From Banjo to Band: Drew Carman of Corduroy Road Unplugged
From the Country Fried Rock archives in 2012:
Drew Carman from Corduroy Road drops by to chat about the band’s evolution and the power of personal connections in music. He kicks things off by musing on how social media, while a handy tool for spreading the word, can’t hold a candle to those face-to-face encounters that build real relationships and loyal fans. They dig into the nitty-gritty of hitting the road full-time, the ups and downs of touring, and how fresh lineup changes have brought new energy and creativity to their sound. From busking in Knoxville to jamming with pals at festivals, every story is tinged with a sense of community and the joy of making music. Buckle up, because this episode is packed with insight and good vibes, all served up with a side of witty banter!
Takeaways
- Creating music is all about the connections you make with people, not just social media.
- Drew Carman emphasizes the importance of personal interactions over digital connections to build a loyal fanbase.
- They share how busking in places like Knoxville can be a lucrative way to earn money while touring.
- The evolution of Corduroy Road's lineup brought fresh influences and new musical styles to their sound.
- Drew reflects on how touring keeps them grounded and connected to their roots as musicians.
- The band’s decision to keep their name after lineup changes underscores their commitment to growth and continuity.
Chapters
- 00:14 - Introducing Drew Carman of Corduroy Road
- 04:17 - The Evolution of a Musician
- 11:15 - The Evolution of Corduroy Road
- 17:30 - Reflections on Touring and Festivals
- 23:12 - Connecting Through Music
Mentioned in this Episode
- Corduroy Road
- Mark Cunningham
- Athens
- Easter Island
- John Keane
- Nuci's Space
- Pale Face
- Ian Thomas
- Packway Handle Band
- Holy Ghost Tent Revival
- Reverend Peyton's Big Band
- Steep Canyon Rangers
- FullTones
- Steve Soto
- Twisted Hearts
Recommended If You Like
country fried rock, Corduroy Road, Drew Carman interview, indie music podcast, Athens music scene, social media for musicians, touring musicians, busking experiences, music creativity, songwriting inspiration, regional music festivals, live music connections, band evolution, music publicity strategies, music industry insights, building a fanbase, acoustic music influences, old time music, musician mental health, grassroots music promotion
Mentioned in this episode:
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These podcast episodes are from 2009-2020. Links are probably dead. Half these places do not exist any more.
Transcript
Welcome to Country Fried Rock, where we talk with musicians to find out what inspires their creativity.
Speaker A:Country Fried Rock music uncovered.
Speaker A:We apologize for the audio quality on this week's radio show.
Speaker A:Thanks a bunch for listening.
Speaker A:My guest today on Country Fried Rock is Drew Carman of Corduroy Road.
Speaker A:Welcome.
Speaker B:Thanks.
Speaker B:Thanks for having me.
Speaker A:We're glad to have you here.
Speaker A:Mark Cunningham of Athens is the first person who told me about you all.
Speaker B:Mark's one of those guys, along with a lot of people in Athens that you get to know just throughout the music scene.
Speaker B:They're playing shows and he.
Speaker B:Man, he plays a lot, too, a whole lot in Athens.
Speaker B:And, you know, throughout the years, we've just gotten to know him and his bands and, you know, played some shows with him and everything.
Speaker B:He's a good fella.
Speaker A:We were just chatting and he goes, I know a band.
Speaker A:You're like, Corduroy Road.
Speaker A:You need to track them down.
Speaker B:I tell you what, those are some of our best connections.
Speaker B:You know, way we dig up interviews or things like this, a lot of times are just through friends of ours or people that we know and play with.
Speaker B:And word of mouth is, you know, one of our most powerful weapons.
Speaker A:How is that working for you all now that social media has become, I mean, ubiquitous?
Speaker B:The social media can be a great thing, obviously, and then can sometimes be a somewhat of a distraction at times, too.
Speaker B:And I guess in a good way.
Speaker B:You know, of course, people being able to follow you and follow what you're doing all the time is so important.
Speaker B:And, you know, now a fellow that helps us out, Andy Whitehead, he helps us out with tour management.
