The Mick and Pat Show: The Transformative Power of Music, Concert Experiences, and Artist Influence
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Ever wondered how music can shape lives, relationships, and even our understanding of an artist? Tune in as we journey through the power of music, from the transformative tunes of Gregory Allen Isaacov and Taylor Swift to the emotional depth of songs like 'If I Go, I'm Going' and 'Amsterdam'. We share tales of how music has impacted our lives and how it has changed our perspectives of these artists.
Ponder with us the impact of Taylor Swift's influence on local economies. Be intrigued by the diversity at concerts, the cost of concert tickets, and how musical preferences can shape one's concert experiences. Join us as we discuss the emotional impact of songs and their ability to transport us to another place, provoke thought, evoke strong emotions, and create enduring memories.
Finally, let's reflect on the influence of artists like Gregory Allen Isaacov, Bebo Norman, Cat Stevens (Youssef), and Michael Hedges. We examine the depth of their songs, their ability to encapsulate the essence of the human experience, and how they have spoken to us at different stages of life. Whether you're a music enthusiast or just enjoy a good story, this episode will remind you of the transformative power of music and its ability to shape our perspectives, bring satisfaction, provoke thought, and evoke hope.
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I Don't know how to describe it because I don't think my, I don't think my wife has ever been aroused by my sense of being upset at gas prices.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, that definitely.
Speaker 2:I think if my wife got upset at gas prices.
Speaker 3:I'd be, like. For like, for like. Whenever you that you initiate that conversation, it's like later on, like between three and three weeks later, you have conversations like are you mad at me? It's like no, I just pissed about you know, I was never mad at you know the gas prices.
Speaker 1:You were the only person I wasn't mad at this is the other way around, would be like.
Speaker 3:We must procreate Fourth with yeah, exactly. Anyways, speaking about a music no, not music about things that speaking about, I really got this music in my ears. I say in speaking about procreation, for with mm-hmm, this music in my ears, it's inspiring me. Are you for real? It's, it's some beautiful music.
Speaker 2:I hear these Uh, here's the issues tones.
Speaker 3:Tell me about these tones that have been in my ears very ironic.
Speaker 1:You say this hey can welcome to make a pass show, by the way, because For our audience out there, I just want to take a moment to apologize if we've been hit with a copyright strike or anything like that. The idea is is here that we want to play some different music that we are fans of, but we might get a slap on the wrist because it might be copyrighted and all that. And Excuse me, certainly I have looked around. I just want to say I've looked around everywhere I came to try to find an ability to pay for a license to play Different musicians and like their royalties and all that because I want to pay them for what they do and it's. It's just a complex process and all that said. Right now, what Pat and I are listening to mm-hmm is the latest album from Gregory Allen Isaacov. What a name Abeluza balloons. Did you know he's South African?
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 1:Well, there you go. No, he's originally from South Africa but he owns a farm out here in Colorado, alan Boulder, really, yeah, and pretty much he spends his whole time on the farm with other bandmates, just farming, ranching, raising livestock and then touring and making music. Okay, and the reason I you know I want to place is because, essentially this I never really listened to Gregory Allen Isaacov much until my wife and I started dating and she was such a hardcore fan. Ironically enough, from a Previous boyfriend, she had been dating a guy who took her to a small Gregory Allen Isaacov concert up in Wyoming in a school. Hmm, it was like a, it was like a school cafeteria, nice, and she was. She just loved his music so much since that she made me a believer. Right, I Bet that's what women like to hear.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:I bet that's the same thing for us. Like we like to hear our wives get upset about gas prices. Our wives like to hear us say that they've a great taste of music, and they changed us.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they like to hear they changed us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, oh, we'll find out a couple. Anyways, I I recently went and saw for the fourth time saw, gregory Allen Isaacov. Wow, dude, I'm a believer man.
Speaker 3:I guess I pretty much local then does that. Is he accessible because he's local?
Speaker 1:Well, yes and no, yeah, so the two are big, he's the big thing I, when I think of accessibility, I think of is it worth the price and the drive, the commute for me, right? I don't think about ticket cost as much of like a. Wow, I could never afford that. I guess I my wife went and saw Taylor Swift, yeah, and I was like it wasn't even that expensive.
Speaker 3:I'm gonna have to delete that out of this shit because I'm in the dog house. Oh yeah, you are. Oh, I know you are you heard All the way around, as it made.
Speaker 1:Thing. Here's the thing. I don't want to misconstrue anything. There's there, this is says that we're dealing with a bomb right now. Table in front of us and there's winers and I have to make sure to clip the proper ones in the proper order. So kind of awesome. Just hammerfist this, bob, so we die. Oh, okay, so you're like I'm scared to swim right now. I'm so I, because this is definitely like. There's a lot of other people out, there's a lot of listening to this, that are like also cried, sweating right now, because they're in a super situation, they can really didn't know.
Speaker 3:I didn't even know this to her even so.
Speaker 1:So Taylor Swift is going on, the air is to her, and a While back my wife asked me hey, are you cool if I buy tickets as a gift for my sister and I for Christmas? I was like, for sure I didn't buy tickets. Sure my money, our money.
Speaker 2:Not my money, our money.
Speaker 1:We have a shared bank account, but she bought them. Mm-hmm and it was like I don't know 8 months, billions and billions.
