Judi Figel: Pittsburgh's Powerhouse Vocalist

Judi Figel is a powerhouse vocalist and pianist wowing Pittsburgh audiences! With a dynamic repertoire spanning jazz, pop, Broadway, and more, her electrifying performances and legendary voice leave crowds spellbound. She’s shared stages with music icons and delivers show-stopping renditions of some of music's greatest singers!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You know.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
This is ann video.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
And you are oh, bless your heart. This is the
Codd Podcast, Pittsburgh's music scene, and welcome in. I'm Johnny Hartwell,
your host along with Andy Pougart.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Today we talked to Pittsburgh's powerhouse vocalist Judy Figgle. All
aboard the Judy Tray.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
It's a Judy buss by the way bus.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Oh okay, I say that on you.

Speaker 4 (00:35):
You do get on the bus.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
And so okay, sorry, that's okay. I was just going
to ask you if you need water, but you brought
your own good.

Speaker 4 (00:46):
Good is early for me?

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Actually, okay, I have vodka you here is.

Speaker 4 (00:50):
I was wondering about that. Do you have any jack
for me? No? No, no, no, no.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
No musicians.

Speaker 4 (00:57):
We'll be fine. I had my coffee, got my walk.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Let me ask you, is there something that you know?
Being a vocalist, do you really take care of your voice?

Speaker 4 (01:06):
You know, it's funny you say that, because yes, you should,
you should. I don't do anything in particular, to be
honest with you, but I don't abuse it either. I
mean I don't, but I don't do like lemon water.
A lot of people do like different things. I just
try not to abuse it. And I don't know, it

(01:26):
kind of takes care of itself for some reason.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
Do you do any like vocal exercises before you perform? Now?

Speaker 3 (01:32):
You just I know I'm not your typical I know.

Speaker 4 (01:35):
I don't know. It's as God gave me a gift,
so I don't know. It seems like it just works sometimes.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
When did you discover your gift?

Speaker 4 (01:43):
Well, what's funny is I was a piano player from
three years old on and I'm only thirty one. Nothing, No,
for over fifty years, I've been playing the piano over,
way over. So I never played sang a note ever
till I was about twenty. And because I and there's

(02:07):
nothing against the Byzantine Catholic Church, but everything is sung.
It went us growing up in church, and some of
the folks didn't sound as good as you would like
them to, you know, so it bothered me. And so
I didn't like singing because I thought, I don't want
to sound like that. You know, nothing against anybody in particular.

(02:29):
It was just they're not professionals exactly. So anyway, so
I didn't sing. And then, you know, I wanted to
teach music to children. That was my love from the beginning.
But I didn't want to teach so called band i
although I played the clarinet and the obo back in
those days. But I wanted to be a choir teacher

(02:50):
of course, you know, so you got to learn how
to sing a little bit, You got to learn how
to teach it, how to breathe properly, all the foul placement,
all of that stuff. So when my sophomore year of college,
I started a voice class and my professor was like,
you've never sung before, Like he was like, really on

(03:10):
my case about not singing before this. He said, you
have a gift. And I'm just telling you what the
prop said. I'm not trying to be ego here, that's
just And I said, well, you know, I just never
gotten And I was so shy back then. I'm not
shy anymore. So it was it all sort of unfolded
from there. To be honest with.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
You, Okay, I still haven't recovered from what you said
when you started playing the piano at three, Yes, how
does a three year old pick up it?

Speaker 4 (03:41):
You come up and this is funny, that's funny. If
you asked me that we were just talking about this.
My mom passed in twenty one, but she would always
she watched the three kids. You know, I had an
older brother and a younger sister. My older brother Jack
would come along and go bang bang bang bang bang
on the piano. I came and went finger finger finger finger,

(04:03):
finger finger, and she's like, this is different, and I
could actually started. I started even like plunking out according
to her melodies on the piano like I was. Actually
I didn't start released, but I would play with just
the thing like one one finger each hand, little tunes.
She's like, you're like making music? You know?

Speaker 2 (04:25):
You did your mother play?

Speaker 4 (04:27):
Yes, we had a piano in the house that was
hers when she was, you know, a teenager, and they
brought it when she got married to dad.

Speaker 3 (04:35):
And it was an old player piano.

Speaker 4 (04:38):
So they took the rolls out, which is so cool,
and it was this beautiful, you know, piece of furniture,
but it had like a five million key keys were missing.
And that's what I started on. But I actually started
lessons probably age of seven, actual piano lessons and up
through my senior year of.

Speaker 2 (04:59):
Colleg Did you pick it up fairly quickly?

Speaker 4 (05:01):
I think I could play by ear although it hurts,
you know. I know that called me the corn queen.
So the corny is going to fly today. I'm so sorry.
Like corny's fun, I mean, come on, and but I
mean I'm like, like really good at being corny, which
sometimes people like it, sometimes they don't.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
But so it was anybody else in your family musically inclined? O, My.

Speaker 4 (05:27):
Brother, my sister both yeah, all played instruments. Jack was
my brother is older brother is like he played obo.
I'm sorry not but soon Sachs. He was just like,
we're all sponges. We want to get as much music
as we can. My sister played the flute. My sister
also sings well, and Jack sings as well. He's a
can't cancer at his church.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
So yes, we all.

Speaker 4 (05:50):
I just the only one who pursued it professionally. But
we have it in our family. Mom had a beautiful,
beautiful soprano voice. Dad couldn't carry a tune in a bucket.
He was a wonderful artist, an architect. Okay, so we
have arts, the art, the fine arts, and our family.
I think that the appreciation of it, Like we were
going to Hineshall all those symphony concerts when we were

(06:10):
little kids. They would take us religiously.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
And what kind of music was in the household when
you were young?

Speaker 3 (06:17):
A lot of Polkas, No, that's the truth.

Speaker 4 (06:20):
Grew up a hundred percent Slovak. Come on, put a bush,
go on me and I just got off the boat,
you know, I'm very ethnic. But no, probably mom liked
like Hawaiian music, like Don Hoe and really, yes, I
remember Trinny Lopez was playing on the you know, and
that was the stuff they liked, and like, you know stuff.

(06:42):
I don't try to think what else was playing in
the house. I mean, it was more like we were
bringing the music in and I was, you know, a
Zzy top and I was into the seventies rock you
know at that time, and so yeah, and then of
course it's branched off from there to the Carpenters and
to the you know, so many influences on me vocally,

(07:02):
Linda Ronstadt and stuff like that.

