Artist Spotlight
In this month’s artist spotlight we bring to you Walter Merrill...
A Little Bit Country, a Little Bit Rock & Roll, and a Whole Lotta Pizzazz
A Quick Conversation with Walter Merrill
Whether he's sharing a stage with his band mates in the wildly popular Hillbilly Parade or performing his heart out at a solo gig, Hudson Valley personality Walter Merrill knows how to captivate an audience. Combining toe-tapping country hits with a touch of rock and alternative, Walter Merrill is one of the best, most consummate professional musicians to come out of Poughkeepsie since that old heart-throb, Charles Gilbert Spross. Having such a prestigious member of the upstate scene as my good friend and neighbor made it relatively easy for him to pencil me in for a quick sit down to discuss his most favorite topics: his music, his band, and his family.
Eddie Crossman: Okay, all right. So yeah, I'm sitting here with Walter Merrill, singer, guitarist, and a musician best known for being a core member of Hillbilly Parade. And, yeah, let's just jump right into it. How you doing today?.
Walter Merrill: All right. Not too bad. Could be worse.
Eddie Crossman: That's good to hear. So, how long have you been playing guitar and performing, in general?
Walter Merrill: Playing guitar, I think I've been playing for around 20 years. Not, like, intermittently playing guitar. I did not learn as much as I wanted to learn growing up, but I know enough to hold a rhythm and play. If somebody's out for the band, I can cover for them, if necessary. And performing, probably 10 years plus, I would say,
Eddie Crossman: You're most well known for being in Hillbilly Parade. What exactly is Hillbilly Parade, and how did you get involved?
Walter Merrill: Hillbilly Parade is a band that my uncle started years ago to cater to the country community. There's a lot of members that have been in and out. I believe they had a lead singer, a female singer, before Cheyenne was in it. She's the other lead singer, as well as my uncle, Jason. They've been doing this for over a decade, and I followed them when they played out. I would go see them when I had time. And I guess my uncle got into a little bit of a, like, a surgery thing to happen with his voice, and he needed some help covering some of the vocals for Hillbilly. And I'm not huge on country, but it is a fun genre to play. Alternative is really my favorite, of course. But, even before that, they did bring me in for another band called Kinfolk, which was like a sister band to Hillbilly. And they basically made it so that we could cover some of the shows that they couldn't attend because they had already booked other shows. They didn't want to say no to these venues, but they wanted something that was basically Hillbilly adjacent. They're not Hillbilly, though. Hillbilly Parade is a performance. It's a show. It's a whole experience. When you go see us, we have like fake grass out and coolers. The light shows. We drink our drinks out of solo cups. It's like you're at a backyard party, which is exactly what we want you to experience when you go see Hillbilly.
Eddie Crossman: Hillbilly Parade isn't an original band, though. It's, as described on your website, it's a "Top 40 Country Cover."
Walter Merrill: Absolutely, we are working on some originals. Jason's got originals that he's done with his with his original band. It was the Jason Casterlin Band, and every so often we pull those out of the back pocket. But we're trying to write some Hillbilly, serious songs. Essentially, you know, something that is strictly written for Hillbilly Parade, that explains and expresses who we are as a band. I myself am working on a couple. I know Cheyenne is working on some. She's got a few originals. She just sang at Bethel, by the way, and opened up for... well, not opened up, but she was on a stage that was by the Jonas Brothers, I believe, in Bethel Woods, which was really cool. And she got to sing one of her originals there. I think if we pooled all our resources together, we could put ourselves together an album and have something really worth listening to.
Eddie Crossman: So Hillbilly is starting to do originals. One of my questions was going to be: Being in a top 40 country cover band, do you feel limited or creatively stifled playing just covers?
Walter Merrill: Not entirely. I think playing a lot of the covers we play gives us inspiration for some of the music that we're starting to write. I did express a couple of the licks on the guitar that I was writing and some of the lyrics for the songs that I was coming up with, and everybody seemed to be really on board with it, like, we really need to do this. I think the one thing that's holding us back is not having original songs for the band. Outside of that, the talent is unmatched. Our guitarist, drummers. We have, essentially, two of each for our guitarist, for our drummer, for our bassist, and then we have three lead singers to back each other up when one's not doing good or we just need a little bit of help on stuff. We have plenty of talent to make this happen. So hopefully in the next couple months, we put together something that we can present to the crowds and show them that we're more than just a top 40 country cover band.
