Latest / The Scene Projects / Samantha Grimes: 1000 Shows, Original Music, and a Unique Left-Handed Journey

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Samantha Grimes: 1000 Shows, Original Music, and a Unique Left-Handed Journey · The Scene Projects

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Welcome back to the Scene Project Songwriter Showcase here at Midway Saloon in beautiful
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Saint Paul, Minnesota.
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I am joined now by Samantha Grimes.
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Welcome to the show, Sam.
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Hi.
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Thank you.
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Before
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we get into the music, tell us a little bit about who you are and what it is that you do.
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I am a songwriter and a performer.
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I love it.
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Yes.
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I write songs.
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I play them for people, and I enjoy it wholeheartedly.
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Excellent.
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Where are you from?
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Originally Forest Lake, Minnesota.
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Okay.
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Yeah.
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So you got roots here.
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I got roots.
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I got a little bit of rootage.
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And now I live in Wisconsin.
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It's awesome.
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Yeah.
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Shout out Wisconsin.
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Or I saw your license plates outside.
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Yeah.
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Mhmm.
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She was stalking you already.
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Oh, yeah.
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Fun stuff.
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So also a member of the Midwest Country Music Organization with us.
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It's brought us together
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again.
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Definitely.
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So are you a performer full time, or do you have a regular job, and this is more hobbyist
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stuff?
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This is well, this is my long term hobby.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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I am an accountant by day, and and then I go and have fun at night.
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That's fantastic.
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I also need an accountant too, so nice to know.
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We got one in the family.
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Wink.
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Wink.
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Yes.
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I can see the organizational email now.
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Yeah.
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While we're putting it out there.
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Mhmm.
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Well, Sam, so many questions.
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I could start with the shoes.
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You like them?
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I love them, actually.
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I was trying to think of what to wear, and and I thought, what would make this special today?
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Yeah.
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And then it was like I don't know.
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The ruby slippers, silver Yeah.
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Obviously.
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Well and I will tell you that anything that I'm involved with that you are a part of sparkly is
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always better.
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So Yes.
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They don't call me entertainer of the year for nothing.
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You gotta have sparkles.
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That's right.
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You did win some awards this year, didn't you?
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It's been a busy year for me.
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That's awesome.
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Well, tell us a little bit about it.
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Give us the highlight reel.
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Oh, highlight reel.
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Entertainer of the year.
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Yeah.
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One of my songs won pop song of the year, which was really cool.
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And You
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can give her some claps for that.
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Yep.
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And I've just I've had a lot of fun.
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This actually, this coming February will march my or mark my thousandth show.
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So, yeah, it's gonna be really cool.
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You've been keeping track from, like, day one?
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Well, I have a spreadsheet.
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Oh, countants.
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Accountants.
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My goodness.
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I don't even know what a spreadsheet is.
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It's okay.
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I've got you.
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But my finances are a mess.
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Is that true?
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Oh, yeah.
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Hundred yeah.
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She doesn't even look at them anymore.
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Fair.
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It would give her a heart attack.
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Yeah.
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But, yeah, I've been doing this a very long time.
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This is probably my well, I've been playing since I was five.
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So I'm 30 how old am I?
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37 now.
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There you it's
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been a long time.
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But, yeah, actually, I've played here back when I was 17 when it was big Versus Yeah.
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So I've been in these neck of the woods a long time.
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That's awesome.
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And now here you are.
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Here
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I am with you.
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As the entertainer of the year.
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Sure.
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Amazing.
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I have fun.
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Well, don't you entertain us now?
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Alright.
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I will entertain you.
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Are you ready?
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It's Yep.
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It's kind of a dark song.
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Alright.
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Does that sound okay?
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You told me I should tear my walls down.
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Care for what you wish for.
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In my waters, you will drown.
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I know you're like them young and full of scars.
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So here we are.
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A lot of cigarette and breathe you in.
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You love me like your hangover from your tonic and your jean.
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You smell like leather and you smell like lace.
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One more drink, you're mine, and I'll take you from this place.
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It's okay.
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I've got my car outside.
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Home.
