Ep 286 Dr. Don & the 59er's

Timeless Rock & Roll. 

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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! Hey everybody, it's Ray the Roadie. And this is Hollywood Mike with absolutely nothing to, you know, to say.

Nothing to say. None whatsoever. Kind of an uneventful week.

Yeah, it's been kind of an uneventful week. Yeah. You know, working and going home and all, but although my wife was out of town for an entire week.

Oh yeah? And she came back yesterday. The house was a mess. Laundry wasn't done.

Dishes in the sink. Not if I wanted to have the coming home sex. You know how that goes.

She's gone for a week. Screaming at the kids, get this shit out of the sink. Let's go.

So she had a good homecoming. It was pretty nice. Very nice.

Yeah. How about you? What have you been doing this week? Not much. Just my other outside interests from here have kept me very busy.

Yeah? Well, that's good. You know, it's better than sitting around doing nothing. Yeah.

It's like every day. Getting your steps in? Getting my steps in. Yeah.

Yeah. Before you know it. I mean, you get to sed- sed- sediments? Sed- sed- sedentary.

Sedentary. What's sediment? Sediment's the shit on the bottom of the river. Sediment's the shit on the bottom of the river, yeah.

Yeah. You have to go see a doctor then. And then, you know, what are you going to do? I know.

Who would you see if you had an ailment like that? Well, you have a doctor right here. You know, he's just, you know, who's that? I don't know. It's our, it's our announcer.

We have an announcer now. Who's the guy? We have an Ed McMahon in here. We have an Ed McMahon.

Yeah. Just talking when he's not supposed to, right? Yeah, he's telling us all about Dr. Don and the 59ers. The 59ers.

How you guys doing? We're doing good. Doing real good. Doing real well.

So where are you guys from? You guys from the area? Where'd you come from? Yeah, Don and I are from Okina. Okay. I am a lifelong Chicago Heightsian.

Chicago Heightsian. All right. I'm from Oak Forest.

Okay. And we also- You must know the guys from Replay. Replay.

I've heard that name. Yes. Yeah.

Yeah. They're from the Heights. The name.

Don't know him personally. Okay. I've never heard the Chicago Heightsian name.

It kind of makes you sound like an Olympian or something like that. He's a music god. So what do you do in the band? First of all, tell everybody your name and what do you do in the band? I'm Rick Allen.

I am the drummer. Rick Allen. Yes.

And your name is Rick Allen? Yes, it is. He's got both arms. He ties one behind his back.

He's Rick Allen 2.0. So I guess when you're born and your name is Rick Allen, you've got two choices, NFL player or drummer. Right. Yeah.

That's what it kind of comes about, right? Or a baseball player. No, I guess that works. It was a Richie Allen, I guess.

Yeah, it was Richie. I am Rick. There's no- Rick.

It's not Richard. Don't call him Dick. Yeah.

Don't call him Dick. My parents did not like the name Richard, but they liked the name Rick. So on my birth certificate, it is R-I-C-K.

R-I-C-K. I have my license right here if I need to. I just call him One-Eye.

Eye Doctor. Yeah, that is, yeah. Where's the- There you go.

So as long as he spoke up, everybody, that's Dr. Don over there. That's right. How you doing, bud? I'm doing real good.

Yeah? Yeah, thanks for having us. So I'm assuming you put the band together, right? Is that how it all- No. No? These guys are 59ers and they've been around longer than I have.

They needed a singer and I auditioned and I think they like the war pigs, did I say? And the rest is history. Okay. So who started? I mean, how did it all come to be? Here's how it kind of started.

I was looking to kind of do an original project with one of Jeff's buddies. So Jeff and I started jamming our house. But the one guy who was going to do the guitar and singing, he kind of dropped out.

But we had already brought Rick into the fold. So we'd been playing for probably a couple of years just without a lead singer. And we did the best we could.

We did some jam nights. And neither one of us are, you know, we all croak out a song or two. But to be a lead singer is another matter.

Yeah. Well, Dr. Don happened to be my eye doctor. So one day I'm going, you know, I'm getting my eye exam.

He's going, well, how's your vision? I go, well, you know, it ain't as good as it used to be. Like when I'm on stage and I'm trying to look at my guitar, I can't see those, you know. He's name dropping over here.

You know, when I'm on stage. I thought he was going to break into double vision. Yeah.

