016: Wade Bowen

Episode 016 is with Wade Bowen. Before his soldout Blue Light Street Show, we talk about up-and-coming days in Lubbock and West Texas, collaborating with longtime friend and contemporary Randy Rogers, and what's coming next for the Texas songwriter.

Interview Transcript

Note: Transcripts aren’t always accurate since they are computer automated and haven’t been edited for spelling, grammar, etc.

Thomas Mooney 0:09

Hey, welcome to Episode 16 of the new slang podcast. I'm Thomas Mooney, the editor of new slang. And this week we went ahead and bumped up this podcast because we did it just like three days ago. It's with Wade Bowen. We felt like it was super relevant. So yeah, I decided to let's go ahead and throw that out now and not wait like three weeks or something. On this episode, you know, we talked about I guess Wade's history with the blue light. And you know, his time here in Lubbock. And you know, what he has coming up on the horizons with his often collaborator, Randy Rogers, and of course, we also talked about, I don't know if I would necessarily call it a dust up but is a mini beef with with a with what Granger Smith said about the whole minor leagues thing. That's at the end of the podcast. So he's got some really interesting things to say on it. Yeah, he was wearing a Midland rockhounds hat while we're doing the podcast, which of course is a minor league team. I think he says that all the podcasts, actually. But yeah. I guess I should also mention real quick that flatland Calvary, they're going to be doing a back to back night at the blue light here in September. I think it's September 8, and ninth. That first date is Thursday. It's gonna be with fort Cartwright. And then that Friday is gonna be with Caitlin butts. So yeah, I'm pretty sure tickets are going to be going on sale pretty soon. But also, we're going to be giving away a pair of tickets, at least at least one pair. That's good for both nights. For more information on that, you know, just follow us on Facebook and Twitter and stuff like that. Just search for new slang. On Twitter. It's at New slang underscore lbk. So yeah, let's go ahead and just get on to this interview with Wade. Technical term. Yeah. All right. Well, yeah, I really don't do any intros or anything. We just start talking. How's it going, man? Good, man. Good. How are you? Oh, bad. Just a Saturday night on a blue light.

Wade Bowen 2:31

Yeah, man. It's awesome minute. Yeah. I don't get to hang out here much anymore. And so it's, it's so awesome to step. Step foot back in this place, man. Lots of memories. Yeah, that's a great time.

Yeah, I actually brought a poster, that 15 year anniversary poster, because I want you to get it. I want you to sign it. Yeah. Yeah. You know, so I guess that's been like three years ago? At least two or three years? Yeah. Three years ago. Yeah. Yeah. What's, uh, what was that first time you played here? You remember? The first the first

time I played here, actually. So my first gig in Lubbock was actually at Stubbs which is a couple of blocks over Yeah, the old building. And it was for an open mic night. And we were the only band that showed up. So we had like five songs we knew and we had to play them over and over. But we played there, and then they shut, they shut stuff down shortly after that. That was October of 98. And they shut stuff down in like march of 99. So yeah, it was really sad to lose such a historic venue for Lubbock. When everybody played there, it was really cool for us to start off there, you know. And then a lot of the bartenders that work there, Drew brown being one of them, came over here to work when they opened this place. They opened up this place in February of 99. And so they called us and said, Hey, we heard you guys. Our new band heard you have a decent following. We got gigs in Lubbock early because we had a lot of friends that came out wouldn't because we were good. We were terrible. Yeah, but we had a lot of friends that came out so they liked us because we packed the bars and that time at the blue light they were trying to do. Eric Cole SAR was the manager. And he was trying to do like Thursday night, country night, Friday night. Rock night and Saturday night, piano night or something I don't know, sometimes up to you know, like a variety. Yeah, so we played here on a Thursday night, and it was literally one table in the back by the window back here. Was it the whole night that showed up because nobody knew about the blue light. So none of our friends knew to show up. And literally we played for probably about seven people. And it was right when they first opened to So literally, we grew with this place, vice versa, you know, like, we carry We got to cut our teeth here and they got to learn the bar business through us as well. So I have a lot of memories here man. I mean, I ran sound for ragweed. Yeah, back before the blue light had sound we had to run our own sound and some have I even came up here and ran sound for ragweed one night and I was always up here that mean this place introduced me to a lot of my buddies now Cody, Canada and Boland and cooter gras and all those guys you know Roger Krieger all those guys I met here playing the blue light jacking room. Chris Knight.

Yeah, I think one of the most underrated aspects of the blue light has always been that there's not really a green room like there's like a green little hallway maybe right there. Yeah, so like you can it honestly like pushes the bands kind of to mingle with people? And of course, like, you know, you can meet people here. It feels like you're there. Everyone's just a little bit more interactive in a way Yeah,

because you can't get away from Yeah, yeah, yeah, I can see it but I when I when I was first starting out I that's all I did was mingle. I was trying to mingle with everybody because we were just trying to beg people to come out Yeah, but it is nice. I mean, of course you know a lot along with you know, hanging out at this bar a lot. I got to open up for some some great people here too. And it was a lot of fun for me, acoustic and, and full band to just get those experiences in. No small venue, learn how to work a crowd. Learn how to make a setlist learn how to make a show. And this place did it all for me, man. I mean, I have everything to this place.

Yeah. What's, uh, what's loving? Like, what, what's the difference between loving now and then like, when you come back? You know, what just

feels it feels a lot bigger. Number one, number two, I feel old. For like the old guy. And there's nights when I I literally still worry if people are gonna show up because I'm the old guy, you know, but but the kids come out. I still support us. And you know, I've always waved a loving manner very proudly. So it's, I hope that the kids here know that. I think this this music scene has always been cool. When I was when I was at school here. I would go to open mic nights I'd go to jam nights. I'd go watch john Sprott and Shawn Frank Hauser. Actually, I live next door to Shawn Frank Azur for like a year Really? Yeah. plain brown wrapper. You know, we go watch those guys. And it was a lot of fun. It was a very underground music scene, but a very well crafted and underground music scene for kids like us to if you were smart enough to go pick their brains and, you know, learn from him. It was a it was it was a really good underground music scene that that I don't think a whole lot of people knew about or really know about at the time. There's a lot of great musicians in Lubbock. Unfortunate, you know, we found that out too. You build up something here. You build up a name in Lubbock, and doesn't really matter anywhere else, because you're so far away from everywhere. Yeah, you can go to Amarillo, and Midland and San Angelo. And that's about it.

