Eli Cain – Georgia Americana from Housepainter to Artist
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There's something deeply honest about Eli Cain's story. At just 24, he's living the kind of double life that most aspiring musicians know all too well—clambering up roofs and painting houses in rural Georgia during the day, writing and recording songs in his spare time. But what strikes you immediately when you hear him speak isn't the struggle of juggling two worlds; it's the complete clarity about why both matter, and the measured optimism that someday, one will naturally eclipse the other.
When Eli joined us for The Rugged Revival's first podcast of 2025, he arrived with the kind of grounded authenticity that feels increasingly rare in country music. Watkinsville, Georgia—a small, growing town just outside Athens—has shaped everything about his artistic sensibility. It's the kind of place where there are always backroads, always open mic nights at local bars, and always someone willing to hand you their banjo because they see something worth nurturing in you.
I paint houses for a living full-time and I write songs record music as a part-time gig, but I can't paint forever—it's tiring work.
— Eli Cain
That last part isn't metaphorical. Eli's journey into music is genuinely unconventional, marked by a revelation that arrived in his mid-teens. For years, he had no particular interest in music whatsoever. His adoptive family, loving and supportive as they were, simply weren't musicians. But at around 16 or 17, he learned something that changed his perspective entirely: his biological mother was a singer, and music ran deep through that side of his family. Around the same time, an older gentleman from his church began playing banjo in his presence, and something clicked. The man offered to lend him one, and Eli took it. That moment—that moment of permission and encouragement—became the seed from which everything else grew.
What's particularly striking about Eli's story is that it's not a tale of prodigious talent discovered early. He was honest during our conversation: he still can't hold a tune perfectly, and he's working on it. There's no mythology here, no carefully constructed origin story designed for press kits. Instead, there's just a young man from North Georgia who picked up an instrument, started writing songs, and decided to see where it could take him while maintaining the practical responsibility of a day job that keeps the lights on and pays for studio time.
I have the privilege of having a studio right down the road from where I grew up, and it's been really cool being in such a good college town.
— Eli Cain
The Watkinsville setting has become essential to his work. Living near Athens—a genuine hub for live music with constant open mics and brewery gigs—meant Eli could build confidence gradually, playing for audiences, meeting other musicians, absorbing the regional Americana sound that soaks into everything in that part of Georgia. It's not Nashville, and that's precisely the point. There's a particular authenticity to music that emerges from small towns and college communities, places where you play for people you actually know, in venues that smell like beer and wood, where no one's performing for a record label rep. They're just playing because the music calls them to.
What makes Eli different from countless other aspiring artists juggling day jobs and dreams is his unflinching honesty about both sides of his life. He's not treating the housepainting as something to be ashamed of or as a temporary sacrifice on his way to "real" success. It's work he respects, even as he acknowledges it's exhausting and unsustainable long-term. His music isn't some desperate grasping for escape; it's something genuine that's "quickly growing," by his own modest assessment. That patience, that refusal to pretend certainty he doesn't possess, makes him worth listening to.
The full conversation reveals much more about his creative process, the specific influences shaping his sound, and the broader landscape of independent Americana music in 2025. But more than that, it offers something increasingly valuable: a genuine glimpse into what it actually looks like to build a music career from the ground up, without shortcuts, without pretense, in a small Georgia town where a stranger at church once offered you their banjo.
That's worth your time.
when you L [Applause] andar crash and [Music] bur Hearts get broke TBL turn you lose your Le hello everyone and welcome back to the rugger Revival the home of the UK's country music podcast uh if you are new to us uh we are your go-to music based podcast where we entertain the very best conversations with Incredible artists and bands uh this is our very first episode of 2025 uh and we're very privileged to have Eli Kane join us on our very first 2025 podcast um Eli did you want to tell people who you might only be just be discovering your music your work uh a bit about you yeah uh it's a pleasure to be here and thank you guys for contacting me as it's been awesome to get to know you so far um just a little bit about me my name is Eli Kane I'm 24 years years old and I live in Watkinsville Georgia I paint houses for a living full-time and I write songs record music kind of as a part-time gig but it's that's quickly growing for me and hopefully in the long run that'll be what I transition into because I can't paint forever it's tiring tiring work but it pays the bills and pays for recording so um that's just a little short version about me but there's a a lot more to it so we can get into that with any questions you guys have for me absolutely thank you again for having me no Eli thanks very much for for joining us and uh I know like you've already said you know you're working full-time uh trying to sort of juggle everything and come on here in your spare time you know it's much appreciated um so I'm obviously here with TJ my co-host TJ the cad Del t as everybody Fally remembers him about um but yeah so TJ's with us and we're going to be asking Eli some questions today uh and going through a bit of um what you do and why you do it um so ELO I'm GNA go back to you uh about um you said you're from Georgia so whereabouts exactly you from what's it like what was it like growing up all that sort of stuff so literally Li sweet I am uh I'm in Watkinsville Georgia right now which is where I was uh not born and raised but I moved here very quickly after I was born um so I've been here forever I I live right outside of Athens Georgia which is a a big H big hub for college football if you've ever heard of the Georgia Bulldogs we uh are right down the road from the stadium um Watkinsville Georgia is small town but growing it definitely has grown a lot since I was younger um but I would still consider it it's got a good small town feel and uh a lot of country um just back roads and different things like that uh so it's a great place for country music I'm actually sitting in a studio right now where I record everything that you've heard from me besides a little bit of Home recording that got me started um so I have the privilege of having a studio right down the road from where I grew up and my parents have actually moved since then but we lived right down the road from this studio that I'm in right now wow so it's it's really cool uh Athens is just a great college town too which is right down the road from me there's a lot of good small bars which got me started in the live music scene um there's Open Mic nights constantly throughout the week There's plenty of opportunities at breweries and bars and just different gigs so it's been really great being here and great for me just as far as meeting people and kind of branching out and getting the confidence needed to play these bigger and bigger live shows so that's definitely a plus being being in such a good college town with people my age