I was at Home Depot with my dad looking for paint when I got the call to open for Taylor Swift. That was wild, because I was crying in Home Depot, and people were looking at me funny.
I build an entire fort out of pillows. I need at least four pillows. I need on each side, I need one normal usage pillow for the back of my head, and I need another pillow just in case.
I don't have any weird night rituals. I definitely am a ritualistic person... I like to go downstairs and remind my roommate-drummer not to practice early the next morning, so I can sleep in.
I resolved to start journaling every day, and so far I've been journaling every day, and it's been great.
I'm flattered anytime someone has taken enough time to listen to me and make a connection to someone else, honestly. I feel very lucky that a lot of my influences are the ones that people will tweet to me that I remind them of.
My first place in Nashville was like 'Animal House.' The whole band lived under one roof, and most nights the jam sessions ended close to sunrise.
I'm in this really cool place in my career, where the stage I'm on that night, whether it's the Paisley tour, the CMT tour, or a bar with 10 people in it, it is the most important show I've ever played in my life. I go to the ends of my imagination to do something that's unforgettable every night.
I feel like I am in turbo mode as a student of entertainment.
I kind of feel like I didn't have much choice. The songs... the playing... those were the only things that ever really kept my attention.
Having a first single is such a great opportunity for any artist... I'm very appreciative of the support country radio's given 'Could It Be.'
The single most exciting thing that happened for me was getting to spend some time in the studio with both Marty Stuart and Vince Gill.
You know, I only claim to play three instruments. My dad is a banker, but a drummer at heart; and my mom used to teach piano lessons when she was younger. So I can play some piano, play a little drums, and fake the bass - but banjo, mandolin, and guitar are my thing.
I had a long, long time to make 'Rubberband,' and I originally thought that that record would last two years. Once I got over realizing that that's not gonna happen, and sort of got my perspective back, I realized, 'Man I'm really fortunate. I get to write music, make music for a living.'
I feel like you become a songwriter when you claim that it's sort of like a switch flipped, and you're always writing. Even in your sleep, you're always thinking about it in the back of your mind. The true writing - when you're officially writing - that's just when its front of mind, but its always there. You're always listening for a hook.
I definitely am a ritualistic person.
I'm flattered anytime someone has taken enough time to listen to me and make a connection to someone else, honestly.
'Rubberband' is a lot of things, but it's not a flashy record.
My favorite thing about guitar, and the thing that always drew me to it when I was first learning to play it, was those moments when you think you know what it might sound like, but you don't, and then you hit it, and it's a total surprise. You hear it with really fresh ears. Alternate tunings, for me, they give that back.
When I'm at home or in the studio, I have a 1963 Martin. It's a D-28, and I love that guitar. I write on that guitar, and it's the first guitar that I put a pickup in and ran through an amplifier, splitting the signal to the amplifier and a DI or in the studio mic'ing it traditionally and putting an amp in the other room.
Back in I want to say 2011, Taylor Swift was on her 'Speak Now' tour. She was kind enough to bring me out as one of the openers on that tour. Between her and Miranda Lambert, who also helped me out that year, I got a pretty non-typical first tour as a fellow artist.
