Hey, Paul Martin and Ray LaRoti for the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. How are you doing today, Ray? I'm feeling stronger every day. How about you? Oh, you know, this sounds like a song.

It is a song. It is. Yeah.

And I'm telling you, this is only the beginning. Oh, boy. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. It's just such a hard habit to break. Oh, boy.

I know. It better end soon. But, you know, Paul, you're my inspiration.

Okay. Yeah. Stop.

Please. Really. You know, it's not just a Saturday in the park here either.

No. Okay. Okay.

Thanks for listening, everybody. Ray's going to continue to riddle off songs by the group Chicago. Go ahead.

That's right. It's like a contest. We should have a call-in.

Caller number three. Who are we interviewing today, except that we're not live? I could tell you. Can you? You would win.

Well, I would win. I would win. As a matter of fact, I'm going to win.

I'm going to win the lottery is what I'm going to win. Oh, I hope I win it, too, because of course, by the time this airs, we'll both be losers and we'll be back. That's right.

If you hear if we come back again next week, you know, we lost this show airs. That's right. That's right.

We're meeting today with the Chicago Experience, the Chicago Experience, the Chicago Experience. They're a band out of Chicago playing lots of Chicago. That's right.

And playing it very well, I mean, you see, we we spoke with Eric Caliendo. We spoke with Brian Hempstack, Jim Massoff, Tim Rutter and Steve Frost. And that was only five of the of the nine guys that are in the band.

Yeah. You know what? I forgot to ask Eric if he's any relation to Frank Caliendo. I don't know.

You never know. You never know. There's a lot of Caliendo's around, I think.

Yeah. Yeah, that's true. Kind of like a calzone.

There's calzones everywhere, but only a few good ones. Oh, yeah. That's right.

So, yeah, these are a bunch of talented guys. Extremely talented guys. Yeah, extremely talented.

And they've all got all got degrees in music and music degrees from somewhere or another. And they're very talented. So let's get to it and see what they have to say.

Let's get going. Hey, everybody. Welcome to the show today.

We're speaking with a bunch of talented musicians. And I do mean talented. We're speaking with the Chicago experience from Chicago.

How are you guys doing tonight? Hey, guys. Good. Good.

I see we've got five of you here today. There's how many in the band, though? Nine. Nine? Yes.

All right. All right. So I say you're talented because, I mean, I've seen I've read your bios and I see that some of you, many of you have degrees in music and that's very cool.

I mean, so when did the band get started and how did the band get started and why Chicago music? Oh. Of Chicago, I should say. Steve, you want to take this one? Great.

I'll take that one. Right. Well, how the band got started is a story if you're in for a good story.

We're always in for a good story. That's what we're here for. Yeah, man.

So, you know, I think the band probably this iteration of the band's been together a little over five years, six years, but the band has been around probably 10 or 11 or 12. Right, Brian? Yeah, that's about right. About 11 or more years.

Yeah. Because Brian and Steve, you guys were the first to sort of, you know, going back to the very beginning. Actually, actually, Adam, Adam Calger, our drummer, is the first and only drummer.

So he's probably the then, you know, Ron came in, our guitar player, Ron Brandt and Brian shortly, you know, so much earlier than Tim. But you know, I, you know, there was we were under different management and that's part of the story. But the individual put the whole thing together.

I mean, I think we could all agree he chose a great band. If you want to be a tribute band, I don't think there's a better band than than Chicago to be a tribute band just because of the great music. It's all about the music.

And to see the joy on people's faces when we're playing these songs are timeless. And this band is true to the music. And it's just a great experience.

It's the Chicago experience. But, you know, so, you know, going way back, there was an individual who did a good job of trying to cultivate a lot of good local talent, you know, did a good job of getting it off the ground. And and then things started to evolve as we started to do, you know, more gigs and more demanding things and things evolved to where we got some other players in.

And a lot of us go back a lot of years. Some of us don't go back a lot of years. Well, yeah, well, Tim, this is Jim talking, Tim, myself and Ron and Paul Wood, who's not in the in the Zoom chat right now.

Shit, Tim, we probably go back 25 or more years. I mean, I would say, you know, different bands and all sorts of stuff. Yeah, Ron and Paul and myself, I know I've known those guys most of my life.

And, you know, so the three of us go back probably closer to 30 years, 40 years, maybe in some cases. Yeah. Well, Ron and Paul went to high school.

Didn't they go to grade school together or something? Grade school and then high school together, too. Yeah. So we're in a lot of ways, we're like old friends, you know, I don't think that they make it through high school.

They're gigging and dropping out of classes and stuff, right? But, you know, we've had the really good fortune, you know, like I said, the group that is together now and Eric just joined us this summer. Eric's the latest addition to the band. You know, Adam Brill was our Terry Cath vocalist for many years.

And Adam and his family moved to, I think it's North Carolina. North Carolina. Yeah.

North or South, what's the difference? But, you know, so we miss Adam, but we're glad to have Eric. Eric just fit right in. We're very, I think we're all very grateful because it was seamless.

You know, this isn't exactly the type of music you could just plug anybody in. You know, it's pretty demanding. Well, it's very stylized.

