The Hoedown Lowdown

INTERVIEW: Tyler Braden talks being a first responder, his rise to country fame and Scotrail trains..?

Hey y’all, it’s me, Chloe.

This week we were lucky enough to attend night two of the Brothers Osborne tour with the incredible powerhouse vocalist that is Tyler Braden opening the show.

First up let’s talk about his set, because wow.

I can say that I have genuinely been a fan of Tyler Braden since 2017 when his debut single Little Red Wine was released, so finally seeing him live was a very exciting moment for me. It’s funny because I can remember the exact moment I found his music. I was sitting on the 3rd floor of the wonderful library at Glasgow Caledonian University, desperately googling ‘neoliberalism for dummies’ – what this had to do with event management, I have no idea, and my desperate google searches yielded absolutely bloody nothing. What I used to do with my Spotify is click on the “fans also like” bit at the bottom of each artists profile and would then listen to the songs of those artists, hence my early discovery of Tyler.

I have to say, I was a little sad that he was just the support act and not headlining as there were soooo many songs of his that I was desperate to hear live, but we were only graced with a 30 minute set. There were a good few surprises in his setlist though and it was absolutely incredible – I think I may even have to say he is in my top list of live performances…

Below is his setlist for Glasgow 22/01/25:

Me or the Dawn
More Than a Prayer
Call Me First (opened with a snippet of The Fray How To Save A Life)
Thank Me For That / Little Red Wine
500 Miles (The Proclaimers cover)
Devil in Disguise (Elvis cover)
Long Enough (Unreleased)
Devil You Know

They did tell me before the show that I would be surprised by some of the songs, however, I was definitely not expecting How To Save A Life, which is my absolute favourite song ever. He sang a chorus of this before going into his song Call Me First where Tyler took inspiration from The Fray when writing.

Overall, for his performance I give a solid 10/10. The only negative I have to say regarding it; it was nowhere near long enough! Get back to Scotland for a headline tour asap.

We caught up with him on the tour bus before his set and here is what he had to say:

So how has your time in Glasgow been so far? This is your second time here isn’t it?

Yeah well last time we were here, we were here for like a day and a half. We got to walk around a little bit and check out the Buchanan shopping area. But this time we’ve been here, this is our fourth day now so we got time to travel around a little bit, we went over to Edinburgh and did the tourist thing, we walked about 8-10 miles worth of just checking sights over there. Glasgow has been amazing as well, been some good food and just hanging out and trying to rest a little bit to see the town. It’s been good.

Have you checked out any of the bars whilst here?

I haven’t, its not really my scene! I know some of the guys have been out to a couple of the pubs and checked them out. I’m very much a homebody, I don’t drink, I never have – not that that really matters to the going out, I’ll still go out and hang out

You used to be a firefighter before your music career, so when you were a first responder did you ever expect that your life would take a complete u-turn and you’d be doing this?

Oooh well, I was about four years into the fire service when I thought about wanting to do this as a career, and kind of finally seeing it as something to possibly pursue – the fire service enabled me to be able to move to Tennessee, I was in Alabama state so I moved to Tennessee and got a firefighting job just south of Nashville which helped me get a little closer and I started networking more. I was there about three years and got my first publishing deal and was able to financially leave the fire service. I never was sure that it was a possibility but like I said about half way through there I kind of started trying a little bit more.

How was it balancing both of them to start with before you were able to leave?

It really was not bad at all! We had a great schedule for it in the fire service – I was two days on then I’d be off for four days. I’d go around and play some shows, go to meetings and have some writes and things, working around my schedule. When things got a little bit bigger to where I couldn’t really adjust my schedule for them, some of the guys would work for me and cover my shifts and I would do the same in return to those guys. That helped it make it even more possible and it worked out pretty well for me.

I was about to say something that’s probably so cringey, but it sounds like a proper ‘brotherhood’.

*Laughing* Well yeah, that is why we started to play that song from the beginning so.

Tell us a bit about your journey into country music, I know you kind of covered part of that already.

