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

Wow, you know, last week's podcast just rocked. It seemed like everybody loved Frank Capek and the Kind. It was an awesome podcast.

Yes, it was. Yes, it was. We got quite a few hits off of that.

And thanks to Frankie for for doing that. Appreciate it. Yeah, that was great.

I was very, really surprised that, you know, people still remember the band, you know, from back in the 70s, early 80s. They still still remember him, still like him. That was great.

So what we got on tap this week? This week, let's hope we do the same with Hartsfield. Hartsfield, yeah, one of my favorites from back in the day. Still like them.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Hartsfield is a great vocal band.

And we talked to Scott Bonshire and Freddy Dobbs. They told us some great stories. They definitely did.

And Freddy's an original founding member of the band, too, which is pretty cool. Been around a long time. Yes, he has.

Yes, he has. Let's get to it. And and here's this week's episode with Hartsfield.

Let's go. Hey, this is Paul Martin and Ray the Roadie for the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. Today, we're bringing you Scott Bonshire and Freddy Dobbs.

You may say, who's that? That's Hartsfield. How are you guys doing? Good. Doing OK.

Great. Great. All right.

See you. So. So.

So, Freddy, let's start out with you. And tell me, OK, tell me you were you were an original member of the band. I was.

Yes. And then the band started when? So around nineteen sixty nine or 70, I guess. I mean, the first days were days where J.C. already knew Perry, Jordan and Phil O'Connell.

They were kind of doing jam a little bit. And I heard Ebaldachi and myself and Tommy Rusnick at the time. We we came back.

We were living in San Francisco. We came back and we used to go over to J.C.'s in Midlothian and in the living room. We'd pick guitars, sit around and play, you know.

And, you know, J.C. was just a super guy, man. He welcomed us with open arms. It's like a brother right from the start.

You know, I remember him. He worked for Railroad, too, at the time. And he would they'd call me.

He'd call us so we could jam and try to write songs and sing, you know. But anyway, we had a good time, though, and that's kind of where it started in his little house in Midlothian, you know, and from there we went. We started putting some songs together, you know, and we got out to Southaven, Michigan.

They had a spot like a commune called Space that Perry and Phil used to go to, I think. And they knew some people from the area. And we found an old train station that was abandoned, owned by this guy named Raleigh Sylvester.

And he let us hang out. You know, we used to just have our sleeping bags, sleeping bag and a drum, bass drum, you know. And we'd just get up from morning to night, play and playing.

You know, it was really a lot of fun, you know, easy going times. You know, I was about 70 or 70, 71 maybe, I don't know. But, you know, that's where we put a lot of music together and we had a connection with John Ryan and some people from WSIT.

You know, and once our songs got kind of solidified, we put things together. It was really a. Somebody would come with a little idea and everybody would throw in ideas. It was a real nice, you know, joint effort.

Yeah, we used to drink a lot of Pax Blue. The cases of that shit around. That was our beer of choice.

But anyway, we we got a lot done, though, and created a pretty nice sound, you know, and just the harmonies, you know, those are voices just seem to blend perfectly, you know. Yeah. Well, you guys were known for you guys are still known for your vocal harmonies.

Yeah. Oh, it's fun. The guys playing now, too.

It's amazing. It's amazing. But, you know, WSIT kind of gave us a shot and played our music on their on their radio station.

I remember being downtown by the lake, well, Lake Shore Drive somewhere and we were in a car and they played music guys for the first time when we heard on the radio, we're all screaming. And, you know, so one years old, whatever, 23, 24. I don't know how old I was back then.

So so when when did you guys start recording? Did you record there or did you record? We recorded some demos and we had a place in Hyde Park. We used to rehearse at a house. I don't I think we did some recordings in there.

And everybody was a songwriter then, Mickey, since everybody contributed. Right. Pretty much.

Yeah, pretty much. And we didn't start really recording. We got a contract with Mercury and went to Miami to record the criteria.

