14. Whiskey River - Good Music and Good Bourbon

It's one that didn't want to be found. It was a hell or high water. It's a cave. You go down through a cavern.

You have to be escorted through like there's a secret door. I say that loosely. I mean, that's awesome. We love that stuff.

You enter into a little curio shop and there's an attendant there and you tell them that you're here for the bar and not to look around. Then they open up a bookcase and you walk down a staircase and it's just this expansive cavernous. It's all candle lit. There's old books in the bookcase.

Books upon books. Yeah, it's really neat.

So there you go folks for date night. Hey, come on, we're going to hell.

Welcome to another trip down the bourbon road with your hosts, Jim and Randy. So grab a glass of your favorite bourbon and kick back.

We would like to thank Tommy and Gwen Mitchell from Log Heads Home Center for supporting this episode of the Bourbon Road. Find out more about their fine rustic furniture at logheadshomescenter.com.

Well, Randy, you finally did it. Yeah, well, I finally, what did I, what did I did? Well, you finally got a musical group on the show. Yes, we finally got a musical group. You know, when you talk about bourbon culture, music is part of it, you know? And so when you get a group called the Whiskey River, you kind of got to see what that's all about, you know? April and Cole on the show there. Bourbon Stewart.

Absolutely. Yeah. Great, great young couple. Getting married next year. Yeah. April Allen and Cole Bixler, Whiskey River Live.

How do you get the name Whiskey River? Evidently, they have it trademarked. Every state you go in has a Whiskey River somewhere, and it's usually a club, not a group.

These guys are out of Richmond, Kentucky. They're a folk music duo. They do a lot of covers, but they also have some of their own original work. But they are both US Army vets, both served our country, and actually met in Washington DC at an event. It's kind of neat.

Doing shows for the servicemen.

But you know what, what really amazes me is how the more and more times we do these interviews, the more and more people are popping up to be certified bourbon stewards.

We're going to have to work on that, Jim. I think we do need to. I think you're right. fun show and they've got a interesting recipe to share and we'll try to get that video. We videoed them making their signature drink there. So that was a lot of fun. I had a great time. Yeah, it was.

All right. So let's get on to the show. Sounds good. All right.

Hello, everybody. I'm Randy Minick. And I'm Jim Shannon. And the Bourbon Road is back in Lexington today at Base 110 with our guests Cole Bixler and April Allen, AKA Whiskey River. We'll get into that in just a moment. But as you guys know, we usually start with a little pour, get things going. So first pour today, Jim, we brought something special. What do we got?

We did. We brought a Weller 107 pick, Weller Antique pick. Now, who picked this? This is from the Silver Dollar Saloon in Louisville, Kentucky. Have you guys been to the Silver Dollar? Actually, we have.

Have we? I don't remember. It must have been a good time.

Yeah, it's a great place. They do some great picks there, and obviously they serve their bourbons there, and then they've got another outlet where you can actually go and buy their bottles, a bottle shop. So this is, can you read the label? Is it barrel number six? Pick number six?

Yes, it's number six, the silver dollar number six, single barrel select.

So Weller 107, it's 107 proof. It's a weeded bourbon. It's one of the Weller products that's kind of hard to find. I guess it's a little easier to find than the Weller 12.

Yes, it is.

Quite a bit. Not as easy to find as the green label Weller, the Weller Special Reserve. But it's good stuff. Why don't we try it?

Sounds good.

Sounds good.

Digging the collar on this. Ah, there's that liquid sunset right there.

It's a nice amber color. You can tell it's been aged for a minute.

I don't know what the average age is on a Weller 107. I know we just picked a barrel day before yesterday over at Buffalo Trace. And it was for the full proof pick. And I think it was a little over seven years. So it's probably six to eight year or seven year timeframe. This one specifically, I'm not sure.

For a 107 proof, it's pretty well balanced. It's a nice sipper. Yes.

I think it's kind of got a little bit of a kind of a fruity cherry kind of flavor to it. The nose for me was a little subdued on this.

It wasn't as... As our friend from Mash and Drum would say, he'd say it was a little muted, just a little muted on the front end.

I like the flavor. It's a little spicy. For a bourbon, yeah, it's a little spicy.

It gets a little bit from the wheat.

Leaves a tingle on my tongue afterwards.

It's got a nice long finish. I'm still tasting it. It's interesting how a bourbon without any rye in it can sort of deliver some of that spice, isn't it?

I was just going to say, it tastes like a rye, a really good rye.

Yeah, I think the 107, the Wellers in general, typically can give you a little bit of a spicy note, and it's a bit of a surprise from a weeded bourbon. But we actually got a little bit of spice from that Rebel Yell the other day, too, didn't we?

Oh, yeah. Yeah, we sure did. That tenure you're talking about?

Yeah.

Mm-hmm. That's good stuff.

So do you guys, have you had the Weller 107 before?

I don't think so.

We've not had this one. So which ones have you had?

We've had the entry level Weller. That's about it with our Weller brand. We were privileged to do a pappy tasting not long ago. Weller's cousin.

We got a feel for the family, but we haven't really delved into Weller yet. Well, that's what Weller becomes somewhere down the road, right? The good Wellers.

We got a feel for the family. I like that.

Well, this is a good bourbon. I really enjoy it. I don't always have a bottle on my bar, but I'm pretty excited when I do have one on the bar, so it's kind of nice. For me, between the three, the Special Reserve, the one I guess you guys have had, the Special Reserve, the 107 Antique and then the Weller 12. Personally, this is my favorite. So you like this better than the 12? A lot of people like the 12 better. This one's kind of a little bit... Why?

A little bit hotter, you know, a little bit higher proof. Oh, that's right. If there was a 200 proof out there, you'd be all over it.

And I like...

He likes his stuff hot.

Well, you know...

I like my women in my coffee hot.

Well, the foolproof barrel that we picked is going to come in at 114. So, it'll be a little bit higher than this one. So, nobody's had that yet. That's brand new. You'll have to tell us how that is. Yeah. Well, maybe we'll have you on the show again and we'll have a bottle. How would that be? That'd be great. That would be great.

So, one of the questions we usually start off with to ask everybody is, what does the bourbon culture mean to you?

Cole, go ahead and start off. The Bourbon culture. I think what that boils down to is just friendship, fellowship. I mean, of course, bourbon has a history here in Kentucky. You can go back decades and find a rich history of the relevance of bourbon. But what the culture boils down to is just opening a bottle with your friends, with your family, and coming around that and coming together. And that's what that means to me. Yeah, so no right or wrong answers.

Right. Well, I think locally, like you said, Kentucky, I think my local family and friends bourbon. When we have folks visiting us from out of town or out of state, one of the first things we want to do is put some Kentucky bourbon in them, you know, because it's part of the experience of being here. Horses and bourbon. I mean, Kentucky's unique. So we like to show good time.

And don't forget music. We'll get to that in the second half. Bluegrass, bourbon.

That's all of it.

Yeah, so those answers are great. I love it because it does mean that, right? It means fellowship, hanging out with good friends, sharing something that you both kind of appreciate.

My grandfather used to say, if you find two men who are strangers, who never met, and you put them at a table with a bottle of good bourbon between them, they'll find common ground.

Absolutely. Wow. What a great way to look at it. Hey, I like that.

I like that. Cheers to grandad. Cheers. Cheers.

Cheers, pop-pop.

There we go.

It was pop-pop, huh?

It was pop-pop. Pop-pop from Pennsylvania. Lot of P's.

So I ask you one at a time, because I'm not sure of the answer here, but where did you grow up?

