker 3 00:43:55 Oh shoot, since I was like 14. Yeah. Really I've been writing forever. And then when I was in college I studied poetry as a minor and my major was history.
Speaker 4 00:44:05 So I was gonna ask what your major was at
Speaker 3 00:44:07 The college. Reading all the time. Yeah. Reading like crazy and uh, having to write prose and write a lot of it, you know, sometimes 20, 25, 30 pages of it gets so old. So I would channel some of my writing energy into uh, poetry and poetry and songwriting. Like honestly couldn't be more different. But they also learning one teaches you things about the other. Yeah. You know for sure. And how to say things better. My, one of my professors always said don't say it. Show it. Don't say it, show it. Don't say this morning I walked to the mailbox say like, and and, and got the mail. You'd say the win, you know, blew my, blew my mailbox door open and the and the first letter fell out on the ground. Yeah. You the imagery I had to pick it up. Yeah. And it was a bill from the i r s telling me they were gonna audit me.
Speaker 3 00:45:06 Oh that's, that hurts. Yeah. All of a sudden that's that's a fucking, there's something there. Right, right. Yeah. It's not just like this thing you did cuz every little thing that you say I did this one time, there was a lot that went on in that thing that you could really explore and you just write it off by just saying this very simple thing. And I think that, like I said, on surface level, on surface level, I don't want to be too complex for you to understand. Yeah. But at the same time show it, don't say it, you know, show. Yeah. Paint
Speaker 4 00:45:39 That picture. Now you're doing the artist thing. Uh, you get to go out on the road quite a bit and um, we were talking before we sat down, you got to do South Alabama with, uh, with Job Fortney you were saying,
Speaker 3 00:45:49 Right? Oh yeah man, we, so I used to back in the day, back in the day, days when I first met Job when he moved to town in 2016 and Jordan had moved uh, into town as well and he was living at my house and me and Job and Jordan just all really had an energy together right away. And then Dobro lived it with us too. It was me, Jordan, and Dobro in the same house. Oh man. And then job, like job lived way out of town and hated like driving all the way out to his fucking house. So he would just like stay at our house all the time. And so Joe pretty much lived with us at the time. So we had like four people in a three bedroom house and um, you know, Joe had been on the road with Luke Combs like the whole year that year.
Speaker 3 00:46:35 Yeah. He was like doing every date and I actually got to go out and see, you know, one or two of those shows and it was Damn. Yeah. Talk about you could feel it, you could feel it. Yeah. That it was like, nothing's about to stop this fucking train. No way. Yeah, yeah. Like his first show ever in Florida, I went down to Jacksonville cuz I'm from there, you know, and Job was opening during that year and um, a lot of the guys in Luke's band I like, have loved forever. So I'm like, hell yeah. I get to see all these people I love get to see Luke crush it in front of my jet, my hometown crowd. And it was, I, I don't know if it was sold out, but it was fucking slammed. It was so packed and it was so crazy and I was just like in awe, I was enamored.
Speaker 3 00:47:26 I was just like, holy shit, I can't believe my, this is my hometown. Like people don't even, people don't know what's hot in country in Jacksonville. They listen to what gets played on the radio, you know, and like what they can find on XM and stuff like that. That's, yeah. So that, that's all they know, you know, they don't know some of this newer stuff that's underground and for him to like, have pretty much sold that venue out and then like then they couldn't find out the next day when they were still in Jacksonville. Coming outta the hotel was the first time that hurricane got played on XM radio Wow. Was the morning. Wow. So that's before in Jacksonville. Wow. So that was like huge shit going on at that point. Yeah. And that was in the middle of summer. So that was really 2000, middle of summer, 2016 was like, shit was already really starting to take off for Luke and, and job's there the whole time, you know?
Speaker 3 00:48:18 Yeah. So he goes from that, like playing these humongous crowds and like, fuck yeah. The energy's great to like, I gotta go off on my own now. Cuz Luke's had a big deal and was bringing in other Yeah. You know, he, he was getting brought into other circles and whatnot. So job's like, dude, I gotta find a band. And me and Jordan and Chris, I play drums. Jordan plays drums, I play bass. Jordan plays guitar really well. Dobra plays a bunch of different instruments. We're like, Jordan's the drummer. I'm playing bass in harmonies. Chris does pedal steel and uh, that's a badass band. We toured, we toed all around, dude. Like we toured the fucking south, that man a bunch. But we played, we played a lot of Alabama shows, man, down in, we did Auburn and uh, Tuscaloosa. We had a good time in Tuscaloosa a few times.
