October 29, 2025 • 27 mins
In this episode of the "Takin a Walk" music history interview podcast , host Buzz Knight talks with acclaimed Nashville songwriter Adam Wright about his new project, "Nature of Necessity." Adam discusses his creative process, the value of authenticity in music, and his experiences working with artists like Sierra Hull and Brandy Clark. He shares stories about his songwriting influences, including Mark Knopfler and John Prine, and reflects on embracing imperfection in his recordings. The episode offers an intimate look at Adam’s journey from behind-the-scenes songwriter to solo artist, highlighting his thoughtful approach to both music and storytelling.
His bio puts it well: "A True singer-songwriter, Wright colors in the shapes of characters so numerous and diverse you'd need a series of novels to tell their full stories." His songs have been recorded by the likes of Alan Jackson, Lee Ann Womack, Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood, but now he steps into the limelight as the singer-songwriter behind his new album "Nature of Necessity."
You'll love Adan's authentic sound and his honest conversation about his craft in this slice of music history.
Support the show: https://takinawalk.com/
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Taking a Walk.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
I like to hear performances and I like to hear
some humanity, and when it's not in music, I just
it is hard to get interested.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Man.
Speaker 4 (00:10):
For me at this point, I'm buzz night and welcome
back to the Taking a Walk Podcast. I'm your host,
and today I'm excited to be joined by someone whose
words you've probably sung along to without even realizing it.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
His name is Adam Wright.
Speaker 5 (00:23):
He's a Nashville songwriter who's crafted some of country music's
most memorable hits, with a career spanning decades decades great work.
His songs have this rare quality feeling both timeless and fresh,
the kind of writing that makes you always want to
hit repeat. And we're here to celebrate his brand new
music called Nature of Necessity. So he's stepping out of
(00:45):
the writer's room onto the spotlight talking to Adam Wright
next on Taking a Walk. Taking a Walk, Adam Wright,
Welcome to the Taking a Walk Podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
It's so nice to have you on.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Buzz yeah.
Speaker 5 (01:01):
So we're going to talk about Nature of Necessity, your
brand new project. But first I'm not going to let
you escape our signature opening question.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
I hope you're strapped in and ready.
Speaker 5 (01:13):
If you could take a walk with somebody living or dead,
who would you take a walk with? And where would
you take that walk with him?
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Okay? Probably, And I think I might regret it having
done it, but I think I would want to take
a walk with because there are so many people that
be fascinating to walk with. I think I would take
a walk with James Joyce, and probably around Dublin so
(01:42):
you could show me all the haunts. Ulysses like blew
my mind, Like I read it like three times, and
what blew my mind about it was the difference between
portrait of the artist as a young man in Ulysses,
whereas a perfectly good novel by a very good writer
(02:03):
becoming a you know, a great novelist and a popular novelist,
and then this radical explosion of literary inventiveness that was Ulysses, Like,
I want to know what happened between this novel and
this novel and just with that amount of brilliance and activity,
(02:26):
I just wondered what it would have been like to
just walk around with him. And I can almost guarantee
you that I would probably regret it, but I think I'm.
Speaker 5 (02:36):
Going to go with that, James Joyce, as you were
saying at My Furry Recollection too. When I posed that
question to Amanda Schier's I think that was her answer.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Oh, no, kidding, Yeah, Now she perceived.
Speaker 5 (02:53):
There could have been like a maybe a little bit
of a drunken brawl or something that might have been.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
There are stories of I don't know if they're true
or not, stories of Joyce and Hemingway bar hopping around Paris,
and the stories go that Joyce would be mouthing off
to people until they became, you know, violent, and then
he would go get Hemingway, and Hemingway would squash the
(03:23):
squash the violence, and then they would go to the
next bar and do the same thing. Who knows if
that's true. Yeah, I think I would regret it, but
I think I would. I would be remiss not to
give it a shot.
Speaker 5 (03:38):
Is there anything in your career path so far that
you look back and you go, geez, I regret going
down that road?
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Oh gosh, I don't know. Regrets funny, because like you
take one of those little things away and then you're
not where you are anymore. You know, there are things
that I found I guess difficult or didn't seem useful
(04:06):
or productive. But I don't know that you ever get
to where you're going if you don't go through those things.
I don't know. I don't know if I have a
lot of regrets.
Speaker 5 (04:17):
Really yeah, I'm going to share one that I make
fun of a bit, because I'm sure if I really
look and reflect, there's some deeper regrets that I have.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
But I kid you not.
Speaker 5 (04:30):
One regret I have was many years ago being in
the company of Bob Dylan with about nine other people.
It was at a record company you know event, prior
to a show of his. As you would have guessed,
we met him. He made eye contact upon the first
(04:52):
introduction and then proceeded to never look us in the
eye after that because he was not comfortable in that situation, right,
that was the last thing he wanted to do. Sure,
But then at one point he did say, does anybody
want to do a shadow whiskey? And none of us
did because we were frightened because you know, this is
(05:15):
the voice of a generation, sure, and so no one
took them up on it. So I kiddingly, but I
really do mean it, because I'll never get that shot again, right, right, right,
So my regret is just that silly one of not
doing a shot of whiskey with Bob Dylan.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
So oh, man, I get that probably would have been
worth it.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
What did I have to lose? Right? What did I
have to lose?