We like criteria because we like stuff Stills did and Manassas. And there were a lot, you know, Ron and Howie Albert were the engineers. We kind of knew some of his work.

And that was kind of a dream for us. Let's go there and record. You know, we're getting out of the cars, flying out there.

We're on the beach. It was like it was like a vacation. Humid and we're running out to the water a minute.

We got out of the cars and we had a lot of fun back in those days. But, you know, we had a John Ryan helped us get kind of going. We had Tom Geving was this dude that J.C. had had experiences with.

He was our producer. So, you know, we recorded their criteria. Just started traveling and, you know, going on the road.

We were playing a lot in Chicago, like on the near north side and stuff. People used to come out and see if places were packed. Right.

Back in the day. It was fun as the band evolved. You guys broke up somewhere in the 80s or something.

Now, how many albums did you had out at that point? I guess four, four, you know, back when we had on our first album, I'm kind of backtracking a little bit. Artie and Phil played bass on a couple of tracks because we didn't really have a bass player yet. We got a new bass player, Greg Bela.

He kind of joined the group and he didn't really know the material yet. But his voice fit in really well. He could sing high harmonies and stuff.

It was it was really a great match to our band. We needed another guy. But then, you know, back moving along.

I mean, we traveled constantly, boom, boom throughout the 70s and 80s. I don't know. We sort of split, you know, things were we made a few demos to try to get some new material out.

Friend of ours named Steve Beck, you know, supplied us with a he employed a couple of us and he had a place where we could record and he kind of financially helped us. And I don't we I don't know what happened to the stuff we recorded there, but some of it was pretty nice, I thought. And I don't know, it's what what song what song would you say really, really catapulted you into that? And it came into the limelight, I guess.

I'm thinking music, guys. Music, guys. Yeah.

A lot of people like shine on to, you know, but music, guys, I think was the real that was hard. So, you know, music has been stuck in my head all morning, so I still love it. It's fun to play.

It's a great, great song. It's a good song, for sure. I'm honored to play.

You know, Perry asked me to come and join the band and well, this is way this is more in 2008 or nine, you know, back. You know, he put a lot of aggregations of people together and kept, you know, kept it afloat, you know, made some more. They made a few albums and re-released some songs, you know, on different albums and so forth.

Now, the band got back together in ninety nine. Ninety nine. Yeah.

Is that when you joined us? Yes. Yeah. I already was no longer part of it, right? All right.

All right. No, here's my association. You know, the Baldacci name I had heard since I was a kid.

Right. OK. My mom's sister had four girls, Sandy, Nancy, Colleen and Donna.

OK, so Sandy, Nancy and Donna. All right. The last one.

Sandy took accordion lessons from Mr. Baldacci. OK. Art staff and Nancy and Donna took piano lessons.

So I would hear the Baldacci name from my mom. You know, you know, she got to know Mrs. Baldacci, Flo. Right.

We call her Flo. And so the association was there. I always heard about that.

And they're taking lessons. I used to watch my aunt or I mean, my cousin play accordion and that, you know, what a musical fan. Oh, my gosh.

Yeah. They were a great musical family. As a matter of fact, he already grew up right down the street from me.

Yeah. You live close to him, right? I live in the middle of the block. He lives in the corner.

Right. Right. Exactly.

22nd and LaSalle. 22nd and LaSalle. Yeah.

Unbelievable. So I always heard the name and everything like that, you know. And then years later, my mom would say, hey, you remember Baldacci, right? And I said, yeah.

He says, well, you know, he's a drummer also. And he's in this band called Hartsfield. And I said, oh, really? So she's the one who told me about it.

So I was looking, looked out for him, bought the first album, went to go see the band all the time. I was a fan of the band. Right.

I saw them at Moraine Valley and Hammond Civic Center. And and Freddie just mentioned Tom Gevin, the producer. One show that I went to at Hammond Civic Center, Tom Gevin ran a sound line.

And it was just like, wow, what is this, man? He was a good musician. He played a hell of a saxophone, too. When he came up and played on Another Man Down, it was always really cool.

