Meet country music aficionado, Marty Bush and his canyon-deep baritone voice. We talk about his latest and self-produced album, Cowboy Chords. Ever wondered how one man manages to pull off 250-plus live shows in a year? Marty pulls back the curtain on the glamorous (and not so glamorous) realities of life on the road and the musical influences that keep him ticking.
Country music is evolving, and we're here to talk about it. Marty offers a fresh perspective on the modern country scene, discussing his transition from band member to solo artist and how the 'new age' sub-genre is shaking things up. We also get to poke around his songwriting process, uncovering the blood, sweat and tears that goes into each lyric. Plus, we get the rundown on his ambitious touring schedule and the core rules that kept him and his partner on track during their intensive album recording session in a Tennessee cabin.
Finally, Marty gets raw and real about the passionate pursuit of his dream in the music industry. We dig deep into what it truly takes to break into the mainstream - spoiler alert, it involves a lot of hard work. Get ready to ride shotgun on this journey with Marty Bush, so gear up, and let's hit the road!
Marty Bush
Instagram:
@martybushmusic
https://instagram.com/martybushmusic?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==
Website:
https://marty-bush.com/home
Shoutout to:
Marty Bush
Natalie Prauser
The Bush Family
Dan the Man
Dusty Rust
Johnny Lawhorn from the Pentagram String Band
Alter Ego Ambassador: https://alteregorunning.com/
Miles & Mountains Promo Code: MMyr2
Meet country music aficionado, Marty Bush and his canyon-deep baritone voice. We talk about his latest and self-produced album, Cowboy Chords. Ever wondered how one man manages to pull off 250-plus live shows in a year? Marty pulls back the curtain on the glamorous (and not so glamorous) realities of life on the road and the musical influences that keep him ticking.
Country music is evolving, and we're here to talk about it. Marty offers a fresh perspective on the modern country scene, discussing his transition from band member to solo artist and how the 'new age' sub-genre is shaking things up. We also get to poke around his songwriting process, uncovering the blood, sweat and tears that goes into each lyric. Plus, we get the rundown on his ambitious touring schedule and the core rules that kept him and his partner on track during their intensive album recording session in a Tennessee cabin.
Finally, Marty gets raw and real about the passionate pursuit of his dream in the music industry. We dig deep into what it truly takes to break into the mainstream - spoiler alert, it involves a lot of hard work. Get ready to ride shotgun on this journey with Marty Bush, so gear up, and let's hit the road!
Marty Bush
Instagram:
@martybushmusic
https://instagram.com/martybushmusic?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==
Website:
https://marty-bush.com/home
Shoutout to:
Marty Bush
Natalie Prauser
The Bush Family
Dan the Man
Dusty Rust
Johnny Lawhorn from the Pentagram String Band
Alter Ego Ambassador: https://alteregorunning.com/
Miles & Mountains Promo Code: MMyr2
Marty Busch, how are you man?
Speaker 2:Not too bad man, how you doing.
Speaker 1:Doing alright, dude? Not doing alright for a Sunday afternoon? I can't believe it, man. So thank you for your time. Thank you for your time?
Speaker 2:Yeah, of course, man.
Speaker 1:So, marty, a lot of people don't know about you, but the people that do, especially on the western side of the states, correct? You don't come out here that often but the people who have heard of you damn, you got a deep voice, dude. If you don't mind me saying damn on your episode. It's one of a kind, I think you can say about whatever you want.
Speaker 2:As long as you're nice to everybody, we're good.
Speaker 1:Well, you have this distinct baritone voice. One of your reviews said your canyon deep baritone voice, canyon deep. Did you always have that voice?
Speaker 2:I mean, yeah, as a younger man doing like scholastic music and stuff, I've always been kind of a small fella, like 5'10", 160 pounds, not a big guy, but I would always be in the bass or baritone section of the school choir or the church choir staying at next to dudes three times my size and everybody's like what the hell is it, why? Why do you sound like that? My whole family is kind of that way. I've got an uncle that does a Bible teaching podcast thing which, whether you're into that or not, he sounds like Johnny Cash talking on the radio. He's got this big, huge and he's a big man. He's like 6'4". Yeah, yeah, sounds like he looks and has this nice North Texas draw. But yeah, I think I come by it, naturally, all right, we talked a little bit previous to this recording.
Speaker 1:You have three albums. One just came out, october 13th, was Cowboy Chords, where you played every instrument but the pedal still.
Speaker 2:Yeah, which is kind of like the way I like to do things. On that duets record I play pretty much everything except the acoustic guitar that Natalie plays. I don't know. I've done a lot of stuff with full bands live and things like that. When it comes down to just recording, I kind of like to get out of my own way a little bit and just do most of it myself, because then we don't have to talk as much. It goes faster.
Speaker 1:Does it go faster?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I think for like the acoustic on that Cowboy Chords record took a couple of days because a lot of it was technical stuff where I was trying to get this really wide sound with a multi-mic recording on an acoustic guitar and there's phase issues and stuff like that which takes a lot of time to get right. I mean, I think I only spent about a week tracking this record, probably three days on the acoustic and then three-ish days on everything else and then a day for pedal steel.
Speaker 1:You make it sound easy, man. You make it sound like anybody can bring this up. Hey, you know what? Let's make an album. I'm going to do it all by myself.
Speaker 2:It's not exactly progressive jazz, it's pretty simple stuff.
