WEBVTT - Dan Tyminski 0:00:08.640 --> 0:00:12.719 Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Left Set podcast. 0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:19.480 My guest today's guitarist, mandolinist, singer, songwriter Dan Timinski. 0:00:20.160 --> 0:00:21.960 Dan, good to have you on the podcast. 0:00:23.120 --> 0:00:24.160 Very happy to be here. 0:00:24.320 --> 0:00:27.480 Okay, you were born in Rutland, Vermont. 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:31.240 Yes, indeed in nineteen sixty seven. 0:00:31.440 --> 0:00:33.000 And did you grow up in Vermont? 0:00:34.240 --> 0:00:38.400 I grew up in Vermont. Yeah, the sprawling metropolis of 0:00:38.440 --> 0:00:43.720 West Rutland, Vermont, I say jokingly. Yeah, it was a 0:00:43.800 --> 0:00:46.480 home for me up until you know, the mid late 0:00:46.520 --> 0:00:48.560 eighties before I moved south. 0:00:49.400 --> 0:00:52.600 Well, I mean, I spent a lot of time in Vermont. 0:00:52.640 --> 0:00:54.880 We had a house in Manchester, and I went to 0:00:54.920 --> 0:00:57.320 college in Middlebury, which are like a half hour in 0:00:57.360 --> 0:01:00.520 either direction, or forty five minutes from Rutland. What was 0:01:00.560 --> 0:01:02.840 the music scene like for you growing up? 0:01:03.960 --> 0:01:05.880 That's funny, you'd say, man, I used to deliver Coca 0:01:05.920 --> 0:01:10.440 Cola to Manchester. The music scene for me was something 0:01:10.480 --> 0:01:12.000 you had to search for a little bit. I was. 0:01:12.120 --> 0:01:14.240 I was lucky enough to have parents who liked the 0:01:14.319 --> 0:01:18.480 music enough to go somewhere every weekend for you know, 0:01:18.520 --> 0:01:21.160 to hear some live music, and they dragged me along. 0:01:21.240 --> 0:01:22.720 You know, a lot of it. You know, it might 0:01:22.760 --> 0:01:24.240 have been a country bar, it might have been a 0:01:24.240 --> 0:01:29.080 square dance, fiddle contest, bluegrass festival, in an array of 0:01:29.080 --> 0:01:31.959 whatever live music there was. I got. Uh, I got 0:01:32.000 --> 0:01:34.160 all the access we could. But we had to drive, 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:35.679 you know, we had to We had to seek it out. 0:01:36.800 --> 0:01:41.280 Okay. Were your parents musicians or do they play a 0:01:41.360 --> 0:01:42.479 lot of music in the house. 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:48.760 My parents were not musicians. My mother did, uh did 0:01:48.800 --> 0:01:51.960 sing a little bit. And way back in the day, 0:01:52.040 --> 0:01:55.440 my first memories of seeing anyone player sing was was 0:01:55.480 --> 0:01:59.560 my mom singing. And uh so she was you know, 0:01:59.640 --> 0:02:03.280 definitely lies in my influences. And uh, but there were 0:02:03.280 --> 0:02:05.760 more music fans. I mean, we didn't go for for 0:02:05.840 --> 0:02:07.880 her to perform anywhere, you know, we went out to 0:02:07.920 --> 0:02:11.760 hear whatever music was playing. And uh, I got a 0:02:11.760 --> 0:02:15.040 lot of access early in my life to live music. 0:02:15.800 --> 0:02:18.160 Okay, but how about playing records at home or listening 0:02:18.240 --> 0:02:18.799 to the radio. 0:02:22.440 --> 0:02:26.040 There was some playing of music at at my house, 0:02:26.080 --> 0:02:28.000 but it was not I wouldn't say it was a 0:02:28.080 --> 0:02:29.920 music filled house. It was not. It was a it 0:02:29.960 --> 0:02:33.600 was a television field house. It was it was there 0:02:33.680 --> 0:02:37.400 was I remember like on Sundays my dad would would 0:02:38.840 --> 0:02:41.640 religiously play the Polish Poka Hour. There was a radio 0:02:41.680 --> 0:02:44.680 program where I listened to Polish Poka music for an 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:48.919 hour on Sundays. It was actually funny. It was called 0:02:48.919 --> 0:02:51.320 the Polish Poka Hour and it was two hours of music, 0:02:51.800 --> 0:02:55.840 very very strange, but so there was that there. I 0:02:55.960 --> 0:02:58.679 never had a music collection. I was never a listener 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:02.639 of music. Account of recorded music, I don't. I can 0:03:02.680 --> 0:03:05.799 still count all the recordings I have ever purchased on 0:03:05.840 --> 0:03:11.399 my on my fingers. I've never I've never really never 0:03:11.480 --> 0:03:14.120 had any recorded music and and didn't grow up with it. 0:03:14.160 --> 0:03:16.440 My brother back in the day had some. And I 0:03:16.480 --> 0:03:19.040 can name a few albums. The few albums that I 0:03:19.080 --> 0:03:23.000 have listened to, I've listened to religiously, and I've studied them, 0:03:23.040 --> 0:03:24.919 and I can I can tell you all the parts 0:03:24.960 --> 0:03:27.360 of all the players on all those records. But that's 0:03:27.440 --> 0:03:29.960 just a very small handful of recordings. 0:03:30.680 --> 0:03:33.160 Okay, So what records did your brother have that you remember? 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:37.560 Well? The Double O forty four record was the reason 0:03:37.600 --> 0:03:39.640 I'm playing music right now. The JD Crow in the 0:03:39.680 --> 0:03:44.200 New South Uh with Jerry Douglas and Ricky Skaggs and 0:03:44.240 --> 0:03:47.160 Tony Rice and Bobby Sloan. That was the record that 0:03:47.320 --> 0:03:50.960 was my by far, far and above every other thing, 0:03:51.200 --> 0:03:53.440 my biggest influence. That was the record I listened to 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:57.920 over and over and over again. That was back when 0:03:57.960 --> 0:04:00.680 I wanted to, when I thought I was a AO player. 0:04:01.560 --> 0:04:04.800 Okay, I mean I lived in Vermont in the era 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:10.720 when you're growing up and basically was AM radio and 0:04:10.760 --> 0:04:14.560 there might be a small FM station, but you heard 0:04:14.600 --> 0:04:18.080 a lot of pop hits and occasionally you would hear 0:04:18.080 --> 0:04:21.240 a country song. I remember flipping the dial on my 0:04:21.360 --> 0:04:24.680 sixty three Chevy convertible and hearing Joe Lean for the 0:04:24.760 --> 0:04:29.599 very first time. So in terms of your environment, A, 0:04:29.720 --> 0:04:32.640 were you listening to the radio or B were you 0:04:32.640 --> 0:04:35.240 were growing up? Was it really more of this country stuff? Er? 0:04:35.360 --> 0:04:36.719 Was everybody listening to pop? 0:04:39.279 --> 0:04:41.520 All my friends growing up listen to rock and roll? 0:04:42.040 --> 0:04:47.279 It was they were. They were all rockers, Boston Journey 0:04:47.360 --> 0:04:51.880 and ac DC and def Leppard and stuff like that. 0:04:53.520 --> 0:04:56.200 The radio stuff. My parents when they did listen to music, 0:04:56.200 --> 0:04:58.240 they listened to a lot of old time country music. 0:04:58.320 --> 0:05:00.640 So I got a lot of you know, everything from 0:05:00.720 --> 0:05:04.440 Kitty Wells to Hank Williams too, you know a lot 0:05:04.440 --> 0:05:07.039 of a lot of the old time country music was 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:11.279 was part of their thing. They loved to, uh, to 0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:13.360 listen to the Opry. You know, they talked to you 0:05:13.360 --> 0:05:16.400 know dearly about the Grand Old Opry was their their 0:05:16.440 --> 0:05:19.760 their high mark of of all of music. But they 0:05:19.839 --> 0:05:22.960 liked old time country music. And I got a little 0:05:22.960 --> 0:05:25.080 bit of that, but I got just a lot more 0:05:25.760 --> 0:05:28.760 live old time country music. We would go listening to 0:05:28.880 --> 0:05:32.000 whatever bar bands that were around. And you know, my 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:35.840 my very first influences were was a man named Smoky 0:05:35.920 --> 0:05:39.200 Green in upstate, New York, and he was my first 0:05:39.240 --> 0:05:42.320 time performing with anyone on a stage was with Smokey. 0:05:42.400 --> 0:05:44.640 I think I was six years old at a little 0:05:44.680 --> 0:05:45.080 club and. 0:05:45.240 --> 0:05:48.000 Uh wait, wait wait, wait wait wait wait, you were 0:05:48.040 --> 0:05:50.760 six years old and you were performing. What were you doing. 0:05:53.440 --> 0:05:56.840 That the very first time? Uh? I just I remember 0:05:56.880 --> 0:05:58.919 I was with my parents who were listening to a band, 0:05:58.960 --> 0:06:01.520 and I asked my mother if she would ask the 0:06:01.520 --> 0:06:03.800 band if I could sing a song with the band, 0:06:04.480 --> 0:06:08.280 and I think, to shut me up, she said, if 0:06:08.320 --> 0:06:09.719 you want to sing a song with him, you go 0:06:09.800 --> 0:06:15.680 up and ask him somewhere. And I was pretty shy kid. 0:06:15.720 --> 0:06:18.480 I really didn't speak much. I didn't I wasn't very outgoing, 0:06:19.360 --> 0:06:21.400 but somewhere I found the courage to walk down that 0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:24.839 aisleway and I went up to Smoky Green and I 0:06:24.839 --> 0:06:26.800 tugged down his pant leg and he turned around and 0:06:27.120 --> 0:06:28.680 looked for me and then had to turn his head 0:06:28.720 --> 0:06:32.160 down to realize it was a little kid. And I said, 0:06:32.160 --> 0:06:33.640 can I sing a song with you? And he said 0:06:33.640 --> 0:06:40.080 why sure? And I sang. I sang, please Daddy, don't 0:06:40.120 --> 0:06:45.400 get drunk this Christmas John Denver song. And I remember 0:06:45.480 --> 0:06:48.440 standing up there with my knees knocking together, literally scared 0:06:48.440 --> 0:06:51.040 to death. But I sang the song, and when I 0:06:51.080 --> 0:06:53.200 was done, everyone applauded, you know, and made a big 0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:57.440 deal of it. And that feeling, that excitement, that nervous 0:06:57.560 --> 0:07:02.000 energy has stayed with me, you know, for the you know, 0:07:02.080 --> 0:07:03.480 the next fifty years. 0:07:03.920 --> 0:07:06.560 Okay, let's set the stage a little bit more. Would 0:07:06.600 --> 0:07:07.839 your parents do for a living? 0:07:09.360 --> 0:07:14.120 My dad was a mechanic. He was a a transmission 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:17.880 and rear end specialist, and in his uh later years 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:20.800 of his his work, he was a fleet mechanic for 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:23.720 Coca Cola. He was the guy in charge of keeping 0:07:23.760 --> 0:07:26.559 all of the the vehicles running for the Coca Cola 0:07:26.560 --> 0:07:32.320 company there in Rutland. And my mother she she didn't 0:07:32.360 --> 0:07:36.200 really work my whole life growing up, but I remember 0:07:36.200 --> 0:07:38.120 her having a job as a cashier. She was a 0:07:38.160 --> 0:07:42.600 head cashier at a department store. You know, middle class. 0:07:44.000 --> 0:07:50.080 Uh nothing nothing real real exciting and lines of work. 0:07:50.120 --> 0:07:52.400 At least as I saw it, music was I was. 0:07:52.480 --> 0:07:55.840 I was kind of the first one to well my brother, 0:07:55.920 --> 0:07:57.520 I'll i'll say it was much older than me. So 0:07:57.560 --> 0:07:59.000 my brother and I we were the first ones to 0:07:59.160 --> 0:08:02.800 uh had any other direction than mechanics. 0:08:03.360 --> 0:08:06.680 Okay, so just you and your brother only two kids? 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:10.440 No, we have a sister. My brother was the only 0:08:10.480 --> 0:08:14.040 other child that that was was musical, although if you 0:08:14.040 --> 0:08:16.000 were to have to, you know, she won't admit it 0:08:16.040 --> 0:08:18.440 to anyone. My sister actually has a beautiful singing voice, 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:21.720 she just will not let anyone hear it. My brother 0:08:21.760 --> 0:08:23.840 and I played some music together out with for for 0:08:23.880 --> 0:08:24.400 other people. 0:08:24.600 --> 0:08:28.000 Okay, so where are you in the hierarchy? Are you're 0:08:28.040 --> 0:08:29.640 the middle kid, the youngest kid. 0:08:30.760 --> 0:08:33.400 I'm the baby by a lot. My my brother and 0:08:33.440 --> 0:08:36.800 sister are nine and eleven years older than I am. 0:08:38.160 --> 0:08:41.000 And I came along. I was, I was the I 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:45.000 was the surprise. You know a dozen years later, and. 0:08:45.480 --> 0:08:49.400 How did your brother and sisters lives play out. 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:55.880 My sister still lives in in Vermont, in in the 0:08:55.880 --> 0:08:59.560 house that that I grew up in actually, and uh 0:08:59.679 --> 0:09:05.640 and my brother we played music together and we're close 0:09:05.720 --> 0:09:08.520 for for a lot of the years growing up, but 0:09:09.120 --> 0:09:12.760 grew apart. I haven't haven't had a close relationship with 0:09:12.800 --> 0:09:16.360 my brother in years. So I know he's still up 0:09:16.400 --> 0:09:20.880 in the New Hampshire area, and my sister is in Vermont, 0:09:21.000 --> 0:09:24.520 and I made my way to eventually Tennessee. 0:09:25.880 --> 0:09:28.320 When you say you don't have a close relationship, do 0:09:28.360 --> 0:09:30.480 you have any contact at all or not for a 0:09:30.480 --> 0:09:31.040 long time. 0:09:32.600 --> 0:09:36.400 No, it's a it's a difficult situation as sometimes siblings 0:09:36.400 --> 0:09:40.320 do or brothers do. They they fall apart, and I 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:46.040 won't go into deep circumstance, but yeah, none of my 0:09:47.280 --> 0:09:49.560 none of my family have a relationship with with my 0:09:49.559 --> 0:09:53.960 brother anymore. He kind of decided that he was gonna 0:09:54.679 --> 0:09:57.520 sever all paths to to basically everyone. So I don't 0:09:57.559 --> 0:10:00.200 know anyone in my family who has a relationship ship 0:10:00.280 --> 0:10:02.959 with my brother anymore. He kind of just went am 0:10:03.000 --> 0:10:08.400 I A for me many years ago? The well everyone 0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:08.840 else as. 0:10:08.760 --> 0:10:10.920 Well, Okay, so you're growing up in Rutland, you have 0:10:11.000 --> 0:10:14.079 this experience over the state line singing. At age six, 0:10:14.600 --> 0:10:17.600 you go to school. Are you in the school plays? 0:10:17.760 --> 0:10:20.560 Do you start to perform? 0:10:20.600 --> 0:10:23.480 Not even a little bit. No, it was there was 0:10:23.520 --> 0:10:26.480 a clear line draw man. That was my escape life 0:10:26.520 --> 0:10:30.199 that I got on the weekends in school. Had nothing 0:10:30.240 --> 0:10:34.720 to do with any of the arts. No. No. In 0:10:34.800 --> 0:10:37.520 high school, I eventually, you know, for vocational I took 0:10:37.559 --> 0:10:39.000 welding and metal fabrication. 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:43.480 Okay, so what kind of kid were you? 0:10:43.520 --> 0:10:43.800 Were you? 0:10:44.559 --> 0:10:48.640 Good at school, good at sports, bad loaner, spark of 0:10:48.679 --> 0:10:49.160 the party. 0:10:52.480 --> 0:10:56.560 As a kid, Let's see, it's hard to describe yourself 0:10:56.600 --> 0:10:57.880 as a kid. I mean I've heard a lot of 0:10:57.920 --> 0:11:01.240 other people describe me as kids, and some people's opinions vary. 0:11:02.000 --> 0:11:09.560 As a kid, I was, I was I was very quiet. 0:11:09.640 --> 0:11:13.840 I was very to myself. I was very I wasn't 0:11:13.920 --> 0:11:17.400 quick to engage, you know, I mean to you know, 0:11:17.480 --> 0:11:19.520 to to really open it up. I mean, I had 0:11:19.559 --> 0:11:22.880 parents that, though they traveled and you know, did a 0:11:22.880 --> 0:11:28.199 lot of things together, my parents fought a lot every week. 0:11:28.480 --> 0:11:32.240 Really of my life, I've seen a lot of violence, 0:11:33.160 --> 0:11:36.160 and I and and I just I didn't engage with 0:11:36.240 --> 0:11:38.880 anyone I really tried to. That's like at school, I 0:11:39.040 --> 0:11:41.640 was like in my own little bubble I was. I 0:11:41.679 --> 0:11:44.960 didn't really I only had a couple of friends. And 0:11:45.040 --> 0:11:47.280 as it, you know, turned into high school. You know, 0:11:47.320 --> 0:11:49.480 I would say more on the outcast part of school. 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:52.640 I mean I was intelligent. I was able to make 0:11:53.040 --> 0:11:55.760 any grade I wanted in any of the classes. But 0:11:56.000 --> 0:11:59.400 I gave about enough effort to make my see and 0:11:59.480 --> 0:12:02.120 pass and got out of school as quickly as I could. 0:12:02.559 --> 0:12:04.160 Didn't didn't care for school. 0:12:04.520 --> 0:12:07.200 It was a different era. My parents fought a lot, 0:12:07.520 --> 0:12:10.360 and they hit us a lot, but they stayed together. 0:12:10.720 --> 0:12:13.800 So what was your situation, Well, my parents stayed together. 0:12:13.880 --> 0:12:16.320 My parents didn't hit me, They didn't hit the kids. 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:19.400 They hit each other. That My parents were brawlers. You know. 0:12:19.480 --> 0:12:21.720 My mom was a fighter. She could she could whip 0:12:21.800 --> 0:12:24.160 a man's butt. I mean you you wouldn't want to 0:12:24.200 --> 0:12:27.280 tangle with with either one of them. Really. They both 0:12:27.320 --> 0:12:29.680 came from really big families. Dad had ten brothers and 0:12:29.720 --> 0:12:34.360 sisters and my mom had sixteen brothers and sisters, and 0:12:34.440 --> 0:12:36.719 they all grew up having to fight. They all grew 0:12:36.800 --> 0:12:38.880 up having to fight for everything. With each other. And 0:12:38.960 --> 0:12:42.559 you know the families were were close, yet not close. 0:12:42.600 --> 0:12:45.280 They fought amongst each other. I mean, two boys and 0:12:45.480 --> 0:12:48.320 a girl from one family married two girls and a 0:12:48.320 --> 0:12:50.760 boy from the other family. Wow. So we had a 0:12:50.760 --> 0:12:55.400 lot of family turmoil. And you know there was there was, 0:12:55.640 --> 0:12:57.280 There was a lot going on growing up. You know, 0:12:57.400 --> 0:13:01.760 some some stayed close, drifted apart. It was just you know, 0:13:02.120 --> 0:13:05.840 I I I couldn't deal with the with with the 0:13:05.840 --> 0:13:10.800 fighting and the the what I felt was was it 0:13:10.840 --> 0:13:12.760 was a lot of it was very negative. I was 0:13:13.000 --> 0:13:15.920 I really was looking for for a way out from 0:13:16.280 --> 0:13:18.200 day one. You know, from when I was a little kid. 0:13:18.240 --> 0:13:20.880 I knew I couldn't wait to get away and play music. 0:13:20.960 --> 0:13:23.600 I knew I was a musician when I was very small. 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:28.960 Oh okay. Was everybody in that same area of West Rutland. 0:13:29.640 --> 0:13:32.080 Very close Yeah, West Rutland and Rutland, A lot of 0:13:32.080 --> 0:13:36.120 them were, I mean in the surrounding towns. Yeah. 0:13:36.160 --> 0:13:38.160 And so was it like on the weekends they would 0:13:38.200 --> 0:13:38.960 all get together. 0:13:39.960 --> 0:13:42.080 No, that wasn't. You know, we had we would go 0:13:42.120 --> 0:13:44.800 and visit some family. It wasn't. It wasn't like that 0:13:44.960 --> 0:13:47.120 type of family. There were just two big families that 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:50.000 happened to have some you know, some marriages that went, 0:13:50.080 --> 0:13:52.280 you know to two boys and a girl married two 0:13:52.280 --> 0:13:54.760 girls and a boy. So we had some connections there 0:13:54.880 --> 0:13:56.560 for a while. There were a row of us on 0:13:56.600 --> 0:13:59.280 Clarendon Avenue where I lived. There were a bunch of 0:13:59.320 --> 0:14:01.440 a line of Timen, you know, in five or six 0:14:01.520 --> 0:14:06.160 houses in a row were Timinsky's and the Timinski's and 0:14:06.200 --> 0:14:09.719 the Woodies. It was go back in the day. Man. 0:14:09.760 --> 0:14:12.360 There were just there were There were a lot of them. 0:14:12.760 --> 0:14:17.920 Okay, So how many generations was your family in America? 0:14:18.840 --> 0:14:24.160 My grandfather, my dad's father, came over from Poland, and 0:14:24.280 --> 0:14:27.720 my mom's parents were here for generations. 0:14:28.800 --> 0:14:31.840 Okay, So at what point do you start to play 0:14:31.840 --> 0:14:32.480 an instrument. 0:14:34.480 --> 0:14:39.520 I started playing when I was five or six. I 0:14:39.560 --> 0:14:43.120 started playing a mandolin and I played and because I 0:14:43.240 --> 0:14:45.440 was you know, I I I was good at it, 0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:48.040 and you know, everyone told me I was good at it, 0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:51.040 and you know, I just I kind of played around 0:14:51.040 --> 0:14:54.520 with it until I was probably twelve. It wasn't you know, 0:14:54.560 --> 0:14:57.400 I really say my music started. I got bit by 0:14:57.400 --> 0:15:00.840 the bug when I was twelve. I that JD. Crow 0:15:00.880 --> 0:15:06.480 record and it was like a beacon from the sky 0:15:06.840 --> 0:15:09.440 just came down and sucked me up. I couldn't think 0:15:09.480 --> 0:15:12.680 about anything else but that, the sound of that banjo. 0:15:13.080 --> 0:15:15.000 And it turns out, I discovered years later it was 0:15:15.040 --> 0:15:19.119 really the relationship the banjo had with the other instruments, 0:15:19.160 --> 0:15:21.960 particularly the guitar, that I really fell in love with. 0:15:22.000 --> 0:15:24.080 But in my mind, all I could think about was 0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:24.600 that banjo. 