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Spencer Hatcher on Bringing Traditional Country Back | Honky Tonk Hideaway | Skip Happens

• Skip Clark

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SPEAKER_03:

Hello, everybody, and welcome to another edition of Skip Happens. My name is Skip Clark, obviously the host, and uh wow, we got another good one for you tonight. I'm already digging this. Uh, we've got a man who single-handedly brought the steel guitar back from the witness protection program. Spencer Hatcher is with us. If you like your country music twangy, your songs honest, and your live show sounding exactly like the record, well, you know what? Congratulations because you found your people. Let's crack a cold one. Let's crack it wide open, get right into it. Spencer, it's so good to see you. It's a pleasure to meet you, my friend. How are you?

SPEAKER_01:

Skip up. Well, I'm doing great. It's an honor to be here and thank you so much for having me. Absolutely. Now, tell everybody where are you right now? Well, I'm currently in in Nashville or or in my house, just right outside Nashville. You have a house, or uh are you you do? Yes, yes, thankfully. It well, and you know, it it's kind of funny because we were looking at all the options, and we said, as a country band that practices as much as I make my guys practice, and we've got a drum set, of course, an apartment, we'd have been evicted out the first day. There's no way we could do it, so we had to go with the house.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, your ass would have been kicked out of there pretty damn quick. Oh, yeah, it's like crazy. But what part of are you like in Franklin or whereabouts are you? You don't have to tell me.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm just east of Nashville, just right outside east of Nashville. So it's not too bad. Um, it's um probably a 30-minute drive or so in the town.

SPEAKER_03:

On a good day, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, it'll be 30 minutes going in, and then it's an hour and a half coming out. That's how it always is.

SPEAKER_03:

It's funny. I was just on uh just before you went on, I was on the phone with a friend of mine in Nashville. And is there he said he was on the highway? Is there a 440? I don't know.

SPEAKER_01:

Is that uh well, it was probably 40.

SPEAKER_03:

40. Maybe he maybe it just it and he said, dude, I gotta do a maneuver. Hold on, traffic's terrible. I gotta get around this guy, it's unbelievable.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my gosh, yeah. Just today, actually, I was I was west of Nashville and I had to go all the way east of Nashville, and this is passing through the city, and I knew it was gonna be horrible. What what should have been roughly a 35-minute drive wound up being an hour and 20. Damn. And that is what uh honestly, that's the biggest adjustment for me, you know. Coming from the country, and I mean ask, yeah. Okay, you know, a lot of the uh the traffic we would have back home would be getting stuck behind a tractor or something like that. You know, here it's like, dude, people just forget to drive, is what it seems like in the city.

SPEAKER_03:

How long have you um how long have you been there?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh I moved here in Nashville uh in June.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01:

But I had been coming down about every other week uh for the a year before that, since June of 24. Um, I've been flying down about every other week, and then I moved down officially June of 25.

SPEAKER_03:

Gotcha. So you're a newbie. You're a newbie. But you know what? I um I be I go to Nashville a few times every year, and it's like depending on what time I get into town. It used to be like a 20-minute drive from the airport to downtown. Now, like you say, it's about an hour and 20 minutes. Maybe that's a little bit much, but still, you know what I'm saying? It's it's crazy, it's crazy.

SPEAKER_01:

Yep, and I I I think too, it's just a rise in population, you know. When Nashville roads were made, they weren't accounting for like 600,000, some people or something like that. And now we're there. You're there, you're there.

SPEAKER_03:

It's rough. You know, every time I go, I see a new building. I see like it's like, where did that come from? Yeah, oh my god, look at that. What happened to now it's something different? You know, it's like wow, and it's growing like crazy. But a lot of great people like yourself have made that move to Nashville. Uh, what is your hometown, though? Your actual hometown whereabouts?

SPEAKER_01:

Hometown is Broadway, Virginia. It's a very small town just north of Harrisonburg, Virginia, which a lot more people know for JMU and everything. But uh it's just right there in the Shenandoah Valley. I grew up on a farm and I lived there for uh well, most of my life, aside from the four years I was in college, and then I'm now I'm down here in Nashville. So where'd you go to school? I went to school at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Tennessee. So this is actually my second time living in Tennessee, just a different part. I like I got you.

SPEAKER_03:

And were you doing music in school?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, sir. Well, I went and I was studying uh business administration, um, and I graduated with a degree in that, but that's also the only school in the world that offers a degree in bluegrass and country music. So as a result, I was like, well, I just as well have fun with my minor. And so I minored in the music and I studied it, and I was in bands during college, four different ones, and oh, it had a ball, loved it.

SPEAKER_03:

You know, Virginia is beautiful though. I have a daughter that lives in Virginia, just outside Norfolk, but um it's just it's beautiful, and uh, I can remember um one year we were driving down, and I drove overnight, and the sun was coming up over the mountains, and it looked absolutely gorgeous.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, you can see it is wow, beautiful, you know, and and I never really knew growing up right there in the Shenandoah Valley. I never knew that it was literally, I don't think it's too much of an opinion, one of the most beautiful places in America.

SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01:

Every single morning, you know, I'd sit on my front porch and you would watch the sunrise, you'd watch sunset, and not even realize it. But that's one thing I've noticed since I've come down to Nashville, Tennessee, beautiful. But in Nashville, you know, middle Tennessee and West Tennessee, you don't have mountains anymore. It's there you got hills, but there's no mountains. Soon as you get to East Tennessee and you're back up in Virginia where my home is, um, you've got mountains again. And and that's just one thing I I really miss being here in the beautiful.

SPEAKER_03:

That's totally beautiful. You said you grew up on a farm. Uh, was it uh a dairy farm or were you raising crop or what what was it?

SPEAKER_01:

No, no, we would it was for black Angus cattle. We it was more of a cattle farm. So that's beef. It was, yes, and we go to the stock sale and and uh we would buy them, sell them, raise them, uh, and then of course we would grow hay uh in the summer, and we would hay and feed them all winter. Yep, that was that was the beef them up.

SPEAKER_03:

That's right. Do you um you know? I know we need to talk about the music, but I like I told you before, sometimes I kind of I zigzag here a little bit. When we uh use it's a beef cattle farm. Do you ever grow attached to the cattle? Uh, because you have a job to do, you you raise the cattle, you got to supply beef, but then you you it's you know, you know what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, no, I I never did. I grew up um working the cattle and being outside working a farm at a very early age. I mean like six years old, you know. I wanted to be like my dad, so I never did become attached to the cattle, but uh my mom would, of course. And my older brother, uh, back um when we first got the place, which would have been back in like '97, my uh, my older brother. Well, my dad bought all the cattle, and uh they had this one little calf that they started raising, and they named it and they bottle fed it and made it like a pet, and time came to sell it, and it was like this horrible thing. So we kind of had a rules from then on don't don't befriend the cattle.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, yeah. No, I it's a little easier come time to sell. Totally, totally. So um, quickly, uh, if I were to drive into your hometown of Broadway, Virginia, if I was to what would be the first thing I would see if I go in on the main drag, what's gonna be the first thing I'm gonna see? It's a very small town, it is a very small town.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, I think you would see of somewhat of what would seem like a typical small historic town, you know. The the buildings are old, they're brick. You've got small brick and mortar um businesses, you know, businesses that still count on people walking in them. You've got only a couple of restaurants and Chick-fil-A, have a Chick-fil-A? No, no Chick-fil-A, no uh no fast food in Broadway aside from aside from Subway.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, I want to say that um I want to say that's right.

SPEAKER_01:

Subway has like forever been the the biggest sponsor of the sports teams and everything in my hometown. But we got like a pizza joint, we've got a country diner, and and a dominoes, so maybe dominoes.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, that's important. Well, so you got a couple of pizza joints, which is yeah, we got some places to get some food. I love I love that. You know, um, you're being talked about as one of the artists proudly flying the flag for real traditional country. Does that label free uh feel natural to you or is it something uh you uh you've had to defend?

SPEAKER_01:

No, I I've not, I mean, to me it comes 100% natural. That's just um that's absolutely who I am. Um you know, the stuff that I sing about and especially especially the stuff that I write is stuff that I live and can relate to and is true to me. There's nothing that I'm doing where I'm like, well, I don't know anything about this, but I'm gonna sing about it or I'm gonna write it. You know, so no traditional country, that's what I grew up on. I didn't even know what what New Country was up until 2020 when I started performing, everything I listened to uh up to that point was from like 1995 and back. I kid you not, I had to learn, I had to force myself to listen to New Artists now. I love New Country now. You know, there's lots of great talent in country music. Um but as far as what's true to me, when I hear Keith Whitley or George Jones, Merle Haggard, Hank Jr., those guys, that is what country music is to me. It's true, it's real, it's relatable, and that's what you know, that's what my music, I hope, is is what that reflects as well.

SPEAKER_03:

You know, it's great timing for you. Um, the way I see it doing what I do is, you know, we I hear Alan Jackson and songs like Chattahoochee and going back to you know the early 90s, and now you know that kind of went away a little bit. Now it's all coming back, and you fall right into that niche. You fall right into that genre of you know doing the right thing at the right time. And you must do you feel the momentum that like something is happening?

SPEAKER_01:

I do now. It it's just now starting. Um, and I've been at this for a long time, you know. I've been at country for I guess six years now. Um, but I was in bluegrass and performing and everything for 10 years before that, but it's just now starting that that with the streaming and with radio stuff that we're doing and and interviews coming out and really big country pages picking up articles on me and whatnot. Yeah, for the first time I'm starting to be like, man, this is so great. You know, I I start to feel like, and it's not about like, oh, it's happening for me, it's like I'm just so grateful that people are finally getting to hear my music for the first time. You know, it's really starting to expand, and people are talking about, you know, you should listen to Spencer Hatcher. He's a new artist that's coming up, and that really makes me feel good to know that people really like my music too, because that's the only reason that I do this. I mean, it's it's just for the love of it.

SPEAKER_03:

Is this all you do? This is this your full-time job, yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01:

Because I know it has been for six years. When I came home from college, god bless you in 2020, I said, I've got this business degree. Um, you know, I could go do anything that I wanted really right now. I had a job lined up as a financial advisor with a big firm, and I was like, Well, I am going to hit country music as hard as I possibly can because that's my dream. And the only way that I can possibly fail is if I quit. And I'm not gonna have a plan B because if you have a plan B, then it's kind of like a safety net that you start to lean on, and I didn't want to lean on that, so I get it. I've gone as hard as I possibly can for six years, and you're doing well at it. Well, I'm I'm proud of how far we've come. I I can say that.

