Murfreesboro, Tenn. – Seemingly, with the oversight of a guardian angel, Nashville, TN dark country songwriter/musician, Coleman Williams (IV), -and, as accompanied by a just-as-locally sourced, grunge-metal backing band, The Strange Band- started work in Oct., 2020 with a concept that not only publicly exposed a local Murfreesboro liquor store clerk as a fourth heir in the lineage of Nashville Country music’s The Williams family legacy, but laid the inherent tracks for Coleman Williams’ venture into the wild west of America’s currently low-key “lineage rock,” “lineage-core,” or “nepo-core” situation, as a “Son of Sin.”

For almost two years following, IV & The Strange Band bridged Coleman’s more modern, four-generations evolved take on original Nashville Country & Western with the influence and fandoms of America’s borderline, carney-run punk and metal circuits to locally produce and extensively tour a dark country grunge sound that, quicker-than-not, got the group signed to a fellow lineage-rocker/producer’s own major record label. -And all of which created an accidental collective, or “Coleman-nation,” of Nashville/Murfreesboro, TN-area influences spanning the country.

IV & The Strange Band’s debut album, Southern Circus, was released out of Megaforce Records and Shooter Jennings’ BCR Records, June 17, 2022, with an album release show at the historic Nashville rock venue, Exit/In, the following evening.  IV & The Strange Band performed Southern Circus in its entirety (plus highlights) after nearly two years of pushing an album that had ever only existed live, …and, approximately, 72 hours after they broke up.

Coleman’s Happenstance

“We technically started in October [2020], so it’s been a year and, like, four months, because ‘Son of Sin’ was October, y’know.  We were hitting the ground the second [David Talley and Jason Dietz] weren’t having to work the recycling job anymore.” said Coleman Williams (IV) next to IV & The Strange Band producers/band mates, guitarist, David Talley, and bassist, Jason Dietz, on the side porch of Nashville’s The Basement, March 21, 2022.  

At the time of Coleman’s Oct. 2020 quote, plus the following three months until Southern Circus’s debut on June 18, 2022, IV & The Strange Band’s debut ran a year and nine months (give or take a couple weeks). A majority of that time was spent cutting teeth and paying dues over several tours (creating a beautifully ramshackle, “nationwide” tour, collectively), as well as continuously pushing the Southern Circus release date back after handing over initial DIY plans to a sudden, music-industry grasp as Coleman opted into a major record deal by their second debut show.

However, according to the Coleman Williams-specific social media pages (explained in detail later), “Coleman Williams” seemingly first appeared in a picture posted by Dietz, December 1, 2019, on the Facebook page of Coleman Finchum, a local, Murfreesboro liquor store manager.

Cumulative Producer Experience

Folk & Proper met up with IV & The Strange Band bassist/producer, Jason Dietz, at his Twin Oak Recordings studio, July 26, 2021, just nine months into the whole debut. They were gearing up to perform the second, physical live show debut in West Virginia that weekend. Coleman was out buying Rochelle that day, the band’s repurposed disability center shuttle/touring bus.

“I met Coleman the first time… -I was friends with his dad, and his dad came to my house […] to have me do some video editing for him, or whatever,” said Dietz.

“So, he’s dumping video footage from his camera.  It was the day that Coleman moved to Murfreesboro. 

“His dad was, like, ‘Hey, man, if you ever need anything in Murfreesboro, this guy will take care of you [referring Coleman to Jason Dietz].’”

“I never saw [Coleman] after that until one night at Gentleman Jim’s [a [local, Murfreesboro dive bar]. He was there with some of his friends. I was gonna go outside and smoke [when] I was, like, ‘Hey, that’s Hank 3’s kid.’  -I [hadn’t] seen him since he moved here. […] [So,] I was like, ‘Hey, man!’  -I forgot what I said to him. [It was] something like, ‘Every Williams has a paper on’m.’”

[…] “I think he was just, freshly, -I could be wrong on his age, but, maybe, 18 or 19.”

Coleman had just begun Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) at the time for a Literature degree/Teaching minor he’d accomplish, eventually saying “I literally went to college to try and be a better songwriter” (Spin that Shit Podcast, May 15, 2021).

Pertaining to Coleman’s Blood:

Now, it’s been known for years, but in order for the Williams family legacy to fall upon Coleman Finchum, Nashville Country & Western traditionalist and psycho-Hellbilly songwriter/musician, Shelton Hank Williams (Hank Williams III/Hank 3), son of Hank Williams, Jr. (Bocephus) and grandson of Hank Williams, Sr. (a forefather of original Nashville Country & Western music/“Ramblin’ Man”) would had to have had a son 32 years ago.

It just so happens that 27 years ago, in 1996, Hank 3 signed his first record deal with Nashville’s Curb Records once a judge made him aware of a 5-year-old son born in the area in 1991. This opted Shelton Williams into the family business to financially support young Coleman as, then, Hank Williams III, figured out his own Jekyll and Hyde musical legacy (resulting in Hank 3’s artistic journey) in-real-time, over the course of Coleman’s Nashville upbringing.

There’s a solid pair of articles produced by savingcountrymusic.com that best updates the Williams family tree.  One is an article that publicly exposed liquor store clerk, Coleman Finchum, on March 7, 2021, seemingly a month before Coleman was comfortable with it, but nonetheless, a month and a half before IV & The Strange Band’s hit single, “Son of Sin” dropped, April 20, 2021.

“I came to terms with being who I was on a level where I had to find myself before I knew I could ever show anyone else who I was,” Colman said in Western AF’s acoustic “Son of Sin” intro.

Also, Ben Dunnavant, longtime friend in the Coleman Camp, posted the first savingcountrymusic.com article, The Hank Williams Lineage Continues with Hank3’s Son “IV” | Saving Country Music, on Coleman Finchum’s Facebook page a day after it was published. A sibling-article, Tracing Bloodlines and Preserving Traditions: The Story of Hank Williams IV | Saving Country Music was published a few weeks after, explaining the rest of Hank Williams, Sr.’s lineage (like, Butch descendants). Both articles can be traced back to an episode of Country History X podcast, according to savingcountrymusic.com.

Folk & Proper sat down with Jason Dietz at The Campus Pub (another local, Murfreesboro dive bar), February 5, 2023:

“The first article that came out about him was from savingcountrymusic.com, and Coleman absolutely lost his shit for, like, weeks about that article.  Wanted it taken down.”

Folk & Proper: Because of the Finchum thing?

“Yeah. Just because of all of it, y’know. He was wanting Patrick [Files, a Williams family lawyer] to call and have it removed, and all this stuff.  I was like, ‘man, people are going to write about you all the time.  People are going to write stuff you don’t necessarily like. […] You can’t just lose your shit and try to get it taken down every time.”

Long Game Moonlighting and Side-Grooming

Back at the time Jason Dietz first met Coleman in 2011, Dietz had already joined an endeavor that would be crucial to the development of The Strange Band a decade prior to the release of Southern Circus:  Murfreesboro’s twenty-teens porch staple, The Hardin Draw.

“Jason [had] bought an upright bass because he was wanting to learn how to play it like Joe Buck and Aaron [Swisher] bought a mandolin. [It] started out as just getting drunk and jamming on the patio of the Handle Bar [another Murfreesboro dive bar]. […] I wrote a couple of songs and that’s when it became a thing, said David Talley, founding member of the Hardin Draw, May 27, 2022.

“Coleman was around, and I had met him in passing, but didn’t know him all that well. I know he dug what we were doing, and I guess [we] made an impression on him as a writer and player based off of that,” said Talley.

“Our partner, David Talley, is like that with, just, melodies, and everything else.  He’ll pick up a guitar and he’ll come up with melodies, immediately; vocal harmonies just on the fly.  He’s so good at just hearing that stuff,” said Dietz, July 2021.  “Then he comes out with our fiddle player….”

“Laura Beth comes from a classical background, but she plays country music very well,” said Dietz. 

“She’s been playing down in lower Broadway for so long; just hustlin’ at Layla’s.  Not buskin’, just playing a couple-hour slot of just covers, being a slave of playing cover songs for tourists on Lower Broadway, but she did it for a long time and made a lot of good connections.  I don’t know if you ever heard of Lilly Mae.  She’s on Third Man.  She used to do a show with Laura Beith at Layla’s: Lilly Mae and her sisters.  It’s actually really good.” 

So, as Coleman did MTSU, met producers Jason Dietz and David Talley gaining area-traction with Hardin Draw’s area-gothic, folkster-rock longevity, potential players in the Southern Circus were in place.

And Dietz and Talley’s Recycling Business Coleman Mentioned

(We’re back in Dietz’s Twin Oak Recordings’ kitchen, July 26, 2021)

“It was a long three years,” said Dietz.

“I worked at a corporate job for 16 years and I left for moral reasons.  Then worked at a restaurant.  Then after that, I was like, ‘this isn’t going to sustain. I’ve got to figure a way to sustain. I can’t go back to corporate America, because I’m not that kind of person.” 

“So, me and David from the Hardin Draw decided to start a recycling business because […] when I was working at The Wild Cow [Nashville vegan restaurant in Five Points], -long story short, I understood how much waste I was doing [and said,] ‘Man, I should fcking recycle. […] I see the difference in what’s being thrown away and what’s being recycled and reused.’  I was like, ‘I need to step up my game and do that sht at home. [So, I] did some research and found out there was one company in town that just had horrible reviews; [and] anybody that [subscribed to] the company had nothing but bad stuff to say about them.  I said, ‘Who else can I go to because this sucks,’ and learned there was no other company. I was like, ‘okay, I guess I’m going to start a recycling business and just be better than these guys.’  So, I asked David if he wanted to do it with me.” 

“[He did] and, we had, like, a thousand bucks we literally started it with.  Fckin’ brought in millions of dollars, man.”

“…We sold it.  Just because of [Dietz thought for a split second], -having employees, man, and dealing with debt and taking out loans to do things and grow a business. And at one point, we had fifteen people on our payroll, which is, -that’s a lot, you know? Maintaining that, working third shift and just doing all kinds of crazy stuff.  David and I both just became over it, man.  Getting scared at certain times of the year because of how payments were coming in, and, originally, we started to seek out investors [but] both of us were just like, ‘we’re just over it, man.’  We were going to try to stick it out for five or longer, but…”

[…] “That’s what I was doing, I was working myself in the mud.  I was working third shift for the recycling business.  And I was doing a lot of the grunt work that was keeping me from being able to move the company forward. […] Over three thousand homes in Murfreesboro with four people [using] box trucks.”

Jason mentioned the company name, Stone River Recycling, and the small black trashcans they chose to use.

“So when [we] sold that, I had time [and] money coming through, so I [didn’t] have to go work a job, because [the people who bought the recycling company] set up a payment plan with us for three years, so I pretty much [didn’t] have to do anything, but I’m not that kind of person, so I’m working three days a week at a vegan restaurant here in town.  Makes some extra money.  Keeps me busy while David and I are paying off some debt right now, so, yeah.” 

(Back at The Basement’s side porch, Nashville, TN, March 21, 2022)

F&P:  Yeah, I’m seeing the little black dumpsters pop up, -I live […] right next to campus and they’re everywhere, now.

Coleman, Talley, and Dietz together: (Jason: “Yeah, they’re still everywhere…. as stressful as it is..”; Coleman:  Yeah, these guys made a better recycling company than Murfreesboro has….; Talley:  Yeah, we brought it up as big as we can, and…)

Coleman:  Yeah, like I’ve said, these guys have been taking care of Murfreesboro way before I did. 

Talley:  That was a …That was, -I’m glad it’s over [laughs].

Jason:  Me, too.  It still ain’t over, but I’d rather do this.

(back in Dietz’s Twin Oak Recordings’ kitchen, July 26, 2021)

“So when [we] sold that, I had time […] and I’ve got money coming through, so I don’t have to go work a job, because [the people who bought the recycling company] set up a payment plan with us for three years, so I pretty much don’t have to do anything, but I’m not that kind of person, so I’m working three days a week at a vegan restaurant (Juicy’s on Medical Center Blvd.), here in [Murfreesboro].  Make some extra money.  Keeps me busy while David and I are paying off some debt right now, so, yeah.” 

“I feel like the recycling is still relevant to the story because I had to wait til’…. That was a big part of my life.  I couldn’t do this with Coleman if I was still doing that.  David, as well.”

“The recycling business was gone January 1st [,2021,] and we started immediately.”

Coleman’s Media Blitzkrieg

With a green light from production after years of personal friendship between Coleman and Jason Dietz, and after the work Dietz and David Talley accomplished side-grooming/moonlighting to be area-producers serendipitously placing/collecting the Southern Circus lineup for a decade, Coleman opted into The Williams family legacy’s more evolved, fourth-generation impact by hitting social media.

