Records & Real Estate Podcast
Jay Stanek’s Harmonious Home: Echoes of John Prine, Chicago Blues, and Balancing Life’s Passions
What if your home once echoed with the chords of a musical legend? Join us as we welcome Jay Stanek, a high school history teacher from Evanston Township, who discovered that his house was a creative haven for the legendary songwriter John Prine. Jay shares captivating stories about how his home was a frequent stop for Prine and the previous owner, Dan Hogan, where they would not only play guitars but also work on cars. We delve into the fascinating history connected to John Prine's album "Pink Cadillac" and how it all ties back to the iconic Sun Studios on Union Avenue in Memphis.
Our conversation shifts gears to explore Chicago's illustrious music scene, with a special focus on the blues. We reminisce about Mike Bloomfield's influential role in Bob Dylan's electrifying shift and the unforgettable moments at the Newport Folk Festival. We also highlight Chicago's legendary venues such as the Aragon, the Riv, and the old Uptown Theater, sharing personal anecdotes that paint a vivid picture of the city's rich musical heritage. From memorable shows at the Double Door to reflections on musicians like Steve Goodman and Peter Gabriel, this episode is a nostalgic dive into Chicago's cultural landscape.
Balancing professional life with personal passions is no easy feat, and Jay provides an insightful look into this juggling act. We discuss the challenges of preventing burnout in teaching, the necessity of hobbies outside of work, and how incorporating music into education can be transformative. We also touch on local developments like the rebuilding of Northwestern's football stadium, the financial impact of the university's tax exemptions, and the evolving architecture of Chicago. Tune in for a rich blend of music, history, and personal stories that bring the interconnected world of Chicago's real estate and music scenes to life.
Connect with Karen and Andrew at Be Realty: Be Realty Group
Email the Show: karen.sandvoss@berealtygroup.com
Guest: Jay Stanek of Evanston Township High School
Link: Furious Frank
Link: John Prine - Pink Cadillac
Link: Double Door
What if your home once echoed with the chords of a musical legend? Join us as we welcome Jay Stanek, a high school history teacher from Evanston Township, who discovered that his house was a creative haven for the legendary songwriter John Prine. Jay shares captivating stories about how his home was a frequent stop for Prine and the previous owner, Dan Hogan, where they would not only play guitars but also work on cars. We delve into the fascinating history connected to John Prine's album "Pink Cadillac" and how it all ties back to the iconic Sun Studios on Union Avenue in Memphis.
Our conversation shifts gears to explore Chicago's illustrious music scene, with a special focus on the blues. We reminisce about Mike Bloomfield's influential role in Bob Dylan's electrifying shift and the unforgettable moments at the Newport Folk Festival. We also highlight Chicago's legendary venues such as the Aragon, the Riv, and the old Uptown Theater, sharing personal anecdotes that paint a vivid picture of the city's rich musical heritage. From memorable shows at the Double Door to reflections on musicians like Steve Goodman and Peter Gabriel, this episode is a nostalgic dive into Chicago's cultural landscape.
Balancing professional life with personal passions is no easy feat, and Jay provides an insightful look into this juggling act. We discuss the challenges of preventing burnout in teaching, the necessity of hobbies outside of work, and how incorporating music into education can be transformative. We also touch on local developments like the rebuilding of Northwestern's football stadium, the financial impact of the university's tax exemptions, and the evolving architecture of Chicago. Tune in for a rich blend of music, history, and personal stories that bring the interconnected world of Chicago's real estate and music scenes to life.
Connect with Karen and Andrew at Be Realty: Be Realty Group
Email the Show: karen.sandvoss@berealtygroup.com
Guest: Jay Stanek of Evanston Township High School
Link: Furious Frank
Link: John Prine - Pink Cadillac
Link: Double Door
Welcome to Records and Real Estate, a podcast about well, records and real estate. You'll be entertained and informed as we explore the intersection of these two worlds through interviews with Chicago's most interesting and successful people from both industries.
Speaker 2:That was Andrew Wendt and I'm Karen Sanvas. We are Chicago real estate brokers, property managers, avid music lovers and your hosts of Records and Real Estate. Hi, karen, hi Andrew.
Speaker 1:How are you?
Speaker 2:I'm good. How are you?
Speaker 1:I'm great.
Speaker 2:Excellent, it's Sunday morning. I mean it's Saturday morning. Oh boy, you're trying to skip a day ahead.
Speaker 1:I lost a day. It's Sunday morning, I mean, it's Saturday morning, oh boy you're trying to skip a day ahead.
Speaker 2:I lost a day. It's daylight savings time. Yeah, it's Saturday morning. We had an early morning guest.
Speaker 1:We did, yeah, because he's a teacher at Evanston Township High School, yep, and doesn't have the flexibility to come in during the day to record.
Speaker 2:So we became flexible during the day to record. So we became flexible.
Speaker 1:We'll go to you, you can come to us. It could be first thing in the morning, it could be late at night, although that's getting harder and harder.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I'm quite happy with the. You know early, you say early, it was 10 o'clock.
Speaker 2:Hey, to those of us who don't have children, that is early on a Saturday, but I'm since five.
Speaker 1:Anyway, lovely, lovely just history teacher, and he brought in Show and tell, show and tell like props. He told stories about the things that he was showing to us. You know, nobody could actually see them because this is a podcast, but he described them in such wonderful detail that I think everybody got a vivid picture of what he was sharing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it was another guest who's a nice amalgam or intersection of music and real estate in a fun way. From a history perspective, which I thought was very cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, he had a lot to share and a lot of stories to tell.
Speaker 2:Yeah, good guy, all right, want to do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's get into it. We're here with Jay Stanek, and Jay is a friend of another Jay, our first ever guest, jason Taylor. He was our guinea pig.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:We have to have him back. I'm always saying we have to have the first six guests back.
Speaker 1:Yeah because we didn't really know what we were doing and the sound quality is bad. Yeah, karen's worried about the sound quality. I was worried about the content because we really didn't know what we had or what the purpose of our podcast was. We would ask questions like who's your favorite band? You know just stuff that.
Speaker 3:Well, I'm sure he'd love to come back.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he would love to come back, but he's been great and he's introduced us to you, so thank you for coming in today. Yeah, I wanted to sort of establish right off the bat why you're here, your adeptness at telling a music and Chicagoland story, and I hear that there is some connection to your garage with John Prine. Yes, yes Is that?
Speaker 3:true. So for people who don't know John Prine, he's probably best known as a songwriter Songs like Angel from Montgomery Paradise, donald Lydia, great Compromise songs like that but just one of these great, great American songwriters. He's not necessarily the best singer or even the best guitar player or anything, but just cuts right to it with a lyric, and I'd always been. I was introduced to him probably in high school and really just kind of wanted, you know, I wanted to start figuring out how to write a song after I had heard what he could do with one. And so, anyway, I live in Evanston, kind of the northwest corner of Evanston, and the house that we bought was from a guy named Dan Hogan who was a bridge design engineer at Northwestern. So I actually found like schematics of, like you know, the Golden Gate Bridge style suspension bridges in the rafters and stuff like that.
Speaker 3:And I also learned he was a musician and kind of just an all around you know eccentric kind of handy guy. He had like this weird generator. So I thought maybe he's like a survivalist. Right, you know all these lights off in the corner of the basement. He's like, hey, he's growing something.
Speaker 3:I don't know what's happening down here, but anyway, I learned from a neighbor that he's like, hey, you know somebody who's kind of famous used to come over here and used to hang out. Like I can't remember the guy's name. He's just getting this from a neighbor and I learned later that it was John Prine, because we got a Christmas card from Patricia Prine. I'm like okay, wait a second.
