The Craig Veltri Interview - Amber Rae Dunn

Craig chats with the Amber Rae Dunn about her life as Queen of Memphis Country.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Well, it's that time again. Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for the interview with Craig Belcher.

SPEAKER_02 0:18

Thank you, Megan Pennington. And welcome to the interview. You might think that our guest was genetically engineered to be an award-winning country singer-songwriter. She has a southern accent, perfect pitch, and a way of turning a phrase. However, instead of heading for middle Tennessee and Music Row, she has spent a decade in western Tennessee establishing herself as Memphis Country Music Queen. The queen of Memphis Country, if you prefer. Her most recent album, 2023, I guess that's life, demonstrates a unique blend of the twang and imagery Nashville is renowned for, with a heavy seasoning of rock and roll direct from the stores, Memphis, Tennessee. Damn me for my silly rules and having to choose only one track off the record, but I like a good car song, and Jesse James is a damn good car song, and it's a prime example of this blend, and we will play it at the end of this episode. Recording in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and calling in from Memphis, Tennessee. Here she is, Amber Ray Dunn. Amber Ray, sorry, Your Majesty. Welcome to the interview. Okay, I will I will take the pedestal and I will uh crush it into rubble. So don't worry about that. Thank you, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 1:53

And and and honestly, I think I'm gonna get you to write my bio for my website because you called me genetically engineered to win awards.

SPEAKER_02 2:05

Well, you have won many awards, and we will uh get get to all of that in a second. So I we met uh a while ago, and we I noted your music, and I noted that you seem to have a sound and a and a voice that belongs in Memphis and Nashville, but you chose Memphis. Why Memphis?

SPEAKER_01 2:28

Um, well, that is a very long story. Um you can you can call me back for your two-hour podcast for that one.

SPEAKER_02 2:34

Um never, never.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

I'll I'll give you a message.

SPEAKER_02 2:37

I'm not Robert Evans.

SPEAKER_01 2:39

Uh I will try to give you the um brought down version. But basically, I started doing music on on accident, complete accident. So um my parents are very simple. I come from a family of seven children. My dad is a barber, and my mother is a homemaker. They still to this day don't have cell phones, they don't have internet, they don't have credit cards, uh, they don't smoke, they don't cuss, they don't drink, they go to church every Sunday. They're just they're very simple and simple in a good way, and like a pure sweet, nobody is like this anymore, kind of from Arkansas.

SPEAKER_02 3:19

I I seem to recall, correct?

SPEAKER_01 3:21

Yes, yes. I I live in Arkansas. I'm in Arkansas right now, if you can't tell all the greenery, but um, the natural state.

SPEAKER_02 3:28

Um technically Memphis suburbs, if I may correct myself.

SPEAKER_01 3:32

Yes, yes. So um it takes me probably 40 minutes to get to downtown Memphis because it buds up right to the river right there, Mississippi. And where I work in West Memphis, which is just across the bridge in Arkansas, it takes me about 10 minutes to get to downtown Memphis.

unknown 3:50

Right.

SPEAKER_01 3:50

So Bill Street for me is 10 minutes away on any given day.

SPEAKER_04 3:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:56

But um, like I said, just real simple family. And um when it was time to go to college, I was just like, well, what in the world? You know, my parents hadn't been to college, you know, what would I go to college for? And I happened to be decently good at art in high school. So I there was a art college in Memphis called Memphis College of Art that actually President Carter's daughter went to. It was a very prestigious, um, more of a conceptual art college. And only, I mean, it was small, it had about 400 students, but it was only art, printmaking, um, photography, like old school photography, where you actually had to put it in the chemicals and sculpture, painting. All it was just such a such a cool school, anyways.

SPEAKER_02 4:48

Is that something that you utilize at least in your promo and stuff like that? I noticed most of uh your album and singles covers are photographs. Is that uh is that a is that a choice that just you don't want to do all the dirty work anymore, or is just sounds terrible, but I I can take a good photo so the the photo works. No, but if you I don't think you've ever met a camera that didn't love you, so I believe Well, well, if you noticed um they all have an element of artwork to them, though.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

Um, I do design all of them, and there's always some hand-drawn artwork. All my logos, I silk screen all my t-shirts, all most of my merchandise has an element of Amber designed it or Amber drew it or Amber handmade it. So that's kind of where I get to incorporate that. Um and thank you for jumping in because you okay, full disclosure, guys. I have two radio shows and a TV show, and I interview a lot of people. And I work at a barber shop in the daytime. Now I work with my father. That's the day job. Every artist has a day job. So I can talk for hours. Yes. So thank you for for continuing to jump in because this is totally your show, not mine.

SPEAKER_02 6:01

Well, it it it it my name is on the show, but it is an interview, so yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:05

So I I know, I know, but uh, but I like that. Um, you're teaching me because I don't have a background in any of that. I just I stumbled into that just as much as I stumbled into music. But um well, both like that.

SPEAKER_02 6:16

So, how did you get to Memphis?

SPEAKER_01 6:19

Well, that's what I was gonna say is I did go to Nashville at first. And because whenever I started doing music, it was after college. Um, I had that art degree, and I I my life was set. I had music, I had never touched an instrument, I had never been around. I mean, I went to shows, concerts, and stuff. Who doesn't go to a concert? But it just wasn't in my trajectory, if that makes sense. It never had crossed my mind.

SPEAKER_02 6:45

So you picked up the pen later in life, really.

SPEAKER_01 6:48

Yeah, so I had a friend at that college that I went to. I I became a sculpture major, he was a videographer, and he had a reggae band called Yu Boo and the Africans. He was from Kenya and had came and got got a scholarship to come over to America and study. And we just became really good friends. And uh he asked me one day to be a background singer in his reggae band. And I was like, Yu Boo, I don't know anything about reggae music, I don't know anything about music. You know, I only think I can sing in my car. And he was like, Well, I know you can sing because I hear you humming when you're working in the sculpture studio. Um, so come on, come be in the band, you know. And so I did tryouts and they let me in. And next thing you know, I'm one of the Africans. The joke was that I was a South African because the band, the band was Yu Boo and the Africans. So I just kept my mouth shut and sang. And um, he was a songwriter, and I would follow him around to these shows. We just became really good friends. He's living in Iowa now, he's still in America, but um he just said, you know, why don't you try songwriting? And I was like, I don't know. And he was like, just try it. And at that time, I was listening to a lot of 50s and 60s country. I had just discovered, like Loretta Lynn and little Jimmy Dickens and Roger Miller and all these people. That I was like, where has this music been my entire life?

