177: RC Edwards
On Episode 177, I'm joined by Oklahoma songwriter RC Edwards. We talk about RC's new band--RC & The Ambers--their forthcoming debut album Big Country, Bryant "Big Country" Reeves, Turnpike Troubadours shows, and hear a few old songwriting stories.
This episode's presenting partner is Desert Door Texas Sotol and The Blue Light Live.
Interview Transcript
Note: Transcripts aren’t always accurate since they are computer automated and haven’t been edited for spelling, grammar, etc.
Thomas Mooney 0:02
Hey y'all Welcome back to New slang. I am music journalist Thomas Mooney. And we're closing down the week with Episode 177 where I'm joined by RC Edwards. Rc of course is a founding member of one of my all time favorite bands, Turnpike troubadours and is now the frontman of a new band, his new band, RC in the ambers. He was in love with the other day playing a show at blue light. So we did a quick little episode after the soundcheck, we talk about big country, the forthcoming debut album by RC and the ambers. And we talked about some of those songs and share a few old stories and a few other things about basketball and the thunder and whatnot. Today's presenting partner is our pals over at Desert door Texas Soto. If you've been listening to new slang for really any amount of time, you'll know that desert door is one of my all time favorite premium, high quality spirits. If you haven't, or aren't sure what exactly a sotol is. I'm going to let you in on a little secret that's going to up the game on your liquor cabinet. For starters, the best reference point that I can point you to is to think about a tequila or a scowl. Do you feel that Western desert that Texas ruggedness? Okay, Soto is like that, but a little bit more refined, smooth and fragrant. It intrigues the palate and offers these hints of vanilla and citrus, there's an earthiness that often sends me right back to my transpac is some Far West Texas roots. There's plenty to love about desert door. For me, it all starts right there. a close second is just how versatile desert door really is. You can go full highbrow and experiment with concocting a variety of cocktails that call for muddling fresh fruit sprigs of time sticks of cinnamon, it's perfect for that world. If you're a little bit more down home, if you've just rolled up the sleeves up your denim Wrangler button up, it's perfect for that as well. If you're just desiring something that short and sweet, it hits the mark every time does adore is genuine and authentically West Texan it's inherently West Texan. They harvest Soto plants out in the wild and are knowledgeable conservationists at heart. That's obviously something incredibly important to me. They shine a light on what makes West Texas special and unique and worth preserving and keeping it safe from exploitation. Right now, you can find desert door all over Texas, Colorado, Tennessee, and there's budding numbers in places like New Mexico, Arizona, California and Georgia. Best thing you can do is the checkout desert door.com to find where desert door is locally. Again, that's desert door.com. If this is your first time listening to new slang, be sure and hit that subscribe button. New slang is available on Apple podcast, Spotify, Google podcasts, and virtually everywhere you can listen to podcasts. Of course, if you're going to do so take another two seconds and hit that five star review. It does go a long way. Be sure to make a pit stop on over at the merch store. That would be a new slang podcast dot big cartel.com. Over there we have plenty of T shirts and coffee mugs and shot glasses and a lot of other stuff. If you're wanting even more new slang stuff, a great way to support this podcast my 90s country podcast the neon Eon and journalism in general is to sign up and become a part of my Patreon. You can sign up for monthly merge packs, add free episodes or be part of our postcard club for as little as three bucks a month. And of course all the links that I just mentioned they will be in the show notes. Which Yeah, short episode. Let's do a short intro here is RC Edwards.
RC Edwards 3:52
I'm not good enough to listen to any of those like last names me and Amber did during the shutdown. Like on Facebook. No, I
Thomas Mooney 3:59
didn't really watch any anybody's stuff because I found like
RC Edwards 4:03
so a lot of them we had like everybody. Karen was there with the portable speaker and he would he had downloaded a like an app of like sound effects on this deal. And so he was like, you know how the morning radio guys will have like the guy yeah, good point. It made the laugh track or clap or Womp womp Yeah, a lot of weird ones. And it was it was really it's pretty funny like added to the show.
Thomas Mooney 4:29
Yeah, I wish I was a good enough to be one of the radio guys because hypothetically what you'd want to be able to do is just have it where you could have all the intros in with it and just like do the intro with the nausicaa and and all that kind of shit and then be like bam, bam, bam. Yeah, what's nice about here and I've seen people talk about you can like, obviously upload whatever you want. So like it let's say, one time RC you said this about this
RC Edwards 4:58
prepared Yeah, like I listen to a lot of like sports talk radio and I like I like Gideon played played a clip that listen to what he said, you know, and it'll be like a some interview a guy had that day or something. Right and you could do it again. It's like, I'm gonna ask if you remember this
What? What is this attack piece? Yeah.
