In this video, Nashville-based country star Brittney Spencer talks about her deep respect for The Chicks, her admiration for the trailblazing country artist Mickey Guyton, as well as what she’s learned from performing with Bob Weir, a founding member of the Grateful Dead. Spencer hails from the city of Baltimore, where her family runs a popular Southern-style restaurant called Granny’s. Her debut album, which is already gathering a lot of critical acclaim, is called “My Stupid Life,” but her journey thus far has been anything but stupid. She’s toured with Jason Isbell, performed with the Highwomen, been nominated for CMT and Americana Music Awards, and is currently on the road with Grace Potter.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00welcome to biscuits and jam from southern living i'm your host sid evans and in this episode i'm
00:14excited to welcome back a talented songwriter who last joined us back in 2021 when the pandemic
00:20was still raging and a lot of musicians were stuck at home britney spencer is a nashville-based
00:26country star who hails from the city of baltimore where her family runs a popular southern style
00:31restaurant called granny's her debut album which is already gathering a lot of critical acclaim
00:38is called my stupid life but her journey thus far has been anything but stupid she's toured with
00:44jason isbell performed with the high women been nominated for cmt and americana music awards and
00:51is currently on the road with grace potter we'll talk about all that her deep respect for the chicks
00:56her admiration for the trailblazing country artist mickey guyton as well as what she's learned from
01:03performing with bob weir a founding member of the grateful dead all in this week's biscuits and jam
01:09britney spencer welcome back to biscuits and jam thanks for having me well listen i gotta start
01:26by saying congrats on the new album it's your first album it's called my stupid life and it's just it's
01:33terrific i mean it's really it's amazing i listen to the whole thing and there's just so many great
01:39songs and so many layers to it it's just wonderful thank you i appreciate that this album gosh it's my
01:48first one i've ever put out and i'm feeling all the nerves all the excitement i'm mostly just ready
01:54i think a lot of these songs i've been touring for a few years and it's really cool to put them out into
02:00the world and i don't know maybe a few people in the crowd will know them next time i have a show
02:04and we can just sing along together i think a lot of people are starting to know them tell me a little
02:12bit about the name and where that came from i mean you know it seems like life has been pretty good the
02:18last few years anything but stupid oh yeah i feel like i use the word stupid often and it's kind of a
02:24term of endearment the title of the album it really comes from a song that's on the album called my
02:29stupid life and and the song i'm just talking about how things they don't always go the way you
02:34want it to sometimes i feel a little jaded sometimes i feel a little too open sometimes things are going
02:40incredibly well i remember my first love i remember the first time i felt immense joy about something
02:48in life in like my adult years i don't know i feel like life is just a conglomerate of just really
02:53random things that sometimes don't always piece together you know but it's your life and it happened
02:58and that's kind of what the song is about and the more we kept putting this album together i just
03:04knew i think i want that to be the name of the album as well going into this album i knew that i
03:10wanted reaching out to be the last song i knew that even before we started recording i knew i wanted
03:15that to be the last song in the album it felt like a closer to me i didn't know what other songs are going
03:19to be on the album but i knew which song should close it out and i knew the album should be called my
03:24stupid life yeah like i just knew it first i just love that title and i'm always thinking like a fan
03:30first because i really feel like one and i knew as a fan i want to listen to whatever is called my
03:36stupid life hopefully this doesn't come out before she hears it but i'm in the process of making some
03:42shirts for some people on my team and like i have their names and it'll say so and so's stupid life
03:47like i'm thinking about even like my stupid band my stupid merch across the board it kind of just
03:53checks all my little boxes but it wasn't made with that intent it was really just me having fun with
03:58my friends and just you know having this silly line called my stupid life and it just kind of stuck
04:04with us you know everybody can relate to that phrase in one way or another and it probably means a lot
04:10of different things to different people but i love the way that you communicated it through the
04:14photo on the cover as well it's a picture of you standing on a car in what looks like a junkyard
04:21yeah exactly what were you trying to get across with that i mean tell me about how that came
04:29together well one that wasn't my idea to do it in a junkyard it actually came from someone at my label
04:34named greg reberg he's phenomenal he's made so many different album covers that are just iconic i was
