Speaker 1: Oh man, look at my life farm a lot like
you were.
Speaker 2: Oh man, look.
Speaker 1: At my life, farm a lot like you were, old man.
Speaker 2: Look at my life twenty four and.
Speaker 3: There's so much more.
Speaker 2: Live alone in a paradise. It makes me think to
love lot such cars.
Speaker 3: Give me things.
Speaker 2: It won't get lost like a corn, it won't get guitars.
Speaker 4: Rolling holding you, Oh dan, take a look at my
life from.
Speaker 5: A lot like you. I need someone to love me
all day. Look in my eyes and you can tell that.
Speaker 2: Stroll lullabies, look in your eyes, run around the same
old town. It doesn't mean not much to me, to me,
not much to you. I've been the first to last.
Look at how the time.
Speaker 6: Goes past now a long man.
Speaker 4: All about.
Speaker 2: Take a look at my life.
Speaker 6: I'm not like you.
Speaker 2: I someone love me the whole.
Speaker 7: Day through.
Speaker 5: One.
Speaker 2: Look at my eyes.
Speaker 6: And you can tell that's true.
Speaker 1: Oh man, look at my life farm alone like you.
Speaker 2: Oh man, look in my life fum l like you.
Speaker 8: It's so good. That is Neil Young's Old Man, as
performed by Rust Never Sleeps, And we have Rust Never
Sleeps here with us, live in studio, and we're gonna
talk with them in just a moment and they're gonna
play for us. But welcome everybody. We have entered our
number three New Marrow trace of Matt Connorton Unleashed and
we are live from the studios of wm NH ninety
five point three FM and Glorious Manchester, New Hampshire. Of course,
you can stream the show from anywhere. Go to Matt
connorton dot com slash live for all of your live
streaming options, social media links, contact info, show archives, et cetera,
et cetera. It is Saturday, March fourteen, twenty twenty six,
and let's get those mics up here as we welcome
Rust Never Sleeps. Hey, everybody, good morning, good good, all right, Rina,
let's start with you. What I'd like you each to
do is introduce yourselves. It also gives me a chance
to check here Mike's and tell us who you are,
what you do in the band, and many other pertinence
you want us to know about. Oh wait a minute,
I cannot hear you at all. Hey, there we go,
there we go. See Guess why I do this?
Speaker 9: Yeah, no, hi, everybody. I'm Rina and I've been with
Rust Never Sleeps for going on twenty years, and I
sing vocals in the band. Started with some great background
vocals and do some solo numbers too. That love playing
with these guys.
Speaker 8: Outstanding, outstanding, and you, sir.
Speaker 10: Chuck Mimitz here. I was referred here by my kid
who was on a couple of times. Yes, he plays
in a band called Sick Dude. Hell yeah, yes, yes, anyway,
I love being here, and I've been with Kenny since
the onset of this project, some close to twenty five
years ago.
Speaker 8: No kidding at this point. Yeah, you has been around
a while.
Speaker 10: Yeah, yeah, I also got them in just quick so
I don't forget. Is that Reena is also playing with
a wonderful Tom Petty tribute, Oh kidding called Petty Larceny.
Speaker 8: Okay, Oh that's.
Speaker 10: Now, I'll pass it over to the band leader, the
ring leader.
Speaker 11: Ah, yeah, I'm Ken. That's me. I'm the ring leader okay,
or the cat herder. Yeah, been doing it for about
you think our band archives says it's twenty five years okay,
this coming up next year.
Speaker 8: I think it's twenty twenty five years. Wow. Wow, So
that's you sinking an old man of course.
Speaker 11: Yeah.
Speaker 8: That's uh. That track that we played sound amazing. Thank
you absolutely. That is so so good. Actually, you should
tell us about that, because people should if they go
on YouTube and check the video. The video of that's
really cools. It looks like you're playing in a Barneah.
Speaker 11: Yeah, my nephew is an independent filmmaker and he did
that for us.
Speaker 8: Oh, no kidding.
Speaker 11: Pretty cool.
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, I like to because I found two versions
of it, because the color version in a black and
white version. Oh okay, that's right. Yeah yeah, so yeah,
that is pretty cool. Is he? Uh you said he's
an independent filmmaker.
Speaker 11: Yeah, his name is Mark Battle. Okay, He's made some
pretty cool films. He won some awards, no kidding. Yeah,
really passionate about it.
Speaker 8: Oh, very cool.
Speaker 11: I'm lucky to have him around.
Speaker 8: Yeah. Yeah, oh wow, that's awesome. That's awesome. So how
did this start? How did this project begin?
Speaker 11: Oh? Man, you want the short story of the long story?
Speaker 8: We got time for the long I like I like
long stories. We got we got time.
Speaker 11: I'll try to not make it too long. I've got
a good buddy that lives up in Rochester, New Hampshire,
New York, New York, right, New York.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 11: Uh. He was playing in a Dave Matthews tribute band
way way back, you know, before if tribute bands were
really popular. Yeah, And I have to say, you know,
when I was in high school, we didn't call them
tribute bands. We call them clone bands. Really, we looked
down on it. We did, well, that's interesting. It's not
cool to be in a tribute band. It was not
something I wanted to do. But I am a Neil
Young fan. Yeah, yeah, playing his music forever. So he
made me come down and see these guys, and I
just couldn't believe it. There was people were going crazy
for it, So that planted the seed. Interesting story. Chucky
had a kind of a relationship with Brad Delp from
the band Boston. He did some recording in his home
studios years ago. So one late night I was in
Duncan Donuts and Lawrence Mass at like two in the morning,
and who walks in but Brad Delt the guitar player,
and he was doing the Beetlejuice thing. Oh no kidding,
So true to his reputation, he sat and talked to
me for thirty forty minutes.