Speaker 1:But mixing it, mixing it too.
Speaker 2:Oh no, that was just for tracking. I probably spent two weeks mixing, but this was a home recording too. This wasn't done at a studio, this room that I'm in is where everything got tracked, like a little 8x10 spare bedroom.
Speaker 1:You wouldn't have known or guessed if you listened to the album.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's the goal, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm pretty sure. I mean I'm doing it out of the T-Cup studio. Man, it's my daughter's playhouse kind of thing, with dad's little area. You wouldn't know that you do it right out of your house. A lot of musicians like yourself do it out of your house or a garage. It sounds perfect, or it sounds just right where you wanted it.
Speaker 2:Thanks, man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, give yourself some more credit, man, because you're talented, you're talented. We're going to talk more the cabin sessions too. Volume one with Natalie Prowzer.
Speaker 2:Prowzer. Prowzer, like a web browser, but with a P at the beginning.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, you stepping outside the box again bringing a duet album back. Not too many people do that, right, I mean not these days.
Speaker 2:It doesn't seem like now.
Speaker 1:Takes guts to do that man.
Speaker 2:Oh no, I mean both of us listen to mostly classic era country stuff. I'm 50s through the mid 70s is kind of my wheelhouse and Natalie's same way. She tends to listen to a little more full key stuff like the Laurel Canyon type stuff and I'm more outlaw and I really love that. The 70s Austin stuff. You know Towns Van Zandt and Blaise Foley but you know the like the Dolly Parton, chet Atkins stuff and the you know Laurel and Conway Twitty stuff Like those are.
Speaker 2:You know, those are clearly really influential records to me and I love that era. So it was. It seemed just like a fun thing to do and we went and did it. We weren't really neither of us really had much of a career at that point. You know, we were coming right out of the pandemic and both of us were kind of shifting from other focuses more towards the singer, songwriter kind of stuff and it was just a fun trip man. We went and went down to Tennessee and rented out this cabin for four days and worked our asses off and barely slept and it was a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:A lot of people just do collaborations or features or you know just one song, but you guys are doing a whole album we toured.
Speaker 2:We toured together a lot. We're a couple, so it's we, we live together and things like that. So I suppose we could have done it here, but it seemed more authentic. Yeah Well, it's just more fun to go someplace and do it, and there's not the distractions of being at home. When you know you're going to end up working 16 to 20 hours a day for a week, not being at home is maybe a good idea.
Speaker 1:Gotcha Okay. And then your debut album and the genre the long way home. You got some cuss words on it, man. I was like no man, I'm listening to it. Man, dude, you got the best workout music out of all, man, and I'll put it on. And I'm like, okay, I'm getting down. You know, it's just that. One, two, three. You know the stride, it's like a cadence. And then all of a sudden I hear a cuss word. I was like what?
Speaker 2:Yeah, sorry about that.
Speaker 1:Oh, no, no, no, no, no. I'm just saying, man, that's kind of music.
Speaker 2:You know, I've listened to it in my life and so I'm like restarting.
Speaker 1:I'm like okay, this is nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think there's one bad word on that record. It's made my mom cry and I feel bad about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. Why is cussing frowned upon in the country? Genre.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, I think because a majority of the listener base if we're not talking about like bro country top 40 radio stuff I'm like suckers, oh yeah, bastard it has more sensitive sensibilities than uh, than another genre. You know, like a lot of a lot of country fans are good church going people and I feel like that's useful sometimes because, like, if you really want to get a point across and get somebody's attention real quick, you know right.
Speaker 1:Whereas if it's like.
Speaker 2:It's like a you know Bruno Mars song and he has to bleep something out for radio. Nobody even like thinks twice about it, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. But Texas is bringing in a genre of man, that genre that a country rocked that man. They say a couple or a few here and there. And it's like all right, it sounds okay. But yeah, I got you, but man, a long way home, not saying you know that one cuss word is a bad thing. I'm just saying, dude, it got me by surprise. I was like, yes, so I applaud it, man, that's all.
Speaker 2:I kind of like that, that, that that tune. Um, you know I obviously play in live a lot and a lot of myself is pretty sleepy and uh, you know, if you're in like a pretty loud, rowdy, honky tonk type situation in a live show and you're like you know, uh, I need to get these people's attention that that song usually does it.
Speaker 1:Well, you say sleepy and and you know I run a lot, do a lot of mountains, do a lot of training to run multiple days, correct? And uh, I wouldn't say it's sleepy, I would say, man, it gets the heart rate at the right time and at the right moment where your body should be to last that long.
Speaker 2:So I'm just telling you, man, the listeners, a lot of stuff's right at like 120 BPM, which is about where your heart beats, you know that is it, man.
Speaker 1:And so, hey, for those listeners that I I you know that are that listen, loyal listeners and who, uh, go out and do the same thing, I do. Give this guy a listen. All I have to say is good, it's good Pedal steel. What is it about it that makes it so difficult, man?
Speaker 2:Well, okay, so have you ever tried to play drums before?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's difficult.
Speaker 2:Right, you know you got to do something with this hand, something with this hand, something with this foot, something with this foot, and you're doing different things all the time. Pedal steel is more than that. Like you're doing volume swells with your right foot, You're doing pedal bins with your left foot, You're doing lever bins in and out with both knees and you're playing a lap steel at the same time. So it's really eight way independence as opposed to a drummer that has four way independence. And it's just. Your music theory has to be so on point to understand what you're doing. You're like okay, well, this lever, when I move my knee to the right, lifts this string which is the third of this chord. And you know you really, you really have to know what you're doing.
