INTERNATIONAL RECORDING ARTIST

ELIZABETHTOWN – In the progressive little county of Bladen County, there is never a lull or a lack of activities that both make it attractive to both tourists and locals alike.

In addition to national cycle racing, an inaugural North Carolina/South Carolina BBQ contest, water festivals, various vineyards and distilleries; most recently Elizabethtown became a venue for Grammy Award winner Travis Tritt and Season 14 – “NBC’s The Voice” fourth place runner-up, Pryor Baird both appeared onstage at The Cape Fear Vineyard & Winery.

It was a good contrast with one performer toward the back end of his career at 61 years, a grammy under his belt and many hit songs and movie appearances to his credit. The other just skating into his 40s under the Black River Records label and multiple hit songs.

In a pre-show interview with Baird, we got a closer view of the “youngster” who explained candidly some of the passions and emotions of country music star and the how the price of fame is not always easy.

The music business, like Hollywood can be very fickle and to avoid the “one hit wonder” horror story, it is an industry that is constantly asking, “what have you done for me lately?”

Baird grew up about 60 miles north of Santa Barbera, California in a very rural area where the buildings were few and far between, but the aspirations seemed to grow on trees.

According to his professional bio, “Pryor released his most personal song to date, “Beauty In The Broken,” on June 7. More meaningful to the soulful artist now, since his father’s passing in December of last year, the heartbreaking ballad came out the day after he took the Hard Rock Cafe stage at the 2024 CMA Fest (6/6). Pryor has been on the road this summer with Charles Esten and Sister Hazel and is set to perform with Tritt, A Thousand Horses, and more through the end of this year!

“Pryor fronted his band Pryor Baird and the Deacons in high school, moved to Music City to start a solo career in country music, and evolved from a bluesy country solo contestant on NBC’s The Voice into a soulful country-rock duo, all the while perfecting his authority as a guitar-wielding country-rock artist. The “multitalented guitarist, songwriter and artist” (Country Now) decided he was leaving his hometown of Orcutt, CA to pursue his dreams, and two weeks later, Baird sold everything except 10 guitars, an amplifier, a suitcase and his bed, which he strapped on top of his Ford F-150 truck. He didn’t know anyone in Music City but made the cross-country drive to give it a shot. After a friend recommended him for The Voice, Baird found himself in Los Angeles to play a blind audition. He got a four-chair turn, joined Team Blake, and ultimately made it to Season 14’s Top Six. Following his return to Nashville, a never-ending passion and tireless work ethic paid off, and God stepped in. Baird signed a recording and publishing deal with Black River Entertainment in 2020, and four years later, made his Grand Ole Opry debut (1/26) earning a rare standing ovation.”

“I gew up in a little bitty town where we had two stop signs,” he said. “Right on highway 1. Everybody’s either a farmer or a cowboy. It was a beautiful place to be from and a warm place to be able to go home to.”

Baird actually was somewhat of a prodigy and picked up a guitar at an early age.

“I got a guitar when I was two and a half,” he said. “At three and a half I started taking guitar lessons. I can’t tell you why – it’s just one of those God things I think. Nobody knows what they’re doing at 2 years old. I heard the music. I remember the first record I ever heard and still have it. It’s Jimmy Reed at Carnegie Hall and when I heard it, I was almost like an adult and knew what I wanted to do. The song that got me was ‘Big Boss Man.’”

Something about the lyric played over and over as a child, “Big boss man, can’t you hear me when I call?” Baird not only heard, but answered a call that has propelled him to greatness.

Baird’s focus came early and his being born without an “I quit” gene has driven him to things others can only dream about. It’s as if his life has been scripted and he is learning lessons and enjoying the journey.

It also seems that the right people have been placed in his life at the right time to get him to his destined destinations. One of the first mentors was his uncle.

“My Uncle Gary was the first person I ever saw play the guitar,” he said. “I remember it like it was yesterday. He was at our house and I remember hearing the music and sitting in an old green chair, I remember sitting down in front of him and that was it. I mean… that was it. Hooked.”

In the past 23 years since high school, the road hasn’t always been easy, but in a sort of “charmed life,” Baird has learned some things in the roller coaster he jumped into. He has come face to face with success and heart to heart with deep disappointment. Through it all, he considers it his learning curve and sometimes, the “deeper the dire,” the more substance appears in the lyric.

He graduated the same year that 9/11 came to the country, and it profoundly affected Baird. Things changed. He awoke to a new normal in America and it birthed a new patriotism within him. His heart had opened to give him the maturity to write in a deeper way.

