Bear Grease - Ep. 403: Render - MeatEater Live Tour Crew

Episode Date: December 24, 2025

In this episode of the Bear Grease Render, Clay Newcomb is joined by MeatEater crew members Steven Rinella, Dr. Randall Williams, Janis Putelis, and Brent Reaves, plus special guest Evan Felker of the Turnpike Troubadours. The crew breaks down the Bucky Garrison episode of the Bear Grease Podcast, swaps stories from the first half of the MeatEater Christmas Live Tour, laughs through Clay’s failed “captive cervid” joke, and confirms the rumors about a new Turnpike Troubadours album on the horizon. If you have comments on the show, send us a note to [e-mail] Connect with Clay and MeatEater Clay on Instagram MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Youtube Clips MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube Shop Bear Grease MerchSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. First Lights fieldwear collection is made for the work that happens long before opening day and continues when the season ends. Products built for early mornings, full days in real use. Hard wearing where they need to be versatile where it matters. No shortcuts. Just gear designed for the work that earns the season.

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No, I said, uh-huh. Okay. So as you can see, we've got some American legends, Daniel Boone. Warner Glenn is Arizona Cowboys still alive in his. 90s. Now, Roy Clark, it's not the singer Roy Clark, it's Roy Clark, the plot man in East Tennessee. Equally good.

The greatest quote of all time, I have to edit it slightly. Roy Clark one day, the first time I met him, he said, I'd rather hunting fish his work. We got James Lawrence still alive, dear friend from Arkansas, George McJunkin found the Folsom site. Frederick Gerstocker

was a guy that was involved. in the killed a bear over here in the Ozarks. Orly Province, bluff hunter, Hulk Collier, was an African-American guy, guided Teddy Roosevelt. Tacomsa, the Shawnee War Leader, rose the greatest army, Native American army ever to stand against American forces. He had most of them. Ava Barnes, Granny Henderson was a land martyr. here in Arkansas

when the National Park Service took all the land to make the Buffalo National River and then lastly is David Crockett and then Eishi is now on the Bear Grays Hall. Hmm. Yeah. Little tie-in to the song

The Bird Hunters is the chorus parts based on that you can go you can go to Hill and I'll go to Texas. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So this is a monumental Bear Grieves Render podcast. I'm surrounded by people that I love.

Got Janice Putelles right here. Got Brent Reeves. Got Evan Felker of the Turnpike Trubadors. We got Randall, Dr. Randall Williams, and Steve Ronella. This is incredible to have all you guys here in the office. But I'm not sure that any of you got the memo that you were supposed to listen to the last Bear Grease podcast. Now, what did you catch me doing about?

You didn't tell me that. I listened to him, but I don't listen to them as maybe it's prompt. Well, you didn't have to. I just got out of the, off of a two-hour drive. All you had to is text been on the way here. I thought maybe your wife was coming. You had your kids. I thought about it, but I was like, I'm going to ask Evan to do like one more thing.

Well, one wasn't. Well, okay. I'm going to just briefly tell it because on the, on the bear grease render, typically, we discussed the last bear grease episode. Now, Evan is connected to this one in an indirect way, actually fairly directly. Two episodes ago, we did a podcast called The Unusual Death of Melvin Bucky Garrison. And so I was with Evan in O'Kima, Oklahoma, and we were with Evan's friend, now my friend, Andrew Stubbs. Andrew was eating some cottage cheese and peaches at the Shoney's buffet.

Yes. And... A very young man to be a young man who's... spends a lot of time at Shoney's incredible horse trainer, cattleman, like a real cowboy. And I was talking to him about some of the outlaw stuff on Bear Grease, and he was talking to me about some of the outlaw episodes. And he goes, hey, there was a Game Warden killed over here by an old outlaw. And I said, really? And he said, oh, yeah.

He said, everybody knows it. Everybody talks about it. In 1970s, Bucky Garrison got killed over around Tiger Mountain on Lake Ufala. and I was like, for real? And he said, yes. Well, I immediately text Hank Jinks, or, you know, when I leave, Hank Jinks as a wildlife officer in Oklahoma. I say, does the name Bucky Garrison mean anything to you? And he was like, oh, yeah.

He was like, I was talking about Bucky Garrison today. And it turns into a really interesting episode where there's a mysterious drowning of a young, healthy game warden in Oklahoma December 26th, 1971, and he drowns in two and a half to three feet of water. And it is deemed a accidental drowning by

the authorities. But everybody in that part of the world, if you just walk down the street and you said, what happened to Bucky Garrison, they would say, this guy, you know, and I'm not going to say his name,

killed him. Because he's never been. He's never been. he's never been prosecuted. That's right. And the guy has since died, but we spent a whole episode talking about this.

Now, how come, why is that not a, why is that not a blood trails episode? Well, it just fell on my lap and I just did it. Sometimes you kind of helped team out, you know.

Well, I actually didn't even think about it until someone said that. Selfish. That's the problem. Well, some of us are over here scrapping for good stuff too, you know.

Well, and so... That's what makes a team, a real team, you know. Well, I had Jordan Sillers on last night. He was here. We talked about it. He's cool with it. I thought we might have some bad blood, but we didn't. He was cool with it.

Yeah. So while I'm interviewing Hank Jinks, Hank Jinks says, oh, you need to interview Jared Kramer, who is a modern Oklahoma Game Warden, who had to use lethal force to... to kill a guy that had. And if you hadn't listened to the episode, I mean, there's really not a spoiler. He was trying to drown him.

