Ep 283 Port Authority

Port Authority is a rock band from Chicago’s South Side, formed in 8th grade by John McFarland and Scott Bonshire. Reuniting in 2025 with Kristen McFarland on vocals and Brian Sarna on bass, the band returns with fresh energy and classic rock roots.

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. Rock and Roll Chicago. Rock and Roll.

Hey everybody, it's Ray the Roadie. And this is Hollywood Mike with some stank on him this week. Uh oh.

What kind of stank? You don't smell it? I'm trying to stay farther away. I don't know how you guys are going to stay in the studio. You guys don't smell it? Kristen, move over.

It might just be stuck in my nostrils. I was, I was, I spent all afternoon trying to help a customer repair a milking machine. Oh, okay.

Yeah. So, I mean, just everything that's associated with, like a milking machine, like on a dairy farm. Like, oh, I thought maybe it was like a mother for a baby or something.

You know, like, yeah, no. I'll tell you what. You're doing one of these.

Yeah. The Watusi. Yeah.

Well, yes and no, I wasn't, I wasn't doing that. Oh. You know, it's, it's like this big machine where you can put like 10 cows in this machine and connect them up and there's a, a vacuum pump that draws a suction and just starts milking a bunch of cows all at one time.

It's very interesting stuff. Yeah. The cows, I think the cows were, the cows were actually trying to hit me with urine.

Really? They were trying to hit me. They were, it was like a game to these heifers. Oh, you know, I think I'm in the wrong business.

Why? I don't know. Maybe I should be doing that for a little. It's very exciting.

You know, they're not the teats you're thinking of though. I mean, it's, yeah, it's a different kind of teat. The cows are like, he is not going to connect that to my teat and just on my head and wherever they could.

Oh God. Okay then. It was a lot of fun.

I'm glad you enjoyed it. Hey, you know, what can you say? I don't know. Whatever, whatever pays the bills.

That's right. I've done worse for money. That's right.

Yeah. So what's going on, man? How you doing? I'm doing good. Good.

Just here for another podcast interview. Yeah. Some great friends here.

Port authorities in the building. Port authority. Oh, these are off.

Look at that. Look at that. Those are awesome.

Those up too. Yeah. I don't know.

People mess with these things. Oh, there you go. There we go.

There's their fans. Somebody messed up. There they are again.

Okay. Can you guys keep it down over there, please? Oh yeah. I don't hear anything.

Really? I think last week you couldn't, or I couldn't hear it. Yeah. I couldn't hear it last week.

I don't know. Somebody's messing with this board again. What are we going to do? Alrighty.

Let's play. Let's pretend we're in third grade and let's go around the table and tell us who you are and what you do in the band. Yeah.

My name is Brian Sarna. I'm the bassist and vocalist for Port Authority. All right.

John McFarland, guitar and vocals for Port Authority. Yeah. Krista McFarland, vocals and shaker.

I'm noticing a shaker. There's a shaker. I got it.

Scott gave me a shaker. Oh, oh, oh. No, no, no.

Be proud of it. Because I tell people I literally get paid to sing and shake. That's all I shake.

Shake ass. That's all I do. I like that.

Yeah. See, we have another, we have another little person over here. Look at that.

A ghost. A little ghost. A little ghost.

Yeah. No kidding. And the person that's not here is drummer Scott Bonshire.

Yes. Scotty Bonshire. Yeah.

So where's the drummer? What's he doing? He had a previous commitment. Oh. Gotcha.

That's okay. We never allow drummers to speak anyway. That's true.

We never put a microphone in front of them. You never do that. You never put a, you know, because drummers don't say much, but when they do, it's embarrassing.

It was really tough doing that Reach for the Stars interview and having to put a microphone in front of Marty. Poor Marty. Oh, that was crazy.

For all of 45 minutes. So, I mean, at least for two of you anyway, is there anything that you guys don't do that has longevity? Because I was looking up this whole Port Authority thing and you put this band together in eighth grade? Well, the original Port Authority. Yes.

Yep. Eighth grade with Scott Bonshire. Right.

