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

How are you doing today, Ray? I'm doing swell. How are you doing, Paul? I'm doing wonderful, thank you. You know, it's fun.

We've got 50 episodes in the can. This is our 51st. It's fun getting these overall, the bigger pictures of all these bands.

Yes, it is. I mean, you learn a lot of new things you never knew about. And I'm telling you, we've got tons of people.

I mean, emails and texts, people I talked to said that last episode 50 was crazy good. So I appreciate all the great compliments from everybody. Well, speaking of the bigger picture, we have kind of a tie-in to last week's with Carl G. Morrisey.

We have Dave Zane, who's also the guitar player for the Bucky Hams. And he's got his own band called the Bigger Picture Band. And Zane's Way, which doesn't play much anymore.

But they're still there. They could just pop up like those 17-year locusts are coming out right now. They'll just come out of their shell, and there's Zane's Way.

That's right. Any minute now, they're ready to make some noise, just like the cicadas. There's a shell of Dave on your tree in your yard.

Yeah, that was a good interview with Dave. I think everybody's gonna enjoy it. Why don't we get to it? Let's do so right now.

Hey, today we're speaking with Dave Zane, the guitarist for the Bucky Hams and Zane's Americans, and his own band, Zane's Way and Bigger Picture Band. How are you doing today, Dave? I'm doing great. How's everybody doing out there? We're doing good.

Outstanding. So tell us, I mean, I hope I hit four of them right, but I'm sure there's many more, aren't there? Many more bands? At the moment, Buckingham's my number one. Zane's Americans, I play all the Midwest gigs with them, and occasionally I've been to Canada with them, and occasionally I do some other things with them other places.

Zane's Way, still playing occasionally. It's not that much. I don't know whether it's the oldies, that genre or something, but I don't know.

But it seems like my band, The Bigger Picture, is playing a little more. Of course, not lately. Nobody's playing, so.

Yeah, I know. You surviving the COVID-19? Yeah, money is one thing, but it's like a mental thing, you know? It's what you do. It's like a fish out of water or a bird not being able to fly, you know? It's just something that's in you, and you're used to performing for people, and you can't do it until everything's okay.

So yeah, it's not easy. It's nice to have time off now and then, but not like this. Not like this.

Only when you need it, but I never seem to experience any kind of burnout, even when we're going, you know? When was the last time you played? The last show that I actually did was with a Buckinghamston. It was with America at the Genesee Theatre, and it was a scaled-down Buckingham saying it was just two original guys, Carl and Nick, and myself just doing acoustic. Okay.

So that was a little different for us. We didn't know how it was going to go off, but it went great. America was really happy.

They go, we ought to do this more often, so we'll see if that happens. Nice guys, those guys. And they brought us on stage for their encore.

I think they do that. Usually they do that, but it was still surprising to me. I got pulled from the side stage by the bass player.

He goes, come on. We're going to do Horace with our own name. He goes, no big deal, because there's only two chords in it.

You played guitar and sang in that song? They passed me an acoustic guitar. It wasn't plugged in though, so it was all for the look. But it was fun.

I got the video, and I put that on Facebook so people could see it. I know you're on Facebook quite a bit. You've been doing some songs periodically too, I see there.

Yeah, yeah. Some of the fans have been prodding me. I started the first one, and I've got like 4,000 views.

So I figured somebody's out there looking at them, so I'll do another one. And the last one I did is close to 4,000 again. I've got a fan base out there.

Tell us when it all got started back in the day. How old were you when you started playing guitar? Oh gosh. Did you start out playing guitar? Yeah.

Actually, I remember watching the Beatles, and I was just crazy about them, like everybody else was, most people. There's some people that like the Stones better, but anyways. So that was 64.

I think 65, my dad played a couple chords on his guitar, and he could never tell when to change the chords and stuff, and he just didn't have that. And all I knew, three chords taught him to me. He goes, just come over here.

He goes, try this. I tried three chords. At the end of the week, I showed him five or six more that I found out myself.

I mean, there was no internet to find that stuff out. I didn't have any books or anything. I just figured them out with my ear.

