Ep 288 Deb VanDril

Deb VanDril is a local musician, singer/songwriter, and active music community emcee based in the southwest suburbs of the Chicago area.
While she maintains a more intimate, local footprint rather than a major commercial recording presence, she is well-known in the regional craft brewery and acoustic circuit.

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 Chicago.

Hey everybody, it's Ray the Roadie. And this be Hollywood Mike Matoyer. Oh, what's the last name this time? Yeah, I don't know why I did that.

I don't know. I took you off guard. This is NBC.

This is CNN. Oh, you'll never get that low. I can't.

I wish I could, but I can't. So what's going on? What's happening since last week? Well, now you got me thinking I wish I had a deep voice. Well, I was just about to say, every time I hear Billy Grayson, I'm like, how does he do that? Yeah, no kidding.

No kidding. I think he's from West Virginia. It's the mountains in his blood because my dad's got a real deep voice.

Real deep voice. Yeah, this is about as deep as I can get right there. I can't get down to the Barry White.

It can't get enough of your love, baby. That movie is called Raider Dog. Oh, my God.

So wait, did you hear those voices? I heard people here. Oh, we've got two people here. Do we have new co-hosts? Well, it's just Deb.

Oh, just Deb. Kind of like Will and Grace. Just Jack.

Just Jack. Oh, no, no, no jazz hands. But it's not just Deb because she's got Liam here.

That's right. Oh, my God. And they brought an old fan base with them.

They did. Yep. All dudes.

It's a sausage party when Deb's around. Oh, man. Just swinging dick club.

That's just it is. That's the name of one of her songs. Is it really? Ray doesn't know about that yet.

Wow. She actually wrote a song called The Swinging Dick Club. Okay, we're definitely going to hear about it.

So it's appropriate. Yes, she wrote it about me. Oh, yeah.

Inadvertently. I don't even think I knew you when I wrote it about you. I think we had just met or something like that.

I mean, I really I knew who you were. Okay, we have to tell the story now. We can't migrate away from that without telling the story.

Because the story started with that guy. What was his name? I'm just going to say Jeff. Just Jeff.

My name is Jeff. Yeah. Yes, yes, yes.

It was a Jeff, right? It was a Jeff. Yes, yes, it was Jeff. I don't want to say anything that you have to go back and delete later.

No, but I'm not going to say anything bad. It's the truth. It was just Jeff.

Yeah, so just Jeff. Yeah. So we had met at the PlayStation No Longer Rementioned on the podcast.

Very good. Right. And it was for the Sunday night jam.

Right. And it was a good night. Right.

The place was packed. I think that was the night that I met you and you played. Yeah.

And I think I was just hosting an open mic. Just started my first open mic. Right.

That I hosted. And actually, Eddie was supposed to host. Okay, so yes.

He asked me, he didn't want to do it. So he asked me to do it. So this was before I took over the full-time hosting.

Yes, before you took over the Sunday. This is when every Sunday was a different guest or whatever it was. Right.

This was on a Thursday. Yes. And Eddie's like, you got to get that guy, Mike.

He's got to get on the list. Now, I think I met you before through Cadillac Group. So, you know.

Something like that. Right. Sometimes you just forget.

You don't put faces with names. And well, I'm like, he's not on the list. You know, I got 10 people on the list.

He can put his name on the list. And he's like, oh, no, no, you don't know how good he is. You got to bump him up.

And you had somewhere else you had to get to for a jam. And but. You remember this better than I do.

I just have, I have that elephant's memory. It's unfortunate sometimes because you remember insignificant details, but you can't remember to pay your bills. Sure.

Yeah. No, I totally get that. So, yeah.

But the swinging dick. So somebody else walked into an open mic and I, and I don't, he never really quite took on the name of the song as much as you did. I thought, yeah, but I thought what, what, what sparked the song was somebody wrote, did a little write up on Facebook about the jam and it was a good jam and it was, it was, it was a good time.

Everybody had a good time. And then I think you may have mentioned two people that were in there. So I mentioned somebody that was at a different jam, but you guys were connected because you both hosted the same one.

Yeah. So he got on my Facebook, Facebook, Facebook post, and he said, Jesse and Mike are the new swinging dicks in town. And I mean that lovingly.

Yeah. So somebody else read that. And well, at first I'm like, I want to be a swinging dick.

