Journal 1.

The Storytellers Club

I walked on stage for VIP, an hour earlier than normal, 5pm on a cold night in Des Monies, Iowa. Most nights all goes the same, I walk on stage say hello and try to make a couple jokes as I play some songs with my guitar that people request from the crowd. After, I take pictures with everyone and sign my wildly inconsistent autograph, before I head back to my bus resuming my position in the front lounge watching college football. All was the same in that aspect this night, however something struck me this Saturday in Iowa that I can’t seem to get out of my head.

As I appeared from behind the curtain to walk on stage, looking out into the small crowd of people standing there, at every turn of my head I was surprised as it felt like I recognized every face standing there. All the way in Des Moine, Iowa, in a crowd of 35 people it seemed as I looked out that I knew every single person there.

In the front stood Adison, having flown in from Minnesota that morning to see our show for his 7th time. To my left Cole and Breydan, two guys who had become best friends after meeting at a bar because Breydan was wearing a t-shirt with my face on it. Back in the back was Vinny and her two parents. It was their 9th show of mine just this year, and they were coming again the next weekend to celebrate Vinny’s 10th birthday at my show in Michigan.

With each person, as I took pictures with them, we talked as old friends catching up. They told me stories of how my music has impacted them. They asked how Leah was doing, or wondered if my brother Cooper there. They all knew Cranman, Jake, and Ashton (my buddies on the road with me), and later during the show, they all yelled the score to the Tennessee game out to me from the crowd as the game went along.

There was something in this that gave me such a contentment leaving Iowa. A beautiful reminder that in all the ups and downs, the long drives, and tireless days away from home, there was something special that was happening. Something so much bigger than just how many tickets we sold, or how many streams my new album got. What I saw happening on this night in Iowa was a community forming. A community of people who felt like they were along side of me and my band, chasing this dream together.

I have often wondered over the last few years, what it looks like to truly build a community inside of this dream with the people who have allowed me to chase it in the first place. It seems that so quickly, being an artist has turned in a lot of ways from focusing on fans and building connection, to worrying more about social media algorithms and statistics on a computer. And while I am grateful for social media and the way it allows music to carry so much wider then ever before, I fear that in the constant pursuit to grow bigger it fails in the pursuit that I think matter the most, growing deeper.

Growing deeper with the fans who have cared about this story from the start. Growing deeper with the people who spend their hard earned money to come out to a show on a Friday. Growing deeper with the people I have met in hundreds of venues who light up when we play their favorite song. Growing deeper with the fans who celebrate alongside me when I get to see another dream of mine come true along the journey.

I have had this idea for a long time. An idea to have a place I could connect on a personal level, a place that I could write to the fans who feel like they are on this journey with me. A place that I could tell stories from the road, share new songs I have been writing, and let people in on my heart and what it is truly like to chase after this dream. After Saturday night, I knew it was time for me to finally put that idea into action.

I am calling this the Storytellers Club.

My hope with this page is that it becomes a place that builds community. I hope that as I write more in here, you will feel like you know me as you know friend, and I can say the same for y’all. I hope that through this page y’all can help me pick which songs I should put out next and which songs I should play live at the shows. I hope that this helps me hear your stories, and that it makes you feel more apart of mine. Because you truly are.

Thank y’all for reading this first one. I hope you can hear the gratitude in my words.

Cheers to finally writing my first entry.

- Conner