Meet Tori Lund and Blake English | Country Roots Band, Few Miles South

We had the good fortune of connecting with Tori Lund and Blake English and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Tori Lund and Blake English, where are your from? We’d love to hear about how your background has played a role in who you are today?
We currently reside in a small rural community of South GA, where my partner, Blake, grew up. I was raised in Los Angeles so we have very different backgrounds. Blake learned country living skills like hunting and fishing, and learned how to navigate the 405 freeway. We both grew up around music, his dad and grandpas’ all played guitar and taught him at an early age. I took piano lessons and went on to study classical singing. Blake’s family wrote music so he took after them writing songs whereas I didn’t gain that confidence until we met. Blake takes after his parents’ work ethic and channeled his passion for music into ambition to become a songwriter, study music engineering and eventually earn himself a Grammy nomination. I went through school as a singer, earned a Master of Music in vocal performance thinking I’d pursue opera and then got into teaching. When we met we combined our skills and talents and formed our band, Few Miles South.
 

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
We operate as true independent artist, writing all of our music together and we pride ourselves on also recording and producing ourselves from Blake’s studio, Southern Fried Studio. (https://southernfriedstudio.com). Blake graduated from Full Sail University, where he studied music engineering, worked at various studios and venues doing sound, he earned a ton of experience and got to collaborate with artists like Brandy and Whitney Houston. He’s been able to take what he’s learned along the way and create his own brick and mortar production house.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
We live on a dirt road on the outskirts of the small town of Blakey, GA, so there aren’t many city amenities. We spend a lot of time outside and would show folks Coheelee Creek Covered Bridge and Kolomoki State Park Mounds. There’s a cool diner on the town square called Smitty’s Grill. Blake would show folks to a few fishing holes, but wouldn’t publicize the location!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
We can credit so many people, too many to mention. I can credit my family and a few music and voice teachers along the way as inspiring and motivating me to pursue music as a career. My mom and dad always let me follow my interest in music, signing me up for lessons and tolerating me singing loudly at midnight. My first voice/piano teacher was Linda Regan, and I took lessons from her in Los Angeles starting at about 5 years old until I graduated high school. She’s been a mentor and maternal figure in my life, always encouraging me to develop my skills, take risks performing and rooting for me along the way. Blake, would probably credit his dad, Bill English, as his first influence. Bill taught Blake how to play guitar and Blake got to experience the joy of performing early on watching his dad and being encouraged to write songs. His dad loved country music especially and would be so proud to see Blake following in that direction. Blake also had a great music teacher, Steve Hacker, who instilled in him discipline and excellence.

Website: www.fewmilessouth.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/fewmilessouthmusic

Facebook: www.facebook.com/fewmilessouth

Youtube: www.youtube.com/fewmilessouth

Image Credits
Nikki Ready Glenn Whittington Photography