A Chat with Bradley Cole Smith

Music, Passion and Perseverance: An Intimate Conversation with Atlanta Musicians

In this engaging conversation, two Atlanta-based musicians discuss their longstanding collaboration, the evolution of their music, and the deep-seated passion that keeps them performing regardless of fame or audience size.

Bradley Cole Smith & Nelson Nolen share insightful stories from their 23-year partnership, revealing how they adapt to different venues, their ambitions to release more music after a five-year hiatus, and how their approach to songwriting is influenced by life experiences and positivity. The conversation touches on the importance of venues like Atlanta's Smith's Olde Bar in fostering their career and the exhilaration of playing in songwriter festivals. They also reflect on the impact of the pandemic on their performance schedule and share a mutual appreciation for the TV show Ted Lasso, using it as a metaphor for their musical journey.

00:00 Introduction and Love for Singing

01:49 New Year Resolutions and Musical Goals

02:54 Challenges in Songwriting and Music Production

03:30 Long-term Collaboration and Band History

04:23 Memorable Band Experiences and Stories

06:21 Songwriting Partnership and Musical Contributions

10:11 Influence of Georgia and Music Scene Comparison

12:58 Transition from Band to Solo Career

14:06 Songwriting Inspirations and Positivity in Music

19:12 Impact of Pandemic on Music

20:27 Experience with Music Venues and Festivals

26:50 Role of Curiosity in Songwriting

Jason English: Thanks for joining.

Bradley Cole Smith: Thanks for doing this.

Jason English: really

appreciate

your time. So it's, the start of the year.

Do you guys have any resolutions?

Nelson Nolen: You already cleaned your house.

And we're just about to finish a new tune that we'll play in a little bit called Atlanta and my goal is to really Push that forward and release some music this year.

Jason English: Was Hilltop, the Hilltop EP, was that kind of the

last thing you've

Bradley Cole Smith: That was the last, yeah, that was the last thing we released. And that was about five years ago. And and we released a couple of singles. Springtime Magnolias and Holding On. And that's been a, that's been a while, over a year. And my goal was, we started about, almost three years ago, uh, we started.

We had six, the rhythm tracks for six songs, and I was like, we're gonna release a song a month this year, and we've released two. So that's the pace right, that I move at.

Jason English: So do you have a backlog of

prioritize, or is it

not

Bradley Cole Smith: I'm not the most prolific guy.

I'm prolific with ideas, but not finishing them. And so yes, we have a backlog of songs, but you know, about our record's worth.

Jason English: Got it.

Bradley Cole Smith: I mean, we could make a record pretty easily. Um, Not quickly, but we

Nelson Nolen: could do it.

Bradley Cole Smith: Not quickly. Yes. buT we did go in the studio recently last month and we pretty much knocked out a song in a couple of days and we're just about done mixing it.

And we hope to release it soon.

Jason English: Awesome.

And you

guys have been collaborating for

23, 24

years now, right?

Yes.

Give or take?

Bradley Cole Smith: Yes.

Nelson Nolen: Oh, that's right. Yeah, I knew

Bradley Cole Smith: coming to Georgia.

we kind of got together.

I'll go see the band and I was in playing different bands and in any way the Circumstances made it where we could play together and it's been really awesome in so many different ways Yeah, a lot of different projects

Jason English: Yeah, you stepped in, I think it was over in Alabama, right? One time when Double

wides guitar

Nelson Nolen: Oh, actually it was in Atlanta, I was

Bradley Cole Smith: that in Atlanta.

Uh, No, it was at,

Nelson Nolen: oh

Bradley Cole Smith: City Stages, yeah, in Birmingham And and our guitar player couldn't make it And so, so Nelson played And Yeah, and then he kept

Nelson Nolen: It

Bradley Cole Smith: turned out really well

Nelson Nolen: Yeah, we were, it was fun. It was a great festival that they had for about 10 years, right. Downtown in Birmingham. It was awesome. We had like a. Saturday or a Sunday evening set and Dwight Yoakum was playing like two people after us.

Bradley Cole Smith: Tell the

Nelson Nolen: story about

I had played a gig the night before and I noticed a bolt rolling around the floor. And I thought my buddy was an idiot and had let his guitar bolt fall off. So it's getting ready to start and I look. And the thing wasn't there. The input was not there. And I'm like, well, I'm the fricking idiot and I'm fired as hell.

It's I won't even have one gig with this band. And I look over there, man. And there's this, and there's Dwight Yoakum's guitar tech setting up 18 guitars. He's he goes big old guy, tats and everything. He waves me over. I was like,

he

locks the thing down there and gets it right back. It was like going in a pit lane.

