Just the Good Stuff from my Day with Rory Feek + Joel Salatin

Another early morning. Why cannot we sleep? Why can't we sleep? We got up at like 5 o'clock this morning. Went to bed at 10. Not crazy, but less than we normally get. Well, today we go home, but first we're gonna go to church with Joel Salatin. Did you guys know that? He actually, he's gonna preach this morning. I don't think we wanna miss that if we're that close. That's gonna be very interesting. Do you guys know Joe Salatin preaches? He preaches. We're gonna find out what that's about this morning. Good morning! Love that shirt. Love your new shirt. Naughty by nature. Are you naughty by nature? Huh? You're not? I'm not naughty. Who is?

Uh, Gideon.

Are you sure you're not wearing Gideon's shirt?

Yeah, I'm sure. Mom said they didn't have his size.

Okay.

You want me to sit there?

Yeah.

Hey, are you naughty by nature?

Uh, yeah.

What did you guys think about Homesteaders of America? I mean, did you have a blast or not?

I had a blast.

You did?

I did.

How'd your sales go? I know you set up a sales table with some bracelets and Penelope.

They made $20.

They made $20?

Oh yeah. Good job.

They're giving you the dollar bills, huh?

Papa, one person buy a necklace, a bracelet for Lily, a necklace for Mama, and then I think they buy another thing for another person.

Nice, okay. Little entrepreneurs over here.

And they should've paid $10, I mean they should've paid $6 but they paid $10.

Jonah talked with me yesterday. You came up and answered questions. Folks loved it. How do you feel? That was your first public speaking.

Was it easy?

Were you nervous?

A little nervous.

Did it make you have to go pee? Okay, well you weren't too nervous then. I gotta go pee when I get nervous. Come on, you know what I'm talking about. You don't have to pee when you get nervous?

No, my heart races. Shake.

Okay. Give me a hug. Y'all are going separate, heading home before us.

Okay?

You're my world.

We'll see y'all.

We'll see you when you get back.

We'll kiss you. We'll be late, but we'll give you a kiss. Okay?

Okay.

All right, you'll be back on the chores tonight.

You have to shut the chickens up. Yeah.

I don't care, whatever Grandma wants to do. I love you. I'm going to hug you next.

He's picking her up.

You're going to pick me up too? Try. Uh-oh. I love you guys. I love you. You listen to me. I need all y'all to listen to Grandma and Grandpa.

Oh, he's trying to pick me up. Good try. Okay, we'll see you at home. All right, we're at church. Gonna hear Joel Salatin preach. This is gonna be a trip.

Got a little chocolate for my breath.

Honey sweet chocolate. Stop it.

He's up there singing.

He's got his guitar on. Oh good.

Before I start, um, we've got a treat this morning. So you remember back at Father's Day when Rory Feat came. Some of you know Rory through, um, his work in Nashville and songwriting, and especially his story with his lovely wife who passed away, and their whole story and their their love story. So Rory's gonna sing a song and then I'll come and speak to you. And we're delighted to have Rory and his crew here.

It was a thrill for me to again be sitting in the chairs back here, to be spending the weekend with Joel and Teresa and their family at their farm. Joel's impacted a lot of people, and it reminded me while I was sitting there next to him singing Victory in Jesus Because while everybody's singing the melody, he's singing a whole different melody loudly. It's correct, it's a harmony part, but he sings it with authority, and he's all by himself, and he doesn't mind being there. It's so cool. Can you hear this, Lee? I can't hear anything anywhere.

There you go, kind of.

Add cable. Hopefully that'll work. So I thought I would do this song this morning. Hopefully we'll see a number of you this evening. I've never sang in a hoop house before. I've hit the big time, Joel. The Opry stage was nice, but the hoop house— and then when I saw what the temperature was going to be and you mentioned it's a 90-minute concert, I thought Maybe it's more like 60 minutes. It's gonna be kind of cold. But we all show up at church on Sundays with, with our own burdens, with things that we're carrying around. Some are burdens that our friends, our family, people around us know about, and some are just personal burdens that nobody knows about that we carry around. And I just want to encourage you. Years ago, I walked into a little church I think it was in the summer of 2002, my wife and I walked into this church, a church like this, it was in Montana, and we heard this song and we heard these words for the first time and it impacted us greatly. We ended up making this song the song that was going to mean the most to us. We carried it with us through the good times, the really, really hard times. It got us through them all and it still helps me through some of the things that I don't understand. And wherever you happen to be in your life, whether you've lost someone you love, whether you're losing someone you love, or whether it's just a hard time and you don't know what's going to happen, just want to encourage you with these words: leave it there.

