Katie Powderly is Live in the Lair on Max Ink Radio

Beth Killing, she wears many hats.

The Madison Singer songwriter,

Forenser Own Rock Man,

and is the gin in gin chocolate and bottle rockets.

Beth is the monster administrator

behind Girls Rock Camp.

Beth is a life coach, a mother and now, an author.

Beth has just written a new book

and it's called Embrace Your Authentic Songwriter.

How and why to play your own tune?

You are listening to Book Time with Beth.

Beth, welcome to Maxing Gradio.

Well, thank you, Racker, and good to see you, Terry,

and Katie. Thank you.

It's funny, I completely forgot that we had that outtake.

That Racker was made in 2014.

That was worth it.

I didn't even know, I totally forgot.

There's a lot of Jack Baggary occurring

in the studio when Jen and Shawny and I get together,

so they're not the pie.

We've had this bonus.

Well, we've had you in the studio and it was rowdy.

Yeah, it was so much fun.

Wow, that's the effect.

You know, I saw your post on Facebook

that you were about to write a book

or about to have this book be ready to come out.

Yeah.

It's like having a baby or something.

But, you know, we just listed everything you do.

How did you have time to do this for so glad you did?

Thank you.

Well, here's the thing.

I've been teaching songwriting workshops for years

and I had all of these worksheets

for the random songwriting workshops that I did

and I would just shove them into folders.

And then one day I was like, you know,

if I actually just typed out instead of

in bullet points in paragraphs,

what I say during these workshops,

I would have a book full of stuff.

Yeah.

Beautiful.

But here's, this is the thing that I did.

I mean, I started writing this pre-pandemic

and then everything shut down and you would think,

oh, well, that'd be a great time to hole up

and write a book, right?

But no, I was, I instead trying to get a third grader

to sit in front of an iPad and do school

and I gave up on life for a little while

but then after, you know, everything kind of came back,

I really started writing again in earnest

and I just parked my butt in the library for two hours

every Wednesday from 10 to noon for like months

and it was like, this is just my dedicated time

to write the book and then my brain would percolate

about things in between times

and then I found an amazing copy editor

by the name of Jen Morey at a ladies' rock camp.

Of course.

I know.

And you know, everything just snowballed from there

and I think it was just, you know,

timing was perfect.

Shipping away at it little bit by little bit by little bit

and then I had this awesome beta test group

that I worked with this past fall.

I actually finished most of the book writing in May

and then I kind of went into summer mode

as a performer and with girls' rock camp.

But then in September, I beta tested like class almost

like every week I would meet for six weeks

with a group of women that were reading through

a draft of the book and then saying, yeah, this is great

and I don't get this and maybe you should do more on that.

And what about this area?

And so then I went back and rewrote and then what ah,

it exists now.

It's going for many, many mothers.

Oh, that is, I love that whole timeline

of what you're talking about.

So making it you time to do it.

But then all the extra steps you've taken

and make sure it is what you want people to have in there.

Absolutely, absolutely.

Yeah, it's a big step.

I mean, it's, I put out a lot of records

and this was a different process, very different process.

Wow.

But embrace your authentic songwriter.

How and why to play your own song.

That's your new book.

Tell us about the new book and then tell us about,

like who's it written for?

Is it written for like, you know, experts or novices,

you know, beginners?

That's a great question.

So there's three parts to the book.

Part one is really kind of a philosophical dive

into why write songs.

Why do you want to write songs?

Why does music exist in the world?

What is the purpose of art?

So it's kind of, you know, heady stuff,

but I geek out on stuff like that.

And then the second part of the book

is very kind of bread and butter.

Like here is song structure.

Here's music theory.

Here's the tough stuff, actually.

Right, but here's the thing important.

I don't have any degree in music.

So I approach it from a very practical blue collar

standpoint, and I've been teaching, you know,

eight-year-olds at Girls Rock Camp to write songs.

So this is not, I'm not teaching it at a, you know,

PhD level, because I don't have that PhD, right?

So the whole center part of the book is all this, like,

very, you know, let's talk about writing melody.

Let's talk about writing hooks.

Let's talk about writing lyrics.

What, how do you find inspiration?

So there's a lot of meat there.

And then the last part of the book is kind of wrapping it all

up and talking about inspirational stories.

I talk about people who have inspired me

and how they overcame obstacles that they encountered

on their journey to make music.

And then I talk about how people can kind of get in touch

with their own personal mission statement

for being a creative person.

So it's a big cover a lot.

Yeah, yeah.

But you know, in this book, I'm really asking people

to do the work.

