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LIVE FROM JACKSONVILLE! with Amadeus
99.9 Gator Country morning show host Amadeus shares stories that did not make it on the air, and he takes a deeper dive into those that did make the cut. Fans of Your Hometown Morning Show will enjoy a more behind the scenes look at what goes into the making of a country radio morning show. Listen daily for this PG-13 version of the top stories making pop culture headlines, artist interviews, and much , much more.
LIVE FROM JACKSONVILLE! with Amadeus
The Art of Immersive Entertainment: Boot, Scoot and Bourbon
What happens when two world-class entertainers decide to bring Vegas-quality production to Jacksonville? You get Boot, Scoot and Bourbon—a revolutionary immersive country music experience that's about to transform how the city experiences live entertainment.
Meet Russ and Ali Francis, the creative force behind this groundbreaking show. Their story reads like a Hollywood script: he's a Jacksonville native and professional singer; she's an Australian dancer who performed with Bruno Mars and Chris Brown. They met in Los Angeles, then moved to Vegas where they both starred in a major production (and where Russ proposed on stage!), then took their talents around the world before deciding to elevate Jacksonville's entertainment scene.
Boot, Scoot and Bourbon isn't just another concert—it's a fully immersive experience where the entertainment surrounds you. The Glass Factory transforms completely with country-themed décor while performers move throughout the space. The music spans classic and contemporary country hits, meticulously arranged with stunning harmonies and performed by extraordinary talents: Nashville vocalists, local musicians from UNF's renowned jazz program, and even specialty acts flown in from Spain. And yes, there's actual bourbon tasting involved, courtesy of local award-winning distillery Jacksontucky.
What makes this production special goes beyond the spectacle. It's about creating something Jacksonville can proudly call its own—a show that rivals anything you'd find in major entertainment hubs, but celebrates our Southern heritage and brings world-class talent right to our doorstep. Russ and Ali believe fervently that "you shouldn't have to travel to New York or Las Vegas to experience a show like this."
Experience Boot, Scoot and Bourbon select nights September 12-20 at the Glass Factory. Whether you're a die-hard country fan or simply crave something extraordinary, this show promises moments you'll talk about long after the final bow. Grab your tickets at bootscootandbourbon.com and witness Jacksonville's entertainment evolution firsthand.
Welcome to another episode of Live from Jacksonville. I'm your host, Amadeus. Let's quickly run down what's coming in the next few weeks because I have some really fun guests on this episode. The Florida Theater has comedian Eddie Griffin coming on Saturday, September 13th. Classics Albums Live Led Zeppelin II is playing at the Florida Theater on Sunday the 14th. The Steely Dan Project is performing Saturday September 20th and Thursday September 25th. It's the pop tour featuring O-Town, Ryan Cabrera, BB Mack, LFO and Chris Kirkpatrick from NSYNC. That's all at floridatheatercom for info and tickets.
Speaker 1:The St Augustine Amphitheater has Sierra Farrell on Friday September 12th, Lee Bryce Saturday September 13th and Leon Bridges with Charlie Crockett on Sunday September 14th. That should be a really interesting show. Weird Al Yankovic will be at the AMP on Wednesday September 24th Don't laugh, Weird Al is amazing live. And Allison Krauss with Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas, are playing the AMP on Friday September 26th. That website is theampcom for information and to purchase your tickets.
