August 15, 2025 • 26 mins
Join host Buzz Knight for an intimate conversation with rising soul-soothing rock-and-roll artist Luke Tyler Shelton, a Los Angeles native whose music blends country-rock, folk-pop, and Southern soul with a timeless ’70s charm. Luke shares his journey from a self-taught multi-instrumentalist influenced by his reggae singer father and classic rock-loving mother, through his high school psych-rock band days, to finding his unique sound in the vibrant LA music scene reminiscent of Laurel Canyon’s golden era. Produced by Shooter Jennings and Jonathan Wilson, Luke talks about crafting his debut album, touring experiences, and the inspirations behind songs like “Anna,” “Love on My Mind,” and “Feeling Always Down.” Discover the stories, struggles, and dreams that shape his music and career as he takes us on a walk through his artistic world.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Taking a Walk.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
If you listen to the right stuff, and you know
you kind of start from towards the beginning of country music,
there's a lot of beautiful stuff, and so that definitely
influenced my writing in my style as well.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
What happens when the sun soapd vibes of LA's diy
scene collide with a fresh twist on the classic Laurel
Canyon sound. I'm Buzznight, the host of the Taking a
Walk podcast and today with Luke Tyler Shelton, songwriter, storyteller,
and rising architect of Unforgettable Hooks. If you've ever wondered
(00:42):
what it takes to carve out your own space and
a city buzzing with musical legends, you're about to find out.
From the first chords in a garage to the roar
of a live crowd, Luke's journey is equal parts nostalgia
and brand new adventure. We'll dig into the moments, melodies,
and community connections that have shaped his sound, and we'll
(01:04):
find out what his dreams are about.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Next Taking a Walk.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Hello, Luke Tyler Shelton, Welcome to the Taking a Walk Podcast. Hello,
how are you? I'm doing awesome? Thank you, Thank you
for joining us, so I hope you're doing well.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
And since we call.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
This podcast taking a walk, I want to ask you
the opening question, the opening volley, as it were, if
you could take a walk with someone living or dead,
preferably in the music scene, who might you take a
walk with?
Speaker 1 (01:42):
And where would you take that walk? Wow?
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Oh, let's.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
There's a you.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Off the top of my head. I don't want to
sound too basic for saying it, but I would say
probably one of the Beatles for sure. Maybe Paul McCartney,
just because he's alive still and he's the greatest musician
arguably like of all time, and he's still living, so
(02:14):
he's experienced a lot of life from the beginning till
now in his time. But I also would be interested
in meeting John Lennon too, because I've actually had many
dreams where I've met John Lennon and we've just been
like hanging out.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
So that would be cool, That's pretty awesome.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Probably one of the Beatles.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Can't, can never deny that?
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Might we dig slightly deeper into the John Lennon dreams
there for a second.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
I hate to sound like a shrink and be probing.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
No, no, worries, Well, it's John was my favorite beatle
for a while for a couple of years, and now
it's more like now it's more so George Harrison. But
I've had a couple dreams, sometimes super randomly. It wasn't
(03:12):
even when I was listening to his music a lot
or like being super into him, But it would just
be something where I was like in a house or
something like a house or an event was going on
and he happened to be there and we would end
up meeting, like in a room, and he would just
(03:34):
be hanging out and he would start showing me like
things around the room, like some kind of weird instrument
that I've never seen before, or he had like music
lying around and stuff. And the dreams were always super casual.
In my mind, I knew that it was John Lennon,
(03:55):
and I was I feel like part of my subconscious
was thinking how is this possible because he's not alive,
but also thinking, oh my god, this is happening and
it makes sense and I'm here and I just need
to do this right now. But I would just be
hanging out with him throughout a dream, doing like super normal.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Things, relaxed, very relaxed, not high pressure moment.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Yeah, yeah, thank you for sharing. Sure.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Congratulations on Blue Sky, your debut EP, which is wonderful.
