Hey everybody, this is Paul Martin and Ray the Roadie for the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. This week we're continuing our series on horn bands that rock with Cadillac Groove. But before that, I want to thank everybody for all the great emails and comments and messages you sent us about the last episode with Jim Peterick.

That was really an outstanding show, I thought. So what'd you think, Paul? Yeah, it was a lot of fun with Jim and these guys too are a lot of fun. Cadillac Groove, I'll tell you one thing about these boys is they love to laugh.

Oh, that they do, I noticed that. Yeah, they like to have a good time, I think, and that's important to, you know, in a group like that. You gotta have a lot of fun.

Yes, indeed. Yes, indeed you do. And like you said, they love to laugh and we had a lot of laughs and a fun time with them.

We were in Plainfield at, what was the name of the place? I believe it was the Hopscotch and Vine. Hopscotch and Vine, that's right. Yeah, so it was a fun place and Felipe, the manager there, took care of us and we had a lot of fun with them.

Yeah, that was really a good time. It was good seeing those guys. So let's say we start that show off right now.

Sounds good. Here's our interview with Cadillac Groove. Hey, this is Paul Martin.

And Ray the for the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. Joining us this week are Tom Dixon, Scott Evans, and Mike Metoyer. Cadillac Groove, that's right.

So tell us about the band. Now we had a chance to see you pretty recently at the Slapshots. But tell us how the band got started.

First of all, when did the band get started? The band started six years ago, actually this month, six years. And it started out really as kind of like a blues band, four-piece blues band. I really kind of wanted to have a band kind of like what we have now, eight-piece with the horns and all nine yards.

But being it was the first band I'd ever started and ran, I had no idea how to even go about doing that. I had no idea. I was like, all right, so I can handle a four-piece blues band, right? And so that's kind of how it started.

And then we would book it, depending on the show, we'd book it, you know, four-piece, five-piece, six-piece, whatever the budget was. But then we're changing the book every night, right? So, you know, the song lists are changing, people are coming out there, they're seeing the whole big band. And then next thing they see us, all of a sudden it's four pieces.

And they're like, hey, what happened to the horns, right? And now where's all the Blues Brothers tunes and stuff, you know? And so about a year ago, maybe two years ago. Any of the guys that you played with now? No, actually, no, yeah, no. It started out, John Katke.

Actually, the very first show was John Katke on guitar, Joey Dreida on guitar. Oh, John Katke was playing keys, actually. Joey Dreida on guitar, James DiGirolamo on bass, Scott Volesky playing harp, and then me playing drums.

Oh, okay. So that was, and then it went through, I don't know how many iterations after that of guys, you know, in and out. And the current lineup, as it sits right now, kind of as an eight-piece, has been going pretty strong for like two years, two and a half years we've been doing it as an eight-piece.

And last summer, we basically decided we're not changing, every show is going to be the whole band. And so now we just, we always go out as the eight-piece, no matter what's going on, you know. Right, so now, Scott, you play guitar, right? And so how long have you been with the band now? A couple years? I'm at three? Yeah, about three.

Three, four? Three or four years. Yeah, so I was brought in a couple times. He's our senior member.

Yeah, when you guys were talking about graduating in 80-something, or I graduated high school in 95, so I'm the senior member, but the junior member. That's okay, that's good. But no, I was brought in as a ringer a couple times, and then Tom called me up and said, instead of being a guy, you want to be the guy? And I said, okay.

And at that time, I had a band, Maxwell Mojo, which was an eight-piece band with horns. So for me, I think part of it was I wanted to like... It was an easy fit. Yeah, I wanted to bring in that kind of feel as well, because that's what I always wanted.

Did you bring any of the Mojos? Yeah. Yeah, we brought that whole horn section. Oh, okay.

Yeah, for a while there... So we stole that whole horn section. Well, we like to steal... The band never said it was okay, because that was my band, so yeah. But yeah, for a while there, the only difference between the two bands was the harp player.

We had Scott Gillespie on harp, and he had Tony on harp. Yeah, Tony Medina. Tony Medina.

And yeah, that was the only difference. It was the same band, depending which way. It just got booked different ways, you know? Right.

