Scotty Temple and South Bound Train

The band, now officially Scotty Temple and South Bound Train, is currently
made up of Eric Little on lead guitar, drummer Josh Dupree, bass guitarist Brad Wiggers, and Mason Howard on steel guitar and saxophone. The result: energetic covers and hard-hitting originals. South Bound Train is specifically southern rock country, though his bassist came up with a portmanteau that more adequately justifies the band’s sound. “It’s called gruntry,” says Temple, referring to the fusion of country and grunge music.

article by VANELIS RIVERA
photography by ANDREW BAILEY

“I’M WORKING ON MY TRACTOR,” matter-of-facts Scotty Temple from his hometown in Liddieville, Louisiana. It’s noon on a Friday, and the Louisiana sun is far from shying away its torturous rays. “I’ve been secluded in a dirt-living world and tractors,” he laughs, referring to life since the quarantine. As roaring tractors pass by and, at times, a low flying airplane, Temple digs into his musical upbringing, becoming lead singer of South Bound Train, and why his music is for small-town America.

Temple began playing music around the age of fourteen, starting like most of the greats: at his local church. “I’d always been curious about wanting to play music and learn how to play the guitar. That has always been something that had been on my mind as a child,” he says. His grandmother bought him his first guitar in 2006. From there, he began playing in the worship band around 2008, as well as sitting on any given tailgate, playing for his buddies. “We were playing a lot of country, a lot of Merle Haggard, David Allan Coe, stuff like that.” His association with South Bound Train was “kind of a drawn out process,” he says. He “fell in” with a lot of local musicians, particularly a local group of guys out of Mississippi he began to open for until around 2000. Then close to 2014 he got in contact with the former manager and member of South Bound Train, Justin Richardson, for the sake of networking with more local acts. At first, it slowly developed, but when Richardson’s lead singer quit, he turned to Temple, asking, “You want to start singing?” Temple didn’t miss a beat, responding with, “Well, shoot yeah!” So they started as a cover band, and grew from there. The band, now officially Scotty Temple and South Bound Train, is currently made up of Eric Little on lead guitar, drummer Josh Dupree, bass guitarist Brad Wiggers, and Mason Howard on steel guitar and saxophone. The result: energetic covers and hard-hitting originals. When considering the music that has inspired him over the years, Temple instantly refers to Coe’s “The Ride,” an older song, but it’s about Hank Williams Sr., another of his favorites. Up to this point, he gives the air of being the quintessential southern boy, but in spite of his unmistakable country slant, Temple can’t quite be put into a box. “I listened to a lot of metal,” he says, mentioning bands like Five Finger Death Punch and Slipknot. “I’m a metalhead, I’m weird,” he laughs. Really, he’s just finding the middle ground.

South Bound Train is specifically southern rock country, though his bassist came up with a portmanteau that more adequately justifies the band’s sound. “It’s called gruntry,” says Temple, referring to the fusion of country and grunge music. “I’ve got the rasp, but I’ve got the twang,” he continues, touching on his gravelly timbre, a suitable fit for a genre somewhere between rock and roll and country. Temple considers storytelling the groundwork of country music. His approach is just as particular. “You know, tell the story,” he says. One of his most recent originals, a song called “Holding On,” was written for a family friend he lost, Miss Velvet Roberts who passed away from cancer October 30, 2018. Roberts had battled with cancer for years, but it had gone in remission. It suddenly came back without her knowing, and around that time she sent Temple a direct message on Instagram. “She told me to never give up on my dreams and that she loved me,” recalls Temple. Two weeks later, she passed on. “And even in her darkest hour, she was cheering me on. That’s just the type of person Miss Velvet was and I felt in my heart–I didn’t know how to get it out, how to put it out, but I know that Miss Velvet deserved some kind of recognition of what genuine person she truly was because they don’t make them like her anymore.” Temple attended her service, but couldn’t bring himself to go to her grave. “I probably shouldn’t say this, but I went out there and I just sat in my truck and just cried like a baby.” The song honors her memory as much as it helped him release what he couldn’t speak out loud. “You know, Miss Velvet, she would always hold onto things; she never gave up,” he says, and that’s the direction his lyrics went: “I’ll hold on like a sail against the storm / I’ll hold on like a soldier in wait to come home / And I’ll hold on like a mother who clings to her child.” He reaches for his southern country roots in this song, taking inspiration from “the good Lord” telling Peter to reach out and have faith in him.

