Hey, this is Paul Martin. And Ray the Roadie. For the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast.

Hey, what are you drinking over there, Ray? Got myself a little bit of bourbon whiskey. Really? Yeah. It's pretty good stuff.

Yeah, what kind? I got a little Blantons. Blantons? Blantons, yeah. Yeah, I got the good stuff, man.

That's good. It's very, very tasty. I've been kind of on a bourbon kick lately.

Do you add anything to that? I do. As a matter of fact, I do. I add a large cube of ice.

Oh, I see. Maybe a little bit of Harmony? They work good together? They do. They do.

Whiskey works real well with Harmony. I see. Harmony and me are a pretty good company.

Yeah? Okay. Well, that's good because today we're speaking with Whiskey and Harmony. We are? Yes.

Sarah and Craig. They're going to be here. Imagine that.

And I'm sitting here having some whiskey and I'm harmonizing with myself, actually. That's right. You're whiskey and your ice cube are in harmony together.

They are. Oh, very good. Very good.

So, shall we see what they have to say? Let's do that. Let's do that. Let's talk to Sarah and Craig from Whiskey and Harmony.

And away we go. And away we go. Hey, everybody.

Welcome to the show. Today we're speaking with Sarah and Craig from Whiskey and Harmony. Hey, guys.

How are you? How are you guys? Doing good. Thanks for coming out. Yes.

No problem. Glad to be here. Appreciate you coming out and spending some time with us here.

So, tell us a little bit about the band. And I know I've worked with you a few times now. It's Blue Chip.

But tell us how the band is being started and where you guys are from. Well, we're from Burbank. We started Whiskey and Harmony about 2013.

So, nine years ago. Craig actually started out running sound for our band and then he was a bass player. And then we were called something different, Perfect Storm or something.

But when we started, when I was playing guitar with Craig, we decided to change the name to Whiskey and Harmony. We were just going to do it as a duo and keep the full band separate. But Whiskey and Harmony just seemed to be a better name.

So, we just kind of collaborated with the entire band. And people always think though, Whiskey, well, a lot of times they're like, who's Whiskey? Who's Harmony? With him and his beard and whatnot. They always think he's Whiskey and I'm like, no.

I was going to say Harmony. Yep. I've been Harmony.

And everyone's like, oh, well, you know, how'd you come up with the name? And I'm like, well, yeah, we drink a lot of whiskey. Also, everyone used to say that I have the Whiskey, Raspi, Janis, Stevie Nicks voice. So, and he always had just fantastic harmonies.

That's her opinion. Other people say that too. She's entitled to it, right? Yes.

So, what kind of music background did you guys come from? Well, I've been playing music forever. I started playing when I was nine. Grew up playing upright bass through orchestra and jazz or through school.

And then, honestly, just picked up every stringed instrument I could. And been doing it for 27 years now. I went to school at Northern Illinois for music performance and education.

For orchestra, playing upright bass. So, technically, I never did any formal training for guitar. It was kind of self-taught.

But a lot of that stuff kind of bled over. It transfers over. Absolutely.

So, you're playing upright bass? Yeah, upright bass is my first instrument. And I still play. It's fun to bring that out because a lot of people go, oh, that's a really big violin.

Bring my couch with me. So, is there any other bands that you're in prior to Whiskey and Harmony? I've played in a few different bands. I guess the biggest band that I played with was called Clifton Roy and Folk Stringer.

It was a bluegrass band. Funny enough, it was my neighbor growing up. It was his project.

And he's like, I need a bass player. Hey, you play that doghouse bass, right? You want to join my band? So, I was like, of course. And we did that for a while.

We recorded two studio albums. One of which I think you can still find on Spotify and YouTube. Clifton Roy and Folk Stringer popped right up, which is pretty cool.

You can shout out your Alexa and be like, hey, Alexa, play Clifton Roy and Folk Stringer and it'll play. That is pretty cool. That's fun.

They have a lot of really great songs, too. The band kind of disbanded around 2014. Everybody just kind of went their own separate ways.

So, you've always been into bluegrass and country music more than anything else? Yeah, for the most part. I also played in a hip-hop band, which was a lot of fun, called the Agents of Change. And they actually still play in Chicago.