Well, I was born in Richmond, but when I was two years old, my mom and I moved to California. It's actually where I was raised. And I went to Fresno State and joined ROTC, which brought me back out here and kind of reconnected with my Kentucky side of the family and those sorts of got the California-Kentucky split kind of going. Just came back from my 20th high school reunion in Cali and got to introduce my shiny new fiance to everybody. So that was awesome. And we talked a lot about bourbon to them and told them, like, come to Kentucky and have, like, the greatest drinks.

And they're buying tickets, right?

Yeah, there are already plenty on coming. I mean, the wedding is still a ways off 2020. But yeah, it's...

In case you all didn't know, these two are betrothed to one another and will be getting married shortly. But we'll get to that in the second half a little more.

And when you say Richmond, of course you mean Richmond, Kentucky. Yes, not Virginia. I'm sure there's a Richmond in virtually every state in the country. No, Richmond, Kentucky. There's a lot of Richmond's out there.

So I came back. I was stationed at Fort Campbell, which is about three and a half, four hours away. And went to Iraq a couple of times, and my family would come and see me get off the plane. And I wasn't raised with them in my childhood. So it was in my army years and my adulthood. I've been able to reconnect with a lot of loved ones. And it's been great. The support's awesome. We love Kentucky. So I'm not really, I was born here, not really from here, kind of drawn back to my roots and I feel good about it.

Cool.

What about you, man?

I was born in Pennsylvania, just about an hour outside of Philly, a little town called Hamburg. No one's ever heard of it. Don't worry. But yeah, I had a pretty standard upbringing there. Then I joined the army too, and that sent me around the world. I met a beautiful girl. She said she had already made plans to move to Kentucky. I had no plans whatsoever, so I just followed her here. I don't know why it was never on my radar, though. It's just a great place. We're surrounded by the Bourbon culture. Like we said earlier, music is everywhere here. It's just a perfect place for me to end up.

We didn't meet till after we were both out of the army, but we both volunteered to do musical performances and music therapy through a nonprofit that got us together in the nation's capital one Veterans Day to put on a performance for family and friends there. And we were put in a USO rehearsal room together and I heard him sing, he heard me sing and it was kind of a Kind of the start. I heard Angel sing and I opened the door. Oh my gosh. Now I'm starting.

This bourbon is getting sweeter by the minute here.

This is the bourbon that makes you super sweet.

We'll have to get this one.

He's always in a good mood, but he seems a little extra sweet today.

So did you guys go on your first date in DC?

Yeah.

It was at least in Virginia, maybe not DC proper.

Right. Well, I was in just a part of my life where I was single with two children and wanted to leave Virginia, wanted to come back home or go somewhere where I had some kind of support system kind of starting over. A lot of people go through that. We had just sort of met and then I was like, my house is selling, I'm moving to Kentucky. We had just started dating and it was one of those, I would never ask him or beg him or make him feel guilty about coming with me or staying home or whatever. I was like, that's where I'm going. I have family there. I have good feeling about it. I got to go and can't afford to live in DC anymore anyway, you know, and I wanted a different view. So he decided to come out here and check it out and he loved it. He loved Kentucky. We love it here. Yeah, we've only been here two and a half years.

Yep. Oh, so you haven't been here that long. Not that long. Not too long.

Still need the GPS driving around Lexington.

So let's move on to that first bourbon experience. When was the first time you had it? Where were you, you know?

The first one I remember is with you.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

Oh, so you guys are pretty recent to this.

Because we sort of came to Kentucky at the same time, and it was just sort of everywhere. I was always a gentleman's Jack kind of girl. And I really didn't dive into the culture or had an interest in it like I do now when I was in the Army. I was just too busy and too tired. Just no time to party. But I think it was our love of bourbon started kind of just here, just being here.

Being here really opened it up. Yeah, I was a Jack Daniels guy, too, before I moved here. It opened up a whole new world for me. But I think my very first bourbon, now that I'm thinking about it, I was probably far too young for it. I found some wild turkey in my parents' liquor cabinet and had a swig of that. Thought that was the height of adulthood.

There you go.

And that kicked my butt back then.

Now, when was that? Statute of limitations is long past.

Oh, well, okay. I want to say an age that's not too young. I probably was 17. There you go.

That's about when most of us hit the dirt road.

That's when we started drinking vodka out of the liquor cabinet and filling it up with water, right? I think everyone does that. It's called being bourbon curious, right? There you go.

That's it. I like that. So you don't remember what year it was?

It was either Four Roses or 1792. Oh my goodness.

You started off with the good stuff right off the bat. I brought you a good bottle of 1792 when we moved here.

When we first started dating and we never went to anywhere that didn't have a good bar, he would do his research ahead of time and be like, I like the culture of this one place. Let's go check it out. We like the speakeasy kind of hidden places. We love the prohibition era theme.

We'll call one out. Give them some creds here. Where do you like to go?

It was the latest speakeasy we were at. underground library thing. What was that all about? Oh, gosh.

Where were we? That was in Louisville.

It was in Louisville.

OK. Oh, no. I can't remember the name.

We go to so many places. We'll just stop in.

But if you're in Lexington, Bourbon on Rye is a great place. They've got a great atmosphere. The bartenders there are very knowledgeable. You can just spit out a flavor profile you like, and they'll make you a drink on the spot. They're really great at what they do. And their cocktail list there, off the bat, is stellar.

There you go, folks. So if you're in Lexington, Bourbon on Rye.

Hey, it doesn't hurt to throw these things out there. I may have to go try this.

Maybe they'll send us a t-shirt or something. Yeah. So we're doing pretty good here. We've checked off the Silver Dollar in Bourbon-on-Rye. And when you think of the one in Louisville with the little speakeasy downstairs. We'll think of it. It's one that didn't want to be found.

Oh, it was Hell or High Water.

OK. Hello, Highwater.

It's a cave. I mean, you go down through a cavern. It's so neat.

You have to be escorted through like there's a secret door. I say that loosely.

Secret entrance.

But that's awesome. We love that stuff.

You enter into a little curio shop, and there's an attendant there. And you tell them that you're here for the bar and not to look around. And then they open up a bookcase, and you walk down a staircase. And it's just this expansive cavernous. It's all candle lit.

Old, old books in the bookcase. Books upon books. It's really neat.

So there you go, folks, for date night. Hey, come on, we're going to hell.

Well, we've got listeners all over the place, but we have a high concentration of listeners in Louisville and Lexington. You know, a lot of our listeners are from Kentucky as well. So yeah, some of them are sitting at home right now saying, I go there. That's my spot.

We like the exclusivity. Even if it's pretend, you know, when they'll let anyone in behind the secret door, just to have to stand there and be like, we're here, you know, let us in. And it's just, it's neat. Pretend you know the password. Cause you can get a drink anywhere, you know, but a good one with a good experience.

Why not have an experience? That's what it's about.

That's what we look for.

And so now we've talked about the first bourbon experience, but what do you guys keep in the decanter? What's on your shelf every day? What do you drink? Well, I'm not saying you drink every day, but... You can say that.

It's okay if you say that.

What's your everyday bourbon?

Our everyday is four roses. For sure.

Which one?

Just the standard label, the yellow label. They changed it. It's a tan label now. I still say yellow label. People know what I'm talking about usually. But just for your dollar, Four Roses delivers the best product. You can keep it stocked all the time. You don't feel guilty about buying it. And it's good. It mixes. You can drink it straight. We love it.

Yeah.

Thumbs up to Four Roses.

We love it. Well, Brent, evidently you're doing a great job there, brother. So you both agree on that?