Yeah, yeah. He was, oh man, that show, just the sound was unbelievable. And Hammond, you remember Hammond Civic Center, right? Right.

It's like a barn, you know? Yeah. Yeah. The sound here.

So then, you know, then the band broke up and that. So but I started teaching drum lessons. I've been doing that since 1980 at a drum shop named called Midwest Percussion.

Right. I've been I was teaching there for a long time. And then then Artie Baldacci started working there.

So we got to be good friends. Tommy Sheckle, who you had on your show. Right.

He was working there, too. So, you know, we would always talk and blah, blah, blah with drummers and blah, blah, blah and this and that. And then I started working there, too, at the store.

So like in 97. Who owned this thing? John, John LaTrenza. John LaTrenza.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Did everything for everybody, you know? So, yeah. So in 99, I'm at the store teaching and I'm working.

And Artie says to me, hey, you know, Perry is Perry Jordan is writing some new songs and stuff, thinking about getting the band back together. I was just excited that the band was going to be back together. So I would go go see him and check him out.

You know, I was like, oh, you got to let me know so we could go by. And I'd bug him again. And I never called him or anything like that.

He's writing some tunes. OK, so I know that we can go by. It's like a little kid, you know.

All right, come on. What's going on? You know what? Some of the other guys were going to do it, the original guys. And now they're not.

So I don't think I'm going to do it. You want to check it out? I said, yeah. So I got Perry's number, did the audition.

It was me, Steve Eddington, who's playing bass now, and Perry in Perry's living room in Crestwood. It was just us three. And I brought a little three piece kit.

And Steve was like, I like that. He's got a three piece kit. Steve was on my side, by the way.

We got we got after that, we got I think we got Tim Johnson next. Tim knew Dave Nelson. And then there was JB, John Brightwell.

So we had six original guys. And then when Tim left, we just kept it five. I think we had Eric Lambert in the band, Elmer Keyless.

But Dave, Dave Nelson, Steve Eddington and I have been together since 99. So so who are the current members of the band now? Who's playing with the band? So right now, the current members are Freddie Dobbs, myself, Steve Eddington, Dave Nelson, Steve Eddington on bass. Steve Eddington on bass and Dave Nelson on guitar and Andan Davis on guitar.

And then Freddie picks up an electric once in a while. And it's all three of them playing electric. And it's like, you know, wall of sound is great.

So, yeah. And then this is the last member to join. He's been with us nine, ten years.

I think. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I miss playing with, you know, the originals, Artie Baldacci, Phil Coffel, J.C. Arts, Hugh O'Perry, of course.

Well, and Greg Bela. You know, I miss those guys. But these guys, I'm just honored to play with them.

They're all such great musicians. And they've been together just as long as we were, you know. Right.

And they're all awesome. And it plays a lot, you know, around with other artists, too. And Dave, you catch them up on the north side and stuff.

Who plays the acoustic? Freddie will play the acoustic. I do most of the acoustics. Yeah, that's a lot to ask of.

And then the other two play more electric. Right. Yeah, they're great.

Great guitar players. You know, it's fun playing with them. You play mandolin, too? No, it's a banjo.

Oh, it's a banjo. Andan plays mandolin. Andan? Oh, OK.

Dave can probably pick up anything. He can play. He plays dobro.

He's got a dobro. Yeah, he's got a dobro. He plays great slide.

We used to do a lot of... We would go to these little towns like Wisconsin, like I was talking about, and go to radio shows, you know, and interview us. And then we would play, too. And just do it acoustically.

Right. And Dave would play dobro. And, you know, I'd bang on a snare drum and then bang on a chair.

You know? Oh, it was fun. That was a lot of fun. Sometimes I had more fun there than doing a show with the waiter.

But, yeah, he's probably pretty good on a pickle bucket. Oh, those guys like playing a socks game? Yeah, those guys are good for it. These guys are good for it.

I grabbed a stick once from the guy and I jammed one of them. I broke a stick and I felt bad. So I went back to my car.