Speaker 3 00:49:14 And, uh, man, I, I actually fell in love with Alabama when I, when I was on the road Yeah. With Joe. Cause that's where we were so much. 65 South was, you know, big in the, the shows that we were getting on at the time with Job and like Peachtree Entertainment. So Georgia and Alabama markets were kind of our staple. And so I'm like riding through the hills North Alabama. Then I'm getting down like close to Florida and I'm like, oh man, this looks just like home. You know? Yeah. So it's just like, this is fucking awesome. I love this place. And it's, it's country as fuck. Yes. Like Florida, like Yeah, there's, there's places where you can get out and there's not a lot around, but it's only so big as far as how much land is in the pen, you know, or whatever. So,
Speaker 5 00:49:59 Well, even like up where, you know, I'm from like the panhandle up there. Like, I'm an hour from the beach. I live in Alabama. Right. But I'm an hour from the beach. Yep. But like that North Florida, near Alabama. That's just south Alabama. That's not
Speaker 3 00:50:11 It's country out there. Yeah. Yeah. It's, I heard they call it the Redneck Riviera. Redneck Riviera. Yeah. Or, uh, well, I don't know about that area of Florida, but they call it LA down there, Laurel, Alabama. Yeah. Yeah. <laugh>. That's, that's for real. Yeah. That's it dude. It, it's people. I, I fell in love with Alabama and, uh, I, I just, I always thought my whole life, why would a band from my hometown sing a song called Sweet Home Alabama? Like Yeah. You're from Florida. Yeah. Yeah. Like, why would you sing about? I just, I didn't get it. But I was also young, you know, coming up, hearing that song all the time, and then like to learn about the Muscle Shoals thing and all the connections with Alabama that they had at the time. And then years later after learning that to actually tour through Alabama and like, I've pretty much seen the whole state by now. Yeah. And I'm like, hell yeah. This place is awesome. I get it. Like, I get it, man. Alabama's
Speaker 4 00:51:07 Beautiful. Yeah. And those Alabama and Georgia. Marcus especially playing those college towns, there's, you talk about how the Georgia boys were doing, doing a lot for a long time and they still are, there's still some, some games coming out. Oh yeah. Georgia's always gonna be a pipeline. It's been a pipeline. It's always gonna be a pipeline. And
Speaker 3 00:51:22 The artists are great. There are so many fucking good
Speaker 4 00:51:24 Artists. They're great. But the way that a lot of the ways they start out playing those Georgia markets and just your circle expands after a couple months, your circle expands. You look at guys like Brantley, Gilbert, Colwin do mean know Luke Bryan did it. Like all my friends video was filmed at a frat house. Like I'm telling you man, like that, playing those scenes, that's gotta be pretty cool.
Speaker 3 00:51:41 It is, dude. It is. That too. That's, and that's like, you know, like being from very far north Florida, like Valdosta, Georgia, Tifton, Georgia, Savannah, Georgia, that's like, those are almost like, I, I mean I've been there so many times that it's almost like being home if I'm in Valdosta, like as far for, for all the places I've been on the road. If I'm in fucking Valdosta, I'm like, hell yeah. You know, I might as well be home. Yeah.
Speaker 5 00:52:06 Yo, I got to introduce him to the, uh, down in, it's near Valdosta. It's on, um, 75 South.
Speaker 3 00:52:13 Yeah.
Speaker 5 00:52:13 Like right above the border there's a truck stop called the Bigfoot truck Stop.
Speaker 4 00:52:18 It's like foot. It was, it was different man. Me coming from New York, I'd never seen nothing like that. Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 00:52:23 Is it like exit five? There's no big, like stop at like exit three, exit five.
Speaker 5 00:52:26 I think it's exit five. Yeah. Like it's just this like
Speaker 3 00:52:29 South of about Dawson. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 00:52:31 That middle, that middle of nowhere. Between telling
Speaker 3 00:52:34 You between
Speaker 5 00:52:35 Macon and Lake City, there's just like nothing
Speaker 3 00:52:37 <laugh>. It's fucking cut rather than No.
Speaker 4 00:52:39 Yeah, dude, I love it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's great. Yeah, that Bigfoot truck stop was definitely something We went down to Florida. So you got that guitar with you and, um, got a lot of, there's a lot of songs that you could play for us. What song would you like to play for us today, brother?
Speaker 3 00:52:52 Oh man. I don't even know. I, I, I, I usually don't know till I get it in my hands and I, I start playing well and well, a
Speaker 4 00:52:59 Guy that we had on here a couple episodes ago, a guy that you know well, Andy Austin. Yeah. We had Andy on and I saw Andy yesterday. He was gigging over at Whiskey Row and as he was walking out, he said there was a song that you and him had written together. I think it's called Better Off. Would that be the title?
