Ep 195 Joe Leja

Born and raised on the southwest side of Chicago. Started playing at 15, self-taught. Biggest influence – John Fogarty/Creedence Clearwater Revival. 10 years ago he started recording CD’s. You can find him at many open mics in the area, with an occasional headlining gig. 

Transcript

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 Murray the roadie and this is one very excited Hollywood Mike you are you are excited Yeah, I'm looking forward to this. You came hopping in here like you were the Easter Bunny or something What the hell's going on with this guy? That was my corns act that I was just gonna Pads It's kind of gross it is gross it is gross, you know, I like to watch those I like to watch those surgery where they dig in grown toenails out of people.

Oh Disgusting. Oh, I see. I mean coming from a medical background as a paramedic Anything to do with the eyes just freaked me out.

I cannot dad I could I could see him Guts hanging out. It didn't bother me bone sticking out. But boy when I something with the I Was an anatomy and physiology major when I started, you know, there was a body a cadaver laying on a table, right and we had to dissect it so by the by the Time I graduate from college it we pretty much get just a ribcage left Right, and that doesn't bother me at all.

But to see that procedure to dig an ingrown toenail Just gives me the heebie-jeebies Tell me why are you in such a jovial mood? I am excited tonight because we have a gentleman in the studio who I refer to as I on this show I've even referred to him as my own personal JJ kale. Mm-hmm. We have here.

Mr. Joe Leija everybody. He's here today. Hey Joe, and thanks for having me Let me tell you he is He is a fantastic songwriter He really is and and he writes things that are kind of like something that JJ kale Would write and he's got a number of songs that I absolutely love I've actually performed a couple of his songs with his permission and a Acoustic solo shows and everything nice time.

He comes out to the jam. I like to hang out with him and play with them and Happy to have you on board. I'm happy to have I'm happy to have him here I can't wait to have this conversation you and Jerome and Mike back and the last the last Sunday When I was out there sounds everybody sounded great and yeah, I was happy to I was starting to take my guitar off already and Mike stop.

He's like wait, wait, wait, hold on someone requested Pink houses, you know, I can't he goes, you know, I guess I guess he's knew it but nobody wanted to sing it or No, it's just it's never been requested before somebody came on. They actually put money in the tip jar Do it so he asked if I knew it and I was like why yes, yes Yeah, you need an acoustic guitar in that song It was absolutely perfect that Joe knew how to play the song and Andy knew enough and everything So we pulled off a little pink houses. I do try to split whether it's open mic, or you know Occasionally get a show booked.

I try to split the originals and covers. I Although I do get a pretty good response on the originals, so I'm grateful for that, you know And that's because I'll tell you that's because when you play your original songs It reminds me of an interview that I saw with Billy Joel Years and years ago. It was kind of like it was one of these things on like Like like channel 11 here, you know for people around the country around the world It's like their public broadcasting or whatever it is and it was one of these like live-by-request type shows I think it was and He was talking about how you know, he wanted to write a song that sounded like a Gordon Lightfoot song And so he wrote this particular song and he plays one of his hits and you're like, oh, yeah I never thought about it before but that song does sound like a Gordon Lightfoot song a lot of your songs remind me of The same thing like the like the song that I tell you all the time.

It sounds like a sea champion I love that. Which one is that? That's still drifting away. So drifting away, right? That sounds like a Gordon Lightfoot song to me that that that sounds like What's his what's his song? The Edmund Fitzgerald? Okay.

Yeah, it kind of reminds me of that one, right? Hey, I'm excited. I got playing Doing some open mics. Do you know Kiki? Oh, yeah So we're rehearsing and learning each other songs nice and she's learning some harmonies And some picking on still drifting away and right right sounds really good so far Let me tell you that's somebody else that has come a long way.

Yeah I remember the first day she stepped foot into the studio and had her guitar and she was so nervous Her fingers were shaking. She could barely fret the notes on a guitar and she really didn't even have a strum pattern down She was just kind of you know Plinking with her thumb and now she's out there doing this stuff by herself and it's like wow, it's pretty amazing So so she told me recently That the first open mic she did she actually shushed the crowd She's like I didn't know well the night like the night she told me that Stevie Schmigin walks in he goes He looks at her goes. You're the girl that shushed the crowd She I caught her one time as well Packed house and you know people are talking, you know a lot of times when you're when you're out the entertainment up there is pretty much like an ambient jukebox, right and She gets up there and I I saw the look on her face I saw it coming and then she started into you know, let me tell you about the performers up here and I went no I'm gonna save you from yourself.

