The Undercovers present Rogers, Richie & Robinson: the songs of Kenny Rogers, Lionel Richie and Smokey Robinson like you've never heard them before.
World-class singers Luke McMaster, Kevin Pauls and Joel Parisien are on tour, reimagining songs that have become the soundtrack of our lives in astonishing harmonies. Classics like Smokey Robinson's "Cruising", Kenny Rogers' “The Gambler” and Lionel Ritchie's "Endless Love" are just a few on their playlist.
Smokey Robinson has called the group's “Ooh Baby Baby” the best cover of his song he’s ever heard. Discover the stories about the songs and the songwriters, and the connections between them.
The Undercovers are scheduled to perform at the Key West Theater on May 11. Tickets https://thekeywesttheater.com/e/?event=537138
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi and welcome to Key West Sidetracks. I'm Gwen Filosa,
digital editor at Keys weekly newspapers down here in beautiful
Key West Florida.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Thank you so much. Nice to be here. My name
is Kevin Paul and I'm part of the undercovers. I've
been doing music for almost 40 years, but, uh, now
we are together as a group and we've got this
brand new show, Rogers, Richie and Robinson and we're loving it.
And my name is Luke mcmaster and I have been
doing music for far less time than Kevin. Uh, but
(00:33):
I am equally as, um, accomplished
and, uh, loving doing this Rogers, Richie and Robinson show. So,
so much, the three of them are our heroes and
we've even developed a friendship with Smokey Robinson, which we
can talk more about in this interview.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
That is the coolest thing ever tell us about this show. It's, it's,
these are some heavy hitter singers, songwriters that you
are bringing their, their best music live to the stage.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Yeah,
I think the one thing that we love is not
only are these three artists special to us, but each
one of them were kind of a, a page Turner
in pop music in their genre. Like nobody did what
Kenny did for country music before Kenny did it. Lionel
Richie has just been this icon, songwriter and singer and,
and Smokey. There'd be no Motown if it wasn't for smokey. So,
(01:27):
I mean, all three are not only huge on the
charts but they, they represent a real page turn in
pop music and they're just special guys. It's really, really
kind of, uh, uh, an honor to sing their music. It's,
it's really a great
time.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Now I'm gonna start with Smokey Robinson. We'll go to
all three Kenny Rogers, Lionel Richie. I love each of these, uh, artists.
You have a friendship with Smokey Robinson.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Yeah. So
this is Luke, this is Luke talking by the way. And, uh, I,
I'm a, I'm the biggest, we're all fans of Smokey Robinson.
But I, I, since I was a young lad, I've been,
he's been my hero. And part of the reason I
even became a singer was because of my love for
Smokey Robinson. I sing a lot of really high notes
(02:12):
in falsetto and he made that cool
and paved the way for me and my, my blue
eyed soul singing career. And a few years ago I
had the honor of recording an entire album of my
favorite Smokey Robinson songs. And I really reimagined them with
the group and was actually a little bit nervous that
Smokey might hear them because
(02:34):
some of the songs were very reimagined, like a version
of Baby Baby. That's more of a neo soul. Took
it out at 68 times. Set it up by 30
beats per minute. Very, very radical change.
Fast forward, six months after the album is out. And
uh I hear through the grapevine that Smokey is trying
to get a hold of me. Now, initially, I'm thinking
(02:56):
he's mad at me.
I like, did he hear the music if I, but
what's going on? He wants to get a hold of me.
And so, uh, I, I made sure he had my
correct phone number through the grapevine and, and didn't hear
from him. So all of a sudden
I uh the grapevine calls me again and they're like, uh,
(03:16):
Smokey trying to get a hold of you and he
says you aren't calling him back. What is wrong with you?
And so I checked my voicemail, which I'm really bad
about checking. I'm kind of more about texting these days
and I, all of a sudden there's this voice message, hey, Luke,
um Smokey Robinson here, uh give me a call when
you get the chance. I really love what you've done
(03:37):
with my music
and I dropped the phone. I'm like on my knees like,
what have I done? It's been two weeks and I
have not returned this guy's phone call, my hero.
So I frantically call him back. Don't get a hold
of him and in my mind. I'm like, I'm never
going to get a hold of this guy again. This
is a wasted opportunity of my life. Call him back
a couple more times. Get him. He's in his hotel
(03:59):
room on tour
and had the most amazing conversation with him where he
was just like, I love what you guys are doing
so much. Oh, baby, baby, I just love it. It's
so different. Finally, someone did something different with it. I
don't want to hear a cover song. That's just exactly
what I do and blah, blah, blah. So it was
just so encouraging and so just, you know, really reaffirmed
(04:22):
my decision to become a musician and what we're doing
with this show
and, you know, what got really even kind of more
wild is that at the end of the conversation, he's like,
so do you golf? And Kevin and I are love, love, love,
love golfing. Um, and I'm like, yeah, I, I love
the golf. He goes, why don't you come to, to
Palm Springs and, uh, and come golfing with me and
(04:43):
come to my show
and I'm like, uh, it doesn't, I don't, I don't know.