Thomas Mooney 5:21
That'd be nice. Yeah. Well, I mainly got this though was just because we got the phone line. So I was like, plugging the phone in versus I was like, having to put different like, I had like an iRig. And like all this shit dad's like, plug into a different board. I guess the plug into my phone for phone calls? Yes. For calling stuff. Because all of this almost like 99% of this has been over the phone these past year. So Oh, yeah. Last year, especially now. Right. So it's been been a minute since the the first in person ones. So it's been? We were very first ones. How are you the very first Yeah, you guys were the first ones and like,
RC Edwards 6:02
I've been in Cherokee County too long and probably hard to understand. Sometimes we're finally getting out into the civilized world again.
Thomas Mooney 6:08
Yeah, that's whenever I was so unprepared on any of this shit. Where you know, I had Parker doing all of the the engineering the engineering and stuff. Because like originally him and me and him were going to be doing it together. And it was like, oh, Parker, you really don't talk much. Like I can't get you to fucking dock at all during any of these silent co host. Yeah, you just moral support and engineering. Yeah, just do the head down over there. Parker's head nodding right now. So yeah, but
RC Edwards 6:43
anyways, my favorite things and that first one like you were like, you were at a lot of the songs I can it. Like, what are you thinking of like how? I think I went on some rant about like, there were certain words he doesn't like to use. Just made up of some nonsense.
Thomas Mooney 7:00
Well, like I still will ask people about stuff like that. Because the it's all based off of no Gallagher talking about for Oasis, having certain words that he would write because he knew his brother could sing them better. Because he had like the long vowels funny idea. Like, yeah.
RC Edwards 7:20
I guess I would never think about it personally. But I would think about a word as far as like, Is it ever I'm singing or if anyone's singing it? Is it sound better? vocally? Yeah, as a word. It might be prettier on a page. But it doesn't it's not gonna be pretty singing it. Right?
Thomas Mooney 7:35
Yeah. Because like catastrophe, you can Yeah, cuz it's, it's all in the long vowels. If you can, like stretch out that bow. The only person who I remember actually saying, Yes, and this is like, just recent was Terry McBride, who? McBride in the ride. Not his band. Who once had been broke up. Yeah, he's right. He was a kid goes to cowboy hat. Right? Oh. But he was talking about how the he ended up like writing a bunch of songs for Brooks and Dunn. And like, Okay, well, Ronnie, you can sing a certain way. And like he wrote, like, if you if you see her if you see him. And so like he was saying, like, he was thinking about the way reburn Ronnie Dunn Singh. And like, his little demo of It is him doing a Ronnie Dunn impression, basically. So yeah. Only person though. I mean, that's literally like the only person who said, matter of fact. Yes. So next level there. I know. But yeah, it's, uh, how it goes, I guess. I don't know. Obviously, you guys have you have a new record that's going to be coming pretty soon. Oh, yeah. What's the give a little little synopsis synopsis a little short intro to it.
RC Edwards 9:00
It's called big country. And title check is a song I wrote called the big country about big country, Ryan Reeves, who you might remember from 90s basketball fame. And it is from a town real close to where I grew up Gaines Oklahomans, he was sort of a folk hero and like kind of still is, you know, big country. And so I kind of saw naturally you got to write a song about him. And so that was one of the tracks on the record. And we get to kind of think of the name as a big country, man. I liked that a lot. And the buddy pigs was doing some artwork for us, and another song and records called astronaut, and it's one of me and Johnny Burke wrote. And he made because I've seen some tracks like this is sort of what we're working with. I could get any design ideas and he made this design and it was an astronaut making some stars and then I said big country and it's gonna be the album cover but um, you know, it was like, Hello, but I liked it. I do. Yeah. big country that's base. That's the biggest country you know? And I was like that that kind of works together and so that's sort of how the name came together. Yeah. Now as far as the story the album It's a lot of songs bands a long time that these songs I've written them for you know, Johnny, Hank early produced mix mastered engineer played every instrument you can think of like, it was, it was very much like me Hanks project. And he, he was the magician on the whole thing. And there's one of his songs on there. It's called Oklahoma Beachbody. And that's it. That's going to be our first single it's should be around the middle of June I believe in and we're looking at don't have a date yet. But the record should be out this fall, like turns out a lot of people made records last year. And so it's, it's almost like a traffic jam through distribution people as far as getting them out and getting getting stuff printed or pressed. Like it's, uh, yeah, it's there's definitely like a traffic jam and releasing music flow right now. But we finally got some wheels turning and it looks like it should be at around September. And then we'll have some singles like, like hitting in the middle of June. But kind of made it out throughout, I think we started in the fall and kind of finished up around December, like, just, you know, like, some of it was just not having much to do during when everything's closed and right. So, like, Did pre production and writing and, and started recording in the fall. And it's, that's something I've been wanting to do for a while, like, I've made a solo record once, once so long ago was like, hilariously long ago, like me and Fulbright made one and do grant that I've got a copy of it, but it's never, never never really seen the light of day, but it's fine, but it's just not really the quality that people might expect in us and the sound in a record, but this one's pretty, pretty legit. So we're really happy with him. First one that I've got to do with Amber and Justin Kay's on it our mandolin player, the two newest guys in the band aren't on it. It was done before they really got in a band. And by the way, yeah, like I said, like Hank does most apart. It's pretty excited about it is it's a lot of songs. You know, some new ones, but then also some old ones that I'd written it didn't didn't really fit Turnpike. And so this is sort of an outlet for that. Got some horns on there, Corey graves, the lambda layers, he was nice enough to do some horns on it. Gave Pearson Turnpike drums, and then a Caden a mandolin and reducing vote vocals, and then I just played guitar and sang the rest of his Hank, it's, it's a very Hank, I really driven project, which is a good thing.
