Actor and Singer Laura Pursell

Today in studio with Alison is Actor and Singer Laura Pursell

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:18):
See Alison Aringerham Show. And I'm Alison Aringram. Although some
of you may remember me as Evil Nellie Elson from
the Little House in the Veryly Tonight, I am Alison
Aringham and it's thee Alison Ringham Show. And here in
the Alison Ingram Show, we talk about things that make
us feel good, the movies and the TV shows that
meet us feel good, and the people who made them,

(00:39):
and people who are doing things right now to make
the world a better and more interesting place.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
We have a returning guest.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
We have been plugging like that, a returning guest. And
it's such a trip because you know when I have
someone on and it's like, oh, they were on like
a long time to come to I go back and
watch the episode that I did, in this case seven
years years it now with my friend Laura, and I'm like, whoa,
because it like all ties in she's talked about this
and this, and then now we're talking about and I'm like,

(01:07):
oh no, this is gonna be really weird, man, but
we're doing it. So my friend Laura Pursell, who sings
and ice skates I know in Congress, LEA like, okay, sure,
why not? And she's in Nashville. So when I was
in Nashville, you know, I was in Nashville, and that
I was in Louisville, and then I was back in Nashville,
and I was in New York and uh.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Doing all my shows.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
I was hanging out at Laura's house and and then
we were like at Chenny Cashle's farm. We were running
around and this is all happening on Facebook. He saw
all these carryings on. So yeah, because she but in
addition to being just like you know, fabulous and had
her before, she has a new song she sings, but
she is actually you can you can get it online.
There's a release of a whole new song which we

(01:47):
are even going to play during the show. And it'll
be the first time that people outside of well, what
was it your friend's birthday party? Yeah, outside of those
people have like actually heard this thing. So, ladies and gentlemen,
welcome to the Nancy Laura Perzille. Who this is so bonkers. Okay,

(02:11):
seven years ago you were in the studio and now
you're in Nashville in my living room.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
Because I don't know that we'd really we han'tally done.
We sometimes did shows in studios.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
Someone couldn't be there. They'd be like over the phone.
But then, as we know, twenty twenty half, and then
everything became zoom. And then we went back in the studio.
But then the zoom thing, everyone said, oh great, I'm
on the road.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
I can do the shows like the zoom. So it
became zoom a zooma zoom rama Yep.

Speaker 3 (02:37):
Yep, yep. But I remember, I remember seven was it
seven years ago? Seven years I remember. I remember parking
my car. It was like on Gower Street or something,
and I went and I.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
Went into We weren't even in the valley yet.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Where the hell were we?

Speaker 3 (02:51):
Oh my god, it's downtown Hollywood. And you got me
a cake.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
You got me it was your birthday. It was literally
your birthday. And I went and got a cake.

Speaker 3 (03:04):
You sang Happy Birthday to me, and we had all
these celebrations, all these decorations or something, and then I sang.
I sang one of my songs, a couple of my
songs to tracks that I had brought.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
It was crazy because we even talked about the guy you.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
Wait, you said his name.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
I had to write it down because it was the
whole thing that I said, wait, can we sing happy
Birthday because for years it was a huge copyright to
do that. There were these two elderly women who had written,
had written the song La La La La. We just
like didn't take a lot, but they write and they
clung to the rights. They had an incredible rights deal.

(03:42):
It was amazing. Anytime anybody just he went me and
then I sent me a dollar. And they were gonna
and for TV. You wondered why on TV shows people
saying he's a jolly good fellow. You're like, what is
going on?

Speaker 2 (03:53):
She's too. It went so far.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
Their legal team was so bonkers that they sued like
the girls Scout else for singing Happy Birthday. And people say, okay,
we get it in TV and film. You wish to
be paid, but really the girl Scouts for happy birth
And you said, a Michael Michael Harrington, Michael Harrington.

Speaker 3 (04:13):
Our family friend. He is the one who got that
taken in put in the public domain.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
He is he's an attorney.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
I take is the a journey.

Speaker 3 (04:21):
He's a musicologist.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
I think music call it and he went and had
to go to court.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
I guess and say, please come on, let's let's say
when it's I can see. You know, hey, if it's
in a movie, I say, fine, send send the ladies
a stated check. What whatever the heck? But what literally,
when people are sitting around their.

Speaker 3 (04:37):
Dining table with a gig, it is ridiculous. And by
the way, when those ladies wrote that song, it was
good morning.

Speaker 1 (04:44):
To you, even bloody happy birthday.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
That's an even happy birthday, good morning to you.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
Oh no, no, no. And my mother used to sing
that because they made her sing that at her private school,
and she would annoy me in the mornings by singing
good morning to you you.

Speaker 3 (04:57):
That was the precursor to happy Birthday. And boy, those
sisters just hung on for dear life.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
She's crazy. But you know, I guess we all should
have such good attorneys as they do. Can you imagine?
So it was.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
It was amazing so explaining.

Speaker 1 (05:13):
To people that you not only been singing for for
eons and everything, you also ice skates for an actress.
D she but what does she not do?

Speaker 2 (05:21):
We we met?

Speaker 1 (05:23):
We're trying for where we met because it was hundred
years ago now through our publicist, Harlan Bowl, the amazing
Harlan Bowl publicist, and uh we met?

Speaker 2 (05:32):
What do we meet? We met at the Do we
mean at the Hollywood Museum?

Speaker 1 (05:34):
I think it was a party of.

Speaker 3 (05:35):
The worl we met at the Hollywood Museum.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
But the kicker was you were singing regularly in la
at a place in Bourbon called Viva Cantina, Yes long,
which is water Bob husband, Bob's back that song that
we played being they were playing and Bob would go,
wore warn the butthers, Hey you know that girl, she's
in the front room. That that Laura. It's like amazing,

(05:59):
And so then became a thing to go to Vivacantina
to hear you.

Speaker 3 (06:02):
I know, and then Bob was like, guess who my
wife is about?

Speaker 1 (06:05):
Your wife?

Speaker 3 (06:05):
Your wife is alisont Argram.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
You've got to be kidding.