And it was a woman that said that, I think, I want to be a swinging dick. And then someone's like, Deb, that's a good song title. So, so I wrote it.

Yeah. She wrote her song called the swinging dick club. And I played it.

I played it several times at the jam, but you never got it until we were at a party somewhere and I played it. And then I told the story and then you put two and two together. You remember that post from that person.

Ah, you know? Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah.

We won't mention the last name of he's a very unique individual that came out. Yes. Yeah.

And he's always a riot when he shows up. So the funny thing is, is I've had several people, guys come up to me when I play that song. Is it me? Is it me? Sorry.

Yeah. Sorry. Oh boy.

So now we had to tell, but we jumped ahead though. So, so we wanted, we wanted to have you on the podcast because, um, I, you're one of my favorite songwriters in the area. Well, thank you.

You really are. She is. She's one of my favorite songwriters.

Yeah, right. Because I mean, little comedy sometimes. Yeah.

You know, there's some sentiment. And I mean, you do a little bit of everything. You really, you really do.

I mean, I, I think, uh, I think you're one of my favorites. I enjoy listening to your original music a lot. So we wanted to have you on the podcast.

Well, thank you. I appreciate that. So when did this whole thing start for you? Take us, take us back to little Deb, little Debbie, back to little Debbie's.

To your little cakes. Yes. So I, I remember when I was 10 years old and actually my maiden name is McKee and little Debbie's are made by the McKee baking company.

So there may be some distant relationship there, you know, but, uh, anyway, a little diabetes is what they call them. That's your next song. Little diabetes, little Debbie diabetes.

But probably 10 years old, we were, you were looking at that nylon string guitar. I remember we had my mom and I kind of shared one. It was probably from Sears and the nuns in our school, they were guitar singing nuns.

It was probably the same one I had because it was the same one in the, in the, in the Sears catalog and the toy section. Right. So we're- Same nun? Silvertone.

Yeah. Yeah. It could be the same one.

They live forever. Don't you know that? And they all come from Iowa. Yeah.

But yeah, the ours did. And to this day I see one, I get scared. Yeah.

And I mean, you know, they're really old. They're really old ones. They just glide really across the floor.

They don't even look like they're walking. But yeah. And in the seventies, the ones at our school, they wore little short skirts and they played guitar.

They, they just all did. So one of them was teaching lessons. So my mom and I took a couple of group lessons, you know, where you learn on top of old Smokey and that kind of thing.

So that kind of started my interest in the guitar. And when I was graduated from eighth grade, I got my first little Epiphone. It was a tiny one, like a little Epi, not even a full size one.

And I never went anywhere without that, you know, thing. And then I eventually got an Ovation. So I played all through high school, started kind of experimenting with writing songs.

Right. Here's the glitch. So I was very much involved in church and other people's churches.

And I was on some kind of a retreat thing. And I played some, some of the stuff I wrote for this guy. And like, he was some kind of preacher and he's like, well, you know, you have a voice kind of like Joni Mitchell's, you know, and a nice, nice sound on that.

But he's, he's like, why don't, why are you writing love songs? You should be writing songs about Jesus. And I, so I thought about it. I'm like.

But isn't that still a love song? There's a lot of songs. And there's what more, you know, I don't know. I had nothing to contribute on that.

You know, like, what more could I write about that? So knowing Deb, she, she wrote what a friend we have in cheese. Cheese. And that's Chuck E. Cheese's.

Yeah. Liam, when he was three, he was like, I want, I want a chocolate Jesus. I want a chocolate Jesus.

I want a chocolate juice. And finally we were driving by or I was looking all over the place for a chocolate Jesus that you could buy. And he pointed to that clown face.

It was Chuck E. Cheese's. Chuck E. Cheese's. One of my favorite songs is it, is it Tom Waits? He wrote a song, chocolate Jesus.

So that's, we do, we do that one together once in a while. But, but yeah. Yeah.

So I kind of, I stopped really writing at that point. My friend and I, you know, we would experiment a little bit to write some, you know, songs about guys and stuff like that. But I really just kind of just put it on the back burner.

And then when I got out of high school, went to nursing school, I really didn't play much. You know, I always sang in a church kind of group, but there was always better guitar players than me. So I just mostly sang for years.

Then I started bringing it out again. And it was like 2015. I did some community theater for a while.

