[Announcer] This program is brought to you in part by Santa Cruz Guitars Company and Santa Cruz Parabolic Tension Strings and the Santa Cruz Guitar PLEK Department.

And by Peluso Microphone Lab.

Additional support provided by these sponsors.

Hello, and welcome to The Life Of A Musician.

Tonight's episode is recorded live from The Barn at Clearview.

Let's step inside and listen.

["Fiddle and Steel" playing] ♪ There I go ♪ ♪ Headtrippin' Through Memoryville ♪ ♪ With a fiddle and steel ♪ [mellow fiddle chords] ♪ Give me a fiddle and steel ♪ ♪ Cryin' through my radio ♪ ♪ Sad and slow ♪ ♪ I can't help myself ♪ ♪ There I go ♪ ♪ Headtrippin' Through Memoryville ♪ ♪ With a fiddle and steel ♪ [melodious fiddle notes] -Beautiful.

-Thank you.

-Lovely, lovely.

-Thanks.

-You are awesome.

-You are, too.

-Now, I'm gonna talk to all this.

-Thank you for learning that.

[laughs] -Oh, thank you for writing.

That was great too.

Hello, folks, and welcome to The Life Of A Musician .

I am your host, Brandon Lee Adams.

And we are blessed to be here with the amazing Miss Jenee Fleenor from Arkansas.

-From Arkansas.

-All the way from Nashville, Tennessee via Arkansas.

But, how're you doing?

-Doing good.

Glad to be here.

It's beautiful here in Virginia.

Yeah.

-This is really-- anyway, thanks for coming.

One of the things I wanted to get into it with you is, there's a lot of stuff that you do that maybe not everybody knows about.

-Mm-hmm.

-Like, you're an amazing songwriter.

You know, a wonderful vocalist that everybody's already heard.

But songwriting... so, kind of how did you get into that, or kind of what's, you know, your take on songwriting?

-Yeah.

Well, when I first moved to Nashville, you've had Larry Cordle on the show.

-Yeah.

-And when I moved to Nashville, I actually landed a job with him about two or three weeks after I moved to Nashville, which was a very lucky break.

And I really-- I mean, my gosh, what an amazing songwriter he is.

And I think what I concentrated on before I moved to Nashville was just, you know, I would listen to songs, but I would be listening more for the fiddle licks or the steel guitar licks, guitar licks.

And I think, playing in his band, I was like, man, this town, Nashville, is really about the song.

-Mm-hmm.

-And when all that started falling into place and hearing all these amazing songs that Larry would come in and write, I thought, man, I want to-- And I sang.

So I was like, I think I want to be a songwriter, too.

Like thinking it's that easy.

-Right.

-I knew it was going to be a lot of hard work.

But a lot of people took me under their wing, Larry being one, Jerry Salley being another.

-Mm-hmm.

-And we start, you know, I would just ask my songwriter friends if they would mind writing with me, and I finally started to hone in on that craft.

And, you know, like, my main dream was to be a session musician in Nashville.

But, you know, you can't make the phone ring.

-Right.

-And you move to town and even though that was my goal, I knew it was going to-- I didn't even know if that dream would even come true.

So, I'm just on this path to hopefully see my dreams come true.

But I just love the creative process of songwriting.

So, I just surrounded myself with really great writers and learned the craft of writing.

And my gosh, my first cut was with The Grascals.

-Oh, wow.

-[chuckles] And with the "I am Strong."

It ended up being nominated for Song of the Year for the IBMAs.

But it was a song for kids that had childhood cancer.

-Right.

-And I never even-- I just wrote it for this little girl that I knew that went to our church that had cancer.

Yeah, so I just couldn't believe that this song-- Dolly ended up singing on it and this whole all-star cast of people.

And then, I've had a couple Blake Shelton cuts and Gretchen Wilson, Kathy Mattea, and Del McCoury.

But that was kind of-- songwriting was kind of my pathway into being a session player.

-Mm-hmm.

-There was a time that there wasn't much fiddle on country radio.

[laughs] -Right, right.

-And so, I'm sittin' at home going, "Oh my gosh.

I don't know if fiddle's gonna come back again.

[chuckles] So, I need to figure out somethin' to do in case this thing don't work out."

So, songwriting kind of led me on this path to meet so many great writers.

And now, it's serving me well because these writers, you know, hire me to play on their demos or, you know, they're producers now or whatnot.

So yeah, all that-- I feel like it's just kind of coming full circle for me.

-Well, you're not putting all your eggs in just one basket.

