Greg Schroeder

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Greg Schroeder is an open book, and while it is cliché to say that, there is no more apt phrase to describe the man than this. Schroeder always has a story to tell. On stage or off, he is a consummate entertainer. His stories like his songs are always well crafted and powerful narratives commenting on the beautiful mystery that is the human condition. His life and lyrics are laid bare, night after night, in a gentle yet powerful baritone that can only be compared to the warmth that slides down one’s throat after a shot of strong whiskey.



Schroeder’s new EP, Songs for a Bluebird, is a reflection of all of these wonderful qualities in a collection of seven songs that deal with loss, reassurance, and love. Recorded in a mere two and a half days at Cedar Creek Studios in Austin, Texas, Songs for a Bluebird was completed with a little help from some of Schroeder’s friends including John Silva and Shane Walker from The Gougers, Scott Davis from Jason Eady and the Wayward Apostles, and Nolan Lawrence.



Raised in the tiny town of Riesel, TX, Greg Schroeder’s childhood was full of extended family, mischief, and it seems now that his life always revolved around music. “I know it sounds hokey but I think that subconsciously I decide to do music when I was a kid. I just remember listening to music all the time. I’d watch Hee Haw. I’d close the door to my room and listen to the radio and tapes for hours. I’d record songs off the radio onto blank tapes. My mom would come and try to make me join them in the other room but it was always to no avail.”



After Schroeder graduated high school he followed the path of least resistance and continued on to college. “I hated every single minute of it. I could never get over the fact that it was not what I had envisioned. Let’s just say my ideas about higher learning came from reading about Thomas Jefferson, and standardized testing and hidden agendas by professors is not it. That’s just a fancy way of saying I slacked off. And I slacked off because I didn’t know why I was there.”



The turning point came in the form of a simple suggestion from a friend: to play an open mic night in 1996. “I had spent about a year doing nothing after that first taste of the business. I enrolled in school and didn’t go. I worked at a record store and would come home and just, well let’s just say, get incoherent. Finally some time passed and I just thought what are you doing? I decided to go back to open mic nights. People seemed to like what I was writing and I started feeling a more comfortable on stage and somewhere in between I figured out that I could live this life.”



Plagued by self doubt Schroeder says he had never previously pursued this course because he had never thought he was good enough. “I had always compared myself to songwriters that I admire and inevitably as is with all heroes I never measured up. It wasn’t until I heard some guys on the radio that I thought well hell if they can do it I can to. I won’t say whom. I just came to the realization that I don’t have to compare myself to other writers. I will never sound like them because their voice speaks their way and my voice speaks mine. If someone out there can relate to what I’m saying up here then I’ve done my job. “



Once again Schroeder’s life is revolving around music, except this time it is his own. “It’s a great life, but it’s not much of a living. Still, I couldn’t trade it. It’s so much a part of me now that I’d rather die than have music taken from me. I pray that, with God’s help, it will allow me help support my family. I don’t want to be rich. I just want to do what I love but not have to worry about paying the rent or that the lights are going to get shut off. But most of all, I pray that it will move others.”