28. I Love Lone Hawk Hats: Charlie Overbey and Vanessa Dingwell

Episode Transcript

Bunny: (00:00)
Hi there. I’m Bunny Terry, and you’re listening to the I Love New Mexico podcast. Whether you’re a native New Mexican, who’s lived here for your entire life, or you’re just considering a visit, this episode is for you. Join us as we share a lot of New Mexico’s stories. Talk about all things New Mexico, and include topics like what’s magical here, where you ought to visit, what’s happening, and the things you absolutely cannot miss in the land of Enchantment. We’re excited that you’re here, and we can’t wait to show you what an amazing place New Mexico is, because let’s face it, I love New Mexico. Once again, I am sort of overwhelmed with the people that I get to meet when I, while doing this podcast. Um, my, my guest today are Charlie and Vanessa, who have, um, several incredibly interesting talents and, um, storefronts in Madrid and backgrounds. Um, what I know about Charlie, other than I, I love your music. I will get to it later, but the going out to see John Prine you guys, you’re gonna wanna find him on YouTube, you’re the song you wrote about going out to see John Prine. I, I wrote a, I wrote a short story once about going to John Prine concerts. So, wow. We share that love. It sort of gave me chills when I was listening to yours. But, um, great music. You also have, as I said, a couple of storefronts in Madrid, which mm-hmm. . Um, if you’re a listener, it’s smelled, it’s spelled , just like Madrid. But here in New Mexico, we call it Madrid. And I, I mean, I, you’re leading incredibly interesting lives and, and one of the coolest things is the hat business. So Charlie, I’m gonna ask you first, take it away. We know that most of our listeners are maybe from outta state, so just give us your story. Tell us what you do and who you are.

Charlie : (02:17)
I’m Charlie Overby, and I make music and, and hats. And, uh, I’m surrounded by great talent, . Um, and, uh, yeah, I mean, I, that’s what I do. I, I make music and I make hats and I fix fences on the ranch these days. Wer’e surrounded by cattle and, uh, as you probably know, in New Mexico, it’s up to you to keep the cattle out, , right? Because it’s a fence out state. So, uh, spend a lot of, you know, get up early in the morning and work on hats. Usually I’m working on music at night. Um, and then in between I’m scrambling around the ranch trying to do ranch stuff.

Vanessa : (03:13)
Off grid,

Charlie : (03:14)
Off completely off grid. Oh,

Bunny: (03:16)
You guys are off grid?

Charlie : (03:17)
Yes.

Vanessa : (03:18)
. It’s a whole nother layer. It’s a, it adds like a, a whole nother layer to the, to the shenanigans.

Charlie : (03:27)
.

Bunny: (03:27)
Wow. That’s such a New Mexico story. And I, when you, when you talk about making hats, I want for, I want folks to know that you, did I read this right? Did you make the hats for 1883? The Yellowstone pre prequel?

Charlie : (03:43)
Yeah. Yeah. That was a real blessing, honestly. Um, they, the stylists came to us actually through Instagram, which was kind of crazy. She sent me a message and said, Hey, we’ve been following your hats for quite a while, and I think I have something that you’d be really interested in. Give me a call. So I called and, and they said, we’re doing a pre-cool to Yellowstone, and it’s called 1883, and we would love you to do the hats. And it happened very, very fast, you know, I said, well, when do you need them? And they said yesterday. And, uh, basically, you know, as it usually happens. So it was a real scramble and it was a lot of hats and, and, uh, but it was, it was an incredible experience, huge honor.

Vanessa : (04:43)
It was.

