June 4, 2024 • 34 mins
This week, I enjoyed chatting with Jason Falls, a social media strategist and digital marketing expert from Kentucky. Together, we’re exploring the intersection of social media, music, and culture. Jason shares his journey from his upbringing in Eastern Kentucky to becoming a trailblazer in social media marketing.
We chat about the evolution of social media, reminiscing about its more positive and less divisive early days. We also explore Jason's passion for Americana music, particularly his review of Beyoncé's 'Cowboy Carter' album, which skillfully blends country influences with her signature style.
Jason further discusses the unnecessary division in music genres and emphasizes the importance of being open-minded toward artists' experimental works. We engage in a lively debate about the state of country music, highlighting emerging artists who are returning to their roots. Additionally, we touch upon bourbon recommendations, the intersection of celebrities like Taylor Swift in sports culture, and the overarching theme of embracing change and diversity in music and life.
Throughout the episode, Jason also shares insights from his podcast "Roots Music Rambler," where he reviews new albums with a focus on country, bluegrass, folk, and Americana genres. He provides reviews of various new albums, including Beyonce's "Cowboy Carter" album, and recommends other artists and albums that listeners should check out.
About Jason:
Jason Falls is one of the leading thinkers in the digital marketing space with a particular focus on influence marketing. His firm Falls+Partners serves a wide range of clients from major consumer product companies to social technology platforms and beyond. Falls is the author of three books; executive producer of the Marketing Podcast Network; co-host of a music podcast and loves Americana music, sports, bourbon and his family. Not in that order.
Connect with Jason:
Jason Falls on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok
Interested in possibly being a guest on the show? Click the link to get started!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kristen Daukas (00:04):
Welcome to Conversations on the rocks. The
podcast where the drink isstrong and the stories are
stronger. I'm your host, KristenDaukas. And this isn't your
average chat best. Here realpeople spill the tea alongside
their favorite drinks from thehilarious to the heart wrenching
each episode a wildcard. You'lllaugh, you may cry, but you'll
definitely learn something new.
So grab whatever whet yourwhistle and buckle up it's time
(00:27):
to dive into the raw, the realand the ridiculously human.
Let's get this chat partystarted. Friday as Kristen
Daukas said, it is a anotherepisode of conversations on the
rocks, the conversation andpodcast that is as random as I
can be on any given Sunday. Andtoday I am so excited because I
(00:50):
have Jason falls in the house.
And if you're not in the socialmedia world, you may not know
who Jason Falls is. But let metell ya, he is a God amongst
humans. And I told you it getsdeep round here.
Jason (01:13):
That's a little too much but okay.
Kristen Daukas (01:16):
So I'm gonna let Jason give you a little tutorial
on himself. But let me just tellyou this man, he likes bourbon,
BBQ and many other things. Andso Jason, please tell everybody
a little bit about yourself.
Jason (01:35):
Okay, well, as you might imagine, with the bourbon, and
barbecue references I hail fromthe great state of Kentucky grew
up in Eastern Kentucky I'm ahillbilly redneck by birthright
and everything else. But I amprimarily a social media
strategist, digital marketingstrategist, my primary areas of
(01:56):
focus for businesses and brandsare influencer marketing
strategy, and, andimplementation. And then I also
do a fair amount of sociallistening and social
intelligence gathering forclients monitoring conversations
online to help inform theirproduct teams, their content,
things like that. Those are thetwo primary things I do. But I
(02:17):
came to the Social MediaMarketing World in the mid
2000s, when brands were firststarting to really pay attention
to social media marketing, and Ijust happen to be in the right
place at the right time and hada couple of cool ideas and a
couple of cool brands that wereclients at the time of the
agency that I was working for.
And it kind of put me in aunique position to be kind of
out in front of the social mediamarketing wave as it as it
(02:38):
crashed ashore, I guess. And soI've always been I've been
speaking at conferences, I'vewritten three books. I've had a
couple of different types ofpodcasts over the years. And
just talking about the world ofdigital social media and
influencer marketing and, youknow, helping clients figure all
that out.
Kristen Daukas (02:59):
That's not why we're here today. We are here
today because Jason's podcast,roots music Rambler, he is an
aficionado of Americana music.
And in addition to the fact thatI just love spending time with
you talking about influencermarketing and all of that stuff.
I really love listening to yourreviews on music. Jason is on
(03:23):
Tik Tok he does in other places,but I typically spend more time
on tick tock and that's where Icome across more of your content
when it comes to music. But lastweekend, within the past two
weeks, you had you put up a postabout Queen Bey fiance's newest
album, cowboy Carter, and letand so we're what we're gonna
(03:49):
kind of do is talk a little bit,we're gonna nerd out a little
bit on the social listeningpiece of it. But then we're also
going to talk about music, andthen we're gonna just gonna
really combine it all to come upto the conclusion of Mind your
own business, and if you don'tlike something, just keep
scrolling. I like it. Right.
Okay, so, but, you know, yeah,we can go and delve into this.
(04:11):
But you know, you and I bothhave been in the social media
realm for many, many years. Ithink I peg just picked 15 years
for myself. And so differentnow. And you know, remember back
in the day when it used to befun, it used to be puppies and
kittens and here's what I'meating and that was so annoying
to us back then in the day butwould you not like give your
(04:32):
left arm to see your feed fullof nothing more than puppies
kittens and what people areeating for lunch? Oh,
Jason (04:39):
any day any day, you know? I cherish the days when
you're right it was puppies andkittens and double rainbow
triple rainbow videos and youknow the the acid trip in the
closet video on YouTube haspassed around for forever and
just fun silly stuff and mosthave us in those days in? Oh,
(05:02):
607 around in there, we were onTwitter. And that was when
Twitter was real people havingreal conversations and not just
people blasting crap out thatdoesn't, which is
Kristen Daukas (05:12):
probably how, which is probably how you and I
first originally connectedbecause that's how I originally
connected to Mark Schaefer wason Twitter. Yeah,
Jason (05:19):
exactly. Exactly. Yeah.
So a lot, a lot of made a lot offriendships, a lot of
relationships started that way.
I probably, you know, had a few100 Friends prior to the advent
of social media and instantlyhad several 1000 friends, you
know, in the matter of a fewmonths, just because we were on
there, people like minded folkstalking about, I mean, most of
(05:42):
my crowd was talking aboutmarketing and social media,
marketing and PR and bloggersand things like that. But then
there were also offshoots,talking about sports and music
and other things, too. And theInternet back then was it was
less political, it was certainlyless divisive. But I think
that's true of our whole world.
I think the last 1520 years, wehave, you know, snowballed into
(06:03):
this cacophony of noise andhatred and skepticism and
conspiracy theories andvolatility. And it's, you know,
we're in a rubberneckingsociety. And it seems like every
day, whoever's trying to makenews, they have to do something
worse than what happened the daybefore to get anybody's
attention. And so it's just thisnever ending cycle cesspool,
Kristen Daukas (06:27):
it's a cesspool of humanity. And I think you're
given been very generous with 15to 20 years. I mean, I think
it's really been the past fouryears. I really think COVID is
what did I said? And becausepeople were stuck in their
house, they had nothing more todo. I mean, think about it.
That's when tick tock reallyexploded was during shelter
shelter in place. Yeah, yeah.
