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2025 marked the seventh year of the Bourbon & Beyond festival in Louisville, with an expanded footprint and an impressive array of artists from the past and present. It turned out to be one of the best festival experiences of the year. Continuing our conversations started at Newport Folk Festival earlier this summer, we sat down with artists like Gin Blossoms, 10,000 Maniacs, Old 97’s, Dawes, Lake Street Dive, and Dani Rose to find out what they are most proud of in 2025, what routines they prioritize in the five minutes before walking on stage, and in a deeper question, how they keep themselves mentally healthy when life and the world gets tough to manage.

Robin Wilson (of Gin Blossoms): What am I proud of? I’m proud that I turned sixty years old. And I’m still in a working rock band.

Brit Taylor: Well, I think right now, today, the most proud thing that I am, or the most, the thing that I’m most proud of right now is that I just played Bourbon and Beyond almost eight months pregnant with my little baby girl, Beulah Ann. She’s going to be born having already graced the stage of Bourbon and Beyond. I know. She’s been on tour with Nitty Gritty Dirt Band all year. So I’m like, she’s going to come out singing “Fishing in the Dark.”

Jimbo Mathus (of Squirrel Nut Zippers): I’m proud of my music career. I’m proud I was able to do far more things than I ever dreamed I would be involved with. And so many opportunities have come my way and I just feel so blessed to keep getting great opportunities and great ways to produce music and encourage musicians, teach musicians, and also keep the whole Squirrel Nut Zippers name. Keep their brand, keep their sound, keep our philosophy alive in the modern world because I think it’s just as viable now. It’s just as entertaining now it’s just as creative, subversive as anything out there and as anything that’s ever been. And I’m very proud of the Zippers and the new orchestra. Very proud of them. I sit down and when we hit the bandstand and it’s just like a dream, starting to hear them and I just almost feel disembodied and I’m not even there. And I like my new van, my new Ford van. It’s a 2013 and it’s got rear AC, so I’m very proud of that. And it’s got cruise control!

Dani Rose: In 2025, in February, I released a duet with Brent Cobb. And it was my fifth song on the TV show Yellowstone. And that marked a really big career moment and goal for me because I am the only independent female artist to have that many songs on the TV show. So that was a really big moment for me. And also playing all of these incredible festivals this year, being a part of Bourbon and Beyond. Last weekend I was in Montana at Bourbon and Bonfire. I was with the cast of Yellowstone. Kevin Costner showed up. It was wild.

Scott McCaughey (of The Baseball Project): The thing I’m most proud of is the new Minus Five record, just because I’m most proud of every record I make. I mean, except for the shitty ones. But this is a really good one, and it’s a hard year for everybody because everything sucks. And I just feel like somehow it coincided that I made maybe one of my favorite records I’ve ever made. And it’s a really positive record, and it feels like it’s really a fun record to go out and play and give people some pleasure. And that’s a lot of it’s to do with Peter and Linda who played on the record, and Kurt Block and Debbie Peterson from the Bangles made the record with me. And Stasia Maca, who I’d never worked with, who’s an amazing producer, mixed the record and everything just came together. And so I’m really happy to be out playing those songs and trying to spread some happiness, some joy I guess, or something like that. And luckily, the Baseball Project consented to be Minus Five, because we’re opening for the Baseball Project on tour. It’s just so much fun to be out with your good friends playing music you love both in the Minus Five and the Baseball Project. And I’m just proud that I’m still around.

MABILENE: There’s a book called “Hope for the Flowers.” It’s a children’s book. And at the beginning of this year, I was like, I don’t want to be in the caterpillar pile, just feeling like I’m moving against the wind. I want to allow myself to be in the flow and stop trying to force things. And I had just made an album called “Storm Born,” and I’d been working on it in a different way. I didn’t raise a bunch of money going to the studio. I’m independent. I made it over two and a half years, me and a friend in the studio doing most of it ourselves. And then actually because of this festival, I had a radius clause. I couldn’t do a release show, so I actually did it in a sound bath studio my friend founded and everybody laid on the ground and just listened. Wow. And I was standing there in that moment and I was like I never would’ve thought to do this. But necessity made me do this.

