208. Josiah Siska - A Still House Session

Welcome to another trip down the Bourbon Road with your hosts Jim and Mike. So grab a glass of your favorite bourbon and kick back.

Hello, everybody. I'm Jim Shannon. And I'm Mike Hyatt. And this is the Bourbon Road. And today, Mike, the Bourbon Road has taken us south. Yeah, we definitely got on the road this time. Yes, we did.

Where are we? To a familiar place. It feels like home. Our home in Tennessee is what I just got told. We are at Leapers Fork Distillery in Leapers Fork, Tennessee. I'd like to call this the maker's mark of Tennessee.

It kind of looks that way when you're driving out from Franklin out this way, right? I mean, it kind of countryside, right?

Back country roads, those four board fences, just nice, beautiful drive. And then you get to drive up to the cabin here and you get to see this big steel house. And that's actually where we're at is inside the steel house. So if you hear some noises, they're in here cooking mash right now. They're putting grain in the storage bins.

So they're running the grain grinder thingy, whatever that is over there. Yeah. Running the mill. Running the mill, yeah. And we got fans running in. So there'll be some background noise, maybe. Yeah. So we got a little bit of a gallery with us today. Yeah. Yeah, our wives are watching. Our wives are watching.

They're listening. But we got, I'd call him, you know, we just drank this whiskey from over in Iowa, the home of Buffalo Bill Cody. And I would swear, I would swear that we got the modern day Buffalo Bill Cody sitting right across from me holding a guitar. He's got the same hat, the same, the same beard, the same hair. He's got it all.

Hey, I'll take it. So we got Josiah Siska with us today. Josiah, welcome to the show.

Well, hey, y'all. Thanks for having me. I will definitely take Bill. Hey, that's that's pretty good. You know, you can get called worse.

Yeah, he was a wild man. I guess you're a wild man.

A little bit of a coyote.

So some of our listeners might have seen Josiah on American Idol season 15. He was on there.

Didn't make it to the finals, but I think it was because my hair was short. It was short. It was short back then. If I had my hair grown out by the time I was doing it, then maybe I would have made it to the finals. That's a, I'm like, like a country music Samson. All the, all the powers in your hair.

I always like to say everything happened for a reason. Right. So you got on American Idol, uh, you get signed by black river entertainment. Right. And, uh, now the flood gates have opened.

Oh yeah. That was one of the craziest parts of my life. I guess phases of my life. Looking back on it, it seemed miserable, you know, being in it because of uncertainty. Anytime you're in a point of life where there's just a lot of uncertainty, you kind of freak out. Looking back on it now, I go, oh my gosh, I would give anything for that time period. This couple of years of not knowing what label I'm going to go to, not knowing what's going to happen with my songs or how this is all going to work out in, you know, God's timing. You don't really know that until you until it happens. But it was wild. I moved to Tennessee, to Nashville when I turned 18, when I got off the show and I ended up meeting Mark Miller from Sawyer Brown, the lead singer of the band, the country band Sawyer Brown. Legendary. Legend. I mean, one of the greatest of all time. People, I say, I only say that because you say Sawyer Brown, everybody knows Sawyer Brown, but a lot of people don't know that Sawyer Brown, you know, Mark Miller is the front guy. Everyone calls Mark Sawyer Brown. But yeah, so I met Mark and I gave him a CD, right? So when you move here, you kind of meet someone and you show them your music, you know, say, hey, what do you think? So I give Mark this 10 track, you know, acoustic project that I recorded by myself when I was like 16. And he goes, he listens to it and comes back, you know, next day is like, you know, it's all right. It's OK. That's all here. You know, like, dang, all right.

Oh, darn crap.

I didn't go how I thought it would go. And, you know, I wouldn't let anybody listen to the CD now. I mean, he was right. But so, so then my friend that introduced the two of us was like, well, you hear him in person, you know, come over the house and, you know, maybe let him play a couple of songs for you. And Mark was like, all right, whatever. So Mark ends up coming over the house and I sit down in the living room on the couch and I get out my guitar and I play a couple of songs that I'd written. And then I do a little Johnny Cash for him. And I, I hit that, uh, I hang my head and cry and I started going lower and you know he was really getting into it and it was you know it was a it was a cool moment because he kind of had a little light bulb go off and he's been my you know co-producer worked on every project that I've done since I've lived here since that moment over the past four or five years so it's kind of cool you know thinking back on that moment when you see that kind of light bulb go off in each other's minds and then you you go out you get the record deal you you have them produce some songs and and you kind of start building this stockpile of music to content i guess to get ready to release so it's it's been crazy though it's a there's a lot of stories along the way well i love those stories so we're gonna we're gonna do something here we're gonna we're gonna drink a little bit of bourbon is that okay with you i love bourbon

So, we do like to get to the bourbon pretty quick in the show. Today's show is about you and your music, but bourbon's kind of the backdrop, right? Yeah. So, we're going to drink a little bit of bourbon today. Mike, what do we have in our glass?

