Coming to you from the studios at the Illinois Rock and Roll Museum on Route 66, it's the Rock and Roll Chicago Podcast. Hey everybody, it's Ray the Roadie. And this is Hollywood Mike.

How you doing? I'm doing good. How you been? You know, I just flew in from Toronto, Canada. Oh, your arms are tired, aren't they? Oh yeah, just a little bit.

See, you missed it. That was you. Did you bring back some Canadian bacon? No, not at all.

Nothing? No souvenirs? Just a little Canadian money, which isn't worth a shit. Not really, no. So it's snowing up there, huh? Yeah, it was.

And cold. And it's cold here too. It's getting better.

So did you bring anybody with to interview tonight? I sure did. I brought a hurricane with me from Canada. There was a hurricane? Yeah, that's right.

At least we're here. We've got the hurricane project here sitting in the studio tonight. And I'm excited for this one because I have a feeling this is going to be a good interview.

It really is. So sitting right over here, we have the man himself, the muffin man, Mr. Jeffrey Ruffin. Good evening.

And we have Al Hurricane Spears sitting next to him. Two hurricanes here? Yeah. Well, hey, everybody.

He's the hurricane. He is the hurricane. Yes, and we got this dude over here.

We have Melvin Holmes. Melvin, I got to tell you, around the studio, you've got a nickname that you probably don't even know yet, but everybody wants to know who's that guy that shows up with Al and plays guitar every once in a while. And everybody's like, oh, which one are you talking about? And they're like, that smooth guy.

That really smooth guy. Oh, wow. That's Melvin Too Smooth Holmes.

They either call them smooth or they started calling him Mel-Mel. Too Smooth Holmes, man. That's right.

Good evening. And you are sitting in the vicinity of the goat right over there, Mr. Herman Hines. Yeah, real goat.

Oh, yeah. Thank you. Thank you.

Boy, what a crowd, man. Y'all got a nice crowd. Oh, yeah.

In-studio audience. Thank you, everybody. That's right.

You know, one of the things that I wanted to talk about, one of the things I want to do in this interview is, you know, we go way back and a lot of people know who you guys are. You guys have been playing around in the area a long time, but I don't think everybody knows exactly your backstory and where everybody came from. And I know you all got some interesting stories.

And so I figured we'd start there and we might as well start with the man, Mr. Al Hurricane himself. All right. We can do that.

Thank you so much for having us. We appreciate it. And I've probably been involved in music probably about 29 years.

It started off as a hobby for me. I remember working for this Fortune 500 company, I ain't gonna say no name because I don't know. Anyway, and I needed a hobby.

And a friend of mine brought a guitar to work and he said, hey, man, I got to get rid of this guitar. You ever played a guitar before? And I said, no, man, but bring it in, you know. So he brought it in and, you know, I got the guitar and took it home and didn't even know how to hold the doggone thing, man.

I had to backwards and I was hugging it like it was my wife, you know, that kind of thing, you know. So that was 28, 29 years ago. What was the guitar? It was an Ibanez Rollstar Series 2. Ah, never forget the first one.

Right. And, you know, I'm a tinkerer. So, you know, I didn't know how to play the guitar.

So what did I do? The first thing I did was I took the guitar apart because I wanted to see how it worked. And, you know, and then it just started from there. You know, I met a guy, Nick Laramie, real good friend of mine, who was also a good friend of the guy, Ernie Jamadi, that gave me that Ibanez guitar.

And Nick invited me to a place on Western on the north side because he wanted to see this guitar. And so, you know, I get up, go down there and I could only play in two keys at this time, you know, and that was A and G. And on break, Nick gets off stage, comes down, looks at the guitar and he's, yeah, that's cool, man. That's cool.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And he goes back up and then he calls me up on stage, you know, and I'm like, I ain't getting up there. It was probably about six, seven hundred people in that arena.

And he called out the key of F. And I could only play in A and G. First of all, nobody should do that to anybody, get you on the stage and call out the key of F. We were at a jam one time and a harmonica player comes up and says, you know, we're going to play in the key of F. We all look at him and go, F! He actually said the key of love and I go, OK, ain't no L. Anyway, you know, and I got on, I got on stage, the bass player showed me what a fingering was, you know, and I've been playing guitar every day since. Even when I would travel for work, I took a guitar with me and started a band with a couple of guys, Twisting the Groove Machine. Jeff was the drummer in that band.