-No.

-You have many baskets left.

-I kind of do, yeah.

[laughs] -Well, I think it's great.

That's a really impressive lineup of folks, you know, to be writing for.

-Yeah.

-Is that kind of surreal right now, or is it just like a Monday morning to you?

-Well, you know, my songwriter-- I'm so busy doing sessions these days.

Like, I'm actually-- for this new band I'm in, the Wood Box Heroes, I'm tapping into some of these songs that I wrote even close to ten years ago.

-Mm-hmm.

-Which is kind of fun digging these songs out that I really wrote for myself but didn't have a place to pitch 'em.

And I'm gettin' to dig back into that and dig back into my songwriting.

So, like I said, I feel like this whole-- doing sessions and songwriting, and then part of me wanted to be an artist for a while.

-Mm-hmm.

-But I just leaned into the session thing.

So, I don't know, all these things are kind of coming together for me, it seems like.

-Well, now you're just a complete rounded-- I think you are an artist.

I mean, it's pretty plain to see.

-Yeah.

-One of the things that-- and I say this a lot because just about everybody that I have on this show, the big things they have in common are, they're all like just really like yourself.

Normal, down-to-earth folks, you know.

-I think especially in the country music industry, I've-- you know, hear that a lot.

I've played some festivals where they might have a rock festival, nothing against rock festivals, but the country people will come in the next weekend and they're like, "Oh gosh, like, y'all are super chill."

[laughs] I'm like, well... -A lot more laidback.

-Yeah, I think so.

-It's country life.

-Yeah.

-You know, you be nice to your neighbors, you only see them once a month.

-Right.

[laughs] -But one thing, and I want to get into this later, I kind of want to pick your brain on this.

But there's this beautiful song that's, you know, just a classic.

And I want you to tell us a little bit about it and like kind of your reasoning why you're so hooked on that song, or why you're so passionate about it.

-Are we talking--?

-"Faded Love."

-Oh, "Faded Love."

Oh my gosh.

-Yeah.

Yeah.

-Well, I'll back up a little bit.

When I was three years old, my parents got me into classical violin, Suzuki, the Suzuki method.

-Mm-hmm.

-And, I mean, I went to so many lessons, and Mom had this vision of me going to Juilliard and being a classical musician.

-Mm-hmm.

-And then in the background, I heard Dad playing Old-Time fiddle records, and Bob Wills and Merle Haggard, and Willie Nelson and all those.

And it was "Faded Love" that I just kept hearin' over and over.

And I guess I just learned it by ear.

And I ended up standing up on this cedar chest, and I remember playing it for my parents.

And it was just such a turning point for me because I could hear something and just play it.

-Mm-hmm.

-And that song, it just... you know, I played a lot of Old-Time fiddling conventions and stuff like that.

And I was just around a lot of Old-Time fiddle players and whatnot.

-Yeah.

-And so, everybody played that.

So, that song just-- it was just a turning point for me to, I think that's when I realized, oh, this fiddling thing's really fun.

I had to play classical, but I learned, oh, I think I can learn these fiddle tunes.

And now, like when I hear "Faded Love," the Bob Wills version, I almost cry just nearly every time because it just takes me back to that place.

Yeah, I love that song.

-That was your breakthrough moment.

-Yeah, it really was.

-That was the moment you actually fell in love with it all.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

For me, it was "Streets of London," also "Church Street Blues."

-Oh, yeah.

Awesome.

-That was my breakthrough moment.

So, totally understand because folks back home, I cried too.

-You did?

-Whenever I listened to that stuff.

-Yeah.

It's just so much emotion.

-Absolutely.

-Mm-hmm.

-That's how you know, I think, in your heart, that that's what you're meant to do.

-Mm-hmm.

And there's nothing like doing what, you know, God made you to do.

-Yeah, absolutely.

-That's the way I feel.

-I'm gonna make sure my capo is on correctly here.

-Oh, yeah.

You can do that.

-They used to call that "being down in the valley" when you're... -[laughs] What?

-...when you're too far below.

-Twisted?

Twisted up there?

-Yeah, yeah.

-Gotcha.

[laughs] -My capo's a little down in the valley on that one.

But I'm gonna try to get through this one with you.

I am nervous.

I mean-- -No, you should not be nervous at all.

-Totally nervous.

Completely.

-[laughs] I'm gonna give a little fiddle lesson.

-Okay.

-So, the first couple notes on this, we fiddle players, we call this Nik Nik Nu.

And that's the-- [plays fiddle note] That's called a Nik Nik Nu.

