071: Vincent Neil Emerson
Episode 071 is with Vincent Neil Emerson. We talk about honky-tonks and dive bars, hanging with Jason Momoa, Fort Worth songwriters, collaborating with contemporaries like Colter Wall, the story behind "7 Come 11," and his new album Fried Chicken & Evil Women.
Interview Transcript
Note: Transcripts aren’t always accurate since they are computer automated and haven’t been edited for spelling, grammar, etc.
Thomas Mooney 0:03
Everyone, Welcome to New slang. I'm Thomas Mooney. And this is episode number 71. On this episode, I'm joined by Texas songwriter Vincent Neil Emerson. I've known about his music for a while now. But this was the first time meeting him in person. He'd played here in Lubbock a few other times, but for some reason or another, I just kind of missed those shows. At any rate, though, he's kind of one of those people who It feels like you've, you've kind of just known him forever, you just have this kind of, I don't know, just the way he talks with with people. It's kind of funny, like, whenever you have a conversation with somebody, like in this kind of situation, when you know, when there's like a microphone recording, you're really just trying to get to a point where they they forget about the microphone being there. It's different with everyone, sometimes it's, you know, you're trying to, I guess, like, fill your way through the first few minutes, try and get a read of what this is actually going to be like. Sometimes it's, you know, 10 minutes or 30 minutes of just really making it sound hopefully, like a conversation versus, you know, an interview. And sometimes, I guess, like a lot of that has to do with sometimes these these people that you're interviewing or have been coached on how to answer questions, because they're typically like in a different kind of setting a a newspaper setting, or maybe like a magazine setting. There's not like really any ill will or bad intent. But sometimes, like they can just it, sometimes they can just sound like a robot. This is all to say that, that really like Vincent didn't feel like that at all. It was it was just really effortless from the get go. He says it during the podcast, but I'll mention it here too. He said that his manager told him like his only quote unquote, like real like bullet point was to get across that he had a record coming out sometime in the fall. And we talked a lot about about the the making of that record. Its title is still to be determined. So I'm sure like whenever it's officially announced, I'll be talking about it on here and various other platforms. I'm really excited to hear what this record does for Vincent. I think he has a whole lot of potential to be one of those quote, unquote, rising young artists, a new voice and country music, you know, all that kind of good stuff. It's really an anticipated album, I think, even though I have not really heard many people talk about about it. Anyway, I do have a bunch of other great interviews coming out soon, including this one, obviously. So tell your friends and family and co workers and what not to subscribe to the podcast, you can listen on iTunes and Spotify. I'll be honest, though, like, it's a lot better if you just subscribe to iTunes, because then you can rate the podcast there and you can share it easier and you just get like better numbers anyways. If for some reason you're not following me on social media, go ahead and do so it's at underscore new slang, on Twitter and on Instagram. It's just new slang on Facebook, you'll be able to keep up with everything with the podcast on those platforms. As well as you know, just like my general thoughts on music and Game of Thrones. No comment on Game of Thrones right now. Texas Tech basketball, whatever. And just like some of the stuff I write in general. Yeah, I think that's about it. We'll go ahead and get on with the conversation with Vincent now. Emerson now. Thanks.
should be pretty good here. Yeah, well, I guess like we'll start out with the first time I heard you. I heard her record. Somebody had passed over to me. I guess it was like East Texas blues. Yeah. Yeah. That's not online anymore.
Vincent Neil Emerson 4:38
Now. It's a record that I made a rural the songs I was about 19 through 22, something like that. Yeah. And we recorded one of the songs and the rest of songs that didn't really like so we just scrapped it and started fresh. Yeah,
Thomas Mooney 4:57
yeah. Well, I mean, like, that's something that's It's always I guess, where when you write the song so early on, it's can it be hard to relate to them? You know, like, once you've passed that point or, and no one What? Okay, what do you keep though? What was the one song you
Vincent Neil Emerson 5:18
one song that I kept off the record seven Km 11 and that's only song and standard plan. You know, like I was just getting into into Buck Owens and stuff trying to write, trying to write like Bakersfield type of stuff and it just, I just really green you know, right. So yeah, if somebody will find they keep finding copies of it actually at the local record store. Let's
Thomas Mooney 5:43
see, that's what's gonna happen is, it always happens where you find it out at old record stores, or I'm sure if we look on Amazon, they'll be like a copy for like 50 bucks. Yeah, 100 bucks, that kind of thing. That's where I used to do a whole lot of that where I just like search for records that weren't released anymore. And like, I always found like Ryan bingum Records, but they'd always be like, 100 bucks. It seemed like he would have a lot of those. Yeah, no, I asked him about it. Like, if he ever thought about reissuing them, and he was like, Well, I don't even know if I have any copies of them myself to like, I don't know if I have any quote unquote, masters of any of those, but I couldn't even give those fuckers away back in the day. And now, people are funny now. Yeah. So you have a box in the closet.
Vincent Neil Emerson 6:38
A box for the mat. Now I don't have that I lost them all. was like more like emails that I like long lost email accounts.
Thomas Mooney 6:49
Yeah, well, that's the song 711 you know, I heard Charlie Crockett cut it or on on YouTube. He covered it. What do you what do you think of that?