But, you know, that's how we got talking about, you know, music. And I found out he was a singer, played with some other bands. And we brought him into the fold and we haven't looked back since.

Well, first of all, what is your name? My name is Chuck Thalios. Chuck. Chuck.

So we've got Jeff. We've got Chuck. We've got Don.

And we've got Rick. That's right. There we go.

And so what, and so what do you do in the band then? I play guitar. Play guitar. Okay.

Excellent. Excellent. And you're, you're, you're just singing.

Is that all you're doing? Are you playing more, doing more? Yeah, I sing. I play a little acoustic guitar, but, but still working on my craft. So I haven't, haven't put that into the band yet, but yeah, I'm the singer.

And by process of elimination, that's easy for me to say. Process of elimination, you're the bass player then? Yes. Okay.

I'm the bass player. Yes. Excellent.

So tell me, so, so you guys are just jamming in the basement. First of all, how long have you guys been together then? How long was this going on? Well, if you want to go way back, Rick and I used to play back in the early nineties with another band, but having said that the three of us probably were for a good couple of years, we're just, you know, kind of thrashing around by ourselves. We tried a couple of singers here or there and none of them panned out.

And, uh, but you know, finally we found out and it turned out he lived right in town. Couldn't, it's been a really a good, uh, it's been a good relationship. Yeah.

Good. Yeah. The three of us, uh, it'll be five years in August to be exact.

Okay. The three of us. Don's, uh, going on two and a half years with us.

Yeah. Who's the rocker in the group? There's always one guy that's just like totally into metal and stuff like that. Which one is it? Yeah.

Yeah, we all are kind of a little bit. Yeah. Yeah.

I like metal a lot. Sure. Yeah.

Like who, who influenced you? Well, Pantera is, is probably the best. Uh, uh, a band that's not very well known is, uh, Snot. They only put out one album.

Snot. Yeah. Snot is a great band and there's just a one album, uh, band, but, uh, you know, I'm guessing there's probably a thousand bands named Snot.

Probably. Yeah. You never heard of Snot then? No, I've never heard of Snot.

No. Look them up. Yeah.

They, uh, only one album because a singer died, I believe. And yeah. I think I've heard of Slip Snot, but.

Oh, you never heard of Snot? I'm sorry. No, you guys aren't. No, see, I've got it.

No, I've, I've, I've got, I've got a one, I've got a one limit rule on the trombone, but no, you just blew that right. Literally blew it. You get it.

That was, you know, I got heavy metal metalers and, uh, you know, you guys don't know Snot, huh? No, I'm not a big metal guy. I'm more of an eighties guy. So, you know, hanging out with the 59, I was born in 68.

So I just kind of screwed up the whole name, but, um, yeah, I'm, I'm getting into more, more, you know, heavier stuff and, you know, more, uh, hard rock because of these guys, you know, but, you know, I think, uh, being in a band, you have to be open to, you know, new songs and new things that you wouldn't normally listen to or, or play. I think, uh, I think it's a good variety. You know, that, that, that Snot, was that album called Postnasal Drip? Oh God.

You know, I'm going to wear this button out if you don't stop. No, that's just not good. All right.

So, so tell me about the set list. You know, somebody goes out and see, see if you guys play, is it a pretty eclectic set list or what do you guys do? It'll range from Grand Funk Railroad to Elvis Presley. You got me.

I'm, I'm, I'm hooked. Yeah. No kidding.

And everything in between. We throw in a Black Sabbath tune, Blue Oyster Cult. Um, you know, we cover a lot and then we, we do throw in probably about four or five originals.

Okay. Oh, there are. And then some dance, uh, music, you know, like Jenny Jenny and, uh, stuff like that.

Wow. Okay. All right.

So I'm curious about this original stuff, because I mean, we can all sit around and talk about, you know, other people's music and stuff like that, but I'd love to hear about your, about your own stuff. Who's the main songwriter? I guess that'd be me. Yeah.

Okay. All right. So how many, you said like, you said like four? We have about four or five.

Um, actually we had more than that when it was just the three of us. Cause you know, without a singer, we were just kind of doing the best we can. Yeah.

But, uh, there were, you know, we always have more to bring online once we get ready to do it. Now, do you get the opportunity to sneak your original music into us, to the setlist? Yeah. As a matter of fact, we just, uh, did our first, uh, gig where it was just, uh, um, just us playing all night and we got about five, uh, originals in.

