Welcome to WFHR's director's cut session 51 set.
Yes, we've we've reached the half centenary mark.
I don't even know what that's called.
I don't know what that is, but it's up like that.
Something like that.
Your host and program director here, James J.
Mailoff with my partner in art, our head of production sets,
Habhagger set, the mics are on.
Let us roll.
Yes, we got a little outside the Midwest,
but they aren't familiar with the area.
So let's let's get into it.
We asked the best listeners and radio to welcome to the WFHR
stage, hailing from the soul of Kentucky, the band Otis,
hanging out with us today is their vocalist,
guitarist, Boone Fraget.
Boone, thank you for joining us.
Oh, thanks, man.
Thanks for having me.
I'm glad to be here.
Boone, I got to ask right away, man.
Did I get your name right?
Because that's a great name.
I got to get that right.
You did, you did Boone Fraget.
That's awesome.
That's how that's how we say it down here anyway.
Right on.
They call me a frozen age.
I mean, Fraget, they sound fancy.
Yeah, a little mild with it.
I don't mind.
Boone, I want to make sure that we cover the rest of the band, too.
You mind telling us all the other members?
Sure, we got the co-founder of the band.
John Mark Ceeley on bass, Alex Wales on guitar and Dale Myers on drums.
You guys have such a great, unique sound.
I'm looking forward to getting into this with you.
I do want to let the audience know right now,
along with the conversation, you can go right to their website
and put a face to the name and to the voice, the odysband.com, the odysband.com.
Be sure to bookmark that page.
If you don't do it now, you're going to be doing it by the end of the hour.
So we're going to be playing a lot of their music and having some fun,
getting to know the band and getting to know Boone here a little bit.
And if you don't mind, Boone, I'd like to start where I usually like to start
with an origin story.
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself where you're from and some of that?
Sure, man, I'm from here in Southern Kentucky.
I've lived in the, you know, Glasgow, Kentucky,
Edmonton, Kentucky area, my whole life.
Always been in music.
My grandfather was a old time fiddler at the competition level here in Kentucky
and placed in the state championships several times.
And my dad, he played like a honky-tonk guitar.
You know, they're like, Buck Owens, Merle Haggard.
So I had a steady die of roots music growing up.
And it kind of helps me have a unique ear.
You know, I kind of hear things differently than other people
because I wouldn't listen to the same things that kids my age were listening to growing up.
So kind of a unique background, they had me on stage with them at eight years old.
And up until my teens, I don't think I'd heard any blues or rock and roll at all
until I got my dad's septic collection and I discovered BB King.
And once I heard BB hit that first note, I was, it changed my life, man.
I was on the journey from that point to, you know, to to discover and chase that sound.
Man, as soon as you said that, I was brought back to being a little kid
and my mom playing BB King for me.
And hearing Lucille and him work together for the first time and just it brought me back, man.
That's such a cool story.
That's so interesting to hear.
And really interesting about your grandfather, there was your grandfather, you said,
right, that was a fiddle player?
Yeah, yeah, he was a fiddle player and I, you know, I didn't know who they were when I was a kid,
but I, you know, I was meeting people like, you know, Sam Bush and Ralph Stanley.
And as I got older, I was like, hey, those are pretty, those are some pretty iconic people for the kid to meet.
Boone, where does the name Otis come from?
How did the band get its name?
Greg Martin to get Tars from the Kentucky headhunters had a hand in naming the band.
But there was a band called Otis and Louisville, Kentucky around the 1970s that were,
there were like a blues rock power trio, but they really never made it past the local scene.
But the name always stuck with Greg.
He was like, man, that's a great name.
So he, he kind of told us the story and we needed a name for the band.
And he's like, you know, you guys should take this and run with it.
So, so we did and here we are, you know, two albums down the road with it.
That's awesome.
Wow.
It's such a cool story.
Shout out to the Kentucky headhunters too.
Yeah, great name, great band.
Boone, you mentioned your grandfather in that, what was the first instrument you played?
Was it a fiddle?
Was it something like that?
They, they started me out on drones because they wanted me to learn timing.
