Speaker 1: I didn't like calling it a craft or work or anything,
Speaker 1: because I just wanted it to be more magical and
Speaker 1: mysterious than that, because all the great songs that I've
Speaker 1: ever loved just feel like they've you know, either existed forever,
Speaker 1: but they just come from this place that's so otherworldly,
Speaker 1: you know, like how can this exist? How did somebody
Speaker 1: create this? You know? And it's good when they can
Speaker 1: feel like that.
Speaker 2: I got thoughts in my head, can't get them out,
Speaker 2: try and not the thing what I'm thinking about, not
Speaker 2: count of thoughts in my head, can't get them out,
Speaker 2: trying not to thing what I'm thinking about.
Speaker 3: Hello, this is Alan Ship Knock Back for another Fire
Speaker 3: Drill podcast. That evocative intro music you've gotten used to
Speaker 3: listening to. It's by Griffin Howes, very talented singer songwriter.
Speaker 3: After all these fire drills with that beautiful song, we figured,
Speaker 3: you know, let's bring the man himself on to talk
Speaker 3: about the connection of golf and music and a little
Speaker 3: bit about his life.
Speaker 4: And he's got a new.
Speaker 3: Album, and we figured the best place to convene this
Speaker 3: roundtable is here at sam Valley. We are here for
Speaker 3: the Uncle Tony Invitational brainchild of Matt Janella. He's podcasted
Speaker 3: about it. I've written about his long standing Ultimate Buddies trip.
Speaker 3: Matt's here. We're joined by Jakira King Grammy Winning, a
Speaker 3: producer who collaborated with Griffin on his most recent album,
Speaker 3: The Patriarch of This Whole Deal, John Ashworth.
Speaker 4: Uh, and we're.
Speaker 3: All wearing linksoul clothes.
Speaker 4: You know, we love Ashley.
Speaker 3: He's sort of the spiritual godfather of this gathering. And
Speaker 3: of course Griffin hollis who' stromling a guitar. So Griffin
Speaker 3: and John ed Schkeer and Matt, thanks for doing this.
Speaker 3: Let's start with you, Griffin, like, this is your first UTI,
Speaker 3: as we like to call it. Uh, what do you
Speaker 3: think this little gathering?
Speaker 1: It's a pretty special event here. It's so much golf,
Speaker 1: and it's so overwhelming to be out here playing in
Speaker 1: these places. I feel like I'm on a different planet
Speaker 1: out here, you know. But I'm always trying to escape
Speaker 1: and clear my head and play golf as much as
Speaker 1: I can when I'm not playing music. So definitely getting
Speaker 1: my fill out here. It's been wonderful. It's so fun
Speaker 1: for the listeners.
Speaker 3: You should know that Griffin is a very strong stick
Speaker 3: playing off too. After watching him hit an eight iron
Speaker 3: about one hundred and eighty yards, I said, what is
Speaker 3: your your clubhead speed with a driver and he said
Speaker 3: two three. I mean that's upper echelon of the PGA
Speaker 3: to or the guy can move it. So you have
Speaker 3: a background in competitive golf, Like, let's hear a little
Speaker 3: bit about your your journey through golf, because it's been
Speaker 3: a little circuit.
Speaker 4: It's Oh.
Speaker 1: Yes, I started playing when I was a little kid,
Speaker 1: probably eight or nine. My dad was a great golf
Speaker 1: for He quit about I don't know, ten fifteen years ago.
Speaker 1: He had kind of a bad back, but he was
Speaker 1: he was like a plus two plus three great ball striker.
Speaker 1: Taught me how to play, and it was a pro
Speaker 1: in Springfield named Pat Delaney that taught me a lot.
Speaker 1: I always go back to that. But I played in
Speaker 1: tons of junior tournaments and stuff when I was a kid,
Speaker 1: and you know, traveled around and played and played a
Speaker 1: lot in Ohio and kept playing through high school and
Speaker 1: had an offer to play at Ohio University. But I
Speaker 1: was just super burned out to go off at that
Speaker 1: point and a little discouraged, to say the least, and
Speaker 1: I just kind of decided to go off to school,
Speaker 1: and when I got there, I was like, man, that
Speaker 1: can be whoever I want to be here, Like, no
Speaker 1: one knows who I am, no one knows this former
Speaker 1: identity that I've had. So I had a guitar and
Speaker 1: I taught myself to play with these guys that lived
Speaker 1: in my dorm. They were a bunch of them, are
Speaker 1: music majors that lived in an arts dorm. So I
Speaker 1: learned a bunch of stuff from them, and one thing
Speaker 1: led to another. I started singing in a band and
Speaker 1: started getting a little bit better at guitar, and I
Speaker 1: was an English major. I couldn't do much with the
Speaker 1: English major degree. So I was in a poetry class
Speaker 1: at the end of the term and I played a
Speaker 1: song and read the poem in class, and my poetry
Speaker 1: professor said, yeah, I would do that instead of becoming
Speaker 1: a poetry professor. So he gave me the green light
Speaker 1: to go try it out. You know, I said, had
Speaker 1: nothing to lose, So I just kind of went and
Speaker 1: I had some beginner's luck and just kept going and
Speaker 1: kind of snowballed into being what I've done for the
Speaker 1: last twenty years. Do you remember that teacher's name, doctor
Speaker 1: David Schloss. Yes, he was from Manhattan. He was a
Speaker 1: really funny guy. He used to read the Onion before
Speaker 1: class every day. It was a pretty laid back environment,
Speaker 1: but took the poetry serious. But we had a lot
Speaker 1: of fun with it.
Speaker 5: I feel like everybody in life has. Everybody has a
Speaker 5: moment in which someone sort of them into like what
Speaker 5: actually they really want to do? We hope, hope, hopefully
Speaker 5: everybody gets that opportunity. So here you are then sort
Speaker 5: of charting this path to music, and you're incorporating obviously Englishman,
Speaker 5: you're writing, and you're recording. How has the path been
Speaker 5: to sort of being a musician.
