October 28, 2025 • 32 mins
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Are you a songwriter? Are you looking to turn your
songwriting passion into a full time gig gig? Whether you
are just at the start of your songwriting journey or
a seasoned industry professional, this show is made for you. You
will welcome to The Songwriter Show, bringing together songwriting, news, interviews,
and communitating. Now welcome your houst Sronto, Welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Back to the Songwriter Show. I'm your host Sarantos, a
solo music artist and fellow songwriter who's always believed in
the magical power of words. I love and I thank
you for joining me on The Songwriter Show every single
Tuesday evening on Reality Radio one oh one so we
can help bring you behind the stories and behind the
scenes with some of today's most inspiring songwriters. Tonight, I'm
(00:47):
so excited to have on the show and Sol Brown.
He's a country music artist and entrepreneur whose heartfelt songs
blend blue collar grit, patriotism, and personal storytelling. His career
highlights include recognition from Country Music Association as a debut
Spotlight artist, collaborations with NASA, and powerful performances for veterans
(01:08):
and children's hospitals nationwide.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
And now welcome this week's special guest.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Welcome to the show, dude, how are you No.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
That's good, man, I'm glad to be here.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
We're glad you're here too, man. And I got to
ask you enough for bet tell me about the NASA thing.
I mean, it's probably not the first thing I should
ask you about, but I'm a space nut, so I
want to go to space.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
So that's the first thing I'm gonna ask you.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
Dude, Yes, serranos in space. That sounds kind of cool. Actually,
not gonna do it. We're not gonna lie. Yeah. So
I wrote a song called songwriting. So I wrote a
song called when You Fly, basically for pilots, you know.
It was just a very visual song. And I heard
the Space Suttle was gonna, you know, the program was
going to be ending, and so I got this wild idea.
(01:56):
I'm like, I need to send this to Johnson Space
Center in Texas and get them to listen to it.
So I did, and about a year later or six
months later or something like that, the head astronaut for
NASA called me and emailed me and said, we love
your song. We can't do anything with it, but we
love it.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
That's awesome, and she said that.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
They were going to send it to DC and let
them listen to it and let them figure out how
they can include it and me in their program. So
I never heard anything back after that. But twelve weeks
before the Shuttle launch, the final Shuttle launch, I got
a call while I was filming a video at an
airport for that song, and I was in an old
(02:38):
stagger wing and I got down and got a call
and they were like, you need to come talk. It's NASA.
They were like, hey, it's only twelve weeks away. It
might have been ten weeks, so it's one of those two.
They were like, it's really really coming up here, Like
we've thought about this, We've talked to some other artists,
but we really like your song. We really like what
you wrote. We want you to be the artists that
(02:59):
come in and finishes the Shuttle program. The rest is history.
As I say, I ended up going to the final
Space Shutt launch to let me bring my family.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
That's so cool.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
I got to climb up the entire Space Shutle endeavor
from bottom to top of the tail on the scaffolding
as they disassembled it, which not even NASA, not even
our handlers were allowed to do that, so they were
excited as us. Yeah, it was amazing. It was just
one of the most surreal moments in my life. And
(03:30):
then that turned into the final Space Shuttle landing and
doing a national radio broadcast from the landing, which was
all dignitaries, you know, former astronauts and world press, but
it was a private event. And then I got to
They were like, hey, can you come and talk to
all the Space Shuttle employees and contractors that are going
to be moving on since the program's ending. We'd like
(03:51):
to have you speak after the Administrator of NASA speaks,
and then we want you to sing to the crowd.
So I got up, gave a good speech to motivate everybody,
and then I sang when you fly to that crowd,
and that was again one of the most surreal moments
in my life. And from a songwriting perspective, that led
into a song called Our Country, which was narrated by
(04:11):
the voice of Peter Collin, who's the voice of Optimist
Prime and all the Transformer franchise YEA, so he narrated it.
I met him at the final launch and I serenaded
him a Cappella made him cry, and before you know it,
he was recording the narration for our country, for our veterans,
and it was just amazing. Man, I've got so many stories.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Dude, Where do we even go from there? I guess
I got to ask you about what instrument you play?
But man, I, yeah, that's awesome, dude, you're living the
dream man, that's awesome.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
It's one of those things. You know, you don't necessarily
count success one way, right, And that was one of
the things I think in my first career as an artist,
was how could I experience things that really I would
never get the experience without the song, without the music.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Well that's what people don't realize, right, It's not it's
not really for us. It's not about the money. It's
not about the fame. It's about just touching people and
people listening to your shit and liking it.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
Exactly, Yeah, exactly. Couldn't agree with you more. And it's
it's fed so much in my life, not just inspiration,
not just feelings, but these experiences. And you know, my
old website used to have just experience pages. So it
was like I got to do this, I got to
do that. I got to do this. It was really
That's what I based my success on was what was
(05:35):
I experiencing and and I feel like if writers just understood.
I think a lot of people write and they put
it away. They write and they put it away, and
then some write, sing it, record it, release it, of course,
but I think a lower percentage of people actually look
for ways for their music to be be heard and experienced.
(05:56):
And I think that's something that I've always done. Well
is I really feel like if I write a song
and I put that effort into it and I feel
like it's connected to me in a deep way, I
want to figure out where what group of people is
that song going to speak to? And then what engine
can I put behind it from an experience standpoint that's
going to not only get the song attention, but give
(06:18):
me something that I'm always going to remember.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Yeah, well said, thank you. So tell us about your
instrument my voice?
