Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hudson River Radio dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Hello out there in podcasts, land and beyond wherever that
might be, Maxie Margot Rubin and along with my co
host Malcolm Berman, who is kind of out today because
of technicality of equipment. And this is the Many Shades
of Green, our program that adds a dash of green
into your life as we engage in conversations that move
(00:43):
to form, educate, activate, and raise your echo and social
consciousness through culture, politics, music, books, art, science, community, we
hope to inspire you to pick a shade of green
and become a steward of this beautiful, blue, green planet
we call Earth. So Hi, Lauren and I kneel both
(01:04):
kind of neighbories out there, which is good, kind of cool.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
So we're we're gonna start out with a song which
is the title song from an album called cross Country.
And the song is called cross Country and our guest
has a definite connection to that.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
Contry. See you vantis country on the rady s.
Speaker 5 (02:02):
Together eagle want.
Speaker 6 (02:11):
Suspread its ways and want suspend the wains and take.
Speaker 5 (02:22):
To the scaress. Guy, do not not do them? No
do she gon?
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Is you.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Gone?
Speaker 5 (02:39):
Is you.
Speaker 7 (03:14):
Wow?
Speaker 3 (03:14):
That that guitar solo rocks man. I gotta tell you,
if you listen to the rest of it, it was
very man verry Man. Okay. So that's who you're remembered.
You're remembered, came to you.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
So I'm gonna do a little intro here so we
can bring in Lauren, who was part of that group.
Cross country, which is so cool. So when you fly
cross country on a daytime flight from New York to
la and the skies are clear, you see beautiful topography
with no boundaries, no divisions, no anger. One can view
(03:49):
the Atlantic Ocean, a variety of cities, crop circles, the
rocky mountains, the Grand Canyon, the La Sprawl, and finally
the Pacific Ocean. The lyrics from the song America the
Beautiful say best, Oh Beautiful, for spacious skies, for amber
waves of grain, for purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain, America, America.
(04:13):
God shed his grace on thee and crown thy good
with brotherhood from sea to shining sea. So what's left
that is good in today's America? And how can we
come together as a nation to highlight the good? While
the domestic evildoers, and I'm shouting out to prison and
Bush the second as he coined the phrase evildoers seek
(04:37):
to disrupt.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Our way of life.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
I don't have the answers, but I know that we
must unite and be proactive. There are good, kind, educated
citizens working tirelessly everybody to protect, defend, create, innovate and
stand up for what is right. Yes, times are tough,
but as my son told me years ago, the lawyers,
the innovators, and and yes, the hackers will get us through.
(05:03):
Hackers was an interesting concept that juncture uh So. Joining
us today on the Many Shades of Green is Lauren Corovec,
a musician, writer, and a family friend for decades.
Speaker 8 (05:16):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
He was in the Army with my brother Mitch Margo
and played in a group called the Green Apple Nasties
along with musician Ray Templeton and actor Joel Higgins, who's
been around TV and Broadway.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
It's pretty pretty incredible.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
H So, Lauren performed and took to the stage with
uh and in the studio with the Tokens, with brothers
Phil and Mitch, and with Jay Siegel, who you heard
that great voice on the cross country album. Uh The
guys had a great blend all of them. He's a
talented songwriter and keyboard player. I know he also dons pianos.
(05:54):
I think just so much sure if he's doing.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
That, doing it and is currently in the group, the
band Band.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
So we're gonna delve into some environmental technologies, talk a
bit about climate, talk about fires and smoke jumping, because
fires are making our sky smoky and polluted, which is
affecting air quality. As matter of fact, today here in
New York we have an air quality alert from from fires.
(06:23):
We're gonna touch on music and how it reflects and
helps us survive these uncertain times. And we'll talk about
some projects that Lauren's working on currently. And so Lauren,
you're gonna chime in punintended on those various topics that
I just said. And welcome, Welcome to the many shades
of green.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
So glad you are here.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
And so my quintessential question to every guest, literally every guest,
is my question, what is your shade of green at
this moment.
Speaker 8 (06:58):
Right now, right now? Yeah, I'm thinking like forest green,
you know, interestingly, and you know Mitch was a painter.
You have to be careful putting certain colors side by side.
When you're decorating a room or when you're doing a painting,
you have to always be considerate of that. But the
color green, it doesn't matter because when you look around,
(07:21):
you're going to see a thousand different strawberries to quote
Monti pipeline, and they're going to be side by side
in uh, numerous various shades of green. So you can't
go wrong putting green next to green. You can't because
nature does it, and we would go crazy if we
insisted on giving that care. On the other hand, blue
(07:44):
you gotta be careful with, so you know, there's there's
a there's a rule, and none of them apply with green,
that's neat.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
That's neat.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
They're also a new shade of blue green called Olo.
Then only select people, not select, only certain people can
see it, and it's very rare that you can see it,
and they just did a study about it because it
came to my intention. And you know, when I'm flipping
through some of my my emails, like I come up
with all sorts of things, and that was one of them.
Speaker 8 (08:13):
So that's cool.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
It's a it's a it's a teal, it's a teal color.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
But they they're trying to figure out what what it
is within that parameter that only five people out of
I don't know how many were able to see it
to see that color. So I have to read down
into the article. But it's it's we've got mister.
Speaker 7 (08:40):
Yeah, I apologize for being late kid.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Yeah, I was trying.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
I was explaining to Lauren that that our connection is
through Phil and of course uh and Mitch actually and
and and Lauren being you know, and yeah.
Speaker 7 (08:55):
I started out doing a show with Phil, a non
music show, and it was called The Lion Roars. Oh yeah,
because because I.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Thought it was time to stop the BS.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Was the show one of them that was an old
old That was an old old one, all right.
Speaker 7 (09:10):
But then we get the Lion Roars because he had
he roared.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
We know that, as you know, Yes, we know lots
about Phil.
Speaker 7 (09:26):
And and then Phil told me that, uh, Maxine had
her own show, Many Schetes of Green. Actually it wasn't
many Shades of Green, it was something else.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
No, well, the the first one I did was called
Village Green, close enough, but no cigar. But anyway, so
where we brought Lauren in, We played some music across country.
We did the Green shade. And now I'm trying to
like get some background for Lauren here for people and
how he met my brother Mitch, because that's how this
(09:57):
all happened. Uh So, can you give us a little
quick background of the arm I know, I'll say the army,
but you can pick up on that, Lauren.
Speaker 8 (10:08):
Army and that's not my favorite shady green olive drab okay,
but yeah, yes, it was the Army. And I was
in a band that was my duty. I was in
a show band that did shows and that included Ray
Templin and Joel Higgins and some other notables, not the
least of which was Lamar Williams, who you know, came
(10:30):
from the Wilson Pickett band and was a really successful
studio guy in Detroit. And after the Army, he was
injured in the Army Agent Orange, which I you know,
it's widely believed that's ultimately what killed him. He he
signed on with the Almond Brothers and he replaced Barry Oakley,
(10:50):
so on all those later Almond Brothers records, Bush that
was his nickname. Lamar Williams was the bass player and
so he was he was in our band also. So
one day this guy Mitch Margot comes up and he says,
I liked the audition for this band. He had also
been drafted, and uh we auditioned him and hired him.
(11:13):
We brought him on board, and Mitch and I stayed
best friends until he died.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Mm hmmm, right.
Speaker 7 (11:20):
So are you are you from Brooklyn also?
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Or no?
Speaker 8 (11:25):
Because no, not from California?
Speaker 7 (11:28):
Oh what part?
Speaker 8 (11:29):
Uh Wallet Creek just east of Oakland, just into the.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Valley Malcolm's in in.
Speaker 7 (11:38):
Uh Oh Yeah, I was born and raised in Brooklyn,
and I went to this the same high school as
filling uh.
Speaker 8 (11:48):
Lincoln High School and have Lincoln High.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Yeah, it's the place.
Speaker 7 (11:53):
I'm a Coney born in Brighton Beach. People.
Speaker 8 (11:55):
Well, there you go. And you know, many times mitchuh,
Mitch and I would go out to Tony and I
still do and just get on the cyclone and stay
on that thing for like ten twelve cycles. Yeah, yeah,
just give the guy a buck, he'd stay on.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Not anymore.
Speaker 8 (12:11):
Now I went. I went two years ago. I haven't
been since, but I did that. I tipped the guy
and I figured, Okay, that's probably not happening, and he
took Hey. I think I gave him five and I
moved up to the front car and he just let
me stay there as long as I want it, just
like the good old days.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Get out to do that.
Speaker 8 (12:33):
By me.
Speaker 7 (12:34):
Did you never do the parachute?
Speaker 8 (12:36):
I never did the parachute. No, I don't really. I
don't really like crazy rides.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
I mean, but he's a cyclone freak, you know. I know.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
And Nathan's of course, you know, when growing up we
used to go to to Nathan's where we would have
like a full meal at Caroline's or guard Julio's and
see who can make it on ten trips on the
cyclone without puke.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
And I was always one.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Me and my friend Chuck and my friend Byron were
the only three that lasted after for ten times after
a meal at Carolines.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Course Italian meal, you.
Speaker 7 (13:16):
Know, until I got online.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Yeah, well uh so, but Cody island, so just quickly
on the green Apple, nasty.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
How did you arrive? I always wondered what that name
was from.
Speaker 8 (13:26):
Well here's what here's how it started. We had been
you know, I'm in the drug band music I always
have been. And and Ray Templin is just a monster
stride pianist, you know, old time Hockey Talk, Stride New
York Stride, Ragtime a Killer. He wound up spend having
a great career with Disney and he's retired now, but
(13:48):
one of the best pianists I ever knew, And so
he was in that band. Joel was in that band.
Marvelous singer, great guitar player, and I think for some
reason it was just three of us. One particular night,
we had to play a USO show in town. We
finished the thing and we said, well, I'm ready for
a drink, are you? And so we went into this
(14:09):
bar and you know, right there on Main Street, and
we had a drink and there's nothing going on. It
said to the bar and, hey, you mind if we
grew up there and play a couple of twos on stage.