I had my stick bag and I brought him a pair of sticks. He goes, oh, thanks. It's a stick he had.

We're just all mangled up. So, yeah, yeah, I could do that. You didn't join up right away? No, no, I was teaching and full time, you know, teaching music, general music.

And, of course, I got my teaching degree and did that for, I don't know, till around 2000, I think in 2002 or 2003. I don't know. And then I retired kind of early and did a lot of odd jobs.

But now you're back with the band. Yeah, so Perry got laryngitis once. It was in winter and he got laryngitis.

I thought, oh, this is great. Perry's got laryngitis. You know, I mean, not, you know, he sang great.

But just because, you know, Perry liked to talk and talk. So he asked Freddy. So Perry was still at the gigs playing, but Freddy came and sang.

He had to learn all his, well, his tunes again, relearn them. And then he had to learn Perry's songs. And then that was through the winter.

And Perry got better. And through the spring we played. And then Perry invited Freddy in the summer, some more gigs.

So he kind of knew the material. And then the next summer Perry got sick and he had a massive heart attack and lived for a while, but he just wasn't the same. So then Freddy graciously took over.

It was great that he did it. So, yeah, we've been going strong ever since. It's just like, you know, you guys, it's like M&R Runs.

Wherever you play, you know, wherever they'll take you, you'll play. It's like the same thing, man. But, you know, I love the band.

I've always loved those songs. And it's great that I get to play places that I wouldn't have gotten to play, like big fests, opening for bands, you know, traveling a little bit, playing clubs that I would just never get to play. So it's been, it's really been an honor.

It's been really cool. I've loved it. Now you're still teaching.

Still teaching, yeah. Still teaching, and that's been pretty rewarding lately. Sometimes, you know, kids don't practice and this and that, an age-old story.

Where are you teaching at? At Midlothian Music in Orem Park. Oh, okay. In Orem Park, yeah.

Unfortunately, the one in Midlothian just closed up because Ron Lekovich, the owner, passed away just about a month ago. Oh, wow. So his son, John, was the manager.

So now his son's running the one in Orem, and they closed the one in Midlothian. So, but yeah, doing that four days a week and still playing, and I'm playing in a couple other bands. But it's been, Hartsfield's just been a lot of fun.

You know, we've been, we just have a good time. Yeah, I enjoy it. I've never been in a band for 20 years.

Right. I mean, I know you have. Right.

But never one band for 20 years, you know, so I'm kind of proud of that. Now, are you still teaching? I'm substitute teaching. Okay.

But, you know, I still kind of like to stay in it a little bit and help out. Teaching guitar or music or? Anything. Anything.

Everything from music to social studies. Oh, okay. So you're teaching in high school or middle school? Mostly middle school and high school in Beecher.

I help out in Beecher and Frankfurt, you know, in both those school districts I'm at. Shout out, they're great. The teachers are great.

Kids are nice, you know, and I don't do it a lot, but I, you know, sometimes helps me out. You were subbing at, what was the school you were subbing at that my grandson was at? I can't remember the name of the school because now he goes to Lincoln away. Oh, back when he was at Summit Hill Junior High.

Summit Hill, yeah, Junior High. My grandson went there and he played saxophone, so he had Freddy as a sub a few times. Oh, nice.

Yeah, it was great. But they had, you know, their music classes, they have guitars on the wall and kids play, you know, learn how to play basic guitar and stuff, which is what I did when I was a full-time teacher as part of my curriculum, guitar, and they wanted me to get rid of it and do just chorus and put on musicals and stuff. I did Annie, I did Guys and Dolls.

You're excited about that. You got Phil and Freddy, I mean, Phil and Artie to do it right with you. I mean, I had help from parents, and I had this one really nice lady help me with, help the kids with choreography.

That's not my thing, musicals. I love music, but any kind of music, you know. But, you know, it was kind of.

So you guys have put out some albums since you've been back. Yeah, we put out one in 2000, we recorded in September. We called it Rescue the Dog because Perry was a big, big dog lover, and we used to rehearse at this big warehouse through his wife's, through his father-in-law.

