Coming to you from the studios at the Illinois Rock and Roll Museum on Route 66, it's the Rock and Roll Chicago Podcast. Hey everybody, it's Ray the Roadie. And this is Hollywood Mike.

Happy New Year, Mike. Happy New Year, Ray. How you doing? Thank you.

I'm a year older. Well, it's kind of funny though, because we're saying Happy New Year, and when this comes out, it's going to be March, isn't it? Like, wasn't there a Seinfeld episode? Somebody once gave me a Happy New Year in March, that fucking idiot. Yeah, well, you know, shit happens.

We did that just to let our guests know here that you can curse, and it's okay. That's right. Yeah, that's right.

Although they're nicer people, normally. Yes. Folks such as they tend to be a lot nicer and less crude than the young'uns.

That's true. That's true. Sometimes they're kind of grumpy.

Yeah. Sometimes. Old, grumpy old men.

Men, yeah. Then they even got friends, too. Yeah, they did.

Yeah. I heard they used to be fine young cannibals, but now they're just grumpy old men. Now they're, yeah.

And we have the grumpy old men and friends here. And yeah, but not grumpy old ladies, though. Not grumpy old ladies, no.

But some of them brought their old ladies. Yes. Yeah, that's right.

For those of you who can't see this podcast right now, we've got about 175 people in the studio right now. This is a huge band. And who's the main representative of grumpy old men? This gentleman sitting right across the table from me right here.

Why don't you introduce yourselves? And man, everybody else gets, ah, that's crowd noise from the studio. I'm Joe, Joe Calomino with the grumpy old men and friends band. We have everybody here today.

I'm excited about being with you guys. Thanks. Yeah.

Thanks for coming. Yeah. Tell us, tell us who you brought along with you.

Yeah, we got the whole band here today. We got Papa Turk over there. He plays a bass, rhythm, guitar and vocals.

He got our drummer, Willie Cozart with the drumsticks in his pocket. It looks like that is drumsticks, right? Okay. Wasn't quite sure it was sticking out of your pocket there.

Is it wrong? I don't know. We got, uh, our good, my good friend, Rowan, Rowan Kent Carlson on harmonica, vocals, and he plays guitar as well. All right.

Got our lead guitar player over here, Paul Stefani, who just, you know, constantly rocks on the lead guitar. And our bass player over here, Jamie, who also plays a lot of instruments. Jamie, how many instruments do you play? Hundreds.

Hundreds, hundreds. She plays bass and rhythm guitar as well with us. And she's been in bluegrass bands in the past.

They got some good history with all these guys here. I'm the baby in music, but most of these guys have been around for a while. Is she Gwen's mom? Pardon? Is she Gwen's mom? Gwen's mom? Yeah, Gwen Stefani.

Stefani? Sure. That's her mom? Yeah. Well, he dated her before he met our beautiful Tina over there, right, Tina? Which is his wife, by the way, so be careful.

Yeah, that's right. That's right. That's right.

That's right. All righty. Okay.

So. Now that we've met absolutely everybody, why don't we... Well, thanks for coming. Goodbye.

Yeah, we'll see you later, everybody. So tell us a little bit about how this, uh, how this whole thing start. How, how this whole thing started.

Grumpy old men coming around. We all played together at jams for a while. And, uh, Rona and I were trying to put together a trio at one point, kind of fell apart with an old band member.

And Papa Turk was, was there at the right time. He offered to come on board and we started a trio. Actually, we thought it'd be really cool to have a trio with two harmonicas and a guitar.

Two harmonicas and a guitar. Yeah. There's very few people that would say yeah to that.

Yeah. Sounds like a TV show. Sounds like a TV show.

It does. Join us Tuesday for two harmonicas and a guitar. Two harmonicas and a guitar.

Surprisingly, it worked for smaller locations like breweries and stuff. And Papa Turk brought a drum machine. So we had a little thumper, what we call them, uh, on board.

And then that was in May of 2021, I think we officially started. And then in January of, uh, 22, we, we called the band Grumpy Old Men and Friends for a reason. Papa Turk's old band used to be Grumpy Old Men.

And I said, let's put friends to it. The moniker started 30 years ago. I've had a lot of different people and I've had quite a few different people in line with me over the years.

Uh, this is the present and hopefully to remain the future. Have you been grumpy all this time? I'm looking at, I've been grumpy all my life. He's our grumpy old man, man.

All this time. All my life. 30 years.

All your whole life of grumpiness. That's pretty awesome. Let's ask Becky over here.

His wife over there. Well, yeah, about, and then in January we started, we decided to have a six piece band and it's worked out great. We've had a great year this year, like 42 shows.

Wow. And so it's been rocking and we're excited about next year. We're putting a lot of material together in January.