Vincent Neil Emerson 6:59
Man, Charles, good buddy of mine. Actually, I've known him for a while. I've known him since. Damn. It's been years now. But uh, since before he started gaining traction even in DFW, you know, he was just playing a they're playing the same spots as me. Right. And I think he bought that record. So somebody gave it to him or something. And he came out to one of our shows, like, Hey, man, I'm Charlie Crocker. Good to meet you. Like stuck his hand on Who the hell's this guy? No, you know, kind of skeptical about him. He gave me his record and on the way home well listen to it, man, and just blew me away. I was like, god damn. Right. Yeah.
Thomas Mooney 7:38
I always love whenever. Like, friends cover friends. You know what I mean? Like, if you wait, that's it? Yeah. I think part of the reason is I was talking with Drew Kennedy about this is that I think what he was saying was, people put out records so slowly now that you're you kind of want to put out the songs that you wrote yourself. And back in the day, even though there wasn't technically not as many records. You know, if Willie Nelson's putting a record out a year, he's got a cover. He's got to put out Yeah. Yeah. So you kind of have to put out more.
Vincent Neil Emerson 8:16
Yeah, I think also just from like, like, the old school way of doing things where you have the singer and the songwriter separated Mariah that kind of like old school way of doing it. There's some there's, there's like a charm to that when it comes to doing your friends tunes, or doing like, you know, kind of like here in Georgia Walker Derby songs, like gioielli do somebody song Townes Van Zandt do Joey's, whatever, you know. It's really cool. I think old Charlie's bringing that back, though, you know, it's like, we're in a an age of everybody's hung up, too hung up on being a singer, songwriter, that they're not they're just kind of ignoring that whole part of it.
Yeah, I don't know.
Thomas Mooney 8:58
What's interesting about Charlie, I talked with him last week, that's probably why even bringing him up so much. was, uh, you know, like, he put those three records out and I still didn't, I said it last week, I think it's like, he put those three records out in like 18 months. And granted, like two of them are just covers, but like, that's still like so much material out in such a short period of time. But one of the biggest things that he's done is he's really helped to bridge a gap between generations of like, we were talking about how, you know, he would go to a show where he's playing a show and somebody says, you know, my, my grandpa, my grandchildren told me check you out or like, vice versa, you know what I mean? And that's something that's really
Vincent Neil Emerson 9:46
cool. Anytime you really connect him with the roots of like the old school kind of stuff, people, you get the older folks involved in it. That's, like early on, we were doing a lot of Honky Tonk stuff. So my whole crowd was a whole fan base. As older folks, yeah, this is really neat. That made me have to like, clean up my language and show your shit.
Thomas Mooney 10:09
Yeah, where are you from? Where are you from East Texas, I'm assuming Yeah, I'm from Canton. Where's that? I'm from West Texas, right? It's right next to nowhere. It's I'm actually from Myrtle springs. It's like I use Canton as a reference, like, that's town for us. But it's in Van Zandt county kind of near like, you might, you might have heard like, the trade days like first Mondays. Like they have a big market over there. You know? It's right near Tyler. Somewhere in East Texas. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's so funny. Like, like, I grew up in West Texas, just like in Fort Stockton with you in the middle of nowhere. And I think you always think of the other side of the state as being like, filled up with people or something like that. And then like, you meet people from that side, and you're like, no, they're I mean, there's nothing out
Vincent Neil Emerson 11:03
here. I knew there was nobody over here. But I get I give you Sam. Yeah, it's a Texas is a big state. But you know, not a lot of people in it are there is a lot of people in it. But it's all
Thomas Mooney 11:17
in these big cities. Yeah. Yeah. So you moved to Fort Worth and you started playing in Fort Worth first so that when you first moved, would you have a
Vincent Neil Emerson 11:26
stop bounced around DFW before that I got when I was a teenager, I went to several different schools and going back to East Texas and kind of like living in mesquite or wherever you notice little towns around. But yeah, I think I really plant roots in Fort Worth about six years ago. So it's my second home. Well,
Thomas Mooney 11:49
yeah, but it's Fort Worth is such a, it feels like there is such a vibrant and rootsy scene right now as far as like, it feels like there's a lot of, of just bands who are artists moving in and really settling in and coming from honest spots on his places and they're trying to be something or that they're not or like trying to bank on, you know, just other people's music, that kind of thing. Yeah. What's it like right now? What do you feel like? What are you saying?
Vincent Neil Emerson 12:22
Man, I'm seeing a lot of everything but forward for now. We've been on the road a whole lot. But when I'm in town and hanging out with people think the country scene is is getting is getting there. But you got the old school dude's doing it in the stock cards like Tommy hooker and his son Jake Coker and a few other folks that are better really landed down doing the doing the old dance hall kind of stuff. But uh, we got people like summer Dean and Simon Florrie. Who else has a bunch of them, man. Anytime I start thinking like, a name also names I'm gonna remember to and that's it. Yeah, no, that's
Thomas Mooney 13:03
I listen to music all damn day. And then somebody was like, What? Are you been listening to you? I'll be like, let me go get my phone. Go look, because I you just kind of forget. I don't know,
Vincent Neil Emerson 13:13
sometimes I don't listen to music for long periods of time. Through kind of weird. Yeah. Like when you're, I guess, when you're playing so much music. You just want to like kind of step away from it for a minute.