Speaker 3 (06:09):
You've got to be kidding. And yeah, we just sort
of morphed, and all of a sudden we were all
hanging out together and going out to have sushi and
so much fun. And I remember something I forgot to
mention to you. You may not remember this. Loretta Sweat
had a book signing Loretto Swat.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
It's just like celebrity wacky name drop.

Speaker 3 (06:27):
Today. Okay, we're at the Halloo Museum and I had
just broken my foot. Do you remember I had just
broken my foot doing a stupid I was trying to
do an off. I was being an ice skater in
the kitchen.

Speaker 1 (06:39):
It was dumb break it like on the ice playing hockey. No,
you were like, so I rolled my.

Speaker 3 (06:46):
Foot and broke you know, two or three metatarsels. So
here I am wearing this big clumpy boot at the
and I couldn't put any weight. I wasn't supposed to
put any weight. I had crutches. The hole nine yards.
You held me up for the group photo with Loretta Sweat.
I don't know if you remember that, but if you
look at the group, you were behind.

Speaker 2 (07:05):
Literally literally following you up.

Speaker 3 (07:08):
Like what a fantastic friend.

Speaker 1 (07:12):
I think those stories are like I vaguely remember for
these guys, stories I don't even always remember. And people
come to me and go, do you.

Speaker 2 (07:18):
Know that you once? And I go, oh God, was
that me?

Speaker 4 (07:21):
God?

Speaker 1 (07:23):
Yes, I was armed on the person will literally physically
hold you up for a photos.

Speaker 3 (07:28):
I did not topple over and ruin the photograph with
Loretta in her book.

Speaker 1 (07:34):
I remember you liked to be the canteena because it
was across the street from the ice skating rink.

Speaker 3 (07:39):
Which is where I skated.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
And so it's so crazy.

Speaker 2 (07:44):
When did you start?

Speaker 1 (07:44):
Because you started skating young and you started singing late.
It's all like bonkers.

Speaker 3 (07:49):
Yeah, I started skating, uh before I started singing. I
started skating when I was eight or nine years old,
and I competed in Nashville. I grew up here in Nashville, Tennessee,
and I was on the very first figure skating team ever.
But this was centuries ago and we didn't have good
coaches or anything like that. And I went to college
and I stopped and I was I moved to LA

(08:13):
and I got cast in a weird.

Speaker 1 (08:14):
Al Yankovic video playing Tanya Harding and this is epic,
And that was the thing. Last time you were like, wait,
you haven't seen it, Like, yes, I have. I have
seen the weird out dankvicvideo or she it's freaking Tonya
Harding and she's amazing.

Speaker 3 (08:28):
That was the most fun acting job I ever had.
But of course when I got cast, I had to
get my butt back into the ice again. So I
hired a coach and I got my jumps and my
spins back, and then I stopped skating for another, you know,
decade and a half, and then I came back. I
came back in twenty fourteen because I was doing a

(08:48):
craft fair in.

Speaker 1 (08:50):
Bourbon, of course, as you do, what.

Speaker 3 (08:54):
Yeah, because I was also doing making purses and bags
and things like that. And so this woman walks into
my booth and she's a figure skated coach. Her name
was Pam McDonald and we started talking and she tells
me that she's a coach and I was like, I
used to skate, and she said, well, you should come back.
And I said, oh, I'm too old, and she said, no,
you're not. You are never too old to come back

(09:15):
to skating.

Speaker 1 (09:16):
Because I'm thinking you stopped both athletic things, especially oh
my god, skating, the idea that you skate and then
oh stop for several years, Like oh yeah, going back
to that, that's not going to be a thing.

Speaker 3 (09:28):
But it's almost twenty years. So I came back. I
came back, and I had to learn all of those
things again. And by the grace of God, I could
still I could still jump, I could still spin, I
could do all of those things.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
And now you teach little whipper snappers older to do this.

Speaker 3 (09:45):
I know it's an amazing story. And I didn't start
singing professionally until my late twenties.

Speaker 1 (09:52):
Now and again there's another one in crazy stories. Did
I know how to skate? No, I'd forgotten. I had
to go back and learn. Did I know how to sing? Really?
You just just I'm gonna go do this and then
went and learned how.

Speaker 3 (10:02):
I just yeah, I figured it out. I just always
said yes. I mean people gave me opportunities, and I
never said no. I would say yes, I'll figure it
out later.

Speaker 1 (10:09):
I'll figure out how to classic actor. Think this is
classic actor? Do you pogo stick? Of course I do
have more, bob, Let me find one a rider.

Speaker 3 (10:17):
Yes, I got to find somebody to ride a horse. Sure,
give me a week, I'll learn.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
I did the well, I I didn't do away a. Yes,
she can totally ice skate. No, No, she can't.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
And I think it may have been.

Speaker 1 (10:36):
Early auditions for Yes, Yes, the infamous movie Ice Castles
that everybody went and learned to skate because of and
I yeah, I'd gone to skating parties because in the
seventies all the little girls went to the rink Pickwick did.

Speaker 2 (10:48):
To go ice skating. Whether you could skate or not.

Speaker 1 (10:49):
They had a cake and a thing in the room
and everybody got skates and he went around a circle
and I done that badly. And then they they were
making all these movies about ice.

Speaker 2 (10:59):
Skating, and so my agent went, you know, I didn't
sure she can learn?

Speaker 1 (11:02):
And I was like, oh no, And my father went, Okay,
this is a bad idea because he knew how extraordinarily
unathletic and coordinator I am. And we went to the
ice skating rink just to check. My father laughed so
hard tears were rolling down his face as I attempted
to get like even around, and he's like, we're not
doing this. We're not doing yeah. Yeah, So no I

(11:23):
I couldn't. I couldn't hack it. I tried to do
the yes I can skate thing, and it was no, no,
I cannot.

Speaker 3 (11:30):
That's too bad. That breaks my heart. I can teach you.
I can teach anyone how to skate. I can. I
have taught children. I have taught three year olds. I
have taught people in their seventies. I have I teach adults.
I teach kids.