Speaker 1:I had to do a little sleuthing.
Speaker 3:And it turns out that there was a family connection. He was friends with Dave Pryne, who worked at Northwestern with the owner of the house, and so Dave and John and the owner would get together and they would play guitar and hang out and work on cars.
Speaker 3:And I actually brought a copy of. It's funny. I'll be in Memphis in four or five days and this is an album that this is called Pink Cadillac. There's no Pink Cadillac involved here. I don't think the pink Cadillac. There's no pink Cadillac involved here. I don't think the car that was rebuilt in my garage in Evanston is that car right there, which is. You can't really tell because it's a black and white photo, but it's a blue Porsche and you can see an engineer. This is Union Avenue in Memphis. This is where Sun Studios is. So Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash and all those people this is Sam Phillips, by the way. You could tell Sam Phillips. He's got the kind of longer hair and, like the 70s you know, izod shirt.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and he seems to be pontificating about something really really deep and heavy, saying something philosophical. You could tell with his hand gestures, but anyway, they recorded it in Sun Studios, elvis and everything. And so there's a song called Automobile which is just about it's just kind of a bluesy song and they use the sound of the car revving the car's engine and you can see the engineer setting up the mic. Well, anyway, that car was, the engine was rebuilt in my garage.
Speaker 1:Get out of here.
Speaker 3:And I kind of got that information through various sources over time. I love that album and the guys on the flip side that's the band and it really is. I love that album. Now this is three or four years after becoming a rock star or whatever and he sought out the people that he knew from his hometown and so all the guys on the back are Chicago area musicians, including a guy named kind of skinnier guy with the tie is John Burns. He kind of looks like Jackson Brown a little bit. I got a story about him too, but but they really are Chicago guys and this was kind of late 1970s I guess. But yeah, it was just kind of neat to see that the house we were, you know, we were working on the house, so we're like ripping out walls and I'm kind of looking for stuff and like one time I found a set of banjo strings like oh, wow you know, like you know, hit gold or something like that.
Speaker 3:When we were working on the house I kind of had a I love, I love ghost stories. We're going to hopefully go see the new Ghostbusters this weekend. I don't want to say I really believe in ghosts, but I had this kind of strange experience where I found a picture of the owner. It was kind of out in the middle on a table, just like this one, almost like he was letting me know that he was still there in the house and I'd found the banjo strings already. So I figured, okay, well, the ghost of Dan Hogan, he likes the banjo. Okay, so I'm going to come down here and I'm just going to sit and play banjo in the basement for like an hour and maybe that'll appease the spirits and stuff like that. And I think it did, because Dan never bugged me again.
Speaker 1:Oh nice, we're cohabitating. If he's still there, as long as you play him some music every.
Speaker 3:We actually still have his table that he used as sort of a workshop. It's kind of like you know, the model and Lego shop for for my kids, which is kind of neat. It's still kind of where he had everything set up, that's so cool.
Speaker 1:That's great.
Speaker 3:I love the history, I guess that's kind of a real estate story.
Speaker 1:No, it's perfect. I mean, this is the intersection of music and real estate.
Speaker 2:It's all got to happen somewhere, you know four walls.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I mean lots of good stuff has come out of garages, right. Absolutely that is a lot of fun. I wonder, given the fact that you're a history major like if you would have I mean, obviously that's a very fun story, it's very germane to our podcast and also music in Chicago and a well-known figure music in Chicago and a well-known figure. But I wonder if you would have found something like that at any house you bought, you know, some sort of history story, just given your sort of predilection for history.
Speaker 3:I definitely would go looking for it, that's for sure.
Speaker 1:Well, you're a musician and a history buff and a music fan and an Evanstonian and a history teacher. Which one of those aspects of who you are define you the most? Oh man, I don't know If you can pick one.
Speaker 3:I just love going to work. Yeah, being a history teacher is you know we were talking before we hit record about you know kind of the challenges of teaching these days. But what I get to do every day and you know, talk about ideas and you know, see the light bulbs go on with kids. It's just the the neatest thing. So I guess if I had to pick one, that would be it. That's awesome. I could still do all that other stuff too.
Speaker 2:Right, right, right do you do world history or us history?
Speaker 3:yes, all of it so a team taught class with an english teacher. So we kind of let the texts decide where we go. Like you know, if we're doing the odyssey or Juliet or something like that, I teach a European history AP class to seniors and it's interesting to talk to. You know, this is the generation that people that are graduating now kind of came of age during COVID and it's interesting to see how. You know how we've come out on the other side of that. You know definitely. You know we learned important stuff during COVID but there are challenges.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Are you seeing a difference in the kids graduating now or coming out of school now versus the ones that didn't have to experience? Covid?
Speaker 3:Maybe, and you know, I don't, I don't think kids change that much. I mean, obviously technology changes and all that kind of stuff changes, but I don't know. I mean I think, you know, in my 22 years now, kids are, kids are mostly the same. What is different is just kind of like we kind of got rid of testing, yeah. So I've had kids come back from college saying the first time I ever took a test, like a high-level test, was in college. Oh wow.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 3:I don't know if that's entirely true, but you know we got rid of like final exams, for instance. I still test Kids write a lot and they work really, really hard, but it's not testing the way people of our age might remember it, but it's not testing the way people of our age might remember it. There's like a test or a quiz every Friday.
Speaker 2:That just kind of doesn't happen anymore. Why do you think that is?
Speaker 3:At least in history and English. I think our expectations have changed. There's so many things to sort of think about and look for and obviously you want to see a kid grow and there's lots of ways other than testing to do that and we've kind of gone down that way. But I think what we're seeing is that, you know, at least in places like Yale and Harvard, they're coming back to testing, like oh yeah, we got rid of those standardized SATs and ACTs. Oh, they're coming back.
Speaker 2:So that may be just the pendulum swing that we're in the middle of right now. And we'll kind of see what happens, because it's also Evanston right, it's also Evanston University town, northwestern, yeah, but it seems to me that it would be like the liberal, like, oh, we don't want to test our children and put them under that stress, kind of thing.
Speaker 3:I think that's how it started that kind of conversation and it sort of meandered around over the last few years and then COVID sort of interceded, right yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, that's interesting.
Speaker 1:So, speaking of history, I also have learned that you know the history of Smith Park Well.
Speaker 3:I used to live Division Street, the band that you might know from Jason Taylor, the Otis Problem we have. There's two songs called Division Street. There's an eastbound and a westbound. Oh, fun. And so that album, along with this one, the 1140 album, was really kind of written in and around division street, in and around that neighborhood. So we lived at 1228 North Campbell and you know when the kids were in strollers that was like my direct route, that was the closest park.
Speaker 2:Other than Humboldt Park to go to.
Speaker 3:And my kids loved seeing that there's a tank like an old World War. I maybe it's a World War II tank kind of a smaller tank down at the corner across from where the CTA yard is.
Speaker 3:But what I learned about that park is that it was kind of its own little mafia fiefdom in the years after World War II. There's a social club on the corner I guess it would be just north of the park, and apparently some mob boss I don't know what his name was he owned one of the bigger houses and a lot of the people in the neighborhood were just sort of part of his little world or whatever. It was Interesting and if you go there you notice it's kind of cut off from everything else and this is such a Chicago story, you know, like train yards and big streets just kind of divide neighborhoods and people. But it was his own kind of like. I like to call it the mafia fiefdom. Yeah, his own little ward or something like that. Yeah, yeah, I don't have too much information on it but you can if you go around and you kind of see it. There's kind of a Mediterranean style architecture.
Speaker 1:Yeah, totally, totally.
Speaker 2:What are these guys thinking yeah?
Speaker 1:Something out of.
