What's The Reason For This Podcast

🦬🌌 Buffalo Galaxy hit the dungeon for a WTRFT Session, and this one gets weird in exactly the right way.

First of all, I somehow screwed up the intro badly enough that we had to do it twice. Strong start. 😂🔥

Then the boys from Minnesota settled in and ripped through a set that shows exactly why “acid grass” fits them so damn well.

🎶 In the session:

🚂 “Life Is a Train” A full-speed opener about work, running on fumes, and riding the thing until it gives out.

🎻 A Peter original Dark, gritty, and just a little ominous in the best way.

🌄 “Think of What You’ve Done” A Stanley Brothers classic, complete with some very real concerns about surviving the high notes at elevation. 😂

🌑 “Darker Now” A Buffalo Galaxy original that lets the whole spacey, late-night side of the band really come out.

There’s also mandolin abuse, lost keys, oxygen jokes, shamanism, and the usual amount of dungeon nonsense. 🪕😂

This is Buffalo Galaxy doing what they do best: tight picking, weird turns, big energy, and just enough cosmic dirt to keep it interesting.

🎥 Full Buffalo Galaxy WTRFT Session is live now 🎙️ Full interview is live too

Come for the bluegrass.

Stay for the acid trip. 🦬🌌🔥

🔥🦬 This episode basically rose from the ashes.

We had some technical issues right out of the gate, the podcast gods tried to kill it, and somehow Buffalo Galaxy still made it through the smoke and into the dungeon. 😂💻🔥

Honestly, that feels pretty on brand for a band that spends half its life keeping a tour bus alive.

🦬🌌 Buffalo Galaxy finally made it into the dungeon, and this one goes from Minnesota bluegrass to full-on acid grass chaos real quick.

I first caught these guys at a pre-party in Minneapolis during my birthday run last year, snuck away from poster line for a couple songs, immediately called Shay, and said, “We need this band on.”

Fast forward and now they’re actually here. 😂🔥

We get into:

🪕 How Buffalo Galaxy came together in the Twin Cities scene

🎻 The Midwest bluegrass and jam roots that shaped their sound

🌌 Why “acid grass” might actually be the best description for what they do

🚌 Life on the road in Martha, their glorious airport-shuttle-turned-tour-bus

👨‍👧‍👦 Zach becoming the official Band Dad, booking shows and keeping the whole circus moving

🎸 Adam joining the band and somehow looking like he’s been there forever after only a handful of shows

💸 The very real economics of touring, ticket sales, merch, gas, repairs, and eating shit until the math finally starts working

🚐 Bus breakdowns, blown tires, white-knuckle drives and all the glamorous parts of “living the dream”

And then we get to the road stories.

😂 One guy gets left at a Wisconsin gas station with no phone

💦 Another bass player puts his hand in what he thinks is leaking fuel and discovers it is definitely not fuel

☠️ Somebody drinks antifreeze because apparently this episode needed one more terrible decision

We also talk about why supporting independent bands actually matters.

🎟️ Buy the ticket

👕 Buy the merch

📱 Share the tour dates

🎥 Take a video

🤘 Tag the band

❤️ Help your local scene grow

Because behind every “cool tour” is usually five dudes in a shuttle bus fixing something in a parking lot and wondering how much a new coil pack costs.

We also get into their new live release Don’t Pet the Fluffy Cow Vol. 2, the process of digging through live recordings, and why Buffalo Galaxy is a band you really need to hear in the room.

🎧 Full interview is live

🎥 Go check out the WTRFT Session

🦬 Follow Buffalo Galaxy and go see them when they roll through your town

Come for the acid grass.

Stay for the antifreeze. 😂🪕🌌

🔥🪕 The Fretliners took over the dungeon for a WTRFT Session, and this one is the perfect companion piece to When the Kettle Sings.

They came in swinging with songs off the brand new record, stripped down around the mic and played the way this band does best: live, loose, and ridiculously tight.

🎶 In the session:

🌲 “Whippoorwill” A groovy opener that immediately sets the tone.

🐢 “Snapping Turtle” An instrumental Sam literally wrote after finding a giant snapping turtle while out with his mandolin. Which is already weird enough.

Then we made it even dumber.

There’s a perfect little knock in the song that I immediately decided needed a confetti cannon 💥🎉 and then Tom had the brilliant idea to hit the second one from behind the band.