I love you. I'm gonna save you from yourself. But yeah, that's not let's just play Well, she's really I'm she's got a wonderful voice.

I reminds me of Macy Gray. Yes. Yeah I love got that smoky voice and I'm having fun.

You know, she's learning some of my songs I'm learning some of her stuff Wow, and it's been a lot of fun the last month maybe last month Well, heck you should have brought her along with I even brought her. I Even accompanied her. I brought my mandolin to black dog one night and yeah Accompanied her on one of her songs on the mandolin.

Wow. Yeah. Yeah Are we gonna figure out what your name is gonna be? What your what your little duet name is gonna be? Yeah Jokey jokey, there you go No, but I love her she's great I'm glad you guys are guys are doing that so so You you know Wesley, right? Oh, yeah.

Absolutely. So he Dubbed me mighty Joe. There you go.

And I love that. I think it's arrogant for me to Call myself It's okay if he wants to call me that or anybody else I feel it's too arrogant to say oh, yeah Mighty Joe, you know, well, yeah, you can't give yourself a nickname, but if somebody else gives you the nickname, it's perfectly acceptable Yeah so let's um, so we're gonna Stop ourselves before we get To to ahead right because I've been seeing stuff on your Facebook page You and I have known each other for for quite a few years several years already I've seen I mean you've recorded several albums worth of you know worth of material and you've been doing that for quite a while So when it was so take us all back tell everybody You know how young Joe decided he was gonna start playing guitar and writing songs in here. I started playing Probably 15 or 16 years old.

Okay, pretty bad at the start But I started writing songs as soon as I learned a few chords. I was already trying to write songs. I Probably should have learned to play a little better first Kind of didn't go anywhere until around late 80s early 90s at a Tascam analog 4-track recorder It started recording a bunch of demos of my stuff and I want to say you always build me up and I appreciate that About being such a great songwriter You never heard the ones that I keep hidden There's plenty of clunkers.

I guarantee Nobody nobody should ever hear these You have to though every every songwriter has a bunch of clunkers you you have to yeah you you you have to finish every song That's that's my philosophy. Even if you get halfway through it and you realize that it sucks. You have to finish it Put it in a box where nobody has to hear it ever again, but you have to finish it.

Yeah And I like to tell the story. I did a songwriter showcase last Thursday at Black Dog Played these two songs back-to-back. You're familiar with old and broken down.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, I Literally wrote that driving home from work one day Wrote the lyrics in a half an hour Yeah, I still had to put it to music after that, but I I never revised the lyrics That's what I came up with driving home from work. I got home My neighbors were out in the cul-de-sac.

It's kind of like King of the Hill. We'd all be out there drinking beers Joe come on have a beer. I Can't I can't I got to go and I got to write this down and I'm so thankful I did cuz if I would have went and had a couple beers, I would have forgot the song And that's probably one of my better, you know You know people that know me will ask me to play it right? Yeah that in Arizona drifter Oh, yeah And I'm glad you explained that because I was about to do a public service Announcements saying that the rock and roll Chicago podcast does not condone you writing songs while you're driving home Didn't have pencil and paper, right But that's why I couldn't stop and have a beer with the neighbors because it was all up in my head and I'm like man I got to go write this all down.

Yeah, and that's probably the only time I wrote something that Not a single rewrite Now conversely and I played this next at the showcase It's a song called kindred spirit. Yeah, that took me four years of just constant Rewriting and rewriting. I just couldn't get happy with the lyrics just sounded stiff and awkward and took me four years to Till I was finally happy with it and it happens.

Yeah So I've got an idea and and I will direct the music video for old and broken down because I know the song well enough To know what the song is about me And the fact that you mentioned that you wrote it driving home from work The music video needs to be you on the side of the road with the hood up, right? There's steam and everything coming out of your engine. You're singing the song old and broken down, you know But I ain't dead yet and y'all right and the line in the song about pretty girls won't talk to you and stuff like that Well who comes to your rescue but just a smoking hot tow truck driver I like that idea. That's a good like that idea.

That's that's the that's the music video I think and you've got a friend that you could probably employ To play the smoking hot Tow truck driver because she's on like the like most of his album covers to she's only actually she's only on one one Yeah, wearing a black leather miniskirt So that's you know, I mean that works resume. Mm-hmm filled. Yeah.