And I don't know, we probably, we played together probably 20 years. Thirteen to twenty. Yeah, somewhere along, you know, we all old, so we forget that stuff.

And, you know, all of the real working musicians, the friends and stuff, you know, that I know and that I hung out with kept telling me, Al, man, you need to start your own thing, you know? And I was like, but I don't sing, you know? And it was like, well, you just learn how to sing, just like you learned how to play the guitar. And I was like, I don't like my voice, you know? And then I found out most singers don't like their voice anyway. But anyway, most people don't like their voice when they get recorded.

Wait till you hear this podcast. You're never going to talk in public again. Can I get this? We might have to edit a whole lot.

That's what I said, and I'm still doing it. Just take me out. And so, you know, I thought about it.

It's actually seven pieces in the Hurricane Project. We got two guitar players, bass, drums, Herman on vocals, killer harmonica player Tony Medina, and a keyboard and a horn player, Jeff Choates. That's the full Hurricane Project.

So depending on the gig, you know, I bring everybody and, you know, sometimes we do a full piece, sometimes we do a five piece, you know, whoever can't make it can't make it. And I was fortunate enough to check off, you know, one of my dreams was to have music pay my way overseas. And, you know, that's happened.

So my next journey, our next journey with the Hurricane Project is to be on the Chicago Blues Fest. Keep your fingers crossed. We'll probably be on it this year.

But these guys right here, Jeff Ruffin, Melvin Too Smooth Holmes, Herman, the guy, Father Hines, Jeff, oh, I call him White Chocolate. Don't edit this either. And Tony Mississippi Sacks.

That's the Hurricane Project. That's our musical family. And, you know, I'm probably going to keep doing this as long as I can, you know? Right.

You know, I don't I don't been somewhere everywhere and I didn't do something everything. So I'm blessed. He's being a little modest, too, because his playing and the people that he's played with in the places that he's played.

I mean, it reads like a who's who. All you got to do is go to his Facebook page and look at his pictures. So you guys are basically like a real hurricane.

You've got your category three, you got your category four and category five when you're all together. We try to take the roof off of places when we play. And, you know, we're not a scripted band.

You know, I think we have fun. We're not a scripted band. You ain't gonna hear no note for note songs.

You know, we might grab a groove, man, and we make it our own. You know, we like having fun, you know, and that's what it's about me. I don't think none of us we never got into it.

You know, we're too old to get into it. Yeah. You know, we use that F word a lot.

Like Herman called me the other day and he left this message on my voicemail. And I listened to it like I was on another call. And, you know, so I listened to it a little while later after I got done with that call.

And he goes, I ain't leaving. Because, you know, your voicemail say leave a message, right? You know, I die laughing. To be honest, I didn't know I was being recorded.

Right, right. Yeah. I guess a little beep sound came up real quick.

Caught me off guard. So, you know, he said, leave a message. I ain't leaving nothing.

You know, so I was texting. As soon as I text him, he answered. Well, you can text all you on the phone.

But yeah, I love these guys. I love these guys right here. And I love them, you know, they're my musical family.

I'm going to ask you a question that everybody asks me. And every time they ask me this question, I say, well, why don't you go ask him? I mean, because I don't know the answer. Go ask him.

And I don't want to name drop or nothing like that. But I can't tell you how many times people have come up to me and asked me, how do you know Toronzo Cannon? How did you meet him? I met Toronzo Cannon at the Harlem Avenue lounge. They host a jam there.

So and by the way, most of these guys I met at the jam night. Right. You know, I met Toronzo at Harlem Avenue along with Mike Wheeler, you know, Dave Spector and all those guys.

They come out and they hang out, you know, and, you know, we just got talking right. You know, and he'll tell you, I'm probably me and Mike Wheeler is probably his only pallbearers. I ain't going to get into why, but that's my buddy.

I just talked to him yesterday. Right. Yeah.

Yeah. That's that's that's my one of my my good friends. You know, we look out for each other.

We we call each other when they when they own some dumb stuff, you know. Right. We do that, you know, just like family, you know.

That's good. That's good. Yep.

Yep. Yep. And I have a new lounge and Mr. Ruffin.

Yes, sir. Tell us about you. Tell us about yourself.

Well, I've had I've actually had the privilege of playing with him. He's filled in for Tom Dixon and Cadillac Group a couple of times, done shows with him. Well, right now I am doing wonderful.

