[00:00:01] Speaker A: Passed by old frosty showed signs of wear and tear?
Until one day he vanished leaving only his Scarface hi, there.
[00:00:13] Speaker B: I'm Monica Hooper, and this is the what's up podcast. I'm joined today by cherise Carver and Hunter Anderson. They came in to talk about their new song, a man made out of snow, and their plans for 2024. Thank you both for joining me today.
[00:00:29] Speaker C: Thank you for having us.
[00:00:31] Speaker B: Thank you for letting us make you join us today.
I really appreciate it. I wanted to talk to you about man made out of snow first, but you mentioned that you just won a really exciting award, so please tell me all about Reese.
[00:00:48] Speaker C: Oh, absolutely. So we just got back from Texas, where we were in the finals for the Texas state songwriting championship. And the award that we were able to bring home was the online fan favorite. So we were really excited about that. So we didn't win the whole thing, but we did get the fan favorite, and that's just as big an honor to me as anything.
[00:01:07] Speaker B: Okay, what did you have to submit to get into that contest? Was one of your original songs?
[00:01:12] Speaker C: Yes. You submit your original songs and then they choose you for that. And we had about, I think, 21 finalists that were there.
[00:01:19] Speaker B: Oh, nice. Okay.
I know you're here in Arkansas, so how are you taking Arkansas to Texas? Like, how did that come about?
[00:01:28] Speaker C: That's a great question. So, because I live in Arkansas, it lets me qualify for things in Texas, such as the Texas country music charts. Also qualify for the american country music charts, which we just got our first single on that at number 74 last week. So that was pretty cool. Congratulations. Thank you. So Texas is awesome to include surrounding states that border the state in the red dirt country scene. So that's how they're nice enough to let us tag along.
[00:01:57] Speaker B: All right, great. All right. And since I did get you here to do some Christmas music for me, tell me about the song man made out of snow, because I understand you wrote it with a friend, right?
[00:02:10] Speaker C: Did. So. I also coach songwriting. That's my job, is I teach other songwriters how to write, and I end up a lot of times co writing with my students.
[00:02:20] Speaker B: Oh, okay.
[00:02:20] Speaker C: And so shout out to Cynthia Clark. She is a lyricist, and she and I have been working together for probably about a year and a half. We actually wrote this song last Christmas, and we finished it on Christmas day, so it was a little late to put it out. I actually did throw it out on social media for the day just because it was fun, but she and I have been working together, so she came up with the concept and the idea. People ask us, is it a real story? I wish it was a real story because it's so sweet. But her imagination was amazing in that she thought about. She was like, I want to do something with a snowman and a magic scarf. And we just kept mulling around the idea until we got the words put together. And then I always take the lyrics and put the music to that, and then we record it at Crimson Road studio, which is our home studio.
[00:03:07] Speaker B: Okay. And that's in Rogers?
[00:03:09] Speaker C: It is.
[00:03:09] Speaker B: Okay. All right. I thought that's what I remembered.
[00:03:12] Speaker D: That's all fun.
[00:03:14] Speaker B: Okay.
And so when does the Christmas season start for you? For me?
[00:03:21] Speaker C: Oh, Christmas probably starts right after thanksgiving, I think, is when we start getting into the spirit. We're a little later getting our decorations up because I did have a party last week and I didn't want them getting knocked over.
But we're just now getting the rest of it up. But after thanksgiving is when we typically start.
[00:03:39] Speaker B: What about you, Hunter?
[00:03:42] Speaker E: Yeah, kind of in the same boat.
We don't like to put our decorations up until after thanksgiving is over. And typically whenever December, December starts. But this year we've kind of just let it go for a little bit. But we got a couple of decorations we're going to put up, but we're getting into general feel, listening to music and stuff.
[00:04:02] Speaker B: And. Who's we?
[00:04:04] Speaker E: Me and my family.
[00:04:06] Speaker B: All right.
Do you all have any fun Christmas traditions that you do every year?
[00:04:16] Speaker E: Just a typical tradition of. I think a lot of people have that kind of tradition where we invite a couple of family members over, close family members. We have some family members in Texas, and they come down sometime, my uncles in particular.
And we all just sit around and we have a little campfire in our house, or not a campfire, a little fireplace in our house, and we roast marshmallows.
[00:04:39] Speaker C: Oh, good. That's pretty.
Yeah. Yeah.
[00:04:43] Speaker B: I wish I had a fireplace.
What about you, Cherise?
[00:04:47] Speaker C: I'd say we like to drive around and look at the lights and go through the square in Fayetteville and Bentonville and just enjoy the lights while listening to Christmas music.