Speaker 3:Not bad, like couple hundred bucks Not bad at all, because she is Taylor Swift, to her credit, is combating the man. She is.
Speaker 1:I love Taylor Swift purely for her anti-establishment agenda.
Speaker 3:She's like I am the establishment and yeah, and the other establishment will be unestablished.
Speaker 1:Have you seen this stuff coming out about how she has Restored economical prosperity in certain cities to pose to pre-covid era sure do in Canada was begging, begging her to come to Canada. Yeah, and she's gonna do the Europe tour too, which is cool. Here's the thing I'm not like. I'm not a diehard Swifty, right? I don't listen to her music, I don't go out of the way, yeah.
Speaker 2:I don't need to, because it's always playing.
Speaker 1:It's always playing in my house, always playing in the Radio, the car, like I don't need to go out of my way to listen to because my wife like puts headphones on my head. Would I go to bed to play it? Love you, billy G. But uh, no, uh, what I am saying is that uh, the the tickets were definitely affordable, I think it was. I want to say like 360 for Seats that can see the stage right, not for to not blood nose. Yeah, not like nosebleed, sorry, yeah, not nosebleed seats, but like totally fine, they loved it, they had a great time and they didn't have to deal with like crowd congestion on the floor for like thousands of dollars and you didn't have to deal with my situation. Well, because, I have Heard, not because, not because Mace Windu has said anything. I want you to know this when do hey Mace? Windu, I'm a big fan of you. I'm a big fan of you and my wife hanging out and doing Bachelorette and Paradise, whatever that show is. But All I know, all I know, is that a lot of people were talking about the Swiftie concert and that you didn't buy tickets, and not that all I know is that Mace Windu didn't say anything.
Speaker 3:She didn't say she didn't.
Speaker 1:She wasn't like, yeah, pat didn't buy me tickets. All I know is that everyone was to kind of talked about a Bachelorette thing and Billy Jean Felt like it wasn't fair for the girls who didn't go because not everyone went right and you've had you? What is the Population of females in your house on a Monday night when there's the bachelor?
Speaker 3:30.
Speaker 1:It's thorough, but here's, I'm here, so it's okay, you know yeah, but it's just like there's a lot of women there and a lot of them are talking and there's a lot of there's Ferme diversity.
Speaker 3:They're sinking. There's lots of things going on in that place. So I don't understand it as a scientist or a man. But you know, and I'll say this, it sounds like I'm like, like it sounds like I've been nagged. I haven't, yeah, you know, I I just it's. It hasn't been like this thing in our relationship, it's just been like I.
Speaker 1:Think that you're like a piece of shit. Yeah, yeah, for me personally. I just like. I personally, I personally feel bad for this. So my wife hasn't.
Speaker 3:I cannot believe that I have not that I didn't. I didn't see it coming. I should have just it would have been so easy to send her to the concert. But you know, after the concert came I was like I was like just going Instagram like reels of like my people I actually know and you realize, fucking everybody went everybody, every single person I know, went the whole state of Colorado, Somehow yeah and they even went like with their husbands and I was like, oh my god, you guys are the making me look so bad? I saw husband's dressing because the thing is to dress and, like you know, you dress up all craze like different albums you just sparkly. Yeah, to get in.
Speaker 1:See it from space.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and so I saw, I saw friends of mine, dudes in like sparkly vests and I was like, bro, like you are making us other fellas look so bad, like stop it right now, please. I will say my wife went to Taylor last time. She came. Oh nice, and they all she's been yeah and they. Here's the deal. Yeah they had nosebleeds. I mean they were, they were their nose were bleeding on the nosebleeds.
Speaker 1:They were up there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they were 14 and a half miles away. They're just watching the teleprompter. Yeah, it was the telechron right and so, but they dressed, all of them dressed in like Seekwind onesies. It's always that's. I mean, that's a big one, yeah, but but this was like I. I Might need to look into it because, honestly, this might have, might have started the whole thing because this group of ladies my wife and her family dressed in sparkly onesies, and a scout grabbed them and brought them down To be to be in the good seats, because they were so well, they were so well sparkled that you know the classic, you know, like the people out there, because they're the PR people are trying to make it look the best concert ever. And so, yeah, they were grabbed and they were brought down.
Speaker 1:We need you in frame.
Speaker 3:Yeah for this stuff, and so they did have a bad ass is super badass, and so in my mind I'm like listen, I Don't even know how to say this without. If we had a huge audience, I'd be crucified for this. I just don't think she's that big of a deal and I would really like to see, like Fleetwood Mac, u2, zeppelin, you know. So yeah, I saw that. Yeah, dude, I was in the common later, old mix wearing a Fleetwood shirt when he walked in, and I can you believe I got this shirt at Walmart.
Speaker 1:I would so much this, a freaking banger for $50.
Speaker 3:Thanks to the cranberry juice guy for bringing them back around. No kidding, and anyways, I just feel like I Like music, I like live music, and I'd really like to go see some of like true bangers.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3:I guess. I guess I'm just an old curmudgeon because I didn't realize that Taylor was such a big deal anymore and I failed my wife that's all.
Speaker 1:Here's the biggest thing. Hmm, I got my clippers on the red right now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I.
Speaker 1:Just want everyone to know it there that it's been a good, it's been good. Okay, did your wife? Hmm you guys can't see, but I got my fingers and scissor formation on the red wire on the table. Pat, did your wife tell you she wanted to go to the concert Before the concert happened?