That's the thing. I when I first joined the band and, you know, playing a different types of tribute bands and whatnot, you kind of you really get into the weeds of the music. And it's there's a lot of little idiosyncrasies about it that you don't realize, you know, until you start really diving into it.

You know, that's been the way that things mesh together. And we rehearse a lot is as sections like the horn section. We'll get together and kind of work out a lot of the voicings of the charts and stuff.

And we eat pizza. Yeah. And maybe some cigars.

And then we might do some playing. Well, Eric, you couldn't have picked a better time to join the band in the midst of a pandemic. I know.

I actually got the call last spring and they're like, we've got all these gigs this summer and, you know, we'd love to have you do it. And I'm like, I've signed me up. I'm on board.

And and then, boom, everything's canceled and canceled and canceled. And and it was kind of funny because I knew Ron Brandt, the guitar player, I played with him in other groups before, and he's the one that kind of found me and brought me into this. And so he knew me and he knew what I could do, but I hadn't gotten to meet the other guys.

And I mean, this went on for months and I'm kind of I'm learning the stuff on my own and he's sending me music and I'm practicing and getting ready. And and and finally in August, some stuff was finally going to happen. So it's like, all right, we need to rehearse.

And then Brian was the first guy I met and Brian and Ron actually came over the house and and, you know, and I was very nervous and like, man, I hope these guys like me after all this. And I kind of had to leave some other bands to make this work because, you know, I realized what a commitment this group is. And I'm so glad I did it because these guys are amazing and it's absolutely worth everything I've gone through to do it.

And I finally got to meet the rest of the guys, I think, two weeks before our first gig. And it's pretty nerve wracking because I'm like, you know, I did a lot to get ready for this and I hope this works out. And and from, you know, the first song I for me, at least, I I felt super comfortable with them.

And this is kind of the band I've been waiting to be in my whole life. I've been playing in groups since I was 15 and I've loved every group I've played in. But Chicago was one of my favorite bands from when I was a little kid.

And actually, when I was growing up, when I was first born, my dad was a rock and roll musician my whole life. And unfortunately, he passed away four years ago. And I'm trying to kind of keep on what he started.

And when I was first born, he was in a band called the Elgin Watch Band, and it was a Chicago tribute band. And I've got some recordings of that. And it's it's kind of crazy how similar it is to what we're doing now.

And, you know, here I am 50 years later playing that same music that he was playing when I was born. What did he play? And I'm very excited to be with these guys. What did he play? He was a trumpet player in the Chicago group.

He was a trumpet player. He also played keyboards and sang and sax and flute kind of did it all. He was a band director to play everything and had rock band growing up in my house for my entire life.

And I actually played in a band with him and my sister band. We had it was called Cottonmouth and then it morphed into the Ultimate Party Band. And and I played with him for 25 years.

He had those tapes. Yeah, he had that band going for literally 46 years. He said, you know, never stop taking gigs.

So now you're also a high school band director, correct? Junior high band director. Yeah. And what do you what do you play? What do you play? Trombone.

In the band you sing, right? Yeah. And in the rock band, all I do is sing, which is it's that's been kind of interesting for me, too, because every other band I've been in, I play keyboards, I play trombone, trumpet. But I really in the rock and roll world, I really love singing.

That's what I love doing the best. And this band's giving me that opportunity. And it's just been a blast.

And whose whose parts are you singing as far as Terry Cather, Peter Cetera? Terry Cather. Mr. Hempstock is the Peter Cetera man. Yeah, Brian.

Brian, give us some of your history. Well, I'm I'm the youngest member in the band, so I like to remind people of that. Awesome.

I'll be thirty four in February, but I grew up in Wisconsin and then went to school at Western Michigan University. I've got a jazz studies degree in voice. So I graduated in 2009 and then moved to Chicago for about three or four months.

Ended up getting an opportunity to audition for the world famous Glenn Miller Orchestra. And and they picked me to for the job. I toured with them for about two and a half years as just their male vocalist.

So they had a male and a female and and then full big band from their amazing experience on the road, 300 days a year. You know, right out of college, it was it was all I could have asked for. Of course, some some great, you know, experience just musically and and meeting a bunch of different different guys.

Obviously, you know, jazz was kind of an interesting take at that time in terms of the big band stuff. You know, I was the guy out of college. A lot of guys like me and then plenty of, you know, seasoned veterans that have just been playing that music their entire life.

So I learned so much through that experience, but didn't end up want to want to be in on the road all the time. So, you know, moved back to Chicago in 2012 and actually previous to going had just started. We were talking kind of about the conception of the band and whatnot.

I answered a Craigslist ad at the time, ended up recording an ad for or recording an album, excuse me, for for that band, trying to get things off, you know, get things going at the time. They were just getting started. We were called 25 or 64 at that time.

You know, told them, hey, I've got a great opportunity. I've got to leave for for this touring band and experience for myself. And when I came home, I, you know, I checked in to see if they were still working on things just to try and find find a band to get started when I when I returned home, they were still doing things.

So kind of picked up where I left off there. And yeah, that would have been 2012. So it's yeah, it's been eight plus years for me pretty much with this band.

It's it's insane to think of that. So so that's it for me. Peter Cetera stuff has been just such an amazing opportunity for me.

I always tell people I wish I could write them like that. You know, they really the way that he uses his voice is is so unique and and really, you know, a joy for me to try and do every time we're on the stage. Well, I imagine doing all that and playing bass at the same time.