So naturally, “Snapping Turtle” got the full DOUBLE CONFETTI CANNON treatment. 😂🎉💥🎉

Completely unnecessary.

Absolutely worth it.

🍂 “Autumn Rivers Bend” A beautiful one about life on the road, time moving too fast, and wanting to get back home to the person you love. ❤️

🌌 “Hole in the Sky” One of my personal favorites off the album and another reminder of how damn good these guys sound live.

This session is exactly why I love having bands in the dungeon.

No huge production. No bullshit. Just great songs, great players, a microphone, and apparently enough confetti to permanently ruin my carpet. 😂

🎥 The full Fretliners WTRFT Session is live now 🎧 When the Kettle Sings is out now

Go watch the session. Go listen to the record.

Then go support the damn band. 🔥🪕🎙️

🔥🪕 The Fretliners are back in the dungeon, and more importantly, their brand new album When the Kettle Sings drops TODAY.

This episode is all about the record.

We dig into the two-year process behind it, how the band wanted to capture something more raw and alive, and what happened when T Bone Burnett and Daniel Tashian helped bring that vision into focus. 🎙️🔥

Instead of building the album piece by piece, The Fretliners leaned into what they already do best:

🎻 Playing together in a room

🎙️ Gathering around a single mic

🚫 No click tracks

🎧 No headphones

📼 Real tape

🔥 Real performances

They walked into the studio for three days and came out with 15 songs recorded, letting the imperfections, movement, and chemistry of the band become part of the record instead of trying to polish all of it away.

We go track by track through some of the stories behind When the Kettle Sings, including:

🐢 “Snapping Turtle” and the actual snapping turtle that inspired it

❤️ “Stitch Up My Heart” and the deeply personal story behind the song

👻 The unexplained sound captured at the end of that recording

🎙️ Molly Tuttle joining them on “Josephina”

🎻 Stuart Duncan coming in and absolutely doing Stuart Duncan things

🌧️ The Grateful Dead connections hidden inside “Bells of Rafael”

🤠 Riders in the Sky appearing on “The Stone”

🔥 Why “Storms” went from a last-minute addition to the opening track

And we talk about how this album represents where The Fretliners are right now after everything that has changed, evolved, and grown since their first record.

There’s a lot of history on this thing. A lot of emotion. A lot of incredible players.

But underneath all of it, When the Kettle Sings still sounds like four dudes standing around a microphone playing the hell out of some songs.

And that might be the coolest part.

🎧 When the Kettle Sings is OUT TODAY.

Go listen to the record. Go buy the vinyl. Go support the band.

Then come hang out with us in the dungeon and hear how the whole damn thing came together. 🪕🔥🎙️

👉 thefretliners.com

🌱🎻 Grassfed Bluegrass is growing up fast, and Riley and Miller came on WTRFT to talk about how the hell they’re pulling it off.

They went from bluegrass fans and festival volunteers to building their own festival on the Outer Banks and basically learning everything as they go. 😅

We get into:

🎟️ Booking bands 🏕️ Finding the right venue 🍺 Beer, vendors and logistics 🚽 The extremely glamorous world of porta potties 📱 Social media and marketing 👕 Merch 🚗 Parking 💸 Ticket sales 😬 And the constant feeling of “oh shit, we actually have to make this happen”

We also talk about how Billy Strings helped pull them deeper into bluegrass, how volunteering at other festivals taught them what happens behind the scenes, and why they’ve built Grassfed around community, quality, good people and doing things the right way. 🌱❤️🎶

And of course, we tell the story of how I met Riley and Miller…

🥶 Freezing in line in Asheville

🥃 Shooters

📜 A Billy Strings poster

😂 Me folding that poster directly in front of Miller

😳 Miller looking at me like she had just witnessed a felony

Somehow, years later, those same people decided it would be a good idea to bring me in to emcee their festival. 🎤🔥

This year’s lineup is stacked:

🔥 ShadowGrass 🪕 East Nash Grass 🧭 Broken Compass 🏡 Front Porch 🎻 All She Wrote 🌹 Red Bud 🎶 Pickety Split 🚐 Podunk Ramblers

Eight bands. Two stages. One day. 🌱🎶🔥

🎧 Full episode with the founders of Grassfed Bluegrass is live now

📍 Nags Head, North Carolina 🎟️ Use code WTRFT at grassfedbluegrass.com for discounted tickets

Come for the bluegrass. Stay to find out why anyone thought giving me a microphone was a good idea. 😂🎤🌱

🔥 Water Tower 💦 finally made it into the dungeon and this one is equal parts bluegrass, punk rock, busking, internet chaos, and good old fashioned DIY hustle.