Speaker 8: For people who don't know, Beetlejuice was, of course, the
tribute to the Beatles and the.
Speaker 11: Bread did and Who's the Least Thing or Boston in
a tribute band. Yeah, so that kind of opened up
my you know, my mind to say, well, you know
it is cool because he was a huge Beatles fan.
So we came into it that way. And I had
to I had to round up Chucky because we played
in the band when I was eighteen and I hadn't
seen him for years.
Speaker 8: Oh no, kidding him down.
Speaker 11: He was doing a gig in Boston and oh wow, hey,
would you be interested? He says, I would. He says,
I'm not leading any more bands, but if you want
to lead it, then we'll do it.
Speaker 8: Oh no, kidding. Yeah.
Speaker 10: I had taken on my first day job at that point,
so I you know, I used to play full time
but then had a kid.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 10: Life changes.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 11: Yeah.
Speaker 10: That kid was Nate, who was here in your studio perfect.
Speaker 8: Yeah. Well I'm glad you had them.
Speaker 10: Yeah too, And I'm glad the bug bit him too.
Speaker 8: Yeah. Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 11: Kind of the story for us. You know, It's like,
because I went to Berkeley for three years and Chucky
was out there write in original music, and you know,
we wanted to do it, but we were also starting
to raise families. It's not really a practical lifestyle. So
we're I think we fall into that category of you know,
I don't know if i'd even call a semi pro,
but we just we want to do it. We still
want to do it, yeah, even twenty five years later. Yeah,
So we just make it work the best way we can.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 10: We do it because we love it, not to make
a living doing it.
Speaker 11: Yeah. Back back then it was about that, but then
we smartened up. We had to get kicked in the
head a few times along the way.
Speaker 8: I did anything.
Speaker 11: What do you mean, just like you can't make it's
hard to make a living? Yeah, yeah, to make big sacrifice.
Speaker 10: Right, I missed a chunk of Nate's earliest years. I
was still full time going at it, and I missed
so much. Let's choice you gotta make.
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, of course I know I made the right one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
And so Rena, how did you? How did you come
to be in the band?
Speaker 9: Yeah, A really good friend of mine, Rob Hamilton. He's
the pedal steel player in the band.
Speaker 10: Okay, keyboardist, keyboardist.
Speaker 9: He's a multi talented instrumentalist, and we were good friends
we were playing in a band that was kind of
starting to disband a little bit, and so they were
looking for some harmonies while Chuck was on the road
with a Bow's gig, and so I came in to
start singing some harmonies. And I was just doing a
couple of songs a gig, hanging out, you know, showing
up at gigs and filling in, and then these guys
kind of adopted me in and I've been with them
ever since.
Speaker 8: Outstanding, Yeah, outstanding. I'm done to hear you play something.
Let's see, so I want to Chuck, can you play
a little bit? I want to make sure we can
hear you? And is there a gate on that I'm
gonna well or is that might.
Speaker 10: Be getting from my vocal my kids? You're getting any
level on that?
Speaker 8: Yeah? I kind of want to.
Speaker 10: This is the beta that I'm tapping now, and I'm
not hearing it. I can all right, No I'm not either,
No more tech talk.
Speaker 8: No, I'm sorry. PRIs actually tap tap that mic a
little more? Would you? I'm not hearing it either.
Speaker 10: We'll just go with what we have and Kenny's guitars
plugged in. Why don't we get a level on that.
Speaker 8: Yeah, is that there? Oh, that might be the room Mike.
I think it is. No, that's not. This is the
room Mike. Here, I'm thinking about moving that.
Speaker 10: Uh sounds like kind of a pretty tight gait on that.
Speaker 8: And I just I'm just surprised that that's you know,
what we might do? I have an idea, but I'm
wondering if while I do this, I could play something
else from your because you got some great recordings on YouTube.
I think I could play another one from there. I
love that. I love that old man. Well, let me
see what else we got here, and and then we'll
because I have an idea for how we can because
I want you guys to sound I want to do
right by you. You know what I mean? What about Oh?
Should I play? Oh? Wait, that's the same that's the
same thing the sky about the rain from Oh? Yes, yes, yes,
I saw that on there and I did watch it.
Speaker 11: That's to be cut. We love our bee cuts.
Speaker 8: Yeah, let's play this. Let's know this is this is
really good too? Yeah? Oh and actually before I play it,
tell us about this? How did how did you guys
get to play it at Darryl's House club? That's so cool.
Speaker 11: I don't. I don't remember somebody reached out to us.
I kind of think somebody did.
Speaker 10: Yeah, oh it was yeah, it was in their early going.
Speaker 11: Yeah, we were. We played at the Iron Horse, Northampton,
and and the guy that used to book that room
room yeah, oh okay, yeah, and that was a big
I mean it was a throw for us. It was
because I watched I've watched the show. To be in
that room was pretty cool.
Speaker 8: Yeah. So for people who don't know, of course, well
everybody knows live at Darrel's House the show, but Daryl
holl owns a club called I guess it's called Darrel's
House Club club. Yeah, and and uh and so you
guys got to play. Yeah that's awesome a couple of times.
Speaker 10: Oh really Yeah, masterful job producing those video and aud
was like top not.
Speaker 8: I can imagine.