I want to walk through that you work with certainly
Shooter Jennings on it and Jonathan Wilson as well, and
dig into some of the behind the scenes on some
of the songs. But I do want to ask you,
(04:54):
of course, the Beatles a tremendous early inspiration, but what
role did your fami Le's musical background play and shaping
your early love for music.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Well, both my parents love all music, and I think
the main thing about how that impacted me was just
that I never felt influenced by like one specific type
of music or closed off for any My dad, what
I can remember at an early age is my dad
(05:28):
always playing reggae as he he's a reggae singer and writer,
and playing just oldies all the time. And he has
his own record collection, so he'd always play oldies, and
and then my mom we would listen to more of
stuff that was currently popular, stuff that would be on
(05:50):
the radio, also oldies too, and my mom I would
get more of the rock music through her and all
the classic bands. My first band that I got really,
really really into from the seventies was led Zeppelin in
like middle school, and I distinctly remember being in the
(06:12):
car and my mom playing like Zeppelin two I think,
and me just not like hearing it for the first
time and being like, what is this right? Blowing my mind? Yeah,
I was probably like twelve or something. You know. They
both played a part in my musical like expansion knowledge
(06:35):
of different genres and allowing me to like explore all
of that.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Yeah, if you haven't seen the led Zeppelin documentary Becoming
led Zeppelin, you got to see that. It's pretty Uh,
it's pretty incredible, really is.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
I just saw it.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Actually on an airplane like a two weeks ago, and
I loved it.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Yeah, it's tremendous.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
But tell me about growing up in la and how
that also shaped the scene for you.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Yeah. Well, growing up in LA I started playing music
in school and my parents it wasn't necessarily like you
were going to be a musician, but my parents thought
that for me and my sister, that just taking music
lessons of some kind for any type of instrument is
(07:29):
just a good thing to do. So I remember the
first lessons I got were for a piano then I
got really into drums in middle school, so I started
taking drum lessons. I was an orchestra in middle school,
playing percussion, and then going into high school, I kept
(07:50):
playing drums. I started my first band, played through high school.
Was also in choir, so just always doing music in
school and around school. It wasn't until high school though,
and the end of high school that I was playing
guitar and teaching myself that because I wanted to write songs.
(08:12):
And then coming out of high school, I had COVID,
so I spent all of COVID just writing. I had
some best friends that lived across the street from me
that I was able to still jam with because they
also played so we would do it in my garage.
And yeah, once I was coming out of COVID, I
was really like, music is what I want to do.
(08:35):
And I graduated high school at seventeen, didn't really see
why I should go to college, and I just thought
I should start playing shows around Los Angeles and meeting
other bands that were outside of where I grew up
in So I did that, and through playing shows and
(08:56):
going to shows, I met my bandmates now people that
I write and make music with. People whose bands I
play vice versa, and we kind of have a really
great scene of really talented artists and writers. And I
feel really lucky that they're like my best friends, and
(09:21):
glad that I didn't go to college. The label found
me and I've been able to tour and so I
really feel like I made the right decision.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
And we'll be back with more of the Take and
a Walk podcast in a bit now. If you're looking
for a rock and roll oriented podcast, we invite you
to check out The Imbalanced History of rock and Roll.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
The History's fascinating. There's so much to uncover.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
The Embalanced History of rock and Roll explores moments in time, albums, songs,
events and people who had an impact on the history
of rock and roll that keep rock and roll fun.
The Imbalanced History of and Roll find it wherever you
get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Welcome back to the Taking a Walk Podcast.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
I compared the sound and others have to a lot
of the Laurel Canyon sound, obviously the seventies Laurel Canyon scene.
So it's interesting hearing you talk about influences which are
very diverse, but then also you know, hearing your deep
connection to the Laurel Canyon sound and all those musical
(10:33):
heroes that were part of that. So tell us where
that influence came from in terms of either some of
your bandmates or just the things that you heard from
your parents or others.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
So my, so, once I got introduced to rock music
in middle school, that's when I started exploring just like
all seventies in sixties bands, all the popular ones. Yeah,
it was always kind of the big ones like led Zeppelin,
(11:08):
the Beatles, Pink Floyd, getting into like the Rolling Stones
and the Doors and bands like that. And then Once,
and I was a drummer at this time, So once
I was once, I was starting to sing more and
learning guitar to write, I was turning more towards singer
(11:29):
songwriter type bands and people and exploring them. So then
I was moving on to Neil Young, who I credit
as the main person that got me to want to
write songs and learn how to play guitar, the band America, Buffalo, Springfield,
(11:49):
Crosby Stills and Nash, which is, you know, the Laurel
Canyon type songwriters and groups, and so it was really
like the end of high school when I was listening
to all that stuff. And then when I started to
meet some of my now friends that I play music
(12:13):
with a lot, a lot of them were super into
country artists from the sixties and seventies. I was always
more rock and folk, but hanging out around my friends
and hearing them right, I found that country music is
extremely infectious. Sometimes, especially growing up like in La or something,
(12:37):
people never listen to country. That's not something that they
put on, you know, or when they do, they have
this idea of it that it's something that just isn't good.
