Behind the Scenes at the Grand Ole Opry: Nashville Artists Celebrate Disney Classics in a Country Music EP

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Speaker 1: Taking a Walk Nashville.

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Speaker 2: Hi, this is Sarah Harrelson, your host of Taking Walk Nashville, and today I have a very special episode for you because it includes three different artists and I am taking a walk with them here at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville at the Main Street Country Disney event. Disney just put out a country EP called Main Street Country, featuring five different country artists with their take and their country version of classic Disney songs. Join me on the red carpet and studio way of the Grandel Opry as I talk to country artist Restless Road, Breeland and Dasha. Welcome to Taking a Walk Nashville with your hosts, singer songwriter Sarah Harrelson. Hi.

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Speaker 3: Everyone at Sarah Harrelson.

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Speaker 2: You're host of the Take a Walk Nashville podcast.

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Speaker 1: Here with me today is a Restless Road.

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Speaker 2: At the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. We just had the Main Streets Huntry EP event for Disney. What was it like for you guys when you got asked to contribute a song on this EP?

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Speaker 4: Honestly, it was a dream come true.

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Speaker 5: We all grew up big Disney fans, and I mean anytime Disney asked you to do anything. You say, you say yeah, you say yes, you know there's there's us to it, don't question. And so to be just a small part of this amazing EP with so many amazing artists was just a dream come true.

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Speaker 4: And we have never looked cooler to our kids, that's.

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Speaker 1: True, of course.

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Speaker 2: And how easy was it to pick the Climb from the Hannah Montana movie. Was it a unanimous decision or did it take some thinking?

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Speaker 6: It definitely jumped off the page to us right away. We had we had a couple others, but I think the other song that we were really considering as well was You'll Be in My Heart And we're really glad ad that Maddie and Tay were able to do that one so we can get to enjoy their version.

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Speaker 1: They did an amazing job.

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Speaker 6: But yeah, when we saw the Climb, we felt like that's a song that we we've always wished we could put out and so now thanks to Disney, we can, and we're just so happy we got to do it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I love your version of the song and the harmonies on it.

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Speaker 1: Do you each have a.

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Speaker 2: Favorite Disney movie you watched growing up?

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Speaker 4: Yeah?

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Speaker 3: I've said this a bunch today. But I love Sky High.

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Speaker 7: It's like one of those, like it's one of those like it was like a TV movie, right, but like I don't know it was. I mean, yeah, I just I don't know. I think the superheroess of it and it just like it looks cool. It was a high school thing, you know what I mean. Every every kid wants to be able to fly and like what your power?

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Speaker 1: Your power be.

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Speaker 7: I've always wanted to fly, like honestly, like if I could fly, like I would do that could fly?

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Speaker 6: I mean I think my top two were a Little Mermaid and Lion King.

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Speaker 1: Okay, those are like when I was little, very little.

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Speaker 4: Crossover Lion King and Toy Story.

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Speaker 5: Okay, I'll probably watch Toy Story though probably more than anything.

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Speaker 4: I love that.

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Speaker 1: If you could be any Disney character, who would you be?

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Speaker 4: Woody?

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Speaker 2: Okay?

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Speaker 6: I think Hercules because I'd really like I'd like, you know, beach seasons coming up, so.

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Speaker 3: Stitch, Oh, I'll stitch. I like that.

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Speaker 1: That's it.

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Speaker 4: That's eye Wanda.

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Speaker 1: You can even do a voice.

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Speaker 2: Well, what was it like being in the studio recording the climb together?

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Speaker 4: It was awesome?

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Speaker 6: Oh you had it was epic we uh, we got to do it with two of our favorite producers and what we think are like the best producers you could possibly have, Dan Huff and Lindsay Rhymes and yeah, they just I mean we we tried to uh stay true to the original, but I think you know, that's a female vocalist song, so kind of having three dudes in a trio, this is kind of an interesting flip. And uh, we just had a lot of fun and know adding our harmonies to it, and yeah, excited to see what people think about her.

