5 Songs I Love w/ Randy Ross

Following the release of his latest EP 'Hard Days, Soft Nights', Flex caught up with country singer-songwriter Randy Ross to find out more about what influences his distinctive sound. If you enjoy Randy's picks, be sure to check out 'Hard Days, Soft Nights' at the end of the article.

1. Jerry Jeff Walker - Stoney

Jerry Jeff is one of my all time favorite songwriters and musical heroes and this song is a great example of why. It’s basically a story about a friend he traveled with while hitchhiking and hopping trains as a young man. I’ve never hitchhiked or hopped a train in my life but this song reminds me of some friends I knew when I first moved to Nashville, people who certainly lived unconventional lives but still had a lot of wisdom for me when I was a kid on my own in the world for the first time. It also perfectly captures the nostalgia of looking back on the early days of getting acquainted with the music business, and how it always feels like things were easier back then even though I know it wasn’t.

2. Merle Haggard - Footlights

One of my favorite Merle Haggard songs that perfectly captures how it feels when all the late night gigs aren’t so exciting anymore and the neon lights lose their luster. I probably related to this song a little too much when I first heard it in my early 20’s, In my early days in Nashville I used to have a standing gig with my great friends Brandon Brindley and Jim Martin playing the same songwriter’s bar every Friday and Saturday from 11pm to 3am. It was great fun but the longer it went on the more I saw the dark side of being out until the bar closed every single weekend, and it didn’t take long to realize that after the lights go down and everyone goes home you pretty much always just end up by yourself.

3. Linda Ronstadt - Lo Siento Mi Vida

This one is a beautiful song from one of my favorite singers of all time, and one of just a few really big stars to come out of my home state of Arizona. If you ask me it doesn’t get any better than Linda in terms of vocal prowess, she wasn’t known as a songwriter but she did write this song with her father. Aside from her beautiful voice and the emotion she puts into every song she sings, I’ve always loved how she was proud of her Mexican heritage and the way she championed folk and country music from Mexico in her albums throughout her career.

4. Joe Ely - I Had My Hopes Up High

This one is the opening track from one of my all time favorite albums. It’s a rocking little number about setting out on the road just because you have to go see what’s out there, without a final destination in mind. That exact feeling has consumed me for most of my life, and I’m not sure that will ever change. Definitely a good one to add to your road trip playlist!

5. Emily Nenni - Long Game

This is one of those songs where the first time I heard it I felt the lyrics were speaking directly to me. When this came out I had been living in Nashville for a few years and was still trying to figure out exactly how I wanted to navigate the game of the music industry. I knew I didn’t want any part of writing or singing the type of songs they want on Music Row, I just wanted to write songs that I felt like had something say or faced the realities of life in an honest way. As a songwriter in Nashville there can be a lot of pressure to go along with the status quo and try to fit the mold because it looks like the easiest way to success. Hearing the message in this song played a big part in deciding that if I was going to really try to turn music into a career I had to do it the way I wanted or I would really never be satisfied, even if it meant sacrificing a higher possibility of commercial “success”. Even though it’s definitely in my nature to go against the grain, it sure helps to have people (like Emily) to look up to where you can say “they feel the same way as me and they’re making it, so maybe I can too”.

Listen to 'Hard Days, Soft Nights':