All Episodes

February 28, 2019 13 mins

Tenille Townes is hitting the road with Dierks Bentley on his 2019 ‘Burning Man Tour’ and for good reason. Have you heard her? The “Somebody’s Daughter” may have moved to Nashville from the winter landscapes of the Canadian frontier, but her voice is warm with a unique ambiance.

Before she heads off on Dierks' tour, Cody Alan had to discover which country star was the fire starter to put her on a path toward a career in country music.

Spoiler Alert: It was none other than Shania Twain who lit the initial flame. Moreover, Tenille was nine years old.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Cody Cast. This is Cody Allen's podcast. So
excited to have you here because I love you already. Well,
thanks day. The music is so freaking good. Thank you.
I mean it means a lot. Maybe you hear that
a lot. Well, appreciate you saying that you come on
a tiny package. I don't know that I expected you

(00:21):
to be big voice, right, a little bit like maybe
Marin to me where you may walks. It's just a little,
you know, nugget house voice. So I'm congratulations on the
project and everything. You actually are from Canada. It took
you forty five hours to drive here today, just down

(00:42):
the street. Yeah, that's actually a true story. When you
came to Nashville. You drove forty five hours together, was
it not. It wasn't NonStop. You stopped along the way. Well,
we just stopped to sleep. That was My dad helped
me make the drive. And I had been making trips
to Nashville as much as my parents will let me
school prior to that. Yeah, and uh, and then the
time came to make the move and we loaded up

(01:04):
the truck and he helped me make the drive. We
did it in like four days and from Canada, Grand Prairie, Alberta, Okays,
north of Edmanton, mid middle of my right, middle and
west and really really really far up north. It's pretty
much by the North Pole. Are so being there? Like

(01:25):
when did you first hear country music? Country music is
a big part up there. It's it's amazing how many
people relate and connect to it. You know, it's the
family values, the hard working farmers, and it's just it's
a big piece of our identity for sure. I grew
up listening to it on the radio, sitting in the backseat,
listening to all kinds of records with my parents and grandparents.
And how does it feel to have the number one

(01:47):
song in Canada right now? Somebody's daughters already there, It's
already there. And what was so special is that it
happened while we were there. So we um out on
the Earning Man tour with Dirk Spendley and Drum Party.
We we were crossing literally through home on the day
that it had happened. So I got to like hug

(02:08):
my parents in the dressing room and be like, guys,
at like ten o'clock tonight, I think this might be happening.
It's pretty crazy. It was so surreal. How old were
you when you moved to Nashville and so I was
just about to turn nineteen? Yes, wow, How did you
convince your mom and dad that that was the right
thing to do? Or did you have to? You know what?

(02:29):
They have been very supportive of this adventure. I had
to convince him that I wasn't going to college, that
instead I was going to do this crazy music dream.
And once I presented my plan of how I was
going to like go play, I played a school tour
up in Canada and my dad's a big outliers guy.
So ten thousand hours, I was like, I gotta get
my ten tho hours driving across. Yeah, that's a great book,

(02:52):
so so good, and so that was my pitch. And
then they were like, okay, we hear you. And they've been,
you know, so supportive of this. So they they were
excited that Nashville is a part. They love it here too,
it's fun to come visit. How many of the hours
had you acquired at nineteen, Well, I don't know if
I had quite quite reached it there, but um, but

(03:15):
still working away at it. And yeah, so you heard
country music growing up? What was the first time you
thought I'd like to sing country music. So I grew
up singing around the house. I sang. I mean I
sang along to the radio all the time. I sang
the anthem at our local hockey games when the jersey
hung way passed my knees, and I'd sing it all
kinds of different local events as much as I could.
And at age nine, you sing with Shania did. Yes,

(03:38):
that was a crazy moment. Tell me that story. How
did that happen? Okay, so die hard Shania Twain family
my whole life, and knew all the words just like
huge fans. Well good, good good. And I found out
it was I think it was a birthday present Christmas
that we got these tickets. And I mean a bunch
of my family went. They were all way up in

(03:58):
the nosebleeds, but my nana and I had two seats
in the second row. And so I had asked my
mom to make me a costume. And so right before
we left to drive. It's a five hour drive to
go see this concert, and the glue gun of the costume,
like drow um, dried on our drive to everything, which
was awesome. So the costume looked like the Miami concert