0:15:32.240 --> 0:15:35.720 So you pick up the mandolin. Was there a mandolin 0:15:35.800 --> 0:15:37.840 in the house or did you ask your appearance to 0:15:37.840 --> 0:15:38.440 buy you one. 0:15:40.280 --> 0:15:45.320 My brother was in the military. He was stationed in Virginia, 0:15:46.000 --> 0:15:51.320 and he came home on leave one weekend with a mandolin, 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:54.640 and he just happened to leave the mandolin at the 0:15:54.760 --> 0:15:56.680 at the house with me. He saw that I liked it, 0:15:56.720 --> 0:15:59.400 and he left the mandolin and I and I just 0:15:59.560 --> 0:16:04.120 tinkered around on the on on that little little harmony mandolin, 0:16:04.200 --> 0:16:10.560 little round teardrop style mandolin. That. Uh, that was my 0:16:10.600 --> 0:16:11.680 first my first answer. 0:16:11.680 --> 0:16:13.320 Okay, so you didn't have any lessons. 0:16:14.280 --> 0:16:16.800 Oh heck no, there were no. There were no lessons. 0:16:16.800 --> 0:16:22.080 There was no There was not even there was. There 0:16:22.160 --> 0:16:24.880 was me in a bedroom and and you know, trying 0:16:24.880 --> 0:16:27.360 to make more noise than was being made outside of 0:16:27.360 --> 0:16:28.160 the bedroom, you know. 0:16:28.880 --> 0:16:32.400 So how did you know how to tune it? 0:16:32.400 --> 0:16:34.840 It was in two I mean when I got it, 0:16:34.840 --> 0:16:39.160 it was in tune. I mean basically in tune. And 0:16:39.240 --> 0:16:41.560 I I always had an ear for tuning. I didn't, 0:16:41.600 --> 0:16:43.880 you know, we there were no tuners. We just you know, 0:16:43.960 --> 0:16:45.720 I could tell if it was a little too high 0:16:45.760 --> 0:16:48.080 or a little too low. And I could tune it 0:16:48.160 --> 0:16:50.400 right from the very right from the very start, I think. 0:16:50.480 --> 0:16:54.160 Yeah, So from age six when you pick up the 0:16:54.200 --> 0:16:57.920 mandolin to age twelve, when you get inspiration hearing the 0:16:58.000 --> 0:17:03.120 krone and stuff, are you playing country songs on the mandolin? 0:17:03.200 --> 0:17:04.439 What are you actually doing? 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:10.520 I'm playing songs on the mandolin and traveling to bluegrass 0:17:10.560 --> 0:17:13.880 festivals and playing in jam sessions and playing a little 0:17:13.880 --> 0:17:16.720 bit with my brother. My brother played the guitar and 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:19.960 sang and I would sing. Really the only reason I 0:17:20.000 --> 0:17:23.199 sing at all is was to sing with, you know, 0:17:23.280 --> 0:17:25.520 with my brother. I didn't really ever care to sing. 0:17:26.320 --> 0:17:30.680 I always like to play. And there was just there 0:17:30.720 --> 0:17:33.360 were spar shows and my parents would take me places. 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:36.080 I did radio shows when they were spots, you know, 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:38.320 Smoky Green had a radio show. My parents would take 0:17:38.359 --> 0:17:41.080 me there, I would play and just sing anything I could. 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:44.280 I mean, it wasn't particularly bluegrass until I was a teenager. 0:17:45.640 --> 0:17:49.960 Okay, So from six to twelve you were doing all this, 0:17:50.200 --> 0:17:51.080 or after twelve. 0:17:52.600 --> 0:17:55.640 From six to twelve, I was still going to shows 0:17:55.720 --> 0:17:59.280 and concerts and festivals and anything that my parents could 0:17:59.280 --> 0:18:03.919 get to. I went some somewhere most weekends. You know, 0:18:03.960 --> 0:18:07.320 there was some music somewhere. We would travel to it, 0:18:07.520 --> 0:18:09.720 and then I would go home and try to you know, 0:18:09.760 --> 0:18:12.199 I would more than anything. When I was playing manteline, 0:18:12.200 --> 0:18:15.080 I would sit and watch television and play whatever the 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:17.080 music I heard on the television was all the theme 0:18:17.119 --> 0:18:20.679 songs to all the shows, the commercials, whatever little jingle 0:18:20.720 --> 0:18:22.840 would come on. I would just you know, I would 0:18:22.920 --> 0:18:25.359 just learn how to mimic, you know, whatever I heard. 0:18:25.560 --> 0:18:28.520 I wasn't really interested in. I never really learned a 0:18:28.520 --> 0:18:31.640 bunch of songs. I just it was a toy. From 0:18:31.680 --> 0:18:33.639 when I was six to twelve. It was just something 0:18:33.680 --> 0:18:38.360 I played with. I never really really tried to learn anything. 0:18:38.520 --> 0:18:40.280 It was just I played it because I could. 0:18:41.920 --> 0:18:44.440 Okay, So now you're twelve, you get this great inspiration. 0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:46.119 How does your life change? 0:18:47.680 --> 0:18:49.960 Well, I tell my parents that I want a banjo, 0:18:50.160 --> 0:18:55.160 and they they looked at me, to quote the line 0:18:55.160 --> 0:18:56.520 from that movie, they looked at me like I had 0:18:56.560 --> 0:19:00.280 lobsters crawling out of my ears. They said, there are 0:19:00.280 --> 0:19:03.280 no banjo players around here. There are no music stores 0:19:03.280 --> 0:19:05.760 that we know of. I mean, where would we even 0:19:05.760 --> 0:19:08.720 get a banjo? And I was adamant. I said, I 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:13.960 want a banjo. And we found a music store in Castleton, 0:19:14.200 --> 0:19:18.879 Vermont that had banjo's, a couple of banjo's hanging on 0:19:18.880 --> 0:19:21.600 the wall, not very expensive, pretty, you know, very very 0:19:21.760 --> 0:19:27.479 entry level instruments. And they they got me a banjo 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:33.440 like two months before my thirteenth birthday. And I took 0:19:33.480 --> 0:19:38.720 that banjo and I did everything wrong you can do. 0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:43.520 I I knew what it sounded like. I was. I was. 0:19:43.680 --> 0:19:46.360 I was quick enough to be able to decipher these 0:19:46.359 --> 0:19:49.119 are the notes I want to hear, but somehow was 0:19:49.200 --> 0:19:53.600 not smart enough to figure out how the finger pattern went, 0:19:53.760 --> 0:19:57.800 so my fingers are crossed. Compared to other banjo players, 0:19:57.880 --> 0:20:01.600 my h The main technique in a banjo is your 0:20:01.600 --> 0:20:04.640 thumb would cover the fifth string and the fourth string predominantly. 0:20:04.760 --> 0:20:08.119 Your middle finger would cover the first and second string, 0:20:08.200 --> 0:20:11.199 and your first index finger would cover the third, you know, 0:20:11.280 --> 0:20:13.000 the third and the second string, it kind of stays 0:20:13.000 --> 0:20:16.960 in the middle. Somehow I learned to have my index 0:20:17.000 --> 0:20:20.639 finger covering that that you know, D and B string, 0:20:20.680 --> 0:20:22.439 and I learned my my middle finger was in the 0:20:22.480 --> 0:20:24.719 middle on the G string. My fingers are just crossed 0:20:24.720 --> 0:20:27.879 around backwards from everybody else's. And I did that for 0:20:27.920 --> 0:20:29.960 a couple of years before anybody noticed. By the time 0:20:29.960 --> 0:20:36.280 anyone noticed, I'd already developed a unchangeable pattern I could play, 0:20:36.840 --> 0:20:39.320 so I never I never went back. So I have 0:20:39.560 --> 0:20:44.920 one of the more unique banjo right hands from teaching myself, 0:20:45.000 --> 0:20:48.639 you know, I I tell everyone, if you have it 0:20:48.800 --> 0:20:51.879 when you're getting started, take some early lessons, learn some 0:20:52.040 --> 0:20:55.240 technique out of the gate. It would it'll so help 0:20:55.359 --> 0:20:58.880 the new musicians out there who want to learn, because 0:20:58.920 --> 0:21:00.240 I found that. For me, it was out of a 0:21:00.280 --> 0:21:03.480 stumbling block with the banjo. And then, of of course 0:21:04.600 --> 0:21:06.400 I didn't know at the time my career was really 0:21:06.440 --> 0:21:09.040 going to be on a guitar, you know, mandolin and 0:21:09.080 --> 0:21:13.520 guitar mostly, so the mandolin and the guitar were pretty translatable. 0:21:13.560 --> 0:21:14.960 I played that mandolin early on. 0:21:15.359 --> 0:21:18.000 Let's just stay with the banjo. What was your inspiration 0:21:18.240 --> 0:21:19.960 for saying you wanted to play the banjo. 0:21:20.720 --> 0:21:23.359 I heard JD. Crow in the New South. I heard J. D. 0:21:23.480 --> 0:21:27.600 Crow play I'm Walking, Yes, indeed, I heard him play 0:21:27.680 --> 0:21:31.639 Old Home Place. And when I heard that, there was 0:21:31.680 --> 0:21:35.240 something about that music, particularly the double O forty four record. 0:21:35.240 --> 0:21:37.520 That's the record that I studied that I listened to 0:21:37.760 --> 0:21:40.720 that I can you know, I can play every note 0:21:40.720 --> 0:21:43.640 of every instrument, of every solo on the whole red 0:21:43.680 --> 0:21:47.600 you know, I've studied that record inside and out. It's 0:21:47.640 --> 0:21:50.440 the one that spoke to me. Who knows why any 0:21:50.480 --> 0:21:53.120 particular piece of music speaks to anyone person, but that 0:21:53.160 --> 0:21:56.640 one grab me right to the right to the core. 0:21:57.920 --> 0:22:02.879 Okay, So now you're playing the banjo. Are you playing 0:22:02.920 --> 0:22:04.560 the banjo with anybody else? 0:22:07.320 --> 0:22:10.639 Now? I'm playing the banjo with again with my brother 0:22:11.600 --> 0:22:14.280 uh Stan, and we we ended up starting a band 0:22:14.359 --> 0:22:18.439 called Green Mountain Bluegrass. And we we held that together 0:22:18.480 --> 0:22:21.240 for about five years, and we ultimately played up and 0:22:21.280 --> 0:22:23.439 down the East Coast. You know, by the by the 0:22:23.480 --> 0:22:25.240 time we were you know, had played a few years. 0:22:25.240 --> 0:22:29.520 We played from Maine to Florida, anywhere we could, any 0:22:29.520 --> 0:22:32.240 bluegrass festival. I mean, you know, we were we weren't 0:22:32.240 --> 0:22:34.119 making any money. We were just we were just so 0:22:34.280 --> 0:22:37.159 gung ho to go and play. And yeah, anytime I 0:22:37.200 --> 0:22:40.600 could get in any jam session at any bluegrass festival, 0:22:42.119 --> 0:22:44.159 I was the guy that walked around with a with 0:22:44.240 --> 0:22:47.040 a banjo out of the case on, you know, strapped 0:22:47.080 --> 0:22:50.440 on walking around looking for jam sessions. I just it's 0:22:50.600 --> 0:22:55.560 I lived it every every every moment of every day. 0:22:56.080 --> 0:22:57.240 That was what was in my head. 0:22:58.760 --> 0:23:01.600 So it was not matter like with a rock band 0:23:01.600 --> 0:23:03.840 that you were playing with the kids in school. 0:23:05.520 --> 0:23:07.960 No, not at all. In fact, there was the kids 0:23:08.000 --> 0:23:11.840 in school had no idea what I did. They eventually 0:23:11.880 --> 0:23:16.160 found out that I that I played a banjo, and uh, 0:23:16.200 --> 0:23:20.639 and I really took you know, that was from the 0:23:20.680 --> 0:23:22.959 school aspect and my my, the friends that I had 0:23:23.000 --> 0:23:24.960 growing up, you know, that was more. I was more 0:23:25.040 --> 0:23:28.800 probably ashamed of that, or I was hiding it. You know, 0:23:28.880 --> 0:23:32.000 I didn't Uh, they didn't think bluegrass music was cool. 0:23:32.400 --> 0:23:35.720 They were rock and rollers. So you know, I didn't 0:23:35.720 --> 0:23:38.359 tell them I was out playing banjos. I just I 0:23:38.400 --> 0:23:41.520 went on the weekends and did my thing and then 0:23:41.560 --> 0:23:43.600 had a different life while I was while I was home. 0:23:44.280 --> 0:23:46.680 So at these festivals, you just showed up. These were 0:23:46.720 --> 0:23:49.600 not paying gigs where there was somebody booking the gig, 0:23:49.640 --> 0:23:51.600 whether it be an agent or yourself or whatever. 0:23:53.400 --> 0:23:55.760 Correct though it was a little bit of both. I mean, 0:23:55.800 --> 0:23:57.880 when we had the band Green Mountain Bluegrass, we would 0:23:57.880 --> 0:23:59.880 book any festival that we could, and then we would 0:23:59.880 --> 0:24:01.920 go there and camp out for the weekend. We would 0:24:01.920 --> 0:24:04.159 go and we would play our show whenever our show was, 0:24:04.880 --> 0:24:08.320 but we were really there to drink and party and 0:24:08.400 --> 0:24:10.320 pick and have the best time we could. We just 0:24:10.400 --> 0:24:13.320 camped out and you know, it was like vacation every week. 0:24:14.600 --> 0:24:18.560 And does that scene exist at all today. 0:24:20.680 --> 0:24:23.840 The bluegrass festival scene. I mean, I still like to 0:24:23.840 --> 0:24:25.879 go to the bluegrass festivals for the same reason I 0:24:25.880 --> 0:24:29.560 don't have the freedom I once had to go and 0:24:29.600 --> 0:24:32.240 walk around and you know, jam bust with with a 0:24:32.240 --> 0:24:35.399 banjo on my on my shoulder. But I still like 0:24:35.480 --> 0:24:37.760 festivals for the same reason. I still walk around. I 0:24:37.800 --> 0:24:42.520 still enjoy watching everybody get together and it's an amazing 0:24:44.760 --> 0:24:47.600 it's an amazing sense of community. Man. The bluegrass festivals 0:24:47.600 --> 0:24:50.520 are what ultimately won me over and why I stuck 0:24:50.560 --> 0:24:52.240 with this this music. 0:24:53.560 --> 0:24:57.119 Okay, for those people not in this world, can you 0:24:57.200 --> 0:24:58.560 define bluegrass. 0:25:01.600 --> 0:25:03.639 You know, it's that's a question I have heard so 0:25:03.720 --> 0:25:06.439 many times, and I've heard so many people ask it. 0:25:07.040 --> 0:25:09.920 You asked that question. It's a it's a difficult question 0:25:09.960 --> 0:25:16.640 to answer. I mean bluegrass music. To me, it's it's 0:25:16.720 --> 0:25:19.639 the evolution of mountain music. It's it's it's the music 0:25:19.720 --> 0:25:22.760 that that people played with the simplest instruments they could find. 0:25:23.560 --> 0:25:25.440 You know, they played what you would early call that. 0:25:25.640 --> 0:25:28.280 Some might call it country music or old time country music. 0:25:28.320 --> 0:25:31.360 It was not too unlike bluegrass music. I think when 0:25:31.359 --> 0:25:36.120 bluegrass kind of got its its niche was simply Earl Scruggs, 0:25:36.119 --> 0:25:38.679 you know, three finger banjo, and then of course you 0:25:38.680 --> 0:25:40.800 had Bill Monroe with some high harmonies, and you had 0:25:40.800 --> 0:25:45.080 some influential bands that played that style of music. But 0:25:45.240 --> 0:25:47.080 you know, everyone there are a lot of opinions of 0:25:47.119 --> 0:25:50.280 what bluegrass music actually is. You know, it's it's a 0:25:50.600 --> 0:25:54.000 typically it's a guitar, bass, a banjo, and a mandolin 0:25:54.359 --> 0:25:59.240 and a fiddle. That's if you play that and sing 0:25:59.280 --> 0:26:03.479 certain songs, I think, well you have bluegrass music. But 0:26:04.440 --> 0:26:09.160 opinions vary a lot on what bluegrass actually is. It's 0:26:09.200 --> 0:26:12.600 fun to hear the different interpretations. I've spent a lifetime 0:26:12.960 --> 0:26:16.919 trying to explain it and also trying to interpret other people's, 0:26:17.520 --> 0:26:20.840 you know, opinion of what bluegrass music is. Not everyone agrees, 0:26:20.880 --> 0:26:25.880 and that's even within hardcore bluegrass bands. Lifers can still 0:26:26.359 --> 0:26:28.760 argue about what bluegrass music actually is. You know, it's 0:26:28.760 --> 0:26:31.240 funny to me. I mean, I like all types of music, 0:26:31.280 --> 0:26:34.720 and bluegrass music is the core. It's the heart of 0:26:34.800 --> 0:26:37.840 what I do. And if you identified as bluegrass, then 0:26:37.880 --> 0:26:39.160 there it is bluegrass music. 0:26:40.400 --> 0:26:42.360 So what point did you pick up the guitar. 0:26:43.400 --> 0:26:45.760 When I joined Alison Krause Union Station. 0:26:46.920 --> 0:26:49.120 So you weren't playing the guitar before that, you were 0:26:49.119 --> 0:26:50.920 just playing banjo and mandolin. 0:26:53.320 --> 0:26:56.320 Correct, I mean I had access to a guitar, like 0:26:56.400 --> 0:26:58.400 I knew how to play a you know, I could 0:26:58.400 --> 0:27:00.800 play GC and D. I could play the court, you know, 0:27:01.280 --> 0:27:03.639 of course, but I never no, I never had a 0:27:03.640 --> 0:27:06.880 guitar of my own. I never had no. I didn't 0:27:06.920 --> 0:27:08.920 really the guitar was was not my thing. I spent 0:27:09.000 --> 0:27:11.800 all my time those formative years trying to play a banjo. Again. 0:27:11.840 --> 0:27:14.040 I played mandolin just because it was like a toy. 0:27:14.400 --> 0:27:16.920 It was fun. I played the mandolin, but I spent 0:27:16.960 --> 0:27:19.080 all my years, you know, playing the banjo, and I 0:27:19.200 --> 0:27:21.639 honestly I wanted to join Alison Krause's band as the 0:27:21.680 --> 0:27:24.800 banjo player. I was. I was mortified the day I 0:27:24.800 --> 0:27:27.879 found out ron Block got the job and and I 0:27:28.119 --> 0:27:30.720 didn't have a shot at that anymore. I never dreamed 0:27:30.720 --> 0:27:35.000 I would get asked to be the guitar player. And uh, 0:27:35.160 --> 0:27:39.159 when I was, I immediately went shopping for a guitar 0:27:39.280 --> 0:27:42.640 and and you know, sat in the sat in the woodshed, 0:27:42.760 --> 0:27:45.960 as as they would say, and uh, and tried to 0:27:46.000 --> 0:27:50.240 play ketchup, you know. And I spent a hell most 0:27:50.280 --> 0:27:52.280 of my career playing ketchup because that was that was 0:27:52.400 --> 0:27:55.119 kind of my last instrument. But turns out it was 0:27:55.160 --> 0:27:58.640 the instrument I was meant to play. It's the instrument 0:27:58.680 --> 0:28:02.199 I enjoy playing, you know, the most. It was. You know, 0:28:02.200 --> 0:28:04.280 I didn't realize the love I had for a guitar 0:28:05.480 --> 0:28:07.679 until late in my career, I mean until after I 0:28:07.720 --> 0:28:08.520 was a guitar player. 0:28:11.000 --> 0:28:14.879 You know, some musicians can pick up any instrument and 0:28:14.920 --> 0:28:17.760 within a short period of time play it is that 0:28:17.800 --> 0:28:18.400 who you are. 0:28:22.000 --> 0:28:24.639 That's how people would describe me. Probably that knew me 0:28:24.680 --> 0:28:26.600 growing up, I mean that was part of our stick 0:28:26.680 --> 0:28:28.480 in the Green Mountain blue grass days. I would play 0:28:28.520 --> 0:28:30.879 a song where I would, you know, run around and 0:28:30.880 --> 0:28:36.639 play all the different instruments on the stage. I was 0:28:36.720 --> 0:28:39.480 never a deep catalog on any one instrument, but it 0:28:39.520 --> 0:28:41.560 was easy enough for me. Yeah, I mean, there's there's 0:28:41.560 --> 0:28:43.640 a relationship. Once you can play one, you kind of 0:28:43.640 --> 0:28:45.960 have an understanding of the next one. And I think 0:28:46.000 --> 0:28:48.600 a lot of the players that play bluegrass music that 0:28:48.640 --> 0:28:52.920 are really that can really play any one instrument well, 0:28:52.960 --> 0:28:55.320 can probably pick up most of them and play, you know, 0:28:55.400 --> 0:28:59.480 the ones that you know, most people that can play 0:28:59.480 --> 0:29:01.720 anything with a pick can play anything with a pick. 0:29:01.880 --> 0:29:05.200 You know. Fiddle is a different category altogether. I think 0:29:05.200 --> 0:29:07.040 you have to be a totally weird person to play 0:29:07.080 --> 0:29:10.080 a fiddle, which is I'm that weird person. I mean, 0:29:10.080 --> 0:29:11.880 when I'm home, that's the only thing I really pick 0:29:11.960 --> 0:29:14.800 up here around the house anymore for my own enjoyment. 0:29:15.360 --> 0:29:19.040 I like playing the fiddle, but again as a toy 0:29:19.520 --> 0:29:21.400 because it's just fun to pick up and play. I 0:29:21.400 --> 0:29:24.800 don't I don't try to make any money play in 0:29:24.840 --> 0:29:25.200 a fiddle. 0:29:25.240 --> 0:29:27.840 Well, let's say I dropped a clarinet at your house 0:29:27.880 --> 0:29:29.960 and I came back a week later. Would you be 0:29:30.040 --> 0:29:30.760 able to play it? 0:29:33.400 --> 0:29:35.479 I would probably be able to play something you wouldn't 0:29:35.520 --> 0:29:38.440 want to hear. Yeah, I mean it's uh yeah, I'll 0:29:38.680 --> 0:29:41.160 I'll pick up anything and try to make music out 0:29:41.200 --> 0:29:43.480 of it. Yeah, I've. I've always kind of been that 0:29:43.640 --> 0:29:44.600 type of a tinkerer. 0:29:52.520 --> 0:29:57.200 So you graduate from high school, you get your direloma, Yes, 0:29:57.640 --> 0:30:01.040 but you get your diploma. How do you see your 0:30:01.160 --> 0:30:03.640 life playing out? What do you what do you want 0:30:03.640 --> 0:30:03.960 to do? 0:30:07.840 --> 0:30:11.440 Boy? At the at the point of graduating. I mean, I, 0:30:11.520 --> 0:30:17.240 like I said, I I wanted to play music gosh forever. 0:30:17.360 --> 0:30:20.880 Like I I couldn't wait to go and play music. 0:30:20.920 --> 0:30:23.000 But I mean, I think I spent I spent a 0:30:23.000 --> 0:30:26.240 little point as a teenager thinking I wanted to play baseball. 0:30:27.040 --> 0:30:29.720 You know, I was. I was a pretty decent baseball player. 0:30:29.760 --> 0:30:33.720 I thought to myself, I could probably play baseball. It's 0:30:33.720 --> 0:30:36.040 gonna sound silly, but there was a point past that, 0:30:36.080 --> 0:30:38.320 you know, the years leading up to graduation, I wanted 0:30:38.320 --> 0:30:42.840 to play foosball. I wanted to uh, I wanted to 0:30:42.880 --> 0:30:45.280 be a professional football player. I thought that would have 0:30:45.360 --> 0:30:47.240 been an amazing Okay. 0:30:47.040 --> 0:30:50.720 Wait wait wait, I was always a shitty foosball player. 