Thomas Mooney 13:04
Yeah. Yeah, I, you know, I didn't really thought about it, having the, where, you know, everyone's gotten in line to do distribution. And, you know, there being a jam, because like everyone's talked about next year, I'm going to, that's when I'm going to release the record. And all these people you talk with, it's like, you know, we've put off the record for eight months or a year, we've had this in the back pocket. And then now all of a sudden now, you know, everyone's going to be trying to release it this year. Oh, no, like, even just like with vinyl specifically. I know, like a lot of that's been backed up, but I didn't really necessarily even think about just the all the other shit just like the you know, if you're doing CDs, obviously, or just someone's punching that in the computer.
RC Edwards 13:49
Yeah, it's sort of, you know, two sided, like they, I mean, not too sad. There's the two factors. There's one like that people delay their releases, because they're COVID. They couldn't get out and promote it. The other one is people made more records, because they were, they weren't out playing live. They were at home working there. Well, we might as well make a record. And that kind of so lots of musics coming out. And then what really? And like yeah, vinyl is one of the slow things, hardest things to get done right now. It's like, I think four to six months right now to press vinyl. Right?
Thomas Mooney 14:21
I know that like a lot of people. It's been that you can pre order it now. And then you'll get it when it's
RC Edwards 14:27
you know, when you get it. Yeah, that's that's kind of what a lot of people fell into. I remember with I think Kyle had to have trouble. He had
Thomas Mooney 14:36
said that there was like something messed up on on the print. So it basically hit them back to the back of the line. You know, because like he wasn't gonna put out something that had just everything.
RC Edwards 14:49
like everything's aligned and all every part of it, it seems like and like I said, the lines pretty long right now.
Thomas Mooney 14:56
This episode of new slang is brought to you by the blue light, live. Here in Lubbock, Texas, blue light has long been the heart and soul of the Lubbock singer songwriter scene, and has been a home away from home for some of Texas Americana, country and rock and roll's finest over the years. Talk with 99.9% of the Songwriters who have come out of Lubbock and the panhandle at large over the past 10 years. And they'll point to just how integral and necessary the blue light is, with live music and touring slowly but surely coming back spots like the blue light, or getting back to their usual ways as well. That means music every night of the week. Do you want to see that schedule? Well, I've got a few options for you. One, go to their socials and give them a follow up that is at blue light live on Twitter, at the blue light live on Instagram. And of course, by just searching the blue light live on Facebook, they're consistently posting that week's lineup of shows, as well as those heavy hitters that ought to be on your calendar that are coming up on the horizon. To check out blue light lubbock.com as well. There, they have the full schedule, the cover charges, time, any of those specials that may be happening while they're go check out their merch page. They have a wide range of hats, koozies, hoodies, sweaters, beanies, jackets, and so much more. You can of course get all of your merchant age, when you go see your favorite band, take the stage at blue light, just ask the bartender and they will get you all set. Speaking of which, that's another great way of seeing who's playing there. Just go to the blue light. It's at 1806 Buddy Holly Avenue here in Lubbock, Texas. And of course, again, that is blue light, loving, calm. I'll throw a link into the show notes to maybe I'll see you there. Okay, let's get back to the show. You know, I've always wondered about this is like, you go to these places, and there's a garage sale or something, right? And there's just a shit ton of vinyl that is never going to be bought. Right? It is, are they able to like recycle that to make new vinyl? I have no idea.
