ELO's Legacy Lives On: Mr. Blue Sky’s Tribute in St. Louis

Arnold: [00:00:00] There are many tribute bands across the country. And several here in the St. Louis area, we have one of the best in studio today next on St. Louis in Tune.

Greetings listeners in the expansive listener land galaxy. Welcome to St. Louis in Tune and thank you for joining us for fresh perspectives on issues and events with experts, community leaders and everyday people who are driving change and making an impact that shapes our society and world. I'm Arnold Stricker here along with co host and he's giggling in the background there, Mark Langston.

The host with the most. The host with the most. 

Mark: That's right. 

Arnold: You loved when I said listeners in the greater galaxy. 

Mark: I know, we are. We're worldwide and I guess galaxy wide, aren't we? 

Arnold: I'm waiting for that ping to come back from the Hubble, which has bounced off some far distant galaxy that they're listening to the show.

You 

Mark: know they are. Absolutely. Oh yeah. We're on the World Wide Web, everywhere. Yes. We're doing pretty well, actually, around here. We are. If the truth 

Arnold: be known, I know. We're going to get going because our guests are patiently waiting to give us some insight into the local music scene. But first, our return to civility.

Ask the shy, awkward, or uncoordinated person on the sidelines to join your game. They'll appreciate the gesture and who knows they [00:01:30] could turn out to be your team's secret weapon. Wow. Yes I agree with that. I agree with that I remember, you know We'd always sort sides in school and you know The last person was picked was generally the one that was least Coordinated or the least physically active one 

Mark: and they rise to the top to rise to 

Arnold: the occasion 

Mark: They do yes, and they do many times the best player Isn't that crazy?

It is. It happens. 

Arnold: And our guests have risen to the occasion because, they started out as a box office sales associate and as a dishwasher and have risen to be two of the most important musicians in the local St. Louis area. And we're talking about Jeff Faulkner and Jake Brookman, Mr. Blue Sky.

Jeff Faulkner, he is a singer songwriter, over 30 years of experience in the music business, and I call him cover artist [00:03:00] extraordinaire. And Jake Brookman, he started playing cello when he was 9, before he got that gig at the Powell Hall, being the box office associate. He's played with Cossie Young People's Orchestra, the St.

Louis Youth Symphony, principal cellist for both ensembles, Mark, many other orchestras. And then he collaborated with several bands, he's performed, Mark, with the Beach Boys. St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, the Trans Siberian Orchestra, the Who Winter Opera St. Louis, and Weird Al Yankovic. Wow. I know him from Salt of the Earth.

What a resume. Yes. Both of our guys, welcome. And Jeff, welcome back to St. Louis In Tune. Thanks for having 

Jeff: us in. Good morning. 

Arnold: You guys have a concert coming up September 13th at the Chesterfield Amphitheater. 

Jeff: Yes. It's become the annual big summer show for us. Is that like 

Arnold: the close out of the summer?

Is that the end of their season out there? 

Jeff: We have been scheduling them at the end of summer for one reason or another. Not on purpose, but that's just when we're available and it's the date they have open. But that's fine with us, it's a way to end the summer in a great way. 

Arnold: Because you guys have played at Del Mar Hall and out at the Champ, as they call it.

Jeff: Yes. 

Arnold: And you've played on the Illinois side in Belleville? 

Jeff: We do the Wildy Theater in Edwardsville. Edwardsville, okay. And we have just had great shows over there. We usually do like a Friday and Saturday, an evening Friday, and then a [00:04:30] matinee Saturday and evening Saturday.

So three shows over there. Yeah. And as soon as we put tickets on sale, they are, they're gone. Like within two days, they're flying 

Arnold: off before they even get off the printer. 

Jeff: It seems to be that way over there, but it's been that way from the very beginning.

We've been doing this for five years now. Our first show started off at the duck room and as a sellout and it's just been going like that. Ever since, man we're grateful and we so appreciate the support we've gotten from everybody. 

Arnold: You have a great following, and are, do people, the same people come back to the show, or we got continual new people coming to the show, or what's the audience?

It's a 

Jeff: mix of both, we see a lot of familiar faces that show up for the at every show. So you got your 

Arnold: groupies in the front row, 

Jake: they all discuss it beforehand. We're going to be in the front row on the rail or what? 

Jeff: The demographic of our audience, I don't know if there's like an age limit on being a groupie.

Like once you get past say 40, I don't know if you're a, I don't know if the groupie label is able to be attached to you. So we don't, Probably have too many of those, but it's so great when we see people coming back to see the show. It just proves to our, to us and shows us that we're doing something right.

And, like I said, when we do those weekend runs over at the Wildy, we have people that come to all three of those shows. It's been crazy, 

Arnold: and even younger kids, you're exposing younger kids to some really great. What I would call classic rock kinds of music. 

Jeff: I would think their parents for [00:06:00] that because you know It's their parents bringing them to these shows and we see a lot of kids and you know Just chesterfield amphitheater, by the way is a great place to bring the whole family outside with the weather's going to be great, which we hope and pray it is I think it is it's just you know, it's Just beautiful outdoor facility, kids can run around, there's plenty of room but seeing the young kids there is awesome because we know that the parents are raising them right.

Arnold: And I know it won't rain because it's Friday the 13th. It is Friday the 13th, but this is going to be a lucky, it's a lucky Friday the 13th. So Jake, how did you get involved with with Mr. Blue Sky and Jeff. 

