343. Coopers Craft - Real and Raw with Joe Clark Music

Welcome to another great episode of The Bourbon Road with your host, Jim and Brian, where they talk bourbon and of course, drink bourbon. Grab yourself a pour, kick back, and enjoy another trip down the Bourbon Road.

You know friends, it's never too early to start planning your trip to the Bourbon Trail for 2023. We hope you'll join the Bourbon Road crew as we pull out all the stops this year at Bourbon on the Banks. So mark your calendars for October 6th and 7th and we'll plan on seeing you in Frankfort, Kentucky. Be sure to listen in during the halftime break for all the details on Bourbon on the Banks. Welcome back to another episode of the Bourbon Road Podcast. I'm your host, Jim Shannon, and today we are in the Bourbon Road bar and we're going to drink a little bit of whiskey. We've got a guest in the house. We've got Joe Clark. Joe Clark Music, welcome to the Bourbon Road. Thank you, man. Nice to be here. It's good to be here with you. It's good to drink a little bit of whiskey and for us to sit down and listen to some of your music. You've been somebody that we've kind of tagged along with for a while. as you've made your rounds in bourbon country here. And my wife's a big fan. Good deal. That's what we want. And so she suggested to me one day, we'd better get Joe Clark down here. And I said, all right, let's do it. Because I really like listening to you two. We've heard you out at the Barrel Room a few times, I think.

And that's one of our favorite places. We've been playing there for quite a few years now.

Yeah, it's a good spot. So you've got your guitar with you today. You've got a playlist. I see it on your paper there. We're going to get into some music here real soon. Talk a little bit about Joe Clark and where you came from and all that. But first, I got to do my due diligence here. I've got to taste a little bit of whiskey. And folks, today I'm sipping on some Cooper's Craft 100. This is a Brown Forman product. It's 100 proof. They do have an 82 proof version. I've heard hints that it might be going away, but this is their 100 proof version. Kind of created this brand to celebrate their, um, Coopridge, you know, Brown and Foreman makes their own barrels that their whiskey goes into. So they created Cooper's craft to celebrate that. And, uh, it's a pretty popular whiskey in this area. I know that, uh, when I went to pick up a bottle the other day, the fellow at the store told me it's one of his best sellers. So, uh, I'm going to take a quick taste of it and let you know what I think. Cheers. Well, that's a solid whiskey. That's all bourbon all day long. It is a little bit dry, not too sweet. It does have just a little bit of corn flavor to it though. I feel the caramel. I feel a little bit of heat coming on from whatever that flavoring grain is. I'm going to say it's rye. I think it's a pretty good whiskey, and I'm going to enjoy sipping on this during the show here while we're talking. How often do you get one that you don't like? It happens from time to time. There's certainly a number of them out there that, at least for me, aren't drinkable for me. They won't make it on a show. I'm just being honest here. We get sent a lot of whiskey. We receive shipments probably two or three times a week from distilleries. Most of them are good. Most of the whiskey gets good. There's just a few here and there that just aren't quite ready yet. You need to spend a little bit more time in the bottle or maybe in a very few cases something went wrong in the process.

Uh, I worked for angels envy for, for about a year at, uh, at the Rick houses for angels envy, uh, Rick and bourbon barrels. So yeah, a lot of good things about it. I've never tasted it myself, but so you've moved some barrels around a whole lot of them, a whole lot of them. Yeah.

They've got a pretty good size warehouse here.

Yeah. Yeah. It's out in Henry County and I ended up not being a place for me, but, but you know, and how long did you do it for? About a year. I bet that puts some meat on your bones, didn't it? Yeah. Yeah. And after I quit doing that and put, I got a lot of different meat on my bones after that.

All right. Well, Joe, tell us a little bit about you and what you do and how you came up and just sort of give us the backstory. Well, I grew up in Henry County.

I've been there my whole life. I've moved out away from Henry County a few times, but it'll always be home for me. I live right on the river in a town called Lockport. I started playing music. I was about 12 or 13 when I got my first guitar. I wrote a lot of poetry, stuff like that, before that. And once I found out you could put them together, that kind of set me on a different path. And I'm the only person in the family that plays music, but it saved me in a lot of different aspects throughout my life. Is it always been country? No, not necessarily. I don't even know if I would label what I do as country. I just kind of write down what I feel. I never sit down and think I'm going to write a country song today. However it comes out is how it comes out. I mean, what defines a country song really? Right. I mean, it's all over the place today. I think that a lot of the stuff you hear on the radio, you're not going to find what you would consider country music. And I don't even know what I consider country music anymore. So I want people to hear what I do and know that that's Joe Clark. It doesn't have to be labeled as country or Iraq or Americana. It's just that's what I do.