But they're a lot of fun. I had a lot of touring experience with those guys, which was fun. Where'd you go to? We just did a lot of stuff on the East Coast and West Coast.

It was usually just do-it-your-own kind of chores. But I ended up opening up for T-Pain and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. Which a lot of people are like, wait, what? How did you do that? You're a bluegrass guy.

But yeah, that was a really good experience. I don't have a really cool musical background. I just used to like to do karaoke.

Once I was 21, I would go to the bars and I met a guy named Jimmy. And he had a band. It was just a bunch of older guys just sitting in a basement every Friday.

We would practice. We would practice to pretty much not play shows, basically. We would drink in their basement every Friday and play music.

But they taught me just the G, C, and D chord. And after a while, it was fun just hanging with them. But when I started learning guitar and whatnot, I wanted to actually go out and perform music.

Now, you two are married, aren't you, Annette? Yep. It'll be five years next month. Yep.

Five years on the 27th of May. Cool. They say for five-year anniversaries, they're supposed to give like a gift of wood.

So I might have to buy some more guitars for you. Because we definitely don't have enough of those. Mine is coming up in a couple of weeks.

And it's steel. And I just told my wife, I said, I'm ordering a new mic stand. She goes, is it made of steel? I go, yeah.

She goes, good, I'll buy it for you. She just bought me a mic present. Well, happy anniversary.

And what are you going to get her? Aluminum foil? I don't know. I haven't decided. I have to go shopping.

Do some shopping. I figured I'd steal something. Oh, there you go.

Didn't say what kind of steal. Breaking the rules. Or interpreting it your own way.

So who else is in your band right now? We got kind of a mix of players that come in with us. But generally our main drummer is Aaron. Aaron Allen.

His last name is actually Swears. Probably be mad that I said that. But Aaron Allen is our main drummer.

We have a friend that actually lives around this area. Joliet Plainfield is Tommy Slab. He'll fill in on drums for us too.

And then bass players. Mainly just Kent. And then myself.

If the setting is right, I'll bring out the upright bass or I'll play the bass guitar. And then I do a lot of the lead guitar if I'm not playing bass. And we got another guy in the mix, Jeremy, who lives out in Indiana.

He'll come in and play guitar. He's Jeremy Smolin. Smolin and friends.

He's a really good guy. Wasn't there a song about him? Jeremy Smolin. I'll have to look that up.

I didn't know if there was a song about him. You got coffee in that cup? Yeah. Or there's something else in there.

Pearl Jam. Pearl Jam. Oh, Jeremy.

Maybe we need to be drinking what he's doing. Why didn't I think of that? Because you're not as witty as I am this way. Okay.

So you guys do some gigs without the band, just the two of you, right? Do some duos? Yeah, especially during this whole pandemic thing. I think that acoustic stuff got really popular because you couldn't have, you know, bands and you couldn't bring in a big crowd of people. So it's kind of like more intimate.

But I mean, we really enjoy doing the acoustic stuff. Since I survived through COVID, was doing duos and stuff. We really didn't play that much.

I didn't want to risk getting sick. Yeah, I'm playing. My health and whatnot.

So it actually was a much needed break for me, to be honest, because we were before then playing five, six nights a week. And, you know, it really burns you out. So I was kind of like, I didn't pick up my guitar for a while during the whole thing.

We did a couple like Facebook live things. We would always say live from the living room. So it'd be us playing acoustic guitars.

I'd have the upright bass every once in a while on our dogs. So people would be like. Our dog threw up on Facebook live.

That was fantastic. Yeah, that's always, that was really fun and funny. A lot of people would tune in and they'd be like, Oh, we're really just watching for the dogs.

I'm hoping that wasn't a criticism of your music. No, our dogs are just highly entertaining. Well, Taylor, we got Taylor and Gibson.

Those are our dogs. Very conveniently named. Yes.

Not because of guitars, but anyway. Fans of the Gibson Steakhouse and Lord and Taylor. Exactly.

I thought it was Taylor Swift. I was like, I call her T-Swizzle sometimes. Taylor's funny because she's got such a wild tail.

So we were like, Oh, Taylor liked the guitars. And it's like, no, it's because she's got like a whip. Just knocks everything over in the path.