Jake: I think our mutual friend Dave Kals suggested that I think our mutual friend Dave Kals suggested that I join up when Jeff was talking about forming the band and needing string players and Dave Kals and Jeff and I have all been in the scene since probably the 90s and before that even because I think I came onto the rock scene in 92 when I started playing with the Suede Chain from Champaign, Illinois.

Jeff: Yeah, I'd ask Dave if he knew of any cello players and He's yeah, Jake is a really good show. He's like the rock and roll cello player. Like he was in suede chain. I'm like, sweet Jane, that, that goes back as far as I do. 

Arnold: I've always wanted to see a marching orchestra, but it would be tough playing cello to do that.

Jake: Have you seen that clip from Woody Allen? No. It's from Take the Money and Run, and he tries to play cello in a marching band. [00:07:30] So he sets the chair down, and then he plays a note, and he gets up and sets the chair down. Love it. Plays a note. It's really funny. With Mr. Blue Sky, I actually have a wireless electric cello that I wear strapped on, so I'm free to roam the stage.

And I'm not tethered by a chair or cords or anything. Yeah, that's cool. How 

Arnold: is that different than the instrument that you have here in studio? 

Jake: I brought my acoustic cello today, but the electric cello is, the one that I play with Mr. Blue Sky is made by NS Design, and it's a it's basically just a stick.

It's just the core of the instrument and a long fingerboard and the strings and that's it. And then it screws into a shoulder strap system that, I can use to keep it supported. 

Arnold: Okay, cool, cool. You guys have something you want to tickle our ears with? Sure, we can play a little something. Or tantalize the listening audience to get them to go to the concert on Friday the 13th?

Jeff: Absolutely, yeah. Okay. We can play a little something here. One, two, three, four.[00:09:00] 

Music: Ain't one of you got the blues, cause you ain't got no one else to use. There's a big road that leads away, so just some miles between here and there. So I'm holdin my head where the rain comes in, took my body plane to win. I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I

I'm gonna look back and settle down, but a fool ain't as funny, soon gone separate ways. Found a fool lying in a daze. Ha, ha, woman, what you gonna do? You destroyed all the virtues the law gave you. So, I see that you're feeling pain. Better get yourself on board the very next train.[00:10:30] 

Evil Woman, Evil Woman, Evil Woman, now you done me wrong. But now you're trying to wail a different song. Ha, ha, funny how you broke me up. Made the wine, now you drink the cup. But I keep running every time you cry. [00:12:00] In your right.

Evil woman, 

Arnold: evil woman Evil woman, evil woman Evil woman Yeah! Good luck. Thank you. Yeah, this is Arnold Strick with Mark Langston of St. Louis in Tune, but that wasn't us. Wow, that was great. That was Jeff Faulkner and Jake Brookman from Mr. Blue Sky. Wow, that was great. Applause, applause, applause. Thank you, thank you, thank you very much.

We'll be here every Tuesday. I know, throw money. This is Mr. Blue Sky is our, the St. Louis in Tune's favorite tribute band. And I should say studio tribute band. Thank you guys. 

Jeff: We appreciate that title. Yeah. There's something about the ELO, just ELO itself and the music that they make. [00:13:30] I don't, I think it just, everybody loves it and you guys do it so well.

Mark: It's got to be as a complicated, complicated to do this. It's been a lot of work, a lot of rehearsal time, and it takes all 10 of us to pull it off. I, it's a completely a team effort. Not one person makes this thing up. It's a, it's the combined whole of everything that's going on.

Jeff: Cause there's so many different parts and the arrangements just Jeff Lynn to me, he's one of the best producers of all time, along with one of the best songwriters of all time. But as a great producer, he'd like to layer things and put as squeeze as many things into the four minute, five minute.

slot of a song as he could. And it literally takes all 10 of us to be able to replicate that. And everybody just in this band does, it does a great job. And yeah, we've got it sounding as close to the real thing as we possibly can. Have you gone through all of 

Arnold: his greatest hits or do you like Every year add a couple new ones of the hits or how do you we try to add 

Jeff: a couple new songs every show really?

Arnold: Okay 

Jeff: Or at least every other show Because we get so many requests for the deep cut stuff, right? And I love that man because that to me like those are the true ELO fans You know when they're messaging me going you guys need to put secret messages in the set or you need to put Backwards you need to put poker in the set the El Dorado overture or whatever.

I'm like, you're a real fan. All the stuff, and it's fun for [00:15:00] us to play that stuff. Cause a lot of the deep cut and even though he's got these deep cuts that never had radio play or whatever, the songs are still strong, so strong. Like we did the discovery album in its entirety over at the Wildy a couple of times.

Times back when we played there and there's just not a bad song in the whole album and we got complaints from people because we didn't in order to do the whole album We had to cut out a few of the hits. So they're like, why didn't you play? Can't get it out of my head. Why didn't you play?

I can't be here's that one. It's look we can't play for five hours

But next time we do an album in its entirety we'll keep the hits in there. We'll just make it a longer show. 

Mark: Yeah. 

Jeff: We'll do, we'll pull the El Monstero and do three hours, 

Mark: what's the largest venue you've done? 

Jeff: The largest venue we've done to date is probably Chesterfield Amphitheater.

Mark: How many does that hold? It holds 4, 000 people. Wow. It's sold out, isn't it? Or it gets close to it. Last year we had about half a million. We did 

Jeff: 2, 000 people out there. Which for, I think, a ticketed show for a local tribute band, I think there's only one other tribute band that has sold more tickets for a ticketed show out there.

