I learned a long time ago that any time I have
an opportunity to see any kind of, you know,
well -renowned or well -resorted musical act,
it does not matter if I'm a fan of the band or
the artist. It does not matter if I'm even a
fan of the genre. If I've got the opportunity,
I probably should go because I'm going to end
up adoring it just because, again, seeing people
that are so good at their craft is there's something
about it that I just I love to see even if I
wouldn't ever listen to it on my own I think
the example comes to mind right now I inadvertently
ended up seeing Lamb of God a couple of years
back and I did not yeah I did not leave a Lamb
of God fan I did not go in a Lamb of God fan
it's a little bit heavier than what I like but
For those 45 minutes where I was watching them
on stage, I absolutely was a huge fan. It was
a phenomenal show. It's funny you mentioned them.
I've seen them live, uh, I think 2007. I've got
three brothers or two brothers. I'm one of three
and our oldest was waving the heavy metal flag
at an early age. So we had my, I'm the middle
and my younger brother, we had no chance. We
were going to be some version of metalheads and
so that's kind of what I got into starting around
yeah 14 15 and then into early 20s I branched
out into independent artists and but I love and
if you listen to prior episodes I've had people
from from the metal genre on I love to have them
on here but yeah Lamb of God wow that's what
I wasn't expecting that one but they put on a
quite a performance Oh, it was stellar. I mean,
it was so tight and I saw them with a full disclosure.
The reason I went was because Trivium was on
the bill and I've got an opportunity to see Trivium.
I didn't get to see them back in the day when
I was really into them. You know what? I might
as well go to the show and they were opening
for, as I said, Lamb of God and also Megadeth.
And well, first of all, it was a phenomenal show.
All of the acts were phenomenal. They were so
tight. A Lamb of God, like you're saying, that
show, man, it was so, so... They were musically
tight. The effects were phenomenal. They were
so locked in together. The performances were
just top of their craft. And like I said, I didn't
leave and immediately go start listening to Lamb
of God. But I did thoroughly enjoy them for that
set. I did actually leave and start listening
to Megadeth. I was not a fan of Megadeth before
that, and now I have very strong feelings about
Dave Mustaine, so go figure. David Elveson used
to play bass, long -time bassist for Megadeth.
He's got a podcast I've been listening to. I
should probably drop recommendations in the middle
of these episodes more often, but yeah, the David
Elveson show. It's great, even if you don't know
much about Megadeth or... that type of music.
It's really neat stories from the years and years
and the miles that he spent. I'm absolutely gonna
have to check that out. I'm sure he's got all
kinds of stories. But I can definitely hear Ghost
River Revival a little bit heavier, especially
with on Medicine Woman, Natasha Nix. I didn't
want to go this far in the episode without mentioning
Natasha. How did you get, did she reach out to
you? How'd you get involved with this project?
It's, man, that's a long story. Natasha is another
one of those people that is just phenomenal.
And I've got three shows with that band coming
up the next three days. We're hitting the road
after you and I get off the call, actually. I
feel so phenomenally lucky to get to work with
her. So the guitar player in that band and myself,
have known each other for quite a while. We've
worked together off and on for over a decade
now and we were in a band about a decade ago
that, we'll say that it's not the band that was
necessarily the problem, although it had its
problematic moments, but there were experiences
with that band that have really soured me on
major label interactions. We'll just leave that
at that. He and I, we worked together for years
and often all through the years we continued
to work together. So Natasha, she used to come
to a lot of shows. She was always in the scene.
She was always around. And none of us, none of
us had a clue that she could sink, right? Because
she didn't ever sink. So when COVID happened
and the world shut down, She decided I'm gonna
start singing and As restrictions started to
lift and a few things started to open back up
she started going to do karaoke and The guitar
player I mentioned talked her into You know doing
an acoustic thing with him. He plays she sings
and I basically I said You know, there's no way
that that you're keeping this to yourself, right?