I mean, it's like the exercise is amazing. How is all these these these sort of polyrhythmical kind of way? Oh, the lyrics of the this the vocally, the songs are nice. So, you know, jumping away in the bass at the same time.

Yeah. Walking, walking the line as he's singing, you know, in the stratosphere. Absolutely.

He wasn't too shabby of a bass player either. Right. Yeah.

But but Brian, just to just to tag on to something you said, you know, he is the youngest. And and what's really cool about this band and it's kind of like Chicago's audience, you know, it spans generations. You know, one of the coolest things when I first met Brian and Adam, our drummer is like, man, these are young guys.

And it's I can't tell you how cool it is to see these guys really learning the music. You know, nobody in this band is phone it in. But, you know, most of us in the band grew up with it.

It's kind of in our genes. But these guys, you know, it's like it's so cool to see their eyes light up. Like when we did a couple of years ago, we did the entire Chicago to album.

We were at Acorn Theater. And, you know, the first half of our show was the entire album from start to finish. And so talk about deep cuts and just seeing the looks on everybody's faces like, whoa, you know, these are cool tunes.

I remember that was at the Acorn Theater up in Michigan. I remember watching people because, you know, we're pretty up far in front of the horn section is and I'm watching people on their phones checking to see that we were doing everything in Albemarle. I mean, it's like a rabid fan.

I mean, I had some woman come up to us at a festival like three or two or three some odd years ago. And I'm losing track of time because of covid. It's like it's crazy.

But but, you know, because we can't we really go go out of our way to make sure all the sounds of the songs are exactly the way they were originally recorded, because, you know, you can have people write arrangements for you or we do some ourselves for you. And there's always stuff wrong with it. I mean, it's like, you know, when we get to the horn section gets together all the time, we'll buy a chart.

And it's just a mess. It's like the notes are wrong all over the place. So we so we go go through everything.

And the singers do the same thing. And the rhythm section does the same thing. Like, we'll make sure it's right.

And then you add the live energy, the live show to that. And it's a cool thing. And I remember there was this woman came up to me.

I think it was Palos guys. And she was just sobbing like, you know, she remember her and her husband who just died a couple of years ago. They went to see Chicago at such and such a show.

And I mean, it just it just it it grabs people emotionally. And that's the thing that amazes me. Every show.

Yeah. That that the audiences are just just all over it. And, you know, it's it's it's it's us, but it's the music.

You know, it's just it's it's incredible. I mean, Ron likes to talk about the pre and post Terry Cat, you know, versions of the of the of the music and all that. Well, he likes to talk about that lovingly, loving and, you know, the early days of Chicago really was more like a jam band.

I mean, where, you know, there were sort of vehicles for the the real prolific soul, it's like Hank our cast or whoever to to kind of go off on stuff. You know, it's just it's interesting, like all the different, you know, over all the years and the way the way the sounds have morphed. And I don't know.

I love it. Well, I think they've kind of they kind of hone their sound over it over years and perfected it and got it to a point where they wanted it. You know, well, you're right.

It was kind of they were kind of a jam band with I'm a man and songs like that. I mean, those are basically jam songs. Yeah.

Yeah. South California, Purple's all that. Right.

But just and just to rewind a little bit, you asked about, you know, like Brian mentioned, we were originally called 25 or 64, the Chicago Experience. And when we broke away from the original management, we're kind of all sitting around going, you know, what are we going to call ourselves? And, you know, there's if you Google Chicago Tribute Bands, you'll get a dozen or more of bands that will use a song and say with a tagline, the Chicago Experience or a Chicago Experience. Yada, yada.

So we just said, you know, let's just call ourselves the Chicago Experience. You know, and that's how that came about from that day forward. That's what it's been.

Well, a lot of tribute bands tag on this song, a song name or something. Sure. Well, Steve, tell us kind of tell us about your history a little bit.

Oh, born and raised in Chicago. You know, I huge Chicago fan since I, you know, when I was a youth, you know, and I even went to DePaul. I studied with, you know, one of the teachers that Lee Locknane did.

You know, it was all my life. I was just a huge, huge Chicago fan, just total Chicago freak. And, you know, so, you know, played with a lot of I mean, rock bands, jazz groups, spent a lot of years on the Odyssey cruise ship.

But I don't remember that downtown Chicago and just played with a lot of different people. That's when I first met Ron and years ago and playing some clubs and stuff like that. And when when Ron called me and said, hey, I'm in this we hadn't talked in a few months because this gig we are on together disbanded.

And, you know, you said, hey, I'm in this Chicago tribute band. They're looking for a trumpet player. And I recommended you.

Are you in? I'm like, are you kidding? You know? Yeah. You know what? Yeah. And so I'm very grateful for that.

And that, you know, it's it's it's been a great time. I mean, you know, at the time I was playing pretty regularly with the play. My brother's a sax player, Mike Frost, and we played a lot of the clubs together.

And he was the entertainment director on the cruise ship. And we played forever together, you know. And, you know, I was playing really regularly around town and some of the jazz clubs and things like that.

And I was also playing substituting in on the Buckingham's, you know. So I was OK. I want to be part of this.

