S3: E6: Kyle Hutton - Three More Bottles & She's Gone

Kyle Hutton 

Sun, 8/21 6:03PM • 1:51:00

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

song, play, music, started, record, songwriter, great, write, listening, artist, called, kids, podcast, years, steamboat, day, foster, nashville, talk, sitting, Kyle Hutton, Kyle Hutton Music, Real Life Real Music, podcast, interviews, Radney Foster, Steamboat Springs, Foster Parent, Randy Hulsey . Randy Hulsey Music, Randy Hulsey Podcast, Backstage Pass Radio, Backstage Pass Radio Podcast, iHeart Radio, Spotify Podcast, Apple Podcast

SPEAKERS

Randy Hulsey, Kyle Hutton, Adam Gordon

Randy Hulsey  00:01

I am joined this evening by a local artist out of Magnolia Texas. Hey everyone, it's Randy Halsey with backstage pass radio. My guest this evening is a well respected singer songwriter that has worked with some well known recording artists over the years. He is also the host of a successful video podcast show that is done live in a staple venue on the north side of Houston. We're going to find out what's shakin with Magnolia zone. Carl Hutton when we return.

Adam Gordon  00:29

This is backstage pass radio, the podcast that's designed for the music junkie with a thirst for musical knowledge. Hi, this is Adam Gordon. And I want to thank you all for joining us today. Make sure you like subscribe and turn the alerts on for this and all upcoming podcasts. And now here's your host of backstage pass radio, Randy Halsey.

Randy Hulsey  00:58

Guys, welcome to Cypress man,

Kyle Hutton  00:59

man, it's good. It's good to be here. It's

Randy Hulsey  01:01

good to be how long we've been going back and forth now trying to trying to get each other schedules together and

Kyle Hutton  01:08

you've been extremely patient, extremely kind and extremely patient. I don't I don't know how long it's been. And the funny thing is, is like, man, there's there's nothing I like doing more than sitting sitting around and, and playing music and talking about music and that kind of stuff. And man life just can. It can wait. I can get those moments. We've heard this. So yeah, sorry. It took me so long to get here.

Randy Hulsey  01:33

We're good. It's funny, because I was looking at my show notes here. It looks like I started either started writing the episode, I must have started writing the outline. July 1 of 2021. So it's been a year. Yeah. Wow. So either either. I guess I'm just persistent. I don't know. I love it here. I

Kyle Hutton  01:53

only thing the only thing that makes me feel better, Randy is that it took me you know, and there's several artists like this, but it took me like 10 years to get Jack Ingram to come to my show.

Randy Hulsey  02:05

At least so I have another nine years I could have waited on?

02:09

Well, you know,

Kyle Hutton  02:10

yeah, something like that. But anyway, I'll appreciate

Randy Hulsey  02:13

Well, they say, What was the old adage Good things come to those who wait. Patience is a virtue. There's there's whole there's a whole ton of adages out there, I guess that we could get into but, but I'm glad the calendar is finally synched up, you know, I've liked you, we've all got 15 or 20,000 things going on on a daily basis that keep us going. And, you know, I've always been of the mindset, you know, if somebody's not interested in being on the show, they'll tell me no, and they'll take no for an answer. And I'll move on. Right. So glad glad you're here in the studio. And I thought before, I guess I've never done this before, but I thought I would rip off a piece of your show. And we'll talk about your show in a little bit. And ask you if you would maybe kick us off with a song. Right? Sure. So I don't want to have your choice if you want to grab the guitar over there and kick the listeners off here. And then we'll come back and chat about all things Kyle Hutton.

Kyle Hutton  03:18

Yeah, so I'll kick off with this one. Over the last, gosh, I don't know when we when we started the project Exactly. But I had the privilege of doing my first co producing my first record with Walt Wilkins. And Walt and I got together to produce another artist that's here out of the Houston area. Her name is Bonner Ray, and really good singer songwriter. And Walt kind of turned me on to her her music and then said, what if we produced this project together? So we did. And it's it's really cool. Well, I have to figure out how to get you introduced to her Randy. But also, here's a song that Walt and I wrote a few years back and as a songwriter, I can say that probably one of the coolest you know, one of the coolest monumental moments for me as a songwriter was to have a guy that I respect in the craft so much as Walt Wilkins to record this song that we wrote together so he's putting on a couple of projects and I put it on my last studio CD longer stay shorter shears but the song we wrote together called what I dreamed last night.

04:59

The lead x with full sunshine and rivers ran was silver line the hills were green is Ireland the fields had grass as high as our hopes for Golden Heart

05:23

and weed where the season we have the god bless this place and then I'll wave speed Moray well that's what I dream listening no children ever when Miss and mamas always listen, Yan daddy's always stay neverI girl a parenthesis and now every boy he went NAS away this cow should be and there was never another childhood stripped away here that's what I dream lists dream less than a dream not dream more that we fall ever ended whoa go overboard someone's hand holding and wow the chin rose rattled their blades we all gathered him the shakers every soldier made it home today

07:40

yeah he ever single soldier made it home the day well that's what I dream last yay dream Yeah, that's what I dream what I dream what I dream, dream dream last night

Randy Hulsey  08:40

great job there on a very well crafted song. Thanks for kicking us off there. Good stuff. My

Kyle Hutton  08:47

pleasure. My pleasure. Well, you know, anytime you get to write a song with Walt Wilkins, you're gonna you're gonna have one you like playing? Right?

Randy Hulsey  08:55

Correct me if I'm wrong. He is He a steamboat guy as well. You

Kyle Hutton  08:59

know what I know, he and Tina. I mean, they play all the festivals. And I you know, I think from year to year, you know, you kind of bounce around from one to another. But yeah, man, I've seen Walt up there on the mountain for many years.

Randy Hulsey  09:10

Right? Where did you pull inspiration for that song that you just played?

Kyle Hutton  09:15

You know, here's the funny thing though. The true story about that song is it's the first time I ever got to write with Walt. And, you know, who knows, we'd have to ask him where he was at. We hadn't known each other that long. And in course, like I tend to do, I've asked for what I want. You know, I'm like, Hey, man, I'd love to write a song with you. Could we write a song? And he said, Sure, let's let's, let's meet meet for lunch and we'll write and so I thought, okay, cool. I'm gonna get to have lunch with Walt Wilkins. And then we're gonna write a song and and he said, meet me over. He lives in the Austin area. So we met at Rudy's barbecue off i 35. There North town, and I walked over and he was sitting over We're at the, one of the picnic tables in between the gas pumps and the okay barbecue line, you know, and I walk over, he's got a pad of paper in his guitar, right? He didn't mean let's meet at his house. And then we'll go write a song. He meant let's meet and have lunch and write a song, right there, like literally on the spot, right. Okay. And so we we sat there at Rudy's barbecue and wrote a song and testing at the glances of the corporate guys walking by just grabbing their lunches, like, What are y'all doing? And I always say, you know, we're doing what you wish you were

Randy Hulsey  10:37

doing. Exactly. Not going back to work in an hour.

Kyle Hutton  10:41

So no, but Walt, there had been just this ongoing drought and in the hill country, and a lot of the rivers were dried up. And Walt just said, mancala had a dream last night that the rivers running again. And so we just kind of took that, you know, and, and just started talking about from an optimistic kind of, you know, just an optimistic standpoint, like, what what are some of the things that we kind of dream? What would happen? Yeah, and whether that's, you know, soldiers coming home or kids not losing their innocence or, or even just raining the whole country rivers? Yeah, that's, that's kind of where that came from.

Randy Hulsey  11:25

It's amazing, where these things just, they'll just pop out of nowhere sometimes. And it's like, Wait, that's the song that best can the best that they organically write themselves. Right? Yeah, right on will to, to shift gears maybe just a little bit. How's life around the Hutton house? You know, we're kind of trying to come out of this, this crazy pandemic. You know, we seem to be taking a step forward, and we go a step back, like what's keeping you busy these days?

Kyle Hutton  11:54

You know, and I know you, you can appreciate this, Randy, because I mean, you've been at this a long time. And I think when you've when you've got the when musics part of your soul. Like I realized early on, I tried to completely put it down after I graduated college, you know, and and, you know, I've made some trips to Nashville and and pondered whether I wanted to go wait tables up there and wait in line for a publishing job or a publishing deal or whatever, and, and ultimately, came back here and kind of made the decision that maybe that was a college thing, you know, maybe the, how far I had taken music. Maybe it was time that I put that down and kind of start to focus on grown up, grown up thing for sure. And it didn't take me But about a year to realize, man, I just wasn't the same person. Yeah, if I wasn't engaged in music now, that didn't mean I was doing it full time. It wasn't I had an professional career. And, and, and I made my first three records, when I had a full time job, you know, and out trying to play and support the records and family comes along. And you know, I mean, it's just, it's, it's life. But to answer your question, what's keeping me busy today are all the things that I do in order to help put food on the table that are as closely related to the creative processes, I can get them sure, you know, because for a long time, I had a corporate job that was not it was just a, it was a, and I loved it, I loved the people. But it was to make money. I mean, that's, that's, that's what that was for. You

Randy Hulsey  13:33

weren't there to make friends.