Speaker 2:Goodfellas or whatever. Yeah, yeah, what's the name of the park again?
Speaker 3:Smith Park, west of Western Okay.
Speaker 1:I love that little neighborhood I mean, and especially you know. I mean obviously you know Chicago is always changing and the neighborhood surrounding Smith Park has certainly redeveloped over the years, but for a long time it was just sort of this little pocket amongst you know, sort of more of a dilapidated neighborhood and it's also connected across Western with the Ukrainian neighborhood Ukrainian village and so you'll see, you know, definitely you'll hear Ukrainian being spoken in the park and stuff like that which is interesting.
Speaker 3:I, when the war started two years ago that you know, I I felt like I had to go back there you know, and feel just connected to the place. And who knew that the war was still going to be going on two years later? But yeah, I remember, like there's there's two churches, st Vladimir and St Nicholas, and my oldest son, his name, is Nicholas, so I can't help but think that that's maybe where the idea for his name came from.
Speaker 2:Do you know how the tank?
Speaker 3:got there. Don't no idea about the tank. I'm going to have to find out.
Speaker 2:Because that has to be a thing Like there's got to be a committee and then a transportation issue.
Speaker 3:Nobody drove it there, Like how do you get the tank there, right?
Speaker 1:Nobody just lost the keys and left it there. Right, that's a big deal.
Speaker 2:Ran out of gas and never you know, it's like the Great War of Smith Park, the Tin.
Speaker 1:Man just needs a little oil can type of thing, that's right Get it going again. Do you remember how you came to know that information, or you just kind of put it together? I think, like I said, I just kind of.
Speaker 3:You know, we found it pushing the kids around in strollers and then go oh let's find out a little bit more. Let's you know let's read the newspaper or the archives, or I probably, just probably just looked it up on Wikipedia or something.
Speaker 1:Is that I mean? Do you try and instill that sense of curiosity in your students?
Speaker 3:I just love feeling connected to where you live and you can do that in a lot of ways. You can do that through stories and one of the first books that really kind of when I was starting out studying it was going to be a history major in college was a story called Black Elk Speaks, which is the Ogallala Sioux, and this is in the context of, like, the Battle of Wounded Knee and you know, back into the 1870s and 80s and it's basically an oral history with this guy, black Elk, with a historian, and I guess it would have been the 20s or the 30s. But it just kind of got me thinking about feeling connected not just to the people but to the spaces that we inhabit. And the more you can learn about the history, the more you can kind of feel connected to the whole thing, to the universe, to the whatever. Oh, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:Have you always had that notion, even as a kid or did something?
Speaker 3:you know how did that?
Speaker 2:fascination start.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I just love maps. As a kid that was like I could just kind of pour over maps and I think that was that was what maps and globes and stuff like that. Were you the navigator in the family then, like you know, getting to family vacations or whatever, I was probably, you know, the voice in the backseat that needed to shut up. Yeah For sure, yeah, backseat driver. And you know, having taken our kids now, like every other American family, we went to Yellowstone during COVID and I saw, like people from Evanston and people that I went to high school, in the parking lot by Old Faithful, everybody went west that one year. That's funny, we've been kind of southeast and now we're going to go to Memphis and just kind of a little bit of music, history probably, but also just kind of feeling connected to the whole place. You can't do that in too many different ways other than just go in there, get in the car and go.
Speaker 2:It seems to be kind of a thing now, because you were mentioning how you want to take trips to places, just random places that you've never been like within the US. Yeah, without making it a big, you know European excursion or whatever. That'd be nice too. Explore, that would be nice. But, to explore. You know, the United States is a big place.
Speaker 1:It's a big place, yeah, with a lot of different, you know, viewpoints, and then that was my thing. We went to I mean it's not like deep south, but we went to Charleston, savannah, yeah, and part of the reason is I just wanted to be in an area that had people that thought differently than I did and they catered to tourists. And I have young kids, so it's not like I'm bellying up to a bar, talking to somebody down there and getting their perspective, but yeah, I mean there's. So talking to somebody down there and getting their perspective, but yeah, I mean you know there's so many places to visit in the United States, but now, you know, now things are kind of back to normal. You could take a flight, so Europe is open.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So Sun Records down in Memphis, Chess Records up in Chicago.
Speaker 3:Chess Records in Chicago and I brought another little thing that I found. I'm not sure where I got this. This is a record called Fathers and Sons which is part of a live album. It's Chess Records but it's like later Chess Records.
Speaker 3:So if you know anything about the story of Chess, leonard and Phil Chess were like the kind of founders of it. Leonard would go out and find the artists and I think Phil kind of ran the business and their son, marshall, kind of picked up. And you know, I mean this is by the 1960s and 1970s and you know the market was changing, music was changing, maybe trying to find a new audience for these older artists like Muddy Waters, and so the idea of like older musicians and younger musicians. There's actually another Evanston connection to this guy named Paul. There's Paul Butterfield, who's a Chicago guy, but Mike Bloomfield on guitar, who went to ETHS, and my former colleague, chip Brady actually was neighbors with his brother, tim Bloomfield, and he always liked to say that Mike died of the musician's disease. Oh, yeah, yeah, and he had some time in the mid-70s with substance abuse or whatever. Yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 3:But had gotten involved with you know, like catered to all the blues and really got into it and really studied it and then got to be on records, like I know he was on at least one Bob Dylan record. I guess that would have been what Highway 61, and maybe bringing it all back home and there might be a third one in there. But that's the moment when Dylan goes electric. It makes all the folkies really angry at the I think it was the Newport Folk Festival. Dylan has gone electric and it's terrible, pete.
Speaker 3:Seeger said I'm going to go and cut the cables. But Mike Bloomfield is that generation from ETHS, of course, as I said, but it's an interesting kind of later part of the story. When people think Chess Records, you think Muddy Waters and Holland Wolfe. Of course Holland Wolfe started off. He recorded first at Sun Studios in Memphis and then came up to Chicago and recorded for Chess. But just a really neat part of Chicago music history.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 3:I was very lucky growing up and probably by the time I could drive, but certainly like maybe by the time I was 13 or 14, just jumping on the orange line. I grew up in the Southwest suburbs and go into the Chicago Blues Festival. You know, and for your listeners I mean, chicago Blues Festival is the largest free blues festival in the world. It's happening what 6th through the 9th of June I think, and this year Buddy Guy is playing.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:And Buddy Guy has said this is his farewell tour or whatever it is. And maybe it is, and Buddy Guy has not played the Blues Fest in a long time. Buddy Guy likes to get paid. Going to see Buddy Guy for free is a treat, so I don't think it's going to line up for us. I wanted to take our kids to go see Buddy Guy, but other people should, so go see Buddy Guy on June 9th.
Speaker 1:That's good, that's a good idea At the Blues Fest. So when we were talking, kind of preparing for this you mentioned, was it chess that you mentioned, that you had stories of, or was it a recording studio that you?
Speaker 3:Well, this the record is. It was I don't know that it was recorded at Chess Records, which is 2120 South Michigan Avenue. Yeah, it had a different location on it, but that was also the office of the business side of Chess Records. Apparently, that's where Chuck Berry was living when he was running from the law Okay, violating the Mann Act, all right, transporting young people across state lines. He had to go live in the basement for a few weeks.
Speaker 1:You got to run for the law somewhere, you know. Mm-hmm, we manage a building you know we manage a building, you know, at 45th and indiana, and it has a. It has a basement that apparently used to be a restaurant, which is very strange for like it sounds like theresa's lounge and we're not.