These guys call themselves punk rock bluegrass, which sounds confusing until you hear the story.

They started with traditional string music, punk rock roots, DIY flyers, busking on freeway off ramps, and a whole lot of figuring it out as they went. Then the pandemic hit, touring disappeared, and somehow that pushed them even harder into building a community online.

🎶 We get into:

🪕 How Water Tower went from square dances to punk rock bluegrass 🚦 Busking on LA freeway off ramps at 6 in the morning

🎻 How the current lineup found each other through busking and random musical collisions

🎸 Why Bela Fleck, Punch Brothers, punk rock, jazz, and old time music all somehow fit in the same universe

📱 How they built an online following without losing the human connection

❤️ Kenny’s approach to dealing with internet hate by giving people more kindness instead of more bullshit

📸 How Jessica became the secret weapon behind their content and helped turn the band into a digital machine

🤝 Collaborations with artists like Sierra Ferrell, Nick Hexum, John C. Reilly, and more

🎟️ The very real challenge of turning views into actual people buying tickets

The funniest part might be that half this band basically met because somebody was busking in somebody else’s spot. 😂

But underneath all the chaos, this episode is really about community, persistence, and refusing to wait for permission.

Water Tower built this thing from freeway ramps, sidewalks, livestreams, liquor stores, social media, and a lot of weird little moments that somehow kept stacking into something bigger. And through all of it, their whole philosophy is pretty simple:

Love the music. Love the people. Keep showing up. ❤️🎶

🎧 New episode with Water Tower is live now

Go watch it. Go listen to it. Buy the ticket before the day of the show.

And if you see somebody busking on an LA off ramp at 6 a.m. maybe don’t ignore them. They might end up at Telluride. 😂🔥

🎸🔥 Jon Stickley finally made it onto WTRFT and this one goes DEEP.

We talk Broke Mountain, learning bluegrass on the fly, the difference between East Coast and Colorado bluegrass, the influence of Jeff Austin, and what happens when a guitar player gets so good that he starts casually discovering new things he didn’t even know he could do. 😂

We also get into:

🪕 The absolutely ridiculous Broke Mountain lineup

🎶 Going from punk and indie rock to flatpicking bluegrass

🏔️ How Colorado changed the way he heard the music

🔥 Playing the Jeff Austin tribute and trading licks with Courtlyn

🥁 Why the Jon Stickley Trio basically said “nah” to the normal bluegrass rulebook

🎸 Building a sound around weird rhythms, different chords, and late-night festival chaos

🤝 Playing with Larry Keel and trying to make your heroes laugh onstage

And then the episode takes a much more personal turn.

Jon opens up about his son Callum, his STXBP1 diagnosis, and how his family turned one of the hardest moments of their lives into Strings for Callum, using the music community to raise awareness and money for research. ❤️

That part really says everything about this scene.

When somebody needs help, people show up.

We also talk about Jon’s new teaching platform, where he’s taking everything he learned the hard way and breaking it down for the rest of us regular wooks who need the video slowed down another 37 times. 😂🎸

🎧 New episode with Jon Stickley is live now

Go watch it. Go listen to it. Support Team Callum.

And if you’ve ever wondered how somebody becomes an absolute monster on guitar, apparently the answer is practice for 20 years and then still tell everyone you’re figuring it out. 😂🔥

🔥 Season 3 keeps getting weirder in the best way.

This week we’ve got Austin Kress, better known as Stony McBlaze, in the dungeon and this one is a full send. 😂🌿🎤

Austin breaks down how a homeschooled Christian kid chasing serious acting in LA somehow turned into one of the internet’s favorite stoners, built a massive following, ended up at the X Games, and then had to figure out how the hell to turn viral fame into an actual comedy career.

