Garrett Hendricks – “Fry An Egg”
Americana Highways is hosting this premiere of Garrett Hendrick’s song “Fry An Egg,” from his forthcoming album Adrift in the American Dream was produced by Justin Glasco; engineered and mixed by Caleb Fisher; and mastered by Tone Def.
“Fry An Egg” is Garrett Hendricks on vocals; Jason Roller on acoustic guitar; James Mitchell on electric guitar; Kevin Lee MacIntire on bass; Matt King on drums; David Dorn on B3; and Bristol Coon, Rosemary Hanna, Jordan Day, Morgan Bielawski, and Emily Satterlee on backing vocals.
We sat down with Garrett to ask a few questions about his song. The premiere appears just beneath the interview.
Americana Highways: What is this song about? What’s its backstory?
Garrett Hendricks: It’s taken a few years to get to the release of “Fry an Egg,” but it’s a fun story. I had the chorus of “Fry an egg,” make some toast, grab some coffee, and hit the road” in early 2022. I knew I wanted to write a song that reflected what life being a working and traveling artist is like. But I couldn’t find the right verses. I’m a big proponent of not just forcing songs into existence, as they rarely yield any work that moves me. So, I sat on the chorus for a little while. Towards the end of April of 2022, me and my songwriter buddy, Bristol Coon, took a road trip from Nashville up to Kentucky to see Willie Nelson and Chris Stapleton – two big heroes of mine. Neither of us had work the following Monday, so we made a long weekend of it. We did a bit of the bourbon trail the following day and then headed back to our AirBnB. We meant to go back out on the town but instead pulled out the guitars and the bottle of Buffalo Trace we had picked up at the distillery that morning. We traded pours and songs we were working on, and I pulled out the chorus for “Fry an Egg.” I explained I was going for a cheeky half-celebration and half-road-weary blues take on chasing a dream. Serendipitously, Bristol had a verse that dealt very much with that topic, and that became the first verse. With that first verse, the second and third came without a hitch, and we had the song done in maybe ten minutes.
Fast forward to 2023, and I had been playing the song live for a while, and it was a crowd favorite. The band and I often teach the audience the chorus before we start the song and get them to yell “MAKE SOME TOAST” back to us. There were a ton of people asking me to cut that song, so I arranged for a session time at Nashville’s Farmland Studios. I picked Farmland Studios because some of my favorite records of the past few years have been recorded there. It’s this cool old house in southwest Nashville with all this vintage gear, and it just has this really warm, homey feel. You feel like you’re back in the 60s or 70s, recording music in this very organic, unorthodox environment. There’s no sterile business-like quality that you can sometimes feel at some modern studios. Between that and the ace musicians that played on the track, it was really easy to capture the magic and swagger of a loose honky-tonk band. I can honestly say I had a ton of fun in the vocal booth when I normally get a little stressed and want to capture the best take. There was none of that anxiety. Caleb Fisher, the house engineer there who I also picked to produce the track, is not only an absolute pro but, more than any other producer I’ve collaborated with, understood who I was and what I wanted my sound to be. All that combined led to Fry an Egg really having this great feel. We were able to get across that rowdy honky-tonk vibe but not at the expense of the message of the song: a rallying cry of solidarity for anyone who’s felt the psychological and financial strain of chasing their dreams against all odds.
AH: Who/what were some influences when it came to writing the song?
GH: The very first two influences for this song were John Prine and Johnny Cash (who I refer to as the two St. John’s of Nashville). They both have this witty way of fashioning lyrics that are humorous and catchy but, at the same time, cut right to the bone. I really wanted to emulate that with Fry an Egg. There are a lot of songs that deal with the hardscrabble life of coming up as a musician, so I took that sing-songy melodic sense of Prine with a sort of down-home lyric sense that both Cash and Prine shared to get the chorus and lyric style of “Fry an Egg.”
In terms of the actual recording, I wanted a vintage feel and a loose swagger. The note I gave to the band in the studio was, “Play it like you’re a honky-tonk band with a little of a rock edge, and you’re closing down the bar with the rowdiest song of the set.” Three artists really informed that feel. One was Jamestown Revival’s song “Head On,” which has this very rough-edged twang and swinging feel that informs a lot of the overall vibe of “Fry an Egg.” Second, there’s Sturgill Simpson, whose approach I greatly admire. Sturgill really hones in on a vintage sound. We tried to reflect his ethos of authenticity by not going for the cleanest, most precise take and doing as much of the recording as possible, all playing together live and not doing a lot of overdubbing. I really want my songs to feel like a band is playing them, much like Sturgill’s records. To me, that gives the song a lot more character, which I like as a listener. Finally, there’s Gabe Lee. Gabe was the main reason for picking Farmland Studios, and Caleb Fisher was there for the recording. I love the sound of Gabe’s records that he’s recorded at Farmland, and in particular, his song Honky-Tonk Hell has this fun bombast that is really punchy, which was something I wanted to make “Fry an Egg” a fun listening experience for the listener. It also has some very sardonic potshots at the music industry of Nashville in the lyrics by Gabe and Marcus King that, while not a direct influence on “Fry an Egg,” are very much in the same vein.
AH: Any funny stories from writing/recording this one?
GH: The song lyrics talk about fueling up with good cheap food while grinding it out show after show, and in my opinion, there is one Nashville grub spot that does that better than most, and that’s Shotgun Willie’s BBQ. It’s one of my favorite off-the-beaten-path spots and always lifts my spirits when it feels like the music business side of my career is weighing me down. So I felt I had to name-drop them in the final big chorus, and it was also a callback to having written the song after a Willie Nelson concert.
I work as a farmhand for a day job on a farm near Leiper’s Fork, Tennessee. My bosses’ young children, particularly their 5-year-old boy, love to run around the farm yelling, “FRY AN EGG, MAKE SOME TOAST.” When he and his sister had the entire chorus of the song memorized after hearing me play it only a couple of times, it made me think, “Hmmm, this song is catchy; maybe I should record it.” Kids have the most honest opinions, so they’ll let you know if something is good or not!
Thanks for chatting with us, Garrett!
This song is a Southern rock honky tonk shindig – about hitting the road, with some reflections about disparity in society wrapped with it, and it’s about having a few more miles left to go, chasing them songs down the road: “fry an egg, make some toast, hit the road.” Super catchy. There’s power fiddle and a driving rhythm section and some mighty, mighty electric guitar. Garrett Hendricks has the dynamism and the drive to light up the whole night sky with his songs.
Find more details and information on his website here: https://garretthendricksmusic.com/ and find the music here: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/garretthendricks/fry-an-egg