04:40just talking to him about this album and i was telling him about the song first car feeling and i
04:45was telling him about how i just think life is a whole bunch of broken pieces and sometimes in the
04:50middle of craziness you can make and you know do something really beautiful and he just kind of came
04:56with this idea a day later and i thought it was so brilliant and leading up to going into that photo
05:02shoot on the road i started finding out that i like bell-bottom jumpsuits and that's kind of what
05:07i wear a lot on stage and so i was like man what would look good in the junkyard and i was like a
05:13denim jumpsuit but it should be something kind of grungy but not too grungy like we need to have
05:18distressed denim and something that kind of reminded me of what i would have worn in high school but like
05:23with the elevation that i feel like i've thankfully experienced and my personal style
05:28over the years we came with this idea to kind of just have this really cool jumpsuit made
05:34and me standing inside of this car and i took a lot of photos i didn't want to cover by the way i did
05:41not want an album cover where i was smiling i did not want that i wanted to be edgy i wanted to be
05:45cool and i didn't like any of those photos and so it was the smiley one that i kind of really
05:50gravitated to but then i thought about and i was like this is my life i'm always trying to find
05:55the positivity i'm always trying to be honest but also wrestling in the tension of being honest
06:01but also trying to be grateful at the same time and so i feel like that's kind of what the album
06:07cover is for me it's like this place might not be ideal but i'm having a good time i can find a way
06:14it looks like you're having a good time and i think that's going to come through and it comes
06:17through on every song on that record too it's just great thank you well i want to talk more about the
06:23record in a minute but before we do that i just want to look back for a second to where you grew
06:28up the last time we talked it was in 2021 and i remember you telling me about this restaurant that
06:35your family had yeah granny's granny's yeah and i'm wondering do they still have that restaurant
06:41and how's it going yes the restaurant is still there last i heard i think they were thinking about
06:47like expanding which is so cool i haven't been there since like 2021 i think i went there with
06:53my brother my stepmom and it was so good it's a wonderful place i love my family i haven't seen
06:59them in a while the owners they're my cousins they're my grandfather his brother's kids and so
07:06i haven't seen them in so long because they're still kind of quarantined a bit at least from what
07:10i know a lot of older people my family haven't really been going out still because it feels a little
07:16dangerous for health reasons for them but gosh i think the restaurant is doing so well they're
07:20wonderful people the food is great i was talking to my grandmother yesterday actually i called her
07:26and she doesn't own the restaurant but cooking is in my family my grandmother she's from greensboro
07:32north carolina a lot of people in my family are from the south and that's kind of how i was raised
07:37like a conglomerate of north carolina and baltimore it's a wonderful mix
07:40but i was talking to her she was just telling me what she was cooking and i was asking her
07:47about a recipe and then she was reminding me how she cooks her cabbage because that's how i cook
07:52my cabbage too and so it's just nice these are normal conversations in my family where you just
07:57ask people what they're cooking and ask them how to cook it and then you just take that recipe and
08:01you make it yourself i still do that like i'll call and be like how did you make that thing grandma
08:06i'm still trying to figure out how she makes her rolls i really want to know how she makes rolls
08:10they're so good but she just makes it all from scratch you know but that's how my family is i mean
08:15even the restaurant grannies a lot of their recipes are like home recipes and so it's kind of
08:21cool to have a restaurant in the family i think i remember you said that there was a wall of photos
08:26of like 200 grandmothers when you walk into the restaurant all these different grandmothers
08:32which i thought was great yeah oh it's so beautiful and there's only really one photo of my great
08:40grandmother that i never got to meet that's like around and that photo is on that wall oh and it's
08:46so cool like it's the only photo we'll ever see of her you know whenever i get to see that photo i just
08:52kind of imagine what her life was like she was from southern maryland and she moved to baltimore
08:57which is maybe an hour or two away so my grandfather is from baltimore but his family is from southern
09:03maryland and just i don't know i kind of imagine what her life was like like i've read up on like the
09:08history of some of the area where she's from and just like in my head just kind of like make stories
09:13about what her day would have been like and so i don't know it's a beautiful photo and one of the
09:18perks for me of going back to granny's restaurant this is your great-grandmother you're talking about
09:22mm-hmm grandma may so britney when you think about cooks in your family who's kind of the rock star