Speaker 1:The Thrasher Horn Center has Foreigner's Journey on Friday, September 12th. For this show, the music of both Foreigner and Journey come together in one really magnificent show, Definitely worth checking out. Also at the Thrasher horn center it's cashmere, the spirit of led zeppelin, live on saturday, september 20th. Thcenterorg is their website for information and tickets. Other than that, not a ton of shows coming to town right now. Daily's place has no shows in september. Just a couple of shows left at the arena, including trans-siberian orchestra on de, December 11th. Okay, there's an event coming to the Glass Factory in downtown Jacksonville called Boot, Scoot and Bourbon, and we've been giving away tickets on 99.9 Gator Country and it sounds like such a cool show I had to have the creators on to talk about it. Let's just jump right in. We're joined right now by Russ and Allie Francis, who have a huge show coming to town that I'm super excited about. It's called Boot, Scoot and Bourbon and it's coming to the Glass Factory. First of all, Russ, tell us a little bit about you guys.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you for having us on. Yeah, we're super excited to be here About the event. So Allie and myself are producers and we are super excited to be bringing this brand new show, which is called boot, scoot and bourbon. Going back a little bit, we've had a couple other shows in jacksonville. One was called the velvet underground show extremely immersive. It's uh kind of vegas meets speakeasy. Well, we've taken that same concept and now we've brought it to country. I grew up in jacksonville and country's always had like a nice place in my heart. It just felt natural. And when we were doing the shows the other one just getting a response from the crowd I would ask them I'm like we're going to do a country show, what do you guys think about this? And then the crowd would just lose it and like, okay, we're onto something that's awesome.
Speaker 1:Allie, how do you feel about like this show? Did you grow up on country?
Speaker 3:because you're from australia yes, so I am new to country, but I live in the country now. So, um, and I can tell you all the playlists from our other shows, I just can't stop listening to this playlist.
Speaker 3:Like I'm obsessed really I am obsessed with it. Yeah, I go running in the morning and I'm listening to the show country music. There is something really special about it and I'm really excited to celebrate country music in a live way. Our band is phenomenal. We had rehearsals last night. Oh cool with the band. The band's local, it's just.
Speaker 1:I think it's going to be epic okay, speaking of the band, I've got so many questions about that. Is this a touring show or is this specifically for jacksonville?
Speaker 2:so we're starting in jacksonville and the next year we're touring. So okay, we'll go to Atlanta and Charlotte and Charleston, orlando, possibly Tampa.
Speaker 1:So I know you've got singers from all over the world. Are they all coming here just for this?
Speaker 2:Yes, we try to bring in talent from all over the world, but then we also want to showcase Jacksonville's best, so we've got a phenomenal vocalist who's actually on tour with JJ Gray Mofro. I saw her video on your Facebook page, katie Dutton. She's phenomenal. We've got people from Spain flying all the way over. That's a specialty act which I can't tell you what they're doing, but it's incredible.
Speaker 1:Wait, you're going to drop teasers and then not even tell us anything?
Speaker 2:Yeah, just get people excited. But I'm telling you, people have never seen anything like it here. And then yeah, and then yeah, we've got dancers coming in, we've got a singer from nashville, we've got dancers from atlanta. So we kind of bring people all over and we start in jacksonville, because that's our home base, and then we take it on tour is this the same thing that happened with this?
Speaker 2:uh, the speakeasy, the velvet underground show, yeah so it started here and then go on tour well, the speakeasy show we actually did in australia for the first underground show, um, and it had done so well. The funny thing is I think we were kind of telling you before um, going back even more, I was a singer my whole life, growing up and traveling all over, and I met ali in la. Obviously you can tell by her accent that she's from australia and we were both performing. Ali was dancing for some incredible artists I won't drop any names.
Speaker 1:No, no Drop names. I want to know.
Speaker 2:Ali, who were you dancing for Bruno Mars and Chris Brown? I'll say it.
Speaker 3:Wow, that's huge. That was a long time ago, 14 years ago, that's amazing.
Speaker 2:And then we moved to Las Vegas and we auditioned for a show and out of 500 people, we were the only two that that they picked, and they didn't know that we were even together at that time. It just happened that they needed a dancer and they needed a singer and we both got in the show and wait can you say what show that was?
Speaker 2:yeah, it was called vegas, the show at planet hollywood, okay, and we were in that show for about two years it's. I mean, it's huge, there's like a 16 piece orchestra and lots of dancers and singers etc. And actually proposed to ali in that show at the end of it, in front of the entire crowd was that like your taylor and travis moment? Yes, yeah, except in front of a ton of people.