Speaker 3:Here's the classic man.
Speaker 2:I don't know.
Speaker 1:Pat, pat, you need to make a choice right now. Man it red or blue. Oh, did your wife tell you she wanted to go? You need to pick yes or no, bro, because whatever the answer is, it is gonna be absolutely your fault or not?
Speaker 3:Yeah, here's what I'll say, Speaking as a man. My wife never said I want to go to this concert. I would like it if you watch. The kids and I went to see this concert. These types of things were never said. The other things that may have been said that I don't remember were things like Taylor Swift is coming to Denver. Oh neat, have you heard?
Speaker 1:No, this is the first I've heard.
Speaker 3:Have you heard that Taylor Swift is doing a new tour? No, that's cool. Brittany is going to the Taylor Swift concert.
Speaker 1:Ooh, I bet that was expensive. These are the things that I don't know, oh okay, all right, I'm gonna clip the wire If she did expressly say I'd like to go, is that okay? That is not on you for now. Like going ahead, I on a one day of a year might be I might. My mom's gonna hate this because my mom likes to think that I'm better than most men. Most moms do that's okay, I love you, mom. Thanks for always believing me. I like to think that at least once a year. I have an opportunity in my like my brain. Here's my wife say something and my brain thinks ahead and says I wonder if her saying that is an indication that she wants to do that, and it's likely. It is way more likely that I'm thinking that because she's mentioned her birth control and I'm thinking, oh, she wants to have sex Like that is the once a year opportunity where I think ahead and it's wasted on that, rather than her being like, hey, the Jonas Brothers are reuniting for a tour. They're coming to Denver and me thinking ahead and being like my wife might want to go to the Jonas.
Speaker 3:Brothers concert. Those freaking old farts are still playing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no kidding. Anyways, all that said, I don't think it's on you, man, and I'll say this as far as I know, my wife is a very honest person not saying that yours isn't, of course but my wife has never said anything like hey, mace Windu was really bummed and she said that Pat didn't pay for a ticket. Never anything like that Never in a million years, right, I can say that with full confidence that you know your wife has never vented to the girls about not going. All I know is that my wife said I felt bad because I know not everyone went and some girls were talking about it and that was the only thing they talked about all night.
Speaker 3:And all the girls were just like bummed. That's very self-aware.
Speaker 1:That's not brand for my wife. That's the way she thinks. I didn't even know that your wife didn't go until you said so and I agree. I'll just say this you're screwed, you're purgatory. I counted that as one of my most dodged bullets, that's a.308 caliber that flew by my head solely because my wife said can I go? She used those words and I was like thank you, thank you, you just saved me from being mad and I was like I'm gonna go and snipe to no man's land and already iterate.
Speaker 3:It's not like I'm really in a dog house, or it hasn't been like a whole bunch of things yet, but I wish I'd seen it coming, because I could have loved her so much better by just being like hey, happy birthday, you know 12 years early or whatever. You know what I mean. But just being like just randomly surprising them with the tickets, and also, honestly, I don't think she realized until after either. Oh yeah, just like being like, like the gravity of how many people went yeah she was also like wait, I didn't realize it Because I had not only like literally all my friends, but then also half my family went to it. You know, here's the thing.
Speaker 1:I know a good amount of my wife's friends and I know enough about their situation from them that they should not have gone. They financially are not in a place that they should have gone, yeah, or. And then they did go and I was just like, and not that, like not that, like there's not in any way should perform around like oh, that was irresponsible or something like that. But I'm just like look, sister, I know you live in that free, free life, unmarried. You know whatever props to you. I know your boyfriend ain't got announced to his name or he's probably just not self aware enough that he's going to purchase you tickets.
Speaker 2:So with that.
Speaker 3:I know you.
Speaker 1:I know you're buying these tickets on your own, off of you know whatever hourly job you're working, and that's a sacrifice and props to you for budgeting for a sacrifice. But I don't think the majority of the people that went to those concerts really could afford it. You know what I mean. I think there was that and and so many went and it was. That's why it was a surprise. Like I was, I was very surprised at how many went because I was like how the hell did that? Did that person sell their kidney? Because I know that person doesn't have the money to go Right.
Speaker 3:And I also think the You've seen the movie Mean Girls. Oh yeah, One of my favorite movies that might warrant a bruise and abuse as well.
Speaker 1:That's dude. I don't give a shit what anyone says. That movie has girls in the title. That's a. That's a through and through, like anybody movie, oh yeah.
Speaker 3:That's like a percent.
Speaker 1:I think that's mandatory watching as much as stepbrothers. Like stepbrothers and Mean Girls both occupy the same level of like you should watch.
Speaker 3:You have to have seen it and there's a scene where they're having the big talk with all the girls after all the fighting, and then the gay dude is up there with a hoodie on so he can be in the conference and like a girl gets up there and she's like expressing her feelings and all this stuff and he just yells out she doesn't even go here. Yes, the yeah.
Speaker 1:The best lie, bro, I can't. I can't tell you how many times in a high school or college I looked at someone and like I knew the person right, but I just see them at a party and I'd be like, do you even go here? Yeah, dude, who do you know here? It's a great line.
Speaker 3:She doesn't even go here One of the best things of all time, and so I feel like the Taylor Swift concert was kind of like a bunch of people doing that.