Speaker 2:I'm very, I'm very lucky to have Mr Devon Turan play with me a lot and I feel like my music theory is pretty on point. I went to school for scholastic music throughout high school and college and, uh, you know, I've been doing piano lessons and playing music my entire life. Devon is something else, man Like he. When we play live, he doesn't even. We don't really rehearse even. Yeah, Just like I might not have seen him in three months and I've got 10 new songs on the set list and he just shows up and I tell him the key and holler out the Nashville numbers at him and we go and he's right every time, Like he's just the truth, you know.
Speaker 2:So they make it look so easy.
Speaker 1:You know I'm not a music major. I love. I grew up listening to music all types. You know prefer certain genres over a lot of me. I stick to one side anyways, when listening to that pedal steel man, it almost seems as they. They make it through emotion and and and, and you know just, and they make it easy Just when you watch these guys that are really good play and it doesn't it barely looks like they're moving.
Speaker 2:They're never excited and, because the concentration level that's required is so high, they are working real hard, even though from an outside perspective, it doesn't necessarily seem that way. Right? Well, they make it look easy, yeah.
Speaker 2:I also think that's one of the main things about country music in general that, like you know, I think that's one of the things that I think is like, feel of effortlessness is so important. Like if you're playing right at the edge of your ability in a country band, it's not going to sound right, it's going to sound false. You, it's like you got to be good enough to do this and then this is your ceiling in the country music genre, because you need to be playing stuff that's so easy for you that you can do it in your sleep. Yeah, so you know, when you get guys like Pete Anderson or Don Rich, they're just all over the fretboard and it just seems like they could be making and making a pie while they're doing it. Like that's, the goal is to be so over the top good that it never sounds like you're working.
Speaker 1:All right, Speaking of working man, you, you're always working. I mean the last three years, last two and a half years. You brought out three albums. You've been traveling, nonstop, touring, you know, just making sure that voice is heard. 250 shows in 2022.
Speaker 2:I think it was like 273 was the final tally Lee.
Speaker 1:And what are you going for this year? It's almost over, so what do you know?
Speaker 2:I haven't. I haven't done as good a job of keeping track this year as I did the year before, but we're going to cross the 250 threshold on this next tour that I leave on on Wednesday.
Speaker 1:Is that the norm? Is that, is that the average?
Speaker 2:No, no, I mean I feel like people who are in my circle that also tour a bunch of stuff, like like a hundred 150 is pretty normal for guys in my position, but, um, like the circuit that I travel is pretty kind to me. Um, and I make you know I'm definitely not getting rich or anything, but I'm keeping the bills paid and if I don't have to work for somebody else, I'm I'm not going to. If I can be my own boss, that's the the dream. And uh, thus thus far, uh, for the last couple of years at least, I haven't really had to do much else for a living which is, which is cool.
Speaker 2:Um, there's a, there's a venue here in town uh called record bar. It's kind of this. I got 400 cap, kind of a nicer room, but kind of similar to like monks in Missoula. Uh, a lot of bigger touring acts coming through and whenever I'm home, uh, the owners are kind enough to just be like let us know when you're home and uh, like I'm an audio guy, so they're just like yeah, we'll put you on the schedule and I just kind of freelance working sound for other touring fans when I'm home, um, which not everybody else can get in a situation like that, where you kind of sort of have a boss but they don't care when you're there or not.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I feel, like a lot of the other get the other folks that are kind of doing what I'm doing like have to be a little bit more careful with how often they're on the road, because they still got to make sure the bills get paid. Yeah, I'm, I'm luck, I'm lucky in that.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, man. So can I ask you a stable question, just curveball question right here in the do you eat peanut butter jelly sandwiches when you travel?
Speaker 2:I really don't. No, I don't. Yeah, um, I, I, I, I, I. Peanut butter and honey was my go to when I was younger. Um, man, these days it's like if you junk on the road. I'm getting a little bit older and, uh, my body doesn't hold together unless I take care of myself a little bit. Okay, I don't. I don't get hotels or or anything like that. I've got a got an older, uh E 350 van with a bed and Nice, so pain heat, no deep marine battery systems so I can run fans and stuff. So I pretty much always sleep in the van. Um, but that lets me spend a little bit more on food. Um, try to eat some, some meat and veggies every day, you know.
Speaker 1:Okay, so what's your? Go to? One on the road, traveling no time whatsoever.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Always on the road. So what's your go to?
Speaker 2:This is lame, um, but there's one in almost every city and, uh, it's pretty healthy. I like, I like that Jason's deli place a lot. It's like a salad bar, basically. You go in, it's like nine bucks, oh, you can eat salad bar. And uh, you know, like you go in and it's a bunch of geriatric people hanging out having coffee.
Speaker 1:Um, that's going to be us soon, man, right, yeah.
Speaker 2:But uh, but yeah, I know I try to do that, Something like that, at least once a week or so. I eat a lot of Mediterranean food too. Um, just cause you know, it tends to be protein and beans and nothing that's going to go straight to your, to your gut.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, I have to ask that man, because I ask everybody who's on the road or who travels as much as people that are on here. So peanut butter, jelly sandwiches, our feeling, just thought I'd ask, man.
