Frankly Drinking With Friends: The Swell Frank Sinatra and Bourbon Podcast
A fun and relaxing celebration of Frank Sinatra, bourbon and more. Join your hosts Luke and Chris as we explore the music and legacy of Ol’ Blue Eyes while sampling multiple tastes of American whiskey. Most episodes feature three songs and three bourbon pours. Sit back, settle in and enjoy our toast to two American classics!
Frankly Drinking With Friends: The Swell Frank Sinatra and Bourbon Podcast
Nice Work If You Can Get It (Clyde May's)
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New York meets Alabama! Chris and Luke taste three distinct and tasty pours from Conecuh Ridge Distillery, home of storied bootlegger Clyde May's Alabama Style Whiskey, Straight Bourbon and Special Reserve Bourbon. Along the way, the guys check out Frank Sinatra's signature Capitol Records takes on three tunes by legendary songwriting brothers George and Ira Gershwin. Includes the debut of a new special segment: Frankly Living. (Produced by Luke and our friends at www.soundofarose.com.)
I like New York in June. How about you? I like a gush wind tune. How about you? I love a firestide when a storm is due. I like potato chips. Like motor chips. How about you? I'm mad about good books. Can't get my fill. And games during it looks. Give me a thrill. Holding hands in the movie show when all the lights are low. May not be new. But I like it. How about you?
SPEAKER_02Good evening, folks, and welcome to Frankly Drinking with Friends, The Swell, Sinatra and Bourbon Podcast. Our toast to two of the greatest things this country ever produced: Bourbon, the American Spirit, and the music of Frank Sinatra, the chairman of the board. Luke here, thanking you all for putting the friends in Frankly Drinking with Friends. Speaking of Friends, I'm once again joined by our resident Bourbon boss and Whiskey Whisperer.
SPEAKER_01What's his name? We know his name. His name is Mr. Booze. November too.
SPEAKER_02No, not Mr. Booze, but Dr. Booze. My buddy Chris, welcome back. How are you doing? I'm doing awesome. How are you?
SPEAKER_06I'm good. I'm good. I am super excited about tonight's show. We're going to be doing something that we've never done before. But I'll hold that. Okay. But I'm really pumped about. And I have to ask you that while I'm usually bitter about changing out our intro song. Yes. Yes. That was actually a really cool song. Yeah. I like that one a lot. Yeah. So you found a good one. But don't make it a permanent replacement.
SPEAKER_02Well, no, no, no. Yeah, that was How About You. It was written by Burton Lane, lyrics by Ralph Freed, and it was introduced in the 1941 film Babes on Broadway. And it was done so by Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney. We discussed How About You, not me and Chris, but me and my father-in-law, Ed, back on our special From the Vault 15th episode, Happy Swinging Father's Day. So, you know, it hasn't been here with you, Chris. So understand. And there's a reason we brought it back for tonight's show. And it's because of one key line. There's a key line in the song, and it's I love a Gershwin tune, How about You? So that's because tonight's show is stacked with the work of the Gershwin brothers, composer George, and lyricist Ira. So we got the music guy, we got the word guy together. George Gershwin, really famous, one of the preeminent names in all of American music. He was born in 1898. Where else? But New York, New York. And he started out as a song pluger. He played piano and plugged songs, which basically meant he tried to sell music, sheet music. And to do that, he would play the music, and people would come in and say, Oh, I like that. I want to buy that, that kind of thing. But he became a celebrated composer of very inventive and creative works like Rhapsody and Blue, and perhaps most importantly, the American opera, Porgy and Bess. He also wrote a whole bunch of Broadway shows and many tunes that wound up in what we call the Great American Songbook. And he passed at just 38 years old. Crazy. Yeah. He did all he could do in this world, you know, by 38. Amazing stuff. His brother, Ira, worked with George. You know, he handled the book for more than a dozen Broadway shows. And then after George passed away, Ira went on to write lyrics for tunes that were written by people like Harold Arlen, Jerome Kern, and Ira wound up living to the age of 86. He was born in 1896, lived until 1983, you know, I mean, lived more than twice as long as his brother. But anyway, tonight we're going to put the spotlight on some Gershwin tunes that really exemplify the exceptional art and craft of these two guys. I cannot wait. Yeah. That's where we're going to be going.
SPEAKER_06How clever of you to weave that intro music back to that. So shows to you for doing that.
SPEAKER_02Well, yeah. Just kind of jumped out at me like, oh, Gershwin tunes. I know a song that has Gershwin Tune in it. Very cool. Yeah, and a good one at that. But we're also thirsty, Christopher.
