Redefining coworking. Exceptional offices for every business. This summer, eSpaces expands with two premier locations. Cool Springs at Corporate Center and Brentwood at City Park. Explore the private offices, team suites, and fully equipped meeting rooms. Opening July 2025. Limited spaces are available. Schedule your private tour now at eSpaces.com and be sure to check out all
15 locations at eSpaces.com. That's eSpaces.com. eSpaces.com. But the Titans posted this. Happy Father's Day to all the Titan moms and fatherly figures. What does that even mean? What is that? Confused. I assume they mean that there might be women that are the father of their... Because if you have two women...
Or they could be talking about step-by-step. Have they not learned yet? All of them. What the hell are they doing with their... They've got to sell tickets to football games. Only 8.39% of artists on country radio are women today. What was the percentage? And it was 8.39%. Wow, that's a great percentage. It's down from 29% in 2000. So in 25 years, it has...
totally declined as far as female artists on the radio. Okay, so why is that? Maybe we need to recruit better singers. These artists today, these young artists, I'm going to harp on it again, not repeating myself. There's a false sense of stardom from streaming. Just because you have a song, wouldn't you rather have 20 songs that go top 10 than one? Really think about it. Sometimes
Be in a duo and have success. Tor writes songs. The Try That in a Small Town podcast begins now. Try That in a Small Town.
Welcome back to the Try That in a Small Town podcast. We're coming to you from the Patriot Mobile Studios. There's a really interesting energy at the table tonight. It's been a weird day. It's been a very weird day. We're going to continue it. It's been a weird few years. No, it's been a weird couple weeks. Yeah, it actually really has. We can maybe get into that in a little bit. That was Thrash. We got K-Lo.
We got TK. Of course, I'm Kurt. Fondue. People say fondue, but the only time we use it is as an introduction. Like, do you ever call me fondue?
No, I don't. I call you Kurt. Well, so we'll see what happens. It's new though, Kurt. It'll work its way in. We'll see what happens with it. Neil, I don't even know what to do. I was going to ask you about your golf match, but you're cradling a football. What's on your mind? No, no. I played a match today and I got beat on the 18th hole. I actually had a four-footer left to right. I mean,
I misread it. So was it actually left to right? Yeah. Or is that how you misread it? No, it was left to right. It was, but it was a little outside the hole. I putted it right at the left edge and it wasn't enough. My speed was good. My stroke was good. Everything was perfect and it lipped out. I could have extended the whole match if I'd have made that putt, but I did not make it. And
and I was eliminated today, and losing sucked. But you made it to 18. That's what we were talking about earlier. It's all perspective. That's what K-Lo does. You made it to 18. You didn't get beat on every hole. It's match play. That'd be humiliating. I told K-Lo when he got here, he's like, how'd you do? And I said, I lost on 18. I missed a four-week. That's good. You made it to 18. There's nothing good about losing. Nothing. You're not Ricky Bobby, man. So would you rather us go...
Dude, you missed a four-footer? I know. What's wrong with you? I don't know. I would rather hear that. You would? Yep. I'd rather be scolded. I don't think so. I don't know. I'm kind of disappointed in him. Yeah. I expect Neal to make a four-footer. I expect more out of him when it comes to that. But there's guys in the open we just watched that would miss two-footers. Is their name Neal? Now, granted, their conditions might have been a little harder, and the greens might have been a touch faster, but they still missed it.
And I bet the people didn't tell him on the way up. So it says, I can't believe you freaking missed that. Rory. Well, I guarantee you, they didn't say at least you made it this far. They didn't say that either. I bet the wives did. The wives said it. Cause they're supportive and they care. They got scolded for it too. They don't want to hear that.
You know what? I'm going to back Neal. All they feel is defeat. I'm going to back Neal. I just feel defeat. You should have made the putt. I should have. Should have made the putt. I'm damn right I should have. If you ain't first, you're last. That's what I teach my kids. That's right. Says Ricky Bobby. And so I hold a football.
For comfort. For comfort, and I'm looking forward to it. I may hold a football from every episode from here until football season starts. I'm with you. I'm ready. I may hold on to this football. Just come on, baby. Do you typically hold it in your left hand? No, I don't. I get good control of either one. I don't know. You know, speaking of football, we won't give it away, but we might have someone coming up very soon that you can talk some good football with. Oh, can you drop any names? Mm-hmm.
Maybe. Maybe not. Tune in next week. What? Maybe, maybe not. We'll see. Somebody famous in football? Yeah. And it's American football. It's not the soccer bullshit. Yeah, I don't count the other football. The original OG football. Okay. Well, we'll leave them hanging. Leave our listeners hanging. There you go. It's been a weird day. It's been a couple weird weeks. It's been a very weird day. Yeah.
What was so weird about it? So many things. Today? Just today? Just today was a weird day. I don't even know where to begin. I don't even know where to begin. It's been a couple...
weeks for Neil. His daughter just got married for one. That's a lot. Yeah, it was good. That was a good thing. Absolutely a good thing. And you guys came. We did. We looked good, didn't we? You looked good. You guys dressed up clean up nice. One of us in the room didn't follow Ali's specific instructions. Yes, you don't see him at the table. No, you hear him laughing in the background. Yeah.
Yep, that's him. Jim, our producer, apparently didn't read the...
All black. Or you don't fear Ali like we do. True fear. Maybe he's nowhere enough. What color suit? I didn't even notice because I was in a fog. He wore a powder blue, was it? He wore a gray suit, gray jacket. It looked nice, though. It did look nice. The invitation was specific, right? Very specific. It was black. So specific, I went out shopping for it because I fear Ali like anybody should. Yeah. No.
Oh, no. She talked to me about it. Is that Jim in a gray jacket? I think it said Tuck's optional black tie required. Yes. Right? It did. Which is pretty firm. Yeah. And we excused Tully from the tie.
