Latest / The Scene Projects / Bobbie Jo Kuhl, Von Varagon Society and Bubba Startz - Creative Journeys and Vagabonds

Transcript

Bobbie Jo Kuhl, Von Varagon Society and Bubba Startz - Creative Journeys and Vagabonds · The Scene Projects

0:01
Well, hey, guys.
0:03
How's everybody doing?
0:05
Deadwood, South Dakota, Wild West songwriters festivals.
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My favorite weekend in Deadwood.
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I don't
0:10
know about you guys.
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But
0:12
Well, they'll do.
0:13
Yeah.
0:13
Yeah.
0:34
Well, my name is Bubba Starts.
0:36
I'm joined by Monty and Molly and Bobby Joe Cool on there.
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I am a songwriter, but I'm also a podcast host.
0:45
I have a show called The Scene Projects, of which Bobby Joe has been a guest where she's
0:49
been on talking about not just her music, but an awesome festival that I hope she talks about
0:54
tonight as well.
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Molly's a future guest.
0:57
She just found out.
0:59
Sure.
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I'll be in.
1:01
I'll be in.
1:02
In fact, you're being a guest now.
1:04
So I do a show called the songwriter showcase on my program.
1:09
And it's just this.
1:10
It's usually me up here interviewing an artist and and sharing it.
1:13
But this weekend, I asked Jesse if I could record these episodes or record my episodes of
1:20
just the writer's rounds.
1:21
So these will be featured on our Roku channel called TripTV plus sometime down the road.
1:27
I'm not sure exactly when, but you'll be able to find those there and you can find my podcast
1:31
on YouTube.
1:33
But I just released a new album or I'm releasing a new album, and you can find that by
1:38
scanning this code up here.
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This first song I'm gonna play you is one I got to do with my friend Tom Freer down at his
1:44
studio in Rapid City called Cottonwood Recording.
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Diami Drew, who Bobby Joe knows pretty intimately now, is playing bass on it, and
1:54
Johnny Hastings, who's gonna be playing this weekend as well, played on guitar.
1:58
This one's called Drift Hood.
10:45
New ish.
10:46
Yeah.
10:46
New ish.
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Definitely a new recording
10:47
and a lot of this stuff is new.
10:49
So I really liked that.
10:51
I love both of you guys' eyes.
10:52
Love that one too a lot a lot.
10:55
You guys are rock stars.
11:11
Oh, that's super cool.
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I think I've only actually written, like, two or three songs out here.
11:16
Yeah.
11:16
That's awesome.
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But, yeah, I really enjoy playing around here.
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So I'm in I'm the lead singer of a band called Cool and the Gangstas, and then I'm in a couple
11:24
different duos with Tammy Drew who we talked about and Mark Anthony Thompson who's playing
11:30
down the street and then doing solo stuff with this.
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So this is my fourth year performing for the Wild West songwriters festival.
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Super excited.
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And this is my brand new guitar.
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I just got it yesterday.
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Oh, great.
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It's my first time yeah.
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I I seen it at about 04:00 yesterday.
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So Nice.
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Here's hoping that everything stays in tune.
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It sounds really good.
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I really like it a lot.
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Super excited.
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Any other words?
11:57
I think that's it for now.
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So I am celebrating this song.
12:01
It just popped up on my Facebook memories.
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This is the first song I ever wrote.
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It's called Your Soul is Calling, and it was nine years ago on September 30.
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So crazy because I didn't know how to play the guitar at that point.
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That seemed impossible to me.
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And then I stopped performing with the people who were playing the instruments, and I was
12:21
like, oh, shit.
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I gotta sing.
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How am I gonna sing my songs?
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They're not at karaoke.
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So then I started teaching myself the guitar in 2018, and that's slowly been progressing ever
12:35
since.
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So this is called Your Souls' Home.
16:34
Today.
16:34
Yeah.
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Well I was gonna wait for tomorrow and then I was like, I got nervous.
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I was like, yeah, actually I'm gonna play it.
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Can you talk about the difference?
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Because mostly, you know, what I have grown accustomed to seeing you was with the duo.
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Right?
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Usually, you know,
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last But
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playing with Jace.
16:51
Right?
16:51
Yes.
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But you got to come up with my band starts and ends when we played at the Saloon Number 10
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last summer.
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That was awesome.
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Was awesome.
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And getting to see you perform with a band that night because I kinda just stepped off and let
17:04
let them kinda lead let you lead them.
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Right?
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Yes.
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And now I see you doing it with some fantastic musicians.
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Diony is obviously one of the I mean, he's the best bass player that I know.
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But also the rest of the guys in the band are phenomenal musicians.
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Can you talk about how cool it is to kind of step from that?
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Where you're a little limited.
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Right?
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You're playing with a, you know, just another guitar player and and singing to now having the
17:30
whole band behind you.
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What's that?
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It's it's amazing.
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I didn't know how fast my heart would count them because I I have to dance and sing with
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the songs, and it's so different.
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I seriously almost passed out when we called mister Wu.