Speaker 3:It might not be that place, but theresa's was a place. Indiana sounds familiar and at 40 sound familiar too, but it wasn't a basement. Teresa's Lounge was a place where Buddy Guy and Junior Wells had a standing gig. Okay, cool. Apparently there's a booth that was at Teresa's where. This was where Junior Wells the harmonica player. This was his booth, right, that was his booth. He'd fallen asleep there a few times too probably so.
Speaker 1:the story about this basement is that Martin Luther King used to eat there, in this basement, and I don't know how we found that story.
Speaker 3:Well, what? I would guess? King had an office in Chicago in 1966. Okay, so kind of later, the later stages of his career. Actually, in a few days we're going to be visiting the Civil Rights Museum which is housed in the Lorraine Motel Sure, where he was killed, of course. But he was using the union offices of the United Packinghouse Workers, upwa, which were a packinghouse. Meatpacking in Chicago goes back to the 19th century. The UPWA was known for social unionism, kind of more of a progressive agenda. Doing things like sit-ins at the Gold Blats to desegregate it in 1947 was kind of them, a lot of them. You know a lot of the things that we associate with the civil rights movement sit-ins and marches. I mean, they just learned that from the union people who had been doing that since the 30s and even the 20s. But yeah, I know he was using the UPWA offices, so it makes sense that he would be part of that and I think it was a little bit further south on Indiana, maybe 48 or 49. Yeah, right there walking distance.
Speaker 3:Walking distance for sure. Do you know the name of the place?
Speaker 1:I mean, honestly, it's just a six flat I don't know what the name of the restaurant was, but you can see it had been tiled and frankly, I mean it's nice, it's nice space. I mean, you know, if Tom and Meryl are listening, they should perhaps put a unit down there. That would be our, you know, professional recommendation.
Speaker 3:And they should call it.
Speaker 1:Teresa's Lounge they should call it Teresa's Lounge. Did Chicago play your mom's prom?
Speaker 3:No, I was wondering about that question and I'm like is this a typo? What?
Speaker 2:is he asking the band Chicago no?
Speaker 3:Band Chicago. I have no connection to that, Other than the younger Satara brother used to sing in the restaurant where I was a bus boy.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:This is not Peter, this is Tom. Okay, tom has a terrific voice and, tom, if you're listening, you're a great singer. But he was the youngest Satara kid. He had like seven Satara kids and they're all musicians. They're all from the South Side and he would come in and sing Chicago songs. That's my only Chicago in the band.
Speaker 2:How did you hear about this? Is this on?
Speaker 1:his Facebook page. That's a fun story.
Speaker 2:It was about different strokes.
Speaker 3:If you were talking about a prom, I may have mentioned that my mom her high school prom for St Gregory High School was at the Aragon Ballroom, Because I think we were talking about venues and live music places.
Speaker 1:You've got the.
Speaker 3:Rive and you've got the Aragon.
Speaker 1:Well, to be clear, Jason Taylor might have planted this idea. He lies a lot.
Speaker 3:Jason misrepresents things he does. He's untrustworthy.
Speaker 2:Makes for a good story, though.
Speaker 1:That's why I'd be a good guest to have on again. So that's funny. So your mom's problem was at the Aragon ballroom. My grandma used to go to the Aragon ballroom. You know from Palatine to take the bus to actually go ballroom dancing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, that was it was. It was a destination and, yeah, the place acoustically a lot of people complain about it music place, but it's not set up for listening and set up for dancing Right, it's a dance floor, Right. That's, that's what people are supposed to do there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm assuming they were dancing to live music, right, live band, I would guess so.
Speaker 1:Yeah, probably a big band.
Speaker 2:Ah, that'd be so fun.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, Do you? We talked a little bit about this, um teaching deeply, rewarding or deep pain in one's butt yes, you know it's, it's, it's amazing.
Speaker 3:I just, I still feel like I'm the luckiest kid in the world that I get to do this, talk about history and connect with the kids. And you know it's, it's, it's awesome. I mean, I still love going to work.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's great it's you know, but it burns a lot of people out. Yeah, it takes a lot of energy to kind of connect with the energy of the kids and the energy of the topic and just what's going on in the world right now. But no, it's a great thing and I'm lucky to be able to do it. How do you prevent?
Speaker 1:burnout.
Speaker 3:I mean, do you?
Speaker 1:recharge in the summer or just take what you need.
Speaker 3:Teachers have this weird luxury. For some it's not, because in our district we don't get paid in the summer, so we have to figure out other stuff to do, and that's getting easier as time goes on. We're compensated nicely. No complaints there. But yeah, no, I think you got to have something else.
Speaker 3:I think you got to have other areas of your life outside of work any work, you know, because and also it's funny, you know you've seen kids talking to high school seniors who are about to go off to college and the standard now, you think, is people are going to change jobs or careers five, six, seven times. And I'm a weird guy. This is my first big kid job. I did 24 out of grad school and I've been in the same place for 23 years now almost, which is pretty rare, I think, these days.
Speaker 1:Do you get to talk to some of your students about music?
Speaker 3:I mean, do they know that you're a musician or a music? It always, it always comes up somehow, or like a student will like do a Google search on me, mr Stanek, do you have a band Stuff like that, you know? And it comes up. It doesn't show up a lot and I don't you know.
Speaker 3:I thought maybe when I started my career I would be like you know the music history teacher guy, right, once in a while I don't really play for my kids very often, like once in a while I have a guitar hanging in the room and once in a while, like, mr Stan, why don't you play something? I'll just pick it up for a minute, but I don't find myself incorporating it. I did that a lot at the beginning, right when I was, you know, in my 20s, just finding a song that has a historical topic, maybe just because I liked it, but also that it connected with kids and it was just another way and it was a great way to get kids' attention. Oh my gosh, yeah. And also I think I did it once was like I was being observed by an administrator and I was kind of like, well, I'm just gonna go. Whatever trick I got in my bag I'm gonna use today.
Speaker 1:So I guess it worked.
Speaker 2:Nice got my bag I'm gonna use today so I guess it worked nice.
Speaker 3:I have a memory of.
Speaker 2:So I went to a catholic uh school at st giles in oak park. Excellent school. Yes, it was very good and we had it was all nuns teaching us. Except, like they just kind of opened it up one year and we had non-religious people coming in, we had a male history teacher and you know it was a huge deal scandalous we were all like in awe of this guy and one of the exercises that he did was so cool like he was.
Speaker 2:We were talking about the media and you know whatever like how that plays a role in society. And then the song dirty laundry. He brought in like a little tape recorder or like a boombox whatever and he played dirty laundry and we like listened to all the lyrics and we like dissected the song and what it meant and it was like the coolest lesson yeah I can never remember that's a good song yeah, it's a great. Every time it comes on, I'm like, anyway, I'm gonna put that on their playlist.
Speaker 3:Yeah absolutely great song. There's a version that the media in quotes sent to don henley, with them sort of spoofing themselves making a music video of that. I don't know if there was an actual video besides that, but it's, you know, like Sam Donaldson sticking his tongue out on camera and stuff like that Just goofy. You know bloopers from news people.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm sure I can find it on YouTube Dirty Laundry Great song. That's awesome.
Speaker 1:One of my favorite papers that I wrote was sort of dissecting Wish you Were here, and I don't know if I wrote it for an English class or a history class or a music class in college, but yeah, I mean it was basically, like you know, a breakdown of the lyrics and how they related to Sid Barrett, you know. So who?
Speaker 3:showed up in the studio when they were recording that song and they didn't know who he was.