Then 2015, I went to an open mic and just kind of sang a couple songs with the host. And we went to Nashville and I said, you know, one of these days I'm going to want to sing or I'm going to come back and there's going to be another girl singing the girl songs that I sing, you know, I want to be able to accompany myself. And I don't know why I didn't just get out a guitar.

I still had some guitars, you know, but I got a ukulele instead. I found a ukulele in the basement. Then I bought one.

We were talking about the Bluegrass Fest. I bought one. And that's what everybody started saying that I was going to do.

And I said, I'm not playing that. And I'm not playing that over the rainbow song. I'm going to play heavy metal on my ukulele.

And I did. I have all these pedal boards and stuff. But I could never get it to sound like a guitar.

And because that's what I mostly listened to at the time, a lot of metal. But then they're like, you're a folk singer, you know, learn some Joni Mitchell, stick to that. I was mixing the two.

And then I brought the guitar back out again. But the writing, with going to open mics, I was introduced to different songwriters. And I thought, you know, I used to write, you know, I used to, I have stories.

You used to do a lot of things. And well, yeah, when you're young, you do, you know. And one guy wrote a song about getting drunk and falling off the old plank trail.

So I'm like, if he could write a song about getting drunk and falling off the old plank trail, I've got stories like that, too. So actually, one of the first songs I wrote and I performed at an open mic was kind of that whole story about being told, put the guitar, you know, put that secular music away, write songs about Jesus, kind of a, it was called brainwashed because I really felt there was a period of time in my life that it was kind of brainwashed, you know, into thinking there was only one type of music, you know, one way to express that. So, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I had a, I had a nun tell me one time, you know, you shouldn't be playing that rock and roll, rock and roll music, right? You should be playing songs about Jesus and the whole bit.

And I said, but I like rock and roll music. And I hear it's the devil's music. And, and I mean, that's what we were.

All I heard next was. Yeah, I mean, that's really what our generation was kind of taught, like, you know, more so before us when it came out, but it still was lingering in there. And especially in the religious communities, it was kind of like garbage in, garbage out, you know, like if you're feeding yourself that, you know, what good are you going to be? And it took me a while to just realize it.

You know, I'm singing in church and I think what, the reason I stopped the church, that was later, but it was, I felt like the music was to move the priest from one end of the church to the next. Right. Because he cut me off on a song one time.

It was Good Friday. And it was a song that we do once a year. And just as the choir's about to come in and I go like this, everyone stops singing.

And I looked and he's going. You're getting shoved by a priest. Well, it wasn't the priest.

It was like these liturgical police men that controlled it. The priest would have been fine standing there while we continued singing. But he got from here to there and, you know, and that's kind of, that was the last time I sang in church, honestly.

I was just starting to do shows at the time and I'm like, I never say never, but yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I spent my time doing that stuff too. I know, I know exactly what you mean. There used to be a guy and I can't remember his name, but we, you know, the church got too small for the congregation.

So there would be a mass going on in the hall and I was always in the choir in the hall and there was always this old guy standing up there. And if we were going too long, he'd be pointing at a clock above the door like this. He'd be pointing up at the clock and I'll go, yeah, whatever.

Yeah. Well, that's interesting. That's interesting.

Wow. So what else you got for us? Keep talking. I know you like to talk.

I don't like to talk. Yes, you do. See, that's part of why I got into music though, because when I was a kid, I didn't talk to anybody.

I was very shy. Yeah. So my mom pushed me into acting lessons, choirs, signed me up for stuff and that really did help.

I think music is a way of expressing yourself in a way that you can't always verbally, you can become this other persona. I agree. And yeah, and people that don't do that have no clue what that's like.

Right. So tell us about this young man you brought with us. So this is Liam, our son, Liam.

Hello. And how old are you? 27. 27.

So when I met you, you were like 23 or something like that. Yeah. Maybe even younger than that.

Yeah, about 23. Yeah, yeah. And Liam just played with me in the soul sessions.

I saw the soul sessions. Yeah, the soul sessions. Yeah, you were in the audience that night.

So you've met and you've heard Liam. I have. Yeah, yeah.

Did you bring him around for some moral support? You know, I just thought it would be. Or is he your designated driver? Well, just thinking, I didn't know what the traffic was going to be like or the weather too. And I thought, okay, if it's pouring down rain and he's got to drop me off and then find some place, you know, or, but, but no, too, I thought this would be a cool, Liam studied audio engineering and, you know, all that.

