Latest / The Scene Projects / Garreson: Authenticity, Heritage, and Reviving the Local Music Scene

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Garreson: Authenticity, Heritage, and Reviving the Local Music Scene · The Scene Projects

• 0:01
  Well, into a very exciting episode of the scene.
• 0:03
  I'm your host, Bubba Starts.
• 0:05
  And with me today all the way from the great state of Oregon, Garrison.
• 0:08
  Garrison, welcome to the show.
• 0:10
  Thanks, Bubba.
• 0:11
  Thanks for having me.
• 0:13
  It's my pleasure.
• 0:14
  The Portland number surprised me a little bit.
• 0:16
  We were just talking off camera how I spent a little time out there, back in the day.
• 0:20
  Gosh.
• 0:21
  It's been a long time now, but, I kinda forgot about this.
• 0:25
  So I apologize to you and to our listeners.
• 0:29
  It it looks professional when it all comes out, but sometimes it's not all perfect behind the
• 0:33
  scenes.
• 0:34
  I think that's real life.
• 0:35
  Yeah.
• 0:36
  Well and that's right.
• 0:37
  And especially in this age of social media where you only get the highlights publicly
• 0:42
  shared.
• 0:42
  Right?
• 0:43
  It's nice to let people in, you know, behind the curtain a little bit.
• 0:46
  So I appreciate you kinda putting up with me a little bit today and for being on the program.
• 0:52
  So just getting to know each other.
• 0:54
  Go ahead and kinda give me a little bit of the backstory, and then we're obviously gonna dive
• 0:58
  into some music talk.
• 1:00
  Sure.
• 1:01
  Yeah.
• 1:02
  Well, I grew up in Oregon.
• 1:04
  I lived in Idaho for a few years and then moved back, and that's where I moved to Portland.
• 1:08
  And, I've written music my whole life, grew up playing piano.
• 1:12
  I wrote songs since I was probably six.
• 1:17
  And, and then my my grandpa was a singer songwriter after he retired from being a
• 1:21
  teacher.
• 1:21
  And so after high school, I moved in with him, he taught me to play guitar.
• 1:25
  And that's when I started, like, playing songs for him and, really, like, trying to transition
• 1:31
  to guitar.
• 1:33
  And I didn't start performing for anybody else till after he passed away because he was always
• 1:36
  the one that would call and say, are you working on your music?
• 1:39
  What are you like, trying to encourage me.
• 1:41
  And so I kept writing and kept singing for him, but then, it was sort of after he passed that
• 1:46
  it was like this big wave of realization that I I wish I would have done it while he was still
• 1:52
  with us, but, like, no one's gonna call you and check on if you're working on your music, like,
• 1:56
  you you better do it.
• 1:58
  And so then I decided I wanted to tribute him, and I I whole last year and a half just spent
• 2:05
  creating a record for him and two songs on it or songs he wrote and the rest are songs I
• 2:11
  wrote.
• 2:11
  And, then just three years now, three almost four years performing in the area at different
• 2:17
  venues and putting together, different opportunities for other songwriters in the area
• 2:22
  and just, like, riding the train, man.
• 2:26
  Riding that wave.
• 2:27
  I love the tribute, to your grandfather.
• 2:30
  I love that, you're falling in his footsteps not just in the music but in the education
• 2:35
  field as well.
• 2:37
  You you pre warned me ahead of the interview that there's gonna be a bell going off because
• 2:42
  you are working down in the basement of the school right now And that's where we're doing
• 2:47
  it.
• 2:47
  And I I will not be editing that out.
• 2:49
  So enjoy the school bells when they ring for us.
• 2:53
  Love the tribute to to your grandfather.
• 2:56
  And even as far as taking his name for your stage name.
• 3:00
  Correct?
• 3:02
  Yeah.
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  His last name was Garrison.
• 3:04
  And so I I just I really wanted to carry on the family legacy and, like, always pay tribute to
• 3:09
  him.
• 3:09
  And so I thought, like, what's a way that he can sort of be with me at every show?
• 3:15
  And then I just kind of decided to use his last name.
• 3:19
  That's awesome.
• 3:20
  That that I think that's great.
• 3:21
  And I think it's something that, especially in today's age where, life passes us by so fast
• 3:29
  that we don't honor our ancestors the way that we used to.
• 3:35
  And it's something, for me.
• 3:36
  I shared that I lived in Portland.