On drums. Then we had two other guys. We had a guy, Jim Singleton on bass and Bob Fryer, another guitar player.

And we played for about two years. And then we did a show at my high school, Mendel High School. And on a Friday night and on a Saturday, I ran into, well, they tracked me down.

I was working at the grocery store, carrying the groceries out to the cars for the old ladies. And I'm walking out with the groceries and all of a sudden I got one guy on one side of me and the other and it was Marty and Roger. And they're saying, hey, we saw you last night and we're wondering if you want to join our band.

So for a while I was in both bands and then I had to leave Port Authority. Now, fast forward, fast forward to 2022. M&R Rush decided we were done playing live due to some... 2022 that was, okay.

Yeah, 2022. And I reached out to Scott because I just wanted to keep doing something, you know, keep playing, keep my voice active. And anyway, Scott and I just jammed for a little bit.

And I said, hey, this is sounding pretty good. Need a bass player. Called Brian up.

And for about a year, we, just the three of us, we were going to be a three-piece band. And my nephew suggested when I said I, we didn't have a name for the band. And when he found out Scott was in the band, he said, well, why don't you just call yourself Port Authority again? So we did.

And then one day I was talking with my daughter, Kristen at, I was telling her how the rehearsals were going. And I said, you know, we could use another vocalist. Would you be interested in joining the band? And I thought, I kind of thought she'd say, no, no, that's okay, dad.

But she said yes. And I'm so glad she did. See, I wish we had video in here because he was just, he was just clapping his hands together and smiling like that little mechanical monkey.

So anyway, you guys went from eighth grade to 2022. I mean, nothing happened in between there. Well, yeah, well, Scott, Scott has been in, let's see, Hartsfield.

Well, these are the bands he's in now. Hartsfield, Bernie Glimm, Jay Walkers, who else? And then he was in, what were the, he's gonna. What was your back in the day? Ah, Scott, don't get mad.

I can't remember. Actually, Kenny Sotero was in the band with him. Okay.

Okay. Yeah. So not Woodland.

He was in Woodland too. Yeah, he was. Yeah, he was in Woodland.

Okay. But that's not the one I'm thinking of. Yeah.

Anyway, so Scotty has kept busy all those years. And then I've been in M&R Rush all those years. Yeah.

And Brian. I was in a band called Freewheelin' for say five years. Oh, I'm sorry, 10 years.

And we made one record and did all the stuff that John was doing. We were, we were kind of jokingly competitive bands at the time. They played all the same places we did, but much respect across the bow with that.

And watched what they did. And what's fun with me with this band is that we're doing the rock thing. So I'm like reliving my Freewheelin' days.

Because after Freewheelin', I spent 40 years in the Dancing Noodles. And Freewheelin' just happens to be episode 30 of the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. Yes.

So how many times have you been here? I've only been here once. Somebody else represented Freewheelin'. Yeah, no, we, when we did Freewheelin', we were at somebody's house.

Yeah. And we did Dancing Noodles at Riley's Daughter. Gotcha.

Okay. But I mean, but I mean, you've been on the podcast then multiple times or no? No, no, no. First time for me.

Yeah. Gotcha. Gotcha.

Okay. You were on the Freewheelin'. No.

You weren't there? No. No. But yeah, anyways, it's been, it's been great.

Because I, you know, you know, I love the Dancing Noodles and that's really my, my, my heart and soul because back in high school, besides listening to Cream and Hendrix, well, you know, I was lucky enough to have two older Vietnam veteran brothers. So I got to hear the, I got to hear Cream, Stones, you know, Beatles and all of that and Electric Flag and stuff. And Temptations' greatest hits, number one, was just like every Friday night at Terry O'Boyle's house was a dance party to Temptations, number one.

And that, and then I was lucky enough to be in the noodles, the noodles to play all of that stuff for like 40 years. So that's what I've been doing the last 45, 48 years. And you and I went to grade school together.

Yes. Market Park. I never knew that.

I didn't know that. Yeah. That's cool.

He's a couple of years behind you. You're, you're just the puppy compared to me, but. So let's talk about why I, why I suggested my daughter get in the band.

