Ep 207 Gotham Ramblers

The reviews are in, and everyone loves this band, Gotham Ramblers. A quite diverse setlist comes with the band so no one can say they didn’t play anything they liked. We were fortunate to have them all in our studio and were able to talk with them before the took off like Batman after seeing the Bat Sign in the sky.

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 Ray the roadie and this here's Hollywood Mike. Hello Hollywood Mike.

How are you? I'm doing fantastic. How you doing? I'm doing good. I'm glad to be back.

Me too. There's a bit of a vacation, but I'm glad we're here It was a well-deserved vacation. I I did enjoy the time off, but I missed you.

Oh Yeah, I bet you say that to all the guys well No, only you because the only way I know when my next gig is to talk to you. That's true. That's true Otherwise, you wouldn't know anything.

No, absolutely not. No. Yeah, so who we got here today tonight.

We have the Gotham Ramblers Yes. Oh, yes Wait, that was short. It was short.

They weren't all excited about not that excited. No, I'm sorry It's gonna be it's gonna be a shitty interview. This is where you're all right.

We're all fighting right now Are you really we're y'all that's cool. Two of us are Democrats two of us are One of us is independent one of us isn't here two of us aren't here, you know So they're in the trunk of a car somewhere. That's right, you know, you know blue barrel.

Yeah. Yeah a lot of pain So are you guys are really arguing politically with a band? No, no, I'm just we are like we do like each other We're missing our drummer Joe our drummer Joe his wife He was on his way here His wife's on a transplant list. Oh, and they called and they said they have a transplant So that's kind of you know more important than anything.

So hopefully that's all gonna go. I don't know if it's gonna happen yet They couldn't just put in an ice. That'd be nice, right? Well now we can talk about the brick He drinks too much and you know, Regina used to enable him with too much drinks.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we stopped her though So well that you know, that's the way it goes.

No, but I hope everything works out. Yeah, we do too Yeah, that's we'd hate to get a new drummer. Yeah Give us the number cuz you never know.

Well, you know, it might be too soon. It might be too soon for this never too soon No, no, it's never too soon. Always good to have one in your back pocket.

Yeah, that's true. That's right Yeah for sure for sure. So tell us about you guys man the Gotham Ramblers, so the Gotham Ramblers Regina's husband came up with the name Gotham Ramblers Gotham is in It means Batman it's about Batman Gotham City itself.

I own a Batmobile So I don't really eat in Batmobile. So we kind of he Loved the name Gotham Rambler Ramblers is kind of an Irish thing, you know And we do a lot of Irish music and stuff, but the Batman thing we tied into it So, okay, so, you know, hold on how the hell did you get your hands on a Batmobile? So I know I know who Batman is. Okay, and I used to date his sister And he said if I break up with her he would give me the Batmobile and that's not that's that's how it happens And you have the Michael Keaton? Yeah, I'll show you a picture.

Let me roll up a picture I know it's kind of boring to show you that because we were no because we were totally joking earlier today when he when he Said the two bands that we were interviewing tonight Yeah The first one was the stingrays and I was like it sounds like two made-up bands from like a Marvel movie or something like that Oh, wow, that's the interior Yeah, it's 20 feet long. It's a tank. It's it's it's a boat.

So it's 20 and then I Stole it like when I bought it I got it for nothing I mean, I almost almost like I want a lot of money for and I just I got it for almost nothing It was just you know, when you talk to someone if you could really yeah And and I felt him out and stuff and I got it for nothing and then in 2007 I don't know if you guys know who man cow is. Of course I do. So I produced his show I was his executive producer.

I still work with I still do his videos. Okay, I've been working with him for 20 years and He had an auction in 2007 Yeah, and he was selling I was lost in space Star Trek beetle stuff all this kind of crap and I said hey I'll put my Batmobile in it. We'll put a ridiculous price on it because I don't want to sell it But we put a ridiculous price and the fucking thing sold.

Oh, I mean like look at my goosebumps Yeah, well, so and it was like I had tears when I think went away in 2007 and went away I was like, well, it's gonna come back. It's gonna come back in 2014 We see it on Pawn Stars. Mm-hmm, like I want to get rid of it The guy's a billionaire her bought it.

He's in Vegas. He's a billionaire. He's got three other Batmobiles So, uh, I had his number But I hid it in my house because I want bug him cuz I knew I would come and bug up and then like two Years later.

I found his number called him up said hey, can I come see the Batmobile? I come see it and I start crying because it's dirty He's got three Batmobiles, but mine filthy tires flat and they're looking at me like I'm nuts, right? And I said hey, I'm in Vegas. I don't drink or do drugs yet when I hit a hundred, right? We're gonna party So I asked him if I could wash it spend a hundred bucks in my money Washington clean and he sees what I did It comes back three days later. He throws the keys at me tells me take it home.

Wow. Wow Amazing. Yeah, so it's back home.

So is it is there a basis to that or does somebody build it that way? Like is it like it's a Chevy Impala somebody built it. Somebody built the replica. Yeah, it's got a 450.

Yeah Wow, it's fast. It's always 5,000 pounds. I mean, it's a it's a boat.

It's a tank Yeah, right, right and the police pull me over they just want to see I don't played it and one cop was like hey go through the Red light camera in 95th. My wife works it and so can I just drive? Right, right. No, no, how are they? How are they gonna find you driving the Batmobile? I mean that's doing conspicuous They would never so I don't think that happened.

Yeah, so it was cool to see you don't dress up like Batman I do dress up as bad Absolutely have to dress up like Batman and you're driving the fucking Batmobile I'm gonna show you this picture and you describe what I'm doing in this picture. Okay, describe what I'm this is a family show What's it? What is you're marrying somebody fucking right? I am As Batman that cool and then people come and they come see they come, you know with their wedding dresses on and it's beautiful You know what? I mean? Like look how beautiful they look. That's cool Yes, that's pretty amazing.

So we've never brought it to a show. We want to bring it through We call it the Gotham Rambler mobile, right? You know, I mean, so we're gonna bring to some of our shows and stuff as long as they pay us more, right? Right. No, you know, there's a there's a local band around here and I'm terrible with name So I'm not gonna remember the name of I'm not gonna remember the name because I've been seeing this band in like 10 years But they had this old Like 57 something, you know hot rod and they would spray-paint the name of their, you know They're on the side of the hot rod and stuff and then they use like removable chalk paint and everything It was had a flat black paint job on it And then they'd write the date and when they're playing everything park it outside the venue for like two or three days before they would Start that's kind of cool.