Speaker 3:And he didn't recognize me, his eyebrows shaved and he was you know whatever. But another funny thing about that song is the end of it, where you just hear like the wind was supposed to be. They had recorded Stefan Grappelli, the violin player who played with Django Reinhardt for all those years, and Stefan lived a long time. He may still be alive, he died pretty recently, but a long time he may still be alive. Or he died pretty recently. But they had Stefan Grappelli just playing this, you know violin solo to take the band out and fading out or whatever. And then they listened to it and it just wasn't right. It wouldn't work for the song. It doesn't make any sense. I'm sure Stefan got paid.
Speaker 2:But, somewhere.
Speaker 3:there's a version of that with Stefan Grappelli, you know, wishing that Django Reinhardt was here, Maybe hey. I'm getting paid, no worries who's this fan Pink Floyd.
Speaker 1:So one big change happening in Evanston is Northwestern is rebuilding their football stadium.
Speaker 3:Wow, I drove past it and it's one of those things where you want to photograph it. Yeah, because I have these. It's funny, I've never actually been to a football game there. I'm a U of I person still in the tournament by the way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, good luck to you.
Speaker 3:Right, but taking my kids to, like you know they would have movie nights on the fields. The kids could run on the field and run around and watch some movie. So they have that memory, you know, growing up in Evanston and seeing it go on, gone. Yeah, you know, it was politically it was a, it was a, it was a hot potato for a while but when the mayor finally said, okay, uh, the thing's just, you know the, the gears of progress.
Speaker 1:I mean, they were ready. Everybody you know.
Speaker 3:I think it's fine.
Speaker 2:What's the background of it? Is it, was it just old, Was it? It was like yeah, I mean it? Was.
Speaker 1:I mean I guess all of the above I mean Northwestern is a Big Ten school I mean obviously there's tons of money.
Speaker 3:And if you live right next door to it, I understand why you might not want six gigantic Taylor Swift concerts there a year Right. And that was one of the community was sort of pushing back on that. So they are going to have concerts there. It's going to be a concert venue, football and lots of other things. Supposedly we, the taxpayers, aren't paying for it, but we'll see.
Speaker 1:Well, Northwestern, I mean, can't afford it, I'm sure, but you indirectly pay for it because they get a big tax break or they pay any taxes you know they got the we were here first card.
Speaker 3:The Garrett Methodist Seminary predates the incorporation of Evanston, so they pay no taxes, that's crazy.
Speaker 1:I mean, and that's one of the reasons, you know, not to get too political, but that's one of the reasons why Evanston has high property taxes, because they need to make up for it somehow.
Speaker 2:Wow, really, I mean, I would assume.
Speaker 1:I guess I've never really had somebody tell me that, but that seems to make sense to me.
Speaker 3:And they're great partners in other ways. They actually have an office in our high school and they do. They're always doing stuff with the high school and I think there's a great working relationship there. But you know it always bugs people a little bit yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh, I mean the, the the town is is really not centered around Northwestern, but it's a big part of it. You can't separate it and I'm not bashing Northwestern at all. I'm just mostly curious about the new venue, because I mean, there's so many new venues out there right now.
Speaker 3:And there's a lot of stadiums where people it seems like there's like an arms race going on, yeah, a little bit, yeah, oh with stadiums.
Speaker 3:With stadiums with, I mean just the nature of live music and concerts you can go see the Rolling Stones and it's going to cost you a thousand bucks, right, and you know. Then you got the, the place down the street. You know the empty bottle or the. You know some of the places that we were talking about, yeah, and there doesn't seem to be a lot in between, right, right, so it's, it's going to be interesting. Everybody's selling their catalogs.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So the next time you hear you know Hotel California or Dirty Laundry right, dirty Laundry is going to be like you know and product placement Right Buy the product you know like wait a minute, how did that happen?
Speaker 1:Right, definitely for Tide, or you know.
Speaker 3:Sure, oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:You heard it here first, folks. That's right. I think we got some good ideas. Well, on that note, we'll let that idea marinate. We'll take a quick little break and come back and talk more to Jay Awesome.
Speaker 2:Andrew. Yes, karen, guess what time it is? I don't know.
Speaker 1:It's time for Record of the Week. No, you start.
Speaker 2:It's time for Rob Rat. No, you first. You's time for Rubrat.
Speaker 1:No, you first. Record of the week. Record of the week. Record of the week.
Speaker 2:Okay, what do you got?
Speaker 1:Oh, my gosh, I'm so excited to talk about this record.
Speaker 2:I know because you've been talking about it in multiple ways throughout this past couple weeks.
Speaker 1:I know it's kind of crazy. The final piece of the puzzle just became clear to us when we were doing a little bit of research on it. So it's a band, you guys, it's a band.
Speaker 2:What's your favorite band?
Speaker 1:The band's name is Frico, f-r-i-k-o Correct, and they're a Chicago band. They just released their first album, which is called when We've Been, where we Go From here, and so I didn't know anything about them. One of our guests, mauricio Reyes, who used to be a DJ at Chirp Radio, is big into music. He started a podcast a couple months ago and didn't have anywhere to record it. So he's like, can we use your equipment? And we said sure, and so so he's come in and recorded a few episodes and most recently he's like it's just going to be me and our producer, jesse D, who happened to be the DJ at my wedding A side note and we're interviewing this hot new band called Freako. I'm like great have at it, didn't care, you know. I mean, how many hot new bands are there? Right, hot new bands? But I guess if Mauricio thinks they're hot and is willing to get them in and somehow got them into our office to record a podcast, I mean they must be something. So anyway, I didn't think much of it.
Speaker 1:Never washing this microphone again. Apparently I mean seriously, apparently they have such a buzz about them that, yes, I mean it could be a story Frico sat at this exact table, anyway. So I go see this dentist. This dentist's name is Scott I forget his last name, but he has always there dental care and I've always known that he was big into music. Another guest of ours, andy Hockman I've always known that he was big into music.
Speaker 1:Another guest of ours, andy Hockman, introduced me to this dentist office and to this dentist and they're actually buds and so, anyway, so I'm sitting in the chair, I'm just randomly texted Andy, you know, the lobby is very distinct. And so I took a picture of the floor and I'm like guess where I am? And he's like, oh, you're, you know, at Always Air Dental Care. And he said tell Scott yeah, I don't know what he said exactly. I think he told you know, tell Scott that he's, you know, he's a fucking bastard or something like that, something, perfectly, Andy Hockman. And then show him this video. And so I show Scott this video and he's like who is that? I'm like it's a friend of yours, he used to live here. He's like I can't place it.
Speaker 1:I'm like Andy Hackman. He's like oh, so, andy is, you know, moved out to Colorado and is managing a band called Rubble Bucket. Rubble Bucket shares their booking agent with Freako. And Scott's like oh, rubble Bucket shares the booking agent with this hot new band that I'm mentoring, mm-hmm, okay. And I'm like, oh, what's the name of the band? He's like Freako. I'm like get the freak out of here. They're going to be in my office tonight, yeah. And I show him the text from Mauricio and he's like get out of here. That's crazy. So there's all of this stuff happening, all right. So I look up Freako. The album is outstanding. The singing sort of reminds me of Daniel Johnston, who was this phenomenon in the 80s, but mixed with, you know, this big sound of music kind of like Arcade Fire, like they build yeah they build.
Speaker 1:But then their ballad let me see if I can find the name of it real quick. Their ballad is For Ella. It's just lovely. It's just lovely. So a very dynamic band. I would highly recommend the album. They're playing at Reggie's well, after this will have aired, but it's a sort of secret XRT show. Please go see them if you can Check out the album. And here's the final piece of the puzzle. Okay, I did some research on them. I was like, oh, they're from Chicago, they're from a Chicago suburb, they fricking went, they freak out and went I'm sorry, that's terrible To Evanston township high school where our guest Jay Stanek teaches.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we did not line this up. We didn't line this up.