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It crazy.
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I'm not kidding.
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It's like a 100 freaking degrees.
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I wore jeans.
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It's stupid.
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But we had a good time.
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So Bruce has been inducted into the South Dakota Music Hall of Fame twice.
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And he's 72 years old.
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So that's our guitar player.
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Joe's been our guitar player.
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We actually have a new or not a different player, drummer.
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Have a new drummer coming in because he's got kiddos and school and stuff.
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So we've got Lisa Young who's gonna be stepping in.
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We'll have a female drummer too.
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Yeah.
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It's amazing.
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I love doing all of it.
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I love playing for four hours, four and a half hours sometimes with the band.
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And and then I love doing the duos as well and the solo stuff.
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So I'm finally working up to getting two hours of my own solo stuff going as well.
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Yeah.
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I mean, it's it's fun to do all of it.
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I did a lot of other stuff and just sang karaoke up until I was 40.
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And so I just started I'm 44 now.
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I just started getting paid to play music when I turned 40.
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And now my son turned 18, so I've got a lot more freedom to do all of this stuff, and I
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wanna do it all.
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Awesome.
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Awesome.
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I haven't gotten to see the gangsters yet, but I can't wait.
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I can't wait.
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I've watched a lot online.
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I I definitely stalked you on Facebook.
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Fantastic.
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Be sure.
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Thanks for sharing with me.
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I I don't get to see my friends often enough, so forgive me if I have a little conversation
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up here and get some stuff out of him.
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Matt Fockler in the house, we just played around over at Jacob's Gallery.
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And, yeah, I don't think there's other other people that are playing two rounds a day like I
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am, but I said I don't know if Jesse loves me or hates me, that I'm getting inspired by this
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town and the times we have.
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Like it.
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Thank you, Michelle.
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So Monty and I have been playing together for well over a decade, I've lost track of exactly
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how many years because Actually, I have your pin in my purse.
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Sweet.
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Yeah.
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I was pulling some stuff out of my purse the other day and it flew out.
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And I was like, oh, oh my god.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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It helps when you have a graphic design on in your fans because we get
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artists up here and songwriters ourselves, but we're all fans of each other.
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Right?
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Like, we all have Yes.
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A sticker or a piece of merch at home of the other artists and, you know, the only shame is
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that when you're on stage, you're not getting to go and watch your friends play down the
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street.
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It is.
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That's the hardest part.
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Trying to schedule out where you're to you and how you're gonna fit it all in and it becomes
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quite a whirlwind of the weekend.
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That's why I like the locals jam.
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That's like Back here.
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Yeah.
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Tonight.
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Tonight.
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It's like my favorite.
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My big favorite of the whole weekend.
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Yeah.
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Molly comes to a lot of my gigs here in Deadwood and super supportive.
30:03
We're all supportive of each other.
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And Bubba's always doing awesome things and supporting a lot of musicians as well.
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Like all over the state and throughout The United States stuff keeps growing growing a lot
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too.
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Put a lot of miles on the old Suburban this
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year.
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I've been putting a lot of miles on my car, but I also drive for Lyft.
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So I mean, like, five I know.
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I just don't wanna do the late night driving either.
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I wanna play late night music.
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So maybe I'll drive people off afterwards.
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So I understand the whole happy song and sad song.
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So I feel like every songwriter event, most of the people I'm with write more sad songs and I
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I don't write when I'm sad.
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Like, I don't do anything.
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I just lay on the couch and cry.
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But so I've never been inspired to write a sad song, like, even a heartbreak song.
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I'm usually like, f them whatever.
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So I did write a breakup song, my first breakup song, but it's still happy.
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So I found a way to, like, spin it around and make it cool, you know, for good karma.
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Because we all learn from relationships, whether we want to or not.
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I've done a lot of learning.
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Freaking ridiculous.
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I think it's gonna stop either.
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What is it?
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Women are from Mars, men are from Venus.
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Some people are from alright.
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Well, I didn't know if I was gonna play this song, but I feel inspired now that I have to.
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So I actually wrote this one last year and performed it for the songwriters festival.
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This is called a new song.
35:10
But do you have a new song called New Song?
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I definitely don't have that.
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I'm gonna write a new
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song called Lil Song.
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I love it.
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I like it.
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No.
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I feel like I I I should write more, but especially since I started doing the podcast
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eighteen months ago, I've spent a lot more a lot of my energy has gone to that.
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Right?
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Because I realized when I was releasing new music in February '24 good friend's podcast
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with them, I tried to be in his studio and I was like, hey, I have that.
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Hey, I have that.
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I was like, I got a podcast studio.
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He's like, most definitely do.
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You I I'm a a couple of full band shows, but it's it's been much more rewarding for me to
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support all the other artists around me and then to work on some of the old songs.
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So I've been like, working with, I mentioned, Cabo recording and working on getting some of
36:15
these old songs out.
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Have so many songs that I've written over, you know, like, twenty year career that have never
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seen the light of day
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unless you saw me perform it live.