Thomas Mooney 13:25
Right? Well, for me, like, I feel like it's almost, it's gonna sound horrible, but it's at some point. Because you're getting so many records. It kind of feels like homework at some point. So I'll just start listening to like podcasts or just you know, just ambient music just to give it get a palate cleanser, because you know if you're just always with it, so I don't know, but I still obviously I still love music. I mean, there's like it Yeah.
Vincent Neil Emerson 14:01
I bet my thing is like watching shows like Netflix or Hulu or some I guess you get Lawson. What's that one with a Larry David? What's that? Curb Your Enthusiasm? Yeah. I'm lost. I'm lost in a sauce on that one right now. Yeah. Anyway, yeah. Music.
Thomas Mooney 14:21
I'm an example
Vincent Neil Emerson 14:22
guy. Oh, yeah, me too, man. I think a couple months ago I just finished watching every episode. Nice so I remember just seeing that shit on TV when I was a kid constantly.
Thomas Mooney 14:34
Yeah. What's I read this the other day and I say the other day it's probably a couple years ago but I've read that like because you know they have like it's syndicated on TNT now right? Or TBS one of the but like they speed the episodes up just a little bit just so they can like so they can fit in like another couple like commercials in and so like he doesn't have The same pacing but you can't really tell when you're watching but apparently like they speed up the the episodes just so they can like fit another commercial two in and but I was wondering Like what? Like what did that do? What's that do to the pacing of the tech comedic timing? Yeah, we all kinds of fucked up yeah if they're just like
Vincent Neil Emerson 15:20
remember lining the door to depart extra hilarious I don't know. I don't know maybe it's not as funny I don't know.
Thomas Mooney 15:27
That's what I was wondering if maybe like during the 90s like it was just a little bit more laid back where probably you know people aren't just checking their phone every five minutes cuz that's what it would be now. Yeah, yeah, like Kramer would just be Kramer would probably not have a phone he still wouldn't be that guy but like George would be addicted Oh definitely. Yeah. Anyways though, um what are you working on now? Like what's your what's the big rollout?
Vincent Neil Emerson 15:58
I've got a record and the camera ready to go man. We've made it over it now's the sound in Fort Worth. It's done it's about 10 songs, but 13 songs recorded I can't make up my mind where that I want to put all of them out or just just 10 or what? Bry we're we're planning on putting it out. sometime this fall. The whole manager call me today's like this is what you tell the guy. But it is Oh man.
Thomas Mooney 16:31
Yeah. You excited about it? Did you go in and like just, Oh, I love like asking. You go in and like, do these just a couple dates here and there. Did you go in for like, a week straight or?
Vincent Neil Emerson 16:46
I was trying to get it? It's like, so we've booked a week's worth of time in the studio Ryan and the boys over there like Austin Jenkins, Josh block and Chris Vivian. They were expecting us to like, get maybe five songs done within a week. I was on it, though. We were trying to get I think we got we got all the songs done in four days. Four and a half days. Yeah. So I was on a man. I wouldn't waste no time. But yeah, it was just a non stop, like doing a song over two hours. Found a deal.
Thomas Mooney 17:19
Yeah. Whatever. Okay. He said, You know, you guys recorded 13 songs. But what was the the song bank before that? Like, what did you cut down from to even record 13? Ah, what was even in like the,
Vincent Neil Emerson 17:33
maybe we could get this maybe that gets about 20 or so? Yeah. At the time, I was doing a lot of three hour barbecue joint type of shows. So I had about 20 originals. And then I would do like I just, I had a bank of just standards that I would do all the time. But yeah, we had about 2020 songs and, you know, through some of them away. Thought about re recording some from the old
Thomas Mooney 18:00
record. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. What, what goes into the process of deciding like, what doesn't fit? Is it? Is it usually fit? Or is it usually more like, I don't know if this is good enough for what I want to do.
Vincent Neil Emerson 18:15
My thing is, man, when it comes to making records, like, if I don't have like a, this doesn't fit or that doesn't fit because it all just comes out of my filter just kind of comes out sounding the same. But same but different. Same when it comes out. Like I can have three acoustic could be like four or five acoustic songs. And then three full band chains. Yeah, you know, didn't really matter. But the the the the standard for me was like was This is a song good enough to do it now. Right? We're doing it to feel good. And we had a couple that were that felt good live, but didn't feel good in the studio. So we just kind of got rid of them.
Thomas Mooney 18:59
Yeah, yeah. What wasn't working? What was that? Because obviously, these are like two different things. It's like playing live and recording. What was it? Like? What? What wasn't working with them?
Vincent Neil Emerson 19:09
I think I don't know, man. It's something like something with a Mojo would you know, something? That I can't explain? Yeah, you know, you just know like, if you feel like, it's kind of like, you have to be in the mood for like a reuben sandwich. No, you'd be in the mood for a big old plate of nachos or something.
Thomas Mooney 19:29
Yeah. You know. Play to nachos. Yeah,
Vincent Neil Emerson 19:33
I don't know. Yeah, I got couldn't go for a bowl of cereal right now. Probably not. Yeah, well,
Thomas Mooney 19:38
I'm lactose, so I don't even I don't even I can mess with that source milk stuff. I was but then I was just like, Is it even? This is not really affecting my life that much. They're, like not do it.