Maybe a couple more. But that's it. But they aren't 

Arnold: St. Louis in Tunes favorite 

Mark: tribute band. Since And since I've gotten turned on to you guys, I've had a couple of folks come up and tell me about you. Like they saw you, they ran into you and I'm like yeah, we've had them on the show before.

It's crazy. The idea, they like you guys. So the idea 

Jeff: is for [00:16:30] people to. Keep coming back, and we want it, the reason we want it sounding as close to the records as possible and the reason we always give a huge production, we spend a lot of money on production, but I told everybody that going in, I'm like, look, we're probably going to make less, we're going to make a little less money here, but it's about giving people a spectacle and you're going to have a reason to come back and It's working.

Cause we're seeing people coming back. Yeah. And 

Arnold: and I get that because when you go to a concert and it's about the experience and you have a great experience and love the music, you will want to come back and it's not like you're paying. Really huge bucks to go see somebody in concert. No, we're affordable.

Yeah, that's right. Yeah. 

Jeff: Jeff Lynn will be in town this Friday. And we're, I personally am so happy that he's finally hitting St. Louis cause it's been since 1981 and he's been here, but he had to book a show the weekend before our show. He's the warmup back for you guys. And we're getting, I'm getting a lot of, Messages from people.

Why would I go see you when I can go see the real thing? I've got reasons why I've got reasons. Let's hear these. Number one reason why can you get enough yellow? 

Mark: No, 

Jeff: you can't. This is possible. It's impossible. Number two, I've seen Jeff's set list he's doing for this tour and it's awesome.

It's a great set list, but you are definitely going to hear way more deep cut yellow stuff. If you come out to see us. Number three, It's cheaper. It's a lot cheaper. Yeah, [00:18:00] Tickets are 20. You can get four packs for 60 bucks, which is 15 ticket Wow and We're outdoors. It's outdoor. It's good.

The weather's great in which we think it's going to be It's just it's a great setting there's a lot there's lots of reasons but you know I And I'm telling you, you come out and see this thing, it's not too far off from what you're going to hear from Jeff Lynne. I'm telling you that we've heard that from hundreds of people, so I say, do both, go to Jeff Lynne and then come to our, Jeff Lynne comes to St. Louis after party at Chesterfield Amphitheater. 

Arnold: And Jeff Lynne doesn't have a promo like this. Correct. 

Ad: Yes. Mr. Blue Sky, a tribute to the Electric Light Orchestra, in concert Friday, September 13th. 7 o'clock to 10 o'clock p. m.

at the Chesterfield Amphitheater in Chesterfield, Missouri. Mr. Blue Sky creates the majestic splendor that is the music of Chesterfield. Electric light orchestra at the CH on Friday. Eptember 13th. A concert where all the ages doors open at 6:00 PM and the show starts at 7:00 PM Mr. Blue Sky produces the ultimate ELO experience.

A stellar light and multimedia stage show complex classical string orchestration, layered vocal harmonies essential to recreating the definitive ELO sound. The Chesterfield amphitheater presents Mr. Blue Sky attribute to electric light Orchestra with special guests find to drive September 13th. Doors open at 6:00 PM.

Visit ChesterfieldAmpitheater. com for more information. Tickets available at Eventbrite. Don't wait, it's Mr. Blue Sky, Friday, September 13th. [00:19:30] 

Jeff: That is awesome. That is awesome. I don't know. I don't know how you guys talk that fast. I know that, 

Jake: have you thought about auctioneering? Yes. Yes. 

Jeff: A lot of 

Mark: coffee.

Jeff: Yes. That is great. Take fifth cup today. Thank you guys for putting it together. Yeah. That is really cool. We'll 

Arnold: give that to you if you want to use it. I'll take it. 

Jeff: I might 

Arnold: slow it down a little bit. 

Jeff: No, what's cool is you're talking really fast, but I can understand every word. It's the magic of electronic.

Apparently you guys have been doing this broadcasting thing for a while. Oh my god. Yeah. Electronics allows you to do multiple 

Arnold: things. You can sound better than you actually are. Oh, trust me. I use that a lot in the studio when I'm recording. Hey, I've always had a question. Jake, do you sing at all in this production?

Jake: I do not, no. 

Arnold: Why not? 

Jake: I don't sing in general. I use my cello to sing. Okay. I consider that my voice. I've always been self conscious about my own voice, and 

Arnold: but you get the urge sometimes there's a Sometimes 

Jake: I'm singing along in my head. Okay, I get that. I get that. 

Arnold: And 

Jake: There are plenty of good vocalists in this band already.

Six. 

Arnold: Wow. Of a sing. And there's what, fourteen total? There's ten. Ten. 

Mark: Okay. Alright. That's a lot of people. Yeah. That's great. Yeah. That's a lot of people to manage. That's a big team. Yes, it is. That's a big team. Cat herding. 

Jeff: It's a lot of schedules to maneuver, a lot of logistics to work out.

And you 

Arnold: don't have any sound people? It's the sound people at the champ? No, 

Jeff: we have our own front of house guy, Randy Martin, who does a great job. [00:21:00] He's been with us pretty much from the beginning. 

Music: Okay. 

Jeff: I brought him in on the, I think the third show we did. And Randy used to be the house sound guy at Mississippi nights.

Music: And that's 

Jeff: where I know him from. Cause I played there for a long time and Randy does a great job. And the sound guy for this thing. is essentially the 11th member of the band. Because if the sound isn't right, if he doesn't have the strings mixed in just right and the vocals mixed in just right it's not going to sound the way it's supposed to sound.

