Ghost Town Road | Country Artist Ryan Bodine Talks Newberry Springs & Route 66

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Hello everybody, this is Howard Fox, and I am back here for another episode in Newberry Springs, California. Today is uh May 2nd, and we are celebrating uh the 100th centennial anniversary of the Route 66, and we're here at the barn, and today is the organized activity called the Birthday Bash, and it's been a day full of activities and a lot of booths with some great food, some great trinkets, and some really wonderful uh music hacks up on two stages, and right now I have the pleasure of really introducing you to what I guess I would call a local legend. Uh he has a family with some very deep roots here in Newberry Springs, and it's a pleasure to introduce you to uh Ryan Bodine. He is a country western singer, songwriter, and really just want to chat with Ryan about a little bit about his history, his music, and why Newberry Springs is really a special place in his heart, and it really speaks to a lot of the work he does, the songs he has written, and really the love not only he has for the community, but the community has for him. So, Ryan, thank you. You just finished up your act. I know uh you're probably ready for a little downtime. I your your wife Natalie said you're an introvert. I get the introversion, it's like I want to go someplace quiet by myself and just uh decompress.

SPEAKER_00 1:37

But thank you again for joining us today. Uh thank you for having me on the podcast. I really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

So, Ryan, mention uh uh at the beginning during the introduction, your family has a lot of deep roots here. So tell us a little about those roots. What what is the significance?

SPEAKER_00 1:53

Yes, in uh Newberry Springs, the high desert of Southern California. Um I'm fourth generation out here, so my great-grandfather came out here, uh, started a farm right off of Route 66. That's why this is such a big event for us. We started a uh turkey farm in the early 40s, and then uh from there uh it became a larger farm and turned into a buffalo ranch years later, uh, which my grandfather took over, and they they built the ranch and the houses from scratch. These these guys built the bricks that made the houses, which I thought was amazing, and that that's a lot of what my songs are about as well, and that's what Ghost Town Road is about. And it's all my songs tell a story about really what happened out there in Newberry Springs, the life that I lived out there in Newberry. Um, yeah, fourth generation living out there, and you know, they moved away a couple of years, or they moved away many years ago, and I did as well. But uh this is always gonna be my home.

SPEAKER_01 3:03

I mean here in Newberry Springs, I mean, they I'm a little bit older than you are at your guess the age, but those fourth generation. What has been the changes that you have seen in this community that were that plus your family influence that have helped inform uh what your music is is providing to your your audience, the people that really love your work. What's what is it speaking for them?

SPEAKER_00 3:33

Really, it just has to do with the camaraderie of the community. I mean, you could see from this event here, people just rally together down here in this event. And I and that's what I love about this community. It's friends turn into family, really, down here. Honestly, my best friend that I've had since kindergarten lives on Ghost Town Road in New in Newberry still to this day. There really is a ghost town road. Yeah, it's on it's off of Calico. So Ghost Town Road, the song that's my title track, yeah, was written about my dad and my grandfather's ranch. Okay, and it's 20 long miles outside of Ghost Town Road. So Ghost Town Road is Newberry, 20 miles outside of Ghost Town Road is Newberry Springs. Okay. So, but I mean it could be Barstow as well. It could be it could be any small town, really. I kind of tried to make the song about the small town feel, basically. So the camaraderie that the community has, it's it it shaped my music really. When I moved away, um I wrote a song called Barstow to HB, and that's the song that really made me it. The producer found that song in Nashville, and everything spiraled from there. And that song was just about my hometown.

SPEAKER_01 4:49

Okay. How did you pick up music, pick up the guitar, and just is it was it just uh kind of a happenstance boredom? Did you're did you have influence in the music from your family?

SPEAKER_00 5:05

So my grandfather, um, at his Buffalo ranch in Newberry Springs used to host square dancing parties every weekend. And that's what happened for many, many years. Well, I was three, four, five years old, so I could barely remember it, but I do I've seen pictures and I remember bits and pieces of it, but they would have everybody in the community there at that in that little barn, and uh none of my grandparents or or parents really played any instruments, but they were very into music. They've always had a deep passion for music. Music has always been on, music has always been around me, but nobody ever played it. And I always thought like picking up guitar was gonna be an impossible thing to do. Like nobody, I I didn't have any friends that didn't, I didn't have any family that did it. But when I moved away, my dad passed away, and I picked up the guitar, and that was my coping mechanism is just sitting with the guitar, me and myself. I did that for 20 years. Okay. Just me and the guitar. I'm an i like a like Natalie said, I'm an introvert. So there there was no performing for me. It was just me and the guitar just making myself feel better. Yeah?