But if you listen to the right stuff, and you know,
you kind of start from towards the beginning of country music,
there's a lot of beautiful stuff, and so that definitely
(13:01):
influenced my writing in my style as well, on top
of the fulcan rock that I kind of had and
was using for my songwriter.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
I have this debate a lot of times with folks
where I'll say to somebody, I'll be like, hey, do
you like you like country music? And, as you know,
country music spans all different shapes and forms and styles,
and they'll.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Say exactly as you had said it.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
They'll be like, well, I don't really like that that sound,
you know, it's not my thing, and I'll kind of
look at them, this is the one that's always up
my back pocket, and I'll be like, Okay, wait a minute,
let me get this straight. Are you fan of the Eagles?
And they'll be like, oh, yeah, the Eagles? Are you
kidding me? The Eagles are like one of the best
(13:55):
of all time. I'm like, well, what do you think
so much of their music is in embedded around It's
embedded around country. Oh, I guess you're right. This happens
all the.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Time, very true, that's yeah. It's a lot of my
favorite country stuff comes from bands who weren't country but
did their own versions of country music. So I one
hundred percent agree with that The Stones were country at
one point.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
You know, that's right.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
I mean I would imagine you've been exposed to the band,
of course, of course, right, But I would also imagine
you've been exposed to somebody like Towns van Zant as well.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
I have. Yeah, I still need to do like a
deeper dive into him. The way I listen to music
is very not so productive sometimes because I'll I'll just
kind of fixate on a single artist or like maybe
two or three, and I won't listen to much else
until I've listened to them and like can't anymore. But
(15:07):
I'm sure I will end up doing that with Town soon.
Some other honorable mentions would be George Harrison. I really
really like his solo albums that he made after the Beatles,
and his singing style and writing style have had a
(15:28):
really big influence on me. Also, Bob Dylan more so
like his kind of mid seventies early to mid seventies era.
I really like his full band stuff. I also love
(15:48):
his acoustic and early stuff as well, but in terms
of influence on my music, stuff like the Rolling Thunder
review and that whole tour I really really like, and
the versions of some of his songs that he did.
And also really really like early Fleetwood Mac, although I'm
(16:10):
not sure much of that influence comes through in my music.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
The Peter Green side of Fleetwood Mac.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Peter Green through like nineteen sixty nine through to nineteen
seventy five, i'd say is my favorite probably, and even
after Peter Green left and they had you know, Bob
Welch and Danny Kerwin and Christine and I love Stevie
(16:41):
Nicks and Lindsey too, But there's just so much before
them that I find to be really really interesting stuff. Sure,
and Carol King.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
Oh, I mean it's you know, the Hall of Fame.
You've just laid out the giant It's right.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Yeah, there's a lot. There's a lot of them.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
So let's dig into Blue Sky a bit. First of all,
Shooter Jennings, I want to talk about. I've been fortunate.
I've had Way Jennings on the podcast and Struggle Jennings,
but never Shooter Jennings. How did you end up working
with the Shooter and Jonathan Wilson on the EP?
Speaker 2 (17:27):
So, my an R Mark Williams at the label I'm
signed with, when he found me, he was trying to
think of some producers he knew for me to work
with to record with, and it was his idea to
hook me up with Shooter and Jonathan, and he really
(17:48):
wanted to have them do it together and not just
be one of them separately or at different times. I
was stoked. I was like, hell, yeah, I would love
to work with both of them. I had met Jonathan
a couple times previously in Topanga because I have a
(18:09):
lot of friends there and he's in that area, so
we had met before and hung out and Yeah, I
had met Shooter like within the year before we actually
went into the studio to record, and was kind of
forming a relationship with him, and I love both of them.
