November 3, 2022 • 24 mins
We're excited to announce that SOUND OF OUR TOWN will be back for Season 2! Stay tuned for details of where we're headed next. In the meantime, as you heard in the Season 1 finale, we've been hitting the road to talk to some of our favorite creators and musicians about their favorite cities and musical moments. This week, we talk to EVAN STERN of the award-winning podcast VANISHING POSTCARDS about the places that shape us, the roads we leave behind, and the power of stories to bring us together. You can check out Vanishing Postcards on the iheart radio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Sound of Our Town is a production of Double Elvis and iHeartRadio.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Okay, double elvis. I sit here waiting on some exciting
(00:13):
news for Sound of Our Town. Once it's confirmed, I'll
be sharing it here on the feed. But while I
prepare for that moment, I wanted to try something slightly
different here, And I'll explain. When I started the show,
I was fairly new to the world of podcasts, never
mind podcasting, and there was this one other podcast that
jumped out to me while I was making Season one
(00:34):
of Sound of Our Town that I felt in immediate
kinship too. And since I've missed the mic and traveling
around city to city preparing episodes for you, I thought
maybe i'd share with you this new favorite show of mine,
something to tide us over until I can get to
that good news. And I think this is something that
(00:54):
feeds that travel bug and that live music bug as well.
Vanishing Postcards is a documentary travelogue that invites listeners on
a road trip exploring the hidden dives, traditions, and frequently
threatened histories just off of our interstates. And if you
enjoyed episode ten of Santavar Town, where we visited Tulsa,
(01:14):
then you're going to want to check out Vanishing Postcards.
Episode five, where my friend and host Evan Stern, it
spends a whole show diving deep into the Vatican of
Tulsa Kine's ballroom. Episodes of Vanishing Postcards are expertly crafted,
meticulously researched, and features some of the most fascinating voices
(01:35):
you'll hear throughout America. I had the pleasure of sitting
down with Evan Stern a couple weeks ago where I
got to ask them all kinds of questions, including what
is podcasting? And I got my answers. I'd also like
to share some of that conversation with you right here,
right now, Here's Evan Stern van your early life? Uh,
(02:00):
do you have performance in your past? Is there a
part of you you feel it sounds when I'm listening
to you. You're not just like didn wake up one
day and say I'm gonna do a podcast or something
about you that is called to this. Absolutely not. It's
it was a very slow evolution that led me to
podcasting where I am now. But yes, my background is
actually as an actor. Um, and I've done a lot
(02:22):
of singing in my past as as well. You know,
I moved to I moved to New York. Straight out
of college. I realized that no doors were about to
open for me, and I realized I had to do
something on my own. I initially thought about writing a
one man show. Then I realized I didn't have the
time or patience to put something together that was going
to be quality enough that people would actually want to
(02:43):
sit through and watch it. And I said, well, you
know what with with Cabaret, the songs are there, the
history is there. So I put together a one man
show that focused on the songs of World War Two,
and I ended up doing a lot of work in
in New York's Caba Racing. UM. And I've been privileged
(03:04):
to perform on the stage of Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center,
a number of tremendous venues. UM. But I really am
one of those people who just fell in love with
podcasting over the course of the last ten years. You know,
I'd be listening to podcasts when I was cooking or cleaning,
programs like The Moth, The Kitchen Sisters, Cocaine and Rhinestones,
(03:25):
and I just slowly kind of started hearing these whispers say, well,
you know, maybe there is something that you could do
here with this, and UM, it was also around this
time that the YouTube algorithm kept suggesting these travel vlog
videos and I would watch them and I would rarely
see the way that I enjoyed traveling represented because it
(03:48):
was you know, of course, there are some exceptions, but
more often than not, the people doing these vlogs weren't saying,
look at this place. It was much more about, oh, well,
look at me and how fabulous and cute I am
in this place. And somehow I came up with this
idea that I wanted to put together a musical travelogue
(04:10):
of Mexico, which is so much of why I respect
what you're doing with the sound of our town because basically,
long story short, um, I went to go put together
a pilot and I went to Merida, Yucatan, and I
interviewed some musicians. And it's one thing to be writing
in a vacuum where you're thinking, oh man, this is
(04:30):
gonna be great. Then you get back, you take a
look at what you've done and you're like, oh man,
I have missed the mark so terribly. And what it
occurred to me in working on that is, yes, I
talked a lot about the city of Merida, but you
actually didn't feel the city of Merida in listening to
this piece, and I realized, well, I have to learn
(04:52):
so much more about audio production before tackling something ambitious
of this nature. I also realized, I'm proficient in Spanish,
I'm not fluent, but so it's challenging to get the
level of rapport going with the subject. For that reason,
but more than that, the human voice has such great color,
shade and nuance to it. That you get an actor
(05:13):
to come in and dub over these voices, you lose
so much. And so I said, Okay, I've got to
learn more, and in January I went back home to Texas.
