- [Steven] American poet Ron Rash is quoted as saying,
Downloaded from YTS.MX
Appalachia is a region of contrasts,
beauty and desolation, wealth and poverty,
Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX
culture and isolation.
It is a land that is both real and mythic,
inspiring the imagination and challenging the soul.
I have always felt this quote spoke to the heart
of not just the mountains,
but the creative people inside of them.
While Eastern Kentucky gets a negative view
from the national media,
one cannot undermine the amount of musical talent
that has come from these hills.
From the high mountains to the foothills,
Appalachia's produced so many prolific songwriters
and musicians, one cannot view, travel through,
or think of the hills of Appalachia
without thinking of a song.
I was always inspired by writers, travelers and singers
for as long as I can remember.
I still remember the first time
I heard the song "Cowboy Boot Heel."
The song was filled with such heart,
and the singer was right out of a Western novel.
This singer was known other than Rob McNurlin.
For the past 30 years,
Rob McNurlin and his Beatnik Cowboys
have performed over 1000 shows,
providing a backdrop in song to all those that listen.
I first met Rob in the year 2004
when Rob would play in the coffee shop I worked at
in Morehead, Kentucky.
Rob always had time to talk to me about harmonicas,
Bob Dylan, Western poets,
and of course great Western wear.
His music spoke to others.
I even had the chance to have
Rob on my old TV show, "Art This."
Rob's songs tugged on heartstrings
and spoke to me as a fellow Appalachian.
I have seen Rob perform less and less as I have grown older
and have had less time to travel because of work.
I was surprised in 2024
when I saw a post on Rob's social media
about Rob stepping away from playing music.
I immediately reached out to Rob
and asked him if I could tell his story in a film.
So here we are, and this is my take.
My name is Steven Middleton,
and for the past 20 years I've been fortunate enough
to make documentary films.
Through highs and lows,
I have told the story of people, places,
and remarkably interesting things.
(bright music)
This is a film about a poet, a songwriter,
a trailblazer, a troubadour,
and, most importantly, my friend.
This is From the Cowboy's Boot Heel,
the musical journey of Rob McNurlin.
♪ Early morning, almost gone ♪
(bright music)
♪ The sad old pony I rode in on ♪
♪ You know I told you I must go ♪
♪ As my cowboy boot heel taps out the rhythm of my soul ♪
(bright music)
- [Interviewer] Then let's go ahead and do it.
Okay.
My name is Steven Middleton,
and for the past 20 years I've produced documentary films.
In 2004, I worked at a coffee shop,
and in that coffee shop, I had a job
of making drinks, food and running sound.
And I worked with a lot of musicians running sound,
some who weren't so kind to me, others who were very nice.
And it was there that I met
this very tall, very interesting,
and very kind man named Rob McNurlin.
He had a post about a year ago on his social media
that he was gonna retire
and he was hanging up the hat and the guitar.
So I wrote him and asked him
if I could produce this piece on his life and career.
He said yes.
So I hope this lets the audience,
people, especially younger people,
understand who Rob is and his music and his contributions,
especially to all of the current people in the business,
not only just Nashville
but all over the U.S. that Rob inspired.
But to understand Rob's music
and his value and his worth in this field
after all these years.
- [[Announcer]] Now here's the cowboy himself, Rob McNurlin.
(upbeat music)
Well, I grew up in West Bridge,
right outside of Ashland here.
And music was all my mom and dad's fault.
They had the greatest record collection.
Mom had a whole box of 45s from the '50's
with Elvis and Chuck Berry and Little Richard,
and especially those Sun Johnny Cash records.
That's what really got me.
And dad had Hank Williams albums and Tex Ritter,
and they played 'em all the time.
And dad got one of those big furniture stereos.
And at night we would go to bed,
and however many albums they would hold, five or six,
and I remember going to sleep listening to Johnny Cash.
And at Christmas of '69, I asked for a guitar.
Started taking lessons.
And it's so funny because for some reason
I ended up with an electric guitar.
Which was weird
because Johnny Cash didn't play electric guitar.
But, so when I started lessons,
the teacher's like, what do you wanna learn?
And I said, Johnny Cash.
And so he was trying to teach me the Luther stuff.
(Rob hums)
And after two or three lessons, I told him, I said,
look, Johnny Cash is hitting all the strings at once.
And he goes, oh, you wanna play chords?
And I said, I don't know,
I wanna play like Johnny Cash, you know?
It was after high school that I really,
probably during high school,
me and some friends started playing.
We never played out anywhere.
We weren't good enough to play out.
We weren't even really good enough to play in the basement.
But we were having fun.
And that's why it's called playing.
And it was probably the early '90's
before I really started playing a lot.
And then in '93 is when I went, you know, full-time music.
And that's what I was doing for a living.
It was the Beatnik Cowboys.
I just put out my first CD.
And it was pretty much those guys.
Darrell James played guitar and produced the CD.
And later, he just wanted to play blues.
Great blues musician.
So when he left,
Dave Prince moved from bass to guitar
and John Gostovich took over bass.
And that was the lineup
for, gosh, probably 10 years maybe.
Or close to it, anyway.
(upbeat music)
- There was a music store in Ashland, Kentucky
called The Guitar Store.
And I was going down there
to try to find some cool instruments.
