Pipeman Interviews The Wonder Women of Country at Bourbon & Beyond 2025

0:04 Hey, you love then too, Yes, that's true. For see why were you young? This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures Pipe Man W four C Y Radio, And I'm here. With the wonder Women of Country all. Right here at Bourbon and Beyond. And you guys just performed now right, So how was that? Like? How was it being here at Bourbon Beyond? Oh? It was incredible. It was an honor to be on the bill with all these amazing acts. We were looking it over and just we're just thrilled to be included. And it was a really wonderful crowd and we had just a great time.

0:54 Yeah, but you guys are wonderful too, Like I was listening to your listen to your music, and man, you are talented. Well, thank you. So how did the three of you decide to create this wonder trio here? We had been on the bill together separately, not just doing our own separate things, and but Melissa was playing with Brennan, and I was watching from backstage, and I just thought it was so great and I was jealous, and I thought we could maybe do just like a one off couple of shows where we swapped songs and played together, but played like a band, and so I reached out to them and they both said yes, and then we booked some gigs and then it's just every show was more fun than the last, and we just doors kept opening for us.

1:43 So we we've just been holding on nice. Fun. It's the key word as far as I'm concerned, because if you're not having fun in this industry, wrong industry, because there's nothing else that's fun about except being the art this right. My favorite quote from Cowboy Jack Clement is actually, if we're not having fun, we're not doing our job. There you go, people can they can tell if you've got joy in your music, and they can feel it, and that's You're right. It's the most rewarding thing, is that mutual kind of fun? Absolutely yeah, And you're right because if I'm out there in the olims, I can look up and I can tell if you're just going through the motions or if you're having fun.

2:28 You don't even need to look most of the time, you could just listen and hear it. I would in my opinion. But yes, I agree wholeheartedly. There are visual cues. No doubt. So what was that moment in life for each one of you that you decided music was your life. Well, at this point in my life, I really don't know how to do anything else. But I'm trying to think when the moment was. I've had I used to in my twenties and even in my thirties head other jobs besides music to support myself. But so it was probably sometime I think in my later thirties where I was like realizing, oh, I could make a living doing this.

3:08 I'm just gonna I'm just gonna do that, just do to music. See that's pretty cool because a lot of times by that time people decide the other way. It's true. I've seen about that. A lot of times people start having kids and they're like, this is not realistic anymore. Yeah, but I have only had dogs, and. They're more work than kids, Like they're harder to leave alone. I think, yeah, yeah, Well, I'm going to pass it on to mic for Brandon to tell you when she decides. People do ask that question every now and then. When was that moment? And I never made that decision because I was already playing pretty regularly as a job before I had even a driver's license, so I was pretty young.

4:01 I was already a working musician in my teens early teens, and it's hard. I liked it, and I knew that life and I'd already toured by the time I was eighteen, and the idea of oh, you're now you're going to go to college and maybe learn how to do something and get a career seemed backwards to me because I felt like I already had a career, right, that makes sense, so just continue to do that and here we are. Here we are for me. It was after the very first time I played a concert, so I was terrified, and I was shaking so badly that my leg was bouncing up and down, and I really was hoping that it looked like I was doing that on purpose, That's how.

4:42 Scared I was. But I walked off the stage and I was like, I want to keep doing that, and I knew that I was going to keep doing it no matter how scared I was. Like, I was such a shy, quiet person that it was just mind blowing. I'm glad you brought that upst People think that music arts are extroverts, and most of them are introverts, you know that, I know. Yeah, it's like you all get scared going up on stage, but like it's something happens once you're up there that just switch. Same with me, it's like as soon as the mic is on, it's like you go into this different zone and it's kind of like the best feeling and the worst feeling at the same time sometimes, right.

5:29 Yeah, performing part of it and the being in front of people part of it is different from the creative kind of writing songs part of it, right, So you've got to learn how to mild those two together, and sometimes that's the challenge. You're, right, because the writing part is where you could kind of be introverted or you're like in your own world, and then when you're up on stage it's a little different. So what do you got going on after Bourbon beyond? What are you guys going to be doing next? Well, we've all been everywhere all summer. Is it summer? It's September? No? Is it September? It's phil summer till twenty first, I mean Phil the heat.

6:09 We all have different things going on. But for me, I get to go home for a few days, which is nice because I haven't been home in about three weeks. We have a new record, Oh yeah, I have a record coming out a solo record. That's something you could talk about, all right. I forgot Thank you for reminding me. I have a solo record coming out October third. This is Brannan by the way, because I know they can't see us. And then we all have projects in the cooker right now. Yeah, we did record a couple more songs together that we wrote together, and then we didn't finish the final production of those. Boot I would say sometime next year there'll be a couple more Wonder Women singles out there.

6:50 Nice. But yeah, for me, I get to go home finally too. I've been on the road for over a month now, so I get to go home tomorrow to Texas, and I got to couple albums coming out to a Christmas album, nice original Christmas tunes. Me and Brennan wrote a Christmas song together, and. Yeah, what's it called? Its call? It was Brendan's. It's called I Want a Dog for Christmas. I love it as amazing. Because don't we all? Of course, it's kind of a dangerous thing every time you do see a dog like you want it every time. How about you? What kind of projects you got coming up?