Speaker 1:Like did you see the videos coming out of the IA but?
Speaker 3:like, like people who like like, you're not a Swifty, you just like. You caught this bug that they've like. It was trendy, the marketing plan totally got you. Yeah, like, like and or whatever Like. And now you just are agreeing that she's the legend of all time and here's the deal. That's a debate for another time. But bro.
Speaker 1:I think she is the the goat because of techno. I think technology has made her the goat, but she's talented, without a doubt. She's undoubted talented. But like I don't think there'll be a musician, I don't think there's been a musician prior to her as successful I'll I'll die on that casket. I think you Elvis was not as successful as Taylor Swift, and that's a hard pill to swallow, but you need to swallow it, Choke it down. I'll give you some water. No, the um, I think that you're probably right Elvis couldn't win against the record labels Taylor has.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, I agree, and so the the thing about it is, I'd say, like her talent comes from. Her musical prestige is like 30%, her like her, which this is the entertainment industry right Her ability to sway the masses, that's 70%.
Speaker 1:I would say, I would rephrase it to her grasp on the everyday woman's plight. She is not out of touch with what the majority of American women experience.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'd say yes, but it's false.
Speaker 1:Her music is not out of touch. Her lyrics are not out of touch with the majority of what everyday women experience, because here's what she everyday women experience.
Speaker 3:this, which is why they love her. This is a picture of my kitty. Look at my kitty being silly.
Speaker 1:No, I don't think that's a good thing about women.
Speaker 3:That's a lot of everyday women, but everyday women aren't posting that from their, however, million dollar flat. But anyways, I think we came here to talk about a real musician.
Speaker 1:We did, we did, but here's the weird thing, bro.
Speaker 3:I'll give her this. She brought us in. She brought me in just now on these last 30 minutes.
Speaker 1:Pat. Here's the thing, man. I didn't realize this till right now. I love my wife and I mean, I've known that that's not what I'm saying. But because I love my wife, I'm protective over Taylor's. I'm ready to go to the fucking grave with you right now. I'm telling you right now. I'm telling you right now If you want to do this, fight brother listen here, here, here, here, here here.
Speaker 2:W W W? E smack down, rora, I'll take you to the court on the road for the sake of my wife's love of Taylor's with her. I don't give two shits about Taylor's with her. I'm no swifty, but a man who loves his wife. And you're going down, brother, you won't catch me, pants around my ankles, red handed, wiping my eyes, now standing up for the musician. My wife loves the ball. I'll tell you. I'll tell you.
Speaker 3:All right, that's all I got right there.
Speaker 1:But hey, really honestly, I didn't realize it till just now, because I was like I was asking myself like why am I about to defend Taylor Swift? She doesn't need me to? I was like, oh, because my wife loves her, that's all that. That's insane. I've never had that experience.
Speaker 3:I once asked Taylor Swift to marry me via Facebook comment.
Speaker 1:Dude, I almost wrote Taylor Swift a letter just to ask her, on a date 100% Fresh me, your college. Yeah, I wasn't my buddy man trusted me and, fortunately enough, didn't lose the odds. But sorry, he did. What are the odds? I didn't lose the odds and I never wrote that letter, but I really debated it because I was like, what do I have to lose? Your life could be wildly different.
Speaker 3:I'm happy it isn't. Oh, no kidding. No kidding, because you just be another song about how you weren't the perfect. Honestly, bro, keep me in, you weren't the perfect, you weren't the perfect friends.
Speaker 1:I bet she just called the song Nick. Like there'd be, like I would have, this podcast wouldn't exist, dude, I would have gone into isolation. I would have been a lot like the dude singing right now, who lives on a farm, who's also my wife's actual favorite musician I think I think of my wife at a gun to her head and someone said pick Greg or Taylor. She picked Greg.
Speaker 3:I think it'd be hard though.
Speaker 1:Dang, I'm very interested to see what she thinks after hearing this episode.
Speaker 3:What if it was aired on live TV?
Speaker 1:What's her.
Speaker 3:How strong is her constitution? I?
Speaker 1:think, I think, she, she's. So here's how you know. She's seen Greg like seven, eight times, mm. Hmm, if Greg is playing, we're going, all right. I mean, okay, we're like. So he played in Red Rocks today and we didn't go because we went on Saturday to a different show, right.
Speaker 3:So that's the idea.
Speaker 1:And we were all talking about accessibility. Right, that's how we got in the old dollars.
Speaker 3:And I'm an accessibility in the fact that. To bring it back to that, I just meant like, because he's local, is he accessible? Yeah, not, not take it pricing and stuff. I will say does he play local shows? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So whenever he's doing like these big tours that he's on, he's going to do one at Red Rocks, right. He's going to do one at Denver Coliseum or whatever Right. But he also does a fair amount of other venues that are local in Denver and stuff, and he's very appreciative and very humble about how people from Colorado are pretty much the reason he is so successful.
Speaker 2:Mm, hmm.
Speaker 1:Like the whole, like anyone who's like a diehard fan usually lives in Colorado, right, because they just are aware of his music and they're aware of him as being a local from the state.
Speaker 2:Mm, hmm.
