Ep. 810: The Perfect Country and Western Song

Steven Rinella https://www.instagram.com/stevenrinella/?hl=en talks with Reid Isbell https://www.themeateater.com/listen/gods-country, Dan Isbell https://www.themeateater.com/listen/gods-country, and Clay Newcomb https://www.themeateater.com/listen/bear-grease. Topics discussed: Hosting MeatEater's God's Country podcast; Music Row and where music is made; yet another North vs. South thing; professional song-writing skills; a song about a mule; and more. Connect with Steve https://www.themeateater.com/authors/steven-rinella and The MeatEater Podcast Network https://www.youtube.com/@MeatEaterPodcastNetwork Steve on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/stevenrinella and Twitter https://twitter.com/stevenrinella?lang=en MeatEater on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/meateater, Facebook https://www.facebook.com/StevenRinellaMeatEater/, Twitter https://twitter.com/MeatEaterTV?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor, and YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@MeatEaterPodcastNetwork See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 1:40Steven Rinella?

  Okay, everyone, we're on day two of our Meat Eater Live Christmas Tour. We're in Nashville. What does anybody think? I'm gonna think of Nashville, I think of music. We're on Music Row. I'm here with the hosts of God's Country Podcast, Dan Reid Isbell, Ronny Hunt. What up? And we're in a place where you guys make music.

• 1:55Speaker 03

  Yeah, literally. We've made, we've made music in this room.

• 1:58Steven Rinella?

  And we're on a street known for music making.

• 2:01Speaker 04

  I mean, arguably the most legendary music street in the country.

• 2:05Steven Rinella?

  Music Row.

• 2:06Speaker 03

  We're kind of in between them. Sixteenth and Seventeenth is, is the legendary music row in Nashville. And they just run parallel to each other. One way this way on Sixteenth, one way that way on Seventeenth.

• 2:14Steven Rinella?

  So fair to say hundreds of the songs you know have been touched.

• 2:19Speaker 03

  Thousands.

• 2:19Steven Rinella?

  Thousands. Thousands have been touched on this street.

• 2:21Speaker 03

  Absolutely.

• 2:22Steven Rinella?

  And not only that, let's get down to brass tacks.

• 2:24Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 2:24Steven Rinella?

  The building, it's a music building.

• 2:26Speaker 03

  Indeed. A lot of history with it.

• 2:28Steven Rinella?

  The room is a music room. I'm just trying to establish our credentials.

• 2:32Speaker 03

  Allegedly.

• 2:32Speaker 04

  No, this is a legit studio. I mean, this was a vocal booth. If you, if you were to pull this down, you'd see a big glass window where artists converse with producers on what to play, what to sing.

• 2:44Steven Rinella?

  Like they have all those levers.

• 2:46Speaker 04

  We call them knob jockeys, but.

• 2:49Steven Rinella?

  Knob jockeys.

• 2:50Speaker 04

  I wouldn't use that loosely.

• 2:51Steven Rinella?

  Dolly Parton's been in this building.

• 2:53Speaker 04

  Indeed.

• 2:53Steven Rinella?

  Recorded. Tammy Wynette's been in this building. George Jones been in this building allegedly, allegedly.

• 2:58Speaker 03

  Together, maybe.

• 2:59Steven Rinella?

  Together, maybe.

• 2:59Speaker 03

  Maybe in this room.

• 3:00Speaker 04

  I'm not one to say.

• 3:01Speaker 03

  Um.

• 3:02Speaker 04

  Hiding.

• 3:02Steven Rinella?

  So I'm just establishing our credentials that we're in a music room.

• 3:05Speaker 04

  Oh, babe.

• 3:06Steven Rinella?

  I would venture to say you're in the, you're in the heart of the country music creation.

• 3:13Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 3:13Speaker 05

  Steve, this is, this is why I've brought you here.

• 3:17Steven Rinella?

  No, I brought you here.

• 3:19Speaker 05

  No, I brought you here because.

• 3:20Speaker 03

  I mean, arguably, we brought both of you here.

• 3:23Speaker 05

  This is.

• 3:23Steven Rinella?

  I brought you here.

• 3:24Speaker 05

  This is the American South, and this is where music is made.

• 3:27Steven Rinella?