Vincent Neil Emerson 19:53
Like that every once in a while. I think it's kind of gross. It's all soggy. Yeah. So this is a great podcast talking about
Thomas Mooney 20:02
cereal. This is what, what you do you just like, let it flow and whatever. I've got a buddy. From here, he's a songwriter. His name's Danny sodre. And he This is like probably like five years ago. But he had a Facebook post about how, like the perfect cereal was like whenever you poured it in the morning, like for your bowl of cereal, put the milk in, and leave it sitting out like for like four hours. I was coming out, and it would be in like, to me that is like the perfect cereal because that's how it like, it comes in and it's that is the goddamn opposite of what I'm trying to do. Yeah, and I'm like, it's like, if you're gonna eat it, like it better be crunchy. So
Vincent Neil Emerson 20:44
I gotta like, find myself in it really fast. I've never eaten a bowl of cereal slow.
Thomas Mooney 20:50
Yeah, I feel like this is something that we all do is we've all done is like where you pour the cereal. You put your milk in all that stuff, and then the E and then nursing bunch of milk in there. So you're like, they pour some more in there. But you don't ever like pour more milk and you just keep on getting less milk with more balls worse
Vincent Neil Emerson 21:09
when you get the cocoa puffs, man. And then like the chocolate dust accumulates in the milk. If you do that enough times and try to drink that you will have a heart attack. Yeah, a sugar rush and die. You know,
Thomas Mooney 21:23
it's weird is the is like they used to have fucking I don't know if they still have it. I don't I've not seen a commercial for it. But like they used to have like the Cookie Crisp. Which is like just fucking cookies for breakfast. Yeah. And crash. Yeah. I can try to like convince your your mom or your dad like, now this is cereal, though. And they're just No, this is fucking cookies. Like, these are chocolate chip cookies. Like, this is not what you're having for supper. I feel
Vincent Neil Emerson 21:55
like smart parents weren't fooled by that shit. Yeah. Hey, do you mind if I didn't have to be real quick? Yeah, we'll go. Yeah, did you juggle water?
in college?
Thomas Mooney 22:15
I had a friend who
he would always say, What What did he say? We say something to the effect of like, yeah, that's what my ex wife used to say. Oh, shit, and never married. Like, I love those. Yeah. Yeah, I was gonna ask though, like, you know, on this. On this record, you have any co writes? Are you just is it all just you don't meet that what you kind of like to do you like, uh,
Vincent Neil Emerson 22:47
you know what, man? I've tried to co write a couple times. And some people like, I think I've written a couple good songs, and a few people but it's a personal thing for me that I find it better just to ride alone.
Thomas Mooney 23:03
Are you? But what like, what's your thing? Are you always like constantly riding in riding mode? Are you you go through like phases of I go through phases? For sure. Yeah,
Vincent Neil Emerson 23:14
sometimes, you know, because you're on the road so much. It's kind of hard to especially when you're drinking or partying or whatever, you know, wake up, hung over and just barely have enough energy to get to the show and get it done. Sometimes it's kind of hard to write on the road, but sometimes you just come up with shit just comes out of nowhere.
Yeah, so I don't know. Yeah. What's the last song you wrote? I got this song that I'm writing called country gold. And it's kind of just one of those tunes are a name of a bunch of people that I like and country music. Yeah. This is silly. Sometimes I write goofy ass songs. I got a song called fried chicken and evil women. Yeah, I've seen
anything. Yeah. Yeah. Just you know that get that from john prine right you know he's more clever with it. Some of my shit is kind of kind of goofy. But
Thomas Mooney 24:12
you know whatever. Yeah, john prine is just one of those guys who like I don't know like I feel like most most songwriters they hit like a golden era of their their writing you know what I mean? Where they're they're just nailing it all the way through. Another gonna say like a lot of guys, you know, they'll fall out like, you go, man. What is why is this why is he bringing this kind of stuff now but like that last record prime row put out last year. so damn good. That was a treat. Forgive true forgiveness. Yeah. There's so many damn good songs on there.
Vincent Neil Emerson 24:51
Yeah, man. I think he heard he's making another one. Yeah, he's gonna try to make another one. Well bourbon so much today I'm full of hot air y'all out there internet world.
Thomas Mooney 25:07
Yeah, yeah. Ever seen prime play or anything like that now, man it's like the thing I still haven't seen Willie Nelson play live Yeah. I saw Willie couple years back at lucker Union. Oh yeah I was at notice. I mean it was was fun yeah I don't know like it It feels like you know he's he's up there playing the show and like probably talk shit. Yeah, but like doesn't give a shit about like who's out in the crowd he's like I'm playing the songs and you know him or not and
Vincent Neil Emerson 25:45
then he's on the road again just to say well and Allison isn't around me I don't care you know, I think he still kills it with the with the guitar solos and everything. He's still killing it.
Thomas Mooney 25:55
I think honestly like he's another guy who Yeah, he's probably gone through a couple lols because he's putting out records all the damn time. But like even his last few records have been really pretty solid. You know? Like the reiden still there there's like that I can't think what the damn name of it is but his last one that he had had like Tony Joe white on it and stuff like that before we passed Yeah. Like Jamie Johnson was on it and it was just like, you know, solid wreck. Yeah, yeah, but I've never I've never seen crying either. He's just like I don't know like he just they say like he goes to the same like rush like the same breakfast place in Nashville every
Vincent Neil Emerson 26:42
time and you want to your craziest story, man. Oh, check this out. So he's done in Nashville for over a Nashville rather for a couple of shows. And we stopped into this. This place called Arnold's is right next door to Carter vintage guitars. My favorite place to eat in Nashville. And I guess we read the 30 minutes, like early or late but we john prine came in and shot part of his music video there. So we were like I was there that day. So if I was there, like 30 minutes early. Yeah, I would have or 30 minutes late whatever it was. I would have saw john prior. And I probably would have like been in the music video. Adult like you're just passing through the crowd.
