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

I think it's, I heard some jingle bells going on. I think it's time that we wish all of our listeners a happy holiday season. Wouldn't you say, Ray? Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Yes, indeed. To one and all. Yes, to all in one.

We're all in this together. That's right. Come one, come all.

Come see, come saw. You know, I was sitting around here and I, you know, I've always wanted to learn how to play Hotel California. Yeah.

So I said, I'm going to learn to play this thing. So I've been sitting here in my little studio here at home, and I've been working on the song. I never realized that Hotel California goes for like 30 minutes.

I never realized it was a 30 minute song. It does? Yeah. That long? Really? It just, it just went on and on.

And I put the album on and I started playing it on my turntable here and I'm playing along with it and stuff. And what I didn't realize, it was a skip in the album and I kept playing the same part over and over and over. But that one section, I got down pretty good.

Yeah. Well, you know, there's this new thing called digital listening, you know, digital, I don't know what you call it, actually, but you can listen digitally. Like streaming? Yeah.

Kind of. Yeah. Good.

Kind of like our podcast does. That's right. It does stream.

Yeah. And it's a good stream. Yes, it is.

Even my urologist told me that. He says, you know, your podcast got a good stream. Okay.

That's enough of that. Speaking of Hotel California, I guess that's where you're going with this week's guests, right? Yes. Yes.

It pains me to say that it's heartache tonight. Why does it pain you to say that? Because it kind of goes along with the heartache thing. I see.

You know, but yeah, yes, we met with the guys. It wasn't painful at all. It was not painful whatsoever.

And I'm sure they know how to play Hotel California without the skip. Probably. Probably.

Yeah. Yeah. But you can ask Alexa to play that for you.

You can. That's true. That's true.

You know what? I just like to whip out the old Victrola now and then and crank it up and put a nice album on there. Well, vinyl is making a comeback. It is.

It is. So to get back to the band, we talked with Heartache Tonight, a great band. They've been together for 13 years or so, and they do a lot of shows.

They do about 60 shows a year. At least that's what they said. Now, not this year so much, but as we've said before, not too many people are playing at all this year.

But hopefully they'll be back at it real soon. Let's see what the guys had to say. Sounds good.

Let's go. Hey, welcome to the show, everyone. Today, we're speaking with a couple of the guys from Heartache Tonight.

We've got Tom Carey and Christopher Plash, Tom O'Brien, maybe to be joined by the drummer in a little bit. But how are you guys doing today? Doing well. Really good, Paul.

Thanks. It's good to talk to you. I know you guys have been together for quite some time.

How'd the band get started and how many years has it been? We got started in 2007. John Forrest, the bass player who's not here with us, is an old friend of mine. He and I played together for many years in the Tom Carey band back in the 90s.

I had taken a couple of years off and had moved. We were in the Cleveland area for a while and we moved back to Chicago. John said, hey, I'm not doing anything.

Let's put a band together. It was the last thing I wanted to do because I was a little tired of the rock and roll biz, as happens at times. I said, we also had a keyboard player who shall remain nameless.

I said, if we're going to play, we need a drummer. We can get together and fool around, but I'm not going to do this thing again. I don't want to be in the bars anymore because I was so old at the time.

The drummer was Bean. We did the thing that you do when you get together. You're like, do you guys know this one? Do you guys know that one? Some of the stuff we played was some Eagles songs.

We played Take It Easy and Peaceful Easy Feeling. Everybody sang. John sings and Bean sang great.

I remember we did Seven Bridges Road, which is the kind of acapella song, and everybody just sort of went to the right part. It sounded really good and I thought, goddammit, now I have to do this again. Shit, I have to put a band together.

Now, Bean's real name is? Chris. Chris. Okay, Chris.

But he goes by Bean and always has in the music biz. This is 2007, so the tribute thing, it wasn't like it is now. It was almost embarrassing, like you're an Elvis imitator or something.

So, I was reluctant to suggest it, but he sounds like Don Henley. He just does, and we had four guys who could sing, sing harmony. It just seemed like kind of a no-brainer, so I reluctantly said, hey, what do you guys think about this? Everybody liked the idea.