Eddie Crossman: I know you personally. Like, we're neighbors, we're friends. I know you're a pretty liberal guy performing in a notoriously conservative genre. Have you had to deal with any kind of push back or anything like that?
Walter Merrill: Like, politically wise?
Eddie Crossman: Sure, yeah.
Walter Merrill: See, we had some controversy actually, with another member, I believe, that got into politics a little too heavily online, and it caused a lot of stir up. And I don't think we're with that artist anymore. So we try to keep politics out of it. You know, you can like who you like. You can follow who you follow. I don't even know what's going on with the government. I have no clue. I wish it did, but it's hard to pay attention to stuff like that. I didn't pay attention. The last thing I remember learning about politics was 'Schoolhouse Rock'. So I'm kind of under a rock when it comes to stuff like that. We try to keep it out of the band, though, if you have your opinions, you keep them to yourself, unless you're, you know, within good company that understands your opinions and respects them.
Eddie Crossman: How about the audience?
Walter Merrill: The audience is very opinionated about their politics, and we all say the same thing: If you like Trump, if you like Biden, if you like whoever you like, if you liked Obama, that's great. George Bush. It doesn't matter. You're allowed to like who you like, but we're not really going to put our two cents into anything that has to do with politics, because it just creates a frenzy in the community. And you know, I don't mind you having your own opinions, and that's fine. You can talk about them all you want. I'm not even going to stop you. But having our opinions on stage will definitely... it would steer crowds in one direction or the other, because it means so much to people. If you're against Trump or if you're for Trump, is one of the big arguments nowadays. If we decided to say we're one side or the other, that really turns the crowd against or towards us in one direction or the other. And I'm not for it. We're here for the music, not everything else.
Eddie Crossman: Fair enough. You do play out solo a lot. What are the pros and cons playing solo vs. playing with the band?
Walter Merrill: I guess with the band, it's a lot more energetic. It's more fun. Playing with the whole band, we get to riff off of each other and just energy wise, it's so much more involved. Playing solo is really fun, because I kind of get to do whatever the hell I want. Song wise, I mean. I get to play the songs that I enjoy. I can kind of mix in with the country, the alternative that I like to do, the coffee house rock. I can do some Matchbox 20 and some 3 Doors Down, which is really fun for me, and that's what I grew up learning. So the solo gigs are more for that. The main full band gigs are really where we get to shine, though, as performers. But talent wise, I get to show off, just me, when it comes to solo gigs, too. So that's another thing I enjoy.
Eddie Crossman: You've mentioned that with Hillbilly Parade, you guys are starting to write originals. Are you going to be doing originals for your solo act?
Walter Merrill: I think, currently, no. I think really, where we need to start shining is full band originals. I really want to collab with Jason and Cheyenne and pick their their creative minds when it comes to writing lyrics, because my lyrics sound like a four year old wrote them. I could write a song about a rusted truck and a beer and it's not going to sound anything as good as something that really comes from the heart, from two people who have been doing this for 10 years plus. As you well know, I'm not a drummer. I'm not a bass guitarist. I'm not a lead guitarist. All of those aspects are going to come and they're going to give it their own personal spin and really make an original song sound like it should. Like it came from Hillbilly Parade. So, as far as me working on songs, not yet. If we get a little bit further down the line, and we've done a good bit of originals, maybe we get an album out. Maybe, I might touch something for myself that's not quite country. But, absolutely Hillbilly first and foremost,
Eddie Crossman: You've also mentioned that you're not much of a country guy but you do enjoy playing it. You also play alternative. What other genres do play or are just into?
Walter Merrill: Just about everything. I mean, it's not that I'm not that into country. Most of us from the band weren't into country when we started this whole thing. All of us are more on the alternative or metal side, starting out. But country... country is a big hit, and it is fun and it is catchy, and it's all still music that I listen to on my Spotify every day. And I go out of my way to listen to it because I really like that song. Maybe the band could do that song. As far as genres that I like myself, it ranges all the way around the spectrum. I can listen to metal. We just did, my wife and I, just did Elements Festival where we had seen, I don't know, 20 plus dubstep artists out there. We camped out there and watched them. That's all EDM. Of course, the alternative, the soft rock, the indie music, all the way down to like pop and hip hop, classic R&B. I mean, shit. We listen to Lo-Fi beats when we're bored and it calls for it. Just, all of it. The whole spectrum. Music is music to me.