Yeah. You still look good. You black is fine. Nobody, no one said a word. Black tie, it just means kind of black suit. She told me though, I didn't have to wear a tie. Yep. So. And Jim, nobody, nobody said anything about your suit. You look fantastic. You look great. Ali mentioned it though. You look great. No one but Ali mentioned it. Yeah. Just the bride. Just the bride. It's cool. I was upsetting her on her first marriage. I know. I got both my girls married off now. So they're both off the payroll now. Yeah.
but it doesn't, I don't feel any lighter. You don't feel any lighter? No, I don't. You're never off the payroll. I took bets because Allie's my oldest and I took bets that she would probably come back from Jamaica pregnant. Oh, wow. And I bet I win. I bet she is. I bet because she's like, she wants the kids and I wouldn't, I wouldn't if they're just free-for-all and in Jamaica. Yeah.
There's nothing. Probably not the visual you want. Well, I'm just saying, hey, she's married now. Do it. Let's go. If you're going to have kids, let's go. If you're going to do it, I'm ready to be a grandpa. So just go from married to pregnant in your book.
She's fun. That's great. That's how I did it. That's what she wants to do? Somewhere in that order. I did something similar to that. Well, then at least you don't go through the dog phase. Hey, let's get a Maltese. And then they get two. Then they don't have kids. They don't have time. And they're their kids. And then all of a sudden that wears off. And then they have babies. They just go right to the babies and don't get the indoor pets. Well, they've already got the dogs. Absolutely filthy. They've already got the dogs. Oh, I didn't mean that, Allie. I think the dogs are the ones.
Neil, what do you got in that phone of yours? It's packed with... You know what? I heard him yapping about something a few minutes ago. I know. I'm always... Before we start there... I read something here that says only 8.39% of artists on country radio are women today. What was the percentage? And it was 8.39%. Wow, that's very... It's down from 29% in 2000. So in 25 years, it has...
Totally declined as far as female artists on the radio. Okay, so why is that? Maybe we need to recruit better singers. Maybe they need to sing better songs. Or maybe we don't know of all of them that are actually in Nashville and they just don't have deals yet.
Now, I think all these girls that they've got pictures of. Is this a radio or like being streamed? It says country radio. Artists on country radio are women, 8.39%. And there's a huge, there's a montage of faces on this thing. And it's not coming from me. I'm just reading what I read. And it doesn't look good for women unless they start stepping up their game a little bit. And they can blame whoever they want to.
It could be the music. It could be the – and I think 99% of them sound exactly the same. So there's a lot of that. And I'm not saying they're bad singers. I'm just saying they all sound alike. You mean the ones successfully right now on the radio all sound the same? There are only like five. There's a lot of them. I mean, now that they're doing well. There ain't five. Every one of these pictures of these girls right here, I've heard their names.
And they've all had hits. Like roll some out. Oh, you got Megan Maroney. You got that girl right there and that girl right there. Ella Langley to me. Ella Ben-Mellis? She's over here. She shouldn't even be in this. She's a world apart, I think, in my book. You're saying she's unique and awesome. Absolutely. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, Lainey Wilson is over here in the same category. She's her own. I agree. And then there's a couple of others, but for the most part,
And I don't know the names of them, but I've seen their faces before. They all sound exactly the same to me. And I'm not dissing them for anything. They all can sing. They all can carry a tune. They're great and whatever. But, I mean, I think the listener may be just a little bit bored and they're not researching like they should.
Well, it's interesting because what was the previous day, 2000 something? What was that? Was it Trisha Yearwood? Was it Martina McBride? There were a lot of, there were a lot of. You can tell them though, when they came on the radio, you knew who it was. I knew it was Trisha. I knew Martina. I knew Reba. I knew Faith Hill. I knew they were all, they all had their own brand and their own sound today. I mean,
To me, in the female category, it's just a sleeve of crackers. Oh, that is a t-shirt? You mean they're all from Georgia? To me, you're just a sleeve of crackers. I'm sorry. With a little bit of cheese thrown in. To your point, you're right. And which is why me and Kurt are working with this new female artist, which we haven't worked with a female artist in a long time that we actually thought had a shot. So...
Check out Mary Cutter. We were, you know, she's done really well on social media and she's got a really unique thing. She writes, you know, she's from like Kentucky backwoods and writes these really aggressive, uh,
She is not trying to be anything of what you heard. As a matter of fact, it is like shock value. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. And the only way I could liken it is when Alanis Morissette came out and you heard You Oughta Know and you were like, what the is that? You either loved it or you hated it. Yeah. And there are going to be people who do not like Mary Cutter.
uh, what is she? Is she traditional? No, no, she is backwards country. She is so Kentucky, so authentic. She, she's been here a few years doing it all on her own, like really impressive work ethic. And, um, you know, we got reached out by our manager to produce a couple of things and man, like John Rich is a big fan, you know, it's cause she's so different, but the music is, it's aggressive and she's writing about things that are,
I mean, about as true as you get. Yeah, whether it's big pharma or she just takes everything on. It is where she grew up and we tracked and it's heavy, it's cool, but it's so different. And that's, Neil, you brought up a great point. And I blame the industry for this as much as anybody, but the females aren't allowed to be polarizing. And we all know from the success, like with Alpene and everybody,
You don't want to live in the gray area. You know, you want, you want people to love you or hate you or figure it out. Right. Where's that? Try that in a small town. Female. That's Mary Cutter. Good. And I'm telling you, it is your new job. Gotta give me time. I just started. She's got, she's got all these organically grown social media numbers. Like, you know,
over 200,000 on Instagram that she did all herself, real numbers. She streams and it's like, she's so different. And what I love the most is when labels say, oh, you need something different. We need something different. And you bring them something different and they get scared.
And she's going to land in the right spot, and she's going to hit because no one is doing it. Yeah, and she's going to scare some people. And that is beautiful. Is this an invitation to find her the right song? Oh, dude. To write her the right song? We're going to write in the room with her because you need to see...