Speaker B:Every once in a while he'll come on the road with us, but he also helps link in all of our various social media outlets and things.
Speaker B:And of course, I had no idea when he kind of set all this stuff up, that I could take a picture with my phone and put a caption on it doing something on the road and send it, and it would automatically go to everything.
Speaker B:Our Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, website, it just shoots it all out.
Speaker B:And I didn't know how to get all those pieces kind of linked together among a lot of other things, things in social media.
Speaker B:But he's definitely helped us out with that.
Speaker B:And it's fun.
Speaker B:You know, we're on the road and, you know, I'll post something to Facebook and it'll shoot out to all of our other different sites.
Speaker B:And I got to thinking about it actually one day and, you know, let's say you have a thousand Twitter Followers and you have a couple thousand Facebook followers and then a couple hundred people or whatever, thousand people on your email list.
Speaker B:Those aren't necessarily all the same people.
Speaker B:You know, just being able to disseminate one snippet of information and getting to all of those different people, it can really help broaden the information that you're trying to put out there.
Speaker B:Rather than just tweeting something or like just posting something to your Facebook.
Speaker B:Because like I said, you know, there is some overlap obviously on a lot of those, but, you know, they're not necessarily all the same people.
Speaker B:On all different sites.
Speaker A:People are always saying, oh, you know, you've got to reach fans, whatever, wherever they are, and that's one way to do it.
Speaker A:But how does that work for you all?
Speaker A:Just in the last few years, how things have changed for you as a band?
Speaker B:Getting information out via the Internet and social media is so much different than actually getting information out through connections you're making with people.
Speaker B:You know, just personal, one on one connections.
Speaker B:And, you know, we've always found that the best way to do that is just to just grind it out on the road and meet people and talk to people and hang out with folks.
Speaker B:And some of our, I guess, most avid and loyal fans are not necessarily ones that, you know, might have found us on Facebook or something.
Speaker B:It's the ones that, you know, we talk to after a show, ended up having a beer with or something, and then like, they let us, like crash on their couch and we got up in the morning and cooked them breakfast, you know, or the people that like busking or something on the corner, somebody we meet on the side of the road, just walking down the street, you know, said, oh, you know, my grandpa used to play fingerstyle guitar.
Speaker B:Like, sometimes those are the.
Speaker B:Those kind of more intimate connections are a lot better than somebody that would just maybe stumble upon your music online or something.
Speaker A:I got a question about busking.
Speaker A:Where has that worked?
Speaker A:Where you haven't gotten run off or arrested for it?
Speaker B:I'll tell you, Knoxville is a great place to busk in the.
Speaker B:Like, a market square, I think is what it's called.
Speaker B:And they actually encourage it.
Speaker B:From what I understand, the city that is, you know, it's totally legal and allowed.
Speaker B: And in: Speaker B:The next day, Elijah and I would go out, and we always did real well in Knoxville.
Speaker A:Let's back up then.
Speaker A:How did you get started playing music way back?
Speaker B:I really didn't play music really way back, like, as a kid or anything like that.
Speaker B:I didn't really start playing any music till after I got out of college.
Speaker B:I went to college in Wisconsin, and I moved back to Kentucky, where I'm from.
Speaker B:One of my best friends growing up, Dylan Solis, he was just starting to play guitar, acoustic guitar, you know, And I had, for whatever reason, started playing this old banjo that we had at my house.
Speaker B:I think it was my brother's or something, and.
Speaker B:And I had been playing harmonica a little bit and singing with my older brother's band at the time in Kentucky for just a month or two.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Just kind of picked up the banjo and started playing.
Speaker B:And it was literally like after a week, it was like a light bulb went on in my head, and I was like, wow, this is okay.
Speaker B:I think this is something that I can continue to do.
Speaker B:And I really like this a lot.
Speaker B:That's cool.
Speaker B:That's cool.
Speaker B:I put it down, you know, and I started just trying to learn as many songs and things I can.
Speaker B:But around that same time, I was.
Speaker B:Was about to move to Athens, Georgia, for graduate school.