Coleman Finchum’s personal Facebook page “joined July 2007” remained compartmentalized and isolated at the beginning of the Finchum-Williams transition. The page scarcely maintained a normal amount of about three hundred friends with no outstanding mention of IV other than any esoteric/ already-friends posts while he worked on Facebook pages for “IV Fourth” and “IV and the Strange Band,” as well as ivsonofiii’s handle on Instagram. All were online by January 22, 2021, according to the “joined” dates.

The IV and The Strange Band page handles more so official show announcements/flyers, tour pics, new songs and family/idol tributes (including John Prine and Blaze Foley covers) in backyard, solo-acoustic Coleman settings (band news, if you will). IV Fourth does the same, but accepts fan posts from live shows, or pics with merch, or people tagging “with IV Fourth,” wherever (allows fan participation, if you will). Both rapidly grew thousands of friends and followers, each, though, as word spread between the first substantial post on the new sites, February 28, 2021’s “Son of Sin” teaser, the savingcountrymusic.com article, and the release of “Son of Sin,” April 20, 2021. Good growth period.

Amaranthus Hyden commenting on Ben Dunnavant’s post the same morning on Coleman Finchum’s page, “I never knew he made music.”

“He’s been writing sht for years, just pretty low key about it,” replied Dunnavant within a few hours.

An official ivandthestrangeband.com band site would finish construction and open a little after the release of “Son of Sin” (an official-official merch site, if you will). The band’s site, ivandthestrangeband.com posts tour and news, too, but conveniently replaced MyShopify plugs.

Then, Coleman Finchum’s personal Facebook page would change its name to Coleman Emmett WIlliams, making the concept Facebook official around them gearing up for touring, early summer. Coleman’s Emmett Williams’ site remained with minimal, esoteric shares and posts as the friend count jumped to about 985 (which is punk af).

(Back in Dietz’s Twin Oak Recordings’ kitchen, July 26, 2021)

F&P: How many band pages is he running with, now?  He’s got three for sure.  Is the IV & The Strange Band page any different from his personal and solo pages?

Dietz: I would say it is, but one in the same, like I think, originally, we kind’ve wanted it to seem [different]. 

“Not that it would ever happen… -so, not putting that out there,” Dietz continued, “but hypothetically speaking, The Strange Band could back ‘Joe Blow’ saying, ‘oh, okay, we could use Coleman’s band,’ but that’s not gonna happen. We don’t want to do that.”

F&P: It’s a possibility but not an intention.

Dietz: Right.  It keeps it to where if Coleman does do something by himself for the marketing aspects of it, if you see it’s just IV, you know it’s just gonna be Coleman stringed down.  It’s not gonna be a rock show or whatever.

“And he’s got a name that’s gonna get people naturally interested, but he’s also got the package to back the name, I think, which is more than if he were just Coleman Williams and he sounded like bird shit, then nobody would even care, y’know.  But he’s actually doing some good stuff, so people are actually going to give a shit.”

Son of Sin

IV & The Strange Band’s first single, “Son of Sin,” came out March 28, 2021, according to a Bandcamp page linked by IV Fourth, and before the linked ivsonofiii.bandcamp.com page was updated to read “released April 20, 2021.” At the time, it would be five months into the whole debut concept. The Oct. 2020 date specifically refers to when they started recording “Son of Sin,” at Twin Oak Recordings, according to Coleman at the March, Basement show.

The credits for the original “Son of Sin” released on Bandcamp were Coleman Williams (IV) on vocals and acoustic guitar, David Talley on the guitars and banjo, Jason Dietz on bass, Laura Beth Jewell on the fiddle, and Taylor Powell on drums.

“We were doing it with a different drummer.  And the guy that had been demo-ing with us, -he worked at Liquid Smoke, man.  Hell of a dude.  Hell of a drummer.  He’s going on tour so much this fall [2021], -with a bunch of bands, so he couldn’t do it with us,” said Dietz back in the Twin Oak Recordings kitchen, July 26, 2021.

David Talley would be credited as Assistant Producer on the ivsonofiiii.bandcamp.com site.

From recording “Son of Sin,” Oct. 2020, through February 28, 2021’s 45-second teaser video on the IV and the Strange Band and IV Fourth pages, past the late March Bandcamp release, and up to the song’s blowout “streaming on all platforms,” 4/20 release, this original-original Strange Band shuffled members from most available local musicians sourced through Dietz’s past, cumulative producer experience to a not-much-different The Strange Band that recorded Southern Circus, and that solidified as family traveling the country between the summer of 2021 and the album’s June 2022 release. The original-original, “Or you might join my Strange Band” was, seemingly and unknowingly, just a test run with the know-how to jumpstart a next-gen Williams (Dietz revving his engine).

Folk & Proper sat down with local studio musician/founding member of Hardin Draw, Aaron Swisher (in addition to Jason Dietz) at The Campus Pub in Murfreesboro, TN, February 5, 2023: 

F&P, to Aaron Swisher joining the porch: [You] come up a couple times.

Swisher:  How’s that?

F&P: You’re in Hardin Draw, and just other spots around town and’ve come up in conversation; one of Coleman Finchum’s friends before all of this, too.

Dietz: Yeah, he was the first one to play guitar on any of Coleman’s stuff.

F&P: And you were the first guitarist on…

Dietz: “Son of Sin.” -Well, the first person to play guitar when he started working this stuff out with Coleman before Talley played and [Coleman] had no idea what the fck anything was or what was happening or what was going on [referring to an overcome, messy start in the beginning]. We were just trying to figure out how to play and how to arrange “Son of Sin.” -Was it me, you, and Coleman, or just me and you? 

Swisher:  Me, you, and Coleman

Dietz:  Me, you, and Coleman.  And then we were working out the guitar riff for the choruses of that song. […] [The intro] is what Coleman sent to me as the song. […] It’s a phone recording […], so that’s what we were trying to figure out: How to play this as a band.  You know, it’s just a voice and a guitar.  It needs to have other things, and I heard it as a rock song.  I was like, man, this thing should be a fckn banger.

(“The intro [to” Son of Sin”] is literally off the phone. […] The intro and ending are literally off of a phone[…] in the back room of my house. The whole thing is not.” said Coleman on Spin that Shit Podcast).

Swisher: How I remember it is like, -because he was playing it in D, And I was like, you can tune down your top string to D, if you want to, and you can play power chords and he didn’t know that.  We just kinda worked out that riff on the power chords.

F&P: So, you taught Coleman how to drop D?

Swisher:  Kind of.  I guess.  I was like, we can tune that top string down to D and you can play power chords just use one finger, if you want to.  He was like, “Oh!”

Dietz:  Coleman wasn’t a player at that point.  Like, he didn’t even really know how to play guitar, or what he was doing.  He picked around; ‘this sounds cool,’ ‘I’m just gonna sing over that’ kinda thing. He needed guitar lessons from the get-go.  Everyone told him that.  You told him that [to Swisher].

Swisher:  I tried to give him guitar lessons, but he wouldn’t…

F&P:  I didn’t’ realize that you were the original guitar part for him.

Swisher:  Well, let’s not get out of hand, here. I was only in there for like, maybe, two, three writing sessions, if that, so….

Dietz:  And you put some mandolin I think on a version.

Swisher:  One of the demos.

Dietz: We were garage banding back and forth….

Swisher:  I haven’t talked to Coleman in a long time.  He took off and did his thing, and just kinda like… I dunno. I guess he’s just too busy.  We don’t really correspond or hang out or anything.

Dietz: Cause, before he started doing this, we use to see him all the time.

 Swisher:  Yeah, three or four nights a week, hanging out doing something…

-“Son of Sin” blew the fck up and Sirius XM Outlaw Country looped it for days, it seemed.

Happy 4/20

Past Oct. 2020 and more towards 4/20, the groundwork to record IV & The Strange Band had been tried and true at Twin Oak Recordings, plus they have some skyrocketed, country-grunge banger-success on their hands, at this point. IV & The Strange Band’s online presence needed to be as green lit and thriving as production.

As the social sites loaded with announcements, fans shared YouTube videos of “Son of Sin,” and pictures of fresh IV merchandise including Thank You notes from Coleman/IV, himself. Coleman entropied to “little brother” of the new Strange Band family, handling merch, as scheduling tours, further recording, and managing the evolution of their actions continued all around him. Hard work by all was falling into place.

“I came in right after ‘Son of Sin.’  You’re correct about that,” said Daniel Mason, fire-fisted, dark banjo-sorcerer of The Williams’ Damn and Strange Bands.

And, as easy as that, with the addition of Daniel from the “Hank 3 side,” another comfortable entropy occurred for Everyone to continue the media onslaught through the 4/20 release of “Son of Sin,” to the end of Spring (June)/the live debut.

IV & The Strange Band’s YouTube page punched out a quick series of Postmodern Jukebox-esque string band performances and still background demo recordings, as Daniel joined, to produce a sudden back catalog to support the “Son of Sin” success, as well as free David Talley’s hands to focus on killer fillers and production technique. IV’s “If Only You Were Lonely (Replacements Cover),” and solo-acoustic, “Inbred,” were already online as of April 13, 2021, when both versions officially dropped on 4/19 and 4/20 (as well as “Sailin’ On,” IV & The Strange Band’s Bad Brains cover). 

The country-grunge version came early, yes, but the Western AF version solidified the debut concept’s dichotomous intent to bridge fandoms, A and B-siding The Strange Band’s 100-watt amp, grunge version on the one side, and the traditional folk/Nashville Country & Western AF version on the other, as his dad did in live setting, and his dad before him through an enduring, generationally rebellious manner, grown legacy.

Twin Oak also talked with area-small punk label, Trajectory Records, about a limited edition 7″ “Son of Sin” vinyl with pressing the dichotomous debut intent after both versions were released (IV And The Strange Band – Coleman Williams IV – FulfillmentMerch [it’s also a good, direct write-up on the situation, whoever wrote it]).

“The record label that we found to do that was kinda just a small punk rock, kinda indie label thing and it was pretty cool. Trajectory Records is the… A very small level. They offered to help out and it was reasonable. And it helps them out in the end, too, so they were some small, little label that seemed like they were doing the right thing with bands, -helping bands out, so we were just like, ‘Hey, thses guys seem like they’re doing cool things. Wonder if they’ll help us out and we’ll end up helping them out if we sell a lot of records,’ so… yeah, they seem like cool dudes,” said Dietz.

Anyway, though somebody on IV Fourths page posted surprise Daniel Mason from Hank 3’s Damn Band was playing with Coleman Williams on April 23, with no other context for 3 more days, Daniel evidently joined at the Postmodern Jukebox-esque, “Punk Rock Girl (The Dead Milkmen),” video, recorded April 26, 2021 [released the 28th], followed by “Levitate Me” (The Pixies),” May 21, 2021, and then, “Southern Despair,” by Coleman Williams (IV), May 24, 2021.

That first wave video suite finished with Coleman solo-acoustic-ing his Grandad’s, “Old Nashville Cowboy,” on Bocephus’ 72nd birthday, May 26, 2021, just 3 days before Coleman’s 31st (IV and the Stange Band FB page). 

The sites’ followers were eating it up. -The town was, too.

 (We’re back in Twin Oak Recordings Kitchen, July 26, 2021)

“You haven’t heard any of the new album, yet?” Dietz asked walking to a giant mixing board in the control room.

“It definitely won’t be out this year. […] I don’t think it’s actually going to come out, man, probably until, I would say, maybe, January. Or, not even January. You figure if he’s going on the tour in Sept. and we’re going out in Oct. …We’ve demo’d things, -and I’ve got most of the album demo’d here.”

(Back at Campus Pub, February 5, 2023)

F&P: What was it like between you’s guys’ first rapid media output/shuffling the lineup for the release of “Son of Sin” and the second live debut at W.B.’s birthday bash? What was recording like? Did you guys get the whole thing before W.B.?

Dietz: We did demos of “Deep Down,” “Stand Your Ground,” “Inbred” (with the drummer that played on “Son of Sin”). So, we demo’d those songs, and our plan was to release something that year. Like, I wanted to do… 4/20 was gonna be “Son of Sin” and then in July, release, like an EP, or something.”

“Then Patrick advised against that, and I think that’s when Carson came in and we were just like, ‘okay, we’re going to record a full record together with our actual drummer,’ and so forth.”

(Back at Twin Oak Recordings’ kitchen, July 26, 2021)

“It was a no-brainer to ask my brother-in-law. I was like, ‘Hey, you wanna fckin play some drums?’ So, my brother-in-law’s in the band.”

F&P: He’s a Sheep Shifter?