So is your bass player, Kent, is he related to you? No. You call him your uncle or something? I call him my uncle. Sometimes I call him my daddy.

One time he came into, we were playing a show. You're going to hear the backstory of Uncle Daddy. It was his birthday and the bartender was pretty drunk himself.

And I was like, Hey, I'm like, can we put my uncle on this? Like on our tab, you know, like whatever he wants to drink. And the bartender is like getting him drunk the whole time. And then he's like, is he your uncle or is he your daddy? And I'm like, I don't know.

He's my uncle. And because we're in a condo van, it's just people are like, what? Uncle Daddy. They figure it's okay.

I mean, there's been times I've done a duo show with him and I'm like, Oh, this is my husband. I think people feel sorry for me. And they tip us more money.

You gotta be goofy and have fun with people. Explain the type of music that you do. I mean, you said you do everything.

Kenny Sheppard to Jenny Cash. I mean, we like to do kind of just top hits. I mean, it does usually end up being country music because that was our focus for a long time.

A lot of the places we're getting booked were like the saloons that wanted, you know, high energy country stuff. But we don't really limit ourselves to any particular style. I like to do a lot of alternative stuff.

But also I'll do the Johnny Cash and then Sarah's all over it. She'll do anything from Pink to Janis Joplin. We'll do Miranda Lambert.

We do like the Four Seasons. Yeah. Somebody comes up with a request and if it's a good song and we kind of know it, even if we haven't practiced it, we'll be like, Oh, that was fun.

Let's let's keep that one. Yeah. I went to Nashville so many times and I would watch the bands and people would just request and they might not have played the song perfectly.

Right. But, you know, it's just you have to engage with the audience if that's what they want to hear. So, I mean, if we I say we fake it till we make it, sometimes it doesn't always go in our favor.

Do you work off a set list? No. And my guys get mad at me sometimes, but it's just in my head. And every venue you walk into, every audience is completely different.

Right. So if I try to put a set together, it gets thrown away after, especially because I always say we take requests. So three songs and someone's like, Can you guys play Wagon Wheel? I'm like, OK, well, that was at the end of our set.

But if they want it, do it now. So, yeah, we wasted too much pieces of paper. We felt bad for the environment.

Saves the trees. We stopped printing out the songs or making a list. I keep a general list on my phone for like certain venues.

Like I know because like at the Blue Chip, you know, when we're there on Sundays, they usually want like the country Sundays. Right. So I just have a general list of songs that usually go over well there.

You know, I just keep it in my phone. But most of the time I just walk into a show. I'm like, we're just going to play the way we feel.

Just wing it and see what happens. Catch the vibe from the crowd and then usually we just kind of look at each other. So it's more fun that way.

Let's do Zombie by the Cranberries. All right. Well, let's do Mean by Taylor Swift.

That's kind of fun, actually. I would imagine anyway. Still doing this.

Changing up your genres. Yeah. Well, it keeps people on their toes and it keeps them interested.

Because you go from one thing to the other. You go from Johnny Cash to Foo Fighters to Miranda Lambert. Then people are like, wait, is that the same band? Yeah, it's true.

That's why I like having Aaron, our drummer. He sings really good, too. It's just nice to have three lead vocalists as opposed to one.

Because especially you're doing three hour shows. Right. And nobody wants to hear me singing for three hours.

I don't even want to hear me sing for three hours. I don't know if I'd say that. Well, I think a lot of people can listen to you sing all day.

You have a very nice voice. Thank you. And some women, I hope nobody takes this wrong, but some women voices can get on your nerves after a while.

You've got that raspiness to it. Not anybody we've ever interviewed. No, no, no.

No, no. And I like your CBNX stuff that you do. Thank you.

Opinions expressed by Paul Martin. Do not represent this podcast. So I see.

What about original stuff? Radio music. We haven't we haven't really done originals for quite some time. It's been something we've we've thought about bringing back up.

But a lot of the places that we go play, it's usually they want covers. But I do have some recording stuff at the house. So it's something that we've kind of.

Kept. Kept in mind, but don't currently have any projects. It feels like we just don't have time.

To write the stuff. Because in between playing. I mean, this week we did five gigs in four days.

