Dishin' with Musicians

Mike Semrad, owner of Red Rebel Media and front man of The Bottle Tops and The Riverhawks, hosts 'Dishin' with Musicians' where he engages a wide range of musical guests, writers, producers, and artists in one-on-one interviews exploring their creative inspirations, failures, pandemic cooking, successes and failures, and everything in between.This is associated with a the 501c3 non-profit, The Nebraska Performing Arts Hall of Fame. So, for more quality content like this and more, we ask for a small donation of anything you can comfortably do. If not, sit back and enjoy just the same. Thank you for listening! Please donate to the following:Paypal: @NeHOF or info@NebraskaPerformingArts.comVenmo: @NebraskaArts

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Dishin' with Musicians

DISHIN' WITH MUSICIANS: EPISODE 10 - COLE REEVES

February 07, 2022 • Mike Semrad • Season 2 • Episode 10

Hello Friends!

Today's Dishin' with Musicians guest is the great Cole Reeves! He sits down with Mike Semrad to chat about the history of Honky Tonk in both of their lives.

Hailed as the Butch and Sundance of Country Music, whose songs sound like they've come straight off a vintage Wurlitzer Jukebox. The Reeves Brothers (Matt and Cole) grew up in the small town of Pahrump, NV. Their dad, Jack Reeves, played 5 nights a week at a Honky-Tonk named 'The Stagestop", where the brothers got their start, in music. With their Dad being a staple of the Los Angeles Country Music scene, growing up, the boys always had people like Dick Dale, Red Simpson, and Gib Guilbeau around teaching them the music, and showing them the ropes!

After years of doing their own solo careers, in 2013, with help from their then manager Steven Martinez, both Matt and Cole decided to end their solo projects, and start the family band. In 2016, Matt and Cole released their first album, "Home Sweet Honky-Tonk". The album recieved great reviews, with The Las Vegas Review Journal saying "It’s an album meant to be played on a jukebox also stocked with the likes of Charlie Rich, David Allan Coe and Merle Haggard, pretty much every one of its 10 songs about women and boozin’, the former catalyzing much of the latter. The record is deeply rooted in ’70s outlaw country, with pedal steel-belted ballads and honky-tonk hell-raisers about practically taking up residence at the local watering hole, the Reeves brothers’ voices as smooth as top-shelf bourbon."

In 2018, after being nominated, The Reeves Brothers took home the Ameripolitan Award for "Honky-Tonk Group Of The Year". A huge accomplishment, that had previously been won by The Derailers and Gary P. Nunn! It was at this time that the brothers became acquainted with multi-talented musician Kevin Skrla, owner of Wolfe Island Recording Company. He invited the boys in the band to come to Dayton, TX, "to record some real Honky-Tonk music!", and recording Honky-Tonk music is exactly what they did! Any down time the band had, was spent on "The Island", as they call it! After a year and a half, in the studio, the album "The Last Honky-Tonk" would be finished. With 12 songs on the record, 9 originals and 3 covers, this is the best Reeves Brothers album to date. The Reeves Brothers' Merle Haggard meets Alabama sound dominates the album, and will have you craving a shot of Jack Daniels with a cold Budweiser!

Let's get to Honky Tonkin, FOLKS!!!

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