Latest / The Scene Projects / Bubba Startz, Ja'net Eastman and Laura Mills: Music, Stories, and Performances at the Wild West Songwriters Festival

Transcript

Bubba Startz, Ja'net Eastman and Laura Mills: Music, Stories, and Performances at the Wild West Songwriters Festival · The Scene Projects

• 0:00
  It's for poker.
• 0:01
  Right?
• 0:05
  Tight stage, not even tighter.
• 0:08
  One two.
• 0:13
  Are we ready to go then?
• 0:15
  Oh, you still got a quiet mic.
• 0:16
  Can we get a little more Janae microphone?
• 0:24
  You wanna talk in there?
• 0:25
  Check.
• 0:25
  Check.
• 0:26
  There we are.
• 0:26
  There she is.
• 0:28
  Well, welcome everybody to the Wild West Songwriters Festival here at the Saloon Number
• 0:32
  10.
• 0:33
  My name is Bubba Starts.
• 0:34
  I'm joined today by Jenna Eastman and Laura Mills.
• 0:38
  I have a podcast called the Scene Projects.
• 0:40
  We are also filming for our songwriter showcase episode.
• 0:43
  You'll be able to find some of that.
• 0:45
  I got some QR codes out and about here.
• 0:47
  And, yeah, I'm gonna start off because I'm still on the poker game in the next room over.
• 0:51
  So I'm gonna play a song, and then I'm gonna disappear for just a few minutes.
• 0:55
  But I I'm really grateful to be up here with you ladies.
• 0:58
  Thank you so much.
• 0:59
  This is great.
• 1:00
  We'll start off with a fun little tune.
• 1:01
  This one's called Triple Fine.
• 2:52
  Awesome.
• 2:53
  Thank you.
• 2:54
  Put a little energy into our Saturday.
• 2:57
  I'm serious.
• 2:57
  I'm gonna dip out for just a few minutes.
• 2:59
  You ladies control this stage for a little bit.
• 3:01
  I'm gonna watch it on tape.
• 3:02
  So if I wasn't recording this, I would feel worse about this, but I love you ladies.
• 3:07
  Thank you
• 3:07
  so much for sharing the stage with me and allowing me a little bit of time to go
• 3:10
  hopefully win some money.
• 3:11
  Yeah.
• 3:12
  Good luck.
• 3:12
  Are you gonna share if you win?
• 3:14
  That's right.
• 3:14
  Well, gotta tip the band.
• 3:16
  That's right.
• 3:17
  That's right.
• 3:18
  Alright.
• 3:19
  Well, my
• 3:19
  name is Janae Eastman.
• 3:20
  This is my second year at the wild Wild West Songwriters Festival.
• 3:24
  And I'm a local musician, and I travel around the local area.
• 3:28
  Normally, I'm up there in in front of that fireplace, so this is a little bit different
• 3:32
  setting for me today.
• 3:34
  So but, again, I wanna say thank you for sharing the stage with Laura and and Bubba
• 3:38
  today.
• 3:40
  This is my first time meeting Bubba.
• 3:42
  We've been five years for or we've been friends for about five years on Facebook, and we just
• 3:46
  literally just met.
• 3:47
  So, anyway, let me get back to what I'm doing here.
• 3:52
  This was one that I wrote out.
• 3:53
  Is anybody familiar with Chubwater, Wyoming?
• 3:55
  Anybody know what that's?
• 3:57
  Alright.
• 3:57
  Alright.
• 3:58
  Alright.
• 3:59
  That's where my producer lives, and there's a little restaurant there called the Stampede
• 4:03
  Saloon and Eatery.
• 4:04
  And my producer is a a great musician, and there's really not an instrument he doesn't
• 4:10
  know how to play.
• 4:10
  And, anyway, we put an album together back in 2020, and then I kinda just went into a dead
• 4:15
  spot.
• 4:16
  I just had nothing in me left to right.
• 4:18
  So, anyway, I was back out there in Chugwater last weekend, and I locked myself in the little
• 4:22
  the little trailer house out there while I was out there gigging.
• 4:26
  And I decided, I'm like, I cannot bring Lucky Enough back to this again.
• 4:30
  I've I've just beat that horse to death.
• 4:32
  So I wrote a couple of new ones.
• 4:35
  They're no hit song by any means, but at least it opened up that box back up.
• 4:40
  You know what I mean?
• 4:40
  Kinda get those juices flowing a little bit.
• 4:42
  Anyway, this one's called the jukebox blues.
• 4:45
  I walked in the door and there was a jukebox sitting in the corner in the trailer house.
• 4:48
  Nothing unusual for Chubb Water.
• 4:51
  Well, there's a jukebox in the corner.
• 4:57
  I'd haggard to know.
• 4:59
  And if memory serves me right, it's playing a song.
• 5:07
  One more note and
• 7:32
  Thank you.
• 7:35
  Thank you.
• 7:38
  But the writing is back.
• 7:40
  I know how that goes when you're, like, in a dry spell and, oh, man.
• 7:43
  Just I just dead inside.
• 7:45
  I did.
• 7:46
  I I had a life I I had a lot of life happen.
• 7:48
  My my mom was diagnosed with cancer.
• 7:50
  My husband was diagnosed with cancer.
• 7:53
  Honestly, I I got pardon my French.
• 7:55
  I got the shit scared out of me is what happened.
• 7:57
  Yeah.
• 7:57
  Yeah.
• 7:58
  And I just shut down.
• 7:59
  So I just decided I wrote down the first the first thing I seen was a chew box in the
• 8:03
  corner.
• 8:04
  Just opened up the box.
• 8:06
  Nice.
• 8:06
  Oh, man.