I'm totally a messed in the gig economy up here
in New York. I kind of at that point, I
kind of built my life so that I could escape
the brutal winter for a little while. So January twenty
(05:35):
I went back home to Texas. Because if there's one
thing I know, it's that Texas people love to talk
and they tell great stories. And I didn't really know
what I was gonna do at that point, but I
just walked into this old dive bar in Austin called
the Dry Creek Cafe, and I started talking to people,
and I just kept collecting stories at different places, and
(05:56):
I stepped back and I said, Okay, so what do
I have here? I realized that each episode provided a
snapshot of a different place. What is that? That's a postcard?
And if there's a common thread in the places that
I visit is that you don't know how much longer
a lot of them are going to be around. UM
or they're really representative of broader, fading cultures, histories, traditions
(06:20):
that you just don't hear so much about anymore. And
it's been an incredible, exhilarating ride. And UM, I'm incredibly
honored that I've been able to have the resources to
to put all of this together. So my first season
was that was Texas based. UM. The current season that's
(06:43):
out right now is all about Root sixty six. UM.
I drove Root sixty six from Oklahoma to California, drove
six thousand, eight hundred forty five miles. I spoke with
over a hundred people along the way. UM. It was
an incredibly it's been an incredibly epic ordeal. UM. But
what's wonderful now is that I embarked on all of
(07:03):
this as a solo traveler and now I feel like
people are on this ride with me as I share
these stories and the season in series now And so
it was starting with Texas. Were there things that just
blew your You're from the state where there are things
that blew your mind that you discovered on that first season. Well,
(07:27):
it's it's all. It really is all about the people
that you meet. I'll tell you what I am. The
second piece I put together, UM was on this dance
hall in this town called Seaton, Texas. They have a
population of you know, maybe fifty people lived there. I'd
(07:48):
never been to this place before. Um, but each weekend,
every Sunday, they have dances at this old dance hall,
which is the oldest family run dance hall in Texas.
And you go to this place and I met people
there who still spoke check. You know, they've been in
Texas for generations and they still spoke in check one another.
(08:10):
And UM, you know, I'm walking around this dance hall.
I'm totally conspicuous. I have my shotgun, microphone, I have
my headphones. This old man comes up to me. He's
just so curious and he starts talking to me and
turns out this guy is about to turn a hundred
years old. He tells me in June, I'm gonna be
(08:31):
a hundred years old. Turns out he was a normandy veteran,
and he tells me that one night recently he showed
up there and he danced with thirty two different women.
And it's really it's just I find that the best
stories you find, the best people that you find, are
in the hidden places. They're in places that are are
(08:54):
getting the least amount of attention. I mean, I think
that the concept of vanishing postcards is global. I mean,
there's no reason why I couldn't do it in New
York City or Dublin or Mexico City or wherever. Um.
But I just find that, you know, when you get
(09:14):
to these small towns, the rewards are just incredibly rich.
And how have you been changed by some of those
adventures from talking to somebody? How has it affected you
as a person in these um adventures and these conversations
and the digging that you do which is so rich
(09:36):
and in depth. And I feel special when I'm listening
to it because I have that person's voice in my
head and your reflection of it. How has all that
affected you? As a person. Well, we live in a
horribly divided world in nation right now. Um I will
(09:59):
be the first say I don't think that anything about
what we've lived through over the last six years should
be normalized at all. And um, I don't. I don't
want to sound like a Polly and I actually think
of myself as being relatively cynical. But when you are
sitting across the table from someone, it's amazing how much
(10:21):
shared experience and empathy can be found. And I think
it's important to find areas of agreement in our world
right now, and culture is one of those rare areas
of agreement. And I spoke to someone recently who who
said to me, well, why can't they come to you?