Leave it there. Take your burden to the Lord, oh, and leave it there. If you trust him through your doubt, he will surely bring you out. Take your burden to the Lord, leave it there. Lift the world from you with hope, of its silver and its gold. And you have to get along with me, you're fair. Just remember in his word how he feeds the little bird. Take your burden to the Lord, leave it there. Leave it there. Leave it there. Take your burden to the Lord, oh, and leave it there. If you trust him through your doubt, he will surely bring you out. Take your burden to the Lord, leave it there.

Do you have your Bibles? Please turn to Nehemiah this morning. Um, Nehemiah is one of my favorite characters in the, in the Bible. Um, he did the impossible. What I've called this this morning is fixing broken down walls. Fixing broken and Nothing political here. There's nothing political here. Okay. Are we building walls? Or are we sitting here playing Game of Thrones?

Whatever it is.

I don't even know.

I've never played one.

But I don't have time for that.

I got things to do. How dare you pull me off? I've got a great work to do, Nehemiah says. Are you with me? I'm not going to be distracted.

Little post-church exercises there. Have you ever seen him without a hat on? You ever seen me without a hat on?

I'm gonna count and you go hide, okay? You wanna play hide and seek with me? You ready?

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Ready or not, here I come.

Where is she?

I'm here.

There you are.

Okay, your turn. You count.

I hide.

Pollyface eggs and sausage. I see we're the same. You got good taste.

Like me.

Some waffle sandwich. Smoothies. Good stuff. That was good. You gonna take a nap, Beck?

I'm gonna try.

We're at Polyface. I don't know if I told you guys this, but we're gonna go to a Rory Feek potluck concert at Polyface. It's kind of not planning this, but it's like last-minute invitation. We're like, I don't think we should miss this. Even if we have to take a nap in the Suburban while we wait. And I'll get some editing done while we wait.

Yeah.

Before the show, we're gonna have a little meeting with Rory. And we get to stay inside the bus. Taking off our shoes. We're inside of a real— okay, so they asked us if we're ever gonna— hey, Rebecca, they asked us if we're ever gonna do the Great American Farm Tour again. Only if we can hire Russell.

Yeah, Russell's amazing.

To take us across. This is legit.

I know, we could have really used the driver. That would have been really helpful.

Well, we told you— you heard the history of this bus?

Oh, tell the history.

The history of this bus, this used to be the Girls Gone Wild bus.

Everybody laughed.

I don't know what that means.

Girls don't laugh as much. You don't know.

I don't know what that means.

Well, it's funny because like, Joe didn't know what that was at first. Joe laughed a little bit and then he was like, I've never actually heard that thing.

Now that was funny.

Yeah, so, um, but Russell found the bus and it was, uh, broken down and deserted in a parking lot. He bought it started fixing it up, brought it to our farm and painted it. And now it's a Toddlers Gone Wild bus, just fixing up the bus.

Nice.

He has a shop, or this is at our farm. We actually have a— we have a kind of a bus bay at our farm. Yeah, that's cool.

So, um, yes, well, yeah, just come a long, long way.

You can look it up though and see.

Yeah.

And see what it looked like originally. Yeah, you probably see episodes of that show. They're different than this show.

No, I haven't. Let's see it.

There's no doors.

I mean, except for 3 bunks.

6 bunks. 6. 6 bunks. So this is— this would be, um, in the entertainer world, it'd be a star coach is what they call them because they have a, a, um, kind of a master stateroom in the back and then 6 bunks for, for a band. Nice. But we don't have a band, so it's for friends. And the master suite is for the little lady.

The toddler.

The toddler. Yay! Yeah, so it's great. It's got a bathroom shower. This is got everything that you need.

TVs. Yeah, the kids can watch.

They were just watching a Disney movie a little while ago while I was on a boring tour for them with Joel.