SPEAKER_02 8:15

Um that's a very good question because you would think Arkansas, you would think, you know, parents of a certain age, you would think that would be on the radio constantly.

SPEAKER_01 8:25

Was that well, well, well, that's 50s and 60s. I did grow up with a little 90s country.

SPEAKER_02 8:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

My dad, for for a little bit of my life, he listened to 90s country, but then he he started my dad's very religious, and at some point he started listening to the Bible tapes where they read the Bible, right? And then from then on out, that's all we ever heard on the way to school. So that was pretty that was pretty early on. That was maybe at like age 10 or something. So I got 90s country before that. Okay, and then my mom listened to Prince and Michael Jackson, and her favorite was Al Green. Um yeah, so she was like RB's soul. She's from Iowa, actually, so from the north.

SPEAKER_02 9:09

She didn't know anything about so perhaps uh so perhaps the reverend implanted uh Memphis eventually to you.

SPEAKER_01 9:16

So well, you know, like I said, I I uh my friend that was a songwriter prompted me, and I wrote, you know, just on a whim in the shower one day. I was thinking about him thinking I could write a song. So I wrote a song called Arkansas Line over time, you know, a couple of showers.

SPEAKER_02 9:34

And um we all have a few of those sessions.

SPEAKER_01 9:38

Yeah, yeah. I was following him around to open mics, and there was one called Soul Speaks. And this the lady that was the host, she kept saying, If your soul has something to say, this is your place. You know, we're here for people's souls that speak and we're loud and proud. She just, I'm still friends with this girl to this day. Her name is Tundrea Lyons, and she has a radio show called Radio Memphis. And uh I'm I'm on her show still, but it was her that night, and she just kept saying, If your soul needs to tell us something, and I thought I had written a song, so I don't know. I like mosied on over there. I wrote my name down, sat back down. And then when they called my name, I was like, oh my god. So I get up there and I sing this song called Arkansas Line that I wrote, and at that time, still had not touched an instrument, so it was just words and melody. And I get up there and I just snap my fingers, and the song is like, I'm from the country on the edge of the Arkansas, squeezed up right next to the Mississippi, da da da and it goes on. But I snapped the whole time, and I made it through, and I didn't die.

SPEAKER_04 10:47

That's the very first thing.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

That's the first thing that you learn when you when you share a song, you don't die.

SPEAKER_02 10:53

But I had so many people sometimes just metaphorically, but yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

Uh I had so many people that came up and told me that sounded good. Um, but that sounds like those people in Nashville. And it was right when that TV show Nashville came out. So they kept they would always say, Um, that sounds great, you sound great, your voice sounds good, but you need to go to Nashville. And next thing you know, I had written two more songs, and so it was usually one of those three, which are all three on my first album.

SPEAKER_02 11:24

But um uh, you know, and and and and and spoiler alert, it did wind up uh being uh on a record called Arkansas Line uh that came out in 2017. So you so I guess my question going forward in Arkansas Line, was it was it eventually was it recorded in that did you wind up recording all that record in Nashville? Or did you go back to uh Memphis with it after why why ultimately did you side not Nashville? Did you did you miss home? Did you just or was Nashville not?

SPEAKER_01 12:00

Yeah, and I I know I'm taking the long way around that this to this answer, but it it's very pivotal in who I am and where I am and and why everything. Um, because so I moved to Nashville and in my own. Okay, so um I was twenty five before I had ever touched well no, I still hadn't touched an instrument at that time, but um it just kind of hit me one day. It was right after my 25th birthday, about a week later, it hit me. I have to go to Nashville and I have to see what this is. Something deep inside is saying, let's just try this. And I'm a very gut-feeling kind of person. Um I I think a lot of artists are, at least the successful ones, you kind of have to let your mind stop and just kind of let other things take over. And so I just on a whim told everybody, hey guys, uh Sunday, I'm moving to Nashville, you know, and they're like, What? I'm like, Yep. You know, I didn't I didn't give anybody time to talk me out of it. I had a week to get everything in order and to get over there. Um thankfully I had a friend, Jerry Don O'Neill from Arkansas, who I had sang with a time or two when he came to town. Because it was about, I'd say about a two-year period of me writing these three songs, performing these three songs a couple of times, and then finally, you know, just kind of I I don't know. I don't, I don't know. Just feeling whether or not I wanted to do music or not. And like I said, when my when my body said, yeah, I think we want to try this, the whole just floodgates of of everything said we have to try this. So I said, five years. I'll give it five years. That's a good amount of time to see if anything is worth my while. I moved to Nashville, um, moved in with Jerry Don. I lived in his basement and was well on my way to get this started. A buddy of mine got me a sh uh job at a barbershop over there because I had already worked at my father's barbershop at that time. I've had my cosmetology license since I was 18. That's just kind of something you do in my family. Everybody's a cosmetologist or a barber.

SPEAKER_02 14:25

Um, and everybody owns in fact that was the lead track and uh lead, I think lead single off of uh off of your previous record. In fact, uh it's a very charming uh number about that.

SPEAKER_01 14:35

Yeah, yeah. Barber shop. Go look that up. There's a video if you'd like to know more about where I work. There's a video at that.

SPEAKER_02 14:41

That is actually you actually shot that where you work.

SPEAKER_01 14:44

Yeah, with my dad and a bunch of my customers. And um, but so I moved to Nashville. I was there about nine months. I was working at that barber shop, and then I was a manager at a Pier One store after that, you know, later in the day. And then at night, around nine o'clock, I would go down to Broadway and I would work tips for the bands in hopes that I could meet some of the guys, and one of the bands would let me get up there and do some songs, or you know, eventually I'd be singing with the band full time or get to know a band somehow. Um, because a lot of, and this is what I tell younger younger artists, a lot of opportunities happen by just showing up.