And he took my, my dad took every piece of the drum kit away, but the snare in the bass drum.
He said, if you can master these two, you know, then we'll start adding in pieces.
And we want you to get your time and down.
So that's how it started and where I kind of got my time and from.
And then, and then from there, I moved on.
I played, I wanted to play Mandarin a little bit and then get hard.
But, you know, like I said, once, once I heard, once I got in my dad's set, take collection.
Heard BB King.
If I was Thunderbirds, I was like, you know, you don't have this blue grass stuff.
Right on, right on, you know, and you said the man, man to Lynn is one of my favorite instruments.
And it's such a, like I, and now I'm hearing it in some of your, like, your music and stuff too.
I, one of the things I enjoyed about your music, I don't feel like you can categorize it.
I, I know that, you know, people will try or artists, you know, a record producer.
Some of those things that goes on certainly in the industry, but I listened to your music.
And I didn't, I couldn't put my finger on, oh, it's this.
Oh, it's that.
It has such a unique round sound to it.
What are some of you in the bands influences?
Oh, man, we have so many influences.
Of course, 50s blues was a big influence on us, like the Chess records there, like Muddy Waters, Helen Wolf.
Those, they don't really get credit for it, but those guys were trailblazers and they were really,
they were creating a genre and breaking and breaking all the rules.
And we love the freedom that they, they played the music with and just the spirit of it because they were there, you know,
just they were there to have a good time and, and continue their culture until their story.
And that's that's what we love about blues music.
And of course, 60s, like Southern Soul, we're really inspired by like the stuff that was done at Stacks and Atlantic.
Of course, we love, we love the Motown Sound too, but man, it's like solo songs or so arrangement based.
They didn't, they didn't, they didn't groove as much as like the stuff from Stacks and Atlantic.
So that's been a big influence on us.
Of course, it's like the British blues in Rock and Roll, that was, that was going on the 60s, you know, we, we just lost John Mayall.
John Mayall in the blues break of a big influence on us.
And we got to, you know, through that band, you get to hear Eric Clapton and Peter Green and Mick Taylor and all these,
all these great players and, and just, just classic rock rock in general.
And definitely the more improvisational stuff, we love like cactus and vanilla fudge and it's right or that, you know, that whole kind of soul rock thing.
Oh, I love the fact you just mentioned vanilla fudge. Oh, that was awesome.
All right. I haven't seen my partner over here light up like that in a while, man. That was great. That was fantastic.
Great influence. And, you know, you say that and I, I, I get a feel of that listening to the music.
I get a feel of a lot of those influences and a lot of a, for lack of a better word, a tribute to a lot of that styles, a styles of music as well.
Yeah, we just try to, we try to take all our influences and just use them as a vehicle to, you know, create something, you know, more progressive because, you know, you can, you can still go see a lot of these classic bands.
Or you can see, you know, a tribute band play that music, but we, we want to do, you know, take something old and make something new out of it.
My favorite art, my favorite writer growing up in still is was Hunter S. Thompson and Hunter talked a lot about the Kentucky area growing up over there.
Whether it was him or actors like Johnny Depp or musicians like the Everly Brothers, or you mentioned the Kentucky headhunters earlier, my morning jacket and a recent, you know, earlier, a recent brand and stuff, Kentucky doesn't just have a sound or a voice.
It has a vibe. I don't know how you put that into words, necessarily, John, but, boom, I'm sorry, but how, what is it about Kentucky that brings that out of people?
Man, the Kentucky just has a special spirit about it. I think I think a lot of it is where we're located geographically in the nation.
In terms of musical influences, you know, we got, we got Chicago right above us and then we got Nashville, Memphis, Tennessee, right below us.
You know, if you keep going down, you know, you get, you know, deep south and the delta. So all those sounds just kind of kind of come together in Kentucky.
And I think musical, I think that's what makes it special. And of course, we're at the state where we're very well known for bluegrass and country and folk music.
There's a lot of, there's a lot of blues and rock in Kentucky, too. So there's a lot to discover. And I mean, we've, we've been, you know, halfway around the world twice and there's nothing like coming back home to Kentucky.