Speaker B:And so Dylan, we were kind of jamming a little bit, picking here and there, and I convinced him to quit his job and move to Athens with me and start a band, which, yeah, to be honest, it really didn't take that much convincing.
Speaker B:I think he thought it was a pretty good idea, too.
Speaker B:So he moved down there, I don't know, maybe six months after I got there.
Speaker B:And, yeah, then that's when we started the course.
Speaker B:And it was just a duo, you know, at that time, and we weren't that good.
Speaker B:We just, like I said, we had both just started playing music, really, for.
Speaker B:In this kind of capacity for the first time.
Speaker B:So, you know, we would just hack away at some chords and, you know, sing songs.
Speaker B:Our harmonies matched real well together, and Dylan was a great songwriter.
Speaker B:That's what kind of helped us out at the beginning is that, you know, there was more of a focus on the.
Speaker B:On the actual songs and songwriting than really technical musicians are really, you know, good at our actual playing.
Speaker B:I read this quote or heard somewhere one time that more than, you know, three chords, you're just showing off.
Speaker B:Kind of gave me a little encouragement.
Speaker B:And actually, I'll tell you the other thing that I would always think about.
Speaker B:Like, I said to this day, I really don't ever consider myself a very good banjo player.
Speaker B:But I would always look out in the audience that were watching us and I'd look on the crown.
Speaker B:I said, well, there can't be, but more than, you know, a couple banjo players in this whole crowd at most.
Speaker B:So, like, I'm probably better than like 95% of the people here.
Speaker B:That gave me a little bit more encouragement.
Speaker B:Hey, this is Drew Carman from the Corduroy Road and you're listening to country for Ad Rock.
Speaker A:You're from Kentucky.
Speaker A:You picked up the banjo up there.
Speaker A:Were you learning like rolling in the hay and that kind of stuff when you were very first starting?
Speaker B:I was a little more interested in old time claw hammer style banjo, you know, playing old time music.
Speaker B:And that's really kind of what I started learning first.
Speaker B:I struggled with that a little bit whether I wanted to play more bluegrass style or more old time.
Speaker B:And I kind of leaned a little bit more toward old time a because it was a lot more looser form of playing and it didn't have to be technical, you know, it didn't have to be clean.
Speaker B:And I linked up with Elijah, our bass player.
Speaker B:I mean, then it was like a flood of old time music.
Speaker B:He's in an old time band here in Athens called Jumping Jesus Christers and he plays at fiddle conventions.
Speaker B:And he's just like this wealth of knowledge of old time music.
Speaker B:I mean, I literally like sat around a campfire with him and played seven hours straight without playing the same song twice.
Speaker B:Meeting him and then getting this whole time, I mean, it was just.
Speaker B:It was like again, another life.
Speaker B:This is amazing stuff.
Speaker B:Being from Kentucky and that kind of thing was an influence, you know, on playing bluegrass and old time and Ruth's music.
Speaker B:But, you know, it's more of, I think just the people that I've met that have like Elijah, that have influenced me more than anything.
Speaker A:Once you got to Athens and originally y' all were was a duo, then you moved to a trio.
Speaker A:How did the lifespan morph of the Corduroy Road?
Speaker B:Well, it's really great, but it wasn't a very big sound.
Speaker B:And then when we started to record our first album, our first proper album, we had a little EP that we did as a duo.
Speaker B:But when we first started trying to record our first proper album, we linked up with a few just music friends of ours to sit in with us as it started out.
Speaker B:One of the guys, Ethan Payne, plays in a band called Easter island now.
Speaker B:He played bass with us right there.
Speaker B:At the very beginning.
Speaker B:And then John Cable was playing drums.
Speaker B:These were guys that we just brought in, friends of ours that were just gonna sit on the.
Speaker B:In the studio session with us.
Speaker B:But then they started kind of coming on the road with us, and it was a slow process.
Speaker B:We never ended up releasing that.
Speaker B:That first album.
Speaker B:We linked up with this kind of upstart record label at the time who wanted to re record the whole album with John Keane, which, you know, that's just taking it to a completely new level at that point.
