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PHOTOGRAPH BY E.J. CARR, TAKEN AT THE CLUB AT INVERNESS
RHYTHM PLAYER: Rising country music star Teddy Robb’s career and golf game got jump-started the year he lived in the Vail Valley.
The Robb Report THE ODDS OF SIGNING a recording contract, like those of earning a PGA TOUR card, are “like a million to one,” Teddy Robb says. He should know. The Nashville-based recording artist has beat those odds to climb the leaderboards with such country hits as “Heaven on Dirt” and “Really Shouldn’t Drink Around You.” And for this, the 31-year-old Ohio native owes Colorado a big thank you. In 2013, after graduating from Kent State University, Robb plunged headlong into the cutthroat Nashville singer-songwriter scene. Needing a vacation, he headed to Vail with his snowboard and found himself at Pepi’s Bar. On a dare, he put $20 in troubadour Dave Tucker’s tip jar and asked if he could play. His performance earned him a job as one of Pepi’s house musicians, complete with a place to live near Vail Golf Club. Playing music by night and golf by day, Robb spent a “magical year in the mountains” that saw him mature as a musi-
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cian and songwriter. He performed more than 300 days, often doing covers and taking requests with fellow Ohioan Andy Cyphers. Robb wasn’t even onstage when his big break came. He was sitting alone at Pepi’s, listening to Cyphers play, and offered his table to a group that had just walked in. “They bought me a beer, and I started talking to this guy I gave my seat to,” he remembers. “I told him I was a country singer and wanted to move back to Nashville and be a recording artist.” The guy turned out to be Evan Greene, then the chief marketing officer of the Grammy Awards. “He gave me his card and didn’t make any promises,” Robb says, “but he said he would try to connect some pieces for me.” He did. Within a year of that chance encounter, Robb had a producer and a recording deal with Monument Records. “That moment at Pepi’s started this whole new life for me,” he says with
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humility and obvious gratitude. Six years later, that new life includes strong songwriting relationships with Shane McAnally and Josh Osborne, songs streamed in multiples of 10 million and appearances on national television, in magazines and on stages across the country (including a recent private performance at Parker’s Vehicle Vault). Life also includes plenty of golf, which, he says, “is very popular among members the country-music business—a great way to get to know people.” A gifted athlete who played wide receiver in high school and college, Robb admits golf has vexed and humbled him to the point of rinsing away the competitive frustration he often experienced. “At this point in my life, I just want to enjoy myself on the course,” he says with a smile. “I shoot in the 90s, occasionally sneak into the 80s. If I’m going to work at improving something, it’s going to involve my music.” teddyrobb.com
Fall 2021 | COLORADO AVIDGOLFER
