Kindred Valley – Indie Folk from West Virginia

when you L and [Applause] learn Crash and [Music] Burn Hearts get broke TBL turn you lose your love this is the rugged Revival podcast we are the home of the UK's country and rots music Community uh I'm your host TJ uh cost delil Big T whatever you want to call me uh I've got lots of names according to Ronnie who unfortunately cannot be uh here this week he's not actually ill he's uh he's working on other pieces so uh I'll save the insults I had for for Ronnie for the next episode I'm sure you'll enjoy those uh but anyway we'll get back to some professionalism uh for the rugged Revival for a change uh we're absolutely honored uh to be joined on the show today by the one and only Blake and Noah from Kindred Valley uh a six piece electric indie folk band from West Virginia um you guys have been a main stay on our for a long time so I've been really excited to to have you guys on the show and to talk to us um very quickly before I hand over to you guys just for for some introductions I've seen a lot of stuff online about the Kentucky floods uh we've got a lot of friends out there over that way uh so we just want to share our concerns and support for for our our friends and and the folk that live out there um it's uh it's not a good situation so thoughts thoughts of with you guys so anyway back to the show um I'll hand over to you guys do you want to do a quick intro of who you are sure yeah uh I'm Blake Lacy um from Huntington West Virginia and I sing for Kindred Valley and uh I'm Noah I'm also in Kindred Valley and I do some singing sometimes but uh mostly playing guitar and or banjo superb superb so for anyone new to Kindred Valley or just discovering your music which uh I'm sure that there's there might be a few but uh you know you've got a lot of fans I can see you've got a lot of streams on Spotify and other platforms but how would you describe Kindred Valley for anyone uh just discovering it I would say it uh mostly leans into Americana and what exactly that is is the question of uh of the decade it seems but um you know we I I tend to like that label because it allows us to feel a little more free to do whatever we want um we can kind of dip into one genre uh or specific genre more than the other but I'd say overarching it's uh indie folk Americana yeah I completely agree Noah it's um i' I've been toying with the idea of what to call sometimes the podcast it's a country music it's I've included Roots because I thought that might cover a lot of what we do because we have a lot of Blues Guys on and uh blue grass and and different kinds of bands and I think country can sometimes pigeon hole you slightly so yeah I like Americana too I think we'll we'll start using that and steal that one from you mate um so anyway so how how do you guys meet you how did Kindred Valley become who you are these days um well I was friends with Brett who's our drummer kind of going into college um and then a couple years into college he met Noah and we all got together and started making music and then I go to church with Jaden and Rachel who were the two other members of Kindred Valley and so through a big web of fate and mishaps we uh kind of all came together and got to meet each other uh but a lot of it is through church and through school and it's how it all came together oh cool so what is it like being in a six-piece band you know what we've had bands on before and it's normally kind of four people or you know a couple but um is it is it uh easygoing for you guys working as a a six piece I mean how how does that kind of come about in terms of writing music and the arrangements is it difficult or is it easy for you so I mean as far as being in a band uh you ask on riding and then being in the band as far as being in a band um you know it's great it's kind of just like traveling with the big family of course it comes with some challenges like um you know uh preparing lodging for four people is still one hotel room uh but six people is either one really tight hotel room or you're probably going to have to end up paying for two so everywhere we go you know even traveling to venues we can't take a normal car if we all want to go together so um it presents a lot of challenges business-wise but I would say as far as writing and living together and because we do a lot of living together um as well um I would say that it enhances it quite a bit because I'm like there there are periods of time whenever I don't write anything and I can't write anything and Blake is really on a tear and um even him having me collaborate with him own things sometimes will get me out of a dry spell so I find that it kind of is a symbiotic relationship sort of es and flows in a way that really like it's a great answer mate and you know I think I think you're quite a unique band in that respect that I I see against a lot of other kind of bands out there in the in the fact that you've got free singers normally it's you guys and Rachel on vocals and um everyone seems to play a instrument or two um so multi-talented um super you know band I I I struggled to kind of pick you up against anyone because you you seem so different in terms of how you sound and and what you do so that's uh that's fantastic so you all guys all live in uh West Virginia still all in close proximity to each other H yes correct actually the same city so just within a couple miles of each other fantastic so uh quite easy to meet up and uh to to kind of arrange gigs and do what you need to do uh throughout the day so what does a typical week look for you guys are you fully independent are you are you still working somewhat yeah so we're we're still trying trying to make it where we can all have six people with full incomes from from traveling and doing music uh we're all still most of us are working jobs on the side still um but it's it's pretty busy doing this I book a lot of our shows I take Mondays and do that um we finally found a designated Day to you know meet together and write new stuff and really try and hammer things out uh so we finally have like I think Thursdays are our days so we get together and do that and then normally on the weekends we're running somewhere going playing shows somewhere in town or out of town yeah yeah and the rest of the week is Jaden does all of our in-house like sound production so if there's anything that like sounds professional it's usually because he's work worked on it for hours or sometimes weeks or months or uh you know even a year and uh I do the merch and handle that sometimes um uh things like that but I would say the bulk of what we like get done in a week is now at these uh we do