Speaker 4 (06:27):
Okay, I'm not a player.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Yeah that's fine man. Yeah, tell us about your songwriting process.
Do you write lyrics? Do you compose music at all?
Or do you just work with a producer? How does
that work for you?
Speaker 4 (06:40):
So typically I will get a full song, well not
a full song. I'll get a half a song in
my brain, melody, words, you name it, I'll put it down.
I'll do a work tape, and then I'll sit on
it because I can't finish a song because I have
that constraint of not playing an instrument well enough to
really accompany myself, which which has always been like to me,
(07:03):
it's it's given me a little bit of what's the word,
you know, where you see somebody doing something and they
don't feel like they're worthy of.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
That, Oh, imposter syndrome or yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
I get imposter syndrome because as a country artist, people
just assume you're going to play guitar, and so I've
always I've always had that issue with imposter syndrome. And
it took me a while to get over to my
producer in Nashville, really, you know, really helped me with
It's like ansl Why on the heck would you want
to get behind your guitar when your whole connection with
the audience requires your entire body. Why do you want
(07:36):
that guitar dividing you and conquering you in front of
the audience. You know that you're not going to be
as good as the players in Nashville, So why not
let them play your music and you do your voice,
you connect and so I, you know, that really made
me feel like it is my superpower. You know, connecting
and being vulnerable is really my superpower. And so I
(07:59):
think that I've learned to take that to heart, and
I'm really proud that I didn't you give up just
because I kept on having to tell people I'm sorry,
I don't play guitar.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Yeah, well, and there's nothing wrong with that, I think.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
So I came from a similar place where I was
always about the lyrics, and when I started down this journey,
like thirteen years ago, I literally could not play an
instr I mean, you could screw around on it, but
I didn't really play an instrument. Like you said, you
feel like you're damaged and flawed. I was throwing loops
together and I'd hire a guy to play a guitar
part and be like, this is what I'm thinking. And
(08:34):
then I learned the piano and I learned the guitar.
But even now, I feel like you can learn anything,
but I'm not an instrumentalist. I can't get up on
stage and play as well as some of these guitarists
or pianists. And I think if I'm creating in logic
in my house where you can take your time, you
can start something at a BPM of forty and crank
(08:55):
it up to one hundred and learn it. That's my
story and I'm not self conscious about it anymore, because again,
I think there's some people that are so talented. There's
some guitar players. There's not a lot of ed Shares
out there that are good guitar players and songwriters. Right,
so it's okay to pick a lane. And I feel
like it took me a while to get over that too.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
Yeah, if I had to give anybody advice, if being
an instrumentalist, you.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Would give ed sharing advice, I would.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
Be like, hey, you know, if you can play and sing, man,
go do it. But I would give the same person
that can only sing or play, can't do both on stage,
I would be like, yeah, pick your lane, go do it.
Don't worry about what people are going to think, whether
you're a country artist or whatever. Don't let not playing
a guitar keep you off the stage. Because I feel
(09:41):
like people there are a lot of people like me,
and you know, I hope that you know when they
hear my story and your story and others, that they
understand that it's really about the song. It doesn't matter.
It really doesn't matter whether you're you know, playing an
instrument while you sing the song or not. I will say,
getting back to my point about how I write is
I typically will get that first half of the song,
(10:03):
you know, a couple couple verses of chorus, and I'll
usually stop before the bridge because I know I want
the bridge to be special, and in country music, the
bridge is really special. So I will wait and I'll
pick my battles with my songs, and then I'll take
it to my usually a co writer, whether it was
a guy named David or a guy named Brent, or
(10:24):
a guy named Harrison or a guy named Skip, and
I would go to those guys and I would be like, Okay,
this is my vision for it. Here's the song, here's
what I've got. I really want to get just a
killer bridge. Here's what I'm thinking. And then we'll work
on it together, or they'll sit back and they'll go like, Okay,
I really like this, and they'll put some stuff to
it and some ideas together, and they'll send it to me,
(10:45):
and that's typically where the whole thing comes together. There
are certain songs like Our Country that I wrote from
top to bottom, as well as like Buttermilk Creek, which
is not out yet, but that's that's kind of the minority.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
And listen. At the end of the day, I came
the documentary at Netflix. I saw but these session musicians
are so talented and they do all the music for
all these hit songs that people don't know about, and
they never got credit for it in the past, you know.
So again, I think whether you're a songwriter or a producer,
a composer and a ranger, a lyricist, a beat maker,
(11:18):
a session musician, whatever you want to define yourself as,
it's okay for people to be really good at one thing. Yeah,
and there's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
Totally agree and yeah, I totally agree with that.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Tell us about this song, we're gonna hear what inspired
this one?
Speaker 4 (11:33):
Okay? So this one. I used to drive back and
forth to Arkansas and I would go there to be
with my wife at the time, and then I would
go for two weeks and I would come back to
North Carolina to be with my sons for two weeks
and I did that for three years, and as I
was driving, I was looking at these truckers and I
(11:55):
was like, you know, truckers, man, it's hard for me
to do. You know, every two weeks to drive, I
have a thousand miles every two weeks. But I was
doing it, and I was doing it for three years straight.
I just started to envision myself what would I do,
Like if I if I needed my wife or she
needed me, how would I do that? So when I
first wrote the song, I called it A thousand miles
(12:15):
to your front door. It's sense changed to where I
want to be, And the whole point of the song
was just trying to get back. You know, something happened,
and you can interpret that any way you want to.