Speaker 2 (07:04):
Do you remember the first record forty five or album
that you bought.

Speaker 4 (07:08):
I think it was The Rolling Stones and the song
on the album whatever album it is, get off of
my cloud that I forget which album that is, but
it's a it was a vinyl album. Yeah, that was
I think that was the very first one. So what
sixty nine seventy probably right around that time. And I
was like fifth grade then, so that was early to
be buying music. We weren't allowed to buy.

Speaker 3 (07:31):
I could buy a little forty five, you know, I
bought like, you know.

Speaker 4 (07:34):
Dizzy, you know dizzy. Yeah, my head has spin and
you know that was a corny let's talk about corny.
But those were stuff we were into back then. Yeah,
bubblegum stuff.

Speaker 2 (07:45):
You know. So and your brothers and your brother was older, yes,
and you had a sister the younger.

Speaker 4 (07:52):
We're all five apart the college year.

Speaker 2 (07:54):
Your brother influenced you at all as far as music goes, Yeah, maybe,
well in a way, not vocally necessarily because I didn't
again didn't sing early on as an old you end up.

Speaker 4 (08:08):
He played the clarinet and then went into bassoon, so
that there was a clarinet in the family. So yes,
I did play his clarinet when he went on to
bissuon that, I took the clarinet and then I went
onto obo, so you know, yes, and then Joyce took
up my younger sister took up flute. But we all
would win. You know the whole wind. But yes, he

(08:29):
I mean, yeah, you could. You could definitely say he
influenced that part of it.

Speaker 2 (08:32):
Did he or your sister play the piano as well?

Speaker 4 (08:34):
Not really, No, okay, not really. It's I know that's odd,
isn't it. I think they, I don't know, they just
never got into it as much as as myself for
some reason. It's where it's really usually I guess did.

Speaker 2 (08:46):
You did you play piano or any any other instrument
in any other band? Did you were you in in
marching band or anything like a jazz band or anything like.

Speaker 4 (08:58):
I really want to say this, but I was a major.
I was the captain actually in my senior year. I know,
I hate saying that, but yeah, well because it's like,
I don't know, it's it's just like at that time,
it's a little bit corny, but you know, at that time,
it's so important to you when you're a high school
kid to be accepted and to be part of something.
And but I was. I played obo in a band.

(09:24):
I was also what they call a stage band dancer,
so that was like with the jazz band. So but
I didn't play, I just danced basically, So at that
time that that was something that I enjoyed doing. And
I'm lucky I can, you know, walk about ten paces
now instead of dancing. But that was that's again important

(09:46):
to you at that time of your life. You know.

Speaker 2 (09:47):
I was a cheerleader.

Speaker 4 (09:49):
Were you were you really? Really? I love it, I
love it.

Speaker 2 (09:54):
I played football and baseball, but in basketball season we
had a really good team and I was the only
one full of spirit. And so my my, my high
school principal called me down in the office and he goes,
you're going to say no, but I want you to
think about it. We want you to be a cheerleader.
And I was like, oh, hell no. And he goes, well,

(10:15):
you can get into the games for free. And I'm like, yeah,
I sneak in the games for free anyway. And he goes, well,
you could let her. I'm like, I could buy a
pin anywhere, and he goes, I'll buy you a pair
of shoes. I'm like, I'm in so yeah. I didn't
take it seriously, but I was a cheerleader.

Speaker 4 (10:31):
But love.

Speaker 2 (10:32):
Getting back to ye when you said you you played
obo in a band. What kind of band.

Speaker 4 (10:37):
Was a concert band? Okay, yeah, so we would do
it was.

Speaker 2 (10:41):
Going to be a rock band. You know, rock bands
need more.

Speaker 4 (10:47):
Bad I mean I did also all through that played
piano for choir. Okay, so I was really musically into everything,
every aspect that you could. Again, I'm still that way
even now. I can't get enough music. I want more
and more all the time.

Speaker 2 (11:01):
What do you listen to now?

Speaker 4 (11:04):
I love three WS radio. Actually now, wait, no, we're
not saying the bad word today.

Speaker 1 (11:13):
No.

Speaker 4 (11:13):
I I'm all over the map, but I do my
favorite when in my car, I have on smooth jazz.
That's that's because, first of all, I'm a vocalist. I
don't want to hear vocals. Is that strange? I know
that's really strange. But I like the instrumental I love
hearing sacks. I love, you know, a lot of the
smooth jazz sas guys. Sometimes on the way here, I

(11:38):
got the classical music station on because I can't take
too much in the morning, so I got I got
to do classical music, which is to me soothing, and
I've trained classically on piano. So that's that's my real
first love, I guess musically, but as far as my
go to is probably smooth jazz.

Speaker 2 (11:58):
Okay, all right. So now you're in a you know,
the choir in the concert band in high school and
then you move on to college.

Speaker 4 (12:07):
Yeah, Oberlin College in Ohio and majored to music education,
which I became a teacher of music for thirty two years.
So I've been retired now for ten years out of
my career. But started out as a piano major. Vocal minor,
but music ed was my major. But the you had

(12:29):
to have a preference on your instrument, so piano was.
I got in the audition as a pianist, but really
developed the vocals even more in college because I wasn't
you know again, I wanted to teach choir. I didn't
want to be an instrumental teacher at that time. Because
what's funny this is this is your life, how it goes.
I was thinking about this the other day and I

(12:51):
had a conversation one time with Robbie Klein, you know,
the great sax player, local guy, and he says, you know,
our lives go in phases, and he says they're kind
of like octaves. So an octave, of course, if you're
not a musician, is eight notes apart, so about eight
every eight years he said his life changed. He said,
it's really amazing, and I said, well, I could probably

(13:11):
think mine in maybe ten ten years, increment every ten years.
There's a there's a phase difference, and you sort of
almost have to reinvent yourself sometimes. But when back to
you know, getting into the career. I started out as
a vocal teacher, but then this string job came up,

(13:31):
elementary but violin theola cello bass. I didn't have a
permanent job yet, I have a sub for five years,
I didn't teach permanently and it was Plumbaro School District
and they were starting a string program. So could you
teach strings? I said, sure, piano singer, Sure I could
do that. Well, you know, we all have our method classes.