09:29cook in the family who's the person that everyone talks about they're cooking my cousin chrissy
09:34she is a wonderful cook and i like her because she's a mix of a lot she spent like six years going
09:40to college for cooking she went to the culinary institute of america for several years some other
09:46school in baltimore for years she worked in restaurants she's worked in personal dining like
09:51just all kinds of things she's done and she has a really really nice way of kind of bringing flavor
09:56together but also my grandmother was her first teacher and my grandmother just makes southern
10:02cuisine and so it's cool just kind of hearing or i guess tasting rather all of the different
10:08influences in her cooking style it reminds me of how i make music i kind of mix things together too
10:14you know i like having a little bit of something for everybody and i think my cousin definitely does
10:18that as well because also people in my family have gone through all kinds of different dietary changes
10:23you know like i remember when my aunt stopped eating red meat and then all of a sudden all of us
10:29stopped eating red meat for a while and then someone got into kale and then at the family gatherings
10:34there's now this kale dish have you got a dish that you're kind of known for so my friends here will
10:40tell you that i make a really good salmon bowl okay i like making bowls i like pretending that i work at
10:46like true foods or something i'm a herb girl so i always have mint and basil thyme rosemary cilantro
10:52i always have all of those things in the house and i love chopping it up and making the rice or the
10:59quinoa and chopping up some avocado deciding which sauce goes with which dish is important to me so i
11:05have a lot of ingredients for sauce but i think back home my sister she really likes my rice dishes
11:11i mean she likes it when i do random things like take rice and put some lime and cilantro and some
11:17seasonings in it or like a stir fry i don't know it's just little things like that but also i'm
11:23very known for uber eats so that's that as well right yeah it sounds like days you kind of approach
11:30it like your music you kind of make it up a little bit as you go oh absolutely absolutely that's totally
11:35me i'm always trying to mix flavors together i'm always trying to see which things could kind of
11:42pair with something else but i do also really like a good classic dish like just cooking a piece of
11:49chicken or just cooking a vegetable i'll never forget my grandmother told me the best way to
11:53cook cabbage she said britney you don't need a lot you might be tempted to try and do a whole lot of
11:59stuff but all you need is a little bit of water because the greens are going to make their own water
12:04so just a little bit of water make sure you take the parts of the cabbage that are on top
12:09after you peel off that first layer make sure you chop them up put them in the pot first because
12:13they're going to take a little longer to cook and then put some salt pepper a little butter and you're
12:18fine and just cover it let it cook for a few minutes and you'll be good and she's right all i needed was
12:24a little bit you know stuff like that is important my stepmom she taught me how to make mac and cheese
12:29i love her mac and cheese so i make it i don't do it that often anything that's my favorite i don't do it
12:35that often i make it like maybe once or twice a year because i want to make sure that i don't get
12:40bored and that's how i am with music as well my favorite albums my favorite artists i don't really
12:45listen to them that often yeah i never want to get bored i love that album i don't want to ever get
12:50bored with it well let's talk about music for a second you grew up obviously you had a beautiful voice
12:57and i know that you tried some opera and you were into broadway for a while yeah in high school
13:06why were you drawn to country when was that moment that you really
13:10kind of started to gravitate toward country because of the chicks i blame them for everything
13:15i heard their music and i i was a kid and i i fell in love and i love their songwriting i like the
13:25songs i fell in love with just how much they reminded me of just singing in the choir because
13:32that's what i was doing at the time so all the harmonies even their fashion i felt like i understood
13:37it you know like how they coordinated their outfits i remember seeing them at the end of runaway bride
13:42and being like oh this is so cool just the way they coordinated was so cool because that's what i
13:47was doing every sunday anyway you know trying to make sure that i wore the perfect shade of navy blue
13:52because that's what the choir was supposed to wear that day you know and i fell in love with all of
13:57that i fell in love with the stories they were telling in high school i was listening to a little
14:03bit of everything and kind of just getting acclimated to everything because my family my mom didn't really
14:08listen to a whole lot outside of gospel at the time but because i was in school and singing opera
14:13and when you're around a bunch of creative people you just start listening to what they listen to
14:18you know you start singing what they're singing i started kind of diversifying my musical palette