• 8:07
  Alright, Laura.
• 8:08
  Well, thanks for coming out today, everyone.
• 8:11
  My name is Laura Mills.
• 8:12
  I play around the Rock City, Black Hills area, primarily doing more, like, indie music.
• 8:19
  So this will be a little bit different than some of the writers you might hear today.
• 8:24
  But this first song I'm gonna do is a song I wrote early in the days of my writing, but it's
• 8:31
  basically a song about choosing to be happy.
• 8:34
  So it's called it could be now.
• 12:46
  Thank you very much.
• 12:47
  I absolutely welcome that.
• 12:49
  Yes.
• 12:50
  Yeah.
• 12:51
  You're so effortlessly so good.
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  Effortlessly awesome.
• 12:54
  Both of you ladies are.
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  I have to work so hard to be mediocre.
• 12:58
  Oh my gosh.
• 12:58
  Oh my gosh.
• 12:59
  I forgot to mention.
• 13:00
  Last year was the first year that Bubba and I met, and it was, like, on this stage with the
• 13:05
  Wild West songwriters.
• 13:06
  We're we're back again.
• 13:08
  I'm so excited.
• 13:08
  Yeah.
• 13:08
  Deja vu a little bit.
• 13:10
  Yeah.
• 13:10
  Totally.
• 13:10
  A different a different person in between us.
• 13:13
  Actually, think you were here last year and we had Chris Frase with us which was great.
• 13:16
  But this is fun.
• 13:17
  Yeah.
• 13:17
  Well, and I haven't heard that song since then.
• 13:19
  Right?
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  And that's a problem for me.
• 13:21
  Having your own media platform, you don't often get to consume as much as you do.
• 13:27
  But we just started a radio station and I would appreciate both of you ladies submitting a few
• 13:31
  of your songs so that we can play them on there because now that's all that I listen to.
• 13:34
  Is that the Midwest?
• 13:35
  That well, that it's part of that, the Midwest Original Music organization, but it's the scene
• 13:40
  projects radio.
• 13:41
  And Oh, yeah.
• 13:42
  Yeah.
• 13:42
  So I had Humble Town on there and I was listening on the way over and it's like, oh,
• 13:46
  this is the soundtrack to my life.
• 13:48
  And you both are, as we now know, a part of that.
• 13:52
  So I would love to have you submit some songs and, yeah, help us grow and to promote
• 13:58
  Midwestern music and across the board and to showcase some of these songwriters that,
• 14:04
  maybe don't want to
• 14:05
  go Nashville.
• 14:05
  Right?
• 14:06
  I will be going in a few weeks to cover the Josie Music Award.
• 14:09
  Hey.
• 14:12
  Check.
• 14:12
  Check.
• 14:13
  He lost his mic.
• 14:14
  My mic.
• 14:15
  The battery doing it must have.
• 14:17
  Well, I'm usually loud enough by myself.
• 14:19
  Here, you wanna take mine for right now, bud?
• 14:21
  Let's try this.
• 14:22
  I grabbed the wrong one, guys.
• 14:24
  So
• 14:26
  I'm I was in the JMAs a couple years ago.
• 14:29
  Yeah.
• 14:29
  You were.
• 14:29
  Well, that's why I reached out is because we actually have so many people that are
• 14:33
  Jessica's going this year.
• 14:35
  So many friends that are nominated.
• 14:38
  And because we won the Midwest Country Music content creator of the year award back in April
• 14:44
  You did?
• 14:45
  Yeah.
• 14:45
  We did.
• 14:46
  And so it was easy for me to reach out to Tina Marie and say, hey, I would love to come talk
• 14:52
  about your thing.
• 14:53
  And she's like, sure.
• 14:54
  Come on over to the Grand Ole Opry.
• 14:56
  So I'll be at Grand Ole Opry in a couple of weeks talking to more artists and hanging out.
• 15:01
  My first time being Nashville and not as an artist, but still there and getting to do my
• 15:07
  thing.
• 15:08
  So I'm very grateful.
• 15:09
  I hope one day we all get to hang out there again and to to keep growing this thing.
• 15:14
  Isn't this great?
• 15:15
  Are you guys having fun this weekend?
• 15:16
  Because I'm having a blast.
• 15:18
  It's like a family reunion for me.
• 15:20
  My Midwest Country Music Organization family are out here.
• 15:22
  A lot of them from Iowa and Minnesota and Wisconsin.
• 15:27
  And I grew up here in Deadwood, so I have a lot of friends that are the local songwriters.
• 15:31
  And in these rounds with us, Janae and Laura being two of them.
• 15:34
  But I played around yesterday with Tyler Bills and Matt Faulkner, who is an East River guy who
• 15:40
  I know because of his Montrose Music Fest.
• 15:41
  So it's just like so many of my worlds all colliding colliding into something that I
• 15:45
  didn't have to do any planning for.
• 15:46
  And that's what's really cool about it is that I get the phone call a few weeks ago, hey, we
• 15:50
  got you on these rounds and and here's your schedule.
• 15:53
  And it's just it couldn't be more thrilling for me to get to share stage with so many
• 15:58
  songwriters like yourselves and Nevada Ellison and Andrew Jant I play with at the bodega in at
• 16:05
  02:00.
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  So I'm a busy boy today.
• 16:07
  I'm a busy boy.
• 16:08
  And I get to play some music too.
• 16:10
  So this is a song called True Meaning.
• 16:12
  I wrote it for my wife, Danielle, who's at home with the kids this weekend.
• 16:15
  She had a niece that had a birthday party, and family comes first for us.
• 16:19
  But this is a song I wrote for her after we had too many at the bar, and I was a huge asshole.
• 16:24
  So just putting that out there.