There are assignments at the end of every chapter.

Oh, wow, that's great.

I really see it as like a, like, almost like a text book,

but me just being kind of a dork as I go,

because I don't take myself too seriously, honestly.

And I don't think people should, I mean,

it's good to think about the process,

but I don't want people to overthink the process.

I just want them to flow and to be in the moment

with their music and say what they mean to say

and share it with the world bravely.

You know, and I find this interesting

because if you have any, even just a little peek of,

like, I would love to write a song.

Yes, this is the way to do it.

Absolutely.

Because you really, you have taught many people

that are like, what am I doing?

And there's words and descriptions

for these different parts of the song that I never knew.

And I put piano and sacks.

And it's like, well, nobody ever taught us all these other things.

But it made so much sense the way you taught it

to both Ladies Rock Camp and Girls Rock Camp

in helping people feel brave enough to do it.

Thank you for saying that.

That's exactly my mission.

And that's what I hope will inspire people.

I hope you hear from somebody who does it too.

And they're like, I did it.

I did it because of your book and you.

Thank you.

Well, and I feel like I see this at Girls

and Ladies Rock Camp all the time, people who come in.

And they're like, oh, that's it.

That's what I have.

Oh, I can do that, right?

So I've seen so many light bulbs go off.

And I've seen the floodgates open and people

who have come into my studio to think, oh,

well, I've got this one song.

Can I record it with you?

And then we work on some of the particulars.

And they're like, oh, wait, I can keep going.

And then suddenly they've got an album's worth of material.

So it's really fun to watch that happen

to create people who have a voice and they want to share it.

And then you just give them a couple little golden nuggets

and they run with it.

Oh, it's so good, yeah.

Yeah, OK.

So as Rocker said, it is book time with bass.

Yes.

Did you happen to bring anything with you

that you can read to us?

I have an episode.

Oh, my book.

OK.

Read to us, please.

So this is kind of about finding your why behind music.

And this is in a chapter where I'm

asking people to think about what they want to get out

of being a songwriter.

And so this is an excerpt.

Some of us are just born with music, lyrics,

and other creative particles flowing through our veins.

We're special, just like someone who

is skilled in sports or math or animal tracking or whatever.

We're all born with predispositions that can be nurtured.

Maybe you are just special, too.

And your why is that you have a gift and you want to share it.

Maybe your why is that writing music is therapeutic,

and it helps you sort through the world.

Maybe your why is that you want to be rich and famous.

No judgment here, but then we go into this section titled

Internal Versus Internalized Voices.

These tricky questions may require

a few years of therapy to sort through.

Are the voices in your head, really, your voices,

or have you internalized some paternalistic societal chatter

that overshadows your authentic voice?

This isn't the kind of stuff you tease out

in an afternoon, folks.

It's something that can take days, weeks, months,

or years to investigate.

What I'm trying to say here is that your why

shouldn't be about someone else's dream or expectation

for you.

If you're doing this solely to make someone else love you

or gain their approval, you're going to struggle.

It has to be authentically you.

I just want to lay on the floor and listen to her.

That was pretty cool.

Just continue to read to us as we all lay on the floor.

You know what, I was thinking, if I get the book,

I can read it.

And now that I've heard her read,

I can read it in her voice.

Oh, perfect.

I like her voice in my head.

I bet she'll do an audio book for you.

Well, it's funny, because the awesome women

that helped me beta test this book, they all knew me.

And so when they were reading it, they heard me,

but they're like, Beth, you know,

you should probably edit out some of the swear words.

And I was like, oh, darn, oh, I do know.

As a mentor to kids, I'm like, okay,

I want to make sure this is accessible to all audiences.

So I had to put like, in my manuscript,

I put like a little pink sticky

on every swear word in the book.

And then I went through and I like edited them all out.

And like, if you look at the notebook,

it's like, there's a huge strip of all these pink sticky

things that I went through.

And I'm like, okay, that was authentically my voice,

but I can, you know, say what I mean to say

without passing, so, but it was really hard.

Are you like the Ozzy Osborne of like tech of typing?

Like, how do you just like type swear words?

Like, oh, it just came out.

Yeah, I kind of did.

Well, you know, while you're saying be authentic,

it's true, it's true.

But, you know, there's ways to be authentic

without being offensive.

And so I just, I want to make sure that it, you know,

it doesn't dissuade some rights.

So someone doesn't finish the book

because they're like, oh, my God, she swore a lot.

It's just quick, and I can't read it now.

Oh, boy.

Okay, you have a release party.

Yes.

This is so amazing.