It's been a great, fun deal, collaboration.

Jason English: So is it more of a song songwriting partnership?

Or is it kinda a musical partnership?

The last

two decades?

Bradley Cole Smith: I typically write the songs What Nelson is really great at is once the song, adding like a Simple, great melody with a mandolin or guitar.

He's really fantastic at doing that and harmonies and all that. So I'll typically write the song and then bring it and then we'll shape it, you know?

And Nelson does that with a lot of people around town. I would say, I mean, he plays with Michelle Malone and her Canyonland band and played with her for her regular set on New Year's,

and plays

I think we play together mostly

I have referred to Nelson as my whoopie,

Nelson Nolen: But it's fun. That's a fun way for me to do it. And if it's something that's natural, it makes it fun and it doesn't make it easy necessarily, but it's something that makes sense. If there's a skillset that would be something mine because it's totally different from Bradley. So it's a complimentary partnership.

Jason English: And you've

said in

the past, too, like the collaboration and the teaming, that's everything to you.

Nelson Nolen: It really is. Amen. Yeah,

Jason English: Well, So back to songwriting. Every artist is

different. it seems like the work that you've put out

It's not full of a ton of anxiousness and anxiety and depression and breakups and things like that. It's generally positive. Is that fair?

And is that intentional?

Bradley Cole Smith: I hope that's how it comes across. Because it's evolved. I played in a band called double wide from 91 through about 97 and we toured around and

we're having a reunion show at Smith's old bar on February 2nd and I was listening to some of the old songs the other day and some of them are are I have some desperate lyrics.

And I said, oh, it's left to my own devices. It's So depressing like slow. I will kill this room if left to my own devices unless I think about you know, I mean

interesting

people want to hear more upbeat stuff, but I tried I try these days to look on the positive side and

My, I want to write a good melody and I want people to feel it, you know?

Jason English: So, one of, the, one of your songs that's, I think it's pretty

positive is

Springtime Magnolias.

Can I just say, I think, I could be wrong, I think that's the only song

I've ever heard

that references the

masters.

Did you

have to get special permission to

Bradley Cole Smith: the

Jason English: them in

the

Jason English: Is that about you and your brother?

Bradley Cole Smith: It's about my, my, yes, it's about my brother and me.

Climbing this tree that was out in front of my grandparent's house and my grandfather we'd go to church every Sunday with my family and then we'd go over to my parent's house, I mean my grandparent's house for lunch and my grandfather would sit in his Puke Pink Noga Hyde chair and watch sporting events and it would be the Kentucky Derby or the Masters or whatever was on, A lot of times it was golf and so that just came out.

But that was really about, I mean, we'd go climb that tree and half the time we'd fall out and you know, hit the ground bleeding .

Jason English: I've only been in Georgia, you know, two or three years now. Springtime is different here. in Georgia, right?

Bradley Cole Smith: Different from Colorado for sure, yeah.

Jason English: Just the lush,

The

lushness. beautiful. Green,

Bradley Cole Smith: When I was in college, I, I, I went to University of Georgia and I I took a winter quarter off and went out to, Alta Utah and worked at at a ski resort out there and ski bummed around and, and we went, but we lived in Salt Lake City and we went and saw, uh, Driving Miss Daisy and the, you know, it's just set in the springtime and

Nelson Nolen: even a mile from here.

Bradley Cole Smith: Yeah. And I loved being out in Utah, but I was crying during the movie because all the dogwoods were blooming

and

Jason English: That's good. Is Georgia, is that, is it, has

that been an inspirational for you in terms of songwriting or

more about your experiences?

Bradley Cole Smith: More experiences, I would say. I mean, I love Atlanta and I love living in Georgia and I love living in Colorado, but I live here because of friends and family and history, you know. And

Jason English: music scene in the nineties in Colorado versus Atlanta? You know, because I lived in

Colorado for a bit

industry here. What are your thoughts about that experience, you know, 30 years ago versus the

last couple decades here?

Bradley Cole Smith: Well, I think we, we moved out to Colorado after graduating because I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. And so we moved out there. I moved out there with some friends. A guy named Stuart Marshall who plays in the band, or played in the band Stuart Winfield. They still play occasionally. And a buddy of mine, Hugh White.

And we met some people out there and started Double Wide. And we would play five nights a week in Aspen. And then we'd go to Telluride and Boulder and Vail and places like that. And we traveled around. But after a couple years of that, It's so landlocked out there. It's hard, you know, once you get out of the ski towns you gotta drive a ways to get anywhere.

And so we moved back here pretty much for that reason. So we could tour around the southeast.