Absolutely. We like the single barrel, but especially for the cost, the Four Roses, it's great drinking it just straight or with anything we mix with it. It makes everything better. It just is great for us. For us? Yeah.

Well, I'm sure there's plenty of people out there that agree with you. But you know, there's as many palates as there are, there are bourbons, so everybody can have their own. Your bourbon, your way. That's right.

And that's the great thing about it, all the different types. You get to define what tastes good to you through your bourbon experience. There's no right or wrong way.

If you like it with ice, if you like it with water.

A little bit of water.

And you guys are bourbon stewards. Now, how did this come along? I mean, you haven't been here, what, two or three years, and all of a sudden you decided to just embrace this whole bourbon thing and become bourbon stewards. How did that happen?

Well, you say we haven't been here long. The Bourbon stewardship program has only been here for maybe a year and a half. We caught it early. We caught it right when it started. When I moved here, I was kind of a wine guy, a bit of a wine snob, I guess you'd say. But when I got here, I got into Bourbon and I saw that there was a genuine certification available. So we hopped on the bandwagon there. It's through the Stave and Thief Society. They have since branched out and opened the Moonshine Academy in Louisville, where you can go and learn bourbon stewardship in depth. They have the standard bourbon stewardship program, and then they have the executive bourbon stewardship program, which just makes you a master, I guess. We haven't gotten that far. But it was a great program and it's not terribly expensive to get involved in it. If you feel like you like Bourbon and you want to learn a little more for just a couple bucks, you can get their workbook, their study guide and take the test and you can be a Bourbon steward too. It's not terribly difficult. You just have to know what's going on in Kentucky, what's going on in Bourbon.

Right, the study guide gave all the answers, you just have to read it and then they send you a pin and a certificate and it's neat. It's a handsome pin. It's a nice little lapel pin. It's just something to add, right? My mother used to call it patting your self-esteem bra or patting your resume. That's what she used to call it, just to have another thing.

between the pop pop and mom. Well, I tell you what, we got a few years only.

That's like crazy crazies.

Some good influences.

Yeah. But anybody can do it. It's affordable. And the studying process wasn't too difficult. I got through it.

It's great. Everyone can learn something from it. I think even if you think you know bourbon, you can open up that study guide and learn some obscure fact you never knew. You can always learn more. There's always more to know. And that's what it's about.

Yeah, so we've had a few guests on before. I don't know if you guys have heard some of the past episodes, but it seems like this is a thing that's sort of repeating a little bit. It seems like this is really gaining a lot of steam. And, you know, we've had bottle shop owners or bourbon air tour pilots. Oh, yes. and among other people who had the stewardship and now, you know, you guys, I think Randy and I are going to have to do something about that. I think you better.

I swore when I hit the end terminal on that train track, as far as school goes, I would never take another test. I hear you.

But it's a test about something you really love, right?

I may have to break down and go do this.

I loved it because I felt like I could kind of keep up with him a little bit in knowledge. He loves it so much. I just love really drinking it, but he loves the science of it and everything. And so I got to learn kind of what he knows. So when he talks about it, I'm not totally in the dark, just sipping away blindly. I know what he's talking about.

Well, speaking of that competition and keeping up with the boys, I understand you're pretty good at that kind of thing. You know, we'd kind of like to, you know, with both of you being vets, get into that just a little bit if you want to. So, you know, Jim, I'll let you handle this next segment there.

Well, I mean, are you guys comfortable talking about your military service? Sure. Absolutely.

We heard you're a veteran yourself. I am.

I am. It's been a few years.

It seems to be a reoccurring theme lately on our shows about veterans here. Veterans who are bourbon stewards. I know it. Maybe I need to do a research project.

Well, I know that veterans, there's a growing population of veterans that are settling in this area. The American Legion in Richmond, where we live, has the fastest growing membership in all of Kentucky.

Wow.

So this is just a great place. I think veterans, we just find ourselves drawn to something that is good for family, good for life, culture, a little of everything. You're not too north, not too south, right? You're just kind of in that sweet spot.

Right in the center. You can still get sugar in your ice tea here folks.

Yeah, they haven't banned all plastic straws yet. We just came back from California.

That was a problem.

You have to ask for a straw, even if it's really obvious you need one. And then what they do give you is this paper thing that just falls apart and like, great, great for the earth. I was going to walk around with my own plastic straw from now on, but yeah.

Concealed carry. There you go, folks. Oh, we did that too. And now you don't have to.

We paid for the class and got the thing. And now it's like, you don't have to have it anymore. You can carry your gun anywhere. That might be a different discussion.

Well, do you want to tell them about your career? Well, yeah, go ahead and start us off there.

my military career. Oh my gosh. Well, I was at Fresno State when 9-11 happened, and I was about halfway through college. So it was sort of a calling. I didn't want to drop out of college, so I did finish, but then I did ROTC. So I became an officer in the Transportation Corps, and as I got to Fort Campbell, and went to Iraq a couple of times with the 101st Airborne, just a great, exciting, terrifying, wonderful, memorable time, all the things at once. And I got out because it was so rough. It was year on, year off. You were going to be in the sand every other year, whether you liked it or not. And I saw a lot of families really suffer. It's just so hard. The fathers suffer enough, but as someone who wanted to be a mother someday, I couldn't imagine because technically after three months of having your baby, they can deploy you. Basically, take your child away from you for a year.

No maternity leave.

And I worked with some amazingly strong men and women, but that's the one thing that will break you. And I just said, you know what? I've done more than two years of combat time. I feel more comfortable in a Humvee with a gun than I do anywhere else in the world. I need to get back into civilization. and it was an amazing experience and I learned a lot and it was very hard, but Cole and I just feel like we did what we could and we don't feel bad about getting out, not doing the full 20 years. I don't know how many years you did, Jim.

I did eight.

You did eight. I did five. I think you did three or four. I did four active to reserve. That seems to be long enough for a lot of people. It was good. But I'm glad it's over.

Burnout rate must be pretty quick.

It's hard.

You know what? I give massive kudos and thanks and praise to the people who do 20 years. It's not for everybody. If you're listening and you want out, it's okay. But to those guys who stick it out, I mean, thank you very much. You guys were meant for that. That's the only way you could do that.

And how did you guys adjust when you came back from your deployments? Was it easier for you or did you have difficulty adjusting?

I had some family members pull me aside in concern. Nothing crazy, but just she's changed. And how can you not? And I was in Tikrit, the first deployment, Southwest Baghdad, the second. I was always with artillerymen or infantrymen back when women weren't even supposed to be in those units. I wasn't allowed to wear the insignia or have the flag, but I was still doing the same job, carrying the same weapon, the same weight, the same vest, and the same truck with them ready to do the same mission. And so it was eye-opening for me. The first two years of my Army career, I was the only female officer in an entire battalion of about 400 to 500 soldiers.

Well, I understand you were actually pretty good with that gun too, but they wouldn't take you into Ranger school or something.

They would not allow females at Ranger school at the time I was in, or I definitely would have tried, for sure. I was way more gung-ho back then.

You were briefly the commander of a... company that wouldn't allow women.

Well, we were in the company that was attached to the battalion that technically didn't even have a women's restroom in the building. When I showed up my first day to report to my boss, there was only one door and it had a male sign on it. And I had to, you know, make a female sign and be like, you know, when I'm in here, this is going on the wall and tried not to make us make a sound, you know, tried to blend in and stopped wearing makeup and doing anything feminine and just became one of the guys. That's all I cared about at the time.

Welcome back. So true. Thanks for coming back.

