Jack Browning – London Folk-Blues Inspired by Neil Young

my home is or just any place I throw my saddle down I guess so welcome uh to the initial episode of the rugged Revival podcast this is episode number one uh with our man Jack Brown hello mate hey man good to finally talk to you absolutely it's been a long time in the making isn't it it has yeah I mean it's got to be getting on for six months now or something we I know chat and stuff yeah I needed to get my get my stuff in in order didn't I uh so thanks for the for the prompt to get this going and um no really excited to do this unfortunately uh Dan cannot be with us this week I was just talking to jack off there uh just saying Jack uh sorry Dan has got the immune system of a a frail 90y old woman so uh we wish him well sort of um but hopefully he'll be on on the next one so no offense to you J you are you are stuck with me mate for this particular podcast so uh for me I'm your host uh Terry Havard this is a rugged Revival if you're part of our group you'll know that we're all things country Artistry uh which fits really well with with Jack um we're a fan of whiskey I've got a whiskey right now it's it's a Tuesday night but who cares would have a whiskey but I'm rubbing it in your face then yeah man it's uh it's all good I've almost tasted it and Jack um we we've been speaking uh for quite a while uh over DMS and you know I think you're probably one of the first people I connected with on Instagram and weirdly it was through through your artwork and I think a lot of people probably said the same you know discovered your artw work loved it because it's all you know not all country based but a lot of it's about country artists and and then discovered your music and found out you had you know two talents and I have zero so congratulations thanks man it doesn't I don't feel very talented I always say I just I make a noise and color stuff in for a living absolutely not mate you know you're doing your self a disservice so yeah UK country music Superstar artistic Sant and judging from you know your champagne taste uh uh album cover you know sex symbol for the ladies now well you know it's not easy um my other half hand's been trying to come to terms with you know was I was saying it it uh the same day that came out the searches in Google of I bleach and how do I unsee things tripled as well so I'm with her mate to be honest with you fair new but um so yeah I I I think maybe just uh for anyone that doesn't know Jack we'll start uh perhaps just going back early days so obviously from the UK what part of the UK are you from Jack so I'm from London originally but um we moved out to Essex when I was pretty young so kind of grew up here I consider Essex to be home yeah awesome where abouts in Essex um so not too far from chelsford so chelwood is kind of like my hometown and that's kind where I cut my teeth playing in bars and stuff there and everything and yeah we live out kind of it's pretty rural out where we are but CHS is like the nearest Landmark it's the N nice bit then is it the Posh bit no definitely I wouldn't say the Posh bit um that's kind of like the other side of chood is where you're heading for that bit okay yeah big gated houses and stuff yeah awesome man the the yals of of the chood the yal I like that I love it mate love it I I grew up in L so I wasn't far from you oh cool yeah we we used to Holiday In in place like S6 like South End you know all of all the good places so um yeah awesome so yeah so you grew up uh grew up in London moved to to Essex later on you're 26 years old now so how did you get into everything you know how far should we go back should we go back to kind of childhood and kind of work A Way Forward in terms of that yeah um I mean I was always kind of drawing and sketching and stuff um didn't really take the art too seriously until I was in um you know probably around 16 15 16 and I was lucky enough to have like these three amazing teachers at school who um you know they really encouraged what I was doing I hadn't painted before then and they suggested it and um you know I'm still very good friends of them to this day when I went out on the road with Willie carile last year um my one one of my teachers Tim actually came out to the Liverpool show and First time i' seen him in a couple years that was really nice um that's awesome man was it was it a bit strange kind of seeing him in that setting well we we' kind of you know I mean I so when I left school you know he I'd gone through some real rough times as a kid and he was someone I really looked up to and still look up to um and so we always had like a really kind of close Bond you know um and then kind of went from you know teacher to when I left to you know being a buddy and then uh for a brief period i' I'd go in and do some lessons with him too so it was kind of like colleagues for a time and but yeah it was the first time he sort of made it out to to see a show and obviously since moving back up to Liverpool which is where he's from originally um so it was kind of strange uh you know but no it was very lovely and um yeah music and stuff it was kind of the same you know I always surrounded by music um not really musical though by any stretch and I'm I'm still not really I'm a bit of an ape when it comes to music theory and everything did that come after then music theory you you just kind of Str it still ain't arrived man I'm still waiting on it it's hard it it's really hard yeah you know I just I was like that interview Rick Rubin does I don't know if you've seen it where the guys like um so obviously Rick Rubin Super Famous producer and um the guy goes so you know do you play an instrument he's like no barely he's like okay do you know how to work a sound desk he's like no he's like I have no technical ability at all but he just knows what he likes and um I guess in a sense that's very similar to me um but yeah I kind of tried guitar that three or four times before I actually stuck with it and uh but music was always kind of the language especially between my old man and me you know we didn't connect over a lot but we did connect over music and then you know kind of brought up on Dylan and Pink Floyd and Pink Floyd yeah yeah he wasn't a huge country fan but he loved Johnny Cash so I guess that was kind of like the Gateway you know to to me discovering you know the the rest of that kind of country americ soon that's amazing man yeah I didn't discover country and probably until you know late 20s you know I probably left it quite late but kind of once you you're hooked you're hooked aren't you and it's it's awesome that you kind of bonded with your dad over over that sort of thing I think with with as well with like especially the country kind of we I'm I'm assuming you're talking about too um yeah you I was talk to someone recently um a lady named Lula she's great she runs um at the crossroads here in Essex and she's putting on some great acts um and she was saying so many of her like metal head friends and alternative friends um you know as long as you can just appreciate a good story it's very accessible you know it translates yeah yeah you know I know so many people I mean Willie carile you know he was like an ex punk rocker you know and you know now he's playing like this amazing folk stuff and I think it just lends itself to that I think it's a very Universal thing isn't it it is you know and I I think people shouldn't pigeon hold themselves to kind of one genre and you know I I grew up personally listening to like Fleetwood Mac ACDC kind of the more heavy heavier type of rock and and I think you know as you cross over to L the Eagles and stuff like that it becomes more countryfied isn't it so um sure yeah you listen to like skinnard and oh absolutely Man actually wrote a list of stuff like that I thought who did I you know grw up listening to because I thought maybe you might ask me and my is so shockingly bad so yeah e got three particularly Paul Paul Rogers man awesome B Leonard skard Alman Brothers Band I love the stuff that Derek truns is doing right now he's just on another planet yeah on another planet as well like his wife she's just otherworldly good voice you know um it's a mar literally a marriage made in heaven isn't it you know yeah I mean I love I love that video where BB King turns to her and says like I see why you married him is that the same one because I'm I'm a a huge John Mayor fan is that the same one where John mayor's probably just looking going bloody hell man this is just another level he just kind of looks at the audience like yeah I've just been done you know like yeah you can't come back from there can you so so no that's really interesting so you you kind of grew up with that you you kind of bonded with your dad and um you know with the the Artistry stuff it's um it's really interesting so how so moving forward slightly then so how how did kind of you come about to do what you're doing these days did it did it come overnight did it was it a slow kind of gradual process yeah it was definitely a gradual process man and I mean it still is I'm not a so I always consider myself a guitarist and I'm a very very reluctant singer let alone um somebody who kind of fronts a band now you know um but I kind of got bullied into it I've told the story a few times but it still makes me laugh um about six years ago my buddy uh Kempy who he's responsible for a lot of the videos and stuff I've put out like the music videos um basically phoned me up one day and was like I've hired out a little studio tonight and um fig we cut a video I was like oh cool who's singing he he's like you are and I was like I can assure you I'm [ __ ] not and uh he he pulled the classic he pulled rank basically um and was like well you're not going to let down me and my friend who's going to be videoing with me and the other friend who's going to be helping out with sound so suddenly there's some Stakes you know there's three people and I turned up and we actually cut um a version of house the Rising Sun by The