Jason English: Can

Nelson Nolen: solo

Bradley Cole Smith: Yeah. I, so, so this is what I was gonna say earlier.

We,

we played in double wide and we had some member member changes, you know, some things work out, get, getting along in a band is hard. And so we had some people who were in the band and left the band or however, and then it just got to the point where I thought consciously, I could easily be 40 years old and driving around in a van with these guys.

Now I love them, but you know, I had to think is this, at some point you have to think that, is this what you want to do? And I love playing music. I don't love the travel that much. And and so I, we, I kind of pulled out of it and we stopped playing.

Jason English: That's neat. What is it about the music that drew you back?

Bradley Cole Smith: music to you? You know,

Jason English: What is music to you? You know, what does it mean to

Bradley Cole Smith: you?

So it's, what's fun for me is when I feel like we're like, in it, and playing well, and that, that's an accomplishment, I think.

Jason English: So one thing is interesting, I saw you guys play, last month at Trader Vic's in, in

Atlanta.

And this

is, I asked this question

out of full respect for you

and

for all the other

artists that

are trying to like, either make it or get their art out. But do you ever have a hard time when you're on stage at a venue like that, where, you know, there's a few dozen people, and most of them are having their own conversation, you know? Do you ever wanna put your

instrument down and be

like, won't you listen to me? Or does that, does it

not matter,

Nelson Nolen: it's really I mean even, I think, If the band sounds good, like we'll do the duo or we'll do a three piece with a percussionist Or we'll do a four piece or we'll do a whole band or whatever have

I'm in the middle of a song or after a song But you know, we understand people need to talk and chatter and stuff like that and sometimes it's a bug but a lot of the times When you're on the stage and we're amplified, you don't really hear it so much. Now, something like the songwriters or like Eddie' Attic or an acoustic show, you know, sometimes it can get to be a bit much.

But then again, a lot of places are big enough to where people that want to listen can be closer and people that want to talk can go around the corner or to the bar or whatever. But, sure, I mean that's a thing,

Jason English: well, I think it's,

I say it out of admiration because you have to be passionate. Like, it has to be something

deep inside your

soul,

you know, to do that and not really worry about, Whether, you know, there's a million people, or there's 30, 000 people, or,

you know what I'm

Nelson Nolen: Yeah, we know what we want to do. And if we're sounding good, that's all that matters to me. And especially because if it's original music that Bradley's written and brought me in, we have ideas and things change sometimes.

I wanted to be in whatever band I was singing in, and that's what drives me. so our performance and what we sound you know, we'll give high fives even if we're the only people that knew that we were good.

That's a fun gig.

Jason English: So back to the songwriting and sort of the positivity. So, Holding On

is relatively new

The single that you released a year or two

ago. Yup. Is that right?

Tell us about

that. what's the inspiration for that? What was the context?

Bradley Cole Smith: I mean, honestly, that, the inspiration for that is having a Calgon moment.

Because it's going to change, Right, right. I talk to myself about that a lot when you're having a, you know, you're

having a bad day and just wait till tomorrow. Just get through to tomorrow because it's all going to be different.

Jason English: Did the pandemic

change your mindset or adjust, you know, or give you ideas around lyrics or songs?

or Not really.

Bradley Cole Smith: I

I don't, not that I can, not that I can really Yeah. Yeah. it was a slog, wasn't it?

It's a

Nelson Nolen: blur. from like maybe 30 gigs a year regularly. You know, all stuff we, regular, just everything's going to happen da, down to four.

In a year,

And couldn't see each other, couldn't, I mean, it was a tough one. And then, rescheduling and all that stuff.

Then the next year, there was like 55. And I was like, shit, almost too much rescheduled and all that stuff. And now it's kind of like getting back to the normal.

So that's been really good, but it's it's even and out because that was a rough one just to have four gigs in a year for people like us.

Jason English: No, I can't

Nelson Nolen: That's not easy.

Jason English: Yeah.

Yeah. I can't imagine. Yeah.

Bradley Cole Smith: And

I would've, I guess if a lot of people put out records and did a lot of that I didn't have that much output. It was a weird

Jason English: Yeah, really weird. Well, you all mentioned the venues, so I know, Nelson, you've got a history.

with your brother.

Nelson Nolen: Smith's O'Bar

30 years this month.

Jason English: neat, yeah. I think,

Nelson Nolen: 25th of January will be the 30 years of Smith's O'Bar.

I

ran

Nelson Nolen: Yeah, we had to paint the thing and get put the new curtain in there. Put a bar. There wasn't a bar. It wasn't a back bar there in the main bar room and man, my brother Dan was going [00:21:00] through a bunch of pictures. I'll share him with on a personal time. Old pictures and man, it's amazing. Everybody looks really young and when we're painting the bar and saying this is one of the lighting.