Either something happened to the woman or the man, or
the truck driver or the spouse, and you you just
had this urge where you had to turn around and
(12:35):
you had to get straight home, and you had to
get there and just be by their side. It could
be your it could be your child, you know whoever
it is in that in that realm of you being
away and having to get back and needing to get
back now. And I felt like the chorus that I
wrote in that song, to me, is incredibly strong and
(12:59):
powerful and I think people will relate to it. I
also had a friend who named Charlotte, I'll just say that,
who had a husband named Paul who passed away, and
so I really wanted to get this song done and
finished and dedicate it to their marriage and his life
as a truck driver, because I know how what the
(13:20):
sacrifice is was for them, and I know how much
he meant to them, and so this song will be
dedicated to Paul and Charlotte. Getting a little choked up, sorry,
and I really I just I'm I'm excited to finally
have it coming out this October on the EP The Rise,
and I'm super stoked about it and I can't wait
(13:42):
for you to play it for everybody. But it's a
beautiful song, and I think it'll touch more than truck drivers.
But you know, anybody that longs to get back, whether
you're traveling for business or traveling in a truck or whatever.
You know, if you if you've ever needed to get
back to the one you loved, whether it's a wife, husband,
or a child or a family member, you know, that's
(14:03):
the whole dream of the song is getting back awesome.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Let's check it out and we'll come back and talk. Okay,
thank you, Okay, everybody check this out. Here we go.
Speaker 5 (14:39):
This lonesome my way, let's travel alone, keeps me away,
drives me insane.
Speaker 6 (14:53):
I need you now more.
Speaker 5 (14:55):
Than I ever have. So coming home. I'll be there
real soon. You see. It's a thousand miles to your front.
Speaker 7 (15:12):
Or I'll drive and drive and drive some more.
Speaker 5 (15:17):
Be there come the morning you.
Speaker 8 (15:19):
Will see as the miles pass by.
Speaker 7 (15:25):
I know that I will find you, ling Way, I
wanna be these black sub rooms then they're paid in lines.
Speaker 8 (15:43):
They're guiding me. I know, my God, A push through
eighteen weeks and a heart that's true. They carry me
mag see you.
Speaker 6 (16:02):
I'll be there, Marrin soon.
Speaker 5 (16:07):
It's a thousand miles see you front.
Speaker 6 (16:10):
Door, a tide and tide and sid some more.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
I'll be there.
Speaker 5 (16:15):
Come the morning.
Speaker 6 (16:17):
You will see him. That's the miles last night. I
know that I will find you. They will want to
be next to you. I'll be there. Come the morning.
Speaker 9 (16:58):
You will.
Speaker 10 (17:06):
Find you.
Speaker 6 (17:16):
To me, I want to be.
Speaker 10 (17:30):
So.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
That was a cool song. Thank you for sharing it
with us tonight.
Speaker 4 (17:32):
Yeah, man, I'm glad to give me a platform to
share it before it comes out.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
You're welcome.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
So are you in Nashville or what area of the
country are you from?
Speaker 4 (17:42):
So I'm in the Carolinas. I was born in the Carolinas.
I was born in Greenville, South Carolina. I lived most
of my adult life in Charlotte area of North Carolina.
And I've always kind of treated Nashville as a place
that I want to go to to record, write, network.
You know, my PR team is out of Nashville, my
radio teams out of Nashville. But I am a Carolina
(18:05):
guy through and through. And this time this round and
act too for me, which is this is the second
act of my career. I'm really planning to you know,
center myself in the Carolinas and radiate out from there
this time because I kind of did the Nashville thing
the first time, and I feel like this time, you
(18:25):
know what, I kind of left the Carolinas, and I
not that I ignored my home states, but I left
and I put most of my attention on my Nashville
career and radiating out of Nashville. And even though I
record and write there a lot, and my producer Cliff
is there. You know, I still do some recording in
(18:46):
the Carolina's. Part of this album is recorded in Salisbury,
North Carolina with Eddie Snuggs and Brent Bawers and Harrison Foreman,
who are amazing and got me back into writing. But
Cliff Downs my mentor, the love of my life in
terms of mus and learning what it takes to be
a good singer in the studio. And that's what I
mean by love. Cliff Downs just a super super person's
(19:09):
just incredible talent. So you know, I'm proud that I
get to call him a mentor. And so I really
this time, I'm homing myself in the Carolinas. I'll be
doing stuff in Nashville, but I'm sticking here and I'm
going to radiate out from here.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
Tell us what you were like as a kid.
Speaker 4 (19:28):
Oh boy, that's a that's a ooh, that's a doozy man.
My mom, my mom and dad probably start laughing as
so Asie they you hear this one. I hated school.
I loved freedom. I loved being able to do whatever
I could put my mind to. I was, you know,
incredibly creative, and I think that really, you know, being
(19:48):
in a classroom really messed me up. It just it
was like oil and water. And I, you know, did
everything I could to skip school, to hide, to eat food,
didn't have my daughter serve me after school. When she
would come home, I'd be like, Okay, bring me. I
don't want my parents to find me in my in
my hiding place. And I mean I literally I would
(20:09):
hit on top of a tree one time that you
could literally walk on in Hawaii. I'd climb out the window,
jump up to it. And my parents thought I went
to school, but I didn't go to school, and I
think that eventually led to me dropping out of high school.