Life has been good. He's got a subway sandwich in his belly. A sandwich? A sandwich? A sandwich.

Teriyaki chicken. Yes it is. A sandwich with a ham.

But I grew up in Chicago, originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, home of the Buckeyes, the Ohio Players and a few others. But growing up in Chicago, playing Chicago Blues, I had to took me a minute to learn it. My first blues experience was with Billy Branch and the Sons of Blues.

I was the original drummer. I did my first recording with them with Skinny. Yeah, I was Skinny.

You can tell life's been good. These are studio quality monitors. We can hear all that stuff.

I got a tattoo of Skinny. You got to leave the room if you're going to whisper. But anyway, they did a write up about us in Chicago Blues Legends or something like that.

And that's where the Skinny picture came in. Your name is mentioned in that book. Yeah, one of the magazines.

I forgot which one. I got it in my car, both copies. And I'm not vain, but you know, it doesn't happen often, so I enjoy it.

I've been on the blues circuit 57, no, 59 years. I feel like I'm 12 sometimes. And here we are here in Joliet.

I came to Joliet in 78 with Jojo Murray and the Top Flight Band. Jojo. Yeah, we had some good times here in Joliet.

And I was still here up until four years ago. I said, it's time to move on. So Bolingbroke, they call it boring bro, but it suits me fine.

I'm not the runaround type anymore. I didn't get too old and too broke down. But I say life is good.

But you're still one of the best drummers around here. Well, thank you very much. Absolutely.

Without a doubt. I don't try hard, though. It just comes natural.

That's the gift that the father gave me and I pass it on. Right. It's all about love and truth.

It's a lot about the work you put in it, too. Well, I did all that when I was young. Well, that's history.

So, yeah, it's like you don't spoil me for other drummers. Other drummer come on, you know, like, oh, OK, he don't feel what I don't feel. Well, anyway.

Roman Hines. Yes. When your time.

Oh, you still on? No, I'm sorry. I'm done. The mic is all you.

Oh, OK. So he's a he's a lead singer of the Hurricane Project. You know, so he's used to having a mic.

And just like a lead singer, he came in too early. I'm just a drummer. Well, you got to remember, though, I'm still learning.

So I got I got to find out where to come in. So, you know, usually I give them a signal, let them know I'm coming in. Rather than, you know, just coming in.

Right, right, right. So I want to go way back. I want to go way back with you, Herman.

I can go way back. I guess because I because I will say one thing about the first time that that I met Herman. I was playing in a band called the Bubba Fats Blues Band.

Bubba Fats. And we were playing at the in the bar at the Strike and Spare 2 over there. And I was warming up on guitar and I was playing that the intro to I was playing the intro to Voodoo Child and in walks this man that filled the doorway.

And he says, I just had to come in here and see what was going on because somebody was warming up with Jimi Hendrix and the piano player in the band at the time was a guy named Ray Spar. Did he have a Subway sandwich with him? He did not. He did not.

But he was carrying a bowling ball. And Ray Ray says to me, he he taps me on the shoulder and he says, oh, you got to let this guy come up and sing with us. You never heard singing like this before.

And he came up and he and he did like the first half of set with us. And we were a different band when he when he joined us. We really were.

And I don't know if you remember that or not, but, man, that was like about 25 years ago. Something like that. That was Bubba.

Did he play the Arrow? Abba King Arrow guitar? Well, we used to have no, we used to have Jimmy J was his name. Right. Which would sit in with us.

I remember I played with him. Right, right. Right.

Jimmy J would sit in with us a little bit. Jimmy J from Indiana. Yeah.

Oh, man, that was my buddy. Jimmy. Jimmy J was I mean, he was actually my mentor on guitar.

He when I first met him, for some reason, we hit it off and he would send me phone messages all the time and he would just be humming. He'd be going like, do, do, do, do, do. And he goes, learn this scale.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Jimmy J was Abba King's nephew. Right, right.

Yeah, I was just getting ready to say that. Yes, he was. Yes, he was.

He was. Yeah, he had some stories about Abba King. But, you know, I can't really.

I don't want to be disparaging. Yes, he would say, Abba would. He said sometimes, you know, like he could be a little mean.

He said he'd tell me to learn a song, you know, like he'd show me something. And next time he'd come by and I'd know it. And he'd get mad, you know, like through my guitar.

