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Speaker 1: On the show, Now, Hale, would you have a gigantic

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Speaker 1: belt buckle on? I do, and it keeps falling off.

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Speaker 1: So I was going through my closet yesterday and I

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Speaker 1: found because I had played the Eddie what was it?

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Speaker 1: What was the festival in Wyoming Frontier Days? Frontier Days.

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Speaker 1: So we played that and they gave us a big

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Speaker 1: belt buckle and it's huge, and I never I'm not

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Speaker 1: a big belt buckle guy. Yeah, yeah, I would like

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Speaker 1: to wear that at some how, Like how many of

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Speaker 1: those do you have? And how do you know when

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Speaker 1: you can pull it off? Well? To be honest, I

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Speaker 1: only have this one, which my like creative director and

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Speaker 1: I we like to go vintage shopping. I love it

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Speaker 1: by that and she just like found this in like

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Speaker 1: a little five dollar bin and I wear it all

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Speaker 1: the time now. I like wearing it with jeans and stuff.

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Speaker 1: I just feel like it gives me a waste. But um,

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Speaker 1: and then the only other one I have is a

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Speaker 1: Dolly Parton belt buckle that a friend of mine gave me. Um,

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Speaker 1: So I only have to and I don't know, I

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Speaker 1: just wear on with jeans so well, I wish I

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Speaker 1: could pull it off. I don't think I can pull

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Speaker 1: it off with a pair of razorback basketball shorts. Your

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Speaker 1: style is so cool things as far as your clothes go,

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Speaker 1: because you have a very modern but traditional type vibe.

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Speaker 1: And I know nothing about styles, so if I'm wrong stopping? Okay,

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Speaker 1: what what are you finding this stuff? Um? Just vintage stores? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean my friend Harbor and I were kind of

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Speaker 1: too too broke to pay for a stylist, so we'll

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Speaker 1: just like go to there's about three stores an eas

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Speaker 1: Nashville that we kind of just like to hit and um,

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Speaker 1: we'll just go dump like grab so many things and um,

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Speaker 1: you know, Pilot and the Trunk will spend like five

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Speaker 1: hundred bucks or something on just a bunch of cheap

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Speaker 1: kind of vintage things, and uh, you know that'll kind

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Speaker 1: of last me. I'll wear a lot of hand me downs,

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Speaker 1: a lot of her though, well it's not all a

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Speaker 1: hand me down. Yeah yeah, And I came from like

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Speaker 1: a big family, so wearing hand me downs is like

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Speaker 1: totally the thing where I come from, you know, So

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Speaker 1: a lot of hand me downs, some vintage stuff, some

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Speaker 1: thrift stuff. I buy my thrift stuff off an app

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Speaker 1: so it kind of defeats the purpose. Where do you

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Speaker 1: get it? Well, Like Grailed is a great app that

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Speaker 1: I go to and find a bunch of stuff. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but if, like if I'm looking for like real vintage,

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Speaker 1: but I'm also using an app to get it, I

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Speaker 1: feel like it equals out. I should you go to

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Speaker 1: the store. Yeah, I mean Etsy and eBay too, you know,

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Speaker 1: we'll go buy like a forty dollars dress or something

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Speaker 1: on Etsy and then or eBay. And the trick is

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Speaker 1: just having a really good tailor who can just kind

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Speaker 1: of stitch it up and make it feel like fit

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Speaker 1: your body well and stuff, you know. So um yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean it's pretty funny. I could. I could take

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Speaker 1: you on a deep dive on some of my wardrobe

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Speaker 1: things and you'd be you'd be laughing at it. I

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Speaker 1: was talking to Ronnie Dunn from Brooks and Dune about

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Speaker 1: because I bought an old school Brooks and Dune shirt

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Speaker 1: that was from the from a tour in the nineties. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and I think I spent like seventy bucks for it,

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Speaker 1: and he was like, you know it's crazy is that

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Speaker 1: when they broke up for a while, they had to

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Speaker 1: decide who was getting the merch like in the divorce