We had a different guitar player at the time. Bean always said, oh, I got this guy. You're going to love this guy.

He's perfect for this band. So when the other guitar player moved on, we got Tom O'Brien, and we also had a friend of John's, Jim Altenbach, who's still with the band. So we've got the classic Eagles lineup, two real guitar players, me, and then keyboards, bass, and drums.

Chris is the most recent addition. He came along two years ago? Yeah, 2019. 2019, yeah.

And unfortunately, we were really, the original keyboard player is a very talented guy, but Chris is, I don't know, every time we've added somebody to this band, whether it was Tom O'Brien way back when, or Jim Altenbach, it's like we've gotten to another level. I would even suggest that when we started working with Ron Wilhoff on sound, who was with Diversified for years, he started working with us full time, and that took our vocals to another level because we had in-ear monitors and a guy who knew what he was doing mixing. We've now got Dale Tulk who's doing the same thing.

So it's just, you know, keeping a band together this long is really a pretty, an accomplishment. I mean, it's no M&R rush, I give you that. And the Tribute thing has gotten bigger and better as we've gotten bigger and better, and it's just, it's been a nice ride.

And last year, this COVID thing, of course, really popped our balloon quite a bit. We had a really good 2020 lined up. Well, I was going to ask you how you're surviving COVID.

I'm staying home and hiding in my office. There's a cot in the corner, you can't see it, but yeah, I'm an introvert. If I've got a guitar and a stack of books, I can hide in my room for years.

It's just, you know, but I do miss playing. How many gigs did you have scheduled? We were going to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 shows, and we've expanded to the point where we are traveling all over the Midwest. You know, when we started, it was clubs and festivals, and it's become theaters and festivals.

So we've, you know, there's so many towns in Illinois and Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan, Indiana, that have these 300, 400 seat theaters, and their booking acts like us now. And it's lucrative, it's fun. The audiences are fantastic.

You know, people who pay 30 or 40 bucks for a ticket are sort of right in our wheelhouse age-wise, as people our age. They love the music, they're there for the music. You know, they're not there with 16 big screens and, you know, dollar picture night or whatever it is.

And it's just so satisfying to do. We had, I would say, half our schedule now are those kinds of shows. And it's fun to go on the road.

You know, we make enough money that we can travel decently and have fun. So, but I have to say that the phone is ringing again. I think people are anticipating that we'll get back to normal in 2021.

The theaters, I don't know. We'll see. But I've got lots of festivals lined up already, so.

Yeah, now I noticed I was looking online and I saw on YouTube, you played the Acorn Theater, which is a great little theater. I loved it. I love that place.

It's a fun, it's a fun little place. I walked in there and I went, wow, I said, this place is really cool. Yeah, it's a funny story.

When they, when I first became, I first became aware of them because my wife went to Notre Dame, which is South Bend, right down the street there, and a friend of hers had rented the theater and she went to a show there and it was, gosh, way back in 08 or 09 or something. And I started bugging them, like you got to book us, you know? And we went back and forth for three or four years and I finally gave up. I, you know, I thought, okay, some places you can't convince, even though I thought this, this place is perfect for us.

And a few years after, as soon as I gave up, I got an email from a local producer there, a guy named Lance Werner, and he had seen us at, you know, he saw us at the Blue Chip. We played a VIP thing in their big room there. Sure.

He said, you know, I saw you there at this show, would you ever consider playing the Acorn Theater in Michigan? And I'm like, yeah, I would, I would consider it since I've sent them 20 emails in the last five years. I think it might work out. And we have sold out 10 shows there, probably, over the last few years.

We play there two or three times a year. It's our home away from home. It's just, it's just so, so much fun.

Great spot. Yes, it is. Now, now, I know you say you don't do too many bars anymore.

You stick to the festivals and, and, and the theaters. Yeah. I would play some of the bigger rooms, you know, or just for fun sometimes, you know, don't get me wrong.

Being in a bar playing loud music and drinking beer is my idea of a very good time. But there's not too many that can put a six piece band with a sound guy in a room and charge enough to draw enough people to have that make sense. Right.

