We made this record in the shed behind my grandfather’s farm. Nobody lives there anymore since my grandparents passed away, but you can still feel their spirits. It’s a special place. I learned my first three guitar chords there underneath the old Catawba tree. Rode horses, fished in the ponds and Chestnut Creek, wandered around in the woods there. It’s where Telisha and I were married, and where we go when we need to disappear for a while. It’s where not even the strongest wi-fi signal can find you. We got the idea to take some of our Nashville friends (Fats Kaplin, Will Kimbrough, Neilson Hubbard and Audrey Spillman) and meet up with some Old-Time players from Galax, Virginia (Snake Smith, Kyle Dean Smith, and Kilby Spencer). We wanted to set up a simple recording rig, throw out some songs, work up arrangements together, and see what happened.

We chose those four people from Nashville for a couple of reasons. First, because they’re really, really good at what they do. But the main reason we wanted those four is because they are all beautiful amazing human beings that anyone would want to spend time with. The kind of people who are just as much fun around the kitchen table as they are around the mic. People who, when you say, “Hey, me and Telisha have this crazy idea to go hole up in the Virginia mountains where there’s no cell phone coverage or internet service and make a record with some great old-time players in a shed behind my grandfather's farm. Wanna go?” they say “Hell yeah! Let’s do it!” (Also, Fats has been trying to get to Galax his entire life. Literally. But that’s a story for later.)  

Choosing Snake and Kyle Dean and Kilby was even easier. From the start, we knew we couldn’t make this record with anyone else. Growing up, I learned how to play music by watching and playing with others. I’d stand at the edge of a circle of grownups playing old-time and bluegrass trying not to play too loud. I’d keep my eye on Snake’s right hand, and try to make my wrist do what his was doing. It looked so easy, so natural. Easy and natural like when you watch a bird fly - but give it a try sometime. My grandfather always said Snake and Kyle Dean and the rest of the folks they played with were the best in the world. Turns out he was right (about so many things). It was so much fun to watch them play with Will and Fats and just have a good time trading ideas and laughing. It’s still hard to believe we were a part of something so special.

I’d be willing to bet it was the most fun any of us ever had making a record. We sat in a circle and played, and Neilson recorded it all. We had big meals with my family, walks in the woods, moonshine, dips in the creek… We played some old-time tunes, some originals, and a few cover songs. My grandfather would have loved every minute of it.

In a lot of ways, this record is different from the music we’ve been making for the past few years. But it’s what has always been underneath. This is us taking a place in that circle and inviting you in with us. Everything is exposed on these tracks. We don’t try to hide any of it. It’s just real, honest music made by a bunch of folks circled together in the mountains of Virginia on a couple of hot days in August; in the same place we first learned the value of authentic songs and melodies, just a few miles away from where the other wild ponies roam the Blue Ridge Mountains, easy and natural and beautiful and majestic.

We didn’t listen back to any of the songs until we got home to Nashville -- we just kept the tape rolling. We knew there was real magic happening -- real music. When we left, we didn’t know if we’d made a record or not, but we trusted Neilson, and we had a lot of trust in each other and the music we were making.

When we got home and Neilson let us listen to what he’d captured, we were completely blown away. We’ve loved all the records we’ve made, but this one is different. Special. I’m pretty excited about what we’ve got. I think you can almost smell the dirt, the wooden beams, the farm itself. You can hear the collaboration happening-- musicians trusting each other and leaning in to the sounds. When you close your eyes, you can feel the heat, and smell the honeysuckle and the mountain summer air all around you. You can hear the tin roof reverb, and the crickets and the wind in the trees. It really puts you right in the middle of the circle, there in the shed with us, and that’s where we want you. In a lot of ways, this truly is a record we’ve been working on our whole lives, and we want you to be a part of it, too. The connection. The circle that won’t be broken.

Love to all of you- 

Doug & Telisha

April 2017

Telisha Williams - Vocals, Bass

Doug Williams - Vocals, Guitar

Fats Kaplin - Pedal steel, Fiddle, Banjo

Will Kimbrough - Guitar, Mandolin

Audrey Spillman - Harmony Vocals

Neilson Hubbard - Drums

Kyle Dean Smith - Banjo

Snake Smith - Guitar

Kilby Spencer - Fiddle

Vocals on Sally Ann - Annelle Williams, Doug Williams, Sr, Patti Meredith, Phillys Smith, Snake Smith, Kyle Dean Smith, Mandy Johnson, Kelley Breiding, Doug, Fats, Will, Neilson and Audrey.  