What she is. I'm ready for a female to make some noise. I'm ready for it. She, if we're going to have a female, I'll tell you this. The first female I've seen in a really long time that I can envisioning actually opening up for us or someone like us on the road at eight o'clock that people are going to give a shit about.
and have a show where it's like, she's wild. She's like, it's like Alanis, Kurt nailed it. It's like 1995, that's her now for country music. I'm real excited about it. People are going to love it or they're going to hate it, but that's what we're trying to do. I mean, doing the regular stuff that's going to land in the middle, that's the problem with our, we have a lot of great female artists.
The ones that are out are doing really well. They're great. The ones that are out are all- I'm just saying, but what I was going to say was they aren't allowed to be polarizing. It's as much as the industry's fault as anybody. Way too safe. I think it's D, all of the above. You're right, because the labels do say, we need something different. Then they're like, hold on, we need something for radio. Too different. That's too different. But I do think a lot of female artists-
can fall into a trap of trying to please people and like saying, yeah, you're right. I want to do something for the radio. Exactly. As opposed to say, no, this is me. This is the ground I'm standing on. You either like it or you don't. I'm a cutter. I want to be a cutter. I wonder, is there, I don't know. I don't know if anybody has the numbers on this, but.
As far as guys in town chasing deals and girls in town chasing deals, is it equal or do the guys dominate anyway? And if so, mathematically, they would win. You know what I mean? That's a good point. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I'd love to know that number. I would love to know the percentages of guys and gals that are out there trying to do it, even on social media, on TikTok and everything. Because you already know how hard it is as a guy to get on the radio. And if you did the math and you're with your parents and everything, they say...
Well, Hunt, only 8% of females actually succeed on radio. That's such a low number as opposed to, you know, if your guy said, well, 90, 92%. You can't help it. If you start A-Bing females to males in country music, and if you were to A-B their voices, you played this female and you played this male, they're going to be able to tell you who the male is right off the bat on a huge percentage of them.
As opposed to the female side. I don't know who that is. I think we've done a good job as an industry of completely watering down the male market. It's...
Right now, there's some guys that are good and there's some new guys that are like, I'm the same way. Who is that? I know. Another guy with a baseball hat on backwards. Guilty on both sides. Another Dylan, another Brett, another whatever. Who's that dude that sounds exactly... Seriously, we got 50 Dylans, Bretts. We got... I know. Who's the guy that sounds like Morgan Wallen? What's his name? Tucker Wetmore. He sounds exactly like Morgan to me. I have an issue with that. I'm happy for him. Yeah, he's good. Good dude. He's good. But it sounds... I don't know how you...
It sounds just like Morgan. It does. To me, it's hard to tell them apart. It's not a bad idea. I mean, really. Morgan's huge, and if you're another label, we say, we want one of those. He won't be Morgan, but if he's anywhere close, they make millions of dollars. That happened in the 90s, too. But at least they all sounded a little different. I mean, Tracy Bird and Tracy Lawrence didn't sound exactly the same and needed a Clint Black. He didn't sound like Garth, but
Tucker Whitmore sounds exactly more to me. Well, you know what, though? I mean, you think about this. This happened 10 years ago. Was it 10? Maybe not even 10. Dan and Shay came out, and everybody said, sounds just like Rascal Flatts. They did. It sounds just like Rascal Flatts, but...
They had a pretty good career. They certainly did. And actually, those guys are great. You know, I'm going to come back to this. Did you say they had a pretty good career? No, I said they're having a pretty good career. I'm like, I think they're doing pretty dang good. I have a mission at this table for the four of us. What? We'll produce it and we'll write it. I'm telling you right now,
Male duo. I'm looking for a duo. Quality Brooks and Dunn type songs. It is right there. The duo category in this market is sitting right there, but none of the duos want to be country. I've got a duo. They want to be pop. You do? TK Low. TK Low. TK Low. TK Low. TK Low. TK Low. Or TK Low. TK Low. I don't know how many years we can make it on the road, though. Yeah.
speak to yourself telly's up there pretty good you know what i'm saying but you're right i'm serious category is open to all the duos out there cut some good songs do yourselves a favor it's right there brooks and dunn has been out 100 years and they're back at the awards i mean i'm serious though it's right there it is right there just if you're a new male artist
For one second, think about, do you want to be a struggling male artist playing 10 fairs a year? Or do you want to be a duo, get a couple hits, award shows, opening acts? It's right there. It's right there. Dan and Shay is great, but- Florida Georgia Line broke up, so it's right there. It's right there. I tell you what, those guys had it. Oh my gosh. FGL. Are you kidding me? I tell you what, when they were opening for us in the middle slot, maybe their second year out, maybe? Yeah.
Crews had already been big. They were on their third, fourth big hit. Had they stayed the course and kept putting out good songs, they would have been that Brooks and Dunn type dominating figure every year at award shows, all the TV stuff. But man, they just can't hold together. So it's sitting right there for a duo. What split them up? Let's go there for a second. Let's go there for a second. Okay, what did split them up?
It split a lot of people up. I know. It does. It did. Yeah. Well, I mean, you know. It's political views. Yeah, of course. It did. I mean. It splits families up. It really does. Which is unbelievable. But yeah. It's not going to split us up. No, it won't. It just makes us stronger, I guess. Not until you kick us out.
Caleb can be a little liberal thinking sometimes. I love you throwing the duo thing out there though. I love you throwing that out there. Cause it's, I think it's wide open. I totally agree 100% with you on that. I've been looking for, we've got a couple that we're looking at and doing, but it's like, man, if you get them to buy into the big picture, all the male acts, they want to, what is it about being a solo male act struggling to fight through all the other new male acts? That's exciting. Yeah.
That would, I'd be like, if I was a great singer or great guitar player, I'd be like, give me a duo. Let's go. Let's have success. It's this market. This industry loves duos. They love it. If you get the right one, Dan and Shay could be bigger, not the right songs. You know, if you're in the country market, do some country songs. If you want to be pop, go pop.