And that's 

Jake: one thing that I hear about our sound from the audience is that the fidelity of hearing us live is so much better than hearing on The record or whatever, just because you can hear all the individual parts on a large sound system. Wow. And the way Randy mixes us, people say is just immaculate.

Arnold: Somebody like that, a sound engineer with a great ear, is so valuable. Oh man, absolutely. 

Music: Yeah, 

Arnold: so so valuable. Yeah we're gonna take a short break and then we're gonna come back I have a whole list of questions. I haven't even gotten through yet and We're gonna tease the audience a little bit on the way out here.

This is Arnold Stricker with Mark Langston of st Louis in tune don't go away[00:22:30] 

Music: Stealing the rest of the way Cultural restaurant and market located at 69 22 Manchester Avenue one block east

Ad: East of McCausland, offers the finest variety of Mexican and Central American groceries and goods. El Potro restaurant serves authentic Mexican and Central American cuisine, including daily specials, not to mention the best horchatas and tastiest margaritas in ST Louis. Open Tuesday through Sunday. El Potro, 6922 Manchester Avenue, one block east of McCausland.

This is Cardinals Broadcaster, Polo Asensio, inviting you to join me for a big fiesta, La Fiesta Cardinales, presented by He Gets Us, on Sunday, September 8th. With the purchase of a theme ticket, fans will receive a Los Cardinales jersey. Come early for a fiesta event in the Budweiser Terrace, plus a portion of tea.

Each ticket sold will benefit the Hispanic Education, Cultural, and Scholarship Foundation. That's Sunday, September 8, Fiesta Cardinales. For tickets or more info, visit cardinals. com slash fiesta. 

Mark: Join Benji [00:24:00] Molina and Polo Asencio for every Cardinal home game right here on the Spanish Sports Voice of St.

Louis, 102. 9. K. X. O. K. 

Arnold: This is Arnold Stricker of ST Louis in tune on behalf of the Dred Scott Heritage Foundation. In 1857, the Dred Scott decision was a major legal event and catalyst that contributed to the Civil War. The decision declared that Dred Scott could not be free because he was not a citizen.

The 14th Amendment. Also called the Dred Scott Amendment, granted citizenship to all born or naturalized here in our country, and was intended to overturn the U. S. Supreme Court decision on July 9th, 1868. The Dred Scott Heritage Foundation is requesting a commemorative stamp to be issued from the U. S.

Postal Service to recognize and remember Dred Scott. The heritage of this amendment by issuing a stamp with the likeness of the man, Dred Scott. But we need your support, and the support of thousands of people who would like to see this happen. To achieve this goal, we ask you to download, sign, and share the one page petition with others.

To find the petition, please go to Dred Scott. org. and click on the Dred Scott petition drive on the right side of the page. On behalf of the Dred Scott Heritage Foundation, this has been Arnold Stricker of St. Louis In Tune.[00:25:30] 

It's Mr. Blue Sky, a tribute to Electric Light Orchestra. Welcome back to St. Louis In Tune with Arnold Stricker and Mark Langston. We have Jeff Faulkner and Jake Brookman here in studio, and we've had a great first half. Got a second half going on here. I guess guys Jeff, I know that you go to a lot of concerts.

Jake, you play in a lot of concerts. But who is one of your favorite artists that you like to go see? 

Jeff: I've got so many. I had the chance a couple days ago to go see Alice Cooper for the first time. Wow. Oh, yeah. He was so great, was he good? He was great. Great. He still has the same energy he always has, and what's cool about what's great about him is as he ages, it just adds to his look here.

Like some people, like they get older and they're like, Oh my God, my career's falling apart. And he's yeah. Yeah, it's 

Arnold: springboarding my career. 

Jeff: But but he put on such a great show. And when I saw Jeff Lynn I saw him in Chicago and like 2017. It just blew me away and that was the reason I started this tribute band really I mean He just played great song after great song and Another band that I've seen live Then I'm going to see again and I think next [00:27:00] week actually is a band called cage the elephant And I don't know if you guys have probably heard of them, maybe heard the name?

No, I haven't. Maybe you haven't. No, I haven't. I've heard of 

Arnold: I of the Tiger, but No . Oh, wow. No, don't do that. So they're 

Jeff: They're in that kind of alternative rock, are they Category caught, but I saw them with Beck a couple years ago. Happened to have like first front row center seats or whatever, and I'm telling you.

One of the best front men I've ever seen in my life really I could not believe how good this guy was The band was great, but the singer It might be the best front man I've ever seen Wow like he's like he looks a shorter version of Mick Jagger but he, and he acts like he's like Mick Jagger on crack or something, that's the only way I can explain that.

I don't know, really know how else to explain it.

Just one of the best performances that I've ever seen. 

Mark: He's not as old as Mick Jagger 

Jeff: though. No, they're pretty young guys. Okay. Yeah, I was gonna say yeah, we'll keep 

Mark: an eye out for him 

Jeff: They're so good. Yeah, and had a chance to see Rufus Wainwright at the Sheldon last year Yeah, and Rufus has just been one of my favorite Singers, since I was a teenager, and being able to see him at the Sheldon and it was just him and an acoustic guitar.