RC Edwards 17:15
I see like lots of arts and crafts people, like make ashtrays and right. That's it, but yeah, I wonder that's the interesting question. Cuz you could you just melt it and start again, you know?
Unknown Speaker 17:25
Yeah.
RC Edwards 17:26
I don't know. I have to do some googling on that when probably. Yeah, I didn't think you'd have the answer. My formal training is in pharmacy, Mooney. I'm not an industrial chemist. Hey, I mean, pharmaceutical chemist, maybe.
Thomas Mooney 17:44
But you know what I mean, it's like, there's all these fucking I don't know, I don't want to put any old you know, easy listening artists on blast. But, you know, we can just take all his records and melt them back down to
RC Edwards 17:59
record and then put like, we would always be digging through, you know, flea markets and thrift stores or wherever for records and there would be an insane amount of like, Christian and gospel records. And, and I don't know that it was just I think that those are just the people who donated to like the charities running a thrift store that we ended up adding. But yeah, there's so many vinyls that are just no one's ever gonna listen to that.
Thomas Mooney 18:27
Yeah, I'm still one of these guys who is like, dead set on like, finding love and gone everything. Like out in the wild. You know? Cuz I that's real. Yeah, that there has to be it has to be out there somewhere. And it's just been, you know, oh, someone said no, some of them like they're in someone's closet. So I
RC Edwards 18:51
found Rolling Stone sticky fingers with the with the workings zipper. Yeah,
I've got one of those. And it just made my day to the find that you know, like, I've seen the printed one before, but I hadn't seen the real zipper one. Yeah. Wonder how much extra that cost? Like, cuz that's another thing I'm learning. Like, because I'm dealing with all this record hands on. Like, would it cost is the custom make your art to make your cover work your press everything and like, that had to be a very expensive thing to add to a record working zipper. Yeah, because I obviously like the label and management were like, No, no, guys. No. And they're like, we have to we have
Thomas Mooney 19:34
to have a fucking zipper. Or it's either that or like back in the day. Like, because it's the stones. Oh, yeah, of course. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. Like,
RC Edwards 19:44
pocket to not liking it, but they can't tell them. No, you know, like, as soon as the meeting is over, they're like, Jesus Christ. zipper Really? Like you know, how much does the captain tell him exactly like, yes, it's extra $5 an hour. And yeah, a lot of money back then. Yeah.
Thomas Mooney 20:04
And that's the thing though, too is like, where maybe there was like the, because it's also limited, obviously, clearly, there's not like every fucking one of them with a
RC Edwards 20:12
what if there was like a particularly like zipper factory that they were friends with and like, and this is the day like we're gonna we're gonna sell 100,000 zippers for you for our album.
Thomas Mooney 20:25
Well I was thinking that or like the, the number of like, okay, like pre meeting, we know that these get like Mick and Keith are going to want the zipper because clearly the covers like that. What's our number? You know? Nothing over 5000
RC Edwards 20:42
Yeah. Okay, yeah, yeah, obviously we have to do this because it's what make once but what can we cut him off at? You know?
Thomas Mooney 20:51
Yeah. I always think about with the stones now is after Keith put out that book. He refers to to MC as brinda like in he says it like in a like, it didn't wasn't like, supposed to be like a slap to the face or condescending. You're supposed to be in a loving a loving way. It's like how is that like loving whatsoever? Like, at any point? Todd Snyder has a song about it called Brenda.
RC Edwards 21:23
Yeah. Yeah. No, like, like how this is not like calling someone a I don't know, like a Nancy or something. Like something your your junior high gym coach, we'd like to call the like, like, pick it up Miranda or something like that, you know, like, like, how does it not come across that way? Yeah. But Miranda who is my friend love
Thomas Mooney 21:43
a loving way. I affectionately called him Brenda. Those bands. I wrote their own rules, I guess. Yeah. I always kind of go like everyone gives MC shit. For like, you know, kind of being the Oh, it'd be fun to be in a band with Keith Richards. You know, it's like no, actually, like all your livelihood is tied to like him. And like cuz no one wants a MC solo record out of him. Even though he put out a couple of
RC Edwards 22:12
bogeys? Yeah. Yeah, just worked together. I think they both like thrived off of each other.
Thomas Mooney 22:19
Yeah, no, I mean, that's it had to be that way for, especially those two guys. I think. So. I don't know. Going back to the record, though. Big country. You know, obviously, I'm a basketball guy. That guy big country is like one of those What if guys I know like now like people kind of go with the he's too slow in the NBA. And all that stuff is like, well, he also got like, super injured. Like pretty early on.