Some new material and be rocking and rolling again, man. So you've only been a six piece band for how long? A year, a little over a year. But for just a little over a year.

Yeah. Okay. And when did that first trio of two harmonicas and a guitar? About two, two and a half years ago.

Two and a half years ago. I think it was May of 21 is when it was. Okay.

And we started then. So you didn't really take your time to get to this point. I mean, you just kind of started off that way and you're just like.

Yep. All these guys have been around for a long time. They're all musicians.

They're accomplished musicians. And we're lucky to find them at a jam. Right.

We jam every Sunday out in Richmond, Illinois. There's a blues jam out there from two to six. Out in Richmond.

Okay. Yeah. All right.

And I was running my own jam for a while out of Woodstock and, you know, the guys showed up and it's become a family, I think. What do you say? Yeah. We kind of got a family.

We hook up and I gotta say none, no one's ever missed a practice. Yeah. It's great.

It's been great. Well, they're grumpy old men. They're like, look, we don't have the time.

Yeah. We don't have. You be here.

Yeah. Yeah. So where was, where were you hosting the jam out there in Woodstock? My niece had a bakery called Sugar Circle.

A bakery? Yeah. White and White and Woodstock Circle there. And we jam there inside.

And in the summertime, we were outside. It was a lot of fun. Okay.

And guys, we had some good crowds starting to show up and then she sold the business. So we, we wound up going for Warp Corp. There's a place down the block, a non-for-profit called Warp Corp.

We played jam there and, and now we just, we've just been busy. So we're not jamming much anymore other than on Sundays. Willie's the house drummer for the jam on Sundays out in Richmond.

And that's run by Glenn Davis. Yeah. Yeah.

Good guys. A lot of great musicians out there, man. There's some, some really talented people out there.

And where's the, where's the spot out in Richmond? It's called Red's Doghouse now, right? Okay. Red's Steak and Barbecue. It's Red's Dogs also.

It's about a quarter mile south of the Wisconsin state line on route 12. I was going to say it's, it's got to be out there someplace. Cause I know, I know I've been to Richmond and I'm trying, I was trying to sit there and figure out where the heck is it exactly.

If Red is listening, we'd be happy to have him on as a sponsor. Yeah. They could have brought him along with, apparently they brought half the world with them.

That's true. That's true. One more person wasn't going to hurt.

That's true. Yeah. Yeah.

So what kind of music you guys into? We're doing a rock and blues, blues-based music. We're doing some Southern rock. And now we're going to be adding a little bit more rock and roll this year as well.

So Stevie Ray Vaughan. Yeah. Blues is always happy.

I come from a swing bank round. Swinger? Swing band. Oh, swing bands.

I'm sorry. Let me see, he's a swinger. That's a whole new different podcast.

We already established he's wearing an IUD. So I always like playing happy music. All the way through high school, through college, did a couple of my own sundown concerts in the square of the college.

Lounge Lizard for a long time. And then when I moved into Rockford, I started getting back into bands and always had a duo or trio going. And then I had a five-piece power blues band for about 15 years.

And they all retired. They said the schedule was too hectic for them. I had it down to 19 shows a year.

They didn't like playing every weekend. They were weekend warriors. There's a difference between a real musician, you know, like Marty Mercer.

He plays, what, four or five times a week when he can. He does. And same acoustic guitar, by the way.

Yeah, local guy. Thank you, Marty. I see him quite often.

I mean, he's a local guy. He's not too far from here. Yeah, a lot of guys have great history.

I mean, these guys and their musical backgrounds is pretty diverse. And I'm pretty blessed to be playing with them. So I've only been playing for about eight years.

Yeah, well, let's hear about it. That's what we're here for. Tell us a little bit about, we've got a little bit here.

But why don't you finish up the story? Go ahead, will you? Yeah. There's always... Yeah, don't look at me because I have, there's no way I'm going to remember all the names by the time this 30-minute podcast is over. We need like a school seating chart.

My musical background is, it's unusual in the way that a lot of people start when they're kids. Their parents get them into music. And I always wished for that.

But it was my house, my rules. And it wasn't until I was 24 in my own place, I realized it's my house, my rules. And I went to the local mom and pop music shop, bought a little trap kit for 125 bucks and didn't do much with it for 10 years after learning how to play it until I walked into that open jam.

I can't emphasize how much that atmosphere is important for a lot of musicians to get the confidence and get that feeling of what it's like to perform for people. And the open jam environment is where I got so much satisfaction as far as a musician and got to hone my chops and meet actually everybody here. That's how we met.

Amen. I tell people that all the time. As a musician, refraining from going to an open jam until you feel that you're good enough is like waiting to join a gym until you've lost enough weight.