SPEAKER_06What's happening? And I'm glad that you are. So the thing that I'm excited about is I think as I've mentioned on the show, I featured distilleries that I know myself, but I've had their products, read about them, in some cases visited the distillery. Yeah. And just have an affinity for the people and what they're doing and that sort of thing. So tonight is actually kind of a special thing for me because one of those distilleries is the Kinecka Ridge Distillery in Troy, Alabama. They make a line of products under the Clyde Mays name. Okay. So you may have seen that. You wouldn't see Kineca Ridge necessarily, but you'd see Clyde Mays. The thing that is really special for me tonight is they provided our samples. Okay. So Georgia Lynn, who does all of the PR work for Clyde Mays and the distillery line, she was kind enough to say, hey, I'm going to send you some samples. Usually when a distillery sends samples for somebody like you and I, you know, it's usually the like airplane bottles, right? That you get. But everything they do in Alabama is so much bigger that they gave us full 750 milliliter bottles of the samples because they wanted us to have the true experience. So I cannot thank those folks enough. Yeah. And beyond that, they were hand delivered by a Scott Kinsbrenner who works on their distribution team. Okay. Literally came to my home and said, We didn't want to ship these. We, you know, and made himself available to answer questions. And not only that, the special surprise is there's a product that they are soon to release that is not on the market. Okay. That they gave us a smaller mystery sample of. Oh, wow. Uh that I know about. So if we get it, maybe closing, we'll do it a little nip. Because we we don't usually do four samples.
SPEAKER_02So I mean, yeah, twist my arm.
SPEAKER_06So uh let me tell you a little bit about Clyde. So Clyde Mays is actually a real person. So if you look at the labeling here, you'll see his picture. So he was kind of a famous, infamous moonshiner in Alabama. He was also a World War II veteran who won a bronze star and a purple heart. He was a farmer in Alabama, but to kind of make ends meet, he was making moonshine. And one of the things that he did that was a little bit unique is in his product, he would put baked apples in the barrels and let his moonshine actually age a little bit, exposed not only to a barrel but to the apples before he would sell the whiskey. Okay. I don't think it stayed in the barrel long, just enough to give it a tinge of color, but to pick up some of that baked apple thing. And he would sell that in the counties around where he lived, and people started calling it Christmas whiskey because of just the combination of the flavors coming from the barrel, the obviously the actually he broiled the apples before putting them in.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_06And uh just had this cult following all around the counties in and around where he lived for making this first product that we're gonna try, which is the original Alabama whiskey. Okay.
SPEAKER_00Whiskey, whiskey, whiskey.
SPEAKER_06So that's our first pour tonight, again, from the generous folks over at Clyde Mays who provided this sample. So let's take a sniff and taste of this first one.
SPEAKER_02And by the way, not to steal any of your thunder here, but there's a cute little notice up here on the top of the bottle. It says available since 1946, legal since 2001. Which I love that. That is awesome. Yeah. So cheers. Cheers. And thanks. What is it called? Konecker? Kineca?
SPEAKER_06Kineca Ridgea Distillery. Kinecha. And they put it on the Clyde Mays line. So this is the original, the kind of thing that got Clyde famous, the original Alabama-style whiskey. Okay. So this is 85-proof. Mmm. Okay.
SPEAKER_02Really nice. Not too overpowered by the wood here. No.
SPEAKER_06Not too oaky. So this is a I think four-year-aged. The mash bill or the recipe is 55% corn, 30% rye, 15% malted barley. This has won quite a few awards. I think most recently, the Ascot Awards, it won a gold medal in 2023. I think when I get it on the nose, fruit comes in. I want to say apple because I know apples in it, but I legitimately can smell that. I think you get caramel, which is, you know, like a good whiskey out of a barrel. It is good. On the palate, a little cinnamon. Yeah. Those baking spices that that's kind of on here. I'd say kind of a medium finish. All of that comes through. Maybe a little toasted oak on the back end. But I can see why they call it a Christmas whiskey. It's got that cinnamon comes through. And there is some fruit. Again, it may be more than just apple, but it's pretty good for an 85-proof thing. This is easily a daily sipper.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Oh, this is really tasty. I like it. I'm impressed by the fact that it's, you know, like you know that it's a little bit more about the grains here than the barrel. The barrel is not overly assertive here. Yeah, you're getting the barrel, but it's not overdone. No, it's a constraint. Yeah. You know. You're absolutely right.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, and I love the labeling. So for those who may not have seen the product, yeah. Old style photos of Clyde in the front and on the side. I think it has him and his wife there. It has him in a military uniform. Very old school. Yeah. In a good way. For this original, it's a yellow label, rounded bottle, beautiful on the neck. It's got some more photos of Clyde, which is really neat. So this is all built around the homage of the man himself and the legend in the Alabama community.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I like that on the neck there, the photos, they've made it look like film where they've left like what do they call like the sprockets? Is that right? The little holes there on what looks like it's about 35 millimeter film. It's about the size of the strip. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And it's got the kind of faux tech strip. Don't need a tack strip anymore, but it's a really nice touch. And they've got a wood stopper and an actual cork.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_02An actual cork stopper there. Yeah, it's just a really clean, fantastic looking bottle, labeling, all of that. And it says Alabama on the back. It's kind of built into the glass, raised in the glass. It's a yeah, it's a good looking bottle. It's really good.
SPEAKER_06And the whiskey is absolutely smooth.
SPEAKER_02It it really is.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_02That is a good pour. Good package for really, really nice whiskey here.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, and so you can see on the bottom here it says in the glass, it says Kineca Ridge Distillery. Yeah. That's pretty awesome. Yeah. Yeah. So they are highlighting the state and the man as well as the product inside.
SPEAKER_02So well done on that. Very drinkable at 85 proof. Not gonna hurt you, not gonna overpower you in terms of just proof bomb or something here. Yeah. A nice sipping whiskey.