• 16:26
  It's got me out of the doghouse a few times since then, though.
• 16:29
  So fellas, it's on my new album.
• 16:30
  I got a QR code up here that you can check that out on, get a little sneak peek, and and you
• 16:35
  could even buy it, a digital copy of it.
• 16:37
  So this is true meaning.
• 17:07
  Then we both get so emotional when we try to talk it out.
• 17:13
  Bowing up our phones with all this texting back and forth, wishing I could find the words to
• 17:20
  show you what you're really worth.
• 17:23
  You you are my world.
• 17:31
  You're my anchor in the ocean, the only one I'm holding through the night.
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  You you are my world.
• 17:51
  You mother of my children, and in my beginning, true meaning of my life.
• 18:01
  I couldn't live my life without you.
• 18:04
  No, I wouldn't even try to turn your whole world upside down over just my foolish pride.
• 18:11
  I'm jealous of the air you breathe because you needed more, and no flesh will ever tempt me.
• 18:19
  It's only you that I adore.
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  You you are my world.
• 18:46
  Are my world.
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  You're the mother of my children, and in my beginning, true meaning of my life.
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  World.
• 20:02
  Thank you.
• 20:04
  What a beautiful room
• 20:05
  to sing songs in, isn't
• 20:06
  it?
• 20:06
  Yes.
• 20:07
  I love it here.
• 20:07
  I know.
• 20:08
  I like it kinda bounces back at Yeah.
• 20:10
  Yeah.
• 20:11
  Well, I have to inform you that I did not win the poker tournament.
• 20:14
  Oh.
• 20:14
  But I did donate the money to my brother who hopefully wins, and then he can kick
• 20:18
  us back
• 20:18
  some more.
• 20:19
  So we're still on the hook for a little something.
• 20:21
  Alright.
• 20:21
  Alright.
• 20:22
  Maybe we'll get lucky.
• 20:23
  Thought I'd share
• 20:23
  that with the world.
• 20:24
  You know?
• 20:25
  Alright.
• 20:27
  Oh, well, here comes another one from Chugwater.
• 20:30
  I I had two days to get something out, so I wrote the other one one day, and then I started
• 20:37
  writing this one the next day.
• 20:38
  I love I love, love, love John Prime.
• 20:42
  And the lyrics and the licks that that man came up with throughout the years were incredible.
• 20:48
  And my husband and I, our little song is in spite of ourselves.
• 20:52
  So
• 20:53
  What a good one.
• 20:54
  I know.
• 20:54
  Right?
• 20:54
  Genius song.
• 20:56
  Genius.
• 20:57
  Anyway, so when I was sitting out there, this kinda started to come to me, and I started to
• 21:02
  write it down.
• 21:03
  And I got finished with it, and sent it home to my husband because, you know, it's for him.
• 21:08
  I sent it home to him, and he's like, oh, it's our own little John Prine song.
• 21:12
  And I'm like, oh, I'm glad that you picked up on that.
• 21:14
  Yeah.
• 21:15
  I mean
• 21:16
  I mean, I think John would be a little proud.
• 21:18
  I think he'd probably say, yeah.
• 21:19
  We can step it up a notch and do a little better,
• 21:21
  but good job opening up the
• 21:22
  box, man.
• 21:23
  I think
• 21:23
  that's what he would say.
• 21:24
  Say it was wonderful.
• 21:26
  So, anyway, it's called little love song for you.
• 21:29
  Puke.
• 21:31
  He liked it.
• 21:36
  And, normally, I I I play heavy rhythm.
• 21:39
  You know?
• 21:39
  And then I I picked this out the other day.
• 21:42
  And then yesterday when I played it, I couldn't hear myself picking, so I I picked the pick
• 21:46
  back up again.
• 22:15
  Well, know it drives you crazy when I forget to shut the door.
• 22:21
  And I've been known to leave a light on from time to time.
• 23:07
  This just happened the other night
• 23:09
  too this far.
• 23:11
  A few late nights you've stumbled home when a whisky on your breath.
• 23:17
  I help pull your boots up and stir you into bed.
• 25:22
  From Laura.
• 25:22
  Like, where were you?
• 25:24
  Think, come on.
• 25:25
  I kinda get in there once in while.
• 25:27
  I'm like, oh.
• 25:28
  Never mind.
• 25:31
  I think we have to remember that that's how a lot of these great duets, especially from
• 25:35
  seventies country music.
• 25:36
  Right?
• 25:37
  These great duets, they probably started because these people were hanging out in
• 25:39
  writers' rooms in Nashville and just singing along.
• 25:41
  It's like, well, let's just get in and do it.
• 25:43
  Right?
• 25:43
  And now with the way recording is and having, you know, a shameless plug for Cottonwood
• 25:48
  recording and Tom Freer where I've been recording this album with, you know, some
• 25:52
  really talented people, D'Ami Giroux and Johnny Hastings who's in the regional contest playing
• 25:57
  guitar on it.
• 25:59
  We have such a cool thing going on out here.
• 26:00
  And I know that I don't live in the Black Hills anymore, but I I still have access.
• 26:04
  Right?
• 26:04
  I just like to come back a few times a year and to see my friends, and there's so much talent
• 26:08
  in a very small area.
• 26:10
  And there must be something in the water.
• 26:11
  Yeah.
• 26:12
  Yeah.
• 26:12
  Definitely.
• 26:13
  Definitely.
• 26:13
  There is some very good talent around the Black Hills.
• 26:16
  I do agree.
• 26:18
  Alright, Laura.
• 26:19
  You're up next.
• 26:20
  What you got, girl?
• 26:22
  Man, I don't have any John Prine esque songs.
• 26:24
  I love John Prine.
