Country music singer, Drew Baldrige grew up in Patoka, Illinoise -a small town with a population of five hundred people. Performing was something that always captivated him and with his natural talent he captivated his audience. Whether it was when he performed at school or now performing on stage you’ll be singing a long and dancing.

We had the chance to catch up with Drew and talk about his song, ‘She’s Somebody’s Daughter,’ what a dream tour would look like for him and his ‘Baldridge and Bonfires’ tour.

BC: What was your background with music like?

DB: “I started playing piano in Kindergarten and I was involved in any kind of talent show or Christmas program. I loved entertaining, I loved being in front of people - that was a big part of who I was growing up. When I started singing more in public and I gravitated towards country music. I grew up in a little farm town and growing up on a family farm, I just kind of lived a country song my whole life so you know what I write is real. It’s how I lived, it’s how I grew up and so writing about that is a lot easier.”

BC: Since you began doing talent shows at such a young age, do you remember your first time on stage and how you felt?

DB: “Oh yeah, I remember the first time I was on stage it was for a Christmas program. I think it was in first grade and I sang, ‘goodbye’ in all different languages as the finale of the show. I remember the whole song in my head like, “Ciao, Adios having new friends….” Drew laughs. “It was literally the first time I ever performed in front of people singing wise. Afterwards everybody came up to me saying, ‘oh my goodness, we didn’t know that you were such a good little singer.’ I just always sang with my dad in church and driving in the truck. And you know my dad sang too, and so there's just that feeling of people coming up and being like ‘oh my goodness, that was awesome.’ It just stuck with me and just kept me driving on to play more in in front of people.”

BC: I love your story! Was it music all the time for you or was something else you loved?

DB: “I loved music but I never thought it was a thing I could do. I loved sports. I played travel AAU basketball and a did a lot of baseball growing up. I was going to go to college to play baseball. Sports was really where I spent most of my time. A lot of basketball all year around between junior high and high school. I was the jock, I loved playing sports, I loved pitching, I loved bringing the ball up the court.”

BC: What do you want fans to take away from your music?

DB: “I think I just want fans to really be able to use my songs in life, you know, in everyday life. I have this song called ‘She's Somebody's Daughter’ that we just put out a little little while back and I've just seen so many people use this song in their weddings and how this song has meant so much to them 'cause they lost their mom or they lost their dad. As a songwriter, when you sit down and write songs, you just try to write stuff that's real to you and hope that it really hits home with people and that's what these last couple songs we put out have done. We have another one called ‘Stay At Home Dad’ and this song really just talks about all the hard working dads out there that have sacrificed so much for their family. That's the kind of stuff that I love. I love to inspire people. I love to hit home in the heart, make people feel something whenever they hear the song and if we're doing that, that's the best thing you could ask.”

BC: What a great reason for doing music! You mentioned your song, ‘She’s Somebody’s Daughter’ what can you tell us about that song?

DB: “ I wrote this song after meeting my wife’s dad for the first time. I had seen it written on a billboard somewhere that said she's somebody's daughter or something like that. I wrote that down in my phone and I just kept coming back to that - she's somebody's daughter. And so I got together with some really great songwriters, Cameron James and Jimmy Yeary and we just we talked about this and I said, you know, I kind of want to write something as a message to myself to never forget. You know, if I break my wife’s heart or at that time she was my girlfriend, I'll be breaking her momma’s heart and her daddy's heart too, you know? This song just kind of fell out so quick. We put it out, the label that I was on just kind of threw it out in 2019 and it didn't really do what I thought it would do. I knew the song was right but we didn't have the right production on it.” Drew says, “Around the time of my wedding I went out produced this just with the piano and I put it up on social media and it just went viral all over the place. With all the views it’s had and how big it’s gotten in the last two months. It's just been crazy for us to imagine that a song can get out this fast and how much it means to so many people.”

BC: What was it like playing this song to your wife for the first time?

DB: “You know, I remember getting the piano version back for the first time and playing it and her just crying and tearing up, you know. She wanted to play it for her dad and I was so lucky I got to be there. I was in the other room and I walked in and they were in the kitchen dancing to it and she was crying, holding her dad, you know, and that was pretty special. I've always written songs, but I never thought I would write the song that my wife and my father in law would dance to at our wedding. I just thought it it would be a really good song and it turned into something so much bigger and watching her hold her dad and cry it was special.”

BC: What a beautiful song and a beautiful memory! We’re just now coming out of COVID but was there a silver lining during the pandemic for you?