And I’m in a situation where I’m not nervous trying to sell out a room in Nashville. I’m just lying here with people I love and they’re really listening to my work. And I was like, that’s the goal. That’s really what I’ve been trying to slip into is just like there’s so much I can’t control, and what I can control is who I am in every present moment. So that book, Hope for the Flowers, which is about go be a butterfly and then fly around and live your life instead of being crushed by this tower, which for me was numbers and social media and all these things that at the end of the day don’t have anything to do with the art or who I am. And I can understand why they’re useful on certain levels, but letting that crush you. So I’d say for me it’s that I feel like I’m living into that. And I feel like with the Storm Born, I did usher in a storm. We’re in the year of the snake. There is some shedding, and that going with the flow being like, no, let go of it. Let go of that person. Let go of that thing. Trust what’s happening. And I feel like at least today, I am inhabiting that intention. And so I’d say that with releasing the record and letting it be what it is, is what I’m most proud of.

Mike Calabrese (of Lake Street Dive): I think I’m proud of the band. I feel like we’ve brought James on board for the first time writing with us in preparation for our next record. And we’ve entered this period of, like, open creativity and discussion and sharing that feels very fresh and invigorating. Rachel and Bridget and I have known each other for twenty-one years. And now, you know, we’re still developing, it’s nice.

Steve Gustafson (of 10,000 Maniacs): A grandson. Three. Yeah, he can read already. I babysit Tuesday mornings with him. He FaceTimes me. I’ve been married for thirty-seven years. That’s fricking fantastic. Kind of proud of that. And I’ve also been friends with this guy for over fifty years (gesturing to Dennis Drew). Wouldn’t that be nice that the band is still going and writing new music? We got a new record coming out next year and I’m proud that we still love each other.

Mike Scott (of The Waterboys): I still sing like I did when I was a teenager. I actually sing better than the teenage me. So I’m proud. Maybe the wrong word, but I’m very pleased about that. Very happy about that. I sing like a motherfucker.

Dennis Drew (of 10,000 Maniacs): I’m really proud that we sobered up and we play better than we have in a long time. And that’s great. And I don’t mean the sober part, I just mean that we just, when you get a little bit older, you really got to take it seriously. And we’ve really figured out how to take it seriously in the sense that we tour less. We’ve hired good people around us. We’ve really maximized what we can do and you’ll find out soon. I’m really proud of the fact that we’re writing some really good songs and I’m just proud that we’re still going.

Do you have any special tradition or ritual before you go onstage?

Emily Scott Robinson: I love this question. This is a great question for today because we only had five minutes before, because all the bands are playing right up to each other, and there’s just five minutes of quiet between each one. We didn’t really have a soundcheck. And so all the things that I normally lean on to make me feel settled in in a live show environment are out of my control on a day like this. And so I’m leaning on my band. I’m hoping everything goes well. My Type A brain, that part of my brain is always leading up to a show is always like, okay, set list, cup of water, you know, how’s everything going? What’s the time? How much time till we go? Did we get the monitors out? That part of me is always going. And so the one thing I always do is just take a moment to just take even just a single breath, and tap back into the humanity of myself and my music, and remember that people aren’t there to see you perfect. They’re there to connect with you.

Rhett Miller (of Old 97’s): My pre-show rituals have changed over the years. It used to be beer starting two hours before, and then whiskey starting thirty minutes before. And I had all these rules about weed and beer and whiskey consumption. I had a minimum and a maximum. But I just had vocal cord surgery, and I’m now sober. So now I’m finally the guy that warms up beforehand and does the vocal trills and the lip rolls and all the crazy scales. And I don’t do it every time, but I do it a lot and it has really saved my voice. And I’m super glad because it looked like for a minute I wasn’t going to be able to really sing that much anymore. Also, every night before the gig I’ll go have dinner by myself and I’ll spend about an hour to two hours making a set list. It’s an OCD kind of compulsion, but I love it and I feel like it does add a lot to our band that every night is a different set that’s been really thought through, and it’s sort of been tailored for the venue that we’re playing. Speaking of which, I have not made the set list for today’s show at Bourbon and Beyond yet, but it’s only a 30-minute set, so I think I can do it. That’s a challenge.