SPEAKER_06And so I think the original recipe of Clyde made had the whiskey in the barrel with the apples for like, you know, a day or two. So nothing nothing too crazy. But it's amazing how much it gets picked up in that amount of time.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_06And they're still doing that as far as the apple thing goes. So for a while, I'll talk about this a little bit later, but one of the people that resurrected uh family members that resurrected the recipe were contracting it out.
SPEAKER_05Okay.
SPEAKER_06So giving the recipe, letting somebody else produce it. So I think they're following the recipe.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_06I think MGP was making it for a while and then Bargetstown was making it.
SPEAKER_05Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_06But they've got their own distillery now. So we'll talk about that before the next sample.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Wow. Well. Yeah. Pretty cool. Very good. Very good. Tasty, delightful, original Alabama style whiskey from Clyde Mays. So on the music side, tonight's first featured Gershwin tune was written in 1928 for the unpublished operetta East Is West. The song was introduced in 1930 in the Broadway musical Girl Crazy, performed by Ginger Rogers in a song and dance routine choreographed by Fred Astaire. While Sinatra would put down his first recording in 1944 for Columbia, we want to check out the version he did in 1960 for the Capitol Concept album Nice and Easy with an orchestration by Nelson Riddle. And now here's Frank with a timeless song by George and Ira Gershwin, Embraceable You.
SPEAKER_04Embrace me, my sweet embrace of oy. Embrace me. Just one look at you. Bring out the gypsy in me.
SPEAKER_02That was Frank Sinatra with the Gershwin's Embraceable You from the 1960 Capitol Records LP Nice and Easy. Chris, what do you think about that one?
SPEAKER_06An amazing vocal performance. The music was so subtle around him. It was almost like there was no music. It was so subtle. It was complimentary to, you know, his voice and letting him take control of the song. Yeah. I like that a lot. It was really well done.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think you're right. Riddle did not get in the way at all on that one. Just a gorgeous melody from George and a lyric from Ira that is so simple and yet fresh and powerful. And, you know, the language is really natural. It's conversational. And the lyric is compact. You know, by that I just mean there's so much said in so few words. And nearly all of them monosyllabic words, you know, one-syllable words that I think there's a real genius in kind of the spareness and simplicity of the language here. And I think that's a real hallmark of poetry set to music like this. And Ira, I think, does that so well. You know, some of the lines that jump out to me, you know, just one look at you, my heart grew tipsy in me. You and you alone bring out the gypsy in me. I mean, what a pair of lines there. You know, a little tipsy, a little a little lightheaded when you're falling in love, swept away. And then, you know, like bringing out the gypsy, like, you know, adventure, kind of wanderlust, and, you know, the carefree side of life. Yeah. I think you really get that there. And, you know, another one, I love all the many charms about you. Above all, I want these arms about you. It's just it's just so elegant and uh evocative, you know, the lyric here. It is just I think a really worthy standard in the American songbook. Many great artists have put their stamp on it. Billy Holiday early on, Natkin Cole, Crosby, Ella, Judy Garland, Errol Garner, the great jazz pianist, Chet Baker, and more recently, uh the star of Stage and Screen, Idina Menzel, you know, famous for Wicked and Rent and Frozen, you know, it's just an amazing song. Love it.
SPEAKER_06Really is. Pretty powerful stuff.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_06So let me ask you a question. You probably don't know this, sorry if I'm throwing it at you. No, it's fine. You know, a lot of times you tell us about the artists that have recorded this same song, yeah, part of the American songbook. How often is it Frank that's the first to kind of pull it off and others to follow as opposed to the other way around? Any sense of that at all or not really?
SPEAKER_02You know, when it comes to particular songs, I don't know all the details, but I can say, like, in this case, you know, Sinatra recorded it back on Columbia. He did a lot of these songs on Columbia and then he redid them during his Capitol years. Oftentimes he would do them again when he got to reprise. And there are a number of songs. Embraceable You is not one of these, but there's a quite a number of songs that kind of Sinatra rescued from the discard pile, if you know what I mean. Like maybe they were minor hits, maybe they didn't go very far at all when they were first released. And somebody, you know, probably not Frank himself, but people working with him, maybe the arrangers, maybe other people around him were bringing him songs for the next album. And then something would happen where, you know, he would resurrect the song, and then it would become something that, you know, a lot of people would do. And we'll we'll have a similar story, but not about Frank, a little bit later on in tonight's show. So yeah, it's a great question.
SPEAKER_06Well, a great song to go with that first pour. Let me get you teed up for the next one.
SPEAKER_02That sounds great.
SPEAKER_00Whiskey, whiskey, whiskey.