Yeah. Yeah, I think you get people to stop just to see the Batmobile. Oh, yeah They probably all hate each other not like most bands.

Yeah No, I mean, yeah, yeah, only one guy can have a Batmobile in a band, you know, I mean, yeah, that's right So so I'm assuming that that you started this whole band. No Well, no me and Regina start and she's gonna tell the story about how we met. Okay? All right.

So I was a bartender on the weekends, you know, I Did play music for many years in an Irish traditional band Okay, and somehow it leaked out that I was a musician this fella. No, do you have an invisible plane? but Woman They don't get that kind of stuff there, okay All right. Well, you know I talk about meat, you know, you talk about meat She knows that you know the black white pudding and a lot of things but anyway, yeah Long story short, you wouldn't leave me alone till I agreed to play and I was like who the hell is this guy? He's like a stalker or something.

It's like what I'll give it. I'll give it a go. You know, what's the worst that can happen? He's gonna murder me.

We're gonna be really good and we're gonna start a band. Okay, so You know went over to the house met the wife. I was like, all right, I'm not gonna get murdered Not yet the night still yeah, I Went during the day, you know, I was saying that safe So you were bartending your bartending right and you're over there and so you shake up a cocktail and he goes hmm She probably can sing pretty well Yeah I was playing there that night.

Okay, he was just I liked her energy, you know, I mean her energy was excellent I liked how she was it, you know dealing with the customers and stuff and then we started talking and she mentioned that she played Okay, I know or accordion or some shit like that. And then I was like, well, we should play together Cuz I like playing with women, you know, I mean, it's like, you know It's it's just nice to play with women because guys want to you know Sometimes you get some really strange look from some dudes some dudes come up to you sometimes and they're like all googly-eyed Like they give us more tips, you know, of course, I mean, they're not gonna tip me that much or Jim You know, I'm both Jim you are handsome, you know, that's double but um, I agree to do it and you know what? It's been wonderful. I mean, I Can't believe how much I've learned in the last two years, but um, you know, definitely a lot of work Because I haven't played any of the stuff So we've been you know experimenting doing a lot of different types of music I started off playing the piano, but then I realized that it was more fun to play the accordion.

Yeah easier to carry Yeah, doing heavy metal with the accordion is pretty cool. Yeah Yeah But I will tell you I don't think ever in the history of the world was that sentence ever Muttered that you know that the accordion is more fun than the piano. I don't think I've ever heard that out of anybody's mouth before so Congratulations.

That's a first for the show Yeah, it's for me and I can dance You know, I can really get into it. Yeah Way more energy. The accordion has a lot more energy Heels, right? Right.

Well, I mean my entire history comes from central, Louisiana So, you know Cajun music and stuff like that. I know so many people that can actually play the accordion. So I totally get yeah Oh good.

Okay. We actually have a joke and we actually have a joke It's like that, you know, the definition of a gentleman is somebody that knows how to play the accordion, but doesn't Now the real reason I play it is because it was handed down through the generations In Ireland, you're kind of forced to learn an instrument From an early age. So we had that in the house So it wasn't like I could pick what I wanted to do So I kind of did it against my will and then I stopped doing it and was playing guitar piano anything else I could get my hands on and then when I came here, it was like, oh you're Irish You must be, you know playing Irish music and so kind of learned there was a big market for Irish music And no one else could play the accordion.

So I was like right away. There was I got I got a job, right? No good. They still wanted me right? That's right.

I honestly hated the Irish music I mean, I just hated it and then when she said we should do some Irish music and she gave me something now It's like it's some great music. I mean they sing about you know, drinking Yeah, and they also sing about drinking and then they sing about drinking and it's cool. It's very it's very fun stuff You know, yeah, I enjoy the music now Jim here I've known Jim for like I think 30 years and like that and he's played in a few different bands with me and He's I play in an experimental band called Monk 9 or a two-piece and he's joined us on stage And I think that's how did we meet actually we met in college through a girlfriend.

I had at that time and You knew I was in a band. I was in fury at that time. I think yeah, and You had a class with her and she walked up and she said hey, there's this guy that wants to meet you And I'm you know, probably within a month.

You were probably in the band. Yeah And my hair was really big. I had the big I think they kicked me out cuz my dad was too big I was like Pete Best.

I was getting all the women and stuff His hair was better than his guitar playing Yeah, yeah, we're young well, you know, you got to have the eye candy, you know, oh Yeah, it worked out back then, you know, thank you God. So and so who's missing? Our drummer. His name is Joe and I he plays a suitcase drum.

That's really cool. And it's just made out of a suitcase Me and him were in a bank of Monk 9. We were these really silly costumes from outer space We were on America's Got Talent and we did six European tours me and him with the suitcase and it's it's cool We were in we were playing in Hamburg and I play a machine-gun guitar Okay, I'd have to take the neck off every every time we'd get in a plane cuz they wouldn't let me I couldn't check it you know, right and we're in Hamburg Germany and walking down the street in our outfits and These cops come to us and they he actually said ID, you know ID and right but to me I heard him say papers And he goes what are you guys doing because we got these really weird often I go we're playing up the street What's in the bag and I said put him he opens up the bag and he sees the sight because it's a real like sight from right from a gun and he'd like jumps back and he looks at me with like a look of death on his Face like what's he supposed and I just smiled at him and I said open it up Yeah, and I smiled open it up, right and he opened it up with the biggest shit grin We took pictures with the police in Hamburg and they were cool. They were very cool and holding and it's a good guitar That looks like a machine.

Yeah Wow, that yeah, they were very cool to us. They were neat. Yeah.

Yeah, so talk about the genre of music then a little bit because I'm being I'm intrigued well You know as he mentioned we do a lot of Irish, but okay, really I think classic rock would probably be our go-to Okay, and then we somehow fall off the bandwagon always go to country We do a lot of country a lot of we're just starting to do some originals like I think there's an original you're gonna play Call gypsy moon. Okay that we shot in Arizona and a few different other states that we but When we're having our practice We did a song that I loved and I hadn't heard it. I don't know if I've ever heard it but Maybe once or twice, but it's breaking the law.

Oh, yeah, and so that Judas Priest, yeah accordion What the heck, you know So I think we need to continue to explore and not just kind of limit ourselves to one or two genres Because you know, that's boring. Right, right. I might turn into heavy metal all together.

Why not? I mean, I mean bagpipes worked for AC DC, right? Yeah It's whatever makes the money right whatever makes the bread. Yeah. Yeah, it was fun.