(13:53):
In college, I had string class, you know, I was legit.
But I did my masters in some string pedagogees teaching strings.
So that again I reinvented, Like you've got to go
where the job is, you know. And I totally thoroughly
loved teaching strings. So the majority of my career, like
twenty eight years was teaching strings elementary little guys. Yeah,

(14:16):
third grade through sixth grade. I loved it, and I
love conducting. I didn't ever think I would be a conductor,
and I you know, I'm like Leonard Bernstein. I conduct
from the piano. You know. Well, when they're that little,
you have to sort of keep it together. You know,
there's no base yet they don't haven't learned base too
big for those little guys.

Speaker 3 (14:35):
So I've played piano and keep it together and conduct.

Speaker 4 (14:38):
I had three orchestrash I had a little third grade
orchestra of one hundred kids. Oh wow, one hundred kids
sa on wood. I mean, but I tried not to
let it sound like san would. We actually tried to
not really, We really tried to make I mean, I
really pitch is very important to me. So that's the
biggest issue is when kids are learning, they're pitches, you know,

(14:59):
so on a violin you don't have frets like you
do on a guitar. You have to really your ear
has to be right on. So that was extremely important
to me to develop that in those those students. And
then I had like a fourth fifth grade orchestra of
like sixty unless sixth grade, fifth and six combined more
advanced of like sixty. So there was over three hundred

(15:20):
in my elementary program and so that was I feel
like a little baby that I watched grow up, you know.
And then yeah, so it's funny where our lives take
us because in fact, I wrote an article for a
PMA journal. It's the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association back in
the day, I think when I first got the jobs.

(15:41):
It was probably early eighties, and the title of the
article is what me teach strings because a lot of
people don't want to go there, and I shared my
experience and I got a lot of nice, you know, feedback,
kudos for doing so and talking about it because it's

(16:01):
and it was. But you know, in saying that, in
doing that, you don't just do that. You have to
have the training. You have to go back in, like
I said, reinvent and figure out. Okay, I want to
have the skills and do this properly. I don't want
to just say I'm doing that. So that's why in
the master's program I was working on string teaching, did

(16:23):
a couple of classes like at the Ohio State you know,
after the masters. I mean, so I have a lot
of training and ever.

Speaker 2 (16:31):
Had a student actually become professional?

Speaker 4 (16:34):
Many?

Speaker 2 (16:34):
Really?

Speaker 4 (16:35):
Yeah, When I say many out of hundreds, I've had.
I'd say ten or twelve have made it, you know,
professional and professional orchestras in the country. Yeah, as they've
come back, had shared that with me or they're on
Facebook and though you know, my last name is Figgle
and they call me Miss fig, Miss fig.

Speaker 3 (16:53):
I made it for the Colorado Strings Orchestra.

Speaker 4 (16:55):
I'm like, oh my gosh, you know, awesome. Yeah, so
that's actually not a bad like ratio of the hundreds
and hundreds to really make it. And I think my
whole philosophy when I was teaching, and it's it is
in anything I do, Like when I connect with seniors
and I'm doing a show, I want to connect with
people through music. In teaching kids, I want them to

(17:19):
have the lifelong learning and the lifelong love of it
that I have. You want to instill that in them.
And hopefully that's my quest anyway, I tried to do it.

Speaker 2 (17:28):
Do you believe everybody can learn how to play an instrument?

Speaker 4 (17:31):
I do. Uh, the level of quality may be different,
but I think everybody can play an instrument, I really do.
I think it also depends on the drive of the
person that is doing it, so, you know, but it's
my job to expose them, and to expose them to
the right stuff, of course, you know what I mean. Okay,

(17:54):
that didn't sound good when it came out, But to
give them the knowledge in the you know, the tools
to be able to learn it. It may not be
they may they're not going to maybe end up Pittsburgh Symphony,
but they're gonna they're going to maybe have a joy
of it that they didn't have if they hadn't done it.

Speaker 2 (18:12):
Let's get back to your performing. Yeah, the first time
you were asked to perform? How did that? What happened?

Speaker 4 (18:20):
Total terrifying experience, Just terrifying. You know, if you heard
me earlier say I was extremely shy when I was young,
very shy, very sheltered in a good way. What happened
came out of my shell. I guess I don't know.
I don't know. Well the teacher thing, yeah, definitely, yes,

(18:41):
because your aunt you're performing, and in a class like mine,
you know they're coming in. I was like, let's say,
for instance, a high school level. I was teaching ninth grade,
but it was part of the high school. But it's
your going first period, second period, third period, Every period
is a new show is a new set of an audience,
so you have to present what you're doing in a

(19:02):
way that's you know, pleasing to them. You want to
draw them into the knowledge. And so I think a
lot of that probably set me up to be more performer.
But I mean I was my first real job, and
if you're getting to that, the first real job I
ever had performing, I was maybe nineteen because I had

(19:26):
a year of the vocal stuff, you know, in college,
and I felt a little more confident. I was more
of the piano player on the gig than singing, but
that moved into more singing everybody, and I was still
playing piano at that time. Separate piano jobs, separate singing job,
sometimes doing both together.

Speaker 3 (19:47):
It would depend on what the client needed, you know.

Speaker 2 (19:50):
Well, getting back to why it was so scary what happened?

Speaker 3 (19:54):
I think is I was so shy and so sheltered.

Speaker 2 (19:56):
Where was it?

Speaker 4 (19:56):
I was afraid? Where was it?

Speaker 2 (19:58):
Yeah? Where was it? What kind of of atmosphere? Why
were you nervous? Where were you? How did you perform?
Did you think you overcame the nervousness to perform? What happened?

Speaker 4 (20:08):
And where we're Yeah, I don't know, I don't know.
How to describe it so long ago. I remember the feeling,
but I don't know what why I don't. I don't again.
I think because I was so not used to being
in front of people. You know that that's a daunting
now this you know, age nineteen, I'm not in front
of those class, those kids. Yet I didn't have kids still,
I was twenty two, meaning students, right, and so you

(20:32):
know it was I'm the one. They're relying on me
to do all the lead vocals and the piano playing.
So the pressure on me. I guess I felt that pressure.
Oh my gosh, am I going to make a mistake?
Am I going to You know? I was just unsure
of myself. But as you you know, as you do
more and more, you become more confident.

Speaker 2 (20:51):
Do you remember the music? The songs that they get
probably misty okay, you know, yeah.