Speaker 2 (05:39):
It could have turned into a bottle of whiskey, and
then who knows what you're into?
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Man? That's right right.
Speaker 5 (05:44):
There's a couple of people I want to corner you
on that you've penned songs in particular. For first of all,
one of them who I love and we had on
the podcast was Sierra Hull, So what was what was
that process of writing for Sierra?
Speaker 2 (06:04):
The first time we wrote, I think was like during
COVID and it was a zoom right, And I'd forgotten
that it was a zoom right because the first time
I actually saw her in person was not writing. It
was we were on a show together up in North Carolina.
It was like a festival thing and I was like, oh, Sierra,
(06:25):
and it took her a minute. She was like wait
what And it just took her a minute to like
click that you know who I was because we had
not really seen each other in person. So the zoom
right was. You know, they're a little awkward sometimes, but
but it was one of the better zoom rights I
had during the zoom writing era. That was Covid. But man,
(06:49):
I mean I love writing with her in person. She's
she's so bright, and she's so musically in tune with
her artistry, Like like that's just not a problem, you know,
like if you have a if you have a group
of words or a concept or an idea, it's like this.
(07:11):
This is like this musical cauldron is just always boiling.
She just seems like always ready to spew musical brilliance,
you know, for the sake of a song. It's a
She's great man. I just I like her a lot.
She's a great hang and we always get good songs.
Speaker 5 (07:31):
What is your take on this phenomenal crop of people
that she is is one of them. I consider her
the other of course billy strings. We can't leave billy
strings out. But and then this, like the Molly Tuttle
as well, this phenomenal you know, infusion that has happened
(07:53):
inside country bluegrass. What's your take on the state of
this because I think it's fascinating.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
I do too. I'm glad to see it like it
felt like musicianship had sort of fallen out of fashion,
like high musicianship for a minute, and maybe I just
wasn't paying attention to things. I'm perfectly guilty of not
being aware of what's going on out in the world,
(08:22):
you know, But man, I'm writing, I mean, like in
the last I don't know how many years, ten years
or so, Like you just they're just popping up everywhere, man,
I mean just these I mean mind blowing musicians and
they're making great music. You know, they're cutting cool songs.
(08:44):
They can all sing. I mean it's really cool. I
love it. The playing fascinates me, Like I mean I started,
I got into that kind of music too late to
really be able to do it very well just physically.
So I'm fascinated by the musicianship of some of these
(09:07):
flat pickers, I mean all of them really. I mean
so I like hanging out with them selfishly just so
I can just see them play, which they don't want
to do like that. Like I think the one I
wrote was here. I don't even think she touched an instrument.
I think we just wrote a song and she just
watched me fumble through guitar chords like you know, eventually,
(09:28):
you know, she kind of got down on it and
you know, made something out of it. But yeah, I'm
fascinated with just the mechanics, just the sheer physicality of
what some of those people can do on an instrument.
Like it's thrilling to me.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
I love it too, Yeah, I love it too.
Speaker 5 (09:49):
The other person that you worked with that you wrote
for is is Randy Newman. And some weeks back I
had I had Billy Joel's daughter on Alexa Ray Joel,
and she professed, you know, of course her love for
her father's work, but her love and shared that her
(10:13):
father's love also for Randy Newman was so incredibly strong.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
What was your experience with Randy?
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Well, I didn't. I didn't get to really have the
Randy experience except that I got to hear him sing
words that I wrote, which is that's good enough for me.
But Brandy Clark and I wrote that song Bigger Boat,
and she knew Randy somehow. I don't. I don't know
(10:42):
that I remember how our ever knew how, I don't know,
but I know she knew Randy and she thought that
it would be fun to see if he would sing
on it, and he dug the song and sang a
duet with her on this. So that was the extent
of my Randy ex experience.
Speaker 5 (11:01):
Kind of an unsung musical, you know, hero in many regards,
don't you talk, oh.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Man, I mean just I mean he's in the you know,
he's on the short list of the most brilliant songwriters.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
You know, no doubt who would you put on that list. Additionally, well,
Martin Offler is like my favorite.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
He just does it all for me, man, Like I
just just in terms of like character sketches and stories
and just moments and pieces of snatches of history or
just roots music. I mean, he does all of that.
(11:44):
He's a fine craftsman in his playing, in his writing,
and sort of the penultimate for me is Martinofler. John
Prime would belong up there. He's just the art and
wit and the way he can mix humor and gravity
(12:05):
is special. But I don't think anybody else has really
done that in that way. Roger Miller sort of for
the same reason, but also just this wild brilliance, Like
you get the impression listening to like the breath of
Roger Miller's writing that he could have done anything because
(12:28):
he did a lot of it. You know, there are
a lot of very serious songs, you know, in his
catalog as well. I mean, the goofy stuff is you know,
it's clever and fun, but it belies the genius writer
that he was. So and then after that, I don't know,
I have a tough time after those three.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
It's a pretty good it's a pretty good list, you know.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Man, you study those three, you can get a lot done.
