Summary

In this episode from 2015, we sit down with singer-songwriter RayLand Baxter to talk about his upcoming album Imaginary Man, set to release on August 14 through ATO Records.

Although he grew up in Nashville and is the son of a well-known songwriter, RayLand didn’t dive into music seriously until his twenties. He shares what led him there and how his path into songwriting unfolded a bit later than expected.

We also talk about his evolution as an artist and some of the personal choices that shape his identity, including why he chose to capitalize the "L" in his name. It’s a small detail with real personal meaning behind it.

RayLand walks us through the collaborative process behind Imaginary Man, and we get into the key moments and experiences that helped shape the sound of the new record.

This episode gives a great look at RayLand Baxter’s creative journey, from finding his voice to crafting an album that captures where he is now as an artist.

Show Notes

In this episode, we catch up with RayLand Baxter to talk about his new album Imaginary Man, releasing soon on ATO Records.

• RayLand comes from a strong musical background. His dad, Buddy Baxter, is a respected songwriter and studio owner. But surprisingly, RayLand didn’t start playing guitar until he was 20.
• He shares what led him to pick up music later than most and how those early experiences shaped his voice as a songwriter.
• We get into his creative process and the unique way he approaches his music, including the personal story behind the capital "L" in his name.
• RayLand reflects on his connection to Nashville and how the city continues to influence his work, even as he carves out his own path.
• Throughout the conversation, you’ll hear how authenticity, heritage, and a love for songwriting all come together in Imaginary Man.

Links

• RayLand Baxter
• RayLand Baxter on Bandcamp
• You may also enjoy our conversation with T Hardy Morris
• After you buy music or see a show, please toss a few bucks in our Tip Jar
• Sloane Spencer now hosts a Gen X sleep podcast, Sleep with Rock Stars

Chapters

• 00:01 - Introduction to Raelyn Baxter
• 01:12 - The Journey Back to Music
• 10:29 - The Release of Imaginary Man
• 18:23 - A Journey Through Music and Heritage
• 22:23 - The Journey of Imaginary Man

Takeaways

• RayLand talks about his new album Imaginary Man and how it reflects his growth as a songwriter and artist.
• Growing up in Nashville with his dad, Buddy Baxter, in the music business definitely shaped his early connection to music, even if he didn’t dive in right away.
• It wasn’t until he moved back to Nashville in his twenties that he seriously picked up the guitar and decided to chase music full-time.
• Imaginary Man is a true team effort, with input from a range of talented musicians and producers who helped bring the album to life.
• RayLand shares how important live shows are to him, especially the energy that comes from playing with other musicians and connecting with an audience.
• The album cover is also part of the story. It represents a turning point in his creative journey and shows how much he’s evolved both personally and artistically.

Mentioned in this Episode

• ATO Records
• Three Trees Music
• Cage the Elephant
• Chrome Pony
• Drivin n Cryin

Recommended If You Like

RayLand Baxter, Imaginary Man, Country Fried Rock, Nashville songwriter, ATO Records, music podcast, acoustic guitar, songwriting process, Americana music, new album release, Nashville music scene, live music performance, indie music, music collaborations, Raelyn Baxter interview, music production, Americana Fest, Nashville musicians, songwriting evolution, musical influences

Transcript

Speaker A

00:00:00.240 - 00:00:33.310

Welcome to Country Fried Rock. This week we're talking with Raelyn Baxter, who has a brand new record, Imaginary man, on ATO Records.

Although Baxter grew up in Nashville as the son of noted songwriter and studio owner Buddy Baxter, Raylan did not pick up a guitar until his early twenties.

We find out about his songwriting growth and why he capitalizes the L in the middle of his name and a whole lot more with Raelyn Baxter on Country Fried Rock. I'm your host, Sloan Spencer. My guest today on Country Fried Rock is Raelyn Baxter with a new album, Imaginary man, coming on the 14th of August.

Welcome.

Speaker B

00:00:33.870 - 00:00:34.350

Hello.

Speaker A

00:00:34.510 - 00:00:39.310

We've had a little chat had about locations and places across the way. How'd you end up in Nashville?