SPEAKER_03:

Maybe if you went on to be the financial advisor, you might be making a little more money, but just but you know what? That's not where your heart is. Your heart is doing what you're doing, and you know that will come, it will come in time, and pretty soon, you know, I'll be going, Hey, I had him on my skip happens podcast, and now look at him, he's on the big stage, so that's pretty good.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I hope you're right, but you know, it it it takes it takes you, Skip, saying, Spencer, I'd like to like to have you on my show. I you know, I like what you're doing, and and it just means the world to me.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, it's a two-way street, just so you know that, because I can't do this without people like you. So there you go. It's a two-way street. When you hear people describe your sound as twang, heavy, no frills, honky tonk. Does that make you smile? You're smiling right now.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it does. Yeah, if people, you know, I would say if if if they described it any other way, I wouldn't really know what they're talking about, probably, because you know, um, and I I wouldn't say that I'm really targeting anything, but to me, my music does reflect that classic country, traditional country, honky tonk, um barroom dancing kind of stuff. I know that they wouldn't find any synthesizers or bass loops or anything like that. So we don't have to worry about them saying he's pop or he's rapping or something like that. But no, yeah, that that does. That makes me feel good. I'm glad that people are saying this guy's real country.

SPEAKER_03:

You know, I want to talk about honky tonk hideaway. That's your debut EP. It's out there, it's great. Um, it really feels like a place, not just a title. Uh, what kind of world were you trying to build with this EP? I hear honky tonk hideaway. That's a place. That's that's where I need to be.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

What what kind of world were you you know trying to build with that?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, it's interesting because there is such a place here called honky tonk hideaway. I come to find out, but the the whole point of the song is I think everybody probably has their own honky tonk hideaway, or at least you know, the people that go out and do the bar thing, you know, those that know what their honky tonk hideaway is, you know. I think uh that's kind of what we're trying to build, and just a fun, fun, happy song, kind of like boot scooting boogie from Brooks and Dunn back in the day. We've not had a song like that for a long time, and so we were so excited to have honky tonk hideaway and be like, you know, this can be a dancing song, it could be a show opener, yeah, yeah, and it's one that a lot of people can relate to, or if they're at their honky tonk hideaway, they'd be like, Man, I'd like to drink a beer to this song.

SPEAKER_03:

I know cold beer and common sense.

SPEAKER_01:

Come on, yeah, exactly. Just a few good songs.

SPEAKER_03:

I think I I think anyway, I think I have a little bit of that right here. This is it, right? Yes, it is. It's cold beer and common sense. Yeah, that's right. I'll just let it play for a minute. I I you know I'll get yelled at by Facebook or YouTube, but here we go.

SPEAKER_00:

I sat down at the VFW next to some guy I didn't know. Our talk internal laughing cause where we're from is nowhere close. Next thing you know, we land it on. Let's agree to disagree, and then we raised our glass to cheers. You said the cold beer, common sense. Love it.

SPEAKER_03:

More people love you know, I I can't play a lot of it because they will go, all right, you just broke the rules. But uh no, you'll probably get an email going, you know, we had uh put a restriction on this. Uh do you approve it? So you're the artist, it's up to you. So okay. I'll just say I know. Um, you know, was there a moment during recording uh honky talk hideaway where you thought, yeah, this is who I am as an artist? Was there a moment you're doing it, you're in the studio, you're recording it, and you're going, man, this is this is who I am.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I don't know if there was one particular moment, but the the entire process of of having the song, being in the studio, making the music what it became, uh singing it so that it sounds like we know it today, you know. Across the whole process, I would say you're sitting there thinking, man, you know, I'm excited about this song. This is a song that I'm really thankful to have, or or this is totally a song for me. Um, and a lot of what I do too, because I play so many live shows, is I always like to visualize how it will perform live. And it's been amazing, it's been great. People love it live, it's a fun song, and and yeah, I mean, I'd say that that whole process of of having a song that you know you're recording, you're like, this is a song for me, and I'm proud of it. You got to be proud of the songs that that you do, I think. It's probably important.

SPEAKER_03:

I don't know why you wouldn't be. You know, this is you, this is what you do. These are your songs, and how much of this EP comes from lived experience versus uh storytelling and observation? Is it the real deal?

SPEAKER_01:

Um, well, I can yeah, I mean, I I would say I can I can relate to uh to everything and in the music. Now, interestingly enough, this this EP, um, I wasn't a writer on any of the six songs because it was as soon as I got into town, they were like, All right, we need to get we need to get you writing. We want you in these rooms with these writers, and we've got some Spencer Hatcher songs coming too, but these initial songs, I was so quick into town, and we're so needing songs that and the other really cool thing was the pitches, a lot of the pitches that we had from other big hit songwriters came from guys that were writing these songs back in those days, you know, back in the 90s or in the 80s, and they're like, Well, Nashville's got a big stack of these old songs laying around that have not been cut for 30 years.

