Jan. 2, 2024

Living the dream with country music singer songwriter Lee Browning

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Discover the touching tale of Lee Browning, a country singer-songwriter from Virginia, whose passion for music was tested by life's hardships. In this episode, Lee shares his journey back to the stage and the heartwarming story behind his comeback single 'Ring from a Quarter Machine.' Tune in for an inspiring story of resilience and the sweet sounds of traditional country music.

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> Speaker A>Welcome, um, to the living the Dream podcast with curveball. If you believe you can achieve, cheat, cheat.

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> Speaker A>Welcome to the living the dream with Curveball podcast, a show where I interview guests that teach, motivate, and inspire. Today I am, um, joined by country singer and songwriter Lee Browning, straight from Virginia. Lee has had an amazing career. He had a tragedy in 2007 that kind of put it on hold for a little while, but he is back and better than ever. So we're going to be talking to him about his career and everything that he's up to and doing. So, Lee, thank you so much for joining me today.

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> Speaker B>Curtis, thank you for having me. We really appreciate it.

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> Speaker A>Why don't you start off by telling everybody a little bit about yourself?

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> Speaker B>Well, you know, uh, in the bio, I was born in 67 and grew up in the hills of Virginia. I, uh, mean the hills of Virginia. And, um, on the west side, grundy tazzle, Bluefield, Virginia. I don't know, some of the audience might hear this and know where that know. And as far as that goes, growing up, uh, I got a great love for traditional country music. Obviously, like most people from their dad, um, or their mom.

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> Speaker B>For me, it was my father played, uh, Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins, Charlie Pride, Sonny James, all these guys that were really good. Um, so I fell in love with it and listened to, uh, uh, I don't know if you remember the. Well, I'm sure you do. The old, uh, eight track tapes. I sure burnt some of them. Johnny Cass, uh, eight tracks, clean slap up, listening to, uh, um, you know, from, know, kind of grow up. I wrote a few pretty cheesy songs back in the know, thinking I was a songwriter at that, you know, you got to start somewhere. And I moved to North Carolina after that and got married, was settling down, trying to have a family, but also working on the music. And, uh, back in 2003 and four, I had two number one songs, uh, on independent charts, uh, here in America and overseas. Uh, one song was, let's pretend, which you can see or hear on any streaming, um, platform.

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> Speaker B>And other one was from this day on. And anyway, um, from that point, I was moving on really pretty good. Things were taken off. And as you were mentioning in the beginning of the introduction, uh, my son passed away in 2007.

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> Speaker B>And, uh, that took a pretty big toll on me. Some people find a way to move past it a little quicker than others.

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> Speaker B>Uh, but it put a pretty huge roadblock in my career for ten to 15 years, to be honest with you. So it's obvious because I'm just now really getting back into it, and, um, I'm in it to win it. The goal is to have a hit song out there, which I think we have right now in ring from a quarter machine, uh, if everybody's, uh, listening to it. So as of right now, I'm working with a lot of promoters, uh, getting us on to a lot of labels. Number one on three charts overseas, a couple charts here in America on the independent charts. Know, we not made it to billboard. Um, but we're working on it, Curtis. We're doing everything we can.

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> Speaker A>Absolutely.

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> Speaker A>So just tell the listeners, like, let's say for all the independent artists out there, if they want to get their songs on these independent charts, how do you go about that? Is there a certain thing you have to do, or do people just listen to it and it gets there? How does that process work?

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> Speaker B>How can they hear it and play it?

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> Speaker A>Or how can you get on the independent chart? Do you have to submit it to somebody or how does that work?

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> Speaker B>Yes, uh, Curtis, when you release a, um, know, like, I have a promoter, um, his name is James Williams, um, Williams promotions, out of Nashville. We recorded in.

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> Speaker B>Then, you know, all of a sudden I get this email, uh, from Kaden Gordon, who, you know, very, he's been, now I've hired him on his promoter. So in order to get a song on the independent charts as an individual without a major record label, you still have to have a promoter to take that song, send it out through, um, airplay access, and it'll hit about 5000 stations or more.

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> Speaker B>And hopefully, if they're doing their job and making the phone calls and talking to people they need to talk to at the radio stations, uh, you'll wind up on that chart. Um, but that's how you do it. You have to have a promoter. You probably never make it on the chart if you just try to do it all by yourself. You got to have somebody who's been in the business, who knows these people at the radio stations and knows who to talk to and can get your song airplane. So that's the key, get an airplay and that's what moves you up to chart, and that's how you get on there.

