Welcome to Peach Jam, recorded live in our GPB studios in Midtown Atlanta, featuring songs and stories from a sampling of the truly diverse and incredibly talented musicians who call the Peach State Home.

On this episode, an artist from McDonough, whose album debuted at the top of the Billboard blues charts, a former jam skater and college football player turned rapper from Albany.

I like saying I'm okay when I know that I'm not black.

And every question when you ask.

Join Age and a band from Decatur whose wide ranging musical influences culminate together to what they call eclectic folk rock.

Up first, a band whose career was propelled after a run in with police.

The eight Sisters on Peach Jam with Mr. Darcy.

Everything I get.

Shenanigans.

Favorite and What I should Have Done.

She got put down my.

What is your take in this?

Just been on and that's what it's all bangin on.

My name is Ari.

I'm Bob Garvin.

I'm Reggie Jones.

And I'm the new guy.

We're the sisters, and we play extremely eclectic folk rock.

It seems like when I was talking to you off the air that it's difficult to put your music in kind of a box in a category.

So try to expand on eclectic folk rock Boudreaux.

Our bass player has a joke where it's we're like the Indigo Girls meets Dream Theater, I think.

Dream Theater.

That's a little farfetched, but also it's very cute.

So we're we just got a lot of different influences in our sound and that shows in our songs, you know?

Yeah, I think we like the parts where we overlap are things like Patty Griffin Hope for Gold and Golden Summer from Athens that are like the best band ever.

And then she's a little bit more like Prince.

Jimi Hendrix, maybe.

Maybe Rage Against the Machine.

And I grew up listening to the like, Indigo Girls and Sheryl Crow.

Aimee Mann, stuff like that.

So when you put that together, it gets weird.

And that's what we do.

Take it up.

Honeymooner take you to believe.

Hit the road.

I'm headed south.

I'm headed south.

There's nothing I can't live without.

Simply.

So come on, me playing it in my it straight, straight.

Sowing seeds and cultivating.

Laughing about those dreams we made.

Where does the name come from?

So, yeah, we were down in Folly Beach, South Carolina.

And she's Teach me how to surf.

I'd never surfed before.

We were having a great time, and I got wrecked out in the water.

But we decided to go and play on the boardwalk there at Folly Beach.

And we're playing, having fun.

There's kids, you know, dancing.

People have babies.

We've got like a good little crowd.

And people kept asking, Are y'all sisters or your sisters?

And we were like, Now we ain't.

And eventually it kind of took a turn for the you know, the cops came in like, you know, like, so we've got this joke at.

Our old bios were forged in the depths of Folly Beach, holding Cell.

We didn't actually get arrested, but we did get hazardous.

Yeah, it's Barb said had some choice words for the officer.

That probably not GPB friendly.

It was not a Georgia though.

So this is extremely worried about two girls in sundresses playing guitar on the dock.

Yeah, well, it's good that y'all hold a grudge at all.

Yeah.

This you propelled us.

I don't know what I want.

And I can never get enough of being labeled insatiable and playing with my demons, which are welcome in the end.

In the beginning.

Never saw it come in on a rep.

I mean, I'm winning.

Don't have to self-destruct.

A couple finger on the button.

Not sure where I'm headed, but I'm going.

I'm going to knock on the door.

I'm gonna I'm one of the things I've seen that you've played is the Hemlock Festival in Lafayette, Georgia.

Tell me about the history of it, because when I asked you off the air how many times you played that you couldn't count.

So what what is it about that event in in just say it for the people who don't know.

Yeah.

So Hemlock Fest, they had it at Cherokee Farms, which is in Lafayette, and they had it they had it this past year.

And but prior to that it was near Dahlonega.

The property is Cherokee Farms, and the person who owned it is kind of Smoky Caldwell and he is sort of like an American icon.

I mean, the guy, he was just kind of like your Willie Nelson character, you know, it was sort of a landing pad for so many of us, musicians and creative people to meet one another and play and just be ourselves, be creative and write and and yeah, that's priceless in itself to have little spots like that.

It's cool to be here where you can see inside of us whether not so grateful, just grateful for who brought me back to.

Coming up, we'll talk to Eddie nine Volt, the man from McDonough whose vintage style helped land him a record deal.

Plus, an artist who gave up his promising college football career for a shot at music.

Cantrell is next up on Peach Jam and if you like watching a fork in the road on TV, we also have a new podcast coming out.

We take a little more of a deep dive into all of the farmers, chefs and artisans that are involved in bringing all these great Georgia products into your home.

It's a can't miss day.