What can you tell us about it?

Okay, so I had a show scheduled on Thursday,

January 11th with my besties, Jen Farley and Sean Delmarx,

Jen Chocolate and Battle Rockets at the Harmony Bar.

We're playing from seven to nine, but at six p.m.,

I'll be there with a stack of books.

So people want to come and get a copy of the book.

I would autograph it if they want me to do that.

Oh, yeah.

And I should have, I don't have them in hand yet,

but they're supposed to be delivered

no later than the 4th of January.

And then it'll also be available on Amazon

and all these other cool, like Barnes and Noble,

that get a distributor that's kind of pushing it out

to all these different platforms.

You know, we're so lucky because we have

some amazing local bookstores too.

So I bet we're gonna see you pop up

at a couple like city books.

That is what I have a box of them.

I will be wandering down there and saying,

hello friends.

Yes.

Can you be willing to sell this book here?

I live in Verona actually,

and there's a bookstore there called Kismet Books

that I would love to partner with them.

I just have, you know, this is all new to me.

I released 18 records, but like this whole book thing

is like, wow, how does this work?

What do I do with these things?

Well, lakeside books,

so you're just talking about that.

It's owned by Molly from Civil Engineers.

Yes, I know, so I'm hoping I've got a little.

She's probably make you do like a release thing.

I would love to do something.

Yes, I plan to reach out to her after the holidays

and hopefully see what they can do.

So there's so many great resources in Madison.

Oh, we are so lucky.

And it's available in e-book and a hardcover format.

So where for people who aren't in the Madison area,

but they're thinking,

whoa, I got to get my hands on this.

How do they do it?

Where can they purchase?

Well, if you go to my website, Bethkilly.com,

then there's a whole page that's about me as an author.

Okay, and it will have links there very soon

where you can buy a hard copy.

This is so exciting.

I know.

Thank you so much for helping me spread the words.

Oh my gosh.

Oh, thank you for coming in.

We really appreciate it.

Sounds like a great book.

I got to get my hands on a copy.

Yeah.

I just, you know, got to learn more than like verse,

verse, chorus.

I know.

First chorus.

Because there are other things.

Yes, but if that's what you want to do

then you do that, Rocker.

That's, that's all there.

Oh, man.

That's awesome.

All right, you know what?

Let's hear a little bit of gin chocolate bottle Rock.

It's this is Be Your Own Superhero.

Perfect.

Oh, this is perfect.

You're listening to Maxine Crayo.

Thank you, bye.

Welcome music.

We all know Alan Robbins. He's one of our good sponsors of Maxine Grady.

Absolutely. He's one of the funniest guys, too. I think he is joy when he's on the show.

And he owns herbal aspect. And so he's here to tell us all about herbal aspect and all the

things that are going on. Welcome back to the show, Alan. Oh my goodness.

Thanks for getting in here. Well, thank you for having me first off and happy holidays.

I'm wrong. You are always rocking. Oh, yeah. Well, this is a rocking time.

And I'm going to take a picture of you what you're wearing today because it's very different

than how he's usually dressed. He's usually dressed to the nines like he's going out somewhere fancy.

Fairly dapper. Yeah. You're not fancy. This is not fancy. Not the way he usually dresses,

but this is super cute. Well, I was reading 90 Alan. I'll tell you what happened. I was just a

you know, things get hectic around the holiday season with sales and with shopping and

especially over at herbal aspect. We've got this incredible sale going on right now where we're

giving 15% off of flour, 20% off of gummies all the way through tomorrow night because I know

that people need to find those last minute gifts. Well, they need to have a very merry holiday.

Christmas cheer. That's what we're talking about. You're not really an egg not person.

Oh, yeah. Right. Eggnog maybe. Eggnog. Yeah. Alan, tell us about your business, herbal aspect.

I mean, what's the mission of your company? What are you guys out to do? Yeah. Well, you know,

honestly, we really want to do good and well. And I understand that that's sort of a cliche

thing to say, but the truth of the matter is I look around and I see an incredible lack

of corporate social responsibility. And it's important to me to be something of an example for

my corporate peers in ways that we can, you know, impact our community positively where we can

have positive voices for change. And in as far as equity for our employees, we try to play

our employees. Well, I know for a fact that we pay our employees well above our industry standard,

our competitors, right? Good way to keep your employees to them. It's also just a really good

way to keep them invested in the job, right? To take ownership. But to free their mind to be able

to educate our customer because that's the second thing that herbal aspect really wants to do.

