The Story Behind Americana Curious - Birth of a Podcast!

Ben Fanning: 00:00:00

When you turn on your radio in your car, there's no Americana channel.

Ben Fanning: 00:00:04

And Spotify, I think, really undervalues it and under promotes it on their playlist.

Ben Fanning: 00:00:09

And we're out to change that because music connects us as a civilization.

Ben Fanning: 00:00:13

And that's what this is all about.

Ben Fanning: 00:00:15

When you have the right music that brings people together, I do believe it can change the world because we can relate to music in ways that we can't necessarily relate to each other politically or religiously or country to country.

Ben Fanning: 00:00:29

But a beautiful song that talks about common human experience.

Ben Fanning: 00:00:33

Could be death, could be birth, could be romance, could be heartbreak.

Ben Fanning: 00:00:37

Something like that unites us all.

Ben Fanning: 00:00:39

And why in the world isn't it out there?

Ben Fanning: 00:00:42

And we're at the changing that.

Ben Fanning: 00:00:43

And we are.

Zach Schultz: 00:00:44

And people are starting to ask how the guy from Charleston is hanging out with the guy from Minnesota on zoom.

Ben Fanning: 00:00:57

Americana music trends transforms the world.

Ben Fanning: 00:01:00

And unfortunately, too many are unaware of its profound impact.

Ben Fanning: 00:01:04

Americana musicians are the unsung heroes, and here you'll join us in exploring these passionate artists and how they offer inspiration and hope for the future.

Ben Fanning: 00:01:15

This show makes it happen in a fun and entertaining way.

Ben Fanning: 00:01:19

You'll discover new music that you'll love, Hard earned lessons from the road, the story behind favorite songs, a big dose of inspiration for you and your friends, and a good laugh along the way.

Ben Fanning: 00:01:32

I'm Ben Fanink and my co host, Zach Schultz.

Ben Fanning: 00:01:36

It's time to get Americana curious.

Ben Fanning: 00:01:48

Hey there, Americana curious nation.

Ben Fanning: 00:01:51

I've got a treat for you today.

Ben Fanning: 00:01:53

We're not having a super star set of guests like we normally do for the Americana world.

Ben Fanning: 00:01:58

We are going to talk about Zach and I and our story, our vision for what this podcast is, what it's becoming.

Ben Fanning: 00:02:08

We're seeing some trends, we're seeing some patterns, and we want to share some of that with you already.

Ben Fanning: 00:02:13

But we want to dive into our story so you can understand the origin of it.

Ben Fanning: 00:02:15

So, Zach, what's up, my friend?

Zach Schultz: 00:02:18

Hey, buddy.

Zach Schultz: 00:02:19

How are you?

Ben Fanning: 00:02:20

First of all, one unique thing they're already getting on feedback is I'm from Alabama and Zach is from Minnesota.

Ben Fanning: 00:02:27

Our accents are either either like peanut butter and jelly or oil and vinegar.

Ben Fanning: 00:02:34

How are they going together for you?

Zach Schultz: 00:02:36

I think peanut butter and jelly.

Ben Fanning: 00:02:38

All right.

Zach Schultz: 00:02:38

Yeah.

Zach Schultz: 00:02:39

Well, we're very different, but we.

Zach Schultz: 00:02:41

We share one, one thing in common, love for music.

Zach Schultz: 00:02:45

And that's how we met.

Ben Fanning: 00:02:46

That's how we met y'all.

Ben Fanning: 00:02:47

That's how we met our Persona.

Ben Fanning: 00:02:50

So far, like, we didn't really jump into this with our Personas.

Ben Fanning: 00:02:53

I Will describe Zach.

Ben Fanning: 00:02:55

I'll let him describe how it's coming, how I'm coming across so far.

Ben Fanning: 00:02:59

I think Zach is coming across as a emotionally available, loving music nerd who.

Ben Fanning: 00:03:09

He goes deep.

Ben Fanning: 00:03:10

When Zach listens to an album, I mean, it is.

Ben Fanning: 00:03:13

It's a prolific listening, going down and deep detail, listening to lyrics.

Ben Fanning: 00:03:19

And I love it because he'll ask a question and then he'll say, hey, about this song, but what about this lyric?

Ben Fanning: 00:03:26

And it might be a lyric that has totally passed over.

Ben Fanning: 00:03:29

And the artist will be like, yeah, I'm really glad that you asked me about that.

Ben Fanning: 00:03:33

And I just love it.

Ben Fanning: 00:03:35

And my favorite one moment so far.

Ben Fanning: 00:03:38

And Zach, I'm gonna.

Ben Fanning: 00:03:39

I'll zip it here for a second is we're interviewing BJ Barham from American Aquarium.

Ben Fanning: 00:03:45

Someone we're.

Ben Fanning: 00:03:46

We're deeply fond of.

Ben Fanning: 00:03:47

Love the music.

Ben Fanning: 00:03:48

An incredible interview, by the way.

Ben Fanning: 00:03:49

But the first thing we start talking about, BJ's like, yeah, I write these thank you notes for everyone who orders my merch.

Ben Fanning: 00:03:57

And then Zach lists.

Ben Fanning: 00:03:59

He lifts up 20 plus thank you notes because Zach is a merchaholic.

Ben Fanning: 00:04:06

He buys merch everywhere, especially American aquarium merch.

Ben Fanning: 00:04:11

And he's got these 20 plus notes.

Ben Fanning: 00:04:14

And I thought BJ might cry, cry with happiness.

Zach Schultz: 00:04:18

He started counting.

Zach Schultz: 00:04:21

He got all the way to 22.

Zach Schultz: 00:04:23

And I.

Zach Schultz: 00:04:23

And that's only from: 2020

Zach Schultz: 00:04:27

I mean, he.