-Carson Kehrer drummed for Sheep Shifter, one of Murfreesboro’s rowdiest, craziest bands (definitely look up some YouTube videos of Sheep Shifter), as well as for the New York band Fashion Week, a pretty good-weird, heavy-drummed, alt-metal-noise deal… with occasional harmonica.

At the same time, pulled from “Twin Oak side” of production’s John Judkins (also of Murfreesboro’s staple, rock operatic, Nintendo-core nonet, The Protomen), came on for The Strange Band’s first live debut at Memphis’ “The last Old Skoolin’, No Foolin’, Beer Drinkin’, Shot Shootin’, Roadhouse, Honky Tonk Lounge,” Hernando’s Hide-A-Way, to a country band’s need for live lap steel, which happened to parallel with a country album’s need for lap steel. -A touring band mate that records on the group’s debut album, too? What do you call that?

Whatever it was, Carson would be labeled the same.

Those three were out getting Rochelle July 26th, 2021, as Jason stayed back at Twin Oak for an interview.

At that point, The Strange Band fully formed with the purchase of Rochelle.

To finish out the IV & The Strange Band’s Spring media blitzkrieg jet-fueling a “Son of Sin” rocket, between February 28 and April 20, 2021, Coleman (IV) was out there hyping on his own with photo shoots including pics of IV, introspective in Manuel suit, smoking a joint; videos like the introduction Mojo Nixon made about IV & The Strange Band when he premiered “Son of Sin” on Sirius XM Outlaw Country (as well as the accompanying IV interview, April 15, 2021); the first public acoustic performances of “Son of Sin,” “Inbred,” “Stand Your Ground,” and a touching, Hank 3’s “Straight to Hell” on Pat Reedy’s Locked In Show Live live stream on Pat Reedy & The Longtime Goners’ Facebook page, April 25, 2021. The Muddy Roots poster and announcement came right off the bat, April 25, and was followed by announcements they’re at Mutants of the Monster fest in Little Rock, AK, September 11, 2021; then joining the “Amigo the Devil Goes West: North, South, & East, too” Tour in October, 2021. And to top it all off, the Hank Williams Sr. of all Metal Fests, Hell Fest in Clisson, France, Summer, 2022 was announced, June 17, 2021.

Halfway through May, 2021, Coleman got high as hell and talked on Spin that Shit Podcast (Coyote Radio Show & Podcast) for an hour about influences, taxidermy, and some general principles, all wide-eyed and pre-road hard. It’s great.

“So, [seemingly with pride] Spotify, Amazon Music, Bandcamp. We’ve been having issues with iTunes, which sucks, but its iTunes fault, not ours [its fixed now], but we are on all streaming formats. We also have a YouTube page [@ivandthestrangeband5277]. If nothing else works, it’s on there, guys. […] We have Shopify, too [https://iv-and-the-strange-band.myshopify.com/]. I’ve got merch up. We have a website. It’s through a link on my Instagram [@ivsonofiii]. It’s also on my facebook page [IV Fourth, IV and the Strange Band]. Y’know, got a lot of stuff in the works, guys,” said Coleman on Pat Reedy’s Locked In Show Live facebook live stream.

(We’re back at Twin Oak Recordings kitchen, July 26, 2021)

“We got that tour lined-up with Amigo shortly after that. And then, we were supposed to leave in October, and I was like, after that, we’re gonna get back, we’re gonna have Christmas time, so on and so forth, -was like, ‘if we’re gonna record a record, we’ve got to do it before we fckn leave in October. We were touring with Coleman, maybe one or two little tours that year, before the record came out…,” Dietz said prospectively, pre-road hard, himself.

Fckn TOURING

(Still in the Twin Oak Recordings’ kitchen, July 26, 2023)

“So, we’d been recording the record, -Coleman hooked up with a manager that was his dad’s manager, -or not manager, his dad’s lawyer and [Pantera’s] Phil Anselmo’s lawyer […] -he’s good friends with Coleman’s grandma, who did all Coleman’s dad’s merchandising and stuff like that…”

“Patrick is Coleman’s manager, so we hooked up with him…Coleman did. He reached out to Coleman and was like, ‘Hey, man, if you’re gonna do this, I’ve been working with your family for, y’know, fckin X-amount of years and doing stuff for your dad.’ -Like, ‘I’m here to help you with whatever you need.’ So, Patrick reached out to Coleman. Coleman got a manager. And I think [by the week of May 24, 2021], we had already been talking to the Amigo the Devil people and that tour was getting booked, and Coleman’s new manager has another booking agency, TKO booking, that they’re going through for all the future stuff.

Coleman: I have a really great manager, my good friend and partner, Patrick Files. He’s worked for a lot of people in the business, including, like, Phillip Anselmo, and other people, and even my father. Great guy. Patrick Files is awesome.  He knows I love Mojo, knew him, and made the call and got me that,” said Coleman (Spin that Shit Podcast, May 15, 2021).

(Now, a May 10th, 2022, conversation with Patrick Files)

“I brought MRI (Megaforce Records) and BCR (Shooter Jennings’ Black Country Rock Media) together. I have had a long relationship with MRI from handling both Hank 3 and Phil Anselmo. I thought having one side well-versed in the heavy rock world and the other with a firm standing in country/Americana made sense. Plus, bringing [the] next generation of these two legendary families together [Jennings and Williams] was cool. The deal was done some time before they headed west [Feb. 2022]. I do not have any part in the side projects of the other members. I was asked by the family to help Coleman and that is what I try to do. Is this for an article? I am answering assuming this is just a friendly chat. Thanks.

F&P: […] This is for articles.

“TKO Booking handled the banjo tour. I believe Jason originally contacted Amigo and it was a team effort locking in that tour (band/me/TKO). Coleman booked the tour west, which the pandemic sidelined mid-tour, unfortunately. I put together the summer runs which were just announced [May 10, 2022], so it’s truly a team effort. [Eye Hate God] came through me and my friendships with Mike IX, Jimmy Bower and Gary Mader [all of Eye Hate God]. I would say everyone worked very hard this past year to make the records happen and we are excited for everyone to hear the Southern Circus.”

“The road is hard with musicians getting Covid. Unfortunately, I know this firsthand. You try very hard to stay safe and healthy but somehow Covid seems to hit everything,” said Patrick

Coleman: “…We’re gonna be doing fall tours and working until then this summer while the records getting finished. We’re gonna play around locally, man. We”ll pop up around shows in Nashville/Middle Tennessee area just to, y’know, get people hyped up for the record and then we’re just gonna try and get this one done and launch touring as long as the world keeps getting better. And it looks like it will, so you know we just keep crossing our fingers and hoping its only way up from here” (Spin that Shit Podcast, May 15, 2021).

The Debuts

As for whatever hipshot, guardian angel-guided, multi-directional debut into the nation/world these folks were locked in, at that point, -after producing a strong introduction of catchy, local-folk hype media for an already vibrating, mystery circus record, let alone popular single produced at Murfreesboro’s Twin Oaks Recordings. …And after circumstantially overhauling the band lineup to fit the re-determined path of a lineage-gift lawyer/manager while fully recording an album based on availability within seven people’s schedules, as well as debut live as meticulously and wisely as possible, ….it was working.

IV & The Strange Band began touring, as could, eventually making a nationwide debut out of three tours with all varieties of IV & The Strange Band (some paths twice). There were a couple of solo-Coleman runs in there, too, and even a solo-The Strange Band tour (that wasn’t what it was called) at the end of Spring, 2022, as Southern Circus was coming out.

Twin Oak Recordings maintained a Southern Circus recording schedule dictated by band member availability, which influenced the touring lineups dictated by band member availability, as well, according to Dietz, with Laura Beth Jewell being the hardest to lasso working a professional, musical therapist career during all of this. That profession tends to make six figures, making next-gen. Williams runs seemingly an extra outlet for her devotion to the profession. Laura Beth operates on those levels.

IV & The Strange Band had about four live debuts.

Though major festivals had already been scheduled down the line, early (Muddy Roots, Mutants of the Monster, Hell Fest announcements on IV and the Strange Band and IV Fourth’s Facebook page), the first live appearance was for a Fourth of July celebration at “The Last Old Schoolin’, No Foolin’, Beer Drinkin’, Shot Shootin’, Roadhouse, Honky Tonk Lounge,” Hernando’s Hide-A-Way, July 4, 2021, in Memphis. IV & The Strange Band performed the repertoire of covers and originals already in the holster, as well as early renditions of Southern Circus songs gradually fine-tuned live to record when could, and send off complete, mid-October, 2021, according to Coleman’s stage banter at the Amigo show, November 4, 2021 (working songs out live to record, and vice versa: good examples include July 13, 2021’s “Train”, and November 26’s, “Today” posts, both on IV and the Strange Band FB).

At Hernando’s, however, The Strange Band’s new drummer, Carson Kehrer, had yet to fully meld, so The Hernando’s debut was a stringed-down version of IV & The Strange Band with Laura Beth Jewell on the fiddle and John Judkins on lap and electric guitars before Carson Kehrer 100% available.

The second debut was a major one in two ways, not only flexing part of IV & The Strange Band’s market-savvy debut tact, introducing themselves to the more-so traditional Nashville country music crowd of W.B. Walker’s 36th Birthday Bash Live!, at The Loud in Huntington, West Virginia (for the dichotomous intent), but also pulling some strings Patrick Files wove while in Chicago that week.

“In the past 24hrs, I drove to West Virginia from Chicago and back, saw some FB friends, hung out with IV and the Strange Band and watched them give a killer performance of their entire debut record, also hung out with Shooter Jennings, who flew in just to see the band,” posted Patrick, July 31, 2021.

Unfortunately, “Don’t have none brother. The show didn’t record (looking down, sad emoji)” said W.B. when asked if the demo that happened at his party was recorded (W.B. Walker’s Old Soul Radio Show Podcast features proper Nashville Country musicians, hosted by him, patchy in episode consistency, but always a good talk that leaves you thinking.)

IV & The Strange Band’s Nashville debut was a free pop-up show at The Basement with everyone (Laura Beth, Carson, John Judkins included) on August 17, 2021, followed by another pop-up show at Springwater Supper Club and Lounge, August 22, that Carson made while Laura Beth could not.

And then, a much-anticipated Muddy Roots Music Festival appearance, September 3, 2021, in Cookeville, TN, where it got the Loudest.

If unfamiliar with Muddy Roots, it’s an annual Tennessee epicenter for the borderline carney-run punk and metal circuits at which proper Tennesseans vacation.  It’s where folks with face tattoos make their living sweating that sweet, depraved back-alley-to-backwoods, motorcycle rambler country, dark bluegrass and psychobilly culture through jagged metal washboards they wear as vests onstage, scratching dimly lit gypsy curses around in the air; or where J.D. Wilkes spits directly in your mouth as he looks through you, playing that trucker growl harmonica through the crowd. Wanda Jackson’s black suited, Third Man Records quartet will walk in to surgically emote Jackson’s octogenerially provocative, “Yeah the tremors in my thigh bone,” in “Shakin’ All Over” before you walk around to the back of the tent to find Ramblin’ Jack Elliot hanging out in his van, so you can’t pee, drunk, right there. -No, you mind your manners… And talk to Ramblin’ Jack Elliot.

Bring your kids, too. Hank 3 had a big influence on forming the zeitgeist of the festival since its infancy, thirteen years ago.

IV & The Strange Band officially debuted the dark country grunge side of the whole IV & The Strange Band concept; and to an accepting crowd that afternoon in the Buckley Tent.  It was about a hundred people.

The Shows

Daniel and Coleman took off in Rochelle for Shreveport, Louisiana, August 28, 2021, for the first date of The Strange Banjo Tour. This tour validated the dichotomous intent of the debut concept, focusing on the country aspect of IV & The Strange Band, with just Coleman and Daniel out there.  Coleman’s first run was on tour with a musical uncle, already seasoned by touring as Hank 3’s banjo player.

“In this concoction, a shuffling of players paired Williams with banjoist Daniel Mason – formerly a bandmate of Hank3’s – who joined IV as Williams cut his teeth paying some dues out on the road, [above and beyond] dues previously paid […] working with Murfreesboro’s The Punknecks,” reads some Murfreesboro Pulse coverage from October 2, 2021.

“Daniel and Coleman played a style harmoniously angelic through September’s Strange Banjo days. Coleman three-finger-picked his small-body acoustic with Daniel beside him in [his own] effortless ease of speed-twanging [a] banjo flow, [complimenting] Williams’ presence in an eleven-string, two-man dive-bar format that covered 16 states and 7,000 miles.  The jaunt put him in touch with a broad range of fans and curiosity seekers.”