You know, we want to make sure that we're educating the customer, giving them quality products

and putting forth a cannabis experience that they know they can enjoy, right? You know,

I used to do a financial podcast and anybody that I would talk to would always say find those

local businesses that stand for the same things you do and then support the heck out of them.

So they stick around. They can keep their employees around. And that's exactly what you're saying.

Yeah, I love that. Well, you know, and what I say, excuse me is that there are so many small,

even small looking businesses that aren't small businesses. They're corporately owned out of state.

They're not even from here in Madison. Right. And more and more, I really like to support the

mom and pop businesses. And to me, a mom and pop business, right? If somebody where you can talk

to the owner, you can look the owner in the eye, you can purchase right from the owner. You can

ask them a question and they can answer you. Yeah. And we've asked lots of questions of Alan,

and he's never not had an answer. And I don't think we've ever, I don't think whether we've ever

had like a corporate sponsor. Everybody who's a sponsor of us are, guess what? They're businesses

that are owned by real people right here in Madison or at least Wisconsin, I guess.

And I mean, I know you guys, right? I know Jimmy K. You're like, I hang out with you at the at

wood fest. You folks are in my community, right? And it's so important to build a community,

not just around your business, but like to enrich that community with the things that you can do.

So like that's what herbal aspect wants to do. It wants to be a part of that community.

And then it wants to help to enrich the community by providing high quality products.

And I want to ask you last time you were on, at least when the last time when I was here and you

were on, you were talking about expanding. You know, and so I love this because here he is,

he's doing well in this community, but he's now expanding in the same community. So how many,

you have three now, right? Right now we have three. I mean, that's incredible. Yeah. I'm looking,

I've got a, it was very, very odd. I had a goal of opening three more locations by the end of 2024.

Wow. And I've, you know, strange things happen in December. I've got one place that we're looking

at pretty solidly going to take, going to take control of that property. And I had another one

that I was looking at that I was, you know, right there about to pull the trigger on. And we've

just decided to step back from that one because another location seems a little bit more appealing.

But I mean, you know, we're, we're pretty well on to, to, to, into that 2024 goal. So we're now at

this odd stage of kind of reestablishing, re reorienting, re-evaluating and looking at new ways to

expand. Congratulations. Yeah. And currently there's three stars, right? There's, there's

Cameron Road. There's University Avenue. And there's Winnebago over on the east side. Just came

from there. And was it a busy day? It was. I had a, you know, I had a guy come in my last customer

of the day, Luke, good guy. I didn't know anything about cannabis and really wanted to, to, to get a

full understanding of what he was putting into his body. That's why I was late. Oh, yeah. Well,

you know, if you're helping a customer and like you said, you want to educate. Hey, man,

well, it's Luke. He was a, he was a great customer too. I hope he has a good time. Remember,

buddy, take it low, take it slow. Well, you know, I mean, tell us about some of the products that

you actually carried, herbal, I aspect. I mean, you know, like what's poppy there? What's your

favorite flower? Flower is both your most popular and favorite flower is my favorite because I'm

an old school kind of guy. I, you know, I think that it goes generationally, right? I have a lot of

older folks that really like the edibles. A lot of my younger generation and actually some of those

those, some of those more discrete kind of age like, you know, folks around my age actually

would rather have cartridges, discrete ways of smoking are, are all the rage with some of those

more buttoned up folks, right? So my older folks, they like the edibles. Those are going to be my

gummies, chocolates, you know, I've got some taffies in for the holiday season. Wow. That's nice.

And they want to, oh yeah, the college age folks, they really love that THCA flower. Actually,

that's pretty popular across the board. Flower, THCA flower, it's, uh, it is all the rage.

Now it's being a flower. One thing that has become popular at all your stores is a thing called

the joint bar. I mean, when is happy? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. So at the, at our build a blunt bar,

the joint bar is, you know, it was such a hit at gaming that I've expanded it to my other two

locations and it will be a permanent feature of every herbal aspect that we open up. What is it

work? So yeah, sure. So like, you know, that's where our flower is distributed from. And, um,

you can pick your size of a joint, right? We have three different sizes available at three

different price points ranging from like nine bucks up to 20 bucks. And then of course, you can

add on these sort of a lot of cart enhancements. You can get, you know, THCA powder put on there.

Grab some crumble diamonds for that. You can add some concentrates to it to really pack on a punch.

So I mean, if you're, there's a thing we call the granddaddy of them all. It's got all of the

concentrates and it comes in a Mike Tyson hemp wrap roll. Oh, my goodness. Yeah. Sounds like it.

This is a granddaddy of them all. New meaning. Do you want fries with that?