(10:43):
You know, why do you have to to to go
to them? And my reaction that is, you know, if
we can't appreciate what is good and beautiful about our
small towns and rural America, how can we expect them
to appreciate what is good and beautiful about New York
City or Boston or San Francisco or wherever. Absolutely, that's
(11:05):
what I love about this connection and this conversation that
we're having is that both shows side of our town
and vanishing postcards. They just have this call to return
to humanity. And did you know you're getting into that
when you started this? No, not not at all. I'll
(11:28):
tell you I didn't have a clue what I was
doing when when when I started. When I started doing this, um,
it all just revealed itself to me as I got
to work on it. Um. But I think that there
is great as as we've talked about. I just think
it's very important that we have conversations about what we
(11:51):
can do to preserve and honor and celebrate culture. Obviously,
one of my favorite episodes is the Can's Ballroom episode,
which we are visiting. We're going to Tulsa this season,
(12:11):
so I think you can probably guess in each episode
side of our town. We have that distinction of the Vatican,
you know, the sonic Vatican of the city, and it
can it can vary, you know, um, but I think
you can probably guess Kanes will be the Vatican of Hell. Yeah,
I should hope. So have you have you been to
(12:33):
Canes before you were in there and interviewing everybody. I
had never been to Canes before, but I knew, but
I absolutely knew about Canes, and I knew that, you know,
Root sixty six goes through Tulsa. It was non negotiable
for me that I do have peace on Kane's Ballroom.
And and I found out that Asleep at the Wheel
was going to be performing there, and um, I tell
(12:56):
you what, man I I pretty much organized my whole
Root sixty six trip around that date so that I
could be there to experience Ray Benson and Asleep at
the Wheel at Kine's ball Room. And it was fantastic.
My goodness, my goodness. And that is really what is
so important right now. Is a friend of mine set
(13:18):
to me recently about sports stadiums and the good ones
that have been around forever, Wrigular or Fenway Park. But
there's just decades and sometimes centuries of all this human
emotion that's happened, the losses, the heartbreak, the victories, the anger,
the sadness, and it's all kind of absorbed somehow, all
(13:39):
that energy gets absorbed. And when you walk into some
of these places, you feel it right away, you know,
and I know you felt that when you walk into Keynes.
How do you feel? Are there other spots on the
Root sixty six tour or are all spots like that
for you when you walk in and you can just
kind of feel something. Well, certainly not all spots have,
(14:02):
absolutely not, But um I do find that I do
seek out places that have a certain sacred feeling to them.
I mean, it's it's it's very different. It's it's not
a music venue. But I mean one place that I
discovered was this small town, Miama, Oklahoma. It's just about
(14:24):
twelve miles south of the Kansas line, sits right on
Route sixty. But you go to the cemetery there and
you'll discover they have a Union Jack flag flying, and
they're fifteen graves that have the badge of the Royal
Air Force seal on them. And what it was In
World War Two, um Britain shipped a bunch of fly
(14:47):
boys over to train, you know, in Miama, Oklahoma, and
a number of them were killed in accidents or they
died in training while they were there and were never
able to get shipped home. But this small town still
holds remembrance ceremonies for these fallen soldiers each year. And
to walk amongst those graves and you know, to see
(15:12):
the way in which this community has eighty years on,
you know, kept these stories and honored their memories. You know,
it just didn't brought chills to my spine the second
I arrived there. Right, that's beautiful. So do you have Texas?
You have roots sixty six? Ah? How those are big
(15:36):
spaces and very long space. Uh, you're doing a workload
that I don't over How do I not overstate this?
It's uh, it's mammoth. It's um there's a Pulitzer level
of of care to do something like that as as
(15:56):
one person. Um, I'm I'm learning the workload of this
in my first season. Really, you know, in between playing
shows and then writing about shows, how do you balance
this and how do you make there's so much presence
in your show? How are you taking care of the
presence and researching and making vanishing postcards and uh balancing
(16:22):
your life? Well, I mean, first of all, it's it's
a love project, and I mean it it is indeed
a mammoth amount of work. I mean, it really is
an act of insanity. But at the same time, I mean,
when you are doing stuff for love, it doesn't necessarily
always feel like work. I draw a great energy from it. Um,
(16:46):
But um, self care is also something that I feel
like I've always handled instinctively. Um I find that I'm
pretty good at setting knowing. You know, if if a
deadline is going to be too much, I I know
when to step away. And I mean, for instance, talking
about Root sixty six and what I did there, I
mean it was you know, you can relate being a
(17:10):
touring musician. I mean, we're talking like a different motel
every night. But you know, I came up with rules
for myself. I'm I'm not going to drive more than
five hours in a day for starters, you know, and
you've got to make certain that you're you're well fed.
Um I tried my best to you know, I'm not
a health nut by any stretch of the imagination, but
tried not to load up on too too many burgers
(17:32):
or chicken fried stay steaks along the way. Um it
it's but you you also do have to remind yourself
at times about why you are doing this. And I
mean I I do think that the stories that I showcase,
you know, are are bigger than me. And I draw
energy from the people that I meet and their stories
(17:54):
because it's really it's much more about them than me.
And I draw a lot of energy from from them. Mhmm. Yeah,
you cannot fall prey to the easy food on the highway.
You I learned that years ago, and now I just
pack food with me when I get on the road.