So, we got Leapers Fort bourbon whiskey. It's their bottled in bond. It's four years old, 70% corn, 15% wheat, and 15% malted barley. It's got that higher malted barley content. It gives it a little bit different flavor that most people are used to. Now people got to remember this bourbon is from Tennessee and yes bourbon can be made in Tennessee, right Jeff? Absolutely can be made in Tennessee. A little bit warmer down here south of Nashville than it would be up in Kentucky. We're about two hours, three hours away from really the heart of bourbon up there. So a little bit different temperature, cooks a little bit faster down here in the barrel, a little bit faster maturation, I guess we'd call it. So yeah, I'm excited. We've had this before, Jim.

We have. In fact, I kind of spent a little time with a bottle last week because a good friend of ours managed to shoot us a bottle of this.

Yeah, yeah.

But actually, you know, this is bottled and bond and bottled and bond whiskeys are four years old. They're 100 proof and they're they're produced under controlled environment, right? Under government supervision. So this is this is supposed to be the really good stuff. So I'm excited to have it again on the show.

Let's try this. Cheers.

That is good. Yeah, man. You know, it's kind of got that spice drop, a little bit of that spice drop to it. Those little candies with the.

Yeah, you're spot on there that maybe a cinnamon spice drop, orange spice drop. You got each one of those have that little bit of spiciness in it. Yeah, a little bit of zest to it.

It's got this little linger after that's nice, this little spice. It's different.

It's delicious. You're not tasting this kind of whiskey everywhere you go. This is unique. If you're anywhere near Nashville or Franklin, you've got to be popping in here. No doubt.

That's why we say to people, get off your regular bourbons and try something different. It might not be the same flavor profile you're used to. let's say Old Forrester, Woodford Reserve or Elijah Craig, it's going to be different because they're not doing exactly the same there. Fifteen percent malted barley is definitely different.

That's where it's getting that that creaminess from, right? Yeah. Yeah. Really nice.

Well, Josiah, we've sipped on our little whiskey here. Can you remember back your first sip of whiskey?

Oh, yeah, I probably can. Let's see. Oh, well. I know my first beer. Let's say the first whiskey. I mean, it was laws not in the house. OK, yeah. Yeah, it was. I was probably I think I was 17, maybe 18, took a little sip. Some Jack Daniel's honey. I was my first one with some Jack honey. And it was good. I've, you know, been sipping whiskey basically ever since. Now, I'm not a big fan of the fireballs, the sugary sugars I didn't never have to this day. But but I did like some Jack.

So when somebody says, what was your gateway whiskey, you got to say Jack Daniel's honey. Jack Daniel's honey.

Most people wouldn't say they had a great first experience with Jack Daniel's.

Oh, well, that valid. Yeah. I mean, well, most people just get a Coca-Cola and a red solo cup and dump half of each in there. That explains that story.

Well, you got your guitar sitting on your lap. Oh, yeah. Let's hear what some of your music sounds like.

Well, of course, yeah, I'm excited to play for y'all. And I got a got a few songs planned out for today that I was planning on singing and playing. I'm gonna do a, I'm gonna do a slow song first. All right. Kind of getting settled in. Warm us up a little bit. Warm us up a little bit, yeah. I wrote this the other week, maybe the other month ago, maybe month and a half. I write about four or five songs a week, so it's a lot of music for me. But I wrote this one a month or so ago with my friend Tim Owens, who's an unbelievable songwriter. Wrote into some incredible songs for Brad Paisley and some other great artists. And yeah, so we wrote this with John Marlin. We had this idea, When They Can't Get Over You. And we ended up coming up with this, and it's one of my favorite songs to sing. It goes a little something like this.

There's some times your big green eyes don't even cross my mind But I swear your all burn hair sneaks up just like white Well, I could say that I don't need you I could say I'm finally free But the truth comes out after only two or three When the can't get over you comes over me Our first kiss to our last goodbye I try and I try but I just can't hide your memory Like a wave that crashes down on me Hits me, knocks me off my feet When the can't get over you comes over me I found someone and she takes me from rain to clear blue skies And all her love is almost enough But you went somehow every time From our first kiss to our last goodbye I try and I try but I just can't hide your memory Like a wave that crashes down on me Hits me, knocks me off my feet till I can't breathe When the can't get over you Comes over me When the can't get over you Comes over me all right yeah yeah that's money that's country song you say you write you write five songs a week yeah sometimes yeah i mean anywhere from three to five yeah wow that's really cranking them out isn't it it's not a

It's fun having a publishing deal. It's not always easy to come up with fresh ideas every week. It's tough. Yeah, but it's it's fun. You get a little writer's block. Yeah. And but then, you know, you've got four scheduled rights this week, so you can't have a writer's block. You kind of just got to OK, well, you all got an idea. So I'm going to support your idea for this week. You know what I mean? Kind of those types of things.

I see a song sitting right here, really. Sitting in a steel house, right?

Hey, I could write probably 20 songs just playing I Spy in this room. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, y'all got everything in you.

Very inspiring, right? I mean. Oh, my God. So you got a few whiskey songs though, huh?

I got a couple that I could maybe do. I got at least a chorus one that I could do if y'all want to hear it.