Speaker 11: Yeah, yeah, you know what everybody asked us after that show?
It was Darryl here.
Speaker 8: I know. I was wonderingbout that, like how often is
he actually there?
Speaker 9: He actually played the night after us because we played
New Year's Weekend. Oh no kidding, played the night after.
Speaker 10: And I've heard from others who have been there that
he does pop in quite frequently.
Speaker 8: Oh okay, okay, interesting, interesting, all right, so let's give
this a listen. So this is See the Sky about
to rain. You played this at live at Darryl's House Club,
so yeah, we'll give this a listen and we'll figure
out the mike situation. And because I'm dying here you
play live, but so stick with us. But yeah, Russ
never sleeps. Here it comes. See the sky about to rain.
Speaker 12: Okay, see the sky about to rain.
Speaker 13: Broken clouds and rain. Loco mode to pull the train
whistled low and through my brain.
Speaker 6: Signals coming on the bad rolling down the track again,
see the sky.
Speaker 3: Bowing to rain.
Speaker 14: Some are bound for have been as some my bound
for a blown rad.
Speaker 2: S my bound to lind with.
Speaker 15: Lass who can.
Speaker 2: Tell your story?
Speaker 4: Or rain?
Speaker 2: See the sky about.
Speaker 6: Rain, working clouds and rains.
Speaker 3: Look on.
Speaker 2: For the train. Mistle through that rain.
Speaker 6: Signals turning on it, old band, going down the track,
up the gall.
Speaker 15: See the sky by I was down in Dixie, la
plaid a silver feet way in loud and then the mon.
Speaker 16: Brokey down on me. See the sky.
Speaker 8: Oh that is so good, that is so good. See
the sky about to rain. Russ never sleeps live at
Darryl's House Club. Yeah, and I encourage everyone to check
out the video. You know, we were kind of talking
off here about what a professional job they do there,
and yeah, fantastic. Well we have Russ Never Sleeps here
live in studio. Done hear them play live. So we
had a little issue with the microphones. But I think
we're good. So let's let me get that one up
and let's see. Oh you know what, hang on, I'm
sorry here it is? Oh that sounds nice. What do
you think?
Speaker 3: Perfect?
Speaker 8: Perfect? All right, Kenny, let's get your guitar up there.
Oh that sounds really nice. Do you want to play
a little bit of something just so I can get
make sure our levels are h are good? Here? Oh,
I know that soun Oh that sounds good. I want
to get a little vocals in there too. Just make sure.
Speaker 2: I wanta gill.
Speaker 3: I ban a minor four A horror of gold.
Speaker 2: It's banning mine my talk? Fine, keep me searching for.
Speaker 3: I'm getting all right.
Speaker 8: I think we're How does the sound to you?
Speaker 11: All good?
Speaker 8: I think we're good. All right? All right, Russ Never
Sleeps This year they're gonna perform live for us. What
are you uh, what are you gonna play for.
Speaker 11: USNA sing Dylan tune?
Speaker 8: Okay?
Speaker 11: And now you know, we've only been doing the Dylan
thing for about a year and a half added into
the Neil, so we're doing a the music of Dylan
and Young show.
Speaker 8: Okay.
Speaker 11: There's there a lot of reasons that works and goes together.
Speaker 10: Which is what we're doing at the Rex by the way.
Speaker 11: Right we're gonna be at the Wreck.
Speaker 8: Oh we gotta plug that too. Yeah, yeah, we'll remind
people later, but yeah, let's plug that right now too
for people just tuning in.
Speaker 11: March twenty eighth, okay, two weeks from today.
Speaker 8: Oh wow at the Rex Theater.
Speaker 11: Yeah, seven thirty excellent. We've been there a few times.
It's a great venue. Yeah, intimate, intimate theater.
Speaker 10: One of the coolest green rooms, if you want to
call it that. It's like this area right behind the
curtain on the stage. Yeah, and you know, and then
a couple of dressing rooms but a little unique in
that regard.
Speaker 11: Yeah. It's a good nice real nice stage. Good sounds.
Speaker 10: Yeah.
Speaker 8: Okay, yeah, so.
Speaker 11: Get out and get those tickets.
Speaker 8: Absolutely all right. The Rex Theater on the twenty eighth
March twenty March twenty eighth, outstanding. All right, Russ never
Sleeps is here with us, here with us, live and studio,
And what are you gonna play?
Speaker 9: We'll do knocking on Heaven's stone.
Speaker 8: Oh nice, knocking on Heaven's door, all right, whenever you're ready, right.
Speaker 17: In, Mama, take this patch of them be. I can't
you use it anymore? Scared and dark to dark to
see feels my I'm knocking on heavenstore. Don't not knocking
on heaven'store. Do nothing knocking on heavenstorm. Nothing not knocking
on Heaven's store. Now, nothing knocking on heavenstone. Mama up,
put these guns in the ground. I can't shoot them anymore.
That long black cloud is going down, now down. Then
I'm knocking on heaven'store. I'm not knocking on Heaven store.
I'm not knocking on Heaven store. I'm not knocking on
Heaven store. I'm not knocking on the Heaven store. Why
not knocking on Heaven's store. Why'm not knocking on evenstore.
I'm not knocking on Evens store. Why not knocking on
Heavens store?
Speaker 8: M good, Lord, those harmonies, oh so good. Absolutely fantastic. Oh,
if you're just joining us, we have rest never sleeps
here with us live in studio and uh oh that
sounded so good. And Chuck, now, I now I know
what you meant, because you know you were saying when
we were kind of getting set up and trying to
figure everything out as far as Mike's you know that
the harmonies are the main thing. Indeed, and I see
what you mean.