So I thought this would be a cool thing. You know what we're looking for Liam? We're looking for somebody to run these cameras eventually. We're looking for, we're looking for a fourth member of our crew to run these cameras so we can turn these things on as soon as, and there's a whole control room and everything right back there.

Our goal is to eventually. And it pays twice as much as what we make. Yeah, it does.

Yeah, yeah. So interesting. We'll, we'll talk about that later for sure.

So I want to hear some of your stuff. I want to hear some original music from just Deb. Okay.

Yeah. Why don't we take a break? We're going to come back. We're going to get you all set up.

We're going to do a sound check and then we'll have you play a little music for us. We'll be right back. You're listening to the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast.

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All right, we're back. Before you start, before you start singing and playing, I want to talk about that guitar because it is, I love the finish on it. It's a Taylor.

Where'd you get it? It's a Taylor. I got it at Sweetwater. Okay.

So it's a 814 CE special edition. The difference is it has a cedar top, which I don't have. My other ones have the Sitka spruce tops.

And then it is solid Indian rosewood, the sides and the back. So the pick guard is the same as the grain on the rosewood. And then they, it has this little beveled edge here, which is really nice when you're playing for a long time.

You do have nice guitars because I do like the PRS as well. The PRS, yeah, that's a good one. And then I have that Reverend electric.

Oh yeah, you do have that. You do have the Reverend electric guitar. I'm not an electric guitar player, but one of these days.

Yeah, but I do remember seeing you play that and I remember saying to myself, what is she doing with a Reverend? Nobody plays a Reverend guitar. Well, you told me because I wanted a purple guitar and, um, and I, it had other things that I liked about it, but, um, but yeah, I, one of these days I'll get into electric when I retire. That's going to be my, you know, one of my things, uh, all levels different.

Take my guitar playing to another level, but it's a cool guitar. No, I absolutely. And did you purposely use bronze strings because it matches the finish of the guitar? So these are, I mean, I've only had this for about a month, so these are still the originals.

Oh, come on. Are they really are? They are the phosphor bronze that I, I usually will. I usually use elixirs.

These are the, um, DR Diadro. How do you, I don't even want to see a Dario Dario. So, and there's just renamed the company.

It's Diadro. I don't know unless I'm reading it. I can't say it.

But they're, uh, yeah, these were the stock strings or twelves. Oh, the first thing I do when I get home with a new guitar is I have to change the strings. They still felt the, I don't think this was tinkered around a lot.

And you're playing the top shelf. That's a thick string for an acoustic. But you know what? I like the tone of them.

So I think I'm going to stick with that because number one, if you, you change it, then you may need to adjust the neck. Yes, that is true. But I really liked the tone.

I had 12s on my PRS. I put 11s on, and I think I went back to 12s the last time. Well, you go girl.

That's a, that's a heavy string. And by the way, if anybody from Sweetwater is listening, we're looking for sponsors. So the reason I got another guitar, it was really down to one acoustic guitar because I had that Acousta Telecaster, Acoustasonic Telecaster.

Do you still have that? I fried it. A string broke in the middle of a show and I didn't think about it. Or I changed it and, um, went home and I changed all the strings.

Well, the little end part with the ball on it, it fell into the cavity and you have to take the back off the cover, uh, off. And I do that once a while to shake out whatever picks fall in there. And I thought something in my head told me get that thing out right now, but I didn't and I went to plug it in about a week later someplace and it just made this horrible noise and it smelled, you know, that electric smell and some.

So I read that those little ball ends will fry your board. Anyway, we replaced one of the boards that was 80 bucks. The other one is probably 600, but you can't even get it.

So it wasn't still under warranty. No, it was seven years old. I got it in 2019.

So that was for my 55th birthday. So that was like the first new guitar I got in 35 years. Gosh.

So that sucks. Yeah. So we'll see one of these days, but I didn't want to get another one of those and I didn't want to spend the money.

Yeah. So that's her, that's her behind the music story. She fried her guitar.

And it smelled really bad. Whoa. What did I do? All right.

So what are you going to sing for us? I'm going to swing, sing the swinging dick club. As we can't talk about it and not sing it. So yeah, it's a fun song.

It is. It's a sing along song. That's what I love about it.

It is. Dick. He swings that thing.

You'll be singing along. Brings you back to your past. An evening of enchantment.

Well, he swings it to the left and he swings it to the right. To a packed house every Saturday night. He's got them smooth vocals.

