From the studios of w m n H ninety five point three FM in downtown
Manchester, New Hampshire. You are tuned in to the best of Matt Connerton
unleashed. If we're gonna bring in a we have a great guest on via
Skype. We're gonna bring in in just a moment. But if you'd like
to enter the discussion that we are about to have, six three two five
six Z seven is a studio line six three two five six zero seven.
You can also text me at six one seven nine one seven four four seven
six. I'm on social media at Matt Connerton. You can email me Matt
at Matt Connerton dot com. You can interact endo Pine in the Facebook live
chat. But the best thing to do so that we can hear and enjoy
your dulcet tones is to give us a call at six zero three two five
zero six zero seven. And we have Kevin Hammer via Skype. Kevin are
you there? Yes, I am hello, Welcome to the show. Glad,
glad to be here. I just want to check and you hear me
clearly? Yeah, yeah, absolutely can hear me. Okay, a bit
choppy, a bit staticky, but I can make I can make everything out
everywhere just saying okay, good good. Yeah. Technology will will not always
be exactly what we wanted to be, that's for sure. Absolutely, But
uh yeah, yesterday we had a band on all the way from Germany called
Factory of Art and uh, you know, when when you're getting transcontinental,
it can be especially a challenging and they were skyping in but they had a
little bit of a problem connecting. You know. Actually it worked, but
I had to had to give it a few shots. But where where are
you? Are you in Schenectady in New York? Yes, yep, I
do reside in Schenectady, New York. Okay, it's not that far from
the capitol Albany, New York. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I have
some I have some family in New York state. Spend some time there as
a kid, because I haven't been there in a while, well at least
not not in terms of spending any real time there. But um my,
uh, my dad's second wife, her family is in I don't know if
you know Frankfort. It's uh kind of near uh, I guess it's kind
of near Utica. Um yeah, I'm aware of the Frankfort area. Absolutely,
Okay, Yeah, it's kind of funny in that area. You've got
all those you know, they don't even really call them towns. They call
them villages like Frankfurt and Ilion and and it's hard to tell where one ends
and and and another one begins. It's they're kind of like a like one
city sort of match together. But it's really like a series of neighborhoods.
It's interesting, but um, it's funny. Yeah, it's it is funny
up here. I actually grew up in a community where the Amish had posts
to tie up their horses. So really, no kidding in New York or
were you yes? Oh wow? I was born and raised in Scaria,
Montgomery Counties in New York State. Uh. And it's funny because most people
when you say you're from New York, they go to the city. But
I grew up in small town, rural New York. Like I said that,
we had an Amish community, Uh, you know, Mennonites, you
know, we we had all that out there. And like I said,
our bank, our post you know, the post office, our grocery store,
they all had post to um tie up their horses. In fact,
they put in a brand new a few years ago they put in a brand
new sign in the center of town. Uh buggy parking, No kidding,
Oh yep, Oh that's cool. That's interesting. Interesting. Um you ever
see that that that show, Amish Mafia. I think it was actually set
in Pennsylvania. Did you ever see that? I think it was on the
Earning Channel. No, I'm aware that it exists, but no I have
I have actually never seen a full episode. I saw a trailer for it
once and I found it very amusing. It's a it's a trip. I
just I know someone actually someone who claims to be a real New Yorker from
from the city who uh will often brag about the time that he interviewed Lebanon
Levi from Amish Mafia, and it's kind of like, wow, that's uh
quite the brag there. But uh, yeah, that that that ship.
I have seen the show. It's it's kind of a trip. But now,
what is your current statis in terms of are you a candidate or do
you currently hold office? Well, I I am currently a candidate. Um,
I will admit IM not going to speak so much to the uh you
know, the race right now my campaign, Yeah, right now, we're
the Democrats I am a Republican. The Democrats have their primaries, Uh,
their primary coming up. Uh, you know, so we're just reaching out
to the community now, still knocking on doors, getting getting our names out
there. I ran in twenty twenty one for city council and I'm running again.
Okay in Schenectady. Yep, in Schenectady. Gotcha. Now, have
you held office before or if you run, did you run for office prior
to twenty twenty one. No, twenty twenty one was my first time entering
politics in that in that fashion. Okay. Prior to that, I had
been involved more on the activist side since probably around college. Okay. And
now you came to us by way of our friend Billy Painter, or Bad
Billy as he is as this his online persona. Although I personally I don't
know what you think, Kevin, I think he should just use his real
name. I think Billy Painter is a cool name. I don't know why.
I just like the way it sounds. But uh, but yeah,
he had he had recommended, and I'm glad he connected us and I did.
I didn't get a chance to see quite the whole thing, but I
did watch most of um your interview, Billy's interview with you, I should
say, on Outlaw Radio and very interesting and U and you know, we
had talked via messenger and you had mentioned, you know, you're a Republican,
but you you know, you like to be able to discuss things with
people outside of the echo chamber, and um, you know, one of
the things that I try to do with this show, and this is part
of what it's part of what made you interesting as a guest and why I
think Billy suggested you come on, is you know I, um, and
I'm an independent, but I would probably best describe my politics. And when
I go with this particular description, people seem to agree with me. I'm
center left, but with a heavy dose of libertarian in some ways too.
But I really like talking to um, you know, I I don't personally
enjoy having discussions that are strictly you know, ideological, the sort of cable
news to people yelling at each other. You know. I like to dig
deeper, and I like talking to people whom uh you know. I mean,
of course, it's nice to talk to people with whom I agree.
It's also nice to talk to people with whom I disagree and have a real
discussion and an exchange of ideas. And uh, my impression both from Billy
and what you had said on Messenger is that you're very open to that as
well, and that you like to address things outside the echo chamber. So
um, so I think that's very cool and I'm very interested in So a
couple things about you that are that are interesting also in addition to that that
I wanted to ask you about. UM. One is I would like to
hear your story about how Billy described you as a walk away from the Democratic
Party and you you alluded to it a moment ago as well, um that
you used to be a Democrat. And it's interesting you you said something interesting
in your conversation with Billy on his show. You were talking about how you
really kind of feel more like an independent. But you know the way the
system works in New York. You know, if you want to vote,
or I suppose if you want to be a candidate in your case, because
you're an active candidates. You know, you're an active candidate. Independence generally
don't win, so you know you almost you almost have to pick a side,
um in that sense. But I do want to ask you more about
all of that your your journey and and and how you've changed politically or if
you have changed. You know, sometimes people will say regardless of which party
they left, you know. I hear people say, well the party didn't
you know, I didn't leave the party, the party left me. But
I'm curious to hear more about that. The other thing that's that's interesting about
you is, UM, so you are and and it's right on on the
website there that I was looking at. You know, you're you're openly gay
and in a party that I think I think there's a perception and and you
might refute this today, I don't know, or it might be a concern.
I'm curious to hear you address this. Um, but there is a
perception that the Republican Party today has kind of taken an anti LGBTQ bent or.
But then again, I also realize you're in New York and the Republican
Party of New York State is not the same as say no disrespect to the
South, but the Republican Party of Alabama. You know, So so maybe
maybe maybe where you are, and I suspect this is the case, but
I'll be interested to hear you address this. Maybe where you are, it
just doesn't matter. I mean, I know George Santos is an openly gay
Republican allegedly. Of course, you don't know whether you can believe anything anything
he says, but he is an openly gay Republican from New York, and
nobody seems to care that he's gay. So everyone's very interested in whether he's
actually telling the truth about anything. But nobody seems to care that he's gay.
So um, so you know, in the Northeast, maybe it's just
not an issue. I don't know, but I'd be curious to get your
perspective on that. But um, but yeah, any any of that that
you want to address. I know I threw a lot at you at once,
but you're I'm very curious to learn more about you. And um,
your conversation with Billy left me with a lot of questions, so as you
can tell Sore Oh no, absolutely, yeah, a lot of a lot
of ground at me. Um, you know where to start on the map?
Um, No, well, it is true. I was once I
was a registered Democrat identified actually self identified as a leftist at one point.
You know, I was involved as an activist more during the time when s
JW was more commonly used social justice warrior back back in those you don't you
don't really hear that anymore. UM. I had a journey, which UM,
I mean, there was a lot involved in it, and I came
to embrace more my conservative values. Now. Part of that journey, UM,
was indeed the fact, as you said, many people say I didn't
leave the party, the party left me. The Democratic Party went further to
the left. That's true. However, at around the same time, I
was also connecting to some more of my conservative of root values that had that
had always been there. So it really, it really was a mixture.
UM. I can't I can't say that, you know now, I you
know, identifying as a conservative and speaking to conservative values, I can't say
that they weren't there at all. Right, they were there even when I
was more on the left. It's just how my interactions went on the left
ultimately led to me embracing more of those conservative values, um, and ultimately
rejecting a lot of the ideology that I saw on the rise on the left.
Now, you it is it is true that um. In regards I
like to say today, UM that I prefer to discuss values, not party.
Yes, Uh, and that that really has become more and more of
my focus. Uh. Not too long ago, I was having a discussion
with two gentlemen about issues locally and as When we got done with our conversation,
you know, I was expressing my opinion. I was talking about specific
issues. And when we got done with the conversation and the one guy left,
the other guy, who happens to be a Republican, a conservative like
myself, he goes, Wow, he goes, that was impressive, he
goes. Usually, when me and the other guy try to you know,
me and my other friend try to talk to him, you know, he's
hard Democrat and he will yell at us, get frustrated with us and all
that, And I go, I understand that, and I've had that experience
as well. But did you notice something in our conversation. Not once did
I mention party affiliation during this entire conversation. I just spoke about the issues
and my personal values, which well, that leaving party out of it allowed
us to have a better connection. Yeah, that makes sense, because you
when you had that conversation with Billy on his show, you were talking about
that there's a moment that I and I wanted to kind of mention this to
you, and and I liked what you had to say. There's a moment
where you gave him, you offered him some advice on you know, he's
he's uh. He was talking about his daughter and a political sort of a
political conversation interaction that he had had with his daughter. And you said to
Billy, can I give you some advice and the advice that you gave him?