But sometimes we do it just because it's a good time, you know. Have you played the Beverly Arch Theater? Oh, yeah, very often. We are scheduled there to play there in March again, a date that's been moved back a couple of times.

Right. I'm guessing that that's probably a little too soon. But yeah, we do great there too.

It's another one of those theaters, 400 seats, a perfect spot. People who go there like our kind of music, you know, that's right in the wheelhouse for us, for sure. So Chris, you're kind of the newest member.

What is your history? What bands have you played with or where have you come from? Oh, my goodness. I'm one of these guys who've been doing this forever and ever. I've been playing live for probably 20, 30 years, was based out of Oklahoma City with a couple of touring bands for a while.

I'm from Illinois originally, came back up here and played with a number of bands in the area. Providence, Billy Croft and the Five Alarm, which I probably spent about 10, 11 years with. And that's actually how I met these guys.

I did a gig in 2018 and I think it was a car show in Lombard or something like that. Did the show, these guys followed afterwards and I stayed and watched the whole show. I was just enamored with their sound.

I just thought it was fabulous. And in 2019, I got a phone call from John saying, hey, would you mind coming out and auditioning with us? And a buddy of mine, Mike Gervitz, who's a fabulous drummer, plays with Anthem quite a bit, called me up and said, yeah, John's going to call you and go out and audition. I'm like, you're kidding.

These are the guys we played with in Lombard. And he's like, yeah, yeah, same guys, you know, and went there, did the audition and the rest is history. And yeah, of course, I hit right before COVID hit, which was no bonus because we were just starting to get... You've been with the band a year, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, pretty much, you know, so COVID hits, the schedule dies and here we sit.

Did you guys get to do any shows this past summer or no? Not the past summer, no. We stopped... When was the last show? I think the last show was in February. We did one on March 11th.

Oh, that's right. Yeah, I know that date because it was like the next day where it all hit the fan. So we had a couple in... I think we had a couple in January, a couple in February, which is typically slow for us.

Sure. And yeah, who knew, right? Yeah. Well, like they say, music is the first to go and the last to come back.

Who says that? Yeah, I hope that's not true. I kind of think by the, you know, 2021, the summertime, I think everybody's gonna be ready to go out again. So I think we got some big things coming.

I'm pretty excited about it, actually. So Tom O'Brien, tell us a little bit about your history. Well, I've been playing for a very long time.

Probably the most popular band I played with was The Bad Examples. I don't know if you've heard of them. So yeah, I played with them.

I actually met Ralph back in the 80s and we kind of kicked that off. That's when we got together with Pickles. I was in and out of the band.

There had been several guitar players I'd do a few years, somebody else to do a few years. I'm back doing them now. So we're still doing a show every now and then.

I went on the road with Ralph for, I think, five years doing his Ralph's World thing around the country when he was signed to Disney and stuff. So I did that for a while. And just when that was winding down, I got a call from Bean, the drummer, said, hey, we're looking for a guitar player to sub out in the Eagles thing.

Can you do it? And I said, well, sure. And it just was great timing that one thing was winding down and this was winding up. So that's how it worked out.

That's great. So now you mentioned that you mentioned Pickles, who I understand before we started the interview that has passed away, which I didn't know about. I'm sorry to hear about that.

May he rest in peace. But so you've been around the business for quite some time. Probably the 70s.

Right. I'm dating myself. But yes.

Tell me who you guys have shared the stage with. I know you've shared the stage with quite a few different, quite a few big name bands. Tell us about some of those stories.

Well, Tom, what do you think? I'm trying to recall who we've done this with. I know we ran into Eddie Money backstage somewhere doing one. That's right.

Eddie Money. That was fun. Lieutenant Band.

I think we ran into him along the way. Did you do that too? Yeah. I'm trying to remember them all.

You know, they're like a blur. Yeah. I think between us, you know, the old Tom Carrey band we used to open for a lot of people.

And I know that the Doobie Brothers and America and all of those, we don't do that much with this band. I think what's happened in the festival market is some of the national acts have sort of priced themselves out, which is good for us, because then we end up headlining. And of course, the theaters were typically the headliner as well.