🎤 We get into:

🌿 How Stony McBlaze was born

📱 Going viral almost immediately on TikTok

🚀 Riding the algorithm straight to the X Games

💸 Why millions of views do NOT automatically mean millions of dollars

🎭 The difference between playing Stony and being Austin on stage

😂 Why writing stand-up as Stony completely failed

🎟️ The absolutely ridiculous story of almost getting an Austin show cancelled with eight tickets sold

📲 Why having a huge following does not mean people will actually leave their couch and buy a ticket

🧠 Building jokes from real life instead of chasing cheap shock value

🎤 Trying to evolve from “Stony McBlaze” into Austin McBlaze without confusing the hell out of everyone

🍦 And, obviously, a completely necessary breakdown of elite stoner snacks

The funniest part of this episode might be Austin explaining that one of his biggest problems is that people know Stony McBlaze but have no clue he actually does stand-up. Which is a pretty wild problem to have when hundreds of thousands of people follow you. 😂 And then there’s the Austin, Texas show…

Eight tickets sold. 😬

A pissed-off venue. 😡

Random people overseas buying tickets. 🌍

A last-minute social media rally. 📲

And somehow a packed room and a great show at the end of it. 😂🔥

Underneath all the stoner jokes and chaos, this is also a really good conversation about creative identity, social media, stand-up, failure, vulnerability, and figuring out how to turn internet attention into something real.

🎧 Season 3 Episode 3 is live now

🌿 Follow Stony McBlaze

🎤 Go see Austin do stand-up when he comes to your city

📲 And for the love of God, if you say you’re coming to the show... BUY THE TICKET. 😂🔥

🚨 Season 3 keeps rolling with Ben Wright of the Henhouse Prowlers and Bluegrass Ambassadors.

This one goes way beyond bluegrass.

🎻 We get into:

🌍 How the Henhouse Prowlers became musical ambassadors around the world 🪕 The wild story of Ben buying his first banjo for $199.99 🤝 Why music can connect people even when they don’t speak the same language 🇳🇪 Playing banjo alongside an ancestor of the instrument in Niger 🎶 Learning songs from the countries they visit and bringing them back home 🚢 Performing for refugees from dozens of countries in Rotterdam 🔥 Walking onstage with musicians they had never met and figuring it out in real time 🌱 Why community, curiosity, and making people feel seen sit at the heart of everything they do

Ben also opens up about how these experiences changed the mission of the Bluegrass Ambassadors, turning it into something much bigger than touring. It’s about using music to break down barriers, celebrate culture, and remind people that connection can start with something as simple as listening.

One of the wildest moments comes from West Africa, where Ben realized he was playing his banjo alongside an instrument widely considered one of its ancestors. Two musicians from completely different worlds, connected instantly through sound. 🪕🌍🤯

And in Rotterdam, that mission came full circle with performances for refugees and an unrehearsed collaboration that Ben described as scary, imperfect, authentic, and completely human. ❤️🎶

🎧 Watch or listen to the full conversation with Ben Wright.

🌎 Learn more about the Bluegrass Ambassadors and the work they’re doing around the world.

🔥 Follow What’s The Reason For This? for more conversations about the music, people, and community behind the scene.

🚨 SEASON 3 IS HERE — and we’re kicking it off with a bang.

For the first episode of Season 3 of What’s The Reason For This?, we’re joined by Cotter Ellis of Goose for a conversation from the Mishawaka in Colorado.

Since our last conversation, a lot has changed.

💿 Goose released Big Modern! 🏟️ Played Madison Square Garden ⛰️ Took over Red Rocks 🏠 Crashed a Colorado house party 🚀 And continued one of the wildest runs in live music

🥁 We get into:

💿 Creating Big Modern! and finding Cotter’s voice inside Goose

🏟️ What MSG and Red Rocks actually felt like from behind the kit

🪿 The Goose hate, internet critics, and musicians talking shit

🌱 Why growing the jam scene matters more than guarding it

🚌 The real grind of touring and life on the road

🥣 Going from vans and microwave oatmeal to sold-out venues

🥋 The story behind “Suck It, Storm” and “Kung Fu Fighting”

🧩 Goosemas clues, fan theories, and the world being built around the band

❤️ Why the people behind Goose might be the real secret to their success

Cotter also opens up about imposter syndrome, criticism, supporting other artists, success, and what it takes to keep chasing this life when there are no guarantees.

🔥 Season 3 starts right here.

🎧 Watch or listen to the full conversation with Cotter Ellis of Goose.

🪿 Follow What’s The Reason For This? for more conversations from inside the jam, bluegrass, and live music world.

💬 And send this episode to the friend who still thinks Goose is Christian rock. 😂