The Lone Bellow - Zach Williams, TRAUMA TO TRIUMPH
TRAUMA TO TRIUMPH: THE BIRTH OF THE LONE BELLOW 🎙️
What if heartbreak could spark healing?
This episode of Americana Curious is one for the soul. 🎧 We sit down with Zach Williams—frontman of The Lone Bellow—to uncover the raw story of how a life-altering accident became the catalyst for a musical movement.
đź’” A broken neck.
🎸 A journal turned song.
🔥 A voice discovered in a Starbucks open mic.
🌆 A Brooklyn bond that became a band.
From writing his first songs while his wife recovered from paralysis, to packing out Bowery Ballroom before the debut album dropped, Zach shares how community, creativity, and courage built The Lone Bellow.
We talk family. We talk fire (literally). We talk Americana as the healing balm a generation is craving.
🎶 Harmonies that make you cry.
🎤 Live shows that feel like revival.
đź“ş A cabin show on Magnolia Network.
And why Americana music just might save us all.
🎙️ Tap the link in bio to hear the full episode and get inspired.
👇 Drop a 🎧 if you’re listening. Tag someone who needs to hear this.
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Transcript
We were riding horses.
Speaker A:My wife rode off on one of the horses.
Speaker A:She had broken her neck.
Speaker A:She was never supposed to move from her neck down again.
Speaker B:Is that where it shifted?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:That was the first time I had let myself go.
Speaker A:I just fell in love with singing songs with people in a room.
Speaker C:Zach Williams, the compelling frontman of the Lone Bellow.
Speaker C:They've released six studio albums and one live album, including the critically acclaimed Love Songs for Losers.
Speaker A:Before we released the first record in New York, there was a community of people that knew every single word by heart.
Speaker A:All those suits would come out to these shows and it would be a sold out show at Bowery Ballroom.
Speaker B:Truly incredible.
Speaker A:A Lone Bellows show.
Speaker A:We are trying to be a part of a moment that a group of people in a room all create together.
Speaker A:When they do, it's otherworldly, man.
Speaker A:It's awesome.
Speaker C:Americana is you invite and you create your community.
Speaker A:Yeah, man.
Speaker A:Americana.
Speaker A:It's gonna be a healing bomb.
Speaker A:A generation of people.
Speaker C:Americana music transforms the world and unfortunately, too many are unaware of its profound impact.
Speaker C: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.
Speaker C:This show makes it happen in a fun and entertaining, entertaining way.
Speaker C: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.
Speaker C:I'm Ben Fanning and my co host Zach Schultz.
Speaker C:It's time to get Americana curious.
Speaker C:Hey there everybody.
Speaker C:Welcome back to Amera.
Speaker C:Kind of curious.
Speaker C:So what if the most profound music emerges from the deepest trials, transforming personal pain into collective healing?
Speaker C:Well, today we welcome Zach Williams, the compelling frontman of the Lone Bellow, a band that has masterfully woven personal narratives into the fabric of Americana music.
Speaker C: ne Bellow in Brooklyn back in: Speaker C:12th alongside bandmates Kanin Donahue, Pipkin and Brian Elquist.
Speaker C:They've released six studio albums and one live album, including the critically acclaimed Love Songs for Losers recorded in Roy Orbinson's former home.
Speaker C:Their music, characterized by soaring, beautiful three part harmonies and heartfelt lyrics, has grace stages from Newport Folk Festival Bonnaroo and stagecoached even to the Late Night with David Letterman.
Speaker C:Beyond music, Zach and his wife Stacy share their life and creativity and the Magnolia Network show the Williams Family Cabin Woot.
Speaker C:Blending family renovation and and artistry.
Speaker C:Zach, welcome to Americana Curious, my friend.
Speaker A:What's up, guys?
Speaker A:Hello.
Speaker A:Thank you for that beautiful intro.
Speaker B:Your story of how you began writing songs is truly incredible, and it revolves around your wife.
Speaker B:Would you mind telling our audience that story?
Speaker A:Yeah, sure.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So my wife and I have been married for, like, 22 or 23 years.
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker A: Got married in: Speaker A:That's all I know.
Speaker A:You nailed it, and thank you.
Speaker A:And Mother's Day is coming up, and I'm also gonna nail that.
Speaker A:No, yeah, thanks.
Speaker A:Yeah, I mentioned it on the podcast.
Speaker A:That's all that needs to happen, right?
Speaker A:I don't need to be, like, dinner or a gift or anything.
Speaker A:Like, we'll send it.
Speaker A:I'll just tell her, like, hey, this podcast is going to come out in a couple weeks.
Speaker A:Happy Mother's Day.
Speaker A:No.
Speaker A:So we got married really young, and like, a year into our marriage, we were living down in Florida.
Speaker A:This hurricane came.
Speaker A:And me and all my buddies, we all went up to the farm that I grew up on in Georgia together when.
Speaker A:Because we were like.