Yeah, he's checking a guy basically for his fishing license. The guy has a felony warrant. And I thought it was ironic that the guy was from Arkansas and he was in Oklahoma. If this story had happened in Arkansas, it would have been a dude from Oklahoma in Arkansas. You know, the bad guy is always from somewhere else. and it's a tragic story.

That's how Duke's a Hazard always went. Yeah, always from the next county. So Jared Kramer's tells the whole story. I mean, very sober, serious episode of the thought processes second by second what happened and what he had to do. And then half of the episode is about afterwards, because it was in 2015, right after after, the Ferguson riots.

It was kind of the beginning of the police brutality, you know, kind of uprising in America. And here he has killed an unarmed man. And he knows it. I mean, he said immediately, he was like,

this guy is unarmed. Yeah. But he was justified in the court of law. And I mean, it just wrecked his life for a long time. But really interesting. And I mean, never done it.

episode like that. So it was interesting. What, Brent, listen to it. Did he know going into it that the guy had the warrant? Yeah, 100%. He did. Well, he came in as backup. So his buddy had actually just stopped to do a routine fishing license check. The guy gives him his license and runs the license, and he's like, felony warrant.

And so Jared comes in as backup to help his buddy. But his buddy is arresting somebody else. All three of these people got arrested for warrant. But the most interesting part of it was is that there was one witness to the entire thing. So it's Jared and this dude fighting on the ground, go into the water. But there's other wardens nearby.

Like a hundred yards away. Understood. Not immediately there. You can't see. So Jared goes up to two men in the truck. There's one witness to the shooting, like other than Jared that's alive. And Jared is very concerned about what this witness is going to say.

Because he was associates with the shot man. Yes. They were there together. Yeah, the friends, his friend, the guy that is deceased, his friend watched the whole thing, the only witness. But the whole twist of the story is that the year before, Jared Kramer's had arrested that guy. The witness.

The witness. It arrested him because he had a warrant out for his arrest. While Jared has taken that guy to the police station, the guy says, it wasn't me that did it. I'm a victim of identity fraud. I don't have a warrant out for my arrest. Someone stole my identity, committed a crime, got out on bail, and left. And Jared was like, whatever, dude. Everybody says that.

And he said by the time they got to the police station, he actually believed the guy. And Jared put him in jail and said, I'm going to check on this for you. Sure enough, he goes and looks at the mugshot of the guy that was put in jail. And the dude was telling the truth. So Jared goes to the district attorney and says, this guy is innocent and was a victim of identity fraud.

And so Jared gets this guy out of jail. This is a year before. So he earned him a good. So the whole, like your blood pressure just goes down. in the episode. And it's total spoiler if you haven't listened to it. But you need, you got to hear Jared tell the story. Is Jared's, he's killed this man. The next day he has to go in and tell his story to the authorities. I mean, like it's a major deal. And he gives his account. And the prosecutor says, would you like to hear the account of the man that witnessed this whole thing? And or would you like to read it?

And Jared was like, he knew that that was either going to make or break him. And the guy slides over the paper. And he said it was scene for scene, like basically the exact same story. And the guy said, I told the truth because Jared is a good guy. So it's just a wild story. But then the people's family pressed charges on him. Try to sue him. Yeah.

Oh, it went all around. But it set precedence, as I understand it, it set legal precedence in America for water as a means of murder. Because before you can use a lethal force, someone has to have a way. Like if they'd have just been wrestling and there's just two guys duking it out, like, you couldn't shoot the guy. If you had a means. And so it had never been done before. It was effectively a deadly weapon. Yeah.

Yeah. So it was super interesting. I wish y'all could have heard it. Well, I will hear it. Yeah. It's not before today. For sure. The lady did ask us to listen to it about midnight last night.

Did not ask me to listen to it. Yeah, yeah. It's okay. It's okay. We're going to have to pivot. Yeah, we're going to have to pivot. Evan, what are you doing here, buddy? I am going to do something tonight with you guys that is

a little bit vague so far but I'm going to play some songs I know yeah yeah yeah we need to do a better job with our special guests

because I think he's the fourth guest in a row very puzzled so we are on the live tour the meat eater live tour so you'd be listening to this a week later but we're in the heart

at the meat eater live tour in the heart of America in near the city of Fayette Arkansas, which I might add was the only city that completely sold out. All the shows are basically sold out. The Fayetteville sold out in three days. And

the people in Fayetteville in America don't yet know that Evan Felker's going to be there tonight. Wow. You did? I've been telling everybody it's a massive secret. I hinted at it. Yeah. But yeah, Evan's going to play a little bit of music.

Evan, I've been like living in your head, brother. the last couple of night. Well, the last month, my wife is like, she's, bird hunters is like ringing in her ears. She's tired of playing. Do you know Clay covers your song? I did.

I saw that. He did a really good job. Well, you thought so? I thought so. What about royalties? Who pays that? Clay or? Clay pays them out of pocket, I think.

I thought. Well, we, we, we, we, I do have a meteor card. no, so we were on a six-night tour. We've been in it. We started in Birmingham, went to Nashville, Memphis last night, Fayetteville, Dallas, and Austin. And it's been a blast so far. Would you agree?