Kyle Hutton  13:36

I wasn't there to scratch the creative itch. That's, that's what it was, you know what I'm saying, because at some of my, you know, I've got dear friends from that time period of my life, but it wasn't, you know, I was in the insurance and health and safety and risk management arena, it was not, it didn't have anything to do with anything musically related, or even, you know, to the creative process of any sort. And so, I did that for a period of time, and then just kind of had a realization of, man, you know, this isn't what I was put here to do. And if I'm just chasing dollars down this trail, amiss, and stuff somewhere else that I want to be doing, and so, you know, made a decision, after, you know, my wife and I got on the same page, and we kind of just knew that it was time for a career type change or career type move. And, and that's when we started real life real music. That's when we started figuring out well like, what kind of events and like what are the different things in the music industry, where we can I can continue to write songs and continue to do those things that fuel may, that may or may not produce enough income to, you know, be a sustaining part of how I feed my family. But I can get involved in these other things that are event driven and those sort of things in order to try to, to make more of my living specifically from the music industry. And along that path, we just started doing a lot of video type production work within the events we were creating, which led to a division of our company. Now, that is a digital marketing, nice, you know, we do everything from, you know, build websites to manage social media accounts to produce video content and podcasts, and you know, all that kind of stuff. And that's for music industry, folks. I mean, we go out and shoot for, you know, flatland cavalry, and we go shoot for Josh Abbott band and steamboat and, you know, like, we get to work with a lot of great people, Wade Bowen and his charity, Randy Rogers. So we've done a lot of great music industry work. But then also, it's the corporate stuff that really feels the, the, the revenue side of it. So, you know, oil and gas companies and real estate developers. And, you know, we're sitting right here in the middle of a Caldwell community in a little town lake, and we do a lot of their video work. And so, so, while we're dealing with corporate clients, it's still the creative process, because whether you're writing a song or producing a video, or whatever you're doing, it's, you're still using a lot of the same muscles. Sure. And so, so for me, that switch out of what I call old corporate America that I was in, into what I'm doing now, it just puts a lot more the phone calls and emails or anything I'm doing every day, in the music industry, or associated creative industry. So that's on the work side, that's what's kept me busy.

Randy Hulsey  16:51

I like how you've, you've transitioned that out of the old corporate America into the new business, and, and I'm sure that you use your name in the industry to to help you, you know, gain business to which is a very smart, you know, business endeavor, and an up sell for business tactic. You know, you've got a name in the music community here. And you have to leverage that. Right. And it sounds like you're doing a great job of that.

Kyle Hutton  17:17

Well, and I think even more even more than the name, I think, you know, I mean, look at what we're sitting here doing right here, right, and a lot of the things that you've learned, right? To do. I feel like, you know, social media, you think about trying to communicate directly to a consumer of music. Right? Well, you know, when the advent of the internet, the advent of social media, and the one to one marketing relationship that exists there accompany to one specific person. That's what we've been trying to do in the music business forever. Absolutely. I mean, because you're selling a song to one person, right? When you when you when you sing it, we've been trying to get people to come to shows for years, and in that marketing relationship, right, that consultation relationship. So one of the things that I think's been interesting about being in the music business, and of course, people, you know, they think it's sexy, and rock and roll and massages and champagne, and all that kind of stuff, everything. But yeah, I don't want to blow your theory,

Randy Hulsey  18:33

let them keep believing what they believe.

Kyle Hutton  18:36

But you know, I think, you know, for us, and for me, I feel like the value that we bring to the to the customer. I mean, it's cool if somebody knows who you are, because they've come see you saying or they've seen your show, or they you know, they've heard your name. But ultimately, I think, because we've been trying to figure out the hustle in the music business for so long. It gives us a little bit of a leg up and what we can teach companies about how to use social media, how to use email, less how to use digital technology, in order to access new customers, you know what I mean? Yeah, so Well,

Randy Hulsey  19:15

it's good to hear that you're doing that I had no idea if that's the beauty of this, the show is you get to talk to somebody that you've never had the privilege to sit across the table from and learn something about them and I have no idea that that you were in such a thing. And so it's good to know when I you know, I'd probably like to talk to you a little better.

Kyle Hutton  19:33

Yeah, we call it you know, real life real music is the name of our event deal and and we were trying to figure out what we wanted to because the digital market really just happened because like we were doing so much video work. It started out with some contractors helping us and then we ended up with a full time person, you know, end up doing production and helping us and then all of a sudden you're like, Okay, well hey, we got to thing that's not really real life real music. So what are we want to call it you know, so we call that we the name of it is real content solutions, okay is the name of it real content solutions? And one of the other reasons we called it real content solutions or RCS is because the company I was involved in prior in the corporate world was at risk control services RCS Yeah. And, you know, I really loved the people. And we worked really hard there to build something pretty special in that little company. And we ended up getting bought up, and I'll, I'll leave the names out. So I know you're gonna get a call from an attorney tomorrow or something. But we ended up getting bought out by a big company that ended up just running what we had built in the ground to the ground usually happens Oh, isn't that crazy. And so anyway, is just kind of a little bit of a, you know, either thumbed up nose or middle finger to the, to the noncompete that ya had with right on, I decided to, you know, still be able to go, Hey, this is cow with RCS. But now it's real content solutions. I'm not infringing on my. Exactly. So anyway, that's probably more than you wanted to

Randy Hulsey  21:08

know. That's, that's great to know. And I'll get you to maybe drop some info at the end of the show on how people can share and can find the business there. But I was gonna ask you are you currently playing shows regularly? Or is really everything rolled up around RCS and real life real music right now?

Kyle Hutton  21:29

You know? The answer to the question is that I'm not playing regularly. And nothing really pains me more as a songwriter to not be not playing more frequently. We do about 24 tapings of real life real music at dosey doe every year. And then we've got, you know, a handful of off site tapings that we do places like Music Fest and, and other you know, like special one off kind of tapings that we might go do. And then I've got probably another 10 shows, I'll do that or just singer songwriter, whatever, or ban, you know, or get hired to come in and do full ban and I pick up guys that have played with me over the years and we rerun the tunes, then we go play the show, you know, so I'm, I'm I'm not? I'm okay with where I'm at right now. And I would like to, you know, I think anytime you you you pour your heart and soul into a craft, you want to have the opportunity to exercise relate with people through Azure, right? Yeah. And so I think as I as I get older, one of the things definitely, that I want to position my time for is to be able to, to play more shows, you know, but you also, you know, you want to play the ones that makes sense. I don't want to go, you know, over promise and under deliver in some market where I've never played or, or whatever. So that leaves me You know, I play, I play a handful of shows around here a year that a lot of people come out and see. Okay, which is great. And, you know, that's that's kind of the answer to that question. Well, we

Randy Hulsey  23:22

kind of we kind of talked a little bit about it before we smashed the record button here about, you know, I don't know, for myself, when I jumped into the podcast, I didn't realize how much of a time suck it was and I had the doll the live shows back, you know, and there's been times along the way. It's like, do I just step out of playing and in focus on this? And I don't know what the answer is to that. Right now I kind of take the money I make play in the live shows and feed this animal here, you know, because it's not a it's not a free hobby, right. So as you will, as you well know, there's money that has to go into gear and time and, and all of that. So, you know, every time I fight with myself over that I I wind up keeping a few shows under my belt. Luckily, you know, I play at some places that booked me a year in advance. So every, every December, I call like eight or nine places and say, let's do the calendar for the entire year. So it's kind of a set and forget, and it's nice, and I'm off and running. So Chris and I go out and do our thing. And I'm sure Chris would probably like to play more. But yeah, he does some other things as well. So walking back to the younger years for Kyle Hutton for just a minute, where did you grow up originally?

Kyle Hutton  24:42

You know, I the short version. The short answer to that is you know, my dad was in the oil and gas business on the environmental side. So he was a civil engineer is was a civil engineer till he retired by trade and so I was born in Houston. And then I was adopted when I was six weeks old, which is pretty big part of my story. The first place we live, we lived in Lake City for a year. Then we moved out to Katy. Okay, we lived in Katy for about five years. And then we moved over to Friendswood and lived in Friendswood for about five years. So, so we're, you know, Kyle about 10 or 11 years old, down here in the, you know, in the South Houston area. Then Dad got transferred to Dallas, and we live in in Cedar Hill, which is South Dallas, at the time was about 10,000 people. It was a little, you know, at that time, it was a little town outside of, you know, suburb, me, you know, pretty far removed from Dallas, we thought we were in the country here. And now it's just you know, Dallas is like any other city and it's just swallowed up. So so many of the so many what used to be at the outlying towns, so I really consider Cedar Hill where I grew up because I was there from fifth grade through graduated high school. So yeah, that's that's kind of the quick story.

Randy Hulsey  26:11

Yeah. And I grew up, you know, my growing up years were down south as well. I grew up in the City of South Houston, which is not too far from Lake City and Friendswood down 45 Old Galveston road. It's interesting talking to you, you know, I think it's, it sounds like we're kind of poured out of the same mold. You know, like, you know, my dad also moved to Dallas, he was in the oil business, to Dallas came back here. We have that in common, of course, the podcast, musicians worked in corporate America, you know, it's kind of form in here, but from a music perspective, was the family musical back in the day? And if no, where did the? Was the love just coming off the vinyl or the cassette tapes, and that's where it kind of took off for you.

Kyle Hutton  26:57

Yeah, I love this conversation. Because I always want to think back and see if, you know if I if I come up with any kind of new revelation about that, but I can remember my mom, my mom would sang and she sang in the choir at church and she tinkered around on the piano, and, you know, we were in a Baptist church. So every good Baptist Church had handbells back then she played the bells and the, you know, sang in the choir, dad, you know, I can remember him singing, he would sing.