We're actually a band, And she said, yeah, sure, what
the hell? So we went up there and we played
for about two hours and tore it up. Everybody that
came in just stayed and it was ridiculous. It wound
(14:33):
up being a really stupid party. So she wanted to
hire us, and she said, well, what a band. I
gotta hire you guys? What do you call yourselves? And
we all looked at each other without a clue, and
Joel had always wanted to have a band called the
Green Apple Nasties, and which is a euphemism for something undesirable.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
So, oh, we know what back there, Neil shaking his head.
Speaker 8 (15:03):
Oh lord, I'm sorry, it's Montezuma's revenge, right, It's okay.
At the rest of going it's diarrhea, folks.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
That's what I said to my husband. I said it
had to be something with the stomach. I had a feeling.
Speaker 8 (15:19):
So we thought yeah, so we thought, well, that was
so cool, and now we have a job. We're all soldiers.
I have been playing piano downtown in pizza parlers and stuff.
But so there we were moving up on Nash's was
born there.
Speaker 7 (15:35):
What what years were you in the army.
Speaker 8 (15:37):
I was in sixty eight to seventy one, so.
Speaker 7 (15:40):
So it was pretty peaceful at that time.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Peaceful. Yeah, yeah, it was real peaceful.
Speaker 8 (15:46):
No today, I got drafted right before the tenth sens.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Oh fabulous, Yeah, I mean everything, how hell was breaking
loose in the States. Everything was going crazy. I mean
that time, and you know, you think about the protests
and everything, and and now I think about, you know, now,
what's going to be coming next week, I cause it's
(16:12):
crazy out there.
Speaker 7 (16:14):
What happens is June June fourteenth.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Yeah, well we're going.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Yeah, I think I think the best thing for me
to do is literally high under my desk because.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
That's what I do.
Speaker 8 (16:27):
Really well, that's good.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
I just I don't even know.
Speaker 7 (16:31):
You know, you're not going to watch it, Pope.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Uh, well, that's cool that the Pope is having uh
in Chicago, that he picked that data have that mess.
It's uh yeah that that that to me is is
something that gives me. Uh, Pope Leo is like, whoa
okay dude, and he's from Chicago.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
He's American all of all things.
Speaker 7 (16:53):
Yeah, yep, absolutely, and it's Chicago White Sox play.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
Yeah it's their stadium right right.
Speaker 8 (16:58):
Yeah, he's a white Tux fan.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Yeah. Well he's a Chicago guy.
Speaker 7 (17:02):
So yeah, what I wanta creek forcause you want to
creak something is with sneakers.
Speaker 8 (17:06):
It was very suburban, right. There's a couple of oil
refineries very nearby, and so they built these tract houses
on quarter acre lots that were all identical typical California thing. Right.
It was about nineteen fifty. I'm born in forty eight,
and my father worked in one of those oil refineries.
So you know, it's just it's it's it's a working
(17:29):
town suburb. And now those those little houses that went
for nine thousand dollars back then are going in the millions.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
Get out.
Speaker 8 (17:38):
I'm not kidding.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
That's nuts right there. That's that's nuts right there.
Speaker 8 (17:42):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
So but anyway, so I know, I mean, we can
we can kind of go from place to place in
terms of what we want to also talk because you
are in a current group called.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
The band band you. You know, you did so much.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
You worked with the guys on cross Country and the
Tokens and John Kirshner's Rock Concert and all that stuff
and Musical.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
Chairs, the TV game show.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
So you have like quite quite a resume there with
with my bros.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Too.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
You know that the close the closeness is pretty much there.
And the music. So I mean, how did you in
terms of like you being connected to music? I mean,
what was that at an early age? Was that later on?
Speaker 8 (18:31):
I mean okay, early, it was early you know. So
if you think about the mid fifties, everybody was playing
the accordion because the Lawrence woke and Laurence and a
guy knocked on my door. I was home. My mother
was working, so I was home alone. The guy knocked
up my door and he said, Hi, Lauren, how would
you like to play the accordion music man. It's crazy
(18:55):
because a girl in my class I think I was
in fourth grade at the time, had done one of
the assemblies and she played an accordion, and so I
thought that's really cool, and so, you know, it was
like providence. The guy knocked out my door and I said, oh, yeah,
I would really love that. And his name was mister Handlin.
He gave me his card. I gave it to my
folks when they came home, and my dad, being that
(19:18):
your cheapest man in the world, said okay, you could
do that, but I have to go to the lessons
with you, and when we come home, I get to
practice before you do. It's true. When he got done that,
I could have the accordion and work on the lesson.
But yeah, he taught myself to play that way.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
That's interesting.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Yeah, because my Mitch, my parents gave him some piano lessons,
not much. He played by year and everything, but he
did get some formal lessons and then Phil would ask him, like,
what you learn you know, that's how it worked. You know,
you thought it would be reversed because Phil being the olders,
but yeah, that you know, that seems to be a thing, especially.
Speaker 7 (20:00):
I remember sell some guys like you, why you hear
the music in your head?
Speaker 8 (20:05):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (20:06):
I mean when I did the show with Phil and
we would talk about music and said, how they hell
did you write that? He said, I don't know. I
heard it.
Speaker 8 (20:14):
Yeah, I'm hearing it now, unconstantly hearing music, mm hmm.
And sometimes I get annoyed when there's so much noise
that I can't hear the music in my head, or
if I'm at a restaurant and I'm listening to something
that's got awful and and I was really trying to
listen to something that was in my brain and that
got stepped.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
On right right, Yeah, I mean, do you is it?
Speaker 2 (20:37):
I take it as the music first and then lyrics,
or do you know it's lyric and then music, which
way neither.
Speaker 8 (20:45):
My best writing is simultaneous.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Oh that's pretty cool.
Speaker 8 (20:50):
If I just get an idea for a line and
a little melody, I'll try to do them together. It's
always the strongest when I do them together. And if
I write the music first and I go too far,
I box myself in. I will never finish that tone.
Speaker 7 (21:09):
Well, I have a new type of music for you
to write, Okay, music that companies put you on hold.
Play the music because they play, especially government, they played
the bloody awful music.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
And they want to hang they don't even want.
Speaker 7 (21:27):
To, and especially if it's especially if it's government.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
They want you to hang up. You can prap.
Speaker 8 (21:34):
Yep, yep, but thanks do it too well.
Speaker 7 (21:37):
You know we've all been the whole the whole nine Yeah,
you said music music to wait by right now?
Speaker 8 (21:45):
Interesting? Is that? That? Something like if you call Apple.
I'm constantly calling Apple Service because I'm incompetent and I
always need need somebody taking her by the hand. They
will give you a choice. They'll say would you like
silence or would you like jazz? Or would you right
right country right? And I always choose silence. But I
think it's kind of cool that you get the choice
(22:05):
rather than have that got off or whatever above it
and snaps in yeah, because it's almost never good.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
Yeah, No, it's never good. I mean I I I
no matter what I choose, it's it's meant to be good.
Met I say, met a met.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
So so just so, okay, so just let's we're gonna
go backwards a little because you you, you, you did
your stint in the army, and then we were talking
about because we wanted to hit on environmental.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Things, and you said that you uh, you know.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
We talked about turbines, we talked about the fires, and
then you told me out of nowhere that you were
a smoke jumper. Yep, Like, when was that and how
did you even get involved with that? I mean, what
brought that that on?
Speaker 8 (22:53):
I graduated. I graduated high school in sixty six. All right,
my grandmother. I had lived with my father up in
the Sierras for one year of seventh grade. And he
and it was a small town at about four thousand
feet called Quincy, and he owned two big autoparts outlets
in Quincy. So he serviced all the loggers, and he
(23:16):
serviced all of the forest service. You know, he provided
parts for all the implements, the tractors, the trucks, and
so he knew everybody. So when I graduated high school,
he said, what are you going to do all summer?
I said, I don't know, get ready for college, and
he said, come back up to the mountains. I'm going
to get you a job with forest Service. So I
(23:37):
took I did. I took the job I was. I
was I want to be engineer, which basically meant I
was a surveyor. So I carried a tripod like fourteen
miles into the forest and out again every day. But
when you're in the forest, it was your first duty
is firefighter. It's like when you're in the army, you
might be a cook, but when they're coming over the perimeter,
(23:59):
you're infant, right. So and back then they pulled tourists
off the road. You know, you might be going for
a camping trip with mama and three kids and you'll
get pulled over if there's a bad fire, and they'll say, sir,
step out of the car. You're you're now a firefighter.
So they were dinning. So you know, in my training,
(24:21):
I was offered a pay raise if I took the
hell of jumping training, which means you go up in
a helicopter and you wear like a padded suit, right,
no more than twenty miles an hour, no higher than
twenty feet. You would jump into the jump into the
fire zone that way, and they taught me to roll
and do all that stuff so you didn't get hurt.
(24:42):
And so I did that. I never did do that
in the course of fighting or fire, but I fought
a lot of fighters, and I was glad that I
didn't have to do that.
Speaker 7 (24:53):
I was training for the cellphone.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
Yeah, no, I would.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
I mean, could you imagine what the firefighters were going
through during that those LA fires in the Pacific Coast
and uh alt and.
Speaker 8 (25:07):
I sure can, I mean you better know.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
You know it, but no one you know can really know.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
And when they had one hundred mile an hour with
Santa Ana winds and they couldn't even pull up put it.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
The helicopters couldn't.
Speaker 8 (25:20):
Fly in that nope, nope, And and the borate tankers
shouldn't fly. And and another ingredient to that down south
is you know, unless you're a West Coast person, you
don't really know about adobe. Adobe is the natural mud there.
Uh you know, it used to be underwater, and you
(25:40):
know when the whole San Joaquin and Sakamata valleys were
flooded way back then in the dinosaur days. And that
adobe is rock hard. I mean, it's rock hard. They
make houses out of it, and you can't get a
shovel in the ground. It's just awful. And so you're
fighting the fire. Well, when you fight forest fires, range fires,
(26:01):
you're digging mostly, that's what you do. You dig fire
brakes and clearing, clearance, clearing so that the fire can't
jump and it gets arrested where it is. Then then
put a backfire and gild the direction and hopefully that
that's how you put out the fire. But I'm telling
you that West Coast mud, you can't dig that stuff.
(26:21):
It's awful.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
So I made it even more. I mean, you know,
just everything that could go wrong went wrong. And and
you know, being so dry, being you know, the winds
just kicked everything up. Because there is there's climate change.