I have to bring stuff that will sustain me, or
(18:16):
else I won't make it to the stage. It's a challenge.
It's a challenge out there. I usually get out of
the car now every hour and a half and don't
push beyond an hour and a half and do a
hundred jumping jacks, just get my body moving, or else
sitting for too long. Just eat away you slowly. Um,
and and so tell them I want to go back
(18:37):
to something you mentioned earlier and something we've you've talked
to me about before, and that's Mexico. Do you dream
of doing this show in Mexico. It's not it's not
out of the realm of possibility. I mean I think that, Um,
you know, Mexico really is kind of like a second
home for me in a lot of ways. I mean,
(18:59):
I grew up, you know, growing up, we would just
hop in the car and drive all over Mexico for
all of our vacations, being from Texas. And you know,
later as part of you know, after I left home
for college as part of my empty nest syndrome, my
parents bought and restored an acienda down there. So Mexico
is a big part of my life, and I believe
(19:20):
that Mexico deserves a Valentine Um. You know. You you
see so much negative coverage of Mexico in the media.
There's so many terrible misconceptions, and I would absolutely love
to love to do something down there. So it's it's
not out of the room of possibility. Well, that's what
I love about vanishing postcards is I just feel connected
(19:44):
to all the little corners of America that I'm removed from.
Even you say, even as a performer who travels a
lot and I get to see the world, I sometimes
I'm playing in the major cities too often, you know,
which is why you know why I art with Portland,
Maine instead of New York or you know what we
did l A this season, but we can start there.
(20:06):
There's plenty of And what I noticed too, when I
go play Europe, they love talking about Boston because there's
a lot of narrative for New York and l A
throughout the world. That's how they see America and vanishing
postcards allows Americans to see the richness of their country,
but also, like you said about the dance hall, the
(20:28):
love that the communities have and bearing on some of
these traditions. So um, I applaud you for bringing these
stories to the forefront with such grace and care and
and hearing the characters and vanishing postcards. It's just so wonderful. Well,
I thank you so much for that. I do. And
(20:50):
and to kind of like picking back a little off
of what you're saying, is, you know, the best some
of the best art and artists come from places that
I mean, people are the first to dismiss, you know.
I always say that Detroit gave us Motown, Clarksdale, Mississippi
gave us the Blues, And I mean one episode I
(21:12):
really look forward to sharing with everyone is I went
to Bakersfield, and I'm doing a whole piece on the
because Bakersfield, you know, doesn't sit on Root sixty six,
but it's story is absolutely intertwined with it because that's
where all the oaky migrants, that's the road that they
all drove in Bakersfield is where they end up, and
the music that they formed there in Bakersfield completely revolutionized
(21:36):
American music. And it's a story. You know, you mentioned,
you know, Bakersfield to maybe someone from San Francisco, they'll
be like, well, what the what the hell are you
doing going to Bakersfield's like, why the hell wouldn't I
go to Bakersfield. This is incredible and it's a story
that needs to be remembered, absolutely absolutely, and it's a
(21:56):
story that we haven't heard a million times. And and
like you said about the Troy and you mentioned the
New York in the seventies, then seventies of New York
gave us the talking Heads and the Romans because they
could afford to live there because everyone had blown it.
And the more we can find balance to keeping our
(22:18):
old stories alive, our news story is alive, and working
together and having artists that feel like they can afford
New York in Boston and San Francisco. I'm in full agreement, man,
less likely likely you are to have these crashes. Artists
keep us all connected. They do. And you know, like
I've said, it's not you know, you won't hear me
(22:40):
talk about stuff like this in the show itself. But
the reason my hometown of Austin you know, had this
incredible music scene, and the music scene is still there
in present. But the reason that music scene was born
is because it was a great town to be broken.
That's that's those days are. That's never coming back. But
we can have conversations about maybe, you know, let's see
(23:02):
if we can get some affordable housing going on for artists.
You know, let's see what you know, tax abatements we
can provide to businesses that are supporting this because it
is so crucial we save and protect live music in
places like Austin absolutely absolutely, or or the dance that
has been going on. You know, all these little things
(23:25):
all matter, and and I think, uh, I think we're
going to find a return to balance in the next
ten years because uh, like I said, it hasn't been
that fun in the last six Yeah, right now, from
your lips to God's ears, will, I haven't thank you
so much, man, I'm so glad that we're connected. Um.
(23:48):
I've learned and gained so much from listening to vantished postcards.
I have a whole other season, you know, I've listened
to sixty six so far, but I have a whole
other season than I haven't, you know, even going to
dive into yet, so it's great. Well believe we will.