Sure. Because she's got a background that I think will, Brian, you want to, you want to take this one? No, no. Okay.

Well, Kristen, you take it. There seems like a story there, but okay, go ahead. Yeah.

Yeah. What's the story, Brian? Well, the story is, is I heard you and your dad singing. And I told your dad, you got to put a band together with this girl.

You guys were awesome. I saw you guys as a duet. Actually, what he said was, I'm tired of hearing your voice.

You got to put your daughter in this band. That's what I thought he was going to say. I thought we were going to have a, I thought we were going to have a fight right here in the studio.

Glass breaking. I got to explain this to Ryan now. You don't have that sound effect on there? A fight sound effect? No.

I don't think so. No, but we do have. Yeah.

Atta boy. Atta boy. Yeah.

There you go. So. So, so, uh, I, you know, was a, studied vocals, um, more classically trained in the beginning.

And we did, I sang with Lyric Opera Chicago in, in, um, in high school. And then I moved to Nashville and I, you know, didn't necessarily think that I was going to become a singer out there. Like I wanted to try my hand and figure out where I fit into the music scene in some way.

Um, met up with some songwriters. We wrote some stuff. We sang at some coffee shops.

Um, and then, then I met my husband and I had kids and I kind of thought that part of my life was done. And then. Why do people always think that? I don't know.

Well, I'm a, you know, it's a little different for females. You kind of feel like once you hit a certain age, it's kind of like pack it up. Well, maybe.

I am now against that. I mean, I've got so many friends that, that they had kids and they stopped. Right.

I mean, kids are a lot of work. They are a lot of work, but just because you have kids, I mean, it doesn't mean you have to stop being who you are. Right.

I agree. And I think it's important for them to see mom up there doing something that she loves. Absolutely.

That was, that was my whole thing. I had, I had friends, you know, and I had kids when I was in the middle of playing in bands and stuff. And, and I thought, well, you know, maybe I'm going to, I'm going to take a hiatus.

But then I thought, but then, but then I'm not who I am. You know, my kids don't get to know their father if I am not going to be a musician until I feel they're old enough where I can go back and start doing it again. You know, and I just, honestly, I couldn't take that much time off cause I suck as it is.

If I was going to sit around for 10 years and do nothing, then I'd come back and I'd really suck, you know, kind of thing. But I mean, but I'm glad you. Yeah, no, it was perfect timing.

Muscled through it. Yeah. Perfect timing when he asked, you know, if I wanted to join, I was, I was actually kind of shocked.

I said yes to cause you know, my, my kids are in a good spot and, and, uh, it, it's been fun trying to find my, my new voice now since I was so classically trained for so long and there were so many risks I wouldn't take. And then the, you know, I knew I was stepping into a rock band and we were going to do some fun stuff and I was like, well, I'm going to push myself and if we're just going to be in Scott's basement at first, you know, Port Authority doesn't need to go anywhere. It's just for fun.

And then we started getting really good. Yeah. I was like, maybe people should hear us then.

Yeah. Yeah. Isn't, isn't that strange? Uh, I always hear about classically trained singers who are afraid to sing rock.

Yeah. They think I'm going to destroy my voice if I do something. Well the muscle memory too as to like when to, for safety of it.

Yeah. To not destroy it. And so, you know.

Right. There's, there's ways to scream. There's ways to growl.

Yeah. But you don't learn that really. No, no.

They don't teach that in classical voice instruction. You kind of have to learn it on your own a little bit. When did you, uh, when were you in Nashville? About what time? Oh Lord.

Math. Um, I think I went down there when I was like 26. And so I'm like 27 now.

So I was only there. For like a year. For like a year.

Yeah. Yeah. I was there for like 26 until I got my husband and we left probably around 31 or 32.

Now I'm 43. Okay. So.

All right. So you were there for a few years. Yeah.

Yeah. How'd you like it? I mean. I loved it.

Yeah. I loved it. I loved it.

Nashville was a lot different. Now we've got family that live there on my husband's side and we go back and it's just so busy. Nashville is completely different because I did spend my fair share of time there.