• 3:37
  Well, I also lived in Mexico for a year, Garrison.
• 3:40
  And, down there, you know, we all see outwardly kind of the the day of the dead.
• 3:45
  Right?
• 3:45
  The Dia de los Muertos we see at these big the parades of celebration, but it's a very
• 3:50
  personal holiday to to the Mexican you know, it's not just a tradition.
• 3:57
  It is cultural.
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  Right?
• 3:58
  It's pervasive because that is the time where the two worlds, the afterlife and the land of
• 4:04
  the living are closest.
• 4:05
  Right?
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  And they they spread the marigold petals on the ground, and they make all of their ancestors'
• 4:12
  favorite foods, and their their pictures are up.
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  And you do this every single year, and I feel like, especially in American culture, that, you
• 4:20
  know, once once you're dead and gone, everybody tends to forget about you.
• 4:25
  You have to live some gigantic life for anyone to even consider remembering you.
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  And I just don't think that that's, I don't think that it's right.
• 4:35
  I I think all of us have lived a life worth telling and worth sharing.
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  And for you to, you know, not just take the name and follow in the footsteps music and
• 4:45
  education.
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  I mean, your life is now becoming, part of that legacy of your grandfather.
• 4:51
  Right?
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  And at least outwardly, that's how it looks to me, just getting to know you.
• 4:56
  So very, very proud of you, sir.
• 4:58
  It's not something that lot of people in this day and age that that they walk and are are
• 5:05
  wanting to carry their their you know their forefathers with them if you will so so you
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  have a couple of his songs on the record.
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  What kind of music did grandpa write?
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  Grandpa was country western down to the core.
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  He he loved old school country, Marty Robbins, Johnny Cash, Buddy Holly, and we would listen
• 5:28
  to a lot of that together.
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  And so his music was very that that sense of country western where it was emotional and it
• 5:35
  was always a story, and it was usually about love or heartbreak.
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  And and his songs usually were simple chords, but they were very they just pulled me in.
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  Like, I loved listening to his music growing up because it had that nostalgic sense to it.
• 5:52
  Well and it's substantiative.
• 5:54
  Right?
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  That and I think that the country music genre, especially, and especially when you talk about,
• 5:59
  you know, the older the older school, and especially country western, that it lends
• 6:04
  itself to that.
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  You can use these simple chords and a very slow strumming and a simple pattern and be able to
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  peak someone's interest with the substance of the story and not necessarily the beat or the
• 6:17
  way this clever guitar lick happened or or whatever that may be.
• 6:21
  So I love that.
• 6:22
  Did grandpa ever take you over to the Pendleton Roundup being from the Portland area?
• 6:29
  Grandpa did not on that side of the family but my father's side of the family did take me to
• 6:35
  the Roundup yeah so I've been in that twist for a time or two.
• 6:39
  Yeah.
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  How fun.
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  I never got to attend but I know it's a very well, what's funny is that, you know, I was
• 6:45
  kind of a hippie when I was out in Portland and around in those areas.
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  I lived in Bend And, you know, I was out there doing hippie shit.
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  Right?
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  It wasn't and it wasn't until I well, and I I grew up in South Dakota, so I wasn't unfamiliar
• 6:57
  with, you know, the country scene, but it was almost like I didn't realize how big the
• 7:01
  Pendleton Roundup was until I kinda came home back to Deadwood and then being back around the
• 7:06
  rodeo lifestyle.
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  We were very blessed to work at the Cinch playoffs last year, and they are obviously huge
• 7:12
  in the rodeo business.
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  So, just kind of fun to to reminisce about, man, you were right there and you didn't go.
• 7:19
  Right?
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  So I wanted to make sure that you had checked that off your box, not only as an Oregonian,
• 7:24
  but as a, you know, purveyor of country western music.
• 7:27
  So grandpa wrote country western.
• 7:30
  You have a couple of his songs on the album.
• 7:33
  What what do you kind of call your music?
• 7:35
  I know it's really hard to put a a finger on genres these days, but how would you describe
• 7:40
  your music then?
• 7:42
  I always describe my music as Americana.
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  It's very influenced by like I said, I grew up listening to a lot of fifties, sixties with
• 7:50
  grandpa and a lot of seventies, eighties with my parents.
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  And then I grew up kind of early nineties.
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  And so the music that I listened to was just very vast.
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  And so when when I wrote the record, it was kind of like this song reminded me of grandpa's
• 8:06
  music.