And then over time, he just stopped booking Maxwell Mojos often, and we just kind of assimilated them. It's much easier when someone else is doing the booking, right? Tom likes booking. It's always the drummer.

It's always the drummer I find out. I don't know why he doesn't do it. And now, Mike, what do you play? I am the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist.

Okay. And I think with the exception of a couple of horn players, I think I'm the least tenured in the band. I filled in on occasion for about a year prior, before Tom asked me to actually join the band officially, which was just not just past January, but a year ago, January.

So I've been with the band for about a year and three months. And it was funny. He actually poached me from a band called Forget Hannah, which was a completely different genre.

It was, I guess you could call it, we were like an adult contemporary pop band, doing things like Green Day and Three Doors Down and Matchbox 20 and stuff. But I always wanted to be in a rhythm and blues band. And I had been in rhythm and blues bands over the years, but I couldn't find one that played enough to satisfy my musical needs.

And then I joined these guys and I don't have time for another project, which is exactly what I was looking for, this type of music, this type of a band. Speaking of that, I see you guys are playing quite a bit. Yeah.

Yeah. Right now we're sitting on about 55 shows on the calendar right now. Yeah.

So you're booked into next year. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Next summer already. Yeah.

Oakfest put us on their bill already. And then we just got done with the Wine on the Fox over in Oswego. And then we were only home a couple hours and they got a hold of us and said, you know, we want you back for next year.

So now that one's on the books too. You know, it's been a good run of things. I mean, these guys, it's an easy band to book because I'm blessed to have the players I got.

I really am. I mean, it makes all the difference in the world. You know, these guys are great.

There's no no egos. There's no there's no real issues. You know, I suppose that at some point there probably is here and there is nothing, nothing significant, you know, and and it's great.

They're great players. Well, you guys came outside. I mean, it was I mean, it's it's a lot of fun.

It's a lot of fun. What Tom doesn't tell you is that band meetings, he just puts a pistol on the table and says, anyone have any problems? There never seems to be. No, you must like the booking stuff, obviously, if you're booked into the next year.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. He's a machine.

I do. I like I do. I like having the calendar full.

Yes. Yes. Tom is actually the kind of the unsung hero.

We don't even give him a vocal mic during performances, maybe because of her fear what he's going to say into the vocal mic. But he sits back there. He's the he's the drummer.

You know, I'm kind of like the hoodie of the band. Everybody assumes that Darius Rutger was the leader of Hootie and the Blowfish. But, you know, because, you know, all of the attention falls to the guy standing up front.

But Tom's the guy that books the band. I think ninety nine point nine percent of the bookings are done by Tom. And I think our attitude is, OK, Tom, put us on the stage and we'll make it easy for you.

You know, you take care of that. We'll take care of this. Yeah, exactly.

You know, I think it's a maturity level, too, when you have the right players that have the right maturity level, you know, alluding to the fact that maybe there's egos. But I think everybody in the band is mature enough to realize, wait a minute, I'm kind of taking on an ego here and, you know, and they police themselves, which is which is a great thing. So.

So where the name come from? Cadillac Groove. Man, you know, I don't think we all drive that way. That's pretty good.

I think actually when I started, I think I just put it out on Facebook that I'm starting a band. I need a cool name and ask for suggestions. And I think that we just started mixing them together.

I really don't even know where it came up with it. Yeah, I don't know. One day it was there.

It was just one day. Yeah, it's perfect because, you know, when you look at recording labels and musical stories of people that play the genre of music that we play, for some reason, the Cadillac was always the status symbol. You know, you think of Cadillac records, you know, and everybody wanted a Cadillac in the first place.

How many how many blues songs talk about a Cadillac? Cadillac is the I made it car, right? Well, even country song, a lot of country songs. Yeah. Yeah.

Guitars and Cadillacs and hillbilly music. Graduated from the picker. That's kind of how we always pick our music, too.

And just it was always based on the groove. You know, it was always it was always based on this song just has an awesome groove or find a version of this song. It's like, yeah, it's a great song, but this version of it has a way better groove, you know, like like we do like we do Josh Stone's version of some kind of wonderful.