And I'll get you know, we can maybe get into
that a little bit, but yeah, I was. I was
a rambunctious and very difficult child to wrangle. I was
(20:33):
not mean, I was not any of those. I didn't
get into a lot of trouble, but I did skip
school a lot, and I think that was the first
signs that I was a creative soul. And I think
my parents would agree with that. So and I would
try anything, and to this day that's kind of how
I am. You know, if I got to if I
got something, if I got an itch to do something,
I'm gonna I'm gonna do it.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
So do you have anything cool coming up for the
fans that you want to share on the show.
Speaker 5 (20:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
The main thing is, after a long absence from music,
the first part of my Gravity album, which will come
out late next year. The first part of that, there
are two parts. The first part is called the Rise,
and that's seven songs as an EP that's coming out
on October seventeenth. It'll have the two current singles that
are out the Whiskey Makes or Miss Me and We
(21:20):
Make America Run, which are doing phenomenally well. I think
Whiskeys surpassed two hundred and fifty thousand streams in just
over a month in terms of real, real streams on Spotify,
so that's doing really well. The rest of the I
think people are going to find out that the album's
pretty deep, and the EPs are pretty deep, so they're
more like minimum level CDs or albums, I should say.
(21:44):
And this first one seven songs, the second one will
be eight or nine songs potentially, and the full album
will be sixteen or seventeen songs, and that'll be called Gravity.
The second part of the EP, EP two, is called
Falling into Place. And there's a NASA you know, talking
about NASA like you you know, when you think about
(22:04):
gravity and NASA in my life as a guy that
has had three Space Act agreements with NASA to help
them with everything from veterans to youth and other things,
I just I felt like Gravity was like the perfect
thing to come out with on my return to music.
And there's a lot that that has to do with
(22:25):
but it's you know, one gravity can weigh you down.
Gravity is also something that if you escape gravity, you're
going to float indefinitely. And in my case, you know,
the rise relates to kind of rising from gravity, leaving
gravity as I come back, and then falling into places.
At some point I need to come back. I need
(22:45):
to come back, and that part is called falling into Place,
and that's about, you know, finding out who I am
as a as a singer and a songwriter, and that's
what the second part is really about. And then the
full Gravity album is those the Rise and the Falling
into Place coming together as one album eventually.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Tell us where people can find your stuff, where they
can stream it, Where can they find anything that you
have to offer?
Speaker 4 (23:11):
So Ansel Brown should be on every streaming platform pretty much.
In terms of my music, I can find my older music,
which I think a lot of people when they discover
it will go like you know, They'll be impressed with
the quality of that album and then the singles that
followed it and the work that we did in Nashville
with Cliff Downs and other great writers. I've been blessed
(23:35):
enough to have some of the best writers in music
allow me to do their songs, and I love you know,
It's all about the song to me, So any good
song that I fit with, I love. So my website
Ansel Brown dot com. You know, you can find anything
about me. There's an electronic press kit on there, there's
latest interviews. Yours will be on there. I've got all
(23:56):
the information on the current singles and where to listen
to them and what platforms to listen to them on.
I'm on Facebook, I'm on Instagram, I'm on TikTok, I'm
on x and I'm active on all of them. So yeah,
you can find me. Just just search for Ansel Brown. Luckily,
there's not a lot of ansels.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
You know, Are you sure about that?
Speaker 4 (24:19):
There are more now than there were when I started.
I will admit that.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Well, you know, and the more famous you get then
people will be naming their kids after you.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
So well, yeah, it is an old family name, so
you know, I went with my middle name and I've
I feel like that was the right way for me
to come out as an artist.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
And yeah, it's cool, man, there's nothing wrong with that. Yeah, yeah,
all right, man. I want to thank you so much
for being on the show tonight.
Speaker 4 (24:46):
It was amazing. I really appreciate your platform and what
you do for artists, and thank you for putting yourself
out there to help us. And I'm glad that, you know,
my publicists found you, and I'm glad that we we
are doing this.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
So thank you and thank you to all of you
tonight for sharing a little bit of your precious time
with the two of us. We know it's special and
we know it's limited, and thank you, and we hope
this episode has inspired you. My name is Torontos. Please
join me every single Tuesday.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
Evening on Reality Radio one to one. I love you all,
have a great night, and.
Speaker 11 (25:40):
Che nothing to fear. There is nothing you can.
Speaker 6 (26:33):
Do wrong.
Speaker 12 (26:42):
Your by man, eny.
Speaker 6 (27:21):
No, it is your time.
Speaker 11 (27:30):
To be.
Speaker 12 (27:42):
Now.
Speaker 10 (27:43):
It is your.
Speaker 6 (27:45):
Time to be man will.
Speaker 13 (28:35):
Up but.
Speaker 10 (28:54):
Me I'm.
Speaker 6 (28:59):
Clue.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
Was your.
Speaker 10 (29:13):
You?
Speaker 7 (29:33):
Lo?
Speaker 3 (29:40):
You?
Speaker 6 (29:47):
Who's your?
Speaker 1 (29:56):
Thank you for listening to the Songwriter Show to keep
them moment us up going head over to www Dot
songwriter show dot com. En joined our free music community
of artists, songwriters, and producers.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
That's www.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Dot songwriter show dot com.
Speaker 9 (31:14):
Money many name at m.