0:30:51.440 --> 0:30:54.200 But the people put a lot of time in. You know, 0:30:54.240 --> 0:30:56.600 they could work it, et cetera. You gotta put a 0:30:56.680 --> 0:30:59.560 lot of time in to be a good foosball player. 0:31:00.640 --> 0:31:03.280 I may have more time on a foosball table than 0:31:03.320 --> 0:31:08.120 I have on instruments. Growing up, there was a foosball 0:31:08.200 --> 0:31:10.160 my brother had. I had a foosball table from the 0:31:10.200 --> 0:31:12.320 time I could see over the edge of it. There 0:31:12.360 --> 0:31:15.040 was a foosball table in the rec center that we 0:31:15.160 --> 0:31:17.160 you know, the place where the kids hung out at school. 0:31:17.240 --> 0:31:20.120 I've always played foosball and I got I got my 0:31:20.160 --> 0:31:22.800 ten thousand hours in. You can't see this on the podcast, 0:31:22.840 --> 0:31:25.160 but I'm wearing this is my foosball shirt. 0:31:25.200 --> 0:31:27.600 Oh yeah, yeah, this is my foosball shirt. 0:31:27.640 --> 0:31:31.280 It says, that's yeah. The shirt I'm wearing literally is 0:31:31.280 --> 0:31:34.560 a foosball shirt. No I am. I'm all about the 0:31:34.600 --> 0:31:36.800 game of foosball. So there was a like I said, okay, 0:31:37.000 --> 0:31:39.000 you know, there was a point I wanted to play foosball. 0:31:39.680 --> 0:31:43.280 But when I by the time I actually graduated, I 0:31:43.360 --> 0:31:46.120 knew that I was going to, you know, play music somehow, 0:31:47.280 --> 0:31:49.600 some way, somewhere, I didn't know where, I didn't care 0:31:49.640 --> 0:31:52.920 where I just I knew I was a musician. 0:31:55.680 --> 0:31:59.520 Okay, let's stop for one second. Is there some sort 0:31:59.560 --> 0:32:01.560 of profe foosball. 0:32:01.080 --> 0:32:05.040 League, now, ye know, there is, of course there is there. Well, 0:32:05.240 --> 0:32:08.800 so let's back up back in the day now, when 0:32:08.840 --> 0:32:11.360 I was playing foosball and hearing about these people in 0:32:11.400 --> 0:32:14.600 the in the you know, mid late seventies and early eighties, 0:32:14.720 --> 0:32:17.040 foosball was actually quite a big deal. There were million 0:32:17.080 --> 0:32:20.400 dollar tournaments. There's a million dollar tour. People were winning 0:32:20.520 --> 0:32:22.480 huge prizes. I mean, this is gonna be hard to believe, 0:32:22.480 --> 0:32:26.240 but it was the sixth biggest money sport that you 0:32:26.280 --> 0:32:29.960 could get into. If you were Wow, if you go 0:32:30.080 --> 0:32:33.080 back to the you know, mid late seventies, it was huge, right, 0:32:33.440 --> 0:32:35.160 you were stars, you were on talk shows. You know, 0:32:35.240 --> 0:32:38.320 you were doing the Tonight Show, if you were a 0:32:38.320 --> 0:32:42.320 big foosball Well, anyway, I loved the game. I always 0:32:42.320 --> 0:32:44.600 love to gain. So still now you skip ahead, now, 0:32:45.400 --> 0:32:48.440 all these years later, it is reduced down to very very, 0:32:48.720 --> 0:32:51.000 very very small compared to what it used to be. 0:32:51.080 --> 0:32:58.440 The There are only, to my knowledge, two professional foosball players, 0:32:58.480 --> 0:33:00.600 and by that I mean people who act actually make 0:33:00.720 --> 0:33:06.080 their living playing foosball. Only there are a couple guys 0:33:06.120 --> 0:33:09.680 todd Ler, Fredo, Tony Spraderman, not necessarily in that order, 0:33:09.720 --> 0:33:12.160 but there are a couple guys that make their living. 0:33:12.160 --> 0:33:14.840 And there's still a foosball tour that travels all over 0:33:14.880 --> 0:33:17.120 the country, all over the world. Really yeah, I still 0:33:17.120 --> 0:33:22.160 go to tournaments everywhere. I'm from here to Colorado to California, Texas, 0:33:22.520 --> 0:33:27.000 the Northeast. There are foosball tournaments everywhere. I play music, 0:33:27.280 --> 0:33:28.920 so it's really hard to catch a lot of them 0:33:30.000 --> 0:33:33.720 for a lifetime. I took thirty two years of my 0:33:33.800 --> 0:33:37.520 life off of foosball. The last major foosball tournament that 0:33:37.560 --> 0:33:41.040 I played was in nineteen eighty nine. Okay before a 0:33:41.080 --> 0:33:45.200 couple of years ago. Two years ago, two and a half, 0:33:45.280 --> 0:33:49.640 I guess now, I got back into foosball. I randomly 0:33:49.840 --> 0:33:52.680 saw it on the internet. Got me thinking about some 0:33:52.800 --> 0:33:54.440 guys that I used to know. I looked them up 0:33:54.480 --> 0:33:57.160 online and lo and behold, I start getting the speeds 0:33:57.160 --> 0:34:01.600 of Come to the foosball tournament in Lexington the tour kickoff, 0:34:01.600 --> 0:34:04.880 and I thought, well, that sounds like me. So I 0:34:04.880 --> 0:34:08.640 I show up thinking I'm gonna, you know, step right 0:34:08.680 --> 0:34:10.160 back in the way I was and I realized, you know, 0:34:10.200 --> 0:34:12.680 the foosball players got really good between when I was 0:34:13.440 --> 0:34:16.000 when they are now. Right, But I'm still a decent 0:34:16.040 --> 0:34:18.640 you know, Like I went my first tournament back, I 0:34:19.280 --> 0:34:22.320 meddled in a couple of different events, won a little bling, 0:34:22.400 --> 0:34:24.719 and I and I drove home with table number eight 0:34:24.840 --> 0:34:28.279 in my trunk and put it in the garage. And 0:34:28.480 --> 0:34:30.879 you know, for you know, the past close to three years, 0:34:30.920 --> 0:34:33.960 I've been I've been leaning over a foosball table, trying 0:34:34.000 --> 0:34:35.600 to get the trying to get my chops back. 0:34:37.600 --> 0:34:42.080 Okay, but isn't foosball a little bit like tennis that 0:34:42.200 --> 0:34:45.520 to really be good you have to practice against someone 0:34:45.760 --> 0:34:47.520 who's pretty good themselves. 0:34:48.120 --> 0:34:52.360 Okay, this is absolutely wow. Okay, this is what people 0:34:52.400 --> 0:34:57.680 don't consider is and you have nailed it, absolutely nailed it. 0:34:57.680 --> 0:35:00.840 To be at the highest level of well anything, you 0:35:00.880 --> 0:35:04.880 have to play against the highest level players. So foosball, 0:35:05.040 --> 0:35:09.400 absolutely you have to be able to play against great players. 0:35:09.600 --> 0:35:13.600 But we have an advantage now that I didn't have 0:35:13.640 --> 0:35:16.640 when I played all that foosball in the eighties, seventies 0:35:16.640 --> 0:35:20.160 and eighties. There was no Internet, there was no YouTube, 0:35:20.200 --> 0:35:22.080 there was no If I wanted to watch a master 0:35:22.320 --> 0:35:25.280 play foosball, I had to drive for hours and stand 0:35:25.320 --> 0:35:28.600 over a row of rows of people and try to 0:35:28.640 --> 0:35:31.680 catch what little information I could. Now I can pull 0:35:31.760 --> 0:35:34.719 up any of the top players in the world on 0:35:34.800 --> 0:35:38.319 YouTube and study their every move. Watch everything they do, 0:35:38.600 --> 0:35:41.520 Watch how they react to certain shots, Watch how they defend, 0:35:42.000 --> 0:35:44.799 watch what There's just so much information that you can 0:35:44.840 --> 0:35:50.640 glean now from watching that. I'm fascinated with it. So I, 0:35:50.880 --> 0:35:53.200 you know, I spend my I spend my time studying 0:35:53.239 --> 0:35:54.759 so that I know the players. When I show up 0:35:54.760 --> 0:35:58.000 to the tournaments and and I've done well, I've you know, 0:35:58.080 --> 0:36:04.600 I I'm uh, I'm still a formidable competitor when it 0:36:04.600 --> 0:36:07.359 comes to foosball. I've played enough against the time I mean, 0:36:07.360 --> 0:36:09.440 I've played against the world champion. I've played I've been 0:36:09.440 --> 0:36:12.000 in the pits with the best players in the world 0:36:12.760 --> 0:36:14.040 and held my own. 0:36:14.360 --> 0:36:18.319 You know, it's okay. As I say, I was never 0:36:18.360 --> 0:36:22.600 a good foosball player, but when foosball became a big 0:36:22.640 --> 0:36:25.399 deal in my life, it was the machine you put 0:36:25.440 --> 0:36:28.359 money in, and then they had tables you could take 0:36:28.360 --> 0:36:31.440 it home, but they were not of the same level. 0:36:31.680 --> 0:36:36.359 Is there a standard foosball table like did every all 0:36:36.400 --> 0:36:37.360 the tournaments are on. 0:36:38.640 --> 0:36:41.120 There is and it depends on where you are in 0:36:41.160 --> 0:36:43.120 the world as to what table it is. Right now, 0:36:43.160 --> 0:36:48.640 in America, the current league table is called the Tornado Table, 0:36:49.719 --> 0:36:51.239 but it has changed through the years. When I first 0:36:51.280 --> 0:36:54.520 started playing, it was a ts tournament soccer table. They 0:36:54.520 --> 0:36:56.759 called it the Million Dollar table Ts table, and then 0:36:56.800 --> 0:36:59.920 it switched to the Dynamo Table, and then it switched 0:37:00.040 --> 0:37:03.520 to there's still there's still some other branches. There's a 0:37:03.520 --> 0:37:06.680 Warrior table, there's a Warrior tournament series, or at least 0:37:06.719 --> 0:37:08.840 there used to be, but now it's Tornado. 0:37:10.280 --> 0:37:15.080 And is there any real difference between these professional level tables? 0:37:16.040 --> 0:37:18.719 Huge difference if you're good on a let's say there's 0:37:18.760 --> 0:37:21.240 a there's a Bonzini circuit, Like if you play in Europe, 0:37:21.280 --> 0:37:23.799 you'll play a lot on Bonzini tables. And if you're 0:37:23.800 --> 0:37:26.000 a good Bonzini player, that does not mean you're a 0:37:26.040 --> 0:37:30.320 good Tornado player, and vice versa. They're completely different skills. 0:37:30.480 --> 0:37:32.239 I mean, it takes it takes a while to really 0:37:32.239 --> 0:37:34.239 develop the touch. I mean it's it's like if you're 0:37:34.239 --> 0:37:36.240 a guitar player and you're gonna all of a sudden, 0:37:36.600 --> 0:37:38.680 say you're gonna switch to a different instrument. Well, you 0:37:38.719 --> 0:37:40.160 know how to hold a pick and you know how 0:37:40.160 --> 0:37:43.880 to press a string down, but there's a whole different 0:37:43.920 --> 0:37:46.320 set of variables that you have to learn to be 0:37:46.360 --> 0:37:48.440 able to play from table to table. And there are 0:37:48.480 --> 0:37:53.520 tournaments like international tournaments that have multi table tournaments where 0:37:53.520 --> 0:37:55.480 you have to play one match on a Tornado and 0:37:55.520 --> 0:37:58.040 then the next match on a Bonzini and the next 0:37:58.080 --> 0:38:02.040 match on there's. Yeah, it's it's interesting. So there are 0:38:02.520 --> 0:38:05.040 there are people who are great at at each one 0:38:05.080 --> 0:38:07.879 and there's there's only a few players that are really 0:38:07.960 --> 0:38:10.520 masters on all of those tables. You know right now, 0:38:10.560 --> 0:38:13.480 the man his name is Tony Spraderman. He's the guy 0:38:13.520 --> 0:38:15.160 to look you know, He's the guy I watch. He's 0:38:15.200 --> 0:38:19.719 he's he's my foods, my current foosball hero and uh 0:38:19.960 --> 0:38:22.279 I befriended him, met him at a few tournaments and 0:38:22.320 --> 0:38:24.120 got to got to play against him a little bit. 0:38:24.719 --> 0:38:27.480 And it's the most fun I could probably have right 0:38:27.520 --> 0:38:29.759 now at this point in my life, is to stand 0:38:29.760 --> 0:38:33.719 against one of those high level players and play foosball. 0:38:33.760 --> 0:38:36.480 That is the I will not see that level of 0:38:36.520 --> 0:38:40.120 adrenaline and anything else I do at this age in 0:38:40.160 --> 0:38:42.280 my life. No, nothing even close. 0:38:44.239 --> 0:38:48.000 Well, it's exciting. Switching gears back to our narrative. So 0:38:48.160 --> 0:38:50.479 you graduate from high school, do you get a day 0:38:50.560 --> 0:38:54.320 job or you immediately play music? What what happened? 0:38:54.440 --> 0:38:57.000 I did. I graduated from high school and my dad 0:38:57.080 --> 0:39:00.240 was a fleet mechanic for the Coca Cola company, and 0:39:00.280 --> 0:39:02.359 he asked me if I wanted to go to work 0:39:02.360 --> 0:39:08.120 for him as as an assistant mechanics assistant and when 0:39:08.160 --> 0:39:11.280 I worked part time, and I thought that'd be excellent. 0:39:11.320 --> 0:39:13.759 So I went and I took a took this job 0:39:13.760 --> 0:39:15.480 with my dad that if I was smart, if I 0:39:15.520 --> 0:39:17.839 was a smarter kid, I would have stayed right there 0:39:17.840 --> 0:39:19.919 with that job because it was perfect. It was really 0:39:19.960 --> 0:39:23.120 good pay, you know, compared to everyone else. It was 0:39:23.200 --> 0:39:27.319 really good hourly pay. And I could pick my own hours. 0:39:27.360 --> 0:39:29.120 I didn't have to go untill noon if I didn't 0:39:29.120 --> 0:39:30.719 want to, you know, I just I just had to 0:39:30.760 --> 0:39:33.319 work twenty hours a week. It didn't matter what twenty hours. 0:39:34.239 --> 0:39:36.239 But after a few months of doing that with my dad, 0:39:36.280 --> 0:39:38.520 actually not even a few, probably two months I think 0:39:38.560 --> 0:39:41.279 I worked with my dad, they needed a driver and 0:39:41.320 --> 0:39:43.680 they asked my father. They said, can your son drive 0:39:43.719 --> 0:39:46.680 one of these trucks. And of course my dad he says, 0:39:46.880 --> 0:39:50.000 oh yeah, he can drive that thing. Never I'd never 0:39:50.040 --> 0:39:51.600 been behind the wheel of a truck like that in 0:39:51.640 --> 0:39:53.440 my life, right, But he goes, oh, yeah, he can 0:39:53.520 --> 0:39:56.359 drive it. And they said, do you want a job, 0:39:56.560 --> 0:39:59.480 you know, driving? They said it'd be another you know, 0:39:59.600 --> 0:40:02.239 three three more dollars an hour, and you'll get to 0:40:02.280 --> 0:40:05.040 work some overtime and you know a lot more money benefits. 0:40:05.040 --> 0:40:08.319 And they I said, yeah, sure, I took this job 0:40:08.400 --> 0:40:14.279 driving Coca Cola truck delivering down to Manchester. And uh, 0:40:15.960 --> 0:40:21.560 couple things. First of all, I'm really really bad with directions, 0:40:21.640 --> 0:40:24.640 Like I am the poster child for the for the 0:40:24.840 --> 0:40:26.680 you know, the Google Maps. I need to follow that 0:40:26.680 --> 0:40:29.439 blue line wherever I'm going right. Well, back in the day, 0:40:29.440 --> 0:40:30.920 there was you know, we didn't have that. We had 0:40:30.960 --> 0:40:33.880 a sheet full of instructions and it was so I 0:40:34.000 --> 0:40:36.320 was taking an extra two hours a day just spending 0:40:36.440 --> 0:40:39.360 just being lost trying to find places. Right. It was 0:40:39.400 --> 0:40:42.120 the worst job I could have ever had. But during 0:40:42.160 --> 0:40:46.080 the course of that job, that is when I knew, 0:40:46.880 --> 0:40:48.920 be on the shadow of a doubt, that there was 0:40:49.080 --> 0:40:52.280 there was nothing that would keep me from playing music. 0:40:52.360 --> 0:40:56.240 I was looking for literally the first opportunity I could 0:40:57.200 --> 0:41:00.560 for a for a music job. And it turns out 0:41:00.560 --> 0:41:03.120 that after I had that job less than a year, 0:41:03.160 --> 0:41:06.640 I think I maybe eight months, I delivered Coca Cola 0:41:06.920 --> 0:41:10.520 maybe seven months, seven or eight months, and I got 0:41:10.520 --> 0:41:13.960 an offer from the Lonesome River Band and they asked 0:41:13.960 --> 0:41:18.759 if I was interested in and in playing with him, 0:41:18.760 --> 0:41:20.799 and and at the time again I thought I was 0:41:20.840 --> 0:41:24.719 going to be banjo. Turned out it was they really 0:41:24.800 --> 0:41:27.640 wanted the mandolin player more than they wanted the banjo player. 0:41:29.400 --> 0:41:32.640 But at the thought of taking a bluegrass job, I was, 0:41:32.960 --> 0:41:36.000 You've never seen a person happier to walk in and 0:41:36.040 --> 0:41:39.080 give his notice to a company. I was. I walked 0:41:39.080 --> 0:41:41.919 in literally giddy. I said, well, sorry, boss, I said, 0:41:41.920 --> 0:41:43.399 I'm not going to be able to keep this job, 0:41:43.800 --> 0:41:46.000 you know, I was. I was out. And then of 0:41:46.040 --> 0:41:50.239 course that first I think the first three years combined. 0:41:50.360 --> 0:41:54.000 I went back and saw this in my in my records, 0:41:54.320 --> 0:41:57.360 my first three years, my tax record showed a I 0:41:57.400 --> 0:42:02.560 made nine thousand dollars for three years combout three years together, 0:42:02.680 --> 0:42:07.640 nine thousand dollars, and uh, probably one of the happiest 0:42:08.040 --> 0:42:11.560 times in my life. Couldn't. I was. I was on 0:42:11.640 --> 0:42:15.400 top of the world. Man, tell me about it. 0:42:16.400 --> 0:42:18.600 Forgetting the money. What were you doing that made you 0:42:18.680 --> 0:42:19.280 so happy? 0:42:20.600 --> 0:42:22.719 I was. I had moved away from home. I moved 0:42:22.760 --> 0:42:24.960 to Virginia. I was on my own. I was away 0:42:25.000 --> 0:42:28.359 from any stigma that bluegrass wasn't cool. I was now 0:42:28.440 --> 0:42:32.560 in an area where were They honestly didn't take you know, 0:42:32.600 --> 0:42:34.000 the area that I moved to, they didn't take to 0:42:34.040 --> 0:42:36.520 a lot of northern people moving into that area. But 0:42:37.600 --> 0:42:41.080 I was. I excelled in the bluegrass world, and I 0:42:41.160 --> 0:42:44.040 was accepted, you know, just with open arms everywhere I 0:42:44.080 --> 0:42:48.880 went because of the music. And I got to basically 0:42:49.520 --> 0:42:52.080 redefine myself as who I was. I got to I 0:42:52.080 --> 0:42:55.840 got to have a clean slate and say this is 0:42:56.080 --> 0:42:59.080 this is who I am. You know, I I dropped 0:42:59.520 --> 0:43:04.040 some habit that certainly would have killed me or at 0:43:04.040 --> 0:43:07.239 the very least ruined me had I not moved away 0:43:07.320 --> 0:43:08.600 and taken the music job. 0:43:08.640 --> 0:43:12.160 You know, And what kind of habits are we talking about? 0:43:12.960 --> 0:43:16.200 Oh stuff you don't want to go in on into 0:43:16.239 --> 0:43:19.840 this podcast. I'm sure you know, just uh you know. 0:43:19.880 --> 0:43:23.920 I was. I didn't grow up. I didn't have the 0:43:23.960 --> 0:43:29.320 happy fluffy childhood, and I turned to I turned to 0:43:29.400 --> 0:43:33.319 anything I could turn to to mask it, and I 0:43:33.360 --> 0:43:37.600 did any drug I could find until it was gone. 0:43:37.719 --> 0:43:40.239 Didn't matter what it was. You know. Luckily I never 0:43:40.280 --> 0:43:45.480 found anything that was really hard, or I might not 0:43:45.600 --> 0:43:47.319 ever made it out as you know the way that 0:43:47.360 --> 0:43:50.640 I did. But I like I I got an offer 0:43:50.680 --> 0:43:53.440 to move away, and I got to wipe the slate clean. 0:43:54.040 --> 0:43:56.239 I got to say this is who I am now, 0:43:56.600 --> 0:44:00.000 and I let I let some things go. 0:44:01.480 --> 0:44:05.800 Okay. But traditional, I mean, I understand that lifestyle. Drumont 0:44:06.000 --> 0:44:08.080 is a blue state. Now you go back forty or 0:44:08.160 --> 0:44:12.279 fifty years a different state, much more rural, much more red, 0:44:12.880 --> 0:44:17.360 much more local people living on the edge. But traditionally 0:44:17.840 --> 0:44:21.040 one gets in the music business and it's the so 0:44:21.080 --> 0:44:24.560 called sex drugs in rock and roll. You're telling me 0:44:24.640 --> 0:44:28.680 you got into the band and then you went straight. 0:44:31.640 --> 0:44:33.920 Music for me was never the sex drugs in rock 0:44:33.920 --> 0:44:37.160 and roll. So yeah, the type of music I played 0:44:37.840 --> 0:44:43.440 did not. I never found anyone that was doing cocaine 0:44:43.840 --> 0:44:48.200 and acid and mushrooms and taking pills and like, there 0:44:48.239 --> 0:44:50.320 was just none of that and any of the music 0:44:50.360 --> 0:44:52.920 that I was playing. The worst, the worst thing I 0:44:53.000 --> 0:44:56.680 ever saw, basically, really in my whole career of playing music, 0:44:56.760 --> 0:44:58.719 the worst thing I've ever seen with any of the 0:44:58.760 --> 0:45:01.640 musicians that I've ever run. I mean, I've seen you know, 0:45:01.680 --> 0:45:05.560 I've seen weed smokers. That's that's the height of the 0:45:06.280 --> 0:45:09.160 big drugs, you know. And the music that I've played 0:45:09.200 --> 0:45:12.360 there's there's been. It's been a really clean existence. And 0:45:12.400 --> 0:45:14.320 then of course I ended up with Alison Krause and 0:45:14.400 --> 0:45:18.360 Union Station, which arguably one of the cleanest, most moral 0:45:18.400 --> 0:45:22.319 bands that you'll you'll ever you'll ever know of, you know, 0:45:22.400 --> 0:45:26.319 and maybe in history. So I just for me, my path, Yeah, 0:45:26.440 --> 0:45:28.960 it it was a it was a clean up process 0:45:28.960 --> 0:45:31.719 for me. I I was where I I can see 0:45:31.760 --> 0:45:33.160 it is kind of fun. I never thought about it 0:45:33.200 --> 0:45:35.320 that way. Normally you would grow up pretty clean and 0:45:35.360 --> 0:45:36.800 then hit the music and then all of a sudden, 0:45:36.840 --> 0:45:40.440 you know, the debauchery starts. But no, it was the 0:45:40.480 --> 0:45:43.040 other way around. I was. I was close to my 0:45:43.200 --> 0:45:47.480 demise at a at a young age, trying to mask 0:45:48.080 --> 0:45:50.400 who knows what, you know, whatever a kid is trying to, 0:45:50.440 --> 0:45:52.920 you know, hide from. I was hiding from it. And 0:45:53.960 --> 0:45:55.960 I got to start over, man, I got to I 0:45:56.000 --> 0:45:59.040 got to move away from any influence that I had, 0:45:59.120 --> 0:46:02.160 and it was it was an amazing point in my life. 0:46:02.200 --> 0:46:03.920 The only thing I really gave up that you know, 0:46:04.400 --> 0:46:05.399 was was Who's Ball? 0:46:13.360 --> 0:46:17.000 So how did the Lonesome River Band know you to 0:46:17.120 --> 0:46:19.280 find you to ask you to join the act? 0:46:21.719 --> 0:46:26.440 They had played a show in upstate New York in 0:46:26.480 --> 0:46:29.480 the mid eighties that the band that I was had 0:46:29.520 --> 0:46:31.879 with my brother, Green Mountain Bluegrass, was the opening act 0:46:31.920 --> 0:46:33.759 for So we had played the same night in this 0:46:34.640 --> 0:46:38.080 music hall in upstate New York. And after we had 0:46:38.719 --> 0:46:41.359 played the show together, we hung out for a little while, 0:46:41.440 --> 0:46:43.480 had a drink. We're talking because it was it was 0:46:43.480 --> 0:46:45.239 a big deal for us. We were opening up for 0:46:45.280 --> 0:46:48.479 a genuine southern bluegrass band. That was a big deal 0:46:48.600 --> 0:46:52.840 for you know, this this little bluegrass band from from Vermont, 0:46:52.960 --> 0:46:54.799 and uh we just we met him back then, and 0:46:55.239 --> 0:46:58.440 I guess a couple of years had passed and I 0:46:58.480 --> 0:47:00.840 think they were they were looking for a banjo player 0:47:00.960 --> 0:47:05.279 and as the the guy who they had called, they 0:47:05.280 --> 0:47:07.680 wanted to hire this guy named Kevin Church. I know 0:47:07.680 --> 0:47:09.640 that Tim Austin had called Kevin Church and said, Hey, 0:47:09.640 --> 0:47:12.440 would you'd like to play banjo? Kevin said no, I'm 0:47:13.000 --> 0:47:14.640 into the gig that I have right now. He says, 0:47:14.680 --> 0:47:17.480 but have you thought about that kid Dan to Minsky? 