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August 21, 2025 23 mins
Josie chats with Karen Waldrup (as seen on The Voice) about her latest single "Blue Cowboy Boots" and more. 
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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Br BR BRA CRA CRA cra roystering around the world
on the world Wide Web.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Ladies and gentlemen, The period is the list.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
And the other stations are tuning in too. Oh yeah.
Broadcasting live from the Josey Network Studios in downtown ma Dinah, Tennessee.
It's that time of week again. It's time for the
Josie Shoe, bringing you the most exciting music, moves and

(00:47):
guests from around the world right here on the Jersey Show.
Please make walking beautiful. It's Hannity, Hello, America's Ridy Elsliha Business,
Josie Ascid, Hey Noso, Hey.

Speaker 3 (01:13):
Everyone, welcome back to the Josie Show. I am jose
Pazentino Boon. I'm so excited I have a great interview
for all of you. We have Karen Waldrop joining me
this This was such a fun interview. I'm so excited
to share this one with you. But before I do,
I really wanted to mention the jose Music Awards is
coming up, so please make sure you get those tickets
for November first at the bel Air Mansion for our

(01:36):
Jmfest and conference, and then the next day is our
eleventh annual Josie Music Awards on November second, Sunday at
the Grand Ole Opry House, and tickets are available for
that at Josie Music Awards dot com. Tickets for both
events are at Josie Music Awards dot com, so make
sure you get your tickets before they are gone. Alrighty,

(02:00):
here is my interview. Enjoy please welcome to the Josie Show.
My guest Karen Waldrope.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
Hello, Well, Hi, how's it going.

Speaker 3 (02:09):
Oh? Everything is going amazing. I've been looking forward to
talking to you.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
How have you been. I'm doing great, as busy as
ever making music and making a new record and touring
and doing all the things.

Speaker 3 (02:21):
We have to talk about all the things too, because
I'm so excited and excited for you. So first off,
your latest single, Blue Cowboy Boots. I am obsessed. So
what inspired this new song? Was there a specific moment
or story behind it? Tell us all about it please.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
Well, you know, I was on the Voice last year
and I was out in LA and I had a
blue pair of cowboy boots because my friend Ed Hill
he had called and said, Hey, I have this great
idea of this visual song. So it really was Ed
Hill's original idea. And then I went and got the
blue Cowboy boots, started wearing them and started to really
understand and feel how amazing it feels wear blue cowboy boots.

(03:01):
It's like a whole thing, like you step into this
feeling of no longer blue anymore because you're wearing blue
cowboy boots. So it became this kind of fun visual
thing that we did. And anyway, so I wore them
while I was out there, and then we came off
the show. I was like, hey, I really want to
say something fun, lighthearted and and and up tempo and

(03:24):
silly and summer feel good. Doesn't make you think too hard.
It's just a role laid back song. And so we went.
The studio track Blue Cowboy Boots actually used the players
from my band, which is pretty rare to do. Usually
we use studio players. But because we had been out
on the road playing it, I said, hey, well you know,
why don't you'll play on the record. And so the

(03:46):
band jumps in the studio, plays on the record, and
now you got blue Cowboy Boots played by my band.
I love it.

Speaker 3 (03:54):
It is so good and it is a fun, a
fun song, and there's a music video out for it
as well. And I just I love the whole blue
outfit that you have with the cape and the sparkly
I just I love it. It's gorgeous.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
Thank you so much. And that was that video has
been number one it tasted Country for like, I think
four weeks now, so we've just been blown away by
them out of love and support for that record. And
I think I think the not only the record, but
also the video. Yeah, I think it's because it is
so lighthearted. You know, it's not really meant to make
anybody do any crazy amount of thinking. It's just kind

(04:29):
of fun and feel good. And people are like, what's
the song about. I'm like, it's about blue cowboy boots.

Speaker 3 (04:37):
We're having funny here. Yes, I love it. I love it,
And congratulations number one on Taste of Country.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
It's well deserved.

Speaker 3 (04:45):
It really truly is. It's such it's such a good song.
And for this music video though, I've seen you film
this in two different locations, right, Can you tell us
a little bit about the filming of this music video.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
Yeah, so we did the video. We started the video
on an actual mortigar per read that I was a
part of that. I was the Grand Marshal, which is
such an incredible honor, like just to get to be
the Grand Marshall in general. It was my very first
Morning Girl parade I ever was a part of, and
so it was really special to not only be a
part of it, but also to be the Grand Marshal.