Randy Hulsey  27:33

Daddy sang bass.

Kyle Hutton  27:35

Yeah, like stuff like that, you know, from this valley. They say we go, you know, our two older caissons come rolling. You know what I mean? Like he was he would he would do those and then, you know, he would tell you I'm not a singer. I do not have I don't understand pitch and that kind of stuff. But you know, not as tone deaf as some people I've heard, right, but definitely, music was not his deal. Music was more mom's deal. And, and again, being adopted, you know, that was more of a nurture thing than a nature thing. Anything I picked up from from them, but I can remember is early as you know, when we lived in the house in Katy, so, you know, before I was five years old, having a little record player and playing, you know, Johnny Appleseed record isn't you know, what I mean? Like just hid stuff and and singing along and that being an important thing for me, you know, singing and all that you know, Speed Racer cartoon jingles and that kind of stuff was was something I was always running around doing so. So there was something you there was something there

Randy Hulsey  28:46

is inter came from that it's interesting that you say Speed Racer cartoon, we were standing right here were in in this area, and it was about three weeks ago. And Terry cues up the Speed Racer theme. And I can still sing that song word for word is I've never forgot it as a kid. So it was funny when you said Speed Racer, it's like my mind went to three weeks ago and and I think she even hit the record button on the video just to kind of post it out there on social media or something like who remembers that it's not even relevant, but it's like, we watch that stuff so much as kids it was it was kind of what shaped us as kids you know,

Kyle Hutton  29:25

Brady Bunch theme song,

Randy Hulsey  29:27

you know, mom and all that kind of stuff. So

Kyle Hutton  29:29

sure. But as far as as far as music goes, What I do remember is you know, I would wake up on Sunday mornings and and you know, Mom and Dad would already be up getting ready for church and dad would be making waffles or whatever. And and they would, they would always have something spinning on the vinyl and it might be you know, Debbie Boone or Ann Marie or, you know, Jim Reeves, you know, I've got most of the vinyl that that my parents had. are, you know, man, Neil Diamond? Johnny Cash. Hank Williams, you know, the soundtrack from Oklahoma? Sure. You know, like, they they had a very interesting, man Seanie you know, orchestra? Yeah, you know what I mean? So very eclectic. Right? Yeah, it was a eclectic in in but but they I remember them they'd have that stuff playing and I think, you know, they had a couple Elvis records and Kingston Trio. Yeah, you know, some of that kind of stuff man.

Randy Hulsey  30:33

You know, I It's funny. You're, you're, you're kind of barking out some of these names. And some of these. I'm sure the listeners will say, Who the hell is that? The hell's that. But I can tell you I started a vinyl collection about a year ago. I started kind of late in the game. But I will tell you that I do have some vinyl from the Kingston Trio in my studio, I have the best and Marie is in there as well. So for the people that think I was the Rock and Roll guy, Hey, I'm all over the Malou right. It's, it's an I think it's, it's bits and pieces of all that that are what shaped us as musicians and where we develop the taste that we really, like and music. Yeah, you know what? I'm so sure. When would you say that you kind of started taking the music serious? Like when did Carl wake up and say, you know, I think this is going to be a living for me. Like when do you remember that? You know, I think or did you just slide into that somehow? Well,

Kyle Hutton  31:36

you know, like, Man, when I hit so now let's you know fast forward to the Cedar Hill days and dad would want to listen to Don Williams in you know what we were raking leaves in the front yard, you know, or whatever. And I'd want to listen to Motley Crue. You know, it was it was the 80s it was I was mad that I didn't get to go to the shout at the devil bark at the moon. I was there concert. This Baptist boys.

Randy Hulsey  32:11

It wasn't on the horizon.

Kyle Hutton  32:13

Concern wasn't gonna get to go to that one. So, but, you know, I was definitely listening to Aerosmith and Guns and Roses. And and that that was that you mentioned some of the guests that you've had on the show. I mean, the first concert I ever went to was Loverboy. You know, and I bet that was interesting conversation. But so I would definitely was in some ways, I think it's because that's what my dad was listening to that I was going the other direction. Yeah. Because I definitely now, you know, I've come back around to all that music and specially the stuff that's that's, that captures me more lyrically, you know, in the country, country room. But, man, I definitely, I think there was a part of me, definitely, that connected with that high energy, rock and roll music. And I don't ever remember thinking I could do it yet. But I remember thinking that would be like the ultimate show to do that. And and then I think, when I was in college, which is when I really started to take guitar seriously. And songwriting seriously, was was my freshman year in college. But you know, I found the music of foster and Lloyd you know, I found rockabilly, I found stuff where bands were, they were playing Telecasters but they were playing them through, you know what I'm saying? They were making them sound different than Hank Williams did. Yeah, absolutely. And, and so that that kind of grabbed me because it had a different energy. Yeah, to it. And, and then man I'll never forget seeing and he gets a bad rap a lot of times, but I'll never forget seeing Garth Brooks. The first time I saw him and the energy that he had. And you look at people that are out now like Cody Johnson and some of the like, the energy it's, you know, so I don't know, for me, I love watching George Strait, who can just stand there and just get it done and deliver it. And then but man, there's something about for me, that was probably the same thing I was connected to, with a lot of the rock and roll music I was listening to was just an a high energy performance. And so yeah, I got into a you know, I had a roommate in in college that could play guitar pretty well. And he and I, Sean, Sean Keller, Sean Shan, and I roomed together and and he taught me a bunch of stuff and I had to remember buying two song books, George straights, Greatest Hits, and and John Cougar Mellencamp and I learned every song out of out of both those books. So that's kind of a, that's kind of a little bit of a picture of, of where my head yeah, was that and I think we started I started writing songs always liked to write, but it was never songs it was it was short stories or poetry or whatever for school. Okay, it wasn't, I wouldn't sit around writing but when I had to write, it came out pretty good. And so, started writing and putting, you know, was Sean's help and other guys help, you know, putting music to lyrics. And when I figured out we could go take a little sound system into a place and make a couple of bucks have burgers and free beer and girls there.

Randy Hulsey  35:49

couldn't beat that with a stick. Yeah,

Kyle Hutton  35:51

I mean, it was then it was a challenge. Like, can we get 10 songs together? Oh, well, we got to play two and a half hours. Well, we play the same songs. 10 songs three times. Yeah. And then could we get to where we don't have to play the any of the same songs, you know? And like, all those little can we get to where we're playing 50% originals? Can we get to where we're playing? You know, all those little milestones started happening?

Randy Hulsey  36:14

Well, I like a little bit different than you know, I was always the rock pig growing up, like I was the rock kid man, I was the Judas Priest guy, The Motley Crew guy and that I mean, that carried me well into my 20s and 30s. And then I think when I started playing out, it shows professionally, I said, you know, as a duo, acoustic duo artist, you know, I've got a, I guess, add some country and stuff like that. And there can't just be all old classic rock songs right? So I started really digging into the country and the Americana genres and really listening and and it's funny how my you spoke of age earlier you know, when you when you've gotten a little older you've gone back to the the old stuff that you know, the the Jim Reeves and the stuff like that, right? That is really palatable to you now. And that's what I'm finding is that I still love rock. Don't get me wrong, but I've really gravitated to the lyrical content of the country in the Americana genre. Like I could sit and listen to guys like Jason Isbell in the 400 unit forever. The guy's probably one of the greatest songwriters in Nashville right now. Right. And just lyrically, he's he's an amazing lyricist. And I wouldn't say that the old rock stuff from the 80s was shallow, lyrically. But it does this summit. Some of it is, you know, but when you start talking about songwriters, like Jason and a lot of the others out there, it's like they're pretty, pretty deep. Lyrically. Right? Yeah. And kind of makes your mind think other than, like, some of those rock songs from the 80s. I knew what was coming in the first verse, what was going to come in the third verse, right? So but, but what these guys you never know, they kind of keep you on your toes a little bit. So

Kyle Hutton  38:03

yeah, I mean, it's definitely a different experience. And I think the older I get, I see the value of both, you know, like, you know, of course, if you're Def Leppard, or whoever you are, and you're in there, you're doing what you do. You You know, how to make them, you know, 40,000 people scream and enchant. And, you know, absolutely on to that lyric, right, that sort of lyric. And then if you're an artist that is going to have people sitting there, looking up your lyrics, right after the show to try to take a deeper dive because you move them you know, it's just, it's two different moving experiences. One of them's very, you know, like, I don't know what the right word is, but you know what I'm saying? I mean, absolutely, I get it, you know, whether you're doing your job well or not, is whether you're creating an emotional response with the audience and in those emotional responses can be totally

Randy Hulsey  39:03

different. I agree. I agree. Well, will legend has it that you know, things started kind of at an open mic for you in College Station. Is there some truth to that story there?

