KGNU’s Neil Smart interviewed the band Slay & Stinson, who performed live in the studio. Slay & Stinson are scheduled to perform at the SnowyGrass Festival in Estes Park, Colorado the weekend of July 12th! (Interview date: 7/6/2024)
Neil Smart: We’re going to be joined by Slay and Stinson right about now.
Very nice y’all. You got another one in you?
Slay and Stinson: We do have another one in us. By the way, that last song was the original song written by our banjo player, Nick Einternz. It’s called “Way Too Wide Awake”.
Neil Smart: It’s a good’un. It’s a good’un.
Slay and Stinson: Hopefully after all this is said and done you can hear that one more on this station.
Neil Smart: Yeah, you will.
Slay and Stinson: Hey, thanks for having us, y’all. Here’s another original song, this one’s called “Mountain Wild”.
Neil Smart: The crowd goes wild. That’s plum pretty, y’all. That’s very cool stuff. Folks, we’re joined this morning by Slay and Stinson. Live in the Kabaret room and coming to a festival near you next weekend, the SnowyGrass Festival in beautiful Estes Park, Colorado. Slay and Stinson will be opening up the show for us this year on Friday evening and we’re all really looking forward to that and looking forward to hearing these guys live in a full set. But in the meantime- hey Scott or Travis or somebody, why don’t y’all introduce the band to us, or Nick.
Slay and Stinson: We got a bunch of stuff going on back here. Hey, thanks for having us. So yeah, I’m Nick Einterz on banjo here. We got Scott Slay on guitar and Travis Stinson on lead vocals. So that’s our namesake, Slay and Stinson. And we have Andy Reiner over here on fiddle. We’re going to play an original tune from him here in just a bit. We got Brett Kretzer over on mandolin. Keepin’ it bluesy and Monroe style, which we love. And then, last but certainly not least, the most subtle part of our band, the bassist, Mr. Chuck Rourke. Always holding it down. We barely even have to say anything to him. He just does what he does. And the guy doing all the talking and writing all the words to all of our songs is Nick Einternz, right here on the banjo.
Neil Smart: Yes, indeed. Very cool stuff. and SnowyGrass next weekend.
Slay and Stinson: That’s right. Five o’clock, something around that time, we’ll be there. Yeah, we’re really excited. Huge mountain views, big open field. It’s super exciting.
Neil Smart: And in the interest of full disclosure, I will be your emcee for the weekend. So we will be seeing one another again. And folks, the Campy Hour show with Charlie Stevens will be at the Festival Grounds, brought to you by the Snowy Peaks Winery. Right there in Stanley Park and Estes Park is where the Campy Hour set on Thursday evening will go. Then Friday evening, Slay and Stinson opens it up. Yay! Now, your fiddle player is going to take a day off, I heard, and you’re going to have somebody named Eve Panning playing fiddle with you?
Slay and Stinson: Yeah, you probably haven’t heard of her.
Neil Smart: No, she’s new, isn’t she?
Slay and Stinson: I will say, this is Andy here speaking, as the fiddle player of this band, that I love Eve Panning’s fiddle playing, and as a human. She’s in a band with my wife, Dr. Joy Adams, of course, Big Richard.
Neil Smart: There you have it. A little band called Big Richards.
Slay and Stinson: We’re doing our thirteenth year of Rustic Roots Retreat in the San Luis Valley. I guess you can’t throw a stone in Colorado and have two events at the same time. That’s how it goes, but I’ll be sad to miss it, but hopefully next year. You can attend both events if you’ve got a fast enough car.
Neil Smart: There you go, you can.
Slay and Stinson: Also, Eve was in a version of Scott Slay and the Rail, right? So it’s not like a totally random fill in or something.
Neil Smart: Yeah.
Slay and Stinson: And we’re really excited to have her. In fact the next song we play is gonna be probably the big one for her to shine on since this was written by our fiddle player himself. As well as you, Nick. It’s “The Cliffs of Palmyra”.
Neil Smart: Then why don’t we do “The Cliffs of Palmyra”?
Slay and Stinson: Let’s do it. Yeah. A little bit of Telluride. A little Telluride allusion there. Alright, let’s do it.
Neil Smart: That’s very cool. We were talking about fiddlers, so I’m just going to say this- you guys are opening for a couple of fiddle players named Darol Anger and Bruce Molsky next Friday night. So folks, there will be tons and tons of fiddle music.
Slay and Stinson: Man, those were my heroes growing up. Absolutely. I learned so much from them. Darol Anger was my hero when I was 11. I got to play a bunch with him and learn a lot from both of them. So you’re stacked with fiddlers for sure.
Neil Smart: We are definitely stacked with fiddlers. We’re going to have Eve Panning and Darol Anger and Bruce Molsky all within just a few minutes of each other. So yes, folks, what we’re talking about is the Snowy Grass Music Festival in Estes Park coming up next weekend. Tickets are available. It’s one of those Colorado settings with an amazing view, right there on the shores of Lake Estes, and a dog friendly festival, so that’s something else to be said.
Slay and Stinson: It’s a jam friendly festival too, right?
Neil Smart: Very jam friendly festival, yes, we do. We will have the Jambassadors from Tonewood wandering the campground and jumping in where they can get in. It should be a whole lot of fun. We’re going to see Slay and Stinson there, and I know you guys got a whole bunch of other stuff coming up.
Slay and Stinson: I was gonna say, speaking of viewing, if you’d like to view us again, check us out at slaybluegrass.com, or we’re most active on Instagram, slay&stinson, check us out, give us a follow.
Neil Smart: Absolutely.
Slay and Stinson: And all these songs that we’re playing right now, you can listen to them on all the streaming services. Just search for Slay and Stinson. But we thought we’d do it live for you in the studio because that’s fun.
Neil Smart: Yeah, indeed. And folks, coming up in the coming weeks and months, you’ll be hearing these songs and these tunes all over again right here on KGNU. I can guarantee that. Hey, thanks y’all for coming in this morning at this very non-musician-friendly hour of the day. Especially when it comes to singing this early in the morning. Y’all are troopers for doing it. And if you got one more, we’d love you.
Slay and Stinson: We do. We did not write this one. Benny Burle Galloway was nice enough to let us record this. He came into the studio, helped us out. He appears on the track and he really helped us do it justice. This is called “Why Cry”. It’s going to feature Travis Stinson singing. Hey, thanks community radio, KGNU. Thank you so much, Neil and Nadine. We really had a good time. Thanks for having us.
Neil Smart: Thanks for coming in, y’all. Wow! Thank you so much, you guys. Amazing. Folks, that was Slay and Stinson live in the Kabaret room. Coming to you next weekend at the SnowyGrass Festival.
