Hey, this is Paul Martin and Ray the Roadie for the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. How are you today, Ray? I'm doing great. I'm sweating like a pig.

How are you? Yeah, we... Come on in, the air-conditioned. Yeah, we're here at the studio here at the Rock and Roll Museum on Route 66, and the air-conditioning hasn't been installed yet. It's a little toasty in here.

Yeah, it's a little warm. Yeah, a little bit. No, sweating never hurt nobody.

Not really, but I'd rather be sweating than freezing. Oh, yeah, that's true. Most definitely.

So I don't want to complain too much because people say, yeah, well, wait a few months and when the snow's on the ground. Yeah. No, thanks.

I'll wait. You know, when it starts getting cold, you know where I'm going? I'm going south of 30. Really? Yep.

Okay. Well, there still may be snowing south of 30. I'll just keep going.

Just keep going. Until it stops snowing. Until it stops snowing and it's warm again.

Okay, well, good for you. Well, you know, what a coincidence you said that. It usually is a quinky dink.

Yes. I think you're playing this. I do.

I do. But we're speaking today with South of 30 Band. You're kidding.

Nope. Nope. Look at that.

See how that worked out? Yeah, it is kind of funny. Yeah, it is kind of funny. But so we talked with Kevin and Valerie Gardner and George Schulach and Patrick Moore of South of 30 Band and we talked to them and it seemed like some great guys.

Yes. And gals. Yep.

And they got some great stories and some great insight into their band. Yes, they do. Let's find out about them and let them tell the story.

Let them tell the story. Away we go. Hey, everyone.

Welcome to the show. Today we're speaking with Valerie Gardner, Kevin Gardner, George Schulach and Patrick Moore, better known as South of 30 Band. How are you guys doing today? Fantastic.

Thank you guys. Great. Paul, thank you for having us out.

Now, I want to make sure you guys are comfortable because we're just north of 30 here. You're all right. We're OK with that.

OK, good. We're OK with that. We're on the north side of the street anyway.

Well, I think I live north of 30, so I'm always going to be the outskirt. He's our outlier. Put that, the only one that and I'll be honest with you, once again, I just want to thank you guys.

I just can't even tell you how much we appreciate it. You're very welcome. Thanks for coming out.

No problem. Thanks for coming out. So South of 30, South of 30, I mean, off the top of my head, I would think, oh, it's a country band, but it's not necessarily true, is it? It is not.

No. No. And the reasoning for the name is, the reasoning for the name is we truly live South of 30.

But everyone in the band was at that time was actually 50, 50 plus, we'll leave it at 50, 50 plus. OK. And so there's, there's a little saying.

You were north of 50. Yeah. I'm north of 50.

He's going to be 50 in Drum Resort. Yeah. I got the next one.

Yeah. He'll be 50. I have six months left, so.

Yeah. So he's, he's our, he's our youngster in the band. And so we started out as South of 30.

We are South 30. And we really started focusing on the Americana sound. And a lot of Americana sound came from country.

It came from folk. It came from that genre of, you know, a little bit of rock, a little bit of country, a little bit of folk. And probably the last year, we've tried to gravitate who we are instead of labeling.

It's only this. We've had to branch out a little bit and make songs our own. So South of 30 has really almost become still an Americana band.

And we are, we're red, white and blue through and through. And we do country and we do folk and we do rock, but we do it our way. And so South of 30 has almost become its own genre of Americana music.

Well, I noticed you do some Johnny Cash, you do some ZZ Top, right? But all the way to the Beatles, right? We do. Yeah. And people ask us that.

We love Beatles. It gets people moving. And though they're a band from England, it's still an American music.

Oh, sure. Sure it is. And, you know, can you really put a one band or it has to sound like this or it has to? I just don't think so.

They were a part of American culture and I believe they still are, as some people like. It's one thing for us as musicians to like music. It's nothing for other people that are paying to see you play, like music.

So a lot of times we talk to people. What do you like? Every time we're playing up, they'll say, play some Beatles. So we just start playing it and we start taking it on as our own.

And we do one song from the Beatles that also Godsmack does. Come Together. Come Together.

And I'll do a drop D. So it gets that real kind of beefy sound. And we do it our way. So it's almost a heavier Americana rock version of that song.

And he said, Drop D, Kevin, you play guitar, right? I play bass. You play bass. Yeah.

I see. I play guitar. You're the guitar player.

I see. Yeah. OK.

But I stay with the standard tuning. Drop D, you just confused me, man. And we don't want to confuse Pat.

He's very easy to confuse. No, I'm with you, Pat. I know you.

I know where you're going to. Yeah. And I play Lakelands.

And my last. Nice basses. Oh, I love those.

