The Wandering Outlaws: Outlaw Country, Band Brotherhood and Beyond

We sit down for a chat with Woody, the lead singer of the Wandering Outlaws, an outlaw country band. Woody spills the beans about the band's motto, "the more you drink, the better we sound," and gives a glimpse into the individual wanderings of each band member that injects a youthful exuberance into their tunes. Woody unravels his fascinating transition and the key influences that sparked the formation of the Wandering Outlaws. You'll discover how his bandmates came on board, the trials they braved while recording their EP, Live from Olympus, in a makeshift garage studio, and the audacity they demonstrated by performing live amidst the pandemic. This tale of dedication and passion shows you the sweat and grit that make their weekly performances click and fuels their music journey. This episode is a special treat for those with a flair for outlaw country. Get ready to be serenaded by the Wandering Outlaws!


https://linktr.ee/woodyandthewanderingoutlaws

Woody Davidson

Instagram:

@thewanderingoutlaws

https://instagram.com/thewanderingoutlaws?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==


Shoutout to:
 
Woody Davidson 

The Wandering Outlaws

Chase

The Hub

Cody Bartels

The Dan Man

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:09

especially games. And next, woody from the Wandering Outlaws, how are you?

Speaker 2 0:32

I'm great. How are you?

Speaker 1 0:33

Doing all right, man. I'm glad you're here, man, and I'm happy to know that I saw you last weekend at the hub of all places. Talk to me about that, man. How did you get that gig? It's not close.

Speaker 2 0:47

It's a far drive. I know, but Chase, the guy that I was playing with out there, our guitar player, he's got family out there his sister, her husband, a couple aunts and uncles, and I've got an aunt and uncle out there. So we decided why not make the trip right?

Speaker 1 1:08

Yeah.

Speaker 2 1:10

So go see family play a few songs and have some fun.

Speaker 1 1:15

Kenwick. I mean, you live on the West side, your Willamette Valley, as a matter of fact, but you come to the desert to play almost right before it gets cold, to play with just your family and some strangers. That loved it, though, man, there was a lot of people there loving it.

Speaker 2 1:36

Yeah, it was great. I had a great feeling coming out all that way and I had my doubts doing it, so I wasn't sure if it would be worth the trip, but ended up being a pretty good trip.

Speaker 1 1:46

Yeah, yeah. Well, you shouldn't doubt yourself, man, because what you play is good stuff, man, even your own music that you put in there every now and then. I think we want more. What I'm saying is I want more of the original, the OG.

Speaker 2 2:06

Well, we appreciate that, appreciate that a lot. I mean a lot.

Speaker 1 2:10

Why the wandering outlaws? Why the wandering outlaws man the name.

Speaker 2 2:18

Well, we're always wandering around.

Speaker 1 2:20

Yeah.

Speaker 2 2:21

And we play outlaw music.

Speaker 1 2:22

Okay, yeah, yeah, but outlaw. I mean, are you guys badasses yourself? If you don't mind me asking you that, using that language? We like to think so yeah, because when I think of outlaw man, I think of outlaw country. You know Waylon Willie, you know the hardcore guys, john Kev, you know the big names. But then here you are. You been in the game for how long? About four years, All right, and you guys automatically just have outlaw in your name.

Speaker 2 3:00

Yeah, I can see how that could be a misconception there, but that's the style of music that we play. We play outlaw country and we're proud to be playing outlaw country.

Speaker 1 3:09

Oh yeah, man, and it's good too, and it's like you got that old country feel to the 70s man, the 70s, I love that dude. And it's just, it's clean, crisp. Yeah, we'll talk more about that. So you're from Willamette Valley with some old country feel outlaw stuff but you have this motto. I'll leave it up to you. What's the motto, man? What's?

Speaker 2 3:36

the motto.

Speaker 1 3:37

The more you drink, the better we sound. And now do you really believe that? Because, man, I wasn't drinking. I know you had some people, family members, drinking, buying you some beer, whatever right. Or Chase, buying Chase some beer. Shout out to Chase man, that guy could play. That guy could play. Yeah, yeah, he can pick. Oh, he's great yeah he can pick. I'm just going to say that, all right, I'll give him a shout out. Shout out to Chase, it's like all right well.