His song is titled Issa Rae.

One, two, one, two, three, eight.

Yeah, yeah.

And like, what would what a lovely way.

Only God can tell us to have never been on paper stages.

Falsified statements coming from that very recent missing Wheatland Nagle footage You had a stake in stacking Look.

Okay, read about it.

And you know that if you Google, I see the knowledge match.

But yeah, need a panic, you know, I mean, I hear pitching like this here.

We live for show most of show lately.

I mean, my name is Cantrell and I do hip hop music.

What do you say to people who automatically dismiss hip hop?

What do I say to them?

What do I think both.

I think they don't understand because hip hop is more than a music genre.

Rap would technically be the genre, right?

But hip hop is more of a culture, is a lifestyle.

It's the way you speak.

Like we've been talking all day.

You're hip hop to me, you know what I mean?

And you're doubling down on so many different genres, but you live hip hop so I think they just don't understand, which is, okay, you know, that might be the best compliment I've ever seen.

I write good.

Honest, though, you know, tell me more about it, about how cool I am.

No, we can talk all day.

Yeah, about that.

About how cool you're.

All right, well, let's let's talk about you.

So you have an interesting story, and I want people to hear some of it.

So first words, you grow up.

I was born in Savannah, Georgia, and I was raised in Albany, Georgia, a small town right outside of the smaller towns.

So fast is like 3 hours south of Atlanta, hour and a half in Alabama, hour and a half from Florida in a little corner, southwest Georgia.

And what's it like down there?

What's life like?

Delmar is slow.

I did.

I'm the one.

No.

Maybe I even know my killer.

Maybe I ain't worked enough or need a car.

Nobody but maybe I been bowling.

Coach Devil got the owner helps me flair with his go Rocky show My age is what ever you know people don't like you Here we are big yeah why me so insecure about my face?

We give them joyfulness.

Okay.

I mean piece of insecure about my we don't stress.

We ripped off just a nursing daughter.

Nursing daughter.

Abby.

So, Ray, she's in Cuba.

Oh, my way.

Sweet.

Oh, seriously.

And now you play college ball.

Tell me about that.

Speaking of being slow paced and doing things our own way at our own time, I didn't take my T-Zone down, so I miss the entire summer camp.

And I attended Georgia Southern.

I played football for Georgia Southern University and I was recruited and everything and but I still had to redshirt.

I missed a hole in a summer camp.

You know, I saw redshirted for like a day, first day of practice.

They're like, Oh, no, let's go.

We got to put him, put him in a rotation, get him, learn the offense.

It was a good time, but I just felt like some of the things I had to choose between, it wasn't worth what I saw for myself in the future, being a creative and doing music and being an artist.

So I stopped first year, but it was a good time though, so you had talent on the field?

Yeah, for sure.

But your brain was somewhere else.

For sure.

For sure.

And so much so that they wanted to bulk me up.

No way.

Got.

I don't know what they call them these days, but other what strength and conditioning?

Strength and conditioning coach.

He's like, He's my height, but he's like J. M.S.

And he's like making gels here.

Before you graduate, you can be looking like me in my mind because my brain is somewhere else.

I'm like, So how am I going to dance?

And what I look like Holding the mic is like this, you know what I mean?

I I'm thinking about that.

I'm thinking about the optics.

But s because my brain was somewhere else for sure.

Look, I like saying I'm okay when I know that I'm not.

I'm deflecting every question.

When you have your name, stress and no pressure, just give it a go.

I'm a mess, but I'm going to school for I do what?

Allow people to out of pressure to pass down to the teacher, to my ego, to you got debate it on my private chef Kenny to vote for me to give you what I got to speak.

Maybe if I never really cared a maybe if I sounded sincere.

Just maybe.

Maybe if a way.

So don't I.

Maybe if I can give myself a way show.

Just maybe.

Maybe if I say to you tells me to do the hard life a ways to go.

Just maybe.

Maybe if I have a hand.

My background music is so wide range from my mom collected albums, so she had cases and cases and cases and she organized them by genre.

You know, she's it's like my photo album is so organized, you know, so growing up, having, like, my choosing of music to listen to when she's not home because I came home school and possibly do homework.

But I have 2 hours before I can try to cram it in.

So I'm going to go to this.

I'll go to the salon, I'm gonna go to the rock, I'm going to the R&B, I'm gonna go to the hip hop.

I think it starts there.

Just I was always exposed to a lot of music.

Then being a jam skater, the type of music we listen to.

So I have so much to pull from.

It depends on a day why.

Right now I'm in rock bag.

