ANNOUNCER: This program is brought to you in part by the City of Danville's Office of Economic Development and Tourism.

And by Santa Cruz Guitars and Santa Cruz Guitar Strings.

Additional support provided by these sponsors.

Hello, and welcome to The Life of a Musician , recorded live in the beautiful city of Danville, Virginia.

Tonight's episode is recorded from Crema & Vine.

Let's step inside and listen.

-♪ You'll never see her face on Time Magazine ♪ ♪ But to me, she's the person of the year ♪ ♪ She ought a wear a halo ♪ ♪ If there's one thing I know ♪ ♪ She's the closest thing to an angel down here ♪ ♪ She's an on her feet all-nighter ♪ ♪ A giver and a fighter ♪ ♪ She holds the hand of those with one last breath to give ♪ ♪ Out there on the frontline ♪ ♪ After work she'll have a good cry ♪ ♪ For the one she tries to save that didn't live ♪ ♪ Tired eyes behind a mask ♪ ♪ Giving more than she gets back ♪ ♪ To me that's who a hero truly is ♪ ♪ He's the fearless soldier ♪ ♪ On the battlefield ♪ ♪ He goes in wearing gloves and royal blue ♪ ♪ Working overtime with no breaks ♪ ♪ With no concern for his sake ♪ ♪ Convinced he'll win the war ♪ ♪ If he does all that he can do ♪ ♪ He's an on his feet all-nighter ♪ ♪ A giver and a fighter ♪ ♪ He holds the hands of those with one last breath to give ♪ ♪ Out there on the frontline ♪ ♪ After work he'll have a good cry ♪ ♪ For the ones he tried to save that didn't live ♪ ♪ Tired eyes behind a mask ♪ ♪ Giving more than he gets back ♪ ♪ To me that's who a hero truly is ♪ ♪ Yeah, to me, that's who a hero truly is ♪ -Beautiful.

-Thank you.

-Beautiful work, Miss Kristy.

Hi, folks, and welcome to The Life of a Musician .

I'm your host, Brandon Lee Adams.

And today, we're coming to you live from Crema & Vine in Danville, Virginia, that's a great spot to stop for some beverages and some hoagies and whatnot.

And today, my guest is the extremely talented, well-traveled Miss Kristy Cox.

-Thank you for having me, Brandon.

-Thanks a ton for coming.

-Oh, it's a pleasure.

-It really is a pleasure.

-Wine and coffee are two of my favorite things.

So, you could not have picked a better venue for Miss Kristy Cox, I must say.

-Exactly.

Exactly.

And we met, well, a couple years ago.

About two years ago, I guess maybe.

-It was February of 2020.

So, yeah.

-Right before COVID just about... -Destroyed the world, yes.

-Wrecked everything.

But I remember I met you through a friend in Ireland, through Dave.

And he said, you know, I've got a friend who's from Australia who's doing some touring.

And she's going to come over here and I think you ought to give her a call.

She was, you know, she's looking for a guitar player.

And that's kind of our introduction was, hey, here's Kristy.

She's from Australia.

And I'm calling you up to say, Hey, I've got a gig over the station and do you want to play.

That's kind of how it went.

-Yes.

-But tell me a little bit about, and I know this is probably something you get a lot, but that's not a very direct route - Australia, Nashville, Tennessee.

You know, can you give us a little backstory on Kristy Cox?

-Yes, well, I started playing bluegrass and country music when I was 11 years old.

I grew up in a little town called Mount Barker in South Australia, which is a town in the mountains, but still only 30 minutes from the coast.

So, it's a beautiful spot.

And my granddad used to listen to a lot of bluegrass and country music.

So, we used to listen to the Grand Ole Opry all the time.

And I just fell in love with the music.

And so, they had a lot of country music clubs that you could get up as a walk-up artist as a young kid, the seasoned musicians would just get back of you and, you know, follow a chord chat while you sing, which was amazing.

But I fell in love with being on stage and music.

And I just wanted to take every opportunity that came my way.

And in 2012, I came over for IBMA in Nashville, and met a guy named Ty Gilpin from Mountain Home Records, and he offered me a record deal.