14:24this was so fun i remember stepping outside of class voice class with my friend jamila once
14:30because we really just wanted to go listen to jojo's album and we couldn't wait we could not wait but
14:35i'm like this ain't opera i love what you listen to when you're not in school and so then i start
14:38listening to jojo but that's kind of how me and my friends were you know as kids even as creatives we
14:44were just exploring we were listening to a little bit of everything and i still kind of do that i
14:49definitely do that still that's the best part about being creative i think is just always looking for
14:54more creativity to kind of explore yeah was there a chick song in particular that you just kind of
15:02latched on to i mean they have a lot of those for me i would say my top three chick songs would be
15:10cowboy take me away but also their song i believe in love that's such a great song
15:18sometimes i wake up crying at night and sometimes i scream out your name that was such a good song
15:30yeah oh yeah that was such a heartbreaking song i remember singing that song and i remember because
15:35like once you get to the bridge you find out that like they've been married and they got kids and i'm
15:39like oh snap and i'm just a kid and he's just a teenager singing about being divorced with two
15:45kids but i'm singing my heart out she's two and she's four and you know they adore you so i'm just
15:55like you know just singing about this life i have no idea about that i still don't know about but i felt
16:01it because they felt it and just once i started realizing once we all i guess started seeing how much
16:08they cared about the world and how much they cared about people and they started being outspoken
16:13i fell more in love with them and it wasn't just like a fan admiration sort of love it was like a
16:19oh snap that's something i would do i was really feeling it i was it spoke to me you know i feel like
16:28a huge reason why i can be as outspoken as i am today about a lot of world issues i mean i feel like
16:35they paved the way for that you know absolutely i remember i got to meet them this past summer
16:40oh you did first time yeah first time oh my gosh like i'm not going to fan out because i guess i
16:46shouldn't maybe but i had to keep my cool with them for 20 minutes while i talked to them backstage
16:50it was honestly one of the best things i loved it it was so beautiful getting to meet them
16:56i'm like dude i didn't know anything about country music i didn't even know the genre i didn't know
17:01any genre literally for me as a kid growing up in church a little sheltered i didn't know a whole
17:06lot and when i first heard their music it opened up a whole new world of sound for me and i feel like
17:13when i saw them when i got to meet them it was such a moment because they're first of all they're just
17:17such chill and cool people you know but i remember in my head being like wow i can't believe i'm meeting
17:24and talking to the people that made me feel seen enough to like engage this genre you know it was
17:31a wild experience but they're right up there for me in terms of my list of heroes in music i'm grateful
17:36for what they've done
17:37after the break i'll talk more with britney spencer about her experience as a black woman in country
17:45music her new album my stupid life and collaborating with bob weir
17:50welcome back to biscuits and jam from southern living i'm sid evans and today i'm talking with
18:03the rising country artist britney spencer you know britney you're coming into country music
18:10at such an interesting moment i mean tell me there are more black artists in country than ever
18:17and you're surrounded by people like mickey guyton and madeline edwards you know both of whom been
18:23on this podcast and so many others who are really making waves and when you talk to those artists
18:31is there a sense that things are really changing for the better i mean do you feel a sense of like
18:38history happening when you talk to them i definitely feel like history is happening like you said i mean
18:44we haven't seen this many black country artists like ever and i'm excited to see what happens in the careers of so many of us
18:51and i hope that the industry continues to grow and kind of catch up a bit you know i hope that it does
18:58i feel like particularly when i talk to people like mickey it's a wonderful time to be who we are in this genre
19:06particularly in this time i mean i credit a lot of this to mickey i really think that mickey sparked a
19:12whole new generation of country artists and that's powerful like before ever even putting out her first
19:18album she was already an icon she was already legendary she's already done something if mickey
19:24didn't speak up if mickey didn't talk about being black you know or the song black like me if she didn't do
19:30that i just don't think we would see this moment at all and there's no one that can really kind of
19:35change my mind about that because i watched in real time people didn't care or weren't looking
19:40for this until she stood up and spoke out and to kind of look and see where the industry was
19:46you know pre-2020 to seeing where it is now as it relates to having so many black artists i can see