Speaker 1:That's awesome it's amazing that out of 500 people, you guys both got picked like that was amazing. That's like a rom-com like moment.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was super cool and we loved that it was. It was, I mean, you're living in the desert las vegas, but just to be in that like the ambience of like how many incredible performers have been there, yeah, it's really special. And then moved to australia, had our entertainment company there and we're producing shows. Australia, where we live, there's a lot of big casinos and stuff, and then we just took everything that we knew. We moved back to my hometown right here in jacksonville, that's right, jayville, the 904 we kind of moved here to get away from entertainment.
Speaker 2:We were we had had enough coveted happen and we were like, all right, what else can we do? And after being here for a year, we just got the itch again and we we can see, I was like there's not a lot happening and Jacksonville is so far behind the times compared to Las Vegas, and so we really wanted to take everything that we'd ever done and do it here. And now I was like let's do our show, the Velvet Underground show, here in Jacksonville. And I was like people, I don't know if people will get it, I don't know if they'll come out. How did I miss that? I don't know. You've got to get out there more than you can. You're not.
Speaker 1:I can't help you. Am I stuck in my country, bubble?
Speaker 2:You're stuck in the studio. You've got to get. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe that's why you've heard about this one, because it's country.
Speaker 3:Were all of the shows at the Glass Factory. Yes, yeah, so far. Glass Factory out the whole venue. So we have our own staging. It's a catwalk stage that we build out around the audience, and then we've got a theming company that's going to theme the whole venue. Country. What else do we have? Oh, we've got bourbon tasting.
Speaker 1:Yes, I love that, and there's a local bourbon distillery involved, right?
Speaker 2:Yes, they're called Jackson Tucky and they are from Jacksonville, but they are the only company in Jacksonville. They've won gold In Florida. In Florida, Three times. They've won gold for their bourbon, Wow. And so the other night we were doing a little photo shoot for the show and he brought his bourbon, so I got to try some of it. I love good bourbon and whiskey, man, it was smooth. That was like oh, I wonder why you won gold. This thing is incredible.
Speaker 1:I can't wait for that. I'm going to have to. I know I'm going on like there's like a soft opening night that the media is invited to and I won't be able to drink that night, but it's at the get about 3.30 in the morning, ok. So I know I'm going to want to come back and like bourbon, uber in and Uber out. All right, let's talk about the show a little bit more, because I've seen video that you guys have like on your Facebook page. Is that part of another show or is that part of this show?
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's parts of it that are from a different show, but it's the same. Feel Right, it's very immersive. The stage is actually built out into the crowd, so, no matter where you're sitting, you feel like the show is happening around you. All the musicians are on wireless. They'll be out in the crowd playing. All the singers are in the crowd. Like, no matter where you're sitting, something's happening around you. Is the show in the round? Well, yeah, yeah, I guess it is. Yeah, the audience is all around.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. And then there's Aerialist, which I don't know why, but it fascinates me. Yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing that this guy's phenomenal.
Speaker 2:Where's he from? He's the guy that's from Spain that we're flying.
Speaker 3:But he does something. Elf in the show.
Speaker 1:So you see what I'm doing. Allie, I'm slowly getting little things out of him.
Speaker 2:I'm picking away.
Speaker 3:I'm like, yeah, I act. Oh, okay, I know Jacksonville hasn't seen it before, so we're excited.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's going to be super cool.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you debut on September 12th after the soft opening. Then it's how many?
Speaker 2:shows. So we're doing a total of six nights. I think we do three that weekend, so the 12th, 13th and 14th, all at the Glass Factory, and then the next weekend 18 and then the next weekend, 18th, 19th 20th.
Speaker 2:But we've pulled because some country it can get a little cheesy and we did not want this show to be cheesy. So we have picked. I mean we spent a year just picking the playlist that we wanted to be in. Really, yeah, I mean there's hundreds and hundreds of songs. There's so many great country songs, so finding the right ones, that felt good. We've spent so much time. We've spent so much time. We've got new country, we've got old country and we've blended it all together.