Speaker 10: That's what we work the most on for sure.
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, No, the three of you sound amazing together
when you when you play live with the full band,
is it always the three of you harmonizing or are
there other band members also singing with you?
Speaker 10: Or there are like our bass player kicks in a
lot of times, like Kenny O vamp on a melody
thing while we're doing a three part harmony in the background. Okay,
so much fun.
Speaker 8: Okay.
Speaker 9: And does Rob ever sing No, no, now, he's too busy.
Speaker 10: Right yeah, both hands and both beat.
Speaker 9: Mikey Garren, he's that bass player and he does he
does do some vocals with us sometimes.
Speaker 8: Okay, Okay, very cool. Kenny, So you had said earlier
that you know, incorporating Dylan into the Neil Young material
that that works really well for several reasons. So I'm
curious if you can expand on that.
Speaker 11: You know, I think mainly the singer songwriter thing. Those
two artists really respect each other, I think, And you know,
Neil has kind of not hidden the fact that he's
kind of based his career in many ways off of
Dylan sure, and in his work ethic and you know,
kind of his approach. These guys kind of approach it
like a painter. They put on a lot of material
and they don't expect it all to be good, but
you know they're going to hit gold with a lot
of it. So oh yeah, when you think of some
artists that have three, four or five albums and these
guys have like thirty some odd albums and they're just
putting it out and they're they're they're following the muse. Man,
they're looking at the inspiration. And I mean that's and
in a lot of ways, I think for us as
a live band, that's that's why we I wouldn't be
able to do it for twenty five years if we
were trying to do exact renditions of the songs. Sometimes
it kind of pans out that way. A little bit
or people think it does, but more often than not,
we do what they do. They play their own songs
in very different ways. So well, you know, we're still
six musicians that are expressing ourselves through that music, like
a bunch of people sitting playing in the you know,
symphony orchestra right.
Speaker 10: Playing there, or a bunch of people sitting in a
living room somewhere. It is often how it feels to
me when we're playing in a theater, even just like
we could just as well be gamming in someone's living room.
And that's I think what our audience appreciates as well,
a very intimate thing.
Speaker 9: You can always tell that we're that we're loving it,
so it really brings them in with us. We've always
had that vibe with the with the audience.
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, excellent, excellent in terms of you know, because
you mentioned Kenny that you know they're there's still active.
When when you're choosing, when you're figuring out what to
cover of these artists like Bob Dylan and Neil Young,
do you ever i mean, do you kind of say, okay,
we're just going to do the classic stuff or are
you ever is it ever a question of Kenny's a
vault man.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 10: Yeah, he's also the king of audibles. We never know
what we're gonna play, really, yeah, no kidding.
Speaker 11: Yeah, you know, I kind of I go by this
rule because I kind of because I have to. Yeah,
I have to be inspired to want to play those
particular songs.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 11: So if we have a show coming up, I'm starting
to think about it, I might sketch out a set
list and I'm thinking listening to different things and and
that's how I come to it. And I'm really if
I ever going to do a song because we should. Okay,
now I've taken some heat for that really, and you know,
and I get it. I get there are certain songs
that people like to hear. But yeah, but for the
most part, I mean, that's been us, that's that's that's
that's just who we are, you know. Yeah, And in
that way, for me, it can be authentic every time
we play it.
Speaker 9: I never played the very rarely have we ever played
like the same show twice. I've no Sea tribute bands,
and you can almost tell and I know what's next, Yeah,
I've and this one's very different. This one you always
and then you've got some classics in there and people
that people love, so they always get a chance to
hear something that they love.
Speaker 10: They also get to hear obscurities that you don't often
hear on the radio or on you know, live.
Speaker 11: I say, you have tell a funny story about that.
Speaker 8: Uh.
Speaker 11: There's a a Neil tune that we like to play
called big Time and it's it's influenced by the kind
of or guitar guys, especially link Ray okay, and link
Ray was famous for a song called Rumble, Yes, Yes, Okay.
So and I kept hearing it. I'm going that, man,
Rumble is in big Time. So we started doing shows.
We would open with Rumble and we go right into
big Time. So one of our biggest fans, who's a
big Neil young fan, has seen Neil on hundred times.
Speaker 8: Yeah, he calls me up one night and.
Speaker 11: He goes, hey, I saw that Neil tune on a
commercial on the radio, and that's not even possible Neil.
And it turned out it was Rumble on a on
a lawn seed commercial. But we tricked him. We tricked
the guy that knows Neil really well.
Speaker 8: You know, yeah, Oh that's wild, that's wild, do you
I mean for the most part. Well, let me ask
it this way. Are there any songs Neil Young songs
or Dylan songs that you've done where they become very different?
I mean you obviously you kind of do them in
your own way, but I mean, are there any of that? Like,
I guess what I'm getting to is, has anyone ever
had a problem with like coming up to you at
a show and saying, hey, you really you know you
shouldn't mess with that?
Speaker 11: But never heard it?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 11: No, because I think I think anybody that comes to
most people to come to a show to see either
of Neil or yylling yeah music, they know that the
original artist is famous for doing just.
Speaker 10: The exact same that like the record.
Speaker 11: Yeah, Well there's a there's a very famous story about
Neil toured on Time Fades Away album and seventy four.
Speaker 8: Yeah he was.
