Gundog Nation
A show to bring together gundog enthusiasts, trainers, and handlers with discussion focused on all breeds and styles of gundogs.
Gundog Nation
Gundog Nation #014: Mo Pitney - Country Music, Hunting, Bird Dogs and Faith
In this episode, country music artist Mo Pitney shares his deep passion for hunting, bird dogs, and the emotional connections that come with them. He reflects on his upbringing in Illinois, the challenges of bird populations, and the importance of involving youth in hunting traditions. Mo also discusses his musical journey, the influence of bluegrass on his work, and his recent mission trips that have shaped his faith and purpose. The conversation highlights the intersection of hunting, music, and spirituality, emphasizing the need for conservation and community involvement. In this conversation, Mo shares his transformative journey from a musician to a passionate advocate for survivors of human trafficking through the establishment of Rahab House. He discusses the divine encounters that led him to this mission, the importance of community support, and how he integrates his love for music, woodworking, and hunting into a lifestyle brand. The conversation also touches on the significance of storytelling and the legacy of reclaimed materials in his projects, culminating in a discussion about recording music in Johnny Cash's cabin.
https://mopitney.com/
https://www.rahabhouse.com/
Hello and welcome to Gun Dog Nation. This is Kenneth Witt and I'm coming to you from Texas. I want you to know that Gun Dog Nation is more than just a podcast. It's a movement to unite those who want to watch a well-trained dog do what it's bred to do. Also, we are set out to try to encourage youth, to get encouraged in the sport of gun dogs, whether it's hunting, competition, trials, hunt tests, all the above. This is a community of people that are united to preserve our heritage of gun dog ownership and also to be better gun dog owners. So if you'll stay tuned to all of our episodes, we're going to have people on here to educate you about training, about nutrition, health. Anything can make you a better gun dog owner. It's my pleasure to welcome our listeners and please join our community.
Speaker 1:All right, this is Kenneth Whipp, back with gundog nation. I'm coming to you today out of Fort McAvitt, texas, at my ranch and I've probably had my most famous and my most I don't know, probably most excited about any guests I've ever had on here. I'm going to get into that. You know I have a music. Any guests I've ever had on here, I'm going to get into that. I have a music background. I'm a huge music fan. I'm a big hunting fan and a big dog fan. I think I've found a much younger dude who has all those traits with a whole lot more talent. So it's my pleasure to represent country music recording artist, mr Mo Pitney.
Speaker 2:Hey man, Welcome. I'm so glad to be here. Thank you so much for having me on the show.
Speaker 1:So, mo, there's a lot of topics that we can get into. I'm going to try my best to not, you know, get into all of them, because it would take us, as I told you just a few minutes ago, to take us a series. We'll probably talk about all that you and I could talk about you just a few minutes ago to take us a series.
Speaker 2:We'll probably talk about all that you and I could talk about but this will be the first of the series.
Speaker 1:Good, all right, we'll line it out throughout the next year.
Speaker 1:Yes, sir, hey, I'll be honored. Uh, we'll go, we'll do series number one. We'll talk about some different things, though, but let's just, let's just peel it back and get in. I see you got a hat on the good looking britney on there. I've looked at. I looked at your new Instagram page that we're going to talk deeply about wood, feathers and fur, and I saw some good looking Brittany's on that page. Uh, tell me how you got started hunting what. What got you into it?
Speaker 2:Well, brother, um, for me, hunting, uh, I became interested in hunting, I tell people, when I uncovered, at about 11 or 12 years old, along with uncovering my dad's banjo, which was a really exciting time in my life I uncovered a picture of my dad with two roosters on the back of an old blue Ford pickup, my dad's orange trucker hat and a Britney Spaniel Just long-legged, beautiful, uh, britney spaniel named duchess, on the tailgate and I asked my dad about it. And my dad just came to life telling me stories about him starting bird hunting around 14 with a guy named red dobson in Wisconsin and northern Illinois and all of that. And when he started telling me those stories, I was in a dream world and I started to ask him to take me bird hunting. And at about 12, I guess, me and my dad and my brother went out to one of his old spots. We walked down to the bottom of a tree line and stepped on two roosters and my dad unloaded his gun and missed both of them and I have a memory of him saying in that moment man, you can't bird hunt without a dog. I wasn't ready for them birds. And after I heard him say that, I asked every birthday every Christmas from then on for bird dogs. And finally, when I was 15 years old, on Christmas Eve at my grandparents' house, my mom and dad walked in the door to give me and my brother two Britneys, one that he had named Duchess after his dog and the other's name was Duke, and me and my brother were off to the races.
Speaker 2:We started learning about training dogs at 15 years old. I lucked out in that behind our house we had an apple orchard that was full of pheasants at that time, so I didn't have to drive anywhere to find wild birds. My dogs never hunted or were over pen-raised birds ever, and so they were trained on live birds and me just trying to figure it out. And me and my brother started taking trips to South Dakota and hunted public land, always got our limit on public land once we got our driver's licenses and could make that trip. And yeah, along with the bird hunting, I'm a big bow hunter and we can dive into that. I now do traditional bow hunting on public land with a long bow and I also love to turkey hunt here in Tennessee now. But my initial love with hunting was surrounding bird dogs and Britney Spaniels and chasing the ring-necked pheasant.
Speaker 1:Well, you know now I'm really impressed. So you're telling me that you didn't send this dog off to a pro trainer? You and your brother trained this dog yourself.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and we made a lot of mistakes, trust me. I had one dog that would never retrieve and one that would, but they both pointed their brains out and they did an amazing job at minding us and listening to us. And those first two dogs, as they worked together, we always were able to knock birds down and one of them would come and put them in my hand. And I mean we killed hundreds of birds in Illinois and we had amazing times in South Dakota. And then I started to bring in other dogs and after training those first two, I really didn't train another dog for the rest of my life.