(18:31):
They're both the nicest, best hangs ever. Yeah, So we
went in the studio, and I think what made it
really special as well was not just that I was
excited to record with them, but the two of them
hadn't worked on an artist together until that point, and
I think they were very excited to work together. And
(18:54):
I think the fact that me trying to make the
music that I make, which is very reminiscent of older stuff,
I think was also an exciting thing for them to
work on together.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
So I've got a few favorite tracks I was given
access to here it all. It's one of the fun
parts of the job here and stuff before it actually
truly hits. So I'll give you a couple of my
favorites in particular, and then I want to hear about
your favorites, which probably is all of them, but that's
(19:28):
the correct answer, right. But first of all, tell me
about the lead track, the opener, Anna, which is absolutely adorable.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Thank you Anna.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
I wrote a while ago in terms of when it
got recorded. I feel like when I was figuring out
the style I wanted to go into musically, Anna was
kind of the first song I'd written that was clicking
(19:59):
with people when I wrote it and was showing it
to people, and my an R felt the same way,
and he thought that it was a really strong song
to start with, and he wasn't wrong because it is
the most popular and has stayed the most popular up
(20:20):
until this point. So yeah, that was that one was
fun to make in the studio, and that was the
first one we recorded.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
And another one I love.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
I loved, I loved the title and I love the
sound of it. A bus Ain't a home right.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Thank you?
Speaker 2 (20:39):
That one is also one of my favorites too. That
one was written more recently, and I wrote it for
my girlfriend about me leaving and being out on tour
because I had kind of just started doing that more regularly.
(21:00):
So that is a song I wrote for her, And Yeah,
I think that one's really beautiful. That's one that we
recorded at Sunset Sound rather than at Jonathan Studio where
the first four singles were cut. Those ones are recorded
at Jonathan's and then Hell of a Ride and a
Bus and a Homer recorded at Sunset Sound, where Shooter
(21:24):
had been renting at a studio there.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Hell of a Ride's pretty damn cool. Tell me about
that one.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
That one, Yeah, that one recorded at Sunset Sound. That
one was fun because it felt like the first one
that was really sounded like how my band and I
like play live. Because the first four singles Anna through
(21:52):
where the West Begins, those ones are recorded before I
had the current band that I have now. So when
we were in the studio, we had Jonathan on drums,
Shooter's friend Ted on bass, me on guitar, and only
one of my bandmates on piano. But once we were
(22:15):
at Sunset Sound recording, I had my whole band with me.
And so that's why I really like Hell of a
Ride is because we had the whole band in there.
Same with a bus ain't a home, and we got
to play it. We got to record it like how
we play it live, which I enjoyed.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Tell me about your favorites.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
I think my favorite song on the EP that I've
written is probably Blue Sky. That one is a very
special song to me and for other people I've played
it for. And yeah, it was the last one recorded.
(22:56):
I recorded it with a producer named Josh Block, who
was also introduced to me through my an ar and
we did it somewhat quickly. I did it right before
I went on a tour with them, like literally we
recorded it, I think the day before I left to
go on tour with this other band I play in
(23:20):
and we recorded it pretty like quickly, and it went
really well and I was really happy with it, and
we got the overdubs done. Josh got them done while
I was away, and then the song came out while
the song came out when I got back from tour,
and I was I was really really happy with it
(23:43):
and how it sounded, and yeah, I just I just
love the lyrics in it. It just it. I wrote
it one morning, like in one sitting and I kind
of was just singing how I felt. And it's a
song that I never get tired of singing or playing,
which is hard to have comparatively.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
Congratulations on Blue Sky the new EP. In closing, I
want to I want to ask you, what do you
hope listeners feel or experience when they hear your music
for the very first time.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
I want my music to provide like a layer of
comfort and nostalgia in hearing something that sounds familiar, but
I don't want I want it to be something that
still feels new and provides new emotion and feeling. So
(24:46):
whatever I can do, you know, obviously being a huge
fan of older music, whatever I can do to convey
a general feeling of those styles and what was going
on then while still bringing something new and that feels
unique to me, then I feel like I'm doing something right.
