The Creekers: Kentucky & Bluegrass Music

[00:00:00] Hey everyone, welcome back to Whiskey Riff Raff. I'm Shelby. My name's Quinn and we wanted to tell you about Rock the Country. Celebrate 250 years of America with Rock the Country. Rock the Country is more than just a festival. It's a celebration of community, tradition, and the spirit that's carried America through 250 years. Coming to a small town near you in 2026 with Kid Rock, Jason Aldean, Ella Langley, Jelly Roll, and many, many more.

[00:00:25] Lots of good artists in there. And don't miss the action in Belleville, Texas, Bloomingdale, Georgia, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Ashland, Kentucky, Hastings, Michigan, Ocala, Florida, and Hamburg, New York. For the full schedule and lineup and to buy tickets now, you can go to rockthecountry.com and get ready to celebrate 250 years of freedom.

[00:00:54] Tanner and Ashton, welcome to Whiskey Riff Raff. I kind of want to just dive in introducing yourselves. I know you guys are two out of six of The Creekers. So I would love for you guys to introduce yourselves, say what you play, how people can recognize you in the band. I'm Tanner. I play the lead guitar and do about half the singing, about half the writing. My turn? Yeah. I'm Ashton. I play the cajon. Tanner calls me Thumper. You can recognize me by looking like Cousin It with my hair over my face.

[00:01:23] But yeah, I'm Ashton. Okay. Where does the nickname Thumper come from? Actually, I didn't give you that. Scott did. Did Scott give me that? Yep. Our banjo players start calling him because you're a thumper. You thump on that cajon box. You say so. We were talking about it before, about how many people think it's a Cajun and not a cajon. Yeah, you should hear the way people pronounce it. I've heard cajon, cajon. Cajon. Cajon, cajon.

[00:01:52] And most times... I don't have to say it's a box. Yeah, we just call it a box. But if you know it's a cajon, you know, but yeah. Yeah, the formal name is the cajon, but you guys probably just refer to it as like a, like you said, a box. A box, yeah. Because that's, I guess that's what it is, right? Yeah, it's a lot easier to explain that than cajon, really. Yeah. Yeah. Well, there's so many different angles we can kind of dive into. We love just sitting here listening to you guys talk. Quinn here is also from Kentucky.

[00:02:22] I am. Although he doesn't have the accent to match. I'm from Western Kentucky, so I know you guys are more Eastern Kentucky, but it's like the Kentucky, there's so much. Like, it's so diverse, really, if you think about it, especially once you get to the Eastern part, you're more in the mountains. I guess, you know, maybe just since you guys are from Eastern Kentucky, hail from there. Like, what's Eastern Kentucky to you all? How would you guys describe it to people that are listening, since that's where you all are from? I mean, to me, there's no place like home.

[00:02:51] I mean, we've traveled, you know, not as much as other people, but we've traveled a lot, and there's no other place like Eastern Kentucky, to me at least. You know, say, coming home from Nashville, as soon as you hit off the Mountain Parkway, is it the Mountain Parkway? Cumberland Parkway. Cumberland Parkway. And you hit into Somerset, London area there, it's like just Golden Arches just welcoming me home. And not McDonald's. Yes.

[00:03:17] There is McDonald's there, but no, I mean, it's just home to me. That's really the only way I can explain it. He said pretty much what I was going to say. Yeah. And it feels like Kentucky has a reputation that's growing, and you guys are a part of that. How does that feel? Oh, we're just a drop in the bucket compared to the rest of them. But, I mean, it's cool. And it's cool to get a chance to show off our hillbilly music we've always known.

[00:03:47] And it's like, oh, I'm sorry. And it's like, oh, I'm sorry. Bluegrass. Okay.

[00:04:15] Is how I usually say it. You know, we do a lot of old stuff, but all of our original stuff is, I wouldn't call that. But, you know, we all love it. Or I do, anyway. It's the only thing I ever played for years. Since about the seventh grade, I guess, is when I started my first bluegrass band. What was it called? I don't remember. My uncle played the banjo.

[00:04:43] I was the youngest one in the band. I was like 13, 12, 13. That's a nice way to get to learn. And what do you think that distinction is between, you know, like normal, I don't know, general country music and bluegrass? Mostly, more or less just the instruments. You know, it's a lot of the same subjects. It's just mainly just the instruments, I guess. I'm bluegrass through and through, but I just like country music.

[00:05:12] But, you know, just in general, I was raised on it more than I was anything else. And so was Scott and so was Jagger, which is a banjo player and a bass player. And then this one here didn't like me at all. I hated bluegrass. I hated bluegrass until I started playing with the Creekers. Alan didn't like it either until I corrupted him as a system. And then, you know, I think the steel drivers were who got me into it, really.

[00:05:40] But, yeah, before that, like my brother, Jagger, who's the bass player, he would always, you know, be listening to Ralph Stanley or Lonesome River Band or somebody like that. And me and him would fight so much just over the radio, like, turn that off. No, you sitting back there, I got shotgun. But, yeah. You two still argue like that. Yeah. Not as much over music.

[00:06:06] But it's not a situation where, like, if someone comes up to you and refers to you as a bluegrass band, you're not going to be offended. No, absolutely not. No. But I totally understand what you guys are saying. Most of the time, it would be a compliment to me. Yeah. But, like, to me, most bluegrass bands, which I don't know if Tanner would agree on this, but, like, we're more contemporary, I would say, because we have a cajon. And I feel like OG bluegrass people would frown upon that. So you're standing in between.

[00:06:35] Well, you know, I thought that, too. And we've played some more traditional-type festivals. And people's loved it so far. Oh, yeah. Everybody's loved it. But, like, the Osborne Brothers, they all had drums back in the day, when you think about it. Jimmy Martin. Jimmy Martin, yeah. The king of bluegrass. So I think it's just coming back to the roots is what I'm going to say about it. Yeah, I was – I ain't going to lie, I didn't like the cajon idea at first. And I say at first it was for about five minutes. And he won me over pretty fast.

