Professor Louie remembers Garth Hudson

[00:00:09] Speaker A: Welcome to the Nathan's and Ron cast. This is part two of our wonderful interview with Professor Louie from Professor Louie and the Chromatics. Here we go. [00:00:20] Speaker B: We recently lost Garth Hudson. Do you have any memories of. [00:00:24] Speaker C: Well, Garth and I spent 16 years together, 24 hours a day in recording studios or on the road. So I got loads of Garth Hudson stories. But I'll tell you this, he was probably the greatest musician, one of the greatest musicians in history. There's no denying it. He knew every style of music, could play it exceptionally well. Any hymn, any four part invention, any bebop song, any honker song. Because he also played fantastic saxophone, all kinds of saxophones, played, you know, great, really great accordion. He could play, you know, eastern accordion, he could play those Russian folk songs and you know, all those and plus play great rock and roll. And he was also, you know, he was known in the sax world with the greatest sax players. He once did a special. I went with him with Screaming J, you know, with Jay McNeely and people like that, you know, Clifford Scott, you know, the greatest rock and roll sax players. You know, I made a record with Garth that people still don't know about, but it'll take him another hundred years to catch up. It's out. It's called the Sea to the North. Scarth's only solo record that he made. The studio. It took us about six years and he was still ticked off that I finally had to turn it into the record company because, you know, all the money was gone and it was time and he still wanted to keep working on it, which I don't blame him. But it's really an amazing record if you ever get your hands on it. The Seed to the north, the Sea to the North Sea to the North. And Garth was a great teacher, you know, it was hard hanging with him though, I have to tell you. He was friendly and unfriendly at the same time. And we spent a lot of time traveling the world together. I mean, we would go to Budapest and spend a month there with him playing with the Budapest Symphony with the theatrical company. And they would gave him this horn called the Terragotta horn, which is known in that part of the world and it's in there all the vampire movies because we would go to Transylvania together. And Garth mastered that instrument really quickly to play in one of the theatrical companies in Budapest. Yeah, pretty amazing. Him and Levon Helm's main roommates. So we spent a lot of time together. [00:02:35] Speaker A: So you spent a lot of time with multi genre geniuses in Many ways was part of what kept Garth working was the fact that he had so many styles in his arsenal of music expression. [00:02:50] Speaker C: Well, you know, Garth was the kind of guy, even in the studio, if he wasn't practicing, he was sleeping. So that was your choice. He had three things. Garth Hudson's life was three things. Sleeping, eating, and practicing. So he might practice at times, because sometimes we get to the studio, he practiced five hours before we'd start a session. He would drive everybody crazy. Luckily for me, I knew what to do when he was doing that. You know, first of all, I'd record everything he played. So I have thousands of hours of tapes. [00:03:13] Speaker A: Wow. [00:03:14] Speaker C: But besides that, I was able to stay in the control room and work on my own music. He didn't care. So he was just practicing. You know, once he started practicing, that was it until he was done, say, okay, let's go to work. And then we'd start working. But he might practice five, six hours before we start a session. And then when the session's over, he might practice five, six hours before anybody could go home. Which is one of his secrets of why he memorized and had so much great things. What happened to him in the end, though, with all those pieces he learned and all the great voicings of the four part inventions, you know, because he was a real stickler for the Bach four part inventions, he had them all memorized pretty much. He started getting confused which ones were. And he knew all the national anthems. National anthems are good to play. They're great to play, especially keyboard players. They're sort of like four or five part inventions. He started getting confused which one was which. And so he would start playing these pieces where they would all mold into each other. Like, if you ever look at the old hymn books, you know, there's a lot of hymns out there that people don't know. Like, I play for Marie and she'll say, I never heard that hymn. But of course, it was from a different sect of people. But he would also, with those old hymn books, there would be books like the songs of the girl scouts from 1911. And