But I can't play kind of, you know, like like Brian said, you know, you know, had to step out and do this thing with that tour. And I think it was it may have been interpreted the wrong way. Because I I said, yeah, I'd like to be your number one sub, you know, and, you know.

Oops. Yeah. But then as things would work out, I just became the regular, the regular.

And it sucks you in, especially as good as this band is now. I mean, you know, all of us have all sorts of different things going on in our lives, you know, that we do to to to, you know, put the food on the table and whatnot. But we all make time available for this.

I mean, what with the schedule, you know, as is presented to us as time goes on, we always kind of make ourself available. And I think I mean, since I've said this, you know, to over and over again, you know, talking to other people about, you know, post covid, what's going to happen. I think it's going to be insane.

I already we were earlier with my 12 dates in the book right now. Yeah. A little more than that.

Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, you almost you almost at the point where you hate booking the guy, the gig, because you don't want to be able to you don't have to cancel it.

Yeah. But again. Yeah.

I mean, we were supposed to we were supposed to be at Acorn again in February, you know, Valentine's weekend, because last February we do that about we do Acorn a couple of times a year. It's it's just a wonderful venue. It's a cool place.

It is an awesome place. Yeah. And all nine of you fit on the stage.

Yeah. Barely. Yeah.

Yeah. We all we all have to inhale at the same time. You know, we have six and it's tough to hit fitness all up there.

Yeah. You go. Yeah.

So we were supposed to be there again, you know, and we actually did our CD release show last February. And it was it was just insane, you know. But unfortunately, this February is not going to happen because of the situation we're in.

We could talk about our live CD, though. You guys had a live CD, huh? Why don't you tell us about it? Well, thank you. Thank you, Ray.

As luck would have it, as you guys know, you know, nowadays with all the great technology playing a live show and there's a digital board and the sound guy will say, you want to buy your your your tracks from tonight? You know, your your files. And we're like, yeah, you know. And it started another great venue that we've had a wonderful relationship is Harmony Park in Arlington, Arlington Heights.

And that's that was the first one. It was a couple of years ago. And we're like, yeah, yeah, we'll take our files, you know, whatever.

And then they would sell them to you. Yeah, they said, you know, the sound man would make a little extra cash and say, yeah, you know, we're all about, you know, rising tide. Yeah, I read it for many years, but I never sold them.

I don't know. And I think of it. Yeah, man.

Yeah. So, you know, then then we did the next year or eight months later. We're over at Acorn and same thing.

Hey, you guys want your digital bundle? Yeah. And then so, you know, we're looking at it, you know, let's do something with these files. And I got to say, we're I am totally you know, we're all very proud of this project because it's live.

It's not a studio project. You know, we have the good fortune of Jim Massoth having a recording studio where we can mix it down. And Jim, you know, did a wonderful job of mixing.

And I'll let Jim go into more detail. But I can say, you know, so we got the cool thing about this CD. It's 17 songs, you know, so it's a great value.

It's 17 great tunes, a couple of deep cuts. And they're from two different venues, about even even amount of tunes from even just got kind of the big outdoor show in Harmony Park, Arlington night. And you got that intimate venue, Acorn, that we love so much.

So it's a really cool CD. And Jim, I'll turn it over. Well, we were we were we were lucky because that that that show not this February, the year before when we did the the Chicago to set.

You know, it was towards the end of the summer and we had done a whole bunch of gigs before the band was absolutely on fire. I mean, it was it was like 100 percent. So so we walked away with files from that.

And plus, the Harmony Park was good also and whatnot. And, you know, I always it was just we all kind of run the band sort of as a co-op. You know, everybody kind of contributes things in their own way.

And and we split the proceeds pretty evenly. So it's like it's like what? This was sort of my thing that I could offer the band. It's like, let me take you know, I have the studio and I was able to to grab those files and turn them into a great project.

And the thing about it is it's a really good representation of what the band sounds like live. And that is really kind of what I my whole vision of it was, you know, just to kind of keep that energy because you think about it. Our you know, you go back to, you know, years and years.

Our favorite records are always the live recordings. That's where all the energy is. You know, they're not the best recordings.

You know, Sinatra at the Sands. You get to, you know, Chicago, Carnegie Hall, you know, all the all the, you know, little feet. I mean, you can go down the list of all the amazing live shows.

And those are our best, our most favorite recordings, you know, because because the energy is there. Yeah. And it's usually all your favorite songs, too.

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

It's actually kind of tell us you play saxophone. And besides every recording studio, you play saxophone, a flute, correct? Saxophone, flute and clarinet. Oh, I see the clarinets buried in my closet somewhere, you know, on purpose.

That's where it's going on. That's right. He's got a lamp in it.

Oh, I'm married to a clarinet player. I tell those jokes all the time. I get.

Oh, so you have more. Keep them coming. That's right.

So, Tim, tell us a little bit about your history. Sure. Sure.

I'm like like some of the other guys I'm born in, you know, raised in Chicago area, been around here most of my life, except for, you know, being on the road with bands on occasion. Like the rest of these guys, I grew up absolutely loving Chicago. I played trumpet as a as a kid, like in grade school.

So, you know, Chicago kind of appealed to me back then. But first time I heard trumpet players, we have here one, two, three. Too many.

I'm sorry. Brian also writes a four. Yeah.

