Corrections_Today_November_December_2021_Vol.83_No.6

TP What was it like to work with the Fisk Jubilee Singers? (The Fisk Jubilee Singers are an African-American a cappella en- semble, consisting of students at Fisk University in Nashville) RA That’s some talented kids. They asked me to do a song with them at the Ryman Auditorium. It blew me away the spirit they sung with. It’s electric. It really hit me, it’s what music is supposed to do. I just got Caught up in the Country is one of those tunes ... Some people go to church and think about fishing and some people go fishing and think about God. I wanted to capture that somehow so when I asked them to sing on that record they said yeah. It was wild, it was fun. TP It takes you a while to release a record. What’s your creative process like? RA First, I love what I do. I say I’m not a producer or a singer, I’m a song mechanic. I love to work on songs. I take my time when I’m working on all this stuff. It’s not about necessarily finishing; it’s about being all-in for that one line when you are writing a song. You don’t remember the stuff you went through ... I say writing songs is like making sausage it’s not cool to see how it’s made but boy it’s good when you’re done. I just take my time I don’t

get in a hurry. I live every single part of it. Record labels, managers don’t like it but it is what it is. TP You’ve done shows all over the world. What’s your best experience on stage and have you had any train wreak like performances? RA What popped into my head, it wasn’t a production it was me and a guitar at a Forward Operating Base (FOB) in Afghanistan just surrounded by Marines and Army medics just singing songs and forgetting where we are; losing track of time. It’s magic. It’s real. It gets me now hearing the guys singing Farmer’s Daughter. The first time I went to Afghanistan we went to a FOB. It was raining, muddy and I started singing a tune of mine called “It’s America” and right when I started singing the chorus an IED exploded, and it just shook me singing “It’s America” and that happened. They had to take off. I can’t sing that song without thinking about that. The worst was probably at the Country Music Awards. I was singing and all of a sudden, the music stopped. You have these ear monitors, and I couldn’t hear anything and my band for some reason was playing in a different key. It was a train wreak! Supposedly they said we couldn’t tell anything was wrong I guess I’m really that bad. →

Corrections Today November/December 2021 — 49