ENTERTAINMENT
Huffer Bros. choose to ‘do something with the music thing’
COURTESY PHOTO
Moore County natives Andy and Lee Huffer performing at Ole Red in Nashville. The twins kick-started their career at the BBQ Caboose on the Square in Lynchburg.
Andy and Lee Huffer are as Moore County as Columbia blue and white. The twins graduated from MCHS in 2016 and have since set their sights on Nashville but remain rooted in their convictions to family and friends in Lynchburg.
“Whenever we were 3 or 4 years old, daddy and mama were always playing that movie Pure Country,” Andy said. “We would get up on top of the fireplace and pretend we were singing in front of a crowd.”
Twenty years later, the brothers are staples at dream-catchers Ole Red and Friends in Low Places in Music City.
It’s been a fun ride to the bright lights of Broadway, one the brothers agree has been enlightening from Small Town, USA, to the Mecca of country music.
“We were two years out of high school,” Andy said, “I had just been let go from Jack Daniel’s, and I was working for a guy in Shelbyville doing custom remodeling and construction. I’d been playing around [and] I’d go down to the BBQ Caboose on the Square and play a little bit. The Bedford County Fair was going on, and a guy I know helped at his barbecue vendor. He said, ‘Hey, bring your guitar between crowds; play your guitar to draw people in.’
“I’m sitting there on a cooler at the Bedford County Fair playing guitar and singing, and one of the fair board members, Jerri Lynn Smith, came up and said, ‘You sound all right. Why don’t you open up for so-and-so tomorrow night.’ I got my brother and my dad and another group of guys down there to play with us. We played that fair. We made $10 a piece and didn’t break the bank.”
Lee added: “Yeah – 10 bucks a piece. We thought we struck it rich. We were like, ‘Damn, we just made some money playing music ... all right!’ ”
The Huffers’ next step was The Hitching Post in Shelbyville. “We were just two months in being 21 years old,” Andy said. “We didn’t go to bars. So, we went in and didn’t know what to expect, but they thought something of it.”
Locals may remember the band as Double Shot – the Huffer twins, with the bass player and drummer being the Frame twins. After the Frames exited the band, the Huffers brought in new members and began touring Middle Tennessee.
“We did that for a few years, and then that’s when we took off to Nashville,” Lee said. It’s also when he spurred Andy to “do something with the music thing.”
While Lee worked at the rock crusher, Andy whiled away four hours daily with UPS, so he had time on his hands. Andy went to the Taco Bell Cantina – “the place where you can get a vodka Baja blast, which is amazing, by the way,” Lee noted – and Andy talked to different musicians and made some contacts.
“We ended up playing at Tootsie’s for almost three years,” Andy said. “We got our feet wet downtown, and then Friends in Low Places opened up, and they recruited us to come there.”
Andy Huffer is the older of the twins.
Lee Huffer: “Yeah, I kicked him out” of the womb.
Besides toiling on stage, the brothers also now work together at UPS. A recent Thursday schedule had the Huffers at Ole Red from 2-6 p.m., at Friends in Low Places from 6-10 p.m., and back at Ole Red from 10 p.m. until closing.
“We’re going back to work at UPS at 4 in the morning, so that’s going to be fun,” Andy deadpanned. “Pray for us; we’ll be singing for 12 hours.”
Admittedly, with a different show than most musicians on Broadway, the Huffers have managed to do it their way – so far. Still, they have experienced the downside of management, a subject they will not delve into for “legal purposes.”
“We’re working with a guy now who’s got the accolades to back up what he’s saying,” Andy noted. “If we make some money at it, great, but if not, we’re there to keep building our name, our following, and continuing to have a great reputation.”
“Hitting the road and playing our original music at these venues is going to be a pretty big deal,” Lee said of the band’s upcoming tour.
The brothers’ commitment to each other as they prepare to hit the road: “Peace of mind is always better than a piece of paper.” Andy said their on-stage bond will not be broken. “I’ve been doing it with Lee since we were 3. And well, the odds of [leaving the band] are probably slim.”
Still, what if someone did ask? “I’d tell ’em to kiss my ass.” And with that, the twins strolled toward the podcast studio, firm in their style of (Huffer) Bro-country music.