Speaker B

00:00:39.790 - 00:01:09.920

Well, I was born here and I grew up here until I was 13. My dad was in the music business, my mom was not, but she loved my father at that time. And so this all started here.

And When I was 13, I moved up to Maryland and then did my thing there and then moved back seven years ago. So Nashville's home. Nashville is my home. Even around the country. I'll be going around and be like, where are you from? I'm from Nashville.

Well, where are you from?

Speaker A

00:01:10.079 - 00:01:10.480

Right.

Speaker B

00:01:10.880 - 00:01:12.800

I mean, I'm from Nashville, man.

Speaker A

00:01:12.880 - 00:01:19.200

What made you end up heading back into the music business rather than trying to move away from that?

Speaker B

00:01:20.010 - 00:01:39.290

Well, you know, I was never a part of it when I was growing up. My dad was, but I was, you know, just like a little sewer kid running around in the creeks and playing soccer and playing lacrosse and basketball.

And so I was not. I didn't pick up a guitar until I was 20 years old.

Speaker A

00:01:39.370 - 00:01:40.250

Oh, that's late.

Speaker B

00:01:40.410 - 00:02:12.490

Yeah, very late. So once I picked up a guitar when I was 20, it had come at a time.

I don't want to jump ahead in the interview, but I was playing lacrosse in college and I had torn my acl, my knee ligament. And then at the same time as I tore my acl, my dad was given an acoustic guitar in exchange for rent.

My friend Luke Reynolds, who actually played on the album, he's played a bunch of guitar on the new album, gave my dad this guitar that Luke's dad had built him from a tree that fell down in their yard in Vermont.

Speaker A

00:02:12.570 - 00:02:13.130

Wow.

Speaker B

00:02:13.130 - 00:02:19.160

And it's a beautiful bird's eye maple acoustic guitar, dreadnought style. Kind of looks like a Martin.

Speaker A

00:02:19.480 - 00:02:19.960

Wow.

Speaker B

00:02:20.440 - 00:02:34.920

During Christmas break, I went down to stay with my dad. This is my sophomore year in college. And he was like, ray, take this guitar, man.

See, you can't Walk that well, so you might as well learn how to play guitar. And so from then on, it was kind of. It was on.

Speaker A

00:02:35.160 - 00:02:36.440

Did you end up going back to school?

Speaker B

00:02:37.160 - 00:02:58.230

I did. I went back. I didn't graduate, but I went back and finished. Finished just shy six credits shy of my degree.

And I was like, I really cannot stand living in Baltimore anymore. And I was like, I'm out of here. So I got in a car and I drove to Colorado. Still haven't finished my college degree.

That's maybe something I'll take care of down the road at this point.

Speaker A

00:02:58.230 - 00:02:59.990

Surely they can give you six credits of life.

Speaker B

00:02:59.990 - 00:03:13.720

You know, I know I would love to call the dean of students who was my arch nemesis during college and be like, listen, I'm doing something with my degree. I'm using it. Although it's not official I'm using it.

Speaker A

00:03:13.880 - 00:03:19.480

But, you know, the secret person you need to know in college is the registrar. That person has magic powers.

Speaker B

00:03:20.040 - 00:03:23.800

Ah, maybe that's. I've been firing at the wrong target all these years.

Speaker A

00:03:23.880 - 00:03:25.200

Are you up on the whole FIFA.

Speaker B

00:03:25.200 - 00:03:56.840

Drama lately with the refs getting arrested and stuff? Yeah, I followed the sport only because they started playing it a bunch in the United States.

Like, the way it went for me sports wise was I played soccer every day of the week all year until I was 13, until I moved to Maryland, and then I started playing lacrosse almost immediately. So I'm happy that it's becoming more popular in the United States.

And I do think that it seems like a pretty corrupt situation, but I don't know who's going to fight him. Who's going to beat the beast?

Speaker A

00:03:57.320 - 00:04:01.320

Just curious. I've been surprised by the passionate feelings folks have had about that.

Speaker B

00:04:01.680 - 00:04:06.680

Well, you know who is passionate is Eric Massey, who is the co producer on this on Imaginary Man.

