This is Songwriters & Tour Riders, a production of KOSU and Oklahoma State University and hosted by Matthew Viriyapah. On this episode is Oklahoma fiddler, Kyle Nix.
Nix is best known as the fiddle player for the Oklahoma country band Turnpike Troubadours. But this summer marked the side-player's solo debut.
While the Troubadours have been on hiatus since 2019, Nix took that time to work on his album, Lightning on the Mountain & Other Short Stories. This album is inspired by everything from Spaghetti Westerns and Ennio Morricone soundtracks, to short stories by Ernest Hemingway and Stephen King.
On the album are also appearances from other members of the Troubadours and fiddle legend Byron Berline.
In this episode, Nix talks about what it was like working with his bandmates again, those inspirations, and what it was like to release his debut.
On Turnpike Troubadours and his solo debut
When you spend enough time with musicians that good and just your friends, you get to know each other. So I knew what I could expect from them and they knew what they could expect from me.
And I’m glad I have that relationship with those guys. We’ve been through a lot. And like I said, you know each other so well that you can really make good art together.
(Recording is) a little bit like layering a brick wall and lancing a cystKyle Nix
Somewhere in between there, because you’re building but it’s also a relief because you’re getting the songs out there that are in your head… To get them out, it does feel good. It's a certain relief, but it's also work. So brick by brick you build it and see how the house looks afterwards.
On Byron Berline
Byron and I are pretty close… When I lived in Stillwater, I was going up [to Guthrie] every week and hanging out, sometimes multiple times a week. And you know, trying to pick his brain, listening to him play, and learning as much as I could.
But to actually get him on a record with me was special.
He played a Lloyd Loar [mandolin] and they are very valuable. And it survived a fire and has a fantastic story. And then he played an old German violin that he played when he was with Bill Monroe and played when he recorded with the Rolling Stones, and played with Gram Parsons, and so many cool people. And I don’t believe he’s played with it since the 80’s.
Not only was it special to have Byron on it, it was special to have those instruments with great stories.
On short stories
I was reading a lot of Breece D'J Pancake, a West Virginia writer who wrote in the 1970’s. Very rural hard drinking stories.
I was rooting through a lot of different styles of short story. From the more technical and rhythmic compositions like Hemingway's to the more descriptive Stephen King, into the beautiful writing of Shirley Jackson.
I’ve said it before, but I like the format of a short story because you have to sum it up a little bit quicker.
My song, "Good Girl Down The Road," I was inspired to write after I read the Stephen King novel, Hearts in Atlantis.
There’s a relationship early in the book between two young boys and a girl that are friends and live down the block from each other. And at some point in the book, the story turns to when they’re adults. And the story changed so quickly and took a dark turn, that I thought maybe I wanted to change the story.
It might be dark in my song, but not nearly as dark as it was in the Stephen King novel. But I just wanted to put an Oklahoma spin on it
On Morricone and Charlie Daniels
This is going to sound strange to say this, but it affected me that [Morricone] passed and Charlie Daniels on like the same day. Because they were both influences on my influence and the first record really.
I don’t know how many times people have asked me in my life if I could play “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.”
The Good, Bad, and The Ugly soundtrack that Morricone was part of — that's really cool.
Just sounds like the strings are dry and dusty when they’re being picked. I feel like gritty sounds like that can just reach out and grab you by the lapels and bring you in through the screen and show you the surroundings of what’s going on.
Music featured in this episode:
- Kyle Nix - Lighting On The Mountain
- Kyle Nix - Manifesto
- Turnpike Troubadours - 7 Oaks
- The Rolling Stones - Country Honk
- Kyle Nix - Good Girl Down The Road
- Kyle Nix - Sweet Delta Rose
- Kyle Nix - Blue Eyes
- Kyle Nix - Old Joe Clark
- Kyle Nix - If Ruby Ain't Happy
- The Charlie Daniels Band - Devil Went Down to Georgia
- Ennio Morricone - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (main title)
- Kyle Nix - Prelude
- Kyle Nix - Reprise (Hacia El Ocaso)
- Kyle Nix - Intro
- Kyle Nix - Lonesome for You (Widower pt. 1)
- Kyle Nix - Josephine