And there was a guy down there,
kind of a cowboy-looking dude.
He was very tall.
And he was off to one side,
and he was playing a song by The Band.
I think he was playing "The Weight."
And, you know, people were just kind of listening to him,
and maybe somebody grabbed a guitar.
And I thought, you know, I know that song.
So I grabbed a guitar and jammed with him.
And that was the first time I ever met Rob.
Well, he was super nice.
He was just the nicest guy.
You know, you meet people,
and it's hard to get to know 'em
or they're standoffish
or they don't attempt to get to know you.
But I felt like I'd known Rob for a long time
from the first time I met him.
And, you know, music was a good connection for us.
But, still, he was just a nice guy.
You know, it was really interesting.
We had been playing together for probably a couple years.
We had a pretty tight-run unit going.
And the guy playing guitar at the time
was a guy named Darrell Hall,
and Darrell was also an engineer
at the studio here in Louisa.
So Darrell was like,
hey, if you wanna come up after midnight,
we can slip in, and we can record your record.
It won't cost you anything.
And so we were slipping in under the cover of darkness,
and we would set our drums and stuff up
and get everything sounding good,
and just started playing.
And most of the stuff on that first album,
I mean, it was pretty much the second or third take
'cause we didn't want to fool around too much.
It was pretty much dead live too.
So what you're hearing there is pretty much what went down.
Dave had an old Volkswagen hippie van.
One morning, after setting up all night
at Dave Prince's house, just having fun,
in the early morning hours,
we decided we were taking the hippie van
on tour to California.
And we did.
We booked shows for the way out and on the way back
and had a blast.
(upbeat music)
Well I gotta tell you,
you know, Rob and I hung out a lot together.
We'd just get together and ride around.
And I had a Volkswagen van,
which made me even more cool.
And so we would get together
and just cruise around in that van, listen to music.
And he comes up to my house one morning,
he said, man, I got an idea.
He said, let's get in your hippie van
and let's go do a tour out to California and back.
And that was like getting the Apollo rocket
and going to the other planets.
I mean, it was so far away,
and no one we knew that was playing music
had ever tried anything like that.
And, honestly, Rob just didn't know enough
to know you can't do that.
And it was great.
So I said, well, let's do it.
So I said, I rebuilt the motor in the van and got it ready.
Had a couple months.
And Rob got on the phone,
'cause this is pre-internet,
and booked the tour.
And one night, we just all got in the van,
and we put all of our equipment in it,
and we headed west.
♪ Summer fanfare ♪
♪ I'm looking through ♪
We wanna hear anything.
Your favorite song.
- You like The Grateful Dead? - Yeah.
[Dave] No way.
Do a Grateful Dead tune, Rob.
♪ I've been out in Amarillo ♪
♪ Day by day now ♪
♪ We didn't sleep until the sun go around ♪
(traffic whooshing)
Oh yeah.
While we were out there,
we visited Rambling Jack, hung out at his house some,
and you know, just, it was all just living a dream.
You know, we didn't have phones
to tell us where the gigs were.
We're just trying to find them.
We didn't know how to do anything, but it worked.
And it's just because Rob, just, why not?
Why can't we do that?
And that was his attitude with a lot of things.
And it was great.
We had one flat tire.
I mean, the whole trip to California back
in a '71 VW van with 10 million miles on it.
We had a flat tire and you know, any tire can go flat.
It wasn't the van's fault.
And you know, I drove the whole way
'cause I don't trust any of those hooligans to drive my van.
And Rob was the copilot.
And you know, we'd traveled
like the first time we left Ashland
and our first show was in Omaha, Nebraska.
And we drove straight through
and it felt like it was about 24 hours worth of driving.
And we had to play as soon as we got there.
And we didn't know up from down.
But again, none of us knew enough to know not to do this.
And Rob had a vision, Rob was always a step ahead.
When you would talk to Rob, he's like, man,
I'm gonna make a record and we're gonna make a video for it,
and then we're gonna do this tour.
And he would plan things out.
And I never really met anyone who did that.
You know, he did the first music video I'd ever seen
and he made friends with a guy named Richard Friley.
Rob goes, we'll get in to make his video.
So he gets to know Friley
and they put together a video for "Lotta Good Men."
And you know, he used a lot of footage from us out West.
Man, this is awesome.
Rob has a legit music video
and that's just the way Rob was
Oh, I was just completely ate up with it.
I played and wrote and thought about music 24 hours day.
But Rob had really transitioned a lot
because when we made the first album,
we're a rock and roll band.
And a lot of nights we just sounded like Neil Young
and Rob was writing a lot of real powerful,
just what I call rock and roll songs.
But over time Rob transitions more into that Johnny Cash,
you know, Tennessee Two thing.
♪ Your season's through ♪
I played acoustic, you put the paper
and string so you can get that Johnny Cash quick, you know,
and I understand for Rob, it's fewer moving parts.
And when you're trying to keep a band together
and get people to go play,
the more people you have, the more problems you have.
So he'd really part it down.
♪ Buffalo trail ♪
♪ And also lose your day ♪
[Crew] On the Rob McNurlin folkumentary.
Mr. Nashville here.
The next record didn't come along until 2000.
I had a stockpile of songs.