“’There’s wild people out there,’ Dietz explained. ‘You go to West Virgina, people come out of the woodwork to see just the Williams legacy… there’s always weirdos.  People are going to try and take his hat on stage.’”

“Fortunately, the guys didn’t run into much trouble,” said the article.

When Folk & Proper covered the full-band, Muddy Roots debut, September 3, 2021, I’d already talked with Jason (July 26, 2021) to have the second Pulse article going, “Cutting Teeth and Paying Dues.” That talk described Coleman comfortably figuring things out as somewhat of a little brother, spearheading merch for the Strange Band family, as that seems like what little brothers would do.  This allowed the description to steer towards the tour “chaperoned,” being a safe experience for Coleman with Daniel pre-disposed to Williams shows and the degree of fandom they have.  People grab their hats off their heads on stage, for example, but Daniel would be ready for any of that.

So, at the Muddy Roots debut, the first time I met Coleman Williams in the wild, it was after their set. They had a hell of a meet and greet (Coleman is given coffins people make him, and sht) and everyone dispersed elsewhere, including IV & The Stange Band. 

Coleman and his girlfriend at the time watched some screech-metal kids do their thing in one of the smaller tents I’d found, too (one much like one Hardin Draw played when there), but only for a quick song. Fortunately, if one pays attention, its realized Coleman magnets towards their merch tent/tables to keep tabs, and, saying this, I’m surprised I didn’t see him do it during a show.

Looking free enough to approach, -Coleman is about 6 and a half feet tall, unexpectedly, and it’s dark by that point. Seeming President Hill Folk, Daniel Mason (whom I’d never met) had a full beard and was paying attention to me, then, as the light from my cell phone shone up his face like he’s telling a campfire ghost story.  Daniel watched me fumble writing my number down (which I straight-up forgot) on a small notebook paper to set up an interview later.  A seriously long minute later, Coleman had already taken a phone call and walked off while Daniel was looking up at me in that light seemingly thinking I was about to take his hat. 

Coleman doubled back from not too far away after my scribbles saying (to the effect of) “my girl needs me…,” took my piece of paper, and I had nightmares about Daniel being out there in the Junebug Boogie Ranch Forest all night.

I told that to a member of the Coleman Camp and she laughed knowing Daniel is a complete sweetheart.  He’s few in words, but complimentary, I believe, unless an “I read your article,” in passing, was in the negative. 

Folk & Proper tried to visit The Strange Banjo Tour at its closest, last leg stop in Louisville, KY, but we caught a snag right before the Kentucky line.  Diamond Concert Hall’s snag was headliners had already filled the building to capacity before their shows, so they bumped smaller acts, on top of there was an active Covid upswing in the country at the time, according to Diamond’s booking agent.

Coleman and Daniel were out there taking stage, though, singing ready and developing Southern Circus songs as well as rattling some off just for themselves. A gorgeous over of John Hartford’s “Steam Powered Aereo Plane,” was posted on ivsonofiii’s Instagram page during the tour, where they fckn nailed it. Coleman’s vocal range and goat-vibrato perfectly syncs in the tonal range Daniel Mason and Coleman Williams pick next to one another with Uncle Mason in all his glory.

The “Steam Powered Aereo Plane,” John Hartford cover is a great representation of what that tour looked sounded like, and the Strange Duo was happy enough to play it as an extra at their debut release show at Exit/In almost a year later.

The Muddy Roots debut was technically part of The Stange Banjo Tour but was one of three IV & The Strange Band dates with the full band, including Mutants of the Monster Festival in Little Rock, AK, September 11, and at Shaker’s Public House in Columbus, Ohio on Hank Sr.’s birthday, September 17.

“The first duo trip was great, man. Coleman for sure is my little Brother and I couldn’t be prouder of him and glad to be along for his musical journey,” said Daniel Mason, May 26, 2022.

Once back, IV & The Strange Band joined Amigo the Devil and Tejon Street Corner Thieves, replacing Stephanie Lambring on the back half of the “Amigo the Devil Goes West North, South, & East, too” Tour starting October 20, 2021 in Little Rock, Arkansas. Jason Dietz had had this planned out from some time.

That tour, -particularly, November 4, 2021, seemed an ideal evening for a crowd, all in their 30’s, going to Mercy Lounge in Nashville. Amigo easily swoons millennials with his solo-banjo, acoustic guitar, and penetrating green eyes (that can change to hazel, depending) framed by a face gleaming the brightness of a hundred promised-futured, American youths, but also, “This is good cocaine.”

At one point, one of the old crowd fainted, stage left, and Amigo stopped his epic banjery to coach, “make a hole!” to which someone else landed a “That’s what she said,” after a nicely timed silence. Hadn’t heard it in a while, I guess, and that’s the second time that year I’d thought “it’s back, baby,” outside of Garrison Keillor performing A Prairie Home Companion American Revival at the Ryman a few months before.

At another point, “the woman in front of all of us” cocked back and, Paris Hilton-drunk, called a “Hail, Satan!” to which someone across Mercy responded in kind.  We were great.

Rocky Mountain Alt.-Folk/”trash-grass” quartet, Tejon Street Corner Thieves, were a pleasant opener, haggard and half-drunk, that had the whole crowd belting Minnie the Moocher for a while to string band fashion, but with a vest drum kit on the young, yellow-headed percussionist that caught women at the bar during the show.  Emotionally raspy harmony among these gentlemen. Great crowd work, too.

Then, Amigo talked like a songbird through some dark relationship, drug, and inner monologue tangents with a sense of humor and wit that reserves the man area classy.

You have group heydays at Amigo shows.  It’s easy.

That night, it took two rounds to catch Coleman in the wild as he looped from the stage, post-set, to greet fans on the smoking patio. There was a side entrance to the back merch room where IV & The Strange Band’s table was.

F&P to Coleman, out in the wild: “The albums still scheduled for January?”

“Now, it’s gonna be March or April.”

“It is?!” I said.

“We just handed it off, like, two days before tour,” he said, again.

“We’re gonna come back and play, -I might play a show in Nashville, around Dec. 22, or 23. I’m still working on it, but I might be playing with my buddies Dylan and Willi Carlisle.”

The rest of the Coleman-in-the-Wild talk was just another attempt for an interview later, jotting my info down on little notepad paper in front of his fellow merchants.

Between the Eastern-half of the Amigo tour and the next in the Northeast with New Orleans sludge-metal connection, EyeHateGod (tour arranged by Patrick, announced November 1, 2021), EyeHateGod postponed and canceled the December dates with IV & The Strange Band due to Covid issues within the EyeHateGod camp (Cambridge to Detroit, run Dec. 15-19). The tour would be rescheduled for 2022.

A quick bounce-back would follow, though, as the end-of-year “Son of Sin,” Spotify stats came in with 143,000 streams in 81 countries, and IV & The Strange Band booked a gig at The Belasco Theatre in Los Angelos to join The Bridge City Sinners/rejoin Amigo the Devil, who would be introducing a full band concept to his own solo, banjo and acoustic guitar spiel. It’d also be the first show announced of what would grow to be The West Tour Coleman organized, as he stepped up his little brother game (a little holiday, IV & The Strange Band debut concept serendipity).

Coleman also focused on merch and pulling a few solo shows together, making some meaningful additions to an “accidental collective” IV & The Strange Band accumulated/associated while touring and playing local gigs.

The EyeHateGod void was good opportunity to hop on tour with two Arkansan, acoustic folksters, Dylan Earl and Willi Carlisle on their “Winter 2021” tour for a December 22 show at Hernando’s Hide-a-way, and a Christmas Eve show at The White Water Tavern, in Little Rock. This would be Coleman Williams first holidays.

“Willi, -I love him, man.” said Coleman at The Basement, March 21, 2022.

He [was] the first [person] that made me realize I could play in front of people and I didn’t have to, like, have special reasons to do that. Willi’s just another one of those people that was just, ‘Get out there.  You can do it,’ y’know? ‘You’ll be fine.’  He’s just another person that, -I’m really lucky to have people that have done this for a long time; that have made me feel more comfortable doing it in a professional standpoint instead of just, like, in people’s houses and stuff, so y’know.  -Willi’s a punk rocker, too.  He comes from punk rock world, so to see him be a folk dude blows my mind,” said Coleman.

And, with a Folk singer’s breath control and windedness (much like Arlo Guthrie) at The Basement East, January 28, 2023, Willi explained a brand-new song he’d been working over about a crooked sheriff who spearheaded the “marijuana moonshining” operation in Willi Carlisle’s hometown of Huntsville, AK (“in a county that is colloquially known as ‘Booger County’”). Willi had run across a guy in a bookstore who’d been in cahoots with the sheriff during the mess and told Willi Carlisle all about it: “When the Money Grew on Trees (About the Arkansas Marijuana Moonshining Operation of the Mid-90’s).

“I’m in the studio in about ten days,” said Carlisle, alluding freshness, that evening..

The whole crowd was going ape sht by the end.

Now, Dylan Earl is of a similar, Northwest Arkansan folk as Carlisle, but transplanted from Lake Charles, Louisiana to Fayetteville, AK, about a decade ago. He started himself in an alt. country band, Swampbird, before releasing a series of serious, hi-fidelity honky-tonk, country crooners: 2015’s debut, Blessing in Disguise (EP), 2017’s full length, New Country To Be, 2020’s Squirrel in the Garden, and, most recently, March 2023’s I Saw the Arkansas; all sounding familiar with the ways of area-mustaches and baritones of pure American Country & Western past.

-Vocally, Dylan Earl is a hair deeper than Randy Travis, but with similar vocal discipline in bass range. Mustache-wise, it’s …it’s an adult-ass mustache, man. You’ve gotta grow those things from the top down to pull off the Selleck, and he has.

For the fall of 2023, Dearl is running a Southwest tour from Texas to North Carolina, stopping in Nashville, again, September 20, for AMERICANAFEST.

Continuing the festivities, Coleman would drop Southern Circus album art on band social as a Christmas present for fans along with endearments for The Strange Band’s one-year anniversary. There was a tribute to Hank, Sr. on the day he passed, too (New Years). January 9, 2022, and the next tour, -the West Tour, was announced. The West Tour would start in Austin, TX, February 1, 2022, but not before a straight-out-of-the-movies, solo-acoustic lineup on a cold snowy, January 28^th evening at The Basement with a couple more long-range folksters.

At the January 28, 2022, solo-IV show, Coleman was an excited, slightly-tipsy meat in an Irish lineup sandwich between Dylan Walsh and Josh Okeefe, both truly, Irish af folk singers. The snow cinematically flurried walking in from the back parking lot, quiet to the point of questioning. From the inside, flurries would blow through the door as it swung open onto Josh O’Keefe and Cora Carpenter nestled into one another’s coat-sleeves, and youth, next to Josh’s merch table, when they weren’t on stage. 

Coleman had just got a new haircut and was excited to be heading West. He’d always had a beer onstage and never over did it, but he’d also never been so noticeably nervous and alone before, so the two seemingly mixed, if that makes sense. -It made for fun, though.

“[…] Almost a year and a half ago, I started playing this song and it was when I kinda started reaching out to people on the internet world.  Everybody’s been so kind to believe in what we’ve done and it means the world to me. In one year, we’ve done more than I’ve seen bands do in ten and I couldn’t have done it without every single person here.  Thank you so much.  Let‘s have fun,” he said introducing, “If Only You Were Lonely.”

Folk & Proper leaned back to Jason Dietz at one point and said, “His pickings getting better,” too.

Jason didn’t say anything.

 “So, when we continue on songs about feelings and what not, this next one I wrote about really screwing up with someone that meant the world to me, but you know sometimes that happens and you learn from it,” he said introducing, “Cigarette Ends.”

“I will always apologize to her for that one because she definitely knows it’s about her, but, you know, those are the good ones, right?”

“It happens!” an audience member chimed, which was the sentiment of the night.

We were all in.

Jason, David Talley, and Danny (Amigo) were in the back showing support.

It was beautifully all over the place with emotion.

(Back at The Pub, February 5, 2023)

Dietz:  I love Dylan, man.  When he first came here, he came here to record and Jason Galaz from Muddy Roots hooked him up with me, and me and Talley were gonna do, -and our friend Vic, were gonna do the music on his record.  It’s a funny story, man.  Like, when Dylan came, my roommate at the time, -this girl Kristin, who is now Dylan’s wife, she moved here from Maryland.  -I’m from Maryland. And she was one of my high school buddy’s ex-girlfriends.  They were supposed to move here together, or something.  They split up.  She moved.  She was like, ‘hey, can I still… Does that offer still stand? It’s just gonna be me.  Can I stay at your place?’  I was like, yeah, man.  Fckn come; whatever.  So, anyway, Dylan came to record the record and he met Kristin, and his whole world got fcked.  Like, he couldn’t think about anything else.  He couldn’t work on songs.  He was, like, ‘I’m in Love, dude.’ 