That would have been neat.
But yeah, I've had a few buddies that have opened up for him and played on stage with him man. Oh, Coulter wall. Yeah. And in No. Yeah, it's incredible. This
Thomas Mooney 27:42
was a talk with you know, sometime in the next couple of weeks for an article about his new record. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I think that I've been trying to think of like, figure out what exactly who he reminds me of. Like, specifically, there's a there's somebody out there who he reminds me of specifically, but he's still like, lost on I'm trying to pinpoint that. The obvious one is kind of like Bob Dylan neurite Yeah, those that early Dylan? fail.
Vincent Neil Emerson 28:14
He also reminded him of Brian a lot too, though. In a way. Yeah, he's got some good songs. I like that guy a lot.
Thomas Mooney 28:22
Yeah. His voices it just it feels like I've heard it all my life and then you know, obviously the good ones are Yeah, here. So
Vincent Neil Emerson 28:31
like ever hear song feels like you've heard it your whole life growing up, right? Yeah. No call to wall stuff like that for me, like 13 silver dollars when
Thomas Mooney 28:43
I was in this shit forever, man. Right? Yeah. He's, he's one of those guys who in a kind of in a different way than Charlie. But like, he's, you know, he's bringing back these like old Western songs, these old trail songs and these old frontier songs, and bringing them back to the mainstream and trying to show all these kids Hey, this is his music and you check out
Vincent Neil Emerson 29:10
Yeah, I think he's just so damn good that he could he could record the ABCs and people would like holy shit that sounds bad. But he's a shining light on some really good stuff
Thomas Mooney 29:23
now. Yeah. Is Yeah, you okay? So like you You guys were I guess like Jason momoa did that video there we go saw that. What was that like? What was it like?
Vincent Neil Emerson 29:40
Man tell you what we was just being in Canada. For me. It was just a trip to begin with. I had like a week before we go on to ricotta and like took a break. Or either we took a break and came back or it was a second tour. I can't remember it's all blur. But I had to I didn't have a passport at Time like a week before, so I had to go downtown Dallas, and my truck ran out of gas had to get like all this batch it happened. Finally got my passport like that day pays a ton of money to get it. Yeah. And somehow Malmo to Canada but just being in Canada was a trip in itself and sound checking and I see Mary Coulter's manager walk in. I know her like, way better, you know, and then some big dude and like a trucker hat, wakes back up my guy waving at me. So we finished sound checking and Bill back up to the to the green room area backstage, and I walk in Coulter's green room and grab a beer and some whiskey. Or Sally was bitching at me for drinking all his whiskey. drama. And this kind of standing around, a bunch of people sit down, you know, and I feel a tug on the back of my shirt. And look down some the big dude in the truck had said, He's like, Hey, man, I'm Jason Good to meet you. I was like, oh, man, good to meet you too. And I just kind of didn't think much of it and kind of walked around and took a drag and, you know, just like my pupils dilated. I realized on my way that I just started watching that shows like frontier. Yeah, like that's a that's a conditional. No. I was just I ran into the next our green room, which is next door to Coulter's. And, and I go to a guitar player at the time. I was a Hey, man, Jason momos in the next room, and I fuck with everybody constantly.
So he didn't believe
he just gave me that look. And I'm like, no frill this time he's a guy he gets up and picks turns like holy shit was going on. I have no fucking idea, man. I don't know what's going on my life is is getting real. I mean, playing for those big ass crowds with Coulter just credible was a trip for me because I'm used to playing a little little hockey Thompson barbecue joints and stuff like that just and sometimes playing in front of nobody. So going from that to this big kind of deal. is a trip and then famous guy. Yeah, but I think the biggest thing that surprised all of us wasn't the fact that he was there was just how nice he was and how good of a dude he was, you know?
Thomas Mooney 32:19
Yeah,
Vincent Neil Emerson 32:20
he was slapping us on the back, like in the lower back like really, really hurts. Yeah, when we get drunk, we do the it's called the Mimosa slap. They're leaning over to a comb. I call them Mimosa a couple of times, and he just laughed his ass off. Yeah, that was funny. Yeah, at least I think he thought it was funny. But he
Thomas Mooney 32:38
looks so it's a strange, juxtaposed thing where you look super down to earth and super, like into everything y'all were doing but also like, this larger than life character where, you know, he was still a movie star. You know what I mean?
Vincent Neil Emerson 32:55
Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure it's gotta be. It's gotta be crazy for him to this. Should I do wakes up sometimes it realizes like, holy shit. Like, yeah, insane life. I'm living right now. Yeah. But he's he really is a Down to Earth kind of guy, man. Yeah, him his phone numbers like text me man. Like what the fuck? Yeah. Gotta have my phone ring. My little sister shouldn't steal but
Thomas Mooney 33:21
yeah, no shit. Heavy text. Everything of you. You said like, hey,
Vincent Neil Emerson 33:26
we've been texting about town's records. Okay, what's your favorite town's record isn't that he's supposed to come to Dallas. Not too long ago, but I think he tooks he took some other movies somewhere else. So now, we have mutual friends actually. And all the enough my buddy Kenny Kirk over in Fort Worth. He runs chopper supply. They have like a knife company together. Oh, yeah. No idea. That's crazy. Yeah. Yeah.