Yeah, you know, you know, you have to get out and you have to go, you know, when you've made it to the point where, okay, you know, maybe you've done, you've taken music lessons, right? And you've got to the point where you're either bored with that or you've gotten to the point where, you know what? I just, I need to start doing my own thing. Go to the open jams because that is the best way for seasoned musicians to continue to learn. It really is.

A little beer courage doesn't hurt either. Well, of course, of course. Hey, good people.

My name's Rowan. And before I met all these great people that I'm in company with tonight, I came from Waukegan. I was born in Waukegan in 52.

And that's where I started my music. Blues, mostly all blues, several bands and walk the waterfront from Highwood to Racine all the way along Lake Michigan. Several jobs, several bands.

And a lot of fun and a learning experience. And it keeps, just keeps getting bigger and better, you know, as you get older. So it's always been the blues for me.

That's where it's been at for me. So I feel like I've, I've seen you. Well, I know I've, I've seen a couple of you before, but I feel like I've seen you someplace before too.

Oh, and I can't figure out where. Could be. It could have been anywhere from Highwood to Racine.

Yeah, could have been. Do you like gladiator movies? Well, you know what the funny thing is, is the, the, the current vice president of the company that I work for made, well, I don't know if he made his living, but he was part of a, of an organization in Nottingham, England. They were called the Knights of Nottingham.

And this, and they were basically, they were modern day Knights, right? They trained in the fighting and the, in, in the whole bit. So they were called, and he has worked on so many Hollywood movies, specifically gladiator movies, like the movie gladiator with Russell Crowe and the whole bit. And he's actually done that.

So I started watching all the movies that he was in. So it's just funny that you said that I actually know somebody that's been in all those movies. I think she was making a Leslie Nielsen reference there.

Oh, is that what it was? Is Sparky a boy dog? Oh, yes. Hi everybody. My name is Paul Stefani and I've been with these guys for a couple of years now.

And I guess I met these guys at the same jam session up in Richmond, Illinois with Glenn Davis. I remember the first time I went there, I was staying at a hotel across the street. And, and in the, in the, in the room, they have a flyer, like, you know, how likely they don't have like a real concierge.

But I just want to, don't, don't look at the Green Bay shit. Yeah, she's got a Green Bay phone over there. No, no, no, no.

That's not going to happen. Wait, this is March. I forgot.

Wait, wait, we already know the Bears won guys. Anyway, so I, I saw the, they had a little flyer, you know, it's a little cheap hotel room and they had a little flyer about what's going on in Richmond, Illinois, the big town of Richmond. And then they were like, where's Richmond, Illinois? Yeah, I was, I was, I was there and I was like that.

And then they had a flyer there and it had this Glenn Davis jam. And I'm like, Tina, she's my girl. I know, I knew a Glenn Davis when I lived in Chicago.

And, uh, I guess he'd been, he had been doing the jam like 30 years before in Chicago. And I went with, with him there. I was there at his jam.

I was a very young musician at that time. And Glenn kind of showed me the ropes, you know, at the blues, et cetera on Belmont. Oh yeah.

And also, um, wise fools on Lincoln Avenue, um, right by Fullerton and Clark street. And anyway, the bottom line was, I was like, wait, I know this guy. And I'm like, Tina, should we go there? Cause I was like nervous.

I'm like, he might not remember me. He spent a long time, you know, and I've been playing the whole time, but I know Glenn moved out of Chicago or actually he wasn't actually living in Chicago. He was still living up in Wisconsin, I believe.

And he would come and do the jams on Wednesday. So he would travel, maybe it was Rockford area too. And he would come do the jams on Wednesday there.

And so I met him there. And before that, when I was in school, um, I was doing, um, the jams at Buddy Guys. Oh yeah.

So I was able to, um, get some experience there and actually wound up in a house band, uh, with some great musicians there. And so bottom line was I had a huge, but do you want to talk about learning? Like you're like 21 years old. You're barely old enough to get in a bar and you're playing with some real legends and, and meeting real people, you know, um, Buddy Guy and Junior Wells and Otis Rush, just really big names.

And actually being able to hang out with these guys and just shoot pool and tell stories and, oh yeah. Watch out. Yeah.

That's just a reference to my pool guys. I'm going to, I'm going to pull the two. That's what they think.

Yeah. That's okay. But, uh, yeah.

So I got shout out to my pool buddies too. Um, it is March now, right? You guys are saying hopefully we're kicking ass. Anyway, um, bottom line is I had a lot of experience and, and it was fun meeting these guys and I've been able to hang with them.

So that's what I've been doing. Awesome. Just everything's a daily experience and keep moving and having fun.