I know. A little vanity desk, little vanity desk bathroom.

I imagine actually a little— as you know, in some buses it might be a vanity desk. For me, it's an editing suite.

Editing suite.

Yeah.

Great meeting in there with Rory, seeing more about what he's up to. He's gonna do some beautiful things. Uh, we have a show we gotta go to and a potluck. We got our food, Rebecca?

Yeah, Jason's food. I never made it.

Oh, so maybe we can make it over there.

Yeah.

All right, all right, Becca, you probably just want to wash.

Hold on.

And get out of here. It's looking so good, Rebecca.

I'm gonna put some of my fermented carrots on it.

This will be fun. Let's go up front.

Oh, try typing in my name.

There'll be so many different people and none of them will hop in there. Hey, are we up—

hey, are we up front kind of people?

We're up front kind of people. We like to be right.

Yeah, right there's the stage. It's not often we get out, so when we get out, we get out. There's— there's—

I think there's enough for anybody. I was— when this thing started, I was so— well, I hope we have 50 or 60 people just so at least, you know, it has enough for the camera to catch and look like an audience. And it— and as they say, it kind of got out of hand. But thank you all for coming. This is very special, and thank you for honoring us The way this thing developed, just so everybody gets a little bit of the backstory, maybe a year ago one of our very loyal, wonderful customers, Claire— Claire, stand up so everybody can appreciate. Yes, there we go. We're all about affirming. Claire came in one day and talked to Wendy, our publicity lady and my personal assistant, and said, have you ever heard of a guy named Rory Feek? Well, Wendy never heard of him. I mean, she listens to Yeah.

So anyway, she started doing some research and looked him up and said, "Boy, he's really good." I went from being a songwriter who was a single father of two teenage girls to marrying the love of my life, opening a family diner with my sister, and being launched into the national spotlight and touring the world. Turning our barn into a concert hall, having a baby at home, my wife battling cancer twice, burying her in the cemetery behind our farmhouse, and then being a single father of one special little one again.

And, and Claire told us, you know, he's written this book and, and The Pollyface is in this book. And so she reached out to Rory's people and said, you know, I don't know what she said, whatever Wendy says. Oh, she said, come have dinner with us at the farm. Is that what she said? Okay, all right. So that's what she said, and you heard it now. And so that starts— so the next thing I knew, Wendy brought in an autographed copy of the book, gave it to me, and I came home one Sunday from church. I normally take a nap on Sundays. You know, I've decided, you know, you're an adult when you'd rather take a nap than play a pickup football game in the backyard. And so instead of taking my nap, though, I thought, this is interesting, looks cool. So I opened the book at 1 o'clock. I didn't put it down till 5, read straight through it, burned through it. And wept. The desk was wet with tears. That's how powerful it was.

I am a 54-year-old man who wears nothing but overalls, who lives on a farm that mostly grows love, life, and hope in what are sometimes the toughest of soils. I am a sinner and a saint, a masterpiece and a mess, a songwriter living a story that only God could write. Learning to live a better life, to be a better man and a better father, and try to be a better husband even if my wife isn't here to see it.

Just powerful, profound, and wonderful. And I just said, you know, this guy has heart and I need to pursue this relationship. And so we reached out again, invited him up, and he said, yeah, I think I can I can do that. So he came up during the summer and spent a couple days with us and, um, spontaneously sang for our whole farm staff one evening. And, uh, it was very special. And when it was all over, he said, you know, I think I want to come back and do my, um, an episode for RFD-TV, uh, at, at your place and bring my— and bring India. He did not bring Indiana, and he didn't bring a camera crew or I think it was just very, yeah. And bring Indiana up. And so that's how this, so we start looking at dates and different things and that's how this developed. And so you are a part of that and thank you for being our friends, our community, our neighbors, and for showing this level of support to Rory's heart and effort in this evening. So without further ado, I'm gonna turn it over to Rory. And let him give us an evening of memories. Thank you.

How are y'all this evening? How many of y'all have no idea who I am? I like that his hands shut up right away. I appreciate you coming out here anyway. I'm a songwriter from Nashville. That's what I started out as. It's what I am still. I do a few other things. I have written a couple of books. I write a blog, made a couple of movies and some TV things, but mostly I'm a songwriter. From time to time, my songs will get recorded and you might hear them on the radio.