RC Edwards 22:45
Yeah, he had back problems. Like, it's a common misconception that big country was a bust like draft one, right? Yeah. He was all rookie team. He was all second year team. He had like a great three or four, like, his big contract. The contract that was a bus was his second contract. Because that's when I, like, get his rookie contract was great. He was like a 2010 guy every night. And a second contract. He got hurt right after that. And it's back and then kind of wasn't ever the same after that. But like, as a draft pick in a rookie, like his first, you know, three to four years. Dude was salty, unstoppable. And but yeah, he wasn't a bust as a draft pick. That second contract was kind of a bust.
Thomas Mooney 23:29
Yeah. I also think about how cuz he was drafted by Vancouver. When when the Grizzlies were in Vancouver. That's like, obviously Fast Forward 10 years. And the Grizzlies are in Memphis. That's kind of like a perfect landing spot. Other than obviously, obviously, Oklahoma City.
RC Edwards 23:47
Oh, yeah. And that's, you know, I want to say he never played a game in Memphis. He was still on the team. But he never actually because that's when his injury started. Like he was supposed to play some and was back problems and never made it but yeah, like, that's Memphis isn't that far from like? Yeah, he's from almost Arkansas. He's from like, I don't know. 10 or 15 miles from Arkansas. So Oh, sad Oregon. So you're in Memphis and so? I don't not much further and Oklahoma City like so that they would have been a great fan base and yeah, the LSU fans and yeah, that would have been a cool spot. Like if we could have had some good years in Memphis. Does he? Is he back in Oklahoma? Do you even Yeah, I'm like, like my son. My friend and family are all down at school. You counting stealing? He's back in school you County. They see him all the time. And yeah, my I don't know that he's listened to it yet. But my my sister in law works at a car dealership and she she told him about the selling one day so I know. He knows we have a song about him. I don't know if he knows he made the the title cut, but he knows we got a song about him.
Thomas Mooney 24:51
Well, lucky for you. He does listen in new slang. So I mean, he's learned all this new stuff already now, and he was a hero of mine as a little kid. Yeah, be. I'm trying to think like back I guess like that's like the one with big countries especially just kind of like, Oh, well that guy's from Oklahoma. That's he's massive guy. Okay, well that's kind of a cool guy to play or be a fan of. But then soon obviously Dallas got Dirk. So it was like another Yeah. Tall white guy to be a big fan of and he didn't get injured. So, you know, I guess that's how it goes. Wow. Like
RC Edwards 25:27
my basketball heroes American.
Thomas Mooney 25:32
Yeah, like that's something good Dallas now. No. Yeah. Just Yeah. Yeah. But you, are you a thunder fan?
RC Edwards 25:43
Yeah, yeah. victim, Thunder fan. Like, I just always, you know, casually like the NBA probably didn't really have a favorite team. But then you had the thunder made like everyone in Oklahoma. Big fan. Did I did I know.
Thomas Mooney 25:56
Yeah. I have a friend who moved up to Oklahoma City. And he was kind of a Mavs spurs just kind of loose fan base kind of thing moves up Oklahoma City. And then like, just bought in to everything. And it's, I think there's like, in my opinion, there's this unofficial rule of like, if you're whatever your age is, you can't have like a guy's jersey. younger than you. You know,
RC Edwards 26:23
I didn't know that the rule but it makes sense. I like that know
Thomas Mooney 26:26
what I mean? Like, and this guy comes back and he's got jerseys and caps and I'm like, dude, and of course, like Russell's his guy, which of course,
RC Edwards 26:35
then Romania gone I was a James Harden, fan like in the early days and broke my heart when he got traded twice left.
Thomas Mooney 26:46
Well, that hole that trade right there is one of those things where, you know, they said they wouldn't be able to afford all three of them threaten Roswell and hard and then it came out well, it came out later. Like we're
RC Edwards 27:01
if we win the game back so much money. Yeah, kept hard.
Thomas Mooney 27:05
Yeah. Well, there's there's that there's the the they didn't anticipate they didn't have the foresight to see that the MBAs salary cap was going to also jump up, because that's the whole reason why Golden State could even get Katie because of the big money bump. And so had they realized that had the foresight, they would have been able to keep all three forever, basically.
RC Edwards 27:26
Yeah, I didn't also the with the KT deal, like, I don't know what the logic was. But, you know, obviously, if someone's not going to resign, and their contracts expiring, you're going to trade them and get what you can for him. Yeah. His whole excuse was, I'm waiting on cap to go up, so you can sign me for more. And they're like, okay, we'll keep you in that trade you. Yeah. And so that's how you end up empty handed? Right? Katie's at Golden State.
