The amazing inside story of Country Music Singer Songwriter Drew Baldridge and his path to building an audience. A story of hard work and resilience you will love.
Taking a Walk.
I lost my record deal in twenty nineteen, and coming with that loss of record deal, I lost my booking agent and I also lost my manager. I didn't think. I didn't know what to do. I was living on my credit cards and so hade this idea. I was like, man, am I still supposed to do music? I'll post on social media. I'll play anybody's backyard it wants to happen me. And I thought I'd get like ten people.
Man.
I got over twenty some thousand requests, and I ended up going around the country for two years and turning over three hundred people's backyard.
Welcome to the Taking a Walk Podcast. Where Are Your Host Buzz Night talks with musicians and industry insiders on their love of music. On this episode, Buzz heads back to Nashville to meet up with country singer and songwriter Drew Baldridge. You'll hear his.
Amazing tales of independence and resilience as he describes how he's built an audience nationally without big label support and artist management. His organic fan growth is a case study in building community, and by the way, his music is great as well. Drew Baldridge joins buzz Night. Next on taking a walk.
Drew Baldridge, thanks for being on taking a walk. We're here in Nashville. I'm so grateful to be in personal with you.
Man. I'm so glad this worked out. I'm excited to be a part of.
So what do moving cowss around there in uh Pakoda, Illinois have in common with the music business?
Man? So I grew up on a farm and you know, like you said, little town called Patoka, Illinois, and I grab on a farm. My grandpa was like my hero, you know, And and I always put farming and kind of tie it to the music business in an interesting way of like, you know, we write these songs and we don't really know what they're gonna do. It's kind of like, you know, putting seed in the ground and you don't know how it's gonna yield. You know, you don't know what's gonna turn out, if it's gonna have a big yield, if you're gonna get rain, if you're gonna you know, if you're gonna have a good crop, a bad crop, if your tractor is gonna break down, you know. And I grew up a lot of with a lot of old tractors that broke down a lot of times, and so, you know, that's kind of feel like a lot of my journey in music has been that, you know, and it took you know, a couple of years ago my grandpa passed away and me going back home and kind of reliving that that country lifestyle, helping with the cows for a while and just find getting back to me and not so much of chasing a sound in Nashville, but more of, like, you know what, I'm making music for people, and my people are country people. And so it's been you know, like I said, I've always tied farm and kind of the music industry my whole life since I've since I moved here at nineteen.
But was there a period you felt like you were chasing something that when you looked in retrospect, it wasn't authentic to you.
Yeah, you know, I think I chased When I signed my record deal, I was chasing everything. I was just wanting to be heard in any any way possible, any kind of sound, any kind of song. And I lost my record deal in twenty nineteen. And coming with that loss of record deal, I lost my booking agent and I also lost my manager in the same aspect. And I did this tour over twenty twenty you know, covid hit. I didn't think I didn't know what to do. I was living on my credit cards, and I was kind of like, man, first off, I got a girl that I want to marry. I can't even afford a ring, you know. So I had this idea. I was like, man, I am I still supposed to do music. I'll post on social media and I'll just say, hey, whoever, I'll play in anybody's backyard that wants to have me. And you know, this is if as long as I can do it, and you know, we can't do it for free. We need help and get in there and travel expenses and stuff. And I thought i'd get like ten people, you know. I thought people would be like, hey, yeah, we'll do it.
Man.
I got over twenty some thousand requests and I ended up going around the country for two years and turning over three hundred people's backyards and just bring And that really changed my creative process to be like, you know what, I'm making music for people and not for record labels. I'm not making music for radio. I'm making it to have a connection with real life people. When I was in their yard, I was playing corn hole, eating dinner with them. They were telling me what their song, what the songs meant to them, and why thank you so much. You know, you're thank you so much for creating music that we can put into our lives. And that's when it really changed for me also too, of just like you know, I'm making music for these for people, for real, authentic people, and that really helped me stribe to the music that I'm creating today.
That's when I first heard about you. Now many of those were they were backyard barbecues, they were graduation parties, right, Yeah, there's a lot of.