But now you're in the gray area. I want to clear something just because I just met those guys. They're sweet. And they're amazing. But have I missed something? Aren't they having hit after hit after hit? No, they're huge. How are they not doing well? No, no, they're doing well. They're doing well, but they don't sound like they're doing well. They're huge. No, it could be bigger, though.
The NHA could be bigger. Anybody could be bigger. No, no, I'm serious. They're huge, but when they put the keel out, that was a big song. Huge. Massive song. Really good song. Massive song. Haven't had that kind of thing since, though. I'm not somebody to ask. First of all, we know those guys. We love them. Yeah. I don't listen to country radio, so I couldn't even tell you what their last song was. Well, yeah. Can anybody hear?
No. Yeah. But I don't listen to the radio. I don't listen to the radio. The last thing I remember is the Justin Bieber thing. But you're answering, I mean, you're kind of answering my question for me though. You knew Tequila and I, and to their credit, they came out and put a really good song out a couple of years ago. And I can't remember the name of it. I'm sorry. It was a real country sounding thing. And I was like, they're doing it. This is great. But they've already established themselves as poppier sounding. And I tell you what, they're good.
Dude, those guys are talented. Yeah. Excellent. Dude can sing the phone book, and it's... I played golf with Shea a couple of times, and there may be a little bit of a political divide between those two as well. Yeah, I'm not going to break that news, but you may be. I don't know. Breaking news. But there could be a little bit of a political divide between those two, but I'm not sure about that. But...
We haven't heard anything from them in a while. Hey, look. I like how we're poking the bear. Let's poke it, man. Give me this microphone, man. I'm doing it. I love it. We've got Brothers Osborne. What about them? Oh, in the duo category? In the duo category. And super talented. I actually like those guys. That dude's a great guitar player. Yeah. Super good guitar player. Yeah. That's great. They're great. I mean, it's a tough. But I'm not sure of their last song either.
They put out good stuff, but it's a, hey. The duo category is there for the taking. It's there. That's the whole moral of this conversation. It's there for the taking. Begging for it. TK Lowe. That's my. Yeah. Telly and Kurt are going to be producing like five new duo acts in the next year.
Hey, on an off year, you could at least get nominated for duo of the year. But that's the whole point. We did. When I was in the duo back in the day. The Bellamy brothers are still getting nominated. The Worm brothers are still getting nominated. I've got shirts. I've got t-shirts from the mid-90s when I was with Kelly Shiver. Yeah. And we were in the duo category. We got nominated every year. Yeah. We knew we weren't going to win, but we were all that was there. The problem is there's a fault. Here's the thing. These artists today, these young artists, I'm going to harp on it again, not repeating myself.
there's a false sense of stardom from streaming. Like just cause you have a song, don't you, wouldn't you rather have 20 songs that go, you know, top 10 and one, like really think about it. Like if, you know, sometimes, you know, it's,
Being a duo and have success, tour, write songs, make records. I want to go back to Mary Cutter. One part of that, but on that, I wonder if you're a solo act and you're out there hitting it, you do believe that you're going to make it. And if you get into a duo generally, you got to be thinking, they're thinking, okay,
who's going to be Ronnie Dunn, who's going to be Kix. Like, if it's Ronnie, he said, oh, I can't wait to hear it. And they said, oh, dang it, this is a Kix song. Whoever the singer is. But you know what I mean? But it doesn't matter. Like, if they both think they are that person, but one of them's not. I don't know. There's a very established template.
You got a singer and you got the guy who's showy. I think that's established early. I'm just saying two guys who think they're the singer, that's what makes it hard for them to combine. It could be a problem. It just takes one smart one to know he's not. You're exactly right. That's the other problem. If you ask, because Kix loved to sing. I actually like Kix when he's the stuff he does. Kix has got his own thing that's badass. He's smart. Man, he sang a few songs through the career. Hell of a songwriter too. You know what he loves right now?
loves looking back at his body of work and sitting on his mountain of money at his vineyard and rightly so like those guys but they're great songs when you got ronnie done we should get kicks on oh for sure kicks would be great yeah we should get kicks on great i just i just feel like it's right there like i love duos if you can get a duo that wants to do some real songs
Man, it's easy. There you go. We're calling out. Come on. Email us at try that. Okay. Speaking of Dan and Shay, this is kind of a good thing to maybe think about it because just last week we're at the Hall of Fame in New York and Ashley Gourley, who we just had on like two or three weeks ago on the show.
He's at 83 number ones now. 87 now probably. So maybe, but yeah, it's been a little bit. But anyway, he was inducted to the Songwriters Hall of Fame, not the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, but all genres, Songwriters Hall of Fame. And it was really cool. And Dan and Shay actually went.
with him and sang pieces of like five of his hits. And even though they have hits of their own that he's written, they didn't select those. They selected other songs that weren't theirs or thought was really cool. Wow. And Selfless. And one of them was All-American Girl, which was really fun for me to hear Dan and Chase sing a piece of All-American Girl. Oh, I see where this is going. But that was really fun because you're in New York, you know? And it was cool. But another thing about that, Ashley did great. His speech was great. But his daughter, Sadie,
sang You're Gonna Miss This and brought the house down. Oh, my Lord. She's a charismatic, you know, positive, beautiful girl. She doesn't even want to be a singer. She just did it. And she went out there and gave it everything. And everybody was in tears and everything. But I was noticing, and then the Beach Boys had a tribute. Mike, I forget his last name, he was 83 years old.
It's been way too long before him getting there. He got up there and sang those songs. I mean, he sang like three or four songs in his 80s and it was kind of hitting it. And he was almost like every now and then, and part of it was maybe because he was older when he was singing those lyrics sometimes. And it was, it was really good line or melody line. He was almost pointing in a little angry, almost kind of like,
Yeah, that's how you do it. It's freaking good. I should have been up here a long time ago. No kidding. But the thing that stuck out the most was every artist of all genre, everyone, everyone mentioned God.
