steve azar and ride records

Posted on January 18, 2012 by Kallie

I remember the day so clearly. It had rained overnight and the morning brought a load of muddy obstacles to overcome before I got to the office. White pants were out of the question so I wore black jeans and biker boots,  just in case a dog paw found my leg or there were standing pools of water at the stupid cattle gate that ruins my life on a daily basis. I got to work on time, thank God, and started on my long-list-of-things-to-do-before-you-leave-for-Nashville. I had just told my bosses at Delta Magazine, Scott and Melissa, that I had a deep passion for singing and songwriting and that I needed to take some time off to move to Nashville and explore the opportunity of making my dreams a reality.

So there I was, on my second-to-last day of work, scrambling to get things in order for my replacement and tying up thousands of loose ends, when my office phone was buzzed.

On the other end of the phone was Bill Twyman, President of Ride Records, asking me about a photo he saw online that I had taken in Clarksdale. After a few minutes of chatting, I realized that Ride Records was Mississippi Delta native Steve Azar’s record label! Steve Azar has the greatest story. He was raised in the Delta, loved songwriting and grew up listening to Delta bluesman play music behind his family’s liquor store. He moved out to Nashville after college and landed a recording deal with Mercury Records. He hit it huge with a song he wrote called “I don’t have to be me until Monday” on the album “Waiting on Joe.” Please download the entire album. “Damn the Money” is also on that album and will be your new favorite song, hands down!

So there I was at work, talking to Bill Twyman…

I could not believe that he found the “Welcome to the Delta” photo above on Facebook and was trying to track it down so he could use it for Steve Azar’s new album (Delta Soul, Volume 1). I went on and on about how much I loved Steve and Bill said “Hang on one second.”  He clicked over, called Steve on his cell phone, and then clicked back over to me. I sat there and talked to Steve Azar, told him I was moving to Nashville to pursue a career in singing and songwriting and he said “Hey, good luck! When you get back to the Delta, give me a call and let’s start writing some songs together.”

My heart kinda stopped. No..it most definitely stopped. Write music with Steve Azar? He had written hits. Like, real hits. He had those shiny records hanging all over the walls in his office from BMI! He had written songs for Reba McEntire and for the love of pete, Morgan Freeman was in one of his music videos!! But calmly I said, “Sure. That sounds great! I’ll be in touch when I get back! Nice to meet you.”

I hung up the phone. I rannnnn down the hallway and told everyone in my office what happened. They told me to shut up and get back to work.

So I did.

Fast forward……………………………………

It was about three weeks after I moved to Nashville, and I found myself coming to a halt. I had met with all of my available contacts and while the feedback was all positive, no real doors had been opened for me. I was hearing a lot of :

“You are great, but you aren’t ready.”

“Keep writing. Develop your craft.”

“You need time to develop, but you’ve got “it”.

I was frustrated. I scanned my phone and emails looking for a possible contact I may have overlooked, when all of a sudden I remembered Bill Twyman and Steve Azar. I was in the driver’s seat of my car, just sitting in the parking lot outside of my apartment complex, when I picked up the phone and dialed Bill Twyman. I asked him if he would set me up with another interview to play my music for someone in Nashville and he happily called his friend at Sanctuary Management on Music Row.

Two days later, I was sitting in the driver’s seat of my car outside of Sanctuary Management, putting on lip-gloss and nervously flipping my hair back and forth ten minutes before I walked into my interview. Twenty minutes after that, I had already walked into the wrong building, taken the wrong elevator and dropped my cell phone in the waiting area. Splat. Battery pops out of my Blackberry and slides across the floor. Receptionist gives me the “you’re an idiot” look…

I walked into Tom Storms office and played him my demo. He listened to the first two songs and then stopped the CD player.

Long story short (haha..none of my stories are EVER short..) I got an email from Bill Twyman telling me that Tom Storms was “wowed with my talent.” That is what gave me “street credit” with the Steve Azar crew and the rest is pretty much history. I came back to the Delta after a wonderful journey to Nashville, and it’s crazy to think that what I was looking for the whole time was thirty miles up the road in Greenville!

What was I looking for?

Well, I was looking for someone that believed in me, believed in my music and was willing to give me a chance. That is exactly what Ride Records is doing for me. They are giving me a chance to make the music I want to make while I develop a fan-base, and they are using their decades of experience and connections to pave the way for me.

I’m siiiiiiiked.