19:53where changes have been made but i also see where so many more need to happen and i see how a lot of us
20:00have gotten our foot in the door but i'm looking forward to the day where that door is gone
20:03i'm looking for the day where that glass ceiling doesn't exist i mean we do so many really cool
20:08things we diversify our portfolios a lot you know in terms of the things that we do and it's so cool
20:14i love seeing us do things on tv i love seeing us do so many different branding and partnership
20:19deals i love that i also can't wait to see us you know on the charts i can't wait to see us on the
20:26radio i can't wait to hear us in the places where country musicians are i'm so grateful for all the
20:32things that we get to do and for how far i guess we've come and i'm also just looking forward to
20:37the day where there's a few more seats at the table well you know you talk about being inspired
20:42by the chicks and then finally meeting them i think there's probably a lot of young up-and-coming
20:48teenage artists who are listening to you and thinking the same thing and who are going to be
20:52listening to this album and want to do something like that someday gosh i'm excited about what this
20:58time means for a lot of us artists in real time i'm more interested in seeing what this particular
21:04moment means or how it translates in 10 years you know when there's a new generation of country
21:11artists and there's so many of us that you can't let one or two in at a time you know i'm looking
21:19forward to the day where this genre kind of looks a little more like other mainstream genres which is a
21:25little bit of a lot of different kinds of people i'm just looking forward to that it took me a long
21:29time to leave baltimore it took me a long time to actually get past thinking about how things actually
21:36are to actually have a vision for what i thought it could be you know what it could look like if i
21:43fixate on what i see right now and continue to accept that as reality it takes away from the ability
21:50to envision what tomorrow could look like and so that's what hope looks like for me that's what
21:56change looks like for me it almost sometimes feels like ignoring reality it almost feels like saying okay
22:02cool well i know what it looks like right now but i'm not working for right now i'm not doing this for
22:08right now it's so nice if i have some success but what i really would love to see happen is in 10 years
22:14an artist not have to go through some of the things that i go through to get somewhere you know
22:20and i feel like from the outside looking then people can look at me and say you've got so many
22:24opportunities and you've done so many things and weren't you doing a victoria's secret thing didn't
22:30you just open for springsteen and willie nelson like people can look at that and say that but there's
22:34so much that happens behind the scenes to get to these points sometimes and it's hard to be a new
22:40artist i think for anybody no matter what you look like no matter who you are but being a woman being
22:45black has its own unique set of challenges you know i'm pursuing a genre where there aren't nearly as
22:52much women on the charts as there are men and there aren't really black people there not a whole lot
22:58maybe one or two two is being generous that's the reality but i can't live or work for that i acknowledge
23:04it i know it's there i know it exists but i'm trying to envision something else i'm trying to envision
23:10a world where that's not the case anymore so it's almost delusional but that's what it means to hope
23:16that's what it means to dream i think the future is made by those kinds of people and i don't know
23:21if i can make a damn thing other than this album but i can at least try to do something do my part
23:27you know there are no saviors in this we're all trying yeah i mean but you are doing this album you
23:34just put this out there and let's talk about that i mean it's really a statement and i know it's
23:41probably feels like it's been a long time coming for you and you've been working on a lot of this
23:46music for a long time but it feels very much of a piece it feels all very connected to me i want to
23:54talk about the first song on the album which is called new to this town so you know britney you've
23:59been in nashville for more than a decade now but i'm wondering if some of this was about your first
24:04experiences in music city and really trying to kind of break in and figure that town out oh yeah
24:10absolutely i moved here not knowing anybody and i remember like right before i moved here i was dating
24:18this guy he's really ambitious he was like don't go to nashville trying to make friends stay focused on
24:24your music stay focused on your career and i remember getting here and being like oh that was
24:29stupid like that was dumb advice i remember just driving one night and kind of letting myself feel
24:36the loneliness that i actually really felt inside and i started writing that song and it's hard to move
24:44to a new town you don't know nobody people make plans or you meet somebody and it feels like it could
24:49be fun it could be a friendship and then you don't ever see them again you know you meet one night at