Yeah, when do we start filming? Yeah You know, we can't we totally could do that here Yeah, no, that's a that is a that it's that's actually one of my favorite songs as well so he plays that Yeah as well. And that's actually the chord arrangement is pretty easy like If there's like if journal Jerome knows my songs, right, you know But if there's somebody there that doesn't know him, it's easy for someone to pick up on it real fast, right? You know, what's what I find so unique about your music and we're gonna you know in a few minutes here we're gonna let the listeners, you know hear a few of them, but you know your your chord progressions are Basic, I mean, I don't mean that as an insult. They're they're they're perfect, right? but you know exactly where to throw in a minor chord or some type of an augmented the new one or Something like there's something like that and it just all of a sudden Changes the entire, you know tone or feel of the song It certainly changes the way a lead guitar player is gonna, you know, write write the lead you know solo or play leads to it as well the way the bass player is gonna come in and put a bass line to It because even something as simple as a as a basic blues progression You'll make one of those chords just slightly different than what it should be.

I like to play a lot of sadness Yeah, and it just changes the the whole feel of the song. It really does So I find it very interesting. This is one of these interviews where I would prefer to hear him sing and play Then ask him questions.

Okay. Well, why don't we why don't we take a little break and come back in here? So yeah, we're gonna get them all set up. All righty.

We'll be right back. You're listening to the rock and roll Chicago podcast Hey, it's Ray and Mike and we got some great information for you Yeah We just wanted to remind you about the fundraiser for the Illinois rock and roll museum on route 66 Which is taking place on October 27th at the Renaissance Center in downtown Joliet You'll be able to get tickets at Cadillac groove shows if you see Mike or myself somewhere will have tickets you can get them at Museum they're only $5 also at Cadillac groove calm You will be able to purchase them online as well. Very good.

They're gonna cost you $5 a ticket There's gonna be a $10 cover charge to get in the day of the event and for your $10 We will give you two more additional tickets as well as some Cadillac groove swag and the lucky grand prize winner will win the band Cadillac groove and winner must be present to win and remember that and Cadillac groove will play for whatever event It is that you would like for us to play for you know conditions to apply. That's true We do get out there and get your tickets right away We're rolling we're at studio for open mic Mike usually puts down some tasty guitar solos on my songs Always appreciate that. Absolutely.

I'm not I'm not a soloist. This is all this. I'm the singer songwriter That's my niche one of these days.

You and I are gonna get together. We're gonna just work on these together So when we do do it, it's it's gonna be more instead of improvising all the time. We're gonna have something Steady, but this song that he's about to play It's called Arizona drifter and this is the first song that I heard that I just loved and this is the song that I've done in my own Solo shows.

Okay. I love this song for the first time tonight. Here's Joe Legia I Got a job They should name this time hypocrisy give the devil's do Arizona drifter.

I'm on God for hire when I see the whites of the eyes fire Arizona drifter, baby. I'll see you The time has come to pay for your sins Little outlaw country song right there. I absolutely love that song.

Yeah, I'm not going Arizona. Yeah I Believe that's actually when I was going into a studio. That was the very first song.

I recorded Yeah, ten years ago already Wow Yeah, and like you said when we get the guys over at the studio and sometimes we'll get some we've had a trumpet on it At one point in time and I believe it was Jeff chote They put in almost like a Spanish sounding trumpet along with a little spaghetti Western Yeah, that's exactly what it was. Everybody loves playing the song. See see what I mean by he's just like you know, he you know, everybody gets inspired by the music that he writes and and sometimes it sounds like a Like a song from like fistful of dollars That song right there we played it where it sounds like an old Clint Eastwood movie And sometimes we played it was a little more rock and roll to it and everything But yeah ten years ago you wrote that one.

Well, I wrote it around 1990 I recorded it recorded it ten years ago. Wow. No kidding.

So yeah You've got an album out or a couple albums or five CDs and the fifth one I did digital only Okay, starting to spend too much money on the CDs and the kids don't buy CDs nowadays Yeah, it's either streaming or they go back and get into vinyl. All right, they don't even know what a CD is Yeah Do you have any of the you have the tracks left over for those albums something that you can convert the digital and make them? available That oh they are available streaming services Oh, okay. I went through a CD baby and they distribute it to all the various.