[Cameraman] Getting ready to go back
to Nashville, Tennessee, hang out with John Cash.
We're gonna be with Johnny Cash on Grammy Day.
- John Carter Cash at the Cash Cabin Studio.
- Wave to the camera. - Hey.
- That's John Carter. - The door kind of opened
that I could go to,
to the Cash Cabin.
And I thought, well this is a once in a lifetime chance.
[Cameraman] All kinds of cool toys.
- You know and there's another example, it's like,
well we're gonna go record at Johnny Cash's studio,
so, you know, whatever, nobody goes
and records at Johnny Cash's studio unless you're somebody.
We drive down to Hendersonville
and we're on Johnny Cash's property
and there's Johnny Cash's car
and we're going in his studio to record.
And I'll tell you what, I was scared to death.
It's one thing to slip in and record in Louisa, Kentucky,
but now we're at Johnny Cash's house and we're gonna record.
And you know, it said the same thing.
We're playing live like John Carter, turn it on and say go.
And man, I've never experienced anything like that.
- [Rob] This is Dave Prince and our photographer John Flava
walking down the road at Johnny Cash's cabin.
Ain't this cool?
- We just cut a hit record that nobody will ever hear.
Hear about this RC Cola?
Johnny Cash's RC Cola
direct from Johnny Cash's refrigerator,
in Johnny Cash's cabin.
On Johnny Cash's land
in Hendersonville, Tennessee, United States of America.
Oh yeah.
I thought I was king of the world at that moment.
Johnny Cash should be the fifth head on Mount Rushmore.
Johnny Cash is the father of my country.
[Dave] Amen.
(bright music)
They should have left it that way,
then people that misspelled it
can still get a hold of the record.
[Rob] Yeah, that's true.
♪ I'm working on a building for my Lord ♪
♪ For my Lord ♪
♪ I know I told you I must go ♪
Hillbilly music's country music.
And I, you know, used to be growing up I thought hillbilly
was a derogatory term,
but it's not, you know, it's like Cajun
or anything, you know, it's something to be looked up to
and it's real music.
♪ Sometimes up and I'm sometimes down ♪
♪ Coming forward to carry me home ♪
- [Steven] He just was part of your life all at once?
Yeah.
And it was like, I don't know, there's something
that happened and then all of a sudden Rob's in my life
and we hit it off pretty well
being both from eastern Kentucky.
He was so
sweet of a guy and loved music
as much as anybody I'd ever met.
And we got to end up playing music a lot together
in the coming years.
He called me up, asked me if I wanted to play in prison,
like, you know,
at the time I was taking every gig I could get, you know,
and the first gate opens up, like he talks to somebody,
they buzz us through the first gate, we're in,
the gate closes behind us,
and then the next gate opens up
and we're just driving through the prison
like kind of yards at that point.
And we get out
and we are just in the middle of the general population
of the prison and getting the PA out,
setting everything up
and people are coming up and talking to us.
All this stuff is going on.
It's like.
♪ Six inches of snow ♪
♪ Two hours the cock will be crowing ♪
- I hit a point where I'd stopped playing in my rock band.
I was playing my wife Theresa's band called
In the Mountain Jets and we were doing that,
but I just wanted to do something.
I just felt like I had something I needed to accomplish.
So, you know, I told Rob one time, I said, you know,
I'm probably not gonna play with you a whole lot anymore
'cause I'm gonna try and get something going.
And to not be doing that,
and, you know, it was kind of tough
'cause I was proud to be Rob's guitar player
and I go back and listen to those records, like, man,
that's me playing with Rob
and I'm really proud of the work we did and I missed it.
I miss playing with Rob,
but I just really thought I needed to focus on trying
to do something I wanted to do.
(bright music)
- In 2009, I moved to Nashville in the spring.
Well, I was going through a bad spot myself, which is,
we won't go into that detail,
but that's why I moved to Nashville
just to kind of get away from everything.
And I was living with JT Cure for a couple of months
and we really helped each other
and it was just such an honor to be around him.
It was good for him and good for me too.
You know, it was fun having him around, getting up
and, you know, going having some coffee
and just, it's interesting
to see him, you know, as to see that side of him
because I had known him, he had always had the get up on,
you know, he's always dressed to the nines,
you know, shows up like he's in a show.
But then seeing the Rob McNurlin as he's about to go to bed,
you know, like just in his pajamas and stuff like that.
It's an interesting perspective.
And in the morning, you know, it's like crazy hair
and you know?
For a long time,
and we played music all the time.
I mean all the time.
That's all we did, just played music.
♪ One little boy at the big Rodeo ♪
♪ The props were all busted ♪
♪ The lights dimmed low ♪
- Live hillbillies. - Live on stage.
(upbeat music)
- Well, me, my dad and a good friend of ours,
Gerald McCormick, went to almost every
Marty Stuart TV show taping.
And one day this guy came in
and Rob kind of, you know, he always looks like stage ready,
you know, and he walked in,
we all kinda looked at him like, who's this guy?
You know, we never had met him.
And so a few minutes later Marty came through
and Marty asked Rob said, hey,
do you have a rhinestone coat in your van?
You know?
And he said, put it on.
Said that'd look cool sitting in the audience, you know,
so we thought that's kind of weird.