Zach Schultz: 00:04:28

He doesn't know from, I don't know, previous five years before that or anything that's at the show.

Zach Schultz: 00:04:35

Because I have every poster of his that I've.

Zach Schultz: 00:04:37

Every show I've been to, which I think is around 10 or 11 now.

Ben Fanning: 00:04:42

Oh, my gosh.

Ben Fanning: 00:04:42

Well, BJ, y'all has his record.

Ben Fanning: 00:04:45

And he actually looked back and BJ looked back in his merch records and found Zach Schultz's name.

Zach Schultz: 00:04:51

So I had heard about that database that he carries.

Zach Schultz: 00:04:54

I mean, he is very prolific on keeping track of who's buying stuff and who's a repeat customer.

Zach Schultz: 00:05:02

And I mean, he.

Zach Schultz: 00:05:04

And the fact that he was doing the interview and had this thing right there to look up was hilarious to me.

Zach Schultz: 00:05:12

I didn't think that was going to happen.

Ben Fanning: 00:05:13

Listen to that interview.

Ben Fanning: 00:05:15

That interview is great.

Zach Schultz: 00:05:17

Yeah.

Zach Schultz: 00:05:17

So let me jump in here and kind of describe how I'm feeling about you at this time.

Zach Schultz: 00:05:25

So, yeah, I'm.

Zach Schultz: 00:05:26

I'm.

Zach Schultz: 00:05:26

People that know me and that are listening to this have described me as fanboy.

Zach Schultz: 00:05:31

I'm being too fanboyish and I don't even care.

Zach Schultz: 00:05:34

I don't mind.

Zach Schultz: 00:05:35

Because yeah, these are people that I want to talk to, and I don't get to talk to them.

Zach Schultz: 00:05:41

So this.

Zach Schultz: 00:05:42

Us putting this together has brought.

Zach Schultz: 00:05:45

You know, I don't get to go to as many shows anymore because my kids are in activities.

Zach Schultz: 00:05:50

So it's almost like I'm bringing the people or we are bringing the people that I would want to go see in concert to my office, you know, and thankfully, I mean, Ben, you are so knowledgeable on the podcast side.

Zach Schultz: 00:06:07

I mean, everybody says, this guy knows what he's doing.

Zach Schultz: 00:06:10

This.

Zach Schultz: 00:06:11

I mean, listen to that voice.

Zach Schultz: 00:06:12

That's what my buddy just said the other day.

Zach Schultz: 00:06:15

How long has Ben been doing this?

Zach Schultz: 00:06:17

He sounds like a professional.

Zach Schultz: 00:06:18

I said, he is a professional.

Zach Schultz: 00:06:20

This is what he does.

Ben Fanning: 00:06:22

Yeah, thanks for that compliment.

Ben Fanning: 00:06:24

And it is what I do.

Ben Fanning: 00:06:26

And for the listeners, you know, I've done hundreds.

Ben Fanning: 00:06:28

So I got one called Lead the Team, a podcast that we've done for years now.

Ben Fanning: 00:06:33

We just really.

Ben Fanning: 00:06:34

We're like 305 episodes in.

Ben Fanning: 00:06:36

We also produce podcasts for other businesses, and this one's a little different.

Ben Fanning: 00:06:42

I wanted to do something, I'll say a little more, that brings a different side of me in my interest area.

Ben Fanning: 00:06:49

And it has.

Ben Fanning: 00:06:51

It has delivered on that, and it has been a lot of fun.

Ben Fanning: 00:06:53

And also, I want to see.

Ben Fanning: 00:06:55

I believe that our process for growing a podcast in these other spheres of business applies well to the music world.

Ben Fanning: 00:07:04

And.

Ben Fanning: 00:07:04

Let's see.

Ben Fanning: 00:07:04

And so far, so good.

Ben Fanning: 00:07:06

And I wanted to do it with a co host for the first time, and I wasn't sure how that would go, but, wow, has it been fun having a co host.

Ben Fanning: 00:07:17

And I don't think you do a podcast with just any co host.

Ben Fanning: 00:07:21

You've got to have common passion, common vision, and that's what we got here, I think.

Zach Schultz: 00:07:28

Agree.

Ben Fanning: 00:07:29

What's your vision for the show so far, based on what you.

Ben Fanning: 00:07:32

What you're thinking?

Zach Schultz: 00:07:33

I think it's.

Zach Schultz: 00:07:33

I mean, I don't have anything to compare it to.

Zach Schultz: 00:07:36

I mean, this is not my.

Zach Schultz: 00:07:38

My thing.

Zach Schultz: 00:07:39

This is not my job.

Zach Schultz: 00:07:40

I have a regular job, a almost 24 7, 365 job.

Zach Schultz: 00:07:46

I'm on call the time my phone's going off.

Zach Schultz: 00:07:49

Most interviews.

Zach Schultz: 00:07:50

I mean, we've been talking about this for four years, just mostly joking about it when we'd get together around, you know, at different events, and we can get into that and just kind of like, yeah, let's start a podcast.

Zach Schultz: 00:08:05

That'd be funny.

Zach Schultz: 00:08:06

I will interview everybody, you know, and then it just came to fruition, and I.

Zach Schultz: 00:08:10

I'm Still a little kind of.

Zach Schultz: 00:08:13

Is this really happening?

Zach Schultz: 00:08:15

You know, because it's.

Zach Schultz: 00:08:18

And it's a.

Zach Schultz: 00:08:18

It's not.

Zach Schultz: 00:08:19

It's a lot of work.

Ben Fanning: 00:08:21

Yeah.

Zach Schultz: 00:08:22

Yeah.

Ben Fanning: 00:08:22

You want to do it?

Zach Schultz: 00:08:23

When I'm not at my job, I am at home on the computer emailing.