Business definitely changed when I had the band back in the 90s, and you guys probably had this experience. There's Bean. There was a lot more of that opening act for the opening for the national.

I'm sure Chris and Tom have a whole list as long as their arms of national acts. Yep. I'm just trying to remember who they are.

Bean, how are you doing? Hello, gentlemen. Sorry I'm late. How are you? Chris, how are you, man? Good.

Nice tree. Oh, yeah. I know.

He looks like a Christmas fireplace. Oh, yeah. Like an episode of Family Classics over there.

We're joined by Mr. Bean. Bean, how are you? Fine. How are you doing, sir? Good.

How's it going? Good. You're buying the next round since you're late. Yeah.

Sorry, guys. Sorry. Believe it or not, I was actually playing, which is a good thing.

So that's why I was late. An actual gig? No. Just trying to stay loose, stay fresh, and work up some parts for eventually when we get back out there and do some shows.

Well, we were just talking about that, about how you guys have survived COVID. And how about yourself? Well, just been trying to keep my distance, trying to remain hopeful. Been bugging Tom a lot about when we can get back together and play.

We just kind of have to wait until it's a comfortable situation out there for everybody, you know? It's just one of those things. Have you guys done any streaming shows? Or have you gotten together just to rehearse at all? Not. Well, the last thing that we did was, geez, we had a show.

Well, it's been a while since Heartache has got together. Had a couple other projects on the side. Tommy O'Brien and I have gotten together to do some stuff.

But as a group, it's been quite a while. We're really looking forward to doing it, actually. We have as much cabin fever as everyone else out there, you know what I mean? Yeah, I think the last one was New Lennox, right? Wasn't that the last one? Did we go down there? We played outside the big outdoor thing.

Oh, that's right. You asked when our last show was, and I said March. But we did two outdoor shows this summer, didn't we? We did one at that casino in Iowa, the Riverside Casino.

Oh, right, right. And they sold tables. It was outside, so the tables were spaced.

The servers and all wore masks. So I felt we were comfortable. And then the other one was a festival in the park in Romeoville, right? It was Romeoville.

It was Romeoville. And they did a great job there, too. They had a big Ravinia-type setup, and people were spread apart.

It was okay. I think it'll be similar when we get back to summer, unless this vaccine thing rolls out perfect and everybody gets happy again. Romeoville was supposed to have the Naperville Rip Fest there this year, and they kind of got screwed on that deal, I think.

I wonder if that's where they'll do it, because it was a pretty big area. Ray, you know that area, right? I guess, well, the Naperville, I think they're redoing that park that they used to have it in, so that place is torn up. And I don't even know if it's going to go back to Naperville.

I think Romeoville got it for good. They're going to keep it every year. But, yeah, this was supposed to be their first year, and they had quite a lineup set up.

And just that all went away. That venue at Romeoville is really outstanding. They did an awesome job putting that together.

They really did. Very nice. A lot of communities seem to be doing that.

Lansing's got a nice outdoor stage area now, and a lot of towns are doing that, which is great for the bands. Yeah, we play Addison frequently and Lyle and both of them. We played one year, and there was a little portable stage and people in the lawn and whatever.

And the next year, this big permanent pavilion, and it's like, wow. So I think communities are realizing this is a real nice thing for the people who live there. So hopefully that will keep up too.

Yeah, a lot of them will have weekly or biweekly shows. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we do a fair amount of that.

This is Paul Martin. And Ray the Roadie. And we're here to talk to you about GHS strings.

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Road to Rock Radio is proud to welcome Paul Martin of M&R Rush and the Dancing Noodles, and Ray the Roadie, the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. Join Paul and Ray as they bring you weekly interviews from bands that have rocked Chicago. It's the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast.

Monday night at 6 on Road to Rock Radio. I know you said that when you first got together, you learned some Eagles songs. But why the Eagles? I mean, why did you pick the Eagles? Well, as I said, we've got a drummer who sings and sounds like Don Henley.

And we've got, at least at the beginning, and still, we've got six guys who can all sing. That's very unusual. And so that's why it seemed kind of like a natural thing.

Plus, the Eagles were so big. Sometimes we'll do a show and they only want 90 minutes. It'll be, you know, and we can't play all the songs.