Who didn't play trumpet? Come on, guys. Yeah. Mine's also buried away in the closet.

That's all right. Yeah. OK, go ahead, Tim.

I was the youngest of four boys and there were already two drummers. My parents said no more drummers. But yeah, no.

So so actually one of the first times I ever heard a live performance of a band, surprisingly, was a Chicago tribute band, Chicago cover band that my oldest brother played in called the Brass Odyssey. And this was back in the 60s. And I still to this day remember hearing them do twenty five or six to four live with, you know, good trumpet players and good musicians in it.

And going, wow, that is I was hooked from that point. I was like, that is the coolest music. And, you know, through, you know, through the years, listen to a bunch of different music and went off in different areas, played guitar for a number of years and some rock bands and, you know, goofed around with things like that.

But the music I always liked was always had horns in it, whether it was Chicago or Earth, Wind and Fire or Chase or, you know, some of the bands like that, that's always where I came back to was that. So and so I didn't I did a tour with both Paul and Ron who aren't on this this call, but with the Crying Shames for about, I don't know, 15 or 18 years through the 80s. And so, you know, I played with those guys and a lot of gigs.

And at the end of that, you know, it was kind of one of those things where it just run its course for me. And I said, you know, I'm going to take a little time off. And so I was I had not been playing out.

And I was just kind of, you know, working on woodshedding some stuff. And Ron called me up and he said, man, I'm in this cool band. You got to come and hear me hear us play.

And it was the place out in St. Charles. So, yeah. So my wife and I went out and paid for tickets because Ron was too cheap to even count me some friggin tickets.

I remember just, you know, kind of sitting there and being taken back to the 60s, taken back to the first time I had heard Chicago music and going, wow, that is amazing. So I talked to Ron the next day and I said, hey, if, you know, the bass line ever opens up, you know, give me a shout. I, you know, I'd love consideration for that.

And kind of like everybody else, the phone rang one day. And Ron said, you know, hey, the bass, the bass spot is, you know, is yours to lose if you want it. And I said, you know, sure, absolutely.

You know, it was a you know, it was kind of one of those things where I played Chicago music in bands over the years. And like a lot of us did. This was a different world.

This was sitting down and learning the Chicago songs on bass. And somebody had alluded to this earlier. You know, Peter Cetera is known for his vocals and, you know, is, you know, hardly in the same genre and compared to a Jacob Astorias or, you know, Marcus Miller.

I challenge any bass player to sit down and try to learn this stuff note for note, because the guy is a monster bass player. And again, learning, playing the songs for, you know, in bands and cover bands and in bar bands, you know, you're playing I'm a man, you're playing beginnings, a couple of things like that. But sitting down and learning these songs note for note gave me an entire different appreciation for how great of a not how great of a singer he was, because we all know that.

But how great of a musician, how good of a bass player. So Tara was I am today, you know, on this call. Hey, I don't know how great of a bass player Tim Rutter is.

And there you go. This has been an unbelievably enjoyable musical experience. Well, with this sort of year off that we've taken, it's like start reassessing things.

And it's at this point in my life, it's like one of the few things that I do musically. Yeah. And we really look for, you know, during the summer.

But we get really busy doing a lot of festival dates and all sorts of that kind of work. And it's so much fun. That's one of the you know, Steve had mentioned before that if you didn't hear it, we do have a live CD available, but it's one of the CDs I listen to.

You know, I mean, I really because when we play this music, I'm playing it. I'm thinking about playing it. And it wasn't until we actually did the CD and I sat back and listened to it and went, holy crap, this is a good band.

You know, we actually heard it as a, you know, a full unit and could appreciate how good the players are in this band and how not only how good they are, but how great they are at playing Chicago music, which is a again, it's a different skill. This is not a not a band for jobbers. You can't just show up and say, read a chart and do this.

Well, you know, it takes some homework, you know. But there's so many little idiosyncrasies. The more you listen to it, the more you play along, the more you pick up.

And then it's it's there's never a time I have never in any of these songs said, well, I'm bored to play in this. You got you got to pay attention. Yeah, doesn't matter.

And like most of us, you know, most of it's in our heads down. And like Tim said, we're really true to the music. It is pretty involved at times, especially.

And, you know, being true to that sound is really what we're trying to do. You know, the spirit and the sound of that band. I think the only real arguments I've heard since I've been in here is over the music of going back and listening and saying, no, this is the way it is.

One thing I've noticed being the new guy coming into this. And I've been I've been playing in bands forever. And this band, the attention to detail in this rock band is it's intense.

And it's great. I love it. I mean, it's and it shows you hear it.

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And they said, OK, guys, you go on stage and do one song. What's the song off the set list that you guys do? Oh, my God. The closer, man.

Feeling stronger. You know, that's a good one. Yeah, there's so many good ones.

We close most of our shows with that song. And it's like it's just like the best man. Insane.

Yeah. There's so many. It's like hard to pick them, you know? Yeah.

Well, I just like to ask, you know, what do you think would most emulate the Chicago sound? Oh, boy. Oh, boy. I mean, it's so many.

There's all these different eras, you know, like so much. I mean, we do the open for just you and me. It's like I'm in my Chevelle on a date in 1972.

You know, you are my love in my life. And you are my inspiration. Just you and me.