We can get to it. I think I'd like to hear a little bit more about that time for when you signed. Oh yeah. Like right at October of 2019. Pretty exciting time for you. That was the most exciting, one of the most exciting moments of my life without a doubt. And then things kind of changed for all of us. Right. Yeah.

That was tough. I know everyone had it hard during COVID. It's been tough on everybody. It was really tough in my situation. kind of working so hard in town, playing five nights a week, you know, three shows a night, five nights a week, writing tons of songs, writing with everyone, then finally getting, you know, that duo record deal, publishing deal on the launch pad.

Yeah. And it's like, here we go. OK, all this hype is built up. You got all these press articles coming out, all that. It's great.

You know, it's this big surgeons and then covid, you know. So so the whole world just kind of hit pause.

And it was it was really weird timing, but I'm I'm happy where we're at right now.

So so that's a you know, it's definitely been something that's been overcome. It's not something that's still kind of for me at least. Let's go back even further than that. When's the first time you picked up a guitar? Oh, man. I'd say I was probably 13 or 12, maybe 14. I wasn't that young. I'm actually a piano player, really. I play the keys. I've been playing since I was born, basically. I've just always kind of known how to play piano. But guitar, yeah, I picked it up in my teens and I've been playing ever since. I'm not amazing at it, but I know how to move around a little bit. Now that the singing just kind of come naturally from that. I've always been singing. It's always just kind of been something that I love to do. I'd go around the house singing songs as far as I can remember. Now, you're a Georgia boy. Yes, sir.

Right. And there's some big artists that have come out of Georgia over the years. Oh, yeah. So it's no surprise that more talent is going to come out of there. Guys like you, right? Man, I sure hope so. Well, I think you're well on your way. You know, you got some some great songs and stuff.

What do you say? I'd say I really enjoyed that last one. I'm looking forward to the next one.

Well, well, heck, let's see.

Let's hear one of those.

All right. I'm going to do a do a newer song I wrote. This song is about falling in love with the wrong kind of girl. I wrote this little tune, and it's funny because it's one of my stupidest songs, I like to say, but the president of my label, it's his favorite song. So It's funny how people like the goofy ones. I wrote this song maybe about a year ago and it's called The Wrong Kind of Woman. And it's three chords in the truth.

All Hallie was an alley cat who left town on a bus. Mary wasn't married till she told me that she was. All Becky was a beauty queen until mama heard her cuss. And Megan was a liar that I never should have trust. Oh, I've got a real bad habit of falling for the wrong kind of woman I got a broken heart that I guess I should have seen coming Well I wish I stayed at home instead of looking for a little bit of loving Cause I've got a real bad habit of falling for the wrong kind of woman Oh, Barbie was a doll, so she left me for a can. And Angie was an angel only every now and then. Oh, Lucy was a looker that I caught looking at my friends. And I was really into Marley, but she wasn't into men. Oh, I've got a real bad habit of falling for the wrong kind of woman. I've got a broken heart that I guess I should have seen coming. Well, I wish I stayed at home instead of looking for a little bit of loving. Because I've got a real bad habit of falling for the wrong kind of woman. Well I sure know how to pick them all and you can bet I'll pick them wrong But I'll just keep on picking cause I don't want to die alone That's just the truth Cause I've got a real bad habit of falling for the wrong kind of woman I got a broken heart that I guess I should have seen coming I wish I stayed at home instead of looking for a little bit of loving Cause I've got a real bad habit of falling for the wrong kind

all right that's a fun song right there i would i would put that in pretty high on my list so maybe my profile kind of fits hey it's a guy's anthem you know once you uh get a little age on you i think every man could uh attest to that song right there yeah yeah i think it's a pretty good one i no doubt about it now you said you wrote that about a year ago

Yeah, about a year ago. Most of those are true stories. I like to write about my life. So if whether it's a fortunate life or unfortunate, you know, you're still writing about it.

So when you're kind of locked up a little bit last year, you know, you weren't able to get out and do much performing. But I guess it. increase the amount of time you had to write.

It sure did, which is interesting how that worked because a lot of people you would think, you know, COVID's going on, you're locked inside, all your inspiration's gone. But for me, you know, at least being on Music Row, it was like, COVID's going on, you're locked in your house, now go write a thousand songs. And that was kind of the approach that I had on that last one. So what do you what do you think about this whiskey right here this bourbon? Well, I have to say I really enjoy it. I love it. I mean the rich tone It's got this aftertaste that it does have like a herb and spices type of aftertaste that kind of lingers on for a second It's got a really smooth Solid burn to it and I love that.

Yeah, I'd say it's got a little bit of that butterscotch Mike It's got a little bit of that what we say spice drop candy. Yeah, and yeah, it's kind of a

little bit of earthy herbal there but you know a little bit of spice and kick I love the I love the mouthfeel I love the texture of it it's a winner I get a little bit of that uh campfire s'mores with this a little bit of that graham cracker I always get that with weeded bourbons a little bit of that toasted marshmallow um that's a good whiskey to me right here uh and that's why I love this place so much uh not only that it's a beautiful setting to sing songs in, and there's been some pretty famous people that have sung in this steel house right here. Pretty famous Kentucky boys sing inside here. Little Chris Stapleton.