  Yeah, Clay one day.

• 3:28Speaker 05

  Steve has a, Steve has a beef with me because one time I said, music is important to people in the South. That's all I said.

• 3:39Steven Rinella?

  It's not in the North was the implication.

• 3:41Speaker 03

  Right.

• 3:41Steven Rinella?

  He's like, well, you don't understand. Music's very important to people in the South.

• 3:45Speaker 04

  It's kind of like fried fish.

• 3:47Speaker 03

  Well.

• 3:47Speaker 04

  Fried fish is very important to people in the South.

• 3:49Speaker 05

  What I was trying to say was that like.

• 3:51Speaker 04

  Is it important to people in the North?

• 3:52Steven Rinella?

  More important.

• 3:53Speaker 04

  Fried fish.

• 3:53Steven Rinella?

  More important.

• 3:54Speaker 04

  No chance.

• 3:55Speaker 03

  Questionable.

• 3:56Steven Rinella?

  It's more important. And I, I just brought up, I'm like, tell, go tell the people in Motown about how special music is in the South. Well, I don't want to burn our time up. These guys got a hard out. We have a song to write.

• 4:09Speaker 04

  It's my kids' Christmas play. That's the only reason. Otherwise, I'd stay all day.

• 4:12Steven Rinella?

  Okay, that is important. I thought you had like big time country music stuff to attend to.

• 4:17Speaker 04

  Not today.

• 4:17Steven Rinella?

  The Christmas play.

• 4:18Speaker 03

  Absolutely not.

• 4:18Speaker 04

  I wouldn't be wearing a college shirt if it wasn't for my kids' Christmas play.

• 4:21Steven Rinella?

  Uh, here's what I want to do. I want to show, I want to give people a glimpse, but uh, into what you do for a living and what happens on this street. But I want, can you guys touch on your, sort of your day job, right? Like your, your, your career and what you do in music writing?

• 4:39Speaker 04

  Sure.

• 4:39Steven Rinella?

  What, what services you provide and how that world works very quickly?

• 4:44Speaker 03

  Yeah, we're Lunch Pail songwriters, what we like to call them. Uh, and we, we write three, four days a week right here on Music Row. Sometimes we write in this room. Now we write three or four days a week. There was, it was a time we were writing five days a week, sometimes doubles.

• 4:57Steven Rinella?

  Okay.

• 4:58Speaker 03

  Yeah, but we've got, we've got publishers or pluggers that we write for or sign to. I'm signed to 50 Egg. Dan signed to Sony and uh, they schedule out our rights way in advance and so.

• 5:09Steven Rinella?

  They schedule it?

• 5:10Speaker 03

  Yeah, we do too. We do a lot of that too now. Um, but most of the time they do and we'll look at, on Sunday, you'll look at your calendar for Monday and see that you're writing with X, this X writer and this X writer at Sony at 11 o'clock and you roll up at 10:45, do a little chat and say what's up, catch up with everybody. Head into the room at 11 and do a chatting for about 30 minutes again and then you start scrolling through ideas and, and seeing what, what artist, if you've got buddies that's cutting a record.

• 5:40Speaker 04

  I don't think it's any secret. We're friends with Luke Combs. So a lot of times people will come in and sit down with us and go, "Hey, man, when's Luke cutting?" We'll be like, "Oh, man, he's two years out."

• 5:48Speaker 03

  What does Luke need?

• 5:48Speaker 04

  Off the table, right? There's no sense in even trying.

• 5:51Steven Rinella?

  So that's how you move beyond that?

• 5:52Speaker 04

  So if you're six months out and you go, "Oh, man, he's looking for a song uh, about hunting." Then this guy might go, "It's crazy. I have this hook." Praying in a deer stand or whatever it is.

• 6:04Speaker 03

  Title idea.

• 6:05Steven Rinella?

  And then praying in a deer stand dude, that's way better than what I got for you.

• 6:08Speaker 04

  Okay, we'll see.

• 6:09Speaker 03

  We can write that if you want to.

• 6:11Speaker 05

  Pray praying in a mule saddle.

• 6:13Steven Rinella?

  So why, okay, what, so I brought Clay down.

• 6:16Speaker 04

  Yeah. Oh, you brought him.