I got a Spotify They got a whole shitload of lesser Services, right, right. I just you know, I just did the new song with Gary Victorine. Okay.

Yeah, I just put that up on SoundCloud Okay, okay kind of going the cheap way out Yeah, right Gary Victorine the pedal steel player from the hat that he's wearing the trailer park twisters Oh, yeah, maybe he founded Listerine. No, no One of the premier pedal steel players in the Midwest, yeah, he is the best he's very good. He's very good Yeah, we should actually have those guys Before I met him when I was recording there's another guy and Gary knows a rich coke Yeah, I've had him play pedal steel on a few of my songs right and he's also very you know Those are two of the best.

Yeah. Yeah, you know not a lot of pedal steel players out there No, so you tend to you know, when you hear of them, you know who they are. Yeah so the fact that you know, they know each other and You know, you have had both of them play on my songs now.

So right which is pretty cool How many songs do you have out there? Legitimate Recordings out, you know for sale about three dozen songs Okay. All right, but how many do you do you think that you've written over your lifetime probably close to 200? Okay, well, I guess a lot of a lot of garbage. Yeah.

Yeah, and I would never even waste time or money Recording them, you know, but you have to go, you know, you have to go through the process, but that's also it's like anything else So this one this song stunk but it's still practice and I believe it's like anything else the more you do something The easier it would start getting right But then I stopped for a long time and yeah, I'm trying to get going again Yeah, you know, I've written songs before that. I thought man this song stinks, right? But for some reason I liked it, but I didn't think it was very good song and it wasn't you know The song didn't stink because I thought it was a bad song. It's stunk because okay Maybe I'm using chords that I normally don't use maybe I'm singing in a key that I don't really, you know You know sing in regularly, right and over time it got better and better and better to the point was like well Actually, this is a pretty good song and it was really my Being uncomfortable with the music and the way I was playing in the way I was singing it not necessarily the chord structure and the and the lyrics to the song and everything So so what's your process? You know when you when you sit down and write a song what's coming first there's no set Sometimes I start with lyrics.

Sometimes I have a musical idea. I think that's harder to Do the music first and then try to fit lyrics to it I think it's better to have the lyrics first, but I've done them both ways, right? So there's no no secret formula. Mm-hmm when you add in the minor seventh chords and you know all this other stuff That we talked about earlier You don't you don't really have a music theory background.

Is this is it? No, it just something just happens or You got to the point where I think I'm gonna put a minor seventh in here I go with what I think is gonna sound good. Mm-hmm Yeah, so you're a true you're a true by ear player. Yeah You had mentioned to me once that Some of my chord structures are not Usual.

Yeah, and I think that's probably because I am self-taught so I don't follow any formula Yeah, you know if I want to throw some odd chord in or do an odd progression. It's like hey, it's my song I'm gonna do what I want to do Right, right. Yeah, it's it's like the old saying, you know, why'd you do it? Well, nobody told me I couldn't Yeah, exactly 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 90s 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 I 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 could check it out on your favorite streaming platforms and on the web At someone you should know podcast.com. That's the someone you should know podcast with me Rick Anthony making a difference one artist at a time Yeah, so were you but were you born and raised here in the area around Juliet? I was born and raised in Chicago by Midway Airport. Okay, 55th Street side By st. Camilla's Church.

All right. Yeah. Yeah So what led you to your particular style then because you've got kind of an Americana type kind of yeah What led you to that? Well? Not the only influence but probably my biggest influence was John Fogarty and Creedence Clearwater Oh sure.

Yeah, and I think you may hear a lot of that most a lot of my songs most definitely Yeah, you know, I love love this music. I just love a lot of solo stuff. He's still doing Plus And he has a good guitar so he's a good soloist when he wants to be a lot of their songs don't even have Guitar solos in them.

They don't and when I was first learning how to play that made it easier Like I don't have to try to do a solo in this. Yeah, right, right, so that was a unique thing about about them actually because Technically there wasn't a guitar solo But he was such a good rhythm guitar player that he would put little licks into his rhythm Oh, yeah, and it and it sounded like he was playing a solo, but he really wasn't Yeah, that was interesting about his playing for sure. Yeah bad moon rising.