Oh, I love those kind of shows. And then he would go over and play piano and [00:28:30] he can just sing and I would just be there in amazement. Nothing like raw 

Mark: talent like that. I've always enjoyed that. He's the 

Jeff: epitome of that, really. The guy comes from such a great lineage of music, his family, like his dad, Loudon Wainwright, and his mom, his sister, and This is music just exudes out every pore of his body, and what a great songwriter Wow, I 

Mark: got to see Garth Brooks do that just sit on a stool and play a guitar some I love that kind of thing Yeah, 

Jeff: Yeah, 

Mark: songwriters doing that.

That's the cool thing about city winery that we've just got one of those here Is you see a lot of these artists like that will do these little solo acoustic shows there, right? I was at the one in Chicago and caught Glenn Phillips from Toilet Wet Sprocket up there, and it was just him and an acoustic guitar.

Jeff: I love that. But it was, it's great. Yeah. Because you hear those songs, you really get a chance to hear those songs like they were written. I 

Mark: think I think a solo cello would be fun. I really do. Jake 

Jeff: does that. He does that. 

Arnold: Jake, and you've been playing, for a long time, and let me ask you this question.

I want to do the same question I asked Jeff. Is groups, some of your favorite groups that you like to listen to? 

Jake: So when I first started off as a classical musician, of course, I was more drawn towards So people like Yo Ma, and Mstislav Rostropovich, and Honor Bielzma, these are all, great, world renowned cellists.

And I've gotten to see all of them as they've come through St. Louis, and even actually met all three of them, my heroes, when I was younger. But I've always been [00:30:00] into pop and rock, and I've had various musical tastes throughout the years, and now I have an eclectic mix of everything from Bach to N.

W. A. in my repertoire. But as far as bands I'm a huge Radiohead fan. I love them. I try to go see them whenever I can. I like, I love Damien Rice. I got to see him up in Chicago speaking of people just playing guitar and singing and God, he's such an amazing musician. I got to see Bjork in Colorado.

Trying to think of shows that have really made a big impact on me. I got to see Beck at the pageant. There's so many great artists out there. And I personally love the female voice. So artists like Fiona Apple Regina Spector, the more quirky. I've always been into quirky and more orchestral sounding pop rock and things like that have a grander or a grand sound or a grand vision to it.

So what 

Arnold: was it like to play 

Jake: with Weird Al Yankovic? That was awesome. It was such an experience. Growing up, I had a lot of his cassettes and, I remember Another one rides the bus, and things like that. So I loved Weird Al growing up, and when I got the opportunity to play for him, I was so excited, and we found out that the orchestra that he hired was also going to open for him.

So we played a bunch of movie themes, like we played Superman, we played Star Wars, we played Raiders of the Lost Ark, to open for a set at the Fox Theater. With Weird Al, I was really impressed at how much control he has over his own show, [00:31:30] like he's really the director of everything. Like he was looking at lighting cues, he's always trying to figure out how he can make the gap between songs a little less so he can maybe throw in one more song and, he's, he was, and just the energy that he brings to the show and all the costume changes and I actually got to become friends with their bass player, Steven Jay a little bit and so it's nice developing these relationships, outside of playing together too.

Arnold: Now we, before the show started, we were talking about live music and some, while some people like that some people don't like that, what's the importance of live music from a musician who has really been making his own way, Mark? for, what, 40 plus years. Wow. Doing it on your own. We're not aging you, but you started very young.

Jake: Right. 40 years. So yeah, I started when I was 9 and I'm 52 now, so 43 ish years I've been playing the cello. I would say my first gig was probably in high school. I had a string quartet and we used to play at the Olive Garden on Manchester Road in De Pere. And I think they gave us like 50 bucks and a meal and we'd play for an hour or two or something.

And the other Olive Garden chains got jealous because they didn't have music. So we got, and we ended up getting shut down. But, do, Yeah, I feel that live music is so important because, the recordings and everything can take you one place, but when you're actually there present with the artist and sharing in an [00:33:00] experience, there's that shared energy between the artist and the audience.

And the, the music says things that words can't. So I think, you go there and you're part of a collective experience and you feel like you're a part of something and, that's like playing in an orchestra, too, for me, is you're a part of something bigger. It's, you have your specific role, but it contributes to something that's much greater than what you're doing at the time.

Arnold: Jeff and Jake. Go ahead. 

Mark: We just found the Al Yankovich's Another One Rides the Bus. I don't know if 

Music: they can hear.

Arnold: It's really grown now. What's the weirdest moment performing? Just now. That you've had. 

Jeff: Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. The weirdest moment performing. Oh, man. Or like 

Arnold: where, lights fell off the bar, or, something just bizarre happened, or this is just the weirdest performance we've ever been in, or something like that.

Jeff: I That's a tough question. It's a tough question. I've got two. You've got two? I guess with, I [00:34:30] can mention one for this band. Okay. So we were doing a summer festival show up in Indiana and the manager of this band, who remained nameless, that would be me dropped the ball and didn't quite have the set.

The set length correct, and we were supposed to do an hour and two, one hour and a half sets, and I had it scheduled. I had it scheduled for us to do two one hour sets. So we basically had to make the second set like twice as long or like like we had to add 30, 40 minutes to it or whatever.

So we ended up taking three or four songs and just adding like solos to them, doing these extended versions of these songs. We did, the song one Oh five, three, eight overture. I think it's normally like a four minute song or something. And I think we turned it into like a. 10, 15 minute song where we just, I would just point it.

I would just basically point at people to do solos. What's great is we've got so many good players that people can just go off in solo for however long I need them to, so I'm just pointing at people. You take one. Okay. Now you take one. It literally went on for 15 minutes and we did that with four other songs, and we made the time limit, like we, and people loved 

Arnold: it.