[00:04:55] Speaker B: What's your favorite Christmas song, do you think?
[00:04:58] Speaker C: Oh, gosh, I have so many.
I think white Christmas is probably my favorite Christmas song.
[00:05:04] Speaker B: What about.
[00:05:07] Speaker E: Really? There's a Christmas song called Happy Holiday by I can't remember his name. It comes close to my mind, but he sings this singer. He kind of sings something a little bit like Frank Sinatra. He sounds a lot like Frank Sinatra. And he sings like a song called Happy Holidays. I don't think it's his song, but it's a really good song I've been listening to recently.
[00:05:30] Speaker B: Okay, so do you have favorite Christmas movie?
[00:05:36] Speaker C: Oh, my goodness, a favorite Christmas movie.
Gosh, I like to watch all those crazy ones on Netflix. I don't think I have a favorite. I just go through all the comedies every year.
Do you have a favorite one?
[00:05:51] Speaker E: I watched silent night.
Not silent night. That's the new one.
There was a kind of a wacky Christmas movie that came out, I think it was last Christmas called Violent Night with David harbor. That one was kind of funny.
[00:06:05] Speaker B: I've seen the little preview for that on my screen and I've been a little tempted late at night after the kid goes to bed.
[00:06:16] Speaker E: I think it's one of those movies. Yeah, but it's kind of a fun little weird action Christmas movie.
[00:06:25] Speaker B: All right, well, I'll stop asking you all so much about Christmas. So what's coming up for 2024?
You got some new music planned, big shows or anything coming up?
[00:06:36] Speaker C: I do, actually. All of our shows are on my
[email protected]. I think I'm over 20 shows booked already for the new year, which is super exciting. So we're doing a combination of. I'm doing a lot of solo shows this year at 612 Coffee House and bar of Fayetteville, first Tuesday of every month. And then we've titled them Crimson Road, which is hunter Anderson and Chris Collins, who's my producer and bass player, where we all play together. We're going to be playing at a lot of places. Pub on the bricks is a place we play quite frequently. I do an open mic there now as well. And you can see all those dates on my website and Facebook also, too. Cherise Carver music. We're going to be playing Tawnytown winery a couple of times.
There are just several out there listed throughout the year. We're super excited about.
[00:07:23] Speaker B: Are you doing like a regular open mic night, monthly, weekly or anything like that?
[00:07:30] Speaker C: We started it, let's see, last month. We've had one a month for the last two months, and we're doing the next one, I believe, in January, the 10th. So we're just kind of rolling with the flow right now. It's going about once a month. It's probably going to run around the first or second Wednesday. We're still kind of playing with the dates. Okay. So we haven't set the one for February yet, but it's turned out really great. We've had between probably ten and twelve acts come out. People are getting gigs from coming out to pub on the bricks. It's in downtown Rogers, so it's kind of like an audition in a way. If there's anybody listening that wants to get a gig, that's what they're looking for. I think it's the last one. Two or three people picked up a gig, so it's really cool. Great place for the community to come. It's dog friendly and kid friendly. We actually had a jazz trio from a local high school play this last time and they got booked for a gig for Sunday afternoon.
[00:08:22] Speaker B: Oh, really?
[00:08:22] Speaker C: We welcome everybody to pub on the bricks.
[00:08:24] Speaker B: Talk about on the bricks and the people can find more information about that on your website.
[00:08:29] Speaker C: Absolutely. You can see the dates. I'll post all the open mics there and then Facebook as well. I put the events out, so, and I try to keep everybody.
[00:08:37] Speaker B: And since the last time I've seen you, I know you've been so busy and you're constantly posting on social media. So how have things been going?
Do you have any plans for like a new album or anything like that?
[00:08:52] Speaker C: So what we do, what we're doing right now is, well, we've got a couple of things coming out the first of the year, so I am doing a duet. It's my first duet and I'm super excited. With a canadian country music singer. We've actually never met. We're going to sing together, but we've not met. His name is Nash Stanley and we have a co writer, Tim Schlesner from Texas. So the three of us met each other through some songwriting groups and Nash Stanley's on all streaming platforms and he's already got some amazing songs out there. So I'll have my first duet with him. We're thinking it's going to come out probably the end of January or 1 February. We're just waiting on some vocals, do some fine tuning, so that'll be a lot of fun. I've also got two other songs ready to go. One we're probably going to do to streaming, only for a while, called Red Oak Tree, which is a very sentimental song about basically kind of my life and growing up and having a kid and all that kind of stuff. So that's coming out. But I think the plan is, I was looking the other day, we have something like twelve to 15 songs in the pipe that are written and we're just producing now. We're just working on you. You just kind of do one at a time and get it produced. So I'm thinking we'll just go ahead, probably, and put all those on a new album. We do have an ep right now that's available for sale. It's on my website of six songs. So all the songs that are out now are on there. And then the red oak Tree, which no one's heard yet, is on there. So that's kind of like a bonus. If you want to get the CD first, you can hear it before anybody else does.