Kyle Hutton  39:17

Yeah. You know, I'm getting older. So my, my order of events might be out. But here's what I think this is. This is to the best of my recollection what happened? I was playing. We had a weekly assay weekly. I think it was by we, I think it was every other week. We were playing at a place at a&m That was on South Gate called beef and brew. I think it's a subway now, but it was called beef and brew. And that was our first regular. That was my first regular gig and I was playing there and writing originals and that kind of stuff and I somehow got a hold of I've found in a bookstore, I think maybe there at the Hastings College Station, a book that somebody's written about, you know, everything you need to know about the music business or whatever. And so I bought it started reading up, you know, Nashville Songwriters guide, whatever. And so in, I think it was 91 I threw my guitar and a cassette demo that I'd cut half in the closet, the duplex up lived out, and then you know, some of it at this gas studio, their college station went to went to Nashville, you know, just was going to make my trip up there. And, you know, maybe even get signed to a deal my first you know, I mean, like that, you know, kind of stars and hopes, you know, in your, in your, in your, in your eyes and your soul. And so went up there. And the first time I was there, you know, people everybody was talking about the bluebird cafe, you know, Garth Brooks had been discovered there, and all these different you know, inside, I go over to the Bluebird, and, and a walk in. And that was like being at church. I mean, I've never seen anything like it before. People were sitting there quiet just hanging on every word. I've never really been to a listening room before. And I went in there. And it just, I was hooked. You know, I was hooked with that kind of attentiveness. Yeah. And that kind of both intentional environments literally created for that, right. And so I came back to Nashville, didn't get the record deal on that first drill.

Randy Hulsey  41:49

Neither did Garth

Kyle Hutton  41:51

came back, came back to college station from Nashville, and thought, Man, I'm going to start something I want to, I want to start something that and we ended up doing a deal, we call it that Thursday night showcase was the name of it. And we did it at a place that now I think it's a Chucky Cheese. It's at post oak. It's in post oak Mall. It was a bar in the mall. Okay, which is interesting. And the other interesting thing is was the name of it, because when I called my mom to tell her Hey, Mom, I got a gig at ks cabaret. She's like, What? Yeah, and now on the main stage can do the mainstage. So so the the Thursday night showcase was at eight ks cabaret. And, man, we just put the word out on the street that we were doing this open mic, you know, and you could come in and do three songs, you know, whatever. And, you know, one of them had to be an original at least and you'd come in and and play your songs in front of people and in. It was cool, man. Yeah, it was cool. We got to, you know, the local beer distributor made a sign for us. We look, mom. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. We made it.

Randy Hulsey  43:06

That's a cool story. Yeah. I'm gonna take a quick break and drop a sponsor in here. So we'll return in just a second. So Kyle, over the years, you've shared the stage with some pretty big names. And I think those names probably span multiple genres. People like Michael Martin Murphey, Mickey and the motorcars come to mind I think, Roger Creager Chris Knight were in there. You recorded with Michael Martin Murphy. Did you or did you? Yeah. Can you talk a little bit about I'm a huge Michael Martin Murphy fan and what a great singer songwriter

Kyle Hutton  43:46

he's he's so cool. And I'm trying to remember where I first met. Marv, we we met. I think the first time I ever met him was at Music Fest. And then in Steamboat and then he came and performed at the church we were going to in The Woodlands and I got to connect with him then and then maybe the next year at steamboat. We did an off site taping with him in one of the suites there in in Steamboat and got to know him even better and so and the deal is if you've hung around me for any time at all or listen to any of my music it's not you don't have to dig too hard to find out that I'm trying to figure out what faith is and what God is and and how I interact with the world through that worldview and in I mean, that's just something I'm I've grown up in church and I'm always trying to figure out like Like, who I want to be sure, you know, like, how how in any given time, and especially in this one right now, man, the time that we're in right now, how do you embody faith? And what does that look like, you know, man, Michael Mark Murphy, he wears that on his sleeve too, you know what I'm saying? Like, he's a man of very deep conviction. And whether you're talking about activists like songs like Jeronimos, Cadillac or, or if you're talking about just his his faith and in his belief in God and Jesus, and in any way, so we've connected, you know, like trying to, you know, figure out what that is, and, and what it means and how you live it out. And so we just had great conversations, and then we end up you know, at festivals together, whatever. And I just feel like a relationship really kind of develop there. And then I was working on my fourth studio record, longest a shorter shears, and he was going to be in town, playing a solo, show it dosey doe. And I just sent him a text and said, Hey, Mark, I know you're going to be in town. I've got this song, longest day shortest years. And, man, I just hear your flat picking all over the song, you know, and it would be just an honor to me if you would consider listening to it and playing on it. He said, sent it to me. And I sent it to him. And he called me back and said, Hey, I don't know what studio you're in. But I can be there at this time. You know, Can Can you guys make that work? And he came in and cut guitar on the song long stay shorter shears, which, you know, I'm just flipping out, you know what I mean that he's in there, in that we're in the studio doing that. And then I don't remember what month that was, but it was coming up. It was maybe like, September, October. He played on that. And then we were both at Music Fest again in January. And we were finishing up vocals and background vocals on the record. And so I said, Man, I said our engineer that was doing a real life real music taping. I'm like, do you have everything we need here? Like if I can talk myself into singing background vocals for that song? Do you have in our mobile rig what we need in order to capture that? And he's like, do you make it happen? I'll make it. So we got Mark to come upstairs to the media suite. When nobody was up there was probably like midnight, you know, something like that. And, man, he stepped up, put the headphones on and sang background vocals on that song. And so that's one of my favorite ones on that read articles or just because, you know, I grew up listening to him. Oh, yeah.

Randy Hulsey  47:55

What a great singer songwriter always loved him.

Kyle Hutton  47:58

He really, you know, like, there's a lot of like, when you talk about the outlaw country movement, and you talk about Waylon Jennings and and Willie Nelson and Billy Joe shaver and you know, you talk about the guys that may be first come to mind. You check out the book, it's called the improbable rise of redneck rock is the name of the book, the improbable rise at Red net rock. And you'll find that Michael Martin Murphy was really the impetus for a lot of what happened in the outlaw country music movement. We'll

Randy Hulsey  48:37

have to check that out.

Kyle Hutton  48:38

You need to check it out. Because it's I mean, it's it's interesting. Like, he's to me, he's kind of the unsung unsung founder. Yeah. And, you know, I mean, yeah, I mean, there were people before I'm sure. Right, but I'm talking about the Austin cosmic cowboy, like the movement that came out. Right. He was right there.

Randy Hulsey  49:01

Yeah. Well, I had another guest on my show that said in the very seat that you're sitting in right now who had ties to Michael Martin Murphey as well shake Russell legend, legendary singer songwriter from from Austin, Texas, and you know, he's been around a little bit but 50 years in the middle, then the music business but Sheikh is spent some time with Michael Martin Murphey along the way. And for I guess, the listeners, you know, we're talking a little bit about Michael Martin Murphy had a huge hit back in I think it was 7576 75 You might have to fact check me on that but had a song called wildfire that came out in 75 was huge. And I think that that one was off the the big sky knights thunder album, and then I think he was originally from Dallas and was in a band called The the Trinity River boys with a with a guy by the name of Michael Nesmith. Have you have you heard that name before? Where the mark Hey, where are the monkeys? That's right. And then I guess the what's the Michael Nesmith trivia there? Did you know what his mom invented? So his his mom was the inventor of liquid paper. Really? Yes. And she sold that company to Gillette in 1979 for $48 million Wow. So little mini

Kyle Hutton  50:26

bottles of that stuff we see

Randy Hulsey  50:33

well, what a great adventure though, right? Yeah. So a lot of people probably don't know that that Michael Michael Nesmith of the monkey's mom was the inventor of liquid paper. Anyways, crazy. Yeah, yeah. So you learn something new today. Right? That's awesome. Yeah, you're welcome. So we talked a little bit about Steamboat Springs music festival. And I think you were just there in January where you played this round and 2022 Yes, you did, right. Yes,

Kyle Hutton  50:59

we did. We're glad to be back after the after the hiatus.

Randy Hulsey  51:04

How did you get hooked up with that festival there?

Kyle Hutton  51:07

A guy out of Nashville. That was a radio promoter by the name of clay Newman was working with John Dixon to help organize like a a media room at steamboat where all of the DJs could come through an interview artists, okay, that were there at steamboat. So think about it kind of like a media junket. You know, you're running the press through Absolutely, and letting them talk. Clay Newman at the time was basically our promoter slash publicists for real life real music and helping us get our, our radio show played on more stations. And so when he and John Dixon, the founder of Dixon productions and Music Fest, when they were talking about how logistically to make that happen, like, like, you know, how could you go into a hotel room or a suite there at the steamboat grand and, and make that happen with the needed recording gear and everything else? That was stuff we had, because of the shows that we tape, and already had a good track record of our stuff sound good, and, you know, knowing what we're doing, and so, Clay knew and pitched to John Dixon, hey, yeah, let me help put together the team that would come up there and facilitate making this media room happen. And so that was my first introduction, okay, you know, to to music fast. Of course, I'd, I'd known John and we had run into each other, just maybe in a songwriter on the scene, but my first like, music fast. And the first few, I did several music fast before I ever played as an artist at Music Fest of providing, you know, support to Dixon productions. Okay, kind of on the back end, audio and video for for their media rooms. And then, you know, then I ended up you know, getting asked to play some shows while I was there. And that's probably been, I think we've probably we've been there's as a company probably for 10 years, 11 years, and I've probably played it seven times or something like

Randy Hulsey  53:23

that. It seems like a really cool event. Like I've just seen the website I've seen the pictures of, of music fest I had, I think she was the third guest on my show Robin Shane out of August or out of Austin sorry. She she was on my show. And I'm kind of in talks with Sundance right now to Sundance had to try to get him to do a spot here but a lot of great artists there and it just seems like it's a kind of a who's who thing like everybody kind of jams with every body and hangs out with everybody. Is that kind of the way it is? Yeah,

Kyle Hutton  53:58

absolutely. I mean, there's there's a core group of, of musicians that have been there and that will probably always be there. And then you know, it's it's the lucky ones that get to come in and and participate you know, and and hopefully get to become a part of that family and, and John and his wife, Robin, they've been great to us and have created so many, you know, relationships there that have resulted in CO writes and you know, just friendships and everything absolutely been great.