And at the time, I was like, well, what's the worst that can happen?

I can come back home with my tail between my legs.

So, I moved over with a guitar and 3,000 dollars in the bank, which did not get me very far.

And I'm banking in on this thing called music.

And I haven't stopped since.

-Well, you did an excellent job.

Everywhere you go, anybody who hears Kristy Cox, is like, wow, she's awesome.

And they remember you because you got this powerful vocal presence that I think carries, no matter where you go.

-Well, thank you.

I think they just remember me because of the Australian accent.

But thank you.

That's very nice of you to say so.

-Oh, you're very welcome.

We got you on the show for a reason, because you're good.

-Wow.

-You sound great.

-You're gonna make me blush here, Brandon.

Careful.

-But - so, I know you've got a new album out.

You want to tell me a little bit about the album and, you know, who's produced it and, you know, some of the backstory on that?

-Yes, we just released - Shades of Blue is the album.

We call it Shades of Blue because we have three songs on the album that will have the word "blue" in the title.

But other than that, it's got a whole lot of different styles of bluegrass music on it.

I like everything from traditional to contemporary.

I like my swings.

I like my 3/4 waltzes, I like to do a little bit of everything.

So, Jerry Salley produced the album.

He's produced seven of my albums now.

I've been very blessed to work with him.

-Couldn't find anybody better.

-Apparently not, no.

He is just a legend, in my eyes.

He's my son's godfather, so he's like family to me.

But he just signed me to his label Billy Blue Records with Ed and the team over there.

And this is my first release on Billy Blue.

So, it's been a very exciting year so far.

-The way it should be.

I mean, it's tough.

You know, I know that you were talking European tours and, you know, going back to Australia and touring, and then COVID hit.

-KRISTY: Yeah.

-So, you know, how did you, because that's, you know, across the entire industry, it just shut everybody down.

So, what was kind of your process of like, okay, how am I going to bounce back and keep plodding forward?

-To be honest, I'm still trying to work that out.

Obviously, I'm a little bit different to a lot of bluegrass artists over here, because I do travel so much internationally and not... my bread and butter is not just here in America, I don't just do gigs around the United States.

So, when COVID hit, I lost a 30-day European tour, I lost 40 dates in Australia, and these are things that, you know, I'm still nervous to, even today, I'm still nervous to rebook those in because the world is so unknown still, the traveling requirements still change.

And so, I'm still figuring out how to bounce back from COVID.

I'm not going to lie - it definitely hit me harder than I think it hit some musicians just because I... one, I couldn't see my family for three years, because I couldn't enter my home country.

They closed the borders, and I haven't been back to Australia in three years now.

So, it was hard.

It was a hard time, I've got to say, but music kept you going.

You know, music was the thing that kept us going, and the kids, of course.

It was nice to spend time with the kids and not be on the road, I must say, it was.

-Good.

I do want to talk about this, you know, gorgeous song that you've got coming up here, If Heaven Was A House .

Can you tell me a little bit about this?

What kind of the process like, you know, you and Jerry working together to pick the songs, or is this one just, I have to do this song.

This is a great one.

- If Heaven Was A House was probably, it's probably my favorite song on the album, I think.

We had already chosen our songs for the album.

We'd already done all the charts and the pre-production, and a good friend of ours, David Morris, sent us this song one day before we got in the studio.

And Jerry rang me and he's like, I know that we've got all our songs that we need but, Kristy, you got to hear this song.

I think we need to do it.

So, I listened to it, and I rang him.

I said, well, it looks like we're doing 12 tracks.

So, it was just one of those things where you hear a song, and you wish that you wrote it.

I like to record good songs.

I don't mind; I'm not one of these that I have to write every song I record.

I'm happy to just record great songs, you know.

But this was one that I wish I'd written.

It just throws me back to my childhood, sitting in my grandma's kitchen, and I would do anything to be able to go back to those days, so.

-Absolutely.

Well, you want to try to go through that one?

-Sure.

-Let's see if I don't mess you up too bad.