There is climate change, and and this has.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
Added to that.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
And and because of the warming of the atmosphere, I mean,
we're we're also getting here in New York. I don't
ever remember having to think about fires in Canada or
fires on alongside the road. I mean in in Jersey,
in Rockland, and and you know there were fire fire
and Prospect Park last there was a fire and in
(27:01):
wood in wood Park.
Speaker 8 (27:02):
Last year that's right.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
And and you I no ever remember that.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
I never remember it getting to the point that was
that it's getting to. And obviously in Los Angeles, I
mean I was always worried about, you know, Malcolm and
my and my nephews and niece everyone out there, you know.
Speaker 8 (27:18):
But it's pretty new for LA too. It's pretty new
for l A.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (27:21):
Well, it was getting close to the San Fernando Valley, yes,
because it was up on Mulholland Drive.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
And uh yeah.
Speaker 7 (27:30):
Pelvet Of Boulevard, which is like about four miles from
my house.
Speaker 8 (27:33):
Yep. And then you know, the Santa Ada wind is
different from anything else because it comes from the dry
land mask it's most most wind in California is other
than that is coming off the Pacific Ocean. Yeah, and
the Pacific Ocean is really cold, and so you don't
get the hot wind, even though it may be really fierce.
(27:54):
But the Santa Eda wind is hot. You can't stand
in a blast of the Santa a wind. If you
can at all, you barely can't. Notten knows that. And
that's it picks up the heat from the desert and
blows it, you know, onto the coastal towns and it's awful. Yeah,
you know, and it's funny now you know, there's a
(28:14):
fire in Fairfield, California, up north right right out inside
an apple of Sacramento and it's not under control.
Speaker 7 (28:21):
You.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
Yeah, We're gonna talk more about fires because we believe
it or not, we we hit the brake.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
Okay, So we'll be back more with Lauren quarvac musician
and smoke jumper uh and a lot of other wonderful things,
and we'll get into new music and maybe talk about
some turbines in the water giving some environmental positivity.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
So please stay tuned. We'll be right back.
Speaker 8 (28:47):
Hudson River Radio dot com.
Speaker 9 (28:54):
This is Hudson River Radio dot com.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
This is Hudson River Radio dot com.
Speaker 9 (29:06):
This is Hudson River Radio dot com and.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
We are back with Lauren Korovec to talk more about
a little bit more about the environment, maybe the sounds
of music and more.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
Please subscribe to.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Our podcast at all major podcasts apps. Follow us on Facebook,
Instagram at Tamshades of Green on Blue Sky, which is
at Tamshades of Green dot b k b s ky
dot social, and you know, drop us a line or
say hello h So we're talking about different things. We're
talking about fires, we were talking about music and the
(30:03):
army and all sorts of crazy things. Uh, we're not
crazy things how you might look at it. But when
I was speaking a Lord about what we wanted to
kind of touch on he environmental perspective, you brought up
wind turnbine turbines. You thought that's something that's very important.
So what what are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 8 (30:22):
Well, my thoughts are the wind turbines are useful and
and and effective and ugly.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
And yeah that's true and.
Speaker 8 (30:33):
Expensive, and you know, other renewable sources are solar, which
is ugly. It's useful when the sun's out, and I
know you can store up with batteries and that's that's fine.
But you know, now I'm seeing hillsides covered with solar collectors,
and you know, I know that they're going to be
the size of the head of a pin, probably in
(30:55):
our in our lives. So I see, you know, so
I know that that's not permanent. But how about this?
And I've run this by a bunch of people and
everybody says, wow, I never thought of that. There must
be people thinking of it. What about turbines under the ocean.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
Yeah, they have been this.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
Yeah, I've heard something about that, but nothing like that
I've seen that it's actually happening.
Speaker 8 (31:18):
Well, here's the thing, you know, you could make that.
We have plastics now that are non corrosive. They're also
forever and they have their own issues, but but you
just use them forever. So if you put a turbine
under the under the ocean and it doesn't it could
be just so that shipping is safe, you know, out
of the way. Uh. The tides come and go every
(31:41):
six hours, whether it's windy, whether it's sunny, any of that.
The turb turbine is going to turn. Uh. You know,
a tide cycle is six hours. It starts out kind
of you know, as the direction of the tide changes,
you're wasting an hour and a half before you really
get up to speed. And the same thing at the
other end of it. But man, you're getting reliable, reliable
(32:03):
uh uh. Energy feeds out of that. So it's offshore
and you don't see it.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
You know, it's you know, they're putting it up in places.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
There's fights about you know, how it is, how it looks,
how it's going to affect the land value even though it's.
Speaker 8 (32:21):
In the water.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Uh, and and all sorts of stuff. I mean, you
can't you know, there's pros and cons of everything. But
if we need to create energy that's not fossil fuels,
which I don't know unless we get through the next
four years of the insanity, you know, we we we need,
we really need to look at the innovations that are
(32:42):
coming down the pike. And you know there's floating solar farms.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
Did you know that.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
Yes, floato voltaics they're called, and they're actually floating.
Speaker 8 (32:53):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
They install solar panels on the farm, utilized bodies of
water to install solar panels.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
Uh. And they can improve efficiency.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
And I don't know, they just put it on something
that kind of floats in the water, a structure that floats.
I don't know, I'm trying to do anything. Yeah, you
never know, you just never know. So but anyway, so, uh,
I have a question you. I saw you perform, and
if you can ever catch Laura perform at Turning Point
(33:24):
or any other place, I highly recommended. He he's awesome.
And you were playing some Randy Newman stuff. Okay, you
seem to like, Yeah, I love. Okay, yes, yes, yeah,
so right.
Speaker 3 (33:41):
So Randy Newman.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Is is actually a figure in the environmental movement because
he wrote the song burn On about the oil spill
in the Kayahoga River in Ohio, which helped get the
environmental movement started and Earth Day started. So people don't
realize when I say Randy Newman had a part in this.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
They look at me like, you.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
Know, they's just go, oh, you're too short and short
people have no reason, no, because I'm a big five
to two if I'm lucky. But anyway, he wrote it,
you know, and he wrote it about the oil barge
and he that was and then of course there was
a spill in Santa barber too, which caused all sorts
of craziness. But Randy Newman has entered my heart even
(34:31):
more now because of his connection, which I didn't realize.
Speaker 8 (34:36):
It didn't ocur to me either. And I used to
do that song.
Speaker 3 (34:39):
Really, Oh I want to hear you do it.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
I mean seriously, right now next time he starts playing baby.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
But anyway, so now you're with.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
The band band, which is essentially a cover band of
the It is a cover band of the band.
Speaker 8 (34:58):
We are the and banned.
Speaker 7 (35:01):
Well, that's one of my favorite songs is which I
haven't figured it out yet.
Speaker 8 (35:07):
And the Weight, well, the Weight like a lot of
Robbie's lyrics. You know, Robbie is coming from Bob Dylan, right,
and Dylan Dylan didn't always care for it made sense,
but it had to.
Speaker 3 (35:20):
Rhyme right, and of stuff didn't make sense.
Speaker 8 (35:23):
Actually, well that's my point and so and so the
weight is is like that, you know, and and you
know we've talked about it a lot on the on
the bus and this and that. But you know, I
pulled into Nazareth. Well that's Nazareth, Pennsylvania is where Martin
guitars are built. Mm hmm uh.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
And and people think it's Nazareth in.
Speaker 8 (35:45):
Right least, not at all Middle East, right, So let
me think looking for a place to hide.
Speaker 7 (35:55):
But I love the music.
Speaker 8 (35:58):
Everybody does. It's such an infect chorus with that suspension
in it, and there's room for singers like Mayvia Staples
to improvise over that simple little melody and it's it's
the life of Everybody loves that song. And with my
own writing, as you recently heard Maxine, I'm getting simpler
(36:18):
and simpler and simpler. If I can do it with
three chords, I will, And if I'm not careful to
do it with two. I've studied jazz, I've done all that.
I don't need to write stuff with crazy twisted chords anymore.
I got that out of my sad.
Speaker 3 (36:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (36:33):
Sure, if I can write a song like the Wait
or a Stephen Foster song, Swanny River, you know, the
old folks at home, I'll be the proudest guy, you know.
Speaker 3 (36:43):
Yeah, Okay, I'm waiting for it. You know me time, Yeah,
there's plenty of time.
Speaker 8 (36:52):
What do you call.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
I mean? You know, right now music is so important.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
Uh, because of the times we're in, it's even more important.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
And people need to hang on to that.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
And you know, when you have you have you have
your major artists like Bruce you know, just coming out saying,
you know, what the hell's going on and explains what's
what's going on. And you have you know, all the ones,
you know, Dylan and Crosby, Stills, Nashing Young in the past,
even like Pussy right them getting themselves in trouble in.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
Russia especially especially and.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
And and you know you have you know, Patti Smith,
Kendrick Lamar, I mean with his you know, there's so
much Tracy Chapman, the Beatles, I mean, yeah, Revolution and
uh and Blackbird. Everyone thought it was about a blackbird. Yeah, no,
it's not about a blackbird. They had no clue, you
know that it was about this women he met, these
(37:50):
black women he met who were waiting in the night. Yep,
you know you don't you think of lyrics as one thing,
Like you said, Nazareth.
Speaker 3 (37:59):
You know, and and and you're right as well.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
Go you go to the the birthplace of you know,
you go to a different place, but in New York,
nather at Nazareth, where Martin guitars are made.
Speaker 8 (38:10):
That's correct.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
So it's it's crazy. Yeah, so what no, So what
do you guys in the band band? Are you touring around?
Speaker 8 (38:18):
What?
Speaker 3 (38:18):
What? What are you doing currently?
Speaker 8 (38:20):
Yeah, we're touring around. We are. We're on a hiatus
right now. We're not back in business till the twentieth
of June, and so we'll be local. We'll be at
City Winery in New York City. Oh, that's cool on
the twentieth. That's wonderful. Than you. It is a really
good venue. It's a nice room, you know, it's it's
about four fifty five hundred now and it's real comfortable.
(38:43):
It's great. Yeah, I love those doing that. Yeah, yep, yep.
Mostly we're playing bigger rooms than that now, but but
I like those more intimate rooms. I don't I don't know, uh,
you know, rooms like the Turning Point.
Speaker 3 (38:57):
I don't get small, but yeah, eighty very small. Yeah.