7:31 I'm about to go over to Norway to its wow little cruise gig over there with my friend Betty Seals. Those are fun, right, Yeah. This one's a little one. It's not like one of these big, oh okay party ones. But that's fun too, Like that's like intimate and. It's cool to get to just go see the world, right, It's a perk of this gig. And then I recorded some songs with j Farar from Symbolt and we're I don't know when those are gonna come out. But yeah, we've all good. Just little projects here. And there, nice, okay. And so now, in all your careers, there were one story when you're like eighty years old that you would tell, good or bad? What would it be from this musical journey?

8:19 There isn't one, but I'll just the first one that came to mind was I grew up listening to a band called the Luvin Brothers, and they have been my favorite really for a long long time. And when I was a twenty something, Charlie Louvin, who is the surviving Louvin brother, invited me to play mandolin for him for a while. Wow, And to me that was a huge deal. He was in his eighties, so like their music was popular in the early part in mid century twentieth century, and so I was thinking about that and how it would be like saying somebody like right now, that's an older person saying that, Oh, I played with Hank Williams or something. It's so back it feels like a human wormhole, like I realized at that time, like I can't really top that.

9:05 Right, that's great, But there's really. Too many stories, and most of them have to do with traveling around with my friends and just getting into all kinds of trouble and fun. There you go. I love it and friends keyword. Like friends is a big part of it. People don't get like in this life. Some people think it's lonely, but I think it's lonely sometimes when you get home because you have all your friends out on the road. So how who wants to give their story? Can you repeat the question. One story good or bad that when you're aging you would talk about, yeah, crazy, not crazy, just.

9:49 Oh on a wonder Woman tour, I yes, I had too much of a weed gummy. We had a day off. It's a funny story now, but I was begging Brennan to take me to the hospital and yeah, it was Kelly. It was a string of events. We'd gotten hit by a drunk driver two days before, Like things were just happening, like a driven off with the gaspout still in the car, Like it was just one of those tours where stuff was happening. And then we had the massive gummy overdose on our day off and like it wasn't an insane overdose where we did think we were losing our minds and Brennan was the only sober one to couldn't convince us that we weren't crazy.

10:41 But so yeah, but when the whole thing was over, it just felt like we had been so alive, like all these things that had happened to us. And yeah, we spent the day in the hospital because I thought I had a concussion twice on one tour, So I don't know, I just felt like it was rough, it was hard, it was crazy, but it felt like I was with my favorite people doing my favorite thing. I felt alive. I don't know, it's great. I get that feeling. Like my youngest daughter, she'll come to some of the festivals with me because I go and tour and do all the festivals US, UK, Europe, first day. Halfway through, She'll be like that, I don't know how you do this. Every weekend like I'm done to Ray and me, I'm like, I don't know. I get home, I go into like seclusion for the couple days.

11:35 I'm off like in that you know, that down, like you came down from a really bad high, you know, And it is it's like I come out and come alive because it's all my friends, it's music is my life. And I'm like here till the end of the night. I'm the first one here. I'm working all day, but I'm still gonna go out there and catch Jack White and Sturgis and the pig Sees and like that's It's just everybody doesn't understand. But that is so much. That's the fun part of doing all this, and music's the best therapy. Like today would normally be a really really bad day for me, but because I'm with all my people at this music festival, I haven't even thought about it till now. Tell I'm stupid enough to bring it up.

12:24 But that's why we do it. Yeah, exactly, And you guys are awesome. I'm glad you are here at Bourbon and Beyond and I hope to see a lot more of you, and thanks for being on the Adventures and pipe. Man, thank you for having us on the show. My pleasure. A final words. You need the listeners to know or or give out your socials too so they can follow you, get merch all that good stuff. You can find us on a Facebook, Instagram, those kinds of things. Wonder Women of Country and then I think all of us are linked from there, but if anybody wants to give their own, you may you know. It's just Kelly willis kW everywhere you might find it.

13:05 And you definitely are linked on there because I saw that, oh. We are okay well or Brennan. Lee and you have an awesome website too, well, thank you. So they all need all they have to do is google you and they will find you. Yeah, and Melissa Carper, I tell you what's funny. There's somebody in here while I was saying, oh, I'm waiting to do this interview, and they're like, with who? And I told them and they're like, are they gonna come back with those things on their wrist and spin around and I'm like, yeah, that's not the same wonder woman, you know, Wonder Woman wonder Woman. Yeah, yeah, well there you go. There's your wrist band we. Are named after. We named the band after this is I know this is maybe hard to believe, but we named the band after wonder Woman.

13:50 I know, hard to believe. Right. Somebody backstage earlier called us the Linda Carters of country, which we thought was pretty funny. I love that. I love that. That's cool. Well enjoyed Arrestive festival. Now that your work is done, I hope to see a lot more of you guys. Thanks, thank you for listening to the Adventures of Tatement on wf CUI Radio.