Rising Stars: Meet Garrett DeVaughn

Today we’d like to introduce you to Garrett DeVaughn.

Hi Garrett, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I was born and raised in Clanton, Alabama. It’s a little town in the center of Alabama. If you’ve driven through Alabama on I-65 and noticed a Peach-shaped water tower, then CONGRATULATIONS!!! You’ve just driven through the Mad Uke-Bard’s hometown.

When I was growing up it was smaller than it is now. For example, we didn’t get the Walmart Supercenter until I was in middle school. Getting a Wendy’s in town was a big deal, and really ate into the Dairy Queen market. That being said, Clanton was the bigger town in the surrounding area, and we had our fair share of traffic lights.

There are elements of my hometown that I look back on with great nostalgia. Growing up on a dirt road “in the woods” is something I under-valued at the time, but now I look back with appreciation. I lived several miles outside of “town”, and I can remember being outside and only hearing about Nature, and only seeing Natural Light from stars and the moon and lightning bugs. Much of my dad’s family lived in the area, so we always had family close by (another element of life that I didn’t appreciate at the time).

There are other elements of my hometown that I loath to this day. I am under no illusion that these elements were unique to my town, but they bother me all the same. Things like gossip, racism, nepotism, hypocrisy, and discrimination. I was born with mild cerebral palsy, and while I have certain entitlements, I experienced certain aspects of these things in ways that most around me didn’t.

If nothing else, it gave me insight and allowed room for empathy towards people that were different than me. My physical limitation was with me at birth and has been something that I have fought and struggled against throughout the years.

While I am learning to view it as an old friend, it has had its effect over the years. I would not want to over-generalize life with a disability (or speak for everyone), but one thing I believe is likely true across the board is the feeling that the world around you was not “built” for you. Things like “normal” and “odd”, “the right way” and “the wrong way” are skewed and blurred in ways that many people would not think about.

I learned basic piano playing at a young age, but never really mastered it. Truth be told, I was a kid, and I didn’t like the music I was “learning”. Eventually, I lost interest in learning to play songs I didn’t really like. I didn’t get back to playing music until around age 14…

… Enter my sister’s boyfriend and a tiny guitar with rusted strings …

My father did not play an instrument, but the “collector of odd things” in him had stumbled across an old toy guitar and this guitar had been leaning up against a wall in our house for as long as I could remember. I never really took interest in it until my sister’s boyfriend came over, He played guitar, and when he saw the little toy of ours, he decided to string it up and tune it to have something to piddle with when he visited.

He listened to a lot of grunge, rock, and classic metal, and therefore loved learning classic riffs and what-not. I remember watching him bring that guitar to life with Nirvana, Led Zeppelin, Metallica, Black Sabbath, etc, and somewhere the thought emerged…”I think I could do that”.

After a few quick-hit lessons on reading tablature (“tabs”) and learning the basic chords, I was running. The first song I remember learning was Nirvana’s “Something in the Way”, and after that, I became a bit obsessed with learning every guitar riff I came across that struck a nerve with me (I wasn’t always successful, but the drive was there).

My younger years were filled with outlaw country, pop, Motown, and a few things in between…to name a few…Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Michael Jackson, Arethra Franklin, the Rolling Stones, the Gap Band, and the Miami Vice soundtrack (on vinyl!! My dad is an interesting character with conflicting tastes).

Musically speaking, college was an explosion of all things music… I thoroughly “discovered” classic bands like Rush, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Parliament-Funkadelic, and Pink Floyd. At the same time, more contemporary bands that I had no real knowledge of came into my view. Bands like Metallica, Tool, Rage Against the Machine, Alice in Chains, and Outkast were on a regular rotation in my car.

My first band was called Mo Rutherford (if you ever watched “The Stuff”, you’ll appreciate that band name greatly). At the time, I begrudgingly took the spot of lead singer and rhythm guitar. I felt that one of my bandmates was a much better singer, and I was not very confident… at the same time, I was writing a lot of original music, and my desire to present it to the public outweighed my anxiety about being in the front.

The best show we played was a house party. By necessity, we played last (meaning we “Headlined”, at least that’s how the historians will refer to it in 100 years. chuckle-chuckle) and closed with a 20-minute song with no official title (we referred to it as, “the Concept”). When we started the song, a young gentleman was standing nose-to-nose with me.

A beer in his hands, and as our drummer counted us off, the young gentleman whispered “This better f–ing rock” to which I grinned and started playing. By the end of the 20 minutes, the young gentleman had dropped his beer at my feet and was head-banging with the rest of his brethren. As the beer spout shot up in front of me, I remember screaming and watching the movement in front of me and thinking…”They understand me, and they needed this as much as I did.”

There is a connection to be forged between artist and crowd. It is a very intimate and unique connection, and while it does not provide the details of our lives with those around us, the connection shines a light on those core emotions that we all experience and it helps us see that we are not as alone in life as it sometimes can seem.