Speaker 2:My first two dogs have set in motion the training of every other dog. And now the dog that I have that's left her name is Loretta Lynn. She was trained by my first dog, duchess, and my third, brittany, who was Daisy. They hunted quite a bit together for quail here in Tennessee and you know you barely. You know you train them with a few commands and obedience training and then you just get them around other dogs that know what they're doing and it's kind of like getting in a good jam session with a good banjo player. It just kind of rubs off on you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you know there's nothing. No, I'm sure you'd agree, I don't. I just got back from three days hunting Sandhill crane up in Lubbock and there's nothing like watching a dog work.
Speaker 2:Oh, my goodness, oh man, I mean. That brings me back to that first comment from my dad. He goes, he says man, you just can't bird hunt without dogs.
Speaker 1:That's a bumper sticker.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he just said man, it's not enjoyable for me and I think, you know, my first instinct of getting a dog was like I want my dad to get excited about hunting again. You know, because I wanted to hunt with my dad and whenever we got those dogs it turned on again for my dad and that was amazing. And so there's so much wrapped up for me in watching dogs work is there, you know, watching the instinct of what they were designed to do come out. You know, the friendship between you and the dog is amazing. But then also the memories of my dad and my brother and you know, to see a Brittany Spaniel on point of a pheasant and see the game come together it's not just that that makes me excited, it's just my whole life and heritage and everything's flashing before my eyes when I watch that happen, you know, and it's really deeply ingrained in my heart and I care so much about it.
Speaker 1:Now what part of Illinois, what part of the state you know? I have to really watch myself because, being from Eastern Kentucky, we would always say Illinois when I left Eastern Kentucky. I got corrected, yeah.
Speaker 2:I actually wrote a song with a guy named Billy Lawson, called Illinois, and we had to fight for about 30 minutes to say well, if you want to write a song about Illinois from somebody from Illinois, we don't say Illinois, you guys do, but we don't. It's funny, but he wanted to say Illinois, and that's okay I love it.
Speaker 1:It's endearing, it's a bafflation, a dialect mistake, but anyway I love it.
Speaker 2:No, it's awesome, but anyways, I'm from Northern Illinois, a place called Rockford Illinois. You know, all my ancestors are from Missouri and Arkansas and they went up to Rockford Illinois in the depression to find work and it forced them into the nuts and bolts and factories of Rockford Illinois, a big metalworking town. My grandparents on both sides they have stories of going up there and living in tents until they got their first jobs and a lot of them were preachers that worked throughout the week at these factories, week at these factories, and uh, so we're, we're Southern blood, but went up there um to find work and brought the music with us, brought the hunting with us and all of that, which is really cool.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, uh, you, you, when you said that right at the end about wild birds, are there still quite a bit of wild pheasant in Northern Illinois?
Speaker 2:there's still quite a bit of wild pheasant in Northern Illinois there really isn't. If I go up there I have it almost hurts me to shoot them. It's the same way in Tennessee with quail. I mean I'll go around. I've probably got five cubbies that I know of in Tennessee. Some are on public and some are on some friends here and you know I'll go through and I'll point them and I'll shoot a couple.
Speaker 2:But you know you get to a point where it breaks your heart. Yes, you know to to mess with the birds too much and up there it. You know if I, if a dog, does a perfect point on a rooster up north, it's we're going to drop it just because it's you. You know part of the game and rewarding the dog and everything.
Speaker 2:But you know you can't go up there and consistently shoot your limit in northern Illinois and I have my thoughts about why that is and the way that the farmers think about the land and things that they spray on the fields and all of that that I think are related to the predator piece. You know we might be one of the predators that are not being good at conservation, from farming to hunting to all those pieces. I think they all need to come together in order to bring the bird population back. So I say all that to say you know it really will take in my future planning out some hunts again, maybe in South Dakota. I'm going to Red Rock, oklahoma, and they're saying they got quite a bit of birds, both quail and pheasants, right now and I'm going to stay with a buddy over there and hunt for a week at the end of January and and all of that just cause my hometown in Tennessee. You know it's not overwhelming with birds, yeah.
Speaker 1:You know I had a farm in Kentucky to 20, 2019. I've had this ranch here for a while and and I've had coveys of Bob Watts on both. I won't shoot them just cause I that I mean, there's not that many anyway, and I just as well which is I love to hunt. But you know, unlike and then you know you were talking about South Dakota Well, I got really hooked on pheasant hunting. Now I'm a fanatic, but I go to Huron. I guess I tell you, pronounce it Huron, south Dakota. And it's crazy. Oh yeah, it is. Yeah, it's a, it's fun man. Never not limited out up there, you know never.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, same with my brother and I and we strictly hunted public land and, uh, I always liked the challenge, even with deer hunting, to hunt public.
Speaker 2:It's a challenge hunting to hunt public. It's a challenge. I, I went up and you know we would stay at hotels next to guys that were, you know, when we were young. I mean we'd stay in fleabag motel, we, I mean we'd sleep in our truck to hunt pheasants, you know. But, um, anyways, we'd get back and there'd be these huge groups of guys 15 guys coming back and they'd have, you know, maybe seven or eight birds or something. They hunted all day and it's because they spent most of their time in the middle of these huge fields.