(04:21):
with the yellow ponytail on top of my head, and
I had the a sign that said Sani, can I
please sing with you? And the security guard let me
stand right up by the stage and she came around,
you know, an hour or so into the show and
reached out her hand and I got to walk around
the stage with her. I like through the sign and
we ended on like the third two year of her
stage and I'll just never forget standing there next to

(04:44):
my hero and next to this like black curtain of
the lights of screaming people. I was like, this is it.
This is what I want to do for the rest
of my life. And yeah, that was a pretty wild moment.
The song we sang together was what Away to Want
to Be off of the up record, and then she
asked me to sing a song by myself and I
was like okay, and so I sang a chorus of

(05:06):
Honey I'm Home to this entire massive Edmonton arena and
it just lit a fire in me so very much.
I'll never forget it. Have you seen since? So we
actually crossed path at we were both at this Billboard event. Um,
I guess that was last year and I was standing
at the back of the room. She was giving an
award in this kind of like small hotel room, and

(05:27):
I was like, I'm in the same room as Jania
Twain and I didn't even sneak in, like I'm I
was invited to be here. This is crazy. And then
I got introduced, and I mean I had a hard
time saying any words at all. I was just it's like,
what do you say to somebody who's been so instrumental.
I just said thank you, and the person who introduced
me helped tell some of the story, which I was
really thankful for because the words were hard. Yeah. So

(05:52):
she gave me a big hug and she's like, that's
so cool, and I got a picture. It was a
pretty crazy, full circle moment. Oh when did you start
writing songs? So my grandparents bought me my first guitar
when I turned thirteen, and I started writing right after that.
And I love that process so much. I love the
craft of being able to tell a story with music.

(06:14):
And I think that's really what drew me to Nashville
so much, is the songwriting community here. And I kept
making trips to write here as much as I really could.
Outside of having like a really incredible voice that is
different and unique and strong. Um that I think it's
gonna stand out from the crowd. I also feel like
the lyrics, like you're saying, are really what makes you

(06:35):
super special. This the songs you've seen make you feel
something and that's Isn't that what country music is all about? Anyway?
Oh yeah, I love that Jersey on the Wall. I
mean seriously that that song is powerful about sort of
a faith crisis if you will, or experience and somebody's daughter.
I mean, uh, it speaks for itself in the video
as well played on CMT is so good. So tell

(06:57):
me the roots of that song when you write that.
So thanks for asking. My mom. Uh, my mom came
to visit me here and we were going furniture shopping
setting up my little apartment, and we took this exit
off the interstate and we saw this young girl standing
there with a cardboard sign. And I think it's something
you see quite often in whatever community you're in, but

(07:18):
for some reason that day, it just hit us differently
and we just kind of sat there at this red
light and wondered what happened to her, and wondered what
her story was and who she belonged to, and it
made me think, how do I get to be here
with my mom having this kind of a conversation and
you know what kind of left turns did her story take?
And just thinking about the fact that everybody's got a story,
But um, that moment stuck with me, and that young

(07:41):
girl's face stuck with me. And I got to walk
into a writing room with a couple of heroes of
mine about a week later, and I told them about
the story, and you know, Luke Laird had this loop
started and like exactly the same key and pretty much
the same tempo, and Barry Dean walked up the stairs
with this newspaper article that talk about why streets are

(08:01):
named the way they are in homelessness and lowing Camaria's
and I was like, this is crazy, Like we're supposed
to write this song today. So that's where that came from.
I think it's unfortunate that when we see people on
street quarters we often make assumptions about where they came
from and how they got there, and it's and that's
why I think the song is so powerful, because it
speaks to the truth of where that person might have

(08:21):
come is not necessarily what you assume, right right, thank you,
It's it's true. I mean, you just never know what
might have happened. Um, what can we do to help
with that problem? I always like I want to do
something about it. And I think that's the biggest thing,
is noticing that feeling. I think that's it because really
I think just as human beings, we want to be
seen and heard. And it's like sometimes I think saying

(08:44):
hi is bigger than we think it is. You know,
So what do you find inspiration? Obviously there was a
great inspiration for that song through a real life experience.
Do you find it the songs you write come from
just real life observations? Yes, I think for me, so
much of any idea comes from just observing and taking
in And I love getting to ask people questions and