It's been a lot of it's uh, that's cool So so you're playing mostly covers. Is it is it I just want to say are you are you kind of? rearranging cover songs Yeah a little bit and some songs like we do some songs if you listen to the original doesn't sound like anything like it You know, right some of them that we do and a lot of high-energy. We want people to dance You know, but it's really diverse too Okay, you know and I know a lot of I know a lot of Chicago bands that don't like being diverse You know, I mean It's all about, you know being a cookie cutter.

Yeah, because you know, it's it's you know, who's booking the bands? Well, this band was great. I need another band. That sounds exactly like that band.

Yeah to come in Yeah, so where are you guys playing then? I mean, I'm curious as to what kind of venues are looking for your brand of Johnny Cabs. You ever heard Johnny Cabs? Oh, yeah, I have I've been to Johnny Cabs a few times. I love going to their open jam They've got an open mic.

I think we're doing that next Tuesday. Yeah There we play a lot of Irish places Quigley's. Yeah Bailey Bailey Doyle's.

Yeah Gayle Park and on the north side In a place in Chicago called Irish American Heritage Center, but oh, yeah, we've played at like the Oaklawn Festival We're playing in New Lenox on a like a Sunday evening concert. So, you know, we kind of Like to mix it up as well. So it's not always like just the pub scene.

Yeah, we're doing some gigs in New York New York was fun, but nice. Yeah, they do a lot of private parties. Okay as well.

So One of the songs that really gets the crowd going every time is shipping up to Boston. Do you know that? No, I don't think I know I'll kick Murphy's there. Oh, yeah punk Irish rock band.

Okay Yeah, so, you know that kind of started us thinking like oh we got to start going towards that Type of music because just you get a response every time right? But as you said earlier, I don't oh, I mean I just play what I think sounds good And a lot of it is harmony. I mean, yes, I'll play the riff At times if you know, I think it'll sound right, right? The tone has to be there. Okay? Well, I think this is gonna be a multiple performance night.

I think so Yeah, so I think what we should do is we should take a quick break. You're gonna play something to huh? You're gonna play. Oh, no, I'm not playing anything.

Oh, no, this is all you guys This is about you We're gonna take a little break. We'll be right back. Yeah, you're listening to the rock and roll Chicago podcast.

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 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 I'm christy from crime cave podcast I've had a huge interest in true crime since my days of watching marathons have 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 For the first time tonight, we've got the gotham ramblers Oh Yeah, yeah, yeah nice nice Nice. All right Oh, we should have brought the tip jar.

Yeah, you should have you should have oh, man, you should have you know, i'll tell you what um The accordion is one of those instruments when you hear it all by yourself. You either like it Or you hate it exactly, but But no, but in the in the context of a band like we just listened to that sounded beautiful That's it sounded really good. Thank you.

I was absolutely I was absolutely Like we both looked at each other like no shit. That sounds good Wow, that was really good So was that an original? No, that's uh, I heard something by a guy named steve earl. Oh That guy yeah, okay.

No kidding. No, that was good. I really he's a duke isn't he? He's a democrat Earl I'm, not sure.

No. Oh, hold on. I gotta find it, honey.

I got I got I have to do it. I have to find it. Isn't he doesn't he paint cars? Thank you Yeah, that's no it is the duke of earl shives.

Yeah. Yeah, that's what it is. That's awesome.

Yeah So gosh, I I found myself, you know, you know tapping my foot. Yeah, you know and kind of slapping my thigh along Yeah, well, she's not available for other bands, buddy. So, you know what I mean? That was actually my thigh.

I was actually slapping. I was actually talking about you. No Sailor.

Hey, yeah, nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with that. I like to see you in a robin outfit Outfit think about that rolling with me.

You know what I mean? You know, I just might have to do that in the batmobile. Wow, I could do that. Yeah You know michael keaton didn't have a robin did he? No, I don't think so.

No that came the next two years later with the nipples on the suit. Yeah You needed the nipples on the suit, right? Make it batman, you know Yeah, they say it was there's no robin in any of the batman movies because they say it's like this contractual You know thing like who owns the rights to robin really? I think it was the nipples on the suit That did it. I didn't nobody wanted to see they work for you the nipples on the you know Actually, I didn't notice the nipples on the suit until everybody started talking about the nipples on the suit Then I couldn't stop seeing the nipples on the suit Yeah, I did I I saw those movies like nipples on the suit and I went to make a look for it It's all shit.

There's nipples on the suit. Yeah But oh well Do you have nipples on your suit? I don't have nipples on my soul. No, i'm i'm no nipple.

He's the guy He's the nipples. Yeah, man. Yeah, no nipples on my suit.

So he's a little less little How do you stop talking about nipples on batmobile suits? You know what I mean? I think we should move on I think we should move on. Yeah, I don't know Yeah, i'm through Actually, well nice meeting you guys Okay, uh Jim steal a t-shirt on your way out. I wear an extra large.

Yeah. Yeah No, I'll tell you what, you know the the that type of music It's i've always thought of it as being like situational like i'm hanging out in an irish pub next thing You know when irish band starts playing it's like okay now all of a sudden i'm getting the whole Experience of being in an irish pub, but I mean that was really cool It just kind of it literally just kind of transformed the the room a little bit for me. I wish I had a beer Yeah, but we can't you know, we don't have a liquor license here.

No, we don't no Yeah, so who's the who's the person that decides on okay? What songs are you gonna do? so regina She's you know, I I don't understand like 90 percent of what she says because hearing loss and and it's the irish You know her her accent So I just say yes to everything that she says I say yes And then we'll be at practice and she goes well We're doing this one next and I said, well, I don't want to do and she goes. Oh, no yesterday You said at 205. She keeps notes.

Yeah of like everything that we agreed to so that's not just her That's kind of all women. Yeah, I mean, yeah true It's kind of listen I do pick most of the songs because he knows that if I pick it, I like it So then i'll actually learn it, right? That's one thing and two She is from ireland I also know what I I feel like I have a fairly good idea of what people might like at the places that Um, we book and I do 99 of the bookings So that's just a little perk I get to pick the songs, right? So The place that you play and the gigs that you're playing I I mean are these just typical saturday night bar gigs or is there usually some type of an event or some reason? For the type of music that you're playing I mean, it can be both, you know, it depends. Um Obviously in march we were booked out like crazy I think I played 12 shows in like 10 days and I worked full-time as well.