Speaker 2:So thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you who influenced you to be the singer songwriter you are today, man.
Speaker 2:Um, you know, most of my country listening comes pretty much directly for my grandpa and my mom's side, uh, growing up around him a lot, like you know, I spent a lot of summers at their house and stuff like that and he was a. He was, uh the definition of an Oki like grew up in a tiny town in, uh, eastern Oklahoma called Picola, about less than 3000 people. It was an itty bitty place and uh, he was real cool about letting me dive into his tape collection and stuff like that and it was all Ernest Tubb and Boxcar Willie towns. Yeah, you know, the stuff like that. That kind of stuck with me the rest of my life.
Speaker 2:Um, I think my taste in songwriter based music came from him a lot. Now obviously it's grown as I've aged. You know he wasn't like a, he was a very, very Christian man and so he didn't, he didn't like Waylon or a Willie or any of that stuff, just cause it was a little racy for him. But you know, jimmy Rogers, hank Williams, that kind of stuff was was what I got from him. Yeah, and then later in life discovered, you know, blaze Foley and John Pride and Ludon Wayne, right, and stuff like that, that Chris Christoffers and things that kind of brought me to where I'm at now.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, it's funny how the older we get, the more in tune we are with those guys that you know set the tone, the outlaw stuff you know you're like hey, man, these guys are talking to me, man Cause, at first you're like what is this? You know, you're like okay.
Speaker 2:This guy it sounds like Bob Dylan found a mandolin player.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so shout out to grandpa man.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You weren't always in the genre that you're in today.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, I've kind of been all over the place, to be honest.
Speaker 1:So how and when did it all start for you, man, doing what you're doing?
Speaker 2:I'm real young. My parents had me playing music and on stages. You know, three, four years old there's photos of me and my pops playing and singing at church together and stuff like that. It's kind of always been what I knew I wanted to do, and younger was definitely more stuff like I'm what, like what I'm doing now. You know everybody's got a rebel a little bit in their twenties. My rebellion kind of lasted a little longer than that.
Speaker 2:But you know I was playing heavier music through my twenties and thirties and you know life, life happens the way it does and sometimes you go through some rough stuff and that leads you back home, which is kind of kind of what happened. Like I still still play the heavy stuff, just not as often anymore. But kind of found a place of comfort going back to the genres that I grew up with and real honestly, like if you're going to be given yourself therapy through lyric writing heavy metals probably not the way to do it. Like the stuff that I write for the more singer songwriter in country stuff is a lot better for my head. It's usually me processing real stuff. That's happened. There's not a lot of fiction in these tunes, you know.
Speaker 1:It's true, man, true, I got you, but it's that's debatable, though, man, you can still make good lyrics, great lyrics.
Speaker 2:Yeah well, the, the, the heavy band that I was in, was a very concept driven. Our last record is a band called Hyborian H-Y-B-O-R-I-A-N, and our most recent album is a concept record where I wrote a novel that's this weird, like kind of a tip of the hat to like the Conan, the Barbarian, edgar Rice-Barrows, robert E Howard kind of stuff, and so there's a novel and then a concept record that follows the story of the novel. So it's all this cavemen in space and weird sci-fi stuff. Not a lot of honesty in those lyrics. You know it was more.
Speaker 1:Gotcha Definitely fiction based, you know. Gotcha, I hear you, I hear you. Yeah, when did you know that you had the knack for where you're at now?
Speaker 2:I don't know if I do. Still, it's what I. Yeah, it's what I, it's what I enjoy doing and I found a way to make a couple bucks off of it and at least stay afloat. And as long as that stays the case, it's probably what I'll do. You know, doing the kind of thing I'm doing, I don't ever expect to be getting rich and buying land in Southern California or anything like that. But you know, I live in Kansas City and cost of living here is pretty, pretty reasonable. It's getting unreasonable but as of right now it's doable. And you know I'd love to move someplace a little prettier and get some more nature in my life, but that's something that I get to supplement by touring. You know I spend a lot of time in Utah, colorado, wyoming, montana, idaho.
Speaker 1:That's what I was going to say, man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like that. You know, that's my favorite part of the country as far as well. I mean people, for sure, and also just when I'm not working in the mountains, like that's pretty much what happens.
Speaker 1:OK, and there's no mountains in Kansas, so you're traveling.
Speaker 2:And there are not. Yeah, you know, northwest Arkansas and the Ozarks are pretty close to here, which is a different kind of beauty than than the high desert or the Rockies. Human beauty.
Speaker 2:It is. It gets real humid. But you know like there's also there's a real good music scene in Northwest Arkansas right now, especially that area around like Fayetteville, hot Springs, Eureka Springs, a lot of great players down there and you know I'm clearly not a bluegrass player but that's kind of what's prevalent down there. And sometimes you know, you just take a little trip and head to Chelsea's and Eureka Springs and, lo and behold, there's a bluegrass jam and you hop up and all of a sudden you're playing with like Wayne Hancock's bass player and Two of the dudes from Mountain Sprout and you're like, ok, this is pretty fun.
Speaker 1:All right, you don't think you can make it. You don't think you can cut grass, man?