The honor is mine. As as I said, you know,
you've kind of figured out a way to navigate a
lot of the problems that I've encountered through your show,
(24:10):
and I draw a great inspiration from your work as well.
Absolutely please back back at you, and I'm still figuring
this thing out, but it's been absolutely wonderful and having
this opportunity with you is actually really reaffirming, so awesome.
Okay, double elvis. I sit here waiting on some exciting
(00:13):
news for Sound of Our Town. Once it's confirmed, I'll
be sharing it here on the feed. But while I
prepare for that moment, I wanted to try something slightly
different here, And I'll explain. When I started the show,
I was fairly new to the world of podcasts, never
mind podcasting, and there was this one other podcast that
jumped out to me while I was making Season one
(00:34):
of Sound of Our Town that I felt in immediate
kinship too. And since I've missed the mic and traveling
around city to city preparing episodes for you, I thought
maybe i'd share with you this new favorite show of mine,
something to tide us over until I can get to
that good news. And I think this is something that
(00:54):
feeds that travel bug and that live music bug as well.
Vanishing Postcards is a documentary travelogue that invites listeners on
a road trip exploring the hidden dives, traditions, and frequently
threatened histories just off of our interstates. And if you
enjoyed episode ten of Santavar Town, where we visited Tulsa,
(01:14):
then you're going to want to check out Vanishing Postcards.
Episode five, where my friend and host Evan Stern, it
spends a whole show diving deep into the Vatican of
Tulsa Kine's ballroom. Episodes of Vanishing Postcards are expertly crafted,
meticulously researched, and features some of the most fascinating voices
(01:35):
you'll hear throughout America. I had the pleasure of sitting
down with Evan Stern a couple weeks ago where I
got to ask them all kinds of questions, including what
is podcasting? And I got my answers. I'd also like
to share some of that conversation with you right here,
right now, Here's Evan Stern van your early life? Uh,
(02:00):
do you have performance in your past? Is there a
part of you you feel it sounds when I'm listening
to you. You're not just like didn wake up one
day and say I'm gonna do a podcast or something
about you that is called to this. Absolutely not. It's
it was a very slow evolution that led me to
podcasting where I am now. But yes, my background is
actually as an actor. Um, and I've done a lot
(02:22):
of singing in my past as as well. You know,
I moved to I moved to New York. Straight out
of college. I realized that no doors were about to
open for me, and I realized I had to do
something on my own. I initially thought about writing a
one man show. Then I realized I didn't have the
time or patience to put something together that was going
to be quality enough that people would actually want to
(02:43):
sit through and watch it. And I said, well, you
know what with with Cabaret, the songs are there, the
history is there. So I put together a one man
show that focused on the songs of World War Two,
and I ended up doing a lot of work in
in New York's Caba Racing. UM. And I've been privileged
(03:04):
to perform on the stage of Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center,
a number of tremendous venues. UM. But I really am
one of those people who just fell in love with
podcasting over the course of the last ten years. You know,
I'd be listening to podcasts when I was cooking or cleaning,
programs like The Moth, The Kitchen Sisters, Cocaine and Rhinestones,
(03:25):
and I just slowly kind of started hearing these whispers say, well,
you know, maybe there is something that you could do
here with this, and UM, it was also around this
time that the YouTube algorithm kept suggesting these travel vlog
videos and I would watch them and I would rarely
see the way that I enjoyed traveling represented because it
(03:48):
was you know, of course, there are some exceptions, but
more often than not, the people doing these vlogs weren't saying,
look at this place. It was much more about, oh, well,
look at me and how fabulous and cute I am
in this place. And somehow I came up with this
idea that I wanted to put together a musical travelogue
(04:10):
of Mexico, which is so much of why I respect
what you're doing with the sound of our town because basically,
long story short, um, I went to go put together
a pilot and I went to Merida, Yucatan, and I
interviewed some musicians. And it's one thing to be writing
in a vacuum where you're thinking, oh man, this is
(04:30):
gonna be great. Then you get back, you take a
look at what you've done and you're like, oh man,
I have missed the mark so terribly. And what it
occurred to me in working on that is, yes, I
talked a lot about the city of Merida, but you
actually didn't feel the city of Merida in listening to
this piece, and I realized, well, I have to learn
(04:52):
so much more about audio production before tackling something ambitious
of this nature. I also realized, I'm proficient in Spanish,
I'm not fluent, but so it's challenging to get the
level of rapport going with the subject. For that reason,
but more than that, the human voice has such great color,
shade and nuance to it. That you get an actor
(05:13):
to come in and dub over these voices, you lose
so much. And so I said, Okay, I've got to
learn more, and in January I went back home to Texas.