Leonard Cohen is a funny one. Like it's so it's
such serious writing, and it's so intentional. It's like it's
the hardware department, you know. Leonard Cohen's the hardware department,
(13:14):
Like you can get hurt in there. It's pretty serious, man.
And it took me a long time to I kind
of bumped my head on him for a long time
trying to find a way into it, you know, and
it was kind of resistant. I would just one winter,
I would just get up really early and just go
sit downstairs in the kitchen by the big bay window
(13:36):
in the dark, you know, before the sun came up,
and I would just listen to Leonard Cohen albums and
drink coffee and just wait for a way in, you know,
and I don't think like Hallelujah doesn't count, Like I
don't think that counts. Like everybody gets that song and
it can appreciate it and feel it. You have to
take that away and then get into the other stuff
(13:58):
and then see if you can find a way into
that to see if he's like one of your people.
And I think it was like Famous Blue rain Coat
or something that I listened to maybe the fourteenth time
and not not even understanding it, but just I don't know,
appreciating it for how I was going to be able
(14:19):
to appreciate it. And one morning, man, it just kind
of hit and I was like, oh, he's kind of
the best. I still don't think his music is it's
really enjoyable to listen to for me, like, but I
don't think that was the point of his music either,
(14:40):
which kind of brings me back to Martin Kopfler. Like
he I think he has the kind of gravity and
seriousness and command of the situation that somebody like Leonard
Cohen has, but he's also more tuneful. To me, he's
just because he's such a great guitar player, and I'm
just a guitar nerd and he puts it together there
(15:00):
in a way that kind of just does all the
stuff for me. I guess I don't know.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Sorry. I love it. No, I love how.
Speaker 5 (15:09):
You you're sharing the window into your mind and you know,
being an artist and songwriter, it's fascinating to hear that
that window.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
We'll be right back with more the Taking a Walk Podcast.
Welcome back to the Taking a Walk Podcast.
Speaker 5 (15:30):
If you want to see something really cool, if you
haven't seen it, uh, it's on YouTube. It's this interview
with Brian Johnson from a C d C that he
did with Mark Knopfler.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
They're out. That isn't that amazing?
Speaker 2 (15:45):
It's amazing.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Yeah, it's it's so fun and you.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Know, yeah, it's fun. Yeah. Seeing the two of them
hang out and talk really that was really cool.
Speaker 5 (15:55):
Yeah, it's really really cool. Back to john did your
World ever intersect him while he was stole Alive?
Speaker 1 (16:04):
No?
Speaker 2 (16:05):
But you know what, he used to have his office, like,
oh boy, used to be like right across the street
from where I am on the Music Grow And when
we first got to town, I used to go over
there and like tape CDs to the door because I
didn't I didn't mean I didn't. I don't know how
to get in touch with anybody. You know, I was
very ineffective as a salesperson and a promoter of my
(16:29):
own you know wares. It was just hopeless, and so
I would I would just go take little CDs that
I made and just like leave them on the door,
and you know, it's like panhandling. I don't know, I
think I think I did that to like Gillian Welch
and Dave Rawlings studio one time too. I did end
up getting to know them through a friend of her friend,
and they were nice and lovely. But I did not
(16:51):
bring up the fact that I probably left a bunch
of CDs on their door. But no, I never I
never met Uh well, no that's not true. I did
meet him the first time I ever saw him play
when we first moved to town. There was uh I
think the bar is still. There's a place called the
Crow's Nest over in Green Hills and it's just a
(17:12):
little sports bar. Nothing cool about it at all, really, sorry,
Crow's Nest And it was no stage.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
That's part of the charm at them, right, it.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Is part of the charm. Yeah, maybe that's they designed
it that way. But they had all these you know,
a bunch of TVs everywhere, like you know, like three
games going at once. It's just that kind of place,
a sports bar. And somebody said, hey, man, John Prime's
playing at this place, and I was like, at that place. Yeah,
we had just been to town like a week or something.
(17:41):
And so my wife Shannon and I we go meet
whoever we met. I can't even remember who they were
at the time, but we go in. It's like just
a bunch of like regular chairs, like you know, just
like folding chairs, and we're all sitting. I mean, it
was like, you know, twenty of us and kind filled
up the place. And man, he's just standing four feet
(18:04):
away and I think it was Pat o'clock though, was
with him. I can't remember who was playing guitar with him.
I think that's who it was. And man, it was
just the two of them and they played for like
an hour and a half like that, that close, and
I thought, Nashville is the greatest place in the world,
Like you could just go to a bar like this
(18:24):
and John Prime is playing, like this is incredible, right,
And then it never never happened again like that, nothing
that cool ever happened again in the twenty five years
that I've been here, but it was enough to make
us stay.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Oh that is fantastic.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
I played with Leanne at a show at a I
think it was BlackBerry Farms, I think is the name
of the place out in somewhere in Tennessee, and Leanne
was playing, and John was playing with his band Dave
Jakeson his company is to have my name escapes me
(19:02):
at the moment. So I did get to meet him
then and play a show with him. Really, but you know,
we weren't pals. I wish we were. He was a
seemed like a wonderful guy.
Speaker 5 (19:13):
Oh man, he's uh, he's a certainly he's certainly a
soundtrack to my my life for sure.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (19:19):
Every twist and turn. So congratulations on nature of necessity.