You are my symphony. Maybe you're everything. And I think that's what happens with people like they is all these like iconic sort of riffs and and, you know, will kind of quote the different elements of the souls once around.

I mean, Ron will take some of the calf, you know, like lines from the souls and he'll quote that and he'll go off and do his own treatment on things. But, you know, people hear that stuff and it's like it hits them emotionally. You know? Yeah, it's nostalgia.

You know, it really does kind of take you back to that moment. Like you said, when I first heard this or whatnot. So, yeah, totally.

So Grant is in here. Ron, Ron is a guitar player. And yes, in vocals.

Now, does he did I read that he does he do the Robert Lamb parts singing? He does. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's also our musical director.

He's pretty much counting every tune off. He's got a lot going on. Certainly, you know, super talented in his own right on so many levels.

But honestly, he's similar to all of us. You've heard these guys tell the story. I can tell you my my first live album set was actually Chicago.

You know, I certainly we all go back to, you know, that moment where we heard it. Ron, hands down, will tell you, Terry Cass is the best guitar player on the planet. He's you know, he's followed him.

He's emanating him as a player. It really shows it really helps. You know, that that type of mentality is pretty much in most of these guys in the band.

So but he's certainly a talented guy and doing a lot of things for us. So we really appreciate that, too, because you really tell the Terry Cass influence and Ron and his sound. And that's something else that a small nuance.

But, you know, if you're going to play Chicago, the guitar player, that's pretty critical. Better sound like Terry Cass. Yeah, and he does.

So it's just wonderful. Yeah, there's these particular tunes, man. They have this like wall of sound that, you know, when you put you would put everything together.

It just it kind of hits you like like like boom, like like all the the open to old days is one that I always, you know, kind of it's like you just hear that sound. It's like, oh, wow, man, it's just this this absolute wall of sound coming at you. Well, everybody grew up listening to Chicago when they came around and every radio station was playing.

And I mean, you flip around and you heard the song after song after song, and it kind of gets ingrained in you. And when you hear it, you're expecting it to sound like it did when you're like that. Exactly.

Right. Yeah. And we and we stretch out, too.

I mean, we do some deep cuts like it better end soon, which is was perfect for the last year or two, you know, at least the last ten months. And, you know, we stretch out of that. We stretch out of just you and Nina and give Jim, you know, a chance to stretch out.

So, you know, we're being true to the music. We're also having the freedom to add our own personalities. But, you know, there's there's certain things you just don't mess around with and try to say, oh, that's because it's my own, you know.

You know, we all get a chance to kind of step up front. And it's your time to shine. But but in the generality of it, you're part of a team.

It's like you have to kind of think of it that way. And the power of the music comes comes out because of that. And everybody in this band, they're all experienced performers.

And one of the big thing about being a performer and being successful at it for so many years is realizing that it doesn't matter what gig you're at. There's somebody out there in that audience that is going to see you for one time in your entire life. And it's that night that you're there.

And it doesn't matter if you're off or not. You've got to be on that night and you've got to you've got to come through. Yeah.

Have that mindset. Every every show I play, I try to make sure I'm in that mindset. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, that's why you fit in so well. You know, it's like, you know, it's like I've done that before.

I saw on, you know, amazing bands that like, you know, maybe their saxophone player couldn't make a gig. I played with the Ides a couple of times or I've saw them Chevrolet a couple of times. And you're walking into this like it's like like a friggin hurricane.

And so you walk into the situation where they're like on fire and you got to be prepared. And then but once you kind of kind of get that together, it's it's it's not that it's easy. It's just it flows, you know, and you fall right into the energy of the band.

Now, you guys have been together for quite some time. Is there any has anybody written anything original or has there ever been any talk about doing anything original in the in the Chicago Chicago vein? Not really. No, no.

Yeah. I mean, the nature of this group, it's a it's a tribute to Chicago. I mean, it's kind of what we do.

Although we will do gigs where we'll add material from some of the other horn bands, Tower Power, whoever. If we need to fill up, fill up some space with with you know, where we need some extra time. But I don't know most of that outside the band.

Anybody done your writing? I did when I was younger in college and stuff. I had a little album of stuff. But yeah, a while.

So tell us about the we don't want to leave up Paul Wood. He's a keyboard player and and guitar player, too, right? Tim, you can tell us about Paul. I'm you know, Jim, you probably know Paul better than anybody.

Paul's an incredible musician. He's, you know, multi instruments. Paul's a great singer.

One of the nicest human beings you'll ever meet on Earth. On top of being, you know, an unbelievably gifted musician. Paul has perfect pitch, which is, you know, a nice little trivia thing.

But I played with him in the early 80s and, you know, playing a bunch of different genres of music. And, you know, in some of those things, like Jim, like you alluded to, bands coming through towns, you know, the the coasters, the drifters, you know, bands like that. That's right.

You did a bunch of those. I remember that. Yeah, a bunch of shows like that together.

And we Paul, Ron and myself and my my brother Jeff played in a band called Scramble, which is a bar band that's still around out there playing, you know, playing around the bars since the early, early 80s, late 70s. So, you know, and Paul is Paul has always been kind of the core heartbeat. You know, everybody knows Paul Paul's not going to, you know, not going to be the guy out there screaming, hey, pay attention to me.