• 6:17Steven Rinella?

  I brought Clay down.

• 6:18Speaker 04

  It's debatable.

• 6:19Steven Rinella?

  To workshop, because I wanted to see you guys in work. So the best I could come up with, I'm not a songwriter.

• 6:24Speaker 04

  Sure you are.

• 6:24Steven Rinella?

  I was gonna pitch you guys, I was gonna be the guy that comes in and I'm gonna pitch you on an idea of a song that you could develop about how mules are better than horses.

• 6:32Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 6:33Steven Rinella?

  Now, look, I'm gonna be honest. I don't know a whole lot about mules.

• 6:36Speaker 03

  That's, that's why I'm here. I can give you the bullet points.

• 6:40Steven Rinella?

  Okay.

• 6:40Speaker 03

  And to be honest, we don't know a lot about horses either.

• 6:43Steven Rinella?

  Well, this is Clay's lifetime, he needs a song to go with this because this is his lifetime battle anyways.

• 6:49Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 6:49Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 6:49Steven Rinella?

  So maybe you're the artist and we are the songwriter helping, which is what we do. And I'm the producer. Well.

• 6:58Speaker 03

  I need one for sure.

• 6:59Speaker 04

  More like produce bag.

• 7:01Steven Rinella?

  You play the part.

• 7:02Speaker 04

  Producer, you're the producer.

• 7:03Speaker 05

  So this is, this is like really high stakes for me. I need a song that carries.

• 7:08Speaker 04

  Okay, now I wanna do it.

• 7:10Speaker 05

  That carries the data, the facts, but also the culture, the attitude.

• 7:15Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 7:15Speaker 05

  The fire and the bones of the overlooked mule people.

• 7:20Speaker 04

  Passion about this.

• 7:22Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 7:23Speaker 04

  So you know about Columbia, Tennessee, right?

• 7:24Speaker 05

  Yeah, yeah, that big mule cell.

• 7:26Speaker 04

  Mule Town, yeah, race brothers. We got everything down there. Mule Town Coffee.

• 7:30Speaker 05

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah.

• 7:31Speaker 04

  It's pretty slick.

• 7:32Speaker 05

  I've never, I haven't, I haven't been there.

• 7:33Speaker 03

  You can probably grand marshal it someday, dude.

• 7:35Speaker 04

  Well, easy, we can put you in for that.

• 7:37Speaker 05

  I mean.

• 7:37Speaker 03

  You can, you can put your mules in and there's a mule competition.

• 7:40Speaker 05

  Get their guitars.

• 7:41Speaker 04

  I mean, I know where.

• 7:42Speaker 05

  They already written the song.

• 7:43Steven Rinella?

  They're lunch pail songwriters, dude.

• 7:45Speaker 05

  I think, I think.

• 7:46Steven Rinella?

  They need to be home by dinnertime, so they'll just pack the lunch.

• 7:49Speaker 04

  You can get back by two, man.

• 7:50Speaker 05

  The song, the song needs some like real specific data that a mule or horse person would be like, dang, he's right. But it also needs like a catchy hook that.

• 8:01Speaker 03

  Put that cape on.

• 8:01Speaker 05

  Okay, so, so here, here's, here's the scoop. For every.

• 8:07Speaker 05

  Hundred horses, there's probably two mules in the country.

• 8:12Speaker 03

  I mean, I think that's a great starting line.

• 8:16Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 8:17Speaker 03

  Yeah, can I have that?

• 8:18Speaker 04

  You're just gonna put that line in there?

• 8:19Speaker 05

  Well, well, it gets, it gets way better than that.

• 8:22Speaker 03

  You know what I mean?

• 8:23Speaker 05

  Well, but it's gotta, it's gotta bring this.

• 8:28Speaker 04

  Say forever, horse.

• 8:29Speaker 05

  Well, let me give it a hop.

• 8:31Speaker 04

  Okay, I know what you're saying, there ain't but two, every hundred horses, there ain't but two mules.

• 8:37Speaker 05

  He's already got it.

• 8:41Speaker 05

  Well, that, now they're thinking we're dumb, though. I mean, we got, it's like, it's like, it's got a, it's got a.

• 8:47Speaker 04

  We need more than forty-five minutes.

