Speaker 1: What's up. It's Granger Smith. Thanks for listening. This is
Speaker 1: the Granger Smith Podcast, Episode eight. Hey, if you got
Speaker 1: a question for me you need to be an answered.
Speaker 1: Go to social media hashtag Granger Smith Podcast. Ask your question.
Speaker 1: I'll search for it and then I'll get it answered
Speaker 1: right here on a future podcast. Man, what a crazy
Speaker 1: fall this has been for me. The new album When
Speaker 1: the Good Guys Win is now out. If you listen
Speaker 1: to episode seven, I went through every single song, told
Speaker 1: the story of every song from my point of view,
Speaker 1: not just how I wrote it, but why I recorded it,
Speaker 1: you know, the reason that I chose each song to
Speaker 1: be on the album. But now the album's out, we've
Speaker 1: been playing it live and it's a whole new game
Speaker 1: putting it in the live show and seeing what song works.
Speaker 1: Where should it start the show, should it finish the show,
Speaker 1: and where does it go in the middle. That's all
Speaker 1: something we have to discuss all the time to try
Speaker 1: to figure out the perfect combination of the perfect chemistry.
Speaker 1: It also has to work with the crowd. I mean,
Speaker 1: we can't put together a high energy show for a
Speaker 1: very laid back crowd, and then in turn, we can't
Speaker 1: put together a very laid back show for a high
Speaker 1: energy crowd, so we have to know these things before
Speaker 1: we hit the stage. Now, that took years and years
Speaker 1: and years, and I'm still trying to perfect that. But
Speaker 1: I'm proud of those years. The Honky song heres and
Speaker 1: I want to talk more on where I came from
Speaker 1: in this podcast. Something that I did on this new
Speaker 1: album is a little insane, but it has been so
Speaker 1: much fun. I decided to call every single person that
Speaker 1: bought this album the first week. This is gonna take
Speaker 1: a long time. It's a lot of people. In fact,
Speaker 1: it's probably gonna take me months and months and months,
Speaker 1: but anyone that bought it and submitted their receipt to
Speaker 1: the special website that we set up got added to
Speaker 1: this call list, and so I personally call everyone on
Speaker 1: that list and thank them for buying the album, because
Speaker 1: buying is rare these days, and I don't know if
Speaker 1: people actually understand how much buying actually does affect the artist.
Speaker 1: And in a world of being able to find the
Speaker 1: music for free anywhere, it's pretty amazing to see that
Speaker 1: kind of support from a fan. So I thought it
Speaker 1: was the least I can do to call these people,
Speaker 1: and I think on this podcast. It would be kind
Speaker 1: of fun if I pulled up this list right now
Speaker 1: and we called the next person. All right, so here
Speaker 1: we go. This is Josh and he's from Tennessee. It
Speaker 1: looks like, hey Josh, it's Granger Smith. How are you, man?
Speaker 1: I'm right, how man, I'm doing? Go hold on speak
Speaker 1: I see your name will come. Man, this is Granger Smith. Dude.
Speaker 1: I am calling you to say thank you for buying
Speaker 1: the album. Man, that that means a lot. I know
Speaker 1: that buying records is rare these days. And and uh,
Speaker 1: I really appreciate you, buddy, No carble, man, just keep
Speaker 1: doing I will, I will keep doing. Earl man, I
Speaker 1: promise you did you really? You really put on a show. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you, buddy. I appreciate that. Man. What's your what's
Speaker 1: your favorite song so far in this album? Welcome very
Speaker 1: old Devil song. Well, uh, buddy, I hope to are
Speaker 1: you in Tennessee? All right? Well, I know we'll be
Speaker 1: back to Tennessee soon and hope to see you when
Speaker 1: we head back out there. That's awesome, awesome man. Well,
Speaker 1: I hope you have a good rest of your Sunday. Hey, Hey, Hey,
Speaker 1: who's hey? Girlfriend. I uh uh, we hope to see
Speaker 1: you guys down the road very soon. All right, all right,
Speaker 1: y'all take care, Hi, bye bye, there we go. I
Speaker 1: got two of them in that phone call. That's that's
Speaker 1: so cool to me. So Josh there says that don't
Speaker 1: treadle Me is his favorite song, which doesn't surprise me.