and there's older people as well so you know you just got to really a good mix of people and whenever everybody comes together no matter where I'm at or what I'm doing it's always a good time especially around music and playing live so it's it's a good spot that's that's that's really good and and I think you know what what I'd like to ask is is how how did you find music how did you do you come from a musical family do you come from a sort of background of you know artists concert CS all that sort of stuff yeah um well this is this is a question that could get very long- winded so I'm GNA try toid getting too long on you but the funny thing is and uh I don't share this a ton but I'm proud of it I was adopted when I was very young into a very loving family and home but my birth mother which I didn't know up until recently was a singer and she kind of was raised up with a lot of um musical background her family all is very talented but I didn't know that and until probably age 16 or 17 and up until then I had no musical interest I just didn't really wow do anything I I couldn't hold a tune I still can't but I'm working on it um so I had no no musical background up until about age 16 and a guy at church was he had a banjo and he was picking it around and I thought it sounded beautiful and he was kind of an old Legend around town he could play it like no other and said uh would you like let me borrow one of your banjos and he gladly gave me this vintage in incredibly nice banjo and I picked it up thinking I'm gonna just rip this thing I just heard that I actually do have musical talent I just didn't know about it so I started with the banjo and that was a long journey from about 16 to 18 I tried to pick the banjo and learn covers and I quickly realized this is a hard instrument so I kind of shifted my goals to an acoustic guitar which was a little easier and I can uh I can play the ban Joe it's just not not great um and at at that young of an age I didn't really have the dedication to to learn that I wanted something I could strum and play a cover or so so I ended up getting an acoustic guitar and retiring part-time from the banjo kind of hung it back up and uh gave it back to its owner and I bought my first acoustic guitar and um I just played around played some covers and no it did not seem like it came naturally it took a lot of practice a lot of uh kns sitting in the basement and my parents would say why are you screaming you're just you're screaming down there and I was just trying to learn how to sing and play this thing and you know there was periods of time where I put it down and I wouldn't sing for a little while and then I think about age probably 20 or 21 so somewhere in there I said I'm going to play five minutes every day no matter how discouraging it is no matter how hard it is I'm going to play and I'm going to learn a couple songs so I started learning some Zack Bryan songs some older Johnny Cash just some kind of basic easy songs too that were just old gospel songs anything I could get my hands on that was four chords anything simple so I just started play and trying to sing them and you know I was I would see minor improvements and I got a little bit better a little bit better and I had a cousin who would play with me which helped a lot I he would sit there and bear through the horrible playing and kind of help me carry the strumming patterns and all that but all that to say it did not come easy to get where I'm at right now and I still I mean just 15 minutes ago we were working on a song and I have trouble playing to a click track or I have trouble playing into this so it's a it's all a learning thing for me and I think everything that you've heard you you can kind of see the progression from my first couple songs to where we're at now and I would say I'm not completely there but the uh lyrics started falling into place and the uh vocals are getting better and they started falling into place as well but it's just been a a battle of not giving up and being able to accept that this song that I put out in 2021 was as best as I could do or was the best I could do at the time but we just had that's a milestone and we continue to push forward and learn from mistakes and learn from what's good and keep it going so um really it's just been a grind it's just like anything else I learned how to paint one day or learned how to ride a bike and I'm still working on the music still learning how to do it and learning what works and what doesn't Eli honestly thank you very much for for sharing that you know your personal thing with us um we've asked that questions to quite a few artists and they and you know everybody gets very very personal and they they want to they don't mind giving the details so I really appreciate that thank you um but also that was brutally honest as well uh and I think you know what you're saying it's a work in progress and what you're doing and you know how you're developing all the time that's that's exactly what people should be like you know sticking at it if it doesn't come naturally you know you're sticking at it the amount of work and the effort that you're putting into it is is incredible and I've listened to music it is incredible um and you know I I I'll go into some quotes later that I saw um on doing some research uh you know about about yourself and some of the quotes you know that people have given are are amazing you know they're incredible so um thank you uh so how would you how would you describe your I know you said about the the previous um the previous artist that you used to listen to like Zack Bryan Johnny Cash and some of the gospel stuff um that was coming out when you were younger and whatever you um what would you how would you describe your musical style now who's who else has been your sort of influences um so I guess if I'm listening to anything just on a regular daily basis it over the past couple years has remained Zack Bryan I love Tyler chers um and then some old guys as Johnny Cash Randy Travis um Bob Dylan I'm just a big fan of kind of Storytelling lyrics I love I like a good catchy song but I also love just paying attention and really breaking down lyrically a song and trying to find a deeper meaning or whatever may come of it so really any artists who kind of take you through a story with their music I fall in love with immediately because as a painter I get a lot of time to listen to music and to be able to listen to a song that sounds good and is also just a great story to it really keeps me uh awake and keeps me painting well so that's just kind of the music I'm I'm really driven by if that makes sense yeah absolutely and I I'll I'll talk to you about some of the um some of your tracks a bit later on cuz it did mean you know some of the tracks I've been listen to it did mean a lot you know some of the words that you were were talking um and yeah I was just I'll just be really interested I've got some questions about that but um so so who are you who are you listening to right now if you don't mind me asking who are you uh it's not like a an endorsement or a float or anything so for anybody else but just interested the current day my uh go-to and some newer ones I've I've recently been listening to a little bit of Dylan Gosset he's kind of growing on my radar I don't know if you guys have heard of him he's he's along those lines of style and storytelling and let me think of the word it's just like down to earth Hardy lyrics and uh he's a good one another is whiskey Meers they're a little bit on the rougher and a little bit more rock side but I love their stuff and then again I always go back to the oldies of chers Johnny cash those are on repeat constantly um there's uh and there's a good mix of others that constantly being played and on my playlist but I think I'd say those are the main ones Zack Bryan but I uh maybe off the radar I would say well I