I was blessed to have the type of schedule to make money to pay my bills and still have time to pursue this industry. I was blessed to have some friends around me that already worked in it. It’s a weird kind of connection actually – I was playing softball, intramural softball and a guy on my team when I put out my first song Little Red Wine, he had such a big entrepreneurial spirit and sent me a message on Facebook – we only knew each other from the softball field and he was like ‘Hey man lets work together’. I didn’t really know what that meant but I was like ‘yeah sure!’ And he then sent my song to a manager that he knew and connected us through email and that’s been my management ever since! That little small connection is what started it all – it’s wild.

Little Red Wine

Your first single Little Red Wine came out in 2017, a good 7/8 years ago, how do you feel that your sound has progressed since then?

Oh wow, it has progressed, but it’s also just changed. Not all of it has been progression, we have kind of moved around laterally and just figuring things out takes a lot of time at the beginning. Some people are blessed to just know from the get go, but I am very excited that because of that, we discovered the kind of direction I wanted to go where I was able to put together a project of songs. I’ve been putting a lot of music out recently and we’ve got a lot of stuff planned for this year that are kind of moving in a new direction. The writing that I’ve done I feel has been very true to myself so I am very excited!

When can we expect an album? We keep getting little EPs and teasers, but when do we get the album?

*Laughing* We’re not 100% sure. We’ve got some ideas, nothing that we can say officially yet.

You were saying a little earlier about hopefully coming back within the next year or so…

I hope so! That’s definitely the plan and that’s always the hope, it gets more and more of a real possibility. With this tour its helping us out a lot and we came to C2C and hope to come back to that as well. With all of that in the works its kind of helped us be able to have more connections and build a headline tour, which is something I hope happens sooner rather than later.

*Here we ended up just having a wee chat about when he did C2C – make sure to head over to the YouTube channel to see this part too!*

You’re originally from a really small town in Alabama aren’t you? What was it like leaving there and heading to Nashville?

It was definitely different when you pull up and you can see the whole city as you’re coming in. It’s still the same to this day, pulling up and you can see the skyline, kind of like I can’t believe we live here cause you spend a long time in a small town. Nashville music industry feels like a small town in itself so you get the same little things. You get there and the convenience of not being super far away from things has spoiled me, because now a lot of drives feel longer. I used to drive 30-40 minutes for work all the time and thought nothing of it, and now if I drive 30-40 minutes it’s because the traffic made it that long.

*Here we have an interesting chat about Scotrail trains, again head over to YouTube to see this too!*

What song of yours means the most to you?

Oh wow. I mean they all mean a lot in different ways, Devil You Know has meant a lot of growth for us so that song definitely means a lot, it means a lot hearing people sing it back. Call Me First, a song that we just put out, emotionally means a lot, and its cool to see connections with that and people understand the meaning and carrying it in a way that I hoped it would be spread and carried. That’s a really tough question, a lot of them are big in their own way.

What one is the most fun to perform?

Ooh. I really like doing More Than a Prayer, we opened the set a lot last year with More Than a Prayer and it’s a really fun song to perform live. Devil You Know is fun as well because it seems the most people know that song so that’s a fun one live. We don’t get to do this one much because of the shorter set, but I love when we can break down and do some acoustic songs as well during our headlining set, so that tends to be one of my favourite parts of the show. I like a lot of it!

What song would you say is kind of one of the ones that unexpectedly gets the best reaction?

That’s actually really tough! It is cool to see who knows which songs when you put out an EP, so we’re excited to put out an album soon, and when we can, see which song people gravitate to the most, but so far, last year we did a song called She Don’t Care at a lot of shows and a lot of people know that one! Some of them are so much of a surprise that we didn’t play them and we’d get asked a lot to play them.

Like Leave Me Alone!

*Laughing* Yeah, we play Leave Me Alone in our longer sets! But the 30 minutes (for tonight’s set) you’re definitely going to leave out a lot of stuff.

Over and out,

Chloe x

What Is Going On?

Hey y’all, it’s me, Chloe.

I know, it’s been forever. I announced the Hoedown Lowdown and then went into complete radio silence (pun intended).

So, let me explain what has been going on, and where the Hoedown Lowdown is going from here, as things are having to take a slightly different direction (again). When I announced the Hoedown Lowdown back in August, I think I got a bit too excited regarding it and didn’t actually do the right amount of research, oops.