Speaker 1: It's one of my favorites too. Everything Earl Dibbles Junior
Speaker 1: does is polarizing. I love every bit of it. And
Speaker 1: I asked you to ask me some questions on social
Speaker 1: media hashtag Granger Smith podcast and I would answer them.
Speaker 1: And so here's one right here from Jonathan Seppenfield. It says,
Speaker 1: how did Earl Dibbles Junior become a thing? Now, Buddy,
Speaker 1: I could go in here and answer this question, but
Speaker 1: it's gonna take a while. So I think I'm gonna
Speaker 1: save that for its own future podcast because the story
Speaker 1: of Old Dibbles Junior it's gonna take some time. I'm
Speaker 1: a survivor, you damn right, I'm a bidder, I'm a
Speaker 1: big bucks head and Trump I'm bringing Dank Junior disable.
Speaker 1: So don't just be offended when Granddad needs defended. This
Speaker 1: back up Wakeman says, I'm staying break. Don't tread of me,
Speaker 1: don't tread off me. So I'm sitting in the back
Speaker 1: of my bus Wildflower. I'm in the parking lot in Tulsa, Oklahoma,
Speaker 1: parking lot of the hotel that we're staying in tonight
Speaker 1: on an off day. We're playing Tulsa tomorrow. But yesterday
Speaker 1: we came from clear Lake, Iowa. Before that was Columbia, Missouri,
Speaker 1: before that was Chicago. So this is a typical place
Speaker 1: for me to do a podcast, is a little bit
Speaker 1: of time off between shows. Things weren't all It is crazy.
Speaker 1: I didn't always have this many shows to play. In fact,
Speaker 1: I want to take you there now. I want to
Speaker 1: take you back to the scene. And I believe it
Speaker 1: was podcast episode six that I was last talking about
Speaker 1: my history, and I've talked about moving back home to
Speaker 1: my home state of Texas and starting a band, and
Speaker 1: I look at that that was in two thousand and four.
Speaker 1: I look at that is the beginning, in a lot
Speaker 1: of ways of my touring career. So it's the year
Speaker 1: two thousand and four. I've just moved back to my
Speaker 1: home state of Texas and college station. I'm living with
Speaker 1: my uncle Johnny. Life is good. A few years before,
Speaker 1: I put out an album called Waiting On Forever. It
Speaker 1: was ten songs. But you know I've grown since then.
Speaker 1: I have a lot of new songs, songs that I've
Speaker 1: already recorded as demos for this publishing company I've been
Speaker 1: writing for. So I collect ten of those songs and
Speaker 1: I make an album. My second album is called Memory Road.
Speaker 1: I take this album and I'm armed and ready to
Speaker 1: find a band and get some gigs. And they came
Speaker 1: pouring in. Actually they didn't. I didn't. I didn't have
Speaker 1: any gigs. But I did go down the street to
Speaker 1: this place called Bourbon Street Bar, and I asked them
Speaker 1: if I could host and start an open mic night
Speaker 1: on Thursday nights. No money guaranteed. The only thing for
Speaker 1: me would be exposure. I would play a bunch of
Speaker 1: these songs off of these two little albums that I
Speaker 1: had out, and then I would host open mic for
Speaker 1: everyone else in the bar could sell beer, and I
Speaker 1: could sell CDs and make a few tips, and everyone
Speaker 1: was happy. It wasn't long after I moved back that
Speaker 1: my uncle Johnny said, Hey, I've got this buddy. He's
Speaker 1: a drummer and he's in a band right now, and
Speaker 1: their singer just moved to Florida and they're looking for
Speaker 1: someone to take over. And I said, man, this sounds perfect.
Speaker 1: Let me meet him. So he takes me over there,
Speaker 1: and these were great guys. There was a drummer, bass player,
Speaker 1: a guitar player, and a keyboard player. And all of
Speaker 1: them were significantly older than I was, fifteen twenty years
Speaker 1: older than I was, And that actually was a huge
Speaker 1: blessing because these guys had a lot more touring experience
Speaker 1: than I did. They had a lot more knowledge of
Speaker 1: the music business, a lot more understanding of building PA systems.
Speaker 1: They knew how to tour and I didn't. This was
Speaker 1: such a key thing for me, and what I provided
Speaker 1: to them was a young singer with a fresh outlook.