Speaker 2 4:05

Okay, I'll give you the rundown here From when we first started out. We'd been playing together for probably three or four months and we really we're not that good. But people came out to see the show. So I told them hey, well, you know, the more you drink, the better we sound. And what do you know, by the end of the night everybody was loving it, Everybody was dancing, getting crazy. So that's kind of how that all came to be was in the very beginning, when we weren't sounding the best yet.

Speaker 1 4:39

I think you need to change that motto. It's a nice motto, it's good, it's catchy, it is kind of cliche. But dude, I wasn't drinking, I was with my daughter and just having a good old time. Man, just hitting those tunes, your original tunes and some old, like some whaling. I heard some whaling and I'm like, just you know, just tune everything out and just listen to the lyrics, man, so the more you drink, the better we sound Okay.

Speaker 2 5:09

What if we change it to? If you drink less, we'll sound better.

Speaker 1 5:14

There you go. That's good too. That's more confidence. Man, there you go, that's what I like man. I think that's what Hank would have done. There you go, so the name wandering. Did you travel a lot when you were younger?

Speaker 2 5:32

Well, you see, I actually thought of the name when I went out to Virginia so I ended up writing the song called the Wandering Outlaws Blues just from traveling and I thought, hey, you know what that might make a good band name someday. If I ever get around to getting together with a band, might have to throw that as the name.

Speaker 2 5:59

But it works out for everybody, because Jordan he's our other guitar player, rhythm guitar player. He's been around the Boise, you know, back and forth, and Chase he was actually up in Alaska for a while, came back down, went to Reno, came back up and kept playing with us again. So we've all kind of been wandering around in our adult lives. So I thought why not? What would be a better name? You know how old are you I'm 24.

Speaker 1 6:33

Yes, we are young. How old is the rest of the crew man?

Speaker 2 6:37

Mitchy, he's our bass player. He is also 24. He's about to be 25 here next month. Jordan, he's 26 or 27, 27 or 26. Couldn't tell you.

Speaker 1 6:50

I got you, I got you.

Speaker 2 6:51

Chase is the same age as him.

Start a Band, Embrace Outlaw Country

Speaker 1 6:54

All right. You guys are some youngins, all right. So you mentioned Boise man. The Boise has the sound. I don't know if you listened to the Sterling Drake episode, but Boise in Montana has that Americana sound. Man, that's just like dude, it's like we're living in. Appalachia, but we're not in the mountains, the other side of the country, really yeah, so when you say Boise, was he part of something back there. Was he younger, younger years, or what?

Speaker 2 7:26

Oh, not quite. I mean, I think he was just working and doing stuff with his wife there. I couldn't give you that story without him here. I got you, I got you. But maybe if you get us on again, we could all do it together as a band, you know what Next time you come here, we'll do it in the T-Cup Studio. Oh yeah, that would be perfect.

Speaker 1 7:49

T-Cup Studio sessions they kill. It's kind of like outlaw music, Right All right. So we got that. Who and what influenced you and your band to make outlaw music Strictly outlaw?

Speaker 2 8:11

Well, I've been listening to pretty much strictly outlaw countries since high school. You know, in my younger years my dad would be playing Johnny, paycheck, highwaymen, stuff like that, yeah. So I had always an interest in it. I got really into it in high school. That's about all I started playing. And I was already in a rock and roll band and they didn't want to play country music. They're like oh no, we don't want to do that. So I kind of part of ways with them and just started doing my own thing, releasing, working on songs under Woody Davidson.

Speaker 2 8:52

And then me and Chase always picked together but we never really started a band. And then Mitchie, he always had a real interest in music but he never really pursued it until I said, hey, me and Chase are thinking of starting this thing up with him on drums. Chase was originally on the drums. So I told Mitchie I said, why don't I show you how to play a few things on the bass and then you can learn and you can kind of be our bass player? So for a while it was just the three of us and we always played outlaw country. That's all we ever wanted to do, because that was the main intent when we started the band was to play outlaw country and we all three had an interest in it already. Sorry about that, but I'm actually using my phone here, so it's got a notification on it, it might die, it might die.

Speaker 1 9:52

It goes quick man. So, yeah, when you do zoom, the juice flows. So keep going. Oh wow.