Speaker 8 (39:01):
Yeah. And it's a big band. We have. You know,
we have five guys, even if there's no horns, so
there's five of us. There's a there's a bus to
be paid for and maintained. We have a manager, we
have a an agent, and we have a sound man.
So there's a lot of mouse feed. So you've got you.
Speaker 2 (39:19):
Got a crew there, huh got some Yeah, we need
some roadies huh Yeah.
Speaker 8 (39:26):
Well we usually do have help from whatever the venue is.
There'll be people meetings to helpload in. But yeah, yeah,
and it's it's it's a it's a big undertaking. People
don't realize what it takes, especially in the stadium shows
like bon Jovi does, and you know, like Goose does.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
Oh my god, it takes punches and hundreds of people.
Speaker 3 (39:47):
Yeah, to deal with those shows.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
I can't imagine what Taylor Swift the same kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (39:53):
You can't imagine. That's why she paid her staff.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
So she gave him a lot of bonuses because it
gave them one hundred thousand dollars each, you know person.
Speaker 3 (40:03):
Because that's what she does.
Speaker 8 (40:05):
That's what she does. Yeah, I mean, she's a decent.
Speaker 2 (40:08):
Decent human and and gee, we need so many more
of those now. And you know, bon Jovi is an
amazing guy.
Speaker 3 (40:16):
You know.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
You open those restaurants where you need to eat, you
can eat, you know, and if you can't pay for it.
Speaker 7 (40:22):
I forget the name of that. There was a TV
series about roadies, Yes there was, really, I forget the
name of it.
Speaker 3 (40:29):
Yes there was. There was a show about roadies.
Speaker 7 (40:32):
I think it a season or two.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
It did last the season, but I think it was
only one season, I believe. But it did give you
the insight as to what they do, you know. So,
I mean, I'm sure there's that. There should be documentary
somewhere about roadies are integral part of especially the big shows.
Speaker 8 (40:51):
All the big shows. They sure are. I mean, you
know you can't do all that and play too.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
No, no, pick pick one you want to do.
Speaker 8 (41:00):
But that's right, that's right.
Speaker 3 (41:02):
So what else are you doing then? Now?
Speaker 2 (41:04):
I mean, what's your more current work that you were
projects you're working on.
Speaker 8 (41:09):
We're gonna do you know, we're gonna go on a
tour early fall and doing shows that are you know,
reenacting the Last Waltz movie okay, which is you know,
the most epic rock and roll movie of all times.
Speaker 3 (41:21):
Oh yeah, absolutely love that movie.
Speaker 8 (41:23):
Yeah, and we have a troop of eighteen we have Yeah,
we've got three horns. We've got Larry Packer who played
in the original movie with the band. He's playing fiddle.
Speaker 3 (41:33):
Wow.
Speaker 8 (41:34):
Yeah. And Eric Lawrence sometimes who played with Lebon for
twelve years. And you know, so we'll be doing that
right up until December most nights, and those are big
shows because we have all the guests too. We have
some Joni Mitchell women that you know, the you know,
depending on where we're playing, they're fabulous. I don't know
(41:56):
which one's better. They're just marvelous. Yeah, we have all
those get you know, people who re enact all those
guest appearances. I got into the band because they asked
me to do the doctor John cameo.
Speaker 3 (42:08):
Really is that how it started?
Speaker 8 (42:10):
That's how it started for me. I mean, Gary and
I were friends for years, and he decided to do this,
and you know, and get a Neil young guy, and
get a Joni Mitchell guy, and get a you know,
a clapping guy. And so I was the doctor John guy.
So I came to the first rehearsal and did the
song and Gary said, no, you're in the band.
Speaker 2 (42:33):
Really, he said, that's it. You're You're it their kid tag,
You're it.
Speaker 8 (42:38):
Huh that was it.
Speaker 3 (42:39):
Yeah, that's pretty that's pretty crazy.
Speaker 8 (42:41):
Yeah, it's crazy. He knew that. I knew the song
and and you know, so I just came to and
laid it down and I guess you liked it, because
here we are nine years later.
Speaker 3 (42:50):
Wow, it's been a while.
Speaker 8 (42:53):
Yeah, it's been been.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
It's been a bit of music, which is all all good,
as they.
Speaker 8 (42:57):
Say, it's all good. Yeah, I mean we have last
you know, we don't have any of that ill feeling
that bands have.
Speaker 3 (43:04):
Well that's good because sometimes bands can be a little cookie.
Speaker 8 (43:07):
You know. Well that'll kill a lot of bands. And
it sure does, you know. And and it's like you
you stepped on my solo with your guitar right there,
and don't think I didn't know it, and I'm not
sit next to you on the bus. Yeah that kind
of really.
Speaker 3 (43:22):
Man, that that's that's so ridiculous.
Speaker 8 (43:24):
Well, but but you and I both know musicians that
have I do.
Speaker 3 (43:29):
I know musicians. The egos are pretty.
Speaker 8 (43:32):
They can be bad. And you're living together and you're
a family and it's like a marriage and you don't
even like each other that much anyway. But really, no,
I'm true. You know, with us, you know, we just
get we get on the bus and head up to
New England or someplace, and we just start laughing and
we don't stop until we get there.
Speaker 7 (43:50):
Wow, howard's being on the road. And again you're you're
You're not a kid anymore. I'm older than you, so
I can say that it's fine.
Speaker 8 (44:06):
It's you know, I mean we're comfortable. Everybody has their
own hotel room.
Speaker 3 (44:11):
You know that's good.
Speaker 8 (44:13):
It's just nice. Yeah, I mean, every every effort is
made to keep everybody comfortable. So you know, after a show,
I can get back to my room and I can write,
or I can watch TV or or whatever. And you know,
everybody has their own space. But when we work, we
really work together. You know, we hear this over and
over sound cruise in this or that theater said, man,
(44:34):
you guys are so organized because during a sound check,
nobody's plinking away, nobody's touched, and everybody's just quiet and
let me hear the piano vocals. So I'll just start
to sing. Nobody's doing anything, let me hear the piano
all play and when we're going around, so everybody does that.
And then when we're going around for the monitors, they
(44:57):
may say let me hear, like, okay, let's do Laurence
pote cool, and I'll start to sing it. Everybody raises
their hand that wants more, and they point down if
they want less, and so nobody's talking during any of that.
It's just bing bing bing. So in twenty minutes we
can complete a pretty extensive sound check. Wow, and it's
just you know, we we work together. Was nobody's trying
(45:20):
to get over on the other guy or any of that.
We just it's very well disciplined. And most of that
goes to Gary. He really runs it nice. He does.
Speaker 2 (45:29):
Yeah, well you'll have to catch him go on the website.
So just we're gonna wrap. So what uh o the
thoughts you got now? And where can people find the
band band.
Speaker 8 (45:41):
And you Well, the band band is going to be
you can check. We have a website and we have
a Facebook pages the the band band and.
Speaker 3 (45:51):
The band band is two does two does?
Speaker 8 (45:54):
Yeah to those because because it's the band, it's.
Speaker 3 (45:58):
The band and the band, right, okay.
Speaker 8 (46:01):
Right, everybody else names it names a tribute band after
a song or something like that.
Speaker 3 (46:05):
All right, right, well this one confuses everyone.
Speaker 8 (46:07):
Go ahead, Yeah, but it's cool.
Speaker 3 (46:09):
I love it. I love it.
Speaker 2 (46:10):
When I said I'm seeing the band band, they all think,
I'm like, what are you talking about?
Speaker 8 (46:13):
What band? Well, it's fun with them. They have trouble
with it, right, I'm sure? Yeah, so you know, so, yeah,
we're gonna do that. You could check. You can check
the website of the Facebook page. A lot of New
New England coming up this fall. We're going to be
in Maine. We're going to be in Boston. We're going
to be in Beverly, Massachusetts. I'm just what, I what's
(46:34):
off the top of my head. We're gonna be in
Woodstock at the Woodstock Playhouse. Yep, City Winder. I told you.
Speaker 7 (46:43):
We're doing based in the West Coast and Los Angeles, not.
Speaker 8 (46:46):
Yet, but I sure want to because it's home, as
you know, that's home.
Speaker 3 (46:50):
You can Yeah, you can visit. You can visit the market, Yeah, visit,
you can visit my klan.
Speaker 8 (46:56):
There have been a couple of things in the works,
but as you know, it's really expensive and difficult and
crazy to fly a band around. Do we rent instruments?
Do we fly with them? Everything? And you've got to
have a string of five or six dates to make
it justified.
Speaker 2 (47:13):
Too, aware, Try try try try putting together a tour
of every Major League baseball park in one season. I know,
I dare anyone I didn't just getting it done, getting
(47:36):
the getting the place to getting getting it.
Speaker 3 (47:40):
Everywhere it was. I know I was in on it too.
I sang it about fifteen parks more.
Speaker 8 (47:51):
Digit see, I couldn't because I couldn't leave town.
Speaker 2 (47:54):
Yeah, but that's all right, Oh man, I got to
tell you that. You know, they did do a little
documentary on and on v H one. But anyway, all right, Well,
I love you so much and I am so glad
that you are, you know, here and on and you
are just killing it, baby, and you keep playing, and
(48:16):
how's your doing it?
Speaker 7 (48:18):
I can't say I love you so much, but it
was a pleasure meeting you.
Speaker 2 (48:21):
Yeah, I can say I love you because I do,
because I've known him since I'm fourteen years old.
Speaker 3 (48:27):
So anyway, I was just the little kid.
Speaker 7 (48:32):
Thirty years ago.
Speaker 3 (48:33):
I was yeah, thirty years ago.
Speaker 2 (48:34):
That's all all right anyway, So thanks to Lauren again
and thanks for joining us for the Many Shades of Green.
For more info and shows, go to Hudson River Radio
dot com, Malcolm Presents dot com and the Many Shades
of Green dot com. Sin It's your thoughts at Team
Shades of Green on Instagram and Facebook. Subscribe to our
(48:55):
podcast on all major apps. A shout out to Neil,
Neil You, Neil, Brian and Malcolm for their help. Always
remember to pick a seade of green and raise your
eco consciousness Maxine Margart Rubin and we'll see you again
next time.