SPEAKER_06So a little bit more about the Clyde Mays kind of the distilling history. You were right to point out that they talk about legal since 2001. So it was one of his descendants that kind of rebooted Clyde's recipes and started legally selling it in 2001, which was about, I think, a decade after Clyde had passed away. And he was doing it through, you know, contract distillers, which is absolutely fine. About 15 years later, after he got the line recognized, up and running, Kineca brands bought it in 2016. Okay. And so what they've said about doing is getting Clyde Mays its own distillery, actual production facilities of their own. Right. So they could do it from end to end. And so they bought about, I don't know, 75 to 80 acres in Troy, Alabama. I think at the time it cost, you know, 15, 20 million dollars to put it together. It is open and producing. And now you can take tours and go check out the Clyde Mays distillery there in Troy, Alabama. Right now, his grandson, Lewis Clyde May II, I think, he's also known as LC, is the brand ambassador. So if you're on property, if there's someone probably helping out doing tours, or if you see somebody being interviewed to talk about Clyde Mays, it's one of his descendants that's there. I think right now they're doing probably more than 20 barrels a day, but it is an enormous facility that they can crank it up to 60, 65 barrels a day as demand increases and that sort of thing. So it's only been open for a handful of years, but you know, I think it's exciting. So, you know, we hear about all of these old stories about legendary distillers that came out of Kentucky and Tennessee. I think it's just awesome to talk about one that came out of Alabama. Right. And now has an establishment that you can go see and learn more about Clyde and the products. So with that, the second sample, I'm kind of going up in proof here, is the Clyde Mays straight bourbon whiskey. It's at 92 proof. The reason the first one was not a bourbon, but just an Alabama-style whiskey is because of that extra thing, the apple thing. So had they finished making all the whiskey and then put it in a barrel with apples, then that would just be in a finishing technique. Right. But because they put the apples in and then allowed it to be stored for a while, that's why you can't put bourbon on the label. Yeah. So just so you know that.
SPEAKER_02Right, no, that's good.
SPEAKER_06So this, as I mentioned, it's 92-proof. It's probably four or five years aging. It's 78% corn, 12% rye, 10% malted barley. It is non-chill filter, which I actually really enjoy the non-chill filtered stuff, because you know, there's some very positive flavor stuff that is in there that sometimes can get filtered out. This product won a double gold in the San Francisco World Spirits Competition in 2023. Wow. So now we're we're moving up a little bit in proof, and you know, let's give it a go.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Cheers. A vote sante. Wow, I get a nose full of brown sugar right on just by putting my big snout in the glass.
SPEAKER_02Uh yeah. Also, when you taste it, I think you're gonna get that brown sugar too. Caramel.
SPEAKER_06Man, I might get a little strawberry in there. Not sure how that came about, but that's nice. That's delightful. Little nutmeg, maybe? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Oh, this is uh really nice. I get the typical stuff, you know, caramel, vanilla. Also get a little honey, a little tad bit of leather in there somewhere. This is a terrific pour. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So same bottle configuration that we had described before. This one has kind of a cream-colored label, but it does make specific note on the front, non-chill filtered. So they want you to know that that that is intentional with this particular product. All the same photos and things on this one. One thing I'll point out that you may not have picked up, I don't think it was, yeah, it wasn't on the uh original Alabama style label. But you see this picture right here? It's hard to see. Yeah. It kind of looks like a tank. Yeah. Big rectangle with a top on top, right? Yeah. That was Clyde's original still. Oh. So they have a picture of it. So he had a handmade rectangular still that he made. It looks like a miniature tank. Uh family members call it the Clyde 240 because it supposedly cost Clyde $240 to make it. I think I have not been to the new distillery in Troy, but I think they have that still on display there somewhere on the property, which is pretty cool. I bet that's very unique.
SPEAKER_02I bet they do. It is really really distinctive. I wonder if he used this, you know, to kind of keep a low profile during during the time when it wasn't quite legal to make whiskey in Alabama.
SPEAKER_06So he actually, for a short period of time, he was convicted and went to prison for for bootlegging. And here's the interesting thing. Uh-huh. Um, he was in the same prison cell as John Mitchell. They were imprisoned on an Air Force base, John Mitchell from Watergate. Oh. So they occupied the same cell after each other. Oh, okay. But a little tie there. Yes. Yes. Umly spent a little time in the pokey, I don't think very long, but he was there just to, you know, tell them to stop bootlegging, which he did not do. But thankfully for us. Right, yeah. So again, it's cool that there was a real person, right? That's tied to these recipes that has this lineage, and I think it's awesome that descendants resurrected it, and now all of us can enjoy, you know, some fine whiskey from the state of Alabama.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. Yeah. This is really good. There's a little bit more of oakiness, you know, a little bit more of the wood asserting itself in the bourbon.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, especially so I I've emptied my Glen Carron. And so which I like to do as you know, once the liquid's gone is what's the residual, and it's you can smell the oak really nice. Yeah. I love that smell. Just absolutely love it. It's very good. Anyway, it's an amazing product and a tribute to Clyde. And you know I'm delighted that they've resurrected the recipe so the rest of us can enjoy this stuff, you know.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, for sure. For sure. It really is a great tribute to him in terms of the product, the packaging, the branding, everything surrounding this. Yeah, it's classy. Yeah. And it's cool that, like you said, whiskey from Alabama.
SPEAKER_06So And it's classy on a night that we're listening to Gershwin. That's perfect. That is true. That is true.
SPEAKER_02Yes. Gershwin is classy, and in a way, I mean, yes, it's far away from Alabama, but this is really delightful whiskey, and we're listening to delightful music. So they've got that in common. So time now, we are gonna sidle up to the bar for another foolproof pour of the Gershwin Brothers and Sinatra. Our second featured song of the night was one of nine songs written by George and Ira for the 1937 Fred Astaire film A Damsel in Distress. Tommy Dorsey and Billy Holliday both released versions of the song that same year that it came out in 1937. And then there were more recordings, Thelonious Monk, Sarah Vaughn, Mel Tormet, among others. Sinatra would return to the song on his 1962 reprise album, Sinatra Basie, an historic musical first. But tonight we're gonna go back to Capital for the 1957 recording, the album A Swingin' Affair, arranged once again by Nelson Riddle. And now let's give a listen to Frank Sinatra with nice work if you can get it.