(25:09):
I just want to make good music that makes people
feel something and feel good or make someone cry.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Well, you've done amazing work.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
You have this incredible wisdom beyond your years, and I
love your respect for the history of it all as
well how that fuses together and creates your sound. Luke
Tyler Shelton, congrats on on Blue Sky and I know
there's nothing but blue skies ahead for you.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Thank you very much, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Yeah, thanks for being on Taking a Walk. Thanks for
listening to this episode of the Taking a Walk podcast.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
Share this and other episodes with your friends and follow
us so you never miss an episode. Taking a Walk
is available on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, and
wherever you get your podcasts.
Taking a Walk.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
If you listen to the right stuff, and you know
you kind of start from towards the beginning of country music,
there's a lot of beautiful stuff, and so that definitely
influenced my writing in my style as well.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
What happens when the sun soapd vibes of LA's diy
scene collide with a fresh twist on the classic Laurel
Canyon sound. I'm Buzznight, the host of the Taking a
Walk podcast and today with Luke Tyler Shelton, songwriter, storyteller,
and rising architect of Unforgettable Hooks. If you've ever wondered
(00:42):
what it takes to carve out your own space and
a city buzzing with musical legends, you're about to find out.
From the first chords in a garage to the roar
of a live crowd, Luke's journey is equal parts nostalgia
and brand new adventure. We'll dig into the moments, melodies,
and community connections that have shaped his sound, and we'll
(01:04):
find out what his dreams are about.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Next Taking a Walk.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Hello, Luke Tyler Shelton, Welcome to the Taking a Walk Podcast. Hello,
how are you? I'm doing awesome? Thank you, Thank you
for joining us, so I hope you're doing well.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
And since we call.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
This podcast taking a walk, I want to ask you
the opening question, the opening volley, as it were, if
you could take a walk with someone living or dead,
preferably in the music scene, who might you take a
walk with?
Speaker 1 (01:42):
And where would you take that walk? Wow?
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Oh, let's.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
There's a you.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Off the top of my head. I don't want to
sound too basic for saying it, but I would say
probably one of the Beatles for sure. Maybe Paul McCartney,
just because he's alive still and he's the greatest musician
arguably like of all time, and he's still living, so
(02:14):
he's experienced a lot of life from the beginning till
now in his time. But I also would be interested
in meeting John Lennon too, because I've actually had many
dreams where I've met John Lennon and we've just been
like hanging out.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
So that would be cool, That's pretty awesome.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Probably one of the Beatles.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Can't, can never deny that?
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Might we dig slightly deeper into the John Lennon dreams
there for a second.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
I hate to sound like a shrink and be probing.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
No, no, worries, Well, it's John was my favorite beatle
for a while for a couple of years, and now
it's more like now it's more so George Harrison. But
I've had a couple dreams, sometimes super randomly. It wasn't
(03:12):
even when I was listening to his music a lot
or like being super into him, But it would just
be something where I was like in a house or
something like a house or an event was going on
and he happened to be there and we would end
up meeting, like in a room, and he would just
(03:34):
be hanging out and he would start showing me like
things around the room, like some kind of weird instrument
that I've never seen before, or he had like music
lying around and stuff. And the dreams were always super casual.
In my mind, I knew that it was John Lennon,
(03:55):
and I was I feel like part of my subconscious
was thinking how is this possible because he's not alive,
but also thinking, oh my god, this is happening and
it makes sense and I'm here and I just need
to do this right now. But I would just be
hanging out with him throughout a dream, doing like super normal.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Things, relaxed, very relaxed, not high pressure moment.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Yeah, yeah, thank you for sharing. Sure.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Congratulations on Blue Sky, your debut EP, which is wonderful.