Thomas Mooney 27:52
Yeah. The I mean, I'm all about just like letting players go wherever and like not being pissed off at the player but also at the same time like oh my God, I've had 20 years of fucking Dirk and if you know who's to say Luca doesn't fucking leaving eight year eight year nine Yeah, you know so like, I probably would have a different opinion but we're so the under
RC Edwards 28:17
have been good since they've been in Oklahoma. And so like I didn't like the first two years maybe. So now like news being good and not having superstars is pretty different experience and for us.
Thomas Mooney 28:31
Yeah. Well, prestige has been trading everyone away for and just kind of being like the the waystation. Oh, just stocking up draft pick. Yeah. That's the way that he's been. Yeah, I met him. Hopefully we hit on sound. Well, that's the thing with now you guys got Horford and everyone thought like he was gonna be a you know, just dead dead weight, salary wise, all that kind of stuff. And the one thing that I've noticed that OKC never really does is buyouts. And like, Horford would be a buyout candidate. And instead of doing that, you'd be like, yeah, we're going to shut him down for the rest of the year. And, you know, see if we can trade them next year, and some contenders going to give a pic of some worth.
RC Edwards 29:15
Yeah, yeah, we're gonna have pics. I gotta make some right ones. All the bigs. FDA. Yeah, our future in I will say that.
Thomas Mooney 29:27
Like, of the teams that are going to be able to have Cade next year. Like I will say like oklahoma city would probably be like my first choice. Like I don't want them to go to like, the pelicans because like that bad ownership. Minnesota would just be a fucking like, that's where, you know, players go to die. So that would not be a bad quart of SGA and cutting. Happy to have him make some money. Yeah. I don't know if anyone's still listening here that they made it through the sports talk.
I want to break one more time to talk about our pals over at Desert door and offer up a quick Thomas Mooney cocktail minute. As I've said probably 100 times by now, by no means am I a seasoned mixologist or bartender, but these have been some of my desert door go twos. For starters, let's just go with the tried and true range water. pop the top off the topo, Chico, take a good swig. Now pour in some desert door and top it off by throwing in a few lime wedges never fails. This one. It's so simple. It probably doesn't even count. But again, pretty foolproof. do the exact same thing. But get you a Mexican Coca Cola. I guess you can go with a regular one. But you're really cutting yourself short if you don't opt for the Mexican import variety. All right, here's the change up you've been waiting for. Desert door sangria. This one is prime for when you have company coming over and you aren't wanting to just be over there making six different drinks at a time. What you'll need is some desert door. Obviously, a bottle of red wine, honey, boiling water, apple cider, apple cider vinegar, some cinnamon sticks, a couple of apples and some time sprigs. I know that may sound intimidating, but trust me it's worth the prep. And honestly, it's pretty easy. For starters, get you a Punchbowl, add that honey, those cinnamon sticks and the boiling water together. Now you're going to want to stir that all up and let it cool down for about an hour. So remember, patience is a virtue. Once that's done, add some desert door and stir vigorously. Now add the one the cider and the vinegar and continue stirring until it's equally mixed. Now slice those apples up and toss them in. Put in those times sprigs as well. Now you can pour that over some ice and you have a modified sangria chef's kiss. Anyway, those have been some of my favorite go twos as of late. And remember, desert door is as versatile as vodka and more refined, smooth, complex and intriguing than tequila. It's rich and balanced. And whether you decide to keep it simple or want to experiment. Desert door is that perfect Texas spirit. There's plenty more recipes over at Desert door.com as well. Check out the show notes for a link. All right. Let's get back to the episode. Yeah, going back to the record, I want to talk about how obviously like you got you you cut a song that was a song that you wrote. When Turnpike in Turnpike obviously cut the song what what was that always one of those songs that you wanted to
RC Edwards 33:02
fall out? Yeah, so um, you know, for a couple years me and Amber had been doing it as a duet. And I think it adds a whole nother dynamic to the song like if you've got like, yeah, like a, like a man and a woman like sort of fussing and fighting you know, and I thought that was a really neat take on it. And we started doing it live like that. And as we got to record got to re record this so it's it's too cool to do that. And like maybe the song always should have been to do it. But you know, didn't really think of it at the time we recorded it and but I really like it to have and it turned out really good.
Thomas Mooney 33:37
Yeah, well, that's where I was wanting to go with it. That was kind of like one of those ideas that you add back in the day of it being a duet or if it was one of those really
RC Edwards 33:46
then like when we originally recorded it it was kind of a newer like we were just working it out for me and Ammar to sing as well. What if we did this as a duet? And we have like yeah, this works like weights the lines even split up? Well like, right like he's like, you know, talking to each other. And so that's kind of how it evolved.
