Calling himself a music historian, he is a Nashville-based singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist. He has had two Top 75 Americana Music Association charting records and is currently recording a blues album to be released in Spring of next year. He has toured for more than 15 years, including last month and this month in the likes of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, and Tennessee, and on February 1st he’ll even be playing up in New York. He has opened for the likes of Blake Shelton, Jamey Johnson, Kid Rock, and many more. And, he has an impressive list of endorsements.
"Music, in its essence, was created or discovered... to make people feel better. That's the purpose. There's a healing in that, that is not healing on an individual level but on a cultural level."
"Our music is a symphony of collaboration between two cultures that seemingly have been at odds and have found it difficult to navigate our social conditions. So, I feel like music is where we begin the dialogue that heals that."
"American music changed the soundtrack of the world."
"Art is a calling. Entertainer is a pleasurable job."
"My calling as an artist, I understand the responsibility. I don't view it as an entitlement. I believe it is a responsibility to reflect the human condition back to itself so that the people that are receiving it feel represented."
"There is such a thing as just being in the right place at the right time... But that doesn't happen magically. That happens because you motivated yourself to get up off the couch and go to that thing that you necessarily may not want to go to. And that's where you meet that person that can help lead you or help your trajectory go to a higher plain. It happens when you're not lookin' for it."
"Be nice to everybody you know. Don't ever judge a book by its cover. Assume everybody you speak to is the president of the United States."
"Of all of the forward moving things that have ever happened in my career, the largest percentage of those things happened because I went the extra mile for someone."
"You can learn anything from anyone or any situation. And I would rather say you can learn anything from everyone or every situation. If you walk away from anything not having expanded your consciousness, you didn't do it right."
"It's a blessing to be able to walk backstage at the Wildhorse Saloon and have a conversation with a hero. Charlie Daniels comes to mind. I opened for Charlie Daniels at the Wildhorse Saloon very early in my Nashville career... He just looked up and he said, 'That's some mighty fine slide playing, son'."
"If your agenda is to be famous. If your agenda is to be rich. If your agenda is anything other than to make pure music that makes people happy and healed, then you're probably going to have a difficult time."
"I don't write songs... with the intention of, 'I'm writing a hit today.' I let the song write itself... In Nashville they have a phrase for that, it's called, 'Chasing the radio.' I don't chase the radio when I write. The writers that influence me the most have taught me that you just let the song write itself. You're not writing it. It's already written. It's just flowing through you. So let it write."
"If you want me to do something, tell me I can't, 'cause that's kind of how I am."
"Good Thing Bad"
"Christmas Whiskey"
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