And then I showed him. Oh, I don't know how much, maybe a half a year after messing around and playing that way myself, my mom told my dad, why don't we have him take guitar lessons? She had him pawn her engagement ring to buy my first guitar. Wow.

Yeah. And it wasn't a very good guitar. It was like a Stella or something like that.

It ended up warping a little time later. But yeah, so that's how I started taking lessons. And I think within the first year, my teacher told my dad, he said, he's passed students that I've had for three years already, you know, so had something there.

And I took lessons for like two years, I think, which really rounded me and my teacher would not teach any rock and roll. He told me to learn rock and roll, you got to go somewhere else because I just don't do that. He pretty much played standards.

He was really, really good. He played standards and jazz. He just told me, he says, if you want to, you know, play rock and roll or learn rock and roll, you have to go somewhere else.

And I really liked him and stuff. And he was a great teacher. And it was a good thing I did that because it totally rounded me, rounded me out instead of just playing what I wanted to play.

You know, I played the standards, learned how to read, which has helped me out with some of the charts. You know, in the past, I've done different shows, a lot of different shows with a lot of 60s and 50s artists, and they give me chord charts and lead charts and stuff. And that's really helped out there.

You know, I think the last one I did was the Vogue's or something like that. And they'll usually just send you, they send you a CD or something like that. And, and then, you know, chord charts, and then there will be a part where the guitar lead is in there, you know, and usually I don't read notes for that.

I just copy the lead off the original, you know, recording. That's always been a fun part playing with those bands that, that you heard when you were growing up. And, you know, all of a sudden, you know, now you're on stage playing with them.

It's really cool. I love that part. So who are some of those bands besides the Bucky Hams and Jane Americans? Oh, gosh, that I played with.

Johnny Tillotson. Gosh, just going off. Luke Christie, the Drifters, the Platters, the Coasters.

Gosh, there's so many of them. The Reflections. Wow.

That I had a list. I mean, I wrote them all down. There's like over 50, 50 artists that I've done.

Wow. Yeah. We should have maybe asked you, who haven't you played with? Luke Christie had some hits there.

He had... Lightning Strikes. Yeah, I've worked with Luke like four times, I think. That's very cool.

Yeah. The Tolkiens. That's another one.

You know, Lion Sleeps Tonight. So how did you get linked up with these groups? Okay. Well, I can start out with how I started out with The Cryin' Shames.

That was my first big leap from just playing with local bands. And so I had my band Zane's Way together. And that was my wife Sandy's idea.

She goes, why don't you put together your own band? She financed the whole thing. And we actually weren't even married at the time. It's right before she financed all the equipment and stuff.

And I told her I can find some guys. I found a couple guys that really did great. I was looking for a keyboard player.

I couldn't find a keyboard player. So I started messing around with sequencing. I bought a keyboard and start sequencing.

And that really took off because I didn't realize I could do what I could do, you know, with it. And so we just used a sequencer and the drummer played along with the click track with that. Anyways, we had that going.

My wife kept saying, you know, she was booking us. And she goes, we got to get you closer to Chicago, closer to the Chicago area. She had us booked at the Radisson at Star Plaza playing at the Atrium a lot.

And then she had us booked at the New Buffalo Yacht Club. Now, that was an instrumental part in me getting to where I am. And you never know when that's going to happen because we opened up with Gary Puckett song, which Gary's a good friend of mine now.

We opened up with, I think, Young Girl or something like that. Some lady was freaking out and, oh my God, I know Gary, you know. And I know Gary Puckett, you're going to have to meet him.

You sound just like him. You know, well, I don't sound just like him, but she thought so. So anyways, so her and her husband, they were, they were photographers and their last name was Follett.

It was Kent and Jules Follett. Kent has passed away. What a lovely man.

And Jules has gone on to write a book about drummers and she's involved with all kinds of stuff now. But at that time, they were photographers and they knew everybody. They knew all the Chicago bands.

And so we got to be friends with them, you know, from after that gig. And one day she called me and she goes, The Cryin' Shanes are looking for a guitar player. I go, really? So I came in and checked them out and talked to them.

And Hook was, J.C. Hook, Jim Pilster, was running the band at that time. He just thought I live way too far, you know, too far away because I'm here in Granger, Indiana, and I'm like two and a half, you know, two to two and a half hours away from Chicago. He just thought I was geographically wrong, you know, for the band.