Speaker A:It was one of those hurricanes where, like, they evacuated the city that we live in.
Speaker A:So we all went up to my old farm, and the next day we saddled up some horses, and we were riding horses, and my wife rode off on one of the horses, and like, a few minutes later, the horse came back with no one riding the horse.
Speaker A:And my best buddy and I, Caleb Clardy, like, went and found her in the field, and she had broken her neck.
Speaker A:She had broken, like, C1, C3, C5, and C6.
Speaker A:And long story short, we went to several hospitals.
Speaker A:She was never supposed to move from her neck down again.
Speaker A:We ended up at this place called the shepherd center in Atlanta.
Speaker A:And my friends would, like, come and visit me at the hospital we were living at.
Speaker A:And I was going through classes to, like, learn how to, like, feed her and bathe her and just on our new life.
Speaker A:And my friends would come up and visit me, and I would read them these journal entries because I think that.
Speaker A:I think I was going through, like, some sort of, like, grief and trauma, and so I wasn't feeling things, but I.
Speaker A:It was like an outer body experience.
Speaker A:I knew I wasn't feeling things.
Speaker A:So there was, like, a part of my brain that was worried about another part of my brain.
Speaker A:So I would read them these journal entries, and they dared me.
Speaker A:They were like, hey, you should learn how to play the guitar and sing at the same time and go and sing these journal entries, like, at an open mic or something, because I had to go to bed every night at 9 o' clock and leave Stacy at the hospital.
Speaker A:So I practiced the guitar for a little while and I went to this weird open mic at a Starbucks at like 5pm and tried to sing one of the journal entries.
Speaker A:And man, that was the first time that I just really experienced like, the kindness of strangers in a room.
Speaker A:And I don't know, we all like, cried together.
Speaker A:That was the first time I had, like, kind of let myself go.
Speaker A:And after that, like, I just fell in love with live, like singing songs with people in a room and then also trying to write songs.
Speaker A:And my buddies and I made a pact.
Speaker A:I started playing a lot of, a lot of open mics and then started playing shows even.
Speaker A:And my buddies were like, hey, if Stacy like miraculously gets better, let's all move to New York City together and like, pursue our dreams.
Speaker A:Because we all grew up watching Friends in Seinfeld, right?
Speaker A:So she miraculously healed, which is a whole other story in itself.
Speaker A:So then me and my 10, like, best buds from college all moved to New York together and yeah, I started cutting my teeth and.
Speaker A:And the like, New York singer, songwriter scene probably for several years before I started the Lone Bellow.
Speaker A:It was a beautiful time.
Speaker B:So you've said.
Speaker B:I've heard you say that you try to write from joy rather than sorrow.
Speaker B:So is that kind of where it shifted or.
Speaker B:Well, how difficult is that when something like that's going on?
Speaker A:Yeah, it's not that I try to write out of joy rather than sorrow.
Speaker A:It's that I just don't want to be afraid to write out of joy.
Speaker A:And I don't want to need sorrow to try to create something that I'm proud of.
Speaker A:I want to try to also create things that I'm proud of out of joy.
Speaker A:So, yeah, I mean, it started very cathartic, very like, heavy.
Speaker A: ke this was back in the early: Speaker A:A life altering experience.
Speaker A:And Ken Rockwood owned this place called Rockwood Music hall in New York.
Speaker A:And he had started an imprint label with this guy named Pete Gambard.
Speaker A:And Pete was like the head of Atlantic Records back then in New York, and they, they were thinking about signing me.
Speaker A:And it was like the, it was like the Hudsucker Proxy kind of building.
Speaker A:Like, I went all the way up this huge elevator and sat down at his massive office that looked like the office from Spider Man.
Speaker A:And I remember he was like, hey, I don't want to have to wait for another sad thing to happen to you, for you to write a good song.
Speaker A:I was like, oh, yeah, that's a really hard thing to hear.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker A:But I also didn't want that either.
Speaker A:I didn't want to just write out of pain.
Speaker A:So I don't know.
Speaker A:That was kind of a wake up call for me.
Speaker A:But, yeah, I didn't end up signing with.
Speaker A:With Pete Gambard.
Speaker A:And I remember Ken Rockwood's mom was like this old school Lower east side lady.
Speaker A:She was, like, in her 90s.
Speaker A:And when she found out that Pete said that to me and also was like, we're not going to work with you, she actually broke into the Atlanta Record Atlantic Records building, like, the next day.
Speaker A:And that old lady made her way all the way up past security to Pete's office and, like, barged in and was like, you screwed up with that Zach Williams kid.
Speaker A:And I've never met that woman, but, man, she's my freaking hero.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker C:Maybe we all have somebody like that.
Speaker A:In our life, right?
Speaker C:So when you.
Speaker C:I'm trying to imagine back in those.
Speaker C:In the Starbucks days, were you.
Speaker C:Did you discover your.
Speaker C:You talked about your songwriting, but that big voice you have, is that something developed?