Speaker 9 (49:29):
Hudson River Radio dot com
Hudson River Radio dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Hello out there in podcasts, land and beyond wherever that
might be, Maxie Margot Rubin and along with my co
host Malcolm Berman, who is kind of out today because
of technicality of equipment. And this is the Many Shades
of Green, our program that adds a dash of green
into your life as we engage in conversations that move
(00:43):
to form, educate, activate, and raise your echo and social
consciousness through culture, politics, music, books, art, science, community, we
hope to inspire you to pick a shade of green
and become a steward of this beautiful, blue, green planet
we call Earth. So Hi, Lauren and I kneel both
(01:04):
kind of neighbories out there, which is good, kind of cool.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
So we're we're gonna start out with a song which
is the title song from an album called cross Country.
And the song is called cross Country and our guest
has a definite connection to that.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
Contry. See you vantis country on the rady s.
Speaker 5 (02:02):
Together eagle want.
Speaker 6 (02:11):
Suspread its ways and want suspend the wains and take.
Speaker 5 (02:22):
To the scaress. Guy, do not not do them? No
do she gon?
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Is you.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Gone?
Speaker 5 (02:39):
Is you.
Speaker 7 (03:14):
Wow?
Speaker 3 (03:14):
That that guitar solo rocks man. I gotta tell you,
if you listen to the rest of it, it was
very man verry Man. Okay. So that's who you're remembered.
You're remembered, came to you.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
So I'm gonna do a little intro here so we
can bring in Lauren, who was part of that group.
Cross country, which is so cool. So when you fly
cross country on a daytime flight from New York to
la and the skies are clear, you see beautiful topography
with no boundaries, no divisions, no anger. One can view
(03:49):
the Atlantic Ocean, a variety of cities, crop circles, the
rocky mountains, the Grand Canyon, the La Sprawl, and finally
the Pacific Ocean. The lyrics from the song America the
Beautiful say best, Oh Beautiful, for spacious skies, for amber
waves of grain, for purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain, America, America.
(04:13):
God shed his grace on thee and crown thy good
with brotherhood from sea to shining sea. So what's left
that is good in today's America? And how can we
come together as a nation to highlight the good? While
the domestic evildoers, and I'm shouting out to prison and
Bush the second as he coined the phrase evildoers seek
(04:37):
to disrupt.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Our way of life.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
I don't have the answers, but I know that we
must unite and be proactive. There are good, kind, educated
citizens working tirelessly everybody to protect, defend, create, innovate and
stand up for what is right. Yes, times are tough,
but as my son told me years ago, the lawyers,
the innovators, and and yes, the hackers will get us through.
(05:03):
Hackers was an interesting concept that juncture uh So. Joining
us today on the Many Shades of Green is Lauren Corovec,
a musician, writer, and a family friend for decades.
Speaker 8 (05:16):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
He was in the Army with my brother Mitch Margo
and played in a group called the Green Apple Nasties
along with musician Ray Templeton and actor Joel Higgins, who's
been around TV and Broadway.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
It's pretty pretty incredible.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
H So, Lauren performed and took to the stage with
uh and in the studio with the Tokens, with brothers
Phil and Mitch, and with Jay Siegel, who you heard
that great voice on the cross country album. Uh The
guys had a great blend all of them. He's a
talented songwriter and keyboard player. I know he also dons pianos.
(05:54):
I think just so much sure if he's doing.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
That, doing it and is currently in the group, the
band Band.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
So we're gonna delve into some environmental technologies, talk a
bit about climate, talk about fires and smoke jumping, because
fires are making our sky smoky and polluted, which is
affecting air quality. As matter of fact, today here in
New York we have an air quality alert from from fires.
(06:23):
We're gonna touch on music and how it reflects and
helps us survive these uncertain times. And we'll talk about
some projects that Lauren's working on currently. And so Lauren,
you're gonna chime in punintended on those various topics that
I just said. And welcome, Welcome to the many shades
of green.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
So glad you are here.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
And so my quintessential question to every guest, literally every guest,
is my question, what is your shade of green at
this moment.
Speaker 8 (06:58):
Right now, right now? Yeah, I'm thinking like forest green,
you know, interestingly, and you know Mitch was a painter.
You have to be careful putting certain colors side by side.
When you're decorating a room or when you're doing a painting,
you have to always be considerate of that. But the
color green, it doesn't matter because when you look around,
(07:21):
you're going to see a thousand different strawberries to quote
Monti pipeline, and they're going to be side by side
in uh, numerous various shades of green. So you can't
go wrong putting green next to green. You can't because
nature does it, and we would go crazy if we
insisted on giving that care. On the other hand, blue
(07:44):
you gotta be careful with, so you know, there's there's
a there's a rule, and none of them apply with green,
that's neat.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
That's neat.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
They're also a new shade of blue green called Olo.
Then only select people, not select, only certain people can
see it, and it's very rare that you can see it,
and they just did a study about it because it
came to my intention. And you know, when I'm flipping
through some of my my emails, like I come up
with all sorts of things, and that was one of them.
Speaker 8 (08:13):
So that's cool.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
It's a it's a it's a teal, it's a teal color.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
But they they're trying to figure out what what it
is within that parameter that only five people out of
I don't know how many were able to see it
to see that color. So I have to read down
into the article. But it's it's we've got mister.
Speaker 7 (08:40):
Yeah, I apologize for being late kid.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Yeah, I was trying.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
I was explaining to Lauren that that our connection is
through Phil and of course uh and Mitch actually and
and and Lauren being you know, and yeah.
Speaker 7 (08:55):
I started out doing a show with Phil, a non
music show, and it was called The Lion Roars. Oh yeah,
because because I.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Thought it was time to stop the BS.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Was the show one of them that was an old
old That was an old old one, all right.
Speaker 7 (09:10):
But then we get the Lion Roars because he had
he roared.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
We know that, as you know, Yes, we know lots
about Phil.
Speaker 7 (09:26):
And and then Phil told me that, uh, Maxine had
her own show, Many Schetes of Green. Actually it wasn't
many Shades of Green, it was something else.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
No, well, the the first one I did was called
Village Green, close enough, but no cigar. But anyway, so
where we brought Lauren in, We played some music across country.
We did the Green shade. And now I'm trying to
like get some background for Lauren here for people and
how he met my brother Mitch, because that's how this
(09:57):
all happened. Uh So, can you give us a little
quick background of the arm I know, I'll say the army,
but you can pick up on that, Lauren.
Speaker 8 (10:08):
Army and that's not my favorite shady green olive drab okay,
but yeah, yes, it was the Army. And I was
in a band that was my duty. I was in
a show band that did shows and that included Ray
Templin and Joel Higgins and some other notables, not the
least of which was Lamar Williams, who you know, came
(10:30):
from the Wilson Pickett band and was a really successful
studio guy in Detroit. And after the Army, he was
injured in the Army Agent Orange, which I you know,
it's widely believed that's ultimately what killed him. He he
signed on with the Almond Brothers and he replaced Barry Oakley,
(10:50):
so on all those later Almond Brothers records, Bush that
was his nickname. Lamar Williams was the bass player and
so he was he was in our band also. So
one day this guy Mitch Margot comes up and he says,
I liked the audition for this band. He had also
been drafted, and uh we auditioned him and hired him.
(11:13):
We brought him on board, and Mitch and I stayed
best friends until he died.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Mm hmmm, right.
Speaker 7 (11:20):
So are you are you from Brooklyn also?
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Or no?
Speaker 8 (11:25):
Because no, not from California?
Speaker 7 (11:28):
Oh what part?
Speaker 8 (11:29):
Uh Wallet Creek just east of Oakland, just into the.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Valley Malcolm's in in.
Speaker 7 (11:38):
Uh Oh Yeah, I was born and raised in Brooklyn,
and I went to this the same high school as
filling uh.
Speaker 8 (11:48):
Lincoln High School and have Lincoln High.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Yeah, it's the place.
Speaker 7 (11:53):
I'm a Coney born in Brighton Beach. People.
Speaker 8 (11:55):
Well, there you go. And you know, many times mitchuh,
Mitch and I would go out to Tony and I
still do and just get on the cyclone and stay
on that thing for like ten twelve cycles. Yeah, yeah,
just give the guy a buck, he'd stay on.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Not anymore.
Speaker 8 (12:11):
Now I went. I went two years ago. I haven't
been since, but I did that. I tipped the guy
and I figured, Okay, that's probably not happening, and he
took Hey. I think I gave him five and I
moved up to the front car and he just let
me stay there as long as I want it, just
like the good old days.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Get out to do that.
Speaker 8 (12:33):
By me.
Speaker 7 (12:34):
Did you never do the parachute?
Speaker 8 (12:36):
I never did the parachute. No, I don't really. I
don't really like crazy rides.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
I mean, but he's a cyclone freak, you know. I know.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
And Nathan's of course, you know, when growing up we
used to go to to Nathan's where we would have
like a full meal at Caroline's or guard Julio's and
see who can make it on ten trips on the
cyclone without puke.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
And I was always one.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Me and my friend Chuck and my friend Byron were
the only three that lasted after for ten times after
a meal at Carolines.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Course Italian meal, you.
Speaker 7 (13:16):
Know, until I got online.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Yeah, well uh so, but Cody island, so just quickly
on the green Apple, nasty.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
How did you arrive? I always wondered what that name
was from.
Speaker 8 (13:26):
Well here's what here's how it started. We had been
you know, I'm in the drug band music I always
have been. And and Ray Templin is just a monster
stride pianist, you know, old time Hockey Talk, Stride New
York Stride, Ragtime a Killer. He wound up spend having
a great career with Disney and he's retired now, but
(13:48):
one of the best pianists I ever knew, And so
he was in that band. Joel was in that band.
Marvelous singer, great guitar player, and I think for some
reason it was just three of us. One particular night,
we had to play a USO show in town. We
finished the thing and we said, well, I'm ready for
a drink, are you? And so we went into this
(14:09):
bar and you know, right there on Main Street, and
we had a drink and there's nothing going on. It
said to the bar and, hey, you mind if we
grew up there and play a couple of twos on stage.