Speaker 6 (32:07):
No no hang on, hell
Speaker 10 (32:23):
No hang hang ha
Are you a songwriter? Are you looking to turn your
songwriting passion into a full time gig gig? Whether you
are just at the start of your songwriting journey or
a seasoned industry professional, this show is made for you. You
will welcome to The Songwriter Show, bringing together songwriting, news, interviews,
and communitating. Now welcome your houst Sronto, Welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Back to the Songwriter Show. I'm your host Sarantos, a
solo music artist and fellow songwriter who's always believed in
the magical power of words. I love and I thank
you for joining me on The Songwriter Show every single
Tuesday evening on Reality Radio one oh one so we
can help bring you behind the stories and behind the
scenes with some of today's most inspiring songwriters. Tonight, I'm
(00:47):
so excited to have on the show and Sol Brown.
He's a country music artist and entrepreneur whose heartfelt songs
blend blue collar grit, patriotism, and personal storytelling. His career
highlights include recognition from Country Music Association as a debut
Spotlight artist, collaborations with NASA, and powerful performances for veterans
(01:08):
and children's hospitals nationwide.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
And now welcome this week's special guest.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Welcome to the show, dude, how are you No.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
That's good, man, I'm glad to be here.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
We're glad you're here too, man. And I got to
ask you enough for bet tell me about the NASA thing.
I mean, it's probably not the first thing I should
ask you about, but I'm a space nut, so I
want to go to space.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
So that's the first thing I'm gonna ask you.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
Dude, Yes, serranos in space. That sounds kind of cool. Actually,
not gonna do it. We're not gonna lie. Yeah. So
I wrote a song called songwriting. So I wrote a
song called when You Fly, basically for pilots, you know.
It was just a very visual song. And I heard
the Space Suttle was gonna, you know, the program was
going to be ending, and so I got this wild idea.
(01:56):
I'm like, I need to send this to Johnson Space
Center in Texas and get them to listen to it.
So I did, and about a year later or six
months later or something like that, the head astronaut for
NASA called me and emailed me and said, we love
your song. We can't do anything with it, but we
love it.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
That's awesome, and she said that.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
They were going to send it to DC and let
them listen to it and let them figure out how
they can include it and me in their program. So
I never heard anything back after that. But twelve weeks
before the Shuttle launch, the final Shuttle launch, I got
a call while I was filming a video at an
airport for that song, and I was in an old
(02:38):
stagger wing and I got down and got a call
and they were like, you need to come talk. It's NASA.
They were like, hey, it's only twelve weeks away. It
might have been ten weeks, so it's one of those two.
They were like, it's really really coming up here, Like
we've thought about this, We've talked to some other artists,
but we really like your song. We really like what
you wrote. We want you to be the artists that
(02:59):
come in and finishes the Shuttle program. The rest is history.
As I say, I ended up going to the final
Space Shutt launch to let me bring my family.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
That's so cool.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
I got to climb up the entire Space Shutle endeavor
from bottom to top of the tail on the scaffolding
as they disassembled it, which not even NASA, not even
our handlers were allowed to do that, so they were
excited as us. Yeah, it was amazing. It was just
one of the most surreal moments in my life. And
(03:30):
then that turned into the final Space Shuttle landing and
doing a national radio broadcast from the landing, which was
all dignitaries, you know, former astronauts and world press, but
it was a private event. And then I got to
They were like, hey, can you come and talk to
all the Space Shuttle employees and contractors that are going
to be moving on since the program's ending. We'd like
(03:51):
to have you speak after the Administrator of NASA speaks,
and then we want you to sing to the crowd.
So I got up, gave a good speech to motivate everybody,
and then I sang when you fly to that crowd,
and that was again one of the most surreal moments
in my life. And from a songwriting perspective, that led
into a song called Our Country, which was narrated by
(04:11):
the voice of Peter Collin, who's the voice of Optimist
Prime and all the Transformer franchise YEA, so he narrated it.
I met him at the final launch and I serenaded
him a Cappella made him cry, and before you know it,
he was recording the narration for our country, for our veterans,
and it was just amazing. Man, I've got so many stories.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Dude, Where do we even go from there? I guess
I got to ask you about what instrument you play?
But man, I, yeah, that's awesome, dude, you're living the
dream man, that's awesome.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
It's one of those things. You know, you don't necessarily
count success one way, right, And that was one of
the things I think in my first career as an artist,
was how could I experience things that really I would
never get the experience without the song, without the music.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Well that's what people don't realize, right, It's not it's
not really for us. It's not about the money. It's
not about the fame. It's about just touching people and
people listening to your shit and liking it.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
Exactly, Yeah, exactly. Couldn't agree with you more. And it's
it's fed so much in my life, not just inspiration,
not just feelings, but these experiences. And you know, my
old website used to have just experience pages. So it
was like I got to do this, I got to
do that. I got to do this. It was really
That's what I based my success on was what was
(05:35):
I experiencing and and I feel like if writers just understood.
I think a lot of people write and they put
it away. They write and they put it away, and
then some write, sing it, record it, release it, of course,
but I think a lower percentage of people actually look
for ways for their music to be be heard and experienced.
(05:56):
And I think that's something that I've always done. Well
is I really feel like if I write a song
and I put that effort into it and I feel
like it's connected to me in a deep way, I
want to figure out where what group of people is
that song going to speak to? And then what engine
can I put behind it from an experience standpoint that's
going to not only get the song attention, but give
(06:18):
me something that I'm always going to remember.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Yeah, well said, thank you. So tell us about your
instrument my voice?