But
Jason (06:49):
I would also say that pre COVID, probably from 17 or 18 on
that's when Twitter started tofall apart. It was both Yeah,
right on it got bad for him. Andyou know, there's, there's there
were for several years there. Wewere all worried about these,
like, pockets of like skinheadcommunities and things like that
(07:10):
popping up on YouTube. So Ithink there were some warning
signs, then that told us thatthis was coming. And the
pandemic certainly just pour gason the fire because nobody else
had anything to do other thansit at home and come up with Bs
to put on the internet. Andthen, of course, at least in the
United States, well, I guess theUnited States and the United
(07:30):
Kingdom. At that same generaltime we were having this great
political upheaval, right? Youknow, in our leadership, which
you know, polarize the countryeven more and social media was
naturally the place where peoplewent to spew hate against each
other. So
Kristen Daukas (07:45):
going back to where we started, tangent, do
you want to fill everybody in onthe post of which I'm
referencing?
Jason (07:54):
Yeah, sure. So I do on to support roots music Rambler,
which is bi weekly music podcaston tick tock and Instagram, I
post 62nd album reviews, Ilistened to a ton of music. And
I make it a point to listen tonew albums, particularly in the
Americana country, roots,bluegrass folk music world. And
(08:19):
so I post these a couple ofweek, normally 62nd album
reviews to just let people know,hey, listen to this new album.
And my rules are I have tolisten to the whole album. It's
not just one song. I listen tothe whole thing. I assess it for
how I like it. And normally myscorecard is how many songs from
this album did I put on myAmericana playlist on Spotify.
(08:41):
And if it's more than a couple,it's a pretty good album, if
it's more than probably four.
It's a great album. And so I dothese reviews to just help
people discover new music morethan anything else. And of
course, you know, when cowboyCarter from Beyonce came out,
there's a lot of preliminarycontroversy and vitriol about
the album from people who hadn'theard it, because they only
(09:02):
heard the one song TexasHold'em. And there's people who
just philosophically were sayingthere's no way that a pop artist
like Beyonce can make a countryalbums. She's not a country
artist. She doesn't knowconcrete. She's not blah, blah,
blah. And then there were somepeople who are like, Yeah, but
she's Queen Bey, and she'sawesome. And she's going to pull
this off. And so there's allthis debate and discussion,
(09:22):
which I find repulsive, almostbecause an artist is an artist
and please judge the work, notwhat you think the work is going
to be. But nonetheless, and youhave to remember to I am from a
very rural part of Kentucky inthe mountains. It's a very red
part of our state. We have acouple of little blue dots from
(09:42):
a political standpoint, that's avery red part of our state. And
yes, I am from the place wherethe Hatfields and McCoys had
their feud. So I have a lot offriends on Facebook, I have a
lot of family members andwhatnot, who probably leaned to
that there's no way this isgoing to be Good, sort of
previous position on this album.
(10:03):
So when I did the review, Iwanted to recognize people who
had listened to it had heard itand didn't like it. And I wanted
to also kind of mute and notreally censor, but just kind of
put a hand up and say, Hey, ifyou're gonna hate on this
without giving it full credit,or even listening to the whole
(10:24):
album, your opinion doesn'tmatter. But I needed to do it in
a polite way. Because thesepeople I grew up with, you know,
I'm gonna have to walk down thestreet and see him at some
point. And so basically, myreview was, first of all, my
personal opinion withoutthinking about anybody else's
opinion. I absolutely love thealbum. Because I love more than
anything, artists who blursgenres. I love it when a
(10:49):
bluegrass band does a rock songin a bluegrass version. I love
that kind of cross genre stuff.
So what Beyonce did here is shetook her, you know, Queen base
status from the pop and r&b andhip hop and rock world, and soul
and put it into put it put acountry filter over it, and came
(11:09):
out with something that wasn'ttrue country. But it was very
country fide. And it reallyblended the genres into
something I thought elevated itit was right, it was new. It
sounded great. The songs weregood, the lyrics were good. They
were kidding. When I first heardTexas Hold'em the first words
(11:32):
out of my mouth was that, like,that's, that's going to catch
on, people are going to behumming and singing that. And
that's what she does. She's goodat that. Very good at it. And so
but when I listened to the wholealbum, there are six or eight
cuts on that thing that I justthought were great songs. I
didn't care what genre you putthem in. They were great songs.
(11:53):
And the fact that she took thegenre of country and what she
grew up listening to and in thatworld, and the influences that
she had in that world, andproduced something new, I think
it elevated the genre. It's nota true country album. But it is
very much a country album. Andit is very much influenced by
(12:15):
country. But it blends all theseother things in it to make it
something new and different. Ithink she really elevated the
genre and created something thathad we haven't heard and it's
it. And so when
Kristen Daukas (12:32):
it's interesting to me these same people that
were saying these things, andI've seen it all over my feet as
well is Keith Urban is notAmerican. And y'all love him.
Y'all love you love you. Hey,Keith Urban, he's Australian.
Jason (12:49):
That's true. That's very true. Well, and I would argue
that 90% of the country radiohits from the last 15 years.
With a banjo in the background.
I mean, they're not, absolutelynot. If you want real country,
you need to go back to 60s and70s. And listen to Loretta and
listen to Conway and that whenyou get to the late 90s, into
(13:12):
Brooks, or actually the late 80sinto the 90s and 2000s when the
Garth scan around and you hadsome still good tried and true
country, folks like GeorgeStrait in there. But that sort
of you know, when country wentmass, which had a lot to do with
the radio consolidation, the bigradio conglomerates,
(13:34):
consolidating when country wentmass, it became bro country pop
country. And it really divertedaway from true country music.
Now, I will say and this is kindof an allusion to kind of what I
did with the Beyonce thing. Idon't think we can discount, bro
country or pop country because alot of people like it. And that
(13:56):
doesn't mean it's not country.
It doesn't mean it's not pop, itdoesn't mean it's not valid.
Plenty of those songs. I mean,if you look at I think there are
11 country music songs, who arecertified diamond, which means
they've sold 10 million or morealbums. And I think out of the
(14:17):
11 like seven of them are what Iwould call bro country pop
country songs, right. So a lotof people like this music, let's
not discount them. And thepeople who say Beyonce, his
album is not a country album, atleast the ones who have listened
to it. I don't discount thatopinion. I don't think it's a
country album, the way we thinkof Country Albums. But I think
(14:38):
it's a new version of a countryalbum that steps the genre up,
broadens it a little bit andbrings in other influences to
make it richer,
Kristen Daukas (14:46):
and she's an artist and the beautiful thing
about artists is they takethings and they make it their
own right. I have a big issue.
We're gonna flip over to theother mega star which is Taylor
Swift, right? And you know, nowthat she's dating, you know,
Travis Kelce. You know, all ofthese Brad's Chad's and dads are
having a frickin heart attackover it right? It's like, you
(15:09):
know, here's my big issue withthis and I'm on the Taylor thing
right now is as Americans, I'mjust gonna say it. You have been
the collective you have beenwanting to have something pure.
You've been wanting to havesomething that is like, a girl
next door, like you cannot giveme a more perfect boy meets girl
(15:35):
next door than Travis Kelce. AndTaylor Swift, and you still are
going to bitch about it? I mean,I was having Yeah, well, you
know, oh, my God, I don't wantto see it's like, it isn't the
NFL is smart. They know wheretheir money ticket is. Right?
And that's Taylor Swift show andother Kansas City Chiefs games.