I'm like, instantly, I'm like, yes, when do I need
to be there? And we ended up playing golf together
backstage of the show and have kind of developed a
friendship since then. And it's just been absolutely incredible. And
I really, like, as Kevin said, it's just such an
(05:05):
honor to play this music, but to actually have one
of these icons
um giving us kind of the keys to the city
and saying, you know, you're, you're, you're keeping my legacy,
not only keeping it alive, but you're doing a great job.
It's just
so incredible. I
Speaker 1 (05:19):
love that for you both because it and I, because
what I wanted to bring up was I happen to
uh I live in Key West. Uh The musicians make
their living playing cover songs in the bars, but almost all,
I mean, the ones I've heard, they reimagine the songs
and it's exciting to, to hear stuff, you know, the
(05:40):
stuff you love being play all live music to me
and I like it when they, they reimagine. That's the
perfect word.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Luke kills it and he does such a great job
of his stuff. But I think the one thing that
I love about reimagining this kind of music is
no one's gonna ever be able to say you're trying
to be those guys. You know, we don't, we're not
sitting here trying to pretend we're Lionel Smokey and Kenny. We,
we're paying homage to the, their, their careers. We're paying
(06:11):
tribute to these incredible songs and we're artists ourselves. And
so we're going to reinterpret this as this is, this
is the way we would do these songs. This has
meant the world to us. And what we're
finding is that people are resonating because we're not trying
to be something. We're not, we're being ourselves. There's no
wigs or costumes. The passion for the music comes through,
(06:32):
like I've been doing this for over 40 years. I
have never had more fun in my life. I'm completely rejuvenated.
It feels like I'm starting over. So when you get
to sing these songs, it's something special and, and what
I'm finding is that passion is pouring over the audience
and they're feeling it too
Speaker 1 (06:51):
and, and uh both of you each take some time,
tell me what the playlist, what are, what are some
of the songs that uh that we're going to hear?
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Well,
we do, we do a few medleys. So there's a
couple of times and honestly, we, we'd probably do a
15 hour show if we were going to play all
of their hits because there's just way too many to do. So.
So picking and choosing is not a simple task. But
we wanted every song to be one of these moments
that when the song starts,
(07:19):
they'll start hitting their neighbor and going. Oh Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Remember this, remember this and memories. It's got to be
that song and each of these guys have those iconic songs.
So when you hear the opening line, when you hear
the opening lyric, it sparks memories. That's what this song
is about. It's replaying the soundtrack of our lives of
these people. So, and that's what we love. Yeah. And
(07:39):
I'll just add something to that. Like, I, I think
like we play a, a, most of the songs that
you're gonna want to hear are probably gonna happen.
I refuse to do the show without doing tracks of
my tears. I will quit the group.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
That's the greatest Smokey Robinson in the miracles tracks of
my tears is the greatest one of them. They're all great.
But that's the number one for me.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
It's really, it's really funny that you say that because
uh the last uh the other night in our show
we did a show in Parkland, Florida. Uh I said,
you know, I'm gonna go out on the limb here.
I think this is the greatest Smokey Robinson song
before we did it when I was introducing it. And
I said, not only is it the greatest Smokey Robin song,
I'm going to go out on a more of a
limb and say, I think it's one of the greatest
songs ever, ever written. And it's a very simple song.
(08:22):
It's a very, very simple song, but it is just
the room lights up and I light up and the
band lights up. It's just an incredible song, but we
will make sure we do songs like that. But you're
going to hear some songs that might surprise you. We
do a Kenny Rogers Gospel song called Love Lifted Me.
That's just this transcendent moment. Um Kevin uh doesn't like
to brag but he, he is often performing with the
(08:44):
vocal or the gaither vocal group. Um, and it has
been a gospel, grew up.
Yeah, I've been touring with them for about 20 years and,
and so gospel is what I grew up singing. So
there's just an element of that. That's a part of
what we do. And we're not gonna do a night
without doing, hello, without doing easy without doing lady, those songs,
(09:06):
you know, stuck on you and Gambler, the Gambler. We
actually do a reggae version of the gambler and that's
a whole other story that you kind of have to
come to the show to get the story behind that.
But we,
I also do, we kind of do a, a couple
of surprising things like we do. Uh Is it my,
does that become my condition just, just dropped in? Yeah,
a song that Kenny did back in the day with
(09:26):
the first edition. And so there's some real, but what
we're finding is even the deep cuts when we do
something like that, people are mouthing the words because these
three artists have deep, deep reservoirs of great hits
and most people that love these three artists know that stuff.