Zach Schultz: 00:08:27

And I'm getting to have quite the conversations with artists, with their PR people, with their managers.

Zach Schultz: 00:08:34

Sometimes they.

Zach Schultz: 00:08:35

They are a little too businessy for me, so I have to reach out to Ben to try to get advice.

Zach Schultz: 00:08:43

Just had to do that with an artist that's a big artist.

Zach Schultz: 00:08:47

I can't believe they are emailing back with me, but it's pretty crazy.

Ben Fanning: 00:08:52

Yeah.

Ben Fanning: 00:08:53

And you're doing a great job with it.

Ben Fanning: 00:08:55

And that's the.

Ben Fanning: 00:08:55

I think that's the power of podcasting, but also the power of the music that we want to shine a light on.

Ben Fanning: 00:09:03

When you turn on your radio in your car, there's no Americana channel.

Ben Fanning: 00:09:08

Right.

Ben Fanning: 00:09:09

You're on Sirius, nothing.

Ben Fanning: 00:09:11

When you're on your local radio, nothing.

Ben Fanning: 00:09:14

And Spotify, I think, really undervalues it and under promotes it on their playlist.

Ben Fanning: 00:09:22

And we're out to change that because music connects us and as a civilization.

Ben Fanning: 00:09:28

And that's what this is all about.

Ben Fanning: 00:09:30

Right.

Ben Fanning: 00:09:30

When you have the right music that brings people together, I do believe it can change the world because we can relate to music in ways that we can't necessarily relate to each other politically or religiously or country to country.

Ben Fanning: 00:09:47

Right.

Ben Fanning: 00:09:48

But a beautiful song that talks about common human experience.

Ben Fanning: 00:09:52

Could be death, could be birth, could be romance, could be heartbreak, it could be work related.

Ben Fanning: 00:10:00

Something like that unites us all.

Ben Fanning: 00:10:03

And why in the world isn't it out there?

Ben Fanning: 00:10:06

And we're at the change in that and we are.

Zach Schultz: 00:10:11

Well, we're trying, but there's been a lot of positive feedback from people that I know that necessarily wouldn't listen to Americana music or they're stuck in the country, today's country realm.

Zach Schultz: 00:10:29

You know, I've had a lot of people say, oh my gosh, that Mason Vi, what a talent, you know, and they know nothing about him and.

Zach Schultz: 00:10:36

But they found out more about him and now they're listening to his music.

Zach Schultz: 00:10:39

And same with Jack and Jack Browning.

Ben Fanning: 00:10:42

Yep.

Zach Schultz: 00:10:43

Yeah, Jack Browning.

Ben Fanning: 00:10:44

Well, you see the numbers going up, y'all, and just this on Instagram.

Ben Fanning: 00:10:48

I mean, it's just huge, huge numbers.

Ben Fanning: 00:10:52

And we're just getting rolling and each artist to make an impact and we're happy to be providing that platform and just wait for the artists.

Zach Schultz: 00:11:00

Now.

Ben Fanning: 00:11:00

One of the things we wanted to do this today is for the next few minutes to walk you through how we met because it's kind of bromats music and people are starting to ask.

Zach Schultz: 00:11:11

How the guy from Charleston is hanging out with the guy from Minnesota on Zoom.

Ben Fanning: 00:11:17

That's right.

Ben Fanning: 00:11:18

So I grew up in Alabama, live in Charleston now, kind of southeastern based.

Ben Fanning: 00:11:23

And Zach pretty much corners the.

Ben Fanning: 00:11:26

I'll say the center of the, of the.

Ben Fanning: 00:11:28

Of the U.S.

Ben Fanning: 00:11:30

yes.

Zach Schultz: 00:11:30

Well, the top center.

Ben Fanning: 00:11:32

The top center.

Zach Schultz: 00:11:34

Yeah.

Zach Schultz: 00:11:34

Yeah.

Zach Schultz: 00:11:35

I'm from.

Zach Schultz: 00:11:35

I'm born and raised Minnesota.

Zach Schultz: 00:11:38

I really, other than vacations, haven't lived in any other state.

Zach Schultz: 00:11:42

I lived in Northern Michigan for a while.

Zach Schultz: 00:11:44

It was real cold up there.

Zach Schultz: 00:11:46

So I'm gonna.

Zach Schultz: 00:11:46

It's.

Zach Schultz: 00:11:47

It's hot down here compared to there.

Ben Fanning: 00:11:50

All right, so let's, let's bring the story around here.

Ben Fanning: 00:11:52

So we, we met actually at Girls Just Wanna, which is a Brandy Carlisle Mexico based event that she hosted several years.

Ben Fanning: 00:12:06

She's.

Ben Fanning: 00:12:06

She's beginning to change it a little bit, but we went to that.

Ben Fanning: 00:12:09

The very first one.

Ben Fanning: 00:12:10

One thing was for sure, I always, I always had a great view of the stage because I was.

Ben Fanning: 00:12:16

I'm.

Ben Fanning: 00:12:16

I'm over 6ft and I can't.

Ben Fanning: 00:12:18

There was no one ever standing in front of me really.

Ben Fanning: 00:12:22

And then people would come up to me and this crowd of, you know, a couple thousand people and say, hey, Ben, please don't move because I'm using you.

Ben Fanning: 00:12:30

I'm using you as a marker to get back to my friends after they go get a drink.

Ben Fanning: 00:12:36

And then if I moved, people would end up coming back to the wrong place in the crowd to find their friends because they're like, you were my marker, Ben.

Ben Fanning: 00:12:45

Why did you leave?

Ben Fanning: 00:12:47

How did you leave your spot?

Ben Fanning: 00:12:49

I remember.

Ben Fanning: 00:12:50

And our wives were there too.

Zach Schultz: 00:12:52

Yeah.

