By Tabitha Evans Moore
EDITOR & PUBLISHER

LYNCHBURG, Tenn. — Country singer-songwriter Blake Redferrin may crisscross the country from the South to the West Coast to shoot a music video, but he also loves a Jiffy Mart breakfast biscuit. In fact, one of his favorite recent Lynchburg memories involves a sausage biscuit, Jack Daniel’s brand ambassador and tour guide John T, and a ketchup packet.

“Last time I was down there, I stopped in Jiffy Mart to get me a sausage biscuit, and I see John T in there,” he says. “He comes up to hug me. Steps on a ketchup packet, it blows all over both of us, and he’s got to go to work. There’s definitely a ketchup incident at the Jiffy Mart.”

He pauses, then adds, “If John hears about that in the paper, he’s gonna fall over probably.”

It’s the kind of story a local tells, and that’s the point. Blake hails from White House, Tennessee, but here in Lynchburg, folks embrace him as one of their own, and his chosen family gets wider with each visit.

“When I go to my hometown, not a soul knows me unless it’s family,” he says. “But if I go to Lynchburg, I’m not getting out of too many places without saying hello. I get a lot of waves. It’s pretty sweet.”

On Friday night, he’ll headline the Jack Daniel’s BBQ Bash in the Hollow, the concert that kicks off Jack Daniel’s Barbecue weekend, for the third year in a row.

FROM INSTAGRAM TO FAMILY

Several years ago, Jack Daniel’s Marketing Director Greg Luehrs discovered Blake on Instagram following the streaming success of his song, Jack and Diet Coke. Luehrs invited him to the distillery for a visit, and the two became fast friends. Since then, Blake’s returned dozens of times, including a songwriting stint in an Airstream up on Barbecue Hill.

“I owe Mister Greg the world,” Blake says. “He has been so kind to me from day one.”

The two have known each other going on four years now, and Blake says a lot of life has happened in that time, both success and heartbreak. Through all of it, he says, the people at Jack never wavered.

“They hug me when I go to that distillery, and they have loved on me through all the wins and losses, and never treated me any different,” he says. “Fed me and gave me places to stay, whether it was related to music or Jack or not.”

That support showed up in a big way in February 2025, when Blake played the Grand Ole Opry for the first time. He says thirty people from Jack Daniel’s and Brown-Forman sat in the audience that night.

The Opry carried extra weight. When Blake first started chasing music, his father gave him a simple measuring stick.

“He said, ‘If you make it in the Grand Ole Opry, can’t nobody say you ain’t country,'” Blake says.

His dad didn’t get to watch Blake’s performance that night, but he knew it was coming.

“I would say that was probably the most proud he’s ever been of me,” Blake says.

The Opry invited him back a few months ago. Jack Daniel’s made him a commemorative barrel head to mark the first one.

“They got big hearts and they make good whiskey too,” he says. “They’ve loved me on a level I could never tell them thank you enough for.”

HOMETOWN 2.0

I jokingly refer to Blake as an unofficial local because he seems to be here all the time. Over the last two years, he says he’s made the trip at least once a month, sometimes every other week, though a heavy touring schedule has kept him on the road for much of the past six months.

“There’s so much about Lynchburg I love,” he says. “Those two-lane roads feel like home to me. And you never meet a stranger there.”

And it’s not always business. Sometimes it’s dinner with friends at the Mexican restaurant on the square. Sometimes it’s an invitation for supper at somebody’s house. And sometimes it’s just a gas station biscuit shenanigans.

“A lot of my family’s all in heaven, so I ain’t got a whole lot waiting on me in my hometown,” he says. “Lynchburg kind of feels like hometown 2.0.”

Work keeps him close to Nashville for now, but he says he sees himself owning property here one day.

“It’s a place I want to end up,” he says.

One local already has a nickname for him. Every time she spots him, he says, she announces that the son of Lynchburg is back.

“I’m like, ‘I did not earn that title,'” he laughs. “That sounds like Mister Jack’s title.”