Speaker 1:All serendipity. I wish we would have known we're recording this after Jay has left, this bit after Jay has left, because we could have asked him about Freako. Yep, We'll have to have him back. Anyway, check out the album Freako, where we've been, where we go from here.
Speaker 3:Love it. I just realized that I'm wearing my chicago neighborhood shirt yeah, let's go.
Speaker 3:This is riot fest 2012 and I don't know how far back riot fest goes, because it didn't use it that this was maybe the second or third like festival year, but what it had been before I think it was just four or five bars, they would all have you know bands, oh really. And then they're like, well, why don't we do a festival? Yeah, and they, they usually have my number. I got to take my 14 year old son this year. So my wife, my wife, actually went to two, two days and I and I went to all three. But then I got to take my, my 14 year old, and cool, we saw insane clown posse. Sure, how are they? Well, I was, for me. We actually didn't see much of them because they started late and we wanted to see Mr Bungle I don't know if you know Mr.
Speaker 2:Bungle yeah.
Speaker 3:I was really excited to see Mr Bungle but it was more about seeing the fans Like who wants to go see Insane Clown Posse? I need to see these people. I need to go a little cultural anthropologist for a minute here, what did you find? You know punk rock comic book nerd and you know something else.
Speaker 2:Do they dress up? Do they paint their face and do all the clown?
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know where you are when you see the painted faces and the masks and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:Like, what's the name of those people that follow them? There's a name for them, right the followers of Insane Clown Posse. That sounds right? I don't remember.
Speaker 3:Maybe it's just that, maybe the followers of Intake Is there an acronym?
Speaker 1:That would be an understatement, icp that's right.
Speaker 2:All right, we can edit that out.
Speaker 1:No, no, we're rolling. This is all staying in. I love Riot Fest. Although I've been a couple times, it was really. I mean, I'm disappointed and I understand.
Speaker 3:Well, they can't have it a humboldt anymore, but that was such a great location well, I remember that year and basically it rained all friday morning like hard, and then the people showed up and, yeah, the grass was toast. I think that the ride fest people did right by their promises it was. It's basically it costs you more to use your insurance bond than it does to you to just replace the grass. So like, well, we'll just fix the grass. But the local I don't know if it was the alderman, but was kind of had an issue with it and probably wanted to get rid of them anyway. Yeah, and it was just, you know, sort of a bad relationship.
Speaker 3:But the spot that they're in now in Douglas Park, and I love that, the fact that we've moved from one S to two S, we go from Stephen A Douglas to Frederick and Anna Douglas, that's right, the two S's Right, which actually started as a graffiti exercise. So somebody literally graffitied an extra S. You know. For those of you who don't know, so Stephen A Douglas is, you know, mr Popular Sovereignty and the guy who the senator from Illinois who defeated Lincoln in 1858, the Lincoln-Douglas debates and of course.
Speaker 3:Frederick Douglass born into slavery and wrote the book and advised Lincoln and did lots of other important things. He has two S's in his name. Stephen A Douglass has one, so somebody just started graffitiing the second S on and the city's like let's just go with that, let's do it.
Speaker 1:Let's just add the S Right, you don't have to worry about it. Amazing.
Speaker 2:Looping back around Juggalos.
Speaker 1:Juggalos, that's right, that sounds fascinating.
Speaker 3:That's the name of people who follow the Insane Clown Posse. Thank you, did not know that, juggalo, how do you spell that?
Speaker 1:J-U-G-G-A-L-O-S. Wow, what venues do you like to play at? Anyone that will have me.
Speaker 2:Usually it's my driveway.
Speaker 3:We play our block party every year and they can't stop us. That's so nice In Evanston, really lucky to have space, which is really terrific. It's funny. It reminds me of Park West in some ways. If you've ever been to Park West, it's kind of wide Spatially. It's not very big, but you can get a lot of people in there. Sound is just marvelous. It's a cool old building in a cool neighborhood and a really neat place.
Speaker 1:I have a question here what do you love most about Evanston and why is it space Right? I?
Speaker 3:thought that was a typo too.
Speaker 1:No, no. What do you love most about Evanston?
Speaker 3:You know, when I lived here in Lakeview, I took for granted living by the lake and just being able to walk to the lake and feeling the lake breeze and just kind of feeling connected to that. And I lived, you know, further west for about a decade or so, but you know just that if I was going to miss one thing, it's just living close to that big body of water and in Evanston you really do feel the lake breezes. You know, we don't live real close to the lake so I don't find myself walking there really, but it's a quick bike ride and just a really something that when people come to visit they're like wow, all the houses don't look the same here, right, you know, you have. You know, most places in Chicago, like the housing boom is like the 1920s, right, and we live in this weird, you know mid-century ranch house which isn't like any of the houses around us.
Speaker 3:Then, of course, you have the new monstrosities, the really tall, whatever you call the new houses that everybody you know every ceiling is like 16 feet or taller.
Speaker 2:McMansions, mcmansions. I don't get the tall ceiling thing. Why do people like I'm short, so maybe that's part of it Like I? Just? I love Frank Lloyd Wright houses where the ceilings are, you know, eight feet tall.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's my jam.
Speaker 2:What is the draw for the big ceilings? To me, it's cold and cavernous, I think you're right.
Speaker 1:I mean I think you know there's always pendulum swings. I mean, you know, I think that you know what got me into being a real estate broker is my father decided to do some development of single family homes and so we built some of those bigger sort of mid-2000 McMansions, I guess I mean ours weren't that big, but yeah, I don't know. I mean ours weren't that big but yeah, I don't know. I mean it was just what people wanted, which now seems a little silly because they're they're probably, you know, energy inefficient and I don't know I think you get a sense.
Speaker 1:I mean a lot of times you know the the tall Williams, the tall ceilings can go along with tall windows, and so you do have a lot of nice light and air that you can get in when you have that type of structure.
Speaker 3:And so I think, and also houses built before World War II have this sense of compartmentalization, like you want a separation between the kitchen and the dining room and now nobody wants that. You want a big open space and kind of open air and the open floor plan and stuff like that, just a really different approach, I guess.
Speaker 2:I always think about changing the smoke alarm batteries or the light bulbs, or dusting the fan well, it's dusting the fan.
Speaker 1:Yeah, tough, I mean the light bulbs last. You know, if you put leds they last 10 years now, supposedly, and most of those smoke alarms are hardwired and so but you do need to change them out every one of them.
Speaker 1:Okay, you got an answer for everything I mean technology is like is really the reason why you're able to do that stuff? To do that? Yeah, Because you did have. You know you had energy efficient furnaces. You were drawing air from the outside, I mean. So there are legitimate reasons why you could now build those cavernous homes.
Speaker 3:But, yes, and it's funny if you go around certain neighborhoods I see them in Evanston sometimes you could probably find around here. You know those coal chutes on the alley side.
Speaker 1:Right People that was central heating, much different technology 1890 or whatever. What venues do you like to go see music at?
Speaker 3:Oh, let's see, it's really interesting. You know, thinking about we were talking about Uptown and some of my first shows we're going to see. Like I remember going to see Public Enemy and Anthrax and Primus at the Aragon I was probably 16 or so, 15 or 16. Wow, and it's great that that little area is still. You know that place, the RIV. We're always thinking about the Uptown Theater. You know, like people have literally sunk, you know, tens of millions of dollars to reopen the doors and nothing's done it yet in 30 years it's crazy.
Speaker 3:There's a story that one of the last shows that was there was the Grateful Dead in about 1980 or 81. And during one of the shows Phil Lesh hit some kind of really low bass note in a piece of concrete. It fell right on the ceiling.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:Nobody got hurt by that.