• 26:25
  That was awesome.
• 26:25
  I love that, man.
• 26:27
  But I the next song I'm gonna do is one that I wrote when I was going through divorce or just
• 26:35
  before the divorce.
• 26:35
  But it's kind of about that moment in time when you're in a relationship and you know in your
• 26:41
  heart that it's over, but you haven't really admitted it yet to anyone or so you're still
• 26:46
  making plans.
• 26:47
  You're still acting as if everything is normal, and you're kind of living with that cognitive
• 26:51
  dissonance.
• 26:53
  So that's what this song is about.
• 26:55
  It's called runaway.
• 27:08
  Let's move to the coast and get away from everything we can't stand anymore.
• 27:59
  But deep down I know that you and I were not gonna make it.
• 28:11
  But maybe if we run away, everything anymore.
• 31:50
  Thank you.
• 31:51
  Your style is so unique.
• 31:53
  I know.
• 31:53
  I just love it.
• 31:54
  I can't put a finger on what the it doesn't sound like anything.
• 31:57
  You sound like Laura Right?
• 31:59
  And and I don't think that everyone necessarily has that.
• 32:02
  I think that it's easy to listen to a lot of artists these days and not necessarily here
• 32:06
  this weekend, but a lot of artists that you hear on the radio or or any of that that sound
• 32:12
  like this person or they sound like this.
• 32:14
  They all
• 32:14
  sound the same.
• 32:15
  You sound same.
• 32:17
  I absolutely love them.
• 32:19
  In your own song?
• 32:20
  Yes.
• 32:20
  Appreciate that.
• 32:22
  I usually don't play my stuff at bars, so it's really nice to have, like Kinda nervous.
• 32:27
  People here for songwriters.
• 32:29
  Right?
• 32:30
  Like Right.
• 32:30
  They're here to hear the songs.
• 32:31
  And Yeah.
• 32:32
  Yeah.
• 32:33
  It's Yeah.
• 32:34
  It's more like that.
• 32:35
  There's a lot of energy to it.
• 32:36
  Right?
• 32:37
  And I feel like you do a really good job of capturing that and delivering that, which is an
• 32:41
  art in itself.
• 32:41
  I mean, I would be lying if I said my knee wasn't shaking a little bit up here performing.
• 32:46
  Jacob's was even worse yesterday because they are right on top of you, and they're right up
• 32:50
  in the front row.
• 32:51
  And it's just like, oh my god.
• 32:52
  Like, I better get this right.
• 32:54
  You know?
• 32:55
  And know I've played this song a bunch of times.
• 32:57
  But
• 32:58
  It's different when you're doing your original stuff and presenting who you are.
• 33:01
  Yeah.
• 33:01
  It's
• 33:01
  funny.
• 33:02
  Because I do play my songs in a lot of bars, and usually people are inebriated when I'm
• 33:06
  doing that.
• 33:06
  So I'm like, man, I gotta remember it anyway.
• 33:08
  But here, it's, you know, not that some people aren't having a Bloody Mary or a cocktail now,
• 33:12
  but everybody's still pretty with it.
• 33:14
  And they're probably gonna remember if I screw the song up or something.
• 33:17
  And I tape all my life now too.
• 33:20
  But Mhmm.
• 33:21
  I'm kinda glad that you you you had a little bit of a moment there in that to to prove that
• 33:25
  you're human because it's so perfect.
• 33:27
  Like, you're doing it, and it sounds like a record that it's almost unbelievable that
• 33:31
  you're sitting there and playing the guitar and singing.
• 33:33
  It's just it's angelic Yes.
• 33:34
  Is what
• 33:34
  it is.
• 33:35
  And it's
• 33:35
  beautiful, Laura.
• 33:36
  Thank you so much for sharing.
• 33:37
  Thanks.
• 33:38
  I love it.
• 33:38
  And that's exactly why I was so happy when I saw us on a round together again, and great to
• 33:43
  do it here
• 33:44
  at this phone number 10.
• 33:45
  Yeah.
• 33:46
  Yeah.
• 33:46
  Absolutely.
• 33:47
  Awesome.
• 33:47
  That's a lot of fun.
• 33:48
  Well, yeah, you're playing all these sweet songs, so I I wanna try to keep up.
• 33:51
  This is a song that I wrote many, many years ago.
• 33:54
  I don't want to recount how many now because they just keep getting that number keeps
• 33:58
  growing.
• 33:59
  So I'm like, how do I have songs that are 20 years old?
• 34:01
  Right?
• 34:02
  21.
• 34:03
  Some of them are drinking age.
• 34:04
  How the hell did that happen?
• 34:06
  But when you have a twenty five career year, you know, playing music and you started out
• 34:10
  playing bands as a teenager, playing in bars around this town and and getting to
• 34:15
  do those things,
• 34:16
  I guess it just happens to you.
• 34:18
  But this is a song I wrote out not necessarily on the coast, but close to it.
• 34:22
  I was living in Oregon at the time, and I was so inspired by all the songwriters and just the
• 34:27
  the freshness that was in Oregon.
• 34:29
  I did.
• 34:29
  Lived in Bend for a little while.
• 34:30
  Oh, I
• 34:30
  love Bend.
• 34:31
  I love Bend too.
• 34:32
  Live in Portland.
• 34:32
  But, yeah, I
• 34:33
  love I drifted through Portland, and I drifted through Eugene a lot, that Emerald Triangle
• 34:38
  down in California.
• 34:39
  I actually made it all the way to Venice Beach and did some busking down there for a few Yeah.
• 34:43
  That was great until there's a million people down there.
• 34:45
  And I was like, this isn't as fun anymore.
• 34:47
  But this is a song that I wrote out there.