(15:58):
So you can bitch about Taylorall you want to she there were
so many times that she gotcaught on, on saying stop
filming me, she did not want theattention. She wanted the
attention where it needed to be,which was on the football field.
And all these branches and dadsare going everywhere and like to
talk to the camera guy, becausethat's the one who's at fault
(16:20):
and talk to the NFL. And I'vehad this conversation with other
men. They're like, what what'sgoing to happen next year, if
they're not together? I'm like,well, then they're being very,
very smart for cashing in whenthey can. It's just it's just
but going beyond the datingpiece of it. You know, she has
she, you know her than I'm I'mnot a Swifty. I like her. I
respect her as a business woman.
(16:44):
A folklore. You know when shedid folklore. folklore is a
very, you know, totallydifferent than her little pop
princess that everybody wants tothrow her into it. But she's she
and Beyonce both have donereally amazing jobs and taking
on a different type of music andgenre than what they are known
(17:05):
for.
Jason (17:06):
Yeah, well, and you got to remember and I am well
informed here my 16 year olddaughter is a major Swifty. So
you got to remember Taylor Swiftstarted out as a country artist.
She started out as a singersongwriter, the fact that she
was 13 when she started writingsongs and performing and had the
(17:26):
drive and the you know, ambitionto do what she's done. You know,
it put her in a position toattract a certain demographic
young girls. And she hascultivated that audience into
this massive demographic buyingsaid that loves her loves her
music love don't matter. Go for
Kristen Daukas (17:48):
Taylor when there's a Swifty around? Oh,
Jason (17:50):
no, no, oh, no, no. And, and it and it spans because you
got to remember she's I don'tShe's early to mid 30s. Now, so
she's been doing this for 20years. So she's got to and
almost two and a halfgenerations of of people who are
in her fan base. I mean, I know40 something year old women who
would die for Taylor Swift andmy 16 year old daughter would do
(18:14):
the same. And there's evenyounger girls that way. So in
terms of business and marketingand building an audience, she's
second to none. But when youwhen you really get into the
conversations about Taylor Swiftand you can like her music or
you can not like her music, itdoesn't matter. When you ask
songwriters, who the bestsongwriter living today is
(18:37):
tailors in the top five of mostof their list. When when Jason
Isbell who I consider probablythe best living songwriter right
now, when Jason izba was askedthat question on a podcast just
a few months ago, who's the bestliving songwriter right now? He
said Taylor Swift. He said she'sshe's fantastic. And she is and
(18:59):
I think the problem that theBrad's dad's and Chad's have
with Taylor Swift is justoversaturation. She's been
everywhere for 1520 years, andthey can't get away from her and
their daughters play the musicall the time. So the one respite
they probably have from TaylorSwift is watching NFL games on
Sunday, and now they got to seecutaways to her in the press
(19:21):
box. They'll get over it. It'sfine. She's not hurting anybody.
Some
Kristen Daukas (19:25):
of the best things that I saw on social
media regarding all of that arethe dads that were grateful for
it. They're like, I've neverbeen able to get my daughter to
sit down and watch a footballand I remember one tech talk or
one statement that this dad waslike, he goes now not only is
she watching the game with me,she's learning it and she loves
(19:47):
it. And he's like, I there's noway I could have ever had that
happen. And I think you knowwhen if people would just stop
and stop judging you it and youknow what's right for you. It's
not right for me what's rightfor me is not right for you. And
you know what, that's okay. Andit's just, it's just gotten so
(20:10):
out of control. And it's, Imean, that's just it's whole
that's a whole different bucketsof Well,
Jason (20:20):
and, and to circle back, right. My whole point with my
review of the Beyonce album thatI wanted to make was, look, if
you don't like it, that's okay.
You don't have to like it. Youdon't have to listen to it. You
don't have to buy it. And if yousee something in your string,
you can thumb scroll past it.
It's fine. But don't shit onexactly the hills. Let let us
(20:42):
enjoy it. We like it. It's fine.
I'm not crapping on yourchoices. I'm not gonna sit here
and tell you, Morgan Wallensucks, and he's racist, and you
shouldn't listen to it. If youwant to listen to Morgan wall
and go listen to Morgan Wallen.
I don't care. I'm not gonna.
He's not my style. I don't likehis stuff. If he comes out with
a song I do like, like any otherartist, I'm probably gonna
listen to it. That's fine. Butyou go listen to whatever you
(21:04):
want to listen to Morgan Wallenor otherwise, let us have our
Beyonce country album because wefrickin like it. I think it's
Kristen Daukas (21:12):
so here's a personal story. My youngest
daughter moved, we moved her outto Idaho last summer, right. And
she's a typical youngest childin the fact that, you know, she
just, you know, her sisters arealways like, man, so my oldest
says, so who's mute because wedrove, right. And she's like, So
(21:34):
whose music you're gonna belistening to? And I'm like, oh,
no, it's Cassius car. It'sCassie strip, probably Cassius.
And she's like, oh, good luckwith that. Well, I don't I'm not
gonna go into that, like that.
And so that's a year, that's an18 hours, 18 hours of driving,
right? So split over howevermany days we did it, but solid
driving, and we listened toCathy's playlist. It was one of
(21:57):
the best playlists because she'sa little bit more into
alternative. And I had never,nobody come at me for this one.
I wasn't familiar with ZackBryant. And I was like, holy
shit. I thought I bought thisguy. And so I was like, Hey, can
(22:18):
Cassie will you share? She haslike, a Spotify playlists that's
like, I don't know. 28 hourslong and I'm like, will you
share that with me? So the funnything is the oldest one who was
Pooh poohing on said sister'splaylist came just out of the
blue one day goes, oh my god,y'all I like country. I like
(22:38):
Zack Bryan. And I was like Itold you, and I said, here's the
thing, you would have reallyliked Cathy's playlist. And so a
few days later, she's like,Cassie, can I will you share it?
And then she's like, coming backand a couple of days. She's
like, I really liked this. Sothe moral of the story is
(22:59):
stopped prejudging because untilyou actually listen to it, you
don't know what you're going tolike it. Why is it such a bad
thing for all of us to exploreother types of music? I mean,
it's it was more than sec,right. And there were a ton of
artists on there now. Did I likethem all? No, I'm here to tell
you. I'm not a fan of MacMiller. And I'm not allowed to
say that around my kids, becausethey love Mac Miller, and he's
(23:21):
dead. And I'm like, I he's justnot my thing. You know what I
do? Exactly? You know what I do?
I go, Alex, which is what I calla le XA. So she doesn't go off
every time. Alex, skip. How hardis that?
Jason (23:37):
That's not hard at all.
Not at all. I have a similarstory. It's a little bit kind of
turned around. I took my kids tosee my dad in Virginia last
summer. And not nearly an 18hour drive more like four and a
half. That's more reasonable.
Maybe, maybe a little bit morethan that. Anyway, my son, about
halfway through the trip said,Hey, Dad, can I can I control
(24:00):
the music? Because I had justput on something general that my
kids would tolerate on myplaylist. And I said, Sure. So
he unplugged my phone from theUSB port and plugs his in. And
I'm like, Okay, I'm gettingready to listen to a bunch of
Jack Harlow or some other typeof rap music. So I had this
predetermined, you know, idea ofwhat he was going to play. And
(24:22):
he pushed his play, and I almostswerved off the road. He started
playing Steely Dan. Yes. And Iwas like, where did you learn
Steely Dan. And he's a big musicfan. And he's he's gone to
college to study to be an audioengineer. And he's been
exploring a bunch of differentgenres and a bunch of different
artists and he turns on SteelyDan and the rest of the trip was
(24:46):
fantastic because he waslistening to music that I really
dig. So,
Kristen Daukas (24:50):
man, let me let me tell you Steely Dan. That's
some good stuff and like me, youthink about it, like the 77. You
know, I think we're about thesame as you maybe a little bit
younger than me, but you know,can Going back to those seven
days with like the DoobieBrothers and eagles and I really
miss that big band not big bandsbut big horns, the horns like
(25:12):
with yeah section Yeah. TheCommodores and all of those.