(05:16):
And so we started with filming that and they kind
of got that in real time, and then a couple
of weeks later we were at the Louisiana Crawfish Festival
and shall met Louisiana and that's where they got the
stage content. So it kind of looks when you're watching it, it
kind of looks like we took the Marty gar Parade
to the to the show and now we're on stage

(05:36):
and it's got the horn. You know, you can see
the saxophone. I'm a Louisiana girl, so I do love
the horns and so anyway, so I so we filmed
kind of both of those and then edit them together
to just make a really fun Louisiana Every single shot
and that was shot in Louisiana. I love it. Oh

(05:57):
throwback to my home state.

Speaker 3 (06:00):
So litly, you got to show love to your home state.
I think that's amazing and it's such a great music video.
I hope everyone checks it out. It's on YouTube. You
can find it, so please make.

Speaker 2 (06:09):
Sure you do.

Speaker 3 (06:10):
For Blue Cowboy Boots and so you you mentioned it
slightly here, so I you know, of course you are
working on some new music behind the scenes. Anything you
could tell us about that yet, maybe an album coming out?
What what are we working on?

Speaker 2 (06:24):
So now I'm working on a whole different type of project.
It's a collection of songs. We're in the studio right
now working on eight new songs and that's been really fun.
We've already tracked four of the eight, so now we're
about to go back in the studio. So that's you know,
when you're making a new record, it is definitely very
all encompassing. You spend a lot of time working on

(06:44):
the the right key of each song, the right phrasing,
the right breathing, all these dorky things that we dive
into and spend days. I've sent two days of my
life girl and one song. Just beaten this thing down,
you know the way that I you know, milk certain
notes and where my breath goes, and just that way

(07:04):
when we go in the studio, I'm just really prepared
and then the producer just has to take it from
hopefully eighty to ninety five, you know, rather than taking
it from twenty to ninety you know. So I kind
of try to do the heavy lifting in advance, and
then when I go in, he and I are able
to work together. So I'm working with a producer named
Jeff Huskins down on Music Row and we've just really

(07:27):
had a good time. We tracked it at soundstage, so
it's just it's really an honor to be able to
track in the best quality studio in Nashville, with the
best quality players, with the best quality producer and engineers.
So right now I think I'm in this very humble, grateful,

(07:48):
appreciating chapter in my life. I'm just like, Wow, I
can't believe I'm getting to do this. And God has
blessed me tremendously for the fruits of my labor, forgetting
out there and trucking the stuff in and out of
the clubs and get venues across America and around the world.
And now I'm in a in a new chapter where

(08:09):
I'm able to really just focus on making a great record.

Speaker 3 (08:12):
Yes, there's so much more into it than people realize,
you know.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
Oh, my gosh. U.

Speaker 3 (08:18):
Yes, So I love that you. You know, you're very
open to talk about it, and I'm so glad that
you are enjoying every single piece of your journey as
you should. And I just I'm so excited about this
upcoming record. I'm really really looking forward to it, and
you know, we will promote it like crazy here and
on all of our socials. We are huge fans of yours,

(08:39):
so we are going to definitely do that. But I
wanted to ask you, going back to Blue Cowboy Boots,
how has the response been from fans. Has it been
pretty positive for you?

Speaker 2 (08:50):
Yeah, I think it's been one of those songs that's
just really fun and light for people. You know, they
they're wearing the blue Cavoy boots, they're off buying their
own if that. You know, I have a Blue Cowboy
boot line I did partnered with Wet Kiss, So some
of the people been buying those, wearing those of the shows,
and then some of the people have just been going
on you know, whatever, their local boot place and trying
on the Blue Cowboy boots and getting a pair. So

(09:12):
however people get them, I think that there is an
excitement that comes whether the blue Cowboy boots are navy
or cobalt or pale blue. It's just fun having the
blue cowboy boots as our picture thing that we're doing.
And in this holiday season we'll be doing a blue
Cowboy Boots Christmas box, so that the blue kind of

(09:35):
goes into the holidays. We do a Christmas box every year.
This will be our sixth year that we do our
annual Christmas box, which is really fun. It's filled with
a bunch of Karen Waldrup stuff and that's really fun.
So so anyway, it's a very picturesque record, a very
picture oriented visual. And the co writer that I wrote
it with, Ed Hill. He and I have worked together

(09:55):
for years. We're about to write again. We love working together.
He and I are just we're just good friends and
we see music in a similar way. We don't take
it too serious, but then we take it serious enough, like, yeah,
we take it serious enough to sit down and really
focus and dedicate our time, but we don't take it
so serious that we waste a bunch of energy talking

(10:17):
about stuff that doesn't matter.