Speaker 1 (11:44):
He was falling down like bad though. Once you're past
like sixty tho, I don't want you know you were pads.
You crashed, Okay, Okay, so I was gonna say my
bones like shattered to dust or something like.

Speaker 3 (11:55):
You can do absolutely and you just take little baby
steps and anyone can learn how to ice skate.

Speaker 1 (12:02):
I'm terrified you're going to make me skate the next
time at your house? Is this like a.

Speaker 2 (12:07):
You're here the whole bonker thing.

Speaker 1 (12:09):
So there we are, like I said, I'm telling you
you're you're performing Viva and we're all hanging out. And
then one day, yes, twenty twenty happens, and like I
said in March, friend and I are sitting in a restaurant.
We're like with our phones, going they closed Disneyland. This
is probably bad, and you know, everyone's like going to the.

Speaker 2 (12:27):
House and everything's like closing, closing, closing, clan.

Speaker 1 (12:30):
We're like okay, and then I get a call Laura's
performing at Cantata. I'm like they're open. She what what
the hoop? And we all call you let's go, let's go.
We're like is the show? Is the show still on?
And you'd like been out of town. You're like, what, yeah,
is something happening? Like, dude, and we get down there
and you do this amazing show, and there's a break,

(12:50):
and then the band takes a little set or break
and they go. Ladies, and we have heard from the
governor and the marriage center that all bars are now closed.
That's it. It's it's a pandemic, it's a quarantine. You're
except this is a restaurant which are currently still open.
So make yourselves at home, get some more notch ups,
and then you do the second set, and then the

(13:10):
second set ends. Ladies and gentlemen, we've now found the restaurants,
according to State California and pretty much everybody else in
everything else are now officially closed. So thank you, drive
home safely, goodbye.

Speaker 2 (13:24):
Yeah, we walked that big door.

Speaker 1 (13:26):
Those big doors went clang behind us as time.

Speaker 2 (13:31):
And they never opened again.

Speaker 1 (13:35):
Now, other restaurants had, oh we're gonna do delivery, We're
gonna do We're gonna do porch side, And I never understood,
cause Viva Viva had those huge patios, had those huge porches,
and they completely could have gone outdoor. Its could have delivered.
We all would order tacos. It would have been fine.

Speaker 3 (13:49):
They could have outdoor entertainment. They could have done so
many things that made.

Speaker 1 (13:52):
Something happened, because everywhere, the teeniest, tiniest place was throwing
tables out on the street and going we're open. And
I don't know, I don't know. They had financial issues
to begin with. Something went just terribly wrong that that
would bye bye. They're like something else now. I mean
they're like a exit and restaurant. Now. I'm sure they're lovely.
But that door just did not open. And that was it.

Speaker 3 (14:11):
We were like all that beautiful space, those big stages,
this big like a barn. It was so fabulous, it
was and I have that Western Bar that was like
so cool with all the time. You were literally the
last person to perform, to walk off that stage, and
considering that night they shut it down, I don't know
what time other people set finished. You may have been

(14:32):
the last person to perform live in Los Angeles or
the Native California. I have not for years. Yeah, And
I took a picture of the sign that says March seventeenth,
twenty twenty Laura Purcell, Chris Ross, Vivick and my whole band.

Speaker 1 (14:48):
That's it. You walked off stage. Everything closed at that
moment for miles. You may have been literally the last
person to sing into live on stage in LA for
like a gear.

Speaker 3 (14:58):
Yeah, I think I was. I think I was. We
were just I don't know why we did that. We
Chris was determined, my drummer, He was kind of the
de facto leader of the band, and he.

Speaker 1 (15:08):
Was like, we got to get one in maybe quick, quick,
we can get under the wire.

Speaker 3 (15:13):
We gotta do it. We gotta do what we got.
And he kept trying to get gigs after that, and
I kept saying, Chris, they.

Speaker 1 (15:17):
Don't exist, They're closed. Do you go outdoors? Are? Eventually
they were outdoors. Everything became or on zoom or and
I my whole stand up career moved to my living
room and I was like, my kitchen became the dressing room.

Speaker 3 (15:28):
Like I you you became the queen of reinvention.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
True, like I guess like I'd already bought a bunch
of like bonnets and photos to sell it my next.

Speaker 3 (15:39):
Thing, and I had nowhere to go, and you did
the way you were able to pivot. It just amazes me.
Amazes me. So wait, we.

Speaker 2 (15:50):
All made up. We're so then a lot of people
left LA.

Speaker 1 (15:53):
A lot of people left LA said, well, I'm gonna
get lah Hi. There's no work, nobody's doing anything, and
I can sitting in my house and talk on zoom
from anywhere. And I knew a lot of people said
I got to go take care of my parents. I
got to do a thing. And it is so weird
because when we were here in studio doing this seven
years ago, we were talking about hearing your mom had

(16:14):
passed away just a few months before. Yeah, and now
you're in Nashville because unfortunately your father died.

Speaker 3 (16:22):
My father passed away from.

Speaker 2 (16:24):
And Mel went back to Nashville tic care.

Speaker 1 (16:27):
It's so bizarre because when you first told me I
gotta go back to Nashville, Yeah, it's all thing in
the house and the thing and say all the stuff
you have to do when your family, and then you went,
you know, it's Nashville. Like in music, like what was
I thinking? I sing?

Speaker 3 (16:43):
Well, what happened was I came back here. I came
back here to visit my dad and to take him
to a family wedding. I came with one suitcase, one suitcase,
thinking I was only going to be here for five
days and I was going to go back to La. Well,
my dad got sick. I got sick. Everybody got sick,

(17:04):
and he ended up dying three weeks later. And I
didn't go back for over a year, and I was
the executor of his estate, and I had to.

Speaker 2 (17:13):
Take all of this.

Speaker 1 (17:15):
You in your one suitcase went stranded in Nashville, stranded
in Nashville. Basically who you met when you came over it.

Speaker 3 (17:22):
When we did the meet and greet here last week,
they brought sacks of clothes for me. They all brought
me clothes to wear. They would they would bring them
out on the back porch and they would just sleep clothes.
I had nothing. I didn't have I didn't have sets
of underwear. I didn't have jeans, I didn't shoes, And

(17:43):
I'm like, fall is coming, I don't have any coats.