Speaker 3 00:53:12 Better Off? I wrote with Chad.
Speaker 4 00:53:14 You wrote it with Chad? Yeah. Or Better Off. He, he said for you to play that he said for me to ask you to play Better Off.
Speaker 3 00:53:20 Oh shoot. Okay. Yeah. I can play that.
Speaker 4 00:53:21 Absolutely. You can play that one. Or if there's another one that you wanna play too.
Speaker 3 00:53:24 No. Yeah, I love that song. Honestly, I've written so many songs now, I, I forget them <laugh>. That's gotta be a Crazy Cure. People have to remind me of 'em. They're like, remember that song you wrote like da da da. And I'm like, oh, I love that song. Hell yeah.
Speaker 4 00:53:34 Forgot 'em. That's, that's gotta be a cool feeling though. Like, thinking back to when you first come to town and now you're at this point you're putting out songs. People around the country are starting to, starting to pick up on the Ryan Nelson name. You've got this great network, you're playing Whiskey Jam, you're playing, you're doing all this big stuff. Now you're at the point where like, at first you probably remembered every song that you had cuz you had like 10, 15 songs. It's true. Now you're just, now you got 50 songs wr co-written with one guy. Like that's
Speaker 3 00:53:58 A I know. It's fucking nuts.
Speaker 4 00:54:00 You're just, you're doing it, man. That's awesome.
Speaker 3 00:54:01 It's been, I mean, shit almost five years. And uh, I try, my goal is to write a hundred a year some.
Speaker 4 00:54:08 That's a mighty goal. Years. Are you, are you a, are you a writing it down on like a piece of paper kind of guy? Or are you a notes section guy?
Speaker 3 00:54:14 I I do, I do both. I've done it. I, I, I literally tell people, and I think I, I say this and yet it's, it's a total fallacy, but like, I feel like I've written a song every way that a song can be written cuz I've done it so many times. It comes in different ways. Like it comes in, sometimes it'll take you three hours and you won't have anything and then all of a sudden it explodes in 45 minutes. Sometimes it explodes in the first 45 minutes and you go home. Sometimes it's like, you know, there's all these two ways, three ways, different ways the three ways can go different ways, the two ways can go different way. Like, I've just seen so many, but like really you never, you never seen every way that it could go, you
Speaker 4 00:54:49 Know? Yeah. Have, have you written something down at like a napkin at on, at like a bar in like Losers or Winners? Sure. McDonald,
Speaker 3 00:54:55 Me and Josh Phillips were writing a song with Styles Hari, uh, at the bar in Key West cuz we were just sitting there and we were just talking about the song idea and we just started just firing off lyrics and we were like sitting there like, damn, we have a whole fucking verse in chorus now. <laugh> at the bar, we're just drinking beer. Like, yeah, fuck we this, it could be this, you know?
Speaker 4 00:55:17 Those are two awesome guys to be riding with too, dude.
Speaker 3 00:55:19 Oh, I love those guys.
Speaker 4 00:55:20 Those are, those are bad badass dudes. Seriously. That's awesome. So, uh, so where can people go to find you?
Speaker 3 00:55:26 Uh, it's Ryan Nelson underscore is Instagram. You could go on facebook.com/ Ryan Nelson music. Uh, I don't really do Twitter, but I have one, but I don't really do it. I don't know. It never, never caught my, I
Speaker 4 00:55:41 Don't, I don't, I've never really done Twitter either.
Speaker 5 00:55:42 I just troll people on Twitter.
Speaker 4 00:55:44 You go, he posts shit in like the comments Twitter
Speaker 3 00:55:46 Fuck people.
Speaker 5 00:55:47 Yeah. I mean I have my own Twitter but I also have like a fake one that like nobody really knows about and I just go on there and
Speaker 3 00:55:53 Write. Yeah, there you go. Just people
Speaker 5 00:55:54 Just, just really mess with people and see how riled up I can get people. It's a great time. You know, 3:00 AM in the morning, you find somebody.
Speaker 3 00:56:00 Absolutely. Dude. It's too fun. Yeah.
Speaker 4 00:56:02 Oh yeah. So, so you said you, you had put together the album. So there's how many singles that you've put out are part of that album, part of that collection?
Speaker 3 00:56:09 Starting with Show Up Drunk and there's going to be three more from where I am right now. Which Easy Now is out right now.