Yeah. One of one of the guys over here at 22 Gallery, Larry Simmons, get a Facebook post the other day about how you know, basically, any place in Lubbock, you can just, if someone's not familiar with you just go like, Oh, it's the old blah, blah, blah build. Exactly. And, you know, I think like, we all kind of have that. Where we look in the rearview mirror, so to speak, and we only see like four or five years back. And it can be hard to you know, realize that there's there's guys who were here in the early 2000s. Late 90s. Yeah. Mid 90s. And they're, you know, they're still here. They're still working.

Yeah. Still working. I saw john sprats name. Sure. mu j over there a while ago, and I was eating. Yeah, so cool to see that he's still still doing great. I never really became great friends with john. But I watched him play all the time, you know. And he was always one of my favorites just to go sit and listen to him play all those amazing songs. He's just endless, endless catalogue of music. It's crazy.

Yeah. One of my buddies, Brandon Adams, who were talking about this the other day. He said that, in a way like those mid 90s to early 2000s guys are in the same spot that, you know, like new bands like flatland are in because they they're both coming up. Like they're both learning how to make CDs at the same time. And a lot of ways like those. I guess like that last generation, they they're like a step behind because they weren't able to figure out how to get out on the road, so to speak. Yeah, you know,

or they just, you know, maybe had chances and didn't want to you know, I can't imagine the talent level that those guys had that didn't get opportunities and maybe they chose to just stay here. Yeah, you know, at the Sprott. Those guys, frat guys who guys played seven nights a week, you know, crazy. Yeah. You know, it always blew my mind that they never got out more. Yeah, it was it was a, it was a weird time. I remember that time in the late 90s. When we were really trying to figure out how to make a CD. How do you get that done, you know, and at that time, I still had the inkling that like, the thought process was that I thought I still thought I might have to move to Nashville to make it, you know, to make it big to do it. You know, the age old story of going out there waiting tables, and waiting Your turn until something happened, you could get that big record deal and like you see him on the movies and your career take off right and, and then I saw Robert Earl keen play here my freshman year. And I'd listened to Robert stuff, but never seen him live. And when I saw him live, I was I was either 18 or 19. I was a freshman here, and it changed my life. It changed my life forever. I remember going wow. You don't have to move. I don't have to go to Nashville. I can start a band here and try to do that. You know, and we started a band me and somebody started a band and pretty much we're Robert rockin cover band for a long time. Yeah, because of that show. At that time, it was called I think it was called the library. Still, there now it's it's still the library, but it's a library. Yeah. But it was called something else back then. I don't remember.

I always find that interesting. The the moment whenever you realize there's middle ground between, you know, being just not putting out a record and being George Strait, that middle ground of like, Oh, you can be there's millions of musicians and bands who aren't, you know, selling out arenas. Right, you can find yourself somewhere in the middle ground. I

always especially nowadays. Yeah, I mean, nowadays more than ever, you can, you can make a living off the middle ground if you want to, you know, because it's so different from when I first started. And even when I first started there was there weren't. I don't think people realize that there weren't a whole lot of places like the blue light that gave people opportunities to play original music. There just wasn't. And I'm not talking about luck. I'm talking about everywhere, everywhere. When we first started it was it was like unheard of. And now every other block has a place where people are playing their own music and Texas and there wasn't like that man, it took a long time to get to that point. And it took a lot of people taking risks on bands like us, putting those putting them in their bars when they weren't allowed music venue and then they took chances on us and minute it really was a really cool process to watch, you know, Pat take off and ragweed and Cory Morrow, you know, was so big back then. Like he was such a great part of that process. I love what he did. And then bowl and all those guys, you know, they everything just kind of slowly took off. And it was really fun to to be a younger part of that. And watch watch it happen, you know to watch from first time I saw Cody ragweed, I came up here because Eric co star said he was a manager at the blue light. He said you need to come see this band. And so I took a break from studying or something and I came up here. And it was like a Wednesday night or something Thursday night. And Cody was wearing a big old like a now I guess you could say as I used to say like a Charlie Daniels feather hat cowboy. You know now more like a Chris Stapleton hat. Yeah, that's referred to it as that, but that's what he was wearing. And he was playing like, demanded, taking a break. And he was playing Amarillo by morning on the electric guitar just him on his guitar. You know, that's my first glimpse of Cody. And now he's my brother in law and one of my dearest friends in the universe. So it's funny how. Yeah, it's funny how, how much has changed in those years?

Where was that? Like your first record recorded? Did you have did you have to go outside of Lubbock and

my first record was done in Austin. Yeah, it was called Austin to Boston studios. And we had no clue what we were doing. The record is no longer available. Thank God. And we just went in with some buddies and our band went in and it was just a huge, huge learning curve as to the point that Oh my God, we probably should not be in the studio right now. Yeah, doing this course at the time. We're thinking we're rock star. We're finally doing it making a CD. But yeah, it was a big deal back then to have a CD, you know, not everybody had on like to do now that we did it and got it out. And I was back actually when CDs sold out, you know, it was was different. But I'm glad it's not available for the public and how many copies were made? You know, I don't even know probably 5000

really, maybe see me. I always like to go like on Amazon. And like search for like those records that aren't in print anymore. I have people

that say, Why do you? Why do you get rid of that? Like, why do you lose a part of your catalog catalog? Why do you not want that? And the reason is, because I have everything else I've left up. But the reason I didn't want that one is because I feel like if people become fans of my stuff now and they're a new fan, like I do, I go back and check out everybody's previous stuff and their whole entire catalog. And I did not want people to spend their money on that and waste their money. And yeah, I felt like it was it was wrong, because it was so bad.