So-- -Nik Nik Nu.

-There you go.

-Can you spell that?

-I spell it N-I-K N-I-K N-U.

[laughs] I think I want to get T-shirts made.

A little insider fiddle thing.

[laughs] -So, you're doing one Nik Nik Nu on this one, or two Nik Nik Nu?

-Yes.

No, just one set of Nik Nik Nu.

-Okay.

-[laughs] You ready?

-Yes, ma'am.

-Here we go.

["Faded Love" instrumental music playing] ♪ I miss you darlin' More and more every day ♪ ♪ As Heaven would miss The stars above ♪ ♪ With every heartbeat I still dream of you ♪ ♪ And remember our faded love ♪ ♪ And remember our faded love ♪ [closing fiddle notes] -That was beautiful.

-[chuckles] Thank you.

-I think I felt that when... -Oh.

-...you played it like that.

-Oh, good.

I'm very glad.

-You have such a pretty voice.

-Thanks.

-Such a strong-- I mean, you have to be sitting this close to realize just how powerful, you know, your voice is.

But that's-- And in tune at the same time.

-Well, I try my best.

[laughs] -In tune.

So, as, you know, we've talked about your songwriting, but now we're getting into your singing.

So, is that something you've always done?

Is that something you've developed or--?

-It's been a journey.

You know, for me, this was always, I mean, it's kind of like Linus' blanket.

-Mm-hmm.

-But I, yeah, I sang a lot in church, growing up.

I kind of, I went to one of those really big churches, and it had all the cameras and all that kind of stuff.

So I got a lot of, of course, when we had musicals and stuff like that, like church choir programs-- -Mm-hmm.

-if there was a place I could play my violin, they'd have me.

But I would get a lot of singing parts and stuff.

So, I remember like singing in church, and really getting nervous and like, working through those nerves.

-Mm-hmm.

-Because it just didn't come as natural.

I think I started a little later singing.

-Mm-hmm.

-Maybe like ten.

[laughs] I don't know.

A little later.

-A little later in life.

Yeah.

-Yeah, right.

So, I know I worked through a lot of that.

And then, I don't know, when I moved to town playing with Larry Cordle, I would sing a lot of backgrounds.

And then, the gigs I would get hired for, like my first big country gig was with Terri Clark, and then I was with Martina McBride and Blake Shelton.

So all those, the more things you can do to bring to the table in a band like that, you know, the better.

So, I'd sing a lot of backgrounds.

When I sang with Martina McBride, and I sang the high... -Oh.

Oh, Lord, you got up above Martina?

-Yeah.

-Whoo.

-The high, high parts.

And it's probably good I was a little younger because my voice sits a little different place now, too.

As you get older, you just learn your voice.

But yeah, I learned a lot singing with Martina.

My gosh, what a powerhouse of a singer.

-Yeah, absolutely.

-And then, when I was in Blake's band, I actually sang below Blake a lot.

-Oh, wow.

-He had a lot of, on his records, there would be just male vocals.

So, I'd kind of had to figure out what I was going to do in the middle of that.

But, sometimes I would sing over him.

But a lot of times, it would actually be the part below him, which was kind of fun.

Like kind of a learning curve, I guess.

And then, coming into my own, being a singer, I think just through songwriting and stuff, I learned what my voice can do.

I think a lot of people know me for this little voice break that I can do.

And I'm excited to explore more of that with our project, our band project we're doing.

-Absolutely, yeah.

And it's one of those things where I first heard probably my favorite album that Larry did was "Songs From the Workbench."

-Oh, yeah.

-And you were on that one.

-[laughs] Yeah.

-Oh, my goodness.

You know?

-Just the one with "Can't Let Go" on it.

-"Can't Let Go."

-Yeah.

And that was probably, oh-- some of my first times in the studio.

I'd fiddled a lot in the studio before coming to Nashville, but singing in the studio.

And Booie Beach, who was in Cordle's band at the time... -Yeah.

Great guitar man.

-Oh, yeah.

-Yeah.

-They suggested that I do that song, it's a Lucinda Williams song.

And that's kind of-- yeah, a lot of people knew me for singing that song.

And it was a fun time.

-What was that other... [sings] ♪ Come over here you wild cat ♪ -Oh.

You actually remember-- -I remember that.

I remember that.

-Come on over here-- ♪ Come on over here you big tom cat you ♪ -Yeah, yeah.

-I think the first time I played the Opry, I said that because that was on that record.

And oh, my God.

"Alley Cat," I think, was the name of that song, something like that.