SPEAKER_04Hold in hands at midnight, neath the starry sky. Nice work if you can get it, and you can get it if you try. Strolling with the one girl, time after time. Just imagine waiting to gotta stop. Wait too hard to become one who could ask for anything more. Loving one who loves you, and then taking that vow. Nice work if you can get it.
SPEAKER_02And if you get it, won't you tell me how? That was the chairman of the board with nice work, if you can get it, written by George and Ira Gershwin and arranged by Nelson Riddle for the Capitol Records LP, A Swingin' Affair from 1960. Partner, what do you think about that one?
SPEAKER_06Awesome. Yeah. That had a just a great movement to it. The tempo was great. I wasn't paying attention to all the words, but just the beat and everything. Yeah. To me, I love any songs that Frank does in that style. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, me too. Yeah, a lovely performance from Frank. He's in great voice. Everything is there, the things that you expect, the phrasing, the diction, the swagger, you know, and a bit of a wink and a smile on that, setting it off that breezy, playful orchestration from Riddle. Really nice. The lyric, again, you know, the simplicity of language and the tightness of the construction, just Ira crushes it again. And these little vignettes, the little moments, you know, they're so well drawn in so few words. Holding hands at midnight, neath the starry skies, strolling with the one girl, sighing side after sigh. You know, it's just it paints such a great picture. And then just imagine someone waiting at the cottage door. Cottage, what a great word. It evokes this, you know, kind of quaint, intimate setting, and the door, no doubt, is open. This is not a closed door that she's standing in and it's welcoming. And one more line to talk about loving one who loves you and then taking that vow. All simple words. You've got the repetition of loving and loves, and the description of getting married as taking that vow. That is saying a lot in ten little words. You know, two people, they're in love, they're tying the knot. I just love the economy of language that Ira has again and again, and certainly nice work, if you can get it, is no exception. You know, it's just really, really good. And yeah, George held up his end of the deal, a great tune to go with it. No, this is delightful.
SPEAKER_06And you're right. I literally was counting those, and it is ten words, and what a message it gives you.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Compact to the point.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah. And there's no language there that is taking you out of the moment that's distracting. There's no oddball stuff that you just go, where did that come from? You know, or oh, that's a really weird word. Nothing. Nothing to distract you from the message in the story.
SPEAKER_06So no wasted lines either. Right.
SPEAKER_02It's all a lot of wasted words for sure.
SPEAKER_06So we're not going to waste any time or words. We're going to roll into the third sample tonight.
SPEAKER_00Whiskey, whiskey, whiskey.
SPEAKER_06We've got Clyde May's special reserve straight bourbon. It's 110 proof. This one is, let's see, six plus years. Okay. It's also non-chill filter. It's got the same mash bill that the straight bourbon whiskey that we just had, the 5530-15. This one in 2022 also won a double gold at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition. Just last year. Yeah. I don't know if you're familiar with Fred Minnick. Fred's obviously a whiskey commentator. Oh, yeah. All of that kind of stuff. Fred puts out a list every year of the hundred best whiskeys for that year. Yeah. According to Fred, but he's such a well-known guy. But in that list of 100, this was number 40. Oh, wow. So little Troy, Alabama action getting into Fred's radar, which is uh pretty awesome. Yes. The one other thing I wanted to tell you about Clyde Mays, which is pretty neat, in I think it was 2004, the state of Alabama made Keneca Ridge, Alabama Fine Whiskey the official state spirit of Alabama. So let me repeat Keneca Ridge, Alabama Fine Whiskey, the official state spirit of Alabama. So at that time, there was no other state that had identified a spirit as their state spirit. That was the only one. And only one other state since then has done it. But this was the first. Wow. That they passed it and said yes. I'll ask, in case you may know, who the other state is and what the product is. Do you happen to know that?
SPEAKER_02Oh man. I mean, I don't, but my guess is that it's not going to be from Kentucky and it's not going to be from Indiana. My guess is it's going to be from somewhere where they don't have a million distilleries. Yes. Very good.
SPEAKER_06So actually, the state of Virginia did it for the George Washington Rye. So George Washington was a famous, obviously president, but he was a distiller. He made rye whiskey at Mount Vernon. And so in 2017, they named the George Washington Rye their State Spirit. Wow. And by the way, it is resumed production at Mount Vernon in using period-specific technology and processes. So if you've not gone there, you should make the trip. But Alabama was the first to name a spirit, and they name Kineca Ridge, Alabama fine whiskey. So I think that is absolutely cool. So this product is, again, it's special reserve. Interestingly, it's a different style bottle. Yeah. It's a different labeling all the way around. So there's no Clyde-made photos, except they have the still, the tank still symbol on there, which is great. It says here, age six years. It's very prominent. 110-proof, as I mentioned. It is a red-labeled bottle. It still says Alabama on the back. It still says Connecticut Ridge Distillery at the base, but it's a taller, thinner bottle.
