Pipeman Interviews Tophouse at Bourbon & Beyond 2025

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Bourbon & Beyond is the World’s Largest Bourbon, Food & Music Fest

Bourbon & Beyond Kicked Off America’s 8 Biggest Days In Music on September 11-14 In Louisville, Kentucky  

World’s Largest Bourbon, Food & Music Festival Featured Headliners The Lumineers, Benson Boone, Alabama Shakes (Thursday), Phish, Khruangbin, Joe Bonamassa (Friday), Sturgill “Johnny Blue Skies” Simpson, Jack White, Vance Joy (Saturday), Noah Kahan, Goo Goo Dolls, Megan Moroney (Sunday), Plus Dozens More Rock, Americana, Bluegrass And Alt Rock Artists Along With Elevated Bourbon & Culinary Experiences.  

The seventh Bourbon & Beyond welcomed fans from over 50 states and around the globe and over 120 music artists on five stages to Louisville, Kentucky over the weekend. The World’s Largest Bourbon, Food & Music Festival was held from September 11-14 at the at Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville, Kentucky and featured an incredible music lineup of music legends and rising stars with headliners The Lumineers, Benson Boone and Alabama Shakes on Thursday; Phish, Khruangbin and Joe Bonamassa on Friday; Sturgill “Johnny Blue Skies” Simpson, Jack White and Vance Joy on Saturday; and Noah Kahan, Goo Goo Dolls and Megan Moroney on Sunday. The lineup also included Cage The Elephant, Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo, Collective Soul, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Iron & Wine, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, Switchfoot, Third Eye Blind, Ringo Starr & His All Star Band, Pixies, Lake Street Dive, Dashboard Confessional, Foreigner, Blues Traveler and many others.  

This year, Bourbon & Beyond’s newly expanded footprint doubled the square footage of past layouts, and made greater use of the Kentucky Exposition Center’s infrastructure, creating a more comfortable and resilient experience for fans. In addition, all festival passes included FREE access to amusement rides inside Kentucky Kingdom.

This year’s festival was packed with unforgettable performances, surprise collaborations, and historic moments that will be remembered for years to come.   Take some zany and serious journeys with The Pipeman aka Dean K. Piper, CST on The Adventures of Pipeman also known as Pipeman Radio syndicated globally “Where Who Knows And Anything Goes.”  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hi, you have done too, Yes, that's true.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Why for you?

Speaker 1 (00:12):
You?

Speaker 3 (00:22):
This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe
Man W four C Y Radio, and I'm here.

Speaker 4 (00:27):
With Top House nice here at Bourbon and beyond.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
Heck, yeah, I heard you. Guys just ran a five
k before you're set? Is that true?

Speaker 1 (00:38):
We run a five k every morning as a band.
That's not true.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
No, we don't have K in the United States. We
have him.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
Yeah, and I live in the States and they still
call it a five k.

Speaker 4 (00:51):
Right, it's weird, right, it's.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Part of Big metrics plan to take over the imperial system.

Speaker 4 (00:56):
That's true.

Speaker 3 (00:57):
They're not succeeding in the UK because over there they
do both. Right.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
They did it to themselves though.

Speaker 3 (01:05):
But you don't know which one it is, Like maybe
one day it could be one, the other day it
could be another.

Speaker 4 (01:11):
You don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:12):
It's like it's just as confused as driving on the
wrong side of the road.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Maybe we just need less measurement. We can just do
stone for everything.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
I like the way Costa Rica is with the GPS.
It's like turn left at the pink house. Oh that's
the direction. That's good because there's no streets and.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Then instead of running a five K, you ran pink House.

Speaker 4 (01:33):
Yeah back exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
You can abbreviate that.

Speaker 4 (01:35):
I'm sure something like that. Yeah, it'll be the top
pink House.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Oh, I see what you did there. Look at that
the top House jokes.

Speaker 3 (01:43):
So what's even better about jokes is I was dying
reading your guys bio on your website.

Speaker 4 (01:51):
Okay, so I.

Speaker 3 (01:53):
Want each one of you introduce yourself and see how
much you can repeat of your bio for the list,
because it's good.