So. It's kind of like you're back at your pace that you were before COVID. Yeah, we're pretty much back at that same pace.

I forgot how exhausting it is. We're back at it. So yesterday we played two gigs.

So it was like. All right. What time is that podcast? Five.

All right, cool. I can sleep in till noon if I want to. And then I work a full time job.

So between the 40 hours a week. And then having a couple of days off, it's like, all right. I just want to.

Eat a cheeseburger and watch TV sometimes. I'm lucky because I'm still working from home. So.

I'm only doing part time so I could get laundry and things done in between. Right. And I don't have to use gas money to go into the office anymore, which is a beautiful thing.

Yes, it is. My wife would agree with you 100%. She's working from home too.

So you guys were playing at this pace prior to the pandemic too? Yeah, usually about three or four gigs a week. Yeah. So it'd usually be Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and then occasionally on Sundays.

So it was pretty. Pretty packed schedule. So you missed quite a few gigs during the pandemic then? Yeah.

Yeah. For the first few months after the lockdown, we didn't play for probably about six months, which I think we would take advantage and learn some new songs. We did a couple, a couple new songs.

We obviously played video games and watched trivia shows. I think we watched every episode of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Yeah, we caught up with that.

Or Deal or No Deal. Yeah. Howie Mandel, he was one of our favorites.

I think a lot of people were like that from the start. They were kind of shocked, but then they figured it's gonna be like a little vacation. Sit at home, watch TV.

But I think, I mean, I was like, I'll catch up on Netflix, Amazon Prime and all. Now I'm sick of TV. I can't stand it.

I don't turn, like I'm home most of the days. I don't turn the TV on at all. I have no interest.

I got really big into cooking. I gained a lot of weight. A lot of people learn to cook.

Luckily, I burned some of those pounds off. But yeah, I tried out all kinds of new recipes. And in-laws live, you know, pretty close to us.

I'd be like, hey, check it out. I made, I made way too much food. Do you want to take some of it? No.

Okay. I'll just eat it myself. It really wasn't much of anything to do.

You got to eat. Exactly. You know, that's about everything.

Most people didn't want to go to the grocery store. Came home at eight and that's it. How do you feel about getting out now? I mean, because I mean, I know it's still freaking out a lot of people.

To be out and about. I'm comfortable now. Back then I was having health issues with my diabetes and stuff.

So all my levels, like my vitamins, I was deficient. There's that and the other. And then, so I was really nervous to catch it.

But now, like for me personally, I feel like I'm healthy. If I did catch COVID, I'd probably be okay. But I mean, it still freaks me out.

Yeah. Other people, because you just don't know how people are going to react to it. Right.

Yeah, still being a little bit on the air, on the side of caution. You know, not necessarily given to everybody we see hugs. But we went through and made sure that we feel safe when we're going places, keeping things clean.

I know it's like to say that it's anybody's choice. But Sarah and I went ahead and made the choice to get vaccinated. So just to be like, you know what? We're going to do it.

We'll be all right. So that I feel like that kind of made us feel a little bit more comfortable to you. Just being like, you know what? If we get sick, we're going to be better than if we didn't do that.

I agree with you 100%. So I see you brought your guitar today. We did.

Can you play a couple songs for us? We can do that. Only if you want us to. Yes, yes.

We'd love it if you do that. Sure. I always keep picks in my pocket.

No pun intended. So what do you play for us today? What do you think? You want to do John Prine? Sure. I'm not going to play guitar on this, but again, I'm holding a guitar.

So just so you guys know. She's actually holding the guitar that I bought her when I proposed to her. No wonder she said yes.

She couldn't say no. Right. Otherwise, I would have kept the guitar for myself.

Well, it kind of is still yours. You play. You know, when you do that ripping solo.

She don't like her eggs all runny. She thinks crossing her legs is funny. She looks down her nose at money.

She gets it on like the Easter Bunny. I'm her honey. She's my baby.

Never gonna let her go. Yank I played in a month of Sundays. Called in watching he was sniffing my udder.

He ain't too sharp, but gets things done. Drinks his beer like it's oxygen. He's my baby.

I'm his heart. Never gonna let him go. In spite of ourselves, we'll end up sitting on a rainbow.