like a weekly meeting SL practice um outside of that Blake is doing the booking um and he's very very good at that yeah we had a bit of a a laugh on on DMS about that because I remember watching your Tik Tok video uh where you were testing your bandmates knowledge of where you play yeah that's a bit like me and Ronnie really he's uh he's oblivious to to the stuff like I book and and what's going on day to day but uh yeah someone's got to do it that's great everyone seems to have a a kind of role within the band there's some importance there so you haven't got one person who's like the Michael Jackson of the band and is more important no fa at least not officially some people who I think so that's what Blake told me on DMS anyway he said more important no that's awesome I mean I was looking for your Facebook and I TR we always try to do as much kind of research as possible what you've been up to kind of what's coming up and and what you've been doing lately and I can see you got some really exciting things coming up in June like Laurel Cove um that that seems to be becoming a really big kind of Festival out in Kentucky uh there's some amazing artists on this year's roster with Nick Jameson Caitlyn buts um Hunter Flynn who's actually in the UK at the minute and we we're going to pop and see him uh because he's close by on Sunday uh so it's great to see you know lots of different artists um would be awesome man and then we've got some overseas artists as well like Jack Browning and Torry for um so they're I love Jack Browning Jack Browning is amazing everyone's a fan of Jack aren't they he's a he's a nice guy he he was actually our first uh episode uh to kick things off so good guy kind of helped us out there so uh so he's he yeah I've seen on his socials and speaking to Jack he he's going out so it's fantastic so what what are your thoughts about Laurel Cove are you excited for that very excited it's um I I I love talking about Laurel CO as well it's just a it's like a whole other EXP experience I um got to go to a couple different music festivals this past summer and both big and small and Laurel Cove captures the best of both experiences and so much in a way that I really I don't like calling it a small Musical music festival because it does all the things that I like big music festivals to do which is have like you know big artists there that you actually want to see and um Great Sound and Lighting and production and things like that things that you can and vendors uh things you can normally only get at a big Music Festival um they've got there at Laurel Cove with a relatively small population um it's a really just great time the artists are you're just as liable to sit down next to an artist and see the headliner as you are um any other joso yeah who who you excited to kind of see or play with at lurel Cave I I was looking at the lineup and I had never listened to Ian no before but I were always people like coming to our shows that are being like yeah I'm going to go see Ian know next weekend glad I got to catch you all this weekend so I was like I'll just give him a try and I've just been non-stop listening to him since the release came out it's it's been really good um Evan honer excited to see him uh finally get to catch him I'm not gonna lie uh I hate to just seem like I'm pandering but Jack Browning I really love Jack Browning um I listen to I have a signed version of his album and then I just have a display one up here here um right above my shelf actually aome I've talked to him a couple times this past summer and even played a song with him at our local dive down here in Huntington um can't say enough good things about him I was a fan before I met him I'm a bigger fan now I'm excited for that crowd to see him uh specifically I think that they'll eat him up yeah I know he he was talking nonstop about it he's super excited to go back because I I think he was there last year or the year before when uh we were talking on the podcast with Jack so it's great to see some UK representation I don't think we get a right lot out there uh probably Justified sometimes but uh it's uh it's really interesting I mean I say we've got Tor faai from Australia going over so it seems to be more more in the sense of overseas artist so do do you have any favorite artists or artists that you listen to from overseas that that you you'd be able to share goodness put you on the spot [Laughter] now I'm gonna pull up my Spotify and to see who I've been listening to lately well I hate to say it for the third time but Jack Browning uh I was just listening to his songs the other day but uh let me see this is where you go on your Spotify and you think you find something really cool but it's actually some 80s like L was I listening to that man I don't I don't think I have been listening to any overseas artist lately um I have been listening this might be a way out of their suggestion and Blake can attested this because I was playing it in the van on the past tour um I've been getting really into K-pop recently I wasn't expecting that yeah big bang is a great group um I'm I'm not like super plugged in with any of like whatever scene is going on in there I just like these very few specific artist and it's big bang and um uh t o uh top is uh those those guys are great so yeah K-pop K-pop is I'm impressed man I did not uh I was not expecting that one bit so we we can hear some future Kindred Valley releases K-pop style and you heard breaking news on the rugged Revival there you go fantastic but um but yeah that's really interesting Laurel Cove um we talked about and then I can see you guys have got some upcoming gigs with Hunter Flynn so I'm really excited to see him on Sunday I'm not sure what to expect I've listened to some of his music it'd be great to kind of see him in the UK for for a start and to see him live with Lance Rogers and Daniel Kane so a couple of other guys from Kentucky but um so you've got some gigs coming up with him is that in Kentucky or is that where where you guys are yeah we uh we played with him at the loud and Huntington a couple months ago and that was great and we said hey we'll just add some more on there so we uh the Burl over in Lexington which is a couple hours from where Laurel Laurel Cove happens um we've got a show there with him a co- headline bill with him on March 22nd over there in Lexington so and that's just a great spot we both love playing there and we said why not just do it together and have a great time yeah definitely mate why not absolutely so um yeah I'm I'm really looking forward to going to to see him um it's a strange location by me in Stafford we don't tend to get many