And 75% of them talked about Jesus. It was interesting because you're in New York, and I figured we'd hear a lot of liberal things and, hey, let's get this current administration out of there and let's come together and all that stuff. But it wasn't. You might as well have been in Nashville. It was very interesting. Did you see any rainbow flags while you were there? No, I didn't see anything. No, we were only there for a few hours. How about Mexican flags?
No. Any Kings protests? No. No Kings? No. No Kings? I figured you would. In New York City, I figured you would. Well, we weren't there long. You went right from there to the hotel, and the event was at the hotel, and then you left. Any deportations? Yeah. Any ice cows coming? No. No. All of our group made it back. Okay, great. They love the music. Ice agents love our music. What are you talking about? I do want to clarify one thing. Clarify.
Just because I do, I really love Dan and Shay. Like, I want to make sure that's on there. Are you kidding me? We do know those guys. Shay Mooney is one of the best singers that's ever come along in years. They're so good. All I was saying to clarify, and that's why I want to take a second and just clarify my point, was they're so good. And what I love about great country songs is they're around for a long time. Pop stuff, it comes and goes.
But those guys are capable of having stand like recurrence that could be around for, I believe in them. And they have, and they have some of those. And it's a good point actually, because I never thought about it like that.
Pop artists, not even talking about them. It is kind of just like one after the other and it goes away. Yeah. But country acts build careers. And if you stay in the genre, you think we'll ever get back to that the way it used to be done, like McGraw, Garth Brooks, um,
Rascal Flatts, Jason Aldean. You think those days are gone the way they used to build careers? Well, I'll say this. With songs and the longevity of songs. If our career as songwriters is what helps the artist because all of those acts took other songs that they didn't write to build their careers and always made sure they cut the best songs. Now,
A lot of them ended up writing some of them as they went along, but they built their careers off of other people's songs. It's going to be hard to do it. Honestly, it's weird to say this, but I feel like the next batch of big standards like that might come from the guys we already have. The Luke, the Aldine, Chesney, the Tim. Sometimes there's a better chance of them having a big recurrent standard than the new acts because the new acts are programmed to release, release, release, release, release, release.
And so it almost like it doesn't have time to sink in. There's no anticipation for an album. They drop 20, 30 songs. It's once you put a song out these days, it's, it's instantly old. What's next. So the way people listen to music, I don't know if the young people will even think or music hits in the same way. Cause they, you know, like the fan base for the Jason's and the, and the Keith Urban's and those guys, um,
they still are programmed to listen to a project. And maybe there's a better... I mean, still a fighting shot for some big songs. Morgan's got huge songs. Maybe Last Night is one of those that... It's hard to tell. He's put so many out. Like Sand in My Boots. I would say even if you put out 30, it's no different than... If we went to... If I had...
eight songs that are the best in my career. Nobody's ever recorded them. And somebody says, we're going to, we're going to cut this one, but come, come play all of them for me. I wouldn't play all of them because let's say they're all equally as good.
you're going to pick the one or two of the best of those best, right? And then the other ones aren't going to get recorded. If you listen to 30 great songs that Morgan pulls out, you're going to remember five of them right off the top of your head. You're going to say, oh my God, that one kills this other one. You know what I mean? But they're not all going to be out on the radio. And they didn't record them to all be out on the radio and say this is the greatest thing ever. It was just a moment. Oh, Morgan's breaking new ground. Yeah, he could sing the phone. Morgan is the rarest of air.
It's hard to get it like where everything is just on fire. I feel kind of guilty. I feel kind of bad right now. No, you don't. A little bit. What caused that? What's changed? Well, I'm just being selfish. This is selfish Neil right here. Interesting. I mean, look. And welcome to the wellness pack. Oh, I need some wellness of drugs. Listen.
No, it's like when the riots started back up in L.A. I'm like, our song kind of started... People started posting stuff. I heard a lot of traffic. And I'm going...
Yes. And all I'm thinking about is like, yeah, y'all keep burning your shit down out there and our song is going to get a resurgence. And it has. And then people are posting it again and they're playing it again. And I'm going, wait a minute, this is not good. It's all for the wrong reason. I felt kind of bad for it, but I didn't. And then I go, wait a minute.
They're going to keep writing this. My property value in Tennessee just went up. And I'm like, and I, and I, and selfishly I'm thinking of all these bad things and I'm like, wait a minute, this is bad, man. We got to get LA back in order.
Am I wrong for feeling that way? I want to ask you three if I'm wrong for feeling that way. I'll say this quickly. As a songwriter, you feel totally right and justified because you realize somehow you were part of a timeless song. Not just because of the song, but because it's the nature of people. And what's happening right now?
When we're 80, it's going to be the same thing. We're 90, same thing. When we're dead and buried, it's going to be the same thing. It really is. It's a timeless thing. We're not going to all collectively come together until it's over. When one world leader comes to you and everybody just flocks in like, oh, my God, we love everything you say, it's done. That's why it's happening.
You're right, though. I heard a lot of our song. I heard Tommy Lahren on Fox, he was saying and talking about our song, too, and just going through the LA Rats. It just comes back up every time something flames up out west or in a blue town somewhere, our song flames back up. We are in a really crazy time. I mean, you know, I thought it was going to calm down, and it did feel like it calmed down for a minute, the political madness. And then, you know,
I just don't understand what, okay, so people want violent criminals here illegally and they're, that's okay? Come on. Let's, you know,
Deporting the criminals is what should be going on. It's what Obama talked about doing. He was strong on the border. It's silly. Did you guys see the Schwarzenegger thing? Yes, I heard about it. I heard about it. Explain what happened. All I caught was a clip of him saying basically
What the, you know, the illegals here are doing. Was this him on The View? Yes. Okay. It was great. And he was very adamant. Some people, they called you racist. They did. He was great. I mean, he was, it was, that's what we're talking about. It's the truth. I mean, he's just like, come here the right way.