Speaker 5 (02:01):
That's gonna be tough.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
I think that I came up with the bio and
I was like trying to figure out what to say
about each one of us, and I spent like all
of ten seconds just typing into the computer, and I
don't remember what I think.

Speaker 5 (02:12):
Let's see, I'm Joe.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
I sing and pretend to play the banjo sometimes for
Top House the band LLC.

Speaker 4 (02:22):
That was perfect.

Speaker 6 (02:24):
This I'm William.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
This is my fault.

Speaker 6 (02:26):
I wrote the original bios, and Joe's bio was Joe
enjoys playing Battlefield one. That was his entire bio. So
this is all revenge. But I'm William Cook. I played
the violin and I enjoy Minecraft I'm betting it says
that somewhere.

Speaker 4 (02:43):
It wasn't on there.

Speaker 3 (02:44):
No Micraft, Oh anybody else have guesses that didn't write it.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
I didn't write mine. I'm Jesse. I play guitar and mandolin,
and am I the most handsome member in Top House?

Speaker 5 (03:00):
No?

Speaker 4 (03:02):
Are you the best man to lend player in Top Hounds?

Speaker 2 (03:07):
Arguable? Arguable?

Speaker 4 (03:10):
Okay, how about you?

Speaker 7 (03:12):
My name is Eli Isbell and I'm not on the website.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
I played piano and I pretend to be Andy LeFave
sometimes nice? What would what would you want it to say? Though?
Actually Joe wrote them all.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
Eli is the most handsome member of the band. That
makes sense.

Speaker 4 (03:30):
Nice, who's the stand up comedian? Cause that you have that?

Speaker 5 (03:35):
I think that I put that in for Jesse for
his bibs.

Speaker 3 (03:37):
That makes sense because I thought that the man he
started talking in the interview.

Speaker 5 (03:41):
He needed that boot, that morale boost.

Speaker 3 (03:43):
Who's the one that auditioned for like fifty two years before.

Speaker 5 (03:47):
That was Andy. He's the one that's not here with us.

Speaker 3 (03:51):
See all that work, and he just now you gave
it to him, and he's like, fuck it, I don't have.

Speaker 4 (03:58):
To do anything.

Speaker 5 (03:58):
We gave it to him we can take it on.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
So, oh my god, that's good ship though. Really seriously, so,
how has your experience been at Bourban Beyond so far?
Excepting run over by a five k run while you're
trying to sound check?

Speaker 5 (04:17):
So far?

Speaker 2 (04:19):
Little moist?

Speaker 5 (04:20):
Yeah it's little moist. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (04:22):
Oh yeah, well you where are you guys from? Again?

Speaker 5 (04:24):
We live in Nashville. We're from at your front. Yeah,
so we don't go humidity, Yeah, they don't.

Speaker 3 (04:29):
I live in South Florida, so this is like low
this is low humidity.

Speaker 5 (04:34):
Right, it's like winter right here.

Speaker 4 (04:36):
Yeah, I had to bring my jacket. I know.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
It's like eighty nine out. So funny about in the
van if you want to buy one?

Speaker 3 (04:45):
What's so funny about that? It's two thigs Because I'm
originally from the north. So people in Florida when it
hits seventy five, it's not a joke.

Speaker 4 (04:56):
They're working park of like, are you freaking serious?

Speaker 3 (05:00):
But I will say the humidity when it gets down
to like forty, I'm fucking cold.

Speaker 5 (05:06):
I agree with that.

Speaker 3 (05:06):
And I could wear a T shirt in like New
Jersey at forty no problem.

Speaker 5 (05:11):
It's different.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
Now I've been colder in Nashville than I have in Montana.

Speaker 5 (05:14):
Sometimes you know.

Speaker 3 (05:15):
A trip, it's a trip. Then that dry heat, the
dry winter, you don't get that. So then there's the
other thing is you do have to bring your ski
jacket with you at all times in case you go
into a restaurant, right.

Speaker 4 (05:30):
I like, I don't get it.

Speaker 3 (05:32):
If I wanted to live in with their weather, I
wouldn't be in Florida.