Okay. Wow. Well, that's good.

I like when people hear the original and go, Oh, I like, I know that song. No, you don't. Yeah.

Yeah. Not even close. I like it when they say here, play another original.

Yeah. Had that. So that's good.

Do you get these recorded? I do have them recorded. Okay. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So what's your philosophy? I mean, how do you do it? Cause there's a lot of bands that'll hit the original stuff and they'll announce the original song.

Right. But then there's some people that get sneaking in. Yeah.

Don tends to announce them. I kind of like the idea of sneaking them in, but yeah, I'll go with the flow. Don is our front man.

So he'll, he'll put it out there, but nobody, uh, so far they go over very well. Okay. A lot of times.

And they're not overly long, you know, that's a part of it too. You know, right. You've heard the old adage that you can't, you can't just do your own music.

You know, you got to insert in which we do, but you know, we have found that when we do do, uh, one of our originals, they seem to go over quite well. Well, good. Yeah.

Excellent. So tell me a little bit about the, uh, I don't know, like the best gig that you had. I know you guys have had to have talked about, you know, like the best gig that you had, what came together, what happened, what made it so good? Well, that would be the last Friday.

I mean, we haven't, uh, No, no, no. That's easy, man. That's easy.

Everybody says, well, it's the last gig that we played. So we get better all the time. So it's the last one.

As Chuck mentioned, that's, that was our first full gig. We, uh, we're in a backup roles and open mic night. Oh, okay.

And, uh, So just this past Friday was the first time you were completely all by yourself. Yeah. Okay.

All right. So I guess that makes it pretty good. We played everything we knew.

It was a three hour show. We played everything we knew. Where'd you play? Jack's place in Midlothian.

Jack's place in Midlothian. Okay. And if anybody from Jack's place is listening, we're looking for podcast sponsors.

Yes, we are. So, so other than the fact that it was your first time all together, tell us about the gig. How did it go? It, it went really well.

It, um, it was, uh, they want us back, which is always good. Uh, they, they want us back mostly because, uh, we brought the people in, especially here, Rick and Don. Yeah.

Uh, they really, uh, put the word out and brought the people in and, you know, with most bars, it's, it's really the number one thing is, uh, how many people you bring in and we did it. And if you, you know, you see our song list, you see that it's, it's, it's, you know, for, you know, a wide variety. Sure.

People, you know, um, some music is, you know, geared towards, uh, you know, uh, certain groups and, you know, some of this rock that we play, you know, it's music with longevity. Right. You know, you're still hearing it on the radio today.

Some of these songs are 40 years old. Right. You're still hearing them and people are still rocking out to them.

And young kids are coming up. Yeah. Listening to it.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, just for an example, like the Beatles, you know, that it never, it never fades out.

It's timeless. It's timeless. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, the, well, the two young men that you guys met, you know, you know, earlier, earlier tonight are in that category that these are guys in their early twenties. And, you know, I asked him, who are you influenced by? And one guy's like, uh, he, he heard, what was the song he heard? He heard separate ways by journey when he was, uh, an infant and, and he's in some movie and Tron and Tron.

Yeah. And he's like, and, and that's what made me want to play guitar. It's literally like freshly 21 year old kid.

I'm sure Ray, you could appreciate this. You know, I'm sure there's no way you would have ever played or listened to music that your parents listened to. It was just such a dichotomy, such a difference.

Growing up. No, I came to appreciate it later on in life, but yeah, but they had their stuff playing there, you know, Sinatra, Dean Martin, all that stuff. And at that time I didn't.

Yeah. Yeah. But you know, now, if you have kids or we have kids, you know, they're all into the, you know, Zeppelin, Black Sabbath.

Well, they hear what you're playing. That's what they're, you know, I think that's why my dad was listening to, you know, Nelson Eddie and Jeanette McDonald. Oh yeah.

I don't even know who that is. Again, I was born in 60. I don't know what he's talking about, but you know what, getting back to our gig, what was cool about it.

I have daughters that are 25 and 24. They had a bunch of friends there. There was 80 year olds there.

There were younger people. There was such a, such a wide variety of age groups, which was cool. And we, I think we hit it all, you know, we satisfied all the musical tastes, so to speak.