Speaker 1 (17:45):
You came in wedding, get through it like the one
outfit and some makeup.

Speaker 3 (17:49):
You were like what I threw an a dress, a
couple of pairs of shirts, hands, I mean nothing. I
was not prepared and heels. I had heels. I didn't
have shoes, nothing, And I had brought my ice skates.

Speaker 1 (18:03):
I did oh oh, you didn't bring a change of clothes, but.

Speaker 3 (18:07):
I had brought my ice skates because I was going
to work. I was going to train for down the
street a couple of days while I was here. Well,
it turns out after all of this happened, I went
back to the rink to train, to just get out
of the house, and they with a mask on, and
they offered me a job coaching. And they were like,

(18:28):
we need people, and we're going to open up again
with masks and everyone's too afraid to come back, and
would you like a job, And I said, oh my god,
for my sanity.

Speaker 1 (18:37):
Yes, really enormous and well ventilated, I would I get Yeah,
I'd go for the ice rink.

Speaker 2 (18:42):
The winds were they Yes, they're huge masks.

Speaker 3 (18:46):
For two years but but yeah, nobody that I know
of got sick from the ice rink because.

Speaker 1 (18:52):
You pretty safe place.

Speaker 3 (18:54):
You're naturally oh wait, you're not. You They were six
feet apart.

Speaker 1 (18:57):
And but we can't get close to anybody you speeding
around on the ice. It's automatically distant.

Speaker 3 (19:03):
Yes, exactly. And when I was teaching the little Greek classes,
they were all spread out, and I learned how to
be a coach. I learned how to teach, and that's
where it all started. And I'm still doing it. And
then I started recording and working with people here and I,
you know, everything. I don't know if it happens for
a reason, but it's just ironic that I ended up
back here where it all started, and I'm doing everything

(19:24):
that I was doing in La, and then some and more.

Speaker 1 (19:27):
And then some and then here's the crazy thing. Okay, Nashville.
I you know, I think I think of you. Go
oh yes, Laura, Nashville Princess, because you are part of
Nashville Royalty technically, because all of this hoopla of going back,
who is your dad? It's Bill Purcell. Explain to these
people Bill Purcell is, because this is just like wait what.

Speaker 3 (19:50):
Yes, Bill Purcell. My father was a very very well
known session musician in the sixties and seventies. He recorded
with Johnny Cash, Patsy Kleine, chet Atkins, Marty Robbins, Brenda Lee,
Johnny Paycheck. I mean basically anybody and everybody who was
recording in the sixties and early seventies. My dad played piano.

Speaker 2 (20:13):
Oh there he is, had a song, He had one hit.
He had a hit song in like what sixty two
or something.

Speaker 1 (20:20):
Go go.

Speaker 3 (20:20):
That picture is from his promotional shot from his hit
record in nineteen sixty three.

Speaker 1 (20:25):
Our Winter Life, Our Winter Look.

Speaker 3 (20:27):
That was it got reached number seven on the Billboard charts.

Speaker 2 (20:31):
And I mean he was kind of like hot guy
with a love song. He was like hot guy with
a love song.

Speaker 3 (20:36):
And my mom met him in Columbia Studio B. She
was a newspaper reporter and she was she was a
reporter and she was writing liner notes for Eddie Arnold,
who was in the next studio.

Speaker 1 (20:48):
I did happen to be writing leoner notes for Eddie
Arnold when I.

Speaker 3 (20:51):
Still trying to figure out, like how this really happened.
But this is the story, This is the lore story.
My dad saw her through the glass and he was like,
who who is that? My dad's who is that foxy
looking lady through the foxy I guess that was the
verbiage that they used in the early sixties. I don't know.
And he said, I have to meet her, and he

(21:14):
took her out for coffee, and a few years later
later they were married and I was born.

Speaker 1 (21:20):
And it took Sartha and this place study be is
literally a tourist attraction in freaking Nationale.

Speaker 2 (21:27):
There's a thing where you go to the big music
and you.

Speaker 1 (21:29):
Take a bus. You take a bus to the place
where parents met. People pay money to go into the
place where.

Speaker 3 (21:35):
You're my dad met my mom. Isn't that amazing? You
have to buy a ticket to go.

Speaker 1 (21:40):
Buy a ticket to see it. Now, if you should
do tours, you should get it because you need to
get another job.

Speaker 2 (21:46):
You should get a job as a tour guide there
and then go and in this studio.

Speaker 1 (21:50):
Tony Cash recorded this had over her cues for my
parents met.

Speaker 3 (21:54):
It's not a bad idea. You know. I tried to
get us in there, and I wasn't able to do
it because we didn't have enough to the next time
you come back, we're to get a studio. Studio.

Speaker 1 (22:02):
Okay, we're gonna go there. We're gonna tell to go there.

Speaker 2 (22:04):
It's so incredible.

Speaker 1 (22:05):
So now you're there and it's like here you are
in Nashville. It's like, okay, well you're gonna sing, Doug.
Let's go to Nashville and singing and skating and then
in your dad's like amazing house. Because I was there
in the guest room. Oh my Doug, that was that
was the levers. I was one of those things where
I flew in and the hotel wasn't ready and then
there was a problem the hotel, and so they're gonna
put me here, and then I went, what am I? Hey?

(22:26):
I'm really because we're gonna hang out saturdays. Like so
you're like, get over a year, now are here?

Speaker 3 (22:31):
Now?

Speaker 1 (22:31):
Are here? Now? Come now?

Speaker 2 (22:33):
And then I walk in the.

Speaker 1 (22:34):
House and I don't need a hotel. I'm not going
to that.

Speaker 2 (22:38):
Yeah, I'm staying here with you were on your way over.

Speaker 3 (22:41):
I'm like, get the vacuum cleaner.

Speaker 1 (22:42):
I get a vacuum shore like, oh crap, we have
to clean She's got.

Speaker 2 (22:50):
It was amazing.