Speaker 2:You know like I can, I can do it. It's not my strength. I I get tired, it's so goddamn fast. But you know I love folk songs of all sorts. So you know, like bluegrass is there, it's just it's. I'm not as fast as a lot of those guys are. And you know you listen to some of that Tony Rice stuff and it's just like OK, well, boy, you're very honest man and humble, but dude, I swear geez, don't count yourself out, man. Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:When do you know you had the voice, the gift? When do I mean seriously, there's a gift man. I don't care what you think or what people say, dude, how did you know you had it?
Speaker 2:You know, I think that I don't think anybody is naturally a talented singer. I think that there's some things that you need to have, like you need to be able to tell if you're on pitch or not. But a lot of a lot of getting to be a good singer is it's work, man. Like I believe in time spent a lot more than I believe in talent. You know, they say to get good at anything all you need is 10,000 hours. For me it's probably closer to 50.
Speaker 2:Like I don't pick the things up quick, but you know I've been singing my whole life, like I said, back to the early days and doing church music and sacred harp and stuff like that. But a lot of it is. I was very lucky that my parents encouraged me in those things and found me help when I needed it. So I had some really good vocal teachers as a young man. And you know it's a muscle like anything else, like diaphragm control and throat control and being able to utilize the different you know there's seven different resonating chambers in a human body figuring out how to utilize those things and listen to yourself and adjust what you're doing to sound the way you want. Yeah, that's just something that takes practice, I feel I'd really do feel like anybody can be a good singer, as long as they aren't tone deaf.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And it just takes getting the help from the right people and, and you know, spending the time on it.
Speaker 1:And listening to your albums. You know, while I run and everything else, there are some tones in there for you to hit, those rock, baritone tones.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know what I'm talking about. And I'm like okay, man, all right, it's that I was trying to pinpoint it and I even did. I looked and looked and looked and I'm like, man, no, it's not, it's none of the country, guys, that I hear. And so I had to like really look back and I finally figured out some of those tones and I'm just going to say you probably know them, villavallo.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, of course.
Speaker 1:Dude, like some of the like the melody that you were doing, I'm like, oh, come again. And I'm like trying to pinpoint it and I'm a huge him fan, always have been. Right and I'm listening and like that's it, just when I've caught wind. I finally figured that out yesterday when I was driving on the way to a death metal concert, man.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So like that's it, yeah Do.
Speaker 2:People will say that you know I've never I've listened to him since I was in high school. So I mean that totally makes sense. I didn't know one else has ever said that for sure. But I'll take it out of that.
Speaker 1:That's fine with me. It's crazy because the tones and the new album too, man, you really hit the different tone in them.
Speaker 2:Just like yeah there was some. There was a little bit of, especially in the. You know we're talking about vocals right now but, like, clearly the guitar tones and stuff on that record are not as pure as you would expect to find on a record like that. That's pretty straight honky tonk. But also, you know, 2023 is not 1953. I've got nice gear, might as well use it.
Speaker 1:It's good man, you guys, you guys coming out with some good stuff. Man, the new age, the so-called subgenre, country man. I think that the subgenre is bigger than the country genre period.
Speaker 2:So I think I think that there's some really cool stuff happening where it's not just country music, there's definitely with, I feel like with this current generation of, you know, songwriter based country music, that there's some really cool things happening. It's like these guys that kind of maybe sound a little bit like Willier Whalen, but also they're writing important lyrics and, you know like, really dealing with the human condition in a way that, in a less surface way than than a country of generations past has done, I think I feel I feel like the, especially the younger folks that are doing stuff right now the Derek Dames Oll and, you know, dan O Simpson and Sean Hess and some of the some of these guys that I would like to consider peers, or Dean Johnson. I think that these, these fellows have the sound down but they're also incredibly intelligent lyric writers, you know.
Speaker 2:And generations past, especially the 60s and 70s, so much of the country music that was consumed by Americans was very much controlled by, you know, capitol Records and the Nashville machine. There was this very concerted effort because of what happened in the 50s, with rock and roll kind of taken over America. I feel like a lot of the 60s and 70s were spent desperately looking for pop and rock crossover chart success and so a lot of the we didn't have a lot of like super, super talented songwriters that were being utilized by that Nashville machine, except for, like you know, obviously, willie Nelson, frank Rose, tom T Hall, but they were the exception rather than the rule, and a lot of a lot of the songwriting was very straightforward and not a lot. There wasn't a lot of layers to peel back. I suppose, and I think that's something that, especially through the 80s and 90s, was very much missing in country music, not to say anything bad about 80s and 90s country.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of fun stuff in there, but I like this kind of shift back towards poetry as a centerpiece of it that's still surrounded by the incredibly competent musicianship you know like. I feel like we're getting good stuff right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, great stuff, man, great stuff. And that's why you know, when I get you guys on, I'm like dude, thank you, thank you, because, man, the listeners are like hey, man, I listen to this one day in my playlist, in my playlist, and they, I mean, I just put you guys on because I love you guys, man, I love the music I love it and people were just catching onto it and everything else. So the cabin sessions Talk about the duets, but a whole album concept of you and her just man making it, making it.
Speaker 2:So we just I mean literally we rented out a cabin it was like right next to the Reddolens Ranch in Tennessee and we got it for I think it was like four nights so five days basically, if you take the half day of getting there and the half day of leaving and we kind of made some rules for ourselves, which was maybe a little dumb, but it was that we each picked half of the tunes or whatever, but it had to be something that we hadn't, like, learned already, you know, hadn't played out. And so I mean, yeah, we got there and set up a little portable studio rig and spent 16 to 20 hours a day arranging and then tracking and then mixing and then mastering it. When it was done, it was done, and that was. That was just how it was going to be, and we kind of made the rules before that.