• 34:49
  It's called music is everywhere, and it's a little bit of a love song to my guitar because
• 34:53
  that's really all I had out there after the girlfriend had gone home and after the things
• 34:57
  hadn't necessarily worked out.
• 34:59
  It was really me and my guitar traveling around, and and that was my best friend and and
• 35:04
  everything to me.
• 35:05
  So it is that, but it's also become an ode to my life in music.
• 35:10
  And in some ways, it perfectly encapsulates this entire weekend.
• 35:14
  So this is music is everywhere.
• 39:50
  You.
• 39:50
  Brother.
• 39:51
  Thank you, Renee.
• 39:52
  I appreciate that.
• 39:53
  Thanks.
• 39:54
  Means a lot to me coming from you.
• 39:56
  I think you're such a great songwriter yourself.
• 39:58
  And even though all of our styles are so different, I think the emotions that you're
• 40:02
  able to convey are always the same.
• 40:04
  I like that.
• 40:05
  But we got a diversity up here
• 40:06
  too.
• 40:06
  Yeah.
• 40:07
  Yeah.
• 40:07
  It's fun.
• 40:07
  I kinda like
• 40:08
  that.
• 40:09
  Alright.
• 40:09
  I call my style modern gypsy rock, so I bring a lot of diversity to the table, and it makes me
• 40:14
  fit in.
• 40:14
  I think that's why I have four rounds.
• 40:16
  They're like, well, you can kinda squeeze in with any of these people, and it it'll sound
• 40:20
  good.
• 40:20
  So
• 40:21
  I grew up on my mom's classic country record collection.
• 40:25
  It shows.
• 40:26
  Yeah.
• 40:26
  Yeah.
• 40:27
  Waylon Jennings, Gadsden Klein, Jim Reeves, Don Williams,
• 40:30
  then many
• 40:31
  great Yeah.
• 40:32
  And
• 40:35
  grew up on that.
• 40:36
  So I you know, when I was little, I I say in, like, what, 1980 I think it would have been
• 40:41
  about '84.
• 40:42
  We were living up in a little town by Roscoe, South Dakota in the middle of nowhere, and
• 40:46
  there was nothing to do.
• 40:47
  And I had my my little my little record player.
• 40:50
  You know?
• 40:51
  And I drag out all my mom's albums.
• 40:53
  One of my favorite albums was the Bellamy Brothers.
• 40:55
  Yeah.
• 40:56
  Their greatest hits, the one with the red heart on the front of it.
• 40:58
  You know?
• 40:59
  So all my friends were listening to Michael Jackson and Paul Abdul and all those guys, and
• 41:04
  I'm like,
• 41:04
  who wants to come hang out with me and listen to the bell?
• 41:07
  You've had
• 41:07
  so many friends.
• 41:09
  So many friends were lying up stay at Janae's house.
• 41:12
  Oof.
• 41:16
  Alright.
• 41:17
  So I did get one real last year.
• 41:19
  I was out planting flowers, and the first line came to me, and I ran it and started writing it
• 41:25
  down.
• 41:25
  It ended up, and it kinda reminded me of my mom.
• 41:29
  We had kind we we've done we're kinda like the Judds.
• 41:32
  We we didn't it was, yeah, too long of a story.
• 41:35
  Anyway, I kinda it reminds me a lot of my mom.
• 41:39
  I I did not she has since passed, but I man, her and I just did not see eye to eye on
• 41:45
  things.
• 41:45
  And that's hard when it's your mom.
• 41:47
  And I kinda I struggle with my daughter right now too.
• 41:50
  She sees things so differently than I do.
• 41:53
  But and it's hard because you love them.
• 41:54
  And it's like, oh, I love you.
• 41:56
  Damn it.
• 41:56
  You know?
• 41:57
  Just listen to me for a second.
• 41:59
  Anyway
• 42:00
  You sound like your mother.
• 42:03
  I do.
• 42:03
  I do.
• 42:04
  That used to just really make my eyes red instead of green.
• 42:08
  Alright.
• 42:09
  It's called Carolina.
• 42:10
  And I rewrote the chorus on it twice.
• 42:13
  I sent it to Lance.
• 42:13
  I'm like, okay.
• 42:14
  I'm ready.
• 42:14
  Let's record it.
• 42:15
  He gets going, picks out a drum track, picks out the baseline, gets everything all going.
• 42:19
  I'm like, no.
• 42:19
  I don't like the chord.
• 42:20
  Change it.
• 42:21
  Yeah.
• 42:21
  I'm gonna change the lyrics.
• 42:22
  I don't like it.
• 42:23
  So I rewrote it twice.
• 42:24
  This is where I'm at right now.
• 42:25
  I'm still not saying I'm finished with it.
• 42:30
  She lost a soul in Carolina.
• 42:37
  She found herself in Tennessee.
• 45:38
  She lost a soul in Kulin and fell in love in Tennessee.
• 45:48
  Oh, I
• 45:48
  got totally flossed around.
• 45:50
  She lost a soul in Kew, Nevada and fell in the morning, Tennessee.
• 46:18
  Sorry, y'all.
• 46:20
  Oops.
• 46:21
  Snuck up on me for a second.
• 46:22
  I apologize.
• 46:23
  Thank you.
• 46:24
  Thank you.
• 46:25
  Thank you.
• 46:25
  Appreciate it.
• 46:27
  I love that you were, like, getting so into it that, like, that is really beautiful.
• 46:31
  Yeah.
• 46:31
  All of a sudden, I seen her back in the corner there smiling.
• 46:34
  I'm like, damn it.
• 46:36
  Don't do that to me today.
• 46:38
  Beautiful.
