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WEHM All Access - Sag Harbor American Music Festival - Kevin MaC · WEHM All Access

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's WEHM All Access.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Harry Waring, and the weather is playing havoc and wreaking havoc with some schedules this weekend.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: But we've got something cool going on.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's now gonna happen Friday night at 7 30 at Bait Street Theater.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's southern round Nashville coming to Stag Harbor.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: And uh joining me in part of that is Kevin Mack.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Kevin, how are you?
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm doing great.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: How are you?
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Very good.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for uh for speaking with us as a chance to get to know the artists and kind of this cool concept where songwriters tell their stories and perform their songs.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: And uh you guys I've been traveling around doing this since coming to Stag Harbor now.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's this Friday night, uh the 25th.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh once again, 730 Bay Street Theater.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: And uh because the weather's been wrecking havoc.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we're we're gonna, of course, postpone this festival to start October 1st now.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: But this will be special.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: This will be this Friday.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: And uh Kevin, I guess first off, uh, how long have you been doing this?
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: Where did this concept come from?
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: The Southern Rounds, Nashville.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, songwriting rounds, you know, Nashville, Tennessee is it I I believe the best thing about Nashville is the songs, and people come there to write great songs.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: And something that's been happening in Nashville for years, I'm talking way back, is the Ryder Round.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's where Taylor Swift was discovered, Garth Brooks.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: We're in rider rounds, you know, and so what this is, it's our take on it.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: Southern Rounds is a is a great uh top-tier Nashville songwriting round where people get to hear the stories behind some of the biggest hits in country music.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's great.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's a lot of fun.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: And like I said, it's coming this Friday, part of the uh Sag Harbor American Music Festival.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: Where are you uh where are you from, Kevin?
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I am actually from uh where where George Washington's from, uh King George, Virginia.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: Uh um uh near Fredericksburg, and I went to college in Virginia Beach at Old Dominion University, but have been living in Nashville for the last 15 years.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when did you start?
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I I guess I'd imagine you were pretty young when you started getting involved with music and and songwriting.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: When did when did that start happening for you?
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: I I found uh uh Elvis record when I was a kid, and it was actually his gospel record.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: And so when I was in church, you know, I started playing in church, and I was the little four-year-old who wanted to sing like Elvis in church.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, a lot of the music that we sang growing up was gospel and then bluegrass, and and then I uh I got into songwriting actually in college.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, I went to school in Virginia Beach and I got hooked up with Pharrell Williams and Timbaland and uh Missy Elliott and a lot of hip hop people, but I was Country Kevin, I wrote country songs, but like Timbaland would let me use his studio, and um that's where I would go.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: I'd surf in the morning and then go over to the studio and the B room and I'd be in there Country Kevin writing country songs.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: So do you remember the other first song you ever wrote?
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'm curious.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: First song I ever wrote was um called, yeah, it was called Eternity, and it was for uh a girlfriend in uh in uh in high school.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: Like that's what I was dabbing with it.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't get really serious till I met Tim and Pharrell, and but I was dabbing around with it.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I mean, and when I if I ever listen back to the song, I can remember my uncle Mike, uh, who was very we were we loved our Uncle Mike, and I can remember him going, Man, that sounds great.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember just him saying that made me go, man, I I could write more of these.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: Like my Uncle Mike likes it, you know.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: I I might have something here, and I just fell in love with the craft, you know.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: No, that's great.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: Your songs that have a lot of humor in it too, which is nice.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um when did you realize that that was kind of the mix you wanted to make sure there was that kind of that blend?
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: Well, so my favorite artist, man, growing up, like I love Chuck Berry, um, and I love Jimmy Buffett, and I love Joe Diffie and John Prine.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and if you listen to a lot of their songs, it shows kind of like how my mind works because Joe Diffie will sing a song like Pickup Man or Prop Me Up Beside the Jukebox when I die, and then he turns around and he sings Ships That Don't Come In.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: And even Jimmy Buffett, he'll have, you know, Son of a Sailor or Pirate Looks at 40, you know, and then he'll turn around and sing, you know, uh Cheeseburger in Paradise, right?