Speaker 2:We, whatever we ended up with at the end of that trip was what the record was going to be, and I think it turned out pretty all right. There's some moments that make me cringe pretty hard on it, and there's some moments where I'm like, yeah, there's something nice happening there, but we hadn't known each other very long when we did that, so we hadn't spent a lot of time playing together and that was kind of the kind of the just dive in with both feet kind of things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how did you know that was the time to make that type of album?
Speaker 2:Sounded fun.
Speaker 1:Sounded fun. It was man okay.
Speaker 2:That's literally all it was, but no one else was.
Speaker 1:Both of us were like hey, let's do this thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, but maybe nobody else is having as much fun as we are.
Speaker 1:Gotcha, it takes guts. Man Takes guts because normally you know if you go to a rap genre they have 20 features on 20 different songs you know and you're making a whole album, just you two. Man just killing it. Like you know, the whole Johnny Cash and June Carter cash.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Just saying, just saying. But hey, it's good man, and it made me think. I'm like why is? Why isn't Mr Bush bigger than he should be?
Speaker 2:Oh, I mean, first off, I've only been like touring under the solo stuff, for I mean, I think we're coming up on two years now, so it's. I mean I haven't really been working at it that long and you know, I think I feel like things are going kind of okay. I've never been in a band or any sort of project that really gained any sort of real traction within. I mean never before, like the fourth year, Like it's kind of one of those things where, unless you're on some big label, pound that's pouring a bunch of money into you. It just takes a lot of work and pound in the pavement. Low organic growth is better than a big spurt. You know, as long as every month you're doing a little bit better than you were the month before, I think it's successful at this point.
Speaker 1:And the two years you made three albums. How do you have the time to sit and do what you do write, create music? I mean, how do you do life?
Speaker 2:I mean most I've only had, you know, that one. That record with Natalie is clearly a covers album, so I didn't have to write any of that, Both of the solo albums. You know I write on the road a lot. I do the put my phone on voice to text, throw it in the passenger seat while I'm driving, just kind of babble at it, and then go back and parse through everything at the end and then I've got some lyric ideas and then I can sit down and really work with them.
Speaker 2:But you know, a lot of these songs that are on cowboy chords got written and then played out the same day where like I'd write it, the guitar stuff in my head while I'm driving, in the lyrics and stuff and then that night be like all right, we're going to try this new one and kind of just throw it at the audience and see what happens and then it would evolve over shows to become what it ended up becoming.
Speaker 2:That's kind of the nice thing about touring around to these little little dive bars and breweries and stuff is like, oh yeah, I mean well and just like oh well, I don't really know this tune yet, but I'm going to try it out anyway because, like, what's the worst that's going to happen? I'm going to embarrass myself in front of these 15 people, like it just doesn't matter. You know, and sometimes the magic happens too, where you're like, okay, that part of that song worked and I got a good reaction from it. You know, I'm basically using the audiences as editors at this point which that's what I was going to say.
Speaker 1:man, basically you think more people do that.
Speaker 2:I think they should. They're really rewarding and terrifying and when it works it's a pretty good feeling, and when it doesn't, it's pretty awful. But you know it's worth it. It's worth it.
Speaker 1:What's the favorite part of what you're doing, man? What gets you going day in, day out? Keep doing what you're doing, man.
Speaker 2:I mean I really just enjoy playing. You know the relationships you build with people on the road and stuff. There's something that's a little bit superficial about road friends, obviously, because you don't see them all the time, and stuff like that. But I also think that you kind of tend to get the best of people. You know if your neighbors with somebody or live with them, then you're going to see all their faults and get frustrated and have arguments and stuff like that sometimes. But when you see your buddy three times a year and hang out for that day, it's always just a good time Got you. It might be a little bit reductive but I like that. I like traveling.
Speaker 2:Again, living in Kansas City, there's not a lot of majestic natural beauty around here and I tend you know, it's kind of convenient that the genre that we're in does well in places that tend to have a lot of natural beauty, and so I get to also do that. I always take a day off every week. Well, almost always. This next door doesn't really have that, but I like to never play on a Monday and just go get a campsite somewhere and hang out and do some hiking and swimming or fishing or whatever it is that happens to be the thing that day?
Speaker 1:Awesome. Have you always been an avid hiker and camper and fishers yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you know I grew up in Southeast Kansas and pretty poor we didn't. My parents weren't like we weren't starving or anything like that, but there wasn't like always a TV in the house or you know things like that. So a lot of my childhood was running through the woods like an asshole with all my idiot friends shooting BB guns at each other.
Speaker 1:Same. Yeah, that was the same.
Speaker 2:Breaking into the cement quarries, and though I'm some quarry, there's a cement plant near so there was all these you know, 250 foot deep swimming hole type things that was like do not swim, danger, danger, danger. And that's what we were doing, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And you're like man. What was I thinking? How am I still alive?
Speaker 2:Well, I still do that crap.
Speaker 1:You're fine. Any plans coming out West, and when I mean West I mean Washington, Oregon.