So you're building your legend right here. All right, well, we're gonna take a short break here when we come back. We've got another whiskey and some more songs, right?

Oh, that sounds good to me. All right.

All right, listeners, we are back and we're down here at Leapers Fort Distillery in Leapers Fort, Tennessee. And we got our good friend Josiah Siska on here, the old Georgia boy with his guitar. Yeehaw. Singing some great songs. Man, Jim, that first half. It just resonates why I love country music and it just ties into the bourbon community so much, right?

And you feel it, right? You feel the music, you feel the story. A lot like with whiskey, right? I mean, with whiskeys, a lot of times you feel the story, right? You're interested in that story. And the same thing with music. And what Josiah is putting down is just, It's solid stuff and it's got a story to it.

Yeah, I think for me, what I loved about your music so much is that it hasn't been commercialized yet. It hasn't been adulterated. You're singing straight from your heart, not something that the industry wants to hear, but what you want to hear from your music and the story you want to tell. To me, that's what's magical.

And that's that's what it's all about. You know, when I when I write a song or when I cut a song, which for the people that I know, it's when an artist records a song that they haven't written. I look for what resonates with me and I try and write my life as simple as it is. You know, it's a just kind of being real and transparent through the music. And that's why I do it, because, you know, get your feelings out there.

Yeah. We got to sip on some pretty good whiskey in the first half while we were listening to him. We got to have the Leapers four bottle and Bond whiskey, right? And man, that was some pretty good stuff. Well, you know, I love it because it's weeded. Right, right. Absolutely. But we're going to step up our game in a second. Leapers is going to step up their game in the second half, right?

Yeah, they're actually letting us taste a pretty special barrel here. It's barrel number 38. It is a single barrel Tennessee whiskey. for red dog wine and spirits. It's still in the barrel, Jim. Yeah, it hasn't been bottled yet, but we do have a a nice bottle here of it. It is 70% corn, 15% rye, 15% malted barley. It was filled back in August 23rd of 2016. This has got some rye in it. Yeah. Yeah, man. 107.2 proof. Man, you know what I was doing back on August of 2016, Jim? I had just retired from the United States Coast Guard.

Yeah.

That's how old this is. Wow. Yeah, you weren't doing podcasts yet, were you? No, I wasn't.

But you were drinking bourbon.

I was drinking bourbon for sure. Yeah, I'd been drinking bourbon and whiskey for a minute back then.

All right. Well, before we get to Josiah's story, let's focus a little bit on this whiskey here and see what's in our glass. What do you say? Cheers. Cheers. There's that familiar kind of a spice, that earthy spice. It's kind of a signature for Liebers, isn't it?

Yeah, I think so. That spiciness is definitely coming out. This 15% rye, that's nice. But that malted barley, you got to go back to that 15% malted barley. Most people use that four to five percent, you know, or maybe even 10, but 15, that's almost unheard of. And it just gives that caramely note to it.

Yeah, this is a this is much. I already tasted it, by the way, guys. Sorry about that. I kind of leaped ahead a little bit.

It leaped ahead.

Very rich, very, very velvety. And the butterscotch is like prominent in this for me very much.

So what do you think? I think the same thing is very carmely, complex, big, bold, delicious, you know. that kettle corn I'm always talking about, you know, you get at a state fair, you get in front of like Cabela's or Bass Pro Shop, that caramel goodness, that sugaryness of that butterscotch you're talking about. What do you get there, Josiah? I love it. You just love it. You just smile from ear to ear.

No, that's good stuff. Like it's got, it does, it has this kind of carmelness to it. More so than the first one, a little more, a little less. I'd say for me, I had a little less spice, a little more caramel than the first one. It's a little smoother and I love that. Oh my gosh.

It's kind of funny that, you know, this one actually has the rye in it, but it is a little bit less spice.

It's a little, it's a little smoother than the first for me. Funny how those wheaters do that. The aftertaste at least, that kind of linger is a little smoother.

Well, this isn't a bourbon. This is a Tennessee whiskey. So it's went through that that charcoal mellowing process and they have a pretty neat system here. And we're looking at it. Yeah, it's you know, if you haven't seen that system, what they do is they take the white dog and they run it through it before it even goes into the barrel. Right. And it just takes some of those impurities out and some of those sharp points that you're going to get. It makes it a little bit smooth it out a little bit. Well, that song smooth as Tennessee whiskey. Right. Yeah. There's a reason they say that. Yeah. So.

yeah all right so this will be on the shelves sometime in the future so definitely keep your eyes out for it where can they find it mike when the time comes red dog wine and spirits yeah man and you know where they're at don't you red dog yeah yeah all right

Keep your eye out for it. This is some good stuff. So Josiah, you're going to you're going to play a song for us. What do you got for us?