Yeah. Just because it's like fucking smokes. It's stuff like that, you know, you're listening to rehearsal.

I played I played something. I played a Tower of Power version of a tune. And who is he and what does he mean to you? Yeah.

And what is he to you? The Bill Withers tune, but the Tower of Power version, the funk on that. I mean, it's Tower of Power, right? Yeah. They're super.

Regardless of what we do, we always end up making on our own, like our version of Whipping Post. Right, right. You know, that started off to be the mods version.

Yeah. But yeah, the mods from the 70s. Yeah.

But I go back and I listen to that version just to always stand out. It's not the same. We've even turned to that into our own version of Whipping Post.

Right. You know, when I played him that groove, I played him that groove. And Mike looks at you and goes, I will not be able to live another day unless we do play that groove.

That's what makes a band unique and different and everybody else, you know, you make that your original. Oh, yeah. We make that original, make you songs original.

Right. So tell me about. Have you guys done any recording? We do it.

We've done a couple of things, just promo kind of stuff. Right. You know, since it's all covers, tunes that we do.

And I mean, everything we do is it's R&B, funk, all the standard kind of stuff, soul tunes and rock and roll and blues and that. But we don't do any original stuff. But we've done a couple of recordings here and there to for our own promo stuff and to do as a soundtrack for the video and different things like that.

But nothing significant now. Nobody in the group's a writer that wants to come up with something. That's a different story.

I've written, you've written. Yeah. Oh, yeah, absolutely.

We definitely have, you know, definitely have writers for the whole group. But that's just not that's not this organization. You know, no desire for.

Yeah, right. Not I mean, there's really no purpose. Well, there's so much great music already, already available.

Oh, sure. Yeah. I mean, we all have our, you know, I do acoustic solo projects every now and then.

And I work with other guys. I work with a with a four piece blues band on occasion, you know. And yeah, we all have our outlets for creativity and things like that.

But you know, that's not really the collective effort of Cadillac Grooves. That's good. Everybody understands, you know, what you guys are doing.

I was yeah, I was telling people, I said, you know, our job is not really the making music, it's it's getting people out dancing and moving and buying drinks. And it's just music's how we do it. Right.

That's that's our tool. Right. So a lot of times you play in all original bands and stuff.

And if people don't recognize it right away, unless you've got fans that are following you all the way. Very, very true. Yeah.

You know, but they hear a Stevie Wonder song and all of a sudden, you know, the floor is full. Right. It's like I have a lot more fun with that than like the ego of going, oh, my song is getting played.

Right. And it all goes back to what I said before about I want to play a lot. I'm not the kind of musician.

I'm not happy with a gig a month. I'm not happy with two gigs a month. You know, if I go a week and I don't get the opportunity to play, my wife wants me to leave the house.

You know, I want I want to play. And, you know, let's face it, there's not a lot of venues around here that are just going to book an original band as often as we play. And pay you enough money to actually get in the car and go.

Right. Right. So the summer season's coming on.

So I'm sure you guys got a lot of festivals you're going to be doing. We have we have a few fests. We've got we do a lot of the catch the park kind of shows.

You see what he just did? Anybody, anybody asks, where are you going to play this piece of paper in my Bible? And it tells me every day that's available. And you never know who you're going to run into. For those who can't show the visual insurance interview.

Yeah. For those who can't see the visual. Tom has this this double sided two sheets of paper that is like folded eight times.

And it's always in his pocket. I guarantee. It is.

It is color coded. It's it's damp. The letters are a little blurred from the moisture.

He's a sweaty man. Always ready with the DNA. So so so we're going to be out in sandwich at Lee's place.

We'll be at the root stop actually in Joliet. Right. Oh, that's right.

That's right. Yeah. You guys are playing the next weekend or the next one.

The next day. Yeah. We're on the on the 23rd of May.

We're there. Which is always a great show. We're there.

When you guys are the very next. Can I do I think five of them a summer or something like that? We're doing the first one. You guys are doing the second.

I remember seeing the thing. I just got from the museum. Yeah.

We do. We also hire him out as a manager. So you guys.

Yeah. Yeah. They don't have two separate things of people.