Speaker A

00:04:06.680 - 00:04:07.240

Oh, yeah.

Speaker B

00:04:07.240 - 00:04:15.760

He's a crazy soccer fool and he loves it. And he. If he was next to me, he'd take the phone, he'd be like, actually, yes. And then he'll tell you all about it.

Speaker A

00:04:16.560 - 00:04:49.340

Keep your ears open for some fun things going on with Country Fried Rock in the next few months. We're going to have a new way for y' all to submit some music to the show for a fall feature.

And we'll be hanging out and having a party in Nashville during Americana Fest. Yep, it's official, but I can't give you the detail details just yet. Hey, y', all, this is Sloan Spencer, the host of Country Fried Rock.

We've had an incredible year with more people finding us on the radio and our podcast than we ever imagined. Thank you all so much. Careful what you wish for. You just might get it.

Speaker B

00:04:49.500 - 00:04:53.100

Hello, this is Raelyn Baxter on Country Fried Rock.

Speaker A

00:04:53.180 - 00:05:05.620

That's a great segue because you worked with Adam Landry as well, who is somehow becoming the unintended theme of this year's show. Probably awesome. More than half the records we've covered this year have been touched by Adam Landry.

Speaker B

00:05:05.940 - 00:06:03.350

He's the man. So I've known Adam since I was a sophomore in college. He used to.

My dad had a studio called Three Trees Music out in White's Creek, Tennessee, and it was a beautiful studio built of a bunch of old buildings from the Opryland Amusement park that shut down a while ago, and he built a beautiful studio. And Adam had just moved to Nashville from Maine, and he was playing guitar with Ray Lamontagne, and he was doing all these cool things.

And I met Adam, and he was a rock star to me, you know, he still is actually, more so than ever. And so when it came around to looking for producers, we had a couple names in the bucket, but Adam kept on coming around. Adam is rad.

He's a great guitar player. He knows when a song has good movement and good feel to it, and it was really a joy working with him, and I hope to work more with him in the future.

Speaker A

00:06:03.670 - 00:06:06.550

What was different for you this time around versus previous releases?

Speaker B

00:06:07.030 - 00:07:45.550

Feathers and Fish Hooks was like, you know, I started playing guitar when I was 20, and it's really late, so I did in three years, really, what most people who planned ahead and found their gift, or passion, whatever you want to call it, in their teens. I did 15 years of work in three years. So feathers and Fish Hooks was like, how do you do this? Okay. Oh, you have to sit that way against the mic.

You know, in terms of recording. Oh, I have to sit, and I have to sing into that part of the mic. Oh, I was singing into the wrong end of the mic. All these things.

I didn't know what I was doing, and luckily, I was the dumbest person in the room. So Feathers and Fish Hooks. It came out great, but it was very. It was my rookie attempt.

And so then I've had a few years in between to figure out to write a bunch more songs, to spend a lot more time, pretty much every waking hour, thinking about cool melodies and lyrics and observing what's around me at all times, and how can I use this to express an emotion and how can I put this into a song? And so imaginary man came out this group of songs.

We started recording, and we all kind of knew a little bit more what we were going to be doing in the studio. And we had something to look back on.

I would just sit in the vocal booth with my guitar and look into the control room, and whenever I saw Eric and Adam kind of bobbin. Adam would stand up. Eric would be sitting because he recorded it all as well.

Eric would be sitting, and Adam, when Adam started kind of like, pacing, it was like, all right, we're onto something. We're onto something. Then that was my meter to be like, okay, we got this. Let's work on this idea. That's that.

Speaker A

00:07:45.710 - 00:07:48.190

So were a lot of the songs developed in the studio that way?

Speaker B

00:07:48.850 - 00:08:22.480

I came to the studio with all the lyrics and, for the most part, chord structures and everything like that. And then, yeah, we were just like, let's find a groove. And so we started track one of the album.

Mr. Rodriguez, is the first song that we tracked, and that kind of set the tone for the rest of the tunes. Really grooving. Yeah. They just kind of fell together.

It was not effortless, but it was a bit of effortlessness and then a bit of precise decision making.