[00:07:05] Because, see, I knew Jagger a long time, his older brother. But I had no idea who he was the first time I said, who is that? That's Jagger's brother. Oh, I didn't know he had a brother. But, yeah, about five or ten minutes, he had me won over. And now I can't play without him. Right. It just don't sound right to me. Were you playing something specifically that – do you remember what was – I don't remember. I have no idea. There might have been a few – Was it at my uncle's garage? Yep. And there was – I'm sure it was some –

[00:07:35] There was some alcoholic beverages involved. And I don't remember what – I mean, I remember it, but I don't remember what song it was. I feel like now's a good time to kind of backtrack then and kind of explain how the Creekers came to be. Kind of who were the founding members. You mentioned that there were four members at first and then six. Kind of – can you guys kind of explain how they all came to be? Well, me and Alan went to high school together.

[00:08:02] We're cousins, but we never really hung out much. We'd kind of – if we had – one of us would usually always bring a guitar to school, mostly me, because I packed one everywhere I went. But I couldn't leave the house without it. But usually they'd be a guitar around even at school, and we'd be sitting in the hallway or something. And I'd – you know, I might be playing something. He'd walk up and start singing.

[00:08:30] And I thought, back on that boy can sing. And, you know, I – you know, like I said, I knew who he was and all that, but that's about all the extent of it. And then we – I got out of high school, and I got in a – more or less a garage band, a country band with some boys. And Alan wound up joining it. And, well, that come to an abrupt end. That's a long story there. But when I left it, Alan said, well, if you're leaving it, so am I.

[00:09:00] So we did, and we started just – me and him just started playing around every little place we could get into. And that went on for a year or two. And then I went solo. Alan got a – you know, got a job, moved off, went working, and you know how that goes. And still talked to him a bunch. But I was still doing a solo thing. I've always – I've never stopped playing music in one form or fashion.

[00:09:26] But he showed up to one of my solo shows one night, and he said, man, we all start playing again. I said, I'm ready. Let's go. You didn't stop. Yeah. Yeah. And he'd been jamming around with him and Jagger, Ashton Jagger here. And he said, well, I've been playing with – This was just like lake days too, like just chilling around a campfire playing. Like we wasn't doing it for money. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:09:53] Alan lived in a lake – or in a campground on the lake. He said, well, I've been jamming with these boys. And I said – you know, he said, Jagger and Ashton. I said, well, I know Jagger. I don't know who you're talking about. You know, talking about him. I didn't know him. But I said, yeah, let's go. I said, I already got gigs lined up. And that's where – his uncle's garage is where it all started. We went up there one night, more or less just a jam. And what, I had a – we practiced one more time after that.

[00:10:23] You actually had a house. And then I had us a gig in Cumberland Gap, Tennessee for $50. At the Caboose Saloon. At the Caboose Saloon. One of the last bars I know of. You can – Smoke inside. Yeah, walk right up to the bar and light a cigarette. And I love that place. You got a – I think we dodged about four fights that night. Yep. Inside. There was three or four more outside. But I still love that place.

[00:10:51] But anyways, we had done that. And it's just – we weren't even the Creekers then. We were Tanner and Friends then. Yeah. Because that's just what the guy that owned the bar put it down as. Because it was really just me. And I told him I had some boys coming. But that's where it started. And then we went to record our first album. And I had some more up-tempo bluegrass type songs that we agreed would sound pretty good with a fiddle and a banjo.

[00:11:22] And that's where Scott and Anna entered the story. I knew – me and Jagger both knew Scott for years. Scott's father-in-law was the first guy to ever let me on stage anywhere. I was about to 11, maybe 11 or 12. And knew him and got him to come in just to record. We wasn't even looking for a banjo player, you know, for full time or nothing. And then, you know, same thing with the fiddle.

[00:11:51] And we was leaving the studio the second day. And Tim Parks, our manager, he wasn't even our manager then. He's just been a buddy of mine for a long time. He was kind of booking around, you know, for us a little bit. But that's about it. But he called me. He said, y'all want to play Renfro Valley? Opening for Ronda Vincent. I said, hey, Scott, you want to play with us in a month at Renfro Valley? He went, yeah. And Anna said – I said, Anna, you want to play? She said, yeah.

[00:12:20] So there's where the Creekers as we are today was formed. Wow. Same show Scott had his heart attack. Scott had a heart attack about five minutes before we went on stage. Oh, my gosh. And never – Never skipped a beat. Never skipped a beat. We never knew he was having an issue until – Oh, my God. No way. Three weeks after. Yeah. Three weeks? Yeah. Oh, yeah. He got done with the show. He got in his car and drove home. Went to the hospital like two and a half weeks later. Oh, yeah. He got up the next morning and went to work. Oh, my gosh. And they were like, yeah, you had a heart attack this many days ago, bro.

[00:12:50] And it was like right around the time. And he knew after the fact. He was like, oh, that's what that was. He was like, that's why I was feeling like crap. Oh, yeah. He said he was feeling bad, but he didn't think much more about it. Just thought he might have been getting sick or something. He's open enough for Ronda Vincent either way. Yeah. That's one of the wildest things I've ever heard, I think. Yeah, he sure did. He did. Does he, is that because of stage fry or like? Oh, no. That dude don't get stage fracked. Okay. No. He's a showman. He's a character is what he is. But, yeah, he's got the pacemaker and stuff.

[00:13:20] He called his jump box. His jump starter. He's still hammering right along with us. He ain't slowed down. That's great news. Yeah. How did you guys, you said it was $50 for that first show. How did that get divided up or did it just go towards the beer tab? I think we might, I think it went all towards the beer tab. Yeah. Which I was, was I 17 or 18 at the time? I had just turned 18. I was still a senior in high school when we started playing. Okay. Wow. So I didn't, I didn't drink until I turned 21. You still don't. That's pretty truthful.

[00:13:50] Hey, oh yeah, that is truthful. And. You still don't really though. But yeah, they all just drank it and I was just there for the fun. I didn't know you could get paid doing this. So the last really two, three, I mean, I don't really know how many years you guys have formally been the Creekers. Is it two? I know the story pretty good, but he knows dates better than me. Okay. I'm terrible with dates. February of 22 as a four piece. Okay.