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Speaker 4: Very cool And where was it recorded set? Sound stage? I believe in Nashville or black I don't know.

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Speaker 2: It was a.

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Speaker 4: Professional record part of it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, very cool.

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Speaker 2: Well I love the version of the song. What can we look forward to as far as upcoming shows and upcoming music from you guys this year?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, we've been teasing a lot of new music.

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Speaker 7: We've been hard at work in the studio and we have one that we're very excited about called Forever Ago.

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Speaker 3: It's a it's a wedding wedding.

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Speaker 7: Song and our a love song but could be used for wedding, but we're really excited. We've been posting it on social media, getting a lot of getting a lot of good reviews, and uh, we've been known before to crash weddings, so we've actually been posting that we want to crash a couple of weddings and we've got an overwhelming response. So I think we have our work cut out for us this wedding season. We might be we might be hitting quite a few. Yeah, we might just be for a while. We might just be hitting a lot of weddings because that's always so fun.

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Speaker 2: You know.

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Speaker 7: We have a lot of super fans that have been there, like for thirty plus shows that are getting married. So I think we're going to try to definitely hit one of those and make sure we're there for that.

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Speaker 2: Well, at this point, you're not even crashing.

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Speaker 3: Everyone just invited, you know. Definitely, we definitely could go to a bunch, so yeah and.

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Speaker 4: Perform there too.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, are you guys heading the road this year?

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Speaker 4: We are. Yeah, we picked back up in June.

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Speaker 5: I think first show back we're going to be actually in Canada, and so it will be be a good way to start off the year with all of our Canadian fans and so it's yeah, we're really blessed to be able to go around and and and still and still go all over the world doing this. So we're we feel really lucky.

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Speaker 2: Awesome listeners can look forward to that. My last question for each of you, we're on taking a walk Nashville. So, if you could take a walk with any person in Nashville, who would you take that walk with?

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Speaker 4: M hmm, okay, gosh, I would. I would. I would take a walk with Brooks and Dunn.

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Speaker 2: Oh.

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Speaker 5: I like that because, first off, Ronnie has one of my favorite voices of all time, So I hope you would sing as we were walking a little bit. But I honestly, I just love to get advice and hear how it was for them, because I mean, it's such a different time then and and but there's still so many parallels and and then and and now. So I just think it would be great to kind of hear their stories and and kind of take take stuff from them.

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Speaker 2: I love that answer, and you could take it at Kicks, Brooks's Winery and the Arangine.

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Speaker 4: I do that. I think I'd go on walk with Josh Turner.

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Speaker 6: He was kind of my when I started out with singing. He was like my my biggest idol and still is and I love his voice and music and I still have never got the chance to meet him, So that would be what I would say.

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Speaker 7: I want to take a walk with Rascal Flats and hear all the misadventures of one of the greatest vocal harmony bands of all time. So I think that'd be really really funny to just get to hang out and talk with them.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, all great answers. Everyone can look forward to your new single off the Main Street Country EP, The Climb, upcoming shows and music this year. Zach Beak and Colton Past Garrett Nichols from Restless Road, thank you so much for being on Taking a Walk Nashville today. Thank you Freeland, Thank you so much for being on the Taken a Walk Nashville podcast Today. We are here at Studio A and the Grand Ole Opry celebrating Disney's Main Street Country E Day and you just perform your version of Go the Distance by Acule's. What a beautiful performance and a beautiful song. What was it like being asked to record this song on the EP?

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Speaker 8: Yeah, I feel like, you know, anytime you get to do something with Disney, which this is my first, it's pretty exciting, you know, having grown up with all of these songs and being friends with all of these artists who are on the project. There are all people that I've performed with, riten with, you know, been on tours with. So it's exciting to be a part of a project with so many names that I know and love, and Disney being behind it obviously makes it even sweeter.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and you got to record with a string section, and yes.