SPEAKER_02:

Give them to me.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so here they are. And so a lot of these songs that we picked. Now, I don't again, like I said earlier, I don't pick a song uh that I can't relate to, you know.

SPEAKER_03:

Exactly. Exactly. There's something about it that you would go, Yeah, that's that's me.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_03:

I want to say about it.

SPEAKER_01:

All the contents of every song. Yeah, I can I can relate to it, and and it is me. You know, it's a good representation of who Spencer Hatcher is.

SPEAKER_03:

So you're cruising down the road. I don't know what you drive. What do you do? You drive a pickup? I'm taking a cycle. I do any.

SPEAKER_01:

Let me guess. Let me guess.

SPEAKER_03:

It's a it's it's a silverado. What'd you say?

SPEAKER_01:

No, it's a ram.

SPEAKER_03:

It's a ram.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm a dodge guy.

SPEAKER_03:

You know, I've been a dodge guy, I've been a Ford guy. Uh, I did the Chevy Silverado. I'm in a Colorado now, but all right, same, same idea, same idea. I get it. No, that's cool. That's cool. I had a RAM. I love my RAM. And and I love that engine purred. It was like, oh, it's so cool. I could if I punched it, it's like, haha, I love this.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah, yeah. The Rams are powerful. Uh, and I've just my whole my family, we've just had Ram trucks for a long time. I mean, you go back and you look at my uh videos online, and yeah, it's almost like I'm promoting Ram and they've never they've never, you know, sponsored me or anything, but we're a big sponsor of them, I'd say. You know, we buy a lot of their trucks.

SPEAKER_03:

Hey, you never know what could happen, you know. Uh, God rest his soul, Toby Keith, uh big Ford guy and uh Um years ago, I had a chance to go to Norman, Oklahoma to go to an event that Toby was holding. And in it, we actually went to his house and in his driveway, there had to be six Ford F-150s. And I'm going, Oh my God. Now for yeah, it was crazy. He held a uh it was a thing for radio programmers way back in the day. And uh it was one of those experiences where I will never forget we got to go play golf. Not that I know how to play golf, but I gave it a shot. I'm I drove the golf cart more than I was swinging a club, but and getting some elbow exercise, if you know what I mean. But yeah, you know, but that was fun. And you know, hey, you never know. Ram, Dodge could come to you and go, hey Spence, you know, we're gonna give you a truck to drive, but you gotta talk about it. I would accept that. I would love to hear that. I'd do a maybe, maybe somebody's gonna watch us, yeah. Yeah, yeah, that would be great. So um, you're driving down the road in your Ram, and all of a sudden on the radio, you hear this song when she calls me cowboy. It's your first radio single. I'll just play a little bit of this as well. I want to talk about this.

SPEAKER_00:

When she calls me baby, and we're all alone. Well, that's a good sign. What's on her mind is getting close. And when she calls me darling, all wrapped up in my arms, and we're dancing in the kitchen candlelight. I can feel her coming on one kiss, one song at a time. But when she calls me cowboy, let your hair fall down, boy. It's that look at her eyes, all right.

SPEAKER_03:

All right, all right, smash, smash, pick it or skip it. We're picking it. All right. You know, I actually I do a feature called Pick It or Skip It on the Air every once in a while, and I'm gonna have to do that with that song because I already know it's gonna be a it's gonna be a pick, it won't be skipped. So you gotta look at it. So you heard that you're in your ram, you're cruising down the road, you hear it on the radio for the first time. Um, what was that reaction like for you? How did you feel?

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, I I feel like it's it's just like a surreal moment. It's to cry.

SPEAKER_03:

I would have.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm not, you know, I'm really not much of a crier, but if I were, I surely would have, you know. No, it's like one of those moments where I can't, you know, I can really feel it like it's it's tugging at my heart a little bit. It's like this is something that has been a dream that that so few people ever get to witness for themselves. And and to hear yourself on the radio, it is it's really it's almost indescribable.

SPEAKER_03:

So it's such just an amazing thing, you know. You as an artist and somebody that's just getting out there and uh you want your music heard, you go on what they call a radio tour. I've seen, you know, I guess this is kind of a new way of doing it, the way we're doing it here tonight, but uh, except you're not up at five in the morning to be on the morning show. Um, but uh this this is what an artist does. They go out and they shake hands with the radio program directors, they check out the stations, they meet everybody, they play in the conference room for a couple of a few minutes, maybe have some pizza and some soda and some water, and uh then they say goodbye and you go to another station. That radio tour has a um reputation for being brutal. And what surprised you most about that experience uh being on the radio tour?

SPEAKER_01:

What surprised me most? Um, you know, I would say probably I don't know. I don't, you know, I don't know that I had a tremendous amount of surprises because I kind of knew what I was walking into. I mean, uh this is my first one that I've been doing. I'm going out on radio next month. I've got well, yeah, next month and maybe the end of this month. Uh I've still got a lot of a lot of a lot of ground to go. A lot of road time left, a lot of flight time. I would say maybe I don't know, maybe the amount of traveling, but but I kind of knew how crazy it would get. But I also have nothing poor to say. Like people say it's grueling and it's like just you can't function. And for me, it is such an honor to be on a radio tour and to have a label backing you to where you can do a radio tour. That yeah, I'm having a ball. It's like I'm traveling, I'm seeing new states, I'm meeting all these amazing people. Radio people are so amazing, and maybe that would be what surprised me most is the people that hold the key to what is gonna be played, what is country music in America today. You know, maybe you could say they have room to be egotistical or something like that, but everybody I've met is just amazing. Like I love the people that I've gotten to go in the rooms with, I perform for them, they're so kind, they they really seem to like my music. So, you know, they they really make me feel like like I'm a real artist, and and that really means the world to me. So I've been having a ball.