Speaker 1: It gave them another round, another shot at it, and
Speaker 1: we became a very tight knit group immediately. Never too
Speaker 1: old to finde a two lane road. See how fast
Speaker 1: that four by four can go, burn the tread right
Speaker 1: off of them tires. You never too to turn the radio.
Speaker 1: I'm so loud that the speakers flown. Let your neighbors
Speaker 1: know you're about to throw it all night, Woo, Let's
Speaker 1: go to night, is to night for the rest of
Speaker 1: our lives. They ain't never too old to die young,
Speaker 1: never too tall to grow up, never too late to
Speaker 1: did to living because you only did one, never too
Speaker 1: good to be back. He ain't never too scared to
Speaker 1: be tough. Don't count them candles on the cake, over
Speaker 1: the trips around the sun. I ain't never too old
Speaker 1: to die jump. So during this year I also re
Speaker 1: enrolled in Texas A and M University, so I had
Speaker 1: a lot on my plate. I couldn't tour too much
Speaker 1: and steady enough to pass classes. I needed to finish
Speaker 1: college before I could really focus on music. This year
Speaker 1: was a lot about playing private parties, private weddings, friends,
Speaker 1: graduation parties. Of course, the open mic night on Thursdays,
Speaker 1: an occasional gig that we might have picked up in
Speaker 1: a club here and there. But it wasn't serious touring yet.
Speaker 1: I did buy a little white trailer, a little six
Speaker 1: x ten. I was pullting it behind my pickup truck.
Speaker 1: There was five of us in the band, and we
Speaker 1: were cramped in the cab making do There's so many
Speaker 1: mistakes you have to make when you're just starting out
Speaker 1: touring to learn everything that everything we progressed with over
Speaker 1: those months and over those years was from mistakes that
Speaker 1: we never wanted to do again. I remember a lot
Speaker 1: of trailer mistakes. It seems like trailers have been one
Speaker 1: of my biggest problems for a long, long time. I
Speaker 1: remember a trip driving to Amarillo for a gig. Now
Speaker 1: Amarillo from College Station, that's a long way. It's about
Speaker 1: eight hours. I new to touring. I don't have any
Speaker 1: kind of checklist, I don't have a tour manager. And
Speaker 1: I remember thinking, about six hours down the road, I
Speaker 1: wonder if I've brought the key to the padlock on
Speaker 1: the trailer so that I can get to the gear.
Speaker 1: I ask around. No one knows where the key is.
Speaker 1: We ended up leaving it at home. So we pull
Speaker 1: over to this middle of nowhere, small town, Texas welding shop.
Speaker 1: We got to get the guy with the cutting torch
Speaker 1: to destroy the lock so that we can get in there. Now,
Speaker 1: this is one of those circular master locks. It's theft proof.
Speaker 1: It's also idiot proof, because I'm an idiot, and you
Speaker 1: wouldn't believe how long it took us to sit there
Speaker 1: and put a piece of a sheet of metal behind
Speaker 1: the lock, so the torch didn't destroy the wall of
Speaker 1: the trailer. But this thing took forever. I think it
Speaker 1: took like fifteen minutes of straight cutting to finally get
Speaker 1: it off so that I could learn the first lesson
Speaker 1: in touring, don't leave your trailer keys at home. Man.
Speaker 1: This podcast is brought to you by my ninth studio
Speaker 1: album called When the Good Guys Win. I'm so proud
Speaker 1: of this thing, and thank you if you've heard it,
Speaker 1: if you've streamed it, if you've heard us play it live.
Speaker 1: I hope you like it and it means a lot
Speaker 1: to me to get your feedback. So let me know
Speaker 1: what you think about it. Go to social media, let
Speaker 1: me know your favorite songs so far. Of course, this
Speaker 1: is also brought to you by Yee Yee Energy, my
Speaker 1: energy drink. I'm so excited to tell you guys that
Speaker 1: out of this homegrown business that we have my brothers
Speaker 1: and I, we have now made our first re order,
Speaker 1: which is a lot of cans. It's like two hundred
Speaker 1: thousand cans, so that's a big deal. They are shipping
Speaker 1: to our warehouse in Texas as we speak. That means
Speaker 1: a lot of you are liking this drink, so thank
Speaker 1: you for that. I hope you like to drink so
Speaker 1: much that you drink it all the time responsively because
Speaker 1: it's got a lot of caffeine in it. I drink
Speaker 1: one before every show, and I love the way it
Speaker 1: makes you feel. I love the way that it tastes.