And, uh, back when it was really a singer songwriters type kind of a place to go and hang out. And now it's like. Bachelorette parties.

It's like, it's like Disney World. Yeah. I wouldn't know.

Yeah. I know. Somebody's got to get him to Nashville.

Oh yeah. And New Orleans. I've never been there.

And New Orleans. I've been to New Orleans. Oh, you've been to New Orleans.

Okay. It's Nashville. That's Nashville.

It's Nashville. You've never been to. Yeah.

But Nashville's totally changed. It's like, uh, it's like every bar has some famous guy's name over the door and it's like, don't go in that one. Right.

Cause that's not where you want to be. Right. Yeah.

Not authentic. Yeah. So how long have you been with the band and singing, uh, singing with the band? Year and a half.

Yeah. Two years maybe. Almost two years.

Two years. Yeah. Right.

Yeah. Yeah. Awesome.

Super fun. So tell us a little bit about the setlist. What are you guys doing? You've got, you, we've got a, we've got a span of ages now, so that's got to bring some influence.

We've got a span of songs. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. We do. Well, we do the old classic rock stuff.

We do some, uh, Billy Squire, Led Zeppelin, Brian Adams, uh, what else, what else? The classic Tom Petty. And then, uh. Brandi Carlile.

Then for Kristen, we kind of bring a little, a little. Brandi Carlile, some Grace Potter. I love Grace Potter.

I love Grace Potter. Me too. Love Grace Potter.

She's awesome. Favorite song is Colors. My favorite song to play is Paris.

Oh yeah. As a guitarist, I love to play that song. We do.

Yeah. Yeah. It's, I, I guess.

I love to sing Paris. I love the sound of that snarling guitar in that song. I just love it.

No dance. Don't no dancing noodle. I'm in our Rush mashups.

Well, that's, you know, that's interesting. When we put the band together, when we first put it together, we said, look, we want to be different. First of all, we don't want to be like majority of these bands out here are playing Don't Stop Believin' and all the same stuff.

So sorry, I got a cold in my throat, but anyway, um, so we said we're not going to do anything that our other previous bands played. Yeah. Yeah.

I said, except for one exception, in my case, Whole Lotta Love. But other than that, you know, well, we're not going to do any of our Rush originals, but we're not going to do the covers either. And same thing with the Dancing Noodles and same thing with Scots, um, but it's slowly progressed a little bit.

I mean, there's a couple of songs that, you know, they're crowd pleasers, you know, you got to do them every once in a while, you know, you know, you gotta kiss a few toads, I guess. But no, I totally agree with that. Why would you want to do the stuff that you're doing in the other bands that you're in, right? We actually do a version of Dusty Springfield's I Only Want to Be With You.

It's a rocked up version that I actually found on YouTube and it was a band called The Tourists, which actually was, I'm looking at this band and I'm going, who is that lead singer? She looks, it was Annie Lennox. Oh, wow. Oh, really? Yeah.

It was her first band and it was a, it's a real cool version. So we kind of borrowed it, borrowed it and changed it around a little, just a tiny bit. Yeah.

Yeah. How was, so, I mean, you spent so many years in MNR Rush playing original music all the time. Is it, was this kind of feel like a hiatus from playing original music a lot or, you know? I think, yeah, right now we're just, I think I was just trying to find everybody's, everybody's talents are, or not talents, but everybody's sweet spot before we even talk about originals.

And there may be originals coming, but yeah, we're just, you know, and, and the, the cover songs Brian was bringing in, I never even thought of doing them, dreamed of it. And some of them I never even heard of. And the same thing with Kristen and we're, and Scott, you know, I, we're all, we're, we're teaching each other and going into different areas that, you know, we, we never did before.

Yeah. And, uh, yeah. So it's been so far so good.

Yeah. Well, since we're talking about it, I think it's time we pick one of those songs off of that list over there and, uh. And do it.

And yeah. Do it till you're satisfied. Whatever.

That was, that was the hippest thing you've ever said, I think. You got to do it, you got to do it like a very white voice, do it till you're satisfied. All righty.

