Brandon Rhyder Is Singing Again

Brandon Rhyder:  (Laughter) Oh man, it’s a label. There’s not much more to it than that. Everybody is happy and proud of where we’re from, right? When I started out in this business in the early 2000’s, I think it was something that was different. To be a Texas Red Dirt Musician meant that you were unique and that you did your own thing.

BR:  I’m not slamming anybody for today’s climate, but the reality is there wasn’t that many players when I started and now there are a gazillion. I think the lines have been blurred, but to me it’s just another term like Americana. It’s a melting pot.

BR:  I don’t think about it. I’ve always said this too. I write as it comes to me. I don’t write a song for a genre. I write from the inspiration. When music comes to me, I go with it. I let it take me. That’s what I’ve always enjoyed the most about writing. If you pigeonhole it and try to put it in a box, I don’t know what I would do.

BR:  The reality is even after I had that degree, basically I was a safety and environmental coordinator. Honestly, I didn’t last very long.

BR:  It took about a year before I figured out, I didn’t want to do that. When I talk to kids, I always say this, when you are eighteen years old, how in the world are you supposed to know what you want to do for the rest of your life? I know it was a big burden to me. I changed my major so many times. I majored in general studies, then I wanted to major in aviation for a couple of semesters.

BR:  I thought about music and I definitely had that opportunity. I could have had a ride through college had I chosen music.

BR:  Oh no, not at all.

BR:  Right at the end of college. I went to Carthage, where I grew up, and went to a party where a couple friends of mine were playing the guitar. I thought, Dad’s got one of those in the closet and it looks like fun. I asked him if I could borrow it.

BR:  I bought a Mel Bay guitar book for beginners and I learned three chords right off the bat. So, I started writing right off the bat. I’d always written, but I never had a musical instrument to put it in a song. It culminated so quickly. I never really thought when I started, that I would be doing this full time.

BR:  Yeah.

BR:  Let’s back up. The reason I am doing what I’m doing today is I had a friend named Ricky Casey. He was a home builder in the Tyler area. He built my first home. He and I became great friends when we met. He was the guy, over time, who encouraged me. He pulled me to the side and told me, “We all like to play our songs by the campfire, but you’ve got something different. Maybe you should think about pursuing that.” That was the first time I ever really thought about it.

BR: It was 1998. I didn’t pick up the guitar until 1997. It was all snowballing fairly quickly.

BR:  Oh, for sure! The thing that was in place was that my wife and I had been married since we were 21 and 19. I didn’t even play guitar when we got married. The fact is we were in a position where we had put each other through college. We both had really good jobs and we had our first new house. A lot of people would have been afraid to make a change, but we came to Austin, Texas. I told her I wanted to move to Austin and make music.

BR:  I don’t think she thought I was serious, but the house went up for sale the next week. So, she knew I was serious, and she wanted to do it, so we did. This is the end of 1999.

BR:  A lot of people thought I was crazy. We had a brand-new house and we had thirty-year jobs, a 401K, we had it all. Everybody thought I was nuts. (Laughter) It took until 2005 before people took me seriously.

BR:  I had put together a group of songs for my next record already.  Then one day Walt was talking to my wife. He told her he was going to produce my next record. She told me he said that. So, I went to Walt and told him I heard he was producing my next record. He said, “I am. I want to.” So, I said, “Let’s do it.”

BR:  I think the writing had progressed from being in the trenches with people like Walt Wilkins and Susan Gibson. Also, I was ready.

BR:   I had met Walt Wilkins in 2004. We became friends, almost instantly and began doing dates together. We put this tour together with Susan Gibson and called it the HOV tour. We did three or four shows and they were both kicking my butt every night on stage. They were both seasoned songwriters. It’s intimidating to have ‘Wide Open Spaces’ on one side and Walt on the other.

BR:  It made me knuckle down and get better at my craft quicker.

BR:  I don’t know. Honestly, I’ve never been that concerned. I know that sounds ridiculous. I just put my music out. Because I’m different, I don’t know that I’ve had that shot, whatever it is. I’ve been to Nashville a thousand times and been told no up and down music row. I have had some minor record deals, but for the most part I have focused on continuing my path.

BR:  I really look up to a lot of the older guys. I’ve always leaned on them for wisdom.

BR:  Ray Wylie Hubbard told me one time, “Be careful what you write because you might have to sing it for the rest of your life.” I’ve always kind of stuck to that philosophy.

BR:  Thank you.

BR:  Actually, I’ve been sick for several years. We didn’t know what was going on.

BR:  We’d been to several different doctors and tried to figure out what was going on. I never could get any answers and my voice was having trouble.

BR:  This has been happening for the last six years. It changes everything when you are on stage singing and you are wondering if you can hit the note coming up. Will I squawk or hit it? So, for a period of time, it became not that fun.

BR:  The reality is that I felt internally bad, a lot. I felt like I had the flu all the time with aches and pains. I ended up just going through the motions to make things happen.

BR:  I was septic and ended up in the hospital last year for a week and after going through that, we found absolutely nothing out. They initially said I had Lime disease but that came back negative. I’ve been tested for anything and everything under the sun. Then I met a couple of doctors this past January and both of those doctors have completely changed my life.

BR:   The crazy thing about it is the doctor that’s made the most difference in my life is called the Gut Doctor. She was an internal medicine doctor, but she got out of it because they were never able to get to the root of people’s problems. Anything and everything that I’m taking now is all natural. I have real bad inflammation inside and I’m allergic to several things I didn’t know about. I’m completely lactose intolerant and have issues with sinus and my head in general, but these doctors have changed my life and all of a sudden, I am singing like a bird again!

BR:  So, it’s two-fold, I feel good and I’m not crazy. I have a story to tell when it comes to this. When you feel sick and go to the doctor and they tell you, you’re fine. You know the truth of how you feel so you have to continue to keep on searching to find the answers. I believe we did finally find the answers and I’ve lost thirty pounds in the last six months due to big time diet changes and it’s given me my voice back.

BR:  I didn’t think I’d be doing this in five years this past January.

BR:  I grew up in Carthage, Texas. Country music in general is huge in Northeast Texas. A lot of music happens through that area. That’s where the Country Music Hall of Fame is at, Tex Ritter and the Jim Reeves Memorial. The Texas Country Music Association came up and developed out of that area. It’s not based out of there anymore, but I was asked if I would be the face and the voice for them and I said, “Absolutely.”

BR:  We were talking about Number Ones and awards earlier; I never have put much into it. I would rather look back at the end of my career and think, I did what I wanted to do, and I was successful on many levels. I was able to write the music that was inspirational to me and I did it my way…and that’s the way I want to do it.