I got two back pockets. I worry about the next game and then I worry about the next one. One at a time.

Yeah. I'm like you. There's times where I wake up in the morning.

How am I playing? That's why that's why I try and figure it out. That's a good part. We're going to be doing the Bolingbroke Park District over at the Performing Arts Center over there.

I'm going to be there in July. We're going to be up at Morton Arboretum this summer. We'll be at Chicago Botanical Gardens.

We're doing Romeo Fest, which is a hard gig to get. Yeah. You know, luckily for us, you know, because Ripfest is moving to Romeoville.

So maybe we got it. And we're also doing at the Joliet Speedway for the big NASCAR weekend. We are the infield band for that.

That's Saturday night. Oh, that should be an incredible party. That's very cool.

Yeah. So hopefully we make it out of there with our gear. So the success of the band has really taken off quickly.

I mean, it really quickly in a matter of three years or four. I mean, six years together. But I mean, it's since we opened up with the with the horns.

Right. It became an eight piece band. Right.

I mean, that's a I mean, there's a few other bands out there that we're not the only horn band, you know, I mean, sure. I mean, you guys did an interview with them a little not too long ago. You know, they're a great horn band.

You know, there's Sundance. There's a lot of great horn bands out there. You know, we happen to be the best one.

Unbiased opinion. But I think that that's a huge difference. I mean, it used to be, you know, in the 70s, every band had at least one horn player, you know, and, you know, and usually, you know, tenor sax and nothing else.

Right. And and so now nobody's carrying horn players. And so you go in and people are just all you have to do pretty much just stand them up there, shiny brass in front of them.

And people are like, wow, this is awesome. You know, Saturday night, the Dancing Noodles had their 35th anniversary. That was that was a hell of a brass section.

Yeah. Oh, my God. And I mean, and they're good just the way they are.

We have five horns going. Yeah. You guys had some killer players that night.

Yeah. It was really a good show. Speaking of shows, tell me about your show.

I know I know I know you guys march around the place. That was awesome. That's that's that's a New Orleans influence.

I don't you know, I don't know where we all came about that. I mean, I'm originally from the New Orleans area. OK.

But a lot of people in the band love that sound, that that rhythmic sound. Right. Maybe it is before my time.

Maybe you have a better story. Yeah. But we all love it.

It's a happy it's a happy sound. It's uplifting. Yes.

Yeah. Well, like like Scott always does in our show, in New Orleans, they'll have a parade for anything. It could be a wedding, a funeral, Tuesday.

You know, it doesn't matter. We're having we're having a parade. Right.

You know, I want my funeral to be in New Orleans. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Absolutely. Absolutely. It's a celebration.

I want to say that was like a party in the park that we were doing or something. And I seem to remember there was like steps. Right.

Everyone was kind of, you know, stepped up in the same way, actually. Yeah. Might have been.

Yeah. My first job. Yeah, it was.

Absolutely. And and I I always go with the wireless. That was the first time that happened.

Yeah. I was there for the inauguration. Yeah.

Some of the horns had a wireless, too. And I'm like, hey, come on, let's just, you know, let's just have it up. Let's just have some fun.

And and people dug it, you know. And so there's some shows, too. We'll have people marching behind us.

I'll look behind me and I got like 60 people. Tambourines and, you know, parasols and tankies and let them kind of, you know, but it all goes back to like the one thing I always try to do is make sure that people feel like they're part of the party. Right.

You know, I never want to be like up there and just playing and kind of like staring at my shoes. I want people to be like, man, I had fun. Right.

You know, not, oh, this band is really good. It's like, no, I want people to walk away from that and go, I had fun. Right.

Right. Exactly. And we just did a show at Hollywood in Aurora and in the writer on their contract said that the band cannot leave.

We didn't know what to do. Oh, my God. It was it was like animals.

No drinking. Couldn't leave the stage. I said the text to these guys.

I don't think I've ever done a complete show where I stayed on stage. I don't know what I don't know what to do. We do we do a lot of stuff like that.