The making sure the curtain worked 'cause Dan wanted the curtain and there, where else do you get a curtain call you? It is at Smith's. Seriously, you know, it's one of the coolest unthought of points of how it's so cool. Most venues, people just kinda walk up and put their cigarette out and say, we're gonna start now.

You know, if you want it, you get a full pro curtain call. It doesn't matter who you are, ATS Smith's and they've remodeled the whole place and everything. So yeah, that's that. That one is near and dear to all of our hearts. Yeah.

Jason English: Did y'all have any idea of what it was gonna become?

Nelson Nolen: No,

No, Dan, my brother Dan was partners with the late Mike Reeves. We lost Mike in May of last year and they've actually named the the room, the Mike Reeves music room, hand painted over when you walk up the steps.

that,

Because now you've got LED lighting and all the, you know, the digital. I mean, it's amazing. He's kept up with the times. Invested probably five, six, dropped five or six PAs in there over 30 years. But yeah, I think it's close to what Dan was envisioning. And he's grown it out too. A lot of things go down on downstairs and they have music down there.

And all kinds of things. There's the Atlanta room downstairs. That used to be a flower shop. They just knocked the wall out. So there's two stages in there.

You know, they kind of got it down to a science where they'll get a new act in, and there's a lot of people you've heard of that might play the Atlanta Room.

And have 10 people there. Then they'd sell that out with 70 people and kick them upstairs and then they got 200 people, you know, they kind of got the flow down.

Jason English: It's

like a

it's like a promotion you know, you sort of have to

qualify it

to

Nelson Nolen: kind of get, yeah, and they know who's good. And all the employees have notes right down to the barbacks.

Yeah.

Jason English: what

are

some of

the

other venues that you love

playing around town?

Bradley Cole Smith: We used to play the Chameleon Club a lot back in the 90s. Dark

Nelson Nolen: Horse.

Yeah, Dark Horse downstairs was good. Eddie's Attic was awesome.

Bradley Cole Smith: Yeah,

Which kind of

brings

me to a topic of how, I mean, we spent a lot of years banging it out in bars with a full band and playing rock and loud and what has kind of brought me back.

and And going into listening rooms as opposed to loud bars where you need a drummer and all that that's really changed my perspective on writing because people are there and they're listening to you and they're listening to your lyrics.

And in addition to that, it's almost as important as what you're saying between the songs as what you're playing.

Nelson Nolen: Yeah, that's what people want to, if they're going to see a songwriter festival, they want to see what's the song about. And then a lot of times when we do it, they'll pair Bradley up.

Bradley Cole Smith: I

Nelson Nolen: did

I did

Yeah, we did too. We would go there. . You know, be man, that sure would be cool to play there. And then Dave Franklin, a good friend of mine he got a call and he goes Hey Nelson, will you come play that thing at the beach with me, ? I'm like yeah, I'll be there.

You know what I mean? And then Bradley got in and if you have other friends, and we've met new people down there.

Jason English: Well, I love it. I was

there.

last year for the first time. It

was a totally different experience than

a

music festival,

You know, it's Just the cafes

and

the record store.

Bradley Cole Smith: yeah.

Jason English: Restaurants.

It's, just all

unique.

Nelson Nolen: workshops and stuff.

You can go see people.

That's like with

Nelson Nolen: Fulbright, right?

Bradley Cole Smith: Yeah. John Fulbright's, one guy, he's from Oklahoma and I'm, I can't say enough about him is, uh, a songwriter and a singer and a player. It's just unbelievable. And I'd never heard of him

yeah.

Nelson Nolen: It was earlier, or last, I would say earlier this year, but last year Bradley was like, dude, I got you a ticket, this guy John Fulbright. He goes, I bought you a ticket. And you're going to come and you're going to see, you're going to come sit with us and you got to see this guy and I was blown away, definitely trust his opinion.

Jason English: So, I think you all know the context of this podcast in terms of curiosity and the inspiration being around this show that was on the last few years called Ted Lasso.

Did you watch the show and, this idea of curiosity? How much does that play into your songwriting?

Bradley Cole Smith: Well,

I, think the biggest lesson from the show is that, I mean, like I said, I've been in and out of music a few times and

because

it comes and goes. Like a soccer team, you know, you, you have your days and you have, you, you have your good days and you have your bad days, but you got to just keep kicking it down the road.

And that's the biggest lesson I would say from that show. and keep your head up, you know.

Jason English: Yeah, that's neat.

Can you Play a couple tunes?