(09:06):
like just learn about how different people think and experienced
different things in life. But a lot of the writing,
to me feels very much like just being a vessel,
Like you're just kind of catching what's coming through. Sometimes
it's personal experience, sometimes it's someone else's story, but it's
like as it comes through, it's got your own personal
truth in it to some capacity, and it just kind

(09:28):
of comes out. It's the weirdest thing and it always
fascinates me, Like, I love that process and I'm always
inspired by the way that something new comes into the
world that wasn't there before. You're just sitting around talking.
It's like a spiritual thing almost. It really is White Horse.
I want to ask about that. Where where did that
song come from? So I wrote that song with a

(09:49):
couple of friends, Jeremy Spilman and Daniel Tashon, and we're
just talking about how love can be different than you
expect it to be sometimes then maybe society puts the
pressure on it to be I think. You know, Daniel
has three little daughters. They're also stinking cute, and we're
just thinking about the world that they're going to grow
up in and the experiences of that, and to kind

(10:09):
of make a statement being like, hey, like have an
open heart about love. You know, you're got a tour
with Dirk Speling what you have been tour with? And
the Burning Man tour rolls on. He's a good dude, right,
He's such a cool human. He's so kind and genuine
and I just am loving getting to know him and
to get to watch and learn from him. He's created

(10:29):
such an amazing culture on the road of his whole
crew and bandit. They're always just looking out for us
and I love getting to watch his show in the
way that he's just like entertains people and pulls them in.
It's it's really amazing to be a part of this tour.
I feel so honored watch for can you also seeing
different for girls? During Dirk st you pop out into

(10:50):
that right, It's the best. That's like one of my
favorite hearts of the whole night. And every time he,
you know, introduces me to bring me out, he basically
makes me want to cry. Like he's so nice. He
says the kindest things, and it's always different. Every night
he says something else and I'm just like, and then
I got a sing song like don't Cry. I love

(11:10):
singing that song. It's it's such a great message and
and it's really cool to get to stand next to
Dirk Spentiley and sing that song. It's amazing. Have you
done the ice Bath with him yet? Because he's a
big fan of the preconcert ice Bath? I know, and
he did it and we're in freezing cold Canada and
I was like, and you're still taking an ice back.
I've done it with him a couple of times for

(11:32):
our TV show Hot twenty and he survived and it
was all the warm weather, and so I can't imagine
like doing it in below freezing temperatures. I did to
ask him about it, and he was like, I was like,
is this for real? Like it's is this is for real?
And he's like, yes, he's hardcore. He is so hardcore.
He's like, when it gets warmer, you will have your turn.
And I was like, oh, dear, I'm not so sure about.

(11:55):
We'll see. You gave me some good pointers, though. The
first one was briefe breathe. Okay, what other point has
you got? Because this might happen in my future. Your
body thinks it's dying at first. That's why you want
to just jump out of it. But he said, just
slowly lower yourself in and and just don't it's dying.
I think your body, well, you instantly it's like boiling water.

(12:18):
When you stick your finger in or whatever, you're gonna
feel like, oh, I gotta get rid of that. So
your body thinks like, let me get out of here.
So you gotta just slowly enter in, take a breath,
and just really is important and just ease into it.
Um did you how did you feel after? Did you
feel like? I will say it was refreshing afterwards, and
of course I was like super cold. I want to

(12:38):
do is take a shower. I stayed in thirteen minutes.
My first FO he does about twenty, I think, so
lucky numbers, lucky numbers thirteen, so I me and Taylor
Swift it was my lucky number long before. That's awesome,
So enjoy that fun. Hopefully you'll you'll do that on

(12:59):
a on a warm day. But you have to check
out to Neil Town's The new EP is coming soon?
Or is an album soon? What do we what do
we have? Abu? Okay, can no date yet, no date yet,
but I'm just dying to get these songs out there.
I'm so excited for people to hear it. And somebody's
daughters out right now. Check it out. We love you,
Thank you, thanks for having me. So good to be here.

(13:19):
This has been Cody cast. Subscribe now on iTunes, listen
anytime on the I Heart radio app. Cody is heard
on hundreds of radio stations across America and seen on
CMT Hot twenty countdown every weekend. For more, go to
CMT Cody dot com
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Dateline NBC
The Nikki Glaser Podcast

The Nikki Glaser Podcast

Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.

Stuff You Should Know

Stuff You Should Know

If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2024 iHeartMedia, Inc.