Absolutely. You know who's the best person to have on tour? Maybe we should rank, maybe we should do like best and worst. The best person to be on a tour bus with, other than Yanni who's just delightful and just always but is Randall. So you're saying he's the best person, Yanni, but you're skipping that. He's just kind of.

He's just kind of. No, no, I think he's just saying Yonis is solid. He's kind of right down the middle. Nothing bad. Yonis is like the coondog that's like trained and the best, but you're so good. He's been at it so long. He's so good. You're kind of working on.

your second string. Yeah, I understand. He's been added a long time. It's like a goals without saying. Yeah. Goals about saying it is. Dr. Randall Williams. I wake up in the morning on the bus, crawl out of my little little hole to sleep in. It's a berth. And I just kind of like, starry-eyed,

walk over and just sit in front of Randall and just go, okay, talk to me. And he just starts telling story after story, hair sticking straight up. And it never stops. And we say a lot of times with Randall's stories. I get nervous. that he's not going to land

because do I'm saying do I not land? No, you'll always land them but I find myself always a while into it. I started getting nervous. I remember like Doug Doug Dern, he always said when

President Biden was given a speech, he said it always felt to him like he was watching his child at the school play. Just hoping they don't mess up. You know what I mean? And when Randall tells the story, I always feel like, I don't think he's going to be able to land that story.

Like, I don't know if he knows. I feel like I know how it ends. I feel like I know the look on your face. Every time he, every time he eventually lands the story. And I'm like, I don't know why I ever doubted him. He's like the Chuck Yeager of stories. He recovers at the end.

Yes. No matter what, you're like, he's never going to land this one. This is up and in the end, three points. No, when you're when you're describing that, I can picture what it looks like on your face when I'm halfway through a story. And I'm like, man, you just... You just start tightening up a little bit. There's just nothing.

And you're looking for something else to pay attention to. Yeah. What am I going to do? Yeah. Am I going to fake laugh? Like, how am I going to deal with it? You know? Yeah.

And then he lands it and I real laugh. And I just feel such a sense of relief. I can't believe you haven't told us a Christmas sweater story that your sister knit you. Misty was going on and on about it today. My sister-in-law knits everybody's sweaters for Christmas. and they all have elaborate design. So I have one that's a big ram. The one she's thinking of,

I believe, is like a white cardigan with two buttons and a little leather patch. And it's a moose standing in a pond on the back. And on the front, there's something else. But it's like a sweater she found in like a 1930s, you know, like I don't know what you call a knitting guide,

you know, knitting patterns. And so she spends all year knitting everybody's sweaters. It was the it was the sleeves And elbow patches Well and they were also like Oh that's right yeah They were like short She doesn't measure us

She doesn't measure us There's always like You know some minor You know mismatches between your It's either the torso You know the shoulders or the arms But they're incredible Her dad is actually

Her dad has one that is Like the The view of the mountains From their house in Idaho. And it's like... At the Meteor Christmas Party, Misty tells this story

whenever your name comes up at the Meteor Christmas Party last year. We were trying to leave. It was like, all right, everybody, we'll see you later. And we just kind of ran into y'all just for a second. And Misty goes,

oh, Randall, that's a really cute sweater. And she does it so well. She imitates you. You had a drink in your hand. And you turned to Sydney and you went, hold this. and then you started on this like it was a stand-up comedy skit

it was hilarious we stayed for 20 extra minutes just to listen to and I was riveted about this sweater well that was the first thing she mentioned to me when I walked in the door she said I can't believe you're not wearing your sweater I can't believe either

that that conversation didn't stand out in my memory nearly as clearly as it did in yours oh it was good it was a great story it just had everything On blood trails, the stories don't end when the hunt is over. They just get darker.

I've seen something in the road. I instantly thought it was a sleeping bag. And there was a full of blood. Oh, my God, he doesn't have a hit. Blood Trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors. Where the terrain is unforgiving, the evidence is scarce, and the truth gets buried under brush and silence. Indications were he should be right there. but he wasn't.

This season, we're going deeper. From cold case files to whispered suspicions, from remote mountains to frozen backwards. Each story begins in the wilderness and ends in darkness. Because out here, there are no witnesses, no cameras, just fragments and the people left behind trying to piece them back together. He's not an honest person. He's incapable of being honest. Somebody somewhere knows something.

I'm Jordan Sillers. Season 2 of Blood Trails premieres April 16th. Follow now on Apple, Iheart, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. Yeah, so Evan on this tour, we don't tell anybody,

but we kind of do the same thing for six nights in a row. Like, you're the only thing that's different tonight, okay? I can relate with that. Yeah, yeah. Do you know how to any of the road? Necessarily want to pull back.

Curtin. Well, so we all every night get to hear each other's story, and every night we give each other feedback. Because, you know, they heard my first version, my second version, they've now heard my third version of the same story, and every night there'd be one of us that kind of gets targeted. Like last night, Steve was like, Brent, you really screwed your story up.

I don't remember him saying it quite like that. No, he definitely didn't. That was the sentiment. He left one of the best parts out. And tonight, I have new stuff from Craigslist, sporting goods. Yeah. And I have a video of your junk pile. Oh, wow.