Yeah, I think, I think if it is, if it does sort of have that feeling that it's a, it's kind of down-home music. It's, it's about your roots. It's about your life. It's about, you know, everyday living, you know, that kind of stuff defines. kind of the country music in general. Americana, call it that if you like. But yeah, what I hear on the country radio today is a lot broader than it used to be. It used to be pretty narrow. In the 90s, it kind of kicked up a little bit for a while there. And, uh, and now it's, there's, there's probably 10 different areas you could go into and still call it country music.

Well, I think it's, it's kind of lost authenticity, you know, and for me as a listener, I want to, I want to hear somebody and believe what they're saying. It's important to me that I'm writing music that when people hear it, they'll believe me because it's something I've experienced. It's something I've been through. If I turn on the radio and hear a song and it's just saying the same old cliche thing that every other song is saying, then I don't believe it. It doesn't feel real to me. It doesn't feel authentic. And therefore, I don't want to hear it, you know. So I try to do my best to just write from experience, not make up stories and just write about generalized vague cliche things because that doesn't get me anywhere. And I use my writing to, you know, sort of a medicine for myself to get through life experiences. And hopefully it'll come off the same way for people listening.

we've had a number of singer-songwriters on and they you know often they'll say that When they sit down to write, you don't always get the inspiration. Inspiration happens from life, it happens from your experiences. You'll get down to write or want to set aside some time to write and you'll just remember what happened to you a couple of weeks ago and that'll spark a song. I personally don't have that creative side to me, so it would be hard for me to do that. I can understand where you need that inspiration. You can't just sit down and say, okay, let me pick a subject, let me pick a topic, let me write some words down. It doesn't create something that feels good, right?

Right. So much is lost in that. If you start with an idea that isn't true to you to begin with, then you're kind of losing something along the way. I mean, I think a lot of real country music to begin with was written from sadness, just like the blues. Things like that, it comes from a place of hurt, a place of depression and sadness and financial troubles and reality. Those are real things that all of us experience throughout our life. I think that being able to sit down and write about it, it helps you move through, it helps you get through it. And someone as a listener, like you said, if you can't sit down and write about it, to be able to just listen to someone who's experienced the same thing, maybe in some way that'll help you along the way.

Yeah, I can see that that would be therapeutic for somebody if you're talking about an experience that you managed to struggle your way through and then somebody hears that song and they go, you know, I'm not alone. I've got, I've got this guy singing a song to me right now who went through the same thing and that's. It's good stuff.

Well, it's, it's hard to, it's hard to write sometimes, uh, about a, about a subject and make it vague enough to where other people can relate it to themselves, you know, and, and I don't, I don't want to write and just specifically make it about me. I want other people to, to be able to hear it. And like you say, think, think, man, it's, it's almost feels like it was written about me. Yeah. You know, so when did you record your first song? We recorded Storyteller a year ago this month. So right at a year ago, we actually recorded our first album. It was an acoustic album called Storyteller. It had 17 songs on it. It's over an hour of original music. And these were songs that I've written over time. And I went in to kind of just record six or eight songs. And I've got so many piled up. that we had time to do it, so we just kept recording. I kind of look at it like a dam built up in my mind that I had to get some of these songs out and get them recorded and let whatever's coming down the river come on by. I had to open the floodgates up and let these songs out and So it's still flowing for sure. Oh yeah. You got to make room for it.

So as, as, as our listeners are following the show and listening to it, you know, can they find your music on Spotify and Apple music and all of that stuff?

Yeah, I'm on, I'm on Spotify and Apple and anywhere you stream music online. We're on, we're on every platform. Uh, we've got all, all social media as I'm in Joe Clark music on, on Facebook and Instagram, uh, Tik TOK. They can find us about any platform you stream music. We're on it.

All right. Well, if you've got a song for us, Joe off, uh, that last album.

I'll do you one of the first songs I ever wrote. I wrote this when I was probably 16 or 17 years old, before I knew a whole lot about the real world. This song has kind of stuck with me ever since. I think this will be a song that will stick with me through the rest of my life. This song I wrote about my daddy. It's called Long-Haired Southern Hippie.

I dip my bath out of the well behind my house I spend most of my time by the old Kentucky River I'm as country as can be, there ain't no doubt I was raised up by a long-haired southern hippie And he learned me to be proud of my name And if I had the chance to get rich and make some money I'd stay as poor as hell, my friend I'm not ashamed You know I ain't ashamed My daddy's done his own fair share of hard work Swinging his rock hammer all day just to beaten on stone There ain't no retirement, ain't gonna have no mansion But by God, he's got his family, he's got his home And he learned me to be proud of my name And if I had the chance to get rich and make some money I'd stay as poor as hell, my friend I'm not ashamed, I can't be ashamed Old man winter's made some hard times for my family We cut our own wood to feed the stoves to make it through You don't worry about no grocery store when you get hungry We'll just walk up through the woods We'll kill our own damn food Cause I was raised up by a long-haired southern hippie And he learned me to be proud of my name And if I had the chance to get rich and make some money I'd stay as poor as hell, my friend I'm not ashamed I can't be ashamed I was raised up by a long-haired southern hippie And he learned me to be proud of my name And if I had the chance to get rich and make some money I'd stay as poor as hell, my friend, I'm not ashamed I'd stay as poor as hell, my friend I ain't ashamed

Oh yeah, that's some good stuff. Thank you, man. I mean, I love your voice. It's got that nice rasp to it. You know, when you're sitting here talking and you're just talking voice, you're kind of a little bit deep and buttery, but the rasp comes out when you sing a little bit.