And so we're having a blast. Honestly, I can't, I
(09:47):
can't describe it in any other terms other than we
are having a blast. I smile between, between songs, I
sometimes look over at Luke and Joel and I'm like, dude,
I'm having a great time
and yeah, I guess people just have to come to
the show to really understand. Yeah. But yeah, like, uh, it's,
it's just, it's a, there's, it's very effortless and I
think people like, it's funny, you know, sometimes we'll say we'll,
(10:10):
we'll ask people like, ho how many Kenny Rogers fans
we have here. How many Lionel Richie, how many Smokey Robinson?
It's very,
it's very, very, very, very nice. And they're, they're very different. However,
if you love pop music, you love all three of
these artists. And people often ask if you know why
these three particular artists too. And it's like when we
(10:31):
uh spent some time with Smokey, uh we, we asked
him and told him about the show and we just,
we got to know what we were doing. And when
he found out, Kenny Rogers was one of the artists
including himself and obviously Lionel Richie,
he lit up and the first thing he said, Kenny,
that's my guy. That is my guy, one of my
favorite singers, one of my favorite people. I used to
(10:51):
play golf with him. And, and of course, Lionel Richie
wrote some of Kenny's greatest songs and, and you know,
there's just such a tie between the three and there's,
there's these intimate stories that we tell about this really
interesting connection and what we found too is
it makes such a great playlist. Our, our set list
flows like I, I've done tons and tons of, I've been,
(11:12):
I've been also touring for around 30 years. And Kevin for,
and I've never had a set that flow like this. Well, no, they,
they all link together and, and every song moves the
needle for people. And when you see people singing along,
uh you know, looking at their neighbor and smiling, you go,
we're tapping into something here. This is a group of
(11:34):
artists that people genuinely loved and love to remember their
music and, and we are so grateful that we get
to be a
part of it.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
You know, music connects us like nothing else. You, you're
singing songs that people grew up with their wedding songs, their, their,
their songs that they play when they're, they're sad or comforting.
I think it was Graham Marcus who said, uh these
are the chords of memory. He was talking about a
BSY or something. But the chords of memory and there
(12:00):
was tracks of my tears. I mean, I was a
kid when I saw platoon in the theater and there's
a scene where the soldiers are, you know, blowing off steam,
drinking beer, getting high and they're playing tracks of my
tears and it's so powerful.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Yeah, I
remember that.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
It's Lionel Richie is one of my, I grew up
in the eighties, Lionel Richie and Kenny Rogers. Um obviously
Smokey Robinson is a legend and I, I heard that
as well, but Lionel Richie and Kenny Rogers, those, those songs, the,
the voices of all three of these. But the voices
and Kenny Rogers doing the crossover to I was in
(12:36):
that great period where you would hear the country on
the pop stations
and Lionel Richie just blew up. And what a singer
can you talk about the voices because there's certain singers
that you will hear and, and you just feel like,
you know him like Kenny Rogers, he's always the observer.
I love that guy. Like he's always observing like Coward
(12:57):
of the County. He's like, I gotta tell you something girl.
And you know, these songs and the love songs are
from urban cowboy. And um but talk about the voices
and how your voice is
Speaker 2 (13:10):
kind of funny. II I wouldn't sing today if it
wasn't for Lionel. Lionel and King. I, I grew up
with a hairbrush and in front of the mirror pretending
I was them when I was a kid.
And so the phrasing, the way they attack a song,
the way they sing a line, how they come out
of notes, how they start uh start words and phrases
(13:31):
and how they, how they would hold their breaths and
the way they would hold notes. And it's like I
start singing similar to them. I don't ever try to
be them, but I'm, you can see that I'm influenced
by these guys because their music mattered to me. And
it framed the way I approach a song.
And so there's, there's so many elements that we do
(13:52):
that are, you'll go. Oh OK. I get it. But
then we, we kind of have to throw our own
line in there because I can't be Lionel and I
can't be Kenny and we can't be smoky. So I
think the, the really fun part of this is you
see the influence without the uh uh without us trying
to duplicate
and the way they phrased songs made those songs come alive.
(14:16):
And so we're trying to do the same thing when
we get a chance to sit down and sing a lady.
I just, I'm always, I'm itching to go because I
know what it means to me to sing. If nobody
was in the audience, I'd be singing it like crazy.
And when there's people there that it's resonating with, it
just draws more out of you. That's what I love.
The voices just did that. Yeah. And Kevin, uh when
(14:37):
he does lady, he takes it to a whole other stratosphere.