Eddie Crossman: Cool. Hillbilly Parade is one of the most popular bands in the Hudson Valley with over 250 plus shows a year, how do you handle not burning out?
Walter Merrill: That's a really good question that I don't know I can answer properly. There is a lot of burnout when it comes to doing these shows. You know, when we do four shows in a weekend, by the last show, all of our voices are shot. We're exhausted, and we're really just trying to get through, you know, and we're still giving it our all, but we're running on empty. Preventing burnout is difficult when it comes to doing this many shows, but this many people want to see us play, so we're always going to try to push it. It's like being on tour, and hopefully one day we get to experience what being on tour feels like in that sense, too. But yeah, the burnout does happen, and we try to take breaks and rest as much as possible on our off days. Because, you know, everybody says, you know, you got to take a break, or your body's going to take that break for you, and then that puts us out when we really need each other. So try to take breaks as much as possible, get eight hours of sleep, take a vacation once in a while.
Eddie Crossman: Hearing you talk, and knowing you personally, I know family is huge to you. It's very, very important to you. How do you balance both the family and the playing?
Walter Merrill: That also is very difficult. A lot of the shows we do are pretty family oriented. We do a lot of concert series right now for the summer. A lot of these breweries and wineries are kid friendly. So, if I can convince them to put their phones down, you know, we bring the kids out. They get to set up. We do a picnic, we order food, and they get to see the show, and they get to see what I do every day. And they, I think, have come to terms and understand that it's not just showing up for three hours to play a show. It's showing up, driving for an hour to the venue, setting up for an hour, sound checking, making sure everything's good, dealing with the, you know, with singing and then being exhausted at the end of the show and still having to clean up and drive the hour home. It's a full time job after the full time job, after the full time job of being a parent. So it's difficult, but we try to make it work, because it also makes a really good, you know, penny at the end of the day, too.
Eddie Crossman: Fair enough. You've been pretty vocal about your struggles with alcohol. I don't really have a straight question, just more of a: how's that been going?
Walter Merrill: That's a good question, too. These are all really good questions. I forgot about that one. My struggles with alcohol were pretty rough for a while. It was... you know, everybody goes through a pretty rough time after bad breakups. It was a bad one. It was a long relationship, and it kind of went downhill before it ended, and then after it ended, after all of the alcohol and stuff, I met Serena and her already having kids, and me getting involved really meant that I needed to cut things back and, you know, fix myself. I believe I did about a year hiatus from drinking to absolutely reset my brain. Because drinking always put me into this emotional mindset that everything was going to go wrong, or everything was bad, or everybody was out to get me. And taking that break really gave me a chance to look at myself and see that. Drinking is supposed to be a social environment type thing. You have a drink, you hang out with friends. You don't have to black out drinking just to say that you had a good time. And you know, it's more fun not to blow your paycheck on and forget that the world exists. That's not a good way to medicate. And, I believe, Jason is also working on that streak as well, because he was also working against himself when it came to drinking. And, we all want to have a drink and have a good time at our shows. It helps us loosen up, helps us have a good time. But there's always a line, and resetting yourself to know where that line is, is a good way to to handle drinking issues. And, taking that first step is putting the bottle down and starting over. So I'm doing great with it.
Eddie Crossman: That's awesome to hear. I really appreciate that. I didn't ask this earlier, because I already know. But what do you do in Hillbilly Parade, and who else is in the band with you, and what do they do as well?
Walter Merrill: Ooh, that is a very wide question. I would say, we have a lot of members of the band.
Eddie Crossman: Let's start with you. What do you do in the band?