Speaker A

00:08:23.040 - 00:08:29.840

You also were able to bring in some friends and colleagues to support some of this. Tell me about the other folks who collaborate to make this record happen.

Speaker B

00:08:30.720 - 00:09:20.120

So we'll start with the band. Chip Kilpatrick played drums, and Matt Roland played the keyboards. Eli Beard played bass. These are all Southern boys. Eli is from Nashville.

Chip is from Birmingham. Matt is from Arkansas. All of these guys kind of live in Nashville. And then Jeffy Balin came and sang on some of the record. She lives in Nashville.

Mickey Echo is a Nashvillian. All these are friends. They're just friends.

And then Matt Vasquez, who I had not met before, him showing up to the studio, but he and Adam are really good friends. And Adam was like, matt will sound really good with your voice. So Matt came in, and we all hung out for a few days, and he sang a bunch.

And now Matt and I have become friends, and I'll see him in Austin when I go down there.

Speaker A

00:09:20.200 - 00:09:20.680

Cool.

Speaker B

00:09:20.920 - 00:09:41.490

Isaac Bird, who used to be in a band called the Bridges, a family band, and she sang on Feathers and Fishhooks as well. And so we brought her back in. She's singing on youn Love. I think that's the only track she sings on. Track? Yeah, it was just a nice family effort.

Everybody was behind the songs, and I called them, and they're like, yeah, I'd love to.

Speaker A

00:09:41.810 - 00:10:28.830

Hey, y'. All. This is Sloan Spencer, the host of Country Fried Rock. Those of y' all who listen on our podcasts, it's a quick hit of just the conversation.

If you want the full radio program with all the songs that we talk about, ask for it on your local radio station, joining 20 other stations across the country.

Get the [email protected] we'd like to send a big thank you to our Country Fried Rock listeners for supporting Country Fried Rock alum Alan Thompson, who is recovering from a diving accident.

If you'd like to donate, every dollar matters and it goes directly to helping defray his bills, you can find that link on Country Fried Rocks, Facebook or Twitter. It's a you caring donation page. Keep your ears peeled for a few different benefit shows in the Nashville area for Alan Thompson. We love you, man.

Get better soon.

Speaker B

00:10:29.070 - 00:11:30.580

The title of the new record is Imaginary man, and you can get yourself a copy at your local record store, my website, raylonbaxter.com or come see us at a live show and come say hi to me at the merch table and I'll sell you one myself. And if you're broke, I'll give it to you.

We finished the album in November of last year, so I did a tour in March as a trio with the drummer and the keyboard player, and we played Mother Mother a couple of songs. The tour that I do in Europe, I'll be playing solo. So all the songs.

This is the cool thing about a song is, you know, they can be translated in a different. All different forms. So I'll play a bunch of new songs in the solo form, and they're completely different than the record. Not completely.

The melodies are still there and obviously the lyrics don't change. But I'm a fan of presenting the songs in five different forms if I can, just to keep it exciting for me.

Speaker A

00:11:30.580 - 00:11:33.620

You mentioned a little bit about Austin. Is that Austin City Elements Fest?

Speaker B

00:11:34.100 - 00:11:55.460

Yeah. Sweet. That's going to be a lot of fun. Maybe Matt will come sing with us.

My buddy Shaky Graves, who I toured with last year, him and I have become really good friends. He's kind of one of my favorite guys out there making music right now. He's going to be around.

He might show up, but I've never played acl, so I'm looking forward to it. I love playing music in Austin, Texas.

Speaker A

00:11:55.740 - 00:12:05.020

On these solo tours. Are you solely touring alone or are you also pairing up with, like, buddy bands or other songwriters to share bills?

Speaker B

00:12:06.060 - 00:12:34.750

Sometimes I'll Borrow some bandmates from other bands. Usually if I'm an opening act as a solo, I'll just keep it solo because I like having the stage to myself.

I can get through a set between an acoustic and an electric guitar. I can do sometimes more than a full band can do. You know, just in terms of the presentation, I don't ever plan ahead for stuff like that.

But if some people are in town or who knows, you know, it's like, are you available? Cool, let's jam. Or. No, I got this.

Speaker A

00:12:34.830 - 00:12:45.550

You're in...