Speaker 4 (06:27):
Okay, I'm not a player.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Yeah that's fine man. Yeah, tell us about your songwriting process.
Do you write lyrics? Do you compose music at all?
Or do you just work with a producer? How does
that work for you?
Speaker 4 (06:40):
So typically I will get a full song, well not
a full song. I'll get a half a song in
my brain, melody, words, you name it, I'll put it down.
I'll do a work tape, and then I'll sit on
it because I can't finish a song because I have
that constraint of not playing an instrument well enough to
really accompany myself, which which has always been like to me,
(07:03):
it's it's given me a little bit of what's the word,
you know, where you see somebody doing something and they
don't feel like they're worthy of.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
That, Oh, imposter syndrome or yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
I get imposter syndrome because as a country artist, people
just assume you're going to play guitar, and so I've
always I've always had that issue with imposter syndrome. And
it took me a while to get over to my
producer in Nashville, really, you know, really helped me with
It's like ansl Why on the heck would you want
to get behind your guitar when your whole connection with
the audience requires your entire body. Why do you want
(07:36):
that guitar dividing you and conquering you in front of
the audience. You know that you're not going to be
as good as the players in Nashville, So why not
let them play your music and you do your voice,
you connect and so I, you know, that really made
me feel like it is my superpower. You know, connecting
and being vulnerable is really my superpower. And so I
(07:59):
think that I've learned to take that to heart, and
I'm really proud that I didn't you give up just
because I kept on having to tell people I'm sorry,
I don't play guitar.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Yeah, well, and there's nothing wrong with that, I think.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
So I came from a similar place where I was
always about the lyrics, and when I started down this journey,
like thirteen years ago, I literally could not play an
instr I mean, you could screw around on it, but
I didn't really play an instrument. Like you said, you
feel like you're damaged and flawed. I was throwing loops
together and I'd hire a guy to play a guitar
part and be like, this is what I'm thinking. And
(08:34):
then I learned the piano and I learned the guitar.
But even now, I feel like you can learn anything,
but I'm not an instrumentalist. I can't get up on
stage and play as well as some of these guitarists
or pianists. And I think if I'm creating in logic
in my house where you can take your time, you
can start something at a BPM of forty and crank
(08:55):
it up to one hundred and learn it. That's my
story and I'm not self conscious about it anymore, because again,
I think there's some people that are so talented. There's
some guitar players. There's not a lot of ed Shares
out there that are good guitar players and songwriters. Right,
so it's okay to pick a lane. And I feel
like it took me a while to get over that too.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
Yeah, if I had to give anybody advice, if being
an instrumentalist, you.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Would give ed sharing advice, I would.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
Be like, hey, you know, if you can play and sing, man,
go do it. But I would give the same person
that can only sing or play, can't do both on stage,
I would be like, yeah, pick your lane, go do it.
Don't worry about what people are going to think, whether
you're a country artist or whatever. Don't let not playing
a guitar keep you off the stage. Because I feel
(09:41):
like people there are a lot of people like me,
and you know, I hope that you know when they
hear my story and your story and others, that they
understand that it's really about the song. It doesn't matter.
It really doesn't matter whether you're you know, playing an
instrument while you sing the song or not. I will say,
getting back to my point about how I write is
I typically will get that first half of the song,
(10:03):
you know, a couple couple verses of chorus, and I'll
usually stop before the bridge because I know I want
the bridge to be special, and in country music, the
bridge is really special. So I will wait and I'll
pick my battles with my songs, and then I'll take
it to my usually a co writer, whether it was
a guy named David or a guy named Brent, or
(10:24):
a guy named Harrison or a guy named Skip, and
I would go to those guys and I would be like, Okay,
this is my vision for it. Here's the song, here's
what I've got. I really want to get just a
killer bridge. Here's what I'm thinking. And then we'll work
on it together, or they'll sit back and they'll go like, Okay,
I really like this, and they'll put some stuff to
it and some ideas together, and they'll send it to me,
(10:45):
and that's typically where the whole thing comes together. There
are certain songs like Our Country that I wrote from
top to bottom, as well as like Buttermilk Creek, which
is not out yet, but that's that's kind of the minority.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
And listen. At the end of the day, I came
the documentary at Netflix. I saw but these session musicians
are so talented and they do all the music for
all these hit songs that people don't know about, and
they never got credit for it in the past, you know.
So again, I think whether you're a songwriter or a producer,
a composer and a ranger, a lyricist, a beat maker,
(11:18):
a session musician, whatever you want to define yourself as,
it's okay for people to be really good at one thing. Yeah,
and there's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
Totally agree and yeah, I totally agree with that.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Tell us about this song, we're gonna hear what inspired
this one?
Speaker 4 (11:33):
Okay? So this one. I used to drive back and
forth to Arkansas and I would go there to be
with my wife at the time, and then I would
go for two weeks and I would come back to
North Carolina to be with my sons for two weeks
and I did that for three years, and as I
was driving, I was looking at these truckers and I
(11:55):
was like, you know, truckers, man, it's hard for me
to do. You know, every two weeks to drive, I
have a thousand miles every two weeks. But I was
doing it, and I was doing it for three years straight.
I just started to envision myself what would I do,
Like if I if I needed my wife or she
needed me, how would I do that? So when I
first wrote the song, I called it A thousand miles
(12:15):
to your front door. It's sense changed to where I
want to be, And the whole point of the song
was just trying to get back. You know, something happened,
and you can interpret that any way you want to.