I've had to try to teach myself over time to push, you know. Yeah. If you want people to believe it, you got to feel what you're doing, I think.

Yeah, I mean, it puts emotion into it. Right. I really like that song. That's a good song. Thank you.

So what kind of music did he listen to? I grew up on Tom Petty and Led Zeppelin, you know, Hart.

That's all good stuff.

Oh yeah. It's all good stuff.

Yeah.

My parents are, uh, you know, children of the late sixties and seventies. So, you know, I was, I was introduced to good music young. Yeah. I got an older brother that's six years older than me that, you know, he was a, he kind of grew up on more of the grunge era. So I had good influences all the way around me. Absolutely.

Yeah. I'm a little bit older than you. Just, just a tad. Right. But I remember my dad taking me to a Steppenwolf concert. That was a long time ago. I'd say it was a good one though. It was a good one. It definitely was. I did have a great time in the 70s attending concerts. Early 70s, right up until the late 70s.

I think that everybody says I was born in the wrong generation compared to what their parents listened to or when good music was out. I don't believe that for a second. I think there's always good music. It's just about finding it. It's about looking for it. Like we were saying earlier, if you're just looking at the radio or listening to the radio, you're only going to find so much. With the internet nowadays, there's so many good musicians. There's so much good music being put out all the time.

So is that a good thing? So, I mean, as far as the access to the people that you have now, right? The access you have by recording a song and putting it out on social media.

Well, I think it's a, for a listener, it's a real good thing. You know, if you're looking for music, all you gotta do is look. You just search the internet, you're gonna find it. Now, as someone trying to be heard, you know, it makes it a little more difficult because we went to Nashville a few weeks back and it's so oversaturated and there's so many good musicians playing at the same time, it's hard to really pick one out, you know. And so I think it kind of works against itself when there's so many people doing the same thing, but at the same time, we're all out here just trying to be heard.

I think it's kind of like direct sales, right? I mean, you can play your music directly for the people who want to hear it. You don't have anybody in between the two of you too much. And there's good and bad to that because distributors or... labels or whatever they are, they're in the business of promoting musicians and getting records out. But self-promoting artists today actually have access to, through social media, to an awful lot of listeners. Whether they break through or not, that's another thing. There's a lot of people out there doing it, but it has changed the game.

Yeah, absolutely. I think that's why it's important to be completely who you are when it comes to writing and playing. There's always going to be someone who will appreciate it if you're really putting that feeling into it. I think organically growing something means as much to me as selling anything. I don't want to have to go out and chase down for somebody to listen. It should grow organically. If I'm saying what I need to say well enough, then somebody will be out there to hear it.

And you've got quite a following.

Right. Well, it's got to grow somehow.

It grows. That's right. It grows over time and it builds on itself. And as long as you're authentic, I think it will continue to grow.

Yeah. Well, there's no time to fake your way through life. They say fake it till you make it, but you know, that's kind of hard to do when you don't know how to be fake in the first place.

Yeah, I think there's a few careers in this world where you might be able to get away with that, but I don't think what you do is one of them. No. You got to be authentic or people are going to see right through it. They can hear right through it is what they do.

That's it. That's it. I mean, when I get on stage, if I'm not up there putting everything I got into it, people will pick you out. If you're the one standing on stage, they'll see right through you if it shows, you know.

So how many nights will you do this year out in front of your fans?

I do three, about three, at least three a week. Yeah. So I mean, however many that adds up to be. Well, that's about 156 shows a year. That's pretty good. Sometimes we do two in a day. I can't, I can't sit still. I was taught young. If you, if you lay down, you never get back up. So, you know, it's, it's about keeping it moving at all times.

Yeah. I've been told that as I get older and my bones get stiffer, you need to get up and my wife tells me you gotta get up and move.

Well, you know, if you become stagnant, that's, that's what will happen. And in today's world, you'll get left behind quick with what I'm doing, the business I'm in. If you don't, if you're not making noise, you know, people forget about you.

I know we've come out to see you before and you always pack the house. It's always a great time, at least at the barrel room here. You said it's one of your favorite spots. It's one of ours too. I always notice that when you're there playing that it's a pretty full venue.

Yeah. It takes time to grow a real following, you know, organically. I figure if I keep on the same path as long as it's working, you know, if it ain't broke, don't fix it kind of thing, just keep adding to it and try to hone in on my craft and hopefully people tag along.

