A multi-instrumentalist, known best for his guitar skills. His original music has been licensed to Dodge Motor Co, Ken Burns, the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, PBS, and more. Guitar World magazine says he is a “must-see act” and he has been praised by Bootsy Collins for his funk. Widely seen online due to his having come up with a shovel guitar, he has a combined social media following that tops one million. He is also the founder of Roots Music School in Nashville.
"I love every instrument. I think every instrument is just another way for someone to express themselves."
"When I got my first six-string guitar... it was like my second skin. Those were my vocal chords. There was something I could do on guitar that I couldn't even do talking. I couldn't do communicating in any other way and it just felt natural."
"It's about the passion you have for it. It's not about -- that's when it kind of defines, is this about your ego or is this about your passion? Are you doing this because you just want to be in front of a lot of people or because this is what you want to be doing every night of the week, or as often as you can? And I think it's those defining moments that, I think, round out the character of performers, keep people grounded, and keep you hungry."
"When we came to Nashville it's like this is a place that has it all. This is a place that has more of the elements we do want, with less of the elements we don't want. It's a huge music metropolis... It's just a really great creative place, especially the culture of it right now is something that's truly amazing, I think artistically in general, not just music."
"The concept and philosophy of building an object out of found objects is where guitars came from."
"I love the idea of just, do what you want to do and do what feels right."
"You have to learn how to become your own marketer. You have to learn how to do all of those tasks that a label might normally do for you. But, then if you succeed at it and you keep persevering through the inevitable challenges that come from years and years of trying to tread through that, feeling like maybe you're outnumbered by the industry or the industry is bigger than you and so it's gonna be hard to compete with that kind of thing, you do that but then you find once you get a foothold, once you get an audience and you work for that audience and you tour and you build it up one fan at a time and you show your appreciation for your fan base and you connect with them and you find, 'This is growing, this is working,' you own the rights to your music. You are the one that makes the money when you sell an album."
"We sold everything we owned... We bought this small, repo RV... We put all of our cards on the table and we said, 'Ya' know, if this doesn't work at least we can say that we did everything we could do to make this work'."
"I remember playing shows and if I didn't make enough tips and sell enough CDs at this show I wouldn't even make it to the next show - I didn't have the gas money to make it to the next show. And really just putting it all on the line. And what comes from that is an audience that can see that and they connect with you for what you actually do, musically, artistically."
"Social media is such a blessing right now for artists that if you're not taking that seriously, it's like trying to run a marathon with no legs."
"It feels like maybe no one's listening a lot of the time, and even when you know people are and people say that they're listening, it's like, you wonder who's listening or you wonder if the people you want to work with are out there listening to you, because it's hard to directly reach out to most people and get any kind of response back - people who have to be guarded with their opportunities and careers and things like that."
"Just about every (opportunity) that I've ever had is someone who's reached out to me because I've put myself out there and not been afraid of people saying, 'That's weird,' or 'That's different' or, 'I don't understand that,' or 'Wait, that's not what people are supposed to be doing right now.' It's better, I think, in a lot of ways, if it's not what people are doing right now because if you can be different, you stand out more."
"You think about what you do better than anybody else and lean on that, with all your weight. Don't try to water it down. Don't try to think, 'Well, I don't know, people are gonna make fun of me for this, or this is gonna be weird, or maybe people aren't asking for this, or this isn't that kind of venue.' Keep going with it. And, be ready for criticism and enjoy the criticism if you can, because that's what's gonna get you out there. That's what's gonna put you in front of more people."
"Bootleg Turn"
"Black Heart of Gold"
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