guess we're on it so I'm not gonna speak on it I'm not as big of a Zack Bry fan as I used to I love his earlier lyrics go yeah go yeah thank you and uh and thanks thanks for letting us all know uh about that um so I I know we talked about uh you know what you do for a job and how um how you working sort of you know constantly and and then doing everything else how do you juggle everything is it is there certain times that you go right that's it that's what this is my day this is how it's structured this is my week this is what I'm doing if you don't mind telling us bit about that yeah you know the uh funny part about it is there's really no consistent schedule for me which uh is a it's a plus and it's also a minus because I know we struggled with even getting the time on here and uh but I guess the the biggest note for me is it's inconsistent I never know quite if it's going to rain and I'm paint and I can't paint that day or if the studio man isn't going to be available to hit the hit the buttons and record so you know I'm flexible and I try to bring my guitar everywhere I go and bring clothes to paint in everywhere I go so a lot of days I'm May paint for a half a day and then swing into the studio and do a little recording or a little vocal cutting and then I go home and write some more songs or whatever but I'll say the the typical songw writing process is is pretty repeated and it's pretty regular that I'll be on a job and I may get a little line stuck in my head or a catchy Melody that I think H that could be pretty or that could be cool for a song so I may be stuck humming something for a couple hours on the job and I'll constantly be taking notes of okay this song feels like whatever it feels like this is how the song should be so I write notes on it and then when I get home usually I kind of expand those thoughts and pick up the guitar when when I can when I'm home and can use it and I'll P around and maybe the whole thing comes out sometimes they come in 20 minutes and then others I write a little bit and put it to the side on a piece of paper and take it to work take it to back home and just consistently add to it and then at some point I'll sit down and finish up that idea so all in all it's very inconsistent and very random like I said some songs come in 20 minutes and others I'm still working on from six months ago um but it's kind of a nice coexist or painting houses and the music for me can coexist very well because I can be painting and then my mind can be on the song and my mind can on the story and it gives me a lot of freedom and free time while I'm still working to be pursuing another goal at the same time basically so they work very well together do you get five minutes to yourself because it seems like you're you're busy from the start of the day all the way through and it's uh yeah I do there's there's times when I'll just put it all up and I am married so I'll spend some time with my wife and we have of quality time together but it's hard sometimes because I may get a great idea while we're having dinner and it's like you mind if I write this down real quick so it's it's hard to find balance but it's definitely something I'm consistently getting better at but also getting busier and more ideas as we go so kind of just figuring it out fair play thank you superb no I like I said um really appreciate you coming on Eli it feels like we've been talking for a long time now isn't it you know since last year when I I first messed you about coming on and you know I I was really intrigued about you know the music that you were putting out and was really impressed you know this is why I put you on the the playlist of of people that we're trying to kind of we're just discovering ourselves and things that we think other people are like and I like you say you know I think the improvements that you've made in a short space of time have been staggering um but it explains it you know the way you talk about you know starting music later in life I I can hear that in in a weird way now thinking about your music in terms of that kind of raw honesty and you've got this kind of unique sound to to to the stuff that you put out so I really enjoy it uh and everyone I speak to and I was telling people who was coming on yourself and you know they really excited about hearing more from you personally so I think it's really good and um so in terms of um I say making a a a swift start to your your music career mate um how how has it been kind of um playing gigs because I I see last year you were you were playing more and more and uh we we can go into the Castello thing in a minute but uh which was really interesting um but how did you start kind of playing the bars what what did it first look like was it um intimidating for you so it definitely was intimidating I uh funny story back to the very beginning I had never played one cousin picked the B with me and I had never sung or sang for anybody except him just because we would get to playing along and I was comfortable guess at the time I was really shy musically and I was very comfortable playing around him because he was not afraid to just try and sing and neither of us were any good but at some point or another he said man you're improving he's like you need to try and get out and sing in front of more people maybe our family or maybe an open mic night you can get out have a beer loosen up and just not know anybody there except me and let's just see how it goes so I uh I let him talk me into it and there was an open mic night down in Athens right down the road at BS head lounge and it was a Wednesday night and he said let's just go and we're not going to tell anybody and you play three songs and we'll get out of there you can put your hood on you can be embarrassed or maybe it's going to be good he's like let's just try it and little did I know he texted all of my friends and my family and I get there and it's a packed house and I'm like man I'm not doing this like we're going home he was like just play a song so the first song I ever played live was rock salt and nails and I do it the Childer's way um I know that's not I don't think that's his original song um but it's I I did that song and then I played a Zack Bryan heading south and then I played an original which was take what you want and leave the rest and and you know it just went a lot better than I thought I was very nervous I think I messed up mid song and had to stop and kind of laugh about it and then kept going but all in all the night was kind of it was just incredible experience to see people singing along and you know I wasn't perfect my voice cracked I got nervous but people people respected it and respected the honesty and I told him I think mid song one time I was like well give me a second to breathe I was just out of breath I was just I was just you know really enjoying the moment and I had friends and family there singing so that was kind of like well that was the first time I played in front of anybody and it was at an open mic and from there I continued to go to those open mics and played and obviously I didn't invite all the family every time but some nights there would be a lot of people other nights it was just me and my cousin and I would play along and just keep getting better and better and then from that I met some people in charge at the local bars and got some other gigs so I started doing like two hour gigs rather than three songs at Open Mic I would go out and play two hours at a time and that was a lot harder and a lot longer and by the end of it my voice was gone because I don't have the greatest vocal control probably at the time and I was just wearing myself out but it was it was incredible and really fun and seemed like people really enjoyed it when I played Originals they would listen and I played good covers that were well known they were Cher's covers Johnny Cash like I said all