So in the beginning of the show I mentioned to our listeners that I'll be drinking on some Cooper's Craft 100, but I didn't mention what you're drinking because you're not. And there's a little bit of a story there that I think there's some value in that we might be able to share with the listeners if you're up for it.

Yeah, yeah, sure. I started drinking pretty young, you know, and ain't a whole lot to do where I grew up. So we hit it hard once we really started hitting it and it kind of got out of hand for me. I've got an addictive personality. I will openly say that I'm an addict and I've never denied it along the way. But I've been two and a half years sober now. I ain't had a drink in two and a half years and it's changed my life completely. I honestly believe if I hadn't quit that I wouldn't be sitting here with you today.

Well, in what you do, you know, on the stage in front of crowds, you've got drinks coming up to you all night long. People are buying you drinks or sending them up to you. It can easily get out of hand. Well, and it did.

I let it get out of hand, knowing it was getting out of hand the whole time. It wasn't a quick process and I just kind of sat in it for years. I believe there's some people that can hold it together when it comes to drinking and I'm just not one of them. If I'm going to drink it, I'm going to drink all of it. you know, I knew at a certain point in time that, that I had to, I had to really get a hold of it. I've got four kids and you know, I was taken away from, from who I could be for them. And if I hadn't quit it, it just would have spiraled even further downward.

Yeah. I think, you know, we, we often talk about on the show a day a week, a week, a month, a month, a year, you know, away from drinking to keep yourself balanced and to keep, you know, to keep an eye on, because what we do is we drink all the time as part of our show and we promote drinking, but we don't want our listeners to take it that we're drinking all the time. If you can't find a way to go a day without a drink, or if you can't plan for a week away from it. If you can't stretch once in a while to a month without it, you got a problem and you need to pay attention to it and you got to deal with it in your own way. But if those things become too hard for you or you can't do them,

It's time to wake up. I think it's important to know that, you know, if you feel like you're struggling, if you feel like you got this weight on you and you know that it's being caused, you know, if you're causing it to yourself, that there's light on the other side of it. It's easy to get lost in your own darkness, you know. Whether it's drinking or any sort of addiction. I smoked cigarettes for years and I ain't had a cigarette since 2009 now. And that was another thing that I could tell. It was taking a toll on me and especially in this business. There's no way I could keep a voice if I continue down this path. So I think it's important to be realistic with yourself.

I imagine it wasn't easy to do, especially with what you do. Like I said, your job is to play in places that serve alcohol and you've got loyal fans who love you who are passing drinks up to you all the time and you have to sip on your Coke or your water, right?

Well, it's been a transition I've had to make. while on stage. While I'm going through this addiction and this struggle and trying to break out of it, I've tried to be open about it. I like to be transparent, especially while I'm on stage so that people know who I am, so that I don't have anything to hide and to be completely open with people and let them know that I'm going through this thing and I'm trying to get out of it and music is what has brought me out of it. My family and the music I play has literally saved me from it. Good for you. You've got a song for us that kind of speaks to that. This song here, we put this out as a single after we released Storyteller. It kind of just wraps up struggle and all. It's a vague description of a lot of different struggles I've had and kind of facing the reality of things. It's called It Is What It Is.

I ain't got a dollar in my pocket I barely got pockets on my jeans The only pair of jeans I've got Well, I wear over quite a lot And I can't afford another pair by any means Mama always said I was gonna do big things I guess I never really proved my mama right I only seem to prove folks wrong And I'll write about it in a song And I won't amount to anything, it seems Take me back to the kid I was Back before I needed to believe in anything Whoa, give me back my piece of mind A piece of myself I've lost that I can't find Something inside of me broke and it can't be fixed And I have to let you go, I can't make it make sense But it is what it is This hand that I've been dealt ain't gonna work out I've tried to play my cards the best that I know how I thought I was holding a queen all night But my game face was a lie And it turns out I've been holding the joker this whole time Take me back to the kid I was Back before I needed to believe in anything Oh, give me back my piece of mind A piece of myself I've lost that I can't find Something inside of me broke and it can't be fixed And I have to let you go, I can't make it make sense But it is what it is Take me back to the kid I was Back before I needed to believe in anything Oh, give me back my piece of mind A piece of myself I've lost that I can't find I know I'm gonna have to keep moving on like this There's something inside of me broken, it can't be fixed But it is what it is It is what it is

Great song. We all say that, right? It is what it is.

Yeah. Yeah. That's a, I think it's kind of a overall vague statement that we don't always mean.

Yeah. I mean, yeah, it, it kind of is true. I mean, you say it is what it is. It's just like, you don't want to deal with it. It's a, yeah. All right. It's just a way to push reality to the side. Sure. I want to thank you for being honest with us and raw and talking about that because I do believe we have listeners out there who are struggling with drinking and I hope they can listen to your words and understand that there is light at the end of the tunnel. You can conquer it and that's actually a strength, it's not a weakness. right to be able to conquer it.