I think his father-in-law had this warehouse in Cicero, and Perry got there early one time and heard this, like, yelps, you know, yelping and that. I think he brought his dog with, just to have the dog, you know. And so his dog was looking outside, or maybe he took him outside to go to the bathroom and look underneath, and there was three or four puppies.

So Perry went underneath, you know, with his arm and dug out stuff. I can't remember the whole story because I wasn't there. When I got there, he wasn't there because he was in the hospital because he pulled his arm out trying to save the dogs, and he did.

So we named the album Rescue the Dog. Rescue the Dog, yeah, that's cool. So that's the story.

Oh, yeah, oh, yeah. I think he saved one. He saved, I think one didn't make it, but I think he saved three, and then he took one, and that might have been Toma, I'm not sure.

But he was a big dog lover, and then I rescued my dog that I have now, and he was all, you know, I was his best friend for maybe a week. Rescue the Dog, Rescue the Dog, Rescue the Dog, Rescue the Dog. And then we also did Disrupting the Country about two or three years later, and that was a fun album to play, and we did that in Perry's living room.

Really? Yeah, we recorded that in his living room in one of the portable recorders. I don't know that much about it, but, yeah, we did that there, and that was fun. And then he did an album, was it Georgia Flyer? Was that the name of that album? God, I can't remember.

Oh, the writer's tapes were just something that he put out, but I played on a couple of tracks of that, a couple of cuts. Now, was this through a record deal, or was this personal stuff that you did? The first album was, the Rescue the Dog was, because the original band was always big down south in St. Louis, and there were, J.C. and Perry went down before we put the band together in 99, and just for like a signing of, oh, what they did was this couple, God, I can't even remember their name, but they were married, and they had, one guy had a drum shop, and his wife ran a record store. Well, they were big Hartsfield fans, and they put the stuff out on CD.

I think they got the rights to it or something, the old stuff, they put it on CD. So Perry and J.C. went down and played a little at the store, and signed autographs and that, and got it going again, and got the buzz happening and all that. And then they had a label called Bedrock Label, Bedrock Records.

So we got signed to that for Rescue the Dog, and it was in Best Buy. They got it into Best Buy, so I thought that was pretty cool. One of my relatives from West Virginia, my cousin Bev, was in, and we were just shopping once, so we went into Best Buy, and my wife Barb, we walked by, and we went to the H's in the bin, and the Hartsfield one was behind the other one, so my wife grabbed it and put it up in front of the other one.

There you go. Supportive wife. So that was fun.

Then the other ones we put out by ourselves. But originally, in the early days, who was the band signed to? Mercury originally. For the first three, right? Let's see, first one, second one, and then Foolish Pleasures, Foolish Pleasures and Collector's Item were around Columbia then.

Oh, okay. And that was through David Rubenson and his whole affiliation, and in California we moved out to the Bay Area there. Our styles were starting to change a little.

It became kind of eclectic. But I love Collector's Item, Al, and that's one of my favorites because it's got a different variety of things on there. So then you were saying that the other ones were all done on your own label? Yeah, we just put them on ourselves.

Actually, I think Perry did have a little bit of a label or something. I don't know if our manager, Dick Reck, had anything to do with that, maybe one of them or something. But yeah, we just put them on ourselves.

We sell them at the shows. More like an independent. Yeah, back in the day, the record companies were bigger.

They had more control over you, it seemed like, back when we were. But we were foolish, too. Our business sense wasn't very good in the early days.

Nobody just wanted to get out and play. We were on a roll. Do you have all the albums available? Well, you can find some of the albums, which is the vinyl thing is happening now again, on eBay or people sell them.

But yeah, all of them are available on CD. They come to the shows and on our website, too. You can buy them at artsfield.com. Here I Am was like the last record album that Perry... That was like different artists kind of added.

I wrote one song with Perry on there. I remember going to his house in Crestwood. I did some overdubs right there in his room that got on the album.