You probably will want fries right now. It's a good time. It's a good time. And the joint bar is,

is a, wow, build a plant. Okay. Okay. So if people want to find locations or, or you even have

shopping online, which so many people love to do that too, what's the best? Where do they find you?

How do they find you? Google herbal aspect. And we should certainly pop up. Of course,

we have those three locations and you can hit us up at herbal aspect dot com. We're at 3547

University Avenue, 2017, Winnebago Street, and 7635 South Gammon Road right in that Woodman's

parking lot next to Dunkin Donuts. Wow. Perfect. Thank you so much for coming in. We really appreciate

it. It's great to talk to you when you come in here. It's a pleasure. Thank you for having me and

enjoy your holidays. You too. I hope you get time off for a little bit at least.

It sounds like you're so busy, but please take a little time. Yeah. We're always going to be in the

clouds. It'll be okay. He's got three joint bars. Oh yeah. Oh my goodness. Okay. Thank you. Thank

you so much, Ella. Great to have you in here today.

Live in the Lair with Katie Potterly,

Appalachian Mountains native and one-time Madisonian,

Katie Potterly is back in the mad city for the holidays

and we are lucky enough to have her right here

in the Lair on Maxine Gradio.

Dark and haunting or sweet and beckoning,

Katie's voice sits strongly atop a bed of acoustic guitar,

singing sweet and stinging ballads

for those who betrayed her.

Oh, Katie's new album.

I love it already.

The song, die by the song, is set for release on New Year's Eve

and here to play a few songs and tell us about it.

Singer, songwriter, songbird, Katie Potterly.

Katie, welcome to the Lair on Maxine Gradio.

Woo!

Thank you so much for having me.

I appreciate it.

Thank you so much for having me, guys.

I really appreciate being here.

Oh, we are so happy to have you here.

Okay, for our listeners who may not be familiar with you,

give us a little bit of a backstory.

Tell us about growing up in the Appalachian Mountains.

Wow.

Well, actually, there was a little miscommunication.

I'm not from the Appalachian Mountains.

I had a childhood where we moved around a lot.

All throughout my childhood, I eventually ended up in Madison

where I lived because I've lived in 31 places

in my life.

Oh my gosh, yes.

I've moved a lot.

So Madison, because I lived here for a relatively longer spell

than other places, it has a very homey feeling for me

in a very sturdy, a lot of sturdy relationships

that have endured this test of time.

As I continue to travel across the country

and do my thing and be Katie, so.

That's amazing.

How did you get your start in music?

Well, my dad, I kind of feel like it was my fate.

My dad is a bluegrass banjo player.

It was speaking of the Appalachian Mountains.

He plays like Appalachian bluegrass music.

So he plays the banjo, and he also is an acoustic guitar

flat picker, so I grew up with live music

in our house as a little girl.

He played to my mom when I was in the womb.

So I feel like I didn't really have a choice.

It was going to happen eventually.

It was just a matter of a win.

So.

You said that he was a banjo player

and an acoustic flat picker?

Yeah, a guitar flat picker.

What is a guitar flat picker?

So in bluegrass music, if you play a guitar,

it's like, there's like, it's a style of strumming.

It's like a strumming pattern in bluegrass guitar music

as opposed to finger picking.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, interesting.

And she can do it all.

So I've never heard that before.

Yeah, it's definitely probably differently

than rock and roll music, for sure.

But yeah, so my dad played bluegrass music in the home

and my parents played a lot of just like 60s and 70s music.

Oh, that's fun.

And vinyl, like when I was little girl,

so I was very impacted by that.

And I was always very sensitive, artistic child.

So I just really kind of attached to music and songs and art.

And so, and I was always singing like to a flaw.

I still do that, for sure.

And so I think it was just an eventual inevitability.

It's just a matter of like, it took me

a long time of exploring things that were not quite for me

before I realized that this is like probably something

I should be doing as a grown up for real as you are.

I'm so glad to.

Yeah.

Where do you, what do you call home right now, then?

That is a really tricky question.

I'm actually writing a book about it.

Yeah, you'll have to come back.

Yeah, well, it's a complicated question, too,

because soon I'll have been living in Appalachia longer

than I've lived anywhere else.

But I'm not Appalachian.

But yet, at what point do you get to call some place home?

And what point do you get to say you're from somewhere?

Yeah, that's a good question.

I know, it's like fraught with a lot of stuff

because I don't feel like I'm from anywhere.

And a lot of times, when I think of home,

I think of different places or people or foods.