Yeah the solo on that He's just kind of playing the core instead of playing the rhythm the chords like open. He's playing like Right Which kind of gives it that lead guitar kind of yeah kind of feel to it, you know, just doing a little Yeah Basically a chord and just noodling around with it. Yeah, so he does do a lot of stuff like that Yeah, it makes it easy for those of us.

Like you said who are self-taught who? You know, we play what we play because we don't know any better I'm in that I'm in that category myself I was just having that conversation with somebody and I can't remember who it was. They you know, they asked me You know how much you know music theory you have I go none Music theory. I mean I had you know, I had other things going on in college, you know I wasn't a music major or anything.

Well, how do you know what the play is? Well, you know, I took organ lessons of a kid is a kid. I can read music I can certainly read me put sheet music in front of me I can read and I can tell you what these notes are and these timings are and I can I can do all that Stuff but I'm sitting on stage playing. I'm not thinking about okay I'm gonna throw in an augmented seventh chord here because music theory says I can do that.

Yeah I don't I mean nobody who does that? I don't do that. Yeah, and I mean I've picked up a little stuff along the way I kind of like I hear the blues guys, you know, I'd say to me Key blues in a one three five. Well, I think that means those are the major chords and that Key one three and five earth, you know, a would be probably be a D and E or well Well, the a is always the one and in the and then the two is the is the note after that and this in the In the scale of you know a and yeah, none of us like a two or a four I think those are the minor chord.

So I have some concept of some of the stuff but It's not like second nature for me. I have to think about things. Let's just play.

What sounds good Yeah, that's right. Yeah, it sounds good. Don't worry about it.

Yeah, so what's our next one? I've been trying to play this at open mic a little more. I Do it at the acoustic open mics. This is one of my few guitar solos Okay If you'll indulge me and I hope I don't screw it up.

That's okay. This is called alcohol blues I wrote this when I was like 16 years old Wow, but when I wrote it there was no guitar solos It was just all rhythm. Okay, when I went in to record this ten years ago I'm like, I got to work something up for this, right? Right, right, right So you're gonna throw in some kind of a guitar solo.

Yep, and Still keep the rhythm going Hopefully. All right I'm all for it. Here we go.

I'm waiting with a bated breath Walking down the street Here come the devil walk straight at me he left to call me sinner I said no I ain't he left at me again and said you ain't no saint I'm gonna go down with you drinking down six feet under down to where there's fire and smoke Your body will turn into ashes soul is forever Brimstone's gonna make you choke Sleeping off the whiskey in my bed that night An angel come from heaven. Call me a miserable sight He said you better think again about the hereafter Then he left but in my dreams I heard Satan's laughter Down with you drinking down six feet under down to where there's fire and smoke Your body will turn into ashes soul is forever Brimstone's gonna make you choke Walking down the street Here come devil walk straight at me He left to call me sinner. I said no I ain't He left at me again said you ain't no saint Down with you drinking down six feet under down to where there's fire and smoke Your body will turn into ashes soul is forever Brimstone's gonna make you choke All right, very nice nice, thank you, so you can play so you can play some guitar Thank you for doing I Was starting to lose the timing So thanks for giving me something to anchor anchor to you know that was a number one You've been holding on to me because that song would go over extremely well at any open jam Any open mic? So yeah, you got to start playing that more And then the other thing was that was a prime example of what we were talking about before because you know here was this blue Song whiskey blues you called it Alcohol alcohol blues alcohol blues, and I'm listening to it, and I'm expecting the traditional blues Blues that's but that throws guys off at the open mic because as soon as they hear they automatically think this is 12 bar blues right and I Stay with a t for a long time before I finally change Change core right right.

Yeah, it is not a 12 It is not a 12 bar blues But it has that feel to it right and you've got your own little twist to it that makes it a Joe Aja song and then doesn't sound like every other blues song that people hear it. You know it open James, so that's Again, that's me not knowing music theory and being self-taught the time I wrote this I had no idea what a 12 bar blues song well. You know it's right It's a song about alcohol, so maybe it's a 12 bar crawl There you go, that's what it is.

That's what it is. It's a 12 bar. Yeah, we're gonna.

It's a 12 bar crawl in the key of What was that? Yeah, yeah, yeah, there you go so our crawl in the key of key of E. I like you know I like that man That was interesting yeah, you gotta start playing that again. You've never heard that before no. I've never heard that song before I have a feeling we're gonna hear a few of them that we haven't Pretty good.