[00:14:14] And then February of 24, we recorded our first album and then became a six piece. So yeah, we've been four, four piece was four years ago. Then we started as a six piece two years ago. And February of 25. What? We recorded River Rat. Yeah. Everything seems to happen in February for us. Big months. It's always right around my birthday. Yeah. Except this album that's. Well, we've been. I mean, we was recording it February. We were, yeah. We were.

[00:14:42] But yeah, the River Rat EP, it was recorded in February as well. Our second recording. And that's the one that really changed your guys' lives. Yeah. Yeah. Can you guys talk about how much it's changed and what ways it's changed? I'm sure the list is along. Oh, well. I mean, it put us where we are for sure. Yeah, that's the reason we're sitting here. Yeah, that is very much the reason we're sitting here. But I mean, I think in my life, nothing has really changed. I mean. I mean.

[00:15:11] I still live in the same place and do the same things. I just get to go farther and do the thing I like to do. So. Yeah. It, you know, it ain't made us rich or nothing, but we ain't got to worry about nothing anymore neither. You know. And that's all I care about. Yeah. You know, I still live in my great-grandma and grandpa's old house on the same piece of property they've owned for a hundred years. Or he's my great-great-grandfather's, you know, just right there.

[00:15:41] The whole family's been there. And I'll probably be right there from now on, I guess. And unless somebody finds out where I live. We better leave the Creekers trailer because. Yeah. Yeah. That don't help matters. We've got a box trailer with the Creekers right up the side of it sitting right in my driveway. You can see it from the highway. I need to start hiding that. Put a tarp over it. Well, the Google Maps car doesn't come by and take a picture or anything like that. I don't think I've ever seen one of them in the holler. Good. Good deal.

[00:16:10] So, I know you guys have the six-piece band now. Almost all Kentuckians, right? Is it one that's. Yeah. A little player. She went to school in Kentucky. She just lives right on the Indiana-Kentucky border. So, she's. Yeah, she's close enough. Yeah, she's close enough. She works in Kentucky, went to school in Kentucky. Mm-hmm. She's close enough to the river. Yeah. It's pretty quick, yeah. You said Indiana State Line. Yep. Yeah. Okay. Right. Just a few minutes out of Louisville. Mm-hmm.

[00:16:40] Now, Tanner, you mentioned that you write about half the songs. I kind of am curious, with a six-piece band, kind of, is it 50% you, 50% someone else? Is it kind of a group effort? How does it work in the records? Me and, you know, Alan, basically, if you hear me singing it, I wrote it. Except for maybe one or two. But, and if you hear Alan singing it, he wrote it. Okay. Or there's a couple that.

[00:17:09] There's been some instances where we were hanging out. Yeah, we wrote together. Four of us did. A song appears. Yeah. But, yeah. There's a couple songs me and Alan and Ashton and Jagger wrote together. But most of it is, you know, if Alan's singing it, he wrote it. If I'm singing it, I wrote it. And then, you know, there's a couple that, you know, Alan might get hung up on one and text it to me. And I'll finish it or vice versa.

[00:17:33] I've, we'll have one coming out, just whenever album comes out that he wrote a verse on, one of mine. But, you know, we pretty much, you know, everybody thinks we just sit down and co-write everything. We really don't. You know, he. That probably makes it easier to figure out who does sing it. Yeah. Because with two singers, you know, it can kind of get. Yeah. Well, I mean, we got one recorded that I wrote five or six years ago for Alan.

[00:18:00] And Lay You Down on the EP, the River Ride EP. That was wrote like 10 years ago. On my porch. Yeah. So. And I wish, I really wish I would have got in on that now. But I wrote one five or six years ago for Alan that, you know, because I could just hear him singing it. And then he never sang it. And I played it in the studio a while back just sitting around. And Ashton said, you need to record that. You need to record that. Run the tapes. Get in there. And I literally, I walked in there and told Steve, I said,

[00:18:30] Turn this crap back on. I'm going to record this song right quick. And it's just me and him. He's just keeping a steady, you know, beat. And I'm playing the guitar. And that's all it is. And there's a studio up, I'm assuming, where you guys. No, no. We record right across the street at some stage. Gotcha. Yeah. So you've always recorded in Nashville? Yeah. Not always. Okay. Our River Red EP, it was recorded in Greenville, South Carolina. Okay. Wow.

[00:18:56] And then our Pour Me in the Creek album was recorded in Red River Gorge. Oh, wow. Down in Slade, Kentucky. So that was pretty fun. Yeah, it was. In the back of a record shop. Yep. Like a music store. Called the Fat Cave. Yeah. The Fat Cave. Yeah. Oh, I'm going to give old Fat Sam a shout out. He's the guy that recorded our first album. So that's what they call him, Fat Sam. He owns a record shop and it's called the Fat Cave. I have to ask you, is he fat?

[00:19:26] He's a big old boy. Okay. He's not a... He's a big healthy boy. He's healthy. That's what we'll say. My mind went the same way. I kind of just assume it's the opposite. He's probably like the skinniest guy I've ever seen. I just had to ask you. Yeah. So Tanner, what song do you think will people know your voice on specifically? Like what direction should they... What song should they go listen to to hear your voice? It depends on the mood. If you're sad, listen to Pour Me in the Creek, I think. Which I don't think Pour Me in the Creek's all that sad of a song. I mean, it's about dying, but it really ain't.

[00:19:55] Literally about dying, Tanner. Yeah, but it's... They don't have to be sad. Yeah, dying doesn't have to be sad. But yeah, River Rat. That one's a fun one. River Rat. That one's probably the most well-known one of mine. Yeah. A lot of people have been singing Leslie County Moves. I know. That's what I've been noticing, picking up at shows. That one's... That's one I co-wrote with a guy named Brandon Fulson out of Middlesbrough, Tennessee. How long ago was that? Because I know you said that was your first song you ever recorded. It was in my solo days. It was in my solo days. So that was one of the first songs I ever...