But it's not necessarily, I haven't had a lot of cohesion

in my life.

I've had a lot of adventure and a lot of freedom.

But I haven't had a lot of the stability

that a long-term home would provide.

And so I'm working on a long-term book project about that.

And also, yeah, who gets to claim a certain space?

Because I'm certainly not Appalachian.

But yet, I'm certainly not from the Midwest, either.

You know what I mean?

It's a complex topic, and there's a lot to unfurl there.

And I'm working on it.

And I think I'm still trying to figure that out where home is.

Where do you store your suitcase?

In all my plants, now they?

Yeah, now I'm living in Maryland.

So Maryland is a very small state,

but there's like three separate sections of it.

There's the urban part of it, which is like Baltimore

that people think of first a lot of times.

And then there's the beach part of it, like Ocean City,

Maryland, where it's like a tourist destination.

And I live in the Appalachian part.

So I live in the mountains, and I spend a lot of time.

It's very close to Virginia and West Virginia.

So those states all kind of intersect

at the intersection or confluence

rather of the Potomac and the Shenandoah River.

So that's kind of the epicenter of where

I spend a lot of my time being a feral human.

Wow.

I'm human.

OK, I'm ready in that town.

I'm going to borrow that bro.

Untimable.

I love it.

Let's get to live music in a layer with Katie Powderley,

presented by the Aaron Weber group.

The first song you have for a tonight, it's a new song.

And it's called Live and Learn, and was released

in a video EP entitled Live at Mystery Tons Studio.

But you may release an electric-fried version.

Tell us about the song before you play.

OK, I wrote the song many years ago.

And I recorded it.

I have an electric band.

I have an electric band and acoustic band.

And I've also played bass and bluegrass band.

So I have a lot of different musical projects.

But obviously, with 2020 and the things that transpired

during that time, I had a backlog, an album

that I was planning to release with my electric band.

And this song is fully produced, is part of an LP

that's going to come out next year with my electric band.

And I'm excited about that.

And it's unreleased.

My electric band is called The Unconditional Lovers.

And it's a bunch of guys based loosely out

of the Frederick, Maryland area.

But there were a lot of people,

because I started out playing bluegrass music

and acoustic music.

A lot of people who used to like me

from when I was just a bluegrass musician, not just,

but when I strictly played exclusively bluegrass music,

people will say that they miss that acoustic kind of stuff.

Because what I've been releasing, my first album

was an electric band album.

And they're like, are you ever going to go back to bluegrass music

or kind of acoustic like your roots or whatever?

So I thought it would be fun for this video series.

One of my bandmates at the time,

if we just did like a stripped down acoustic live session

of some songs that I'll release eventually,

like in more electrified versions.

But so this is just, the video is me in a basement

in a studio at Mystery Town Studios,

with my bandmate Chance Hurley.

So I was playing guitar and singing,

and he was playing mandolin.

And so it's a way for people to maybe engage more

with the lyrics without being overwhelmed by the production

of it, not that the production on my electric band,

album will be overwhelming,

but it's just some people have their preferences.

They like that acoustic vibe versus electric vibes.

So I'm trying to, I don't know,

this is more like what you hear in the room

when you're with me as opposed to like,

lush production work,

where you're hearing guitar puddles and amps

and stuff like that, you know?

Well, let's hear it.

Live and learn live in the lair with Katie Powderley

on Maxing Gradio.

We are local music.

Yeah, I was just saying like your previous guest

was so sparkly with her personality,

and she's really uplifting.

I was like, I wanna warn you guys in advance,

I am not like that.

Welcome to Unhappy Hour.

No, it's okay, I accept it.

I write sad songs, but I just wanna be,

oh wait, I've come to terms with it.

I accept who I am, but I was like,

just see your listeners, no, it's time for Unhappy Hourly.

We're old friend Katie Powderley.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Good night, folks.

Skins hurt me.

Debrace her like me.

You say, little, am I?

Y'all take turns being there for me.

I need it here, to cure my loneliness,

the six-shoulder song that we love these breaths.

Can you say, little, am I?

You don't take turns.

Can you say, little, am I?

You don't take turns being there for me.

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

There's something I never told you

After you kissed me on the porch

I would fall if you wouldn't push me

Guess I still carry a torch

For you

Oh, if you're I won't chase you

Even though I know

That no one could replace you

I say, little, am I?

You don't take turns.

I say, little, am I?

You don't take turns being there for me.

Oh, oh, oh, oh.

Wow.

Holy cow.

Katy Powerly, everybody.

I'm having some, just like some intonation issues a little bit.