Speaker 11: He went out and he toured and he hadn't released
the album yet. Okay, so he's out there and he's
playing an album's worth of songs. Yeah, oh can you
hear me? Okay? Uh so somebody, uh, somebody's pissed off
and they yell from the front audience play something we know.
So so he stops for a minute and he huddles
with the band. Yeah, comes back to the mic coast.
We're gonna play something you've heard before. And they launched
it to the song they just played a minute.
Speaker 8: Oh that's fine, that's wild.
Speaker 11: Now we're not we're not looking to do anything like that,
not looking to spite anyone.
Speaker 10: But we haven't gotten No, I've never heard anybody. They
seem to enjoy that. We're just running with it. This
is tonight's version, and I think that's part of why
we got some folks like Natt and a few others
that come to near every show. They don't get bored
because they're not hearing the same thing over and over again.
Speaker 9: We do have people that come and come back and
it's just awesome, and they've come they've become part of
like our family too, like some really good friends. Out
of some of the fans that have come.
Speaker 10: Shut Yeah goodness. Yeah, well we Mark and Eileen.
Speaker 11: Yeah we don't. We mentioned you mentioned. I want to
shout out the rest of the guys. Yeah, yeah, absolutely piano,
and we mentioned Mike Garrene on bass. But we have
a new drummer this past year, Matt Smalley and he's
a young guy. Yeah, and he's kicking us right down
the highway. It's good to have young energy in the dance.
Speaker 9: I used to be the youngest. Now I've been really
But the cool thing about.
Speaker 11: Him is he is really deep into this type of music.
Speaker 8: He knows.
Speaker 11: He's a real student of.
Speaker 10: He's shedding too. You can tell he's listening to, you know,
all the different people that like crazy horse versions whatever,
Like he wants to really know this stuff. You can
tell when he comes to rehearsal that he's been shedding.
Speaker 8: Yeah. Oh wow, Now what what happened to the previous drummer?
Because I know that it seems like it's become a
running theme on the show. Every drummer is in like
ten different bands. Yeah, I'm wondering.
Speaker 10: We had a spinal tap.
Speaker 11: Yeah yeah, yeah, our longtime drummer Jeremy was, you know,
amazing drummer. And it's a great guy around Yeah, Western Mask.
Speaker 10: Okay, he plays with Danny Klein.
Speaker 9: Yeah, he plays with the bass player founder.
Speaker 8: Oh wow, Okay, so.
Speaker 11: That's I think the travel got to be a lot. Yeah,
so you know it's I wouldn't be surprised if we
played with him. Again in the future, but.
Speaker 10: I hope so. But yeah, it's no offense to Matt
just the way.
Speaker 8: It is now. Yeah.
Speaker 11: Yeah, yeah, he put in He put in twenty years.
Speaker 8: So okay, he put in some time then, yeah, put
in some time. Wow. Wow was it so after twenty years?
Was it scary having to find a new drummer.
Speaker 10: Yeah, yeah, because it worked so seamlessly. Yeah, it might
have been scary thinking about it to do it.
Speaker 9: There are just certain fills and stuff that you get
used to, yeah, you know, in certain drives and now,
but it kind of brings this new energy, you know,
playing with Matt and kind of feeling a new way
of of doing interpretating the songs. He definitely Matt has
this like classic feel, like you said, you can tell
he's been studying this stuff. So but definitely, like over
time you start to kind of expect certain fills and
things like that, Right, So that's changed, but Matt's holding
it down really well for us, And you know, it's a.
Speaker 11: Huge part of being in this band is not just
your musicianship. It's like, are you a good hang right?
Speaker 8: Right?
Speaker 11: You shit with us? Like the vibe is it just uh,
whatever our vibe is I could, I could describe it,
but I mean it just has to kind of fit.
Speaker 8: Yeah, of course.
Speaker 11: Yeah, that's probably as important as a musicianship.
Speaker 8: Oh not more, but equal. Yeah, yeah, no doubt.
Speaker 11: We've been lucky that way.
Speaker 8: Yeah. Oh that's really good. That's really good. If you
are just joining us, Russ Never sleeps is with us?
You want to play another one? I'm dying to here,
I'm dying to hear more of those harmonies are just
incredible to me.
Speaker 11: Okay, we'll do a little uh Long May you Run?
Speaker 18: All right, we've been through some things together.
Speaker 3: With trunk thumb memories, still calm.
Speaker 11: We found things to do in stormy.
Speaker 3: Weather, Long Maid, Long Maid Road.
Speaker 19: Long made You run, Although these changes have come?
Speaker 7: If you chrome hard, shine in the sun, Long May.
Speaker 4: Run?
Speaker 18: Back in Blind River in nineteen.
Speaker 8: Sixty two.
Speaker 3: And I last saw you line.
Speaker 2: Well, we missed that ship.
Speaker 20: The long Decline, Long May Run, Long, May You Run.
Speaker 7: Long Made Run, Although these changes have come?
Speaker 19: Did you chrome hard, shine in the sun, Long May Long?
Maybe the beach boys have got you now.
Speaker 3: With all those.
Speaker 2: Waves singing Caroline.
Speaker 19: Running down those empty ocean roads, get into.
Speaker 3: The surfon tie roun Ma Run.
Speaker 16: Long may you run, Although the these changes have come.
Speaker 7: You chrome hard shine, and in the sun, long may run,
Long made run, Long.
Speaker 2: May you run, although these changes have come.
Speaker 3: With you, chrome hard shine, and in the sun, long may.
Speaker 4: Run.
Speaker 8: Oh my god, so good A Russ Never sleeps live
in studio here and that's amazing. By the way, you
got a compliment from Peter White, who just texted me.