Which I'm going to tie into that I've been having a hard time finding the Arkansas that fits my impression of the state. But then when I, as soon as I arrived in your yard, I was like, oh, there it is. searching for Arkansas. All I've done all days I drove around being like, this is the nicest place in the world. This is the first place we've parked that tour bus. Every time we park that tour bus and you step out of it in the morning,

it gets light out. You step out of the tour bus and you step into garbage. True. Everywhere we go. Today I step out. It's polished. Yeah There wasn't a crack in that pavement

All the grass is cut Everything's super nice Steve is like telling me He was like you're such a fraud He's like You act like Arkansas Where are these hillbillies I'm talking about

Well but it's been really It's actually You start to see how stand-up comedians Really get their Their stories Super dialed Yeah Well yeah

Because you know we're giving each other feedback, and then you get to try the same thing over and over. And I've got a great joke, a great joke that just hadn't hit yet. Strike three was last night. And it is a complete swing and a mess. That they don't hit,

that nobody laughs. It's one of them jokes. It's like, yeah, how many times do you tell a joke and nobody laughs that you describe it? It should describe it. it is maybe a statement. Well, I mean...

Three? I just feel like... I just feel like my people tonight are going to get it. Yeah, they got to have... They're not going to get it. Yeah, yeah. Try it out on him right now.

Try it out on him right now. Oh, you may try it out. Try it on him. Okay, Evan. Let's just pretend like your... Zoom in nice and tight on Evan. Just pretend like... We need his reaction.

Well, just pretend like you're just wanting to... have a good time with your family. I do. I'm right here. At the media. Okay. And I go, I want to tell you a story,

Evan, about my family. He's already smiling. So you got, you got to get in character. Yeah, you need to be, you don't know he's telling you.

You need to be sitting in a dark auditorium, uh, skeptical of what you've previously, you know, like you don't know what's coming. You look like you went to see Chappelle and he steps out. Because you're like,

well, I know I'm going to laugh. I might as well start now. But that's not what's going on. Okay, okay. Okay, so, hey, I just want to tell everybody a little story. Kind of want to give you a little peek into the Newcomb world. And, you know, it's Christmas time.

And, you know, me and Santa Claus really have a lot in common. We're both big into the captive, servid industry, you know. He's still waiting for the joke. Because, you know, we're deer farmers. And in my family, we raised quite a few deer. And so did Santa Claus. He was America's first captive servid operator. You get it?

He said the punchline twice. And he still didn't laugh. He did the whole joke. I know what a servant is. And then backed up and tried to do it again. When you hit the punchline, I saw him nod as if he's like, okay, I get the setup. The weirdest part, about his response is you had him laughing.

Like, just the whole setup, knowing he was going to get a joke, put him in a good smiley mood. Yeah, yeah. And I'm like, well, he's just going to have it and laugh. It's not real. Your joke took away his joy. From the moment. It's one of those rare jokes. You wind up less smiley.

It was less funny than just normal. A joke of the next laughter. Yours diminutive. had you just decided to stay silent, he would have still have more smile on his face. But let's establish something. Santa Claus being America's original captive, servid operator is funny.

Would you agree? Maybe. That's a Nashville note. You know, like he has all those fear. He's the world first. Okay, okay. Yeah, you're right. I think he's a European guy, right? I'm workshopping it.

I'm workshopping it. Because we, I got the seed. I'm in a similar situation. I have the seed of a joke. Not for the live shows, but it's the seed of a joke, which is going to be about, if I was going to give date, it's not funny, but I'm trying to make it funny. If I was going to give dating advice to people, I would,

like, if I could picture, if I was going to get married again, I would want to marry a, um, notary public. Oh, I heard about, I heard about this. Because, like, when you need to get something notarize, it's always a pain. And then the other thing is, they've been vetted. Like, by the, like, they're honest. By, like, the category. Yeah, like, character, right?

They're, like, honest. They never committed any crimes. They got strong. So if I was single, I would just be going to, like, notary. Just seeing if they were. And every time I've ever gotten something notarized, it's always been a woman. True. It's not funny.

Yeah, it's not. That's the only problem with the joke. It's really not. Well, yeah, you just need to. set up. I mean, the way to make the joke funny. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I understand. That's where you're at. Well, I already heard about it. You have a joke, but there's no funny part. Yeah. I've got the first part of the joke, and it's the part that's not funny.

Do you have any suggestions? Sometimes the explanation is the punchline, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. The best jokes need an explanation. Well, you're going to see it in action tonight because I'm not giving up. What killed, yeah. What killed last night was when we explained that he'd done this three times now and no one had laughed. That's the best part. Well, the hardest part is it's the opening scene of my skiff. That's what I think it is.

That's what I, people don't know they're supposed to laugh yet. Yeah, is there any way to get something in ahead of it? I mean, I just feel like if I took the joke out, the whole thing is flat. Oh, you mean like he'd have a joke that worked. Yeah. Yeah. Try one that didn't work instead of start out not working. That's half-cross alcohol.

I know you have lots of stories. I do. I do. There's a lot of stories. There's a lot of stories. The rest of the act is great. I think tonight what I might do is I might tell alert people. Just an idea.

Just an idea. Because we know you have a lot of captive service stories, right? You're really only telling one of them. True. I think you could take a snippet of one. It could just be like, you know, some of these podcasts, sometimes you get like this little 30 seconds in the beginning. and it just kind of grabs you.