And I won't, uh, I'm sure I won't get it out as
eloquently as you put it, because I really liked what you had to say.
But your suggestion was, you know, start with you know, don't
don't talk about political party with your daughter, talk about specific issues and uh
and and and just stick to that. And I really, again, the
way you said it was very very good. UM. I can't remember exactly
how you put it, but it really resonated with me because, you know,
I feel like we live in a world where people are so hyper focused
on party identification and ideology that there's no room to even um, express anything
outside of what's expected to you. Uh. For example, on social media,
UM, if you are on either left or right, you know,
if you're if you're a Republican and uh. And and you say, well,
you know, I'm a Republican, but here's something that I do give
President Biden credit for. I think he's right on. You know, maybe
you know the way he's supplied weapons in Ukraine or whatever. If that's something
you happen to agree with him on. If you if you give Biden credit
for anything as a Republican, you'll get dog piled. You'll get called a
rhino. You know, you'll get called a I don't know, a socialist
whatever it is, right. Uh. And and in the inverse, if
you're a Democrat and you say, well, you know, I don't I
don't like Trump, but I did agree with him on the debt ceiling.
That was something that he got right. Uh, you'll get dog piled by
your your fellow Democrats and it's like, how can you dare say anything good
about Trump? And um so uh it's and and that just perpetuates, you
know, we we we live in a world where it's like you've really you're
expected to be locked in on one side or the other. And so I
think your approach is smart. Uh, you know, talk about the you
know, forget about the political identification. Uh, start with the issues and
and and go from there because at the end of the day, especially when
you're talking about local things, UM, I think there's a lot of room
for agreement, you know, if you're talking about if you're running for city
council or something like that, I think there's probably a lot more room for
agreement and less room for ideology uh than there isn't on a broader scale anyway.
So I think what, Uh, the way you approach it and the
way you think about it, I think makes a lot of sense. We've
gotten a we we've gotten to a point where if you're talking about a politician,
whether they be Democrat, Republican, whatever they may be, and you
are on that opposite end of the political spectrum at least that's your party affiliation,
and you do speak kind of to them in any way, you do
get that attack. Unfortunately, we are that polarized. Although I would say
that we're polarized in regards to what the media highlights, in regards to what
the politicians highlight, but not so much when it comes to day today Americans,
everyday americans who I feel actually can have more conversations and I know,
in fact we can because I've taken part in those conversations. It's more on
the social media where I get the conflict, but in person, I've had
in depth conversations with people on the opposite end of the political spectrum. Sure
we did not agree, but we remain civil absolutely, and I think in
part that's because we and I was I had a friend once kind of put
it this way. He was saying, you know, it's kind of like
we're at this point. You know, say there was a historical a dictator,
a monstrous dictator, right, and that dictator happened to say, um,
puppies are cute. Well, after that point, no one could ever
say puppies are cute because this dictator said it right, right, So no
one no one can say puppies are cute now, um, you know.
So it's it's very interesting that we have gotten into that, and it's it
does exist on both sides of the aisle, all across the political spectrum.
Now, for me personally, it's interesting because I look back to my roots
and where I came from. One of the things I actually feel very fortunate
in regards to is that I did not have very political parents. My parents
never discussed voting with me. To be honest, some people may not look
fondly upon that, um, you know, for various reasons. But it's
just not who my parents were. And I remember once asking them about voting,
and both my parents had the same view, why bother they're all crooked
anyways, across across the board. And that's a common view actually. But
for me, especially when I enter college and I started looking at the world
around me, I realized something that was true, whether I liked it or
not. You know, there's the saying that you don't have to believe in
the devil. All that matters is the devil believes in you. And that's
true when it comes to politics. You can say you don't care about politics.
You can say that you don't you don't care. You know, it
doesn't impact your life, but that's just not true. I had a conversation
with a friend who lives in a more rural area and he was telling me
earlier, he had been telling me in the week about he was putting in
a duck pond and you know, in a coup for the ducks and all
that stuff. And then later on he was telling me how politics doesn't impact
his life, you know, so he just doesn't want anything to do with
it. And I remembered back to our earlier conversation and I asked him,
owing the answer probably, I said, I have a question. You think
politics doesn't impact your life? I got a question. Did you check all
the zoning laws and regulations when you put in that pond and you put in
that coup, because if you did not follow them to the tea, those
were passed, those rules were passed by government, by local government. So
yes, it does. In politics impacts us from the moment we are born
and before we go we were born. Though you know, if you're born
in a hospital, there are regulations, policies at the hospital has to follow
that have been implemented by government. Government does impact us from womb to tomb
um and even after the tomb to be honest, because they can you know,
semeties. So I mean, politics does impact you, whether you like
it or not. Some one thing to that that realization. When I entered
college, I got involved, and at the time it was more on the
left. I was actually I was an activist. I was a co founder
of the of one of the GSAs at my college. Um at the first
college I went to, and I really did fall into more with the left,
and for me, that did end up eventually taking more of an extreme
turn at one point to where I did cut out family over over politics.
The one thing I never did, I never told anyone they didn't have a
right to speak. Um, this is where it honestly started to change for
me is when I actually got that treatment in return, and I'm actually thankful
that I did. To be honest, I started to question things on the
left at the time. And like I said, I don't say this to
say that everyone who has left or leaning has these personality traits or takes part
in this behavior. Of course, I'm speaking to the experience I had during
my journey from the left to the right. And you know, and I've
met I've met people on the right who are very big on if you don't
have this specific view, then you're cut off right, nothing nothing to do
with you. But for me, I experienced it largely on the left and
still do to the to this day. Um, what it happened was,
I think, as I always I always kind of say, I think what
really ultimately was going to result in my conflict with the left was that I'm
very stubborn and I don't respond well to people trying to put me in my
place. I'm someone who always asked questions. I wasn't the child who easily
accepted when my parents told me something. I wasn't the child to really accept
because I said so. I was the child who would ask why yeah,
And I view that as important. You tell a child not to touch a
burning stove, why not explain to them why they shouldn't touch the hot stove
because they could get hurt. Instead of just saying because I said so,
right, They're more likely to rebel against that and actually touch the stove and
get and get burnt. But if you explain to them why, you're gonna
probably have a different result. I mean, they could still do it,
you know, but but you're probably gonna at least they're gonna have a better
understanding. And I really had that personality from the time I was very young.
Trust me, it frustrated my mother at times, but my mother let
me. Let my mother understood where my logic was was going. And ultimately,
I think this personality trait is what eventually caused me to conflict with the
left as it moved further and further to the left, because when I entered
the left, there was a lot of things that were preached that I absolutely
believed in and still do actually believe into this day. It's just when I
noticed a lot of double standards and hypocrisy on the rise, that was when
I started to conflict, because I started to ask more questions. Yeah,
and I do have a few examples of those that I found where I was
starting to like. For example, you know, there was this we would
say, all right, you shouldn't judge someone by the color of their skin.
Absolutely, absolutely, you shouldn't. That's wrong. That's racist. To
have a pre against someone based on the color of their skin. That is
racism. That is the definition of racism. Right. It's wrong to judge
someone's entire character based on their sex. Absolutely absolutely agreed with that, and
I still agree with that deeply. It's wrong to judge someone hate someone based
on their sexual orientation, and you know, in regards homosexuality, heterosexual Still
I still believe that. However, I noticed that there became more and more
among my friends this double standard, meaning they believed that racism only went one
way, sexism only one way, hating someone based on sexual orientation only went
went only went one way, and that if you were the oppressed quote unquote
demographic, you had every right to treat other people however you wanted based on
these characteristics because you were the oppressed. And that just didn't sit right with
me. I think that it's just as wrong for me to attack a heterosexual
man for being heterosexual, to call him some kind of name a slur related
to that, as it would be for him to call me a slur in
regards to my sexual orientation. I saw that as just as wrong. But
unfortunately on the progressive left right now, they don't see that, as they
see one is wrong but not the other. Um but where were these Were
there expert personal experiences that you had where this came up? Because I don't,
I don't, I mean, I well, first of all, let
me just say so, I fundamentally agree with you. I mean, any
anybody, uh, you know, being prejudiced against anyone is as a form
of prejudice. Like I'm not a big fan of the term and you might
agree, I'm not a big fan of the term reverse racism. I think
racism is racism. Yeah yeah, um, but but I am I am
curious. So, uh, I mean, were there personal experiences that you
were having or did something happen to you online? Where where you began to
notice? Because I don't feel like I see while I agree with you,
um, in principle, I haven't. Granted, I don't really engage much
online in politics. I kind of save it all for the show. Um.