Well, I got a couple of songs for you all. I was going to play one of my new songs that I've written recently is three chords at a time. And then I got another song. It's my new single that just got released to a radio a couple of weeks ago and honky tonk. So I'm excited to play both of those for you all and for all the listeners and have them hear a little bit of my Redneck music. I'm ready for it. Let's hear that first one, man. Oh, yeah. Let's get this guitar cranking. There we go. So I just released this song to radio. The label pushed the radio a couple of weeks ago. So this is all kind of fresh out of the kitchen, fresh off the fryer, you know. So this song is called Honky Tonk. And I wrote this with Doug Johnson and Adam Wood. And Doug Johnson is a freaking, Adam is an incredible legend and writer as well. And so is Doug. He wrote Three Wooden Crosses and Doug wrote Love Like Crazy, She Won't Be Lonely Long. I mean, engineered and produced for everybody from like George Strait to George Jones to Dolly to me to Randy Travis, you know. Getting to work with him and write songs with Doug Johnson is always a pleasure and a lot of fun. And this is one of my favorite ones that we've gotten the pleasure of writing together. It's called Honky Tonk. Hope y'all like it. Honk if you love Jesus, honk if you love Hank.

But if you're looking for an high school beer to drink, come on and honk, honky tonk. Give me a neon boot stump Come on and honky tonk Honk if you love Chevy Honk if you love Ford But if you're here to party We got what you're looking for Come on and honky tonk Give me a neon boot stomp, come on and honky tonk. Yeah, give me some Jerry Lee piano playing jukebox country singing, swinging doors just to swing it all night long. Look into twirl and a dance floor to spin her on Honk if you love Elvis Honk if you love Jack And honk if you're a redneck and you're proud as hell of that Come on and honky tonk Come on and honky tonk Give me a neon boot stump Come on and honky tonk Oh Yeah, come on and honky-tonk Come on and honky-tonk Give me a neon bird stump Come on, give me a neon bird stump Come on, give me a neon bird stump Come on, come on, come on and honky-tonk

A little honky-tonk. Putting the soul into that one. A little honk, a little soul. I hope we get to do a little honky-tonk this weekend, man. Maybe. I mean, I brought a couple pair of boots with me, so. Did you? Yeah.

Got your boots, got your Stetson ready.

You know what? I got such a big head that they really don't make a cowboy hat for my head. You got to get a custom hat. Custom hat. Well, we got a friend, Josh Bogart. He's a country singer and he's got dueling banjo hats. And he said he could, he could get a hat that fit my big old giant melon. So, uh, I'm pretty excited about it.

That's a win. That is a win. That's a big win.

You need a big brim for to cover this big body. Now that song kind of stepped up a little bit, stepped up the game a little bit, stepped up the excitement in the room a little bit kind of matches this higher proof whiskey a little bit, doesn't it? Yeah.

Yeah.

I'd say so.

It just resonates again. You know, the whiskey, the bourbon culture and country music tie in perfectly. You know, especially with high proof. You got that honky tonk song, a little bit of Tennessee whiskey flowing. Got a Georgia boy in here strumming on his guitar.

It doesn't get much better than this. I mean, my goodness, can you imagine a better Saturday morning?

I don't know. We got it pretty good in here.

Our wives are with us. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. And we got food trucks showing up here pretty soon, getting ready to start kicking it here at Leapers Fork. This is a big day for them.

Yeah. Every Friday and Saturday they have food trucks out here. They have live music with artists like Josiah here. you can come in here and look and you could actually walk in here inside their steel house pretty much walk up to their match tanks and a lot of distilleries have stopped that you can't walk into their facilities anymore but in here we are stacks and stacks of barrels whiskey you could just smell it cooking it's it's delicious smelling in here

And speaking of barrels, there's a special barrel at the end of the table, isn't there? There is a pretty special barrel at the end of the table.

I'm kind of geeked out about it. We didn't know about it either.

No, no. It surprised you, right?

Yeah. It says the bourbon road on the head of it. Now that would probably be ready in five or six years. Yeah. And you know what I'm hoping is going to go in there, right?

You're expecting a little bit of a witty risk, aren't you?

I would hope. That would be pretty special. This is our kind of home away from home down here at Leapers Fork. You know, we have a special place in our heart for them. And, you know, I guess it goes. Goes with them too.

You think if I slipped him a hundred behind the scenes, it'd end up with some Ryan. I don't know about that. Probably not drag you through that field out there.

So Josiah, you know, you're going into the future here. You talked about how many songs you write every day and stuff. Uh, what, what does touring look like for you?

Well, it's been very complicated, obviously with COVID going on with a lot of the touring, but it seems like majority of that's opened back up. So as of right now, we're getting ready, really focused in the future to visit some stations, push this radio single out. And that's going to take up a lot of my time, but we've got a few talks in the air. I can't say anything about for touring right now, but Yeah, we'll see how that goes.

Yeah. And then you're playing some gigs still?

Oh, yeah. Yeah, I've been playing out even down here at the Puckets out in Leapers Fork. I come out there. We did a show. What was that? Last Saturday night or yeah, the week ago, maybe two weeks ago, Saturday night, we went out in Leapers. I still played all the dives in downtown Nashville. I stay off a Broadway majority. You know, I stay near that midtown kind of scene. playing some of the honky tonks and dives around there. The local is one of my favorite joints to go and get a glass of bourbon and sip and sing a couple country songs there up there. I enjoy that. I think I'm playing the Bluebird, what, the 26th Bluebird Cafe, October 26th. So you can get tickets online for that. That's going to be fun.