That's what I had to do to get through it. But that's the adjustment. I had to toughen up real quick. And I was only 24. When I became second in command of an 80-personnel company, so it was just this ultimate pressure that when I'm in college and doing ROTC, which is part-time army play, it didn't feel as real, didn't realize. I knew it would be hard, but not as hard as it was. I think if I hadn't deployed so much and been with the 101st, which are just so hardcore and so tough, I may not have burned out.

They've got a reputation to uphold. And they have to. Absolutely.

And only the strongest can stay there. And so I was blessed to stay with one unit the whole five years. I mean, I made sure to keep my value.

Yeah, my father was a screaming eagle. Awesome. Yeah. But myself, I was in the Navy. I was in the submarine force.

Nice.

My deployments were a little bit different than yours.

You got to see maybe some beautiful things of the world. I got to see, you know, Fort Knox, Kentucky, and then Iraq, and that was it.

I didn't really get to see much, you know.

Well, they don't tell you when they say, hey, come see the world, join the Navy, that 70% of the earth is water. Oh, so you saw a lot of water. Yeah, man. So, you guys met after the military then. Doing music.

We volunteered to do a musical performance at an army base. Was it an army base? It was a Veterans Day thing. That was a public affair. You were out of the military at that time and decided to go back and do some music. He was in the Soldier Show.

I had a different military career. I don't know if I should...

Yeah, tell us about the Soldier Show. It's no longer funded, but it was. It's not a thing anymore.

Well, I guess I'll start at the beginning. Sure. Well, when I joined, I was attached to the Old Guard in DC, which is, for those of you who don't know, I'm told it's a big honor. It is. It's great. You have to do so much additional training time, so much additional testing to get in there. But that is the company that follows the presidential car in parades. That's the company that pulls the sentinels for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We have the caisson platoon that escorts fallen soldiers into Arlington Cemetery. We patrolled Arlington Cemetery. Most of our mission was ceremonial. We met a lot of presidents, a lot of foreign dignitaries, a lot of celebrities would come on base. I remember that Lance Armstrong used to come on base every now and then and run with us in the morning. Oh really? Before he was defamed. Still got to train. Hey, he's still fast. That's what I'm saying. Say what you want to. No matter what he was doing. He's still a stellar athlete and he would lead us all over town. But it was cool. Stuff like that was commonplace there. It was the only unit that was mustered by General Washington that's still in activity right now.

Wow. Yeah, the old guard kind of like the garter. What is it? The garter over there in England?

The fancy guys with the fuzzy hat.

The beef eaters. Yeah. Order of the garter. Yeah. And it's that's their old guard there. It's a very it's a very

honored position. It takes a lot of training to get in there.

Do they choose you for this? Do you test for this? Are you asked to be in this?

Out of basic training, I was chosen for this based on ceremonial drill. Most of basic training is combat, of course. But, you know, every now and then you have to put on your uniform and stand pretty and do all of that. And they saw I was good at it. So I got drafted into the Old Guard. You know, they came and asked me. A recruiter came while I was in the Army after I'd already talked to my recruiter. Another recruiter came.

Hi, colonel. So you didn't learn the first time, right? Someone would say I made a mistake twice.

You were a combat medic, which you haven't mentioned yet. That was actually your MOS. So this guy saves lives, just so you know. He's being humble, but he was a combat medic.

I saw some activity while I was in. I moonlit as an EMS on base. So I was driving the ambulance after hours as well as running a clinic during the day. So I saw quite a bit. I never deployed, thankfully. The Old Guard is mostly a ceremonial position, so they seldom deploy. But I was privileged to be on the Soldier Show, which at the time was another huge honor. It's since been defunded. You won't find it anymore, but it's been going on for decades. It was started by Irving Berlin, the guy who wrote

My Christmas and all that good stuff. Yeah.

Yeah. So he started it and it's been going on ever since and then it stopped in, you know, a couple of years ago. I'm not sure which year, but I was privileged to tour with him in 2011. They take the top 20 musical performers army wide. They do like an American Idol style. you know, tear down of people. You send in your audition tape and then you get a live audition and this and that. And I was lucky enough to make it through. So I was one of the top 20 Army musicians that year. And we basically, we were rock stars that year. It was really fun. We toured the world. We went to 140 bases in seven countries. and just put on a rock concert. Wow. It was really fun.

That would be fun. It's kind of like the USO was, I guess, years ago.

Exactly.

Yep. Well, guys, we have sort of hit our halfway point here. So we're going to go ahead and continue to sip on our weller while we take our break. And when we come back, we'll find out what you've brought for us to drink.

And we'll talk a little bit about how this bourbon steward thing works out. And then we'll get into some of this music and what future plans are. Sounds good. Yeah. All right.

We would like to thank Tommy and Gwen Mitchell from Loghead's Home Center for supporting this episode of the Bourbon Road. Loghead's Home Center, nestled in the hills of Kentucky, is an industry leader in building handcrafted rustic furniture. Family owned and operated, they take pride in offering only the very best for their customers. The Logheads, and that's what they like to call themselves, are skilled wood crafters who are passionate about creating rustic furniture for people who appreciate the beauty of natural wood. Owners Tommy and Gwen don't just sell the rustic lifestyle, they live it. And you can be sure that Loghead's furniture will always be handcrafted in Kentucky by artisans who embrace the simple way of life. Loghead's rustic furniture is made from northern white cedar, a sustainable wood that's naturally rot and termite resistant. Its beauty and quality will add warmth to your earthy lifestyle for generations to come. Be sure to check out everything they have to offer at LogHeadsHomeCenter.com. And while you're at it, give Tommy and Gwen a shout on Facebook or Instagram at LogHeadsHomeCenter.

So welcome back to the second half of the show. We're here with our Whiskey River. Colon in April and so. During halftime, they mixed us up a little drink here, folks. And we're going to put that out. Jim, what are we going to do?

I think we'll put an Instagram movie out on that. That's kind of neat.

I thought it was great. They did well. No script or anything. So you made us a drink, a little cocktail here. And as bourbon stewards, I know it's going to be just fricking awesome. So tell us, what's this called? How did you make it? What did you put in it?

Yes, sir. This is a strawberry basil sour. Strawberry basil sour.

Is that why I have a leaf floating around in the top?

That is why you have a leaf floating around in the top. It's not just for decoration. All right. But yeah, we used two ounces of Four Roses bourbon, one and a half ounces of a homemade strawberry simple syrup,

So what is in this simple syrup? I like that idea.

Yeah, you can make this at home. It's so easy. You just get a skillet, put on a cup of water, get it boiling, add a cup of sugar. Now you have a simple syrup. Then you add about 15 to 20 strawberries that you've cut in half and let them simmer. Just let it simmer for half an hour or so. And what you've got is a strawberry flavored simple syrup. Super good. Uh, you can put it on ice cream. You can put it in your bourbon. It's fantastic.

So do you have to strain that or anything?

Yeah, you'll have to run it through a strainer and get all the bits of strawberry out.

Of course, you know why you're going to have to do that folks. And those of you who know me know that I am not a strawberry fan because strawberries look like they have a bunch of fleas sticking out of those things. And I have told him that I'm going to brave this and we're going to do this today. And, uh, the strawberry thing here, but, um,

But yeah, so it was two ounces of four roses, an ounce and a half of that strawberry syrup, and then a half an ounce of lemon juice, just to kind of counteract the sticky, sweet fruitiness of the syrup. Garnish with a basil leaf, and you've got a strawberry basil sour.

Wow, okay. It smells good, I will say. All right, stop talking. Let's try it. Well, you definitely get the basil right off the bat.