But I so I agree with you in principle, but it's not something
I've seen. Like, I can't, off the top of my head think
of a lot of examples of straight people being attacked for being straight. I'm
not sure. So I'm just can you clarify that a little bit. I'm
just curious where where you were running into that and and and if you can
walk us through how you responded to that when you encountered it, and how
that drew you to to see hypocrisy and double standards and so forth. Well,
let me, I guess, let me explain, because I know the
perspective you're coming from. In my personal life. When I say I was
an activist, well I may not have you know, been high up there
and gotten a lot of attention. I was very much involved in activism,
and I did end up with friends who went further and further to left,
like not just people on social media, people in my circle of friends who,
for example, over a political disagreement, one friend I had, he
did try to get someone fired from their job. He t but he docks
them, like I knew people who honestly were at that level of encouraging people
to cut off family even divorce their spouses over political disagreements. Like my circle
of friends was hard went hard left. So it wasn't even social media,
which, don't get me wrong, I experienced that on social media, of
course. Yeah, I was part of a law of left leaning political groups
and chats and everything like that. But I had people in my life,
people I had known for years, who were also of this mentality and actually
took part in the actions. And like when I had the falling out with
my family member over politics, a lot of my friends encouraged me to cut
her out of my life and never talk to her again. And this was
someone who is my baby cousin. I'm about I'm all about four years older
than her, and I was there when she was born and we had a
falling out over politics. And at the time I was much more extreme and
much more of you know that you gotta agree with me on this or else
I don't want to talk to you. And I was surrounded by people who
had that same mentality and encouraged that mentality in me. Now, I still
made the decision, right, I'm not No one held a gun to my
head or anything, but not to say that someone want to do that these
days, it seems like some might, but no, I still made that
decision. So I still take responsibility for my actions there. I'm not going
to sit here and claim that I was completely helpless they I was. I
was was to you know, by threat of my life or anything. I
ultimately was the one that made those decisions. But all so that was my
circle of friends. Or just to clarify, because I actually marched on Washington,
DC. I protested outside my capital. I went to organizational meetings,
I helped organize protests, I spoke at protests. I was deeply involved on
in regards to the activity locally when it came to the left. Yeah,
yeah, um, I will actually, uh, I want to kind of
retract and rephrase something I said when you mentioned when you mentioned specifically people trying
to get people fired from their jobs or because of maybe not you know,
whatever it is, their their position or something. I have seen examples of
that. Actually, so I was not. I'm realizing now I'm because as
you're talking, I'm thinking of specific things you know, where Um. It
kind of reminds me of the what what Candice Owens talked about. Although in
I don't believe her story, I do believe your story because I've seen examples
of what you're talking about. I have, and it's starting to come back
to me. Candice. I don't. I don't. I don't know how
you feel about her. I don't believe her. But that's a separate conversation.
But I but I know what you're saying, and it's it's, um,
yeah, if if somebody, um, you know, somebody does something
that that someone perceives as uh and and they may be right in their perception
that it's prejudiced or something, and then they go and they try to get
that person fired from their job, uh that type of thing. Uh yeah,
I don't like to see that either. I think I think people do
go much too far with that or the dock singe that goes on. And
so I I understand, Uh, you're being repelled by that, Um,
I've never I've never been an activist in that way, so I've not experienced
that. But I've never been in that position either. But I have seen
that kind of thing happen, Kevin, So I do get where you're coming
from on that, and let me let me just because you asked for a
specific examples, So, um, there were specific examples, especially around twenty
sixteen going into twenty seventeen, because obviously that's when things really heated up.
Yeah, and that was when you know, I cut out a family member.
But then I started to really question myself on that. I over politics,
was going to cut out someone that I had known literally since the day
she was born. Yeah, over over politics. I had a falling out
with well, my in laws event you know, eventually for a little bit.
And you know, I don't regret. Some people might say they regret
these falling out, these falling outs, I don't because I stepped back and
reflected on them and more I became critical of myself. What could I have
done differently, What could I have said differently? Yeah, and some of
them, some of the things that happened personally where I actually became a target
in my circle of friends UM started around that time. So I don't know
if you recall UM when a group of four UM young individuals who happened to
be black kidnapped a young UM man with mental health issues and tortured him and
recorded it, you know, and we're we're calling and we're using racial slurs
and you know, uh, you know, towards towards white's. During that,
I remember in my group of friends saying, oh, okay, here's
an act of racism. Just as we've called out acts of racism against other
other demographics, other racial demographics, here's an act of racism that we should
call out as well. Like I said, in my mind, racism is
racism and it's wrong and we should call out. But when I went to
call that out, people in my own circle of friends said, no,
you can't do that. That's not racism. Was that a violent act yes?
Was that prejudice yes? And I'm like prejudices in the definition of racism,
But you know, I started getting push pushed back with that. UM.
Another thing that that happened to me is I had made a lot of
posts critical of Christianity in regards to while the LGBT community UM and I had.
You know, I had made a number of posts and friends had my
friends in my closed circle, they had liked and shared them. Well,
I made a similar post, except this post I was being critical of Islam
in regards to how it has how that how that religion has treated homosexuals,
um and other people from the community over over our span of years. And
I was told I couldn't, I should take down that post because my post
against Christianity will fine, but my my post being critical of Islam, we're
wrong because in the context of America, we're talking about minority demographic. So
I'm punching down and this just didn't make sense to me. I realized what
came. The biggest issue I had was inconsistency and logic. If you have
a specific set of values and you don't apply them equally across the board,
I have to question you. I have to question if you can and then
you don't acknowledge the double standards, the hypocrisy at play in your own mind.
Don't get me wrong, we all have our double standards, right,
like when it comes to policy, like there are things that yes, children
shouldn't do, but adults can, right, That's that's one case where absolutely
into me. That's that's legitimate. I stand by that. But this was
very different, and more and more I started speaking on issues and getting told
to be quiet by those in my circle of friends, to the point where
I was actually removed from several uh messaging groups that I had been part of
on social media where I actually knew the people in person. And then one
individual was amusing the one that tried to get a guy fired from his job.
Yeah, there was a protest locally in front of in front of my
police station. Actually, and this I had already been started being very open
about my criticisms of the left, and I had starting I had started to
embrace more of my conservative values in part as a result of that, started
reflecting more upon who I really am, really soul searching. But during that
time I hadn't heard from him as much. Yeah, I happened to go
to that protest. I saw him there. He kind of looked at me,
then looked away, and someone I had been at his house. I
had celebrated with him, celebrated birthdays, like really, we had hung out,
and sure enough I went to look him up on social media. Not
only had he unfriended me, on social media he had blocked me as well.
Yeah, so this is what started to happen. And I think one
big thing issue for me was my unwavering belief in free speech, no matter
what, even my days when I was the furthest to the left I had
ever gotten. I still while I might cut people out, I might have
cut people out, I still didn't believe that they should be silenced, right.
I still believed that they had a right to speak to their values,
to what they believed, even if their values hurt my feelings. I just
wanted to associate with them if it hurt my feelings. I believed that to
my core and I still do so. When a number of my friends started
taking those actions of well, we're gonna work to get people fired, We're
gonna even you know docs, people release their information and even sometimes go after
family members, all because people were just speaking their values, that for me
was like, I'm done. I have to step away from this, And
that was when my journey really started to where I am today. Yeah yeah,
um no, I can. I can understand all of that, and
now I'm curious, uh, the other aspect that I'm really interested in it.
So, um it is my theory, correct, Kevin, that you
as a as an openly gay man in the Republican Party in the state of
New York, probably not an issue. Or have you or have you run
in any have you run in any problems with that where where maybe some maybe
somebody just uh gives you a hard time. So I'm not someone who tries
to um blind myself to reality or tries to deny truth. Um. Of
course the Republican Party has not had a history that has been great with individuals
who like myself, I are gay, right, Yeah, yeah, that's
that's a fact. Then again, it wasn't too long ago that you had
Biden up there talking about marriage being between a man and a woman. So
but furthermore, I want, I want to um, I put it this
way now with people, because people do say to me, how can you
vote this way? How can you have these values when the party that you're
a part of, um, you know, have had has had this history
when it comes to the LGBT community. Well, I'm like, well,
first of all, there's a great deal in the LGBT community that I stand
firmly against what I see, especially in the current lgbt Q. All the
way to z a community that I just I absolutely, am adamantly against.
So, first of all, there's that. And second of all, even
if let's say the Republican Party today put out a platform that all homosexuals should
be put to death, right, even if that were to happen today,
my values on freedom of speech, the first Amendment would be the same,
The Second Amendment would be the same, Abortion would be the same, border
issues would be the same. I would still have these values. So would
I vote for a politician that wanted me put to death? No, But
I would vote for a politician that supported, that fought for the values that
I preach. And yes, they happen to be conservative and Republican. And
that's just the fact. So when people try to bring up the history,
I'm like, well, that's also the point. It's history, right,
yeah, because we can spend all day going down history, going down that
road as to who did what and who did when? I mean, do
you want to go back to segregation? Do you want to go back to
Democratic Party? I mean how far do you want to take this? Well?
Yeah, yeah, no, I understand that. But what I'm curious,
though, Kevin is like, do you get any pushback. You know,
you're a candidate for office as a Republican, do you get any pushback
in your own party in New York Because because if you look at the Republican
Party's history with say, for example, marriage equality, um uh, you
know, obviously there are Republicans. Well I'll just give you just a quick
example. So here in New Hampshire, we were actually ahead of the curve
on marriage equality because um and uh Jenny was was serving in the in the
House, uh, in the legislature here uh in New Hampshire at the time.
But um so uh there there were a large contingent of Republicans uh in
New Hampshire who voted in favor of marriage equality and then voted against repealing it
when some Republicans tried to repeal it in the next term. So so we
were ahead of the curve. But part of what contributed to that was was,
you know, some Republicans who said, no, we we we,
you know, let's let's go ahead and let's go ahead and do this.
Uh. Not not all of them, of course, plenty of them opposed
it as well, but um and there there are certainly Republicans who who bristle
at the idea of undoing that for example, um so, um so,
there are a lot of Republicans who are pro aage equality. But I'm just
wondering, I mean, do you do you run into any any fellow Republicans
or Republicans you've campaigned with, for example, who who have any issue.
Again, I wouldn't think that it would be a problem in in New York,
not to you know, bring Northeastern elitism into it. But you know
we can We're both Northeasterners. We can do that. Um. Whereas you
know, if you were if you were running for city council in Alabama or
Mississippi or Oklahoma, you know, as a Republican, you you might very
well, uh you know, you might run into some trouble. But I'm
wondering, have you had any of that here or or has it? Has
that part been pretty smooth because to your credit, you don't try to hide
it. Um. You know, again the website I was looking at,
you know, you could try to slide one by and refer to your partner
on that website, but you don't. You refer to him as your husband.
If you had said partner and captain ambiguous, you might foolsome people.
But you're not trying to fool anybody, which I really respect you for um.
Because of the position that you're in, no one could blame you if
you did try to sneak one by, you know what I mean. So
and so, so it's it's so it's interesting, I guess, first of
all, it's a matter of my approach, right, Yeah, is to
me. To me, there's nothing special in that I that I do reference
my husband in my description. I've seen plenty of profiles where, you know,
a male candidate will say my wife in regards to explaining why he's running
for office, my wife, my family. I'm running because I want my
family to have to live in a safer, safer community. And that's the
thing is first of all, I want to stress, Yeah, I am
not a gay candidate. I am not a gay Republican. I am a
Republican candidate who happens to be gay, who happens to be a homosexual.
