Today we’d like to introduce you to Riley Anglen, a.k.a. “Rowdy” The Dixie Original.
Hi Riley, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Born March 27, 1981, in Huntsville, Alabama, Grew up in Bristol and the Tri-Cities of East Tennessee. Cut from a family of Gospel And Old Time Country Singers and Players. Every Week was a family reunion and First Baptist Blountville was our home. I’m 2nd born of 4, I have 2 brothers and 1 sister. Mom was stay at home and Dad was a Successful self-made mechanic. We were taught that Grace, Love, and a determined and dedicated work ethic will take you anywhere you want to go. And it did just that. My music career started in the ’90s, writing, recording, and touring in bands with my best friends. Later, into the 2000s, I would have the privilege to work and play within other well-known bands and National acts, remaining active for more than 2 decades. (The Showdown, UNDERØATH, The Almost). After a few years of gathering inspiration, dabbling in, and crafting my songwriting, I decided to further seek out what my own style and sound was, to bring this collection of songs to life. In 2013, my now wife, Amanda, and I moved to Nashville. I was one of a handful of writers, stabled at a boutique studio in Berry Hill. Along with my fellow co-writers and peers, one a member of Jason Isbell’ and the 400 unit, Sadler Vaden, and the other Johnny Duke, a hired gun for Little Big Town, we cultivated a sound that wasn’t short of complimenting and reflecting our most favorite music. I was determined to establish myself as a Singer-Songwriter yet. In April of 2015, my wife and I welcomed our first-born little girl, Bristol, this was the greatest shot of creative adrenaline I never knew I needed. Things just seemed to flow after her arrival. What a blessing. The Band and I, we decided to bring to life a new take on Ballads and Boogie. Riley Anglen & The Big Guns was formed. We recorded and released an EP in 2015 called “Fine Good Time”., Using the 400 unit as the session band at Paul Ebersold’s studio, The Bakery. This compilation later caught the attention of a few notable types within the Americana genre, where we performed many appearances, on PBS hosted and televised “Song of The Mountains”. And toured all around the country for the next couple of years. In just a short matter of a time, I found myself humbly surrounded by Nobility. These Purveyors of song smithing and sound, their influence would spark a fire in me, to really look in the mirror, dig way down, deeper, to find my legs as the Artist they believed that I had yet to become. On the cusp and rising, I really started working to make a mark for myself. A style all to my own. I was encouraged to find that sound, one that was as Gritty and Monumental as the Cowboy who writes it. The Dixie Original was born, Rowdy was then Bolstered and Saddled. I spent two years touring, prior to the first Rowdy record release, gathering, catching, and writing stories, through my eyes, and through the eyes that had seen the same roads time and time before. We wrote, recorded, and released the self-titled “Rowdy” record on Thanksgiving of 2018. That record has taken me around the world, and it still holds a smoking gun. We found something sacred in that compilation. Something we had to commit to and take an oath to preserve. Stay Wild, Stay free, Stay original. In January of 2019, Amanda and I welcomed our 2nd born, our son Hawk. He came at a time of confirmation, inspiring me and my music mates to stay this narrow course of rarity. That we are set apart, and we are stronger as a community. My Longtime brothers and bandmates, Aaron Gillespie, and JJ Revell, we created a new DNA in music together. We have mastered a workflow and strategy for writing and recording Rowdy music. We have since fashioned another 11-song installment. Inspired and withdrawn from what feels like the canyons of my heart, we kept our hands busy with it through the pandemic and stayed on top of it to its completion. Along with our close friends and fellow musicians, Tucker Wilson, Daniel Shifflett, James Westfall, Kurt Ozane, and Micheal Esser, A brand new record was captured, “Los Sabaneros” which is to be released in 2022. We are staying after it, our Goal is to find management, an agent, Book as many show dates as possible, and keep working hard! It’s a stallion of a ride, like that little nerve in your gut when you top a hill at full speed. That’s our stride, Flat out on the gas, Hell for leather, Still here, Still Slingin.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
If it was smooth, I would have been bored a long time ago. Bumps create character. When you are young, authenticity seems like such a challenge, like a college course leads to a degree, it just takes time, tireless efforts, and sometimes sleepless nights, to Achieve. But wisdom is our greatest gift, our greatest asset, to remind ourselves, that what we are passionate about, acts as the glue that that holds together and makes sense of the rest of space and time. Life is meant to be awake for, find a way to translate what is hard to understand, but never stop or abandon your passions. Navigate with grace, forgive yourself, be patient. Finding yourself is beyond where your skin is.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m a husband, I’m a father, I’m a brother and a son. I’m a carpenter by trade, Framer and Finisher, I also am a Ranch hand, Utility in taking care of Horses and Operations. I am an engineer and a tour production specialist. Songwriting and Performing as a Country artist is something I am very grateful to be able to do, But I believe that it comes with great responsibility. I believe I am a voice, an edifier, a translator and motivater, A curator of creativity, that allows the mind to wander and wonder, of things larger than the immediate space we take up in the universe.
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
Family, Love, Trust, My Wife, My Children, My House, My Dirt, My Band, Trout, Fishing, Hunting, Ice Cold Beer, smooth whiskey, Good Sleep, Good eats, and Country Music. Without these things, I believe that’s what hell is made of.
Contact Info:
- Email: rowdydixieoriginal@gmail.com
- Website: rowdydixieoriginal.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/rowdydixieoriginal
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rowdydixieoriginal
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/dixierowdy
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCIA1JmFDIlu8xPyCX7K-bVA
- Other: https://linktr.ee/rowdydixieoriginal