Make every girl swoon. Guitar licks and make every guy drool. Connects with the people.

He's a few notches up. I want to be a member of the swinging. Dick.

Club. Now I'm told I sing too high. I cut right through the mix.

I don't hit the chords just right. And here's the reason why I'm not a part of the club. Just wear that short black dress and those five inch heels.

But don't tell my wife or your husband. I told you that. Please.

Oh, pretty please don't tell her. I'll be in the doghouse. And somebody really said that to me when I played my first show.

Wish I could swing it to the left and swing it to the right. To a packed house every Saturday night. Got them smooth vocals that make every girl swoon.

Guitar licks that make every guy drool. Connects with the people. Be a few notches up.

I want to be a member of the swinging. Dick. Club.

Learn from example. And I learn from watching. I surround myself with greatness.

Hoping some of it rubs off. I only have what I have. And a dick.

I have not. Well, I'm not envious. I'm just in awe.

Well, now I swing it to the left and I swing it to the right. To a packed house every Saturday night. I got them smooth vocals that make every guy swoon.

Guitar licks that make every girl drool. I connect with the people. I'm a few notches up.

I'm a member of the swinging. Dick. Club.

All them swinging dicks clapping. All them swinging dicks, baby. I love that song.

And you know what it is? I love the history of it and where it came from. Because it was such a great time at the place that shall not be mentioned. It really was.

It was a great time period. It really was. God, I miss that place.

Yeah, I know. I know. Yeah, we all had.

I mean, I met so many people there. You know, I mean, the nice thing is there's a lot of people that I continue to be involved with. Yeah.

Because of that. So that's the beauty of it. Right.

Because, of course, you've got your band that you're that you're saying and playing in right now. What else is what else do you have going on musically? The only other thing mainly is I host still host an open mic every week at Hickory Creek Brewing Company. That's every Tuesday.

Where's Hickory Creek? That is off of Schoolhouse Road in the old Panduit building. Not much longer. Not much longer, though.

There's changes there. Pizza de Farfallo is taking over there. It's kind of like over by Gus Coffee right now.

And they want to they're expanding. Gary, the owner of Hickory Creek, has wanted to retire. And he's been trying to find a buyer for the brewery itself.

But they are going to be taken over that building. The brewing equipment is gone now. OK.

So but they as of right now, they are still planning on doing music when they finally move in. They're already remodeling. They tore down some walls.

And at the stage that I had set up the other day, it had big plastic around it. All the tanks are gone. So it already looks different in there.

But but it's I think it's going to be a positive thing. And as of right now, they're still telling him to schedule music. So people keep messaging me every week.

Is there open mic tonight? I'm like, as of now, every Tuesday. But that's what I do. I'm not looking to host a bunch of open mics.

All the open mics that I hosted before, they were ones that people brought me into. You know, I think I volunteered in the very beginning when I first started. I was filling in for a host while he was out of town.

But all the other ones, it's, hey, can you, you know, start this? And that's not something that I'm looking to do indefinitely. Sure. I'm ready to move on from from that.

From doing open mics and everything. Right. Right.

Have you ever thought about putting together your own band and performing your own music? I've thought about that. You know, more so in the past when I was doing a lot of solo shows. And people have mentioned that when I left one band very abruptly, somebody had said that to me.

They're like, I never thought you were a good fit in that band. Why aren't you doing your own? Right, right. You know, have your own.

You know how it goes with original music. And well, Liam can tell you as well. You know, it's a tough thing to market, you know.

You got to sneak them in. Yeah. You got to have other cover songs and sneak them in.

And, you know, but knowing the stuff that you write, I'm thinking that there would probably be a niche market for you. Because all you all you would need is a bass player, another guitar player. You wouldn't even need a drummer.

You could do a three piece and, you know, doing what you're doing. Well, and I had, I had a girl trio before. She played slide.

She plays keyboard. Oh, nice. She plays in a country duo right now that there were a lot of projects I was in kind of went during COVID.

They they just went a wire, you know, and new partnerships came out of that. But there's I never say never, you know, or leave anything off the hook. And I was doing a lot of solo stuff before when I joined Bottoms Up because they are keeping me so busy.

They had said, we want somebody that's going to make our band your number one priority. Right. You know, so that conflicts and things like that don't come up.

So I pretty much I'm down to just a few solo shows a year. And then the open mic, you know, which I block out. We don't rehearse on Tuesdays usually because I have that.