You could tell that part of where you're like in a cage or you're outside of the cage and in it there is a pet deer getting chased by a dog. Yeah. And you have a mad neighbor. You open the door and deer runs out and you get a ticket. You could like do that in 30 seconds and people would be like, what? And then you'd be like, yeah, man, I was a captive servant guy. You know who else was?

Santa Claus. It might. It might work. It worked. It worked, finally. It might. Yeah, I think that the context was probably the only reason I was a little bit of... You were struggling?

The reason he got sad. I didn't know that you had ever done anything with, like, captive deer. Okay, that's... That's why I was there. Yep, that's a good point. So I didn't have the backstory there. And that's why I said the claws and deer make me sad. think we're on to, I think I need to give more, like, you understand that I have deer and that I, and we talked

about how captive serve it is a big word that maybe people wouldn't understand, but that's why it's funny, because it's like a technical term for raising deer. Is it funny? It's not funny, yeah. It might be that that's why it's not funny, yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah. Yeah, either way.

I mean, like, we're going to work on it. Well, you get three more slaves. You get three more slaves. going to know what you're talking about. 60% of people that don't. Oh, or more. We've got three more chances. Maybe it'd be interesting to ask,

Evan, can you picture any scenario in life as a musician when you would ever have the words, captive serve it in a song? How many have you written? How many songs have I written? I don't know. 60, 70 maybe. How many have captive servant in it?

Zero. Yeah. Corbeleyn might put something like that in there. There's some correlation. Evan, are you writing music right now? Yes. Now, you put out something on your Instagram the other day that you said, should we release an album in 26?

Yeah, we were in California. We've been kind of started on a record. We were going to put together. We had some songs sort of put together, and we're going to kind of add them onto the last record. and then we got the lacking them. And so we sort of pivoted to, well, let's make another record instead of using these. Did you have enough songs?

Well, we haven't finished it yet, but we will. Can you tell if the song, like on the Red River and some of these that are newer, when you wrote those, did you think this is going to really be good? I knew it. It was going to be sad. That's a good one. Yeah. Yeah.

But, and interesting, you know, it's kind of interesting, but yeah, the ones that you, I was thinking about this on the way here, like the ones that you know that are finished, that you know have that story to them that's somewhat original. They'll usually, you can trust it, you know. Just if it's got a story. Yeah. Like a, like an arc. Mm-hmm. Like it's not just. Yeah, you're not just throwing a bunch of sort of making the listener connect too many dots or.

or maybe you just kind of have a rough idea throwing out there. Maybe what's wrong with my joke could be. Have you ever had a song that listed the exact opposite reaction from the listeners that you're hoping and you did it three times and then you tried to the fourth? Hey, I've never told a story or a joke that's gotten a laugh on a microphone in my tenure of being on stage. So don't ask me.

You're just out on the joke. His poetry is written in song. Yeah, exactly. Hey, I've got a really good, I've got a really good story. I've got an album question, though. Can I have some more album questions? Is it a couple of my buddies that are musicians were saying it now because people consume music so differently that you think of,

if you go back to the album era where people were primarily consuming music on terrestrial radio or buying a CD, buying a cassette tape, that, albums were eight songs, 10 songs, right? Because the whole point was that they could sell the album. But in the streaming economy, that number keeps just climbing and climbing and climbing. We're now on albums like 20 songs, 24 songs, since you get more streams.

The reason the albums were that short initially is because a vinyl record would only hold that many. Oh, I got you. So it was like a functional limitation. Yeah, and then CDs would only hold whatever 80 minutes or whatever it is, 70 minutes. Got it, got it. it became a 13 song thing

and now it's unlimited but it was all limitation of the media but do people want more though? Are you feeling like the pull to make big long albums now? Like are you because your albums are still about like kind of in that same like old style length? I think we'll probably just

make more concise you know concise like 12, 13 song records but yeah it is more competitive to be more prolific which is good. I mean Just like, keep pumping stuff out. But yeah, it's definitely, I don't see the point of putting 20 songs on a record for me

because I think it'll detract from some of the other ones. When you have this set, you can say, hey, look at these 10 songs. Give them all your full attention. And the next one, you know, you can do the same way. But, uh, that's my two cents. So this is a personal application of one of your songs. your your handiwork um i won't go into the details because it was it is it's a friend of ours had a fire a house fire it was true very true story in the last month it was it was pretty

it's pretty traumatic for him everybody was okay is this a joke no this is dead serious it's not a santa claus it's not a santa claus it's not a santa claire this context shifting Tell me that it's very true threw me off. Well, this is not a joke. A dear friend of ours had a fire in their house. Okay. And the very night that the fire,

it happened early in the morning, that night they came to our house. Misty wanted to cook them dinner and just kind of like... Post fire. Yes. And just like, hey, come to our house. We're going to take care of you

and pat you on the back and hug you. and all this. And they get there and they're there. And we fed them and we've given them cookies. And I go, I've got a song for you guys. And I turn on, you know, Apple, Amazon Prime or something on the TV. And I turn on Housefire by the Turnpike troubadors. And we listened to the entire Housefire song.

And we kind of laugh. It was actually kind of therapeutic. I've been told. at the moment was like horrified yeah she was like this is wrong move Clay or she thought it might be

a little soon but I feel like I knew this person well enough that they would it kind of lightened the mood and then and you know barefoot and just remember smelling smoke barefoot in December

yeah you remember Evan and anyway it the person I think really It was a gamble on your part. It was one of the gambles that, like, you would hope someone in your life would do that. Just like, hey, it's going to be okay.