Thomas Mooney 33:55
That, uh, there's, in my opinion, like, my favorite of the town's covers that culture does that snake mountain blues, like man blue, gamma down low. I think like that's, in my opinion. That's my favorite of his name. Good song covers there that he played here. Back in February on Tuesday. Yeah, it was his first time being in Lubbock. But he liked it.
Vincent Neil Emerson 34:24
I think it was there a couple days before him. Oh, yeah, I think so. I think it was. Yeah, maybe it was a couple of weeks. I can't remember. But how was the shows
Thomas Mooney 34:33
it was it was packed in here is packed and it was okay, we we talked a little bit about Gweek. We did a podcast but we did it in his van out front because Oh, they opened up like it ate. And so like, you know, obviously a lot of people were already in here and
Vincent Neil Emerson 34:49
everything. Yeah, you can't. I think if we if we go past whatever time I don't think anybody's gonna be. Yeah, it'd be bothering us too much, you
Thomas Mooney 34:56
know, but they were because they were obviously there was a lot And all that kind of stuff and we were sitting in there and I compared it to like, like Jurassic Park where you're sitting in the front two seats and watching people walk by and be like, they're just like not knowing if they should knock on the window or Oh, yeah, you know, but uh, man,
Vincent Neil Emerson 35:16
I had a crazy my first time playing here. My first time playing here was a opened up for Justin Townes Earle? which at the time, I was like, I was really in his music. I like to stuff I still do. But uh, I just discovered him and was kind of diving into his, into his music and his style and the way he picks everything. And actually got an offer to play here. Open up for therapy. None. I was like, shit, like, that's a big deal, man. Holy hell. Yeah. So I say yeah, of course, man. Let's do it. So getting the, the I think we were rolling in like a Pontiac like a shitty, like grand dam or something. I don't know. Like, just shoved in the back. About halfway here. I get a call from Red Shan actually was wanting to book me for the show. Yeah. And he's like, Hey, man, sorry, you're not gonna be open up for European on the day. Like, shit. I'm using was gonna go wrong. Like, yeah, I don't know who the guy is. But he's like, he's,
he's good.
He's a good dude. You're like, oh, let's you know here a little while. So I'm like, maybe 10 minutes away from the venue. 10 minutes away from here. And he's like, he gives me a call. He's like, Hey, man. It's this guy named Justin towns in towns like doing just towns rural America. He knew I don't know that's added that for dramatic effect. So I read I don't think so. Did I even know he was you know what his life were we get to the venue and I'm like, holy shit. He pulls up in like a toilet a tundra. Wearing like shorty shorts and a fucking, and like boat shoes and is running around banging on the doors trying to get in? Yeah, I remember him being so upset that there's no green room. But I was more manager kind of like, yeah, I'm sorry, Justin Townes. Earle.
Thomas Mooney 37:12
I've heard about like, your business right now about the the green room kind of situation. But yeah, well, it's like, there's no green room. So that's kind of like the, in my opinion, like one of the obviously, it's kind of a drawback, but I think it's kind of a special thing about blue light is that it kind of pushes the whoever's playing into the crowd. Like, that's not everyone's style, but I think it makes a better, quote, unquote, fan friendly environment.
Vincent Neil Emerson 37:43
Yeah, some people just don't just prefer to keep themselves distance from the crowd, which is, you know, whatever. Yeah. You don't owe anybody anything. Right. I see it. Yeah. I think if you're providing music for people, that should be enough, but personally, I try to hang out people just it's a trip for me to step. Anybody even likes my stuff. Yeah, anybody would even come out to see me play. So Haley, I'm gonna come hang out with him and drink with him.
Thomas Mooney 38:11
Or, you know, yeah, I guess like the one of the problem is, is whenever, you know, the guy who's like, painted my, my, my admission ticket. So like, you owe me more than that. You know what I'm saying? Like, that guy who's like, yeah, I paid whatever amount to come in here. And
Vincent Neil Emerson 38:31
some folks think they're gonna get a lifelong friendship for for $10 or something.
Thomas Mooney 38:37
Yeah, that's what I've always. Not always. But I've said a bunch of probably people who listen are like, okay, you said this 100 times, but I think it's so true is that, you know, we, everyone loves to have that water cooler story, back when they go back to their job and be like, Oh, I bought shots for the band. And you know, it's like, but it was it was that they're, they're the only shot they drink that night? Or? Or is that like the 15th person who tried to buy them shots at night? And are you getting pissed off because they don't want to take a shout out? You know, saying
Vincent Neil Emerson 39:14
one time I brought his car water on stage, and I felt so cool because he drank a sip of it. pays Carl, he likes me. We're friends now. Hey, I think I walked up to him and I was like, Hey, man, I was the guy who brought you water. He's like, cool, give a shit about what fuck? Who cares, right?