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  One of them is grandpa songs since country western style, and there's one that's called
• 8:11
  mother that's a little bit more leaning towards, like, folksy rock.
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  And so I really like that genre because it allows you to just sort of span different
• 8:20
  genres and, like, step into what each song calls for to really have that story told in the
• 8:25
  right way.
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  So I I just stick with Americana, and I find that that feels like a really good fit for me.
• 8:31
  As a label, it it covers that broad spectrum.
• 8:34
  Right?
• 8:35
  Yeah.
• 8:36
  I I should probably start telling people that as well.
• 8:39
  Instead, I make up my own stuff.
• 8:41
  I used to call it rockabilly regga funk.
• 8:44
  That was a bit too much of a mouthful all the time.
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  So now I kinda call our style modern gypsy rock.
• 8:50
  And That's great.
• 8:52
  Yeah.
• 8:53
  Well and that's Americana.
• 8:54
  Right?
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  Like, what what is Americana music if not the songs of the traveling gypsies and the cowboys
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  and the people that were out and traveling around this great country, you know, over the
• 9:08
  course of the last two hundred years.
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  Right?
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  That's right.
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  Coming up on, you know, our our, you know, two hundred and fiftieth anniversary, right, of of
• 9:17
  America, and it's just it's an incredible melting pot, especially of musical cultures.
• 9:25
  Right?
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  You know, I spoke about being in Mexico and playing down there.
• 9:29
  And and in Mexico, you kinda have, like, two musics.
• 9:32
  You either have EDM or you have banda, which banda to me is like it's Mexican polka music.
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  It's tubas.
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  It's three four time.
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  It is very bump bump bump.
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  It's it's simple.
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  Two music thing.
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  Freaking love it, Garrison.
• 9:47
  Oh my god.
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  Every time I hear it now.
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  Right?
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  All of those emotions and those memories from that year in Mexico come flooding back to me.
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  The taste of the food, the the scent in the air of just different the, you know, the copal
• 10:02
  incense that they would burn and everything's comes flooding back.
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  And I think, you know, American music, especially because we have the birth of the
• 10:12
  blues and country and all of these things, Americana is a great label to have these days.
• 10:17
  And, so I commend you for carrying that proudly.
• 10:20
  A little easier to do, I feel like, in Portland than necessarily in, in South Dakota where it
• 10:26
  it's kinda like country, you know, most of the state is country, and then we obviously have
• 10:31
  Sturgis, out on the western side of the state, the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.
• 10:35
  So you have those rock influences, which is probably why I've landed where I am.
• 10:40
  I don't ride a motorcycle, but I've been completely surrounded by that culture almost,
• 10:45
  you know, over half of my life.
• 10:47
  Right?
• 10:47
  Most of my life at this point.
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  So, man
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  Sounds like that style fits.
• 10:51
  Yeah.
• 10:52
  Well and I feel like our styles would go together very well, you know, in tandem with
• 10:57
  each other Because I have a lot of songs while I can get into that rock side, I can also, you
• 11:03
  know, a song like one of mine called True Meaning that I wrote for my wife.
• 11:06
  Just a very simple four chord structure, telling the story of, man, this is how a real
• 11:11
  man says sorry.
• 11:12
  Right?
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  And and you are the light of my world.
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  You are you are my world.
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  So, man, just in love with this conversation.
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  So you got a new record out.
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  You have, you know, some tributes.
• 11:27
  You have a lot of stuff going on.
• 11:29
  You said you're supporting local songwriters in the Portland area as well or around in your
• 11:33
  area.
• 11:33
  Tell me a little bit more about that.
• 11:36
  Yeah.
• 11:36
  Well, last year, my husband and I created Northwest Songfest as just a music festival
• 11:43
  just to highlight singer songwriters in the area because we're right outside of Portland,
• 11:48
  and Portland has a very lush music scene.
• 11:50
  But when you get out just a city or two out, there's nothing like it.
• 11:54
  And there's it's almost radio silence.
• 11:57
  It's there's just not a lot of kind of, like, community, I felt like, in songwriting in
• 12:02
  songwriting and in music.
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  And and so we wanted to create that.
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  So we created Songfest.
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  We got nine local singer songwriter musicians to come and play, and, it was a great turnout.
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  And after that, we thought, well, we really wanna continue to create opportunities more
• 12:17
  than just this once a year.