-Oh, I'm sure you won't.

You'll be fine.

I have faith in you, Brandon.

-All right, thank you.

Thank you very much [gentle guitar notes] -♪ If Heaven was a house ♪ ♪ Would it be a mansion ♪ ♪ Cause it ain't what I imagined when I close my eyes ♪ ♪ I see a little fence ♪ ♪ White picket with a front porch ♪ ♪ Rocking chairs and a screen door ♪ ♪ When I go inside ♪ ♪ Grandma's at the kitchen table ♪ ♪ Folding her clean clothes ♪ ♪ Johnny's on the radio ♪ ♪ There's biscuits on the stove ♪ ♪ There's family photos on the wall ♪ ♪ Of all the ones I thought I'd lost ♪ ♪ I hope someday I'm hanging up there too ♪ ♪ Yes, Saturday nights playing cards ♪ ♪ And Daddy smoking good cigars ♪ ♪ There ain't no pain cause we're all made brand new ♪ ♪ And we get to stay forever ♪ ♪ And they never tear it down ♪ ♪ If Heaven was a house ♪ ♪ I'd hang out in the backyard ♪ ♪ With the hood up on an old car ♪ ♪ My buddy next to me ♪ ♪ I ain't seen him in a while ♪ ♪ Since senior year of high school ♪ ♪ He missed a curve in that Malibu ♪ ♪ Said he didn't feel a thing ♪ ♪ We've come in for supper ♪ ♪ When the lightning bugs came out ♪ ♪ Granddad's watching baseball ♪ ♪ With his feet up on the couch ♪ ♪ There's family photos on the wall ♪ ♪ Of all the ones I thought I'd lost ♪ ♪ I hope someday I'm hanging up there too ♪ ♪ Yes, Saturday nights playing cards ♪ ♪ And Daddy smoking good cigars ♪ ♪ There ain't no pain ♪ ♪ Cause we're all made brand new ♪ ♪ And we get to stay forever ♪ ♪ And they never tear it down ♪ ♪ If Heaven was a house ♪ ♪ Ooooh ♪ ♪ 'Cause there's family photos on the wall ♪ ♪ Of all the ones I thought I'd lost ♪ ♪ I hope someday I'm hanging up there too ♪ ♪ Yes, Saturday nights playing cards ♪ ♪ And Daddy smoking good cigars ♪ ♪ There ain't no pain ♪ ♪ 'Cause we're all made brand new ♪ ♪ And we get to stay forever ♪ ♪ And they never tear it down ♪ ♪ If Heaven was a house ♪ ♪ If Heaven was a house ♪ -Absolutely beautiful.

-Thank you.

See, I told you, you wouldn't mess it up.

-Well, you know-- -I have major faith in your ability, Brandon.

-Well, we'll get it in editing.

For you folks back home, we'll get that in editing later on.

It's just an absolutely gorgeous song.

So, which leads me to this question - so, when you're thinking about doing an album, you know, when you're thinking about okay, I'm Kristy Cox, and this is the sound, and this is what I want to do it.

So, what's kind of going through your mind?

What are you really just searching for?

-Jerry's always told me that I have a good ear for songs.

He said, you know, you just, you know when you listen to a song, whether it's something you want to record or not, and whether it's something that you can do or not.

I try to make the albums so that people don't want to skip anything.

You know, when you buy an album and there's like, you skip track three every time.

My goal with every album is to do an entire album of ten songs or 12 songs that nobody wants to skip anything.

And to try and beat the album that I did previously.

I think for me, the older I get, the more I'm coming into who I am as an artist, I think.

I listened to some of the albums that I did earlier, and I was definitely just finding my feet then, and I'm still finding my feet now, but it's getting easier.

-Right.

It's a process that you never perfect.

-Exactly.

-It's the pursuit of perfection that keeps us going.

-Exactly.

-It's, you know, and you're doing a fabulous job.

Every project you come out with has, was a little bit more of something that's like, okay, that's cool.

-Yes, I always...

I set myself challenges like every album has to have at least one song that is so far from bluegrass that people think I'm crazy for even attempting it.