Thomas Mooney 39:34
He's, uh, he's one of the first when I first started, like new slang and it was just based like just, it was not a podcast. It was just all online kind of thing. The, I guess. I had interviewed Ray Wylie Hubbard, he said, you know, if you ever need anything, you got my phone number. You're just gonna let me know. Of course like you hear that like, how many times you hear I go you got my phone number you need anything so I'm trying to get like a hold of face Carl and email his manager email his press email like, you know a couple times trying to get an interview because he was coming through and I was like no replies so I just text Ray and like, there you go explained the situation and he didn't get he didn't say nothing back like and I was like fuck. And then like the next day I got a text from Hayes Carlson like, Hey, this is a scar. That's cool, man. And I was like, Oh, fuck yeah. It's actually that night was a pretty fun. We did that interview that he played up here a couple of days later or whatever. And it was kind of funny like there is he was sitting out back and this is like back Have you ever been here before the before like this patio was built? Yeah, I think they just show it was before the patio. There was like a smaller patio and just picnic tables out there and real dark. And anyways, he's sitting on a picnic table and I'm talking to him. The guy comes up was like, man, I saw you and a names off some little town and like Mississippi here like Alabama, I can't even remember. The name is like we're like, I don't think I ever played there. No, man you played volleyball was back like couple years and like he's let's like, let's just talk on this guy. Yeah, this guy's like, you probably wouldn't remember. Yeah. But he was like, Man, you played and it was you and blah, blah. No, it was it was back in any, you know, the year and it was involved on he just keeps on and he's like, I don't know. I don't I don't remember this. But, you know, after like, 10 minutes of this. He's like, well, I don't know. Maybe Maybe I did play this. And then the other guy walks off and 30 minutes later he comes back and he's like, hey, it was great meeting you and everything. And you were right. It wasn't you that I saw I was confusing you and Zac Brown band go hand in hand. Well, it happens I just walked up and that's fucking
Vincent Neil Emerson 42:23
funniest shit. Yeah. Somebody got me confused for Coulter wall. Well outside. I think that should happen with everybody in the band or anybody that's opened up for Coulter? Yeah, as people who are I don't know if it's they just really don't know what Coulter wall looks like. Yeah. Or they're just blinded by. There's still like they're starstruck of just being there that they're blinded. They can't see anybody. They just lose all facial recognition skills. Yeah. But uh, I'm about 200 pounds heavier than I don't have a red beard. But yeah, my jammer got it a bunch of times two. With funny, man. Yeah.
Thomas Mooney 43:03
Is that who you've been? Is that like the one? I guess like your opening? Or is there been other? I don't know. Insert name here.
Vincent Neil Emerson 43:13
I've got an actually this is a plot twist. Y'all. everybody listening. You're actually listening to Joshua Ray Walker right now? This is Joshua. Good to see you. Later. Who's on the podcast couple weeks ago. Yeah, I get that. I get that one. Sometimes, you know, we're both big dudes wear a cowboy hat some dw? Yeah, whatever you know, renamed. Now. I couldn't be more flattered to be mistaken for Josh Ray Walker.
Thomas Mooney 43:43
Yeah, man, he's been getting some really great shows to doing some so what do you think it was record you obviously love
Vincent Neil Emerson 43:53
it man. He's my brother dude. Yeah, I love that guy like a brother. Me and him man. I think the day I met him man, we just hit it off. I say this about most of my friends but they hit it off like two peas in a pod. Yeah, he's killing him. Yeah, he really is. Yeah.
Thomas Mooney 44:13
I was telling him I thought he had like a there's like a blaze Foley kind of quality to to his ride and where there's like this. Blaze Foley and dwight yoakam had a baby. And that baby had a mullet. When he showed up that day, he's like our load up and coming over here and like he's wearing like, I guess like a kind of like a poncho or no, no, he was wearing like a, like a trash bag. Tropical shirt. Oh truck, tropical shirt. Oh, yeah. And he was like, Hey, I left my denim jacket in the passenger seat of my car, and I'm mean that denim jacket always just kind of ties everything together. And so I think like everyone's just gonna expect me to play Jimmy Buffett songs.
Vincent Neil Emerson 45:07
Yeah, I guess you can't really. There's too much Hawaiian pattern showing, you know, and that's a lot of man read a lot of fabric. Yeah. Me and him got very, very similar fashion. Will you send us a sense of style? Or fashion Easter's? Yeah, that is that like Texas? kind of thing like, throwing a Hawaiian shirt and a straw cowboy hat and like some boots. Exactly. The party man. Yeah, that's like that, right? Well, you have a song like got me a Port Aransas dope dealer. I look like a Porter Ranch dope dealer who's out on bail the time to get home. Yeah. When I got me some mirror sunglasses. I got a pager. I got a mobile phone. I got a Hawaiian shirt. Yeah. Yeah.
Thomas Mooney 45:57
Yeah, I was gonna bring up something else I completely forgot.
Vincent Neil Emerson 46:02
That's okay. Yeah, the last you bring up the better with me, because we pretty much cover all the good stuff. We cover all the bad stuff. It's
all the stuff that your manager was like, in the fall. Record? Yeah, yeah. 10 to 13 songs. Yeah, we're gonna Who knows? Yeah. That the place you cut it? That's like the like a Leon bridges. Yeah, Leon recorded his record over there. Yeah. Yeah. was like before it was even a studio. Really. It was kind of like a makeshift kind of deal. They had really, it was a golf equipment testing facility. So they had a bunch of like, a bunch of turf, like, I guess astroturf It was called fake grass kind of shit. And they just kind of set up their equipment. Just made record. Live straight to tape. Yeah. I'm good buddies with all sending careers and jobs. They run the place. And my guitar player actually just started working there, too. He's been he's been in and out of there for a long time. But yeah, not often. So Andrew skates. Sorry, Andrew. Grady Spencer just finished his he did his record there. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, he's a lovely guy.
moved over to Fort Worth and Grady Spencer's cool. They go get failor Yeah, just fell apart. smeller.