You know, there's there's some songs where, you know, we'll even embarrass a heckler a little bit just for fun. You know, we had where was it that this lady had called out something about, you know, play something good. We said, OK, for the next hour, we're going to play something good and we're going to play some shows.

We'll play something good. And then we get each other and we smile. We go, I know what we're doing.

So we put a chair out on the center of the floor, center of the dance floor, sat her down in the center of the dance floor and performed. You could leave your hat on. The horn players are coming up and leaning into her while they're playing solos.

It was just and it was the best way I've ever seen a heckler get put down. That was she she didn't speak for the rest of the night. It's pretty good.

Did she enjoy it? Oh, yeah. Well, the great about that was, like I said, the horn players came down. You came down.

The whole band got involved in this thing and we're all dancing around this poor woman. And she had no idea that this was about to happen to her. She had the time of her life, but she also knew she didn't want that to happen again.

I will measure my words a little bit more next time. It was almost a me too moment. We didn't cross the line.

You know, it's like, put your money where your mouth is, you know what I mean? You mean like a me too, me too? But I think if there were some of the women there wanted to heckle because they, you know, I think they kind of like the attention she was getting. Sure. Yeah.

I mentioned some of the other guys in the band. Now we got Ron Regnus playing bass or Spin Daddy. He goes by Spin Daddy.

OK, who is one of the coolest dudes on the planet? It's my human antidepressant. That man is the single handed reason I don't take Zoloft or Prozac or anything. He's just he is just a ball of happiness all the time.

Yeah, he's got a way. I don't think he's ever shaken a person's hand. He only hugs.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Only hugs. That is true.

Do you have to lay down on the couch for this? And then Tim Romanowski, Doc, he plays keys. And then we have Kevin Gothard on sax. He plays, you know, Kevin, you kind of picked up.

He plays, he played with the Flatcats for a long time. He plays with Rosie and the Rivets. Rosie and the Rivets, sure.

I mean, he plays with a ton of guys. He plays bari, tenor, flute, the whole nine yards. And then Jeff Cho on trumpet and John Harp.

Who was a great find. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he was.

He was our diamond in rough. He stopped playing for a long time. That's exactly what I was going to say.

And he came out. Mike and Scott host the open jam over at Grubin's here in downtown Plainfield. Every one week it's Scott, next week it's Mike, right? But they're both there every night.

So it's really like they're hosted every night. And what night is it? Thursdays. Thursday night at Grubin's downtown Plainfield.

Today's podcast is brought to you by Grubin's. And best $5 burger. You know, there you go.

But he came out there and he hadn't played horn. I don't know how long he'd said he'd stopped. Quite a few years.

Quite a few years. And so they kind of drew it out of him. It's like, well, come on up, just play a little.

His wife looks and says, he plays trumpet. Where the hell's your horn? And he goes, bring it out next week, man. And so he came out and I'm like, okay, he's got some chops.

You know, a little rusty. He's got some chops. And then within like three weeks, I was telling him, I'm like, I think I found our new trumpet player.

Yeah, yeah. He just needed a couple of people to tell him that he's good. Because I don't think he believed it himself.

And he gives the energy. I mean, he plays, I sort of got the way he plays his trumpet. It almost sounds like a guitar player using a walk-on.

Yeah, he's got this. In my opinion, he's got a really unique style and a great way to approach his phrasing. It really is.

That's what attracted me to him. He's really good. Were there anybody else before you guys? As far as I know, no.

But I really don't know. I think high school and college, you know, he did jazz band kind of stuff with that. I don't know if there's any other bands, like rock bands.

Yeah, I don't know. So that seemed really exciting for him, something like that. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

He's taken to it, too. It really is. Well, he's also been very, very good at getting a lot of our charts together.

And really organizing the section. Because, you know, I can do a lot of that stuff, but I'm not a horn player. Well, horn players are a different breed of people.

Yeah. Different breed of musicians. That's for sure.

That's for sure. And then John Hart plays the trombone for us. And John's been playing a long time.

He plays in a band, Soul Papas. And then I'm trying to think what else he does. I think it's just us and Soul Papas, I believe, right now.

Yeah, yeah. And he's been awesome. He really has.

Yeah, last Saturday night, he blew me away. He was really good last Saturday night. For sure.