Speaker 1: Well, when I moved to Nashville, it was a very
Speaker 1: different town. It was much smaller, and there was not
Speaker 1: a lot of people doing like an alternative type of
Speaker 1: singer song writing stuff. There was a big Christian music
Speaker 1: industry and obviously a big country music industry, and so
Speaker 1: it felt a lot easier to get noticed. I don't
Speaker 1: know if it was just like right place, right time,
Speaker 1: but I moved down there without really having the idea
Speaker 1: what I was doing, and I kind of went full
Speaker 1: speed and within I was working downtown on Broadway selling
Speaker 1: trinkets at midnight to make six fifty an hour, and
Speaker 1: one day I got a call from a major record
Speaker 1: label in New York City, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: I'm like, whoa, I got it. I got the call,
Speaker 1: you know, I got the call. That was the big break,
Speaker 1: and I made a record. It came out in the
Speaker 1: US and Europe and Canada, and it was just like
Speaker 1: kind of beginner's luck type stuff. But all this crazy
Speaker 1: stuff kept happening right out of the gate, like I
Speaker 1: was opening up for John mellencamp Er. Then I was
Speaker 1: like the next night, I was meeting Willie Nelson and
Speaker 1: like Bruce Springsteen, and I was like, man, this this
Speaker 1: is crazy.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 1: It was just like you have this wild dream in
Speaker 1: your head that you dream up as a kid, and
Speaker 1: then all all of a sudden it starts coming true
Speaker 1: and you're like, well, I guess I was right, and
Speaker 1: this music business thing doesn't seem so hard when all
Speaker 1: that stuff's happened so fast. And then after that, you know,
Speaker 1: I put a record out and I realized like how
Speaker 1: hard it was. After that, it was like, definitely it
Speaker 1: turned into much more of a wow this is going
Speaker 1: to be like, hopefully if I'm lucky, like a twenty
Speaker 1: or thirty year slow work really hard career and try
Speaker 1: to climb one step at a time. And you know,
Speaker 1: and I've lived through the music business changing from like
Speaker 1: when record stores were open and people were buying physical
Speaker 1: CDs to going you know, from Napster to Apple downloads
Speaker 1: and then streaming, and just I've seen the whole music
Speaker 1: business change from like the time I started until now,
Speaker 1: and I think I've just been lucky enough to early
Speaker 1: on I kind of built a live following and that's
Speaker 1: kind of how I've maintained being a musician over the years,
Speaker 1: is just being willing to tour a lot and even
Speaker 1: get out there by myself, you know, driving myself to
Speaker 1: the shows, carrying my own gear, selling my own merch
Speaker 1: just kind of doing all that stuff. And I've played
Speaker 1: on the band on the road with a band for years.
Speaker 1: But now that I've been married fourteen years and you know,
Speaker 1: just just touring around by myself and playing a handful
Speaker 1: of shows and coming home so I can be with
Speaker 1: the family is like how I make it work. So
Speaker 1: I've just kind of found my own way, you know,
Speaker 1: just by trial and error and trying to figure out
Speaker 1: how to keep making music and keep playing for people.
Speaker 1: But I still love it so much. Feel was so
Speaker 1: lucky to be able to do it.
Speaker 3: Griff, you told a great story about how you kind
Speaker 3: of linked up with John Ashworth. It just you were
Speaker 3: at Approach Off you saw a cool shirt, you went
Speaker 3: to the website, You're like, wow, this kind of looks
Speaker 3: like the kind of stuff I would want to wear.
Speaker 3: And yeah, and then and then your manager you reached
Speaker 3: out to the company and John tell us from your perspective,
Speaker 3: like how how this guy entered your life and your
Speaker 3: world and what it's meant to you.
Speaker 7: Yeah, No, it was great. It was he reached he
Speaker 7: saw it, researched it, and then sent an email I think.
Speaker 7: And then anyways, Patrick Keegan, who was We were like,
Speaker 7: who's this Griffin House guy? He seems to really like
Speaker 7: link So I didn't really know who he was, and
Speaker 7: I don't think Jeff did either, and Patrick was like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 7: this guy's awesome, Like you got to see this guy.
Speaker 7: So that's kind of how we get started, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Then we went down to you guys without meeting me,
Speaker 1: invited me down to Mexico Town to Mexico.
Speaker 7: The magazine puta Mia Yeah it was great, had a
Speaker 7: blast and and then of course, you know, I listened,
Speaker 7: I heard his music and absolutely loved it. And then
Speaker 7: we went and teed it down there, and all of
Speaker 7: a sudden, I feel like I'm playing with Ben Hogan,
Speaker 7: you know what I mean. Like his swing is like beautiful,
Speaker 7: it's flawless. So he's got it all going on man,
Speaker 7: music and golf. I'd like to do a little yeah totally.
Speaker 3: So you have this new record coming out, and sit
Speaker 3: next to you at your right elbow is Jakir King,
Speaker 3: who helped bring it to life, like Jaquir tell us
Speaker 3: in your words, like what this this this album's about
Speaker 3: and why it's You've worked with a lot of big
Speaker 3: time musicians and you've you've been in the room where
Speaker 3: it happened for a lot of great music. But what
Speaker 3: is it about about Griffin that's kind of special?
Speaker 8: Well, Griffin lived in Nashville for how long twenty almost
Speaker 8: twenty years, and so I've been there for almost twenty
Speaker 8: three now, So we were around a lot, We shared
Speaker 8: a lot of common friends, and I was an admirer
Speaker 8: of his from a distance, and you know, we had
Speaker 8: the opportunity. Matt brought Griffin to an event last year.
Speaker 6: Three of us were at and we started a kind
Speaker 6: of a you know, it was really wonderful to meet
Speaker 6: Griffin and I would kind of talk to each other about,
Speaker 6: you know, our awareness of one another, and and Matt
Speaker 6: you know, suggested, you know that I could be really
Speaker 6: cool if we recorded some music together, and you know,
Speaker 6: we started talking about it, and we just kind of
Speaker 6: took the bull by the horns and in the spring,
Speaker 6: you know, because Griffin also shared with me at that
Speaker 6: time that he was he'd been inspired to get into
Speaker 6: writing some more kind of comes in seasons. You know,
Speaker 6: he was feeling inspired, and I was like, well, you know,
Speaker 6: let's just talk about let's talk about making some music together,
Speaker 6: because it's I've been an admirer of yours.
Speaker 9: And so he sent me some songs and you know,
Speaker 9: some beautiful songs. Griffins is a very talented songwriter, and yeah,
Speaker 9: we just we kind of made some plans from there
Speaker 9: and partnered and made a very beautiful EP.
Speaker 6: It's called The Tides five five songs. Yeah, I think
Speaker 6: I'd like gripping, I'd like you just kind of tell
Speaker 6: tell us a little bit about, you know what, where
Speaker 6: some of the inspiration comes from.
Speaker 1: For lack of a better I mean, I call him like,
Speaker 1: I don't know if they're like synchronicity or you just
Speaker 1: like follow your gut or like my wife would call
Speaker 1: him God moments or something. But I think when when
Speaker 1: we all met, and you know, Matt and John came
Speaker 1: to my show in San Diego and you liked the
Speaker 1: song try not to think that you that you put
Speaker 1: on the podcast, and there was just like a there
Speaker 1: was a vibe and energy happening, and we got just
Speaker 1: talking about making making some music and working together in
Speaker 1: some capacity. And it's kind of weird how like golf
Speaker 1: in some weird way brought us together to create this, uh,
Speaker 1: this creative moment. And as we kept talking, I just
Speaker 1: got inspired to like, wow, we're gonna do something. I
Speaker 1: better start writing some songs. And so I had the
Speaker 1: inspiration to just sit down. And you know, I'm not
Speaker 1: always doing that because I'm like busy with life and
Speaker 1: family and everything else. So sometimes it takes a little
Speaker 1: kick in the pants to get going a little bit.