Speaker 3:The venue didn't last too long yeah after that though it wasn't the last show, I think it was like an elvis costello show or something like that that finally literally brought the roof down, wow, and they haven't. They haven't seen the light of day since. But you know, you hope that somebody maybe the city, maybe the state, you know some billionaire right, but nothing's worked so far. Right, and you have this idea of I mean, it's a historical market. You can't tear it down. Let's just do something cool with it and really make that neighborhood Uptown the entertainment venue that it always was.
Speaker 2:That was the idea in the 1920s.
Speaker 3:I've heard that Dumbledore has found a new space in Uptown.
Speaker 1:I thought they would be open by now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, wilson, it was like an old bank building.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I drove past it the other night. I didn't get a real good look, but it's, you know, it's a very modern looking space. It's not like the old Double Door at all. That place. I mean going, you know, going back to living in Ukrainian village, for you know, about 15 years the Double Door was one of my favorite places. I remember seeing the head cat, which is Lemmy, from Motorhead. That's the head part. And then the cat part was the Stray Cats. It was Slim, Jim, Phantom and Lemmy and then a guitar player and they were just doing old rock and roll tunes.
Speaker 2:Eddie.
Speaker 3:Cochran and the Big Bopper and Buddy Holly, Wow. And then they were the opening act that night for Dick Dale. So I got to see, you know the king of the surf guitar and like the weirdest motorhead show you ever saw. And it was, you know, one of these hot summer nights, and I don't think that the double door has, uh, any kind of air conditioning At least it didn't on this night and Dick Dale comes out in full leather bodysuit and it's like 100 degrees in this place already.
Speaker 3:Like this guy's going to disappear in that suit, it's going to be terrible, but seeing Living Color there, I remember when it came on the radio that the Rolling Stones were playing there.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:And I think it was like I can't remember the year exactly but like I was around, you know I could have, like I maybe could have pulled it off, but unless you were standing outside of the venue when, the announcement was made, you weren't going to make it, but it was just one of those kind of wonderful classic, unique Chicago venues I feel like it was in.
Speaker 3:I don't know if you've seen the movie School of Rock. I think the opening scene it sure looks like the double door. Another great one that we just went to for Mardi Gras is Fitzgerald's in Burwood.
Speaker 2:Oh, I love that yeah.
Speaker 3:And I'm so happy that place has survived. The owner had basically said I'm done, and it more or less coincided with COVID, but the new owner who I think I got to meet him name escapes me, but doing really good stuff with it, that's great. They have a terrific Mardi Gras show show. You get a great band, a low-down brass band. You get a cup of gumbo and a hurricane. All right, the gumbo wasn't quite up to par this year, but they have a good party over there at Fitzgerald.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. We had a guest on who I think you'd really be great friends with. You might know his name. His name is Mark Guarino. He wrote a book. What's it called? Do you remember?
Speaker 2:It's the History of Country Music in Chicago. Yes, I Um. He wrote a book. What's it called? Do you remember it's?
Speaker 3:the history of country music in Chicago. Yes, I know the book.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's so good, I want to get you a copy. Yeah, I want to get you a copy?
Speaker 1:Yeah, he talks a lot about John Prine. He talks about Fitzgerald, probably Carol's pub, carol's pub have you been to.
Speaker 3:Marvelous Sounds great. We got to see I think one of the first shows that was there the inside, phil Lesh and Friends. Phil Lesh from the Dead, and he's actually. They just celebrated his birthday at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, new York, and he's actually not one but two terrific bands, one called the Q or the quintet and the other one that's more focused on uh, on his son, graham. I got to see him with Wilco Fun. That was kind of a one-off. I had a festival that only happened once. It was called the sacred Rose festival. It was out at I think they still call it Toyota park, sure, the soccer. I think they still call it Toyota Park in Bridgeview the soccer stadium. But they weren't in the stadium, they were just using the parking lot and running an extension cord from the stadium or something so the festival had some problems and they only made it one year.
Speaker 3:But it was this weird, they called it Philco and it was Jeff Tweedy and Nils Klein and the night before they played in like Connecticut or something and the next night they were playing like New York. So they literally flew in, played a show with Phil and then flew out. So I guess it was just one of these ones. You know, maybe not once in a lifetime things, but just a cool moment to see Phil Lesh who's got all this history with another band that I absolutely love and obviously has a Chicago connection Wilco.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And seeing just kind of how you know just how people can mix it up on stage and cool stuff can happen.
Speaker 1:Are you a big Grateful Dead fan? Is one of your bands a Grateful Dead band?
Speaker 3:It's funny if you think about, like Furious Frank and how Furious Frank has changed over you know a decade and a half Wow, that we had this idea that it was going to be something like you know, the original idea of, like a weird mariachi band, but it became something more like, you know, a cross between the pogues and the grateful dead, you know, where you had sort of kind of you know, traditional instruments but also this kind of willingness to jam and kind of leave things open-ended and see what comes out right, that kind of improvisational spirit and, mostly because we didn't know what we were doing, we had to make it up right but I think that was kind of my original inspiration was probably going to see the dead in high school and then just being hooked on, you know on, obviously just the crowd and the scene and the band was good too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah. But the people outside were at least as much fun as the people inside Right and I was just hooked from the get-go.
Speaker 1:Nice yeah, and I was just hooked from the get-go Nice. I took Karen to her first Phish show when they were at the United Center.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was that same thing of just the awe of such a lovely crowd and everybody just into it. It was really beautiful.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And the band was good.
Speaker 3:My first experience with Phish was probably 94, 95 at Deer Creek. So I guess that's boy, that's 30 years ago.
Speaker 1:I know I was talking to my mom yesterday and I was. You know I'm actually working on this book about kind of related it's somewhat related to what we're doing here where we kind of cross music and real estate. I am in three different fantasy football leagues and I've actually got a lot of business out of you know the people that I participate in fantasy football leagues and I've actually got a lot of business out of you know the the people that I participate fantasy football with and I I had to. I had to stop myself when I told her that you know one of the leagues, my college league, is 25 years old. I'm like, oh my God, that's terrible. Um, I think.
Speaker 3:I don't know if it's holding up. Good for an old guy, thank you, thank you Likewise.
Speaker 1:Likewise, there's actually a over the 4th of July. There's a three-day festival at Salt Shed and it might be related. It's called Rose on the River and something about the meters.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:The meters my morning jacket, andy Frasco, that sounded really interesting. Thundercat Wolfpack.
Speaker 3:But it's outside, right, it's outside, so they may have something in the shed, I think they actually have it?
Speaker 1:Well, they might, because they have that big parking lot, right? There so maybe that's where it is.
Speaker 3:No, that's going to be really interesting and what they've kind of done with that space and how it's changed over the years. I mean, you know we're talking about venues and the history of the hideout. You know a hideout has been on the chopping block. I think it's still there. The hideout's not going to be here anymore. Right right, they're still hiding back in the fleet management parking lot or whatever.
Speaker 1:Well, and the new development? That hasn't happened yet, but that was going to swallow up the hideout. They pushed back because they were going to have a music venue. But yeah, they're surviving. They're surviving.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a unique place.
Speaker 2:You've been to the hideout, right? You and I went to the hideout one night, right? Isn't that where we went?
Speaker 3:I don't think so Just randomly.
Speaker 2:Oh no, it wasn't.
Speaker 3:Somebody said it was like taking Austin, texas, and plopping it down in the middle of an industrial park in Chicago. It sounds about right. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a wonderful place.
Speaker 3:Any fun stories that you didn't get to say to our audience. I brought a couple of records and the one record that we didn't talk about is another Chicago guy you probably know, steve Goodman.
Speaker 2:Sure.