Yeah. And my buddy got me my last one. It was one of the last ones left at Lakeland, the USA version.

And jazz, the jazz bass. And I asked him, could you put that drop D on? And they did. It's the best thing that's ever happened to me.

And it's right on the money, too. Right on the money. You put the tuner on it after he drops it.

It's a perfect D. It's a perfect D. Yeah. Yeah. And so we use it quite often.

We use it for. Come Together. We use it for Come Together.

We also use it for one of the slower songs that we do by Fleetwood Mac. Cold Dust. What was that? Cold Dust.

Yeah. Cold Dust Woman. And it's just easy for me to.

And for the first two bars of any song that comes after them. Yeah. And one of our original songs.

We have one of our original songs called Wild in the Streets. And I use the drop D on that. So I wrote it in D. So I use the drop D on that.

Okay. So now, how many original songs do you play? How many do you do throughout the night? Not many. Because if we're going out and someone's hiring us to play dance music.

You know, dance that Americana. We really don't. We'll ask them if we can play an original.

And the last place we played at. We played my last original Wild in the Streets at Greg's place. We asked them and it just.

It was fantastic. So we want to start getting it after this week. We're going to take a little time off.

Or put this way. Not get booked every week. And take more time.

We probably have like four or five right now ready to come out. But we need time to work on that. Because right now, we never play the same set.

We probably have 120. 120 songs we work in our repertoire. And every time we play, it's a new set.

Every single time. We never play the same set. Wow.

Never. Well, how did the band get started? How long have you been together? This band, what you see, it's one year this week. What you see right here.

But we have 177 years of band behind us. And we've been playing music together since. 40 years.

The mid-70s. Yeah. So we've been together forever.

And then we've been married for almost 30 years. We've been doing music together for 30 years. South of 30 is almost.

That's him and Val. Yes. Not one of the guys.

Yeah. Val is a fine young lady. Thank you, Ray.

A fine young lady. That's my wife. And the keyboard player in the band.

Yeah, she plays keys. Yes. And we started out where she was just the background.

Play some background noise. And now she really has. She does leads.

Well, she's been playing for 40. Yeah. She started in the morning.

40 minutes. 40 minutes. Right before we got here.

Apparently, 30 years of marriage hasn't gotten that good right now. You need to keep tabs on how much I owe you. Right.

Thanks, Ray. And what we're trying to do is the last year. South of 30 in itself has been together for two years.

Okay. And we've had to find people that believe in the vision. And if you come in with your own vision, it won't work with us.

We've had eight people in the band. And so we're just at that point where if you're not sold out to what we're doing, where we're going, then you probably won't fit. And we never really kick people out.

They just kind of leave on their own. Because we keep doing what our vision is, the venues we play, the song selection. And some people just don't want to do what we do.

Not eight people at once. Yes. Eight people at once.

Yes, sir. Must be in a horn band. Another horn band, Ray.

We have pictures to prove it. We do, Paul. Horn bands rock.

They do. They do. Actually, two weeks ago, we had someone that plays horn that heard us.

It's like, we would love to play with you. And I'm like, let me think about that. Chicago, man.

Let me get back to you. It's like, if we do that one Chicago song, we'll hire you for that one song. Yeah.

So it's two years we've been together. South of 30. The one year we use some other players.

And they really did not want to play out. And that was my concern. And then I'm like, well, me and Val are going to go in a different direction.

We're going to take South 30. And just, we want to play out. And we want to be a working band.

And I have a notebook of songs. And the other ones just didn't want to do originals. And we want to end up being a 50-50 to like our other bands.

We were all in 100% all original bands. So this is our first time actually doing covers, which is kind of funny. And then once everyone got through, what you see here has been one solid year now.

When COVID hit. Yeah, I was going to say, how'd you survive COVID? We played where no one else would. And so all these bands wouldn't play.

And we said we would. And the owners were like, we just can't really pay you. We said, pay us what you can.

And we all work jobs. So it's like, well, let's work together. You pay us whatever you can.

We'll bring friends and a family. And let's get to where it's a working relationship. So that's what we do with all the owners.

We just say, what can you afford? And I know other bands don't want to hear that. But for us, for working people, we feel right now through the COVID, they need help right now. I'd rather see them open and not just take the higher value.

It's coming. But right now, we just felt to work and help. Our whole goal this year, you guys, was to help the owners get back on their feet.

And that's what we did. So we kept getting calls and offers. We've been playing this year, I think, how many, George, 50? 50, yeah.

And now it's all coming back to us. Karma's coming back to us. We didn't get a week off.

We remember that. You were good to them back then. They're going to come back to you.

And they're going to say, hey, come on back and play. They are, Ray. They really are.