Ben Fanning: 00:12:52

Big Americana fans.

Ben Fanning: 00:12:54

And I was walking down the beach there and.

Ben Fanning: 00:12:58

Or near the pool and I saw this guy reading a Jeff Tweedy, who's the lead singer of Wilco, reading a Jeff Tweedy autobiography that is like three Bibles put together.

Ben Fanning: 00:13:11

It's so thick.

Ben Fanning: 00:13:13

I was like on, on their vacation.

Ben Fanning: 00:13:15

This must be my guy.

Ben Fanning: 00:13:17

Like, who.

Ben Fanning: 00:13:17

Who is reading this thick book with.

Zach Schultz: 00:13:21

A bucket of Coronas next to me.

Ben Fanning: 00:13:24

With Corona, which is usually.

Ben Fanning: 00:13:26

And is.

Ben Fanning: 00:13:26

And Zach's profile.

Ben Fanning: 00:13:28

Instagram is on.

Ben Fanning: 00:13:29

Instagram is high life, Zach.

Zach Schultz: 00:13:31

Yeah.

Zach Schultz: 00:13:32

I don't really normally stray from the high life, but it didn't have Mexico.

Zach Schultz: 00:13:37

Yeah.

Ben Fanning: 00:13:37

You were roughing it, drinking Corona over high life and.

Ben Fanning: 00:13:41

Yeah.

Ben Fanning: 00:13:41

So we just started talking and the immediate thing that I noticed about after this was and we said some introductions and icts, even though we kind of hit it off.

Ben Fanning: 00:13:51

But I would see Zach around at the daily performances, and he was always kind of on the side of the stage for some reason, getting next.

Ben Fanning: 00:14:00

He was always close to the artists that were not performing.

Ben Fanning: 00:14:04

Either they were drawn to him or he was.

Ben Fanning: 00:14:07

He knew what they looked like off stage, and he always seemed to be getting closer to them.

Ben Fanning: 00:14:14

Like the.

Zach Schultz: 00:14:15

Yeah, there's a funny story about that, because I was kind of side staged.

Zach Schultz: 00:14:21

Sean Colvin was doing a set on the stage one night, and it was dark, and I was just kind of side staged, and there was some commotion next to me.

Zach Schultz: 00:14:34

And I kind of looked over and Amy Ray from the Indigo Girls is standing next to me.

Zach Schultz: 00:14:39

And I kind of whispered to my wife, I go, oh, my God, it's Amy Ray.

Zach Schultz: 00:14:44

But there were some fans that weren't as playing it as calmly as me and kind of overwhelming her.

Zach Schultz: 00:14:51

And I didn't really say anything.

Zach Schultz: 00:14:53

And Sean continued to play a song, and I'll never forget it because it was a cover of Tom Waits Old 55.

Zach Schultz: 00:15:04

And I went, oh, my gosh, she's playing Old 55 by Tom Waits to my wife.

Zach Schultz: 00:15:09

And Amy Ray goes, you know this song?

Zach Schultz: 00:15:13

And I said, of course I do.

Zach Schultz: 00:15:15

And I almost kind of went, shh, I'm listening.

Zach Schultz: 00:15:19

I mean, I didn't shush her, but I kind of was like, of course I do.

Zach Schultz: 00:15:23

Like, I'm into this.

Zach Schultz: 00:15:25

And then after the song, she came up and started talking to me, and it blew my mind.

Zach Schultz: 00:15:31

And I got to meet her again in the next year.

Zach Schultz: 00:15:33

But it was just the thing about I do.

Zach Schultz: 00:15:36

Like, it's not that they're gravitating towards me, but it just seems like I keep finding myself in that position.

Ben Fanning: 00:15:42

What?

Zach Schultz: 00:15:43

By the way, I'm trying to get Amy Ray on this podcast.

Ben Fanning: 00:15:46

Yeah, Shout out, Amy Ray.

Ben Fanning: 00:15:47

Get on here.

Ben Fanning: 00:15:48

Well, yeah, yarkies been inside about Zach, too.

Ben Fanning: 00:15:51

It's not just artists that seem to be drawn to Zach.

Ben Fanning: 00:15:54

It's other people.

Ben Fanning: 00:15:55

And that's one of the reasons just anybody.

Ben Fanning: 00:15:57

So we.

Ben Fanning: 00:15:58

Zach's always fun to hang out with, and if you get to meet him in person, you will find it to be the case.

Ben Fanning: 00:16:04

And he'll probably be talking to some musician.

Ben Fanning: 00:16:07

And one thing that's striking to me, like, I can't always identify them at festivals because they're sort of.

Ben Fanning: 00:16:13

They're off the stage, maybe dressed differently.

Ben Fanning: 00:16:15

Zach has no problem.

Ben Fanning: 00:16:17

He'll be like, boom, that's so and so.

Ben Fanning: 00:16:19

That's so and so, like it's.

Zach Schultz: 00:16:21

Yeah.

Zach Schultz: 00:16:22

And well, I guess it's my nerdery that comes out because I do know, like, who are writing these songs.

Zach Schultz: 00:16:29

You know, it's.

Zach Schultz: 00:16:30

It could be just.

Zach Schultz: 00:16:30

I mean, JP Harris.

Zach Schultz: 00:16:33

Last year at Newport, I was like, there's JP Harris, you know, and he was just standing off.

Zach Schultz: 00:16:38

And I mean, a billion people wouldn't know who JP Harris is, but I sure do.

Ben Fanning: 00:16:45

Yeah, it's pretty cool.

Ben Fanning: 00:16:46

So that.

Ben Fanning: 00:16:46

Anyway, so we're trying to sprinkle some of that magic into the podcasting world.

Ben Fanning: 00:16:51

We're open to talking to music festivals about doing some stuff with and that could be something coming on in a future episode.