Speaker C:Or did you just come on Starbucks and you're like, I'm about to wake y' all up in here with this.
Speaker B:You won't need coffee.
Speaker B:You'll be awake.
Speaker C:Coffee.
Speaker A:The first time that I, like, tried to sing in front of people, I was.
Speaker A:I was.
Speaker A:I was in high school, and it was like a senior.
Speaker A:It was like a comp.
Speaker A:It was so stupid.
Speaker A:But it was, like a competition with boys, and everybody had to, like, show their talent, and I didn't have a talent, so.
Speaker A:And I also thought that the competition was stupid, but I was invited to it.
Speaker A:So I, like, went.
Speaker A:I attended the competition and tried to make fun of it at the same time.
Speaker A:So I sang this song called Dead Skunk in the middle of the road.
Speaker B:Loud and Wainwright.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And I sang it as hard and loud as I could.
Speaker A:And I think that I was just, like, joking, but I, like, heard or felt something come out of my body.
Speaker A:And I was like, whoa, I can hit that big note that I just tried to hit.
Speaker A:Like, that was funny.
Speaker A:That was fun.
Speaker A:And my friends were like, that was so funny that you, like, sang that stupid song, but you, like, sing it really loud.
Speaker A:And then they would, like, have me come and do it, like, at parties.
Speaker A:So I would, like.
Speaker B:It's all because of Dead Skunk.
Speaker A:All because of Dead skunk in the middle of the road, man.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And then, like, I forgot about it.
Speaker A:And then a couple years later, I was in college, and I was living with my now bandmate, Brian Numquist.
Speaker A:And I was like, in the shower singing Drops of Jupiter, and he, like, barged in.
Speaker A:He was like, you should try to sing in front of people.
Speaker A:And you're like, I don't know, feeling that, like, confidence just, like, from a friend.
Speaker A:Like, that's all I needed, man.
Speaker A:I just needed somebody to go like, hey, go freak yourself out and try this.
Speaker C:Fast forward on that story.
Speaker C:So Zach and I were.
Speaker C:Road trip to Raleigh.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Oh, cool.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:You know what I'm talking about.
Speaker A:Yeah, man.
Speaker C:And you and your band, you were there, three of y' all.
Speaker C:And I've never heard anything quite like that.
Speaker C:It was.
Speaker C:We were all piled up in there.
Speaker C:That was a tight.
Speaker C:I mean, we were packed in there like sardines.
Speaker C:And you three come up there.
Speaker C:I think some people thought, oh, it's going to be like a full band.
Speaker C:No, it's three people.
Speaker C:But it sounded like an explosion of just sound.
Speaker C:And Zach and I, I think, were in tears with everybody else by the end of it.
Speaker B:I know My wife literally was in tears.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:So maybe.
Speaker C:So I'm kind of taking us forward and back in time.
Speaker C:So what happened when you all three came together?
Speaker C:Because there's a long time between you and solo.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:And then there's that moment when the three of you come together, and then it seemed like something clicked.
Speaker C:So what was it like?
Speaker B:How do you discover those harmonies?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So I was in.
Speaker A:I was living in Brooklyn.
Speaker A:I was doing my thing.
Speaker A:Brian was in Nashville.
Speaker A:He had his own band.
Speaker A:Canine was in Beijing.
Speaker A:She was living in China, like, studying Mandarin.
Speaker A:And like, I.
Speaker A:I think she was, like, reading textbooks.
Speaker A:Like English textbooks.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker A:But.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker A:The first time I sang with Kenneen was at her brother's wedding.
Speaker A:She flew home from Beijing, and we sang oh, Happy Day together at her brother's wedding in Nashville.
Speaker A:And I was like, whoa, that was fun singing with her.
Speaker A:And then she went back to Beijing, and Brian and I had, like, we'd sung together.
Speaker A:We'd done a couple little tours together.
Speaker A:Like, I've always loved Brian's voice.
Speaker A:He's got this big.
Speaker A:He.
Speaker A:Brian was like, an all State Division 1 football player in Georgia, and at the same time was in, like, a state champion barbershop quartet.
Speaker A:So he's this, like, larger than life person that also is very sensitive and musical.
Speaker C:Wow.
Speaker A:So I don't know.
Speaker A:Stacy and I went through some like, horrible times in our marriage and I was writing all these sad songs from that.
Speaker A:And I think Brian came to one of my solo shows and like, saw me try to sing one of them and was like, drawn to it.
Speaker A:And then we met up and started just like, went to the Bar four open mic one night and sang this song called the one you should have let go.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:And then like the next day like.
Speaker A:Like we were at the open mic to like 3 or 4 in the morning.
Speaker A:And then the next day it was like, hey, let's put a little band together and just have some fun.
Speaker A:And we did one rehearsal at like 9 in the morning with like 8 people.
Speaker A:And everyone in the room was like, this is something.