I even did a great like you said, I had a song called Senior Year that kind of had this moment during twenty twenty because the hook of the song said, never thought it would disappear Senior year, all these kids, a senior year disappeared and the song was already out I wrote it. When I wrote that hook, I just meant, lived up kids, It's gonna go by fast. But third year really did disappear. So I posted before I did the backyard thing. First, I did this senior year thing, and I posted I said, Hey, I'll do a zoom concert for any class of twenty twenty that wants a zoom concert. So I was doing seven or ay zoom concerts today from my living room couch, and they'd be like thirty minutes a piece, and I'd jump right into the next class play for another one hundred and fifty kids. And then that turned into, hey, we have a drive in graduation. Would you would you fly down here and drive down here and play this drive in graduation because it's all social distancing, And I said sure, So I went around the country. I did about twenty schools where I just played drive in graduations, parades and gave commencement speeches to kids all around senior year. And then that really sparked the idea, it's why it might only doing this for senior year kids when I should be doing it for people. And that's what turned into the backyard shows.
And the way it struck me when I heard about this was as the business and musicians were incredibly confused and frustrated during the pandemic. You did something that was reaching out and touching them, but it was also incredibly unique compared to what anybody else was doing.
Yeah, It was real different, and it was also the real rewarding for a lot of people that need music in their lives. And you know, some of these shows where you know, we did social distancing shows, we'd had shows that were after COVID and they were just every all of them were outside, you know, and it brought music to people and they needed it.
You know.
There were so many people that said, oh, my goodness, we normally go to concerts ten times in a year, and we haven't. We haven't been able to go to any This is our release, this is our our life. We love country music, and now you get to be here in our yard, you know, and it just really it took down all the you know, all the walls between artists and fan, artist and listener, and it was just really I became friends with a lot of these people. And I still today when I play shows and you know, there's hundreds of people in the crowd or whatever, I can look down and see that they got the Baldridge and Bonfire shirt on. I know I was in their yard. You know, they have the shirt, and it's really cool to know that they were with me at my hardest time in music for me personally, of just losing everything, but still having my people that connect to my music to support me and believe in me and keep me going. And so every show that I play, and it's almost every show now every tour that I go out and play now that we're back to playing clubs, there's at least one person in there I played in their backyard, and so that's pretty cool.
So the cool thing about podcasts are they are, you know, domestically everywhere here in terms of where people consume them, and they're also international. But let's deal with the domestic part first. Talk about some of those small towns and name them where you've played some of those shows.
Man, Yeah, we played a lot in upstate New York, and we played some you know, from New York all the way to California to Oakdale, California that I've never heard of before. They call almonds amons and I was like, what are you talking about? You know, And I just got to do a lot of fun stuff on this and see a lot of see a lot of people and towns differently, because most of the time people are like, oh my gosh, you're a musician. You travel all around the world. It's like, yeah, most of the time, all I see are pilot gas stations, the club, and where we're eating dinner that night. It's never I get I never hardly have enough time to do anything. But this way of touring is I got to see the back roads of the town, you know. I got to go to these little towns, and all these little towns are on the back I make their own TOR shirt. I put their own little town name on it, where they feel like, hey, we're not Chicago, but we're a little town in Illinois outside of it, but our name's on the TOR shirt. And so that is what I love because I grew up in a town of five hundred people, you know, so like our little town's never got anything. So being able to go and tour this way was really really special for me, but also for them because they got to do what they thought was fun with me, Like hey man, we take our foilers down to this lake and we sit here and we catch you know, Channel cat Like Okay, well let's let's go do that. Let's go take the fowler down the lake, you know. And so I got to do a lot of this stuff with people on a human level that I would have never got to do before if I was just playing in clubs.
I'm just so fascinated by it, so I'm hung up on it in a good way. There was a man that I did some work with as a former radio programmer who since passed away. His name was John McGann. He worked at MTV for a while and v H one, and he was a real trailblazer, and he had a statement that sort of applies to what you succeeded at doing with those tours that you made think like a fan, make everyone a star. What's your reflection on that?