Yeah. Definitely some old schoolChicago, old
Jason (25:21):
Chicago. Chicago
Kristen Daukas (25:23):
that was
Jason (25:24):
that was when Peter Sutera started singing they kind
of got well when David Fosterstarted producing them they got
25
Kristen Daukas (25:30):
Or six to four still one of my absolute
Absolutely I can still. So whatare we're coming in on about we
got about five minutes left, Iwant to talk about two more
things with you want to talkabout? We want to talk about
some bourbon because you know,you're gonna love some bourbon.
And I want to like give me offthe top of your head like some
of your what are your top fivealbums right now beyond cowboy
(25:53):
Carter? And are you gonna Areyou gonna? Taylor's new album
which comes out on the 19thwhich is Friday?
Jason (26:00):
It's it's Friday, and it's also my oh my
Kristen Daukas (26:02):
gosh. So yeah,
Jason (26:04):
you can guarantee that you can Guaran damn tee and
listen to that thing over andover again. So when I would
listen anyway, just to hear it,but the fact that I haven't
Swifty daughter means I'm gonnalisten to it ad infinitum, which
is fine. So bourbon. Yeah, soI'll just throw this out about
bourbon, the bourbon explosionis still on the uptake. There's
(26:27):
just dozens of new brands comingout every month. If you have the
opportunity, I would recommendif you're going to a bourbon bar
or looking for something new,there's a bourbon out of
Owensboro, Kentucky called GreenRiver, bourbon, and Green River
distillery. And I've tried it afew times now. And every time
(26:50):
I've tried it, I've liked it alittle bit more. It's growing on
me. So green rivers, a goodrecommendation for you. Most of
your mainstream bourbons thateverybody's heard about bullet
Maker's Mark, whatnot, they'reall going to be perfectly fine
to mix in cocktails and whatnot.
But if you like just sipping ona new bourbon and trying to find
something new, I think greenriver would be a good choice for
you. And if you haven't had theopportunity to explore the
(27:12):
Willett bourbons yet, do thatbecause they're pretty tasty.
And then albums, top fivealbums. I love this. And I'm
more prepared to answer thisquestion now than they ever have
been before. I will tell youthis if you have not heard of,
or have listened to joy, a lotof qun she has an album out
(27:33):
called Proof of Life. I thinkshe has collaborations do ads on
that album with Chris Stapleton.
I think no a car.
Kristen Daukas (27:45):
There's in that state. No, no, he's another one
that I discovered this summer.
Yep. Love him.
Jason (27:50):
So Joy a lot. Akun proof of life is the album that I
listened to the whole album andmy my immediate reaction when I
turned to someone and said, Thisis how I describe joy. A lot of
goon. It's like Tracy Chapman,oh, good mood. It's just It's
uplifting. And then there's somereally thick lyrics and issues
(28:12):
that she talks about. But shehas this light, joyous sound.
And it's just one that I can puton and I just feel good. So
that's one. My second choiceright now and these are in no
particular order, but they'rethe top five that I'm listening
to right now. Brent Cobbshooting star or no Southern
(28:32):
Star, Brent Cobb Southern Star.
Brent Cobb has been around for alittle while. But this is his
first what I would consideralmost a breakthrough album.
He's got an interesting sound,it's country. But he's got a
couple of songs out there thathave like this kind of fun
baseline vibe and he just gotsome really good songs. He is
the cousin by the way of DaveCobb, who is the famous
(28:55):
Nashville producer who'sproduced Chris Stapleton and
Jason is bull and all sorts ofother people but Brent Cobb
Southern Star. Ciara Farrell hasa new album out now. That is
called I think, trail offlowers. And she is kind of a
fiddle player from WestVirginia, who was basically poor
(29:17):
ran away from the state becauseshe knew if she stuck around,
she was probably going to fallinto a myth pit. And she just
traveled around and has kind ofhit it as an artist. And the
album is not only beautifullyfrom a music beautiful from a
music standpoint, but even thecover art is just it's I want to
(29:38):
frame it all. So Ciara Farrell,I think it's called trail of
flowers. That's number three.
Number four is going to be can'tbe Kambli Carter Okay, hold
Kristen Daukas (29:54):
on. Give me cowboy Carter thing.
Jason (29:57):
Oh, the light the new one from Marcus King. In and I'll
come up with the name ofinherent mood swings as the name
of the album produced by RickRubin. Several of the songs were
recorded at Shangri Larecruitment studio out in
Malibu, and Marcus King is agreat kind of southern blues
rock guitarist. His previousalbums are fantastic too but
(30:21):
this one with the Reuben touchis just it's just great. It's
got a bunch of really good songson it. So Marcus kings new one
is excellent. And then okay, Iwant to hit you one just just
posted this 62nd album reviewtoday or yesterday? No, today
the day we're recording this. Itis called Old School. And it is
(30:42):
by Kimmy bitter. Kr mmm ibitter. This young lady is a
singer songwriter from SanDiego, California. This is her
first major album she's had afew singles on Spotify before
this. The album debuted atnumber one on the alt country
charts last week. Out ofnowhere. She basically is Patsy
(31:08):
Cline and Loretta Lynn in 2024She plays old school country
music the way we remembercountry music really good Patsy
Cline type ballads really goodLoretta Lynn like Don't mess
with me anthems. She wears youknow, go go boots night go
outfit and plays it up the wholeart direction and everything is
(31:31):
all 67 days old school country.
And she sounds magnificent. Theonly thing I didn't like about
the album was she misspronounced Appalachian that I
can forgive her because she'sfrom California.
Kristen Daukas (31:42):
That's one of the reasons I love Laney Wilson,
you know, she you know, she'sjust a she's contrary she is she
she's not just she's country, aswe say here. No, because she's
calling she's country. She'scalling Oh, I love the list. I
wrote them down. I'm going toput them in the show notes.
Here's one for you. Another oneI discovered last summer. Are
you familiar with the bandcalled The Five? Oh, twos? No,
(32:05):
check them out. Talk abouthappy. This Yeah, talk. They are
such a great band. They're ahappy band. They're a you know,
if you're kind of like, I got toclean the house or I got to mow
the yard and you put them on?
You're like, oh, yeah, this isnot so bad. after all. Great
band, the silence.
Jason (32:26):
I'm gonna be okay.
They're from Maitland, Florida.
I was gonna say 502 is the areacode for removal. So I was gonna
be real disappointed if theywere from Louisville and I
hadn't heard Yeah,
Kristen Daukas (32:38):
so. But they've got a lot of the horns and the
brass in there too. You rememberthe squirrel Nut Zippers dig it?