Like he pulls out some of those gospel chomps and
it is people
literally, it's funny. I laugh like you, you're always like
looking for a, wow, when you do a performance and
literally people, wow. And same thing with Joel, uh our
third singer um and piano player and he's a force
(15:00):
to be reckoned with on piano and he doesn't sing
for the first several songs. But when he starts to sing,
people are also taken aback and he does a version
of Hello. That is just this soulful
kind of, uh almost gospel overtones version of it that just,
just blows people away and it's fun for Kevin and I,
because not only do we get to be part of
(15:20):
the show, but we get to be kind of part
of the audience in a way because we will sit
back and be like, ok, like that's Kevin and my
chance to go and
get a drink of water and change our clothes and
do our little, our little clothing change and, and listen
to Joel just light the room up. Um So it's really,
it's really
cool.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
I think um three times a lady is the, the,
the the best song for a friend of mine. They
um someone performed that at his mom's funeral and it
was perfect. I mean, it was just such a beautiful
elegy
Speaker 2 (15:52):
fortunately. And unfortunately, he had so many iconic songs that
he did not only with the Comers but a solo.
So picking his uh we could do uh you know,
a three hour show again just of his hit. So,
and this is volume one. Volume one. We just recorded
our first, the Undercovers album, which was just a joy
(16:13):
to do and we had to pick 12 songs.
But we're, it's going to be called Volume one because they're,
we're already thinking about volume two. It's true and it's
hard to, it's hard to disseminate these guys down to
a 90 minute show. Um So we've tried our best
to pick the, to pick the songs that are iconic
enough that everyone, even if you weren't a Kenny Rogers fan,
(16:35):
you're gonna hear songs like Lady and the Gambler. And
you go, oh, yeah. Yeah, I totally get it. I
totally get it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
One of my favorite songs is, is the Ruby song.
Um I, it's just so powerful, it's almost like literature
but it's, it's kind of rough. I mean, you gotta,
but what do you think of that song has it just,
it's so like, you know what's going on, you know,
what's going on in that song and you feel
that character's, uh, desperation and, and, and, uh, feelings. But
(17:06):
do you guys get to do Ruby?
Speaker 2 (17:07):
We
don't do Ruby, we don't do Coward of the county.
That's probably gonna be volume two because there was, there's
a whole different side to Kenny that we weren't able
to really kind of figure out how it worked in
this set list. So we picked some of the other,
uh songs that we've got tonight.
You gonna be in there, uh Lady and, and the gambler.
So we've reimagined some of the, maybe the more, um,
(17:30):
pop songs. Uh, but I'm looking forward to down the
road getting into some of the, you know, blades of glory.
We do though, that more. We have a really cool
moment where the three of us step to the front
of the stage and, and and do that really just
acoustic with no real mics. And I, I turn my,
uh, amp off on my guitar and, uh, we do
it really, when you say it's kind of old school
(17:51):
like back in the day in the Ryman, especially in
the Grand Ole Opry. My, my dad sang in the
gospel quartet in the fifties and sixties. And he used
to always brag to me, we didn't need, uh, an amplifier.
We had one microphone, no, no mic on the guitar
and four vocals. And so that's the way they would
do it back in the day. And especially if they
and doing the old um the, the Grand Ole Opry,
(18:11):
they would do things old school like that because that's
all they had. And so we kind of have Blades
of Glory was a song produced uh for Kenny by Lionel.
And most people don't know this, but Lionel Richie is
actually more country than Kenny ever was. He grew up
in Tuskegee, Alabama. And so he was raised on the
roots
music. And so we kind of take this back in
(18:33):
the day. We create some moments in the show that
are very unexpected with songs you wouldn't necessarily get. That's
what I love people going. I know this song, but
I've never heard it like that. This is really, really
cool and those are the moments that we live for
and it's kind of reigniting people's passion for this music
and these these artists.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Well, I'm just, um, I'm so grateful you took some
time out and I, I uh oh, and, and with
Kenny Rogers, I'm going on the record. The Gambler. I
don't believe it can ever be overplayed. I was listening
to it the other day. It's perfect song and, and
the character.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
And isn't it a great
song?
Speaker 1 (19:10):
It's a yarn. It's like a yarn also. It's really
good advice. I'm not
trying to be funny. It really is. He's giving us
very good advice. You do need to know when to
hold him and when to fold him. It's, it's me.
It's metaphorical, but I've, I've been learning poker lately and I,
(19:32):
I do, I've learned those tips are good.
Don't count the money. I always want to count the money.
I mean, of these singers, they have soul. I mean,
they just have something that, that they uh the vulnerability
or the, the, the courage to just be authentically emotional
(19:54):
and heartbroken that that's
Speaker 2 (19:56):
what separated them. Yeah, that's what separated them for sure.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
You make people so happy too. And that's, I mean,
these are, these are like, uh it's not just memory lane. It's,
it's just making people feel uh remembering good. We, we
can't have enough happy these days fellas.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
This show is good to, to just bring out the
happy and lose yourself for 90 minutes. Remembering some of
the greatest artists that ever lived.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Well, thank you both so much for taking the time
to be on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
We appreciate, we appreciate your support and support for live music.