And we love all the owners. We've respected them. We always say, please tip your bartenders and waitresses.

And we bring our friends. We have quite a large following. And we make sure, please, take care of them.

And the owners are like, every time you're here, man, we make more money off you guys. And we're clowns. I mean, we have a good time.

We don't play just music. I'm the serious one. Really? Please shut his mic off now.

I know what's going to happen. So what happens, we go in when COVID hit, and we said, let's do something different. Let's reach out to the people.

Let's reach out to the owners. Reach out to everyone and have more of a working relationship. And that really started us on where we are today is the working relationship, loving our people.

If ZM Bar Post is like love and blessings, we thank you guys so much. We truly appreciate one person. If you come out and see us, we truly appreciate you guys.

We appreciate people come out and see us, the owners. We're just so honored to do what we have been doing for one year. So it's gone from two years to one year with this band, and we've been playing for one solid year now.

So you said you've been playing, well, you two have been together 30 years. So did you start out playing guitar? Actually, I started playing piano. I started out as a piano player, went to trumpet, and then to bass.

And for some reason, bass is just... I could sit down right now to piano and just have a good time with it. But she is the structure one. This is what you do and this is how you do it.

Though I know the chords, she just like... She started organ, and she's incredibly intelligent. She actually has a master's degree. She has a master's, but a bachelor's of science and mathematics.

Math and music, they always go together. And we both have master's degrees. So we both went ahead and got our education degrees.

So not only that started out, I was a musician when I found her. And who found who? Was she like a stray or something? Well, I guess the thing is, I think we found each other because of music. I played a lot in my earlier years in churches.

And so I would... I answered a Juan ad, if that tells you how long ago that was. And I was playing in this little church in Hammond. And I met Kevin there.

And there were like only 20 people there. And he's like, I'm going to marry the piano player. And that's how we met.

And I told him, dude, she's way out of your league, man. Get that piano player. I was going to ask you, if you played for years, you probably played in church then, right? Yeah, I started probably like seven or eight.

I would play by ear. And then my parents said, well, let's get you some lessons. And so I started playing in church.

But I think where I really learned the most was in high school, in choir class. Because the teacher would be like, well, who can play piano? Because I can't. And so they just made you.

And that you have to read. And you have to read notes, and structure, and chords, and just everything. So that's where I probably learned the most.

And then I continued in college at Purdue with Purdue Musical Organizations, played for them, and sang for them. And then once I got out of there, I played for a lot of bands, and theaters, and sang, and did a lot of theater work. And then we met.

And just wherever we could play music, we did. So you read music? Yeah. We all do.

You all do? Yeah. Absolutely. For us, the last 30 years.

And one of the reasons, believe it or not, we've been, we're Hammond boys. I was born in Gary, raised in Hammond. But we're both Hammond boys.

And so when we found each other, we just always played in bands together. My first band, I was in sixth grade, playing trumpet 24, 25, or 64. That was the very first band I was ever in.

And then we started playing together. And it ended up being toward, we've always been in bands together. But we've all, us together, only played our own original music, or with someone else that writes.

We were in a band, probably the first big band was. Frozen Tear? Frozen Tear in the 80s. We were even actually on the loop used to play our music.

Oh, really? Yeah, Jonathan Brandmeier and his show, he'd always pick one of our songs to play. Pretty cool. Yeah, so we went from that.

And then we were in a band called Three Days Down, all original music. And then our next one was the next one after that. Did you do a lot of recording then? Oh, we actually have.

Yeah, we're in ARS Studios in Elsa. Right. This is old school, two inch tape, 24 tracks.

We still have it. Yeah. Do you remember, what was his name? Gary Cobb.

Gary Cobb, do you remember? Gary Cobb. Yeah, I don't know Gary, but I remember the studio. Yeah, and we still have those tapes.

I should have brought one for you guys. I'll make sure I get you guys one. And it's still, we play that once in a while, we're pulling some of those songs out, and we're going to start putting in our records.

Yeah, we're going to start using at least two or three of them. They're just fantastic songs. And you know, here 20, 30 years later, we listen to them, we're all like, oh my God, that's great music today.

And so for us- Good music never dies, right? It never does it. And then I went, I'm a heavy metal guy. And so I played a lot of metal.

I played in a band called Circus Circus. Don't shoot me. Please don't throw stuff at me.

We're crazy. We're Circus Circus. And we seriously, we're just, we're crazy.

But all original, we played all the way down to Atlanta. So we played up here all the time, all around Chicago. And then I got into a Christian band called Firescape.

So Patrick, tell us your story. You've been playing for, I'm thinking, almost as many years. Well, I originally started on drums when I was nine or 10.