Walter Merrill: I myself am a singer in Hillbilly Parade. I do a lot of the, like. Jason Aldean... (long pause) Shit. I couldn't name another artist for you if I wanted to. Right now, drawing blanks. We do all sing together. We all harmonize with each other. The only thing I do right now is sing, but if somebody's out, I do cover for them, or I do sound check, and I grab Jason's guitar and I do a song with everybody. I can play. Jason, my uncle is the rhythm guitar player and some lead and he also sings as well. Cheyenne, his girlfriend, is the front runner of the band. I don't care what anybody says, she is the front of the band. If it weren't for her, I don't think we'd be as far as we are. And of course, Jason, starting the band himself means everything to what the whole band is. It is a collection of people that made this what it is. So we have our three lead singers, our rhythm guitarists. We have our main lead guitarist, Rob, who's been with the band for quite a few years. The bass guitarist, Craig. We have our drummer, Christian, and then we have... I wouldn't say backups. I would say... I don't even know what to call them. Now at this point, they're not even fill ins. They kind of trade off, you know, alternating shows, so that it helps with the burnout, now that I'm thinking about it. We have a backup bass guitarist whose name is Chuck. The drummer that I was in Kinfolk with, his name is Cody, who's been committed to Hillbilly since he learned who they were. And our other guitarist, Alex, who was also in Kinfolk. So we have, like a collective of the band I did a year ago, for a year, who is now like stand ins, or... I don't even know the words I want to say, you know, also members of the band. So we have tons of people that run this band, that make this happen every day. If one person can't make it, somebody else stands in and makes it, makes it all, you know, click
Eddie Crossman: You've talked about Kinfolk, and Hillbilly Parade. They are kind of underneath an umbrella entertainment business. Do you want to talk about that real quick?
Walter Merrill: It is 'Parade Entertainment', actually. And Cheyenne manages quite a bit of this herself. Again, you know, she handles a lot of this. She handles the social medias. She does a lot of that stuff that really makes everything flow. The TikTok, the Facebook, the funny videos that we all do, that we all hate to do because we're exhausted, but she catches us for 10 minutes before we leave, and it's hilarious, and it gets us views, and it gets people laughing, and it gets people to know who we are. So they manage, not only do they manage Hillbilly Parade, themselves, as well as Kinfolk, they also have other bands that they do that are not quite country. SoulSense, with Samantha. She is in a band that does a lot of soulful R&B stuff. They're absolutely fantastic. And she's a phenomenal singer. We have Downstate Duo with Erica and TJ, I believe his name is. Really great band. They're really fun. He plays a keytar as well as guitar, and, I believe, some other instruments, and they have a really nice vibe going with the two of them. We have, I believe the other band is, let me think... we have SoulSense, Downstate Duo, The Hey Nows, I believe is the other band with Kaya. And I believe Chuck plays in that band as well, who's also filling in with Hillbilly when he has time. So they manage quite a few bands, and we all go do our own shows, sometimes, that we'll have each other play. We'll play the same venue together, back to back, as a double feature, and it works out really well. There's so much that goes into what 'Parade Entertainment' is, what Hillbilly Parade is. It's just a phenomenal experience.
Eddie Crossman: And where could anybody who's interested in hearing or seeing or booking you guys, where can they find you?
Walter Merrill: Oh, that's easy peasy if you're looking for us on social medias. I think everything on social media, like Facebook and Instagram and TikTok is Hillbilly Parade Band, and their website is www.paradeentertainment.com and that'll take you to everything. They've got some of Jason's original songs up on there from a band that I saw when I was a kid called Maria's Basement. He did alternative as well. And I grew up listening to his stuff, which led me to follow him in doing what he does, and that led me into the country as well. They have that. They have their booking. That's a good place to email them if you have questions. So, yeah, I mean, they have their own website. It's pretty well done too. It's fluent. It works.
Eddie Crossman: Fantastic to know. Before we wrap this up, is there anything else that you want to say that I missed?
Walter Merrill: I would say, come out and see us so you can really get the full experience and learn what we're about and what we do.
Eddie Crossman: This will be the feature spotlight on our website in September. You got any shows in September, October that you want to plug real quick?
Walter Merrill: September and October? I'm sure we have plenty. (Checks schedule) In September and October. We've got the fifth and sixth. We're playing a couple concert series... Back Road Brewing in Pennsylvania. It looks like we've got one at Angry Orchard on the 19th from four to seven. That one, I've actually got times for. They're not all quite put in. And on my birthday, we're playing at Locust Grove Brewing, which is September 27. So any of those.
Eddie Crossman: I really appreciate you taking the time to chat with me, Walt, thank you so much.
Walter Merrill: Absolutely. Yeah. Thanks, man.
You can find more Walter Merrill here!