Thomas Mooney 16:09

Yeah. Something I really honestly thought about that part. Because like, some people, I've always thought of the the side of just like being embarrassed but but, you know, in a way you're just saving people money.

Wade Bowen 16:22

Yeah, I'm embarrassed because I don't want them spend their money because it was terrible. I sound like I sound like a chipmunk you know, sound like a little kid. And it's definitely I just wanted out of my out of out of my out of my life.

Yeah. It's funny, though, like, you can find some of those CDs on Amazon selling for 50 bucks. Yeah, 100 bucks. I was talking with Ryan Bingham about that. But like, you know, he has three or four records that were just before mescaline, that were just never really fine. And you can find them on Amazon for like $100. And he was saying how he couldn't give them away for five bucks at the time. And, you know,

I remember those records Ryan Ryan play opened up for us a lot of shows when he first started. And I remember really loving his stuff and really thinking man, if he just could find the right producer and get in the right moment. It could really take off a little bit and I don't know that was gonna be t bone. Yeah, but, man, yeah, he we have a lot of good experience together with Ron. I don't see him much anymore. But back in the early days, when he first started, I really believed in what he was doing. Really. I mean, obviously back then you knew from the get go that this kid was not following anybody's rhythm but his own. You know, he's, he's, he was doing his own thing from the get go. And it was really fun. We actually, I got kicked out of the only time I've ever gotten kicked off stage was at blocos in Houston, Texas. And I have no clue why they kicked us off stage. They didn't like us. They thought we were on drugs or something. And I was like, Man, I've never done drugs in my life. Yeah, no. And Ryan Bingham opened up the show and he was standing up for his man. He was chewing those people's saying is wrong. We're nice guys. What's wrong with y'all? And it's so funny to look back on that man. But I remember the owner walking up, go Yo, you're done. Like we're not done. You want to get paid. You're done ago. Yes, sir. We'll pick up our stuff, right? Yeah.

Yeah, that's a only time.

Only time I've ever gotten kicked off stage. I'm not a troublemaker, man. Yeah, so I don't know why we even got kicked off stage. I shouldn't even be on my record when you weren't even doing anything. But safe to say we never played Broncos in Houston, Texas.

Well, I'm guessing this before. Phone era of Oh, yeah. Oh, boarding. So you may have been Johnny Cash and get up there. smashing lights. And

I just know, we were really tired. We played the wormy dog and still water the night before for a St. Patty's Day party. And we drove in a pickup truck, pulling a trailer all the way to Houston. Yeah, the next day, and we had to play the Broncos, we had to set up our own sound, run our own sound and play like three or 445 minute sets. It's one of those gigs you know, we were just exhausted man. I was like Stillwater to Houston is

it's a whole long ass drive. Yeah. So who cares? Yeah. That's to me. I think like the craziest part of you talking on any of this is like that. You guys all had to run your own sound. Yeah, I don't really think there's many. Obviously, you're not running set your own sound now. In the same way. Yeah. And

I I felt like it was smart because I got gigs because I had a PA. Yeah. And there's people literally that booked me because we had sound system and I didn't have to worry about it. So we got real lucky there was a chance I took, you know, borrowing some money and paying it off and hoping that it was right and we ran RPA before because like, like I said, those venues that didn't have pa ye and they started booking bands, but they didn't know what they were doing either. So they didn't know you had to have sound. Go with it. So we got gigs, because I had a PA, so, yeah, helped me a lot, especially back then, because we were terrible. So it helped. Get me proficiencies and I should have gotten the

push to be in.

can imagine running around town now. Yeah, there's a lot of work loading and unloading out every night, man. Well,

I mean, I'm this little board I have here. It's, I don't know, you know what the hell I'm doing? I can't imagine.

Yes, it wasn't fun, man. But back then. I mean, it's just different. I look back on it all and go, man, I don't think I could start over. I don't have that. That drive anymore, you know, to go through all that I did. But back then, man. It didn't faze me one bit. I drove all over. I'd be at my apartment in Austin. After I graduated from Lubbock, I paid for a place in Austin, but I was there maybe four or five days a month, you know, just not to play like Stillwater on a Saturday night and stay at the bar owners house with he and his wife. And just so I could play money, not acoustic for 100 bucks. You know, like, I did that kind of stuff all the time and didn't faze me one bit to drive all over god's green earth for 50 bucks, 100 bucks just to get my name out there and do it, you know. And yeah. And I loved it. I mean, I was obsessed with it. And then I when I graduated from Lubbock, I was living in Austin. My band was all still here. So I was pulling the trailer just me and myself driving all over meeting them. So they could take turns driving. I had to drive everywhere myself for a man. About two years.

Thomas Mooney 21:50

What was the everyone has that like long drive? What's that? What's like the longest drive from for a gig? Yeah. Between two sometimes

Wade Bowen 21:59

one time I was in Nashville writing and working on some stuff. And I had to put out a drive to Stillwater. And I left late. I can't remember why but I was scared to death and I was like speeding crazy, like hitting the governor on my on my car. Yeah, hallway. They're freaking out. I remember slot we were opening up for ragweed at the wormy dog on the one year anniversary of September 11. And I was late. Yeah. I mean, it's like, don't be late for that gig, Wade. You know, yeah, I was running late. I slid in there sideways and like, Ace Ventura style, ran and jumped up on stage literally ran up the stairs and jumped on stage. Wow. Right when I got there.