SPEAKER_03:

Absolutely. Whereabouts are you heading? Do you know? Do you yeah?

SPEAKER_01:

I'm gonna be in oh, I want to say it's Wisconsin, but I know I'm gonna be in Florida for a week.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, oh lucky you. Well, I don't I say lucky you because uh I'm in Syracuse. This is where you know, this is where I am. So um, you walk outside, and you know, we got two and a half feet of snow in one day. So I mean, and now you have this year, yeah. In one day, yeah. Oh, yeah. We average should you know, we'll get the golden snowball award for upstate New York. They do Rochester, Syracuse, Buffalo, Albany. Syracuse is kicking ass right now. We are beating everybody. We got uh just about a week and a half ago, two weeks maybe now. We got two and a half feet in one day. One day, dude. But I gotta tell you, Spencer, I gotta tell you, the school buses still drive by. We have the men and women on the roads that keep it keep everything moving. It's amazing. It is amazing what they do, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

That is pretty insane. I love the cold. I live for the winter and the fall. I love it now. I love all the seasons, like I do like summer for a little bit, but if I was like one kind of guy, I'd be a cold weather guy. Well, back in Virginia, you know, we've had two and a half feet of snow, but it takes like two weeks to get it. And schools are called off after two inches of snow. I kid you not, you'll be you'll be called off immediately. Yep. So that's awesome.

SPEAKER_03:

I mean, I mean, you know, the school they do cancel school on occasion, but uh overall, I think two and a half feet in a day would be tough to keep up with. You'll have to, you know, we get off tonight, you'll have to look up lake effect because we live very close to Lake Ontario. And when the wind blows across the lake, when the cold wind blows across the warm waters, I'm not a meteorologist, but it picks up the moisture, and then once it gets over land, it dumps it. And this time of the year, it's all snow. So it's not uncommon to get a foot, two feet of snow. But the thing is, it's not heavy wet snow, it's light, fluffy, if that makes sense. Like it's easy to shovel, it's not like if it's what they call a nor'easter coming up the coast and you get the heavy wet snow. That's yeah, then you got issues. Yeah, but, anyways, let's get back to the music. See, I told you we go down these roads every once. That's all right. I enjoy it. Oh man, it's it's it's crazy. So you get out there, you've been on stage, and your fans are beginning to sing the words to your songs back to you. What is uh does that ever hit you mid-song? Like, wow, this is really happening.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah, and and that's more of a recent thing. Uh, in particular for When She Calls Me Cowboy, yeah, they've always sang, you know, I'll have my fans that sing the songs, and it's cool. But for When She Calls Me Cowboy, this is the first one where you know, Spencer Hatcher fans have really made me feel like it's already been a hit, like it was already a number one, and the world knows every word to it because I I announced it, it was only like a week after it came out, and I was playing this sold-out show, and we or I guess I'd announced that I was gonna be singing this song When She Calls Me Cowboy, and the whole place just went crazy. Sweet, and I was like, What is this? Like they're they've been waiting on it, and then as I'm singing it, I start to notice like every single person is singing it, and then when it gets the chorus, they just go crazy, like they yell it back. It's it's I'm getting used to it because it's so new, but it is the greatest feeling in the world. That to me is like just the most amazing people. It's got love my music as much as what you know, as much as what we love it, you know. We're so we work so hard on this stuff, and we we spend so much time and energy on these songs, and for one to finally hit where people are treating it like it's a hit, it's just incredible.

SPEAKER_03:

Man, I can't I've I've seen artists get up there and I've seen them like stop mid-song because the crowd is just singing so loud, and it's just you can you can actually feel the emotion, you can almost feel what the artist is feeling. Like, oh my god, you know, you don't know what to say, you just it's like wow, it's that moment. That moment, hey. Um, I want to talk about cold beer and common sense a little bit. I know I played just uh a little bit of it here a few minutes ago, feels especially timely and timely. Uh, did you realize how uh relevant it would be when you first heard it?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, but not necessarily in the way that it still is. Um, you know, we kind of set the release date to be right before the election, and we knew the election was coming up, and we were like, well, this is gonna be a great song. You know, I stand for everything in the song, I strongly believe in it, and I think it's a song that America, but the entire world needs to hear, you know, a song entirely about getting along, loving one another, and people want to turn it political all the time. They're like, Oh, this is a political song. I'm like, Well, clearly you did you've not listened to the words because it's not political at all.

SPEAKER_02:

I was gonna say that, yep.

SPEAKER_01:

But it's it's a song that has been very timely uh back in November of 24 or of 25. No, 24. That was when it was released. Yeah, I guess it was yeah, it it was really relevant, and then a couple of times in 25 it was relevant, and I'd say it's relevant right now.