No, I think that's awesome. I think you know, we can get caught up artists sometimes and egos and you know, and I've been there before where I'm like, well, I'm a country singer and I'm rolling in and I'm you know, nobody can see me before I take stage. I'm backstage. It's this cool moment. And you know, when you do it like how we did it in those backyards, there ain't nothing glamorous about that. Just being honest, you know, it was like we're playing on the freaking haywagon. They just took the bails off of you know, the morning before it's it's not you're rolling in and you're fancy Dan and your bus and stuff. You know, it's it's really just knocking those walls down and treating people like humans and take and it makes me go in and being you know, we're all humans, we're all put our pants on this morning. And it really gave a whole new connection to me for the people that listen to my music. And you know, because I even hate the word fan, I just that's a weird word to me. I think just people that listen to your music is better, is what I like to say, more of it, and just the people listen to my it really allowed me to have a connection with them. I could have put out of all those three hundred yard This was the coolest thing for me on this whole thing buzz was. You know, on my social media I post about my family, I post about God, I post about the music that I make. And it's really interesting what you post and put out in the world. Those are your people that follow your social media pages. And so out of all those three hundred backyards, I could have put all those people in one big shit and it would have been the all good time. They were all solid salt of the Earth humans and it was really cool to see, like, Hey, whoever listened to your music is an extension of who you are. And these were all people that I would genuinely hang out with in my little town back home on a Saturday night. It was just really it was really cool.
Do you believe it really was the beginning that fueled your organic growth as an artist with your fans.
Yeah, you know, I was very lucky. I've been in Nashville for thirteen years. You know, I had a record deal before that where I created fans. I've well created listeners. I've been on Sirius XM Radio. I've created listeners that way. I had a lot of things that built up to that, but this was I think the most genuine way I've created, you know, people following my music and what I'm doing because it was a real connection.
You know.
It was they see me on their social media and talking about my music, but I actually got to stand there next to them and talk about their grandma passing away or their daughter going through high school. And I think that was what was really different for this tour and really catapulted us to allow what we're doing today is to know that we have those people out there that shared that story with the surrounding towns that they were Hey, you know, Drew Balters came to our house. You know that guy right there that's playing on the radio now, he was in our backyard. And that really, I think does have some sort of you know, you kind of start seeing the branches kind of go out when you come to these when I come, like in last week, I was in Omaha, Nebraska, and you know, I did a I played first school up there, not that far away, and the principals text to me and saying, hey, I'm so glad you come back. We're gonna come watch, you know. And it's just like all these little you know, finger legs kind of come out and start kept touching people.
It's like a textbook in marketing. You didn't know you were coming up with that.
No, I had no idea, man, I I just I just wanted to play music, and I knew that this was a way that I could continue to do that. And I really believe God built me to write songs and play them and entertain people when I can, and it was it was a special way for me to do that. And I don't know. I always tell my band too, it's like, this might be something I do every year. I'm even talking about maybe going out and doing another twenty yards again because I just enjoyed it so much of meeting people on an everyday life level, and you know, for maybe for the rest of my career on now, I don't know, I might do this again. Who knows.
We'll be right back with more of the Taking a Walk podcast. Welcome back to the Taking a Walk Podcast.
So when was the first moment that you remember that music touched you? How old were you when What do you remember most about being first touched by music.
I grew up singing in church, my dad singing church, and I think there was this old song my dad always used to sing at church and sitting you know, in the pews and watching my dad sing. He's still my hero, you know, And that's I go back to those early moments of there was a song called when the Anchor Holds and my dad used to sing.
That at church on Easter Sundays, and that is a moment that really moved me, of watching my dad go up and sing and I was like, wow, that's something that my dad does.
It I want to do that, and then I started singing. My first time performing in front of people was my first grade Christmas program. I sing all the different languages of Goodbye there was it was like the finale of the thing, and it was like check audios. I mean, I can remember, it's so goofy, but but yeah, that was the first time I sang in public and then got the bug and I was like, man, I loved doing that. I loved being in front of people. I loved entertaining. And that then turned into doing multiple talent shows every year in our little area and it wasn't much singing then. It was more dancing and lip singing to like you know, there's some really embarrassing videos out there, but of me doing Thriller and trying to act like I know how to moonwalk Thrill. Oh yeah man, And then the Blues Brothers.
And give me a sing me a chorus of Thriller.