Yeah. What are those those uh, ragweed shows like back in the day, like when it was, I think like we always think of, like, we, we think of bands or arrows or times being? I don't know, like, it's hard. Now to sum up something, you know, how was it for, like, when it was happening? Man, it

was probably the most fun I've ever had playing music. We were still working our asses off. And they were blowing up. And we were so happy for them. And and it was just, I mean, it was just crazy. It was just, they didn't know necessarily how to handle it. And they didn't care. And none of the crowds cared. They literally got that record deal because they had such a huge fan base huge fan following, you know, Tony brown fell in love with them because their fan interaction was just insane. You know, Cody, and those guys, they had everybody in the palm of their hand every single night. And it's really sad. I really missed the band. I really missed those guys. And I miss that music. As much as I love the departed now. I think it's really cool. Yeah. And he could he's playing a lot of that ragweed stuff but there was just something about those four guys. Not being perfect. Not being the best musicians. But yeah, but just the real passionate Yeah, aspect of it. Yeah, it was very, you know, Nirvana, Pearl Jam kind of thing, you know, to me, and it was just so real. It was just Cody, to me is the ultimate rock star that has such a nice presence about him. You know, it's usually don't get both. You should get a really nice guy or a rockstar asshole. Yeah, and Cody's like the best of both. I think he's, he's a great front man always has been a great front man. And those days were just so fun to play shows with them and, you know, for multiple reasons, you know, but another big thing was they were so good about helping us and helping their friends. They were so good about that. And then and and everybody was, you know, they were always trying to put you on shows or opportunities that you had. They always were inviting you to come on stage and sing with them. I mean, it was just, you know, they just, they, I've learned a lot from from the ragweed days. And from what those guys did and had at the time, it was a lot of fun, man.

Thomas Mooney 25:23

I can't imagine, you know, just the, the weight of that band as far as knowing, like, you know, they play now as far as the board goes, and people were wanting ragweed songs played, I can't imagine, like, feeling in a way obligated to, to doing that. No, plan no songs. Yeah, we're not necessarily like just playing those songs, but like, doing the the nostalgia thing in a way, you know what I'm saying? Because I think every artist wants to continue pushing their new stuff. Yeah. And finding that balance, I guess, between. Hey, here's the new stuff I've written that I want you all to all listen to. And like, but also, I know you all want to hear 17

Wade Bowen 26:10

Yeah. And now it's really hard. And especially, especially for Cody, because, yeah, he's really fighting that drag weed thing. And trying to get the departed. Well, they're, they're doing great. But it's, like I said earlier, I don't know if I could do what he's doing start all over from scratch. I mean, shows you how much passion he has for what he does. You know, Cody will be one of those people like me, he'll he'll, I don't know, hopefully, it's a long way down the road, but he'll die on the road. I mean, he'll just he'll be Nelson. I mean, he, he'll never stop playing. And so yeah, he's always writing and always has new stuff that he's pushing. And yeah, I've finally when we knew, you know, I've never really talked to Cody about it. But when I have new, a new record, it's always it gets harder every year, every I mean every record. To find, figure out what you're going to play, what new stuff you're going to play. You know, I think it's really important to figure out of new records what you're going to push because as much as we play live. It's just as important as having a single because people are coming out to watch you, they're probably hearing what you what you're playing off the new record just as much as they would have something on the radio. So it's really important to choose wisely, what you want to play for them what you want them to know, and get and how you want to how you want those new songs to affect your show. Because your show becomes a new thing for you and for them as a listener. So it's always I remember the last record the last way but one record the self titled record, I remember calling around different guys, just buddies Willie Braun and Ray Wylie asking, Hey, just curious, man, how do y'all do it? When you're Yeah. When you have a new record? Like I'm always trying to learn from something, you know? Yeah. If somebody like Ray Wylie Hubbard's willing to give me some advice.

Thomas Mooney 28:05

Yeah. What's you know, you have like 2525 26 slots as far as your Yeah, setlist goes and I have about 19 Actually, yeah. Well, I was being dragged them out. But you know, you, you, you only you have the same amount of slots every year. Yeah. So this pusher.

Wade Bowen 28:26

But and you also like you said, you have the songs, you know, that people showed up? They're just here. And man, they get mad if they don't hear. Yeah, there's some songs just like, I don't want to play this tonight. But I have to. Yeah, Are there going to be? That's why they pay their money? You know? Yeah. So it's it's a tricky game, man. But I guess it's a good game to have. Yeah, it's good problem. Yeah, good problem.

Thomas Mooney 28:47

You know, like this last, I guess, these last few years? What did what did this self taught come out? Oh, three or mean? 13 or 14 1414. And then obviously, you followed up with

Wade Bowen 28:59

and then 15 was hold my beer. And then this year, earlier this year was the golfer record and then yeah, just a month ago was the acoustic record with Randy so? Yeah. Um, my manager keeps laughing. He's like, Man, this is pretty quick to be releasing new stuff. And then I'm really happy in my career and really loving the freedom to be able to do these things. He actually slowed me down I was gonna make some more records. We'll try to do some other stuff. And yeah, he's like, you know, hit the brakes, buddy pedal, you know. Let's slow down a little bit and pace ourselves a little bit more. Yeah. So I just think it's a day and age when you can do that. Like I said, it's not CDs anymore. It's digital. 80 to 90% of my sales are digital anyway. So kids kids are, you know, they lose, not that they lose interest but their attention span is, is a lot

Less, yeah, an attention span than ever. So, you know, I'll just keep trying to feed them new stuff.

Thomas Mooney 30:07

Yeah. Well, the gospel record, you know, that's something that you really couldn't have done 10 years ago? Yeah. Or it would have been a lot more difficult, obviously. You know, as far as what I know about it, it's one of those things where, you know, you made it for your mother, and didn't necessarily know if you're gonna put it out. And we're just kind of