he would take those, and there's some amazing pieces in those songs with unbelievable voicings. And he would just play them all night long. And somehow he had a little bit of a photogenic memory, I felt, for learning these pieces, because he would have the book memorized by the end of the session. But in the end, in his life, he would. I think he would forget which one was which. So he'd play these Pieces that were going for 15, 20 minutes. Of all these, since I knew what he was doing, of all these pieces combined, it was really wacky. Was great. And then he'd sing along, which was even funnier because, you know. But he was a funny guy, but, you know, that was good. So that was his life of practicing. There was no other life. And he never hung out much, you know, he didn't like. Like when the guys would go to town, they might go hang out. He. He didn't hang out too much. He'd want to go see the pipe organs. One time me and him went and played every pipe organ in Nashville. And there's a lot of them. That's the belt buckle of, you know, south of religion. And so we went and played every single pipe organ, I think, in Nashville in one period of time. [00:05:24] Speaker A: That's special. That's. That's your ears. [00:05:27] Speaker C: I mean, it's really wacky. I mean, he was really. He was determined. And then we go to. Then we would go to a black after hours club. And since he played in Detroit, you know, he was in London, Canada, but he would go across Detroit and see all the. All the honkers and screamers of those sax players and those R and B bents. So he knew all the guys, you know, Cannonball Adderley. Cannonball and Nat Adderley. We went into a club one night. I don't know where the hell we were. It might have been in State of Washington. And those guys ran off the bandstand to say hello, hello to him because he hung out with them every night in Detroit in 1955 or 1956. And then he grew up in the rockabilly world too. So you know, Jerry Lee Lewis and the background of the band was the Hawks. Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks. It was big in the rockabilly world. And that was, you know, they all grew up together with, you know, Jerry Lee Lewis and people like that. So we played Jerry Lewis's birthday parties all the time and they love Garth, and Garth could play that stuff, you know, he was a great boogie woogie rock and roll. Not as good as some other guys, but he was great at it. There's another piano player by the name of Stan Celeste, who was the greatest rock and roll player of them all. And even, you know, he would play Jerry Lee's birthday parties. He grew up in Buffalo, was in the Roddy Hawkins, but he really could show you how to play rock and roll piano. You knew you were on stage with somebody when you played with Stan. Anyway, that's what Garth's history was. So it was really in depth. And since he spent 18 hours a day practicing, he really got everything down. [00:06:55] Speaker B: Oh, my. [00:06:56] Speaker C: Yeah, he knew all the Duke Ellington pieces, you know, a lot of that stuff. He could play, like, you know, Fats Waller and people, like, he could do that stuff. I mean, that's a hard concept to learn. He knew it all. [00:07:06] Speaker A: Oh, and Fats Waller's compositions are just beautiful. Always. [00:07:11] Speaker C: Yeah. No, he knew a lot of. And Art Tatum. He was more better at Art Tatum than Oscar Peterson, because Oscar Peterson, being Canadian, you know, but as I said, was really funny. In the end, he sort of forgot which piece was which. So he'd be playing a hymn or a four part, and next thing you know, they were into an Oscar Peterson piece or, you know, Caravan or something. You know, it was pretty wild. [00:07:30] Speaker B: It's an amazing education just being around a man like that. [00:07:32] Speaker C: Yeah, being around. It was really something to see, and it was really something that. Well, all the band guys were that dedicated. It was really something to see, that dedication to the music. And that's a lesson to be learned, you know, about. You really can't have much of a life except music if you really get serious about music, because there's so much of it. [00:07:50] Speaker B: That's right. And is it strange with. Am I correct, saying that all the major members are gone now? [00:07:58] Speaker C: They're all gone. Garth was the last one. [00:08:00] Speaker B: I mean, that must be a weird feeling for you, having been so. [00:08:04] Speaker C: For me, it's terrible because I have none of the people I relied on for advice of certain sorts or for music for certain sorts. Plus, you know, I worked for them, made a living from them quite a bit for about 17 years. So I lost a. I lost a little bit of. I lost a lot of financial, you know, performing. You know, it's