Speaker A:So we immediately started working on songs and recorded our first record at Rockwood Music hall, like three or four months later.
Speaker A:And then we sat on that record for two years and we only played shows in New York.
Speaker A:But the fun thing was is before we released the first record, there was a community of people in New York that all knew every single word by heart.
Speaker A:So when we were like launching the thing and trying to figure out the label and stuff, all those suits would come out to these shows and it would be like a sold out show at Bowery Ballroom.
Speaker A:And everybody in the room knew every word to an album that had never been released.
Speaker A:So I think that like, just all of that communal gathering and creating together is like, is the lone bellow.
Speaker A:And even now, 13 years later, I still see ourselves as an extension of that group of friends in New York.
Speaker A:Giving back the love we found.
Speaker A:I'm so tired of the screaming sh.
Speaker A:We're all drinking from that Triumph Just.
Speaker B:A tag on to the road trip to Raleigh played.
Speaker B:I mean, John Prine is a big inspiration to this, this podcast.
Speaker B:And you told your story of writing Homesick, which is just a beautiful song, but.
Speaker B:And then you posted it again on your feed on the anniversary of his death.
Speaker B:And I found it interesting how you wrote.
Speaker B:You woke up from bed, wrote the song, and went back to bed peacefully.
Speaker B:Yeah, and I love that.
Speaker B:So tell me a little bit about that, that time in your life.
Speaker B:Like, cold.
Speaker A:Yeah, man, it was.
Speaker A:It was like dead in the middle of COVID It was when, like, stuff was going on in New York and LA that was freaking everyone out and people were dying and everyone was scared.
Speaker A:And you remember, you remember this time?
Speaker A:I remember I was mowing my lawn and I was listening to the New York Times.
Speaker A:I was listening to like the Daily or something.
Speaker A:And I got a text message from Jonathan Levine, and he's my agent, and he was also John Prine's agent.
Speaker A:And he told me that he had passed away.
Speaker A:And I was like, oh, my.
Speaker A:And he was furious because it was like a Covid related death.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:And there was just something about it, like, it just didn't feel like it was at.
Speaker A:At that time.
Speaker A:It just didn't feel like it was Brian's time to go.
Speaker A:And even like weeks later, like, I think that the same podcast, I think that the Daily did a thing where they like, interviewed all these people who had lost all of their loved ones.
Speaker A:And one of the people that they interviewed just for a few seconds, was like a family member of John Prine.
Speaker A:And I don't know.
Speaker A:Anyway, the night that I found out that John Prine, like, went to heaven, it was just one of those Covid times where we were all like, what is this?
Speaker A:What is going on?
Speaker A:What's happening in this?
Speaker A:Like, everything was so confusing.
Speaker A:We couldn't believe anything from any news or anything.
Speaker A:It was just like a total wash.
Speaker A:And I was trying to fall asleep and I had this line that was like, if you're homesick, it's your heart telling your mind that you love somebody, like, line.
Speaker A:So I went downstairs and I just like, wrote out a couple verses from some, like, core memories of like, growing up with my grandparents.
Speaker A:And that was it.
Speaker A:After.
Speaker A:It was like.
Speaker A:It was one of those lightning bolt songs.
Speaker A:So wrote the song in like five or ten minutes and then just went back to sleep.
Speaker A:And I think I just like, needed to.
Speaker A:To get it out and then go back to sleep.
Speaker A:That's where that came from.
Speaker A:But then, like, I.
Speaker A:I remember reaching out to Ms.
Speaker A:Fiona and I don't know, I.
Speaker A:I just.
Speaker A:I'm so honored that this song has kind of helped a little bit in whatever way.
Speaker A:You never know.
Speaker A:It's somebody else's song now.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:And you guys had your own album come out, what about a couple months before kind of all that?
Speaker B:Because I know I.
Speaker B:I leaned into that one days.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:We.
Speaker A:We made a record called Half moonlight at a studio called Long Pond, that producer named Aaron Desner.
Speaker A:It was our second record that we made with Aaron.
Speaker A:Aaron, he's from the national and he had just done his golden record, his golden messenger record.
Speaker A:And he just did the Bonnie Light Horseman, the first record.
Speaker A:So he was like, hum.
Speaker A:And he was finding something beautiful.
Speaker A:He always is.
Speaker A:And we went in and made that record and then we released it.
Speaker A:And like, three days later, Covid happened, and then we were all bombed.
Speaker A:And then he made that secret record with Bon Iver and Taylor Swift, right?
Speaker A:And won, like, record of the year.
Speaker A:So we were like, man, we warmed you up, dude.
Speaker A:We warmed the studio.
Speaker A:Got it all nice and cozy for Taylor Swift and Bon Iver.
Speaker C:Was that that.
Speaker C:And that was the Netflix?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:Was that the studio that you recorded in that one?
Speaker C:Yeah, Netflix special on.
Speaker A:Yeah, man.
Speaker C:You gotta go back and get your Netflix special in there.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Dang.