• 12:19
  And so we're doing we call it Northwest Songfest Presents, and it's different events.
• 12:23
  We have a songwriters night that we do the first Wednesday of every month in this little
• 12:27
  town called Silverton.
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  And that has been a great turnout.
• 12:31
  So many different levels of performers, different genres, some people who've never
• 12:36
  played before and some people who've been playing for twenty five years.
• 12:39
  And it's really, really amazing to see what that level of support can do for musicians at
• 12:46
  different phases of their career.
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  And, we're putting on a Patti Griffin tribute in Portland in October.
• 12:54
  And so that also highlights singer songwriters because I noticed kind of maybe after COVID
• 13:00
  that it was a heavy focus on bands, which I love.
• 13:04
  Don't get me wrong.
• 13:06
  But I felt like, where are these singer songwriters gonna land?
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  I felt that way, and I'm like, I'm sure other people feel that way.
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  How are they gonna be encouraged?
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  Like, they're important in the resilience of these communities through their hard times, and
• 13:17
  they tell the stories.
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  So I just wanted to create opportunities and encouragement and support that says, like, keep
• 13:24
  writing, keep singing.
• 13:26
  Your music's really important.
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  And I think it's been well received, and I think people are understanding what we were
• 13:33
  trying to do, which you're always nervous when you do something new or put a new idea out that
• 13:38
  it's like, this could really flop.
• 13:40
  But it's it's working out, and it's really humbling and honoring to see people come
• 13:46
  together in that way.
• 13:48
  And I just I I really wanna touch on some.
• 13:52
  So, you know, post COVID because we had a much different relationship with COVID than in South
• 13:57
  Dakota than, you know, Minneapolis did.
• 14:00
  Right?
• 14:00
  And, obviously, a much different situation with it than than you would have in Portland and
• 14:04
  around that.
• 14:05
  So for me, I was in Portland and around in Bend and Eugene and all these vibrant music scenes,
• 14:11
  man.
• 14:11
  I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about all all the all the stuff that I got to, but, y'all
• 14:17
  pretty much shut down for two and a half years.
• 14:20
  Right?
• 14:20
  No gigs, no shows, no songwriter nights, no anything.
• 14:24
  And, I mean, it quite literally probably killed the I mean, it did.
• 14:28
  It killed the music scene for a couple years probably.
• 14:30
  I have some good friends of mine.
• 14:32
  The acoustic minds are out there.
• 14:34
  The twins, the Price twins still doing their thing.
• 14:37
  Yeah.
• 14:37
  For two decades now, they've been at it.
• 14:39
  My good friend, Marvellis, is still up there doing his thing.
• 14:43
  Not so much around Portland.
• 14:45
  These days, they're back down around Eugene, but, you know, their new band, free creatures,
• 14:49
  coming out.
• 14:50
  So so I got to see kind of vicariously through them the lack of playing out that it did.
• 14:57
  But what I noticed, and especially with my friends in Minneapolis as well, is that a lot
• 15:01
  of people went into your rent inside.
• 15:04
  Right?
• 15:05
  And a lot of people wrote all these things and wrote these beautiful records.
• 15:09
  But then, you know, kind of coming back, a lot of the clubs that you were playing in, a lot of
• 15:15
  these songwriter nights and the open mics and all the things that really prop up a scene as
• 15:20
  vibrant as Portland was had gone away, and you're having to restart that whole engine.
• 15:26
  And you're really the tip of the spear of that.
• 15:28
  There was the bell going on.
• 15:29
  I heard it just just a tinge.
• 15:31
  Just a tinge.
• 15:32
  This AI stuff we use now will probably block that all out.
• 15:35
  We won't have to worry about it, but watching your eyes a little bit.
• 15:39
  So you guys are kind of the tip of the spear now of this reawakening of, you know, really
• 15:46
  this incredible, you know, creative beast that has been sleeping, you know, kinda dormant for
• 15:52
  the last several years.
• 15:53
  So I commend you for the work.
• 15:55
  We here at the scene projects know all about that.
• 15:58
  Right?
• 15:58
  We have our songwriter showcases and because our passion is the same as yours.
• 16:03
  Right?
• 16:03
  Is this about the songwriters?
• 16:05
  I have a cover band.
• 16:06
  Right?
• 16:06
  Starts and ends is mostly a cover band that I get to kind of infuse my my originals into, but
• 16:13
  that's that's the scene that we have out here.