• 8:48Speaker 05

  Like special, but a, but a mule is a four-wheel drive horse.

• 8:52Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 8:53Speaker 05

  Like, that's kind of a thing. Mules are sure-footed, like, way more sure-footed than a horse. They have more stamina than a horse. They live longer than a horse. They have a longer working life.

• 9:03Speaker 04

  I, I think what I need from you that would make for a great commercial country mule song is maybe, maybe this is a story tune. So I'm sure.

• 9:11Speaker 05

  We need a specific mule.

• 9:12Speaker 04

  I'm sure in your lifetime, you've had, or maybe even a specific instance with a specific mule, like, you're on a mountain and a cat jumps and swipes it, but it doesn't kill it, and the horse falls off the side of the mountain, but your mule stays, and his name is?

• 9:26Speaker 05

  Izzy's my good mule right now.

• 9:28Speaker 04

  Works, that's what, I like that.

• 9:29Speaker 05

  Betty Bay.

• 9:31Speaker 04

  What was that one?

• 9:33Speaker 05

  Slow Trap.

• 9:33Speaker 04

  I said, so what we're gonna do now in Lunchpail's songwriting world is take the three options he just gave us and decide on which one is the hook of your name. Now, one of them may meant more to you than the other.

• 9:43Speaker 05

  Sure, but it doesn't matter.

• 9:44Speaker 04

  But Izzy?

• 9:45Speaker 05

  Betty Bay.

• 9:46Speaker 04

  I mean, that one's hot.

• 9:46Speaker 05

  Betty Bay's great.

• 9:47Speaker 04

  Betty May's hot.

• 9:48Speaker 05

  Betty Bay, so there's even like a.

• 9:50Speaker 04

  Are you saying Bay?

• 9:51Speaker 05

  Betty Bay.

• 9:52Speaker 03

  And that's a little.

• 9:52Speaker 05

  Bays are color.

• 9:53Speaker 03

  That's a little songwriting thing, too, is like, the.

• 9:56Speaker 05

  Betty Bay's also for sale.

• 9:57Speaker 03

  The two Bs.

• 9:58Speaker 04

  Say, this isn't Craigslist, dude.

• 10:00Speaker 05

  Geez, I don't think anybody, you might have somebody.

• 10:03Speaker 04

  That's what this is really all about.

• 10:05Steven Rinella?

  You came all the way here to sell them, you.

• 10:07Speaker 04

  He's like, she has her Columbia, huh?

• 10:09Speaker 05

  Y'all are getting your paycheck, don't worry about this. Just write me a really great song about Betty Bay.

• 10:15Speaker 04

  Okay, I like Betty Bay. What was the other one?

• 10:17Speaker 05

  Uh, Slow Trap, Izzy, Betty Bay, um...

• 10:21Speaker 03

  And you said May is her color.

• 10:22Speaker 04

  No, Bay. B A Y. She's a bay horse.

• 10:24Speaker 03

  She's bay colored.

• 10:26Speaker 05

  So, yeah, she's bay colored. But, I mean, like, the biggest thing that a mule would have would be its sure-footedness and safety in rough country. Like, if you meet somebody with a mule, you're like, this dude's going in some rough country.

• 10:39Speaker 04

  Right.

• 10:39Speaker 05

  Like, this is a, this is a gritty American. But mules are stubborn, they're harder to deal with than a horse, they're harder to train than a horse, but if you get one trained, it's better than a horse.

• 10:52Speaker 04

  Payoffs, man. Okay.

• 10:56Speaker 04

  So, the next-

• 10:57Speaker 03

  I love that for a chorus, like-

• 10:58Speaker 04

  Hold on, hold on, we don't even know what-

• 10:59Speaker 05

  No, no, I'm just working to my brain, like, they might be this, they might be that.

• 11:03Speaker 04

  What do you want this song to sound like?

• 11:05Speaker 05

  Well...

• 11:06Speaker 04

  I mean, should it be up-tempo?

• 11:07Speaker 05

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, like-

• 11:09Speaker 04

  Should it be, like, you know, heavy?

• 11:11Speaker 05

  Like old sleuth foot, like, kinda, kinda fun, kinda bulky.

• 11:18Speaker 04

  We could start out with chorus.