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How sweet you think you know just where we are.
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You slay your words and then say it sure if we don't have to talk.
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I check my coat revolver against my waist and away.
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Some say you know exactly Yeah.
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What I'm talking about.
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Yeah.
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So the first thing that any of our guitar players watching is that you're left handed.
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You play the guitar left handed at least.
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I don't know if you write that way.
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I write left handed too.
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Nowadays, they have guitars that are strung properly to the left hand, but you play it
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upside down.
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Yes.
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Can you talk about some of the challenges maybe that you faced learning how to play the guitar,
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not really having a lot of people to maybe watch and learn from because I think it's
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pretty obvious that most guitar players Right.
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Play, even if they write left handed, maybe play the guitar in a standard way.
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You know, truth be told, it's never really been an issue because I play by ear.
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I can't read music or do any of that.
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So for me, just playing, it's always just been the way I played.
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It was an accident that turned into a style.
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Where it does become a hindrance is with full bands because a lot of the especially bass
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players that I work with, they watch my hands, and they try to see where I am, and it's upside
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down for them.
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So it really yeah.
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It just it depends.
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I I'm very fortunate that the bass players that I do work with and other guitarists are pretty
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adept with following me and seeing where I am.
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Because they'll be like, what key are you in?
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I don't know.
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I'm here.
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Yeah.
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Well, and I just for me, even looking, I'm just like, I know that you're playing the e.
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Right?
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I know that's where you're at and the kind of where everybody it can be a lot more difficult
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in the different formations that you start making.
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As you start running around the fretboard and stuff, it gets it's just because you don't have
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the experience of seeing it.
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Right?
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Exactly.
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And I'm sure people that, you know, play with you more and more, they get more used to that
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as time goes on.
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But, yeah, that was obviously the first thing for me as a guitar player that I noticed.
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Was like, oh, wow.
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Not just left handed, but you're playing it in the upside down Jimi Hendrix style.
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Yeah.
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Well, I mean, I started like this when I was very little.
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Really?
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Playing it slide style.
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How long have you been playing guitar?
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Thirty two years.
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Wow.
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So you started playing at five years old and and messing around on it.
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That's awesome.
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Terrible for the first seven years.
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Yeah.
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Just wanna
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point that out.
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So was I, and I started at 15.
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Excellent.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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It's not good.
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It's way harder to suck at 22 than it is at 12.
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I can imagine.
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Yes.
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Yeah.
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At least as a guitar player.
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Yeah.
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It's okay.
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Nice.
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So what have you been up to lately?
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I mean, we do you had all the award shows and did all stuff?
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You still play in shows all the time and keeping on the grind?
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Yeah.
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Trying to.
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I'm I'm very fortunate.
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I have music as as my one, like, social outlet.
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So I do that, and I play as often as I can.
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And the only thing that ever you were touching on it a little with Eli was the idea of not
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playing covers.
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That's my whole thing.
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I do not play covers.
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And so it's very interesting, we'll use that word, to find venues that support original live
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music.
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Right.
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Yeah.
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Right.
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Do you I mean, obviously, it wouldn't be hard.
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You say you play by ear.
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I'm sure you could figure these songs out, but for me, I'm a visual learner.
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So I'm I'm watching it and learning, like, to have to take that, and and it just seems like
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it would make the process so much longer not being able to just, oh, that's how you did it.
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Oh, yeah.
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Right?
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Yep.
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I mean, for me, like, even watching, you know, watching the old song remains the same.
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Right?
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The Led Zeppelin Yep.
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DVD.
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That was a tape back in the day.
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Right?
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But watching Jimmy Page play, I'm going, oh, that's how you did that.
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Like, there's that lick in different things.
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So, yeah, it just changes the whole game completely when you don't have that visual kind
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of a kickstand to lean against to do.
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Yep.
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Yeah.
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Interesting
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my own kickstand.
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That's right.
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That doesn't sound right.
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That's no wonder why you won entertainer of the year.
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It's the shoes.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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Definitely gotta be the shoes.
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Play us another one.
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Oh, sir.
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Okay.
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Hold on.
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I will do it.