Speaker 1 (22:52):
So yeah, but here you're you're in Nashville and now
you're recording and doing all that. I have Christmas is
a Christmas wreck. I have the Christmas record that's beautiful there.
It is, yes, silver bells, all the classics and it's amazing.
And then while we're there, so crazy because as you're
many of you know out there with our little house gang,

(23:14):
we've got the big one up in Sonora and Columbia
State Park coming up with the cast. We're plotting many
things and as you know, we were supposed to go
to the beautiful Johnny Cash Hideaway farm last year and
there was a problem and all these house we are
now you're gonna say, well, we're gonna do We're gonna
do it this year. So we're talking to people, we

(23:35):
are plotting. So I said, well, I'm in town and
do you said you're in town, go over Google. So
I went, hey, hey, Laura, you want to go to
Johnny Cash's Hideaway Farmers because all my dad's on all
his records.

Speaker 2 (23:46):
Let's get the car and next thing you.

Speaker 1 (23:48):
Know, we're in the gorgeous hideaway farm, which, by the way,
you know if I do an event there, don't do
it if you're anywhere near their good Johnny Cash's Hideaway
Farmers a freaking amazing.

Speaker 3 (23:58):
It's bon Aqua outside of Nashville.

Speaker 1 (24:01):
It's actually it is in the middle of It's in
the middle of nowhere. It's not even like bon Aqua
is here. It's up the hill in a field where
you cannot find it. If they didn't have signs saying
this way, there is actually no way on earth you
could physically possibly find this place.

Speaker 3 (24:16):
You could not.

Speaker 1 (24:17):
I think we thank god they do have signs. But
like and we had to turn around. We missed the
We we actually almost couldn't find it. But that's the thing,
I mean, obvious when they do events and put a
huge honk in things. But that's why Johnny Cash liked it,
because he He's like, I.

Speaker 2 (24:32):
Need a place where I can't be found.

Speaker 1 (24:33):
We're like, yeah, this would pretty much do it.

Speaker 3 (24:37):
We got to go inside. We saw the bedroom Johnny
and June's bedroom and where he would sit and play
the piano and sit on the porch and write songs
and basically hide out from the world. I just think
that is such a special place.

Speaker 2 (24:50):
It was really cool.

Speaker 1 (24:51):
I hope that indeed we do wind up there because
I want to go. Let's do it so too cool.

Speaker 3 (24:57):
It's too cool. And you've got all this great stage.
It's a great event space, four stages.

Speaker 1 (25:02):
Or something, including the storyte now and that's right. The
addition Joy is a place called Storytellers, which apparently used
to be a supermarket, didn't it say, like doctor Pepper
on the side and everything.

Speaker 3 (25:12):
It was abandoned for twenty years and had.

Speaker 1 (25:15):
Trink an ancient abandoned supermarket. And now it's this like
concert space with this huge room and full sound and
then there's like.

Speaker 2 (25:22):
A stage outside in case you need to yet another stage.

Speaker 3 (25:26):
Right right, They tore it down to the studs and
just built this incredible space.

Speaker 1 (25:31):
They spend this an elevator and so yeah, so we saw,
we saw this, and of course I'm good. We can
put this here. And then oh yes, and if you didn't,
then we'll have this over here.

Speaker 2 (25:39):
I'm like plotting the whole thing, like all in there.
It's like, yeah, we're doing this, like, oh, it's called Storytellers. Oh, hint, hint.
So while I'm hanging out with Laura, she says, so
I got a new song.

Speaker 1 (25:50):
We had a new song, and she's introducing me all
her friends and her friend was having a birthday.

Speaker 2 (25:54):
We go to this this other gorgeous house in Nashville
and hanging out.

Speaker 1 (25:57):
Pam. She you, she's playing me a thing on her
phone and I like this song. And then she's like, well,
I'm here with my friends and we're all gonna sing,
and she's singing it with her friend. But it's just
like people hang out piano, and then we're really on
the way to the airport or something. When you finally
said I've got the mix.

Speaker 2 (26:12):
Now I can play the actual thing I said.

Speaker 3 (26:15):
I said, I actually had the recording. You want to
hear it?

Speaker 1 (26:19):
Yeah, we're just in the car. It's like I'm always done,
Like what are the airports? It's like, wait, hang on,
boop this song I tried to did We tried to
name your band at the party. I tried to name
your band.

Speaker 2 (26:31):
We didn't work out.

Speaker 1 (26:32):
We were close, but somebody else had the name. We're
coming up with names, so I don't know anyone watching today.
If you think you have a good name for her
new band, we're taking applications. I think we need to
play this song. Tell me why you wrote this song?
Or should we tell you why you wrote the song? After?
If they listened to it, what do you think?

Speaker 3 (26:51):
Uh? You know what I will say. I'll say a
little bit before and a little bit after. I was
asked to participate in Tennessee Songwriters Week, which is a
big deal here in Tennessee. It's a big competition and
the idea is to bring in songwriters who are lesser
known to get on these big stages and compete. And
I a friend of mine asked me if I would

(27:14):
mind competing in her in an event that she was sponsoring.
In Centreville. And of course, because I never say no,
I always say yes. Sure, I got to write something.
So I sat down at the piano and I started
exploring an idea that I had come up with right
after Christmas. So this is that song.

Speaker 1 (27:35):
Okay, and we have the actual new track now that
we can play.

Speaker 2 (27:41):
Oh as we say, Tony, can we hit it?

Speaker 1 (27:43):
It's a tour.

Speaker 4 (28:06):
Screened in porch and bourbon soaked memories, words fly, another
night down, laid rise, a black cup of coffee. Why
am I still hanging around?

Speaker 5 (28:28):
I lost the thread?

Speaker 4 (28:30):
What are you talking about?

Speaker 5 (28:35):
It seems you lost it too, Aren't you tired of
all this knocking about?

Speaker 3 (28:48):
Wishing lines were true?

Speaker 2 (28:53):
It took a long time to get here.

Speaker 3 (28:59):
Then it's a lot from home.

Speaker 6 (29:06):
You wear your pain like a hell be trying to
eat in story. Tell her you're all alone.