“Literally, they fell in love the day they fckn met at my house. And, they’re still married.  -We didn’t get anything done.  There’s actually a couple of YouTube videos of Talley, Vic, and Dylan playing in my kitchen, working songs together.  We didn’t get anything to tape.  -We got a couple things, but nothing worked out because he got bit real hard by the love bug, man.  I love those two.  They actually just moved to Asheville,” said Dietz.

“Coleman in the Wild” that night was a short one after Dylan’s set:

Coleman: What’s up, Bryce? How you doing?

F&P: Hoping The West doesn’t get you.

Coleman: Oh, no, no no no, man, it’ll be fun. […] I’m gonna be here again, solo, in the beginning of March with Willi Carlisle. […] The record will be out in June, and we have singles coming out in March, April, and May.

F&P: This is the first time I’ve caught you solo.

Coleman: Yah, man. I’ve been doing this a lot more.

Then, David Talley, on the way out: Yeah, On Monday.  We leave on Monday.

F&P: [Band] broken up like last tours where only some can make it out?

Talley: No. It’s full-blown Strange Band. Yeah. It’s all of us, man [minus Laura Beth for scheduling reasons].

Earlier in the show, “People know about Blaze Foley, right?  The band and I are working up to being able to play in Austin on Blaze Foley Day, the day he died, next week. So, that’s gonna be kinda fun, -besides him dying. But, you know what I mean.  We’re gonna sing a couple of his songs and it’ll be fun.  Yeah, we’re gonna be getting wild all across the country in the next couple of weeks. Hopefully I’ll come back.  If not, remember me well.  That’s all I could ask for,” Coleman said in between-song banter.

-They’d tell me all about it at the March 21, 2022 The Basement show, when they were back.

(Back at March 21, 2022, at the side porch of The Basement)

F&P: You got The West, finally. Welcome back, by the way…

David Talley: Thank you.

F&P: Good to see it didn’t keep you.  What else went on?

Coleman, Jason Dietz, and Talley, at once: “A little bit of Covid,” “Got Covid,” “Mmhm.”

Talley:  Me, [Jason], and the drummer got Covid. […] We ended up having to cancel, what, like five shows?”

Colema: (agreeing) We had to cancel five shows on that run.

Talley: [The last one,] we were stuck in San Diego for two days.  Me and Jason were just isolated in a hotel.  It was fucked up.

F&P:  Forced quarantine?   

Coleman:  We had like a TB ward.  We had masks on the bus.  I didn’t get it, and Daniel didn’t get it, by the Grace of God.  I don’t know how that happened.  We were in the bus, though, for 28 hours together.  It’s just weird.  I don’t know how it…

David:  I had a mask on while I was driving.

Coleman:  Well, it worked.  I don’t know how it worked.  We tested rigorously.

Talley:  Jason was, -I thought Jason was gonna die.

Coleman:  I thought Jason was gonna die.

Jason:  My kidneys hurt so fckn bad, man. […] It felt like someone stabbed me in my fcking kidneys.  It was awful.

Coleman:  We were really scared, too, […] so we didn’t play any [games] or take any risks. We wanted to bring him home and make sure he wasn’t gonna die out there.

Talley:  It was gnarly.  We recovered, though.

Coleman:  We got to play Vegas.  We got to play three shows in California, and we got to play Texas.  We still had a great first part of it and the second part was still awesome.  We played for a lot of great people.  We made it work… We made it work the best way we could. The same as tonight. 

-As mentioned, that night (3/21/22, The Basement) was to be a full The Strange Band performance, Laura Beth Jewell and all, but drummer, Carson Kehrer, had a sudden issue with the Kehrer family pup.

Coleman-in-the-Wild, later that night: Usually our drummer’s dog doesn’t, like, die, right before a show. So, thirty minutes before we’re supposed to play, his dogs in an oxygen room with his lungs full of fluid, and, like, I might have to either do a go fund me or my friend’s dog is gonna die.  We’ve only played two shows without Carson, but this was, like, super last minute.  We had a Melvin’s song we were gonna play just for Pinkus. We couldn’t do a lot of our heavy stuff without our drummer, and it’s just, -first of all, it feels weird without him.  Secondly, we don’t, -we can’t…There’s a lot we can do; there’s just some things we can’t do without our drummer.

[Earlier, inside] “Yeah, Carson’s not here tonight, so it’s gonna be an odd one.,” said John Judkins, freshly back from The Protomen’s show in Philidelphia, the day before.

Folk & Proper asked him how that went.

“It went great.  It went great.  It was weird, man.  We’ve been off for two years and a lot goes into it.  You don’t realize when you’re in it all the time but having two years off and getting, ‘oh, yeah… this is work.  This is work,” said Judkins.

“I thought about asking and seeing [about playing drums] even though Daniel could probably do it.” said Judkins. “I didn’t want to jinx’m,” (Judkins was just there for support, that night).

-The night sounded incredible, by the way. It’s funny demystifying how much Carson Kehrer keeps a bunch of filler musicians together, as well as with his absence showing just how much filler riff The Strange Band is. It was a great experiment, but it’s that night’s strangest, 100-watt amp grunge, -especially the bridge in “Deep Down”, that will never happen again, as big news between The Basement shows on January 28, 2022, and March 21, 2022, thwarted any possibility.

Folk & Proper caught Coleman in the Wild, by himself, at another of The Basement’s porches after the show later in the evening:

F&P: You Smoke?

Coleman: Sometimes, man.  What’dya have?”

Coleman reaches for a smoke offered.

Coleman: Can I see your lighter?

[After a beat] F&P: …Is everything coming together for you?

Coleman: Oh, dude. Great.  Everything’s going so well.  We have a single and a bunch of announcements on Wednesday, so yeah.  It’s going really, really well, man.  We’re touring.  We have a label.  We have a record.  Yeah, it’s great.  It’s everything I could ask for.

F&P: When you guys were heading out west, did you already know what was happening with Shooter?

Coleman: Yeah, we’ve been working with Shooter since last year.  We just didn’t announce it until recently because we had to wait for political reasons and stuff like that, but we’ve worked with Shooter since last year.  He’s a wonderful person.  He’s a great musician.  He’s a great producer.  He’s a great guy.  He’s one of the few people that can deal with stuff like I deal with, so it’s good to work with him.”

F&P: How do you feel about Kid Rock taking over?

Coleman: Kid Rock ain’t taking over nothing, man. […] That’s why Shooter doesn’t live here.  He lives in California.  He left the South a long time ago. He’s lived in CA for three years, and, I mean, that’s where he is, y’know. And he’s been able to do a lot because of that, y’know. At the end of the day, man, it’s just, -its politics. And money.  You know moneys the root of it all, so.  Sadly, moneys a huge part of it. […] It doesn’t matter how important someone is if you don’t have the money to back it up.

F&P: I’ve always imagined that’s not a problem for you, but I think I feel your stance on that. That’s something.

An audience member walks out:    I have one question.

Coleman:  What’s up?

AM:  Where the fck did you get the primary [whatever] patch [on your vest]?

Coleman:  You know, my friend gave me one and let me tell you where to get them…

Coleman stole my lighter that night.

At the time Coleman pocketed the lighter, IV & The Strange Band had almost died out there but didn’t. -Carson’s dog, too.

Anyway, back at IV & The Strange Band’s departure for the West tour after the first basement show (January 28’s), David Talley said “Yeah, […] we leave on Monday” (January 31, 2022):

The first stop on The West Tour was Dave Foley Day in Austin, TX, February 1. That’s Austin’s celebration for the day the country singer/songwriter died, and where Amigo lived, so at that point they started a path together towards destiny through Vegas, Winchester, and then the Amigo the Devil and Bridge City sinners show, February 5, at The Belasco Theatre in Los Angelos, where Amigo’s full band awaited.

“If we all get this hectic at the solo shows, imagine what a full band version will be like. Don’t forget we’ll be live streaming the whole show for anyone who couldn’t get tickets before it sold out or make it in general,” said a Feb. 3 show teaser on Amigo’s Facebook page, Amigo the Devil.

IV & The Strange Band made it to The Belasco for one of the last shows of The West Tour before it was busted up by Covid-19. The next night after Alex’s Bar in Long Beach, they canceled five shows (last CA one, then WA, MN, SD ones) in oorder to quarantine and shoot back across the country to resume at The Loud in West Virginia, where all this touring began (with Rochelle!).

They left a little bit of the debut concept back in California, though.

It was The Strange Band’s Jason Dietz, David Talley, and Carson Kehrer stepping in to be Amigo’s mystery, full band experiment!

On that trip back, however, Coleman found replacement opportunity invited on tour with Willi Carlisle, again, who had a line of shows from Little Rock to Pigeon Forge, March 2nd through the 10th. Dylan Earl was gearing up for some dates with Rob Leines, but joining Carlisle was announced February 10, 2022, on IV and the Strange Band’s FB page.

Then, in another pleasant coincidence while driving, IV & The Strange Band’s EyeHateGod cancellations were rescheduled, announcing a compensatory 6 day/6 show run from Milwaukee to The White Water Tavern in Little Rock, zig-zagging the Midwest, April 11 through April 16, covering ground everyone had missed in December. This was announced February 15, 2022.

Now, let’s show a trick that’s evident someone just got signed to a label whle all this was happening:

“ANNOUNCEMENT: […] February 24, 2022 – IV and the Strange Band have signed with Shooter Jennings’ Black Country Rock label, and the Nashville-based band will release their debut album later this year.”

“From the beginning when Shooter flew across the country to hear us play, I Again, new he was someone the band could trust and grow with.”

“Coleman and I have a lot of mutual friends, and until now, we’d never met before,” explained Jennings.

“When one of those friends connected us and I had a chance to hear the music, I flipped out and became one of his biggest fans. I immediately saw the importance in his story and point of view, told in conjunction with a fresh take on where country music could go from here. He’s the fourth in line of men who have done things their way, blending and bending genres and keeping the story going for generations to come. I’m proud to announce my label, Black Country Rock, will be working with the extremely talented IV and the Strange Band to release their debut album. I’m very proud to continue the tradition of our families coming together to help each other and forge the way into the future of country music.”

“Fresh off a run opening for Amigo the Devil, IV and the Strange Band will open a run of shows for Eyehategod in April. More 2022 tour dates will be announced soon.”

“IV & the Strange Band – Spring 2022 Tour Dates

March 2 – Little Rock, AR – White Water Tavern^@
March 5 – Nashville, TN – The Basement@
March 6 – Memphis, TN – Hernando’s Hideaway ^@
March 10 – Pigeon Forge, TN – Rusty Creek Forge^@
March 21 – Nashville, TN – The Basement %
April 11 – Cudahy, WI – X-Ray Arcade*
April 12 – Indianapolis, IN – Black Circle Brewing*
April 13 – Fort Wayne, IN – Piere’s*
April 14 – Canton, OH – Buzzbin Art & Music Shop*
April 15 – St. Louis, MO – Red Flag*
April 16 – Little Rock, AR – Whitewater Tavern*

^ Coleman Williams solo
@ with Willi Carlisle 
% with J.D. Pinkus
* with EyehateGod,” said BCR’s signing announcement.

Again, that was posted Feruary 24, 2022.

With that order of events, BCR seemingly combined Coleman and Patrick’s tours at the right time for IV & The Strange Band’s upcoming Spring 22 Tour, but, at least, Coleman’s next tour was super-officially planned out now that IV & The Strange Band was signed to fellow lineage-rocker, Shooter Jennings’ Black Country Rock label.

As for the Accidental Collective of The West tour, and the few from Spring 2022 Tour, IV & The Strange Band picked up Black Eyed Vermillion (Tom Waits leads a Southern Blues-Metal band), and Dirty Charly (a honky tonk Frank Black with a real silly electric slide) in Austin; -of course, Bridge City Sinners in L.A. (Harley Quinn-led Gypsy-punk, big string band); and “outlaw Carnie,” Bob Wayne (fast paced punk-country) for the first time at Alex’s Bar in Long Beach. Sarah Shook and The Disarmers missed out on joining the accidental collective though, due to the cancellations (much like a gradual emergence/notice of sub-genric “lineage rock,” or “nepo-core” for example, lesbian country is making a splash).

Back on the East Coast, IV & The Strange Band would meet Cody Lee Meece & The Poor Excuses at The Loud, in WV (“I’ve been looking forward to it all damn week, really […] I think there’s so much realness and there’s so much beauty in this show that, even though you wasn’t here, you’re gonna feel like you’re hearing something special.” -W.B. Walker’s Old Soul Radio Show, Episode 309).

