![]() ![]() If you have a platform it’s important to use it well, and for me that means using it to talk about change in the South. I’m trying to use my platform to be as vocal as I can about my convictions. I wanted a song that celebrated everything I love about the South while also acknowledging some of it’s skeletons that we like to sweep under the rug, like slavery, that didn’t happen in our lifetimes but still loom over the region to this day. It was me wanting to capture that dichotomy of my love/hate relationship with the South showing people that you can still love where you’re from while also critiquing it - some people think you can’t do both, so I wanted to write a song that did. Being a modern-day southern protest song of sorts, was there one particular moment that inspired it, or rather an accumulation of many? ![]() One of the songs that I enjoy most from the record, both sonically and lyrically, is ‘A Better South’. ![]() It wasn’t like I was hamstrung and everyone else was business as usual. The only thing that lets me rest easy about it was that every other band was facing the same thing. The hardest thing was knowing that you just put out your best record, but not being able to tour on it the way it should have. It’s interesting because it’s been our most critically acclaimed, highest selling record, but it’s also the strangest record that I’ve had. Speaking of your music, what’s it been like to have to sit on the success of Lamentations for so long? It was bizarre, but also great to get in there to record something new in a place that held so much significance to my own childhood. The calendars on the walls were all from the late 1990s too. We went into some of the buildings too and it was very eerie - there were still newspapers sitting around from 1996 that had headlines about Kobe Bryan just getting drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers. We got permission to go onto the property and record inside the winner’s circle. I still watch the races when they’re on, but my love for the sport faltered a bit when he passed away.Ī few years ago, the band and I got a really cool opportunity to record a music video for our song ‘Tough Boys’ at North Wilkesboro Speedway, an old track in western North Carolina that closed in 1996. For me, my fandom really died when Dale Earnhardt died. My dad has always loved it, and we all used to go to the races. Yeah, I grew up around it in North Carolina, the birthplace of NASCAR. One a non-music note, I know you’re a pretty big NASCAR fan too, which Bristol has strong ties to as well. The first time here you’re taking it all in, but the fifth time it’s almost like coming to a family reunion. I feel fortunate that they continue to have us back. ![]() It’s an honor to be a part of the legacy they’re building, or rather the history that’s been here decades. The fact that Bristol has been able to keep true to their roots for 20 years is quite an accomplishment. Most festivals might last three or four years before they fold or realize that there’s no money in the music industry anymore. It feels great to be a part of something that can make it 20 years. What does you return to the festival mean to you, given the town’s history as the birthplace of country music? It’s your fifth time playing here at Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion. ![]()
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