So it's been great. It really has. Like I say, since, you know, with the addition of the horns, that's just, it adds such a sound.

Yes. Yeah, it does. You got three horns underneath the whole thing.

You could play anything. And by just, I mean, we do LaGrange, right? With a horn section. It's like this big.

It's usually top of the horns. Yeah. Yeah.

I know, I know. Last week I found myself playing and I was just staring at the horn section. Yeah, right? I go, oh, play for me.

Yeah, play, play. Because they're handsome, gentlemen. I mean.

Yeah. Just because the sound is awesome. And we had gone for so many years with just a saxophone player or.

Yeah. But having the whole horn section. That wall of sound.

Yeah, it was just unbelievable. You know, we kind of skipped over Doc a little bit. Oh, yeah.

I first met Doc at Grubin's at the Open Jam. And I just, his style is so incredibly unique. He's got this keyboard that sits on a stand.

It doesn't stand very long. It doesn't stand. Yeah.

I mean, he bounces his keyboard. On his knee. On his knee.

I noticed that. And moves it around in the whole bit. And he can sing as well.

And, you know, my wife has been coming out and seeing me play for, gosh, 25 years or so. And recently she stopped coming as much because she's like, yeah, whatever. I've seen you do that before.

Yeah. And she's come out to a couple of shows. And she was at our show last week.

And she told me, she goes, who's your keyboard player? I saw that. That's Doc. She goes, I absolutely love him.

She goes, keyboard players usually bore the hell out of me. But he is the most exciting keyboard player. He's one of the best musicians in your band.

And that's the truth. He really is. That's great.

That's great. Where'd you find him? Grubin's. At the Jam.

Yeah, at the Open Jam. You'd be shocked at the talent that goes through those doors. Oh, yeah.

Just 100 feet away from here. Yeah. That's every Thursday, huh? Every Thursday, yeah.

9 o'clock, right? 8 or 9 o'clock? 8. 8? House Band starts at 8. Jammers start at 9. Yep. 845. 845ers, yeah.

It depends on if I have to get food or a beer. Well, that's very cool. That's very cool.

Well, so tell us, where can people find you guys? Easiest place is either at cadillacgroup.com. Our whole schedule is there. Or on Facebook. You know, certainly.

Um, that's probably it. I mean, everything is always updated, you know, one way or the other. In one of those places, you know, and we are everywhere.

I mean, we play everywhere from just south of the Cheddar Curtain all the way into northeast, or northwest Indiana, you know. But yeah, it's not hard to have a Cadillac Groove show in your backyard. We're just about everywhere, at one place or another.

Actually, we're going to do that in Lansing three times this year. In Lansing? Yeah. They built that new Fox Point.

All right. Then? Then. So we're doing, like, a consummate park on a Wednesday night or a Thursday night.

And then we're doing Autumn Fest in the fall. Autumn Fest in the autumn. In the autumn.

When is Autumn Fest? When is it? This year. Autumn Fest is cool. When is the 4th of July this year? I don't know, but if I can figure out Cinco de Mayo, I'm good.

Yeah, and actually we're going to be doing Wine Fest in Munster. And in the fall. All righty, guys.

Well, I want to thank you for your time and tell us your stories. Oh, hey, cheers, guys. Thank you.

Here we go. I think that's the first for the podcast. Clinking glasses means someone's having fun.

That's right. Man, Paul, you were right. Them guys are hilarious.

That was a lot of fun. Yes, it was. Yes, it was.

We had a good time with them. And I hope everybody gets a chance to go out and see them soon because they are a fun band. They're the same way on stage.

They are. They're a bunch of fun guys, and they got a lot of shows coming up. They're almost as busy as the other horn band.

What is it with these horn bands and being so busy? Yeah, well, horn bands are making a comeback, it looks like. That's right, because horn bands rock, you know. Yes, they do.

Well, we want to thank everyone for listening to this episode with Cadillac Groove. And check them out on Facebook or at cadillacgroove.com. And thank you once again for listening. Don't forget to subscribe.

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All right. Thank you so much for listening, and we'll see you next time. See you next week.

Thank you.