Speaker A:Come on.
Speaker A:I think it was Disney, dude.
Speaker A:I think Disney did it.
Speaker C:Or it was Disney.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker B:I'd like to take note about the Homesick song.
Speaker B:I wake up in the morning and nothing happens.
Speaker B:I just go back to bed.
Speaker B:Nothing special happens.
Speaker C:Waiting for Zach's masterpiece.
Speaker A:If you're home sick it's your heart telling your mind that you love somebody you got regret There's a possibility that you got something to check off you.
Speaker A:Liz.
Speaker A:It's a long walk home and a short life to live.
Speaker C:So sort of speaking of famous locations to do your records.
Speaker C:Roy Orbison.
Speaker C:Hello.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:What was it like doing that?
Speaker C:And I guess why?
Speaker C:And what do you think?
Speaker C:Like, how does the environment contribute to incredible music?
Speaker A:For me personally, the environment is really, really important because it's, like, where my brain goes in between the times that I'm, like, not behind a microphone recording something.
Speaker A:So, like, when we're in the studio, I don't play that many instruments when we record.
Speaker A:I don't.
Speaker A:I honestly don't like being in the studio that much.
Speaker A:I'm kind of a live guy.
Speaker A:And Brian and Kenneen, everybody else loves being in the studio.
Speaker A:I just get really antsy.
Speaker A:So, yeah, so basically, during.
Speaker A:During COVID I started wandering out and, like, how can I explain this?
Speaker A:I was drawn to these, like, abandoned cabins in the woods.
Speaker A:And me and my buddy Chris, like, got into one of them, and there was, like.
Speaker A:It was hilarious.
Speaker A:It was all this graffiti inside, like, years and years of, like, high school kids, like, going in there and smoking weed, probably.
Speaker A:And I remember they had all these things.
Speaker A:They thought that they had drawn, like, Satan, like, stars, but they had accidentally all just drawn stars of David, which I thought was hilarious.
Speaker A:So it made it.
Speaker A:Made it a little less scary.
Speaker A:But I found out that the guy that built all these cabins that were abandoned is this man named Braxton Dixon.
Speaker A:So I did some research, and I found his widow.
Speaker A:And I went and had, like, tea with her at her house.
Speaker A:And this house was wild.
Speaker A:Like, basically, when Braxton Dixon Would build a house.
Speaker A:He would like, go on a road trip with his wife all around America for like a year or two and collect all the stuff that he would build the house out of.
Speaker A:So all of his houses are like old barns and cabins and stuff.
Speaker A:And he would build these like mansions for country stars in the 60s, 70s and 80s.
Speaker A:So he built 55 houses while he was alive.
Speaker A:The first one when he was 14 and his last, the last one when he was like 93.
Speaker A:And they were all in the Nashville area.
Speaker A:A lot of them burned down.
Speaker A:Tammy Wynette's burned down.
Speaker A:Roy Orbison's first house that he built him burned down.
Speaker A:And actually like that's where like his sons passed away in that fire.
Speaker A:Johnny Cash's house that was right next to this Roy Orbison house.
Speaker A:Barry Gibbs accidentally burned it down.
Speaker A:It's just like crazy fire lore.
Speaker A:I think that Braxton, like did all of his electrical and I think he wasn't very good at it.
Speaker C:Maybe get out of the cabin immediately, sir.
Speaker A:But the second house that he built for Orbison, that was right next to Johnny Cash's burned down house, and right across the street from the house that Cash passed away in was the house that we found through Braxton.
Speaker A:Dixon's wife, a widow, and me and this man named Matt Moore just reached out to the guy that owned it.
Speaker A:He's like some rich man in Chicago that was like a big Orbison fan and just cold called him and asked him if we could make it a studio.
Speaker A:And he gave us the house for like two months.
Speaker A:And Matt had all this awesome recording gear.
Speaker A:And so we made the whole house a studio.
Speaker A:And then dead in the middle of recording, my buddies, Ralph Lauren has a quiet line called Double rl and they've, they always have made like, really beautiful stuff.
Speaker A:I wanted them to come down and look at it.
Speaker A:So they came down and looked at it.
Speaker A:They ended up doing their holiday shoot in the same house while we were making the record.
Speaker A:And then we all, all of us, we all made a 45 minute documentary in the Living room where we invited like, like Carolyn Cash and all these like, bluegrass players from the jalopy scene in Brooklyn and then Cedric Burnside from that world, like all these like really rad players.
Speaker A:And we all just like, basically the living room used to be a place where, like, it was back when Cash was trying to talk Bob Dylan into buying a house in Nashville.
Speaker A:Dylan was making the Nashville Project.
Speaker A:So it was like when all that stuff was going on, they would have these like, hangs and These concerts and this living room of this house.
Speaker A:So we.
Speaker A:We did.
Speaker A:We did a live show in the living room with all those folks, and it was so inspiring.