SPEAKER_03:

You know, it's like it it's it's gonna be one of those songs that lasts it's about unity rather than politics, it's about being together, yes, and that's that's the most important thing, and that's an advantage that somebody like you has as an artist in country music, and we all know that country music is about real life and about being together and making things happen.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_03:

You know, do you think uh country music still has a responsibility to reflect on what people are feeling in real life?

SPEAKER_01:

Speaking of that, you know, I I I can't say that it country music as a whole has a responsibility, but I know that that was one thing that I believe country music was founded on, and it's something that I care to continue carrying on. Uh it has evolved greatly, I'd say, you know, since when you look at uh country music from the Carter family and Hank Sr. and Jimmy Rogers and those guys, well, it's night and day difference, even from those guys to Merle Haggard. Merle was, you know, what 30, 40 years after those guys. Yeah, no, exactly. We're another 40 or 50 years past Merle almost, yeah, from when Merle started. So it evolves. Uh, and and I I don't know if there's still the same responsibility, but I do believe that one thing that makes country music so special is that you know it's it's what it was founded on that that is what country music was and is for still a lot of people.

SPEAKER_03:

So you know, um, you play, of course, doing all the honky tonks and doing everything that you do. We call them honky tonks. I love that. Uh, ballads can be risky live, but what makes a slow song work in a honky tonk setting? Truth.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I would say truth and relatability. I've always put relatability first. You know, you have to be careful where you put it in your set list. Ah, that's the that's it right there. But I would say I'm really good at making set lists because I've made hundreds over the last six years, hundreds of set lists. And oh, I bet you have. I've had failed set lists where I'm like, ooh, that song did not work right there. But it creating a set is an art. And you know, typically you would start with like a barn burner of a song like honky tonk hideaway, then you might go to you know, leave this town, then has anybody ever then say cold beer common sense? You know, you could kind of work your way down, or you could start high, go down, go higher, and then drop way low. But it's kind of about how you set the song up. And in a honky tonk, if you got the people really rowdy and they're hammered and they're having a good time, you don't you probably don't want to kill that quite yet, but there is a point where you can bring it back and you can be like, you know, if you're George Jones, you're the king of it, and you can play bartender blues, or if drinking don't kill me, and the whole place will erupt, but it's just got to be placed at the right spot, I would say.

SPEAKER_03:

You know, I that that was one of you just answered one of my questions. Uh, I it was like you're building a set list. What matters more energy or emotion, but you kind of explain what's going on right there. And have you have you changed it up like mid-set list? Going, okay, this ain't working. What the hell are we gonna do? Let's do this instead.

SPEAKER_01:

I loosely follow a set list because you know, something that's really important is reading a crowd. And if the crowd is not responding to this, true, then you got to change it and do this. And and I I've learned that's something that makes a lot of people really nervous as performers. But for me, I'm just like, you have to adapt, you have to study the environment, you gotta kind of know what the audience is thinking, and you've got to change it. Now, you can still miss, but there's been times where I'm like, I don't know how this is gonna go, but we're gonna try it, and it's just a smash out of the park, and you're like, Yes, so that's always nice too, but it can go either way.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, you said you know, doing the bluegrass thing, do you still get out and play a little bit of that, or do you go to a certain place in town if you want to hear some good bluegrass? I used to go to the station in, and um, in early in his day, uh Dirk Spenley would be out there with the bluegrass band, and it was just that we'd sit there and go through a couple of pictures of beer and just really enjoy it.

SPEAKER_01:

So, oh yeah, the station in is like a famous spot and probably the best spot in Nashville, I would guess, maybe. Uh, I'm sure there's some some dive bars somewhere that's maybe even better, but yeah, the dive bars are pretty good to be honest.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, yeah, those are the best.

SPEAKER_01:

But but um I I know so many people still in in the bluegrass world. Like, I went to uh to see Cody Norris at uh station and and that was that was super cool. And I still do bluegrass every single show that I have time myself, so I'm still playing bluegrass all the time. But as far as like the jams and stuff, yeah, station would be a good place to be, though. That would be a really good place.

SPEAKER_03:

Now, your brother Connor, he's in the battery, right? He's by your side. Yeah, I just you know, I did a little research, you'd be proud of me. Uh, your brother Connor still by your side. How valuable is that trust on the road having your brother right there? It's huge. Are you guys like really close? That's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah, very close. Yep, we're we're living together down here in Nashville. I mean, we've lived together for that's well, our whole life basically. I think he only ever moved away for a year and then moved right back in with me. So uh it works out, it works out great, and of course, he provides harmony that's totally unmatched. Um, he's phenomenal, he's the greatest bass player to ever come out of the state of Virginia. I mean, it's like the title he's been given. He is absolutely a phenomenal master of the bass, both upright and the four-string bass is pretty cool in all electric bass, but he's got a five string, and he he's just a monster. Really? Oh gosh, you don't see too many five strings, at least I don't. No, no, you don't, but he's got one and hears it up.

SPEAKER_03:

I love that, man. I love that. I'd love to hear it sometime. Um, so you know, if you're sitting here a year from now, let's say you and I get together a year from now, we're gonna we're gonna pick up where we left off. What do you think uh would be different? What do you hope has changed? Let me ask you that way.