So yeah, we talked about like,but you know how the squirrel
Nut Zippers were just a veryfun, you know, but same thing
with the five oh, twos. Jason,Jason falls. My friend. This has
been such a great conversation,how it's already been 35
(32:59):
minutes. And oh, now we have somuch fun when we talk to each
other. And I really doappreciate you being privy to my
reboot of my pod fade from fouryears ago. But you know, hey,
life happens, right? And here's,here's the final rule, not rule
(33:22):
but like final word is. If youdon't like something, just keep
scrolling. Nobody, nobody needsyour net negative. We don't
care. We don't care. And youknow, stop being so close minded
and live a happier life. SoJason, thank you and all my
friends out there. Thank you somuch. I hope you enjoyed this
time with Jason and till nexttime. Hopefully your life is
(33:47):
great. As the saying goes, youdon't have to go home but you
can't stay here and that's awrap for this week's episode. A
big thanks to my guests forsharing their story and to you
for listening. Don't forget toshare the show with your friends
and spread the words. And ifyou'd like to be a guest on the
show, the link is in the shownotes till next time cheers
Welcome to Conversations on the rocks. The
podcast where the drink isstrong and the stories are
stronger. I'm your host, KristenDaukas. And this isn't your
average chat best. Here realpeople spill the tea alongside
their favorite drinks from thehilarious to the heart wrenching
each episode a wildcard. You'lllaugh, you may cry, but you'll
definitely learn something new.
So grab whatever whet yourwhistle and buckle up it's time
(00:27):
to dive into the raw, the realand the ridiculously human.
Let's get this chat partystarted. Friday as Kristen
Daukas said, it is a anotherepisode of conversations on the
rocks, the conversation andpodcast that is as random as I
can be on any given Sunday. Andtoday I am so excited because I
(00:50):
have Jason falls in the house.
And if you're not in the socialmedia world, you may not know
who Jason Falls is. But let metell ya, he is a God amongst
humans. And I told you it getsdeep round here.
Jason (01:13):
That's a little too much but okay.
Kristen Daukas (01:16):
So I'm gonna let Jason give you a little tutorial
on himself. But let me just tellyou this man, he likes bourbon,
BBQ and many other things. Andso Jason, please tell everybody
a little bit about yourself.
Jason (01:35):
Okay, well, as you might imagine, with the bourbon, and
barbecue references I hail fromthe great state of Kentucky grew
up in Eastern Kentucky I'm ahillbilly redneck by birthright
and everything else. But I amprimarily a social media
strategist, digital marketingstrategist, my primary areas of
(01:56):
focus for businesses and brandsare influencer marketing
strategy, and, andimplementation. And then I also
do a fair amount of sociallistening and social
intelligence gathering forclients monitoring conversations
online to help inform theirproduct teams, their content,
things like that. Those are thetwo primary things I do. But I
(02:17):
came to the Social MediaMarketing World in the mid
2000s, when brands were firststarting to really pay attention
to social media marketing, and Ijust happen to be in the right
place at the right time and hada couple of cool ideas and a
couple of cool brands that wereclients at the time of the
agency that I was working for.
And it kind of put me in aunique position to be kind of
out in front of the social mediamarketing wave as it as it
(02:38):
crashed ashore, I guess. And soI've always been I've been
speaking at conferences, I'vewritten three books. I've had a
couple of different types ofpodcasts over the years. And
just talking about the world ofdigital social media and
influencer marketing and, youknow, helping clients figure all
that out.
Kristen Daukas (02:59):
That's not why we're here today. We are here
today because Jason's podcast,roots music Rambler, he is an
aficionado of Americana music.
And in addition to the fact thatI just love spending time with
you talking about influencermarketing and all of that stuff.
I really love listening to yourreviews on music. Jason is on
(03:23):
Tik Tok he does in other places,but I typically spend more time
on tick tock and that's where Icome across more of your content
when it comes to music. But lastweekend, within the past two
weeks, you had you put up a postabout Queen Bey fiance's newest
album, cowboy Carter, and letand so we're what we're gonna
(03:49):
kind of do is talk a little bit,we're gonna nerd out a little
bit on the social listeningpiece of it. But then we're also
going to talk about music, andthen we're gonna just gonna
really combine it all to come upto the conclusion of Mind your
own business, and if you don'tlike something, just keep
scrolling. I like it. Right.
Okay, so, but, you know, yeah,we can go and delve into this.
(04:11):
But you know, you and I bothhave been in the social media
realm for many, many years. Ithink I peg just picked 15 years
for myself. And so differentnow. And you know, remember back
in the day when it used to befun, it used to be puppies and
kittens and here's what I'meating and that was so annoying
to us back then in the day butwould you not like give your
(04:32):
left arm to see your feed fullof nothing more than puppies
kittens and what people areeating for lunch? Oh,
Jason (04:39):
any day any day, you know? I cherish the days when
you're right it was puppies andkittens and double rainbow
triple rainbow videos and youknow the the acid trip in the
closet video on YouTube haspassed around for forever and
just fun silly stuff and mosthave us in those days in? Oh,
(05:02):
607 around in there, we were onTwitter. And that was when
Twitter was real people havingreal conversations and not just
people blasting crap out thatdoesn't, which is
Kristen Daukas (05:12):
probably how, which is probably how you and I
first originally connectedbecause that's how I originally
connected to Mark Schaefer wason Twitter. Yeah,
Jason (05:19):
exactly. Exactly. Yeah.
So a lot, a lot of made a lot offriendships, a lot of
relationships started that way.
I probably, you know, had a few100 Friends prior to the advent
of social media and instantlyhad several 1000 friends, you
know, in the matter of a fewmonths, just because we were on
there, people like minded folkstalking about, I mean, most of
(05:42):
my crowd was talking aboutmarketing and social media,
marketing and PR and bloggersand things like that. But then
there were also offshoots,talking about sports and music
and other things, too. And theInternet back then was it was
less political, it was certainlyless divisive. But I think
that's true of our whole world.
I think the last 1520 years, wehave, you know, snowballed into
(06:03):
this cacophony of noise andhatred and skepticism and
conspiracy theories andvolatility. And it's, you know,
we're in a rubberneckingsociety. And it seems like every
day, whoever's trying to makenews, they have to do something
worse than what happened the daybefore to get anybody's
attention. And so it's just thisnever ending cycle cesspool,
Kristen Daukas (06:27):
it's a cesspool of humanity. And I think you're
given been very generous with 15to 20 years. I mean, I think
it's really been the past fouryears. I really think COVID is
what did I said? And becausepeople were stuck in their
house, they had nothing more todo. I mean, think about it.
That's when tick tock reallyexploded was during shelter
shelter in place. Yeah, yeah.
But
Jason (06:49):
I would also say that pre COVID, probably from 17 or 18 on
that's when Twitter started tofall apart. It was both Yeah,
right on it got bad for him. Andyou know, there's, there's there
were for several years there. Wewere all worried about these,
like, pockets of like skinheadcommunities and things like that
(07:10):
popping up on YouTube. So Ithink there were some warning
signs, then that told us thatthis was coming. And the
pandemic certainly just pour gason the fire because nobody else
had anything to do other thansit at home and come up with Bs
to put on the internet. Andthen, of course, at least in the
United States, well, I guess theUnited States and the United
(07:30):
Kingdom. At that same generaltime we were having this great
political upheaval, right? Youknow, in our leadership, which
you know, polarize the countryeven more and social media was
naturally the place where peoplewent to spew hate against each
other. So
Kristen Daukas (07:45):
going back to where we started, tangent, do
you want to fill everybody in onthe post of which I'm
referencing?