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Or it's someone who's like, well, maybe we get the old stuff recorded and then we can make
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some space.
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Right?
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We can clear that hard drive and then be able to
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perform some more.
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So I need the right one.
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You're right.
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And that's why this weekend is so inspiring to me because because I see written everyone
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coming out over, and like, oh, I
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just wrote this one.
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I just wrote this one for, like, three years since
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I wrote this song.
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Right?
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You know?
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And I should probably get on it.
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So but I'm gonna play an old one.
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This one's actually the song that I released in '24, but I wrote it in, 2010.
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So exactly my point.
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These songs have been on a shelf for fifteen years and it's time to get them out there.
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This one's called Triple Fine.
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It's a happy song.
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I feel like I I've got a little bit of a downer, which isn't typically my style.
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So this is a nice little fun kind of poppy rock song, and I really want to thank Molly and
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Monty and Bobby Joe for for being here with me.
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It's really nice to share the stage with you guys.
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I appreciate it.
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Yeah.
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I got a big smile on my face when I saw my schedule for this year.
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And I was like, I'm gonna have a really good time.
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This is called Triple Fine.
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Yeah.
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Anytime you want.
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You're the one with the studio in the back.
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Right?
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We can just sit down.
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It's in an undisclosed location.
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Oh.
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I like that.
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The mystery.
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Mine's in my garage.
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So Monty, should we do our new song?
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Gotcha.
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So Monty has been our primary songwriter for lots of years we've been together.
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And this next song is actually a song that I wrote.
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And so it's the first time you will do one of my songs, and it's brand brand new.
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We just started rehearsal a few weeks ago, so we'll see how it goes.
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Hey, man.
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How's it be?
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I'm jazzing forward to it, so let's see how this goes.
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On.
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See how fast I can talk.
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I put on once a year.
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I'm hoping to have it back up here next year in Deadwood.
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I had one in Rapid last year.
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But I've had one in Gold, Colorado.
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I'm going to expand.
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So I learned that we are 97% Stardust.
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And then I learned that human ashes under a high powered microscope look just like
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stardust.
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And this song, I write songs really quick.
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And this one took me, like, six years.
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My other songs, I have one song I wrote in three minutes.
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So the fact that this took so long, I feel like it had to have a completion.
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My father actually passed away in the middle of it, I feel that that's what helps kinda
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complete it with the stardust aspect.
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So it's about, like, dreaming big.
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And I don't believe that we're here to just work nine to five and be slaves or robots in a
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little bit.
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We're here to create and music.
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All of this stuff brings people together.
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Always artwork, all the beautiful things.
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So I wrote this in hopes of inspiring others to find their creative side as well.
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Previous project
52:39
before wrap this up.
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You guys don't have to stop.
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We'll be
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happy if you wanna just keep playing and playing and playing.
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Make sure you come on back tonight.
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Mister Tristan Schofield, who was the winner of the twenty twenty four Wild West songwriters
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competition portion, He'll be back hosting the jam tonight.
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You're gonna see all of these songwriters you've seen around town or as many as we can
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fill up on stage doing a couple of their own songs, jamming together, having a great time.
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That starts at 08:00 tonight.
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It's gonna go into well, we get tired, so about after midnight, I suppose.
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And then come on back here tomorrow, we've got a 01:00 session.
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The aforementioned Tristan is going
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to be here.
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He will be here
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along with I already forgot.
53:18
See, I just looked at it.
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Tyler Mills.
53:20
Oh, yeah.
53:21
Tyler is one of our our good buddies around here.
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Actually, his band, Denizens of the Deep, is playing next weekend for Dead Weird.
53:27
Make sure
53:27
you check it out.
53:28
Really cool dude and
53:29
a great songwriter.
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Also joined by a young man who was featured in our Blues Fest that we put on for the first
53:34
time this past summer, the Deadwood Blues Festival.
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That's mister Bodie Linde.
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Bodie Linde is a young man from Rapid City, and I mean young, and wait till you see him.
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He's not small.
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He's about six, seven now, but he's an incredible blues aunt, Americana country.
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You name it, he can play everything.
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He'll be the third member of tomorrow's 01:00 session here.
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Check out the full schedule.
53:54
We've got some on all the tables.
53:56
We've got
53:56
a bunch more at the bar if you
53:57
need them.
53:57
Make sure that you take care of the staff throughout town as you're out and about today
54:01
and tomorrow.
54:02
Make sure you come back and see us, and of course check out everything Deadwood Tobacco
54:06
related at deadwoodtobacco.com.
54:09
That's it for the announcements.
54:10
Now back to more music.
54:13
Is it three already?
54:14
Oh, it is three already.
54:15
Okay.
54:16
Cool.
54:17
Awesome.
54:17
Thank you guys so much.
54:18
Thanks.
54:19
It was so great to see you.
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Appreciate you guys.
54:21
I'll be playing tomorrow at 12AM at the Franklin.
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We will be at 11AM at the BFW.
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We will be doing an entirely different set.
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Nice.
54:31
Nice.