But then I heard Smoke on the Water, and it completely changed everything. I started playing guitar when I was about 10, 10 or 11 years old. And that's pretty much where I've been.

I mean, I've still played a lot of drums. Like Kevin and George, we've, and Val, we've all come up playing with praise teams at our churches. And one of the places I was playing guitar at, our drummer moved, and our worship leader was like, oh man, what am I going to do now? I was like, dude, I play drums.

So that one of them, I wound up being our drummer for like seven years while I was still playing guitar in another band. So it's been a little bit of everything, but my money is definitely invested in the guitar stuff. And it's, I call myself a guitar player.

He is. Yeah. What kind of guitar are you playing? What's your favorite one? What's your go-to guitar? It depends on what day it is.

I've got a very new Les Paul standard that I just, well, that's why I was mentioning Sweetwater. They love us. I just bought this about three or four months ago and I've been playing it almost exclusively.

But I've also got an older Stratocaster that I really like and play that a lot. So it's usually between those two. I've got several others at home, but they stay in the case.

Yeah. What do you play through them? I have a vintage Marshall JMP 50-watt half-stack that I use if we're like outside. For inside with the smaller stuff, Kevin picked up a 40-watt Marshall DSL amplifier that I use and it's perfect for like smaller rooms and for like we played outside, but in a smaller kind of area outside just last weekend.

And that amp was perfect for it. It's an all-tube amp and it sounds very similar to my Beast. Well, I told him, I said, as we get older, you guys understand it, it's harder to carry equipment.

Travel light, my friend. Brother, travel light. And so I said, I'll tell you what, I'll buy you that brand new Fender.

Fender has a really nice, where they have like the old, I don't remember which one it was. The lead one, I can't remember what it was, the model, what it was. I'm like, I'll buy that.

It's light, you'll get some of the tones for some of the country. He's like, no, Marshall only. Marshall, Marshall, Marshall.

Marshall, Marshall, Marshall. So we ended up going with the Marshall and he gets some really good clean tones out of that. So it's fantastic.

Well, something else I just got, like in the last couple of weeks, I went back to Sweetwater again. I got a Boss GT-1000 multi-effects processor that I'm still kind of trying to get. Still toying with? What's that? You're still toying with it? It's definitely got a learning curve.

Paul, may I tell you though, brother, that this man in the beginning of the band said, I'm not using no pedals. I'm clean. Plug and play.

And through him checking in, I was just encouraging him that he'll be fine. There's some new stuff out there that's easy to work with. With the wide range of styles that we're doing, I need to have some effects.

If I'm playing myself, I'm a blues guitarist. Plug straight in and play. See, if you go back, which I think you're kind of in my school of thought, or kind of the old school of thought, you used to, guitar players, used to plug the guitar in, plug it into the amp, and boom, play.

It was the amp that gave you the sound. Nowadays, it's the pedals that give you the sound. They give you so many different sounds.

And you have to adapt, I guess. And I'm still using the effects mostly just for some reverb and a little bit of delay. I'd rather get the distortion and the crunch out of my amp.

So I'm trying to stay with that. Like I said, though, we're doing such a wide range of music now that you've got to be able to step on a switch and get a different tone. Because I'm also going from acoustic to electric sometimes, too.

So let's hear from George here. George is the new guy. So you've been with the band a year? Yes.

Actually, technically, a little bit more. Before COVID hit. Oh, okay.

And tell us your backstory a little bit. Okay, well, I've always loved music. Were you a guitar player in turn playing drums? No, actually, when I was younger, I've always loved music.

My mom got me started with Motown and the Beatles. And I actually loved John Denver, too. And anything like that, until one day, she said, you've got to come upstairs and look at these weird guys on TV.

They're wearing makeup. And it was KISS. End of story right there.

Is that why you're in makeup? That's right. We thought you guys were offended. So if anything gets on the table, we'll wipe it off.

So ever since then, it was KISS. And then I got into Cheap Trick. And then I got into Styx.

And I also love Alice Cooper. I love a lot of theatrical bands. But with drums, I've always loved the drums.

I've always wanted to play them when I was younger. And then when I was in 4th grade, I did start with the school band for about two years. And it was just the regular snare drum.

And then by 6th grade, they started me on the full kit. But then I lost interest in it. I was going into the teenage years and I thought I knew everything, which I knew nothing.

And then it wasn't until I hit my 20s where I was like, you know what, I want to start a band. So in 92, my first band, we were called Brigade and we played nothing but original material. And we actually recorded in my grandparent's basement.

We called it the grandparent's studio with TASCAM, 8-track TASCAM. I still have the cassette. Everybody else lost theirs.

I still have mine. And then after that, I just took like 10 years off. I just really didn't want to do it anymore.