It must feel really amazing putting this out to the world.
Tell me how you're feeling.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
About it, man, You know, I feel good about it.
It's like it's well received by people whose accolades respect
and appreciate, people whose opinions I care about seem to
appreciate that this record was made and is available, and
(19:50):
that means a lot. And you know, we've got a small,
mighty team of people over here at the Carnival Music
and partners with you know, people like Short Fire Empire.
They've helped us quite a bit, but it's a you know,
I think the the idea of the success of an
independent release to me is the fact that you released
(20:16):
it sort of in the like, not in the result
of what it brings you, but so much as you
made this thing, you make a plan, however humble it
might be, to present it, and then you follow that plan,
and then that's the best you can do. And this
(20:37):
has felt really good. It's the I think, the first
time I've spent this much time trying to promote a
thing that I didn't once at myself for doing it,
because it doesn't feel like I'm promoting myself. It feels
like I'm promoting some work I did with some people
(20:59):
I really love, and they've all worked so hard to
have this thing exist. The least that I can do
is get out and work as hard or harder to
make sure that people are aware of it, whoever might
appreciate it. So it feels great. I'm glad.
Speaker 5 (21:19):
It's that it sounds fantastic, and it's it is getting
great reviews.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
But go back to your your view of it.
Speaker 5 (21:31):
How does an artist and a writer deal in a
world today where it's so easy to have perfection with everything,
and that perfection is so sought after. But yet when
we really reflect, we know imperfection has its own beauty.
So talk to me about the balance of perfection and imperfection.
(21:54):
You know about this project in particular in your mind?
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Oh well, that's funny because with the idea of this record,
and I've been doing this with the last few things
that I've put out, a couple of EPs and then
a full album I called out Win like where I
just would everything had to be one pass, unedited, warts
(22:19):
and all lives with it. I just you're right, it's
so easy to make things perfect. Anybody can make anything perfect.
Now it just gets so boring, uninteresting, I guess. So
the once you start recording that way and listening to
things that way, it's hard not to keep going down
(22:42):
that path. You know, the flaws or what are what
becomes interesting and sometimes beautiful. So with this, we decided
to record live myself playing and singing, Glenn Warf on
bass and Matt Chamberlain on drums, and the idea and
nothing was coming to save us. This was it. Like
(23:03):
if something had to be big, we have to make
it big and that's it. And I remember telling Glenn
we were sitting in Frank's kitchen, Frank Lyddell, who produced
the album and is also my publisher, and I said, okay, Glenn,
like you're you're the lead instrument man. It's like I'm busy,
like I'm tied up playing guitar for myself and singing.
(23:25):
It's like if there's a solo or something has a
feel to be done, like you're the you're the man,
like you gotta do it man. And Matt too, and
so there are times when Glenn's just playing lead bass
through like an entire verse and chorus of a song,
and it's so unusual and exciting to me. Like the
(23:47):
stuff that happens musically on this record, I love it. It's
so it's so wild. It feels wild at times, like
they're just not doing things conventionally, and we all just
though I don't know, it excited me. I hope they're
proud of it. I don't know them. They might not
admit that they played on him, but it excited me.
And there are some vocal things that you know, if
(24:09):
if we weren't recording like this, if this had not
been our philosophy, I would absolutely have fixed, or an
engineer would have fixed without even telling me, you know,
but we wanted it to be flawed. We wanted to
be good or we're not trying to make a bad record,
but there are things that are wrong with parts of it.
And you know, it's like we got more than one shot.
(24:32):
It's not like we just had one shot and didn't
quite nail it. It's like some of these songs we
did five or six times, and if that's the way
it came out, then that's about as good as we
can do it. And that's just gonna have to be good.
And there's something about that that is that I like
that I've just come to like. I like to hear
performances and I like to hear some humanity, and when
(24:55):
it's not in music, I just it's hard to get interested.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Man.
Speaker 5 (25:01):
For me, at this point in closing, I want to
ask you, and I you know, can't see if you'll
be blushing when I say this, but you're a humble gentleman.
How does it make you feel when you're referred to
as the poet laureate of music growth.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Well, you know, part of me. The morning after I
saw that thing, I woke up and got a cup
of coffee downstairs, and my dog had gone to the
bathroom on the floor, and I took a picture of it,
(25:40):
and I sent it and I was like, my dog
is the poet laureate of pooping on my floor in
the middle of the night. I was like, I don't
know what is part of me it thinks like that,
like just totally dismissive of any sort of accolade. And
the other part of me is really uh, I don't know,
proud that all of the work that went into the
(26:02):
writing of these songs resonated with someone who appreciates the
craft of words. That feels really good. I'd be lying.
I'd be lying if I didn't say that it felt
really good. You know, there are a lot of a
lot of people that are very good with words in
this town, especially, so I don't know, it feels good. Yeah,
(26:25):
I'm flattered, But also, my dog is the poet laureate
of pooping on the floor in the middle.
Speaker 5 (26:31):
Of the Well, it feels really good talking to you
about your new work Nature of Necessity, which I absolutely love,
and I love your body of work as a songwriter.