So I think, I think we're all stronger than we, we let ourself on to be, you know, it's about, it's about belief, you know, and I don't mean religion or anything along those lines, no matter what you, what you believe, you got to believe in yourself to be able to get through certain things.

Absolutely.

You know, and that's what it takes. All right.

Well, we're going to take a short break and when we come back more Joe Clark and more music. Thank you. As we mentioned earlier in the show, we hope you'll join us this fall on October 6th and 7th for Bourbon on the Banks. The festival itself is from 2 to 6 p.m. on October 7th, and you can pick those tickets up at bourbononthebanks.org for $65. They also have an early access ticket for $75. It'll get you in an hour early and definitely get you access to some special pours. But if you always like that VIP access, this year they're bringing in the VIP access tickets. We'll give you access to their VIP tent and all the great things that go along with that for $175. Be sure to check out bourbononthebanks.org. You'll get all the details on this year's event. All right, so we're back from the break. I did manage to finish off that first little pour of Cooper's Craft, and I've got a second glass in front of me here now, and I'm kind of enjoying it, folks. I think it's a good pour if you get a chance to pick up a bottle of this. It's in the low 20s. So I mean, well, I mean, you can find it for 22 to 25 bucks. So definitely not a bad deal. I don't mind picking up a bottle when it's like that. So it was $80 bottles that really catch me by surprise. So I would highly suggest it. It's a, it's a good whiskey. It's four to six year old bourbon. It's a hundred proof. Cooper's craft Brown Foreman distillery out of Louisville, Kentucky. That's what I'm sipping on in the second half. So Joe, you're playing in a lot of places and not just, not just on the bourbon trail, right? I mean, you get outside, you play a number of states in the surrounding area.

Yeah, we've, uh, we've been trying to, to spread out quite a bit here, here the last six months to a year. You know, I think it's important to, to get in strangers ears. Sometimes you, once you get a following in your hometown, those people I think will stick by you as long as you're doing it. But, uh, getting out beyond where you live is important to be heard.

So when you're playing in packed houses in and around kind of bourbon country here and everywhere you go people know you. You've got your crowd that kind of follows you. A few of them follow you around and you've got people that just, I mean they're your fans. What's it like when you go off to Dayton, Ohio or something or wherever it might be and you walk into a place and They don't know you.

Well, it's that much more important to do it as good as I can do it, you know. We did a run up in Illinois a few weeks ago. We did five shows in four days, all within about 200 to 300 miles of each other there. And it was cool to meet new people. And some of the people up there, like with the way the internet works, people can check you out before you even show up. Sure. We try to make sure we're as loud and aggressive as possible with the point we want to get across while we're there in the time we have available to us and try to make sure that people want to hear more once we leave. So do you do all that internet stuff or you got somebody? No, I, yeah, I got a couple of people that, uh, that helped me out. It wasn't until a few years ago that I, I really dove very deep into the, in social media and stuff like that and tried to, you know, make a name for myself that way. And you almost have to have it nowadays to, especially if you're going to travel out any further, you know. So yeah, I had to have some help with it.

Yeah. I mean, it's good to focus on what you're good at, right? Yeah. You get the music part and hopefully you got some good people with you that can handle the other stuff.

Well, and you know, if I can want to focus on playing and writing and I don't get too overwhelmed with trying to post stuff.

I know your manager was a pleasure to deal with, absolutely.

Yeah, she's really helped out a lot. I've got a guitar player that travels around with me most of the time, Justin Chappell. He's the best lead guitar player I could ever ask for and we've been through a lot at this point. You know that kind of we do a lot of duo stuff that really helps the show when we go out You know and instead of just sitting and one guy with the guitar sometimes to to add that lead to it And you know adds a little excitement to it

Yeah, absolutely. Now he's on an electric lead.

No, we do an acoustic duo a lot of times. Yeah, we might have some band stuff coming up here soon. I won't say too much about it, but we've got some things that lined up that it'll be exciting for everybody.

So you get to Indiana, you get to Kentucky, of course, Illinois, Tennessee, Ohio.

Yeah, and all the surrounding states will be in New York this year. I got some stuff coming up out in Nebraska and Kansas.

Oh yeah, we're getting out there.

Yeah, trying to reach a little further out each time.

Well, I think we have listeners in all those places, so I think what they ought to do is take this opportunity to go on social media. What is it, Joe Clark Music?

Yeah, Joe Clark Music. On all the social media platforms, Facebook and Instagram, TikTok, on TikTok we're Storyteller502. That comes from that last album. But everything else is Joe Clark music.