We'll be right back. All right. You're listening to the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast.

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We've got Port Authority in the studio. And when we, don't forget, I love that name. I don't know why.

I just like Port Authority. It's a cool name. You'll have to come up with, tell me who thought of that.

But go ahead. Sing first. Okay.

Sing first. Oh, silver spoon, take your greatness challenge, pick your path. Wake up in the morning, see your sunrise, love's to go down.

Lousy lovers pick their prey, but they never cry out loud. Did she make you cry, make you break down, shatter your illusions of love? Is it over now? Do you know how? Pick up the pieces and go home. Rock on, ancient queen, follow those who fell in your shadow.

Let's make better lovers, you better put your kingdom up for sale. Did she make you cry, make you break down, shatter your illusions of love? Is it over now? Do you know how? Pick up the pieces and go home. Go home.

Rock on, golden woman, take your silver spoon, take your greatness. Heartless challenge, pick your path and break. Did she make you cry, make you break down, shatter your illusions of love? Is it over now? Do you know how? Pick up the pieces and go home.

Did she make you cry, make you break down, shatter your illusions of love? Tell me, is it over now? Do you know how? Pick up the pieces and go home. Go home. Go home.

Did she make you cry, make you break down, shatter your illusions of love? Is it over now? Do you know how? Pick up the pieces and go home. I'm sorry, I've had this for a month and I can't shake it. You know, isn't that terrible? I have too.

Something's going around. I have not been 100% for like several weeks. I've been to the doctor.

I just finished a Z-Pack. I took a Z-Pack and I just ended it yesterday, but it's still... Yeah, I don't think it's anything that you can go... It's the plague. Yeah, you can't get anything for it.

You just gotta work through it. That was a nice song. Original? You know, that's one of those songs that kind of falls into the category of I wish I wrote it.

And every once in a while, I'll hear a song and it's like, God, I wish I wrote that song. You know? Yeah. I'll tell you, when I hear family members harmonize together, you know, it's... Because there was a couple of times there where you guys... Where it's like your two notes just blended into one and it sounded like one voice.

I mean, that's what happens when you have family members. Everything just... I don't know, the vocal cords vibrate at the same rate or something. Who knows? Mike, I'm so lucky that John brought Kristen in because, like I said, when I saw them two play, that's what I did.

I was like, oh my God, you know, you guys are so good. You should do something. And then for me to be in the band and then him to bring Kristen in was just great for me.

I mean, when am I going to get to do a song like that? Yeah, right. You know? Yeah. I'm not singing that with you.

I love you, brother, but I ain't singing that one with you. Yeah, I'm not going to be falling in love staring into your eyes singing that song, brother. I mean, you never know.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. So getting back to the family thing. So not only, like you said, that sometimes that does happen when we're both going up for the same part, it does sound like one voice.

But what happens, too, is like if we're on stage and one of us ad-libs a little, goes a little to the left when he should or what, the other person follows. Yeah. We don't even know.

I hear it coming or she hears it coming. Right. And there's just this magic like that.

And actually, I went and saw the Nelsons. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah.

And my friend Jim Lenz, he actually got me the tickets and he got me backstage to meet those guys. Yeah, yeah. And I brought that up, that I'm in a band with my daughter, and he knew exactly what I was talking about.

Yeah. About how, you know, there's some magic that happens that you don't even practice something. Right.

And you both do the same thing on stage magically. Yeah. Well, when you spend the majority of your life with somebody, you tend to, you know, you kind of tend to know what they're thinking.

And I think it translates into it. Yeah. That's one of the magic, that's one of the great things of, I think, maturing as a musician and being a musician in my later years in life.

Can I put it that way? Because when I was in my 20s, it was hard to find that connection. Right. Yeah.

Then when I hit my 40s, I'm like, oh, these guys know what they're doing. What the heck was that? The video I took. Yeah.

So is this the first time you guys have ever really done anything together other than just like singing around the campfire? No. We had a two-piece acoustic act back in the 90s. Okay.

Was it before you went to Nashville? Yeah. Excuse me. And we played fests.

