Author: Tyler Sobie
Date: 2009-08-12


Interview:
Trailer Choir has been playing Nashville since 2006. Now signed onto country superstars Toby Keith's Showdog records the trio is making more noise . Big Vinny, Crystal and Butter are touring heavily in support of their new album "Off The Hillbilly Hook." The smash single "Rockin' The Beer Gut," has been getting heavy radio play and Trailer Choir is beginning to cement quite the following. We caught up with Big Vinny and Crystal to talk about the new album, life on the road with a country star, and their days playing in small clubs around Nashville.

Starting out as a cover band how did your own music start getting into the set?

Big Vinny: Well, we were songwriters in Nashville and had just gotten our first publishing deal and we decided to start throwing a couple songs in the set to see how they'd work. We started of with 'Rockin the Beer Gut' that was the first one we ever played that was our own original song. Next thing you know everyone starts asking if they can buy a CD with that song on it. So we were like ma maybe there's something to this. Our first set of CDs we burned them ourselves off our computers and sold them for five dollars a piece. We started thinking maybe we could do this on a bigger level so we started doing our show in Nashville with all our original songs. But it all started with 'Beer Gut'.

What were you thinking when Toby Keith approached you and asked you to be on his record label?

Big Vinny: Well, at first I was thinking "holy crap I've gotta call my mom right now." You know, it was really cool. Literally, we didn't know he was in the bar when we were playing. We just got done playing and the guy that ran the show said hey Toby Keith's in the back and wants to meet you. Of course we thought he was joking. But sure enough we walked back there and there he was and the first thing he asked us is if we wrote those songs and we're like "yessir."

And it just went from there?

Big Vinny: Well then he asked us to put on another show for the record label and we did. Next thing you know we signed a record deal on Tuesday and on Thursday we were on a tour bus headed to Birmingham, Alabama on the first date of the summer tour.

Did you have fun playing those huge venues rather than the bars and small clubs you were accustomed to? Which do you prefer playing?

Big Vinny: As long as we can be playing and be on stage we love it. We love to be around people. But I'll tell you what, the first summer tour we didn't have a plan. The tour was already set. So Toby said we'll play you at beer gardens, we'll play you at side stages, in the parking lot sometimes just wherever we can figure it out. But what we realized is you can play the same show that you played for ten people and play the same show for 20,000 and people still feel you the same way. It's like you still gotta be that intimate even though you're with 20,000 people. It was actually really cool, and we put on the same show no matter what.

Crystal: You'll slightly tweak or change a couple little minor things but overall the show is the same as it was when we were playing shows here in Nashville five nights a week at little clubs here in town, little honky-tonks. But it really did translate to crowds of 15,000 people the same way it would to 500 here in Nashville.