He came, he's an immigrant. He said how proud he was. Yes. But he goes, you got to do it the right way. They're waving Mexican flags in America. It's like, well, go back to Mexico. If you're waving the flag like that, go back. That right there tells you they're being paid to wave those flags like that and cause a ruckus like they're doing.
Oh, ruckus. What a good word. Yeah, when the American flag's being burned on the ground, then you have a guy up on top of the car and two or three guys waving the Mexican flag. It's just like, what are you all doing? And everybody's standing around cheering. Go back to Mexico. What is wrong with you? They don't know. Yeah, if it's that great, just go back. That'd be great. Well, luckily, Newsom will write the ship out there. His hair's going to change everything. Hey, that's what I want to have on.
I would love, cause he's smart dude. Well-spoken. His cast spells are the way he talks. They wouldn't let him in the gate. Well,
Well, more importantly, Neil wouldn't let him in the studio. I would love. And that's true. I wouldn't give it. He's got the tongue of a serpent, man. He does. No, that dude is such a demon. I would not. I wouldn't let him come in my front door. I'd have to sprinkle water or whatever and put bottles. Oh, my God. The power of Christ compels you. He's a freaking demon. I would not let him in here. He's insane.
He's possessed. He is insane. He's possessed because he'll say anything to try to save his own heart. It's unbelievable. But anyway, I mean, you know, look at their price of gas and look at ours. Maybe he traded his soul when he was 13 years old for that head of hair. I mean, the hair is good. He's a good-looking dude, but that's a demon right there. Well, the hair is good. Because he's so attractive, he's a demon. Yeah.
He's a demon. I'd like that hair. He made a deal with the devil. He looks pretty. I can't believe you said you thought a guy was attractive. No. I'm pulling the line for you now. Well, you can appreciate it. This is a good time for a break. I don't want to slap him on the ass. He's an attractive fellow. What if you made a good shot? That's athletic. That's what athletes do. That's the only compliment I can give that numbnut. Ha ha ha.
All right. Let's get a little break. And, hey, speaking of that, we've got Patriot Mobile, who's been an incredible sponsor. Make sure you go there. Use the code SMALLTOWN. I think they're giving you a free month. Do it. I promise you. I've got it. It's awesome. Original Glory Beer. They've been here from the beginning. Seriously, a cold one. Let's do it. I like those little beer moses they have. Have y'all tried those? No, but it sounds amazing. It's really, really good.
All right. Hang with us. We'll be right back. My name is Glenn Story. I'm the founder and CEO of Patriot Mobile. And then we have four principals.
First Amendment, Second Amendment, right to life, military and first responders. If you have a place to go, put your money, you always want to put it with somebody that's like mine. Of course. I think that's the beauty of Patriot Mobile. We're a conservative alternative. Don't get fooled by other providers pretending to share your values or have the same coverage. Go to patriotmobile.com forward slash smalltown to get a free month of service when you use the offer code smalltown or call 972-PATRIOT.
You know what goes great with small town stories? Original Glory, America's beer right here. You know, I've been drinking this every songwriting session today. Man, that clean, crisp taste reminds me of summer nights on the back porch after a fresh mowed lawn. And they're just not making great beer. They're investing in America's small towns. Well, it's just like us. They believe in bringing communities together.
Not only do they invest in communities, but a portion of each sale goes to the veterans and the first responders and all the heroes that protect us. For a limited time, you can become a member of the OG fam and invest in this beer at wefunder.com forward slash original brands. Join our Original Glory family and help ignite that Original Glory spirit.
All right, we are back. You know, coming back from the break, too, we want to make sure we mention eSpaces. They've been awesome to us. And we've got some surprises in store that include eSpaces. So we want to make sure we're thanking them as well. You know, you had something on your phone that, you know, during the break, I swear we need to record this stuff.
Because it's good content. You just showed me some kind of, what was it, what the Patriots did? What was that? Oh, God. Did you already lose it? No. I can pull it up real quick for you.
No, it's like it just says, all it says, it's at Gillette Stadium. Yeah, where they play. In the Pride Month thing, they had this big old huge flag. It went away. But we saw the big game. Whatever. What happened? It's that, the big flag, the big rainbow flag for all. I got one word for you. It just says another one bites the dust, and I couldn't think of a better line for that. Can I one-up you? Please.
This is not going to be good. No, it's not going to be good. This is our hometown, Tennessee. And it's freaking football. So the Titans, we just had Father's Day. I don't know when this episode comes out. But we just had Father's Day. By the way, happy Father's Day to all of you. Yes. Happy Father's Day. But the Titans posted this. Happy Father's Day to all the Titan moms and fatherly figures. What does that even mean? What is that?
I assume they mean that there might be women that are the father of their, because if you have two women. Or they could be talking about step-tasks. Have they not learned yet? All of them. What the hell are they doing with their, they got to sell tickets to football games. Wait a minute. What are you doing? My mind's not working today. I still don't understand what it means. Well, whatever it meant, they deleted it.
I want men to play football. Manly men. You can see the bulges in the tight pants. Men. Okay, you crossed the line. Men to play football. I'm concerned about that statement. I'm so sick and tired. But when you see the bulge, you know it's not a woman. You know what I'm saying? I'm just saying, guys. Come on.
But talking about the Titans, though, I just saw this day. Y'all probably saw it, too. I think Allie actually sent it on the thread. Oh, yeah, that's great. Y'all saw the thing. Isn't she supposed to be on her honeymoon? Well, it was day two, so, you know. I mean, you've got to eat, rest, and text and stuff, you know. But it said, it was like this breaking thing. It says, Iran fired more than 35 ballistic missiles into Israel tonight. Nearly all were intercepted. No injuries were reported. Okay.
I ran got Will Levis behind center, it looks like. That's amazing. So like Dylan Holt put that out. It was hilarious. That's actually really funny. And I thought of Tully immediately because he's such a huge fan of Will Levis. Yes.
