via publicity photo via Josh Abel
Our latest guest on the Load Out music podcast is the Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Tony Kamel. Some know him well from his days fronting the acclaimed bluegrass outfit Wood & Wire, while some might be familiar with his solo work, including the hit song “Amen.”
On his latest studio album, We’re All Gonna Live (2025), the Austin-based Kamel captures a no frills live-to-tape energy, perfectly complementing the weighty topics and fears encompassed in his character-based songs. But a lot of his music, and who he is today, goes back to his early life in Houston.
“I found a guitar in my mom’s closet,” Kamel told me about his introduction to playing music. “A couple of classical guitars and that’s where I started. And it’s here—here in my office.”
Houston’s music scene back then was rather diverse and as he got into high school, Kamel started listening to traditional country, Texas country, and jam bands like Phish and others, which teased bluegrass influences.
Then after college, when his friends left Austin, Kamel had little to do.
“I dug into learning bluegrass music, which is difficult,” he said. “It’s a high level of playing in that genre … So I got involved in the Central Texas Bluegrass Association and eventually met the guys who formed the bluegrass band I was in called Wood & Wire.”
Fronting Wood & Wire, Kamel garnered praise for a unique approach to performing, his vocal mastery, and the exceptional songwriting. This ultimately helped lead to a Grammy nomination for the band for Best Bluegrass Record in 2018.
“We had a good run,” he said of Wood & Wire.
The band broke up in 2020, however, and Kamel pivoted into a solo career, starting with his debut solo record in 2021, Back Down Home, which saw him team up with legendary songwriter Bruce Robison and his analog-based production company, The Next Waltz.
A priority on Back Down Home, his first solo record, was to differentiate it from the Wood & Wire experience, specifically ensuring there was no banjo on it. And it was clear Kamel and Robison were onto something, as the album held a #1 spot on the Alt-Country Radio chart and was on the Americana Charts for several weeks.
“One of the only intentional things I was doing, was trying to make it seem not too bluegrassy,” Kamel said. “I wanted to do my own thing. I wanted to separate myself. I love that record.”
In 2024, Kamel released the EP of 90s cover called Songs That Made Me Weird, Vol. 1, which includes an exceptional version of Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun.”
“I love 90s alternative rock,” he said with a chuckle, noting he only does the song live when playing solo. “I love Chris Cornell and I was thinking that ‘Black Hole Sun’ would make a cool Willie Nelson-style guitar. And it turns out it was really cool.”
Kamel’s latest effort is We’re All Gonna Live, produced jointly by Kamel and Robison and the singer-songwriter’s third record for the label Blue Corn Music. More than anything, the album provides Kamel with a canvas for some incredibly emotional and deep-rooted material, although he said it wasn’t overly intentional.
“It just sort of happened naturally as I was writing songs, the year after Back Down Home,” he said. “I just noted that all of these songs corresponded with general difficult things that happen in life—somebody dies, you got kids and you’re dealing with making things happen and moving along, and then you start realize how fast time’s gone by.”
But there was more going on. There was something deeper. As a relatively new father—and after losing his father when he was 30—some of Kamel’s perspective about death on the album goes back to a conscious concern that he will not be there forever for his daughter.
“One day I was walking around with her … a friend of mine had a kid that was going off to college,” he said, recalling that he knew the friend’s daughter since she was the age of his young daughter. “I started tearing up about her leaving—how much that’s going to hurt.”
He also admitted that much of his personal angst comes from wanting to ensure he can provide the time, experiences and love to his daughter that he lost when his father passed.
“Almost nothing I do is not thought about through that lens,” Kamel said. “Lots of people lose their fathers young. It’s a club you don’t want to be in. Almost everything I do is seen through that lens.”
More than anything, Kamel wants to leave gifts for his daughter, and We’re All Gonna Die—highlighted by songs like “Lying Through My Teeth,” the Bill Monroe cover “Old Dangerfield,” and “Makin’ It Work”—are indeed some beautiful gifts.
Enjoy the gift that is our conversation with singer-songwriter Tony Kamel— a terrific guest with tremendous perspective—on the latest episode of The Load Out music podcast.