0:47:18.600 --> 0:47:20.759 And Tim said, who is Dan? To Minsky? He said, 0:47:20.800 --> 0:47:24.160 remember you played with that band from Vermont. He says, oh, yeah, 0:47:24.200 --> 0:47:26.680 he had remembered me from the show we played. So 0:47:26.719 --> 0:47:29.600 he just he called and asked if I was interested 0:47:29.640 --> 0:47:35.680 in coming down and trying out, And again he really 0:47:35.680 --> 0:47:38.440 didn't make me any offer. In fact, he said, well, 0:47:38.520 --> 0:47:41.560 right now, where we need a couple of musicians, you know, 0:47:41.600 --> 0:47:43.640 where we had two members leave and there's not a 0:47:43.640 --> 0:47:46.200 lot of work. And if you'd have to move here, 0:47:46.280 --> 0:47:48.200 you couldn't take the job and still live in Vermont. 0:47:48.200 --> 0:47:50.040 You'd have to move to Virginia. And if you moved 0:47:50.040 --> 0:47:52.200 to Virginia, you're gonna have to have some other job 0:47:52.280 --> 0:47:54.840 to support yourself because we're not making enough money to 0:47:54.840 --> 0:47:57.920 support you. So just you got to know what you're 0:47:57.920 --> 0:48:01.840 getting into. And man, all I could hear was do 0:48:01.920 --> 0:48:04.040 you want to play bluegrass music? That's the only that's 0:48:04.080 --> 0:48:07.080 the only thing that registered in my mind. And I said, yeah, absolutely, 0:48:07.880 --> 0:48:09.560 And I went there and I was you know, I 0:48:09.600 --> 0:48:13.720 took whatever whatever jobs I could to support myself until 0:48:13.760 --> 0:48:17.960 the music finally got to a point where it supported me. 0:48:19.280 --> 0:48:21.960 So there were three years you with the Lonesome River Band. 0:48:22.640 --> 0:48:25.560 How often did they work and at what point in 0:48:25.600 --> 0:48:27.960 the tenure, if at all, could you give up your 0:48:28.000 --> 0:48:28.480 day job. 0:48:30.719 --> 0:48:33.000 Well, the day job really wasn't much of a job 0:48:33.680 --> 0:48:36.839 anyway to start with. So really the bulk of any 0:48:36.880 --> 0:48:39.600 money I made was was with the band. I mean, 0:48:39.640 --> 0:48:41.400 the first three years that I worked with the Lonesome 0:48:41.400 --> 0:48:42.880 Ever Band, there was no money, but I was with 0:48:42.960 --> 0:48:45.600 them a total of five years. The last couple of 0:48:45.680 --> 0:48:52.040 years we actually got we had redesigned how we had 0:48:53.120 --> 0:48:55.279 done things. I was making a little more of a 0:48:55.320 --> 0:48:58.640 little bigger cut of the money, and we were working more. 0:48:58.680 --> 0:49:02.080 I mean, by the time Ronnie Bowman came in the band, 0:49:02.120 --> 0:49:05.960 we had reconfigured. We actually started to actually take off. 0:49:06.000 --> 0:49:08.960 It was a very It was some turmoil in my 0:49:09.040 --> 0:49:13.520 life because it was a weird timing. When Alison asked 0:49:13.520 --> 0:49:16.200 me if I wanted to join Union Station. I was 0:49:16.239 --> 0:49:19.080 such a huge Union Station fan at that point in time. 0:49:19.520 --> 0:49:21.520 I didn't care if it was on guitar, I didn't care. 0:49:21.640 --> 0:49:22.880 She just said, would you learn how to play a 0:49:22.880 --> 0:49:25.080 flute and join this band? I would have said yes, 0:49:25.680 --> 0:49:27.760 that was where I was at at that point in time. 0:49:28.560 --> 0:49:32.080 But when she asked me to join the Union Station Band, 0:49:33.320 --> 0:49:35.680 we were at the height of what the Lonesome River 0:49:35.719 --> 0:49:37.799 Band had ever done in their career. We had just 0:49:37.880 --> 0:49:41.200 one album of the year with carrying the tradition, we 0:49:41.200 --> 0:49:44.200 were starting to pretty much get to name our festival. 0:49:44.239 --> 0:49:47.520 We could play, you know, places we weren't able to 0:49:47.520 --> 0:49:50.920 play previously. So it was a tough decision to take 0:49:50.960 --> 0:49:53.120 the job with Alison. I ended up taking this job 0:49:54.719 --> 0:49:59.400 and didn't stay with her except maybe four or five months, 0:49:59.440 --> 0:50:01.319 maybe five or six months. I went back to the 0:50:01.320 --> 0:50:02.640 Lonesome River Band. I don't know if a lot of 0:50:02.640 --> 0:50:04.840 people know this. I took the job with Allison and 0:50:04.880 --> 0:50:07.360 didn't stay went back to the Lonesome River Band for 0:50:07.400 --> 0:50:10.680 another year or year and a half before I was 0:50:10.719 --> 0:50:12.759 asked again if I would consider coming back to the 0:50:12.840 --> 0:50:15.520 Union Station and then of course I went back, and 0:50:15.920 --> 0:50:17.000 you know the rest is history. 0:50:19.760 --> 0:50:22.759 Okay, how did Alison find you the first time? 0:50:25.640 --> 0:50:27.880 Through the recording that I had done with the Lonesome 0:50:28.000 --> 0:50:30.400 River Band. The very first thing that I did with 0:50:30.440 --> 0:50:34.000 that band was a record called Looking for Yourself and 0:50:34.760 --> 0:50:43.360 Somewhere or another they had heard that record and she 0:50:43.360 --> 0:50:47.400 she uh that I got my name through through that record. 0:50:47.440 --> 0:50:50.160 I apparently liked it enough to call. I remember the 0:50:50.200 --> 0:50:53.360 first time I got a call from Alison's band. It 0:50:53.440 --> 0:50:56.640 wasn't it wasn't Alison Crouse who called me. It was 0:50:56.680 --> 0:50:59.560 actually Alison Brown, who was playing banjo in the band 0:50:59.600 --> 0:51:01.680 at the time, and they had called and asked if 0:51:01.680 --> 0:51:05.960 I would consider coming aboard, and I gave him a 0:51:05.960 --> 0:51:08.399 hard no. Man. I was at that point in time, 0:51:08.440 --> 0:51:11.200 I was so into the Lonesome Riverband. I had just 0:51:11.239 --> 0:51:13.400 taken the job. It was the early years of the LRB. 0:51:13.520 --> 0:51:16.359 I didn't you know. I wasn't ready to leave before 0:51:16.400 --> 0:51:20.080 I figured out what we had. And it wasn't until 0:51:20.080 --> 0:51:22.440 a couple of years later that I really became infatuated 0:51:22.480 --> 0:51:25.200 with Union Station. And when I got the offer again, 0:51:25.280 --> 0:51:26.920 there was no way to say. 0:51:26.719 --> 0:51:32.600 No, okay, so why did you leave and then come back? 0:51:34.760 --> 0:51:36.959 I felt guilty that I was letting my brothers down. 0:51:37.040 --> 0:51:42.040 I felt like Ronnie and Tim and Sammy were you 0:51:42.120 --> 0:51:43.879 just you have a kinship when you have a band, 0:51:44.040 --> 0:51:46.799 you travel that many miles with people that you're close to. 0:51:46.920 --> 0:51:49.759 You just I felt like I was letting my family down, 0:51:49.840 --> 0:51:52.719 and I felt like there was you know, I was. 0:51:52.800 --> 0:51:55.880 I was well they were first of all, they were relentless. 0:51:55.920 --> 0:51:58.360 They they wanted me back, and they let me know 0:51:58.440 --> 0:52:02.239 in every way, shape and form get me back. You know, 0:52:02.440 --> 0:52:04.319 I'll give you. I'll give you a little I'll give 0:52:04.320 --> 0:52:07.000 you one little gem here that a lot of people 0:52:07.040 --> 0:52:11.080 don't know that this is funny, but the song that 0:52:11.160 --> 0:52:14.560 Ronnie Bowman wrote was actually one of the songs that 0:52:14.600 --> 0:52:18.520 got me back. Ronnie Bowman wrote a song called you 0:52:18.600 --> 0:52:20.520 Gotta Do what you Gotta Do. If you're familiar with 0:52:20.560 --> 0:52:23.000 the Lonesome River Band, you might know this song. It's 0:52:23.040 --> 0:52:26.840 a song about a girl that says when when the 0:52:26.880 --> 0:52:29.120 songs the song reads, I just got a call from 0:52:29.120 --> 0:52:31.239 my good girl today. She said she must be going 0:52:31.280 --> 0:52:33.959 on her way, that there's better things on down the line, 0:52:34.000 --> 0:52:36.520 and I won't try to change her mind. It seems 0:52:36.960 --> 0:52:39.880 she seems to think we're better off this way. But 0:52:40.000 --> 0:52:41.920 my heart it breaks in two. I can't believe we're 0:52:41.960 --> 0:52:43.480 really through. And the song goes on and on and 0:52:43.480 --> 0:52:46.280 it's this man pleading to a woman. But what people 0:52:46.320 --> 0:52:49.560 don't know is Ronnie wrote that song about me going 0:52:49.560 --> 0:52:52.959 to Alison, he says, and though I though I want 0:52:53.000 --> 0:52:56.000 you to stay, you're leaving any way, but you gotta 0:52:56.040 --> 0:52:58.080 do what you gotta do. And that was the song. 0:52:58.200 --> 0:53:02.080 So he sings me this song, you know, and I 0:53:02.120 --> 0:53:04.480 and I cried like a baby. And it was just 0:53:04.520 --> 0:53:06.680 because my heart was already broken that I felt like 0:53:06.719 --> 0:53:12.480 I'd let him down. And yeah, somehow it got the 0:53:12.520 --> 0:53:15.400 best of me and I after about four or five months, 0:53:15.440 --> 0:53:19.400 I think five months maybe with Alison, I explained that 0:53:20.320 --> 0:53:21.480 I couldn't do it. I had to go back to 0:53:21.480 --> 0:53:24.960 the Lonesomeriver Band, and then we went back and recorded 0:53:25.960 --> 0:53:30.400 one or two more things. I forget after, but I 0:53:30.440 --> 0:53:32.520 felt like it was a meat, you know, A year 0:53:32.600 --> 0:53:35.080 back with the Lonesome River Band and I was scratching 0:53:35.080 --> 0:53:38.000 my head wondering what I was doing because in my mind, 0:53:38.560 --> 0:53:41.920 the ultimate music was being made by Alison Crouse and 0:53:42.000 --> 0:53:45.520 Union Station. They were the to me. They had the diversity, 0:53:45.560 --> 0:53:51.200 they had the depth, the multi dimensional sound. Lonesome River 0:53:51.239 --> 0:53:53.359 Band for me, it was a really that was we 0:53:53.360 --> 0:53:57.160 were kind of we had one specialty thing, you know, 0:53:57.200 --> 0:54:00.319 that we did. We weren't as diverse, we weren't as 0:54:02.000 --> 0:54:05.080 multi dimensional with our material. I felt like to me 0:54:05.280 --> 0:54:08.520 as as Union Station was. There was just I was 0:54:08.560 --> 0:54:10.640 fascinated with the way they were just they seemed like 0:54:10.680 --> 0:54:13.520 they were outside of music altogether. They could do anything. 0:54:13.560 --> 0:54:15.880 I don't know, it just it seemed so big to 0:54:15.920 --> 0:54:20.279 me when I got when I got the call to 0:54:20.320 --> 0:54:23.280 go back the second time, I couldn't say I couldn't 0:54:23.280 --> 0:54:26.160 say no. I wanted to be a part of that 0:54:26.280 --> 0:54:29.680 type of music that was not just the same song 0:54:29.760 --> 0:54:32.160 over and over again that I felt like I was 0:54:32.200 --> 0:54:33.960 doing with the Lonesome River Band. By that point, I 0:54:34.080 --> 0:54:37.440 was a little bit over what we were doing and 0:54:37.560 --> 0:54:39.040 ready to ready to be with Alison. 0:54:39.840 --> 0:54:44.120 Okay, just to be very specific, because the way you 0:54:44.120 --> 0:54:47.040 said the story earlier that you wanted to be the 0:54:47.080 --> 0:54:51.040 banjo player, but somebody else got that role. And then 0:54:51.080 --> 0:54:54.560 she asked if you could play guitar, So literally, you're 0:54:54.600 --> 0:54:57.640 playing in the rondsome river band, you're making these records. 0:54:58.239 --> 0:55:00.840 She got a hold of you and said, did you 0:55:00.840 --> 0:55:03.359 want to play banjo on a granulartle level? 0:55:03.400 --> 0:55:05.520 What? No, I never got a I never got a 0:55:05.520 --> 0:55:08.520 banjo offer for Alison in Union Station. With the times 0:55:08.600 --> 0:55:11.320 when I when I had befriended that whole bunch. The 0:55:11.360 --> 0:55:13.239 whole time I was with the Lonesome River Band, I 0:55:13.239 --> 0:55:15.239 would still go to the Allison shows if I could 0:55:15.239 --> 0:55:18.000 make one, and sometimes I would jump up on stage 0:55:18.160 --> 0:55:19.600 and sing a song with her, you know, I would 0:55:19.600 --> 0:55:22.479 guest up on stage and do a song here there. 0:55:23.960 --> 0:55:26.200 In my mind, I always wanted to be the banjo 0:55:26.280 --> 0:55:29.160 player in that band. I always hope that if Alison 0:55:29.239 --> 0:55:32.000 Brown were ever to leave, that she would ask me 0:55:32.040 --> 0:55:34.680 to play banjo. And when they got ron Block in 0:55:34.719 --> 0:55:37.520 that band, it was just settled. You know. I was 0:55:37.560 --> 0:55:40.399 out of that altogether. Same thing with the Lonesome River Band. 0:55:40.400 --> 0:55:42.319 When I took that Lonesome River Band job, I thought 0:55:42.320 --> 0:55:45.600 I was taking the banjo job, and I only played. 0:55:45.640 --> 0:55:47.640 I only ever played one show on the banjo with 0:55:47.680 --> 0:55:50.560 the Lonesome River Band because they needed both. And they 0:55:50.600 --> 0:55:52.640 said we could find a banjo player if you'd be 0:55:52.680 --> 0:55:55.680 willing to play the mandolin. So I said, sure, I'll 0:55:55.680 --> 0:55:57.880 play mandolin until we can find the right guy, and 0:55:57.920 --> 0:55:59.640 then I'll play band. You know, I never did get 0:55:59.640 --> 0:56:02.960 to play banjo, which was the whole point for me 0:56:03.040 --> 0:56:06.480 growing up. Playing was all I ever wanted to do 0:56:06.600 --> 0:56:09.040 was play a banjo for any band, right that was 0:56:09.040 --> 0:56:11.759 my that was my dream. But no, I got the 0:56:11.800 --> 0:56:15.480 guitar job with Alison, you know after well wait, just. 0:56:15.640 --> 0:56:17.520 A little bit slower, you know. 0:56:19.160 --> 0:56:22.160 Yeah, in order, I took the job with the Lonesome 0:56:22.239 --> 0:56:26.640 River Band, right. I played with the Lonesome River Band 0:56:27.600 --> 0:56:32.520 for three or four years before I think close to 0:56:32.600 --> 0:56:36.719 four years before I moved over to Alison. I moved 0:56:36.760 --> 0:56:39.200 to Alison Crouse Union Station, played for about four or 0:56:39.239 --> 0:56:41.920 five months, went back to the Lonesome River Band and 0:56:41.960 --> 0:56:43.279 played for No, No, No No. 0:56:43.440 --> 0:56:44.319 I got the order. 0:56:44.360 --> 0:56:45.800 Oh okay, I'm missing the question. 0:56:46.000 --> 0:56:52.000 So you go on stage, somebody calls you and says, hey, 0:56:52.239 --> 0:56:53.920 we want you in the band, but you got to 0:56:53.920 --> 0:56:56.520 play guitar. How does it literally go down? 0:56:57.920 --> 0:57:01.160 Oh? How it goes down? Was on April twenty fifth 0:57:01.200 --> 0:57:05.160 at Merle Watson Memorial Bluegrass Festival. I was getting ready 0:57:05.160 --> 0:57:09.200 to go and play with Alison, you know, a guest 0:57:09.239 --> 0:57:11.200 spot and ether she was playing at Merle Fest and 0:57:11.239 --> 0:57:12.919 I was going to go up and play a guest 0:57:12.960 --> 0:57:15.839 spot as I normally was, as I was doing at 0:57:15.840 --> 0:57:17.560 that endy time, I was around him. I was getting 0:57:17.600 --> 0:57:20.840 up because we were friends. I was jamming with him and 0:57:21.520 --> 0:57:25.760 Tim Stafford came up to me and said, hey, Dan, 0:57:25.800 --> 0:57:30.080 I want to talk to you because I'm getting ready 0:57:30.080 --> 0:57:32.240 to put my notice in with Alison, and I feel 0:57:32.320 --> 0:57:35.360 like she's going to come running to you directly, so 0:57:35.480 --> 0:57:38.120 I wanted you to have some time to think about 0:57:38.120 --> 0:57:42.520 it before she puts you on the spot, just as 0:57:42.560 --> 0:57:46.920 a courtesy. Right. So, now I'm really nervous, and I'm thinking, well, okay, 0:57:46.960 --> 0:57:48.920 he's gonna quit. That doesn't mean she's going to come 0:57:48.960 --> 0:57:53.280 to me, right And then it couldn't have been half 0:57:53.280 --> 0:57:56.760 an hour later I see her be lining towards me. 0:57:57.240 --> 0:58:00.760 She goes Dan, She said, I need to ask you 0:58:00.800 --> 0:58:03.439 a question, and I said, okay, what do you got? 0:58:04.320 --> 0:58:09.120 She said, Tim Stafford just put in his notice. She said, 0:58:09.400 --> 0:58:15.880 do you want the job? And I said, I absolutely 0:58:16.400 --> 0:58:18.640 would would love to, you know, like, oh my god, 0:58:18.640 --> 0:58:21.000 I would love the job on guitar. I said, yeah, 0:58:21.080 --> 0:58:25.080 what do I gotta do? And the only thing that 0:58:25.160 --> 0:58:31.240 she said was I don't want you smoking wheed and 0:58:31.360 --> 0:58:37.439 I said, no problem, that's a deal. And I took 0:58:37.480 --> 0:58:42.000 the job and couldn't couldn't imagine what, you know, what 0:58:42.960 --> 0:58:46.080 that job would ultimately bring to my life. I mean again, 0:58:46.200 --> 0:58:48.400 that was and then, of course I had that job 0:58:48.440 --> 0:58:51.280 for about five months until I felt so guilty about 0:58:51.360 --> 0:58:54.360 leaving the Lonesome Riverband that I went back. But yeah, 0:58:54.360 --> 0:58:57.320 she came to me at a bluegrass festival and said, well, 0:58:57.320 --> 0:58:59.200 actually the first thing she said, she says, hey, I'm 0:58:59.200 --> 0:59:00.640 not going to be able to have you sing with 0:59:00.720 --> 0:59:04.840 us today, and I said, okay, cool. And then of 0:59:04.880 --> 0:59:06.959 course she explained why and asked me if I wanted 0:59:06.960 --> 0:59:07.880 the job, and I said. 0:59:07.720 --> 0:59:15.240 Sure, Okay, when you join Alison Kraus, you know, she's 0:59:15.320 --> 0:59:20.280 this teenage phenom. Then she's getting some credibility credit she 0:59:20.320 --> 0:59:24.280 always had credibility, She's getting more outside of the bluegrass world, 0:59:24.320 --> 0:59:28.440 getting more acclaim. Then she has a hit with baby 0:59:28.600 --> 0:59:31.680 Now That I've Found You. Then she has a song 0:59:31.920 --> 0:59:35.400 moments like this on the Twister soundtrack, the original nineteen 0:59:35.440 --> 0:59:39.560 ninety six Twister. Have that happened? Where was that relative 0:59:39.600 --> 0:59:40.440 to your tenure? 0:59:41.400 --> 0:59:44.320 I was coming on right in the so I jumped 0:59:44.360 --> 0:59:47.560 on board right in time to be on the Baby 0:59:47.560 --> 0:59:51.720 Now that I Found You track. That was my entrance 0:59:51.720 --> 0:59:53.760 into the band. When she was doing the Baby I was, 0:59:53.800 --> 0:59:56.200 I was on the Twister track, and you know, of 0:59:56.200 --> 0:59:59.120 course everything from from Baby Now that I Found You on. 1:00:00.800 --> 1:00:03.200 Just to stop there for a second. I mean that 1:00:03.240 --> 1:00:05.760 had been a hit in the sixties by the Foundations, 1:00:05.800 --> 1:00:09.560 I believe. Did anybody there think that, Wow, this is 1:00:09.560 --> 1:00:10.480 going to be hit record. 1:00:13.280 --> 1:00:17.600 I have never No, it's my short answer. No. No, 1:00:17.720 --> 1:00:19.840 I mean at least I sure didn't. I mean, you 1:00:19.880 --> 1:00:22.840 get you get used to kind of putting bluegrass or 1:00:22.880 --> 1:00:25.680 anything that's even related to it in this little box 1:00:25.720 --> 1:00:29.080 of you know, something that's set aside from mainstream or 1:00:29.120 --> 1:00:33.360 you know, popular music, so you never think hit song, 1:00:34.000 --> 1:00:35.960 you know, like that. When when we did Baby, you 1:00:36.000 --> 1:00:41.280 know Baby Now that I found I mean I remember 1:00:42.440 --> 1:00:44.400 again that was one of the things I loved about 1:00:44.440 --> 1:00:48.560 the band was that they didn't necessarily tried to conform 1:00:48.600 --> 1:00:52.000 to a bluegrass mold. They just played music with those 1:00:52.000 --> 1:00:55.000 bluegrass instruments. Didn't matter what the music was, they just played. 