Wade Bowen 30:28

Yeah, when I made the record, I, actually Shawn McConnell produced it. Because I had no time to do it. Like, literally, I had like, four open days, when, when I could do it, and get it done in time for my dad to give it to my mom. It was for her birthday slash Christmas. And so I was so busy working at home, a beer tour, and my tour, and then the West Coast tour, and all this stuff. So I had no time to do it. And I told Sean, I remember having a conversation and said, I'm want that my dad wants me to make a record, low budget. For my mom gospel, you're the most spiritual person I know. And I know you'll work hard, and I need the help because I have no time. Can you do it? He said, Yes. And then I said, and let's keep in mind that it's not going to be released. But we know how that works. You know? Yeah. Like, like, I even try to make sure I get good work tapes when I write them now, because you just never know what's gonna be heard by the world anymore. So yeah, we made sure that we didn't just have asked that we made sure that we made it with that, and with the every intention of releasing it, in our minds, even though we really didn't think we were going to and then after we finished it, and family heard it and everybody, it really came out way better than I ever could have imagined. Thanks to Sean. So once I heard the finished product, and everybody else heard it in the family, it was just like a no brainer, like, why not? Why not release it? What's it gonna hurt, you know, and it just shows a very unique side of way Bowen, I think it has a very Americana folk approach to it that I've never done before on records. And kind of we kind of went out for the buddy Miller sound, sonically. We channeled our inner buddy Miller. And, uh, and that was a cool sound that I really wanted people to hear. And then also the gospel stuff as well, you know, just a different side songs is entirely so. But I made sure I didn't like put a bunch of money into advertising or promoting it like, like normal and did the same thing with this acoustic record with Randy, we, we just chose to just put it out there and let it

word of mouth spread, you know, and that's kind of the way I am right now. I'm not really

not really worried about a whole lot. I just want to enjoy music and for the right reasons. Yeah. The to get people to follow along with me as well. The

Thomas Mooney 32:55

Gospel record has real grassroots feel to it, you know, like, I feel like it maybe Miss remembering here, but it felt like, was just basically released and announced the same week, kind of thing, or at least within a couple weeks, and just was there. I wish like, more artists would do that maybe like as far as the because it feels more real, more genuine, just like a not as calculated and,

Wade Bowen 33:24

yeah, and yeah, well, there's good and bad to both, I mean, the calculation, when you when you really go through a whole record release properly. It does make a lot of sense. as frustrating as it is, I mean, it's more frustrating for the artists than anybody because you know, like, they say, Okay, I'll say it's going to be done this time. And that's cool. Well, we need four months of preparation. So you're talking about waiting for mods to hand it out to people who stuff it but but when it's all said and done that four months is a very short timeframe for overall when you're looking at the overall picture, the overall goal and there is a difference you know, if I'd have done that with the gospel record, it probably would have been sold more and probably would have had a bigger aspect a bigger approach to everything but yeah, I liked the fact that we didn't do it with that. I like the fact that we just put it out there and let word of mouth take over.

Thomas Mooney 34:25

Yeah, no, I thought it was great. So what's I guess on the front as far as you know, hold my beer because obviously the you did the live record, which I guess was talking with you before that was kind of more the plan before was doing like doing a live record then you guys decided to do a Yeah, a studio record. Then you finally you know, do the live record. You know, what's the the plan going forward that you guys gonna do? Well,

Wade Bowen 34:57

okay, well, we had all these shows record And we'll continue to record them just because it's, it's so easy and fun. And I'm, I've got, I've got a green haul show from 2008. There, I've got recorded, you know, yeah, I just like to preserve this stuff and have it and Randy's willing to let me kind of have free rein with this whole mob beer thing, you know, it's just, it's kind of fun. starting our own label a little buddy tunes. And, yeah, he kind of just lets me run, the whole thing is kind of nice. You just say, oh, cool, you know, do whatever you want, just, you know. And, but splitting everything evenly. You know, it's just fun. It's fun to do it. We're good buddies. And we've been through hell and bad together. And I think it's fun, you hear it and all of it. I mean, you hear all the hell that we go through, you hear all the heartbreak, and you hear all the laughter and it's just, it's a crazy, crazy friendship we have. And when we were going to go, so we were going to release the record. We had it set to do the live acoustic record first. And so we were going to go in, and the studio, we went in the studio record three songs, that we were going to tag at the end of the acoustic album, and then use those to have singles to radio so we could talk about the album. And then when we got in there, we realized it was too good to just do three songs and was too much fun. So we immediately booked some more studio time, and just said, let's just make a record. And literally management is calling both of us and saying what in the hell is going on down there in Austin, Texas, and was all these studio. What's all the studio time you're paying for? What is what's all these invoices? You know? Yeah, because we didn't tell them what, and we didn't know we were doing. We didn't plan any of it. Yeah, we just knew it was fun and felt good, you know. And Lloyd Maines was, you know, I had high expectations in a way working with Lloyd, but then to actually see him work and get to be in the room with him was just a blast. So he made it so easy to find, we just let's go make a whole record. We really didn't know what we're gonna do with it. And that was the end of October. And we released it in April. And that's literally how quickly at all

Thomas Mooney 37:03

were those first three done with Lloyd, those first three songs that you were gonna tack on?

Wade Bowen 37:08

Yeah, the first three we did were were with Lloyd producing, and then we will still go, let's just do the rest of the record. And so then we followed it up this year with as we got set to to do our acoustic tour that was, you know, it's sporadic this year. It's not all grouped together. But we're in the middle of our home of airwatch, this acoustic tour now. So we decided to release the live stuff as originally planned. This year, and then we're going back in at the end of the end of this year, to start another whole my beer volume too. So I don't know what's going to happen with more live stuff or the you know, the studio stuff. We're going to continue to call it hold my beer, volume, whatever. The watch, this is the name of the live stuff that we've done or maybe more volumes of watch this. I don't really know yet. I don't want to wear people out with live stuff. You know, there's only so much you can do live stuff.

Thomas Mooney 38:01

You have like it's boring. While I'm a fan of Bob Dylan Dylan has all the Bootleg Series stuff. Yeah. And he's like on like 15 or something like that now. Yeah, I've just now I think like the last couple of them. We've been a little long winded. It's like, man, some of this stuff is good. But you could have used a little bit of an editor here. Yeah. But as far as like what? You know, I guess like some of those new ones are like six discs long, that kind of stuff. Yeah, that's crazy. It's like, just make it two discs. Come on, like, but

Wade Bowen 38:35

that's the plan. We're just gonna keep recording and see what happens. You know, I think there's really magical moments that happened, you know, like, like, on this live acoustic thing. We have actually recorded Cheatham street one night, when the train came by, during one of my songs and just like, was one of those magical moments we just happen to capture on, on tape, you know, and it's things like that, that I keep wanting to try to capture, you know, the Randy's fun to record because you never know what he's gonna say, or what he's gonna do. It's hilarious. Like, every night I stand on stage and just kind of go, here we go. There no telling where he's gonna go with this, or what he's gonna say. And yeah, sometimes it's the funniest stuff I've ever heard in my life. And sometimes it's like, I'm gonna kick your ass after the show. But it's always entertaining. It's like never a dull moment with him. And I love how he wears his heart on his sleeve. And I think we both do. So thank you hear that in these recordings. And, and I encourage people to to try to check out the live record. It's really fun.