Ben Fanning: 00:17:00

So keep your head on with that.

Ben Fanning: 00:17:02

So that's a great time.

Ben Fanning: 00:17:04

Brandy talking about a collaborative person.

Ben Fanning: 00:17:07

I mean, Brandy is way up there in terms of big collaborative artists.

Ben Fanning: 00:17:13

So if you ever get a chance to go to her show or one of her festivals, I mean, you're going to see some.

Ben Fanning: 00:17:18

You're not going to.

Ben Fanning: 00:17:19

It's not going to be one of these festivals where everybody kind of does their set and goes home.

Ben Fanning: 00:17:23

Brandy gets them all up on there together multiple times.

Ben Fanning: 00:17:27

She's up there, the twins are up there, and it is a hootenanny.

Zach Schultz: 00:17:32

Yeah.

Zach Schultz: 00:17:32

And I'll just tag on that meeting on the beach.

Zach Schultz: 00:17:35

I remember we were talking and we had ran into each other, you know, throughout that weekend and just kept.

Zach Schultz: 00:17:40

I mean, it's a small event, so you keep running into the same people.

Zach Schultz: 00:17:44

And I normally don't ask people what they do for a living.

Zach Schultz: 00:17:49

I just don't.

Zach Schultz: 00:17:50

I don't judge people if they're a garbage man or a CEO.

Zach Schultz: 00:17:54

I don't care if you're a good person.

Zach Schultz: 00:17:57

That's all I care about.

Zach Schultz: 00:17:58

But we got to talking and I asked Ben, what does he do?

Zach Schultz: 00:18:02

And he says, well, I am a podcaster and I wrote a book and I went, what do you mean you wrote a book?

Zach Schultz: 00:18:13

So he tells me a little bit about this book.

Zach Schultz: 00:18:16

I actually have a copy in the other room here because after we came back and after the vacation, I had to google that book.

Zach Schultz: 00:18:23

And what's the book called again, Ben?

Ben Fanning: 00:18:25

The Quit Alternative.

Ben Fanning: 00:18:27

The Quit Alternative, Yes.

Zach Schultz: 00:18:29

And I found this guy fascinated.

Zach Schultz: 00:18:31

And we didn't exchange numbers or social medias that whole weekend, but I found you and I ended up a couple months later, wrote you a private on one of the socials and said, hey, I'm the guy.

Zach Schultz: 00:18:44

And sparked up more of a social media conversations, became friends on Instagram and whatnot.

Zach Schultz: 00:18:52

that led us to avit the beach: 2020

Zach Schultz: 00:19:02

I mean, we had corresponded for.

Zach Schultz: 00:19:03

It was almost.

Zach Schultz: 00:19:04

It was two years or a year and a half at least.

Ben Fanning: 00:19:08

Yeah.

Ben Fanning: 00:19:08

Yeah.

Zach Schultz: 00:19:09

Until they came back to the Avetts.

Zach Schultz: 00:19:10

Did that in the Doctor and the.

Zach Schultz: 00:19:15

I remember being on my.

Zach Schultz: 00:19:17

Right when we landed in Dr.

Zach Schultz: 00:19:19

On my phone and it's.

Zach Schultz: 00:19:20

My wife's going, what?

Zach Schultz: 00:19:22

Who are you texting?

Zach Schultz: 00:19:22

I'm texting Ben.

Zach Schultz: 00:19:23

Do you remember Ben?

Zach Schultz: 00:19:24

We're going to get together with Ben.

Zach Schultz: 00:19:26

And she's going, Ben from South Carolina.

Zach Schultz: 00:19:30

Yeah.

Zach Schultz: 00:19:31

We're going to meet them at the bar for a drink before the show.

Zach Schultz: 00:19:34

So we did.

Zach Schultz: 00:19:35

And I mean, we really have hit it off, the four of us.

Zach Schultz: 00:19:39

It really, you know, it's been great.

Ben Fanning: 00:19:42

So many musical adventures.

Zach Schultz: 00:19:45

And that was.

Ben Fanning: 00:19:46

That was.

Ben Fanning: 00:19:46

That was before.

Ben Fanning: 00:19:47

That was right when the pandemic was happening.

Ben Fanning: 00:19:50

I can remember we bore it.

Ben Fanning: 00:19:52

They announced or it was.

Ben Fanning: 00:19:53

It was in the Dominican Republic news that the first person had contracted Covid in the Dominican Republic.

Ben Fanning: 00:20:01

And we were all like, whatever.

Ben Fanning: 00:20:02

Just one person.

Zach Schultz: 00:20:04

Yeah.

Ben Fanning: 00:20:05

And.

Zach Schultz: 00:20:05

Yeah, that was a different.

Zach Schultz: 00:20:07

Yes.

Zach Schultz: 00:20:08

I hate thinking back on that time because it was so uncertain and you getting on an airplane to come back.

Zach Schultz: 00:20:16

I mean, we're talking two weeks before the world shut down.

Ben Fanning: 00:20:20

Yes.

Ben Fanning: 00:20:23

And for the listeners, the music scene, of course, was rocked because live music shut granted to a halt.

Ben Fanning: 00:20:29

And it's been interesting so far on our show asking the artist about that and how so many of the Americana artists kept creating during that time period.

Ben Fanning: 00:20:41

And some went harder on releasing, AKA BJ Barham, who went hard.

Ben Fanning: 00:20:48

He's like, I'm not pulling back.

Ben Fanning: 00:20:49

And he told this crazy story that y'all need to listen to about they're about to release Lamentations, which is a wonderful album.

Ben Fanning: 00:20:58

And the.

Ben Fanning: 00:20:58

And the world had shut down.

Ben Fanning: 00:20:59

It was during that.

Ben Fanning: 00:21:00

It was like two months after everything had come to a grinding halt.