So, so we'll see. You know, I I'm enjoying Bottoms Up was it was a totally different thing for me because they were looking for a backup singer. That is a totally different thing for you.

Because when I saw you in that band, I was like, I didn't get it at first. But then I saw you guys perform. Like I came out and saw you guys at Uptown and I was like, oh, yeah, this totally works.

We have fun. And I can tell you, I've auditioned as a backup before and it just it wasn't the right music and the right fit, you know, person, you know, the music I knew. And it's funny, most of the stuff I sang leads on already on that.

So I had to learn the backup parts, but that's what they were looking for. Right. So it's always real clear.

I didn't join that saying, well, we're going to split these songs 50-50. Right, right. I lead a few songs and I'm I'm fine.

I wouldn't mind doing a few more, honestly, because when my friends come to see the band, they always say, I want to hear more of you. Well, I'm like, OK, then you got to come to my open mics and, you know, my solo shows when that does happen. But but for now, it's it's a good fit.

It's been interesting. It's it's a totally different thing to learn the backups and the harmonies, you know, to blend and to not. Sky's the limit.

What would you do? Sky's the limit. Yeah, sky's the limit. What would you do? Oh, I mean, so let's let's remove everything.

Let's remove everything from your current musical. OK, it's gone. Oh, yeah.

So blank slate. What is what would you want to do? So so, yeah, I think anyone that writes original stuff would love to get their stuff out there and have a backing band, you know, for that. Yeah.

And perform shows, not three and four hour shows. Right, right, right, right. One and a half to two hours would be nice or even a little set, you know, the four hour shows are killers.

You got to build up the stamina for a four hour show. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So what were your biggest influences growing up? So growing up, I would say the Beatles, John Denver.

I can't believe it or not. Joni Mitchell. I loved, you know, I love just pop type rock.

I'd listen to WLS and I would always fight with my dad, listen to country. OK. And you get in the car and he put on Tom T. Hall or.

Wow. But there's a name I haven't heard in a long time. And Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton.

Yeah. You know, they were. And but you know what? I've gone back to that, you know, it's it's I've gone back to really appreciating, you know, like more my roots, you know, in music.

And but no, I like like the folk stuff. I love to harm it. That's where I learned, like the harmonies and stuff like that.

Yeah, yeah. And what's your favorite song to sing? Oh, wow. That's so many.

But I also like Alanis Morissette and she's got a song called Uninvited. And I just love singing that. It's in that higher range.

And I have I have a pretty big range. I can sing low. I speak low, you know, but I can hit those higher octaves as well.

Give us a little of that. Give us some of that. Oh, that's.

Anyway, I said a little bit. You did not say you played a whole thing. I was I was I was I was just in that.

I was just in it as I was in like the big lazy boy. My feet were going up and she's like, all right, that's it. Someone's at the door.

I got to answer the door. So what's one of your your favorite songs you've written? Yeah. Oh, man.

How many have you written, by the way? I have like 90 something. That's it. It seems like I should have more.

But so and it's funny because I'm just trying to memorize them them all. There's one that I wrote. And it's it's very I wrote for our daughters when.

So both of them, when they graduated from college, they both moved. One moved to Denver right away. The other one moved.

She first moved to Montana, out to Yellowstone and then travel around, then ended up in Denver. Now she's in Georgia. But there was one time where they both came home for a holiday and back and forth to the airport.

So I wrote one about them. It's called Firefly. So it's probably one of my favorites.

And it's not a funny one. It's no, you know, we should hear that in its entirety. OK, OK.

Just a kid because I get her. Yeah, yeah. Don't say a little bit.

Don't say a little bit with her. She takes it literally. No kidding.

I didn't practice because I didn't practice like my covers, my favorite covers. But I also like Joni Mitchell's both sides now. But I'd have to tune into Open D for that.

No, I won't. I won't. Yeah, we just we just we just want to hear.

I want just that. It's just Deb. Yeah, just yet.

Light shining through the rain. I hear your laugh makes me feel young again. Like a butterfly in a glass jar.

I set you free and watched you fly far from me. You were mine, but the world needs your light to the ephemeral glow that we share. It's time to discover your destiny.

My heart aches when you boarded that plane. Another thousand mile journey again. But it makes me proud to see the choices you've made.