So gay is not the priority of my identity. Yeah, It's not something
I put any work into. It's something I just am. So that's also
the idea of taking pride in that. To me, one of the things
is taking pride in an identity that you didn't work for. That's where you
get into narcissism and you get into more entitlements. So for me, when
I when I go to speak to a Republican on the street or not,
you know, I knock on their door, I don't introduce myself as HI,
I'm Kevin the homosexual. I introduced myself as HI, my name is
Kevin Hammer. I'm running for city council. UM. These are the issues
that I'm focusing on, and that's where the conversation is. YEA, have
I had Have I interacted with any pushback? Yeah, I've interact But to
me, it's no different. So so I have out with Republicans, h
I had. I do have an example of one Republican who couldn't get past
the fact that I happened to be a homosexual man. But at the same
time, I have people on the left who can't get past the fact that
I'm a homosexual who's a Republican. So I witnessed it on both sides.
Now, when some marriage equality, specifically, I was involved as an activist
during that time. I actually marched on Washington, DC for the Equality March
in two thousand and nine. Um so, yeah, yes, it was
two thousand and nine. I believe, um so, I was involved,
you know, in that. But to be honest, my view even on
that to a degree has changed in regards to what I why I personally was
was fighting for was is I wanted legal protections. I wanted to be able
to have to live my life with with a man that I fell in love
with, and not have to worry about my family or anyone else coming in
during certain times, say I was injured in the hospital, I didn't want
to worry about my family coming in and laying claim to me. I didn't
want to worry about if I were to pass away my spouse, you know,
being able to inherit what I leave him in my will. I didn't
want to worry about that. Now a lot of people say, well,
you could still follow those you know, the legal processes and leave. The
problem is is that there was a history of it when we didn't have those
legal protections that even if someone said, Okay, I'm going to sign off
that this person makes all medical decisions for me if I'm incapacitated, or that
my items go to this families would often come in and there was a history
of this and challenge it on the basis of morality and even say, well,
we feel that our relative was brainwashed into this lifestyle, and therefore we
want you know, we want custody, we want a right to him to
make these decisions about his health, or we want to right to his estate.
And if a judge, if a judge's morality was in line with that
family, quite off, didn't It didn't matter if there was a will,
it didn't matter, you know, if anything was on paper, the judge
would go with that. So for me, it wasn't about even the word
marriage. I just wanted security in the fact that there were legal protections for
me and the man that I love. Yeah, that's a big that's a
big part of why, um civil unions in my view that wasn't enough.
You know, that was sort of the compromise when we when when civil unions
came in and it was like, well but but as you know, some
of the examples that you gave are reasons why even civil unions didn't quite hold
up. And that's that's one of the reasons why it was it was so
important in my view. You know, like I said, I've always been
pro marriage equality. But m Kevin, we are You've been very generous with
your time. We're already it's about ten minutes of five, so we'll we'll
let you go. I know you got to get to get to dinner and
so forth. But UM, not to put you on the spot, but
I would like to do this again soon because I've really enjoyed the conversation and
I feel like we barely scratched the surface. And uh, you know,
you're an interesting guy. So I do hope we can do this again soon.
But before we let you go, please, is there anything that we
should know for anyone who might be listening online in your area, where where
they should go to learn more about your campaign or social media or anything you
want to make sure our listeners know about, or anything that you're that you
might be involved in online politically or otherwise that people should know about. Well,
I mean, for um, in regards to my campaign, where you
can learn more about me and also my other amazing candidates who are running alongside
me. I really do have some great people surrounding me. You on Facebook,
you can go to your GOP candidates for Schenectady City Council. It is
actually the same on Twitter. Um there you can find links to our website
and just just learn more about us. But ultimately, I guess what I
want to leave people with is just to really work on avoiding the echo chambers
that we have today in our society, regardless of whether they are on the
right or the left. Echo chambers, I truly believe are one of the
greatest dangers in our society today. We once you get trapped in them,
you get this mentality to actually hate the other side. Yes, And the
scary thing about that is once you convince yourself to hate someone, to hate
a group of people, history shows us that eventually you can justify doing the
most horrific things to those individuals. So get out of your echo chambers.
If you're in it, think about your Think about your life for a moment.
Say do I have a friend, not an acquaintance. Do I have
a friend or someone that I can have deeper conversations with who's other different perspective
on this issue or that issue, or a different political affiliation. And do
we have these conversations. If not, work on changing that, work on
making connections, because like I said, it's the it's the politicians, it's
the media. It's the hardcore activists that are creating this view that we are
so divided that we can't stand each other. But on the streets, I
feel that we very much still can have conversations. Oh yeah, and people
treat each other differently in person than they do on social media anyway. Absolutely.
Yeah, So, by the way, I would love to come back
on. UM, I'm very much enjoying this conversation in your right. Over
all the topics in general, we've just barely scratched the surface. Yeah,
because I've definitely had an interesting journey, uh, from from left to right
and my walk away experience as well. Yeah, yeah, definitely, Well
we will we'll set something up Jenny, Jenny will connect with you on that
and uh and and we'll make it happen because I've enjoyed this very much.
All right, Kevin Hammer, thank you again so much for joining us today,
and we will talk soon. Let's have a good day, all right,
YouTube bye bye, all right, very good. That was Kevin Hammer,
a Republican from Schenectady, New York. He is on the ballot for
a well I don't know if there's a ballot yet, but he's running for
city Council, Uh there in Schenectady, and uh yeah, and I you
know, I really like what he had to say about, you know,
getting out of the echo chambers because that's and that's part of the reason why
I wanted to talk with him today is because that's something that we talk about
a lot on this show, you know, and I really believe that,
you know. In fact, we were talking just the other day about algorithms,
you know, and how on social media, whether it be YouTube or
Facebook or whatever it is, you're you're actively served up content that matches what
you've already looked at, what you've already absorbed. So you're constantly being fed
information that reinforces what you already think. And that's good and one sense,
right from a customer service standpoint, because you want to you want to be
suggested, so to speak, products or services or content that you are going
to be interested in. So you know, it's no different than on social
media in terms of content. It's no different from when say you're shopping on
Amazon. You want to be presented with products that somehow align with things that
you've previously purchased or things that you've previously looked at, so that all makes
sense. So the algorithms are necessary evil. But the evil part in the
necessary evil is that, yeah, it does reinforce these echo chambers that we
all get trapped in and that we're vulnerable too. And if you can have
constructive intellectual discussions outside of that and outside of being you know, trapped in
an ideology. And you know, Kevin put it very well when he said,
what happens is that gets reinforced to the point where people who disagree with
each other begin to hate each other. And um, that's uh, that's
the worst partum, and a lot of terrible things become justified because of that
hatred. So yeah, so there you go, Blake, I said,
I feel like we barely scratched the surface with Kevin, so we will do
that again soon. From the studios of wm n H ninety five point three
FM in downtown Manchester, New Hampshire, you are tuned in to the best
of Matt Connerton Unleashed. We have a wonderful musical guest with us here,
Andrea Paquin. I've learned how to pronounce the the last name correctly. How
are you welcome? Thanks, How are you very well? Very well?
Uh, looking forward to this. So you're gonna play a few a few
tunes for us, and then we're gonna we're gonna talk get to know you
a little bit. So um, this will be uh, this will be
fine. Oh and I will say before we go any further, hello to
Amy Bates, if one of my radio brethren, if she is listening,
which she probably I think she is. Yeah, I think I think she
most likely has. I actually shared the uh, I shared the Facebook feed
to her page. So good, good good, So she'll definitely she'll definitely
see it. Uh so uh, yeah, these are songs that are from
your upcoming album? Is that correct? Yeah, I'm doing it. I'm
doing a six song EP and I'm gonna do a few songs off of that
project that I actually started the project today. So we can talk about that
after or if you'd like, absolutely, yeah, very very curious to know
more. Are my friend? I'll let you go ahead and introduce the first
song. Aren't the song it's called If you were mine? We could take
out time, but I want you by my side whatever we do. I'm
so happy if you would. Are you thinking of, oh what are you
thinking of? So much that was left behind? Sometimes on my mind.
The view of the horizons new and I don't see an end insight. I
don't see an end insight. Would it be all right to say I think
our stars are a line. I'd be a true O man. Take if
you were mine. I know you've been down and out. To open up
your eyes and see that blue sky. It will be all that you ever
need. It will be all you never need. There is nothing I wouldn't
do to see that you with you. I know I've been there too.
But there's a whole living inside of me. There is a hope right here
inside of me. Would it be he all right to say I think our
stars are aligne. I'd be a true O mate. If you were mine,
I'd be a true oh mate, if you were mine. There is
a feeling I am longing for. So hold me close, sitting beside me
now, shoulder to shoulder, just you and me, just you, oh,
just healing me. Would it be hard to say I think our stars
are mine? I'd be a true mate if you were mine. I'd be
a true mate. If you were mine, I'd be a true matte if
you were mine. Oh my God, I love your voice. Thank you,
I really do, absolutely were you gonna say, Mikey, looks you
were about to say something that that describes my voice right now, there you
go. Yeah, you're getting a lot of love in the chat room to
Jenny is in there of course and uh n h women folk Yeah group on
Facebook. Yeah, ye, my ladies, they say bravo. Anne Roy
is in there and says she's awesome, and also h Terry Waite, Oh
yeah nice, says hello. Yeah that was my friends in Connecticut. Yeah.
Oh, very good, very good. Um well yeah, let's keep
going. What are you what are you gonna play? Next song? I'm
gonna do And this is a song I'm gonna do a song all recovery.
Okay, this is also going to be on the new the new EP.
Very good, very good. All right. I lost at see the dooking
Home to beat my feet, I'm in eyes, no hell to stare.