The Spartanburg, NC show had Mississippi/Louisiana Southern Rockers, Framing the Red, who tend to open for the likes of Motley Crue and Sevendust; along with the BarnyardStompers (Hellraisin’ Redneck Metalheads).

For Daniel Mason’s Homecoming in Huntsville, AL, Framing the Red played a second night, with local-Huntsville, garage pyschedelia-punkers, The Golden Flakes, joining, as well, at Side Tracks Production

IV & The Strange Band’s The West Tour ended in healthy breaths that night in Huntsville, Alabama.

For the Spring 2022 Tour, Coleman was with Willi Carlisle and EHG, soley, except IV & The Strange Band picked up a mid-tour show at Hernando’s Hide-a-way, March 25, with Cotton Clifton (“We’re gonna play some rock n’ roll. I don’t know if you ever heard of it. This first one’s a country song,” kind of honky-tonkers), announcement posted, March 24, 2022.

They also picked up a few more Texas dates at the end with Quaker City Night Hawks (featured on Sons of Anarchy), for April 21, 22, 23.

As said, during The West Tour Sarah Shook and The Disarmers missed out on joining the accidenal collective due to their own Codvid exposure, but they’d join April 28, 2022, at Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro, North Carolina, for Sarah and her band’s album release show for Nightroamer.

This puts us at the next tour pieced together by BCR after Patrick and Coleman’s ally-oop set-up. It was IV & The Strange Band’s third major tour of the whole debut concept, optimistically, the “Spring 2022 Tour,” and it went perfect, comparatively.

At the March 21 show, Coleman mentioned some major announcements, which would cover the stretch of the Spring 2022 Tour, and into all of their tours before the debut show, but several were just a couple of days after The March 21 Basement show, Fireworks were going off everywhere, again, on the social sites and home page.

On March 23, IV & The Strange Band began their second media onslaught in the face of announcing the release date of Southern Circus, which was one of the major announcements that day.

“Inbred,” their first single off of Southern Circus under BCR began streaming on Spotify with an accompanying one-of-three, 90’s-style-MTV music videos released on IV and The Strange Band’s YouTube channel up to the end of May.

“13k views in a day isn’t bad,” said Jason Dietz, March 24, 2022.

“We filmed that last month when we were in LA. The band got Covid the day before we were supposed to be filming the band shots (sad emoji).”

“The band is the lynch mob. I’m the one that grabbed the girl’s arm. I felt like crap that day, and even worse the next. That’s when we tested positive.”

“We filmed Deep Down a couple of weeks ago and Stand your Ground is being filmed soon. Deep Down has the full band (goat head emoji). […] Stand your ground releases next month.”

“A special thank you to Courtney Gauger for filming and directing the perfect complement to our song. Recorded/Mixed/Produced by Jason Dietz at Twin Oak Recordings,” posted Coleman on the social sites, March 23, 2022.

“Inbred,” would reach 40,000 views within its first week.

Also, “SOUTHERN CIRCUS drops June 17!”

March 24^th, Columbia, Missouri-Nashvillian Todd Day Waits, announced a Northeast tour with Coleman, both solo-acoustic, that kicked off at the end of May, 2022 and went to mid-June, right before the release of Southern Circus.

-By the way, all of these country singer/songwriter guys Coleman goes out with brand an aesthetic and, seemingly, lifestyle of various 70’s American Country/Western Troubadours to the capital “T,” in that “Troubadour,” and definitely to the capital “T” in “a more modern, evolved Take,” skinny jeans, mustaches, tales of heartbreak, strive, and all. Todd Day Wait, especially, as he sings on the bass lines of his guitar pickings more so than others while matching and punctuating that resonance with the timing, emotion, and breath control similarly heard in one of the best Country albums of their harkening: Willie Nelson’s Red Headed Stranger.

They’d finish the first half of the Spring 2022 Tour with Cotton Cliford added to the collective, March 25, and then on April 1, IV & The Strange Band announced their debut album release show would be at the historic Nashville venue, Exit/In, June 18^th, 2022, a year and six months after starting the whole thing. -The Kernal and Riley Downing would be opening.

The Strange Band’s Jason Dietz, David Talley, and Carson Kehrer would split off to tour with Gogol Bordello (“Start Wearing Purple”) the day after the Ryman, Amigo show, May 1, 2022.

(At The Pub, Feb. 5, 2023)

“Initially, with me, it was a money issue.  And, me being an older dude, -47. married, so on and so forth; I’ve gotta bring something home.  And, we weren’t making decent money with Coleman on those tours, and I had talked to him about it. He was gonna give me a little more, but, y’know the back story is that Coleman had pissed my wife off and I asked him to apologize to her and he never did.  A whole bunch of time went by and she got the point where she was like, ‘fck that guy, if he’s not going to take the time to send a message, or whatever, and apologize….’ So, there was some, -definitely, some beef in that with my relationship with my wife in me being gone for no money and being around this person that she didn’t particularly care for… so, I basically, y’know, made the decision to ‘I’m not going to put any space in my family and piss my wife off, or keep doing these tours.  At that time, we were out with Amigo when that happened.  -I think we were on tour with Gogol. Yeah, we were on tour with Gogol, and our intention was to do that tour, and then come back and then go with Coleman, again, after that, and so on and so forth, but while we were on that tour is when Coleman’s tour got posted and then I had the thing with my wife, and she was like, ‘you’re gonna fckn do this again?’  And, I was just like, ‘No. I’m not gonna do that,” said Jason Dietz.

“[With Amigo] my pay increased significantly and I’m playing with Talley, still; my wife’s brother, still; and Danny and his sister.  So, it’s people that she loves and wants to be around.  Y’nuh, there were personal issues with her and Coleman, basically.  She got to the point where she didn’t think it was worth it for me to be out there with someone she didn’t think was a, y’know…whatever (mildly nervous laughs it off to conclude) So, I chose to keep the peace at home, man.  Do the right thing in that aspect of things.”

“Well, that was why I left.  It definitely upset David because I just told him I was going to do it.”

“Me and Coleman had already been bumping heads a bit.  -We’d been bumping heads a Lot, and I just, my heart wasn’t in it, y’know. Talley was still wanting to follow through, and he was going to finish out the tours for the year, so-on-and-so-forth.  I was just like, ‘I can’t do it, man.  I can’t, [but] I’m not going to leave Coleman hanging.  I’m going to find a replacement.  And, that’s what I told Coleman, too.  I did it via text message, which pissed him off, and… I just didn’t want to talk about it.  I didn’t want to address it at that time.  I was like, ‘we’ll talk about this when I get home, blahblahblah; I’m gonna find you a bass player.  I’ll sit there with him and fckn teach him everything.  -I had already started reaching out to bass players.”

“I reached out to our buddy, Ash, and when I got back (Amigo/Gogol tour), I started teaching him the bass lines.  Then, something happened with him. It didn’t work out.  Like, he wasn’t putting in the time he needed to to get where to play the songs, and the dudes that he has now, -or he had after that was Josh and Zack, and I had recorded them in the band Mad Cabbage.  They’re talented as fuck.  Josh plays bass.  Josh Bunn. B-U-N-N.  So, then Josh ended up playing bass and just fckn killing it.  And, Zack played guitar.  -Talley showed Zack guitar stuff.  We didn’t want to leave Coleman hanging, man.  Whatever our personal things are, I still love the guy as my brother, y’know. I’m not the kinda person that going to fckn leave somebody hanging, y’know.  So, I feel like we made it…, -there’s a different bass player before.  There’s this guy, Luke, that played the release show.  That was one of Daniel [Mason’s] friends.”

F&P: One of Daniel’s friends? I don’t know if that’s synonymous with ‘Hank 3 side.’

Dietz: No, it’s not. Nuh-uh.

(At Panther Creek Brews, June 25)

Luke Bradshaw, “one of Daniel’s friends”: “It was a mutual friend of mine that kinda said, you know, he kinda mentioned to them, it’s like, Shane and I, -I play stand up, too. ‘I know he doubles.’ Y’know, ‘I know he can play both, so let’s give him a call.’ I was out on the road with my other band, Skinny Molly, and so I was like, okay let me get back to the house. So, when I get back there Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, I’ll kinda look at the material and work, y’know, as quickly as, and came out here on Thursday and Friday, kinda went through a couple of rehearsals and did the show on Saturday,” said Luke Bradshaw at IV & some Strange Band’s gig at Panther Creek Brews Fest, June 25, 2022.

“Yeahyeah, pretty quick. And its not, -none of its real straight. You think it’s all,- it sounds like this, but, a lot of curveballs. But, it is was [wonderful]. I enjoy kinda doing both. It’s a challenge. I’ve not done both on stage, a lot. It’s always one or the other. It’s been a hoot. We’ve just done a week on on the road and its going well. We’ve had a few sold out shows and its nice to see the enthusiasm,” said Bradshaw.

F&P: I’m curious if you were pulled in by Patrick.

(Jason Dietz wasn’t playing , June 25, but still there for support. At the moment, he’d just said “stay away from the preeeeesssssss,” in passing, as Luke and I talked. Coleman was circling, by then, too, ready to get a word in (will get into in a minute).

Luke Bradshaw: “I know Patrick. We actually hung out at his house. Had a couple of beers in his garden, and yeah, I’m not real familiar. I’m coming from a different direction. I played a lot up right in a bluegrass band. Played the Grand Ole Opry a bunch when I was their age; so, yeah, -when I was Coleman’s age, I guess. So, yeah, it’s been interesting, but I don’t understand all –I played with Shooter, and other bands, and stuff.”

F&P: Okay. You’re coming from BCR…

Luke Bradshaw: “I’m friends with him, but we’re in a, its kind of a country southern rock thing and he’s doing a country Americana/kind of a hodgepodge of stuff, but occasionally we’ve crossed paths, and so he’s always been really wonderful, y’know; a nice cat through and through, y’know.”

(Luke used to be a journalist for the the Richmond Registry, in KY, so he knows when to pull his feet out of the water).

“Well, hey. We’re warmed up a little bit. We’ve had a few shows on the road. A few late night beers. Getting to know each other, y’know. We’ve got a tight little set. I think it’ll be 45 minutes, so […] it’ll be different than usual here. […]
I’m just jumping on. I saw the poster and said, ‘hey, you know, you see that poster right there? I’ll do all the shows on there,’ and they’re like ‘Thank God,’ y’know. I said, but after that, […] I’m going overseas […] I can’t let my guys down. But, y’know, I think they said, ‘hey, man, when you come back, would you be willing? [and I said] Yeah, let’s just [dance?] the road. We’ll see. -Don’t tell’m I said that, but yeah, wonderful,”said Bradshaw.

(He’d said “fun,” earlier, before replaced with the concluding [wonderful]).

Drummer, Shane Sexton, who paired with Bradshaw taking places, took over for Carson Kehrer on the drums.

(Back to The Pub, Feb. 5)

(F&P had mentioned to Dietz about that conversation with Luke Bradshaw before Coleman swooped in for some words).

Dietz: … -It’s definitely not you, man. Coleman never allowed, or, didn’t now allow, but never gave an opportunity for Talley or I to ever speak in an interview, or any press, or anything at all, which I thought was strange, because without us, he would literally have nothing at that time, y’know. Especially when it was first starting and everything, and I’m like, ‘there’s a whole key element to this thing. It’s not just Coleman. There’s a fckin’ Band.

F&P: It’s a family.

Dietz: Yeah, that’s, like, literally doing this stuff for him. We just, he just never scheduled anything for us. He never thought we were worthy of having that, or something, y’know.

F&P: -Talked to Jenny [Blackwell], a member of The Coleman Camp, right after that. She came up and I said, hey Coleman just bitched me out. He could’ve gotten some fckn hardcore street cred for punching [me], and she just laughed. (Dietz laughed, too., Feb. 2, 2023).

Again, will get into that “Coleman in the Wild,” in a minute.

Dietz: […] He’s always been dramatic, man. I’ve known him for a long time, but it was definitely more so after he changed his name, and the song.. […] There were multiple emotional outbursts of things, -especially there in the beginning. a lot of those, y’know, those emotional outburst, and such, were, -definitely led up to my decision of leaving, as well, y’know. If you’re emotionally drained at a job for whatever reason, at some point you’re not going to want to fckn stay anymore, y’know? No matter what the situation may be. And if there’s no…

F&P: Maybe that’s just him molding IV, because IV is a version of Coleman Williams, but Coleman Williams is a version of Colman Finchum, so through [the songs, appearances, stage banter, and each of these stories], that’ll/Coleman will evolve…

Dietz: He has been a boxer. He has been an underwater welder. He has been a schoolteacher. He has lived in Mexico and worked for the Mexican cartel. He has lived on trains; train-hopped the country. He has… and, I’m like, there’s so many of them.