Y'all are going to wind up being best friends. You know that, right? I actually really want Will Evans to come on. Hey, you know what? I mean... You've already trashed him enough. He can't. He can't. Hey, just take the... But there's no shame. You play in the NFL. You're pretty badass anyway. Right. That's what I was going to say. But you made it. They're easy targets. They're easy targets. We'll never be to their... I mean, I'm with you. It's like...
Playing quarterback in the NFL might be the hardest thing. It really is. Because there's men, maybe good ones. He had a great career at Kentucky. Dude, I mean, you can't argue. You play in the NFL. He could leave here. He could go to Tampa Bay and probably rock their world down there. I'm serious, though. Do you guys think, honestly, like for all my will, I love you, dude. You know that.
Here's what I'll say though. You know that he is, he will, you know, or bros will, he obviously, you know, that, uh, he's a great athlete. There has got to be make, can't you make him a tight end ish type player. I don't know. You don't even know. You're making the tight end seem like it's not a skilled position.
Well, no, but like... Well, no, but he would know the offense. Like, he would know the offense very well is what you're saying. No, seriously, what I'm saying is like Taysom Hill type guy. A gimmick. Gimmick guy. Trick play. Gimmick guy. If he comes in, is he going to throw the ball or is he going to catch it? You know what I mean? Like, he's such a good athlete. Why don't you just go ahead and say he doesn't have the brains to be a quarterback? Ooh.
gosh wow he's a great athlete he can spin it like nobody else i just got a cannon here's a thing you know i just say that play kurt said it best playing qb nfl is it's it's tough it's a lot of pressure like in and you don't have to be super smart yeah i mean maybe it's the system if peyton manning can do it anybody can oh my god what are you talking about overrated qb by the way
You got to be kidding. Come on. We got to have Peyton Manning. We just ignited K-Lo. He's freaking amazing. Overrated. The UT. He is not overrated. Quarter of the QB radius was quarter. Dude, he is not an overrated quarterback. Overrated. He is born to be a quarterback. His whole family. Eli's better. I mean, my God. It's because he has the DNA of their dad. Eli's better. Hey.
You guys are idiots. All of those people are more successful than any of us. All of them. And we couldn't even make it through practice at NFL. You would die in warm-ups. I'm not going to play. I hope the camera is focused in on your face right now. You're very upset. Because when you start offending the UT nation, the ball nation, it's not just that. He's one of the most known public figures because of him being quarterback. This is why we're going to be rich right here. Oh, my God.
Right here. I always felt bad for his... You just can't insult people for the sake of insulting them. He was a great college QB. Actually, he wasn't a great college QB. See? Now, he didn't win the national championship. He did not. Martin did win behind. They won it right after he left. A Peyton Manning spiral. But it was the beginning. Peyton Manning spiral. Hey, but that dude, he was smart and he's a winner. No, he is. No two ways about it. Actually, I really like Peyton. He's a great band director, too. And he had the most scared feet in the pocket.
Oh, he was petrified in the pocket. No, they're just, he's excited. He's just happy for you. That's all over. I would say this. We teed that up. It was perfect.
He had the best what? Peyton Manning is one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. Overrated. I'm not even going to listen to that, but he is. He's one of the greatest. You don't luck your way into that much success. I'm not saying no. I'm saying he's great, but he's not as great as you think. It's not like songwriting, Tully. We don't luck our way into that much success. There's people wanting to kill you and stuff. You're very teed up right now, but...
Well, you just say things that aren't true. I know, it's true. He's a great QB. He's just not as great as what you think he is. He is. No, he is totally. I got to disagree with you. Even though I'm a Bama fan, Peyton Manning is... He'd be on the way... He's in everything. Down way low on the list of QBs. You're just a... You're a Patriots fan. You're just so in love with Tom Brady. You're in love with Tom Brady. He's just great.
It's good. It's good. Tom Brady is Tom Brady. He's the GOAT. He's great. Yeah, but there's other – even you got Brady. I mean, I take Elway. I take Danbury and Elway. You need to take some of this stuff in the wellness package here. Now, Brady and Manning are super successful, but I will say after football –
Peyton nails TV commercials and spots much better than Brady will ever with all of his training. He's terrible. Well, you are really freaking terrible. He's terrible. The Hurts commercial. I'm not talking about football. I'm not talking about commercials. The Hurts commercial, my God, there's nobody worse than that. You've got to be kidding me. How is he on TV? I don't understand. He didn't outdo OJ, though, on the Hurts show. Oh, man. We went to OJ? Yeah. Let's not get racial, Neil. I mean, come on. But, I mean, Peyton could not jump a row of seats like OJ did. Yeah.
Probably not. He couldn't do it. Probably not. No, he can't run. He can't run at all. But how many takes did that take even OJ? He can spin it. I'll give you that. And Peyton didn't go to jail for killing people. Look here. I'm on your side, dude. I think Tully's just – Tom Brady's the GOAT. We're going to give you that. Well, Tom Brady's the GOAT, but there's other quarterbacks way above Peyton Manning. Who? Elway, Favre. Elway. I like those kind of QBs.
Peyton Manning spiral. Joe Montana. Yeah, okay. Unbelievable. Let's say, would you put him in the top 10? And if so, probably. Probably top 10, but not. If you're in the top 10 of anything. I'm saying he's great, but he's not like. You're one of the best of all time. He's overrated. A little bit overrated. Did he win a Super Bowl? Yeah. He got one, right? He got one. That's all you need. I think to Tully's point, people thought he should have won more.
Yeah. I think that's all you said. I appreciate Peyton Manning. I love NFL. Now, with all that being said...
Peyton, if you want to come on the podcast, we'd love to have you. Peyton, you know I love you, buddy. That's up to you, Kalo. Peyton, you know I love you, man. It's obvious, right, Peyton? Kalo's our big orange guy. Can you make it happen? I don't know. I've met him a couple times. He's very nice. He's awesome. I got to see him do the nationwide commercials with Paisley and stuff. He'd come and hang with us for a long time. We should have more quarterbacks on here. We've had Brett Favre.