This is one of them.

Imagine a dirt road full of potholes and a creek bank with some cane poles catching channel cats. I'm a little more country than that. Think of a small town with an old hound laying out Out front of the courthouse as the old men chew the fat. I'm a little more country than that. I just want to make sure you know just who you're getting under this old hat. 'Cause girl, I'm not the kind to two-time or play games. Behind your back, I'm a little more country than that. Well, think of the Merle song from days gone with a steel ride that's so strong it sends chills up your back. I'm a little more country than that. If you want a brick home in a school zone with the doors locked and alarms on, well honey, you're way off track. I'm a little more country than that. Yeah, I'm sure that you've heard those three words from others, but they fell flat. But this ring ain't something that I mean to give you and then take back. I'm a little more country than that. I'm a little more country than that. I'm a little more country Breathing that.

Thank you.

Believe it or not, this is my first hoop house I've played in. We played the Grand Ole Opry a whole bunch of times, but this might even be more fun. It's not just a hoop house, it's a Upclass, upscale Hoop House. I like it. So the reason I'm here is because of my wife. She was a Joel Salatin follower. How many of y'all are neighbors of Joel's? Most of you. How many of y'all are followers of Joel? How many of y'all just love Joel and Teresa? Everybody. My wife loved him, loved them long before we ever met them. We, we have a farm in Tennessee about an hour south of Nashville, and she would sit at home and watch Joel's videos on, on how to, how to do chickens. And then she would bring me over and set me down and say, he builds his little chicken tractors like this this. Can you make one for me? And so I'd make one, and it would be about 10 times heavier than Joel's, or I'm 10 times weaker than Joel. And then anyway, we, we did that for a long time, and maybe 7 or 8 years ago, we were playing somewhere else in North Carolina or Virginia, and we, we thought we were close enough to make a run for it. So we got Russell, who drives our tour bus, to head this direction, and we crossed the mountains, and we landed here at y'all's place. Nobody was here, but we came anyway. We parked across the bridge, and Russell had been driving all night, and so he went to sleep, and my wife and I just walked all around the farm and we took pictures with our puppy Ranger, who's here with us, and we imagined what it would be like to have this kind of farm, this kind of family, this kind of community. And it's been an amazing thing to get a chance to come back all these years later. So thank you for having me. She would love this.

Enjoy your nice closed hotel room.

Yes, we will.

You too.

All right, we gotta go. We gotta go. We gotta get—

Bye Penelope!

It's, uh, it's 8 o'clock.

We can maybe be home by 2.

I will text.

We gotta get back to my dad. We gotta get back to the farm, to the kids.

If we have keys, that would be good. I think they're in the Brooks bag right there.

Oh, okay, which is the white bag inside. Oh, I gotta pee. You guys find the keys, I'll pee.

We're gonna go to a gas station in the bottom of the bag or where we're at inside that pocket.

Oh, there it is.

Okay, I just got poked by something.

There you go.

Here you go. Thank you.

How'd you guys like that concert?

Amazing.

Rebecca and Rebecca's sister Rachel, two thumbs up.

I got two toes up.

I know, right?

That first song like just swept me off my feet.

Oh my gosh.

For sure.

Yeah, he's a great singer. I really enjoyed all the songs. I turned to Jess and I said maybe we should listen to country music more.

Yeah, maybe we need to get Roy's— do you buy CDs? No, we download it.

We'll have to get it on Spotify or something.

Okay. All right, we'll get Roy's music. Spotify, here we come. All right, we've switched drivers. Rachel, you got it?

I got it.

Let me know if you need relief. I'm gonna be editing.

Okay, I will.

But I'll be happy to switch if we need to.

All right.

Rebecca, you gonna get some sleep?

I'm gonna, I'm gonna do something.

10:30.

Take a picture.

Is it 10:30? We've been driving, what, you made it 2 hours?

I think so.

Good job.

Getting on 81 South.

Yep.

All right, we made it back. Full moon. It's a full moon. We made it home. What is it, 2:00? You and Rachel did it.

Make sure we get there Two heads in the air. Mr. Brown.