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

And this is our end of year review for 2024. Ho ho ho. Ho ho ho's.

It's, yeah, it's that close to Christmas. It is, it is. Was Santa good to you? Um, I don't know yet.

Oh, you don't know yet? Yeah. Oh, okay. Well, I guess it all depends on when this thing is coming out.

Well, it depends on when people are listening. When everybody's listening. That's right.

You know what, you know, the whole Christmas and Santa Claus thing, you know, it's like, you know, I've been married for 30 years. We're just like, yeah, don't buy me nothing. Yeah, don't buy me anything.

What are we going to do? Let's just go on a trip or something like that later in the year. That's what we decided. We're just going to go out to dinner somewhere nice.

Yeah. We love to eat. We love to cook.

Let's go somewhere fancy. Let's go do something like that. Or we do stupid stuff.

You know, like my wife is five feet tall. So I bought her one of those grabber things that you can get. So how long are you on the couch for? Actually, she freaking loves it.

She loves it. So, you know, that's, that's what it is. Man, we got one hell of a year.

Yeah, we did. Celebrating your second year. Second year.

Second year with the podcast. God, it doesn't, man, it seems like five. Yeah, I hear you.

Well, you know, because we had all kinds of stuff going on. We were, we went like gangbusters at the beginning of the year where it seemed like, gosh, there were some weeks where we were doing four interviews a week. Right.

And then all of a sudden, you know, not of our doing. Right. We went on a long hiatus because of the bad weather and the tornado that hit.

And all the repairs. Yeah, we weren't here for a long time. But fortunately, we had three months worth of podcasts and began.

That's right. Yeah. So we were lucky.

And we just got back in right before we ran out of podcasts. Yeah. So the stuff that you guys were listening to, all three of you, were stuff that was prerecorded.

Right. You know, it wasn't, it wasn't happening that week or anything. Well, they're all prerecorded.

Yeah. They were like three months ago. Right, right.

So yeah, it was a very interesting year. Yeah, it was. We had some interesting bands too.

We did. You know, I wish we could talk about every single one of them, but we'd be here for. Ever.

Yeah. Yeah. For hours.

Because, you know, and the, I mean, the amount of like new friendships and stuff and, you know, people that we've met has been fantastic. You can't, you can't deny that or trade that in for anything. But, you know, I think, you know, let's talk about a couple of the members that I remember.

The first one that I remember was the Buddy Rich Orchestra. Oh yeah. Kathy Rich and Greg Potter.

Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, I've interviewed Greg Potter before and he can talk.

Oh yeah. But so can Kathy. Holy cow.

The two of them together. Yeah. That was crazy.

What episode was that? That was episode 169. Yeah, that's a while ago. Yeah, it was.

That was definitely earlier in the year. Yeah, definitely. You know, what was, what was kind of surreal about that whole thing is that Buddy Rich's daughter was here in the studio talking about him and, and then, and then Greg was pretty much handpicked, you know, to replace the man.

The man, right. Buddy Rich. Every, every drummer's idol.

Right, right. And it was almost like the two of them were channeling the spirit of Buddy Rich here in the studio. That's what they're doing with the band.

Yeah, they really are. You know, they travel all over the world playing. Yeah, and, and, you know, and if he, and if he, you know, if, if this drumming thing doesn't work out, he could probably make a living as a standup comic.

He sure could. He sure could, you know, you know, from teenage radiation to the Buddy Rich orchestra. Yeah.

I'm amazing. Amazing. Yeah.

Right. And, you know, and it was just like a couple of weeks after that, because episode 175 was John David Daly. Oh yeah.

And you went out and saw him. I saw him. He's man, really, really good.

Yeah. That guy's got some original material and man, he's got some chops on him. Boy, he can sing.

Yeah. Yeah. So him and his son and man, they're really, really, really good.

Yeah. You know what? We, we had the advantage of seeing, seeing him in the studio here. But I couldn't imagine what it'd be like in the show, just sitting here in our studio, listening to him.

Right. It was very soulful voice. Yeah, definitely.

And he's not, he's not from around here. He's from, he plays a lot up here. Right.

But he's from much further South. I forget where he said he was from. Yeah.

But he's way down there, but he comes up here all the time. Yeah. Always playing around the area.

So yeah, I'd definitely get out and see him if you see his name somewhere. Yeah. Yeah.

My wife and daughter love that kind of music. Next time he comes back around, I'm going to- Definitely see him. See, see if I can see him.

Yeah. And you know this, and what might've even happened in the same night, because their episodes are right after one another, episode 176. So I don't, I can't remember if it was, you know, a date or whatever, but it may have even been the same night, but we had Brian McKenna in the studio for the third time.