Speaker 2:But, man, my brother would go out and we would find, a late season, a field that hadn't been chisel plowed If you could find water a cornfield that hadn't been chisel plowed, in a small ditch that was public, all of the birds, yeah, right there. And we walked two or three ditches and have some of the best hunts of our life, me and him, and we'd always bring two other people, we'd limit out before one o'clock in those little, you know little ditches and we had something figured out up there. That was just incredible. I haven't hunted there since 2020, but, but we've had a lot of amazing memories now with your schedule, and I'm sure is insane.
Speaker 1:How do you do you get to hunt much now? Do you make time?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So when 2020 happened I didn't go back to South Dakota and you know, I started having kids I had three little ones and just felt like I needed to tighten up, do a little hunting around Tennessee. I always deer hunt the first part of November here and then in January I chased quail around a little bit, but I pretty well let go of pheasant hunting for the last couple of years. But now my daughter, eveline she's getting ready to turn eight years old and she's just ate up with any type of hunting I'll take her to do.
Speaker 2:So, she's gotten two turkeys and she's gotten two deer, and every time I quail hunt she wants to go. And so the starting of this new endeavor Wood Feathers and Fur has got all my green lights back on, of building into my schedule some more hunting and some hunting trips that I want to do with my family and some hunting trips that I want to do with my family, and think about ways to make it more enjoyable than you know staying in the fleabag motel that I stayed with my brother to hunt pheasants. You know, now that I bring my family, I'm going to have to, you know, rent a cabin and turn it into something special for all of them and take the girls out hunting part of the week. And, you know, put my little boy, who's a year old, on my back and a and a backpack carrier. And, you know, my wife and I are thinking of a lot of different ways to do it.
Speaker 2:My wife wants to get more involved in hunting birds, which will be fun. She's a turkey hunter right now and so, uh, yeah, so I'm, uh, the last four years or so has been thin with the amount of hunting that I've done as far as really taking it serious, but I see the next four years as being kind of a revival of that love of hunting because my family, ironically just like me as a little kid, uncovering that picture is pushing me to fall in love with it again, which is not most guys' story. Most guys' wives say you better knock off that hunting stuff, and my wife's actually genuinely inspired to push into it.
Speaker 1:So I'm thankful for that. You have no clue.
Speaker 2:I wake up every morning painfully aware of how unworthy I am for the life I've been given.
Speaker 1:That's okay.
Speaker 2:I'm really thankful.
Speaker 1:You know, one of the things the podcast, one of our goals, and we say it in a lot of our stuff it's to encourage youth. Because, you know, gundog hunting is a heritage, it's been passed down actually for more than a century, is a is a heritage, it's been passed down actually for more than a century. And, uh, if we don't get our young people involved in it and loving it, it's going to die. Uh, and you know we won't get deep into this, but I've just come back from London, England, at a huge retriever championship and uh, you know, in these European countries and other countries, um, you know, gun, they have to kind of be low-key about having a dog trial because they're shooting birds. It's just, if we don't be aware of the politics that could affect our lifestyle, we could lose it.
Speaker 2:I'll bring a little faith aspect into what you just said. God has been putting into my heart here recently. This temptation to not accept sacrifice, and what I mean by that is hunting, reminds us that it takes the shedding of blood to keep life going, and as a believer I'll say that that ultimately finds itself in the gospel. And hunting presses into our conscience over and over again that something has to die in order that something else might live, order that something else might live.
Speaker 2:And all the way back to Cain and Abel, abel offered a lamb and Cain had the instinct that you were saying about those European countries that I'll just offer vegetables so that I don't have to deal with the conscience, part of the fact that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. And so you can see culture either go the way of Cain and that turns into kind of the major cities and pushing back of the idea of hunting and the things that we love and things like that, or you can see the people that become in tune with the land, with their faith, with the fact that you know we're not just doing this for sport, we're doing this because it connects us to a higher story, and I would argue that it reminds us and points us to the greatest story ever told in the gospel. But I don't know how much you guys tune in with that on your channel here, but I've always pointed out that Cain and Abel's story is still playing itself out in these two different ways of thinking.
Speaker 1:I love that analogy. I've never used that and I actually had a pastor on here. You have to go watch that moment. You get bored one day driving somewhere or traveling. But Johnny Morgan out of Louisiana uses retrievers in his ministry and has saved thousands, literally thousands of souls by using a Labrador retriever and commands that he uses and kind of using quotes of the Bible and illustrating it with dog commands. It's, it's, that's awesome. I mean I can't even. I couldn't articulate it more because I haven't witnessed it yet, I just had him on it, but it was so, so fascinating. Listen to him, but you have to check him out.
Speaker 1:I look forward to looking it up. And he he's not the only guy that does that. He actually learned that from a guy that's older than him johnny's my age, he's in his 50s, uh, so he's been doing a long time. There's a guy in houston been doing it for years and then johnny told me there's another gentleman that does it and so they're using hunting dogs and these guys hunt with their dogs, compete and test with their dogs and use them in sermons. Wow, interesting. That's awesome, but no, I like that. I'll have to use that. Do you have Brittneys now?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've got one, Brittany Loretta Lynn.
Speaker 1:A good Kentucky now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I'm getting ready, I think, to get another dog. This new season of my life I may start thinking about even having litters again. I've had two litters with my first dog, dutchess, and I kind of thought, man, I'm going to give up on that. I'm in the music business, I'm doing this ministry stuff, but man, I'm amazed at how excited I am about hunting again and just getting into this culture with dogs. So I really think in the next couple years I'm going to have lined up kennels and there's just going to be a lot going on here soon that I'm really excited about. And it's all starting with this one dog that I got from Utah. It's Brittany Flew her out here to us and we call her our Mormon puppy, yes, but we're trying to get her converted here in.
