Asked to name a few of his favorite songs that he’s written and recorded, Kashus Culpepper mentions “Southern Man” right away, which makes sense for a guy from rural Alabama who seems to proudly show his roots.
In the song, which features a snarling slide guitar solo from fellow Southerner Marcus King, Culpepper comes across as comfortable about where he’s from and who he is as a person.
“'Cause I’m a Southern man, and I know who I am,” he sings over a shuffling groove. “Yeah, I’m a lover man, I got dirt on my hands. Came up from the holler, ain’t got a dollar. Blood on these strings.”
These details ring true as the genre-blending Culpepper describes what seems like a whirlwind of an adventure. After a small-town start in Alexander City in east-central Alabama, his journey took a surprising turn when he began strumming a guitar and singing in downtime gatherings with his fellow “Seabees” in the U.S. Navy’s Construction Battalion.
Their encouragement gave him a boost of confidence that drove him toward leading a cover band on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and then writing his own songs. Some of them went viral online—including the upbeat lost-love ballad “After Me?”—and led to an artist deal with the independent label Big Loud Records in Nashville.
Still in his 20s, Culpepper has done so much in a short time that it surprises him, too.
“I was looking back on since I left high school, and having not traveled at all before then, it does feel like I’ve been on the go ever since,” he says. “And that’s kind of why I left for the military in the first place, not only to serve my country but to get out of my little bubble of a town.”
“I just consider myself ‘Southern sounds’ because all the music I heard growing up was Southern music.”
How the Navy Helped Kashus Culpepper Find Music
Much of his service involved construction work at Navy bases, including Naval Station Rota in Cádiz, Spain. This meant lots of strenuous physical labor, which he says he’s always loved doing.
“We did some humanitarian work as well as base repair and upkeep,” Culpepper said. “It was all construction stuff like drywall, roofing and concrete.”
More recently, he’s been adapting to a much different lifestyle. He and his band have been on the road as a support act for Jelly Roll for much of the year and have landed opening dates with Riley Green, Shaboozey and Stephen Wilson Jr. Being a hard worker for most of his life, Culpepper says he’s having to get used to the idea that it’s not just OK but is actually expected of him to spend much of his time writing and co-writing songs.
It seems to have been time well spent. Since his distinctive and dynamic debut album Act I came out in January, he has drawn lots of critical acclaim and cultivated famous fans and admirers like Elton John, Samuel L. Jackson and John Mayer. He was nominated for Emerging Act of the Year at the Americana Honors & Awards and has been included in a host of “Artists to Watch” recommendations. In June, he followed up that first album with the breezy five-track EP Act I: Summer Nights.
Kashus Culpepper’s Blend of Country, Soul and Blues
Critics have categorized Culpepper’s music as “country soul,” and that nails it pretty well. While Marcus King brings a harder edge to “Southern Man,” many of Culpepper’s songs have an old-school, soulful vibe and just enough fiddle fills, banjo rolls and lean pedal steel lines to give it a healthy dash of Nashville flavor.
His first experience in a musical setting was singing along with pastors and other congregants in a small brick church in his hometown. Later, he was inspired by vocalists ranging from Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles to Howlin’ Wolf, Ray Lamontagne and Chris Stapleton.
“We all considered ourselves country folks in the part of ‘Bama I’m from,” he says, “but you’re still surrounded by all these different kinds of music. I found country very early—and blues and gospel, too. I just consider myself ‘Southern sounds’ because all the music I heard growing up was Southern music, and country was in that mix of all of it.”
He also developed a love of spending some leisure time along the water. He’s done some hunting for duck and deer, too, but fishing seems to occupy a larger place in his heart.
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Fishing and Growing Up Outdoors in Alabama
Though many may know his hometown as one of the communities bordering the beautiful 44,000-acre Lake Martin, Culpepper says he and his grandfather, who was also his fishing partner, frequented a variety of smaller places to fish.
“My papaw knew all the good fishing spots, and we would catch bass and bream and catfish and stuff, and it was mostly on ponds around town,” he says. “We would always have our own rods and reels, and while we were casting our lines, we’d also have cane poles set up in the dirt, just hoping for anything to pull on it.”
The Nashville resident thinks for a moment, and adds: “I do miss those quiet, peaceful moments. I’m not really a city guy, and I really like to stay grounded a lot of times, but I’ve just been so busy. Looking back on it now, those were nice times I had as a child, growing up there and hanging with my papaw.”
These days, music is taking him so many other places, in what seems like a series of gambles that keep paying off. He says he didn’t have big ambitions when he started playing in bars and casinos on the Gulf Coast; he just wanted to have fun playing music. As more and more people started telling him he was really good and deserved a bigger audience, he warmed up to the idea of going all in with it.
“Eventually, in 2023, when I first started writing songs, I thought, ‘Man, I’m at least gonna try, because I don’t want to get to the end of this thing called life and be like, ‘What if I could have done something, at least for a little bit, you know?’ I just wanted to try.”
Editor’s Note: Keep up with Kashus Culpepper’s music, tour dates, merchandise and more at kashusculpepper.com.
