Interview: Pittsburgh-born Craig Burletic does double duty as bassist for Tyler Childers, El Dorodo

Although Craig Burletic moved away from Pittsburgh when he was 5 years old, he still holds strong memories of his time in the city.

Growing up in Observatory Hill, Burletic remembered walking with his grandmother from his home on Perrysville Avenue to the pool at Riverview Park. He vividly recalled stepping on broken glass in the shallow end of the pool — despite being warned about it for weeks. And another family story involves his brother wishing “Happy Easter!” out the window to someone being arrested right outside their house. Yet his overwhelming recollection of his time here is positive.

”I love Pittsburgh,” Burletic said in a call earlier this month from Toronto. “I’ve always loved it … there’s so many things about it that make me feel really nostalgic, like houses stacked on a hillside or a bar squeezed underneath an interstate bridge, or all these little things. It just makes me feel like Christmas. It’s like a real nostalgic, good, warm fuzzy feeling.”

Burletic, who plays bass for country star Tyler Childers, just had a hometown show here on June 30 at the Pavilion at Star Lake. He’ll be returning July 30 for a show at Club Cafe on Pittsburgh’s South Side with El Dorodo, which includes two other members of Childers’ band.

His mother, who was a nurse in the Army’s 339th General Hospital Reserve Unit in Pittsburgh, relocated the family when she married a man who was working in West Virginia. After his family moved to Cabell County in western West Virginia, Burletic would still return to Pittsburgh for times during the summer.

“Pittsburgh’s an interesting city because it’s Appalachian,” Burletic said. “I grew up in a trailer park in West Virginia, and I’ve spent my time in hollers and stuff. And it’s like, dude, these are holler people. … This is literally like a country holler, just like really populated.”

Returning here on Childers’ Mule Pull tour proved to be an emotional experience.

“And I didn’t think that it would be,” Burletic said. “I reached a point where it’s like, I grew up in West Virginia. I was like 5 years old (when I moved), graduated college in the county I grew up in in West Virginia.

“So it was like, I was born in Pittsburgh but felt like I was from West Virginia. But it’s funny how Pittsburgh people are. So just to feel accepted was kind of a weird thing I didn’t get a lot of growing up, being a Pittsburgh kid that moved to West Virginia. I never really felt accepted. So yeah, that was a crazy thing.”

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Whether it was playing an electric bass guitar or a stand-up bass, Burletic bounced around the stage at the Childers concert, looking like he was thoroughly enjoying himself.

“Having fun, it’s like the whole point. The basic kind of concept is like if I’m not having a good time, how’s anybody else gonna have a good time?” he said. “But also, I had 25 family members out that night, and a lot of those people told me that pursuing music was not a great idea and, in their defense, they were giving me solid advice.

“Like we (expletive) have to work, you know? I ended up just pursuing it enough and getting lucky and so being able to come and have my family there, I can’t believe this was actually happening. It was really cool.”

Almost equally as cool was a pre-show experience where he and his 3-year-old son met Pittsburgh Pirates rookie phenom Paul Skenes.

“I’d already planned to wear a Paul Skenes jersey that night. I had a (Troy) Polamalu one packed because my family always said my hair looked like Polamalu,” he said. “But I was like, Steelers are a little out of season right now. Let me go with the Skenes thing. … The night before the show, we’re in Milwaukee, and Tyler just goes, ‘Anybody fans of a guy named Paul Skenes?’

I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m trying to wear his jersey at the show, bro.’ And then (Childers) just didn’t say anything. So I didn’t know if Paul was coming or not. … But it ended up, Paul came and said what’s up, with his lady, and my son got to shake his hand. We got our picture made. I think whenever they walked in our green room, his girlfriend (Livvy Dunne) was like, ‘Oh, nice jersey.’ And I was like, ‘Dude, I’m not trying to suck up! This was already a plan.’”

Burletic considers himself fortunate that he gets to play with Childers, who grew up about 40 minutes away from him in Louisa, Kentucky. They first got together after Childers opened a show for Deadbeats and Barkers — the trio of Burletic, drummer Rodney Elkins and guitarist James Barker (who are all in El Dorodo and now play in Childers’ band) — at a bar in Huntington, West Virginia.