Jason (07:54):
Yeah, sure. So I do on to support roots music Rambler,
which is bi weekly music podcaston tick tock and Instagram, I
post 62nd album reviews, Ilistened to a ton of music. And
I make it a point to listen tonew albums, particularly in the
Americana country, roots,bluegrass folk music world. And
(08:19):
so I post these a couple ofweek, normally 62nd album
reviews to just let people know,hey, listen to this new album.
And my rules are I have tolisten to the whole album. It's
not just one song. I listen tothe whole thing. I assess it for
how I like it. And normally myscorecard is how many songs from
this album did I put on myAmericana playlist on Spotify.
(08:41):
And if it's more than a couple,it's a pretty good album, if
it's more than probably four.
It's a great album. And so I dothese reviews to just help
people discover new music morethan anything else. And of
course, you know, when cowboyCarter from Beyonce came out,
there's a lot of preliminarycontroversy and vitriol about
the album from people who hadn'theard it, because they only
(09:02):
heard the one song TexasHold'em. And there's people who
just philosophically were sayingthere's no way that a pop artist
like Beyonce can make a countryalbums. She's not a country
artist. She doesn't knowconcrete. She's not blah, blah,
blah. And then there were somepeople who are like, Yeah, but
she's Queen Bey, and she'sawesome. And she's going to pull
this off. And so there's allthis debate and discussion,
(09:22):
which I find repulsive, almostbecause an artist is an artist
and please judge the work, notwhat you think the work is going
to be. But nonetheless, and youhave to remember to I am from a
very rural part of Kentucky inthe mountains. It's a very red
part of our state. We have acouple of little blue dots from
(09:42):
a political standpoint, that's avery red part of our state. And
yes, I am from the place wherethe Hatfields and McCoys had
their feud. So I have a lot offriends on Facebook, I have a
lot of family members andwhatnot, who probably leaned to
that there's no way this isgoing to be Good, sort of
previous position on this album.
(10:03):
So when I did the review, Iwanted to recognize people who
had listened to it had heard itand didn't like it. And I wanted
to also kind of mute and notreally censor, but just kind of
put a hand up and say, Hey, ifyou're gonna hate on this
without giving it full credit,or even listening to the whole
(10:24):
album, your opinion doesn'tmatter. But I needed to do it in
a polite way. Because thesepeople I grew up with, you know,
I'm gonna have to walk down thestreet and see him at some
point. And so basically, myreview was, first of all, my
personal opinion withoutthinking about anybody else's
opinion. I absolutely love thealbum. Because I love more than
anything, artists who blursgenres. I love it when a
(10:49):
bluegrass band does a rock songin a bluegrass version. I love
that kind of cross genre stuff.
So what Beyonce did here is shetook her, you know, Queen base
status from the pop and r&b andhip hop and rock world, and soul
and put it into put it put acountry filter over it, and came
(11:09):
out with something that wasn'ttrue country. But it was very
country fide. And it reallyblended the genres into
something I thought elevated itit was right, it was new. It
sounded great. The songs weregood, the lyrics were good. They
were kidding. When I first heardTexas Hold'em the first words
(11:32):
out of my mouth was that, like,that's, that's going to catch
on, people are going to behumming and singing that. And
that's what she does. She's goodat that. Very good at it. And so
but when I listened to the wholealbum, there are six or eight
cuts on that thing that I justthought were great songs. I
didn't care what genre you putthem in. They were great songs.
(11:53):
And the fact that she took thegenre of country and what she
grew up listening to and in thatworld, and the influences that
she had in that world, andproduced something new, I think
it elevated the genre. It's nota true country album. But it is
very much a country album. Andit is very much influenced by
(12:15):
country. But it blends all theseother things in it to make it
something new and different. Ithink she really elevated the
genre and created something thathad we haven't heard and it's
it. And so when
Kristen Daukas (12:32):
it's interesting to me these same people that
were saying these things, andI've seen it all over my feet as
well is Keith Urban is notAmerican. And y'all love him.
Y'all love you love you. Hey,Keith Urban, he's Australian.
Jason (12:49):
That's true. That's very true. Well, and I would argue
that 90% of the country radiohits from the last 15 years.
With a banjo in the background.
I mean, they're not, absolutelynot. If you want real country,
you need to go back to 60s and70s. And listen to Loretta and
listen to Conway and that whenyou get to the late 90s, into
(13:12):
Brooks, or actually the late 80sinto the 90s and 2000s when the
Garth scan around and you hadsome still good tried and true
country, folks like GeorgeStrait in there. But that sort
of you know, when country wentmass, which had a lot to do with
the radio consolidation, the bigradio conglomerates,
(13:34):
consolidating when country wentmass, it became bro country pop
country. And it really divertedaway from true country music.
Now, I will say and this is kindof an allusion to kind of what I
did with the Beyonce thing. Idon't think we can discount, bro
country or pop country because alot of people like it. And that
(13:56):
doesn't mean it's not country.
It doesn't mean it's not pop, itdoesn't mean it's not valid.
Plenty of those songs. I mean,if you look at I think there are
11 country music songs, who arecertified diamond, which means
they've sold 10 million or morealbums. And I think out of the
(14:17):
11 like seven of them are what Iwould call bro country pop
country songs, right. So a lotof people like this music, let's
not discount them. And thepeople who say Beyonce, his
album is not a country album, atleast the ones who have listened
to it. I don't discount thatopinion. I don't think it's a
country album, the way we thinkof Country Albums. But I think
(14:38):
it's a new version of a countryalbum that steps the genre up,
broadens it a little bit andbrings in other influences to
make it richer,
Kristen Daukas (14:46):
and she's an artist and the beautiful thing
about artists is they takethings and they make it their
own right. I have a big issue.
We're gonna flip over to theother mega star which is Taylor
Swift, right? And you know, nowthat she's dating, you know,
Travis Kelce. You know, all ofthese Brad's Chad's and dads are
having a frickin heart attackover it right? It's like, you
(15:09):
know, here's my big issue withthis and I'm on the Taylor thing
right now is as Americans, I'mjust gonna say it. You have been
the collective you have beenwanting to have something pure.
You've been wanting to havesomething that is like, a girl
next door, like you cannot giveme a more perfect boy meets girl
(15:35):
next door than Travis Kelce. AndTaylor Swift, and you still are
going to bitch about it? I mean,I was having Yeah, well, you
know, oh, my God, I don't wantto see it's like, it isn't the
NFL is smart. They know wheretheir money ticket is. Right?
And that's Taylor Swift show andother Kansas City Chiefs games.
(15:58):
So you can bitch about Taylorall you want to she there were
so many times that she gotcaught on, on saying stop
filming me, she did not want theattention. She wanted the
attention where it needed to be,which was on the football field.
And all these branches and dadsare going everywhere and like to
talk to the camera guy, becausethat's the one who's at fault
(16:20):
and talk to the NFL. And I'vehad this conversation with other
men. They're like, what what'sgoing to happen next year, if
they're not together? I'm like,well, then they're being very,
very smart for cashing in whenthey can. It's just it's just
but going beyond the datingpiece of it. You know, she has
she, you know her than I'm I'mnot a Swifty. I like her. I
respect her as a business woman.
(16:44):
A folklore. You know when shedid folklore. folklore is a
very, you know, totallydifferent than her little pop
princess that everybody wants tothrow her into it. But she's she
and Beyonce both have donereally amazing jobs and taking
on a different type of music andgenre than what they are known
(17:05):
for.