Ben Fanning: 00:21:02

And they were concerned that the day they were going to release their album, the Chicks that used to be the Dixie Chicks or had their big album coming out too.

Ben Fanning: 00:21:11

And they're like, is anybody going to even notice our album?

Ben Fanning: 00:21:14

And then right before that day came, the chick said, no, we're not going to release it because we can't tour with it because there's no touring and we're not going to do it.

Ben Fanning: 00:21:24

They.

Ben Fanning: 00:21:25

And they postponed it a long time.

Ben Fanning: 00:21:27

And I would say BJ and his crew probably did a little happy dance because their album came out and there just.

Ben Fanning: 00:21:36

There weren't There just wasn't a lot of competition, and a lot of people found Americana aquarium because of that risk they took.

Zach Schultz: 00:21:43

Yeah, yeah.

Zach Schultz: 00:21:45

No, that's.

Zach Schultz: 00:21:46

That is a fascinating story.

Zach Schultz: 00:21:47

Last yesterday, I didn't know that about the Chicks not releasing their album.

Zach Schultz: 00:21:53

I just remember the album because it's a great album, but I don't remember them pushing it back, you know?

Ben Fanning: 00:22:00

Well, inside, I was like, yeah, they waited.

Ben Fanning: 00:22:02

Already waited 10 years.

Ben Fanning: 00:22:03

What's another year to wait to release it, right?

Ben Fanning: 00:22:07

Meanwhile, BJ is just like, crank out album after album.

Ben Fanning: 00:22:10

And that's a great album, too.

Ben Fanning: 00:22:11

The Chicks album is really good.

Ben Fanning: 00:22:13

But so anyway.

Ben Fanning: 00:22:14

So let's.

Ben Fanning: 00:22:14

So anyway, Covet happens.

Ben Fanning: 00:22:17

Avid's come back.

Zach Schultz: 00:22:19

Yes.

Ben Fanning: 00:22:19

They said, hey, we're doing Mexico again.

Ben Fanning: 00:22:21

So we'd been to the doctor, and we're like, man.

Ben Fanning: 00:22:24

Zach and I were fired up.

Ben Fanning: 00:22:25

We all went down, and it was crazy because you had to test for Covid before you went down.

Ben Fanning: 00:22:30

He had a test when you come back.

Zach Schultz: 00:22:33

Yeah.

Ben Fanning: 00:22:33

And that was an interesting experience down there.

Zach Schultz: 00:22:35

Listen, I already had Covet about three weeks before, so we got the free pass with the letter, so we didn't have to.

Ben Fanning: 00:22:44

Yeah, you have to do that.

Ben Fanning: 00:22:47

We're like, I want to get Covid before I go, but not too close, because then I can't go, but I don't want to get up while I'm down there.

Ben Fanning: 00:22:55

And fortunately, we did not get it.

Ben Fanning: 00:22:57

But y'all, check this out.

Ben Fanning: 00:22:58

This.

Ben Fanning: 00:22:59

And Zach, I want to hear your opinion on this.

Ben Fanning: 00:23:01

So in the Avit Festival, right, Called Avit the Beach, they do.

Ben Fanning: 00:23:05

There are four nights, three nights of Avit with some other headliners in there, which are really cool.

Ben Fanning: 00:23:12

And then one night's totally off for them.

Ben Fanning: 00:23:13

And they have other great artists there, but the last night is always them.

Ben Fanning: 00:23:18

And they announced Mike Marsh, our drummer, has Covid.

Ben Fanning: 00:23:24

And we thought about noon of the day, noon.

Ben Fanning: 00:23:27

And they had to go on that night.

Ben Fanning: 00:23:28

And the expectations for this last set of the.

Ben Fanning: 00:23:31

The last show they're going to do is it's sky high.

Ben Fanning: 00:23:34

And I think we're all freaking out, like, well, are they going to be able to play?

Ben Fanning: 00:23:39

Is the band going to play?

Ben Fanning: 00:23:41

How are they going to sound?

Ben Fanning: 00:23:43

What are they going to do?

Ben Fanning: 00:23:45

And what.

Ben Fanning: 00:23:46

What do they do?

Ben Fanning: 00:23:47

Well, they just take the stage without Mike.

Ben Fanning: 00:23:50

Now, I like Mike Marsh, and I like what he does, but I will say, I know where you're going.

Ben Fanning: 00:23:57

This impromptu set.

Zach Schultz: 00:24:00

Yeah.

Ben Fanning: 00:24:00

Took me back to the old days of Ava.

Ben Fanning: 00:24:03

There was no.

Ben Fanning: 00:24:04

And they didn't, by the way.

Ben Fanning: 00:24:05

They didn't try to.

Ben Fanning: 00:24:06

They could have tried to grab a drummer from one of the other bands to fill.

Ben Fanning: 00:24:10

They just like, hey, we're the Avetts.

Ben Fanning: 00:24:12

We don't have fill in players.

Ben Fanning: 00:24:14

We just go, what.

Ben Fanning: 00:24:16

What we got.

Ben Fanning: 00:24:17

And you know, it was the most red hot show for the Avetts I've ever seen in my life.

Ben Fanning: 00:24:23

And I've seen Davis a lot and I just love that about them, you know, the show must go.

Ben Fanning: 00:24:27

Yeah.

Zach Schultz: 00:24:28

I mean, out of.

Zach Schultz: 00:24:29

I went to.

Zach Schultz: 00:24:30

Or me and my wife went to all four of that.

Zach Schultz: 00:24:33

Of those festivals.

Zach Schultz: 00:24:34

So that'd be four 8, 12, 16 avid sets just in Mexico.

Zach Schultz: 00:24:40

And that's my favorite set of.

Zach Schultz: 00:24:43

Of all time by them.

