As a precocious young boy growing up in rural Central Illinois, Craig Gerdes could close his eyes and picture the scene set by Kris Kristofferson’s country classic, “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down.” It resembled much of the life he observed around him.

Gerdes began playing country music at the age of 10 in the band of his father, who, as a child, would crowd around the radio with his family waiting for the wind to blow in just the right direction so they could pick up the faint signal from the Grand Ole Opry. The songs his father loved—by country icons like George Jones, Merle Haggard and Johnny Cash—provided the foundation for Craig’s work. By age 12, he was already a capable songwriter and musician.

Gerdes believes “Country music is just about real life. It’s not necessarily all happy or joyful times. There can be a lot of hard times.”

“Not just tailgates and bonfires and stuff like that.”

Gerdes has called Pattonsburg home for most of his life, an unincorporated and distinctly rural portion of Marshall County a handful of miles east of Washburn. After spending about 5 years in Nashville sleeping on floors and shopping songs that he wrote, Gerdes returned to Pattonsburg.

“I felt like I needed to go,” Gerdes said. “I needed to get out of there.”

It wasn’t long until he realized that the world was a lot bigger than just Nashville and that he should take his music to the people.

“I needed to take my music all over the country,” Gerdes said.

That’s been Gerdes’ itinerary ever since, hitting barrooms, small clubs and other venues and festivals. What matters to Gerdes anymore isn’t the amount of people during the show but the ones that approach him afterward, who feel as if one of his songs perfectly described their life.

“It makes me feel like I’m making people’s lives better, if it’s just for four minutes,” Gerdes said. “To me, that is successful.”

Gerdes, who travels with his band and his wife Janel. “I love moving—that part of traveling where you’re actually rolling down the highway. It’s when we feel most at home. Things are just different—your sleep patterns and your mindset change. But the thing I love the most about being on the road is meeting different forms and facets of people—talking to them and hearing their stories about where they come from and what they do. I find that intriguing.

Sit with him for five minutes and you’ll know that Gerdes is a natural-born storyteller. He writes about real people, real places and real struggles, collected along the Interstate as Gerdes and his band play an endless parade of one-night stands.

Gerdes says “It’s about the people. I want my music to speak directly to them, to things they’ve gone through. In my mindset, country music has got to be real.”