But man, you listen to what that guy does. And it's hard not to pay attention to him. Well, like an anchor, a good piano player in a band like this, you're like you're like the anchor for the whole the whole group, you know? Yeah.

And you sort of, you know, especially the horn players just sort of lean on it. You know, you hear that stuff. Yeah.

Paul, Paul was my recording studio that I'm a proud owner of. He was the he was one of the owners of the studio a bunch of years ago. He was in a band called Mariah.

Remember Mariah? That was Ron and him were in that. They were a bit what earned in the 70s, right? All I know is there's some great pictures of those guys in leisure suits in that band. And then Paul and some brother, Jeff, a rocky pen who's also in the in the Buckingham's are all in the crying shames.

And we don't want to leave out anybody. What about Adam? Adam's a he's a professor at Joliet Junior College that runs the whole percussion department there. And he's got, you know, classical training and percussion and drums.

So, yeah, a lot of that's, you know, brings that skill set to the thing. No, Adam's an amazing musician and kind of like Brian. I mean, he's he's one of the other young, young guys in the band.

And it's just amazing how he can get the signature to Danny Serif and stuff nailed. And he is our rock. He is he is he is the rock of the band.

I mean, he's the foundation. And I can't say enough about the guy. And, you know, just speaking of Danny Serif and, you know, we've had the good fortune of playing a number of times with Danny.

And I think Danny, I know that Danny looked at Adam. He was like, yeah, you know, you're you got you're getting it. You know, you get this.

And to see this young guy, you know, like again, you know, he didn't grow up on this music, but here he is interacting with Danny Serif and sharing tips and stuff. And to see that was for me, just personally, very satisfying to see that. And I think he knows how what a great experience that has been, particularly for a drummer, for all of us playing with Danny.

Danny's for my money has always been sort of an unheralded player, you know? Oh, yeah. With all the little behind the scenes, you know, garbage that has happened with the main band. But I mean, he he's incredible.

I mean, the horn section has had a good opportunity to play in his band when he travels through Chicago. And I remember the first gig, you know, I was looking over at him and he's playing. I don't know if drummers will know the difference between a match grip and traditional grip.

And the traditionals are more like the jazz players play that way. And I'm looking at him and he's playing that way. And I'm thinking, this guy's a jazz player, man.

It's not just he's not like a rock drummer. He's he he's got this whole other side of him that I don't know. I don't think he gets a lot of credit.

Sure. Such as it has got. And that's similar to all of these players.

You know, we we've all talked about playing in our cover bands and our rock groups and things. But, you know, you kind of have to have that jazz side of things, too, to really, you know, fully experience and show off that Chicago sound. You know, it's a really great combo of both of those things.

And you kind of see that in all of our players, I think so. And last but not least, there's Terry to Terry. They travel over that guy.

There is that that I was afraid that I played trombone when I heard Terry, because I don't want to ever pick up a trombone around Terry. Funny story about Terry, though, Terry. Terry's just a monster.

I first met Terry. We were both subbing on the Buckingham's. Didn't meet him till, you know, we're getting ready to play.

And then we start playing on like. OK, yeah, I'm like, hey, are you a fan of James Pankow? And he goes, Are you kidding me? You know, so, boom, I mean, it was just like the two of us were like, yeah. You know, that Chicago sound.

And so we became friends. And, you know, Terry is just a wonderful, wonderful player, man. Well, in plus effect, he spent all those years in the military.

I mean, he was it called the he was in the Falconers, right? The the Air Force. Yeah. And and and any of the musicians I know that were were were spent their time playing music in the military are have shots.

They're like they're like Iron Man. I mean, it's incredible. Yeah.

And Terry's definitely got that. He's got it's like it's tougher for Steve and me to keep up with. Oh, he's a he's he's just a rock and rock and roll.

But anyway, so the funny story, you know, with the old, you know, the band that before it became us, you know, they they had they've been going through a couple of trombone players. And, you know, I'm just, you know, just a trumpet player. You know, the guy kind of ran the band with an iron fist.

And so finally, after a couple of days, I'm like, look, I got I got the trombone player you need. I'm like, trust me, this guy is phenomenal. Right.

He gets it. He knows the style. He gets it.

He loves it. And so lo and behold, he went and auditioned the guy, you know, he went and auditioned Terry. I'm like, really? You know, OK.

And Terry calls me up. He's like, hey, man, you know, what's what's the deal? You know, it's like, oh, no, you know, it's like well, Terry, Terry, it's going to be OK. You know, don't worry about the cowbell.

The guy brought a cowbell and he started playing the cowbell. Listening to Terry playing was like, you know, kind of conducting him. I was like, what are you doing? You know, so I've said too much.

Too much cowbell. That's what you said. Yeah, too much.

Thank you, Brian. So long story short, Terry's just he's he's one of the most mild mannered cats. And, you know, he says, yeah, you know, I'm going to do this because we love the music so much, you know, and then even the first gig we're playing at the what theater was that? It just it just went.

We played it several times and it just closed down. Pheasant Run. Oh, right.

Yeah. So we're playing Pheasant Run, you know. And I got there, you know, just be, you know, a little bit on the late not late, but before soundcheck, you know, I'm like, but I didn't get there while set up and I look on the stage and it's kind of a small city.