Speaker 1: But uh, yeah, the the muse came in the room
Speaker 1: and started talking to me, and I just said, okay,
Speaker 1: I better listen, and I just tried to start writing
Speaker 1: some stuff. And before I knew it, I had, you know,
Speaker 1: a handful of songs and felt felt lucky. I didn't
Speaker 1: know if they were any good, but I sent them
Speaker 1: for you, and I was like, well, let's if you
Speaker 1: like these, let's let's record some stuff. And so yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just cool. How meeting, uh, meeting new people that
Speaker 1: are on on like paths and or whose pass are
Speaker 1: crossing for whatever mysterious reason, we don't know, but it
Speaker 1: felt felt right in my gut and it all happened
Speaker 1: really naturally, and that's kind how I don't know. That's
Speaker 1: how I entered through the world and through the through
Speaker 1: the music business and life in general, just kind of
Speaker 1: following my got and doing what feels right and just
Speaker 1: felt right.
Speaker 5: So it's it's been an amazing journey. You were doing
Speaker 5: some meandering out there and the lido today. I was
Speaker 5: watching your step it out out there. Man. You you
Speaker 5: you're your your chat, your chart and your ball you.
Speaker 6: Step over the ball boom.
Speaker 5: You were hitting some shots.
Speaker 7: No, dude, I played with them. I played with them.
Speaker 7: I saw all day it.
Speaker 5: Was I'm just going to look towards the pin and yeah,
Speaker 5: every time the ball was nuts, really fun fun before
Speaker 5: before I mean, it's it's this whole thing, you know,
Speaker 5: in terms of called link so your care maybe Griffin golf.
Speaker 5: Here we are Uncle Tony, you know.
Speaker 4: Linking souls.
Speaker 1: We're around golf in Sand.
Speaker 5: Valley and playing music. But so all of that is amazing,
Speaker 5: and that is golf.
Speaker 4: That is what this is.
Speaker 5: This is the and Uncle Tony, by the way, who
Speaker 5: was the ultimate link soldier, Like Uncle Tony was the
Speaker 5: real He was the one who basically taught me in life,
Speaker 5: it's about relationships.
Speaker 6: It's about the people.
Speaker 5: You know who or who you hang around with, and
Speaker 5: getting good people together at a place like this to
Speaker 5: have a sort of camaraderie building is what it's all about.
Speaker 5: In terms of your album and a song, like, would
Speaker 5: you want to talk us through sort of the writing
Speaker 5: of a song and play a song for us, give
Speaker 5: us a little background.
Speaker 1: I had no agenda with what I wanted to write about.
Speaker 1: I was just like, can give me some songs here?
Speaker 1: And need some songs?
Speaker 5: So is it a word like when you say that
Speaker 5: that I mean I can kind of you know, I
Speaker 5: get what you're saying, But is it Is it a word?
Speaker 5: Is it a moment? Is it a is it a movie?
Speaker 5: Is it something you see? Is it like where? What
Speaker 5: does fall out of the sky.
Speaker 1: I was in Seattle one day and I was walking
Speaker 1: down on the streets of this neighborhood that I really love.
Speaker 1: It's the Scandinavian fishing village just north of Seattle called
Speaker 1: Ballard and I like to stay there and I play
Speaker 1: across the street at this place called the Tractor Tavern,
Speaker 1: and I just stay in town. I kind of like
Speaker 1: lived there for a few days and just soak up
Speaker 1: the energy. But there was all these locks and waterways
Speaker 1: and boats, and it just feels really this little mystical place.
Speaker 1: It's enchanting. And they had like a farmer's market going
Speaker 1: on or something, and I was like walking around town,
Speaker 1: just people watching, and all of a sudden, I just
Speaker 1: started like this old familiar sea shanty melody that been
Speaker 1: recycled a few times and it's definitely out there, but
Speaker 1: it was going through my mind. I just started going like,
Speaker 1: Ballard Town, Oh, Ballard Town. There's no place like it
Speaker 1: anywhere I found. And I just kept doing that and
Speaker 1: I had that in my back pocket and I went
Speaker 1: home and then I just wrote this huge verse for
Speaker 1: that and that was kind of the beginning of a song.
Speaker 1: And then then I just couldn't put down my guitar
Speaker 1: for like a month. I just kept trying to see
Speaker 1: what was going to happen next, and I wrote. I
Speaker 1: wrote four or five or six songs, maybe more than that,
Speaker 1: but we we picked like the five strongest ones and
Speaker 1: went after those and the song we kind of picked
Speaker 1: for the for the song to focus on, and the
Speaker 1: single of the album is a song called Lifeline. It's
Speaker 1: just sort of about finding a finding a friend and
Speaker 1: and some support and kind of a hard you know,
Speaker 1: hard time and help kind of people can pull you
Speaker 1: through hard spots. So we picked that song too to
Speaker 1: be the single. So yeah, I could play that one,
Speaker 1: I know, play it here on gitalp.
Speaker 6: Yes please.
Speaker 10: I was dying like the autumn leaves. I was burning out,
Speaker 10: I was on my knees, I'd given.
Speaker 11: Up, I was almost done.
Speaker 10: I was fitting fast as the setting sun.
Speaker 12: And then you.
Speaker 10: Came out of no where, and I'm.
Speaker 11: Safe whenever you are there.
Speaker 10: I used to get so dark, and now I feel
Speaker 10: so light. Suddenly the whole world looks bright. I used
Speaker 10: to really wanna leave this place, but I haven't been
Speaker 10: the same since I found your face. You're my life flying,
Speaker 10: You're my life line.
Speaker 11: You're my life line.
Speaker 10: You're my life line.
Speaker 12: I used to worry all the time.
Speaker 11: Now I don't.
Speaker 10: Care a dream sweet dreams, because I know you're here.
Speaker 10: I used to get so mad, I used to get
Speaker 10: so blue. I used to not know how.
Speaker 11: To make it through.
Speaker 12: And then you.
Speaker 10: Came out of know where, and I'm.
Speaker 11: Safe whenever you are there.
Speaker 10: You're my life flying. You're my life Lie. You're my
Speaker 10: life line. You're my life Lie.
Speaker 11: I was sick of being tired. I was tired of
Speaker 11: being sick.
Speaker 10: I had a wall around me ten feet thick.
Speaker 11: Nothing was working, nothing ever helped, And then.
Speaker 10: You saw me in a way I couldn't see myself. Fam.
Speaker 10: It feels good to be happy again. It feels good
Speaker 10: to finally find a friend. You're my life Li. You're
Speaker 10: my life Lie. You're my life Li, you, my lifely you,
Speaker 10: my lifely.
Speaker 12: You, my lifely.
Speaker 11: You, my life fly, you, my life fly.
Speaker 5: That's amazing, I mean, and again the writing is the
Speaker 5: to me like you, like you know the idea when
Speaker 5: you described as it falls out of the sky, and
Speaker 5: then you must flush all that out and create that narrative.
Speaker 4: It is just it is just amazing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it goes through like many iterations. I mean, I
Speaker 1: must have written seven or eight or ten different versions
Speaker 1: of that song with all different lyrics. And then I
Speaker 1: remember one night I was in a hotel room. I
Speaker 1: normally stayed with my friend in Austin, but he had
Speaker 1: moved into another house and he didn't have room for me.