I love your work as a musician and it was
amazing to have you on Taking a Walk.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
Adam Wright. Thank you so much for being here.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
Thanks for having me, guys, I appreciate it. Man, I
enjoyed talking to you.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking a
Walk podcast. Share this and other episodes with your friends
and follow us so you never miss an episode. Taking
a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
and wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 5 (27:13):
Taking a Walk is made possible by the support of
our great sponsors, and we thanked them, including Chase Sapphire Reserve.
My gateway to the world's most captivating destinations is from
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Taking a Walk.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
I like to hear performances and I like to hear
some humanity, and when it's not in music, I just
it is hard to get interested.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Man.
Speaker 4 (00:10):
For me at this point, I'm buzz night and welcome
back to the Taking a Walk Podcast. I'm your host,
and today I'm excited to be joined by someone whose
words you've probably sung along to without even realizing it.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
His name is Adam Wright.
Speaker 5 (00:23):
He's a Nashville songwriter who's crafted some of country music's
most memorable hits, with a career spanning decades decades great work.
His songs have this rare quality feeling both timeless and fresh,
the kind of writing that makes you always want to
hit repeat. And we're here to celebrate his brand new
music called Nature of Necessity. So he's stepping out of
(00:45):
the writer's room onto the spotlight talking to Adam Wright
next on Taking a Walk. Taking a Walk, Adam Wright,
Welcome to the Taking a Walk Podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
It's so nice to have you on.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Buzz yeah.
Speaker 5 (01:01):
So we're going to talk about Nature of Necessity, your
brand new project. But first I'm not going to let
you escape our signature opening question.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
I hope you're strapped in and ready.
Speaker 5 (01:13):
If you could take a walk with somebody living or dead,
who would you take a walk with? And where would
you take that walk with him?
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Okay? Probably, And I think I might regret it having
done it, but I think I would want to take
a walk with because there are so many people that
be fascinating to walk with. I think I would take
a walk with James Joyce, and probably around Dublin so
(01:42):
you could show me all the haunts. Ulysses like blew
my mind, Like I read it like three times, and
what blew my mind about it was the difference between
portrait of the artist as a young man in Ulysses,
whereas a perfectly good novel by a very good writer
(02:03):
becoming a you know, a great novelist and a popular novelist,
and then this radical explosion of literary inventiveness that was Ulysses, Like,
I want to know what happened between this novel and
this novel and just with that amount of brilliance and activity,
(02:26):
I just wondered what it would have been like to
just walk around with him. And I can almost guarantee
you that I would probably regret it, but I think I'm.
Speaker 5 (02:36):
Going to go with that, James Joyce, as you were
saying at My Furry Recollection too. When I posed that
question to Amanda Schier's I think that was her answer.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Oh, no, kidding, Yeah, Now she perceived.
Speaker 5 (02:53):
There could have been like a maybe a little bit
of a drunken brawl or something that might have been.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
There are stories of I don't know if they're true
or not, stories of Joyce and Hemingway bar hopping around Paris,
and the stories go that Joyce would be mouthing off
to people until they became, you know, violent, and then
he would go get Hemingway, and Hemingway would squash the
(03:23):
squash the violence, and then they would go to the
next bar and do the same thing. Who knows if
that's true. Yeah, I think I would regret it, but
I think I would. I would be remiss not to
give it a shot.
Speaker 5 (03:38):
Is there anything in your career path so far that
you look back and you go, geez, I regret going
down that road?
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Oh gosh, I don't know. Regrets funny, because like you
take one of those little things away and then you're
not where you are anymore. You know, there are things
that I found I guess difficult or didn't seem useful
(04:06):
or productive. But I don't know that you ever get
to where you're going if you don't go through those things.
I don't know. I don't know if I have a
lot of regrets.
Speaker 5 (04:17):
Really yeah, I'm going to share one that I make
fun of a bit, because I'm sure if I really
look and reflect, there's some deeper regrets that I have.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
But I kid you not.
Speaker 5 (04:30):
One regret I have was many years ago being in
the company of Bob Dylan with about nine other people.
It was at a record company you know event, prior
to a show of his. As you would have guessed,
we met him. He made eye contact upon the first
(04:52):
introduction and then proceeded to never look us in the
eye after that because he was not comfortable in that situation, right,
that was the last thing he wanted to do. Sure,
But then at one point he did say, does anybody
want to do a shadow whiskey? And none of us
did because we were frightened because you know, this is
(05:15):
the voice of a generation, sure, and so no one
took them up on it. So I kiddingly, but I
really do mean it, because I'll never get that shot again, right, right, right,
So my regret is just that silly one of not
doing a shot of whiskey with Bob Dylan.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
So oh, man, I get that probably would have been
worth it.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
What did I have to lose? Right? What did I
have to lose?
Speaker 2 (05:39):
It could have turned into a bottle of whiskey, and
then who knows what you're into?
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Man? That's right right.
Speaker 5 (05:44):
There's a couple of people I want to corner you
on that you've penned songs in particular. For first of all,
one of them who I love and we had on
the podcast was Sierra Hull, So what was what was
that process of writing for Sierra?
Speaker 2 (06:04):
The first time we wrote, I think was like during
COVID and it was a zoom right, And I'd forgotten
that it was a zoom right because the first time
I actually saw her in person was not writing. It
was we were on a show together up in North Carolina.