Speaker 4 (05:36):
Why are you making the restaurant winter.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
The funny thing is in Montana you also bring your
big jacket. Like most I think Montana's drive around with
a big park or big coat in their car, not
for when they go into the restaurant, but usually for
when they go out of the restaurant because you never
know what the weather's gonna do. All it just got.
It could be dead a summer it's like one hundred
degrees out, but everybody still has that coat send their

(05:59):
back in the back of their ca are just ready
to go.

Speaker 5 (06:01):
It's like the.

Speaker 3 (06:01):
UK, like I do festivals over there, and literally it's
fucking bipolar all the time. One interview, I'm wearing a hoodie,
the next one I'm taking it off because I'm hot,
Then I'm cold. Again, then downpours rain, and then it's cold,
and you have all four seasons in one hour.

Speaker 2 (06:19):
That sounds like you might have an large prostate. I
watched all of House.

Speaker 3 (06:22):
I got it tested, Okay, like when I got back, gotcha?

Speaker 2 (06:27):
Never mind?

Speaker 4 (06:28):
Then what about House? So tell us about how.

Speaker 2 (06:30):
I've watched all of House? Are you the TV show? Now?
I am?

Speaker 3 (06:35):
I was gonna say yeah, because that's what happens no day.
You watch a YouTube video, all of a sudden, you're
a podcaster. You watch a YouTube video, all of a sudden,
you're a musician.

Speaker 2 (06:43):
You pick up a mandolin, and all of a sudden,
you're still not a mandolin player.

Speaker 3 (06:48):
Yeah, listen, I've never even picked up a mandolin, but
I know I'm an expert at it.

Speaker 2 (06:53):
Oh that's the spirit, right, This is the Dunning Kruger effects.

Speaker 3 (07:00):
The dude want, though, is what is the How is
the difference playing a mandolin over a guitar?

Speaker 2 (07:06):
It's everything's a little bit worse. Everything is there's double
the string, so you have to press down a little
bit harder, but there's half the space, so you have
to press down or you have to be more accurate
with your fingers and A real mandolin player wouldn't have
an issue with it because they're a real mandolin player.
But I'm a guitar player that picked up the mandolin,

(07:26):
and every time I pick it up, after I spend
the first thirty minutes of my life tuning it, I
start playing it. I'm like, why did I do this
to myself?

Speaker 4 (07:33):
Tell me.

Speaker 3 (07:33):
I've been in like guitar center and I've seen mandolin,
so I'm like, oh, I want to just get one,
cause it's like a weird thing with me with instruments.
I'm like, I look at it, it's like, oh, a
new toy. I may not play it, but it's a
good new Yeah. But I'm thinking maybe.

Speaker 4 (07:48):
It's easier than the guitar because I sucked at the guitar.

Speaker 3 (07:51):
My hands are small, so I'm figuring I don't have
to stretch as far.

Speaker 2 (07:55):
I think, just get a small guitar.

Speaker 4 (07:57):
How funny, even better?

Speaker 3 (08:00):
How far you would it be if you started a
bad and you were literally playing a kid's guitar, a
real kid's guitar.

Speaker 2 (08:07):
Never been done. You could do it.

Speaker 4 (08:09):
I could do that, and I could wear a mask
of a kid.

Speaker 7 (08:13):
Yeah, yeah, and your tour bus could be a van
and you have a bunch of candy, and you'll say, wait, wait.

Speaker 3 (08:25):
Wait, we don't want to go that far because somebody's
got to censored as far.

Speaker 2 (08:28):
Oh okay, maybe not a van, maybe a truck, school bus,
school bus, ice cream truck, ice cream truck.

Speaker 4 (08:35):
There we go, that's perfect. How about but wait a minute,
there's a good idea.

Speaker 3 (08:43):
I wear that mask and then we get I get
really big, and then I'm like, do one live show.
I'm like, haha, fuckers, and take off the mask and
I'm a fifty eight year old dude.

Speaker 5 (08:52):
Everyone's shocked. Wow.