Charlie : (04:44)
Yeah. I mean, it was, yeah, really an honor. Cuz there’s a lot of people that make hat, you know, so,

Vanessa : (04:51)
And Janie Bryant, the stylist, I don’t know if you know a lot about Janie Bryant, but she did Deadwood and she did Mad Men, and she did an amazing job on that, on that

Charlie : (05:01)
Whole thing. Incredible. Yeah. So, yeah, her and her whole team, Gabby and they were just really, really great to work with. And, um, yeah, it was, it was a whirlwind and it happened very fast. And, it didn’t really hit us that we were making hats for 1883 until we sat down and started watching it. And it was, that was when it was like, oh, wow. Right. This was a pretty big deal, . So, yeah, it was a real honor. It was a real honor to get to do that.

Bunny: (05:36)
Well, before we go any further, let people, what’s, what is the name of your hat company?

Charlie : (05:42)
Oh, it’s called Lone Hawk Hats.

Bunny: (05:45)
And you’re on Instagram, and you have a great Instagram, um, following. And, um, and a lot of great hats, although I understand. So, so the way I understand it is, are these from patterns, vintage patterns? Are they actually, are you actually remaking old hats?

Charlie : (06:03)
Well, they’re, we use mostly reclaimed old hats, 1975 or older, because that’s when the quality was really high. In a perfect world, I’m always searching for, uh, or we’re always searching for old dead stock, beaver,

Vanessa : (06:23)
Beaver felt

Charlie : (06:24)
Just beaver felts. But they’re very hard to find. So a lot of times we will just take an old shell that’s 1975 or back, and then I just completely rebuild it into something else.

Vanessa : (06:43)
So Break it down and, yeah. Yeah.

Charlie : (06:45)
So, yeah, it’s, uh, it’s, it’s interesting. You know, it’s as a kid, I didn’t ever really think, when you grow up, you’re gonna make hats. You know, I always just thought, I’m gonna be a music guy, especially during Covid, you know, during the Pandemic. It was really a blessing. You know, we, for years, for a long time, we’ve been doing a lot of hats for a lot of people. Regular blue collar musicians, actors, you know, we make hats for everybody. And, so we did start it early on before the big hat craze kind of happened, if you will.

Vanessa : (07:32)
Well, and you’ve been wearing hats

Charlie : (07:34)
Musical. I’ve worn hats. My whole,

Vanessa : (07:36)
I think he’s been remaking and doing and sourcing hats since probably you

Charlie : (07:41)
First 90 got on stage 91. Yeah. I mean, I started doing my own hats in 90, 19 91 and, uh, have been doing this ever since then. But we, you know, probably about eight, nine years ago, yeah, about nine years ago, we started, you know, um, really doing them as a, as part of the shop. And, uh, and then it just kind of took off and, um, you know, and we’re

Vanessa : (08:16)
Back ordered ever since.

Charlie : (08:17)
. Yeah. I mean, it’s, yeah,

Bunny: (08:19)
It’s quality problem looks, it looks like. Yeah.

Charlie : (08:21)
Yeah. But, uh, yeah, it’s interesting. I mean, we meet a lot of great people and during the pandemic we were able to really do some, some philanthropy and raise money. We raised a bunch of money for Navajo Nation with a lot of I

Bunny: (08:38)
Saw that.

Charlie : (08:38)
Yeah. Yeah. That was life changing. Yeah. You know, that was really life changing.

Bunny: (08:45)
Well, tell me about that. Were you able to go there? Were you, what?

Charlie : (08:50)
Well, I mean, it was during the pandemic, so we weren’t really able to go anywhere.

Bunny: (08:54)
I know you weren’t able to go onto the reservation, but I wondered if maybe afterward it, I, I’m just curious about how you got involved in particular with, with that. I, I mean, I helped some folks here that were doing the same thing. I’m just curious how you guys got involved.

Vanessa : (09:09)
Well, it kind of started with Raul and

Charlie : (09:12)
Yeah, I mean, w the story is pretty long, but to try to make it short, we came out to New Mexico on Vanessa’s birthday trip. She was having a big birthday, and she said, I want to go to New Mexico. I want to stay in the Earth ship.