Speaker 4 (20:57):
But I was playing piano for a quartet and uh,
I was a trumpet He was my teacher actually, and
he was a trumpet player. He played lead on trumpet.
He wanted me. I was the singer and then we
had a bass player and drums. So that was our
band and uh the job. It was a place, it
was right by Kenny Wood because I'm from West Mifland originally,

(21:18):
so it was right by Kenny. It was a local place.
I'd really not been in a bar too much. I
mean I had, you know, we snuck in a little bit,
but not really to be there. You know, I'm underage
at that time, you know. But he he had me,
you know, he sponsored me. So yeah, and then that
grew from there to do a lot. I was initially
in those years all private.

Speaker 2 (21:42):
Did you have a club? Did you have a band name?

Speaker 1 (21:44):
Do you?

Speaker 4 (21:45):
Yeah? The band that band I didn't wasn't with them
long that. I was with a band called Deja Vu
for a while. I was again a quartet. I was
the piano player and the singer. They had a sax player,
drums and bass, and that was called Deja Vu. Then
I moved into a band, wonderful band called Starfire. Starfire.
And again these are all private events country clubs. Never

(22:08):
played in the public all those many many years. Yeah,
not till probably mid nineties. I really played privately, you know,
fire hall weddings and stuff like that. And so Starfire
was a bigger situation. We had two horns and drums, bass,
me on piano and singing, of course, and we had

(22:30):
like four singers in that band, so we would do
some great like I remember we always would do ooh
Baby Baby at the end of the night, and that
that harmony was I'm getting chills thinking about how good
these guys were. That we all I thought our voices
blended so well together, and I was on the lead
of course, and they just were so supportive vocally on

(22:52):
the harmony. So that was really so gratifying. And we
made some nice money throughout those years. But I was
teach in full time, playing in a band maybe Fridays
and Saturdays, and so, you know, no time to get
in trouble. But I still did.

Speaker 2 (23:09):
How that out now, so these private gigs, these weddings,
so you would have to have a repertoire of yes,
look a couple hours.

Speaker 4 (23:18):
It's funny because I was thinking about that on the
way coming here today. You know, how do you learn songs?
How do you?

Speaker 3 (23:24):
Thought that might be a question, and you know.

Speaker 4 (23:26):
I don't know what people's opinions are as if you're
a live musician about karaoke, but you know, I went
to karaoke like religiously for a couple of many years
to learn material. That's how I learned material. Not only
do you learn it or you try it out, but
you can see how the audience reacts to you. I
think that's another thing that helped me come out of

(23:46):
the shyness. You have to see how the audience reacts
to you. And that was a sort of approving ground
as to you know, okay, what songs work? You know,
like I think the best song I do is I
Will Always Love You Whitney Houston.

Speaker 2 (24:00):
And never heard of it.

Speaker 4 (24:02):
Yeah, I know, it's so unusual. Everybody's a card anyway,
so no, but I mean I would do. I started
trying that one and everybody's like, Jude, like, what are you?
It's a hard song, yeah, and it's just become one
that has become so I don't know. I get a
lot of good audience reaction to that one.

Speaker 2 (24:23):
So because people automatically recognize, oh, she's starting that song. Yeah,
well good luck there, Judy.

Speaker 4 (24:30):
I think so. And then you know, when you actually
do pull it off, I hope I do. I think
I still do. But you know, when you get a
standing ovation, usually that's when. And again I'm not trying
to be I'm just telling you what what happens. Almost
every single time we get a standing ovation on that
song for some reason. And the writing it's Dolly Parton writing.
It's just when the writing is good.

Speaker 2 (24:50):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (24:51):
Of course, Whitney's version is untouchable. It's amazing, and so
many other people maybe covered it, but you know, I
just I do the Judy VERSI you know I can.
It's funny because I sort of looked you up online
before I came here today, and you said, you know,
I'm just me. I'm this. You know, I can't be
anybody else. So this is who I am, and that's

(25:13):
I do my version of it.

Speaker 2 (25:15):
She did her homework on me. Yeah, you know you're
still and you still came in.

Speaker 4 (25:19):
I'm a Google I'm a Googler. I am that's my sister.
She'll be like, Okay, what are you looking up now?
Because I'm just want to know. I want to know.

Speaker 3 (25:28):
I want to have knowledge, it's all.

Speaker 2 (25:30):
And you still came in. All right, So all right,
let's get back to when you're twenty two. You're now
starting to teach, right, You're getting a little more confident
in your ability of not only being able to sing
and play piano, but now you're adventuring, you're venturing out

(25:50):
into performing. Yes, when did you start enjoying performing?

Speaker 3 (26:00):
That's a good question, that's a really good question.

Speaker 4 (26:03):
I think even if I as terrified as I was,
I still enjoyed it from the moment one. I think
when it's when it's something that you have an affinity to,
even though I was so scared and shy and everything,
Once you get into the song and you're doing you're

(26:23):
like you're delivered from it. You find the joy in
it anyway. So I think from moment one, I always
enjoyed it. I didn't never not enjoy it. I didn't
like the feeling, but I love the music, and I
think that's what God you get you through it.

Speaker 2 (26:41):
I really do.

Speaker 3 (26:42):
It's that it's.

Speaker 4 (26:43):
That feeling of connecting with people through music. That's when
my whole thing, my whole life. So uh, I still
feel like I'm doing that, and I do senior shows now.
I mean I call them my sixth graders. You guys say,
you guys are better because I'll sing along. You know,
you guys are better than my old sixth graders were.
You know, they'd laugh, and but that's who my people are.

(27:05):
Now not all, but we do some of those really
like UPMC shows and some of the senior centers and
around town, and there's such an appreciative audience.

Speaker 3 (27:16):
I think it's gratifying. So anyway, getting off subject.

Speaker 2 (27:20):
Here, So you're starting to grow your confidence. Yeah, and
you're growing your repertoire. Yes, where there are any songs
because you're dealing with other band members who want to
play a particular song.

Speaker 4 (27:35):
Oh definitely.

Speaker 2 (27:36):
Was there songs that you were like, yeah, that's that's
that doesn't feel all right. I have a connection to me.