Because I'm in a drastic change of weather.

Oh, of course.

Let me ask people working on tuning in between songs there

And stuff, I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Yeah, absolutely.

Do what you got to do, you know, it's live.

It's live, right?

No, live in the studio.

You got it.

I'm going to ask you a question.

OK.

Hopefully you guys can still work on your guitar,

whatever you need to do.

I think it sounds terrific.

But you know, thank you so much.

You've come back to Madison to promote your new album,

live by the song, die by the song.

And your album release show, you're

holding at the Burr Oak in Madison on December 30th.

On the East Side in the Old New York.

Yeah.

And before we actually dive into all of that,

it's a city of food places, restaurants, you know,

Madison, because you said you've been here for a while

in the past.

Although I moved away and it changes so it really does.

Become unrecognizable in some parts.

Like this whole state street is so different.

Like I don't recognize entire blocks.

So yeah, it's a mixture of like feeling familiar

and totally alien at the same time.

Oh, I get that.

Yeah.

Do you have a favorite food place?

Yes.

OK.

It's so hard to choose.

Oh my gosh.

Every single time I come here, there are certain places

that I have to go.

I think still there, I hope.

Yes.

OK, good.

Yes.

So like if I have money in my favorite place

to go to Sardine because it's just, I just, so many

of my like, happiest, celebratory memories are there.

I love their freets.

Have you ever had their little tiny french fries?

I haven't, but I haven't.

I haven't.

I haven't.

So good.

Wonderful.

It's the best.

But then I always feel like, um, so that's more upscaled.

Like for freets or like you can sit at the bar

and get a burger or just like a glass of wine

or something like that.

But, um, if I want a fish fry, I have

to go to the old fashioned.

And I definitely just ate there tonight

before coming here on the show.

Oh, they have a perch entree, which is like absolutely phenomenal.

It's just lightly fried and perfect and so good.

And it's a Saturday night and you can still get that.

I know.

Not a Friday night, you know.

No, I know.

I know.

It's like you wanted two of those a year

and it's like just really hits that spot of like,

when we were talking about home earlier,

there are certain foods that feel like home

and that's one of them.

And then finally, I always have to get a pizza

from sales tomato pies.

Oh, yeah.

So we go and get take out in Manona.

Yeah.

So they have a lot of like seasonal local produce

that they use in local ingredients.

That's kind of what they're known for.

So they have a tagline that's called like,

all whisco nosesco.

Yeah.

So he does the shopping for ingredients

with the farmers markets.

So I remember my favorite one from the last summer

was like fresh zucchini and goat cheese.

It was like a white pizza.

And I think there's maybe fresh dill on there,

but it was just so delicious.

I think we've had that one and it was.

Oh my gosh.

I know and I took a picture of it too

because it looked like a piece of art.

I was like,

pizza porn.

Yeah.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Oh, good.

It's incredible.

They're one of our sponsors too.

So thanks for talking about them.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

I'm touched to make it happen.

Yes.

I was not well.

Let's talk about your band in the live show.

In the summer, we can find you at AdWoodFast,

at Sugar MapleFast,

and you have a band of powerhouse,

Madison musicians,

including friends of the show,

Star Moss on guitar.

Star.

David Havas on a great bass,

along with Sean Ciali on fiddle and Mendlin.

Tell us about your band of bluegrass boys.

They're like the best dudes I know.

I'm super blessed to be able to play with.

They're just like really good guys,

but also really good players.

It's very wholesome.

We met several years ago.

I've known Sean C actually off and on for like 20 years,

but we are more like acquaintances.

We've never played music together until this last year.

But for the last several years,

I go to the bluegrass jam at this bar in Manona.

Or it's actually, I believe, technically, in Madison.

It's called the Musky Lounge.

Are you familiar with that part?

It's a really cool spot.

It's like got a fishing theme.

And they have a shuffle board game.

But on Monday nights, there's a bluegrass jam there.

And it's loosely organized by some people

that the bluegrass jam has changed locations over the years.

But there's this very welcoming community too.

Kind of newcomers to the scenes of your,

not super familiar with the genre,

and you want to learn how to play with other people,

learn bluegrass standards and take turns kind of soloing

and just fostering that sense of community.

That jam is really conducive in nurtures that.

So whenever I'm in town, I like to swing by there.

And it was a massive group, sometimes it gets so full and crowded.

But I just noticed that there were several people

who were pretty exceptionally good players

and long story short over the course of several years.

We all became friends.

And our friendship blossomed beyond just like playing

at the Musky we started to play together.

And we're just like, homies, they call me bro.