Randy Hulsey  54:29

Well, since we're kind of on the, I guess the festival conversation, there's also a festival called the Big Cabo fest, Texas style, which I believe was started by was it Kevin Fowler and

Kyle Hutton  54:45

Roger. Yeah, falar. Palin. Crager. Yeah.

Randy Hulsey  54:48

share with the listeners a little bit about the background on that event. I think you've frequented that one as well.

Kyle Hutton  54:55

I played it. I played it not this year, but I played it the year before and big car Double fest, you know, Roger, I think Roger and Kevin were kind of doing that. Like they both had their own things going, you know, their own trips with their fan bases and stuff like that. And then I think they just, they had the idea of getting together and going, Hey, man, you know, let's throw one, let's throw one really big party down to Mexico. Because that Roger did it for years. He took people to Mexico for years. And then he and Kevin had been doing this, I guess, for the past few years. I don't know exactly how many. And then they recorded a record together. Dos Berachos. And, and, and John Dixon took over, you know, kind of the administrative and growth of the festival. And so yeah, I think it was just a couple of artists doing their own thing with their own fan bases that have just grown into a really big deal. And it's really fun to do really fun to get down there and be a part of it. You can imagine, you know, go for, like really drunk Texas, Texas, south of the border, the

Randy Hulsey  56:00

good ol boys down there doing our thing right. Now, I think Rogers recorded some of the songs that you've written, correct?

Kyle Hutton  56:08

Yeah. Roger, Roger, and I, Roger. Roger was actually, you know, going all the way back to that Thursday night showcase at ks cabaret. That's where Roger and I met. I mean, he called up one day and said, Hey, man, can I come play and we're like, you know, you either had to be really good, or have lots of friends. Yeah. And Roger was in the Corps and in the band at a&m. And so usually, if you were in a frat, or in a band, you were in you were in because we collected $2 at the door from everybody that came in. So you know, you could you could buy your way out of being good by being in a fraternity or the door, or the band. So but, you know, every once awhile, we get somebody that had a lot of friends that also had a lot of talent. And Roger, Roger was one of those guys. And so we met there. And then then, you know, he was kind of just getting started writing songs. And so that's what we connected on. So we started writing songs together. And and we've written, we've written a bunch over the years, and he's recorded. Four or five of them and nice. Yeah. So it's been fun.

Randy Hulsey  57:14

So you've also collaborated a bit with with Radney Foster? And I think you guys had recorded an EP together? Was it sometime and 2017? Ish? Yeah, seeing I think it was called the foster EP. Is that Yeah, is that correct? Yeah. Which was about five songs. And I was wondering if maybe, could you play one of the songs off that Or? Or? Yeah, yeah, man,

Kyle Hutton  57:39

I can definitely do that I'll call a play one that, you know, the, the way that record came about is, you know, I'd mentioned earlier, I was adopted, when I was six weeks old, as a kid from the Pelton Children's Center here in Houston. And, you know, I learned, you know, my wife and I learned through a series of events, probably about eight years ago, now, we learned that there were, you know, a bunch of kids, right here in the Houston area, Harris County, Montgomery County, that there were kids that needed safe places to stay, you know, we weren't, we just were not I was educated on the topic of adoption, but I was not educated on the topic of foster care. And once we became aware that there were children, you know, in our backyards that needed, safe places to stay, we kind of decided that was, you know, I mean, you and I mentioned faith earlier, and trying to live that out. We just decided that for us, my wife and I, as a couple an individual's decided that I don't know of anything much more. I don't know. I don't know what word to use it like, important that that we could do, then try to help a kid. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like that, that seemed to be like one of the most raw, like, foundational level, man, I believe there's something bigger than me. And now here's something smaller than me that needs help. And so it seems like that was kind of a no brainer for us. Once we kind of figured out that there was a need. So we went down the road of getting foster certified and we started having some kids, you know, come through the house. And and as a songwriter, of course, my brain is processing my brain and my heart are processing everything that's going on. That has to do with this thing that my wife and I are now going through and our inner biological kids are going through of, of bringing kids in and learning about the system and the trauma that they go through and why they're there in the first Place and all that kind of stuff. And going back to Radney, Foster, you know, I'd played some some festivals and some shows with him and gotten to know him. He was one of my heroes. I mean, he's definitely one of those ones that has gone from hero to like brother. And, and that's one of the coolest things. But I remember I reached out to him one day and said, Hey, man, you know, you know, Tara and I are, you know, he knew my whole adoption story and all that and that we were doing the foster care thing. And I said, Look, man, I got all these ideas for songs. And I, I want to do a project that would raise awareness for kids that are that are stuck in the system. Would you be interested in helping with that? And I said, if it's not too cheesy that your last name is Foster. Yeah, right. Do you want to come help me with this project? And he said, Absolutely, man, I'd love to so. So I flew up to Nashville. You mentioned five songs on the record, I flew up there. Like all he and I could figure out was a time where we had like, six hours one day, like I would fly in that morning, we'd write for like, six hours, right? Get some sleep, right the next day, until I needed to take the last flight out. So we didn't have we had, we had

Randy Hulsey  1:01:20

basically a day and a half days, yeah.

Kyle Hutton  1:01:24

Call it call it 16 hours or something like that, too, right. And I thought, man, if we get one good song, then I'll schedule some more time to come back up. All four songs were written in that, you know, basically day and a half. Yeah, they just fell out. And I mean, it was almost like, we just got together. And God just like, handed them down to us. You know, it's kind of what it felt like. And one of the ideas that I'd come up there with the very first baby that came into our house, her name was Alexis, and she was two weeks old, and we got her. And she was with us till she was two months old, and then had to go back to her to her mom who had worked her plan and did what she needed to do to get her life in order and get her baby back, which is a great thing to celebrate. We just didn't realize when we signed up for foster care that you had to give them back. To me, like we I mean, you know, of course, you know, you theoretically understand that that's part of the process, but your your heart doesn't, you know, contemplate that until the day that they say we're coming to pick them up. Yeah, right. Wow. And so we had gotten that call, we'd gotten that Call of man, you know, mom's done her thing. And and you got to bring her back, you know. And so we packed up her stuff that night. And I just woke up the next morning pretty early and opened up the refrigerator. And my wife had put the exact number of bottles that we'd need to feed her before we took her back and it was three bottles. And there were three bottles in the frigerator and I remember thinking three more bottles and she's gone. Wow. And so I wrote that down and I took that idea to Radney in Nashville and I said hey man, Rodney, I got this idea. Here's the story and the title is three more bottles and she's gone. And he goes cow if we can't write a song a drink and song that would make Merle Haggard cry with that then we need to have our Texas card reversed right and I said Well alright, let's let's let's let's read and see what we can do. So I'll play that one for you awesome

1:03:54

if there was anything I can do and make her stay I put down the bottom and not find a better way. But she's packed up unknown to someone new and picking up pieces as a business and I can do now I've always known she's leaving from the very start. And I knew had give her everything and I knew she'd break my heart. It might be the best herb and it feels so wrong. Three more battles and Chi Gong It's funny out of the fridge just keeping time and counting down these moments just waiting on goodbye I'd made the next round last forever if a good and try to talk her into stay if authority do mean oh is known she's leaving from start and I knew I'd give her everything and I knew she'd break my heart. It might be best for her but it feels so wrong to move more buttons, she's gone and as a holder in my office and look into her eyes, her bottles half empty Yan were run in that time. And as I hear her new folks pull into the drive love always known she's leave from their start. And I knew I'd give her everything and I knew she'd break my heart. It might be the best for her but it feels so wrong one more bottle she is gone. How good something starts so right in so Rome she's finishing this bye. And she's gone

Randy Hulsey  1:07:29

that was three more bottles and she's gone off the foster EP great song there. Kyle. I enjoyed that. And I can certainly certainly see where if you didn't know the backstory on the song how it can be misconstrued, like you're singing about a love interest or side right. So it's very, I guess, what do you call it secular like that? So yeah,

Kyle Hutton  1:07:50

we wanted we wanted to get around to the bridge before we punch the money in the snow. Yeah,

Randy Hulsey  1:07:56

sure. Yeah. Where did you originally meet Radney.

Kyle Hutton  1:08:03

Man, I want to say we were both like maybe playing the Missouri accounting fair or something like, you know, it was one of those deals where I got to go up and say, Hey, Foster, you know, I've you know, been such a fan and all that kind of stuff. And, and that was probably the first time that I met him was with just being on the same bill. What a festival.

Randy Hulsey  1:08:25

Okay. Now, I guess for the listeners that you were talking about Radney Foster. He's originally a songwriter out of Nashville. And I guess he's written songs. And with people like Sarah Evans, Keith Urban, I think Hootie and the Blowfish come to come to mine. And he was I think jacking room I think is recorded. So yes, stuff, right.

Kyle Hutton  1:08:51

Yeah. I mean, Jack, Pat. I mean, you could go down the list. I mean, he, he produced the first couple, and then the most recent Randy Rogers band record. So I mean, his thumbprint is on everything. So much of what the, I mean, there's a lot of artists that would list him as is one of their top mentors.

Randy Hulsey  1:09:15

Is he is he currently here in Houston? Or where does he reside?