Peter is of course host of the Morning Show with
Peter White, but you can hear weekday mornings from seven
to nine am here at w M and H. But
he also is the program director here and yeah, he
just texted me and said, you guys sound really good.
So Peter, thank you, absolutely absolutely. If you are just
joining us, of course we have rest Never sleeps here
with us alive in studio. And is there a favorite
like within or maybe you each have your own. I'm
curious if if you have favorites that you play live
that you're.
Speaker 11: That's a common question. It changes for me a lot.
But I guess the tune I mentioned before Big Time
is kind of really just because of the message of it.
Speaker 10: Yeah, it's like asking what's your favorite color. It's it's
really hard to pin it down like you. It changes
from moment to moment.
Speaker 9: Yeah, and it depends like what we're playing at the time.
If something news coming up and we've really meshed on
it and stuff, we get excited to play it.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 9: For me, yeah, yeah, this is our new favorite. For
my classic favorite, I would say comes the time, just
because it's the first one I did with the band,
and it's just kind of, you know, always stuck with
me and my kids too. So my kids were like
babies when I joined this band, and so they grew
up with it, so they you know, it's just it
just became like this family song, but because of me
being a rusted So it's pretty cool.
Speaker 8: Oh, very cool. Is there anything that's been particularly challenging
to learn?
Speaker 9: How many? Sometimes? Yeah?
Speaker 11: Yeah, yeah, I'm going to say actually with the Dylan stuff,
really well not playing it, but it's ten verses.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 8: You know what's funny about that because this came up
on you know, in the second hour when when we
had the Pop Farmers on and you know they do
all these Irish songs for for St. Patrick's Day, and
they were talking about how some of those some of
those classic Irish songs are very wordy because they've got like,
you know, there's one I think they do. It's got
like seven to eight verses to it, and and and
how that can be challenging.
Speaker 10: So so that's trying trying not to do it karaoke style,
you know, right right?
Speaker 8: That is good.
Speaker 9: We do have some eight ten verses long my god.
Speaker 21: Yeah.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 10: Fortunately they are stories, which makes them easier to remember.
And you know most cases, you know, you know I
Tangled Up and Blues a great example. Yeah, yeah, a
lot of verses, but it's a great story. Yeah, you've
heard it, and you know the stories, yeah, tend to
stick a little easier.
Speaker 8: Yeah, Like like what's the one, like the wordiest Dylan's
from The.
Speaker 11: Hard Rain?
Speaker 9: Yeah yeah, definitely.
Speaker 8: You ever you ever play them live and forget the words?
Speaker 11: Oh you know, I'm gonna little aids.
Speaker 1: Ye.
Speaker 11: And you know, years ago I saw Elvis Costello doing
a show.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 11: It was yeah, two big music stands with books on him.
You know, it was his own music. Yeah, so he
had some aids. Said that's not such a bad thing
if you.
Speaker 8: Oh yeah, yeah, of course of course. And then like
what's uh so the songs that you started because again
you've been is twenty five years thereabouts. The way that
you play some of those because I assume the songs
that you played in the beginning you're still playing, right, Yeah,
a lot of them. Have those kind of evolved in
terms of how you approach.
Speaker 10: Them, sure, a little bit, not in huge ways, but.
Speaker 11: I mean we're testing went off for the next show
that we haven't played in a long time. Really, yeah,
that'll be surprised.
Speaker 10: You're not giving them a way Okay, okay, yeah, but
by that, I mean they don't change drastically. But tonight
I felt different than I did the last time we
played it. So my little part is going to be different, right, right,
And that's going to everybody in the band's playing off
of each other. Rights their nuances to change, but not
major ways. Sometimes we've come up with a different groove
trying to yeah.
Speaker 9: Differently, rhythm will change. We'll play around with the rhythm
sometimes and sometimes we have a slow version.
Speaker 10: We have a fast for yeah, yeah, yeah, and sometimes
that's not on you know, that's not planned.
Speaker 14: Right.
Speaker 8: I'm also curious if any of the Neil Young stuff
is hard to play from a guitar perspective, because I
don't know, like the solos. Some of his solos are
so weird.
Speaker 7: I love it.
Speaker 9: Kenny.
Speaker 10: Kenny does a lot more shutting on how Neil would
approach that, and then he lets me do what I do.
Oh really, I don't feel like a crazy horse guy
when I get to a solo. I just play what
you know, I don't read, I don't you know. I
just wing it because I've been doing that since I
was a kid. And uh, it's nice to have that
kind of and you do the same.
Speaker 11: Yeah, but I tend to. I tend to in the
rock tunes anyway. I have that sound you hit.
Speaker 10: On your black lest Paul, You're hitting that Bigsby and
I'd swear sometimes and I'm listening to Neil playing Yeah.
Speaker 9: It's one of my favorite parts of this of when
we play out listening to them play yeah, yeah, yeah,
it's definitely a tree yeah yeah. But Kenny gets that sound,
that raw, you know, dirty Neil Young tune, and it's
just really good.
Speaker 10: A lot of folks just compare it to the Stills
Young okay interaction from back in the day. Really, but
when we listen to it back you know, recordings or whatever,
I get the similarities, but it's so different. It's us.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 10: Yeah, we're not trying to be them.
Speaker 8: Yeah, of course.
Speaker 11: And I think that's the testament to that we we
get we captured the vibe. Yeah, because you know, like
I don't sound like Neil Young, but a lot of
people think it's dead on, but no, if you listen
to it side by side, it isn't. But there's something
about it that I get.