gigs for a start this way let alone you know some some Kentucky guys coming to play some proper uh proper music in in my my respect so but there you go but I want to talk a bit more about kind of your your own releases and uh the music that you've put out so I think it was 2022 uh your self-titled album came out as Kindred Valley and from what I'm seeing you've just hit you've just smashed it you've hit the ground running so quickly and I think that's Testament to how good you guys are you know you're picking up so many gigs um playing with lots of different people what what's it what's it felt like since that first kind of release came out insane a blur a really good blur but uh it's I mean it's a lot of stuff that I don't think we ever expected to do because when we made the album we weren't like we're gonna make this album and go and be playing shows everywhere and do this as our career I mean we were all still in school I think and this was just kind of for fun um so it's it's been crazy I mean we've met so many really cool and really good people uh John Grace down there that runs lurel Cove um has just just opened up a whole world of the Kentucky music scene to us um I mean we got to go up to Maine and play with Tommy prye uh this last July it's just been a whole lot of experiences in a really short amount of time just learn a lot about our own creativity and our own goals and how we define success and a lot about each other when you spend six hours a day in a van running up and down the coast so I I can imagine it's um you it's difficult with a few people but to have six people in a van and and traveling all the time that's G to that's got to be crazy but no it's like like I said from what I've seen you've hit the ground running um and it it just seems to you know taken off really well um so what what's it uh so you've got the new release I've Just Seen on Spotify as well with a a guy called corday Brown um yeah cross your mind so that that sounds really different to a lot of the other stuff that you've put out so talk to us a little bit about that yeah so corduroy um Allan um is another local artist around here in Huntington um he's Huntington's Golden Boy everybody loves Allen everybody loves corduroy um and he does really good um like Appalachian Feelgood indie rock music and um he asked us if we wanted to be a part of this song that him and I think another one of his bandmates had sort of co-written and it was mostly Allen's writing and he had um just said that you know we had we had done a couple shows with him and um had just talked and had never really had an opportunity to collaborate on anything um because we sort of came into the live music scene after our project was put out um not the other way around is which is how most people do it and um we had just wanted to work on something for forever and then I think it was almost a year after we said we wanted to work on something he had said hey I've got this song pretty much almost done if you guys would love to be a part of this um we would love to have you and so then Blake and Rachel were actually able to lay down some um background vocals on that and then I just picked a few things on the banjo and I guess they kept the good takes um for my recordings which was all of them naturally yes yes that's fantastic so what what is the music scene like where you are so you talk about The Golden Boy and and some great people on the scene as it is so what what is your kind of local scene like I'm always interested to kind of hear and um so Blake's pointing to me because I I go and see a lot of shows um the I would say the local music scene is heavily inspired by you know whatever you're seeing that Justa came out of this area um is what people are doing and so you got Tyler chers and people like Sturgill Simpson uh you go a little further up north and you got people like Billy strings I would say right now the thing on the East Coast especially you go like uh West Virginia and up basically or maybe even North Carolina and up um the thing right now is acoustic Americana music or Jam jam band music or sometimes just both um you now we're starting to get into both where people are doing like the jam grass sort of things um so you're seeing like a fusion of like it's almost like all the dead heads um also started listening to like Ralph Stanley um so they're all into Bluegrass and old American Music um and bringing back back these traditional Styles but in these new ways and you have every split off of that um and you know you've got different Pockets like Charleston West Virginia has a really good po uh Punk scene um you know every small Town's got their SoundCloud rapper and things like that but I would say what's killing it right now is Americana music and any sort of fusion with that with jam band stuff is really what's kind of taken off and just a regular guy on an acoustic guitar is never going to go away that kind of stuff yeah yeah that that kind of resonates really well with us and I think with the guests that we've had on and the people that we've met recently people like Kobe tels coming out the kind of Virginia way and Brennan Edwards they they seem to be killing it and it seems to be really really popular at the moment so what we tried to do on the the rugged Revival is try to speak to different kind of pockets and and regions of of music and artists that we've gone around to Texas to Alabama to speak to Adam hood and you know kentucki with Josh Mitchell and um you know we we it's just interesting to see what your specific scene is like and how it compares to to others and um you know a lot of people I talk to they say a lot of the interest or the kind of fan base they have is not locally but it's probably in the next kind of town or is is that the same for you guys yeah that's weird that you said that that's because we we talk about that all we thought that that was something unique so I'm glad to know that other people people find that cuz we find that like um and we always have a great crowd at our hometown shows but places like Lexington Kentucky Central Kentucky to Eastern Kentucky is like for whatever reason it's just a few spots over on the map but for whatever reason it's uh things always pop off a little more in that area for us yeah it's a different experience I think the only person hasn't said that was Jonathan pyton in North uh Georgia so he's said actually you know he the biggest kind of fan base in crowd is his local town so that just went against the grain of what everyone else was telling me so it's interesting to kind of find out what your experiences were like of that and you know we've got people like Adam hood