I can't sing. You don't want to hear that, but but just like that's why I lip singed it all. But like the Blues Brothers, we did some some of that and some dancing to that and Grease Lightning and it was it was fun. Man. And then looking back, my mom and dad really always pushed me through that. I started taking piano lessons in kindergarten and that was something that really started driving me to music too, was you know, learning piano. And then about third grade, I said that was a girl instrument playing piano and I was like, looking back, like, well, that was dumb.
Why do I do that?
So I picked up guitar at sixteen and been writing songs ever since. But it's always Music's kind of always had a hold on my soul and since I was you know, like I said, kindergarten, first grade is when I started, you know, really performing in public in front of people.
And talk to me about the musical influences that you had as you you know, would hear music on the radio or just see it in person. What were those influences?
Yeah, so they were kind of all over the board. You know, you just heard my Talent show influences. I mean we're talking you know, Michael Jackson, who I loved the energy and the performing the performer that he was at that age. That was like, Wow, this guy is larger than life, you know, with his performances and how he does it on stage. And then you know, when I got old enough and was thirteen fourteen and got into you know what we all did in that small town, farming and helping my grandpa out and watching my older cousins on the tractor and driving the tractor. Country music became life because that was what we did. You know, we were on the tractor from sign up to sundown. And so like people like Brooks and dumb and Alan Jackson and you know, Randy Travis and those people that could really have those voices that could bring my lifestyle to life, that was what, you know, I think a song was like Red Dirt Road by Brooks and Dunn. That was literally my life, you know. And Alabama the very first country. My dad had this old mixtape that he bought this car, and the mixtape was was Stuck in It and it was and it was a mixtape of Alabama singing born country. And we would listen to that song over and over and over again. It says, you know, I got a hundred years of Downhome running through my blood, and we had my grandpa had this this plot of land on the outskirts of town. He called it down home because that's where he grew up and his great grandpa was first there and so it's been in my family for over one hundred years. And so when that line came across and it was like, got one hundred years of down home in my blood, That's when I realized, like, man, country music is life. It's my life, you know. And so that's what I always try to strive to do with my music now, is write those real things to me. Because Alabama back then could do it, you know, and it really struck a chord in my soul that this is really authentic to me and who I am. And so Alabama was a big was a big big. John Anderson was also on that mixtape you Look Better Than Money Andybody. I always just thought that was his voice was so different, you know, and stood out in such a cool way. And so John Anderson was alsoually a big influence.
And it's the simplicity of the life and how these songs come to life in a very clear way, right.
Yeah, the simplicity of it, but also just the authenticity of it of you know, when you hear Brooks and Dunn, you know sing I believe, Oh my goodness, like that is so the emotion in that is so real, but it's also so real for the town that I was in right of Like old man regularly lived in that white house. I can picture my neighbor running down the street and seeing him. You know, we're a quarter mile away, so we'd have to drop full of so there's no really running down the street. But it was just those kind of things that country music was my life growing up. And I hope that whatever I put out into the world music wise, that there's some kid out there that can say, Wow, that's that's my life too.
One of your fans, Deborah k Is how she listed herself. She says, Drew's demand Drew draws pictures with his music. How does that make you feel when you hear one of your fans talk like that about your work.
That's I mean, that's exactly what I hope for, you know. I hope that when people hear my mute that's I always try to sit in the writing room when we write, and I always say, hey, no, we gotta we gotta draw a better picture of what's going on. And so here in her say that that's super amazing. I mean, it puts a smile on my face knowing that you know, what I'm trying to do is being you know, portrayed in the in the right light. And I really, you know, I really do strive hard to make sure that all the images are there, because I always tell everybody I want to close my eyes and see what's going on, you know. And and if I can close my eyes when the song's playing and I and it takes me somewhere, that means we did our job.
How about tell me about the creation of the song before.