Right on, right on. And well said, very well said.
You know, real quick, James, I wanted to point out that a lot of people may have that preconceived notion of Kentucky being a certain way, like he was talking bluegrass and stuff like that.
But you, you hit it on, let's write on the head, a, a, a, boom, it is a, it's, it's a, it's a border state kind of. It's still considered kind of like in the middle, along with Tennessee.
And the way you just talked about, you know, all this like convergence of all these different styles in Kentucky. I never thought about it that way, but, but man, that's a great way of describing it.
Thanks.
Boom, how does the writing process work for the band? Is there a main writer? Do you all work on that part?
Man, we write as a band, like the best thing we can do is just get the four of us in the room and just, and just start start jamming, start playing on something.
And then you know, you know, parts will materialize and we'll say, hey, let's, let's take a look at what we're doing here.
Or, let's, let's keep jamming and see where this goes. You know, a lot of times I've, I've tried to bring risks in or ideas in.
And, and I still do that in time to time, but when, when the band starts playing, it just takes on such a different shape than, than what I was hearing in my head.
And I'm like, oh, yeah, this is, this is so much better. So I'm kind of to the point where I really don't need try to bring things in.
I just, I just try to let it happen organically because we, you know, we split all our writing roles equally and we write as a band.
And I think that's one thing that makes you a band. I mean, there's a lot of bands out there that they've got one guy that writes the songs and he records the demos at home and he's like, oh, you play this, you play this, you play this.
And then, at that point, it kind of turns into something else. It's not, it's not really a band. I mean, the magic of a band is all the, all the members, you know, playing off the transitions and nuances in the music.
Like, like all the bands that, they're in the 70s that we love, especially why, like, the all my brothers band, Humble Pie, the way they played off each other. That's, that's really what, what we're trying to capture and go for.
Man, referencing Humble Pie, this guy, boom, I'm going to warn you right now, man, you're coming back.
We'll bring you back up. You mentioned being around influence, being on stage yourself at a young age and everything, man.
But do you remember your first concert?
I did. I remember my first big concert, which was, which was 38 special and it's gendered, which was a, which was a really good thing for me to see.
Right. How much, how much did that influence you and how you were on stage?
Oh, man, it's a huge influence. Of course, I'd, I'd listen to, you know, I'd listen to all that music and then, you know, to finally, to finally see them. And at, at, at that point, there was a, there was a few more original members in the band.
I was, I was real young when this, when this happened. It was, and it was at Starwood and Nashville, Tennessee, which isn't even there anymore.
But, man, that was, that was my first big rock show and just a, man, the, the crowd was amazing. I'd never seen a crowd like that.
Like everybody, you know, how on the gendered T-shirts and, you know, there was people getting temporary tattoos and parking lot. I'm like, man, what is this about?
Boom, I'm curious. You know, one of my, probably my favorite musician was Miles Davis. I really loved a lot of his work, all of his work.
And one of the things I really liked about Miles was late in life, he found a love of painting and kind of like went into painting almost as much as he did jazz.
And he found it as another great creative outlet. You, the work as a musician, I imagine it takes up so much time and energy and passion of yours.
But do you have any other creative outlets? Do you have any other things you like doing creatively?
Man, I really enjoy 1960s and 70s, four movies, the British stuff from like Hammer and Amicus, you know, Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee.
It's really cool to me. And I collect vintage books and records, which is not really a huge step away from music.
But that's just one thing I did enjoy doing. It's very cool. It was very cool. And you had me, Christopher Lee, man, the great Christopher Lee.
We're going to have to bring him back to just do a show about 60s and 70s horror movies.
Yeah. Oh my God. I should have talked to about that now. Absolutely.
You've got some new friends around here, man. I'll tell you that.
All right.
Boom, I'm curious. Do you guys have any pre-show rituals? Do you have anything that you guys do to set up? Get ready, get in the right mindset.
Man, we just, especially if we have a green room, we'll all get together, kind of kind of put the instruments down. We'll go over the set list.
I'll usually put on some muddy waters or handle more on the phone and just listen to it.