Thomas Mooney 39:36

Yeah, live records here. I think like, that's probably, I mean, this probably sounds like an obvious thing, but it's more of a timestamp than even records are. And I kind of feel like records are timestamps, you know? Sure. Yeah.

Wade Bowen 39:53

Yeah. The lab records are very timestamps, and and you know, the That's, there was a, this whole record that we released is one year that we did one tour, it wasn't like, four years apart. You know, it was one tour that we did one year. And so we'll just continue to do that. That's exactly what it is. I have a, we have a really good show recorded its full ban, from the whole my beer tour that we did, because it's always an acoustic tour. But then last year, we took the band out because of the studio. And we have a great show recorded from Dallas, Texas. That's the whole show not unedited from start to finish that's literally being mastered as we speak right now. And I just, I have it that way. It's done. Yeah. Who knows when I'm going to release it. It might be 20 years from now, but it's done. And it's a really amazing record. Like it's just one of those like many you know, Rob dennis is my friend in Nashville that it's doing these all this live stuff. And he was like, you just you got to hear this record, man. And so he sent it to me, I was just like, Man, it's just as me and Randy and this band that we had out on our a plus plus game, you know, and it's fun to capture those nights. And yeah.

Thomas Mooney 41:09

Were you inspired by any like live records? Like? Well, yeah,

Wade Bowen 41:13

Robert, Earl. Okay, I'm going to dinner. That was the most inspiring record. Maybe ever for me. What else I listened to a ton of Springsteen live stuff, because he's, yeah, he's so good at capturing that

Thomas Mooney 41:27

has a bunch of like, bootleg stuff, you know?

Wade Bowen 41:30

Oh, yeah. He records, audio and video every night. Yeah. always has. Yeah, he probably started video later on in his career, but he's always recorded. Yeah.

Thomas Mooney 41:39

A lot of just unreleased stuff on YouTube. Yeah, just like three hour shows.

Wade Bowen 41:44

Oh, yeah. Which is crazy to live on forever, because he's got so much recorded. And yeah, his stuff is great to never know what he's gonna do or say or who's gonna pull on stage and live record for fun if either if they're done, right.

Thomas Mooney 41:55

Yeah. What's your favorite Springsteen? I know you're a fan.

Wade Bowen 42:01

Man. I really love this song called loose change. It's on the tracks. Bob said that he had. I'm shocked at that wreck that song never, you know, the tracks were a bunch of songs and never found their way to records and it's like, slaughter that stuff. I don't understand. Especially lease change. I'm like, how in the world? The song is well written not make it to an album.

Thomas Mooney 42:25

Yeah, it's There's a song on there called, gave it a name. What I really like but like, it doesn't feel like it's finished. But a lot of stuff wasn't was left it on a finish, don't you think? Yeah. But to me, I'm like, like you were it's like, how did you not notice that? It was since he's just that

Wade Bowen 42:45

good? You know, it's crazy. There's no telling how many of those that probably hasn't recorded that he thought weren't that great. And there's no telling how good they probably are, you know,

Thomas Mooney 42:54

yeah, he, uh, he's one of those artists who has really found a way to transform into essentially, like a different guy over, you know, 10 years. He's adapted very well. He's like his, like, the Nebraska era kind of stuff. Like, you know, there's a lot of hints on the river of what was going to come to Nebraska and there's still like, even hints after in born in the USA that kind of feel the same in, you know, five years before that. It's Born to Run, you know, it's strange how, like, he's been able to, you know, just adapt and change.

Wade Bowen 43:38

Because he's so good at it. He's just so good at everything. But he has so much passion when it comes to his music and in what he does, and, you know, one of his biggest influences was Woody Guthrie. And Woody Guthrie would, you know, he would he would go to, he traveled around everywhere going, where the madness was, where the darkness was, so that he could figure out how to write about it, you know, and that's, that's what Springsteen really has done with his career. He's, he finds ways to he's got so many incredible stories of him to stand up for himself and for his music and, and, you know, here's, here's what needs to happen, not what is probably best overall, you know, the Nebraska record. He actually did a full studio. Don produced version of that record. And when he went to turn it in to the label, he pulled the tape from his, his analog for track. Yeah. recorder that he'd done all the work tapes on. He felt that the last second as he's turning on the label that that was a better representation of the songs. So he literally hands out a work tape That's what you hear. They loved it. But the studio version was a whole produced I mean, it had like I'm on fire and all that stuff on there, you know, that eventually made its way to, to the next record and it's like, you know, then then he decides was born in the USA How big? How big can I get? I want to see how big I can get. So he makes an overproduced pop record top commercial sounding record and that was the game changer that just made him go from, you know, a, you know, amphitheaters to damn stadiums, you know, yeah, is, uh, he just always has a very good grasp on what he's gonna do. I mean, it's the guy that fired the E Street Band, because he felt like he didn't have anything else to offer each other. And then he brings them back when September 11 happens because he needs them back in his life. I mean, it's just, it's remarkable the passion that he has with with music, and that's why he's such a huge influence of mine, because I just went so I'm in Phoenix earlier, a couple months ago, took my son Bruce actually is named after him. And Bruce files getting off. He's 11. Now you want wanted to see why you want to see his namesake? Right? Yeah. And, man, it was just 66 years old, I guess he is now and he was sick that day, and just still three and a half hours. I mean, and my son was 10. At that time, he just turned 11. Last week. So the 10 year old boy, didn't for three and a half hours, didn't ask for anything to drink or eat or to go to the restroom. We sat there and watch the entire show on our feet, screaming and yelling the whole time. And Springsteen lost his voice and got it back and lost his voice was crowd surfing. And it's just like, there's not there's just not a better entertainer in the world.