And that's and that's exactly what he used. That's exactly what he used to do to me. He would say, learn this.

And then I'd see him and I'd play it with him. He wouldn't get mad at me. But then he'd give me something else.

Yeah, yeah. He became a mentor for sure. But during that time, were you still working? Were you retired at that time? Oh, no, no.

I retired in 01. OK, OK. So this had to be 98.

It was about 98 or 99. Something like that. Around there.

Something like that. Because I hadn't played with a band before. Right.

And so I did a little karaoke. And I got that from the Strike and Spare also. They started doing karaoke there on Friday nights when I was bowling.

Right. And I had this challenge. And this girl says, hey, come on up and do a song.

I said, I will if you go up with me. So, well, when they called our name, she panicked. I ain't going up there.

Oh, yes, you are. So I carried her on stage. Because I was scared to death.

I carried her on stage. And some Benny King stand by me. Yeah.

And so when I got it started, she kind of got into it. And actually, we hummed nice pretty good on accident. It wasn't like Lurid.

Oh, right, right. But it wasn't bad. And so people started copying.

So I said, you know, I feel pretty good. So I started doing karaoke before I went to work because I was working midnights. Oh, OK.

So I go in and do a couple songs, go to work, and I always felt better. And that's because I worked at Princess Stateville. Right, right.

Maximum Security. Worked there for almost three years. Along with Mel over here, my co-worker.

He was- Oh, I didn't know that. OK. Yeah.

Oh, yeah, Mel. That's some stories. But, you know, we don't want to go to jail.

Right, right, right. So that was about 1998 or 1999. You were- So that would have put you at what, about 58, 59 years old? Or somewhere late 50s? Yeah.

Oh, yeah. It was late around 56 because I was born at 43. I was trying to do the math backwards because I know you just had a birthday.

So you were in your late 50s before you even realized or had the idea that, hey, I want to do this. I want to sing in a band. Right.

I got a talent. Yeah. It was another one of those kind of things where, you know, you kind of fall into, you know, partial lies.

Right. But it was up at Just One More in 01, the same day I retired. One that night, I was up at Just One More up on Rainer Theodore.

And I was messing with some karaoke. Then this band leader, Mondo Cortez, he came up. He says, we've been trying to kind of blues our band up a little bit.

He said, if you know a couple of songs, he says, come down here and sit in with us. We're at the Field House tomorrow night. He said, you know a couple of songs? I said, sure.

I didn't. Right. But I was up all that night.

And so we're at the Field House. He comes up, he goes, yeah, all right. And he says, tomorrow night, we're going to be at Just One More.

Oh, now this is getting kind of fast now. He says, if you know four songs, come sit in with us. You know four songs? I said, yeah.

I didn't. But that night, I found a recipe for learning songs. I would listen to a verse.

I would say, at that time, we had to play it like on a record or a cassette. And I'd play a verse. And then I'd write it down and start imprinting.

That's exactly what I did to learn songs. I would print the words out. So I'd have a cheat sheet.

But it was— And then you'd start imprinting. Right, right, right. OK.

Now, you're talking about going way back. I'm going to go way back. I'm going to try to do this quick.

Born in Forest City, Arkansas, at the age of two. My mother and father got divorced. So I took the family back over to Tennessee.

Because there wasn't nothing happening in Arkansas. So at two years old, I realized this. And I said, hey, look, Mom, let's get out of this state.

So we went over to Tennessee. Like, that's better. But it wasn't.

Anyway, so I grew up on the farm, sharecropping. About six or seven years old, they tricked you into picking cotton. Said, oh, look at my man.

He all grown up. And they'd give you a little flower sack, you know, like. And they said, you know, I'm in this shit the rest of my life.

I don't know. I go get that same guy over there. So I got a break, though.

In 1958, we had the audacity to register to vote. Well, in 1958, they didn't care too much for that, especially people that owned property, like bosses, plantation owners, people like that. They didn't really care for it.

So we had to leave by dark of night. Moved up to Decatur, where my mother was staying there. So I was living with my grandparents.

We moved to Decatur. And from Decatur, I went into the service. In 64, got out 67.

Yeah, a little Germany, a little Vietnam, you know. A little conflict. Yeah, a little things got in the way.

Right. Anyway, came out 67. Back to Decatur.

So advertisement for a job in Joliet, you know, in Joliet Wood. They said it's up yonder way, up yonder north. So you got up north, down south, out west, and back east.