• 11:20Speaker 05

  That's what I'm thinking, like, they might, they, what'd you just say? They might be what? They might be this, they might be that? Well, they're, they're, they're sure-footed, they're made for rough country.

• 11:30Speaker 04

  No, you're saying they're a pain in the ass to raise up, but it's worth it in the end.

• 11:34Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 11:34Speaker 03

  Yeah, what are the, what are the downfalls of them? They might be-

• 11:37Speaker 05

  Well, they're, they're harder to train.

• 11:39Speaker 03

  They might be hard to train.

• 11:42Speaker 05

  They're, they're, a, a, a bad mule is way worse than a bad horse, but a good mule-

• 11:48Speaker 04

  Okay, here, let me-

• 11:49Speaker 05

  Is better than a good horse.

• 11:50Speaker 04

  We gotta save our horse-

• 11:51Speaker 05

  You understand what I'm saying? Like, they're outlaw. If you get an outlaw, you're in trouble.

• 11:54Speaker 04

  Nobody's gonna listen to this. Should we, should we save our horse references, like, for, cause see, here's the thing, we could shit on horses through this entire song, right?

• 12:05Speaker 05

  No doubt.

• 12:06Speaker 04

  But I think the move, I think the move is to pick one poignant moment to shit on a horse and then just keep it honoring the mule instead.

• 12:15Steven Rinella?

  Clay's trying to go low and negative.

• 12:17Speaker 05

  Well-

• 12:18Steven Rinella?

  You guys are trying to go positive.

• 12:19Speaker 04

  Well-

• 12:20Speaker 03

  Positive up-tempo is what makes money.

• 12:23Speaker 04

  Yeah, we're trying to make money or be cool here.

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• 14:44Speaker 04

  Uh, okay.

• 14:45Speaker 05

  It could, it could like,

• 14:48Speaker 05

  start with like a trip to the mountains in Rough Country. Uh, now, I mean, like a personal story where a mule would have come through, would have been carrying a bear hide.

• 14:58Speaker 04

  Love it. Give me two seconds.

• 14:59Speaker 03

  Betty bay, Betty bay.

• 15:03Speaker 05

  For chorus?

• 15:04Speaker 03

  Finest mule was ever made. Finest mule God ever, ever made. Betty bay, Betty bay. Finest mule God ever made.

• 15:20Speaker 05

  Hey, can we put a state in there? Sure.

• 15:23Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 15:25Speaker 04

  Yeah, in a minute.

• 15:25Speaker 05

  I've got one. What, uh, what's the reference for the state? Well, just, I don't know, just like Tennessee stud is really cool. I would love an Arkansas reference.

• 15:36Speaker 04

  Okay, what's Arkansas's, Arkansas what?

• 15:39Speaker 05

  Just, just Arkansas. Arkansas ass.

• 15:42Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah.

• 15:43Speaker 05

  Well, no.

• 15:45Speaker 04

  You don't like any kind of swear words.

• 15:46Speaker 05

  Oh, well, but, but a donk, but it's not a donkey. Like if somebody's trying to insult me, they'll go, hey, get your donkey out of the trailer.

• 15:53Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah. Them spotting words.

• 15:56Speaker 05

  Yeah, don't call my mule a donkey. My bad, my baby.

• 15:58Speaker 04

  My bad, my bad, dude.

• 16:02Speaker 04

  So now you're the Arkansas ass.

• 16:03Speaker 05

  This session's over. I'm done with this guy.

• 16:06Speaker 04

  Yeah, this is where we'd text our publisher and be like, hey, send us a text that we got studio time at 2:30. Oh, man. Sorry.

• 16:13Speaker 05

  My dog got lost, shit, I gotta go home.

• 16:16Speaker 04

  I think we're just gonna have enough time for chorus.

• 16:19Speaker 03

  Betty bay, Betty bay. Finest mule God ever made.

• 16:27Speaker 05

  Could do that.

• 16:28Speaker 03

  Betty bay, Betty bay.

• 16:32Speaker 05

  What? Just write a different line for this.

• 16:36Speaker 04

  Oh, clay. I mean, we could, do you wanna be in the song? Arkansas clay?