SPEAKER_02 15:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:26

Just being there, being in the room, getting to know people. Um, I'm not trying to say that it doesn't hurt to when you first meet somebody to shoot your shot, but sometimes it does. So get to know people first, show up, help out, um, and then shoot your shot. But so that that was kind of the life is those three things every single day. And I was just wearing myself ragged. Um, but that's what you have to do. And I feel like I was just starting, it was about nine months, I was just starting to get a foothold of knowing the lay of the land, making a couple of friends, you know, kind of knowing what I did and didn't want. And my little brother got killed back here in Memphis. Ryan, if I if I if I if I'm yep, um he got hit on a motorcycle and it was just really sudden. And he was the child just under me. So he was like my baby when he was born. You know, I'm a little girl that's uh older than him, and mom has this baby, and it's like, oh, that's my baby, you know, and so it just it hit us all really hard because he was. If you maybe my older brother and then Ryan, they were the most innocent ones of the whole family, just really sweet, just good souls, quiet, um, no bad bone in their body, you know, and it it just hit us all so hard because it was so random. And then the guy that hit him was lied and said, Oh no, no, he ran the light and hit me. And it was this whole court case, and you know, just a bunch of junk that we didn't want to have to go through as a family that we were about to have to face.

SPEAKER_02 17:02

Right.

SPEAKER_01 17:03

And I'm the only child that's kind of transient and can kind of, you know, I can hustle and make it up anywhere. So why not go back and kind of help my parents through this? Because they were having a really hard time. And to be honest, my mom, I mean, they both still are, but my mom must be another my dad has his job and his friends at work, so to speak, as a barber. My mom is still a kind of a stay-at-home mom, and and she's kind of having a real you know, and that would now that was 10 years ago, full disclosure. Yeah, but she's still having a hard time, and you know, anybody that's ever lost somebody sudden that was a child like that would know what I'm talking about. But that's what brought me back to Memphis, and I didn't plan on staying, but it was like enough things kind of presented themselves when I came back to help them with that. I was only gonna be here about a month that I just I don't know. I just like I said, the gut said we're gonna stick around.

SPEAKER_02 17:59

We're here with Amber Ray Dunn here on the Craig Veltry Interview, proud member of the Scarfire Media Podcast Network. For more on Scarfire Media, please visit our website, Scarfiremedia.com. Check out all the great podcasts here on the Scarfire Media Podcast Network, the Cool Brother Podcast, Deep Core Lore with Emmy Sasani, Mommy Rockstar coming soon, I promise. And thank you for listening to the Craig Veltry interview. Please like, share, and subscribe. I do want to talk about this uh there is a song on the previous record uh called My Ryan. Uh now it the incident occurred 20 uh 2016, it sounds like the album itself came out in uh 2023. Um as far as a s a song that uh on on on such a on such a subject as that, and perhaps this is a way we can talk about your process as a songwriter, um how long did it take you to uh process uh the grief and to into and to put that into a song, uh considering the length of time between uh what happened and how it wound up on Spotify.

SPEAKER_01 19:13

Well, I didn't plan on it. Um that's first and foremost. If you're familiar with my work, you would know that I like to sing about and write about the lighter side of life. I like to make a lot of things.

SPEAKER_02 19:27

That is the vast majority of your stuff, yes.

SPEAKER_01 19:29

Yeah. I like kind of making a joke out of things and moving on. I'm not a deep songwriter. Um and that song just kind of came about. So you had asked earlier about my first album, where was it recorded? Well, like I said, I wasn't in Nashville really long enough for that to happen. So part of why I stuck around in Memphis is for that first little month that I was here, kind of just, you know, getting life back together with my family and just everything. Um, I landed a job accidentally at a studio called MGP the studio under Mark Goodman. Mark Goodman Productions is where the MGP he was the drummer for the Blackwood Brothers.

SPEAKER_02 20:12

Not to be confused with um uh I was thinking Mark Goodson, who well, uh I was thinking Mark Goodson, the uh the the uh game show producer. So I no no no forgive me.

SPEAKER_01 20:22

Good man, a goodman. Um he had gotten two Grammys with the Blackwood brothers back in the day and had a studio here in Memphis, and a guy saw me performing. Actually, I came back to town and I was like, what am I gonna do? You know, I still can't play guitar, I still don't, you know, and and um so I walked in a little bar, Memphis's most haunted brothel called Ernestine and Hazel's, and uh asked this guy, I was like, while I'm in town, do you mind if I like host an open mic so maybe I can get to meet some Memphis artists? Because I still didn't know anybody outside of U Boo. Um, so he said, sure. And I started hosting this open mic on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, I mean, just so I could get to meet some Memphis players because it looks like I might be in Memphis and I don't know anybody. I felt like if you build it, they'll come. And that's exactly what happened. And it became Memphis's most successful open mic for those five years that I did it every Wednesday. I mean, it was a grueling. I'll never do that again. But I I quickly met everybody, so that was that was a good thing. Um, and uh one of the guys there asked me if I wanted to work at that studio. They had a position for a social media manager, and I started working at that studio, and that's where I recorded that first album. Um, I know that wasn't your just most recent question, but I just felt like I needed to answer that.

SPEAKER_02 21:51

Um that's that's very well. But uh the uh in fact, I can probably add on top of that to to follow up on something that you said, uh That you do tend to uh talk about the lighter stuff and stuff. But with the previous record, I guess that's life. Not only my rhyme, but the title track, it does delve into some very confessional uh subject matter and uh perspective into what is going on in your world. Is that why you decided that uh that song was going in particular? I guess that's life is gonna end the song. My Ryan, not too far as far as track order is concerned. Uh, that this this is going to be the emblem. This is going to be representative of the piece of uh of an album as a whole. And I'll I'll reserve a question about album making in a second, but why I guess that's life.

SPEAKER_01 22:48

Well, um, part of that was also the producer that I worked with. So I only have the two albums, guys. Um, I do have a third one coming out in August with a gypsy jazz string band that I have been singing with lately. Um, and I call that my accidental album because we got free studio time with this new record company, and we are so well rehearsed that the three songs that they gave us time for, we knocked those out in like two seconds. And next thing you know, they were like, Well, do you have another song? Because we still have time for you. And we did another song and we recorded 13 songs that day, and so now we have a 10-song album coming out accidentally, so that's really cool.