I noticed somewhere, I can't remember which social media was on, there was another Joe Clark. music, but it was a younger kid kind of clean cut. So if he doesn't have a beard, it's the wrong guy. Yeah, we had long-haired bearded people around here. Yeah, Joe Clark's a pretty common name.

I'd say there's a lot of them out there, so it's important to be as much of Joe Clark as I can be.

So you've got a new album coming out and that is something that's about to drop. You have released a new single lately.

Yeah, we put out a song called Don't Give Up On Me about two weeks ago off this upcoming album. This new album is called Ten Years Too Late and it's kind of a... I had about six or eight songs that I wanted to get recorded. that were really important to me to get put down and to put out at some point in time. And kind of in the process of trying to get lined up to get them recorded, I was still writing. I was still putting stuff down on paper. And by the time we went to record it, I had 13 songs together to record that weekend. It's an acoustic album. I wanted it to sound as raw. as pure as could be. I wanted it to sound like us. It was just me and Justin sitting down two acoustics, you know, just like me sitting here with you today talking. I wanted it to be authentic. I didn't want to add a bunch of bells and whistles to it and make it something that it wasn't. You know, it's important that these songs get across exactly what I want to say. I want them to just hear that. Where did you record at? A place called Fat Cave Studios down in Slade, Kentucky, down in the mountains.

Oh, I love Slade, Kentucky. What a beautiful place. Yeah.

I grew up going Red River Gorge down there and I got a few friends. I played a little venue down there called Pit House, a really cool place.

Oh yeah.

There's a little studio attached to it. My buddy Sam, he did a really cool job on this album. I'm really excited for people to hear these songs. Some of them we've played live, but some of them are songs nobody's ever heard. Out of everything I've ever done, these songs mean the most to me personally.

And 10 years too late. You're talking about 10 years too late to get these songs?

10 years too late for everything. I think there's one thing that everybody has in common, and that's time. No matter what kind of life you live, we're all here at the same time. We all exist right here, right now. And I think if you want to really do anything in your life that means anything to you, that no matter what, you're going to feel like you're a little bit behind if you've got any ambition to do anything. I've had this overwhelming thing over me my whole life that I've got to get things done. I've got to keep this moving. I've always felt like I was behind on something, whatever it may be. That's good and bad. That helps push me to do as much as I can and to do it the best I can. I know that when I leave this world, I ain't gonna have a lot of money and ain't gonna have a lot to leave behind for my children, but what I will leave behind is the story of myself.

You didn't leave anything undone, right? That's it. I mean, there's a song on Country Music today, and I'm not gonna name the artist or the song because I can't remember it, but it talks about You can do this until you can't, right? You can rebuild that Chevy with your grandpa until you can't.

Until you can't. That's right. Well, I'm 33 right now and I figure I've got a period of time here to really push as hard as I can to even try to be heard in a world full of people just wanting to be heard. Hopefully I can get across some sort of message that means something to me that can mean something to someone else. I'm not interested in making people dance. I just want people to feel something. If someone can hear one of my songs and take something away from it and they can think about that later on in life and it'll mean something to them. I ain't out to make you dance. I want to make you cry.

That's awesome. So if you've got something you can play for us that might make us cry?

I'll actually do the title song of this album 10 years too late.

I don't know how I'm supposed to keep up To a world I left behind a long time ago Maybe it wasn't me that messed up Maybe this old world don't want me here no more It looks like I've got left behind This world is running past me like a race My clocks run out and I'm all out of time It looks like I'm ten years too late I don't know if I'm supposed to be here At the rate I'm moving now I won't ever last I thought by now somehow I would see clear But I'm living like a man that can't escape his past It looks like I've got left behind This world is running past me like a race My clocks run out and I'm all out of time It looks like I'm ten years too late Now it looks like I'm ten years too late Everything that I've ever wanted to do Oh, I should have done a long, long time ago All of the things that I could have done for you Oh, I could have You know I would have We won't ever know It looks like I've got left behind This world is running past me like a race My clock's run out and I'm all out of time It looks like I'm ten years too late Oh, now it looks like I'm 10 years too late.

What a great song. Thank you. Really like that. So how many songs are on your new album? 13. 13 songs. And let's talk a little bit about that release party you got coming up.

Yeah. So, uh, April 29th, Saturday, uh, it's in, uh, eminence, Kentucky at the Kentucky Highland Renaissance Fair site. They have the, they have the Renaissance Fair there. It's a, it's a really cool place. Uh, it's a big giant building and, uh,

So is the Fair, is the Real Suns Fair actually that weekend?

No, it's not actually going on that weekend.

Because I've been to it before.

Yeah. It's quite an experience. I played the Froggy Field Party there a couple of years in a row. They used to have a big shindig there from Froggy Radio out of Frankfurt. Yeah. They had some big concerts there. We actually got to play one year there. It's the same site there.