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Alright.
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You wanna hear a soulful one?
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Yeah.
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Okay.
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This is my first song that got on the the big girl grown up radio.
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Oh.
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Yeah.
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They played on Cities.
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Cities ninety seven.
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Sweet.
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That's awesome.
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We'll see if our strings can stay in tune.
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This one is called Wendy Darling.
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I'm to a Wendy Dawson won't be okay.
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Wendy Dawson because people only let you down, break your heart, steal your crown for pride.
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Wendy Darling, look, there's a star.
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Wendy Darling, it's not very far.
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Those last boys you're looking for stole a boat and they rode to Short D.
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Because they don't know you like I do, and they won't stay and stick it through like
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Quite the juxtaposition from the first one.
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A little different.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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I love it.
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You got a huge range.
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Thank you.
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Yeah.
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Not just vocally,
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Oh, cool.
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Yeah.
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And your style.
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Do you think that not playing any covers and really having that as part of what you do kind
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of makes it easier to just be confident in writing and just continuing to do that.
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I think where a lot of songwriters get caught up or people that want to be songwriters is
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that they feel like their stuff maybe isn't good enough or or nobody's you know, those
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those kind of mental struggles that we feel.
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Do we feel like that?
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Do you feel that I mean, it's probably just who you are and who you've always been.
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But do you think that that kinda makes you a better songwriter, having that courage or just
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not knowing any better?
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I don't know.
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My spirit is actually way over there, like, crying because my guitar keeps going out of
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tune.
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So I think that we all, as performers and songwriters, I mean, you've got that little
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inkling in you that says that you're not good enough anyway.
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And and that's one of my things is it's a constant battle.
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You get up and play a song, and, I mean, I've had people tell me during, like, press junkets
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that I'm awful or, you know, you sound like a dying pigeon was one of my favorite ones.
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And I guess for me, I grab on to the people that really support me and the people that are
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cheering me on no matter if they're at a show or online or anything like that.
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And that's what I hold to that it means something to them.
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So, obviously, I am good enough.
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Exactly.
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Yeah.
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Exactly.
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You are good enough.
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Thanks, Bubba.
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Yeah.
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Well and it takes us to, you know, something that we've touched on a lot today.
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And over the course of, you know, this show is tapping into those small communities.
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You build your own community around yourself, and you build it out of love.
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Right.
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Right?
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Mhmm.
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And you just gotta forget about all that other nonsense because that's all it is.
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It's nonsense.
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I heard something really interesting last week, and I was at a business conference.
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And one of the keynote speakers was an actor and talked about when he was first going out to
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do auditions.
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And one of his acting coaches told him that 30% of the people are gonna like you no matter
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what.
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They're they're just gonna like you.
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They're gonna vibe with you.
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Right?
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They're gonna be on that.
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The other 30, you know, another 30% aren't gonna like you at all for whatever reason.
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You reminded them of your ex wife or ex husband or whatever, right, that you they're just not
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gonna like you, and the other 40% don't care.
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So go find your 30%.
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Yeah.
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Find your 30.
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Yeah.
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I mean, that's an excellent mantra to have because it's gonna save you a lot of self
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doubt, you know, going forward.
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I
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don't feel like you have much of that.
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Outwardly, I mean.
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You know, that's why you wear sparkles Yeah.
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To distract.
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Yeah.
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Well, I think and writing about the struggles is something that's really important.
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I know we touched on it with Tyler and stuff.
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Like, you have to write about what you go through as a songwriter because it's going to
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it's going to inform not just your audience, but it's going to inform you.
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And your style is gonna keep evolving and keep growing.
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And Right.
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I think we gotta get it out.
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I think we have to write more.
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I personally speaking from a personal standpoint, I need to be writing more.
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I need to be getting a lot of this stuff out there into the world.
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And whether it gets recorded and released and is a, you know, a hit or song, even, you know,
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maybe it's just an idea.
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Maybe the idea just needs to get out
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Yep.
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And then can sit there.
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You know, do you have songs?
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You've been doing this a long time.