Speaker 1:And they're big fans and big promoters of his music. So he always tries to make affordable, accessible local shows. I think our tickets were, like I don't know, sub 200 for two of us to go to. We went to the mission down in Denver, the Mission Ballroom, great venue, good sound. They could really do with some chairs. Essentially it's like Red Rocks, but they just give you pads to sit on which are nice.
Speaker 3:That's better than Red Rocks. You're getting old.
Speaker 1:But with Red Rocks you're allowed to bring a camping chair in.
Speaker 3:Mm, hmm.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean. You're allowed to bring a stadium chair or a camping chair in to sit on.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:You're not allowed to do that at this venue, and I'm just like you. Should let people have backs.
Speaker 3:Is our his concerts, sitting concerts or standing concerts?
Speaker 1:I don't know why you'd ever stand at one of his concerts.
Speaker 2:Mm, hmm.
Speaker 1:And the music is definitely meant to be experienced less to like jump around to Right For sure. A lot of his openers, though, are pretty exciting. All right, I do like the band that opened for him recently.
Speaker 3:So you get us.
Speaker 1:Just, you know, this weekend called Shovel and Rope and they were way more of a upbeat, eccentric dance around like Southern bluegrass folk, mm, hmm, maybe even Southern punk folk.
Speaker 3:I would say punk folk yes. So you get up and get your wiggles out and then you sit down for the teacher.
Speaker 1:And Greg comes out and tying it back to what we initially talked about you know, making babies, all right, Right, um, I had the oddest experience. You know. I was sitting with my wife in between the opener and Greg again opener, shovel and Rope, check them out. Check yeah, shovels and rope, not rope and shovels, shovels and rope. They have a song that's coming out soon that is a love ballad from a dog to its owner. And damn, did I not almost cry? I was listening to that song live. It's a really good song, all right, but I was talking to my wife and you know she was asking me what my favorite Greg song was, or you know what I was hoping he would play, and I said, you know, honestly, maybe this is a do thing, maybe not, I don't know, I've never talked to a dude about it. But when I go to these concerts with Greg, um, I actually don't sing along often. Maybe there's one or two songs he plays that I sing along to, just cause I'm overtly familiar and used to singing in the car with them Because of his music. And hey, greg, I hope, if you ever hear this, I hope this comes off as a compliment but his music makes me actually visually see things in my, in my mind that I can, I can push from my mind. I borderline to the visual and I can, and I can, I can, uh, and maybe that's just an imaginative person, right, but I feel like a lot of his music pushes my imaginary imagination to overdrive.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 1:And at this concert uh, I was, you know, I was telling my wife this. I was like I really don't know. If there's a song I hope he plays, because when he plays music I listen to the lyrics, I listen to the sound and I find myself speculating. I find myself wondering about who I am, who I want to be, who I have been. I find myself thinking about my future with my wife. You know what things I still haven't done, that I want to do, and I'm sure that's you know. Maybe that is the point, that, like, maybe that's what musicians want. Rather, you cherish a song that they write, because it provokes thought and imagination and it provokes questions and borderline, I would say hallucinatory, fascinating of what the future might hold. Some musicians probably only want you to be stuck with an anthem in their head, in your head, so you play it on repeat. I don't know I would wager. Correct me if I'm wrong, Greg, feel free to email us, I'll e-crow. But I would wager that Greg wants you to hear his music and be thinking and touched for a while afterwards. And I told my wife that and she was like that is crazy, that's insane. You're weird because I know exactly what songs I want him to play and I'm excited about, to sing along with him and stuff like that and maybe she'll correct me later if I misconstrued that and I went into that kind of like knowing that's what I was. My only expectation of the song was that I'd be able to sit hands underneath my chin. This is how I sit at most Greg concerts I'm going to show you. Most people don't know, but I'll explain afterwards.
Speaker 3:It's like a variation of the thinking man, except for you're using both hands.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I interlace both fingers together, put my chin on it and I put my elbows on my knees. I just sit forward hunched. Sometimes I just put my head down and like, rest my forehead on my fingers and just close my eyes and listen and the strangest thing happened. I'm going to play the song and you probably won't be able to hear it because we'll probably get sued and we'll probably have to put a song that we have the rights to and license to to play in the background. But that he played this song and he's great. Dude. Greg is great because he knows what his fans like and he wants to play it for you at his shows. He just had a new album come out in time to spend like two weeks listening to before the show and rather than just playing tracks off of that he's like. So I'm just going to hit these baddies and I'm going to play some new stuff too, but this is the song that he played that really had me. What's the name of it? It's called If I Go, I'm Going, and essentially, you know, because we have to talk over the song, we have to provide commentary while we discuss it, but definitely give it a listen. The idea is that in this song there's an unknown future ahead of the protagonist and before they go forward, they're accepting what has occurred in the past. And a lot of people have hesitated in discussing, like, is this a song about a lover dying on the bed and this person is ready to go with them as they pass on? Or is this a song about someone who's in a relationship and they're saying I'm ready to break up or stick together through this, whatever you want to do, but we got to do something? And really what to me, you know, probably absolutely unrelated to the lyrics, right is, I think, in listening to the banjo, the guitar, the cello, the keys, all of it combined, I found myself closing my eyes, dude. And I saw Billie Jean holding our newborn baby and I saw a baby swaddled in clothes as she held it and looked up at me. And we were outside somewhere in Colorado and the sun was shining on her and I saw her a little bit wrinklier, a little bit more crow's eyes, and that baby, now a child, holding her hand, and we were walking and just seeing the way she looked and that child looked up at her and I saw her old, with like white hair, and it was so fast and fleeting, but it is everything I kind of saw while just sitting and listening to this live and I just thought, like dude, like this is the person I'm attached to the hip with for the rest of my life and wherever she goes I'm going, and it is not a question of commitment, like if I go I'm going and if we stay I'm staying, like it's whatever you're doing. And it really hit me really hard and like I don't think I've ever in my mind been able to imagine what my baby looks like or what my kid looks like, and like I saw it clear as day and I saw her with that child and it was. It was like, you know and it's weird because I don't like to, I really don't like to assign spiritual experiences to non spiritual things it felt very spiritual and I just