Vanessa : (09:28)
Yeah. I, I really, I’ve been obsessed with our ships and living off grid for a long time, and I thought, you know what? I, I just need to get out there. I need to know what it’s like to be in an earth ship and sort of experience that whole thing. And luckily, Charlie was, was interested in taking the adventure. So we stayed at the Phoenix Earth ship in Taos, which was amazing. And then,

Charlie : (09:48)
Yeah, we, you know, we had a long, a long road trip through New Mexico, and then our way back home

Vanessa : (09:56)
To California at

Charlie : (09:57)
That time back, yeah, back to California at that time. I’m always the one that’s kind of like, I don’t want the party to end. Let’s do one more night. And so we were coming through Gallup and I said, come on, let’s stay in Gallup for one night. And

Vanessa : (10:14)
At the El Rancho

Charlie : (10:15)
At El Rancho. And I convinced Vanessa to stay one more night. And so we stayed and it was really great. And then we got home, and this was,

Vanessa : (10:25)
This was March, this

Charlie : (10:26)
Was when the pandemic birthday’s March 6th. So we got home, I would say March 9th,

Vanessa : (10:33)
Probably. Yep.

Charlie : (10:34)
Eighth or ninth. And we’re watching the news, and they had turned El Rancho into a makeshift

Vanessa : (10:45)
Triage center.

Charlie : (10:46)
Triage center

Vanessa : (10:47)
For Navajo,

Charlie : (10:48)
For Navajos, for the Covid patients. And we were so blown away and touched by it, because we had just been there. And a good friend of ours, Raul Trujillo, is an actor. You, you might know him, you might not, but he’s, he’s pretty established. And he’s, he

Vanessa : (11:07)
Lives in Trus.

Charlie : (11:08)
He lives in Centrus. And, you know, I said, we should use Lone Hawk hats, Andres to raise some money for Navajo Nation. Um, I mean, we might be able to raise, you know, 20, 30 grand or something. It would really help. So we called Raul and we said, Raul, we wanna raise some money for Navajo Nation. We’re gonna bring in some of the people that wear Lone Hawk hats, some of the like, music people and, and people like Raul celebrity type people that have an outreach and have them sign a hat and send it to us. And then we’ll have an auction. And we did it all on Instagram in our living room. And, you know, it was Chris Robinson from the Black Crows, Charlie from Blackberry Smoke, um, Sheryl Crow, Cree Summer, a lot

Vanessa : (12:03)
Of wonderful

Charlie : (12:04)
People, a lot of incredible people. And everyone stepped up. Everyone was very, very anxious to help. And Raul hooked us up with Dr. Michelle Tom, who is, she ended up being the spokesperson for Navajo Nation for CNN and for a lot of stuff. Yeah. For all that kind of stuff. Um, and we worked with her and United Natives, and we ended up raising over a hundred grand, ah,

Vanessa : (12:35)
outta our living, outta our living room.

Charlie : (12:38)
Our living

Vanessa : (12:38)
Room on

Charlie : (12:38)
Instagram, just like this.

Vanessa : (12:40)
It was the craziest thing. We were like, oh my gosh, you’re gonna make me cry? That’s so cool. I’ll start, I’ll start crying too. It it really was. It, it was, it was such an amazing thing. I mean, Dr. Michelle Tom, I, I, we love her so much, and we cannot speak highly enough about her. Um, she was the glue to the whole thing, and it was, we literally would get online every day on Instagram live basically, and do our little stories and be like, okay, here’s, you know, so-and-so’s hat, what do you guys wanna bid? Yeah. You know, this, their in dire need. We, they don’t have running water. They don’t have san, you know, like, just the whole spiel. And it was unbelievable. Like,

Charlie : (13:19)
And the

Vanessa : (13:19)
Fans, I have chills right now in my eyes.