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> Speaker A>Well, that is great advice for all independent artists out there. So when you describe your music, I know that you're a country singer, but as you know, there's traditional country and there's the modern country. So what would you say if somebody listened to your music and wanted to know, hey, what type of country does, uh, Lee Browning do?

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> Speaker A>What would you tell them?

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> Speaker B>It would be 100% traditional country music if you listen, um, to the song. I don't know if you've listened to.

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> Speaker A>It yet, uh, Curtis, but I absolutely have.

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> Speaker B>For all your listeners, um, it's streaming worldwide on all platforms. Spotify, Amazon music, Pandora, iHeartradio, anywhere you can stream, you can listen, and you can purchase it, too. It's available to download to keep for yourself. Uh, uh, I ain't going to call them cheesy, but I got some picture videos, uh, on YouTube, because that's where you got to start somewhere with some of this. But ring, uh, from a quarter machine is, ah, really doing well. So they can all hear it there, um, download it and listen, um, to it. Just say, hey, Alexa, play ring from recording machine. There you go. But it takes a little bit of work to get there.

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> Speaker A>Absolutely.

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> Speaker A>Well, tell us about the concept of that song. I've heard it, but for the listeners who haven't and who might want to check it out, tell us about the concept.

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> Speaker B>Well, pretty much you want to know kind of how the song came about, is that correct?

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> Speaker A>Absolutely.

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> Speaker B>Yeah. Um, uh, it's about a friend of mine a long time ago. I'm going to just say 20 years ago or so, I, um, had a friend, um, he didn't make a lot of money. Neither did I, and we all have bills and bills to pay.

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> Speaker B>They just never stopped coming in. We all know that, Curtis, um, and for the listeners out there. So what happened was he, uh, wanted to get her a ring, but he just couldn't afford it. He couldn't afford one from Walmart. He couldn't afford one anywhere.

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> Speaker B>Even a $20 ring, he couldn't afford it. It was just that tight of a budget. But back then, we had roses and, um, uh, five and dime and places like that that had these machines, uh, outside the quarter machine and, uh, uh, if you can hear this for the folks out there. Here we go. I'm going to make a little noise, Curtis, real quick.

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> Speaker B>That's what a quarter machine sounds like when you put it in there and, uh, you get that ring out of there.

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> Speaker A>Absolutely. One of the kitty rings.

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> Speaker B>Uh, but he did that. He went and got it. He said, man, I told him, I said, literally, some of those rings, they sparkle like a real diamond. They really look great. In fact, my girlfriend, who is here right now, listening to this, uh, interview, has one of these rings on her finger right now, and she ain't going to take it off. But anyway, um, he went and got the ring.

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> Speaker B>He really didn't think it was a great idea. He was a little embarrassed, not that it wasn't a great idea, but anyway, he did get it. He took it home and he couldn't buy, just like the song says, he couldn't buy no ribbons, he couldn't buy a box or bows. So he just took it to her right in that capsule, and he gave it to her, and he told her that he loved her, and this is all he could afford now, and he'd get her the real thing as soon as he could. And she just broke down. She was so happy to get that from him. She still has that on today. Um, and he did, about a year later, get her the real thing. He did get her a pretty nice little diamond, um, and she didn't want it. She didn't want to wear it on that ring finger. She put it on her other finger because she told him, just like I have in the song, you can't beat my ring from a quarter machine. And she told him, it ain't about the money, it ain't about how much it costs. It's all about the thought and everything from your heart. And I took all this information from him and collaborated together.

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> Speaker B>And here we have ring from a quarter machine. Uh, that's doing very well. So that's pretty much what this song is all about.

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> Speaker B>It's about true love. Uh, Curtis, we all know and the audience all know there's a million ways to say I love you in a song, and this is just probably one of the most, uh, for me and a lot of the djs that have told me one of the most unique ways to tell someone how much you love them that they've ever heard. And that's why I feel like we're getting such great airplay out of it.

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> Speaker A>Absolutely. So, ladies and gentlemen, you guys go check it out as soon as you can.

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> Speaker A>I know you talked about some of your musical influences, like Johnny Cash, but tell us about some of your other musical influences that kind of encourage you and make you do what, strive and do what you do.

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> Speaker B>Well, as I got older, um, uh, in the early 90s is when it got me good. And that would be George straight. I will have to say, alan Jackson is probably one of my biggest influence. If you listen to this song, you'll hear a lot of Alan Jackson guitar in it because his guitar is played in this song.