And so Rob went out
and he came back in, had like a real
Manuel coat on, you know?
I said, wow, this guy must be somebody, you know?
And so anyway, and Rob came to almost every taping too.
He lived here then at that time.
And so we just kind of got to be buddies
hanging out at Marty Stuart TV tapings.
And he pretty much came one of my very best friends,
you know, so, and yeah, he actually, our last house,
he actually recorded a couple albums in our basement,
you know, and JT Cure and Kayton and Kenny Vaughn
and those guys come over and played on it.
And it was just, yeah, everything he does,
he keeps it simple, but quality.
- So I'd had Manuel start making me some rhinestone outfits
and I get invited to his birthday party,
but there was Kayton kind of playing in the house band.
I concocted the idea, well I'm gonna do a new record.
I want Kayton play steel guitar on it.
And Kayton's wife had passed away
and Kayton told me, he said, where are you living down here?
'Cause we were playing a lot of music together.
But then, and I told him, he said, well,
anytime he said, I got plenty of room.
My wife passed away.
And so I ended up living at Kayton's.
- [Steven] He got into playing with Kayton Roberts.
And then you joined in with them at that time, right?
I did, yeah.
Kenny was playing with us some.
Chris Gruggs would be in and out with us.
We've got these great photos of us playing down
at Layla's all together.
And it was awesome for me to get to meet Kayton
and to have that experience, you know,
as a musician, to get to play with somebody like that
and a link to the history of the music that you love
was really cool.
And on top of that, he was just such an awesome guy,
one of the funniest guys I'd ever met.
And to travel with him
because we traveled a little bit together.
It was always a good time.
Always looked forward to those shows.
Rob had sort of moved into Kayton's house
sort of as a roommate and musical co-conspirator,
which I think was great for Kayton.
You know, his wife, Iva Lee, and he
had played music together for so long
and one of my concerns for Kayton when she passed away
was, you know, losing that musical connection.
And it seemed that when that door kind of closed,
this door opened up with Rob
and Kayton hadn't really been on the road
or toured since, you know, Hank Snow had passed away,
which had been, you know, maybe 10 years at this point.
And I feel that that friendship between Kayton
and Rob McNurlin sort of gave Kayton a sort of second wind
and a new chapter in his career.
All of a sudden Kayton was out working the road
and he was playing shows around town
and it was, you know, usually him and Rob
and early on JT Cure, Kentucky Boy who plays
with Chris Stapleton on bass.
And then a little later on it was Roger Carroll
from Hank Snow's Rainbow Ranch Boys.
So that was through Kayton that I got to know Rob.
He taught me, I know the first time
we actually sat not recording on my album,
just sat down to Jam.
I started playing some Hank Snow song
and I didn't make it through half the verse.
And he goes, now son, and real nice in a very kind way.
He said, you're leaving out some chords.
And I said, well, you're gonna have to teach 'em to me.
And he just perked up.
He just knew if I was willing
to learn, you know, that was great.
And he did, he taught me passing chords
that I'd never even heard of or thought of.
And I know I came back up here,
they had a guitar show on this stage here,
and I came back up for it
and I was just sitting behind the booth
and one of my friends, Richie Collins was sitting there
with me and I was playing something and he looked at me
and goes, wait a minute.
He said, Rob McNurlin don't know those chords,
what happened to Rob McNurlin?
And I said, well, Kayton's teaching me a lot.
They had a really special bond and just,
and it was great for Kayton too, you know,
after Hank died, Rob kind of kept him on the road
and kept him going and kept him lively.
You know, I think Kayton probably wouldn't have lived near
as long as he did if he hadn't been out with Rob
and Rob keeping him playing
and keeping him in the music business, you know?
And I think Rob was, you know,
a really good friend to Kayton
and really helped him out a lot, a whole lot.
And Kayton knew that and Kayton appreciated it
and so did Kayton's family, I think, you know,
and they had a really special bond
and they did a lot of great music together.
And Rob even, I'm sure you've probably heard about,
but he even produced a record on Kayton
and I had Marty Stuart come in and play on it.
And me and Marty got together and collaborated
and I do some graphic design stuff
and we did the cover for it
and all the artwork for the CD and everything.
And Marty took the pictures for the cover, you know,
he's a great photographer too.
And Rob really stepped up
and just really took care of Kayton in the last few years
with a lot of, you know, kept his legacy.
Really helped with it, you know.
Hello, this is Rob NcNurlin.
Thanks for tuning into the Rob McNurlin Ranch Party.
Just wanted to let you know that starting in November,
we got some all new episodes,
one even featuring the legendary folk singer
Rambling Jack Elliot.
Lot more surprises for you.
Log into RobMcNurlin.com to learn more.
Thanks again.
Me and Richard stayed friends all the time
and so we wanted to do a TV show
and we made a couple of pilots
and so we started trying to get some sponsors for some money
and we did, Richard and also a guy named Brad Bearer
helped film when Richard was out of town.
And we put the TV show, you know,
it was on three years, I think.
(bright music)
- [Chance] From the Country Music Heritage Hall,
It's a Highlands Museum
and Discovery Center in Ashland, Kentucky
on the Country Music Highway, Route 23.