• 46:40
  Thank you, Trying
• 46:44
  to decide what song to do next.
• 46:47
  Okay.
• 46:57
  Fall off the stage.
• 46:59
  That'd be fun.
• 47:00
  Alright.
• 47:01
  This next song I'm gonna do is it's not a new song.
• 47:05
  I wrote it a while ago, but I haven't really been playing it out.
• 47:09
  So this is a song I wrote.
• 47:17
  Just kinda trying to untangle a relationship that didn't really go anywhere.
• 47:23
  Trying to figure out what happened.
• 50:12
  But they never tell.
• 50:17
  Solace, I can never find my cold, gaze, baby.
• 50:43
  Was it me?
• 50:46
  It's always the ones closest to or to blame.
• 50:55
  No alibi stands.
• 50:58
  There's blood on my hands is the answer.
• 51:03
  Really so
• 51:55
  I am now a Laura Mills fan.
• 51:57
  Big time.
• 51:58
  Right?
• 51:58
  Yes.
• 51:59
  Big time.
• 52:00
  I'm glad
• 52:00
  I'm glad that I was able to bring the cameras this year and to film these and to capture the
• 52:04
  audio and to have this these memories.
• 52:07
  Right?
• 52:07
  This archive of all this amazing music.
• 52:09
  And, obviously, I haven't been able to capture all of it, but I've got to capture the moments
• 52:13
  that I've been on stage with the people that I've been with.
• 52:17
  We have about
• 52:18
  About seven.
• 52:18
  Eight minutes.
• 52:19
  Right.
• 52:20
  So I don't think there's time for all three of us to get through.
• 52:22
  I have another round coming up at two.
• 52:23
  So I'm gonna have more chances to play, and I'm playing up at Lil's after boozy bingo later
• 52:27
  tonight too.
• 52:28
  So a lot more chances to catch Bubba starts playing in Deadwood today.
• 52:31
  So I would love if you two would share one more song of Peaceforce.
• 52:34
  Is that okay?
• 52:35
  Yeah.
• 52:35
  Absolutely.
• 52:36
  Awesome.
• 52:36
  Yeah.
• 52:37
  Thanks, Bubba.
• 52:37
  Sure.
• 52:37
  Thanks, Bubba.
• 52:38
  Appreciate it.
• 52:39
  It was great to to finally meet you.
• 52:41
  And Yeah.
• 52:41
  It's so wild because I feel like we're such good friends.
• 52:44
  I know.
• 52:45
  I know.
• 52:45
  And I know you so well, and I know your music so well.
• 52:48
  And to get to actually finally give you a hug today was really awesome.
• 52:52
  I know.
• 52:52
  I know.
• 52:53
  I loved it.
• 52:54
  I loved it.
• 52:55
  It took Jesse a while to talk me into coming up here and doing this.
• 52:57
  And and last year, I finally gave in.
• 52:59
  I was like, okay.
• 53:00
  I'll try it.
• 53:01
  I went home and I messaged him.
• 53:02
  I'm like, thank you, Jesse.
• 53:03
  I really had a good time.
• 53:04
  I really I really enjoyed it.
• 53:06
  So he went ahead and invited me again back this year.
• 53:09
  I got to meet JJ Kent yesterday.
• 53:11
  I have not met him.
• 53:12
  JJ's awesome.
• 53:13
  Yeah.
• 53:13
  Isn't he awesome?
• 53:14
  I just and he if you get a chance, check out JJ Kent.
• 53:16
  He is Yep.
• 53:17
  Yeah.
• 53:17
  I thought I I walked in there, and then Sherry Sherry Ann, I believe is her name.
• 53:23
  She was with us too, and, you know, she's all decked out
• 53:25
  in her Yep.
• 53:26
  In her beautiful
• 53:26
  walking out.
• 53:27
  Were you
• 53:27
  guys at the hotel?
• 53:28
  Yeah.
• 53:29
  Yeah.
• 53:29
  Yeah.
• 53:30
  And here's JJ all decked out, and I got my Dolly Parton sweatshirt
• 53:36
  Alright.
• 53:40
  I'm gonna be lucky enough.
• 53:41
  I had some fun with this couple years ago.
• 53:43
  Bubba mentioned the JMAs for those of you that are not familiar with it.
• 53:46
  It's called the Josie Music Awards, and it's a mom and daughter duo that started this about
• 53:51
  eleven years ago.
• 53:53
  And Josie's husband does a lot of independent he's an independent musician as well.
• 53:59
  And she just really dove in and gave us a great platform.
• 54:05
  It's the biggest platform on the planet right now for for independent artists.
• 54:09
  I mean, are award shows at the grand old freaking Opry.
• 54:11
  Right?
• 54:11
  Like, come on.
• 54:12
  I was there I was there when it was in Pigeon Fork, and that was not fun.
• 54:15
  Oh, that was crazy.
• 54:18
  Anyway, since the Grand Ole Opry, I just haven't had any new materials to submit.
• 54:21
  But, anyway, I did have fun with this a couple of years ago.
• 54:23
  Sent it off to the JMAs.
• 54:24
  Got in there for a couple of years.
• 54:25
  Made a cool video.
• 54:26
  They're gonna put it in their visual vault.
• 54:28
  I sent it to them.
• 54:28
  I'm like, I know it's old, but put it in your and she said, okay.
• 54:32
  You know?
• 54:32
  So they they decide.
• 54:33
  I was like, well, thank you.
• 54:34
  I I really appreciate that.
• 54:35
  But you're gonna ask on off.
• 54:36
  Have you ever done
• 54:37
  it before?
• 54:37
  No.
• 54:37
  Oh, you're gonna ask on it.
• 54:38
  You're gonna ask on it.
