“My personal opinion is the blues came out of hardships and the music was a place where humanity could go and find release. That's why I want to spread and preserve the blues.”

Geoff NewhalL: Music City’s Soundtrack

“Long Hollow Blues” (2025) might be the debut album from Farmhand, but even on the first listen it feels like you’ve been dropped into the world of a band who's been around forever. Farmhand is comprised of Geoff Newhall (bass), Jimi Fogelsong (vocals, drums), and Richard Fleming (vocals, rhythm guitar), with stellar assistance on lead guitar by Dan Pierce, Jamie Potterbaum and Michael Saint-Leon, who appear on four tracks each, and special guest Tom Hambridge contributing lead vocals to the record’s lone cover, “Fresh Out” (Kingfish Ingram). Keying in on their collective decades of experience these dozen tracks will make you laugh, cry, rock n’ roll and everything in between. "We tried to come up with songs that hit you where you live," Newhall says, reflecting on the one-two punch of the powerful lyrics and ear worm-worthy melodies.

(Photo: Geoff Newhall)

"There's an energy to the songs in the way they evolved. They grew organically from initial ideas to their final form... like polishing a stone." Inspired by classic grooves that still sound thoroughly original in the band's capable hands, and bolstered by lyrics that would ring true in any era, Long Hollow Blues is an instant classic. Geoffrey Newhall grew up a self-described "wild child" in Louisville, Kentucky. He started out on the drums before moving to bass in seventh grade when friends wanted him to join their cover band. In 1992, returned to his early love of blues, playing live with Rufus Thomas and Bo Diddley, in addition to more extensive tours with Buddy Flett and a rockabilly band Lawrence Bell and the Sultans, among others.

Interview by Michael Limnios                  Special Thanks: Larry Kay (Night Train PR)

How has music influenced your views of the world? What moment changed your music life the most?  

There are two. The first piece of music I listened to was in grade school and it was "Lady Madonna" by The Beatles. I wrote a song to a girl I liked right after that. That changed my life because I wasn't aware of music and what it would do to me. The second was hearing "How Many More TImes" on  Led Zeppelin's first album - on acid - and it changed my life.

Music influenced my views of the world in that it expanded it; I listen to different music from different parts of the world. I have to reach out through different channels to find it, because it's not apparent on most stations. But I would say the '60s and '70s were more an influence on me and my views of the world than today. I explore SiriusXM more and more now, and definitely find new openings to that view of the world.

How do you describe your sound, music philosophy and songbook? What's the balance in music between technique and soul?

Songbook... it depends on what you're looking for out of music. If you're looking for a paycheck, then your songbook is gonna be what's popular to your audience. I learned, probably in the early '80s, I was in a band playing all originals, and the only people who got it were a motorcycle gang called the Grim Reapers. Unless people have heard it before they usually don't feel connected to an artist. 

But with the album out, my philosophy's changed. When I express a part of my life in a song, the story has so much more meaning to me as an artist. It's a part of my experience in life I want to share and hopefully people will listen to it and can connect with it. My philosophy is  when I connect to a piece of music it tells me something and makes me feel a certain way. I look for uplifting music, music that's positive towards humanity. That's what I like to express.

Our sound? We're kind of a rootsy blues, with a little bit of rock. I think once you get your fingers familiar with the fretboard then you become aware of other people and how they're playing. You grow as a musician, and when you become aware of your technique and can let it go and listen to other people in the band and what they're doing, then the band has soul. But if I'm playing right along and not listening, then there's a disconnected overall experience.

“The role of music and musicians in today's society... I can't tell a musician what to do. We should be minstrels, going and telling stories of what's going on around the world in an uplifting way. Music should be pulling people together, not taking sides.” (Photo: Geoff Newhall of Farmhand, Nashville TN)

How does your hometown (Nashville) affect your music? How did Roots music shape rock and roll?

You have to root out the fine players and the people who are really expressing art and not playing to people who are just partying and want to hear what they want to hear. Doing it for a fast buck and the establishment; money, not musicians. It affects things positively and negatively. There are some great players here, and I can listen to them and be inspired, but I would also say 75% of it is a commercial fiasco.

I think rock and roll might have shaped roots music! at least modern roots music. I think the roots part of it is it was simple. No one was following anybody. As Muddy said, "the blues had a baby, and they named it rock and roll."

What do you miss most nowadays from the music of the past? What are your hopes and fears for the future of music?

There was a time when record companies would listen to something, and even if it was experimental, they would get behind it and promote it. I don't think that's a part of what's going on now. It's gotten more and more and more commercial. Music is somewhat of a fad, where before it was feeling, an awareness. It was storytelling from that songwriter's heart.

My hopes would be that music stays in the realm of the artist's pure expression. My fear is that you can go to AI and say 'I want a country song about a rose that's trying to grow in the middle of the desert, and I want it to sound like X,' and AI creates it out of, virtually, nothing. There's no truth, nothing real. I understand the tool as a musician, but I've seen people come out with stuff that when you listen to it you can plainly hear what source AI pulled it from. Artists don't get paid for that. AI, when it's used that way, takes money out of the artist's pocket.

What are some of the most important lessons you have learned from your experience in the music paths?

Well, if you have a festival, and you can sit down with your fellow musicians, there's a camaraderie, a fellowship there that's a really strong bond. I've experienced playing with 4 or 5 other musicians and the band is just ON. I can do whatever and I'm not gonna miss a lick, and everyone in the band is like that. So the band itself becomes one force that goes out and reaches the audience. You can feel it; it comes back to you and it's an experience like no other.

“Music influenced my views of the world in that it expanded it; I listen to different music from different parts of the world. I have to reach out through different channels to find it, because it's not apparent on most stations. But I would say the '60s and '70s were more an influence on me and my views of the world than today.” (Geoff Newhall, Nashville TN / Photo by Jacque Lynn)

Why is it important to preserve and spread the blues? What is the role of music/musicians in today’s society?

My personal opinion is the blues came out of hardships and the music was a place where humanity could go and find release. That's why I want to spread and preserve the blues.  

The role of music and musicians in today's society... I can't tell a musician what to do. We should be minstrels, going and telling stories of what's going on around the world in an uplifting way. Music should be pulling people together, not taking sides.

What are you doing to keep your music relevant today, to develop it and present it to the new generation?

The only thing I can do personally is to keep developing as a musician. It's an ongoing process. You get to realizing there's much more to explore and you keep growing, hopefully to be able to get that out there

Why do you think that the southern states music legacy continues to generate such a devoted following?

Because what came out of the southern states from the beginning of the US, that suppression is still prevalent all over the world. In a sense, it's not helping humanity to be able to develop and keeping people from living to their fullest. The music borne out of it is more brutally honest and speaks to the core of the soul. Music gave people freedom, it expressed their pain. They didn't even know why sometimes, but the music helped them survive and see a light in their lives. That honesty is something that resonates all over the world. It's unfortunate people in power keep taking, and that allows for other aspects of humanity to continue to be suppressed, sometimes unknowingly; it's a travesty.

(Photo: Geoff Newhall of Farmhand)