White Buffalo which they use in Sons of Anarchy so TI it all in um and uh yeah kind of you know was releasing little things like that released a an old folk cover and then at the time I was touring with um My Buddy Aaron and we were playing kind of the stuff I've been brought up on all through my teams I was playing in rock bands a lot of dad Rock um nothing wrong with faded denim sticky flaws Les PS all that stuff I knew it' come back into fashion to be fair though for sure man and you know I was I was playing around Europe with with Aaron and we were playing with like the same festivals as Jeff Beck and Gregory Porter and Jos Stone and then Co happened and I just left that band and um I was suddenly trying to figure out what I could play um on my own in the apartment that an and I had uh and it was just me and a guitar and so kind of the year or two before that I've been discovering a lot of the new kind of country stuff and folk stuff and blues and um yeah just started leaning on that more because it was kind of the most relatable thing to me you know I was more naturally yeah yeah and you know like everyone else I was stuck at home with just my acoustic I didn't have a band I didn't have any gigs with a band to look forward to or work towards so I was like right well what what do I listen to that you know I can kind of lean on a little bit and I started leaning more and more on the kind of singer songwriter stuff that's that's amazing man and I suppose that bleeds in really nicely to you know your oneye anniversary for rede radio um is it does it seem weird being I know man it's uh I mean it'd be really good to go into that now and does it does it feel like it's been 12 months or does it feel longer shorter it's it's weird it sort of all depends on how I look at it really I mean in some ways it seems like forever ago if if if I think back to what I've done in that 12 months since um it seems like way longer um but then look it from another way and I'm like man how has that been a whole year um because you know things move quick and obviously with the art and the music I I guess I don't really take time to kind of look back on stuff really because there's always something coming up moving yeah yeah and you know it's just like anything it was like when I was doing you know carpentry for a living it's like it's just always like the next thing to think about and you know when you're in it it's difficult but I me we started recording it like two years two years this November was when we first went into the studio and it was a complete accident Like That album should never have been it should have barely been an EP honestly just grew and grew did it yeah and it it was weird I mean right through Co just before Co hit I'd written a song on the record called kerosene and um for about two and a half years I was like the worst singer songwriter ever because I did neither of those things you know I wasn't I wasn't out singing Because covid and then I I wasn't even you know songwriting I barely picked up the guitar you know for for a few months um and then had a big switch up in kind of my personal circumstances you know um at the time so and my half she's Dutch so we were going over to the Netherlands for a little while um and I was back doing carpentry in the daytime and I just had this kind of midlife crisis half a life time earlier than I should have I was like [ __ ] like if we go to you know if we go to the Netherlands are basically starting over again you know like I don't know any promoters there I don't know any other musicians there like I let's let me just go into the studio and um I'll get kerosene down and maybe write something else in the month until I actually go in um so one of my best friends Rob who um I'd met God probably like seven years ago now he said back then before before I'd ever sung in front of any any body he didn't even know it but he said to me dude you're going to end up recording an album like it's going to be your album and when you do it hit me up and we'll we'll figure it out we'll make it happen um so five years after that I just hit him up you know still I was on the train I remember really dly I was on the train to South End which where I was living at the time just covered in [ __ ] it's like the you know plaster board and uh like poly filler you know um work man yeah yeah at that point and kind of masquerading so I was a pretty [ __ ] Carpenter I imagine but doing it nonetheless and and I I said to him I said hey man that that offer and he knew exactly what I was talking about straight away he like yeah when do you want to do it so I was like well you know going to be moving in around six weeks how about a month so we booked two days in the studio and um yeah that month went from having one song in like nearly three years to kind of writing a couple more and then we got in the studio and while we there I was like I think I still got one or two more songs in me like maybe we could you maybe I could book another session down the line I think like four sessions later we had like 10 tracks and um kind of thought well might as well put out a record you know and it kind of Bloom from there it was very very unplanned very it Sonic in a natural sort of way isn't it though I mean um you know probably a stupid question but why is it called red eyee radio for start that's not a stupid question at all man um it so I I listen to a lot of music but I'm pretty dead set in what I listen to you know I I have to kind of like consciously every couple of weeks go right let's try and find some new [ __ ] you know let's try and do this whereas an um my other half she's great at finding new music and you know I I I don't know she's always manages to find really cool stuff um and so we created this playlist probably probably a year or two before I did the album and I was listening to a lot of like country and reading a lot of kind of American literature and stuff and um somehow we got onto the theme of truckers and how we thought Trucking was pretty [ __ ] cool and uh you know like just kind of thought about those old radio stations that those truckers would have tuned into and doing like the rede drives at night so we named this playlist we had red ey radio that's cool that's a cool story man yeah and then when the you know like we we just constantly add stuff to it both of us and it was like our our Dumping Ground for like new stuff we'd found you know even if we hadn't listened to it yet be like right put it in there we'll listen to it on our next big drive and um you know I was doing a lot of driving back and forth to the Netherlands and um you know for shows and stuff and yeah when when the album came around we were overthinking it for ages and um well there go I was overthinking it for ages and um it just made sense to call it that when when we figured you know those collection of songs had such a big impact on what I was doing it sort of just seemed right really it made sense no I like the story behind it like I said I thought it was going to be a really stupid question that I could have looked up really easy but I couldn't see and I thought I'm going to ask Jack regardless actually I think I think you might be the first person to have asked that well there you go yeah that's the first string of my bow mate there you go there you go but um but no like you I I think you know it's really easy to get stuck in a rut and I I can push myself out of that you know and I think it really helps when you got Spotify and certainly Instagram now and you can see kind of the stuff that we're kind of pumping out from our socials that I'm I'm you know not discovering but I'm I'm coming across artists I probably would never have listened to previously people with less than you know 900 followers something ridiculous and you go onto their Spotify no hardly any listens and they're absolutely amazing you know someone this week Nathan best you know sounds that appalachin sound that that kind of holler that they have he's got it and I thought I would never have you know listened to to Na and stuff before so I love this fact music's more accessible than ever right um it is it means that you know you you discover stuff that you wouldn't have heard and stuff that you might not have even liked at one point but it comes along at the right time and you know for all for all the The Faults and there are many like the Spotify and stuff is great for people like me who don't have this huge platform still independent um you know don't have these huge PR budgets and stuff you know it's great for that um yeah I like work we we connected as well through that exactly yeah you make new new friends yeah cheers dude Che you enjoy your coffee man I'll uh I'll finish B of my my smokee head it's not spicy as that one but yeah you know M but um but no I I'm really pleased that um you know things things are moving you know I I I had a proper and you know I suppose the flip side of that is that music can just become disposable and that that's the part I hate you know people pour their heart and soul into things and you just kind of scrolling aren't you until you find that kind of catch you think oh that that sounds good I'm going to explore I kind of go down various rabbit holes every week you know the stuff I I pump out is you know I've genuinely gone down the rabbit hole and I've put it out for a reason you know um I get a lot of the pins in the wall and all the strings I have yeah like a proper weirdo mate you know I put this up today just for effect you know yeah exactly it off when the podcast is exactly um but no and you know I'm it's been really good to connect with with you man and um I had a proper listen of your your album you know red eyye radio and I thought I'm going to have a proper listen to it I've got proper speakers now proper setup in my manave so I thought I'm going to sit here with a a few whiskies and listen to to my man Jack and um do you want to hear my my really [ __ ] Rolling Stones type review of red ey radio you're going to be properly