Speaker 1: Go to grangerspent dot com you can find out more.
Speaker 1: That's a lot of information. Let me go back to
Speaker 1: the that had no information going on in fact, but
Speaker 1: two thousand and four version of myself was very much
Speaker 1: looking forward to two thousand and five because that's when
Speaker 1: I decided to take the last of my demos, my
Speaker 1: songwriting demos, and put them together ten more songs, and
Speaker 1: make another album called Pockets of Pesos. Pockets of Pesos
Speaker 1: was different from me for a couple of reasons. One
Speaker 1: I recorded and played my own acoustic guitar that had
Speaker 1: never happened before, and two I recorded my own vocals
Speaker 1: right there by myself at Uncle Johnny's house in his
Speaker 1: living room. Now, this was the beginning of something very
Speaker 1: very important for me in my career. I had no
Speaker 1: idea how valuable it would be to me to record
Speaker 1: my own vocals to record my own band eventually. I
Speaker 1: had no idea that someday being able to do this
Speaker 1: would actually save my career. My pockets of pay A
Speaker 1: twenty dollars bill in my pails. Phone tell me what,
Speaker 1: tell me? What's in gona take? Two thousand and five,
Speaker 1: I was very much coming into my own pockets of pay.
Speaker 1: SOS was the most original so far music that I
Speaker 1: had made, even though I had always written my own music.
Speaker 1: I was getting closer to becoming the artist that I
Speaker 1: needed to be. We were touring a lot more. I
Speaker 1: was still in school, but we were stacking up our weekends.
Speaker 1: We called ourselves weekend Warriors. At this point, it bothered
Speaker 1: me a little bit that I didn't have as much
Speaker 1: control as I wanted to on the actual recordings themselves.
Speaker 1: On the previous three albums, I knew I had a
Speaker 1: dilemma coming up because those are the last of the
Speaker 1: songwriting demos that I had paid for me, and if
Speaker 1: I was gonna make anything else in the future, I
Speaker 1: was gonna have to pony up my own cash, which
Speaker 1: I didn't have. I'm a call and I'm making tip
Speaker 1: jar money now out of that necessity. The greatest challenge
Speaker 1: with the greatest reward showed itself in this new opportunity.
Speaker 1: If I was going to make another album, the only
Speaker 1: way that would happen was if I recorded it myself
Speaker 1: in my own house. And what happened at the end
Speaker 1: of two thousand and five changed everything. So the song
Speaker 1: you're hearing here sounds like it's live. It's even called
Speaker 1: Mockenberg Road Live, but it's actually not live at all.
Speaker 1: This is my first experiment at recording my band myself
Speaker 1: in my house. Actually every instrument is recorded separately by
Speaker 1: me putting microphones around and experimenting. I was getting pretty good,
Speaker 1: pretty savvy with pro Tools, which is a computer software
Speaker 1: for audio recording. It's the same software I'm using right
Speaker 1: now to record this podcast. After recording the instruments, I
Speaker 1: brought in some friends and the band. We got some
Speaker 1: glasses of beer and clanked them together. I recorded that,
Speaker 1: added it to the background of the song to make
Speaker 1: it sound like a live performance that I'm going to
Speaker 1: burn out to where my favorite lives, you know, good
Speaker 1: friend Chap Sacond every time between Calisande, the winning thing,
Speaker 1: but burning so there. It is the secret behind Mokenbird
Speaker 1: Road Live. My very first attempt ever at recording a band.