[00:20:25] 17, 18, or better than that? No. Me and John Lynn were together, so I was 21. 21. Okay. So five years ago. So, yeah, that's the first song I ever wrote that I felt comfortable playing out in front of people. And how surreal has it been to see people in the crowd singing Warrior songs and those crowds getting larger and larger as you guys go and play shows? Oh, it's crazy. I mean, it's kind of weird just being where we're from.

[00:20:53] How many people does Haydn have in it? 300 at max? 287. So going to a place I've never been and having like three times that in the crowd is like, what the heck is going on? Oh, we were at the Two Step Inn in Texas and there was people singing a song that's not even released. Yeah. There's just been videos of it singing one that I wrote. It's crazy. And it was surprised the heck out of me.

[00:21:22] I was thinking, how do they know this song? It's leaked. I saw 30 or 40 people singing every word to it. Something had to have been on social media. I guess. How far have you guys gone to play a show? Texas was a haul. I think that was Texas. Yeah, Texas was a pretty good haul. Okay. I saw you guys. Florida wasn't much less than a trip than that. Florida was a lot closer, I think. It was 19 hours. Because I'm a map nerd. I like to look at that, see how far away I'm from home.

[00:21:51] Stevensville was 19 hours. It was 19 hours from Leslie County and I was like, oh my God. Yeah, that was rough. We went to Tulsa, Oklahoma, down to Dallas, to Houston, to Austin, to Stevensville. Then to Texarkana and then home. Well, we didn't play in Texarkana. We slept for three hours and kept driving. But, yeah, and I love Texas. Long road trips. Yeah. I don't mind them.

[00:22:21] What are you doing on the road trip? Are you guys listening to music? Are you guys riding? It's like everybody has their own thing. Usually it's Tanner and Tim driving. So Tanner will be driving. Tim will be in the passenger seat. Or vice versa. Or vice versa. I do most of the driving because I don't like to ride with nobody. Then it's Anna somewhere in between. On a laptop. On a laptop working. And then it's me, Jagger, and Alan just doing crazy stuff. Like Alan could be playing.

[00:22:51] Usually pestered me. Yeah, making Tanner mad. Alan could be playing a game or sleeping. Or Jagger could be cussing somebody out. Yeah, you never know about what goes on in the back of the truck. Yeah, our road trips are interesting. I was lucky enough to see you guys at Laurel Cove. I think that was last year. So that was fun. And I feel like it was right after kind of. Oh, it was. The Tennessee blew up.

[00:23:17] There's a bluegrass festival that same weekend called Spirit in the Bluegrass in Lexington. It's the oldest bluegrass festival in Kentucky. Yeah. And who was that record label that came up there? Because that was the first record label we ever talked to at that festival. And his name was Austin Jenkins. Yeah. It was one of them. He's on the Warner side now. So, but, yeah. So we went from there and then went to Laurel Cove and played that.

[00:23:46] So that was right after everything. Yeah, we were in the midst of hashing over record labels. Yeah. The day before the, no, the day after Laurel Cove. Yeah. I mean, we had them coming to the show. So it was right in the midst of all of it. I mean, the crowd was having a good time during your guys' set. Did you see Anna float on the flamingo? Oh, yes, I did. Yeah. I'm sure she'll have something up her sleeve this year as well.

[00:24:15] But, I mean, in a matter of what it feels like, you know, probably a couple days was probably weeks, months for you guys of having every, you know, label in town knocking on your guys' door. What's that feeling like? Is it kind of, like, overwhelming? Are you guys kind of like, are we going to do this? It was very overwhelming because, like, we didn't set out to do this, you know. We all worked our day job.

[00:24:39] Like, me and my brother worked at Walmart Distribution Center, and, you know, we just done this on the weekends and just to get enough pocket change to go to the flea market and buy a knife or something. So when all this happened, it was like, okay, I can stay at my job doing this, or I can go do this and do this job that I actually like and stuff like that. So it was overwhelming in the beginning because it was just, like, everything on our back.

[00:25:06] Like, and then, but luckily we have everybody around us and was just trying to coach us through it and get us to the finish line. So. Well, it's got to be jarring, too, to, like, not to say that your dream was here and then it just, you burst through that ceiling that's there. Like, that's got to be, you guys feel like you probably had to collect yourselves a little bit. Oh, yeah. Oh, it took us a while to deal with it, you know, like, cope with it after all the, you know, all the labels and stuff started calling.

[00:25:37] And I was a horseshoer before all this. And I got to say, after I got over my nerve attack, after, you know, with everything going on, I got to thinking about it. And like he said, you know, do I want to keep breaking my back every day, struggling, or do I want to go do this? And hopefully never have to do the shooing thing again.

[00:26:06] And I said, I'm going to go do that. Yeah. What do your families think? What does your community think? Oh, Lord, they all love it. Yeah, we have a lot of support behind us back home, so. Yeah. Thankfully. We had our, like, they kind of called it a farewell show for us in the last November. And it was the first and maybe last, I don't know, but show and hiding there. No, it won't be the last.

[00:26:36] But they done in-person tickets only. You had to be in person to buy them. And they sold it out three times? Yeah. Sold it out three times. So it was. It had to move locations. It was supposed to be at the Bluegrass School there in Hayden. Which is the Hazard Community and Technical College. Yeah. So they have, like, a school there for musicians. And it was supposed to be in that auditorium. And I think it held, what, 500? Yeah, it was a seat about 350 or 400. Somewhere around there. Maybe five.

[00:27:04] And, like, it just kept selling out and selling out, like, in Hayden. It's a very small town, so. So they would be, like. 287 people. Meet us at Hayden Citizens Bank at 12 o'clock to get Creekers tickets. They was lined up up and down the Main Street. Yeah. People lined up. So after, like, the third time of selling it out, the guy on the school was like, you know, we can't have it here considering it just keeps selling out. So we moved it to the. The gym.

[00:27:34] The Leslie County High School gym, so. Yeah. And it seats about. 11, 1200. Yeah, about 1200. Roughly. Is that your guys' biggest show? That's not a festival to date? Uh. It'll be that. Or Manchester Music Hall, maybe. Yeah. Maybe. Because I've seen you guys at a festival, but I've never seen, you know, your guy at the show, which is on my list of things to do. Yeah. So I don't. I mean, this was. I'm trying to figure out, like, what venues you guys play.