Speaker 3 (10:18):
Right, it's a healthy balance.

Speaker 2 (10:20):
It's a healthy balance. Yes, we're healthy songwriting mentorship partnership.
I hearve it. I love it.

Speaker 3 (10:28):
That's amazing when you work with amazing people, just incredible
and magic things. Magical things just come out of it.
And I'm just I'm really forward to it. And you
have another song out that you released before this one,
fix It, which I also really love. So I want
to talk a little bit about fix It as well,
because for anybody who has you know, a partner that
you know basically could fix anything, this one's for you.

(10:50):
So can you tell us a little bit about fix It?

Speaker 2 (10:53):
Yeah? Fix It is one of those songs you know,
every now and then, God just kind of sends you
a song, and it's funny because you don't you don't
expect it. It's just comes out of nowhere. So you're
just like sitting in your normal life and ma'am, here's
a song, and you can sometimes you can just hear
it like I could hear fix It. You know. I'm
literally waking up at nine o'clock sleep slept in that day.

(11:16):
We had stayed up super late working on our floors
at our house, and so I wake up and I
go in and my husband's like, looks kind of rough,
and I said, hey, you know, is everything okay, and
he's like, I never went to sleep. I stayed up
all night. I'm like, are you crazy? So he was
just so dedicated that night to getting that room done.
You know we did, we did our whole home, but

(11:37):
I think it was that night he was doing the
last room and he was not giving all kind of thing.
And that's what gave me the song idea. You know,
I just at the whole song is like, you know,
he stayed up all night last night, barely went to sleep,
made a mess of the whole damn kitchen instead of
lying next to me. So it kind of leads the
viewer to think like this is a bad guy, like
something's wrong, something is going wrong, and then it flips

(11:58):
it and just totally in one in one lyric kind
of lets you know like, no, this is a good guy.
He's totally dedicated, he is focused, he is gonna accomplish
this goal. And he is one of those people where
if my husband Cody cannot fix it, it is damn
sure broken, Like, ain't nobody gonna fix it? My husband?

Speaker 3 (12:19):
I like, can I promise you?

Speaker 2 (12:22):
Then put it out the street, put it at the curve.
I'm done with it. So anyway, So that's been a
joke with our family for a long time. And if
Cody cat, if Cody can't fix it, we're all screwed,
you know. So So anyway, so I was sitting on
the brand new floors that he had just laid, and
I was sitting there and I just grabbed my guitar
and I just started trumming those chords. And funny enough,

(12:44):
the chords that Ice was strumming and the melody that
came to me is the record. Like we went through.
Don't get me wrong. We went through and edited and
worked on the verses and made the bridge, and we
put icing on the cake. But the basic cake was
pretty much there in about ten minutes. It was just
the very basic you know, there ain't nothing like a

(13:05):
man who can fix it. Yeah, Like that was already
kind of there. And so that made fix it not
only easy, but also fun and also very authentic. And
I think that's why it relates to so many people. Yeah,
because they're either feeling like they're, oh, you're talking to me,
or they're feeling like, oh my gosh, you're talking to
my husband or wife, like that is that person you

(13:27):
know exactly? Or my best friend or my dad. You
know a lot of people said that this is about
my dad, so anyway, So it's just kind of one
of those songs that I think resonates to the listener
more than most because there's such an energy and a
feeling that goes behind you know what. It feels so
good when your laundry machine is broken and your husband

(13:49):
fixes it and you don't have to go to home
meep on by another one like Kelly, Yes, that's feeling
I love.

Speaker 3 (13:56):
That's amazing, And like you said, it is so universal.
I me it could be for anyone you know, an
any of your fixers and your family.

Speaker 2 (14:03):
It could be for and I just love it.

Speaker 3 (14:05):
And you can find both of these songs and all
of your previous albums and singles on all the streaming platforms.
Everywhere you listen to your music today, you will find it.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
Also.

Speaker 3 (14:14):
I am a span of hard happy CDs as well,
and I noticed you sell a sign CD at your website,
which made me very very happy.