Speaker 1: It's funny. I just looked on Spotify and iTunes and
Speaker 1: it's on there, immortalized forever. Uh set in stone? Is
Speaker 1: that memory? For better or for worse? But that was
Speaker 1: a very important transition for me because once I knew
Speaker 1: I could do that, once I knew I had broken
Speaker 1: the ice of home studio recording, I knew I could
Speaker 1: attempt maybe to record my next album completely by myself
Speaker 1: at home, in the living room, in the hallway and
Speaker 1: the closet, utilizing everything, utilizing my band, And so that
Speaker 1: was my new mission. What I didn't know was that
Speaker 1: concept would change everything for me. That would put me
Speaker 1: on a path of musical freedom. It would give me
Speaker 1: the opportunity to put up music no matter what, to
Speaker 1: change my mind, to change the songs, to put out
Speaker 1: a funny song, a parody song, to put out a
Speaker 1: tribute song, regardless of what people said, and most importantly,
Speaker 1: regardless of budget, because this would cost me next to nothing.
Speaker 1: That would put me on the path that got me
Speaker 1: here today. Hello, Hey Brooke, it's Granger Smith. How are you.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I'm good. How are you here? I'm good.
Speaker 1: I'm calling to say thank you for buying the album,
Speaker 1: and I hope you like all the new songs so far.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I love this so much in this
Speaker 1: obviously I want that day. Have no idea good good?
Speaker 1: Do you have a favorite song yet? Yeah? I love
Speaker 1: it A loving wine. That one's a beautiful song. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you. Where are you right now? I'm
Speaker 1: in North Carolina? Okay, awesome, we love coming to North Carolina.
Speaker 1: I've actually seen you. I've actually seen you a few times.
Speaker 1: The first time I ever saw you, you were you Goes.
Speaker 1: That was the true where I ever saw you playing.
Speaker 1: I have such a great time with much after that,
Speaker 1: I'm so talking, don't it's okay, No, you don't. You
Speaker 1: don't have to say anything. I'm calling you to uh
Speaker 1: to say thank you and uh You're an amazing fan
Speaker 1: and and I appreciate people exactly like you, Brook, So
Speaker 1: thank you, and I hope to see you next time
Speaker 1: we come to North Carolina. Well, I appreciate you, and
Speaker 1: thank you. Be greater and really I love your music.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Take care of Brooke. Have a good Sunday.
Speaker 1: You all right, bye bye? All right? Nice but loving
Speaker 1: blind he last see it all the time tonight, it's
Speaker 1: wearing a dress, making me smile, stealing my friends. I
Speaker 1: used to think it was you lop a baby. It's
Speaker 1: love loving blind because I see so by now, two
Speaker 1: thousand and five is turning into two thousand and six.
Speaker 1: I mean, the band are still together, the same guys,
Speaker 1: were playing more and more shows, but no one's coming
Speaker 1: to these shows. I mean a lot of times it's
Speaker 1: just us and the bartender. But we're playing these shows
Speaker 1: like we're playing arenas. I remember staring out into dark,
Speaker 1: empty dance floors, closing my eyes and just envisioning what
Speaker 1: it would be like to have a full arena singing
Speaker 1: these songs back to me. And we couldn't have been
Speaker 1: any further away from that dream. Do you know? We
Speaker 1: are having a great time. I look back on pictures
Speaker 1: and videos from those days, and we were always smiling,
Speaker 1: We're always laughing, we're always joking, because it's all relative
Speaker 1: and ed. At the time, that was the dream. That
Speaker 1: was as good as it got, you know, And if
Speaker 1: anyone was listening, if anyone was clapping or smiling or dancing,
Speaker 1: that was it for us. That was worth it. We
Speaker 1: were getting better. I had T shirts for sale. Now.
Speaker 1: My first merch I had blue navy blue shirts with
Speaker 1: a silver Texas Ranger style star. I said Granger Smith.
Speaker 1: I was kind of playing up to that Ranger and
Speaker 1: Granger thing. I wanted so badly to have a brand,
Speaker 1: something you could see and look and identify, like a
Speaker 1: Nike swoosh, and so at the time, that was it.
Speaker 1: That was the star, the badge related to Granger, or
Speaker 1: at least I wanted it to be that way. And
Speaker 1: no one really bought those shirts. I still have one though.
Speaker 1: You know. Early on, I loved the business of touring,
Speaker 1: and I loved the challenge of trying to make touring better,
Speaker 1: trying to overcome the challenges and the rigors of the
Speaker 1: road to make our show better. Early two thousand and six,
Speaker 1: I was still driving that same pickup truck and we
Speaker 1: were changing before shows in the parking lot. Usually we
Speaker 1: put our boots down on the ground and you could
Speaker 1: kind of switch your jeans, you know, while you're standing
Speaker 1: on your socks. You're standing on the boots so you
Speaker 1: don't get dirt on your socks. I was thinking, Man,
Speaker 1: why can't we transform this trailer into a dressing room.