Yeah. Three times he's been here with three different bands. He's got his own band McKenna, which is really good.

They got some great original material, new CD out, which is great. But it's funny. I mean, every time a band comes in, who's with them? Brian.

Yeah. Brian's with them. So I think he holds the record now for the most appearances on the podcast.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he's not a whore, but he's a musician and that's pretty darn close.

That's right. True. No, but yeah.

And the bands that he's, that he's been in or come in with have been so different, you know, so it like, I mean, he's an extremely versatile guitarist. That's for sure. For sure.

And the stuff that he writes himself is, is, is pretty amazing. Yeah, definitely. Yeah.

I forget the other two bands he was with. Oh gosh. I can see him.

Wasn't he, isn't he with. Oh, he's with, was he with Poison D. Crew? I think he was with Poison D. Crew. I think he is.

I think he is. And then he was with another, was it Superfly Redneck or something? No, is it, or was it members only? Wasn't it an 80s band? It was like an 80s band. And it's like, he doesn't fit in with the rest of them.

This guy with the long hair. Like he shows up on a Harley and everybody else is wearing like parachute pants. Maybe it was.

Yeah. Maybe it was members. I'll have to double check.

I should have looked into that, but yeah, that was funny. But yeah, it was Poison D. Crew. Yeah.

That's who he was with. And then just a couple of weeks ago, I went out to a, to a little bar over in Shanahan, or not Shanahan, Shorewood, it's called The Crowd Around Me. And I saw, I went and saw Yankee Cowboy.

Okay. Because ever since we interviewed them, I've been hearing about them and people have been saying, Hey, have you seen this band Yankee Cowboy? And I've had a couple of friends that actually own like summer cottages and stuff like that. And they've hired them and they've gone to Michigan and Indiana and played private parties and stuff like that in people's backyards.

And apparently they're amazing. And, and so I finally, I said, yeah, I'm going to go out and see them. And it's three guys.

And it's kind of weird because they call themselves Yankee Cowboy and they do a lot of country music, but they also do stuff like Bruno Mars. And they, they broke into a, they, they broke into a, like a vanilla ice song and stuff like that. And it's three guys.

And I mean, it's, but they sound bigger than that. It sounded like there was five guys, you know, on the, on the stage. I remember them being in here, the three of them.

Yeah. Yeah. They talked about, they do, you know, they do country, but they do all kinds of crazy other stuff too.

Right. Yeah. Episode 190.

If you want to catch up with those guys and. I will, I'll look into it again. And I'll listen to them for sure.

And, and again, maybe even the same night. And this was another surreal thing is when we had Skip Gryparas. Oh my God.

A movie star, a movie star amongst us. Yeah. For those of you who don't know, because we don't have video, we still don't have video.

No, not yet. It'll be here soon. But Skip Gryparas is the color commentary guy sitting next to Bob Euchre in the major league movies.

That's right. And, and who knew that he was also a musician. Right.

He worked as a magician. Right. He said for a while, and he's done some acting and everything.

And I mean, he looks exactly the same. Yeah, he does. He does.

He really does. And he's still out there performing all over the place. He's got these unique shows that he's doing.

So definitely get out and see him. Yeah. Episode 191.

You'll, you'll laugh. He was pretty funny. He is funny.

He's one of those guys where all we had to do was say one word. We could say like the word yes. And then he'd go on for 20 minutes.

Exactly. Exactly. Yeah.

Yeah. And I think one of our strangest episodes, probably episode 207. 207.

Yeah. The Gotham Ramblers. Oh yeah.

That was, wow. That was very interesting. But man, so rock and roll music kind of redone to sound like Irish or Gaelic music.

Yeah. An Irish twist. In a way.

Had a female singer who was actually from Ireland. She's from Ireland and a band that has an accordion. An accordion.

But no glockenspiel. We still haven't found the glockenspiel. I'm still looking.

I will make an effort this in 2025. I'll make an effort to find a glockenspiel band. Or we're going to, we're going to bring one in and just learn how to play it.

Learn how to play it. Right. You know, live.

And, and their guitarist owns a Batmobile. Owns a Batmobile. Not, not the kind of Batmobile that almost anybody can own.

Because anybody could go out and find like a 1960s Pontiac Bonneville or something like that. And, and I mean, this was like the Michael Keaton. This was a real one.

Batmobile that was built like a tank. And he owned it. And he owns it.

And he sold it. And then he bought it back. Then he bought it back again.

He bought it back again. And, and they're actually on social media right now because they're, they're offering something right now, like for a certain amount of money or whatever the band goes and performs. And it takes you for riding the Batmobile and he dresses up as Batman and performs wedding ceremonies.

We should, we should, we should see if we can get a ride in the Batmobile. That'd be cool. Yeah.