Once I graduated college, I moved to Nashville. During the first few years, I lived in Nashville, my main focus was establishing security, as in, a steady job, social circle, etc. I was writing often, but playing live took a VERY backseat (aside from a band show here and there with friends).

Around 2009, I started playing writer’s rounds. I had a grand dream… the dream that I would work my full-time job, and play writer’s rounds, and that one brilliant day Maynard James Keenan would stroll into whatever dive bar I was playing. As he strolled in with desperate thoughts of finding a brilliant creative counterpart, and the despair that comes from having little-to-no hope, he would hear my magical melodies and lusciously silk-laden vocals, and he would find himself snuggled in the warmth of sounds that the human language cannot properly describe.

He would then flip over the table he was at, hurl his Budweiser into the wall and rush the stage to speak to me. We would sit for hours talking, and every word I spoke would be more profound than the last. By the end, I would be on a private flight to sign the most lucrative music contract ever written and my life will be forever changed.

In reality, I was playing regularly and having a good time, but I was never fully committing to music. I always had more of myself into the security of a regular job. Maynard never arrived, and that profound night never came to pass. I eventually took a different full-time job, one that paid more AND demanded more. This meant no more playing live. Writing never stopped, nor did the dream, but hope and “the will to act” faded over time.

Around 2010, while not playing live at all, I came across a $35 orange “flying-V” soprano ukulele. I had never picked up a ukulele before, but such a find was impossible to pass up. What seemed insignificant at the time, became a revelation years later.

Life continued… I met my partner in 2010, we married in 2012. I kept working and writing and NOT playing. I slowly learned how to play the ukulele.

Years passed… I lost a childhood friend to suicide. He had 2 children that he loved deeply, but he was unhappy in his marriage and his job and had been nursing an addiction problem for many years (one that I had unknowingly watched grow). It appears that it all became too much. Somewhere in all of the emotions that come with such an event, I realized that we are all capable of getting to the place my friend had been. That as much as we want to say, “I would never do that”, it only takes a nudge at the wrong time and the wrong place to spin us out.

It took a few years for that to really sink in, but that lesson did resonate. I was not happy at my job, and I had not been happy at my previous jobs. I wasn’t playing live, I was creating art and not showing it to anyone.

Here is where my partner, Liz, really comes into play. Around 2018, my 3rd run of burnout with a job, and starting a new one, Liz and I had a “come to Jesus” about what I was doing. Music and Art had remained a major part of my life throughout all the years, and the dream of being an artist had not died. We made the joint decision that I would begin the journey of artist/musician.

By this time, my writing and playing had moved exclusively to my ukulele. Liz bought me a tenor uke one Christmas, and it had become a staple in all of our travels. If we left home for more than a day, the uke was with me.

I had fallen in love with the simplicity offered by the ukulele and had been pleasantly surprised at how dynamic the instrument could be. I started playing live again in 2019. Then came the pandemic. I played regular Live-Stream shows on Instagram, and a friend of mine began affectionately calling me the “Uke-Bard”.

I could look back at all these years with disappointment that I had not pursued my dream, but really, I am happy with how it all played out. I was not the musician/artist I am today, and it was not my time. But now it is, and I intend to enjoy the ride.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
The biggest struggle has been letting go of old programs related to “fear of failure”. Every anxious moment, and second-guessing, seems to come from it.

I don’t know that I would say it hasn’t been a “smooth road”. The journey is still in its adolescence and the struggles have provided a great opportunity for growth, so I’m happy with it.

More practically speaking, getting into the “Entrepreneur” mindset has not been the most natural for me. My history of anxiety, and “being small” to be sure I’m not taking up “too much space”, have proven to be a difficult flex in expansion.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am an artist and musician. I play a blend of prog, rock, Americana, and folk on my trusty tenor ukulele. Add in a splash of face paint, and you get the “Mad Uke-Bard”.

I am known for interesting takes on cover songs, face painting, and unique infusions of pop culture into my story-telling songwriting.

I am most proud of my EP released in 2020, “Adam the Astronaut”, and the uniqueness of my presentation. While my art may not be for everyone, I am confident in how it stands out on its own.

Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
Here are a few regular practices I have developed over the last several months that seem to be really helping me…

Currently reading/working on “The Big Leap”. In short, it’s about making the move to doing what you love and trusting that things will work out. Tapping – There are a lot of ways to find it. It’s like a light form of acupuncture. You literally “tap” on specific spots on your body while meditating and it can help clear blocks or fears.

There’s an app called “Tapping Solutions” that give a pretty good rundown. You can also search “Brad Yates” on youtube, he has hundreds of videos on all sorts of topics. It may sound “hokey” to some, but I’ve come to really find help in it.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.garrettdevaughnmusic.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/garrettdevaughnmusic
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/garrettdevaughnmusic

Image Credits
Emily Bauman