Speaker 1 (08:54):
Would you do something in your voice too, or just
like have it like taking a helium balloon with you?

Speaker 3 (09:00):
That just an IV during the show, a helium like
said the whole time.

Speaker 4 (09:05):
I'm just like, hang, well, let's go guys.

Speaker 2 (09:10):
You should get a trench coat so that it looks
like you're pretending to be two kids, pretending to be
an adult in a trench coat. But then when you
take off your mask and the trench coat, it's actually
just an adult in the trench coat.

Speaker 3 (09:22):
I do not ever want to rate rent space in
your mind.

Speaker 4 (09:26):
Man.

Speaker 1 (09:30):
So you're William, why don't you take this what yeah,
talk about your music?

Speaker 4 (09:36):
Okay, we gotta we gotta recover this interview.

Speaker 3 (09:40):
Oh no, so wait before you go, here's what I
want to do because I love the fact that you
guys have so many different types of influences of genre,
because I hate the fucking genre bullshit, like putting a
label on the artist. Just be an artist and play
whatever the fuck you want to play. So this is
a game I play, is if you were to make

(10:02):
up your own genre, because that's how silly it is
nowadays anyway that like one band fits into a genre
that only.

Speaker 4 (10:09):
You fit into. What would you call it?

Speaker 6 (10:12):
Mountain folk pup nice.

Speaker 4 (10:15):
You've got the Irish part, You've got the Irish part.

Speaker 6 (10:18):
Oh yeah, we could say Celtic influenced Irish folk pop
with a side of classical violin sometimes if I feel like.

Speaker 3 (10:26):
It nice And you could even add on with a
bonus comedy show.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
It's true.

Speaker 6 (10:36):
You have a Q and A during during our sets
if someone breaks a string or of like, there's just
a lull for whatever reason, where we'll answer questions from
the audience, and it always it's always interesting.

Speaker 3 (10:46):
You mean, you don't do things like David Lee Rotham
say oh, fuck your girlfriend to somebody in the crowd
during those low moments after you forgot the words.

Speaker 2 (10:54):
Not usually our low moments are a little different.

Speaker 3 (10:59):
Different you say, different coming from you, I'm thinking, oh,
that's bad.

Speaker 2 (11:04):
I just mean we don't threaten sexual intercourse on anybody
here at Top House LLC.

Speaker 4 (11:10):
They threatened on you.

Speaker 2 (11:12):
Actually that's maybe more accurate. Actually, yeah, see.

Speaker 4 (11:15):
There you go. Yeah, yeah, don't threaten that.

Speaker 3 (11:18):
That's so nineteen eighty man do that in twenty twenty.

Speaker 4 (11:22):
Yeah, So what got going on after Bourbon beyond?

Speaker 2 (11:28):
That's a great question, Joe take it from here.

Speaker 1 (11:31):
Well, I think we're doing a little mid Midwest run
right now. So after this we're in Cleveland and then Icago, Milwaukee,
few other areas around there, des Moines, I think, yeah,
And I don't know anytime we're home. We're just trying
to write music right now.

Speaker 3 (11:47):
So nice, nice, And so how has your music evolved
like over the years as you experiment more get more
creative with your craft.

Speaker 1 (11:59):
I think, what, at least one thing I can point
to is we used to be a little bit more
afraid of taking risks in this or I guess building
songs in the studio that we wouldn't.

Speaker 5 (12:08):
Be able to replicate live.

Speaker 1 (12:09):
Yeah, because we were very much like, well, if we
make it in the studio, we have to play live.
And I think we've more and more evolved into the
idea that we can build whatever we want in the
studio and then we'll just figure it out live after
the fact. So I think that's how us evolve and
get a little more like orchestral.

Speaker 3 (12:25):
Especially too, by the way, after you wrote so many songs,
you can't play them all live in a set, so
might as well throw some good ones in that you
may never play live until like twenty years later.

Speaker 2 (12:37):
Yeah, no, no.

Speaker 6 (12:38):
So for a great example of that, in this next album,
there's an entire like twenty minute song all children's choir,
all hummed, and we aren't ever gonna be able to
recreate that on stage, right, But I think it's.