I'm totally a messed in the gig economy up here
in New York. I kind of at that point, I
kind of built my life so that I could escape
the brutal winter for a little while. So January twenty
(05:35):
I went back home to Texas. Because if there's one
thing I know, it's that Texas people love to talk
and they tell great stories. And I didn't really know
what I was gonna do at that point, but I
just walked into this old dive bar in Austin called
the Dry Creek Cafe, and I started talking to people,
and I just kept collecting stories at different places, and
(05:56):
I stepped back and I said, Okay, so what do
I have here? I realized that each episode provided a
snapshot of a different place. What is that? That's a postcard?
And if there's a common thread in the places that
I visit is that you don't know how much longer
a lot of them are going to be around. UM
or they're really representative of broader, fading cultures, histories, traditions
(06:20):
that you just don't hear so much about anymore. And
it's been an incredible, exhilarating ride. And UM, I'm incredibly
honored that I've been able to have the resources to
to put all of this together. So my first season
was that was Texas based. UM. The current season that's
(06:43):
out right now is all about Root sixty six. UM.
I drove Root sixty six from Oklahoma to California, drove
six thousand, eight hundred forty five miles. I spoke with
over a hundred people along the way. UM. It was
an incredibly it's been an incredibly epic ordeal. UM. But
what's wonderful now is that I embarked on all of
(07:03):
this as a solo traveler and now I feel like
people are on this ride with me as I share
these stories and the season in series now And so
it was starting with Texas. Were there things that just
blew your You're from the state where there are things
that blew your mind that you discovered on that first season. Well,
(07:27):
it's it's all. It really is all about the people
that you meet. I'll tell you what I am. The
second piece I put together, UM was on this dance
hall in this town called Seaton, Texas. They have a
population of you know, maybe fifty people lived there. I'd
(07:48):
never been to this place before. Um, but each weekend,
every Sunday, they have dances at this old dance hall,
which is the oldest family run dance hall in Texas.
And you go to this place and I met people
there who still spoke check. You know, they've been in
Texas for generations and they still spoke in check one another.
(08:10):
And UM, you know, I'm walking around this dance hall.
I'm totally conspicuous. I have my shotgun, microphone, I have
my headphones. This old man comes up to me. He's
just so curious and he starts talking to me and
turns out this guy is about to turn a hundred
years old. He tells me in June, I'm gonna be
(08:31):
a hundred years old. Turns out he was a normandy veteran,
and he tells me that one night recently he showed
up there and he danced with thirty two different women.
And it's really it's just I find that the best
stories you find, the best people that you find, are
in the hidden places. They're in places that are are
(08:54):
getting the least amount of attention. I mean, I think
that the concept of vanishing postcards is global. I mean,
there's no reason why I couldn't do it in New
York City or Dublin or Mexico City or wherever. Um.
But I just find that, you know, when you get
(09:14):
to these small towns, the rewards are just incredibly rich.
And how have you been changed by some of those
adventures from talking to somebody? How has it affected you
as a person in these um adventures and these conversations
and the digging that you do which is so rich
(09:36):
and in depth. And I feel special when I'm listening
to it because I have that person's voice in my
head and your reflection of it. How has all that
affected you? As a person. Well, we live in a
horribly divided world in nation right now. Um I will
(09:59):
be the first say I don't think that anything about
what we've lived through over the last six years should
be normalized at all. And um, I don't. I don't
want to sound like a Polly and I actually think
of myself as being relatively cynical. But when you are
sitting across the table from someone, it's amazing how much
(10:21):
shared experience and empathy can be found. And I think
it's important to find areas of agreement in our world
right now, and culture is one of those rare areas
of agreement. And I spoke to someone recently who who
said to me, well, why can't they come to you?
(10:43):
You know, why do you have to to to go
to them? And my reaction that is, you know, if
we can't appreciate what is good and beautiful about our
small towns and rural America, how can we expect them
to appreciate what is good and beautiful about New York
City or Boston or San Francisco or wherever. Absolutely, that's
(11:05):
what I love about this connection and this conversation that
we're having is that both shows side of our town
and vanishing postcards. They just have this call to return
to humanity. And did you know you're getting into that
when you started this? No, not not at all. I'll
(11:28):
tell you I didn't have a clue what I was
doing when when when I started. When I started doing this, um,
it all just revealed itself to me as I got
to work on it. Um. But I think that there
is great as as we've talked about. I just think
it's very important that we have conversations about what we
(11:51):
can do to preserve and honor and celebrate culture. Obviously,
one of my favorite episodes is the Can's Ballroom episode,
which we are visiting. We're going to Tulsa this season,
(12:11):
so I think you can probably guess in each episode
side of our town. We have that distinction of the Vatican,
you know, the sonic Vatican of the city, and it
can it can vary, you know, um, but I think
you can probably guess Kanes will be the Vatican of Hell. Yeah,
I should hope. So have you have you been to
(12:33):
Canes before you were in there and interviewing everybody. I
had never been to Canes before, but I knew, but
I absolutely knew about Canes, and I knew that, you know,
Root sixty six goes through Tulsa. It was non negotiable
for me that I do have peace on Kane's Ballroom.