SPEAKER_02 23:33

You may not be a queen, but you are a machine, my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 23:36

I am a machine. Um oh, I just I love what I do, and so I I give it my all. Sometimes that lands flat and sometimes it blossoms into something really cool. But you you really do have to give it every ounce of your being. Um, and so that second record, you know, the first one I recorded here in Memphis, but you know, I still kind of yearned for Nashville a little bit. And I met a producer at an event called Springboard Memphis, and it's like a music industry event that had came to town. They go over all over to different cities. And Billy Smiley was the guy's name. He was the founding member of a band called Whiteheart that had a lot of Christian rock in kind of like the 80s. He's won a lot of dub awards, and he was working out of a studio called Sound Kitchen in Nashville that has recorded a lot of big names.

SPEAKER_02 24:30

Oh, I've heard of Sound Kitchen, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:31

Okay, okay. He invited me over there. I saw the studio and um basically kind of laughed in his face because I can't afford this place. Um but we were that was my conclusion. He liked my material enough, and we were able to work everything out. And so that second album, um, some of the songs were halfway finished, or you know, some of the songs are but I completely had when I came to Billy. Some of the songs he kind of helped me finish up. Um, barbershop, we flat out wrote that together. I thought that was really cool. Like he said, Have you ever written a song about where you work? Because he could tell that that's part of who I am. And I was like, No, you know, I played around barbershop blues, you know, whatever. Nothing really stuck. And he was like, Let's write it. And so I was just like telling him about my life at the barbershop. And then between the two of us, kind of putting those ideas after jotting them all down together. Um and my Ryan was one I didn't necessarily mean to write. Um, it was it was more of just processing through the feelings that I had of that subject. And the song is it's just kind of the simple story of what happened. I don't really go super deep about how I feel about what happened. Yeah, I just kind of tell the story of what happened. And I'm very proud of that song. It took my mom three years to finally listen to the song and like another year to watch the video. But um, Yubu Kazungu, that buddy that was a videographer, he did a very good job of mixing old 90s home videos of us as kids in on the video, and just it'll bring you to tears.

SPEAKER_02 26:19

It's a it's a really good Oh, I I I I came very close to uh to to featuring the video, and I highly recommend listeners and viewers go and watch that video. I mean, not only is it a is it a beautiful song, not only is it very powerful, the video itself, I gotta say, is beautifully shot, beautifully edited, and uh it is a credit to your friend that that that he that he did such a had such a light touch on everything, especially when it came to the light. I mean, uh you look great in red. The the the backlighting red was also was also a very uh also a very nice touch as well. I do want to ask about the lead up to I guess that's life.

SPEAKER_01 26:58

You yeah it now that sounds actually about my husband, but go ahead. That's his life, the the song.

SPEAKER_02 27:06

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_01 27:07

Yeah. Well so that I guess that's life what subject matter is talking about him as well.

SPEAKER_02 27:13

Oh, okay, okay. Well, uh I I'll I'll get I'll get to that uh color me intrigued. I'll get to that in a minute. But the this it seems that you know these songs were uh the album itself, at least the the first couple tracks of it were recorded in 2021. The full album itself came out in uh 2023. Was that uh thoughtful strategy? Were you planning on doing a full record uh at that point in time, or were you just gonna be a singles artist uh at in 2021 and you decided, hey, we have a collection, let's put out a collection.

SPEAKER_01 27:45

I thought you were gonna ask, was that COVID related?

SPEAKER_02 27:48

That did not occur to me, but was it?

SPEAKER_01 27:51

I was gonna say, because if you're looking at that timeline, everybody had something weird going on around those years, and it was definitely COVID-related.

SPEAKER_02 27:59

Now that would be the two-hour podcast for me, but uh and and a whole record. But uh was it COVID related?

SPEAKER_01 28:07

Yeah, it was COVID-related. Um, the plan I had just met Billy. We had just started on these songs. Um, the plan was, or strategy, I guess, was one song a month, um, or every other month, and then in between was gonna be a music video which with each song. So we were gonna release a single, then release the music video the next month, then release the next single, then release the music video. Every song was going to have be a single, every song was going to have a music video. Then we had released, I think it was three of the songs and two of the videos. And we're still, you know, you're kind of actively working on them and just slowly releasing them as they come. Um, so we were probably done with about five more of the songs and maybe one more video that we hadn't released when COVID hit. And as you know, COVID just, you know, I'm a social butterfly. I I I love people, I love crowds, I love all the things that COVID hated. And um, so COVID for me, you know, a lot of artists love being alone in the studio and love the quiet time and love the I like people, you know. Quiet time for me with I like that with my plants, but it was hard COVID. Um so that's why everything was released in different ways because we were on this trajectory and then, and honestly, I'm so not proud of this. But I still have two music videos for Memphis, Tennessee off of that album, one of the songs. And um, I guess that's live. The music video that was supposed to be the very last video, but they still haven't been released, and I'm just sitting on them.

SPEAKER_02 29:56

Do you plan on releasing them?

SPEAKER_01 29:58

Yeah, yeah. I I I hate not releasing things, but now it's like been so long, and I don't know. It's like, do I put together a release show, a party, or do I just I don't want to like one of my producers here in Memphis is like, just release them, man. Like, just put them out online. And I was like, Yeah, but I don't want them to just fall flat, like I want them to have a little moment. I worked really hard on these things. So I don't know if anybody has any suggestions, let me know. I I've been sitting on both of those for about a year, and I'm not proud of that. And I am going to release them. I just don't know how.

SPEAKER_02 30:36

I don't know how. Uh uh well, first you upload them and then you uh uh that that that would be that would be my suggestion if if you if you ever know. But uh the but it sounds it sounds like you got some got some cool stuff uh coming up ahead. You mentioned already though that you uh that you are something of a radio personality in Memphis as well. And I understand that you actually got the job from I believe he was a member of the Memphis Mafia, the so-called taking bare care business crew with uh of his majesty Elvis Presley. Uh how'd you fall into that?

SPEAKER_01 31:18

Um, so that's that's a cool thing about Memphis is you know, Nashville is a music town, but Memphis is too. And I think that was another reason when I came here that I was able to stick around.

SPEAKER_02 31:30

Um if I if I can table the uh the question about about your radio show, just the comparison between Memphis and Nashville. Naturally, Nashville continues to thrive, not only as a recording town, but it it's coming up now as a as an entertainment town. It's becoming, you know, the it's becoming LA South at this point because a lot of people are moving in from LA for a plethora of reasons. Memphis does have the history of being a an industry town. It's not as much anymore. Um, I mean, hell, even Sam Phillips up and left for uh for for Nashville and later on after he got his money and stuff like that. But there is still an infrastructure uh for for that kind of music. Uh and obviously it's buried fruit for you. Um, is that a lot of the reason why, you know, there's there's enough here for me to do the music, so you know why why go east?