I also did them in the studio at Peteric's. What's his name? Jim Peteric's. We did vocals and a lot of stuff there.

Mick Favis wrote one, too. Yeah, Mick Favis wrote one. He used to be in Fawn.

Good songwriter and guitar player. You were in Fawn, too, right? Oh, no. Jim Williams was in Fawn.

Good friend of mine, bass player. But I always admired Fawn and Mick Favis. Roseland was a great area to grow up in.

A lot of bands in the old-fashioned days. Great bands would be playing on Michigan Avenue in front of stores. There was a real exciting musical time.

Beals just came out. Every new album that came out was like... Every single, oh, my God. Just waiting for it.

Garage bands, the whole deal. I played with J.C., Jerry Hartsfield. He used to come to the shows when we were together and sit in and play.

It was great. It was just like, wow, there's Hartsfield right there. There he is, you know? So that was fun.

But then when John Strelowski from Six, J.C., when he quit, I did some demos with him. So it was me and Mike McCune on bass, Kenny Zemanek, Chuck Piper on guitar, and we did some demos. Actually, J.C. took him out to California, but I think he still had something to do with A&M Records because of Six.

Was it a Spread Eagle band? It wasn't Spread Eagle. It wasn't called Spread Eagle. I think it was after Spread Eagle or during that time.

But I recorded with him four or five songs. He brought them out there, but nothing ever happened. So I think I could be wrong, but I might be the only guy to play with J.C. and J.C. The two J.C.'s, yeah.

Wow. So J.C. wasn't part of the band when you regrouped in 99? No, but he would come out and play once in a while, and Phil came out a couple of times, Phil LaCoffo, because the original band was Freddie Dobbs and Phil LaCoffo on electric guitar. And then when Freddie took Perry's place, he was playing acoustic, but now he's also playing electric, too.

So that's a lot of fun. But yeah, those guys would just come out and sit in at our shows. That's cool.

That was cool. So you guys are still going strong? Are you still playing? How many shows a year are you doing? Maybe 20, maybe 20, 25, something like that. Right? How about that? We're doing a little bit of traveling now.

We found a real nice theater down in Edwardsville, Illinois, about 50 miles north of St. Louis called The Wildy. We're going back down there in November. We play Beverly Arts Center, Main Stage in St. Charles, President Run, that theater.

We played The Acorn. Which one? We played The Acorn. Oh, was that the one in Michigan? No, we haven't done that one.

It's a nice little place. Is it? Yeah, we'll have to check that out. But then Fitzgerald's, we've been playing Fitzgerald's since 1999, twice a year, and that's so much fun.

Nice club. We're a club. Yeah, we're doing that August 31st, actually.

Now you've shared the stage, I know, with quite a few big name acts, too. Who were you touring with back in the... A lot of people. Marshall Tucker.

Everybody. Doobie Brothers, Marshall Tucker, Doobie Brothers. And I don't know.

It's a lot of people we played with, you know. Some I don't even remember. Like somebody would say, Oh, yeah, you guys played with so-and-so.

Really? Yeah, that is, yeah. Some of my favorite gigs that I can recall, one was with Loggins and Cena at the Ambassador Theater in St. Louis. That was really a fun show.

It went really well. We played with Kiss. But that was on a big festival or something, and I think it was in Milwaukee, if I remember correctly.

Didn't you? No, St. Louis. That was the Casey Radio in St. Louis. Oh, cool.

Yeah, Casey Radio really pushed Hartsfield down there. It was like XRT up here. Right.

That's one of the reasons they were so big, because, you know, you get the music out. Oh, is that how that happens? Yeah, there's a radio, and people can hear your stuff, you know. I'll tell you, the first time I ever played in St. Louis, in 99, we practiced all spring and summer in 99.

The first gig was in the end of August, I think. Then the second gig was maybe Fitzgerald's. The third one was down in St. Louis, and those people were going crazy.

I mean, it was almost an out-of-body experience. At one point, they were just standing up, and I was like, I wanted to get off the drum set, walk out in the audience, and go, what are they seeing, man? What is going on? It was so great. It was like, oh, we loved that.