I wanted to go back to school and I got my degree in graphic design. And I started doing that until I moved to the Lake of Four Seasons because I grew up in Highland Indiana. I moved to the Lake of Four Seasons and I started playing with a church band.

One day, Kevin and Val walked in and we started playing. You guys make the rounds of the churches? Well, the funny story is I go up to introduce myself and Kevin goes, are you in a band? I said, no. He goes, why? I went, I don't know.

He goes, do you want to join my band? I went, all right. Paul, right, he's got a perfect meter. Well, thank you.

It's a perfect meter. And when he gets locked in and you know how it is, when you find those guys, you don't know about who's those guys. He can look at me.

I can look at him. I know exactly what we're going to do. We laugh so hard.

And at the end, he has to show you his kiss room. Unbelievable. He has a kiss room.

They've always been my favorite. Not where a kiss is in. Oh, I thought you were saying $1 booze and then he's standing there with $1.

You remember those, right? Yeah, I do. I think we all have those stories, don't we? Is that kind of show? Oh, my wife's here. So you lived in Highland and you moved to Lakeford Seasons and is that where you're still from? Yes, I still live at the Lakeford Seasons.

Now you guys do shows out there? We did. Like two weeks ago. The coolest, you can pull up on Facebook and look at the pictures.

It was just walls and walls of just people. And right over what we played, there's a cloud and there's a rainbow. You've got to look at it.

It's crazy. It's a rainbow coming right on top of us. I've never seen anything like it.

If you pull it up on Facebook, you'd see it. It's unbelievable. It's the coolest picture ever.

We actually opened the concert series there a couple weeks ago for Lakeford Seasons. What other shows do you have coming up? You said you were taking some time off, but I'm sure you've got some things lined up. We do.

This week we're at Bugaboo's outside. The week after that, we are at Greg's Place on Friday night for Bike Night. Where's Greg's Place? It's in downtown Cherville.

Old Cherville downtown. Then that Saturday, we're back out in DeMott doing a car show which is going to be a fantastic show. What we're doing is there's a car show.

We'll do an hour show. Then after the car show, we're going to put on an hour concert for them. Then next week, the week following that, we're at Bank Shots doing another Bike Night.

Then after that, we're at Catch out in Merrillville last weekend of July. Then August 7th, we're doing a benefit out in Miller Beach. We're actually completely booked almost every weekend until October.

Kevin says, we're going to take time off. Then somebody calls. Exactly.

We were supposed to take one weekend in July off. Somebody called and said, we had a band cancel. Can you do this? Kevin's like, okay.

It's a blast. I think playing out every weekend for the last year has made us who we are. I don't think you know who you are when you're practicing.

I think you know who you are when you're playing. We're booked all the way through October. You guys booked a band? You booked a band, Kevin? Val does too? I'm the guy, but she is keeping things in order.

I'm not an orderly guy. Normally, we just have people contact us. I reach out to a couple places and I just throw that out there.

I'll just say, hey, here's our website. Go to our website. Check out our videos if you're interested.

Give us a call. They just do. There's been a few.

I think there's one we had to cancel because of tornadoes. We normally fill in for cancellations. It was a week or two ago when the tornadoes come through.

My kids were freaked out. Family first. Then you're not really that dedicated to the music.

No, Ray. Yes, there's part of me that still needs some work probably. Most definitely.

We're always honored when people do reach out to us. I don't want to beat people up, but what we've been talking about doing is going to different places. It's one thing to send an email or send a letter.

They don't know who you are. We talked to some of the parks departments. They're like, Kevin, one person contacted us and they're like, do you understand there's 200 some people, 200 different bands that contact us throughout the year? It just kind of goes into a file.

For us, we like going to places. If we're going to play there, we'll go eat there. We'll have a drink there.

We'll go hang out there. I know a lot of people or I know some business people that know people. They're like, hey, give Kevin a call.

You need to have them guys out. They're hilarious. They're good players too.

Paul, we're... Do you guys do comedy shows? We seriously do. Our last one, we were at... You tell dad jokes? Yes. Bad dad jokes.

What ends up happening is we seriously talk to everyone and we're just ourselves. The show consists of humor. Sometimes I'll tell a story before a song and sometimes we go right into it.

There's always something. If I see someone sitting there, there's always that communication with the people. They just love it.

People stay through our whole shows. They'll stay for the full three hours or four hours. I believe that besides the music, there's an art to talking between songs.

You play a couple... I hope you play a couple of songs in a row and then talk. That to me is one-on-one. There's an art to talking between songs and talking to the crowd and working the crowd.

We had our last show. It's got to be the funniest gig we've ever had. For some reason, they're very vocal with us.

Very, very vocal. Very engaged. On every single song, they're engaged.