DB: “You know, during COVID I'll be honest, I've been very, very blessed during COVID. We had a song called ‘Senior Year’ that really did a lot of stuff when kids, you know, all their schools closed. We had this song that says, ‘never thought it would disappear senior year’. I went out and I did Zoom concerts for the class of 2020 all around the country. It quickly turned into flying all around the country and playing shows for kids and different schools and playing this song at graduations and that turned into this new tour that I've been doing called ‘Baldridge and Bonfires’, I've been playing in people backyards all around the country, which has been awesome, so much fun getting to meet people on a different level than what I used to.” Drew tells us, “And you know, it's not just a fair or festival, no, we're in their yard and actually meeting them and playing for them. By now I've played about 100 of these shows in peoples backyards, which has been really inspiring. You know, I feel like we've kind of come into our own during COVID not only writing wise and writing songs that I'm really proud of, but also touring in a whole different new way that still allowed us to come safely and play for small parties. They're all private - They're in peoples backyards with their best friends or their family. They are with people that they were going to see anyways. Shows are opening back up now but being able to play those private shows during COVID was a game changer for us to make new fans, but also just to see our fans face to face again.”

BC: How did the idea of the Zoom concerts come about?

DB: “I posted on my Facebook and I just said hey class of 2020 who wants a Zoom concert I'll play on Zoom for you and I was doing about eight or nine of those a day for kids all around the country.” Drew says, “And then that turned into them asking me, ‘hey, will you come to Florida? Hey, will you come to California, hey, will you come here?’ and I said, sure and then I got back and that was done around August. It was in September of 2020 when my wife and I were on a walk, we were talking about what to do. I lost my record deal. I lost my publishing deal. I didn't have any shows. I didn't have anything and we just kind of said we gotta find a way to make some money or figure life out, you know. I just posted on Facebook. We're like, well, what if we just try to see if anybody wants a show in their backyard kind of like we did with senior year. We went from a couple shows in October to it spreading like a wildfire. I couldn't answer everybody - there were hundreds and hundreds of messages, and people wanting shows in their backyard. And I put in just October into the first two weeks in November we played 28 shows in peoples backyards. We're like, Oh my gosh, people are so hungry for music. My agent called me in December of 2020, and then he said, hey, we're not going to book anything for you until at least fall of 2021 and I was like, what do I do? So I was like, well, maybe I'll do a Part 2 of ‘The Baldridge and Bonfire’ tour. I posted again and I got thousands and thousands and thousands of messages. So March into August we have about 70 of these shows booked. It's just been crazy, you know I'm not working through my agent. It's literally been people messaging me, and me just hitting them right back on Facebook or Instagram and it's literally me being my own agent.”

BC: Wow, congratulations on all your success with these shows! I want to talk about your radio show.

DB: “Yeah, we do a weekend show on Go Country which is KGO out there in LA and I'll be honest it was something I never ever thought I'd ever do, you know I never dreamed of it. Honestly, I always love doing interviews and hanging out and talking music. Michael Levine, who is a really good friend of mine, he who runs the station over there. He called me out of the blue and said, ‘would you ever consider doing our weekend show?’ And I was like ‘Michael, I don't know if you want me to do your weekend” Drew laughs. “I said there’s gonna be a bunch of aint’s and ya’lls- I don’t know how to say correct grammar. He's like, ‘that's perfect. That's exactly what we're picturing for our weekend show. We're doing a throwback of 90s country and all sorts of stuff,’ and I said, ‘send me some music logs and I'll just send in a tape and see if people like it and he hit me back and he's like hey everybody over here at the station loves it - would you want to do this?” I said, ‘well let’s try it for a little bit and see what happens.’ And I've been doing it now since February and you know, it is hard when we're out playing 18 shows in a row like we just got off a run - 18 shows in 18 days. I’ve never done anything like that. I'm literally just taking my bag, my computer, my microphone, everything and recording this show wherever I can possibly do it if it's in the van, If it's in a hotel room. We’re just trying to make sure that we're still trying to put on a great show for people in the LA area, but it's been so much fun! I feel like you know now in Southern California I go there and I feel like I'm kind of at home. I just I talk to people, I get messages from folks. It has been a lot of fun to be on the radio. Now I’m starting my own podcast, and having artist friends come on the podcast talk about their lives and their music, and be able to give them some love - You know, show them love on my station. It's really cool.”

BC: That's awesome and congratulations on that success as well. And, I wanted to ask you, what is your favorite song of yours?

DB: “Oh, right now I would definitely say it would have to be “She's Somebody's Daughter”. There's just so much meaning behind it. I even have it like engraved on the inside of my wedding ring. It just means a lot to me. It means a lot to my family, my wife. All songs are like my babies, but that one has definitely been one of our favorites as of late.”

BC: For sure! So Drew if you pick one venue or place to perform a concert where would you pick?