“We’re family, man. I’ve been listening to Tyler’s songs since he was 18 and I was 22 and we’re in West Virginia and he was coming to open mics to play his music,” he said. “It’s like, ‘Bro! I thought all the good songs had been written literally. I was trying to write songs, it’s like ah, everybody just got to them first. Oh no, you can still write an amazing, timeless song.’

“Luckily the guy I worked for, I really enjoy every song he’s wrote. It’s so cheesy, right? But every time Tyler writes a song, it’s like, ‘You know, you got a way with words, man, you’re pretty good at that.’”

It doesn’t appear that Burletic, who graduated from Marshall University, is taking any of his success for granted.

”Dude, I’m so lucky, bro. It’s crazy. This was not supposed to happen,” he said. “It kind of sucked having everybody tell you you can’t and you’re not good enough. But at the same time, it made me come up with goals that had to do with music.

“I am working on a journey to mastery, whatever that means, I probably won’t ever (expletive) get there. But it’s just like, I have this thing to work on, man. I’m like a music researcher. And having this job with Tyler is kind of like I got a grant to further my research. That’s always lucky, right?”

For the El Dorodo shows, the band — Burletic, Elkins, Barker and Doug Woodard — will be roughing it a bit, not that he’s complaining.

“We’re gonna be back crashing on couches, whatever we can do,” he said. “I’m literally sure there’s no plan of where we’re going to sleep any night on this two-week run yet. And it’ll be cool, but my feeling about it is like that’s kind of the normal thing.”

As Burletic talked, he described his view in Toronto, where he could see the venue from his comfortable hotel room.

”That’s the part that’s still weird as (expletive). Hopping in the van and going to play Club Cafe, I know exactly how that works. … We don’t do in-ear monitors with El Dorodo. We don’t have a sound guy; we show up and work with who the venue’s got. Music ends up being a series of challenges. And if you like taking on a challenge, then it’s an enjoyable thing.

“So like every gig, whether I’m playing in Toronto with this big amphitheater or playing at Club Cafe with El Dorodo, it’s like, all right, cool.”

Pronounced like El Dorado, but spelled with “rod” in the middle for the band’s drummer, the origins of El Dorodo date back to a performance of “Fast As You” in high school.

“When I met Rod in 10th grade, he had me play Dwight Yoakam — and I’d never heard Dwight Yoakam before — for the 10th grade talent show,” Burletic said. “And I realized at that moment, like, oh, country can rock, it can be really tough and cool.”

That’s translated into the band’s debut album, “Unincorporated,” which came out on May 19, 2023.

“I would call that garage rock honkytonk, I think puts it pretty concisely,” Burletic said. “We literally recorded it in James’ garage. And then Rod is really like pure stock country music, like his dad and his dad’s twin brother and their other brother had a band in the ’70s, the Elkins Brothers Band, that did straight-up country. And Rod was kind of bred to play in that band.”

With songs like “Whiskey, Women and Wine,” “The Rose of San Antone” and “Don’t Break My Heart,” El Dorodo is mostly the project of Elkins and co-writer Woodard. Burletic wrote one song on the album, “Bed of Roses,” which was his attempt at crafting at writing a song in the style of one of his favorites.

“I really like Keith Whitley. He’s a country musician who grew up in the Ashland area of eastern Kentucky, which is where I live now and not far from where I grew up,” he said. “And Ricky Skaggs, Ricky and Keith were best friends growing up. So I’ve always felt a kinship just because they grew up close. Like how cool they also came out of this kind of rural, desperate place?

“And Keith’s songs kind of came at a time when country was getting more smooth. And I’ve always been more rough around the edges sound-wise, but nonetheless, the tune I wrote for El Dorodo was kind of my best taking a crack at a Keith Whitley song and it was fun.”

Burletic has worked on other solo songs, most recently recording some at a studio in Lexington, Kentucky, with Wayne Graham, but he’s “super proud” of “Bed of Roses.”

“I got to sing it on the Grand Ole Opry in front of my mother-in-law and father-in-law and son and wife, everybody, to be there,” he said. “I delivered an absolutely terrible vocal performance. But I was so nervous and singing’s been tough for me. I worked really hard to graduate from downright wretched to barely listenable.

“And I’m so proud of being at barely listenable now. But at the Grand Ole Opry, it was definitely a tough gig, to sing, because it’s not my normal thing, being in the center of the band. But ever since then, I’ve sang it better than I ever had sang it before, so it’s a good thing. As a musician, you got to go through those things.”