It was like a festival thing and I was like, oh, Sierra,
(06:25):
and it took her a minute. She was like wait
what And it just took her a minute to like
click that you know who I was because we had
not really seen each other in person. So the zoom
right was. You know, they're a little awkward sometimes, but
but it was one of the better zoom rights I
had during the zoom writing era. That was Covid. But man,
(06:49):
I mean I love writing with her in person. She's
she's so bright, and she's so musically in tune with
her artistry, Like like that's just not a problem, you know,
like if you have a if you have a group
of words or a concept or an idea, it's like this.
(07:11):
This is like this musical cauldron is just always boiling.
She just seems like always ready to spew musical brilliance,
you know, for the sake of a song. It's a
She's great man. I just I like her a lot.
She's a great hang and we always get good songs.
Speaker 5 (07:31):
What is your take on this phenomenal crop of people
that she is is one of them. I consider her
the other of course billy strings. We can't leave billy
strings out. But and then this, like the Molly Tuttle
as well, this phenomenal you know, infusion that has happened
(07:53):
inside country bluegrass. What's your take on the state of
this because I think it's fascinating.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
I do too. I'm glad to see it like it
felt like musicianship had sort of fallen out of fashion,
like high musicianship for a minute, and maybe I just
wasn't paying attention to things. I'm perfectly guilty of not
being aware of what's going on out in the world,
(08:22):
you know, But man, I'm writing, I mean, like in
the last I don't know how many years, ten years
or so, Like you just they're just popping up everywhere, man,
I mean just these I mean mind blowing musicians and
they're making great music. You know, they're cutting cool songs.
(08:44):
They can all sing. I mean it's really cool. I
love it. The playing fascinates me, Like I mean I started,
I got into that kind of music too late to
really be able to do it very well just physically.
So I'm fascinated by the musicianship of some of these
(09:07):
flat pickers, I mean all of them really. I mean
so I like hanging out with them selfishly just so
I can just see them play, which they don't want
to do like that. Like I think the one I
wrote was here. I don't even think she touched an instrument.
I think we just wrote a song and she just
watched me fumble through guitar chords like you know, eventually,
(09:28):
you know, she kind of got down on it and
you know, made something out of it. But yeah, I'm
fascinated with just the mechanics, just the sheer physicality of
what some of those people can do on an instrument.
Like it's thrilling to me.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
I love it too, Yeah, I love it too.
Speaker 5 (09:49):
The other person that you worked with that you wrote
for is is Randy Newman. And some weeks back I
had I had Billy Joel's daughter on Alexa Ray Joel,
and she professed, you know, of course her love for
her father's work, but her love and shared that her
(10:13):
father's love also for Randy Newman was so incredibly strong.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
What was your experience with Randy?
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Well, I didn't. I didn't get to really have the
Randy experience except that I got to hear him sing
words that I wrote, which is that's good enough for me.
But Brandy Clark and I wrote that song Bigger Boat,
and she knew Randy somehow. I don't. I don't know
(10:42):
that I remember how our ever knew how, I don't know,
but I know she knew Randy and she thought that
it would be fun to see if he would sing
on it, and he dug the song and sang a
duet with her on this. So that was the extent
of my Randy ex experience.
Speaker 5 (11:01):
Kind of an unsung musical, you know, hero in many regards,
don't you talk, oh.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Man, I mean just I mean he's in the you know,
he's on the short list of the most brilliant songwriters.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
You know, no doubt who would you put on that list. Additionally, well,
Martin Offler is like my favorite.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
He just does it all for me, man, Like I
just just in terms of like character sketches and stories
and just moments and pieces of snatches of history or
just roots music. I mean, he does all of that.
(11:44):
He's a fine craftsman in his playing, in his writing,
and sort of the penultimate for me is Martinofler. John
Prime would belong up there. He's just the art and
wit and the way he can mix humor and gravity
(12:05):
is special. But I don't think anybody else has really
done that in that way. Roger Miller sort of for
the same reason, but also just this wild brilliance, Like
you get the impression listening to like the breath of
Roger Miller's writing that he could have done anything because
(12:28):
he did a lot of it. You know, there are
a lot of very serious songs, you know, in his
catalog as well. I mean, the goofy stuff is you know,
it's clever and fun, but it belies the genius writer
that he was. So and then after that, I don't know,
I have a tough time after those three.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
It's a pretty good it's a pretty good list, you know.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Man, you study those three, you can get a lot done.
Leonard Cohen is a funny one. Like it's so it's
such serious writing, and it's so intentional. It's like it's
the hardware department, you know. Leonard Cohen's the hardware department,
(13:14):
Like you can get hurt in there. It's pretty serious, man.
And it took me a long time to I kind
of bumped my head on him for a long time
trying to find a way into it, you know, and
it was kind of resistant. I would just one winter,
I would just get up really early and just go
sit downstairs in the kitchen by the big bay window
(13:36):
in the dark, you know, before the sun came up,
and I would just listen to Leonard Cohen albums and
drink coffee and just wait for a way in, you know,
and I don't think like Hallelujah doesn't count, Like I
don't think that counts. Like everybody gets that song and
it can appreciate it and feel it. You have to
take that away and then get into the other stuff
(13:58):
and then see if you can find a way into
that to see if he's like one of your people.