Speaker 2 9:59

But. But anyways, we brought Jordan in because he already been picking country music for a while. I wouldn't necessarily say outlaw country, but he picked country music with his dad and his grandpa growing up. So we thought he would be the perfect fit to kind of bring into it.

Speaker 1 10:16

What did country? I mean you said you're a rock and roll band, right. What about country Just said, hey, no more rock and roll, let's just go strictly outlaw. What was it about the country music that brought you just strictly there, that genre man?

Speaker 2 10:35

I gotta say the song's about just you know that outlaw shit people were. They were singing songs about stuff that they never Really heard of before. I mean, yeah, they talked about a little bit and rock and roll, sex, drugs, rock and roll. Yeah but you bring sex drugs, you know shooting people for Robin, you and all kinds of stuff into country music. It's like what is going on? Yeah, I got something you know, the sound of the steel guitar, yeah, all that stuff. Just I Immediately draws you in.

Speaker 1 11:10

When do you guys decide? Or when did you decide to say, hey, let's do it?

Speaker 2 11:16

around 2019 2019, and it was right before COVID, right before Right before COVID. It was during the summer, and we just practice, practice, practice. I mean COVID come around, where we had a gig booked up and just right down the road from our house, and then they ended up canceling on us. I never heard from them again, but then we ended up booking a show, you know, a little further down the road and we ended up playing that stole the place out During COVID too. It was a risk.

Speaker 1 11:54

Yeah, especially on the west side there, man, oh, there's a. There's some dictatorships around here in these parts. Okay, the EP. You only have one EP. It's live from Olympus. How did you manage to get that?

Speaker 2 12:14

It's a long story. Well, it's not too long. Well, we were sitting there practicing these songs. We don't have the money for a studio, you know. So I've got a friend who works on like electric music, edm kind of stuff, and his brother had his this task cam 24 channel board that you can record on. So I I hit him up and I was like you know, why not, why don't you Help us record this EP? You know, give you a couple bucks cheaper than going to a studio. So we recorded that whole thing live in Jordan's dad's garage off of Olympus Road.

Speaker 1 13:05

Live recording in the garage and it was sold out. You said, you said.

Speaker 2 13:09

What's that? It wasn't sold out. Did you have a crowd? It was definitely not. Yeah, definitely not a sold out show.

Speaker 1 13:20

How did you know? Remember the question now, how did you know you had what it took, man?

Speaker 2 13:29

Still don't know if I have what it takes. Are you kidding me? Serious, time will tell. Time will tell you know things happen. You know it might it's working for us now, but you never know. You never know what could happen in the future.

Speaker 1 13:48

Yeah, how many gigs do you have a week, man?

Speaker 2 13:52

During the summer probably three to four, two or three a week to three. Winter Winter gets slow. We Down to three or four a month, you know, yeah, but that works for us because we like to Kind of get get a little tighter in the band and maybe do some recording in the winter time, while things are slow. We kind of focus on our craft a little better. Where?

Speaker 1 14:20

do you normally play?

Speaker 2 14:23

Oh, we practiced at a Mitchie's parents shop.

Speaker 1 14:28

When you do the venue, I mean you got to have that, that main local venues there, right, which where's the, the one venue that always puts you guys, you know, on blast? I would definitely say it's the high water in Silverton Oregon. They've they've been very great to us shout out to them, man, yeah, to them, absolutely. You said winter. What's your plans for the winter? Man Music. Well, I just bought myself the pedal steel guitar. I'm gonna play it.

Speaker 2 15:00

I just bought myself the pedal steel guitar, so I'm gonna be working on that, hopefully start working on a new, new record. New record because I got this board here myself now, so the we were free range right now.

Speaker 1 15:24

Any tours and are you gonna hit the road here and there or just locally?

Speaker 2 15:33

That's a tough question. When we're doing it all independently. It's hard to book shows that are that far away when people never really heard. Maybe if we get a booking manager or something, we could consider a tour, but right now it's probably just going to stay local. Try state area.

Speaker 1 15:59

Album. You mentioned album Is any? Are you thinking about getting a real album out, not like?