Kyle Hutton  1:09:19

He's in he resides in Nashville. He's He's a Del Rio Texas boy. So I mean, he's from he's from the border town. Yeah. But yeah, he lives in Nashville. But Texas, you know, he plays here a lot. And his mom's still here in San Antonio. And so he's, he's down here a lot.

Randy Hulsey  1:09:36

Okay. You released a single last year entitled flowers in the yard. Is that a song you can play live? Yeah, listeners. Yeah, for sure. skip that one. Yeah, let's do it.

1:10:01

I knew it was a good one when pulled into the draft Camille your blooms and tears at your side and two little sets of hands with work left to be done and the harvest of your efforts take years to be done

1:10:35

will lids go on in the kitchen and we'll put some supper there little in the pantry takes a lot being gone and no matter what we're having, you know someone will complain and you'll just roll your eyes while I think about the day

1:11:03

when we finally have the free that we plan for you Hana sink with fewer dishes and lists closed wash dry

1:11:20

and acquired cup cup won't be quite as hot. There will be money in your pocket. And flowers in the

1:11:39

No mood

1:11:40

floors creaking above us in the middle of the night. And no more I had a bad dream. And she started the fight hammy only midnight week and be from the sounds that I don't hear and the wonderin that's gonna move in when they leave us here. And we finally have the freedom that we plan for hola hola. Hi. Hannah sync with few dishes and lists closed wash and dry and acquired conversation won't be quite as hard they'll be money in your pocket and flowers in the

1:12:44

year we'll finally have the freedom that we plan for Hala Hannah save with fewer dishes and less closed wash and dry and acquired cup coffee won't be quite as hard they'll be money in your pocket book and flowers in here

Randy Hulsey  1:13:24

that was the 2021 single called flowers in the yard. Good job how thank you enough man thank you very much always nice to hear a good old raw acoustic in a in a room there's nothing like it and I've had some some awesome guests here in the studio clay Melton from Cyprus a great blues guy bring back well was standing right there where you are playing and it's just it's so nice to hear these the songs in a room. Yeah, there's nothing better to me than acoustic guitar and a and a vocalist.

Kyle Hutton  1:13:56

I agree with you.

Randy Hulsey  1:13:57

I agree with you talk to the listeners a little bit about where you pulled inspiration for flowers in the ER

Kyle Hutton  1:14:04

that one you know we talked about this foster care journey and and you know the the we've had seven kids come through the house and number six and number seven stuck. We ended up adopting them. So we've got two we've got two little girls you know my boys my boys are older Brooks is 24 and married to his sweet wife Gigi and then my middle son case son is 22 and this is a longer story than we have time for that case and his wife, caisson. Pretty crazy interesting one with a C one with a K. And then my youngest biological son Carter, who's had enough college this fall. And then we've got the two little so Trinity sunshine. Hutton is nine years old Old and then Skyla Joy Hutton turns, she'll be seven at the end of the month. So she's still sick. So the range of our kids goes from six to 24 Wow. So, you know,

Randy Hulsey  1:15:17

you have any gray hair,

Kyle Hutton  1:15:18

oh man, I got that the really the inspiration from that song is that, you know, I've got this boy that he was finishing, he's probably going into his senior year when I started writing this song. And we had adopted these two little girls up at about the time we were seeing the finish line, right of our biological kids. And so, you know, it just kind of brought home that thought process of of as a parent, you know, you love your kids. And then I think most empty nesters, I think there's a percentage of empty nesters that would say, we loved having our kids, and we love our life. Now. You know what I mean? Like, we love that and we love this right? You can love both and and, and at the same time. I think that there's that little bit you know, there's that there's that heart lift that comes from from your kids going off and doing well. And you get to reconnect with with your significant other. And then there's the side of it. Of all that stuff that we thought was such a pain in the ass. Yeah. isn't here anymore? And I kind of miss it. Exactly. Right. And so that's what that's what flowers in the yard is about. And I think being able to realize we've done this once we've got three boys that are that have moved on or in the process of moving on. And then we almost have a second chance as parents to not miss some of this stuff.

Randy Hulsey  1:17:05

Yeah, that we do over Yeah, do over again, you

Kyle Hutton  1:17:08

know, a little bit older, a little bit wiser, absolutely has gone through it. Yeah, it changes how we see things.

Randy Hulsey  1:17:14

I would I would have to think you know, I was is you talked about the foster home foster care kind of thing. I'm not familiar with it. I've never been in that situation or that environment. But I would have to think you know, you you think about think about life in general, right? The short time that we're on Earth, right. And even shorter, like we, you know, is empty nesters, you know, you kind of grow this love for animals, you know, our dogs are everything to us now. Right? It's like, it's like the kids that the young kids that we don't have anymore, right? And the animals are here for such a short time. And I relate that to what you were saying about the foster children like you, you bring them in, you fall absolutely in love with them. And then it's this gut, your gut gets ripped out. It has to like, I mean, if you're anything like me, yeah, I'm the SAP when it comes to stuff like that. And so I have to think that for you guys, that has to be a difficult thing, right? It's so it's so gratifying and so rewarding, yet it rips your heart out all at the same time. Am I Am I off base?

Kyle Hutton  1:18:27

No. Yeah, that's absolutely there. And and, you know, I think the this is what I know, this is just my experience rad I can't speak for everybody. But this is my experience. And and usually when I'm seeing in that three more bottle song I'm thinking about Alexis and and and hoping that she's with her mom, and that her mom's sober and doing well. And you know what I mean? And I hope everything I hope and pray everything's going great for her. And the peace I make with that. With the situation of being involved in foster care and the possibility of kids having to go back and sometimes even go back to a situation that's a lot more dangerous than then where they've been being kept safe. You know what I mean? And I think that the only kind of comfort that I have in that situation is that number one, we got to love on them for a little bit. And I don't know where they would have been right. I mean, you hope they would have been with some other loving foster family or whatever. But of course, you know, we're a little concede it. I mean, we think we're gonna love them best. So absolutely. You know, so we know that for a period of a couple of months during a extremely important developmental time for an infant, right. That man she was held she was fed, you know, sung to she was was not in harm's way during Yes, she she was not in harm's way. And and I always tell people cuz, you know, sometimes people say, you know, like that. That's the reason they think they couldn't do foster care, right is what if they ever had to give one back? And I just always say, Look, I get it. The only thing worse than given a Lexus back would have been if I never met her. Yeah, you know, I'm saying I mean, like, well, it's the same thing with having a pet. Right? I mean, you have a pet? And what if the pet, you know, what if the pet dies, you know, a few months after you get it right, or whatever something happens, the only thing worse than that would have been never getting to give it love and receive, because you always receive more than Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Randy Hulsey  1:20:39

Yeah. Well, I think there was, there's a saying that says it's better to last at love than never to have loved at all right. And you know, you go through a relationship that ends abruptly and it's, you know, it breaks your heart. And you say, I'll never love again, you know, you how many times have we said that millions of times, right. But you always go back to that because of the power of love. Yeah. And even though it's difficult to give that child back to not have experienced that, you know, you're so much better for, you know, it's more of a win on the balance scale of justice, you win more than you lose, right. So you have to kind of look at it like that, as well. And, yeah, I think, you know, Terry and I have talked about that before, you know, fostering kids and, you know, it's probably passing conversation, but it's cool to have this conversation with you, because it kind of makes me think, and, and whatnot. And it's commendable that there are people like you in the world that put their personal things that they want to accomplish, you know, we all have goals, we always have things we're set out to do. Put that kind of aside for the love of another human and to hopefully better their life, but putting things that you might want to do on hold to do that. So that's commendable. So

Kyle Hutton  1:22:04

well, you know, and I'm, I'm trying to learn to just say, thank you. Yeah, you know, to that, I, I always feel like I have to, you know, I always feel like, I have to give a little explainer with it. But But I really do. You know, my wife and I, most days, we look at each other and go, you know, we may look around at the kids, and they're going nuts, or whatever, we're like, What the hell did we do? And, and, and then in another breath, we look at each other and go, This is why man, what would we be doing? If we weren't doing this, we'd be trying to figure out some other way to make our life meaningful, that wouldn't be nearly as meaningful as this year, right? And it gives so much back. And the fact that, you know, man, I started my life, I was adopted at six weeks old, I've gotten a lot of chances. I mean, I'm, I'm sitting here talking to you right now. I mean, I, you know, I could be a lot of places right now, other than sitting here should, right. And so, the thought process of man wanting as an extension of my gratefulness, of for what I've been given to, to do something, you know, made and for some people, it's not take a kid into their house or for some people. For some people, it may be, you know, buying backpacks for the school backpack drive for kids that, you know, because their foster kids or whatever that don't, or helping make sure kids get breakfast at school by providing some financial assistance or whatever. I mean, there's so many ways in a community to get involved with kids that are not doing well. Absolutely. You know, for some people, it looks like bringing somebody into their house, and if there's somebody listening that's interested in that goat, go to the pelton.org or go to Gladney or Buckner, you know any of the adoption agencies issue. They're all involved in foster care. And if if it's something that is tweaked in your heart right now, and you've wanted to look into it, look into it, there's kids that there's kids that need it. Yeah.