Thomas Mooney 46:47

Yeah, that's, to me, the probably like, the biggest thing about Springsteen is that he's still doing three and a half hour shows. It's like, nobody would complain if he was doing, you know, an hour and a half. No, nobody would complain at all,

Wade Bowen 47:02

but he's the greatest hour and a half ever, but he refuses to feels like he lets people down. If he doesn't give them three and a half, I guess. He's a, he just loves he loves music man, you can see it when he's up there. He just loves it. And it's fun to watch that it's very inspiring.

Thomas Mooney 47:17

He's also done like, shows where I remember there's like a, like five nights in a row where you played I guess darkness on the edge of town one night, all the way through the next night, he did it again. And then he did like Born to Run, warned around and born in the USA may have been like six nights or something like that. But playing the record all the way through and then at the end, obviously playing the hits and just new stuff.

Wade Bowen 47:45

That's what this tour was we saw a couple months ago, it was at the river. So the river, you know, see, which was a double disc. So it's a long Yeah, long album, played from start to finish the river and it was, you know, the river. I've always loved the river but not I've always liked it but not just falling in love with it river for some reason. I don't know why. And after hearing it, the way he played it, it was just maybe my favorite album. Now. I don't know, when you hear it and hear the stories and hear him. It's just amazing.

Thomas Mooney 48:20

There's a little probably like 3040 minute documentary about the river on HBO back whenever he they did the re release and all that kind of stuff. And it's one of those stories about how the river wasn't originally supposed to be like a two disc record. It was supposed to be just a one disc one called like, the ties that bind. And then it's one of those stories where they get it all set up and he's just like, no, it's this is this isn't what it has is supposed to be you know, and then like pulls guys back in and write new songs. And finally, you know, gets this two disc monster record and you know, is just adamant about it being two discs and back then, you know, two records.

Wade Bowen 49:07

It's like then he just knew it's it's crazy how he just knew from the get go like what he should and shouldn't do. It's always worked out for him.

Thomas Mooney 49:18

Yeah, what record would you play all the way through? of mine? Yeah. If you did a show like that.

Wade Bowen 49:27

Right now I'd probably go back to to last hotel just that's pretty standard record for me in my career now and people really I still get comments about people loving that being that favorite record of mine. I think it was more of a songwriter record for me. I really, really at that time wanted to prove myself as a songwriter. I don't feel like I've done that yet and really made a great record yet. The blue light was fun and try not to listen was amateur, you know, but it was what I was doing at that for a young 20 You're old. But I feel like I really grew up in La sotell. It took me three years to make the record and save up money. And it's just, there's just a lot of a lot of memories from that record. And those days of me really trying to prove myself in so many different levels. And yeah, that record still will always hold a very, very, very special place in my heart. I don't think it was my best record ever made a bit. But it's definitely my most memorable.

Thomas Mooney 50:31

Yeah, yeah, I think like, that's one of those things where those aren't necessarily, they don't necessarily mean the same thing, you know, as far as most memorable best record. And I think a lot of people obviously, kind of blend those two, to be in the same thing, where like, your favorite record, for example, you know, like, my favorite record is Springsteen's is the river. But I don't think that's necessarily his best record. Right. Right. You know, but yeah, so is that what you're doing tonight, just gonna play?

Wade Bowen 51:03

Yeah, we were a little limited tonight. And what we what we play, we've been doing our show, we've been, we lost our buddy Jay Sol, Daniela, you know, our drummer, who decided to get off the road, and do whatever he thinks he wants to do. Try to tell him he's too good of a drummer to not be doing it. But hopefully, he'll realize that and figure out some way to do it in some form or fashion. But so we we've been, you know, when you have a such a close knit group of guys, and not just not just hang wise, but but playing wise, you can put the best musicians in the world together, and it takes them a long time to gel. And, and so we we've had different drummers come out over the last few months and got a guy named Alex, guys, Mark from Austin that's been playing with us last few weeks and doing a great job. But we're still trying to piece the whole thing about together. So we're a little limited on what we can play. Yeah,

Thomas Mooney 51:58

it's a it's one of those things where it takes time to gel, you know,

Wade Bowen 52:02

yeah, it takes a lot, a lot to learn everybody's finances. And the drummer, you know, is the glue that holds it all together. It's critical. It's offensive lineman of the band, you know, the guys does the most work and gets the least amount of credit. But yeah, the drummers drummers it makes or breaks records he makes or breaks the live shows. I mean, it's the focal point of everything you do. So everybody wants to give the credit to the singers and the writers and the guitar players, but it's it's the rhythm section and the drummers that make us make us who we are. Yeah.

Thomas Mooney 52:38

You know, like, I guess this was probably gonna come up. You talked about it already a couple times. But like, the whole the minor leagues thing. What's, uh, I guess, like you guys, by the way from rockhounds. Got it yesterday. You guys were down there? Yes. How

Wade Bowen 52:57

ironic was that we played a minor league baseball field last night. It's pretty funny. We told Granger, we let Granger know, you know, he and I have since since all this has happened. He called me and was very animated. Very classy. And so we and I've been texting a lot back and forth. For those who are out there that are wondering what we're talking about. So I read I read an article on the boot, which I think the boot is really cool. They they've always they've talked about us a little in the past and always seem to keep a really good head on what's going on the country music you know, and and so I just happened to actually cut to this article sent to me by someone, I'm not going to name names, because I don't want to get anybody else stirred into this mess with. So I read the article. And it was a very well written really, really great piece on Granger, Granger Smith and his family and his work ethic and his pride from being from Texas and all this great stuff. But there was one paragraph that stuck out to me that said, I'm very, very fortunate for the Texas music scene as a testing ground. It was it was the minor leagues for us. That's what that's what that's what it is. Yeah, something to that nature. So I just reposted that paragraph and said, Love My life cheers to the minor leagues. And didn't say anything bad about Granger his music or anything, and just simply said, if that's the way someone feels my thought at the time was if that's the way someone feels I'm just let it be known. I'm happy. I'm good. Yeah, I'm good with that. And it is just blown up. like crazy. It's with all the comments of people just getting so out of hand of people saying ridiculous things that I'm you know, that I am jealous or that I'm bitter or that I'm you know, calling him I'm a sellout and I mean, where are you get that from that one statement? I have no but people just like to be me and I guess sometimes,