Speaker 2:Tennessee Trying to get her converted here in Tennessee, but anyways, yeah, we're loving hunting with this dog right now, but looking forward to getting a few more here soon.
Speaker 1:Well, I have a good episode with Ronnie Smith and his wife. She's as good a trainer as he is. Actually, this laptop we're talking on right now is sitting on their book that I read. They've got a book out called hang on one second, I'm sorry. Uh, just make sure I get them. It's uh, it's just training bird dogs. So, uh, they're a famous family in the Brittany business and I had studied uh their uncle, uh Ronnie's uncle, um Delmer Smith, and I briefly told you about that book and I'll send you that information.
Speaker 1:But awesome they have good dogs, they're not real. They're not like puppy meals. They have a few litters a year. They offer training seminars throughout the US. They're based out of Oklahoma and they have seminars on beginning, intermediate and advanced and it's like a weekend seminar. It's neat stuff. I'm going to attend one.
Speaker 2:I would love to. I'll keep you posted. My wife has learned things just vicariously through me. Obviously I know I would learn a ton at a seminar like that, but I'd love for my wife to be more and more involved with you know somebody else teaching the life of training dogs and working with dogs, and let her as well, along with my daughter, who's very interested in all this, just absorb the culture of all of that.
Speaker 1:So I might show up on one of those seminars as well, I tell you, you know, I've train, I attend a lot of seminars and I've attended schools and whatever, what have you. My experience has been that most of the time ladies are better trainers, they have better patience. So there are some really great female trainers out there. Wow, that's awesome. So now I'm going gonna switch gears a little bit, because I can't take any longer. Uh, you know, I didn't realize, mo, I was looking up this morning just kind of. You know, I knew I've followed you for a long time. My mother's a huge fan of yours and so am I. Um, well, I will.
Speaker 1:Well, before I get into your resume, because it's impressive, um, last year I was flying to dc just to visit the city for about three days. Just, I've worked to death and just needed a break in there. So, uh, I get on a plane, I think in Nashville, yeah, and you get on. It's a Southwest flight, just regular old economy class, you know, and you walk past me and I thought, man, I think that Tim, she had a beard and I wasn't sure, you know, I hadn't seen you bearded. So I just, I watched a lot of your videos, so I stared at you like this and you were, you know, nice enough to nod and say like who's this guy?
Speaker 1:And you walked on back and I was like man, I know that too, that has to be. I know that has to be him. And then we landed in DC and I was around baggage claims. I was kind of creeping a little bit. They're like where's he at? So we, we, we were both going outside the way on a ride and I go outside. I was like man, you're Moe Pitney.
Speaker 1:And of course I knew who you were but uh, but you were very nice to me and accommodating and friendly, and you didn't know who in the heck I was, and we ended up having common friends, or in the business, I guess. And that was neat, but and it is funny how we've reconnected, how, and that's been exactly a year and a month ago. But anyway I didn't realize till this morning. I was doing a little research on you, just you know, just seeing if there's anything I didn't know. I didn't realize.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I guess I was. Does it say I was 19? I?
Speaker 1:think so. You did it in 14, in 2014.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm 32 now, wow. Yeah, I've been at the Curb Record team for quite a while and there's been some good things that have happened. There's been some ups and downs, there's been a lot of trying to figure out, you know, how a traditional sound like I'm gravitated to will fit in the system of Nashville, and all of that. There's been a lot of working through a lot of things musically there that have been interesting, but ultimately grateful that I've had the opportunity to make a few records and just made a Bluegrass album on Curb that I'm really excited about with my best friend, john Meyer. It's under a new branch of what I'm doing musically. It's called Pitney Meyer and so that's really cool to highlight.
Speaker 2:And then I'm hoping to go back in. Lord willing, I'm pushing hard at Curb to get things rolling. While people still think that country music is cool, seems like there's a country music buzz going on. I'd really just like to make a straight ahead country album here soon. I got some songs I'm excited about and, lord willing, we can get the gears turning on that before the whole world is is off to a new fad.
Speaker 1:You know I told you this earlier but I'm going to tell this to the listener, so it's public. You know I was when I, when Mo and I connected and he committed to being on here, you know, and it tickled me to death. I was. I've told my whole family, I've got probably got 30 people now following you on different venues. You to my kids, my friends and people, that there's some people didn't know who you were and now they're like, oh my gosh. You know I was like, yeah, I know, right. So here's my two cents in my soapbox on this podcast. You know right. So here's my two cents in my soapbox on this podcast. You know we see the popularity now of Zach Topp and I'm a fan, right, I think he's great. I think it's great. This young kid is a talented guitar player, singer, songwriter and loves traditional music.
Speaker 2:But then I got to thank him Comes from the bluegrass world, as well, amen, we're going to get on that too.
Speaker 1:You took the words out of my mouth. Um, yeah, but I think why in the world I'm not hearing mo pitney right now? And I think the listeners should. You know, go go discover him if you don't know who he is and you want to hear traditional country music at its finest. And you know, some of you listeners know I come from a big music background and I have a lot of you you know really talented people in my family. I'm the least talented. That's why I'm here and not there.
Speaker 1:You got to check him out because you know his singing ability, his guitar playing, his style. It's so unique and so fresh in today's country. Zach Topp is bringing some of that to the country. But listen, mo Pitney can too, and he's got it. So let's talk about that. You know, moe, you and I both are huge, not only players of Bluegrass and fans, but the listeners. Let's just think about this. I know this is not a music podcast, but let's just talk about the greats who have a Bluegrass background Keith Whitley, ricky Skaggs, patty Loveless I assume Laura Lynn has some. I don't know that for sure, but I know Patty Loveless does very well Vince Gill, vince Gill, moe Pitney, zach Topp.