[00:28:02] If you want a good one, I love the Burl in Lexington. Yeah. Yeah. That's probably my favorite venue to play. The Burl. Even though it's small, it's my favorite. The Burl and the Station Inn are my two favorite places to play. We've played the Station Inn four full shows and then one other time, and that's. I love that place. Yeah. You guys just had a run here. Yeah. A couple nights. Yeah. I love that place. Yeah. One of my favorite places in the world. I just like the pizza. I didn't even know they had food there. Good to know. The best pizza you've eaten in Nashville.

[00:28:31] What little bit of food they have is pretty good. Okay. Good to know. And the drive's not terrible to get down to Nashville from. You guys all live. No. You just hop on the parkway there, and it's just like. Yeah. Forever. Forever. It's not bad. Until you hit traffic down here. On my way here today, I was about to lose it. Yep. For traffic. I left at 530 this morning in a driving rain. And when I hit the Cumberland Parkway in Somerset, which is about the halfway point from between

[00:29:00] the house and here, it was bad. You know, speed limit saved me on the Cumberland Parkway. You know, most people run about 75 or 80. It was about 45. For about 60 miles this morning. Yeah. I was supposed to have been across the street at 10 o'clock this morning. It was about 15 after 10 when I rolled in. It's not bad. No, it's not bad. I mean, but I hate being late. I despise it.

[00:29:30] I hate being late so bad. And it was late enough for me, but it all worked out. Are you guys here just for one night? No. No. We're here until... I've got co-writes every day. I had one today and then tomorrow and Friday. And then we're recording in the evenings. Yeah. Starting tomorrow. So we'll be here, I think, until Saturday morning. Okay, fine. Friday night. Friday night, yeah. Yeah, I'm going on Friday night. I've got a graduation to go to Saturday morning. How's the co-writing process been? Is that something that's...

[00:30:00] Well, I've only done it a couple times and I love it. I love it. You said when you walked in here that you were writing with someone who you just met for the first time. Imagine that's hard. Like, you're just trying to get to know someone, but then also share experiences, share... It's not been that hard for me. I've had two different co-writes since... When did we play the station in? It was the week we played the station in.

[00:30:30] It was like the middle of February. Yeah. End of February. Yeah. Because it was after my birthday. Yeah. So, yeah, I've had one the week we've done the station in run and then I had the one today and I love them. I mean, you know, first time I'd met, you know, everybody was that day. And, uh, heck, this morning we sat and talked about deer hunting for an hour before we ever got started on anything. And, uh, yeah. And I was going to say, I mean, both of you guys into hunting or...

[00:30:59] I would say five of the six of the crickers are involved in hunting. I don't know if Anna's ever hunted. I doubt it. But she has shot my crossbow and she's really good at it. Oh, yeah, she's a dead eye. We might have to get her down and join the dark side. We was, uh, we was doing a, we was on a little Indiana tour playing a few shows up there. And, uh, and, uh, she made me break out my farrier tools and I was trimming her horses. And, uh, looked over and she was sitting there.

[00:31:29] He had a brand new crossbow and she was sitting there and she was just bullseyeing that thing at what? 40 yards, 50 yards. 50 yards, yeah. Never had happened. That was my new one too because my, um, my one had broke. The limb had broke on it and it were cracked. I was afraid it was going to blow up in my face. So, I took it back and returned it and just got that one on the way up there. So, she was breaking it in for me. Yeah, I don't like crossbow. They scare me. I like it. I've got one, but...

[00:31:57] Because I've heard some horror stories of people losing fingers and stuff. I mean, I've got two, but, uh, they, they worry me a little bit. It's literally like a rifle. It's crazy. My new one is, don't worry me as bad as my old one did. But... Would you say that's your guys' biggest hobby outside of, you know, making music? Hunting. Yeah. Yeah. I think me and Tanner, Tanner's picking my old hobby up, which is knife collecting. I've slacked down and he's picked it up.

[00:32:25] I started, I started buying old, old case pocket knives. But, yeah, I would say hunting or fishing is probably one of our biggest hobbies around the house. I like to fish. And I've got horses and mules and we've got a little hobby farm out at the house. We raise a... I almost said a big garden, but we don't have a big garden. We raise a bunch of small gardens. And I like wagon riding with my mules.

[00:32:52] And we've got sheep and goats and chickens and all kinds of stuff. That's usually a full-time chore, taking care of all that. Yeah. And it's got to be so... It's such a change of pace to be, you know, at your house and then come to Nashville for a week. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Definitely. I was sorting sheep yesterday. Yeah. Weaning babies off their mamas. And I was stuck in traffic down here on Broadway this morning. And now you're sitting on a podcast. Yep.

[00:33:22] Now I'm sitting on a podcast. And speaking of being stuck in Broadway, I think before we started recording, you said that you got stuck in Nashville during the ice storm that happened early this year. Was that in January? That was in January. We tried to beat the weather down. And we did. We'd done good beating the weather down. Woke up this morning. And they was... Woke up next morning. There was, what, four, five inches of snow on the ground? Yeah, and like three inches of ice on the ground. It was insane. And...

[00:33:49] So we were supposed to record that whole weekend, because I think we got here on a Friday. Yeah. We were going to record all weekend, and then come in like Monday and Tuesday and do some stuff, and leave middle of that next week. But we didn't get to do anything until the middle of... Yeah, that following Tuesday. Monday afternoon. Yeah, Tuesday, yeah. And we were just stuck in a hotel. So we would just go to the hotel lobby and play music. And after the third night of doing that, we had a crowd giving us tips. Well.

[00:34:19] So all the girls at the desk, they loved it. I mean, everybody loved it. There'd be people come in there and sit and watch us. It was crazy. Yeah, I guess there were a bunch of power outages around here. So people were coming there, you know, just to stay there, because I guess we were the only place that had power. And yeah, we just looked around, and there was like 50 people standing in the lobby just listening to us play. But you guys did an accidental residency. Yeah. By the best.