Speaker B:So, you know, we kind of solidified the lineup a lot more with our next bass player, Tim Helms.
Speaker B:And then, you know, John was still on the drum.
Speaker B:So it was a four piece that we got in and recorded with John Keane.
Speaker B:I mean, that was a ridiculously crazy experience.
Speaker B:It was awesome.
Speaker B:You know, it was a little intimidating.
Speaker B:The only other recording we'd ever done was like, in like a basement, you know, right?
Speaker B:And then, you know, we walk in and there's like, records hanging on the wall, you know.
Speaker B:It was totally cool, though.
Speaker B:I mean, he was great to work with, you know, super friendly, awesome.
Speaker B:You know, he's real nice.
Speaker B:He'd actually, when we had shows in town, he would sometimes come and sit in with us on pedal steel.
Speaker B:That album, you know, we were recording, that was the kind of springboard that when we were getting ready to release that, we decided to go on the road full time, which isn't easy.
Speaker A:Well, so that's pretty exciting for a first record.
Speaker A:And as y' all decided to then spend your time on the road, how did that evolve for you all?
Speaker B:I mean, we jumped full bore into it.
Speaker B:I mean, we all quit our jobs.
Speaker B:We released it in the summer, but we started in, like, January on the road full time.
Speaker B:So you get about, you know, five or six months of touring under our belt before the actual album release.
Speaker B:But, yeah, we just jumped, you know, full force into it and bought the van, piled in it and hit the road.
Speaker B:And mainly we stayed around the Southeast.
Speaker B:You know, we rarely did really long stretches of tours.
Speaker B:It was more of, like, we would leave on Monday or Tuesday afternoon and get home on Sunday, you know, so we'd have a day or two at home every week, like one day at home, and then jump back on the road again.
Speaker B:So, you know, with relationships we had and all that stuff, it was almost like we were like traveling salesmen or something.
Speaker B:You know, we were like home on the weekends.
Speaker B:Weekend meaning like Monday and Tuesday and then out for the rest of the week.
Speaker B:But in doing that it kind of kept us pretty confined to the Southeast, which was a good, I think, a good and bad thing.
Speaker B:You know, we were able to get home and build up the markets and a following of the markets that, you know, we were touring around to and that are close to home.
Speaker B:But yet it was, you know, the first time we ever got to major markets in the Northeast and Midwest, like New York or Chicago.
Speaker B: ou know, touring since, like,: Speaker A:Several great musician friends of Country Fried Rock generously donated songs for a free music sampler.
Speaker A:Download it at NoiseTrade.com CountryFriedRock 19 songs to help raise awareness and money for Nucci's Space, a nonprofit serving the mental health needs of musicians in the Athens, Georgia area.
Speaker A:Find out more about Nucci's at N U C I Dot or.
Speaker B:This is Drew Carman with the Corduroy Road.
Speaker A:What changed for you all after that first record?
Speaker B:We definitely started to see a spike in, you know, attendance and selling the record and everything.
Speaker B:And then we.
Speaker B:It was actually an EP and a record that we released both from the same session with Keane.
Speaker B:And so we toured on that for a year and a half.
Speaker B:And then we left the label that we were on at the time and decided to go out on our own.
Speaker B:Then it was touring without a lot of other support.
Speaker B:Got to be pretty tough, you know, we then picked up doing our own publicity work again, you know, and if you've ever done, like, publicity, you know, it's like, I would hate to be a publicist for a band.
Speaker B:And that's the thing.
Speaker B:I was for a while, you know, we were lucky that we had some contacts that we knew and some friends of ours that had worked with us before that basically were doing publicity work for free.
Speaker B:This girl, Casey Bridgman, who's an intern of our first publicist, you know, she started working with us just out of the kindness of her.
Speaker B:Of her sweetheart.
Speaker B:But then, you know, calling newspapers every day, calling.
Speaker B:Just doing that is.
Speaker B:It's a grind.
Speaker B:So picking up that work and then picking, you know, while still doing the booking and everything, it just got to be a lot.
Speaker B:And then also around this time, Dylan.
Speaker B:So this is maybe about two years into touring full time, and about a year after we released Loves of War, Dylan decided that he needed to move on with things.