I want to walk through that you work with certainly
Shooter Jennings on it and Jonathan Wilson as well, and
dig into some of the behind the scenes on some
of the songs. But I do want to ask you,
(04:54):
of course, the Beatles a tremendous early inspiration, but what
role did your fami Le's musical background play and shaping
your early love for music.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Well, both my parents love all music, and I think
the main thing about how that impacted me was just
that I never felt influenced by like one specific type
of music or closed off for any My dad, what
I can remember at an early age is my dad
(05:28):
always playing reggae as he he's a reggae singer and writer,
and playing just oldies all the time. And he has
his own record collection, so he'd always play oldies, and
and then my mom we would listen to more of
stuff that was currently popular, stuff that would be on
(05:50):
the radio, also oldies too, and my mom I would
get more of the rock music through her and all
the classic bands. My first band that I got really,
really really into from the seventies was led Zeppelin in
like middle school, and I distinctly remember being in the
(06:12):
car and my mom playing like Zeppelin two I think,
and me just not like hearing it for the first
time and being like, what is this right? Blowing my mind? Yeah,
I was probably like twelve or something. You know. They
both played a part in my musical like expansion knowledge
(06:35):
of different genres and allowing me to like explore all
of that.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Yeah, if you haven't seen the led Zeppelin documentary Becoming
led Zeppelin, you got to see that. It's pretty Uh,
it's pretty incredible, really is.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
I just saw it.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Actually on an airplane like a two weeks ago, and
I loved it.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Yeah, it's tremendous.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
But tell me about growing up in la and how
that also shaped the scene for you.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Yeah. Well, growing up in LA I started playing music
in school and my parents it wasn't necessarily like you
were going to be a musician, but my parents thought
that for me and my sister, that just taking music
lessons of some kind for any type of instrument is
(07:29):
just a good thing to do. So I remember the
first lessons I got were for a piano then I
got really into drums in middle school, so I started
taking drum lessons. I was an orchestra in middle school,
playing percussion, and then going into high school, I kept
(07:50):
playing drums. I started my first band, played through high school.
Was also in choir, so just always doing music in
school and around school. It wasn't until high school though,
and the end of high school that I was playing
guitar and teaching myself that because I wanted to write songs.
(08:12):
And then coming out of high school, I had COVID,
so I spent all of COVID just writing. I had
some best friends that lived across the street from me
that I was able to still jam with because they
also played so we would do it in my garage.
And yeah, once I was coming out of COVID, I
was really like, music is what I want to do.
(08:35):
And I graduated high school at seventeen, didn't really see
why I should go to college, and I just thought
I should start playing shows around Los Angeles and meeting
other bands that were outside of where I grew up
in So I did that, and through playing shows and
(08:56):
going to shows, I met my bandmates now people that
I write and make music with. People whose bands I
play vice versa, and we kind of have a really
great scene of really talented artists and writers. And I
feel really lucky that they're like my best friends, and
(09:21):
glad that I didn't go to college. The label found
me and I've been able to tour and so I
really feel like I made the right decision.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
And we'll be back with more of the Take and
a Walk podcast in a bit now. If you're looking
for a rock and roll oriented podcast, we invite you
to check out The Imbalanced History of rock and Roll.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
The History's fascinating. There's so much to uncover.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
The Embalanced History of rock and Roll explores moments in time, albums, songs,
events and people who had an impact on the history
of rock and roll that keep rock and roll fun.
The Imbalanced History of and Roll find it wherever you
get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Welcome back to the Taking a Walk Podcast.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
I compared the sound and others have to a lot
of the Laurel Canyon sound, obviously the seventies Laurel Canyon scene.
So it's interesting hearing you talk about influences which are
very diverse, but then also you know, hearing your deep
connection to the Laurel Canyon sound and all those musical
(10:33):
heroes that were part of that. So tell us where
that influence came from in terms of either some of
your bandmates or just the things that you heard from
your parents or others.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
So my, so, once I got introduced to rock music
in middle school, that's when I started exploring just like
all seventies in sixties bands, all the popular ones. Yeah,
it was always kind of the big ones like led Zeppelin,
(11:08):
the Beatles, Pink Floyd, getting into like the Rolling Stones
and the Doors and bands like that. And then Once,
and I was a drummer at this time, So once
I was once, I was starting to sing more and
learning guitar to write, I was turning more towards singer
(11:29):
songwriter type bands and people and exploring them. So then
I was moving on to Neil Young, who I credit
as the main person that got me to want to
write songs and learn how to play guitar, the band America, Buffalo, Springfield,
(11:49):
Crosby Stills and Nash, which is, you know, the Laurel
Canyon type songwriters and groups, and so it was really
like the end of high school when I was listening
to all that stuff. And then when I started to
meet some of my now friends that I play music
(12:13):
with a lot, a lot of them were super into
country artists from the sixties and seventies. I was always
more rock and folk, but hanging out around my friends
and hearing them right, I found that country music is
extremely infectious. Sometimes, especially growing up like in La or something,
(12:37):
people never listen to country. That's not something that they
put on, you know, or when they do, they have
this idea of it that it's something that just isn't good.