Speaker 2 16:09

that's the plan. Well, we're still probably going to have to record it live, gotcha, but we've got the option now to overdub and do whatever we need to do, which we tried to do with rolling coal. That was all overdub here at home.

Speaker 1 16:30

So favorite place to play so far, very replace.

Speaker 2 16:38

Well, I got to say the hub was pretty fun.

Speaker 1 16:40

The really like that.

Speaker 2 16:42

Yeah, that was pretty fun. Shout out to the hub she favorite place to play is probably still the high water.

Speaker 1 16:50

High water? Yeah, shout out to them. What's your ultimate goal?

Speaker 2 16:58

Make a living. Make a living just playing, music doing what you love. That's right.

Speaker 1 17:04

Do you believe outlaw countries back or oh yeah. Do you feel it never died, or do you feel it like went away and it's back full blast, or what?

Speaker 2 17:19

I don't know if it ever really died. I mean for sure. There was a time when you never heard anything like it, especially in the probably early 2000s. It kind of faded away. But now you got guys like Sturgill Tyler. Those guys coming out. You know they're just playing traditional country music. That's what makes them outlaw now, because it's all just pop that you hear on the radio. It's crap. Yeah, it's just pop music. The guys who are playing traditional country are now called the outlaws.

Speaker 1 17:57

Yeah, it's weird, or a Americana, or a.

Speaker 2 17:59

Ferri, it's like, are you?

Speaker 1 18:01

kidding me. The country should be country, that pop should have a subgenre and be part of that. You know the man, the outlaws, where's that? So the rolling coal, the help me tame your heart, has some wayland feel to it. Man, that's what I've heard. It does, it does, and the my Last Day. What's the story behind that man that hits? I told you, I messaged you. It hits differently. What's the story behind that?

Speaker 2 18:36

Well, I just started writing one day. Something came into my head, are you sure? I think I could ask if Hank done it this way, right?

Speaker 1 18:47

Right.

Musical Influences and Preferences

Speaker 2 18:48

You know that's obviously referencing Wayland, where I could bust outside the CMAs. You know that's referencing Sergio. He was busking outside the CMAs a couple of years ago. If I'd like a possum and a cage, that's about George Jones. So I'm just kind of referencing the artists of before. You know that are kind of an influence and I don't know. I was just playing that riff and we got a drum beat on it and some bass and I thought, hey, you know that sounds really good, why don't we use it for this song? And Chase ended up doing the piano on it and then towards the end, where it picks up, starts sounding kind of like King of the Hill a little bit.

Speaker 1 19:37

You know, yeah, so it's kind of just a culmination song of our influences really, I was wondering, man, but it has more to it, has a meaning to it, though, man. It's like it's almost, it's your slow jam, your slow ballad, kind of thing, man.

Speaker 2 19:55

Right. Yeah, that's one that we haven't played in a little while at a show, just because we're kind of in between drummers, you're still kind of learning. Yeah, I was going to tell you.

Speaker 1 20:10

I was going to tell you. I have to admit it, man, and I said it to, that, I believe Sterling Drake and Zach Aaron round Shout out to them I don't love country music, man. You know that A lot of people don't. Well, it's that stuff that's on now. Now, if you hit the 90s, you hit your music, you hit the so-called American folk. Dude, I'm signing up Bluegrass, sign me up, man, but people like you like country, I'm like, nope, I hate it Really. You go to rodeos and everything, yeah, and you know I'm very, very, very honest man, so I appreciate you, you know, just being honest with me and allowing me to be honest with you Now, the coolest thing about these outlaws just making music, their rendition.

Speaker 1 21:06

they're not a true outlaw. They can't make a boss song. You guys did your rendition of Atlantic City Right. Dude killed it, loved it. You do have the way, I believe, some of your songs you sing have a boss feel to it. You know when he does that, that strong voice, that arena rock voice.

Speaker 2 21:37

dude, you got that dude, I appreciate that that was actually Chase's thing in that song.

Speaker 1 21:43

Well, hey, it was good, it was good. But no, with your songs, with your songs alone, you have a boss sound. Check it out, man. I've been listening to your stuff lately and I'm a huge boss fan. Man. Bruce Springsteen, you know of the old, you know the Nebraska album. Yeah, can't, can't get enough of that, but yeah, you got that feel to it, man and I know Chase's saying that one. But your, your originals, your OG, you got some noise, boss noise with.