Speaker 2:Allison Krauss.
Speaker 1:Allison Krauss. Oh my gosh, why did I skip that one? And even when you listen to this podcast, Mo, you don't know it now, but when you go and listen to it, the intro on here is from a great friend of mine just across the mountain from me in Harlem, sean Brock. Sean Brock is a really good studio musician. It's just phenomenal, plays everything. He's actually made a lot of money now playing jingles and stuff. He can play any form of music, but he plays. It's a bluegrass intro and an outro, and on that he's got scott vestal playing banjo, uh, and jerry dover some dobro, uh. And then sean, at the end he plays red haired boy. So the out the end of this podcast that's sean brock, a kentuckian who's extremely talented. But anyway, so you know, I just you know, I'm a Kentuckian, right, I grew up in the hometown of the Osborne brothers.
Speaker 1:I grew up Ralph Stanley was playing in our elementary school gym, so was the Goins brothers. You know me growing up, man, I want to go to that school. Yeah, larry Sparks. So yeah, I can you. Yeah, that's how I was raised. So it's so good to see you make it, but I'm not satisfied. I want them to put you out more and this is my plea and my lobbying techniques to make that happen.
Speaker 2:Well, tell the listeners out there if they like the music to send a letter to Curb Records saying, hey, let's speed this process up and get a record out.
Speaker 1:You know what? I think we should start a petition. Hey, let's do it, let's do that.
Speaker 2:You said, you did some politicking in your life, we could go on a country music campaign.
Speaker 1:Yes, I'm from here at the lobby. That's what I say. We do All right, amen, I'm ready. I'm going to carry the banner because I believe in you. Oh man, thank you, that's encouraging. Like I said, we could do several series on music, but let's do something that's near and dear to your heart. This is the one thing I didn't know about you until today. But let's talk about your ministry, Because that is something else that deserves some advertisement here.
Speaker 2:Well, I'll say it this way. You know, if I only saw my life and purpose as being music, I would just be the most frustrated, depressed person in the world, just with some of the battles that I've had in the music business and how things getting tied up with deals and things like that that make it kind of impossible for me to just keep putting out music and staying inspired. If all I was putting my hand to was music, it would be really, really difficult. But I found the blessing in the life that I've been given where I get some spaces to think about and do other things, and through the middle of my first record I had a radical conversion to Jesus Christ. It would take a whole nother podcast to describe to you all that happened to me when I was filled with the Holy Spirit and just kind of got hooked up to the life source of God again in my life. And ever since then I've known it was like it was downloaded to me that I had more than music that I was supposed to do in my life. I went on a missions trip. I always tried to go on missions trip but early on in my music career I was so busy I wasn't able to do it, but in 2022, november of 2022, I went on a missions trip to Sinaloa, mexico, and brought my guitar into the prison systems that were run by the cartel down there and shared the gospel and ministered to people and helped start. I didn't do much work while we were there, but we were with a group that was building a home for both men and women, where the men and women would be separate. The men that were coming out of the prison system, that were being discipled, were finding a new start in that home, and then there were also women in a different area who had all been trafficked or they'd just been in bad, sticky situations with the cartel and different things like that that were being set free by the gospel, and my wife ministered in the women's part of that home while we were there and when we came back, man, I just had this really radical encounter with God. You'll like this.
Speaker 2:I was driving home on the Bluegrass Parkway from a show I was playing in Kentucky and on the Bluegrass Parkway I heard the voice of God, not audibly, not. The angel didn't show up up, but he might as well have, because the holy spirit impressed upon me that a survivor of human trafficking that we know from ashland city her name's laurie was going to meet a man that I know from kansas city who has a 35 bed facility for human traffic victims, and that we my wife and I and Lori and Rodney would be kind of a core team to plant an effort in Nashville to house and help restore women that have been trafficked in the Nashville area and in other areas. We've been ministering to women, helping them get connected to other ministries where they can find detox, and then we get them to a long-term care facility. But now it's looking like we're going to be able to be one of those care facilities. We'll have a kind of a short-term care through the house that we are working to put together right now, and then our long-term vision will be that we become one of like the two to three year long-term restorative care programs in Nashville.
Speaker 2:And I'm now getting to a point the last year, while I had all this time to get this started.
Speaker 2:This is why I started with, like, the frustration of not being on the road as much as I would like in music, with the frustration of not being on the road as much as I would like in music.
Speaker 2:The off time allowed me to do all my own 501c3 paperwork and start this whole ministry and get it started and lifted off the ground, which was amazing, and now I'm starting to delegate some of the responsibilities of it to other people, which will allow me to do some of the other endeavors that I'm involved in.
Speaker 2:But it's really been cool because I can use the music now to promote the ministry and so there's this built-in audience for fundraising or whatever that might be. Every time I play a show, I can just play a song that relates to what we're doing and tell people what we're doing and how they can support it, and would love anybody out there if they would like to support what we're doing and tell people what we're doing and how they can support it, and would love anybody out there if they would like to support what we're doing to look up RahabHousecom and you can learn more about what we're doing there. You can sign up for a monthly email, you can donate or whatever you'd like to do to support what we're doing. But it's just been a really amazing, really overnight thing that God has done and he has proved that he's with us by providing everything we need every step of the way.
