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The Morning Brew with Chris Bennett
Ever wonder what really goes on at a small-town morning radio show?
The Morning Brew with Chris Bennett and Best Friends is your daily dose of real callers, big laughs, and unforgettable characters straight from QCountry 925 in Show Low, Arizona.
The Morning Brew with Chris Bennett
Monday Motivation & Music: Eastern Dreamers’ Journey and a Tribute to Timber Mesa Fire
The hearts of our community grow heavy as we share news of the tragic loss of two Timber Mesa firefighters in the line of duty. In moments like these, we're reminded of the fragility of life and the courage of those who serve our communities daily.
Shifting to uplift spirits, we explore timeless wisdom with our Monday motivation segment, where Benjamin Franklin's words "Energy and persistence conquer all things" resonate deeply with our listeners. This sentiment of perseverance perfectly sets the stage for our featured guests, the Nashville-based duo Eastern Dreamers.
Max Pachter and Evan DeNicola, the talented musicians behind Eastern Dreamers, share their fascinating journey from a chance meeting at an open mic night (where ironically neither got to play) to forming a musical partnership built on shared influences like Eric Clapton, the Eagles, and Billy Strings. Their story exemplifies how authentic connections can spark creative magic, as they detail their collaborative songwriting process and recent completion of their first tour.
The crown jewel of our conversation arrives with the world premiere of their new single "Spinning Wheel" – a soulful track blending 70s Americana with modern country sensibilities. The song, which began as a poem about breaking free from life's comfortable routines, showcases their harmonic chemistry and instrumental prowess. As Max explains, it's about "not getting stuck in the comfortability of life and pushing yourself to live a greater life."
We wrap the show with details about our upcoming stand-up comedy event at the Pinedale Community Center, featuring talented comedians from the Phoenix scene. Subscribe to our podcast for more exclusive interviews, fresh music premieres, and community updates that keep you connected to the pulse of our region.
From the Horn Auto Center Studios Chris Bennett and the Morning Brew, Janine, you over there?
Speaker 2:Yes, I am. How are you Chris?
Speaker 1:I'm doing all right. Had a busy weekend, but it was good. How about you?
Speaker 2:Same here. It was really. It was nice and just kind of quiet and slow and yeah, I like it yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, unfortunately, I opened up my Facebook today and saw some sad news and I thought we would talk to our legendary news correspondent, janine Ford, and find out news on the mountain.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this one's really tough. Timber Mesa Fire and Medical District is saddened to announce the line of duty deaths of two of our firefighters. It just happened, September 14th. They announced it this morning. The firefighters were involved in a traffic collision on State Route 260. The collision is under investigation by the Arizona Department of Public Safety and, out of respect for the families, the names of the firefighters will be released once notifications have been made and the time permits. And they're asking everybody just to be praying for those firefighters and if you see one of our great firefighters here, you know, tell them. I mean we are so sorry for their loss. The Timber Mesa guys, the medical district, it says our entire organization is grieving the loss of our team members and we ask for privacy and compassion. Oh man, I know.
Speaker 1:Heartbreaking news. Our thoughts and prayers go out to their families and the Timber Mesa Fire and Medical District.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and they are just the most wonderful people, as you know, chris, we have them in here all the time. I mean it is so sad and we are I mean, the whole community is just going to be blown away by this Really sad.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Well. As we get more information we'll let you know, but our thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected in the Timber Mesa and Fire and Medical Department. We love you guys.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:All right, Janine, it is Monday and I thought we could use a little Monday morning motivation.
Speaker 2:Oh, we probably need that badly today. Absolutely yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:Let me give you some motivational quotes. You tell me if they're any good and then you pick your favorite one. You all ready, I am ready, all right. First one is from Roy T Bennett. He's got a great last name. Start each day with a positive thought and a grateful heart. I Start each day with a positive thought and a grateful heart. I like that. I like that. Zig Ziglar said what you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals. Nice. Benjamin Franklin said Energy and persistence conquer all things. Norman Vaughn said Dream big and dare to fail. And William James said act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.
Speaker 2:These are all good ones today. Oh good, let's do old Ben Franklin.