SPEAKER_01:

That you've had for me to talk about your it's hard for me to talk about my my hopes and and about like myself, but I could say that what I pray happens, and and I've prayed this same prayer for many, many years, is that you know, you can just continue to make pro progress all year, which I think we you know, of course, we certainly plan to do, and we've got small steps to get there. But I'd love to see When She Calls Me Cowboy be a hit, you know, be a true charter of a song. It is it has charted, it's like top 70. At least last I heard it was like top 70 on the charts, so it's broke the top 100 hottest country songs, which is unreal. But you know, if it could be like top 20.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, okay. Are you keeping track of the numbers? Do you check that every day, or do you like you can't be consumed by that because if you see it drop, you're gonna go, oh no, what's going on? You gotta you gotta give it time, and I can tell you this this song is on its way. Will it be a number one song? I hope it is because I feel it has that potential, but you know there's a lot of competition on the charts as well. But uh, you are doing something unique, you're doing it Spencer Hatcher way, and uh being unique and doing it your own way is a plus. So, and that doesn't make it. You got another one right behind it.

SPEAKER_01:

Come on, yeah. Well, um, to answer your first question, no, I don't keep up with it like daily. I'll I'll ask for updates from my my label and and they'll give it to me that way, but it's kind of like the Stock market, you know, you don't want to sit there and stare at it because you'll drive yourself crazy. Exactly. You don't want to be consumed.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Daily, but maybe weekly or bi-weekly. Um, it's pretty good. But I just I have really high hopes, you know. I mean, and even if Winch Calls the Cowboy doesn't do it, then I'd like to see another song do it. But I I really hope that in a year from now you and me could be sitting down talking and you're like, Spencer, Winch Calls the Cowboy went to number six, you know, number five, number three, number one. I mean, you know, that would just be that would be my dream. That would be my dream for me. We would celebrate for you.

SPEAKER_03:

Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Has uh anyone ever told you your music made them miss an ex, uh, but they're doing just fine forgetting. Has anybody ever said, hey, your your music really makes me miss somebody? But I'm okay. I'm okay, I'm doing fine. I've had a lot of people tell me what my music does for them.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, I don't know if I want to know everything, but yeah, no, no, you don't, but but there's been some pretty amazing ones too. I don't know about that example in particular, but I do know that there was this one where um this one individual came and she told me uh, she said, Spencer, I want you to know with this song. She said, I was listening to it and I've listened to it like five times this morning. She said, There was this one point in my life, it was actually for has anybody ever when I first released that one. She said, That song made me think about one of my first loves. It was somebody that I still think about today, almost every single day. And she said, Now I'm married and I love my husband, and he's married, and he has a wonderful wife. But she said, Still today, I'll see him and think about a love that I once had like that. And she said, I didn't wind up with him, but she said, Your song, that's what it makes me think of. And to me, that was like a really powerful that is powerful.

SPEAKER_03:

That is powerful. You've touched somebody, and when you when you can touch their heart like that, you got a fan forever. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. That was a very cool moment. Have you ever had a crowd way drunker than you expected? And if so, how did you survive that? I mean, come on, we're in a honky tonk, we're boozing it up. I mean, I've been there, I've done that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, I've yeah, I mean, I've played for some very drunk, rowdy crowds. I've seen uh I could tell it to you like this, I've seen a couple of felonies be committed. I'm up on stage, I'm like, man, that guy's going to jail tonight. You know, that kind of thing. I mean, they can get rowdy, but but typically, um, the drunker they get, the louder they get, and the more fun it is for me. Honestly, they love every single song. You that's when the set list stops mattering so much. You can play anything and they're gonna love it.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, well, you know, let me ask you, I'm gonna let you go here in a moment, but what's harder? Uh, writing a heartbreak song or explaining to your mom what a what a radio single actually means. Does and I mean, do your the family, they know what radio is, though. I mean, you've been doing this for a while, and you got your brother, I'm sure they explain it, but yeah, I mean, I would say maybe the radio single thing, because honestly, for me, it was all kind of new, you know, just learning the radio world.

SPEAKER_01:

If you don't, if you're not in it, you really wouldn't know it. You know, a lot of people tend to think that their their hometown radio station is like that's a huge, giant radio station, and then you come to find out that you know it's it's not even like a like a reporting station, or it's not even like a big station at all. So to me, I mean, I think that's probably more difficult is explaining to people like being at radio, what a radio single is, and yeah, it's a lot of thought in the they don't need to know that, just you and I need to know that, right?

SPEAKER_03:

Right, all there is to it. You know, uh how big of a family do you have? I mean, there's you and Connor, but I don't know any more about you. Well, I've got a pretty big okay.

SPEAKER_01:

I'd say a pretty big family. I mean, I've I've got yeah, my siblings, okay, all right, parents, uh, aunts, uncles, okay, uh, grandparents. Yeah, I mean, I'd say I've got a fairly big.

SPEAKER_03:

It was gonna lead to this question: who in your family is the toughest critic? Why am I on the skip happens podcast? Why am I doing this?

SPEAKER_01:

Um to be honest, the toughest critic of me or in general?

SPEAKER_03:

No, you you're I guess who in your family is the toughest critic of your music?