We're going to go ahead and flesh this out. And
it's hilarious because at the time, the guitar
player and I were in another project that we
were pursuing seriously. And unfortunately, you
know, things fall apart. They don't always stick.
But we were going to start something with Natasha
that was it was going to just be a for fun, right?
It was going to be we're going to play. some
covers we like, we're going to do some theme
shows we want to do, and it's going to be low
stress, and we're just going to do it for fun.
And our first show, we did about, I want to say,
20 covers of 90s country songs. Everything from
Neon Moon up to some Shania Twain stuff, and
it was a disaster. It was a disaster. The first
set was great, but the last set was so, so, so
bad. We left and we said, okay, now hold on.
What was working here? What was not working here?
Because we really should have stopped after that
show. That second set was so rough. But we had,
as I had mentioned, the guitar player and I,
we had another project that was doing things
at that time. And we had a few gigs that were
on the books before that band fell apart. And
when that band, you know, just kind of started
to fall apart, I called the promoter and I said,
all right, here's the deal. You know, these shows
are in, and it was like two or three shows back
then. These shows are in three weeks. You know,
I can either give you the bad news that we've
got to cancel or I can give you this other band
that half of this act is in anyway." And they
said, okay, we'll take the other act that half
of you are in. And like I said, this was actually
before we played that disastrous show. So I had
no idea how rough that back half of that show
was going to be. So after that terrible country
show, we had about three weeks to figure out
what to do. We started pooling what we knew together.
Like I said, the people in this band, they've
been playing, you know, off and on for quite
some time. And we just sat down, we said, all
right, here's the list of common things we know
and what we had in common with a lot of soul,
a lot of old school R &B, and a lot of 90s rock.
And we said, okay, we've got a set list out of
this. we'll go do it and we went we did it it
was fantastic it went so much better people really
enjoyed it and we came home and said okay well
that went really well and we don't want it to
stop and here we are we didn't stop but but yeah
that's how that started it was uh it was just
going to be those two doing an acoustic thing
and then i just kind of marched my way in i love
these i love these stories on how these unlikely
pairings happened and then I guess we're a band
now yeah the drummer in that band we we really
had been wanting to work with him off at home
for some time but he had we were under the impression
that he had basically gotten burned out on music
he was playing with this the fantastic soul band
and and then he He left them for reasons that,
like I said, sometimes people have differences
and life happens and you just fall off. This
is Michael Rogers? That is Michael Rogers, yeah.
And we felt that he was not going to be attainable
because, man, he was working like 60 hours a
week for an extermination company. It just seemed
like he was not going to have time or anything
like that. But somehow we got him talking to
coming in and sitting down and it's all just
falling together real nicely. It's been great.
The guy that plays keys and sax with us, Taylor
Cheatwood, we've known him off and on for years.
fortunate enough that I've recorded with him
in the past for other projects and that's a lot
of the networking that's just how it works is
oh hey I know this person I've done things with
them before I think they might be interested
let's give them a call see what happens and then
yeah you end up with with something like this
which is again very different from from the Wendy
situation which was She knew she wanted to work
with Grant Walden as the producer there. And
she just said, put me a band together to do these
songs. So he just picked up the phone and started
calling people. And so even though a couple of
us had worked, I don't think any of us had worked
with everyone in that room, but all of us had
worked with somebody in that room before. And
yeah, you can get on any kind of streaming platform
and hear how that turned out. So yeah, it's just
different ways. There's different approaches
to get it handled. I have more than one way to
scan a cat, they say. And then, so Dan, like
about a year later, your first live performance
as a group with Ghost River Revival at the Lava
Room in Florence. And then you've kind of attracted
kind of a local following that likes to come
out and see you guys perform. Yeah, we've been
very fortunate in that regard. That uh, yeah,
we we only had our first show like you're saying
a little over a year ago now And that was that
terrible, uh, that terrible country ordeal that
I told you about um, I was gonna ask you if you
played some john anderson, maybe straight tequila
night, I always like, uh I think I know we did
because we Every once in a while whenever we
are in a situation where we're trying to figure
out If we need to throw something else in the
set with We still choke about Breaking that out
even though we have no intention of doing it.