Yeah. Here you go. Well, it was a cold day in March, 1960.

Yeah. One day at band camp. We've got 19 more people to go through.

But being a child of the sixties, I grew up with some of the best music that's ever existed on this planet, in my opinion. So I was really lucky for that. So in high school, I played in a lot of, um, garage bands and stuff like that.

And then I got involved pretty deeply in the bluegrass world and the folks at the Oak Park farmer's market took me in. And that's where I learned to be a professional musician. I played with them for about 10 years.

And I wanted to expand my horizons a little bit and started hitting some of the blues champs and such and met up with these fine gentlemen. And she giggles as she says that, I think, I think she threw up a little, yeah, threw up a little in my mouth. Um, no, and they were kind enough to, uh, ask me into their project and I've been having just a blast with these guys.

So good. Yeah. A lot of fun.

And she's not grumpy. Yeah. Nor terribly old or a man for that matter.

So, and she's a fine Luther. Yeah. I do some Lutherie work.

All right. So yeah, I have fun. I, like Joe had said, I, when I was in the bluegrass world, I played a lot of different instruments and such.

So, um, but it was all kind of in that one genre. So, uh, you know, stretching out a little bit out with the blues and just seeing and learning about the rich history and such that goes with that. It's been really cool.

So I appreciate these guys taking me in and, uh, letting me, uh, kind of expand and learn, you know, and find my way around that particular type of music. Right, right. Great job.

It's gotten her singing too pretty soon. Well, it's good. Good.

Start singing. So before we have you guys do a number, I have to say, I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to kind of skip ahead a little bit. We normally save this question for the end of the, uh, of the podcast, but, um, I like to do a little bit of research when we have a band that I may not have, may not know much about.

And I went searching for you guys out on the internet and there's about 25 other bands out there named grumpy old men. Did you know that? No way. Really? There is.

And friends. Um, I didn't know. I didn't know, but I went cruising around.

I found everything from like a Tejano band, um, to, and this was the funniest thing in the world. I, um, a band comes out and they're speaking Spanish. They're introducing themselves completely in Spanish.

And then they rip into a version of a song by Pearl Jam singing in English. So you didn't know what you were going to get, but I didn't come across a video, you guys. So I think it's important to let everybody know how are they going to find you guys? Facebook, man.

Let's, let's not save this as an afterthought. Facebook, Facebook, we're on Facebook as grumpy old men and friends band is Google us. And we have tons of videos on there and tons of, uh, uh, reels.

We're, we're cranking it. So it's important to put in the, and friends, if you search, if you search grumpy old men band, about 25 other bands to come up and they are not you. And, and it's funny and they're not, and they don't look grumpy or old.

I mean, there was a band, there was a band called grumpy old men and they were like a nineties metal tribute band kind of thing. And they all looked like they were 20. One of the, one of the bands was that grumpy cat.

He's got a band. Oh, he's a grumpy cat. She'd been out of sight ever since.

But those guys look nothing like you guys, but they probably don't use IUDs. Well, I think we need to hear him play something. Yes.

We need to hear a song. Yeah. Yeah.

Let's pause it for a second. Yeah. Let's pause it.

We'll be right back. You're listening to the rock and roll Chicago podcast. I'm Christy from crime cave podcast.

I've had a huge interest in true crime since my days of watching marathons of snapped back in the mid nineties. I needed an outlet to talk about the cases that have haunted me for a very long time. With each episode under 20 minutes, I shine a light on some of the most bizarre cases in the last 50 years.

Join me in the crime cave. Hi, I'm Rick Anthony. I'd like to thank my radio brothers, Ray, the roadie and Hollywood Mike for allowing me to tell you about my podcast, the someone you should know podcast.

We spotlight musicians, authors and interesting people. And we like to say we're making a difference one artist at a time. The podcast is heard twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays.

And you can check it out on your favorite streaming platforms and on the web at someone you should know. Podcast dot com. That's the someone you should know.

Podcast with me, Rick Anthony, making a difference one artist at a time. And here's the grumpy old men and friends. This morning, look around for my shoes.

You can go up this morning. Looked around for my shoes. You know, I have people tell me blues ain't bad.

It's the worst old feeling I ever had. Some people tell me blues ain't bad. It's the worst old feeling, Lord, I ever had.

Hey, Paul. And it seemed like hours, seemed like days, since my baby started her. Lord, always.

And it seemed like hours, seemed like days, since my baby started her. Lord, always. Woke up this morning, looked around for my shoes.

You know, I had those mean old walking blues. Woke up this morning, looked around for my shoes. You know, I had those mean old walking blues.

You had to get that last little solo in at the end, didn't you? He's that guy. He's that guy, isn't he? Very good. Very good.