SPEAKER_01:

Me.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, I understand.

SPEAKER_01:

Definitely me. I'm pretty hard on myself, and and you know, sometimes I have uh I don't know that you would call me a critic, but I but I do tend to have pretty high expectations for for other people too, because I don't know, you know. I I just I've always been someone that I just try to take care of business and and things just I don't know, maybe I think a little bit differently, but yeah, I would say I'm I'm probably the the toughest critic of my music. Probably okay.

SPEAKER_03:

No, that makes sense. What was the last thing that made you mad? Anything maybe last thing that made you did you get angry at something today, yesterday, day before it's something traffic, or somebody cut you off, or yeah, it was driving home today, uh, from west side to east side Nashville, just people not understanding how to merge.

SPEAKER_01:

That is a topic we could talk about for a long time here in Nashville because that's like the reason for traffic is the merging lane.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, uh Jacob Smalley. You know Jacob?

SPEAKER_01:

No, I do not.

SPEAKER_03:

No, he's an artist. He just chimed in here and said, What's up, Spencer? Uh, good to see you, brother.

SPEAKER_02:

So sweet.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, that's good. How did Jacob? Yeah, he's a he's an independent, he's been on Skip Happens, he's doing really well. Um we usually catch up at CRS. So I don't know if you can see the uh notes or not, but uh I know I can now.

SPEAKER_01:

I just yeah, I just saw that chat.

SPEAKER_03:

There you go.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's awesome.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, so it's pretty cool. You know, um just what you're doing is is so cool, and uh just keep at it, brother. Uh, I warned you about skip happens. I go down all these roads. This is a conversation where we can smile, we can laugh, and it's not like a formal interview, it is, but it isn't. Um, if you know what I mean. So it's it's fun. It's fun. And to find out about you and then look back on this down the road a little bit, and I hope to see you out on the road. I don't know if you're gonna be at CRS, the country radio seminar, in uh it's March this year, but uh I I I certainly hope to get a chance to say hello. We could have a cold one together. I don't know what your favorite brew is or what you drink, but uh we could definitely do whatever.

SPEAKER_01:

So well, yes, sir. No, hey, I'd I'd love that. That'd be great. I I hope to be at CRS this year. I was last year, so uh oh okay. If I am, then uh I probably saw you.

SPEAKER_03:

Of course, I didn't know who you were. I've been going for well over 20 years.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, but okay, well, yeah, hey, that was my first time, and and I thoroughly enjoyed it. So I I'd definitely love to definitely we'll do something.

SPEAKER_03:

But you know, so somebody wants to go on and get your EP, where can they go? That can they download it all off the uh DSPs or or what digital service providers? What can we do?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, literally pretty much go anywhere. And if you just look up Spencer Hatcher, you can find my music. Uh, you can look me up on socials and you can follow me there so you can stay up to date with everything. And I also have a website, Spencerhatchermusic.com. So yeah, I encourage everybody to show your support. It means the world to me, and I certainly appreciate that.

SPEAKER_03:

And uh, Jacob just chimed in. He says, uh, voice text. We open for Josh Turner together in Missouri.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yes, Jacob, dude. Okay, yes, that's yeah, good dude. Well, I just couldn't see the icon, I was like, Yeah, I know, I know. And Jacob is awesome. That guy killed it, it was so cool. Jacob's a great guy. Jacob, if if you're gonna be at CRS, that'd be awesome.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, he's gonna be there. We already have it planned.

SPEAKER_01:

Now it's now it's coming back to me. Uh, we talked about that while we were out in Missouri. So there you go. Hopefully, I'm there. I'll I'll definitely yeah, we should just do it together.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, no, and I usually, you know, I see Jacob and his wife out there. We did it last year, and we'll go get a cold one or whatever we have to do. So it's it's I love that.

SPEAKER_02:

But yeah, Jacob's great.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, Spencer, I want to say thank you for taking time out of your night to uh come and hang on Skip Happens. Hopefully, hopefully you had a good time. Like I said, it's very informal. This is what I do. Um, but uh there he is, everybody. That's Spencer Hatcher making country music the way it's supposed to be made. I cannot say that loud enough. Uh, loud enough to wait the bartender, honest enough to hurt a little, and twangy enough to make your truck lean left. I don't know what that meant. But go check out honky tongue hideaway everywhere you stream music, see him live uh if he's in your area. We're trying to we'll try our best to get him up here in the northeast, but we'll wait till about July. Um, no, you know what? I mean, we're we're doing shows every month. So if you come, you come. We'll get you here. Uh so if you see him live, you're gonna enjoy it. And Spencer, uh, by the way, you and I, the next round is on me. So we get together in in Nashville. Thank you for joining us tonight on Skip Happens. Thank you, everybody. Subscribe YouTube at Skip Happens Podcast. It's easy as that. Spencer, your socials, right? You they can go you go to YouTube. You got your own, they can subscribe.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, yeah. Yeah, just look at Spencer Hatcher.

SPEAKER_03:

There you go. All right, Spencer. Thanks for joining us. Stay right there, brother.

SPEAKER_01:

Skip, thank you so much. It was an honor.

SPEAKER_03:

Honors all mine, my friend.

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Skip Clark

Host