SPEAKER_02Chris, I want you to turn that bottle around and look at the back for me. Oh, I didn't notice that. I felt that it says USA on the back. They changed up the back here. USA. I don't know if this is something for the 250th anniversary of the declaration or just No. They put USA on the back of this bottle. Okay. Um instead of Alabama. So anyway. Very cool. Yeah. Yeah, we'll we'll take it. That's good.
SPEAKER_06But it's clearly uh kind of their high-end premium release. So let's give this well on the nose. Some fruits, maybe a little citrus. Wow, I get a little clove on the nose. I got a little butterscotch on that initial taste there. Oh yeah. It tastes really good. So again, non-chill-filtered on this, which I'm starting to really have an appreciation for the non-chill-filtered stuff, which is also why, you know, I tip over the bottle on the non-chill filters just to make sure everything moves throughout. Right, right.
SPEAKER_02Chris goes through a whole ritual of taking the bottle, flipping it upside down, you know, cap still on, stopper is still in there. Don't want to drop a drop. Turning it upside down and making sure that anything that's in there gets kind of mixed up.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I still get the cloves on the palate. I don't know if you get a little of that back there, but yeah, some honey in there. This is great. And I gotta tell you, unequivocally, if I didn't know the bottle, didn't know what it was, no chance I would say this was 110 proof. Zero chance.
SPEAKER_02It is smooth. It is. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, scary smooth. It's really good.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. It's reminding me of like a cookie or something, like just something really maybe a molasses cookie. I don't know. This is good for the this is really tasty. And I do like a molasses cookie. It's even more pleasant to drink a molasses cookie than eat one. So true.
SPEAKER_06That one almost got by me. I can taste on the finish a little light char maybe, which is awesome. It's giving me all the stuff that I usually look at in a pour. Yeah. Smelling in the glass, I can smell some oak stuff.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. At this oak ear at this 110 proof. And the flavor intensity is really nice. It's very good.
SPEAKER_06So I think they've got some other, you know, from time to time, special releases. But this six-year 110, you should be able to find this when you're in the stores. But they'll do some one-off kind of unique things. But this is the lineup here. They also have, we weren't able to taste it tonight. They have a rye.
SPEAKER_05Okay.
SPEAKER_06And so maybe at a future show we can do that. But what I'm going to do while you're talking about the next show is we got this little mini bottle. Yeah. And so they've told me this is a weeded bourbon whiskey. A weeded bourbon. So just for the audience, this is literally. We'll take a picture. We'll take a picture of this. There's no label on it. It looks like an old medicinal bottle that you would get. But it says in ink the proof is 95 proof. It's 66% corn, 24% wheat, and 10% malted barley. So we're not going to give you our tasting notes on this, but as we're listening to that third song, we may sneak up.
SPEAKER_02You know, maybe we could we have a special segment up next. And then we could even go back to this before we do the final song. I don't know. We could go crazy. You're the ringleader. I don't know.
SPEAKER_06I just know I'm cracking into it either way.
SPEAKER_02Really, really good. So right now, speaking of cracking the seal, we want to crack a seal another special segment, which we call Frankly Living.
SPEAKER_03Hallelujah, gonna dance, gonna fly. I'll take a chance. Right before my numbers up, I'm gonna fill my guts. I'm gonna live.
SPEAKER_02So tonight for the debut of Frankly Living, just a little hosting advice. When you have people coming over, be ready before they get there and do at least two things. Have your music playing and your drinks ready. So that's it. Music on, drinks prepped to the extent that you can. So it may sound basic, but it really shows that you care, you value your guests, you want to take care of them. So the music playing says the party, the gathering, the dinner, whatever it is, has begun. Your guests are stepping into a moment that has been prepared for them to enjoy, and the fun is ongoing. So there's no waiting around, no awkward moment, kind of fumbling with your phone or your record player, you know, your boom box, your cassette player, whatever you got. No, just it's already playing. Music is there, drinks are ready, you've got choices for them. You know, if you got white wine, if you got fizzy water, Cokes, beer, if you serve beer, I don't really serve beer, unless I know someone likes it, then I'll have it. But, you know, all these things are already cold. Your red wine is opened. If you're gonna have that, it's at the right temperature. And if you got a signature cocktail for the night, this too is ready to go. So when it comes to cocktails for people you don't know very well, you're a little bit stuck. You're doing the best you can as soon as they come through the door. You know, you greet them, take their coats and all that stuff, and then you just do it as fast as you can and you're ready. But if you're hosting good friends, here's a crazy thing. You can go ahead and get their drink order before they get there. So I like to text the guests and just check in and say, hey, you know, what are you thinking? Here's what I'm thinking about making. So that way, when they get there, whether you're making old fashions, Manhattan's, Boulevardier's, Martinis, whatever it is, it's ready to go. And I like to kind of sometimes I pre mix cocktails, pre shake them, put them on ice, or put them in the fridge so that really Really cuts down on that time between arrival and putting a cold drink in their hand, which you know is important. Whatever people are drinking, you don't want to keep them waiting longer than is absolutely necessary. So anyway, that's it. That's the debut of Frankly Living. Have your music playing, drinks ready to go. And if you're like my wife and you love candles, you got your candles lit. Chris, what do you think about that?