SPEAKER_01 6:26

When did you first pick up that guitar and start to not only write the music and start to humming along and put the words to it, but actually put it out there because as an introvert, and I get that, because I'm an introvert too, the being behind the mic is very comfortable. When did you kind of lean in a little bit and share it with family and friends and a greater audience?

SPEAKER_00 6:56

So I my wife Natalie, one of my favorite bands is of all time, and my dad's favorite band was Pink Floyd. Okay. And um there was a cover band, Opportunity, in Huntington Beach, where I lived, and my wife signed me up for it. I was totally against it. I didn't want anything to do with it, and she's like, Ryan, you're doing this. So I did that first show. I hid behind my guitar pretty much. I was the guitar player, I was the lead guitar player, and then um it just happened one day our main singer got sick, and I had to step up to the plate and be the main singer. So I sang, Wish You Were Here, and several other pink white songs. And from there on, the band said, You're our new singer. Like, well, we had no clue. So that's kind of where it started from there. I wrote a song eight years ago, like I said, called Bar Soda HB. I've put it away in a drawer, didn't think anything of it. And then um, my buddy that I was just playing locally with at that band said, Hey, let's start doing some country covers. You're like, you have a really good country voice from the Pink Floyd thing. Let's do some country covers. So we started playing in Orange County, doing some country covers, and I just did at a practice one day at a get together of a couple guys. I pulled out that song, Barsota HB, and and started playing it for them. And their mouths just dropped. They're like, you have something special here. Okay. So that's pretty much where it came. So we we as a band came together and I made the band a video of this song so that they could learn it, so that they could learn the bass parts, the lead parts, and do it as a band. It just so happens that that video that I made of that song made up made its way all the way to a producer in Nashville, Tennessee, uh Kurt Rile from Clarksville Creative Sound. And he called me up and said, Hey, you got something here? And uh, do you have any more stuff? I didn't. That was the only song I'd ever written. I had ideas in my head, this, that, and the other, but never written any more songs. And so I said, No, but I can let me try. I'll I'll I'll see what I can do. So a couple days later, I just had another song in my head. I put it together and sent it to him. He's like, Man, this is his his quote was this is country, your country, bro. And uh he's like, You need to get down here, write me some more songs, and we're gonna do an album. And so I did. It was it was a really weird experience where I would wake up every uh two or three days, and there just would be a song in the middle of the night in my head.

SPEAKER_01 9:41

So it's been it's kind of like a recipe a stew, a soup, just sitting on the stove, just cooking and just yeah, and and all of a sudden it's be it's ready.

SPEAKER_00 9:51

Yeah. And in three weeks, I had 11 songs, actually, nine songs that I had wrote, and I took two songs that were Kurt's, the producer's songs that I did for him as well. But yeah, I had nine songs that I had written, and every one that I sent to the producer is like, yeah, this we're putting this one on. And uh actually, one of the songs on my album is called My Dearest Melody, and it's it talks about exactly that like the songs just coming into in the middle of the night. And if you don't wake up, if you don't write them down, they're gonna flee you and they're gonna be gone the next day. So that's what I ended up doing, and that's how the album came together. We picked up, we flew me and my family to Nashville. I played with some amazing st studio musicians, uh, some studio mus musicians that are playing with uh the cream of the crop country musicians right now. So they made my album absolutely amazing. Yeah, and that's uh after three or four days of recording, uh I got signed to the label, and it's just been non-stop since then. The rest, as I say, is history. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

How do you see your journey in a year from now? Uh are you able to look that far, or is it right now just one being in the moment, being a little bit more?

SPEAKER_00 11:14

I've been asked that question many times, and it's my goal in this was never to be big, never to make it rich, never to be popular. It was to have people hear my music. That's it. To honor my family. And uh so I think I'm right where I need to be right now. A year from now, I don't know. I mean, okay, it's it's going it's going pretty crazy. Uh my producer called me a couple of days ago, and uh, like I said, my album just dropped yesterday, and he said, Ryan, you're gonna win the album of the year this year at the Grand Old Opry.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

Your album just dropped, it's your birthday today.