On his list of important stories to tell are those that connect with small town living, which for him consist of the “personable things,” sitting down across from somebody without a phone to distract, simply to “be there” and find human connection. He feels a lot of places have been getting away from the simplicity that country living tends to offer. His music is a way to release his frustrations, but also to elevate what is important to him. “Country is something that’s real and tangible, things that you can relate to,” asserts Temple. Always wanting to put his own flair to that country sound, Temple tries to think “outside of the box” with most of his lyrics. “They’re not one hundred percent country lyrics, but they work. They got the country attitude and mindset behind, but they straddle the fence of, again, the Southern rock style.” Southern attitude, how would you describe that? “Oh, I don’t know if they want to hear it in the paper,” he laughs, but really his description is one indicative of southern culture. It’s about being patriotic, being what his great grandpa–who volunteered in the military at 42–fought for at the time. For him, it’s also what’s a part of his day-to-day life, like drinking from mason jars, pulling plows, and having good, clean fun. Though, he admits that on occasion they may take it “too far,” as a “third generation that’s too wild to tame,” but ultimately he and his crew are still “good ol’ boys.”

That fighting spirit is what the band delivered at the Beacon of Hope 9/11 Memorial Art Show hosted at The Hub Music Hall. There, on an outdoor stage, he honored the memory of those that lost their lives during and after the harrowing attack on the country with another original song titled “Soldier.” Originally, the song was written for a Fourth of July show. The band was considering a cover for that show, but none of the songs under consideration were hitting the points Temple found of major importance to the great American holiday. “I was kind of iffy about even performing it because when I really started out, it was some of the things that nobody was saying,” Temple recalls, trying to be mindful about writing on the military experience though he has never served. He sent the song to a military friend who not only served in the military but also began a nonprofit for veterans called Our HOME. He put Temple’s doubts at ease saying, “Son, that song is your voice. That’s something that we can’t just reach out and say, but we can say it through you.” It was a humbling experience to hear that from his friend, and it was just the “swift kick in the butt” that Temple needed to complete the song. Unless you have family in the military, it’s easy to forget the complexity and hardships of waiting for the return of an active duty soldier, potentially in harm’s way. “We never think of that, and that’s the kind of depth of what I was feeling when I wrote those lyrics,” says Temple, referring to lines like, “Ain’t a jar of mountain whiskey that can ease the pain / Because the price of freedom, it sure ain’t free.”

Considering that the “man upstairs” gave him a gift for a short time to write that song, he describes the process as one that pretty much revealed itself to him. “It’s weird. If I sit down and say I’m gonna write a song, it never happens,” he says. Songs usually come to him while he’s sitting on the tractor or hanging around the shop with his buddies, getting ready for a mud ride. Inspiration will hit, and he knows he needs to grab his guitar and start noodling around until things start “falling out.” The result doesn’t always make sense, but he always goes back to assemble it and flesh it out.

Temple is keeping his upcoming album hush-hush at the moment, but he promises that it’s a lot more personal than his past work and heavily reflective. “Life is short and precious and you don’t never waste it. You never miss a moment,” he says, adding, “Go the extra mile for somebody, not with anything in return, just go the extra mile.” Temple admits that time-to-time, he often finds himself reflecting on who he is as a person to make sure he “stays in check.” Good ol’ country boy may be a phrase overused, eliciting images of truck-driving, camouflage-wearing, country-road racing guys who just want to find a girl they can take hunting, and while that’s not everybody’s glass of sweet tea, there’s something to be said about wanting to keep your boots on the ground, work hard, and appreciate the simple things. When it comes to Scotty Temple’s music, that’s as homegrown as it gets!