that that I talk about constantly because I love the guy but uh he said he exclusively almost exclusively makes his income and all all of his kind of Bas down in Texas so not anywhere near you know where he is so yeah so I don't think you're you're alone there guys it's just uh it's really really interesting um so go back to are you guys signed to any record lab are you still kind of fully independent in that sense no we're we're all independent we uh record everything in house and Jaden mixes it all up down in down in his lab and and we kick it on out through Dro kid and let the world hear it what's the feeling like being independent do you like the fact that you've got that control over every aspect almost or what what are your thoughts on well I mean for an artist like us and especially I mean like as far as what we know how to do it was never going to happen any other way I mean we we were not on any sort of path like we weren't pitching things to labels we hadn't pitched things to labels had no intention of doing that we wouldn't have like if we didn't have an option for recording and producing we wouldn't have turned to that doing it independently and having it available to us was the only way that was ever going to be possible both in just like a do we want to we did I don't think that was an aspiration for any of us to like keep pitching these songs to labels and keep getting told no um so I that wasn't even on any of our minds and we were just putting out this album for fun so um I I I don't think that it would happen any other way independently um that's not to say that it couldn't happen differently in the future but uh it definitely leading up I without a doubt I mean a label getting involved would have been probably disastrous Andor just made it impossible yeah yeah I'm hearing that a lot as well and it it it feels like in recent years the way that social Med media is and you know the things that you have access to now perhaps you didn't have before has changed the game slightly for Independent Artists and you know you don't necessarily need a label behind you to to kind of push your music and you know sometimes it helps you to get me wrong and you've got the right people in the right industry but um yeah I'm hearing more of those those types of stories interestingly talking to Jonathan pyton um who another really great independent artist and you know he was talking about playing Red Rocks with Zack Bryan and Charles W Wesley Godwin uh and then the next week going back to his day job I just find it insane how that how that goes about you know it's uh is that a similar feeling for you guys when you you kind of up on stage and then it's it's kind of what what what do you do for your day jobs if you don't mind me asking uh I move furniture I work estate sales and move furniture so I I finished school and we all kind of went in fully on the band and just found a job that's really flexible with it so that's what I do yeah I just pick up odd jobs where I can people need stuff installed at their house or uh by the way if you need something installed at your house and you're willing to fly me over to UK you know I'm your man um doing just home repairs my parents are um doing a lot of stuff around their house so I have a lot of free time unfortunately I I would love to be able to do turn my hand to anything and I think my wife would as well and there's a few things I have attempted to do I've either blow myself up with the electrics or uh yeah smash something I just left it so uh yeah I'll be happy to fly you out mate if you want to yeah I think I'm the right kind of D that uh doesn't get affected by those sort of things like I can get shed a couple times in a row before I need to seek medical atten and you're back on the saddle straight after yeah unlike me I use it as an excuse just not to do it to be fair and do other other fun stuff I like to do um so what what advice do you have for aspiring or emerging Independent Artists so you've been doing this a while now and it'll be like looking back for yourselves is is there is something that you wish you knew back then that you you know now toar it down a couple I have a I have a million things there's a lot that could be said I don't know that any of it is actually important other than just like don't get uh I think that you should still be working on getting uh on improving I think the thing that I would like to tell songwriters in general is just like uh you if you are a songwriter then you can still improve on that and you can still be improving but you should not let other people um get in the way of that like stop trying to write like insert here person figure out how it is that you write and then keep doing it and figure out what you do or don't like about your writing and don't deviate from that it's allowed to change but as long as you stick to doing what is right for you and is what is actually you and not just trying to imitate somebody um I think that's it I think attitude problems as far as business-wise are a big issue I think it's very easy to get even 10 I get a big head sometimes with the right crowd if even if it's only 10 people so I think a lot of artists get a big head and then it makes them bitter about things maybe things not moving as fast and it's all relative like they're in as soon as you complain about things not moving as fast as you want some guy who's been doing it for three decades will jump in and say who hasn't even made it as far as you have and has worked harder than you have and he'll say you just keep waiting and then a guy will jump in who's done it for three decades long ER than him so I'd say abandon the pity party I I think that's it stop feeling sorry for yourself either do the work or don't and just get up and go I mean it's not fair and it's all luck but you that's that's that's part of it you know what you're getting into yeah no that's that's cool it's the grind of it isn't it and I think some people um especially maybe younger people dare I say uh with with social media and I think it's just going to explode or happen straight away and you know there's been some success stories that have come from that I think Zack Bryan was one of them wasn't he that uh you know he his YouTube stuff blew up and I think one of the first gigs he played to was like 5,000 people it's just you know unheard of and but I think maybe people are seeing that sometimes as The Benchmark and it's just not reality um like you said a lot of guys out there grinding and I think that's part of the fun sometimes it's easy for me to say sat here in my podcast Studio it's part of the fun while you're at grny but uh no I mean the