Unfortunately, they didn't buy it and purchase it because the computer burned. But Misty was quick to point out that the song was really quite redemptive. Yeah, I don't understand. Very redemptive. And we were like, hey, it's going to be okay. So that's just one way that you can help your friends.

Last spring, Clay Newcomb and I, collaborated with Jason Phelps at Phelps game calls and building each of our own favorite turkey diaphragms called prime cuts. Now, I'm going to tell you, I love mine because it's easy to use. I'm not going to go, I'm not going to win a turkey calling contest. It's just not going to happen. But when I run this call, I get the sounds that gobblers are looking for. I have a great turkey hunting track record.

If you go listen to real turkeys out in the woods, they're not going to win calling contests, right? That's who I listen to. I can make those sounds on my cut. I also hunt with Phelps's cut, and I hunt with Clay's cut because they're all three great cuts. Check out Prime Cuts at Phelpsgamecalls.com. I think you'll be glad you did,

and you'll find out that the Steve Rinella cut is an easy-to-use cut for beginning callers who just want to start making good turkey noises and getting action. So I'll just some lighter news. On supply, no more house fires. Evan, you've been, you worked cattle this a few days ago. What did y'all do?

We had some calves to work, some fall cavors, and drug some calves and move some stuff around. Yeah. Are you on the, are you, are you, I keep getting different answers from different producers. With beef prices so high, is that or is that not trickling to you? I don't know Part of the reason Beef prices are high Is because live cattle are high

Okay Part of the reason And then there's all kinds of politics And other things involved But yes We're having record Like as far as selling Yearlands

We do good right now I had a guy last night Tell me it's I don't get it Telling me it's not that way Well I've had a number of guys Tell me know it is that way Yeah

I had an interesting perspective from a from a Nebraska cattle producer and I said man what do you think about all these high beef prices he had an interesting thing he said he goes it has to come down it has to come down because he said I think we're going to see a

fundamental shift in consumption habits oh it because he goes I don't want beef going the way of caviar is it record highs right now oh yeah he said I want it going the way of caviar and becoming like a rare luxury item so I think that for the long

term benefit of the livestock industry, beef prices need to come down or else we're going to price our customers out. Yeah. And then he goes, his chicken things is going to keep taking off. Yeah. Everybody wanting all chicken sandwiches all damn time. Steaks kind of like whiskey and or beer or something to me. Like, people seem to always want it.

No matter how much you pay. Yeah. Yeah, you don't mean people who put drinking beer because the price is. It got a little high on me and I had to heck with it. So I quit buying hamburger meat. No more. No more hamburger meat. Only pigs for me. Now, what do you feel about,

I asked this other guy, this question too. And he, so when they announced bringing in trying to ease restrictions to bring in beef from Mexico to bring in beef from Argentina in order to drive down beef prices, this guy was telling me, he goes, he said,

all that's easier said than done. He goes, that's a hard thing to accomplish. I think for it to really hit the supply chain, especially from the South America stuff, it's tricky. It takes a long time before it actually gets here and becomes like the available product. And then secondly, I'm talking like I know something. Don't take it with a grain of salt. But secondly, like, I don't know how, even without the tariffs, I don't know how competitive it is once it's butchered there and gets here. You know what I mean?

Yeah. I don't know that for sure, you know. Yeah, because you just mean all the add-ons. The problem with the Mexico stuff, we were getting beef across the border, and they could cut the duty charges on that any time, and it would change it somewhat. But the screw worm deal is going on down there. So they keep shutting the border down.

We got a guy coming on the podcast about screw worms. But here's the thing. I can't buy yearlands from Mexico and make money on them. so like I don't know you know like I can't put them on feed and make money on them so it's made to where our stuff's competitive the reason that beef is high is because a few years ago we had a drought and everybody had to kill all their cows and uh yeah the cattle herd is down pretty low but it was kind of like this in 2015 too and it was very very low for a long time with cattle so you know what I mean we were giving them away for a long time too so let's see and I think that was still high when we were giving them away. Got it, yeah. Hmm. Tell me about your mule.

I have a Molly Mule. She's about a two-year-old mule that's kind of started at her from Willie. You met? Oh, yeah. Why'd you call it a donkey just a mess of him? I just, it's just a funny thing to say, and yes, and it's not a horse. It's a non-horse.

It's funny to some people. See, that got more laughs than the servant, though. Why don't you come out and say that? Yeah. But no, I, what are you going to do with it? Break it to ride and go to the mountains. Hang out. Yeah.

Eat your tricks. I don't know. Are you set up where, are you set up with your music and your ranch and all that where you can come out and you and me can go on a big horse ride to your area? I want to go horse riding. Probably. In Montana. Clay won't come? Why won't Clay come?

It's like like dumb reasons. Like he won't come because his bare bait pile and just dumb stuff. Yeah, I can get a way. way. Probably. How many good ones you got? You got a good one I can ride that just follows yours? Yeah, I got a couple of them.

We could probably find better trail animals out there. If Evan comes, I'll come. If I had a mule. I already inserted myself as the third wheel. Oh, yeah, yeah. But my horses are kind of ranch horses. They're okay. They just don't travel as fast as those mules and stuff.

That's why I got a mule because I've ridden my horses on some pretty somewhat hairy. ground, you know, somewhat like rough country. I'd much rather have been on a really broke meal. And I've never had one. So you guys work cattle on horseback? And these are not long distance trail horses.