Just go down that way, and then next thing you know, it's like 30 miles, you know. Yeah, it's just a couple of blocks down the road, you know. Just a piece yonder.

Yeah. Just a piece yonder. You come to the fork in the road, take it.

Mm-hmm. Which one? Mm-hmm. Anyway, that was 1967.

I came up here for a job. And I've been here ever since. I worked at Stateville for two years.

But they, not the accommodation, but the healthcare and stuff like that wasn't very good at all. So I went to Caterpillar. For seven years, they had good hospitalization and dental and all that stuff.

But Nixon messed that up because he said, I'm going to bring your sons home from the war. So they ended the war. Now, all these people that had the seniority that was working at Caterpillar that went in the service, their seniority kept going.

So those people there, I had seven years in. And those people that were 12 years, they were worried. I said, I better get out of here.

So I went, yeah. So I went back to Stateville to retire from there. And so like, so y'all know about the rest of the hookup.

That's where I met Mondo. And in fact, I fooled them for 16 years. Yeah.

And that was the Chicago Blues Angels. And they're still going strong. They're still playing around.

I was trying to remember where I met you at the first time there, Herman. Do you remember? It could have been the Big Ten. Was it the Big Ten or Carter's Place? It was Carter's.

Oh, okay. Yeah, because Carter's was before that, right? Yeah. Yeah, Carter's was on Wednesday nights.

Yep. That's the first time I met you, Hal. What was that, Carter's Place? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And then Jeff, I first met at Ms. Camille's. Ms. Camille's, yeah. And Joliet.

And then, of course, last but not least, we got Too Smooth. We got Too Smooth. And from now on, that's his name.

That's his name. Too Smooth. That's what we call him, Too Smooth, homie.

See, listen now. Hey. Hi.

Yeah, the women always want to know, you know, like, who is that guy? Too Smooth. I don't know him. It's all in the fingers.

Yeah, but I'm from the west side of Chicago. Born and raised. I come from a musical family of ten.

That's a whole lot. Ten? Ten. And all of them sing or play something, whether it's piano, guitar, drum.

Actually, I started playing eight behind my mother, who was singing and practicing for her songs that she was going to sing in church. And I remember, it was just like it was yesterday. Said, oh, William, aren't you tired of tearing them straws out the broom? Because that's what I would do.

I would tear the straws out the broom. And I come home from school one day. I was in.

I never heard it quite put that way before. Tearing the straws out of the broom. And she sent me up to Montgomery Woods.

Montgomery Woods. A global guitar. Man, that thing had a sound on it.

Verse of that broom, yeah. Man. Brooms are so hard to keep in tune.

Who did the setup on the broom? Oh, you know, you feel a lot with it, you know. You're going to build up the wrist. That's for sure.

You're going to build up the wrist. But it sounded so good. And a few years goes past, and I actually learned the song.

I learned the song on it. It sounded pretty good. And my dad was my biggest critic.

He was my biggest critic. Because I was sitting up there trying to impress him, playing the song. They said, you need to go back in the back room and practice some more.

Say, go practice some more. Herman's going to call that song out on our next gig. You watch.

You know it. You know that's going to happen. Well, that's going to end this interview right there.

No, but you know what? He's going to sneak it in, though. Because it's going to be on the back end of something else. And it's going to turn into something else.

And it's going to go for 20 minutes. I see Herman will do stuff like, he'll go, hey, Mel. You got this, right? This song.

He'll go, Johnny, be good, man. Whatever it be, right? Every riff. You know this, right? You know this? But when I finally got it, I knew I had it.

Because he'd come in the house from work one day. And I actually played his introduction. And next thing you know, he skipped across the floor.

So from that point on, it was me playing guitar. I wouldn't put it down for nothing. Learning this.

I mean, I was learning jazz. I was learning country and western. I was learning blues.

I was definitely learning gospel. Playing gospel. And when I reached my teens, I started playing for this group called the Victor Travelers out of Chicago.

And I played with them from 78 to 95. And then other than that, I had a group when I was in the service called the Voices of Truth that I formed when I was in the service. And I love playing.

And I love putting my heart into it. And I love when I'm ready to drive. I will drive it.

All I can say then at that point, because I like to play with the spirit of the realm. You know what I mean? You get into that realm, and it's like, OK, everything goes dark. And you no longer playing now.