Walking blues. Whose version of that was, did you guys make that up? That was the Paul Butterfield? Yeah. Yeah.

I was trying to put where that is. I heard it a little bit differently several times, but that was good. I liked that driving beat.

It was good. I enjoyed that. We liked it.

People like it. Yeah. Just on the floor dancing.

Yeah. So a lot of you guys, you know, you're from up north, like around the Wisconsin border and things like that. So some people are going to ask, how do folks from around Wisconsin border, you know, come down with the blues? Man, you know, the blues is about, the blues is about happiness, sadness, everyday life, right, man? So everybody's got it.

You just got to find it, you know? And they find us. They find us. We're happy with what we've got going.

So why do you say, why do songs that sound so sad make you feel so good? You know, there's a song, there's a song we do every day, have the blues and it's not a, it's a sad song when you listen to the words, but man, people sing along with us and they have a good time with it. I think it's the driving beat. I think it's just that beat gets in your head and, you know, whether it's a shuffle or a swing or, you know, whatever it is, man, it gets in your head and wants you to get you moving and makes you happy.

You know, just for the three hours we're at our show, we're happy on the stage. I think that transposes to the people in the crowd. And we have a lot of fun talking with the crowd, interacting with the crowd.

And we're, we do have some good stories. You know, we used to play at jams. My wife would go to the jams and you know, we're pretty hard of hearing for the most part.

Yeah, what do you say? At least that's what his wife says. Right, right, right. That's why I tell my wife.

Selectively hard of hearing. But, um, you know, she used to bring flashcards for us because we yell out the key of the song and was like, is it B, C? We, we couldn't hear. We had flashcards, man.

So, um, so we, we make, yeah, yeah. So we have fun out in the stage. We have a good time with everybody and, you know, we're old enough where we can make fun of ourselves and not feel embarrassed.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's good.

That's good. So what, what made the transition from bluegrass to blues for you? It was something that you just say, you know, screw it. I'm going to try it one day.

Yeah. More or less, to be honest with you, it was kind of just like that. And I found that I loved it and found a home.

Yeah. So, you know, I can't imagine. I mean, I've never played a lot of bluegrass.

I played like, you know, peppered in a little bluegrass type songs every now and then. Okay. I can't imagine that playing the bass lines are that different because they're both, they're both basically like American folk.

Yeah. It comes out of American folk music. Exactly.

Now, for the most part, back in the bluegrass days, I played a lot of banjo and rhythm guitar and such for that. So not a ton of bass back then. Mary Grasso, may she rest in peace, was a wonderful bass player for us.

And, uh, but there was always something about that instrument that, uh, kind of spoke to me and as strange as that might sound. Um, but it, it, uh, I don't know. It just, anybody here or anybody who's listening that plays bass will know what I'm talking about.

That, that driving force just really cuts through you when you're up there playing and it's easy to get into the groove. Yeah. Pop a turnt notes.

Yeah. And I really found that I enjoyed that. Now I still enjoy playing some guitar here and there and such too, but, um, yeah, I've kind of made the bass my own and, uh, really enjoyed it.

Now. Do you know why a bass guitar has four strings? Why is that? So you got two extra. I gotta get that rim shot fixed.

That's my favorite bass. We love musician jokes around here. And, uh, I mean, drummers are the biggest of them, but no, we, we, we love musician jokes, but that's my favorite bass.

So you do any bluegrass at all anymore? Yeah, I still do. I get together with some friends and such and do some Americana music, some Gillian Walsh stuff like that. Um, and, uh, I love the Carter family, that old Carter family stuff.

And, uh, that I do sing cause I can get kind of high and nasally. It works well. So, yeah, I enjoy it.

But I'll play rock and roll. We do a couple of really fun rock tunes, uh, really just about anything at home. I'll listen to classical music, opera.

I mean, you name it. I just, I love music. My life would not be complete without it.

Have you ever played the glockenspiel? I have not. Oh, okay. But you said you played a lot of stuff, you know? Yeah.

But I mean, I mean, they've got two harmonicas in a band. You think they let her play the banjo with a glockenspiel? I'm telling you. Yeah, they do want me to play some banjo.

That would be interesting. Yeah, it could actually be. Here's some banjo in there.

I thought I saw a performance by Robert Randall. Oh, no kidding. And he had a banjo on stage with him for a little bit.

That'd be worth exploring. Yeah. Could be kind of fun.

Yeah. She's a jam rat. Oh, yeah.

Wow. Yeah. I just, I mean, like I say, music just means so much to me.

My kids are older now, um, and I just need something to keep me sane and music set. Right. Right.

And you started as a, as a young man playing blues. I did. My first band was four guitars.

