For Brandon Adams, learning to play music was less of a choice and more of a cultural no-brainer. “It’s just what you did.” Everyone played music, and most people (such as himself) were largely self-taught. Brandon grew up on a farm in Lawrence County, Kentucky, where the two great pastimes were music and basketball. Near neighbors in Brandon’s hometown community were Ricky Skaggs and Keith Whitley.

Brandon’s love for music was fierce. After high school he enlisted with the Army, and after being discharged he began taking music theory classes and learning the foundations of how to make and play—and write—music. He then moved to Nashville where he did some studio work as a session player and found himself playing with some of the biggest names in the acoustic world, including Tony Rice, Robert Sledge of “Ben Folds Five,” and Carl Jackson who produced for Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley. Brandon was also a guest artist on two Grammy nominated albums. Eventually, tiring of the noise of Nashville, he moved back to Kentucky, and it was from that location he travelled, playing music and doing shows. He met Mindy when one of those shows took him near Roxboro, North Carolina.

Mindy, at the time, was working at Piedmont Community College in Roxboro. A widow with three children, she started as a part-time receptionist but quickly took on more responsibility. She soon found herself helping out with the film program, assisting with shoots and locations. She also assisted with event planning, including their annual “Pickin’ by the Lake” where she gained an appreciation for Bluegrass music. It was while she was working at PCC and living in Brown’s Summit that she got a phone call from a friend who was living in Kentucky and was travelling with a musician. They had come to North Carolina and were experiencing car trouble, and could Mindy please come and help. She did, and she and Brandon quickly became friends. They continued talking for about six months, and when Brandon moved to Roxboro, the two began dating.

Brandon had been spending upwards of 200 days a year on the road, never knowing from one week to the next where he would be. In his own words he was ready to “grow up and take life more seriously.” Brandon appreciated Mindy’s imagination, and her work had prepared her to help Brandon with the tactical and organizational aspects of the music business that he would often forget to think of. Through their conversations, she has inspired several of the songs he has written. She has helped him bring his ideas and dreams into fruition in a way he could never have done alone.

In 2018, Brandon and Mindy made their partnership official when the couple were married.

Eventually, PCC began eliminating jobs, and Mindy found herself working for Guilford Technical Community College. There she worked for the foundation office and learned how to organize events and where and how to network, writing letters and communicating with those who could offer services and resources for the events the College was hosting, which prepared her for developments to come.

Brandon had been signed to an independent recording label, and he charted three songs off that label, and then Covid shut down the industry as far as touring and traveling to do shows was concerned. It was also about that time they began looking for a house. They couldn’t find housing that was reasonably priced near the college, so Mindy thought it might be a good idea to check out Danville. Having grown up in Reidsville, she was already familiar with what might be available. They found a house on Jefferson and fell in love with it, even while the age of it, and its peculiar needs, intimidated her a bit. At the same time, she had been collecting furniture for a house such as this for years, and once they did decide to make it theirs, her years of preparation once again served her well. All the furniture fit just as if it had been meant for their home.

Covid allowed Mindy to work from home, and the house made it possible to host musical events, including filming television shows. Through his connections, Brandon was invited to do two episodes with the PBS show “Songs of the Sinner”. While filming the show, he got to talking with one of the producers and pitched an idea that would become the show “Life of a Musician.” Once again, Mindy’s training made her uniquely qualified to assist Brandon in making his musical aspirations a reality.

“Everything I like,” Brandon says, “Mindy possesses in spades.”

Life of a Musician differs from other shows of a similar format in that the interviewer, Brandon, is a professional musician as well as the guests he is interviewing. Conversations are not planned, questions are not scripted. Brandon’s interviews are completely organic and evolve as Brandon asks questions he sincerely wants to know the answers to. As a musician, he looks at music from a creator’s perspective, and the questions he asks speak to the process of creation.

The show is presently in its second season and is currently nominated for an Emmy.