like having your job ends. You know, your job just ends. Because the band had endless amount of studio work in terms of old tapes, new tapes, solo projects. You know, I produced over 100 songs with the band, and then it probably produced over 100 songs with the individual members of the band. So it's big. But the biggest loss for me is not having people like that I can call and talk to about stuff or even just watch and say. You could say one word and they. You know, I could try to set them up as best I can. Like, if I'm having a problem in the business thing or the audience business of music or the music business, I could say one sentence and they may just follow up on it for a day. They're big talkers and hangers. Well, we're on the band bus, so we talk a lot and, you know, you really learn from that. And they're more than happy to share with you what they knew. You just had to pay attention, you know, and get over the. And you had to really try to capture when there weren't other people around, you know, one on one was much better because this way they didn't have to be on. One of the problems with being well known is you have to be on in front of the public a lot, you know, and there's a game to be played, you know, to try to keep that mystique. But when you're one on one with a musician to musician, and they respected me because I had been with famous circuits before them and well known circuits and great musicians before them. So they understood where I was coming from all the way. They understood everything about it because they also started at the beginning of recordings. So they knew about the studio because, you know, the Big Pink record that everybody makes a big deal about, that was done on a four track tape machine. [00:09:46] Speaker A: Oh yeah. [00:09:46] Speaker C: And I have the original tapes. You put those four levels at zero and there's the record. [00:09:51] Speaker B: You have the original tape? [00:09:52] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:09:52] Speaker B: Could you expand a little bit on that? [00:09:54] Speaker C: Well, I won't tell you how I got them because it's probably illegal, but at one point I got. I was able to get into the vaults of Capitol Records. And it was at a time when the band was at a pretty low in life in terms of people remembering. You know, there was a point, and I got with them in the 80s, that people wanted to move on to new music. Right. And so therefore nobody was taking the band too seriously because CDs hadn't been invented yet. So the resurgence of catalogs was not happening. I think the last resurgence at that time had to make cassettes, you know, or eight tracks. And so everything was at a lull for the older groups. So I was able to get into the vaults with a new tape machine that had just come out called an adat. I think it was an ADAT or a Sony something. It was pretty small and you can get in there and you could just transfer. Nobody cared. So I started transferring. You know, I was always friends because I was an engineer, I was friends with the engineers, so they would just let me in there. And I saw. I transferred a lot of stuff so I could hear because we were on the road to trying to come up with new music for the band. To make a new record. I was with them when they decided that they wanted to start. There was a point where they wanted. Everybody had done solo records and did pretty well, right? [00:11:06] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:11:07] Speaker C: And it was a point where they wanted to get the band back together again. Levon and Rick and Garth and Richard, who's still alive at the time, wanted to get the band back together. And I was involved at that time. So I wanted to hear how they made their original records and I wanted to study how they sort of did it, because nobody was letting the band in the studio, you know, to get a record, they had to have a record deal that was, you know, they wouldn't get in the studio unless they had a record deal. It was that simple. So. Or try to get a record deal. So I wanted to learn a little more how they made the original records that made them so well known and how they did it. And I heard a lot of the stories they told me, a lot of it. So I went in and made some copies so I could hear how it was done, how they bounced the drums down to one track. [00:11:43] Speaker A: Okay. [00:11:43] Speaker C: You know, how the records were in mono, different things. And how they mastered them in the mastering room, you know, or in the cutting room, you know. And that's what a lot of guys don't understand. You would take those tracks that you had when you're about to turn it into vinyl, you know, put it in the cutting room. That's how you used to have to do it with vinyl. Used