“By the time I was 26, I lost my job as a bartender and also playing music five nights a week and I knew I had to get out of where I was, but I didn’t know where I was going to go or what I was going to do,” he said. “I went to my dad’s house and he had a pool hall. We went to the pool hall and we had a couple beers that he made on brew. He blindfolded me and brought out a great big map and put it on the wall. I wanted to either go to Chicago, Nashville or Austin, Texas. He had me throw a dart and it landed in Paduka, Kentucky and it sent me to Nashville.”

Not knowing anyone, not having anything planned, he drove to Nashville and got a job at the Union Stockyard. His curriculum in a school of hard knocks continued.

“I worked there for a few years and just tried to figure out where I fit into this new town,” he said. “I was doing construction, cutting grass, waiting tables and I was doing anything I could. A buddy of mine went on The Voice and he was a runner-up and soon after I was asked to audition.”

The breaks that would cause an opening in his miracles began to happen and he drove to Atlanta where he sang four songs and they smiled and asked him if he wanted to go to Los Angeles.

“I went on The Voice and it kind of launched everything,” he said.

No stranger to the experience it takes to write from a broken heart, Baird said that he can’t remember the first song he wrote, but he can remember that first time he got cheated on. The staff paper for his life was out and for the first time, he experienced mixing ink and tears.

“I wrote a song at that time called, ‘Don’t Forget Your Key,’” he said. “I remember the pain that I felt and being able to write it down, which made me so much better getting it out.”

Baird, who was a songwriter before that still stuck to the security of singing covers, but all of a sudden life gave him the experience to add a new dimension to his music. He truly became an artist that became more valuable in his industry as the trifecta of being able to sing, write and play gave him an edge.

His learning continued and with the ups there were the downs, but it has always played to his strength of being able to write from a transparent heart and provide a message to others in life who choose to live and learn from that living.

He weaves messages in his songs and resembles more of a psalmist than a country singer. His newest song, “Beauty In The Broken,” which has hit the charts like an exploding rocket speaks to those who have been broken and are looking for an explanation for the breaking and a reason to go on.

“I really feel that songwriting is the purest form of magic,” he said. “You walk into a place with nothing. Maybe just an idea or a progression or an experience. The art of imagination kicks in and then being able to take the personal stories and the pain or the happiness and the feelings and you intertwine it all together. In time, you have a creation of something that was never there. It never existed in the world. Nobody’s ever heard it. And now all of a sudden, it’s here.”

He is amazed at how the creative power of song cannot only help the artist, but those who can relate to the song itself.

He wrote Beauty In The Broken with a few friends who just got together and didn’t know what was going to be created. He attributes it to one of those magical moments where there were people in the world who needed this song and suddenly it was released exactly when they needed it.

“And sometimes you don’t even realize that you are writing about yourself,” he said candidly. “One of the great things about the music that I’ve been writing for the past few years is that it’s all come about – because it’s all about me. And I had no idea.”

He speaks about the divine hand in some of his music. He speaks about the timing to when a song is released. He speaks about the awe-inspiring power of a spoken word set to music. He speaks about the reflection now about each thing he writes.

“This song is for every single person,” he said. “We’ve all been broken at one time. We’ve all been down at one time. We’ve all made mistakes. We all need help.”

Watching the official video of this song, you will see a broken vessel that wasn’t tossed away, but mended, not with glue, but with fine gold. That image spoke to Baird in a unique way at this time in his life and in his career. He spoke about that broken pot in his video as a type of himself.

“That was an idea I had a long time ago,” he said. “When something’s broken, usually it just gets thrown away. But when you’re poor or you don’t have anything, you gotta put it back together. And it’s all you got – to put it back together. Because if you don’t, you’re not going to survive. You can’t hold your life together and everything just falls through the cracks. And when the cracks are repaired, it leaves scars and man, they are beautiful. It reminds you that you made it through. You survived. Now with the video, they didn’t repair it with some ugly metal, mud, or wood or stitches. It’s gold. Beautiful. So much so that the scar… the repair was more costly than the original vessel. When you get comfortable in or with your scars, people can see the beauty in that. It means that there is hope for them. It’s a powerful thing.”

Nov. 6, 2022 – the duo of Pryor & Lee which had been a powerful duo both born out of The Voice, suddenly and without warning or explanation broke up. It became a time for Baird, once again to go deeper into his personal music, navigate his own way and learn things in the darkness that he would never be able to learn in the light.

“That song ‘Beauty In The Broken’ is where I’m at right now,” he said. “It’s a sad place and a dark place, but I have been learning to lean on God a lot right now. I’ve never really had to do that. And I’ve never really been where I am right now.”

And his learning continues. His journey has taken on more meaning and more power and coming from this time in his life, expect to see and hear those songs that will be just what the world needs. There is a message. Baird is weaving another song of hope and encouragement for healing. His own and those who his music touches.