offended by this as long as it's good oh it's good man as you like I'm not as articulate as someone like Rolling Stones but um first of all I you know for the fact that you've explained it it kind of not on a whim it came but as you know it kind of grew and grew you know I thought the album flows really nicely and connects you know it it there's a start middle end you know and not many albums have that you know it's kind of um you know one one of those that I think actually does that it starts with an old timey Western Country fi with instrumental that wouldn't sound out of place on a spaghetti Weston that song I wrote down in a week on my Apple notes like a [ __ ] loser um and then it slowly meanders into some nice faol tracks and I thought I like that and then for me this was the good part you know is a proper straight kick in the bollocks with some old school Blues you know rock ain't mean much to me that that is my favorite on the album man it's proper it's a bit of me it's a bit of me it reminds me of free you B of Paul coov your vocals are awesome the guitars are amazing was it Jack on the guitars or was it um trying to think no that was no I mean I mean that's all the lead stuff on that is me um I'm just trying to think if anyone else did anything on that no I don't think so I think that was just me on loved it mate honestly that that was that was my favorite that's uh that's on the rugged Revival um Spotify playlist if anyone's interested absolutely cheers dude and then it simmers down to the next track with an ominous uh country song as I put it I wrote in the week I might have had a few whiskies by this point um and then it was back to some proper old school country you had this kind of Robert Johnson mik effect some twangy guitars bit of old phonograph sound to it I think that was Cold Mountain whing that one really like that yeah it sort of become like its own thing that song I mean we play it live it's much more of a kind of we've added some Honky Tonk to it when we play it live with the band um cool man I mean shout out to to my buddy Dan who ended up producing the record he he owns the studio and he's the the engineer and Guy does all the mixing he's you know kind of just does everything at the studio and um he ended up producing the album and when I had that song with me um he just suggested we record a really old I think a son tape recorder so I was miked into that and then we literally just recorded that so yes yeah it's like secondhand but yeah very much inspired by a lot of the Alan LX recordings and kind of that early like capturing field hollers and stuff like that you know yeah that that that was really cool I like that I love that effect it's um it it's just really different I've heard that for for quite some time and then you go up next with blueeyed sun I put down this and epic dramatic building track with cool eeral um atmospheric padding do you like these words I'm using Jack it's very beaus mate yeah I'm taking notes yeah I'm going to write your next track mate it'll be absolutely crap but you know we'll give it a again yeah really badly have you seen my socials mate honestly it's It's Made Up on the spot and then you know it's a repre of dog tired right at the end I think it caps off the album properly mate tells the story throughout and um I actually wrote a term down Spaghetti Western Country folk rock I think we should make a new genre of that because that is yeah yeah you might disagree completely it was I mean I you know I when we were in it it became a real kind of focus to to make it an album you know rather than just a collection of songs so the the setup to to the recording process was very Hazard and very accidental but once we were in it I was very conscious of kind of I guess inspired by film you know I love uh Classic Cinema I love Western Cinema I love Western literature and we wanted to create a kind of Journey and stuff so I mean there's little samples throughout the album as well that we kind of brought in and um yeah wanted it to have like a flow and to we always had an eye for for vinyl as well so we wanted to really keep in mind well what's going to kick off the B side it's like well you go from I think dog tide closes the a side um well let's start the bide with ain't mean much to me and these kind of Alman Brothers kind of inspired guitars slaming mate yeah it kind of brings it back to life you know it kind of you know it's up and down and then yeah I think you know you bring that in and you think Jesus that that you man I mean like I I directly say on all of the like all the pr we did for the record which was mostly inhouse I worked with a A buddy of mine Alex and a a wonderful PR um person from over here Rachel um on on one of the singles as well um and I was getting across to them I was saying like it is like spaghetti westons have played a big part in like the iconography and the instrumentation and how things came along and then one of my favorite criticisms I heard of the record someone said it's like if you ran what was it if you ran drive by Era a Jason isbel era Drive By Truckers with Red Dead Redemption and anyo morone Ai and I was like that's is that an insult is that an insult yeah seriously but yeah you know so I mean I guess we we did it you know well you know what mate it sounded proper different to to many of the things that I've listened to and like I said I'll always give things a proper listen I think it deserves it that's why I've got a you know a decent setup in my manave and yeah sometimes just switch the bloody lights off just listen to to an album especially when you've poured your heart and soul into it and I think you know I loved it you know my my you know description of it was you know mediocre at best so I apolog for that no man I mean that's that's what you felt listen to it and that means a lot you know um I think the recording process I mean we we strung it the [ __ ] out like to be blunt you know we because we never planned on a record we did it in like four different sessions over about four months and then um I was fortunate enough to work with a couple of musicians who um had the pleasure of knowing him but have since obviously kind of befriended and they worked on it so Pat Lions was was on the record and he he does all the cult of wall stuff and he plays all of the string stuff on col's record so you that took time and and it was probably like it was basically a year from from saying I've got a few songs to record to having the album out um so we inflated it a bit but it did give me uh a kind of appreciation so I'm I try to make a conscious effort to be less kind of Doom scrolly when I'm going through Spotify and Instagram um you know if I see something especially now or an EP I sort of think you know rather than scrolling just just take a a list a quick listen even you know just pass the free circum Point easily because that's also yeah because also you know like I'm sure it's happened you know I've not got crazy numbers you know um so I'm sure people have just scrolled through mine and stuff but it's one of those things where you know that might be someone else's year you know of of working on something so I try and give it give it their du you know if I can and it's nice to hear that you do the same no ABS I've forced myself to do it for for absolutely that reason M you know I'm I'm not a recording artist myself but I think you know the the effort you put in deserves more than an idiot like me just like say Doom scrolling and just listening to the first five seconds of a track you know hoping it will catch my ear I think you know sometimes even just scroll to the middle you know or you know each segment and you know give it that due at least um so and things things grow on you too you know like I I listen to you know records pretty regularly now that first time I heard him I was like yeah it's cool it's all right sometimes I don't even like it you know I'm I'm the same as you it's really weird it's like there's something about it at the beginning I'm like I don't like it or I'm not sure about it and I'll leave it but then you come back to it and you're like this is the best [ __ ] thing on Earth yeah something come along when you when you need it you know it's like the universe kind of sends it's weird and one of the weirdly that that story for me resonates with flatland Calvary who were my absolute favorite you know have been for the last couple of years now you know when I first heard him I sat in the conservatory I can I can see it now my my youngest boy sat on my La you know asleep and I couldn't you know reach my phone to turn off Spotify so it just went on to some other stuff and to the algorithm it was I was just like and and it was it turned out to be the best thing ever you know and that's what I remember now I think you know what I couldn't touch my phone I couldn't Doom scroll and I couldn't move on so I had to just listen to what was there and what was there at the beginning I was like I'm not sure about this um and then it just went on I thought this is [ __ ] awesome you know and then I just kind of again you go down to rabbit hole at YouTube after a few whiskies on a Saturday night you're feeling these guys are that'll get things moving man it whis I just um yeah I'm I'm not a huge uh connoisseur in the sense I I I know what the [ __ ] I'm talking about but um I do like a good whiskey and especially a good bourbon and um kind of my my usual one is a Buffalo Trace that was the one that got me in Suburban yeah at the beginning you know when we started our socials and you you Pro you might remember but um we did a lot of whiskey reviews and yeah I remember yeah yeah weirdly that's kind of how it started me friend just thought well you know it' be cool we we we like our whiskey and it's an excuse it feels like a job we could tell our MS you know this is our job now that's you know Gary ler doesn't apologize for talking about football exactly so I thought I'm gonna do the same thing uh I'm the bourbon guy my mate was the scotch guy we kind