Speaker B:And we had been discussing this for some time.
Speaker B:He'd been putting off medical school for quite some time to tour with the band.
Speaker B:And, you know, we're all pushing 30 at this point.
Speaker B:And he's kind of thinking, all right, well, I better, you know, I better get back into med school because, you know, by the time he gets out of residency and everything, you know, he's going to be in his late 30s.
Speaker B:He needed to leave and so he left Athens and started school.
Speaker B:And at that point we decided to take about a six or seven month break from touring and just kind of get reorganized and things.
Speaker B:And so that's what we did.
Speaker A:A break like that can be really good sometimes creatively.
Speaker A:What happened for you all when you decided to get back to it?
Speaker B:Well, it was excellent for us creatively.
Speaker B:We picked up some new members because we had a few other members leave town.
Speaker B:So it just didn't make sense, you know, for them to continue playing.
Speaker B:But we picked up some new members.
Speaker B:Matt Dyson, who plays banjo and electric guitar for us, and Garrett Chisholm, who plays drums.
Speaker B:Eventually we picked up Russell McCumber who's just an extraordinary fiddle player.
Speaker B:So it was really great.
Speaker B:Elijah and I were doing a lot of writing, a lot of different kind of writing than Dylan and I had done in the past.
Speaker B:It was a really good thing in that we were really excited to be back playing.
Speaker B:You know, if you've ever played music and been in a band and you just stop it pretty abruptly, it's a hard thing.
Speaker B:It's like, you know, it's like breaking up with a girlfriend.
Speaker B:You know, when a band breaks up, it's tough.
Speaker B:So getting back to it after, you know, seven months or however long it was was just great.
Speaker B:And we had talked about actually, you know, changing the name of the band and doing this kind of thing.
Speaker B:But we ultimately decided that it was just going to be in our best interest to keep the name the Corduroy Road and just continue as the Corduroy Road.
Speaker B:Not only because still essentially had some of the same members and everything, and I was still a big driving force in the band, but also we had the infrastructure set up.
Speaker B:I mean, you know, it's a business and it's a website and a van and all that, you know, and all the social media and stuff was all set up.
Speaker B:So it just kind of behooved us to keep that name.
Speaker B:And we're really glad we did.
Speaker B:You know, it's good to continue because I mean, bands grow and they change and they, you know, if a band doesn't change or grow, then it's, you know, they just become stagnant.
Speaker B:And that's kind of the way we're looking at this and we're progressing and we're even in the newer kind of setup that we have after we start touring again.
Speaker B:We continue to grow from when we started back again last March to now, you know.
Speaker A:Well, so bringing in that many new members brings in a lot of different kind of musical history, just not just in what they've personally played, but in what they like.
Speaker A:How has that impacted what you all are now creating?
Speaker B:With Russell coming in, he really plays a lot of old time fiddle tunes.
Speaker B:You know, we started playing instrumentals.
Speaker B:We'd never done instrumentals before.
Speaker B:A lot of that was a product of Dylan and I not really being very good technical musicians.
Speaker B:But, you know, with Russell coming in here, we sometimes play some fiddle tunes here and there.
Speaker B:Matt plays really great country style, you know, kind of honky tonk guitar, finger picking, blues and stuff.
Speaker B:It's really added a lot of.
Speaker B:A lot of skill and technique to our performances and our recordings.
Speaker B:You know, musically, we always.
Speaker B:You always, like I said, all bands, we want to change and want to grow.
Speaker B:And I think that's definitely what we're doing.
Speaker B:We in a songwriting aspect too.
Speaker B:Elijah started writing a lot of the songs, whereas in the past it was Dylan and myself mainly writing.
Speaker B:And Elijah, his record collection is crazy.
Speaker B:You know, he'll go to the flea market and just start buying records and listen to them.
Speaker B:So he comes from a lot of different musical influences that shape his kind of songwriting.
Speaker B:But it's.
Speaker B:It's not only music that we listen to that shape our songwriting.
