Summary
The Fretliners prepare to release their highly anticipated second studio album, showcasing their evolution as a band and their deep roots in the Colorado music scene. Known for their unique sound, which blends traditional bluegrass with contemporary influences, the band reflects on the journey leading up to this moment, emphasizing the hard work and collaboration that went into the new record.
The recording process, which took place over three intense days, involved capturing the band live around a single microphone, a method that allowed them to maintain their organic sound while also introducing special guests like Molly Tuttle. The band members share insights into their songwriting process, revealing how personal experiences and relationships have shaped their music. They express excitement about the album's release and the opportunity to perform live, highlighting the emotional connection they have with their songs and the stories behind them.
As they gear up for their album release show at the Bluebird Theater, the Fretliners are eager to share their new music with fans, emphasizing the importance of supporting artists directly through merchandise and live performances. The band’s commitment to their craft and their community is evident, as they look forward to what lies ahead in their musical journey.
Show Notes
🔥🪕 The Fretliners are back in the dungeon, and more importantly, their brand new album When the Kettle Sings drops TODAY. This episode is all about the record. We dig into the two-year process behind it, how the band wanted to capture something more raw and alive, and what happened when T Bone Burnett and Daniel Tashian helped bring that vision into focus. 🎙️🔥 Instead of building the album piece by piece, The Fretliners leaned into what they already do best: 🎻 Playing together in a room 🎙️ Gathering around a single mic 🚫 No click tracks 🎧 No headphones 📼 Real tape 🔥 Real performances They walked into the studio for three days and came out with 15 songs recorded, letting the imperfections, movement, and chemistry of the band become part of the record instead of trying to polish all of it away. We go track by track through some of the stories behind When the Kettle Sings, including: 🐢 “Snapping Turtle” and the actual snapping turtle that inspired it ❤️ “Stitch Up My Heart” and the deeply personal story behind the song 👻 The unexplained sound captured at the end of that recording 🎙️ Molly Tuttle joining them on “Josephina” 🎻 Stuart Duncan coming in and absolutely doing Stuart Duncan things 🌧️ The Grateful Dead connections hidden inside “Bells of Rafael” 🤠 Riders in the Sky appearing on “The Stone” 🔥 Why “Storms” went from a last-minute addition to the opening track And we talk about how this album represents where The Fretliners are right now after everything that has changed, evolved, and grown since their first record. There’s a lot of history on this thing. A lot of emotion. A lot of incredible players. But underneath all of it, When the Kettle Sings still sounds like four dudes standing around a microphone playing the hell out of some songs. And that might be the coolest part. 🎧 When the Kettle Sings is OUT TODAY. Go listen to the record. Go buy the vinyl. Go support the band. Then come hang out with us in the dungeon and hear how the whole damn thing came together. 🪕🔥🎙️ 👉 thefretliners.com
More from What's The Reason For This Podcast
🔥🪕 The Fretliners took over the dungeon for a WTRFT Session, and this one is the perfect companion piece to When the Kettle Sings. They came in swinging with songs off the brand new record, stripped down around the mic and played the way this band does best: live, loose, and ridiculously tight. 🎶 In the session: 🌲 “Whippoorwill” A groovy opener that immediately sets the tone. 🐢 “Snapping Turtle” An instrumental Sam literally wrote after finding a giant snapping turtle while out with his mandolin. Which is already weird enough. Then we made it even dumber. There’s a perfect little knock in the song that I immediately decided needed a confetti cannon 💥🎉 and then Tom had the brilliant idea to hit the second one from behind the band. So naturally, “Snapping Turtle” got the full DOUBLE CONFETTI CANNON treatment. 😂🎉💥🎉 Completely unnecessary. Absolutely worth it. 🍂 “Autumn Rivers Bend” A beautiful one about life on the road, time moving too fast, and wanting to get back home to the person you love. ❤️ 🌌 “Hole in the Sky” One of my personal favorites off the album and another reminder of how damn good these guys sound live. This session is exactly why I love having bands in the dungeon. No huge production. No bullshit. Just great songs, great players, a microphone, and apparently enough confetti to permanently ruin my carpet. 😂 🎥 The full Fretliners WTRFT Session is live now 🎧 When the Kettle Sings is out now Go watch the session. Go listen to the record. Then go support the damn band. 🔥🪕🎙️
🌱🎻 Grassfed Bluegrass is growing up fast, and Riley and Miller came on WTRFT to talk about how the hell they’re pulling it off. They went from bluegrass fans and festival volunteers to building their own festival on the Outer Banks and basically learning everything as they go. 😅 We get into: 🎟️ Booking bands 🏕️ Finding the right venue 🍺 Beer, vendors and logistics 🚽 The extremely glamorous world of porta potties 📱 Social media and marketing 👕 Merch 🚗 Parking 💸 Ticket sales 😬 And the constant feeling of “oh shit, we actually have to make this happen” We also talk about how Billy Strings helped pull them deeper into bluegrass, how volunteering at other festivals taught them what happens behind the scenes, and why they’ve built Grassfed around community, quality, good people and doing things the right way. 🌱❤️🎶 And of course, we tell the story of how I met Riley and Miller… 🥶 Freezing in line in Asheville 🥃 Shooters 📜 A Billy Strings poster 😂 Me folding that poster directly in front of Miller 😳 Miller looking at me like she had just witnessed a felony Somehow, years later, those same people decided it would be a good idea to bring me in to emcee their festival. 🎤🔥 This year’s lineup is stacked: 🔥 ShadowGrass 🪕 East Nash Grass 🧭 Broken Compass 🏡 Front Porch 🎻 All She Wrote 🌹 Red Bud 🎶 Pickety Split 🚐 Podunk Ramblers Eight bands. Two stages. One day. 🌱🎶🔥 🎧 Full episode with the founders of Grassfed Bluegrass is live now 📍 Nags Head, North Carolina 🎟️ Use code WTRFT at grassfedbluegrass.com for discounted tickets Come for the bluegrass. Stay to find out why anyone thought giving me a microphone was a good idea. 😂🎤🌱