Randy Hulsey  1:24:11

Thanks for dropping those names. And the, the website for de Pelton to that. So I think that's important for listeners that have ever been on the fence about it at least go out inquire about it. And if nothing else, absolutely, educate yourself. Let's talk about real life real music real quick. Sure. How did the show come about the artist portion of it? Yeah, do it. dosey doe. Yeah,

Kyle Hutton  1:24:37

I went into well, well, the first I would call the first iteration of real life real music that Thursday night showcase. We started in College Station. Because we'd bring people in I'd introduce them. Ask them a couple of questions. They play their song cuz you know, I'm saying like, so you've been

Randy Hulsey  1:24:54

doing that for a long time. Keeping the show rolling.

Kyle Hutton  1:24:57

And what you're doing right here. I mean, you're You're given, you're using your skills and talents to elevate what somebody else is doing so right. And that's, that's what I have felt very comfortable in my music career, being in that seat and playing that role. And so I would consider that first showcase. We did that. And then we did an iteration of it at puffer bellies and Old Town spring. We called it the Texas country and gospel supper and I brought in some different acts. Man, brought in Tony irata, one of my favorite songwriters from from Nashville came in and did that show and Mike mccluer, you know, the founder of The Great Divide, and one of the Well, I would consider him consider him one of the most important guys in the red dirt, Oklahoma side of the music. And so, I mean, I don't know, man, I just really, I really got the bug for being able to interview people amidst the presentation of their songs, you know, and when I walked into dosey, DOE for the first time, they had been building it, they've been constructing that barn on the on the backside of old house that already existed right there all 45. And I had left my corporate career. And I was at home, I think it was on a Saturday, doing some yard work. And I just went and got my wife. I said, Hey, Tara Scrab the boys and let's go up, we're gonna go up. And that play serves breakfast and lunch. Let's go up. I want to see it. I mean, if I mean, it looks like a live music place to me, but let's go see it. So we went up there and went in there, sat down and ordered some food. And I was asking the waitress all kinds of questions. And she said, well, that honors here. And I said, Well, I'd love to meet him. And so he came out, we met and I told him, I was a songwriter. And as the story goes, you know, Steve, who owns dosey? Doe, he'd go, Yeah, another song. Right? Yes. That he went back to his desk and pulled up my website and listened to a couple things, and then came scurrying back out said, okay, yeah, okay. You're a songwriter. So, and then, man, I just looked around that place, they didn't have a sound system installed. They didn't have any, you know, they were, you know, had done a couple of bands up at that point. And I'm like, man, you know, I live about 12 miles from here. If this could be the factory where we produce our content, our show and do this could be it. This could be where we, where we take this thing that we've done kind of sporadically in some different locations. Sure. And make it into what I'm seeing in my head. And so we did, you know, I had a couple of corporate supporters that had been good supporters of ours. Friends would have development company who developed neighborhoods like Fairfield out here on to 90 and some folks that and I went to him and said, Hey, look, first of all, come have dinner with me at this venue. Come check it out. And here's what I want to do. I want to bring in Leroy Parnell and Larry Gatlin and Michael Martin Murphy. And, you know, I want to bring in Roger Crager, and Wade Bowen, and you know, I want to bring in Cody Johnson, and, you know, bring, bring these guys in, and have conversations with them about their music, and then have them play the songs. And, man, thank goodness, you know, a couple of sponsors said, Yep, we'll do it. Because that's those first, I think the first two years of real life real music, we're free to the public shows, because dosey doe was trying to get their name out there. And we were trying to get our show off the ground. And I had a pot of money from the sponsors. And I had to figure out how to get somebody to come for this much, you know, sure. And do the show, right? Yep. So that's how we did it, man, the first couple of years. And then it turned it in, you know, we turned it into a ticketed show. And so now, you know, artists can come kind of, they can come do what they normally do and make the kind of money they normally make, and we can still get the content and, man, we're probably 280 shows in. We've been doing it for 15 years. That's

Randy Hulsey  1:29:30

awesome. That's awesome. So did they normally play at dosey? Doe the night of or the day after? Or is it usually they just come in for the interview

Kyle Hutton  1:29:38

the show, I mean, the interview is me sitting on stage with them for 90 minutes. And we talk and they play we talk they play we talk that play so we but you know over the years I've I've learned and in tried to make sure that I'm reading the crowd well enough to know when we've talked too much or when there Want to hear more? Sure. And so, what you hear on the radio is, I mean, we edit it for radio, we don't edit it for the video podcast. But what you see is kind of what you get

Randy Hulsey  1:30:12

some of the guests I guess, that you've had on the show, you know, you've had you mentioned Wade Bowen earlier. waco boy Red Dirt Texas country guy love, love a lot of his stuff. Yeah, do some of his stuff and my shows I think death Don and deviled eggs is one. I love that song. And I think you've had Chris Knight on the show, I play a lot of Chris Knight stuff. And you know, Chris has written for Confederate railroad John Anderson, some of the big names Randy Travis, the list kind of goes,

Kyle Hutton  1:30:43

you know, you know, what Chris is famous for? So I'll tell you one of the funniest moments of real life run music for me was I was sitting there asking Chris and questions and stuff and, you know, he was a very hospitable interviewer, which, you know, he's a man of few words, he's not he's not one to really go off on a long you know, I got a lot of assessing no answers and that kind of, but he was very, he was not being difficult. He was playing nicely in the sandbox, but at one point I laid ever and I got said something like, Well, Chris, like, I mean, we really like I really want to know about this song and what that's about he looked right at me and goes, I'll tell you, but to kill you. You kill so many people in your songs. I'm gonna leave that alone.

Randy Hulsey  1:31:38

Well, I think of all of you know when I mentioned to you earlier when I kind of started listening to country and Americana and red dirt and trying to figure out what I liked in those types of genres. He stuck out to me for some reason I stumbled across him somewhere God only knows where but I probably played five or six of his songs and my shows and yeah, that they you always stumble across the songs that just you say if I wrote a song that would have been the song right and it's like you could almost interchange the the lyricist for something that you would have done because the thinking is along the same lines as the way you think so I've always related to Chris and I thought it was interesting to to read that he was one of the artists were I don't know if all or some are part of his. His material was destroyed in that big 2008 Universal Studios fire. I don't know if you remember that at all. But that was a big thing. And then I guess you've had Daniel Holmes on your on your show. I think Daniel had booked me out at the frio for a show or two back in the day. I haven't talked to Daniel in a while but then Hayes Carl is well right a local local product here out of out of the woodlands always been a big haze Carl fan. He's that was a great show. I watched your show. Hayes. Yeah. Now I think there's also a radio station is there a radio station affiliated with your show? Today,

Kyle Hutton  1:33:11

we are on about six different four terrestrial radio stations and two internet stations. And and the local station is 99.7k Star country out of Conroe Okay, so on a good day, you can probably hear it down here. I know their signal makes it down to about the you know, about down to the loop and now they're on 45 but the Conroe there are home station they were the first one to pick it up and we're on coke FM and Austin and k mu and Tyler Mineola, Rebecca Creek radio on the internet. They can you stream it live and then we you know there's one station one little station way out on the West Coast. K jug in St. Louis Obispo, California

Randy Hulsey  1:34:06

really? Yeah. made it out of Texas. They needed out of a mouse that since we're on the subject of podcast, I wanted to mention that your wife Tara of what 2020 some odd years Yeah,

Kyle Hutton  1:34:18

right. Yeah, we were we were talking about I think our first date was 31 years ago. Wow.

Randy Hulsey  1:34:23

Was I think it was shake Russell shake and his wife D were here. And I think they were celebrating 20 years and I mentioned to him that Terry and I had been married for 33 So yeah, that's great. She gave me all the gray hair you see here yeah, she can't hear me upstairs I don't think but. But anyway, Terrell also has a podcast share with the listeners a little bit about her show and

Kyle Hutton  1:34:52

Tara is she's she man she is a seeker. She is A study or, and when something's important to her, she dives in and, and as, as a mom of foster kids, you know, and not just foster kids as a mom, right? As a mom in general. Man, she's she's done a lot of work, trying to understand the best ways to take care of those little hearts, you know, of her kids, whether they're biological kids or the foster kids. And and when you move into the world of foster care, it really opened up our eyes to the conversations of the effects of trauma on not only behavior, but on the actual cellular level DNA of people, right, you talk about PTSD, you talk about, you know, a lot of the terms that we used to not know that now are talked about a lot more, we got indoctrinated into the understanding of how the trauma that these kids go through affect them. And you know, you start to go, Well, of course, I'd act out to misbehave too, I'd steal food too, I'd do this, I do that if that was what I had been through Raya, we pretty easily understand PTSD for soldiers, right, it's pretty easily and logical to understand what's the same thing for kids that have gone through, you know, sexual abuse, or, you know, negligence or whatever. And so, So Tara started diving in and, and just learning more and more about this. And I think one of the interesting things that she would say, if she was here was, you know, I was learning how to help my kids. And then one day a light bulb came on, I was learning how to help myself. Yeah, that's for sure. You know, what I made? And, and so I think her podcast is called Mama's well, and it's just a play on that, you know, you know, the old saying, When, when, when, when mom was, well, all's well, you know, when she's not, it ain't. And then, you know, you think of the, the, is kind of the, the picture of of a, well, you know, that you go down in, and you can draw something out of it. And so there were just a lot of different, you know, thought processes around mom as well. And so she started this and just started interviewing people just like you do, you know, most of them have to do with, you know, something that has to do with child raising or behavioral. You know, she's she's interviewed, you know, best selling author, she's interviewed, prosecutors have that, or they're out there trying to protect, protect kids, and she's interviewed behavioral experts, and just all kinds of stuff. And it's, it's, it always comes back down to what we can understand about our interaction with our children, the best ways to to accomplish what we're trying to accomplish parenting them, but then also, how to repair it ourselves. Because everybody, you know, not everybody's had trauma, like, you know, had an IED go off in the Humvee, or whatever. I mean, like, no, not everybody has been shot. Not everybody has been raped, not everybody's been. But every person's biggest trauma is their biggest trauma. And so it's had some effect epsilon, you know, maybe it was, you know, high school bully punched you in the face, and I mean, whatever, you know, everybody's road is different. But ultimately, the concepts are the same. And that is that the things that we go through, affect how we interact with the world on a daily basis, not the least of which are our children. Absolutely. And so I'm really proud of her because I feel like she has really developed a platform and made she's got women from all over the world. I mean, she's done these little book studies, and she has to do them at seven at night. So the people from Australia that want to be involved in it can be you know what I mean? Yeah. And so it's just been really cool. So yeah, Mama's Well, mom as well.com and it's on, you know, Apple podcasts and Spotify and YouTube and all that good stuff.

