By Ryan Gueningsman
Herald Journal

Much like 2009 was, 2010 is gearing up to be a big year for Big Vinny, Butter, and Crystal of Trailer Choir.

The lovable trio is fun but serious in its work, and will be heading north for its second Winstock appearance – and this time, the band will be in the midst of a full-length CD.

“2010 will be the first Trailer Choir full-length CD in July,” said Ohio native Butter before a February show at The Cabooze in Minneapolis. The band’s latest single, “Rollin’ Through the Sunshine,” was released in March.

Nine months earlier, they received a phone call from their manager to play at something called Winstock to be a last-minute fill in for an artist who had backed out.

“The night we played the emerging artist stage, they said, ‘I just want you to know, Lady Antebellum played on this stage. Little Big Town, Sugarland . . . I’ll tell you, that emerging side stage was absolutely one of the most fun,” said Butter. “We were the side stage band for some time. We’d play where anyone would have us, and that was one of the most exciting stages we’ve played on.”

“It’s still, to date, one of my favorite video blogs,” added Crystal, who hails from Cheneyville, Louisiana. “The day before that, we left CMA Fest and jumped on a plane at the crack of dawn and got up here . . . we had no idea really what we were in store for, but we knew it was big. I held a camera up just to capture that crowd singing back to us. It was one of the coolest moments for us.”

“We knew about it just a couple days beforehand and said, ‘yeah, let’s go do it,’” Tennessee native Big Vinny added. “You take those opportunities and you never know what’s going to come from that and we ended up having one of the best shows and one of the best nights of our lives, and now it led us back here again this coming year to play the main stage.”

Crystal said although Winstock was not the first time Trailer Choir had performed in a festival setting like that, the flow of the music is one thing they found to be unique.

“That’s the coolest set up,” Crystal said. “We still talk about that, and even recommend people should try that. To have the crowd literally just turn from one side to the other.”

“That side stage is just like playing the main stage,” Vinny said. “Except it’s on the side,” quipped Butter with a laugh.

“I was excited because they told us it’s going to be BlackHawk, us, Sara Evans, and Dierks Bentley. That’s a cool line-up to be in the middle of that,” Vinny said.

“I think one of the things that has made us who we are is that we really appreciate what the main stage means, but we’re just as happy on the side stage,” Butter continued. “We’re just happy to be part of the event. If you’re on a main stage, or you’re on a side stage, you’re at the event. That has really made us so happy, and made us feel like we’re gaining some ground.”

Last year, the song “Rockin’ the Beer Gut” put Trailer Choir on the map and launched it into the national spotlight.

“This is really one of our biggest areas with it,” Butter said of the midwest. “It really changed things that we started showing up at shows where people really knew who we were right around Winstock.”

Butter said one of his favorite things to see is a mother with a couple of children that has taken the time to make their own t-shirts – especially the kids with the “rockin’ the root beer gut” shirts.

“We spend a lot of time before and after the shows hanging out with everybody,” he added.

Focusing on the future, the band said it is right where it wants to be.

“We want to sing songs that people live life to,” Butter said. “We’re going to try to touch you every now and then with something that is a meaningful kind of thing, but there’s nothing more important to us then backyard barbecues and cold beer, family and friends, and good times.”

“We’re all very caring people,” Crystal added. “We’re very family oriented.”

Like any band, the traveling and high demands of a career in the music industry is something that can take its toll on the band members, but said in the end, it’s ultimately good to be busy.

“The last thing you want is to look at a calendar that doesn’t have any dates on it,” Crystal said. “You want to look at a calendar that’s just covered up with dates. But, you really treasure those times you do get home.”

Something that drives the band when it is on the road away from family is seeing people’s reactions to the shows.

“That gives us the drive and energy,” Butter said. “When we see someone smiling or dancing or singing along and having a great time and enjoying their life at our show, that drives us to get out there every day and fuels that even more.”

Turning from a serious thought to a lighthearted one, Butter added, “Can I go on record real quick and say Crystal looks amazing tonight?”

No surprises there, though, as that dynamic has certainly brought something to the band that Butter and Big Vinny couldn’t offer. One night during a show, Crystal jumped up on stage and began singing harmony with the boys.

“I was a big fan of what they were doing and we’d all been friends. I don’t think any of us really planned on me being part of the band, but they liked it and it just felt natural and we started doing shows together,” Crystal said.

Butter said there had typically been a lot of females in the front row of their shows.

“After she got up there, we noticed a lot more guys in the front row and we’re like, ‘What the hell’s this?” Vinny added with a laugh, adding that during one of those early shows, Butter was singing a more serious song and leaned down and found himself face-to-face with another guy.

A good mix of those serious songs with the fun-loving ones are what Trailer Choir fans can expect from the July album.

“It’ll be more of that fun loving, having a good time, get your beer in the air music,” Vinny explained. He said some will feature Crystal on the vocals, and said it’ll have that same vibe of just having a good time.

“Forget about your worries and just come out with us. We got ‘Shake That Tailgate,’ ‘That’s Just Me,’ and “We Ain’t Makin’ Love,” which is a song the guys are going to love just as much as the women.

The band considers itself lucky in the respect it has Toby Keith as its “go-to” person to bounce ideas off of, as the group is signed to Keith’s Show Dog label.

Vinny admitted at first that it was a little nerve-wracking, but said it’s been a great relationship.

“He put you at ease. You look at him like a dad – like a really cool dad you like to party with all the time,” Crystal added with a laugh.

The band signed the record deal with Keith on a Tuesday and began touring on Thursday.

“It gave us a way to go out and introduce ourselves to his fans and also get fans of our own,” Butter said.

“We have the best fans ever,” Crystal said.

“I think our fans age from 13 to 80,” Butter continued. “They’re all people that love life, enjoy good times, and ain’t afraid to work hard.”

Butter explained Trailer Choir shows as “you got Big Vinny doing his dance moves, you got Crystal looking hot, you got me up there with my kind of dorky banter and jokes. If you come to our shows, you know what you’re going to get. It’s just a great way to live life for a little bit. Our show is a little get away.”

Becoming friends with other artists and people in the country music community is also something Crystal, Big Vinny, and Butter have cherished.

“That’s the beauty of country music,” Crystal said. “It’s such a community and the coolest genre to be in.”

“You find out, for instance here in Minnesota, Steve Hutchinson and Jared Allen (of the Minnesota Vikings) are huge fans of country music and we’ve become friends with them,” said Vinny.

‘The Worm’

At Winstock last year, one of the things that obviously stood out in Trailer Choir’s shows was Big Vinny doing the Worm across the stage.

“I always been flat-footin’ and buck-dancin’ my whole life,” Vinny explained. “I grew up country doing that. I met Butter and he does dancing, too, the break dancing. One day he talked to me about doing the splits, and I said man, I can’t do the splits . . . he ended up getting me to do the splits, and then Butter challenged me to try the Worm, and told me it’s just like an ‘up-down’ in football. I’ve done plenty of up-downs. The first time I tried it, I busted my chin and Butter laughed at me.”

“Now he’s graceful as a little butterfly,” Crystal chimed in.

“As you dance more and more, you realize more stuff you can do,” Vinny said. “You find your own things you do that nobody else does.”

For more information on Winstock, visit www.winstockfestival.com, or call 888-946-7865.

For more information on Trailer Choir, visit www.trailerchoir.com.

Ryan Gueningsman is at ryan@heraldjournal.com.