1:00:55.160 --> 1:00:59.880 They had We were a bluegrass oriented, you know, pop band. 1:01:01.040 --> 1:01:03.000 She played everything, and I remember Baby Now that I 1:01:03.040 --> 1:01:07.760 found you. First of all, I think that had drums 1:01:08.160 --> 1:01:10.040 that had a little bit of percussion on it, and 1:01:10.080 --> 1:01:13.120 I remember I've always that at that time, I had 1:01:13.120 --> 1:01:15.040 a little stigma with anything. It's like, man, you know, 1:01:15.040 --> 1:01:17.800 bluegrass music doesn't have to have the drums. Man, I thought, 1:01:18.160 --> 1:01:19.760 stepping out. I don't know if that's a good idea, 1:01:19.760 --> 1:01:22.600 if it's a bad idea. But the truth is that 1:01:22.760 --> 1:01:25.280 every time, you know, she did something different and that 1:01:25.400 --> 1:01:27.640 was you know, and stretched in the music it was 1:01:28.280 --> 1:01:30.480 it was exciting for me. So to get to be 1:01:30.600 --> 1:01:33.200 on that I didn't know. I didn't I didn't even 1:01:33.320 --> 1:01:36.480 consider whether a song like that could be a hit 1:01:37.080 --> 1:01:40.680 or could be you know, looked at in popular music, 1:01:40.720 --> 1:01:45.400 and then you know, boom, the majority kind of grabbed 1:01:45.440 --> 1:01:45.840 onto it. 1:01:53.880 --> 1:01:59.400 Okay, so you joined at that time. Obviously the year 1:01:59.440 --> 1:02:02.440 two thousand with the Old Brother soundtrack is a turning 1:02:02.480 --> 1:02:06.560 point for you personally. But in that interim, that five 1:02:06.680 --> 1:02:09.360 or so years with Alison Krause, tell me about that. 1:02:12.800 --> 1:02:15.720 Best time in my life, I mean interesting time in 1:02:15.760 --> 1:02:18.280 my life. We're talking about now I have kids for 1:02:18.320 --> 1:02:20.320 the first time in my life. So now I'm juggling. 1:02:20.800 --> 1:02:23.320 Well, let's just stop for the second here. Where and 1:02:23.320 --> 1:02:24.520 when do you meet your wife? 1:02:26.960 --> 1:02:30.000 I meet my wife right before I moved to Virginia 1:02:30.040 --> 1:02:33.280 to join the Lonesome River Band. I met her maybe 1:02:33.440 --> 1:02:38.000 a month or a month and a half maybe a 1:02:38.000 --> 1:02:39.960 couple months before I left. I just I had just 1:02:40.040 --> 1:02:41.880 met her, and then I moved to Virginia. 1:02:43.440 --> 1:02:45.000 She was in Vermont. 1:02:45.280 --> 1:02:47.720 She was in Vermont. I met her from Vermont. 1:02:47.760 --> 1:02:51.960 Okay, Okay, you moved to Virginia. Then what happens with 1:02:52.000 --> 1:02:52.800 the relationship. 1:02:53.760 --> 1:02:55.640 Well, so I moved to Virginia with a with a 1:02:55.800 --> 1:02:58.080 very good friend of mine. His name is Tag Leon, 1:02:58.160 --> 1:03:02.920 who I really credit with gosh, maybe my whole career, 1:03:03.080 --> 1:03:06.080 because I would not have moved to Virginia to join 1:03:06.120 --> 1:03:08.680 the Lonesome River Band if my buddy hadn't said I'll 1:03:08.680 --> 1:03:11.680 go with you. Because I told them the circumstances. I said, 1:03:11.720 --> 1:03:14.360 I'd never be able to afford it. It seems impossible, 1:03:14.400 --> 1:03:16.320 you know. I was. I wanted to take the job, 1:03:16.320 --> 1:03:18.000 but I didn't know that I could. And Tag was 1:03:18.040 --> 1:03:20.880 the one who gave me the the push, said hey, 1:03:21.000 --> 1:03:23.640 I'll go with you. So my buddy moved down with 1:03:23.720 --> 1:03:26.280 me to Virginia for the first I think four or 1:03:26.280 --> 1:03:29.400 five months, which, of course, I maintained a long distance 1:03:29.440 --> 1:03:35.320 relationship with Alisa, my first wife, and ultimately she moved 1:03:35.320 --> 1:03:37.720 in when Tag moved out, like a half a year later, 1:03:38.360 --> 1:03:41.480 and I've you know, she moved to Virginia to be 1:03:41.560 --> 1:03:43.600 with me, and then we got married a couple of 1:03:43.640 --> 1:03:44.120 years later. 1:03:45.480 --> 1:03:47.760 So you said she was your first wife. How many 1:03:47.800 --> 1:03:48.880 times you've been married. 1:03:50.400 --> 1:03:55.080 Twice? I was twice. I was with Alisa, my first wife, 1:03:55.640 --> 1:04:03.439 through most most of my career until eleven twelve years ago, 1:04:05.160 --> 1:04:08.280 and I've been with my new wife now for four years. 1:04:09.560 --> 1:04:14.800 To what degree did being a traveling musician negatively impact 1:04:14.880 --> 1:04:19.000 your first marriage and how does one maintain a steady 1:04:19.040 --> 1:04:21.040 home life being a traveling musician. 1:04:25.120 --> 1:04:27.040 That's a good question, and I don't think there's any 1:04:27.080 --> 1:04:31.560 one formula. It depends on the two individuals and how 1:04:31.680 --> 1:04:35.320 they are compatible with each other. I mean, my wife 1:04:35.400 --> 1:04:37.680 knew what I did when she moved down. She knew 1:04:37.720 --> 1:04:40.960 I was a musician. It was always music first. But 1:04:41.240 --> 1:04:44.520 the truth of the matter is as you spend more. 1:04:44.600 --> 1:04:47.480 And I mean I had years where I was home 1:04:47.520 --> 1:04:51.120 a lot. I had years where I was not home 1:04:52.040 --> 1:04:55.480 at all, just so busy, just gone most of the year. 1:04:57.400 --> 1:04:59.960 I can't imagine what it's like to be the person 1:05:00.760 --> 1:05:05.640 left at home while someone else is gone. I can't, 1:05:06.960 --> 1:05:09.440 you know. I've tried to wrap my mind around that, 1:05:09.560 --> 1:05:11.880 and I just I think it takes a special person 1:05:11.960 --> 1:05:15.360 to be able to be married to a musician and 1:05:15.560 --> 1:05:18.240 allow that much of your time with that person to 1:05:18.320 --> 1:05:21.920 be away. And again, it's easier to be connected now, 1:05:22.120 --> 1:05:25.080 I think than it is or than it was in 1:05:25.800 --> 1:05:28.680 that era where now you have FaceTime and you like, 1:05:28.720 --> 1:05:31.320 you can feel like you're right there with someone anytime 1:05:31.400 --> 1:05:34.360 you want. I didn't have that with my first marriage, right, 1:05:34.400 --> 1:05:38.640 So just different. A lot of time away makes it 1:05:38.760 --> 1:05:41.160 very difficult, you know, in a host of many ways, 1:05:41.320 --> 1:05:44.720 for different reasons, for different people. You know, I thought 1:05:44.760 --> 1:05:48.160 things were were fine right up until the day I 1:05:49.280 --> 1:05:53.880 discovered that they weren't right I was. I was informed 1:05:53.920 --> 1:05:56.560 one day that it wasn't fine and that it was 1:05:56.600 --> 1:06:00.560 going to have to you know, And I never I 1:06:00.600 --> 1:06:02.480 never dreamed, because in my mind I didn't. If I 1:06:02.520 --> 1:06:06.120 was home three days a year, that's what I was home. 1:06:06.160 --> 1:06:08.760 I was. I'm still, I'm married, I'm a dad. This 1:06:08.800 --> 1:06:11.840 is what I do. You just you just take it, however, 1:06:11.880 --> 1:06:14.520 you know, you just do whatever you can. I think, 1:06:15.280 --> 1:06:18.400 you know, who knows if I would have if it 1:06:18.400 --> 1:06:20.480 would have been a different point in time, or in 1:06:20.560 --> 1:06:24.040 some ways tried harder, or if just been ultimately closer. 1:06:24.120 --> 1:06:27.800 You know, I got married to a person when I 1:06:27.880 --> 1:06:30.560 was when I was young, and I don't think either 1:06:30.600 --> 1:06:33.720 of us necessarily knew what we wanted long term and 1:06:33.800 --> 1:06:37.680 a person we just both came from relate from upbringings 1:06:37.720 --> 1:06:41.040 where we wanted someone that would be peaceful and easy 1:06:41.040 --> 1:06:44.120 to be around. And that was the common ground that 1:06:44.160 --> 1:06:47.080 I had with my first wife. We just didn't fight, 1:06:47.560 --> 1:06:52.320 We didn't argue, we didn't we just we just both 1:06:52.360 --> 1:06:54.720 had the we're going to get along. If there ever 1:06:54.920 --> 1:06:58.000 was anything that started to be like turmoil or negative, 1:06:59.280 --> 1:07:01.560 we just moved and shifted gears and went on to 1:07:01.640 --> 1:07:04.600 something else and just and just lived. And it worked 1:07:04.640 --> 1:07:06.360 for me and it didn't work for her. 1:07:08.400 --> 1:07:11.400 So how many kids do you have in what are 1:07:11.440 --> 1:07:11.880 they up to? 1:07:12.000 --> 1:07:17.880 Now? I have three children of my own and now 1:07:17.920 --> 1:07:20.200 my my new wife has children, so we have we're 1:07:20.240 --> 1:07:22.880 a brady bunch. Now she has three and I'm a 1:07:22.920 --> 1:07:25.560 grandpa with three of mine and then have a step 1:07:25.600 --> 1:07:29.200 grandchild of my my new wife has a grandchild. So 1:07:29.560 --> 1:07:33.080 my kids are you know, they're they're all grown and 1:07:33.160 --> 1:07:35.080 doing their own thing now. I mean they're they're I 1:07:35.160 --> 1:07:38.400 have my daughter hard to believe is now in her thirties, 1:07:38.440 --> 1:07:41.960 but they're like they're they're twenty seven, twenty nine, and 1:07:42.000 --> 1:07:43.680 thirty one. So and let you know, I had them 1:07:43.680 --> 1:07:48.920 every two years. And both my boys are into golf. 1:07:49.040 --> 1:07:54.400 They are exceptional golfers and are both in caddy program. 1:07:54.400 --> 1:07:59.320 They're they're they're both golf caddies. And when they're not 1:08:00.080 --> 1:08:02.880 when they're not caddy, they're on the course playing. They 1:08:02.920 --> 1:08:04.680 they're on a golf course every day they can be. 1:08:06.000 --> 1:08:09.880 My daughter lives in uh in, Kentucky with her husband 1:08:10.000 --> 1:08:14.680 and three children and is one of the most amazing 1:08:14.880 --> 1:08:21.080 people I know. I could go on, are you get this? 1:08:21.200 --> 1:08:24.200 You know it's you know, are your kids off the payroll? 1:08:26.040 --> 1:08:28.519 My kids have been off the payroll for for so man, 1:08:28.600 --> 1:08:32.200 My kids were not. I had the three easiest kids 1:08:32.360 --> 1:08:36.599 that literally asked for nothing, wanted nothing, all went their 1:08:36.800 --> 1:08:40.320 their own way quickly upon growing. I mean they yeah, 1:08:40.400 --> 1:08:44.560 my kids have been self sustaining most of most of 1:08:44.600 --> 1:08:46.960 their lives. They were I had three pretty easy ones. 1:08:47.000 --> 1:08:49.080 I mean, you know, I went through it and in 1:08:49.120 --> 1:08:51.320 some situations, you know, I went through with my daughter 1:08:51.400 --> 1:08:54.599 and at at one point in time, my daughter ended 1:08:54.680 --> 1:08:57.920 up with UH with a drug problem in her late 1:08:58.000 --> 1:09:01.800 teens and had to seek some some help. And I, 1:09:02.000 --> 1:09:04.799 you know, I spent some while a while really afraid 1:09:04.800 --> 1:09:08.200 I was going to lose her. It broke my heart 1:09:08.240 --> 1:09:09.920 because I felt like it was a point in time 1:09:09.960 --> 1:09:11.720 that I wasn't there for her in a way that 1:09:11.760 --> 1:09:15.519 I could have been. And ultimately she she got some 1:09:15.640 --> 1:09:17.800 help and and I learned some things along the way, 1:09:17.840 --> 1:09:20.800 and she is in the minority of numbers of people 1:09:20.800 --> 1:09:23.719 who have the type of problem that that she had 1:09:24.200 --> 1:09:28.000 and turn it around and is now one of the 1:09:28.040 --> 1:09:30.639 most Like went back to school and got her high 1:09:30.640 --> 1:09:32.120 school She had drop out of high school and went 1:09:32.120 --> 1:09:33.680 back got her high school degree, then went got a 1:09:33.680 --> 1:09:37.320 college degree, getting a got a nursing degree. She's, uh, 1:09:37.960 --> 1:09:41.280 she's a powerhouse. She's she's had three kids, you know, 1:09:41.360 --> 1:09:43.840 and because of the drug problem. Three natural child no 1:09:43.880 --> 1:09:47.519 two natural child birth, just twins. She had twins naturally. 1:09:49.160 --> 1:09:52.479 Her husband and her her husband now and her both 1:09:52.520 --> 1:09:55.759 really they've they devoted their life now to to rehab 1:09:55.800 --> 1:09:58.479 and getting other people clean. And uh, he has a 1:09:58.520 --> 1:10:00.679 corporate job in Kentucky at one of the big rehab 1:10:00.720 --> 1:10:04.240 centers down there, and right now she's at home still 1:10:04.320 --> 1:10:07.760 somehow going to school and raising three kids. She's like 1:10:08.040 --> 1:10:13.280 the powerhouse of women that you could ever find. Exceptional person. 1:10:13.720 --> 1:10:17.800 You said that going through her addiction and rehab, you 1:10:17.960 --> 1:10:21.200 learned a few things. What did you learn about yourself? 1:10:22.120 --> 1:10:24.599 You had to go through forty hours as a parent, 1:10:24.680 --> 1:10:27.559 so she had to do thirty days in this place. 1:10:27.600 --> 1:10:31.120 Where as a parent and as the person who had 1:10:31.120 --> 1:10:33.840 to spend like I think it was close to forty 1:10:33.840 --> 1:10:36.240 five thousand dollars was the check that I had to 1:10:36.280 --> 1:10:39.799 write for that one. You had to do forty hours 1:10:41.760 --> 1:10:46.720 of schooling yourself as a parent. And I thought I 1:10:46.800 --> 1:10:50.400 knew a lot more because I had fought my battle 1:10:50.439 --> 1:10:53.920 with drugs. Right, I had done everything you could do. Like, Okay, 1:10:54.280 --> 1:10:57.160 I didn't do heroin. I didn't know what heroin was. 1:10:57.200 --> 1:11:00.360 That wasn't luckily it was never presented to me. Probably 1:11:00.400 --> 1:11:04.040 would have done it as a younger person. But when 1:11:04.040 --> 1:11:10.920 I when I ultimately learned about addiction and learned what 1:11:10.920 --> 1:11:14.120 what some people have control over others don't have control over, 1:11:14.240 --> 1:11:20.519 I found that I myself. The lesson for me was 1:11:20.600 --> 1:11:22.559 I thought I always looked at it as a way 1:11:22.600 --> 1:11:28.240 where man, if you know it's killing you just say no, right, 1:11:29.200 --> 1:11:32.240 I just had this this common sense that Okay, enough 1:11:32.280 --> 1:11:35.960 is enough, you know, if it's hurting you stop it already, right, 1:11:37.439 --> 1:11:39.880 And it wasn't until I did my my forty hours, 1:11:39.920 --> 1:11:42.680 you know, in the program, until a doctor put it 1:11:42.680 --> 1:11:45.320 to me like this, And I wasn't aware of the 1:11:45.360 --> 1:11:49.479 stat that one out of ten human beings have an 1:11:49.520 --> 1:11:52.320 attict gene that if they do get addicted to something, 1:11:52.600 --> 1:11:54.800 they stay addicted to it. Even if they come off it, 1:11:54.840 --> 1:11:58.600 there's still they're an addict for life. One out of 1:11:58.640 --> 1:12:04.040 those ten people are unlucky. Right. Well, for me, I 1:12:04.320 --> 1:12:06.840 fell into the category of someone who could say no. 1:12:07.000 --> 1:12:12.520 I mean I have been addicted to different things, horrible things, 1:12:14.360 --> 1:12:17.960 but was able to say enough is enough. I could 1:12:18.000 --> 1:12:21.960 say no, and a true addict can't say no. And 1:12:22.000 --> 1:12:23.880 a doctor explained it to me like this. He said, 1:12:23.960 --> 1:12:26.320 it is it, he says. Try to understand this. If 1:12:26.320 --> 1:12:29.840 you were a diabetic and you needed insulin to stay 1:12:29.880 --> 1:12:33.960 alive and someone looked at you and said, damn, it 1:12:34.040 --> 1:12:37.559 just make more insolent, he said, that's what it's like 1:12:37.640 --> 1:12:40.680 to be a true addict. You just don't have the 1:12:40.720 --> 1:12:43.519 ability to say just say no. It's a matter of 1:12:43.640 --> 1:12:47.240 life or death to an addict in a different way 1:12:47.240 --> 1:12:51.479 than I saw it, So I never looked at addiction 1:12:52.000 --> 1:12:54.639 that way. I looked at it as people just making 1:12:54.680 --> 1:12:58.240 bad choices. And though sometimes it is that, as often 1:12:58.280 --> 1:13:01.640 as not, it's people introduced to something that they no 1:13:01.720 --> 1:13:04.800 longer have a power to say no to. And those 1:13:04.800 --> 1:13:08.920 are the people who need a community around them to 1:13:09.000 --> 1:13:13.000 help them. And it's it's again I've said for a 1:13:13.040 --> 1:13:15.760 lifetime that what I love about Bluegrass was the community. 1:13:15.800 --> 1:13:19.599 It's what saved me. It's where I felt safe. It's 1:13:19.600 --> 1:13:22.519 the same way through through the rehab process. You know, 1:13:22.640 --> 1:13:27.080 the community had to change before the habits changed. And 1:13:28.200 --> 1:13:30.000 she dug her way out of an enormous hole that 1:13:30.040 --> 1:13:33.360 I'm just so proud of, you know, because she has that. 1:13:33.400 --> 1:13:36.639 And then in turn, once she started having children, couldn't 1:13:36.640 --> 1:13:39.560 take any pain medicine to have these have these children, 1:13:39.840 --> 1:13:42.320 and I just thought, wow, you know, how do you 1:13:42.400 --> 1:13:43.880 how do you? How do you have twins? How do 1:13:43.920 --> 1:13:48.679 you have one? You know, forget about twins. So it's 1:13:48.760 --> 1:13:51.439 it was, you know, it was an experience, but again 1:13:51.880 --> 1:13:54.880 part of the building block whatever. You know. However, she 1:13:55.080 --> 1:13:57.200 was being prepared to be the person she needs to 1:13:57.200 --> 1:14:00.479 be right now. I mean, she's the strongest person that 1:14:00.600 --> 1:14:04.360 you could probably find. And uh, and I just she 1:14:04.520 --> 1:14:07.120 just sent me a video too. She just uh she 1:14:07.240 --> 1:14:12.040 just got baptized, uh a week ago and she sent 1:14:12.040 --> 1:14:14.160 me a video and I just I just couldn't believe 1:14:14.200 --> 1:14:18.280 it because she's a stubborn one. And uh, as she 1:14:18.360 --> 1:14:21.800 put to me, you know, after she says, you know, 1:14:22.000 --> 1:14:23.760 she says, you know, I'm a stubborn one. She says, 1:14:23.800 --> 1:14:27.960 it took God a long time with with me. I said, yeah, 1:14:27.960 --> 1:14:32.479 but uh, she just continues to impress me in every way. 1:14:32.960 --> 1:14:34.200 I don't know what to say it now. I'm just 1:14:34.640 --> 1:14:37.880 not bragging about my kiddies, but uh, I have. I 1:14:37.920 --> 1:14:43.599 have very talented, beautiful, smart kids that hopefully are good people. 1:14:43.640 --> 1:14:45.639 You know, the what I can say about my kids 1:14:45.720 --> 1:14:48.799 is all the reports that I have from other peoples 1:14:48.800 --> 1:14:51.600 who from other people who have met my kids have 1:14:51.720 --> 1:14:55.160 been glowing. And that's the That's kind of the the 1:14:55.200 --> 1:14:57.360 biggest thing you could want as a parent is to 1:14:57.400 --> 1:15:00.200 think that your your kids represent you well and that 1:15:00.320 --> 1:15:02.800 you know, people see them as good human beings. And 1:15:03.400 --> 1:15:05.800 I have three precious human beings. 1:15:13.840 --> 1:15:16.640 Okay, going back to how we got started, on this, 1:15:17.439 --> 1:15:19.120 you know, in the middle of nineties. Start to play 1:15:19.160 --> 1:15:22.280 with Alison. You're doing your thing. She's the queen of 1:15:22.320 --> 1:15:26.840 her world. How does T Bone Burnette come along? How 1:15:26.880 --> 1:15:29.760 does the old brother thing come along? And how do 1:15:29.840 --> 1:15:32.200 you end up singing Men of Constant Sorrow? 1:15:33.120 --> 1:15:37.680 So at the time all that was going down, our 1:15:37.720 --> 1:15:44.160 manager was Denise Stiff, and I think now Denise Stiff 1:15:44.200 --> 1:15:50.479 she had and T Bone and the Coen Brothers had 1:15:50.840 --> 1:15:54.640 had hired Denise to help wrangle talent for the for 1:15:54.760 --> 1:15:56.559 the movie. You know, she kind of she was one 1:15:56.600 --> 1:15:59.559 of those people who knew everyone, and they discovered her 1:15:59.600 --> 1:16:02.600 and employed her to find people. And of course, you 1:16:02.640 --> 1:16:05.759 know Alison Krause, Union Station one of her main client. 1:16:05.920 --> 1:16:10.439 And and so when we discovered that they were doing 1:16:10.439 --> 1:16:13.120 a Coen Brothers movie, the whole band Allison Union Station, 1:16:13.160 --> 1:16:15.000 we're all big Cohen Brothers fans. We thought, man, if 1:16:15.000 --> 1:16:16.840 there's any way to be any part of this, please 1:16:16.920 --> 1:16:19.120 let's do it. So we found out they were having 1:16:19.160 --> 1:16:23.000 auditions and we went as a band to audition. We 1:16:23.040 --> 1:16:25.720 didn't even know what for. We just went to play 1:16:25.720 --> 1:16:27.840 them some music and see if there was anything that 1:16:27.920 --> 1:16:29.760 was going to line up for the movie, and of 1:16:29.760 --> 1:16:31.400 course that's all I knew at the time, as we 1:16:31.400 --> 1:16:33.800 were going in as Alison Krause Union Station and see 1:16:33.800 --> 1:16:35.000 if we could be a part of this movie. And 1:16:35.000 --> 1:16:38.720 that was exciting just in and of itself. And we 1:16:38.760 --> 1:16:40.320 did our thing, and we talked for a while and 1:16:40.439 --> 1:16:43.200 met Joel and Ethan Cohen, and we met T Bone, 1:16:43.880 --> 1:16:46.040 and you know, everyone seemed to get along and they 1:16:46.120 --> 1:16:49.400 liked the music and seemed like we were gonna be 1:16:49.520 --> 1:16:54.360 involved in some way. So our days finished, and I 1:16:54.400 --> 1:16:56.799 remember as we were walking out, we were literally walking 1:16:56.840 --> 1:17:01.920 toward the door, and we got just about to it, 1:17:02.000 --> 1:17:06.880 and Denise, our manager, turned around to T Bone and said, hey, 1:17:06.920 --> 1:17:14.040 t Bone, have you cast George Clooney's voice yet, because 1:17:14.160 --> 1:17:16.240 Dan right here she goes. I just thought, she goes, 1:17:16.280 --> 1:17:22.720 Dan might be a candidate for George's voice. And he said, well, no, 1:17:22.760 --> 1:17:24.280 we haven't, and they and they looked at me and 1:17:24.320 --> 1:17:25.720 they said, well do you want to you want to 1:17:25.760 --> 1:17:29.680 come back maybe tomorrow on audition. Right now, this is 1:17:29.800 --> 1:17:31.240 this has dropped out of the sky. I had no 1:17:31.320 --> 1:17:33.559 idea this was coming. I don't think anyone did until 1:17:33.600 --> 1:17:35.599 she just happened to think of it and said hey, 1:17:35.680 --> 1:17:37.560 Dan might be a candidate. So they said, would you 1:17:37.600 --> 1:17:41.320 come back tomorrow? And I said sure. So I go 1:17:41.400 --> 1:17:45.679 home and I well, I remember leaving. I remember calling 1:17:45.720 --> 1:17:48.680 my wife and saying, hey, let's you know, I'm going 1:17:48.720 --> 1:17:50.800 to do this audition. Looks like this voiceover thing, right, 1:17:50.840 --> 1:17:53.040 And she goes, oh, a voiceover, that's great? What is that? 1:17:53.760 --> 1:17:56.600 You know? And I explained, well, in this case, it 1:17:56.640 --> 1:17:58.120 would work out to where you would go to the 1:17:58.120 --> 1:17:59.720 movies and you're going to see George Clooney on the 1:17:59.720 --> 1:18:02.240 big screen and you would hear my voice coming out 1:18:02.600 --> 1:18:06.400 while he's singing. And she pauses and she goes, damn, 1:18:06.400 --> 1:18:12.920 that's my fantasy, right, So and I've been telling that 1:18:13.000 --> 1:18:16.600 joke for you know, for for twenty years now, but 1:18:17.120 --> 1:18:20.519 it seemed so far fetched to me that, you know, 1:18:20.600 --> 1:18:23.280 going back the next day, I went as much for 1:18:23.520 --> 1:18:27.880 the ridiculousness of it as as I ever thought that 1:18:27.920 --> 1:18:30.640 I would actually get this this part, because it was 1:18:30.720 --> 1:18:34.720 just too weird. I didn't think I sounded anything like 1:18:34.800 --> 1:18:37.840 George Clooney when I hear him talk, I hear me. 1:18:37.920 --> 1:18:41.960 I just didn't hear any anything, right, So I decided 1:18:41.960 --> 1:18:43.600 to go back and I, you know, asked what to do, 1:18:43.640 --> 1:18:45.439 and they said, well, either come back, and they said, 1:18:45.479 --> 1:18:47.439 they gave me two choices of songs. They said, you're 1:18:47.479 --> 1:18:50.879 either that. We either want you to do Rank Stranger 1:18:51.560 --> 1:18:54.280 or Man of consten Sorrow. They said, you pick one 1:18:54.680 --> 1:18:57.200 and do it. So I showed up the next day 1:18:57.560 --> 1:19:00.120 and I picked Man of Constan Sorrow and I did 1:19:00.160 --> 1:19:02.880 Man of Constant Sorrow for now, who knows. Now, I'm 1:19:02.920 --> 1:19:04.599 not saying that it would have been different, but what 1:19:04.640 --> 1:19:06.360 if I had to pick Rank Stranger? Would the song 1:19:06.400 --> 1:19:08.080 have been different? About to try it out with a 1:19:08.080 --> 1:19:11.559 different song? Right, So they give me so anyway, So 1:19:11.680 --> 1:19:13.320 they tell me do one of these songs. So I 1:19:13.400 --> 1:19:18.040 do Constant Sorrow and they they say, right when I'm finishing. 