It's actually the realms, yours or the realm that's playing for you. It's playing through you. You know, and I love to reach that point to where I say, OK.

Where you go, you go somewhere else. I'm in that realm at that point. I'm in the realm at that point.

My mother, when I used to back up, she'd stop me too now. Wait a minute, son. And she could talk about things.

Oh, wow, a voice with a microphone or without a microphone. It would fill a room. And she would make you feel it.

And that's what she told me. Don't you play that thing behind me unless you feel it. So when I learned to feel it, I said, let it go.

That means I got to get out of the way and let the spirits of the realm come in and play. And I've been playing that way ever since. That's why it's hard to stop you behind.

I get it now, yeah. It feels so great. It feels so good.

And my thing is, I like to play to the point where if I don't feel it, I ain't expecting you to feel it. And that's the way I play. And I enjoy playing.

I enjoy playing for people. And I love it because you never know what's on a man's mind. Right.

So and I play to lift the spirits. That's what I do. Lift one up.

And that's my whole life on this. Oh, wait a minute, you're laughing at these guys. The Hurricane Project.

Oh, yeah, these guys. He was in the realm right now and he forgot that you were sitting in a room. I did.

Yeah. My man Herman here. He was ready to say what you wanted the CD for.

Oh, you mean at your house? Yeah. No, I just, it was for the family. I just did karaoke music.

It was karaoke music. To some songs, you know, like Georgia and, you know, Otis Redding and stuff like that. And he said, hey, you know, I've had that stuff in the house.

So what's the, you know, recording studio? So yeah. Now at this time, I didn't even know he played guitar. Oh, yeah.

And I found out it was much later that I found out that he's playing guitar because he's with JoJo and I can't think of a guy named that used to be here all the time that used to live here. Guitar player, band leader. Anyway, I saw him sit in with them on a gig and I was blown away, you know, but lost my train of thought again.

You know, I just had 80th birthday. Yeah. So the first time I ever heard the word hurricane in reference to this group or to Al, this is one thing that a lot of people don't know about him.

He said he tinkers. He is a guitar expert when it comes to repairing guitars. And he's fantastic with amplifiers.

He can repair amplifiers and hot rod amplifiers and stuff. And I started to see on the internet that if you ever brought your guitar or your amplifier, your bass guitar or whatever to him, he would say it got hurricane. It got hurt.

It got hurricane. And after I'd seen that a few weeks, all of a sudden I see these posts about the hurricane project. And I was like, oh, so it's a hurricane project.

We got a band now. And that was that was pre covid, right? It was pre covid. So how did that all come about? Who was the first person you called and said, I want you by my side as I do this? Well, me and I think we probably as a band been playing together for about seven, eight years.

And me and Tony Medina used to go out to this jam on Monday nights that Billy Branch used to host. I can't think of the name of the places. It's not there anymore.

And he said, man, we should start doing our own thing. You know, no, what leaves what Billy used to play at all the time. You know, Monday night on Monday nights.

I thought it was not least unleaded. But anyway, so it was kind of like between that and my buddies, Mike Wheelan, Toronzo Cannon telling and being allowed and all them guys, man, you need to start doing your own thing, you know, and. What's this place called? Artists, artists.

That's it. That's it. Artists.

And so I knew just from working with other bands that when you want to put a band together, one of the first thing that they ask you, you got any gigs lined up, right? Do you know what I mean? Don't nobody and nobody going to get together and practice in their basement for a month without no gigs lined up. So in my mind, I'm thinking, OK, who can I get? You know, I had a couple of gigs lined up, but who can I get that I felt comfortable with that can do these gigs without a hitch? But no problem. Very minimal rehearsal time.

No rehearsal. Right. No rehearsal.

We didn't rehearse. Who could I call and do this? And most of these guys I've played with or done gigs with before. So I told Tony, I'm going to put this.

I'm going to put something together, man. He goes, what you going to call it? And I said, the Hurricane Project. And he goes, OK.

Shouldn't it be Al Spears and the Hurricane Project? And I said, no, I don't want my name in front of it. You know, just the Hurricane Project. And I said, he said, well, why the project? I said, because you never know who's going to be on that gig.

You know, we may have a different guitar player, keyboard player or something. So it was a project. And, you know, that just coincided with my tinkering and all of that stuff with electronics.

And then I called Herman. And I asked Herman, I said, Herman. You want to do this gig with me, man? He goes, sure.