When I first interviewed Blake in 2024, standing just off the stage after soundcheck at the first-ever BBQ Bash, he told me, “It might have started off as business, but now it’s family.” Two years later, that’s only gotten more true.

THE TENNESSEE HALF

Several months ago, Blake came to Lynchburg for more than pleasure. He was here to shoot half of the video for If I Was California, a song he wrote at the distillery.

“It’s about a girl from California, and it’s good times when you’re there with her, but she ain’t gonna leave, and you got to go back to Tennessee,” he says.

They shot the West Coast half in the Los Angeles area. For the other half, he headed to the farm of Jack Daniel’s Barrel Man Kevin Sanders, who co-stars and gave the crew the run of his farm and barrel shop. Clint and Katie Bailey, Dale McGee, and other familiar faces also appear.

“I had to get the Tennessee part going in there, and I figured there wasn’t no better place than Lynchburg for it,” Blake says. “I’ve seen a lot of stuff filmed down there, but I’ve never seen nothing at Mr. Kevin’s, so I was pretty proud of that.”

As for Sanders himself?

“He’s pure gold,” Blake says.

NO BOUNDARIES

Back in 2024, Blake told me that his early music landed a little ahead of its time for mainstream country. A lot has changed since then. His most recent album, Been There, Done That, leaned more traditional and lighthearted, even on the sad songs.

“It was a happy heartbreak,” he says.

He says the past year has been one of growing as a man and getting past some tough things. But he still loves rock and roll, and he says fans should expect next year’s music to split the difference between that album and his Lynchburg-inspired EP, Old No. 7.

“I don’t want to get away from my roots,” he says. “It feels pretty free to not have any boundaries.”

He credits his label, Warner, for backing him in whatever direction he wants to try. When I ask what he’d create if he never had to think about commercial success, he says it would sound a lot like what he’s already making.

“When I was a songwriter, I tried to write what I thought people wanted to hear, and a lot of times they just fell flat,” he says. “Anytime I just did one for me, that ended up kind of being when I got lucky. It was just writing something that I want to listen to in the truck when I’m rolling down 41.”

He’s learned not to read too much into the numbers. A song isn’t bad because few people heard it, he says, and it isn’t good just because it caught a lucky break on TikTok.

“I try not to get too wound up in the stats, good or bad, and just write songs I love,” he says. “I think when you’re just true to yourself, it’s when it works the best.”

FRIDAY NIGHT

Friday will mark Blake’s fourth Jack Daniel’s Barbecue performance. He played the private Barbecue Hill team dinner in 2023 and headlined the BBQ Bash in 2024 and 2025. When I ask how it feels to keep getting invited back, his humility shines through.

“Honestly, it’s kind of surreal. After the first time, I was just thankful to do it once,” he says. “I know there’s so many other awesome artists they could book, and I think it really says a lot about how much they love me as a person down there. I love my people at Jack, and I love the history there.”

There’s a tradition attached, too. Every time he plays here, he gets to tap a barrel, and he’s kept a bottle from each show.

“I hope I get one this year,” he says. “I need to keep the tradition going.”

For anyone still on the fence about Friday, he offers this.

“If you love Jack Daniel’s, I’m gonna say that word probably 500 times during my set. That’s the only whiskey I talk and sing about,” he says. “We’ve got happy, upbeat stuff. I’ve got stuff to make you get in your feelings a little bit, and then we’ll always bring it back around to a good time. Lynchburg’s home, and I just really hope to see everybody out there.”

Before we hang up, I tell him that if he calls me ma’am one more time, I’m coming through the phone.

“That’s one of my favorite things about Lynchburg,” he says. “People still say it, so that’s a hard habit to break.”

Spoken like a local.

The Jack Daniel’s BBQ Bash in the Hollow featuring Redferrin with Kelsey Hart happens on Friday behind the Lynchburg Welcome Center from 6 to 10 p.m. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. Tickets cost $50 with three drink tickets; or $25 for under 21 or admission without drink tickets. Wristbands can be picked up at the Visitor Center from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. To purchase tickets, click here.

There will be food trucks on site, and all ages are welcome. Bring your own chair.•

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