1:19:18.080 --> 1:19:19.599 First of all, it would be really you. You would 1:19:19.600 --> 1:19:21.759 have loved to have been there, because just as I'm finishing, 1:19:22.040 --> 1:19:24.920 and now, mind you, I'm doing a version much different 1:19:24.960 --> 1:19:27.320 than what ultimately made it in the movie, I'm doing 1:19:27.320 --> 1:19:32.960 a version that was higher, faster, less funky. Right, and 1:19:33.280 --> 1:19:38.439 just as my song finishes in walks the Fairfield four 1:19:39.240 --> 1:19:42.360 who everyone knows from you know, from the Old Brother soundtrack, 1:19:42.439 --> 1:19:45.040 and when they walked through the door, literally my guitar 1:19:45.160 --> 1:19:48.160 was still ringing, and they came in and started singing, 1:19:48.520 --> 1:19:55.760 all of them when they filled this hall with a song, 1:19:55.800 --> 1:19:57.840 and they sang the whole song, and when they got done, 1:19:58.880 --> 1:20:01.280 everyone was clapping and they were hugging each other, and 1:20:01.360 --> 1:20:03.120 like it was this whole big thing, right, And I've 1:20:03.120 --> 1:20:05.320 probably dramatized it in my mind now, but it was. 1:20:05.800 --> 1:20:08.519 It was so fantastic. And they finished up, and I 1:20:08.640 --> 1:20:11.559 remember t Bone looking at me and said, hey man, 1:20:11.760 --> 1:20:16.559 great job. We'll call you, which which was how you 1:20:16.600 --> 1:20:18.479 know this the same words I've heard, you know, after 1:20:18.560 --> 1:20:20.080 losing a lot of different gigs. You know that's no 1:20:20.160 --> 1:20:22.400 big it's no big thing. Just you know, it either 1:20:22.400 --> 1:20:27.479 works or doesn't. So I leave and I'm just, you know, 1:20:27.560 --> 1:20:30.320 I'm thinking it was ridiculous in the first place that 1:20:30.360 --> 1:20:33.720 I even't got an audition and went home. And the 1:20:33.760 --> 1:20:36.840 next day, pretty early in the day, the phone rang 1:20:37.120 --> 1:20:38.640 and I picked up the phone and it was t 1:20:38.760 --> 1:20:42.840 Bone Burnett and he said, Dan, he says, well, he said, 1:20:42.960 --> 1:20:46.400 I've been talking with Joel and Ethan and listen, when 1:20:46.439 --> 1:20:50.160 we see George Clooney singing, we hear your voice coming out. 1:20:50.760 --> 1:20:54.519 Do you want this gig? And of course, of course 1:20:54.560 --> 1:21:00.559 I said yes, and and and then by your uncle 1:21:00.600 --> 1:21:03.800 man A's. Then then my world change. You know, I 1:21:04.120 --> 1:21:06.680 had no idea what was what was to come from this? 1:21:06.840 --> 1:21:09.200 You had asked before? Did I did I sense if 1:21:09.200 --> 1:21:11.439 now that I found you was a hit song? Not 1:21:11.600 --> 1:21:14.000 even even less of this because now we're just we're 1:21:14.000 --> 1:21:16.760 playing weird bluegrass music movie soundtrack. And I've been a 1:21:16.800 --> 1:21:19.719 part of a couple of different movie soundtracks that again, 1:21:19.800 --> 1:21:22.720 didn't you know? They're not nothing? Is that big a 1:21:22.800 --> 1:21:27.720 deal that oh brother became right, So we're doing this 1:21:27.720 --> 1:21:30.280 this part. And here's the thing that that people don't know, 1:21:31.479 --> 1:21:33.519 or a lot of people don't know. We we got 1:21:33.520 --> 1:21:35.840 to be in the movie. So we're we're filming now. 1:21:36.160 --> 1:21:38.800 While they're filming the movie in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and t 1:21:38.960 --> 1:21:41.920 Bone comes up to me and says, hey, George wants 1:21:41.920 --> 1:21:44.760 a chance at singing this song. Would you go into 1:21:44.840 --> 1:21:48.000 a recording studio we have booked tomorrow and would you 1:21:48.080 --> 1:21:52.960 play this song with with Clooney. Now, you have to 1:21:53.040 --> 1:21:56.439 understand the position in life I'm at at this point 1:21:56.479 --> 1:21:58.280 in time, and what I know and what I don't know, 1:21:58.400 --> 1:22:00.599 and and where I am all all of a sudden, 1:22:00.680 --> 1:22:05.160 out of the sky drops this chance to record with 1:22:05.200 --> 1:22:09.960 George Clooney. That's ten times bigger deal to me than 1:22:10.000 --> 1:22:12.320 singing the song myself and doing this weird voiceover right. 1:22:12.400 --> 1:22:14.439 I actually get to go in the studio with the 1:22:14.479 --> 1:22:18.040 man and record it. So of course I say yes. 1:22:18.080 --> 1:22:20.080 And the next day we go into the studio and 1:22:20.120 --> 1:22:22.759 there's George Clooney and I'm in there and we're running 1:22:22.760 --> 1:22:26.439 over the song. And now George can sing. People you know, 1:22:26.479 --> 1:22:28.679 say I did it because George Clooney can't sing. That's 1:22:28.720 --> 1:22:30.960 not true. George Clooney can sing. He likes to be 1:22:30.960 --> 1:22:33.240 really I've heard him be really hard on himself right 1:22:33.960 --> 1:22:36.800 about Well, I just looked up and they weren't digging 1:22:36.800 --> 1:22:38.760 it right. And that's that was not the case at all. 1:22:39.000 --> 1:22:41.360 If he could have got through the whole thing without 1:22:41.400 --> 1:22:45.200 making a mistake, he could have sang it. But we 1:22:45.280 --> 1:22:46.840 tried the song and we're playing it and all of 1:22:46.880 --> 1:22:49.000 a sudden he makes it, sings the wrong word, says, ah, 1:22:49.160 --> 1:22:51.439 dang it, let me start it again. So I start 1:22:51.479 --> 1:22:53.760 the song again and he tries it again, messes up. 1:22:54.280 --> 1:22:56.400 We try it again and he messes up. Now meanwhile, 1:22:56.439 --> 1:22:59.439 he's self conscious because you know, he's not sure that 1:22:59.800 --> 1:23:03.360 he he a singer himself. Whatever reason, right, he walks 1:23:03.400 --> 1:23:05.800 out of the room, takes his headphones off and looks. 1:23:05.880 --> 1:23:08.639 He walks up to me, and he says, Dan, he said, 1:23:08.640 --> 1:23:10.720 we're in here on a day off. He says, I 1:23:10.720 --> 1:23:12.479 don't even know what we're doing. He says, this is crazy. 1:23:12.479 --> 1:23:13.920 He says, I'm going to make He said, I'm going 1:23:14.000 --> 1:23:16.680 to make you a deal. He said, I'll act and 1:23:16.720 --> 1:23:18.760 you sing. And he stuck his hand out to shake 1:23:18.840 --> 1:23:21.920 my hand, and I shook his hand, and I'm thinking, 1:23:22.080 --> 1:23:24.759 I'll act, you sing. I'm thinking, oh, come on, man, 1:23:25.200 --> 1:23:27.360 Like my whole world was crumbling right in front of me. 1:23:27.439 --> 1:23:29.800 Now I've now he doesn't now he's not going to 1:23:29.880 --> 1:23:31.880 do it, and we're back to this thing that you know, 1:23:31.920 --> 1:23:35.000 who knows how it's going to be now, right, So 1:23:35.160 --> 1:23:36.760 I call back home and I tell you know, and 1:23:36.800 --> 1:23:38.439 I'm explaining to my wife at the time. You know, 1:23:38.479 --> 1:23:40.040 I'm all bummed out. He didn't want to do it, 1:23:40.040 --> 1:23:42.000 I said, you know, he said, all act you sing. 1:23:42.000 --> 1:23:48.000 I said, can you imagine right now, skip ahead a 1:23:48.080 --> 1:23:52.280 couple of years down the road, had he sang that 1:23:52.439 --> 1:23:55.439 song which he could have no doubt about it, he 1:23:55.439 --> 1:23:57.960 could have sang it. Had he sang it, I would 1:23:57.960 --> 1:24:01.519 have made my three hundred and sixty dollars for the session, 1:24:02.040 --> 1:24:04.400 like I was used to making for a session of 1:24:04.439 --> 1:24:06.439 just drumming a guitar for a couple. That's good pay 1:24:06.800 --> 1:24:10.040 for how I was brought up. Had he sang it, 1:24:10.040 --> 1:24:11.639 I would have made my three hundred and sixty five 1:24:11.680 --> 1:24:14.040 dollars and never been any none the wiser, and I'd 1:24:14.080 --> 1:24:17.800 have moved on. But because he said, all act you sing, 1:24:21.040 --> 1:24:24.040 I got to pay off my house and buy new cars, 1:24:24.080 --> 1:24:26.200 and then buy another house, and then put my kids 1:24:26.200 --> 1:24:31.519 through college and do I got to do more from 1:24:31.600 --> 1:24:35.679 him saying all act you sing than I ever dreamed 1:24:35.720 --> 1:24:39.280 in a thousand eons a person who played a banjo 1:24:40.320 --> 1:24:44.920 could ever ever ever do in music. It was it 1:24:44.960 --> 1:24:48.680 was the life. It was the thing that absolutely changed 1:24:49.920 --> 1:24:54.559 everything for me. I mean, I never I mean up 1:24:54.560 --> 1:24:56.479 to that point, you know, I was I was making 1:24:56.560 --> 1:24:58.880 musicians pay. I mean, I was getting calls to keep 1:24:58.880 --> 1:25:01.000 my you know, I was having to wire money to 1:25:01.080 --> 1:25:02.880 keep my lights on. My lights would get turned off, 1:25:02.920 --> 1:25:07.640 you know, every couple of months. It seemed right, all 1:25:07.640 --> 1:25:10.360 of a sudden, my house is paid off, we have 1:25:10.439 --> 1:25:13.840 new cars, there's money in the bank, no credit card bills, 1:25:13.920 --> 1:25:17.759 no any It was the life life changer of life changers. 1:25:17.800 --> 1:25:25.559 You couldn't I couldn't imagine. And then on the spiritual side, 1:25:25.680 --> 1:25:31.200 it it made me rethink how I listened to music 1:25:31.760 --> 1:25:36.640 in the first place, because I was not happy with 1:25:36.760 --> 1:25:39.400 how it had to be recorded. It was one take, 1:25:40.520 --> 1:25:43.320 there were no fixes. If you did something wrong, you 1:25:43.400 --> 1:25:45.000 just had to do the song over. It was just 1:25:45.040 --> 1:25:47.760 there was no I was used to technology. Man, you 1:25:47.800 --> 1:25:49.280 could go on a stead. Was the beauty of a 1:25:49.320 --> 1:25:53.639 recording studio is you get to capture the best, very 1:25:53.720 --> 1:25:56.320 best of your best and if it's not you can 1:25:56.360 --> 1:25:58.719 do it again. And if this line isn't the best, 1:25:58.720 --> 1:26:00.960 well you can do that, like you can make a 1:26:01.040 --> 1:26:04.200 really great representation of what you're able to do in 1:26:04.240 --> 1:26:08.360 a recording studio. And old brother Art Thou was the 1:26:08.400 --> 1:26:11.400 complete opposite. It was organic. It had to be one take, 1:26:11.479 --> 1:26:16.920 one microphone, No, there was no headphones, there was no nothing. Man, 1:26:16.960 --> 1:26:19.519 You just sat down, literally, I was sitting down playing 1:26:19.520 --> 1:26:22.479 in that stupid can. Man. It was the weirdest thing 1:26:22.520 --> 1:26:25.559 for me. It was not I was not satisfied with 1:26:25.640 --> 1:26:29.559 my performance, but to say, to put it the best 1:26:29.560 --> 1:26:32.160 way I can. When I was done, I couldn't believe 1:26:32.200 --> 1:26:34.240 they wouldn't let me go in and fix any lines, 1:26:34.479 --> 1:26:36.960 or that it had to be one take. I would 1:26:36.960 --> 1:26:38.880 have much rather. I would have much rather done it 1:26:38.920 --> 1:26:43.320 in a different in a different way. And then after 1:26:43.360 --> 1:26:46.680 I learned what the magic of that whole project was, 1:26:47.479 --> 1:26:50.040 it was it was the beauty of what music actually 1:26:50.080 --> 1:26:52.559 is and how it's a how why live music is 1:26:52.560 --> 1:26:55.599 so great, and it's something I've always been an advocate for. 1:26:55.720 --> 1:26:58.880 I mean, I've always loved live music. But after Old 1:26:58.920 --> 1:27:01.120 Brother Yeah changed the way I listened to music too. 1:27:01.240 --> 1:27:04.640 Didn't just change my life financially, changed my life spiritually 1:27:04.680 --> 1:27:07.920 the way I went after music from that point forward. 1:27:08.320 --> 1:27:10.880 Okay, just to dial down on this for one second. 1:27:12.000 --> 1:27:15.240 You literally only sang the song once or you did 1:27:15.320 --> 1:27:18.400 multiple versions of the song from beginning to end. 1:27:19.960 --> 1:27:22.120 Oh. I sat in that studio and sang till I 1:27:22.240 --> 1:27:24.840 was horses. I could be I probably did the song 1:27:26.200 --> 1:27:30.160 thirty times or more front to back, and then I 1:27:30.200 --> 1:27:32.680 think we kept the first or second take when it 1:27:32.720 --> 1:27:36.040 was after I did it, like literally, that's you know, studios. 1:27:36.360 --> 1:27:37.840 I sat and I did it over and over. And 1:27:38.120 --> 1:27:40.840 this is the thing, this is what was killing me 1:27:41.000 --> 1:27:46.280 was I had so many performances that were well, if look, 1:27:46.320 --> 1:27:48.160 if I just go fix the line that I messed up, 1:27:48.400 --> 1:27:50.840 that's the perfect performance, right, And it was like, no, no, no, 1:27:51.160 --> 1:27:54.960 this is this has to be one take pure, had 1:27:54.960 --> 1:27:57.880 to be organic like this is. And this is a 1:27:57.920 --> 1:28:00.920 credit to the Cohens into t Bone all the music. 1:28:01.120 --> 1:28:03.600 I mean, they made sure that instruments we played that 1:28:03.640 --> 1:28:06.880 we recorded with the microphones that we used. They made 1:28:06.920 --> 1:28:10.600 sure that everything was that era. We recorded in microphones 1:28:10.640 --> 1:28:13.599 of that era, with instruments of that era, and we 1:28:13.640 --> 1:28:17.719 did it one time through from beginning to end, because 1:28:17.800 --> 1:28:19.559 that's the way they did it in that era. 1:28:21.000 --> 1:28:25.760 Okay, T Bone is a legendary producer. As I say, 1:28:25.840 --> 1:28:28.280 this is sort of a real strip down recording thing. 1:28:28.720 --> 1:28:32.799 But did he do anything as a producer that direct 1:28:32.880 --> 1:28:35.400 you or give you insight that change your performance? 1:28:38.280 --> 1:28:42.280 This was absolutely I mean for starters. I mean there 1:28:42.280 --> 1:28:45.560 were times where when I found myself wondering what is 1:28:45.600 --> 1:28:47.800 he doing? Because these people are just in there doing 1:28:47.840 --> 1:28:49.479 whatever they want to do. Like when we did like 1:28:49.520 --> 1:28:52.360 some of the stuff that we played. He just threw 1:28:52.439 --> 1:28:55.719 us into a room and said play. He didn't say 1:28:56.240 --> 1:28:58.120 do this, do this, He didn't, you know, He just 1:28:58.280 --> 1:29:00.680 said play and we played. And I think part of 1:29:00.720 --> 1:29:05.120 his genius is understanding what chemistry works, and if it's working, 1:29:05.840 --> 1:29:08.679 just let it do its thing. If it's not working, 1:29:09.080 --> 1:29:10.680 then you might have to steer a little bit. And 1:29:10.720 --> 1:29:13.040 when it came down to the version that I did, 1:29:13.680 --> 1:29:16.240 particularly the solo version where it was just the guitar 1:29:16.439 --> 1:29:23.320 and the voice of Manecon's sorrow, there were so many directions. 1:29:23.360 --> 1:29:25.840 In fact, I had never had to be so conscious 1:29:25.880 --> 1:29:30.800 of a visual while I played up until that point. 1:29:30.840 --> 1:29:35.360 Like it was. They kept telling me, you have to understand, 1:29:35.840 --> 1:29:39.400 if you sing into this can and you knock him dead, 1:29:39.439 --> 1:29:41.559 you're going to make fifty dollars. Now, this is way 1:29:41.560 --> 1:29:43.640 back when you're going to make like you're going to 1:29:43.720 --> 1:29:46.800 be rich. Now. They said, you're hungry. They said, you 1:29:47.000 --> 1:29:49.920 just stole a chicken so you could eat. You're that hungry. 1:29:49.920 --> 1:29:52.519 You're so hungry, you just stole a chicken. They said, 1:29:52.560 --> 1:29:54.759 you just sold your soul to the devil. Your fingers 1:29:54.800 --> 1:29:57.559 are flying. They said, you're you're trying to play rock 1:29:57.600 --> 1:29:59.280 and roll, but it hasn't been invented yet. You're just 1:29:59.280 --> 1:30:01.200 you're trying to knock it so far out of the part. 1:30:01.200 --> 1:30:04.479 You're just trying to blow them away. Now play a 1:30:04.479 --> 1:30:07.680 man a consasar And it was you know, it was 1:30:07.760 --> 1:30:12.120 it was. It was strange. There was so much direction 1:30:12.439 --> 1:30:15.760 of what was going on visually while that was going 1:30:15.800 --> 1:30:18.559 down that. Yeah, it was an interesting process to see 1:30:18.560 --> 1:30:23.760 how they go about making something fit a movie. You 1:30:23.760 --> 1:30:25.960 know that was because that that that was a that 1:30:26.080 --> 1:30:28.280 was a strange one. It They made it in such 1:30:28.280 --> 1:30:30.679 a way where it stood on its own, just as music, 1:30:31.160 --> 1:30:35.000 but that soundtrack was all very specific to the scenes 1:30:35.040 --> 1:30:36.040 that they were playing behind. 1:30:37.920 --> 1:30:44.200 Okay, movies are a long detailed process. You seing the 1:30:44.320 --> 1:30:49.280 stuff how long til the movie comes out? And listen, people, 1:30:49.360 --> 1:30:52.040 whenever you're involved in a movie, people are super positive 1:30:52.439 --> 1:30:55.920 and frequently most times the movie is not successful. So 1:30:56.040 --> 1:30:59.719 what was your experience of the movie actually being released? 1:31:01.920 --> 1:31:04.040 So they first announced that they were gonna let us 1:31:04.680 --> 1:31:08.200 let us see the movie in Nashville, everyone who worked 1:31:08.240 --> 1:31:10.879 on at all, the people who performed and their families, 1:31:10.880 --> 1:31:14.559 and they were gonna have a private showing and at 1:31:14.600 --> 1:31:18.439 the Bellcourt Theater here in Nashville, and so we of 1:31:18.479 --> 1:31:20.600 course got ready to go see this movie, and we 1:31:20.680 --> 1:31:21.920 knew it was a big deal and it's a Coen 1:31:21.920 --> 1:31:24.120 Brothers and I had no idea what to expect, even 1:31:24.160 --> 1:31:26.679 though I had seen some of the script and read 1:31:26.720 --> 1:31:29.080 several of the scenes and you know, and been involved 1:31:29.080 --> 1:31:31.920 in shooting of some of it. Boy, when you're there 1:31:31.960 --> 1:31:34.519 shooting the movie and you're not actually looking back on 1:31:34.560 --> 1:31:37.639 the camera to see what they filmed, you still don't 1:31:37.680 --> 1:31:41.400 have any idea of us going. And I remember sitting 1:31:41.400 --> 1:31:44.559 down to the movie and it blew like it blew 1:31:44.600 --> 1:31:47.400 me away. Like though, first of all, I'm a huge 1:31:47.400 --> 1:31:51.120 Coen Brothers fan, and I got you know, I had 1:31:51.160 --> 1:31:52.840 a lot of schooling on how it was tied to 1:31:52.880 --> 1:31:54.760 the Odyssey, you know, going in, so I got a 1:31:54.760 --> 1:31:57.800 lot of this. Like, the movie to me was fantastic. Right. 1:31:57.880 --> 1:32:01.920 So I'm sitting there loving the movie, and then comes 1:32:01.960 --> 1:32:05.880 the song and I hear my voice right come out, 1:32:06.280 --> 1:32:09.320 and I, for lack of a better way to describe, 1:32:09.360 --> 1:32:12.200 I've never been more embarrassed in my life. I sunk 1:32:12.360 --> 1:32:14.599 down in my seat. I sunk down in my seat, 1:32:15.040 --> 1:32:17.960 and I got I tried to disappear like I was 1:32:18.000 --> 1:32:20.920 trying as hard as I could to implode and just 1:32:21.080 --> 1:32:24.240 be and just to to it, just to a singular nothing. 