And and I found out that Asleep at the Wheel
was going to be performing there, and um, I tell
(12:56):
you what, man I I pretty much organized my whole
Root sixty six trip around that date so that I
could be there to experience Ray Benson and Asleep at
the Wheel at Kine's ball Room. And it was fantastic.
My goodness, my goodness. And that is really what is
so important right now. Is a friend of mine set
(13:18):
to me recently about sports stadiums and the good ones
that have been around forever, Wrigular or Fenway Park. But
there's just decades and sometimes centuries of all this human
emotion that's happened, the losses, the heartbreak, the victories, the anger,
the sadness, and it's all kind of absorbed somehow, all
(13:39):
that energy gets absorbed. And when you walk into some
of these places, you feel it right away, you know,
and I know you felt that when you walk into Keynes.
How do you feel? Are there other spots on the
Root sixty six tour or are all spots like that
for you when you walk in and you can just
kind of feel something. Well, certainly not all spots have,
(14:02):
absolutely not, But um I do find that I do
seek out places that have a certain sacred feeling to them.
I mean, it's it's it's very different. It's it's not
a music venue. But I mean one place that I
discovered was this small town, Miama, Oklahoma. It's just about
(14:24):
twelve miles south of the Kansas line, sits right on
Route sixty. But you go to the cemetery there and
you'll discover they have a Union Jack flag flying, and
they're fifteen graves that have the badge of the Royal
Air Force seal on them. And what it was In
World War Two, um Britain shipped a bunch of fly
(14:47):
boys over to train, you know, in Miama, Oklahoma, and
a number of them were killed in accidents or they
died in training while they were there and were never
able to get shipped home. But this small town still
holds remembrance ceremonies for these fallen soldiers each year. And
to walk amongst those graves and you know, to see
(15:12):
the way in which this community has eighty years on,
you know, kept these stories and honored their memories. You know,
it just didn't brought chills to my spine the second
I arrived there. Right, that's beautiful. So do you have Texas?
You have roots sixty six? Ah? How those are big
(15:36):
spaces and very long space. Uh, you're doing a workload
that I don't over How do I not overstate this?
It's uh, it's mammoth. It's um there's a Pulitzer level
of of care to do something like that as as
(15:56):
one person. Um, I'm I'm learning the workload of this
in my first season. Really, you know, in between playing
shows and then writing about shows, how do you balance
this and how do you make there's so much presence
in your show? How are you taking care of the
presence and researching and making vanishing postcards and uh balancing
(16:22):
your life? Well, I mean, first of all, it's it's
a love project, and I mean it it is indeed
a mammoth amount of work. I mean, it really is
an act of insanity. But at the same time, I mean,
when you are doing stuff for love, it doesn't necessarily
always feel like work. I draw a great energy from it. Um,
(16:46):
But um, self care is also something that I feel
like I've always handled instinctively. Um I find that I'm
pretty good at setting knowing. You know, if if a
deadline is going to be too much, I I know
when to step away. And I mean, for instance, talking
about Root sixty six and what I did there, I
mean it was you know, you can relate being a
(17:10):
touring musician. I mean, we're talking like a different motel
every night. But you know, I came up with rules
for myself. I'm I'm not going to drive more than
five hours in a day for starters, you know, and
you've got to make certain that you're you're well fed.
Um I tried my best to you know, I'm not
a health nut by any stretch of the imagination, but
tried not to load up on too too many burgers
(17:32):
or chicken fried stay steaks along the way. Um it
it's but you you also do have to remind yourself
at times about why you are doing this. And I
mean I I do think that the stories that I showcase,
you know, are are bigger than me. And I draw
energy from the people that I meet and their stories
(17:54):
because it's really it's much more about them than me.
And I draw a lot of energy from from them. Mhmm. Yeah,
you cannot fall prey to the easy food on the highway.
You I learned that years ago, and now I just
pack food with me when I get on the road.
I have to bring stuff that will sustain me, or
(18:16):
else I won't make it to the stage. It's a challenge.