My blue sail was never really clear, and it arsites and me to a
baggest ship, Nolans in view. They aye vorces in me to a baggest
ship, Nolans in you. These starts are killing me. Oh and the
recovery he starts are killing me. Oh and the recovery fund this their vote,
I flee ending of my m meets I see, I fight to stay.
Oh, the swells a longing four the sound of sir, and it
leads meet you, And I'm not sure how I swear I've been there before.
Yeah, in leads meet you, and I'm not sure how I swear
errupting there before he starts killing me. Oh, and need recovery. He
starts killing me. Oh, and the recovery seem love it, love it.
That is awesome. That is awesome. Anne Roy in the chat room
says she exudes emotions. Definitely, Melanie Liberty, our friend from the great
state of Vermont. She says, she loves you, and uh, that
was fantastic. Um. Miriam Banish says, great voice, thank you.
Yeah, you're getting a lot of love in there. Definitely, Definitely.
You want to play one more and then we'll and then we'll talk. Sure,
I'll do one more. All right, excellent if you're just joining us.
Andrea Paquin is with us in studio. So I'm gonna do a song
called this is Us. Okay, there's a hole in the wall behind the
picture frame that I took down. Look like the gaps in our history.
We often ignored for far too long, and these dozens of hangings made us
look so happy. But we were just covering up, covering eater, covering
eater, covering it up, covering. We're so settled in our ways,
we don't know what to say anymore. It's funny coming to me what I
felt to see every day waking up, routine of the mundane we often ignore,
and it fell into our laps. We never woke up. No,
we never woke up. Yeah, we never woke up. We never woke
up. Now it's my dan. How did I not see it? Hits,
It's it's us, And now its liding? How did I not see
that, Hits? That's set us. There's a whole in the wall behind
the picture frame that I took down, like gaps in our history, we
often ignored for far too long, and these dozens of hangings made us look
so happy. But we were just covering it up, covering meter, covering,
covering it up, covering meter. Now it's blinding. How did I
not see he it's no, it's bing not seeing it's it's us. Wonderful
Andrea Paquin is here in studio with us. That was fantastic. Uh n
h women Folk in the chat room says, what a great way to start
the weekend. Thank you, Andrea, thank you. And Jean Fougate Oh
yeah, I don't know if I'm saying that correctly. Uh. She gave
a big smiley face. Awesome, So you're getting a lot of love in
there. Jan Curtain Derosia. Oh nice, sounds great. Andrea, thank
you, and uh, we have a call. This might be might be
a fan calling in. I'm maddie. It's scary. Hey Gary, what's
up. What a beautiful voice, what a powerful voice? Yeah, thank
you? Or just and those songs are fantastic. I'm I'm just sitting here
and wow, they're they're meaningful. Thank you. That's all I got.
Meanings what she's singing, there's there's meanings and they kind of hit they kind
of hit home a little so good. Well that's what music should do.
Absolutely. Yeah, she's amazing. She's amazing cool, just that just that
powerfulness and her guitar playing is fantastic. Yeah, well, thank you,
very good, very good. I'm I'm in love the love the love of
her voice. It's beautiful. But yeah, I always love Jenny. But
yeah, we know it's fantastic. But yeah, what another what another great
what another great musician that you had on? Yea, and yeah it starts
the week on it starts the weekend up right. Really cool. Absolutely,
I just add my I just had to add my two cents because you know,
being a musician and just she's really great. She's really really great.
So I'll let you go out and till listen to more. Love you,
Maddie, all right, Gary, love you, Jenny. And what a
lovely day. Thank you, thank you for the love, and thank you
for a wonderful day, Maddie. And thank you, thank you so much
for her She's great. Byebye, all right bye Gary, thank you for
the call. Appreciate it. All right. That was our friend, Gary.
And uh, we're gonna take a quick break. I'm actually gonna play
a studio track here of Andrea's boxer. This is another one of my favorites.
Uh. That is on the website. It's a nice website, by
the way, Andrea Paquin dot com. I'm a web site nerds, so
I notice a nice websites. So no, Andrea Paquin is here with us
in studio. Don't go away. There is plenty more to come. The
day is long in the rain. It's holding out like a time boxer in
the rain. I want to throw a punch, buddy, due to much
chat on this sun, No, for sure, I am swearing up and
I have lostened up to take this gigantic fall. I didn't want to three.
I stapping out one to free. The day is long and the sun
it's finally calm out. It's hotter than exterday. Let you down back now.
That ain't no surprise to any one at all. But I bit myself
back and keep on moving on. And this is where I say, but
in one to three, I'm standing out. One to three, one two
three, I standing out wine shoot three. The day is long and the
rain is holding out like a tire boxer in the ring. And on the
couch. She just played a few wonderful songs for us. Andrea Paquin is
here. Welcome Andrea, Hi, how are you good? Good? It
is uh wow, Thank you again for playing for us. That was fantastic.
Thanks for having me, and you're getting a lot of love in the
Facebook live chat. And um now you mentioned those are gonna be on an
upcoming album that you're recording now, yes, yeah, actually today was the
first day that I went into the studio. It's the Greenhouse Studio in Guildford,
Okay. And so I recorded uh my master guitar tracks and some scratch
vocals for the production piece. And then I'll be finishing up the actual production
in Portland, Maine at a different studio. Oh okay, Now why Um,
I'm always uh kind of a geek for knowing about recording and how why
musicians approach it the way they do. So why why at different studios doing
different parts of it? Oh, there's gonna be some more musicians in the
Portland area that are going to be able to join, and we're gonnat to
earlier on the break that I'm gonna have some pedal steel. Um, yeah,
the record, and I'm going to have this like little alt country feel
to it. So yeah, and the Portland areas a lot of musicians that
are accessible in that actual studio, they have a lot of connections. So
We're gonna just wrap it up there, I think, and I'm gonna do
allment my master vocal tracks in Portland, Maine. What what's the studio in
Portland. I think it's just the studio in Maine. The studio in Portland.
Oh that's what it's called. I'm pretty sure that's what it's called.
Oh yeah, I think so, don't quote me up. I'm not sure
yet. That's cool. That's cool. Great music scene in Portland. Oh
it's awesome. Yeah. I always always been a lot of very talented musicians
there, so so that's gonna be uh yeah, you're also telling me during
the break too, So it's gonna be kind of a different vibe than than
your previous yeah, work, it'll be. It'll be a little similar,
but it's gonna be more of that alternative country feel, kind of like a
like a like a Jayhawks type sound. Oh cool. Yeah, so definitely,
like you know, just kind of incorporating some new instruments just to just
to change it up a little bit. And um, I'm with I work
with New Hampshire Music Collective. They are a booking agency throughout in Hampshire and
so he they do a lot of my booking and they actually connected me with
this studio. So oh very good. I worked out really well. Why
the why the change and approach as far as the music and I don't know,
I just I just feel it. I just felt the different you know,
I'm listening to a lot of different artists lately, and uh, I've
just been kind of been influenced with that sound. Yeah yeah, and you
actually so you were telling me earlier. So you live in Connecticut, but
you come up here to record and play shows. Yeah, so, man,
I do play in connectget sometimes when I play in Maine. I do
most of my shows in New Hampshire through New Hampshire Music Collective. Okay,
which is which is a very large booking agency in New Hampshire. Okay,
and you're you're from here originally, I'm from Manchester, New Hampshire original.
Wow. Yeah you grew up here? Oh yeah, yeah, I was
a Central high school. I went to Oh I'll be doing okay, Okay,
what you did you graduate? I graduated in ninety seven. Oh okay.
Do you know do you know Peter White? I know because he kind
of because he grew up See, I grew up in Conquered I didn't grow
up in match By. Peter grew here and he seems to kind of know
everybody. So, um, yeah, so you so you so you grew
up here, you went to high school here and then, um, what
what took you to Connecticut? Uh, well, you know, Connecticut was
I moved in. I moved to Connecticut in two thousand and six, okay,
and then I ended up performing full time and I was touring the Northeast.
Connecticut was central to everything, you know, like you know, Boston,
New York, Rhode Island, mass everything. Everything was in within two
hours for the most part. So that was a real great way to tour
that the Northeast. You know, that makes sense. Yeah. So I
did that for a few years, you know, full time. Um,
and then you know, the booking and the managing myself got pretty exhausting.
I didn't have a lot of help, so so I decided to back off
a little bit. And then I just got a job in the field where
I have my degree in human services, and so I've been doing that.
But I still do that now. But now music is back again at almost
full time. Oh yeah, I perform. I perform every weekend. Okay,
okay, good good Um. And how did you connect with New Amster
Booking Collective to have the name New Hampshire Music New Amster Music. Yeah,
yeah, New Hampshire Music Collective. Yeah. So somebody had mentioned to John
MacArthur, who um is one of the owners for that agency, and then
he reached out to me, and then I reached back out to him,
and then we connected and we have a great relationship now. Yeah, excellent,
excellent. You know, honestly, he's made my career at what it
is right now. Without him, I wouldn't be playing as much. So
oh, no kidding, Yeah, they're they're phenomenal people. Yeah. So
are you literally up here every weekend or just about? No kidding, yeah,
just about just about. So I'll do Thursday, Friday Saturday shows or
Friday Saturday Sunday. Yeah, and I'm playing three two to three nights a
week. Okay, yeah, okay, very good. Yeah that's pretty cool.
Now do you have any kind of an ETA yet on when the new
album will be done? July? Early July? Okay, yeah, I'm
gonna put I'm gonna be posting my CD release dates on my website and my
social media. Yeah, so I'll be lett everybody know when that's going to
happen. Oh, very good. Do you know how many songs are going
to be on? Six songs? Okay, so it's just it's just an
EPP yeah yeah, um yeah, what what goes into the decision to do,
because then this is something I ask everybody. I'm always curious about this.