Against all odds. Honey, we're the big door prize. We're gonna spite our nose right off of our faces.

It won't be nothing but big old hearts dancing in our eyes. She thinks all my jokes are corny. Chicago shows make her horny.

She likes ketchup on her scrambled eggs. Swears like a sailor when she's shaving her legs. She takes a licking.

She keeps on ticking. Never gonna let her go. He's got more balls than a big breast monkey.

He's a whacked out weirdo and a love bug junkie. He's sly as a fox. Crazy as a loon.

There day comes and he's all in the mood. He's my baby. I don't mean make.

Never gonna let him go. In spite of ourselves, we'll end up sitting on a rainbow. Against all odds.

Honey, we're the big door prize. We're gonna spite our nose right off of our faces. It won't be nothing but big old hearts dancing in our eyes.

In spite of ourselves, we'll end up sitting on a rainbow. Against all odds. Honey, we're the big door prize.

We're gonna spite our nose right off of our faces. It won't be nothing but big old hearts dancing in our eyes. It won't be nothing but big old hearts dancing in our eyes.

In spite of ourselves. Listen to the crowd. That's the best crowd response I think we've ever had.

They realize there's so many people here. That song is an example of something that we were getting requests for that song forever. And then we went and played a private party and the couple wanted to sing it so he played guitar.

And I was like, that's easy. I'm like, why don't we just learn that song? Right. The hardest part is remembering the words because I never say whacked out weirdo or love bug or anything like that.

But now I do. Easter Bunny. That was always my hardest thing to overcome when like learning songs.

I can learn the guitar parts. I can play all the chords. I'll even get some of the riffs down.

But trying to remember lyrics. That was my issue. Still is.

Yeah. I always joke about it because I'll have like the phone holder or the tablet holder. And most of the time I'm not using it because usually I'm using that to run sound for our band because we got the digital stuff.

Right. But every once in a while we'll do a song where I'm like, I'm not 100 percent confident. Let me just go ahead and put the safety net in case I fall on my face.

You know, a lot of times if it's not, if it's not a line that people really know well, you could fake it. Say anything you want and get past it. I do that more often than not.

I don't. I feel like when I'm trying to read something and I'm singing, you just lose all emotion. And I feel like when I'm performing, like I try to put like a connection with the song and I try to emotionally.

So if I'm reading, it just sounds like I'm just reading the ABC, you know. Yeah. It takes it.

It takes a talent to I think it takes a good lyricist to actually musician to sing and get the words wrong. But still make a connection somehow. At least find something that rhymes.

And he's actually really good at that. He makes up lyrics. Oh, yeah.

Goofy songs all the time. Oh, yeah. That's just messing around.

So what else you got for us? Got another one in there? I'm trying to think what I play on. You run sound, too, don't you? Yes. Yeah.

Well, when I don't have somebody as awesome as yourself, then I have to try and do it myself. You talking to him or me? Well, I haven't had the pleasure of working with you until now. Right.

You know, there's always more gigs. That's right. I mean, you do it.

You do it for your own band. You do it for other bands, too, don't you? Yeah. I've just recently started doing that.

It was Sarah threw me out to the wolves. She was like, well, you do it for us. You probably do it for other bands, too.

So that's our our new company. I work for Joey DeMarco at United Talent. And he's like, I need Craig to run sound.

And he's like, OK. I was like, OK. Like he was open that day or I think I found another duo partner.

So you go run sound. He's like, well, you need a name for your company. I'm like, this all happened in like 15 minutes.

Like I woke up on a Saturday and I'm like, I don't know. I was like, just like Harmony Productions. And so he's been going out as Craig from Harmony Productions.

Yeah, that's cool. I've been doing sound at Old Republic in Elgin. I've had the honor of doing some pretty cool bands out there.

Just a couple of weeks ago, I actually ran sound for Kashmir, a Zeppelin tribute band, and they were fantastic. Yeah, they were awesome. Great guys and a lot of fun to work with.

It doesn't hurt that I'm a big Zeppelin fan. Of course. Even with your bluegrass roots.

Oh, yeah. Well, again, who isn't a Zeppelin fan? I know. If you're not, then there's something wrong.

Right. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Many. Yeah.

