Wild Ponies

Doug and Telisha Williams, partners in love and music, have spent the last 20 years building their careers as the Nashville-based country-folk band Wild Ponies. They’ve released five albums, hosted the long-running Wild Ponies Happy Hour radio show on WSM, led nine annual distillery tour Trail Rides for fans and friends, and garnered devoted musical audiences all over the world. Their live shows, which have often totaled into the hundreds per year, are notoriously personal. Whether it’s Doug and Telisha with their acoustic guitar and upright bass, respectively, or a full rock ‘n’ roll outfit with drums and electric guitar, everyone is welcome at a Wild Ponies show and in their community.

Over the last decade, Doug and Telisha have also built the life they’ve always wanted — one they're wildly proud of and ready to share with the world. Their new album, Dreamers (out on 8/23/24 on No Evil Records), is the result of all their living, loving, and dreaming until now. Recorded and produced by singer-songwriter Brandy Zdan, featuring co-writes with Chely Wright, Ben Glover, and Nora Jane Struthers, and alongside guest musicians like The Sea The Sea (Chuck and Mira Costa) and Nashville pedal steel legend Fats Kaplin, Dreamers is Wild Ponies’ most ambitious record yet. These 11 songs explore what exists beyond the traditional nuclear family and detail the joys and heartbreaks they’ve experienced as part of a queer, polyamorous family undergoing fertility treatments and becoming foster parents in the state of Tennessee.

Sometimes these topics are abundantly apparent in song. For example, the ballad “Heartbeat” is about their FET (fetal embryo transfer) baby, Iris, and even features her in-utero heartbeat. “Love You Right Now,” with its counterbalance of mournful pedal steel and sing-song storytelling to the beat of a bouncing baby, details the challenges of the foster system in America; it serves as a tribute to their partner Laura and son River. And the twangy, shuffling, upbeat title track references not just their pandemic-era Dreamers Food Truck but all the dreams that came before and are yet to arise.

Years ago, on tour in Germany, a fan asked Doug and Telisha a question that stuck with them: Where are your dreams now?

Not what are your dreams, but where.

“Our dreams are everywhere, buzzing around like energetic bees,” Doug and Telisha begin, “They’re deep in the earth, sprawled and gnarly like the roots of an ancient Catawba tree. They live in and out of our own bodies, making their way to the backyard in the most unconventional way and pulling to stand only minutes after being born. At times, our dreams are hard to wrangle — a wild pony on the Carolina coast wandering the dunes.”

These dreams have manifested in song, captured on record in musical gallops and emotional wallops. By growing both their nuclear family and wider community, especially in LGBTQIA+ spaces, Doug and Telisha have come to the realization that time may be finite, but love is infinite.

“Our understanding of love has changed. It’s expanded. It’s huge and vast and so hard to hold. It spills over in ways it couldn’t have before — the way Iris topples over and laughs with her whole body at the sound of a few strums of a guitar. Or the way River croaks out a tiny whisper of ‘more hug’ before going to bed,” Doug and Telisha say.

“Singing together on a dusty stage, feeling our voices do that thing that we don’t understand, but that feels so good and weaves them into one. Looking out over a little crowd of people to our partner, Laura, with Iris strapped to her chest. She’s squatting down with her arms around River, and they’re smiling back at us. Our little family. Our big family. That’s where our dreams are now.”

Learn more at https://www.wildponies.net/

The Wilder Flower

The Wilder Flower is based in Western North Carolina and Upstate South Carolina and features three-part harmony vocals, fiddle, banjo, guitar, and bass. They have been building a unique sound for over three years around their original songs and tunes, whether a two-chord old-time inspired ballad or a modern, bluegrass, minor-filled melody. Featuring Danielle Yother, Molly Johnson, and Madeline Dierauf, The Wilder Flower will release their debut album, If I Wait Any More, in September 2024, with the first single available May 2024.

Learn more at https://thewilderflowermusic.com/

Tyler Dodson

Tyler Dodson is a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, born in the foothills of the Sauratown mountains in Stokes County, North Carolina, whose musical journey weaves a tapestry of sounds and stories as eclectic as the South itself. From crafting soul-stirring melodies or exploring and sharing the depths of his own psyche, he remains steadfast in his commitment to the art of story. 
 
His eclectic musical tastes, ranging from the rebellious anthems of The Strokes to the raw poetry of master songwriters like John Prine, Guy Clark and Tom Petty, all the way to soul pioneers such as Wilson Pickett and Otis Redding, helped to shape his distinctive blend of Americana; some even referring to Dodson as a “country Bill Withers”.
 
Dodson’s first gig was at a Taco Bell/gas station combo in King, NC where he played for tips and tacos. Since then, he has played at “The Stage on Broadway” in Nashville, opened for musician / songwriter Sam Lewis, recorded with Scott Boyer in Muscle Shoals, and was an up and coming favorite at Shakori Hills Festival. Dodson has played stages big and small, and he’s come a long way since penning his first song in 3rd grade, “Just Don’t Care No More”.
 
Tyler Dodson’s music constructs simple stories into profound messages that shine light through the cracks of a collective human experience that are at once haunting and familiar. His debut album, “Live at the West Salem Public House”, recorded by EMR Recorders own Doug Williams (The Avett Brothers, David Via, The Wood Brothers etc.) is slated for release in 2024.

Learn more at https://thisistylerdodson.com/