Jason Walsmith of the Nadas | The Vance Crowe Podcast | Episode 44

About this episode

Vance interviews Jason Walsmith, singer/songwriter of the Iowa folk-rock duo the Nadas and a commercial photographer, whom he met while Walsmith was photographing the Land Expo. The intro runs long — book club logistics for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, hiring a video producer for the podcast, and an extended reflection on processing coronavirus-era anxiety by journaling predictions (recorded early March 2020, just before COVID dominated the show) — before reaching the interview proper. Walsmith traces his path from childhood church-choir singing to college guitar to 27 years fronting the Nadas with his songwriting partner Mike Butterworth, describing songwriting as a craft built from "seeds" (overheard lines, images, voice memos) rather than pure inspiration, and detailing how the band's albums map onto life stages (divorces, having kids, aging). A long middle stretch covers his anthropology-degree summer in Nigeria at 18, where culture shock (fear of unfamiliar kindness, an obsessive search for a guitar to finish a song for a girl back home) taught him that "different doesn't mean wrong" — a lesson he now wants to translate into corporate/motivational speaking about culture shock and "crafting your narrative." He and Vance riff extensively on parallel concepts: Vance's "Daimon" (inner calling) versus Walsmith's dual devotion to music and photography, the value of embracing creative gaps rather than forcing constant output, and advice to his teenage sons about pursuing fulfillment (acting, diplomacy) without needing it to pay every bill. The episode closes with a story about how saying yes to a random encounter with a cattle-industry executive led to a lifelong friendship (the calf-purchase anecdote) and a pointed, unresolved question from Vance about gendered risk in public spaces, to which Walsmith gives an unexpected, vulnerable answer (envying the range and power of a woman's singing voice). The episode ends with a live acoustic performance of "I'm Still Here."

Key moments

• **[00:12:57–00:22:54]** Origin of Walsmith's songwriting process — the "seeds" method, and how solo songwriting merged into a co-written duo practice over time.
• **[00:41:20–00:44:52]** Albums mapped onto life stages — divorce records, having-kids records, and the arc of a 27-year career visible across the catalog.
• **[01:01:51–01:10:23]** Nigeria culture-shock story: fear of unfamiliar generosity, the obsessive cross-country search for a guitar, and the "different doesn't mean wrong" realization.
• **[01:39:06–01:41:57]** Blunt accounting of the touring-musician business model ("a teacher with a part-time job") versus the "business of fame."
• **[01:45:28–01:56:06]** The Daimon/dual-calling exchange, advice to his sons about pursuing fulfillment without needing it to be a sole income source, and the "say yes" philosophy illustrated by the calf-purchase friendship story.
• **[02:00:35–02:02:37]** Vance's gendered-risk question and Walsmith's unrehearsed answer about envying a woman's vocal range and power.

Notable quotes

“I think it's easy for us two guys to be like, just say yes to the thing... but as I'm thinking about it with that question in mind, I don't know, that's great advice for a woman or not, is it?”

“I call 'em seeds, just like lines, something somebody said, or a word or a sentence or a paragraph... and then that seed becomes two lines and then the chorus reveals itself.”

“Our business is playing live and engaging our fans... it's not in a way that's like Jay-Z and Beyonce. It's like a teacher with a part-time job.”