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: And those were always my favorite artists to listen to because they put you, it was a show.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it was you weren't getting the same kind of style song for an hour and a half.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: They put you on a ride.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: One minute you'd be laughing, one minute you'd be crying, one minute you'd be like, wow, this is great, just the art's great, the singing's great.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: And that's those kind of artists have always attracted me.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's been Joe Diffie and Jimmy Buffett, too, of the prime, you know.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: Of course.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now, there's the songwriting, and there's also performing, too.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, how did how long did it take to get comfortable performing the songs?
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: I got a picture, man.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: I was in uh, you know, I I I grew up on the stage.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, all right, so early on, yeah.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I have a picture of my mom painted took her mascara and drew sideburns on my face because I thought I was Elvis in second grade.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: So I was always on stage.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: I remember the second grade talent show.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: I got up on stage and sang Elvis with my guitar, you know, and so I've been I I there's no fear, never had fear of the stage.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: I I I I just wanted to get out there and sing and play because I just I can I don't know how to explain it.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: I I was telling someone earlier there's hearing music and there's feeling music, and I and I feel it.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: And it I don't know how to explain it.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: There's you can feel it or hear it.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: And my son, he's like my wife, she hears it.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: My son, he feels it, you know?
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like I just always had that.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: And to this day, you know, I I remember where I was when I strummed my first actual guitar chord.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: Like, how many people can say that?
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: I can tell you where I was when I heard a certain song or when I heard a I can tell you where I was when I heard a floor tom, you know, like what it did to me.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: You know, so it's just it's um I don't know how it's it's just how my brain works, but I knew I never wanted to lose those feelings, you know, and so I made a career out of it.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you moved to Nashville, I think you said 15 years or or so ago.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: What was that?
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: What was that like?
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: Kind of uh getting uh acclimated to a a new city, especially like Nashville.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I was um in Virginia Beach playing in festivals with Pharrell and Timberland and and uh a guy, a big producer out in LA, um, who was producing Katy Perry and them, um his team was there, and they said, Man, like we we want to give you a publishing deal to write songs.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I was engaged to my wife, like we were living together, we were getting married, and like I said, okay, and I signed the deal and I looked at her and I said, Can you move back in with your parents?
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna move to um Nashville.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: I moved to Nashville, you'll love the story.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: I moved to Nashville.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: My wife moved back in with her parents, so our first two years of marriage were long distance.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: Oh gosh, and uh me and a guy named Grayland James shared a room together, a little house, and Grayland's on tour with Kenny Chesney now, and wrote uh Song of the Year, next thing you know, and you know, then I went on Shark Tank and did wrote songs with Mark Cuban and have companies and stuff, and I said, But I remember both of us eating at the Waffle House, living in a living in a little rundown shack, you wouldn't let your dog go in.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's like it's uh crazy stories, man.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: No, I I'm sure it sounds like a lot of fun too, as you you got assimilated into that that community and songwriters and storytelling, uh, which is so important.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: What did you learn, especially early on from sitting in those rooms with other writers, just trading lines and ideas?
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: What was that like initially?
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: I was about 29 when I moved to Nashville.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: And when I got there, I wanted, I always believed in like, you know, even yourself, like when you got into radio, the guys who had done it before you showed you how to do it, right?
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: And so it was like my dad was a lineman for the power company, so all the OG guys showed him how to do his job.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: And so I wanted to find all the biggest hit songwriters who were written my favorite songs because I'm like, there's a formula here, right?
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: There's a trick, there's always tricks of the trade.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: And I got hooked up with Keith Stagal, who, you know, produced all the Allen Jackson records and Zach discovered Zach Brown band, and then uh Paul Overstreet, who wrote I just got into the Country Music Hall of Fame, and Kent Blazey with Carth Brooks, and those guys took me under their wing and uh showed me how to write songs.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I learned I learned what a throwaway line was, I learned how to work in the writing room, you know, and how to really construct a great song and get the message across you want to say.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: You mentioned you were working with uh Pharrell and Timberland.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: What was it like because they're such amazing performers and writers, uh, and and just what was that like?