As it turns out, the ‘podcast’ part of the Hoedown Lowdown is unfortunately not going to be possible in the way that I had initially planned, however, don’t panic as I have another idea lol. I have instead launched a YouTube channel where you will be able to find interviews with artists and I will also be trying to keep on top of blog posts, instead of posting two and then dipping🫣

I have a couple of old interviews that I will upload to the channel over the next couple of weeks – once I can edit them down and make them flow smoother.

In other exciting news – I will be interviewing Tyler Braden at his upcoming show in Glasgow on January 22nd, where he will be supporting Brothers Osborne at the O2 Academy! They are here for two shows, the 21st and 22nd, and tickets are still available here if you have not got them yet!

Stay tuned to the Facebook page, Instagram and TikTok for updates and interview clips.

Thank y’all so much for your patience with me lol, I promise to do better.

Over and out,

Chloe x

Morgan Wallen: One Night At A Time GLASGOW🤠🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Hey y’all, it’s me, Chloe.

Hope y’all have had a lovely week! I certainly have. Last week for me was filled with country music which, I can’t lie, is a pretty damn good week. It started with Tenille Arts on Wednesday night at my absolute favourite live music venue, Saint Lukes (keep an eye out on here and my socials for the interview with Tenille) followed by Morgan Wallen at the OVO Hydro on the Thursday night.

I know I’m a week late in posting this, but Morgan Wallen’s highly anticipated Scotland debut was, personally, nothing short of incredible. While he was around 20 minutes late to the stage, he still sang a whopping 22 songs, including songs from his debut album, the Dangerous album, and of course his latest album, he also teased fans with the eagerly awaited and unreleased Love Somebody; which I have not been able to get out of my head at allll. Just release the song already! I will list the setlist at the very end too, hopefully I haven’t forgotten any.

We’ll start with ticket pricing, as there was a lot of controversy around this. For those who don’t know, there’s a thing called dynamic pricing, which is a pricing strategy in which the cost price of a certain product surges due to the demand. Which is particularly relevant in ticket sales, especially with ticketmaster, as there will evidently be a demand for 90% of all event tickets when they go on sale. Don’t get me started on the horror show that was Oasis general sale. For this gig in particular, I personally witnessed standing tickets starting at around £106.00 and then increasing to £265.00 thanks to dynamic pricing. Tickets for Morgan Wallen were relatively expensive anyway, with the standing tickets being the cheapest at the face value cost of £106.00. I personally went for seated tickets and these were £146.00 each, I think that is the most I have ever spent on a concert, apart from Country to Country, but that’s weekend passes. Let’s not even go into the VIP package costs because I saw some of these going for over £300.00 each! Although, VIP ticket holders did get an exclusive MW orange hat which I would have definitely purchased had this been regular merch. I’m sure they got some other bits and bobs included but I was desperate for that hat! The venue also ended up actually releasing some more standing tickets on the day of, a couple of hours before doors opened, which is usually very unlikely. I have seen speculation from others that this could be related to the costly dynamic pricing resulting in the show not being a sell out, despite there being no tickets available up until the actual day. Unfortunately, the pricing meant the gig was not accessible to everyone, I am very lucky to be able to afford the luxury of going to concerts, however, I feel a lot of artists should adopt the “Luke Combs Approach” (as I am now officially naming it) where he always ensures that there are tickets accessible to all by having tickets start at $25 for most shows, regardless of the venue or demand. As I said, I am very fortunate to have been able to attend, and pricing aside, I truly do think it was worth it.

While his American tour had some incredibly famous features during his Broadway Girls walkout, and there was a lot of hope and speculation about Morgan potentially bringing out the likes of Lewis Capaldi or Paolo Nutini for his Glasgow walkout, however, unfortunately for us, there were no additions to this. Compared to his walkout at other concerts, Glasgow also felt a little, shall we say unenthusiastic? However, the Dublin one looked much worse. Is he maybe just bored of doing the same thing despite it being one of the most iconic moments to fans? Was it the jet lag? We’ll let him off as the rest of the show was brilliant.