And I think it was like Famous Blue rain Coat
or something that I listened to maybe the fourteenth time
and not not even understanding it, but just I don't know,
appreciating it for how I was going to be able
(14:19):
to appreciate it. And one morning, man, it just kind
of hit and I was like, oh, he's kind of
the best. I still don't think his music is it's
really enjoyable to listen to for me, like, but I
don't think that was the point of his music either,
(14:40):
which kind of brings me back to Martin Kopfler. Like
he I think he has the kind of gravity and
seriousness and command of the situation that somebody like Leonard
Cohen has, but he's also more tuneful. To me, he's
just because he's such a great guitar player, and I'm
just a guitar nerd and he puts it together there
(15:00):
in a way that kind of just does all the
stuff for me. I guess I don't know.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Sorry. I love it. No, I love how.
Speaker 5 (15:09):
You you're sharing the window into your mind and you know,
being an artist and songwriter, it's fascinating to hear that
that window.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
We'll be right back with more the Taking a Walk Podcast.
Welcome back to the Taking a Walk Podcast.
Speaker 5 (15:30):
If you want to see something really cool, if you
haven't seen it, uh, it's on YouTube. It's this interview
with Brian Johnson from a C d C that he
did with Mark Knopfler.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
They're out. That isn't that amazing?
Speaker 2 (15:45):
It's amazing.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Yeah, it's it's so fun and you.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Know, yeah, it's fun. Yeah. Seeing the two of them
hang out and talk really that was really cool.
Speaker 5 (15:55):
Yeah, it's really really cool. Back to john did your
World ever intersect him while he was stole Alive?
Speaker 1 (16:04):
No?
Speaker 2 (16:05):
But you know what, he used to have his office, like,
oh boy, used to be like right across the street
from where I am on the Music Grow And when
we first got to town, I used to go over
there and like tape CDs to the door because I
didn't I didn't mean I didn't. I don't know how
to get in touch with anybody. You know, I was
very ineffective as a salesperson and a promoter of my
(16:29):
own you know wares. It was just hopeless, and so
I would I would just go take little CDs that
I made and just like leave them on the door,
and you know, it's like panhandling. I don't know, I
think I think I did that to like Gillian Welch
and Dave Rawlings studio one time too. I did end
up getting to know them through a friend of her friend,
and they were nice and lovely. But I did not
(16:51):
bring up the fact that I probably left a bunch
of CDs on their door. But no, I never I
never met Uh well, no that's not true. I did
meet him the first time I ever saw him play
when we first moved to town. There was uh I
think the bar is still. There's a place called the
Crow's Nest over in Green Hills and it's just a
(17:12):
little sports bar. Nothing cool about it at all, really, sorry,
Crow's Nest And it was no stage.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
That's part of the charm at them, right, it.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Is part of the charm. Yeah, maybe that's they designed
it that way. But they had all these you know,
a bunch of TVs everywhere, like you know, like three
games going at once. It's just that kind of place,
a sports bar. And somebody said, hey, man, John Prime's
playing at this place, and I was like, at that place. Yeah,
we had just been to town like a week or something.
(17:41):
And so my wife Shannon and I we go meet
whoever we met. I can't even remember who they were
at the time, but we go in. It's like just
a bunch of like regular chairs, like you know, just
like folding chairs, and we're all sitting. I mean, it
was like, you know, twenty of us and kind filled
up the place. And man, he's just standing four feet
(18:04):
away and I think it was Pat o'clock though, was
with him. I can't remember who was playing guitar with him.
I think that's who it was. And man, it was
just the two of them and they played for like
an hour and a half like that, that close, and
I thought, Nashville is the greatest place in the world,
Like you could just go to a bar like this
(18:24):
and John Prime is playing, like this is incredible, right,
And then it never never happened again like that, nothing
that cool ever happened again in the twenty five years
that I've been here, but it was enough to make
us stay.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Oh that is fantastic.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
I played with Leanne at a show at a I
think it was BlackBerry Farms, I think is the name
of the place out in somewhere in Tennessee, and Leanne
was playing, and John was playing with his band Dave
Jakeson his company is to have my name escapes me
(19:02):
at the moment. So I did get to meet him
then and play a show with him. Really, but you know,
we weren't pals. I wish we were. He was a
seemed like a wonderful guy.
Speaker 5 (19:13):
Oh man, he's uh, he's a certainly he's certainly a
soundtrack to my my life for sure.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (19:19):
Every twist and turn. So congratulations on nature of necessity.
It must feel really amazing putting this out to the world.
Tell me how you're feeling.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
About it, man, You know, I feel good about it.
It's like it's well received by people whose accolades respect
and appreciate, people whose opinions I care about seem to
appreciate that this record was made and is available, and
(19:50):
that means a lot. And you know, we've got a small,
mighty team of people over here at the Carnival Music
and partners with you know, people like Short Fire Empire.