Speaker A:And nobody's ever seen the documentary.
Speaker A:I mean, it just lives on YouTube.
Speaker A:Frustrating Ralph and just like, put it up.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's out there.
Speaker A:It's called.
Speaker A:It's called Bread and Jam.
Speaker A:Double rl.
Speaker A:Bread and Jam.
Speaker C:What a.
Speaker C:What a powerful thing.
Speaker C:So for you, the.
Speaker C:Like we say, the space matters.
Speaker C:You really mean.
Speaker C:You take a lot of creative inspiration, and then Americana is.
Speaker C:You invite and you create your community into this space to enjoy it and create, like, it's.
Speaker A:Yeah, man.
Speaker C:Mellow idea.
Speaker C:Where earlier when you started out, like, hey, we're still the lone bellow is the people.
Speaker C:It is the people with us.
Speaker A:And yeah, yeah, we really love hosting things.
Speaker A:I mean, the McCrary sisters came out, and, man, it was awesome.
Speaker A:It's all.
Speaker A:It's all there.
Speaker A:I think that we got maybe Merle Haggard's.
Speaker A:I think it was Merle Haggard's old limousine.
Speaker A:We found it, and it had suicide doors, and we had everybody come to the house in his old limousine.
Speaker A:It's awesome.
Speaker A:We spent so much money, you guys, that will never, ever, ever get back.
Speaker B:Oh, that's funny.
Speaker B:You.
Speaker B:Well, it seems like you like those type of place.
Speaker B:You are.
Speaker B:You got a fall tour coming up in your.
Speaker B:Yeah, maybe playing in the Ryman.
Speaker B:Have you guys headlined the Ryman before or.
Speaker A:We have.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:What's it like that place?
Speaker B:I mean, we've been there, but your end.
Speaker A:Yeah, man.
Speaker A:I mean, the Ryman, for me, you know how grandparents, like, start to tell, like, maybe the same three stories over and over as they get older?
Speaker A:One of the three stories that my grandpa would tell over and over again is he drove.
Speaker A:When he was a young man, he drove up from Atlanta to Nashville and snuck in to the back door of the Ryman to shake Earl Scrugg's hand.
Speaker A:And he told me that same story 70 or 80 times.
Speaker A:And I would have to, like, act like he never told me before.
Speaker A:So that was always the rhyming to me was like, this is where my grandpa snuck in.
Speaker A:I mean, it still is that to me.
Speaker A:And it has.
Speaker A:You can feel it.
Speaker A:You can feel that mystique.
Speaker A:Like, it's almost like you can feel like that Loretta Lynn moment and just all of the insanity that happened.
Speaker A:Roy Acuff, like, the street that I'm on right now is a street called Brush Hill.
Speaker A:And, like, Roy Acuff built all these old cabins and fishing Cottages all right here.
Speaker A:And that's, like, where we're at right now.
Speaker A:So the ryman that.
Speaker A:That storyteller history that lives in the Ryman, you can feel it in the.
Speaker A:In the green room, and you can feel it on stage, and it's.
Speaker A:It's an honor, man.
Speaker A:It's insane.
Speaker C:I feel like you're.
Speaker C:You have a unique perspective on this question I'm about to ask.
Speaker C:It's a big one.
Speaker C:Where is music headed for us, the listeners, and for you, the artists?
Speaker C:Because I.
Speaker C:It feels like there's some big, big winds of blowing here with number one, the streaming thing is here to stay, and it's becoming.
Speaker C:It was already kind of corporatey, but now it's really driven by that.
Speaker C:Also.
Speaker C:Music festivals, my.
Speaker C:This is My.
Speaker C:This is not a fact.
Speaker C:This is my opinion.
Speaker C:Have become more.
Speaker C:Very More commercialized, where they used to be sort of more homegrown, and bands would start their own festival and try to break that.
Speaker C:Now they're getting out of that.
Speaker C:It.
Speaker C:It.
Speaker C:It feels like.
Speaker C:And I'm just not quite sure that.
Speaker A:It happened in Charleston.
Speaker A:I mean, it happened in your city with high water.
Speaker C:I was hoping not to speak.
Speaker C:I wasn't.
Speaker C:I was hoping not to actually say that.
Speaker C:Yeah, Shovels and row is out of it, and I would just add it.
Speaker A:And I talked to them about it.
Speaker A:I mean, that they were like.
Speaker A:They were heartbroken about how that all went down.
Speaker A:Like, it was like, a mess.
Speaker C:Well, what is it?
Speaker A:Ticketmaster?
Speaker A:Who is it that takes over?
Speaker A:Like, a band will start a festival, it'll be awesome, and then, like, Ticketmaster or whatever will come and take it.
Speaker A:Live Nation.
Speaker A:Yeah, they'll come and take it over.
Speaker C:So.
Speaker C:So from your perspective.
Speaker C:So I'm a little concerned.
Speaker C:And one of the reasons Zach and I are making this podcast and we're.