Charlie : (13:21)
Yeah, yeah. The fans and the enthusiasts of the artists, and it was huge. Like our friend LP, who’s a singer, she’s an incredible singer songwriter. She did two, she donated two or three hats. Yeah. And, you know, we, the hats were going for 8,000. Yeah. Thousand, 9,000, $12,000. People really stepped up.

Vanessa : (13:44)
It was

Charlie : (13:45)
Wild. And, you know, it was really incredible. It was just unbelievable. Dan Stevens, the actor, Dan Stevens did a hat, and yeah, I mean, it was, it was really magic. And, and,

Vanessa : (13:59)
But I will say that that was sort of, that was the kernel, I think, of some of the magic of New Mexico, like that, that was kind of, that seed was planted while we were here. And it, it definitely was a big push, I think, for us to kind of regroup and, and reprioritize our lives and the power of, of our platforms and where we really wanted to go, you know, what, what, where was the adventure really gonna go? And, and how did we want that to play out? And it was, it was a, it was amazing.

Charlie : (14:36)
Yeah. I mean, it was, it was really about how do we do our part in changing some things, even if it’s small things. It all starts with small change, and

Vanessa : (14:49)
Sometimes it gets

Charlie : (14:50)
Big, sometimes it grows and, and we’re trying to grow the seed still, you know, we’re still trying to figure out, okay, what do we do next? You know, , we, oh,

Bunny: (15:01)
I have some ideas, but . Yeah.

Vanessa : (15:04)
Good,

Bunny: (15:05)
Good for you. I, um, I, I’m, I’m overwhelmed by that because you, I mean, you were here for a week and I mean, happy birthday Vanessa, but, but, but congratulations to New Mexico that you chose to come here instead of, you know, Idaho. Um, and, and I, I lived for some time in Farmington, and my roommate was, um, uh, she lived, her family was on the Navajo Nation. We were both going to school in Farmington and I, when all of that happened, and people were San, I mean, people from elsewhere would say to me, why? Why can they not, why can’t, why are people dying? I said, right. Do you get that? They don’t have running water? No. They lost such a swath of their elders, especially when it still breaks my heart every time I think about it. Um, and yet, people like you and, you know, I bought some rugs to support the cause, but you did this, took this huge undertaking and saved a lot of lives. So I wanna salute you. Um, who knew? Who knew? Thank

Vanessa : (16:15)
You. Thank

Bunny: (16:16)
You. Okay. So, um, so you’re in California, I assume. Are you la were you in LA at the time?

Vanessa : (16:24)
We, we were in la yes.

Bunny: (16:25)
Yes. And when did the move to Madrid happen?

Vanessa : (16:31)
Well, the move to Mad ?

Charlie : (16:34)
No, we were, we were in northeast Los Angeles. Yep. And we kept moving east, trying to get away from Los Angeles.

Bunny: (16:46)
Okay.

Charlie : (16:47)
Sort of, if that makes sense. Sure. Um, and so after being here, you know, Vanessa had always had her sights on coming to New Mexico. And as a musician, um, I would do a lot of traveling anyway. And, um, so for me it was kind of, you know, I mean, obviously there’s, there’s a certain magic here that you don’t find anywhere else, and a serenity. And, uh, especially with the place where we are, it’s, we’re in between Madrid and C Rios. Wow. So I always call it Mado

Bunny: (17:31)
, um,

Charlie : (17:34)
. But we, you know, Vanessa was, we were renting, we had been renters forever, and

Vanessa : (17:46)
B basically, I think I, I, I think, think throughout the whole pandemic, being in Los Angeles and being in a big city like that, it was very, very eye-opening and, and really quite distressing. And with climate change and everything that’s happening on this planet, when you’re in such a concentrated large city like that, at least for us, we became very aware of how it’s, it’s not a sustainable situation. We know it’s not a sustainable situation, but when you start witnessing every year, the fires, the flooding, the, you know, 9 million other things I can, I can talk about, you do really realize like, this is, this is not something that this city can sustain. And so I think New Mexico just kept pulling us back. Like, it just kind of kept it, it had, its, I don’t know, you know, the energy was within us, and it just seemed like a natural progression. Although we were looking at homes all over

Charlie : (18:53)
That, but not really, but not really. When we started looking to buy, we went directly to New Mexico and started looking all around New Mexico.