So I didn't really sleep at all Um, but it was great. It's really great Um, so I mean it's different depending on the time of year obviously in the summer it's going to be You know more beer gardens outdoor concerts whereas in the winter then you're going to be playing by your fireplace So, you know, you kind of need all those different types of music, right? Tom is an excellent guitar player and now has been playing the electric guitar so That's something and you know, we're not going to play that in a very quiet setting, you know, right? We'd like to keep the customers there right, um, but in general we kind of just try to um Play to what we think the audience would like no and so far Um, we do get a really good response and um, you know at every place we go we're getting more followers and stuff So that's great. So this is kind of like, um kind of kind of like a you know chicken before the egg or whatever kind of a question, but did the Did the style of music? Come before you found regina or because you found regina what the fuck kind of question is that Or did you find regina first no, so Yeah, she saw me playing at the place and I did a lot of covers and stuff.

I was drunk. Yeah, she was drunk Okay, that helps twenty dollars. He's like Twenty dollars.

I was like shit You know, like did I give him twenty dollars? Yeah, I was gonna try to set her up my son actually for a while and um, so, um Yeah, we got together and she learned some of my songs and she made some suggestions right and you were playing irish music I wasn't no I didn't start because I hated the irish music. Okay, you know what I mean? Yeah, and then when I met her and she she gave me good irish music. Okay, you know to play and um, we played really traditional Irish music, you know, we do the song molly malone.

All right I've heard a real depressing song and uh, it talks about her parents being fishmongers. What the fuck is a fishmonger? And she's got a wheelbarrow. She wheels her barrel Crying cockles and mussels.

It will how do you put the words cockles and muscle in a song without you know I mean without giggling a little bit. It's like barry white when he wrote the words, uh, take off your he's probably sitting on the toilet Right and take off and this is a line take off your brazier take off your brazier, my dear Yeah, and that's a barry white lyric. That's a great lyric.

It is. You know what I mean? But yeah, I love the irish music we play it's upbeat it's happy it's about drinking right most of it, you know All right drinking and death and like killing each other. You know what I mean? That's a lot of history in between the lyrics if you listen to them, but you know, um It's easy for me to play irish music because you know, obviously i've heard it all my life.

So but again, she's irish, too I don't really you know I don't I don't want to do what everyone else does, you know, so that's my whole thing is let's be different Let's do something. No, let's start doing uh, acdc. Yeah, I told my wife the other day.

I said, you know, I love regina Right, you know, I told her I said I love regina regina is like the Perfect person to play with she's motivated. You know what I mean? Uh, she keeps these guys in line the bass player and the drummer totally keeps them in line You know i'm saying right? Right. So I I love that.

It's like, you know, ringo just she's the band mom. I think i'm crazy Well, I probably am ringo i'm a beetle historian so i'm in a lot of beetle books and stuff I've got 90 hours of unreleased beetle stuff and i've got all the multi-tracks which is amazing And and he was the smart guy in the band, wasn't he ringo? He was he was all but he was the businessman ringo No, he was stupid. I thought he was the business I thought I thought everybody said he was the one that would drink like the martinis and wear suits everywhere Like that the fanciest I mean he got four times the fan mail and stuff But ringo said he goes, you know, if it wasn't for mccartney, he goes me and john would be sitting at home You know by our garden paul at the phone arena like oh shit paul's call He's gonna want us to go in the studio and record and that's regina.

You know what I mean? She gets us all off our ass and uh motivates us. Right, right. So it's wonderful.

You're pretty much running the whole band. You're this is I mean He's really leading the whole thing. He just he's shy, you know, okay.

Yeah, we have somebody else here It's jim. Everybody follows the bass player. There you go.

Exactly which again has never been said ever exactly Never yeah, so Jim how do you go from okay heavy metal to i'm going to play bass in an irish band? Yeah, so that's a great question right because for me You know growing up. It was all like hard rock heavy metal I grew up in a house where my older sisters were listening to jim croci and aerosmith you know, so it was like Hard rock all the time. Yeah, you get a little bit older you get into Uh grammar school and I started playing trumpet you get into high school and I start playing uh guitar so all of a sudden it's like Music progresses it gets a little bit heavier, you know aerosmith and then you get introduced to iron maiden And uh, that's the kind of band that tom and I were playing in Well, it was a like a metal cover band, you know, they're writing down iron maiden.

I just said that I whispered it to her I said, yeah, we gotta do something run through the hill on the accordion Yeah, so You know go go forward a little bit of time and tom and I have been in touch for a very long time You know, we we used to talk about you know, once a month And uh, that's how I got to play some of those shows. Uh With monk nine, okay, you know three dudes and a dead chick, which is another iteration of one of tom's bands and um He calls me out of the blue and says hey, can you sit in on a gig for me? You know just got to learn about 10 tunes can you sit in and i'm like, yeah I can do one night right, you know, so We have a couple of practices. We do a gig And I get introduced to this irish music and I kind of fell in love with it It's music that I never had to learn never had to play It's a lot like country music very much.

I was listening to your bass line and I was like, yeah It's that's the country bass line. Yeah, so if you think about it and regina you can keep me honest here It's it's like when the irish immigrated to the united states They brought that music with them, right? And where did most of them settle? You know american south. Well, so at that point, right? The music just progresses and now you've got full-on country music using all the traditional irish music instruments Right banjo mandolin guitar, right? All that so that that's really what made a big impression on me was learning all this new music Which in turn once you start listening to the lyrics you start learning about all the history right, so it's What have you learned about the irish history? What what have you learned one thing? Can you say I could say it? I know what it is What do they like to do the most the irish people? What do they really like to do the most the irish enjoy food food too, but the drinking is first, right? What what I I don't need to drink about six nights a week.

Yeah, take it tonight off. Yeah, I might change my mind after this So what is the what is the one song Maybe there's more than one but you play this and everybody just kind of goes. Holy shit They're doing this like irish music style.

What's what's the what's the one that surprises people? Um, well we do whiskey in the jar, which is you know, standard irish song But kind of do it a bit more like the pin lizzy version Um, and then at the end I usually break out into a reel which is like an irish tune, okay Dancers will will dance too. So they're not like related. That's not what people do.

But you know, that's kind of a thing. That's Usually well received, right? Um I mean we do um drunken sailor. That's really common.

I mean There's just so many that's about a sailor who drank too much who drank too much. Yeah, i'm i'm noticing a theme here I am there's a reel in the middle of that one, too. Yeah Yeah, I mean, you know playing thin lizzie's kind of like low-hanging fruit, you know in in a way I guess they'd expect you to play some thin lizzie.

Yeah, probably We do yeah, we do some and then we do creep we do creep which sounds great. Oh god. Can you do that? We'll do that and people love that time.