You know? You can't even play all the hits. We can't play all the hits in 90 minutes. You can't do it.

And that's an amazing benefit to have. I mean, I've got so many bullets in the gun, you know? And when you add in the solo stuff, the Joe Walsh stuff and the Henley stuff, we could play for three hours and you'd know every song. It's the one thing that always astounded me about playing with this band, is every time we do these shows, and you're wearing earbuds, my ears are sealed, and I can still hear the audience singing every single word they know.

Every single word, every single song, every note, every guitar lick, every keyboard lick. It's amazing. It's really, really cool.

Yeah, for me, coming into this, it was pretty convenient for me because I didn't really, I don't really think I looked at many lyric sheets, probably none, because I already knew all the time. I happened to grow up with that music. I've always been a fan of it, of course.

And with the whole Don Henley thing, that's, you know, I kind of stylistically, I guess, emulate what he does. And I love the way the guy sings. And I listened to so many Eagles, so much Eagles, even when I was in a band when I was 10, 12 years old, we played a bunch of Eagles covers.

So I already knew the stuff. So for me, it was kind of easy. And when Tom just said, hey, what do you think about doing an Eagles tribute band? And, you know, I guess it wasn't the first thing on our mind to do, really, just because sometimes, especially back then, it had certain stigma attached to, or, you know, it wasn't exactly the most hip thing to do at the time.

And so we, once we started playing together, we actually, it actually sounded good. So we're like, let's keep going. So that's kind of how it evolved.

So it was kind of just happened just by jamming together and, you know, kind of being comfortable with the material and, you know, the players in the band are really great and meticulous and really wanted to put the work in to learn the parts. So, you know, if you do this music and you do it kind of, you know, you're either going to do it right or kind of don't bother doing it. And that was kind of our attitude going in.

You guys do a great job at it, I'll tell you that. I think it's, you know, it's not prog rock or anything. It's not like, you know, going to break your fingers playing it.

But when you start to dig into it, the arrangements are, you know, really something. We've gone back to every time, like, when Tom O'Brien came in, we reworked everything because now we had two guitar players. Tom and Jim Altenbach really could play this stuff.

And I don't want to speak for Tom, but I think once we started sort of tearing apart the arrangements, it was like, oh yeah, let's get this. You know, let's make it as good as we can make it. And I think that's a challenge for everybody.

I mean, you listen to that stuff on the radio and you go, ah, we could probably play that. But to do it really well is still fun. It's still fun to sing.

Still challenging to get it right. So, you know. Yeah, it's interesting working out the solos the way the original guitar players did it, rather than just, you know, sulling over the changes.

You're actually digging in and saying, kind of figure out how he actually played this stuff. So it sounds, you know, like the part. So that was interesting to me.

Well, that leads you to my next question. And hypothetically, if someone never had heard of the Eagles and you guys had to play one song, what would best exemplify, what song would that be to exemplify what the Eagles do? I see. So somebody was on a remote island, Shanghai, for like 30 years.

Or what song is it that you would play that, if you had one song to play, which one would it be? That would best exemplify the Eagles. Exemplify. Well, there's so many eras of the Eagles you have.

The Bernie Lennon era, you have pre-Joe Walsh. So, you know, I don't know if there's one song that's going to exemplify that whole catalog. There's too much.

It spans too many years. But let me see. I would prefer something like the Life in the Fast Lane era because it's more guitar driven.

Others might prefer something more vocal driven. I don't know. Yeah.

I mean, Desperado always comes to mind. You know, we've actually done shows where we've, like as Tom said, there's so much material, we've actually ran out of time in the show. And we actually went through the show and didn't do Desperado.

And I could probably count on my hand the times that that's happened. That's one of the ones. What's that, Tom? I said maybe twice.

Yeah, maybe twice. But when we've done it, you know, when that has happened, it really was catastrophic, I think, from the time of the show. Because, you know, from just a vocal tune, as Tommy said, that would exemplify it for me.

Yeah. You know, for me, what do you call the quintessential Eagles? I really don't know what the answer to that question is. I mean, I grew up, you know, I was a kid in the 70s.

