The lengthy résumé of venerable Triangle roots act Chatham County Line includes releasing 10 albums of top-notch string band tunes, penning the unofficial anthem of IBMA’s Raleigh run, and collaborating with the likes of Judy Collins, Steve Martin, and Jonas Fjeld.
Now, they can add another line to that résumé: acting. Earlier this year, the band was cast as musicians in the six-episode George Jones and Tammy Wynette miniseries George & Tammy starring Michael Shannon and Oscar-winner Jessica Chastain. The show will begin streaming later this year on Paramount+.
While mandolin and fiddle player John Teer jokes that they’ll probably be “just blobs in the background that you won’t be able to see,” Teer—along with singer and guitarist Dave Wilson, bass and pedal steel player Greg Readling, and touring drummer Dan Hall—logged enough background work for eligibility in the Screen Actors Guild.
Ahead of the show’s release, Teer and Wilson spoke with the INDY about their George Jones fandom, how they inhabited their roles as members of The Nashville A-Team, and highlights of their experience on set in Wilmington early this year. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
INDY Week: What was your relationship with George Jones and Tammy Wynette’s music before shooting the miniseries?
John Teer: I’ve been a huge George fan for a long time, going back to the late ’90s right before Chatham County Line started. I was in Burgeon when I first heard George Jones, and his voice just completely destroyed me. I thought it was the greatest thing I’d ever heard in my life and became obsessed.
That was before I was really singing, so I didn’t have a singing voice at the time. My buddy had given me all these George Jones cassette tapes, which helped me develop my voice because I would be driving around singing along with George while trying to emulate his style and his phrasing.
He was such a big impact on me as a vocal presence—he’s the best country singer there ever was. I really admire what he and Tammy did together throughout their careers, and all the stories were amazing. Once this opportunity came up, I said yes faster than I could think it.
Dave Wilson: George is like an actor when he sings because he’s delivering the story from the perspective of the person in the song, which is a magical quality in a singer. Few singers really have that ability to inhabit the character in the song that’s telling the story, and that’s what you learn from George.
How did this opportunity come up?
DW: Zeke Hutchins, who used to play drums with us on our Electric Holiday tours, manages some big acts now and knows Zach Dawes, who facilitates T Bone Burnett’s television work and reached out to Zeke looking for musicians in the area. T Bone’s a realist and wants real musicians to play musicians on film and TV because they understand how to inhabit the physicality and the mannerisms and can mime the parts a lot better than an actor.
Can you talk about your roles?
JT: We were cast as The [Nashville] A-Team, and they did a re-creation of the Quonset Hut Studio that was pretty dead-on accurate to what it looked like back in the day. Inhabiting these all-star players and learning about their history, along with the history of the Quonset Hut and the Nashville scene, was so cool. I played Harold Bradley and Dave played Pig Robbins. Our touring drummer, Dan Hall, played Buddy Harman, then Dennis Crouch played Bob Moore and Russ Pahl played Pete Drake. So on the show, every time George and Tammy go into the studio to record, we’re in the background.
DW: I’m a guitar player and barely know how to play piano, but I was playing the role of one of the world’s greatest country piano players, who was also blind, so I had a challenge. It was actually pretty fun because it kept me busy for a while. I spent hours playing along with the tracks and trying to do it so that I could play them blindfolded.
JT: Every take, Jessica and Michael would be singing live, but we had these tiny earpieces to listen to the track and would mime playing along as lightly as possible while still looking like we were really playing. I spent hours really diving deep to make sure it was spot-on with the recording every time there was a chord change.
What was the most interesting part about filming?
JT: My little corner of the studio set was the closest to the lead actors, so it was amazing to have this front-row seat to these superstars singing and acting, like when George was drunk or coked up in the ’70s and Michael embraced that dark period, it was emotional. There was a cool moment between takes when Michael came over and we started messing around on guitar and played an impromptu version of The Rolling Stones’ “Dead Flowers”—that was a highlight.
Just being on set and seeing everything behind the scenes to make a show was fucking fascinating to me. I loved seeing that process and learning about it.
DW: I’ll never talk smack about an actor ever again. It’s a really difficult job and they have to work 15-hour days, then the hardest part is that they go from sitting around waiting on a camera or some technical stuff to some crazy emotional part of their inner being as soon as someone says “action.” The actors will say they know when they made a good mistake that it’s the take [they’ll use] because it just makes it more real. There’s so much acting you watch on television but getting to see the happy accidents that occur—a lot like musicians in the studio—those little accidents are kind of the best part.
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