Speaker 1:We'll put that link on our podcast and my new website it's under construction to be kind of modernized, a little bit, upgraded, some, in other words fancier, and I'll put that on there too. When we get that, that'll be ready here in about a week. So, yeah, I mean, hey, I realize that you're a major social influencer, but let's take it beyond that, you know, let's multiply that effort.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, the idea is, you know, in the Old Testament God would bless his people with things. He would bless them with good, fruitful harvests, he would bless them with all this. And in the Law of Moses he said leave the corners of your field for the broken, hurting, the sojourner and all of that. And I've been trying to interpret that encouragement from God that he will bless us. He will give us a social platform, he'll give us finances, he'll give us good bird dogs and all of that. But if you try to take it all for yourself, that makes your creator very angry, like whenever he got mad at them in the Old Testament is when they would not use what he was blessing them with to benefit the least of these. Draw attention to the broken and hurting around us and leave the corners of the field of what I'm doing to be able to help feed and clothe and restore, in this case, victims of human trafficking.
Speaker 1:But, lord willing, god continues to do more and more of that in other people's lives that need help, as well you know, mo, not only is that amazing, it's refreshing to see someone you know that has made success, like you have, at a very young age, and deservedly so. To see that and share that, that's not common among most.
Speaker 2:Wow. Well, he has used a very heavy hand with me to get my attention and I've gotten the two by four up the back of the head multiple times by him and he's just made it clear that he has some things that he wants my wife and I to do and they seem crazy. It's been a lot of work and there's been a lot that has happened, but God has just inspired me to do these things and I can't take any credit for it because it's been him impressing it upon me and just trying to be obedient.
Speaker 1:Now, what's the story with the name of the ministry? Now, what's the?
Speaker 2:story with the name of the ministry. So in the Old Testament there was a woman named Rahab who had a house that was built into the side of Jericho actually, and the story goes is that she was a prostitute and there were two men that were called spies that went in to Jericho before God was going to destroy it, just before they walked into the promised land. And the idea is that the two spies went into the prostitute's house. And you think about this normally when guys go into a prostitute's house there's a different reason for it. But the prostitute Rahab knew that these men were different. And then she also had heard about Yahweh, their God, and she extended kind of a peace offering to them by saying I'm going to protect you, guys, the city's going to try to kill you and I'm going to protect you. And she hid them in, it says under some straw on her roof.
Speaker 2:And this trust between the men of God and the broken woman, you know which. You see that pattern repeat when Jesus comes on the scene. He's eating with tax collectors and prostitutes is the idea, and he's replaying that pattern. And so you know, human trafficking and prostitution and all of that is all really closely related.
Speaker 2:And so when Lori, she felt impressed by the Holy Spirit that the ministry would be called Rahab House. The idea is that God is not just going to use the people of God to help them, but God's doing something unique right now in that broken women who are looking for God and his salvation will also be used to help the other side of the equation. And maybe when the walls and systems of this world like Jericho crumble, a place like Rahab house will still be standing, because the story goes that once they blew the trumpets which in Revelation there's seven trumpets that are blown, just like the seven trumpets that were blown around Jericho Everything fell except Rahab's house. It was stayed standing and anyone that she invited into her house also survived the destruction of Jericho. And so that was what kind of inspired starting the ministry, and I've learned more about why I think God encouraged us to name it Rahab House now, but that's kind of the inspiration behind it.
Speaker 1:I love it. That's something. Wow. I actually knew that story and I knew there was a connection. I was trying to figure that out, so now you brought it full circle for me, wow. So, like I said, we could do a series, mo. We let's uh, let's dabble into this one. Um, okay, have you, since you are a hunter, an entertainer and you know you are a celebrity? Um, have you thought about doing anything in the hunting world?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, uh, I alluded to this a little bit before we jumped on. But, um, my wife and I you know I told you my wife and my kids are getting excited about hunting again and I've been like praying and thinking a lot about um, uh, our lives just becoming more integrated in the hunting world and surrounding bird, dogs and upland hunting and like homesteading and lifestyle stuff. I've been wondering can all of that come together? I do woodworking as well. I built my own house. I really am falling in love with, like rustic woodworking and that kind of a thing.
Speaker 1:You got to repeat that. Did you just say you built your own house? Yeah, I got another. You can't, you can't just graze over that.
Speaker 2:You got to talk about that, oh man, so so, uh, we hired an Amish company ex-Amish company to put up a pole barn for us and I built a barn dominium.
Speaker 2:So I learned how to build everything on the inside, did my own plumbing, electric cabinet work, the tile in our bathrooms, all the way down to the trim work which was from trees that I had milled off my own property, and all of that.
Speaker 2:And I'm not, by any of the stretch of imagination, an amazing craftsman, but I have learned things about woodworking that I am just so inspired about it all and I've made some art pieces with some barn wood. My dad and I tore down with my brother a three-city block hotel called the Pump Handle Inn in my hometown just before I moved to Nashville, and it was built out of rough circle sawn lumber and 12 by 12 and eight by 12 beams, and we trailered it down here and I built my porches out of that hotel, which an interesting connection to the ministry I'm sorry I'll go on these bunny trails that hotel was the trafficking prostitution house. And so, full circle, god has a start, rahab house and my actual house is redeemed or reclaimed wood from the trafficking house in my hometown, and these stories keep all interweaving and crazy, crazy stuff.
Speaker 2:But I built a big pergola out of the beams from that hotel that sits over my kitchen and all of that. And so I say all of that to say we have been inspired to start a new lifestyle brand that won't really be connected to my music career, my name and image and likeness kind of stuff, or my name and image and likeness kind of stuff. It'll be like a community of people that I'm around that love woodworking, that love upland hunting, that love cooking your game, and then my wife is interjecting this creativity around feather art and making wreaths and artwork from pheasant feathers and turkey feathers and things like that. That's all gonna kind of not just be one facet to hunting or outdoors. It's going to be, you know, guitars, woodworking outdoors, bird dogs, deer hunting with my longbow and homemaking and how all of that is supposed to all come together into a well-rounded life.