of mixed the match now and again but yeah I I I kind of fake it uh to make it and I just love drinking it you know it's um but but Buffalo Choice was the very first one because it's so accessible in England yeah so anyone listening my recent so I just did a my first tour uh in the US and we did uh Tennessee Kentucky West Virginia and Ohio and um we played one show in Cincinnati and then um so my buddy Phil so just to rewind it my buddy Phil he's from uh Sunderland but he's lived in Chicago 14 years and we connected through my art originally but him and his wife wife kinee they run um loud Halo magazine which is is doing great they she uh photographs acts he'll review acts and it's it's awesome um and when he found out I was coming over he said well I love road tripping he's like I'll come meet you and I I'll drive you around for a week so we hung out with him it was awesome uh became very very fast friends you know if we weren't already and then he had to leave us in Cincinnati so we picked up the my rental car it was you know I was going to be driving the week and a half we had left and we hired a Toyota Corolla or similar vehicle and um went to downtown Cincinnati right by Bengal stadium and I see this pristine white 3.5 L Dodge Charger and click the key I've been given and the lights flash I'm like no [ __ ] way so bombing it down through Kentucky right from Cincinnati uh down to this place called Frankfurt in Kentucky and I was like that sounds really [ __ ] familiar why do I like where do I know that name from just it like one of those things where it was tipping my tongue but it was super late so I went straight to bed and then as I wake up in the morning open the curtains I'm just like stretching and I look out I just see a massive sign um for Buffalo Trace and I'm like so we uh we stumbled at the hotel a little earlier than we planned we we went to The Distillery and it was amazing it's like it's completely free no um I think last year they hit their 8 millionth Barrel um and it's like the ultimate like bourbon theme park it's amazing it's awesome so you you were listening to for the tour you know you listen you know you're reciting all of these facts and figures mate you know you're obviously enjoying it yeah it was good man it was a lot of fun and uh yeah and then headed from there coincidentally straight to Greenville um to is that North Carolina no so there is a Greenville North Carolina this is Greenville Kentucky sorry yeah no it's all good really out the way but um it's in mberg County which is famous for all sorts It's You Know M Travis and um Bill Monro was the next County over I think um but John Prime spent a lot of time there growing up um obviously wrote the song Mama won you take me back to mberg County um and I befriended uh a lovely couple Ben and Jenny who run Sip and spin and it's a coffee shop and record store by day and then a venue by night um so we headed there and um one of the things that Ben does is there's a distillery in town so I got a great bottle of that and it's it's real small batch um but now we we were out on his porch and I played the venue on the Saturday and finally got to meet um Ben Todd and Ashley May and Matt Heckler they they came out they live in town and um we've been talking for a while but you know again we became very fast friends went out for a meal and then the next night Ben Jenny and and I were on their porch and had a cigar and a a glass of that and everything was all right you know you were living the dream [Laughter] M honestly I I said to Jack before we jumped on I said he's you know he was living my dream by this tour of appalache and I think that's a really good segue and you know you kind of is that how you know that that all started then so you went out to kind of tour in Kentucky and those sort of places that that's how it all began um because obviously you went to uh quite quite a number of places while you were out there and saw quite a few people and was it WB walker uh you WB yeah we've been friends for um kind of friends online really for about six years um and then when I said I was coming over sort of you know we we he he was just about to go on holiday but it just worked out really nicely and um yeah so segue over into West Virginia and uh for some reason my album like really resonated there um especially Kentucky and West Virginia and so it kind of felt like a homecoming was that there like all these people I'd known online and who have been so supportive um but I recently got invited out there to play Little Sandy Shakedown which a great Festival up in Greenup County which is like Northern Kentucky Northeast Kentucky this is the thing you go to Northern Kentucky for an outsider and it's not it's eastern Kentucky because Northern Kentucky is further west and they don't like being called I was going to say do I get offended when you uh get it wrong yeah so it's in a Northerly part of Kentucky we'll say that um and that was the first stop and then yeah we ended up doing like 15 shows man like two and a half weeks um and I spoke to to jaay one of the guys who who booked the festival I said man how the heck did you find me he said dude he said I put a post up like from the festival um like December or January last year or this year and he said I woke up and I had like messages of people bothering me like saying you need to check out this dude like if you can get him that'd be fun and um awesome he said so yeah I hadn't heard your stuff before then he said but yeah here we are and it kind of struck me how surreal that was you know I was just was it because it was something different to what they're used to hearing or I I don't I don't think so man I mean the the caliber of of artist in Kentucky is just insane that's OB scene isn't it yeah yeah and the the scene there man like was just I've never felt Community like that before you know like there was no if someone said they they like you or what you're doing like there's no alterior motive there's no gatekeeping um there's Noll to it it's true yeah no it's exactly you know just if if they like you they like you and and everyone tries to bring everyone else up um so yeah it was just kind of crazy and I said my album resonated over there and it started out with a joke you know with some folks saying like oh man like are you sure you know like your dad's really from England you know like you sure he wasn't you know that kind of stuff and which is a big honor for me because you know I love Kentucky I love the people I love the music um and then yeah I I I don't know why so many people recommended me but they did and that's how I kind of got over there and yeah ended up doing like best part of three weeks so um in one place for no longer than like two nights it was pretty wild yeah I was following it on Instagram and I thought this dude's literally living my dream I like every time you went some it was even cooler love you didn't see some of the motels we had to stay in some but yeah that not not as fancy as the the venues that you visited in no I mean so some of the some of the hotels were great man um we were basically booking stuff the day of you know so we'd wake up in Morehead Kentucky and be like right we're going to be in you know uh man it's kind of a blur but you know we're going to be here tonight so let's look at a hotel here or halfway to tomorrow show you know um and so some of the hotels were great some of the like the hospitality we had was just insane like Southern Hospitality is definitely a thing and um yeah we had we had one lady who who can become friends with in West Virginia she she has this amazing early 20th century house and she just said have it three nights you know if you want to if you want to pay for for for the lights you know then you know great but it's yours three nights so uh but then some of the motels were like No Country for Old Men level a bit creepy one of the most memorable quotes on the whole trip was from an and uh we parked up the I remember the the dude it took 20 minutes to be seen at the front desk it's probably around midnight um because the guy was watching anime like behind the counter so I was just standing there and he was just like um and then we finally got in said goodbye to Phil he he went into his room and and I went up to our room and it was clearly like a smoking room um there was some [ __ ] questionable fluid on the headboard which wasn't grout God um and then an said like basically [ __ ] this and then went for a shower and then I heard this massive crash so I was like all good and just didn't hear anything so she opened the door handed me the shower uh curtain rail yeah that had fallen off the wall and went take this and just walk past me and then I'm trying not to laugh more because it's so ridiculous this was like fourth night in as well so we started two weeks and quote of the tour came when I came out of the shower and and goes Jack I'm all up for a budget but [ __ ] this that's the title of your next album man yeah that's that's the live record isn't it it is man so yeah some it was some of it was kind of less than ideal but some of it was great man yeah what memories to kind make though isn't it you know at your age as well not not to say you're you're young but um you know that that's uh that's a lasting memory isn't it that you'll you'll never forget so with with the you know the Kentucky scene the Kentucky music you know they've got their own style going on has that influenced your music in any ways since you you've been there I think so man um I mean I I don't know how much I can say right now but I'm I'm going to be back there in June next year um so sorting some things out for that and I said like so many people that I've been talking to for a year or two online um you know got a chance to meet them and and realize oh cool it's not just [ __ ] like we are actually really good friends and um yeah planning some stuff with some of the guys over there as well like recording some things together and everything um so yeah I think it's rubbed off on me