Speaker 1: So I started getting in the white trailer, and it
Speaker 1: was difficult because you have to put them down. And
Speaker 1: so I eventually traded in that white trailer and I
Speaker 1: got a slightly larger black trailer. It had a side door.
Speaker 1: Oh that's a big upgrade. So now that I have
Speaker 1: a side door entrance, I had this idea that I
Speaker 1: could build a partition wall right after that door to
Speaker 1: close that space in like our own personal dressing room.
Speaker 1: We hung a pole in there to hang our clothes on,
Speaker 1: had lights inside, a little bench where we could sit down,
Speaker 1: carpet on the floor. I mean, we had it figured out.
Speaker 1: One night, we're playing this dance hall and this girl
Speaker 1: I was kind of dating has this little yippie dog
Speaker 1: and she didn't have a place to put it during
Speaker 1: the show, so she sticks it in that dressing room.
Speaker 1: My guitar player goes out after the show and opens
Speaker 1: it up to get a guitar case out, and this
Speaker 1: dog jumps out. He says, granger, Come on, man, since
Speaker 1: when is our dressing room become a kennel? Somehow that
Speaker 1: name stuck and from then on, that homemade dressing room
Speaker 1: in the front part of our trailer would be called
Speaker 1: the kennel. So I was almost finished with college. I
Speaker 1: had one more semester left. I'm calling myself a weekend Warrior.
Speaker 1: We're playing these shows, dragging this black trailer with a
Speaker 1: dressing room all around Texas. Meanwhile, I have something even
Speaker 1: cooler going on at home. I was right in the
Speaker 1: middle of recording a brand new album, but for the
Speaker 1: first time ever, recording every instrument, every vocal right there
Speaker 1: in my house. Whether it was good or if it
Speaker 1: was bad, it was mine and there was something so
Speaker 1: special about that, and I was so so motivated to
Speaker 1: get it out there. So there I was in two
Speaker 1: thousand and six, just graduating from Texas A and M University,
Speaker 1: just putting out a brand new album called Living Like
Speaker 1: a Lone Star. The most proud I'd ever been so
Speaker 1: far in my career of my music. It seemed like
Speaker 1: everything was going my way. It seemed like the next
Speaker 1: stop was George Strait right, and I couldn't have been
Speaker 1: more wrong. I didn't know it, but this right here,
Speaker 1: this moment in two thousand and six, was another beginning
Speaker 1: for me. It was another milestone for me, and I
Speaker 1: think because of all that excitement around what I was doing,
Speaker 1: as passionate as I was about it. I think that's
Speaker 1: what caused the crash. I think that's what caused the
Speaker 1: bottom to fall out. But when the bottom fell out,
Speaker 1: that's when I had to reinvent again. And every time
Speaker 1: I've reinvented, it seems like that's when things changed. In
Speaker 1: the next podcast, i'll tell you about that change. I'll
Speaker 1: tell you about that crash. I'll tell you why Living
Speaker 1: Like a Lone Star didn't do what I wanted it to,
Speaker 1: even though it had one of my favorite songs that
Speaker 1: I've ever written in my entire life on it. But
Speaker 1: I had to learn a big lesson first. It wasn't
Speaker 1: just keys to the trailer. I was forgetting. It was fans.
Speaker 1: I didn't have it. And when I realized what was
Speaker 1: really important to me, things started changing. And that was
Speaker 1: just the beginning. It happens like that out of the
Speaker 1: Blue Scadock in her Blue Last. Yeah, when it happens
Speaker 1: like like that, nothing to lose turns right into you, Julie,
Speaker 1: or you can do just to keep her around until
Speaker 1: the moon goes down in your back at your house.
Speaker 1: One thing was do another You love each other when
Speaker 1: looking you never looked back. It happens like that. This
Speaker 1: podcast is brought to you by EEE Energy. Come find
Speaker 1: us on tour grangersmith dot com, Forward Slash Tour, see
Speaker 1: you down the road.