Country music has now become an incredibly popularised genre and a lot more people are listening to it these days. This was quite apparent at the Morgan Wallen show, and unfortunately, not for particularly good reasons. You would always be able to go to a country music gig and make friends, know you’re safe, and be able to enjoy the music within the community that is fans of country music. However, I witnessed multiple people fighting during the concert, notably during what is arguably one of the most emotional songs on the setlist – Cover Me Up, so not exactly a ‘get riled up’ song, especially when the whole crowd has their lights in the air… I also witnessed many of the Hydro’s plastic cups being thrown into the crowd and visibly hitting fans on the head. For those unfamiliar, the hydro’s new plastic cups are reusable and pretty hefty. I certainly would not be happy to be hit off the head by one of them. Another thing I happened to witness in the bathrooms, were some extremely drunk and passed out young girls with their smuggled in drugs hanging out of their bags. I felt like I was at TRNSMT instead of one of the biggest country gigs for Scotland this year. Thankfully, it did not stop me from having a great night, however, I know it definitely stopped some, and to me, that is not okay and something that is unfortunately becoming increasingly more apparent at country gigs.

Morgan’s ‘I Had Some Help’ duet with Post Malone broke multiple records in the music industry, making history upon the release as the first single to debut #1 on the Billboard Hot Country charts as well as the Billboard Hot 100. So it comes as no surprise that the crowd went absolutely wild for this one. Unfortunately, whilst many rumours spread and speculation grew that Post Malone would be joining him on stage in Glasgow for this one, they were evidently untrue. I have to say I am not sure where these rumours even began, probably by someone as a harmless prank, however it was a rumour that I’m sure broke many fans hearts. Although, in the nicest possible way, y’all must be pretty gullible if you believed it. Post Malone or not, Morgan had the crowd hooked and partying from the first note.

My personal favourite song that was on the setlist that we had seen beforehand was Sand In My Boots, and I was almost convinced he had cut it from the Glasgow show as he sang it much later in the setlist than previous shows. Alas, I saw the piano being dragged out and I physically grabbed my fiancées leg like “this is it, he’s doing it, it’s really happening”. I also may or may not have cried during it, and I very rarely cry at concerts, lil wimp over here. BUT I noticed multiple other people around me in tears, so thankfully I was not alone in my wimpyness (is that a word? Who cares it is now.)

One final comment before I give y’all the setlist and head on outta here cause damn this ramble do be long. While I stated earlier that Morgan was around 20 minutes late to the stage, after he had finished performing, and the house lights came on, and the crowds started to head on home, this man stood on that stage for around 30 minutes signing the merch of the lucky fans down the very front. It was very sweet and humble of him, as we all know, he wouldn’t be anywhere without the fans. One thing I will note though, if he signals to you to throw something for him to sign, perfect, throw away, if he does not, please don’t just chuck stuff at him, it will not get signed and he will ignore you. As he should. I saw a video the other day of someone at another show literally throwing their phone off of him whilst he was performing, safe to say that phone got launched across the stage, and I absolutely do not blame him. He’s human after all, just another one of us.

Even managed to snag a pic with him at the end👀🤣

Setlist:

Broadway Girls (walkout song)
Whiskey Whiskey (hype song)
Ain’t That Some
I Wrote The Book
One Thing At A Time
Everything I Love
You Proof
7 Summers
I Had Some Help
Cover Me Up
Lies Lies Lies
Where I Find God (with Larry Fleet)
Sand In My Boots
Heartless
Cowgirls
Chasin’ You
Love Somebody (unreleased)
Wasted On You
This Bar
More Than My Hometown
Whiskey Glasses

ENCORE:

Thinkin’ Bout Me
Last Night
The Way I Talk

Over and out,

Chloe x

Introducing Me… (Nick Jonas Cover)

Hey y’all, it’s me, Chloe.

I too am good at wasting time, I am not lyrically creative enough to personally think lyrics need to rhyme, and I most certainly am not trying to grow a moustache. However, here is my version of Introducing Me:

I thought now would be a good time to introduce myself and let y’all get to know me. My name is Chloe, but I’m sure you knew that already, at the time of writing this I am 26 years old and living in Glasgow, Scotland, however, this is not where I am from.