Adventures I was too afraid to take. That spark in your eye says you're free. A candle needs a little air to throw off light.

You touch each heart with your love. The fuel to keep the world bright. I stopped at the market, looked into the cart.

A pretty pink bundle, the name Zoe on her hat. I blurted out she was beautiful. Then turned my head to hide my tears.

I should have said hold that little hand so tight. Because someday that firefly will want to take flight. And unfurl those glorious wings, then spread the light.

Wish her kindness, teach her to love. Show her to handle pain, the good and the bad. Just like a fledgling bird.

She might fall before she learns to fly. Even though she's no longer by your side. Knowing she's happy, you'll never be lonely.

Feel your light shine through the rain. I hear your voice, helps me feel young again. Like a firefly in her glass jar.

I set you free and watched you fly. Far from me, you were mine. But the world needs your light to dance among the trees.

Carefree, illumination is your destiny. This is more appropriate. There you go.

Coffee shop. Then the screaming. Yeah, you do have an incredible range.

Your speaking voice does not indicate at all where your voice is about to take off and go. It's what somebody once told me. Your speaking voice sounds like you should be singing Anne Murray.

But you know, why are you, or Karen Carpenter, people have asked. And I do, I love singing Karen Carpenter once in a while. But she's got that, those incredible lows.

It's just like the richness to the low. You know, if you ever sing with somebody and they have like a three note range. No, that's different than somebody that has richness to, you know, to the three note range.

But I had in the beginning, when I first started playing, and think of it this way, I was playing the ukulele. So ukulele is a very troubly, you know, instrument as it is. And I was picking all these songs in very high keys.

And somebody said to me, you know, your combination, why are you singing so high all the time? You don't have to prove that. So sing some low songs. So, you know, I keep that in mind when I do a show, I mix it up.

You know, when I pick out kind of a plan of satellites, even if it's for an open mic, kind of a, kind of to bring across that range so that nobody has to listen. Nobody wants to listen to Minnie Mouse the whole time. And with the highs, you got to watch your tone.

Because otherwise you sound like Minnie Mouse. No, I can see that. So, yeah.

So what do you have coming up? Do you have any shows coming up where it's where you're playing? The only thing I solo I have coming up is in Frankfurt at the Country Market. Okay. It's a Sunday, October 24th, I believe it is.

All right. Yeah. Oh, that's right around the corner.

But it's quicker than, and like I said, I just, the band actually, we've been doing a lot of back to back stuff on the weekend. And the weekends when we're not playing, we're out of town, you know, family stuff. So we have a Google calendar and we put down when we're available and that.

So we've been filling those and those back to backs are more so, you know, and another band I was in before I would do two solo shows and then do a Sunday band show. And, you know, I couldn't move my fingers. Can people find any of your original music anywhere online? Yes.

So mostly on my Facebook page, I post a lot of what I do. So those are just, if you just go through the reels, but I do have some on YouTube. Okay.

I don't have anything on Spotify yet. I want to get, Liam is recorded. I have a, you know.

I was gonna say you've got your built in audio engineer. I know. And we just have to, here's the thing with me and recording.

I'm not good with those, those click tracks, you know. I'm not either. I'm very, I don't know what it is.

I'm very loose sometimes. So when it comes though, to wanting to add other instruments, that's what makes it hard when you don't have something with the track, you know, the click behind it, the timing of it. But I, a couple of people have tried to record another song.

I have Shady Bitch. That's probably like the one that gets requested the most. And, and I know Liam's got a couple, but, but we do have to get, we do have to get together and buy something because he has produced some good stuff.

Shady Bitch. We gotta hear Shady Bitch. You do have to hear Shady Bitch.

So that, unfortunately, good or bad, it's become like my flagship song. And that is a story too. Perfect song to take us out.

Yeah, that's, yeah, that's right. You know, she's got another one called Fucking Bitch, you know, you know. It's the sequel.

You know, and Stupid Asshole. I mean, she's got all these. I have, you know, I, I write a song when I want to warn somebody about something, you know.

I write songs. Yeah. Oh my God.

It's, it's Phoebe from Friends. She's Phoebe from Friends. Oh, I, okay.

Smelly cat. So that's my soundcheck song. Soapy underwear, creeping up my butt.

Soapy underwear, always in a rut. So I, I have a song called Amy Winehouse and it's about my friend's one night stand. And I made the mistake of singing that at a Nashville songwriter night.