He wanted to find somebody in the Chicago area. But he liked what I did, you know. And eventually we start talking.

I says, Hey, I'm committed, you know. Convincing that you're willing to travel, right? Willing to travel. And that was before GPS too.

So I had to do the MapQuest stuff. Freaked out about driving into Chicago with the Chicago traffic and stuff, you know, but it's something I had to do. But I learned my way around eventually.

And yeah, they gave me the job. And I with them for like, I think 2002, I joined, I joined the Crying Shames. And at that time, they had, it was Bob Stroud singing for us, you know, from the drive.

Yeah, Bob did a great job. And it was a really good band, really good band at that time. And we were playing all kinds of festivals.

There were so many festivals happening. So that was a really good experience for me, climbing, climbing the ladder, you know, and playing with a band that had big hits in the 60s. We did a gig in Toledo, Ohio, I think, no, it was Maumee, Ohio, which is right across the river from Toledo.

And it was a bunch of bands. It was the Buckinghams, the Crying Shames, Jimmy Sons was on that night with, you know, Shadows of Night, Question Mark and Mysterians. And the Outsiders, Sonny Gerasi.

So I'm playing, I'm backing up Jimmy Sons, I'm doing his thing. And then I play the Crying Shames. And my wife saw it in the, you know, backstage there, off to the side.

I walk off, she goes, that Sonny guy, you know, from the Outsiders keeps on asking me questions about you. He says he wants to talk to you. So I thought, oh, okay.

So here he comes walking up to me and he goes, hey, he goes, I really like what you do. He goes, I like how you use the stage and your voice is great. He says, would you ever, if I play in Chicago, would you ever be interested in joining, you know, joining me for some of those shows? I said, of course.

I said, I don't live in Chicago, but yeah, I do that, you know. So he says, you know, we exchange telephone numbers and stuff. And then at the end of that night, we all went out to eat somewhere.

And I was, Sandy and I were sitting at a table and we were joined by the lady that sold all of Sonny's merchandise, Ray Antonin. And she goes, well, didn't he tell you, you know, he's looking for a guitar player. I said, no, he didn't say that, you know, that, he didn't say that much, you know.

So at the end of the night, we gave her a Zane's Way CD and she took the CD. I was, you know, calling her and we were calling each other and talking to each other within the next couple of days. She called me after one of the days, she goes, Sonny was just over.

She goes, I had your CD blasting and Sonny walked in. He goes, who is that? He goes, that sounds really good. She goes, that's the guy that you talked to the other night.

You better hire him before he goes. So Sonny called me and had me come in for an audition. I think I played, I played one and a half songs and he goes, you're in.

That's cool. I was an outsider, you know, from the Crying Shames to the Outsiders. And then when I was with the Outsiders, Sonny did a lot of compilation shows, you know, and that's where I started working with all these other shows.

I think the first one was Kathy Young that did A Thousand Stars in the Sky. So I warmed her up. And the other one was Johnny Tillotson that did Poetry in Motion and talked back, really nice guy.

That was the last, I worked with him one other time, and that was the last time. But that was the first one. And then Danny and the Juniors.

And then, you know, started doing a whole bunch of other ones, you know, and Sonny, Sonny always had at least another act with him or two, and we ended up usually backing them up. They used Sonny's band. And that's how I ended up doing all that.

And actually at the end, towards 2008, he hooked up with Dennis Stefano. So I was playing a lot of Buckingham stuff, really. Then, you know, I met Dennis and we had a great time.

Yeah. So I, as a matter of fact, I think I was on a date with the Vogues and it was Sonny, you know, and the Outsiders and the Vogues. And I got a call and it was from Carl Giammarisi from the Buckinghams.

They were looking for a guitar player. So that's what that happened, you know. So I was with Sonny between 2005 to 2010.

Then I joined the Buckinghams. I've been with them for 10 years now. So in a nutshell, that's that whole ride there, you know.

Yeah. It's a lot of fun, you know. And with the Buckinghams, I never, you know, they never use a Buckingham to back anybody up.

So we're our own thing. I don't get a chance to do that. Oh, one more thing.