That would be kind of cool. Yeah. Actually, there's a, there's a fellow podcaster, James Van Osdell.

I don't know if you've caught his podcast. I have. I've not in a while.

Yeah. Yeah. If you're listening, James, let's talk.

But, you know, he does this car Con Carney thing where he drives around in a car and they, you know, and stuff like that. He did one with Laura. Oh, that's right.

I remember that. Yeah. I remember that.

He could do it from the Batmobile. That'd be cool. Yeah.

We should get ahold of him. Yeah. Remember where you heard that Mr. Van Osdell? That's right.

Yeah. Yeah. That's cool.

And then I think to round it out with our, with our kind of our local bands, um, we had Dolph Chaney. And the Finns with a PH. Yeah.

Was it with a PH? Yeah. With a PH. Dolph Chaney and the Finns.

It was only Dolph that was here. There was no Finns, no seafood. Yeah.

But, uh, yeah, he was, uh, interesting. Yeah. A lot of original stuff and, uh, you know, a lot of great stories from him.

Which episode was he? He was 203. 203. Well, we're getting into the 200s.

Yeah, we're getting, yeah, he was 203. And by the way, the Gotham Ramblers was 207. 207.

Okay. Yeah. So yeah, we're, we're definitely into the 200s there.

That's nice. It's amazing that we've got that many interviews. How about it? Who would ever thunk? Who would have thunk it? And, um, you know, special mention, we've got, uh, Patrick Spiroff, who was episode 188.

Um, Aaron Newsom, who was episode 186. And my friend Joe Legia, who was episode 195. Um, those guys are local singer songwriters.

Mm-hmm. You know, we had those guys in the studio. I mean, they're literally singer songwriters because they don't, I don't think they perform anything that wasn't written by them.

Right. Themselves. Right.

Which is interesting. And they do a lot of jam sessions. We love having those in.

Yeah. Yeah. A lot of jam sessions that they attend.

And, uh, even like Patrick, he, uh, he started out, gave it up for many, many years. Yeah. And then got back into it.

And he's everywhere. I can't, I can't turn on social media without seeing a picture of him performing somewhere. Yeah.

Yeah. He's getting his, getting his word out, you know, getting his name out there. Definitely is.

Definitely is. And Aaron's been around here lately. Um, uh, just a few weeks ago, I think he was, uh, somewhere around the Lamont or Lockport area.

But Aaron's up here a lot. And Aaron lives in Pontiac. Yeah.

Yeah. It's like, it's like John David Daly. I forget the town he lives in somewhere way down South.

They all come up here to play. Yeah. So that's why we had him on the show.

You got to do it. You got to do it. And, you know, before we, uh, before we stop, I completely forgot about episode two, 10, the midnight calls.

They were probably one of my favorite original bands this year, because that's my thing. They they're more of a harder edge, like a Southern rock kind of band. Yep.

They were fantastic. Yeah. They were good.

They were great. I'm, I'm looking forward to going out and finally getting a chance to see them live. Yeah.

I mean, we'd like to see them all. It's hard to get out and see everybody, you know, especially I'm, I'm not going to the broken or it's too far from here, but you know, a lot of them play up there, but, but if anybody from the broken or is listening, we are looking for sponsorships. Absolutely.

So, or, or anybody else that's listening and would like to sponsor us, you know, the broken or isn't bad if you're, you know, take all day long to do it. You know, I've gone to the broken or, you know, Harley rides and stuff like that. Oh, I've been up there too.

It's a great place. I mean, I wish we had something like that down here. Oh, there's a few, but, but, but, but, but again, they're just as far South as the broken or is true is North.

That's, you know, you just got to be willing to jump in the car or whatever and, and go and do it. Although, you know, what's the word I'm, what's the one I'm looking at? Oh, I can't think of it right now. No, no.

Mine's a terrible thing to waste. Well, there's always top fuel saloon out in Braidwood. That's true.

Again, a little bit of a ride. Yeah, a little bit. But you gotta, you know, you'll find it.

Yeah, they're around. So, well, that was a fun year. It was a good time.

I hope we get a full, full year in next year. I think we got 51 episodes in for this past year. So we only missed one week, right? I think it was 51, maybe, maybe 50.

I'm not sure, but we, you know, we did take the last two weeks of the year off too. So, but yeah, we filled up every year, every week. So that wasn't too bad.

Yeah. And, uh, you know, we want to thank the Illinois Rock and Roll Museum on Route 66 for our beautiful studio, where we can bring you these podcasts every week. So, uh, thanks for listening, everybody.

And we'll see you guys. And well, you know, we'll probably see you, but you'll hear us in 2025. See ya.

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.