So, so it was pretty neat to see everyone at different age groups that were digging our music and you know, it was pretty neat to see. Yeah. He's, you know, again with the, it's pretty neat to see he's just, he's shamelessly plugging himself the entire time.

I tell you. That's why he's a front man. Yeah, that's right.

So, so why do you think, why do you think these classic songs, why do you think they appeal to a younger crowd so much? What's the reason for that? I mean, they can turn, they can, these kids nowadays have every song available to them in their back pocket on their cell phone. It's simple. The new music sucks.

I must concur. Yeah. You know, if you could even call it music.

Yeah. Well, for my daughters, you know, they grew up with Guitar Hero. So, you know, they've heard a lot of these old songs and they're like, yeah, I know this song.

I'm like, how do you know this song? And they're like, Guitar Hero. So that's kind of, you know, exposed them to some of that, some of that music, I think. Right, right.

But I mean, but to be fair, so I was born in 1970, but so I'm the youngest person here. Yes. But to be fair, my parents thought, that button's getting wore out.

I mean, I mean, the first time I came home with Pyromania by Def Leppard, my father's thought the entire album sucked. He thought, he thought my music sucked. Right.

But now my dad's going down the street, driving his car. He's in his 80s and he's listening to Def Leppard. So, you know, it was like a different appreciation.

With Rick Allen. Yeah, with Rick Allen. Yeah.

Oh, gosh. But I mean, so, I mean, to be fair, we have to say that it's easy to say that the music sucks. And I'd have to agree with you on that one.

But everybody has their influences. Yeah, I'm, you know, I shouldn't say that because actually, you know, when it comes to music, what I like about being in this band or certain songs like that people suggest, I'm like, I hate that song. And then I learned it.

And I was like, oh, that's actually a good song. So you have to have an open mind. Yeah.

I was just making a joke about that. But, you know, I got to admit, I never could quite get into the hip hop thing, though I could do a little rap if I have to. Yeah, yeah.

Well, there's a difference between rap and hip hop because classic old school rap is kind of interesting sometimes. But the hip hop rap is the thing that anytime you start making music and you put sounds in it that you're not going to find naturally in nature, that's when it turns, turns me off. You know, because a lot of that stuff is sounds that are created by a computer.

Exactly. You're not going to find an instrument to do it. Yeah.

But some of that, some of the lyrics, the lyrics on the rap stuff, I got to admit, and the rhythm, they say it, it's very intriguing. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

I mean, you know, I remember, you know, back in the 80s, listening to like, like the old Run DMC. I mean. Yeah.

They actually had a band on stage with them, two guitars, bass player, keyboards, drums, right. And you could easily sing their songs and you've got, you've got a hard rock song, but they just chose to, they just chose to rap. Well, I'm sure everyone remembers this thing with Walk This Way.

Yeah. That kicked in. Right.

Oh, yeah, it did. And God, Aerosmith is thankful for that. I'll tell you that for, you know, for one thing.

Yeah. Excellent. Crossover music.

Yeah. Yeah. So, you know what I think it's time for? Smoke? Cigarette? No.

No. Later. Urban? Yeah.

Oh, that's definitely later. Oh, okay. Yeah, that's definitely for sure later.

How about a break? Yeah, let's take a break so we can get some guitars set up and everything. All right. We'll be right back.

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Go ahead. And it's called Raid on the Scarecrow, and it is about a family that has a farm for many, many years, many generations, and it was all taken away from them. It's called Raid on the Scarecrow.

All right. Take it away, fellas. And if I was bred for clothes, I'd call my old friend Shepard up, walking off the land.

He says, Don, it's just my job, and I hope you understand. I'm caught in your jive, old hustler. You don't make it right.

If you want me to, I'll say a prayer for your soul tonight. Raid from down on above the porch, straight with a Bible in the hand. Sometimes I see the rain take me to the promised land.

They take away man's energy. Can't forget this guilty cause. There'll be rain on the scarecrow, blood on the plow.

Blood on the scarecrow, blood on the plow. There's 97 crosses planted in the courthouse yard. There's 97 families.

There's 37 farms. My name is in my name. Sometimes I feel like dying.

Like the scarecrow in the rain. Rain on the scarecrow, blood on the plow. This land lit a maze.

This land made me so proud. Son, I'm just sorry. There's no legacy for you now.