Speaker 1: He was like in a condo this time or something.
Speaker 1: He sold his big, nice house down in Congress, and
Speaker 1: so I wasn't able to stay with him, and I
Speaker 1: ended up in this hotel room for the first time.
Speaker 1: And it was right around when I couldn't put my
Speaker 1: guitar down. And then that night, like all those words
Speaker 1: just came to me, and I stayed up several hours
Speaker 1: and wrote them all down. And then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: I had this song called Lifeline, and I'd been strumming
Speaker 1: on those chords for weeks, you know, and then all
Speaker 1: of a sudden it just appeared.
Speaker 7: The music fit right into the chords kind of yeah, yeah,
Speaker 7: that's beautiful.
Speaker 3: I mean, you're not give yourself enough credit, Griff, Like,
Speaker 3: I know how much craft goes into into writing, like
Speaker 3: the inspiration comes to unexpected times, but clearly there's there's
Speaker 3: a lot of labor.
Speaker 4: There's a lot of toil to bring that song to life.
Speaker 3: I mean, what's the longs you've ever worked on a
Speaker 3: song and had it it like haunt you almost until
Speaker 3: you got it right.
Speaker 1: I don't know how long I've like worked on a
Speaker 1: specific thing, but I know that sometimes you'll have like
Speaker 1: a little you know, like the little guitar part for
Speaker 1: the guy that says goodbye to you is out of
Speaker 1: his mind was something that I remember playing in college
Speaker 1: at some point, and then the words didn't come till
Speaker 1: like five years later. So I knew I had this
Speaker 1: part that was kind of cool, but I had never
Speaker 1: put anything to it. And then one afternoon, just like
Speaker 1: the whole kind of poem came to me. And I
Speaker 1: don't know how that happens, but whether it's like here
Speaker 1: and something else that inspires you, or you just get
Speaker 1: a little click in your mind that tells you what
Speaker 1: you want to write about, or you're just ready. But
Speaker 1: I think all the practice that you do of like
Speaker 1: doing it wrong a million times is like prepares you
Speaker 1: for the moment when like it walks in the room
Speaker 1: and you just have to catch it. You know. It's
Speaker 1: like it's just sort of a moment, where like Charles
Speaker 1: Bukowski said that all writing is basically just like waiting.
Speaker 1: You wait and wait and wait until the like fly
Speaker 1: lands on the wall, and then you smack the shit
Speaker 1: out of the fly. And that's basically like how he
Speaker 1: described poetry. And I kind of find that too. It
Speaker 1: just and I didn't like calling it a craft or
Speaker 1: work or anything, because I just wanted it to be
Speaker 1: more magical and mysterious than that, because all the great
Speaker 1: songs that I've ever loved just feel like they've you know,
Speaker 1: either existed forever, but they just come from this place
Speaker 1: that's so otherworldly, you know, like how can this exist?
Speaker 1: How did somebody create this? You know? And it's good
Speaker 1: when they can feel like that.
Speaker 4: That's cool.
Speaker 3: One of the things that's I love about this tournament.
Speaker 3: When I'm at home, the guys I played with don't
Speaker 3: really listen to music on the golf course, and so yeah,
Speaker 3: but then you come here and we have different pairings
Speaker 3: every day and every single group. There's always music playing
Speaker 3: on the speakers, and depending who you're paired with, it
Speaker 3: might be hip hop, it might be seventies rock, it
Speaker 3: might be more modern stuff. I'm just wondering for all
Speaker 3: you guys like that connection between golf and music. It's
Speaker 3: pretty profound for a lot of folks. How like for
Speaker 3: you actually, how.
Speaker 7: Today we didn't have music, did we?
Speaker 4: We didn't have music.
Speaker 1: We did have music, we.
Speaker 4: Didn't have music.
Speaker 7: We're full nature trotting.
Speaker 1: Yeah it was good.
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, it was fine.
Speaker 7: I love it both, you know, either way music or none. Yeah,
Speaker 7: nobody was carrying today, so it was great though it
Speaker 7: was it was a little bit of a zend out
Speaker 7: course anyway, you know. I mean it's full that thing.
Speaker 7: Lito was just a piece of artwork, right Yeah, I
Speaker 7: mean that's an amazing spot to be able to. Tom
Speaker 7: doak Man should take a bow on that one. Don't
Speaker 7: you think it's pretty?
Speaker 4: It's otherworldly? It's just it doesn't I.
Speaker 7: Just I just feel like if you could how you
Speaker 7: could do that to bring a course that was set
Speaker 7: famous back in another spot and get it, you know,
Speaker 7: within the inch, it's just crazy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, Griff, a lot of musicians love golf.
Speaker 3: What is that connection that you guys have?
Speaker 1: And it used to be so uncool to admit, Like
Speaker 1: if I if you knew of a musician that played golf,
Speaker 1: he didn't want anybody to know about it, you know.
Speaker 1: And I've played a couple of rounds with Todd Snyder
Speaker 1: and Easter Nashville, and he, like I swear, he told
Speaker 1: me not to tell anybody he was playing. I thought
Speaker 1: it's going to ruin his street cred or something. But
Speaker 1: now it's just become you know, I think it's as
Speaker 1: golf's gotten more popular and there's it's changed over the years,
Speaker 1: and it's been seen in a lot different different through
Speaker 1: different lens. You know. Even for myself, it was like
Speaker 1: I wanted to put that old person behind me and
Speaker 1: like become something completely different. You know. I was almost
Speaker 1: like I don't want anything to do with that world anymore.
Speaker 1: And now it's really interesting how for myself personally it's
Speaker 1: become really integrated, and I think it's been you know,
Speaker 1: for the world in general too, it's been really integrated.
Speaker 1: I think in this weekend feels like that where there's
Speaker 1: a lot of it's like a different style of golf,
Speaker 1: and you know, like guys are walking around with basketball
Speaker 1: socks on and like super cool outfits. There's music playing
Speaker 1: on the course, and it's really different. But yeah, it's
Speaker 1: nice to see some of the like some of the
Speaker 1: cliches about golf go away and have it become, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of a deeper, moral, inclusive sport.
Speaker 5: What were your thoughts on the lead.
Speaker 1: Though, I thought it was really hard. I could tell
Speaker 1: from the first hole. I mean, I knew that those
Speaker 1: greens weren't gonna hold, and I was like, how but
Speaker 1: how much aren't they gonna hold? Like if I you know,
Speaker 1: if I don't but I don't play a little bit
Speaker 1: close to the hole, I'm gonna have a fifty foot putt.
Speaker 1: And then sure enough, on the first hole, I had
Speaker 1: a fifty foot putt and I'm just like, oh man,
Speaker 1: if I'm gonna have to get these down in two
Speaker 1: all day, it's gonna be a long day, you know.
Speaker 1: But it was kind of like that, and every time,
Speaker 1: like I hit one on the second hole and it
Speaker 1: was a pretty good shot and I'm like growning when
Speaker 1: it's in the air because I know it's gonna be
Speaker 1: a thirty foot putt. And John's like, what's wrong with
Speaker 1: that one? It's like, I don't want to put.