Vanessa : (19:01)
And honestly, in a weird way, New Mexico found us, like our home is, is a very unconventional off-grid home. It’s, it’s a beautiful home. It’s on 40 acres, and it’s, it, it’s a, it’s a great place, but we kind of thought it was a long shot. You know, it was a fantasy sort of dream scenario where we’re like, we’re probably not gonna get this house, but if we did, wouldn’t that be amazing? And blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But long story short, we got it. And so it was one of those things where it was like, all right, the universe is sending us on this journey and this direction. And a lot of our friends that we had met through the Navajo Nation situation were like, yes, you know, you’re going onto a, a whole nother plateau of, of beautiful things. And it’s not in a big city. And so, I don’t know, it was a very strange thing. I mean, it took us a long time to get into this house, and it was a, it was kind of a, a, a real stressful journey. But all along the way, , the universe was just kind of pushing us forward to our home. And so we are here and it’s, um, it’s,

Charlie : (20:05)
And it’s completely off grid, and the trials and tribulations are real.

Bunny: (20:11)
And I’ll bet when you looked at this online, nothing in the property description said, you’re gonna have to keep the fence wor . You’re gonna have to work fence all day long.

Vanessa : (20:22)
Nothing. No, I’m among many other things that the description did not say

Charlie : (20:27)
, but

Bunny: (20:28)
Yeah. Well, I’m a realtor in my other life, so, um, oh, I, it’s very interesting that, because I have a lot of people who call about those properties that are off grid down in the area where you are, and they’ll say, you know, we, we wanna do this, this, and this. And I’ll say, I want you to know what happens when you buy an off grid property, because it’s kind of hard. It’s, it’s, um, it’s, it’s its own kind of tricky. I know.

Vanessa : (20:53)
Very tricky .

Bunny: (20:55)
So hats off to you,

Charlie : (20:57)
. Yeah. They, they don’t really tell you about the, you know, we’re on a well, and we’re completely solar and Right. They don’t really explain all that stuff to you. Right. And you don’t, if you have no history Right. With the well water and solar and generators and all of that kind of stuff, it’s a really different animal.

Vanessa : (21:21)
We’re very thankful. And, and I think, you know, in two years we’re gonna look back on this and go be so proud and have learned so much. But, but it, it’s, you know, New Mexico is a, is a very unique place. And it’s interesting, when we first moved here, there were multiple people who were like, well, you’re either gonna make it or you’re not. Like New Mexico has a way of, of sort of pushing out people who can’t handle it, and the, and, and taking you through your, you know, your trials to get to where you can be to really absorb the beauty and energy of, of this state,

Charlie : (21:59)
At least the off-grid factor. Well,

Vanessa : (22:01)
I would say, but I say and think on many levels.

Bunny: (22:03)
Yeah. I think, I mean, I, I hear from a lot of people, uh, who of course I meet a lot of people who are moving here, but, but I’m always quick to say, you know, New Mexico either embraces you or it spits you out, and Exactly. And, and the people that New Mexico embraces are, what I’ve found are, um, usually, um, very creative or intellectual thinkers who wanna give something back. And you guys fit that perfectly. I mean, you’re, thank you. You’re, um, thank you. You know, I grew up here. I li I lived here all my life. My husband lived here all his life. And, and I, I want people to know that, um, we’re, we are happy when, um, folks like you show up. I mean, you add something to the culture. Hmm. And, um, you obviously give a lot back, so I wanna know, um, and, and, and we can do, I, I want people to know that we are probably gonna have to do a second part to this, but I wanna know about, um, Vanessa, I wanna know about your, your, um, brick and mortar shop in Madrid. Tell us about that. What, what do you, what is it like?