So after I got a message from, it says Sandy, Sandy Yaguda. I didn't have no idea who that was, you know. He goes, would you be interested in doing some shows with us? And I went on, I googled it.

Found out, oh, leader of Jay and Americans. It's like, whoa, I love Jay and Americans. So I called him and he says, yeah, we need somebody, you know, to play guitar for the Midwest because they have a guitar player on the East Coast.

They got one on the West Coast. So I'd be their Midwest guy. And I've been doing that.

And I think it's, that's been like five years or something like that. They're a bunch of, they're a fun bunch of guys. And we did a cruise a while back and they were actually on the cruise and the Buckinghams were on the cruise.

So I got, I got twice the pay that week. Yeah. And get to enjoy being on, I love the cruises.

You know, we just missed one of those cruises. You know, it came at the time that this COVID thing started. Flower Power Cruise.

So I got friends with Sly and the Family Stone that were there. Everybody was planning on hanging out and seeing each other again and it didn't happen. So.

Well, hopefully we'll all be back to doing that soon, but you know. Oh, kidding. I'm ready.

Yeah. I'm sure you are. I'm definitely ready.

So the first time I met you, I worked with you, running sound at the Blue Chip with Zane's Way. Yeah. Yeah.

So I know you told us a little bit about Zane's Way, but who plays in a band with you now? It's actually still KJ Hammerstein on bass. And I'll tell you how it started out. Um, Zane's Way, when we started out, it was, it's pretty easy to remember because it was 7-11-97.

You know, it all rhymes, you know. Yeah. So we started out in 97.

I had a bass player named Roger Kessler playing with me and I didn't, I never fronted before. So this guy, he had a, he had a, like a radio voice and he was a really good bass player and really good front guy. And I had another drummer named Dave at a music store in town and we played for I think five years.

The drummer ended up getting sick and I was losing gigs and I had to find another drummer. And so that's when KJ Hammerstein came in as a drummer. He's multi-talented.

He plays a lot of instruments. I was going to say, I was going to say that. I know KJ starts playing bass, plays drums, plays saxophone.

Yeah. Yeah, his main instrument is, is drums. But now he's playing with another band.

He's playing keyboards and saxophone. Our bass player was leaving the band and it's like, oh no, where am I going to find, where am I going to find a bass player, you know? And KJ goes, well, he goes, I can play bass. And it's like, well, what are we going to do for the harmony? We're losing a voice for the harmonies.

You know, we're losing, losing a drummer. Then if you play bass, I'm going to find another drummer. He goes, well, let's just try this the way it is.

And I said, so we ended up, since we already had sequence, the keyboard sequence, we ended up sequenced his, he played all his drum tracks and sequenced those. And we bought a harmony machine and put that extra harmony in with the keyboard to fill in that one extra harmony. And then Sandy joined us on stage for, so we still had three on stage, but you know, you'd hear drums, but you wouldn't see them.

You hear keyboards and wouldn't see them. And we played, we were playing around like that. A lot of people didn't mind that we were doing some little festivals, you know, and then I got the offer from the Blue Chip.

And I think it was Sue Ann Bronte that was, that took care of that. And we were friends because she was with South Bend Parks, where I, you know, the area where I live, and she used to hire us for a lot of things. And she said, yeah, the Blue Chip wants a drummer, you know, so.

I think the first time you came in, you did it with just the three of you, without a drummer. Yeah, did we? I, yeah. I'm pretty sure, pretty sure if I remember correctly.

But then, but then when you came back the second time and from there on, then you had a drummer, you know. Yeah, yeah. So that worked.

And the drummer we got was Rob Hunter. And he, he's actually my drummer for Zane's, for the bigger picture right now. Right.

Rob's been with you for quite some time then. Yeah, yeah. So I mean, anytime Zane's way plays now, it's, it's the three of us and Sandy joined, Sandy, my wife joins us also.

Right. Yeah. It's myself, KJ Ammerstein, and Rob Hunter, and my wife, Sandy.

When we, when we do get something, right now, Zane's Way's not booked for anything, you know, for the year. We have, we have some bookings left for the bigger picture, once things start. We've already lost, I think, four, four with the COVID thing.