Yeah. needed wide open spaces spaces room to make a big mistake she needs new faces she knows the highest she traveled this road as a child wide-eyed and grinning she's never tired now she won't be coming home with the rest these are life lessons she would take a distance she needed wide open spaces spaces is she knows the highest so as your folks drive away her daddy yells check the oil mom yells out the window and says i'm leaving my girl well it didn't seem like long ago oh which stood there she let her own folks know she needed wide open spaces spaces room to make a big mistake she needs new faces she knows the highest days she knows the highest day she knows the highest day she knows the highest day so there's that crowd again they're wild that was great really good thank you so much very nice so so you bought that guitar for her and uh it was this that did you guys start singing together before you got married everything oh yeah yeah he proposed to me actually on stage during a show and you could see in the pictures because no matter what like we're performing i don't like you might mess up but like i never just like stop in the middle of the song you just kind of fumble through it or end the song early so we were doing the song little white church and all of a sudden he was playing upright bass and then he just like stops and puts it down he's like something's wrong something's wrong and i'm like looking at him like what the go back on your base i'm gonna like murder you there's like a bunch of people there like all and i should have put it i was surprised she didn't catch on like all our family and friends were there yeah i got i got her mom and dad and brother and everybody to come out aunts and uncles and when we first got there sarah's like man there's a lot of people here i'm like oh yeah i guess you know maybe they haven't seen us for a while um you know and it's a closed show where was it that was at um salernos and hodgkins march it was snowing i'm like you know there's a ton of people here like this is crazy and then so yeah and you'll first see the pictures i mean i look like super ticked off and then all of a sudden i realized what was going on and it's fun it was a good way i thought it was cool because we have it on video you know like because there were so many people there everyone knew he was gonna do it and they all recorded it so yeah our guitarist at the time helped me out because i i had the guitar for her um but of course i i gave her the ring and everything too but i i told our guitarist hey like bring that with you but don't let her see it until after so then she was like of course yes and i gave her the ring and i'm like also i got something else for you so we like sarah was saying we go to nashville pretty often and uh the one time we went down there she found the taylor t5 she played it she's like oh my gosh this is like the best and then you know we were still recently you know dating but i think she thought i wouldn't remember she was like if you ever proposed to me like don't even buy me a ring just give me this guitar so i kept it in my head the whole time i'm like i'm gonna buy that guitar and that's gonna be that's gonna be it that's very cool so very cool very nice i like that gibson that you're playing too yeah this is a hummingbird cutaway which i think they discontinued this model yeah which is a shame because gibson's have such a unique sound in their acoustics yeah it's a friend yesterday came out to our gig uh billy gray so billy gray music he's a good friend of ours but he saw us and i was like oh if you want to come up and play some songs he's like oh my gosh you're gonna let me play your gibson are you sure like dude of course uh i work as a guitar technician so i work on his guitars all the time like man i'm always working on your tailors and like it's no big deal and if you break it i know a guy then you put you play a les paul too yes yeah when i play electric it's usually my les paul and that's one of the new ones it's a trad pro 5 but i have quite a collection of guitars that's just the one i am favoring at the moment i guess i have a 335 as well that i like nice that's a cool guitar um but the less paul's the newest one so i'm obsessed with it i figured being a country guy you might make up for a telly or something so i do have a telecaster that i i actually i don't want to say i built it but i parted it together so i got like the body and then i bought the neck and i put it all together and that thing's pretty cool too i haven't played that one out in a in a hot minute so maybe the next time i see you i'll have it with me it's a cool guitar once once i bought the les paul though aaron our drummer was like oh my gosh that is the sound like why why have you been playing the other guitars i'm like well we're a country band so like telecaster fits the bill right right like yeah the telly's cool use the les paul or the 335 so i've obliged and aaron does a lot of singing too right yeah yeah he does a lot of the harmony vocals and then he'll take lead on a couple tunes which is pretty fun to have a singing drummer there's a lot of people will kind of look on stage and be like wait where is it coming from and then they realize oh the drummer's singing right yeah he seems to get back on harmonies i know it's his oh yeah his harmonies are great so when he and i are well when craig gets some of the high parts yeah yeah he can get up there like higher than i can i'm like all right get it he and i are gonna do a duo a couple times this summer when craig's out of town you know he teaches a rock