Vanessa : (23:16)
Uh, well, we,

Charlie : (23:19)
What’s

Vanessa : (23:19)
It called? Well, it’s called Honeywood Vintage . We, we have, we have three small spaces here in Gypsy Plaza in Madrid, um, and we have Loan Hawk Cats, Honeywood Vintage, and a little workspace right now. And so I have had a vintage shop for over, I don’t know, going on like long time, 12 years or something. Um, and I’ve been really attracted to and in love with textiles and handmade, um, items, whether it’s a Hungarian embroidered blouse from the twenties, or a Guatemala w appeal or, or, you know, native American jewelry, textiles, the whole thing. I, I love handmade one of a kind items. I love folk art. I, I just, there’s something that really resonates with me about the history of, of old garments and, um, vintage clothing. I also make, uh, dresses and bags and, and various things using, generally speaking, reclaimed textiles and fabrics in, in the process of, of what I’m creating.

Vanessa : (24:37)
So, um, the store started in California, and we still do have a storefront in, in Los Angeles. And then we came here thinking we were gonna take a, a year to just sort of catch our breath and work on the hats. I also do the hand embroidery on the hats. So some of the hats have embroidered designs. And I think probably from my years of collecting embroidered pieces and handmade pieces, I, I absorbed a lot of, I think that the handy work and the embroidery, which I love, like I, I love Mexican embroidery and embroidery in general. So one day we were sort of talking about the hats and, and we thought, well, maybe it’d be cool to do a little, you know, hand embroidered thing on the hats. And we were both, I think sort of, I’m speaking for Charlie, but I was sort of thinking, I probably can’t do that, but I’m gonna try.

Vanessa : (25:28)
Why not? And that took off as well. So the shop here is, is just sort of an expression of the hats and H Wood and what we’ve been working on for a long time. And ultimately that’s about sustainable fashion, really. I think that sustainability is sort of the gist of, of what we do, whether it’s the hats or the clothing, or the bags or the textiles. Fast fashion is not a cool thing anymore. You know, getting, going to, I won’t name any names, but going to your local mall and buying quick things that are probably made in China are not doing anything to help the world, the planet. Um, we’re pretty against that. We’re tr we’re trying to, you know, really honor.

Bunny: (26:18)
Yeah. Yeah. Well, and let’s just say you’re wearing the same thing everybody else is wearing. Come on. That’s not

Vanessa : (26:23)
Creative. Exactly. There’s and there’s that . Right, right. Yeah. I mean, you know, mass produced things are really not that interesting to me at all. Right. I, I wanna, I, I wanna wear something different. I wanna wear something unique. I don’t wanna see, you know, 20 people in the same, same garment. Um, but really, I think it’s, it’s also about the craftsmanship and the time and energy that it took a man or a woman or many people to make something that, that to me is really a fascinating thing.

Bunny: (26:56)
That’s one of the reasons I love folk art so much, because it’s not, um, it, I mean, all of those pieces take so long to create, and then Yes. Um, then you have somebody’s life work in your house, or on exactly the wall, or it’s Right. I, I love that idea. So, um, I, I don’t want for us to end this conversation without talking about the music because, um, Charles, I, I, um, and this is new to me, and I apologize because I should, you know, I follow a lot of people and I love songwriters, and, you know, since I was 20 years old, I was a huge fan of, you know, guys like Guy Clark. And, and, um, and then, um, you know, I’ve, I’ve listened now for the last couple of days to some of your work, and I’m also a huge fan of James Mc Burry, and we always, we’re always talking about, I mean, those guys paint a, I mean, it’s a story, you know, they’re telling an amazing story, but you’re doing the same thing. So I wanna tell you, I love your music, and I wanna know more about where, I mean, we’re gonna put a link onto your YouTube channel, but where are you playing? Where can people find you? Where, where can I find you? , you know,

Vanessa : (28:13)
Live,

Bunny: (28:17)
I don’t care. Just, I mean, I know we can find you online, but are you playing live at the moment or not?