Speaker 4: The thirty foot putt.
Speaker 1: I want like a fifteen foot butt, you know, because
Speaker 1: I just I hate three puttons so and then when
Speaker 1: they're on greens that hard. It's just like trying to
Speaker 1: get a feel for the course. But it was certainly
Speaker 1: unusual in the in the sense that like no trees,
Speaker 1: hard to know where to aim, probably a good thing.
Speaker 1: We had a couple of caddies out there. But it
Speaker 1: was really spectacular.
Speaker 5: It is really a stroll through a museum. It's it's
Speaker 5: very much a it's very much a feels like there's
Speaker 5: something much different going on than anything or anywhere else
Speaker 5: you see. I think National Golf Links is the closest
Speaker 5: thing that I can compare to. But it just is
Speaker 5: so much more pronounced, you know, you know, yeah, the walls,
Speaker 5: urn of walls and bunkers. I said earlier in our
Speaker 5: person thing, it's no wonder why golf took so long
Speaker 5: to catch on because if they were playing that that
Speaker 5: golf course back in the day.
Speaker 7: But what was the original When was I should know this?
Speaker 7: When was the original one designed and built and everything?
Speaker 5: When did they think it was in the teens.
Speaker 7: Yeah, nineteen yeah, yeah, yeah, no, So I mean, yeah,
Speaker 7: how did people hear keep playing? They published played it once.
Speaker 1: And said what the Yeah, it's like Rob Williams retis
Speaker 1: designed to torture people.
Speaker 7: Oh my god, that was a torture chamber.
Speaker 5: You have to be so precise tea, and then from
Speaker 5: the Fairway and around the greens.
Speaker 7: And you don't know and you don't know what's lurking
Speaker 7: out there, you have no idea. It is a beast.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 7: The greens were just insane too, right, I mean there
Speaker 7: was I went, I walked up on severals, going I
Speaker 7: could fit nine of Goat Hill parks on his green, easy, easy,
Speaker 7: nine on one green.
Speaker 1: Eighteen.
Speaker 4: That's the one.
Speaker 7: I was like, Oh, got approach out to eighteen.
Speaker 5: I was like, what is happening to me right now?
Speaker 5: I mean there were dance teeth yet the one I
Speaker 5: mean I was curious about Chakire. First of all, what
Speaker 5: do you think about the lido? And then I also
Speaker 5: wanted to get your take on sort of Griffin and
Speaker 5: his writing and how you know what listening to him
Speaker 5: about that writing sort of ring you know, sparks to
Speaker 5: you about in terms of all the artists you work with,
Speaker 5: and they must all be different.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, well just at the lido. It's just
Speaker 6: to get that out of the way. It's spectacular course,
Speaker 6: very hard. I didn't have I didn't have a great
Speaker 6: day out there, but it's uh, it was really special.
Speaker 7: He did hit probably the best shot in the Part
Speaker 7: three number whatever.
Speaker 4: That was six together today.
Speaker 7: Yeah, you know, he had a rough day, but he held
Speaker 7: it together and he played great at the end, and
Speaker 7: he he had an amazing shot on that Part three
Speaker 7: that that kind of wraps down to the pen was
Speaker 7: way in the back left. Yeah, sixteen he had till
Speaker 7: like twelve feet. Unbelievable, Yeah, unbelievable. So anyway, there was
Speaker 7: one that was good.
Speaker 6: You know, it's it's super cool. It's honestly, I was
Speaker 6: a little disoriented out there, yeah, just because there's nothing,
Speaker 6: you know, there's no trees on the course. But it's spectacular.
Speaker 6: There's a lot of blind shots. It's it's it's really cool.
Speaker 6: You have to be accurate.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 6: It was fun.
Speaker 5: Disoriented is a great.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it was very disoriented totally.
Speaker 5: That sums up my day.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Vertigo, total vertigo.
Speaker 7: You're looking around.
Speaker 4: Yeah, where am I going?
Speaker 5: Yeah, get dizzy.
Speaker 1: I mean I haven't been overseas to play. But it
Speaker 1: was just like, okay, this is Lynx golf. Like you're
Speaker 1: not flopping any shots out here, Like you've got to
Speaker 1: be really creative with how you're chipping, even chipping into
Speaker 1: the greens. And I was thinking about the kind of
Speaker 1: the lynxoul connection because my dad was had read this book,
Speaker 1: uh called Golf in the Kingdom that he was really into,
Speaker 1: and he gave it to me to read, and I
Speaker 1: must have been fourteen or fifteen, and you know, it's
Speaker 1: just mystical, magical tale takes place in Scotland, and there's
Speaker 1: a character in there that is like Peter Beams, like
Speaker 1: shit as Irons. He's like this guy. It's just like
Speaker 1: this artist, but this really spiritual being that's also some
Speaker 1: tuned into golf in a really weird like fifth dimensional
Speaker 1: way somehow. And and you know, I had found out
Speaker 1: that John knew the book really well too, and that
Speaker 1: the name had come from Link Soul had come from
Speaker 1: the book, and so we had that you know, that
Speaker 1: link Soul connection through doing that reading. And then Alan
Speaker 1: and I talked about that too. I guess you're friends
Speaker 1: with Michael Murphy, right, And we talked about Esslyn and
Speaker 1: Big Sir and all that stuff because love that area.
Speaker 1: But I thought like we had to mention that because
Speaker 1: that was definitely a cool connection that we discovered that
Speaker 1: felt like it came alive a little bit today out
Speaker 1: there from me at least.
Speaker 4: Know that the way all these things come.
Speaker 3: Full circle is really unique. And that's what makes this
Speaker 3: this game and this sport so great is just the
Speaker 3: lifelong friendships and the connections.
Speaker 4: And it's, uh, you know, I.
Speaker 3: Play a lot of pick of basketball. I play a
Speaker 3: lot of tennis, but you don't have the community like
Speaker 3: you do here.
Speaker 7: It's just no doubt golf and golf in the Kingdom. Honestly,
Speaker 7: for those people that have never heard of it and
Speaker 7: haven't read it, you should go read it.
Speaker 1: It is.
Speaker 7: It's definitely a benchmark, and you know, sort of like
Speaker 7: learning the esoteric side of the game, you know a
Speaker 7: little bit.
Speaker 3: It's probably the best podcast I've ever done at the
Speaker 3: Five Pick Collectives. When we did need a fourth of
Speaker 3: Michael Murphy and Bamberger and Jeff Ogilvie, like we went,
Speaker 3: we went way down the rabbit hole on that. But
Speaker 3: I feel like we should play another song here. It's
Speaker 3: that time in this podcast you mentioned you mentioned Ballard Town.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, that one we'd like to.
Speaker 1: I could play that one. I could play an upbeat one.
Speaker 1: I could play.
Speaker 4: Well, it's dealer's choice. Whatever you want to play.
Speaker 1: We want to like that.
Speaker 10: Well. I made my way to the great Northwest, to
Speaker 10: the sleepy little town that I love the best. I
Speaker 10: rode the ferry in the salty breeze as the fog came,
Speaker 10: rolling through the dug fir trees, beheld the water on
Speaker 10: the Puget Sound.