Speaker 2 22:20

I appreciate that.

Speaker 1 22:21

Yeah, what's on your bucket list, man? I know we got your ultimate goal, but what's your bucket list?

Speaker 2 22:29

For right now. Yeah, get some more songs out there. Learn this pedal steel. It's one of the hardest instruments in the world to learn how to play, but it's so beautiful sound it is. It is, you know, just make as much music as I can.

Speaker 1 22:47

Now I got to ask you I'm going to throw a curveball, man, with all the traveling I know you just eat what you can. How's? How's the diet man? Is it just gas station food? Do you bring food?

Speaker 2 23:00

yourself. Oh yeah, well, we're pretty lucky. Usually the places that we play will pay for our dinners. Ok, you know, free drinks, whatever. But on the right home, yeah, definitely, gas station food, mcdonald's, so it's a rough diet on the road Traveling.

Speaker 1 23:23

But Do you eat peanut butter jelly sandwiches?

Speaker 2 23:28

I don't usually know. No, I'm more of a ham and cheese kind of guy.

Speaker 1 23:33

Ham and cheese. Now do you put a condiment on it? Because, oh yeah, I've talked to a few people and all they do is eat cheese, sandwiches, cheese and bread, nothing else.

Speaker 2 23:44

I usually go for the mustard.

Speaker 1 23:46

OK, yeah, the mustard, ok, all right, though no PBJs for you, man. God Favorite Adam Sandler movie Happy Gilmore, happy Gilmore.

Speaker 2 23:58

All day.

Speaker 1 24:00

What's your everyday music? What you hear at the show.

Speaker 2 24:06

Yeah, I listened to Outlaw Country pretty much exclusively. Sometimes I'll listen to some jazz or something driving in the car on the radio. That's about. The only good radio station is the jazz station, gotcha, other than that other. You know, when you play the radio they just play the same 50 songs over and over and over again.

Speaker 1 24:29

That's true, that's true, that's true. Favorite Outlaw.

Speaker 2 24:35

Probably Hank Williams or Tom Paul Glazer.

Speaker 1 24:41

Singer songwriter of all time.

Speaker 2 24:46

Pick one songwriter. It's got to be Hank Williams.

Speaker 1 24:50

So you got the hankin. Ok, all right, I think it was his voice.

Speaker 2 24:55

his voice, the tone, I think it was just like I'm more of a Johnny Carridge, you know, yeah, I can understand that but it's just the emotion that he had while singing these songs that are just timeless, you know? Yeah, I guess the songs are timeless. Anybody could sing them and it would still have the same effect, you know.

Speaker 1 25:16

Yeah, it's just the way he written them. What gets you pumped up before a performance man?

Speaker 2 25:25

Well, I usually use a lot of energy setting up, so I'm already kind of fired up by the time it's, you know, time to start. But I don't like to eat before a show. It kind of throws me off a little bit. Maybe a beer, one beer, kind of take the edge off a little bit. I don't really get nervous, but just kind of helps. You know.

Speaker 1 25:50

What's your go to beer?

Speaker 2 25:53

Probably Coors Banquet.

Speaker 1 25:55

Oh, the yellow, belly yellow jacket.

Speaker 2 25:58

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 26:01

If you somebody called you to tour with them to open up, who would it be? Who would that one person like? Oh my God, you know, you just be a fanboy.

Speaker 2 26:17

But you know, if anybody asked us to do that, I probably you know fanboy, the heck out of him.

Speaker 1 26:23

But let's say, let's say somebody. Nowadays they call you like who would it be man? Who would it be? Who would you like to tour with, as I should? Say there you go, charlie.

Speaker 2 26:35

Crockett. I like Charlie Crockett. Yeah, he'd be a good one.

Speaker 1 26:39

That voice man, he's good, he's good.

Speaker 2 26:42

Or you got a Daniel Donato. I don't know if you've heard his guitar playing.

Speaker 1 26:48

He's amazing, isn't he down south? He's from Cali, right.

Speaker 2 26:52

No, he's from Florida, I believe.