🔥 Water Tower 💦 finally made it into the dungeon and this one is equal parts bluegrass, punk rock, busking, internet chaos, and good old fashioned DIY hustle. These guys call themselves punk rock bluegrass, which sounds confusing until you hear the story. They started with traditional string music, punk rock roots, DIY flyers, busking on freeway off ramps, and a whole lot of figuring it out as they went. Then the pandemic hit, touring disappeared, and somehow that pushed them even harder into building a community online. 🎶 We get into: 🪕 How Water Tower went from square dances to punk rock bluegrass 🚦 Busking on LA freeway off ramps at 6 in the morning 🎻 How the current lineup found each other through busking and random musical collisions 🎸 Why Bela Fleck, Punch Brothers, punk rock, jazz, and old time music all somehow fit in the same universe 📱 How they built an online following without losing the human connection ❤️ Kenny’s approach to dealing with internet hate by giving people more kindness instead of more bullshit 📸 How Jessica became the secret weapon behind their content and helped turn the band into a digital machine 🤝 Collaborations with artists like Sierra Ferrell, Nick Hexum, John C. Reilly, and more 🎟️ The very real challenge of turning views into actual people buying tickets The funniest part might be that half this band basically met because somebody was busking in somebody else’s spot. 😂 But underneath all the chaos, this episode is really about community, persistence, and refusing to wait for permission. Water Tower built this thing from freeway ramps, sidewalks, livestreams, liquor stores, social media, and a lot of weird little moments that somehow kept stacking into something bigger. And through all of it, their whole philosophy is pretty simple: Love the music. Love the people. Keep showing up. ❤️🎶 🎧 New episode with Water Tower is live now Go watch it. Go listen to it. Buy the ticket before the day of the show. And if you see somebody busking on an LA off ramp at 6 a.m. maybe don’t ignore them. They might end up at Telluride. 😂🔥
🎸🔥 Jon Stickley finally made it onto WTRFT and this one goes DEEP. We talk Broke Mountain, learning bluegrass on the fly, the difference between East Coast and Colorado bluegrass, the influence of Jeff Austin, and what happens when a guitar player gets so good that he starts casually discovering new things he didn’t even know he could do. 😂 We also get into: 🪕 The absolutely ridiculous Broke Mountain lineup 🎶 Going from punk and indie rock to flatpicking bluegrass 🏔️ How Colorado changed the way he heard the music 🔥 Playing the Jeff Austin tribute and trading licks with Courtlyn 🥁 Why the Jon Stickley Trio basically said “nah” to the normal bluegrass rulebook 🎸 Building a sound around weird rhythms, different chords, and late-night festival chaos 🤝 Playing with Larry Keel and trying to make your heroes laugh onstage And then the episode takes a much more personal turn. Jon opens up about his son Callum, his STXBP1 diagnosis, and how his family turned one of the hardest moments of their lives into Strings for Callum, using the music community to raise awareness and money for research. ❤️ That part really says everything about this scene. When somebody needs help, people show up. We also talk about Jon’s new teaching platform, where he’s taking everything he learned the hard way and breaking it down for the rest of us regular wooks who need the video slowed down another 37 times. 😂🎸 🎧 New episode with Jon Stickley is live now Go watch it. Go listen to it. Support Team Callum. And if you’ve ever wondered how somebody becomes an absolute monster on guitar, apparently the answer is practice for 20 years and then still tell everyone you’re figuring it out. 😂🔥
🔥 Season 3 keeps getting weirder in the best way. This week we’ve got Austin Kress, better known as Stony McBlaze, in the dungeon and this one is a full send. 😂🌿🎤 Austin breaks down how a homeschooled Christian kid chasing serious acting in LA somehow turned into one of the internet’s favorite stoners, built a massive following, ended up at the X Games, and then had to figure out how the hell to turn viral fame into an actual comedy career. 🎤 We get into: 🌿 How Stony McBlaze was born 📱 Going viral almost immediately on TikTok 🚀 Riding the algorithm straight to the X Games 💸 Why millions of views do NOT automatically mean millions of dollars 🎭 The difference between playing Stony and being Austin on stage 😂 Why writing stand-up as Stony completely failed 🎟️ The absolutely ridiculous story of almost getting an Austin show cancelled with eight tickets sold 📲 Why having a huge following does not mean people will actually leave their couch and buy a ticket 🧠 Building jokes from real life instead of chasing cheap shock value 🎤 Trying to evolve from “Stony McBlaze” into Austin McBlaze without confusing the hell out of everyone 🍦 And, obviously, a completely necessary breakdown of elite stoner snacks The funniest part of this episode might be Austin explaining that one of his biggest problems is that people know Stony McBlaze but have no clue he actually does stand-up. Which is a pretty wild problem to have when hundreds of thousands of people follow you. 😂 And then there’s the Austin, Texas show… Eight tickets sold. 😬 A pissed-off venue. 😡 Random people overseas buying tickets. 🌍 A last-minute social media rally. 📲 And somehow a packed room and a great show at the end of it. 😂🔥 Underneath all the stoner jokes and chaos, this is also a really good conversation about creative identity, social media, stand-up, failure, vulnerability, and figuring out how to turn internet attention into something real. 🎧 Season 3 Episode 3 is live now 🌿 Follow Stony McBlaze 🎤 Go see Austin do stand-up when he comes to your city 📲 And for the love of God, if you say you’re coming to the show... BUY THE TICKET. 😂🔥