[00:34:48] At the Best Western. Yeah. Yeah, the Best Western Plus on Music Row. So I'll give them a plug. Yeah. But what you're referring to, I know it was a bad time for Nashville, and, you know, there was a lot of power outages and stuff. But aside from all that, I enjoyed it down here during that. It was awesome. Yeah. We just got out and drove his truck around. Yeah, we just, you know, rode around and looked at the trees that were laying all over everything. We ran over like three treetops. It was crazy.

[00:35:18] And, you know, I had my big four-wheel drive truck. Nobody else was out. We just ride around town, just, you know. Went to Broadway, and there were like 25 people there. Parked my truck on Broadway. I don't think that will ever happen again. Never. No, I probably won't. Until the next ice storm. Yeah. Parked my truck right on Broadway and walked right into Roberts. Sat down, drank a beer, and ate a fried bologna sandwich. Sounds like you guys are having a heck of a time. Oh, yeah. In Nashville. You can't stop Kentuckians, I'm telling you. No.

[00:35:46] And snow and ice don't bother me. My papa wouldn't let me get my driver's license until he knew I could drive. It's not bad snow and ice, so. Yeah. I can do it. It's a good lesson. Had an ice storm ever hit eastern Kentucky? Because I. Oh, there was one hit while we were hit. The same storm hit. It was the same storm that hit here or hit home. Yeah. Because I don't think it was as bad, but. It wasn't as bad, but I know my power went out at home. Yeah. I don't think mine went out, which is crazy. Yeah, my power went out at home. It used to be when a light breeze could go through and my power would be out.

[00:36:19] Luckily, Johnny Lynn was my girlfriend. She had some help out at the house feeding and feeding all the livestock and packing water and keeping firewood stacked. Yeah. Yeah, it was. I mean, I know it was a rough time down here for everybody, but aside from all that, we had a good time. Yeah. It sounds like you guys made the best of it. You also brought some joy to some other people that were kind of going through it, too. Yeah. Yeah, there were a lot of people that didn't have no power at their house and they just had to stay there because that was one of the only hotels that had power, too.

[00:36:48] And we actually lucked out because we didn't plan on any of that happening. And we almost got Airbnb. Yeah. And if we'd have done that, we'd have been in bad shape. Stuffed the power, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, there was somebody looking over us on that one. Because it was, like I said, it was one of the only hotels in town that had power. Or on that side of town, anyway. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And now you guys mentioned that you're recording while you're here on this trip. What can we expect for new music? I know you don't really have a timeline. You don't really even know when it's coming out.

[00:37:17] But what can fans expect for this album? Expect a single in June. Yeah, expect a single sometime in June. Okay. I think that's, there'll be some singles here this summer. More than one, for sure. But it's some of mine and Alan's best work, I think, to this date. Some of my most favorite songs I've ever written are on it. And the same goes for Alan. Is this album similar to where some of these songs were written a long time ago?

[00:37:47] Or are these kind of new ones since the band has been? Most of mine are pretty new, except for one. Okay. And then... I think there's a few of them mixed. I think most of them have been written since we were a band. Yeah. Like, I know there's one on there we wrote at Alan's Wedding. Yeah. Along with Poor Me and the Queek. Queek, what about? We wrote it on his porch. Wow. So, yeah. I think they're all kind of more recent than others. Any covers?

[00:38:17] One. One. Two. Country Gentleman. Oh, yeah. And... Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we actually are knocking the rust off an old classic bluegrass tune on this one. Oh, I don't care to tell what it is. You know, being a cover. Warner, don't kill us. Yeah, don't kill us. But we got Scott playing it. He picks the fire out of it. He sings it and plays a banjo on it. It's a Matterhorn. It's an old Mel Tillis song, actually.

[00:38:45] Mel Tillis wrote it, but the Country Gentleman done it. And it's, you know, everybody, you know, says it's a Country Gentleman song. Yeah. Yeah, it's called Matterhorn. It's a pretty good song. Some things to look forward to, for sure. Climbing the Matterhorn mountain. Yeah. Switzerland, wherever that is. Pretty good song. What's crazy and kind of cool is that, you know, a lot of newer Country fans who, you know, they might not even know who the Country Gentleman are, but they'll know who you guys are and they'll listen to that song and they'll be like, I love the Krakers song. If you don't know who the Country Gentleman are, look them up. Yes, yes. I love them.

[00:39:15] But it introduces, like, a generation to, like, that decade of music or the history and they don't even know. They start digging back into some old stuff. Yeah, it's always cool. And I have to ask, whose idea was it to cover Cher with Believe? That was Tam Parks' idea. Yeah. Our manager. Because you guys, I mean, just did a hell of a job with it. And it's like, you would never really expect it. So I just had to ask who was the Cher fan or at least liked that song enough to think that you guys... Well, I think we have been playing that since the beginning.

[00:39:44] But it was a lot slower because we didn't have a banjo. The night that I first met you at your uncle's garage, we played that song there because I was playing the banjo on it. Okay. I do remember that. Okay. Well, I think... So Alan started playing that song. And I think where Alan got it from was Billy Strings used to do it a long time ago. Yeah, Billy Strings. There's a couple of old videos of Billy Strings covering it. So I think that's where we got it from as a band. And then we done that. So, yeah. But we got asked to do that.

[00:40:13] And we do another cover by Cheap Trick. And it was either going to be that one or Believe. And we decided on Believe. I think Believe was just a mind boggler. Yeah. Well, there was already a cover of the other one out. Yeah. And, you know, nobody's ever heard Believe with a banjo. I haven't. No. And you guys, like I said, you guys did a great job with it. Yeah. I love when people do the unexpected.

[00:40:42] Yeah, that was fun. That was actually really fun. That was a long road trip up there to do it, though. Daggone. West Virginia has some weird town names. Clarksville, West Virginia is where we went to five and a half hours from my driveway. We met in my driveway at, what, 4, 30, or 5 o'clock that morning. Yeah, because Jagger had just got off work because he worked like second or third shift at Walmart. So he, like, picked me up on his way home from work. And we just went to your house and went on. Yep. It was crazy.

