The Cadillac Three

Drummer Neil Mason sets the scene for the biggest tour so far from the Nashville-based trio.

For an American band, what sort of hoops must you jump through for these UK shows happen? That’s still to be determined; the rules seem to be ever-changing. Right now I believe we take a day-two test upon arrival, but some of the individual venue protocols are still up in the air. I wish I had a better answer to your question, but who knows for sure?

What were the good and bad points of your lockdown experience?

The biggest challenge for me was there was no end date, and that was by far the worst part of it all. But personally I got married and had a baby, so being at home for the first time in ten years was a blessing. Lockdown allowed us time to slow down. We began a live stream, we started a fan club, we had a radio show [Garage Radio, on Planet Rock], and we learned how to be a band in different ways, that were not reliant upon touring.

How important did it feel to help support local Nashville venues with your livestream, called Country Fuzz?

Some of the smaller clubs just won’t reopen, right across the world, and I worry about that. The Barfly in London was the first place we played in London [in December 2013], and that’s gone. It’s absolutely vital that those halls survive.

Does it seem possible The Cadillac Three have been a band for a whole decade now?

[Laughs] Some days it feels like much longer. I’ve known Jaren [Johnson, frontman/guitarist] and Kelby [Ray, lap-steel guitarist and bassist] since high school. We’ve done a lot in ten years. Together we’ve released five albums and toured the world, and there’s nobody else I’d want to be doing it with except those two dudes.

What would be the absolute high point?

We just did two nights here in Nashville at the Ryman Centre [a 2,362-capacity venue], which would be one. Another watershed moment was that Barfly show I just mentioned. We couldn’t believe that halfway around the world a hundred and fifty people would have any interest in seeing us play our songs.

Will the new album, Tabasco And Sweet Tea, feature heavily in these shows’ set-lists?

Yeah. That and [previous album] Country Fuzz, though the set-list varies from night to night. We probably play a similar amount of songs from all of our records over the two hours on stage.

For those unfamiliar with Brent Cobb, can you tell us something about the tour’s special guest. Brent is one of my favourite songwriters. I’ve known him for many, many years. He’s like the Neil Young of our generation, just a fantastic storyteller. I’m hoping that he will sing a song with us each night on the tour, but please get there early to check him out.

The world is so full of civil discourse. What do you think the next year will hold?

I can’t predict the future, only tell you what I hope will happen. Some amazing work was done during the pandemic, including the speed at which the vaccine was invented and rolled out. That was monumental. People are waiting for life to get back to normal, and I hope it does, but going forward what would be cool is that people might high-five each other [chuckles]. I hope that we will remain a little more supportive and understanding of each other.

TC3’s dates begin in Manchester on December 1.

‘Theset-list variesfrom nighttonight. Weprobably playasimilar amountof songsfrom allofour records.”