I would spend a lot of time with my elders# and my family, my aunts, uncles, grandparents, and we would watch old tel nollas and even# spaghetti westerns.

And a lot of the the music had country music or had um influences# of country music.

And I think I picked up on the storytelling.

And then my grandfather had# a um vinyl collection.

There was Cuban music, there was Wido music, but there# was always country music in there, whether that's Marty Robbins or Johnny Cash,# Christopherson, Buck Owens.

And I would listen to bits and pieces of of the albums and the songs.# And I didn't know that that had such a big impact on me later on.

And I think that that set the# foundation for exploring country music in Miami.

My name is Ricky Valo.

I'm a singer, songwriter, and performing artist.

I like to define my# style as outlaw music.

It's a mixture of a lot of things.

It's got some honky tonk,# folk, americana, rock, and of course, traditional country.

That kind of inspires# my progressive approach with country music.

A lot of the uh poems and literature# that I grew up reading from school, I think all influenced my my own# style.

A lot of it has to do with um my inspirations around me from the people,# the stories, the natural environments.

I'm very much inspired by the Florida Everglades# and our South Floridaian landscapes.

As a kid, um, I was really into amphibians and# reptiles, and that led to books, of course, and reading and then writing my own, um, stories,# my madeup stories.

And then at the age of eight, my great-grandmother gifted me a guitar.

And# I kind of mixed my my love of writing with the instrument.

That opened up the doors# for me taking guitar lessons.

Eventually, that led into songwriting and developing a# voice.

Once I started writing my own songs, I told myself, even when I was# younger, if I'm going to write songs, someone's someone has to sing them.

So, might# as well be me singing the songs that I wrote.

And that kind of opened up the doors for me# as as a singer and as a performing artist.

After high school, I started exploring# with playing live gigs.

And of course, I needed to learn a lot of cover material to# fill up um three or four set night at a bar.

So, I would learn covers and I would perform# covers, but I would slide in my originals in between those covers.

So, it's always# been a communication between, you know, the books and the writing and the# poetry and also my instrument.

I do like to keep an active live performance# schedule and I think that not only helps me develop my style but it keeps my band members and# my band tight.

Um my backing band of course is uh named after my hometown place of# birth Halia the Halia Hillbillies.

My band is a community of players.

I have# a a total of maybe 8 to 10 players that are constantly revolving.

A lot of the players# that are active in in the Halia Hillbillies are veteran players that have been playing# different genres of music for a long time, but they sort of give their influences and their# style within the style that I'm trying to put out, which is very progressive.

And I think that# really sets the Halia Hillbilly sound apart.

2.

See, I'm going to open forward.

Okay.

This music# project's always been a familyowned and operated business.

I've always involved my family and# having that family support has really helped me propel forward with with this crazy journey# of of a music career, chasing a music career, any kind of artistic career.

My father has# always been a a music fan.

His early background has always been a stage hand and roadie here in# South Florida.

So early on as a kid, he would take me out to various concerts.

My first concert was# Van Halen and then we eventually went to an Alan Jackson concert.

I worked at the Hollywood Sport# as a roadie.

Man, it was so nice being, you know, being with those artists, being there with him.# And then Ricky, man, Ricky started listening, you know, country music.

And I say, "Keep# chasing your dream, kid, cuz I'm here for you.

I'm here to be there for, you know, your for# your career.

What a good feeling, you know, being there with your son, you know, making it# happen and oh man, it's so Oh, man.

It's amazing.

I'm a person that's constantly trying to# learn something new and the music project wasn't something that I said I wanted to do from# the beginning.

it kind of naturally happened.

My background in environmental science, that's# where I got my first two degrees from that led into education and I sort of want to bridge# all three of those passions that I have, environmental science, education, and music.# I just finished releasing my debut album, a collection of songs.

I'm working on a# follow-up studio album to that and also a separate concept album dedicated to the# Florida Everglades.

The title of the album is Dear Everglades and it is a love letter# to the Florida Everglades and its ecosystem.

The mornings are where I kind of get more of# my writing out.

I like to write things down.

My songwriting process, it's a little bit of two# things.

Discipline and a little chaos as well.

A lot of the times they're just simple ideas# or loose poems.

I've sort of branched into a different way of writing where I'm now using# percussive instruments, drums, congas, bongos, and writing songs to rhythms and beats.

I'm# starting to explore my Spanish songwriting more than ever now.

And I think that I'm starting# to mix those two worlds together into bridging different cultures into the style of of country# music.

And I feel that by having songs in English and full Spanish and maybe even bilingual# banglish will just help me spread my message, my storytelling to even more audiences and a# little bit of showcasing my roots.

I'm proud to be a Cuban American and just, you know, having having# my roots being a part of what I do all the time.

I've always been sort of an unknown or an oddball, an oddity in in a world that was pretty much# coming up with different styles of music.

But I feel like I've been able to carve out# a little bit of a of a niche for myself here in South Florida where the landscape# is so different from what I'm doing.

When I started this project, I decided that# I wanted to sort of pay homage to my my roots here in South Florida and give the community# a style of music that maybe isn't really represented here.

And instead of transplanting# what I'm doing here in another music scene, I wanted to kind of bring listeners and# audience attention to yes, country music can be done in a different place with different# cultural backgrounds and kind of mix genres.

At the end of the day, I dedicate this# project to to my community and hopefully inspire other artists, other creatives,# give back to the causes that I believe in, and make music that's genuine to me.

I feel# like if I release music that's true to me, there's going to be an audience# that would hopefully relate to that.