camp in champaign and a couple other things that help you out of town for so aaron will you know play cajon and then he also plays well he plays guitar yeah he plays a guitar so multi-talented yeah i have to lend him a guitar for some of these gigs maybe he's got his own but i don't know i just feel like you can play the gibson if you want i don't know many people that will turn that down no so so uh where we can find you guys on facebook right yeah it's just whiskey and harmony you have a website too or no we do i've got it updated it doesn't have our updated schedule but it's uh whiskeyandharmony.com so so i know you guys do some some gigs on your own just two of you is there any place you play weekly or or every year bi-weekly or well right now until memorial day because we're going to take off in the summer we've been hosting open mic at cousins in blue island okay so that's that's been pretty fun when what night it's on thursday nights starting at 8 30 8 30 to 11 30 well our schedule gets crazy in the summer and i don't think people really go to open mics too much in the summer so we're gonna take off until probably after labor day but i think they're still gonna have probably live music there they have a really nice beer garden and stuff so so you have any have any big gigs coming up that you might mention she's the one to ask about that a lot of our upcoming stuff is duo stuff um the gig i'm really excited about my niece is turning one in may so we're playing her first birthday party that's cool so we're gonna be playing like baby shark and all those songs she loves it i mean we play when because my uh my best friend constance she brings my niece out to some of our shows and she's just like we do little white church and she's just happy and dancing so i think it's really cool that she's so young and you could tell she's into the music and stuff so i actually well craig was at work and they had a hannah montana guitar and he was joking with me he's like oh you want me to buy this hannah montana guitar i was like yes because i'm gonna give that to our niece so i have it when she's old enough i'm gonna give it to you it's cool very cool so now how long have you worked for joey oh gosh um i think it's been probably six years i think six or maybe seven yeah let's say six and a half so how's it working for joey it's good i i learned a lot about booking and everything with joey so yeah he's a really great boss or he doesn't let me call him bossy partner or whatever because he got me into you know he got me to get the license to be a booking agent and all that so it's been it's been fun and again i learned so much just trying to how to handle like the scheduling and then you know because you're kind of a mediator between venues and musicians right right some like sometimes the venue wants this and the musician wants that but it's like right help me learn how to balance both and joey's name has been brought up on this podcast many times by by different artists they come in and i've always thought joey's been very fair very good with everybody oh yeah he's one of the few really he's been in the business so he knows a lot of people i think he started united talent like two years after we were born so like i think it was like 1987 or something he's gonna be upset about that oh no he's fine i always laugh i got to see some videos of his band risk risk right and uh they were doing this i'll probably kill me for this to be every year they were doing i want candy like a promo video and i was like what kind of dance moves are you like he's like humping the air he's like i was cool back then i'm like okay joey okay i joke with joey because i i guess you could say i sort of knew him when i was growing up because he actually booked my dad's band oh really so i like to i like to nudge my elbow into joey every once in a while you're like hey do you remember uh what was the name of your dad's band dane bramage and they would play like uh last fling and rib fast yeah but i always joke with him about that like hey do you remember booking dane bramage so so if we want to find out more about whiskey and how many we just go on facebook yeah mostly i put everything on facebook um we do have instagram too but there's also pictures of me and dogs and dogs and hats and other stuff on there so all of our events i always update the facebook page regularly so it shows and again i have to get on the website because it used to connect to my facebook and just events would just go directly to the website but for some reason it doesn't do that anymore and i'm not always great with technology but i should get on that since i paid for the website so i should probably for sure make it useful so so uh so when you talk to joey tell him where's thomas at hello i absolutely and and tell him that we'd like to get him on this podcast too oh yeah if you can get him out of the office i'll have to drag him here talk about uh we could talk about the redskin and his old bands and stuff like that too it'd be fun i wonder if i get to get dia to come he might do it if dia comes yeah fabulous jeans yeah it'd be fun you guys gonna play us out sure yeah you told him about johnny cash let's sing some johnny johnny all right one two oh yeah i'm going to jackson town well go on down to jackson town go comb your hair honey i'm a snowball jackson see you back here yeah teach them what they don't know how i'm going to jackson try and loosen my coat oh your legs yeah go to jackson And I'll be waitin' in Jackson, me and my J-Bam fans. Well, we got a mad and a fever, hotter than a pepper sprout.