to cut it right to the disc with your tapes. And they would change the mixes then. So therefore there were no tapes that existed of the actual records, just the acetates of the vinyl, just the mother master. [00:12:13] Speaker A: Okay. [00:12:14] Speaker C: So I wanted to hear before they did stuff like that. That's why I think on some of the original Beatles stuff, they redid where everything was on one side. I don't know if you heard that they copied the tapes exactly. That's because I think George Martin, those guys did a lot of stuff in the actual cutting room when they turned it into vinyl. [00:12:29] Speaker A: Okay. Okay. [00:12:30] Speaker C: I really believe they did that a lot. Why wouldn't you? [00:12:33] Speaker A: Yeah, well. And sometimes there's parts that people will sing a harmony at a gig, and I'm like, where'd that come from? And you go to the original recording that was released and it's not there. But you have to go to re releases or the alternate takes and there's an extra harmony and it's. It's amazing what choices were made to get to the End product. [00:12:54] Speaker C: Because I think right at the end, right when they. Because the cutting the vinyl was a tremendous skill and the engineers were great. There were a couple engineers that were really good. You know, I really believe they did a lot of the changes and made the record sound that much better that way. [00:13:08] Speaker A: Changed the mix do you know, and this is kind of more just a recording question, but when taking like cutting, because you're obviously recording various tracks, cutting them down to four, you know, you have four and you got to mix it down. But at some point, were people making a backup to another recorder of individual tracks with. With the four track approach or was it like, you know, you make your decision, you. Because I would imagine I'd be just more interested in making a decision and going with it. It would save time and the creative process. [00:13:39] Speaker C: That's what you have to do. You have to do that even today with Pro Tools. I mean, if so many choices, you lose your mind. So you make that decision and go with it. You know, like if somebody wants to do a vocal 10 times and you composite it, you know, make a composite, that's got to be it. After all, you'll go crazy. But on this stuff, a lot of times the drums were recorded on one track. [00:13:58] Speaker A: Okay, okay. [00:14:00] Speaker C: Because you only had a four track tape machine. That's it. You can bounce down a little bit. I don't think the band had that luxury in the beginning, although they did have a great engineer. I mean, the record was not made in a house. That's sort of a myth, you know, the record was made at the record factory with Phil Ramone in Manhattan as the engineer. You know, the myth is bigger than the reality, you know, but I mean, there was a house called Big Pink and they did do the basement tapes in the basement. But the actual Big Pink record was made in a fantastic studio in Manhattan with Phil Ramon engineering. But at that time, even in those big studios, there was only four track tape machines. That was innovative. I remember when Tom dad got the first eight track tape machine in Atlantic. I mean, that was quite a big innovation. [00:14:41] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:14:42] Speaker C: So, you know, and a lot of times the vert. That's why you always hear about these groups. Like when I talked, there was a group called the Young Rascals. You know, that was a popular band in the 60s. And I talked to, or I used to talk to those guys I haven't talked to in a while. And they'd say, well, we do these tracks 82 times. Same song, 82 times. That's because they couldn't get the balance correctly on the two track. Because they would record, right, the two track, and they couldn't get the balance correct in the room. That's why they were doing it over and over. It wasn't like the guys weren't playing great. But of course, in those days, the musicians were not allowed in the control room, so nobody knew why they were doing anything. They were just playing. So he'd say, I think it was the lead singer said, man, I really hated Atlantic Records. They'd make us do these songs over and over. And then finally I said, it's probably because the balance. Because it was Tom Dowd doing the engineering and Arif Modin. So it's probably because they couldn't get the balances correct. Especially with loud rock and roll drummers. Oh, yeah, that was a loud rock and roll drummer. So that's why they did them over to get the balance correctly. I remember. [00:15:36] Speaker A: I think it was in Peekskill or in the area we stay. Aaron and I had done a show, probably Peekskill, Coffee or something. And we stayed at this