Buckshot Daisy
You never know who you will meet at Cracker Barrel! The Cypress team had gone to the 2019 Tennessee Music Awards in Jackson and had been introduced to the group Buckshot Daisy as an ‘up and coming’ music group. After the show, we went to the Cracker Barrel for a late-night snack before driving back to Covington, and guess who else showed up. We were so surprised! After a little conversation, we set up a time to come and see what they do.
We met in a wonderful old home in Savannah, TN, owned by Rhonda and Monte Causey, to have our conversation and get a few photos of the group. The home will definitely be featured in an upcoming issue, so you will get a great look at it too! Then we went over to Larry Griffin’s music store and got a chance to actually listen to their music.
Buckshot Daisy is an unusual name. The group features four guys (the Buckshot) and a beautiful young lady (the Daisy). “The name took a minute, we wanted to have something really special,” Liza Smith answered, “it took a really long time. My Mom was thinking about flowers one day, and asked what about a daisy? The guys had come up with Buckshot, but it felt like we needed something more; we added the Daisy to it and it had both rugged and feminine, something for everyone!”
Buckshot Daisy got together as a group in January of this year. “I started looking for a group of people who wanted to play some country music, and I saw their post on facebook, that they were looking for a female singer.” Liza told us, “It’s just been fate.” Larry added, “We started practicing as a group of guys and Jason really wanted to add a female singer, so we called Liza and asked her to audition.” Liza is a vocal powerhouse in the band. She has great depths in the dynamics of her voice, and a great stage presence which she credits to the Show Choir at Adamsville High School. “Before I started with the choir, I was awkward, I just didn’t know what to do!” Liza started her career singing the National Anthem in front of about 7,000 people. She does the National Anthem for most of the football and basketball games at the Adamsville Jr/Sr High School.
Jason Stewart is the soul sound of the band, while Richard Fiveash provides a more gritty, earthy sound to balance the other two singers. Larry Griffin is the bass man and manager of the group, and Tyler Jerrolds is the drummer. All of the group is extremely talented. “We have three singers in the band, and all rotate as ‘lead,’ we have a different sound, we do a lot of harmony, and we have fun with it.” Liza told us. “It’s difficult to answer the question what makes us different,” Larry added, “we’re always performing, so we see it from our point of view. Our fans on Facebook say that we are a lot of fun, and that’s why they come out.” Tyler went on to say, “The music that we do is real, there’s nothing canned with it, nothing fabricated about it.” Liza finished, “And how we are on stage is how we really are. Our personalities work well together, and we just have that chemistry.” Their chemistry shows in the quick smiles and easy camaraderie that the band has. You can tell when people work well together, there were no divas, no drama present. They ‘work and play well together.’
“We do mostly country, and a little Southern Rock,” Liza told us, Larry added, “With a little pop, not pop country, but pop.” Tyler added, “When people ask me, I usually say rap.” Everyone laughed at that, Tyler is the comedian of the group. While they are in the polishing stage on some of their own original works, they are still practicing and ‘can’t elaborate on that yet.’ They have performed at the Nashville Palace, the largest so far, they also do weddings, festivals, dancehalls, and many other places, and they are opening up for Joe Diffee, Confederate Railroad, and Mark Chestnut at Corinth on November 30th at the Crossroads arena. They will also be playing at the 2K20 Party of the New Decade at the Franklin Courtyard in Corinth. People can come hear them at Redbones in Jackson once a month, Reagan Dance Hall, they will be going to Luckenbach Texas in February for the Ovarian Cancer Benefit there. Upcoming shows are also on their facebook page (Buckshot Daisy), and instagram page (Buckshot_Daisy), along with snapchat (Buckshot Daisy).
They would all love to have a shot at ‘doing this for a living.’ “What’s funny, is people don’t think we work,” Larry added, “yeah, we work, we’re just really busy.” Larry teaches high school, Liza is a senior in high school, Tyler Jerrolds works at Southern Tooling in Lexington, Jason works at a body shop and Richard Fiveash works in construction driving a dump-truck about 350-400 miles per day. So yes, they work hard at their day jobs.
“I want to win a music award; we were nominated for five of them at the 2019 Tennessee Music Awards, but I want to win one,” Richard told us. Liza added, “I’ve been singing since I was really, really little, I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon. I’d just like to make something happen with my voice.” Larry summed it up, “we’ve been together for 10 months. Something that’s really cool is that we put everything on FB - and in that 10 month period, we’ve got 5500 followers, and 65% of those are women. We play 90’s Country and our fans really love us. They come to our performances, and support us, we have some really good fans.” All of the band would like to go on tour, have albums and be a big name someday.
Carrie Underwood, Travis Tritt, The Eagles, Allan Jackson all top the group’s fan lists. “Those are the people that would be awesome to play with.” Music runs through all of the band’s families, including guitar and fiddle players. “It gets in your blood,” Tyler added, “you just can’t stop playing.”
We hope Buckshot Daisy doesn’t stop playing for a long time! For a sample of their music, you can visit our website to see a video of their practice session, their Facebook page, or on YouTube - they have a great promo video. You can even hear a clip of their impromptu vocal performance at the Cracker Barrel on the night we met, on their Facebook page, a touch of the way they work and play together.