1:32:25.720 --> 1:32:30.800 It was the strangest I can't hard to explain. I 1:32:30.840 --> 1:32:33.519 was like it was embarrassing and of course everyone collapsed 1:32:33.520 --> 1:32:35.280 and everyone's looking and every you know, and it's a 1:32:35.360 --> 1:32:39.800 big it's a big to do, and it was how 1:32:39.880 --> 1:32:42.800 was the first time I'd had quite that much attention, right, 1:32:42.840 --> 1:32:46.640 And it was it's it's weird to be the the 1:32:46.640 --> 1:32:50.360 the person everyone's looking at, you know, because at this 1:32:50.479 --> 1:32:52.400 point I've had a career with Alison and I was 1:32:52.439 --> 1:32:55.040 really good at knowing how to stand beside that the 1:32:55.080 --> 1:32:59.800 person everyone's looking at. That's an easier job supporting role, 1:33:00.400 --> 1:33:02.879 was what I felt like. I was, you know, tailored 1:33:02.880 --> 1:33:05.960 for now to be the guy. You know, it was 1:33:06.040 --> 1:33:09.400 uncomfortable to just to For no better way to explain it, 1:33:09.400 --> 1:33:13.840 it was it was extremely uh nerve wracking in the 1:33:14.160 --> 1:33:17.160 first you know, the first especially the first year, you know, 1:33:17.240 --> 1:33:20.680 following then after you get that much attention, you know, 1:33:20.920 --> 1:33:23.600 after after a little while that that attend you know, 1:33:23.640 --> 1:33:28.000 you you it doesn't feel as strange, it doesn't feel 1:33:28.040 --> 1:33:30.839 as you know, there there is now there is no embarrassing, 1:33:31.400 --> 1:33:34.639 you know, now it's pure joy, like the attention from 1:33:34.640 --> 1:33:36.920 old Brother that I get because it's still now, it's 1:33:37.200 --> 1:33:40.880 twenty five years later, and when I do Constant Sorrow Live, 1:33:41.880 --> 1:33:46.839 the cell phones still come out. You just see everyone 1:33:46.880 --> 1:33:50.120 responded like it's it's amazing. And to think that you 1:33:50.240 --> 1:33:52.280 get to be a part of everyone's life like that, 1:33:52.320 --> 1:33:55.520 I mean, you know, it's it's it turned from embarrassment 1:33:55.560 --> 1:33:58.519 when I first started to pure joy when I when 1:33:58.560 --> 1:34:01.160 I you know, hear it and see it. Now it's 1:34:01.200 --> 1:34:03.760 it's come around to where it's you know, the fascination. 1:34:04.800 --> 1:34:09.799 You know, it's still fascinating, and the fascination continues with people. 1:34:09.840 --> 1:34:15.080 I mean, I still do interviews about Oh Brother. You know, 1:34:15.120 --> 1:34:17.040 there's not too many things you can say. Twenty five 1:34:17.080 --> 1:34:21.519 years later, it's still still on the platform, and Oh 1:34:21.560 --> 1:34:22.880 Brother is kind of one of those things. 1:34:23.560 --> 1:34:28.200 Okay, the movie's going to be released. I remember going 1:34:28.240 --> 1:34:31.920 on Napster or whatever downloading your song. This is a 1:34:32.000 --> 1:34:35.920 song many people have sung, Rod Stewart saying it, I'm 1:34:35.920 --> 1:34:39.400 pretty sure, Bob Dylan saying it, etc. Yours is a 1:34:39.520 --> 1:34:47.520 one listen version, Okay, and it's really amazing and it 1:34:47.520 --> 1:34:52.120 it was successful. Was there any concept of you and 1:34:52.160 --> 1:34:56.320 the people you work with saying this is gigantically successful, 1:34:56.840 --> 1:34:58.280 let's follow it up. 1:35:02.960 --> 1:35:12.920 Man. So yes, there was of course a thought of 1:35:12.920 --> 1:35:18.120 of that, and I was I was approached to UH 1:35:18.320 --> 1:35:23.439 to potentially do a solo record, you know after after that. 1:35:25.439 --> 1:35:27.639 Now we have to go back and look at where 1:35:27.640 --> 1:35:31.640 I was at this point in time, and Uh, I 1:35:31.720 --> 1:35:36.559 had just done I just signed on to do a 1:35:36.600 --> 1:35:41.080 record with this this record label that my friend Tim 1:35:41.120 --> 1:35:44.200 Austin and and ex bandmate. He was the guy who 1:35:44.280 --> 1:35:45.880 ran the Lonesome River band that I played with for 1:35:45.920 --> 1:35:49.720 those years and UH, and I was scheduled slated to 1:35:49.760 --> 1:35:52.320 do a record for him, and t Bone asked if 1:35:52.360 --> 1:35:55.479 I wanted to do some sort of a project, you 1:35:55.520 --> 1:35:58.680 know after you know, this thing and I and I 1:35:58.720 --> 1:36:01.640 had to tell him. I said, well, I'm doing this 1:36:01.720 --> 1:36:04.760 other bluegrass record, you know, I've got to do. And 1:36:04.800 --> 1:36:08.640 he goes, well, he goes, he goes. It's kind of like, 1:36:08.880 --> 1:36:11.040 you know, if you're ever going to do anything, you know, 1:36:11.120 --> 1:36:13.240 let's we either need to do it or you know, 1:36:13.280 --> 1:36:16.200 if you want to do something else, well then whatever. 1:36:17.840 --> 1:36:19.439 So I go to you know, I go to Tim 1:36:19.520 --> 1:36:23.320 and I remember talking to talking to him at the time, saying, Hey, 1:36:23.360 --> 1:36:25.519 I've got a chance to do this thing with with 1:36:25.640 --> 1:36:28.040 T Bone, and he goes, Man, he goes, you got 1:36:28.040 --> 1:36:29.840 to be kidding. He goes, you can't. You can't let 1:36:29.920 --> 1:36:31.880 me down on this record. I can't have this record. 1:36:31.920 --> 1:36:34.040 This is this is gonna end. He goes, My label 1:36:34.080 --> 1:36:36.280 will fold if you don't do this record. He goes, 1:36:36.400 --> 1:36:41.719 especially now right. So in my mind, now I go back. 1:36:41.800 --> 1:36:45.400 If if I wanted to be that guy, I could 1:36:45.400 --> 1:36:49.040 have said, sorry, sue me, whatever you got to do. 1:36:49.439 --> 1:36:50.560 I got to do that, you know, I got to 1:36:50.600 --> 1:36:55.599 take advantage of this. Right. Had I not had I 1:36:55.680 --> 1:36:59.840 not been with Alison Krause and Union Station, there is 1:37:00.439 --> 1:37:04.400 no doubt in my mind that I would have taken 1:37:05.040 --> 1:37:07.840 the opportunity to follow that up with whatever T Bone 1:37:07.840 --> 1:37:09.360 wanted to do. I mean, if he would have said, hey, 1:37:09.400 --> 1:37:11.920 I want you to do you know this, this way, this, 1:37:11.920 --> 1:37:13.599 this way, let's just try it, I would have done 1:37:13.640 --> 1:37:18.680 anything to try it. Right. But I was and I 1:37:18.720 --> 1:37:21.600 don't know how to really even get people to understand 1:37:22.000 --> 1:37:25.640 I wasn't just content. I was so content with the 1:37:25.760 --> 1:37:28.960 job that I had with Alison in Union station that 1:37:29.080 --> 1:37:32.559 I was even uncomfortable stepping outside of the you know, 1:37:32.920 --> 1:37:35.680 I was uncomfortable at that point stepping into a spotlight 1:37:35.920 --> 1:37:38.479 being that guy that everyone was looking at. I thought 1:37:38.479 --> 1:37:41.759 it was just such an awesome thing that now, of course, 1:37:41.800 --> 1:37:44.639 after old Brother, even though the Alison job was great 1:37:44.680 --> 1:37:48.759 before Old Brother, well it was you know, multi multi 1:37:48.800 --> 1:37:52.360 times greater. After the work picked up, the prices went on, 1:37:52.479 --> 1:37:56.320 I mean, everything was better. So when it came right 1:37:56.360 --> 1:37:58.800 down to it, it was just more important to me 1:37:59.479 --> 1:38:02.160 to see if I couldn't, you know, help my buddy 1:38:03.000 --> 1:38:05.120 do what do what he needed to do with his mission. 1:38:05.920 --> 1:38:08.800 And at the end of the day, when I wait, 1:38:08.880 --> 1:38:12.280 everything in the basket, the only thing that really mattered 1:38:12.280 --> 1:38:14.320 to me was I was playing with Alison in Union Station, 1:38:14.400 --> 1:38:16.120 and I've got the greatest job that I you know, 1:38:16.439 --> 1:38:20.920 what you could look at as a lottery winning type 1:38:20.920 --> 1:38:22.600 of job, you know, like that was I had the 1:38:22.680 --> 1:38:25.799 job of jobs. I didn't really have to do anything solo. 1:38:27.080 --> 1:38:31.720 It wasn't until so many, so many years after that 1:38:31.800 --> 1:38:34.240 I really found any DESI you know, like I don't 1:38:34.240 --> 1:38:36.240 know in some ways, I guess late Bloomer. I mean 1:38:36.240 --> 1:38:38.960 now that I'm doing solo now, you know, I don't 1:38:39.000 --> 1:38:44.479 see how I I ever conceded to to doing anything 1:38:44.520 --> 1:38:47.720 else like I love, I love what I do now. 1:38:48.360 --> 1:38:50.479 It's and when I had the opportunity to, I just 1:38:50.520 --> 1:38:52.320 didn't see it. I just wanted to be a bandmate. 1:38:52.360 --> 1:38:55.200 I wanted to step away from that spotlight. It didn't 1:38:55.240 --> 1:38:57.160 it didn't appeal to me in a way that made 1:38:57.200 --> 1:38:59.280 me want to want to try to follow it up. 1:38:59.320 --> 1:39:01.960 But there was an opportunity way back when. 1:39:01.880 --> 1:39:13.160 Yeah, okay, talking about your greatest kids, how'd you end 1:39:13.240 --> 1:39:14.640 up working with a vichy. 1:39:16.680 --> 1:39:21.639 Oh? Getting to so this one, this was another one 1:39:21.680 --> 1:39:24.400 that that stepped out of left field. I never saw coming. 1:39:24.479 --> 1:39:28.439 I couldn't have imagined how this would profoundly change my 1:39:28.520 --> 1:39:32.599 life because this one really this I mean, you know, hey, 1:39:32.640 --> 1:39:38.160 brother arguably is a bigger hit. Well no, not arguably, 1:39:38.160 --> 1:39:41.960 I mean it's statistically a such so much of a 1:39:41.960 --> 1:39:44.240 bigger hit than than Man of consa Sorrow, it's not 1:39:44.280 --> 1:39:48.040 even funny. I get a call from my assistant one 1:39:48.120 --> 1:39:52.840 day who says, hey, we just got a reach out 1:39:52.880 --> 1:39:56.160 from this DJ who wants to know if you will 1:39:56.160 --> 1:39:59.200 sing a song on his record, And I said, okay, 1:39:59.240 --> 1:40:02.479 what goes you know he does d M, and I 1:40:02.560 --> 1:40:05.840 had to ask what EDM was. I did not know 1:40:06.160 --> 1:40:08.599 what the term ed M stood for. She she tells 1:40:08.640 --> 1:40:11.040 me electronic dance mix, you know this stuff in clubs 1:40:11.080 --> 1:40:15.479 that goes and I laughed and I was like, oh 1:40:15.520 --> 1:40:19.040 my gosh, okay. I said, how about uh, how about 1:40:19.040 --> 1:40:21.280 thank you but no thank you? This This was my 1:40:21.320 --> 1:40:23.200 answer just it was just flat I thank you but 1:40:23.240 --> 1:40:25.960 no thank you. Those are my words. And being the 1:40:26.080 --> 1:40:28.240 quality person that she is in a shout out to 1:40:28.280 --> 1:40:30.800 Shelley for this one. Thank you Shelley Calabresi for this one. 1:40:33.080 --> 1:40:37.759 H She goes, would you like to hear it before 1:40:37.800 --> 1:40:43.519 we give an official no thank you? Right? So I think, well, sures, 1:40:43.560 --> 1:40:45.960 you know, if send me the song, that's that's that's 1:40:46.040 --> 1:40:48.640 fine whatever. So she goes, okay, that's She goes, I 1:40:48.720 --> 1:40:50.599 figured you would say no thanks, but you know, let's 1:40:50.640 --> 1:40:52.160 listen to it and then, you know, then we'll give 1:40:52.160 --> 1:40:54.760 an official no thank you. So she's sending me the 1:40:54.800 --> 1:40:56.760 song and all I know is she's sending me this 1:40:56.840 --> 1:40:59.479 song and I and I she told me a vichy, right, 1:40:59.560 --> 1:41:02.519 So I go through my mind and I think, who 1:41:02.840 --> 1:41:04.880 do I you know? Who in my world would know 1:41:04.960 --> 1:41:08.519 this this cat right, And my daughter really was the 1:41:08.560 --> 1:41:10.439 one who popped into my mind because my girl at 1:41:10.479 --> 1:41:14.120 the time was nineteen and she listened to everything. I 1:41:14.120 --> 1:41:18.320 mean she would she would listen. She would follow up 1:41:18.320 --> 1:41:21.040 a CDC with mel Tormae. I mean she would listen. 1:41:21.600 --> 1:41:24.599 She listened to the whole spectrum of music. So I 1:41:24.680 --> 1:41:28.800 texted her right really quickly. Well, because I wanted a 1:41:28.880 --> 1:41:30.800 quick response, I figured I would text her instead of 1:41:30.840 --> 1:41:32.679 calling her. You know, she was a teenager. They'll respond 1:41:32.680 --> 1:41:34.360 to a text immediately. If you call them, they won't 1:41:34.360 --> 1:41:36.160 pick it up anyway. So I text her. I said, hey, 1:41:36.160 --> 1:41:39.600 you ever heard of this guy a EGI? And she 1:41:39.840 --> 1:41:43.920 responds immediately, she goes sweetish DJ. He's a genius. He's 1:41:43.960 --> 1:41:48.519 probably my favorite artist. Why when I'm thinking, oh wow, 1:41:50.439 --> 1:41:52.679 so I said, I type up, I think he wants 1:41:52.720 --> 1:41:56.720 me to do a song on his next record. And 1:41:56.760 --> 1:41:58.960 I see the bubbles coming up. You know that she's 1:41:59.040 --> 1:42:04.519 responding to my text and it's one word bullshit. This 1:42:04.640 --> 1:42:07.719 is what And I can't believe it's my little girl 1:42:07.760 --> 1:42:10.439 right now in my mind, my little halo wearing, cherub 1:42:10.520 --> 1:42:12.559 cheeked little angel of a daughter. You know, is cussing 1:42:12.560 --> 1:42:14.920 at me online. So now I'm thinking, okay, how do 1:42:15.000 --> 1:42:16.680 I respond to this? What do you what do you know? 1:42:16.960 --> 1:42:19.559 What are you saying? And as I'm texting now, the 1:42:19.560 --> 1:42:22.800 phone rings and it's her and I answer. I go hello. 1:42:23.160 --> 1:42:25.000 She goes, Dad, are you messing with me? Because if 1:42:25.040 --> 1:42:26.240 you're messing with me, I'm not in a place right 1:42:26.240 --> 1:42:29.200 now where I can't even handle it. Because she started 1:42:29.240 --> 1:42:33.320 going higher and faster. She she she went nuts on me, 1:42:33.840 --> 1:42:35.960 ending up and saying, if this is real, if this 1:42:36.040 --> 1:42:37.800 is actually happening, and this is real, if this is 1:42:37.840 --> 1:42:41.360 an offer and you don't do it, I'm out. That's 1:42:41.400 --> 1:42:44.559 what she says. And I'm thinking to myself, you live 1:42:44.600 --> 1:42:46.280 on your own. I'm not paying your bills. You're already 1:42:46.360 --> 1:42:47.479 What do you mean? I said, what do you so? 1:42:47.560 --> 1:42:49.960 What do you mean you're out? And she goes, just 1:42:50.040 --> 1:42:55.360 try me, So I thought, wow, this is serious. Just then, 1:42:55.400 --> 1:42:58.360 as she's saying just try me, my phone buzzes and 1:42:58.400 --> 1:43:01.919 it's the song that just showed up from my assistant. 1:43:02.400 --> 1:43:04.200 So I tell her, let me let you go. I 1:43:04.200 --> 1:43:06.080 got to listen to this song. It just just showed up. 1:43:06.120 --> 1:43:07.960 I'll let you know how it turns out she goes, 1:43:08.000 --> 1:43:09.479 oh my god, it doesn't matter what it is to it. 1:43:10.320 --> 1:43:13.280 So I hang up and I listened to the song. Now, 1:43:13.320 --> 1:43:17.360 the song is not the big fantastic version everyone knows, 1:43:17.439 --> 1:43:20.080 you know. The demo of the song was just a guitar. 1:43:20.320 --> 1:43:22.920 It was two strings on a guitar, just going boo 1:43:23.000 --> 1:43:26.759 dud do do do do d right, and a vocalist 1:43:27.160 --> 1:43:32.240 sang the song I for. I don't know how else 1:43:32.280 --> 1:43:34.479 to put it. I loved it right. It was the 1:43:34.600 --> 1:43:37.559 right key for me, it was the right tempo for me. 1:43:37.640 --> 1:43:40.920 The message was was that bringing people to get like 1:43:41.000 --> 1:43:45.160 everything about that song I did, like I love Now 1:43:45.320 --> 1:43:47.840 in my mind, I'm envisioning how it sounds to me, 1:43:48.000 --> 1:43:51.120 like everything I hear upstairs in this this brain of mind, 1:43:51.160 --> 1:43:53.519 you know, has a banjo in it, right, so I'm 1:43:53.560 --> 1:43:56.480 hearing like kind of the the bluegrass version. I ultimately 1:43:56.920 --> 1:44:00.400 ended up doing myself right, but I I can hear 1:44:00.400 --> 1:44:04.760 myself doing it. So I called back my assistant and 1:44:04.800 --> 1:44:06.840 I tell her, hey, listen, I said, I just listened 1:44:06.840 --> 1:44:08.519 to the song. I said, I don't know how to 1:44:09.080 --> 1:44:12.000 say this, but I love it. It's killer. I said, 1:44:12.080 --> 1:44:14.320 let's do it. I said, listen. What's the big deal? 1:44:14.360 --> 1:44:16.360 I said in I said, listen, we do the song. 1:44:16.520 --> 1:44:19.280 Who cares? No one ever hears it? So what we've 1:44:19.280 --> 1:44:21.040 done it, it'll make my daughter happy, right, This is 1:44:21.080 --> 1:44:23.280 all I'm thinking. I'm thinking, we'll do this song, no 1:44:23.320 --> 1:44:24.720 one will ever hear it, and I'll just move on. 1:44:25.920 --> 1:44:31.040 And then I do this song. He doesn't have any 1:44:31.120 --> 1:44:32.800 version of it, he says, can you just do it 1:44:32.840 --> 1:44:37.160 to a click track? So I sang the song with 1:44:37.200 --> 1:44:39.960 no music. I just stood in the studio and I 1:44:39.960 --> 1:44:42.880 took my guitar and I hit a note being I 1:44:42.880 --> 1:44:44.360 don't even know if I used the guitar. I think 1:44:44.360 --> 1:44:46.400 you might have hit a note on the piano. Hit 1:44:46.479 --> 1:44:48.519 the geno, he said, here's the note, here's it is. 1:44:48.520 --> 1:44:50.080 So I hit the genoe and I just started singing 1:44:50.120 --> 1:44:53.120 it right to a click And I sang the song 1:44:53.200 --> 1:44:55.800 and sent it away to Los Angeles where a Vichy was. 1:44:55.840 --> 1:44:58.240 And you know, i'd never met the man. I just 1:44:58.280 --> 1:45:03.680 sent him a vocal across the air waves skip ahead, 1:45:04.479 --> 1:45:08.760 just like not many weeks later, not many weeks like 1:45:08.880 --> 1:45:12.080 just like a like. A couple few months later, that 1:45:12.240 --> 1:45:15.120 song was number one in sixteen different countries at the 1:45:15.160 --> 1:45:19.719 same time. It was a global smash that I couldn't 1:45:19.720 --> 1:45:22.040 imagine and I and I was unaware of it because 1:45:22.040 --> 1:45:24.400 I really don't listen to radio. I don't listen to anything. Right. 1:45:24.560 --> 1:45:26.400 I just got a call from my buddy one day 1:45:26.600 --> 1:45:29.760 and my buddy caused me. He says Ti Minsky. He goes, man, 1:45:30.000 --> 1:45:31.719 you got to hear what's going on. He goes, someone's 1:45:31.720 --> 1:45:35.280 out there. Someone is ripping you off. And I said, 1:45:35.320 --> 1:45:38.599 what they said? Someone is ripping you off. There's this 1:45:38.720 --> 1:45:41.360 dude out there and it's it's like it's just like 1:45:41.600 --> 1:45:44.080 edm stuff. He says, but they are copying you to 1:45:44.200 --> 1:45:47.080 a t. They said, it's one hundred percent you know, 1:45:47.479 --> 1:45:49.800 it's one hundred percent a Dan to Minsky rip off. 1:45:50.560 --> 1:45:52.519 And I said, do you mean a song called Hey Brother? 1:45:52.880 --> 1:45:55.479 And he goes yeah, And I said, dude, that's me. 1:45:56.080 --> 1:45:57.680 He goes, how can that be you? He goes, your 1:45:57.760 --> 1:46:01.320 name's not on anything? And I said, well, I was 1:46:01.400 --> 1:46:03.439 worked for hire. You know, correct my name. You won't 1:46:03.439 --> 1:46:05.320 find my name on it. If you look up any 1:46:05.320 --> 1:46:09.519 of their stuff, you don't see Dan Tominsky. Well turns 1:46:09.560 --> 1:46:12.040 out I gotta I gotta look back. That's that's one 1:46:12.080 --> 1:46:14.760 of the biggest things I've ever you talk about the 1:46:14.760 --> 1:46:17.120 one that got away. If my name could have been 1:46:17.120 --> 1:46:20.639 attached to that, I can't even imagine what the sound skin. 1:46:20.800 --> 1:46:24.840 I'm like I it would have dwarfed anything, you know, 1:46:24.880 --> 1:46:27.719 old brother Wawreth I ever did. It was ridiculous. But instead, 1:46:28.080 --> 1:46:30.120 you know, that's how I got a one time payment, 1:46:30.160 --> 1:46:32.200 which was, you know, wonderful. At the time, I thought, 1:46:32.240 --> 1:46:34.519 you know, great, and then you know, later on I 1:46:34.520 --> 1:46:36.240 got a writing deal in My publisher said do you 1:46:36.280 --> 1:46:39.559 have any idea how much money that song made? And 1:46:40.320 --> 1:46:42.200 he gave me a quick rundown, and it was. It 1:46:42.280 --> 1:46:44.680 was embarrassing, man. It was a lot of zero's, a 1:46:44.720 --> 1:46:48.800 lot of commas. That song was was absolutely the most 1:46:48.840 --> 1:46:51.519 fantastic thing to be a part of in it And 1:46:51.760 --> 1:46:54.160 though you know I didn't get rich from that one 1:46:54.240 --> 1:46:58.080 in particular, what it led what it led to in 1:46:58.080 --> 1:47:02.759 my life, man, And I wouldn't have without it, period. 1:47:03.320 --> 1:47:06.240 I just simply wouldn't have what I have now. Without it, 1:47:06.240 --> 1:47:09.200 I wouldn't have had the courage to write the songs 1:47:09.200 --> 1:47:12.639 that ultimately led to the Southern Gothic record. I wouldn't 1:47:12.640 --> 1:47:16.200 have had the courage to write any bluegrass stuff, which 1:47:16.200 --> 1:47:19.360 have has turned into everything that I'm about now. So 1:47:19.560 --> 1:47:23.879 you know that that getting to work with with Tim Bergling, 1:47:25.160 --> 1:47:27.760 who the world knows as avicy that was. That was 1:47:27.800 --> 1:47:29.800 one of the biggest things I could have ever been 1:47:29.840 --> 1:47:32.960 involved with, and I am so I'm so thankful for 1:47:33.000 --> 1:47:35.320 the opportunity to get to be involved in that one 1:47:35.320 --> 1:47:38.719 because it's it's just it's led to an uncountable well 1:47:38.720 --> 1:47:40.040 of things I wouldn't have without it. 1:47:41.000 --> 1:47:46.519 So presently, what's your deal with solo and Alison Grause? 