Either something happened to the woman or the man, or
the truck driver or the spouse, and you you just
had this urge where you had to turn around and
(12:35):
you had to get straight home, and you had to
get there and just be by their side. It could
be your it could be your child, you know whoever
it is in that in that realm of you being
away and having to get back and needing to get
back now. And I felt like the chorus that I
wrote in that song, to me, is incredibly strong and
(12:59):
powerful and I think people will relate to it. I
also had a friend who named Charlotte, I'll just say that,
who had a husband named Paul who passed away, and
so I really wanted to get this song done and
finished and dedicate it to their marriage and his life
as a truck driver, because I know how what the
(13:20):
sacrifice is was for them, and I know how much
he meant to them, and so this song will be
dedicated to Paul and Charlotte. Getting a little choked up, sorry,
and I really I just I'm I'm excited to finally
have it coming out this October on the EP The Rise,
and I'm super stoked about it and I can't wait
(13:42):
for you to play it for everybody. But it's a
beautiful song, and I think it'll touch more than truck drivers.
But you know, anybody that longs to get back, whether
you're traveling for business or traveling in a truck or whatever.
You know, if you if you've ever needed to get
back to the one you loved, whether it's a wife, husband,
or a child or a family member, you know, that's
(14:03):
the whole dream of the song is getting back awesome.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Let's check it out and we'll come back and talk. Okay,
thank you, Okay, everybody check this out. Here we go.
Speaker 5 (14:39):
This lonesome my way, let's travel alone, keeps me away,
drives me insane.
Speaker 6 (14:53):
I need you now more.
Speaker 5 (14:55):
Than I ever have. So coming home. I'll be there
real soon. You see. It's a thousand miles to your front.
Speaker 7 (15:12):
Or I'll drive and drive and drive some more.
Speaker 5 (15:17):
Be there come the morning you.
Speaker 8 (15:19):
Will see as the miles pass by.
Speaker 7 (15:25):
I know that I will find you, ling Way, I
wanna be these black sub rooms then they're paid in lines.
Speaker 8 (15:43):
They're guiding me. I know, my God, A push through
eighteen weeks and a heart that's true. They carry me
mag see you.
Speaker 6 (16:02):
I'll be there, Marrin soon.
Speaker 5 (16:07):
It's a thousand miles see you front.
Speaker 6 (16:10):
Door, a tide and tide and sid some more.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
I'll be there.
Speaker 5 (16:15):
Come the morning.
Speaker 6 (16:17):
You will see him. That's the miles last night. I
know that I will find you. They will want to
be next to you. I'll be there. Come the morning.
Speaker 9 (16:58):
You will.
Speaker 10 (17:06):
Find you.
Speaker 6 (17:16):
To me, I want to be.
Speaker 10 (17:30):
So.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
That was a cool song. Thank you for sharing it
with us tonight.
Speaker 4 (17:32):
Yeah, man, I'm glad to give me a platform to
share it before it comes out.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
You're welcome.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
So are you in Nashville or what area of the
country are you from?
Speaker 4 (17:42):
So I'm in the Carolinas. I was born in the Carolinas.
I was born in Greenville, South Carolina. I lived most
of my adult life in Charlotte area of North Carolina.
And I've always kind of treated Nashville as a place
that I want to go to to record, write, network.
You know, my PR team is out of Nashville, my
radio teams out of Nashville. But I am a Carolina
(18:05):
guy through and through. And this time this round and
act too for me, which is this is the second
act of my career. I'm really planning to you know,
center myself in the Carolinas and radiate out from there
this time because I kind of did the Nashville thing
the first time, and I feel like this time, you
(18:25):
know what, I kind of left the Carolinas, and I
not that I ignored my home states, but I left
and I put most of my attention on my Nashville
career and radiating out of Nashville. And even though I
record and write there a lot, and my producer Cliff
is there. You know, I still do some recording in
(18:46):
the Carolina's. Part of this album is recorded in Salisbury,
North Carolina with Eddie Snuggs and Brent Bawers and Harrison Foreman,
who are amazing and got me back into writing. But
Cliff Downs my mentor, the love of my life in
terms of mus and learning what it takes to be
a good singer in the studio. And that's what I
mean by love. Cliff Downs just a super super person's
(19:09):
just incredible talent. So you know, I'm proud that I
get to call him a mentor. And so I really
this time, I'm homing myself in the Carolinas. I'll be
doing stuff in Nashville, but I'm sticking here and I'm
going to radiate out from here.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
Tell us what you were like as a kid.
Speaker 4 (19:28):
Oh boy, that's a that's a ooh, that's a doozy man.
My mom, my mom and dad probably start laughing as
so Asie they you hear this one. I hated school.
I loved freedom. I loved being able to do whatever
I could put my mind to. I was, you know,
incredibly creative, and I think that really, you know, being
(19:48):
in a classroom really messed me up. It just it
was like oil and water. And I, you know, did
everything I could to skip school, to hide, to eat food,
didn't have my daughter serve me after school. When she
would come home, I'd be like, Okay, bring me. I
don't want my parents to find me in my in
my hiding place. And I mean I literally I would
(20:09):
hit on top of a tree one time that you
could literally walk on in Hawaii. I'd climb out the window,
jump up to it. And my parents thought I went
to school, but I didn't go to school, and I
think that eventually led to me dropping out of high school.
