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I think fishing and songwriting are very similar, you have to be patient. You can’t force anything to happen. You put the intention out there and you see what comes back to you.”
2000 LBS
System Payload Rating
An inventive songwriter with a strong understanding of country music’s cherished storytelling traditions, Jenny Tolman is a Rising Country Artist, sponsored by Zebco. Specifically, she takes inspiration from an American icon. “I take a lot of inspiration from Dolly Parton,” Tolman says. “There are so many strong country women that I can look back and listen to their music and be inspired by that. Honestly they give me this fearlessness and this confidence.”
Wide Open Spaces caught up with Tolman and cast a few lines at a local park in Nashville thanks to Zebco. “I did a lot of fishing actually when I was hanging out with my friends in high school,” says Jenny Tolman, who grew up in small Middle Tennessee towns. “Those days really inspired some of my very first country songs that I ever wrote because it was all about living that country life, as cliché and cheesy as that sounds — that’s what we did!”
The truck already had a name for itself, at least on Instagram, where Pierce started @the_Pandra and shared photos (while gathering a good community of followers).
The Pandra vaulted into truck immortality when the fires started and Pierce took it upon himself to step up. He used his vehicle and his fortitude to get himself to safety on two separate occasions, then helped evacuate a local hospital.
Zebco Presents
On The Water with
Jenny Tolman
As his town was burning around him, the truck was dealing with its own share of abuse. The melted taillight covers, the plastic that began to drip away, and the toasted marshmallow paint job are the visible scars that the Tundra suffered, but the integrity of the truck survived.
The only exterior portion of the truck that was virtually unaffected by the heat and the flames was the DECKED Storage System he had installed in the bed.
When DECKED and Toyota heard about The Pandra's story, they both paid back the selflessness with replacements.
The Pandra now sits in Toyota's Plano, Texas corporate headquarters as a testament to the toughness Pierce, his truck, and his DECKED system showed
that day.
Not only did DECKED replace the system for Pierce's new truck, but they also donated the amount of his first system to the GoFundMe page set up by his friends.
Pierce likes to think he did what anyone would do, and focuses on what's important. The Pandra helped him set up a triage station on the hospital's helipad, where he and his fellow rescuers watched the city succumb to the flames. Once his family was safe and his duty at the hospital fulfilled, Pierce became reflective.
He knew saving things like his photographs, written song lyrics, and treasured guitars was most crucial. Anything else could be replaced. What couldn't was the history of his town, the people who made it their home. Luckily, he and The Panda were there to help preserve some of that.
WRITER
Feature Image via ZEBCO
June 25, 2019
Drawer Payload Rating
200 LBS
WEATHER
PROOF
NO DRILLING
REQUIRED
SPONSORED BY ZEBCO
WOS HOME
DECKED TRUCK SYSTEMS
“
When you go and write a song,
you're not gonna have the hit song
idea right off the bat, and
you're not gonna catch the big
fish right off the bat "
GET TO KNOW RISING COUNTRY ARTIST CB30
“
Tolman’s formative years helped her dream up an entire town as the fictional setting for her debut full-length album. A labor of love, Tolman’s long-awaited album was an exercise in patience.
“I think fishing and songwriting are very similar,” Tolman says. “You have to be patient. You can’t force anything to happen. You put the intention out there and you see what comes back to you.”
And though she’s well aware of the uphill battle women face in country music, she doesn’t dwell on it. “A lot of people have this perception that fishing is only for guys or being a successful country artist is only for guys, but no matter what gender you are you get to have fun doing what you love,” Tolman says.
Wide Open Country caught up with Riggs, who just released his new EP Love & Panic, in Nashville. The emerging start talked about finding balance in an often hectic career — while fishing the Cumberland River, just steps from downtown Nashville.
Sam Riggs spent much of his upbringing enjoying the outdoors. “It was a real musical family, real rural family,” Riggs says. “Kind of grew up blue collar, so being in the woods and fishing was always a big part of my life.”
He learned a lot about fishing from his granddad, who was a preacher and fished “religiously,” Riggs says. As an artist who built his fan base by touring relentlessly, Riggs has seen a lot of the country. “It’s the most amazing job in the world,” he says.
And for an artist as passionate as Riggs, spending a little bit of time by the water certainly helps replenish all that energy spent performing across the country night in and night out. Even if it means just pulling a Zebco rod out from behind his seat and stealing away for an hour.
Wide Open Spaces caught up with Riggs, who just released his new EP Love & Panic, in Nashville. The emerging start talked about finding balance in an often hectic career — while fishing the Cumberland River, just steps from downtown Nashville.
Sam Riggs spent much of his upbringing enjoying the outdoors. “It was a real musical family, real rural family,” Riggs says. “Kind of grew up blue collar, so being in the woods and fishing was always a big part of my life.”
He learned a lot about fishing from his granddad, who was a preacher and fished “religiously,” Riggs says. As an artist who built his fan base by touring relentlessly, Riggs has seen a lot of the country. “It’s the most amazing job in the world,” he says.
And for an artist as passionate as Riggs, spending a little bit of time by the water certainly helps replenish all that energy spent performing across the country night in and night out. Even if it means just pulling a Zebco rod out from behind his seat and stealing away for an hour.