• 16:16
  You know, venues aren't looking to put together eight bands on a night and to do that.
• 16:21
  They wanna hire one band to play three or four hours of music, right, and to be able to walk
• 16:26
  away.
• 16:26
  It's very hard for, you know, I would say most bands to come out and swing three four hours of
• 16:32
  quality original music.
• 16:34
  Right?
• 16:34
  I maybe have a forty five to an hour of good original music that I like to bring out to the
• 16:40
  world and will present to you.
• 16:42
  So, yeah, really commend the work that y'all are doing and, shout out to you and your
• 16:47
  husband for just just doing it.
• 16:48
  Like you said, it's really intimidating to, you know, sit back and go, well, like, how how did
• 16:54
  I land here?
• 16:55
  Right?
• 16:55
  How how am I the one in charge?
• 16:57
  Right?
• 16:57
  And I think I look at myself a lot, and now it's like, what had to go wrong for for me to
• 17:04
  be the one that's kinda being looked up to to be a leader?
• 17:08
  But I've also have to accept the fact that now I've been doing this, you know, professionally
• 17:12
  for twenty five years.
• 17:14
  You know I stepped on stage in grade for the time and by grade I was playing with my dad in
• 17:19
  the band.
• 17:20
  Now you could still smoke in a bar back in back in those days so I didn't last more than a set
• 17:25
  before I'm crying and I can't breathe But, you know, it's there's a reason that we've kind of
• 17:32
  ascended to this leadership roles is because not only have we been around, but we've also
• 17:38
  been, you know, the ones supporting the other people in the scene.
• 17:42
  It's always been a passion of ours.
• 17:44
  Obviously, it's a passion of yours to support the songwriters that are out there doing it and
• 17:49
  not just being about yourself.
• 17:51
  It takes a lot of, it takes a lot of guts to do that.
• 17:56
  Thank you.
• 17:57
  Thank you.
• 17:57
  Yeah.
• 17:58
  I mean, it's like you said, it's not something you necessarily expect or and you don't know
• 18:03
  how it's gonna come together sometimes.
• 18:05
  But like seeing our we had a songwriter's night last night, actually, and seeing, there were
• 18:11
  two people who came that had never performed before.
• 18:14
  And there's, a couple people there who had been playing for, I think, between the two of them,
• 18:18
  probably fifty years.
• 18:20
  And both of those groups of people were so humbling to see that they were both really
• 18:26
  excited about it.
• 18:27
  And they were both really happy to be there.
• 18:29
  And they were like, this is this is exactly why we make this music is to get together and to
• 18:33
  share it with people.
• 18:34
  And it was just humbling to see that you don't you wonder, okay.
• 18:37
  Is this person who's been playing for twenty five years gonna enjoy, you know, this sort of
• 18:42
  almost upscale open mic setting?
• 18:46
  And is this person who's never played before gonna feel kinda safe to get into that
• 18:50
  vulnerability?
• 18:50
  And so when that happens, it's like, I don't necessarily know what I'm doing, but I'm gonna
• 18:55
  keep doing it because that's what it's all about is the music.
• 18:59
  You know?
• 19:00
  Brother, that is how we ended up with a podcast in the place.
• 19:04
  It is it is why we keep going.
• 19:06
  It it is how we've landed now.
• 19:08
  You know, winning the content creator of the year award through our Midwest country music
• 19:12
  organization has just already opened so many doors.
• 19:15
  I didn't realize, because I've been kind of you know, since I finished sports in high school
• 19:20
  where it's been like, you know, it's a noncompetitive.
• 19:23
  And we say a lot here that, like, the music business isn't about competition.
• 19:27
  It's about collaboration.
• 19:28
  But, also, when you win something from an accredited, you know, organization, you know,
• 19:34
  the Midwest Country Music Organization, been around for over ten years now.
• 19:38
  So when people look at that award, it means a little something.
• 19:41
  And I I realize now that it's opening doors for me that I didn't even know were closed or that
• 19:47
  I didn't even know existed.
• 19:49
  And now the scene projects, because of its stature, can do that for others.
• 19:54
  And that's where we've started just the last month.
• 19:57
  At the end of the month, we did our own song contest.
• 20:00
  Right?
• 20:01
  And we had five, songwriters come out, share their stuff.
• 20:04
  We had a couple of judges and, you know, provided a little bit of creative feedback, but
• 20:09
  then we had two winners.