You, oh man. So I was actually out on tour with low Cash at that time. We were playing on we were in Long Island. We're not in on Long You can't say in Long Island. You gotta say on Long Island, Lung Island. Yeah, on Long Island. So we're on on Long Island playing at a place called Cakes, which were actually playing March seventh, and we were up above and we were writing songs, and I was about to get married, and we were talking about just all of our wives, and we were talking about little Cash boys. You know, they'd like to have fun, just like you know I did too. And we talked about all our wives about how we were just saying, man, before then we were crazy we were wild, and so coming across writing that song was talking about all the crazy things that I did before finding my wife and how she made me, you know, a better person, and so that was actually the song that I kind of wrote for her for our engagement. And funny story, it was right at COVID and we were supposed to get engaged in France, and so we were gonna get engaged right in front of the Eiffel Tower. I had it all planned out, and there's a line in the song that said I never thought I'd fly to Paris to get down on one knee. And what happened was three days before we left, they had the travel band. We couldn't go to Paris, and so I'm like, I got this song. I got this. It says Paris. I'm gonna play it for So I had to go in literally call my producer and said, we have to change it. We have to change it. We're gonna fly we flew to Aruba. I was like, we gotta change it to I never thought I'd fly to an island to get down on my knee, And so we changed into this and then we ended up going to Aruba, and that's it. It all worked out. But that was a song that I used to propose my wife with.
Yeah.
Wow, and then the song lost in Love. Talk about that and talk about collaborating with the Harper Harper Grace.
Yeah, so Harper Grace. She sent me a message years ago, she was probably sixteen seventeen years old on Instagram and was like, Hey, I'm a big I had a song out at that time called Rebound, and she's like, I'm a big fan of Rebound. You know your music is awesome. Blah blah blah blah blah. I'm a songwriter too. I make trips to Nashville, and most of the time when I get those I'm just like, you know, I don't know. I try not to dive too much into that. That's side of discovering artists or anything like that. And I went to her page and I just listened to her sing and she was so good, and I hit her back. I was like, Hey, you're amazing, Like when you come to Nashville, let's let's rite. So she started coming to Nashville and then now she has a record deal on Curb and she's really doing some amazing things. And so we wrote this song together called lost in Love and I, you know, put a record out year and a half ago called Country Born. And I always thought she was an incredible singer and I wanted to you know, my listeners to hear her, you know, to see what she has to offer. And so I think the track turned out really, really awesome. We wrote it together, which is really special. It was kind of like her first cut outside of her own project, and it was she came. We do a festival in my hometown called the Big Baldridge and Bonfire, And because I did, the backyard door was called the Baldridge and Bonfire. So I decided to hey, I'm gonna put a festival on called the Big One. And so we put a festival on in my hometown last couple of years, and I brought her up the first year we did it, and she got to sing in front of a couple thousand people and sing that song with me, and that was really special.
So take us inside the collaborative process of a writing session. How do you like to work and how are you most productive in that session?
Yeah, you know, I think most of the time now, like when I first came here was a lot of new people. You write and you've never written with before. Now I kind of have my group of friends that I've written a lot with, and it's all give and take. And most of the time there's three of y'all, and I can even go in and have, Hey, this is what I want to write today. I've been thinking about this. I haven't written down. I have some lines, but there's sometimes you go in and you don't have anything. You know, you're kicking around ideas and you're like, hey, I wrote that. I was at you start talking about life and you're like, hey, you know. A couple of weeks ago, I was at the beach and I saw this and led me into this, let me into this title. Most of the songs that I write always start with the idol or an idea, like she's somebody's daughter, like our single that we're working the radio. Now, I started off with she's somebody's daughter, you know, and I knew coming into that, right, this is what I wanted to write about. After meeting my wife's dad for the first time. This was a message to myself to not screw it up, but treat her right. You know, if I break her heart, I'm breaking her mama's heart and her daddy's heart too, And so going into that right, I knew I'm gonna write she's somebody's daughter, and yes, I'm going to take outside ideas. Being the artist in the room, you kind of got to drive it to what you would say. But having writers in the room, they really bring it to the next level of ideas, of experiences that they've been through, and you got to listen to those in a big way. But the artist, you know, you got to really be honest of what you will say and what you won't say. And I think that's that's key for an artist in a songwriter's room that's coming to Nashville. Of if somebody, if you're writing with a hit writer and they say this line, and you're like, man, I wouldn't say that line, but they really like it. I'm just gonna go with it. And then you get to the point you get done with the song and you're like, wow, there's no me left. You know, it's a cool song, but there's it's not how I would have said it. And so that's what I always try to remember when I'm in the writing room. Now it's like, if I'm going to record this, I need to make sure that I really love it and say what I would say, and take take other people's opinion because it's such a give and take in a writer's room. And if you're on the other side, if you're a writer, you know, obviously give and take, but also lean on your artists that you're in the room with that's going to record that song, that you want to make sure that they are loving where this is headed. And so that's that's been a you know, obviously a big couple of ways you can go in not have an idea at all, kick around ideas. Somebody says something, you're like, wow, I've never thought of it that way. Yeah, let's write that title that you have and let's point everything to that to that title. Or you're going in you have something really convicted on your soul that day and you're saying, hey, I think we should write this, and if we write this and it comes out correctly, I think it's something that could be really special and powerful.