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Speaker 8: Right, absolutely, man, one of the coolest recording experiences. We'll have some footage from the recording process coming in the next few weeks, which I'm sure people will be excited to see because it really it's very very cool. I'm being a little coy because there's some things that I can't quite say yet, but I will say at a minimum, having just live strings and live slide players and all of that in the studio, it just creates a different experience than when you're recording to a track or you know, something that's just happening in the headphones. There is like a musicality that gets brought, you know, put into a song because you have so many musicians in the same space. And I haven't really had a whole lot of experiences like that, so it was really cool to do.

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Speaker 2: I can't wait to see the behind the scenes. It had to be so emotional too. It's such an emotional song, so recording it with the band in the studio.

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Speaker 8: I made my parents cry with this one, and that doesn't happen too often.

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Speaker 3: So well, anyway, was it your niece that picked the song?

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Speaker 8: My sister picked the song, and my nephew is a fan of Hercules now too, so he likes this one.

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Speaker 1: He thought I did a good job.

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Speaker 2: What a great choice of a song from your nephew. Was that your favorite Disney movie growing up?

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Speaker 8: It was one of them. I feel like, soundtrack wise, it's got to be up there.

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Speaker 1: Not Chess, no way, I won't say.

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Speaker 8: I'm In is one of the best melodies I've ever heard, to be quite honest.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, shout out to Hercules, I would say.

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Speaker 8: Also, like I grew up watching a lot of Milan, Pocahontas was in the mix. My sister was a big fan of The Little Mermaid, and so I watched, you know, most of the stuff that my sister watched, and then it turned in a Disney Channel and the Disney Channel original movies and all the Pixar films, so like pretty well versed in the Disney universe.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so exciting. I love your version of the song. And beyond this song coming out.

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Speaker 4: You also just released a new.

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Speaker 2: Song called in My Truck. Yeah country flip of fifty sense iconic in the club, and you got cleared by fifty cent and Doctor Dre, which is kind of impossible to do to do your version of this song.

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Speaker 7: So what was that like?

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Speaker 8: Yeah, very very cool. Shout out to fifty cent and Doctor Dre. You know, there's if you ever believed in like alternate realities or anything like that. Let's say there's one hundred realities, there might only be one where they both agree to say yes to something like this, and we're living in that reality. So I'm very very fortunate. It's just great to get music out again. We shot the music video for this out in Japan. We recorded the vocals for this song while I was out on the road playing some shows for the troops out in Eastern Europe, you know, Kosovo and Georgia. So it's a global kind of record, and it doesn't get any more global here, you know, with Disney either.

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Speaker 1: So just thinking you know, thinking bigger.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so exciting.

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Speaker 4: I love that the music video was shot in Japan.

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Speaker 2: It's such a fun song, very cool, so cool. And you are also prepping to host your fifth annual Breeland and Friends benefitar Consort April eighth at the Ryman Auditorium. Proceeds benefit the Oasis Center, the Supports at Risk Youth and Middle Tennessee. What made you start this benefit concert five years ago.

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Speaker 8: Yeah, I'm a big fan of giving back. I feel like it's like purpose driven work. Like music to me is something that I love to do, but having this platform is I feel like I only have this platform as like a vehicle to be able to do things for people and to be able to do things for the community. Obviously, Look, anytime we get to go out and play a show, even what we did here today, like that matters because you know, you're exchanging energy with people and you're able to pour into people in a way. But when you're able to do a show where you know that the proceeds are actually going to people who need it the most, these kids don't have a big support network, and you know, these young people have been through a whole lot. And if I'm in a position to be able to help them. That means everything to me. And the fact that so many different artists in country music. Literally everyone on the lineup here today has done Brelan and Friends and or Dashaw who's doing it this year, So like it's a blessing, it really is.

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Speaker 2: Who else can we see on the lineup this year?

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Speaker 8: Man, We've got We've got Dasher, We've got Ashley Cook, We've got Walker Hayes, We've got Laura. Can't say that, but if you heard it, you heard it. It's gonna be an amazing lineup. You can see the names that we've announced. We've got Connor Smith and Cameron Marlow just got announced. We got some people from the R and B world, Pink Sweats, Kay Michelle who's kind of transitioning into country, and Duran Bernard who just took home a big Grammy at the Grammy these last month. So shout out to everyone who's coming out. We have a couple of surprise guests, a couple of big names that people will be excited to see.