Zach Schultz: 00:24:45

I just.

Zach Schultz: 00:24:46

Incredible.

Ben Fanning: 00:24:46

Another beautiful thing about Americana is that, hey, you don't have a drummer.

Ben Fanning: 00:24:51

You're missing somebody in your band.

Ben Fanning: 00:24:53

You don't.

Ben Fanning: 00:24:54

You don't pull the plug on the show.

Ben Fanning: 00:24:57

Yeah.

Ben Fanning: 00:24:57

What you do is you do the best with what you got.

Ben Fanning: 00:25:00

And sometimes that.

Ben Fanning: 00:25:02

That makes enough magic to delight the audience anyway.

Ben Fanning: 00:25:07

Yeah.

Ben Fanning: 00:25:07

And I just love that.

Zach Schultz: 00:25:09

It was.

Zach Schultz: 00:25:09

It was incredible.

Zach Schultz: 00:25:11

That's for sure.

Ben Fanning: 00:25:12

So move on from there.

Zach Schultz: 00:25:14

And we started.

Zach Schultz: 00:25:15

Well, I'll say that at that point, we started kind of saying, well, we should get together ever so often for these musical themed vacations.

Zach Schultz: 00:25:27

So why don't you.

Zach Schultz: 00:25:29

So, I mean, I got a little FOMO after.

Zach Schultz: 00:25:32

Because you guys had planned your trip to Newport.

Ben Fanning: 00:25:37

Yes.

Ben Fanning: 00:25:37

So if you haven't been in Newport, y'all, it's.

Ben Fanning: 00:25:42

It's.

Ben Fanning: 00:25:42

It's worth it.

Ben Fanning: 00:25:43

But it's hard.

Ben Fanning: 00:25:44

It is a hard situation just to sort out what to do.

Ben Fanning: 00:25:49

And we met our friend.

Ben Fanning: 00:25:51

I made a new friend, which made a lot of friends.

Ben Fanning: 00:25:53

At David's.

Ben Fanning: 00:25:54

Shout out to Cheyenne Schaefer, who's like, hey, have y'all been the Newport.

Ben Fanning: 00:25:58

And we're like, well, no, we've always wanted to.

Ben Fanning: 00:26:01

She's like, well, you.

Ben Fanning: 00:26:02

And she was wearing this T shirt, the saying at the Avis.

Ben Fanning: 00:26:06

Her T shirt said in Jay we trust.

Ben Fanning: 00:26:09

And we're like, who is Jay?

Ben Fanning: 00:26:11

And she's like, well, Jay is this guy who's just really good at curating music and he works for the Newport Folk Festival and he basically curates all the music for the festival.

Ben Fanning: 00:26:22

He is so good.

Ben Fanning: 00:26:23

What's that, Zach?

Zach Schultz: 00:26:25

Jay Sweet.

Zach Schultz: 00:26:26

I'll just.

Ben Fanning: 00:26:26

For Jay Sweet.

Ben Fanning: 00:26:27

That's Jay J.

Ben Fanning: 00:26:29

Sweet.

Zach Schultz: 00:26:29

Yeah.

Ben Fanning: 00:26:30

And he is.

Ben Fanning: 00:26:31

I'm like, that just sounds weird.

Ben Fanning: 00:26:33

Like, how could that be good?

Ben Fanning: 00:26:35

And the answer is it's extremely good.

Ben Fanning: 00:26:38

And there's no playbook for this thing.

Ben Fanning: 00:26:40

Basically, Just to describe it for people, it is the Newport Folk Festival where Bob Dylan went electric and all this other stuff.

Ben Fanning: 00:26:48

But it's not just acoustic music music.

Ben Fanning: 00:26:50

They got all kinds of stuff there.

Ben Fanning: 00:26:52

And what's interesting, most interesting about it from an.

Ben Fanning: 00:26:55

I think from a fan standpoint, is it sells out in like two minutes.

Ben Fanning: 00:26:59

And it's the only festival that does that, that never announces the lineup when the tickets go on sale.

Ben Fanning: 00:27:06

So you're trusting Jay that he's going to be able to curate three days of music festival, and you have no idea what it's going to be and you're just going to buy these tickets blindly and it's.

Ben Fanning: 00:27:18

It's incredible.

Zach Schultz: 00:27:19

Not anxiety on February 1st when those tickets go on sale is at an all time high.

Zach Schultz: 00:27:26

High.

Zach Schultz: 00:27:27

And I mean the comments, because it sold out this year in less than three seconds.

Ben Fanning: 00:27:34

Three seconds.

Zach Schultz: 00:27:35

Yeah.

Zach Schultz: 00:27:36

And I'm not going to give our strategy this year that we all came up with at a different one of our events, but it worked.

Zach Schultz: 00:27:42

Yeah.

Zach Schultz: 00:27:43

So thank my brilliant wife for that.

Ben Fanning: 00:27:47

You can.

Ben Fanning: 00:27:48

You can talk to us about that in person, but that we're not.

Ben Fanning: 00:27:52

We're going to talk about here.

Ben Fanning: 00:27:53

But yeah, anyway, Incredible festival.

Ben Fanning: 00:27:55

So we went.

Ben Fanning: 00:27:56

I was texting Zach.

Ben Fanning: 00:27:57

I said, zach, this festival has ruined me.

Ben Fanning: 00:28:00

I don't think I'll ever be able to go to another festival again, which I actually have.

Ben Fanning: 00:28:04

But it.

Ben Fanning: 00:28:05

Yeah, it's easy to get swept up.

Ben Fanning: 00:28:07

And Zach's like, I'm going to do this.

Ben Fanning: 00:28:09

And so next year they went.

Ben Fanning: 00:28:11

It was incredible for them, for us, we loved it.