Speaker 1:Old Ben Franklin energy and persistence. Let's try that again. Energy and persistence conquer all things. There we go, it's true, it took me a little persistence to get that out, but I got that out. There you go, chris. All right, janine, we love you. Hope you have a great day best friend.
Speaker 2:Love you too. Have a good one, chris, you too. Bye-bye, bye-bye Chris Bennett's Country Climb.
Speaker 1:Star of the Week and it is our first duo, our first band from Nashville, tennessee. They are regulars on the Playlisted podcast and I am excited to have them on our show for the first time and play their new song, Spinning Wheel. Please welcome Eastern Dreamers Max Bachter and Evan DeNicola Woo, let's go.
Speaker 5:What's going on everybody?
Speaker 1:Hey man, thank you so much for joining us. This is our first time we've had a duo join us for our Country Climb Star of the Week. And before we get to the nitty gritty in your country climb, we like to have a little fun with some rapid fire questions. Are you two ready? I like to have a little fun with some rapid fire questions. Are you two ready? I like to have fun. All right, I like to have fun too. We're going to have a good time. First instrument you each learned Piano. Piano as well. Really, oh heck, yeah. Vinyl, or streaming Vinyl.
Speaker 5:Vinyl for sure. I wish I was cool enough to say vinyl, but I'm a streaming guy.
Speaker 1:Your dream festival that you guys would like to perform at.
Speaker 5:Ooh, maybe Bonnaroo. Yeah, Bonnaroo's a big one.
Speaker 1:Is there one thing that each of you do that annoys each other? It's probably a lot.
Speaker 5:Oh man, no, I'd say, our band members annoy us more than each other. Just kidding, we love them.
Speaker 1:When it comes to writing songs, do you prefer early bird writes or night owl writes, nighttime? Yeah, yeah, it's definitely a nighttime thing. And this will be the hardest question you guys get asked all day. Here we go. If you had one country song to request for the rest of your life, what country song are you requesting and why?
Speaker 4:Probably I'm Going to Miss Her.
Speaker 1:Brad Paisley Song's hilarious and what about you, Max?
Speaker 5:I'm going to say Can't you See, by Marshall Tucker, I'm going to rope that in with the country the Southern Rock.
Speaker 1:Why don't you guys tell us about your musical journey? Where do you guys come from and how did you guys meet up to form this group?
Speaker 5:Yeah, we're both from different parts. I guess I'll just skip to the Nashville part. We both came here as aspiring songwriters looking to join a band at some point which we eventually found out that we had that common interest. We actually met at an open mic night and the funny thing is we actually didn't get to play that open mic night and I kind of went up to him and I was like yo, what you doing? He's like trying to play this open mic. And yeah, long story short, he invited me to come out and play with him and we connected musically pretty quickly, started writing songs together and then formed the duo Eastern Dreamers and then eventually we turned into the full band.
Speaker 1:So you guys collaborate together in your writing songs. Is there one of you that does more of the lyrics and one of you that does more of the music part, or how do you collaborate when it comes to your songwriting?
Speaker 4:I'd say it's pretty, even all around. Usually one of us comes up with like a riff on guitar and then, you know, one of us will have like the start of lyrics to a song and we kind of go from there.
Speaker 5:Yeah, you just got to give it the time to develop the songs yeah, we're both guitar players originally at heart and then I actually got into singing and singing closer when I moved to nashville and I'm starting to develop in my voice. But yeah, we again, we connected just musically, like through the through our inspirations and the old stuff we like, and then realized that we could both play and sing and write and um, and it ended up working out.
Speaker 1:And it's now time for musician questions. For a musician, who are your guys' top three biggest musical influences?
Speaker 4:Well, I saw Eric Clapton this week so he's definitely one of my biggest, one of the first guitar players I ever heard, so it definitely took a lot of inspiration from him. And just all those like 70s guitar players, singer-songwriter guys. James Taylor, yeah, yeah, they keep going. Eagles keep going forever.
Speaker 5:Eagles. We definitely share the love for the Eagles and the Beatles and all that old classic rock. We definitely do a little genre blending. So you know I like a lot of bluegrass music. Billy Strings is one of my heroes at the moment, right now. So we touch a little bit of it all and I think it comes through in the music too. What's the strangest place you guys have ever written a song was it probably probably right right at a bar that we, we kind of just wrote a song at the bar while we were playing, so a little improv type of thing at joe's place oh heck, yeah.