24:55a bar at a club and you say oh we should get together let's hang out and then you don't and
25:01it's like oh crap you said we could hang out and i was really kind of banking on that plan because i
25:05really wanted a friend i actually tried to co-write that song with several different people
25:10a few years back i think it was like maybe three years ago i presented that song in a few co-writing
25:16sessions and it kind of didn't take with anybody and i was like okay i'm just leaving it alone i
25:22kind of shelved it but i put it in this little folder that i have where i put a lot of my songs
25:27and uh when it was time to pick songs for the album i remember my label was like what about this song
25:32i was like really you like that song because in my head you know these writers that have written
25:37number one this and i don't know negative five that whatever they've they didn't really take and
25:44they were like no this is a great song i was like should i finish it this is all there is and i
25:48remember going to the studio and being like oh i think this is it i think this is really cool and
25:53i'll end up going into the studio in la with romeo and i love his work and i remember him just kind
26:00of tinkering around on the keys and playing some really cool things and i just thought oh this is a
26:06song this is awesome and initially when we were making the track list for the album months later
26:12i was going to put this song in the middle kind of almost to be like a little palette cleanser
26:16you know between the first half and the second half of the album and i have to credit this to
26:21greg nadell who heads up electra my label and he said what if you open up the album with new to this
26:27town and i was like i think that's kind of a brilliant idea it felt nice it felt cool to open up
26:33the album with vulnerability initially i thought it should open up with this i don't know fast upbeat song
26:40that kind of talked about i don't know something but making it new to this town i thought oh that
26:46immediately in my head and in my heart gives this album legs like as a listener as a fan i want to
26:52listen to the rest i want to see what else you're talking about if you open up your album by opening
26:57up your heart and telling people how lonely you felt i think i would listen to that i would be into
27:03that you know yeah as a fan it's telling your story and it's really short actually but it's
27:08beautiful and it's just kind of a great way to get into the album thank you i appreciate that i love
27:15that song it was a really unexpected song for me to have on the album i've forgotten all about that
27:20song that's why i think it's cool as an artist to kind of have other people around to like just kind
27:26of hear their input you know i think that's important because otherwise i would have trashed a song
27:31i wish i was you know that new artist that came out the womb just being so sure about everything
27:37but i'm not and it's okay i think that's beautiful it reminds me the beauty of friendship of having
27:44great collaborators around you and there are plenty of things that i do where i don't care about
27:48anybody's input at all but there are times like with new to this town it was really nice
27:53i don't want to be fooled again
27:59into thinking i found a friend in you
28:06i'm new to this town so just hanging out
28:11ain't just hanging out on the loneliest saturday
28:17well i just love that you're starting with one that you wrote all by yourself and it's just your
28:24voice and your perspective and your story thank you so britney let's talk about another one a really
28:30fun one that's called night in and you know i can really relate to this one because i love nothing
28:35more than a night in i also loved the little phone call that you had right before it where i think
28:42you were talking to i think mickey guyton was on there and talking about coming over yeah how did
28:47that one come together oh gosh the song or the interlude the song oh the song well it started as
28:55the actual night in i was with jessica kane one of the co-writers on the song and she and i we've
29:00written a lot of other songs together on that record particularly she wrote first car feeling with me and
29:06my first rodeo and another one that i'm probably not remembering right now but we wrote those songs
29:13and we had never hung out before and so that night was our first attempt at like being friends outside
29:20of the writing room because we connected so deeply so quickly but the only time that we would get
29:25together was to write a song and so we were like cool we're not going to write a song we're going to
29:28get together i'm gonna come over to your apartment just and you're going to make salmon because i love
29:33salmon you're going to make salmon and whatever else because she's like this awesome cook and
29:38she's been telling me about her food forever and then you know i was like cool well show me what you
29:42working with so i'll go over there we have this incredible meal and then we're sitting on the couch
29:47drinking wine watching cruella and somewhere in that night we just start talking about how we a lot
29:55of times just need a night in or a weekend or a year in at home and then we started writing night in
30:01we started writing the chorus and a little bit of the first verse and then it got late and we just
