ABOUT THIS EPISODE
🎧 This week on What’s the Reason for This?, Kodi and co-host Shay welcome Bronwyn back to the dungeon nearly one year after their first conversation — and holy hell, a LOT has happened. 🪕🔥 From stepping away from Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway to building her own band, driving the van, writing her own music, and now releasing her new album Rattling Bones, Bronwyn is officially spreading her wings — and doing it entirely on her own terms. 💀🎻✨
After a transition year of rotating musicians, Bronwyn has assembled a seriously stacked lineup featuring Tristan Scroggins on mandolin, Frank Evans on banjo, Grant Dresnok on guitar, and Grammy-winning bassist Larry Cook. Together, they’re rooted deeply in traditional bluegrass while still having the chops to stretch songs into completely different territory. 🎶⚡
But the heart of this conversation is Rattling Bones — OUT NOW! 💀💿🔥 The deeply personal 13-song album represents a huge evolution for Bronwyn as a songwriter. After years of believing songwriting simply wasn’t something she did, she decided that if she was going to become a solo artist, she needed music that was truly her own. ✍️❤️🔥 That meant collecting random lines in her Notes app, finding inspiration everywhere, and getting outside her comfort zone to co-write with some incredible songwriters.
Bronwyn opens up about:
🎻 The first year of officially leading her own band — and why having a consistent lineup has completely changed the live show
🚐 Going from touring on a bus to personally driving the van, tour managing, and running the operation herself — and why it gives her an even deeper sense of purpose
✍️ Teaching herself how to become a songwriter and finding confidence through collaborations with writers like Pat McLaughlin 💀 Writing “The Wishing Well,” her own dark Southern Gothic-inspired murder ballad — complete with creepy houses, river mist, and somebody getting tossed down a well 😳
😂 🛣️ Turning the absolute chaos of Nashville’s Gallatin Road into a song because, apparently, anything goes on Gallatin Road
❄️ How WinterWonderGrass inspired “Blink of an Eye” and that wonderfully awkward question of whether someone in the crowd keeps looking at you because they like the music...or because they think you’re cute 👀😂
😵💫 The burnout behind “The Ride” and the complicated reality of achieving the dream you’ve worked toward only to discover that touring can still absolutely kick your ass
🔥 Why “Sticks and Stones” captures Bronwyn’s badass, don’t-give-a-shit side — and ultimately helped inspire the album title Rattling Bones
Bronwyn talks about building the record piece by piece across multiple recording sessions while she was still writing it — essentially “building the plane as it’s taking off.” ✈️😂
🎧 Listen to the episode now wherever you get your podcasts — then go stream Rattling Bones, which is OUT NOW! 💀🎶🔥
Go see Bronwyn and the band live. Stream the album. Buy the merch. Tell your friends. Support the artists putting in the miles. 🚐🪕❤️🔥