and it's rubbed off in the sense of oh my God like everyone here is [ __ ] great like you're like oh wow I need to up my game there's so I can't probe you but there's some proper cool stuff in the pipeline going forwards back there man that's AES names you recognize for sure and um honestly WB Walker you know um you know I I was I've been listening to him for a long time old soul radio if people aren't familiar with it it's um yeah it's Old School radio isn't it it's uh proper country he's in his uh own flavil bar yeah yeah it is yeah I was reading up on it and it it is a strange location uh the guy is obviously obsessed with music he's been pulling out posts lately with just saying you know that that it's all about sharing music and you know I he gave a [ __ ] about what I was doing long before you know most people were really um and so when when we could figure it out and finally go hang out but he's the trip there was quite an odyssey man he's he's about as rural West Virginia as you can get but we different and for about yeah for about two hours um before we reached him in the car and two hours afterwards we had no signal and I mean like not like text come through like half hour later I mean nothing um and there's an old railroad tunnel right by the little town where he's at and um it's kind of iconic it's on all his posters and on all of the iconography for the show and it's uh about 2/3 of a mile maybe long single track so you know if you're going down it and someone comes to the other end like someone's backing up you know um also super [ __ ] haunted which I didn't know until after we've been through it yeah and um you know I I don't know about paranormal stuff you know I think there's there's something to it um but that place like you could definitely feel like oh man this is heavy and then W was saying yeah it was like um there's been a few murders in there over the 200 years since they cut it and um there was a a thing with the railroad as well where they were using kind of cheap labor uh from abroad rather than uh you know the Kentucky boys and uh a lot of the Kentucky boys started bushwacking like some of the the railway workers and they just throw them in a pit and put the track right over them like oh my God yes so there's some proper stories coming out from yeah then that like two hour drive out of there like as the sun was setting and you're like man like this is if you broke down you'd be you know if I didn't have you know my friend living nearby like you'd be You' being some serious [ __ ] it's like the movies isn't it it's not like breaking down in uh yeah Essex or rural Essex should we say you know you're not far from most people are you no exactly this was this was rural this was in the middle of nowhere but uh I mean we'll go into it shortly but um you know you're talking about these stories and you know when when you kindly give me a preist of your track that's being released Friday is it am I correct in say heavy as the head um the lyrics sound strangely familiar from what you were talking about so uh yeah yeah definitely I mean I I kind of penned that um before we went to Kentucky but it it was like I think it's just the universal thing I'd pend it after talking with a few buddies we were kind of shooting the [ __ ] and the the friend I was talking with like he's he's on the road far more than I am um and for longer too and we were just kind of talking about that kind of cycle of of being on the road and how sometimes it's the best thing in the world some things it it [ __ ] sucks um you know sometimes like you look forward to like the little things it kind of makes you focus you know especially when you're on the road it makes you focus on things um and it's normally the little things that normally you wouldn't even pay attention to yeah it's funny you know I'm listening to the lyrics and you know obviously you know it will come out Friday and people have a propis and it's it's an awesome track I love it but um I I've I've worked away a lot in the jobs that I've done and I'm listening to it think yeah man I've been it's it's so relatable I love it it's uh hilarious from that perspective yeah especially if you're you know your your head's not playing ball and stuff and all you got to look forward to as a hotel room on your own you know it can get kind of dark and stuff but friendly face at the bar mate yeah you know is your best friend for the night you know we've all been there man yeah yeah it really can be you know it's just uh you know if you smoke you know like having a smoke in the car park you know just to yourself where you can just kind of decompress you know some people look forward to that and stuff so yeah it's kind of I guess it started as a just a shooting the [ __ ] with a friend you know about kind of being on the road and it's one of those things well like being on the road you know it's not exclusive to music you know when I was doing the carpentry stuff you know so many of those guys work away all the time and I don't know exactly what you do but you know you work away as well so it's just yeah you know it's kind of a universal thing yeah it's tough mate you know you're away from your your friends your family your kind of daily routine fortunately for me for the last few years i' I've been at home but um yeah absolutely relatable man it's um it's a hard life but we do it um you know to pay the mortgage support the family so you know it's uh you know the carpentry think it's proper interesting man it's uh is is that something you still do you're still dabbling or you completely kind of left that behind now I mean I was I was probably a trash Carpenter I was a glorified laborer like Carpenters laborer um but I got to do it with kind of my best mate and his um some of his family so some of his brothers and his old man and his old man's kind of like an uncle figure um and we all grew up like brothers anyway so that probably sold a lot of it for me uh CU I was just working with family all day basically um but no I do miss it you know I miss a lot of it you know I I did enjoy it when I did it um unless the weather was kind of like it is now in which case it was kind of less fun but yeah I I I enjoyed man I definitely enjoyed that more than any kind of job rils behind a counter or a desk you know like or computer like me yeah yeah but as you as you said man it's what you said you know you just got to do what you got to do and it's the grind you got to you do for your your family like you say it's um yeah commend the carpentry thing was a complete accident you know I never set out to do that it was just I was the the art wasn't arting and the music wasn't musicing and you know I got offered this this opportunity with with my you know my friend so it was kind of lucky that I enjoyed it you know and enjoyed the people I was doing it with because I imine it been a lot difficult if I hadn't awesome man and this is going to be the most tenuous segue ever from from carpentry to redb radio you know can you see the link I can because I I really wanted to touch upon that because I I've been watching Red Bar radio for for quite some time and it's quite a I I don't know isn't it obscure type program online mainly it's but they've had some awesome artists and I think it's synonymous with Tyler Cher's that that kind of early performance and yeah when I saw obviously your travels Across America and then I saw you doing red bom radio I watched it on YouTube I watched the whole thing and thought it absolutely you smashed it mate you smashed it mate yeah you know I thought it was brilliant I I love the guys kind of um you know the way he presents it's very quite strong matter of fact dry is um you know he's he's kind of a good host isn't he I was I was [ __ ] myself to to um you know we so I played with Shelby um Tyler and uh Luke sorry I played with Shelby and Luke the weekend before Little Sandy shake that on the festival Tyler on base was meant to join us but he'd been taken ill the night before so we' all rehearsed one day before at an amazing place called The Starlight Lounge in um in Morehead Morhead yeah I think it was Morhead so we rehearsed the day before and then we're playing that but so I knew the band had it you know they we could have not rehearsed and they'd have been great Shelby and the boys just fantastic um but partly because of the the fact that I've been watching it for a while and as you say I mean aside from like Tyler and people like that you know you had like Tom T Hall on there and stuff and there was [ __ ] turning up doing a Tom T cover absolutely and you kind of walk in and it's in um it's in like kind of art gallery SL like municipal building I think it is in I was going to ask that I thought you know you obviously see what you see on YouTube and it looks the same and I thought where is this place you know what what is kind of behind the scenes there's is there no audience there is it just a host so they they used to have an audience and it was never advertised but it kind of grew like to like a regular audience and then covid happened and that stopped and um they kind of made some concessions for me like so I actually had a little audience which was really lovely um but it's like you go in and you walk through like an art gallery and then you go into the back and it's like this huge kind of like early 20th Century building um with like a mezzanine going around the edge of the room um and then the the crew are insane they they pack up and pack down just for the show really quick and it's like studio quality Equipment so there's a [ __ ] ton of it it's super technical and obviously they're recording it but they're also putting it out live with video I don't know how they do it and um yeah and then there's all these lights on you and you're kind of in the middle of this room and then for Showtime They put the curtains around and it becomes that kind of iconic black curtain with the you kind just in around you know with a wooden floor yeah um I know it but no like the the team is crazy