KGNU DJ Fergus Stone sat down with Wood Box Heroes to discuss their musical journey, from their formation in Nashville to their growth as a band. They discussed their post-pandemic experience in Nashville, their songwriting process, and their plans for upcoming tours. Catch them live at the 2025 Midwinter Bluegrass Festival, sponsored by KGNU! (Interview date: 2/8/2025)
Fergus Stone: All right. Let’s talk about Wood Box Heroes. You’ve got quite an attractive resume. You’ve already had a number one hit record and that sort of thing. You had a Grand Ole Opry debut a year and a half ago. I know that, whereas a lot of bands, they’ll get together from the best pickers at the local VFW, open mic and try to form a band, and play road houses and little bars for years and years, hoping to get to Nashville. You band was born in Nashville. You guys were already working musicians, playing studio gigs and going on tour with other bands. And so you’re, this is not a bunch of beginners trying to get their chops down. How’s it going for Wood Box Heroes, how long ago did the band actually form officially?
Wood Box Heroes: That’s a good story in itself. The band, in the current state, we’ve been picking together for about three years now. It all started on a run that we went up in Michigan back in 2021. And I was going up. I’d been a songwriter in Nashville for a pretty good while. And that’s how I got to meet all these guys was writing songs and recording them in the studio and getting these guys to play on them. And then just as fate would have it there was a promoter from up north that wanted us to go up and do a run of shows during the summer of, during peak season, granted up in the upper peninsula of Michigan. And, it’s a beautiful part of the country, much like the Rockies.And we just said yes and went up there and had the time of our lives and man, getting to, getting to play the amazing thing, you said it, is just the level of musicianship, the level of professionalism, everybody brings, the cream of the crop to the table in this band. And it’s just so inspiring to get to be on stage with these guys and feed off each other. And we actually made one other trip out west to Colorado last February, or last March, I believe, and played in Crestview. But this is our first time, this is our first time in the Denver area, first time at Midwinter Festival. And we are thrilled to be coming to see you guys.
Fergus Stone: How was your experience in Crested Butte?
Wood Box Heroes: Dude, I’ve been going to Crested Butte for a pretty good while. There was a songwriter friend of mine, Dean Dillon. He wrote a bunch of George Strait songs and wrote all kinds of things, but he is from Gunnison. He lives down in that area. And we have gotten down there and played some songwriter shows together. And that’s how we got the band plugged in to Crested Butte. So it is, it’s a beautiful place.
Fergus Stone: Interesting to hear. And so you are at least familiar with our landscape around here.
Wood Box Heroes: Oh, totally. Yeah.
Fergus Stone: There’s a lot of bluegrass interest here. A lot of people like bluegrass music. And in fact, in Boulder County, we point to ourselves as one of the new centers of bluegrass music, if you will. And in fact, we have some of it that was homegrown, hot rise, as you probably know, started right here. I was wondering if you run into Tim in the course of your weekly affairs there in Nashville.
Wood Box Heroes: Not on a weekly basis, but every now and then our paths cross. We’ve done a show up in Lexington, Kentucky, Wood Songs. I don’t know if you’re familiar with that, with Michael Jonathan up there. He has great talent coming through there. And we wound up on the bill with Tim O’Brien and his band one night and I’ll tell you what, I just, I’ve always been a huge fan of what Tim does and his artistry and it just keeps, it’s like fine wine. It seems like it keeps getting better with age.
Fergus Stone: When did you get to Nashville and where did you grow up?
Wood Box Heroes: I grew up in eastern Kentucky over in Appalachia country and that’s actually where I am right now. I moved to Nashville in 2013 wanting to be a session guitarist. I went down and started, right off the bat. I started going to these a lot of, like they call them writers rounds and Nashville and you get to meet a lot of pickers, meet a lot of songwriters. Within the first three months, I got plugged into some pretty good songwriting circles. And a lot of the older songwriters that had written songs for Garth Brooks and all those 90s guys, they were real quick to let me in their fold and I started doing that. And it is a very tough place. That old song Nashville Cats. There’s 1,352 guitar pickers in Nashville and now I think inflation counting, there’s probably 31,564 by my last count
Fergus Stone: I owned that. I owned that record when it was new, by the way. That’s how old I am. Yeah.
Wood Box Heroes: Yes. That’s a great line, man. So true.