Speaker 8: Well, that's what I was curious about, because I mean,
it's one thing to get the tone, but it's another
thing to actually play like him, right, because I don't know.
I can't think of anybody else who plays like him,
you know what I mean? Right? And I don't even
know how to maybe you know you probably do. I
don't even know how to describe. Like if somebody were
ask me, well, how does Neil Young play a guitar solo?
I wouldn't know how to even describe it. Well.
Speaker 11: There was a Rolling Stone interview or not Know. It
was a review of of his albums back in the day.
It was one of his rock tones. I think it
was like a hurricane, okay, and the person writing the
article said it sounds like down power line snapping off
the ground, you know, like that. That sounds pretty good.
And I found out later that he had been listening
to a lot of John Coltrane, Okay, and it's very
kind of anastic that that got into his and got.
Speaker 10: Into you can hear that intro City pics.
Speaker 11: Yeah, sure, absolutely, And I think his musical beings were
all like that. We kind of absorbed different things and
it comes out in our own little way, you know.
Speaker 8: Yeah. Absolutely. Is there a crowd favorite? Is there? Is
there anything particular that you all play that you notice?
Speaker 10: Harvest Moon? They love Harvest Moon.
Speaker 9: They always asked for it.
Speaker 11: Sure, we don't always play that one now, but.
Speaker 9: One one crowd favorite too is Cowgirl in.
Speaker 10: The Sandy because of the jam.
Speaker 9: Yeah, because of that jam. Sectually, Old Man Hard. We
do play this mostly, okay, okay, Yeah, and then once
in a while they'll get a treat. We'll do Rocking
in the Free World and oh no, everyone.
Speaker 10: Digs that we've done that acoustic handle liqu that's right,
really yeah, and I love both of them, but yeah,
that can go twenty minutes.
Speaker 8: Yeah really yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 11: And there's the first thing about Neil, because he's got
those two versions out there, yeah, they're different from me, John.
Speaker 9: Yeah, everybody knows that. That's a popular one that we do.
Speaker 8: Yeah, Oh, very cool, excellent, excellent, So we should remind
people too as we get close to the top of
the hour. So the show at the Rex, it's on
the twenty eighth, March twenty eighth, Yes, yeah, okay, And
and it's just you, right, it's just Russ Never Sleep.
Speaker 10: No opener that we're aware of, because that has happened,
so you know what, You've got an opener tonight.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 11: And they can go to their website or they can
go to our website and link over to it. We're
never sleeps dot net.
Speaker 10: Okay, okay, No, we're on Facebook? Are we on Instagram?
I'm not just the social media at all.
Speaker 8: It's a nice website by the way, too. And that
might sound like a random compliment, but I'm a I'm
a web designer, and so I noticed websites and my.
Speaker 11: Filmmaker, oh yeah he did.
Speaker 8: He did a great job because a lot of a
lot of musicians have terrible websites. So I commend you
for good pro.
Speaker 10: You're a lack of a lot of trades. I've seen
your bio on the radio site and elsewhere. You're up
to a lot of cool stuff.
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, I never sleep either. I I do have
to ask you this because you mentioned it, because I
love stories like this, he said. The thing about you.
You were presented with an opener that you didn't know
you were going to have at a show.
Speaker 10: That was recently thanks for example, that wonderful room and
mad Massa And.
Speaker 11: I apologize later, but it wasn't the end of the world.
But no, you'd like to know about that.
Speaker 10: Well, yeah, yeah, and so would our patrons.
Speaker 8: Well, yeah, I like to know. But we do every
now and then.
Speaker 11: We throw a curveball in here. I mean we had
Arena's daughters. Yes, yes, that was a lot of fun,
you know.
Speaker 9: Yeah, please, she'll get to do She's actually sat in
with the band.
Speaker 10: Before for me to one night and killed it.
Speaker 11: Yeah, great musicians. He's going to be graduating from Berkeley
this year.
Speaker 9: Oh actually, yeah, she graduates in May from from Berkeley.
And but yeah, she sits in for me from time
to time.
Speaker 8: And oh cool, Well who is she? Let's give her
a plug?
Speaker 9: Yeah, Elizabeth Valley. We call her Bess, and uh yeah,
she does an excellent job. She plays around locally right now, though.
It's she's real busy finishing up at Berkeley. She's got
her first album release coming out in April called Sounder,
and uh, yeah, she's beautiful listen to.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 9: She just played the Pink showcase at the VPC and
she was one of the chosen soloists there. And she's
got another showcase at Berkeley for George Martin and she's
doing Linda Ronstadt's Moon so Ours Mistress, so wow, yeah,
it'll be a treat.
Speaker 8: So well, we'll have to get her on the show.
We've had Chuck's son on the show Your Daughter Family Guy.
Speaker 10: I love it.
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Uh do you have any any children
who are musicians?
Speaker 11: They're not musicians?
Speaker 8: Okay, no, Well, although actually I would like to get
your filmmakers son on the show too, because that sounds interesting. Okay, Yeah,
we don't. We don't just do music. I mean we
do mostly music, but but you know, I just love
talking to creative people in general, you know.
Speaker 10: Just I have three kids, and only one of them
got the bug the music, Pug. The other two are
hockey players, probably not interviewing hockey.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I don't know anything about sports ball.
Speaker 9: My son doesn't play, but he loves it and he's
listening to us today too, So well, good.
Speaker 8: Very good. Hello Gus, Hello guys. All right, so we
are about out of time. I do want to play
one more thing from your YouTube though.
