49 Winchester's Isaac Gibson Talks Covering Willie Nelson With Ernest, Favorite Dickel Bourbon Cocktails (Exclusive)
Country band 49 Winchester has been kicking out Southern jams for roughly a decade, and they are not slowing down anytime soon. The band spent a "whirlwind" few days at CMA fest this month and, during the festivities, they spent some time enjoying cocktails with fellow country star Hailey Williams at the George Dickel distillery in Tennessee, celebrating the two-year anniversary of Dickel bourbon. Next up, the group has some tour dates in June and July, including a number of festivals, such as the inaugural FairWell Festival in Redmond, Oregon, where they will play alongside some iconic artists, including the legendary Willie Nelson.
PopCulture.com had a chance to chat with Isaac Gibson, lead singer and guitarist for 49 Winchester, while the band was visiting the Cascade Hollow facility. "Had a tour of the distillery. Been playing some music, man. It's been a great day," Gibson told us via Zoom, adding of the distillery tour, "It was really cool. It was a lot of information, a lot of insight, stuff that I would've never really thought of, like their water source and how unique it is to George Dickel. It's a really cool thing, man. It was fun."
Gibson also pointed out that "not only" were they hanging out at the George Dickel distillery on National Bourbon Day, but it was "also the two-year anniversary" of George Dickel's bourbon, "which is a really, really fantastic bourbon," he said, "We've been sipping on some of that. It's great."
Going on to speak about the band's 2023 CMA Fest trip, Gibson shared, "We were only in there for a couple of days. We were there for the first two days of the Fest, and we had a different festival later that weekend. But it was fun to be in town, man. It's always a lot of hustle and bustle, but it's a cool time to be in Nashville... It's a whirlwind. That's a great word to describe CMA Fest for sure."
During our chat with Gibson, we also asked him about 49 Winchester's recent cover of Willie Nelson's "Night Life" with country singer Ernest. "That was actually our first time meeting him was that day," Gibson shared of connecting with Ernest for the tune. "Spotify got in touch with us and wanted to do a session, and we wanted to do something a little bit outside of the box, something kind of unconventional from both of our ends of the spectrum because we're kind of not exactly the same sonically with our music and Ernest's music. But it was similar enough that there was some really cool stuff we got to do in there together. I was really pleased with how it turned out. It's a cool song, and I hope we did it justice."
As previously noted, 49 Winchester will be playing alongside Willie Nelson at the FairWell Festival in Oregon next month, but this isn't their first time taking the stage alongside the country music icon. "We got to do Luck Reunion last year down in kind of outside of Austin on the... It's actually on Willie's ranch where he filmed Redheaded Stranger."
Gibson added, "Best of the festivals, kind of a limited ticket, kind of an exclusive thing. It was really, really cool to be asked to be a part of it, but it's on the set of the movie. They built a set there on his property, and that's where they throw the festival every year. It's old saloon building, old jailhouse, old dusty streets. It's just super, super Texas, and it was really cool, an honor to be a part of." He then revealed that he still wears the ring he received for participating. "It hasn't left my hand since we played it," the singer said, adding, "He embodies everything that's good about country music."
If fans are hoping for new music from 49 Winchester, they'll likely be pleased to learn that Gibson told us, "We'll probably be in the studio fairly soon, shooting for a release sometime probably early next year-ish, but I'm looking really forward to getting back in the studio." However, he is still riding high on the band's 2022 album, Fortune Favors the Bold. "We're really fortunate to be a year removed from our last record release and the record itself still building steam and getting to, new ears all the time. We've just kind of let it grow as we've grown as a band and as our fan base has grown and people are latching onto it every day." He later added that he is "still super proud of what the record's still doing. It's still traveling, making spaces, so it feels good, man.
In the fall, 49 Winchester will be heading overseas to open for Luke Combs, marking their second time playing across the pond. "We got to play our first Europe shows this past March at C&C Fest in London. That was our first taste of doing anything overseas. We're really looking forward to the Luke tour because it's not just going to be England, it's 13 countries. We get to see the whole thing. It'll be a lot of fun, man. Luke's a great artist. It's an honor to have a guy of his caliber appreciating and taking note of what we do and bringing him on board. It's the biggest show in country music. I mean, he's Luke Combs, you know what I mean? It's going to be great. He's sold out these stadiums long before we were even announced on the bill. A lot of these places are already sold out, so it's going to be a great tour, man. We're really looking super forward to it."
Finally, before letting Gibson get back to his Dickel distillery visit, we asked if he has a favorite go-to summer cocktail to fix with Dickel bourbon. "I like it simple. I like whiskey and something with a little bit of tang. I like a whiskey ginger. I like a whiskey sour." He then shared what he was drinking at the moment. "Right now, part of this cocktail anyway, somebody added something else to it, but it started out as a Dickel and Sun Drop," he said, "which has got a little bit of that kind of acidic, acidic little bite. Might do a little squirt of lemon in it. I think that would set it off... Simple is best a lot of times with whiskey."