This land lit a maze. This land made me proud. Son, I'm just sorry.

There's no legacy for you now. Rain on the scarecrow, blood on the plow. Rain on the scarecrow, blood on the plow.

Yeah. Very nice. I'm so glad you guys chose that song.

Nobody comes in here and performs a John Mellencamp song. John Cougar Mellencamp. I think it's just John Mellencamp now.

He dropped the cougar. Okay. Well, she was getting older anyway.

Yeah, that's true. There you go. You know, yeah.

Well, he went through so many name change. When he first came on the scene, he was John Cougar. Right.

I saw his first televised performance. Did you? Yeah. Trivia question.

Do you know what it was? It was on TV. It was on television. Yeah.

Do I win? It was on, yes. It was on Solid Gold. Really? Yeah.

Hosts were Andy Gibb and Marilyn McHugh. Remember that show? WGN. After the nine o'clock news.

And he was just John Mellencamp. Nope, he was John Cougar. Or John Cougar.

I'm sorry. And the song that he performed was Ain't Even Done With The Night. And that was his first national hit.

And that's still my favorite song by him. Where is he from? He's from Indiana. Bloomington, Indiana.

Indiana. Yeah. Lives in a pink house.

For years, people tried to compare him to a Midwestern version of Bruce Springsteen. But I like him so much better than Bruce Springsteen. You know, I guess from being from the Midwest or whatever.

But he always, he was always the guy back in the 80s. I don't know why he would catch shit. I don't know why.

Because he was like Americana music at a time when hairband was popular. Or it was the 80s new wave stuff. So whenever you mentioned John, then he was John Cougar Mellencamp.

Everybody would kind of like snarl and be like, yeah, whatever. I thought he was a fantastic songwriter. I've seen him in concert three times.

He's turned into a crabby old man though. Yeah, a little bit. Yeah, a little bit.

You know, that happens to all of us eventually. Yeah. Yeah.

But he still performs extremely well. I'm glad you guys did that one. Who decided to do that? I mean, I guess, are you making the setlist basically? Because you're the singer.

You're like, we're going to do this one. No, it's a group effort. I think we come together.

We throw things around. Sometimes we say thumbs up, thumbs down. Maybe we'll try it.

We'll try it. It doesn't work. We throw it out.

So it's a, you know. We thought it would fit in well here. Yeah.

For an acoustic song. Absolutely. Yeah.

Yeah. But I mean, you guys perform it normally or regularly. We do.

Yeah. Yeah. And by the way, for your first time playing that last night, you nailed it.

I mean, that was pretty cool actually. I screwed up the lyrics because I was a little nervous, but that's all right. I don't think anybody knows.

Nobody's going to notice. I just play without the feet. That's all.

Yeah. Yeah. I was just impressed because when he was flicking it, he was getting the high end thing and he was flicking with his fingers.

I just tried that. Right there. I thought a little clickly thing would sound good here, but I missed a couple times.

You can't do it too many times though because it starts to hurt. Yeah. I played a, I do quite a few open jams, host them around town.

And one night I ended up playing congas for several songs. And the next day my hands were going. That's right.

I could feel a heartbeat in my fingers. I was like, oh my God, guys that played that for a living must have hands like, like cinder blocks. Oh yeah.

This morning I put on a pair of gloves. They didn't fit. Yeah.

No. Yeah. You must have.

They're fatter today. Oh yeah. Absolutely.

Shit hurts after a while. I don't know how they can do it, man. Well, that's pretty good.

The guy on Rare Earth was an excellent conga player. Oh yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. You can have, you don't have to stand up. You can take a seat.

First. Okay. Well, we have one rule though.

Guitar players can't have their guitars in their hands while we're trying to talk. And you ever try to have a conversation with a guitar player and he's holding a guitar in his hand. Yeah.

It doesn't go very well. Yeah. Yep.

There's strumming, there's picking. They're picking at it. They're trying to talk and it's like, what's your name? Um, I, um, I forgot.

Um, um, uh, yeah, same with bass players too. Yeah. So put them down, put them down, fellas, put them down, put them down.

That is a cool bass though. And plus you can get closer to the mic that way. What is that? Is it called a factor? Who made that? Kabiki X Factor.

Okay. Yeah. It's, it's, uh, and he, he, uh, he came from, uh, the fender, um, shop years ago.