Okay, I was listening to some Black Sabbath and of course, no one, I mean, got to have Nirvana Hero in a band.

Jimi Hendrix.

I get a lot of inspiration before studio days.

Listen to Soul, and I listen to a lot of rap on the way to the studio.

I play some soul, some disco going, some electronic, you know, predated EDM, you know, like the, like freestyle project.

It's some things that we will skate to as a group of freestyle project from overseas is like electronic music and you keep alluding to it.

You're an accomplished skateboarder jam skater.

Okay, what's that mean?

Exactly?

Right.

It's like dancing on skates.

It technically is dance in most cases.

Like, Right.

Okay.

So it's not skateboarding.

No, no.

It's on roller skates or roller skates.

You're at the skate ring.

You're the guy on the cool skates.

That's right.

You can do all the tricks and everything.

Yeah.

What was the rink in Albany Start us to skate center.

And they my first project on the label when I was signed, I named it after the skating rink.

Yeah, Yeah, yeah.

Question.

What do we do?

We both fell into played in the same team we both feel in a threesome you say you need and we both look of a piece and we know it won't be down in the shit out of football.

I was hoping I stay afloat.

I think I needed a song to coach when it's cold in the streets.

You made a pact to coach.

Even so, you go here for the validation.

I'm a human.

Only for some conversation.

Like in my true me.

Because you've been tested, you feel as if your heart is aching.

I see you see you did.

I should know my place on the hand of a bunch of other people's mistakes of Sochi.

Now, see, no matter the fashion he's believing, passion me something in the kitchen, you know, to go to take him this way.

You across This is what looks like wick you guys internal squabbles it crosses my trafficking taxi to the squabbles and crisis and now southern soul from Eddie nine volt on peach jam This soul train is rattling to stone Youth and Detroit back to San Antonio.

There's a woman I love.

I gotta get back, said film.

In that she loved my good and faith.

Not bad was the woman right next to me and I'm drawn.

I can benefit nothing I wouldn't be power still.

No, no.

I'm 89 volt.

I'm a musician from Atlanta, Georgia, and if I had to describe my music, I'd say it was Southern soul music.

Man.

What exactly is Southern Soul?

Well, you know, in a in a land of all these genres these days and everything, it's hard to put us in that category because we grew up in a band where we played covers, we played for our set.

So we did country, we did Western, we did blues, rock and roll, whatever, man.

And but now recently with the band, we've been getting a lot of soul music and so and so we just call it Southern Soul Man.

It's, it's a mix, a gumbo of music if you want, if you will, you know, a gumbo of music.

I love that you say the problem is, is this is Georgia Public Broadcasting.

This is about truthfulness and transparency in being honest.

And you're going to sit here and pretend like you're not a time traveler that has a DeLorean or a TARDIS or something parked in the back and that you didn't travel to 1948 Memphis or 1954 Chicago because your music is not of this time.

Well, thank you.

Where did you learn this?

Honestly, you know, I had a very normal growing up.

My dad, you know, he's me.

Show me AC, DC, Black Sabbath, stuff like that.

But it wasn't until I was in my first band and we they show me the Beatles and and you know, thank thank thankfully we had YouTube.

I don't have to go to a library and find all these VHS and stuff, but we are.

I was watching The Beatles, Your Blues, which is a song they did with the Keith Richards stuff like that.

And on the side I saw a picture, an old black and white picture, a thumbnail, if you will, of Howlin Wolf live at Newport, 1966.

And I clicked on that and I've been changed forever, man.

So that's that's really where I learned.

And it was just a deep dive.

Eddie How old are you?

I'm 26 years old, man.

You know, it just blows me away.

You re you are not from this time.

I mean, you you the things you're talking about, the influences you're talking about are from multiple generations ago.

But then you're talking about discovering them on YouTube.

And so you're absolutely fascinating.

Well, I go way back, and I guess I am old soul because I freak my mom out.

When I was six years old, I told her I was reincarnated.

And so she taught me, you know, therapy only went to one class and I but the therapist said, he's fine, he's normal.

But.

But yes, my mom always said, you know, I was just an old soul.

But, you know, history is always has been one of my favorite things, man.

That's the only thing I really excelled at in school.

I mean, I dropped out when I was a senior and but no, it's just, you know what my favorite show is like Mad Men.

I just love detail on the old history and the vintage style of things and and probably comes to our music show.

So just a yellow alligator just slamming through the gumbo guy to keep his head down looking for the gumbo gin.

Got a funny feeling.

Got the blues on Monday.