videos don't get it twisted I mean those are cool and like but your odds of posting are still the same every single time so it's not like you know your odds are one and five million it doesn't mean if you post five million videos one of them is bound to blow up it means every single time time you're playing a one in five million chance so you shouldn't really be surprised whenever your one in a five million chance doesn't ever manifest into something more it's cool you can keep playing the lottery especially since this one's free why wouldn't you but it's never going to replace actually going out there and earning fans earning people's uh attention and actually making music and putting it out I I in my opinion it will never top that and it can be really easy to just buy into your own hype and you know a lot of people make a lot of promises in this business and it's important at the end of the day to just keep keep playing shows keep booking keep writing songs keep doing what you know how to do don't take anything personally because it's usually not most things are like just just even running the business on this side on our end there's sometimes like things that just don't work out because we forgot about it you know what I mean and I'm sure I end up thinking about it later I'm like oh that person probably thinks that we are being a jerk I don't know what word I can say what words I'm allowed to say say one you that person probably thinks that we're being just a massive jerk to them and turns out it was just because I had a million other things to do that weekend and I just didn't get back around to it most things aren't personal if you didn't get booked for this or that or these people don't call you back most things just aren't personal at least that's what I tell myself maybe they are all personal and I should be taking them I think you'll be better off if you just don't take things personally and also just that that was to book in what Blake was saying um don't buy your own hype things like that no it's it's it's a great message and um yeah I mean we spoke to a few few artists already and it's like you know you're going to come across a few dicks now and again but but they few and far between and for the most part and particularly our experiences of of you know the musical circles is that everyone's really supportive if you find a good crowd of people you know you prop each other up and you support each other and you know if if you're getting a big big head you got mates there can tell you to you know to to to watch what you're doing basically nice nice of sented so yeah completely relate to that so moving on slightly what what kind of projects have you got going on this year obviously we talked about Laurel Co Mo and we've got you've got some other festivals I believe you're playing as well have you got any other kind of collaborations planned or anything you could talk about in terms of releases um I can't think of any collaborations right now at the moment maybe maybe a couple uh in the back pocket but I'm not sure what all I'm allowed to say at the moment I was gonna let you take the charge but I'm not sure just squeeze it out of you yeah you know we've we've been writing these last few months I think honestly we started in November we sat down we said let's start working towards the second album and figure out what we want to write for that versus what we want to put out of singles leading up to it and just getting stuff out there because a lot of times we can we can get too picky sometimes with what we're writing and say oh well it's not good enough for the album well it's a great thing that singles exist because we can just put them out like that so we've we've been writing uh just a lot the last few months kind of trying to figure out what to do with it when to put them out so hopefully we'll have some new stuff in the next few months at least a song or two hopefully but maybe that's over promising but goodness out now you're committed now we expect I know I've said it on podcast hopefully some more um you know great content we want to try to boost up the YouTube I I'm big on using YouTube as a space over the short form content um I say long it's long form content but it's like five minutes um but I I would love to we have some stuff in the works with like live videos from concerts um things like that professional recordings I'm excited to get those out um I'll do a slight plug I'm doing going to do a solo album it's going to release this year hopefully yeah uh and yeah it's uh mostly it leans heavier into the country music side but it's some of it's available on Spotify already under NOA Freeman so yeah all those things I think it'll be a a good year for music coming out of the Kindra Valley HQ oh well we we'll definitely check that out mate um that's that's going to be really interesting for you um yeah I've I've checked out lot the YouTube stuff that you put out already and I think you did some stuff with like radio WV I believe it was and is it apple and Untold maybe I might have got that one wrong but um I I love those you know I think the 1921 uh video was fantastic the the sound on that was incredible uh we shared that on our Tik Tok and a bunch of other stuff because you know the stuff that you're putting up so good um so did you like doing those sort of um on on location kind of recordings that that you've been pulling out yeah they're they're cool it's always fun uh just go traes out in the woods and put out the camera and record some stuff and then uh like I think some of the stuff we've been putting out more recently at least on our social media has been like we stayed in an Airbnb above where we were playing down in Mobile and it just had a balcony that was just looking out and we said well it'd be stupid to not record stuff right now so we've been trying to just take advantage of any cool scenery we're around which we you know we're we're blessed enough to be able to get to be around a lot of it and be in a lot of cool places trying to really make work with the algorithm and get videos out there you know it's fun watching different forms uh and different uh platforms or uh forms of media and art come together too like watching whenever we get into some of those more professional settings watching people who are good at things that I know nothing about uh communicating with guys who are doing sound something that I do know I'm like there's a whole other world like production um things like that that I'm not even clued in on um so it's I like getting in those spaces because it's neat to watch um those Crews usually work together and see what sort of solutions they come up with