Randy Hulsey  1:39:45

Yeah. Awesome. Well, thanks for dropping that and thanks for asking all the listeners maybe you know if that's kind of a niche thing for you guys that certainly check out Terra show there.

Kyle Hutton  1:39:57

It would only benefit you if you're a parent. or you've been a child.

Randy Hulsey  1:40:02

Yeah. Other than that, don't listen. Right. So everybody should be listening to Tara's podcast. What's new coming up for you, Kyle? Any thing new from the music side that the listeners would need or want to know about? Yeah. Anything not even music related.

Kyle Hutton  1:40:22

I love making music and and it probably won't be too long. And you know, I played that very first song that I did what Wilkinson I wrote, he and I just finished producing a record on a on an artist named Bonner Ray. And, man, she's really cool. She writes great song. She's a great singer got a real soulful thing going on with her voice. And and I think you're going to be hearing from her. So you can go check that out. And, man, I'm just writing, just writing. I'm re inspired about songwriting. And that's been a roller coaster for me, because it's easy to get caught in your head about what success looks like and what it's supposed to look like. And somehow in the last few months, actually, I can tell you exactly when it was steamed out this year at Music Fest. caught an acoustic show Lori McKenna did an acoustic show and then BJ Barnum with American Aquarium. I just I got to sit and listen to a few people with guitars. And just I just remembered, I remembered why che songs. Yeah, you know, like, like, what they were singing made me feel the way I have felt before when I've caught a good song. And when sometimes when I'm trying to figure out where I fit into the music scene, and what do I do in my host, am I right? Or am an artist Am I you know, and try to put that up against what I thought success was gonna look like, man I can. I'm a headcase I can just get all jacked up in my head. And, you know, and then all of a sudden, you want to quit something you love. Because you're you're because of how you're looking at it. And I just something happened to me Music Fest this year, where I just got to reconnect with people that were they were achieving the objective. And the objective was to relate to somebody else and make them feel something, through your words in your lyrics. And somehow that cut through and I've been writing a lot since then I just got back from a trip to Nashville where I got to sit down with three different people and write songs one of them including Lori McKenna, who who just moved me so greatly that Music Fest this year, so So yeah, man, I'm kind of re energized. I've got to go in my head of wanting to wanting to crank out a song a week. That'd be cool. And I'm working on it.

Randy Hulsey  1:43:02

I look forward to it. Well, you dropped the name Lori McKenna. I had an interview. And you know, it's funny, sometimes the interviews will run together and all of the names that we talk about in the songwriter circles, like, especially if they're ones that you don't know, but it seems like I had a guest on. And I want to say it was Karen Waldrip out of Nashville. Laurie had written a song for her that turned out to be a smash and I think it was called sometimes he does. And I mean, I think this video is now somewhere a million views on YouTube or something, you know, kind of went viral or whatever. But that's where I heard that name when you dropped her names like Okay, wait a minute, I've heard this name before singer songwriter gal, right?

Kyle Hutton  1:43:49

And if you're if you're listening to this and you like lyrics, and you'd like to be moved, she just pull up Apple Music and just listen to Lori McKenna and McKenna essentials. Just you know, just to get a taste. It's she special.

Randy Hulsey  1:44:03

Right on and what does the upcoming show schedule look like? For real life? Real music? Who do you have coming up on your show? Yeah,

Kyle Hutton  1:44:11

you know, I don't know when this airs, so it probably won't be be tomorrow night when people hear this. But tomorrow night from the taping, I'll be hanging out with Tracy Byrd. We're gonna we're gonna do the show tomorrow night. And coming up this season. I've got Shawn McConnell, who's one of my absolute favorites. I got Larry Gatlin coming back I've got Radney foster coming back. We got some great shows coming up this season. Sounds like you got some cool ones. Yeah, man. It's it's it's gonna be fun and I'm very humbled that I get to sit there and and do this with these guys.

Randy Hulsey  1:44:53

Yeah, it's cool. I like your format and it's quite interesting that I kind of said it tongue in Cheikh in the beginning that I was going to steal a piece of your, how you kind of format your show. And I only did that as kind of a tongue in cheek judo, because you're here with me. But when I started the podcast, I had not seen your show yet. This was something that, of course, I knew I wasn't the first person that's ever interviewed somebody, but that was, you know, kind of my idea to bring a musician in and talk to him and get to know more about the behind the music behind the songs because as a, as a young kid, I remember being the kid that would buy a new cassette tape or a piece of vinyl and the liner notes for the first thing I looked at, I didn't even care about the music. I wanted to know, who were the artists? Where did they play? Where did they record? What year was it recorded? Like, all of this meaningless stuff, right? I absorbed it like a sponge. And it's like, my head is just full of the stuff almost kind of like a savant, you know, like a savant would just, you know, they have these special talents for either memorization or playing a musical instrument. And I've just packed the stuff in my brain. So when I started the show, it's like, Man, what a great way to get to know the people and the songs that I love, or I've grown to love and no more about, you know, like your song about three more bottles, right? Being Yeah, who would have known that head? Had I not sat here and, you know, sat across the table and talk to you about that. So this show has been a great joy. I mean, I almost enjoy this more than I enjoy playing music live, just sitting and talking to people and hear what's on their mind and what makes them tick. You know, I think that's cool.

Kyle Hutton  1:46:36

Well, there's, there's, there's something, I think there's something special that shows up when you're intentional. And what you're doing is you're creating a space for this conversation. And that's, that's, you know, that's kind of what I've decided, you know, that in my, you know, role at real life real music. Like, that's what I want to do. I want to create a space for conversations that leave people feeling possibly even more inspired, absolutely would, at a regular show. Now. You know what I mean? Like, and that doesn't always happen, but sometimes it does, you know, because I have people come up to me, after shows and go, Hey, man, I've seen so and so 100 times, and I do tonight, like I, man, I feel like I know him so much better. And you know what I mean?

Randy Hulsey  1:47:34

I do. I do. And it's I think back in the day, you know, back before video was a big thing. You know, I'm talking about in our teenage years, right? You go to a show you go to that Motley show, you go to the scorpions or whoever. No cameras, no video recorders. No, no, you could and it was like there was this mystique with the musician you wanted to just know more. Like, what does Vince Neil, you know, what kind of car does that do drive like, like, like, it doesn't even matter. But we were intrigued by that kind of stuff. But yet, we were kept at a distance. Now. You know, I mentioned some names like I mean, you included like Doug Johnson from Loverboy on the show and fee Waibel from the tubes, you know, we're Yeah, fee was a smash on the, you know, on MTV back in the day and you, you sit you talk to these people, like you've known him forever. You and I have sat here for over two hours. Now I talk like, yeah, you know, like, we've, like, we go way back or something. And it's cool to be able to just connect with people and share and hear the story and the journey. Where can the listeners find you on social media?

Kyle Hutton  1:48:42

Yeah, you know, Kyle Hutton, on Facebook. And I think if you go to I think if you go to cow hunting on Instagram, you're gonna find a Scottish rugby player. Who's more handsome than I am

Randy Hulsey  1:48:57

for sure surely has bigger legs.

Kyle Hutton  1:48:59

Yeah. But there's, I think it's cow music or cow hat and ban on Instagram, but and then you know, you can access all of it through Kyle hutton.com and real life real music.com

Randy Hulsey  1:49:16

Yeah, Kyle, I want to thank you for taking the trip out here and sit with me and chatting. It's been a it's been a treat. The music's been a treat the conversations been a treat. I wish you nothing but success on the inspirations that you pull from things that help you to write the next record, and continued success on the real life real music. I asked the listeners to share like and subscribe to the podcast. Also make sure to follow Kyle at Kyle hutton.com And then you can also find the show at real life real music.com as well on as on social media. As always, I asked you You guys. You can find me on Facebook at backstage pass radio podcast on Instagram at backstage pass radio, Twitter at backstage pass PC, and on the website at backstage pass radio.com. You guys take care of yourselves and each other and we'll see you right back here on the next episode of backstage pass radio.

Adam Gordon  1:50:22

Thanks so much for joining us. We hope you enjoyed today's episode of backstage pass radio. Make sure to follow Randy on Facebook and Instagram at Randy Halsey music and on Twitter at our Halsey music. Also, make sure to like, subscribe and turn on alerts for upcoming podcasts. If you enjoyed the podcast, make sure to share the link with a friend and tell them backstage pass radio is the best show on the web for everything music. We'll see you next time right here on backstage pass radio