Speaker 4 (27:43):
I can tell almost immediately that it's not a song
I should do, And I have the funny story to
tell you if you don't mind. And this is later,
much later, not at that time. We're talking about like
maybe a couple of years ago, because I'm still learning
what I shouldn't do, because I'll try anything. Is if
that's another little funny story, I have to do it,

(28:03):
because I do Stairway to Heaven, which I know you'd
be like, what, that's that's another little story. Anyway, let
me finish this one. So when I was playing piano,
I played also played keyboard bass, so that we didn't
budget doesn't allow for a bass player. I hate it.
I like a live person, but I sometimes had to

(28:23):
cover the bassline on left with left hand piano on right,
and then drummer Jeff Montgomery. I don't know if you
know Jeff. He's a great drummer round town. Yeah, great player.
So Bruno Mar's twenty four care goal had just come out,
so however long ago that is, and somebody requested it,
and I was like, I could do that, because you know,

(28:45):
you look it up, look up the lyrics on your tablet.
I've heard it maybe twice. I could do it. So
we try it at the end of the song. We
get through it somehow, and he looked He's like, Jude,
don't do that song. And he's an African American, so
he's like, Dude, don't ever do that song again. I'm thinking, Okay,

(29:05):
I think he knows what I'm talking about. So I mean,
you're still you still have to be humble enough to
understand that. But I typically do know certain ones that
I just don't want to try or don't think. First
of all, I think a lot of times, for whatever reason,
many songs are overly produced. They have more in them
than they need, especially today's I think so even back

(29:29):
in the seventies, even to eighties, I mean eighties more
so that they started adding more keyboard parts and layering everything.
So but that's wonderful when you're in a studio recording it,
but when you're doing it live, you can't you know,
portray that right. So I'm not going to do that
song because it's so or if there's a lot of

(29:50):
background vocals, you know, like a lot of Aretha Franklin,
they want me to do, you know, rescue me. Okay,
I would love to do that song, but I need
three girls behind me. I don't have that on my gig,
you know, So I don't want to try to pull
it off if it's gonna not if it's be you know,
compromise the total production of it, you know.

Speaker 2 (30:09):
So so when it came to choosing music when you
were out, is it you.

Speaker 4 (30:17):
I'd say fifty to fifty. I mean sometimes the guys, hey, Jude,
you got to do this song. You got to do
this song. You know, I heard this song. It would
be great. You maybe a glorious to fun song. Back
in that day, you got to do you know anything,
but you but yeah, great, little tune and we don't
really do it anymore, but it was at that time,

(30:38):
so we added it. I'll bring in a song that
I think I can do, We'll have rehearsal. And rehearsal
is the proving ground. Sometimes you find out, yeah, we're
not doing this one. It doesn't work for the band,
you know.

Speaker 1 (30:52):
So.

Speaker 4 (30:53):
But yeah, that band Starfire, we had great rehearsals. And
when you have like seven people in the band, you
got to have you really have to rehearse. Now I
work with another just a keyboard player now, David Chrissy,
wonderfully talented.

Speaker 3 (31:07):
Guy who plays a keyboard.

Speaker 4 (31:09):
But he plays all the parts. He plays.

Speaker 3 (31:10):
There's a drum machine, there's base, he plays bass, layers everything.

Speaker 4 (31:15):
He's amazing. It's an art in itself. And again not
to you know, I would love to have live people
on the gig playing all those parts, but we're just
not conducive for the budget anymore. People aren't paying the
money to allow for that. But he's covering all these
great parts, so we I don't think we have ever

(31:36):
ever rehearsed, not once. Really, I've worked a guy with
the guy for thirty years. Yeah, yeah, off and on
and more much more the last few years when I
haven't been playing anymore. I'm not playing. I don't play
piano on the whole gig anymore. And that leads me
to the other story. Was gonna tell about Stairway to Heaven?
So we In fact, it was the other night we
played a place called Pugliano's in Plumborough right on the

(31:57):
on the deck. They have a beautiful deck. We're out
there and somebody says Stairway to Heaven, and I'm like,
I don't do that song. We don't have a band,
we don't have a guitar player. We'll have you know,
real drums. I heard you do it about three years ago,
and I'm like, oh no, and I did. Somebody like
Dog Double Dog dared me to do it just on piano,
and I said, okay, I'll do it, but you got

(32:20):
to put a hundred in the cup. I'm teasing, of course,
So I did this way, Dave gets a little break,
you know, and Dave's like, yeah, go ahead, play pay three,
play four.

Speaker 3 (32:32):
You know, so I you know, there's a lady who's sure.
Everybody's like, whoa we it starts out.

Speaker 4 (32:40):
You know you can you can pull it off, you know, unplugged,
and then he goes and when there right down the road.
You know, I'm trying to like portray this band sell
on piano. I don't know if it works or not.
The people were like digging it, don't love it? They
love it. Then Dave, Dave knows what else I do

(33:01):
along those lines, he said, do alone heart. I'm like, ah, no, oh, yeah,
I know you can do it so again, unplugged version, no,
no guitar player, no drums. But you know, it works
for some reason. I wouldn't do that with every song,
but those work. How do you remember all the lyrics
of those songs? I do keep a tablet and I

(33:23):
look up. I don't know all those especially those songs.
Definitely not because they're not usually part of our program.
But this is a departure from what we normally. We're
normally pop jazz doing, you know, a little bit R
and B, maybe soul, but I mean I'm a colectic.
I I'm all over the map. Somebody wants to hear,
you know, memory from cats, I'll you know, do some
Broadway or I'll do I.

Speaker 3 (33:44):
Love doing sending the clowns.

Speaker 4 (33:46):
It's one of one of another big signature one for
us for some reason, it's well, the Judy Figgle version,
but yeah, kind of. But I mean Sinatra did it,
like a lot of people did it, so we sort
of And it's it's Dave's production of it. It's how
he played, how he interprets it, so we sort of

(34:07):
have to go with his arrangement's like his real arrangement
of it, which is not anything you've ever heard. So
that's what's so great, I think, great for me to
be able to work with this guy who's so talented
and and makes it fresh and makes it different.

Speaker 2 (34:22):
When you were with Starfire, yeah you have a large band.
Was there any aspiration to create new music?

Speaker 3 (34:29):
And not really.

Speaker 2 (34:31):
No.

Speaker 4 (34:31):
We were hired, you know, hired for that particular gig,
and you know, and I'm not gifted as a writer.
I do. I have written some things, but I'm just
I don't have that gift. I just don't. And there's
a couple that I thought I could bring out into
the world, but it's never I don't feel confident in that.

(34:53):
I just don't.

Speaker 3 (34:54):
Your gig is interpretive, I hope.

Speaker 4 (34:56):
So somebody said, you know to me one time, I'm
just telling you what they said. You know, you're a
song stylist, and I don't know if there's that same
accurate to you. Annie. Yeah, and that's I thought that
was maybe, And that's something I think. I'm just doing
it how I do it. I'm not trying to be
a style. I'm just how I hear it, how I

(35:16):
interpret it. So, yes, it is interpretive for sure.