Speaker 2 (14:19):
So people, well thanks. Yeah, you know, we still do
the physical CDs and we also have a we have
a vinyl record as well, so you know, we find
when we hit the road sometimes people even though they
can hear everything on Spotify or Apple Music. We're not stupid,
we know that, but I do think there is something
still about getting something physical that signed. So whether or

(14:41):
not those people are listening to those CDs, I don't know.
I think they're listening to the vinyl probably more than
they're listening to the CDs. But I do think there's
a certain level of nostalgia that goes with leaving this
show with a CD, Like, I don't know, it's just
and you'd be surprised, like even young people still buy them.
I'm shocked. I'm like, I don't even do you even
have a CD player? That is so funny.

Speaker 3 (15:04):
All may still high, but yeah, there's nothing bad.

Speaker 2 (15:07):
I love it.

Speaker 3 (15:08):
I love it so much. Well, that is awesome, and
I hope everyone goes to your website. Can you give
out your website for everybody so they can go to
it right now?

Speaker 2 (15:15):
Yes, and please do y'all. It's Karen Waldrop dot com.
And this is the hub for us, you know, this
is our we call it our entertainment hub. Like we
always encourage people to start there because from there it
links you to all the verified social media pages and
verified youtubes and you're not snooping around the web talking
to somebody who's an impersonator. You're if you start a

(15:36):
Karen Waldroup dot com, you're gonna you're gonna stay in
the Waldrop Worldwide umbrella safely without getting rained on. So
I always say, you know, just start there, and then
that way when you when you go off into the TikTok,
you know it's my TikTok. When you go off onto
the merch store, you know you're gonna get that shirt
like whatever.

Speaker 1 (15:56):
You know.

Speaker 2 (15:56):
So, and then we also encourage people to follow us
there if you if you click follow. Then what's really
cool is that I can send out like quarterly newsletters
so where our run of dates are there, So you
may be in Gulf Shores, Alabama with your family, didn't
even think, oh, let's go here the Karen Walder show
at the shrip fast. But because you're getting the newsletter

(16:17):
while we're there, so I always encourage people to follow
us so we can keep up with them. Yes, oh
I love that. That's so cool.

Speaker 3 (16:24):
Yeah, please do everyone, please make sure you do that
right now and before we go with you real quick.
I do have to of course ask some the Voice questions,
just a couple here for you, because you absolutely rocked
that show.

Speaker 2 (16:36):
Oh it is so fun.

Speaker 3 (16:37):
Yes, and you looked like you were having an absolute blast.
So I wanted to ask what inspired you to audition
for the Voice in the first place, And how did
it feel to be mentored and team you know, buy
and team Dan and Shay.

Speaker 2 (16:52):
What was that like? So cool? Oh my gosh, Dan
and Share is so awesome. The decision kind of came
from a place of creativity. You know, my manager and
I we were on our way to a show in Memphis,
and you know, a club we love to play in Memphis,
and we're on our way and everything's fine, and we're
about to walk into the holidays and we're all just
kind of talking about the next year. And so we

(17:12):
leave Nashville and Memphis is only about three hours from Nashville,
and by the time we got to Memphis, we had
already reached out to The Voice and kind of said, hey,
you know, we would love to audition and whatever. And thankfully,
by the time I had done that, things had really
moved to more of a digital audition, so I was

(17:33):
able to just make videos. I didn't have to fly
all the way out to LA I was able to
just kind of make a couple videos. And I think
that's the thing that they can tell an unedited video
of a person singing a song all the way through
and it's sounding good is kind of good enough, Like
they don't need to spend the money on the flight
and hotel rooms just to see I mean, they can
tell that the video is edited, right, So that was

(17:57):
really lucky for me. I was lucky that I came
after or that hectic have to wait for, you know,
thousands of people to sing. Mine was more like, here's
a couple of videos, and then they were like, okay,
let's jump on a zoom and make sure you're not
a crazy person. And so we jump on the zoom
and sure enough they find out I am no, I'm
just kidding. But we jump on the zoom and they're like, hey,

(18:20):
this girl's you know, got a cool story and she's
been touring and she's got a band. And that was interesting,
I think. And so anyway, so then I kind of
became the character of the honky tnker. You know, I
was the girl who had been playing all over America,
and that I think that worked well and I think
it also kind of sometimes doesn't work well because people

(18:40):
were like, well, this girl's already doing it, you know,
why should she have to be on the voice. And
I'm like, yeah, I'm doing it, but I'm playing clubs,
you know, coming home with a few dollars, like I
still need I still need to step up the ladder
like everybody else. So that's kind of why we did it,
was just to take the step up the ladder, you know.
And I find that in this business it's kind of
a content one step at a time. It's never really