It's the Rob McNurlin Ranch Party
starring Rob McNurlin and his Beatnik Cowboys,
Kayton Roberts, Kenny Vaughan, JT Cure
with Kim Johnson, Bobby Taylor,
Andrew Dunlap,
and Les Worley, plus today's special guest.
I'm your announcer Chance Martin.
And now here's the star of the show, Rob McNurlin.
(bright music)
♪ There's no rules on the road ♪
♪ That's why the road rules ♪
♪ Now there's rules on the road ♪
♪ But the road can't be ruled ♪
But you know who else?
It's so foreign
of a thing to me to be like,
I'm gonna make a TV show or I might have that idea,
but nothing ever happens to it.
He saw the whole thing through, he just did it all.
And it was a really cool thing to be a part of
and to see it, you know,
and Kayton was involved with some of those,
it's almost like he could see
the whole thing from beginning to end.
And from our perspective, we just kind of showed up
and he's like, okay, let's play this song.
And we'd play that.
Good take, good take, yep.
All right, then we'd play another song,
then we'd maybe change clothes.
And then he just knew all this stuff
to make it work.
But he is always in, you know, he was always making films
and had an eye for that kind of thing too.
Why is the phone ringing?
I'm busy, I'm trying to do a show.
(phone ringing)
Hello, Ranch Party, Rob speaking.
Well, hey baby, how are you?
What are you into today?
Oh, well that's good, that's good.
Yeah, we're having a good time down here
playing a little bit of music.
Oh, the show went fine last night.
It went fine.
While we were playing, this three-legged dog
walked into the bar and said, I'm looking for the man
who shot my paw.
(donkey hawing)
Yeah, I love you too, baby, I'll see you later.
(donkey hawing)
All right, welcome back to the Rob McNurlin Ranch Party.
Thanks for tuning in
and we have a very special guest today, Mr. Marty Stuart.
Marty, thanks for being here.
- My pleasure, Rob, heard all about your show,
cousin Kenny's been telling me about it.
Well bless you, sir.
I saw one of your DVDs
and I had to get in on it.
Well, I appreciate it.
Thank you so much. - You stylized.
Oh yeah, we're sparkling today.
(upbeat music)
♪ Then he went ♪
(Marty whistling)
Yeah, we worked hard on those shows
and I think they came out pretty good.
You know, I really enjoyed it.
It was me and Kayton and JT Cure
and Rob, I think just the four of us.
It was really fun.
And he had some good guests on there,
you know, he had Marty Stuart
and Larry Cordle and all kinds of folks.
Well, I was playing with Marty Stuart
and His Fabulous Superlatives
in some outdoor show in East Kentucky
on a nice night.
It was well attended, lots of hillbillies there.
And he kind of appeared into my world there.
And I remember, you know, I saw, you know,
I saw this guy's cool, you know, just, he cuts a, you know,
when he walks in to wherever you are, you know,
you immediately notice him.
'Cause you know, he's put together
and he's has his own sort of aura about him, you know?
And I thought, this cat's cool.
And then Marty must have known him, I'm not sure,
but Marty got him up on stage that night.
Where are you Robert?
Come on son.
Got a fine looking cowboy suit on.
(upbeat music)
They played a song by Rob called,
"Is Your Name on the Rock and the Roll?"
And they tore it up.
Marty played the mandolin and Rob played his acoustic guitar
and Rob sang and the audience went crazy, you know?
And I was like, hm, this guy's different.
And then, you know, the more I got to know him, you know,
I realized that not only was he into old country music
and bluegrass music and knew a lot about all that stuff,
but he was also into Jerry Garcia and Bob Dylan.
He knew a lot about that stuff.
And I said, oh, all right, I can relate to this dude.
I like him.
And we've been friends ever since.
I think it was JT Cure on bass
and Kate and Robertson Seal
and me on electric, Rob,
and sometimes Chris Scruggs played with us,
various instruments, I'm sure.
And, you know, we played some shows
and yeah, we've worked together in the studio.
[Steven] Has Rob been easy to work with?
Oh, what do you think?
Yeah, he's the easiest to work with.
Well, you know, the thing about Rob is he knows his music.
He has his style
and when he steps up to the mic in the studio
with his guitar and to sing, he's ready.
There's no guesswork there.
He's already ready to go.
You hit the button and he lays his part down and it's done.
And so it's pretty easy to work with him
because he knows his style
and he understands what, you know, his own music really well
and it's fun and it's easy
and it always sounds good because he's good.
Yeah, Kenny played,
he's played on my most recent three albums
and he produced the two latest albums,
he produced, played on 'em.
And actually all of Marty's band played on
the two most recent ones, you know,
but that "Tent of the Wicked" I was just talking about,
may be my best record.
I mean, I really love the songs on there
and the the musicianship on it is just unbelievable.
I mean, I think it's human nature
that if you played in a band
and someone takes your place, you're gonna go look at him
and go, well, how good's that guy?
Well, I look over and it's Kenny Vaughan.
It's like, well, that guy's pretty doggone good.
I couldn't tune Kenny's guitar.
He went to Nashville and again,
his way of getting in with people.
And all of a sudden he and Marty Stuart are best friends
and he's got Kenny Vaughan
and he's got JT Cure playing,
which he knew JT from back in the Moorhead days.
He'd known JT for a long time.
