From the Eric Church Tour to the Grammys: On the Bus with Cellist Kaitlyn Raitz

About this episode

Kaitlyn Raitz shares insights on touring, music production, and maintaining mental health as a professional musician.

You’re riding along with Kaitlyn Raitz as she breaks down the real mechanics of touring at scale: staying human on a bus, finding tiny routines that keep you sane, and surviving the sleep math when you’re one of twelve buses on a massive run. Then it’s straight into the onstage reality of modern country arena production: 24 musicians, a full string quartet, choir, and horns, plus the challenge of making strings translate in a loud arena. You get the practical gear-and-tech layer too: DPA mics and pickups, dynamic EQ, managing cello loudness, and how tools like ToneDexter fit into keeping tone consistent when the room is working against you. You also get the career side, unfiltered: how the Eric Church gig happened through the Nashville relationship web, why being excellent and easy to be around matters, and why “Nashville is a ten-year town” if you want longevity. Kaitlyn’s stories span arranging and learning charts mid-tour from iPads, to the whiplash of getting a Grammy call with barely any runway, to recording in LA and wondering how anyone actually functions there. The episode closes with the mindset and performance skills that keep pros durable: protecting your brain and…

People in this episode

Host: Dave Hamilton

Guest: Kaitlyn Raitz

Topics covered

• touring
• music production
• career in music
• string instruments
• mental health
• live performance

Keywords

• touring
• music production
• cello
• Grammys
• Nashville
• live performance
• DPA mics
• ToneDexter
• mental health
• string quartet

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Nashville

Products: DPA mics, ToneDexter

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