Speaker 1:You just started just playing around at a live show and you guys just created this magic. Yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's one of those places where you don't really have to worry, so you feel really comfortable, especially when there's no one there.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, and do you guys have a dream collaboration? If the Eastern Dreamers could collab with any artist, what artists would it be?
Speaker 5:sergio simpson is on top of the list, I'd say. I'd say vince gill would be, would be a dream to to go hang out with and write a song with, and and he's a legend, of course, to anybody and all the bands we like. But yeah, vince gill is a national dude that we'd love to. We'd love to get in a room with one day we are back with our country.
Speaker 1:Climb stars of of the Week. It is the Eastern Dreamers, max and Evan, and we're going to play their song Spinning Wheel that came out last week. Why don't you tell us and the listeners how did this song came about? And you know what is it about.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I mean the chorus of the song. You know it definitely punches and it actually started as a poem. You know I wrote. Actually I worked one day, you know, lost in time, fading from the comfortable running mill, and you know that's kind of where the poem started. You know it's it's. It's about just not getting stuck in the comfortable, the comfortability of life and and pushing yourself and and doing all different things to just live a live, a greater life. But, um, it actually wasn't the chorus for the song originally. We actually couldn't find a chorus and couldn't really figure it out. Um, and what? I think we wrote that guitar riff.
Speaker 4:You're just jamming, right, yeah yeah, just jamming and uh, I think the music came fairly easy. Um, yeah, just finding words to tie in how the music kind of felt is sometimes a little difficult, but for me at least, well it came together amazing.
Speaker 1:I've been listening to it on repeat since you guys sent it to me and I'm excited to play it for the first time. This song has never been played on any other radio station until now, right yes, sir heck, yes, q Country First time. This song has never been played on any other radio station until now right.
Speaker 4:Yes, sir, heck, yes Q Country 92.5.
Speaker 1:We're the bad boys of small town radio and we're bringing you the freshest country music from Nashville. Again, big shout out to Austin Burke and the Playlisted Podcast which you guys are regulars of that podcast right.
Speaker 5:Yes, sir, Austin's the man and we really appreciate him being in our corner.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Thank you to.
Speaker 5:Playlisted Podcast for being a part of it as well.
Speaker 1:Well, we are happy to play your song for the first time on Country Radio. This is our new best friends and our Country Climb Star of the Week, eastern Dreamers with their new song.
Speaker 3:Spinning Wheel on Q Country 92.5. Thank you. Wants to hear the town where the hope is lost and faith is strong? Better, start to drive it now. Only miles make my life go along. Just start to drive it now. Only miles make my heart go long Together. Only waves for sounds Whispering that we belong Lost in time, fading from A comfortable running man, every day waiting for Something real, much to feel, feeling here, never waiting, no way home. Spinning wheel. We're halfway through guitar solo. Where you to feel the crown, lonely child living through a song Bearing my make-away, crying out that we were one Lost in time, faded from a comfortable We'll see you next time Spinning wheel. We're halfway through guitar solo. How it feels in my hometown Makes me think when I'll go, lost in time, fading from the comfortable Running mid. Every day Waiting for something real, much to feel, feeling healed. Never waiting, no way home. Spitting, we were halfway through.
Speaker 1:That was Eastern Dreamers with their new song Spinning Wheel on Q Country 92.5. That song was amazing, max. Were you the one the vocals on that one?
Speaker 5:Yeah, I was doing the verse vocals on that, and then we all harmonized in the choruses.
Speaker 1:Beautiful. And then, whose guitar riff was that?
Speaker 5:That was me playing the guitar, the electric, and then Evans on the acoustic. We got a bass player and drummer.
Speaker 1:Heck yeah, it sounds awesome. It's got that. I love that cool 70s americana vibe about it hey, thank you so much yeah, you guys are amazing. What, uh, what do you guys have coming up next and how can our q country audience support you guys and help you out?
Speaker 5:yeah, we just actually, we just we just finished tour, I guess last this past Friday. Um, we went on our first tour and um, we're just looking to go everywhere. We want to keep playing shows. Our favorite thing to do in the world is play music live and be in that moment. So, yeah, just share the music with people. Come find us at a show, come meet us, have a drink with us. Um, yeah, the support means the world. Just just the fact that you guys are listening, it does mean the world everyone.