We just got back from recording in Nashville (more to come on that!) and ummm, while I don’t usually like name-dropping, I am going to have to take a moment to name-drop. I’m sorry, but Emmy Lou Harris’ keyboard player and Taylor Swift’s drummer were playing on my record. Daddy say whaaat?? Okay no more name-dropping, I promise.

We have amazing things on the horizon for 2012 and I plan to keep ya posted along the way. Sorry I’ve been missing in action, but I’ve got a good excuse!

 

 

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random folder photos

Posted on December 26, 2011 by Kallie

Cleaning my desktop today! Here are some photos that never made it to the blog…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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my first buck

Posted on December 21, 2011 by Kallie

I’ve sat down at my computer two times this week thinking about what I should write about…

It’s been over a month since the last time I posted, and while I usually ramble on about random things happening in FarmVille (riveting stuff, I know), I’ve been all over the place and couldn’t seem to find a jumping off point to fill you in…

I thought about telling you about my last trip home to Texas and how wonderful it was to see my precious nephews.

Seriously, these kids are my life.

I thought about going into a story about the beautiful mornings I’ve been spending on my porch, wrapped up in a fleece blanket, coffee in hand, watching these white birds walk back and forth over the land bridge.

I even thought about writing about my pup Foxy and her newly acquired habit of pooping downstairs on the concrete slab instead of pooping in the yard like a normal dog…

She’s such a weirdo.

But I’ll spare you the dog-poop story and instead, tell you about this past Sunday and how amazinggggg it was.

Amazing.

Did I say amazing??

It was glorious outside.

Glorious, I tell you!

And somewhere in between “hey do you wanna go hunting?” and ”sure, why the heck not!”….

I shot my first buck.

And it was the best day ever.

And ever and ever and ever and ever.

AMEN.

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I HAVE AN OBSESSION WITH ANIMAL PAINTINGS

Posted on November 1, 2011 by Kallie

I love art.

I didn’t develop a love for art until I moved to Mississippi, which is pretty dang sad considering I lived in and around Austin, Texas for so many years. To think about all of the amazing art and artists I overlooked because I was too busy double-fisting breakfast tacos and drowning myself in queso—-it makes me sick!

If life would have taken a different turn and I ended up in the city, my taste in art would probably be a LOT different. But because I live in FarmVille–down the dirt road, over the levee, across the cattle gap and behind the big stupid dumb gate that is ruining my life–I have grown to love paintings of animals. Cows, deer, ducks, turkeys, hogs and all the other wildlife you see living in the woods on the Mighty Mississippi. If anyone knows of someone who paints coyotes, I have recently developed another slight obsession with packs of wild coyotes. They come into my yard at night and do that little high-pitched barking noise and I feel like I’m camping but I get to sleep in my own bed. Best of both worlds. A modern coyote painting would just rock.

I was on Pinterest this morning and found this artist, Robert Joyner, who is a painter from Richmond, Virginia. I love his cow paintings. I see cows more than I see my friends. Sometimes I think the cows are my friends. What???

I love all of his paintings, but the one above is what I have my heart set on.

Go check him out… http://www.robertjoynerartist.com/portfolio/

Look at his horse paintings too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I lost my wedding ring

Posted on October 27, 2011 by Kallie

I can honestly say I never ever ever ever in a million years expected this to happen. This is my therapy, putting it all down in words. Also the picture above has nothing to do with this post. I just fancy it.

Clint had been in town visiting for a few days and was packing up his things to head back to Starkville. I was attempting to help but honestly just ended up walking around the yard and saying “Need any help with anything?” every five or ten minutes. Luke was shooting the target with his new bow he had purchased over the weekend and the dogs were out on the lawn wrestling. It was the most gorgeous Tuesday afternoon you could imagine. The weekend had just ended for us (we always drag them out through Monday) and it was a blur of laughter, singing and playing air guitar in my kitchen. We had worn ourselves out and so on Tuesday, we were just relaxed-to-the-max.

The reason I have to tell everyone that we were very relaxed and nothing wild was going on is because I have this tiny itty bitty reputation for losing things, usually on weekends where I stay up too late. But in this case, I swear to you, I was calm as could be, soaking up the fall afternoon in my own backyard.

The last time I saw my diamond I was in the yard sitting on Luke’s lap and he was sitting on top of the bow target. Clint was standing in front of us and they were talking about ducks or deer or something hunting-related, and I remember glancing down at my left hand and noticing how sparkly the diamond looked in that moment.