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Do you have songs that you have kind of, you know, maybe written a piece of and and then
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maybe forgot about or left alone and have come back to and finished later?
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Have you that ever happened to you?
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Oh, yeah.
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Well, I wouldn't say that I've ever not finished a song.
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Usually, when I write, it all just comes out, and I've got a done song.
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There are songs that I finished and went, oh my god.
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That's terrible.
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And I chuck that over here, And then I'll come back to it two years later and think, why
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didn't I like this?
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It sounds great.
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And then I have ideas for additions or whatever in the full studio version.
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So I don't know.
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I always say what is that old adage that somebody will say to you that they have spilled
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more beer than you've drank?
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Right.
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That's how I feel with songs sometimes.
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I I've written more than than maybe people have heard.
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So yeah.
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That's amazing.
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Mhmm.
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Well, you wanna play us another one?
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I'll play one more.
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We'll go down to D Town.
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Alright.
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I don't know where D Town is.
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D Town, guys.
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You get it?
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Get a little joke for you?
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If music doesn't work out, Sam, you got a you got a future in stand up comedy for sure.
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You could do crowd work.
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Thank you.
19:47
I like that.
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All my calls to Matt Reif have gone unanswered.
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For crowd working that mastered anyway.
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Oh, good.
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I'll tell him that you said that.
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When he's like, open for me.
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And I'll
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be like, I can't.
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Bubba like you.
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Just kidding.
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When this airs, they're gonna be like, wait.
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What?
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That might make us famous talking a little shit on Matt Rice.
20:07
That's right.
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Exactly.
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We'll put it on Tyler's TikTok.
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Which I do watch all the time.
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I just wanna point that out.
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I am one of those creepy girls that stalk him.
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I think that's my favorite part about the Midwest CMO is that we're all such big fans of
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each other.
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Right?
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I I think there's more of us here that are here to see the other musicians more than to perform
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ourselves.
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Right?
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You've been here well before you needed to be to, I kinda told you to be here at that time.
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It's true.
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You did instruct me.
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Well, I didn't want you to miss Eli.
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I know you guys are friends.
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So
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See, that's the beauty of the Midwest CMO.
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We're all kinda buddy buddy.
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Yeah.
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And a lot of us have been part of things with that organization for a long time.
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So it's fun.
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And when there's new faces and I have a chance like, you and I have never met except for that
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Zoom call we were on.
20:53
Mhmm.
20:54
But now now we're best friends.
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She actually took my number, and we're gonna go out later.
20:58
There you go.
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Alright.
21:02
Here we go.
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Alright.
24:54
Well, Sam, thank you so much.
24:56
No.
24:56
Thank you, Bubba.
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Coming over to see me.
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I would be happy to come to South Dakota if
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you have anything.
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On anytime.
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I think we got some gigs for
25:04
I love it.
25:04
They're there.
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You know, they call Chicago the windy city.
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I think South Dakota's got it beat.
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Yeah.
25:08
We do.
25:09
It's very windy Yeah.
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By far well, there's no big buildings to block it.
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So That's very true.
25:13
Yeah.
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Nothing but wide open country.
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Yeah.
25:15
It's nice when it snows.
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It just blows all into Iowa and Minnesota.
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It's perfect.
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I'm not gonna make the the blowing suck joke that normally people They won't invite me back
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to Iowa.
25:26
Sam, why don't you tell everybody how they can find you?
25:29
Sure.
25:30
So if you go to samanthagrimesmusic.com, you can find all of my music and videos and all
25:35
that stuff.
25:36
Don't do samanthagrimes.com.
25:38
She's a realtor in Maine.
25:39
That's not me.
25:40
She's very tired of getting messages from
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you guys.
25:43
Goodness.
25:44
The Zillow.
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Oh my god.
25:46
Anyway, you can also find me on Instagram or on TikTok.
25:51
It's a thing.
25:53
And we're gonna teach you too how to use it.
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Okay?
25:56
I wanna point that out.
25:57
And otherwise, just come to a show.
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That's the best way to support live music.
26:00
Show up and have fun.
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That's right.
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Just like you did today.
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Everybody, Samantha Grimes.