We're actually a band, And she said, yeah, sure, what
the hell? So we went up there and we played
for about two hours and tore it up. Everybody that
came in just stayed and it was ridiculous. It wound
(14:33):
up being a really stupid party. So she wanted to
hire us, and she said, well, what a band. I
gotta hire you guys? What do you call yourselves? And
we all looked at each other without a clue, and
Joel had always wanted to have a band called the
Green Apple Nasties, and which is a euphemism for something undesirable.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
So, oh, we know what back there, Neil shaking his head.
Speaker 8 (15:03):
Oh lord, I'm sorry, it's Montezuma's revenge, right, It's okay.
At the rest of going it's diarrhea, folks.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
That's what I said to my husband. I said it
had to be something with the stomach. I had a feeling.
Speaker 8 (15:19):
So we thought yeah, so we thought, well, that was
so cool, and now we have a job. We're all soldiers.
I have been playing piano downtown in pizza parlers and stuff.
But so there we were moving up on Nash's was
born there.
Speaker 7 (15:35):
What what years were you in the army.
Speaker 8 (15:37):
I was in sixty eight to seventy one, so.
Speaker 7 (15:40):
So it was pretty peaceful at that time.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Peaceful. Yeah, yeah, it was real peaceful.
Speaker 8 (15:46):
No today, I got drafted right before the tenth sens.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Oh fabulous, Yeah, I mean everything, how hell was breaking
loose in the States. Everything was going crazy. I mean
that time, and you know, you think about the protests
and everything, and and now I think about, you know, now,
what's going to be coming next week, I cause it's
(16:12):
crazy out there.
Speaker 7 (16:14):
What happens is June June fourteenth.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Yeah, well we're going.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Yeah, I think I think the best thing for me
to do is literally high under my desk because.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
That's what I do.
Speaker 8 (16:27):
Really well, that's good.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
I just I don't even know.
Speaker 7 (16:31):
You know, you're not going to watch it, Pope.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Uh, well, that's cool that the Pope is having uh
in Chicago, that he picked that data have that mess.
It's uh yeah that that that to me is is
something that gives me. Uh, Pope Leo is like, whoa
okay dude, and he's from Chicago.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
He's American all of all things.
Speaker 7 (16:53):
Yeah, yep, absolutely, and it's Chicago White Sox play.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
Yeah it's their stadium right right.
Speaker 8 (16:58):
Yeah, he's a white Tux fan.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Yeah. Well he's a Chicago guy.
Speaker 7 (17:02):
So yeah, what I wanta creek forcause you want to
creak something is with sneakers.
Speaker 8 (17:06):
It was very suburban, right. There's a couple of oil
refineries very nearby, and so they built these tract houses
on quarter acre lots that were all identical typical California thing. Right.
It was about nineteen fifty. I'm born in forty eight,
and my father worked in one of those oil refineries.
So you know, it's just it's it's it's a working
(17:29):
town suburb. And now those those little houses that went
for nine thousand dollars back then are going in the millions.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
Get out.
Speaker 8 (17:38):
I'm not kidding.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
That's nuts right there. That's that's nuts right there.
Speaker 8 (17:42):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
So but anyway, so I know, I mean, we can
we can kind of go from place to place in
terms of what we want to also talk because you
are in a current group called.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
The band band you. You know, you did so much.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
You worked with the guys on cross Country and the
Tokens and John Kirshner's Rock Concert and all that stuff
and Musical.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
Chairs, the TV game show.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
So you have like quite quite a resume there with
with my bros.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Too.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
You know that the close the closeness is pretty much there.
And the music. So I mean, how did you in
terms of like you being connected to music? I mean,
what was that at an early age? Was that later on?
Speaker 8 (18:31):
I mean okay, early, it was early you know. So
if you think about the mid fifties, everybody was playing
the accordion because the Lawrence woke and Laurence and a
guy knocked on my door. I was home. My mother
was working, so I was home alone. The guy knocked
up my door and he said, Hi, Lauren, how would
you like to play the accordion music man. It's crazy
(18:55):
because a girl in my class I think I was
in fourth grade at the time, had done one of
the assemblies and she played an accordion, and so I
thought that's really cool, and so, you know, it was
like providence. The guy knocked out my door and I said, oh, yeah,
I would really love that. And his name was mister Handlin.
He gave me his card. I gave it to my
folks when they came home, and my dad, being that
(19:18):
your cheapest man in the world, said okay, you could
do that, but I have to go to the lessons
with you, and when we come home, I get to
practice before you do. It's true. When he got done that,
I could have the accordion and work on the lesson.
But yeah, he taught myself to play that way.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
That's interesting.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Yeah, because my Mitch, my parents gave him some piano lessons,
not much. He played by year and everything, but he
did get some formal lessons and then Phil would ask him, like,
what you learn you know, that's how it worked. You know,
you thought it would be reversed because Phil being the olders,
but yeah, that you know, that seems to be a thing, especially.
Speaker 7 (20:00):
I remember sell some guys like you, why you hear
the music in your head?
Speaker 8 (20:05):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (20:06):
I mean when I did the show with Phil and
we would talk about music and said, how they hell
did you write that? He said, I don't know. I
heard it.
Speaker 8 (20:14):
Yeah, I'm hearing it now, unconstantly hearing music, mm hmm.
And sometimes I get annoyed when there's so much noise
that I can't hear the music in my head, or
if I'm at a restaurant and I'm listening to something
that's got awful and and I was really trying to
listen to something that was in my brain and that
got stepped.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
On right right, Yeah, I mean, do you is it?
Speaker 2 (20:37):
I take it as the music first and then lyrics,
or do you know it's lyric and then music, which
way neither.
Speaker 8 (20:45):
My best writing is simultaneous.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Oh that's pretty cool.
Speaker 8 (20:50):
If I just get an idea for a line and
a little melody, I'll try to do them together. It's
always the strongest when I do them together. And if
I write the music first and I go too far,
I box myself in. I will never finish that tone.
Speaker 7 (21:09):
Well, I have a new type of music for you
to write, Okay, music that companies put you on hold.
Play the music because they play, especially government, they played
the bloody awful music.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
And they want to hang they don't even want.
Speaker 7 (21:27):
To, and especially if it's especially if it's government.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
They want you to hang up. You can prap.
Speaker 8 (21:34):
Yep, yep, but thanks do it too well.
Speaker 7 (21:37):
You know we've all been the whole the whole nine Yeah,
you said music music to wait by right now?
Speaker 8 (21:45):
Interesting? Is that? That? Something like if you call Apple.
I'm constantly calling Apple Service because I'm incompetent and I
always need need somebody taking her by the hand. They
will give you a choice. They'll say would you like
silence or would you like jazz? Or would you right
right country right? And I always choose silence. But I
think it's kind of cool that you get the choice
(22:05):
rather than have that got off or whatever above it
and snaps in yeah, because it's almost never good.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
Yeah, No, it's never good. I mean I I I
no matter what I choose, it's it's meant to be good.
Met I say, met a met.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
So so just so, okay, so just let's we're gonna
go backwards a little because you you, you, you did
your stint in the army, and then we were talking
about because we wanted to hit on environmental.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Things, and you said that you uh, you know.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
We talked about turbines, we talked about the fires, and
then you told me out of nowhere that you were
a smoke jumper. Yep, Like, when was that and how
did you even get involved with that? I mean, what
brought that that on?
Speaker 8 (22:53):
I graduated. I graduated high school in sixty six. All right,
my grandmother. I had lived with my father up in
the Sierras for one year of seventh grade. And he
and it was a small town at about four thousand
feet called Quincy, and he owned two big autoparts outlets
in Quincy. So he serviced all the loggers, and he
(23:16):
serviced all of the forest service. You know, he provided
parts for all the implements, the tractors, the trucks, and
so he knew everybody. So when I graduated high school,
he said, what are you going to do all summer?
I said, I don't know, get ready for college, and
he said, come back up to the mountains. I'm going
to get you a job with forest Service. So I
(23:37):
took I did. I took the job I was. I
was I want to be engineer, which basically meant I
was a surveyor. So I carried a tripod like fourteen
miles into the forest and out again every day. But
when you're in the forest, it was your first duty
is firefighter. It's like when you're in the army, you
might be a cook, but when they're coming over the perimeter,
(23:59):
you're infant, right. So and back then they pulled tourists
off the road. You know, you might be going for
a camping trip with mama and three kids and you'll
get pulled over if there's a bad fire, and they'll say, sir,
step out of the car. You're you're now a firefighter.
So they were dinning. So you know, in my training,
(24:21):
I was offered a pay raise if I took the
hell of jumping training, which means you go up in
a helicopter and you wear like a padded suit, right,
no more than twenty miles an hour, no higher than
twenty feet. You would jump into the jump into the
fire zone that way, and they taught me to roll
and do all that stuff so you didn't get hurt.
(24:42):
And so I did that. I never did do that
in the course of fighting or fire, but I fought
a lot of fighters, and I was glad that I
didn't have to do that.
Speaker 7 (24:53):
I was training for the cellphone.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
Yeah, no, I would.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
I mean, could you imagine what the firefighters were going
through during that those LA fires in the Pacific Coast
and uh alt and.
Speaker 8 (25:07):
I sure can, I mean you better know.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
You know it, but no one you know can really know.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
And when they had one hundred mile an hour with
Santa Ana winds and they couldn't even pull up put it.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
The helicopters couldn't.
Speaker 8 (25:20):
Fly in that nope, nope, And and the borate tankers
shouldn't fly. And and another ingredient to that down south
is you know, unless you're a West Coast person, you
don't really know about adobe. Adobe is the natural mud there.
Uh you know, it used to be underwater, and you
(25:40):
know when the whole San Joaquin and Sakamata valleys were
flooded way back then in the dinosaur days. And that
adobe is rock hard. I mean, it's rock hard. They
make houses out of it, and you can't get a
shovel in the ground. It's just awful. And so you're
fighting the fire. Well, when you fight forest fires, range fires,
(26:01):
you're digging mostly, that's what you do. You dig fire
brakes and clearing, clearance, clearing so that the fire can't
jump and it gets arrested where it is. Then then
put a backfire and gild the direction and hopefully that
that's how you put out the fire. But I'm telling
you that West Coast mud, you can't dig that stuff.
(26:21):
It's awful.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
So I made it even more. I mean, you know,
just everything that could go wrong went wrong. And and
you know, being so dry, being you know, the winds
just kicked everything up. Because there is there's climate change.
