My advice to new artists is to embrace a broader concept of timelessness than vintage or retro.
But I’m warning you, we’re growing up.
Coffee, whiskey, and fishing poles. That’s really all you need in life.
The first thing I think of when I think about coming to Las Vegas and playing is always Elvis; its always the first thing on my mind.
Writing is sort of putting a puzzle together halfway. Then, performing it has always been the completion of it. Once that happens, I’m feeling verbally communal with other people. It’s out there and I feel so much better about it.
Wherever your heart is, I call home.
I’m not so arrogant to consider mine the only legitimate art form. I can’t in one breath make a fuss about someone compartmentalizing music into genre and then in the next accuse advertising and short film of not being art.
All of these lines across my face, tell you the story of who I am. So many stories of where I’ve been and how I got to where I am.
I’ve read and heard that some of the most inspiring vocal interpreters adhere habitually to one rule: Always think the lyrics as you’re singing them, so that the sentiment is always appropriate and heartfelt.
I believe that writing for me is in a way like wisdom; in that as soon as you feel like you’ve got it figured out you stop growing and maybe even lose something.
I didn’t get bullied any more than anybody else. I think I got bullied more for being poor than being gay. But no more than any other kid. And I’m sure that I did my fair share of picking on other kids, too. We’re all humans.
Cousins are forever and forever are cousins they stand by your side for you no matter what.
There’s a lot of really inspiring music coming around the bend – we tend to believe that to sound classic or timeless is to sound vintage or retro. It’s a little bit dangerous, because you’ll really miss a chance to make your mark as a generation.
I’d love to claim the title of ‘songwriter’ or ‘intellectual,’ but the truth is that anything that I ever learned how to do in conjunction with music was purely so that I would have a platform to sing from.
I have vocal trouble from time to time associated with sleep or wine! Or from sleeping in a bunk the size of a coffin and breathing in bus air conditioning all day.
I feel like the kindest thing that I do to my voice is sing.
If I learned to play guitar it was so that I would have something to sing to, if I learned to write a song it was so that I would have something to sing. So the gut feeling you’re talking about comes from singing and communicating the lyrics and what it is that we feel.
People sing each other’s songs and they cultivate standards. That’s the reason why we have folk music and folk stories. History is told through song.
I used to turn to nature and animals a lot. And fishing. I spend time still with my Bible and the gospel music, and I still have to feed the animals! But my wife and daughter have brought me a world of perspective when I’m feeling just a little “extra important.”
You can’t change people, but most importantly, unless you’re their momma, you don’t even know what’s best for them.
I feel like a lot of the singer-songwriters in my genre and in my generation have gotten more and more snooty about covering other people’s songs. They believe that creativity is the intersect of expression.