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Speaker 1: and Kicks got the merch and he's like, that's the

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Speaker 1: worst part because now you can sell that stuff for

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Speaker 1: like super top dollar because everything old is like expensive

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Speaker 1: because of the demand for vintage stuff, which is crazy

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Speaker 1: holy cow. And like the fact that Brooks and Done

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Speaker 1: is vintage just so strange to me. When I was

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Speaker 1: growing up and I grew up in Arkansas, I'm a

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Speaker 1: little older than you, but I felt like country music

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Speaker 1: represented specifically about where I was from, being from the South,

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Speaker 1: growing up in the Midwest, did you feel like country

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Speaker 1: music talked about where you were from? Where there are

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Speaker 1: a lot of Midwest artists that you said, all right,

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Speaker 1: they're talking about me and where I am right now.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I don't I didn't really see much of

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Speaker 1: like the Midwest scenery and country music. You know. It's

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Speaker 1: it's people like Alan Jackson that like when I heard

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Speaker 1: remember when for the first time, I was too young

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Speaker 1: to even really understand what he was talking about, but

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Speaker 1: I could just feel that lyric, you know, I think,

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Speaker 1: just like the beauty of the beauty and simplicity, and

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Speaker 1: it just like he was talking about um life. Really,

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Speaker 1: I think probably as far as like Midwest goes. I

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Speaker 1: mean Mellencamp, you know, when I was in high school,

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Speaker 1: which is very country. I mean John Mellencamp is this

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Speaker 1: country as anything else totally, just a little more electric

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Speaker 1: guitar totally. But now if he came out with Pink

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Speaker 1: Houses or even Jack and Diane, that would be country

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Speaker 1: music totally. So he represented the male. Okay, Okay, So

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Speaker 1: John Mellie, any anybody else can When you say Iowa specifically,

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Speaker 1: are there any artists from Iowa that you that you're like, dang,

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Speaker 1: they really kind of, you know, they represent us well.

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Speaker 1: So I didn't know of Emily West till I moved here,

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Speaker 1: but Emily West she grew up an hour north of

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Speaker 1: where I was. Um, you know, I don't know if

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Speaker 1: I had really an example or someone to aspire to

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Speaker 1: kind of be like that was also a Midwestern that

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Speaker 1: I was seeing or hearing on the radio. Um, but

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Speaker 1: I just really loved a lot of the females that

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Speaker 1: were happening. Tricia, the Chicks, Martina Faith, you know, um,

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Speaker 1: a lot of that music. Do you remember the day

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Speaker 1: you moved to Nashville, the day be packed up? I

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Speaker 1: don't know if I remember packing up. I remember getting

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Speaker 1: I remember crossing the Tennessee state line seventeen. So who's

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Speaker 1: in the car with you? Mom, dad, probably some of

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Speaker 1: my siblings, and I think my high school boyfriend was

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Speaker 1: with me. So if you're seventeen driving to Nashville, like,

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Speaker 1: what are you thinking? Are you going? Can't wait to

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Speaker 1: go get there? Let them see just this great artist

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Speaker 1: I am? Or is it like get there hopefully I'm

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Speaker 1: I don't know what's the mindset of a seventeen year

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Speaker 1: old moving to Nashville to make it a music I

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Speaker 1: just was so excited. I could not wait to get here.

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Speaker 1: I was just you know, I thought I was going

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Speaker 1: to be noticed so quickly and like be discovered and

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Speaker 1: be the next big thing. And I just imagined, you know,

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Speaker 1: I came down here when I was like fifteen, and

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Speaker 1: I like walked down Broadway and just seeing all the

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Speaker 1: people busking on the street and stuff. I'd never seen

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Speaker 1: anything like that. So I was pretty much like, I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna get ready to do that, you know, I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: do for a couple of years before the move, like

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Speaker 1: in your heart, you had a couple of years in

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Speaker 1: my heart, I was there like I was coming down, Um,

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Speaker 1: and so I was really excited, really anxious, really excited.