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Speaker 1: So definitely worth coming out.

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Speaker 4: Very cool.

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Speaker 2: That's coming up on April eighth, reelind my last question for you or on taking a walk in Nashville. You could take a walk with anyone in Nashville. Who would you take that walk with?

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Speaker 8: And we're in Nashville with I would be so curious to take a walk with Brandon Lake. I feel like, you know, he's really kind of crashed onto the scene in country music in a really cool way from a genre that is closely tied with country music and some of these collabs. I see he's got a song coming out with Laney soon, so I would be I've never met him, so I would be curious to hear hear about his story and his experience.

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Speaker 2: I love that answer, and hopefully we can look forward to a collaboration between you, Brandon.

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Speaker 8: I grew up on gospel music, so I'm with it. I'm with it all the way.

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Speaker 2: I love the Brelan. Thank you so much for being on taking a walk Nashville today. Thanks for having me, Dasha, Thank you for being on taking a walk Nashville today.

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Speaker 1: Hold you So we are at the.

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Speaker 2: Main Street Country event for the New Disney EP. What was it like when Disney asked you to record a song on a reimagined country version of a Disney song?

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Speaker 9: It was pretty cool. I was like, Wow, there's so many people that could have asked, you know, and so I'm very honored to have made the cut. And it was cool picking a song that is so much about, like something that I relate to, you know, empowerment and being who you are and kind of being fearless in that. And yeah, it's just special to like share this moment with Disney.

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Speaker 1: It's so cool.

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Speaker 2: So is she so gone from Lemoninge nowth Was that like an easy top of mine choice?

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Speaker 9: Honestly it was? It honestly was such an easy choice to make. I definitely pondered a bit. But at the end of today, this song has been in my playlist for years. I'm like, I just love this song and love what it stands for, and there's an obvious choice.

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Speaker 2: I love your kind take on a song and Dan more months of it at the opry. Was that your favorite Disney movie growing up too?

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Speaker 9: It was one of them for sure, like high school for sure?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you're like a Disney channel really yeah?

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Speaker 9: I mean me and Hannah Montana. You know, I was locked in, locked in.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: See, we're celebrating twenty years of Hannah Montana this year. You have some exciting things coming up. Are you excited for your upcoming shows with Russell Dickerson.

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Speaker 3: Yes, I am.

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Speaker 1: It'd be so cool.

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Speaker 9: Florida has been such a great like fan base for me and they always make shows really fun. So I'm excited to get back down there.

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Speaker 4: I love that.

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Speaker 9: Yeah, you're going to be hitting the ACMs in the ACMs will be out there.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm so excited for that. Are you dropping any new music this year that we can look ford.

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Speaker 9: You know, I am. It's happening very soon. I haven't announced anything yet, but just be expecting some stuff soon.

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Speaker 2: I love that. So exciting. A last question for you, we're on taking a walk in Nashville. If you could take a walk with anyone in Nashville, who would it be and where in Nashville would it be.

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Speaker 9: I would take a walk with Dolly Parton and I would take a walk in some m oh I know, on a on a horse. We'd go horseback riding. Oh, I love that.

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Speaker 4: It's a walk.

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Speaker 9: It's a horse.

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Speaker 2: Walk's been an answer before, but I love them.

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Speaker 9: And we would go on a trail ride and we'd I'd ask I'd pick her brain about being an artist and how to not lose your mind.

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Speaker 2: I love that bringing a whole verses on the Walk. Yes, thank you so much for being on Taking a Walk Nashville.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for having me, Thanks for listening to Taking a Walk Nashville with Sarah Harrelson. Please check out our other shows produced by Buzznight Media Productions, Comedy Save Me and Music Save Me hosted by Lynn Hoffman, and Taking a Walk hosted by Yours Truly Buzznight. All shows are available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and are part of the iHeart podcast network