{"id":2450118,"date":"2026-06-08T16:22:53","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T16:22:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2450118"},"modified":"2026-06-08T16:22:53","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T16:22:53","slug":"red-clay-strays-talk-about-the-highs-and-the-lows-on-grateful-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/red-clay-strays-talk-about-the-highs-and-the-lows-on-grateful-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Clay Strays Talk About the Highs and the Lows on \u2018Grateful\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Red Clay Strays are\u00a0opening up\u00a0about the emotional journey behind their latest album,\u00a0Grateful<\/em>, sharing how years of struggle, growth, and unexpected success shaped the project\u2019s deeply personal themes. In an exclusive interview with\u00a0PEOPLE<\/em>,<\/a>\u00a0the Alabama-based band reflected on the highs and lows that defined their path from small-town bar gigs to award-winning recognition on major country and rock stages.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Red Clay Strays Turned Hardships into Art\u00a0<\/h2>\n
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Members of the\u00a0reigning\u00a0CMA Vocal Group of the Year\u00a0described\u00a0Grateful<\/em>\u00a0as a reflection of everything they’ve endured together. Lead guitarist Zach Rishel said, \u201cThis is really the first record that we made after we went over the hump of playing small rooms and stuff and getting a crew and a bus and everything and really started gaining some traction after eight years of living out of our old bus. I think we’re really all really grateful to achieve this level of success.”\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Rather than glossing over the difficult moments, the band embraced them as essential to their identity, transforming personal setbacks into storytelling that feels both grounded and universal.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Bassist Andrew Bishop added, \u201cI would say\u00a0probably a\u00a0good one would be grateful for even the\u00a0bad times\u00a0we had in that old bus, of the breaking down. You don’t realize\u00a0till\u00a0you get over that hump, like Zach was saying, that you look back and realize how important that was to mold you into the person you are.”\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Staying Grounded\u00a0<\/h2>\n
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Despite their rising fame and industry recognition, the band emphasized that success\u00a0hasn\u2019t\u00a0changed their core dynamic. Instead, they credit their tight-knit friendship for keeping them grounded, noting that their bond has only strengthened through years of shared experience on and off the road. \u201cWe’ve been through a Grand Canyon’s worth, the group of us through years,” Bishop said. “We’re very close, closer than… I always say\u00a0we’re\u00a0closer to each other [than] our own family members.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWe’re not blood, but we might as well be,\u201d guitarist Drew Nix added.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Meaning Behind \u2018Grateful\u2019\u00a0<\/h2>\n
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Faith and hope are the central themes of the band\u2019s latest album. Nix said, \u201cI think\u00a0it’s\u00a0like this picture of what it looks like when you get on the other side of\u00a0hard times\u00a0and have faith through that… and seeing where you can be after.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Lead singer Brandon Coleman summed it up: \u201cI think just having faith, having hope.\u00a0There’s\u00a0a lot of hopelessness out in the world… I think that’s what I’d want to leave behind in the music, is it’s going to be okay.”\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Listen to\u00a0Grateful<\/em>\u00a0here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source 925xtu.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Red Clay Strays are\u00a0opening up\u00a0about the emotional journey behind their latest album,\u00a0Grateful, sharing how years of struggle, growth, and unexpected success shaped the project\u2019s deeply personal themes. In an exclusive interview with\u00a0PEOPLE,\u00a0the Alabama-based band reflected on the highs and lows that defined their path from small-town bar gigs to award-winning recognition on major country […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2450121,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[366488],"class_list":["post-2450118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-red-clay-strays"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Red-Clay-Strays-Talk-About-the-Highs-and-the-Lows.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2450118"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2450122,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450118\/revisions\/2450122"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2450121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2450118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2450118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2450118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}