like put me in a posture of prayer, put me in a posture of thankfulness, totally re aligned the whole night to me, cause like I was kind of there and the opener was fine, but I was already kind of getting tired and I really don't like sitting in that concert. So I don't like concerts that much. My back hurts really bad sitting there or standing right and my wife loves concerts and then, like Greg comes on and, as Greg does, he plays and it puts me in a totally different posture. The other song I'm just going to play it on. I'm not going to say like anything significant occurred, but this other song is a very popular one of his as well. It's called Amsterdam and it's essentially you know, everyone's got an opinion of it but the idea is like the love of the city and everything about the city that makes it feel like a character and very contrary to like perhaps maybe the way New York or LA is or Chicago is personified as like a careless bitch who doesn't care if you die in the cold. Greg characterizes this town of Amsterdam as like this entity, this character who loves you and carries you and it's a it's a female characterization for sure and how it's always at your back, watching over you and how in its whole, in the whole time you experience with it, it is reminding you that you should go home Like. It's a weird relationship of like. I appreciate this place. It's a beautiful place. At the same time, this place knows what's best for me and what's best for me is probably to go home. I think that's a very simple explanation of it. There's way more deeper things online, but anyways, this is the reason why I'm playing Greg on our show, right Cause I want people to hear him and experience him, have idea of him and hopefully, hopefully, this exists in perpetuity. I've debated emailing Greg and just be like bro, I'll work on your farm for a whole summer If you just give me the fricking rights to play your music, so people discover your music, you know more people find your music but he's really great, really great stuff. Very humble guy. I've had the privilege of listening to him in various settings. The first time I listened to him live, we drove out through a blizzard into Steamboat and he was playing at a small community center in Steamboat and it was just him and one other guy out of his band and they took like song requests from the audience and he was very much a like storyteller of just like funny other experiences Seen him live with the Colorado Symphony in Denver, which is, let me tell you, dude, that was a spiritual experience. It's really powerful.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my wife and I were real dressed up to the nines and Billy Jean and I saw him in like a whole orchestra, like you know, every string and woodwind playing in tune with everything that he's, him and his band are doing. It was out of this world and there's an album I think you can listen to, or at least some YouTube tracks, of the properly recorded and EQed recordings with the Colorado Symphony that he's done and it's like imagine that. But just you know, absolutely everywhere around you and it was. It was a very powerful experience.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But anyway, sorry, I know I've been rambling. I'm a rambling man about.
Speaker 2:Greg Gugliel and Isaac Off.
Speaker 1:I'm a big fan of his. I've told Billy Jean several times that if she were to pass away before myself, I would just put the life insurance into the market and I'd just go work on Greg's farm. Yeah. And I just, I just bet, greg, you don't even have to pay me anything, just give me a bed. All I want to do is be here working on the farm, and then I just want to sit with you guys while you play music, so I can remember my wife.
Speaker 2:Hmm, that's beautiful.
Speaker 3:I think that something special about music is the way that it's been real bastardized, probably over the last 50 years, but especially over the last like three years, and music is probably supposed to be experienced with a group of people around you and while actually seeing the person play that music in front of you, and so it sounds like you know the experiences you've had with him are experiencing music how our soul and our body was designed to experience music, which is with people and with the producer of it right there in front of you, and so personally intimately you know, yeah, I think that's something he does really well while being live.
Speaker 1:is that like it does feel like he is playing for you? Like it doesn't feel like part, just part, of it to her? Like it feels like he wants you to know? He's like I really want you to enjoy this. I don't want you to connect to it and gosh. I can only imagine how many thousands of other people have said that about thousands of other musicians. but I could care less about Greg if it wasn't for the connection with my wife and my wife, you know, and I sharing so many of these music, music, so many of these songs with all of our travels. I can't tell you how many times we've been on a road through the mountains listening to Greg and it's a amount. It's even gotten to the point now, dude, where I'm debating on just like sending Greg this list I have of songs I want him to cover. It should be like hey bro, charity event. You and the band play these cover songs just like something down in Denver and it's like the great cover you know the great cover set or something, because there's a lot of other like great bands who do great songs that are, I think, definitely within his wheelhouse. But he could put a different, like more full taste on, and I would just love to hear him like take a stab at him. He's very talented.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he's. I think. I've never listened to much of his music, but just from what we've been listening to while we've been sitting here even, I think that I'd categorize this guy as a true musician. There's a lot of people out there who are talented and are able to gather a following and have influence and people who listen to them. They get lots of likes, clicks, follows, but the. Then there's also just people out there no-transcript. It's weird because they're right, like you just said, it's like they're out there, they wrote this song to sing it for you, but they also like, and at the same, very same time, they like, they didn't you know like, like how maybe a Cardi B like this song is for you, but only because it's actually for me. Right, meaning like. He's like, if you don't listen to this song ever, no skin off my back, but it's for you. Yeah, you know, that's like the from the musician standpoint in that sense, and so it just touches. Music touches people in that way when they can feel that genuine nature from it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, to be totally fair, we talked about this on the last couple of episodes, but I had just finished Loan Some Dove while we were driving to the concert and I was definitely in an emotionally vulnerable state Thinking about my entire life, you know, because that book follows people of all different points in life and I was definitely very reflective at the time when I was there. So you know, if you listen to this music, you're like that's fine, but it's not my jam, you know. No, no problem, I get it, but at the same time, like it definitely has a very, I think, personal like attribute to it of where the sound and the performance feels like it is made for you to dwell on.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:Is there any musician for you, pat, that you find yourself going back to and you're like? This feels like music that is written very like, intimately for the listener that I connect to?