We need live music. And uh so thank you as
well
Speaker 1 (20:35):
and thank you for listening to Sidetracks. I'm Gwen Filosa.
I'll be back next week with a new episode. Check
us out online, keys, weekly.com. No paywalls. We don't make
you sign up with your email. It is all free
and for the taking.
Thank you for supporting local journalism. Talk to you later.
Hi and welcome to Key West Sidetracks. I'm Gwen Filosa,
digital editor at Keys weekly newspapers down here in beautiful
Key West Florida.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Thank you so much. Nice to be here. My name
is Kevin Paul and I'm part of the undercovers. I've
been doing music for almost 40 years, but, uh, now
we are together as a group and we've got this
brand new show, Rogers, Richie and Robinson and we're loving it.
And my name is Luke mcmaster and I have been
doing music for far less time than Kevin. Uh, but
(00:33):
I am equally as, um, accomplished
and, uh, loving doing this Rogers, Richie and Robinson show. So,
so much, the three of them are our heroes and
we've even developed a friendship with Smokey Robinson, which we
can talk more about in this interview.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
That is the coolest thing ever tell us about this show. It's, it's,
these are some heavy hitter singers, songwriters that you
are bringing their, their best music live to the stage.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Yeah,
I think the one thing that we love is not
only are these three artists special to us, but each
one of them were kind of a, a page Turner
in pop music in their genre. Like nobody did what
Kenny did for country music before Kenny did it. Lionel
Richie has just been this icon, songwriter and singer and,
and Smokey. There'd be no Motown if it wasn't for smokey. So,
(01:27):
I mean, all three are not only huge on the
charts but they, they represent a real page turn in
pop music and they're just special guys. It's really, really
kind of, uh, uh, an honor to sing their music. It's,
it's really a great
time.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Now I'm gonna start with Smokey Robinson. We'll go to
all three Kenny Rogers, Lionel Richie. I love each of these, uh, artists.
You have a friendship with Smokey Robinson.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Yeah. So
this is Luke, this is Luke talking by the way. And, uh, I,
I'm a, I'm the biggest, we're all fans of Smokey Robinson.
But I, I, since I was a young lad, I've been,
he's been my hero. And part of the reason I
even became a singer was because of my love for
Smokey Robinson. I sing a lot of really high notes
(02:12):
in falsetto and he made that cool
and paved the way for me and my, my blue
eyed soul singing career. And a few years ago I
had the honor of recording an entire album of my
favorite Smokey Robinson songs. And I really reimagined them with
the group and was actually a little bit nervous that
Smokey might hear them because
(02:34):
some of the songs were very reimagined, like a version
of Baby Baby. That's more of a neo soul. Took
it out at 68 times. Set it up by 30
beats per minute. Very, very radical change.
Fast forward, six months after the album is out. And
uh I hear through the grapevine that Smokey is trying
to get a hold of me. Now, initially, I'm thinking
(02:56):
he's mad at me.
I like, did he hear the music if I, but
what's going on? He wants to get a hold of me.
And so, uh, I, I made sure he had my
correct phone number through the grapevine and, and didn't hear
from him. So all of a sudden
I uh the grapevine calls me again and they're like, uh,
(03:16):
Smokey trying to get a hold of you and he
says you aren't calling him back. What is wrong with you?
And so I checked my voicemail, which I'm really bad
about checking. I'm kind of more about texting these days
and I, all of a sudden there's this voice message, hey, Luke,
um Smokey Robinson here, uh give me a call when
you get the chance. I really love what you've done
(03:37):
with my music
and I dropped the phone. I'm like on my knees like,
what have I done? It's been two weeks and I
have not returned this guy's phone call, my hero.
So I frantically call him back. Don't get a hold
of him and in my mind. I'm like, I'm never
going to get a hold of this guy again. This
is a wasted opportunity of my life. Call him back
a couple more times. Get him. He's in his hotel
(03:59):
room on tour
and had the most amazing conversation with him where he
was just like, I love what you guys are doing
so much. Oh, baby, baby, I just love it. It's
so different. Finally, someone did something different with it. I
don't want to hear a cover song. That's just exactly
what I do and blah, blah, blah. So it was
just so encouraging and so just, you know, really reaffirmed
(04:22):
my decision to become a musician and what we're doing
with this show
and, you know, what got really even kind of more
wild is that at the end of the conversation, he's like,
so do you golf? And Kevin and I are love, love, love,
love golfing. Um, and I'm like, yeah, I, I love
the golf. He goes, why don't you come to, to
Palm Springs and, uh, and come golfing with me and
(04:43):
come to my show
and I'm like, uh, it doesn't, I don't, I don't know.