um to just like interesting problems we're a six piece band so we're hard to fit into a lot of rooms is that what they sticking around on balconies I I did watch that video it looked pretty windy that day as well very windy that that must have been a difficult recording that one but uh still really good nonetheless guys it was fantastic um so let let's kind of delve into you know what what kind of music you guys are interested in and you know sometimes we ask you know what what's your favorite album and stuff like but it's a bit bit cliche but I'm interested in you know something that you've listened to in the perhaps last 10 years whether that's an album or a single what would you say has been your favorite or standout that that is your go-to uh I have an answer already ready it is thuril Simpsons metamodern sounds and Country Music um and then right beneath that is Marvin Gay what's going on those have been my two big pieces of uh music that have really I I I still probably listen to those at least a couple times a week that's awesome we love Sturgill here are we actually going to go see him on the 1st of March because he's to the UK so that the first time we see him live but uh cannot wait man that'll be under Johnny blue skies I think that's his his new isn't it yeah I got to see him in Virginia Beach this past year right actually before we the band picked me up for a gig after I got done um with the concert and um it was everything I wanted just three hours of face melting it playing all the hits back to back to back to back to back people get mad he doesn't play the first album um I don't really care it's it's still great it's all great to me um he could just do metamodern or sailor guide over and over and over again um and I would still probably listen to it so you're you're in for a good one I can't wait I think cutting grass is probably one of my my favorite albums it's just uh straight up isn't it it's it's awesome to that looking forward to that man what about you Blake yeah um so I think probably the lumir those first two albums that they have out like showed me that something existed Beyond like contemporary Christian music and just like pop country so those were those were like the two albums that kind of opened my mind up even to anything that was towards folk or Bluegrass or Americana um and so those are ones I I always go back and listen to and just have affected me really deeply and you know affected the way I think I write and think about things think about music and those are albums I'm really really grateful for yeah I I can certainly hear the kind of luminer uh feel in in some of your tracks so I it's uh yeah an obvious choice I I can hear from that fantastic and um one question that we always like to ask and you know the channel was dedicated to kind of propping up Independent Artists emerging artists and and just given a platform in that sense so whether it's local to to your scene or another scene that you've been playing at is there any musicians or bands um that are lesser known perhaps uh that you've been personally following and and think that we should check out or listeners should check out Jordan Le King is the first person that came to my mind um so Jordan he's actually played some shows with Hunter Flynn they do some Midwest some Midwest uh show routes sometimes but he's opened for us at least once when we played at the Burl um and he's just great he's a great guy he brings his dog around everywhere and she'll just like run through the crowd or come up on stage sometimes while he's playing and he is just a fantastic voice and lyrics and his stuff is just very it's very like I'm from the huler like I am from Kentucky like it's it's just very good I would highly recommend his stuff yeah I'll have to apologize to all my buddies for not mentioning them but there is one person um that put out just a phenomenal project and I've never met with him in person his name is Dale blankin ship and he put out an album called Cowboys and Aliens and it is it's quickly becoming I I didn't include it on that last part just because it only just came out this past year so it feels a bit premature to call it one of my alltime greats but it is legitimately a great album um combines a lot of the music that I was listening to that growing up as a kid um it's phenomenal it's grungy it's dark it's country it's everything I like about it d blank and ship Cowboys and Aliens oh fantastic that's a new one to me so I like to to explore and go down a rabbit hole so I'll be doing that this week with his music uh it's a difficult question sometimes because I can imagine it feels like an endorsement you don't endorse all of your friends you know some people can get upset with you um but I'll ask the question anyway it's just what we do um just some more kind of personal musical stuff I mean is there kind of one song over time that you've heard that you you'd wish that you had WR oh yes do you do you know that we wish we had written yeah yeah oh gosh I uh Don't Think Twice It's all right byebye Bob Dylan is one that I it's such a uh sad song and it captures I don't even always know what he's trying to say in Bob's lyrics but I uh just the feeling that he has throughout that whole song is something that uh evokes a lot of emotion and Johnny Cash's Big River I think those are two of the greatest songs ever written and I am very envious that I did not write them yeah I think I don't know that it's a specific s for me but like to have an ounce of what the Ava Brothers have going on would be Heavenly Man like they're they're just so good at storytelling and just just making crazy good songs and also Jesse Wells whatever he's got going through his veins I don't know if y'all are on the Jesse Wells kick yet over there I have seen him do do the rounds on socials he's an interesting guy dude he is he's he's probably my favorite writer at the moment I've been listening to him non-stop the last couple months and just to have a mind that can come up with stuff that witty and relevant so quick and make it sound so good it's just insane is this the guy with the John fogy kind of haircut yeah that's what he reminds me of yeah he's cool man he's he's got a massive following on socials when I I kind of check him out so obviously deserve but yeah I'm going to check that out a bit more I think um so outside of kind of music then stepping away from music is there something you guys are kind of passionate about or a hobby that that people might not expect and just something to kind of get away from what what you do on a daily basis you got anything it's it's hard because the last three years it feels like the only