Fergus Stone: How much touring are you doing in the band, and how are you balancing that with the studio work?
Wood Box Heroes: That’s a very good question. We are in a growing process right now, I would say. We just took on a booking agent last fall. And I would say, if you did this interview again next year at this time, there’s gonna be a lot more dates on the books for 26 than there will be for 25. That said, there’s still a lot of dates on the calendar for this year that we haven’t announced just yet. But it’s a tricky thing, man, balancing everything, like you said, and trying to be respective of everybody’s individual goals and ambitions with their careers. But also, moving this thing down the field and there is a lot of hope that hopefully within the next year, this will be the thing that we’re working on. I think it’s a very hopeful trajectory for us.
Fergus Stone: The pandemic really ripped a lot of guts out of the music industry and particularly for performing musicians, but even recording artists, it’s been so difficult. How has Nashville, as a whole, bounced back from that?
Wood Box Heroes: The overall scene, I think is very, very hopeful, very positive. I think touring, I’m not going to lie. It changed everything permanently for a good while. And I think it’s changed our landscape so much that there’s still a lot of artists that are trying to find their center of gravity. But that being said, it has allowed a lot more creative ideas to spring forward. And I still, I think there’s a huge demand for roots music in particular for people that enjoy getting out and seeing an intimate performance. Companies like Live Nation and Ticketmaster take the cake as far as your more commercial thing. People are starting to see that just because they’re paying 250 to 500, sometimes thousands of dollars to go to these huge production shows, they’re leaving empty in their soul. And what happens is you’ll get a convert every now and then that’ll sneak into one of these small venues and get to see something that is just pouring out all their energy into this performance. And they’re leaving energized. It’s just, it’s a totally different experience that people I think are looking for. And I think roots music is going to provide for these people. And we’re seeing a revival, a bluegrass revival and a roots revival right now. It’s happened around the world.
Fergus Stone: You came to Nashville wanting to be a guitar player, but you also found that you were a songwriter. And when you write a song, are you one of those people who can make a song out of just about anything? Or does it have to be something that you really feel deep inside you? That’s got your whole soul in an uproar. How is it with you?
Wood Box Heroes: The best work that I’ve done is exactly what you just said. The latter of those two it’s a very soulful, thought provoking ideas that are put to melodies that leave you wanting to hear it again, and so you wind up hitting, I think anyway, I’d like to think that happens, is that they hit repeat on some of these things and want to hear it again. But I’ve done my fair share of appointment writing, in Nashville you show up. Two or three, maybe sometimes four writers in a room and you sling an idea up against the wall or hundreds of ideas up against the wall and see what sticks, but still there’s just there’s something just goes right back to what you were saying with COVID and, the rebirth of the renaissance of roots music and all that stuff, people are searching for ideas and thoughts and soul and things now. That’s where I’ve gravitated more towards, is writing things that are, and it doesn’t have to be serious topics either, it’s just topics that are weighing on you. In a day and you try to make sense of it, . So that’s where I’m at.
Fergus Stone: Your band is a kind of the classic five piece bluegrass band. Should we expect any changes from that? Is anybody gonna bring out a synthesizer or a saxophone or a a bull whip or anything like that?
Wood Box Heroes: It looks like you’re quintessential five piece bluegrass band on, from the outside, but man our live show is pretty dynamic. And we’ve gotten into these little trinkets on the floor. We call them pedal boards and all that stuff. Matt Menifee is the mastermind. Behind all this stuff. He branches out into so many different forms of music, but it really adds to just the sonic nature of our shows and it just comes with the ebb and flow of it, but it’s really cool to watch that and a video just doesn’t do it justice. I will say that. So definitely if you can make it down to the midwinter bluegrass festival.
Fergus Stone: I’m definitely going to be there next Saturday. Anyway we’ve probably taken up enough of Neil’s time here. And I’ll say thanks for joining us and we’ll send it back to Neil with the Woodbox Heroes, February 15th and you’ve got two shows. I think one in the late morning and one in the evening. Is that correct? Or do you even know those times yet?
Wood Box Heroes: I think we’re on for 3:50 and 8:15. If I’m all right.
Fergus Stone: Remembering correctly, I hope I can, I hope I can get a seat. And so thanks so much for joining us back to you, Neil.