Jeff: That was the best thing. The crowd absolutely loved it. Had no idea that we were doing this on the fly. Like they were just eating it up. And [00:36:00] that's the 

Arnold: beauty when you are really good at your craft. That people don't know if there's been any hiccups. It's just like it goes on like a smooth sailing.

Jeff: Yeah. They had no clue. They just figured it was a, and they really thought it was a part of the show. But no, we were, I was like freaking out. Like I was in panic mode man, we got to make up for this time. How are we going to do this? And it's all my fault. And thankfully, Everybody worked together, and we did it.

You win as a team, you lose as a team, 

Jake: jake? With this band, that just reminded me, we just played in Springfield, Illinois, not too long ago. And we took a set break, and as we, when we took a set break, all these field insects settled on our instruments and on the stage. And so when we started our second set, the vibrations got them all going, and so we were swarmed by insects for our second set.

Jeff: We were playing at a this Winery that's out in, it's outside of Springfield, Illinois, and it's literally in the middle of a cornfield. Wow, you're in the middle of a cornfield, really nice venue though. Huge stage and just really nice layout and they book. Mainly like national acts, like nostalgic national acts and bigger tribute bands.

But the bugs, it was interesting. Lots of bugs. 

Arnold: Oh, and I wouldn't have thought about that. You guys now you take, I remember 

Jeff: like looking down at my I wear like a, I had a blue sports [00:37:30] jacket on, I looked down at it like in the middle of the second set and it was just, I mean it was covered in bugs.

They were like 

Jake: gnat sized little green bugs. They called them field bugs. I had never seen them before, but 

Mark: it was pretty crazy. Yeah. That's fine. So the other strange experience, I 

Jake: was playing with a string quartet during cicada season for a wedding or some kind of event, and a cicada actually landed on my ear and just started crawling around, not going in my ear, but it was just very difficult to play with one of those things.

No kidding. 

Arnold: No kidding. Yeah. Oh gosh. Mark I always enjoy when When these guys come in and Jake we've been trying to get you in here a couple times I know we've had a couple hiccups along the way and glad that you've come in and Jeff what's down the future for Mr. Blue Sky and for you individually and then Jake for you individually?

I know you play Solo performances you play with, I'm in 

Jeff: six bands. Oh my 

Arnold: is that all 

Jeff: Too many. Are you? Yeah Welcome to my nightmare. Holy moly. I need to trim the fat a little bit on that but What do you do with all your money? That's why we're in six To 

Jake: have some money 

Jeff: That's why I was hanging out at the duck party club, yacht club, less yesterday, club, yacht club.

I don't have, I don't have a yacht. I'd have a canoe that would park next to the yachts. As far as future shows, I'm glad you brought that up because we're going to make a huge announcement at the Chesterfield amphitheater show [00:39:00] about the next Mr. Blue Sky show, which is. Definitely one of the biggest shows we've ever done.

Really very excited. It's something that we've that we've been working towards since the beginning and we finally got it. But I want to know, yeah we're going to announce it at the Chesterfield amphitheater show, and then it'll be announced probably the week after that, but as far as as my future with other things like I said I got five other bands going on and my acoustic duo called two Pedro's is the thing that plays the most. And we will actually be at City Winery this Saturday doing, we're doing a Yacht Rock brunch show.

Wow. So it's all Yacht Rock and we've done one before and it's really great. They do, they have an unbelievable brunch buffet and bottomless mimosas. Where's that? At City Winery. City Winery? Okay. Yeah. 

Arnold: What's Yacht Rock? 

Jeff: So Yacht Rock is anything like late 70s, early 80s, easy listening stuff. Okay. So stuff like Michael McDonald.

Okay. And Steely Dan. Doobie Brothers and Little River Band and everything of that ilk, great music. I just think it's great music. And someone slapped this label on it because I guess people need labels who own yachts listen to that kind of music. I don't know. Yeah. 

Mark: Okay. I wouldn't know.

That's what 

Jeff: I listen to. Yeah. So that, that. That duo stays pretty busy. And then I have a band called vote for Pedro that does a lot of weddings and private events, but we play at like river city [00:40:30] casino and chase club and a few venues and do some festival shows. And then I do solo acoustic stuff, solo gigs like Jake does.

And then I I have a Coldplay tribute called the sky full of stars. I think I've been in here. We've talked about that. And then a thing called Velvet Goldmine, which I had a couple of years ago and then it disbanded for a little bit and I brought it back together and it is all 70s gold.

glam rock based. So Kiss and Alice Cooper and Queen and Slade and Sweet and T Rex and Bowie, anything of the seventies glam ilk. And we do modern stuff that's glam inspired, like stuff like a space hog or the struts or jet or. Anything that's inspired by that kind of stuff.

And that's this Saturday at Salvatore's in St. Peter's. It's a lot of fun, man. Like we, we dress, we wear the makeup and the wigs and the sequin and the platform boots. We look like drag queens. It's pretty scary. You got to get pictures. Scary, but fun. 

Arnold: Jake, you've got your schedule booked all the way through the end of the year.

It looks like. 

Jake: I do stay pretty busy. I'm good at saying yes to opportunities when they come around. And yeah, I just, I love to play and I play as much as possible. And when I'm not either performing or rehearsing, then I also busk on the streets for fun and money too. 

Arnold: You do wedding venues and other kinds of venues like that?