He puts basil in it when he shakes it, and then another one for garnish afterwards.

So the flavor is really infused. This looks like a summer drink to me. If I was sitting there and you were to come to somebody's house and they're sitting back there on the porch, You know, this looks like something... You know what this would go good with?

If you had one of those pizza cookers out on your back porch, you know, the stone pizza cookers. It would go with that. Wouldn't it?

Because of the basil, I think, you know, but oh, it's delicious. You know, the strawberry is not that strong in this. I actually kind of like this. Well, there you go.

And there's two ounces of bourbon in there.

In my experience, it goes down too smooth. So you got to be careful with it.

Well, he's learned through watching me drink them down a little seriously.

So you can definitely taste the bourbon in this. So this is a spirit forward cocktail. No doubt about it. Absolutely. I'm glad y'all are enjoying it.

Yeah, it's really good.

And you can substitute the lemon juice with sour mix, which we've done before because we had a whole bunch of it and we were experimenting. So you can use sour mix. It's not quite as good. Whatever you've got on hand.

Any of that lemon, lime syrup, that'll do.

Or any fruit. I want to try it with peaches.

I was going to ask about the simple syrup. You can make peaches, strawberries, blackberries. Absolutely anything.

Anything. Yep. And a lot of folks don't realize that what you're paying, you know, eight bucks for in the store, you can make at home for a fraction of the cost.

Any fruit you like, boil it with some sugar and water at home and just watch the magic.

In the fall, we like to boil some apple simple syrup and put on cinnamon, coriander, all those fall spices. You can add that to wine, to mullet. You can put it in whiskey and make an old-fashioned that tastes a little more like autumn. It's a lot you can do at home.

We definitely change our drinks due to the season it is.

I was going to say the warm toddy can take on a whole new persona now. And the peach simple syrup, Randy, that's right down your alley, right? Well, just look, why does everybody think just because I hung out in South Georgia for a while that I'm supposed to be a little peach boy? That's what I thought. More a peanut guy, actually. But whatever. Peanuts and peaches. So Whiskey River, the last time that I had anything to do with Whiskey River, it was actually a club in Macon, Georgia that Jason Aldean used to play all the time. So when I was playing country music, I was kind of on the way down with the groups I was in as Jason Aldean was coming up. And he used to play at Whiskey River all the time. So when I saw Whiskey River, I was like, Okay, Country Music A Club. So the name Whiskey River. How did you get that? What kind of stuff do you guys do? Because we're going to talk about music a little bit in this half here. Well, that's awesome.

Well, the name is a popular name, obviously, and we did our homework and a lot of people use the name at their establishments and a lot of other bands are called Whiskey River, not locally that we have found, but they're around there. We actually bought the trademark and the logo that we use. So not that everyone is illegal in using it, but we are You know, certified to be a traveling musical duo. We're just ahead of the game.

If any other duos were out there.

Well, the restaurant shouldn't be any kind of competition.

So if there are going to be any cease and desist letters, you'll be the ones issuing them.

Yeah, if we're feeling cruel, I guess.

We're feeling particularly vindictive that day.

Right, right. Because we'll start some merchandise soon. When we told our story about coming to Kentucky together, we both have musical backgrounds.

Let's not get the cart before the horse. Let's go back and start how this whole thing, when did this whole music bug hit you guys? I'm sure it's going to be different for both of you before we get to the together part.

Well, he talked about the Soldier Show where he performed and sang, played guitar, maybe even multiple instruments, a wide variety of shows he did for an entire year. But he was a musician before that. You started in church, right?

Are you going to introduce me? I thought we were going to go. I was just going to say that. Well, yeah, I started in the church choir. I think I was four years old. It's kind of funny. My church was so intimate that I was recruited for the church choir. Someone heard me singing over the other 50 people in there.

That sounds about right.

But you know, a lot of country people, you know, that play country music, well, even rock and roll or gospel, you know. That's where you start. That's where you start is in the church. Yes, sir.

I used to play a banjo in a church. Get out of here. Banjo. Five strings, four strings. Well, we had, there was four ladies and one played a bass and I played banjo and guitar. Another gal played guitar and we kind of formed a little Alison Krauss type group and the church was accepting of it because when I first showed up there was pretty much just piano music and I was like, you know, I have a music ministry in me at the time. I was real passionate about it. So that was fun. But something, when I was in the army, they had an event called Operation Rising Star, which is like, you know, about military idol. It's like American Idol but for the military and they still have it today. So I competed. I sent a video from Baghdad of me singing a couple of country music songs.

Which songs?

I sang Gunpowder and Lead by Miranda Lambert and I sang Break Down Here by Julie Roberts. Excuse me. And somehow that video was good enough quality. They were able to hear me through a basic sandstorm. But they contacted me and it was towards the end of my deployment anyway. And they said, you've made it to the finals to Operation Rising Star. So I got to fly straight to the Capitol and we played live on the Pentagon Channel. This was over 10 years ago. So I was a semi-finalist on the singing competition. I sang in uniform and I sang Gunpowder and Lead again there. And we had some group performances and stuff.

That's rather apropos, I think, for somebody in uniform. It was difficult.

You know, it was funny because that was the last year they made, because military family members could also compete. But see, they got to dress up and look like, and I had to stay in uniform with a tight bun and look all professional. I couldn't quite let my hair down, so to speak, and sing a country song or have a guitar or anything like that. So, you know, so things changed after that. But I don't think they have that competition anymore either with funds. I'm not sure they do. Because the military was starting to recognize that a lot of service members who have talent put that to the side. Instead of just focusing on my career and getting vocal lessons and all that, we were serving our country. So it was nice to have that opportunity to come out of the ashes of that and be like, hey, I can still sing. I can still do this. And it gave us a platform. Because he did the Soldier Show and I did Operation Rising Star. We both got to know the same kind of people, army-wide music people who recruit military music talent. So every time there's an event or something going on that's military and music related, we tend to get that call. So that's how we met, was we got one of those similar calls, come to DC and put on a performance at the show. And that's how we met. And then when we got to Kentucky, we just didn't want to stop. I mean, I'm a songwriter at heart. That's my passion. And we had written a couple of songs together. and I had put it out there and a little bit didn't, I mean, it's hard when you write from your heart and you want to put something out there, you're a little bit, I don't know if I'm ready. Well, there was someone with a record label called Eminent Music, a guy named Chaz Childers who found us on Instagram, probably how you guys found us and contacted me and had a conversation with me. I sent him a few of our songs and then he said, please come to Nashville and just play live one time. So like, I know. Where in Nashville were you talking? At the Valentine.

We played at the Valentine.

And at a thing called Cowboys and Sweethearts with a lot of different other musicians and basically we finished the set. He walked us right outside and said, I don't have the paperwork in front of me and it's coming, but you're on my label. And he just didn't want to lose us to anyone else.

He signed us on the spot.

Yeah. So it was, it's really neat. So not only do we get to make an EP, which will be about five songs and we'll see how that goes. And then he wants to make another one. Um, the songs that we write, we get to sell to people like Jason Aldean. In fact, we got a recent email. We get the same email that all those producers. Like for instance, I can't remember the name, but it was someone big like Kenny Chesney and Miranda. And it's like, what kind of music are they looking for? Anything but ballads. They're very specific. They want hit country songs, but no ballads. And then the next thing, like Luke Bryan, it'll just say looking for straight country hits and rock, you know, they have a certain style that they want. And in our, I call them our boss, but the label, they'll send that to us and be like, do you have any songs that could fit this? So we get to sell. So a song we write may get to wind up on one of their albums. And that's our goal. And we're writing our own at the same time.