(19:03):
you know, you think when you first moved to Nashville
or when you first quit your day job and you
you first start, you kind of think, oh, this is
going to happen so quickly. But really what it is
is it's a lifelong journey, and it's a lifelong lessons learning.
I mean, you're constantly learning, Like you'd be surprised. However
many years I've been touring, I still learn stuff every

(19:26):
time we play a show. Every time we play a show,
I learned something because last time I learned, oh my gosh,
why am I traveling without this specific cable? I need
this cable. Some people have it some people don't, so
now forever, I'm going to have that cable. So you're
just constantly learning. And it's like two years ago, I
wasn't even thinking about that cable because I didn't even
have that wireless setup. So you're just always learning, and

(19:49):
you're always learning how to do things more efficiently and
how to communicate better with your people in the band.
And it's just a constant learning of how to do
things better and how to be how to perform better,
and how to breathe better. And so that's what makes it,
I think most exhilarating is that there's always something to learn.

(20:10):
It's you're never there. You're always getting better. It doesn't
matter if you're Carrie Underwood, You're still always trying to
get better. You're just that's what makes it. That's what
makes it a lifelong thing.

Speaker 1 (20:23):
You know.

Speaker 2 (20:23):
I bet if you talk to Delly Parton, she would
tell you, oh, yeah, I'm learning all the time. I'm
learning ways to do better at this or this, and
how to balance my life better and how to have
more personal time. And you know all that lift.

Speaker 3 (20:36):
Absolutely we all could feel that way. You know, we're
always trying to learn something, even not in the music industry,
You're we're all we can all learn something. I'm always
learning about life exactly exactly, So I love that you
said that. It's so true. And also the last question
I have for you, can you just walk us through
your favorite moment from the show? I mean, was was
it a performance, a coaching session, or something behind the scenes.

(20:58):
Tell me a little bit about that.

Speaker 2 (20:59):
Yeah, you know, I think that to say my favorite
I would be the most impactful. It was actually something
that Reeba said, and she said, you know, when you're
performing a song, to step into the song. So before
I was kind of like performing song, song, song, song.

(21:21):
Now I'm stepping into the song and living that song,
and then after it's over, stepping out of it and
then stepping into the next one. And that's so important
because each song has its own energy, tone, feel, personality,

(21:41):
you know, and so you can't perform each and every
song the same way or you're never going to connect
where that's I think what I was doing wrong. And
that's the biggest thing I learned from the Voice. I
learned I could write a book of everything I learned
with wardrobe and packing and planning and breathing, and I
could write a book, But the number one thing I

(22:04):
would say the person doesn't even have to read the
book is if you step into the song like as
if you're stepping into a movie set, then you're able
to deliver that song in a way that is truer
to the tone and energy of that song, rather than
doing every song the same, Like you're not going to
perform a song about like fix. It needs to be silly, party, fun, silly,

(22:30):
and then you're gonna turn around and perform your veteran song.
You take a deep breath, you close your eyes, and
you think about the veterans who died, and you don't
sing those songs the same in any way, shape or form.
One you've got your arms down and your eyes closed
and you're just singing into the microphone and it's not
about you at all. It's about the veterans. And the
other one you got the wireless mike and you're dancing

(22:52):
around and you're pointing at people and you're right, and
you're like talking to that guys if it's about him,
And so it's just every song has its own life.
And I think that's the biggest thing I got from
the show, is like I learned how to do that
on the show.

Speaker 3 (23:07):
That's amazing advice, Reba. I'm telling you, Rebayh Girsh, there
is a reason she is so successful.

Speaker 2 (23:14):
Yes, all it is not a coincidence.

Speaker 3 (23:16):
No, it is definitely not. Well, I'm so glad you
know all the great things that you took from that show,
and it seems like it was such a great experience
for you, and I'm so excited to see what is
next for you and your journey. We will definitely be
following it, and I hope everyone else does as well.
And Karen, you are just amazing my friend.

Speaker 2 (23:34):
Thank you guys so much for having me on. Yes,
please come visit the website and continue to pray for
us in our efforts on this new record. You know
we will.

Speaker 3 (23:42):
Thank you so much, Karen Walter, but everybody, thank you
so much for joining me.

Speaker 2 (23:46):
Thank you. Have a great day you too, Bye bye
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