[00:41:11] And you two slept in the back seat. Alan kept me awake. But, yeah, we went through basically the entire state of West Virginia, and I don't think we've seen five houses. No. The whole way. We went around a place called, like, Possum Bend or something. No, Possum Bend's in Leslie County. It was like Otter's Foot. Otter's Foot. Otter's Foot, West Virginia. In western Kentucky, there's a place called Possum Trot. I don't know if you've ever been down to the western part of the state.

[00:41:38] Well, there's a female artist out of Kentucky, Kelsey Walden. She's from a place called Monkey's Eyebrow, Kentucky. What? Yeah, I'm familiar. Monkey's Eyebrow. This is from Pig. Yeah, Rye Davis is from Pig, Kentucky. R-Y-E from P-I-G. But, yeah, Monkey's Eyebrow. I always wondered how that place got its name. Yeah, I think it's a—I'm not great with Kentucky geography, but I feel like it's near one of the lakes, but maybe I'm wrong. I don't know.

[00:42:07] I think it's on the border, maybe, like either Indiana-Kentucky border or Illinois-Kentucky border. I'm pretty sure. I don't know it for a fact. There's always jokes about, yeah, possum trot, monkey's eyebrow. Well, there's a—I live right across the hill from a place in Leslie County called Hell for Certain. Yeah. And then the next creek up from it is called Devil's Jump. Yeah. Oh, gosh. And they say it's where the devil jumped into Hell for Certain. Okay. It all makes sense.

[00:42:35] And that's the actual name right on the county road sign. It says Hell for Certain. You know, I love the southern sayings, too. The other day it was raining and it was, you know, the sky was bright blue and I had never heard the expression that is said—have you guys heard that one? Of like, the devil's beating his wife? No. I have heard that. Yeah, yeah. It was our coworker, Casey, who's from, I think, North Carolina. And she told me that one and I was like, where did that come from? I tell you how you know your country if you can smell rain. Ooh. Yeah. I can smell rain.

[00:43:05] Yep. And my—I always, you know, I never believed that for a long time. You know, we'd walk out in the yard and Papa would be like, well, you smell Pat? We go, rain. I'm like, what? How do you smell rain? And I, you can smell rain. I can smell it. That's such a dad, a grandpa, a grandpa saying. I love it, though. Yeah, I—you know, my favorite movie of all time is Lonesome Dove. And it was, you know, you know, just a scene where one of them smells rain in Lonesome Dove. And I always thought that was BS. And I saw my papa do it, and then I got to where I could do it.

[00:43:34] And I was like, you gotta be country to smell rain. Now, we don't have a ton more of time. I feel like time's just, you know, flying. What does the rest of the year really look like for you guys? Busy. Busy. Shows that we've never—we couldn't dream of. I mean, it's crazy. Yeah. That's all we can say right now. But, yeah. Some of the shows I was looking at are a lot of festivals, you know, this summer. Saw you guys were playing Rock the Country. All over the place.

[00:44:01] What show that is announced are you guys looking forward to the most? See, the problem is I don't even know what's announced yet. So, I'm trying not to get in trouble. There's one I'm really wanting to say. Red Rocks is— Oh, yes. That one has been announced. Okay, that's the one I was wanting to say because I didn't know it had been announced. I think we've all been over the moon about that. Yeah, I know. Yeah, for Eric Church. I feel like anybody would lie. It would be lying if they said that wasn't on their top three bucket list, places to play.

[00:44:31] Oh, yeah. I mean, that's kind of unbelievable to me. I think that's my favorite—my most— Have you guys been out there? No. Like, seen the show? So, that'll be your first time. As far west as I've ever been was while we were in Texas. Yeah. Okay. Well, man, you guys will—it's a beautiful place. She's probably been—she's been a lot more than I have. I've seen pictures, and I watched an old Waylon Jennings TV special from back in the 80s with James Garner, and he played at Red Rocks. Yeah. I'm going to go look that one up. It's on YouTube. Okay.

[00:45:00] It's a full, like, two-hour-long episode, him and James Garner, like Maverick. Yeah. He plays somewhere in Arizona, and then they go to Red Rocks. It's pretty cool. Mm-hmm. So, what will you guys—will you guys do anything different in preparation for that, or is that just going to be one of those things? Like, you're going to treat it like any other show? Because I know that is a bucket list-type place. Oh, they'll probably have to wheel me out on a stretcher. The elevation out there will get to you, just fair warning. They always have, like, those oxygen cans because you get winded.

[00:45:30] Get you a shout out of the old two oxygen. Yeah. You get winded just walking up a flight of stairs. You do. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Where we live, decently high elevation, but it ain't nothing like that, I would guess. Yeah, I'm used to—you up on top of them ridges back home, it gets a little thin up there, but not that thin. Yeah. Are you guys fans of Eric Church already? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Okay. I'm like, I don't just assume you guys, like, only listen to the kind of music you guys make, but I'm sure it's a lot more vast than that.

[00:46:00] I can sing every word to every song of that Chief album. Oh, yeah. That's my favorite album. That's my favorite country, like, newer country album ever. Yeah. I think it's— You know, of the 2000s, whenever that was, 2010 or nine. I think it's crazy. You know, 2010, I was sick, so. That doesn't make me feel old. But, you know, growing up, when the CMT, like, generation was still a thing, just watching all these people on CMT and then just— On Saturday, all day Saturday. Yeah.

[00:46:30] And then just like— On Saturday? Yeah. Yeah, we're going to play with the same guy that I watched on CMT 15 years ago. It's just mind-boggling to me, though. Yeah. Yeah. The other shows that I know are announced are you guys are opening up for Turnpike, which is also pretty cool. Yeah, I've been a big fan of them, too. I probably screamed like a little girl when I saw they were coming back after their little hiatus. Yeah. That tickled me to death. I almost forget about it now. Yeah. It's been so long.

[00:46:59] Have you guys had any weird—or maybe not weird moments, but just like, I can't believe in moments where someone comes up and says they're a fan of you? Because I know that that's— I mean, yeah. There's definitely been, like, not necessarily weird ones, but like— Weird wasn't the right word. I don't know what I said. Strange ones. It's just like—what's the word I'm trying to think of, Tanner? Just like— Well, I'll say this.