So you guys are going to be doing more demo stuff to give to actual other artists, not necessarily do your own thing.

Yeah, we're doing both. Cause they're, cause it's like whichever one is the most successful. Cause the songwriting is great. There's a lot of excellent musicians. Maybe the stage life tour life isn't for them, but they write some killer songs and that's fine. They get to stand back and watch someone else shine.

So actually we're on the same. We're on the same email list as like Luke Bryan and Jason Aldean. Like all the songs that are pitched to them also come to us. So if we snatch them up, I mean, you know, then we have that hit song.

We do have two songs that he's already purchased for us. And for what he explained to me, the same people that produced Eye of the Tiger. Do you remember that hit?

Yes.

They put out this country song.

They wrote this country song.

It's called Prom Night in Pontiac. Fantastic. It reminds me of a Lady Antebellum, kind of a younger crowd feel. It's going to be fun at prom, obviously. It's about a prom night in Pontiac, Michigan. And it just has a cool lick. It's just a cool sound. And we're like, we want it. And they're already great producers. And so we bought it.

It's a number one song. I hope we can do it justice.

Yeah, it's gonna record that here in Kentucky Are you going down to Nashville? Where do they have you recording in Nashville?

Well at his eminent records, okay, he has his own studio there, but it's a smaller studio. It's a Sony affiliate and So and he has so many artists he assigned at once I think he just went on a talent hunt and now these guys people were in queue You know, he can only get so many records through in the meantime. He's like just songwriter like crazy Just keep writing keep writing and we need the time so it works out and a lot of people a lot Well, even Chris Stapleton made it as a writer.

Absolutely a friend of mine who's doing the Marikana stuff He made it as a writer before he ever decided to tour Kayleigh Hammock another lady I worked with, you know, who's warming up Miranda Lambert and some of those on tour now, actually, she went as a writer with some of the publishing houses before she actually made it. And that's supposed to be the ticket in, they say.

That's the goal.

She's doing great right now. I can't believe I worked with her when she was 17 and go, hey, girl, Right. Remember me. They don't want four and a half and five minute songs in Nashville. You need to make that suck about three and a half minutes or less. And now she's killing it. So anyway, but yeah, I think you guys are on the right track with the writing stuff.

We'll let you guys know when we have, it's going to be a while, but we'll let you know when we have that EP ready. In the meantime, we are working on some songs and we have an original that we're going to send you guys later. It's called Cry Me a Whiskey River.

Awesome. Oh boy. Well, there you go. Apropos with the name. It's a duet.

Yeah. And we love it. We love doing it. And he wrote a song called Not Getting Jack. I'm not getting Jack.

I'm getting Jack.

Yeah, I'm getting Jack. Sorry. But it's a fun song about partying and then he gets home.

It's a friends in low places kind of song.

Yeah, and his wife's pissed that he's been out all night like, well, I guess I'm getting Jacks, but meaning Jack Daniels at least, right?

Hopefully this is not what they call a self-fulfilling prophet. It's not from personal experience.

No. We can sing from any perspective, I think. Just the party crowd is going to love it.

And that's the fun part of it, at least. We get to adopt different personas.

We get to write all these songs. It's a lot of fun. Because my wife has gone. Excuse me, when were you out doing such and such? And I was like, babe, I'm just putting myself in that particular whatever.

Right, if we write a breakup song, it's not that we're breaking up. It's just, you know.

Because you're blonde and I drink bourbon and I wrote a song called Blondes and Bourbon doesn't mean that it's necessarily about you. It's not about you. Now, I get that whole thing, but let's not put the cart before the horse here and go back to when it all began. So who were some of your early influences?

I was definitely into it.

Was it always country? Was it rock? Was it metal? Gospel, since you started in the church thing, contemporary Christian? Where did it start?

I had a great tutor in the gospel sense. The choir leader back in the day, his name was Brian Hartman, and he is still a mentor today. I still keep in touch with him. He gave me voice lessons when I was in adolescence. he really set me on the right track. But as far as influences, I think Garth Brooks was definitely a major influence, as well as Billy Joel.

Really? Okay, so a little bit on the rock pop side there.

I just liked songs that were stories. You know, a lot of times today you get songs about, I'm sad, I'm going to the bar, you know, I'm happy, I'm going on a trip, you know, whatever. It's stuff you can relate to. They're trying to bond with the person listening. But back in the 90s, in the 80s and 90s, they were trying to tell you a story.

Tim McGraw, don't take the girl.

They were trying to tell you about people that you didn't know. Here's a story about Jack and Diane and you listened and you heard the story. It's not like that today. They tell you, I'm sad. I'm not trying to put down today's music. I'm not trying to be like one of those guys. Today's music doesn't matter.

I think that's just the milestone of being a certain age is you start saying how all the new music sucks. And you just want the old times, the good old days, you know?

I don't know about that. But Garth Brooks and Billy Joel, they knew how to tell you a story through a song. And that really resonated with me.

I gotcha. Well, April, what about you?

My first love was MJ and Michael Jackson when he... I was like five years old and I had the silver glove and the cool belt and I had all the... Yeah. I saw the picture. I was so into it. And that's when I fell in love. I think that's when MTV was still cool. And, but my mother was a young mom. She had me at 18 and she was a complete rocker chick. And so there's pictures of me wearing headphones and standing next to, to like a, like a four foot tall speaker, you know, back in the eighties, all the equalizers and the cool stuff. And she had the latest everything and the, and the turntable and, And we always played our music too loud. I grew up on like Heart and Journey and Pink Floyd. And that's what she loved. And she didn't really like country music. She loved rock and roll. And I learned to love it all growing up in the 80s and 90s. And 90s alternative rock was a cool time. But I have to say, some of my favorites are like Tracy Chapman, because the singer songwriter in me, just me with my guitar, like you said, telling a story. It's usually very sad.

Very exposed. Very, very raw. Standing there by yourself, very exposed.

Oh, and he has even said about my music, he goes, you know, you really put yourself out there. Like some people just want to hear a service level. Like let's just, let's just have a drink, have a good time. And you're singing about things that are so personal and serious. I'm like, yeah, but that's, that's part of the art. You know, maybe, maybe someone will hear it and, and, and relate to it.

So how do you guys balance kind of the differences in your, in your styles?

Well, we both love all music. So it actually, he actually loves Tracy Chapman. I love Garth Brooks. We do play everything and our on our set list when we do cut we mostly do covers We just read the crowd we read the crowd and what era we think they might like How do you read the crowd because a lot of people would be you know, okay, so I'm sitting here.

I'm having a drink Oh, I've got me a bourbon. Oh, no, excuse me. I have my basil little summer drink here you go and I'm listening to you guys play And and so what would you play for me?

You know what? What would you play for him if you just saw him sitting there?

Yeah, what would you play for me? What would I play for you?

If you look at me, because you do that, you look at me and be like, hey, let's do Piano Man next, because you've read the group and you're like, that's something they would like.

So you guys play piano or what instruments do you play?

Let's get that out of the way first. Well, he does.

When we're on stage, I do piano, mandolin, guitar and harmonica. And cajon. Oh, and cajon, which is a box drum. Right. And then vocals.

Right. And I'll do a little bit of cajon. Mostly I'm tambourining or shaking because it's just the two of us. We don't have a drummer, so I provide a little bit of percussion. We play guitar at the same time sometimes, or we are introducing the banjo, but it's just a slower process. But when we're on stage, we would do some things together, but also some things apart. There's some, like when he does Tennessee whiskey or he performs a song that's just just write for him and I'll just move off the stage and let him kind of do it his way. And then we'll switch and then I'll sing something totally different.