They do they love that time. I gotta hear that. I gotta do creep Well, why don't we just take a short break here and come back to the creek? Do we really gotta take a break? No, i'm just fucking with you.

Go ahead. Let's take a break. 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 juliet You'll be able to get tickets at cadillac groove shows.

Uh, if you see mike or myself somewhere, we'll have tickets You can get them at the museum Uh, they're only five dollars also at cadillac groove.com. You will be able to To purchase them online as well. Very good. They're going to cost you five dollars a ticket There's going to be a ten dollar cover charge to get in the day of the event and for your ten dollars 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 so 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 have to get out there and get your tickets right away So for a second time tonight This is creep, right? Is that what we're playing creep? Yeah Yeah, okay. Yeah, this is going to be interesting. I I asked this i've asked for this one Yeah, this is for a drummer that's not here.

He's having problems with the wife, you know medical problems So we hope we hope the best Is What makes you happy I wish I was special But i'm a Crazy Very nice. Yeah. Wow.

That was pretty you know, i'm so glad you guys did that, you know that that song. Oh We're breaking shit And we got that on video You know, I uh, I host a I host a couple of open jams and there's always Somebody that goes up there and you know, they're gonna play creep, right? Oh nice, you know Because it's so easy what four chord song right? And so I love the song. Yeah But i've never attempted to play it tried to play it wanted to play it because everybody else does.

Yeah, right And it's gotten to the point where it's like somebody gets up there and you hear the first chord Oh god, he's playing fucking creep again. Oh, fuck it. Well, i'm sorry No, but I wanted to hear it this way because it just kind of like gave it new life to me.

That was really good Yeah, no, he did right it's his doing then he's gonna fucking complain about it. Yeah, man Yeah, i'm gonna totally steal your moves because I liked the strum you put to that sounds like it sounds like a democrat, right? Yeah, no, no not even Can you tell me what's one of your favorite songs and that you play Oh gosh, are you kidding me? I know what his worst is Yeah, yeah I I charge six hundred dollars to play tennessee whiskey. I that's it.

Wow. Yeah um My gosh that is so hard to say because I I play so many different types of things And what do you play what instrument? Well, i'm a i'm a singer and I play guitar nice. Yeah um, i'm the front man and rhythm guitar player in cadillac group, but I got my own band where i'm guitars and all that but Uh, gosh, that's so hard for me to say it really is.

Um, there is a slow soul song By an artist called latimore And the song is called straighten it out And it's just the kind of song where everybody on the stage can jam out It's a two chord song guitar players can go nuts saxophone player can just rip a saxophone solo It can debate it's a slow song, but the bass player can be as funky as he wants to be Slow soulful type kind of bass and and the whole bit and it is a singer's song The music is pretty basic, but it's a singer's song. So singing I love that one, but I also love I also love singing. I guess that's why they call it the blues.

Oh, yeah That's a fun song to sing. That's a really fun. We do that.

Darius rucker song that I hate wagon wagon wheels I just hate it, but everyone likes it. So I know so so fucking long That's another song that I charge a lot of money for We played a gig and somebody said play wagon wheels and I said it's 200 bucks to play wagon wheels Do you ever do um came from the boat and that sucker put 200 bucks in the tip jar to hear wagon wheels? Do you ever do uh, sweet caroline? No, sweet caroline is a good one and I was playing someplace and some uh stripper showed up and she goes She goes i'll give you a hundred dollars right now. You play a prince song I was like fuck it.

What song did you tell me to learn? Oh raspberry beret and that was awesome. Wow. Yeah That is well, yeah, because there's there is an accordion and that isn't there or is some kind of synthesizer Yeah, yeah, there is.

Well, the song wasn't that awesome, but the stripper was because she's working Yeah, all right, man, yeah, no, yeah we opened the night with let's go crazy every night that's yeah, that's awesome That's a fun one to do but you know, my style is more like texas blues and southern rock and stuff So that's the stuff that I that I prefer to yeah nice thing. But yeah I don't know have to listen to straighten it out on the way home. Yeah.

Yeah well skip through the first like if you look at it, you're gonna be like this song's like 18 minutes long no that's because he he does this barry white thing at the beginning of the album version of it where he's like talking for like It seems like forever You do any elvis? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, absolutely. And in fact on november 2nd, there's a Place called the studio in lockport.

Um, i'm putting together a band. We're doing the million dollar quartet live. Oh cool Yeah, yeah i'm i'm i'm gonna be the carl perkins and we got this Young guy by the name of aaron newsom who's been on this on this program where he we're opening the night with young elvis and he's gonna be old elvis at the end of the night and uh, We we've got the piano player from my band playing jerry lee lewis.

We're gonna we're gonna have a lot of fun Elvis actually talked to me really when I was a little kid. Wow. Yeah, we were it was like, uh, I think it was 75 I'm sleeping and my mom wakes me up.

I was in my pajama. She goes tommy joe. We're going out mom I was like, okay my jumped in my mom's big red cadillac and uh went to chicago stadium And I had no idea what you were doing there, you know I just remember seeing a lot of women the women were like probably 21 to 25 and they looked very old to me Like old ladies and they're all carrying stuff in their hands that I didn't know What it was yet and we got up to the second row and I realized it was underwear And my mom's holding underwear and i'm like mom You know and then this big fat sweaty guy walks out and it looked like he had pajamas on too But he had diamonds and studs and he had a cape You know, yeah, and it was like he comes out and he looks at me and he goes son Better not fall asleep And uh, yeah, it was cool and he played for bob, but he was he was real big at the time And uh, that was amazing.

I changed that day changed my life Oh man, I realized right then just being I was like five or six And I realized right then and there when I grow older man I'm gonna do a lot of drugs and drinking because he was having a fucking blast, you know Well, this just became a different podcast because truth be told elvis was my first rock and roll hero I wept the day he died. Yeah the day he died there Remember the spar newspaper. It was like this Yeah, you know, it was kind of like the inquirer before the inquirer, you know You bought it at the you know as you're standing at the checkout, you know Came out or whatever and he dies and my mom buys this thing for me and I took the front page of the star You know newspaper off and I stuck it on the wall right right over my bed Right and then that hung there for so long by the time we moved out of that house Um, you couldn't even tell it was elvis anymore the newsprint it all faded Faded out yellow newsprint like that.

I I swear to god. I was I was devastated as a young child that elvis was gone and here, you know what? He was like 44 or something like that I remember saying to my dad. I was so young.

I remember saying to my dad He I said how old was he dad? He goes. Oh, he was 44 and I said, oh, well, I guess it was probably time. Yeah If he really died, you know, I mean, yeah, that's true.

I think the michael jackson wedding to uh, Lisa marie presley if he was still alive, he would have came out for that. He would have He would have definitely had a little bit of a problem with that when that happened I was like, yeah, he's dead. Yeah He ain't coming back Yeah, no, it's it's uh, man, it's Yeah, that's it.

It can be I can do an entire podcast. I'm just talking about elvis And I mean, it's amazing like think about it. He probably like Whitney houston, uh kirk, obey and you know, they all wished for fame.

They're all like god, please Make me famous make me famous and it destroyed their lives Oh, yeah, because god said i'm gonna make that dream come true. Yeah, you know My dream was when I was a little kid. I wanted the 66 batmobile.

I wanted the 66 But god said nope. No, i'm not giving you that one. I'm gonna give you the 89 Because he knew I wanted that one more and I did want I eventually, you know So you gotta be careful what you wish for? Yeah, and that's why I stay relatively unknown because I don't want to become a drug addict and die Me either I don't know anybody that really wants to no.

No, not at all kind of set out to Well, i'm gonna start when i'm 100 when i'm 100 years old I'm gonna pick needles up off the ground and shoot up heroin and shit when i'm 100 years old Someone's gonna wipe my ass You know when dream when regina comes over and she's got it's her turn, you know after jim won't do it shit I'm shooting up. That's the time to do it. Yeah.

Yeah, you don't want to do it now. You can mess up your life Yeah, do it do it at some other point in time exactly what got you into the beatles? I mean because you're you're a diehard beetle fan. You named your kids.

This is yeah. Yeah, john paul joe drinko Um, I just I remember with my dad hanging on my dad My dad was a big beetle fan But I remember the day I saw the beetles on tv and it just did something to me You know what? I mean like when I watch these specials and you see the beetle specials now and you see these little girls screaming and stuff for The beetles they're fucking geniuses. I weep i'm serious I can cry seeing them because they're so fucking smart because they're just they know how important that music is Right, you know what I mean? And if you think about the frequency like the 440, do you know about the whole concept? Yeah with the frequency like yeah Their music is in that freak and that's the frequency that everybody responds to right and that's how they made most of their songs Yeah, that's pretty cool.

That was actually ingenious. I mean, oh, yeah, that was ingenious and and but but I mean that was um, what's his name? Uh martin? What's uh, george martin? George martin that was I mean the producer that wasn't even a producer They were like he produced comedy records and shit, you know, and they're like they got the beetles Well, let's just give them that asshole george martin, you know, and he was perfect for them. Yeah, right, you know, right? He was he was the man and then when mccartney got killed in 68, you know and replaced by billy shears That that guy was awesome, too He was he was pretty good, too.

You know, I mean, you know, yeah, right So that's so funny how people come up with those things. How would you well, no, that's true. That's that's true.

That's that's true Yeah, he died in 68. It was died in a car accident. So paul mccartney is dead.

Well billy I mean there's some sergeant pepper You see the proof Proof on abbey road, you know, you look at all that the way they cross a funeral possession Look at how tall ringo is now compared to why is ringo taller than paul now? He wasn't back in the day You know what? I mean? Yeah. Yeah, so and mccartney admitted it on david letterman. He even said he did No, well mccartney didn't admit it.

Oh, yeah, billy shears. Yeah, that's right. That's right.

Yeah Interesting interesting stuff. So so what were your influences we're talking about the beetles so so when did when did you Move from ireland. How long have you been here? Um, I came here in 2006.

I think it was 2006 okay, um, i've been over, you know over in the summers and stuff like that, but um, you know when I was younger as I said, I was kind of um Encouraged to learn irish music and I I was not really that into it. I just did it, you know um, because it's a part of the curriculum, but then Um, my brother he was actually learned the guitar and um convinced me then to start learning the guitar and so I I liked the beetles but then um He introduced me to the rolling stones, right? And then that that became my favorite band, right? So, um the rolling stones see now that's crazy because it's always stones beetles. Fuck the stone Fuck this my wife likes the stone.

Fuck the stones I went to see the stones a couple years ago Um in austin and um almost died Almost died because it's it was in this huge big field and You know, it was took about an hour to get in there. So we should have known better None of us were sober and we had a car So anyway, when you're there when it's over, there's like no one to pick you up It was you know, pretty rough and then all of our phones were dying. So it was like, okay So we either have to like try to walk out of here Or somehow find somebody that looks half normal and give them like 300 bucks to go to just half normal Yeah, yeah, so we did that we went with like 300 bucks to take us to the town But it was still worth it So in ireland in ireland traditional irish music is that more is that more of something that Um, do you hear it all the time or is it like folk music where it's only played at certain places? I mean Um, no, I mean it's all it's all over the place it is.

Okay. All right, they like country right out of country. Um, there's a lot of um like we call them one-man bands and you know, there's a just it's um Irish people love music.

So I suppose I wouldn't say it's just irish, you know They listen to everything but one other thing that I was really influenced by. Um is classical music, right? Um, so I started that when I was about 12 Um, and then I was really into bach Right, that's what I did for like seven years. Mozart bach, you know, um And but the thing about that is you can't play it in public.

I mean you can but it's just it's a very solo What about you two? Are you I know we do some you two music. Are you into you too? Yeah, of course. Who isn't? Yeah me Yeah, so bono Bono was like Bono, I saw bono and live a few years ago and he makes the crowd be quiet Because it's time for him to spread his bullshit.

Yeah, and he starts clapping like he goes And they're quiet and you gotta be you gotta respect bono and he's claps again Every time I clap a small child starves to death in uganda So some guy in the audience yells well then stop fucking clapping Ha ha ha You know, you know i've always felt that way about you I wouldn't walk across the street to see them for free I just i'm not i'm not i'm not i am not a youtube fan And and i'm out of here and who was the first person that ever said that the edge is a great guitar player What a hunk of horseshit. Well, i'm I mean, I still think they're great and okay. I'm not a big fan of uh when Artists are talking about politics and things like that.

I just you know, like their music not all of it There's a couple that I really like well They're shittiest album that most fans that most fans say it's called zuropa and most fans fucking hate it. Yeah, I love Every song of that album that album is one of my top five albums out of any other artists Yeah, because it's just it's a great album to get women over and you know, yeah, I just thought it was funny It was funny how we started by saying their shittiest album. Yeah, right, right Right, it's degrees of shitty I couldn't pick which yeah.

Yeah, i've just I guess I that's a band that never yeah I mean either never really did it for me for sure well, that's that's good, you know, but the reason why I ask you that question is because um, Uh being from central louisiana. I have heard a lot of cajun music You know creole music and things like that. It's very similar to irish music same instruments same kind of rhythmic patterns and and the whole bit People think oh if you go to louisiana, all you're going to hear is cajun music.

No, absolutely not There's all kinds of music. In fact, the only time i've ever Heard cajun music is when you go to something that specifically is for cajun music It's not like it's blaring on the car radio festival everywhere you go. It's festivals and things like that So I was curious as to okay As to how it was with the irish music in ireland because it is very similar kind of stuff on the tourism if you're in a like all the towns on the coast, right, you know, they're very tourist, um towns and Obviously there's loads of americans right coming by and that's what they want to hear, you know the traditional irish music So there's a market for it.

Give them something for the tourist. Yeah, joe and I we toured joe and I toured in ireland um with our band monk nine we toured we played in dublin and what surprised me about dublin was Probably reminiscent of chicago. There were not many irish people in dublin We couldn't meet I wanted to meet irish people, you know what I mean? And and it wasn't it was mostly immigrants and stuff that we met right now it wasn't you had to go Away from the city right right to meet the irish people and stuff and they're different the irish people in in ireland You know, they're just they were very friendly.

They weren't all drunk like the chicago irish, right? I'm irish and he's not he's 90 percent italian. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah.

What do we call those people though fake irish? Plastic patties plastic patties Plastic patties, that's awesome. I love that. I had to train him to be able to go to a pub and actually play there because you know, there's just certain lingo that I Know and he wouldn't get it, you know And what about the guitar that you didn't I couldn't bring I couldn't bring that one guitar that I wanted to bring.

Oh, yeah It's got a british flag on it. You know, they all fucking hate each other just like wisconsin hates illinois Yeah, right. I discovered this tour in the world You know, everybody hates their fucking neighbor everybody.

Yeah, you know what I mean? The scotlands hate the people in england. I right and it's like wow It's like you know what? I mean? I think it's almost like something like you have to I don't know You know, I I actually uh, I met a guy that was from dublin I'm going back years and years and years ago. I used to travel a lot for business We're sitting at the bar and stuff when you were having the basic conversations Like what do you do where you're from and stuff and i'm talking to him? I swear to god he go when he when he says oh i'm from dublin He had no accent whatsoever.

I was like, well You're not originally from there and he goes. Oh, yeah born and raised because i'm just here for business And he had absolutely no accent and I and he started to explain to me because you know There's a lot of people in dublin that don't have that irish accent that you think you should be hearing right now And I was like, oh, okay, so that was an education But then the thing that I thought was really like sacrilegious Is uh, we started buying each other drinks and everything and you know They had all kinds of irish whiskey on the shelf top shelf stuff. We're like, well, let's try this one Let's try this one.

Let's try this one. Well, here's this guy from dublin. We're drinking irish whiskey and he kept referring to it as scotch I was like that sounds like might have been that sounds sacrilegious that That someone from ireland would refer to irish whiskey as scotch and he's like, well, it's all the same recipe and I was like No, whatever you're drunk Have you ever had white pudding? No, I have not do you know what it is? No Okay, so in england, I think they have it in two they call it white pudding or black pudding it's blood sausage It's like sausage made out of blood.

Yeah, the black stuff is so thick Yeah It's so good So good on eggs, you know and Oh, yeah, yeah, and she makes the she um, every culture has a blood sausage. Every culture has a blood. It's fantastic Yeah, it is except the bacon.

Their bacon is shit. Yeah, they call it bacon. It's not it's ham.

It's ham. It's shit Yeah, no, i'm sorry. I'm saying it wrong.

It's shite shite. Yes Yeah And it's so bad. The canadians are embarrassed.

So that's why we started calling it canadian bacon. Exactly. Don't don't confuse that No, that's canadian canadian shite Well, heck I don't know we're we're going off the rails now, you know, I think they should play us out of here I think they should play us uh one more and get out of here.

You're listening to the rock and roll chicago podcast 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 You don't want to play our video do you Play your video. Yeah, we have an original on youtube if you don't play it's got five six thousand heads We just put it out.

That's up to you or we can play an original or a copy whatever you want to hear I want to hear an original. I want to hear original. Yeah, why don't you listen to our go to our video? Why you guys are standing right here Yeah, and we can't play the video Let's well, no, let's do a cover song.

What do you want? I just want to do Oh, you want to do it? Why don't you do it? Because in the middle it's kind of fun Okay, we'll do drunken sailor. Let me glue this up drunken sailor. All right, get me in the mood, you know I know ray's really excited ray wants to fucking do a song.

You know what I mean? I can tell ray's like oh, yeah, i'll jump on that fucking thing right now. Tommy joe, you know Ray don't give a shit He just ray just wants to go home and watch general hospital from earlier today That's what I want to do I told you know my wife my argument with my wife today. You better not watch general hospital You better fucking save it for me before I get home and she always fucking watches it.

Is that still on television? Yeah Holy shit. Oh, it's great. So sonny corinthos the bad He's the mob guy, but he's the lovable mob guy but he's been beating the shit out of people because he's uh got bipolar and um Nina replaced his medicine.

He's supposed to be on 10 milligrams of the bipolar, but she changed it to three So now he's fucking up. Yeah, he's hating everybody and stuff and jason just came back jason Who he thought was dead, but he wouldn't he left the show because he wouldn't do the vaccine You know that vaccine that the fake vaccine a few years ago that came out He wouldn't do the vaccine. So now they finally got to do this in the middle of shows He just goes like stop stop.

Stop. Stop. Hold on I'm, just very passionate about i'm very uncontrollable.

I'm very passionate about My general hospital beetles beetles and general hospital That's a cocktail and star trek star trek is pretty cool original series Star trek. Yeah, I just sold I had the captain kirk chair in my house Oh wow from the bridge of the enterprise and uh, we just sold peace You can't keep shit forever, right? Except herpes in the clap that shit stays with you What What we do with the drunken sailor, what do you do with a drunken sailor What do you do with the drunken sailor early in the morning way? Up still rises way Up still rises way Shave his belly with the rusty Hey Now what do you think that means let's think about it the last words way hey and up she rises way hey and up she rises Way hey and up she rises early. What does that mean? Honestly, do you know what little miss muffet? I think when she gets up, but who is she little miss muffet? I don't know Woman in the song, so I don't understand We're singing about a drunken sailor.

I think he's talking about the raising of the sails Way hey and up she rises. No, I might shave Early in the morning that makes wow. Wow.

What the fuck are you? Sometimes I come out with one. Are you irish? I don't know Uh, believe it or not Wow You're probably right actually now I think about it rogina you didn't even know you don't even know it I don't and here's this fuck Wow, yeah, I gotta rethink a lot of things now. Oh, no He just blew your mind.

Maybe I should The lyrics in that shouldn't be um, well, what do you do with a drunken sailor? What do you do early in the morning? What do you do? Well, you shave his belly with a rusty razor That's one thing that we're gonna do. Okay, okay And then way hey and up she rises then you put him in a longboat till he's sober Then way hey up she rises and then stick him in a scooper or a scupper with a hose pipe on him I don't know the fuck that means stick him in a scooper with the hose pipe on you know, we have to We have to refer to That's a yokel This isn't a punishment put him in the bed with the captain's daughter Well, that's not the punishment. It depends what the captain looks like.

Yeah It could be with depending on the cat. Yeah, and then that's what you do with a drunken sailor Maybe captain's daughter is waking up Maybe so that so that's all so this entire song is about Being drunk passing out doing whatever you do, you know, they're they're they're playing pranks You know like in college when you draw a penis on your you know On your friend's face because he passed out on the couch or whatever You're gonna shave the guy's chest with a rusty razor and do whatever and then okay It's time to get the hell out of here. So up go to sales Uh time to get out of here.

Wow. It's deep. That's pretty deep.

That's one night. That's one night at deep One night. Oh, i'm just I I drink a lot.

I mean I get it. So I don't think we should do this song The song sounds racist to me. No, I think it's a racist song played probably more here than it is in ireland See i'm woke so I I don't think i'm gonna do this song anymore Actually, you know what? I don't think i'm playing with either of you anymore These guys have pointed out a lot to me about both of you So yeah, okay I guess jim's giving you right home.

Well, as long as you guys are still together, where can people find you? Yeah facebook, right? Facebook the gotham ramblers on facebook. We're on instagram gotham ramblers Um, yeah, and then we have a youtube channel which we've started putting stuff like gotham ramblers. Yeah, well gotham ramblers nice Gotham and then other pages the gotham ramblers.

Okay, then we have another page called the gotham ramblers and you know, we're Right now we're really working on originals. Okay. Um, and uh, so that's been taking up a lot of our time So it's you know, it's hard to balance everything right between creating the music playing out Um, and then like the marketing side of it, right, you know Um, and you guys have a gig coming up october 5th We do.

Um, yeah, that's um That's outside of parkers at clancy. Um, no, I think it's I can't think of the name, but I know it's incredible I don't know. Just go to our website like our page.

We hope people do that. You know what I mean? Yeah, um if you go on If you're on youtube, you can see our video. It's called.

Um gypsy moon The video is called gypsy moon band is called the gotham ramblers really cool video We'll find a way to put that link into the podcast. Yeah, definitely Yeah do that, you know and um probably show a little bit of it probably use it as the promo and everything. Sure.

Sure Yeah, that would be great. Um, the longford is the pop longford. Yeah But also we do an annual christmas show now Um, so we'll be learning a whole bunch of christmas songs.

Elvis christmas Some irish. I mean just having fun again, you know, yeah And then we'll release our christmas song. It's just a cover, but it'll be like our christmas card.

Where's the christmas? Uh, party yet Um, well i'm working with gaelic park right now to set that up. Yeah. Okay.

Um, we're thinking it'll be like a ticketed event Oh, okay. Yeah, so but the christmas song I had a lot of fun last year doing It was like 80 degrees outside now. I was like dressed up Christmas hat and everything neighbors were looking at me like I was crazy.

Yeah You you have santa in ireland, right You do I don't think they have it in louisiana because there's no snow, right? You got no snow No, and when when a half of half inch of snow hits the ground the entire state shuts down. Yeah Yeah, they they actually got snow. It was about two years ago and I have cousins there that is the first time they'd seen snow in their lives and everything was just shut down school's closed Nobody went nobody went to work Snow on the ground do you do you miss it? No You don't really have an accent.

No, not at all because I did not spend a lot of time there at all I don't consider myself being raised there one bit. I was I was raised here. I lived in the um, Gosh since fourth grade.

I was in the roselle schaumburg. Oh, yeah. Where do you live? Where do you live now? What's your address? Yeah Yeah, I live I live in back at gaelic park nice Nice Well, we'll be there.

Yeah, we're there a couple three or four times a year Yeah, I don't like to be to uh at the same place too often You know mix it up. Um Because we do bring a lot of family and friends as well and it's only so much convincing I can do And they have good food, right? Right. And what is the vinegar that I oh malt vinegar malt vinegar, you know Malt vinegar is i've poured that shit on every and me too.

That is you know, or hp. Do you know what hp is? I don't know what hp it's it's a more english. It's like a dark Gravy.

Oh, it's kind of like a uh, a1 sauce. Yeah, okay Yeah, no, i'm, I didn't know we're going to talk this much about food Oh, yeah, I pour I pour malt vinegar on sweet potato fries. I freaking love that.

Yeah All right, let's get out of here so we can get something to eat. Yeah, i'm hungry. Yeah, where are you taking us? McDonald's i'm, okay with that 15 dollars for a big bag Buy me too All righty guys, thanks for having us.

Yeah coming out a lot of fun This is a lot of fun for our first accordion you guys did it you guys did it you hit an hour You guys are awesome All right, cool. Thanks a lot. Have a great night.

See ya. See ya Well, there you have it Your gotham ramblers ramblers. Yeah.

Hey, you know what I was thinking. Do you know what they call irish music in ireland? music music Just Yeah, like you know what they call brazil nuts in brazil nuts nuts. Yeah, exactly I don't know.

Sometimes That might be us. Yeah, it could be could be I mean that was uh, very interesting first accordion to uh, Grace our presence here that yes, that was the first and I was really surprised how good it sounded It sounded great, you know when you know, I hear irish music i'm like, okay You know, right, right. I think what I was I think what I was hearing in my head was bagpipes Maybe Maybe that was good.

Yeah, you know, yeah, I bet you their show is uh, pretty entertaining I mean, they're geez they're full of energy. Oh, yeah, so yeah, so you got to keep the crowd going energy and booze and booze That's right because it's all the irish do is drink He said it tom said it drink drink and drink Well, okay. Well, thanks once again for joining us on the rock and roll chicago podcast if you haven't got your uh, Raffle ticket yet get it soon.

It's only a couple of weeks away We're going to have the the show at the renaissance center. So make sure you get your ticket Otherwise, we'll see you next tuesday as we do every tuesday with another exciting new episode 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