Thomas Mooney 55:07

yeah, well that's one of those things where you said like six words or something like that six or seven? Or Okay, I'm Canada. Okay. But like I've never seen so much of a blow up about me either. I thought it was just kind of one of those like, you had an opinion or not necessarily even opinion your own opinion, but like nothing let's

Wade Bowen 55:33

Yeah, nothing knows. Yeah, what definitely wasn't shit talking. Yeah, you know, I just he definitely has gotten out of hand. But you know, since it's brought up and since people are are questioning it, and you know, I will say that since I have a right now to defend myself you know, I, I did get a little offended by it, because I don't think that it's testing ground. I don't think Texas music is that is the minor leagues. And I don't necessarily think that Granger meant it that way. I don't think it was taken out of context. I think he probably like he in and I discussed he's had different a different career in Texas and blown up and is a completely different career than me. Yeah. So it was just it was just a poor choice of words is all it was, he's a great guy. And I've always heard great things about him and you know, but but I believe where my thought at the time was was man Texas is so much more than a testing ground it's is like people this is we always talk about this the foundation. We have a foundation of fans that we build here to have an established career that can last for 40 or 50 years if you want to do it that long. That's not testing ground that is something that's very you know, however you want to call it Major Leaguer something that's very noteworthy and something that we should we're very proud of here. And I just feel I feel like I should, you know, now that is being brought up. I'm just gonna stand up for our scene and stand up for not just our scene but indie artists everywhere. Yeah. Jason Isbell, sturgill. Simpson, I mean, like, the list goes on and on of, of artists that, you know, do things the way they want to. I've been on both sides. I've been on a major label before. And I've been on independent labels before, you know, I've been Andy lecom. Now, so I know both sides. I know the pressure that he faces. And like I said, that whole article was him talking very highly of Texas and his family, where he came from and all this stuff. So I definitely did not intend to cause the stir for him and his family that is caused. Yeah,

Thomas Mooney 57:49

I think like, one. I don't think he necessarily meant it that way. You know what I mean? I don't I think he he could have said it a whole lot better and better terms. But also, I think that, in a way, a lot of people have been hypocritical on this whole thing. Because Had it been a, like a natural guy, like an established natural guy. I think everyone would be, you know, writing about a comment like that. Now, obviously, there's a lot of people who are critical of the comment and you know, have been vocal about that. But I think like, you know, I don't know, I think like a lot of fan fans here in Texas have been a little quieter about the comment than I thought they would have. Because, honestly, I think it hadn't been any natural guy like, established natural guy. People would have been up in arms, you know? Yeah. Because like Florida, Georgia line had a comment, like that whole thing with Charlie Robison a few months back, right. And people were going all anxious about that. Yeah, I don't know.

Wade Bowen 59:10

I don't know man. I think the scene is very proud. And it's very amazing. I think it's the best fans. And it's, it's just the furthest thing from minor leagues. It's a it's a great established founder foundation have fans and friends and people that love music. Yeah. And don't care about anything other than that. It's really all it is, you know it. This is a beautiful, beautiful thing. And nowadays, more than ever, I think the majors or the or the minors now, I think they're in the minor as far as how the there's just not very many of them anymore that really are knowing how to survive and You know, to me, it's all relative success is relative. It's all in your head, there's, there's kids out there that are consider opening up for us or the Randy Rogers band or somebody that consider that successful. Yeah, there's, there's people that, you know, think they need to be in a tour bus to be successful. There's people that, you know, whatever, whatever your form of success is, then it's then you're successful. There is no major minors, there is not no reason to even draw a boundary lines in the sand anymore. Because there's this, it's so diverse, and music is so wide open. And so so many different avenues to get your career started and going and put it out there for everyone to hear and follow along. So we're very blessed and lucky to have everyone. And I mean, press in the scene, I mean, DJs, I mean, radio stations, I mean, record stores, blessed last drivers, I mean, venues that that they're willing to put us in their bars. I mean, this is such a blessing that we have, and I just wanted to reiterate that it's all I did. And I wish I want to end this whole thing by saying that I wish Granger Smith and his band so much success because they're from Texas, and the more success they experience, the better it is for all of us. And like I told him, we're rooting for you. I say a prayer for him every night since then. We always say a prayer before we walk on stage. Throw him in my thoughts and say I hope we get through all this nonsense that they're getting. Yeah. And and I hope they come out better for it. And I hope the next time he has a chance to talk about our scene, I believe he'll say the right words that he the way he really feels. And that'll be good. Yeah. Yeah, we all make mistakes. We all live and learn from him. And I can't say enough great things about him and how classy he's been to me since since all of this so. Yeah. So I'm part of a man. Another step. I got told him and said, Hey, you and I are in the age old saying of any publicity is good publicity. I guess you and I are both about to find out if that's really true. So

Thomas Mooney 1:02:11

yeah, I guess we'll see tonight. How many people come to burn records or anything?

Wade Bowen 1:02:16

Yeah, I'm not worried about it. They're that passionate about burning records and whatever.

Thomas Mooney 1:02:21

Yeah. Well, we're rolling on an hour here. So yeah, it's good talking with Yeah,

Wade Bowen 1:02:27

man. You too. Thanks so much. Gonna let you enjoy talking music. So yeah, it's a lot of fun. I'll let you

Transcribed by https://otter.ai