SPEAKER_06I think that's awesome. But you are far more generous than I am. Yeah. By calling people or texting and trying to figure out what I usually do is I do a drink of the day. Right. I make like a picture or two. When it's gone, it's gone. If you don't want it, or if you have it and don't like it, okay, you can go find something else. Right. I'm making a couple of batches, they're ready. Yeah. And when it's done, it's done. But you are super nice, and I can't wait for my next invitation.
SPEAKER_02Well, I know. We got we gotta get you out there, but I think there's definitely a place for kind of, you know, benevolent dictatorship or benevolent authoritarian move. You make the drink, and hey, do you want some of this or do you want something else that's ready to pour, like wine, or you can have you can have some neat bourbon or whatever you want. But this is the option. It may be cruel, but I won't tell people what's in it.
SPEAKER_06So they can look by color. I obviously have a drink that is, you know, it could be orange juice based with something, but I won't tell them what the base liquor is. No. I'll just say, Do you want to try the drink of the day? The name is I'll just it's silly goofy name. You have a cool name. Right. Because I think I think people come to liquors with preconceived notions. Yes. But if you give them an interesting drink, they're like, oh, that's really good. And they may try something or, you know, like something that they didn't think they would. So I I never tell them until afterwards.
SPEAKER_02And then the You don't tell them until afterwards that it was bourbon, it was whiskey, and they're I think the funny thing is that when I pour them into the car, then I tell them that one thing I know about Chris is family vacations. He makes a cocktail of the day, and you know what? Nobody gets to know what it is. He hides the bottles and stuff and he just presents them with a really tasty drink. Correct. You know, and it helps particularly female members of the family not put up a defense on a bourbon drink whiskey. That's correct, right? Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_06So just trying to broaden the it's the small things that I do to try to help people. I love that. I love that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. Wow. Well, what do you think? You want to just jump into the next song or should we try this experimental thing?
SPEAKER_06Why don't you play the song and let's try while it's on? Okay. And then we'll make a few comments. Okay. Okay. Okay. That sounds that sounds good. That sounds a safe thing to do.
SPEAKER_02Yes, yes. While it's on, while it's on, we'll try the experimental, non-release, yet to be released sample. We did bourbon from Clyde May. Fantastic. I can't wait to try it. So, like our first two featured songs, our third high test blast from the Wayback Hi-Fi is also a seminal Gershwin tune. George and Ira wrote this one for a 1928 Broadway show, Treasure Girl, which kind of bombed. It was not a big success. Two years later, the brothers gave the song another chance in a different show on the Great White Way, and this was 1930s Strike Up the Band. So many years later, just in 2012, this one came back to Broadway in the Gershwin tribute musical Nice Work If You Can Get It. Does that name sound familiar? A little bit. So this song was not a fast starter in pop and jazz. It gained traction with artists around 1939. And here's going back to what we were talking about earlier, Chris, a song that kind of had been forgotten. Jazz singer Lee Wiley transformed what had been like an up-tempo dance number, and she put it out as a more deliberately paced ballad. She shifted the timing of, you know, just slowed it down and made it into a ballad, and that made a huge difference. And so that song went from forgotten to remembered almost overnight in 1939. Sinatra would put the song down in 1947 on Columbia. He came back to it for a Capitol Records release in 1960. And if you follow this show at all, you know that's the one we're going to be going with. We want to give a listen to that. So right now, from the nice and easy album arranged by Nelson Riddle, is Frank Sinatra with the Gershwin classic I've Got a Crush on You.
SPEAKER_04I've got a Crush on You. Sweetie Pie of the day and night time. Hear me sigh. I never have the least notion that I could fall with so much emotion. Could you could you care for a cunning cottage that we could share the world will pardon my must? My baby on you.
SPEAKER_02That was Old Blue Eyes from 1960s Nice and Easy LP On Capital with I've Got a Crush on You, written by George and Ira Gershwin and arranged by the legend himself, Nelson Riddle.
SPEAKER_06Chris, what about that one? Really cool. Although, as excited as I am about Clive Mays, that was a little ease out of the show. Yeah. But he did a great job with it. Yeah. Let's talk about the song a little bit and then Because we didn't get to hear all of it, right?
SPEAKER_02Well, no, we're only going to play a snippet because that's what we do on our show. That's the way it's fair use for copyright if we just play about a minute of the song. So, you know, of course, as always, after the show, please go to Spotify, go to Apple Music, check out the whole song. We really need to start, I really need to start posting our playlists and stuff and getting them out there so it's easy for people to do that to check out the full song. But just a sublime performance by Frank. You know, this is a pro stepping into a custom suit, you know, it's just Taylor-made for him. And yet there's a bit of oddness about this song, which you can explain from the song's origin. So it was first sung as like a fast-paced duet on Broadway. And it's clearly there's some parts that are from a woman's perspective in a lyric, like, You're my big and brave and handsome Romeo. So it's not quite a perfect line for Sinatra or any other male singer to turn this around and say, I'm your big and brave and handsome Romeo. I mean, that just kind of falls a little bit flat. It's a little bit odd. And then there's another line. It's not that you're attractive, but oh my heart grew active when you came into view. Okay. This is not an endearing line, not an effective line, if sung to any woman in the world. Okay. Just no. All right. But it makes sense coming from a woman singing about a man to a man, okay? Because the truth is the guy couldn't care less if she doesn't find him attractive, as long as he makes her heart grow active, okay? Let's be real about this for a second. Anyway, the structure of the song is somewhat unique. I mean, it has a distinctive kind of first half or first 40% of the song that kind of sets up the second part, and you know, it kind of resolves in that second half or second two-thirds, but those halves or those parts of it are really distinct. And we'll probably just play some from that second part. So be sure to check it out. Also, like let's talk about the lyric for a second. We have sighing again in this lyric. As we saw with Nice Work, if you can get it, there was sighing there. And then Ira references a cottage again. He talks about a cunning cottage that we could share. And so cunning to me, it's an interesting word choice. You know, it could be read as smart or knowing, or maybe, you know, kind of more romantically as quiet, off the beaten path. Um, you know, sly, I don't know. But it's a great lyric, as usual, and yeah, worth checking out the whole thing at some point.