Dr. Sick (of the Squirrel Nut Zippers): Cocaine. [Laughs] No, there’s nothing. If there’s something cool to do, we do it. But as far as ritual, I usually look at the band right when they point to us and they’re like, alright, go on out there, there’s an announcer or whatever. As soon as this time, I dunno why I started doing this or which band I started doing it for. But I always look around and I just say, “All right, y’all kill ’em.”

Robin Wilson (of Gin Blossoms): Five minutes before we go on stage. I take a leak, make a drink, put in my in-ear monitors, head to the stage, and kind of rock out to the pre-show, mix tape a little bit, try to psych myself up.

Well, what’s on that mix tape?

Robin Wilson (of Gin Blossoms): Let’s see, this year we’ve got the Replacements, White Reaper, local Louisville boys. And then our walk-on song is “Fox on the Run” by Sweet.

Joe Bonamassa: Yeah, there’s no, like kumbaya. We don’t do a band, you know, like some people, they put all their hands in like. No, as soon as I put the suit on, it’s like we’re there, you know.

Madison Ryann Ward: I usually listen to Norah Jones when I’m getting ready, when I’m putting my makeup on. Norah Jones, her Don’t Know Why CD is something I listen to. When I was a little girl in the middle of my parents divorce, which sounds pretty heavy, but that was something that I would listen to every night to fall asleep. And so no matter where I am, if I put that CD on, it really does calm me down. So I listen to that. And then I also, I always want to pray with my team. So we always huddle up and pray and just tell one another. We’re thankful. And we ask Jesus to watch over us and help us. And just that people would be encouraged and that God’s Spirit would move through us as we perform.

Ashe: It’s funny. Lip trills. I mean it’s what’ll keep you alive on stage for sure. I used to do a headstand and I’m thinking I should bring that back because it’s really good for your body to rush the blood the other way. But I’m often in a green room with a bunch of other people. Today. I’m in a dress. Maybe by the end of 2025, I’ll be bringing back the headstand.

Iron & Wine: Um, no, we don’t really have any set, organized thing. I mean, you know, lots of hugs and positive reinforcement. That’s what we’re doing today, actually. I tell them not to fuck up. Or you’re fired. No. No, nothing, you know, nothing too organized. But yeah, there is always that moment, like right before, you know, you’ve been spending the whole day gearing up to this moment and then you’re like right there and you see the last guys from the crew walk off and there’s just that quiet stage for just a second and the lights start to go down and we’re all just sitting there, you know, right before you go on. It’s a fun moment, you know? It kind of stops for a second. And you all look at each other and go, like, here we go. It’s like a little magic moment.

Dylan Gossett: We’ll get everybody in the band and whoever’s around, like in the crew, we’ll do a prayer, kind of just get everybody’s head locked in. We’ll usually break out in something, someone will think of a word to say and they’ll break us out, you know, one, two, three, break, we’ll say the word. And then it’s kind of go-time, like we’ll give everybody knuckles, ears will go in, song will start, they’ll walk out. Then it’s just me and usually I’ll just do like a prayer by myself, kind of, you know, get warmed up a little bit and just go. Every single time, this is Scott, so our tour manager, we always usually just get like a quick little knuckle bump as I walk out and that’s kind of the routine.

Griffin Goldsmith (of Dawes): This is pretty boring, but I have a warm-up. It’s called the rudimental ritual. I didn’t invent it. A famous German named Alan Dawson did. And so I’ve converted most of that to memory and I’ll just go through that on my drum pad. Then I’ll try to breathe correctly through that and stay active and then maybe do quick feet or just jump around a little bit so that I might get my blood flowing.