Speaker 2 (35:19):
Yeah. Have you ever done any studio work.

Speaker 4 (35:22):
I have commercials a place in I think it's in Donor, Donora, Aliquippa,
Barda a Lotas, Barda, a Lotas Shop and save, and
heard on the radio was that I sort of liked.

(35:43):
I'm like, oh my goodness, actually playing our commercial. And
then I was asked to do the new version of
the Pennsylvania Lottery. Oh oh yeah, So I went to
four of us. It was a four vocal harmony. They
didn't pick our version. They picked the one that they're
using now. But we did a version of it, which

(36:03):
was so exciting. I mean, oh my gosh, I can't
believe it. Well, they didn't pick our version. They might
win some lose some. Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (36:11):
I forget even so long ago. I mean it was
probably twenty ago, and then I.

Speaker 4 (36:18):
I did do a lot of recording to make a
CD of my own, like my own I still used
I'm old school CD, you know, MP three, whatever the
new term term is. And so I have some snippets
on my website of my recording of in the studio,
and I worked with a guy named Chris Panjicas, which

(36:40):
you probably might remember. Great piano player, nice arranger, he
was the he was his studio in his house, and
we did I don't know, I have ten or twelve
songs I recorded with him, and some of the like
little snippets of it is on the website.

Speaker 2 (36:58):
I have.

Speaker 4 (37:00):
Stuff like Night and Day, some jazz stuff, yeah, some standards,
I mean, all of me are sorry. At Last, a
version of at Last is on there. So we were
gearing to producing the CD to my first solo, you know,
foray into it. And he passed and I remember when, Yeah,

(37:23):
he's been gone now at least five years. I think
it's maybe longer than that now because these years just
fly anymore. But so I never did finish it, and
a lot of his wife also passed about a year later.
So all those tracks in the those files, I don't
know where I could eat. I mean, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (37:44):
It's like they're gone.

Speaker 4 (37:45):
So it's it's a bad subject to talk about, to
be honest, because I had a lot of material on there,
but it's on the website. But it's just parts of
the song. It's not the whole song. Yeah, but you
can get an idea if you ever. When I listened
to Judy it's jazz Dudy dot com.

Speaker 2 (38:02):
So it's not too late to start again.

Speaker 4 (38:06):
How do we oh, what do you mean on the CD? Well,
I have another guy that I play. He's a wonderful pianist,
Daniel May, who's a jazz guy in the city, and
he has a studio in his house and he's been
after me to come and let's do some let's do
some work. Well, here's the problem. I'm just gonna say this.

(38:28):
I have some difficulty with walking and doing steps with
a condition I have. So he studio is above his
garage and there's no elevator. It's like steps, and these
steps are a little they're they're challenging to get to
the studio. He says, well, you know what we could do.
I could give you a cordless mic and we could

(38:49):
do it in your car. We could record you. You'd
have headphones and you'd have the feed in your headphones
and the car is particularly quiet. Yeah, it would work
like a studio.

Speaker 3 (39:02):
And I said what, I.

Speaker 4 (39:04):
Couldn't believe it. And so that's something he really wants
to record. I still may pursue, yes, because that would
be I think a way to do it that and
I respect his uh production value and so forth, and
I think that would be a good fit. So that's
something I've been thinking about doing. Well, you know, it's
time and money.

Speaker 2 (39:24):
It sounds like you have a large knowledge of music
today and yesterday in a mix and in different genres
and things like that, if you had your like we
we talked about how things were overproduced, especially today. Yeah,
you know everything you know you can you.

Speaker 3 (39:44):
Can, there's something wrong with that. It's just you can't
do it on live.

Speaker 4 (39:48):
That was my point. Well, and I think it enhances it,
but you can't to that point, if.

Speaker 2 (39:54):
You're going to use auto tune and then expect that
person to perform, they're going they're not going to sound
the saying true. So they need to start getting vocalists.
And there are vocalists, let's face it, Yeah, I think
the desire to produce right and to consume music has

(40:18):
never diminished. We all have that design, right that had
that desire hasn't diminished at all. But they have to
every song has to be produced for almost a top
forty station that is only going to add twenty four
songs in any calendar year.

Speaker 4 (40:36):
And that's just you know, limiting. You know.

Speaker 2 (40:38):
Well, let's go back to the fifties with the Sun Records.
You know, they were churning out records from Elvis and
Johnny Cash, you know, two or three songs a day.
When you get into the sixties, even with George Martin
and the Beatles, they're producing an album over a weekend, right,
and these songs are still beloved. So don't tell me

(40:59):
that you a year to produce a record, right.

Speaker 4 (41:03):
And not only that, I think back again the Elvas Stays,
did they not do a lot more live on air
performing rather than now you'd only hear their recording, but
much more so then they were in the studio. While
they're on air, they're doing everything live, So you have

(41:23):
to bring it vocally. You can't rely on that. There
was no auto tune back then. So I'm saying you know,
there wasn't I don't think the technology wasn't there, you know,
and Stack's records were you know, I mean, you listen
to Marvin Gaye one time I heard his vocal extracted
from the background vocal background track. It was impeccable, impeccable

(41:50):
pitch and phrasing. It unbelievable, Like you hear all that
other again production behind him with it, but you take
way all that and his raw voice was just it's incredible.
I forget what song it was, but it was so impressive.

Speaker 2 (42:07):
Well, but you can also I could also make the
argument that that perfection should not be the goal with
artists like Prince for example, right, he was churning out
a song day and he loved the fact that, you know,
maybe the drums were a little bit off, but it

(42:28):
had that feel and you don't have that feel anymore.
And they're basically using three different chords. It's the same
chords on every song, and it works.

Speaker 4 (42:40):
People buy it, sure, I mean, look, I mean, and
I don't know if you're when you say three chords,
I mean the simpler the song.

Speaker 3 (42:49):
Sometimes people really just gravitate to it.

Speaker 4 (42:54):
And what was the one? This is the sixties Louis Louis.
It's three chords whole time, but people still love that
damn song. It's going to feel to it, and it
got a feel that's exactly exactly, and that was recorded
on one take, okay, really one take, and there's all
sorts of mistakes.

Speaker 2 (43:12):
There's actually swear words throughout the song my goodness that
if you listen to it, yeah, with headphones you can
hear it. And for decades we haven't been able to
pick it up. It wasn't until they were able to
extract each track that they go, it's so easy to
hear that.