We like to let each other have our space.

Because we're both artists. We're good together, but we have to express ourselves.

It's four hours. It's four, six. Yeah, you have to break it up.

But you know what? Sometimes there's absolutely nothing I can add to her performance. So she just goes on and does it. And that's that.

But then that's a good chance to drink a little bourbon.

That's exactly what he does.

There we go. OK, so Jim and I are sitting here. We're having a drink. What are you going to play for us?

Look at you two. I would guess some Southern rock mixed with some 80s pop.

He's a big Southern rock fan.

I would do some Sweet Home Alabama mixed with some Jack and Diane.

And see, I like it all. You guys don't understand. I know what I would play. I used to be a DJ at a classical radio station, believe it or not.

Some Bruce Springsteen and then go back to some Leonard Skinner.

There you go. There you go.

You know, we just read the crowd. And we've already had it happen that we'll start a song And no one's involved.

Right. No head nodding. No one making eye contact. Right.

No one's. mouthing the lyrics, and we stop.

We'll finish the song, but then we'll completely change course afterwards and be like, no one's digging whatever we're playing.

We notice that no one reacted to that, and we'll try something else.

We try not to be just background noise, because most people want to hear some nostalgia, and he's so great about reading the crowd. I peg you as a Pink Floyd guy.

I like, I really love Gilmore's guitar parts and stuff. Floyd's not something I would always listen to. You know, there's times and, you know, different things. But, you know, I'm sitting here trying to think of what I am and I'm probably as much more.

If you would request a song for us to play, what would you request? Just assuming we can play anything.

Just to throw you guys a curveball, I'd probably say, hey, why don't you play me Blackbird by The Beatles.

The Beatles.

That would be nice. The reason I say that is it's very sentimental to me because one of the times I got in trouble playing music was I was in a club with a guy who had won the first Be A Star competition on the Nashville network. It was the bartender. waitress and the two of us and I got started playing Blackbird and I was like nobody cares I'm gonna quit this song and he looked at me he said you don't ever quit a song right you play that thing through to the end and I say okay mm-hmm so now that you said that I was like yeah play me Blackbird one time

Not every song can be a hit. And if no one responds to it, you switch gears.

So we did Blackbird, we're going to switch gears. What are we going to play now?

Black Pearl didn't hit.

Yeah, so it didn't hit with our Gemini. Let's go to something else. What are we going to hit?

No one liked it.

So Midnight Rider?

A little Midnight Rider. We do a good harmony with that.

We both play guitar with that.

It's okay, but it's... Well, we're picturing you guys having a drink. You're doing the bro thing. You're at the bar. It's kind of... Hey, bro. Yeah.

Hey, bro. Cheers, man.

It's hard to handle by the black crows. Yeah. There you go. That would get you guys.

You know what? That's the middle ground I think I could get into right there.

If you're going to be cheering and saying, hey, bro, it's hard to handle by the black crows. 100% of the time.

What about Jimmy Buffett?

Not yet.

That comes later? Third set?

No, actually, but that was one of the few people that my father, my biological father and I could agree on, we would actually both listen to Buffett. Yeah, right before the Uber home. Right before I left the home, you mean. Right. Anyway.

Buffet is an acquired taste. It is. You have to be like 35 plus.

You have to live in Florida and the closer to Key West that you are the better.

Or really like shorts and loafers with no socks. Not necessarily.

I think you just have to have life punching the face so much. Is that why I liked Buffett?

I didn't see Buffett so damaged. Is he that damaged of a person? I didn't know.

No, he's lived a very charmed life. He's the opposite of damaged and that's why you're attracted to him.

I'm not attracted to him.

Okay, we can probably get up on this. We'll figure that out later. You guys have had a label approach you then.

Right.

And to write, and the name of this label was Eminent. Eminent, okay. Eminent Records. So we will be looking forward to an EP from you guys fairly soon. Absolutely. What are we talking about? Over the next three or four months.

We're still in songwriting mode. I mean, there may be a song that we write that someone else produces on their own album before we produce ours, but that's okay because there's some songs that I feel like maybe wouldn't fit our first album, but it would fit somebody. And I'm super excited about it, but it's going to be a little bit of time, I think, before we...

I mean, to answer your question, I think we'll be in the studio shortly. Probably three or four months.

Three or four months.

Okay.

In the studio. I'm going to hit you guys with another bourbon question here. Okay. All right. Change of direction. Boom, boom, boom. Go for it. You guys get to make a choice. You get to choose one bottle and a person to drink it with. past, present, pick any bottle, any time, any person. Who would that be?

Who's going first on this one? April's going first on this one, folks.

1792. It's just so good. There's just no denying it.

Now, is that the 1792, just the straight small batch?

Just the straight small batch.

That ended up in the creek with the fish.

That ended up in the creek with the fish. Unfortunately.

I know. Poor fish. You know what?

Those fish, though, if you're going to go,

What a way to go, huh?

You know, if you're gonna go, you might as well drown in Jim Beam, you know?

April, that's morbid. Morbid.

I mean, why not? They felt no pain, right? Peter was all over that, trust me. Ain't feelin' no pain, ain't feelin' no pain. Oh, I know, right? It's like, that's the most humane way to go, Peter. Come on, man.

But hey, you know, it's an accident.

The beautiful river. They didn't mean to do that. And it was hit by lightning. It wasn't like some idiot, you know, lit up a cigarette in the middle of, you know, it was an accident. Things happen.

Yeah.

Yeah. They're going to get fined. But 1792. With who? I'd love to say someone famous, but just who I love the most is my late grandpa. And you know, he actually had a sort of a drinking problem before I was born. And it was back when, you know, that's just what people did. They drank a lot, smoked a lot. It wasn't really a problem or alcoholism or disease. And they either coped with it or they got in trouble with it. And it started to affect his life and he decided to do the right thing and he completely stopped. It was about the time I was born. And so I had, you know, grew up with this amazing man. It's like, you know, he couldn't just have a little bit and enjoy it, unfortunately. And that happens, you know, sometimes. So he became, he was this great, wonderful grandfather influence for me. He had his doctorate. He was a professor of business and did amazing things with his life. And he knew his boundaries and he had good self-control and he was a great example for me. But I always wish now, I was 20 when he died. But I do wish that I had been able to just have like a drink with my grandpa before he went. Like, why not? And he died of cancer. That's five years of his life. He was battling it. He never went back to the alcohol. He just didn't. Maybe he was worried about affecting him with the chemo and everything else. But I would just like to have some 1792 with my biggest fan. I would pull out a guitar and play. I mean, if anyone was talking while I was playing, he would shut them up. I mean, he was just always had my back, came to every basketball game, every performance, everything I ever did. had total faith in me, and I miss him very much. And I think that's, you know, a famous, I don't know, I'd have to really think about it.

Well, no, but that's perfect, because that's bourbon culture.

Absolutely. That is bourbon culture right there. I want to share my favorite bourbon, because I never got to that age.

One of your favorite people.

Absolutely. What about you, babe?

What about you, Cole? That was beautiful.

So, Cole?

I think I'd have to go with a bottle of Jack Daniels with Frank Sinatra. He was the man who made Jack Daniels popular.

Tell the story real quick.