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: What did you learn from them?
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: Did they ever kind of take you aside and give you some wisdom?
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: Timberland more than anything.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, Pharrell, Pharrell is he he's a cool cat, but Tim is uh he's a country boy, man.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: Really?
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: Like he's yeah, Tim Tim and his brother Sebastian and and Missy and them, they're country folk.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: And Pharrell always was just like, you know, you can do this, and you know, and it's on your side.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: And you need he would tell me more of the business side of things of tricks of the trade that were happening.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: But Timberland, I'll never forget we were sitting in the room and he goes, Kevin, do you know what my favorite country song is?
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: Now, mind you, Timberland is a guy about beats and stuff, and he's a producer and making sound.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: And he said it was and I and so I'm thinking, you know, Jake Owen, Barefoot Blue Junite, because that had just come out and it was hitting.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, Tim McGraw, don't take the girl was his favorite country song.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: And it really showed me that like realness is what sells, right?
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: Like, and he said, I kind of like Ray Charles had said, like, he loved the stories, but he loved the production, how simple it was, and like how it just he said that's my favorite country song.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: And you go back and it's like, man, some of my favorite country songs are so simple and stories, and it wasn't about the big flash and the big all all the you know the beats and everything.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I love making music like that too, but I love sitting with a guitar and you know, having my heart ripped out, you know, it's like and Timberland said too, and you know, he was always he said, writes when you write songs, Kevin.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: You know, everyone has said, but Timberland said too, like, you write what you know, you know, and he said, Because when you write what you know, and it's and it's great, he goes, There's someone out there who has experienced the same thing that you have, and you let them know you're not alone.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you're not alone, like like and and that happened to me in times.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: I heard a song and I went, man, I'm not alone because whoever wrote this is going through the same thing I'm going through right now.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what I think the beautiful thing about country music is it has a way to express that you're not alone.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we just have a way to wrap it into a song so it can get to you.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you you write what you know you said, and I'm curious.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me the story a little bit about uh Granny Drinks Whiskey.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh that's been uh I read a fan favorite of yours.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm curious the story behind that that that song.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: And kind of what does it say about your approach to kind of songwriting in general?
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: Look, I'm not Warren Buffett, I'm Jimmy Buffett, right?
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: Like I I I I like to start businesses with music, and so I had written that song.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um my grandmother, Elsie Marshall, taught me and my brother to shoot 12 gay shotguns.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: And um, when we were like seven to nine, we'd gone hunting with my uncle Mike, and we were making too much noise, and he brought us back to my grandma's, and she's like, Well, you know, I thought y'all were hunting, and my uncle Michael's like, Well, they're they're just rolling around in the leaves.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we're seven years old, we didn't care.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, she's like, Well, let's show them how to shoot that gun.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: And my grandma, me and my brother thought it was the funniest thing.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: She she had her hair and curlers and the little the southern grandma sundress, and she was blowing folger cans off a fence post with us.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: And it, you know, my my fate, mom's side of the family grew up, she gardened, refinished antique furniture, and you know, had a root cellar, and it was some of the best times of my life, man.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: Simple Virginia living and uh a lot of music and uh church and just family.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, but my the story of the song sells a lot of whiskey, I can tell you that.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: So we uh it's not true about my grandma.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so for people want to listen to Granny Drinks Whiskey to hear the song, but it uh we started a whiskey company and named it after grandma in Tennessee called Elsie Marshall Shotgun Granny Whiskey, and uh that she was the shotgun granny, and we sing that song.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: Uh kind of uh my redneck version of Margaritaville, I guess.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: That's great.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's a lot of fun.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Southern Rounds is bringing Nashville uh to Sag Harbor Friday night at Bay Street Theater.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, what do you love about this format?
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: What makes it kind of different than a typical show for you?