F&P: Finchum?

Dietz: Yeah, Finchum. There are so many things. I don’t know if he’s full of sht, or not.

“We had a discussion about Shooter and such. Coleman wanted Shooter to do the next record, and I didn’t understand why because because we had everything that we needed already, so we did this record, -the first record, and it was great. We can do the second record even better. And his comment was, well, Shooter has Grammys, and things like that, y’know, and I was like, what the fck does that have to do with anything? -I don’t have a Grammy, y’know. Who cares? I asked what record has Shooter done, -has produced or recorded, that you super-connect to/would be a reason why you would want to go to this person to record with them.”

“He didn’t really have an answer. -He said one of Shooter’s records. I don’t really know his music to be honest with you [but] [Coleman] was like, I love That record, or whatever.”

“I was like, okay, that’s a good reason to go with somebody, but the reason that he has Grammys was the first response that you said, so, ‘Are you just trying to get a Grammy, or something? Or, you think that,’ -And I tried to hell him that The Hardin Draw did that and …it may not have been the best decision for us.
Like, we were doing everything ourselves and Morgan Jahnig from Old Crow Medicine Show, the bass player, produced our first record. And, he did the second record, too, but, -even Aaron and I still talk about it: there’s decisions Morgan made for the record that we let him do that weren’t good decisions, y’know. But, he’s the producer and he’s gonna make those decisions… He’s got a Grammy.”

“It didn’t do anything for us, just because you have a fckn Grammy. It just doesn’t mean anything.”

“I don’t, -I don’t know what him and Shooter’s relationship is.”

F&P: I was asking if Coleman always had that taste for the Shooter situation since he’d talked about him at The Basement [March 21, 2022], but he was aiming for a Grammy, so I guess you answered that.

Dietz: Yeah. That’s what it seems like. …Which I mean, sure. I guess that’s what you want. […] I’d never thought about a Grammy before, or, should I be? That’d be dope, but it’s not a goal for myself. Y’know, no…

F&P: Me. I think people like you just eventually win one after a slow burn of good work instead of people that strive for it, which may or may not jinx, yadayada.

Dietz: Maybe so. People do their own things for their own reasons, y’know. I just do mine for my own reasons, or whatever. I don’t need an award or a pat on the back, or any of that stuff. Honestly, it makes me feel fckn uncomfortable. I don’t deal well with compliments.

F&P: Well, I could double down on that with, Are you in it just to mold it/for the control of the situation?

Dietz: I just love it, man. […] I really, -I love playing bass. I love producing music. I love…

“Coleman, y’know… I don’t ever want to come across as talking shit about Coleman. I’m not afraid to tell the truth or tell my side of the story, or anything,” said Dietz.

“Any issues that Coleman and I have had, we’ve managed to squish them. That was the whole thing afterwards. I was like, man, if we don’t learn how to do this, then… -if we don’t learn how to be friends again, -cause once we started the business relationship, or whatever, that’s when stuff started getting weird between the two of us.”

“So, after that show, -the album release show, or whatever, I was like, I just don’t want to feel this way anymore. I don’t want to make you feel this way anymore. Like, if we are gonna continue to be friends, then we’re just gonna have to squish it, forget everything and forgive and start over again.”

“I hung out with Coleman last Friday at his house. No other reason other than to just go, smoke a little weed, and have a couple beers with’m, and we had a fuggin’ great time. Just sat around, smoked and chit-chatted; laughed about some shit. He showed me some new things, -new things he’s got around the house.”

“He talked about the band a little bit. The first couple of times I went over there, we didn’t talk about the band. We just hung out. We didn’t talk about music things at all. We just… giggle, smoked weed, laughed about things. At least, I’m happy he’s comfortable enough with me to talk about the band and whatever he’s going through.”

“I don’t know what happened with him and Daniel. I know Daniel left [around December 24, 2022], but Daniels been doing great. He’s touring. He’s doing his own stuff, now. I think it… -Daniels got a wife and kid and I think it was the same kinda thing as money issues, and so-on-and-so-forth.”

F&P: Payment was an issue across the board?

“Talley and I’s situation is unique because we have money coming in from selling the recycling business, but we still have other responsibilities and so-on-so-forth, and, like I said, if I’m putting, literally, space between me and my family, and there’s no monetary gain from that whatsoever, …y’know it’d be different if I was in my late twenties or early thirties, whatever. But, y’know, as a family man, I’m sure Daniel’s situation is probably the same. If you’re going to go on tour, the way I see it is, to do that life, with the kind of responsibilities that I have, I have to make more money on the road than I can make being here in town, is the way I see it. So, if I can make that kind of money here, -the touring situation, too… -I don’t know what words to use. Like, even on the Colmean tours, I’m driving most of the time. Daniel drives. Talley drives a little bit, too, but I prefer to drive. I know I can get everybody there safe. So, staying in one hotel room -with everybody…”

F&P: Really? I imagine it was, at least, three hotel rooms…

Dietz: Yeah, for real. No. No. No. No. No

F&P: You’re taking the bus.

Dietz: Yep. And we’re all staying together in a hotel room.

“That kind of living when there’s no monetary to compensate for that kind of living, it’s hard, man. It’s definitely hard. […] It’s not that it’s not worth it, but if I wasn’t at this stage in my life, -if it was earlier where I could actually devote this time to actually put myself in to make this thing grow, so-on-and-so-forth, I would absolutely do that one hundred percent. If I was 27 years old when Coleman and I started doing this thing, it may be a different story. The Amigo tours, we all get hotel rooms. I’ve got one roommate. I got a bed to myself, y’know, and it’s wonderful. Completely different story.”

F&P: Carson was [in] the same boat?

“Yeah, everybody was, y’know. And, if the difficulties that weren’t there between Coleman and my wife and me and Coleman, and everything else, it’d been easier to stay around.”

“It’s like the Grammy thing. I’m not with Danny because I’m chasing a fucking Grammy, or whatever. I got a better job. At the end of the day, I got offered a better job. And, I’m happier. I’m still with Talley and Carson. I met two other people who are part of my family, now. […] I think everybody’s in a good place, now. Everybody has come to terms with everything and able to move on and kinda put things behind us, and whatnot.”

F&P: -It takes a couple of years.

Dietz, lighting a smoke after that one: It’s still weird to talk to Coleman about business, because it’s gonna come up. It’ll still come up because there’re credits on the record for Talley and myself, y’know. So, let’s cross those bridges when we get to them, and whatever. I wish Coleman the best. I think that he’s set up with a good band, right now. That’s what he needs, man. Young, -not necessarily young, because age doesn’t matter, but people that can be able to be in a situation to be with him to help him grow something into something bigger, and that can modify their lives to do that. It just wasn’t us, y’know. ….It just wasn’t us. We tried. We would’ve fckn’… -We were there, yknow. We definitely tried. And then a better job came along.

F&P: You guys will always be The Strange Band.

Dietz: It’s funny, man. There’s actually been times, -there was one time at a show, -I don’t remember which city it was, but as soon as we pulled up at a venue, there was a dude standing out back waiting for us to get there with a IV & The Strange Band record in his hand wanting to get me, Talley, and Carson to sign it because, he said, ‘Not many of these are going to exist.’ And I was like, ‘That’s dope.’ […] There’s not gonna be many of those records with autographs of the original people on there.

F&P: And, there’s always the little “produced by Jason Dietz,” on the bottom, back corner of the record.

Dietz: My issue with that, -and this will be something I’ll live with forever, is that it doesn’t say Jason Dietz and David Talley. I think that we could probably have made that happen, and I probably should’ve made that happen because of how much David did on that record that his credits to, y’know, arrangement in songs, so-on-and-so-forth, definitely falls into the production side of things. And we just had an agreement, like, any money that comes from this, -Talley and I ran a recycling business. We still have a joint bank account together. It’s like we’re fuckin’ married. -that he would just trust me and I would split everything with him. But, if there’s anything I would do differently about that record -besides some production things, or whatever, was made sure that Talley’s name gets on the back of that record. And, I’ve even thought about doing that, like, calling Patrick and be like, ‘hey, man, when the next press comes out, please…’ […] Talley’s definitely not upset about it.

“Coleman was definitely mad at me about leaving. […] At the premiere show at Exit/In, after I had left the band and I was still teaching Ash the bass lines,” continued Dietz.

F&P: The one that’s out with them now?

“That’s Josh. Something happened and Ash fell through, and I think Josh was gonna do it, or Luke…something like…after Ash fell through, I told Coleman that I would do it. i was like, ‘I can do the first fifteen days of the tour,’ becauese, then, I guess, Luke was gonna come do the rest, or something.”

F&P: Summer of 2022 tour?

“This was right after the release show [, yes]. Whenever that would’ve been, because I think they left a couple of days after that. And I didn’t know that we weren’t going to be playing the release show. like, I still had thought that I was going to be laying the release show and going on tour with Coleman for two weeks.”

F&P: I kinda caught notions of that.

“Yeah, So, two days before, Coleman texted me and said that he didn’t need me to do the show, -or, no, that I didn’t have to do the tour; that Luke changed his schedule, and he was able to do it, or whatever. And, that irritated me becuase it was less than seven days away and I’m like, ‘where’s my paycheck?’ Y’know? I had just got fired a, or whatever the fck that was.”

“…So I, -basically, he said he had that covered, or whatever. That pissed me off because it just yanked money out of my pocket that I was counting on, and then he said he didn’t need us to play the release show, either? I was just, what the fck is going on? You don’t want the band that playe d on the record oto play the release show for the record?”

“It pissed me off and I had words with Coleman about it. I always try to be the better person, man. I don’t hold grudges. I forgive and forget. Move on, and just fcking let things go. You know, you saw me at the show. I showed up. I’m gonna go. I’m begin supportive. I’m going to continue to do so, but, yeah, I was a little irritated, for sure. Then, we squashed it and moved on as we do.”

F&P: How long did Talley stay on tour?

“I think he was supposed to be on the Buck Cherry tour thing. And then he backed out before that, because we got, -he’d taught somebody else the guitar stuff: the same thing I did with the bass player.”

F&P: Alright, the bass player and the drummer were the only different ones in that lineup [the premiere show lineup, and then at Party City, I guess, the whole thing had changed except for Daniel, right?

“Yeah. Now, it’s changed again.”

“After they came back from the last tour, it was Coleman, Sexton, Josh, Zach. Saxton quit on the tour and Coleman had to get a sub drummer. […] Coleman let Zach the guitar player go. Daniel quit, and then it was just Coleman and Josh. And, then, now… Josh played in Mad Cabbage, and then he’s got the other two dudes from Mad Cabbage, who are extremely talented, -Ethan and Hunter, -and those two guys are brothers. They’ve got somebody else, but I think Josh is now playing drums instead of bass. And Ethan’s playing a guitar. And I think they got a steel player. I saw a video with a steel player. I’m not sure if he’s… whatever, but there’s a whole new lineup, now. And all the super fckn talented, but those are the guys that are writing the new record with Coleman, right now.”

“They’re doing the demos of that, now, and the guys in the band that he’s got now, they have like a little studio set up in their house and thy’re doing all the demo stuff there, whihch is great. That’s what they should do: demo everything, crank it all out, work out all your ideas, and then go to the studio and be ready to do it, for real.”

F&P: There’s protocol in that.

(Back to “he could have got some street cred. for punching me,” member of The Coleman Camp, Jenni Blackwell, ran into me at the IV & The Strange Band Album Release Show, June 18, 2022)

“We’ve been drinking next door. They’re all slowly coming. There’s Laura Beth. Laura Beth’s coming in. Patrick [Johnson]. Everyone is slowly coming in.”

F&P: “Jason, David, and Carson aren’t playing [They weren’t visible at the moment]?

JB: …I don’t know that, [but] I talked to Coleman outside. I saw him earlier, but I don’t know. I don’t know. David Talley is still playing guitar [she did the wtf shrug].

F&P: It’s not a concern with Amigo, or anything?

JB: No. No, no no. No. No….

F&P: Like a no compete clause?

JB: No, its not that. It’s more of a Carson was never gonna, like, do the [more of a?][been able to…], -he’s not a band member.

F&P: I gotcha. [Like just a touring band mate that records on the group’s debut album, too].

JB: [He has] a wife and a kid. And, then, when Jason Dietz [quit], …I don’t…. I don’t know. […] He’s one of my best friends, but I think it was more of a, like, they’re better off as friends and not bandmates.

But the Album Release Show, June 18, 2022 was a good show.

That version of IV & The Strange Band got up shaky, tried to shake it off, couldn’t, but still had a good show with most none the wiser.