there's probably about eight or nine people working on it and um all of them to a person just absolutely lovely um you know just from from the host to the the lady I can't remember her name and I do apologize um who was you kind like SE dressing you know like she came along was like well you know you and you and Sh going to put your your tumblers on on that amp case so I'll put a lantern here and you know just it it was so good um the Minor Details were taken care of yeah yeah and just everyone was so lovely we all kind of grabbed some food beforehand we we went for a drink afterwards it was a great um like whiskey bar around the corner so we all went there afterwards and um no it's just amazing man and kind of it so professional you know like in a monitors and everything which I hadn't worked with before I was having a bit of Gip with I don't know if you saw it but the first couple of songs really strugg with my yeah I could see that but it was CU my stupid shaped ears on their equipment um and you know I'd kind of like threaded it up through my shirt up my back so with the guitar strap on it I guess it just messed with it and stuff so I could see you a few times doing that and I thought yeah I thought a technical guy but I thought you be having some issues there yeah yeah it it flew by and then um you know just the the response was crazy you know I can't because obviously I mean I was too nervous to to do most of anything before before I went on um and uh so kind of came off you know decompressed packed up went to this Whiskey Bar then pulled up my phone and just the amount of people that had like either back in England had kind of you know like had it on at work cuz I think it was kind of like late afternoon right when it went out um you had kind of like you know had it under the desk at work or or had it on while they were doing something and like some friends in the US and everything it was just awesome man it's such an honor to to have that that's an amazing thing you know I we didn't know each other at that point but I was like super proud of thought this is you know one of my my English guys you know we've gone out there on their kind of scene and you rocked it mate it was fantastic and all that like it was just I mean it was a relief to make it to Lexington in the first place because we we we drove up the ass of the hurricane in Indiana Oh my God and um yeah like in the middle of the night and that was terrifying um but Lexington was awesome Lex Lexington's a great town um and again just there there's a a great musician um up in Northern Kentucky and his um I think fiance has this lovely townhouse in Lexington and they were trying to sell it and so it was empty and soon as he heard I was um you know coming over for this tour he said well dude if you're in Lexington he said as long as it's not sold um you you are you and an are more than welcome to stay so we had this lovely house it was really nice to have a base and um yeah Lex was just a really cool town man I loved everything about it I'm so jealous mate now we're best friends obviously I'm coming out with you next time so uh yeah 100% don't forget me mate honestly please don't forget me oh dude look man it's um that that's been great so we've got on to Red B radio I've got some general questions at at the end really um know we i' say I'm obsessed with your your Instagram been walking you jack over the years don't be creeped out but then I think I don't know if it was before during after but you know I keep seeing you with you know real famous guys at the minute Chris from 49 Winchester Brandon from the red clay Strays who just Towers over you um I don't know if you're super short or he's super tall man that that man won the genetic Lottery let I was I was joking around with um I can't remember who we were talking about this I was like dude has a [ __ ] killer voice he's like 29 or you know he's like few years older than me he's like 6 foot 17 [ __ ] stylish um you playing around the world with his [ __ ] band um his wife is like his wife and him were so lovely and um yeah couldn't have been Kinder and yeah Isaac from 49 Winchester sorry Isaac yeah that's my bad man yeah so yeah just I've had a real the real privilege to to meet so many of the people I look up to but then also to kind of befriend so many of them which is really surreal that was going to be my question was like you know were were these kind of Backstage kind of just Brief Encounters were these you know longer you know yeah the Brandon one was um so his his wife Macy had seen my painting of him that I did and um my friend Nolan was opening up for them and so I was going to go down anyway and kind of catch up with him um and then Macy said oh well you know if you can bring the painting down then you like the least we can do is give you guys tickets and stuff and awesome yeah kind of got to hand over the painting so that went to them which is you know where it belongs and that was really lovely got to got to meet them quick I think Macy had made Brandon late for soundcheck with shopping I think that was the that was the reason it was kind of fleeting but typical um yeah Isaac was a a funny one so kind of to rewind it I did a painting of Drayton Farley last year who um is brilliant if you haven't checked him out yes yeah I love Drayton yeah uh so I'd done this painting of him and we connect over that and connect with some of his family as who had seen it and you know funny out sorry mate I I discovered drayton's stuff from your cover of his song that you put on Instagram so that's how I went down that rabbit yeah it was it was awesome so yeah thanks for introducing me to his stuff oh man I'm I'm glad to get out like so I was I was a fan of his music you know I was a fan before and then uh he came over for C2C this year and um I want to so we were going to hang out anyway and then I've got like a I've got what's being treated as Crohns so I was feeling really bad and I I was like man I you know saw him on the Friday we hung out and then it it's the first time he'd ever left the United States on a flight and his plane lands in Berlin which is where the first night of C he was but his his baggage definitely did not oh man and so he was obviously like super stressed he was playing these shows I said dude I said get him to send it to my place and I'll bring it down on Sunday so we hung out on the Friday then the case came hung out with him again um and um hung out with his wife as well so an and and his wife Emily got on so well and we went out for drinks and show him around London and then saw him the next week at CTC again and then he was coming back over to open for 49 Winchester so I you know we kind of hooked up again he said I'll dud he said we're playing in London so if you want to you know hang out again and yeah watched them open and ended up on the roof Terrace like after the show with them I had Isaac throw me a bottle of champagne uh that they were cracking open to celebrate the tour and I distinctly remember me and Isaac we spent I want to say 20 minutes throwing impressions of Mike tyon at each other it was the it was the week of like what was going to be the Tyson fight with oh yes yes soic and we were talking about Mike Tyson's ridiculous comments about like Jake Paul being on the Disney Channel I I don't know how we got on to it um and um yeah you know just had a few things and greaton had to cut that tour short and they were they actually asked if I'd be able to open a show for him um but I was already on the road with a sleep at the whe for that weekend um so it's kind of like bit you kept it in the bank L please tell me you kept that in the bank yeah I mean like so again I I never expect anything um and I was honored to even be asked even as a last minute thing you know um but kind of kept in touch a little bit and then one day I opened up Instagram and it was just like 49 Winchester commented on something someone's post like Jack Browning is the truth I was like man what the [ __ ] like that is so mental um so now I've got that and uh Ben Todd's comment so before we kind of got to know each other like like we do like he he Ben to commented on something saying Jack is a bad [ __ ] so I got that and the 49 wines coming at the top of my website it just I want to see your impressions of uh Mike Tyson you should have recorded those and then put that on it I think that one Isaac's one with [ __ ] hot man it was great it was better than yours was it and well I W you let's not be Hasty um but it was it was good man it like yeah a lot of whisky and and champagne and stuff on this roof Terrace I think it was Coco in Camden which a great menue yeah very sural and then obviously hanging out with Charlie when he played in London um Charlie Crockett is that is that the I forget the name of the bar now but it's uh it's at North London isn't it oh was that's the dues of Highgate that's my um they they were great they're awesome I've made a few shows there and it's a must stop for the the most casual country fan or even if you just love whiskey popping um they're great they always look after you um but now this I met Charlie at um there's one he played he did like three acoustic shows in London which was really strange I remember a lot of people thinking huh um and yeah we kind of well like he he knew all about what I was doing because um we figured it out and his his manager said oh yeah like you know come back afterwards so we we did and yeah Charlie the first thing he said was uh so you come here for my job and I was like man even if I wanted to I couldn't and then he was just he was the just the coolest mother no one dresses like Charlie Crockett do they dude no no one could get away with dressing like Charlie you know I remember so like one of my friends was for like he was opening Forum in the US and he said like I purposely didn't put up any of the pictures I had next Charlie because I just look like [ __ ] um and I felt very much the same but like he's like the epitome of Cole and even like saying goodbye to