Speaker 4 (12:50):
Pretty cool though.

Speaker 3 (12:50):
Man, that's like Pink Floyd when they did another Brick
and Wall. You can't really duplicate that perfectly on stage either, So.

Speaker 4 (12:59):
I think that's cool. What gave you the idea to
do that?

Speaker 6 (13:02):
I think it was just like watching Jesse walk through
the walk through the backyard, just kind of like his
graceful presence, and I.

Speaker 5 (13:11):
Wanna take this back. We're not doing that.

Speaker 2 (13:16):
I can't afford the backyard.

Speaker 3 (13:18):
Oh what you should have done was when you were
doing the sound check, recruit everybody in the five k
to come up and sing with you.

Speaker 5 (13:26):
That would have been great. That would have been great.

Speaker 4 (13:27):
There you go.

Speaker 3 (13:29):
So tell everybody how to reach out to you on socials,
on the web, and most importantly, buy your merch because
they cannot listen to my show unless say buy your merch.

Speaker 5 (13:38):
Oh that's beautiful.

Speaker 1 (13:40):
Yeah, by the merch, Yeah, I mean all of our
Instagram's top house, the bands, tiktoks things are top house.

Speaker 5 (13:49):
The band is the media thing.

Speaker 1 (13:52):
I honestly though, we're finding, like more and more that
if people really want to like connect with anything like
text and email, marketing is the way to go because
al rhythm.

Speaker 4 (14:01):
No doubt.

Speaker 3 (14:01):
But here's why I want to find out about your TikTok.
What is your most embarrassing TikTok?

Speaker 6 (14:07):
Oh? No, I guess it depends on who you are,
Like if you're uncultured. Some people find the banana cat TikTok,
where we have a jpeg of a banana cat singing
our songs for us embarrassing. There's also one where I
lure everyone into a dark room and force them to
watch the Mountain song. That one's pretty weird, but I
don't know if that's embarrassing. It's more just traumatizing.

Speaker 1 (14:27):
I feel like all of our ads, because we do
paid ads for shows, and they're all pretty embarrassing because
it's normally just us sitting down and then we'll say like, hey, Chicago,
come to the show please, and that's that, and we
spend money on that.

Speaker 2 (14:41):
Yeah, I love that, though, like anti marketing, it probably works.
You know, we're tired of things being and by we
society at large. We're tired of things being so buttoned
up with a beautiful polish on them, and so we
here at Top House LLC have elected to make everything
a little bit crappy, just so that it speaks to

(15:02):
every person exactly, down to earth level exactly.

Speaker 3 (15:06):
And that's and there was something about what you said
your TikTok.

Speaker 4 (15:10):
I was gonna say that goes right along with that.
I think the whole thing goes right along with how many.

Speaker 3 (15:16):
People actually read your bios and take it seriously.

Speaker 4 (15:20):
That's what our moms.

Speaker 2 (15:23):
They wrote it, and Joe Joe and his moms wrote it.

Speaker 3 (15:28):
What else do you want the listeners to know about you,
guys that we haven't talked about. Besides, they need to
get all your music and all your merch and show
up to every show you have you need, like a
grateful dead type following there's.

Speaker 2 (15:43):
Actually a very great mystery conspiracy surrounding Top House, but
I can't go into that now.

Speaker 4 (15:51):
So they just have to look for it on your
website right.

Speaker 2 (15:54):
Or come to a show there. It is even better. Well,
you guys run the conspiracy.

Speaker 3 (16:00):
Guys fucking rock though. It has to be fun. I
love that you don't take yourself too seriously. Make it
fun too. It's music yeah, and playing music yeah, and
you do it very well.

Speaker 4 (16:11):
At least the three of them do.

Speaker 2 (16:14):
Respond to Eli, thank you, oh man.

Speaker 3 (16:19):
Well, you guys are gonna kill it here at Bourbon Beyond.
Thanks for being here and thanks for being on the
Adventures of Pipemin.

Speaker 2 (16:26):
Thanks for having us here.

Speaker 5 (16:27):
Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pipemin on
w for CUI Radio.