Jake: Yeah, I do a lot of private events solo. I play in [00:42:00] people's homes. I've played for baby showers. I've played for rehearsal dinners, you name it. Basically if your occasion has room for music, I'm happy to provide it. 

Jeff: What Jake does is really good for like wedding cocktail hour stuff.

So anybody listening, planning a wedding, 

Jake: Yes. Give a little Jake. jakebrookman. com. 

Arnold: Yeah, I was going to mention that jakebrookman. com and mrblueskymusic. com, you both need to, everybody needs to check both of those websites out. We've also got a couple of tickets that we're going to be giving away.

And I will tell you that we will post those on St. Lucentune Facebook page and KXOK Facebook page. Okay. Okay. And. We'll take like the, maybe the 10th personal comment coming in. And we'll figure it out that way to get tickets to you. Okay. So I better write that down. The 10th comment we get.

Jeff: Alright. I'm commenting right now. 

Arnold: Okay. , nine 

Mark: times. , Jeff won those free 

Arnold: tickets. Okay. I'm in. 

Mark: So let's it's kx ok.com. K. 

Arnold: We'll do it on the kx. Okay. Facebook page, which is KXOK Radio, and also St. Louis in Tune Facebook page, which is STL in Tune. Okay. Okay. So the 10th comment, okay, we'll figure it out.

Okay. Mark and I will figure it out. Alright. And then we'll get you, we'll get you those tickets. And comment before midnight tonight. No, I'm kidding. I'm sure it's already won. Yeah. Yeah. 

Mark: Just 

Arnold: comment [00:43:30] right away. Absolutely. Guys, I know, Jeff, I know I've asked you this, and I'm going to start with Jake.

Encouragement that you would give to potential performers who want to make it in the business. It's a tough business, and, you just can't go I learned to play guitar, I learned to play cello, or I learned to play this, and why isn't anybody listening to me? How can people become successful in the industry?

Jake: I found that you really just have to get out there, you have to do it. You have to show people what you can do in some way, shape, or form. That's why I think social media is so good now, and things like YouTube and whatever, because you can put up examples of your playing. For me, I always thought that I had to work so that I could, Play music in December of 2017.

I lost my last full time job and haven't looked back since And not having a job has helped me have more time for music it's a combination of being available and putting myself out there and you know trying to And trying to say yes to opportunities as they arise and try new collaborations and see what happens.

There's such a, there's such a magic in meeting new people and seeing what you can do together. 

Arnold: And, to go from dishwasher to where you are today, you graduated out of the restaurant and you're doing things you really love. I 

Jeff: forgot that I was a dishwasher. That was back in high school, but Yeah, it's jobs like that certainly make me appreciate being able to play music for a living.

Like Jake, I [00:45:00] I cut the umbilical cord on the day job probably four or five years ago. And it was a scary thing because it's man, now I've got to, I'm relying on music to make my living and I've done better, I've done better for myself financially since I've done that.

And I think it, when you're passionate about something, it's easier to work for it. My, my advice to people getting into the getting into music is, yeah, you need to be a good player and, as much as you just want to be able to. Show up and play and have fun Which is when I was learning to play guitar like that's all I had in mind I just want to play my guitar and have fun, I didn't even care if I did it in front of people.

Yeah, just you know, I loved it so much, but Understand that it is a business It is a business and you need to You're going to have to put your business hat on and in certain instances and a lot of in a lot of instances, okay? It is so important to be a good business person because you could 

Arnold: get taken advantage of 

Jeff: Absolutely So have those business skills in hand to you know It will pay off in a lot of dividends, and be careful who you're working with don't settle You know, for somebody that's not healthy to be around just because they're a good player.

You gotta be a good hang, you gotta be a good hang, man. Like I've gotten to a point, at least in my career, where I just don't have time for that bullcrap. If you can't be professional and reliable and just [00:46:30] be pleasant to be around. I don't want to, I don't want to surround myself with that.

I don't have to surround myself with that. So why would I? When you're coming up and you're young you feel like you're desperate. Like you got to play with whoever you can play with and you should play with whoever you play with. Cause a lot of times you learn from those people. 

Arnold: You learn what not to do too.

Jeff: Yeah. But a lot of times you learn what not to do and you learn how not to act, how not to behave. 

Jake: One other thing is play with people above your level as much as possible because that raises your playing up to. Absolutely. 

Arnold: Absolutely. Great point. Cool. Yeah. We're gonna play commercial

Ad: Mr. Blue Sky at tribute to the Electric Light Orchestra in concert Friday, September 13th, seven o'clock to 10:00 PM at the Chesterfield Amphitheater in Chesterfield, Missouri, Mr. Blue Sky creates the majestic splendor that is the music of Electric Light Orchestra at the. A concert for all the ages. Doors open at 6 p.

m. and the show starts at 7 p. m. Mr. Blue Sky produces the ultimate ELO experience. A stellar light and multimedia stage show. Complex classical string orchestration. Layered vocal harmonies essential to recreating the definitive ELO sound. The Chesterfield Amphitheater presents Mr. Blue Sky. A tribute to electric light orchestra with special guests fine to drive.

September 13th. Doors open at 6 p. m. Visit ChesterfieldAmpitheater. com for more information. Tickets available at Eventbrite. Don't wait! It's Mr. Blue Sky, Friday, September 13th.

Arnold: Get more information at MrBlueSkyMusic. com and JakeBrookman. com. We're grateful that Jeff and Jake came in [00:48:00] studio to talk to us today, guys. It's just a pleasure. Thanks very much 

Jeff: for having us back in. Thank you, it's been fun. It really is. 