When you’re going through hard times, what helps you survive?

Kelsey Waldon: Gratitude and realizing that we’re all doing it. We’re all feeling it and we’re all in it together. And we can… We got this shit.

Rachel Price (of Lake Street Dive): Yeah, I take a lot of comfort in, in these types, in this type of thinking, I take a lot of comfort in the vastness of the universe. I actually feel great about being small, like being like, you know, just like a speck of galaxy dust in this crazy experiment, whatever this is we’re all doing. And yeah, thinking about the vastness of time, you know, the other day I was just thinking about the pyramids and I was like, that is so crazy. We have no idea how those pyramids got there. You know, things like this give me, like, so much comfort. And then I’m like, okay, well, you know what? I don’t need to be the greatest singer in the world at all. It’s fine. I can just go on stage and sing and have a really good time. And that’s, and that’s great. You know what I mean? Like the earth keeps spinning, you know, I can just look at a tree.

Jesse Valenzuela (of Gin Blossoms): You know, honestly, I’ve been doing this for a while now, and it really works for me, which is I daily, I make a list of ten things I’m grateful for, and I try to make them, I try to elaborate. So it’s not just, yeah, you know, Mexican food or something. And I think of specific people too. And then I learned this really great one recently. If someone is, if you’re having some trouble with someone, if you stop in the morning and give some good, send some good thoughts to them. So I try three people every day. I love them. Yeah, it really works.

Morgan Wade: One of the biggest things for me, and I felt it kind of coming off this last tour and then you go home and it’s like really quiet, which is really weird. It’s like when you’re on the road and you’re surrounded by a bunch of people, even if you’re struggling, somebody sees you, they’ve got eyes on you. I try, I isolate, I isolate. And that’s something that I try to work on. So it’s like just trying to find that one person that it’s like, even if I’m not telling them what’s going on, it’s like, I can just sit there and breathe next to them and we can communicate in some way, whether I’m talking to them or just being in that room.

Taylor Goldsmith (of Dawes): I think for me, the phrase that pops into my head all the time is draw a smaller circle. I found myself freaking out at the world around and the news haunting me through my phone. But sometimes it’ll be plaguing me even though I’m sitting at a table like this or sitting at a table with my family. And the reality is if I let that infect me, when I have an opportunity to actually be celebrating life or to be grateful, then I’m kind of letting it win. So if I can just be mindful of when there’s a beautiful moment that I can just simply bear witness to, I owe it to the chaos, I owe it to myself, I owe it to the moment to do so. And so I have to draw a smaller circle and just kind of get my bearings again. And then, of course, I’m not suggesting ignore the outside world. Sometimes draw a bigger circle, especially as a creative. But make sure that that’s what you want to be doing in that moment to let it in. So sometimes it’s a battle of when to let it come knocking and when to resist. I just try to remind myself not to invest too much energy in things I can’t control and to rather invest it in things that I can. So yeah, I’m not trying to change the world, but maybe change my place in it.

Chan Kinchla (of Blues Traveler): Well, I mean unfortunately rock and roll is a pretty dangerous lifestyle. We’ve lost a lot of friends. Bobby, she and our original bass player, Tim Vega, one of our original artists, Alan Woody, bass player for the Government Mule and a friend of ours. There were Tim Vega, Bobby Shin, and my good high school buddy, Rob Lester, who worked with us. We would just own the run the bar down at the wetlands in New York City where we started out. And I close my mind, all three of them are gone to me. I think whether it’s depression or drugs, the escapes we use to deal with the emotions, it, it’s about escapes. So the number one thing you can do is just reach out it’s community, reach out to other people. It’s when we can start isolating or hiding, which is what drugs and alcohol do. And the people with depression, they isolate. You’ve got to try and reach out to that isolation. If you can reach out to people, that’s the number one way to keep yourself whole.