Speaker B:I mean, it's everything that we do that shape our songwriting, relationships we're in, or work that we have to go to, or gardens that we grow or we do or people we meet.
Speaker B:You know, everything influences your, you know, your songwriting and not necessarily just about the music you listen to.
Speaker B:This is Drew Carmen with the Corduroy Road.
Speaker A:Are you all back on the road?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Oh, yeah.
Speaker B:When we released Two Step Silhouette, our album we just released in June, we hit the road for a couple weeks, tour up to the Northeast, up to New York, and across to Chicago and everywhere in between.
Speaker B:And then right now we're, you know, we're just grinding it out on the weekends.
Speaker B:You know, we all still have our day jobs and, you know, Monday through Thursday thing, but, you know, we jump back on the road just about every weekend.
Speaker B:You know, we'll see where that goes from there.
Speaker B:It's one of those things you just gotta.
Speaker B:You just gotta keep doing it until you can.
Speaker B:Until you're comfortable in making that jump again to full time, you know, or not, you know, I know bands that have been around for 10, 15 years, and they, you know, they have their jobs and they have their band.
Speaker B:You know, we'll see what everything has in store for us.
Speaker B:But, you know, we're pretty.
Speaker B:Pretty happy with, you know, touring and then, you know, maybe taking a couple weeks off every summer and going on a longer tour.
Speaker B:That's always a really appealing thing to look forward to every year.
Speaker A:On this summer jaunt from northeast across to the upper Midwest.
Speaker A:What was surprisingly good about that for.
Speaker B:You all, really, Every show we played, we were really happy with the turnout, with the exception of one show, but fortunately, we had New York and Chicago on bookending that on either end of it.
Speaker B:So that was great.
Speaker B:But, you know something?
Speaker B:We played up in the Midwest in Chicago, and it was amazing.
Speaker B:The show was packed.
Speaker B:Like, you know, it really energized us a lot.
Speaker B:So just getting into new markets and seeing new faces and seeing people are really digging what you're doing, it was really energizing.
Speaker A:When you're going into a new market like that, are you all on a bill with someone else or a smaller club with just y'?
Speaker A:All?
Speaker B:Most of the time we were playing at just smaller clubs, and it was just us.
Speaker B:And, you know, we had to get the word out via, you know, our publicist or our social networks or, you know, calling people we knew or whatever and telling them to bring all their friends and that kind of thing.
Speaker A:When you're playing throughout the southeast, especially when you've had a chance to kind of build markets in different towns throughout a region like that, what do you find keeps building for you in places where you've played repeatedly?
Speaker B:It's really important for bands like us that are just regional bands that tour and sometimes get out of their region, that for us to really get into a more popular consciousness in a larger market, we have to play our own shows there, of course, and then also get on support slots with bigger bands.
Speaker B:I mean, you can go play a city and you can play it every two or three months.
Speaker B:And over the course of two years, you know, you might get in front of a couple hundred people, different people.
Speaker B:You know, you play one show opening up for more of a national act, and there's that couple hundred people right there in that show that you're getting in front of doing that, you know, and then also being able to get your album out and having good representative music to give to people that are liking what you're doing.
Speaker B:And we've kind of changed the way we do our booking recently Is we're.
Speaker B:We still play smaller bars, smaller clubs, you know, smaller festivals, that kind of thing in the Southeast.
Speaker B:But, you know, we've kind of decided to focus on getting into larger festivals and then also getting on support slots in a lot of markets that we know we can be good support for a band that's coming through.
Speaker B:You know, we can tell them, hey, look, we're good for 100 people to come see us.
Speaker B:You know, like, this is definitely going to help us out and help the ticket sales there, too.
Speaker B:That's been important.
Speaker B:Yeah, we actually have a really awesome show coming up with the Reverend Peyton's big band.
Speaker A:That's going to be great.
Speaker B:Yeah, I'm so excited.
Speaker B: heir albums since, gosh, like: Speaker B:There you talk about Road Warriors.
Speaker B:We're really, really excited about that.
Speaker A:Well, so you mentioned festivals a little bit.
Speaker A:There's all kinds of kind of vibes to different festivals.