They've helped us quite a bit, but it's a you know,
I think the the idea of the success of an
independent release to me is the fact that you released
(20:16):
it sort of in the like, not in the result
of what it brings you, but so much as you
made this thing, you make a plan, however humble it
might be, to present it, and then you follow that plan,
and then that's the best you can do. And this
(20:37):
has felt really good. It's the I think, the first
time I've spent this much time trying to promote a
thing that I didn't once at myself for doing it,
because it doesn't feel like I'm promoting myself. It feels
like I'm promoting some work I did with some people
(20:59):
I really love, and they've all worked so hard to
have this thing exist. The least that I can do
is get out and work as hard or harder to
make sure that people are aware of it, whoever might
appreciate it. So it feels great. I'm glad.
Speaker 5 (21:19):
It's that it sounds fantastic, and it's it is getting
great reviews.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
But go back to your your view of it.
Speaker 5 (21:31):
How does an artist and a writer deal in a
world today where it's so easy to have perfection with everything,
and that perfection is so sought after. But yet when
we really reflect, we know imperfection has its own beauty.
So talk to me about the balance of perfection and imperfection.
(21:54):
You know about this project in particular in your mind?
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Oh well, that's funny because with the idea of this record,
and I've been doing this with the last few things
that I've put out, a couple of EPs and then
a full album I called out Win like where I
just would everything had to be one pass, unedited, warts
(22:19):
and all lives with it. I just you're right, it's
so easy to make things perfect. Anybody can make anything perfect.
Now it just gets so boring, uninteresting, I guess. So
the once you start recording that way and listening to
things that way, it's hard not to keep going down
(22:42):
that path. You know, the flaws or what are what
becomes interesting and sometimes beautiful. So with this, we decided
to record live myself playing and singing, Glenn Warf on
bass and Matt Chamberlain on drums, and the idea and
nothing was coming to save us. This was it. Like
(23:03):
if something had to be big, we have to make
it big and that's it. And I remember telling Glenn
we were sitting in Frank's kitchen, Frank Lyddell, who produced
the album and is also my publisher, and I said, okay, Glenn,
like you're you're the lead instrument man. It's like I'm busy,
like I'm tied up playing guitar for myself and singing.
(23:25):
It's like if there's a solo or something has a
feel to be done, like you're the you're the man,
like you gotta do it man. And Matt too, and
so there are times when Glenn's just playing lead bass
through like an entire verse and chorus of a song,
and it's so unusual and exciting to me. Like the
(23:47):
stuff that happens musically on this record, I love it. It's
so it's so wild. It feels wild at times, like
they're just not doing things conventionally, and we all just
though I don't know, it excited me. I hope they're
proud of it. I don't know them. They might not
admit that they played on him, but it excited me.
And there are some vocal things that you know, if
(24:09):
if we weren't recording like this, if this had not
been our philosophy, I would absolutely have fixed, or an
engineer would have fixed without even telling me, you know,
but we wanted it to be flawed. We wanted to
be good or we're not trying to make a bad record,
but there are things that are wrong with parts of it.
And you know, it's like we got more than one shot.
(24:32):
It's not like we just had one shot and didn't
quite nail it. It's like some of these songs we
did five or six times, and if that's the way
it came out, then that's about as good as we
can do it. And that's just gonna have to be good.
And there's something about that that is that I like
that I've just come to like. I like to hear
performances and I like to hear some humanity, and when
(24:55):
it's not in music, I just it's hard to get interested.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Man.
Speaker 5 (25:01):
For me, at this point in closing, I want to
ask you, and I you know, can't see if you'll
be blushing when I say this, but you're a humble gentleman.
How does it make you feel when you're referred to
as the poet laureate of music growth.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Well, you know, part of me. The morning after I
saw that thing, I woke up and got a cup
of coffee downstairs, and my dog had gone to the
bathroom on the floor, and I took a picture of it,
(25:40):
and I sent it and I was like, my dog
is the poet laureate of pooping on my floor in
the middle of the night. I was like, I don't
know what is part of me it thinks like that,
like just totally dismissive of any sort of accolade. And
the other part of me is really uh, I don't know,
proud that all of the work that went into the
(26:02):
writing of these songs resonated with someone who appreciates the
craft of words. That feels really good. I'd be lying.
I'd be lying if I didn't say that it felt
really good. You know, there are a lot of a
lot of people that are very good with words in
this town, especially, so I don't know, it feels good. Yeah,
(26:25):
I'm flattered, But also, my dog is the poet laureate
of pooping on the floor in the middle.
Speaker 5 (26:31):
Of the Well, it feels really good talking to you
about your new work Nature of Necessity, which I absolutely love,
and I love your body of work as a songwriter.
I love your work as a musician and it was
amazing to have you on Taking a Walk.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
Adam Wright. Thank you so much for being here.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
Thanks for having me, guys, I appreciate it. Man, I
enjoyed talking to you.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking a
Walk podcast. Share this and other episodes with your friends
and follow us so you never miss an episode. Taking
a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
and wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 5 (27:13):
Taking a Walk is made possible by the support of
our great sponsors, and we thanked them, including Chase Sapphire Reserve.
My gateway to the world's most captivating destinations is from
Chase Sapphire Reserve, Claude AI. Try Claud for free at
claude dot Ai, slash Buzz and Lexus Experience Amazing at
your Lexus dealer now.
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