Speaker 7 (29:19):
Love, Love, I'd take all the scars and I'd burn
them to help you wipe this lake clean. Old memories

(29:42):
poison your sweetness and whiskey made your heart beat. All
this blame You're still throwing around every fe and you
chased away one more drink, so easy to drive.

Speaker 5 (30:11):
The bitter tales of yesterday it took.

Speaker 8 (30:17):
A long time to get here, and it's a long way,
and you well your pain like a hell bound training
story teller.

Speaker 3 (30:38):
There you go, story teller.

Speaker 1 (30:44):
You're all a long.

Speaker 5 (31:38):
Well.

Speaker 1 (31:39):
Our our invisible studio audience, of course loved it. But wow,
as I said, when I heard it, oh my god.

Speaker 9 (31:47):
Yeah, yeah, I'm curious what people think it's about because
I heard it and I had a completely different interpretation
than what I had in mind when I wrote it. Interesting, yes, yes,
a completely different interpret which is great.

Speaker 3 (32:05):
I mean, I love that it is open to interpretation.

Speaker 1 (32:09):
I love that when this There are songs where people
go I totally know what the song means, and it's
like really because everybody else said it was something else.
It's yeah. When people may make it about themselves, yes exactly,
but you want them, yes, to do that song.

Speaker 3 (32:26):
I want it to resonate. I mean, when you hear it,
does it seem like a sad song to you or
a hopeful song or.

Speaker 1 (32:35):
It sounds very sad, but like someone who's finally made
a resolution, and it's just like, Okay, that's it, that's it. Yeah.
I really tried.

Speaker 2 (32:45):
I'm moving on. Sorry, so moving on.

Speaker 1 (32:49):
Really tried really tried. Feel bad for you, but wow,
I'm done. That was what I got.

Speaker 3 (33:01):
That's a really good interpretation, and that actually is actually true.
That is a difference. That's not quite what, but it
is the other side of the same coin absolutely.

Speaker 1 (33:12):
Because it's whatever this horrendously troubled person with alcoholic is
going through. The person is like a no loved you
really tried. Yeah, yeah, gave him my all really but yeah,
totally had potential work. But wow, I actually did try everything,
and that's not gonna do anything. So I'm gonna let
you do your thing and I'll be over here because sorry, Yeah,

(33:39):
you kind.

Speaker 3 (33:39):
Of nailed it. You kind of nailed it to me.
It's about somebody who has cut himself off from reality
through all the bridges and telling himself stories about himself
and his past and pushing people away. And you know,
the more you drink, the more you believe your stories,
the more real they become. And then pretty soon the

(34:01):
guy is just in a fog and it's he's sort
of like that train going over the hill and he
comes up over the hill and then he leaves and
it's like, bye, I tried, I can't reach you anymore.

Speaker 2 (34:13):
Yeah, you're gone.

Speaker 1 (34:14):
You're out to reach and storyteller because often creative people
who fall into drugs and alcohol, that starts to oh, storyteller,
they're so creative.

Speaker 2 (34:23):
Oh he has such amusing.

Speaker 1 (34:25):
Stories that he tells. And then eventually it progresses or
you know, evolves, and it's like, wow, yeah, that's it's
no longer interesting stories. It's now just whatever his brain can. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (34:37):
And they're self pitying stories, yes, yes, oof yeah, and
blaming other people for everything that's wrong in their lives
and not being not looking in the mirror, not seeing
anything in the mirror. And that's that like every friend
you pushed away. It's just like you know, and the.

Speaker 1 (34:57):
Sense of if I could, like if I could, if
I don't make you happy, I would do it.

Speaker 2 (35:04):
But and I've.

Speaker 3 (35:05):
Tried for years years, you know, can't you can't. You know,
they're on their own. They're on their own, on their
own trajectory.

Speaker 1 (35:16):
So and I think that's going to resonate with a
lot of people.

Speaker 3 (35:19):
I think so, I think so.

Speaker 1 (35:22):
So do you find in writing songs that do most
of them have a personal basis and then take off,
as I said, into something If he said it could
be interpreted a thousand ways.

Speaker 3 (35:33):
I will say that this was very personal. It's about
somebody in my life, and this was this is pretty
specific down to the last.

Speaker 1 (35:43):
Word, wow wow wow.

Speaker 3 (35:45):
And I mean sometimes, you know, three miles from Christmas Eve,
which was the Christmas song I wrote that started off
as a little kernel and it kind of went into
all these other areas and it was great, and you know,
it became something else. This one is very very personal,
and it's.

Speaker 1 (36:00):
Also I think that's why it works. I think that's
why it works.

Speaker 3 (36:04):
And it's the first song that I have completely written
by myself with no collaborators. I wrote the lyrics, I
wrote the music. I sat down at the piano, the melody, everything.
I then took it to Stefan Oberhoff, who is an
incredible producer and arranger, and he just elevated it to
this cinematic, you know landscape with the dobro and the organ,

(36:27):
the pump organ at the beginning and everything in the
acoustic guitar. He just brought it to a whole new level.
And I could it wouldn't have without him. It wouldn't
have sounded like it sounds. You heard it when I
did it at the birthday party, right.

Speaker 1 (36:45):
I heard it at the birthday party where it's just
a piano and people just kind of with, you know,
and many of whom had had several drinks trying to
make it work, and that was just like, hey, let's
see a bunch of stuff at the piano randomly, and
then the one but then the track I heard in
the car going to the airport. It's like, Okay, now
this is a whole other thing. But see, I think
that the specific words, I think it's how I say,

(37:06):
like the specific, it actually is the universal, which sounds cuckoo.
But with stories, with songs, with movies, tv shows, when
you hear like the origin stories of so many movies
and TV shows and books and everything, and they're ones
that were like everybody decided it was about them or

(37:27):
their life or their thing. And the first one was
like no, it was literally this one day and this
one thing. It's like insanely specific, yeah, and that's why
it was real.

Speaker 3 (37:37):
In specificity is what is what makes things relatable. And
that's true in writing, it is true in acting, it's
true in all the arts. The more specific, the more
clear you are about your vision and what it is
that you're writing about, I think the more resonant it is,
and I think the more meaningful it is, and the
more truthful it is. It's the truth, right, writing the truth.