Coleman, David Talley, Laura Beth, Daniel, Shane Sexton and Luke Bradshaw went through the track list of Southern Circus (“Train,” “Cigarette Ends,” “Deep Down,” “Stand Your Ground,” “Southern Despair,” “I’m Gonna Haunt You,” “Inbred,” “Malice,” “Broken Pieces, “Drinkin’ Sad,” “Son of Sin,” and “Filth”), totaling 45 minutes, with a small break between the full-band aspect of a dichotomous intent, and then Coleman and Daniel hopping back onstage for a quick run through IV & The Strange Banjo, where Daniel Mason went to town on John Hartford’s “Steam Powered Aereo Plane, “I would’ve never gotten through that one by myself,” said Coleman; “Give it up for Daniel Mason.”

“This is one I want to play for a couple of people. I wrote this song because I was inspired the past few months by, -about a month and a half ago, I went to the last boogie, downtown, at the Ernest Tubb record shop, and it was very sad. Commercialization, in which I’ve already talked about, it is a very frustrating business. You can’t do much about it because money is always going to win. But the one thing we can always do is try to educate people about the things that are important in our town. And I do not believe it is important to tear down Texas Troubadour’s store to make somebody some money,” said Coleman.

“Tell everybody there’s song about that. It’s not really talking any shit about anybody specific, but it’s just about [the]life of what’ s happening down there, and I hope you enjoy it,” said Coleman.

Coleman played, “Fray that Line,” an upcoming song off of the second album, recorded by an all new The Strange Band at Shooter Jennings studio in L.A, before calling it a night, hoping we’re all safe and thanked.

It was about an hour long show, man. Not too shabby.

Colemand did a helluva meet and greet, again, that night, too. Pretty much all he did after the show. That and help carry stuff out.

Now, That’s a Southern Circus! -Or, how to get one out through hard work and with the help of a lot of local people.

Circumstance for breakup seemingly came in a mixture overtime, as Lizette Kehrern seemingly Yoko’d the band with heavy influence on her husband, Jason Dietz, the bassist and producer for the whole thing, while her brother, Carson, in the face of that aspect, wasn’t even in the band to begin with (much like John Judkin’s status: just a good man helping out), according to the Coleman Camp. Coleman also had Grammy aspirations, all along, and an avenue he saw fit to achieve them.  Als, Amigo poached the sht out of the core members of The Strange Band right before Nashville poached the sht out of Amigo the Devil, as he lives in Nashville, now.

The whole thing seemed a springboard for the concept of Coleman Williams, IV, and The Strange Band, all along, with IV, a character’s character, and The Strange Band, in harmony, so long as IV & The Strange Band exist and are touring. The originals got it off the ground while the next wave carries it on. Modern af, and generationally evolved progress.

And Good people coming together for, in, and by the area.

Coleman is still around, when can. I’ll run into him shipping merch at the Post Office on Church, or late at night at the Wal-Mart on Rutherford, when my cyborg, Heeler/Sheppard dog, Boatswain (Bo) runs out of biscuits at fifteen ‘til 11pm. I’m not sure what Coleman’s doing there. He just keeps his head down. The CNG liquor store is in that WalMart lot, too, strangely enough.

After the record was out, as I mentioned, at the Beards and Brews Festival at Panther Creek Brews, June 25, 2022, Coleman had already released his baby (Southern Circus) into the world, but still had pending band, though all members past and present were there, that night (excepting Carson).

Talking to Luke away from the stage had Coleman come out from backstage to the bus across the lot,where we’d gone:

Coleman walks up with a look directed right at me after circling for a second:

Coleman: Hey, man.

Luke: Hey, buddy. How are ya? [to Coleman]

Coleman: How are you? (To Luke)

Luke: Doin’ good, man. Doin’ good. It’s not often, -just said, I’m on the other side of this.

Coleman, laughs, “Ha ha,” then, to me: What can I do for you?

F&P: I was just asking them how they got with The Strange Band.

Coleman: Yeah, Man.

F&P: And, I could ask you as well…

Coleman: I don’t like what, -some of the stuff you’ve written about me.

F&P: All right.

Coleman: Because it seems like you’ve written bad about my touring schedule. Do you know how to book a touring band? Do you know how hard it is to travel and do that?

F&P: Yes, sir, I do. And, I…

Coleman: I just hope you do, because the words you use, -remember I’m an English graduate. I’m a teacher. So, I don’t like those words because they’re negative words. And, it seems they’re semi-scathing, so just for the future, like, you know…it’s kinda scathing, during Covid, for me to play 130 shows in less than a year…you should talk about that.

F&P: I am. I am.

Coleman: And, not just say ‘my messed up tour schedule,’ because that’s semi-disrespectful.

F&P: Yes, sir, I apologize.

Coleman: And, also, you want to interview my guys, ask me.

F&P: Okay.

Coleman: Thanks a lot.

F&P: Alright. [To Luke] Thank you for talking with me.

Luke Braadshaw: Yeah. Yeah. It’s been wonderful, man.

F&P: And, uhhh, yeah.

Luke: You can attribute anything I said.

F&P: What’s that?

Luke: You can attribute anything I said, so yeah. Yeah.

F&P: Thank you. Thank you. I don’t try to be weird like that, or anything, but…

Luke: No. No. I gotcha. I gotcha. You’re wonderful. Nice to meet ya.

Another “Coleman in the Wild” moment after the release was before IV & The Strange Band’s October 27, 2022, 3rd & Lindsley Halloween show in in Nashville (Danel Mason was still intact).

I’d come up with a good costume idea that involved some fake sleeve tattoos surely found at Murfreesboro’s year-round Party City on Old Fort, -where you not only get your fake tattoos, but also, Coleman Williams.

Completely unprepared, I saw Coleman with the newer, full band at the register, so reflex kicked in. I pulled my phone out to record and thought of a joke to start a conversation:

F&P: Sorry to ambush you like this.

Coleman: Sup.

F&P: You going to your show tonight?

Coleman: I am going to my show tonight. Will you stop recording me, please

F&P: Sorry. Yeahyeahyeah.

Coleman: Thank you very mu (Audio cuts).

I immediately shut it off unfortunately, but Coleman got me to the effect of: “I’m getting better at noticing stuff like that.” And, to the effect of, that he’s grown very observative and has learned to look out for those things (people recording).

I had it turned on, screen lit, and just holding it in front of my chest after I cracked absurd about him being at his own show. That was pretty much it. Then in the awkwardness, I couldn’t find any sleeves. He came back in because he forgot something at the register, too, while I was still there being doofy.

I’d go on to dress up as IV for Halloween, that year (2022), a couple days after that, to take Charlie, my nephew, out trick-or-treating.

It’s strange walking into your local Party City and seeing the guy you’re dressing as at the counter; trying to find his tattoo sleeves. And then getting bitched out by him for the second time in public.

Like, what if Godzilla or Spiderman did that?

At that Oct. 27, 2022 show at 3rd & Lindsley, however:

“I want to say ‘Thank you,’ again, to my band behind me. I love y’all so much. We’ve had fun on this tour.”

“We just had our sleeping situation change [to] one of the best situations we’ve ever had because my drummer behind me, Mr. Shane! We’re sleeping in real bunks, now, like a real band!”

“See, we’ve been doing this for a long time, -y’all will love this: we’ve been sleeping like rats in a pile on the floor, and I’m gonna miss that. I called that ‘Me time, but…” (instead of Shane Saxton hitting a rimshot, Daniel plucked a quick, descending arpeggio).

“But, hey,” Coleman continued. “Some of those fellows taught me to be proud of where I’m from, and a lot of the bullshit here is what makes us so great… We overcome things.”

“What makes diamond, folk? That’s pressure. And this song goes out to all those folks that taught me to be proud of where I’m from, and if you didn’t make it here today and I’ve lost you, like a few friends I’ve had to bury this year, y’know, We love you and we’ll see you again,” said Coleman at the October 27, 2022 3rd & Lindsley show.

At the same show, he’d mention to the effect of, “I might see some money out of this when I’m in my 40’s.”

IV & The Strange Band’s debut album, Southern Circus, can be found streaming across the icons at Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, iHeart, and their Bandcamp.com page, ivsonofiii.bandcamp.com.  Physical copies (CD’s and 33 rpm vinyl) can be found through Amazon, bcrmedia.com), and ivandthestrangeband.com.  Live show schedules, band news, songs-on-the-fly, and contact information can be found at ivandthestangeband.com, as well as IV and The Strange Band, IV Fourth’s, and/or iiisonofsin’s social pages across the web at www.facebook.com/IVsonofiii (IV and The Strange Band page. There’s a IV Fourth one, too, allowing fan posts), their Instagram, www.instagram.com/ivsonofiii, and www.twitter.com/ivsonofiii.

Additional reporting by Jenni Blackwell and Beth Boudreaux. Some excerpts from Murfreesboro Pulse reporting edited by Steve Morley and Bracken Mayo.

At the time of Folk & Proper’s press, Aug. 23, 2023, Coleman Finchum was unavailable for comment.

A Southern Circus album review will accompany this piece in an upcoming issue of The Murfreesboro Pulse.








Hidden Track:

As for the fun stuff everyone wants to know when it comes to these “Touring bands on the Road” stories, Murfreesboro Realtor Beth Boudreaux also sat down with Jason Dietz and Aaron Swisher, February 5, 2023, at The Pub, and seemingly felt F&P wasn’t as quick to the punch as she.

Beth’s rapid fire:

Beth: Jason, how are you? When do you go back out?

Dietz: April.  Home til April.

Beth: You more excited to go or stay?

Dietz:  I like them both equally. Beth: That’s good.  So, you transition well between the two?

Dietz: Sometimes.

Beth: What’s the hardest part?

Dietz:  Staying still.

Beth: Oh. Well, you are counted on.

Dietz: On the road, you get up and go.  It’s something different everyday, but coming back to the same…

Beth: Groundhog day?

Dietz: Yeah. It’s weird.  Takes a while to adjust.

Beth: No doubt.  I would probably be…

Dietz: Post-tour depression

Beth: I bet. What kind of coping mechanisms are helping through the process?

Dietz: Cigarettes, unfortunately.  I need to quit cigarettes.

Beth:  That’s not good.  Those will kill you.

Dietz:  Yeah.  For sure.

Beth:  Well, damn. How’s the wife? She pissed that you have time from being off from the road?

Dietz: Nah.  She’s dealing with it.

Beth: She’s gotta adjust, too?

Dietz: Yeah, it takes her a minute to adjust and to see something coming and to get excited about it.  It happens later. (laughs.) The initial reaction usually isn’t excitement, but, y’know, she’s definitely excited.  She gets irritated because her dad calls me all the time.  He just wants to talk about the band.

Beth: Who’s the biggest partier in the band?

Dietz:  Biggest Partier?

Beth:  Umhm.

Dietz: Me.

Beth: Really?

Dietz:  No.

Beth:  I was like, ‘I don’t think so.’ You’re the most chill.

Dietz: I don’t party too much on tour.

Beth:  I’m nosey?

Dietz: I dunno. They all party equally, I think.

Beth: Really?

Dietz:  Yeah.

Beth: That’s good to hear you’re not picking one of them off the ground all the time.

Dietz:  Yeah, none of them more harder than the other, I don’t think.

Beth:  I don’t know how y’all do it.  I’m two drinks, and done.

F&P:  Unless you get Covid.  Covid will put you out for a week.  That’s the hard tour stuff.

Beth:  Huh.. That’s true.

Dietz:  Yeah, we don’t, -nobody parties, like, super-hard. 

Beth: Because ya’ll are all old as fck.

Dietz: We have our nights, but we gotta get up and drive the next day, so…

Beth: Sitting in the van with a hangover isn’t that…

Dietz:  Yeah, it’s no fckn fun.

Beth:  I couldn’t do it.

Swisher:  That’d be rough.

Me to Swisher:  When was the last time you went on a tour?

Swisher: 2015?

Beth:  And how old were you in 2015?

Swisher: I don’t know. How many years ago was that? Eight? So I would’ve been…

Beth: Was that only eight?

Swisher:  37?…

Beth: Was that only eight?

Swisher: 38?

Dietz:  Those Hardin Draw tours were a lot of fun.

Swisher: Yeah

Beth:  It feels like longer than eight.

Dietz:  Time fckn flys, man.

Beth:  I’m having a mid-life crisis hard and it’s not, like hot women and sports cars-kinda crisis at all. It’s like looking back at your life in a rear view mirror and going, ‘Holy Fck.’

Dietz:  I haven’t gotten to that point yet.

Beth: Oh, I’m there.  I’m like, deep swim.

Dietz: I’ve got no regrets.