By Michael Gaither

There’s something special about the dedication that it takes to hit the road full time and play your music out to a different audience every night. Such is the case with Goldpine, the Nashville-based duo of Ben and Kassie Wilson.

The husband and wife bring their harmony-driven originals to The Ugly Mug in Soquel Thursday evening. It also happens to be the couple’s first trip to Santa Cruz. The Sentinel caught up with them recently to chat about their music and what their day-to-day life looks like on the road.

“We travel like 75% of the time,” Kassie Wilson said. “Last year we played over 200 shows on the road and ended last year singing the national anthem for the Kansas City Chiefs. Maybe people will think we know Taylor, and it’ll encourage them to come to our show,” she added and laughed.

They met in Nashville, though two different paths led them there. “My family doesn’t have any musical background,” Ben Wilson said. “But after listening to a lot of alternative rock in high school and beginning to play guitar — Counting Crows was a big influence — I went into a studio, and it intrigued me.” He moved to Nashville to study audio production.

Kassie Wilson’s late father played drums and guitar, and encouraged an eclectic love of music in her early on. “We had a five-CD changer,” she said. “I would sit in front of it and just listen on shuffle mode.”

(Kids ask your parents what a CD was. And then ask them to explain what a CD changer was. It was sort of like the Spotify playlist of our day before Napster and streaming. While you’re at it, ask them what Napster was, too.)

She’d written poetry but was not yet a songwriter. When her dad died — she was only 19 — Kassie Wilson moved to Nashville and threw herself into music, learning from other writers and “doing all the things you do in Nashville.” Kassie and Ben Wilson eventually crossed paths, collaborated musically and have been a married, musical couple for 15 years.

They soon hit the road, gathering songwriting awards and major festival appearances in their wake. Eventually, the road become home. “We used to travel in a Jetta,” Kassie Wilson said. “Ben recently converted a van into a tiny home. This makes it much easier for us to stay on the road. Home is where you park it.”Talking with Ben Wilson echoed an earlier conversation with Rhett Miller of Old 97’s a few articles back. As with that band, the couple made a point to change things up and not run through the same old list of songs night after night. “I’m all about setlist dynamics,” Ben Wilson added. “A lot of acts say in the same vein, tempo and feel, but we really try to mix it up, with a rocking, vocal soaring song with electric guitar, then we’ll do a really somber song, and we’ve got everything in between. We get bored of doing the same thing over and over again.” Those song choice dynamics carry into what they bring to and play at their shows, with what Goldpine labels “Aggressive Americana.”

“I’ll mix acoustic and electric guitar with a suitcase kickdrum,” Ben Wilson said. “Kassie adds a little keyboard, harmonica and percussion, along with strong harmonies from both of us.” And all of this backs up lots of original material from their two self-released albums, titled “One” and “Two.” (“Three” is coming in July.)

And they have no plans to slow down. “On this tour we’re out for three months,” Kassie Wilson said. “Then we’re home for a couple of weeks, and then back out. If you want to grow, you gotta be on the road.”

Michael Gaither is a performing songwriter, radio DJ and the music writer for The Santa Cruz Sentinel.