Speaker 1 (37:58):
But and then that's because when I think about things
like the Honeymooner, supposedly it was you know, it was
like in Jackie Gleaze in his parents kitchen. It was
like there were things that were There's tons of movies
and TV and books where it's literally the person was
writing about something was so incredibly insanely specific to their
life that it was like, how is anybody else going
to get that? And everybody went, oh, well, of course

(38:19):
we all recognize this, Neil, you do, because that's the specific,
is the universal, that's that makes it real.

Speaker 3 (38:27):
Yeah. Yeah, it makes it easier to write if you
can find that one thing that the specific thing, the
little just a little tiny story that had it has
a truth in it that that means something to you
and it's personal and meaningful. It's it writes itself. You know.
That song came together really quickly. I mean like I

(38:47):
tweet it, you know, for a couple of weeks or
a month, I would go back and change a couple
of words that it was fully formed pretty soon, pretty quickly.

Speaker 1 (38:58):
I love those ideas. They come like and I'm such.

Speaker 3 (39:01):
An insane person. I actually managed to get up on
stage at the Franklin Theater in Franklin, this legendary stage
where every you know, legendary people have stood on that stage,
and I played the piano and sang it with my
friend John Rizzo on bass, and I had never done
that before. I've sung a million places. I've sung in Russia,

(39:24):
I've sung in Ireland, I've sung all over the world.
But I've never accompanied myself on an instrument that is
a completely different animal, completely different animal. It's like, oh god,
I really I can't miss a note, I can't mess up.
And I got through it. I got through it. It
wasn't perfect, but I got through it. And I'm so
proud that.

Speaker 1 (39:43):
And something so personal, because I mean, obviously, having seen
you eight million times on stage, often you're saying you're
singing other peoples songs using Patty Kline, you sing jazz,
you sing standards, you sing all this. But to then
sing something as you said, you wrote all by yourself,
that's insanely personal.

Speaker 2 (39:57):
Went guy, yikes.

Speaker 3 (39:59):
You play it in the planet and people are listening. Yes,
this is insane, it's just but it was the next
logical step of where to go in this nutty life
I've created. I have to do it. Where else am
I going to do? I've sung every jazz standard in
the book. I don't want to keep doing that. You know,

(40:19):
I've sung every Patsy kleinb book. There is every song
there is. I need to, you know, write my own stuff.
And I'm I think I'm pretty encouraged, pretty encouraged.

Speaker 2 (40:31):
You've kind of created. You're like, this is the thing.

Speaker 1 (40:34):
And then like you know, you say, like, oh, because
I pivoted, but I was stuck in the house and
I was like maybe started reading the Little House books
and the rest is history.

Speaker 2 (40:41):
But yeah, you've done that, You've created this stuff.

Speaker 1 (40:45):
I mean, we talked about how the world we're in now, artists,
you can't just like wait for the age of the
manager to go here because this doesn't exist anymore and
we're all creating to You've created this whole life. Well,
like you said, well, I guess I'll learned ice Kate,
Well it guess to go. I guess I'll sing and
now I will write songs and I will. You saw

(41:05):
it and then you do whatever you have to do
to do it and make it happen. But you're creating
all this. No one's coming to your house and like
making you do this.

Speaker 3 (41:13):
Oh, no one's making me do it. We I mean,
I can't believe at my age, I'm still doing these things.
It's it's nuts. But what us? What else are you
gonna do? I don't have children, I don't have grant,
I'll never have grandchildren. So this is my life. This
is what I need to do. I need to make
something of it. And I'm having a ball. I mean,

(41:34):
it's it's hard, but it's important. It's really just like
what you do. Just like what you do.

Speaker 2 (41:42):
You have to you've got to do something.

Speaker 1 (41:44):
You have to make something out of what you've got,
and you know.

Speaker 3 (41:49):
Yes, and it's it's pretty unique. And you know, not
a lot of people do what you do, and a
lot of a lot of people do what I do.

Speaker 1 (41:56):
I don't know a lot of people sing or ice skating.
I don't think anybody's doing you do.

Speaker 3 (42:04):
I haven't met many. There are a couple.

Speaker 1 (42:07):
The question I get asked a lot I was as
what advice do you give for people who are you
When you talk about making the world a better place,
You're creating your own life, creating your own career. You've
created You've created an entire world down there in Nashville.
I witnessed it. You've created this whole life. What sort
of tips, hot tips, tacks, advice do you have for

(42:27):
people who need to like just go create like a
whole other life.

Speaker 3 (42:30):
Oh gosh, Just find something you love, something that makes
you happy, something that makes you want to get out
of bed in the morning, and then figure out how
to share that with people, you know, just share. People
are dying to be inspired, especially it's been a few
hard few years, you know, since twenty twenty and and
I think people want to be inspired. And I lost,

(42:55):
you know, my dad, I lost my home, I lost la,
I lost my friends, my uh my marriage really suffered
because of all of this. I mean, I had to
really really reinvent my life. And I started off just
what do I enjoy doing? What can I share? What
can I give people? And even with skating, like with

(43:18):
all the bad stuff that I've done in my life,
and I'm sure I've done a lot of really bad things,
I feel like.

Speaker 1 (43:23):
I have.

Speaker 3 (43:25):
Put so much, but I've put so much karma back
into the well. I have done so much more good
in the last five years that I hopefully I'm not.
I used to be really, really selfish. I just it
was all about me. Me mean, acting and acting and

(43:46):
all the things that you know which you must do
as an actor in LA I mean, it's all about you.
And now it's it's all about me. It's all about
eighteen other families and their kids and the people I
teach and the lessons I'm trying to show them and
how to be better people and sportsmen and good sports.
You know. I have a girl that I've been teaching

(44:07):
and she's been having a rough way to go with
competing and socially just trying to come into her own
and I have seen her absolutely blossom in the six
months that I've been working with her, and that to
me just means so much that I changed this girl's life.

Speaker 1 (44:27):
Well, I skating super competitive, but she is like, yeah,
I mean.