Yeah. Just like the Stingray, you know, just like a music band. Um, it was popular in the eighties.

Um, and, uh, I talked my wife and, uh, getting one for Christmas cause they're quite expensive. Now they still make them, but they're, you gotta pay for it. You're not going to lose it.

You can see it from space. You know, if it's an eighties bass, what better color? That is the brightest yellow. I think I've ever seen.

Yeah. I had a jogging suit like that in the eighties. Yeah.

When I was listening to Run DMC. Yeah. You need sunglasses with the lights.

The lights are on it and you need sunglasses. Another eyeball reference. Yeah.

So, so last weekend you said it was the first time that you played, um, you know, all by yourself. Yeah. Was it, was it like a four hour night where it was like three, one hour sets or how, how, what was it? It was, it was a three, three hour night.

That's what everybody's kind of going to nowadays is the three hour. It's, it was a three, three hour night. We're not quite ready for a four, but we will be soon.

Yeah. Yeah. And so that's the goal is to be able to just play the whole time by ourselves, not having an opening act or be an opening act and act yourself.

Right. Yeah, really. You know, I think, uh, you want opening acts to, uh, to, to, to help draw in more people.

Yeah. Um, after, after Jack's, um, you know, we, we drew the people. So it was really, really a satisfactory.

It was really nice. Yeah. But seeing the people enjoying it, that, that, that, that is the key.

I mean, they, you know, in, in, in those cases, you know, uh, okay. So we're the backup band, but you know, they, well, they really liked us. Yeah.

They really, and that, that's, that's something that money just can't buy. Right. Right.

Right. And I mean, you're, and I mean, if you are the opening act, that's kind of your job, right? You know, kind of get, kind of get the crowd kind of hyped up in the whole bit. So I'm not going to, I'm not going to ask him, but is Don pretty active front man? Yeah, he is.

I never asked the front man, a little bit like David Lee Roth, you know, a little bit like that with the splits and everything. Yeah. I can't fit into the tights anymore.

The assless spandex or whatever. Yeah. Perfect.

I don't think I want to see that. I should just wear that yellow, uh, jogging suit. Yeah.

Oh yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And you could do that every gig.

Oh yeah. Yeah. So what has to happen this year for you guys to call it a success in your band? What are you looking to do? I, uh, I call it a success after last Friday, honestly, you know, uh, so we're done.

Well, the fact that we, we played there, we, we had a good draw. We had a great time. And, uh, as, as they're given, uh, given us our payout there, they're talking about when we could come back.

Okay. And also, you know, from the first time we played there in a backup role, we got a gig at the Mokina Fest, which is this Friday, which won't make the podcast thing. Right.

Having said that, getting in any of those fests are difficult. So, um, we get, we have an opening slot we're doing for two hours on Friday. So we're looking forward to that a lot.

And, uh, so. So kind of, kind of go more toward the festival area. You get some more gigs, generate some more.

You know, we'll take whatever we can get, but you know, the festivals are hard to break into, you know, these places are, you know, they're just set with the bands that they had before. Cause I, cause Jeff and I, um, you know, played with some other bands and trying to get in those, in that, um, you know, what do you want to call it? In that, um, root arena arena is difficult. Right.

Yeah. It is a little bit, you're, you're right. You're right.

It's kind of managed by a lot of the sound companies and stuff like that. Yeah. And they, they set it up in the winter time, you know, in the winter, you got to get them pretty early.

Like, uh, and, and sometimes more than a year in advance. Yeah. Yeah.

There's a couple of places. There's a couple of places that know what's going to happen like two, three years out. Yeah.

You're right. You have to kind of, kind of fall into that venue there. Um, what about music wise? What kind of stuff are you looking to add? Anybody? You guys could talk for a little bit.

Yeah. Yeah. What kind of, you know, to expand the setlist, you know, what are you looking to do? We want to stay with Don's strengths.

Okay. We want to stay with Don's strengths. The front man, he really has the most saying to it.

Uh, he, he knows where his strength is, uh, what he likes to do. If they, they have to enjoy singing, uh, the songs they want to do, or, you know, they might as well not do it. So they, they have the last word really.

For me, songs that put goosebumps on my arms. Okay. Okay.

I suggested a song last night. I kind of got a funny look, but, but, you know, I happen to be a Beatle fanatic. Okay.