-Okay.

-[laughs] It's funny.

-It's been a while, Larry.

I'm sorry, buddy.

-[laughs] And there's a secret track, I think, on that record.

I sang the little frog song at the end.

-Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

-People thought the tape just kept rolling and we forgot to delete it.

But no, it was planned.

[laughs] -Well, I always say, the first thing that stood out to me when I heard that album was, you have a lot of personality.

-Oh, thanks.

-It sounds like, hey, there's a lot of personality in this voice.

And then I meet you in person, and absolutely.

-Yeah.

Well, thanks.

I appreciate that.

-So, tell me a little bit about this new project you got coming out here.

-Well, I'm in a new band.

-Mm-hmm.

-We're called Wood Box Heroes.

And with a bunch of my great friends, Josh Martin, lead singer, guitar picker from Kentucky, amazing singer-songwriter.

And our first single was called "Made Up My Mind."

And it's a song that he wrote.

And then, our second single just came out, "This Train."

It's one that I wrote with Josh and Jim "Moose" Brown, kind of a legend in Nashville.

-Mm-hmm.

-And we have Barry Bales in the band.

A lot of people are probably familiar with him.

-With Alison Krauss, yeah.

-Yeah, Alison Krauss, Earls of Leicester, 15 Grammys, something like that.

[laughs] -He's got a few.

Did he lend you a couple, or just let you touch 'em?

-No, not yet.

[laughs] -He's got plenty.

-He has a cape.

We're gonna require him to wear a cape in our band.

[laughs] And we have Matt Menefee on banjo, banjo virtuoso.

-Absolutely.

-Played with Cadillac Sky, Mumford & Sons.

And Seth Taylor, a lot of people know him as a guitar player... -Mm-hmm.

-...with Mountain Heart.

And he fills in with Skaggs a lot.

He's playing mandy, mandolin with us, and killing it.

-Yeah.

-He's so much fun.

So yeah, we're puttin' out new music and finishin' a record and hittin' the road.

So, come out and see us.

-Absolutely.

Now this question just literally just popped into my mind.

Where did you come up with the idea for Wood Box Heroes?

Where did that come from?

-Do we have enough time?

[laughs] Well, we were tossin' around-- oh, Lord, it was a journey, tossing around band names.

And we actually early on, Josh threw out Wood Box Heroes.

There was-- like I said, it's a whole long story.

But there was two little figurines at a Buc-ee's gas station sitting on-- I love Buc-ee's.

I'm obsessed with Buc-ee's.

And they were from-- there was Thor and the wood guy on whatever that movie is.

-Mm-hmm.

-I don't have kids, ya'll.

-Groot?

Is it Groot?

-Groot.

Yes.

-Okay.

-And I took 'em from this-- because I'm like, "Some little kid left them here."

And so, I put 'em on my front dash, and I sent Josh a picture.

He goes, "Well, those are Wood Box Heroes."

And then, we came up with a million other names.

And then, we ended up circling back to that because I thought, "Man, that sounds cool."

We have a lot.. ourselves, we have a lot of-- we call the guitar, a lot of times, a wood box.

-Yeah.

-And we all play these wooden boxes.

So, we have a lot of heroes in our lives.

Tony Rice and for me, Alison Krauss, and Ricky Skaggs, and all these Wood Box Heroes.

So, I just thought it was a cool name.

-That's one of those things that the more you say it, the more it makes sense.

-Yeah.

-And those are the best names.

Like, you know, the Beatles, the Doors, the Rolling Stones.

When they first came out with that, it was like, "What?"

-What?

Yeah.

-But then, the more you hear it, I'd say, you know, this time next year, it'll be just a, you know, a household name.

-Lord.

-The Wood Box Heroes.

-I hope so.

[laughs] -There's one other thing I wanted to talk with you about.

And what I like to do on this show is I want maybe some folks back home who have aspirations for becoming a musician.

You know, I want to show every facet that we can about what it is to be a musician, and living that kind of life.

So, can you break down a little bit what it is to be a session musician in Nashville, Tennessee, you know?

-For me, I always lean on the creative side.

And as much as I love to tour, I just love to-- I love the magic in the studio of us hearing a song for the first time.

And we'll hear what we call a work tape, which is a lot of times just the singer singing the song.

Or the songwriter playing with an acoustic.

And the session musicians, we stand around looking at a chart.

It's called the Nashville Number System is what we read.

And then for me, I hear melodies in my head in between the vocal lines.

And a lot of times, if there's a steel player in the room, we'll jump on some of those lines together.