• 54:39
  My time meeting the Josies.
• 54:41
  Mean, I know a few of our Midwest Country Music Organization members that are gonna be there,
• 54:45
  and a lot of them are nominated.
• 54:46
  So I
• 54:46
  was like, look.
• 54:47
  I know five or six people that are nominated that I can talk to already.
• 54:50
  Can I get in Media Village and hang out?
• 54:52
  Mean, it's a big deal.
• 54:53
  It's awesome.
• 54:53
  Yeah.
• 54:54
  There's limos and red carpet and everything.
• 54:56
  I showed up in my jeans and basically almost a T shirt.
• 54:59
  I mean, I know.
• 55:00
  I just feel weird about saying like that.
• 55:03
  That's why I don't wanna go to I like being here with y'all.
• 55:05
  You do fit in here.
• 55:06
  I love being here with y'all.
• 55:08
  I don't wanna go to Nashville and do all that crap.
• 55:11
  You got the substance.
• 55:12
  Like Yeah.
• 55:13
  Style.
• 55:13
  But also substance.
• 55:15
  You are Yeah.
• 55:15
  A musician.
• 55:16
  Yes.
• 55:17
  Yes.
• 55:17
  I like being amongst y'all.
• 55:18
  So, anyway, here's lucky enough.
• 55:20
  I grew up in a truck driving family.
• 55:22
  My mom drove truck.
• 55:23
  My dad drove truck.
• 55:23
  My grandpa drove truck.
• 55:24
  My brother drives truck.
• 55:25
  My husband owns a trucking company.
• 55:28
  I don't even know how to start a Peterbilt.
• 55:30
  But I went with him to Cascade, Montana a couple years ago, and he passed a little road
• 55:36
  sign that there you go.
• 55:38
  I love it up there.
• 55:39
  It's beautiful.
• 55:40
  I used to live up in Fairfield, Montana.
• 55:42
  So but, anyway, we're cruising up the interstate, and I've seen a little sign for
• 55:47
  Toluca, Montana.
• 55:48
  I'm like, I love the name.
• 55:51
  It's Montana.
• 55:52
  So I wrote it down, and I wrote this one on that track.
• 55:55
  So it kinda goes for all the drivers.
• 55:57
  I kinda got some big news news this this year.
• 56:00
  I'm gonna be headlining headlining the Wheel Jam Truck Show in here on the.
• 56:04
  So yeah.
• 56:05
  Yeah.
• 56:06
  Yeah.
• 56:07
  So this one's for all the drivers out there.
• 58:31
  Thank you.
• 58:33
  I can feel the road under me when you're singing that.
• 58:38
  About 20,000 miles on the Suburban this year touring from Duluth all the way down to Austin,
• 58:43
  Chicago to the Rocky Mountains, and not necessarily playing the biggest shows, but
• 58:49
  playing music all over the country and getting to meet new people.
• 58:52
  And Yeah.
• 58:53
  Yeah.
• 58:53
  A lot of that lifestyle of the trucking life is the tour life too.
• 58:57
  Right?
• 58:58
  And and a lot of similarities between it.
• 59:00
  I love the line trading the dirt off my hands for a sliver of bull.
• 59:03
  I love that line.
• 59:05
  I mean, it's it's hard growing up in a truck driving family.
• 59:07
  It is.
• 59:07
  I grew up I it.
• 59:08
  I absolutely hated it.
• 59:10
  I did.
• 59:10
  I was home alone a lot.
• 59:11
  So but now I get to write about it.
• 59:14
  So And,
• 59:15
  also, I wanna know where I can find your guys' music.
• 59:18
  Oh, and you as well.
• 59:19
  Bubba, you go first.
• 59:20
  Yeah.
• 59:20
  Okay.
• 59:20
  Well, I got a QR code up here that'll you right to my new album that I got, startsandends.com.
• 59:25
  Just redid the website.
• 59:27
  And sharing it out there, I got a new album.
• 59:29
  You can download a track from there for free.
• 59:31
  I don't know if I'm gonna put it on streaming or not.
• 59:33
  I mean,
• 59:33
  I probably will.
• 59:34
  But Okay.
• 59:35
  Struggling with that.
• 59:36
  Well, you just there's no money in it.
• 59:38
  But if you'd like to support it, you can buy the digital album on there and support
• 59:41
  independent music.
• 59:42
  And I hope with our radio station and we can train more artists on how to do that for
• 59:46
  themselves that we can get the support we deserve.
• 59:49
  Because just pushing everybody to Spotify to stream it for free and never making a penny off
• 59:52
  of it costs money to to record music.
• 59:55
  I don't know if you guys know this, but it's not cheap to to record wherever you're at,
• 59:59
  especially if you're going into a place like Nashville.
• 1:00:01
  You're paying thousands of dollars for that.
• 1:00:03
  And now because of the demodification or commodification rather of music and it just
• 1:00:08
  being streaming, yeah, sure you pay for the streaming app, but none of that muse none of
• 1:00:11
  that money comes back to us independent independent artists.
• 1:00:14
  It takes a million streams to make back $1,500.
• 1:00:17
  So support us right off my website, startsandends.com, and you can support other
• 1:00:21
  artists by going to thesceneprojects.com.
• 1:00:23
  I got some QR codes.
• 1:00:24
  I would love to give you one and put some out on the table for you guys.
• 1:00:27
  So that's how you find me.
• 1:00:28
  Same same with me.
• 1:00:29
  I'm on Facebook, Janae Eastman Music.
• 1:00:32
  I do have my stuff out there, you know, Spotify and things like that.
• 1:00:35
  But like Bubba said, it's really kind of kind of crazy and kinda hard to do that stuff.