Oh, yeah, we absolutely we absolutely did we
did Seminole wind I also got the set lifts around
somewhere I'm so glad that y 'all have that actually.
Oh wow. I just do it out there because I've always
loved that song I feel like John Anderson kind
of gets lost in the shuffle as the years go on,
unfortunately, but I remember being in, you know,
early twenties, hanging out in a bar, if the
room was getting too quiet or the jukebox, the
songs ran out, nobody was pumping quarters in
it. Seminole Wind was one of those songs where
I would think, let's just get the action going
a little bit here. Let me play Seminole Wind.
I still love it. Yeah, you know, it's great.
a very melancholy sounding kind of song and you
know it's very environmentally conscious which
is you know really strange to think about if
you compare that to country music that that is
currently on the radio you know it's very different
it's a very different vibe in a number of ways
and like you're saying i'm afraid the end result
is people like him end up getting lost in the
shuffle and that's a shame because that is a
Truly fantastic song like it's truly special.
I think yes bigger bigger ideas bigger subjects
beyond just Whiskey is the answer to all my sorrows
Right, and I don't know what to say, you know,
but yeah those songs also have their place but
I can't, you know, they probably shouldn't all
be that way. Dan, I also want to call out, before
I forget, you guys, I guess, partnered with Victoria
Mitchell on a t -shirt design. This is a really
cool t -shirt. Oh, she's great. Yeah, she does,
you know, a good bit of graphic design in the
area. There's a little bit more for us. Yeah.
She's actually the curator at the Hall of Fame
here in town. I don't think a lot of people know
how gifted she is at graphic design, but absolutely.
Yeah, I love that design. I think she told me
one time that she based it on the Great Wave.
Yeah, I was looking at the image. Would people
still need to see you live to get their hands
on that shirt or any merch? No, no. We do have
a site. It's actually down for maintenance right
now because You wear many hats in a project like
this, and I have been a very bad web developer
lately. But no, that is, the site is up, it is
available, or if it's, it'll probably be up again
by the time this episode airs, we'll say that.
But yeah, no, there's a web store on there and
absolutely can order it there. Some other merch,
it's coming, but it's not yet available. because
again, it's a really young project and we've
just now started on that side of things. I don't
want to say we didn't expect it to work well,
but we were all kind of surprised by how consistently
we were getting booked and how consistently people
were enjoying these things, what we were creating
in the shows. So we're really just now starting
to get the gears turning on having a merch out
there and available. But the t -shirts are out
there, there's another design coming. Later this
summer, early this fall, there should be, you
know, for the people that like collecting physical
media, there should be a vinyl record available.
Still real hesitant to say firmly on that one
way or the other because You know, we're still
waiting to find out exactly when we're going
to be able to get that into production. Those
plants have a way of getting really busy and
really backed up, but that is coming. It just
may not be as I hope it to be. But yeah, the
t -shirt is available and the website and everything
is available. You can find us through Facebook,
Instagram, website, it's kosherrevival .com.
Yeah, there's... It's there for anybody that
wants to come find it. It really helps out small
bands like ourselves. I was in another band for
some time that toured extensively and I'll never
forget the day we had a Spotify royalty check
come in and we had gotten something like 80 ,000
streams. you know that the quarter that that
was paying out for uh or whatever amount of time
it was and i remember looking at that and going
if somebody buys a t -shirt then we're better
off than getting 80 000 streams uh through these
streaming services i think maybe the math was
it was if somebody bought two t -shirts if we
sold two t -shirts to the show uh it was more
successful than what I consider to be at the
time a fairly large number of streams. And that's
a whole nother conversation. It's one of the
things that's absolutely altered the landscape
of the music industry. And I guess we'll find
out in coming years if that's a positive or not.
But yeah, you know, you buy a t -shirt, that's
a tank of gas to get the band to the next gigs.