[00:47:22] It is kind of odd seeing, you know—and I'm just getting into my bluegrass love here—seeing guys that you raised on in the bluegrass world showing up to see you. Yeah. And there's been quite a few of those.

[00:47:40] Because in a lot of ways, you know, if they didn't make it to a certain level of venue or a certain level of streams, they kind of are also proud that their genre continues through you guys. Yeah, I don't care to tell you. We were in the—when we played their station in, Jerry Douglas walked in the door, and he came to see us.

[00:48:02] And, you know, Jerry's Grammy winner played with Allison Krauss in Union Station for 30 years, I guess, now at this point. One of the best dobro players on the face of the planet. I've literally known who he was since I was, like, four. Walked in the door and sat down and loved every minute of it. And I was like, that's weird, but it's awesome. Yeah. And then the McCurries, you know, Ronnie McCurry and Robbie McCurry, yeah, they all knew, you know, know us.

[00:48:32] And that's— Yeah, apparently we went to Florida to Luke Combs' bootlegger bonfire. Oh, yeah, and Luke Combs was jamming river. Yeah, that was crazy to me. His band member said, are you all the guys that do river rap? Because I've heard that, like, 87 times in the past week. He'd probably hit me if he'd have seen me, because I'm one of the old. Yeah, I never—I wasn't there for that encounter. But, yeah, so that was probably the most— Yeah, I forgot about that. I'm glad you said that. I forgot about that.

[00:49:01] That's so fun. I mean, again, just what a 180 your music careers have done so fast. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it wasn't that long ago we were playing to, like, nobody in a little bar as big as this studio here. Yeah. I mean, playing to, like, seven people in Pat's Snack Bar in Manchester, so. Yeah. It's just weird that it came this quick. I mean, I love it, you know. I never planned on it, never thought it was going to happen, but I love it.

[00:49:32] But, you know, it seems like Al and Jagger, you know, they're still pretty much big homebodies. Oh, yeah. Not, you know. Jagger and Al love the house. I mean, I like being home. I like being home, too, but I like getting out and playing music. Well, and people have no doubt that you guys are authentic based on your accents alone. But I do kind of want to take a minute and acknowledge both of your hats, because I think they're pretty cool and different. I'll have my new Frontier one on. I got my pasture packers. Pasture packers.

[00:50:02] I was, like, trying to figure out what that was. I'm like, my vision's not that good. I'm like, it's funny. Those big boss gobbers. Yeah. Turkeys. Well, before we end, is there anything else that you guys kind of want to share with the Whiskey Riff audience? Quinn, are there anything else you want to touch on? No, I was just going to ask maybe one last question. Like, I hear a lot of people talk about, like, imposter syndrome. That doesn't mean that you're not supposed to be there, but it's just that feeling that whenever you are there, it's like, what am I doing here?

[00:50:31] Does that ever cross your all's mind at all? All the time. Yeah. I deal with it pretty bad sometimes. Not, you know, it's better sometimes than it is other times, but, yeah, I deal with it quite a bit. As unfair as it is, I feel like it's kind of, like, what keeps people like themselves, you know? Like, if you thought you were supposed to be there, then you wouldn't be who you are. Yeah. I don't know.

[00:50:57] I've learned to live with it the last few months, but when it first, you know, when everything first happened, I was bad for a while. Yeah. I was about a nut job for a minute. It just about drove me crazy. And it's so difficult, too, because you guys are so well-deserving of the success that you guys are experiencing. But I'm sure just, like, for the changes to happen so quickly that you can't help, like, your body can't help but think, like, oh, my gosh, like, I can't believe that this is happening.

[00:51:23] Yeah, I feel like if it would have happened any slower than it, you know, did, because it was, you know, a lot of people want to say, you know, something happened overnight. Mm-hmm. And it, you know, like, could mean a year. Yeah. This happened overnight. Mm-hmm. I remember seeing the TikTok. Shit overnight. I remember seeing the TikTok on the way home from work, and then the next morning it was just like... I got woke up at daylight that morning. You've got 500,000 views on that video. What video? This one. I didn't even know there was one out.

[00:51:52] Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it was literally just, what, a week later? Maybe less than a week later, we started getting phone calls and emails and phone calls. And I got to be in the first Zoom meeting I'd ever been in. And then I was in 17 more in the same week. Thankfully, I had to work through the weeks. Yeah. I was in, like, six of them. Guess who had to be in all of them? Tanner. But, like, the way people, like, looked at us when we talked, they were like... Oh, yeah.

[00:52:21] Because I guess they thought it was fake that we were just putting on. I speak fluent cornbread. No. And then, so I'm going to tell a little story on you, Tanner. Don't tell me. I'm telling you. Whatever, go ahead. But, uh, so, Alan, our lead singer, is married to mine and Jagger's cousin. And Tanner has a habit of kind of bunching his words up a little bit. I'm a little bit like Mel Tillis in the fact that I stutter just a tad bit.

[00:52:47] In a Zoom call, they were talking and, you know, everybody was introducing themselves and Tanner was telling how he introduced us. And I basically give him the same story I gave y'all. Yeah, and then Tanner was like, yeah, he just introduced me and Jagger. And he said, yeah, Alan, uh, they married, he married his cousin. Talking about mine and Jagger's cousin, but it came out as Alan married his cousin. Yeah, Alan married his cousin. And, yeah, and just, they were all like, oh my God. Oh, yeah, that guy, he didn't stay on the phone.

[00:53:16] He didn't stay on the phone call for too very long. But, yeah. I pretty much left a big blank stare on his face. Yeah. It's fine. It's fine. No, I love it. I knew as soon as you guys walked in, you guys were going to be an entertaining time for a lot of our audience who's not used to the accent. So, I love it. And I just love seeing your guys' career take off. You know, it's been a lot of fun and I can't wait to see it continue growing. So, thank you so much for being here.

[00:53:46] Thanks for having us. Yeah, thank you for having us, of course. We've got to look out for the new music and any sort of tour dates that are announced. So, we're excited for you guys, for sure. Thank you. Thank you.