I'm like, instantly, I'm like, yes, when do I need
to be there? And we ended up playing golf together
backstage of the show and have kind of developed a
friendship since then. And it's just been absolutely incredible. And
I really, like, as Kevin said, it's just such an
(05:05):
honor to play this music, but to actually have one
of these icons
um giving us kind of the keys to the city
and saying, you know, you're, you're, you're keeping my legacy,
not only keeping it alive, but you're doing a great job.
It's just
so incredible. I
Speaker 1 (05:19):
love that for you both because it and I, because
what I wanted to bring up was I happen to
uh I live in Key West. Uh The musicians make
their living playing cover songs in the bars, but almost all,
I mean, the ones I've heard, they reimagine the songs
and it's exciting to, to hear stuff, you know, the
(05:40):
stuff you love being play all live music to me
and I like it when they, they reimagine. That's the
perfect word.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Luke kills it and he does such a great job
of his stuff. But I think the one thing that
I love about reimagining this kind of music is
no one's gonna ever be able to say you're trying
to be those guys. You know, we don't, we're not
sitting here trying to pretend we're Lionel Smokey and Kenny. We,
we're paying homage to the, their, their careers. We're paying
(06:11):
tribute to these incredible songs and we're artists ourselves. And
so we're going to reinterpret this as this is, this
is the way we would do these songs. This has
meant the world to us. And what we're
finding is that people are resonating because we're not trying
to be something. We're not, we're being ourselves. There's no
wigs or costumes. The passion for the music comes through,
(06:32):
like I've been doing this for over 40 years. I
have never had more fun in my life. I'm completely rejuvenated.
It feels like I'm starting over. So when you get
to sing these songs, it's something special and, and what
I'm finding is that passion is pouring over the audience
and they're feeling it too
Speaker 1 (06:51):
and, and uh both of you each take some time,
tell me what the playlist, what are, what are some
of the songs that uh that we're going to hear?
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Well,
we do, we do a few medleys. So there's a
couple of times and honestly, we, we'd probably do a
15 hour show if we were going to play all
of their hits because there's just way too many to do. So.
So picking and choosing is not a simple task. But
we wanted every song to be one of these moments
that when the song starts,
(07:19):
they'll start hitting their neighbor and going. Oh Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Remember this, remember this and memories. It's got to be
that song and each of these guys have those iconic songs.
So when you hear the opening line, when you hear
the opening lyric, it sparks memories. That's what this song
is about. It's replaying the soundtrack of our lives of
these people. So, and that's what we love. Yeah. And
(07:39):
I'll just add something to that. Like, I, I think
like we play a, a, most of the songs that
you're gonna want to hear are probably gonna happen.
I refuse to do the show without doing tracks of
my tears. I will quit the group.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
That's the greatest Smokey Robinson in the miracles tracks of
my tears is the greatest one of them. They're all great.
But that's the number one for me.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
It's really, it's really funny that you say that because
uh the last uh the other night in our show
we did a show in Parkland, Florida. Uh I said,
you know, I'm gonna go out on the limb here.
I think this is the greatest Smokey Robinson song
before we did it when I was introducing it. And
I said, not only is it the greatest Smokey Robin song,
I'm going to go out on a more of a
limb and say, I think it's one of the greatest
songs ever, ever written. And it's a very simple song.
(08:22):
It's a very, very simple song, but it is just
the room lights up and I light up and the
band lights up. It's just an incredible song, but we
will make sure we do songs like that. But you're
going to hear some songs that might surprise you. We
do a Kenny Rogers Gospel song called Love Lifted Me.
That's just this transcendent moment. Um Kevin uh doesn't like
to brag but he, he is often performing with the
(08:44):
vocal or the gaither vocal group. Um, and it has
been a gospel, grew up.
Yeah, I've been touring with them for about 20 years and,
and so gospel is what I grew up singing. So
there's just an element of that. That's a part of
what we do. And we're not gonna do a night
without doing, hello, without doing easy without doing lady, those songs,
(09:06):
you know, stuck on you and Gambler, the Gambler. We
actually do a reggae version of the gambler and that's
a whole other story that you kind of have to
come to the show to get the story behind that.
But we,
I also do, we kind of do a, a couple
of surprising things like we do. Uh Is it my,
does that become my condition just, just dropped in? Yeah,
a song that Kenny did back in the day with
(09:26):
the first edition. And so there's some real, but what
we're finding is even the deep cuts when we do
something like that, people are mouthing the words because these
three artists have deep, deep reservoirs of great hits
and most people that love these three artists know that stuff.
And so we're having a blast. Honestly, I can't, I
(09:47):
can't describe it in any other terms other than we
are having a blast. I smile between, between songs, I
sometimes look over at Luke and Joel and I'm like, dude,
I'm having a great time
and yeah, I guess people just have to come to
the show to really understand. Yeah. But yeah, like, uh, it's,
it's just, it's a, there's, it's very effortless and I
think people like, it's funny, you know, sometimes we'll say we'll,
(10:10):
we'll ask people like, ho how many Kenny Rogers fans
we have here. How many Lionel Richie, how many Smokey Robinson?