gentleman's house. And he had basically a complete bootleg set of stuff from various bands. But I did not sleep that night. I spent most of it ripping CDs onto my laptop. And there were a few records of. I think it was Elvis and a few other groups. And it was the multiple takes and it was like take 32, take 87 and. And sometimes at the end of it, they mess up halfway through and. And some expletives and. And laughing because they were slap happy. I mean, they must have been. That explains why they were like sounding half sleep deprived. Probably also possibly some other reasons. But, you know, at least it sounded like they were a little too tired, you know, so. [00:16:31] Speaker C: Yeah, well, doing something over and over can really wear you down. But I think in those days, the concept is when everybody's tired, that's when you got the hit song. I'm not sure. Anyway. Yeah, I mean, in those days a lot of that stuff was definitely on one track or two track. And that's it, you know, that's. And if the band wasn't really that tight or they weren't used to recording you, it would mess up and you had to go back. Couldn't punch in like you can now. [00:16:53] Speaker A: And you could always, you know, everyone's gonna have their better take, you know, but ideally you find the take that moves people more. I'm curious. [00:17:03] Speaker C: We used to edit takes together. [00:17:05] Speaker A: Okay. [00:17:06] Speaker C: That's why sometimes things would speed up and slow down. You know, some. The producer might say, well, that sounds great, and it becomes a hit record. Something speeding up and slowing down like crazy, but sure enough became hit record. But, yeah, you would edit takes together sometimes. [00:17:18] Speaker A: Love the realness of when that happens. What I want to do is I want to ask you about the six original songs on your most recent album. I'm going to list the names. Elevate Yourself Monday, Boogaloo, A Million Johnny, Steadfast, True, and A Different Christmas. And Those are tracks 1, 3, 4, 5, 8, and 11. Those originals really stand out to my ears, and I love that. I love the choices you make when you do cover because they mean something to you. And I always feel like if we're going to choose to cover something, it should speak to our heart and we make it our own. And so it doesn't feel. That's why I asked you way ahead of this interview. I'm like, which ones did you write? Which ones are you covering? Because I know that you're a master at just, like, making it just flow beautifully. [00:18:08] Speaker C: So thank you. Well, in this record, it was pretty easy to do because I had played, except for one song. I played with the original artists, and I had recorded the songs that we covered, and we did them in a different way than they did. So it was a little easy. Plus, with the invention of tribute bands, it has really stifled originality. And so, therefore, when you're playing your show and you're doing some originals, if you throw in a song people know or a cover song, it sort of tunes them into your original song. So that. That's one of the reasons I wanted to make a record with that built into the record. So when we go play the record live, the COVID songs are built into the record. Although, as I said, like a song, like Too Much Fun never had a horn section, so we put the horn section to it. And since I played it with both writers and different frames of mine, you know, Commander Cody and Bill Kirchen, that, you know, I got a kick out of doing that. But there is one instrumental on there that's a cover song by an artist by the name of Moondog, and one of my favorites. And I knew Moondog, and I always loved that song, and I really wanted to do it, and I really wanted to get my friend Larry Packer, the violinist, in on the record, who I think you might have met. Larry, I hope. [00:19:18] Speaker A: I think I met him. Yeah. [00:19:20] Speaker C: Yeah, I think he did when he came up. And Larry Packer is, you know, a history within himself of how many People he's played with and what he's done. Just a small thing of his is he was in the Last Waltz as the last waltz string section and he was the only violinist. Okay, so he's in the Last Waltz as the string section. But I wanted to do something where he was featured. And on the accordion, me and Larry played Moondog's melody from Birds Lament, which is about Charlie Parker. [00:19:47] Speaker A: Oh yeah. Okay. [00:19:48] Speaker C: And it's a great piece. And you know, I knew Moondog and helped him out a few times when he was in Manhattan. So it was a nice homage that I could give to him. He was a pretty amazing classical composer. Really wild. A lot of interesting music. [00:19:59] Speaker A: With this album we were talking about going with, you know, the