[00:10:26] Speaker B: Okay. All right. Do you sell those at your shows, too?
[00:10:28] Speaker C: I do. We sell them at the shows. Or you can get on the website and I'll pop one in the mail for you. I got the postage ready to go.
[00:10:36] Speaker B: All right. Well, Hunter, tell me a little bit about you. What do you got planned? Are you doing any other projects or are you.
[00:10:44] Speaker E: Well, this semester is going to be my last semester at the University of Arkansas because I'm graduating.
So I'm very excited about that, graduating with a bachelor's in music and guitar performance. And I feel like I'm, for now, as far as I can see in the future, going to be full steam ahead with cherise here. We're going to be going to those gigs, performing.
We're a studio musician, too, for Crimson Road, so anytime that she gets any new work for that, I'm going to be working with her. And it's going to be an interesting ride. It's going to be a fun ride. Has been so far.
[00:11:21] Speaker C: Hunter is amazing. And I'll just do a shout out for a man made out of snow. He does all the guitar work on that. So even though I help write the songs, he is actually also crafting the guitar parts are his. He's actually figuring out probably better chords. I might have a start, right? But then he comes in and adds his own original flavor to that.
[00:11:42] Speaker B: And I know you started out as a piano player, right?
[00:11:45] Speaker C: I did, yeah. I picked up the guitar a couple of years ago, and if I hadn't done that, people say, what's one thing that you think is a catalyst for what you're doing right now? I'm like, I picked up a new instrument that I never played before because I couldn't strum a piano, and I had all these country songs inside of me because I used to do a lot of gospel music and things, but I just could not write the country songs on the piano. So Chris showed me a few chords, probably two, two and a half years ago. I took a few lessons last summer, which is one of the reasons I brought Hunter on because I was just so new in learning, and hopefully I've improved in the last year.
He's like, oh, yeah. I went from this time last year, I couldn't even stand up and play. I was literally, we would do a show, and I was sitting down because I needed to see my fingers and everything. I didn't know how to stand up. And I think the first time I stood up was actually on television. Remember we did the fable tv? My first performance standing up, I did on television. I'm like, well, that was smart, but it worked out okay.
[00:12:47] Speaker B: I'm sure it did.
[00:12:48] Speaker C: So I'm getting there for sure. But I was always like, if I could play well enough to write songs and accompany myself, which is also the push for the solo shows, because to get to that point where you can play by yourself on a new instrument, that's scary, but it's necessary.
[00:13:08] Speaker B: This just popped into my head. Since when you first came in here, you were first getting into performing. How would you say your nerves are now before a show?
Do you still feel like, is it still as quite as intense as it was in the earlier days? Or has it gotten know, I think.
[00:13:28] Speaker C: I always get nervous. And it's funny because Chris thinks sometimes I'm acting like a diva. I said, I'm not. I'm just nervous because I might be like, do you have this? Where's this put this there? And he's like, you get bossy. I said, I don't mean to. I'm a perfectionist in a way, and I just want everything to be a certain way. So I'd say, like, right before a show is probably, I'm the most nervous. And then about 20 minutes in to a performance, I'm just having a blast. It takes a little while to warm up and get going, and then it's just all fun after that.
[00:14:00] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:14:00] Speaker C: Because every. I think Hunter can attest to this. When you're a gigging musician, every scenario is different, the sound is different, our proximity to each other, we're hitting each other, sometimes with guitars, or I'm knocking over someone's iPad, and we're just like, so for the first 20 minutes, you are literally adjusting to where you are. And that's probably why it's so nerve wracking. If it was the same exact place and the same setup all the time, you'd be like, I got this. But you never know what you're getting into. Sounds different.
[00:14:27] Speaker E: Adapting all the time.
[00:14:28] Speaker C: You're constantly adapting, and you're doing that while thinking about lyrics and playing and entertaining and listening to each other. But my most fun is when the three of us play together, because I think we play off each other really well.
[00:14:41] Speaker E: I do, too.
[00:14:42] Speaker C: And Chris is an old rock and roll guy, and he's got a lot of attitude, and he's really fun on stage. Sometimes I'll look, and he's between me and Hunter, I'm like, what just happened?