Speaker 2:You know that's probably on the docket for 2024. Full on West Coast touring is a little bit harder than just Western US. These are a little further apart. Gas is more expensive, stuff like that, the way I kind of look at, especially with a newer project like this, you know you start touring close to home and you slowly expand, kind of save. It's like the Northeast and the East Coast itself is like the second to last thing you do and then the very last thing you do is for states anyway is the actual West Coast To be able to support a West Coast tour. I'm not sure I could do it with the fan base that I have now and make money. It'd be close. I could probably break even.
Speaker 2:You know, when you go from 295 a gallon in the Midwest to whatever you know, six something in California gets a lot more expensive, and those drives are further too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, so you've figured out clusters, doing music venues and clusters. I mean, that's how I do the mountains, yeah.
Speaker 2:I've got like kind of four routes that I take right now. I've got like the Colorado, utah, wyoming, montana. That's a I've got a pretty solid little little circuit through there and then you know like Texas, oklahoma, arkansas, louisiana is kind of another one, and then we've got like a great lakes region thing and then Appalachian and East Coast thing and it it seems like those those four circuits are treating me pretty well right now. But it is in 2024. It's definitely going to be time to start expanding and taking some risks on some new clubs and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'll be looking out for it, man especially where are you based out of? Southeast Washington.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:By okay, Nice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, pendleton's just down the road.
Speaker 2:Is that? Is that kind of by? Is that near Palouse?
Speaker 1:Palouse Falls.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Palouse Falls is just down the road. It's probably like an hour or two an hour and a half.
Speaker 2:I like that part of the thing.
Speaker 1:It's off the beaten path.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's the dry desert, it's not the green.
Speaker 2:Right, I like that yeah.
Speaker 1:I like that part of the thing. All right, every day music that you listen to.
Speaker 2:Oh boy, it's kind of all over the place. Let's see I'm I think the best record of the year so far is that. Dean Johnson nothing for me, please. I've been listening to that a lot. Towns is pretty much constantly on rotation. I really enjoy Ludon Wayne right the third a lot. I've been on a hard like Buck Owens and Don Rich kick recently. I really like Don Rich's guitar playing. I don't think he's technically the best guitar player that's ever played country music, but I think he's one of the most important top three for sure, maybe.
Speaker 1:I don't know him.
Speaker 2:Don Rich, pete Anderson, and there's a pretty huge drop off after that. It's like the drop off from two to three is probably pretty huge. But I listen to. I love the first six black Sabbath records and I like some of the Dio Sabbath too, like heaven and hell gets played fairly regularly. I really like Viagra boys a lot right now. I don't know if you've heard them before.
Speaker 1:Where they based out of man I think Norway or something like that.
Speaker 2:I think they're on tour right now opening up for Queens of the Stone Age, so it's kind of that, that kind of thing. But they're weird man. It's like a guitar player, a baritone, sax, a synthesizer and a drummer man. They're weird. Check them out. You'll either love it or, I think, if you can put up with him, I think you'd probably enjoy him.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right. Terrible band name Right back. Yeah, yeah, especially Norway, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, or Sweden or something. It's something Scandinavian.
Speaker 1:Over there. Yeah, yeah, favorite all time singer, just one.
Speaker 2:George Jones yeah.
Speaker 1:George.
Speaker 2:Jones Without a bit of hesitation, man, that was quick.
Speaker 1:I'm like huh, non-country music lesson man.
Speaker 2:Like just picking one. Just picking one, are we talking a genre or we're actual band?
Speaker 1:Just a band let's go, band let's go band.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, man, that's tough. I listened to so much different genre stuff, like I mean primarily it's country and singer-songwriter stuff, but um, oh yeah, it's a hard one. I mean probably Sabbath. I guess If I had to pick one it would be Sabbath probably.
Speaker 1:You're an Aussie fan, okay yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm a Tony fan.
Speaker 1:That's true.
Speaker 2:A Lyomi.
Speaker 1:Okay, favorite instrument to play since you've done.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Um.
Speaker 1:I've never instrumented, but pedal still.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I kind of play the pedal steel, but I'm not good enough to really do it. Um, guitar, almost for sure. Um, which is kind of cheating because there's so many different things you do with it. Like I can say guitar and be talking about acoustic or flat pickin' or finger style or electric. There's, you know, playing lead for somebody. Sometimes I'm doing a bunch of chicken picking stuff, sometimes it's more blue space. I just I like I like the guitar because there's a lot of different things you can do with it.
Speaker 1:Somebody called you to tour with them. Who would you? Who would it be man? Who would you be like? Oh my God.
Speaker 2:Yes, I just wish somebody would call yeah, I'd you know, like of the of the new guard, like doing culture. Charlie Crockett, sturgill Simpson would probably be the coolest, but I don't know how much he's touring these days. Um, I mean realistically though, like as long as he's still around, willie Nelson, it'd probably be the dream one.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right. Do you prefer intimates or large crowds? Um or the pits.
Speaker 2:Both of them have their, their pitfalls, I suppose. Um, an intimate crowd that's that's engaged is the best thing in the world. Um, a small crowd that's wasted and uh, getting in fights while you're trying to sing a ballad out of him is probably the worst thing in the world. Um, and you know again, really I don't care if the audience is big or small, as long as they're engaged. Um, if I can, if I can get folks arms uncrossed and make some eye contact, I'm doing, I'm pretty happy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're almost done, man. What's your ultimate goal, right?
Speaker 2:now as we speak.