SPEAKER_01 32:24

That is exactly why. Um, because there is enough here to do, and believe me, I do all of what is here to do.

SPEAKER_02 32:33

We'll get back to radio in a minute.

SPEAKER_01 32:36

Uh, but also um I I do love Arkansas, and I I live in Arkansas, just to be clear.

SPEAKER_02 32:42

Right.

SPEAKER_01 32:43

Um, I'm from Arkansas, I love everything about it, so it's not far removed from my heart. It doesn't hurt me in any way to to be in Arkansas every second of every day. But I am right in the middle of everything. My brother lives in Austin, takes me nine hours to get there, takes me three hours to get to Nashville, it takes me two and a half to get to Muscle Shoals. I can easily get on an Amtrak, go to Chicago, or go to New Orleans. I'm I'm centralized. And I get to do my music stuff, so it's it's actually strategically a very good place to be. I can be anywhere, and I like to go everywhere, so it works out really good.

SPEAKER_02 33:23

Um well, you're selling off me on it pretty, pretty well, and uh you sell pretty well for uh the Memphis scene uh on your radio show, and again, you uh uh Memphis Mamfia beginnings.

SPEAKER_01 33:34

Uh uh please called the well, the radio show is called Memphis Sounds. That's the one that you're talking about. I also I've been the vice president of the Memphis Songwriters Association since I moved here from Nashville. Um, because you have to do whatever you can. Like you said, Memphis, the industry has has um gone down a little bit. And so I literally do everything I can to be as involved in everything that's going on. And so I have a radio show with them through Radio Memphis called the MSA Radio Hour. But the other one, the Memphis Connection, that's through WYPL. And it's the Memphis Library System, and that's where my TV show is also at. And the TV show used to be George Klein's TV show. And for anybody that remembers George, he was Elvis' best friend. And he was just, he wasn't a musician, but he was just an advocate for Memphis music. And his TV show had everybody from Bobby Rush to, you know, just everybody on it, the who's who of Memphis music or anyone coming through Memphis or that had anything to do with Memphis. And when he passed away a couple of years ago, the producer who I had known for a while, and everybody would whisper who he was when he would come in the room. So I always treated him nice and stuff, but he never necessarily showed any favoritism towards anybody, you know. And it wasn't until this latest album, I guess that's life, when he came. One of the places I bartend because I just pick up gigs to be involved in music, and there's a songwriter. There's a I I can't, I honestly cannot make you a cocktail to save my life.

SPEAKER_02 35:19

Like I don't drink, so that's no problem.

SPEAKER_01 35:21

Okay, okay. Well, when I've tried to make cocktails, people come back and they're like, Can I get more Coke in my Jack and Coke? Because I I I'm a heavy poor. Um but uh I bartend this songwriter night here in Memphis called South Main Sounds because it's our version of the Bluebird. It's a listening room and it's original music only. So when I found out this guy needed a bartender, I was like, I'll do it. I just want to meet all the songwriters, and I've been doing that for 10 years too now. But Jerry Williams is this gentleman's name, and he came in to drop off some four roses bourbon because every once in a while some of the local alcohol places will donate to this songwriter night. And he was dropping it off, and I knew who he was and gave him my CD and was like, Hey, you know, I got a new album, love for you to listen to it. And next thing I know, he comes back the next time we're having a songwriter thing and was like, Wait, who are you? You know, like I've known you and and seen you, and but this this album's pretty good. Hold on, you know, what do you got going on? And it was just perfect timing. And we became friends, and I guess he saw my like I said, I don't have a background in hosting things or any kind of media degree. And to be honest, I I've done podcasts and and and commercials and those kind of things, but I'm I'm honest, I'm just an honest person. So sometimes I say too much. So I was a little nervous in being on something a little more proper, but thankfully they have an edit button. So if I ever did, they can cut that out because they are pre-recorded. So thank God for that. Because I'm bound to say anything.

SPEAKER_02 37:04

Well, I'm uh I I do have a a broadcasting background, and I I will say this you are a natural. There, there's a there's you know, good inflection, you don't have a lot of non-verbals, the ums, the stuff that I've been doing, but it's you know lovely that you that you've let that you've landed in those platforms, and uh and I have and I have watched a few of the few of the things that you've done. You're really good at what you do, uh editing or no or not. Um, so uh and it sounds like you got some great stuff coming up as well. Uh, you mentioned the uh album to be coming out in August. Does it have a name?

SPEAKER_01 37:44

So this will be my first album. So there was a uh gypsy jazz spring string band here in Memphis called Mulberry Jam.

SPEAKER_04 37:52

Right.

SPEAKER_01 37:53

They've been playing together for 30 years. So these guys are a little bit older. But what's cool about them is they love to bring in younger talents and kind of help them learn and help them get connections and um then kind of lead them off to fly and then go get another one. And so they help a lot of really young artists. Like I'm talking, our fiddle player is 17 and she is a prodigy. Her name is Ann Anna Sharp. And um, she just kills it. Everybody wants to play with Anna now because we've introduced Anna to everybody and we've helped her hone her crap. Well, they met me at a time that my band, which is really weird, my band was Amber Ray Dunn and the Mulberries. Right. So I meet these guys and their band is Mulberry Jam. So there for a second, when I was trying to do both, it was real confusing for my fans, so to speak, because they'd be like, wait, is it with Mulberry Jam or is it and the mulberries? And it was like, okay. But my band kind of broke apart around that time because we had some people move and just change what they were doing in their life. So I started full singing with these guys full time and then still doing my songwriting. And they're so, you know, well rehearsed, they rehearse every Tuesday, and it was just fun. All I had to do was show up and sing. They had gigs that they do every single year, those same gigs, and they'll only do about three a month, maybe nothing crazy. And I could show up if I had the time, but if I was already booked for something else, they didn't care. They didn't need a singer, but they liked to have a singer.

SPEAKER_04 39:29

Right.

