Flynnville Train photo courtesy of Show Dog Nashville.

They call me Tombstone Slim, and I'm proud to say I play guitar and sing background vocals for a five-piece outfit known as Flynnville Train. We just made a kickass country record for Toby Keith's Show Dog label and we are a band of fire. The other Flynnville guys would much rather play than talk, and I guess I'm the quirky one who actually likes to talk...so they stuck me out here.

Like I said, I'm proud and blessed to be playin' with these guys. Flynnville Train centers around two brothers, both amazing musicians. Hell, I've known Brian and Brent Flynn for 15 or 20 years. Their uncle and their dad were both guitar players and played in bands. Brent was learning how to play guitar at age three – from Iron Maiden to Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley – and the brothers were playing out as a duo at ages six and nine.

My dad had a sound company in Muncie, Indiana – we all come from up around there – and I pretty much grew up behind the mixing board. Back in the day, I ran sound a couple of times for the Flynn brothers' band, Milestone. Man...they were fantastic. Brian sang lead – he's still the vocal locomotive that drives Flynnville Train – but back then he sang behind the drum kit. Three pieces...Milestone would come out and just smoke your ass.

Flynnville Train's bass player, Tim Beeler, used to play with Milestone. I'll tell ya, Tim was born to play bass. He adds that certain flavor just when it's needed. He's rock solid and he understands what being a bass player is all about.

I was a blues guy. Flynnville's drummer, Tommy Bales, and I have been playing blues together for about 20 years. Tommy? He grew up beating on pots and pans until his dad got him a drum kit. I've never met anybody who plays with more passion. He really loves to beat the hell out of those drums.

My dad had this smokin' record collection, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, all that stuff, and that's how I grew up, walking into a club and I'm the only white kid in the place. Tommy and I were playing blues all over North Central Indiana. The Flynn brothers would come see us play and we'd go watch them. We had a lot of admiration for each other, just great friends. They used to call my dad 'cause he was booking bands, running sound and he was just a good person they could talk to about the industry.

Every one of us grew up as music sponges in musical households. My mom was a singer, my grandparents were singers, my great grandpa was in vaudeville and played the Grand Ole Opry.

Flynnville Train's debut album. Photo courtesy of Show Dog Nashville.

A few years back, Richard Young from the Kentucky Headhunters – a longtime fan – offered to bring the Flynn Brothers to a studio in Glasgow, Kentucky and produce them. It was Richard who told them 'Brian, you can't stay behind that drum kit and make the kind of impact you gotta make. Man, you gotta be the front man.' That's when they called my dad and said, 'We're gonna need a smokin' guitar player and a great drummer to make this thing work. And that was the start of Flynnville Train.

The first time we got together was crazy insane 'cause Brent Flynn plays that guitar of his upside down and backwards. So I'm looking at him for reference and thinkin' to myself, 'Man, I don't know if I'm gonna be able to do this.' But when we started really listening to each other, that's when it started coming together.

That's also when people started paying more attention. It went something like this. Richard Young gave our tape to Curt Motley at Monterey Peninsula Artists. Curt passed it to Toby Keith, and a year later Toby contacted Curt and said, "How do I get a hold of these guys?" Then Monterey called my dad – Terry Patterson – who by this time was our manager. We've had a million and one people contact us and say we want you to fly out here and do a showcase, and 90% of the time it just ends up costing money. So my dad, who was taking a nap on the couch, said, 'No thank you' and hung up.

About 20 minutes later they called back and said, 'You really need to listen to us very closely, 'cause Toby Keith wants you to fly to Vegas and do a showcase at his I Love This Bar.' So we said, 'Hell yeah,' and we got on an airplane, the first time for any of us.

Toby didn't say a whole lot, but he said he loved what he heard and the way we communicate with each other. Toby's right. It works. It rocks. It just clicks. I swear, someone was watching out for us. When we come off the stage and you ask us what we played, we couldn't tell you. We are so tuned into this music, we are out of body when we're onstage. Really. We love the Beatles, we love Muddy Waters, but our common thread is country. And when Brian Flynn opens up his mouth to sing, there's a twang there that leaves no doubt which direction Flynnville Train is headed, you know what I'm sayin'?

Our first single is a killer. It's called "Last Good Time," and it's scheduled for release on March 5. It's gonna blow you away, I promise. We made the whole album at that same studio in Kentucky and we produced it ourselves along with David Barrick. We love recording with David. The studio is class A, and he lets us do what we do. He sticks us in one room and he makes us play the song until he captures the energy. Once he's got that, we go from there.

Show Dog's been exactly like that. We got to produce our own music our way. They just turned us loose and let us do what we do. We are real excited about this record, and we can't wait to hit the road and play this stuff live. 'Cause once it gets rolling, it's awfully hard to stop a train.