Speaker 11: Once upon a time in Ballard.
Speaker 10: Town, Ballard Town, Old Ballard Town.
Speaker 11: There's no place like it anywhere.
Speaker 1: I found.
Speaker 10: Six miles north of King Street Station, if you ride
Speaker 10: those rails into Washington.
Speaker 11: On the Salmon Bay in the misty rain, I took
Speaker 11: a stroll down the old brick lane as the autumn leaves.
Speaker 10: Gathered on the ground. Once upon a time in bathered Town.
Speaker 10: Ball down, Old Bathered Town. There's no place like it
Speaker 10: anywhere I found. She whispers to me as the full
Speaker 10: moon glows in the early morning hours, when the foghorn blows.
Speaker 10: She keeps a secret in the pink blue sky, where
Speaker 10: the sidewalks glitter and the seahawks fly above the harbor
Speaker 10: as the sun goes down. Once upon a time in
Speaker 10: Ballard Town, Ballard Town, Old Ballard Town. There's no place
Speaker 10: like it anywhere I found in the bars and the taverns,
Speaker 10: in the old hotel on a warm October.
Speaker 1: I remember well.
Speaker 10: I passed the docks, past the fissure men, in the
Speaker 10: garden bytto locks where the ships.
Speaker 11: Come in, where I dream my dream man.
Speaker 10: I drank my fill and I wrote my story while
Speaker 10: the time stood still, as the shadows fell and my
Speaker 10: sorrows drown. Once upon a time in Ballard Town, Ballard Down, Oh,
Speaker 10: Ballad Down.
Speaker 1: There's no place like.
Speaker 11: It anywhere I found. Balled Down, No Ballad Time. There's
Speaker 11: no place like it anywhere I found.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just need to know the story behind the song.
Speaker 3: One thing we were talking about Griffin was the joys
Speaker 3: of being a traveling musician is you get to play
Speaker 3: a lot of golf on the road, and so you
Speaker 3: have probably to support the CP and probably just because
Speaker 3: you do it all the time, you've got a lot
Speaker 3: of shows coming up. Can you give the listeners an
Speaker 3: idea of that the sweep of your travels here in.
Speaker 11: The Oh, yeah, I'm coming. What am I doing next?
Speaker 1: So right after this, I'm on my way to the
Speaker 1: Sisters Folk Festival, which I've never done before. So I'm
Speaker 1: gonna teach some songwriting workshops with some other artists for
Speaker 1: the first three days and then play three days during
Speaker 1: the concert festival, and then where's that that is in Sisters,
Speaker 1: Oregon outside of Bend. Cool, And then I'm going to
Speaker 1: Seattle to play a show at the Triple Door. And
Speaker 1: then I'm coming back for a little while. I know.
Speaker 1: I have some shows in Atlanta, Texas, Florida, and then
Speaker 1: I do a little Midwest run Gosh, Lsu Illinois, Madison, Wisconsin, Evanston, Illinois,
Speaker 1: Saint Louis, Pittsburgh. I think I'm missing a bunch, but
Speaker 1: I've got like twenty five shows left this year, so
Speaker 1: I'm going to be really busy. And my daughter called
Speaker 1: me today and she's like, Daddy, I miss you so much.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I got another week and a half before
Speaker 1: I'm home. He got used to me being home this summer,
Speaker 1: you know, So talk to her today after the round
Speaker 1: and yeah, it's hard, man, it's hard. Being away from them.
Speaker 1: But when I'm home, I'm home. I get a lot
Speaker 1: of quality time with them when i'm back. So I'm
Speaker 1: only on the road like sixty seventy days a year,
Speaker 1: probably maybe a few more.
Speaker 3: But on the link to this podcast on the Firepit website,
Speaker 3: we'll have a link to your your schedule too.
Speaker 1: Oh it'd be great.
Speaker 3: Yeah, what's your best tale from from your life is
Speaker 3: on the road golf wise?
Speaker 4: If you sneaked on any remberl.
Speaker 3: Courses, or did you play with Willie Nelson in his
Speaker 3: backyard orthing like that.
Speaker 1: I played with Alice Cooper in Scottsdale, and he was
Speaker 1: so nice. I had to tell everybody. I'm like, don't worry,
Speaker 1: I won't tell everybody.
Speaker 4: What a nice guy you are.
Speaker 1: You ruin your reputation. I couldn't wait to say hit
Speaker 1: the ball, Alice, which I think I had to at
Speaker 1: least get that in there once. But he loves golf.
Speaker 1: He's a good player, the nicest man, really really nice guy.
Speaker 1: But trying to think I mean a couple of the
Speaker 1: great you know. I always love being in San Diego
Speaker 1: because I can stop by it and see these guys
Speaker 1: in ocean side, so I love when that gets to happen.
Speaker 1: But I've been out like fortunate enough to be in
Speaker 1: the Carmel area a few times when I've already been
Speaker 1: out there and I could justify the price stag on
Speaker 1: Pebble Beach because I'm already there. And so I went there.
Speaker 1: I remember for the first time, oh gosh, I don't know,
Speaker 1: seven eight years ago, and just had such a blast.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's golf heaven. It was just so beautiful
Speaker 1: driving up around there by Cyprus Point, the whole areas, like,
Speaker 1: oh man, I never want to leave, so getting to
Speaker 1: be out there. I opened for Jewel one time and
Speaker 1: played again there at Pebble Beach. I was already out there,
Speaker 1: So yeah, those moments, but there's there's it's of great,
Speaker 1: great moments on the road. I mean I played thousands
Speaker 1: of shows, so it's hard to pick out it just
Speaker 1: a couple, but certainly great when I can go take
Speaker 1: my sticks with me too and do that during the
Speaker 1: day and play a show after love.
Speaker 3: Well, next time you come out to Pebble we're going
Speaker 3: to work on your golf ight ten.
Speaker 4: There you have a few more to check off the wish. Absolutely,
Speaker 4: I'll be delighted to help be amazing.
Speaker 5: Just going back to Jakir just for a second and
Speaker 5: going back on the writing it, back on the album
Speaker 5: and sort of the role you played. I mean, I've
Speaker 5: only we peered in on sort of you working with
Speaker 5: Joe Horowitz on working on a song and making songs.
Speaker 5: So when when Griffin comes to you and he has
Speaker 5: these songs and he's done what he needed to do
Speaker 5: to get you know, something prepared for presentation, So then
Speaker 5: what what kicked in there? What what do you do
Speaker 5: from that point to really sort of get it where
Speaker 5: it is now?
