About the Show
Music City Roots
A weekly concert and live radio show presented from The Loveless Cafe Barn in Nashville, TN.
This week’s musical guests include Alex Williams (hard country), Darrin Bradbury (sardonic songs), Lost Hollow (married Nashville duo), and the Cordovas (trippy country rock). Enjoy!
Alex Williams was born just outside Indianapolis, in the small town of Pendleton, IN. After graduating from high school, he relocated to Nashville for a short-lived stint at Belmont University, but he quickly dropped out after realizing he could learn more about life by hitting the road and experiencing it than he ever could in a classroom.
Williams had a band with some of his former college classmates, and by the time he was ready to make the leap and go solo, buzz about the group had caught the ear of Big Machine Label Group’s Julian Raymond. While Big Machine might be best known as home to crossover stars like Taylor Swift, Raymond’s illustrious pedigree as a GRAMMY-winning songwriter and producer included work with old school greats like Glen Campbell and Hank Williams Jr., and he sensed something special in Williams.
“I was worried,” remembers Williams. “I was 25, leaving this band, and I had no idea where my career was going to go, but Julian gave me a chance. He invited me to come by and start recording demos of my songs, and we probably ended up doing 50 or 60 of them. We kept slimming it down, but I kept writing.”
When it was time to head into the studio for proper recording sessions, Williams and Raymond pieced together an all-star band featuring some of Nashville’s finest musicians: drummer Victor Indrizzo (Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris), keyboard player Matt Rollings (Lyle Lovett, Mark Knopfler), bassist Joeie Canaday (Leann Rimes, Steven Curtis Chapman), pedal steel player Dan Dugmore (James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt), and guitarists Tom Bukovac (Don Henley, Stevie Nicks) and J.T. Corenflos (Dolly Parton, Alan Jackson).
Williams has never been one to pull a punch in his deeply personal songwriting. On the fingerpicked “Pay No Mind,” he imparts hard-won insight about what (and who) really matters, while the folky “Freak Flag” is a devil-may-care ode to being yourself, and “Little Too Stoned” laments the loss of the authentic in favor of our society’s obsession with the latest trends and fads. Elsewhere on the album, the hard-charging “Hell Bent Hallelujah” offers up a profane prayer for some good news, the infectious “More Than Survival” insists on living a life that’s more meaningful than just getting by, and “A Few Short Miles” draws inspiration from a figure Williams met during those early days onstage in Texas.
Darrin Bradbury is modern Americana-Folk Satarist-No Point Storyteller known for off-color folk music celebrating the humor & heartbreak of the American underbelly, with songs of roadkill, junkies, Daffy Duck & Danzig.
Lost Hollow is dynamic band comprised of two singers, Tommy and Lorrie Harden. Tommy has been a Nashville ‘A’ team studio musician for years. During his stint in Nashville, he as played on an estimated 7-10,000 recording sessions. Tommy has played on sessions for Taylor Swift, Alan Jackson, Craig Campbell, Kip Moore, Reba McEntire, David Allen Coe, Waylon Jennings, Lo Cash Cowboys, Tamia, Candi Staton, Big and Rich, John Anderson, George Jones, Jessica Simpson, and countless others. He has played on number 1 songs including “I Drive Your Truck” (ACM and CMA song of the year), “Girl I Just Got Started Loving You’ (most played song of the year), ‘Lost In This Moment’ (Big and Rich’s only #1 hit), and many, many others.
Tommy has played at the White House, on Good Morning America, the Today Show, the View, The Ellen Show, Oprah, Regis and Kelly, the Tonight Show, the David Letterman show, and has also has a screen credited appearance in the movie Muscle Shoals.
As Nashville based songwriters, Tommy and Lorrie got not 1, but 2 cuts on Reba McEntire’s double platinum selling album ‘Duets’. They included a song with Reba and Faith Hill called ‘Sleeping with a Telephone’ and another with Reba and Carole King called ‘Everyday People’, which was also performed live at the Kennedy center with Reba and Carole in front of the President and the entire nation via NBC. (As far as we know, we’re the only outside writers to ever get a Carole King cut that she didn’t write).
Lost Hollow has appeared on the Bob Harris ‘Under the Apple Tree’ sessions and has toured England, Wales, and Ireland on many trips to the Uk as well as appearing on the BBC via many different radio shows.
Lost Hollow has been described as an emotional powerhouse. Two amazing voices weaving intricate and powerful songs.
Cordovas are an Americana / Rock band from Nashville, TN. They are currently on tour in Europe and the US.