Speaker 2 (44:32):
Johnny Hardy competitive much. It's kind of competitive exactly.

Speaker 3 (44:36):
She loves though, and she's a good competitor who knew,
you know, just to be able to help people and
change a life, a little bit and it's so rewarding.
So I guess I don't know if that's good advice,
but I guess just find something that that you love
that you can share. I mean, it comes back twelvefold.

Speaker 1 (44:54):
It just yeah, Now, where do they find this song?
You sent me link and everything? I saw that, But
tell people what if they go, wait, but that's what
I wanted. I wish to download it. I wished to
purchase it. I want to have it and listen to
it called Storyteller.

Speaker 3 (45:09):
It is on Apple Music, Spotify. It is on my website.
I'm going to have that up tomorrow. It will be
on my website.

Speaker 1 (45:17):
And your website is easy to find because it.

Speaker 3 (45:20):
Apercell dot com, l A U R A p U
r s E l L dot com. But right now
you can stream it, you can purchase it online. You
can download a copy on all platforms. Yes, as of
right now.

Speaker 1 (45:36):
Amazing. It's just so crazy.

Speaker 2 (45:38):
And love your hair. We're laughing about this because we
got our hair done together.

Speaker 1 (45:43):
I just totally you know me and the roots, you know,
and I needed to cut and I called around my friend,
the fabulous Veronica Electronica said, was who was opening for me?

Speaker 2 (45:53):
And Louisville.

Speaker 1 (45:53):
Naschel said, well, you know you didn't call my friend,
you know, Shane here, And next thing you know, we're
at this fabulous woman house. That was like out of
a movie, out of a dream, like did that really happen?
Because she made us breakfast, she served the cakes. It
was I said, it was like Hitchhiker's Guide to the
Galaxy with the tea party. It was just like, what
has even happening? And look at our hair?

Speaker 3 (46:13):
Great? She was so sweet, She was so sweet and
so good, and I just that was a very very
special morning.

Speaker 2 (46:22):
We just we just day.

Speaker 1 (46:23):
It was amazing, and we hung out. We did so
many things where and you know, we had my my
makeup party in your living room and call.

Speaker 3 (46:32):
Man, I'm wearing your makeup?

Speaker 1 (46:34):
Are you wearing are you wearing bonnet head beauty? Makeup?

Speaker 3 (46:39):
Beauty?

Speaker 1 (46:40):
You look gray? You look right. I mean it's just
zoom here, but you look great enough. Your lighting is
particularly fabulous.

Speaker 3 (46:45):
But she has the naughty palette and the nice palette.
This is the nice palette. I'm wearing them.

Speaker 1 (46:51):
Of course you would be wearing the nice.

Speaker 3 (46:54):
The naughty palette is for nighttime.

Speaker 2 (46:56):
So what's the band?

Speaker 1 (46:57):
Because you're with the guy where this thing story or
there's this guy you were playing with and you said,
you're trying to like start a band, like it needs
a name. We're trying to name the band. Is it
a band? Are you going to be touring? What are
you going to do with it?

Speaker 3 (47:09):
Do you even talk about the name? You came up
with it? Now we cannot use yeah.

Speaker 1 (47:14):
As long as no, because anyways, like ah, some of
the band's got it a heck with them, Okay, but
we come up with something else. I'll work on it.
We'll come up with what you think if there was
a band playing that song you just heard, what should
they be called? That's that's my question of the day.
What do you think that should be called? Who sang
that song? Storyteller? And so the band? Is it just
two of you? Or if you're you've got a group

(47:35):
group or what are you doing?

Speaker 3 (47:36):
Well, I've performed in multiple settings, but ideally this would
be guitar upright, bass doughbro h and a keyboard and
some percussion. Got to have some percussion, so yeah. Still
I work with a lot of different people, so I
don't have a specific band together at.

Speaker 2 (47:55):
The moment, but I have Is this going to turn
into an album?

Speaker 1 (47:57):
Is it going to turn into an albums a song
like a whole album.

Speaker 3 (48:02):
I have another song that I wrote that I have
not yet now. It's called stop my Heart. It's being
mixed right now. So that's the next one. And I'm
gonna have a whole album of original songs. Yes. And
I have opportunities now to perform these things at house parties.
I'm doing a show on Friday at a little place

(48:23):
called Faker's Theater. I'm doing another house party on Saturday.
I'm doing a performance in July at the Nashville Jazz Workshop.
There are a lot of opportunities here for musicians, lots
of places to play.

Speaker 1 (48:34):
And these are things that came to me.

Speaker 3 (48:36):
I haven't really started knocking on doors asking for gigs yet,
so I mean you just.

Speaker 1 (48:42):
People just heard it.

Speaker 3 (48:43):
Now.

Speaker 1 (48:43):
This was the official, international, worldwide official release of the song,
and you got a second one in the pipeline.

Speaker 3 (48:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (48:51):
I want to I want to go me. I'm like,
I want an album, I want the tour, I want everything.
I want this doll to be a thing.

Speaker 3 (48:57):
We're working on the video too. The video is in
Can you make a video for this, so you know,
just keep going. This is this is the new path.
You know, it's the new path.

Speaker 1 (49:08):
This is the create, create your own reality, create your
own career, create your own life school.

Speaker 3 (49:15):
I think is going to be a pretty good year
for create creativity.

Speaker 2 (49:20):
I think it is.

Speaker 1 (49:21):
I think it is all right. Well, you're amazing and
as always, this is why we like the Allison Ingram
Show because we have fun keeping like you and this
is like great and you know this is We're live
and I'll probably like rerun this because I'm going to
be out of town, so you know, I'll park the
let's rerun this one and can and so yeah, so
we'll just inundate them with you. You'll just be all

(49:42):
over You'll just saturate the airways with this whole thing.

Speaker 3 (49:46):
Share it with my friend. So please give me.

Speaker 1 (49:49):
Yes, yes, and you Chad, So thank you, thank you
as always for coming on, and thank you all for
tuning in because this is the Alison Ingram Show and
I'm Alison Ingram.

Speaker 8 (49:59):
Yes up from We Love cost Bloss