Ben Fanning: 00:28:15

We started cooking on this podcast idea and they were like, you know what?

Ben Fanning: 00:28:19

We're.

Ben Fanning: 00:28:19

We were out at a.

Ben Fanning: 00:28:21

We were up in Asheville on vacation or something like that.

Ben Fanning: 00:28:23

And Zach's like, hey, I just bought these tickets to see BJ Bar plan his second show ever at the Ryman in Nashville.

Ben Fanning: 00:28:32

I thought, yeah, and also a bucket.

Zach Schultz: 00:28:35

List venue for us because we had never been there, so.

Ben Fanning: 00:28:38

And we had not.

Ben Fanning: 00:28:40

And as you know, hanging out with Zach, I get really overly exuberant sometimes.

Ben Fanning: 00:28:44

And I immediately bought tickets there, too.

Ben Fanning: 00:28:47

And we all met later in Nashville.

Ben Fanning: 00:28:50

It was one of the coldest days in Nashville.

Ben Fanning: 00:28:52

The year was one degree.

Ben Fanning: 00:28:54

It was fine, covered in ice.

Ben Fanning: 00:28:56

I'm from Charleston.

Ben Fanning: 00:28:57

This was kind of weird for us.

Ben Fanning: 00:28:59

Outside, we're thermal underwear.

Ben Fanning: 00:29:01

Zach thought that was hilarious.

Ben Fanning: 00:29:02

He's like, this is not that cold.

Ben Fanning: 00:29:03

I'm like, zach, it's one.

Ben Fanning: 00:29:05

But we walked around.

Ben Fanning: 00:29:06

I had a great time in Nashville.

Ben Fanning: 00:29:09

BJ just blew the.

Ben Fanning: 00:29:12

Blew the lid off the rhyme, and it was wonderful.

Ben Fanning: 00:29:15

Over dinner, we started cooking on this podcast, and here we are.

Zach Schultz: 00:29:20

Yeah.

Zach Schultz: 00:29:21

And it's been really fun.

Ben Fanning: 00:29:23

And y'all.

Ben Fanning: 00:29:23

Y'all, we are.

Ben Fanning: 00:29:24

We're at the tip of the iceberg of what's coming.

Ben Fanning: 00:29:28

So ways that you can be a part of this, I want.

Ben Fanning: 00:29:32

I wanted to make sure that we say this.

Ben Fanning: 00:29:35

This is not just Zach and I as we see it.

Ben Fanning: 00:29:37

It's the artist and artist community, which we're highlighting, but it's about you, the listeners, and so ways that you can participate.

Ben Fanning: 00:29:45

One, follow the Americana Curious podcast over on Instagram, and if you want to connect directly with Zach and I, our profiles are over there, too.

Zach Schultz: 00:29:56

Okay.

Ben Fanning: 00:29:57

And two, if you've got recommendations of bands or, you know, someone in a band that you think is all, you know, it really aligns with this mission and has a great story to tell.

Ben Fanning: 00:30:06

We want the story.

Ben Fanning: 00:30:07

We want them and the story and their music.

Ben Fanning: 00:30:10

So reach out to Zach or myself, and we'll try to work.

Ben Fanning: 00:30:14

Work on that scheduling and also, you know, leave us a review on Spotify or Apple because we love the feedback and it helps other people understand what the show's about ultimately, so they can enjoy it, too.

Ben Fanning: 00:30:31

So that said, we're going to rock out of here.

Ben Fanning: 00:30:33

Zach, I'll give you the.

Ben Fanning: 00:30:34

I'll give you the parting thought.

Zach Schultz: 00:30:36

Oh, I was just going to say thanks, Ben, for doing this, because, I mean, it really has been really fun.

Zach Schultz: 00:30:43

And what we thought over dinner, all those times we talked about it was just a funny thought.

Zach Schultz: 00:30:48

It's.

Zach Schultz: 00:30:49

It's come true, and it's.

Zach Schultz: 00:30:50

It's really a great time.

Zach Schultz: 00:30:51

It really is fun.

Ben Fanning: 00:30:52

A lot of fun, y'all.

Zach Schultz: 00:30:54

You're so gosh darn good at your job.

Ben Fanning: 00:30:57

That's what I try to do.

Zach Schultz: 00:30:58

I'm not a professional, so I don't want criticism.

Ben Fanning: 00:31:01

Yeah, you can.

Ben Fanning: 00:31:02

You can direct your criticism at me.

Zach Schultz: 00:31:04

No.

Zach Schultz: 00:31:05

Well, you're not.

Ben Fanning: 00:31:06

Feel free.

Ben Fanning: 00:31:06

I respect that.

Zach Schultz: 00:31:07

Yeah.

Zach Schultz: 00:31:08

But, you know, my son says that this is not a podcast until you're on YouTube next to Logan Paul, so he refuses to listen.

Ben Fanning: 00:31:18

Hey, boy.

Ben Fanning: 00:31:18

Well, the YouTube thing's coming for us.

Ben Fanning: 00:31:20

We're choosing to really focus on Instagram and Spotify and Apple and Amazon, but YouTube will be coming soon, and then the insults can really fly.

Zach Schultz: 00:31:30

Yes, thank you.

Ben Fanning: 00:31:32

But.

Ben Fanning: 00:31:33

But anyway, everybody signing out.

Ben Fanning: 00:31:37

Check out it.

Ben Fanning: 00:31:38

Check us out on the next Americana Curious.

Ben Fanning: 00:31:43

Thanks for joining Zach and I for this episode of Americana Curious.

Ben Fanning: 00:31:48

Subscribe where you listen to your podcast so you are notified when a new episode is released.

Ben Fanning: 00:31:53

I'm Ben Fanning, and it's been great sharing these artists and music with you.

Ben Fanning: 00:31:57

Until next time, stay Americana curious.