30:05kind of left it alone and i'm a big fan of not pushing and forcing songs so like if it's done after
30:13we write the first verse then that's what we have that day and so we walked away but i was on tour a lot
30:18during that time so we didn't get together again for a few months but this time it was with summer
30:23over street and so we finished that song and it was such a easy time like i was so deliriously tired
30:31from tour that it was kind of like stream of consciousness writing and we just had a good
30:35time it was such a fun easy day i think for me making that visualizer that we made for it that
30:41was a really stretching thing for me honestly up until like last year i didn't even wear sleeveless
30:46shirts i know it sounds so silly saying it out loud but i'm a plus-sized woman and for so much of
30:51my life i've been told to cover up you know up until a few years ago and to i don't know just be
30:57opening up myself a little more it's and just kind of running around a room and dancing and
31:02finding out on set that i can rock out on electric guitar like i remember being like well i see it all
31:08the time i see people do it i see people do it in my band and i see people do it on tv i don't know
31:12if i can do it i don't usually play guitar like this but let me try and not end up just having so much
31:17fun and then i went to rehearsal a few weeks after and i started playing the way i did in that video
31:21and i was like oh i guess i can rock out i didn't know i had no idea but i'm just like trying out
31:27things in real time and that's the fun and bright side of trial and error i think and that's what that
31:32video did for me for me night in has been that video it's been me seeing myself in a way that i
31:41didn't know people that look like me could be seen i'm not doing something new there's plenty of people
31:46who've done this before i just didn't know that i could be one of those people and it helped me on
31:51my journey you know of seeing myself in a way that's not inferior
31:56i just want a night in getting high with friends not a night on the town counting time again
32:02no high heels stumbling down the city streets no drunk boys mumbling can i buy you a dream
32:08turn my phone off get a little going all this turning it up it really turning me on i need sweat
32:14pants bobbing to an old cd and my day was next to me i just want to die
32:20well it feels just like so many of the songs in this album it feels like you it feels very personal
32:29it feels like it's honest and i think a lot of people can relate to that yeah i hope so i love when
32:36people walk up to me after a show and be like when is this song coming out and i love being able to say
32:42oh it's out now i love being able to finally say that because i've been touring without an album for
32:46three years but a lot of the comments are always i've never seen somebody look like this doing what
32:53you're doing that's cool i like that or there's not enough of us here like that's fun thank you so
32:58much i felt really seen with this lyric and i just want people to feel seen you know coming from a
33:03person who has felt invisible most of their life i wanted to make a project that just made a lot of
33:08different kinds of people feel seen feel valued and that's is bigger than music you know for me so
33:14often the song is a tool i'm just trying to connect with people i want to make music that makes people
33:19feel like having joy is the best thing they could do today having some form of happiness or being
33:24honest about their feelings or thinking about the world a little bit or facing your past dealing with
33:30your inner demons sometimes it's hopefully satisfying but sometimes it's not you know and that's okay
33:36that's life life is weird yeah life is weird and stupid right life is weird and stupid and all of
33:44its glory it's random you're just hoping for the best you're just hoping that you know what you're
33:49doing and oftentimes none of us really do yeah and that's okay that's the truth britney i want to ask
33:55you about some of the folks that you've collaborated with in the last couple years and in particular
34:00bob weir you mentioned him earlier and you know he's an original member of the grateful dead
34:05i'm a huge grateful dead fan always have been and and most recently all the stuff he did with
34:11dead and company what has been a highlight of working with him and singing that music
34:18gosh i don't even know where to start to answer that question i feel like one of the things that i
34:24learned from him was versatility i remember when i showed up to radio city music hall to sing with
34:32him for two nights last year and i was originally asked to just sit in on i think like maybe a song
34:38or two i sang five songs with him and all of them were so different some of them were covers he was
34:45just so like easy i started learning more about the fan base how there are so many songs they've never
34:51recorded but the fans know them word for word you know i thought that was so cool having a different
34:57set list every night it took me back to the days where i didn't know what a set list was where you
35:04just kind of sang songs it was a journey in how to be flexible how to move around how to be fun how to