SPEAKER_00 11:50

Yeah, dropped yesterday.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

Oh my god. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 11:53

So you And that wasn't planned either. Like this is all surreal, you know, like and you're at the birthday bash today in Newberry Springs. Yeah, at the biggest event probably Newberry has ever seen. I've never seen this many people here. I was driving my way up and I was in tears. Like it was this event is stunning. I mean, I grew up here. There's I can't believe how many people showed up for this event, and this is what I love about this community. It's insane.

SPEAKER_01 12:20

I noticed even as we were walking from the stage trying to find a place to have this interview. I mean, everybody knew you or you knew them, and it was hey and I I and I I love that. I I discovered that when I was starting to do the interviews here, is that everybody is so nice and getting and they're giving and sharing. Yes. And there's so many great stories here, and it's it's wonderful to have someone like yourself whose talent. I I had a coaching mentor once said it's how dare you not give your talent out to the world. And it sounds like you're you are doing that and wonderful songs. And as far as the album Ghost Town Road, and you mentioned the nine songs you wrote, and a couple of them are spoke to your family, the family journey. Can you talk a little bit about the uh title, those titles again, a little bit about the significance of the ones that mean very much. I mean, they all mean a lot to your heart, but Ghost Town Road.

SPEAKER_00 13:21

Well, like I said, Barstow to HB is where it all started. That first song that got me right out of my introvert um into this, what's happening right now. And then from there, it's it's definitely Ghost Town Road. Ghost Town Road is the song about Newberry Springs, the song about growing up further out in the middle of nowhere, but somewhere to us. That's kind of what the song is exactly about. Um, where friends turn to family. So that song is why my title track is Ghost Town Road. Um, some of my other songs have a song called Grey Wolf, which is about um a gray wolf trailer that my buddy bought, and I just wrote a song about it. I turned it into a love song basically for him and his wife. And it's I I write songs that are about one thing, but they're really about something else. So it's a story about a song about a gray wolf, but it's really a love story. It's a love song. One of my best or my favorite, probably my favorite song on the album is a song called Miss Missing You. And it's a song about my dad's situation passing on 20 plus years ago, or almost 20 years ago now, and uh the feeling that you get once you're already you've somewhat healed, and that hurts somewhat as well. You you miss missing that person. So that one I can't play that one uh live very often. I can't get through it. That's probably one of my favorites on the album. We have Wish Haven't Had a Phone. I've been asked today and yesterday by even several people. They want me to perform Wish Haven't Had a Phone at uh a memorial for their significant other. That's incredible to me, you know. Like, could I do it? I'm I don't know, but uh it's an incredible feeling. So those those all are all just amazing songs. I mean, I can go on and on all about the great songs, but I would say Ghost Town Road, Barso to HB, Miss Missing You, Haven't Had a Phone. Those are Grey Wolf are probably my top songs right now to me. Excellent.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

Now I noticed uh during the uh the set that you were just playing, you have a fans uh have a very lengthy age range. So from the 60s, 70s down to a young little guy that I I I uh understand knows almost every word in your songs.

SPEAKER_00 15:41

Yeah, that's incredible to me. It's it's surreal that I I'd met a guy that used to be my dad's neighbor, my neighbor too, when I was two or three, four years old. And I remember him. He was my dad's best friend growing up, and uh, he was here just to support me today. I haven't seen him since I was four. Wow, and uh he came here to support me. He's like, You remember my name? I was like, I absolutely remember you. I was just a little kid, but he was an Apps Views, a next door neighbor, and so that's why I'm it's a lot of the people that are from the area that know my dad, but more so know my uncle, my grandfather, my great-grandfather, and the people just from this area. And that's they just really rally around me. They want to see somebody from this area make it.

SPEAKER_01 16:32

You know what I love too is you are now able to not only take your history here, your family's history, the community, but now share that with the rest of the world because that's the beauty of music. It's it's all it can go anywhere, anything, and uh now you're able to do that and the impact that you're having on all these age ranges, that's beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 16:55

And the areas as well, not only the age ranges, but I've noticed like like I said, Ghost Town Road was written about Newberry Springs, but I have people from Ireland all over the world, tiny little towns all over the world saying, I love this song. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 17:09

Now I've got to ask, is your uh family's home? Is it still there in the home?