an like as we were going away he was like lovely to meet you too miss an and I was like [ __ ] Charlie chill out man calm down [ __ ] come now some for the rest of us man come I'm [ __ ] heating up you know like um so that was awesome and yeah just been real privilege and then I was in Kentucky you know just getting to play like grab dinner with Ben and Ashley and and have them in the audience was probably the most terrified I've ever been playing a show um but you can't through it you know you you just my voice near didn't but D you you've you've smashed it every single time you know I I've you know when I've seen you online the red bom radio stuff you know even in the face of adversity with you know some of the tech issues you you've been fantastic so it is something to be proud of man I know you downplay a lot but it's it's something to be super proud of you know I couldn't do it for sure absolutely yes it's all stuff I can't believe is happening or has happened and I always say I keep waiting for the bottom to fall out of everything but until it does I just keep showing up keep doing your thing mate I think that's all you can do keep doing your thing be real you know you're obviously a really nice bloke and you know people should be supporting you you know it's it's you know it's one of those things and I saw recently on your your post that you've just announced London the grace and I wanted to ask you about up man yeah what's going on uh I mean next for me I'm I'm really old so I've got a like a dad War calendar I'm I'm like that kind of guy um so I've got like the studio next week and then are you looking at it now yeah and then I'm in because otherwise I wouldn't have a clue um and then the week after that I'm in the Netherlands I'm playing a rambling Roots festival The White Buffalo is going to be there again you were telling me about The White Buffalo as we were offline weren't you because you saw my son's of anak picture behind me so what what was the story with the white buffalo man yeah so I I did his album cover um a couple years ago we I did a portrait of him when he visited London in 2018 um he saw it and his management sent me an email saying if you want to bring it down like Jake would love to meet you and got to hang out I was a big fan anyway so got to meet him didn't think anything anything else of it and then 18 months later I got an email saying Jake's in the studio your name kept coming up at artwork would you be interested so I was like uh yeah I guess [ __ ] of course I will um so end up doing the album cover for his his record on the Widow's walk um and we kept in touch a little bit anytime he comes through town you know generally he's he puts tickets aside for an and we go down say hello and then um yeah next like two weeks time I'm going to be playing with him and Uncle Lucius and oh I love that b man yeah me too man and um My Buddy Aaron Boyd's coming over from Kentucky and there a whole host of other people playing in utre and then yeah November 23rd I've got a show at the grace in London which is a big headline show like terrifying and exciting and equal measure uh I was there in March I think supporting Henry wagons who's another dude that you should check out he's great m i will yeah yeah he's the coolest Australian dude ever um and he's got a a song about Willie Nelson which is great so he's awesome exactly kind of like three of your five a day isn't it um and uh yeah so November 23rd I'm doing that and then we just announced support yesterday which is um link it back to Charlie uh Charlie's buddy uh Texas Joe who goes by Texas radio in the Big Beat yeah man talk to us about him oh dude he is um about as Bonafide a legend as they come so he is obviously from Texas uh you know you you don't you don't buy a name like Texas Joe you know you get given given it and he's a very successful um restaurant to he I think he was on Dragon's Den I want to say he was on Dragon's Den at one point um and then he's run Texas Joe's barbecue restaurants and there's I think there's one in London and there's also a a Mexican restaurant that he does also in London but he's he's had them all over the place and I think currently they're right by London Bridge I think um but his other big passion is music and he um he goes out and and I actually saw him opening for Charlie um and he's just been over in Texas and Colorado opening the show for Charlie and he's just this amazing personality lovely dude um and he spins real 45s and kind of talks over it really like puts on a show and um quite honestly I couldn't believe it when he said he'd love to do it um yeah I said he's just come off of this Monster Tour opening for Charlie Crockett then there's this dude asks him to play in London he's like yeah man I'd love to um we met properly when I play with a sleep at the wheel he's friends with um Josh Headley who who is a a phenomenal musician in his own right but also plays fiddle for a sleep at the wheel sometimes um so I met him properly then and I saw him cut in shapes in a full Western suit with uh an older lady behind me during a sleep with the wheels set like two stepping and um you know sounds like it's going to be my wedding mate away yeah sounds great man but he's he's awesome and you know a total Legend So I'm absolutely honored that he's he's decided to kick off the show no it amazing you know and I like I said I wanted to ask you about him because personally I didn't know an awful lot I I see a lot of pictures with Charlie Crockett and I I guessed you know he's part of that that scene so anyone who loves you know Texas r a big beat I'm sorry if I've done him a disservice but um you know it's always good to learn man yeah I'm I'm pretty sure the Texas radio and the big bit is a fairly new thing for him but yeah if you look up Texas Joe Texas Joe that's what it probably is I I I looked up that name couldn't find an awful lot but you know what man you know if I can get tickets if it's not sold out I'm going to be there I'm going to be there a I'd love to have you there man that'd be great yeah it'll be awesome to have a have a beer and uh yeah watch it watch it perform then that'll be bringing the whole band so have everything with pedal steel fiddle guitars proper everything proper stuff mate yeah absolutely amazing so yeah if you'll have us mate we'll I'll be more than happy to come down it's not too lot fun man I'd like that very much definitely thank you dude um just looking at new music so obviously you've got your release on Friday um and you know that was that was awesome to listen to you know and and it's been a roller coaster really you know you've had red eye radio you've had high hopes that I I think did really well I added to the playlist ages ago cuz I loved it champagne toast is a real fun track and in heavy funny who took the pictures for that by way that was an I don't know whether to feel sorry for her I feel happy that she got to take such a great photo but yeah it was pretty cramped in that bath with um that hat on especially it's a big old hat um looking all sexy Jack my cigar got wet yeah it's harrowing yeah a real man's man you are I tell you I've been called worse but no it's um I mean you've had you I mean for me it's been good song after good song after good song and you you're just on a role man so I'm I'm super interested to see what happens I mean with with your band I mean I I'm trying not to keep you too long man I know we've been here a couple of hours do but um with with your band at the moment has it been mainly session musicians have you got kind of a set kind of band behind you now yeah I mean it's kind of like the album it was you know I've I've just relied on the some phenomenal session dudes and and a lot of them have kind of been very understanding with the especially when we were getting things off the ground initially you know like not getting their usual fee and stuff um but we kind of settled into a bit of a rhythm with some more regular guys and I think the longest 10e longest suffering one is is Chris who who plays steel and guitar with me um he plays for so many great folks and yet he always finds the time to you know put up with my bollocks literally yeah yeah yeah yeah exactly even when I go out solo I normally end up taking Chris and and we just do a a Duo thing where he's on steel and I'm on acoustic and sing so um yeah but started working with some guys recently there's been uh Rick Kent who is great we we connected through some mutual friends just before lockdown and found out with both massive anars for World War II history oh cool so we're both uh rivet counters and um he's also a phenomenal drummer um and he he played drums on the record and then um had another very good friend of mine Adam Hayes who uh drummed me live um and also played on kind of the three songs I put out this summer he he played on those um yeah just been blessed really uh you know my buddy Wiz uh we grew up playing in those rock bands I was telling you about you know as kids and um you know he he played base on the on the on the album and completely smashed it you know he's not that's awesome he's a guitarist first and foremost and he ended up smashing it on bass and yeah it's it's really taken a whole village man um you know a small circle but a circle I couldn't have done it without you know definitely no I I was just interested man because it's um I think it makes a real difference when you're out on the road when you're recording I think you know it's uh it it's I'm I'm not an artist myself but I can imagine it makes a you know a big difference when you got your buddies I mean I've got I've got like a something beyond the music with everyone I work with you know so with Chris it's General [ __ ] and football you know like we're both really the last time for my SS West Ham but someone has to be I thought you gonna say Tottenham because I I dm' jack at the weekend I'm a United fan and uh I was testing the waters to see if you were a to even if I was I tell you after the weekend you'd be too yeah