• 20:10
  We had a people's choice and, you know, the judges winners.
• 20:13
  And now they both get to carry that along with them and to use that as an introduction when
• 20:19
  they're going to book gigs.
• 20:20
  Right?
• 20:21
  And when they're going to do these things and it's like, oh, wow.
• 20:23
  Like, we kinda passed that level and went straight to the now we're the ones, you know,
• 20:28
  giving the awards, but it means something.
• 20:31
  It means something because what we're building is that community.
• 20:35
  Right?
• 20:35
  When when COVID kind of ended and the world opened back up, that's what was missing.
• 20:40
  You looked around and the communities that were there were no longer there.
• 20:45
  If they weren't able to kinda take that physical community and to move it online over
• 20:49
  the course of that two, three years, then it doesn't take long for people to fade, for you
• 20:55
  to start forgetting people's names and and ever.
• 20:57
  It just fades so quickly.
• 21:00
  And I think it's surprising to all of us how fast that faded away and that it's not able to
• 21:05
  come back in, you know, full force again.
• 21:08
  It's gonna take a rebuilding effort to get it to there.
• 21:12
  Yeah.
• 21:12
  And, I mean, as musicians, at least I I identify as as sort of an extroverted introvert
• 21:18
  where it's like, I think COVID for people who do like to spend a lot of time alone made it
• 21:24
  very easy for the the singer songwriter to just kinda go, well, I'll just start writing in my
• 21:28
  closet again.
• 21:29
  And and so I wanna encourage people to, like, get come back out of your shell.
• 21:35
  Like, have those moments where you share your stuff with people because it's so easy as a
• 21:39
  musician to kind of go inward because we what we share is so vulnerable and so scary.
• 21:44
  And so if you stop doing it, it's like, well, okay.
• 21:48
  I guess that's alright.
• 21:49
  I mean, it's not so scary anymore.
• 21:50
  I'll just stay over here.
• 21:51
  And so I'm hoping and congratulations on your award too.
• 21:55
  And I hope that that's that that does continue to provide a platform that you can encourage
• 22:00
  people because that's so cool to see when somebody is able to use their platform to open
• 22:05
  doors for other people because it doesn't happen enough.
• 22:08
  You know?
• 22:09
  No.
• 22:10
  And that's what we're both doing.
• 22:12
  Right?
• 22:12
  I I would assume that you are much like me even if I'm at the grocery store, and you may be a
• 22:17
  100 yards behind me.
• 22:18
  But if I've seen you walking my direction, I'm probably gonna stand there and hold the door.
• 22:23
  Like, you would have to be pretty much in your car still for me to to just walk away and let
• 22:29
  that door slam behind me.
• 22:31
  So I kinda bring that mentality with me everywhere we go, bringing it online to what
• 22:35
  we're doing here with the SCENE projects, and I thank you.
• 22:39
  I I never set out to win any awards or that's not the reason that I do these things, but it
• 22:45
  took that, you know, participating in a few and winning one to go, oh, it's you're right.
• 22:50
  It's not about that, but it is about how not only can that award open doors for you, but how
• 22:56
  it can open doors for others.
• 22:58
  And now we're able to I mean, we just won the award back in April.
• 23:01
  We're already turning it around and learning how to use that to empower others.
• 23:05
  And and we're just not stopping.
• 23:07
  Right?
• 23:07
  That's, I think, the biggest thing right now, for for us and for you as well is just to keep
• 23:12
  going.
• 23:13
  Just just to find whatever it takes to keep the momentum rolling, to to not get discouraged
• 23:19
  when things get a little tough or, you know, things don't go exactly as we planned and and
• 23:24
  just to keep going.
• 23:25
  And the best way to do that is exactly what you're doing.
• 23:27
  Build a community around you so that when you are a little low, you have someone that can
• 23:33
  pick you up.
• 23:33
  You have someone that can kind of carry that ball for a little while and carry that burden
• 23:37
  and to be able to do some things and cause inevitably, we're all gonna deal with some of
• 23:42
  those struggles.
• 23:42
  Right?
• 23:43
  It it it's how we behave in those hard times that really, make us the men that we are.
• 23:51
  Man, Garrison, what a great conversation.
• 23:54
  I absolutely I just love doing this podcast.
• 23:56
  Right?
• 23:57
  I and for reason for this reason, I'd forgotten about this conversation, before it even
• 24:04
  started.