But Rob had just continued
to play with better and better people.
- I remember being in a building in Nashville,
I looked out the window and there was this guy
all by himself just walking down the street
and he had on the most gorgeous coat,
Porter Wagner would've been jealous of it.
It was fully rhinestone, beautiful, just by himself.
Who's that character?
And then come to find out, it was Rob McNurlin.
I remember we did an old Johnny Cash song,
a song that John and Bob Dylan wrote called "Wanted Man"
on Rob's TV show.
So I love that performance.
♪ This next time go ahead ♪
♪ Had all that I wanted ♪
♪ Moved a lot of things I've had ♪
♪ And a lot more than I needed ♪
♪ Of some things that turned out bad ♪
(upbeat music)
And sometimes it was reruns,
we didn't have three years worth of shows.
But yeah, we had some, you know, great stuff.
I mean, and there again, I was blessed with guests.
I mean, Marty Stuart and Larry Cordle
and John Carter Cash,
just blessed with such great guests.
And there's a whole list of 'em
that I'm drawing blanks on now.
- [Steven] So when I first reached out to you,
you had a Facebook post
that made me think you were retiring from music.
Well, I probably wrote the post wrong,
but just because of some family situation,
my dad passed away
and somebody needs to take care of the property
'cause mom's in a rest home.
And plus they were raising my great nephew.
Now, you know, I could abandon all of that
and go on the road playing music,
but I wouldn't feel good about myself if I did that.
So I'm gonna play music around here and occasionally travel,
but I just can't like I used to.
I can't be on the road for three or four weeks
'cause I wanna be able to visit my mom
as long as I can, help my little nephew with all he needs
and take care of the home place.
♪ In the courtroom for the judge's gavel falls ♪
♪ Defended the innocent and righted many wrongs ♪
♪ But my books of law were traded for these songs ♪
♪ I might've studied medicine and healed my fellow man ♪
♪ Picked the lame and crippled up ♪
♪ Helped make 'em stand ♪
♪ Is there someone dying that should be standing strong ♪
♪ 'Cause my healing powers were traded for a song ♪
♪ Do you remember ♪
(bright music)
My dad worked in a Steel Mill
and Johnny Cash sang, man, you know,
to me they were like the same though.
And so when I got into it, it was purely for music.
And then of course I started trying to make money
and things, and eventually you got the point, oh yeah,
you wanna be a rock star, like everybody does.
And then common sense kinda drifts in
that not many people make it as a rock star
and especially the kind of music that I picked
because I can play it with a rock and roll band,
I can play it with a country band,
but I'm really a folk singer pretty much.
And I realized that there wasn't
that many rockstar folk singers.
So I was just trying to make a living at it.
And I did, I managed to do that.
♪ You ain't gold ♪
♪ All you are girl is flesh and bone ♪
♪ You're the best at these eyes have seen ♪
When I moved to Nashville,
I never planned on moving back here,
but circumstances brought me back here and this is home.
No matter where I've ever went in the world,
you know, this is still home.
(bright music)
I never could distinguish,
and I run into this a lot people, some people say,
well you play secular music, you know,
you don't play all gospel music
and some people that, you know, some Christians
that's not right to them.
But I don't see the difference in it.
You know, when I read the Bible, there's all kinds
of stories about love, hate, murders, you know?
Yes, the gospel is there
and that's the main reason that's there.
But life is in those too, just like in the songs,
you know, those old folk songs have.
So to me, I'm not saying they're all gospel songs to me,
but all of it's important.
It all just deals with life.
♪ Do you remember ♪
If anybody remembers it, it'll be amazing to me.
It still amazes me if somebody shows up
and knows one of the songs.
The trick is, I mean, it's not gonna matter
to us anyway, you know?
I mean, I'm 60, I'll soon be 61.
I had a long run, you know, I'm closer to the end
than I am to the beginning, you know,
but now I'm just a hillbilly on my way to heaven.
(bright music)
(audience applauding)
(bright music)
♪ I was born in the country ♪
♪ Then I moved to town ♪
♪ I was born in the country ♪
♪ When I moved to town ♪
The first ever Rob McNurlin promo picture.
♪ Hillbillies hanging around ♪
It's us recording at the Cash Cabin Studio.
It was February 14th of 2000.
So whole big spread in off-label photos
and okay, here's what, so I did the soundtrack
to a movie about Bullfrogs in Kentucky.
And so here's the promo for that.
So I went to England with Dave Prince and his wife Luna.
Here's the poster from that.
The Blue Cat what?
The Blue Cat Cafe, wherever that was.
(harmonica buzzing)
You know, you just think of the theme to Barney Miller
or Sanford and Son or something.
(harmonica buzzing)
Hank Snow's toupee.
What more can you say?
You know, the reason I ended up
with this when I was living in Nashville,
I got wind that a lady who ran an antique shop
had some Hank Snow stuff.
And I said, well, do you have anything else Hank Snow?
She looked at me really weird and said, I got a toupee.
And I went, now you're talking.
And so the toupee came in the original shipping box
and it came with a box of the little stick on things,
the little double sided things
you stick 'em to your head with.
But also in the box was this unsigned check
and these keys and bullets.
And there's a couple of famous stories
about Hank Snow using his gun.