• 16:42Speaker 05

  Betty bay, Betty bay. Somethin' doin' down Arkansas clay. I love that. And then do.

• 16:48Speaker 03

  Betty bay.

• 16:51Speaker 05

  Put something out of being for sale too in there. Finest, finest donkey God ever made. Oh, my bad. Finest mule God ever made. And you could do, and then do a story.

• 17:03Speaker 04

  All right, uh, which one goes first?

• 17:05Speaker 05

  Clay, then God in the end.

• 17:07Speaker 03

  Betty bay, Betty bay.

• 17:12Speaker 04

  What's, okay, help us, help us, help us here. Something about a diddy diddy, Arkansas clay, like the something to the mountains.

• 17:20Speaker 03

  Only dedicated to you, like.

• 17:22Speaker 04

  What's another word for vehicle? Blank to the mountains of Arkansas clay.

• 17:25Speaker 03

  I, I, I call them a

• 17:28Speaker 04

  Like they're a ride.

• 17:29Speaker 03

  Like a mountain Cadillac. Oh, Cadillac for Arkansas, for Arkansas clay.

• 17:50Speaker 04

  Alright, there you go. That's your chorus. Dude, they got it.

• 17:52Speaker 03

  How tall is she?

• 17:53Speaker 04

  It's all over now, but the boring parts.

• 17:55Speaker 03

  She's the chorus. She's fourteen, she's actually fourteen three is what they call it.

• 18:00Speaker 04

  How old is she?

• 18:00Speaker 03

  She's seven, going on eight. Going on eight.

• 18:04Speaker 04

  Oh, seven years old.

• 18:06Speaker 03

  She's going on eight.

• 18:08Speaker 04

  I like here.

• 18:20Speaker 03

  First verse, how do you, she's going on eight at fourteen three.

• 18:24Speaker 04

  Going on eight, fourteen three, something to a something.

• 18:30Speaker 03

  That's Spanish to somebody who don't.

• 18:33Speaker 04

  Yeah, I like the technical sounds, dude, because it makes it sound like you guys know a lot about. No, I think we're leaving that, I think it's gotta be clay cool. I don't think it's commercial cool. Okay. I think we just gotta stay cool.

• 18:42Speaker 03

  She's going on eight, fourteen three.

• 18:47Speaker 04

  Are you saying that would be a concern because you're just losing people?

• 18:51Speaker 03

  Well, yeah. In a commercial sense, who's gonna know what? She's, she's going on eight at fourteen three. Nobody's gonna know what that means.

• 18:58Speaker 04

  None of our listeners know that. Yours guys do. Yeah, no, I got you, but like, just a, but a commercial audience is too obscure.

• 19:05Speaker 03

  Or you do, or you do. She's eight years old, stands fourteen three. So everybody, that's a little bit clear. Yeah, that's a little bit.

• 19:12Speaker 04

  But I don't think we help out. I think we make it cooler than.

• 19:15Speaker 03

  Clay cool.

• 19:15Speaker 04

  The clay cool.

• 19:16Speaker 03

  Well, she, she, she weighs a thousand pounds.

• 19:19Speaker 04

  Weighs a thousand pounds.

• 19:21Speaker 03

  She's a, you know, just a ball of energy. A ball of energy.

• 19:26Speaker 04

  There you go, you just wrote the first verse. Ready?

• 19:28Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 19:31Speaker 03

  She's going on eight fourteen three thousand pounds of energy.

• 19:38Steven Rinella?

  Thousand pounds of energy.

• 19:39Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah, dude.

• 19:40Steven Rinella?

  I'm getting shivers, man.

• 19:42Speaker 03

  Yeah, I'm watching, I'm watching.

• 19:44Steven Rinella?

  I'm getting shivers.

• 19:45Speaker 03

  They like, okay, so we could do this in that second stanza.

• 19:47Steven Rinella?

  I like stans. You guys did both versions. You left the stans off last time. But I think throw that in, even for Clay.

• 19:55Speaker 03

  She's going on eight stans fourteen three thousand pounds, thousand pounds of energy. Okay, they call it horsepower.

• 20:02Steven Rinella?

  You can have her for fifteen G.

• 20:04Speaker 03

  They, they, you can have her. Seventeen, seventeen.