• 24:04
  I had already, you know, for whatever reason, the reminder didn't come in until the last
• 24:09
  minute.
• 24:09
  And, but here we are, two two brothers in arms out here, you know, trying to support
• 24:16
  songwriters and supporting songwriters.
• 24:18
  I I won't say trying.
• 24:19
  We're doing it.
• 24:19
  We we are doing it in every way, and we're not gonna stop.
• 24:22
  So let that be a warning to everyone out there.
• 24:25
  Garrison nor Bubba Starts are are going to stop doing what they're doing, supporting
• 24:29
  songwriters, teaching the younger songwriters kinda how this is done and and supporting those
• 24:35
  older songwriters and giving them a chance to to be the OGs.
• 24:41
  Right?
• 24:41
  Giving some of these people that have been doing it for twenty five, thirty years, giving
• 24:45
  also them a community to come and bring their stuff into maybe because they're not as outward
• 24:51
  and as extroverted as you or I can be that they they would rather just, you know, hey.
• 24:56
  I really liked that song and working with one person and becoming mentors.
• 25:00
  I I think that's what's going to really advance this songwriter, and this business has changed
• 25:06
  so much that we need to support each other.
• 25:09
  We need to keep collaborating and keep being about one another as much as we can.
• 25:14
  So, Garrison, go ahead and plug everything you need to before I let you go.
• 25:19
  Sure.
• 25:20
  Well, the my single happiness is very close is out now.
• 25:25
  My next single is the song that my grandfather wrote called let it go, and that's out the 20
• 25:30
  this month, June.
• 25:32
  And then August 29 is the record comes out, and there's a release party at Rose City Book Pub
• 25:37
  in Portland.
• 25:39
  So fly on in, Bubba.
• 25:41
  No.
• 25:41
  I'm just kidding.
• 25:42
  You can find me on Instagram, garrison.music, Garrison with an e, and my website,
• 25:50
  garrison.com, which I put all the updates on.
• 25:53
  I have a newsletter that you can sign up for and just, like, I will stay in touch because I
• 25:58
  love the people that support me, they're very valuable to me, and I really couldn't do it
• 26:01
  without them.
• 26:03
  Do you post all the songwriter nights and everything on your personal pages or is there a
• 26:07
  separate page and stuff for that?
• 26:10
  Both.
• 26:11
  So there is a Northwest Songfest Instagram.
• 26:14
  I think it's n w songfest on Instagram.
• 26:19
  And that's where we post the songwriters tonight, but I share every single one on my
• 26:23
  storyline as well.
• 26:25
  So if you follow me and you follow them, you'll get it one way or the other.
• 26:29
  And it's the first Wednesday of every month at Leaf and Vine in Silverton, Oregon.
• 26:34
  And then we'll continue to do artist showcase.
• 26:36
  We'll continue to do workshops and likely more events in Portland.
• 26:40
  And so follow those and, like, come out to an event.
• 26:43
  They're they're just really special, and it's not nothing quite like it when you get in a
• 26:47
  group of musicians that are really supporting each other.
• 26:51
  Garrison, I just I'm absolutely in love with everything that you and your husband are doing
• 26:55
  out there.
• 26:56
  And like I said, I really commend you.
• 26:58
  It's not easy work.
• 26:59
  There's there's obviously no money in this for anyone, especially out there.
• 27:04
  Like, when I play with my band, we do okay in South Dakota.
• 27:07
  But but out in Portland, I know the game pretty well.
• 27:10
  And you're doing this because of passion.
• 27:13
  You're doing it because of, you know, a love of your fellow songwriter, and and it's very
• 27:17
  commendable.
• 27:18
  So kudos to you.
• 27:20
  I can't wait to come out and visit.
• 27:22
  Don't know if I'll be flying in.
• 27:24
  My style is way more to drive in, play shows the whole way, play shows while I'm there, and
• 27:28
  drive out.
• 27:29
  So, but now that, you know, I got more friends in Portland and in that area, maybe we'll be
• 27:34
  taking it on the road out to the West Coast before you know it.
• 27:38
  Let's get Northwest Songfest out to Horning's Hideout.
• 27:41
  That's where I like to hang.
• 27:44
  Let's do it.
• 27:46
  Well, Garrison, thank you so much for being a part of the scene.
• 27:49
  Thank you, Eva.
• 27:50
  I appreciate it.
• 27:51
  Thank you.