The Lost Trailers’ Stokes Nielson Explains his “Greatest Moment As A Songwriter”
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The lives of Nashville's artists, singers and songwriters often times play out like a Hollywood movie script as The Lost Trailers founding member Stokes Nielson recently experienced.
When Nielson was 13 years old, he went to visit family in the Washington D.C. area and while there, attended his first concert which was Kris Kristofferson and Bob Dylan at The Wolf Trap. “It was an incredible show and still to this day one of the best concerts I've ever been too,” recalled Nielson. “That concert single-handedly changed the course of my life, because I knew right then and there I wanted to be a songwriter.”
Fast forward to the summer of 2007 Stokes had the good fortune of meeting Kristofferson in Austin, TX and after talking with the legend he had Kristofferson sign a pick. It was with that guitar pick that Stokes wrote the songs for the Holler Back album which included three Top 40 singles.
The final scene of the movie played out two weeks ago in Nashville at the BMI Awards. When Stokes arrived and checked in he was surprised and thrilled to learn that he was receiving a songwriter award that night for writing one of the most played songs of 2008 with “Holler Back” (only weeks after having his other Top 20 hit “How 'Bout You Don't” win a similar ASCAP Award). Coincidently that evening, BMI was saluting one of their greatest songwriters ever, Kris Kristofferson.
Before the show, Stokes thanked Kristofferson for being such an inspiration and signing his guitar pick, and reminded him of the show at the Wolf Trap. Kristofferson recalled how that tour had stuck with him through all the years because he really enjoyed opening for Dylan. While Stokes was on stage accepting his award for “Holler Back,” he saw Kristofferson giving him a double thumbs-up from his table directly in front of the stage.
“It was one of my greatest moments as a songwriter,” said Stokes. “I mean here I was on this stage looking into the audience at this absolute legend who inspired me to pick up a guitar and write from the heart, and be definitive. I'll never forget that scene, and it is a constant reminder that in the recording of our upcoming album, the songs have to be at that very same standard that our heroes had. That is the path that we've been ambitious enough to follow, and on that night it showed me how worth it, this crazy journey has been.”
The Lost Trailers are now writing and working on their second full length album for BNA Records and you can bet that will be done with a Kris Kristofferson pick in hand!