• 20:07Steven Rinella?

  For seventeen G.

• 20:09Speaker 03

  They call it horsepower, but they should call it mule power. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Maybe that's the thing. Yeah. Horsepower's got all the hype, but mule power is really what we want. Yeah. Or something like that.

• 20:20Steven Rinella?

  Energy.

• 20:22Speaker 03

  Horsepower, horsepower's for the. They say horsepower makes the world go round. Horsepower's for Hollywood, mule power's. Horsepower's for Ford.

• 20:29Steven Rinella?

  Horsepower's for Hollywood. Mules for the mountains, mules for the, for life, for real life.

• 20:35Speaker 03

  Hmm, horsepower. Horsepower for Hollywood. Doesn't really, it's the. Betty Bass stood, Betty Bass. Yeah, I love it. Betty Bass. Okay, uh, she, she's going on eight stans fourteen three thousand pounds of energy.

• 20:55Steven Rinella?

  We got it right here.

• 20:56Speaker 03

  Horse, horsepower, no, no, I got it, I'm still trapped. Horsepower for Hollywood.

• 21:01Steven Rinella?

  That's not, you know, I, I mean, I'm no songwriter. Horsepowers for grease monkeys.

• 21:07Speaker 03

  Grease monkeys.

• 21:09Steven Rinella?

  And then, but how, yeah, mule power is for.

• 21:11Speaker 04

  We just gave you the Nashville no. The Nashville no is when somebody says a line that we don't like, you just look back and start playing again or start, start ripping again.

• 21:19Speaker 03

  That's interesting.

• 21:20Speaker 04

  Yeah, oh, okay, yeah, maybe.

• 21:21Steven Rinella?

  But I liked it because I felt let down easy.

• 21:24Speaker 04

  Yeah, that's, that, that's what it's supposed to do.

• 21:26Steven Rinella?

  Because it like, it leaves this idea that you're still mulling it.

• 21:28Speaker 04

  And here's the thing, this is one of my favorite quotes I've ever heard in Nashville about that, about the Nashville no. A guy said something one time and we kinda Nashville noted. He prefaced it by saying, look, I don't, I don't know that this is the line, but it, I don't know that this is the crop, but it might be the fertilizer for it. So like, smell them stepping in there?

• 21:48Steven Rinella?

  Yeah, yeah, I do, I do appreciate that than just getting shut down.

• 21:52Speaker 04

  Yeah, instead of going, that shit's terrible.

• 21:54Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 21:54Speaker 03

  So are we trying to keep, are we trying to keep the?

• 21:56Speaker 04

  Keep it cool, man.

• 21:57Speaker 03

  Like, no, no, I know, but same like, same cadence, like, or you do, or you do like horsepower from something A, I'll take mule power every day.

• 22:05Speaker 04

  It's fourteen, three thousand pounds of energy, horsepower from Hollywood, something in there where Betty Bass do.

• 22:15Speaker 03

  Mule, mule power, mule power.

• 22:16Speaker 04

  But mule power, that feels a little weird to me, man. I think we maybe hang, like, punt mule power and just try another direction.

• 22:23Steven Rinella?

  Just in the interest of time, Clay.

• 22:24Speaker 04

  Yeah, man.

• 22:25Speaker 03

  She's bad.

• 22:25Speaker 04

  Just, you know.

• 22:27Speaker 03

  Going on eight stands fourteen, three thousand pounds of energy.

• 22:31Speaker 05

  Uh, she'll, nah, she'll, she'll carry a hog.

• 22:34Speaker 04

  She'll carry a.

• 22:35Speaker 05

  A whitetail deer.

• 22:36Speaker 04

  Whitetail deer.

• 22:37Speaker 05

  Love it.

• 22:37Speaker 04

  Or a white, or a whitetail deer.

• 22:41Speaker 05

  Something, I don't know, something, sign to clear.

• 22:43Speaker 04

  Now, I think this is it. I think this is the last line of chorus.

• 22:46Speaker 03

  Yeah, absolutely. Don't bore, that's another, here's another trick. Don't bore us, get to the chorus.

• 22:50Speaker 04

  All right.

• 22:51Speaker 03

  Also, also, we, what we just did, what we're doing right now is we're talking out of line. So like.