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Speaker 1: Um maybe probably I don't know if I don't remember

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Speaker 1: being scared, but I mean I was the first in

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Speaker 1: my family to move nine hours away. You know, I

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Speaker 1: might have been a little bit just like nervous about that,

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Speaker 1: but I was so hungry to be here, and just

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Speaker 1: like a fire, I was so excited to be here.

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Speaker 1: And what do you do you get here? Like I'm

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Speaker 1: just the first two weeks you're here? Yeah, Like what

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Speaker 1: does a new hour does it do? When they moved

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Speaker 1: to town? So when I moved to town, literally I

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Speaker 1: think it was within a day or two, I walked

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Speaker 1: down a Broadway. I just like walked into some of

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Speaker 1: the bars. You know, I didn't have a car, so

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Speaker 1: I was just walking And I did you get in

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Speaker 1: a bar? You're seventeen? How do you Yeah? But during

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Speaker 1: the day good? Yeah, So I like walk into Tootsie

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Speaker 1: and the house band's playing. It's probably like two pm,

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Speaker 1: you know, and I'm just sitting there and like Greg

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Speaker 1: Humphrey was the bass player, and he looked like Albert Einstein.

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Speaker 1: He's like sitting there playing bass in the band, and

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Speaker 1: like they take a break and I follow him outside,

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Speaker 1: and I was just like, Hey, I'm Haley Witters, probably

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Speaker 1: something dumb, like I'm going to be in country music

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Speaker 1: some day. And I was like, how do I get

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Speaker 1: a gig here? You know, I grew up on the

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Speaker 1: chick so long time gone. That verse about like singing

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Speaker 1: on Broadway, living from a tip jar, sleeping in your car,

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Speaker 1: That's what I thought, like you had to do to

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Speaker 1: make it here. And so he says, come back on Sunday,

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Speaker 1: we'll audition you. And I came back and, you know,

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Speaker 1: was one of a few people in the audition line

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Speaker 1: or whatever, and you just jump up and I think

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Speaker 1: I sang SuDS in the bucket or something, and he said, cool,

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Speaker 1: come down tomorrow. You can work a shift. And so

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Speaker 1: then after that I just started playing on Broadway. You know,

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Speaker 1: I'd play at Rippy's across the street, play out at

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Speaker 1: the airport. What's a shift by the ways of hours? Hours? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: what do you have to know? It's kind of crazy

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Speaker 1: because they know everything. Well, what do you says come

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Speaker 1: back tomorrow? Yeah, but how do you prepare to come

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Speaker 1: back tomorrow if you Well, I'd grown up like singing

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Speaker 1: at bars in my hometown and stuff like that. So,

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Speaker 1: you know, when I was in my hometown, I'm playing

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Speaker 1: three hour gigs, me and my guitar, So I knew

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Speaker 1: like a bunch of just country covers, you know, and

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Speaker 1: so and they know a bunch of that stuff too.

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Speaker 1: So you're jumping up and you know, you're like, do

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Speaker 1: they know SuDS in the bucket? Do they know wide

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Speaker 1: open spaces? Or you know a Lauretta song, whatever? And

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Speaker 1: they know it and then you just jump up and

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Speaker 1: sing a few songs. How long until because you're doing that,

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Speaker 1: which very exciting, I'm sure the first year, six months,

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Speaker 1: But when do you start to go all right, I'm

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Speaker 1: playing these gigs, but I'm here, I actually moved here

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Speaker 1: to be my own artist, and while I'm playing these gigs,

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Speaker 1: which I think is I mean, I think everybody needs

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Speaker 1: to play these long shifts for a long time because

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Speaker 1: it makes you stronger physically mentally. It's such a big

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Speaker 1: part of the growth of being an artist. But how

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Speaker 1: long until you're like, all right, I really got to

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Speaker 1: dial in on what I am doing with my voice

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Speaker 1: and not your singing voice, but like your internal voice.