One of the first songs I learned, my cousin, who was actually here from overseas going to college, bought me their greatest hits album when he was home visiting. And he taught me how to play Tequila Sunrise on the guitar when I was just a young lad. So, you know, that whole era for me was kind of it.

I think one of my favorites is probably one of these nights. I love the arrangement, all the little thoughts. Yeah, you know, where everybody plays a very specific part.

I just love that. And the vocals are just fat and big. That's true.

That one has a little of everything. That's a good point. And Jim nails the solo every time.

Every time. He really does. One of these nights One of these crazy old nights We're gonna find our pretty mama What turns on your lights The full moon is calling I'm feeling desire And the wicked wind whispers and moans You got your demons You got desire Well, I got a feeling I think most people would say Hotel California.

That's the one, you know, like if we're setting up somewhere and there's some kid setting up gear who's, you know, 20 years old. That's the one. That's the only one they'll know.

But I like the early stuff. Take it easy and peaceful, easy feeling. I think that era, that's the one that those are the ones that stick.

It's hard, though. Like, yeah, one of these nights is a fabulous tune. New Kid in Town is one that never gets old.

Right. And they're very, very different songs. Those guys, boy, they were did it in all kinds of formats and eras.

And and it all works. They were able to grow with it. Yeah.

How many albums did they have they put out? Do you know? I mean, not as many as you would think. I think there's only like seven of them. If you don't count the greatest hits in the live.

Right. They did five studio albums, the original Incarnation, and then just one since then, I think. Two.

Well, Hotel California, then The Long Run. I think The Long Run. And then the most recent one they did, Back From Eden.

There's been some other special albums they put out, too. A couple of compilations, like you said. But not as many as you would think.

It's not like it's a Beatles catalog or something like that. You know, there's only seven studio albums. There you go.

Seven. Seven studio. I like you said, there's quite a bit of quite an extensive catalog, you know, of music you play for three hours and everybody would know every song.

But yeah. And it's fun, too, because there's always the guy who comes up and wants to hear, you know, some deep album cut. And but, you know, like, what do you leave out? He's a true fan.

He's a true fan. Right. He wants to hear the King of Hollywood or something or the Greeks Don't Want No Freaks.

And I'm like, well, OK, but then we can't play Lion Eyes, you know. Right. Right.

We're not going to get away with that, brother. You know, so what do you do? One of those that often gets requested. We just can't fit it into a live show because it's a powerful, awesome tune.

But we can never. I love saying it is wasted time is that's one of the one of those deep cuts. Or I wouldn't I mean, I wouldn't call it really a deep cut.

That's an example of one of the ones we get requested for that all the time. And we've tried to work it in. And as Tommy O'Brien says, and Tom just said, OK, what are we going to leave out? Exactly.

But we do deep cuts. We do New York minute. That's kind of a deep cut, isn't it? That's true.

Well, it's a funny story. We had an agent come to me in 2014 and say, I've got an idea for you guys. It's the 40th anniversary of the Desperado album.

And Desperado is probably their least popular. You know, it only had Tequila Sunrise and Desperado on it. And they weren't even really hits.

First time out, I don't think. But I love it. I think it's a great record.

And it really features that country, like Bernie Lennon's all over it, playing banjo and mandolin and stuff. So we learned the whole thing, you know, cover to cover. We learned all the details.

I think Altenbach bought a Dobro. I learned to play harmonica. I mean, it was like a whole thing.

We did it once at a theater show. I won't tell you where. And they've never had us back because the audience is out there looking at us.

Turns out they only want to hear the hits. Who was it that suggested that? Did you fire them? Oh, I'm not going to tell you. Did you fire them? I thought it was a great idea.

And we still, every once in a while, we'll dig out one of those songs. And they're great songs. We do Saturday Night sometimes, which is a real nice tune.

And, of course, Tequila Sunrise and Desperado. Anything else? What else do we do? What's the one with the harmonica? Oh, Doolin' Dalton. Oh, Doolin' Dalton.

Great song. And we were used to getting, you know, by then we were getting pretty popular. And, you know, we were used to getting good stuff from the audience when we finished a song.