We produced this other podcast it's called Music Save Me. It's about the healing power of music. Do you believe music has healing powers?
Yeah?
I really do, you know, I really saw it a lot over this tour. Where I played in people's backyards and people wasn't getting music, they weren't gathering around music.
They were you.
Know, COVID had kind of had them stopped up and not seeing music alive. And when I was in these people's yards and playing songs, I could see them come to life, you know, I could see their soul open up. I could see the smiles on their face or their tears in their eyes that you know, it really does affect them.
Even for me.
I mean, when I listen to the right song, I get goosebumps over my entire body. You know, it puts me in it can transport me to a whole other place, and it can you know, I've seen so many videos too of people going through dementia or Alzheimer's, but when the right song comes on, they know the words, you know, or they it takes them back and you see them dancing. It brings cheerful, it brings happiness. And as a writer, I don't take that lightly. That's something I want to go in the writing room. I want to make sure that I'm making music that people can can do their life to and make memories to and make, you know, long lasting connections with and so yeah, I totally believe that that music can heal. Music can bring so many great things that you can't get a point across just talking sometimes, you know, like if I would just sit here and talk to you. She's somebody's daughter, she's somebody's baby, she's somebody's everything, it's not going to connect as much as you have a melody to it. And so I really believe that that music can heal. But also I believe that music can can change lives. And you hear a song that says, you know, I'm really friends close friends with Tim Nichols, and he wrote live like You Were Dying, and it talk. There's a line in there that says, you know, called somebody and forgave them, you know, for a long lost thing, and they did to me in the past. And he has people, he said, people messaged me and said I forgave my dad after hearing your song, because I realized life was too short. And and that is amazing. That's what music is all about. I have people call me about she's somebody's daughter. It says, hey, you know, I've you know, I haven't talked to my daughter in a long time. But I heard your song. They didn't want to pick up the phone call her, you know, and it's like it changes lives.
It must strike you as you're crisscrossing all over the country at a very divided time, how music unites everybody.
Yeah, it really does. And you know, it's interesting. There's we were talking about this today. There's just there's no rules in music, and I think that's cool. Like, you know, you can be creatively different and you can be creatively authentic, and it can. There is a lot of opinions in music, you know, in country music too, Like on social media, you can let it get to you a little bit of people saying, well it's not country enough, you know, or it it's two countries. I don't listen to that. So there is still some divisiveness even in music. But like songs that have powerful messages, they can get behind, they can get behind what that song is saying.
For sure, we're kind of looking out over downtown Nashville. And as you do that and you imagine, you know, maybe a year from now, what do you hope is happening in your career next year at this time, after all your hard work, Man.
Hope I have a number one song. Baby, that's the goal, you know. We I did something really unconventional the last year. I created my own label and I sent a song of mine that we've been talking about, she Somebody's Dollar. I sent it to radio myself because I didn't have a record label that believed in me. And I've had people that believed in me and then gave up. And you know, you kind of get one shot here in Nashville sometimes, and I think taking this song to radio and showing that it's a hit, and we already know it's a hit, but like at radio it's a number one song, it's a top ten song. I would love for that to have. I've been here for thirteen years and never had a number one hit. And I've have friends that's been here for three and they do. And I'm not saying that number one is everything, but I want as many people to hear She's Somebody's Daughter as possible and the message that song brings about. And you know, sitting here looking over Nashville, I moved here at nineteen with nothing, you know, and now I have a wife and a little boy that's fourteen months old, and we have a house and it's all paid for by music, and it's like that's a pretty big blessing in itself, and I'm just I'm happy to still be here. I'm happy to create music every day, and yes, I hope we have a number one, But in a year's time, if that's not the case, we'll have another song that's out there that's touching other people's lives in a different way. And my goal is I'm going to put another record out within that time. Also, we've been recording new music and maybe even some outside songs like that I've recorded that other artist record hopefully have a hit hit or two on some other artists besides myself as a songwriter.