But I hear something in it that I'm like, I can make this bluegrass.

Like the last album, I did a song called Train , and if you listen to the demo for Train , it's heavy rock, guitars, and big drums.

And I remember saying to Jerry, I think I want to record this one.

He's like, are you crazy?

I said, probably, but let's give it a go, so I just like to set myself little challenges and make it interesting.

-You know, that's also, that's part of being an artist.

It's part of expressing yourself.

-Yes.

-It's doing those things.

-And I want to set myself to be different from the other artists that are, you know, other female bluegrass artists.

I want people to go, oh, that's Kristy, she pushes the boundaries in this area.

So, that's kind of where my mindset's at.

-And that's good advice for anybody else coming along.

You know, you can be an inspiration to other female bluegrass artists.

-I got given some advice from a lovely lady named Emily Harris - and she told me that if you're not happy playing the music, then don't do it.

And if you're happy playing the music, then people will enjoy listening to it, so just do what you want to do, and then the rest will fall into place.

-Okay.

That's really like sound advice.

I think I might try to listen to this.

This last song that we're going to do, what can you tell us about this one?

- This Is Where You Kiss Me was written by a really good friend of mine, Bill Whyte.

He writes great melodies.

That's what I love about Bill's writing.

He's always, melody's always interesting, and no two songs that he writes sound the same, and I love that about him.

But this was just - this is my happy love song.

I try to have at least one happy love song on each album I do because, you know, bluegrass music, we're usually killing people.

It sounds happy, but usually someone's dying, or it's a heartbreak song, so I try to mix it up a little.

-And they're usually killing the lady in the bluegrass songs.

-Yes, because she probably ran off with my husband.

She probably deserved it.

-There's a Jolene around every bend.

-Exactly.

-Well, let's see if we can try to do this one.

Once again, I will do my utmost to not mess you up too bad.

[mellow guitar notes] -♪ I remember when ♪ ♪ I first saw your face ♪ ♪ It's frozen in time, ♪ ♪ Frozen in place ♪ ♪ And I remember when ♪ ♪ You got down on your knees ♪ ♪ And now look where we stand ♪ ♪ It's so hard to believe ♪ ♪ And this is where you look in my eyes ♪ ♪ This is where I start to cry ♪ ♪ This is where to have and to hold ♪ ♪ Means till we both grow old ♪ ♪ This is where you take my hand ♪ ♪ And slip on my grandma's wedding band ♪ ♪ This is forever you and me ♪ ♪ And this is where you kiss me ♪ ♪ There's a photograph ♪ ♪ We took by the beach ♪ ♪ Where we fell in love ♪ ♪ Beside the turquoise sea ♪ ♪ This is where we stood ♪ ♪ In the blue moon light ♪ ♪ Now here we are ♪ ♪ Still standing side by side ♪ ♪ This is where you look in my eyes ♪ ♪ This is where I start to cry ♪ ♪ This is where to have and to hold ♪ ♪ Means till we both grow old ♪ ♪ This is where you take my hand ♪ ♪ And slip on my grandma's wedding band ♪ ♪ This is forever you and me ♪ ♪ And this is where you kiss me ♪ ♪ Oh, this is where you kiss me ♪ Thank you.

-Hey, thank you.

We got through that one.

-I like it.

-Yes.

-You want a job?

-I'd love a job.

Once again, fantastic song.

Fantastic job with it.

-Oh, well, thank you.

It's a good song.

I can't take much credit for that.

I just sing it the way it was written.

-That's okay.

Well, what do the folks back home think?

You know, all the way in Australia?

What did the folks back home think of Kristy in Nashville and doing all the touring and...?

What's that kind of like for you?

-I think that they're, they're pretty proud of what I'm doing.

I'd like to say there's not another bluegrass artist really that's here anymore.

The Greencards were here for a while, but they've moved back home.

And George Jackson, he's from New Zealand, he's over here kicking goals.

But for the most part, I think I'm kind of flying the flag a little bit, which is very daunting, I must say, but I think they're proud of me.