Speaker C:This is a passion project for us, is that we believe your message, your music and artists like you to Americana don't really have enough people listening to support money.
Speaker C:Well, to money support and support even broader than that.
Speaker C:Keep you creating for a lifetime.
Speaker C:And we believe our kids are.
Speaker C:Are gonna miss out, and it's not healthy for.
Speaker C:For the world to not to have it.
Speaker C:And so we're doing.
Speaker C:We're trying to do our part, but we don't feel like we're doing enough.
Speaker C:And we want to.
Speaker C:So we want to know his fam.
Speaker C:I want to hear your.
Speaker C:Your.
Speaker C:Your sort of general take, but also, what can we, as fans and Zach and I, as curators, podcast promoters, musicians, really, really go far and beyond to support you guys to your next level.
Speaker A:Well, thank you.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I mean, my personal opinion with it, I'm not saying it's true or real or anything, but like the way that I kind of what I've been seeing, especially having kids that are like my 16 and 14 year old, like, listen to their own thing and do their own thing.
Speaker A:I think that if we start.
Speaker A:Let's just start with the streaming stuff.
Speaker A:I think that like five years ago we were all like, pretty okay with it because there was still like humans putting together the playlists for streaming services.
Speaker A:So it was like, okay, this was curated by this person.
Speaker A:And over the past few years, it is like 99 robots now.
Speaker A:It's like algorithms.
Speaker A:You're just like, yeah, you're in their world.
Speaker A:And I don't know about you guys, but, like, my children are starting to notice it.
Speaker A:They haven't put words to it yet, but like their subconscious, their soul is like, I want something more.
Speaker A:I want something better.
Speaker A:This computer keeps playing me the same crap or stuff that sounds like that same crap.
Speaker A:I, I am, I've been encouraged with like my daughter, even my 16 year old and all of her homies because, like, there's a thing that's happening at least in, in her world.
Speaker A:And you guys tell me your perspective.
Speaker A:But like social media algorithms controlling what they listen to.
Speaker A:Like, we'll just start with those two things.
Speaker A:There's a new rebellion that's like coming up in their hearts where they're just like, no, I don't want to do social media.
Speaker A:So, like, my kid will like do 90s crap.
Speaker A:Like, she'll sneak out of the house in the middle of the night and steal a road sign.
Speaker A:I'm like, he can't.
Speaker A:You can't do that.
Speaker A:But that was.
Speaker A:That is really cool.
Speaker A:And that's way cooler than what I thought you were going to be doing, which was like some stupid thing on the computer.
Speaker A:So don't do that.
Speaker A:It's not safe.
Speaker A:But also cool.
Speaker A:But like the same thing with music.
Speaker A:Like, even yesterday, my daughter was like, hey, I read somewhere that like a sign that a high schooler is maturing is when they realize that their dad's music might not be as bad as we thought.
Speaker A:I was like, oh, yeah, tell me more about that.
Speaker A:She was like, well, you're listening to this new Bon Iver record.
Speaker A:And I'm like, it's really good.
Speaker A:And she's like, it is really good.
Speaker A:And I was like, name, name three or four artists that you think could learn from this Bon Iver record.
Speaker A:And I won't say who she said, but she named, like, four, like, really popular, dominant popular artists.
Speaker A:I was like, awesome.
Speaker A:And what do you think they can learn?
Speaker A:She was like, well, I mean, he's not afraid of space.
Speaker A:Like, things go silent for several moments, and then there's a big horn that comes in and I'm like, yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:Because he's trying to scare himself when he's, like, making a record.
Speaker A:And you as a human being can feel that.
Speaker A:So I personally think that the next generation that's coming up, I think that they're going to find their own way.
Speaker A:I think that they're.
Speaker A:There's a lot of them that are already going back to flip phones and are like, screw this whole thing.
Speaker A:You guys have wasted 20 years.
Speaker A:I don't want anything to do with this.
Speaker A:So I don't know, man.
Speaker A:I'm pretty encouraged.
Speaker A:And I also.
Speaker A:I also think that, like, let's say when you go festival, I'm just gonna go, like, live show in general.
Speaker A:Like, I take my daughters to a lot of concerts.
Speaker A:We've gone to a couple, and I won't name any names, but we've gone to a couple where it's like a brand new artist that's only done TikTok and has never played any real live shows.
Speaker A:We'll go and see them and y' all, they will bomb so hard.
Speaker A:Like, I get uncomfortable on behalf of others, so I'm, like, on the verge of throwing up the entire time.
Speaker A:I'm just.
Speaker A:I feel so bad for this young person that's up on the stage that, like, skipped cutting their teeth in a local music scene.
Speaker A:Never did open mic, never did anything.
Speaker A:Just started putting videos up on TikTok.
Speaker A:I think people are realizing that that that's not an actual, like, curated show that maybe you want to go to.
Speaker A:And there's other artists that, like, put their whole body and soul into curating a night and making it awesome.