• 22:56Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 22:57Speaker 03

  You want, you want songs to be conversational. And so that's what a lot of songwriting is, is we sit there and go, she's, she's.

• 23:03Speaker 04

  She'll carry a hog or a whitetail deer in the, in the sunny.

• 23:09Speaker 03

  Yeah, I love that.

• 23:10Speaker 04

  Something times a year.

• 23:12Speaker 03

  There you go.

• 23:13Speaker 04

  She'll carry a hog or a whitetail deer.

• 23:15Speaker 05

  How about we throw it to a nature reference, like, when the leaves turn orange in the?

• 23:19Speaker 03

  That time of year.

• 23:20Speaker 05

  There to the fall.

• 23:22Speaker 04

  Well, it's gotta be Eron.

• 23:24Speaker 03

  Go.

• 23:24Speaker 04

  We've already set up Erons.

• 23:25Speaker 03

  We're missing one line.

• 23:26Speaker 04

  We're missing one line, Eron.

• 23:27Speaker 03

  She'll carry, she'll carry a hog or a whitetail deer.

• 23:30Speaker 04

  Or you could flip them. She'll carry a deer or a big old hog, something in there, over a log. They step over logs or some shit?

• 23:38Speaker 05

  Well, they do, but that's a little.

• 23:40Speaker 03

  That's a little anticlimactic to me.

• 23:42Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah, oh, sorry, sorry, sorry.

• 23:43Speaker 05

  I like, she'll carry a hog or a whitetail deer.

• 23:46Speaker 04

  More about the information than I do, it's great.

• 23:47Steven Rinella?

  Yeah, I get you. It's a weak, it's a weak detail.

• 23:49Speaker 03

  Or what about a, a? She'll carry a hog or a whitetail deer. Something sometime a year, so many times a year. Right, any day of the year.

• 23:59Speaker 05

  Any day of the year.

• 24:00Steven Rinella?

  That sounds cheap.

• 24:01Speaker 03

  She's ready to go any day of the year. I love it. She's, she'll carry a hog or a whitetail deer. She's ready to go any day of the year. Betty, babe, Betty, babe.

• 24:15Speaker 03

  Mountain, shit, forgot. Mountain Cadillac for Arkansas clay. She's got it right here. Ooh, this guitar. We need to lay that, why don't you just handle this and I'll handle this. This is how it always goes.

• 24:24Speaker 05

  Now, not to put my fingerprint on the verse with my name, but, "And Arkansas clay", would it be like, "Oh, Arkansas clay"?

• 24:33Speaker 03

  Sure.

• 24:33Steven Rinella?

  Oh, there you go.

• 24:34Speaker 03

  Sure, see, now we're just tightening the strands of this song.

• 24:37Steven Rinella?

  Are you gonna pick up your guitar and do it too?

• 24:40Speaker 03

  I mean, what is?

• 24:42Steven Rinella?

  I should like to see you get in there and me spot you.

• 24:44Speaker 03

  I don't even know how to do this, damn. Do what? You don't do anything. She's doing it. Oh, okay, okay, okay. So, one, two, starts with a chorus. She's go, oh. Ready, start with a chorus. Betty, babe, Betty, babe. Mountain Cadillac for Arkansas clay. Betty, babe, Betty, babe. Finest mule God's ever made. Watch it. She's going on eight, stands fourteen-three, a thousand pounds of energy. She'll carry a hog or a whitetail deer. She's ready to go any day of the year. Betty, babe, Betty, babe.

• 25:29Speaker 03

  She's a mountain Cadillac for Arkansas clay. Betty, babe, Betty, babe.

• 25:39Speaker 03

  Finest mule God's ever made.

• 25:43Speaker 03

  Finest mule God's ever made. There you go, ladies and gentlemen, that's how hits are made. Coming to you live from Music Row in Nashville, Tennessee. Stay tuned for that one on the FM dial. Boo.

• 25:55Speaker 05

  Boo.

• 25:55Speaker 03

  Turn it off, Reba. That's it?

• 26:00Speaker 03

  Turn it off, Reba.

• 26:20Steven Rinella?

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• 27:00Speaker 07

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• 28:06Steven Rinella?

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• 28:44Speaker 00

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