There is climate change, and and this has.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
Added to that.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
And and because of the warming of the atmosphere, I mean,
we're we're also getting here in New York. I don't
ever remember having to think about fires in Canada or
fires on alongside the road. I mean in in Jersey,
in Rockland, and and you know there were fire fire
and Prospect Park last there was a fire and in
(27:01):
wood in wood Park.
Speaker 8 (27:02):
Last year that's right.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
And and you I no ever remember that.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
I never remember it getting to the point that was
that it's getting to. And obviously in Los Angeles, I
mean I was always worried about, you know, Malcolm and
my and my nephews and niece everyone out there, you know.
Speaker 8 (27:18):
But it's pretty new for LA too. It's pretty new
for l A.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (27:21):
Well, it was getting close to the San Fernando Valley, yes,
because it was up on Mulholland Drive.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
And uh yeah.
Speaker 7 (27:30):
Pelvet Of Boulevard, which is like about four miles from
my house.
Speaker 8 (27:33):
Yep. And then you know, the Santa Ada wind is
different from anything else because it comes from the dry
land mask it's most most wind in California is other
than that is coming off the Pacific Ocean. Yeah, and
the Pacific Ocean is really cold, and so you don't
get the hot wind, even though it may be really fierce.
(27:54):
But the Santa Eda wind is hot. You can't stand
in a blast of the Santa a wind. If you
can at all, you barely can't. Notten knows that. And
that's it picks up the heat from the desert and
blows it, you know, onto the coastal towns and it's awful. Yeah,
you know, and it's funny now you know, there's a
(28:14):
fire in Fairfield, California, up north right right out inside
an apple of Sacramento and it's not under control.
Speaker 7 (28:21):
You.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
Yeah, We're gonna talk more about fires because we believe
it or not, we we hit the brake.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
Okay, So we'll be back more with Lauren quarvac musician
and smoke jumper uh and a lot of other wonderful things,
and we'll get into new music and maybe talk about
some turbines in the water giving some environmental positivity.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
So please stay tuned. We'll be right back.
Speaker 8 (28:47):
Hudson River Radio dot com.
Speaker 9 (28:54):
This is Hudson River Radio dot com.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
This is Hudson River Radio dot com.
Speaker 9 (29:06):
This is Hudson River Radio dot com and.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
We are back with Lauren Korovec to talk more about
a little bit more about the environment, maybe the sounds
of music and more.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
Please subscribe to.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Our podcast at all major podcasts apps. Follow us on Facebook,
Instagram at Tamshades of Green on Blue Sky, which is
at Tamshades of Green dot b k b s ky
dot social, and you know, drop us a line or
say hello h So we're talking about different things. We're
talking about fires, we were talking about music and the
(30:03):
army and all sorts of crazy things. Uh, we're not
crazy things how you might look at it. But when
I was speaking a Lord about what we wanted to
kind of touch on he environmental perspective, you brought up
wind turnbine turbines. You thought that's something that's very important.
So what what are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 8 (30:22):
Well, my thoughts are the wind turbines are useful and
and and effective and ugly.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
And yeah that's true and.
Speaker 8 (30:33):
Expensive, and you know, other renewable sources are solar, which
is ugly. It's useful when the sun's out, and I
know you can store up with batteries and that's that's fine.
But you know, now I'm seeing hillsides covered with solar collectors,
and you know, I know that they're going to be
the size of the head of a pin, probably in
(30:55):
our in our lives. So I see, you know, so
I know that that's not permanent. But how about this?
And I've run this by a bunch of people and
everybody says, wow, I never thought of that. There must
be people thinking of it. What about turbines under the ocean.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
Yeah, they have been this.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
Yeah, I've heard something about that, but nothing like that
I've seen that it's actually happening.
Speaker 8 (31:18):
Well, here's the thing, you know, you could make that.
We have plastics now that are non corrosive. They're also
forever and they have their own issues, but but you
just use them forever. So if you put a turbine
under the under the ocean and it doesn't it could
be just so that shipping is safe, you know, out
of the way. Uh. The tides come and go every
(31:41):
six hours, whether it's windy, whether it's sunny, any of that.
The turb turbine is going to turn. Uh. You know,
a tide cycle is six hours. It starts out kind
of you know, as the direction of the tide changes,
you're wasting an hour and a half before you really
get up to speed. And the same thing at the
other end of it. But man, you're getting reliable, reliable
(32:03):
uh uh. Energy feeds out of that. So it's offshore
and you don't see it.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
You know, it's you know, they're putting it up in places.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
There's fights about you know, how it is, how it looks,
how it's going to affect the land value even though it's.
Speaker 8 (32:21):
In the water.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Uh, and and all sorts of stuff. I mean, you
can't you know, there's pros and cons of everything. But
if we need to create energy that's not fossil fuels,
which I don't know unless we get through the next
four years of the insanity, you know, we we we need,
we really need to look at the innovations that are
(32:42):
coming down the pike. And you know there's floating solar farms.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
Did you know that.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
Yes, floato voltaics they're called, and they're actually floating.
Speaker 8 (32:53):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
They install solar panels on the farm, utilized bodies of
water to install solar panels.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
Uh. And they can improve efficiency.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
And I don't know, they just put it on something
that kind of floats in the water, a structure that floats.
I don't know, I'm trying to do anything. Yeah, you
never know, you just never know. So but anyway, so, uh,
I have a question you. I saw you perform, and
if you can ever catch Laura perform at Turning Point
(33:24):
or any other place, I highly recommended. He he's awesome.
And you were playing some Randy Newman stuff. Okay, you
seem to like, Yeah, I love. Okay, yes, yes, yeah,
so right.
Speaker 3 (33:41):
So Randy Newman.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Is is actually a figure in the environmental movement because
he wrote the song burn On about the oil spill
in the Kayahoga River in Ohio, which helped get the
environmental movement started and Earth Day started. So people don't
realize when I say Randy Newman had a part in this.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
They look at me like, you.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
Know, they's just go, oh, you're too short and short
people have no reason, no, because I'm a big five
to two if I'm lucky. But anyway, he wrote it,
you know, and he wrote it about the oil barge
and he that was and then of course there was
a spill in Santa barber too, which caused all sorts
of craziness. But Randy Newman has entered my heart even
(34:31):
more now because of his connection, which I didn't realize.
Speaker 8 (34:36):
It didn't ocur to me either. And I used to
do that song.
Speaker 3 (34:39):
Really, Oh I want to hear you do it.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
I mean seriously, right now next time he starts playing baby.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
But anyway, so now you're with.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
The band band, which is essentially a cover band of
the It is a cover band of the band.
Speaker 8 (34:58):
We are the and banned.
Speaker 7 (35:01):
Well, that's one of my favorite songs is which I
haven't figured it out yet.
Speaker 8 (35:07):
And the Weight, well, the Weight like a lot of
Robbie's lyrics. You know, Robbie is coming from Bob Dylan, right,
and Dylan Dylan didn't always care for it made sense,
but it had to.
Speaker 3 (35:20):
Rhyme right, and of stuff didn't make sense.
Speaker 8 (35:23):
Actually, well that's my point and so and so the
weight is is like that, you know, and and you
know we've talked about it a lot on the on
the bus and this and that. But you know, I
pulled into Nazareth. Well that's Nazareth, Pennsylvania is where Martin
guitars are built. Mm hmm uh.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
And and people think it's Nazareth in.
Speaker 8 (35:45):
Right least, not at all Middle East, right, So let
me think looking for a place to hide.
Speaker 7 (35:55):
But I love the music.
Speaker 8 (35:58):
Everybody does. It's such an infect chorus with that suspension
in it, and there's room for singers like Mayvia Staples
to improvise over that simple little melody and it's it's
the life of Everybody loves that song. And with my
own writing, as you recently heard Maxine, I'm getting simpler
(36:18):
and simpler and simpler. If I can do it with
three chords, I will, And if I'm not careful to
do it with two. I've studied jazz, I've done all that.
I don't need to write stuff with crazy twisted chords anymore.
I got that out of my sad.
Speaker 3 (36:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (36:33):
Sure, if I can write a song like the Wait
or a Stephen Foster song, Swanny River, you know, the
old folks at home, I'll be the proudest guy, you know.
Speaker 3 (36:43):
Yeah, Okay, I'm waiting for it. You know me time, Yeah,
there's plenty of time.
Speaker 8 (36:52):
What do you call.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
I mean? You know, right now music is so important.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
Uh, because of the times we're in, it's even more important.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
And people need to hang on to that.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
And you know, when you have you have you have
your major artists like Bruce you know, just coming out saying,
you know, what the hell's going on and explains what's
what's going on. And you have you know, all the ones,
you know, Dylan and Crosby, Stills, Nashing Young in the past,
even like Pussy right them getting themselves in trouble in.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
Russia especially especially and.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
And and you know you have you know, Patti Smith,
Kendrick Lamar, I mean with his you know, there's so
much Tracy Chapman, the Beatles, I mean, yeah, Revolution and
uh and Blackbird. Everyone thought it was about a blackbird. Yeah, no,
it's not about a blackbird. They had no clue, you
know that it was about this women he met, these
(37:50):
black women he met who were waiting in the night. Yep,
you know you don't you think of lyrics as one thing,
Like you said, Nazareth.
Speaker 3 (37:59):
You know, and and and you're right as well.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
Go you go to the the birthplace of you know,
you go to a different place, but in New York,
nather at Nazareth, where Martin guitars are made.
Speaker 8 (38:10):
That's correct.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
So it's it's crazy. Yeah, so what no, So what
do you guys in the band band? Are you touring around?
Speaker 8 (38:18):
What?
Speaker 3 (38:18):
What? What are you doing currently?
Speaker 8 (38:20):
Yeah, we're touring around. We are. We're on a hiatus
right now. We're not back in business till the twentieth
of June, and so we'll be local. We'll be at
City Winery in New York City. Oh, that's cool on
the twentieth. That's wonderful. Than you. It is a really
good venue. It's a nice room, you know, it's it's
about four fifty five hundred now and it's real comfortable.
(38:43):
It's great. Yeah, I love those doing that. Yeah, yep, yep.
Mostly we're playing bigger rooms than that now, but but
I like those more intimate rooms. I don't I don't know, uh,
you know, rooms like the Turning Point.
Speaker 3 (38:57):
I don't get small, but yeah, eighty very small. Yeah.