But we started like listening to the Hendrix and Clapton and all those guys. And it started as four guitars until they found which one of them was the worst guitar player. And that became the bass player.

Yeah, I know. It was like, it was more like, it was more like watching two guys tune a guitar for two hours. I just can't get these bottom two strings to work.

No offense to my, my, my grade school friends. We, uh, yeah, I started young and, um. And what about, about what year was this that you decided? I was 14.

Probably when I started really picking up the guitar, my, my dad played violin. And also, um, he picked up a, uh, uh, classical and, um, he was a big fan of Paganini. Okay.

And he knew that Paganini used guitar to, uh, uh, compose. Sure. Music.

And, uh, so he had this guitar laying around and of course I'm like doing smoke on the water and waltzing on his classical guitar. But, uh, basically I kind of worked backwards, you know, kind of listen to that classic rock. And as I got older, I started realizing where they got, there's just kind of like this whole British rock thing.

Right. You start realizing where your music come from and you kind of delve into it, you know? So that's kind of how I did it. And, uh, then, you know, one of my friends got me drunk enough.

I went to bloody guys and, and, uh, you know, let it fly. Cause they were sick of hearing it, you know, in school, it's a dorm room, whatever, my electric guitar at like 11 o'clock or 12 o'clock at night, uh, Friday. So, um, they brought me down there and, uh, that's how I got started really.

I just recently went through kind of like a, a deep dive of looking for, okay, how do I take the modern instruments of today? Um, meaning, meaning new guitars and new amplifiers and get that vintage, um, blue sound because not everybody can go out and just afford a 1957 Stratocaster and, you know, and find an original Fender basement and things like that. Um, and then there was this great program and I can't even remember the name of it, but they were talking about how after the British invasion is when the, the real like Chicago type blues sound started to develop because people realized that you could get that gritty sound without turning your guitar amp up so loud because British amps traditionally have a little bit more of a gain knob to it. And it's not just a clean sound, you know? Um, what, what kind of gear do you play through? I mean, do you try and keep your, do you try and keep your sound traditional or is it, are you going off on your own a little bit? I go off on my own.

I mean, I have like basically every classic guitar amp there is, of course, but I, I mean, over the years I've collected a lot of equipment, you know, I even just picked up a guitar last weekend. So I'm like, like, I'm always trying stuff out, you know, but, um, I think seriously it kind of counter to what you said before. I think the best way to get the sound is to actually turn the amp up where they'll let you.

I think it's really hard to find a place. That's, that's just, that's exactly it. It's where they'll let you.

Yeah. I mean, a pedal can get you so far, but to get that real tone, you really need a nice good tube amp. Tube's gotta cook.

Yeah. When you use a smaller amp. Right.

Exactly. Low wattage, but then you turn it up, you'll get that breakdown of the amp and it's still not that loud. Right.

Right. Well, you know, it's kind of strange because a lot of amp manufacturers nowadays, they're trying to outdo one another. They're trying to make the loudest 20 watt amp you can find, you know, and they'll actually say that in their ads.

Like this is, this is a 20 watt amp, but it's the loudest 20 watt amp that you'll ever find. Well, I don't want that. I'm going for 20 watts as opposed to 100 watts because I don't want it that loud.

You know, that's the trick. Most of us are going smaller amps because we're old. Yeah.

That's true. I like that 25 pound orange amp I have. I like my boss amp that weighs 25 pounds.

That's, that's totally true. And they kick ass. Yeah, absolutely.

Yep. I agree. I, I'm with you on that one too.

And with the Katana amp, it was a open back amp. I put a back door on it. Okay.

Easier to carry stuff in it too. But you put that, uh, back door on it. Now you've, uh, shield the back.

I'm going to leave that grin, that grin alone. Cause that grin had nothing to do with the amp. I try to leave my amps alone.

I'm throwing all my sound forward. He's sharing it all over the stage. He's over there.

Like he's over there. Like he said, back door. Oh, come on.

He's got, he's got hinges on the back of his amp. Behind him on the bass, she has to put air plugs in to protect herself from the backside of his amp. Oh, of course.

Oh yeah. Yeah. I, yeah, it's true.

And the guy that was on stage and behind me, because I don't climb steps that well right now, uh, turn the damn thing down. Next week I was there. I had a back end.

So that's beautiful. Yeah. Well, no, that that's actually smart.

Sometimes it's not good to have stuff spewing out of your back end. Musically. I mean, musically, musically.

Oh boy. I don't know where we've gone now. Ray Ray had to check.

Right where we're supposed to. That's a segue, isn't it? Really? What do you got? Yeah. Jamie's trying to keep up with me on how many bases she has.

Yeah. It can be a little bit. Yeah.