so you know like that and I said with Rick like we we probably hung out more at museums and uh military fairs and stuff than we ever have like in the studio uh you know we've got that and um Dan who is the the genius behind the studio work and the producer you know we we are pretty capable of talking only in Simpsons quotes for like a month before we actually you know sort of say all right and by the way like you know this kind of thing so yeah we've all got just there's always something beyond the music you know with everyone I work with because you need that you know you need people that are a fun to hang out with you know you connect with you know 100% man 100% one one one of my favorite memories from recording High Hopes was so we recorded High Hopes heav as the head and champagne taste in two days and we stayed over at the studio accommodation and they awesome projector and it was just um Chris and I staying over and we he's Italian I should say that and we both just looking at the Heyday about Italian International Football in the 2000s and he's that much of a student of it he can like quote the commentary of like these iconic moments that's proper sad mate this is wild yeah that's that's crazy behavior you know normally you know BLS have the most fun in a but just naming random footballers dude so Ross who uh who's the guy who runs holla I don't know if you know their stuff great country publication um we basically bonded over like initially over our love of Everything Neil warock and Neil warock Legend arle Premier League you know I grew up on that you know it was like kind of and and we can just as you said just name I'll just send him a textt message be like Brad Brad fredel thoughts just a random name yeah yeah and he gets it yeah meet you opinions you know that kind of thing quality people have no clue what we're on about on no we just lost anyone else who was listening oh my God but um no honestly mate um going back to influences and and I suppose artists right now like I said earlier on I think going through Instagram right now for me is probably the favorite spotify's good Instagram I think kind of Pips it and you know I think it's mainly because people are under grind at the moment they they're kind of sponsoring this stuff and it works obviously because I'm looking at Nathan best and you know I've instantly gone Spotify listen to it stuff and think it's fantastic and you know is there any artists that you've seen right now any any kind of lesser known uh individuals that you want to kind of give a shout out to or you like particularly oh man yeah I me there's so many um it's hard isn't it there is so many yeah if we're talking like criminally underrated like if you're not listening to doton Mills you need to give your head a wobble um he's awesome one of the loveliest dudes as well um got give a shout out to my buddy Bill Taylor as well who's awesome um he may or may not be one of the dudes I'm cooking something up with but he's a he's a real Kentucky Gentleman and just has one of the best voices what I've ever heard um and um he was one of the few people that made my buddy cry at Little Sandy Shake now just for his songwriting you know it's like it's that beautiful um awesome yeah those guys man I I could oh man I could list off I could go through my playist and list them all but yeah there's so many um I was struggling as well because I thought like you say can just list hundreds but um you know that's why things like your playlist are good man you know CU you can you you give people a platform which is I'm trying yeah and I maybe sometimes being a bit naive because they might have you know a bigger following on Facebook or Tik Tok or or something that I'm not aware of but I'm looking at what I can see on Spotify and you know the platforms I and I think you know I think it'd be nice to give them a push and just say look give them a listen I think it's great go look at their their social was I'm getting nothing for this I don't want anything for it that's me yeah you just doing the Love of the Game exactly it's just it's just great you know and people I love at the moment like Presley hail I think she's criminally underrated she's I've not heard a bad record from her um Jackson hatch um I've discovered from uh Instagram too Seth van DOA was a funny one actually sent him a DM earlier about his song marijuana Jesus it's it's it's a awesome song two of your Essentials isn't it it's been stuck in my head all day man honestly and I've just said to him I I apologize because I've been sitting around the house probably pissing everyone off but uh I thought you know what that that is a good song and I'm going to share it so I give a [ __ ] I love like that man and and I know you know 99% of other musicians would love that too I love it when I get crazy messages or when you get added to like a funny playlist you know it just it makes you a whole day so exactly when you see my name and think I I don't know how he's going to take this I always invite him to the group as well um so the rugged Revival Facebook group if anyone wants to join you know come and join us we've got artists it's a great little hangout man I think so you know we've got really nice people there of all kind of walks of life and um I always invite people and just for a laugh sometimes I you know just message stur or Simpson go fany come and join my Facebook group with less than 200 people be right laugh come on mate come on mate what are you waiting for so um exactly you know it's a bit rude he hasn't responded yet but he's kind of busy too good for a stage I know yeah you kind of moved on from this scene of you dude but um but no I suppose one final question for me mate because like I said we've been taking a lot of your time it's been so interesting kind of going through everything yeah I've loved it guilty pleasures you know I'm going to put you on a spot here mate you know going for your Spotify let's got be some cringeworthy for you straight away go on [ __ ] Lana Del R that's not cringeworthy that's that's not too bad no I don't think it's cringeworthy but I know a few people that have had a few Choice words about when they hear it um yeah I love Lana I love um it's not really a guil again it's not really a guilty pleasure I love 90s hip hop man I love yeah I love Method Man Snoop um gra diggers Gangstar all those guys so but cringe stuff macarina I'm I'm I'm looking at your thinking macarina I'm not really no I was always more of a mano number five kind of dude you you're a bit younger than you I know Simply Red I don't mind a bit simp Simply Red there you go there you go I gu that's kind of CR now the's coming up you start with 90s think it's simply red I knew it yeah simply red um I think it's probably about as cringy as it gets really um yeah one man's cring is another man's treasure isn't it so I don't know but I I do little playlists on mine I think you got the 90s stuff you got the 80s I got three tickets recently at the somewhere in Birmingham by by NEC or whatever you call it now these days for Texas remember Texas yeah she was pretty bloody good live man you know it's um it's not my thing but I'm a fan I'm now a fan sometimes that happens man I've I've seen people at festivals and stuff like I remember um we played a festival in like 2019 in Switzerland with jof stone oh yeah she was [ __ ] badass dude like that that show like the band incredible um it's not someone that I've ever gone to see you know so sometimes that you know it's nice when it happens isn't it you know yeah it's really cool it's really cool so um yeah well I've just revealed I'm a Texas Fan now so that's probably probably last podcast I'll ever do man yeah exactly yeah first yeah Jack man look I appreciate your time um oh thank you it's been a pleasure dude it's been great talking to you I've loved it it's been a long time in the making um thank you so much what what do you want to plug mate honestly you know obviously your social handles give Jack a follow give him a listen and you know what what what's going on I mean got the new obviously the new song out and it'll all be tied together with an EP um which I'll be bringing out in November and then um yeah for folks over in the UK I'm I'm playing the grace on November 23rd so tickets are flying but there's still some left so um yeah come join us man so we're going to have Texas Joe going to bring a couple of friends as well and and the band so should be a good night nice and Central and you know if you can stomach being that close to Arsenal then uh you're all good oh I'm not sure about that as well man yeah oh it's gross isn't it but uh well for for old buggers like me as well they seated uh you know close to the bands that we can sit down and enjoy a uh there's some seats at the back it's pretty old school standing I'm afraid but um you know we we we we have concessions so I'm sure there'll be I'm going to be there if I can get tickets and you've got some left I I will certainly be there I promise I really appreciate i' love to see it and uh I Know Dan couldn't make it tonight um so Jack if if you want to be my co-host in future I'd love to have you dude it' be fun dude yeah it' be fun I think we'll we'll pick who we want you know we will do our own thing uh and when you're not drinking coffee you can have a have a whiskey with me and uh I will yeah next time you catch me day when I I've got a wish list mate honestly so with your connections right get me CTO Cordo Adam Hood I've been pestering that guy to come on this podcast race R honestly so um yeah that's why I'm going to use you as my happen dude it will happen man otherwise keep keep in touch yeah I appreciate it man but otherwise you know like follow share subscribe to to Jack stuff and certainly to the rugged Revival usual stuff join our Facebook group we'd love to have you but uh Jackman it's been a it's been a real pleasure dude thank you for coming on Cheers man thank you very much thanks for having me [Music]

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