I'm like, where did he go? And they're over here, like, jamming and dancing. And I'm just like, okay, this is cool.
[00:14:59] Speaker B: Okay. I was wondering, hunter, how did you get into music? What led you to start playing guitar?
[00:15:08] Speaker E: Well, my dad played guitar. And in middle school at what was then known as Benton County School of the Arts, now known as Arkansas Arts Academy.
In middle school, I first came there, and we had choices between three electives. We had choir, orchestra, and guitar. And my first thought, I didn't really know that my dad played guitar, so I thought, oh, maybe do orchestra or something because it's something you have to do at that school because it's an art school, right?
And my parent and my grandma was insistent that, no, you do guitar because your dad did guitar, you're doing guitar. So then I went down the guitar route, and I fell in love with it after the first few, couple of, I remember them telling me this because I come home and say, like, I can't do it. I suck at the guitar. And I just don't see myself, I don't see this as, like, working. I'm going to fail the class and everything. And so then after the few weeks, something just kind of clicked. And then I'd started practicing harder. I got better at playing chords and things.
So then I graduated middle school. All throughout high school, I joined in, like, this auditioned high school group that was sort of the.
Well, it was the only group that was at the high school that's for audition only.
And we played in several shows around northwest Arkansas. We played in our school shows and everything. I was one of the lead guitarists there for a while. And then I came down to the university and said, I want to do something, and I want to learn more about the guitar. I want to study with Dr. Herzog at the university. So auditioned there, got into the program. Four years later, here I am, and putting it to work at a professional setting with a local recording artist.
[00:16:56] Speaker B: I was about to say, that's really special to have a job straight out of college, because for me, when I graduated, I was like, I have no idea what I do after this, I was like, I know I should go somewhere, but I don't know. So congratulations on that. That's really awesome.
[00:17:14] Speaker E: It really helps to kind of keep me grounded, knowing that I already have something going on outside of the university. So an area you graduate, then you're not kind of just floating, right. So it does help me mentally keep grounded on, like, what's the next thing I'm going to do?
[00:17:31] Speaker B: Wonderful. All right.
[00:17:32] Speaker C: We're lucky to have him. Yeah.
[00:17:34] Speaker B: Okay. Well, that's all the questions I had for the two of you today. Thank you for joining me and humoring me with all my Christmas questions. Like I said, I've talked to quite a few people about their Christmas shows, and so every one of them, I was like, what's your favorite Christmas music? What's your favorite Christmas movie? So I've even asked people who were not here doing Christmas shows, so thank you for humoring me on those. And can you tell me, you said you're going to play man made out of snow today?
[00:18:05] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:18:06] Speaker B: Do you all want to play anything else or just stick to that?
[00:18:08] Speaker C: I think that's the one we were.
[00:18:10] Speaker B: Yeah.
Great. Well, I look forward to hearing man made out of snow. All right.
[00:18:16] Speaker C: Thanks for having us.
[00:18:16] Speaker B: Thanks for coming.
[00:18:17] Speaker E: Thank you.
[00:18:20] Speaker D: I remember being five years old, playing.
[00:18:24] Speaker A: With grandpa in the snow as he wrapped his scarf around our snowman, keeping him warm out in the cold, his days passed by old frosty showed signs.
[00:18:38] Speaker C: Of wear and tear.
[00:18:40] Speaker A: Until one day he vanished, leaving only his scarface.
Grandpa must have sensed the emptiness.
Did you know there's a story about this magic scarf and a man made out of snow.
[00:19:03] Speaker D: Times we built a snowman those memories never fade and magic cover this old scar it's just a memory way when the sunshine takes its toes and it's so frosty time to.
[00:19:22] Speaker A: Go this magic scarf holds all that's left a man made out of snow I remember that teenage summer Grandpa said, this is yours to keep as he wrapped his scarf around me then he drifted off to sleep I knew my childhood hero was telling me goodbye like the snowman slowly melting then he opened up his eyes Grandpa must have seen the emptiness did you know?
There's a story about this magic scarf and a man made out of snow.
[00:20:16] Speaker D: Times we built a snowman whose memories never fade and magic covers this old scar just a memory way when the sunshine takes its soul it's old frosty time to gold it's magic scar all.
[00:21:15] Speaker A: That'S left mermaid out of snow.
[00:21:21] Speaker C: This.
[00:21:21] Speaker A: Magic scarf holds all that's left of a mermaid out of snow.
[00:21:35] Speaker C: Thank you. Merry Christmas. Thank you. Good job, ma'am.
[00:21:40] Speaker B: No pressure.