Now, that's like a mecca for singer songwriters, right?

I love the Bluebird. That's my favorite spot to play. Oh, my gosh. I've been that was probably one of the first places that I played when I moved here years ago. Kind of got in that circle and just started playing there every week at the Bluebird.

Now, whenever you're up there playing and stuff, and I'm sure this happens a lot as a musician and stuff, do people buy you shots that are pours of whiskey?

Oh, yeah. All the time. Do you ever have to say, hey, I've had enough tonight? I have done that I think once. Well, I mean, it's usually, you know, I got this one song about tequila. So I do. I sing damn you tequila. And then, you know, I get the redneck coming up and they always are kind. So it's never a shot. You know, it's always like two and a half or three shots in like one glass. So it's like, here's this freaking massive glass of tequila with six ounces of tequila. Have fun singing three more. And I mean, I can, I can, I can still function, you know, pretty well. So, you know, sometimes I sip it. I've, I've sipped some shots, which always looks a little, you know, whatever, but you know, I got it. I got to work. You got that hair. It gives you that superpower. Samson hair.

You said the hair and the bourbon. Yeah. Yeah.

The longer my hair gets and the more bourbon I sip, the better my voice gets.

So you don't feel like it affects your vocal cords or anything?

It will the next day. That's the thing about it. So like if I, you know, anything over like two and a half or three shots, which is a decent amount, you know, you have a little bit of liquor in you next day. Oh, boy. Yeah, it's hurting. And it's not necessarily like I feel fine. I can I can handle, you know, liquor and I know thing about that. It's just the voice. It does something to my throat where it just tightens up my voice for like a day. But, you know, It's all good. So you're not you're not playing anywhere tomorrow? No, I'm good. You're good.

That's what I'm saying. We're good.

He said poor. He said poor away, Jim.

Well, yeah, it's like while I'm singing, I can I can I can drink and be fine. It's just the next day. Hopefully I ain't got to sing.

Well, I tell you what, man, to me, It just it seems like it would affect the voice to me, especially if you got something really spicy that would burn a little bit. But I guess it is knowing how to properly drink your whiskey, right? If we're drinking the pours like we are today. An old boy in a bar last night, I bought him a pour of Buffalo Trace and he shot that stuff back and he had a Kentucky hat on. That's the only reason I bought him a pour. And he was talking all this stuff to this girl, trying to, I guess, take her home, I guess. I don't know what he was trying to do. But so that UK hat. And I was like, I want to give him a poor whiskey and see how he reacts. But he shot that thing back and I thought it was about to kill him. He spilled his beer. Oh, it's rough. He wasn't ready for that, was he? Oh, it turned out that he was only born in Kentucky and he'd never lived there.

Well, I guess, yeah. You wore the hat. You wore the hat.

It's good to be a Kentucky fan after them beating Florida last week. That was a big upset in SEC.

So you got your new release, right?

Yes, sir. Coming out. Are you excited about that? I'm excited. I got a few things coming out. I know we got a Christmas song coming out for the Christmas season that I'm very excited for as well. Jingle bells? Chestnuts roasting on an open fire. Maybe I got to do like a red deck jingle bells, like upbeat with like a little like steel guitar on it. And you know, yeah, it might be fun. That'd be all right. But I'm excited about that. And three chords at a time. When, when we get that fully produced, we're still working on the recording. I wrote this song maybe a month ago.

So there's a little process that goes into the, how does it feel whenever you like see your name on Amazon and you say, Oh, man. the best.

Yeah, Alexa knows who you are. It's pretty cool. It is. It's a cool moment when you when you when you can do that, you know, like when people tag you in something and you don't know them and they're just like they just enjoy listening to a song that you wrote. And that's a cool feeling to have, maybe more so than even finding my own name as other people find it. My name is a cool thing.

I think it was pretty cool the first time I said, Alexa played the Bourbon Road podcast and all of a sudden she said playing the Bourbon Road podcast episode 92. It's like, oh cool.

It is a great feeling even to see your name in print or anything. You know, when I, Louie looked you up, you said we, Matt here, Matt King, Forrest Gump, a whiskey. He, he texted me and said, Hey, this is who I got for you, man. And I was like, man, I'm so excited to have Josiah on. And so we looked you up and we're, we're rolling down a road coming down here and we just got you humming away on the old GMC stereo.

Come on.

Yeah. Come on. Honky tonk. Next thing I knew I was doing a hundred miles an hour. that Kentucky, Tennessee.

Yeah, we got somewhere to be.

I love that. All right. Well, you got another song for us today?

Yeah, I sure do.

I got one more for y'all.