You know, and I was telling him, sure. You know some songs? Oh, sure. I know some songs.

But he didn't. Well, you know, Herman has done gigs with, I've done gigs with Herman and he's booked gigs and I've played guitar on some of his gigs that he booked. And, you know, he's done some singing.

And so I said, I'll call Herman. I already knew Jeff would do it. Jeff is like, he was the second person that I called.

And he's like, yeah, when is the first gig? And then I called Tony and our bass player, our first bass player was Roosevelt Johnson, may he rest in peace. And, you know, that was the beginning of it, you know, and then, you know, we didn't practice probably the first hundred something gigs that we did together. You know, we didn't do no practicing because we're not one of those bands that, you know, you might hear the beginning of a song and recognize the song.

But as Melvin said, you know, we're taking you somewhere else, right? You know, we're trying to get you, you know, if you feel something, then we've done our job, you know, otherwise you can just put a quarter in the jukebox and, you know, they don't need a band. So it's been, you know, Jeff Herman, Tony Medina, that's the core, you know, they've always been part of the Hurricane Project. And I'm glad to have them as part of the Hurricane Project.

And I think Melvin is probably the newest member because he showed up. I'm going to tell, can I tell this quick story about how Melvin got in? Absolutely. All right, go back to Hollywood.

Oh, yeah. Hollywood was in the, yeah, we had, we had Hollywood was in the band. We had, what was the other guy's name, guitar player? Blue Bird.

Yeah, Blue Blake, Blue Jay. We had Blue Jay. Yeah, we had Blue Jay.

Sorry, Blue Jay, they forgot you. You know, I'm going to say, you know, having two guitar players in a band that can gel is very, very difficult. Right.

You know, and most musicians don't listen to what everybody else is doing, you know, on stage, you know, everybody want to solo over everybody else. Anyway, that's a topic for another day. So we're at this gig, the Hurricane Project, we was at this gig and I'm on break.

I'm outside, my son and his wife was at this gig and I go out to have a cigarette and Melvin comes out and he's having a cigarette and he introduces himself and he said, I hear you need a guitar player. I wonder who told him that. And I said, I'm looking at him and I'm going, who could have told you that? I mean, I got, you know, I got a guitar player.

And I said, you want to play some, you know, because that's how we do it. You know, if you show up at one of our gigs and you're a musician, we're going to let you sit in and do something. Because that's, you know, we're a big musical family.

You know, that's what blues is. And he said, no, I don't have a guitar with me. I said, you can use mine.

And he goes, no, I'll catch you on the next one. And I was like, OK, cool. And he showed up, I called him, I don't know what I called you or you called me, but he showed up at Johnny Blitz at a gig.

I asked him if he wanted to do this gig with us because the other guitar player couldn't make it. And I'm one of those guys that if you keep missing my gig and I get a replacement for you and I like what they do, I'm probably going to stay with that person that I replaced you with. And Melvin came in there, man, I never will forget it.

He had on, you know, and I like to dress, you know, he came in there with starched blue jeans, a starched shirt. He was there early, you know, he was over there tuning his guitar up, doing, you know, what he's supposed to do for the gig. And I said, hey, man, you know, this gig don't pay a lot, man.

He goes, man, I'm playing for the love of it, man. I ain't playing for nothing else. I said, my man.

And he was in ever since. But that same night though that he approached you, I had talked to him about, you know, like trying to get in the band. And evidently he thought I'd already talked to you.

That's when he comes in and he gives me the guitar. But later on, later on, he comes to me going, who is that guy? You know, you know, he described, oh, oh, that's my ride. I mean, he's boss on the guitar and all that.

So like, hey, we gotta get him in there. And so once they tried him out once, you know, I knew he felt itself. Yeah, I vouch for him.

But I knew he was going to tell himself soon as he did the taking. Right. And that smooth stuff.

And one of the other guys that isn't here, Jeff Choate, who we share. White chocolate. That's right.

He's a talented individual, too. You know, I always knew him as a trumpet player. The first time we met him was at Uptown.

He came in and he hadn't been playing for a few years. And it was his wife that made him go to Uptown and play. And he just blew everybody away with the trumpet.

And when I started talking to him, he said, well, you know, I play the piano as well. And I looked at him like, yeah, right. Whatever.