Here are the events that happened after, leading up to the moment that I realized the diamond center stone to my ring was in fact missing.

-Clint asked me to help him hook up the trailer so he could bring it back to Starkville.

-Clint and I played with Foxy, the new puppy, for a few minutes and then he left for Starkville.

-Luke and I walked to the storage room to grab a fishing pole.

-Luke and I walked down to the bank and fished for about twenty minutes.

-We walked back up to the house and I chased the dogs around for two minutes.

-I walked up the stairs, into the kitchen and sat down at my computer.

-I glanced down at my hand while I was typing and realized my center stone was gone and there was a huge, empty hole in my setting.

Immediately I looked at Luke and no words were necessary. I held up my left hand and he saw the empty hole and said, “There is no way.” I froze and told him to come stand by my chair and when I stood up to check the floor and listen for anything that might fall out of my lap. I thought that just maybe the diamond might have fallen out when I was inside my house–but there was nothing.

Luke ran downstairs immediately and started scanning the lawn. I was already hopeless. I had been down by the lake, over in the side yard helping Clint with the trailer, in the storage room, chasing the dogs around the entire yard–it could have fallen out anywhere! Even if we were going to scan the yard, it wasn’t like I knew exactly when and where it fell out. We’d have to scan all 2.5 acres and there was just no way.

“Is my ring insured?”, I asked myself. Yes. Yes it was. We had it combined with our homeowners insurance and that gave me some peace of mind. I’m sure it would be a pain in the butt to file the claim, but at least we were covered. Luke was still in the yard scanning but I was sitting at the kitchen counter just staring at the empty round hole in my beautiful antique setting.

The next morning I woke up and the first thing I thought about was my ring. It felt so weird to not have it on my hand and I swallowed the reality that it was gone forever. Luke, however, woke up and started scanning the yard again. I teased myself with thoughts that the sunlight would hit the diamond and Luke would see a sparkle through the overgrown grass. We would rejoice and forever tell the story about the day I lost my diamond and Luke found it laying by the oak tree in the side yard. I went on with my day and by that afternoon, I had accepted that the diamond wasn’t coming back. I picked up the phone to call our insurance agent and begin the claim process.

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“Hi Rob! Can you pull up my wedding ring insurance? You’ll never believe but my center stone fell out while I was in the yard yesterday.”

“Sure…one second. Actually I don’t have that account anymore. I was insuring the ring through your old house but when you and Luke moved into your new house,  you must have switched over to a new provider.”

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My heart sank. I had a gut feeling. One of those feelings that you despise because you know something just ain’t right. Did we remember to put the ring on our new insurance policy? Oh please please please tell me that we remembered. I called Luke frantic.

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“Honey, I just got off the phone with Rob. He said the ring was covered in our home insurance but when we sold the old house we switched providers. Did we remember to add the ring to our new policy?”

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Luke was silent. My stomach hurt, my heart sank, my eyes filled with tears. We had just sold the old house three months ago. THREE MONTHS. Luke and I had moved into our new home on Lake Whittington last October, but we still owned the old house until it finally sold at the end of the summer. How could we overlook the ring? And why would the diamond not fall out during the three years that we had been insured? Why would the diamond have to fall out during the three months that we were not insured? Why why why? That was my beautiful engagement ring that meant the world to me and I simply could not live without it. Thousands of dollars, lost somewhere in the yard or by the lake. It is just gone. Gone forever. How would I get over this?

Later on that same day, I got a text from my best friend Kathryn. She had attended a funeral earlier that morning for a young man, around our age, that passed away this past weekend. I know several people who knew him and from what I hear, he was an amazing friend and husband. She told me that the funeral was deeply emotional and we talked about how moments like that really put things in perspective. All I could think about is the wife of the man who died. The thought of losing someone so close to me, like my husband or my mother or my best friend–well honestly I can’t even imagine. And every single day, people lose their loved ones and are forced to find the strength to be at peace and move on.

Talk about putting things in perspective…

I lost a ring. Actually, not even the ring. Just the diamond that goes in the ring.

It is so small and insignificant when you compare it to losing a loved one.

I’m not going to worry about that diamond ring anymore. If someone finds it one day then I will rejoice and know it was meant to be. But in the meantime, I’m just going to be thankful for what I have and wrap my arms around the things that really matter in this short time we have here on this earth.

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