That kind of stuff. If you're the kind of person
that likes to go out to shows and support local
music, support touring bands, things like that,
buying a piece of merch, it's hard to overstate
the impact that can have on one of those bands.
I try to remind my friends too, when we go to
concerts, visit the merch booth, find something
you like, even if you're looking around and you
just can't make up your mind and they've got
a sticker. and you just want to get a five dollar
sticker or button or you know some some of the
the low -hanging fruit items they appreciate
all that stuff you don't have to spend fifty
dollars in i think sometimes people get in your
head that oh my gosh if i walk over this merch
booth i'm going to hand over 50 60 bucks there's
usually some of those uh alternative items if
you're running tight or you ran up a bar tab
that was 50 % higher than what you had budgeted
at the beginning of the night And it's you know,
just as you say, you know most bands that I'm
aware of are conscious of that kind of thing
and you know because yeah, man, you know money
it's hot we're human right and It's important
to have something on the table that that somebody
can pick up for a few bucks if they you know
if they've decided they're going to get something
or if they just want to take a look and you know,
see what there is. And, yeah, it's important
to have an item there that they can pick up for
a few bucks instead of chopping how much for,
ever how much for a t -shirt or, man, it's been
a while since I've gotten hoodies priced, but
I seem to remember the last time I looked into
getting hoodies made, there was no way we were
going to be able to get them made and sell them
for less than 40 or 50 bucks. Our cost of production
was going to be pretty much right there. Well,
I guess I should clarify we try to use we try
to use a local small businesses to make our merch
Oh, you know, we try to support the local community
in that way You know, I guess it depends on each
individual band and their their philosophy as
far as merch goes and things like that but yeah,
we try to have things that are that are much
less expensive because It can get out of hand
real fast that merch table can get out of hand
real fast Dan sometimes I will go to concerts
and i will buy a t -shirt for my wife because
she'll wear stuff that she has no idea what it's
you know maybe i have to get her interested in
the band or play a few songs for but um she people
listening if you've got a boyfriend girlfriend
or brother mom dad and they just everybody needs
a new t -shirt so sometimes you don't have to
think oh well i don't know if i would wear it
but It's always a gift idea sometimes going up
to the merch booth think beyond If you're gonna
wear it or or whatever you probably have someone
that would be happy to have a new shirt that
you can't just Walk into Walmart and come out
with Man, I wish more people thought like you
Yeah, no, that's fantastic and that's excellent
points. Yeah That's a t -shirt, you know, even
if you don't know anything about the band like
you're saying or yeah, even if you hate them
It's a t -shirt. It's not like you, it's not
like hating the band makes it not a t -shirt.
It's not something you can't wear, you know?
I said it's about an hour and it went by very
fast. It did. Well, Dan, you've been so gracious
with your time. I have just, just been soaking
up this conversation and I, I'd love to have
you back on. We'll probably. Yeah. What I'd like
to do is maybe we can reconnect. Cause I didn't
mention the hacks from bass. Oh, yeah, yeah So
we may have to talk about that later, but I'd
love to it's a it's a little unusual Yeah, I'd
be I'd be thrilled to I'll spend way too much
time talking about gear Yeah, maybe we can reconnect
and just do some gear talk maybe a 15 minute
chat on that That sounds great Okay. Well folks
be sure to check out pretty much wherever your
fingers are tapping. If you're on Facebook a
lot, you can find Ghost River Revival. If Instagram
is your thing, you know, check out Lindy Urban.
A lot of good stuff here. And the website, as
Dan mentioned. You guys, get out there, support
your local concert venues. You're always, if
you go when you can, you'll find new artists
like Dan Williams and Ghost River Revival. And
if you're in Florence, Sheffield, Muscle Shoals.
I think you know where to go. Anything else Dan
before we wrap it up here? No, just thank you
so much for having me and I'll look forward to
speaking with you again soon. Well, thanks for
being on Dan Time. Folks, you guys, everybody
out there have a wonderful week and we'll see
you next Sunday on the Dan Time podcast. Thank
you, Dan Williams. Thank you.