You know, I've only bought one guitar this year. Yeah. So I think we need, I think it's time to hear another one.

What else do you got planned for us? You know, we talked about every day I have the blues. Yeah. Well, let's take a little break here.

Okay. We'll be right back. You're listening to the rock and roll Chicago podcast.

And we are back. We're going to have a rendition of every day. I have the blues.

Let's hear it. Every day I have the blues. When you see me, but it seems to care.

But it seems to care. Speaking a bit of the trouble. Cause it's you I hate to lose.

He didn't hit that last lick this time. Cause I yelled at him this time. Yeah.

Yeah. I think so. He got a look.

He looked. He looked like he was going to do it. He's like, I ain't going to do it.

Yeah. I put it down right away, man. Right away.

Very good. So have you guys recorded or have you written any original music? No, no. I think we, I think this year is going to be interesting.

Rowan is quite the character and he's got a lot of stories. I think he could tell. And we've been talking to him about writing some songs this year.

And I think recording is just a matter of getting the right equipment, you know? Or, or pay somebody that has the right equipment. You know, they pay us such big money at these events, you know. But yeah, I think, I think Rowan's got some skill sets that we're going to start writing some songs.

He's got some good stories. So I think we're, we're, we're, we're excited about this year, man. We got a lot going for us.

We're, we're really improving. We're working on new material and, you know, we're getting the gigs. Right.

And the good thing is that we're getting a lot of repeat business. Once we're there, they're calling us back. And that's good.

That makes me feel real good. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. You doing all the booking yourself or are you going through an agency? You're all doing, doing it all yourselves. Yeah.

Joe's a hell of a promoter. He is. He's our Reuben Kincaid.

Yeah. Wow. So you guys go around in a school bus, a painted up school bus.

If I could digress, I'm not from the North side. Okay. Yeah.

These guys are all North side. I'm South side boy. Yeah.

Chicago Heights. I'd have never known. Oh, okay.

I would have never known. He didn't say North. He said North.

And he said he's from the South. South side. Yeah.

Over by the Jewels. Yeah. Whereabouts? Where were you born? Let me guess.

Down by Chicago Heights. Down by Chicago Heights. Yeah.

I didn't hear that part. No kidding. Yeah.

So, so. And I'm also the ancient one in this group. Oh, you are.

Okay. That's right. And the grumpiest.

Yeah. I'm the grumpiest. He's the grumpiest.

He's the oldest man and the rest of them are the friends. Yes. Yeah.

So where are the, what do you, where do you consider home base? Where are you guys playing the most, I guess? No, we, we played as far North as Wisconsin and all the way as East Highland Park, man. So we're, whoever pays us, you know, for the most part, we'll go, we'll go and play for everybody. But I'm based out of Lake and Hills where McHenry County.

Right. So that's where everybody, we go there and practice all the time when we're not playing. There are certain bar that you like to play as a club or something that you play a lot at? Yeah.

I mean, there's Danny's on, Danny's on Douglas and Elgin. There's Crudo's up in Fox Lake. Is that American Legion? American Legion.

Oh man. And McHenry. Yeah.

We're getting a lot of gigs from them. And then Spoon Doggers out in Wisconsin. I mean, there's, we got some, we got some base, you know, we got a base of places we play and then we're always looking for new places.

My, my goal this year, obviously for everybody is to get us another 42 gigs, man. Right. That's a lot.

We, we, I would say we got, we got tired, huh? Well, he said we got tired towards the end. We are a little old, but. Well, you get rid of birthdays that fall on a weekend and you get rid of the holidays that fall on a weekend.

You guys are pretty much playing a gig a week, right? It was close last year. It was pretty good. And then, you know, we combine that with the trio.

So the trio stays busy. Between the trio and the full band. Okay.

42 bookings last year. Yeah. Right.

Right. Well, that's good. That's nice.

So yeah, this is going to be what? About March? End of February, beginning of March. Something like that. Yeah.

Yeah. You guys got anything on the books? February 24th, we're playing at Danny's. It's our first first show for the six piece band.

And I think the early part of, on the calendar, when the early part of February, the trio's playing up in Antioch at the Lodge of Antioch. So we're, you know, we have two shows in February. I think we're starting to crank out in three shows in March.

And, you know, we just keep on getting more and more shows. We're trying to fill the summer schedule now, which we're close. I mean, we already have 20 shows lined up.

Nice. So, you know, we just got to get more. Thanks.

There's the gigs. But we're, yeah, we're, we're, we're lucky. So all your gigs are on your Facebook page too? Yeah.

All the events are on there. Past and current. All of our videos are on there for both, you know, the trio and the, and the six piece.