And I think they were all looking at us like, is this over yet? But we quickly swung into the Greatest Hits show after that. Exactly. Live and learn.

Yeah, exactly. So you guys did do some solo stuff, too. I mean, some Don Henley material and some Joe Walsh stuff, the stuff I assume, right? Throw some of that out in the middle.

But, again, depending on the length of the show. And where it is. If you're playing festivals, you might want to keep it more on the rock side.

If you're playing a theater, then you have the quiet room, the lights, the atmosphere. Then you can dig deep and play a more variety of stuff, I think. Yeah, we do, I think, a really nice version of New York Minute and Beam sings it great.

But it's eight minutes long. And it's a very slow tempo. Yeah, playing that for a festival crowd on a July afternoon would not work.

And it's great. Don't get me wrong. It's fabulous.

I love it. And it's felt new. It sounds so good.

It's a great song, yeah. And nobody cares. You know, like, all right, I'm going to go get some, you know, lukewarm beer.

Yeah, but it works in the theater. In the theaters, it kills. Well, you've got quite a catalog in order to choose from, in order to be able to manage that festival set list to the theater set list.

Everybody loves Joe Walsh. I wasn't even that huge a fan when we started this. And I have grown in my appreciation for that guy as a songwriter, of course, as a player.

As a band leader, all I have to do is call out a Joe Walsh song and people go crazy. But again, you know, we talk about learning more Walsh stuff all the time. But again, what do you leave out, you know? Yeah, and oh, my gosh, Jim Altenbach, that guy.

He does nail that stuff. Oh, my gosh. He's a machine.

He's sound. It's phenomenal. Just awesome to listen to him sing Walsh.

I love it. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, it's funny, too, because he is a technician. And he never makes a mistake, except one time. This is a terrible story to tell while he's not here.

But I'm going to tell it. That's what I do. Let her rip, man.

You could kill the show with my mistakes. So he plays the telly and he plays that very iconic intro into Peaceful Easy Feeling. You know the intro has that very distinctive bend in it.

And for whatever reason, he probably just started a half fret off or something. And this is a guy who never makes a mistake. I mean, never.

And it was awful. We all started laughing and turning away from the audience. I'm like, I don't think I can sing this song.

It was great. Oh, we've all had our moments. Yes, we do.

Oh, yes. Yeah, we can't even count my mistakes. But that's what makes you guys a good band is you're playing live.

You're not using any tracks or anything. And you're playing live. And that's what humans do is they make mistakes, right? Every once in a while.

The reason it sticks out is because it's the only one Jim's ever made, as far as I know. From someone who has to stand next to him, I can attest to that. Somehow I think the crowd enjoys it, too.

Oh, yeah. You know, there's been a couple times where we've said, hold on a second. Let's just stop and start over.

And I think that that kind of actually, you know, sometimes you just can't take it too seriously. You just got to just play and enjoy it, you know? Tom, you do most of the booking, correct? I do, yeah. Yeah, but I work with all the agents in town and national agents, too, now.

Since we're doing more traveling, so. And how far have you guys traveled? I would say, well, it depends. We've gone.

I know you mentioned Michigan already. You've mentioned Iowa. Pretty much a five or six state area.

We had somebody fly us to San Diego a few years ago to do a private show. That's pretty unusual. And we did one in, what was it, Sioux Falls? That was an interesting trip.

You know, the guys have the flexibility to, you know, if somebody offered us a little mini road trip, we've got a nice van and a nice trailer, and we're happy to jump in and drive. But, yeah, pretty much a five or six state Midwest area. Well, you said 60 shows a year.

Normally, not this year, no. This year could be thrown out. But if you're doing 60 shows a year, I mean, you're doing better than a gig a week and probably more in the summertime, right? Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Fair to say. I would say we're on the road 50% of the time now, so we'll do a little Friday, Saturday thing and a little Indiana, Michigan, and come home deal.

And those are great because we're starting to, you know, develop a wider audience. And weekday fests as well. Yeah, those weekday concerts and festivals, sure.

So has there been any original work? You guys tried anything? Well, I write. And I've been wanting to record this band forever. I have trouble stopping.