It's an interesting group of people. My brother, He's really into that stuff. He loves it. He loves to go to the Renaissance Fairs and he gets into character and all that. But we went up to the Renaissance Faire probably two years ago and just really took in the day. And we're just normal people. We're not dressed up. We're not in character or anything like that. We had a blast. It was so much fun.

Yeah. We take the kids about every year. It's really cool. Like I say, it's just something to see. Yeah. I'm good friends with the owners there and that Michaela's ends with the building, they call it the building. And there's a cool stage in there, a big fireplace and we're hoping for good weather so we can leave the doors open, you know, hope for a good. for a good crowd.

Well how can people find out about this in case they want to attend?

There's tickets available on an Eventbrite link and we post it all over social media so if you go to our our Facebook page, Joe Clark Music, every couple days we've been posting about there and we put links up for tickets there. I got my good buddy Brandon Martin, he's going to open the show for us and Brandon's a really, I mean, just an excellent musician. He's a powerhouse, got a big old voice. So I'm looking forward to seeing his set myself.

Awesome. Yeah. Well, it sounds great. We might try to make it up there. April 29th.

Yeah. Awesome. Not this coming Saturday, the next coming Saturday. So.

So what, what's your future look like here? You say you're paying, playing roughly three nights a week. Uh, what's it look like here for the, say the next month or so, are you going to be pretty much in Kentucky or are you going to be traveling out?

Yeah, we've, uh, this two days before the release party, uh, we play an Americana Fest with a, with, with a couple of really killer musicians, Cody Lee Meese and, and Jake Cohn. Uh, that's it. Uh, legacy at Dant Crossings. Oh, you're going to be at Dant Crossing? Yeah. Oh my gosh. We've got a couple of them coming up there.

I was just talking to Chef David Danielson from, he's the chef down at Dant Crossing. Yeah. And he and Wally, I think, I think we're going to try and go down and do a show with them. I'd love to do that one day and then stick around for whatever comes in the evening like you or something like that.

That would be great. Yeah, we got, we'll be there that Thursday evening, then Nashville the next night and then the release party the next night. And I got another run in Illinois coming up in about three weeks. We're going to do another, another five shows in four days up there. So, I mean, we've, we've got them lined up. I mean, for the rest of the year, you know, I'm full time, so I got to try to stay as busy as I possibly can.

You got to take a break every now and then, right? So when do you take a break and where do you go? Well, this is break right here for me.

This is it. This is it. I live on 80 acres of woods. It's two big hillsides right on the Kentucky River. So, you know, when I'm at home, that's break for me. I spend as much time as I can with the kids, you know, but like I said, if you don't keep moving, you'll get left behind. So how old are your children? I got one that's just turned five day before yesterday. His name's Lyric and my little girl, she's eight. I got a boy who's 16 and a daughter who'll be 21 in December.

Yeah. We were doing introductions at work today and I'm a little bit older than the people I work with. So we were on a zoom call and we were doing introductions and we were all going around introducing each other because nobody knew each other in this particular meeting. And one guy said, I've got a three-year-old. I have no life, you know, because everybody was saying what they do for fun Yeah, so he has no life and I'm thinking yeah, I could I could get that.

Oh, it keeps you busy But I mean that is my life. That's that's why I do everything I do to you know I think it's important right now at this at this stage for the younger kids, especially to you know, showing that it takes hard work to do anything in life and with what I'm doing, you know, I have to keep pushing. I have to basically stand up and say, hey, I'm here, you know, to be able to get things done.

So your children, they lack a country life? Oh, yeah. Yeah. They love living out there. Now, are they each other's best friends? Sometimes. Yeah. Sometimes.

A couple hours of the day they will be. Yeah, they're wild. I mean, my little boy, he's wild as a buck deer, you know, and my parents always tell me I deserve everything I'm getting, you know.

Yeah. I remember when I was growing up, I would always take my dad's tools and I'd go out in the yard and I'd work on stuff and I'd leave them out there and he'd find them six months later all rusted. He said he always used to tell me one of these days my my grandson's gonna revenge me Yeah, yeah, that's it. My grandson's gonna take your tools and go put them in the yard, right? What was the other way around? My son was absolutely organized and meticulous with this stuff And I borrowed his tools Left him in the yard and they rest. Yeah, he's still holding on to it.

I

Well, my older kids, they've been pretty laid back their whole life, but the two younger ones, they're going to give me some trouble and I'm ready for it. Bring it on.

There you go. Well, we're hoping you'll play one more song for us off this new album. Something that nobody's heard yet. Something that, you know, tease us a little bit. What do you think? That sounds good to me. We can do it.

So we just put this song out as a single a couple weeks ago, actually. This is off the new album. It's a tune called Don't Give Up On Me.