Charlie : (28:22)
Um, right now I’m working on trying to get a new record done and out. Um, okay. I did some touring over the summer with my buddy Dwayne Bets, who’s Dickie Bet’s son from the Allman Brothers. And, um, but I mean, right now I’m, I’m really focused on trying to get a new record out, because the plan was to release a record every two years. There was a 2016, a 2018, there was supposed to be a 2020 record, which, you know, the, the lost years kind of, uh, put the kibosh on it. And then during the Pandemic, when I, you know, I wrote Ode to John Prine the night that John Prine died. And, um, because, you know, there was a lot of controversy and a lot of question about, um, is this real? Is this not real? There was so many people talking so many different, you know, things.

Charlie : (29:23)
And, and I did lose a lot of people to it. Um, but when John Prine passed away, that was like, okay, there’s no question about this. This is real. Oh, it’s not real. Okay, tell me. We’re gonna go out and see John Prine tonight. And, uh, which is the gist of the song. And, you know, I wrote the song, and then I called my buddy Jimmy Vivino, who’s just a fantastic human being. And I said, Jimmy, I wanna send you this song. They’re doing a, uh, save Our Stages campaign where they’re raising money for, uh, all the venues that are closing down everywhere, and maybe we can do this and release this as a single. And, uh, Jimmy said, send me the song. And I mean, the story’s pretty long, but I sent Jimmy the song, and he wrote me back immediately and said, this song’s really good.

Charlie : (30:15)
Uh, I’m gonna put together a rhythm section, and uh, I’ll give you a call back. And I thought, okay, great. And I figured he’d call back in a couple days. He, it was literally like a couple hours mm-hmm. , he called back and said, okay, Steve Ferone from Tom Petty is gonna play drums. And Darrell Jones from the Rolling Stones is gonna play bass. And, uh, Mont Tench, I think is gonna play the organ, but he’s gotta have a knee surgery. So I’m not really sure if that’s gonna work. So why don’t you try to get an organ player and, uh, someone to sing some backup vocals. So, um, my friend Lp, who’s just such an incredible singer, and she was very, very involved in the, you know, the fundraiser for Navajo Nation. I called lp. I said, lp, we’re gonna do this single for Save our Stages.

Charlie : (31:05)
And again, she was like, I’m in. And, uh, and then I reached out to, uh, Rami from the Foo Fighters, and, and he played the organ. And then my daughter, who was 16, was, um, up at this school where they had all the kids kind of sequestered in this boarding school, boarding school, music school in Ida Wild. And, uh, she went into the into the recording studio up there at the school and played the violin. And, uh, so it was really magic how it came together. And so that was the last release that I’ve, that I’ve had. Well, now I did a, I did release one of the singles from the new record a few months back. Um, but to answer your question, I’m just trying to get this record done. And, um, there is talk about doing some dates in the summer with my friend Marcus King, who is very influential as well in the Navajo Nation fundraiser. Um, but yeah, that’s, that’s in a nutshell, that’s what’s happening with the music.

Bunny: (32:11)
Wow. That’s exciting. And, and, um, I, you know, I’m like you, the day that John Prime died, I was like, this, this is real. This is like, we’re we’re, I mean, you know, the Navajo Nation lost their elders and we lost people like John Prine, and, um, my gosh, I’m not gonna be able to think not Sam Cook. I’m sorry, I can’t think of the other, but I, but those things, um, I mean, what a huge loss to us. Um, and thank you for writing the song, because I really love it. We’ll, we’re gonna put a link up to it, but here’s, here’s what I want to happen. I want, first of all, for people to find you. So, so we’ll have links to Right. Everything, and I also want them to, um, listen to your music. But, um, I wanna come down and, and, uh, meet you guys at the mineshaft or something and