You know, obviously, we live in a time where, um,
you've got a lot of different options because of the Internet. You know,
you could do an EP, you could put out an album, you could
just put out singles. Um. I've met in the last few years especially,
I've met a lot of artists who they do the thing where they're just
putting out singles, but eventually they're going to take those singles and put them
into an EP or put them into an album. That's the plan. Is
that the plan? Yeah? Yeah, I actually was talking to John about
that today and we're talking about pushing the singles and then and then having the
EP come together. Yeah. Yeah, Yeah. It's funny because you know,
when I was growing up, it was, you know, artists would
put out an album and then go on tour and then eventually they put out
so different But yeah, yeah, it's like night and day different, is
it? Oh? Yeah? Is it hard to make those those I mean,
on the one hand, it's nice to have all these options, right,
but at the same time, um, is it is it difficult for
you to make those choices? As far as we'll do I do an EP,
do I do you know how many? How many songs am I going
to record for this project with? Well? I mean, so you know,
I had plenty of songs to pick from. I could have recorded I
want to, I want, I want to at some point we record some
of the older stuff that I recorded. Yeah, but these were six new
songs or five new songs that I had that I had written, So I
just wanted to get the five new ones out. Yeah. And I'm also
covering John Denver's Country Roads on the new EP. Oh okay, yeah,
yeah, I've been playing that one forever and I just I finally I wanted
to get it recorded. Yeah. Yeah. Do you when you play out,
do you do mostly originals? Do you mix in some covers? So
there's like, you know, original venues and those cover venues, right,
Yeah, So I mean like listening rooms like I'm gonna I'm gonna give a
shout out to the Tee Total or and Conquered. Uh, that's a listening
room. So when I write played Tee Total Or, it's ninety five percent
originals. But I play places like um around you know, Pip is like
Foster's Tavern, yeah, or if I play over here at the Foundry,
like, I'll do mostly covers and I'll throw in a few originals here and
there, just because that's that's the kind of scene, you know. Yeah,
but listening room events, I will do all my originals. Yeah.
So when you say it's a list it's a listening room. So it's people
are there to actually hear the music, right, Yeah, they're there to
listen and have it be a non speaking event where they're they're focusing on the
music. Like let's think it's like a concert hall kind of thing. Yeah,
yeah, okay, yeah, whereas at a bar it's uh yeah,
it's like it's like, yeah, you play covers and you get a reaction
to people, and then they start listening in then you get a rapport and
so then I throw on a few originals at that point. Yeah. Yeah.
Do you do any um, do you do any covers that are kind
of obscure. I've met some artists who, you know, they'll they'll do
a few covers that are are fairly you know, they might be from well
known artists, but maybe they're deep tracks or whatever, and and sometimes,
um, sometimes the audience doesn't necessarily know that they're covers. Yeah, I
know. I definitely do some songs like that. Yeah, I'm not quite
sure Tom Petty all or nothing. Um okay, I'm not sure if you
know that song, but I do that one. I'm trying to. I
probably know it, so I'm sure I have a catalog somewhere in my brain.
Yeah, it's a great it's a great song. So I do a
lot of Tom Patty, I do a lot of Credence. I do some
pretty Carlisle, I do Tracy Chapman. Yeah, I do uh, Paul
Simon, Simon and Garfunkle. I mean I cover alf I do Ed Sharon.
I mean big plethora of of songs I do here. Yeah, so
from boy back from the sixties all the way toil currents is the songs that
I cover. Do you have any idea how many songs you know? Could
you put a number on it? I have about almost five hours of music
I could play. Yeah, it's a lot of music. Wow. Do
you ever do you ever? Do you ever go back and re learn something
you might have might have forgotten? Yeah, I'll go back and look.
But you know, I so I'm old school. You know, all these
artists are out with their tablets and like, yeah, you know, I
just I still have the old book. Yeah, I have had my old
book on my stand and I flipped through and you know it's about this big
yeah. Yeah. But they're like, you're probably kind of my friends.
You want to get to talble it. I was like, I'm don't know,
because I just I'm used to this this you know, this book because
it's full, it's my cover songs. I can't rememborize five five hours of
cover songs right right of course. But yeah, that's my lifeline right there.
Yeah. Yeah. Are there any other artists that you play a lot
of shows with? You know, sometimes people sort of it happens almost by
accident, people sort of team up and end up just on the same bill
a lot. Well, speaking of that, not really, but I am
with the New Hampshire women Folk Singers. There's four of us actually okay,
and uh, there's gonna be a big festival in September, September sixteenth up
a way up north um Sugar Shot Campground. Uh. And there's the creator
um of the festival, kind of found the three of us to join in
with her. Um and it's just a really amazing, amazing group. You
have to if people are interested in hearing this folk group, which I would
highly suggest and recommend, It's New Hampshire women Folk. Okay, yeah,
it's just amazing. It's going to be a really great event. It's it's
focusing non music and for it's locusing on women's music. Yeah, and um,
bringing in artists who you know, are independent who don't have a name
yet for themselves. Yeah, featuring these people who are very talented who deserve
the stage. Is this an annual event? This is the first year.
Oh, this is the first one. It's pretty amazing so far. Yeah.
Yeah. So Erica Cushing, Um, she's uh, she's the creator.
Okay, yeah, she's a wonderful folk artist as well singer songwriter.
She's great. Okay. Is she the headliner at the uh not the headliner,
but she's pretty much created the whole thing, gotcha? Yeah? Yeah,
Oh that's cool. It's very cool. Yeah, um yeah, it's
Um. It's nice to see too, just a lot of live music happening
in general, because obviously with COVID, uh, you know, everything really
shut down for a while there. I mean, what is did that?
Because you had mentioned too that you know, you would kind of you would
really slow down with the music career for a while. Did that play any
kind of a role in that, sort of just having that, you know,
the pandemic foisted upon you. Yeah, at some point it did.
So I had I have my son, he's eight years old. So when
I had NOL, I was playing a little bit. But then I just
kind of really maybe four times a year I was playing, yeah, very
low key. And then over the past year is when I started getting back
into it. But the pandemic I didn't play out at all hardly. But
I am a program director for a nonprofit agency in Connecticut and I we serviced
people disabilities. Yeah, so I oversee programs where people live there. So
during that year of the initial pandemic year, they weren't able to leave their
houses. They weren't able to see family, They were like literally secluded in
their home. So what I did was I created a Thursday night live music
event called Together at Home. Yeah, so I would go online every Thursday
at six o'clock and all the group homes would join in and they would be
able to see live a live music I did that for an entire year,
every Thursday, Oh no kidding. Yeah, that was pretty awesome. Oh
that's cool. Um, were you able to tell how many? Uh?
While it was yea, so well it started it's because it was zoom because
you could see all the zoom people entering in. So yeah, started off
at like five or six people, and then it turned out to be about
thirty people, thirty thirty thirty individuals but several locations. So yeah, it
was a pretty It was great for them because they were able to have a
community during pandemic. Yeah, yeah, um it did. Uh did you
write any Have you written any songs about about that that period? No?
Not really, um, because I was working in the group home and yeah,
no, I really really didn't because it didn't it wasn't that different for
me because we went to work and I couldn't not go to work. Yeah.
Yeah, my lifestyle didn't really change exactly. Yeah, no, that
makes sense. That makes sense. Um, do you so you're you're up
here every weekend playing? Are there also? What's some music scene like in
Connecticut? Are you able to or do you even have time to engage in
the music scene there because you're you're up here quite a bit. Yeah,
it's just different it's it's weird, it's it's a it's a different kind of
scene, like New Hampshire loves music. Yeah, I feel like New Hampshire
is just like music driven on the weekends, like local music is really you
know, big here. Yeah. I think it's okay in Connecticut. Yeah,
it's a it's a it's just a whole different it's a whole different way
to approach music in Connecticut. I think booking myself has been difficult there.
Really. Yeah, it's really weird. Yeah, is there is there just
a lack of Do you think there there's a lack of appreciation for local music?
They're just not Yeah, it's different, it's different. Yeah, I
would say I would I wouldn't know if I would say that, but it's
definitely a different feel. Yeah, yeah, it's not the same. When
I come here, it's like amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Do you do
you ever? Do you do shows in Boston or so? I used to
play in a band called The Everyday Visuals and I was their bass player.
I remember the Everyday Visuals, Yeah I was. I was a bass player
for about ten years. Yeah, and we played a lot in Boston and
a lot around here. But yeah, so I haven't been to Boston in
a while. But with Hampshire Music Collective, the goal is to get more
in math. So okay, yeah, yes, So ten years you were
in that band. Ten years all through high school, college and a little
bit after college, no kidding, Okay, what when when you left that?
I mean, was the band ending or did you know even they kept
going? No, you know, I just wanted to pursue my solo career.
Yeah. I mean I love the music. I mean it was like
four part harmony, three part harmony, awesome band. I mean we were
like a independent rock band, you know, very very very awesome music.
Yeah. Yeah, but I just, um, we parted ways. And
you know all of my projects that you hear were was were engineered by some
of the guys in the band. Oh no kidding. Yeah, So everything
everything that's recorded was done by the guys. Yeah. Yeah, do they
still Does that band still exist in some former yeah a little bit so.
Um, the lead singer Christopher Pappas he does his own thing. Um,
Kyle Frederickson was the guitar player, engineer type guy. He's doing his own
thing. And then Joe Cider is the drummer is actually now the drummer for
the New Pornographers. Oh okay, no kidding. Yeah, that's pretty good.
It is pretty cool. Good for him for him, is right?