SPEAKER_01 39:29

So I taught them a couple of my songs, you know, some Patsy Klein's Ode to Billy Joe, and they taught me some of theirs. Who walks in when I walk out? Milk cow blues, songs that I maybe would have never known. And it's just been a really fun uh uh pairing.

SPEAKER_02 39:46

So is the uh so is the collection of songs, the 13 that you guys have recorded, is it gonna be mulberry related as far as the title is concerned?

SPEAKER_01 39:54

No, but um it it'll probably be 10 of those that are released. And since I'm working with other people, I'm trying not to take over because normally I am the sole creative, you know, it's whatever Amber wants kind of thing. And then I just get it approved by the producer that he thinks it all fits. And with these guys, um, I want to make sure that I am incorporating them. Although they keep telling me, no, you do it, you do it. We've never released anything, we don't know how to do it. You um so maybe I'm dragging my feet, I don't know. But um, the leader who is the Mandolin player of the band, Lynn Lahan, he said the other day he thinks Reflections would be a good title. So I think we're gonna go with that maybe. Um, I usually like two words.

SPEAKER_02 40:46

Something like reflections. Is that is it uh I mean, you like I say, you you tend you tend to be uh fun, bouncy bubbly, but yeah, yeah, you did you did do some pretty uh deep introspection. So reflections, that sounds like you're gonna go deeper, perhaps?

SPEAKER_01 41:02

Well, only because these so none of the songs are original.

SPEAKER_02 41:07

None of them.

SPEAKER_01 41:08

Yeah, they're all a lot of them are public domain songs.

SPEAKER_02 41:11

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 41:12

So it's like actual reflections from the past.

SPEAKER_02 41:15

Okay, so gotcha.

SPEAKER_01 41:17

That's where he came up with that name.

SPEAKER_02 41:18

I see, I see. Yeah. Well, Amber, we have a nice way of closing here on the Craig Beltry interview. It is called the No Kidden Questionnaire. A couple of rapid fire questions. First thing that comes to your mind whenever you're ready, and away we go. Childhood celebrity crush.

SPEAKER_01 41:32

Paul Walker, of course.

SPEAKER_02 41:34

Oh, you said of course, okay. Uh, what was it about? I mean, you we're gonna feature a song about a car later on. So uh was it him? Was it the car? What was it about him?

SPEAKER_01 41:44

I mean, have you not seen him naked in Joyride?

SPEAKER_02 41:47

Actually, no, uh, actually, no, but uh, you know, go watch the movie Joyride.

SPEAKER_01 41:56

It's a thriller, and there's a scene where he is literally only cupping, you know, his his man posted his bits, gotcha. Um, and everything else is there.

SPEAKER_02 42:09

Well, uh, my usual follow-up to that is that the kind of guy that you wound up dating? And I know you're married. Is that the kind of guy you wound up marrying?

SPEAKER_01 42:17

Um, if Paul Walker was a construction worker, no, my husband, everyone asks, is he your guitar player? And he's not. He's an average Joe. And I always tell people he's my consumer. Um, I'm a creative at heart, and I would float off the planet if I was left to my own devices. So he kind of brings me back down and reminds me um the commercialism side of everything, and that maybe I'm getting a little too out there or weird or you know, tone it down kind of thing. And in a cool way. Like he doesn't, he respects what I do and who I am, but he he keeps me having that element of commercialism that I need to, you know, sustain this and uh hopefully get that hit country song on radio one day.

SPEAKER_02 43:04

Uh it's only a matter of time. Uh, what was your favorite subject in school?

SPEAKER_01 43:10

I didn't have one, but I'd say art probably.

SPEAKER_02 43:14

Uh obviously that's what you wound up uh going to school for. Uh what occupation other than your own would you like to attend?

SPEAKER_01 43:22

I would love to be a chef. Do you had another life to live?

SPEAKER_02 43:28

Uh I mean, we've established that you don't know how to make a drink. Uh, are you good around the kitchen?

SPEAKER_01 43:34

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I love to cook. And that's probably why I'm a gardener. Anybody worth their salt that likes to cook also usually likes to go grow or or forage their own ingredients.

SPEAKER_02 43:47

I'm intrigued by uh by by the prospect of it. I do cook myself, but uh I do not garden. Uh so uh it it's just a matter of I just don't really have access. Access to uh I mean I could probably put something on stuff. It's like I'm I'm I'm lazy and there are only so many hours in the day.

SPEAKER_01 44:07

So well you can you can text me. I don't know everything, but I I I'll give you some advice. Um I think everybody should at least have a patio garden. Um there's so it's so fulfilling to plant something and then watch it bloom and then watch it grow and then eat a fruit from that. I mean it's just the cycle of life and it's it's very spiritual. Absolutely. It it's so much deeper than just the word gardening. It really is.

SPEAKER_02 44:34

My mom had a had a rose garden for a little while, and that was uh that was kind of kind of a beautiful thing to see as well.

SPEAKER_01 44:40

Well, any southerner worth worth their salt is a is a cook. That's just a thing. If you're a woman and you're in the south and you can't cook, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02 44:51

Uh yeah, yeah, yeah. Um I I I I found I found the one uh the one woman from Virginia and married her and she couldn't cook either. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:00

Oh no.

SPEAKER_02 45:01

Sorry indeed. Um there is a record about it. Uh on the other side of the coin, what job under no circumstances, I don't care how many bags of money have been handed to you, Amber Ray Dunn, would you never want to attempt?

SPEAKER_03 45:16

To do? Like something that I'd have to do.

SPEAKER_02 45:20

Yep. And it can be something you've done already.

SPEAKER_01 45:25

You know me so well. Um I don't know, I'm not really scared of anything.

SPEAKER_02 45:33

I figured that would be your answer, actually.

SPEAKER_01 45:36

Um I mean, this one's kind of dumb. I like to travel a lot and stuff, but I have a girlfriend currently that wants to take her fortieth birthday and us all go on a cruise. And I don't think I want to get on a boat that's like slightly moving in the ocean and be trapped with a bunch of people. Like I I don't know. I don't want to do that. So I told her, if I end up doing that, you have to know 100% every ounce of my being this is only because I love you. Because I'm probably gonna be drama meaned up the entire time.

SPEAKER_02 46:14

I w I went on a cruise uh for my for my honeymoon, and it wasn't that bad. I I did it once, got it to say, got to do it to say it. Would I do it again after what happened in 2020? Absolutely not. I'm not contributing to uh to to the floating patriotish ever again.