the people that I that I really like I would play my favorite songs as covers and they just would perform form pretty well in front of a crowd um and every now and then people would say I have a long way to go and I need to work on the vocals and I said well you know I knew that I'm not perfect and I'm not good I wouldn't even consider myself a very good singer um I just love when people are helping me sing and I can see people smiling and singing with me it's just a fun a fun thing so it kind of just the ball just kept rolling and different opportunities came and and my goal was to never to turn down a show or a gig or whatever so I just took them as they came and showed up and played the songs and just continued to push and try to get better I along the way have many awkward mess ups in the middle of a song or a little bit of a there was just some weird stuff that would go on I wouldn't I would break a string and I'm not very experienced and it would take me way too long to put it back but you know I would just try and tell people that they're not paying for these gigs and you know I'm just having fun and I hope you guys are having fun as well cuz this is I'm not a professional and uh it just kept going and you know I think we just got farther and farther and I met the castelos when they were in school here at UG and we kind of just started playing and they were very similar just very humble and super knowledgeable in music so they taught me a lot and we wrote some stuff together and they they said that I helped them writing but those are three very smart girls and they they are very talented in riding themselves but we kind of hit it off and had some fun and played some shows and uh that was probably my favorite time just it was the first time I got multiple people up there with me and had harmonies going and some Bas going it was just the full experience was starting to kick in so that was just a great time and then obviously seeing them really take off and then invite me back to play with them recently those those were the biggest moments so far and they were really incredible and just awesome to share stage once again with them yeah that's that's an amazing kind of transition from where you started very quickly to to doing something like that it's uh it's really impressive um Castello is a a huge I think over in the States but um they are here as well uh which is interesting last few years have really blown up and I think it it was probably from the kind of Social Media stuff that it kind of started and went viral some of the things that they did but uh no that's really interesting and you've got to be a brave man to to get up and uh do those sort of things in front of an audience do you forgive your cousin now for for doing that to you oh yeah he uh he was a main motivator and really gave me some drive when we were first getting started so I owe him thanks forever for it I don't blame me it's um I mean we get staged right just from doing this sometimes and hence why we could never do this live because you've already seen how many times we mess up and uh have to restart and edit stuff um but uh like you we'll get better mate uh as we go but uh that's really cool I mean you you described uh the Georgia music scene and it sounds really cool and I I like to try and get different guests on from all over the US really because I'm interested in the Nashville Scene the Texas scene the Kentucky and you know we've had interesting uh artists from from those places but I think you're the first from Georgia so it's interesting to hear how that's kind of taken you and the audiences that you get um has the music taken you anywhere else um so far such as Nashville or Texas or has it predominantly been in Georgia where you've played so I haven't played live I don't believe I've played anywhere besides Georgia I've traveled to Nashville and I did a little bit of recording with a buddy up there Who records and it was a good experience but other than other than that recording trip I haven't played anywhere else but I do have some coming up I have a Riders round in Nashville within the next month so that'll be the first and hopefully by then I'll have a little more knowledge on the Nashville Scene I've been to plenty I just haven't haven't played one yet so that's cool um if you need any tips we had Anna Scott on one of our first episodes uh who's a Nashville resident and uh plays all of the bars down there so she'd be a good person for you to to speak to and just kind of get the low down on on the area if you need that sort of support um she's fantastic as well um so in in terms of I mean you talked about the Castell and I always find it interesting as well to speak to artists to find out they usually have a a circle of other musicians that you tend to kind of hang out with or support one of another so we had BR Brenan Edwards on not too long ago and you know he hangs around like likes of Chris Hunt who's also another awesome artist and you know it's interesting to find out who you're uh being supported by or what what kind of circles you're moving in within uh the the kind of Georgia scene is there anyone in particular that you kind of regularly come across yeah so we uh this is a good point of topic we do a little thing out at my my family has a farm down the road in monel Georgia and we do a little flatbed festival and that's kind of it's kind of grown over the years and that's really where I would say the circle for me is we have the same artists usually return and one of those is named will Slater um and he also records in this studio and then there's James Tucker he's a he's from the Carolinas I think South Carolina I don't actually know because I've never been his way but he comes down every year and we have a good time and he's kind of a similar style if you haven't heard him to me or will Slater who I just mentioned um I have a I grew up in Watkinsville like I said and like we've talked about but Gavin Adcock also grew up right down the road and he's kind of become a really big in the in the music scene for his genre we're definitely different but I really love his music I've helped him write and he's helped me here and there so we have a good friendship and he records here as well so he's been a good a good inspiration for me and like I guess I I can look and see a buddy who's doing it and he's doing well um and he's doing he's blown yeah like you say he's blown up in the last he's an interesting character isn't he he's uh think he's a chalk and cheese character as people but um but I love his stuff too uh so that's really interesting yeah that that you're you're in touch with Gavin as well that's brilliant Y and then there's just plenty of other songwriters that I have that are just quality I I write all of my stuff by myself but I love getting to with other people and helping write songs for for other people and and that's just a fun process so there's other writers that don't necessarily perform who write stuff as me so it's we have a good a good little scene here it's not it's not a Nashville and it's not a Texas or a big city but we have I got what I need and we have some some good friendships that that are here superb yeah and that's great in terms of I mean it's interesting kind of going back to how relatively new you are to music rather than you know just the music scene itself so to to know that you're you're writing so much and you're writing for for other people or with other people too I mean do you have a conventional approach to to writing uh your records how how did you kind of uh learn that part of it because it must be quite difficult to structure a song or or know where to start if you've never really done it before yeah so that was a a really tough like I think my first couple songs it was just a really tough to kind of see them come together and make them a singable song I would have good lyrics