Speaker 6: Sure? Well, because I didn't answer this, yeah question a
Speaker 6: little bit earlier about his songwriting, I just would say
Speaker 6: that ballad Town, it's like it's the tone and the
Speaker 6: feel and the words it takes you somewhere. I mean,
Speaker 6: I was like, I'm I'm into ballad Town. I've never
Speaker 6: seen it, but I kind of feel like I know
Speaker 6: what it's like to walk the streets. And Yeah, So
Speaker 6: that just that the gift he has for painting that
Speaker 6: picture is extraordinary. It really moves me. I feel something
Speaker 6: from it, you know, the process, the processes. Yeah, well,
Speaker 6: you know, we talk, we get to know each other
Speaker 6: a little bit more kind of find you know, I
Speaker 6: want to know about the person a little bit and
Speaker 6: I want to share who I am because it's like
Speaker 6: a kind of a it's an intense thing to make
Speaker 6: a record, you know, It's like, you know, it's it's
Speaker 6: an ambitious effort. It's kind of like pulling something out
Speaker 6: of the air. It's kind of like, you know, it's
Speaker 6: like the second phase of discos, like discovering something and
Speaker 6: having something kind of brought out of the air of
Speaker 6: the universe. It's so you know, you kind of want
Speaker 6: to at least I like to spend some time getting
Speaker 6: to know the person. And because it also sets up
Speaker 6: the communication to talk about things that are hard to
Speaker 6: talk about, you know, just in terms of like creative
Speaker 6: creativity and interpreting and painting a sonic picture that supports
Speaker 6: that story and that that feels that doesn't doesn't take
Speaker 6: you off the narrative completely. It fills it out and
Speaker 6: gives it some support.
Speaker 5: And so that is the act of productive that's the
Speaker 5: producing of it all.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's I mean, there's definitely that's a I mean,
Speaker 6: there's a lot of ways to do it, but you know,
Speaker 6: for me, that's it's important because you know, there's you know,
Speaker 6: like a lot of times and even even if it
Speaker 6: takes five years in the case of Lifeline, I mean,
Speaker 6: it starts with the seed of an idea. You know,
Speaker 6: there's a moment of inspiration if it's just you know,
Speaker 6: playing some chords or walking in valid town and just
Speaker 6: singing that that you know that phrase.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 6: But so that's that's my goal is always to find
Speaker 6: that truth, you know.
Speaker 1: And we had a false start with the first song.
Speaker 1: We were gonna do the easy one, which we thought
Speaker 1: was Lifeline because it was the most together song, and
Speaker 1: we started playing it and just wasn't working at all.
Speaker 1: It wasn't vibing. And so like part of what Jakiir
Speaker 1: and I have to be able to do together, which
Speaker 1: requires skill, is like, okay, how do we It's like
Speaker 1: you're kind of we're heading down a bad road here,
Speaker 1: like we need this is the first song and this
Speaker 1: is not working, and you start thinking you're a tempted
Speaker 1: to think like, oh ship, is the whole session gonna
Speaker 1: go like this, Like is it gonna We're gonna turn
Speaker 1: this around? And so we have you have to be
Speaker 1: creative about I thought you could explain that you.
Speaker 6: Have to you have to be got off to a
Speaker 6: little bit of a rough Yeah.
Speaker 7: That's uncommon.
Speaker 6: I mean, that's not uncommon.
Speaker 1: It's like first t jitters, like.
Speaker 5: We doubled our first.
Speaker 6: We were back the Yeah, but you have to be there,
Speaker 6: you have to have a conversation. You have to be
Speaker 6: honest and just kind of like you know, you have
Speaker 6: to address it and kind of try to redirect it
Speaker 6: and you know, just kind of just be honest. That's
Speaker 6: the that's the thing that's the important part of building
Speaker 6: relationship is because he hadn't need so much honesty and transparency,
Speaker 6: you know, because not all I mean it's just like
Speaker 6: these are Griffin's like his songs. You know, that's like
Speaker 6: this is like this amazing thing that he pulls together.
Speaker 6: You know, so you have to yeah, communication and being
Speaker 6: honest and finding the truth. Really we talked about you know,
Speaker 6: Griffin started sending me songs and I would listen and
Speaker 6: you know, I'd have some most of a lot of
Speaker 6: it was just very encouraging because he's he's an excellent
Speaker 6: song crafter, you know. And then in terms of like
Speaker 6: the record making perspective, i'd you know, maybe say a
Speaker 6: few things about like the structure or I think we
Speaker 6: might have dropped a verse from a song or something
Speaker 6: like that.
Speaker 1: Well you put it, You put a great band together,
Speaker 1: and then you you also spent so much time, you know,
Speaker 1: trying different mics and taking so much care and getting
Speaker 1: the right sounds.
Speaker 6: You know, yeah, well yeah, I mean you know it's like,
Speaker 6: you know, you pick the songs and it's like, okay,
Speaker 6: what musicians are gonna what you know, what professional musicians
Speaker 6: can I bring together that are going to come in
Speaker 6: the room and immediately switch, you know, switch into being
Speaker 6: a band member. Like they're going to show up and
Speaker 6: they're going to be invested.
Speaker 4: They're not just add value.
Speaker 6: Because you know, it's just like they have to you know,
Speaker 6: they have to be creative on the fly in a
Speaker 6: way and and sort of respond and react to you know.
Speaker 6: You know, it's like you said, we send them the
Speaker 6: songs before, but then there's a difference being in the
Speaker 6: room and playing with Griffin. You know, it's just like
Speaker 6: so assembled we were, they were five in the studio,
Speaker 6: you know, playing live together, and we spend a little
Speaker 6: bit of time and we listen back to the demo,
Speaker 6: we talk about what everybody's feeling. They go out in
Speaker 6: the room and they play a little bit. I'm working
Speaker 6: on the sound, you know. It's just like trying to
Speaker 6: get you know, where everybody's sitting and how all those
Speaker 6: things kind of work. And you know, there's a dialogue
Speaker 6: back and forth about the nuances of maybe the way
Speaker 6: the drums are working with the vocal. It's like, you know,
Speaker 6: because Griffin's used to playing on his own a lot,
Speaker 6: you know which, Right, so there's a lot of rhythm yeah,
Speaker 6: and stuff that he implies or he's playing that's implied
Speaker 6: that has to be honored, some of it stripped away,
Speaker 6: you know, you kind of have to like, Okay, well
Speaker 6: we need that. But you know the drums need to
Speaker 6: do that, you know. So it's just like so he's
Speaker 6: got to he's got to adjust to something that he's
Speaker 6: become familiar with.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I was going to ask Griffin, how is that
Speaker 7: for you to play with a band instead of yourself,
Speaker 7: because it's totally different, right, I mean.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean you dig it or I love any
Speaker 1: chance I get to play with the band, and I
Speaker 1: don't get to do it very often. But it's, uh,
Speaker 1: it's also like kind of what has shaped the live
Speaker 1: performances that I do because it's almost forced me to
Speaker 1: talk more and tell more stories. So I've ended up
Speaker 1: people tend to. The feedback I get a lot is like, oh,
Speaker 1: I like when you tell stories, you're a good storyteller.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm just trying to, like, you know, make
Speaker 1: something up, you know, just to try to make a
Speaker 1: connection and talk to you guys, and you know. But
Speaker 1: playing with a band is it's so exciting in the
Speaker 1: studio actually, I mean I felt so fulfilled every night
Speaker 1: when I went home, and it felt really magical when
Speaker 1: it all came together. And it's always really exciting to
Speaker 1: be able to be in the studio, and I wish
Speaker 1: I could do it all the time because there's so
Speaker 1: much collective energy when you have five, six, seven people
Speaker 1: in the room all working on the same thing and
Speaker 1: you hear it back through the monitors in the control
Speaker 1: room and it just sounds like it's come to life,
Speaker 1: you know, and that's a beautiful feeling. So I remember
Speaker 1: being really really happy that week, and I often don't
Speaker 1: feel like, oh man, I mean I forget that I
Speaker 1: even do that sometimes with how busy life can be,
Speaker 1: you know, and then it's almost like, oh no, like
Speaker 1: this is what you're supposed to be doing. Like it's
Speaker 1: kind of like gives you a nice confirmation of of
Speaker 1: doing you know, that you're on the right track or something.