Thomas Mooney 34:07
Yeah. You mentioned no Johnny Burke having some co writes on here been talking with him throughout the pandemic every once a while having a phone call here and there. Obviously gifted songwriter and storyteller. What's it like? right and when when you sit down with the gallery Johnny
RC Edwards 34:27
depends on what kind of shape you can see me say but it's neat man he's definitely one of the hardest working songwriters I've ever been around I kind of put your nose to the grindstone and let's get this thing finished. Let's work on this thing I was how I don't know. If I hit a roadblock or just get stuck on something I'm I'm more apt to put it down like I want to go clear my head off. I'll give this some time. And you know, think of that and see what comes to me like he's more of a nut now. Sit down and get this thing done. Which, which I've never been great at doing with songs or sometimes it really helps me finish songs that I otherwise wouldn't. And if I wouldn't work on Johnny and something, what are we got on there? astronaut, we wrote that one together. There's one called let the whiskey do the talking. That was mean him and Amber helped on that one too. And then drunk high and loud, like a lot of songs. People A lot of people have probably heard me sing for years. I mean, Johnny wrote that one together. And the, it's cool to finally record it, you know, it was kind of a staple of Turnpike shows forever. And so it's cool to finally kind of have it on an album. And, but that's when me and Johnny did and that's, he, he's one of my favorite people to write with, we kind of click good and understand what each other means. And like I said, He's, he's, believe it or not, he's sort of like the driving force. I'm like, hey, let's get this done. Man. I think we can finish this or, or where it's like, I'm more more like, Uh, oh, let me let me ponder on that for a while. Yeah.
Thomas Mooney 36:06
Yeah, I can see that being the case with Johnny as far as like, you know, doing the Let's, uh, let's work through this little again, will the, the the hard part of it? So yeah, he's a, obviously one of the sharpest guys around.
RC Edwards 36:25
Yeah, sure. And we've been buddies a long time, and we got written a lot together. And so that, I think that helps a lot. You get real, you just get comfortable, you know?
Thomas Mooney 36:36
Yeah. Well, is there? How is Brian with him? Is it has it been? You mentioned how helping finish up songs that maybe you didn't necessarily think would ever get done and stuff like that? How much is there just like stuff that you've written that you may not even get cut, but it's just you know, it's gone? unquote, finished? Just because out there,
RC Edwards 37:00
I mean, probably an album, or maybe two, just stuff that I haven't found a spot for yet, or Yeah. I was telling the story today about him. The we were out here for dolphins thing years ago, I think he probably saw us and me and him were staying at the hotel together. And we were here like, at least two or three days. And because they had counterplay didn't had a few days and Turnpike was in Medellin or something. And I met up with him there. But uh, and we'd written some songs. And he called me one day, like, not long ago, it was a baseball song. And, um, yeah. It was some another line about the Rangers. And the answer was it was kind of when they started, they started being in the same league, you know, right. And the, he's like, Hey, man. Do you have a copy of that baseball song we wrote and I was like, I was like, now man, I think you we demoed that on your phone and I don't think you ever sent it to me. I was like, I probably have some lyrics and so I found what lyrics I had. And there was only like half of them that's like me I think you like the finished lyrics and the recording were on on like your felonies. Again, it's what I was thinking man and like, I sent him what I had it and he's like, yeah, yeah, that's it. He's like, you remember any more of it? I was like, not really. The you and he's like, No, he's he's like, damn it, man. He's like, he's like that was a good song. There's no telling how many like that we've written
Thomas Mooney 38:29
Yeah, it's out there missed missed on the the I remember you guys sending over a song that you and stout and I think was Jeff there. Yeah, guys wrote during that during the drink, go live on that. Yeah, I can't eat. I don't remember what it was about other than maybe like a Walmart parking lot or something. Yeah.
RC Edwards 38:56
It was something surely it started. Like it might have just been a line or two. And, like me and him and Jeff. Like, yeah, flesh it out.
Thomas Mooney 39:03
Yeah. Charlie's gonna cut that song and put it on the single guys just
RC Edwards 39:07
Yeah, he was playing it for a while. He might be the only one he still knows it. Like I don't. I don't really know it. Yeah, I used to have a recording of his drunkenly celebrating and singing it after we wrote it or something.
Thomas Mooney 39:18
Yeah, yeah. The other song that you guys wrote that, probably more well known is the one that Doulton cut out, Charlie. Yeah. Was stout as far as the Yeah, that happened.