It's very,
it's very, very, very, very nice. And they're, they're very different. However,
if you love pop music, you love all three of
these artists. And people often ask if you know why
these three particular artists too. And it's like when we
(10:31):
uh spent some time with Smokey, uh we, we asked
him and told him about the show and we just,
we got to know what we were doing. And when
he found out, Kenny Rogers was one of the artists
including himself and obviously Lionel Richie,
he lit up and the first thing he said, Kenny,
that's my guy. That is my guy, one of my
favorite singers, one of my favorite people. I used to
(10:51):
play golf with him. And, and of course, Lionel Richie
wrote some of Kenny's greatest songs and, and you know,
there's just such a tie between the three and there's,
there's these intimate stories that we tell about this really
interesting connection and what we found too is
it makes such a great playlist. Our, our set list
flows like I, I've done tons and tons of, I've been,
(11:12):
I've been also touring for around 30 years. And Kevin for,
and I've never had a set that flow like this. Well, no, they,
they all link together and, and every song moves the
needle for people. And when you see people singing along,
uh you know, looking at their neighbor and smiling, you go,
we're tapping into something here. This is a group of
(11:34):
artists that people genuinely loved and love to remember their
music and, and we are so grateful that we get
to be a
part of it.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
You know, music connects us like nothing else. You, you're
singing songs that people grew up with their wedding songs, their, their,
their songs that they play when they're, they're sad or comforting.
I think it was Graham Marcus who said, uh these
are the chords of memory. He was talking about a
BSY or something. But the chords of memory and there
(12:00):
was tracks of my tears. I mean, I was a
kid when I saw platoon in the theater and there's
a scene where the soldiers are, you know, blowing off steam,
drinking beer, getting high and they're playing tracks of my
tears and it's so powerful.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Yeah, I
remember that.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
It's Lionel Richie is one of my, I grew up
in the eighties, Lionel Richie and Kenny Rogers. Um obviously
Smokey Robinson is a legend and I, I heard that
as well, but Lionel Richie and Kenny Rogers, those, those songs, the,
the voices of all three of these. But the voices
and Kenny Rogers doing the crossover to I was in
(12:36):
that great period where you would hear the country on
the pop stations
and Lionel Richie just blew up. And what a singer
can you talk about the voices because there's certain singers
that you will hear and, and you just feel like,
you know him like Kenny Rogers, he's always the observer.
I love that guy. Like he's always observing like Coward
(12:57):
of the County. He's like, I gotta tell you something girl.
And you know, these songs and the love songs are
from urban cowboy. And um but talk about the voices
and how your voice is
Speaker 2 (13:10):
kind of funny. II I wouldn't sing today if it
wasn't for Lionel. Lionel and King. I, I grew up
with a hairbrush and in front of the mirror pretending
I was them when I was a kid.
And so the phrasing, the way they attack a song,
the way they sing a line, how they come out
of notes, how they start uh start words and phrases
(13:31):
and how they, how they would hold their breaths and
the way they would hold notes. And it's like I
start singing similar to them. I don't ever try to
be them, but I'm, you can see that I'm influenced
by these guys because their music mattered to me. And
it framed the way I approach a song.
And so there's, there's so many elements that we do
(13:52):
that are, you'll go. Oh OK. I get it. But
then we, we kind of have to throw our own
line in there because I can't be Lionel and I
can't be Kenny and we can't be smoky. So I
think the, the really fun part of this is you
see the influence without the uh uh without us trying
to duplicate
and the way they phrased songs made those songs come alive.
(14:16):
And so we're trying to do the same thing when
we get a chance to sit down and sing a lady.
I just, I'm always, I'm itching to go because I
know what it means to me to sing. If nobody
was in the audience, I'd be singing it like crazy.
And when there's people there that it's resonating with, it
just draws more out of you. That's what I love.
The voices just did that. Yeah. And Kevin, uh when
(14:37):
he does lady, he takes it to a whole other stratosphere.
Like he pulls out some of those gospel chomps and
it is people
literally, it's funny. I laugh like you, you're always like
looking for a, wow, when you do a performance and
literally people, wow. And same thing with Joel, uh our
third singer um and piano player and he's a force
(15:00):
to be reckoned with on piano and he doesn't sing
for the first several songs. But when he starts to sing,
people are also taken aback and he does a version
of Hello. That is just this soulful
kind of, uh almost gospel overtones version of it that just,
just blows people away and it's fun for Kevin and I,
because not only do we get to be part of
(15:20):
the show, but we get to be kind of part
of the audience in a way because we will sit
back and be like, ok, like that's Kevin and my
chance to go and
get a drink of water and change our clothes and
do our little, our little clothing change and, and listen
to Joel just light the room up. Um So it's really,
it's really
cool.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
I think um three times a lady is the, the,
the the best song for a friend of mine. They
um someone performed that at his mom's funeral and it
was perfect. I mean, it was just such a beautiful
elegy
Speaker 2 (15:52):
fortunately. And unfortunately, he had so many iconic songs that
he did not only with the Comers but a solo.