Speaker 2:And we started this new endeavor called Wood Feathers and Fur out of that, which the name Wood Feathers and Fur came. On Thanksgiving day my brother-in-law, wyatt McCubbin, wanted to watch the football game and he asked me how do I get YouTube pulled up on your TV? I said, brother, if it's not made out of wood feathers or fur, I don't know anything about it. And I said but if it does, I can tell you anything you want to know. And out of that comment I realized that we needed to start a brand called Wood Feathers and Fur.
Speaker 1:I love it. You know I'm committed to saying here Mo, I'm highly envious. Now, I've all my life wanted to be a musician. I'm mediocre. I've always wanted to sing and I sing. I'm mediocre. I wish I could. I always wanted to be able to build stuff. I can't. You can do all that stuff great man, so I'm going to live my life through you.
Speaker 1:Oh my goodness, I tell people, I don't have any talents in this world, except I might be able to talk a lot, and I don't know. That's probably an annoying talent, I don't know.
Speaker 2:but no, it's interesting, you got to have the gift of the gab.
Speaker 1:Well, have you come across just me being an Eastern Kentucky and, and I love wood? I actually grew up working in a sawmill through high school, Beg you know, that sounds familiar.
Speaker 1:It was from the American chestnut tree, which is a huge tree, that a blot hit and they grew in Appalachian mountains. They produced chestnuts, but it was an Oak. I know that sounds. It contradicts itself. It was a form of an Oak tree that produced chestnuts, and anybody listeners, y'all correct me and I'm wrong. You can email me. But you know cattle eat them and everything else. People live off of them. They use the lumber for barns. A lot of old barns in Appalachia are built out of that wood and then apparently the blight that killed them. Like I said, this is my knowledge. It could be I'm not stating this as all fact, just what I've been aware of that when they brought in the Chinese chestnut tree the ones that we use now that it killed off these massive, beautiful trees that were used for every aspect of farm life in Appalachia for centuries Wow yeah.
Speaker 1:So it's beautiful wood too. I've actually got some stuff made out of it, still back home, Anyway you have to look into that.
Speaker 2:There's not really any of them left that are growing. Is that what you're saying?
Speaker 1:That's right, you know you can, and some people try to get barns and stuff made of it and then they turn around and make furniture from it, but it's an extinct wood now.
Speaker 2:My goodness. Well, I'm going to have to dive into that because you know part of this endeavor will be like reclaiming, you know, either barn wood or just stuff. I want everything to have an interesting story. No-transcript, it just has all these interesting connecting stories around all of that. So I'm going to dive into the story of that tree and see if I end up one day getting to work with some of that wood some way or another.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and in other words, you and both appreciate a some good brazilian rosewood and old martin guitar, you know absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 2:You and I talked about jd crow and I've got this uh new, uh old 1950 d28 that I acquired from jd crow and that that can be its own podcast, talking about bluegrass music and old, good sounding guitars.
Speaker 1:Well, and I'll briefly say this I won't try to use the podcast time, but so I had pre-war banjos and I my first was it was a top tension that I got, uh, I acquired. I was trying to think if I came here, if I got it grew in guitar or off of person, but it was all legit. It was actually a plectrum steel and I had Frank Neat, the famous Frank Neat in Russell County.
Speaker 1:Kentucky who was a dear friend Neck maker. Yep Made me a neck and then I happened to be in Gruen back in the day when I was playing really heavy. It's been all through the 90s. A guy grew a guitar named Calvin Miner Miner, miner, I think it was Miner's how you pronounce it Redheaded guy with glasses was their banjo guy. So Calvin, actually, you know, he knew that I was hardcore, obsessed in buying this stuff and I just so happened to walk in there that day and he's like Ken, you got to come back here. We just took in from Palisades, california or Palo Alto California, a Gibson Granada a or Palo Alto, california, a Gibson Granada a. Pb Plectrum Banjo Granada 1934.
Speaker 1:Wow Same serial number series as Sonny Osborne's and Earl Scruggs and Crow's right, my goodness, I bought it. Of course it was expensive. Even then Frank Neat made me a neck and that thing was awesome and I was playing it out on festivals and Crow wanted it. So we decided that we would trade for a year not trade, but he would take it and play it. He actually played it on. He did a cut on Charlie Sizemore album with my Granada banjo Wow, but it gets better. I had one of Crow's threes, oh my goodness, and I was playing shows with Jay and I wasn't worthy to even carry the case.
Speaker 1:Oh, my goodness, yeah, with a bluegrass band called north fork which is donnie and brad stevens and johnny browning. Uh, anyway, man, you know that stuff, you can't make that stuff up. So, believe it or not, because I'm a businessman, I didn't trade with JD because my banjo, even with the JD Crow factor, monetarily I know that sounds bad, but my Granada was just worth so much more and I ended up anyway. Long story short, I ended up selling both banjos because I got afraid someone was going to steal them, so I sold them both to a friend of uh tim sheerhorns up in michigan.
Speaker 1:Sheerhorns tem had a friend I don't know who that guy is, I have to think his name but he bought both my banjos and uh owns them. And then I got a huber, a steve huber, and I still have it. Wow. So that's, that's amazing. Well, we need to sit around and pick and uh, I don't know how much of the pitney meyer stuff you've seen.
Speaker 2:But we made an album in johnny cash's living room in bon aqua, tennessee, and we got a really cool album getting ready to drop in the spring called cherokee pioneer and that that jd crowe guitar all over it and we're really excited about it.
Speaker 1:Now was it in his living room, the cabin on his farm.