It's a short story. Jack Daniels was nothing when Frank Sinatra was touring. He happened to like their brand. And he promoted it everywhere he went. And that is why Jack Daniels is such a staple today. It's because of Frank Sinatra. Well, I didn't know that, but that's cool. He just happened to like it. He didn't, he wasn't sponsored. He just, every show he did, actually I bought the Frank Sinatra, excuse me, the Frank Sinatra level Jack Daniels at the Jack Daniels distillery. It's like, you know, it's one of their pricier purchases. It's not cheap. It's not cheap.

But you get to have a cool box.

You get the box, you get the nice display case.

Do you get his greatest hits with that or no?

You don't get the greatest hits. You get a little booklet that tells you how he influenced the whiskey as his career went on. And I actually learned a lot from it. I didn't know a whole lot about how much of an influence he had, but I love Sinatra's music. And then I read that booklet and I'm like, he made Jack Daniels.

And it's good. They deserve it.

They weren't going to have the standing that they had without his endorsement.

Well, you know, Jim, we don't have a problem, you know, giving a shout out to our Tennessee cousins, I think, you know.

If I had to choose someone famous, it would be who everyone says I sound like when I sing. It'd be Stevie Nicks. Oh, have a drink with Stevie Nicks. Oh, that girl and I could share some stories. Just being in her presence would make me a better human.

Yeah, I saw her at the first Bourbon Beyond.

We saw her too. Was that last year or the year before?

Yeah. Were you up front where she was telling everybody to quit smoking? Yes.

Yes.

Yes. She was very honest about it. I thought, well, you know, it's making her feel bad. She's got to say something, you know.

We were there. We were right there with you. We might be singing a little different song, like on the edge of 70 or something, but it's 17. So we understand that there's a wedding in the future.

There is. We're about... Almost a year out. We're a year and a couple months out.

So Cole likes even numbers. So we picked 10-10-2020, October 10th of 2020.

Oh my goodness.

And it gives us plenty of time to save a bunch of money that we get to just blow, right? That's what weddings are. Not big, but exclusive and fancy. We want to have the Gatsby theme. I would love it if everyone changed into flapper girl dresses for the reception, that kind of thing.

We're going to do a small guest list. I do have a tux. I own a tux.

We just want to be so beautiful.

All old-fashioned music.

All the groomsmen are going to wear blow ties with the suspenders and the hats and have cigars. But you're not going to play. No.

Not at our wedding. You're not going to sing to each other. We do weddings.

Really? You're not going to sing to each other? Really?

You know, we actually have talked about it because I actually may or may not be writing a song that I will play on our wedding night or wedding day for him.

The only problem is- I may or may not be playing a song for Avav. Well, that would be amazing.

But the problem is with a guitar player like myself is you can only have your nails so long. And I want beautiful long nails on my wedding day.

But if I'm playing- That doesn't stop Dolly Parton. She tunes those open chords. I know.

She's the only human alive that I've studied it. I don't know how she does it. It doesn't make sense like physics. It doesn't make sense.

She tunes an open chord and then all she's got to do is-

Yeah, they're like two inches long and she's hitting the notes like they're nothing. So I don't know, I might want long nails and not play guitar. Maybe I can get someone else to play the song for me and I'll just sing it for you.

Oh, I'm a pianist.

You're a pianist. We're actually going to debut the piano this weekend at Madison Garden Bar in Richmond. We'll probably air this after we're there, but that's okay. We've been practicing. Yeah, if you guys go to facebook.com slash, uh, I think it's whiskey river live. You're going to see our logo. It says whiskey river with a little guitar through it. And if you look for whiskey river, Richmond, Kentucky, you're going to find us. Um, and also on Instagram, we're at whiskey river music. You can find us there and our website is whiskey river dot live L I V E. Um, so we try to keep everything updated. I always try to post something we're playing. just about every single weekend in Richmond or Lexington or between that or a wedding or music festivals. We're going to be in the Manchester Music Fest, the weekend of August 29th, 30th and 31st. Check that out, you guys. There's going to be some amazing, amazing bands there. I don't know. I mean, how we got picked up for that was there is a video on our Facebook page of Cole singing with our daughter. And she has a developmental delay in speech and communication, so she can sing. And music in general affects her deeper than just words and speaking.

She doesn't speak well, but she sings.

She sings. And so he's singing a song with her. And the guy who recruited us said, that's literally the only video I needed to see of you guys. Oh, that's awesome. With him singing with our daughter. He happens to sound great in it, which is a plus, but it was about the moment. And I think I put like a caption, like some of the best musical moments are right here at home with the kids. And they love music. They try to always come downstairs and grab a cajon or a shaker with us. They're seven and nine. So they're real little and influential and think that we're so cool, at least for now, you know, for now.

Enjoy those moments. So plans for the future besides your wedding and the music and the EP.

Yeah, gosh. And raising children and living and drinking bourbon. What else are we doing? That's about it. Well, I'll hopefully finish my doctorate in a couple of years. I'd like to teach at EKU, right there in Richmond. We might have a mobile bartending business ready by then.

I'd sure like that. I'm looking to start a mobile bartending business right now, a private bartending.

in a blog you're starting.

So you would do special events or just go park on the street corner?

Like weddings.

No, like weddings. Because he's just so great at making drinks, as you can see. I mean, he just put on a nice vest and he's so polite to everyone. He's always been just great with people in the bar scene and handling that. You have to be a certain kind of person to handle all that. And there's money in it, obviously, with weddings and special events. You see a polite guy behind a bar who knows what he's doing.

You know what? And it's a great alternative to what a lot of wedding venues are offering. You know, they usually offer you a package, you know, for a thousand dollars, you can have all this booze, but what you don't drink, we keep. And that's not what you want.

Right, and with the drink we made today, we have a lot of these drinks kind of written down, just nice concoctions we've made. And I like to rename them and give them funny names. Like, you know how we did this strawberry basil sour, and you have to smack the basil in order to get all the wonderful scents that come out of it. And so I said, we should call it smack of the basil. I want to call it smack of the basil. Smack of the basil. Smack of the basil. The summer smack, you know? Summer smack. Yeah, that's pretty good.

Is that better?

Ooh, they're both... I like the summer smack.

Summer smack.

But if you smack it, you have to say, smack it a basil.

Okay.

Some people tear it, but we smack it. I didn't say that. You didn't say that.

Well, you guys, so you are on Facebook, you mentioned that. Instagram?

At Whiskey River Music.

Twitter? Same?

We don't do Twitter yet. We're not on Twitter. Yeah, it's just so much at once. We're just the second year into our music. We're not tweets. We're not tweeting. The president hogs all the followers anyway. So, but for right now we just have the Facebook and it's at Whiskey River Music on Instagram. WhiskeyRiver.live is the website and then Facebook is facebook.com slash WhiskeyRiverLive.

So check out all the social media. Whiskey River may be flowing near you soon. And we appreciate you guys hanging out with us today.

This was fun. Thank you.

And telling us a little bit about yourself. And I think with that, Jim, we'll just call it a day and drink a little bourbon here, buddy.

Let's drink a little bourbon. All right. Sounds good.

Thank you so much for having us, you guys.

Thank you. If we do appreciate all of our listeners, we'd like to thank you for taking time out of your day to hang out with us here on the Bourbon Road. We hope you enjoyed today's show, and if so, we would appreciate if you'd subscribe and rate us a five star with a review on iTunes. Make sure you follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, at The Bourbon Road. That way you'll be kept in the loop on all The Bourbon Road happenings. You can also visit our website at thebourbonroad.com to read our blog, listen to the show, or reach out to us directly. We always welcome comments or suggestions, and if you have an idea for a particular guest or topic, be sure to let us know. And again, thanks for hanging out with us.