DB: “Oh man, I would love to play Red Rocks. That's a place I haven't played in in Colorado. I've had so many people tell me it's beautiful. It's gorgeous, but I'd also just really love to play a sold out stadium show. That is like a dream, you know, Madison Square Garden sold out, Staples Center sold out would be awesome.” Drew says. “You know anywhere where you can look up and just see lights and phones, and that is like a dream for any artist ever. That's all he or she wants in life is to play their music for a sold out stadium crowd.'“

BC: On a dream headlining tour of yours on which you could invite three supporting acts, who would they be?

DB: “Oh my goodness, If I was going out on my headlining tour people but I could get, you know, I have some friends in Nashville that are young artists that everybody out there should look at. Tyler Chambers is one of them. Another buddy named Dylan Marlowe that is an up and comer that I believe in a lot. And, uhm, you know another guy that's been best friends with me for a long time, his name is Ben Rule. He's kind of moved back home, but we're just really, really close. That would be a fun tour.” Baldridge continues, “Now if I was going to go out on a dream Tour and play with any artist I would love to just be on the road with Eric Church. You know his fans and what he's grown is special. And his fans are just a whole different, you know, kind of latch on, kind of, you know, really dig into the music kind of listeners. Him and obviously, I think Luke Bryan would be awesome, or Blake Shelton. Any of those guys that just have so much fun. You know, I think that would be fun tour, beyond any of those guys want to go on tour with me, just call me. I would be in.”

BC: And Speaking of Eric Church, I mean if he was on the same stage as you, would you want him to perform one of your songs with you or perform one of his songs?

DB: “Oh man, I don't know. I think it would be a dream come true to have him perform one of mine. I mean just to have him on a song that I wrote would be really cool. You know I know Ray Fulcher really close, he wrote, “Does To Me,’ Luke and him had Eric Church on that song. Ray is a huge Eric Church fan and so getting to see those boys live a dream and have Eric Church on a song is crazy and I'm so proud and happy for them. But that would just be really really next level awesome.”

BC: Most definitely! I have this question here that if you won the lottery, what is the first thing you would splurge on?

“Oh man. Depends on how much we won. You know, there's two things that stick out in my mind. I would love to get a bus of my own. You know, right now we've been in a sprinter van which which is great, and it it's set up like a bus. It's like a small version of a bus. To not be able to have to drive around, and me do all the driving and just be wore out so to have my own bunk and everything that would be awesome. Obviously if I won the lottery I know the first thing I would buy Is a is a house out in the country on about 30-40 acres and somewhere country of Nashville where I could just go outside and live my life and not be in the city. Like right now we're in Brentwood, love Nashville, love Brentwood, love Tennessee. I gotta be here, but man, if I could be out in the country in a house on some land. Do my own hunting, have a pond, do some fishing, that would be ideal.

BC: Yeah, that would be awesome! Before we end this interview I have to ask - what is you writing process like?

DB: “You know it's all different. Like today we wrote and we didn't really have an idea. We were just in there talking and one of the writers said something I was like, oh man, that sounds really cool. We got talking about it and we ended up coming up with this idea. You just never know, a lot of times I don't like just diving into a song unless I have an idea or a title you know, because if you have a title that you're writing to it helps you create the song and mold the song around that title. Every line should kind of go back to that title and mean something. We have this song called ‘Rebound’ and it started with that title. You know ‘She's Somebody's Daughter’ started with that title, ‘Stay At Home Dad’ started with that title. We put ideas in our phone as songwriters all the time. So many people have full phones of ideas, full notebooks full of them, and then you sit down and you talk about what's what's hitting you today. What do you feel like. Do you feel like writing a country, country, song, or you feel like writing a truck song? Here's all my ideas about trucks. Here's all my ideas about fishing, you know and then you just find whatever hits somebody. But it has to start with an idea. My publisher always used to say, you know, good songs equal good ideas but great ideas, equal great songs and it's hard to find those great ideas.”

BC: Well your songs are great and lastly Drew what can your fans be looking forward to from you?

DB: “Right now we’re just putting out music all the time. I have another song that is getting mastered as we speak and hopefully be able to put that out within the next month. It’s a goal. Another video too and just constantly keep music coming and keep creating because that’s what we’ve built our fans on this year. I can’t wait for you guys to hear what we have next because this next music is a whole new level of me and and you know, especially from my first record ‘Dirt On Us’. These songs have definitely raised their hand and their step up on the latter.”

To keep up with Drew you can follow him on his socials below to know when he announces new music, tour dates and more! Stream or download, “She’s Somebody’s Daughter’ on Spotify, Apple Music or wherever you listen or download your music.