Speaker 1:Make sure you follow on all socials, eastern dreamers wherever you stream your music and download your music. Follow eastern dreamers and download their music, especially their new one spinning wheel. Uh guys, thank you so much for being on the show. It means so much. You have a home on country radio here in Arizona. If you ever want to come back and you ever have new music you want to send our way and hopefully we'll be able to see you in Arizona sometime soon.
Speaker 5:We'd love to come out. Thanks so much, Chris.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Max and Evan with the Eastern Dreamers have been our Country Climb Stars of the Week. Chris Bennett's Country Climb Star of the Week Good morning, it's the Morning Brew with Chris. Who's this Good morning champion? Chris Bennett, heck, yeah, it's Brian from Pinedale. How are you doing today? Really good. We only got six more days. That's right. Six more days till Chris Bennett Comedy presents stand-up comedy at the Pinedale Community Center.
Speaker 1:I'm bringing up some of my favorite comedians from the Phoenix comedy scene. We did have one change my friend Lamar Mitchell Jr has a family event so he's not able to make it. But we did get my friend Tony B who has been on Laugh After Dark Very funny comedian and we're also joined by Zach Allen, cricket Gill, who is at my birthday bash If you missed her, you do not want to miss her again and Sari Belyak. Tickets are $25. It is 21 and over. You can get your tickets at chrisbennettcomedycom.
Speaker 1:The show is this Saturday. Doors, alberto's Food Truck open up at 5 and show starts at 6.30 pm. There will be delicious food from Alberto's and sodas, waters, refreshments available for purchase, but if you do, there is no alcohol served on site. But they can BYOB. Right, correct, that's right. It's going to be fun. I can't wait. Get your tickets at chrisbennettcomedycom. How are we doing for tickets? Good, we have about 40 left. Oh, good, good, we'll get rid of them this week. Then, yeah, heck yeah, get your tickets at chrisbennettcomedycom, and we're even having a special guest set from a White Mountain resident trying their hand at stand-up. We have Colby Maxwell joining us.
Speaker 4:Oh, alright cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's gonna be fun, buddy, I can't wait. Fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun. And you know what? I actually have two tickets, compliments of Comfort Fit Dentures to give away right now to our comedy show this Saturday. If you want to win two tickets, compliments of Comfort Fit Dentures, be the first caller 928-532-4144. And these tickets are yours. Compliments of Comfort Fit Dentures. You'll feel comfortable always. Good morning, it's the Morning Brew with Chris. Who's this? Kelly, who, kelly, kelly, holy moly, kelly. Are you calling to win the two tickets, compliments of Comfort Fit Dentures, to our stand-up comedy show in Pinedale this Saturday at 6.30? I am, heck, yeah. Are you 21 and over? You have a very youthful voice. I am, I'm from the South.
Speaker 3:Oh, heck, yes, how long have you been here in the White Mountains? Almost two years. Now Two years.
Speaker 1:What brought you up here? Long story, long story. How are you liking it? I love it up here. Heck, yeah, beautiful. Have you been to one of our comedy shows yet? I have not. Oh, you are in for a treat, I know. Yep, you just won two tickets. Compliments and comfort fit dentures. You'll feel comfortable.
Speaker 1:Always to our show this Saturday. It's going to be at the Pinedale Community Center. The show starts at 630. To be at the Pinedale Community Center the show starts at 6.30. Doors the Alberto's Food Truck open up at 5. There will be sodas, waters for purchase if you are able to BYOB, if you'd like. And we have four amazing comedians from Phoenix Tony B, zach Allen, cricket Gil Sari Beliak and I will be hosting it, and we even have a special guest set from White Mountain resident Colby Maxwell. It and we even have a special guest set from white mountain resident colby maxwell. If you weren't as lucky as our best friend, what is your name? Kelly, kelly, if you weren't as lucky as kelly to win these tickets, you could purchase them today at chrisbennettcomedycom for 25 bucks a ticket. Kelly, what station hooked you up?
Speaker 3:oh, lord I forgot.
Speaker 1:I know she's new to the mountain q country q country, 92.5.