• 1:00:39
  I have some albums out.
• 1:00:41
  You can buy the album on, Amazon and stuff like that if you're interested.
• 1:00:44
  Basically, the the the I mean, the best thing that you can do for us is just like I said,
• 1:00:49
  when I sit up there at the fireplace, support your local musicians.
• 1:00:51
  Throw $510, $20 in their guitar case when you walk by.
• 1:00:54
  Buy a T
• 1:00:54
  shirt.
• 1:00:55
  Buy a T shirt.
• 1:00:55
  If they got albums, grab an album.
• 1:00:57
  I mean, that's the best way that you can some that you can support.
• 1:00:59
  And then like said, just the more likes on social media kinda gets us in there too.
• 1:01:03
  You know, somebody else checks it out, and it's like, well, they kinda like her a little bit.
• 1:01:05
  She seems pretty popular.
• 1:01:07
  He seems pretty popular.
• 1:01:08
  So, yeah, that always kinda helps and and commenting on the content.
• 1:01:11
  So Yeah.
• 1:01:13
  There's my story.
• 1:01:13
  Janae Eastman Music.
• 1:01:15
  Awesome.
• 1:01:16
  Okay.
• 1:01:16
  Cool.
• 1:01:16
  I'm definitely gonna find you guys.
• 1:01:18
  You, Laura?
• 1:01:19
  So I was able to record a song with the, I think they're called the transcendent musicians
• 1:01:25
  program.
• 1:01:25
  It's a grant that South Dakota offers.
• 1:01:28
  So I was able to record a single through them that is now on Spotify and YouTube and
• 1:01:32
  everything.
• 1:01:33
  So you can find that recording.
• 1:01:35
  I also have a band camp, lauramills.bandcamp.com for some of my other
• 1:01:39
  songs.
• 1:01:41
  And then, yeah, Facebook, Laura mills Music at Facebook.
• 1:01:45
  So that's where you can find my stuff.
• 1:01:48
  And, yeah, I'm pretty excited about the new recording.
• 1:01:50
  It's it's called Tempe, and I did it with some local musicians.
• 1:01:54
  My now husband and a couple of our friends, Jonathan Jackie, plays trumpet on it.
• 1:01:59
  It's a really fun track.
• 1:02:01
  So check it out.
• 1:02:02
  Yeah.
• 1:02:04
  I guess I'm closing out the day.
• 1:02:06
  So Yep.
• 1:02:06
  Yes.
• 1:02:06
  So I do wanna make sure that I say thank you to, well, the Wild West songwriters,
• 1:02:12
  Justin Allen.
• 1:02:13
  Yep.
• 1:02:14
  Thank you, Nick, for running sound.
• 1:02:15
  You've been doing an awesome job.
• 1:02:16
  Can we
• 1:02:17
  give Nick a
• 1:02:17
  hand?
• 1:02:17
  Yeah.
• 1:02:18
  Yeah.
• 1:02:18
  Amazing.
• 1:02:19
  That's half the battle.
• 1:02:23
  And, yeah, just thank you guys for sharing the stage.
• 1:02:25
  This is super super special.
• 1:02:28
  Alright.
• 1:02:29
  This last song I'm gonna do, it's just a cheeky little song to close the night off.
• 1:02:38
  We use that word in deadlift.
• 1:02:39
  She uses so many words that I either can't spell or I would never use in a sentence.
• 1:02:45
  I know.
• 1:02:45
  She gets a lot of
• 1:02:46
  Cognitive dissonance early on there where I was like
• 1:02:50
  Wait a second.
• 1:02:50
  Let me Google that and see exactly what she means.
• 1:02:53
  Thank goodness for transcribing all of my episodes.
• 1:02:56
  Because if I was having to do it manually, right, I'd never I'd be stumped.
• 1:03:00
  And here I say Uvta.
• 1:03:02
  How do you spell that?
• 1:03:07
  Alright.
• 1:03:08
  This one is called settling.
• 1:03:10
  And thank you again for coming and sharing your day with us.
• 1:03:12
  We really appreciate it.
• 1:03:13
  Yes.
• 1:03:14
  Thank you very much.
• 1:03:15
  Thank you.
• 1:03:16
  You were the tree that I couldn't eat from.
• 1:03:20
  And you were the one that I wanted to love.
• 1:03:25
  So naturally, there'd be all sorts of things to come in between, but I won't let none of that
• 1:03:35
  bother can't you see that she's all wrong?
• 1:03:54
  And I'm the one that you really need, but you don't see because you're too busy settling.
• 1:06:23
  Thank you so much for coming up.
• 1:06:24
  Yeah.
• 1:06:25
  That's Laura Mills, Janae Eastman.
• 1:06:28
  My name is Bubba Starts.
• 1:06:29
  You're gonna be able to find you're gonna be able to find this on Roku on our True TV plus
• 1:06:35
  app.
• 1:06:37
  The Scene Projects is the name of my podcast.
• 1:06:39
  Thank you guys so much for sharing the day with us.
• 1:06:41
  I play at 02:00 at the bodega, but I'm gonna scoot on over to Jacob's Gallery right now
• 1:06:46
  where Johnny Hastings is playing with a couple other great songwriters and check out some of
• 1:06:50
  our regional contest nominees or whatever called.
• 1:06:53
  So awesome.
• 1:06:54
  Thank you, ladies.
• 1:06:55
  That was awesome.
• 1:06:56
  Thanks for having Jesse.
• 1:06:57
  Excellent time, Jesse.
• 1:06:59
  Nick, thanks y'all.
• 1:07:03
  You
• 1:07:03
  doing that?
• 1:07:04
  Good in there.
• 1:07:05
  Sweet.