have to drink.

Not always.

Ten, ten, five.

Part one.

Whenever I want to take.

time at home.

No, we're not talking out.

I go home drinking.

Let's get to my worries.

To another set.

my God.

Girls get hit by music way to water.

When lyrics when you're when you're coming up with.

I mean, you've heard a bunch of artists say it before, but I heard in an ambush interview you just write what you know, otherwise it's going to feel not true to you.

Yeah, and it is cliche, but it's very true.

I just I got to mean what I say.

Otherwise I don't want to sing it.

Yeah.

And I think, you know, like you said, country and folk is a great way of getting that across.

And we talk a lot also about, you know, being honest, being as open as you can on the page.

I think a really scary thing about writing is, no one's ever felt this way.

I'm so dramatic or I'm being so hyper analytical.

And at the end of the day, people want to hear about the feelings.

They don't want to hear you describe your day.

They want to hear how you felt.

And it's really been, you know, cool to see our music resonate and just everyone's feeling something and everyone's felt the way you felt.

And we try to really dig into to the humanity of writing.

can you talk to me about Weight of the World and how that came to be?

What were you speaking to with that song?

Yeah, I wrote that song several years ago when I moved out here from Alabama, hadn't really seen aspen trees in all those big mountains and and everything like that.

But I think that song was just kind of where I was at that point in life.

It was kind of before the band, honestly was just starting writing songs, figuring out if it was something I could do and tell you songwriters out there, it is something you can do.

Keep writing.

But it was just how I felt and you know that first line I think about every time I sing it, The weight of the world is a burden on the struggles, the shoulders.

I felt like when I moved here, I was taking like the biggest risk and I didn't know anyone or what to do.

And sometimes you got to take those chances.

And it turned out that I met my five best friends and we we started a band together.

So it was a great decision.

But yeah, it was just about kind of the gravity of where life was at that music we like I want to do that or I could be a musician.

Yeah.

I mean, I think for me, I grew up my dad every morning going to school is in the classic rock the Eagles, Dire Straits, the Rolling Stones, all that stuff.

So I was really into rock and roll growing up.

And then I my grandparents got me more into country and then I kind of heard Sturgill Simpson and Tyler Childers in this big band version of the stripped down three four chord songs that were just so beautiful and expressive and everything worked together so well and just took a different kind of shed, a different light on that kind of music.

And right then was kind of I was like, This is the kind of band I need to be in that that, you know, that I see being not only successful being fine and different and unique sonically and those really those two bands really steered me exactly where we are today.

And so how old were you when you saw that?

Like probably with Sturgill, my early twenties, I'm 30 now, so ten years ago, same with Tyler Childers.

That last 18 years is really evolved the way I looked at bands and kind of the way country music exists today.

Why do you think it's taken so long for that sound to kind of come back?

Yeah, I mean, that's a great question.

Country has had a stigma over the years, but right now it's clearly having a moment.

And I don't know, people just like authenticity right now and just good songwriting and getting to you know, the bare bones of it.

And I think country really showcases all that pretty well.

And kind of to piggyback their what you were just saying on the hip hop side of things, I think things got pretty, pretty saturated in that specific aspect of country and people were just longing for authentic and singer songwriters and big bands.

And I think it's a great renaissance, a great time to be doing, you know, being in the country.

You know, real instruments, you know, acoustic mandolin, music could you all explain the different influences in the band in your own words?

Like when you when you explain, like, how does bluegrass show up?

How does country show up?

How would rock show up?

Yeah, I mean, that's a that's something we think about a lot.

We don't really want to get pigeonholed and be a bluegrass band or a country band or a full band.

Americana is a nice overarching term, but even then, you know, like we like I said, I grew up on classic rock.

You know, I'm from Alabama.

My two days for I was born.

I think my dad was in Allman Brothers concert.

So, you know, it's literally in my blood.

There's some of that in our show that you'll see.

I think the biggest thing for us is we are very different and our musical interests overlap like a Venn diagram and we're all really, you know, patient and good at listening to each other and letting those influences naturally work themselves in.

I don't think we look and say, Let's make this set selling Southern rock or this be bluegrass thing with the way all the instruments and the people in the group work together.

It it's like a big Venn diagram or melting pot of a little bit of this, little music every corner from the Clay Street place where you all lived, which is the name of the band.

It is, yeah.

So what are other places within, like, the Denver scene that have been, like, home to you both, like, musically and places that you, like hang out?

Yeah, I mean, this would be one, everyone being one.

See, we tomorrow morning will probably all be over any having a beer together as we did last time we played in Denver.

But, you know, I played my first solo gig ever in my life there.

I played my first duo gig.

I met our banjo player there.

The band literally started there.

Our pedal steel player works there while we had started the band.

I mean, Tim, who's working the camera today, who was the manager of the Taphouse, I mean, it runs really deep in our roots and it really is like our family at this point.

We've probably played 100 shows there just as a duo or, you know, different groups over the years.

So we love it there and they're good people.

You know, and other other venues that are, you know, Cervantes is.

Yeah, this one.

Not to to just say that because we're here, it's been the most important venue to our career of any.

I mean we this venue in particular, Scott Morel, just such a great job of curating bands of all different sizes with all different goals.

And then four years ago, the band looked totally different.

We were playing 150 people on the patio.

Then two years later, fast forward and the band is got Scotty and Brad and we're we're more formed and we sold out the other side and now full circle we're getting to sell out, you know, the ballroom tonight together.

This place has been where we've grown up, where we've cut our teeth and, you know, grown as musicians with special to get to to have this interview here in this evening.

thank you all so much.

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