We did Tinley Park Oktoberfest. Nice. Okay.

We did a pizza joint here and there. We did private parties. We did your voice teacher's wedding.

Oh, nice. We did a bunch. We had Sertoma fundraiser.

Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, so it was fun then and it's fun now.

Yeah. So what's the secret? Because I'll tell you, I've got a daughter who can sing and a son who can play guitar and play the shit out of a drum set. I can't get either one of them to do a darn thing.

I really can't. My son is the kind of guy, he wanted to play the drums because I noticed that he'd just be sitting at the kitchen table. Next thing you know, he's, and my wife's like, get him a drum set.

So I bought him a cheap little $300 electronic drum set that he could practice with and put headphones on. I don't have to listen to him. And it's to the point now where it's, yeah, I just want to listen to him.

He's that good. Never took lessons. Right.

And he, same thing with the guitar. He's self-taught, you know, and my daughter can sing, but neither one of them will. I've tried to drag them out to open mic nights and open jams and just come up and play one song with the old man.

They're like, nah, I'm not doing that. No, that's not happening. Not going to happen.

Well, it started with Kristen when she was like three. She'd be watching cartoons and we'd turn off the TV. It was time to eat.

She'd be singing the song that they just played once on the cartoon or, you know, a five-year-old American tale. And she would just watch it. Somewhere out there.

Yes. That was the song. That was my jam.

That was my song. Yes. Five years old.

I recorded that. Remember, there was a soundtracks recording studio in every mall in America. Yeah.

Yes. I recorded that with one of my best friends. Amazing.

James Ingram. Yeah, I think it was. And was it Linda Ronstadt? Yeah.

Something like that. Mike, that's the trick. You got to get one of those songs that your kid likes and come down to what they're doing.

Oh, dad, I'll do it then with you. Well, you know, my daughter was like in first grade and Fergie had a song on the radio called Big Girls Don't Cry. Not the Big Girls Don't Cry from the, what, the 50s or 60s or whatever, but her version of it.

And I played and she sang it. We sang it together. It was so cute because she was like in first grade.

That's great. But after that, it's like, yep, nope, we're done. She might come back around.

We'll see what happens. We'll see what happens. My son might decide to do that.

It sounds like you guys are having a lot of fun. So much fun. Yeah.

We're having a blast. And I want to quote Kristen on one thing. When I asked her, I said, do you really want to be in a band with three old farts? And she said to me, she goes, you know, I'd rather be in a band with you guys than younger guys who are still trying to figure it out.

You guys have years of experience that I can learn from. Absolutely. And, and, and again, yeah.

So our live show, I mean, yeah, we spanned, look at all that, that the timeframe we span, you know, from the 60s, early 60s to. Yeah. That kind of knowledge is, you know, you can't buy that.

You know, from high school to about the age of 36, 35 or 36, I must have been in about 20 bands. Right. But from 36 to now, I'm 55 now I've been in three, you know, there's something about something about, you know, and you can find, you know, I think you hit the nail on the head when you find more mature people that let's get, you know, can we, can we not have the bullshit? Can we not argue? Can we get rid of it? Can we leave the ego at the door? And I love being the weakest link in the, in Fort Authority.

Like I can lean on you guys. They know that when we're up on stage that you guys know what's up and if, you know, feel like I'm in good hands, feel safe. Excellent.

Excellent. I'd like to hear another song. Okay.

I as well. Yes. I'm sure Ray would as well.

Oh, Ray's back. Ray went to go police the door. I've been back for a while.

Yeah. He has. Okay.

We're just going to go right into it. Let's go right into it. Yeah.

What's your, what's your favorite song? Possibly this one. Oh, really? Okay. Yeah.

Uh, yeah. We're doing horses. Oh, I thought we were doing horses.

What? Horses. Yeah. Yeah.

Right. Right. Well, we were talking about, we were talking about Bon Jovi, but that was my throat doing wisdom.

Yeah. That's just, that's just. We do a version of living on a prayer, a slow acoustic version.

Cool. We just did it at our last show and went over really great, but I can't do it right now. Sure.