Right. But the thing is, there were like two young girls sitting there. First, I sang a song about my friend that died and they were crying.

And then I sang this Amy Winehouse song and they're just looking at me like that. And I've seen on the website for this play, it's a Commodore, that family-friendly music is appreciated. Oh, did I break that barrier? She hasn't been asked back.

I'm like, there were all these, you know, like, like the promoters and stuff are there. Nobody came up and talked to me afterwards. They were all talking to the little kids, you know, but yeah, it's, I write about everything.

People die, I write a song. I don't, people in the community say, don't piss off Deb. So she does write about it.

Shady Bitch is actually a little bit more about myself because somebody called me a Shady Bitch. This woman was like off the hinge and again, on a Facebook post, went into this rant and like, well, if you weren't such a Shady Bitch, of course I would come. And she didn't even know me.

It was like a crazy person. And I know who this crazy, she was off her meds is what it is, you know, like this other personality and costumes, totally different. And I'm the only one that really knows who this person is, but she called me and somebody's like, Deb, I see the word Shady Bitch.

Well, I took the post down because it was associated with a venue and I didn't want the venue, you know, to have bad press. So I took it down, but then I wrote the song in like five minutes and I thought, okay, it's about women that have treated me shabbily throughout the years and including, you know, there's a little bit of me in there too. And it's not necessarily about women.

Well, I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what I'm going to do when I go home tonight. I'm going to write a song called Off Her Meds. Off Her Meds.

Oh my God. Why did I think about that? Yeah. Oh, I have a song called Certified and that was about a stalker.

I mean, I have like, so I got to get more of this stuff. We could be here forever. I don't know.

Yeah. You could, I, well, I have 90 songs. That's why I said 90 songs is a lot.

But they're all, but I want to hear all of them because of their names. Okay. Let's hear Shady Bitch.

Okay. Shady Bitch is a fun one. And it's, I always say it's, it's a three chord song because that's all that bitch deserves.

Yeah. So it's your typical, you know, Johnny Cash style kind of, you know. You follow her on Instagram.

You click on her profile. You get a feeling something isn't cool. Shady bitch.

She might look wholesome on the outside, but she's rancid on the inside. And she'll play you like a fool. Shady bitch.

Don't be fooled by her sunny looks and those good girl shoes. You'll be tangled up in her web and you're sure to lose. Such a shady bitch.

If you follow, follow, follow those good girl shoes down those stepping stones. She'll lead you to a pile of shit. And you'll wallow, wallow, wallow on the muddy ground.

She'll be on the sidelines. She'll be laughing. She'll be laughing as you drown.

Such a shady bitch. She says she wants to meet you and she says she wants to please you, but she'll never show or she'll be two hours late because she's a lazy bitch. She'll never go the distance.

It won't take much to lose her interest as she scrounges for that better offer. Shady bitch. That angel blonde hair and bright smile might be pleasing, but underneath that fluff is a heart that needs antifreezing.

Shady bitch. If you follow, follow, follow those good girl shoes down those stepping stones. She'll lead you to a pile of shit.

And you'll wallow. She'll be on the sidelines. She'll be laughing.

She'll be laughing as you drown. Such a shady bitch. Now here's where body language kind of comes into it all.

Well, she'll pick on something that you hold dear. She'll look you straight in the eye and she'll criticize as she digs at you. Shady bitch.

Well, you watch her mouth get round and small and her nose turns up and she squints her eyes as she spews those lies. Shady bitch. Well, you tell yourself you're best without her.

She thrusts her claws in you while she turns your friends against you. And that's a true story. You'll be on the sidelines looking in.

Such a shady bitch. Then you'll follow, follow, follow those good girl shoes down those stepping stones. And she leads you to a pile of shit.

And you'll wallow on muddy ground. She'll be on the sidelines. She'll be laughing.

She'll be laughing as you drown. Such a shady bitch. Here she comes down Route 66 again.

Shady bitch. Watch out for those love bombs she throws. Shady bitch.

Don't say I didn't warn you. Shady bitch. Well, tell her you switched baristas.

Hey, it worked for Lady Gaga. Shady bitch. That deserves that right there.

Most definitely. Man. Well, thanks for coming out tonight, Deb.

Thank you. This is a lot of fun. And Liam.

And Liam. Yeah, you gotta, you know, don't talk so much. I mean, you know.

Thanks for coming out, guys. 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.