They're just talking between the songs. They're just amazed because we're still talking and playing, hanging out. Obviously, we're buying us drinks and cigars.

It was a funny show because we had everyone from 18-year-olds all the way up to 83 asking for Nazareth. True story. George telling the story is hilarious.

That is a true story. We'll take a 5 or 10-minute break in between our sets. There were these older ladies.

They had to have been late 70s, early 80s. I go over and talk with them. I'm like, are you enjoying the show? They said, yes.

They go, oh, we love you guys. I said, is there anything you want us to play? They were like, how about Nazareth, Hair of the Dog? I went, hmm? Then she went, Nazareth, Hair of the Dog. Then I went, Kevin, come here.

We promised them if they come to the next show. You thought she meant Jesus with Nazareth. I was like, I meant Jesus.

That's the beautiful thing about music. It's so universal. You could have anybody.

We would see these people. We would think, okay, Sinatra, Dean Martin or something, but you hear Nazareth. To me, that is extremely cool because it doesn't matter what type of music.

It could be heavy metal, hard rock, pop, jazz. Everybody has a connection with music. Music saved me.

If it wasn't for music, I don't know where I'd be today. I love it to death. This is the reason I was put on this earth.

At that same place, I like bringing out my upbreak. We call her Big Bertha. I play double bass.

Outside the double bass, we play Coupé. That's that traveling light. Oh, bravo.

It's beautiful. That is not light. It's just fantastic.

I just love playing that. I had it completely redone. I put a pickup in it.

I ended up going with strings. I could bow or Picasso with it. I'll tell you what.

It's just a fantastic bass. When we take that out, people are like, they want to touch it. Seriously, they take pictures with it.

If we're doing acoustics, I play an acoustic. Bertha comes out for the Elvis Presley. We just have a blast.

If people say, can you bring Big Bertha, I'll bring Big Bertha out. I noticed on your website that sometimes you play full band and sometimes you play acoustic band. Tell us about that.

Does it just depend on what the club calls for? It really is. Some clubs, as you guys know, they'll put you in this little corner. It's like, this is what you have.

Right. As a full band, I'm not bringing my 18-inch subs and my 15s and my 12s. We went out and bought a Bose L1S1.

What ended up happening is we said, let's do something different since we're south of 30 and we're that Americana genre. What's the greatest thing when we look at Americana music? They always have acoustic bass or acoustic guitar or more of that stripped-down sound. In some places, we'll strictly do a stripped-down sound.

As a matter of fact, Bug was one of those. We really enjoy it. They like having duos and trios, but I talk them into it.

It's like, what George brings out is a cajon. He'll bring a cajon and then we'll bring our acoustics and we'll also bring the keys. Come on, sing it loud! Who do you love? That stripped-down sound you guys is just fantastic.

It's very clean. There are certain songs that I feel we should play with acoustic on. Then there are the big shows where we just ... Go all the way to the wall, right? If you get far enough south of 30, all of a sudden you start hearing a little bit of that banjo coming too.

And you're going to crack up, Val plays banjo, harmonica, what else do you play? Accordion. On the keys. A little mandolin sometimes.

I just bought a band. I do actually have a banjo, but I'm afraid to bring it up. Our next step when we take this little break, maybe over Christmas, is on this.

I'll learn the mandolin and he'll work on that banjo. Man of Constant Sorrow on a banjo. Yeah, we do Man of Constant Sorrow.

Hilarious. It's a great song. For us, we really do look at where we play and what would go well with that.

If we miss it, we miss it. We won't take that chance. So if we have to do a duo or a trio, or we go into just stripped down, or we'll just bring everything out, we feel that we can play anywhere.

And that's which we have. That makes you versatile. And Paul, you guys have been around forever, too.

You understand this. Being versatile. 14 years.

Right, yeah. Everything's 14 years. Yes, 14 years.

I remember seeing his band when I was in high school. It's the 70s. Great.

This is really not white. I dye it white. Dyes it silver.

As soon as the brown starts coming. I hate that brown. I like the white.

So yeah, we try to be as versatile as possible. So get back to your own stuff. Who does the writing? Most of Kevin with us.

Do you bring the whole song to everybody? Or do you bring an idea and everybody contributes? Normally I bring the whole song. It's just better that way. And I'm going to tell the story.

And so I had this one idea. And so I brought it and I was like, oh my god, that's just oh my god. So we bring it down and Pat's like, he's getting nervous.

He knows I'm going to throw him under the bus for a second. Sorry, he can't hear you. I'm used to it, man.

So anyways, if I bring an idea and it's not pretty much solid. Pat, he's got a fantastic song out that he wrote himself. I'm trying to get him to play with our band.