Speaker 2:On the farm in Bon Aqua. You had 107 acres down there and no one had ever recorded in that cabin. We turned it into a recording studio, recorded completely live to tape and recorded a completely analog record and so that we will then have a record that has not been touched by the computer at all. Can't wait A vinyl record. So we're really, really excited about it. Look forward for people to tune in on the Pitney Meyer thing. My goodness, I'm realizing I got rahab owls, pitney meyer wood feathers and fur and, uh mo, pitney stuff and so if people want to follow along, they got to jump on a lot of little different avenues to see all of it well, yeah, and we'll try to make sure when this, after we get this edited and published, we'll try to get links to everything from you.
Speaker 1:Oh great, thank you, but, mo, I was just trying to get to the same farm. So my brother, brandon, and I, brandon Witt, went with Eric Hamilton. He's a musician down in Nashville and he's friends with John Carter. You know, my brothers live across the lake from the old Johnny Cash house that burned and was rebuilt and we were on their farm a year and a half ago, well, september 23. Yeah, and an old cabin there that John Carter. He has some bees and stuff there and honey, and we stayed there. That's not the same one, is it? This is a bigger, it was a bit more acreage.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's the one in Hendersonville and I could be wrong.
Speaker 1:This one's west of Nashville on 40, about an hour and a half.
Speaker 2:Yeah, then that would be the one that were in Bon Aqua-Dixon area.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'm pretty sure it had a tower blind on it, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm not sure. I'm pretty sure it had a tower blind on it. Yeah, yeah, I'm not sure. I don't know. I don't think I've ever seen the tower blind, but maybe that's different now. I don't know.
Speaker 1:I'll have to find out from Brandon if that's the same. I'm sure they might own more than one but this one. You know there's a metal building out from the cabin, but the cabin's an old original, you know, hand-hued. Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 2:And in between the barn and the cabin there's like a stage and everything. Do you remember that?
Speaker 1:There was like a fire pit out there. I don't know if I remember the stage.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, there's like a half, and the stage part might've been built afterwards, so I'm not sure. But yeah, there was a metal barn out there, like to the right of the cabin.
Speaker 1:Yeah, me and my brother slept upstairs in that barn.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's the same place, and there's 107 acres there, but there's a couple other plots of land in that area that the guy who owns it now owns, and so I'm sure you're talking about the same thing.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's so wild, yeah, but anyway, eric's one took us out there. John Carter was there. I've never met him, but he knows my brothers and Eric used to be somehow married into the john johnny cash's family. Uh, I would have to get eric to tell you that. But anyway, small world, yeah, yeah, well, hey, um, a couple things. First of all, we got to get you back on when you have time and break down. We have a lot to talk about.
Speaker 1:We've got to break down some of this stuff into uh, uh, into some tidbits of of of really good information. But we another thing to you know, I really, like I said, I've kind of starstruck. Uh, I've been a fan, a follower, and um had no idea, you, you hunted with dogs. But uh, when you, I guess you actually followed me, the Gun Dog Nation thing, I was following you already but you had followed me and I thought, oh, I actually told my son, I said, man, you know, remember Moe Pitney guy I had a picture with and stuff, and I was like he followed our thing. I'm going to reach out and see if he'd like to come on. And then when I found your, your other web, you know the wood feathers and fur, and saw those britneys went oh, I gotta talk to him, you know, I gotta see if he'll come on because surely he hunts. And I knew you're from illinois and I knew you know and I've had a really good dog trainer from northern illinois named chris rudd. They call him a hunt test hobo.
Speaker 1:uh, he's been on here and he's turned me on to a lot of really good retriever guys up there. Now they're all retriever guys and yeah. But see, I like this podcast where you can see right behind me I've got retrievers and Brittany's. Those are actually Brittany's. I know it looks like something else, but that's what those are.
Speaker 2:I love it, man, I love it, it was meant to be.
Speaker 1:We were meant to talk, I agree. So, uh well, man, it's been an absolute pleasure, a privilege, to have you on here. I won't tell our listeners listen, you want to hear traditional country, you want to hear real talent. You look up Mo Whitney and join the. Let's join the movement and get curb records to get this guy back on the air.
Speaker 1:Cause it's, it's a, it's a waste of talent, and it infuriates me that I can't hear new stuff from him on the radio right now. Uh, but I am gonna. I can't wait to hear your bluegrass.
Speaker 2:I'm I'm pumped but I do know the guy that your partner's with yes, oh, you're welcome. You're welcome, uh, all right well and let's uh, let's do some hunting. And and, uh, let's talk about bird dogs while we're waiting for all the country music stuff to happen. Let's tune into that.
Speaker 1:We definitely do.
Speaker 2:That's the blessing of not cracking on the road too much you get a little bit more time to do a little hunting.
Speaker 1:That's right. Well, I tell you what we'll try to coordinate a good pheasant hunt, quail hunting, stuff too, and I just I'm just now getting really into waterfowl, but my true love is really upland and yeah me too, brother, but waterfowl's fun too.
Speaker 1:I've done some of that this year and I like it. But, mo listen, I could rant along forever and I know you're a busy man. I really appreciate you taking time. I want the listeners to check out his ministry. We will have the links on the podcast each podcast and I will have some stuff of his on our webpage Also, you mentioned something about recipes. My webpage will have game recipes on there. I'm going to have people submit recipes and we'll have a page, a link on the website, and you can go in there and look up. You know all kinds of really good recipes from you know some big people in the industry.
Speaker 2:Man, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, hey, I guess we'll go and thank you all for listening, mo, thank you so much, and pay attention to the next episode of Gundog Nation.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, brother.
Speaker 1:You're welcome.