Speaker 2:I'm not sure, mm.
Speaker 1:Like music. You'd rather sit and listen to than sing along to.
Speaker 3:It's hard because there's the cop out. It would be like I just listen to so much music. It's hard to like quantify. I'll speak about two people. Actually One first would be a lesser known individual. His name is Bebo Norman. He's a Christian musician. He never really like popped off the charts, so to speak. He had some like he had some great hits and he had some he had to like in that realm. He had some hits and things that people would be known, but he was kind of his timing. It's not even his fault but his timing was in between, like the just pre, like Hillsong type stuff right, mm-hmm. He's more like the Chris Tomlin, david Crowder, like individual groups, but his stuff was even just a little bit before some of them, and so it was like no fault of his own that he's not known, because I think his music is really better than a lot, a lot, a lot of stuff that gets played on Christian radio and popular hits, and you know the or I'd say like the Christian radio or like in churches with worship songs. His stuff is reflective, his stuff for me, like as a kid I started listening to his stuff and it was, I mean from a young, young age, like as young as seven years old, like his songs, that he would write some of them I didn't, I couldn't tell if he was writing about a girl or if he was writing about Christ, like because of the depth of the lyrics and speaking about love metaphorically and things, just things like I'd say, modern worship music is pretty clear cut in a lot of ways, or like songs written for church are pretty clear cut, but he just he's just expressing himself and he wrote one album that I listen to pretty regularly. It's called Ten Thousand Days and I want to ask him about it because I'm pretty sure I know why he wrote it or why he called it Ten Thousand Days. It came out when he was 27 years old, and if you look up how many days you've lived by the time you turn 27, it's pretty much Ten Thousand Days, and so I think that's why he called it Ten Thousand Days, because he was 27 years old. And an interesting thing about 27-year-old musicians there's a couple of them who've died, particularly by suicide or pseudo-suicidal things Amy Winehouse, hendricks, kurt Cobain. They all died at that age, 27 years old, ten Thousand Days. And so he wrote an album called Ten Thousand Days. I want to ask him about it because I have my own theories about, like now I listen to that. I listen to that album as a small child, growing up, and I had a grasp of some of the things he was singing about, but then I kind of didn't listen to it for a long time and I listened to it again around the age of 27 and all those things that he's singing about hit me like a train Things about your what's your purpose? How do I navigate this life, where am I headed? Where have I been? What is, what's this whole deal? You know, things that I feel like are very relevant for a 27-year-old individual. You're somewhere in between this like post-college, post-parent life and kind of coming into, like you know, quote-unquote adulting, and he deals with some things about life in there that any age you're at you can really connect with or kind of start to wonder about. But I feel like if you're like it's like on the nose, like if you're 27 and you listen to this stuff, like it kind of hit, you understand it more. And so Bebo is someone who's like his lyrics and his stuff. It's, while he's a Christian artist, his stuff really wasn't just like overtly obtrusive Christian music. It was spiritually motivated and it's just songs about his life and where he was at and what he's thinking about. And then another person who I think has some of that stuff. For me that makes me very reflective and I'd like to God he's even still alive. He's getting a little older. I think he's still alive. I don't know if he's doing live shows anymore. His old stage name was Kat Stevens.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 3:Or I mean his name was Kat Stevens and then he changed his name to why can't I remember this? He embraced his Muslim faith more and changed his name to oh, I can't remember it. Anyways, it's a very common Muslim name that he changed it to. But Kat Stevens was kind of a folk artist, yusuf Yusuf. Yeah, yusuf, yeah, he changed his name to Yusuf, thank you. And he wrote a lot of songs that were really kind of a 70s folk artist, some songs that lots of people that's funny, I think lots of people might know about or kind of recognize. I've heard that before, one of them being a song called Wild World, where he's singing this song to a girl who's kind of coming of age and he's warning her about how the world isn't maybe all that it seems and it's a girl who's maybe leaving him and he's. Wild World is a song that I've always listened to my whole life and I've been thinking about it a lot. And then another song he wrote was called Peace Train. Most people might know that song from the Remember the Titans movie Peace Train song about peace coming for mankind, and it's a song that has depth to it. It's worth listening to and contemplating for mankind and where we're at and where we're going and where we could be, and he has. What I love about folk artists is they kind of they address the human condition more than others. It's not just always a song about love or always a song about, I would say, maybe, folk musicians, because it may be it always is a song about love, but they're approaching it from different angles. But it's not just a typical love song. There's another Cat Steven song that I Wild World Peace Train, and then I can't remember the name of it. It's funny because he's a Muslim, but he has a song that was sung like in churches and all around places. I cannot remember the name of it. This is brutal. I might even have to look it up to remind us. But A Morning Is Broken, it's Morning Is Broken by Cat Stevens, and it's just kind of a song about kind of life, and it's ecclesiastical, about life too. It just kind of. It is what it is. Also, there's beautiful things in