Jason (17:06):
Yeah, well, and you got to remember and I am well
informed here my 16 year olddaughter is a major Swifty. So
you got to remember Taylor Swiftstarted out as a country artist.
She started out as a singersongwriter, the fact that she
was 13 when she started writingsongs and performing and had the
(17:26):
drive and the you know, ambitionto do what she's done. You know,
it put her in a position toattract a certain demographic
young girls. And she hascultivated that audience into
this massive demographic buyingsaid that loves her loves her
music love don't matter. Go for
Kristen Daukas (17:48):
Taylor when there's a Swifty around? Oh,
Jason (17:50):
no, no, oh, no, no. And, and it and it spans because you
got to remember she's I don'tShe's early to mid 30s. Now, so
she's been doing this for 20years. So she's got to and
almost two and a halfgenerations of of people who are
in her fan base. I mean, I know40 something year old women who
would die for Taylor Swift andmy 16 year old daughter would do
(18:14):
the same. And there's evenyounger girls that way. So in
terms of business and marketingand building an audience, she's
second to none. But when youwhen you really get into the
conversations about Taylor Swiftand you can like her music or
you can not like her music, itdoesn't matter. When you ask
songwriters, who the bestsongwriter living today is
(18:37):
tailors in the top five of mostof their list. When when Jason
Isbell who I consider probablythe best living songwriter right
now, when Jason izba was askedthat question on a podcast just
a few months ago, who's the bestliving songwriter right now? He
said Taylor Swift. He said she'sshe's fantastic. And she is and
(18:59):
I think the problem that theBrad's dad's and Chad's have
with Taylor Swift is justoversaturation. She's been
everywhere for 1520 years, andthey can't get away from her and
their daughters play the musicall the time. So the one respite
they probably have from TaylorSwift is watching NFL games on
Sunday, and now they got to seecutaways to her in the press
(19:21):
box. They'll get over it. It'sfine. She's not hurting anybody.
Some
Kristen Daukas (19:25):
of the best things that I saw on social
media regarding all of that arethe dads that were grateful for
it. They're like, I've neverbeen able to get my daughter to
sit down and watch a footballand I remember one tech talk or
one statement that this dad waslike, he goes now not only is
she watching the game with me,she's learning it and she loves
(19:47):
it. And he's like, I there's noway I could have ever had that
happen. And I think you knowwhen if people would just stop
and stop judging you it and youknow what's right for you. It's
not right for me what's rightfor me is not right for you. And
you know what, that's okay. Andit's just, it's just gotten so
(20:10):
out of control. And it's, Imean, that's just it's whole
that's a whole different bucketsof Well,
Jason (20:20):
and, and to circle back, right. My whole point with my
review of the Beyonce album thatI wanted to make was, look, if
you don't like it, that's okay.
You don't have to like it. Youdon't have to listen to it. You
don't have to buy it. And if yousee something in your string,
you can thumb scroll past it.
It's fine. But don't shit onexactly the hills. Let let us
(20:42):
enjoy it. We like it. It's fine.
I'm not crapping on yourchoices. I'm not gonna sit here
and tell you, Morgan Wallensucks, and he's racist, and you
shouldn't listen to it. If youwant to listen to Morgan wall
and go listen to Morgan Wallen.
I don't care. I'm not gonna.
He's not my style. I don't likehis stuff. If he comes out with
a song I do like, like any otherartist, I'm probably gonna
listen to it. That's fine. Butyou go listen to whatever you
(21:04):
want to listen to Morgan Wallenor otherwise, let us have our
Beyonce country album because wefrickin like it. I think it's
Kristen Daukas (21:12):
so here's a personal story. My youngest
daughter moved, we moved her outto Idaho last summer, right. And
she's a typical youngest childin the fact that, you know, she
just, you know, her sisters arealways like, man, so my oldest
says, so who's mute because wedrove, right. And she's like, So
(21:34):
whose music you're gonna belistening to? And I'm like, oh,
no, it's Cassius car. It'sCassie strip, probably Cassius.
And she's like, oh, good luckwith that. Well, I don't I'm not
gonna go into that, like that.
And so that's a year, that's an18 hours, 18 hours of driving,
right? So split over howevermany days we did it, but solid
driving, and we listened toCathy's playlist. It was one of
(21:57):
the best playlists because she'sa little bit more into
alternative. And I had never,nobody come at me for this one.
I wasn't familiar with ZackBryant. And I was like, holy
shit. I thought I bought thisguy. And so I was like, Hey, can
(22:18):
Cassie will you share? She haslike, a Spotify playlists that's
like, I don't know. 28 hourslong and I'm like, will you
share that with me? So the funnything is the oldest one who was
Pooh poohing on said sister'splaylist came just out of the
blue one day goes, oh my god,y'all I like country. I like
(22:38):
Zack Bryan. And I was like Itold you, and I said, here's the
thing, you would have reallyliked Cathy's playlist. And so a
few days later, she's like,Cassie, can I will you share it?
And then she's like, coming backand a couple of days. She's
like, I really liked this. Sothe moral of the story is
(22:59):
stopped prejudging because untilyou actually listen to it, you
don't know what you're going tolike it. Why is it such a bad
thing for all of us to exploreother types of music? I mean,
it's it was more than sec,right. And there were a ton of
artists on there now. Did I likethem all? No, I'm here to tell
you. I'm not a fan of MacMiller. And I'm not allowed to
say that around my kids, becausethey love Mac Miller, and he's
(23:21):
dead. And I'm like, I he's justnot my thing. You know what I
do? Exactly? You know what I do?
I go, Alex, which is what I calla le XA. So she doesn't go off
every time. Alex, skip. How hardis that?
Jason (23:37):
That's not hard at all.
Not at all. I have a similarstory. It's a little bit kind of
turned around. I took my kids tosee my dad in Virginia last
summer. And not nearly an 18hour drive more like four and a
half. That's more reasonable.
Maybe, maybe a little bit morethan that. Anyway, my son, about
halfway through the trip said,Hey, Dad, can I can I control
(24:00):
the music? Because I had justput on something general that my
kids would tolerate on myplaylist. And I said, Sure. So
he unplugged my phone from theUSB port and plugs his in. And
I'm like, Okay, I'm gettingready to listen to a bunch of
Jack Harlow or some other typeof rap music. So I had this
predetermined, you know, idea ofwhat he was going to play. And
(24:22):
he pushed his play, and I almostswerved off the road. He started
playing Steely Dan. Yes. And Iwas like, where did you learn
Steely Dan. And he's a big musicfan. And he's he's gone to
college to study to be an audioengineer. And he's been
exploring a bunch of differentgenres and a bunch of different
artists and he turns on SteelyDan and the rest of the trip was
(24:46):
fantastic because he waslistening to music that I really
dig. So,
Kristen Daukas (24:50):
man, let me let me tell you Steely Dan. That's
some good stuff and like me, youthink about it, like the 77. You
know, I think we're about thesame as you maybe a little bit
younger than me, but you know,can Going back to those seven
days with like the DoobieBrothers and eagles and I really
miss that big band not big bandsbut big horns, the horns like
(25:12):
with yeah section Yeah. TheCommodores and all of those.