four track recording and kind of like how natural or at least in my mind I'm thinking like I love the humanity of, of that, you know. And you were talking about drummers didn't always play in time. So you were creating loops manually by probably measuring tape cop, you know, and then running wild. Right. You know, like it's the things you do to get the result. You know, you don't realize what it looks like in the room or you know, it's just a creative mind just spilling out into a space. When you're recording now and you're recording through your digital tape machine Pro Tools as it is, how do you try to make it the most natural and most earnest and most heartfelt? Like, what's your favorite approach for your own music? [00:20:43] Speaker C: Well, for this music, for this record and for most, most of my records, I have to say the approach is be we're gonna play them live because we're out, we're a live band, we're gonna go play it live. So let's go in the studio and cut it as live as we can. And don't use any clicks, don't do anything like that at all. So we'll just go in and cut it live. And that, that's. I mean, for this record, every record's different than every artist. I mean there's certain artists I record that I want to use a click for many reasons. And yet a drummer and the drummer we used on this record, Dan Hickey, I've made a lot of records, he's on a lot of records. And so I felt very confident in his playing that I'm not gon deal with real timing issues, just music issues, because I don't care if the songs speed up or slow down that much. Slowing down is worse than speeding up. I'M more concerned that the feeling is correct. And inherently, the only way I know feeling is when I hear it back. So we try to cut them as live as possible with everybody playing and everybody singing. And that way, everybody's playing to the. For this record. I'm not saying every record for this record. And that way, what you're hearing, everybody's playing. Because here's one of the things that I'm working with a group right now. And then the singer wants to redo his vocal, okay. And the vocal is perfectly fine. So I say to him, well, are you changing the lyrics? Is that why you want to redo the vocals? Say, no, I'm not changing the lyrics. Okay, then, you know, what do you feel? It's really out of tune. Because sometimes out of tune is pretty good. Like, you know, if you take a few famous people's records, their vocals are really out of tune, but they really communicate. Say, do you really think it's out of tune? No, I don't really think it's out of tune. So I said, well, if you change your vocal, put a new vocal on and sing it exactly the same, what the hell are those guys playing to that Already played to that other vocal. So now you're going to do it, and it's going to sound technically better to you. But you're losing communication among all the musicians because they're playing to something else. They're not playing to what you're doing now. So if you want to redo your vocal and then bring them all back in to play your vocal now as an overdub, maybe there'll be more communication, but they're going. A good musician will play, especially if you don't have a click, because sometimes they're only playing the clicks, which is one reason you gotta be careful with the click. What a good musician is playing to what he's hearing. That's what you're playing to. You're not playing to anything else. I mean, maybe you're reading something off a piece of paper, but you're still hearing. You're still playing to what you're hearing. That's what you're supposed to do. And so therefore, as soon as you start adding things that you're replacing things, then the musicians aren't playing to that. So my approach is to try to keep things as as is and try to rehearse the band if you can, without beating him to death, and record it live as much as you can in the studio. Still getting a studio sound, though. And if it doesn't happen within three takes. Just leave it alone and go somewhere else, you know, go to another song and maybe try it again two or three months later, you know, and then it's fresh again. So anyway, that was my approach on this new Cron Around CD by Professor Louis Necromantics. [00:23:21] Speaker A: Pulls you in immediately. And I think that's one of the reasons it pulls me in, because as a live performer, I like to hear what happens live. I don't want to change. I don't. [00:23:32] Speaker C: Well, that means it's communicating. That's the whole thing. See, even if you're not a trained musician or you're just a listener and love music, the hope is that it communicates so well that people just. I just really like this. I can't tell you why. I just really like it, you know, that's fine. [00:23:45] Speaker A: Yeah. And it takes