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Speaker 1: When did that start to be a priority? Well, also

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Speaker 1: kind of when I moved here, I started realizing how

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Speaker 1: much Nashville is just a songwriter town. And when I

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Speaker 1: moved here, you had to be a songwriter to be

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Speaker 1: an artist. You know. It's kind of these days I

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Speaker 1: feel like you don't necessarily have to. But that's how

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Speaker 1: I thought. That was like a stepping stone to becoming

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Speaker 1: an artist. So also, as I'm kind of playing those

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Speaker 1: Broadway gigs, I'm looking in you know, my space to

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Speaker 1: see like what the Nashville songwriting venues are. And there

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Speaker 1: was a little place, I think it was called like

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Speaker 1: the Crescent, was a songwriting little kind of dive hole

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Speaker 1: in the wall, had songwriters in. I booked a show there.

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Speaker 1: I booked a show at White's Creek Richards Cafe, and

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Speaker 1: that was kind of like my first full band show,

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Speaker 1: you know, family come down. That's the one I kind

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Speaker 1: of thought I was going to get like discovered, and

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Speaker 1: you know, and I booked that show and played there,

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Speaker 1: and then ironically enough, ten years later, I'm walking in

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Speaker 1: those doors asking him for a job waiting tables. But

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Speaker 1: I think I knew pretty early on that in order

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Speaker 1: to start getting my artist then going, I was going

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Speaker 1: to have to be writing songs so I was going

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Speaker 1: out to shows, writers nights, co or networking, trying to

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Speaker 1: meet as many writers as possible and playing as many

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Speaker 1: shows as I could. You know, you've chronicled even through music,

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Speaker 1: you know, the idea of a ten year town in

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Speaker 1: Nashville being a ten year town. I think with most creatives,

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Speaker 1: myself included, extremely hard on myself when things don't work. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I assume that because I'm just putting me in your

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Speaker 1: place that through those years when you're just getting like

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Speaker 1: little bites, yeah, and then disappointment. Yeah, Okay, here's a

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Speaker 1: slightly bigger bite. Did you ever go? Man, I don't

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Speaker 1: know if this is for me. Yeah. I think I

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Speaker 1: had blinders on for like the first ten years. But

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Speaker 1: then it's like that adage everyone says, Nashville is a

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Speaker 1: ten year town. And I was looking at my life

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Speaker 1: when I hit your ten and I was seeing friends

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Speaker 1: back home, you know, they're on baby two, baby three,

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Speaker 1: buy in the house, buy in the boat, like, seemed

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Speaker 1: to have so many milestones to show, and I felt

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Speaker 1: like I wasn't at all where I wanted to be yet.

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Speaker 1: And that's when I really started questioning it and thinking

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Speaker 1: about hanging it up. And moving back home. And you know,

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Speaker 1: it's kind of when I got my last little wind

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Speaker 1: where you know, I thought, let's make one more record.

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Speaker 1: Is that the conversation, We're gonna make one more records,

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Speaker 1: like this is the last one. I'm gonna put everything

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Speaker 1: I have into it. I've tried to be country radio,

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Speaker 1: I've tried to be Nashville. It's not me. I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: make one more record and put everything that I have

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Speaker 1: into it, all of Haileywitter's DNA. So if I end

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Speaker 1: up leaving, if this doesn't work and I end up leaving,

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Speaker 1: I can at least feel like I did my best

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Speaker 1: and I put everything I had into it, and it

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Speaker 1: just wasn't in the cards. And so that's when I

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Speaker 1: made my record, The Dream, And you know that's ironically

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Speaker 1: the record that finally got this town to pay attention

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Speaker 1: to me. Isn't that wild that it was like, because again,

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Speaker 1: I just am projecting a bit, because I've experienced this

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Speaker 1: as well, and it's like you try to fit every

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Speaker 1: mold that you think people want to be fitted too.

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Speaker 1: And yeah, you're like, I'm doing it exactly like I'm

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Speaker 1: supposed to do it, and still it's not happening and

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Speaker 1: you're like, screw it, I'm just gonna be me. Let

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Speaker 1: it all hang out. And it's like, oh wow, yeah,

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Speaker 1: like I should have done this like eight years ago.