I like that one. I like that one so that when you wrote when you were 16 Yes, you know I wonder why it is that you hear this a lot You know what you're saying here tonight isn't you know being said the first time there's a lot of famous songwriters out there that say The same thing I picked up the guitar or I sat down at the piano I did whatever and I wanted to play But I really didn't know I knew like three or four chords and so instead of trying to play somebody else's music I just wrote my own music yep you know because Nobody knows how it's supposed to sound so if I screw it up nobody know you know yeah If I'm playing trying to play some claps in there. You know man.

He stinks it Yeah, well what how old were you or what about what time was it that you decided that you were gonna start recording these things? Was that's about ten years ago ten years ago is when you started putting everything down in recordings. Yeah, I So Right back in Chicago back in the late 80s early 90s I was recording on a Tascam analog 4-track was going nowhere I didn't know anybody else at that time. I knew Jesse Perez, but oh yeah He had his band thing going on and right now.

I don't know if there even were open mics. That's almost 30 30 years ago 30 35 years ago. I don't even know if the Uptown Jam was going on Yeah So I kind of I actually quit playing for about 10 or 12 years Okay, moved out the playing field one of my neighbors played guitar So we started jamming together fairly regularly and that kind of rekindled You know Then he kind of put the bug in like he started hearing my originals like you should record some of these yeah The studio I was at cinnamon sound in Aurora my The owner was in a band his bass player was dating my niece for a while So that's how I found out about it.

Yeah, so on the rest of this history Yeah, yeah, any any plans to maybe put together a band and actually start playing these a little more regularly I'd like to do a few more solo shows more than I'm doing. I'm kind of I have a lot of health issues I really don't want to start you know I see guys That are playing three four shows a week every week that would kill me I couldn't do that This past year I think I was doing like a show every other month Okay, and that I would like to do a little more than that But but health health issues besides many other things. I do have congestive heart failure so that's kind of Limits what I can do right right right right limit it limits it to like our performances And what do you what do you think I'm like? Instead of every other month like every couple of we may be once a month would want some probably work Okay, okay a lot of the shows I did I split them with other musicians right do half and half the last show I did in February for my birthday did a full two hours by myself right I was nervous about that I even told the owner and black dog.

I was like I might not be able to make it two hours You said I'll just go as far as you can go you know right right right, but you made it you're gonna say yeah you know I Guarantee that you won't there isn't a shortage of bands or people out there that would play some of your songs for you There's got it. You know there's got to be a you know you think about that all the time You know there's there's the national scene where you got singers, and you got songwriters What about the local scene where you have singers, and you have songwriters? What about the local guys and it's you know they might not be songwriters themselves. They're a look.

They're an original band They're not songwriters themselves, but then you got the Joe legis that could provide that's right the music. That's right Maybe there's a mirror. There's an avenue for that come and learn my songs and be my backup Yeah, you know we've been talking about that for a couple years now Joe.

I think we need to just figure that out We need to do that yeah, well before Colvin hit You know I did have it back at the old before the studio was port noir. Yeah, right. I had a band together call David Rickard gave us the name bad corner.

I remember I remember that I remember Yeah, I was not crazy about that name, but it kind of grew on me Yeah, well, but I had he goes just ask the open mic guys recruit some players cuz yeah He was I don't I don't want you to do a solo show I want you to be in a band situation I Couldn't have got luckier. I picked like at West on lead guitar right Jerome Walker on bass Yeah, and one of the best bass players I know still to this day right and Jeff Rio on drums, and he's he's an awesome drummer, right? He's not he doesn't show off. He plays to the song You know if it's a quiet song he holds back if it's a loud song You know and he can play and he can play anything Is by far the best drum no knack at any of the other drummers? I know, but he's like to me.

He's the best right maybe because he was in my band. Maybe Impartial right right now. He's he's a good band It's not just because of that reason he's a good drummer So but that lasted only for about maybe a year and a half then Colvin hit and right After we came out of Colvin everybody kind of already had their own things going on Yeah, Wes used to say we're just on hiatus, but I don't know that we would ever perform as a unit again Why not? Everybody's busy with their own stuff Well, I want to hear another song.