So I had the Zane's Way thing going for a while. And, and I was approached by a guy about, what was I doing? Oh, I was filling in with another band. And a guy come up and he said, he says, Would you like to play some gigs with my band? And I can't remember the name of the band at that time.

I think it was Acme Box and Crate or something like that. And I said, Sure. He goes, Well, and the sound guy goes, I've got another band.

And he goes, he goes, Man, anytime you can come in and fill in, he says, I'll pay you this. And it was a nice amount of money. It's like, Oh, okay.

So my time off, you know, I could make some extra money. And eventually, we start managing the band, and then went to make some changes in the band. And the two guys that had that band, didn't like the changes.

And they quit. And then they told everybody that I stole their band, you know? Which I did. You know, everybody ended up going with me.

And well, one thing before they didn't like was I changed, you know, I, we were trying to come up with the name of the band, I came up with a bigger picture, and they didn't like that. But so the bigger picture lives, and it's grown. And it's been together for, gosh, I don't know, seven years now.

Seven, eight years. I bet. Yeah, easy.

Yeah. Yeah. And we've gone through a few member changes.

You know, you had Steve Hoy on keyboards and Mike DePoy on guitar. And those guys live in Kalamazoo. So they were making quite a hike to rehearse, you know, here in the Indiana area where I live.

And I love them too. I love them. Great guys.

Yeah. Great Christian guys. And they, uh, Mike DePoy was a great guitarist is a great player.

Yeah, I think he's doing something with the blues, blues organization out in Kalamazoo. He's he's ahead of the borders. He's, he's up there doing stuff.

Very nice guy. Great player. So first, the keyboard player in his family start growing.

So it's like, Oh, no. So, so I had, I had to find a keyboard player. So I felt I felt something coming on because Mike used to travel with Steve all the time.

He actually has night blindness too. So, you know, he, they both lived close to the same area in Kalamazoo. So they, Mike would always drive with Steve.

And then Mike's family was growing too, you know, so they both had to leave, you know, they didn't want to, but I had to find a keyboard player and a guitar player. So it's like, Oh boy, how am I going to do this? You know, you know, you're kind of in a limited area. You know, our area here is only so big.

I mean, in the Chicago area, you got a bigger choice or people. Well, I ended up finding two guys. The drummer goes, I got the keyboard player.

I go, really? He came in and just kind of, wow. Yeah. This guy's got it.

He's got all the sounds, you know, not really nice guy. That was Rob. Rob Hunter said that he had a keyboard player, right? Yeah.

Yeah. That was, Rob brought him in because they, they both played in a blues band together called Elwood Splinters. And who was, who was, who was the keyboard player? Tom Taylor.

Tom Taylor, right. He's a keyboard player now. Yeah.

So we got, we got Tom and then I got said, I got the right guitar player if I could find him. And it's a guy named Jim Besmer that I played with years ago. And I finally located him and he goes, yeah, man, he came in and played and the guys were like, wow, this guy's good.

You know, it's like I told, you know, Rob said, I got the guy. And I told Rob, I says, I got the guy here. So we both got the right guys.

So then the other missing link to the puzzle was we were using like three different bass players, you know, and we were constantly learning new songs. And it's like, every time we learn a new song, you have to practice with that bass player each time, you know, and another one to learn that and another one to learn that. So we were looking for somebody to, to be with us full time, you know, and Tom's father-in-law says, I work with a guy in Elkhart at a trailer factory that the guy plays bass and sings.

And I'm thinking, yeah, well, you know, we'll see. Guy came in and just nailed everything. You know, I mean, this guy's got perfect pitch.

His name is Rich Pollard. So we filled in the last piece of the puzzle. We've been going pretty strong ever since till this COVID thing happened, you know.

And after it happened, we've got like, we probably got another set worth of material that I've charred out all the stuff I learned. And I take the songs apart, you know, I tell the guys, learn your parts. I take all the harmonies and everything and designate who's going to sing what.

And they kind of chop the songs apart and figure out how we're going to end it if the song, you know, fades out on the original recording. And so now we're waiting just to get back together to rehearse, to learn, you know, whole new sets worth of material, you know. So that's going to be a lot of fun once it happens.