SPEAKER_01 46:31

So I was just about to say, have you watched the poop cruise on Amazon?

SPEAKER_02 46:37

I've heard of it, and uh I I I think I can infer the disaster that occurred on that on that particular boat. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:45

It's actually really funny. That doesn't that doesn't necessarily that's not my reasoning. For me, it's just more of I do have a little bit of motion sickness enough to where I did try to deep sea fish one time and ended up throwing up about a mile out incessantly to where the group decided, you know what, we're just gonna do inshore.

SPEAKER_02 47:07

Yeah, yeah, that uh I think my stomach has gotten a little bit more enforced over the years, but I because I went fishing uh about 10 miles offshore uh last year, but when I was 13, yeah, I was uh I was I was doubled over and uh and not feeling uh so much. I was just like, okay, just feed me to the sharks at this point. This is horrible. Um what now that we built up the healthy appetite here, Amber A, what is your go-to food on a road trip?

SPEAKER_01 47:40

Ooh, on a road trip. Well, just in general, tomatoes are my favorite food.

SPEAKER_02 47:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 47:44

Fresh tomato with a little bit of salt. And I often have a tomato with me. I I bring food with me. I've got a little uh lunchbox that I bring on the road.

SPEAKER_02 47:54

Now I've heard Doctor Who say carry a banana with you for reasons, but uh carry a tomato with you, even as uh somebody with an Italian last name. That's uh that's a new one on me.

SPEAKER_01 48:05

Travel tomato.

SPEAKER_02 48:10

Travel tomato, name of my next jazz band.

SPEAKER_01 48:12

But uh There we go, there we go. Um, I actually have a uh song called Duplex Garden that I wrote about my patio and my plants. But um yeah, probably I mean beef jerky, maybe my tomato, beef jerky, an apple. I always have an apple also.

SPEAKER_02 48:33

I've been trying to get on the beef jerky thing just to keep to keep the protein going. I keep finding the varieties that have more salt than even uh Yinzer, somebody from Pittsburgh myself would be fine too salty. So so I I'm trying, I you know, it it it's difficult, but usually just uh just I I have mine and I've answered this question before anyway.

SPEAKER_01 48:56

So those three in coffee. That was it, that's my answer.

SPEAKER_02 49:01

Indeed. Yeah. If you could have dinner, in fact, uh, how do you take your coffee?

SPEAKER_03 49:08

Black.

SPEAKER_02 49:09

Me too. Uh do you have a preferred roast?

SPEAKER_03 49:12

Nope, just not burnt.

SPEAKER_02 49:15

Just happy.

SPEAKER_01 49:17

As you know, gas station coffee often is burnt, but it's not burnt.

SPEAKER_02 49:21

Yeah, the only time I've ever been in a bucky's and been disappointed. Um speaking of uh all the all the great cuisine we've discussed. If you can have dinner with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be?

SPEAKER_01 49:34

That's a good question. I'm gonna steal some of these questions for my please.

SPEAKER_02 49:39

Please, I stole these two.

SPEAKER_01 49:40

Yeah, yeah. I'm always looking for deeper questions. Let me get deeper. Let me ask them something nobody else has asked them. Um, dead or alive? Probably Charles Darwin.

SPEAKER_02 49:49

That's an interesting one. Uh I the uh man who uh who uh initially uh brought forth the theories of evolution. Uh is is that mostly the discussion that you would have?

SPEAKER_01 50:02

Um, well, so I came across him when I was in uh high school, and I think you had asked earlier what was my favorite subject. I said art, but also history.

SPEAKER_04 50:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 50:13

And when I was thinking about going to college, I had two options in my head. I love animals and I love being outdoors, and I love snakes and lizards and frogs and all that kind of stuff, because we have a lot of them here in Arkansas. And when I was little, we lived out in the country and those were my friends. Like if you wanted somebody to play with, you went and found a snake or a frog.

SPEAKER_02 50:35

Um I played with caterpillars, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 50:39

Yeah, yeah. And um, so I thought about going to Delta State or LSU and getting a degree in herbetology. And then I wanted to work in the Everglades with like crocodiles and snakes and stuff like that. Um but that sounded just like a little bit more like actual work than art. Art sounded like a little more like fun work.

SPEAKER_02 51:02

Doing homework all the time.

SPEAKER_01 51:04

Yeah, so so we went with art, and then um, you know, that can all consumed my life. But um I just always thought Charles Darwin seemed like a very intelligent guy, and I would have loved to be a naturalist back at his time when naturalists were collecting specimens and discovering new things that the world really didn't know, or his world at least really didn't know at that time. I find that so cool. Um now a lot of things have been discovered. But like heavy rainforests, like in Borneo and stuff, there are still things that people are discovering. Now, mostly, you know, it's like bugs and tiny birds and things smaller, you know, most of the big things have been discovered. Or it'll be some plant that grows, you know, in the canopy somewhere that they finally got a ladder to find it or something. But I I just find that so so cool and so interesting. And then his theory of natural selection really I believe that. And uh this sounds a little harsh, but I think a little more natural selection needs to be happening in humans right now.

SPEAKER_02 52:20

Yeah, I I my my my empathy wears thin sometimes, and I I I can find myself agreeing with that uh sometimes on my bad days. I get you on that. Emma Ray Dunn, what is your biggest pet peeve?

SPEAKER_03 52:37

Oh, I don't really have one. Um really Yeah, you can't really make me mad.

SPEAKER_02 52:44

And and it's I mean this I you've awakened the little brother in me.

SPEAKER_01 52:48

Wanted the bad Well I I've I I mean that's a lot well my husband can make me mad, of course, but um I mean I mean that's so nicely, but I don't care enough about you to alter my moment to give it to you to make me mad, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 53:09

Oh, but it's perfect sense.

SPEAKER_01 53:11

And not you specifically, it's just you know, like I s like I said, my husband can make me mad because I love him, you know. So like general people I probably love you too, but you just you can't get me like that. Like that's madness is not one of the the places my mind likes to go. I don't like to be there, I don't like to dwell there, I don't like to hang out. So often I just don't go at all. I just remove myself from a situation if somebody makes me feel like I could be going that direction.