So in closing, I asked this question frequently, but I think you're more supremely equipped to answer this than most. What advice to someone listening who's a musician who's trying to work it, break in, make a difference with their music. What's the advice you would give them?
Yeah, I think first off, we need to figure out how serious you are. You know, music is an amazing path, Like to be able to wake up and play music every day is awesome, but it's also you're so tied to your dream you're so tied to the like your opinion of what you're doing, you can let those people tear you down with one word of a no. You know when I remember I moved here and the first time I heard no, I thought I was destroyed. But it's like the no, let the nose drive you. And I think that's that's a really big powerful thing for me now is all the notes And even when you're you know, you're the biggest artists in country music are still hearing no. Country radio programmers are still telling them they don't like that song, we're not gonna play it. But guess what they end up playing it when when other people do. And so it's like, let the nose fuel you. But also, if you have a plan B, this plan's never gonna work. That's I think the big thing if you if you come here to Nashville and you say, I give myself two years and now I'm gonna move home if it don't work out, all right, y'all right, at the beginning, it's not gonna work because you have a plan B and you want to get you want to put those other eggs in other baskets, and that's not gonna it doesn't fly in music, and it's like, you know, if you're gonna come here and people say it's a ten year town, sometimes it's a fifteen year town. You know Ashley Gorly, who's written seventy number ones in Nashville, seventy the biggest songwriter that has ever been in Nashville, he didn't have his first hit for eleven years. And it's like, if you move down and you think, hey, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna go back to the farm, or I'm going to go back and work my daddy's business, You're gonna fail. There's no I believe there's no failure in country, in music in general, there's just quitters. And I think that if you really want to do this and you're in some small town, now it's the best time because you have the power of social media that a lot of us didn't have when we moved here. We had to be here, we had to be on the radio to be heard, we had to be playing shows. And now you can post a video and reach millions of people from your doorstep right now, on your phone wherever you're at, if you jump on TikTok or Instagram or Facebook, you have the chance to reach multiple stadiums full of people from your device. And I think if you're in some little town you're a songwriter right now, or if you're an artist, there's no reason why you shouldn't be posting every other day about your music or writing songs right right right. You could write a hundred songs and maybe only two of them are good, or maybe they're all good and you're phenomena. I don't know, but I'm just saying, like I think, right now is a great time you should be posting to get your music out. Don't be too gun shy and too like protective. I think there's sometimes there's people that's so protective of their music that they're never gonna build a listenership, they're never gonna build a following if they don't throw it out there and see if people like it, and if they like it, build on that, put out another one, put out another one. That's the business that we're in now, and it's very lucky that there's a lot of people that you can do that from your You can live in Michigan right now and have a great artist career and put out songs and own your masters and do all that. You couldn't do that ten years ago when I moved here. You had to be on the radio to be heard. Now you can be discovered every night somebody's millions of people are swiping on their phone in their bed and you could be discovered and that song could change their life in a day's time. So it's pretty pretty wild where we're at in the industry. So that's just a little bit of advice obviously, you know, don't get kind of put your blinders on and don't compare yourself. I think that's another big thing for me and that I've had to learn over the years of you know, I've moved here and had some some of my friends when I first moved town of the biggest artist in country music and I haven't got that shot yet. And maybe that's not my cards, but maybe it is, you know. And so I think putting your blinders on and just saying this is my path. Nobody's gonna run my path except me. I just need to do what I'm here to do, and don't look at you know, your buddy down the street that's also that may be further along than you, or maybe a better guitar player than you, or maybe he's more talented than you, but you outworking, you know. I think that's that's a couple of little tips along the way. I guess I don't know.
Keep kicking man.
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