Speaker 1:That's make it super exciting. Is steven quinn part of this show? Yeah, we know him, you know, just being local. One of the great local talents, yeah, yeah, he's phenomenal. Do you remember off the top of your head what other local artists are involved? Well, our musicians.
Speaker 2:So all the musicians, all the musicians are based. I think one with the guitar player is from new york originally, or at least he's always in new york, yeah, but most of them actually went to unf. Oh nice, I went through all the jazz programming and stuff.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's the majority of the local artists katie dutton, stephen quinn and stephen quinn's local, but he's in nashville right, yeah so he's traveling from nashville just to do the show, but he's our lead, oh very cool, very cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he is an amazing singer. We've been watching his career for quite some time.
Speaker 3:Last night he sounded like Garth Brooks and I'm like am I in the room with Garth right now? Yeah, he sounded phenomenal.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. And then I sing a couple songs in the show as well with them. So some amazing arrangements, really cool three-part harmonies and stuff that we'll be doing.
Speaker 1:Oh man, you're getting me so excited.
Speaker 2:The show celebrates the South and country, but it's also celebrating America. We have a whole section at the end that's like Don't say too much, Russell. It gives you the pride, it gives you the.
Speaker 1:She called you Russell. You're in trouble.
Speaker 2:I almost dropped the middle name.
Speaker 1:Don't say too much, russell. Yeah, you definitely don't want the middle name name. Well, okay, I'm glad you came in to talk about it. I'll be honest with you. When our account executive, Julie, first came up to my office to say we got this thing to give away tickets to him, like what is it and she couldn't exactly describe it and I was like I don't get it. I don't get it. I wasn't sure. And then I went on your Facebook page and I started doing some research and I'm like this is pretty damn cool. I'm super excited now.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's awesome. Well, there's definitely nothing like it in Jacksonville and I've never seen anything like it ever come to town.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because I do love Broadway shows. I obviously love live music. I think I go to probably more concerts than anyone I know. So when I was watching some of the videos and on your website, I was like this is going to be like a Broadway show and a concert, yeah, and just an interactive, fun event that I cannot wait to be a part of.
Speaker 3:Yeah, whenever we're creating something, we put ourselves in the audience.
Speaker 1:So you're talking about like versus like a risque.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's not risky. We don't make. We don't want anyone to feel uncomfortable.
Speaker 1:Right, you know what I?
Speaker 3:mean yeah, we want you to bring your mom.
Speaker 1:I like that because, like my mom, I get. I get my love of live music from my mom and she's 80 now but she's still like she'll go see Zach Brown and all these concerts. She'll go to concerts with me and I'm never afraid to take her to something country Cause I know that, like you said, you put yourself in the audience. Country artists put themselves in the audience and they do think about families, grandmas, grandkids being there. Another reason I'm really looking forward to it.
Speaker 3:Oh thank.
Speaker 2:I'm really looking forward to it. Oh, thank you. Awesome. Well, allie actually creates all the costuming for this show and then I do all of the music side of things, where I'm arranging all the arrangements with the musicians, and then Allie does a lot of the choreography. So together we piece this whole thing together and we're always thinking of the crowds, what they're experiencing.
Speaker 1:Like their point of view. Well, I can't wait to see it. We're going on Thursday, september 11th. Friday, the 12th. I'll be on the air raving about it and letting everyone know you have to see this show. I'm sure there's no doubt in my mind yeah, awesome. Let everyone know exactly where to go for details and to get tickets.
Speaker 2:So if you go to our website boot scoot and bourboncom, you can get your tickets there. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook. It's boot scoot and bourboncom, Keeping it real simple. On Instagram and Facebook, it's bootscoopandbourboncom, Keeping it real simple.
Speaker 1:By the way, all the videos that I'm seeing on your social media is amazing. Who's doing that? I do a lot of it, man you are talented.
Speaker 2:Allie and I do everything of every part. We're small, so we definitely put all the hats on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's one well, I'd say one, but there's about five or six, I think. They're all Facebook or maybe they're on your website where it's interviews with people, but it starts off with like all five of them and then it like kind of highlights one at a time. I love that.