Speaker 1:We have the three albums.
Speaker 2:Ultimate goal in you know, like really just keep getting to do what I'm doing? Um, I don't, like I said I'm not. If I was trying to get get rich or famous or something, I probably wouldn't be playing the genre that I'm playing. Um, you know, I'd it would be nice to be able to do this until I die, and, uh, you know, not everybody's that lucky, but that, I mean, that's the ultimate goal is just to just stay out there.
Speaker 1:What advice would you tell kids trying to get into the mainstream? Or where are you guys are at now, man.
Speaker 2:What would you tell?
Speaker 1:what would you say to them?
Speaker 2:Get good at your instrument first. Like, um, there is no substitute for hard work. Um, whether it's, I mean, anything you said you're mind to, there is absolutely no substitute for hard work. Nothing's easy. There's no magic bullet. Um, it's practice your ass off, yeah, and once you're good enough, keep practicing your ass off, um, there's always somebody coming up from behind you that's better and more talented, and the only way to be better than them is to work harder.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, and outside of the actual music too, I mean, being a touring musician is a ton of work, like you know, I'm I don't I was talking about. I was talking about how I don't really like working for other people and work for myself, but I mean that's a keeping this stuff afloat is, I mean, it's an 80 hour a week job keeping stuff booked and keeping the the business side of it going. Um, you know, I print all my own T-shirts and merch Everything, everything I do, I do for myself, and that's really the only way at this level to uh, to be profitable. As soon as you start farming it out and paying the other people to do stuff for you, all of a sudden you're like, well, I guess I got to go bartend again. You know it's a. It's a just work hard, literally want it more than anybody else, because everybody wants it but nobody's willing to work for it. If you're willing to work for it, it's going to work out for you.
Speaker 1:Gotcha. Thanks, that's awesome man. Thank you for those words too. That's because I was just thinking. I'm like, you know, I've been on this for two 10 now, and it was rough at first, and then I'm like all right, well, I got it, I got what it takes, and then there's all that, always that doubt, but I'm still working on it, you know.
Speaker 1:And then then I get you know guys like you, you know the, the, the mountaineers, the, the big runners. I'm independent, not get paid. And then here you are, giving this guy who doubts a little still, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:There's that doubt never goes away, man.
Speaker 1:But, but then, yeah, yes, but then you're giving me a chance and dude I. This is a great episode, I feel, and hopefully you feel the same, but, man, you gave me a chance. You didn't even have to give me a chance, but dude oh come on now.
Speaker 1:Wait, what you're spitting, man, is the truth and, man, it really will relate to a lot of people, man. So I appreciate you, I do, and I appreciate your time today. I don't take it for granted. Is there anything that you would like to add? I didn't miss? Where can people find?
Speaker 2:Yeah, can I do do a little plugin, is that?
Speaker 1:right, yeah, go for it yeah.
Speaker 2:New record out on Spotify and all the other streaming platforms you can. You can order vinyl CDs, t-shirts, any of the stuff like that at marty-bushcom the music's anywhere you can care to look for it. So that's the thing I'm heading out for, tour here. Hold on, I got a poster right here with Mr Johnny LaHorn of the Pentagon String Band. We leave on the 16th and doing kind of a eastern and southern loop, so kind of starting off in St Louis and headed through Illinois, michigan, tennessee, north Carolina, georgia, alabama, florida, louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma. So yeah, all the tour dates are up on the Spotify page. So if you want to come out, go check it out and come hang out with us.
Speaker 1:So you do the shirts, you do everything yourself, Okay.
Speaker 2:I mean, I ain't pressing the vinyl or the CDs. Yeah, basically, if I can do it myself, I'm doing it. All the graphic design, all the artwork, all the printing, all the everything.
Speaker 1:You sell posters. I tried to look at your page. I didn't sell posters.
Speaker 2:You know I do at the merch table. I don't generally do posters on the web stores because they don't always travel. Well, you know you're going to sell somebody a $5 poster, spend $5 on postage and then it shows up Gotcha, hold it in half six times and I feel a little guilty about that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I know, I saw that poster. I was like what you sell posters? No.
Speaker 2:Well, when we get done here, I'll get an address from you. I'll shoot you some.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right. Well, marty, I appreciate you man. Seriously, I really do. And when you do come out West Montana man, you guys are like killing me with this Montana gig. But you know, there's a sound there and it is blasting and booming and I'm getting my wet into that.
Speaker 2:We got some buddies in your area to like Dusty Rust out of Eugene Oregon. We've talked to him about kind of doing a Pacific Northwest thing together next year and so you know, hopefully we'll make that happen and get a little closer to you.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, when you do, I'll be keeping a close eye on you, man, and just hopefully that sound in Idaho and Montana just blasts. It's already blasting dude, and it's getting bigger and I love every minute of it because it's not mainstream. And if it, does go mainstream, I'll just go somewhere else.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I don't. I can't really envision myself going the direction of a top 40 country radio right now. Yeah, it doesn't. It doesn't. If I, the day, you see me do a Morgan Wallin cover, a Hardy song or something, just go ahead and you know where to find me and just put me out of my misery.
Speaker 1:If I knew you'd do that the high you wouldn't be on the fuck. Yeah, yeah, so yeah.
Speaker 2:That's never going to happen.
Speaker 1:Marty till next time.
Speaker 2:Thank you, man, I appreciate you.