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Speaker 1: That's what I think. That's what I think. I know.

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Speaker 1: So you make this album and then what was kind

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Speaker 1: of the breakthrough where you go, all right, I got

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Speaker 1: a little traction. Holy crap, I may not have to

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Speaker 1: go home. Yeah. Well, so I dropped ten Year Town.

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Speaker 1: I didn't have a label, I didn't even have a publicist,

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Speaker 1: I didn't have management, and a bunch of artists started

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Speaker 1: posting about it, just re sharing it. Marin shared it,

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Speaker 1: Carly Brothers Osborne and that got the attention of a

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Speaker 1: lot of the town buzzing. So then, you know, I

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Speaker 1: had a lot of meetings stuff like that, and I

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Speaker 1: think it was probably like a few weeks after I

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Speaker 1: dropped ten year Town that I got a call from

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Speaker 1: Marion Morris to go on her Girl the World tour,

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Speaker 1: and that was kind of like that allowed me to

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Speaker 1: hang up the apron strings go on the road and

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Speaker 1: everything just kind of started like spiraling from there, you know,

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Speaker 1: a good way, yeah, up in a good way. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: And so I think That's why, Like, you know, I

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Speaker 1: think Marion really changed everything for me. You know, um

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Speaker 1: she got a lot of people to start paying attention

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Speaker 1: to me and to see me. I think I felt

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Speaker 1: like I'd been here ten years, everyone kind of knew

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Speaker 1: who I was. I felt a little like washed up,

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Speaker 1: you know, and I think she like made people see

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Speaker 1: me in kind of a different light. So what is

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Speaker 1: inspiring you right this second? Because you're again a new

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Speaker 1: level in your career, you know, you're still trying to

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Speaker 1: grow creatively push yourself. What like what's doing it right

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Speaker 1: now for you? Um? Well, I just put out a

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Speaker 1: record that was really exciting to get to do. And

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Speaker 1: I've learned kind of throughout this whole experience just focusing

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Speaker 1: on like what is inspiring you, what stories, what songs,

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Speaker 1: what writers and channeling focusing on that rather than looking

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Speaker 1: around at what everyone else is doing. So making that

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Speaker 1: record again was just like such a soul filling experience

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Speaker 1: for me and reminding me kind of why I'm here

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Speaker 1: and what I'm what I'm doing. A lot of the

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Speaker 1: like girls are inspiring me, you know. I feel like

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Speaker 1: a lot of the girls in the format are just

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Speaker 1: making a big splash again I mean Landy Wilson, We're

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Speaker 1: going to be on the John Party tour together this summer.

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Speaker 1: And we had our first weekend out last weekend, and

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Speaker 1: I'm just loving what she's doing. And you know, she

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Speaker 1: brought me out and we got to have this really

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Speaker 1: fun kind of girl moment on stage and rally the

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Speaker 1: crowd and get the crowd all excited and and so,

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Speaker 1: I don't know, there's a lot of cool music being made.

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Speaker 1: I think right now that's um inspiring me in the format.

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Speaker 1: So what advice. Let's say there's a seventeen eighteen year

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Speaker 1: old girl'd move into town today. Yeah, she drives up

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Speaker 1: and she's gonna walk into one of these bars. Go

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Speaker 1: all right, I'd like to start playing, Like, what is

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Speaker 1: the advice that you give her as she starts the journey?

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Speaker 1: I would say, this town will find every reason to

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Speaker 1: tell you no, find the reason that makes you want

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Speaker 1: to stay here and chase that and follow that and

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Speaker 1: keep going. I think you're a pretty good one to

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Speaker 1: listen to. Oh yeah, congratulations. I mean it's just you know,

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Speaker 1: everywhere you look, I mean I feel like I see

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Speaker 1: Haleywinners everywhere. Really, Yeah, yeah, that's good. You f like,

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Speaker 1: you're surprised. I am kind of surprised. Oh okay, So

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Speaker 1: let's talk about the record, by the way, like the

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Speaker 1: record and the full body of work, and why you

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Speaker 1: made this record and what it like, what it stands for.