Speaker 2:That's my sister-in-law step-sister-in-law that put that together. Third, once removed yeah, she put she's also helping do some of our social media and she did that. So all the introductions of all the cast members from all over these little videos it's she did that so all the introductions of all the cast members from all over.
Speaker 1:Yeah, these little videos. It's really cool, it's brilliant. I mean, I saw that I'm like I've never seen this before and it's brilliant.
Speaker 2:She's going to be like doing one each day of every single performer, so that you kind of get to meet them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's really, really cool. All right, bootscootandbourboncom, the Jacksonville area, or even if you don't come to Jacksonville for this, this might be worth coming to Jacksonville for.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 1:Even if you're like in Brisbane, yeah, like, fly on in Brisbane. What is it? Is it Brisbane? Yes, brisbane.
Speaker 3:Brisbane.
Speaker 1:It's Jacksonville, it's Brisbane Good, I know.
Speaker 3:How you?
Speaker 1:going. We actually do. They do drive down. Oh, did they come down for the Velvet Underground thing? Oh, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:One of the big things when we were creating it was especially in Jacksonville. You shouldn't have to travel to New York or to Las Vegas to experience a show like that. We're like well, let's bring them all here, which is why we search for all these incredible performers to bring them in town.
Speaker 1:We also want to put jacksonville on the map too. We want to, yeah, getting a little bit more tourism, which will be good. Do you guys think eventually you'll have your own venue? We've been looking, really. Yeah, we've been looking. This was just. I didn't know that this was just kind of stream of consciousness, because I'm thinking, if you have three or four shows that could kind of alternate, having your own venue would be something we actually made an offer on one, but it didn't actually work out.
Speaker 2:So we are definitely looking to find. I mean, we thought saint augustine could be really cool, but it seems like jacksonville is really starting to develop again. Yes, it seems like it's only a matter of time before it would take off.
Speaker 1:So you and I both are from here. Yeah, you know, grew up here and we both have been watching this city. Hopefully just really blossom one day it's on the the verge. Yeah, I think for decades we thought it was on the verge.
Speaker 2:We've always said that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, exactly, but I think it really is now I really really do. I got a good feeling. I just hope that I live long enough to see it, I know right. It seems like it's always under construction, like on the highways, but I feel like with the latest signing of the Jag year deal, all that shotgun's doing down there, I do think that jacksonville is growing in a really good way right now.
Speaker 2:yeah and it has so much potential.
Speaker 1:Jacksonville yeah, well, keep bringing in shows. I'll keep bringing you in to talk about them if you want to.
Speaker 3:Yeah I will say one more thing. We obviously tour our show around. There's something really special about jacksonville people as well, like whenever we do our shows, the people that come up to us afterwards and go thank you, thank you so much for bringing this here, like we need this, and we also have a christmas show. We did it last year, we're doing it again this year oh yes, it's beautiful.
Speaker 3:It's a beautiful christmas show and I had a lady come up to me one night like crying is making me cry. Now she's like you know what? I've had such a really hard year coming Coming to your show tonight. I just really needed that, like that was a very special thing.
Speaker 1:So it's yeah, jacksonville people are amazing, Great Hearing something like that, like I know, you work on costumes, you work on, you know choreography and arrangement. Hearing something like that has to make it all worthwhile.
Speaker 3:That's exactly it and that's why we keep doing it, because hearing that and how appreciative everyone here is makes us keep doing it.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. Well, we're looking forward to Boot, scoot and Bourbon. Thank you guys for coming in. We're looking forward to the whole event and we hope it's a huge success for you guys.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much, that's amazing.
Speaker 1:All right, that's Boot, scoot and Bourbon for tickets to that show. It's running September 12th through the 20th, select nights at the Glass Factory in Jacksonville. Hey, I was at Halloween Horror Nights over the weekend at Universal Orlando. We got a podcast done from their studio the morning after. That'll be my next episode. I'll drop it over the next week or so and there are some Jacksonville shows announcing soon so I'll let you know.