You have to look those up yourself,
well he tried to shoot his son one time too.
But anyway, and so I got all that
and since then, a good friend of mine, Doug Hudson,
who ended up with all the paperwork from Hank's office,
asked me, he said, you know what year he bought the toupee?
And I said, yeah, it's got the mailing thing on it.
And I gave, so he found me the return, you know, the check.
And so I have it, it's downstairs,
I have the check where he bought the toupee.
- Yeah, and even a little bit, kind of the odd part of
history and leaning into that kinda stuff,
stuff people don't really necessarily think about
the whole case that he had made for the toupee lights up.
And we played a show.
I think the first time I saw that
was when we played a show over
at the American Legion here.
And he brought it out and had it sitting on stage.
- But he does, he collects all these real cool
weird memorabilia pieces
and I could absolutely see him having
a little traveling freak show.
(upbeat music)
♪ Got the hillbilly blues ♪
♪ No cure can be found ♪
- A great, he makes these big wooden Indians and bears
and stuff, carves them, magnificent work.
♪ Hillbillies hanging around ♪
(bright music)
♪ Gonna pick my guitar ♪
♪ 'Til I break the strings ♪
♪ Gonna pick my guitar ♪
- [Host] Introduce one of your own, Rob McNurlin.
- And I don't remember when I first met Rob,
it's been that long.
I do know that when I started Wood Songs,
Rob was the very first artist I brought on the show
because, you know, we only had one station
airing it at the time.
And Rob was a friend.
We were already friends at the time,
and I was like, I want to try this, what do you think?
And so he came on the very first broadcast of Wood Songs.
Rob's music is sort of a tapestry of many things,
all threaded through Appalachia in many ways.
You know, he grew up in the Appalachian Mountains,
but he was heavily influenced by the imagery
of early Bob Dylan
and the music of Johnny Cash, Woody Guthrie especially.
And all of this, I think as many artists do,
they allow that to gestate inside their musical heart
until they come out with something original.
And Rob was able to turn all that into something original.
- Couldn't forget the first time I met Rob McNurlin.
So we had Rambling Jack Elliot was playing,
and Rob drove Rambling Jack up.
Now, you know, Jack had a horrible, horrible cold.
Rob, of course being Rob,
let me help out.
And so he did the show.
I'm not sure how Rob would characterize himself,
but to me he represents a certain, you know,
without putting a label on it,
he certainly represents a certain tradition.
And I think that as an artist, you know, he's a pure soul.
There's never, just a pure soul.
I mean, everything he does, you know it's real.
And I think that honesty, I think honesty is an artist,
is what I would describe him as.
In a just world,
Rob McNurlin would be a household name.
I think, you know, in show business
and probably I'd say in any business, you know,
there's moments where, you know,
it comes at you in waves.
And maybe better put with music
because of the the cultural connection
that music has for our lives.
It comes at us in eras, you know, Rob's career
and who he plays for
and then how he presents his music to an audience
sort of evolve over time.
You know, there was that moment
when he was talking about retiring
and then sort of almost denied making the claim, saying,
well, what I meant was I was gonna scale back
and reorganize.
But sometimes you gotta do that to not be afraid
to reinvent themselves.
And sometimes you have to burn it all down to the ground
and rise from the ashes like a phoenix.
- Well, you know, Rob has always, like I said,
he's been one of my heroes.
He was one of the first heroes
that I had in the music business.
Like I said, I remember watching him on TV
from a really young age and thinking, man,
that's gotta be the coolest job in the world.
He's left a big influence on my life
and my music in more ways
than one could probably realize.
Even outside of the music though, Rob McNurlin as a man,
is a top shelf.
You're not gonna find a better human being
anywhere you look.
And that spoke volumes to me even more than the music.
Rob's legacy is gonna be huge.
I mean, throughout this region of Appalachia,
Eastern Kentucky, West Virginia, Southern Ohio,
of course it's gonna be huge,
but he's also been so much more in so many other places,
you know, all across the United States,
Rob McNurlin has toured, traveled and performed,
bummed a meal here and there and kept going.
You know?
I remember calling Rob a cowboy poet,
he just blew me away.
There was something about his authenticity,
the sound of his voice, the way that he played,
the way that he told the stories that he played.
It reminded me just like, you know, Jack Kerouac
in a cowboy hat, and it was deep.
It was just deep just like reading Kerouac.
But there is something, yeah,
when you're around him, pay attention.
Like, I feel like when you're around him,
you're chosen,
hear whatever he has to say.
That's just what I believe.
Retirement's a big word.
I don't believe it.
He'll be back.
Well, you know, you know, I've got
to know him fairly well over the years
and you know, he always took care of his mom and his dad
and, you know, still taking care of his dad's mules
and he's the father figure for his nephew
and he takes care of him.
And he's a good influence on his nephew, I do believe.
And, you know, he's just a standup character.
He's kind of a spiritual advisor
to a lot of people, honestly.
I mean, he can, I wouldn't say he's a preacher,
but he can lead a service at church
and everybody gets something out of it.
And even I've seen him in honky tonks, dive places,
whatever, and he'll get up and sing gospel songs
and when he does, it gets quiet, they all stop dancing,
they stop and, you could hear a pin drop
and you know, he touches people with it.