and then I would have a decent chord progression and the hard part for me at first was just kind of making those two merge um so what I would do is I would just sit on a on a like a loop of a voice memo or record just the chord progression and I would just sit sit there on the job painting and put in both headphones just let that let that Loop run and I would hum and I would write lyrics and then I would try to sing the lyrics to it and it just took a lot of trial and error and there's a lot of bad songs that I have not shared um that just kind of all form together and then I finally wrote my first full song which was home and that's you can still hear that it's very rough it's very raw we just hooked up the mics and I played it one day after work but that one finally came together as a piece of work that I said okay I can play it from the from the start to the finish and it roughly goes together you know I can make it work um so it was just a lot of trial and error a lot of writing and rewriting the same song with a different chord progression I literally have no like musical knowledge as far as like a books go and how song structure should work I'll just do it and do it and do it and if it sounds good finally I'll take it to the studio and we write it or we record it or and I'm always open to suggestions so I have a really good guy who runs the computer and produces and he's good at kind of just saying you know maybe we should we should try a different key or he knows the knowledge better than I do um but I will say that as far as the writing and the lyrics and for the most part the song structure I do I do write it all myself it just takes a long time sometimes especially at the beginning when I didn't know really anything at all it was just trial and error sing it erase it sing it and erase it and just keep it Ong going until it sounded good Eli sorry there was just it was just a question I just wanted to ask you about the uh the home song and there is a awesome picture on the front on the front of that where it's the track is that a personal picture I take it this yes is that you and other B so that is an old that's an old picture we used to on New Year's Day it was a family tradition we would go out and there were cows at the family farm that needed to be castrated and they needed to be tag so we would all hop in the back of the truck and go find the new calves and we'd make it happen all we'd pass around the knife and pass around the tagging tool and get to work so it was a New Year's tradition and that picture is from that and that's my family out on the farm awesome and then that that song I take you it personal experiences and you know talking about yourself growing up and all that sort of stuff you know it's it's it is I was listening to it and I managed to listen to it on YouTube there was some other photos and stuff on there um but yeah awesome um I don't know if you wanted to tell us any more about that but yeah yeah so I actually spent a close to a year living out west um and this was I I played guitar at the time but I had never written a song I was kind of still in the process of learning all of that and I moved out west and I did some videography and tried to pursue some business goals of mine um I I actually to to take a step back I went to the University of Georgia for a year and decided that I wanted to kind of do things a little differently and chase some chase some dreams so I ended up not going for another year and I stopped going to UGA moved West pursued some dreams and I learned a lot but they just didn't take off and all in all I was not built to live out there I didn't love the big city and I just it just didn't feel like home so when I I was writing all these things in a journal and I was just writing how I missed family and miss my me and Papa misss and days out on the lake and just everything so I wrote in a journal then when I returned home I was kind of reflecting and I was like you know that looks like a good song that was a a lot of journaling with some deep thoughts and I was missing people and talking about how I didn't like it out there and I was like this this could be a good song so I sat on that idea and some chords and that's how the first song formed um so the song is really about being away from home which for me was out west and just missing everything that home that home was I missed my grandparents and just my family and the the memories we have together and it was like I was just so far from it that I knew it was time to head on back so that's that's in a sense how that song was formed and it was all personal experience that's incredible yeah well thank you very much no definitely one of my one of my most meaningful ones to me right now and and you can just listen to it you know I've listened to it quite a few times now uh play it going to work and coming back and whatever you and and you know that really does you can really tell when something when an artist you know you you connect with that and it is about your personal experiences and it's so raw and you know that that was that was brilliant sorry Terry I've I've stolen I've stolen part of your uh part of your question stolen my funder there there is I do have two more questions if that's right and it was just about another song um because I know that I I said I was going to ask you about some of the songs um and I think the the other one for me was uh it was just something I wanted to know but the the song called driving the silence which is on again it was on YouTube I listen to all different platforms to listen to your songs on um and uh that one especially there was a pickup truck in that and I'm a great fan of pickup trucks and that is an awesome pickup truck and is it yours it is mine that was my first vehicle and I uh a funny story I bought bought it off of a teacher a high school teacher she was getting ready to sell it and I said you know I need I need my first truck I think I was 15 and I said I asked my dad I was like do you think that uh I could ask my teacher if I could buy buy this truck and he was like yeah might as well and she sold it to me for $ thousand dollar cash and I still have it to this day I learned how to drive it straight shift five-speed and uh I got made fun of because a lot of people at school had a nice vehicle than me but I loved it I thought it was the coolest thing on Earth yeah and now still holding on to it I drive it around on Sunday afternoons and take a cruise whenever or I use it a lot in the music because it's just I feel like it's an icon you know it's kind of a staple to who I was and who I want to remain you know it's just simple and I love it so that was my first vehicle that's brilliant and I I think when we when we come over to see you uh I'll be taken out for a drive oh yeah aw come on you can drive it yeah we have truck Envy over here in the UK don't we because we don't tend to have opportunities to to get something like that or drive it on our road so uh I've got I've got a new one so uh it's not it's not so authentic it's not so you know as as goodl looking as that so um yeah I I loved it but thank you for that I I'll have back thank you very much no no it's cool I was talking to was it Ricky Forbes um who was on show a couple of couple of shows back who's the tornado guy and he's got the coolest truck ever um he's got Brutus it's one of these kind of reinforced massive he called it an obnoxious orange thing and it really is it's absolutely humongous but it's got to survive you know massive hail storms and tornadoes and stuff so I probably don't need one of them I don't think my wife would let me have one either unfortunately but we can dream um no thanks for sharing that mate it's uh it's been really interesting to kind of go through through that be riss as well not to talk about your band as well because uh I've seen uh you mentioned them a few times they're 