1- Sally Ann (Traditional)

2- Tower And The Wheel (Doug & Telisha Williams)

3- Pretty Bird (Hazel Dickens)

4- To My Grave (Doug & Telisha Williams)

5- Will They Still Know Me (Ben Glover, Doug & Telisha Williams)

6- Hearts And Bones (Amelia Curran, Doug & Telisha Williams)

7- Jackknife (Jon Byrd)

8- Mamma Bird (Amelia White, Doug & Telisha Williams)

9- Goodnight Partner (Perry Frye, Alice Leon)

10- Here With Me (Perry Frye, Doug & Telisha Williams)

Recorded August 14th & 15th at Gambetty Farm in Galax, Virginia

Produced by Neilson Hubbard and Doug Williams

Engineered and Mixed by Neilson Hubbard

Mastering and inyl cutting at Gearbox Records by Darrel Sheinman and Caspar Sutton-Jones

How does one describe those precious moments in life when we are able to transcend our small daily self-interests, and can somehow hold onto those rarified breaths of the deeper human experience?  Radiant, the new Wild Ponies album, out May 13 on No Evil Records, explores those moments with alternating delicacy and raucous abandon. At times, it’s as though Telisha is sitting right beside you, fingers on your shoulder, whispering in your ear. Seconds later it’s hard to believe this full, confidently reckless sound is coming from only four players (Telisha Williams, Doug Williams, Megan Jane and Fats Kaplin).

Doug and Telisha Williams, the duo at the heart of Wild Ponies, aren’t afraid to roam wide of the usual boundaries. The 11 songs on Radiant pull inspiration from poetic tweens, Catawba trees, homophobic politicians, dying small towns, and tarot cards. The stunning title track is a co-write with Mariah Moore, a 12 year old student Doug and Telisha met through volunteering with the Country Music Hall of Fame's Words & Music program.

 “I have to admit, there’s probably a little defiance in all of this,” Telisha said. “Bucking the way things 'should' be done. We just want to make good art, and that usually means bending some rules.”

“Tower and the Wheel,” partly inspired by an old tree on Doug’s grandparents’ farm, signifies another theme – celebrating the past, with a few modern twists. The song includes details about the tree that’s stood for generations on the family farm, but the B-sections were inspired by tarot cards.

 “I’ve known that tree my whole life. It knew my mom and my grandparents even way back before that. That tree was really old before anyone in my family owned the farm. But she’s still there, strong as ever,” Doug said. “It’s where we’d tie the horses, and where we’d pull the porch chairs around in the shade and the dirt and play songs, where Telisha and I cut our wedding cake.” But when Doug and Telisha were writing the chorus sections of the song, they took an unconventional approach “Nothing we were trying was working, so we laid out eight Tarot cards and wrote all those B parts right from the way they fell. They lined up perfectly between our verses and finished the story for us.”

For Doug, Radiant is about reaching out from within, looking at the world around, relating to it, and trying to find some empathy. For Telisha, it's also about standing still, tall, and true.

“Listening to our last record, Things That Used to Shine, I hear the struggle. I hear the transition of a victim pushing, pulling, letting go, standing up, and shouting,” she said. “This record is more stable and secure in some ways but raw and exploratory in others. There’s an acceptance and love for myself. I’m feeling confident in my own skin. A skin that’s full of battle scars and flaws, but that I’ve learned to love and appreciate, maybe for first time.”

Written during a busy year on theroad, Things That Used To Shine is an album about leaving somethings behind…and meeting others head-on. It’s also the studio debut of Wild Ponies, a Nashville-based outfit fronted by Virginia natives Doug and Telisha Williams, who have previously toured and recorded as acoustic folk duo Doug & Telisha. Released by the band’s newly formed independent label, DitchDog Records, Things That Used To Shine finds Telisha opening up about the skeletons that have haunted her closet for years.  Grammy-winning producer Ray Kennedy (Steve Earle, LucindaWilliams) recorded the album’s 12 songs in three days, running the band’s harmonies through the same pre-amps once used by the Beatles. Casey Driessen, Russ Pahl, Jake Winebrenner and other heavy-hitting roots musicians also make appearances, beefing up the band’s songs with everything from organ to pedal steel.

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Written during a busy year on the road, Things That Used To Shine is an album about leaving somethings behind…and meeting others head-on. It’s also the studio debut of Wild Ponies, a Nashville-based outfit fronted by Virginia natives Doug and Telisha Williams, who have previously toured and recorded as acoustic folk duo Doug & Telisha. Released by the band’s newly formed independent label, DitchDog Records, Things That Used To Shine finds Telisha opening up about the skeletons that have haunted her closet for years.  Grammy-winning producer Ray Kennedy (Steve Earle, LucindaWilliams) recorded the album’s 12 songs in three days, running the band’s harmonies through the same pre-amps once used by the Beatles. Casey Driessen, Russ Pahl, Jake Winebrenner and other heavy-hitting roots musicians also make appearances, beefing up the band’s songs with everything from organ to pedal steel.