I mean, what was, what was your, uh, uh, your upbringing musically down there in Texas mostly?

Yeah, it was definitely early on.

You know, I got a mandolin when I was nine and started going to a weekly Friday night bluegrass jam in Wimberley, my little town.

Yeah, and that was totally my really, you know, I mean, I had sung all my whole life pretty much leading up to that, but that was really my way in of just like totally falling in love with the mandolin and falling in love with singing.

Yeah.

These, these folks at the bluegrass jam were just so great and just kind of welcomed me in, even though I was only nine or 10.

Yeah.

Yeah,

I was like, okay, well, now I have to go home and get good enough to jam with Chris Thiele.

I still love listening to albums.

I always have, and when I get into something, I'm obsessive about it.

Listening to other writers is really kind of my number one way of studying, and I really feel like that work is invaluable.

We

don't have to feel like dirt anymore Though love's not earned Baby, it's our turn Waking up with this feeling Like everyone's figured it out except me In my head, in my stories Heart so heavy I forget to breathe Determining the future Like

Yeah, you sound great.

I didn't say we wouldn't hurt anymore, that's how you learn, you just get burned.

Yeah.

And it's like, you know, just from the time that you're a little baby, he's just sort of, like I, like I said, in the air.

His music is just around, and you kind of can't avoid it.

And but I, I think, you know, especially once I got into my early teens and I was seeking out music more on my own, I, I think I still assumed, "Oh, this is just a Texas thing," you know? And, and it wasn't until I started going to camps, like, traveling for my music and kind of going to California and going to Colorado and then, you know, eventually going to school in Boston for college, and people are still talking about Willie, and having this realization of like, "Oh," [laughs] "it's not just-

[laughs]

Like, he, he's, he's universally beloved, you know? And I think that was a real wake-up call for me.

And, you know, similar to Aoife saying that her dad, you know, pointed out a lot of his music, like, m- my dad, I have very vivid memories of him, um, playing Willie records for me when I was a kid, Red Headed Stranger, and, and I just have a...

Especially, yeah, in my early teens when I was really just starting to, you know, kind of figuring out that music was what I wanted to do, I feel like Willie was someone that my dad would bring up a lot as, "This is the example of how you be yourself."