Yeah. And then and they're torn all the time and yeah he selling out
places and yeah, yeah that's wow. He's I mean, all those guys
in the band, I mean amazing musicians. I mean Chris was the main
songwriter who wrote all the songs and yeah, just very talented guys. Is
everything that you're doing now is that all? Is that all you in terms
of the writing, Yeah, yeah, it's all me. Yeah. Do
you ever have you ever considered collaborating with anyone or do you want to keep
your solo stuff? No? Well, you know Erica I mentioned before her
and I've been talking about doing some co writes. Yeah. Um, it's
really important, I think to co write because it opens you up to different
ways of songwriting. Sure, you know, because you're kind of boxing in
your own way, and then if you cart somebody, it's just like,
oh I never thought of that, and then you start, you know,
start opening up your writing style. Um. And you mentioned you played bass
and everyday visuals. What what was your your first instrument was bass? You
started on bass, and yeah, I had a four string Washburn Oh okay,
yeah, and then I then I upgraded to a five string Ernie Ball
oh, which is a music man, which is an amazing bass. It's
a solid rock bass. Yeah. And then I then I got my tailor,
my tailor acoustic. See, I'm a bass player, so as soon
as somebody mentions more than four strings, I'm like super impressed. I'm like,
used to play a five strings. Oh man, it's the best at
loby is that the lowby on that on that bass can make so many different
sounds and I'm sure, I'm sure it's awesome. I can't. I've never
I've never attempted it. See I started on bass because um, and bass
players hate when I when I say this, but it's just the truth.
So when I was a kid, I took guitar lessons and unfortunately I was
one of those lazy kids who, um, if I wasn't good at it
right away, I would get bored with it. So because you know,
okay, I you know, I could continue to learn these scales and chords,
but I really like that video game and I'm good at that. So
is that kind of thing, you know? I would I. I mean,
I took lessons, and but I I plateaued because I just I didn't
have the discipline I wish I had. But anyway, so then in high
school I picked up a bass, you know, just fooling around with some
friends. Musically, I picked up a bass, and I seem to have
a feel for it. But I also was keenly aware. I remember that
this is the part that bass players hate when I say this, But I
remember thinking, two less strings, and I don't have to know any chords.
I think I found my instrument. And then I went on to play
bass and a bunch of bands. But that's cool. Yeah, yeah,
so so I and I, you know, so I can play guitar a
little bit, you know, just power chord, like I could be in
a punk band if I would write, probably, but that's about the best
I could do. But but so you started on bass and then you went
to guitar, Yeah, yep. And then I usually play all the bass
tracks on my records usually, Okay, this one, I don't know if
I'm going through or not. I haven't played in several years, so I'm
a little I'm a little dusty um and that guitar. You have sound,
It's fantastic. It's got a very rich, full sound. Yeah, it's
my tailor. It's it's it's only a three fourteen or three fifteen UM,
and it's I bought it. That's This guitar is twenty years old, no
kidding? Yeah, oh wow? Yeah, has the original um? Has
the original Fishman pick up? Yeah, in the in the Taylor because the
new tailors have a new a new model okay, and people just love this
old model much better. Oh wow. Yeah, and that sounds amazing,
Yeah it does. Is that the only guitar you use? Yeah, for
the most part. Yeah, I don't blame you, no, really,
I know it sounds it sounds really good. It is a good one.
Yeah yeah. Yeah. And it's warmed up over the years. You know,
the wood ages and you get that deeper tone because because Taylors tend to
have a higher end sound to them. Okay, but you know when you
play Taylor for twenty years, it's it's a lot warmer because Taylors are very
bright. I've heard people say that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Martins
are warmer, Guilds are warmer. Taylors are bright. Yeah, yeah,
that's interesting. Yeah, so I assume that's that's the guitar you use on
all the all the oh yeah in the studio. Yeah yeah, oh very
nice, Yeah, very nice. It's pretty sweet. Yeah, that's my
pal, you know. Yeah. Um, do you have I know,
I asked you how many songs do you know? Do do you have any
idea how many songs you've written? Um? God, probably like that'll be
eighty hundred. Yeah, yeah, I would say maybe like a hundred.
Um, do you still play any anything that you know if you think back
to early when you started writing songs, do you still play anything that goes
there's one there's one song, so the very first one of the very first
songs I wrote. I still do that one, no kidding, yeah,
oh yoh yeah, that's a yeah, that's the only one really that I
do. That's really old. Oh that's cool. Has it changed over the
years or do you stay faithful with the original to the original arrangement. Yeah,
that's cool. Yeah, Yeah, that's awesome. That's awesome. Um,
and when did so the studio material that we've been featuring on the show,
obviously, you know you've got the new one that's coming out, and
you said probably July, yes, early Julian. Um. When so the
songs that are on your website currently that we've been playing, when did those
come out? Those are twenty fifteen, I think twenty fourteen, twenty fourteen
or twenty fifteen. Yeah, it's it still been a while since I've done
anything. Yeah, yeah, and that's what That's what I mean. So
I was kind of I kind of laid low, but now that I'm back
in it, I'm like, well, I gotta get something new out there,
right right, no doubt. Um that that song reach Up? Do
you do you play that live? Yes? Yeah, oh yeah yeah land
to play Boxer, right, I do a lot off that record still yeah,
oh yeah, yeah No, that's uh, that's really good stuff.
Absolutely. Um. And what's uh, what's kind of the the future trajectory?
So you've got the new album should be done in July, and then,
um, you have plans because you you know, you said, you
know, things were kind of low key for a while and then started really
ramping back up. So do you plan to just just keep going, just
keep touring. Yeah. I really would love to do this full time and
be able to leave my human service job. Yeah, if you know,
once and for all and then perform music, you know, four nights a
week and have that be full time and yep, um yeah, I mean
with New Hampshire Music Collective. They're definitely helping me with that. Yeah,
it sounds like you're on your way. Yeah, yeah, they're They're great,
They've been amazing. Yeah. Do they have is Are they a big
Do they have a lot of fun? They have a lot of artists.
Yeah, yeah, they have a lot of artists. I'll have to look
them up. I'm curious. I feel like I've heard of them, but
I'm sure you have. I mean, because they're they they book many venues
in the state. Okay, yeah, okay, they've been around a long
time, I assume, yeah, for a little while. Yeah, I
don't think very long, but long enough for they have a really yea,
they have a lot of venues. Yeah. Yeah, oh that's cool.
Yeah. You do you ever open for anybody, any national acts that come
through or I've opened up for several in the in when I was playing a
while back. Uh yeah, I opened up for Blissed Union of Souls.
Oh yeah, yeah, I opened up for Howie Day back in the day.
Yeah, I opened up for a couple independent like independent singer song was
like Melissa Ferk Yeah, Garrison Star Edie Carey. Uh yeah, that's that's
what I've done so far. And hopefully John Over at a Hampshire was a
collective is going to hopefully start getting me into those roles. Do you have
a dream headliner you'd like to open for? Yes, the Indigo Girls,
no kidding, for years, I've wanted to do that. They m Yeah,
they used to come. I don't know if they still don't. They
still come around a lot. They used to go to uh Meadowbrook every summer.
They're also with the Flying Monkey now every every year. Oh no kidding,
at least once or twice a year. Yeah. Oh so that's so
that's good. Well that's geographically, that's uh. I'd say that that tipsy
odds in your favor. Yeah, I hope that would be awesome. Yeah,
that would be great. It seems like they've been around forever, around
to the eighties. Wow, Yeah, what's their so they Um. What
I appreciate about artists like that is they're They're an example of someone who's been
able to build such a career and a following, a loyal following with very
little support from radio, know, and and that is true. I mean
I think there I think there might be one or two songs that yeah,
and I'm sure you know, it depends on the format you're listening to.
But as far as like mainstream radio really is there is there one song that
was kind of big that I've closer or fine, Oh yes, yes,
yes, that one. Yeah, that one was on the radio a lot.
Yeah, that one was kind of a hit. Yeah yeah, But
but they've never had a big presence on radio, and that just always impresses
me. Um. Completely different genre obviously, and not someone that I enjoy
their their work personally, but just another example that I happen to be discussing
on the show the other day with somebody in same clown posse. Yeah,
I don't like them, but you know, they've got this this empire that
they've built with no support from radio like at all. Ever, It's that's
impressive. It is impressive. In the same thing with Annie to Franco.
Oh, I love her. She is like very self made. I've met
her. Yeah, Oh, she's she's amazing. She is amazing. Um.
I think the last time I saw her was in Providence. Um it
was quite a while ago. I haven't seen her in a long time.
But yeah, but yeah, you're right, she's another example. Yeah,
someone who really you know, she uh started I remember she started her own
label. She probably still has it. Oh yeah, definitely Righteous Babe Records
here, yes, yes, and uh yeah really just uh, I remember
when she was first starting to really get traction because at the time I was
working obviously you remember Strawberries Strawberries Records and Tapes, and I was working at
the One and Conquered and uh, that was where I first really became aware
of her. And um, people started coming in looking for looking for her
stuff, and at first we didn't have it because nobody, it was like,
nobody that worked for the company was aware of her. But somebody was
aware of her because we kept having people coming in, you know, asking
for Annie de Franco. So finally we started getting her music in. But
uh, but yeah, you're you're right. She's another example of because off
the top of my head, I can't think of a big radio hit.
I'm sure there's something I'm forgetting thirty I think possibly thirty two flavors. Okay,
yeah, but but again, someone who's never had a big presence on
radio, but who's very successful. Oh my gosh, you knew this.
She sells out in a day. Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah.
Um. I always respected that about the Grateful Dead too. Again,
I'm not not a big fan. Can't take them, relieve them. But
you know, they other than a touch of gray, they didn't really have
No, you're right. I mean I think they had one other. They
had a few, but nothing never dominant. But Ripple Ripple was pretty big.
Yeah, but they could you know, sell out anywhere in the world
really, Oh yeah, absolutely when Jerry Garcia was still alive. So and
uh, what should people know? Andrea? As far as well your web.
You've got your website Andrea pequin dot com. Did you build that yourself?
Yeah, that's just a dragon drop from a squarespace. Yeah. It's
like I said, I'm a website nerd. It's a good site. It's
not bad. Yeah, it's clear, it's it's you know, it's it's
easy to it's easy to maintain, season managed. And I'm gonna use the
bands in town. Yeah, keep my my tour listed on there. Yeah
yeah, No, I like the layout and I know I'm geeking out on
your website. Now, I appreciate it, but I I like the layout.
It is very clean, um easy to navigate, but but modern looking.