Yeah. Mike, this is one of those songs that, you know, like we're talking, being in the bands, the different bands and stuff. Like I'm not doing this one in the noodles and you know, I, I love this song and, um, Brandy Carlisle.

I love Brandy Carlisle and Kristen brings it in. Okay. Brian, you sound so good in this mic.

Doesn't he? I don't. He's like the police of God. I want your mic.

We should switch for this song because you sound really good. Yeah. Okay.

Do the whole Bill Cosby, Noah. And there you go. It's a yodeling song.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm a little nervous how this is going to go.

Vocally with this mic. Well, if it sounds like crap, Holly knows how to edit it. Okay.

Yeah. Hi, Polly. Hi, Paul.

Hey, Paul. You're the best. Paul's like, I ain't editing nothing.

You guys are going down, Jan. Let's angle that microphone just a little. I didn't hear your voice crack on the last song.

What are you talking about? And let's, and I'm sorry, before we do, let's move that microphone just a little bit. There you go. Toward the, toward the guitar a little bit more because that's picking his voice up nice and strong.

We're good. All right. All right.

Here we go. So this is horses. Broken horses.

Broken horses. Gotcha. Okay.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

My mouth, I have always tasted the apathy, but Tethered in wide open spaces And fields that lead for miles Right into the barrel of a gun Bending up your fences with my Horses running wild Only broken horses know to run Alright. Thank you so much. Very nice.

You're right, I am not super familiar with that song, but I need to... I like that song. That's really good, I really like that song. What was that by, Runny Stomachpile? Running Stomachpile? Oh no, Rainy Carlyle, I'm sorry.

Rainy Carlyle, come on. To be honest with you, I think it's one of her better songs. I mean, for the rock genre side of her, you know.

The killer song. But, yeah, she's got some great ones, you know. Yeah.

So where are the places that you're playing? Did you kind of tap in? What part of you should ask? Hell yeah. So, being that today is... Donnie Pettigoe's birthday? It is Donnie Pettigoe's birthday. I did wish him a happy birthday, but actually today is May 26th.

It is, yeah, yes. See, that's how this thing works, you record it and it comes out. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

The secret of radio here. Yeah, well the secret's out now. And as you can see, Mike and I both do this in the nude, so.

Yes, that's... You know, that would be fun. We never thought of that before. Oh, when we get video, we got to just sit here, make sure our junk is under the table.

Oh God. Oh my God. The next band, they just left.

Yeah, they heard that, they left. They're gone. And they're not coming back.

Yeah, we got some shows coming up. We got one in June. We got a private party in June.

Then on July 25th, we're going to be at Austin Community Tavern in Stager. All right. That's a Saturday.

August 7th, the Joliet Route 66 Museum around the corner on the rooftop. Nice. Oh, awesome.

Okay. August 18th, Frankfurt Square Park District Bandshell in Frankfurt. September 11th, the Hard Rock Casino in Rockford.

Oh wow, okay. Trick themed. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's pretty awesome. Rick Nielsen's got unbelievable, the guitars he's got behind glass up there. But anyway.

And then November 6th, a private party for Satoma at the Gaelic Park. Nice, nice, nice. Yeah.

I love that. I love Gaelic Park. I love that pub in there and the whole bit.

That's a nice venue over there. Yeah. You know, you mentioned Rick Nielsen.

All the cases in here are because of him. All the guitars that are in the Hard Rock there, I guess at one point in time were in these cases and didn't need them anymore. And he's the one that donated all the cases here for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Yeah. Thank you, Rick. Thank you.

Yeah. Yeah. Some of the guitars he's got at the Hard Rock.

I mean, you know, the dollars that they're worth is ridiculous. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. It was, I was, I can't remember the year. It was so long ago.

It was probably close to 20 years ago, but I ended up doing a show with his son, Miles, Miles Nielsen. And it was right about the time when, let's see, Cigar Aficionado was a magazine for just a couple of years. And they did a whole article about Rick Nielsen restoring this acoustic guitar.