away that argument where some people who don't. They're not a musician, but they're like, why do. Why do studio albums sound so much different? Or, you know, like they always have. And it's. It's when we mess with things occasionally. [00:23:59] Speaker C: Yeah. Sometimes you really hurt things by. Depends on, like, sometimes if I'll do a singer, songwriter, and they're not used to playing with musicians sometimes, but they do practice with a click, or I'll ask them to practice with a click, then you can add things around them that. It's a different type of communication, but you still have to make sure the musicians, when they overdub, are communicating with the music. [00:24:18] Speaker A: But, you know, I have one more question for you, and it's as a recording engineer with other clients, I think it's a classic problem when you're too busy with your other clients to get to your own project. And so how do you keep your music life? And I'm hired out as an engineer. Life balance. [00:24:38] Speaker C: Definitely a balance. There's no doubt about it. And I don't mean this in a mean way at all, but it's either digging a ditch, driving a cab, being a waiter, or being an engineer. So in engineering, at least within the music, and you're in the studio. So I'm appreciative that I could be engineering and making some money, and I'm appreciative that I learned enough or people respect my engineering skills enough. But it's definitely a very hard job and it's definitely very trying. And there's a certain point where you have to, if you can, if you're in a position where you have to say no to do your own Music. And you have to refuse a session. Better than refusing a session. Give it to another engineer who might be. Not necessarily a musician playing live. Yeah, I do have great engineer friends that don't perform live, and they're good musicians, but they don't perform live and are happy to get the studio work. So if I give it to them, they're really happy. And in return, sometimes they hired me a student via a musician in one of their sessions. But that is a hard balance. It's not an easy balance. But, you know, the choices of making a living, you know, for me, because I don't teach, I don't have a degree in anything, and I can't go to school, or, you know, I don't have that backup, you know, As I say, it would either be like sort of a job that would be very wearing on my body or. No, engineering is pretty wearing on your body. You sit a lot. You know, you got to make sure you stand up every 15 minutes. Sometimes you get on these. I used to get on records where you'd work 23, 24 hours in a row because there were deadlines, and you can get really bad leg cramps if you don't stand up. You really got to be careful about standing up and sitting too much. But. So it is a physically demanding job and mentally demanding, because you're listening to people saying things that you know are wrong. I want you to do things that are wrong, but since they might be the boss, you got to go along with it. [00:26:20] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:26:21] Speaker C: And you can try to tell them, you know, but at a certain point, you know, you know better, and they don't, what are you going to do? You know, you can't fight it. So if you know they're wrong, it's like working with a producer who's reading the music upside down. And when you come across that, you know, you got to tell him he's reading music upside down because everybody else is noticing. But you got to make sure you tell them in private. [00:26:40] Speaker A: Okay, That's. [00:26:44] Speaker C: He's the guy who's paying. [00:26:45] Speaker A: That's good diplomacy right there, I think. [00:26:47] Speaker C: Yeah, it's good diplomacy. Or, you know what you could do when the whole orchestra goes out for a break? You detune the cello down a little bit, and then they come back and play, and you stop the session. Say, I think that cello is a little out of tune. He goes, hey, he's just the engineer. What does he know? And then I'll say, well, check the cello. Say, yeah, the cello's a little out of tune. [00:27:06] Speaker A: Yeah, that's great. Yeah. You know, that's a good joke to have with the cello player later, you know. [00:27:11] Speaker C: Yeah, it is. It's really good. Yeah. And everybody starts saying, well, maybe this guy does know a little more than just how to cut tape. [00:27:17] Speaker A: Guy Davis's album you produced a number of years ago was just spectacular. I think it captured exactly the essence of. [00:27:24] Speaker C: Yeah, I think I got Guy pretty good. Yeah. That's why it keeps coming back. [00:27:27] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a. Yeah. [00:27:28] Speaker C: Which is nice, you know, that's a nice compliment from