Why We Write with Kim Ruehl, Eps. 10: The Milk Carton Kids

It’s been ten years since The Milk Carton Kids—Joey Ryan and Kenneth Pattengale—released their debut album, Prologue, as a pay-what-you-can download on their website. As risky a marketing choice as that was, word caught on and the duo has long since become a Grammy-nominated, Americana Award-winning group. Of course, both Pattengale and Ryan were solo songwriters before launching their collaboration, so I was interested to learn how they’ve influenced each other’s writing over all these years. Thus, for the latest episode of Why We Write, we dug into The Milk Carton Kids’ songwriting, influences (which John Prine song they both deem “perfect”), and how their collaboration has evolved in the past decade.

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