Sometimes I wonder, was I raised in the mountains, or did the mountains raise me? I was dipped and stewed in rich roots and my music and writing reflects that very image. Both of my papaws were coal miners, and my great papaw drove a train. I spent my summers living beside a catfish farmer, running trotlines, fishing with my father and trying to stay out of trouble with my mother, which hails my nickname, “IODINE”. Growing up in the heart of the mountains, where the lines of East Tennessee and Virginia intersect, it’s no wonder that I ended up writing and singing about a lot of the things I was exposed to growing up. I was a very observant kid with radar like ears, out for stories, stories that I lived, not learned. My mother is from Big Stone Gap, VA and my father is from Appalachia, VA. I was an only child looking for endless ways to entertain myself. If I was in my element, I was good and I mean real good at what I was conjuring up....