SPEAKER_00 17:14

Yes, it is. So what happened is my grandfather got sick, um, and we had to sell eventually. I hate all these country songs that talk about don't sell, I'm not gonna sell. Well, what if you have to sell? You know what I mean? Uh we didn't want to sell. It was a situation we were tired, our hands were tied, we had to sell. And uh my grandfather ended up passing away. It was too much work for my uncle. My dad was in the medical profession at that point in time, so he wasn't, it just was something that we had to let go. Uh, but it is still there. And I went back there about six months ago. I met a lady here at my last barn um show that lives at the ranch that I grew up on. Wow. And so she got me in touch with the new owner, which is a doctor, uh really nice guy. And I took me and my me and my wife went down there and he took us on uh a ride through the the farm that I haven't seen in over 20 years. Oh, that's amazing. Yeah, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 18:15

I was just thinking when I first came to Newberry Springs to do the episodes, I met everybody, Carla Claus, who is the kind of the the force of nature to help, and Renee Kaminsky, who owns the both are a part of the Chamber of Commerce. Renee owns the barn. But the the the history of the Baghdad Cafe, I had heard of it, I knew there was a movie, and here I am at the cafe. Unfortunately, a couple of months too late, it would have been nice to uh to to meet the owner. But what what I learned about it is buses from France and from Germany and uh Japan, I mean busloads of those those folks who are coming overseas making a pilgrimage to the Baghdad Cafe. And so I can almost see, in addition to the Baghdad Cafe now in the barn, they're gonna make a pilgrimage uh to Ryan uh Bodine's home. How about that? Yeah, that's incredible.

SPEAKER_00 19:14

Yeah, honestly, the bar or the the Baghdad Cafe was my bus stop growing up, um which is uh pretty crazy, but I lived right across the street from it, um, off of what they called the old dump road at the time, because uh a couple miles back behind my house was the dump there. Uh it eventually that house turned into a recycling, a car recycling center years later. But yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:41

That's great. That's great. Listen, Ryan, I I really appreciate you taking the time to to interview uh for the Outdoor Adventure Series podcast and the series we've produced with uh the Newberry Springs Chamber of Commerce and the community. If our listeners on the podcast want to learn more about your work, pick uh where do we go to pick up uh pick up that album and learn more about you and what's inspiring you?

SPEAKER_00 20:06

Ryanbodeen.com, www.rianbodeen.com uh is my website with all my music on my website. I'm also on all streaming platforms: Apple, Spotify, Amazon, um, YouTube. So I'm on everything right now. I'm working on getting, uh as you see, I have some vinyl records that have been cut and I'm selling them at shows and everything. I haven't quite got distribution set up for that yet, but I'm working on it. It's kind of one step at a time as an indie artist when you're doing kind of everything yourself. I am signed to a label, but it's an indie label where you kind of got to do everything yourself. And I'm all the way in California. My label's all the way in uh in Nashville, so it's it's kind of difficult where they they're good at uh recording, but I have to do all my uh hosting, all my own advertisements. I put the vinyl record together myself. So it's uh it's hard work. It's hard work, yeah. It's a lot into it, but I it's it was well worth it. I'm really happy with uh how everything turned out, and this album is better than I could ever imagine. Fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 21:09

Listen, Ryan, thank you again for taking the time today. Uh, you're gonna be up on the stage again at eight o'clock tonight. So, two sets here, folks, here in Newberry Springs. Unfortunately, by the time you all uh listen to this episode, Ryan will be somewhere else performing and just having the time and living his best life and with his wife Natalie and the family and all the great friends that are supportive of his uh great work. Now, listen, we're gonna provide uh uh all the backlinks uh to Ryan's social sites uh and platforms up on our show notes. The episode will be up on my uh website, outdooradventure series.com. We're also on LinkedIn and Facebook, Outdoor Adventure Series. The YouTube of this uh video is gonna be comprised of a slideshow of photos taken here uh during the birthday bash. I did Take a couple shots of Ryan while he was up on stage. That's how I accidentally bumped into uh his wife Natalie. But uh really just uh wishing Ryan nothing but the the very best. And of course, folks, you can listen to this podcast wherever you get you get your episodes from. In fact, when I go home back to Las Vegas tomorrow, I'm gonna be playing uh Ghost Town Road on Spotify. So uh I'm looking forward to that. So, folks, wherever you are, whatever you're doing, go out there, have a fantastic day, and we look forward to having you join us on a future episode of the Outdoor Adventure Series Podcast. Take care now.