That's that's what that's what really matters. You know, it's got to
look. And you can also go to my link tree, so it's oh
yeah, it's it's link tree dot com, forward slash Andrew Pequin and my
Instagram, Facebook, you know, my tip jarm, my newsletter, everything's
there. Excellent, excellent, So all the lengths of the social media.
Yeah, all of that fantastic. Oh and how do you for for the
spelling impaired, how do you spell Paquin? It's p a q u I
N. Very good. I'm sure I'm sure everyone can figure out Andrea,
but you never know. With E Andrew, with an E an d R
e A. There you go. From the studios of w m n H
ninety five point three FM in downtown Manchester, New Hampshire. You are tuned
in to the best of Matt Connerton unleashed. All right, thank you anonymous?
Yeah, yeah, very good, very good. I'm gonna grab my
out of the guitar here. Yeah, absolutely absolutely. If you're just joining
us, we have Shane Balen in studio with us. He's playing live for
us. He's got a brand new EP and we've shared some studio tracks on
the show. But Shane is back live with us in studio and sounds phenomenal.
Oh you found your water. That's good. Shane was commenting earlier he
thought he'd left it in the car. It gets it gets uh, it
does get dry. And here that's for sure with the with the air conditioning
going and whatnot. But uh, yep, so uh so Shane is here
just just to tell us, um, why the um, why the switching
of the guitars. What's different about this guitar? I have some heavier strings
on the other guitar. This guitar has some lighter strings on it. Better
for finger picking, sounds better, Oh I got you, I got you,
sometimes easier in the fingers. But um, that one's a little bit
more heavier gauge. When you when you play out, usually bring two guitars
and switch off. Never had really, Yeah that's right because he's just Scott
one of them. Yeah that's right. Yeah, an old Gibson, and
I was still using it for a while, you know that fifty nine Gibson
and I said, I'm not gonna use it anymore. Yeah, so I
just kind of put that away. Oh I got you now and then uh
now, yeah, so it'll be great. Um yeah, I'm gonna be
uh yeah, I'm gonna be over like I said, I was at the
Old Salt that a little thing over there. Um, I'm gonna be playing
in Hampton for a couple of parties over there. Excellent Hampton, excellent.
So I'm excited about that. And um yeah it's so this Charlie's Hill show
coming up Live Love Laugh Festival, that's gonna be coming up um a little
bit about a month or so. And then um, you know maybe um
my, like my friend Brian Munger, I might have a little show coming
up here with him too. So yeah that's a name I've heard. Um
plays a lot in main you know, plays a lot around here too.
Yeah yeah, oh yeah, very good, very good. All right.
So uh yeah, what are we gonna play next? Um, um you
know, maybe I'll let see I'll play play Charlie, I guess okay,
cool cool, Yeah, So this is the uh now we should clarify too
for people. So on the EP, there's two different versions of this correct
there's yeah, yeah, I was recording this and uh and uh, mister
goodbars Tim he goes, he's he had an idea already, you know,
as soon as he heard it, and he put the bass behind it,
and I said, wow, that's great. You know, I didn't think
of that song like that, you know, or any of the songs that
I was playing with the fingerpick style. It seemed very folk and slow and
I and when you put that to it, it just gives it life and
you feel like you can merge the genres like that. Yeah yeah, yeah,
a lot with country right now. Oh yeah, yeah, Like he
was saying, the beats now have switched from country and and uh, you
know R and B or you know, rap kind of switched it. Yeah,
it's true hip hop, I should say, yeah, yeah, yeah,
but yeah, So this song is this song is called Charlie and it's
dedicated to h. Terry Merrill and her daughter Charlie. And this is she
passed away. She was um and several years ago now. But this song
I wrote because all the different things um that would remind me of her,
of her daughter, and kind of one night just wrote this after waking up
and haven't I really didn't know where that well now and I wrote this.
Those was the first song I ever wrote. Oh wow, okay, Saturday
night jamles and loving hands, pink guitars and bottom card. The distance between
us, it's closer than the next time you were in the field. And
this starts gilling. Just remember I'm waiting, hearing, just like campers in
your field. With truth. I'm the flickering light, and I am the
reason you find. I am the curl in your grind. I'm the chuse
on call your neck. I am Louis Souleian, the wind, and I'm
a silence when you are living love and laughters survive, and I still keeps
that music lying. It's a resonation that still desire in office. You fine.
I'm the flickering light. I'm rising, You're fine. I'm the curl
in your grain, and now the ships on your neck. I'm louistling Way
and I'm silence when you rest living love and laughter survived, and I still
keeps the music life my merril. It's a resonation that still resign. Oh,
yes, you'll fine. It's me. It's me, It's me,
him amazement, Oh, it's Me's me it's me chily chime. That's the
first song you ever wrote. Huh yeah, wow, no kidding. I
just recently started playing it more of a song. It was like a spoken
word. Oh okay, interesting interesting, So um when you wrote So,
when you wrote that, obviously you knew you're already playing and everything, and
and you you you're already h playing covers and so forth, but you just
hadn't. Yeah, I was playing covers, lots of covers, okay,
but that was your first time. And I think I was playing like,
um, some sort of progression, you know, with that, that progression
and a song. Yeah, just thousands have the same it's changed slightly,
but right, don't call me a cheering but but yeah, it's um.
And then I just kind of applied that into there, and yeah, wow.
Then I noticed you get a feeling as a songwriter starting off that you
want to keep using that kind of progression. And then I got to change
it. My songs are gonna have that same thing, even though you can
change it up to make it sound different. But yeah, so I'm trying
to, you know, do find different ways to make different melodies here?
Yeah? Yeah, and uh, that's another thing that's I'm really excited to
keep working with people who are looking for especially you know, like hip hop
and uh and be looking for for beats, looking for you know, riffs
and guitar pick, you know picking finger picking too, like that because you
hear that in a lot different you know trap stuff or oh yeah, so
absolutely. Oh. By the way, the person who sent that message on
the text line that was she said, thanks Matt. It's his number two
fan, Carrie. His mom is of course number one. Hey Carrie,
she's great. Thanks carry Oh very nice, very nice. All right?
Oh and uh yar Yardbird Blue Sky says a great song hashtag Shane, thank
you. I was gonna play string pain projection. Yeah, yeah, there's
This is the title track, right, yeah, this is the title track.
I wrote this song when I was sitting in front of a wood fire
and watching a bunch of bands out there. Afterwards, it just takes like
one line, you feel, one line all of a sudden. I was
watching Van Morrison was talking about that on an old video you can find too,
and he says that with Bob Dylan. He's standing there and he says,
you know about songwriting, and one line might popped in my head and
I don't know why I wrote it down, And that leads to another line,
at least to a chorus, And the next thing you know, you
have a song. You always Sometimes you think of something and you I should
write it down. But you got to write it down because it might be
a good song, right, otherwise you forget it. I wait to snack.
You can't catch me on rain. I'm running instead. You can't catch
me on right instead, best on chess. I've got my help. I'm
pulling in these Fanish lines before ties a flat, proving him wrong. What
they thinking about? That? Right? Is like fing land on my feet,
the feelines a bear, The things fight my wing with string pain projection
makes my fingers BLEA subconscious mind is draft. I sleep. I'm feeding with
them down everything like my cat on my chest, burring and stream. The
wind's huming outside like banshee scream. I'm in all to make a sub strange
sing. I love the songs that a stovepipe sing. The creek take somethings
when a scream, those swings. I love the songs and stove fight sing
creeks and the things when a screen those swings, And I love the snails
out of camp fire brains. The soul kate huge to my bodings. Can't
catch me on the radarime running myself best upon her riches. I've got myself
pulling in the fanshines four times off of the thing and catch me all right.
I'm money and stale, best born witches. I've done my health sits
nine sports, eyes all flat even I'm wrong with in bout that. From
the studios of w m n H ninety five point three FM in downtown Manchester,
New Hampshire, you are tuned in to the best of Matt Connerton unleashed.
Quick call for the band while they're still here six zero three two five
six seven six three two five six seven, or I should say while we're
all here, because we're we're almost out of show. It goes so quick.
Mike from Queen's City Cabinetry, one of our great sponsors here at w
m n h's in the chat room, she said, he says, great
show today, guys, super talented. So you have a fan and thanks
Mike from Queen's City Cabinetry. Are you familiar with Queen City Cabinetry? And
I hear all all the time on your rais. I mean you're the ads.
They're in the in the historic Sunbeam mall's named, of course for General
Sunbeam. Who was General Sunbeam. That's why it's historic. I thought it
was the appliance guy. No, No, General Sunbeam he uh, you
know he won the war. I mean if it wasn't for General Sunbeam,
who knows what would have happened. I thought the war was over, man,
while the war was over when General when General General Sunbeam won it for
us. I mean, we could have all been speaking Hungarian right now.
War never changes. General Sunbeam the great I think it was Sunbeam that said
war's hell. The greatest military mind since slice spread General Sunbeam and uh and
by the way, I suggest you think about that the next time you're enjoying
a delicious sandwich. Is how many stars? It was? Like a two
stars? He was? He was? He was a five star general.
Yeah, yeah, Supreme commander. Think about that the next time you're eating
a sandwich, think about think about the freedom that you have to eat that
sandwich, and think of General Sunbeam. Wow, that's right. You feel
that feel that salty, mommy uh, gratifying taste in your tongue. Sunbeam
did that. That's an ectoplasm. Actually, I just you know, what
I just felt was a chill come over me. And I think it's a
ghost of General Sunbeam. I think he's here with us. He's watching over
us. Yeah, yeah, from a distance, General Sunbeam. I always
feel like somebody's watching somebody Sunbeam. That's right, he's General Sunbeam, watching
over General Sunbeam. And I can't get no sandwiches. I mean, I
don't know, you seem skeptical. Uh, they're AFRAIDO. I have to.
I have to see you seem a little skeptical about the whole thing.
It's just the sandwich thing that gets me. Yeah. Yeah, he almost
seems like I feel like I earned my own sandwich. Oh I oh,
I get it.