Guy. [00:27:30] Speaker A: So it's, you know, it's wonderful. Thank you for letting us just pull stories out of you. Professor Louie and the Chromatics have an album out called Crowing around. It's got 11amazing tracks, six originals. It's being played on 90 radio stations as of. [00:27:45] Speaker C: Yeah, we're up to over 90 stations, which is pretty good for us. [00:27:48] Speaker A: And I think you told me on the Relics Jam band charts, number one. [00:27:52] Speaker C: It's number one. It is. Which is really interesting, because, you know, at least the jam bands, there's gigs out there. So that's good. Yeah. Yeah, that's great. Now, a lot of those guys are really. They're definitely in the music, you know, which is why I like. I know a lot of them and play with a bunch of them. I often, you know, different ones. [00:28:08] Speaker A: Thank you again, and thank you. [00:28:10] Speaker C: I hope to catch you guys on a gig again soon, and Michael will play soon. Aaron, go down to Philadelphia. You know, keep me posted on what's going on. Oh, yeah, definitely. You know, keep me posted. [00:28:20] Speaker A: Well, do. [00:28:21] Speaker B: Absolutely. [00:28:25] Speaker A: Thank you so much for listening to the Nathan's and Ron cast. I'm one of your hosts, Michael G. Ronstadt, and it has been a pleasure to bring you all of season two from the Nathan's and Ron cast. Please keep an eye out for any special episodes we put out in between seasons two and three. But until then, I want to leave you with two songs from Professor Louie and the Chromatics. This first one is called A Million, and it's on their most recent release, Crowing Around. [00:29:09] Speaker D: Imagine not working so hard if we. [00:29:13] Speaker C: Had a million if we had a. [00:29:18] Speaker D: Million what our life could be and now I'm looking out my front door and you never looked so good before like an angel from up above Protect me with your love if we had a million if we had a million we change our world Our destiny True confessions Lovers at night if we had. [00:30:02] Speaker C: A million. [00:30:04] Speaker D: If we had a million Trouble upon the world From a Satellite and now I'm thinking of you every day. Cause I'm thinking in a special way Trying to find a place under the midnight sun. What a bright world we see. If we had a million. If we had a million, yeah. Would change our world, our destiny. Now we're in the twilight Silhouettes on the stars we can see the moon beams that is where we are Now I'm thinking of you every day. Cause I'm thinking in a special way Trying to find a place under the midnight sun What a life would see. If we had a million if we if we had a million. Change our world, our destiny if we had a million tonight. If we had a million tonight. If we had a million likes we could find out. [00:32:32] Speaker A: That's an amazing track. That was a million by Professor Louie and the chromatics from their 2025 release crowing around. I want to go back in time a little bit to their song called Open Hand, Open heart from their 2012 album Wings on Fire. And thank you so much for listening to the Nathan's and Roncast. You can find out more information at www.nathans and ronstadt.com or go to my website, www.michaelronstadt.com. those sites have links to our podcast. And everywhere you stream your podcasts, you can find the Nathan's and Ron cast. Without any further delay, here's our final song from Professor Louie and the Chromatics. Open Hand, Open Heart from Wings on fire, released in 2012. [00:33:39] Speaker D: Open up your hand, Open up your heart. Open up your hand. Open up your heart. [00:33:54] Speaker C: When you're losing, playing the fool, try. [00:33:58] Speaker D: To remember to keep your cool. With an open hand, an open heart. Lost your way in the night of the look around, try to find your sight. With an open hand, an open heart. Open up your hand. Open up your heart. Open up your hand. Open up your heart. Losing hope, end up on your knees, make a stand, just say what you please. With an open hand, an open heart. Lost your way in the night, look around, try to find your sight. With an open hand, an open heart. Lost your way in the night, look around trying to find your sight. With an open hand, an open heart? You got the right to tell the secrets out now it's clear as a bell. An open hand, an open heart. [00:35:36] Speaker C: There we go. [00:35:39] Speaker D: Open up your hand, Open up your heart. Open up your hand? Open up your heart. Bring light to a soul in the dark. Bring light to a soul in the dark. Relight to a soul in the dark. It's Sam. Bring light to the soul in the d. Bring light to where soul is. Bring light to the soul in the dark. Bring light to our soul in the dark. [00:37:33] Speaker C: Thank you so much.