I don't know, I don't know.

You'd have to ask them.

You'd have to come to Australia and ask them.

-Happy to, happy to.

I'd love to come to Australia and check that out.

So, you know, you're touring in Australia, things are opening back up.

So, what are some of the things that you feel like, you know, you're working towards in the future?

What are some goals for you?

-My goal right now is to play the Grand Ole Opry, which is the goal of every single bluegrass and country musician out there, I know.

But that's the one thing that I want to do.

I think if I can get there, then that'd be the biggest goal I've ever had.

-That's the time to retire and just... -Time to retire, hang my hat.

Good to go, out on a win.

Yes.

-Well, I understand that.

I'm not sure what my goals were when I was younger, but the Opry was definitely on the list.

-Yes, I think it's one of those amazing stages.

I've been lucky enough to play the Ryman, which is the home of country music.

That's the mother church, so I've been really lucky to play there.

So, I'd really like to play the Opry, and then, I don't know.

Maybe we'll go for Madison Square Gardens or something after that, who knows.

Sky's the limit, right.

-Sky's the limit after the Opry.

So, like when you're, like musically do you have any kind of limits set on yourself, you know?

I want to do ten albums, I want to do five, you just kind of...?

-No, I'm just going to keep going till people tell me to stop.

-Excellent, you know, and let's hope that that keeps going for you.

I'm rooting for you.

You got me, you can call me up anytime.

-Oh, well, thank you.

There's a - one of our idols in Australia, our biggest country artist ever, was Slim Dusty.

And he did 102 albums.

-Wow!

-Hundred and two albums - and that is some mean feat right there.

So, I'm going to try and see if I can beat it.

-Beat Slim Dusty?

-Probably not, but.

-That's a lot of recording, yes.

That's basically just live, did he live in the studio?

-No, he lived on the road.

They had two cars and two caravans, and two at the Outback nonstop for years.

Yes, it was amazing.

He's very iconic back then.

He's actually played the Opry before he died, yes.

And John McCurry recorded one of his songs, so there you go.

-That's really cool.

So, at least you've got somebody to set the sights on.

-Yes, yes.

-Hundred and two, I'm setting, and how many albums you got now?

-Seven.

-Seven?

-I've got a little ways to go.

-You got aways to go.

You might end up having a family band when the kids grow up and start playing.

-That's probably going to happen.

My kids both love music, although Ryman wants to play drums, I'm pretty sure.

So, I have a feeling he's not going to go down to bluegrass route, but.

-Well, you never know because, you know, bluegrass is working in that percussion.

-Yes, I mean, my husband's a honky tonk singer, so.

And my favorite thing for him and my son to do is to listen to '70s Rock, so I have a feeling bluegrass is a little far-fetched for him.

But he's only three.

I've got time to work on that.

-You've got plenty of time.

And I do want to thank you very much for coming and being a part of the show.

-Thank you for having me.

-And, you know, when you come back, please.

-I will.

-Will we see you here in Danville, Virginia again?

-Yes, I may buy one of these beautiful old Victorian homes.

It's on the cards.

-That would be really cool.

And then, you wouldn't be a touring artist anymore, you'd be a local.

-I would be.

There you go.

-Yeah.

You know, once again, thank you so very, very much.

And thank you, folks, for tuning into The Life of a Musician , and we hope that you'll catch the next episode.

Please, check out Kristy Cox's music.

You can find it online; you can find it wherever you can purchase music.

We can't really tell you where because it's... -Everywhere.

-Everywhere.

-Everywhere.

-Everywhere.

And we'll see you next time on The Life of a Musician .

Thank you.

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.

-♪ You'll never see her face on Time Magazine ♪ ♪ But to me, she's the person of the year ♪ ANNOUNCER: This program is brought to you in part by the City of Danville's Office of Economic Development and Tourism.

And by Santa Cruz Guitars and Santa Cruz Guitar Strings.

Additional support provided by these sponsors.

-♪ She's the closest thing to an angel down here ♪ ♪ She's an on her feet all nighter ♪ ♪ A giver and a fighter... ♪