So now you front the band and you fronted Zane's way. Yeah. But now you said you weren't used to fronting the band.

Would you just play guitar early on or what? Yeah, yeah. And, you know, and I sang everything, you know, I sang everything, but I just play guitar. And when that happened, and that bass player from Zane's way quit, he was a front man.

And it's like, man, what am I going to do? I remember talking to Gary Pocket about it. Well, Gary, what the heck am I going to do? I said, you know, I've never done that before. And Gary goes, there's no right way or wrong way to do it.

He says, you just got to figure out your own, your own way, you know, Zane's way. I'm just going to be me, you know, that's the best thing I can do, you know, is just be me and just talk to the people like I'm talking to my friends. Well, I tell you, you do a great job at fronting the band and you've got a great voice as well.

Thank you so much. So you fit right in, I'm sure. So Dave, what kind of gear do you use? What gear? I've got a lot of different guitars.

I, you know, people always ask me if I have a favorite. I like my strats a lot. I think I have like five strats right now.

And most of them, you know, I've got a Japanese one, I've got a bunch of Mexican strats, you know. I don't even think I have an American strat. Well, I do have one.

I've got a 1966 strat that's been changed around so many times you wouldn't even recognize it, you know. You have the gold sparkle one. The gold sparkle one I put together, you know, and because I always wanted one that color.

Dick Dale had one of those originally. Yeah, I've used that one. I've used that one quite a bit.

That was my number one for a long time. And now I go back between that and I have a red one, red Mexie strat. I've got a couple less Pauls.

You know, I've got two white Les Pauls. One's an Epiphone, one's a Gibson that was left to me by a friend of mine that passed away. I've got a Paul Reed Smith McCarty that was left to me by a friend that passed away that's beautiful.

I just saw you playing that recently on one of your videos. Yeah, that's what I've been using because it's got a piezo pickup in it that, you know, makes it sound like an acoustic, you know, and it really sounds great and it looks great, plays great. So I've been using that one quite a bit.

I won't travel, you know, I won't fly with those expensive guitars. I'll usually take a Mexican Strat with me, you know, usually when I go or the Epi Les Paul or something like that. They still sound great.

They wouldn't cost as much to replace. I just don't take my chances. I don't know if you've flown very much with it, you know, and I take a gig bag and put it up in the overhead always.

And I got to watch because every once in a while, you know, there'll be people getting on and they'll have a big bag and just take it and want to just shove it in on your guitar. And it's like, oh, then I've had to yell at people before, you know, this, that's my guitar, you know, please, you know, I'm sorry, you know, you know, that's, that's how it is. That's the hardest thing.

That's the hardest thing about the, well, not the hardest thing that a lot of people say that, that do this music for a living. It's like we get paid, you know, we get paid for traveling, not, not playing, you know, because all the time it takes to set up and to get there. And it's a lot of time for just being up on stage for an hour or so, you know? So besides guitar, what, I mean, I know you play some mandolin, correct? Yeah, I just picked up, I'm basically a quarter, you know, I play a little bit.

I just, you know, pick out the songs and learn the chords and play them. You know, we, at one time we were doing like three mandolin songs and, but it just brings different, you know, different sounds into the band. You know, that's what I like instead of, you know, just the keyboards being able to get different sounds.

I have another guitar that's called, that's made by line, well, it's called the James Tyler Variax. And line six started out with these guitars. And this guitar models like all different kinds of guitars.

It models Gretsch, you know, Gibson, Les Pauls, Strats, Telecasters, Rickenbackers. I remember you bringing that guitar. Yeah, I remember that one.

Well, it's cool about it too. I love the sound of electric sitars and stuff, you know, it's got the sitar in it. And I think, yeah, I did that.

I brought it in with Zane's way, because we were doing like green tambourine. And I'd use it for something like that, you know. But I love that sound.

And it's got that, it's got a banjo on it. And you can change the, you know, you could put it in your computer and change the tunings. It's pretty remarkable, you know, but I mean, if you, if you take a regular Strat and put it up to it, it's like, yeah, it's pretty close.

But you know, a regular Strat is going to sound better. What's that saying? Master of none, but... Oh yeah, jack of all trades, master of none. That's what it is, jack of all trades, master of none.