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> Speaker B>Um, so, um, he's really my biggest influence. Even though George Strait, he's king George.

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> Speaker B>You can't take his place. But Alan Jackson is an icon in country music.

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> Speaker B>Um, and then you got some other great guys, like Brad Paisley's had some great know Garth Brooks. Of course, you can't forget about, um. Um, but if you really want me to tell you who's influenced me the most, it was Alan Jackson, that's who. Uh, my favorite, and, uh, will probably always be my favorite traditional, uh, country music singer. Uh, the guys today that are out there, they got some good music. They do. I'm not going to say they don't. Um, all I can say is it's not my style of music because I'm a traditional country singer, and they're more of alternative, pop, country, and they got a billion fans that love, um. I love.

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> Speaker B>I like some of it, you know, Al Jackson is going to be the man I choose.

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> Speaker A>All right, well, tell us about any upcoming projects that you're working on that listeners need to be aware right now.

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> Speaker B>Um, for right now, honestly, Curtis, we are just so focused on this song because we just released it literally barely a month ago. I think it's just now going on four weeks.

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> Speaker B>And, uh, for the folks and listeners out there, it takes about two months for a, uh, song to really catch on and get hot, and we're already catching on fire.

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> Speaker B>So I feel very proud about that. But I am working on some new songs, sad, uh, love story songs. We're going to redo that. I'm going to remix and, uh, probably rerecord that song, and that'll probably be my next release. Um, then I got a song called amazing Grace. It's just got a great wordplay to it. It's not the christian song amazing grace. It's about a dancer, pretty much. But anyway, when it comes out, everybody will know. I don't want to give too much of it. Um, you know, as an artist, you have to learn how to. As an independent artist, it's much more difficult than your billboard, your big machine records. These artists have, uh, RCA records. The artists have that label behind them with millions of dollars, and they got publicists, they got guards, and they got all these people doing all this for them.

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> Speaker B>Independent artist has to learn to promote his music and continue to try and create new music at the same time, which makes it a difficult task, actually, but you got to learn how to juggle it. And, um, so far, we're doing pretty good. We're doing pretty good.

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> Speaker A>All right, man. So listeners can keep up with everything that you're up to, throw out your contact information, and where people can check you out at.

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> Speaker B>Well, like I said, you got Instagram um, uh, if you go to my Facebook, my Instagram is, uh, connected to, uh, Lee Browning music, um, on Facebook. That's the best way to find everything out about me. My Instagram is connected to that.

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> Speaker B>We just got that set up pretty much a little while ago, and, um, we're working on a couple of other platforms. Well, Kaden is helping me, um, put together some stuff, but they can go to Lee browning music and keep up with everything I'm doing because that's going to have my Instagram.

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> Speaker B>Um, I'm on TikTok. I have, uh, some little skits that I've done, little pieces of some of my songs on TikTok. So, uh, they can go there and check me out and see what it looked like and see kind of some of the things that we're doing and talking about, um, and that kind of thing. So you can find me pretty much everywhere.

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> Speaker A>All right, we'll close this out with some final thoughts. Maybe if that was something I forgot to touch on, that you would like to talk about it. Just any final thoughts you have for the listeners?

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> Speaker B>Well, for the listeners, I would like to, uh, thank them because, uh, let me tell you something. Without the fans, without them people out there pulling the song up and listening to it or hearing it on the radio and wanting to hear it again, downloading it so they could just have it, without people wanting to hear it, then I wouldn't even have a reason to write a song. So I want to say thank you to all the fans and, uh, I just appreciate them so much and don't even know, um, hardly any of them because you got fans that you're never going to know.

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> Speaker B>But I want them to know that I do appreciate them. Uh, and I encourage them to download the song and listen to it. Now they know the story of it and, um, then they can look forward to some new projects coming out.

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> Speaker A>Uh, so, listeners, be sure to check out Lee browning music. All ah, you country lovers out there.

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> Speaker A>Support everything that he's doing. Follow rate review share this episode to as many people as possible if you have any guests or suggestion topics, Cjackson 102 at Cox.

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> Speaker A>Net is the place to send them. As always, thank you for listening. And Lee, thank you for joining us, sharing your story and telling everybody about Lee Browning music.

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> Speaker B>Curtis, I really appreciate you having me on the show, and thanks to all the fans.

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> Speaker A>For more information on the living Dream podcast, visit www.djcurveball.com.

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> Speaker A>Until next time, stay focused on living the dream. Dream.