Yeah, not really. They're a little more fleet of foot. They'd be fine, but they're just going to be a little slower. They're just like, the way I hear it described is, and boy, I could make somebody mad, but like some of these like roping horses, well, this would

make anybody mad it's just true like these high dollar roping horses like that like we're at the nfr these three 400 thousand dollar horses these guys are roping on you probably couldn't take that horse like riding through my yard i mean to go down the road they're just built for the arena like that's just what they do would you agree with that you probably wouldn't want it wouldn't be fun to ride i mean you could take them wherever most of those quarter horses you could especially stuff these days if it's bread good but um i mean like the headhorses are going to be pretty chargey, more like a racehorse. Yeah.

So they're going to, they're going to be maybe a little. Just high strong. Yeah. And people aren't like trotting them down county roads and putting them around. You'd be surprised. Dogs and cars. Okay. Okay.

Yeah. I bet most of that stuff would handle it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, all those performance horses, people aren't like going and hunting in the mountains. Yeah, I got you. But you couldn't take my mules that you could go hunting. in the mountains and put them an even dream of doing what they do on their horses.

One thing about it is when you take a horse to a new area, you're changing the altitude, possibly, and they may not be legged up for, like my stuff's not in shape for going up mountains. Yeah. So there's going to be a lag there, just like a person. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got a big old mega ride I need to do, man. I see something to take me.

At the right time, I'm in. but y'all ask what's been your favorite part of the week so far oh jeez i'm going to ask you the same question and you randall um probably just like the really heartwarming stories that we get from the we do like a VIP thing for 90 minutes and what is it 75 people come through and uh chat with us take some pictures signs some autographs and uh like randle and i one night had i think three different people that basically told us that we helped them go through their cancer therapy. That's, you know, that hits home. Yeah, and like just people telling stories about rough patches that have been through and

how listening to the podcast, watching videos, stuff like that gets them excited to get outside and it really is meaningful. And how many times we've heard, you know, we seem to attract like a, like the adult onset that hunter loves meat eater. And how many times have you heard that this week already? They're like, I started at 60. Yeah. 68 now.

Everything I know is because of you guys, you know. What about the, what about the girl, like the, I don't know, she's probably in her 20s and her dad was probably in his 60s maybe. Yeah. Yeah. That was an interesting. Interesting. She was a Division I basketball player, played for Boston College or something.

Yeah. And she, like, two years ago, got her dad. to start hunting with her. With her. And they're like all in. He was just bubbling with stories of, oh, we went deer hunting and we did this and we did this. And she picked it up on her own because she was a dog trainer

and then decided, oh, I want to figure out how people hunt with dogs. Yeah. And they made her dad start going with her. Yeah. That was a cool story. They were super cool. Yeah. Yeah.

Brent, favorite thing? Man, I was going to say, Brent and I had a completely different experience, like two doors. down from y'all our stories were way different i'm sure we all had that i'm sure we all heard the same stories it but it's it makes me think how impactful your words can be and that how serious a lot of folks take what you're saying you know and that's why i'm so careful and not that that i would have been reckless at any point about what i was saying but i'm so mindful of what i say now about, and I think about how it's going to hit people.

I'm still saying what I want to say, but I want to say it in a way that people know that it's sincere, and to hear it, you know, I don't get to talk to, I don't get to interview people, sell them on my format, so I'm just talking into a microphone, and a lot of it is memories and things that have happened from long ago, or somebody else's memory. So, but to hear, get the feedback from people that are really, man, I tell you, We all may say acre and different. We may have all grown up in different parts of the country, but the commonality between people that grew up in rural,

Arkansas and rural New York and urban New York are so similar. That has always been so amazing to me. And to get that feedback one-on-one from people, not in an email or a direct message is really, I'm fired up. I cannot wait. I can't wait to go to the next show, but I can't wait for me for it to end

so I can start writing and talking about it. It's been really good. Can I add one more favorite part? It's been singing. Grandma got on the road by the reindeer at the end of the show. Yeah, we got a... The first one... There's your setup.

Oh! For the captain's servant joke. There's nobody that up to this very second. She was a victim of the captain's serving industry. Exactly. The first victim of the captain. Oh, my gosh. This joke is going to get so complex.

I'm going to spend my whole 10 minutes talking about this joke. Oh, I got to interrupt because I just looked up to my left. You recognize that? I like to tell this story. And I'm always looking for something that doesn't know it. Me and Clay are hunting. And we see a double main beam buck. Clay then proceeds to shoot

one of the beams off. Oh, I don't know if I've ever seen that. It turned it right back into a normal buck. It's a regular... And we looked all over and found it. And he takes it back. That's text. We were in the Arkansas text.

Clay, Clay, it's not a double-main meme buck anymore. We had to shoot twice. That's the best thing in the world. I was a little disappointed when I walked up to it. I was like. I swear that they had two main beans. I mean, we named it the double main beam. You didn't?

That was the first shot, I assume. Yeah, it was bedded at like 406 yards or something, 420. And I was trying to get Steve to shoot it, but I'd, did spot the deer. And so Steve was like, it's your shot. We're in Mexico. And I mean,

my gun's not really that sided in for Mexico, though, you know, so that was what I was going to say. Yeah. You're on the metrics. No, and I shot and the deer just like jumped up,

you know, just like, and look startled. I hit him in the horn and then, and then dropped him, and he rolls down the hill. And just luckily, we found the horn.