Got to swim back for the storm on Sunday or I'll going to get where you're living in the city.

But they're living a life you have to live in a life, man.

No, my music.

No more fire where I always stay.

Now you introduce yourself as being from Atlanta, but you're not just from Atlanta, You're from McDonough.

From McDonough, Georgia.

Yeah.

And then what was it like growing up as an old soul in McDonough?

Man, You know, going back, I thought it was a city back then, man.

But now that I've been all over the world and the country, man, I mean.

McDonough Such a small it's a country town, basically.

But yeah, I mean, I can remember all my friends, you know, blaring rap in there, and there was nothing wrong with rap, but they were blaring it coming into the school.

And I had me a 1996 Ford Explorer, and I just got the hang of Wolf live at London sessions.

And I would I would crank that up to try to compete with them.

But yeah, then the car broke down.

It was only had it for a week.

You had to be the only kid listening to that.

Yeah.

And it's funny because in high school, you know, the parties and stuff, you know, I would show them, you know, late night, I would show them, you know, son house.

I'd somehow Howlin Wolf, Lightnin Hopkins Mance live come and and so and and they you know they'd all be like what is this music What is this music.

And it blew their mind And I yeah, it's just I've always been on the quest to find the older music.

I'm really into reggae right now.

I've been listening to a lot of old dub music that's so just anything I can get my hands on and if I can learn something, that's what I listen to.

Ground at Six, The Hills, April the Sun, A thumbs both up my knees, my bound and determined to find that meaning within While the earth keeps on turning all around, digging home.

It's 3 a.m. in Chicago Street lights.

They guide me to bring tomorrow.

Oh, it's 3 a.m. in Chicago.

A house in the ghetto.

No lights on inside a house in the suburbs.

You will hear no children cry.

But who built the statues that look down upon us and who prints them?

My name.

Who gets to control us?

It's a I'm in Chicago street life.

They got me to Brandon tomorrow.

Oh, it's them in Chicago.

Yeah.

Hey, as we record this right now, your record that just came out is number one on the Billboard blues charts.

Mm hmm.

It debuted them, and it was crazy.

I mean, we got the call about, like, two days ago, to be honest.

I was brand new, and they said, Yeah, you're you're going to be number one and blew me away.

I mean, I called everybody.

I called everyone in the band that recorded it, Capricorn 11 people, I called them and I just saying, you know, congratulating them because that's who it really made the record.

You know, I'm I might be on the cover, but it's really the musicians that made the record.

This has got to be incredible.

It's an incredible feeling, man.

I'm super grateful.

I mean, this whole project, Eddie nine Ball started at my grandparents farm.

We lived on their farm, a 100 acre dairy farm, and there was a double wide trailer that we live in.

It was dilapidated and it was just completely I mean, the toilet was sunken and stuff like that.

But I know that's where we started.

We had one microphone and we made a record and we sent I sent it out to all these record companies with an old typewriter going back to Vintage and and this one guy in in Germany named Thomas Roof of Roof Records.

He he said, I've never gotten a Tyburn letter in my whole career.

He said, I saw that's how I open it and I read it.

And so we went from the trailer to getting maybe 50 spins a year and to number one on the billboard blues charts.

What was that first record?

Which one was it that was called Left My Soul in Memphis.

And yeah, that's one of my favorite records.

And now did you record that in the double one?

Oh, yeah, I recorded it.

My my best friend, my brother, he produced, engineered, mixed it, made it the Fader Sound good.

He's done that on all the records, man.

It's always been a close team between me and my brother.

And yeah, we've always made our own records, man.

And tell me, where was that?

Double wide on the farm?

Monticello, Georgia.

Man There's only one far away.

And then once you pass it, you've gone past it.

And where does the name come from?

MAN The name my original name is Brooks, but the name comes from a trying to keep each other staying out late, you know, And we're from from Georgia.

So we do this thing where we come up with these Boston accents, and I ain't going to do it on camera.

Are you sure?

I think you should.

You can't really say that.

Not do.

I know.

I always I always shoot my foot with that.

But.

But no.

So we stay up late and, you know, and so they call me anything about.

Hey, Eddie, you know, and I, and I used to be drive and I'd say, you know, like, be quiet down there.

So they said, oh, he's, he's got a little bit of a charge.

So they call me Eddie.

Nine one with that Boston accent.

Selma, Come on now.

80.

I'm not going to do it.

I mean, I'll make a fool of myself and nobody will show up at a Boston show.

Thanks for watching.

Peach Jam.

Please go out and support live local music and independent record stores in your area.