We love up in Wisconsin, too, up in the northern country. Those people were great, too, nice people. You were open for Eric Clapton one day.

Eric Clapton, Kalamazoo. We played at the Wings Stadium. It was a hockey stadium or something.

Open for Clapton, yeah. I remember getting out there. Santana came out and played, and I was like this close to him, right, like me and you.

Santana walks up and plays jams with him at the end for encore. Oh, man. That was exciting.

Yeah, that story. And then didn't you play the Troubadour? Oh, yeah, Troubadour. Oh, in California.

Was that where Keith Moon? Yeah, yeah. He came on and started banging Artie Simbles and stuff, Keith Moon. Or was it, there was a place in New York called Max's Kansas City.

We had some kind of celebrity sightings, Tony Bennett's son played in a band that opened for us or something. Tony was in the audience. I remember at the end of the night, you know, I was sitting at a round table, I shook his hand.

Michael J. Pollard, the actor, I remember him. I don't know if that was in New York or in L.A. He comes up and pokes me in the stomach. You're a leaf on hell.

He thought I was a leaf on hell. I forget that. He was out of his mind.

And like Keith Moon, we took some pictures with him. I remember at the end of the night, that was the troubadour. Yeah.

I'm sure. I'm trying to think of the other stories that Artie told me. You guys opened for a lot of people in the 70s, boy.

They used to do 250, 300 dates a year. Right. It was a long, strange trip.

Driving, not a lot of flying. Yeah, a lot of driving. Texas, we rented these Cadillac Fleetwood Burlons.

And the Doobies and the other guys were in plush buses or they flew. You know how Texas is, man. It was like we'd drive all day.

J.C. used to go, all day. We had a gig coming up in Dallas or something. We were in Houston.

All day. Well, you know, we had fun. We took it, you know, the beer with the sweet.

So what's the future hold? Is there any albums in the works or anything? No. Freddie? Freddie's got to start writing stuff. I'm working on a few things.

Your last one was 2010, right? I believe that's what it was. Yeah. Yeah.

Now, Steve Eddington has done a solo album. I played on four or five cuts of that. It's nothing like the Hartsfield stuff, but it's kind of different.

But, yeah, I don't know. We toyed around with the idea of maybe doing something and checking it out. Or maybe do it like with other writers, too.

So Here I Am was the last one, right? Right. Yeah. That was pretty diversified.

Perry did a thing with Take Six, an acapella version of Music Eyes. I don't know if you guys ever listened or heard that. That was kind of interesting.

Yeah. Different. If he was still around, I'd probably be writing more songs on him.

He was pretty easy to write with. Perry? Yeah. Yeah.

Because he always kept pushing. Persistence. He was always trying a new song or something.

And you'd add to it. Or if you had an idea, he would add to it. Yeah.

He had good ideas and good lyrics. And then the arrangements were your guys a lot. And, man.

Now, Scott, you're playing with a couple other bands, right? Yeah. I play with the Jaywalkers. That's like rhythm and blues and blues and Allman Brothers stuff.

Okay. Just around Southside, local places. We just played St. Chris Fest in Midlothian.

Okay. And then I play with the Bernie Glynn. And that's like a country band.

Right. A lot of country stuff. But we'll do some other things, too.

Yeah. So I'll do with the three bands and teaching. I hate to bring it down, but he's sharing about Tom Gurney.

Oh, yeah. A great player and just a great guy. A great individual.

He's got a smile on his face all the time. All the time. Yeah.

I know. And loved playing. Oh, my gosh.

He did. That's just too bad. A lot of people just went too early.

You know? He went too early. He was one of those guys. And we knew he was kind of sick, but we didn't know how serious.

I don't think you want people to know. Right. But, yeah.

I was shocked when I heard him. Yeah. Tom used to just say, Tom used to call me, you old rascal.

You know? He was just a country boy. Yeah. But he did love to play.