And he doesn't give himself enough credit. But he wanted to put a blues riff on it. And so George is like, isn't that just like a standard blues riff? Yeah, but I've been working on this blues riff, but it's a blues riff.

And so I'm like, let's shelf that one. So it's easier. If we think of something, I will seriously write down within sometimes minutes.

I have a song done. He'll come up with the drum part and I'll just put a bass part to it and then you'll pop in and I'll write the lyrics right then and there. I sound like Dr. Seuss if I try to write lyrics.

I always write a whole... Green eggs and ham? Yeah. Get some rocking ham I am. And whatever seriously pops in my head for that song, there's only one time when Val said, you are not using that song.

So it was called Crack. You can't say that on radio. You can say anything on podcast.

Let me add a little something to that too. I'm not very creative because I'm the... I'm not. I love to play.

I love to create within that, but I could never write. I think it's fascinating though. We'll go down to the basement and sometimes I occasionally get aggravated with the boys because they get off track.

But in that off trackness is the creativity. And those three will just start playing something and I'll have no idea what they're doing. And they just get off the phone and record it.

And then later on, Kevin will take that riff and he'll write something, a whole song to it. And it's amazing though that out of that two minutes of goofing around can come something fabulous. That's why sometimes when you're playing every week and more than twice a week, it's hard to get that creative because we do change every single song list.

We get very creative with our song list too. Who's going to sing what? Who's going to open up to what? Well, these people are more heavy up front, soft in the back. So we create each list with the people that they actually have there.

So that's why we look at different songs. Who's going to sing? Who's going to open up the show? Because we all four of us sing these. Well, that's how it's going to answer your next question.

Who's the best at singing? It's split with us. Val is the best singer. But for us, we try and do like 999 for a set.

And then George has two or three that he does. He sings Sugar, Sugar. It's hilarious.

It's like, Bubblegum, are you serious? And then we play and we're like, yeah, Sugar, Sugar. It's really kind of cute. So he does that and... Some Kiss? You sing some Kiss? We haven't really tried any Kiss just yet because we're Americana.

We're trying to stick with that particular genre, but we're also trying to focus on writing original material. So it's not that we don't want to use any one song or any one group until we feel that it fits in with what we're doing. So we're not opposed.

What's the song I put in for this week? The funny... So it's called I Don't Look Good Naked Anymore. It's hilarious. None of us do.

It very much fits where we're all at in life. That's the cool thing about this band is you can put stuff in there and it's not outside of the realm of what your band does because we do everything, man. People ask me, what do you guys do? And I'll tell them we do everything from Johnny Cash to Johnny Cougar to Johnny Rotten.

Well, someone asked us to do You Drop The Bomb On Me. So we did it. Never played it before, but we did it.

Once in a while, if we see the girls want to get up and dance, we will seriously pull that out. And Val does boo. And he does something on the guitar.

And it's a funny thing. And so I'm out there singing, you drop the bomb on me, baby. And so to see us play Drop The Bomb On Me is it's worth every penny.

It's hilarious. But usually that's after everybody's had a few drinks. The first time we played it, we played it live during a show we had never played it before.

We just started playing it, man. And on the original, we don't we don't think about, OK, let's choose a genre. We don't.

We just play. Or we just write. And that's been the beautiful thing, because like the one song I just wrote, Wildin' Streets, Val's like, that's kind of like an 80s rock.

And I'm like, but that's us. How could it not come out of us? If it comes out of you, then it's part of you. Exactly, Paul.

So we just, whatever comes out for that time or whatever we're thinking about or whatever we're feeling, that's just what we write about. And that just has been fitting us very well. But we do like anything that is more drum and bass.

Because it gives more of that groove. And then we can pretty much do anything we want to. Once me and George get that groove going, everything else just falls into place.

Because that's the key factor, is that you get a good rhythm section, and it's easier to just put things on top of the rhythm. You're the backbone, right? We're the backbone. So you guys can do whatever you want.

Have fun! So that's kind of how we do it. So thank you for that question. And the drummer drives the bus, that's what I see.

And I've always looked at Kevin because he always gives me the signals like, OK, sometimes, here is the part, this is where we do the breakdown, OK, the ending is coming up. And he always gives me the nod. So we're always in tune with one another when we're doing when we're performing.

But also, I think the material that we're playing, it's amazing how we can touch just, even if it's just one person, just by that one song, and they look, go, I haven't heard this in 20 years. Oh my gosh, I forgot how good this song was. Like, we do Eastbound and Down from Smoking and the Bandit.

And people, they hear it, and they go, I can't believe they're playing this. And then they're dancing in their seats and they're just loving it. And I think that's what's important, is they're hearing these things, they're going back to the time where, oh my gosh, I remember where I was and what I was doing at this time.