- The thing I love about Rob, when I first came
to Nashville, if you sat down at the table
of the family of country music, it was important that you
at that time that you bring your culture with you,
wherever you come from, you had to bring who you were
to the table and add into the spice of country music.
It's pretty much a homogenized table these days.
The thing I love about Rob, he carries that square piece
of Kentucky with him everywhere he goes.
And you cannot go out
and become a folk hero for any amount of money.
You have to earn it, you have to live it.
And that's what you have to be every day
of your life to become that.
And when I think of Rob, I know
that in truth, he's a folk hero.
His music, his art, everything from his chainsaw art
to the songs he writes, to his performances,
to everything about the shows he stages
and the people he hangs out with,
you know, he's a folk hero.
He represents the best of Kentucky
and actually the best in all of us.
Rob was a big influence on all of us,
and me in particular in that it was,
he was influential as far as being a musician
and a songwriter and a performer.
But also he was influential for me as just being a man
and being a good person to, you know, you know,
call me for gigs when I didn't have a lot going on.
And he always has kept in touch with me
on playing and he'll still call me even though
he knows I can't play it.
He'll still call me on certain stuff.
And it's very sweet.
- And Rob's not trying to play popular music.
He's just playing music he believes in.
And you know, and you limit your crowd when you do that.
But I think the satisfaction is much greater.
And I think Rob has played the music he wants to play
and he doesn't care what the consequence was of that.
And he struck, stuck to what he thought was true.
And again, I've been in cover bands
where you play other people's songs for four hours a night
and you might make X amount of dollars,
but if you go play for 60 minutes
and play songs that you help create,
that means a whole lot more and it doesn't matter
what the money pays.
And Rob always gave me that opportunity.
And again, he never told me what guitar parts to play
and it's just been a thrill.
And I learned a whole lot from Rob McNurlin
about not only music,
but just how to be a good person and free people around him.
And Rob does that all the time.
I'll go back, I'm very blessed person.
I sure I wanted the tour bus and the big tours
and Rich and famous and all that.
I didn't get that.
And now I have to think to myself
either that's not the hand that God dealt me
or he dealt me that hand and I played it wrong.
Now I don't know which that is.
I was always blessed with all of these people
that were willing to help me
and most of the time I didn't have any money to pay 'em.
But it just, so, I mean, if you count success by friends,
I'm the wealthiest person in the world.
And so I'm proud of the records I've done.
I'm proud of the friends I've made,
the shows I've played
and I have, as far as a legacy,
I don't know that I have one.
It it still surprises me when somebody knows who I am.
♪ Come to mind in the misery ♪
- [Steven] It is said that a person's integrity is measured
when no one is watching.
This has been true for the career of Rob McNurlin.
As the world keeps on spinning, time seems
to move at an even faster pace,
yet a few things remain the same.
Rob McNurlin and his music is more than just carefully
crafted verses and melodies.
We are left with the endearing spirit of a man
who carries his home
and everything he touches from the Cowboy's Boot Heel
where the rugged hills of East Kentucky meet the open plains
of the American West, Rob has woven a tapestry of tradition,
storytelling and timeless sound.
Rob's journey reminds us
that music is more than entertainment, it is connection.
It connects us to our roots, to the struggles
and triumphs of those who came before us.
And to the unbroken spirit of those who choose
to carry the torch forward.
His music is a bridge between worlds
blending the soul of Appalachia with the dust
and grit of cowboy trails,
proving that authenticity transcends borders.
In the entertainment world where your success is measured
by album sales, streams and billboard fame,
Rob McNurlin did not make the so-called big time.
What Rob did achieve was something far larger
and greater as he blazed his own trail,
made lifelong friends and has left an impression
on everyone.
The road Rob travels on has not always been easy,
but it is honest.
His songs are a testament to the power of staying true
to oneself, to honoring where you come from
while carving your own path.
As Rob has shown us,
the Cowboy's Boot Heel is not just a place, it is an idea,
a rhythm, a heartbeat that echoes in the hearts
of all who love and live by the music.
A career that has touched many lives continues
to form a new story.
And so as the sun dips below the Kentucky Hills,
we leave this story as we began, with a man,
a guitar and a song.
A song that reminds us of who we are, where we have been,
and the endless journey ahead.
Thank you Rob McNurlin for sharing your honesty, your music
and your journey.
May the music play on
and be tapped out by the rhythm of our souls.
♪ Just what I find there ♪
♪ I don't know ♪
♪ Is my cowboy' boot heel taps the rhythm of my soul ♪
♪ May find danger ♪
♪ I may find strangers ♪
♪ Dressed as angels aware ♪
♪ I may find grief ♪
♪ I may find peace ♪
(phone ringing)
Hello?
Yeah, this is Rob.
Yeah, I'd love to play the show if I got the date open.
Let me look here.
(bright music)
♪ God will protect me as I sleep ♪
♪ My Indian blankets will keep me from the cold ♪
♪ As my cowboy boot heel ♪
♪ Taps out the rhythm of my soul. ♪
♪ Has it been a week or a day ♪
♪ Is this the trailer ♪
♪ Have I lost my way ♪
♪ Up ahead I see your ghost ♪
♪ As my cowboy boot heel ♪
♪ Taps out the rhythm of my soul ♪