And Willie does a great job. He records all of our events. So we're able to, you know, do the editing and, you know, put something out there for a minute.

We did some festivals last year too. We had some festivals. Cragstock, Stateline Blues.

We were actually pretty honored to front for Mike Wheeler. Oh yeah. Yeah.

We fronted for Mike Wheeler. So it was a big feather in our cap. Another, another local guy.

Yeah. Yeah. So we're, yeah, there was another festival.

Mike's that we did. Ellen's Grove. Yeah.

Wisconsin was a benefit for leukemia that Mike, one of our friends from the jam, Mike Moore has been doing it for about 18 years. A big jam, you know, like a thousand people out there. There's a lot of people out there.

A couple of house parties. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, we're, we're, we're out there this year.

I think it'd be nice to get a couple more festivals, you know, kind of get a bigger base of fans. But we're, we're happy, man. We're just, we're just having a good time.

You know, we're, we laugh. Like I said, we're kind of like a family. We have practice and we have dinner in my house afterwards and, you know, shoot the shit and then talk real talk.

I mean, we have, we have, we have business, you know, discussions and we change things around a little bit to make it all for the team. And I think. And comfort food.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Comfort food. Yeah.

We had a good Christmas dinner. I will say that my wife, Terry really outdoes herself and thank God she lets us play at the house, you know. Yeah, yeah.

Hi, Terry. Thank you for dinner. The 27th member of.

The 27th, yes. So you start playing drums, be careful. Well, why don't you take us out with one more? Yeah, yeah.

And, you know, take, yeah, take us on, take us on down the road. We're rolling now. We're rolling now.

This is for real. I can beatbox for you. Yeah.

Got me bumped off my easy ride. Buried alive in the blues. Sunday morning.

Everybody's in bed. I'm on the street talking out of my head. This prick won't even heard a word I've said.

Buried alive in the blues. I'm buried alive. Buried alive in the blues.

I beg for mercy. I pray for rain. Can't be the one.

Take all the blame. A pretty girl trying to pollute my brain. I'm buried alive in the blues.

You know, people. Oh, they walk on by. Some make me laugh.

Some make me cry. Ain't no use. You know that I'm.

I'm buried alive in the blues. For mercy. I pray for rain.

Can't be the one. Take all the blame. A pretty girl trying to pollute my brain.

I'm buried alive in the blues. You know, people. He cried.

That's the grumpy old man in France. Yes, it is. Yes, it is.

That was very nice. And thank you guys for coming out. Now, get the hell out of here.

You're bringing me down. Thanks, man. We appreciate it, guys.

Thanks for stopping by. Had a blast. Thank you.

Well, there you have it. The grumpy guy and a bunch of his friends. The grumpy old man.

Yeah. Or grumpy old men and friends. And they weren't all they weren't all old.

And they weren't all men. And they weren't all grumpy. And they weren't all grumpy.

No, no, they were. I think some of them had a little bit of grump for everybody. A little bit.

A little bit. But for most of all, very cordial. Very, yes.

Very cordial. And very fun. A lot of fun.

Gosh. Played some great music. Some great harp.

Yeah. Two harmonicas. Two harmonicas and a guitar.

One band. Some people that some people will call that glutton for punishment. Yeah, yeah.

But they did it very tastefully. That was they did. That was it.

It was you know what it was. It was you didn't know that there was two. Right.

They played in such a way that they weren't playing together. Because I can imagine how that would become. Well, it's like having multiple guitars.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's same thing. I mean, you get bands of guitar, bass, drum, you know, singer.

That's it. But then you get, you know, take your Leonard Skinner. Right.

Four guitars up there or the Eagles. You know, four guitars. And they know how to work it out.

Right. No, it worked okay. Sounded great.

Yeah, very good. So I definitely like to see that. But they're way up north.

They are a little bit up in Richmond. That would be that would be the kind of thing where, you know, jump on a Harley. It's like a day thing.

Yeah. Check them out. Yeah.

Find a place where they're playing a festival somewhere or whatever and go hang out and. Hang out and come home. Yeah.

Because I get the feeling that even though they were acoustic, even if they're holding their electric guitars in their hand, they pretty much are going to sound the same. It's going to be kind of a mellow kind of a. Sure. It's the blues, man.

Yeah. Yeah. Bums you out.

I know I'm joking. Joking out there. I'm just joking.

Blues are great. Love the blues. All righty then.

Well, as usual, thanks for listening. And we'll see you next week for another exciting episode of the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. See you.

The Rock and Roll Chicago podcast is edited by Paul Martin. Theme song courtesy of MNR Rush. The Rock and Roll Chicago podcast does not own the rights to any of the music heard on the show.

The music is used to promote the guests that are featured.