Speaker A:When you have been at a festival, large or small, that had a lot of positive response for your band.
Speaker B:First one that pops into my head, and I've always said, this is one of the best festivals that I've ever been to.
Speaker B:And I've been to it as a fan, you know, someone going to see music, but then also been a performer, was at Bristol Rhythm and Roots.
Speaker B:They treat the artists so well, and all the people that are there, just really excited about all the bands that are there.
Speaker B:They have regional bands, you know, local and regional bands playing right next to, you know, larger touring acts.
Speaker B:And everybody's mingling.
Speaker B:There's artist parties and stuff.
Speaker B:That's certainly by far one of the most memorable festival experiences, you know, I've ever had.
Speaker B: I think it was like: Speaker B:You know, it was great because all our buddies were there, you know, all the guys that we see on the road all the time and kind of cross paths with while we're playing, you know, all the other regional bands that are touring around.
Speaker B:And it was just a really good chance for everybody to just kind of meet up and catch up one weekend and play music.
Speaker B:That's exactly what we did.
Speaker B:It was great.
Speaker B:I'll tell you another thing that we really enjoy.
Speaker B:We do a whole lot of really small local festivals, street festivals, and, you know, things of that nature, like beer tastings, you know, outdoor beer tastings or stuff like that.
Speaker B:And those are always real positive events as well.
Speaker B:Clubs all the time.
Speaker B:You know, not everybody's in the best mood in the Bar, you know, you can have some drunk people who are not being very cool or whatever, but at these little small festivals.
Speaker B:And another thing, at weddings, too, those are great because everybody's always happy and everybody's there to have fun.
Speaker B:And then, you know, you don't always necessarily get that, you know, playing just like the bars and club clubs and stuff.
Speaker B:Those are always good experience, too.
Speaker B:Hey, if you dig what you hear here, you can check it out some more@thecorduroyroad.com.
Speaker A:Well, so if y' all get to catch up with some other bands who tend to be on the road that are buddies of yours, who do you like to be able to cross paths with?
Speaker B:I'll tell you, when we were really touring full time and, you know, we were running into all these folks that we were always playing with, you know, guys like, we did a lot of shows with Pale Face and Ian Thomas, he was always a good friend of us.
Speaker B:Packway Handleband, we play with those guys all the time.
Speaker B:Of course, those are local friends of ours.
Speaker B:You know, we actually just saw a couple months ago, Holy Ghost tent revival came in town.
Speaker B:You know, they crashed over at our place and hung out.
Speaker B:Bands like that, that you just make these connections and they're all.
Speaker B:They're playing kind of, you know, the same kind of similar music, but they're all just great folks that are doing the same thing.
Speaker B:And so they know what it's like road, and you can crash with them or they crash with you.
Speaker B:And it's nice to have that just a little bit of comfort because they know exactly what it's like.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:You know, six guys absolutely take a shower, you know, like, you know, take turns.
Speaker B:I know how it's nice to get a shower on the road.
Speaker B:Come on over, like, hang out for a little while.
Speaker B:I'll cook some dinner for everybody.
Speaker B:Like, you know, it's just.
Speaker B:That's exactly a really important thing about being on the road, making those connections.
Speaker B:They just released, I think their new album, Holy Ghost did.
Speaker B:They're doing fantastic.
Speaker B:I don't really think there's really a magical formula to, you know, to make anything happen.
Speaker B:It's just grinding away.
Speaker B: to try to focus next year in: Speaker A:In the van together.
Speaker A:What can you agree on?
Speaker B:Usually that's driver's choice.
Speaker B:We pretty much all have similar tastes in music, and there's nobody that's gonna put on, like, you know, death metal, really.
Speaker B:Although I will say that, you know, when.
Speaker B:Sometimes when we're coming back from a show or driving somewhere else and it's three in the morning and you've got to stay awake, you know, the windows get rolled down and Wu Tang gets turned on.
Speaker A:That's right.
Speaker A:Well, so what would be someone that all of you would be like, yeah,.
Speaker B:Whenever we play shovels and rope, everybody's like, yep, turn it up.