But if you listen to the right stuff, and you know,
you kind of start from towards the beginning of country music,
there's a lot of beautiful stuff, and so that definitely
(13:01):
influenced my writing in my style as well, on top
of the fulcan rock that I kind of had and
was using for my songwriter.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
I have this debate a lot of times with folks
where I'll say to somebody, I'll be like, hey, do
you like you like country music? And, as you know,
country music spans all different shapes and forms and styles,
and they'll.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Say exactly as you had said it.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
They'll be like, well, I don't really like that that sound,
you know, it's not my thing, and I'll kind of
look at them, this is the one that's always up
my back pocket, and I'll be like, Okay, wait a minute,
let me get this straight. Are you fan of the Eagles?
And they'll be like, oh, yeah, the Eagles? Are you
kidding me? The Eagles are like one of the best
(13:55):
of all time. I'm like, well, what do you think
so much of their music is in embedded around It's
embedded around country. Oh, I guess you're right. This happens
all the.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Time, very true, that's yeah. It's a lot of my
favorite country stuff comes from bands who weren't country but
did their own versions of country music. So I one
hundred percent agree with that The Stones were country at
one point.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
You know, that's right.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
I mean I would imagine you've been exposed to the band,
of course, of course, right, But I would also imagine
you've been exposed to somebody like Towns van Zant as well.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
I have. Yeah, I still need to do like a
deeper dive into him. The way I listen to music
is very not so productive sometimes because I'll I'll just
kind of fixate on a single artist or like maybe
two or three, and I won't listen to much else
until I've listened to them and like can't anymore. But
(15:07):
I'm sure I will end up doing that with Town soon.
Some other honorable mentions would be George Harrison. I really
really like his solo albums that he made after the Beatles,
and his singing style and writing style have had a
(15:28):
really big influence on me. Also, Bob Dylan more so
like his kind of mid seventies early to mid seventies era.
I really like his full band stuff. I also love
(15:48):
his acoustic and early stuff as well, but in terms
of influence on my music, stuff like the Rolling Thunder
review and that whole tour I really really like, and
the versions of some of his songs that he did.
And also really really like early Fleetwood Mac, although I'm
(16:10):
not sure much of that influence comes through in my music.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
The Peter Green side of Fleetwood Mac.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Peter Green through like nineteen sixty nine through to nineteen
seventy five, i'd say is my favorite probably, and even
after Peter Green left and they had you know, Bob
Welch and Danny Kerwin and Christine and I love Stevie
(16:41):
Nicks and Lindsey too, But there's just so much before
them that I find to be really really interesting stuff. Sure,
and Carol King.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
Oh, I mean it's you know, the Hall of Fame.
You've just laid out the giant It's right.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Yeah, there's a lot. There's a lot of them.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
So let's dig into Blue Sky a bit. First of all,
Shooter Jennings, I want to talk about. I've been fortunate.
I've had Way Jennings on the podcast and Struggle Jennings,
but never Shooter Jennings. How did you end up working
with the Shooter and Jonathan Wilson on the EP?
Speaker 2 (17:27):
So, my an R Mark Williams at the label I'm
signed with, when he found me, he was trying to
think of some producers he knew for me to work
with to record with, and it was his idea to
hook me up with Shooter and Jonathan, and he really
(17:48):
wanted to have them do it together and not just
be one of them separately or at different times. I
was stoked. I was like, hell, yeah, I would love
to work with both of them. I had met Jonathan
a couple times previously in Topanga because I have a
(18:09):
lot of friends there and he's in that area, so
we had met before and hung out and Yeah, I
had met Shooter like within the year before we actually
went into the studio to record, and was kind of
forming a relationship with him, and I love both of them.