Speaker 1: But it was it was great playing with that band.
Speaker 1: They were a great band.
Speaker 6: On drums. Logan Todd played drums, Eli Beard played bass,
Speaker 6: Drew Smithers on guitar, electric guitar, and then Elliott Blaufis's
Speaker 6: on keys and a couple other things. Yeah, I think
Speaker 6: he played did.
Speaker 3: You play, he played a he played some guitar, he
Speaker 3: played some court, didn't play.
Speaker 1: What do you play?
Speaker 6: Accordion?
Speaker 1: On accordion?
Speaker 6: Yeah, high strong guitar. Yeah, it was a yeah, it's
Speaker 6: it's a lot of fun.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 6: Then get out there and kind of work on it
Speaker 6: a little bit and they come in and listen with
Speaker 6: me and we talk, you know, and that's like a
Speaker 6: constantly you got to constantly pay attention to what, you know,
Speaker 6: the artist Griffin's how he's feeling.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 6: It's just like so it's it's a very fun, dynamic
Speaker 6: thing that moves very fast, you know. But but then
Speaker 6: you know, sometimes you can have false starts and you
Speaker 6: gotta gotta redirect. Sometimes you take lunch, sometimes you just
Speaker 6: have a long conversation. You just kind of keep pounding away.
Speaker 6: It depends.
Speaker 5: Well, nice work, boys, Well, thank you for all the work.
Speaker 5: We're gonna enjoy the fruits of your labor on on
Speaker 5: this on listening to all the songs on the album,
Speaker 5: but we might maybe rap with one more here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was working on this one and Jakir was like, oh,
Speaker 1: you need a maybe give me like one up tempo one.
Speaker 1: And I was like, oh, that's cool because I'm actually
Speaker 1: kind of working on an up tempo one and i'd
Speaker 1: been I took a trip to play a private show
Speaker 1: down in Costa Rica right after the day after Thanksgiving,
Speaker 1: and I had my guitar with me and there was
Speaker 1: a lot of downtime. So I was in my hotel
Speaker 1: room there again and I came up with the chorus
Speaker 1: down there in the hotel and then so I had
Speaker 1: this chorus. So this course is pretty good, but I
Speaker 1: needed some verse, and so I don't know where it
Speaker 1: came from, but it was a little bit autobiographical of
Speaker 1: like these snapshots of just remembering kind of how my
Speaker 1: wife and I met and where I was at the time.
Speaker 1: One of the images was when I was driving from
Speaker 1: Oregon down overnight. I played a show and then I
Speaker 1: drove with my buddy like nine hours through the night
Speaker 1: to see a high school friend who had ended up
Speaker 1: he kind of through unfortunate circumstances. He ended up on
Speaker 1: death row in sam Quentin, and I got this idea,
Speaker 1: like I just felt like I needed to go see him.
Speaker 1: I was supposed to go see him, So I went
Speaker 1: through this long process of getting permission to go into
Speaker 1: San Quentin prison and visit this guy who I went
Speaker 1: to high school with. And so we drove through the
Speaker 1: night and I went across the Golden Gate Bridge for
Speaker 1: the first time and went in seeing in San Quentin.
Speaker 1: And then I remember that image of the Golden Gate
Speaker 1: Bridge and that view for the first time, driving around
Speaker 1: the bend and looking out at the bay. And then
Speaker 1: several years after that, I met my wife in San
Speaker 1: Francisco and we were married in city Hall in San France.
Speaker 1: So San fran there's a lot of symbolism for me,
Speaker 1: and that just like crossing that bridge and eventually moving
Speaker 1: to Nashville with her. And she had a dog named Floyd,
Speaker 1: so all that might make sense. When I played the song,
Speaker 1: I guess.
Speaker 12: I was standing out a dream.
Speaker 11: I was trying out to fail.
Speaker 12: I was on the outside. I had a friend in jail.
Speaker 11: Love was on time.
Speaker 10: When I was running late, I was head and South
Speaker 10: lost the Golden game.
Speaker 12: It was human invaded, pretty boy, Floyd. It was us
Speaker 12: against the world trying to fill that boy. It's a miracle.
Speaker 12: We made it. But I do it all again. It
Speaker 12: was just a couple of folds rushing in.
Speaker 11: I was gonna stick it out through thicking thing.
Speaker 12: You red and now was black and blue. Dead set on.
Speaker 13: You, dead set on you. I had my mind made
Speaker 13: up and my heart dead set on you to kill
Speaker 13: a mocking bird in Nashville, Tennessee.
Speaker 12: Out of the corner of my eye, you were look inside. Please.
Speaker 12: There was no giving up, there was no turning back.
Speaker 10: And we lost that first child and I had sober
Speaker 10: up another day. In this slide, felt the slack suicide
Speaker 10: draped it between the false and truth.
Speaker 13: Dead set on you, thatad set on you. I had
Speaker 13: my mind made. I've been my heart dead set on you.
Speaker 7: That set on.
Speaker 13: You, Dad set on you. I had my mind made,
Speaker 13: I've been my heart dead set on.
Speaker 12: You come a long way since those run awake.
Speaker 10: Sometimes, looking back, I can't believe what we do.
Speaker 12: Neither one of us ever really black.
Speaker 10: Doing what if we're told fell My currnory were spinning gold.
Speaker 10: I was trying to break you, trying to fix in
Speaker 10: me heart and had me yell and ricks did set on.
Speaker 13: You, did set on you. I had my mind made up,
Speaker 13: in my heart dead set on you. Did set on you,
Speaker 13: did set on you. I had my mind me up,
Speaker 13: been my heart dead set on you. I had my
Speaker 13: mind me up, been my heart dead set on you.
Speaker 10: I bed big round, played the wind, made a fortune
Speaker 10: with my shuk, came in, ran the table. I never
Speaker 10: thought I could fall down in the winter time hit
Speaker 10: me like a cannon in the ball, And now.
Speaker 11: I can't shake this losing streak. Every road I take
Speaker 11: is a dead end street.
Speaker 2: I got thoughts in my head, can't get them out,
Speaker 2: trying not to think what I'm thinking about.
Speaker 1: I got the thoughts in my head.
Speaker 2: I can't get them out, trying not to think what
Speaker 2: I'm thinking about.