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Speaker 1: I think the like the mustard seed of this record

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Speaker 1: was kind of starting around the same time I was

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Speaker 1: actually writing for the last record. You know, I was

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Speaker 1: having those thoughts, those feelings about you know, my friends

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Speaker 1: back home, and I was very homesick and nostalgic for

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Speaker 1: that way of life, the way that I grew up,

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Speaker 1: the way that I was raised, And so I was

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Speaker 1: writing a lot of songs that were seeming to take

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Speaker 1: place back there, and we went in we cut some songs,

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Speaker 1: like December twenty nineteen, after I'd wrapped the Marinteur, and

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Speaker 1: you know, it was it felt like a project, and

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Speaker 1: we had six songs. We were like, let's just do

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Speaker 1: six more, finish it out. That's a record. But the

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Speaker 1: record very much takes place back in the Midwest where

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Speaker 1: I'm from, the people, the place that raised me. I

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Speaker 1: know I would not be here today without them. Those

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Speaker 1: are the people that supported me, that encouraged me, that

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Speaker 1: pushed me to keep going when I wanted to give up,

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Speaker 1: you know, when I was tired and thinking I should

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Speaker 1: come home. Those are the people that taught me how

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Speaker 1: to work hard, how to hang on, to persevere and um,

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Speaker 1: and so I have a lot of like fond memories

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Speaker 1: looking back kind of growing up there, and I wanted

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Speaker 1: to shed a little light on that and really kind

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Speaker 1: of showcase the Midwest a little more. And um, you know,

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Speaker 1: a lot of the scenery is Midwestern because that's my perspective,

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Speaker 1: that's the lens I had to look through. But I think,

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Speaker 1: you know, the thing about country music is it's everywhere,

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Speaker 1: you know, It's not just the South, and so, um,

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Speaker 1: I hope when people listen to this, you know, the

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Speaker 1: scenery might be a little different, but I hope it

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Speaker 1: reminds them of home and the people in the place

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Speaker 1: that raised them, and hopefully they have some good memories

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Speaker 1: of that. The album is raised, it's excellent. You're also

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Speaker 1: still you're doing Heartland to our shows still yeah, and

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Speaker 1: then you're also out with John yeah and Laney Yeah.

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Speaker 1: And I'll mention this, you were nominated for Grammy like

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Speaker 1: a saw yeah, which is yeah crazy. Yeah, that was

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Speaker 1: an absolute crazy because it's not true just or not

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Speaker 1: not deserving, but just anybody that I feel like, I

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Speaker 1: know the it's not for Grammy, Like that's crazy, that's

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Speaker 1: a Grammy. I know that's crazy. I know we're a

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Speaker 1: little country bumpkin sitting in the crowd watching Billie Eilish

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Speaker 1: just totally kill it. It was I mean, we were

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Speaker 1: just it was crazy. Yeah. Well, I hope you guys

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Speaker 1: spend some time with Haley and her music. I'm a

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Speaker 1: big fan and you know, keep on keeping on. I

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Speaker 1: think you're an inspiration to folks who are just trying

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Speaker 1: to make it. It does that to be a music, yeah,

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Speaker 1: it does. It doesn't give me somebody trying to figure

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Speaker 1: out being a parent, somebody figuring out try to be

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Speaker 1: you know, your story is just that of and you

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Speaker 1: said it again, what you'd recommend to somebody? Figure out

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Speaker 1: what you love about it, like what did it and

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Speaker 1: hold on to that and don't let people take you

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Speaker 1: away from that. Yeah, don't let people take you That's great. Okay,

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Speaker 1: there she has Haley Whitters. You guys check out Raised

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Speaker 1: and if she's coming by your town, go see her

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Speaker 1: because she is an excellent performer. Haley Grads talk to you,

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Speaker 1: Grace's talk to you. Thanks for having me, Bobby