(18:31):
They're both the nicest, best hangs ever. Yeah, So we
went in the studio, and I think what made it
really special as well was not just that I was
excited to record with them, but the two of them
hadn't worked on an artist together until that point, and
I think they were very excited to work together. And
(18:54):
I think the fact that me trying to make the
music that I make, which is very reminiscent of older stuff,
I think was also an exciting thing for them to
work on together.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
So I've got a few favorite tracks I was given
access to here it all. It's one of the fun
parts of the job here and stuff before it actually
truly hits. So I'll give you a couple of my
favorites in particular, and then I want to hear about
your favorites, which probably is all of them, but that's
(19:28):
the correct answer, right. But first of all, tell me
about the lead track, the opener, Anna, which is absolutely adorable.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Thank you Anna.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
I wrote a while ago in terms of when it
got recorded. I feel like when I was figuring out
the style I wanted to go into musically, Anna was
kind of the first song I'd written that was clicking
(19:59):
with people when I wrote it and was showing it
to people, and my an R felt the same way,
and he thought that it was a really strong song
to start with, and he wasn't wrong because it is
the most popular and has stayed the most popular up
(20:20):
until this point. So yeah, that was that one was
fun to make in the studio, and that was the
first one we recorded.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
And another one I love.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
I loved, I loved the title and I love the
sound of it. A bus Ain't a home right.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Thank you?
Speaker 2 (20:39):
That one is also one of my favorites too. That
one was written more recently, and I wrote it for
my girlfriend about me leaving and being out on tour
because I had kind of just started doing that more regularly.
(21:00):
So that is a song I wrote for her, And Yeah,
I think that one's really beautiful. That's one that we
recorded at Sunset Sound rather than at Jonathan Studio where
the first four singles were cut. Those ones are recorded
at Jonathan's and then Hell of a Ride and a
Bus and a Homer recorded at Sunset Sound, where Shooter
(21:24):
had been renting at a studio there.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Hell of a Ride's pretty damn cool. Tell me about
that one.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
That one, Yeah, that one recorded at Sunset Sound. That
one was fun because it felt like the first one
that was really sounded like how my band and I
like play live. Because the first four singles Anna through
(21:52):
where the West Begins, those ones are recorded before I
had the current band that I have now. So when
we were in the studio, we had Jonathan on drums,
Shooter's friend Ted on bass, me on guitar, and only
one of my bandmates on piano. But once we were
(22:15):
at Sunset Sound recording, I had my whole band with me.
And so that's why I really like Hell of a
Ride is because we had the whole band in there.
Same with a bus ain't a home, and we got
to play it. We got to record it like how
we play it live, which I enjoyed.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Tell me about your favorites.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
I think my favorite song on the EP that I've
written is probably Blue Sky. That one is a very
special song to me and for other people I've played
it for. And yeah, it was the last one recorded.
(22:56):
I recorded it with a producer named Josh Block, who
was also introduced to me through my an ar and
we did it somewhat quickly. I did it right before
I went on a tour with them, like literally we
recorded it, I think the day before I left to
go on tour with this other band I play in
(23:20):
and we recorded it pretty like quickly, and it went
really well and I was really happy with it, and
we got the overdubs done. Josh got them done while
I was away, and then the song came out while
the song came out when I got back from tour,
and I was I was really really happy with it
(23:43):
and how it sounded, and yeah, I just I just
love the lyrics in it. It just it. I wrote
it one morning, like in one sitting and I kind
of was just singing how I felt. And it's a
song that I never get tired of singing or playing,
which is hard to have comparatively.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
Congratulations on Blue Sky the new EP. In closing, I
want to I want to ask you, what do you
hope listeners feel or experience when they hear your music
for the very first time.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
I want my music to provide like a layer of
comfort and nostalgia in hearing something that sounds familiar, but
I don't want I want it to be something that
still feels new and provides new emotion and feeling. So
(24:46):
whatever I can do, you know, obviously being a huge
fan of older music, whatever I can do to convey
a general feeling of those styles and what was going
on then while still bringing something new and that feels
unique to me, then I feel like I'm doing something right.
(25:09):
I just want to make good music that makes people
feel something and feel good or make someone cry.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Well, you've done amazing work.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
You have this incredible wisdom beyond your years, and I
love your respect for the history of it all as
well how that fuses together and creates your sound. Luke
Tyler Shelton, congrats on on Blue Sky and I know
there's nothing but blue skies ahead for you.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Thank you very much, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Yeah, thanks for being on Taking a Walk. Thanks for
listening to this episode of the Taking a Walk podcast.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
Share this and other episodes with your friends and follow
us so you never miss an episode. Taking a Walk
is available on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, and
wherever you get your podcasts.
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