Awesome. That new one I was talking about. Yeah, let's do it. Oh, man. I'm so excited to sing this one. This is probably my favorite song that I've written maybe in my entire life. It just means so much to me, so I love this song. I can't wait to fully record it. We have it acoustically recorded and I'm excited to release that, but we're going into full production on it. We're going to get the whole thing recorded. Just a little process like I was saying, but the song is called Three Chords at a Time. And I grew up, my dad was a pastor and my mom worked in the worship music side of things. So I would have all these really great life lessons taught to me or told to me and I wouldn't listen because my dad's a pastor. I can't listen to it. I mean, even though it's the exact advice I need to hear, you know. So later on I would hear the same advice that my dad would tell me, but it would be Johnny Cash telling me through the speaker, or it would be Willie Nelson telling me, or this or that, you know. So I kinda, growing up, like country music kinda raised me in a way, and that's why this song is so special to me. So I hope y'all like it, and this is called Three Chords at a Time.

Grandpa left me that old Chevrolet Didn't run but the radio still played And I sang along While Johnny taught me how to walk that line And Hank Williams told me it's alright to cry I guess the world just makes more sense with a country song Where the right is always right and the wrong is wrong I learned to live and I learned to love Right there in that old truck I met a girl I can't wait to sing about Fix the engine cause I had to take her out on the town Then we'd pull over across that county line Tailgate lovers, six strings and some wine All night Guess the world just makes more sense with a country song Where the right is always right and the wrong is wrong I learned to live and I learned to love Right there in that old truck I grew up three-quarters of the time was gonna save me guess the world just makes more sense with a country song where the right is always right and the wrong is wrong I learned to live and I learned to love right there Three chords at a time Grandpa left me that old Chevrolet Didn't run but the radio still played

A little bit of truth there, huh? Holy cow, that's a great song. Yeah.

Yes. Love it. Love it. That's great. So, I mean, when you finished writing that song, you had to know you had something.

Yeah, I called Mark Miller that day and I sent him all my songs are right because he's just kind of my mentor. He's kind of the guy. He kind of guides me a little bit through what's good and bad musically, at least. And so I sent I sent Mark this song right after we wrote it. I mean, the second we got done with the work tape on my phone, I texted it to him and I text him everything. And he always I'll know if he likes it or sometimes, you know, give me like a text back. Hey, that's good. And he uses text to talk. He's kind of that older mindset. He doesn't text at all. It's all text talk. So, hey, that's good is fine. Hey, that's really, really good is great because he's saying it out loud. You know, so I'm starting to learn his kind of language that is, but he never calls me after I send him songs. But I send him that one and he called me like five minutes later. He's like, let me tell you something right now. We're going in. We're cutting this thing. I love this song. And it's been it's been one of my little babies ever since.

I love that. Yeah, it's a good one. Look forward to hearing it. Definitely hearing it. I mean on the radio.

Oh, I can't wait. I can't wait to just get it out there.

I would bet money that you'd be able to watch a video at our farm listening to that by the fire at one of these days, because that's what we kind of do is sit down by the fire by Creek in Kentucky, play some music, drink some whiskey, tell some lies down there. Probably a few. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, a few truths too. A little bit of truth in there.

Y'all let me know and I'll come down and I'll just play it by the fire sipping whiskey with you.

Yeah, we can make that happen.

Always can make that happen.

So we'd like to give you the opportunity to give a shout out to your label, to your work. Talk a little bit about what you have going on right now, where people can see you. Give our listeners sort of some places to go to reconnect with you after the show.

Oh man, so if y'all enjoyed the interview we had today and the songs I was sharing on the podcast, one I had a lot of fun, but y'all can find me on Instagram at Josiah Siska. You can find my website JosiahSiska.com. That's J-O-S-I-A-H-S-I-S-K-A.com. And my website's Black River Entertainment. I'm signed with Black River Records and Black River Publishing is recording and publishing there. I love working at Black River. They're amazing. I love the staff there. I love everybody on that label. They're absolutely incredible. And y'all can reach out to them as well if you'd like to possibly book me or something. Send me somewhere. You can find me on a Thursday and Saturday night out at Puckets and Leapers Fork. Come on down. Hometown shout out.

Yeah, absolutely. And look forward to hearing you on the radio real soon. Yes, sir. All right. Well, Mike, working people find out.

Well, you can find us on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, I heck anywhere really. You can find us everywhere. Uh, the main place you can find us as come join our private Facebook group called the bourbon roadies. 2300 people strong of like-minded people. Um, master distillers in their, um, distillery owners, musicians, musicians, musicians. Yeah.

Hey, come on in. I'll come join. Yes.

All right. Three rules, right? Uh, you gotta be 21. You gotta love bourbon and shit. Everybody loves bourbon and, uh, you gotta agree to play nice cause we don't tolerate any rudeness.

That's right. We want everybody to lift each other up. We don't want anybody chopping somebody else off at the knees for what they're drinking. I mean, if you're drinking something off the bottom shelf, that's your whiskey, man. You'd go right ahead and drink it. Don't let anybody tell you what you need to be drinking, right?

That's, that's the drinking leapers fork like we are today. Good for you.