I am originally from a small town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, called Turriff. However, I moved to Glasgow for uni in 2017 and I’m still here loving and living my life. I love my wee town but there really isn’t anything too special about it. We sort of worship a cow, so that’s pretty cool I guess? That’s a whole story for another time, but all you need to know is we have a cow statue in the town centre, fondly referred to by the locals as the ‘Turra Coo’. Also occasionally how I am fondly referred to in Glasgow, but let’s hope that doesn’t catch on to everyone.

Here’s me and the infamous Turra Coo (I’m on the left…)

The whole point in this blog is country music so let’s get into how I, a girl from a tiny town in Scotland, got into what is now one of the most popular music genres in the world. However, as I am sure a lot of you are aware, this was not always the case. I find it funny thinking back because it was one of those things that you would get made fun of when asked what your favourite type of music was and get called a country bumpkin or something like that. I fully embrace the country bumpkin term with pride now, I shall add. Funnily enough, I used to say that country music was my ‘guilty pleasure’ even though not a single part of me felt guilty about it.

I have quite a unique story on how I got into country music, my last name is Allan, my dad’s name is Gary. I know. My dad discovered this singer called ‘Gary Allan’ and thought that it was cool they had the same name, so started listening to him. This was when I was around one years old, and little baby Chloe was convinced, for a lot longer than I would like to admit, that the Gary Allan I was listening to, was my dad. Unfortunately, it obviously was not. But by the time I realised, I was already deep into my love of country. Another artist that began my love of country, was Hootie and the Blowfish. I think my love for these guys started when I was around two years old. I’d sit in the back of the car, swinging my legs and shouting at my mum and dad to play ‘Billy and the Goldfish’ and then would attempt to sing along in the little vocabulary my two year old self had.

Country music has always been in my family though, before the Gary Allan and Hootie and the Blowfish era, with my parents and grandparents listening to it. My, unfortunately late, Granda used to love the likes of Conway Twitty, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams and Sydney Devine, I actually have some of his old records in my collection.

In 2020, I launched the first country music show on a community radio station in Glasgow area – the Pulse Country Show. I was terrified on my first show as it was something that I completely and accidentally fell into, rather than something I had been looking to do. However, I absolutely loved it. This was something I did weekly up until December 2023, when unfortunately, the council needed to take our building back and we were left without a home, and lets just say, it is almost impossible to relocate a community radio station to new premises. My granda was also 100% my biggest fan when it came to everything I did, but especially my radio show. He tuned in every single week without fail and we’d have a good 45 minute phone call about everything and nothing before the show started each week. When he passed I almost gave up on the show completely and when the radio sadly came to an end, I have to say I was in two minds about even going near a microphone again, due to having lost my granda and number one fan. Although, I knew he’d be wherever he is moaning at me for quitting, so I had a think about my next steps and where I was going to go with it.

That is where the Hoedown Lowdown comes in! I’ll be honest, I did think about going into radio again, and was actually approached by some other community radio stations, however, with the plans I had for the show, and some other reasons too, I felt that starting this blog and a podcast to go with it was the best direction to go in for the time being. So here’s hoping I’m right!

So, what can you expect from the Hoedown Lowdown? A whole lot of fun for starters, I have a backlog of some wild interviews with some artists (interviews not fit for radio lol) that I plan on editing and getting out to y’all on the podcast. I also plan on releasing a new podcast every month with a roundup of all things country music, and maybe some life chaos thrown in too. As for the blog, keep an eye out for gig reviews, album reviews, upcoming tours and shows, some yeehaw outfit suggestions and quite possibly some reviews of country bars I come across, maybe also some travel tips and ‘must-sees’ for Nashville (although I would like to add that I have very sadly never been, but we’re manifesting…).

That’s it from me this time! But don’t worry, I’ll be back again soon, you know where to find me (if you don’t, click the icons below). Hit me with your comments and any suggestions of things you would like to see on the blog or hear me ramble about on the podcast!

Over and out,

Chloe x