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: You know I love it because I I've I've been part of Southern Rounds since the very beginning of its, you know, uh when we built it.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I think my favorite part of it is that it it gives people a chance, you know, when they hear a song on the radio, they might just hear the artist sing it, and people might think, well, the artist writes all his songs and he wrote that.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: And some of it's true and some of it's not.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: Some of the best songs are just written by great songwriters, and those stories that they've written, you know, they lived them and they tell you the story of why how the song was written.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: And like D Vincent Williams, you know, who will be on the show, um has has written some of the biggest hits in country music.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: And to hear him sit and tell you where he, you know, I don't want to give up people who are coming and listen, I don't want I want him to tell his story, but it'll blow you away of how this song, you know, he was on his last dollar and he had written this song and the song is about that, and then all of a sudden he's driving down the road and he hears it on the radio and pulls over and sobs, you know.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: But this is it, it's like those are where real songs come from.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: And then he plays the song, and sometimes you sit back and go, Dang on, that he sings it better than the artist who cut it.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and it's like I think when you're getting the truth from the person who held the pen and paper, it'll it has a different impact, you know, and it's it's something that people love.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: And and not a lot of people know about the writers round until they come to Nashville, and then so we're bringing it to people so they don't have to come to Nashville.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_01: We'll come to you, you know.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's great.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh that's coming Friday night, part of the Sad Harbor American Music Festival now, uh 7 30 at Bay Street Theater, as they've shuffled some things around due to the uh impending storm that's coming on Saturday and this weekend.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, what's next for you?
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: What are you working on?
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, you're with the the rounds, um, but uh the southern rounds, but what are you what other projects are you working on?
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I have a guitar pick company with Mark Cuban.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: I was on Shark Tank, so we have our yeah, pick pick, the pick that sticks.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: So uh me and Mark are uh we got some big deals in line with that, and I have a bluegrass record I'm working on.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I started it with Ronnie Bowman and Dan Teminsky uh from Allison Krause Station and finishing that up and I'm heading out.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's uh Margaritaville, Margaritaville at sea.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_01: They have a new ship going out um January, and um, I'm helping with the songwriters on that, and I'll be performing songwriting sets on Zach Brown's uh same boat room there with Margaritaville.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: So just whiskey, guitar picks, and country music, brother.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's it.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: What was it like when you were pitching the uh guitar picks to Cuban and that whole that whole scene?
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: What what is the process really like?
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm curious.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I I we would need another episode to talk about it, but I will say this.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Mark has become a good buddy of mine, mentor, songwriting partner.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: We wrote a song together called One Girl, One Night, One Bar, um, that he actually had the hook for.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, I will say this the being on Shark Tank, you know, I'm a businessman and I I've I got a lot of friends who have are worth a lot of money, and i they're the same as you and me.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: And when we went in there, it was I didn't think of television.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: I thought I got five angel investors in front of me.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: I I didn't see Mark Cuban and and Kevin and all that.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: I saw five I was worried about tick pic, you know, and my guitar pick company.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: And um, but Mark Cuban is a good man, and uh I wanted to work I like working with good people.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_01: So I didn't when he offered us the what we wanted, and I was like, you got a deal.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: Like he gave us exactly what we wanted.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: He's fair and he's and I'm glad I chose we worked together because my intuition was right, and he's become a good uh friend, and um I'm proud to know him.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_01: And we actually Joe Perry was just out with the Hollywood vampires playing with tick pics, and we did a deal with Fender, and we got some other big deals coming together.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but he's a he's a good one to have on your team.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: And he had a great songwriter.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe I'll get him up for a show.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, that's fun.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's something you really that's something you don't know about Mark Cuban.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: Kevin Mack, thank you for your time.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: Southern Rounds coming to Stag Harbor.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: Bring the Nashville songwriter round uh to Bay Street Theater this coming Friday night.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's been rescheduled for this Friday now, seven thirty Bay Street, uh stagharbor music.org for details.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: Kevin, thanks for your time.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: Again, it looks sounds like a lot of fun.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: Get out to Bay Street this uh this weekend.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: A good way to spend some time as we kick off the Stag Harbor American Music Festival.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: Kevin, thank you so much.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: Oh man, thank you.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: We look forward to seeing everybody.