So, it's having ears this big.

[chuckles] -Mm-hmm.

-Oh.

I think, a lot of times, you learn where not to play, which is very important as a musician.

And that's something I think when I look back, when I first moved to town, I was all about the picking, and just I want to play over everything.

But if you're playing over the vocal-- -Right.

-that's not a good thing.

So, you learn where to play, and when not to play.

And gosh, there's so many things I've learned.

I'm still learning in the studio.

And just listening a lot.

Even I think of myself 10, 15 years ago as a session player, I was sitting back, just listening to my heroes, what they were saying in the room and just paying attention, you know, maturing as a session musician.

And now, maybe I'll give my input a little bit more, a little more confident.

-Mm-hmm.

-But you learn, you know, kind of the dynamic in the room.

And now, I know most of the guys I play with in the session world, we've been playing for years together now.

So, you know each other's playing.

Mike Johnson, he's such a dear friend of mine, steel guitar legend.

We play so much music together.

Like I said, those steel guitar lines.

Even if we're not on the same session, we'll come up with these licks and courses that I know he'll pick up on if he's overdubbing, which overdubbing just means you're, like I'm playing fiddle on the track after it's already tracked... which I do probably about half my session work I do at home.

-Yeah.

-People will e-mail me tracks from all over the world.

And, you know, sometimes it's an acoustic song or-- but sometimes it's stuff you hear on the radio.

-Mm-hmm.

-A lot of John Pardi's recent record I did from home, did overdubs on.

So, every day is different.

A few days ago, I was playing on a George Strait pitch.

They were pitching a song to George Strait.

So yeah, I just love the creative part of session work that we just kind of get to make that magic.

-You're what we like to call the hired gun when you want it to sound perfect.

-Well, I don't know about perfect, but we try to-- you know, time is money in the studio.

-Yeah.

-So, in a three-hour session block, if it's a demo block, you're playing about five songs in three hours.

But master session, you do probably two songs in that three-hour block.

You finesse all the solos and intros, and you give them a lot of options.

But yeah, time is definitely money in the studio.

So, you've got to be on your A game.

You know, it's-- and sometimes, you know, like if you're tired or something.

-You mean, you're human.

-Yeah.

[laughs] -Yeah.

You're a human being.

-Right.

-Now there you go.

-Right.

You get busy.

Like I know the '90s guys, I hear about them.

Sessions are usually in three-hour increments.

So like a ten, a two and a six PM.

And these guys were working, there wasn't so much studio work in their houses, there was no Pro Tools.

So, they would be in their chair from ten AM to like nine PM.

And there's definitely been those days that I've done that.

And you're just mentally, it's a lot.

So, you have to make sure you spend time for yourself too.

-Exactly.

-Every once in a while.

-Exactly.

That's, you know, that's some-- it's a great behind-the-scenes kind of look into it.

Because it's work.

It's not just, you know-- -It's fun work.

I mean, it's-- -Yeah.

-Yeah.

-But it's still work.

-Yeah.

I guess so.

[laughs] Gosh, I'm so blessed that I get to live my dream.

And I get really emotional when I think about it.

Because I just dreamed of this for so long to be able to say I'm so busy getting to play on records and stuff.

So-- -Absolutely.

But you've definitely earned it.

I mean, you have paid your dues.

You have put in the time.

You've put in the work.

And now, you're just reaping the fruits of your labor.

-I reckon so.

[laughs] -Well-deserved.

-Thank you.

-You're very blessed.

-Thank you.

-And you're blessing others with your music.

-I hope so, yeah.

-Thank you so, so very much for taking the trip down from Nashville to hang out with us.

-Oh my gosh, that's awesome.

-Yes.

-Thank you for having me.

-Yeah, definitely.

And I hope that every time you come by, you'll want to just crash at my place.

-Well yeah, we're gonna pick, too, I hope.

[laughs] -Yeah.

Well, if my-- like I said, my hand won't shake, I'll do it.

But I want to say thank you, folks, back home for tuning in to the show.

And we hope that you'll catch every episode that you can of The Life of a Musician .

God bless, and be well.

[Announcer] Thank you for being a part of our show.

We look forward to seeing you on the next episode of The Life of a Musician.

[upbeat fiddle chords] [Announcer] This program is brought to you in part by Santa Cruz Guitars Company and Santa Cruz Parabolic Tension Strings.

And the Santa Cruz Guitar PLEK Department.

And by Peluso Microphone Lab.

Additional support provided by these sponsors.