It sounds like the punchline to a joke, but a Nashville pedal steel player is running for governor of Tennessee.
“I care very much about the world, and about making things better for everyone,” Adam Kurtz says. Known as “Ditch” to friends, as well as on the ballot at this Thursday’s gubernatorial primary election in Tennessee, Kurtz has toured and recorded with country artists like Joshua Ray Walker, Silverada, and Sunny Sweeney, in addition to fronting his own Buck Owens tribute band, Buck N Stuff. Today, he’s in his living room on the outskirts of Nashville, explaining why he chose to put himself through the wringer and run for political office.
In deep-red Tennessee, where the Republican incumbent Bill Lee is leaving office after hitting his term limit, Kurtz, on the Democratic ballot, is an admitted long-shot. Most polls have him in second place in his own party behind Memphis councilwoman Jerri Green, but his presence in the race at all is notable for a genre that generally sidesteps politics altogether.
“During the 2024 presidential campaign, I made some politically-minded videos,” Kurtz says. “Oftentimes in this genre, we’re told to shut up and play music. There are fans on both sides of the proverbial aisle. But I’m a side guy. I don’t have to worry about fans not buying records or coming to shows. And also, I don’t care if people are so precious that they can’t bear to hear me stand up for something political. I had all this pent-up energy after that election in 2024 to where I just felt like, ‘Maybe it’s time to put my money where my mouth is.’”
He’s not the first artist in independent country or Americana to recently dive into politics. BJ Barham — who fronts American Aquarium, another band that once claimed Kurtz as a member — narrowly missed winning a seat on the town council in his home of Wendell, North Carolina, in 2025. And in 2019, Texas guitarist Hayden Pedigo ran a surreal campaign for Amarillo city council.
Kurtz, whose humor-forward campaign has more than a little in common with Pedigo’s approach, first announced his intent to run in March 2025 with a social media post promoting education and a minimum wage increase. Today, his campaign website lays out a series of left-leaning policies like affordable health care, workers’ rights, and protecting LGBTQ and immigrant communities. He says he chose to aim high with the gubernatorial race because his local and state representatives already share his views. He’s also hoping the years he spent playing to country crowds can break down some barriers that liberal politicians in red states often find insurmountable.
“I felt like I was uniquely poised to represent reaching across the aisle,” Kurtz says. “I’m not what you think all liberal people are, I’m a country musician. I perform for you. We hang out. Maybe you can see that I’m not a bad person. You like bands that I play in.”
If Kurtz made his foray into politics from off the radar, Barham entered in a crosshair. Public and unapologetic in his left-leaning politics on social media for a decade before his 2025 run for town council in Wendell, Barham was worn down by the urban sprawl engulfing the place he calls home.
The Wake County town, centered 26 miles east of downtown Raleigh, had a population of just under 9,800 in 2020. Four years later, a census bureau estimated Wendell at nearly 17,000. Fearing for the identity of his adopted hometown, Barham threw his hat in the ring. “When I asked some other friends to run, and they wouldn’t do it, that was when I jumped in,” he says.
Barham campaigned door-to-door style and supplemented that with a series of social media videos. He adjusted his touring schedule to ensure he was home for debates and campaign events. Five candidates ran for three open seats, and Barham finished fourth. But he landed more than a thousand votes and was just over a hundred votes shy of winning a seat — and 350 votes shy of winning the whole thing.
“The fact that some first-time politician rock-and-roller finished fourth, and lost by a hundred votes, says a lot about how many people were pissed off about what’s currently going on,” Barham says. “Now, I won’t run again, just because the changes that could have been made in the next four years — they’re gone. We’re gonna be a suburb of Raleigh very soon. We just got a Chick-fil-A and a Starbucks. It’s coming toward us. We’re no longer a small town in Wake County, we’re gonna be just another bedroom community, and that’s what a lot of people in Wendell want.”
Kurtz says he had no expectations when he decided to run, though he hoped the novelty of a country picker on the ballot would spur enough curiosity to land him the nomination. That’s highly unlikely, but Kurtz won’t throw in the towel.
“I already feel like it’s a win, because I’ve gotten people involved. I’ve given some people hope, or a new lease on looking around the world,” he says. “It’s so dark for those of us who want good for ourselves and our communities out there that even just doing this — stepping up and running — has given people some motivation to get involved.”
Josh Crutchmer is a journalist and author whose upcoming book, Sonoran Sounds, is set for release in March 2027 via Back Lounge Publishing.