And I'll get you know, we can maybe get into
that a little bit, but yeah, I was. I was
a rambunctious and very difficult child to wrangle. I was
(20:33):
not mean, I was not any of those. I didn't
get into a lot of trouble, but I did skip
school a lot, and I think that was the first
signs that I was a creative soul. And I think
my parents would agree with that. So and I would
try anything, and to this day that's kind of how
I am. You know, if I got to if I
got something, if I got an itch to do something,
I'm gonna I'm gonna do it.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
So do you have anything cool coming up for the
fans that you want to share on the show.
Speaker 5 (20:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
The main thing is, after a long absence from music,
the first part of my Gravity album, which will come
out late next year. The first part of that, there
are two parts. The first part is called the Rise,
and that's seven songs as an EP that's coming out
on October seventeenth. It'll have the two current singles that
are out the Whiskey Makes or Miss Me and We
(21:20):
Make America Run, which are doing phenomenally well. I think
Whiskeys surpassed two hundred and fifty thousand streams in just
over a month in terms of real, real streams on Spotify,
so that's doing really well. The rest of the I
think people are going to find out that the album's
pretty deep, and the EPs are pretty deep, so they're
more like minimum level CDs or albums, I should say.
(21:44):
And this first one seven songs, the second one will
be eight or nine songs potentially, and the full album
will be sixteen or seventeen songs, and that'll be called Gravity.
The second part of the EP, EP two, is called
Falling into Place. And there's a NASA you know, talking
about NASA like you you know, when you think about
(22:04):
gravity and NASA in my life as a guy that
has had three Space Act agreements with NASA to help
them with everything from veterans to youth and other things,
I just I felt like Gravity was like the perfect
thing to come out with on my return to music.
And there's a lot that that has to do with
(22:25):
but it's you know, one gravity can weigh you down.
Gravity is also something that if you escape gravity, you're
going to float indefinitely. And in my case, you know,
the rise relates to kind of rising from gravity, leaving
gravity as I come back, and then falling into places.
At some point I need to come back. I need
(22:45):
to come back, and that part is called falling into Place,
and that's about, you know, finding out who I am
as a as a singer and a songwriter, and that's
what the second part is really about. And then the
full Gravity album is those the Rise and the Falling
into Place coming together as one album eventually.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Tell us where people can find your stuff, where they
can stream it, Where can they find anything that you
have to offer?
Speaker 4 (23:11):
So Ansel Brown should be on every streaming platform pretty much.
In terms of my music, I can find my older music,
which I think a lot of people when they discover
it will go like you know, They'll be impressed with
the quality of that album and then the singles that
followed it and the work that we did in Nashville
with Cliff Downs and other great writers. I've been blessed
(23:35):
enough to have some of the best writers in music
allow me to do their songs, and I love you know,
It's all about the song to me, So any good
song that I fit with, I love. So my website
Ansel Brown dot com. You know, you can find anything
about me. There's an electronic press kit on there, there's
latest interviews. Yours will be on there. I've got all
(23:56):
the information on the current singles and where to listen
to them and what platforms to listen to them on.
I'm on Facebook, I'm on Instagram, I'm on TikTok, I'm
on x and I'm active on all of them. So yeah,
you can find me. Just just search for Ansel Brown. Luckily,
there's not a lot of ansels.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
You know, Are you sure about that?
Speaker 4 (24:19):
There are more now than there were when I started.
I will admit that.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Well, you know, and the more famous you get then
people will be naming their kids after you.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
So well, yeah, it is an old family name, so
you know, I went with my middle name and I've
I feel like that was the right way for me
to come out as an artist.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
And yeah, it's cool, man, there's nothing wrong with that. Yeah, yeah,
all right, man. I want to thank you so much
for being on the show tonight.
Speaker 4 (24:46):
It was amazing. I really appreciate your platform and what
you do for artists, and thank you for putting yourself
out there to help us. And I'm glad that, you know,
my publicists found you, and I'm glad that we we
are doing this.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
So thank you and thank you to all of you
tonight for sharing a little bit of your precious time
with the two of us. We know it's special and
we know it's limited, and thank you, and we hope
this episode has inspired you. My name is Torontos. Please
join me every single Tuesday.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
Evening on Reality Radio one to one. I love you all,
have a great night, and.
Speaker 11 (25:40):
Che nothing to fear. There is nothing you can.
Speaker 6 (26:33):
Do wrong.
Speaker 12 (26:42):
Your by man, eny.
Speaker 6 (27:21):
No, it is your time.
Speaker 11 (27:30):
To be.
Speaker 12 (27:42):
Now.
Speaker 10 (27:43):
It is your.
Speaker 6 (27:45):
Time to be man will.
Speaker 13 (28:35):
Up but.
Speaker 10 (28:54):
Me I'm.
Speaker 6 (28:59):
Clue.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
Was your.
Speaker 10 (29:13):
You?
Speaker 7 (29:33):
Lo?
Speaker 3 (29:40):
You?
Speaker 6 (29:47):
Who's your?
Speaker 1 (29:56):
Thank you for listening to the Songwriter Show to keep
them moment us up going head over to www Dot
songwriter show dot com. En joined our free music community
of artists, songwriters, and producers.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
That's www.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Dot songwriter show dot com.
Speaker 9 (31:14):
Money many name at m.
Speaker 6 (32:07):
No no hang on, hell
Speaker 10 (32:23):
No hang hang ha
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