Thanks to Leapers Fork for hosting us today. Yeah. It's a great place to come visit. If you're in Tennessee, if you're in Nashville, you definitely want to get out to Leapers Fork and check it out.

Yeah. This is a, we're going to have a couple episodes from here. The next couple of episodes are still house sessions. I guess we'd call them. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty special to us. Happily named. Happy to have Josiah on here. Josiah, man, we super appreciate you coming on, being one of our guests. To make sure that we have future guests on like Josiah, though, and you can hear them, make sure you scroll on up to the top of your app there, hit that subscribe button, hit that plus sign, check sign, whatever it is, so you'll hear our episodes are coming out. And then what we need you to do is scroll on down, Jim.

We need to scroll on down to get that five star review, right?

Because you know what will happen with you, right? The big bad booty daddy of bourbon will come to your house. Hell, I bet I can lift one of these old barrels up over my shoulder and just bring it with me. Bring a whole barrel. By the end of the night, we'll have emptied that barrel. We will have gotten that five star review out of you. And I'll just go on down the bourbon road with a big old smile.

But we do two shows a week. Every Monday, we do a craft distillery episode where we kind of spotlight a single expression from a craft distillery. Sometimes it's a big boy, but usually it's a craft company trying to get a little bit of light on them. And if you've got one in your neighborhood, if you've got a distillery that's kind of trying to step out in your neighborhood, we'd love to know about it. Mike and I will reach out to him. We'll taste the whiskey on the show. We'll let you know what we think. tell you what you need to buy when you go to the store, right, Mike? Yeah, most certainly. Every Wednesday we do a long episode like today's with Josiah where we kind of interview somebody or we have a topic that we dive into a little bit deeper. We might have three or four expressions. Today we had two from Leapers Fork and we'll explore that whiskey and we'll explore that guest and we'll talk about what they have going on. It's been a great show today, a lot of fun, some great music. Josiah, we wish you all the luck in the world with your career and we look forward to hearing a lot more from you. Well thank y'all, it's been an absolute pleasure.

Well, Jim, people could still come out, see us live, too, right? Right after this event right here, this episode, Thursday night, we'll be at the Rippey House in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. You can come out there and check us out. We'll be discussing the bourbon boom and how podcasts have affected the bourbon boom. making it bigger, really. Tell more people about whiskey. We'll be at Bourbon on the banks at two events. There will be at the VIP auction with high dollar whiskey, maybe just some big bottles from Buffalo Trace, right? That's right. No George T. Stagg. No George T. Stagg this year, unfortunately. No George T. Stagg, but there's going to be some big bottles there. You can bump elbows with master distillers like Brent Elliott and Shane Baker. You can see those guys. And then we'll be at Bourbon on the banks on the 23rd of October. We'll be there at the Bourbon Road Lounge sponsored by Woodinville Whiskey Company. You want to come check us out. We're going to have some great guests in there pouring pours with us. Me and Jim will be there. We got a great furniture maker that donated chairs to us.

Whiskey will be flowing. Whiskey will be flowing.

We got cases and cases of it. Come out there and see us. And then on the 6th of November, me and Jim will be doing a tasting of Old Forester at the Barrel Room in Shelbyville, Kentucky. You can buy tickets at that. You go to thebarrelroom.com. You can buy tickets for it. The Old Forester Porsche we're going to have. We're going to have a pretty good bottle on there, Jim.

Pretty excited about this.

Yeah. So come out there. Check that out. There will be some birthday bourbon flow in there. So if you want some of that, come on out. Get those tickets. Come support us. That's what gets us on down the Bourbon Road.

And Mike, we're also in the running. We're a finalist. Yeah, we are finalists for the Discovery Pod Awards.

We should know by the time this comes out and stuff. But two million podcasts in the world, right, Jim? And we got out of two million people, we got selected as finalists of 10 finalists for People's Choice Awards. Man, it's pretty amazing.

Yeah, I mean, we're talking about this now and this is before the final vote. So not a whole lot you can do right now, folks, about that because the vote will have already occurred. Yeah. But but it just lets you know how much we appreciate our listeners being a People's Choice Award finalist is already pretty cool. And if we happen to place or finish in that in the first place, I'll be out of my mind.

Two million podcasts, 48 million episodes out there. Me and Jim only have 200 of those 48 million episodes and because of our listeners, because of our fans, because of our great guests, you know, somebody said, hey, you guys deserve this award. You deserve to be a finalist and we can't thank you enough.

So we'd love to hear from our listeners. Mike already talked about that. We want to make sure you know we are accessible. Mike and I are both accessible through email. You can reach me at jim at the bourbon road. He's mike at the bourbonroad.com. But probably the best way is to hit up our DM on Instagram. I'm jshannon63. I'm one big chief.

And we'll see you down the bourbon road.

Well, I hear that train a-comin' It's rollin' round the bend And I ain't seen the sunshine since I don't know when But I'm stuck in Folsom Prison And time keeps draggin' on But that train keeps rollin' On down to San Anton When I was just a baby, my mama told me, son, always be a good boy. Don't ever play with guns. But I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die. And when I hear that whistle blowing, I hang my head and cry.

Yeah man.