Thomas Mooney 47:33
He's, he's one of those guys. He's really good on the Instagram story. Oh, yeah.
Vincent Neil Emerson 47:38
My favorite is Paul coffin, dude. Oh, Paul, if you've seen interacted with Paul on social media for gold now due to just he needs to be on Saturday Night Live. You need to clone Paul crop and get about four or five of him going? And maybe like, you'd be surprised how funny culture while is. mouth. He's funny. He's really funny. He's got good comedic timing. Okay, there you go.
Thomas Mooney 48:09
Now, I was kind of surprised by Coulter was he was just a, like hanging out front. Like before the show? Yeah, just drinking beer and smoking cigarettes and talking with anybody who came up. You know what I mean? And I guess sometimes you think of like, if a guy's a serious songwriter, if a guy's like, you know, being getting a lot of success, you got to maybe think like, is he going to be too cool for school or in right? And he was just, you know, just laid back and everything. Going back to Paulo? I thought like Sunday father's was gonna like change and revolutionize country music. Like there were going to be the big fucking thing.
Vincent Neil Emerson 48:56
I don't know, man. I didn't know. Paul back then when he's doing sons and fathers and actually I've never even heard Did you even heard of sons of fathers to man? Man him from the same? I believe in same place. Wait, is Terrell and Vance and county? Is it Terrell County. I can't remember. We're from right down the road from each other though. Both East Texas. Yeah. I love that guy. Death too is a good guy.
Thomas Mooney 49:19
Yeah, yeah. Now he played hit up here a whole bunch. And he crashed on couches up here for a couple of weeks here and there. And he's just a good guy. Good. Yeah. I'm excited about like, what what this next record is gonna look like and feel like I heard it. Yeah, good. Oh, did he? Did he do the did enough cut in like that song goat crow whiskey. I wanted him in Ross Cooper wrote,
Vincent Neil Emerson 49:50
you know, he showed me a handful of the tunes is kind of quick. Yeah, we were doing. We were playing Granada and Dallas with Coulter and he showed up naturally showed up and got into his third camera where it's a bronco or it's like a Dodge Ram kind of like this old school kind of that kind of truck. You know, just like the velvet interiors on my actual my cigarette like watch the veil. Sean. Chill out. He put on a couple of songs. You played me a couple of the songs, man. I just oh, they're good. They were different did he have?
Thomas Mooney 50:25
Did he have like a hat holder thing like old school 80s that I didn't see one, but
Vincent Neil Emerson 50:31
it wouldn't surprise I didn't see any of those damn things in forever. That sounds like I've never even seen one of those. You know what I'm talking about. Now? I know. That sounds like a damn good idea, though. Okay, so like, I'm really older. We stick the brim in it.
Thomas Mooney 50:47
Yeah, like basically like it would be like a metal wire. thing I've
Vincent Neil Emerson 50:51
had is that by the way? It's a it's a Stetson. Like that, man. Oh Stetson just sent me this hat right here. What did Tom Mix here? It's nice. That it sounds different. Without the sound is kind of like bounces off the it's like a sombrero man.
Thomas Mooney 51:06
Yeah, I love the they call that like the cigarette cigar roll.
Vincent Neil Emerson 51:12
is on the dish. should call it a cigar. Oh, I don't know. I think it's a pencil roll. It is a roll. The pencil rolls that then roll the I think this is a this is the jelly roll. This put a bunch of grape jelly on your hat and punch you in the face as hard as they can.
Yeah. We look like a couple of drunks over here. All these empty bottles just laying around. I know. Get some some ambient bar noises going on in the background.
Thomas Mooney 51:51
Paper think we're gonna start doing like an ASMR video or some shit. What is that? Never heard. ASMR is it kind of like when you do? Like what? It's just like tapping and shit like that. Like we're like people like, like a sensory kind of deal. Yeah, like were they like just kind of like tap on shit. Just like just do this. Not like that hardcore. But yeah, we're like just
Vincent Neil Emerson 52:13
errors it like when people like cut cheese. slice into cheese and do weird kind of shit. Like, yeah, that kind of shit. Gotcha. Yeah. Like watch. It's like watching somebody throw up.
Thomas Mooney 52:26
You know cut and cheese. It's great. You can't look away. Yeah. So the very soothing about that. I think we will get some more beers. Sounds good to me. You good?
Vincent Neil Emerson 52:40
Good with the with the whole. I think I could have said some better things, but I think we're okay. Yeah, I think we did pretty good.
Thomas Mooney 52:48
I think so. It's been a good one. Yeah.
Vincent Neil Emerson 52:50
Thank you. Appreciate you coming on and everything. Hell yeah. I wish we could record a handshake right now I would say oh no, we're shaking hands. Right now
we're shaking hands rubbing against
Transcribed by https://otter.ai