Yeah, that's it. That's a cool Coosbeck. Yeah, it's interesting because if it was matching the normal side, you might not even shoot at him. Well, that's one way to look at it, Yonnas. No. His double main beam just makes me incredibly special. Yeah.

The Coosdy are kind of a small guy anyway, aren't they? Oh, yeah. They are. But he's right. Like, the left side wouldn't be like a medium, medium shooter. You'd take note of it. it and talk about it, but you wouldn't shoot it. Yeah, I was going to say, if you, if you doubled that side, it would look exactly like the buck that I killed down there.

Yeah. Well, I had, uh, uh, I had thoughts of doing something more with the deer, like fixing the horn, but I was like, I'm just going to leave the black tape on it. So there's the story there. Is it a thing a train of thought? Is that a cow is next to it too? This one? No, that, Steve? I'm trying to remove this one.

This one doesn't deserve to be there. That's the deer I killed in Texas that you rattled up for me. Why can't he be there? It's just a little scrawny white tail. Just about the memories, though, you know? Yeah. You don't want to remember. Go on and keep doing your interview.

We're closing down here. I derailed us on that. We're closing down. Randall, best part of the week. Best part of the week. Oh, I don't want to repeat Janus's comments because that's for me, I think, the coolest part is just connecting with people. But I just enjoy life on the road.

Yeah. I enjoy being around. Yes, you do. I enjoy being around people that are just joking all the time and you wake up and you do the same thing every day. And I spend a lot of years like either working from home or, you know, just kind of staring into a monitor. And it's just kind of... A PhD in history.

kind of fun. Wouldn't have necessarily predicted what was going to go on in your life. No, and I feel like, I've said this a couple times. I feel like I'm back on the school bus playing high school football where we just, you know, go around every day and we, you know, talk about,

and I also think like we're taking the performance aspect very seriously. Like we're talking about what went well, what didn't go well, what you can improve. So it's kind of fun to just have a whole crew and there's like a real camaraderie to the whole thing. Yeah, for sure. sure. For sure. Well,

thank you guys all for being here. Evan, thanks for being here. Oh, yeah. Thank you. That's awesome. You know what I'm sweating tonight is I want to figure out how I can sneak out and go have a seat to sit in to watch and play. Yeah. Because I don't want to look at the side of his head. Yeah. You definitely should. I want to be able to go out. Yeah.

Well, you could put on the Santa Claus beard and do it incognito. I don't mean that. I just mean I got to figure out how you go like. get down there. From where we go to where people go. We'll work it out. We'll work it out. Yeah, just put on the Santa Claus outfit. That'll draw them.

I just feel like that's kind of the opposite of what I'm going for. I want to... I want to just remind Steve, you have one thing tonight. Juju Newcomb's going to be in the audience. Don't say no swear words. Just bring it down. Can she take a joke? Just bring it down a notch.

Listen. No. Okay. No, she can't take it. I'm going to like it. If I make a joke about how that kid's my favorite one of my three. Oh, that's fine. Because I'm her favorite.

So it's like, no. Okay. But don't, no swear words. Yeah. And I had to define for Steve what swear words were today. Oh, is it just, is it just, there's no, like, there's no swear words. I mean, and it's your show.

I know, but I'm just like, I don't want to, like, what would be an example? If you remove swear words, there's no thing that's left to worry about. Is there, is there anything he said so far in the tour? No, just swear words.

You've done, you've done great. Watch the swear words. Yeah, there's not been anything that put up the Newcomb Red flag. I had some new material prepared for tonight, but I'm going to cut it out. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No. So, Yonis talked about having the crowd do, the Michigan hello. And Brent and I were like, no.

Oh, well, that's, I made a joke about that there. Yeah, okay. I'm not, yeah. Don't do that in the South. Yonnes was honking at people today in Fayetteville. Yeah, I know. That was some of the weirdest driveway, parking lot etiquette maneuvering I've seen. I was humiliated.

That was the weirdest thing. Come in hot, honked that lady, boxer in, kind of creeper out. This is coming from the only. guy that had literally a moratorium on being able to drive rental vehicles when we both were for 0.0. They wouldn't let him? No, because every time he did, there'd be a smash back window. I backed into a palm tree one time broke the window. They're like, why are you guys letting Steve drive? Well, it's going to be a lot of fun tonight. Yes, me. Thank all you guys. Really appreciate it.

Keep the wild places wild Because that's where the bear's live. On Blood Trails, the stories don't end when the hunt is over. They just get darker. I've seen something in the road. I instantly thought it was a sleeping bag and there was a full of blood.

Oh my God, he doesn't have a hit. Blood Trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors, where the terrain is unforgiving, the evidence is scarce, and the truth gets buried under brush and silence. Indications were he should be right there, but he wasn't.

This season, we're going deeper. From cold case files to whispered suspicions, from remote mountains to frozen backwoods. Each story begins in the wilderness and ends in darkness. Because out here, there are no witnesses, no cameras, just fragments and the people left behind trying to piece them back together. He's not an honest person. He's incapable of being honest.

Somebody somewhere. know something. I'm Jordan Sillers. Season 2 of Blood Trails premieres April 16th. Follow now on Apple, IHeart, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.