I call them bro, too.

You're right.

I know.

I'm a girl, but I'm, yeah, I'm one of the guys, for sure.

Bro.

Well, dude, let's get back to some live music

in there with Candy Powderly, presented by the Aaron Weber group.

The next song you have for us tonight, it's called Sunday.

And I'm wishing this was a song about football,

but I have a feeling you're going to tell me

that this is a love song.

Yeah, it's a love song.

Normally, I write songs about bad men just because it's,

it's just there's just so much to deconstruct there.

But this is a song about a good man.

And you would think that based on my song writing,

that I'm like kind of a downer of a part,

like I write really sad songs, and I like dark themes in my songs.

But in real life, that's not my personality.

It's just like what my music is.

And it's interesting because people are like,

oh no, is it just going to be like sad at the burrow?

Like, no, we laugh and tell jokes.

There are sad songs there, but that's a huge part of it.

But it's not like a downer.

It's more, I don't know, you'll see if you come to the show.

I hope you do.

But yeah, Sunday is a song I wrote before the pandemic.

It's a love song.

I used to live in an organic farm technically in Maryland,

but out towards like Harper's Very Way.

And so a lot of the lyrics that you'll hear in the songs

talk about the different animals and the different nature.

I'm more of a country person if you can't tell them a city person.

So I spent a lot of time outside.

And my lyrics kind of reflect my connection to nature.

And I drive a lot of inspiration from that.

So, and I think it creates a sense of place too,

because my writing is very informed by where I live.

And so this song is called Sunday,

but you'll hear there's references to stars and constellations

and animals and such.

All right.

Yeah.

All right. Yeah.

And I actually, I recorded this.

This is in the backlog of projects

that have been delayed due to COVID.

But are you all familiar with a band called the Steel Wheels

based out of Virginia?

I feel like I've heard of them.

They're so great.

A lot of times we'll play like at the Stone Opera House.

Oh.

I've played there with them a couple years ago.

But we have a project where I wrote the songs

and I play guitar and I sing,

and they are acting as the backing band.

And it's not released yet because we're still,

I just am trying to release it more in a trickle than like a,

here's a million things at once that I used to do.

But that is definitely on coming down the pike.

It's just a matter of a win.

So I'll have more info about that next year, probably.

I'm good.

But you have to come back.

Yes.

Oh, that would be so great.

Yes.

Okay. So this is Sunday.

It's about a good man.

All right.

Katie Powderley.

You live in the lair on Maxine Gradio.

Your kisses pushed me in the water.

I've forgotten how to swim.

Every day Sunday,

your name I only have.

No, I'm not the only songbird.

We'll slen you a tune.

But I will love you,

and meet the fireflies,

right in the moon.

Coming back to life.

Coming back to life.

Coming back to life with you.

When the morning comes creeping,

sunlight burning through the mist,

an inch of mere mains untouched by your lips,

I will call them in accordance.

The path some amphods,

to praise my ears for hearing,

such a sweetness when in Max.

Coming back to life.

Coming back to life.

Hey, hey.

Coming back to life with you.

Coming back to life.

C'mon.

Coming back to life with you.

Coming back to life with you.

Your path becomes unclear.

I'll sing you secret songs that only you can hear.

We'll speak in code and language.

I'll find your way back home.

And all your friends are not you.

You're never alone.

Coming back to life.

Coming back to life.

Coming back to life with you.

Coming back to life.

Coming back to life.

Coming back to life with you.

Yeah.

That's good.

J.P.O.R.D.

Live in the Lair.

Just got a message about Katie.

We always invite people to text or to call or to message whatever.

This is actually a friend of mine, Louis.

And Louis says, this gal is amazing.

Love her smoky voice.

And I'm hooked on her songs already.

Well, tell him my mom's check is in the mail to him.

You can expect that in three to five business days.

You can tell Louis that a flattery will get him everywhere.

It's just a woman.

Oh, Louis.

Thank you.

So you can tell her that flattery will get her everywhere.

Just a matter of where it is she's trying to go.

See, you do have a good sense of humor.

I like it.

I mean, I'm not as charismatic as everyone, but I was funny.

Thank you.

Okay.

Let's go to this new album.

Yeah.

I just, I like the name too.

Live by the song, die by the song.

Coming out on Red Wing Blackbird Records.

Yes, ma'am.

Which is your own start-up label?

Yeah.

Wow.

Tell us about your business.

And what is it like to be the musician, but then you're also the business side?

What kind of structure do you have to sort of use and set up and be independent and also touring?

And just tell us the story.