thing we've been doing is music that's all you done yeah but uh you know I used to write poetry some which is I guess not too much different from the music path but I really enjoyed that and just writing and reading um because I think there's just a lot of things to learn and figure out about yourself and learn from the wisdom of others and so probably just like literature is my other hobby I guess I uh I do a lot of nerd stuff I mean I I mostly just play music I swear but uh I've got a lot of instruments the different instruments that I'll pick up down here but I uh mostly just like nerd stuff I'm a big film guy um also just like video games and any sort of like nerd Association um any pick any like nerdy thing that you can think of I've probably been into it at one point or another I think our DU passion was D yes D love that Dungeons and Dragons do you do that sort of thing then is is that oh nerdy that his M yeah yeah Warhammer 40K all the real nerds will know that um I haven't gotten a painting figurines yet but I'm sure that's right over the hill that that's next on the list you you're kind of you reading reaching Heights of nerdism at absolutely I I'll cut this bit out if you want mate and uh you keep your your credibility on it you know I think it's best that people know now rather than find out years down the road yeah you can't hide it forever to be fair so uh I yeah so who who's in your musical Circle guys it's um it's interesting for for us to kind of find out who knows who and normally a lot of guys that we speak to say it's quite a small scene so when you're doing the kind of rounds of um touring or playing gigs you tend to kind of bump into the same people and they become almost your kind of Circle of mates so is there any other kind of musicians that that is that the case for you guys yeah I would say Jordan Lee King is definitely on there Hunter Flynn is on there um just guys that we run into a lot and they seem to be like um doing really well um in the same ways or in the same places that we are so Bill tayor Bill Taylor is another one uh trying to think of more people because I know that there's more and it's I'm GNA feel bad after this comes out we uh at least at Laurel Co we always meet up with uh Nat Meers if you've heard of him he does a lot of lot of blue he's fantastic he uh I think he's actually in the hospital right now though he's got some stuff going on but Nat's a treasure of a person and his music is incredible so and uh Logan holstad one of his friends is another one of our friends uh Logan will just like magically appear somewhere behind you at a festival that he's not even playing at he's just just he's kind of a mythical creature like that um so he is in your circle whether you want him to be or not he's there um and I love Logan uh so Cole Cheney um he's playing a little he's we were like briefly in his Circle for a minute I'd say he's out of ours a little bit because he's kind of taken off but um we played a show at the Burl with him um about a year year and a half ago something like that and those guys yeah yeah all people kind of doing the sort of Music uh things like that we end up all kinds of places that they're at that's cool yeah C chainy seems sort of uh yeah rocketed up recently hasn't he um yes don't good fantastic to see see Dad sort of thing but um no brilliant it's it's nice to know say what what what circles people move in and um who who you kind of interact with so I mentioned earlier we've got Hunter Flynn over at the minute so um I'm going to speak to Hunter and find out your deepest darkest secrets and things that you didn't tell us on the uh on the podcast and um now just just to say hello and it's it's great to see you know more and more artists I've seen it over the last 12 months especially and we we we are trying to get into the kind of space of um helping people who want to come over touring the UK or just playing a few gigs is that something that's ever on your kind of agenda uh now or in the future oh for sure for sure we've we've heard that there's like uh an interesting scene going on over there um where you all really have a great appreciation for this kind of music um and I yeah we've talked all the time about how we'll make it happen we might still be aways from it um because like I said it's a little hard to make six people get in anywhere even a couple miles away so we'll see about across the oce as soon as we're able I know it's not exactly where you all are but I think it's been like two months now I looked down at our Spotify stats and Dublin Ireland was our number two City or number six City not number two oh um with like with a thousand people listening over there and it's kind of stayed there I don't know who started that but you know I appreciated it overseas stuff so hopefully we'll make it make it over sometime yeah yeah Ireland's got a really good country scene and in fact um my my co-host who is not on today uh he's he's part Irish so we were trying to do a emerald Revival we were going to call it um for for for March because of St Patrick's Day and you know start to speak to some some uh Irish country artists because that that's his scene as well so I'm not I'm not too um yeah surprised that you guys are doing really well over there because I I think it's a a strong scene and if you ever get the chance to go and play out there uh we're certainly explore exploring it for for bookings and gigs and you know even to do a podcast out there so come and join us you'll be you'll be welcome that would be awesome absolutely are you familiar with and this might be more of your podcast um co-host Lane but The High Kings they're an Irish uh band we played with them once uh that was actually like our third show ever they're really popular uh Irish band is that is just that's the classification right it's just Irish band they do tra they have bag pipes and everything um and The High Kings they're really popular in Ireland and we played on Mountain Stage with them and they were like the headliners and we were all the way down there at the bottom and they were some of the nicest guys ever super cool um gave me one of the guys gave me his phone number and I he like text me on his birthday or on not text me on his birthday text me on my birthday yeah that'd be we hey you didn't wish me happy birthday yeah it was like our third show and we're up there playing with the hik Kings and they're like yeah we've played for a few presidents and like a prime minister at one point and stuff I like what are we even doing here now like why are we on this stage it was nuts they were incredible I will I will check him out yeah I think that's probably