I'm curious as to what's I I would like to hear actually more than one song, but Let's see how much time we have what what's a what else do you have for us? No? Do you want to see Chanty? Yeah Yeah, let's do the sea shanty and probably one of the most Lyrically probably the most mature thing that I've written Yeah, and I love that Kiki's learning harmonies on this yeah Yeah, you know I just strummed the whole thing, but she starts. She's picking out notes and stuff and it sounds Wonderful, I've got to see that when you guys I've got to see that when you guys perform because like I said I we've kind of watched her grow as a musician over the years When when I first met her I couldn't imagine her playing lead guitar. You know she was a beginner She was a very big beginner now.

She's like Really lead guitar. She's just picking the chords. Yeah.

Yeah, you know I Love her. I can't see what she's wonderful. She's like so she's got a wonderful voice Yeah, yeah, and we're probably gonna do that song Friday at Black Dog at the open mic nice, okay? I don't know what else she's got me doing stuff She's got me stretching out because I had to learn Somebody thought that because of her voice she should do Kim Carnes Betty Davis I oh wow so she learned it, and then she got me accompanying her on guitar And it's a little different like you know I'm normally just strumming pretty straightforward, but that's like Yeah Different and new for me so yeah, she's making me stretch out a little little bit You know good All right, well, let's hear this is really I Call it the sea shit.

Yeah, well I hear the waves coming in yeah Still drifting away We talk and we talk For hours on Something must give When two worlds collide You've moved on And I'm broken inside You're still Drifting away Through your lifeline hoping you'd stay tides gone out from this You're still drifting away You'd say that's just life And I know that it's true You're drifting away But I'm turning blue Once twice Times going down You're drifting away But I'm the one drowning You're still drifting away Hoping you'd stay You're still drifting away Was it Was it It Or just feelings Oh still drifting away through your lifeline hoping you'd stay tides gone out from this Only thing you're still drifting away Yeah See see shanty I see I see Even even the lyrics. I love that song. It's thank you So one of the few songs that I wrote a bridge to it.

Usually my stuff is verse chorus verse chorus, right? One of the few things I put a bridge in there And I always forget about it when we've played it live because it comes up and i'm like, oh shit That's right. There's a bridge in the song Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so that's one of my favorite shanties.

Yeah, I hate those lemon shanties and crap. Yeah, this one I like this one Yeah, yeah, I told you it had that feel to it so if people want to um, and i'm gonna ask you to play another one before we sign off but but So you mentioned that your stuff is available on streaming services. Are you on spotify? Where can they find you so The distributor is cd.

Baby. They've got it. They've got it on spotify iTunes rhapsody, I think there's several smaller site.

They got it on about a dozen sites Okay, some of them are smaller. There's one that's like a russian streaming site. Okay, so my stuff's getting played in russia.

Yeah Yeah, so so if people want to find you Um, is it easier for them to go to the cd baby website or is it easier just go to spotify and put your name in How do they have they could go wherever whoever they've got an account with? Gotcha. Okay. If it's easier for them, then just go to spotify or Or even the stuff my stuff's on amazon also.

Okay. Okay. So anybody that's got the What do they call amazon prime I think you get your unlimited Downloads and stuff right, right.

So and if somebody wanted to contact you and say hey joe, I love this song Um, i'd like to play it. Are you open to that? Yeah, I would be yeah, you know talk my my only stipulation You'd have my blessings, but if you start making money off it, I want Of course At least the basic royalty whatever right right right Well at that point at that point you got to get your lawyer and everything involved and sure but um So so then other than that just to find you I mean you're on facebook and you know People can find you on facebook and stuff like that and be able to reach out to you that way as well And then all the local open mics. Yeah.

Yeah, joe studio Vinyl cafe sable creek winery garage band brewing 178 in brookfield all of which we would love to have your sponsorships Which by the way, um the the winery um They are moving. Yes right over by my house. I can literally walk to the new location from cool So I expect you to I expect to see you there on wednesday.

They only do it one wednesday a month Yeah, right. I'm hoping they would expand on that They've got quite a well They've got quite a bit of work to do on the building before they open it up because it's an old bank You know, it's it's the bank that I banked at for 20 some years and they decided to close down the That location so they've got to convert this entire bank into a winery So I I can't imagine how long it's going to take. It's it's not like it's going to be up and running next month, right? So it's going to be it's going to be a ways out, but I can't wait for that though.

So just a side note on still drifting away I have no recording of that. I may okay take another attempt that song was kind of cursed I tried three different studios. I'm not going to go into details But something happened every time and it never got recorded Well, maybe maybe you can be a guinea pig at the studio next time you were well Long as i'll have gary on pedal steel because he's got a little home set up.