1:47:48.800 --> 1:47:51.120 Uh oh, I am no longer a member of Alison 1:47:51.200 --> 1:47:54.559 Krause Union Station. They will be touring and putting out 1:47:54.560 --> 1:47:58.160 some music and it will just be with with someone 1:47:58.200 --> 1:48:03.160 different than than myself. I'm doing Dan Tominsky. I have 1:48:04.120 --> 1:48:10.439 got the solo career machine started and couldn't imagine veering 1:48:10.479 --> 1:48:16.280 away from it. It's taken me, it's taken me fifty 1:48:16.280 --> 1:48:19.479 plus years now to get to steer this ship, and 1:48:20.479 --> 1:48:22.000 I can't. I can't lose my grip. 1:48:22.920 --> 1:48:25.960 You're a very loyal guy. There are two very big 1:48:26.000 --> 1:48:31.040 stories that you told with loyalty. Ay, how hard was 1:48:31.120 --> 1:48:34.320 the decision to leave Union Station? And it's like I 1:48:34.320 --> 1:48:36.519 was talking to Jerry Douglass. He can come and go. 1:48:36.880 --> 1:48:38.240 Why couldn't you come and go? 1:48:41.160 --> 1:48:43.320 I could come and go. There there were a lot 1:48:43.320 --> 1:48:47.040 of circumstances that probably led up to I mean, you know, 1:48:47.160 --> 1:48:50.560 Jerry has a different situation than I have to be 1:48:50.640 --> 1:48:55.160 able to to come and go. I mean, I guess 1:48:55.240 --> 1:48:58.360 I if I wanted to, I think I I mean, well, no, 1:48:58.439 --> 1:49:00.960 I know I could have ided, you know I had. 1:49:01.040 --> 1:49:04.760 I made this decision honestly, more last minute than I 1:49:04.920 --> 1:49:07.679 than I ever thought I would. I didn't. I didn't 1:49:07.680 --> 1:49:11.800 feel at first when it was first proposed to come 1:49:11.840 --> 1:49:14.080 back and they were gonna, you know, Allison was gonna 1:49:14.080 --> 1:49:18.760 have Union you know, do another Union station thing. I 1:49:18.880 --> 1:49:23.480 was first shocked. I I never I I really thought 1:49:24.040 --> 1:49:27.240 it was done. I mean, it had been eight eight 1:49:27.280 --> 1:49:31.440 plus years since, you know, since there was any consideration 1:49:31.520 --> 1:49:36.439 of anything. So when I first hearted, I didn't. I 1:49:36.439 --> 1:49:38.479 couldn't believe, you know, that she wanted to do something. 1:49:38.520 --> 1:49:41.320 So I had to consider it. And my first thoughts were, 1:49:41.360 --> 1:49:43.920 and I'm and I'm gonna play the loyalty card. It 1:49:43.960 --> 1:49:46.439 felt like it was something that I had to do. 1:49:46.880 --> 1:49:50.000 I couldn't see myself saying no, because I felt like 1:49:50.080 --> 1:49:51.920 there was a world of fans, and there was a 1:49:52.439 --> 1:49:54.400 band of people, and there was there were too many 1:49:54.439 --> 1:49:57.920 things that that, you know, too many people. I would 1:49:57.920 --> 1:50:02.639 be letting down if I didn't do it. And I said, 1:50:02.680 --> 1:50:05.360 you know, let's you know, let's let's do whatever whatever 1:50:05.360 --> 1:50:07.599 we're going to do. And I got you know, we 1:50:07.680 --> 1:50:10.000 spent our time together, we worked up songs. There was 1:50:10.040 --> 1:50:12.879 I was actually going to do a bunch of probably 1:50:12.920 --> 1:50:14.880 sing more songs than I would have in the past, 1:50:15.400 --> 1:50:17.599 on this new thing they were about to put out, 1:50:18.840 --> 1:50:24.120 and in the process, somewhere in the middle, I couldn't 1:50:24.160 --> 1:50:27.040 do it. Somewhere somewhere in the middle, I felt like 1:50:27.120 --> 1:50:34.760 I was letting go of my identity. And it's kind 1:50:34.760 --> 1:50:36.760 of hard to put in words. I think the best 1:50:36.760 --> 1:50:39.640 way I could explain it is, I've spent my lifetime 1:50:39.680 --> 1:50:45.200 being other people's versions of myself. I was first, you 1:50:45.240 --> 1:50:48.240 know what, I only sang in the first place so 1:50:48.320 --> 1:50:51.000 I could accent my brother, you know, I was his 1:50:51.160 --> 1:50:53.639 version of what he needed. Then I joined the Lonesome 1:50:53.680 --> 1:50:55.920 River Band, and I never got to do what I 1:50:55.960 --> 1:50:57.720 wanted to do. With the Lonesome River Band, I did 1:50:57.720 --> 1:50:59.880 whatever they needed me to do, and that was fantastic, 1:51:00.680 --> 1:51:03.280 So I did it. Then I joined Alison Krause and 1:51:03.360 --> 1:51:05.960 Union Station, which, don't get me wrong, I loved every 1:51:06.000 --> 1:51:08.640 aspect of it, but I was what she needed me 1:51:08.680 --> 1:51:11.120 to be. I wasn't still playing what I wanted to 1:51:11.120 --> 1:51:13.519 play in the band, you know, I had to adapt 1:51:13.600 --> 1:51:18.280 and be someone else's version of myself. And I feel like, 1:51:18.320 --> 1:51:20.960 for the first time in my life, and at this point, 1:51:21.600 --> 1:51:25.479 I get to be my version of myself for the 1:51:25.520 --> 1:51:28.680 better or for the worse. When people hear what I'm 1:51:28.720 --> 1:51:33.719 doing currently, they get decisions that I am making about 1:51:33.760 --> 1:51:37.640 myself versus decisions someone else was making. And if it 1:51:37.640 --> 1:51:41.000 came down to doing another Alison Krause project, I didn't 1:51:41.000 --> 1:51:44.080 feel like I had the control to be me I was, 1:51:44.120 --> 1:51:45.840 you know, I didn't. I didn't want to be steered 1:51:45.880 --> 1:51:48.360 as much as I was having to be steered with, 1:51:49.240 --> 1:51:53.080 whether it be song selection, how I sang those songs, 1:51:54.000 --> 1:51:56.240 the there you know, a lot of a lot of particulars. 1:51:56.280 --> 1:51:59.680 I mean, I reached a point in my career where 1:51:59.720 --> 1:52:03.120 I get to steer the ship and I feel like 1:52:03.200 --> 1:52:05.439 if I let go of that, I won't get it back, 1:52:05.640 --> 1:52:08.639 and I'm not willing to do that I'm gonna stick 1:52:08.680 --> 1:52:09.200 with the solo. 1:52:10.200 --> 1:52:14.479 Okay, before we wrap it up. How good a golfer are. 1:52:14.360 --> 1:52:19.880 You depends who I'm golfing against. There are some people 1:52:20.080 --> 1:52:23.280 I can whip handily. There are some people I would 1:52:23.360 --> 1:52:26.960 never bet a nickel against. Good as a relative term 1:52:26.960 --> 1:52:30.280 when it comes to that game. Uh, the game of 1:52:30.320 --> 1:52:33.920 golf is one of the hardest games that I've ever 1:52:35.040 --> 1:52:37.240 I've ever took up. And some people would say I'm 1:52:37.280 --> 1:52:39.920 a very good golfer, and then some people would say, 1:52:39.960 --> 1:52:43.400 you know, he's a hack. Just depends on who I'm 1:52:43.400 --> 1:52:46.040 playing next to. Golf took up my foosball void, you know, 1:52:46.080 --> 1:52:50.360 when I stopped playing foosball in nineteen eighty nine and 1:52:50.439 --> 1:52:52.760 all through the nineties, and you know, I took up 1:52:52.840 --> 1:52:55.640 golf kind of fill that void. So I have that 1:52:55.760 --> 1:52:58.679 OCD personality to where anything I spend my time doing, 1:52:58.760 --> 1:53:00.519 if I'm not going to be able to do it well, 1:53:00.560 --> 1:53:02.160 I'm probably not going to do it at all. So 1:53:03.000 --> 1:53:06.559 golf was the same I I ate, you know, Drank 1:53:06.720 --> 1:53:09.920 slapt everything was was golf for a for a period 1:53:09.960 --> 1:53:12.679 of time, and I think at one point in time 1:53:13.360 --> 1:53:15.599 golf died just had me ranked as the number five 1:53:15.680 --> 1:53:20.599 musician golfer in the country. Now that being said, there 1:53:20.600 --> 1:53:22.400 are a bunch of musicians that I would never bet 1:53:22.439 --> 1:53:24.240 a nickel against because there's a lot of good golfers 1:53:24.240 --> 1:53:27.200 out there. But Uh, at one time I could hold 1:53:27.200 --> 1:53:30.240 my own. Now I play a lot more for fun 1:53:30.240 --> 1:53:32.719 than I do for UH. If I'm serious about anything 1:53:32.720 --> 1:53:35.519 I play anymore, it's foosball, not golf. 1:53:36.400 --> 1:53:38.439 Okay, when did you take up golf? 1:53:41.320 --> 1:53:43.920 Uh? When I moved to Virginia. When I when I 1:53:43.960 --> 1:53:46.599 moved away from home, when I let foosball go, literally, 1:53:46.640 --> 1:53:49.120 I that's I. I made a switch because I found 1:53:49.439 --> 1:53:52.000 a buddy of mine that I moved to Virginia with 1:53:53.240 --> 1:53:55.880 is Uh is a golf pro, Tag Leon. I got 1:53:55.880 --> 1:53:58.280 to give Tag a shout out. He's now the head 1:53:58.280 --> 1:54:03.880 golf pro at at in Southern Pines, North Carolina, at 1:54:04.120 --> 1:54:08.080 Talamore Golf and Resort. He has a fantastic facility down there. 1:54:08.120 --> 1:54:11.280 People should go check out Talamore. But Tag moved down 1:54:11.320 --> 1:54:15.160 with me, and I had a roommate that was a golfer, 1:54:16.680 --> 1:54:18.920 and I, you know, I remember seeing his clubs and 1:54:18.960 --> 1:54:20.600 he had a bunch of golf shoes. I remember, like 1:54:21.080 --> 1:54:23.160 I thought, thought to myself, who would have that many 1:54:23.200 --> 1:54:26.360 pairs of shoes? It was. It was blew my mind 1:54:26.680 --> 1:54:28.559 right because he had like eight pairs of golf shoes. 1:54:29.080 --> 1:54:31.160 And anyway, we went out one day and he was like, yeah, 1:54:31.200 --> 1:54:33.480 give it a try, and I remember taking a I 1:54:33.520 --> 1:54:35.160 was big into baseball, right. I wanted to be a 1:54:35.200 --> 1:54:37.840 baseball player so I could hit it hard. But I 1:54:37.920 --> 1:54:39.680 was a horrible golfer. But I took it up and 1:54:39.720 --> 1:54:41.960 I started going to the driving range for fun, and 1:54:42.720 --> 1:54:45.320 before you knew it, I was trying to keep a 1:54:45.320 --> 1:54:48.360 score and realized how bad I was, and then decided 1:54:48.400 --> 1:54:50.440 I was going to have to really get serious in practice. 1:54:50.480 --> 1:54:54.240 And you know, I spent as here. I got to 1:54:54.240 --> 1:54:57.520 thank old brother. You know that along with being able 1:54:57.560 --> 1:54:59.720 to take care of my house payments and everything else 1:54:59.720 --> 1:55:01.560 that I came along with that, I was able to 1:55:02.440 --> 1:55:04.920 join a country club and have a place for my 1:55:04.960 --> 1:55:06.880 family to hang out and play. And I have my 1:55:06.960 --> 1:55:10.840 two boys. They're definitely into golf right now. Because of 1:55:11.200 --> 1:55:14.840 you know, it's my fault. I had them around the 1:55:14.840 --> 1:55:17.760 golf course all while they were growing up, and now 1:55:17.800 --> 1:55:21.400 they're both I have two fantastic golfers for boys. They're 1:55:21.400 --> 1:55:25.760 both in the plus handicaps there. They can quit me 1:55:25.800 --> 1:55:27.600 so easy. They could. They could either one of them 1:55:27.640 --> 1:55:29.200 could beat me with one hand. And I can't stand 1:55:29.240 --> 1:55:32.960 it because I'm so competitive. But you know, golf, I 1:55:32.960 --> 1:55:37.200 took up golf when probably nineteen ninety ish. 1:55:37.400 --> 1:55:39.800 Okay, your peak, How much were you playing and do 1:55:39.840 --> 1:55:40.560 you play at all? 1:55:40.640 --> 1:55:44.560 Now? My peak, I played seven days a week. I 1:55:45.000 --> 1:55:48.200 played every single day, and I practiced before and after 1:55:48.320 --> 1:55:51.000 I played. I mean I played every day. And when 1:55:51.000 --> 1:55:53.160 I did that, I played most days. I mean I 1:55:53.200 --> 1:55:56.400 played minimum five days a week. Or let's just say 1:55:56.440 --> 1:55:59.240 every day that I was home. Every day that I 1:55:59.280 --> 1:56:03.280 was home, I played golf all through my kids going 1:56:03.280 --> 1:56:05.360 to school. The routine was I would drop them off 1:56:05.400 --> 1:56:08.280 at school, go play golf all while they were in school, 1:56:08.520 --> 1:56:10.360 stand on the driving range and hit balls until it 1:56:10.360 --> 1:56:12.280 was time to pick them up, Go pick them up, 1:56:12.680 --> 1:56:15.160 and then I was home. So yeah, I played golf 1:56:16.960 --> 1:56:20.520 every day. You know. In my peak my best scores, 1:56:20.520 --> 1:56:23.280 I've shot a sixty seven was my best score. I 1:56:23.280 --> 1:56:26.640 shot a couple of sixty nine's and I never got 1:56:26.680 --> 1:56:29.640 down to a scratch. I was a one handicap was 1:56:29.680 --> 1:56:33.560 my best I got to be a a one handicap, 1:56:33.600 --> 1:56:36.920 where my kids one of them's a plus four, one 1:56:36.920 --> 1:56:39.080 of them's a plus six. It's grotesque what they do 1:56:39.160 --> 1:56:42.680 with the game. But I played a lot when I played, 1:56:42.760 --> 1:56:47.880 now not nearly as much I do not. I enjoy 1:56:47.920 --> 1:56:50.600 the game so much more now than I enjoyed it 1:56:50.640 --> 1:56:52.320 when I was trying to be good at it, because, 1:56:53.480 --> 1:56:56.000 like I said, the OCD thing, I couldn't enjoy it 1:56:56.040 --> 1:56:58.680 for trying to always improve. And if you're trying, really 1:56:58.680 --> 1:57:03.560 trying to improve, you simultaneously or frustrated with your performance, 1:57:04.040 --> 1:57:06.840 you kind of have. You know, improvement comes with not 1:57:06.960 --> 1:57:10.560 being satisfied with where you're at. So I've taken a 1:57:10.560 --> 1:57:13.920 shift to the point where I really enjoy playing the game, 1:57:14.400 --> 1:57:18.560 don't worry about a score as much. Still can probably 1:57:18.560 --> 1:57:20.520 shoot a goods. You know, I'm my best score of 1:57:20.560 --> 1:57:24.120 the year. My last year, I shot seventy two one time, 1:57:24.840 --> 1:57:26.880 so I was one over par. That was my best 1:57:26.880 --> 1:57:29.080 score of the year. I shot close to par once. 1:57:29.800 --> 1:57:32.040 I'm like, I'm captain seventy eight. I shoot a lot 1:57:32.040 --> 1:57:34.920 of seventy eight, so that seems to be my my 1:57:35.040 --> 1:57:37.920 go to number. I can play well, I shoot seventy eight. 1:57:37.960 --> 1:57:40.680 I play like crap. I shoot seventy eight. It's my number. 1:57:41.520 --> 1:57:43.720 Did you take lessons to learn how to play golf? 1:57:45.160 --> 1:57:47.760 No, I've never taken lessons to learn how to do anything. 1:57:47.800 --> 1:57:50.600 And again I would say the same thing to golfers. 1:57:50.880 --> 1:57:54.360 If you are starting out the game, take a couple 1:57:54.400 --> 1:57:56.840 early lessons, because one of the things that really did 1:57:56.960 --> 1:57:59.120 hurt me in my golf game is I ingrained a 1:57:59.160 --> 1:58:02.560 few really bad habits early on that I carried over 1:58:02.600 --> 1:58:06.200 from baseball that really made me struggle with golf. I 1:58:06.200 --> 1:58:08.520 had to unlearn a few things that I taught myself 1:58:08.560 --> 1:58:11.600 that I could have easily avoided had I taken some 1:58:11.680 --> 1:58:14.320 early lessons. So I don't think you necessarily have to 1:58:14.400 --> 1:58:17.800 take lessons the whole time you play, unless you're doing 1:58:17.800 --> 1:58:22.400 it as a profession. But to get the fundamentals down 1:58:22.480 --> 1:58:25.240 early on so that you can do so that you 1:58:25.280 --> 1:58:29.360 can practice correctly from the start, I think is a 1:58:29.600 --> 1:58:32.160 huge bonus. And I would recommend it to anyone that, 1:58:32.760 --> 1:58:35.400 even if they don't think they need lessons, go ahead 1:58:35.440 --> 1:58:38.280 and take that lesson and then decide after if you 1:58:38.440 --> 1:58:39.760 if you want to use that or not. 1:58:41.040 --> 1:58:44.920 Okay, how often do you play now. 1:58:46.800 --> 1:58:51.520 Golf. You know, my wife likes to play golf now, 1:58:51.600 --> 1:58:54.440 so I try to get out once a week, you know, 1:58:54.520 --> 1:58:57.520 if I if I can. I mean, I'm more fair 1:58:57.560 --> 1:59:00.520 weather now, if it's if it's cold, or if it's windy, 1:59:00.600 --> 1:59:03.920 or if I have a hangnail, or if you know, 1:59:04.000 --> 1:59:06.800 whatever my TV reception isn't good, whatever it is, you know, 1:59:06.840 --> 1:59:08.840 anything will keep me from playing now. You know, it's 1:59:08.840 --> 1:59:10.880 got to be all the conditions have to be right. 1:59:10.920 --> 1:59:14.400 But if the weather's nice and and I have somebody 1:59:14.440 --> 1:59:16.680 who's willing, I'll still go out and knock it around. 1:59:16.720 --> 1:59:18.840 I mean, I still love the game. I've been trying 1:59:18.840 --> 1:59:20.640 to get into it a little bit more as of late. 1:59:21.120 --> 1:59:24.280 So this this year, I plan on playing more golf 1:59:24.680 --> 1:59:28.720 than I played last year because I'm I'm determined to 1:59:28.720 --> 1:59:30.720 get you know, a little bit. You know, it's it's 1:59:31.440 --> 1:59:33.400 it's fun for me now, but it's not as fun 1:59:33.400 --> 1:59:35.640 if I'm nowhere near as good as I could be. 1:59:35.680 --> 1:59:37.280 So I'm gonna practice a little bit this year and 1:59:37.320 --> 1:59:40.120 try to find that happy balance where I can, you know, 1:59:40.240 --> 1:59:41.920 play a little more and still have fun with it. 1:59:42.520 --> 1:59:47.560 Okay, you're playing golf. What's the status of your career now, 1:59:47.640 --> 1:59:50.520 how much you're working, how much do you want to work, 1:59:51.160 --> 1:59:56.480 and any specific goals at this point. 1:59:55.840 --> 1:59:57.760 Well, I still want to work. I mean I'm I'm 1:59:57.800 --> 2:00:00.200 not you know, I'm at the point now to where well, well, 2:00:00.240 --> 2:00:01.920 you know, heck, I have to work. I mean, you know, 2:00:02.000 --> 2:00:04.160 I still got to keep these lights. I still got 2:00:04.160 --> 2:00:06.040 to keep the light bol paid. So I have to work. 2:00:06.600 --> 2:00:09.839 Fortunately for me, I love my work. So it's it's 2:00:10.240 --> 2:00:12.640 it's it's been a it's it's kind of been a 2:00:12.720 --> 2:00:15.680 nice situation to be able to to go after something 2:00:15.720 --> 2:00:17.680 that you enjoy doing. I mean, I've never felt like 2:00:18.600 --> 2:00:21.440 I've worked ever. I mean I've I've traveled to play music. 2:00:21.520 --> 2:00:24.120 I mean traveling that's the hardest thing that I do. 2:00:24.680 --> 2:00:26.720 And as far as how much do I want to travel, 2:00:27.200 --> 2:00:31.160 you know, if I play, if I play fifty, you know, 2:00:31.360 --> 2:00:35.080 or to sixty dates a year, that is that that's 2:00:35.120 --> 2:00:37.000 like my high end. That's as much as I would 2:00:37.040 --> 2:00:39.879 want to go. I mean, I I don't like traveling 2:00:39.960 --> 2:00:42.360 like I once did. I've said this for a while now. 2:00:42.800 --> 2:00:44.840 I have played for a long time. I have played 2:00:44.840 --> 2:00:48.280 for free. I only get paid to travel. You pay 2:00:48.280 --> 2:00:50.040 me to travel and I'll play for you for free. 2:00:50.040 --> 2:00:52.360 That's how it works anymore. And uh, I don't want 2:00:52.360 --> 2:00:53.680 to stay out on the road. I don't want to. 2:00:53.680 --> 2:00:56.560 I mean, I'm I enjoy my home life. I enjoy 2:00:56.640 --> 2:00:58.920 my my wife, I enjoy playing golf. I'd like to 2:00:59.040 --> 2:01:02.880 spend a little more time. I'm, you know, enjoying my 2:01:02.880 --> 2:01:05.360 my Uh, how do how do I put it? I'm 2:01:05.400 --> 2:01:07.960 I'm I'm not you know, I'm not anywhere close to 2:01:08.000 --> 2:01:10.200 giving up yet, but I'm I've started the back nine, 2:01:10.240 --> 2:01:11.560 so I'm trying to ease into it. 2:01:12.800 --> 2:01:17.600 Well, I mean, you ultimately had two gigantic successes. Okay, 2:01:18.200 --> 2:01:20.680 you're doing what you're doing. You gotta work, you got 2:01:20.680 --> 2:01:22.880 to keep the lights on in the back of your 2:01:22.920 --> 2:01:26.320 mind everything, and well, you know, i'd like to get 2:01:26.360 --> 2:01:29.920 back to that spotlight before I go here. 2:01:32.160 --> 2:01:33.880 Well, I mean this is the I mean, at the 2:01:33.960 --> 2:01:37.680 at this point, I'm able to you know, it's I'm 2:01:37.720 --> 2:01:41.160 finding I'm finally and I say finally because i haven't 2:01:41.160 --> 2:01:43.879 been for a bulk of my career, but I'm finally 2:01:44.720 --> 2:01:47.360 happy in in the center portion of that stage. Like 2:01:47.560 --> 2:01:51.000 I I'm enjoying what I get to do now versus 2:01:51.960 --> 2:01:54.400 what I've done in the past. I mean, I'm I've 2:01:57.160 --> 2:02:01.080 talking to an audience, getting to tell jokes, getting to 2:02:02.000 --> 2:02:07.280 steer if you will. Man, it was an acquired taste 2:02:07.320 --> 2:02:11.080 for me. It wasn't something I started out loving, but 2:02:11.200 --> 2:02:14.360 once I got a taste for it, I can't see 2:02:14.360 --> 2:02:16.960 myself ever doing anything else. I mean, I am a 2:02:17.280 --> 2:02:21.600 I'm a I'm an entertainer. I mean I want to 2:02:21.600 --> 2:02:24.400 be on that stage. I want to play for the people. 2:02:24.440 --> 2:02:27.280 I mean again, traveling isn't as easy as it once was. 2:02:27.320 --> 2:02:28.880 I don't want to I don't want to try to 2:02:28.920 --> 2:02:32.560 do one hundred dates a year, you know, But I 2:02:32.600 --> 2:02:34.440 want to make sure that I do dates that you know. 2:02:34.480 --> 2:02:35.800 I want to make sure that I get to go 2:02:35.880 --> 2:02:38.360 out and connect with people, because at this stage of 2:02:38.400 --> 2:02:40.680 the game, when I get to connect to an audience, 2:02:41.320 --> 2:02:44.480 it's the happiest I can be in the music arena. 2:02:44.720 --> 2:02:47.080 And I don't see myself ever stopping that. 2:02:48.160 --> 2:02:51.360 Well, Dan, you tell a great story. You've filled in 2:02:51.400 --> 2:02:54.160 a lot of details that I've always had questions about. 2:02:54.720 --> 2:02:56.880 I want to thank you for taking this time with 2:02:56.960 --> 2:02:57.640 my audience. 2:02:58.600 --> 2:03:00.360 Oh my gosh, listen, I don't know if I've done 2:03:00.600 --> 2:03:03.480 if I've done all that. But but I have enjoyed 2:03:03.520 --> 2:03:05.880 your time and uh and it is get the fun, 2:03:05.960 --> 2:03:07.560 you know. It's fun to get to talk about the 2:03:07.600 --> 2:03:11.160 things at length that you don't necessarily get to touch 2:03:11.160 --> 2:03:14.360 on in other formats. So I really appreciate what you do, 2:03:14.800 --> 2:03:16.800 and I hope we can do it again sometime. 2:03:18.080 --> 2:03:20.800 Absolutely, it's a lot of stuff we haven't covered, but 2:03:20.960 --> 2:03:23.040 we've come to the end of the feeling we've known 2:03:23.160 --> 2:03:27.320 for today till next time. This is Bob left six