Speaker 4 (43:27):
Oh my goodness, I love that. And but but the
point was the three chords. I mean, that's all that
whole song.

Speaker 2 (43:33):
But that song you have no idea what he's saying, No,
it doesn't matter, but it's got the feel that's a
god feel.

Speaker 4 (43:40):
You have it, You're right exactly, and there's so many
songs that don't have that. F I think that's a
lot of thing that someone will tell me at the
end of it. I was feeling what you were portraying
tonight in your songs thank you, thank you, thank you.
I was like, you really got me out of my
funk today, or you did this for me? That to me,
that's like giving me gold, you know, and who wouldn't

(44:03):
want to hear that? But you know, I thought, I
being a stylist, you want to portray what you're singing,
you know, and what you're conveying to your audience, and
so I think that and it's it's the emotion, but
it's it is the feel and the beat and the
whole ensemble of it. You know, whether it's only one

(44:24):
guy playing, it's still an ensemble.

Speaker 2 (44:26):
Okay, when you were twenty two? Yeah, what was influencing you?

Speaker 4 (44:35):
Wow, that's a long time ago. So I don't you
mean influencing me musically or just in life?

Speaker 2 (44:43):
Or I'll let you interpret that question.

Speaker 4 (44:46):
How well? You know, I never got married, so I
guess I always wanted to have a child. I never
had a child, so I think at that time I
was sort of like thinking, well, I'd like to be
able to have a family, but didn't. My life didn't
take me that way. My life took me into a career.
And not that you can't have a family and have

(45:08):
a career, it just didn't go that way. So again,
it's a reinvent Okay, that's not going to happen. I
still think it will, but it didn't, So you put
maybe more into your work. I think that happened to
me possibly. And then when my parents became ill, they
came to live with me. So there's that whole aspect

(45:29):
of your life that you have to reinvent again, you know. So,
But as far as influencing, I think I was, you know,
teaching at that time, but I was interested in being
having a family and I didn't.

Speaker 3 (45:45):
But that's okay, it wasn't my path.

Speaker 2 (45:48):
So musically, what was inspiring you?

Speaker 4 (45:51):
Yeah, I think I was trying to just get a gig,
like I still am, I'm serious.

Speaker 3 (46:01):
I was trying to market our band. Where can we play?
Where can we do music for you?

Speaker 4 (46:07):
What? What special event could we do for you? You know?
So I guess maybe marketing myself musically and for the
band and getting gigs and looking going to the bridle shows.
I remember doing that and I had a booth, you know,
we had a booth and we worked with a couple
of different agents along the way that would would get us,
you know, gigs. So however you can get a gig,

(46:29):
that was maybe I think what was happening.

Speaker 2 (46:31):
Okay, I have another question, okay, and it's it's how
have gigs changed from when you were twenty two to now?

Speaker 4 (46:41):
Uh? Well, at that time, for me, I was playing
and singing both, doing both like hopefully, you know, seamlessly,
let's hope. Then it went into okay, I'm going to
just do it. In fact, I've done some piano gigs
for Annie for Music Smiles. I played just piano on

(47:02):
the baby ground at McGee Women's right and I also
did a couple of things at Children's Child Hospital for
the Music Smiles program, which is a beautiful, lovely program
that Annie Annie keeps going in honor of her deceased husband.
So we're then there was a time that I was
just doing singing jobs, which is kind of now, what's happening.

(47:27):
I'm just singing now, So that has transformed, like it
kind of went full circle almost because I started playing
again a little bit. But I don't do a whole
gig anymore as a pianist, but I do. I'll play
an hour maybe for a cocktail or something like that,
but the piano has to be there, Like I can't
bring equipment anymore.

Speaker 3 (47:47):
I can't lift it. I can't do run the chords.

Speaker 2 (47:50):
What I first was a DJ, and we would bring these,
You would bring these, you know, crates of records, and
then the amp weighed nine pounds. There were five hundred pounds.
Now you could have forty eight days worth of music
on a laptop.

Speaker 3 (48:06):
Your equipment is your laptop, right exactly.

Speaker 2 (48:09):
So when as as a performer, when are you the.

Speaker 4 (48:15):
Happiest standing ovation.

Speaker 2 (48:22):
Pretty hard to beat that up.

Speaker 4 (48:23):
I mean, that's being honest. I think when when I'm connecting,
not just necessarily with the people, but with the guys
on stage that I'm with, when you're it's so or
when it's organic and you're really connecting. Because I still
do things as a trio quartet, I sometimes put a

(48:44):
six piece band together. Depends on what the client has,
the budget, all that stuff. But if I have, like,
you know, two horns, piano, bassed drums, myself and you
connect musically and it's good and you have maybe some
harmony that's supporting you, that feeling is euphoric. It's just

(49:05):
it's wonderful. And so I think when you connect with
the people you're playing with, I think that's that's probably.

Speaker 2 (49:13):
The most fun you feel like it's locked in. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (49:16):
And of course when you're again going back to the
standing ovation, when you connect with the audience, you see
them smiling, you see them watching you, you see them like,
hush the audience, hush it. They're like, oh wow, let's
listen to this. You know, you know that you're you're
connecting with them or they're they're responding to you. And
I think that's another part of it that, you know,

(49:37):
there's some sometimes you don't have a connection at all,
you know, I'm just like like nothing, like you know,
I end some big songs, some big you know, Mariah
Carey song, and there's crickets. You know, it's like, oh,
I don't think they like that, you know, but they're
not necessarily gonna give you that every time, you know.
But I think when you move people and you're trying

(49:59):
to move people and you do it and you accomplish that,
I think that's that's pretty gratified.

Speaker 2 (50:05):
It's so often what is that that that music is
the channel?

Speaker 4 (50:10):
Yeah, the connection between people. It really is. Yeah, you know,
that's your gift to connect. I've heard that so often. Yeah,
And and that's the gratifying part of it. It makes
that's talking about the joy. We're saying what gives you
the joy? That is the joy? Right? There is the connection.
I think at least part of it anyway. I mean,

(50:33):
if it's if it's bad music and I'm part of it,
like I just want to like go crawl in a corner,
you know, you know, and believe me. I've had my mistakes.
I've had my you know, things I've screwed up on
you know, on stage. I think the professional part of
me gets through it. You get through it somehow. You
have to, you know, cover it and just go on.

Speaker 2 (50:57):
Can you do you have any stories of I don't
know how do I rephrase this a spinal tap moment,
something that is just like something has just gone wrong
that you just well.