SPEAKER_02 53:39

I've gotten better about that in my recovery, especially. I've come to realize that not only does it not matter what people think about me, it is none of my business. So I tend to do my best to carry myself that way. And if I I don't, I still have the songwriting outlet to uh deal with that. Last question of the questionnaire, Amber Ray, what is the best advice that anyone has ever given you?

SPEAKER_01 54:10

You know, I think for anybody we could sit on that one forever because it might take me a second to remember all of the good advice I've been given. But I will say my producer, one of them here in campus, Jerry Williams, always says, Amber, it's music, business, business, business, business, business, business, business, business until you can't say the word business anymore. It is a business. I know it's creativity, I know it's stages, it's things you love, but it is a business. First and foremost, don't forget that. And um he is right, which I knew that before him, but he is definitely right on that. And as much as I want it to be just creativity and just fun and s writing songs and you know, waving and kissing babies and all the parts I like, it is a lot more business than artists sometimes think it is. And if you luck up and you your best friend steps up to be your manager, or you know, you get a record deal right off the bat, or you've got people in on your team that take care of a lot of the business. Kudos to you, keep those people. Um give them hugs every day because for those of us that are DIY all the way and doing everything, it is a lot of work and a lot of things that I don't enjoy. And in all honesty, some aspects of the business I just flat out kind of don't do because I hate that part of it, and I hate doing that, and so I don't do that, and my career probably would be further along if I did do some of those little things.

SPEAKER_02 55:54

Oh, me too.

SPEAKER_01 55:56

And I just I just have to hope that someday I'll meet somebody that does like those little things that will do those little things because I just can't bring myself to do everything I do and those because they suck up my energy.

SPEAKER_02 56:09

A lot of the reason, and it's and it's not the reason that I've duoed up with uh my friend Megan Pennington on the Moonshine Dragabonds project, but a lot of the reasons that we continue to work together is that there are some things that Megan is really good at doing and is really quick about doing that I would have uh have a little bit of trouble doing, and I think vice versa for the both of us. So it does work out. I mean, Scarfire Media is also now a record label as well. So we're so we're so we're kind of digging our uh our research and all that stuff under there. But I I completely agree, I've I've heard it said uh it's the music business, not music fun. Oh, it's fun. Don't get me wrong, it's the it's the most it's it's the most fun I've had standing up in my lifetime. But I will say that just if you my dad said put in the 50 hours. If you if you really want to do this, put in the 50 hours. So I I completely assign on that, and that is in fact great advice, and and something that I'm gonna be doing right after I get off of the Zoom call. But before we do that, this is the portion of the program that you should enjoy the most as a guest on this show, Amber Ray. It is time for shameless self-promotion. Uh, you've got uh several records out already. I have one to come in August. Where can we find it? Where can we find you? Plug your pluggables fire away.

SPEAKER_01 57:35

It will be at the beginning of August at some time, but you can go to, I think they only have a Facebook. You can go to Facebook for Mulberry Jam is the name of that band. My name is Amber Ray Dunn. That's A-M-B-E-R-R-A-E-D-U-N-N. And everything is streamlined. Amber Ray Dunn. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, anything you do. I don't have cool nicknames.

SPEAKER_02 57:58

Um give me time.

SPEAKER_01 58:00

Memphis Country Queen, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 58:02

I I actually Memphis Country Queen, yes.

SPEAKER_01 58:04

The the studio, that first studio I worked at, that's what the guys would call me. Um they'd call me Dolly Lynn also because a mixture of Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn.

SPEAKER_02 58:14

Um but uh I I wouldn't go that far. Give me a few, give me uh give me a couple weeks, I'll get I'll I'll have the uh the proper blend. But you are definitely uh genuine. Show me one. I like that.

SPEAKER_01 58:27

So I like that. Um but Amber A Dunn, I have a website, it's just amber ray dunn.com, and they can find everything. And um that if if if anybody plans on being in Memphis in August, um they're more than welcome to come to that release. It'll be on Bill Street at a Schwab, which is our oldest mercantile store and privately owned business, only one on Bill Street. Um so it's just this old little soda fountain, um, novelty shop, old hardwood floors. I mean, it smells amazing. It smells like 50s Memphis in this place. And um, that's gonna be a lot of fun. And then I have, I mean, you can find it all on my website, but I have the radio show um Memphis Connection and then the Memphis Songwriters Association's radio show that I host. And then Memphis Sounds with George Klein on WYPL, and that can be watched locally on channel 18, but if you're not local, it would probably be found through uh the Memphislibrary.org slash WYPL.

SPEAKER_02 59:36

Amber Ray Dunn, it has been a delight to finally get you on the program. You are certainly the genuine article, a credit to the community that you are currently doing music in. And I hope things uh get bigger and uh much more harder to manage for you in the coming months and years. Thank you for your time and thank you for joining me here today on the Craig Veltry interview.

SPEAKER_01 59:58

Yes, thank you so much for having me. This has been a wonderful pleasure, and um maybe I need to come up your way now. Maybe I need a plate up there.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:07

I I I would say that is a need for sure.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:09

Okay, we will definitely get that in the works.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:12

The Craig Veltry interview, where Craig Veltry interviews wonderful people, is a production of Scarfire Media, the voice of the independent artist. Written and edited by Craig Veltry. Your announcer is Megan Pennington. The opening theme Shout Up I Love You, written by Trenton Chandler and Craig Veltry, performed by Craig Veltry, produced by Jack Gabin. Inside the cabin is available now on all streaming. Support Moonshine Vagabonds by downloading direct from Bandcamp. Time out to update the event calendar because you must know where I am at all times. Saturday, May 2nd, Moonshine Vagabonds at 565 Live in Bellevue from 8 to 11. Then Thursday, May 7th, 31 Sports Bar in Bridgeville, opening for Redneck Romeo from 8 to 9 p.m. For full dates, including Pittsburgh, Middle Beach, and Atlanta, Georgia, visit my website, craigvelchree.bandzoogle.com. For booking info, including full band and this podcast, email me at craigveltryofficial at gmail.com. You can find the interview on Facebook by searching the Craig Veltry interview, YouTube at Craig Veltry Music, and you can find me on Instagram, or as my old roommate, the Tommy Thomas used to call it, Instagirl at Craig. On the Craig Veltry, round member of the Scarf Fire Beach Podcast.