And and the horns are spread out like Terry's on the other side of the drummer. And I'm going, you can't do this. You know, this is and there was this was Terry's first gig.

You know, I'm like, can't do this. What's going on? You know, and I was told. So just stand down.

And I'm looking over like, Terry, don't hurt me. And it was it turned out fine. But, you know, so that that's a long story.

But it's a it's about a great guy who runs the business of the band. Now, is there one of you guys here? Do you have an outside? Well, well, it's like Jim said earlier, it's pretty pretty democratic process in a lot of ways. Everybody does a lot of stuff.

I mean, Tim's our IT guy. And Tim can tell you where to get the Chicago Experience Live CD. I do.

I do a lot of the administrative, the booking. And I pay that. I pay the checks.

You know, I write the checks. Ron is the musical director. And, you know, Jim is our our audio consultants, if you will.

What else? Everybody, everybody just pitches in so much. And I we really I think all of us can say, at least I can say from my perspective, we you know, we've all worked in so many different bands over the years. And you've got some bands where there's a leader and everybody else is a sideman.

There's no sidemen here. This is this is a real band that, you know. I think every one of us have let our own, you know, own our own company or let our own bit, whatever, have, you know, played that role before.

Yeah. So you don't have to tell people anything. You know, it's like, you know, we discuss things.

And although Ron does kind of run the the the the live you know, side of the show, I mean, he drives the bus in that way. But but I mean, we I mean, some of us have different agent contacts that will bring gigs, you know, to, you know, it's like it's just a really cool thing that way. Well, where can we find you on social media or or the website or or I guess Tim's the IT guy, right? Tim, tell us about it.

You W.W. that the cry or the crisis, the Chicago Experience dot com, Chicago Experience dot net Facebook. Any of the social media sites were out there. We haven't been kicked off, which is a good thing from the website or any of the social media site.

You can find the live CD, which is available for purchase or download. Yes. On Spotify.

I know Amazon, Amazon, right? iTunes, iTunes. And we're also, you know, YouTube, the Chicago Experience on YouTube. I tell you what, man, we're really just chopping.

I got the horn out today to do some practicing. So we have a we have a gig at the end of the month. And it's our first job since what, October? Yeah, late.

Yeah, September, right? September, September. Yeah. And, you know, got to grease the wheel a little bit.

It was rough. So then you'll be a CD in me, correct? It then. Yeah.

Yeah. The last Saturday of this month is reservations. You know, they're doing a you know, it's all social distance, you know, rules apply and whatnot.

But I think that they get up. Except for the band. Except for the band, right? But we're it's it's a pretty big, big, big space.

And so, you know, and the whole thing about it, man, you just you got to start sometime, you know, we got it. We got to, you know, start doing and it'll be January 30th, correct? January. Well, thanks, guys, for joining us tonight.

We appreciate it. And thank you very much. Thanks for not talking nasty about the guys that couldn't make it.

Well, yeah, thanks so much for having us. Yeah, really, you know, private space will be plenty of that, you know. Yeah.

But thank you for having us. We really appreciate it. Thanks again for joining.

Thanks for being here. Hopefully we'll see you guys very soon. So that was a Chicago experience.

That was quite an experience. It was. Well, some great guys, some some talented guys.

It was fun talking to them and getting getting the inside scoop on their band. That's right. Their backstory and such such a nice group of of gentlemen.

They had nothing bad to say about the guys that didn't show up. Yes. Even though I tried to egg them on.

No eggs thrown here. No eggs. OK, I got you.

But yeah, they get the new album is on a new live album. It's awesome how they were able to put that together from a bunch of different shows. Yeah, very cool.

Very cool. And, you know, live albums are where it's at. That's cool.

Yeah. I mean, I remember when I was growing up, I loved the live albums. Yeah.

All the all the great songs were on there. There was just a lot of just a lot of power in it and loved them. Humble Pie, Racket of Fillmore was one of my favorites.

My favorite was Grand Funk, the live one. Oh, yeah. I forget what you what that what that one was called.

I think it's called Grand Funk Live. Yeah, it might have been called Grand Funk Live. You might be right.

You know, you may you may be correct. Thought it was called something else. Why? I don't know.

I don't know why I can't think of it. It's always called called Caught in the Act. Caught in the act.

It's caught in the act. It was Grand Funk Live. Well, maybe we'll we'll talk to a Grand Funk tribute band next week.

But this week we talked to Chicago Experience and some good guys. And I want to thank them for joining us. And be sure and be sure and check them out.

You can check them out on Spotify and and listen to their music. They're they're amazingly similar. Amazingly sound amazingly like.

Wait, it's all right. They sound a hell of a lot like Chicago. That's right.

They sound a lot like Chicago. So once again, thank you all for joining us. Don't forget to check out the Illinois Rock and Roll Museum on Route 66 and beautiful downtown Joliet, Illinois.

Sign up to be a charter member. Help them out. And once again, thanks to GHS Strings for sponsoring the show.

And thank you, Paul, for being here this evening. Thanks, Ray. Thanks.

And likewise to you. Well, thank you. Thank you very much.

I think until we meet again, OK, a bit of fine to do to all of you. And I found a duty to you to see you next week. But I 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.