Yeah. Definitely some old schoolChicago, old
Jason (25:21):
Chicago. Chicago
Kristen Daukas (25:23):
that was
Jason (25:24):
that was when Peter Sutera started singing they kind
of got well when David Fosterstarted producing them they got
25
Kristen Daukas (25:30):
Or six to four still one of my absolute
Absolutely I can still. So whatare we're coming in on about we
got about five minutes left, Iwant to talk about two more
things with you want to talkabout? We want to talk about
some bourbon because you know,you're gonna love some bourbon.
And I want to like give me offthe top of your head like some
of your what are your top fivealbums right now beyond cowboy
(25:53):
Carter? And are you gonna Areyou gonna? Taylor's new album
which comes out on the 19thwhich is Friday?
Jason (26:00):
It's it's Friday, and it's also my oh my
Kristen Daukas (26:02):
gosh. So yeah,
Jason (26:04):
you can guarantee that you can Guaran damn tee and
listen to that thing over andover again. So when I would
listen anyway, just to hear it,but the fact that I haven't
Swifty daughter means I'm gonnalisten to it ad infinitum, which
is fine. So bourbon. Yeah, soI'll just throw this out about
bourbon, the bourbon explosionis still on the uptake. There's
(26:27):
just dozens of new brands comingout every month. If you have the
opportunity, I would recommendif you're going to a bourbon bar
or looking for something new,there's a bourbon out of
Owensboro, Kentucky called GreenRiver, bourbon, and Green River
distillery. And I've tried it afew times now. And every time
(26:50):
I've tried it, I've liked it alittle bit more. It's growing on
me. So green rivers, a goodrecommendation for you. Most of
your mainstream bourbons thateverybody's heard about bullet
Maker's Mark, whatnot, they'reall going to be perfectly fine
to mix in cocktails and whatnot.
But if you like just sipping ona new bourbon and trying to find
something new, I think greenriver would be a good choice for
you. And if you haven't had theopportunity to explore the
(27:12):
Willett bourbons yet, do thatbecause they're pretty tasty.
And then albums, top fivealbums. I love this. And I'm
more prepared to answer thisquestion now than they ever have
been before. I will tell youthis if you have not heard of,
or have listened to joy, a lotof qun she has an album out
(27:33):
called Proof of Life. I thinkshe has collaborations do ads on
that album with Chris Stapleton.
I think no a car.
Kristen Daukas (27:45):
There's in that state. No, no, he's another one
that I discovered this summer.
Yep. Love him.
Jason (27:50):
So Joy a lot. Akun proof of life is the album that I
listened to the whole album andmy my immediate reaction when I
turned to someone and said, Thisis how I describe joy. A lot of
goon. It's like Tracy Chapman,oh, good mood. It's just It's
uplifting. And then there's somereally thick lyrics and issues
(28:12):
that she talks about. But shehas this light, joyous sound.
And it's just one that I can puton and I just feel good. So
that's one. My second choiceright now and these are in no
particular order, but they'rethe top five that I'm listening
to right now. Brent Cobbshooting star or no Southern
(28:32):
Star, Brent Cobb Southern Star.
Brent Cobb has been around for alittle while. But this is his
first what I would consideralmost a breakthrough album.
He's got an interesting sound,it's country. But he's got a
couple of songs out there thathave like this kind of fun
baseline vibe and he just gotsome really good songs. He is
the cousin by the way of DaveCobb, who is the famous
(28:55):
Nashville producer who'sproduced Chris Stapleton and
Jason is bull and all sorts ofother people but Brent Cobb
Southern Star. Ciara Farrell hasa new album out now. That is
called I think, trail offlowers. And she is kind of a
fiddle player from WestVirginia, who was basically poor
(29:17):
ran away from the state becauseshe knew if she stuck around,
she was probably going to fallinto a myth pit. And she just
traveled around and has kind ofhit it as an artist. And the
album is not only beautifullyfrom a music beautiful from a
music standpoint, but even thecover art is just it's I want to
(29:38):
frame it all. So Ciara Farrell,I think it's called trail of
flowers. That's number three.
Number four is going to be can'tbe Kambli Carter Okay, hold
Kristen Daukas (29:54):
on. Give me cowboy Carter thing.
Jason (29:57):
Oh, the light the new one from Marcus King. In and I'll
come up with the name ofinherent mood swings as the name
of the album produced by RickRubin. Several of the songs were
recorded at Shangri Larecruitment studio out in
Malibu, and Marcus King is agreat kind of southern blues
rock guitarist. His previousalbums are fantastic too but
(30:21):
this one with the Reuben touchis just it's just great. It's
got a bunch of really good songson it. So Marcus kings new one
is excellent. And then okay, Iwant to hit you one just just
posted this 62nd album reviewtoday or yesterday? No, today
the day we're recording this. Itis called Old School. And it is
(30:42):
by Kimmy bitter. Kr mmm ibitter. This young lady is a
singer songwriter from SanDiego, California. This is her
first major album she's had afew singles on Spotify before
this. The album debuted atnumber one on the alt country
charts last week. Out ofnowhere. She basically is Patsy
(31:08):
Cline and Loretta Lynn in 2024She plays old school country
music the way we remembercountry music really good Patsy
Cline type ballads really goodLoretta Lynn like Don't mess
with me anthems. She wears youknow, go go boots night go
outfit and plays it up the wholeart direction and everything is
(31:31):
all 67 days old school country.
And she sounds magnificent. Theonly thing I didn't like about
the album was she misspronounced Appalachian that I
can forgive her because she'sfrom California.
Kristen Daukas (31:42):
That's one of the reasons I love Laney Wilson,
you know, she you know, she'sjust a she's contrary she is she
she's not just she's country, aswe say here. No, because she's
calling she's country. She'scalling Oh, I love the list. I
wrote them down. I'm going toput them in the show notes.
Here's one for you. Another oneI discovered last summer. Are
you familiar with the bandcalled The Five? Oh, twos? No,
(32:05):
check them out. Talk abouthappy. This Yeah, talk. They are
such a great band. They're ahappy band. They're a you know,
if you're kind of like, I got toclean the house or I got to mow
the yard and you put them on?
You're like, oh, yeah, this isnot so bad. after all. Great
band, the silence.
Jason (32:26):
I'm gonna be okay.
They're from Maitland, Florida.
I was gonna say 502 is the areacode for removal. So I was gonna
be real disappointed if theywere from Louisville and I
hadn't heard Yeah,
Kristen Daukas (32:38):
so. But they've got a lot of the horns and the
brass in there too. You rememberthe squirrel Nut Zippers dig it?
So yeah, we talked about like,but you know how the squirrel
Nut Zippers were just a veryfun, you know, but same thing
with the five oh, twos. Jason,Jason falls. My friend. This has
been such a great conversation,how it's already been 35
(32:59):
minutes. And oh, now we have somuch fun when we talk to each
other. And I really doappreciate you being privy to my
reboot of my pod fade from fouryears ago. But you know, hey,
life happens, right? And here's,here's the final rule, not rule
(33:22):
but like final word is. If youdon't like something, just keep
scrolling. Nobody, nobody needsyour net negative. We don't
care. We don't care. And youknow, stop being so close minded
and live a happier life. SoJason, thank you and all my
friends out there. Thank you somuch. I hope you enjoyed this
time with Jason and till nexttime. Hopefully your life is
(33:47):
great. As the saying goes, youdon't have to go home but you
can't stay here and that's awrap for this week's episode. A
big thanks to my guests forsharing their story and to you
for listening. Don't forget toshare the show with your friends
and spread the words. And ifyou'd like to be a guest on the
show, the link is in the shownotes till next time cheers
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