Riley Green packed Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena to its rafters for his first headlining show there this past April. Fans sang along to every word of hits including “There Was This Girl” and “Worst Way,” while Jamey Johnson joined him for a heartfelt rendition of “In Color.” As Green’s Cowboy as It Gets tour rolls on, the Alabama native and former quarterback at Jacksonville State University has also found time to cohost the CMA Fest in June, make his acting debut on the Yellowstone spinoff Marshals, and join the upcoming season of The Voice as a coach. But you can bet he’s looking forward to duck season.
Raised hunting and fishing, Green still spends as much time in the field as his schedule allows. He’s merged that passion with his affinity for whiskey as a cofounder of the recently launched Duck Club Bourbon, a brand inspired by time hunting on his six-hundred-acre Alabama farm, trips to Arkansas, and a commitment to wetlands conservation. Green debuted the bourbon with a $100,000 donation to Ducks Unlimited at a concert in Arkansas last November, and Duck Club has now partnered with the organization on a three-year sponsorship agreement.
On the bourbon side, Green partnered with McCauley Williams, the founder and CEO of the Memphis-based spirits company Morningside Brands. Duck Club’s bottles include a 92-proof four-grain bourbon blended from Kentucky- and Indiana-sourced barrels; a 110-proof “High Brass” edition with rich caramel and baking spice notes; and a new Wetlands release, launched at last weekend’s Ducks Unlimited Expo in Memphis. Each expression sports handsome vintage-inspired labels and delivers quality that belies its modest price point.
We caught up with Green to talk bourbon, life at duck camp, and why Nashville remains the center of the country music universe.
What made you decide to launch Duck Club Bourbon?
We’ve had several conversations over the years with several brands, but it never really turned into anything. I think it’s because it just wasn’t right. When Duck Club came to me, it was such an easy “yes” because it was so on brand for who I am and what I’m doing.
Duck Club’s packaging has a retro look, with some neat details. What’s the story behind it?
From growing up hunting, there’s a lot of tradition and nostalgia for me. The labels look like [they’re from] an old Field & Stream magazine, like something that would’ve been in my granddaddy’s hunting room. They take you back to that place. What I love about the label, the bottle—everything about it—is that it looks like something that could have cobwebs on it, sitting in the back of some old duck camp somewhere in Arkansas.
The bourbon itself is also quite tasty. What was the process for selecting it?
When something’s right, it’s supposed to be easy, and it certainly was for me. [Williams] sent over several samples, and we tasted through those. It’s kind of like when I write a song. I send it to people I trust first, guys who really listen to the lyrics. The more trusted ears—and talent—you can get in on it, the better the product is going to be all around. It was the same with the bourbon. I let everybody I could try it, and everybody really liked it.
Conservation is also central to Duck Club’s mission. Tell us about why that was important to you.
When we officially launched the brand, we did a show for Ducks Unlimited in Arkansas and donated a lot of money toward conservation. One reason this partnership has worked so well is that our brands are naturally aligned. We want to dedicate some of our time and profits to protecting the places that made duck hunting what it was for us growing up, and what it’ll be for future generations. It’s definitely a big part of what we’re doing.
You live on a farm in Alabama and spend a lot of time on the road, but you also have a bar in Nashville, Duck Blind. Do you still get to Nashville as much?
I love being on my farm, and I do spend most of my days on the road, but I still spend quite a bit of time in Nashville because there’s so much I can accomplish while I’m there.
In some ways, Nashville is probably a little less important [for emerging musicians] than it was ten years ago, before Spotify and Amazon and Apple Music and all these other avenues to put out music, or social media to introduce yourself to an audience as a new artist. But if you want to build a large-scale career, it’s pretty necessary. There are so many relationships I’ve built in Nashville, whether with songwriters, other artists, or people in the industry. There are a lot of doors that can open if you spend that time in town and go about it the right way.
It’s also unique to country music. In rock and pop and everything else, there’s not really one central location. There are offices in New York and L.A., but Nashville is a special place for country music.
What does a trip to duck camp look like for you these days?
Well, we’re not exactly roughing it anymore. When I was growing up, duck blinds were sticks tied together with shoestring. Now we’ve got blinds where you can dock your boat underneath. There are grills hooked up to gas, electricity hooked up to a battery, a TV and couches—out there in Arkansas.
Duck hunting has evolved into something that can be somewhat of a leisure sport, but that’s because it’s so much about going out there and hanging out with your buddies. Deer hunting or turkey hunting is more of a solitary sport. Duck hunting is about getting your group together, catching up, and hanging out. That’s something that’s great for me now in my career, as busy as I am.
I’m sure there’s some bourbon involved afterward, too.
Oh yeah, definitely. There are always plenty of bottles passed around the campfire at duck camp.
Tom Wilmes is a journalist based in central Kentucky who covers bourbon and other spirits, travel, and food. A contributor to Garden & Gun, he has also written for Whisky Advocate, The Local Palate, Southbound, and other publications. A Kentucky Colonel and Certified Executive Bourbon Steward, he has spent years reporting on—and indulging in—the culture he covers, a responsibility he doesn’t take lightly. Follow him on Instagram @americadistilled.