53 isn't it so talk to us about the 53 what how did that come about so the 53 the name boils down to the road there's Highway 53 that runs right through Watkinsville and goes out a long ways um and all of the band including me I was actually about 5 minutes from Highway 53 but they all lived right off of Highway 53 so that's how got the name the 53 um I actually grew up with all of them we I really didn't know that they had musical talents or aspirations and they didn't know that I did for a long time so we were just kind of high school buddies like not super close but also could have a great conversation or could hang out in the gym shoot some hoops or whatever so we were we were friends and just kind of just didn't know that the each of us had these Musical talents but then the three of them kind of over the years started getting together and playing some music and they're actually very talented on their own they play and they kind of write their own stuff and have some instrumentals and they also have some unrecorded songs that are lyrics and they're very good but then one night they came out to an open mic night and they were like hey good to catch up it's been a couple years you know we hadn't seen each other and they were like we've been playing some music we see now that you're playing some music we we live so close why don't we try to get together and do something about it and I was like you know let's make it happen I had a lot on the plate and I said let's start it the new year I think this was in 2022 I said let's start it when the new year comes we'll get together play a little music and just see how it goes and you know we got together and it just felt like yeah this is good this is just a great time we all had very similar musical tastes we had uh very similar personalities we all work in a blue collar job and are are doing this part-time so everything kind of lined up and we are willing to work a long day and then get together and work even longer and practice our craft so it kind of just fell into place and we started playing together and we played our first show at a bar downtown Athens and it was packed out you know we didn't sell tickets the bar had a lot of people there anyways but we advertised it as best as we could and packed that thing out and played I think a two-hour show and we were exhausted afterwards but we I would say that was the the best time I had play in music because the more people you get who are just talented and driven like you are you know it just is better and better and better so we uh really enjoyed that and we're like we got to do this again so we started booking more and more as we could and it just really became fluid and it felt like we we just knew what one another was kind of doing so it just meshed very nicely very quickly because like I said they're very talented they they do have a lot of musical knowledge that I don't have um so they taught me a lot and I taught them my lyrics and taught them my songs so we kind of jumped in really quickly as a group and just started play and and like I said I mess up on my own and we mess up as a group but we all look at each other and smile and move on and most the time nobody notices so it's just fun well I've been to John Mayor gigs and I've seen John Maya mess up live so it's uh I think it happens to to the best of them like you say it's just a case of smiling carrying on just pretty much what we do every podcast that we do uh to be quite honest otherwise you just stress yourself out um I've got two more questions and then I'm going to hand back over to Dan I'm just interested obviously we're in 2025 now just about and a lot happened for you and 2024 um what was kind of your best moment from that year that you and share with us I would say my best moment of the whole year was we played the we played two shows on the road with the castelos and the first night was a Thursday night and we had a great time and then the next night was a Friday night and we went down to milleville and you know we the night before was good and we had a great crowd but we were like kind of hoping for a little bit more and just wanting to really feel the excitement and the energy because I've seen we we had seen some shows and we're like wow that that be a record for the amount of people we play in front of so we were hoping for just a really big turnout and sure enough time came we got out there we started opening up and the lights came on and it was like a sea of people now I don't know how many people were there it could have been 300 it could have been 150 or it could have been 500 but I would I estimated it was somewhere between 350 to 500 people which for me was just incredible and they were they seemed engaged and they really listened and they listened to the originals and they jammed with us and sang a couple covers so it was just a pretty unreal feeling just having that many people in front of you and honestly it felt better than some of the smallest gigs we've played you know it's harder when there's three people staring at you than a ton of people and you kind of get lost in the crowd so that was just unreal we came off of that stage just really on fire and wanting to push the original music more and more and more so we could kind of build a fan base and build a crowd like that who would know more of our songs and more of my originals because it was just it was just a really cool experience to see people having a good time and and to know okay I'm kind of helping and playing a part in this and it's and and to just realize how far we as a band have come from playing a small bar to being on a stage like that so I guess that would be probably one of my favorite moments of 2024 that's a good one to pick mate definitely and on the flip side of it um what was the kind of most frustrating uh thing to happen for you last year because I speak to a lot of artists and there's whether it's social media or booking gigs or whatever it might be there's always something that really annoys you and something that goes wrong so what what might have been for you that that kind of sticks in your mind um I would definitely say I had an older home recorded song which you guys may have heard the old version or maybe heard the new version but it was called take what you want and leave the rest and uh I had recorded that in my basement and it was very rough recorded and I put it out there and every every live video I would share would do a lot better than a lot of my other songs you know how social media goes sometimes things just do really well and sometimes stuff you think's going to do well does not perform at all so I had recorded that one very roughly and I had advertised it and it had done pretty well over the years and I said you know maybe it's time to kind of revamp it I've improved a lot as a singer and I've improved a lot with the band so the band and I got together rerecorded it advertised it and as of today I think I put it out a good four months ago or five months ago and it just just didn't really hit I know you guys listen to it and it just didn't hit quite like I had hoped it would um and you know it's always frustrating putting in a lot of work and then advertising it and it just doesn't quite catch the audience or the algorithm like you think um so it's definitely disappointing but I I can continuously tell myself it's it's like a long-term investment you can't just expect something to you don't just I don't know there's people that do it but I like to trade stocks here and there and I have no idea what I'm doing but you can't just throw money into it and expect them to take off so I kind of have that mindset with the music you know even good point very well yeah sorry to talk over you it's a good point you make there and I think it was Adam hood that mentioned the exact same thing uh when we spoke to him not long ago is that you know the records