life, there's hard things in life. I think that's a song that speaks in many ways to a lot of people about that, about the human condition. And the final song I'll talk about from him is one called Father and Son. And it's this beautiful and heart-wrenching song about the relationship between a father and son and throughout it every other verse is one from the father and then one from the son, back and forth, and he changes the way he sings it and his cadence and his intensity switches between the father and the son back and forth, and it's a dialogue and exchange of a father and son's relationship. And to put it most basically would be to say that, you know, fathers have expectations and desires for their sons to go above and beyond what they are and what they were and wants to want to push them forward and see them become more and want to see them become more. But typically in a lot of cases fathers, they see a very particular path that would lead to success for that kid and lots of sons want to make their own way in the world, right, and it's this duet with himself, back and forth between the relationship of a father and a son, and there's things that the father says that are hurtful and also helpful and there's things that the son says that are also like real, about what a son might feel about those expectations, but are also kind of like classically wayward. You know, it's like a dad being like I know you want to go follow your dreams, but if you just got a business degree you'd really set your next kids up better than I did, because I wish I'd done that. And the kids like I just want to go discover myself, I want to have adventure or whatever, and I just want to do what I want to do. And so you hear that in both those things of being like a father has good intent for his son but he has these expectations that are maybe harsh and a kid just wants to go, be free and explore the world, and that's good, but also maybe the dad has some experience or some places to speak into that. So anyways, yeah, I think that those are two artists Pivo Norman, particularly his 10,000 days album, and Cat Stevens and those songs that, like how you were describing the songs from Gregorio on Isaac Off, songs that just speak to the human condition, the things we go through and our wants, our desires, our needs and how do we navigate this stuff. And musicians have a very special way of making it. They simplify it for us to go oh, I connect with that at the same time that they simplify it and the lyricist also exponentially blows it up into this giant thing where you go. Oh my, they take a super simple concept and at the same time, they reveal it to you in a huge way. They pull you out to this huge view at the same time. You know, I feel like and that's what gives us that experience of going that really relates to me also. Oh my God, I never thought about it in such a massive way.
Speaker 1:Dude, thank you. I got two new musicians to check out, People I'd never heard of. That's awesome. Yeah, I got one last suggestion for people In college. There's this musician that I always started my mornings off to listening, whether I was riding my bike or I was in the dorms making a cup of coffee, getting ready to go down and go work out or something, and I want it. Just, you know, there's no lyrics at all. Let me see if I can find it. I actually don't think I spelled his name right.
Speaker 3:It's Crazy Frog.
Speaker 1:Yeah, crazy Frog Dying, dying, Give me a second Good gosh. He is what's known as an American primitivism I know that's the genre musician and all of his songs are, of course, just like acoustic, only the guitar, pretty much, and he played on a guitar that was like a double necked, you know, 12 strings, and he was. Unfortunately he died in a car accident. Michael Hedges, that's his name, michael Hedges, and dude, there's, you see, pictures of like his, I don't even know what to call it, like it's borderline dulcimer fused with guitar. But if you can listen to some Michael Hedges in the morning I guarantee you you're going to feel like you're starting your morning off right. Oh yeah, he's just an incredibly talented musician, I think, and Aerial Boundaries is his most famous song. I'll play it. I'll play it right now, aerial Boundaries by Michael Hedges, and it's wonderful because it's just such a satisfying track to start the day off to of like. It feels optimistic, it feels like you don't know what the day might have in store for you and even now, like I should probably just get back in the habit of like playing it in the morning when I start work. But he's very talented and anyways, not any lyrical or sword Like. There's nothing profound lyrically.
Speaker 3:And it's just. Are there lyrics or? It's just instrumental.
Speaker 1:I think there's a couple songs where he has lyrics on him where he's saying, but otherwise most of it is just music and it's just incredibly satisfying, I think, in my opinion, to hear what he can pull off as a single musician with you know assortment of different stringed instruments and it's. I can't think of a single song he's had that didn't feel hopeful or satisfying, whether you're listening to it beginning or end of the day. I used to listen to it all the time when I would go freshman year. I'd get in with a buddy of mine. We'd load up our camping gear, we'd drive up into the mountains to camp and I'd always listen to it while we're driving up and I'd listen to it when we're driving down and it was just so satisfying. But anyways, for our kid out there, I hope you've kind of enjoyed this and that you know you've been turned on to some new musical. Well, some new artists that you can check out Gregory Allen Isaacov I'll give him a check Bebo Norman, kat Kat Stevens, kat Stevens going by Youssef and Michael Hedges. I hope those bring you the same amount of satisfaction as they bring us and that they, you know, provoke thought, provoke reflection, provoke hope, optimism, and that you can kind of take something away from it to improve your kind of going in and out daily life. But until next time, man, that's the making of Pat Shell.