And I can't, I can't remember the name of the acoustic guitar or who, who owned it, but it was in pieces. It literally had to be glued back together again. And I actually got to talk to Miles Nielsen about the project of putting this guitar back together again.

I mean, he was, he's not just a collector. He's a historian. I mean, he really is and restores a lot of these things.

So it'd be great to see his collection. And he played at Ted's warehouse. Well, I mean, you know, back in the day we were, you know, in my M&R Rush days, you know, we were opening up for Styx.

Yeah. But we were playing the same club scenes as Cheap Trick. Oh yeah.

Absolutely. Yeah. I remember going to see them and we were playing on Friday.

They played a Saturday and we went and saw them and, and you know, they were doing covers Yeah. And they'd throw up and they did Ain't That A Shame? Or they did. Yeah.

Anyway. Yeah. I saw them at Mother's.

I saw them at Haywire's. Did you? Yeah. Red Lion.

I always hit the Red Lions and also. Oh yeah. The Red Lion.

If you didn't play a Red Lion, you were a nobody. Yeah. Yeah.

But you know, that's, that's one of the reasons why I'm so glad that, that this building is here. You know, we needed this for, for forever, for so many years because people ask me, what's the greatest thing about being a musician in Chicago, in this area? And it's because of stories like that. But unfortunately it's kind of going away.

I mean, when was the last time you heard somebody talk about, yeah, I went into such and such a club and this band was playing there and in, you know, they, they were up and coming, you know, it's, it's the early nineties since you can say something like that. You know? Yeah. I mean, there were no such thing as, as tribute bands back then.

Yeah. Well, I take that back. American English has been around for a long time.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

And they were the only, and they weren't billing themselves as a tribute band. Right. Right.

I don't know how they did it, but you know, and then boy, post COVID, all these tribute bands just, whoo. Yeah. It took off.

I think it, I think all of that stuff happened because people saw the success of bands like Australian Pink Floyd, you know, Australian Pink Floyd is selling out arenas, you know, their, their tribute bands selling out arenas, which is crazy. We just, Cadillac Groove just played the Hollywood Casino last weekend. At the same time, there was a Prince impersonator in the amphitheater, right? A sold out show for the, for, for a guy pretending to be Prince.

I just couldn't believe that. But Hey, whatever pays the bills, I guess, you know? Well, Hey. Well, even the real bands are now tribute bands pretty much.

Yeah. Well, yeah. Foreigner, Kansas, not a single original member.

Original member of it anymore. Yeah. Yeah.

I know. But Hey, we do our thing, right? Yes. As long as it becomes too much like real work.

I don't want to do it anymore. That's right. So whatever we have, whatever we have to do to keep it fun, that's what we do.

That's right. So, Oh, go ahead. You were probably going to say what I was going to say.

I was going to say, where can people find you on social media? Well, we don't have a web page, but we have a Facebook page, uh, Port Authority band, I guess. And then we also have an Instagram, which you can find through the Facebook. I'd go to Facebook first and then find the Instagram.

That's why you need a younger person in a band. They're both looking at her like, what's Instagram? You got a YouTube page, don't you? What's Tic Tac? Where we at, Christy? Where we at? We don't have our own YouTube, but we should do that. We should get on that.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I sent some stuff to you, Ray. There's a couple of good, um, YouTube videos out there of us and they sound really good. So I passed that on to you.

I need to pass it on the mic. It's cool. Cool.

Awesome. Alrighty guys. Well, thanks for coming in, Sarah.

We ruined your voice, John. Yeah. Thank you for having us.

Thank you so much. That was great. Oh, you guys, it was so much fun, man.

It was great. We'd like to see you on one of our shows. Oh, sure.

Absolutely. We'll let you know. I told you.

Yeah. So you didn't say that to me cause I've already seen him. He doesn't want me back.

Yeah. I tell people, you know, and, and, and my, my can responses, if I can come up with a night where I'm not playing, I'd be more than happy to come and see you guys. There it is.

There it is. That's what people have been promising to get out and see. And yeah, I need to do that.

Yeah. Alrighty. Thanks a lot.

Thanks guys. All right. We'll see you.

So much. 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.