Speaker 4 00:56:15 Yeah. Easy Now. Which I fucking love that one. Who tried that one with
Speaker 3 00:56:18 Wrote That with War?
Speaker 4 00:56:19 No Shit. And
Speaker 3 00:56:20 Jordan.
Speaker 4 00:56:20 Dude, that's that's awesome.
Speaker 3 00:56:22 Actually, I gotta tell you this story. This is fucking awesome. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, uh, ward was the bartender at Tin Roof Demian. And we would go in there every time Revival happened and we would sit at the bar and we would hang out and chat with Ward. And one day me, like me and Jordan were sitting there and Jordan was like, ward like, do you still write, you know, I heard your songs like you sound great. Like, do you still write? And Ward's like man, you know, I just, I got a bunch of kids now and I'm just doing Whiskey Jam. There's just so much I'm a plate, you know, I don't really find a whole lot of time to write. And we were like, well dude, you're really talented. We heard your songs. We know like if you ever decide you wanna write again, hit us up cuz we want First Dibs, you know?
Speaker 3 00:57:11 Yeah. And so, shit, three years later maybe I get a text reward. He's like, Hey, I'm about to start doing riots every Wednesday. You wanna get on you and Jordan? I'm like, yes. So the first time that we did that, ward came over, we were shooting my little 22 in the Backyard Ward shot the, the the can. It was, it was an unopened can he shot the actual tab off the top. He shot right through it and it just literally opened the beer. That's it. <laugh>. And it went out the other side. So like level that it didn't even like a bunch of beer didn't even pour out or nothing. It just literally had opened the tab and we were like drinking this beard from the yard, this beer from the yard that he had shot open on the tab <laugh>. He came inside, we had like sweet potatoes hanging in a sack of shit on the, on the wall. And he was just like, this is some haggard shit. I love it. Yeah. And then we wrote Easy Now in like 45 minutes or an hour. It was very fast. Wow. And I was just like, that's cuz it's a great song. Great songs happen very fast a lot of the time I've noticed for me when it's a lot of my best songs happened in 45 minutes to an hour.
Speaker 4 00:58:22 Wow. Yeah. For sure. That's awesome man. So go out.
Speaker 3 00:58:25 You want me to play you a couple? What do you want? You can
Speaker 4 00:58:27 Play a couple. You play as long as you, you play as much as you want. Ryan, Ryan Nelson. Uh, well you're grabbing that guitar. Some housekeeping. Want to say thank you guys for listening. Episode 15, Tyler. Yeah, one five. And we had a damn good one today. Very much thank you to you Ryan Nelson coming on and hanging out, getting up early, which is, it's only two o'clock right now. It still feels like 10 in the morning for us too. That's just the way it is in Nashville. Yeah. Make sure you guys probably, yeah, make sure you guys follow Ryan on all the socials. Check out his music and make sure you follow us on there too in the round podcast on Instagram, in the round, on Facebook. You've also got a personal account. Just a I'm is it? I'm just one.
Speaker 3 00:59:05 No, no, just
Speaker 4 00:59:06 A wandering. Just a wandering. Which sounds like wandering. Just a wandering Tyler on Instagram. And then you've got Matt Baril. You can follow me on there too. And Coda Bear at Coda Rocks spelled with a C instead of a K for whatever reason.
Speaker 3 00:59:17 Co. Looks like his uh, dad could
Speaker 4 00:59:19 See you today. Yeah, he's all dressed up in his Pratt Boy attire. But we're gonna go got the boat shoes, but we're gonna let Ryan pick up the guitar, play some songs and pound, pound down on some Postmates pizza courtesy of Five Points. Shout out to those guys as well. Make sure you also hit subscribe. Leave a nice review comments, let us know what you think and uh, we'll see you next time. Now that further ado, here's Ryan Nelson on in the round
Speaker 6 00:59:50 Later along flipping through the tv wishing she would leave me alone. Cause appear in my head. All things I could said are gone. Yes, she's gone. You say I'm crazy, maybe I'm just lost. Why do I go leave her memory on when it's better Off four lane third, that old country station should have known that they be playing our song. Cause that was our song Takes me for spin and I'm ride back there again. You could say I'm crazy. Maybe I'm just lost. Well, I do, I go leave that radio. When's better off? We're better off. What's the And we're better off. But I was better. All Yeah, we better all later alone. Flip me through the tv. Yeah baby. Don't you miss me. You could say I'm crazy. Maybe I'm just lost. Why do I go? Leave your memory on. Oh baby, your memory's better off. It is better off.