So picking his uh we could do uh you know,
a three hour show again just of his hit. So,
and this is volume one. Volume one. We just recorded
our first, the Undercovers album, which was just a joy
(16:13):
to do and we had to pick 12 songs.
But we're, it's going to be called Volume one because they're,
we're already thinking about volume two. It's true and it's
hard to, it's hard to disseminate these guys down to
a 90 minute show. Um So we've tried our best
to pick the, to pick the songs that are iconic
enough that everyone, even if you weren't a Kenny Rogers fan,
(16:35):
you're gonna hear songs like Lady and the Gambler. And
you go, oh, yeah. Yeah, I totally get it. I
totally get it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
One of my favorite songs is, is the Ruby song.
Um I, it's just so powerful, it's almost like literature
but it's, it's kind of rough. I mean, you gotta,
but what do you think of that song has it just,
it's so like, you know what's going on, you know,
what's going on in that song and you feel
that character's, uh, desperation and, and, and, uh, feelings. But
(17:06):
do you guys get to do Ruby?
Speaker 2 (17:07):
We
don't do Ruby, we don't do Coward of the county.
That's probably gonna be volume two because there was, there's
a whole different side to Kenny that we weren't able
to really kind of figure out how it worked in
this set list. So we picked some of the other,
uh songs that we've got tonight.
You gonna be in there, uh Lady and, and the gambler.
So we've reimagined some of the, maybe the more, um,
(17:30):
pop songs. Uh, but I'm looking forward to down the
road getting into some of the, you know, blades of glory.
We do though, that more. We have a really cool
moment where the three of us step to the front
of the stage and, and and do that really just
acoustic with no real mics. And I, I turn my,
uh, amp off on my guitar and, uh, we do
it really, when you say it's kind of old school
(17:51):
like back in the day in the Ryman, especially in
the Grand Ole Opry. My, my dad sang in the
gospel quartet in the fifties and sixties. And he used
to always brag to me, we didn't need, uh, an amplifier.
We had one microphone, no, no mic on the guitar
and four vocals. And so that's the way they would
do it back in the day. And especially if they
and doing the old um the, the Grand Ole Opry,
(18:11):
they would do things old school like that because that's
all they had. And so we kind of have Blades
of Glory was a song produced uh for Kenny by Lionel.
And most people don't know this, but Lionel Richie is
actually more country than Kenny ever was. He grew up
in Tuskegee, Alabama. And so he was raised on the
roots
music. And so we kind of take this back in
(18:33):
the day. We create some moments in the show that
are very unexpected with songs you wouldn't necessarily get. That's
what I love people going. I know this song, but
I've never heard it like that. This is really, really
cool and those are the moments that we live for
and it's kind of reigniting people's passion for this music
and these these artists.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Well, I'm just, um, I'm so grateful you took some
time out and I, I uh oh, and, and with
Kenny Rogers, I'm going on the record. The Gambler. I
don't believe it can ever be overplayed. I was listening
to it the other day. It's perfect song and, and
the character.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
And isn't it a great
song?
Speaker 1 (19:10):
It's a yarn. It's like a yarn also. It's really
good advice. I'm not
trying to be funny. It really is. He's giving us
very good advice. You do need to know when to
hold him and when to fold him. It's, it's me.
It's metaphorical, but I've, I've been learning poker lately and I,
(19:32):
I do, I've learned those tips are good.
Don't count the money. I always want to count the money.
I mean, of these singers, they have soul. I mean,
they just have something that, that they uh the vulnerability
or the, the, the courage to just be authentically emotional
(19:54):
and heartbroken that that's
Speaker 2 (19:56):
what separated them. Yeah, that's what separated them for sure.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
You make people so happy too. And that's, I mean,
these are, these are like, uh it's not just memory lane. It's,
it's just making people feel uh remembering good. We, we
can't have enough happy these days fellas.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
This show is good to, to just bring out the
happy and lose yourself for 90 minutes. Remembering some of
the greatest artists that ever lived.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Well, thank you both so much for taking the time
to be on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
We appreciate, we appreciate your support and support for live music.
We need live music. And uh so thank you as
well
Speaker 1 (20:35):
and thank you for listening to Sidetracks. I'm Gwen Filosa.
I'll be back next week with a new episode. Check
us out online, keys, weekly.com. No paywalls. We don't make
you sign up with your email. It is all free
and for the taking.
Thank you for supporting local journalism. Talk to you later.
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