Speaker 3:He used to live right down the street yeah, I think it was Wayne, Okay and Wayne, maybe 3700 North or something like that, closer to Southport. So a lot of these songs I think were kind of written there and it was one of these places where musicians would come and visit. Like Jimmy Buffett was part of that scene, which you don't really associate Jimmy.
Speaker 3:Buffett with people like Steve Goodman, but I mean, you know the kind of 70s songwriter thing and obviously Jimmy Buffett went off and did something different with it, but a lot of the songs that were kind of written there. And the other guy that I was sort of thinking about was this guy named John Burns who kind of looks like Jackson Brown a little bit and I was.
Speaker 3:I happened to put this record on not, it was. I was working at a place called the Third Coast, 1260 North Dearborn great little restaurant still there. I worked there for many years, played music there and happened to be working an early morning shift and I put on this record and I put on the song Lincoln Park Pirates no-transcript 40s or the 50s or something like that. A guy, as Steve Goodman says, with the comic timing of Groucho Marx and also a really, really great musician. And I'm like, wow, just because I put on this record and I get this whole weird Chicago story that you know kind of brings it all together, that's amazing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm going to tell a story we might've told it, you know, forgive me listeners if we've already told this, but, speaking of grandfathers, we do this listening party here for, like our guests to come in and play records, and you know we do them about once a quarter. And long story short, we have a speaker outside of our office that plays what we're playing in the office and we were playing this like really deep cut of Peter Gabriel and so we had this. You know this person, my neighbor, our neighbor, walked in and said oh my God, because he's a big peter gabriel fan. And he said later, like if it was a sledgehammer or something like that, he'd been like oh, that's cool, and then just walked on. But because it was this deep cut, he came in and you know he's had all these great stories.
Speaker 1:He, he was a guitarist on um miss lauren hill's like follow-up album to the miseducation of lauren hill, and you know her kids were running around and and their kids are like, play grandpa bob, play grandpa bob. And he's like who the fuck is grandpa bob? Well, she's married to one of bob marley's sons. So grandpa, grandpa bob, it was bob marley. Like it would not connect grandpa bob, I don't think no, with bob marley that would be the last I got to see Peter Gabriel this year.
Speaker 3:It took my 14-year-old.
Speaker 2:Oh, how was it?
Speaker 3:He loves the song Salisbury Hill. Of course, yeah, and that was I don't know. That song sort of reappeared somehow, maybe it was in a movie, I don't know how young people know about it specifically.
Speaker 1:Stranger Things. Maybe, no, Kate Bush got reignited because of Stranger.
Speaker 2:Things. Is that what's happening? Because, I hear her on the radio all the time.
Speaker 3:I asked my 10-year-old like why do you know?
Speaker 2:Master of Puppets, I'm happy that you know, master of Puppets, yeah, yeah, but he's like oh no, stranger Things. I'm like okay, fine, I remember when James Brown passed away and my mother was like, who's James Brown? I was like how do you know Meatloaf's song, but you don't know who James Brown is.
Speaker 1:Your kids like music.
Speaker 3:They do. We have a really good orchestra program at their schools in Evanston. So the older one plays cello, the younger one is starting on violin. But they've had, you know, piano lessons and we kind of have a band set up in the basement. Last night we were doing like bass and drums oh, fun guitars and stuff like that, so it's a lot of fun. Yeah, I mean, and they definitely have the bug. They like to play, they like to listen, so it's neat to watch.
Speaker 1:Are they also in the history?
Speaker 3:I think so Nice, I think so it's different though. I mean, like you know, and I'm not, I'm not so worried about kids because you're getting information right. You're just not reading right. You're not reading books right. And old, old people like me are like you gotta read books, you gotta read books. And frankly, there's just so many different ways to get stuff and the ways to listen, and obviously what we're doing podcast is kind of like I, and obviously what we're doing podcast is kind of like I don't know. Maybe this is the future, maybe this is how ideas are going to spread, and all this.
Speaker 3:If you look at the old Greek philosophers, they're like reading books is stupid, I mean the only way you can do philosophy is by talking to people, walking and talking and thinking and bouncing ideas off each other, and you know that's what can happen in a podcast.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:You know, we have to use these books because that's all we have, you know, and it's sort of a hindrance. But now we have these sort of multimedia possibilities and so you know, obviously the learning is going to look different. It's you know, reading is going to be different. Listening to music, we know, is so different now, but it'll just roll out and I guess we'll be okay. Yeah, as a species or whatever.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're survivors.
Speaker 3:I hope I hope, I hope you're right.
Speaker 2:I hope you're right. That's a nice optimistic note, yeah Well should we end there? Let's do that.
Speaker 1:All right.
Speaker 2:Well, jay, thank you so much. Yeah, thanks for having me. It was great, good stories.
Speaker 1:And we'll see you again.
Speaker 2:Appreciate it. Yes, cameron, why should we believe in ghosts?
Speaker 1:That's a good question. I guess you're presuming that I believe in ghosts.
Speaker 2:Why should we appease if there are ghosts in an old building that we move into? Yeah, you know. Why should we do anything about that? To appease our ghosts.
Speaker 1:I love that, I love that question. I, you know, I, I do certainly there have been absolutely times in my life where I have felt presences in various buildings that I've been in. And you know, I, I don't know. I mean, I guess I guess, like my logical, the logical side of my brain is like, well, it's just it got to look. And so you feel like you know it has something going on like that. But you know, usually you can kind of put those, you know, if you are thinking logically, you can put that aside, but then the feeling still, you know, sticks around and you just, yeah, you feel like there's something going on there. I think, if you know, if there are sort of lingering spirits, it's because they have something that has been unresolved, most likely. And I think as individuals we should help people, living or dead, try to resolve their unresolved issues. I just think that's just part of being a human is helping people with their personal challenges, whatever they are.
Speaker 2:So that they can just feel more at ease.
Speaker 1:More at ease. They can feel more connected to the people around them.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So that's why I think we should.
Speaker 2:Speaking of connection, I was just listening to another podcast by Simon Sinek, who I listen to. It's A Bit of optimism, as it's called, and he was interviewing some researcher who was going around Is that the name of the podcast? World, to find there's like five or six places in the world where octogenarians, not octogenarian, centenarian, the people who live over 100 um, are very common. Yeah, and so like, what are you know? Ones in japan, ones in you know africa ones? They're all over right, what are the commonalities?
Speaker 2:And they were talking about how connection is really one of the most, is the most important thing. Like maslov's hierarchy of needs starts off with food and shelter and connection is social. Connection is actually third. They're like, yeah, no, that's wrong. Social connection should be first because it is really, it affects our mood, our you know our rate of heart disease, our rate of Alzheimer's, all this stuff. For people who have more connection in their lives, all of those things are better metrics in their health status. So anyway, I just bring that up. So maybe even in the afterlife, the connection and making resolutions to connect with people eases that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think I mean, if there is a presence, I mean they're reaching out for a purpose and probably that purpose is to make a connection.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I like the idea of, you know, honoring the people who have been before us and we tell stories in this podcast today.
Speaker 1:Yeah, jay talks a lot about understanding where you're at through the history, as you guys have heard. Yeah, I love that story about his garage and John Prine.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, and and going out of his way to look into that history and to be curious about that history and I thought that was very cool.
Speaker 1:Well, and and also you know the reason why this question came up is because he for the previous owner of his of his house. So that's of his house, that's right, he's a very thoughtful human and we hope you guys got that from our interview with him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was lovely.
Speaker 1:Anyway, that's fine.
Speaker 2:Great thanks.
Speaker 1:This has been an episode of Records and Real Estate. Thanks for listening. We hope you enjoyed it. Today's episode was brought to you by Be Realty. Be where you want to be. Be Realty.