Speaker 4 (51:08):
It was more of about we were at a gig
that we shouldn't have played. We had no business playing.
It was for I don't want to say the company,
but it was a company party. And the agent who
booked us I won't say who that is. I worked
with several so I can't really say the name. But

(51:28):
we were booked and it was for their company Christmas party.
They wanted a country band. Oh I am not a
country band. I am not. I'll never pretend to be.
I mean, I do a couple little bit Trisha Yearwood
and a couple of the Jody Messina and stuff, but
I'm not. We're not a country artist at all, not
even close. We can do like Patsy Klein.

Speaker 2 (51:50):
I mean, come on, they want that in that bar
and they're like, you know, they're in a country bar,
the same exact thing. Hey bring out wrang High, playing
it six times.

Speaker 4 (52:00):
I don't even know how we got through that gig,
but it was probably the worst, one of my worst
gigs ever, because you know, they don't like you, and
they're almost like getting like militant about it as they
get a little drunker, you know, because they're drinking and
they're party and they're having a party.

Speaker 3 (52:16):
Yeah, and so we just got through it. I don't
know how we got through it. We did, and we
pulled out.

Speaker 4 (52:22):
Every possible I mean, I'm doing like, you know, like
I don't even know Johnny Cash. Maybe I did, or
I don't, you know, and I don't do any Johnny,
but I'm faking it. I mean, you got to fake it,
you know.

Speaker 3 (52:34):
So that was a misrepresentation to the nth degree.

Speaker 1 (52:38):
But you do.

Speaker 3 (52:40):
I mean, you know they I think it was something
he thought we would be able to pull off.

Speaker 4 (52:45):
No, so it was that was a bad one. Yeah,
that was a bad one.

Speaker 2 (52:53):
Have you ever had I'll give you an example of
what happened to me. Yeah, see if it ever happened
to you.

Speaker 4 (52:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (53:00):
You know, when I first started, I put myself through
college DJing weddings, and then I forgot about it for
a while, and then as my kids got older, I
put them through college doing weddings. I got you And
there was this one wedding which was very There was
a VFW right off of Vanadium, very close to the Brilliana.

(53:22):
And you know, nowadays you don't play the hokey pokey,
but back then at weddings you did. You played the
hokey pokey absolutely, And I played the hokey pokey and
Grandma put her left foot in and oh she had
a heart attack.

Speaker 1 (53:37):
Right.

Speaker 2 (53:39):
Luckily it was in the VFW and they had EMTs
having a meeting down below. They all came up when
fortunately they were doing Yeah. So you know that that
particular wedding has stayed with me, and so you know
they you know, every once in a while, like, hey,
and it's okay if you play the hokey pokey or
the Chicken dance, and I'm like, no, I can you

(54:00):
do that? Have you ever had something that was just
completely out of your control, just really kind of a mishap.

Speaker 4 (54:08):
That was just I probably shouldn't say this one. I
think you should because it's embarrassing for me. But awesome,
it's gonna, it's going. I thought you'd like that. Johnny,
it's Johnny, right, I got it right because that's my
dad's name, my brother's name. Johnny's big name in my family.
My cousins, my uncles, everybody, my nephew were all Johnny's
and Mary's in my life.

Speaker 2 (54:29):
I love Johnny's.

Speaker 4 (54:30):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (54:30):
Anyway, So one time I was singing and it was
not my band.

Speaker 4 (54:36):
It was I think it was a karaoke night, to
be honest, So you know that kind of crowd is
not as it wasn't my gig, but this did happen.

Speaker 2 (54:45):
So uh.

Speaker 4 (54:46):
I love Linda Ron's stat.

Speaker 2 (54:48):
Love love, love love her, and she's just now getting
the appreciation I.

Speaker 4 (54:53):
Know, and it's because she just had such a career
and she's not able to sing anymore. So this is
so sad, but such an influence on me because I
like to have pure tone when I'm singing.

Speaker 3 (55:06):
She's such a pure She's one of the best.

Speaker 4 (55:08):
So I want to do when Will I Be Loved?
Great song?

Speaker 3 (55:14):
Ah Ben cheed ben mister.

Speaker 4 (55:20):
Okay, So I do the whole when we Live We Love.
Wanted to lose some weight, That's what I hear. That's
something and I'm getting chills thinking about it. Was so
awful this guy from the back of the bar. And
I'm not a skinny person, never really have been of
his thin when I was younger, but you know, I

(55:41):
got you know, as you age, you get, you get
the pounds on.

Speaker 3 (55:45):
So I'm like, oh, my goodness, is that what you're
worried about?

Speaker 4 (55:48):
Like is that really?

Speaker 2 (55:49):
Did you have to do that?

Speaker 3 (55:51):
How horrible? So that was a bad one.

Speaker 4 (55:53):
That's a that's a terrible but you but I don't
do that song now because of that, except for right now.

Speaker 2 (56:03):
You should do it. You should do it.

Speaker 4 (56:05):
I love the song and I love her, but it's
like I do to wow, like because you know he
did it right when the phrase was you know, there
was no you know, right after the phrase was done.
So everybody heard it. Oh my god, are you kidding me?

Speaker 3 (56:19):
You know, just be real, I'm just being real.

Speaker 2 (56:25):
I had to bleep that out. Yeah, I turned the
mics down.

Speaker 4 (56:30):
This is a progressive.

Speaker 3 (56:34):
Yeah, all right, So yeah, let's move to something positive.

Speaker 2 (56:40):
Well, okay, let's talk about what you want to What
else do you want to accomplish?

Speaker 4 (56:46):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (56:48):
Well, if you're asking, I'm going to tell you I'm asking, Okay.

Speaker 4 (56:53):
I I would love to be able to perform on
a really big stage, like you know, Carnegie Music Hall
in New York or somewhere in Nashville or some like,
you know, a more national audience, a bigger stage with

(57:14):
like a full orchestra behind me, Like that would be
my ultimate. I have had that experience, but it was
like just maybe one song. They asked me to come
in and be a guest. You know, I would like
it to I'd like to have this like my own
concert that people would pay money to come to, and
it's on a big stage, in high production, background singers,

(57:38):
wonderful band, you know.

Speaker 3 (57:39):
And so that's, you know, something my dream about. I
guess it's a dream, you know.

Speaker 2 (57:48):
And what is Judy's legacy?

Speaker 4 (57:50):
She brought music to people to connect them together with love.