Speaker 8 (39:01):
Yeah. And it's a big band. We have. You know,
we have five guys, even if there's no horns, so
there's five of us. There's a there's a bus to
be paid for and maintained. We have a manager, we
have a an agent, and we have a sound man.
So there's a lot of mouse feed. So you've got you.
Speaker 2 (39:19):
Got a crew there, huh got some Yeah, we need
some roadies huh Yeah.
Speaker 8 (39:26):
Well we usually do have help from whatever the venue is.
There'll be people meetings to helpload in. But yeah, yeah,
and it's it's it's a it's a big undertaking. People
don't realize what it takes, especially in the stadium shows
like bon Jovi does, and you know, like Goose does.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
Oh my god, it takes punches and hundreds of people.
Speaker 3 (39:47):
Yeah, to deal with those shows.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
I can't imagine what Taylor Swift the same kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (39:53):
You can't imagine. That's why she paid her staff.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
So she gave him a lot of bonuses because it
gave them one hundred thousand dollars each, you know person.
Speaker 3 (40:03):
Because that's what she does.
Speaker 8 (40:05):
That's what she does. Yeah, I mean, she's a decent.
Speaker 2 (40:08):
Decent human and and gee, we need so many more
of those now. And you know, bon Jovi is an
amazing guy.
Speaker 3 (40:16):
You know.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
You open those restaurants where you need to eat, you
can eat, you know, and if you can't pay for it.
Speaker 7 (40:22):
I forget the name of that. There was a TV
series about roadies, Yes there was, really, I forget the
name of it.
Speaker 3 (40:29):
Yes there was. There was a show about roadies.
Speaker 7 (40:32):
I think it a season or two.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
It did last the season, but I think it was
only one season, I believe. But it did give you
the insight as to what they do, you know. So,
I mean, I'm sure there's that. There should be documentary
somewhere about roadies are integral part of especially the big shows.
Speaker 8 (40:51):
All the big shows. They sure are. I mean, you
know you can't do all that and play too.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
No, no, pick pick one you want to do.
Speaker 8 (41:00):
But that's right, that's right.
Speaker 3 (41:02):
So what else are you doing then? Now?
Speaker 2 (41:04):
I mean, what's your more current work that you were
projects you're working on.
Speaker 8 (41:09):
We're gonna do you know, we're gonna go on a
tour early fall and doing shows that are you know,
reenacting the Last Waltz movie okay, which is you know,
the most epic rock and roll movie of all times.
Speaker 3 (41:21):
Oh yeah, absolutely love that movie.
Speaker 8 (41:23):
Yeah, and we have a troop of eighteen we have Yeah,
we've got three horns. We've got Larry Packer who played
in the original movie with the band. He's playing fiddle.
Speaker 3 (41:33):
Wow.
Speaker 8 (41:34):
Yeah. And Eric Lawrence sometimes who played with Lebon for
twelve years. And you know, so we'll be doing that
right up until December most nights, and those are big
shows because we have all the guests too. We have
some Joni Mitchell women that you know, the you know,
depending on where we're playing, they're fabulous. I don't know
(41:56):
which one's better. They're just marvelous. Yeah, we have all
those get you know, people who re enact all those
guest appearances. I got into the band because they asked
me to do the doctor John cameo.
Speaker 3 (42:08):
Really is that how it started?
Speaker 8 (42:10):
That's how it started for me. I mean, Gary and
I were friends for years, and he decided to do this,
and you know, and get a Neil young guy, and
get a Joni Mitchell guy, and get a you know,
a clapping guy. And so I was the doctor John guy.
So I came to the first rehearsal and did the
song and Gary said, no, you're in the band.
Speaker 2 (42:33):
Really, he said, that's it. You're You're it their kid tag,
You're it.
Speaker 8 (42:38):
Huh that was it.
Speaker 3 (42:39):
Yeah, that's pretty that's pretty crazy.
Speaker 8 (42:41):
Yeah, it's crazy. He knew that. I knew the song
and and you know, so I just came to and
laid it down and I guess you liked it, because
here we are nine years later.
Speaker 3 (42:50):
Wow, it's been a while.
Speaker 8 (42:53):
Yeah, it's been been.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
It's been a bit of music, which is all all good,
as they.
Speaker 8 (42:57):
Say, it's all good. Yeah, I mean we have last
you know, we don't have any of that ill feeling
that bands have.
Speaker 3 (43:04):
Well that's good because sometimes bands can be a little cookie.
Speaker 8 (43:07):
You know. Well that'll kill a lot of bands. And
it sure does, you know. And and it's like you
you stepped on my solo with your guitar right there,
and don't think I didn't know it, and I'm not
sit next to you on the bus. Yeah that kind
of really.
Speaker 3 (43:22):
Man, that that's that's so ridiculous.
Speaker 8 (43:24):
Well, but but you and I both know musicians that
have I do.
Speaker 3 (43:29):
I know musicians. The egos are pretty.
Speaker 8 (43:32):
They can be bad. And you're living together and you're
a family and it's like a marriage and you don't
even like each other that much anyway. But really, no,
I'm true. You know, with us, you know, we just
get we get on the bus and head up to
New England or someplace, and we just start laughing and
we don't stop until we get there.
Speaker 7 (43:50):
Wow, howard's being on the road. And again you're you're
You're not a kid anymore. I'm older than you, so
I can say that it's fine.
Speaker 8 (44:06):
It's you know, I mean we're comfortable. Everybody has their
own hotel room.
Speaker 3 (44:11):
You know that's good.
Speaker 8 (44:13):
It's just nice. Yeah, I mean, every every effort is
made to keep everybody comfortable. So you know, after a show,
I can get back to my room and I can write,
or I can watch TV or or whatever. And you know,
everybody has their own space. But when we work, we
really work together. You know, we hear this over and
over sound cruise in this or that theater said, man,
(44:34):
you guys are so organized because during a sound check,
nobody's plinking away, nobody's touched, and everybody's just quiet and
let me hear the piano vocals. So I'll just start
to sing. Nobody's doing anything, let me hear the piano
all play and when we're going around, so everybody does that.
And then when we're going around for the monitors, they
(44:57):
may say let me hear, like, okay, let's do Laurence
pote cool, and I'll start to sing it. Everybody raises
their hand that wants more, and they point down if
they want less, and so nobody's talking during any of that.
It's just bing bing bing. So in twenty minutes we
can complete a pretty extensive sound check. Wow, and it's
just you know, we we work together. Was nobody's trying
(45:20):
to get over on the other guy or any of that.
We just it's very well disciplined. And most of that
goes to Gary. He really runs it nice. He does.
Speaker 2 (45:29):
Yeah, well you'll have to catch him go on the website.
So just we're gonna wrap. So what uh o the
thoughts you got now? And where can people find the
band band.
Speaker 8 (45:41):
And you Well, the band band is going to be
you can check. We have a website and we have
a Facebook pages the the band band and.
Speaker 3 (45:51):
The band band is two does two does?
Speaker 8 (45:54):
Yeah to those because because it's the band, it's.
Speaker 3 (45:58):
The band and the band, right, okay.
Speaker 8 (46:01):
Right, everybody else names it names a tribute band after
a song or something like that.
Speaker 3 (46:05):
All right, right, well this one confuses everyone.
Speaker 8 (46:07):
Go ahead, Yeah, but it's cool.
Speaker 3 (46:09):
I love it. I love it.
Speaker 2 (46:10):
When I said I'm seeing the band band, they all think,
I'm like, what are you talking about?
Speaker 8 (46:13):
What band? Well, it's fun with them. They have trouble
with it, right, I'm sure? Yeah, so you know, so, yeah,
we're gonna do that. You could check. You can check
the website of the Facebook page. A lot of New
New England coming up this fall. We're going to be
in Maine. We're going to be in Boston. We're going
to be in Beverly, Massachusetts. I'm just what, I what's
(46:34):
off the top of my head. We're gonna be in
Woodstock at the Woodstock Playhouse. Yep, City Winder. I told you.
Speaker 7 (46:43):
We're doing based in the West Coast and Los Angeles, not.
Speaker 8 (46:46):
Yet, but I sure want to because it's home, as
you know, that's home.
Speaker 3 (46:50):
You can Yeah, you can visit. You can visit the market, Yeah, visit,
you can visit my klan.
Speaker 8 (46:56):
There have been a couple of things in the works,
but as you know, it's really expensive and difficult and
crazy to fly a band around. Do we rent instruments?
Do we fly with them? Everything? And you've got to
have a string of five or six dates to make
it justified.
Speaker 2 (47:13):
Too, aware, Try try try try putting together a tour
of every Major League baseball park in one season. I know,
I dare anyone I didn't just getting it done, getting
(47:36):
the getting the place to getting getting it.
Speaker 3 (47:40):
Everywhere it was. I know I was in on it too.
I sang it about fifteen parks more.
Speaker 8 (47:51):
Digit see, I couldn't because I couldn't leave town.
Speaker 2 (47:54):
Yeah, but that's all right, Oh man, I got to
tell you that. You know, they did do a little
documentary on and on v H one. But anyway, all right, Well,
I love you so much and I am so glad
that you are, you know, here and on and you
are just killing it, baby, and you keep playing, and
(48:16):
how's your doing it?
Speaker 7 (48:18):
I can't say I love you so much, but it
was a pleasure meeting you.
Speaker 2 (48:21):
Yeah, I can say I love you because I do,
because I've known him since I'm fourteen years old.
Speaker 3 (48:27):
So anyway, I was just the little kid.
Speaker 7 (48:32):
Thirty years ago.
Speaker 3 (48:33):
I was yeah, thirty years ago.
Speaker 2 (48:34):
That's all all right anyway, So thanks to Lauren again
and thanks for joining us for the Many Shades of Green.
For more info and shows, go to Hudson River Radio
dot com, Malcolm Presents dot com and the Many Shades
of Green dot com. Sin It's your thoughts at Team
Shades of Green on Instagram and Facebook. Subscribe to our
(48:55):
podcast on all major apps. A shout out to Neil,
Neil You, Neil, Brian and Malcolm for their help. Always
remember to pick a seade of green and raise your
eco consciousness Maxine Margart Rubin and we'll see you again
next time.
Speaker 9 (49:29):
Hudson River Radio dot com
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