that he put out he thought would do amazingly well were the ones that that didn't and it was the more obscure songs that he you know perhaps put to the back of his mind uh that that did the best but like you say it's a long-term investment and people come back around and you know once they find the tracks that they do like and then they do a deep dive like Ronnie and I have done recently you you you uncover that and it's um you know it becomes your new favorite at that point but um no that's really great I I appreciate you sharing those moments I think that's uh it's just nice to kind of understand where where you're coming from particularly last year so uh brilliant over to you then Ronnie I I'll give you the mic back oh thank you TJ um yeah so Eli I just wanted to know what's your main goals what's your aspirations and when you think about them if you have any uh do you have a road map for it do you have a plan for that to get you there to do what you're doing just for 2025 yeah well shortterm goal of of 2025 sorry my lights behind me every time I move are going crazy so I'm blinding you but my uh a good short-term goal and kind of something I've been establishing over the last couple weeks is I want to roughly put out a single every 30 to 45 days a little bit a little extra like a little bit more or less than one a month I guess so one a month roughly at the end of the year I want to look back and and have 12 songs that I put out if not more um but just to have consistency in my releases and consistency in my social media activity because I feel like I that's been good at points and then bad and others and you really see an increase in success and decrease nowadays and how consistent you are so I want to be more consistent in Sharing music and I have a lot of songs that are very close to ready so that is a doable goal um and a little bit longer term I would like to continue to play with a band play acoustic gigs and uh I have a really long-term goal of playing Red Rocks in col of or Colorado um and I that's that's that's down the road but that is one of my just a big time goal that I always keep in mind I put it on the mirror and you know who knows how long it's going to take but it's gonna happen at some point so um that just gives you a little insight I got a shortterm one of just a lot music and to play that well we're looking forward to the short-term goal uh throughout by listening to to some of the stuff the new songs that you're you're going to be releasing so we'll we'll definitely be listening out for that and and watching you um very very closely so um thank you you for showing that as well um so what do you what do you have in store for 2025 is there anything that you can tell us that you wouldn't normally tell anybody else we want the gossip ELO we want the gossip okay so I'm gonna give you I'm gonna give you before we get done here today or when we get done I'm gonna send you a little clip of the newest song and it's kind of different style it's got a little bit of a western I guess wow kind of like an empty bar smokey bar type feel it's different for me so if you don't like it no sweat but I think that's gonna be kind of a cool Direction just just to spice things up a little bit um let's think of what else I can tell you I uh put your I just invested I just invested over Christmas in a camera so I hope to do some like longer more acoustic raw type YouTube videos um and stuff like that so I don't know when those will start coming out but I would love to just kind of sit down and be real with the people of YouTube who do see it so maybe be on the lookout for those and just some honest stuff maybe out on the far Family Farm just singing with the cows or whatever those are just kind of some small thoughts of mine and little things that I'm gonna help well it means we we'll have to come over very soon because TJ has just invested in the camera so he's going to start doing that as well so you'll have to team up with that is great background do looking pretty um no I I really liked your YouTube video of uh take me to that place isn't it that that song and it was a a lovely place um that you you at is it by little Lake uh is that somewhere local where you are it's a it's a good video de yes there's a there's a cple little local lakes that you they're just public fishing or Public Access so that one was down there and then I've done others out at the Family Farm they have a little Pond that we do a lot of fishing so there's some others that are shot there and are going to be shot there in the future because it's just beautiful to get out there and film and sing and I I feel like it sounds better when you're out there so we'll definitely to do that I love those videos and I don't know if you're familiar with things like the truthful sessions there's a guy called David Cole I was speaking to recently and he does those sort of fi recordings and cinematic kind of um kind of raw recordings either by legs or just nice kind of places and I said oh you know I've bought a camera to do something similar I was like what what setup do you have and he goes oh his friend's got a a camera worth £30,000 or you know $40,000 oh right yeah I spent you know probably a thousand so uh I don't think the quality of my videos will be as good as David's but uh yeah we'll try um but it's a real you got to start somewhere you do mate you do it's definitely an art it and I think it'd just be nice to start doing some recordings and particular in the UK we've got some great places to do that um so hopefully we'll we'll do that cool okay Ronnie sorry mate I I spoke over that's right no worries uh you you and Eli were camera talk so um that's fine uh so we've already planned what we've got you two doing for 2025 um and I'll be interested to see what comes out of that so uh yeah um so we've I know we've touched on the the sort of social media aspect of it uh and TJ quite rightly um we were talking about it before before we met you Eli um around something around Tik Tok and social media and there's actually quite a bit of um quite a bit of media retention around the fact that you engage so much with your audience you engage so much um with them and thank them on on social media uh throughout and there's there's really Positive Vibes on that and you know that's that's different to a lot of other artists that that clearly you know sometimes don't have time or sometimes don't really do that um you know you reach out to people and that means something to to all the audiences um but is there anything that impacts you on social media so I know we talk it's a uh a controversial type of subject but uh the Tik Tok sort of ban that that has been sort of talked about is there anything like that that would H have an effect on what you do or would you you know you know so that's a good question I've seen and over the years I've had some really good periods of time and then I've had some where it just is very down and stuff just doesn't seem to work so I guess my main goal and mindset is to stay fluid and cons consistently do what's working and consistently do what doesn't work so I try not to get caught in the ups and downs of views and comments but um I think it would really stink if Tik Tok wasn't available I think it's a great Avenue and people on there love the quick short videos and it's just a great way to to make something simply maybe to make something that's really stupid but it works um and just share stuff kind of with no filter um you know it's just pretty raw stuff sometimes other times I put a little more effort into it other times I look back and I'm like I probably shouldn't have even posted that that's really dumb but you know it it works and not a lot of people see it sometimes and then sometimes a lot of people do see it so it's a great Avenue and I use it very frequently I uh I try to tell people you know if you want some quality good