It's a challenge out there. I usually get out of
the car now every hour and a half and don't
push beyond an hour and a half and do a
hundred jumping jacks, just get my body moving, or else
sitting for too long. Just eat away you slowly. Um,
and and so tell them I want to go back
(18:37):
to something you mentioned earlier and something we've you've talked
to me about before, and that's Mexico. Do you dream
of doing this show in Mexico. It's not it's not
out of the realm of possibility. I mean I think that, Um,
you know, Mexico really is kind of like a second
home for me in a lot of ways. I mean,
(18:59):
I grew up, you know, growing up, we would just
hop in the car and drive all over Mexico for
all of our vacations, being from Texas. And you know,
later as part of you know, after I left home
for college as part of my empty nest syndrome, my
parents bought and restored an acienda down there. So Mexico
is a big part of my life, and I believe
(19:20):
that Mexico deserves a Valentine Um. You know. You you
see so much negative coverage of Mexico in the media.
There's so many terrible misconceptions, and I would absolutely love
to love to do something down there. So it's it's
not out of the room of possibility. Well, that's what
I love about vanishing postcards is I just feel connected
(19:44):
to all the little corners of America that I'm removed from.
Even you say, even as a performer who travels a
lot and I get to see the world, I sometimes
I'm playing in the major cities too often, you know,
which is why you know why I art with Portland,
Maine instead of New York or you know what we
did l A this season, but we can start there.
(20:06):
There's plenty of And what I noticed too, when I
go play Europe, they love talking about Boston because there's
a lot of narrative for New York and l A
throughout the world. That's how they see America and vanishing
postcards allows Americans to see the richness of their country,
but also, like you said about the dance hall, the
(20:28):
love that the communities have and bearing on some of
these traditions. So um, I applaud you for bringing these
stories to the forefront with such grace and care and
and hearing the characters and vanishing postcards. It's just so wonderful. Well,
I thank you so much for that. I do. And
(20:50):
and to kind of like picking back a little off
of what you're saying, is, you know, the best some
of the best art and artists come from places that
I mean, people are the first to dismiss, you know.
I always say that Detroit gave us Motown, Clarksdale, Mississippi
gave us the Blues, And I mean one episode I
(21:12):
really look forward to sharing with everyone is I went
to Bakersfield, and I'm doing a whole piece on the
because Bakersfield, you know, doesn't sit on Root sixty six,
but it's story is absolutely intertwined with it because that's
where all the oaky migrants, that's the road that they
all drove in Bakersfield is where they end up, and
the music that they formed there in Bakersfield completely revolutionized
(21:36):
American music. And it's a story. You know, you mentioned,
you know, Bakersfield to maybe someone from San Francisco, they'll
be like, well, what the what the hell are you
doing going to Bakersfield's like, why the hell wouldn't I
go to Bakersfield. This is incredible and it's a story
that needs to be remembered, absolutely absolutely, and it's a
(21:56):
story that we haven't heard a million times. And and
like you said about the Troy and you mentioned the
New York in the seventies, then seventies of New York
gave us the talking Heads and the Romans because they
could afford to live there because everyone had blown it.
And the more we can find balance to keeping our
(22:18):
old stories alive, our news story is alive, and working
together and having artists that feel like they can afford
New York in Boston and San Francisco. I'm in full agreement, man,
less likely likely you are to have these crashes. Artists
keep us all connected. They do. And you know, like
I've said, it's not you know, you won't hear me
(22:40):
talk about stuff like this in the show itself. But
the reason my hometown of Austin you know, had this
incredible music scene, and the music scene is still there
in present. But the reason that music scene was born
is because it was a great town to be broken.
That's that's those days are. That's never coming back. But
we can have conversations about maybe, you know, let's see
(23:02):
if we can get some affordable housing going on for artists.
You know, let's see what you know, tax abatements we
can provide to businesses that are supporting this because it
is so crucial we save and protect live music in
places like Austin absolutely absolutely, or or the dance that
has been going on. You know, all these little things
(23:25):
all matter, and and I think, uh, I think we're
going to find a return to balance in the next
ten years because uh, like I said, it hasn't been
that fun in the last six Yeah, right now, from
your lips to God's ears, will, I haven't thank you
so much, man, I'm so glad that we're connected. Um.
(23:48):
I've learned and gained so much from listening to vantished postcards.
I have a whole other season, you know, I've listened
to sixty six so far, but I have a whole
other season than I haven't, you know, even going to
dive into yet, so it's great. Well believe we will.
The honor is mine. As as I said, you know,
you've kind of figured out a way to navigate a
lot of the problems that I've encountered through your show,
(24:10):
and I draw a great inspiration from your work as well.
Absolutely please back back at you, and I'm still figuring
this thing out, but it's been absolutely wonderful and having
this opportunity with you is actually really reaffirming, so awesome.
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