But the guy from the Doobie Brothers uses one all the time, you know, so we don't have to change. He plays, uses for the banjo sounds and use it for the tuning so he can do slide stuff. It's pretty cool.

I'm gonna start bringing it out. I've been messing around with a little more lately. A lot of time.

Yeah, a lot of time to do that. So what kind of amp do you play through? Okay, well, when I'm out with the Buckinghams for backline, I basically just use a Deluxe Reverb, you know, just a 112 Deluxe Reverb. I don't need anything real big, you know, and singing, I don't want anything that's going to, you know, be too loud either, you know.

Actually, the Deluxe Reverb works fine for me. I can hear our volume on stage isn't that loud. And same thing with Jane Americans.

I'll use either a Deluxe Reverb or what's the Hot Rod DeVille, you know, a 212 Hot Rod DeVille. And I pretty much use pedals for, I've got a bunch of Boss pedals and I was using an OCD pedal for overdrive and distortion stuff. But I just got done buying a new pedal that I haven't used yet because my pedal board I was leaving in my suitcase that I travel with.

And going through security, every time they'd have to grab it off and pull me over to the side and go through because there was so much metal, you know, so much metal in here. I go, yeah, I know it's my guitar pedals, you know. And it's like, man, I got to figure out a way so this don't happen, you know.

So holding everybody up in the line, you know. So I bought this pedal. It's like a multi-effects unit, but it's analog.

There's a couple digital effects on it, like the digital delay and I think the chorus, but the other things are analog. And it's really small. I can actually put it in my guitar case.

It's called a Moore Red Truck. If you look at it, it looks like a truck. Wasn't all that expensive and it sounds great and I can actually put it right in my guitar case and travel with it.

So it's gonna, we'll see how it works live once we start working again, but I've been messing around with it and it's got great sounds on it, so. Well, I know it's a bigger picture band and stuff. You were just, you were running direct.

Right. That was a small stage, so. Right.

Well, yeah, with Zane's Way and The Bigger Picture, I run direct and everybody runs direct, you know. And then the drums are mic'd, of course. So it's pretty easy to set up.

Doesn't take that much, you know, that long of a time to set up. You know, the older you get, you want to start lightening things up, you know, making it easier, you know. Travel light is my motto.

Get the little stuff that sounds big, you know. Now, do you wear in-ears or no? I just recently started. I've dabbled within the years doing that.

And just within the last year, I, everybody in the band actually has them now. Rob, our drummer, and Tom, the keyboard player, started using in-ears. And they kept saying how great their mix is.

And certain times we have monitor mixes and it's like, oh, ours wasn't all that great. They were just talking about how great their monitor mix was with in-ears. And so we all have those now.

We just started using them, so. Yeah, I think they're nice. It sometimes takes a little getting used to, but.

Oh, yeah. But they're nice to have. Yeah, Carl from the Buckinghams keeps on saying he wants to try them, you know, and he's never had the opportunity.

And so I said, well, once we try them, I'll bring my, I'll bring my unit, let you give it a try, you know. So last week, we talked to Carl Giamarisi. And he has some nice words to say about you.

How's it been playing with the Buckinghams and being part of a band? I mean, well, obviously, you've been part of a lot of bands, you know, but the Buckinghams are a pretty big deal, especially around the Chicagoland area. But playing those number one hits like Academy of Dragons, Susan. Yeah, it's like living the dream, you know, it's like, I remember, I think the first time, first gig, I was pretty nervous on the first gig, you know, but normally I don't, I'm not, you know, people always go, don't you get nervous? And I feel the stage is my home, you know, I just feel, but playing with them.

Yeah. It's wonderful. You know, Carl and Nick have, you know, been great.

They, they give me a lot of leeway in the show, you know, they've, they featured me on, you know, we do this boy, just to watch those fans, watch, they love, they love the Buckingham's music and stuff. It's a great thing. I don't know how else to explain it, you know? Yeah.

Yeah. Because, because it's, I'm sure it's an awesome experience, you know? Yeah, it is. And it's just waiting to do more because we've got some coming up that we've got one coming up in July, I believe.

And it's another Cornerstones. It's in the Chicago area. It's with the Cornerstones and Tommy James is, is on that one too.