I've still got hope

That I can dig myself out of this hole And somehow I can let it all go And get back to the man that you know Don't give up on me, cause I'm going through hell Never ask nothing from no one But right now I could really use some help And I promise you soon I'll be back to the man that you need me to be Just try to hang on for a little while But they're still a part of me That's having a hard time seeing Any reason that you should believe in me I just need room to breathe But don't give up on me Cause I'm going through hell Never asked nothing from no one But right now I could really use some help And I promise you soon I'll be back to the man that you need me to be Just try to hang on for a little while I'm fighting these demons alone I'll find my way back to you I'll find my way back home Don't give up on me I know that I'll put you through hell I'm trying not to ask you for nothing And I swear to you soon I'll be back to the man that you need me to be If you can just hang on for a little while longer Don't give up on me

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All right. Well, you can definitely hear the hurt and struggle in that song.

It's kind of vague, but does that have to deal with kind of the same situation we were talking about before? Oh, yeah.

Yeah. I try to write from personal experience. I don't like to make up stories, but I try to write it in a way that it could apply to you, that you could take a song and listen to it and think, man, that almost sounds like it was written about something that's happened to me.

Yeah.

You know, but at the same time, make it, make it personal enough that, that I can play it and feel it while I play it. Sure.

Yeah. Cause I mean, you need to emote that out of yourself, but I guess if you keep it vague enough, then people can like fit their situation into it. Right. If you get too specific, they can't do that.

Well, I think we all kind of relate in some way in different things. We all struggle with certain things, whether we admit it or not. I think it's important to face reality sometimes and this is how I get through it myself.

Well, Joe, it's been an absolute pleasure to have you on the show today. Such a great story, such awesome music. I want to let our listeners know that Joe has given us one of his albums to give away, and we're going to do that. So here's how you win his album, and we'll ship it out to you. It's Joe Clark, 10 Years Too Late. It's on a CD. I know some of you still have CD players. Definitely want to get your hands on this one, but here's how you do it. Uh, we have a private Facebook group called the bourbon roadies. There's about, oh, 3000 to 3,500 members on there. And so if you're not a member of that group, go ahead and join it. Just go to Facebook and search out The Bourbon Roadies and ask to join. It's pretty immediate. You can join and become a member. Once you're in there, we ask you to make a post. Just make a post. Listen to the Joe Clark episode. Really had a good time. And I want his first album or second album. This is your second album. We want the 10 years too late album. So if you'll make that post in The Bourbon Roadies, We'll make sure to reach out to you in a PM, and we'll send this album out to you. So thank you for listening. Thank you for listening to Joe Clark on this episode, and we'll make sure we get this album out to you. If you're number one, you gotta be number one, right? Number two, we'll get a thank you for responding, but number two, I mean, number one, we'll get the album, but number two, we're just gonna thank you. There you go.

I appreciate it. I've had a good time with you here, man.

Yeah, it's a good time. It's been a lot of fun. One more time, I'd like to give you an opportunity to tell people, website, social media addresses, where can they hook up with you? And folks, take the time while he's saying this to go ahead and pull up your phone and follow him right now so you got this.

Yeah, we're on all social media platforms. Of course, we do primarily Instagram and Facebook and it's all Joe Clark music. We're on TikTok at Storyteller 502, but you can use a hashtag Joe Clark music on there and it'll come up. We're on Spotify and Apple Music. We're really trying to get our Spotify numbers up because that's where people are listening. And yeah, if you go follow all that stuff, that really helps us out. And I'm just out here trying to tell my story and feed my babies. And I appreciate everybody listening. Absolutely.

Well, thank you, Joe. We appreciate you being on the show. Well, folks, you can follow us on all the social medias. You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok. You can find us on YouTube. You can find us on, I mean, you could say, hey, Alexa, play the Bourbon Road podcast and up will come our latest episode. So definitely follow us on all those social media or at least the ones that you use. Follow us. We'd love to have you listen to every show that we put out. If you want to make sure you don't miss one, just whatever app you're on right now, that podcast app, whether it be Apple or Spotify or Google Podcasts or whatever it is, just scroll it up to the top and hit that subscribe button and every single week You'll get a notification that Jim and crew has put out another episode and we'd love to have you listen to an episode every single week from us. It's great. You're sweeping the house, you're mowing the lawn, you're driving to and from work, whatever it is, we'd love to have you listen to our episodes. If you've got an idea for a show, if you've got an artist, if you've got a bottle, if you've got a distillery in your hometown that's doing it right, let us know about it. We'll reach out to them. We'll see if we can't get them on a show. We always try to put out quality content every single week, and we certainly hope you enjoyed today's show. Make sure you subscribe. Make sure you listen to us. Go to our website, though. We do have some swag on there. You can get a Bourbon Road t-shirt or a hat or one of our glasses. Join the bourbon roadies. It's always a great deal of fun. There's a whole bunch of people in there that just love drinking bourbon and talking about it. Uh, make sure that, uh, you take the opportunity each week to tune into the bourbon road podcast. We'd love having you listen today and until the next time we'll see you down the bourbon road.

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