more for Ronnie that he'd probably know and probably smack me around the head to say what why don't you know them so uh we we are we're still reaching out because we want to say bring bring a few artists on and maybe uh they might come on if we're lucky we'll see or they might just blow us off because they're too big who knows if you don't ask you don't know but uh that's the trick um and that's fantastic so what what can fans do to kind of support you guys othering kind of streaming your music and we always trying to explore ways how we can kind of prop you up and amplify kind of what what you're doing and what your mission is I think probably the biggest way is just get into shows if you can if you're in the area that's I mean we're we're driving all around the country a lot of Midwest northeast southeast uh up and down the east coast and that's like the most encouraging thing ever is to just have people at shows yeah um and just get to meet people and hear how they heard about us and you know what's how we related to them and just how they came up us so that's probably at least my biggest personal yeah no I I I would I mean obviously we have like an online store but there outside of that I would say the things that keep us going are just like people telling their friends and showing up to shows I mean they really are like there was a guy who came up to us at our last show and just kind of like gave me a pep talk I didn't know I needed and I was just kind of like going through the motion just being like oh thank you man thank you I really appreciate it he goes hey stop no you guys need to keep going I want you to pay attention to this keep going please and it kind of like Snapped me to attention I was like okay weird Sage that just pulled up in the I will take it like kind of re-energized me a little bit um so yeah be the be that person come to a show um scream during the the parts they want you to yell at I promise people bands like it when you are respectfully Rowdy and the crowd gets into it um and you come up and talk to us don't have to buy anything just come up and talk to us um we really appreciate it yeah we we're respectfully Rowdy in the UK I think uh when when I went to see Colby Helms um play and met him in Birmingham I think there was surprised how kind of reserved the UK are we we kind of kind of sway a little bit maybe and you know we're enjoying ourselves we're fully engaged with it but I think they they expected more dancing so uh yeah don't be disappointed if if we come here people AR dancing it we're just more reserved until we've had a few drinks then yeah all all hell breaks loose but it's all good man but uh is there anything you guys want to specifically plug you mentioned a few things already but um you know you've got your social media accounts out there so make sure everyone's following Kindred Valley but anything particular you guys want to kind of get a message out for when when is this coming out I see BL scrolling through some of our dates uh this will be out before the end of this week okay sweet so we can plug something coming up we've got uh so this Saturday we're gonna be playing at the analog in Nashville Tennessee oh yeah we're going to be in Memphis on Monday we're going to be in Oxford Mississippi on Wednesday and then we're going to be in Louisville Kentucky with dark moon hollow on Thursday so those are kind of like the most immediate things coming up but we're we're touring around a whole bunch and playing a whole bunch in the Southeast and West Virginia Kentucky Ohio so yeah I would say definitely check out the social medias take a screenshot save the WE Post every month where we're going to be at for that month and then we have a big poster posting where we're going to be at for the next couple months and we try to make sure that those are at the top of our Pages um but if you want to know where we'll be that's that's it's pretty darn accurate and uh um we also if you go on our Spotify we have things on uh bands in town that'll show you every show that we can display that has like a website that we can link to or uh things like that is on the Spotify um and we update that with accurate information as soon as we get it we try our best short of like sending out actual physical mail um to let people know where we're going to be at so just yeah I would say keep keep checking in that's where we're going to post anything new that's coming out of Kinder Valley yeah you're super organized guys I I did notice that and I thought that's more organized than somebody artist that we speak to it's hard work isn't it trying to trying to keep on on top of these things yes it is it's interesting you know I was talking to Colby and a few others about you know how they like people to follow him and they find out that they've got a lot of older uh fans out there that don't necessarily go on social media too much and they prefer the oldfashioned kind of newsletter through the email so do you guys do that sort of thing or is that not we we do very infrequently because Brett our drummer's in charge of it um he uh we do it if you follow us on bands in town we've got an email list through bands in town I was actually just sending him graphics for upcoming shows today like an hour before this started so we can send out an email there you go I just found it interesting because I thought no it's a really good point you know if I think to my parents and you know other things like that and uh yeah they they just avoid especially Tik Tok and Instagram and those things so they they prefer the oldfashioned email I don't know how but uh not my thing but yeah it's way it's the same reason we carry CDs in our merch um because there's still a crowd that you know isn't going to listen to music on anything else so that and vinyl yeah yeah a lot of vinyl uh that must be hard to kind of log that around in in your gear because it's uh it's quite heavy that stuff but uh no brilliant I just want to kind of close up by thanking you so much uh for coming on the show guys it's uh it's been great to get to know you and hopefully um there'll be a point next year maybe that we'll be able to go out to to some of these festivals we might bump into you it' be good to perhaps do some live interviews and you know we'll catch up guys but um in the meantime you know don't don't be strangers um if there's anything you need from the UK crowd the UK scene uh drop us a line but otherwise uh unless there's anything else to say guys I will raise a toast to the grit to the grind and to the Revival you got a Coke just like me mes and thanks everyone for listening

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