Speaker B:Fantastic as well.
Speaker B:Definitely one of my favorites right now.
Speaker A:What's working for you all in getting your music out to people in terms of digital or physical?
Speaker B:We do a lot of physical sales.
Speaker B:I mean, our digital is.
Speaker B:People download for sure.
Speaker B:But what will happen is we'll go play a show, and I think people just really like the energy that we have in a live show, and so they'll immediately come up and get it.
Speaker B:Physical album.
Speaker B:And we sell for like 10 bucks or something.
Speaker B:You know, we've had people come up.
Speaker B:Oh, man, that was, you know, great.
Speaker B:And let me buy a cd.
Speaker B:And they pull their wallet out and they're like, oh, five bucks on me.
Speaker B:Hey, man, take the album.
Speaker B:Burn it for all your friends.
Speaker B:Like, you know, here, just do it.
Speaker B:Like, that's the most important thing for us is just to get it out there.
Speaker B:I'll tell you what's really helped is we got a square one of those things you plug into your phone.
Speaker B:Oh, my gosh, it's so easy.
Speaker B:And it almost doubles our sales because, you know, everybody has a card on them.
Speaker B:Tell people that, like, hey, if you don't have cash, like, we definitely take.
Speaker B:That really helps a lot.
Speaker B:It changes everything.
Speaker B:When that thing came out, like, right before our album came out, I swooped up that square quick.
Speaker B:And it's really reasonable, the rates and everything.
Speaker B:It's just so easy.
Speaker B:And right there.
Speaker B:Hey, this is Drew Carmen from the Corduroy Road, and you're listening to Country Pride Rock.
Speaker A:What other kind of merch does well for you?
Speaker B:All our T shirts do pretty good.
Speaker B:You know, we've got one or two T shirts that we sell.
Speaker B:We had a pretty cool thing we did on our last tour.
Speaker B:We got a local artist to do a poster for one of our songs.
Speaker B:Not like a show or the album or anything.
Speaker B:It was actually like a poster for the song, like, telling the story of the song.
Speaker B:Neat.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:He's a local tattoo artist, and he does comics and stuff.
Speaker B:And it's kind of like a.
Speaker B:You know, those old Indiana Jones posters or like, you know, where it's like the hero standing there and his girlfriend's on one side and the villains on the other side and stuff is all around it, but, you know, but it's like a cartoon.
Speaker B:It's like a comic sort of.
Speaker B:But anyway, he did it for my dear Odessa, which is a great story.
Speaker B:You know, it's about this guy who is out hunting.
Speaker B:He stumbles upon a meth farm and, you know, has to shoot in.
Speaker B:The cop and the meth farmer are there kind of in cahoots, and he has to shoot the farmer, and then he's on the run from the law.
Speaker B:It was a good poster, and we sold that on the road for that tour that we did.
Speaker A:That's a great idea.
Speaker B:Mike Groves, great artist.
Speaker B:If you ever want to check his website out, it's poofbird.com P-O-O-P-B-I-R dash dot com.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And you can see the poster if you go to our store.
Speaker B:We've got a nice run up in Charlotte.
Speaker B:And Winston sound.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:We got a show with the Steve Canyon rangers at the neighborhood theater.
Speaker A:Oh, very nice.
Speaker B:December.
Speaker B:It's gonna be awesome.
Speaker A:That'll be a fantastic pairing.
Speaker B:I know.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's gonna be.
Speaker B:It's gonna be killer.
Speaker A:Good stuff all around.
Speaker A:And I'm glad to get to talk with you, Drew.
Speaker A:Take it easy.
Speaker B:Oh, yeah.
Speaker B:Thanks for talking.
Speaker A:Country Fried rock.
Speaker A:Find the full playlist from this episode on countryfriedrock.org check us out on itunes.
Speaker A:No music, just talk.
Speaker A:Our theme music is from the full tones.
Speaker A:Our country Fried rock stinger is from Steve Soto in the twisted hearts.
Speaker A:Country fried rock.
Speaker A: Copyright: Speaker A:All rights reserved.
Speaker B:Ever he been helping us some country fried rock.