It's that good feeling. It's what music brings, the feeling that you get from music. Even when we do the slower stuff, we've had people standing in front of us and just bawling and crying.

So when we do the slow stuff, we believe we really are emotional. Tennessee whiskey is always good for one of these. Yeah, I love singing in Tennessee whiskey.

That's probably my favorite song. I enjoy singing because, I mean, I don't... You sound like you have a deep voice, kind of like Kelly Chris Stapleton. Yeah, it is.

I'm more of that baritone. You know, and I'll be honest with you, we all bring that personality out too. We just don't stand there and just... Right.

We really, we're into, we love, we all four love music. So when we're playing, we're into it. And I've got hip replacement, arthritis, but when I get out there, nothing.

Next day, different story. Yeah. Different story, you guys.

But I think that's what makes us different too, is we own every song. We don't just play the song. We own the song.

If we feel that it's just playing a song, leave that for everyone else. For us, we want to own it. It's almost like a blanket for us.

So we feel that when we're going down and looking at a song, we will actually say to each other, that doesn't translate well for us. No matter how good of a song it is. We've taught some good music because it didn't translate to our band.

Some really good songs. We were doing all right now for a while and it just didn't work with us. Yeah.

A great song. But for us, it just didn't fit for us. So where can people find you social media wise? On the World Wide Web? The World Wide Web.

While we still say that, don't we? Is this 1992? Yeah. Do you have IBM computers? Those of you out there that are using Mosaic. I bet your website says www.

Or dial in with your AOL account. If you go to Google and search South of 30, you'll find us. Ding, ding, ding.

Yes, Paul. Thank you for asking that question. South of 30.

You could just seriously type in South 30. I'll cut all that out when I edit this down. I'll erase stuff.

Please leave it. Seriously, if you type in www.Southof30 band.com it'll come up to our website. It has all of our dates, all our merchandise is on there.

Our dates are on there. Where we play, what we're going to play, what we have. So we have email so you can get on there.

We actually do reach out to people to do monthlies. You can go on there and reach us on Facebook. You can type in South 30 and it links into Kevin Gardner my account.

Normally, I don't like having an actual band account. I know it sounds odd. We are a family.

This is actually my brother-in-law. This is my wife. This is my brother-in-law.

We're like a family. It's kind of neat to have when we're on there, we're on there as a family. That's why if you looked at Kevin Gardner, you could also get information.

Thank you guys for joining us today. Thank you for having us. We're honored.

Once again, it's the South of 30 band. Thank you very much. Elvis has now left the building.

Thanks for joining us guys. Thank you very much for having us. Thank you guys.

So that was the South of 30 band. Kevin sure likes to I mean, he knows a lot about the band, doesn't he? He is the band. He kind of runs the band.

Hopefully, he knows the band because he's part of the band. They've been together for a couple of years as they are. I guess him and Patrick played together for many, many years.

But now they have George on drums. And his wife, they've been playing for a number of years too. 14, I think, I believe.

I think she's been playing keyboards for 14 years. That's what they said. No, it's 14.

14. You never say that. Never go later than 14 years.

I've learned my lesson in the past. 14 years. But they'll be coming out to a place near you, especially if you're South of 30.

That's right. Sometime in the next 14 years, we'll see them. That's right.

And they said they're going to be taking some time off, but I think they meant time off like during the week. It doesn't seem like they're taking much time off. Not during the weekends.

They've got a lot of gigs coming up. Check out their website, southof30band.com. It's good to see that they were playing though. They kind of kept busy and played a lot of clubs, even during COVID.

And now clubs are paying them back. That's right. That was really nice of them.

They're trying to stay afloat and they said, whatever you want to pay us, we'll play. That was great. Not a lot of bands would do that.

Nope. They seem like good guys and good people. So that's what South of 30 is all about.

Be sure and check them out. Check out their website. Check them out on Facebook.

Check out the Illinois Rock and Roll Museum and Route 66 also on Facebook. That's right. Or check out roadtorock.org. That's the website for the Illinois Rock and Roll Museum and Route 66 where you can buy your tickets for the Hall of Fame induction coming up on August 31 at the Rialto Theater.

Or you can sign up to be a charter member or sign up to be a donor. You can be a monthly donor for $5, $10, $15, $20, $25, whatever you want. Support the place.

This is where our studio is and they're doing a fantastic job. Okay. All right.

Well, I plan on being there August 31st. How about you? I do too. Good deal.

And you know what? I'll see you there. It's at the Rialto which is South of 30. Yes, it is.

Yes, it is. All righty. Okay.

Thank you for listening. See you next week. Bye-bye.

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.