He says, just give me a little time to practice again, because it's been a couple of years. And then one day he showed up with that piano. And I was like, wow, you sure trumpet is your main instrument and not your piano? And he does.

And sometimes we'll go from the piano to the trumpet back to the piano again all in one song. Yeah, and the organ, too. Right, right.

But his wife was saying that she liked his work ethics on his instrument. Because he's trying to get the kids into some things, too. And if they see his work ethic, that they would carry on.

Yes. Right. Yeah.

So what's next? We've got, you know, this year, we've got a bunch of stuff on the books. Friday, we're playing for the rest of the year, actually. In 2023, it's actually looking really, really good.

Comparably to other years, you know, COVID kind of put a damper on a lot of things. And places shut down or some places can't afford to really hire, you know, a band. You know, I'm really looking at, we probably got about 70, 75 gigs booked throughout the year.

You can follow us on Facebook under The Hurricane Project or my website www.alhurricanespears.com or my personal page Al Spears or my Instagram page Al Spears. But Friday night, we'll be at Aurora Taphouse. Yes.

Nine o'clock. We've got a bunch. Where will you be? I'm just thinking about when this podcast is going to come out.

Where will you be, say, like the 15th of the month and beyond? February 11th, we're in Aurora doing a private party. February 18th, we're at Johnny Blitz in Westmont. March 18th, we're back at Johnny Blitz.

And I love Johnny Blitz because that's, I call that, that's our home base. That's a fun place to play. Yeah.

March 24th, we're at the Joliet Blues Museum. And April 8th, we're back at Johnny Blitz. April 12th, Austin Community Tavern.

You know. Yeah. So you got some stuff coming up.

It's looking good. You know, like I said, in this night, you know, we. The kids are giggling again.

He is trying to read off his phone, you know, without glasses. He's smooth. Unfortunately, his arms are too short, though.

Yeah. You know, some of these. Some of these gigs are, you know, like local places, you know, but I'm always trying to get to places where, you know, blues ain't really played or, you know, I play a lot.

We play a lot. I'm not me. We play a lot, mostly in the western suburbs.

You know, it's easier for all of us. You know, we're local. I also have on Facebook, Blues and the Birds.

You know, that's my page that I created about 20 years ago. Because, you know, my goal is to keep the blues happening in the birds, you know, and everybody say, you know, blues is easy to play. It's one four five.

But if you ain't feeling it, it ain't the blues, you know, and a lot of people play it too fast and slow or whatever the case may be. But anyway, you know, that's my mission in life. You know, I'm right there with you is to keep the music happening, especially in the western suburbs, you know, because we shouldn't have to go, you know, you know, we can hear you guys.

They still tell me they're over there ordering a pizza. I think they're ordering Subway on DoorDash or something. They looking at they looking to say, man, I'm going to have that day.

He just read off on my calendar, which which, by the way, Subway, we're looking for sponsors. Yeah, we are looking for anybody out there from Subway looking to sponsor this podcast. Get all of us.

All righty, guys. Well, I want to thank you all for coming out. Thank you for having the evening.

And it's great meeting all of you guys. And I look forward to seeing you real soon. This is a great place.

Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for coming out, guys.

Our pleasure. Well, that guy, them guys came in like a hurricane and they left like a hurricane. They left like a hurricane.

That was a lot of fun. That was a real good time. Great stories.

Great stories. Many, many years of musicianship there. Right.

So if you're in the area and you have a chance to go out and see them, their performance, not only will you enjoy the music, but they just tell a story on stage with their performance. You should go out and see those guys. They are captivating.

They're a little banter. I like I like how they said that they met, you know, they picked each other up at jam sessions, right? Kind of like like when we're kids and stuff. And this guy plays guitar.

This guy plays guitar. They get together and then they find another guy that plays. Hey, I know a guy down the block plays drums.

Let's see if he wants to come over and play with us. Right, right. And that's exactly what they do.

If you go and see one of their shows and they know who you are, you are not overstepping your bounds. If you showed up with a guitar or a horn or whatever it is that you do, they see you in the crowd and wave to you. They'll wave you up and they treat their shows almost like an open jam.

They like to have their friends go up there and participate with them. That's awesome. That's that's sounds like a great time.

So thanks, everybody, for listening. Another week has gone by. Join us next Tuesday for the next episode.

I believe it's going to be a band called Stereo Phi. So come back next week and check us out. We'll talk to you then.

Bye.