Speaker A:And I think that gonna rise to the surface again.
Speaker A:I really do.
Speaker A:And I think that Americana is going to have a huge.
Speaker A:I think it's going to be like a healing bomb on a generation of people and great way.
Speaker A:I really do.
Speaker A:I think they're going to come to.
Speaker A:They're going to go to.
Speaker A:I mean, even.
Speaker A:Even the real popular guys that.
Speaker A:That, like, have a heart, like the Zach Bryans or the no Kahans, like, they're trying to say something.
Speaker A:They're trying to dig something out of their existence.
Speaker A:And my.
Speaker A:My kids can sense It.
Speaker A:And, and they want to hear it and they want to hear that more than just like bull crap.
Speaker B:Totally agree.
Speaker A:So, but we also, you know, we just got back from the Sza Kendrick Lamar show couple days ago and it was awesome.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker A:It was insane.
Speaker C:Take the whole family.
Speaker A:I took my two oldest girls and, and, and one of their best friends.
Speaker C:And what was their take on that?
Speaker A:I mean, loved it.
Speaker A:He's.
Speaker A:He is.
Speaker A:Kendrick is going through a profit phase in his life, I think.
Speaker A:Yeah, I think he's.
Speaker A:I mean, I love it because at the show he's.
Speaker A:They're starting to like, crack jokes about it, which I think is even more powerful because so many times, like an artist that like hits that level of clarity will just start to like, eat itself and like, get really mad and sad.
Speaker A:And I think that, I think that him and Siz are starting to like, crack jokes at like, how serious Kendrick's music is.
Speaker A:And it felt good.
Speaker A:It felt.
Speaker A:It felt like these, these, these people are like venturing into another realm of creativity on their own.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Show world.
Speaker C:But I've never thought it's like they, they could take themselves so seriously on this journey that it just collapses on itself.
Speaker C:But that.
Speaker C:Yeah, already being able to see what's happening on a big.
Speaker C:On a.
Speaker C:From a bigger perspective, that they're going to grow to another level through that maybe.
Speaker A:Or at least spark somebody else to do it.
Speaker C:Are you going to start rapping?
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, me and Joaquin Phoenix are gonna start rapping.
Speaker A:And Casey Affleck.
Speaker A:Yeah, we're gonna start a band.
Speaker C:Good, good.
Speaker A:A rap band.
Speaker B:100 would watch.
Speaker C:So starting to wrap this up.
Speaker C:I didn't get to the end part of that question, which is what can we do to support the lone Bella?
Speaker A:Oh, man.
Speaker A:I mean, that's so cool.
Speaker A:I mean, you're doing it like having these conversations.
Speaker A:It's.
Speaker A:It's the storytelling and it's giving people a chance to have long form conversations about what they've dedicated their life to.
Speaker A:That's amazing, man.
Speaker C:What about when we come to a show and.
Speaker A:Come to a show.
Speaker A:Yeah, come to a show.
Speaker A:We've got a new record coming out that we've been working on.
Speaker A:I don't know when it's going to come out, but yeah, we're releasing new music that we're excited about playing at our new shows coming up in the fall.
Speaker C:And what should people expect when they roll in to the show record?
Speaker A:I'm so bad at that question at answering that.
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker C:I think maybe what do you wish will happen when they walk out the door?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I think I see myself, like, more a part of the, like, hospitality community than I do, like, a lone bellow show.
Speaker A:We are trying to, like, be a part of.
Speaker A:Of a moment that a group of people in a room all create together.
Speaker A:It.
Speaker A:It's more of that and less of, like, come and watch us do our art, which is awesome, but it's more of, like, a.
Speaker A:Let's experience.
Speaker A:Let's create something all together here.
Speaker A:So some, like, when a crowd shows up and, like, doesn't want to go there with us, the show sucks.
Speaker A:But when they do, it's, like, otherworldly, man.
Speaker A:It's awesome.
Speaker C:Embrace the hospitality.
Speaker B:Thankfully, I've been at 2.
Speaker B:Two of your guys's shows, and both times the crowd was.
Speaker B:That was into it, so they were great shows go live.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:There's only, like, one show that I can think of where the crowd was super not into it.
Speaker A:And I think we just started making up words and going off in la La land.
Speaker B:That's great.
Speaker C:It's been so much fun, Zach, to have you on.
Speaker B:Yeah, you got a lot of great stories.
Speaker B:We couldn't keep four hours.
Speaker C:We'd love to host you again sometime, man.
Speaker A:Yeah, man.
Speaker A:I love what y' all are doing.
Speaker A:This is killer.
Speaker B:Appreciate it.
Speaker C:Thanks for joining Zach and I for this episode of Americana Curious.
Speaker C:Subscribe where you listen to your podcast so you are notified when I new episode is released.
Speaker C:I'm Ben Fanning and it's been great sharing these artists and music with you.
Speaker C:Until next time, stay Americana Curious.