And I think Herman's Hermits is on it too. Nobody's sure about anything right now until it happens, you know? You've been with the band 10 years. Yeah.

When did, did you play with Tommy Shackle or did Tommy, was Tommy gone at that point? Yeah. Tommy had left at the same time that I joined for the Raiders. Yeah.

I knew it was right around that time and I wasn't sure if you were, because I know you had Tommy come in and play a couple of, play with the Blue Chips at one time. He did. Yeah.

I was just going to mention that. Yeah. Yeah.

He learned, he learned the show. I had like a week to find somebody to, I don't know exactly why it happened, but Tommy came in like a pro, you know? And I think Bruce, Bruce came in from Chicago, Bruce Overhoff, the Buckingham's keyboard player to watch, watch the show. It was fun, you know? And now the bigger picture plays in Chicago every once in a while at the Hollywood Casino in Aurora.

I think we play the one in uh, uh, Joliet also. And so it gives a chance for the Chicago fans, Buckingham's fans, you know, to come and see my thing too. It's really neat.

I see in a little bit different light, right? Yeah. Yeah. So that's all, that's a cool thing.

So, uh, where can we find, uh, Dave Zane on social media? Well, I have a, yeah, I have a Facebook page, you know, friend me on Facebook and I'm wearing like a, my famous purple jacket, you know? And then I have, uh, another, uh, site that's called Friends of Dave Zane that you can join. And between those two, that's what I've been doing most of my, most of my stuff with. Do you have a website or no? A website for the Big Picture Band? I used to have a Zane's Way website, but it ran out and we haven't redone it.

So, you know, so no website at the, at the moment. I'm, I've got some original material that, that I'm going to put out there that I'd never have before. I've just been sitting on this stuff.

And, uh, so I'll put all that stuff on, on Facebook and then I'll, uh, eventually I'll have, have them for sale on, uh, CD Baby or iTunes. I love, I'd love to hear some of your original stuff. What, uh, what genre would you say it is or what? It's poppy.

I'd say like something like cheap trickish, a little bit poppy, you know, like that. Uh, I've got, I've got a few ballads. I got some happy stuff.

Uh, yeah. So once, once it, once it happens, I'll have to get, get ahold of you and let you know, you know, what exactly going on with all of that. Well, we thank you, Dave.

Thanks for joining us today and, uh, well, thanks for having me. Thanks. I'm, I'm honored.

Oh, no, no. It's our pleasure to have you. So definitely, hopefully we'll see you guys out playing somewhere really soon.

Yeah. Well, please come out. I'd like to meet you in person.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, hopefully there's another wave of this stuff that comes through, but thank you very much.

All right. Thanks again, you guys. Thank you.

Bye everybody. Take care. Bye-bye.

So that was Dave Zane, uh, guitarist for Zane's way and bigger picture band, Bucky Hams, Jane Americans. And, and he's, he's played with several, several other people, hasn't he? Sorry, a cicada just landed in my mouth. Oh yeah.

No, that was the chocolate and they're great on the grill. They are great. But getting back to Dave, uh, yeah, he's a busy boy, man.

He's, uh, it's crazy. You know, if it wasn't for this pandemic, he'd be somewhere on nearly every night. Yes, indeed.

I've known Dave for probably 12 or 13 years now. And, and, uh, it was good to talk to him and get some insight into, uh, into the bigger picture of, of Dave Zane. Ooh, very nicely played.

So yeah, it was a great tie in with the Buckingham's too. Next week, maybe we'll bring you another surprise, uh, tie in or not. You just never know.

Check us out on. Yeah. You never know what we're going to do, but, uh, don't forget to check us out on Facebook, on YouTube, on Instagram, on, uh, Tik TOK, Twitter, Twitter, we're everywhere.

And, you know, follow us, please follow us. Tell your friends, tell your family, tell your, tell your family, tell your teachers, tell your boss, tell, tell the bum on the street, it's panhandling, you know, cell phone, they can listen to a podcast. All right.

Well, good, good, uh, good talking with everyone today. And, uh, and, uh, thanks for listening to everybody and we'll see you next Tuesday. See you next week.

Take care. 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.