He just played that clean sound with just tasty. Just like Freddie playing from his heart. Playing with soul.

You know? Kind of reminded me. I told him one time, kind of reminded me of the, sorry, I don't know this gentleman's name, but the guitar player from Smokey Robinson's band. Little licks in the back that just kind of go unnoticed, but they're just there.

You know? They flow with the music. Oh, man. It's good stuff.

Yeah. Tommy. We miss Tommy.

You know, when somebody leaves or changes, it's never the same. You know? Somebody else comes in. It's different.

That's good. So, where can people find you guys now? I mean, I know you have a website. Yeah.

And then Facebook. Okay. We have a Facebook page.

And then, so, yeah. Just go to there. Check it out.

August 3rd. The next job up in Rhinelander, Wisconsin. August 31st.

Fitzgerald's. I don't know if we're doing anything in September. Then a couple in October in Wisconsin.

A couple in November down south. Your website's really nice. It's well put together, too.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

It does the job. You know? Right. It does the job.

Those people know where we're at. Facebook. Thank God for Facebook.

You know? Oh, yeah. Leo and Leona's. Oh, yeah.

In October. Early October. This is a place out near, where is it? Near La Crosse, Wisconsin.

Great little club. Yeah. The people are dynamite.

And we get up there a couple times a year, maybe. Or once a year. I call that like the little Fitzgerald's.

Yeah. It's just small. It's a great club.

It sounds great in there. Oh, boy. And the listening crowd.

You know? They come to listen. They have a good time. Right.

Well, that's what you get shot at. Probably the listening crowd. You know? I mean.

Yeah. I mean, your vocal harmonies and everything else. Well, on the second set after they've drank a little.

You know? They start dancing. Right. But, yeah.

It's a lot of fun, man. It's good time music. You know? Yeah.

Yeah. For sure. All right, you guys.

Well, thanks a lot for your time. Thank you. Thank you, guys.

Great talking to you. Yeah. Appreciate it.

Yeah. Get some insight into some of the early days. And the current stuff, too.

Yeah. Yeah. We appreciate it.

We had a lot of fun. Thanks for coming. No problem.

Thank you. All right. Well, Ray, it was great talking with those guys.

Yeah. It was. Man.

They did some traveling in the days, man. Wow. 300.

Over 300 shows a year they were doing back then. I mean, they were traveling with some big-name people, too. That was really, really cool.

Not everybody gets that opportunity. Yes, they did. And how many albums? 12 albums? 11 albums? Yeah.

They got 11 or 12 albums. They actually put out more albums when they got back together than they had before they when they were first initially together. That's right.

They're a great band. And make sure and check them out. They're still playing.

They're not doing 300 dates anymore, but they're still playing quite a bit, maybe 20 or 25 shows a year. So you can always find them somewhere around your town playing and doing a show somewhere. Yeah.

I think they said, what, August 31st they're going to be at Fitzgerald's in Berwyn. So you can't miss that one. They're here.

They're right in your backyard. That's right. Let's worry about next week's show.

Who do we got for next week, anyway? Next week. I don't know, man. Can we do that? It's almost after midnight.

Can we do this some other time? It's like I'm really getting tired. It's after midnight all the time, isn't it? Well, pretty much. Yeah.

You're right. It is 9 a.m., but it is after midnight. It sounds like a countryside.

Yeah. It's always after midnight. I was going to go fishing today.

I was thinking about getting myself like a Big Mouth bass or something. That'd be awesome. There you go.

So who are we going to do next week? Next week, we'll see. We'll see who we can conjure up and bring to the party. All righty.

I mean, everybody's banging at the door to get in. This is becoming like a frat house. Yes, it is.

All righty. Anybody out there, you just come knocking at the door, we're here to talk to you. Don't forget to share.

And be sure to check us out at rockandrollchicago.net. That's right. On Facebook and any podcast download service you use, we're there. We're like a festering boil.

That's a good explanation. People are really tuned in now. Tell all your friends, and we'll see you next week.

See you next week. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.