I never know when the song is actually done. So, yes, I would very much like to do that. I don't know that there's a big audience out there waiting to hear my songs.

We've been in the studio a couple of times and middling, I think, effect. But, yes, it's going to happen. This year for sure.

I'm going to stop writing a song that I've been writing for 10 years. What is this? 12, 19, 20. I know it's terrible.

It is just terrible. It's a great thing going in the studio and watching a song or an idea that you have take shape. I know that you have to at some point just go, OK, that's good.

That's good enough. But I get it when somebody comes in, well, wait, we can add this to it or you can add that to it. And I get what you mean by when you say you don't know when a song is done.

Yeah, I'm very slow with the songwriting. I'm kind of more about a lyric and kind of a singer-songwriter-ish thing. So sometimes I'll come up with something and I'll throw it at the guys in rehearsal.

And they'll play it and I'll go, OK, I need to change eight things. I'll be back in another month. So we'll get there.

We'll get there. That's great. So how do we find you social media-wise or website? Where can people go to find Heartache Tonight? Well, heartachetonight.com is the website.

And when people ask me how you pick the name Heartache Tonight, I say that was the only greatest hit that didn't have a .com locked up. And that's true. That's exactly a true story.

We also have a Facebook page, which I'm sure you can find if you search. Well, it's been great talking with you guys. Thank you very much.

And appreciate you taking the time today to join us here. Oh, it's been really fun. And you're going to have to stay a little bit longer since you were late.

Yeah, I know. It's the usual thing. It's good to see all you guys again.

Well, thanks again. Well, I look forward to seeing you guys out of the show. Thanks for having us on.

It was a pleasure to meet you and talk to you. Thank you very much. Nice to see my bandmates again.

Yeah, it's a fun thing that we're doing here. We're just trying to, you know, keep some bands going and keep the names out there. And until we, you know, I'll get back to playing again.

That's very cool. I think what you're doing is great. Thank you.

Yeah, thank you, Paul and Ray, for your work. Cool. Thank you very much, guys.

Thanks, guys. Merry Christmas. And that was the guys from Hardin Connect, Tom Carey, Christopher Plash, Tom O'Brien, and Bean, as he's affectionately called.

He's a drummer. And we missed out on a couple of the other guys, but it was good to talk with them and get some insight into their band. And it was a lot of fun.

They're some fun guys. They sure were, and they know how to play Hotel California. Yes, they do.

Without the skip, too. It's amazing. They know a lot of Eagle's songs, and can probably play for three hours, like they said, and you never miss a beat, and you probably know every word in every song, so.

Yeah, it's a shame that people haven't been able to see them. They put on a great show. Yes, they do.

They do a great band, great guys, and it was fun talking with them. Yeah, and you know what? They're all over the place now, all over the Midwest, so you've got a much bigger audience out there. No excuse.

No excuses. I'm not going to see them once this COVID thing ends, or is in better shape than it is now, let's say. That's right, and come to see us when we're back in our studio recording.

You'll be able to see us right through the window when we're doing our show. Where would that be at? That's at the Illinois Rock and Roll Museum on Route 66 in beautiful downtown Joliet, Illinois. That's right.

It's home of Road to Rock Radio, where you can find our podcast every Monday at 6 p.m., a rebroadcast of one of our shows. Also I wanted to remind everyone that not only is the show brought to you by the Illinois Rock and Roll Museum, Road to Rock Radio, actually, but also by GHS Strings. So be sure and all your guitar players, mandolin players, bass players, banjo players, get out there and support GHS Strings.

Violin strings? Possibly. Possibly. It's a string.

It's a neck. Catgut. All right, guys.

Thanks for listening. We'll see you next week. See you next week.

Actually, next week's going to be a special episode. So you're definitely going to want to check it out, download it, stream it, whatever. I really think you guys are going to really enjoy the next week's show.

Okay. I'll be sure and listen. Oh, I'll be there.

Oh, you will be there. That's right. Okay.

Hopefully you'll enjoy it too. Yeah. I'll listen to it too.

Okay, great. All right. See you next week.

Thanks. 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.