We been talkin' bout Jackson ever since that fire went out. Yeah, we're goin' to Jackson, and that's a fact. Yeah, we're goin' to Jackson, and never comin' back.

Well, we got a mad and a fever, hotter than that pepper sprout. We been talkin' bout Jackson ever since that fire went out. Yeah, we're goin' to Jackson, and that's a fact.

Yeah, we're goin' to Jackson, and never comin' back. Ladies and gentlemen, Whiskey in Harmony. That's Craig and Sarah from Whiskey in Harmony.

Thanks, guys, for joining us today. Thanks a lot, guys. Thanks, Paul.

Thanks, Ray. Thank you. So that was Sarah and Craig from Whiskey in Harmony, and it's pretty nice of them to come by here with that guitar.

That Taylor, wasn't it? Yeah, really. I probably should have stopped drinking that bourbon, not drinking it during the show. No, you shouldn't.

You shouldn't. Who was that? That was Sarah and Craig. Oh, well, I'm jokin', people.

I'm not drunk. I wasn't drinking during the show. I am.

I know. That would be tequila for you. Yes, it would be.

But, yeah, that was a really nice guitar he got her, man, I tell ya. Yes, indeed. What girl wouldn't want a guitar rather than a ring? And she got both.

She got both. That's right. That was very nice.

Very nice. And they sound really good together. They had a little impromptu little concert for us.

Yes, besides your Ice Cube and your Whiskey in Harmony, they were quite in harmony as well. They were. They were.

Very good job. And it's good to see that they're really busy. Three, four gigs a week, that's pretty good.

Yep, yep. Keepin' busy, keepin' busy. That's right.

So make sure you get out there and check them out, and check out their website, check out their Facebook page, and see where they're playing, and get out there and support live music. That's right. And check out our podcast on rockandrollchicagopodcast.com, and find out who else we've interviewed, and catch up with us on episode 110, right? Something like that, yeah.

We're up way over 100. Yep, yep. And you can find us on Facebook.

We have our Facebook group, which you could join, and that's where we can all chat together. We're on Instagram. We're on TikTok.

We're on Twitter. We're like all socialized. That's right.

And you can also check out our good buddy Jeff Sosmelek and Three Songs. My Three Songs. My Three Songs.

My Three Songs podcast. That's right. Check it out.

Jeff meets every week with a friend, or maybe even a foe, I don't know, and they pick out three songs that they like, and they discuss the songs. Three songs that have meant something in their life, I guess. Exactly, exactly.

So coming to you again from the Illinois Rock and Roll Museum on Route 66 in beautiful downtown Joliet. Where do you say route? You know, it's funny. I say Route 66, but I'll say like Route 30.

I don't know why. Route 66, but Route 30, because Route 30 doesn't sound right. No, it doesn't.

Sometimes, because of the song Route 66. It probably is, yeah. History kicks on Route 66.

Yeah, because Route 66, now that doesn't sound correct. I mean, when you're sad, you pout, you don't poot. Tomato, tomato.

That's right, that's right. But we're actually, we're on Route 30 here. We are.

Yes. But it's also called Cass Avenue, 9 West Cass Avenue. Keep an eye out.

Check out the museum on RoadToRock.org. They should be opening up very soon. Make sure you go to their website and join, be a charter member. You get all kinds of cool benefits.

Or get your tickets for the second annual Illinois Induction into the Hall of Fame. That's right. Tickets are on sale, and they're going quick.

June 5th, Sunday, June 5th at the Rialto Square Theater. That's right. And I think Dennis DeYoung is going to be inducted, along with Styx.

Yes, Dennis DeYoung is a singer-songwriter, and the band Styx themselves are being inducted. I don't have the whole list in front of me, but there's quite a few people going to be inducted. It's going to be very cool.

All right. Thanks for listening, everybody. Thanks for listening.

We'll see you next week. Bye-bye now. Bye-bye now.

The Rock and Roll Chicago podcast does not own the rights to any of the music that's played on this podcast. The music is used to promote the band or musicians that are interviewed.