We should have more quarterbacks on here that we love and idolize. I agree. Seriously, he's a great QB. I'm just saying he's overrated for not the greatest ever. If we're trying to get him, you can't say. Let's take that clip out. You can make fun of his spiral all day long, but that spiral got to his receiver where it needed to be every single time. Praise Super Bowl.
He's not even, I mean. You're just lashing out because you're mad because you threw Dan and Shay under the bus. You need to give them the respect they deserve and you're mad about it. That's all. Oh my God. That's all. I told you it was a weird night. Wait until episode number two tonight. You're going to get freaking roasted. We should do more of these just the four of us, man. This is fantastic.
We fight. We argue. We throw the football back and forth. Let's roll episode number two right now. Bring on the guests. Before we leave, let's get into some more controversy. We should pray. Oh, God, really? Bring us together as we were before we started this podcast. In the name of Jesus, amen. But listen, this is serious. There were some comments about...
Our last episode, I think it probably came out. We kind of went off on the WNBA a little. Oh, did I take some heat? What are you talking about? I'm not taking anything back. No, no, no. As a matter of fact, this is a double down. Have you seen, you guys follow Clay Travis? Yeah. Clay Travis is awesome. Yeah. He has challenged Angel Reese to a one-on-one basketball game. I want to see that. Oh my God. He's going to 15. He's an idiot. $100,000.
It's fantastic. Going to charity. Where's it going? Yeah, going to charity. He wants to raise money through pay-per-view. We should do more of that. What do you think? Angel Reese or Clay Travis? Angel Reese. All day long. You think so? Yeah. She can't hit a jump shot. I've never seen Clay play. It doesn't matter. He doesn't have the feet. He's been sitting behind a microphone too long. He's too stiff. He doesn't have time to get in shape for that. Before we go down that rabbit hole, I think that's all we got. Does anybody want to end on something? I love y'all.
You could feel our energy, I think. Yeah, it's been a weird day. It continued on. Yeah, you're tight, man. You're tight. You're bringing your tightness to the podcast. Well, it's really good. No, I think it's cool how we can talk about everything that we're aware of in our world. Did we? We're just songwriters. We covered a lot. Yeah. Yeah. We're songwriters and musicians. I mean, we covered...
Our opinions in politics, we covered our opinions in sports. The music business, which we know a lot about. We could go on and on. We could have episode after episode about the music business and where it's going. I think we're at a very, I know we got to go, very strange time in the country music industry. Very strange. It couldn't be stranger to me, the disconnect between label, artist, fan base, all of it. It's very strange. Very concerning. Yeah.
I'm worried about it. Really? Yeah. I think the labels are making a lot of money on streaming. Money isn't the problem.
it's the creative direction, I think, and the type of artist and how the artists are getting there. I don't know. If the labels are making money, they're not going to change. That's what I mean. Well, that's, that's, and it's a business. So there you go. Well, and even from the, from the writing standpoint, you're incredibly right about that. Cause it's, it's different even for just a straight up full-time writer. Things have changed. And now I'm having meetings with my publisher. I'm,
I'm starting parts of songs and hooks and sending them to publishers that have a connect with an artist that I want to get to that I can't get in the room with to see if they like the idea enough to co-write it with me. Oh, man.
I haven't heard that. And you're a damn legend. You know what I mean? That's unbelievable. And you're hoping to get a callback. Okay. This is right. You know what I mean? 18 number ones. But you got to keep the lights on. And it's not even that you're 18 number ones, which is incredible. You're in the top like half, 2% top. But you're also an incredible songwriter, an incredible person, great in a room. It's like they should be begging to learn from you.
And that's where we're at. The lack of respect, these young artists, and not all of them, and not all young writers, but there is a lack of respect for who's come before. And I just don't see that. They don't care. They don't take the time to learn.
And go back in time. It's true. And it's not just, who paved the way. It's not just being old and grumpy. I know I'm getting old and grumpy, but I'm old and grumpy and I'm happy about it. Yeah. And I don't think it's that. I think it's, I think it's some of what you're saying. Like you said, it's not everybody, but it's also, it's also just a little bit of ignorance, you know, that people just don't,
research people like if we talked about it before no I know but if I'm writing with two people because generally I don't know who I'm writing with until that day and I look and I see the names and nine times out of ten I don't recognize them first thing I don't think oh crap don't know him I don't say that at all I just look at it put it in my computer look them up and I say oh cool they had a Lanny Wilson hit
That's right. I'll try to write something for him. That's what I think, but nobody looks you up. You know what I mean? It's just interesting. Most people don't. They're the new sheriff in town. They don't care. Yeah, but you got to keep writing. You got to keep moving. I'm going to pray for him. Hey.
But we've got some cool stuff coming. Mary Cutter sounds great. Check her out. I can't wait. Yeah. You guys are going to. I can't wait. I want to be a cutter. I'm a cutter. Yep. She's overrated. She's overrated. Hey, like Neil said, we kind of. We kind of. Why, really? Caleb really hit the old nerve with the Peyton Manning button. He did. I'm a cutter. I'm kidding. I want to write with you desperately, and I haven't met you. In the comments, put overrated or not overrated.
John, but us, no Peyton Manning. We know we're overrated. We know we're well overrated. Don't break us down as individuals. We can't handle it. Don't give them a window for that. Uh, but yeah, if you're watching on YouTube, make sure you comment. Give us, give us five stars, right? We deserve it. We do. Yeah. I don't know if we actually, uh,
You know what, boys? You know I love you. Download. Follow us on Insta. Follow us on X. We want to thank Patriot Mobile, Original Glory Beer, eSpaces, Wellness Company. We got a lot of support. We are thrilled that we're on a team with all of those people. I'm thrilled I'm on a team with you. Oh, wow. You too, fondue. So politically correct. All right. Thank y'all. This is the Try That in a Small Town podcast.
Make sure to follow along, subscribe, share, rate the show, and check out our merch at trythatinasmalltown.com.