SPEAKER_06So it's almost unfortunate we can't play it all, but checking it out on Spotify makes sense to get both halves of the story and check it out in its entirety, no doubt about it.
SPEAKER_02So have we tried this? Uh I haven't tried the Clyde May uh special thing here.
SPEAKER_00Whiskey, whiskey, whiskey.
SPEAKER_02Unreleased. It is unreleased, yeah. And it's it's a weeded bourbon.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, there is something on the nose here that I have not smelled before. It is uh it's really neat. This is delicious. Yeah, it's flavorful.
SPEAKER_02Maybe I'm kind of what that's what kind of fruit or something? I don't know.
SPEAKER_06Almost floral or just maybe it's just deliciousness, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. That could be yes. I'm detecting notes of yumminess.
SPEAKER_06Well, I love that they're expanding their uh ranger products. It was just awesome of them to give us the sneak peek into this. This is great. Again, 95 proof, 24% wheat, 66 corn, 10% malted barley. It is soft, it's creamy, it is delightful. I cannot wait to see the full bottle, and I also can't wait to see what kind of labeling they're gonna put on it. That'll be uh interesting as well.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_06This is tasty though.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think like kind of a honey or almost a honeysuckle. Definitely not as sweet as honeysuckle, but I'm getting a little bit of a almost a little bit of a phantom honeysuckle kind of a thing going. I don't know. I don't know. Don't let that put you off, people, because it's very subtle and it's delightful.
SPEAKER_06It is delightful. Wow. And again, as that's a 95 proof, doesn't taste like that. This could be an easily a daily sipper. I it doesn't seem like that at all. I love the sneak peek. Yeah. So I do want to thank our friends again uh over at the distillery, Georgia Lynn Lofton, who does all of their PR work at the distillery, Scott, who was just kind enough to drop these off. And actually he told me about because I asked him, I said, Is there any new products coming? And he said, Yeah, we have this weeded thing. And he left, and then a few minutes later it was on the door, and he goes, Hey, I have this bottle of the weeded. And I was like, Oh, well, I think he was offering it to me. I took it out of his hands and shut the door. But but anyway, we were sampling it tonight. Yeah, I cannot thank them enough. And I want to encourage all of our listeners, if you get a chance, not only to try the Clyde Mays that are out on your liquor store shelves, yeah, but if you get a chance to go to Troy, Alabama and go see the brand new distillery, it is a sight to be seen. So yeah, these are great votes. Fantastic, yes.
SPEAKER_02I agree. Thanks so much to everybody with the distillery and with the Clyde Mays brand. Wow, thank you. Chris, thank you so much. Always great to spend time with you, get to hang out, have a little whiskey, a little bourbon. Yeah, appreciate it. Thanks to our pal and editor, Aaron Rose and his wife Lauren with Sound of a Rose out in Dallas, Texas, out in that area. And yeah, Haley, who's worked on a lot of our shows, thanks to her as well. Thanks to you, our friends, for spending time with us. Hope you had fun, and uh hope you'll come back and uh you know bring a bunch of your friends with you. This is frankly drinking with friends, it's seldom a good idea, after all, to drink alone, though some of this Clyde Mays stuff might tempt you that way. Much better if you're so inclined to uh enjoy a drink with friends and responsibly, to be sure.
SPEAKER_06If you're listening tonight, you're a friend, even if we've never met. If you've enjoyed yourself, please like, subscribe, and invite your friends to check out this podcast. Also, please find us on Facebook and yes, Instagram. Follow us, leave us a comment. We'd love to hear from you. Again, I'm Chris.
SPEAKER_02And I'm Luke, wishing you peace and love and every good thing. And you've been listening to Frankly Drinking with Friends, The Swell, Sinatra and Bourbon Podcast. Tonight featuring the Gershwins. For our outro, we're gonna stick with the Gershwins and leave you, as we so often do, with something of a saloon song, a song of longing and desire that we featured back in episode 18 of Frankly Drinking with Friends. This one, recorded by Frank for Capital in 1954. Someone to watch over me. Have a great night. God bless, and until next time, so long, everybody.
SPEAKER_04There's a somebody I'm long to see. I hope that she turns out to me someone who watched over me. I'm a little lamb who's lost in the way. I know I could could always be good to one who watch over me.