35:11be interesting how to not always do the same thing twice that was like a really cool masterclass for me
35:17there and you know one of the things i thought was so interesting singing with him that night was
35:22the band the band is so good i mean they're just insanely talented and particularly the pedal
35:28still player listening to the way that he would move on looks like rain and then they go into
35:35another song we did what's going on and the pedal still moved so effortlessly between all these
35:42different sounds all these different genres all these different emotions but it is so effortlessly
35:47and it sounded so authentic to the music that they were playing and i thought man that's so fun
35:53you know like there's not one genre that can monopolize an instrument that can monopolize a
35:59certain sound and i love bob because he just does what he wants yeah you know right if he wants to sing
36:05with shoes on what he does if he doesn't he doesn't if he wants to wear his hat he will you know i just
36:10thought it was so cool just being there it was a crash course and and how to be an artist and be
36:17yourself and how to keep doing that for a long time i thought it was really beautiful yeah it's
36:21not a whole lot of times where i've gotten to feel specifically all those feelings all at once
36:27you know thankfully i've gotten to do so many really cool things with a lot of really cool artists and
36:32each time has kind of unlocked a different emotion and i think that's really cool and that's really
36:38beautiful and i want to say it's rare but it's happened so many times with me at this point where
36:44i'm just like gosh i can't say it's rare if it's always happening honestly i think that everybody
36:49just carries something that's really rare and specific to them and to be able to sit in and be
36:54in the presence of that it gives me a glimpse into their world and it gives me an opportunity to kind
37:00of sit in that light with them you know this light that they've worked their whole lives to spark and
37:06keep going it makes me want to be that kind of artist one day as well like i hope when i'm older
37:11that i want to take a chance on new artists the way that bob weir and jason nisbowl and brandy carlisle
37:19and the high women have done with me i think that's really beautiful and special i think you're on the
37:25way to doing that especially the fact that you recognize that and that you have idols like the
37:32chicks and you've seen what they did for you and so i have a feeling you're going to be inspiring
37:37plenty of people down the road oh thank you thank you so much well britney i just have one more
37:43question for you sure what does it mean to you to be southern oh what does it mean for me to be
37:49southern there was this quote that i saw i believe it was from hank williams something along the lines
37:55of you don't have to be from the south to do country music you just have to do it from your heart
37:59and that's probably the best way that i can describe it i'm from baltimore which is way more
38:07city than country my grandfather's family is from southern maryland my grandmother's from greensboro
38:12north carolina and a lot of that was implemented in my parents upbringing and then also my upbringing
38:19but i really do think that opening up your heart and being receptive to change being diligent about
38:27holding up some traditions that really should stay you know really good values i think with family with
38:34friends i think that's important after living in nashville for 11 years i would say one of the
38:41things that i think that sticks out to me so much about the south is how tightly people hold on to each
38:47other i think that's beautiful i think that's a wonderful thing and that's something that i always want
38:52to carry most importantly as a musician as an artist i think it's about writing things that are true to
38:58you and being diligent about telling that story i think that's what makes a country artist yeah the
39:07sounds will change i mean 90s country doesn't sound like today's country necessarily it doesn't sound
39:13like 60s country it's going to always change but some things a lot of things stay the same and i think
39:18a lot of that comes from just trying to be authentic trying to be yourself trying to be honest and
39:24remembering to hold to the traditions that are actually good the things that bring us together not
39:29pull us further apart i think that's important well britney spencer it is great to see you again and
39:36good luck with the new album thanks so much for coming back on biscuits and jam thank you so much
39:41for having me i'm about to go make some biscuits now and jam jam out
39:49thanks for listening to my conversation with britney spencer southern living is based in
39:57birmingham alabama be sure to follow biscuits and jam on apple podcast spotify or wherever you listen
40:03and we would love your feedback if you could rate this podcast and leave us a review we'd really
40:09appreciate it you can also find us online at southernliving.com slash biscuits and jam our theme
40:15song is by sean watkins of nickel creek i hope you'll join me next week when i'll be talking with
40:21the actor and musician charles estin we'll see you then
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