Arnold: And don't forget those tickets. We probably have our 10th comment on our St.

Louis In Tune and KXOK Radio Facebook pages, but we'll be giving those free tickets away. Keep trying. You never know when we have bonus tickets. And 

Jeff: I'm not sure if we mentioned how to buy tickets, but you can get those through Eventbrite. Just search Mr. Blue Sky Tribute to ELO. Or you can go to MrBlueSkyMusic.

com and the ticket link is right there. Or you can visit our Facebook page or our Instagram page. 

Arnold: And I love this. There's advance reserve seating, but the venue will be general admission except for the green stadium style seating in front of the stage, which will be reserved for reserve seating ticket holders only, which I should 

Jeff: mention.

Those reserve seats are down to about 20 left. So if you're gonna get 'em, you should get 'em quick. Get rank and post. 

Mark: How much are those? How much are 

Jeff: those? So those are 25. Okay. Yeah. Worth it. Yeah. Worth it. Yeah. But I will say, they're great seats because they're right in front of the stage or whatever.

And they're in the reserved or whatever. But all the seating beyond that is lawn style seating where people just bring in chairs or whatever, blankets and sit and watch. And I'm telling you, like every single spot in that place is a great view of the stage. And you get all the front of house mix everything.

Cause it's like a miniature, I'm going to miniature river port. If I can talk today Whereas, even though you're in like [00:49:30] this little lawn area, it's so small that you're still real close to the stage, you get a great view of the stage and a great perspective of the sound.

Mark: Do you remember the Mississippi River Festival? Oh yeah. The tent. There was the tent, but there was everybody out in the field, yeah. We had a lot of fun over there. Yeah. Can you bring that back? Have you been over there lately? No. We went over there, my wife is from there. She went to Edward, S I U E.

And we went over there and it's like a, one of those planes that they, those remote control planes? Oh yeah! That's, they use those now, and then the field that, that went down to where the stage and the tent is, it's all overgrown. It's sad. There's a little plaque there that says, this is the side of the old MRF.

And do not park your car and get out and take a picture here. So we parked our car, got out, but yeah, it's sad. It was a lot of fun. Yeah, I saw Little River Band. I saw Little River Band there. That's a legendary festival. Yeah, I had 

Jeff: the pleasure of opening for Little River Band about six or seven years ago.

And it's none of the original members. It's, it's one of the guys in Little River Band owns the name Little River Band. He hires these ringer musicians to go out and tour as Little River Band. But they are unbelievably good. I remember we opened for him, we came off stage and they didn't get a sound check cause it was raining or something.

They walked up on stage and the first song was just, perfect. Perfect. Man, it was such a great experience. And they weren't 

Arnold: whining [00:51:00] about anything, which shows professionalism and confidence in what you're doing. 

Jeff: They're Australians. I don't think they, good. They don't know how to wind down our stuff.

They can put up with Wade. Their annoyance tolerance is higher. Is higher than American's. 

Mark: That's right. Is it American's tolerance of annoyance? I know. I know. 

Arnold: Folks, we're glad that you joined us today. It's been a great show. Give that ticket information out one more time.

That ticket information, you can go to Eventbrite and get that ticket information. Advance. Thanks. Standing room only, pit and lawn are 20. Advanced reserved seating, stadium style fixed seating, 25. Four packs for 60. Four packs for 60, check that out, or you can go to MrBlueSkyMusic. com. I'm sure JakeBrookman.

com has some information on that also. Alright. We'd love to see you there. Yeah, guys, thanks for coming in. We really appreciate it. Thank you, guys. Oh my gosh, yeah. Thank you both. You guys come back soon. Absolutely. And, 

Mark: Keep up the good work, because we're loving it. That's 

Arnold: right. 

Mark: If you've enjoyed 

Arnold: this episode, 

Mark: you 

Arnold: can listen to additional shows at STLintune.

com. You can keep that playing, Mark. We'll go out with the Mr. Blue Sky music. Consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts, Podchaser, or your preferred podcast platform. Your feedback helps us reach more listeners and continue to grow. Our normal Out of music would be Bob Berthesel's theme music. I want to thank co host Mark Lanks and thank our guests.

And we thank you for being part of our community of curious minds. St. Louis in Tune is a production of Motif Media Group, the U. S. radio network. Remember to keep seeking, keep learning, walk worthy, and let your light shine. For St. Louis in Tune, I'm [00:52:30] Arnold Stricker. 

Music: It's magic and yeah, it's a living thing, it's a terrible thing to lose, it's a giving thing,

a terrible thing to lose. Hey world, we've got the blues. Because you ain't got no else to use. There's an open road pizza, so just mix some miles between here and there. There's a holy lion, but the comes in. You took my body and playing to win crying. Shame, but you ain't.[00:54:00] 

I'll tell you when

she's on the radio.

She's gone so long. What can I do? Where could she be? No, no, no. Don't know what I'm gonna do. I gotta get back to you. Slow down. Sweet talking woman.

You got me running. You got me searching. Hold on. Sweet talking lover. Hold on. So sad you passed away. It's over. It's over. It's over.

Walking, [00:55:30] many days go by, and I was thinking, thinking, about the lonely vacation breakdown. Mr. Blue Sky, please tell us why you had to hide away for so long. So long. Where did we go wrong? Hey there, Mr. Blue Sky, we're so pleased to be with you. Sky.