Yeah, right. He recorded my new song right, right and he's got to play pedal stealing so Getting back to the point though, so I have no recording of that But we did it at pub 78 At an open mic. I brought card chord charts card charts chord charts for him and kelly And there used to be a guy mike that came in and played keyboard.

So they all had chord charts for the song We play there is a beautiful live version of it on youtube. Okay, if you look, you know search for it and First time they they never heard the song before Right, they I gave them the charts. They followed me and it came out.

So beautiful. Wow And you know, it's just and that just shows how professional and how good they all are, you know to be able to you know Never hear the song and just do an awesome job on it. So if you go to youtube and put Drive my way Probably type my name in first.

Okay, or You probably get it type the name of the song and get a live version of it with you And there's a pedal steel gary and kelly on bass slam bass. Yeah, and a guy playing piano excellence Okay, so it's a really nice Yeah, yeah seeing that I have no studio recording of it right that's was like a really great version of it Hey, and i'm thankful i'm thankful For all the musicians, I know yourself included, but I know so many really talented people that I do a lot of acoustic open mics where i'm just up there by myself Sure, but when I could have a band behind me and they know the songs, right? You know, sometimes that's just magic, right, right Well, i'd like to i'd like to get one more and you can like help us close out the show I mean, we we've teased everybody with old and broken down so much I was thinking that but if there's something else you'd prefer to play that that can do that That's fine. But I mean we've teased everybody with old and broken down.

I think that should be our closing I wish we had more time i'd play, you know, three four more songs. Oh, yeah But you're right though. You have already mentioned old and broken down and uh You're listening to the rock and roll chicago podcast Talk to me i'm just another train wreck When I was 23 Living life was easy living life was free Me Learned the can go at both ends when I was 34 Getting harder to recover from the night before Oh Pretty girls won't talk to me.

I'm just another train wreck Did you Burn the candle at both ends when I was 45 Wondering how much longer i'll be alive Now the candle flickers the lights are turned down low I'll sing you one more song then it's time to go But I ain't dead yet Pretty girls won't talk to me I'm just another train wreck I'm old and broken down, but I ain't dead yet This has been an evening with joe legia everybody It sure has Thanks for coming out joe. Thanks for having me It's been a blast We'll see you later And there you have it mighty joe my friend joe mighty joe. I think you should call him my friend joe My friend joe.

Yeah That'd be a great solo act my friend joe could be a an album Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, my friend joe. Yeah, see what you know, it's you know, like I told you he is a he's a true Songwriter, you know, he didn't start off doing this to be a performer or anything You know, okay singer.

Okay guitar player, but he's a songwriter and he and he goes out everywhere He goes he tells a story and i've never seen somebody Hold an audience in their hand like him his the stories that he tells are great They really are and it's shocking how many other people like hey joe. Can I play this song? Can I do this song? He look i'm telling you he he has his own business. He could probably sell most of his songs to his local musicians Yeah, well, he I mean he said he started when he was what 15 16 playing the guitar.

He started writing songs immediately, right? He did. Yeah, he did and they're and they're good songs It's when when I see him out at open, uh at open jams and other people get on stage with him and back him up It's like the songs just you know become their own, you know He finally gets to hear them the way he heard them in his in his own head Just writing them on an acoustic guitar and they sound fantastic. They really do He he really should keep recording them and yeah, see if he can sell them Yeah, like the ones he did here tonight.

They were those were good. Yeah, I like the little stories. Yeah For sure, well that was a lot of fun and as usual Thanks for listening to the rock and roll chicago podcast where you get a new exciting episode every tuesday.

See you next week Hey, everybody. It's ray the roadie and this is hollywood Mike of the rock and roll chicago podcast if you've been joining our weekly program We have great news for you just tune in to road to rock radio on mondays at 7 p.m Central time and you can hear a rebroadcast of one of our past episodes then again on thursdays at 7 p.m You can hear our most current episode brought to you by the illinois rock and roll museum on route 66 So go to road to rock dot org scroll down and click on radio station That'll bring you to the road to rock radio a station committed entirely to the great music from illinois From chicago blues born on maxwell street to today's rock and roll and everything in between 24-7 all music with its roots in illinois The rock and roll chicago podcast is edited by paul martin theme song courtesy of eminar 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