Charlie : (33:04)
Great, great. That’d be

Bunny: (33:05)
Fantastic. Wouldn’t that be fun? Yeah, definitely. And, and I, you know, I, I, um, long ago read that, um, you should be able to sun sum your life up in a sentence. And I always say, I know a lot of really generous people. I’m, I’m the board chair of the Cancer Foundation for New Mexico, because I’m a stage four colon cancer survivor. And so, wow. I always say I know the most generous people in the entire world, so I just wanna meet you and shake your hand because what you did for the Navajo Nation, ju it’s, it’s so moving and it’s so amazing. Thank you. So thank you for that. Thank you.

Charlie : (33:46)
We were, it was an

Bunny: (33:47)
Honor and you were also generous with your time, um, giving me a little more than a half hour to visit. So I have, um, one really, um, this is like, um, a fan girl kind of question, but did you get to measure Sam Elliot’s head

Charlie : (34:02)
? I did not. No. No,

Bunny: (34:08)
No. Oh, too bad.

Charlie : (34:10)
They just,

Bunny: (34:10)
They, I tell em next, for next, the next season you got. Yeah,

Charlie : (34:14)
Yeah, yeah. They would just send over stuff. . So I did hold Sam Elliot’s hat in my hand, and I was like, this is Sam Elliot’s hat .

Bunny: (34:27)
So my dad, who is a farmer from Eastern New Mexico is 90 years old this year. Wow. And he, all my life wore a hat always. I mean, he always had, you know, he has, and he would buy them at garage sales. He, you know, he was the ultimate recycler because he didn’t have money to go in and buy a, you know, six x or how I don’t three x, whatever those Xs are. Right. Beaver hat. He would find them at, um, garage sales. So I may, we may have a stockpile of hats, first of all, at his house, but he’s still alive. He still, he gave me one of his hats a while back because we have the same head size. But I’m telling you, I, there’s nothing I like better than seeing somebody wearing a perfectly shaped hat. It’s so, and I, and now I wear hats all the time. So, good work. I’m glad that you didn’t grow up to be a fireman and instead became a Hatmaker

Charlie : (35:24)
. Thank you.

Bunny: (35:26)
So I’m coming soon to Madrid. I want, I want listeners to know that if you fly into Albuquerque Exactly. You don’t have to get on I 25. I always say Get off the freeway. Don’t, don’t get on I 25 and head to Santa Fe. Go the back way. Go through the mountains. Yes. Well, 14 is the way to go. Yeah,

Vanessa : (35:48)
True. Is beautiful. And we didn’t really take that into consideration, you know, when we, we, the, the shops came to us pretty quickly after we moved here, and we were just learning as much as we could about, you know, the lay of the land and everything else. And it’s, it’s really beautiful. The people that are coming in and out, going back to Albuquerque or coming in from Albuquerque who do know about the Turquoise Trail and how, what a beautiful drive it is. I mean, it’s, it sometimes when I’m driving back to the house from the shops, I’m just, it, it’s just such an amazing overwhelming sense of beauty that I’m looking out at Santa Fe off in the background and the mountains. It, it’s just, it’s a beautiful, beautiful drive and it’s definitely worth it. I completely agree with you. Skip the 25, take the

Bunny: (36:36)
14. I’m with you. And, um, stop by and say hello to Charlie and Vanessa. Um, thank you guys so much. This is fun. Thank you. This was really fun. Thank

Vanessa : (36:45)
You. Thank you.

Speaker 4: (36:46)
Thank you. It’s

Vanessa : (36:47)
Been fun. We’ll see

Speaker 5: (37:06)
Here

Speaker 4: (37:07)
I am back on the road, heading now west to the mountain zone. There’s one thing on my mind, there’s is girl in New Mexico whose eyes green and hair is gold. I can’t wait to have her by side

Speaker 5: (37:27)
New Mexico.