RC Edwards 39:30
I think Charlie was like staying at my house and don't like singing that song. And it's like, Hey, man, do you want to help me with this and some thinking Dalton started it and then Charlie, me and Charlie finish it. It's kind of how that went down. And we're setting up the house in Tahlequah and helpful the few lines like I hopefully feel bad for getting to Colorado now. Um, but uh, they were nice enough to put me on there. But that's kind of how that went down.
Thomas Mooney 39:54
Yeah, that one I know Charlie's always like, given daltons Because I guess it like the version y'all wrote originally. Like, the guy goes like on a murder spree kind of thing.
RC Edwards 40:06
Yeah, it was a lot more brutal. And I think he cleaned it up and changed it a little bit Dalton did. Call. Yeah. Like, they were like, I think me and Charlie had like chunks of brains flying around and right.
Thomas Mooney 40:22
brain matter. Yeah.
Yeah.
You know, Charlie is the the one time. Here's a good little Charlie stout story is you guys remember when you guys played up here during Fourth of July, a couple years back at the bank, it was like y'all and like dirty burger boys and Charlie stout. And Charlie goes up there to play. And he plays like 45 minutes or whatever, 30 minutes and goes offstage and is in a good mood, and all that kind of stuff. And he comes out. And then the people who are like running the thing asked him to go back on stage to play more like another hour. And then like, Charlie, you know, is pissed off and he gets up there, and he just starts singing all the songs that are like murder ballads. And like, it was two totally different shows, just in personality. Charlie was like, engaging during that first part, trying to make some jokes. And then the other time, he was just up there singing songs, like pissed off. He came off stage,
RC Edwards 41:19
enjoyed both sets for that. So the first one, he killed it, you know, it was like, in, in good mood, put on a great show, you know, played his hits, you know, tell the good stories, jokes. And yeah, like he said, You know, he was being fun and stuff. And he, like, kills it, obviously. And then gets offstage. And he's, he's at the merch booth, like, you know, like, signing some records or whatever he had. And the lady comes up to him and his, it's like, uh, can you guys do another hour? Like, the thing was just timed. Very weird. Like, I don't know if someone canceled or use time too bad, but there's like a huge gap in between, like, when we started. Yeah. And when they had totally finishing. And so, so he's like, yeah, it but yeah, obviously he's pissed off. So it's just like a mean, angry Charlie staff set like the second one. And yeah, so killing people and pissed off sad songs.
Thomas Mooney 42:14
Yeah, well, his whole thing has always been if you're opening people only want to hear you for, like, 30 minutes at most, especially if you're just like with an acoustic guitar. Yeah, maybe 45. Yeah. And then, of course, he went out and played all his, his murder ballads.
RC Edwards 42:30
Yeah. You got the rest of the show. And he played you the fun stuff.
Thomas Mooney 42:36
Yeah, that show. I don't even know if I told you this. But my grandma came up and bled and you knew that part probably. But they, she went back there and was like, just standing backstage. And to watch the show and the people who were running it astir to see the their her badge or whatever her wristband is. So she shows it and said, My grandson got it for me, referring to me, but they took it as like my grandson got it, as in one of y'all. And so then they just started giving her like a like a new like, a padded seat to sit down on and like food and like she
RC Edwards 43:23
honestly thought that story was gonna go another direction like they're trying to kick your grandma. Your grandma was always sweet. Thank you for the cookies. Yeah. I'll never forget that. Yeah.
Thomas Mooney 43:39
Yeah, she's she's doing good. So good to hear. told her that you got you guys were playing up here. And you know, just too late these days.
RC Edwards 43:47
Kind of like yeah, this sort of lifestyle for me these days. It's kind of funny like they're in Boca home actually, for a weird while had a bar flesh, whatever curfew during COVID. And like, he couldn't be out after like 11 or midnight. Yeah, so a lot of shows vloggers everything out there hours back earlier. And they some of them are still doing pretty early shows, you know, young seven or eight. Like, I don't know if we've done an 11 o'clock show time in a while.
Thomas Mooney 44:16
Yeah, well, that's what's weird here. Like they did. Yeah, they they shut down here at midnight, during a lot of the quarantine stuff. But then that meant like, obviously, earlier shows and opening up at eight and they just stuck to opening up at eight now. And it's like, kind of the other direction. You know, okay, but like still obviously doing 11 o'clock starts all that stuff now. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, they're about to open up here in a minute anyways, so you want to go grab a beer? Yeah, I think we're gonna try to get some. I was just using that as a yes, I would love to have a beer somewhere. So yeah, anyways, now we'll we'll do it again. Some Sounds good. All right, that is it for this one as RC said, Be on the lookout for big country by RC in the embers coming your way later this year, be sure to stop on over and visit our pals over at the blue light live and desert door. And yeah, I'll see y'all next week for more episodes.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai