Ep 274 Judson Brown Band

The Judson Brown Band specializes in violin heavy Classic Rock and Modern Country. It's like your iPod on shuffle... only better! In addition to their diverse set list, the band loves challenges, and entertains most any request on the spot.  

Judson Brown (formerly of Bella Cain) is joined by Colleen Kuraszek (borrowed from the classical world). While Judson works to shatter the boundaries of the acoustic and electric guitar, Colleen defines the band's sound with a fluid and powerful tone that is equal parts classical and contemporary. 

Transcript

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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... You forgot your name. This is Hollywood Mike, how you doing everybody? You forgot your name, see? It's one of those days.

Wow. Yeah, what can I say? It has been one of those days. It is, it's foggy out.

Yeah, a little foggy. Rainy, crappy. Yeah, yeah.

Well, you know, today is my wedding anniversary. Congratulations. Believe it or not, and I'm expecting sometime around two o'clock in the morning, it's going to start snowing.

There's rain that's falling down. It's going to get cold enough where it's just going to snow a little bit. It has snowed every single year on our anniversary.

Really? Yep. Yes, it has. And she's kept you this long? She's kept me that long.

Wow. I mean, can you blame her? What a girl. I mean, you can't give a dog back than a pound once you've rescued it.

That's true. There are no take backs. No, not at all.

Gotta keep them. Yeah. So, I was out shopping earlier today.

Yeah. And looking for some new clothes. Yeah.

And I found this really nice jacket. Yeah. And put the thing on.

I mean, it fit perfectly. I mean, I looked, I just looked damn good in it. Yeah, I'm sure.

I'm like, I'm buying this jacket. Right. And I asked the guy, he says, you know, I'd like to get this jacket in black.

And he says, I'm sorry, it only comes Judson Brown. Oh, boy. With that, I'd like to welcome the Judson Brown Band.

Hold on, hold on, hold on. Before we, before we, before we welcome the Judson Brown Band. Hold on.

Okay. It's difficult to make him cringe. I congratulate you.

Thank you. Thank you. You have a pun and you have a soundboard.

Yes, that's right. So, if we make him cringe like that every time, he's gonna lean back and show his belly button. We can turn it into a drinking game.

That's like five bucks per showing. We're musicians. Yeah, that's, you know, that's, that's what we all say, right? So, how are you guys doing? You had a long drive.

We made it. Yeah, yeah. I made the awesome decision to pick up a Telecaster at Third Coast Guitars on my way down.

Oh. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah, cool. Yeah, well, when I mapped it out last night, you know, at two o'clock in the morning and there was no traffic, it just added 30 minutes. I was like, yeah, I could do that.

Smooth. And you can never have enough guitars. No, absolutely.

So, you literally stopped off and you picked up a brand new... No, no, no. It's Third Coast Guitars. They, uh, they refret guitars.

So, I'm the only... Oh, gotcha. Oh, oh, you picked it up. You dropped it off at one point in time.

Yeah, I did. And I picked it up again. I'm one of the few people on the planet that's managed to wear down the frets on a stainless steel equipped fretting guitar.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, how's that? Just like constant bending? Just, yeah, just, I, well, I have to play it a lot in order to maintain any sort of ability to, to play the guitar. I would, I would agree.

Same here. Yeah. Yeah.

That's most of us. It's everyone except, except Colleen here. I was just gonna say you were nasty and you have acidy sweat, but that's fine.

That's the string. That's why I have to change my strings every, every week. That's fair.

I don't, but I should. But you know what though? You know, we, we talk about gear on the, on the podcast a lot. You know what though? I think that's, I think that's a myth that, you know, you can't wear them down.

They don't tarnish. That's bullshit. Because I swear to God, I have several guitars with stainless steel frets on them.

And if you play a lot, like you said, they get all gunked up and crapped up and they've got to be clean. I, I can tell you, I've had a stainless steel. Have you worn a, have you worn a notch in them? A notch in them? No, not a notch, but I've worn, I've worn them down enough where it was no longer playable to my liking.

And it's time to get them, time to get them replaced. Get it, get it plect. Got to get it plect.

Yeah. That's why I go to Third Coast. They have a plect machine and they know how to use it.

Yeah. Hey, if anybody at Third Coast is listening, we are looking for sponsors. 45 minute commercial.

Yeah. No kidding. Great.

We're advertising us and them. You can talk about Ken Stein planing your fingerboard, which he needs to do, by the way. Maintenance is such a, such a trick.

Yeah, it is. Shout out to our gear heads. Yeah, that's right.

Our classical gear heads out there. You have a, you have your chin rest and your fingerboard as options. A chin rest and a fingerboard.

Wow. Okay. So are you, I'm taking you're a fiddle player.

She's a violinist. A violinist. She's a violist.

No, I'm not that. I'm actually a violist. Oh, okay.

Classically trained, uh, master's degree in viola. So now I play in bars on the violin because. So, so if, uh, so at what point does the violin become a fiddle? Just what you play and how you play it.

True story. Don't you dare. You've used up all your talky time.

You have no more jokes to give. He has a million answers to that. Okay.

Yeah. The joke answers. I have, I have a feeling I want to hear some of those.

Where's the mute button? So, and so viola, not violin, viola. In real life, but in this band, yes, I am violinist. How is that real life? You play.

Real life is on papers. I paid a lot of money to get those papers. I thought it still counts.

I thought, I thought real life is what you do every day. Well, you know, that's the after story. Just play violin.

Different chapter. I, I do all, but yes, this one down here is, is violin today and we are violin based. Okay.

Band. So, so tell us what names are we going to put on the admission papers? Tell everybody your names. My, my name is Judson Brown.

I already said that. Yes. Judson Brown.

In my joke. In your joke. My monologue.

Yes. Yes. But it was, it was overpowered by that though.

That was good. And I am Colleen Karaszik. Yes.

Colleen Karaszik. Yes. Yes.

So, and decided to name the band Judson Brown to avoid any liability. So high five me. She's very, she still stands by the decision.

Yeah. 14 years. It wasn't the plan to be in his band just to name it and kind of manage it, but.

Okay. You know, here we are. Yeah, but we needed talent.

So, so is it, so is it your band or is it like Hootie and the Blowfishers? There's nobody in the band named Hootie. No, it's Judson Brown. Judson Brown.

It's the real, it's the real name. It makes a lot more sense when we play with all four of us. Cause then it's like, oh, you named it after the singer.

When it's just the two of us, it's like, well, why isn't her name on the sign? Yeah. She doesn't want to get sued. Cause I was smart.

So I can leave whenever I want and it's okay. She wants to often. Apparently got a law degree too.

Yeah. No, but I was asking, cause before he got here, we were talking about how I, I was one of the original members of Chasing Amy and there actually was an Amy in the band. Yep.

Yep. No, we get that. We get that question a lot.

We named the band after, after her for her name, but she left and the band still remained Chasing Amy even though there was no Amy in it anymore. Was it before or after the movie came out? It was, it was definitely after the movie. Okay.

It was definitely after the movie came out. And you do know that there is no Pink Floyd. No.

Two blues men that they were influenced by. Very good. Sid Vera.

Sid Vera decided to name it after two of his heroes. What about Jethro Tull? It's the guy that invented the plow. It was the name that Ian Anderson happened to be using when they, when a bar liked him enough to call him back.

Wow. No kidding. This guy's a world of knowledge.

Another one. Give him another one. Yeah.

Go, go. I want to hear another one. I know nothing about the nineties or two thousands, but if it's the seventies, sixties, fifties.

Easy one. Leonard Skinner. Yeah.

Named after the gym teacher. They used to kick their asses all the time. Kept busting them from smoking weed.

Yeah, yeah. That's right. I did know that one.

They'll get even. Yeah. So how did this, uh, so how did this fun, how did this fun ride start for you guys? Oh God.

Um, I got a song about that. Yeah. We can play it today.

Which what? Oh, the, the one about how we met. Uh, she was teaching violin. I was teaching guitar.

Oh, that's yeah, that's true. It had a little music shop and I thought, my God, this guy, the ego was insane. I need none of this.

I would walk as quickly as I could past him to get out the door during my breaks. So now we're getting married in June. So that's, that was 14 years ago about.

So, and, uh, no, but it was, I was going to say they have to be married or close to it. Yeah, very, very close. Four months.

Yeah. It's been a minute, but it was in the name of trying to give this guy his own feet and his own project and his own band and his own ambitions. And I guess coming from the outside and seeing what he was capable of and that even if he didn't feel it at that time, he was what? Who are you? Am I being too nice? Who are you? I'm speaking to them, not you.

It got really deep for a second. I was like, where are we going with this? This does not sound like my future wife right now. I'll be back in a second.

It'll be fine. She'll be back. But, you know, so there was a lot of pushing and, um, he was in a full-time cover band in, uh, what's the name of the state? Wisconsin.

We play most of our gigs there, yes. Um, yeah. And so it's a project that kind of just went from any open day to fill to our full-time last year was our first year as a full-time functioning band.

Right. You know, no, I guess, auxiliary income of any sort. And that's it.

Yeah. The risk. Yeah.

The risk factor. I quit my day job playing with another band. Yeah.

Yeah. And, uh, here we are. It's a very patchwork quilt sort of life, as we all know.

So we know how, we know how she found her way into the band. Who was the first person that said, okay, we're going to put a band together? Were you looking to put a band together? Oh, always. Oh yeah.

But yeah, but it wasn't, it was weird. It was always my goal to put a band together. I didn't think I could put a band together because I'd been in bands, you know, you like until you're in a functional band, cause there's, there's, there's two different music industries, right? There's the college band industry where you, well, I don't know what it is now, but I can only speak to when I was in high school and college, there was the, you and your friends, you put together a band, you get your own sound and you hope that you get signed somehow.

Right. There was no mechanism to want that in a meaningful way. When I was in college, uh, cause it was, it was the two early two thousands and there, I don't know how you would like today.

There are so many options. If you're, if you're young and you have your own sound and you have all the time in the world, you could post videos every day. You could post, try to, you know, get to try to get some viral tech docs going.

You can do some stuff to build an audience and you don't need a million people. You just need enough, right? If you could get a thousand true fans, like that's the thing you can want. And that's the thing that we can want now.

I didn't know how to do that back then. Sure. So I'd never been in a functional band.

I entered cover band landia in, uh, you know, around Woodstock, Illinois, where, where I lived playing with a country band that was just going nowhere. And then I finally got into, uh, one of the working cover bands that, you know, has a name that has a draw that you can. Reputation makes money.

No free advertising. Yeah. That you can make.

I'm not going to say who they are because they say I can't use their name. So I guess they don't get free advertising for this. That's fine.

On this show, we say the band that shall not be named. Oh my God. You've been listening to our, you've been listening to our YouTube videos.

But yeah, no. So I, when I finally got into one of those, I realized, oh wow, this is what it is. And I realized that what I was capable of putting together would never be able to function on that scale at that time.

Right. So I always wanted to have a band, but to be able to do it in a functional way in this market was always something that was, well, that's, that's really, um, a lot of things have to come together that aren't come together yet. So we did an acoustic duo instead.

Yeah. It was never part of the plan of this band. And then we did an interview with the Trib, um, and I was just telling the lady and then she's like, well, why, how did you? And I'm like, this was not my plan.

Like I got here. I'm still here. I was supposed to be a doctor.

I can't tell you. Yeah. Why? A doctor of viola performance.

You know, I just took a break until I went back for that. But yeah, I'm like, I don't know, but here it is. And here we are.

And we're still, we're still going. Yeah. So, so you just, in the process of trying to put together some type of a band, you're like, well, at least we're a duo.

Well, yeah. Honestly, we just wanted to be a duo at first. I, we did, um, when it all started, we, we named a Judson Brown band when, uh, we got a gig randomly, um, because somebody saw us play as a duo and said, oh, can you, you're a full band player? And we didn't have it.

Yeah. I was just playing for funsies. I just stepped in funsies.

Nice. Um, my forties. That's fine.

We're yeah. And then so we make up words all the time. That's perfectly okay.

Yeah. And then, so she had been saying that you should go under your own name and I said, okay, well, the full band is, you know, it's called Judson Brown band. And then there it is.

Okay. And then that's. That's what you shall call it.

You shall keep it. It worked for Zach. You know, yeah, you gotta go with, gotta go with what the, what works.

You have the papers. It's your real name. You know, that's right.

So when you first started out, were you guys playing covers? Cause I know you guys have quite a bit of original music. Was it, were you guys a cover duo? Were you working in the originals? We always worked them in. We always worked them in.

Like, uh, one of the songs. I don't know if you got any of the, uh, MP3s I sent you, but the one, uh, the one song dream. And it, I wrote that for you like 12, 13 years ago.

That was the first song you wrote for me that I was, could not tell you who you ripped off to write it. So that was, you know, it was, uh, yeah. Well, don't you hate that when you're playing, when you play one of your original songs and somebody comes up to you and says, you know, that sounds like that Gordon Lightfoot song.

Yeah. Except I know. Thanks.

Yeah. Yeah. Except every time she says, oh, you know who you ripped off there? And I'm like, oh yeah.

And I would be able to tell you who it was because I used to pride myself on the ability to listen to a song and be able to write something in the same genre or the same idea or the same style or the same feel. Right. And I thought that was really impressive until, you know, everyone just, you know, has a phone where you can just download Suno and say, Hey, do this.

And I was like, oh, that's not so great. I'm better. Yeah.

Original now. Yeah. But the library and the library, library, I've got this of things that have not been recorded is just enormous.

And, um. Oh yeah. So yeah.

I tried to start collecting them in a list, a running list, but I mean, there's hundreds. At least one of us has, has one. I, I write songs every day for, you know, like I'll get a snippet or stuff.

I mean, you guys have the time, right? You don't have a day job anymore. That's your day job, songwriting. Pretty much the jingles that go nowhere and no one ever hears.

Yeah. I wrote one at 2.43 today. Just, uh, uh, you know, a chorus idea.

Sure. Badly recorded into the iPhone, which I will play for nobody. You're not Ed Sheeran.

You can't do that yet. I do that too. If I, if I. You got to be real famous to share those.

We could, we could do something really scary and just exchange phones for a second and play the stuff that appeals to us. Oh God, that would be scary. That's like, that's like giving somebody else your phone.

That's like, like, uh, that's like songwriter Finn Dom. Yeah. It's crazy.

That would be, that would, that could be a party game. That could be a party game with a bunch of musicians. Everybody exchanges phones.

Right. And then you, you go, you go through all of the, oh, here's one that he recorded and you just play it holding up to a microphone. Hear all the weird words like, oh, I love you.

Yes, I do. Whoa, poo. Are the, uh, if you're a guitarist and you don't have a guitar, the, uh, the riffage.

Yeah. I want this to kind of go like, like, uh, yeah. Yeah.

And you're doing it. You're bobbing your head up. Yeah.

We all write songs like Beavis and Butthead. I credit Gen X with influencing me on that. I was like, yeah, that's what I'm going to do.

If I don't have a guitar in my hand. Well, the worst thing is my, my phone holders, you know, in the, in the, the air vent of my car. So when I have a song idea, boom, it's record.

It's video. It's me. I'm driving.

Then I'm like, oh, I just thought you'd hear your car's HVAC system. Go, it's amazing. It doesn't pick it up at all.

It doesn't. Technology in these phones is insidious. Yeah, it is.

So if, so if you're able to write in many different types of genres, um, what, what is your sound? If you had to describe it in one sentence, what is your sound? I would ask Colleen to describe our sound. That's the question. We sit at home.

I know, right. You can identify. You forgot the S. Okay.

Well, I have a degree then too. So I'm just, I'm just, I'm just putting us on an even thing. I have zero and you have one.

I have one. She has two. Okay.

You're fine. Yeah. Um, but it was, you know, when we upload music, it's like, who do you sound like? And they want the major artists so they can, you know, web you out into whatever oblivion playlist.

And we cannot quite do it. Each album, what, six albums sound completely different, different inspirations, different. I think I, the last one you said, it was more seventies inspired.

I said, there's a lot of like musical show to me vibes on it. Yeah. You know, that's the one that really was.

Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, I think the very first time we said what Mumford, because we were putting in banjo and fiddle and things, but that's not true.

It's completely. Well, cause a lot of times the, the genre is how you sing and we'll do a couple songs later. And if you can tell me a singer that I sound like, please do.

Cause I, I don't think I do. You ever, you ever hear the comedian Chris Porter? I don't know. Ever hear the comedian.

Chris Porter is this comedian. He's a young, kind of a young, young, young enough. I want to, not a young.

He's like 40. Yeah. Yeah.

He's, he's an up and coming comedian. He's been around for a little while. I think he's hilarious.

He's one of these guys that's always pissed off and, and he tells this whole story about how he ran into Mumford and sons, but it only, it was just and sons. Cause Mumford wasn't there. Nice.

And he said, and he said he wasn't there for whatever reason or another. He was probably back in the hotel room singing a song that at some point in time went, it's my favorite band on the planet. No joke.

But we, we, we went and saw Mumford. We spent our vacation budget last year going to Mumford and sons concerts. Is that like an embarrassing fact or a fun fact? So it was just and sons.

Depends on who you are. That's fair. Yeah.

He has one less. He lost a son. Who did? Mumford.

Well, the grown up, not in real life. Yeah. No.

The band members. A band member. He lost, he lost a son.

Yeah. Over a tweet. Over, wow.

Hey, that happens. That happens. Winston, you're dead to me.

I was Mumford at the time. He's still cash and checks. That's fine.

You know what I think? You know what I think it's time for? I think it's time for a little music. I think it's time for us to take a little break and bring in some music and we're going to find out who they sound like today. Today.

Today is the right, that's the right word. Who? Changes by the day. Who they sound like today.

We're, we're, we're coalescing on the sound. Today's going to be Barry White. Can't get enough of your love, baby.

I wish I could sound like that. Yeah, me too. I wish I could do it.

I can't get that deep. It's deeper than me. All righty.

We'll be right back. You're listening to the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. Your Sunday nights just got a whole lot bluesier.

Get ready for the Bus Stop Blues show that takes you deep into the soul of the blues with classic hits, road stories and live jam sessions. Hosted by blues man, Kevin Purcell and me, the one and only Road Bill. The Bus Stop Blues is two hours of nonstop blues, banter and badassery.

Check out the Bus Stop Blues podcast at thebusstopblues.com where you can listen on Spotify, iHeart, Apple Podcasts or any other major podcast platform. Hop on board the Bus Stop Blues where the blues never stops rolling. Uh, yeah, so this song we're going to do right now, it's a brand new one off our forthcoming album, which we are working on.

Our sixth coming? Our seventh coming? Who knows? We'll have to count the comings. Uh, so yeah, this one is called Something I Am. And I specifically wrote this song just about, um, who I am as an artist and what our musical genre is.

Cause I, I come from the world of, of, uh, the last, you know, from the world of country cover music. Like that's what I was known for, but I am so not a country singer. So that's, um, so, but you can find your own meaning in it.

Like I listened to the words just, you know, straight as like, wow, I could be talking about a lot of different stuff here, but it's just about music and genre and artistry. So that is where we're from. The song is called Something I Am.

One, two, three. Burnout style. Cause I can't grow old, always do what I'm told.

Now you're shaking your head and smile and tell me I'm crazy. Who run this runaway train? It'll be damn amazing if I don't get put out like a fire in the rain. Oh, I'll know as I lay this bed that I made.

I'll turn and I'll do it again. I can get a whole lot by being something I'm not, but I want to be something else. So I don't have as much as I could, but all that I've got is so good.

While you're trapped on a throne that isn't your own, it's all up in misunderstood. Then tell me I'm crazy. Who run this runaway train? It'll be damn amazing if I don't get put out like a fire in the rain.

Oh, I'll know as I lay this bed that I made. I'll turn and I'll do it again. I can get a whole lot by being something I'm not, but I want to be something else.

Oh, something else, something else. Tell me I'm crazy. Who run this runaway train? It'll be damn amazing if I don't get put out like a fire in the rain.

Oh, I'll know as I lay this bed that I made. I'll turn and I'll do it again. I can get a whole lot by being something I'm not, but I want to be something else.

Oh, something else. Oh, something else. Whoa, oh, something else.

Wow. I would normally put some kind of cheesy applause noise after that, but no. That was fantastic.

That was amazing. That was very good. That was, that was absolutely amazing.

You guys are very excellent hosts. I believe this is the first time we've had a miniature viola in here. Yes, it is the first time we've had a miniature viola.

Why is your viola so small? Although there was that little person in here, wasn't her name Viola? I think her name was Uvula. It was Uvula. Yeah, it was.

And it was kind of misshapen and everything. The world is so cruel to people with the misshapen, you know. Uvulas are always just hanging around.

Yeah. Oh, geez. Oh, here we go.

Are you, are you Uvula shaming? So, okay, so, so I've got, um, I've got an answer for the, who do we sound like today? Okay. All right. And, and, um, this is probably one of the biggest compliments I can pay a songwriter, in my opinion.

Oh my God, he's going to say you sound like him. No, well, no, absolutely, absolutely not. Really.

I don't write anything that, that complex. That sounds like a song that would be on a Billy Joel album. Oh, yeah, okay.

From the, I'm thinking from like the Stranger, 52nd Street era or so, because it reminded me a lot of like part of scenes from an Italian restaurant, you know, and there's a certain part of that that reminded me a lot of my life as well. I do like both of those songs, but I never learned them. So, but the, uh, I mean, I do.

I didn't either. Cause I'm not that good. Well, I started off as a piano player, so I use more full chords in my writing than, than a lot of just guitaristic type stuff.

So, you know, the inversions and everything. Yeah. Yeah.

No, I really, I really liked that. That was a, that was, when did you write that one? I wrote it right at the beginning of last year. So when times were changing.

Yeah. When times are changing, I got the idea. I wrote, I demoed the, uh, you know, the drums, bass, guitar stuff, wrote out the first violin part.

Cause we normally recorded this album. We're recording everything with string trio, two violins and a viola for, for a lot of it. Right.

And, uh, so just the one first violin part and send it to the guys. I'm like, Hey, I wrote a new song. And they're like, all right, sounds great.

Let's do it. Right. Next.

Yeah. Really good. Excellent.

Excellent. So what, about what time then did you guys start to, I guess, migrate over from just a duo to having the full-time band? It was a full-size band. Is peppered in and around the entire time.

Right. So if we found a show or a festival or, um. The booker would call with a, with an opportunity.

Yeah. And most of those we'd go and we just, you know, hire a bass and drummer that we had a bass player that we worked with a lot, you know, in like, uh, acoustic trio settings. So he knew, he knew our stuff, but we just find a drummer that was available.

And then we'd, um, you know, give them a set list of all the, all the, the 60 songs that everyone has to play in order to get gigs. Yeah. And, uh, we don't pick them.

The audience picks them. They let us know which ones they will suffer. Yeah.

And who plays the intro to living on a prayer? Is it a violin part? Do you guys really do it? Yeah. No way. I was just kind of joking around.

Which version are we talking here? I was kind of joking around. You guys really play living on a prayer with a violin? Yeah. Yeah.

I want to hear it. Are we allowed? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

We could do our thing. Yeah. Watch this.

Now check this out. Um, you don't have to do the whole thing. You don't have to do the whole song, but I'm not doing the modulation today.

I just, she just got done with COVID and I'm, I think I'm fighting off. Like, uh, it's like, You tell us that as we're in, like, as we're in this tiny little room. Well, I figured this, I live with you.

My daughter is a teacher. So if anybody's going to get anybody sick here. Yeah.

No, I just like, I feel like, um, yeah, no, I'm not doing the modulation today. No, I'm not insane. We have an arrangement that we never actually did.

So I do carry my iPad around. We run sound off of it. But if somebody calls a deep cut or something and I have no recollection.

Just so you know, she's got real sheet music on this thing. She doesn't have, she doesn't have, you know. No, no.

She doesn't have chord charts. I like how I just showed you guys and expected everyone to know what I was showing you. I wrote, I wrote a crazy Bach inspired intro, but we're not going to do that.

Because you have to look at it twice in order to actually play it. Yeah. Can you imagine if I applied myself? Oh my God.

I imagine a lot. She can have three degrees. I have a lot of, I have, I have a lot of fantasies involving my future wife and almost all of them are about her practicing her instrument.

Just like a little bit more. Wow. I mean, that's the one that you wrote me, but then I don't know what you want to.

Yeah, let's. Oh man. Chords.

What do you. Yeah, let's start. Well, the answer is yes.

We just leave it at yes. And then just move on. Yeah, no.

Yes, we could. Here's the proof, you know. No, it's all good.

Like just start with the ostinato. Start with that part. I didn't know there was an ostinato in the band.

Where? Yeah, so like right here where it says verse one. Yeah, that's where I was. Yeah.

All right, cool. All right. Are we backing up? Okay.

This is going to be interesting. Yeah, here we go. Yeah.

We're just doing a piece of this, right? We never even do this very often. So yeah. Verse, verse and a chorus.

There we go. Yeah. Go ahead.

One, two, three. Someone untuned me. Okay, go ahead.

Go. One, two, three. I know that was enough.

She's had enough. Just roll them backwards so we can keep talking. Well, I figured we could do a verse and a chorus and actually play it rather than what you were doing there.

That was... Are you kidding me? That was freaking awesome. That was awesome. No, no, forget that.

Go back. Go to the solo. We'll do that.

We'll chorus right into the solo, okay? I don't ever want to hear that song from a cover band ever again unless it's these guys playing it. I want to show you what she can actually do. All right? She's very modest.

She didn't want to do this, but here we go. So we're going to take a chorus and we're going to go into the solo that is written out. I have a page turn.

Okay, then don't worry about the chorus. Then just do the... I also brought your... Oh, page turn is in the car, isn't it? Okay, chorus. If you weren't 20 minutes late, it would have been fine.

This is for everyone who knows this. I'm the one that's always late. That's a lot for love.

We're giving it a shot. Oh, we're halfway there. Whoa, we're living on a prayer.

Let's shake my hand and we'll make it, I swear. Whoa, we're living on a prayer. Nice.

We live for the fun when that's all that you got. That's what she wants. That was awesome.

Wow, that was... I don't ever want to hear that song done any other way. No. Wow.

I mean, that was almost... The super stripped version. And that was almost, I mean, that was, I mean, the beginning of that solo was pretty much while Richie Sambore is playing on guitar. The reason I wanted to do that is because when we... We are a cover band in cover land.

That's what we have to do publicly. Absolutely. So every single song we'd change.

If I don't give her the guitar solo on the violin, I'll give her some other signature part that is usually played by a keyboard or a flute or whatever it was, or the second guitar part. So I think the first two big ones we did were Crazy Train and Kansas, Carry On, Wayward Son. Yeah, where the violin does so much of the piano.

I mean, I still play a ton of guitar live, but there's always room for... Rather than another guitar player or a keyboard player. Yeah. How much more interesting is this? Well, it's a more expressive instrument for sure.

I have my pedals. I have my effects. I have my, you know, electric guitar, you know, plug-in.

So this really doesn't work without you. No, it doesn't. It really doesn't.

Wow. I do some stuff. I play all the other Instrument Center records.

No, I'll tell you what. Yeah, you're fine. I'll tell you what, how it is.

I find it to be extremely refreshing that you guys are actually doing this like that. That's fantastic. Are you guys performing more as a duo now than with a full band? Or is it kind of flipped around now? Well, we're off season right now, technically.

So it's more duo. We just did a casino weekend up at Seven Winds this past weekend. Nice, okay.

If you've ever been to Four Winds, it's three more. Indeed it is. He wrote that joke.

He was dying to use it. Oh, he's been using it for like the last two weeks. Yeah, yeah.

I think he stole it from one of our drummers. No, I came up with it. Oh my God, that's amazing.

Yeah. Put your name on a sign. I did.

Tell everyone. You did. Yeah, sure did.

We all make mistakes. That's okay. Do you guys banter back and forth like this on stage? Yes, we do.

This is great. People have been, they've thought we were married for the last 14 years. Well, it's, you know, like, why don't you just play your music? I'm like, yeah, but if I don't let it out now, I bring it home.

And then that's really bad. So, you know. She does.

So you said you have another album coming out. When's that coming out? As soon as we finish it. It's going to be pretty soon.

Pretty soon. Yes. So we are doing a first.

See, if I say it loud first, it counts. But two of our most popular songs, we are doing re-releases of them as like a quote, unquote, an AB single. And then they will also be included on the album, which we will be doing print CDs for again, because the demand is coming back, which is fantastic.

Like a reprise or is it reprise? Yeah. I think if it's a record company. I always call it reprise and then reprise.

I flipped them. So those re-records are pretty much done. So that'll be the first, you know, advertisement drop.

And then right after that, but yeah, everywhere you stream, we have tons of things. If original music is not your thing with us, at least try another album. If you hate that one, try a different one.

They sound completely different. And if all else fails, what do we have? I have an album of instrumental Christmas recordings. There we go.

There you go. No problem with that. That's, you know, just in case.

If you have a violinist. Do you guys release song by song or do you release a full album? Well, this forthcoming album already has had a double single release because we did She's My and Halfway Hotel as a single last year or two years ago. Jesus.

It's been a while. It's because, well, you know, we're self-produced artists like all artists are now, unless you're Right. Because, because that's where the world is.

Yeah. And yeah, we've been working on, well, because starting, going from a duo to a band, it's a lot of work just in the preparing and the booking and the management. The business side takes so many chips, as we say.

But yeah, most everything comes out in full album form, which we know is not, you know, fashionable to everyone. And you might not make it through the entire album, that sort of thing. But you got to do you, you know? Yeah, I do.

I do albums because they all get a sound, you know, and you collect the ones. Absolutely. I mean, even now, I think we have like 30 songs for the album.

So we're going to have to cut songs. But the idea is what she said about re-releasing some of our most popular songs is that we've been doing albums for 14 years. And some of the early recordings, I didn't know what I sounded like yet.

And I was trying to sound like other people, like the song Dreamin' that I sent you that you'll hear in the interstitials or whatever. That one, I was trying to sound like Eric Church when I wrote it. I don't sound anything like Eric Church.

Like a meteor through the night sky, waking up with new eyes for the first time in a long time. Spend each day running from the last, watch the sun come up, but it sets so fast. Oh, waiting on something more, getting by as a cold war is not a lie worth fighting for.

But you got me dreamin', you got me feelin'. Walking on the sidewalk weeping for the first time in a long time. And I needed to learn as a self-produced artist how to produce.

And you learn things. So we end up with some of our most popular songs because you can write a good song when you're 10 and just have to wait until you're good enough to perform that song. I mean, I got stuff I've written when I was seven that like, I'll write out, you know, I'll write it out for violin and it'll sound a hell of a lot better than it did when I played it on piano when I was seven and then finally release it 40 years later, you know? Like our standard rule at the house, which I always just repeat, is just like, if you were not immediately embarrassed, and rip this off from someone else, but if you were not immediately embarrassed by what you have put out, then you're not growing, you know? So because of that arc, we have two of our most popular and requested songs are just available in versions that I cannot stand.

Like the stuff, like we did an album a couple of years ago, The Gray, which is like, yeah, there's things I'm embarrassed about it. But a lot of it I'm still very proud of because it's pretty recent, but you keep going back to where I was trying to sound like a country singer. I cringe, but I mean, other people listen to it.

It's like, oh, that's still my favorite. And I'm like, okay, all right. All right.

That sounds good. That's where you were, you know, at that point of your career. But you know what Coverdale re-recorded, here I go again.

I'm not him, but you know, I can re-record one of my songs if I want to. Well, I'll tell you what, before we run out of time, I'd like to hear some more from you guys. If you've got another one, you're all sitting ready to go.

I know what you're not. I forgot. I want to do the song about how we met.

I thought we were staying away from cringe. It's not cringe. I think it's appropriate to the genre because we did a new one.

We did Something I Am. We're going to hear tonight and Dreamin on the recordings. And this song is called Teach Me to Play.

Teach Me to Play. Oh, boy. Yeah.

This is that triple entendre you're waiting for. Get your cheesy track ready. Because, you know, T-E-A, yeah, all right.

There you go. Perfect. Little by little, you're learning where those buttons are.

That's better than this one. Reggaeton. Okay, one, two, here we go.

She had a cloud of skin. She played a violin. She wanted nothing to do with me.

So needless to say, I was set up with heels. Looking for an opportunity. I had a fiddling bow.

I didn't know how to hold. So I figured that I'd try my luck. Said, if you don't mind, then you got the time.

I'm ready to learn, but I'm getting stuck. Hey, baby, can you teach me to play? You're one of a kind. Do whatever you say.

I'd love it if we started right away. Hey, girl, can you give me the power? If you let them out, I'll put in the hours. I promise that I'll practice every day.

If you teach me to play. I was doing a couple of things wrong, but I'm coming along. So don't give up on me.

Lila, I can give you a taste. With another taste of your virtuosity. Show me how to control.

How to shift and bounce. And a bunch of techniques I can't even pronounce. I think I'm finally good at steps.

Let's walk our way through your lesson plan. Hey, baby, can you teach me to play? You're one of a kind. Do whatever you say.

I'd love it if we started right away. Hey, girl, can you give me the power? If you let them out, I'll put in the hours. I promise that I'll practice every day.

If you teach me to play. If you teach me to play. I swear, girl, whatever you say.

I spent so many years with emotion and movement. Without ever showing a bit of improvement. Oh, yes, I got it now.

Yes, I have someone to show me how. Hey, baby, can you teach me to play? You're one of a kind. Do whatever you say.

I promise that we'll start right away. Hey, girl, can you give me the power? If you let them out, I'll put in the hours. I promise that I'll find a way.

Put in the hours and maybe someday. I'll be your favorite project. Come on, teach me to play.

Come on, teach me to play. Won't you teach me to play? Come on, teach me to play. Work in progress.

That's pretty good. That was like, I heard John Mayer meets Kansas. John Mayer meets Kansas.

Wow. I heard the John Mayer in there. Yeah, you nailed that, actually.

But the Kansas part. OK, let's put the violin. Yeah, the way the phrasing was.

Yeah, I can get that. Yeah, very good. That's a corny little backstory in musical form.

I was going to say you were just like just despised Dorian so much. But actually, I don't use the Dorian. I don't use the six in that line.

So you guys said you are hibernating presently. When do you? We're still out several times a week. Just in, you know, more of the bar format.

OK, I said before we started, you know, our job this summer or this winter, sorry, is to collect all the viruses and diseases possible at the bar scene and then come out on the other end. Where you guys been playing? Come on the other end. I didn't even try.

Mostly in Wisconsin now. Yeah, but I mean, overall, we are a Summerfest band. We are a Milwaukee Brewers band.

Don't, it's, you know, it's only a contract. It doesn't mean that's where our loyalties lie. Wisconsin State Fair band, Harley Davidson band.

So we are everywhere. So a lot of festivals, a lot of county fairs, Chicago to Sheboygan, JudsonBrown.com for our full schedule. Judson Brown band on Facebook and Instagram.

What did I miss? And everywhere you stream. Oh, YouTube. We upload videos to YouTube.

Judson does film a lot of our live performances and throw them up. So it's all straight. It's board audio.

They're authentic recordings. We have a set from our show at the Bend Theater in West Bend, Wisconsin from a couple of weeks ago that I just uploaded. That's a couple of weeks ago I uploaded that.

That's pretty good. We don't lie about what we sound like. That's, you know, people can, you can say what you want to say.

I do mix the audio because I get individual tracks from our monitor board, but I do not tune anything. Yes, nothing's tweaked. Nothing's autotuned.

It's real. It's music. It's live.

No autotune. Every once in a while. That's what the albums are for.

Yeah. Every once in a while I'll cut out a bass part if the bass player decides that he wants to do a four over the one, you know, which just drives me nuts. I'm a bass player, so what are you going to do? Well, I'll tell you what, it was a pleasure meeting you guys.

Yes, it was. Pleasure listening to you guys. Thanks for having us.

Fantastic, man. Fantastic. Awesome sound.

I really, I think you have a couple more fans here. Yep. For sure.

For sure. Well, thanks for coming out. You were worth the wait.

Well, definitely. Most definitely, yeah. Definitely hit you up when the album drops in a month or whatever.

Please do. Please do. Let us know.

For sure. Thanks. 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.