Speaker 10: Real quick. Before you do, I've got a guest shout
out to Sick Dude. Hell yeah, my son, Yes, and
and uh. I love both of your interviews here and
thanks for pointing us in this direct.
Speaker 8: Oh yeah, we love Sick Dude. Hell yeah, absolutely, it's it's.
Speaker 10: A death metal duo. They're nuts. They recorded in my
basement and I had a blast doing it anyway.
Speaker 8: Oh yeah, you were the engineer on that, right, correct? Yeah? Yeah,
what was that? Have you ever done anything like that before,
recorded anything like that before?
Speaker 10: Power duo like that?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 10: No, no, it was the coolest thing too. I mean
I have a home studio. Yeah, and we had to
put both of Why am I blanking on the bass
guitar player's name?
Speaker 8: I can't remember?
Speaker 10: See I'm old. I'm getting old.
Speaker 8: Anyway, if you meet so many musicians, he.
Speaker 10: Takes plays a four string bass through a guitar amp
and a bass ampe by way of a little splitter
that octaves it so yeah, you'd swear you were hearing
two guys that are just locked in.
Speaker 8: Oh yeah, yeah, right, you.
Speaker 10: Know what I'm talking about. And in order to pull
that off and not just kill the overheads on the
drum kit in my meager little space, we used this
little cedar storage closet behind my studio. Yeah, stuck them
in there and ran a bunch of cables from there,
and it worked like a charm. So I got to
learn by way of their project that I have a
lot more capability in at me get a little space
than Yeah. Yeah, I loved my listening space. It's mostly
like I got. I did some acoustic treatment and all that,
so I can sort of believe what I'm hearing. Yeah,
before we put it out there, and uh, that was
just such a fun project. It really was.
Speaker 8: Oh that's really cool.
Speaker 10: Yeah, they were very well prepared. Yeah to give them that.
Speaker 8: No, that's awesome. That's awesome. Uh what should I play
from your YouTube? You got so much good stuff? Do
you have any uh any suggestions? You had a lot
of good Uh. We played that.
Speaker 11: I've looked on there for a long We played the.
Speaker 8: Darrel's House video. Uh, rest O Resleeves performs Motorcycle Mama
do that one? That's one that's also and that's also
from uh Live at Darrel's House. Yeah.
Speaker 10: Another one featuring Arena on lead vocals.
Speaker 8: Yeah, very cool, very cool. I know that song? Whose
song is that?
Speaker 10: Is that a Neil news?
Speaker 8: That is a Neil song. I'll probably recognize it as
soon a time album.
Speaker 11: Okay okay, originally sung by nico Let Larson.
Speaker 8: Oh gotcha, gotcha? All right? Oh I should mention too,
just to remind people before we go, because Jenny's not
in the room, but tonight from five to seven pm
the Woman Wise Showing exhibition or whatever the term would
be at the event at Mosaic Art Collective on Hanover Street.
Jenny and I will be there tonight five to seven pm,
So if you're listening live on Saturday, please come join us.
And Jenny as always has art featured in the show,
So very proud of her and all that she's doing.
So that is tonight from five to seven pm Mosaic
Art Collective on Hanover Street, and it's a wonderful place,
so come down and say hello and thank you everybody
who joined us today on the show. Of course, cognition
and the pop Farmers, and of course Russ never sleeps.
Thank you all three of you very much, thank you
having so much. Thank you absolutely this has been wonderful
and we'll close out with this. This is their rendition
of Motorcycle Mama Live at Daryl's House Club Russ never sleeps.
Speaker 22: The cycle won't you lay your fans fight down? The
cycle Mama, won't you play your.
Speaker 3: Bags fight down?
Speaker 4: I get in trouble when I bring you down?
Speaker 18: Or the cycle Mama, won't you lay it.
Speaker 23: Down on the words that keep the food.
Speaker 2: Away a place to say?
Speaker 15: Or the cycle Mama want you lay your bits fin down?
Speaker 6: Or the cycle mama want you lay your bads fine down?
Speaker 2: You is gending trouble.
Speaker 15: When you're bringing that out a round all the cycle
want you lay it down?
Speaker 6: I hope the children lead.
Speaker 3: I think this game out.
Speaker 10: How jad.
Speaker 6: Seeing your bosses a.
Speaker 2: Bad am blacking that.
Speaker 4: Siss the time?
Speaker 2: Or cycle Mamo tlay on thanks.
Speaker 6: Five down, go acycle mam ter lay on mes five down?
Oh cycle man?
Speaker 3: WoT you player?
Speaker 21: This life never feels driving your family starts fitting with.
Speaker 17: My mind will always read.
Speaker 8: You wind on.
Speaker 3: The memories were the pain.
Speaker 21: I know we've got let it go on the choices now,
re mecuse, Now I know how far you'll go.
Speaker 2: When you're six feet from the breast.
Speaker 4: Sound.
Speaker 6: Everybody is out, there's somebody.
Speaker 4: Now, everybody is going down.
Speaker 3: There's we can wat.
Speaker 21: Clay fruit tears. We tell your story through the pain,
We your life, the way your life, and now these
others to see another day.
Speaker 9: I know of gotta let it go on.
Speaker 3: The choices them by.
Speaker 21: Now I know how far you gonna go When you're
six feet from the rast.
Speaker 15: That sound.
Speaker 6: Everybody is sound, it's somebody in that time. Send in
everybody else going in town.
Speaker 3: There's hoping we can rush it away.