stuff don't go to my Tik Tok but um it's good for you know reaching new people in my opinion and uh kind of just not really caring you just I just try to post stuff consistently and obviously like you said um I do try to respond to people and respond to DMS or respond to emails even or whatever because I had a period of time where I was reaching out trying to learn stuff messaging my favorite artists and I don't think any of them ever responded and I remember thinking you know as I continue to grow which I had hopes that I would and I did I grew a little bit and growing more and more and I said I don't I know I can't respond to everybody and I can't be there but I want to do a good job at giving people the opportunity to learn a little bit if somebody asked me for some songwriting tips yeah I'm GNA I'm G to send them with everything I know you know and uh so I try to do that just to be just to be a little different you know and to take the time to care about other people who care about me because there's a lot of people who find something in my music and they want to let me know about it and I'm glad to hear it you know and I'm very appreciative and it keeps me going so um I think the social media in general is just really the way to do it right now as as we've moved on in time that's just become so big for artists and such a great opportunity and to lose something like Tik Tok would would stink but like I said if it happens it would be fluid and I'll continue to to morph and figure out what works and then keep doing what doesn't work because you got to do it all you know just keep on pushing definitely and I and what you just said there you know that's an incredible epos that that you've kept with you uh and and the more and more you grow um about engaging with the audiences and everything else and it's just it shows to me you know it's all true that what you what you say I've I've I just wanted to mention this uh on on here because when I was um looking at sort of your your background and doing some research about in your and your songs and your music I I come across quite a few quotes um about how you've been um interacting with people and and yourself as an artist and it's I'm it's it's a it's an incredible quote that put on here so it says that your dedication to your craft and the ability to connect with your listeners through authentic storytelling has established you as a notable figure um in the country music scene uh and they're very excited to see more of your content and more um of your artwork uh being released so that's a huge thing and and you know amazing so well done to be H well done to you um thank you very much so I mean that's that's pretty much uh everything that I've that I wanted to ask you personally uh but though I know that TJ's asked asked a few questions TJ I don't know if you want to ask any further questions or Eli if you've got any questions for us I know it's you know we want to make it about you but yeah definitely uh well like you say the Tik Tok band would suck I think that'll be my final Point um we've we've we've all trying to build communities and kind of friendships online uh and yeah it's going to be difficult that one I think and it's so hard and like you you said you know with Instagram and everything else to try and post consistently kind of build up your your kind of following and and network and then for it to all potentially be gone overnight I I I don't think it will come to that but um we'll we'll have to stick together uh our lot and yeah follow each other where where we can and find each other where we can um but we'll see what happens there but yeah like Ronnie said have you got anything that you you want to ask our Ci or anything that perhaps we haven't covered that you want to share uh with the audience in terms of what you're doing this year um I guess a quick question for you guys uh you've kind of listened to the catalog of of mine I would I would like to know personally if you have any standout favorites and maybe why because as an artist I I want to take note of that and and continue to make songs like that or whatever pull it the heartstrings you know I want to keep it keep it going so I'll ask both of you that question if I can um I'm I'm gonna go first actually TJ there's a couple of songs that I've talked about um one of which is is home driving in silence but Al um I think the one that stuck out to me which um which you know I listen to and a thought I'm going to go and listen to that again I wanted to listen it again and again was uh if tattoos could talk um and that was one of mine that really stuck out for me um and I'm from what you just said about your short-term goal uh a bit more of a western sort of vibe or Western twang or you know what you just said about you know the new the new single coming out um I'm excited to hear that um that would be something for me that would that would really you know I'd be really interested and I'm can't wait to get hold of it to be honest they oh yeah well don't let me forget I'm gonna shoot that to you guys and I don't know if you can put a little clip on here but I'd be glad to let you do whatever you please so make sure we do that kind of you man yeah we'll be yeah super interested to hear that uh me personally take me to that place it's just a jam you know it's stuck in my head forever I'm singing it around the house bad ly um May I add so not doing your song any justice but I I love that song and I think it's got a kind of summary vibe to it shall I say and obviously watching the YouTube video as well it's just a a well recorded uh song and a great video so I think for me that's my my personal favorite mate oh thank you thank you Eli just a last one for me uh for everybody that's listening um where can they find you what what you want how do you get to you how can we sign post people I would say the the best content is going to be the songs that I release and they should be really anywhere Spotify Apple music YouTube um YouTube you may find some videos here and there some longer videos and then there's always the Instagram I'm pretty active on there which is a fun one um Tik Tok like I said I kind of just post whatever you may see me painting a lot you may see very repetitive video making but my Tik Tok is kind of just to attract new people hopefully so they go to other platforms um but and then if you're anywhere around Georgia you know I I'm always open to gigs and I'm continuously looking here in there so hopefully we'll expand from that but for the time being the social medias um all the streaming platforms I'll be consistent on those like I said hopefully one a month roughly and uh some YouTube coming so so that'll be something to look for and hopefully I'll be more consistent on that um that's the goal no that's great and we'll we'll make sure we we post that everywhere everything that you send us we'll make sure we post it all over our channels Tik Tok um you know Instagram and uh yeah and we'll make sure we share it far and wide I know there's definitely material on YouTube because I've watched this several times myself um over uh whky on the Rocks um and uh yeah but I I think unless there's anything else um TJ or yourself want to add uh I think we're just going to go for a bit of a closing where Eli Kane you are it's has been an absolute pleasure and a privilege to have you here joining us uh we wish you all of us here at the rugger Revival wish you all the very best in everything you do um and as a closing statement as we've done every podcast I don't know if you got a drink handy whether that be a soft drink alcoholic drink non-alcoholic drink whatever it's Monday soft drink for me yeah it's Monday so I've got water um so we a toast to the grit the grind and the Revival cheers for everybody who's listening and Eloy thank you very much cheers
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