Speaker 1 26:54

Oh, ok, so you've heard of Cody Bartles.

Speaker 2 27:00

Cody Bartles, I can't say that I have.

Speaker 1 27:02

He's from Tacoma. He has an old rock and roll honky tonk sound to him. Check him out, man. He's going to, he's going to be coming on, but I mentioned his name because you might want to touch base with him, you know.

Speaker 2 27:18

Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 27:19

I'm trying to set you up for anything, but maybe it could be a good thing. Dude, Cody, Cody, Cody.

Speaker 2 27:26

Bartles huh.

Speaker 1 27:28

Cody Bartles Let me, yeah, no, no, no, no, no, we can talk afterwards.

Speaker 2 27:32

Wait, I'll tell you Remember.

Speaker 1 27:33

We can talk afterwards.

Speaker 2 27:34

Oh absolutely.

Speaker 1 27:35

But. But another thing, man if you want to get into the Kennewick scene, the Tri City scene, let me know. I'm always, you know, down to help you out, help people out, you know, get the word across. Man, I definitely, you know, love the outlaw music and the, the local scene and the different noises that come in here, and I'm quite thankful that I was able to hear you and Chase that day, because, man, something different. There's always the, you know, the local sounds and it's just the same guys just rotating, just different venues.

Speaker 1 28:14

You came in and I was just like, dude, I'm gone. You know, I've had a work, work's been really busy, and I was like, you know, I just need to change it. I just need to change it so we can talk about bringing that sound over here a little more. Maybe, you know summertime and it's pretty dangerous in the wintertime. But, yeah, we'll talk. But, dude, I love the music, I love that boss type sound, that, that man, that voice, and also my last day. Man can't get enough of it. You did an awesome job, man. I can't wait to, you know, get more of that whaling feel to it. So please, get us some more, give me some more, and let's, let's party, let's party.

Speaker 2 28:59

I wish we could have the whole band come up to that show, right. You know, you get to meet everybody. I don't know.

Speaker 1 29:04

Did you stay for the whole show, or I left 15 minutes earlier. My daughter's like I'm cold, and she just you know, she had ice cream and then a boba tea, a blended boba tea, and I'm like what do you expect? You're going to be cold, it was, you know once that sun comes down around here, it gets a little nipply, you know, and she's like I'm cold.

Speaker 2 29:29

So we got, we got. We got lucky, though, with the there was no rain oh yeah. We're, like you know, the end of October you know we wish for. Couldn't ask for a better day to do it.

Speaker 1 29:41

No, I think that was the last good day here. So yeah, yeah, you walked out, man. So, yeah, man, if you, if you want, let's, let's get together. I can set something up. I can get, you know, some people to get that sound over here. But absolutely, but, dude, did I leave anything out? You want to add anything? Where can people?

Speaker 2 30:06

find you. You can find us on Spotify, apple music you just look up the wandering outlaws. Find us on Instagram, facebook. We've got all of it, everything except for TikTok. I don't know how to work it.

Speaker 1 30:20

Yeah, well, you got to. You got to make TikTok Reals and stuff like that. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 30:26

We tried and we didn't get it gain anything, so we just kind of tabled it.

Speaker 1 30:31

Instagram is where it's supposed to be. Man, Go to Instagram.

Speaker 2 30:34

Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, man, all these really use.

Speaker 1 30:40

All right, you want to add anything else? When's your next show?

Speaker 2 30:45

I'm playing a solo show Next Thursday in Hillsborough pizza place.

Speaker 1 30:53

Okay.

Speaker 2 30:54

It's like a pizza bar kind of deal, and then that's it for a little bit. Then we've got the high water on black Friday. All right, seven o'clock.

Speaker 1 31:09

Okay, well, man, keep in touch. Got a fan. I'm pretty sure there's other people. Dan the man's probably going to add you, he's, he's. He's a country boy at heart and I'm getting them out and you know, cult giving them a little culture. So thanks, man. I always have to shout that guy out. He's a good buddy of mine and yeah, he supports me, I support him, kind of thing. So shout out to.

Speaker 2 31:35

Dan.

Speaker 1 31:35

Dude Till next time.

Speaker 2 31:39

Till next time. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 31:41

Thank you so much.