And I've been watching on the YouTube, uh, uh, 65, uh, live version at, uh, Shea Stadium. Dizzy Miss Lizzy. Oh, wow.

Okay. And that was my nickname in high school. We need to do it then.

Thank you. Thank you, sir. But, but, you know, I've always, I've always geared towards not, not really a super heavy metal, but old Aerosmith, Ted Nugent, a big favorite of mine.

But then, you know, there was disco music I liked back in the seventies. It was just good music, you know, wide variety, but just something that just something that's got an edge and something that captures, uh, you know, a mood. Right.

You know, yeah, for me, I, I, you know, I, I try to, um, pick songs that have a wide variety like that, uh, again, different age groups can enjoy it. When I go see a band, you know, cover band, you know, if they play, you know, Led Zeppelin and then they play John Cougar and then they play, you know, run DMC, I'm like, damn, they can do it all. You know, that's kinda, it's kinda cool that they have that ability to do that.

So, so I, I try to pick songs that, that kind of hit different genres and different age groups. And so everyone that's there that could enjoy it, you know, if you just play metal, it's kind of like you're, you're, you're kind of limiting yourself. Right, right.

So that's how I kind of pick songs and then songs that highlight my voice, of course. Yeah. I'll be good.

So, you know, every singer says, oh, I can sing anything. No, that's not true. No.

I mean, you can sing, you might be able to sing the lyrics of every type of song, but you definitely shine in one area, right? Yeah. What's that area for you? I'm gonna ask him. Well, no, our, our list is pretty much like what Don just described.

Uh, we'll play some Zeppelin and then, uh, a little, little bit of dance and some Elvis Presley. So, okay. You know, that's.

Even do a little Black Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult. Nice, nice. I'd love to hear that right now.

No. I mean, I can hit some high notes, but you know, you can't do that for very long. You know what I mean? Oh, of course.

You don't. Well, there's a difference. I'm sure we could do a rendition of War Pigs.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's a difference between, um, being able to hit the notes all the time and just being able to hit them every once in a while.

I totally get that. So what's, I'm assuming you got a couple, a couple more prepared for us. What else you got on the list? What do you want to do for us? So how can people find you social media wise? Yeah.

Facebook, uh, we just create, you know, we're, we're, we're old school. We, you know, we don't not real techie people, but, uh, just created a Facebook page and, you know, we just started our band. So we're just starting to promote ourselves and, um, we've gotten a good response.

We've, uh, started, uh, booking gigs already just in a short period of time. This is just the start, I think, of, uh, some, some great things. So you're managing it on Facebook pretty much right now is how it's going.

No websites or anything like that. No websites. No.

And is it just the name of the band on Facebook? Yeah. Dr. Don and the 59ers. Okay.

Yeah. Perfect. And that's how we find you.

What kind of gigs you guys got coming up? Where can people see you then? Well, as I mentioned, we, uh, unfortunately, uh, as this will be, uh, airing a little later, most recent gigs will be, uh, you know, post-facto as it were. But, um, we're working on it. Yeah.

Yeah. But this is coming out. This podcast coming out.

Today's, uh, June. Today's June 16th. Today's June 16th.

Anybody listening, we're available. Give us a call. Yeah.

Check out their Facebook page. Like the page. Yeah.

Uh, September. We'll be back at Jax. Back at Jax.

Back at Jax. We expect to see, you know, several more prior to the, after June, prior to September. Where, where's Jax located again? It's Midlothian? Yeah.

147th and Pulaski. Oh, okay. 147th and Pulaski.

Why haven't I, I know, I know right where that is. And Mike, I can't imagine. Very old building.

Yeah. Yeah. Just a little bit east of, uh, Pulaski.

Yeah. A little bit east of Pulaski. Yep.

147th and Pulaski. I know right where that intersection is and I can't picture the bar. It's further east.

It's by the train station. So you got to go down a little ways. Okay.

On the south side of the street. A couple of blocks down. Gotcha.

Okay. Okay. Well, go out and see these guys.

Are you telling me to? Yes. Oh, okay. I will.

Well, you know where it is. It's right by the train station. All right, fellas.

Well, I think that's about time. All righty. Yeah.

Thanks for coming in, guys. Thanks for coming in and meeting us. We appreciate it.

Thanks so much. Thank you very 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.