And, you know, we all kind of talk and just try to try to honor the great vibe of all our influences and go out there.
And we had the hard job of trying to bring all these people together and make them forget about the world for a little while.
Right on, right on.
I'm curious whether it was you or a band member. It's hard to say to put a finger on this necessarily, but when did you know?
When did you know that this was what you wanted to do? That you wanted to pursue this as a career?
Man, when I, when the first time I got to see the Kentucky Headhunters live, it was a really magical experience.
They did the song. They don't do it often anymore. It's from a song called, from an album called Songs on the Grasgrang Ranch.
And the song is called Love That Woman. And Greg Martin plays a, he was playing a, it was a loose-fighted body, Dan Armstrong.
And it was tuned to Open G and Richard the other guitar players playing like a 62 Telecaster.
And you see those classic double bass drums up there. And it was just like, man, it was like Tiger.
If I could just do that once, you know, you know, I would be happy. And then, you know, to grow up, to grow up around those guys, you know,
we're not from a very big town at all. We got like two stoplights. And then to see their tour bus, you know, leaving the grocery store as a kid.
And it was very inspiring, like, hey, you don't, you don't have to really move to the big city to do this.
You can, you can make this area, you know, part of what you do and take it all over the world.
We are speaking with Boone Fragett from the band Odess, who are going to be coming here live real soon.
Boone, I see that you guys got some shows coming up in Alabama, Illinois, Minnesota, the touring schedule.
How does, how does it go for the band on the road? You guys enjoy being on the road?
Is it fun taking in these new, these new avenues, these new places?
Oh, yeah. I mean, it's so much fun to go out and play different areas, especially areas that may not have as many, you know, southern rock blues rock bands come through.
Of course, which, the, it seems like the more north we go, the more we're appreciated. And of course, over in Europe, we're really appreciated.
But sometimes when we play the staff, it's kind of like, oh, great. Another long hair band.
But, you know, there's, I mean, there's, there's pockets of people that really enjoys there too.
But it's really what we live for, man, like, like during a week when we're not playing, we'll all be texting each other.
There's like, man, which we was in the band right now.
Which is kind of funny, but we really love what we do and love to get the opportunity to take it in front of people.
Otis is going to be joining us here at an investment at cornfest 2024 coming up on September 7th.
They're going to be hitting the stage about eight o'clock. Be sure to get there.
It's a free show. Make sure to take this in and take this band in and enjoy just a couple of more questions for you, Boone.
And we'll let you get going here and imagine you got a busy day ahead.
If you could play any stage, any venue, Madison Square Garden, Red Rocks, any of these places.
Do you have, is there a place that you all want to, I want to play there. I want to get there one day.
Man, I really want, I really want us to play Antones in Austin, Texas. It's not a really big place.
To us, it's really important because the original Antones is where Billy Gibbons was snuck in as a kid and first saw people like Jimmy Reed and Albert Collins and Albert King.
Jimmy Vaughn was in the house band there. He was back and all those people up.
It would be a really cool ride of passes to go play Antones.
Wow. That's great. That's great. Well, I did not know that. Amazing. That's awesome.
It almost speaks, you know, the more we're talking about this and your influences, you're up bringing so much of this.
It almost feels like you didn't really have a choice, man. Like this was, this was going to be your path. You certainly did.
But it feels like this, things were just like a lining up to make you this amazing musician.
It's in my blood, man. It's like being on stage and playing music, which is what the family did as a kid.
When I got up there with them, it felt more comfortable than sitting out the crowd washing them because then I was up there with them, had that family camaraderie.
And I was very fortunate to be brought up in the same area as the Kentucky Headhunters.
The drummer Fred actually bought a tractor from my grandfather.
I mean, that's how far back my family goes with their family. That's awesome. That's great.
That's great.
These next two, a couple are going to be a little bit tougher questions here.
What was the best or some of the best advice you were given when you were first starting out as a musician?
Man, I've been given so much advice and a lot of it's been really good.
I wasn't far starting out, but I thought this was a really good advice and a really kind thing for Billy Gibbons to tell us was play what you want to hear and stay on your own path.
He said, what he was trying to say was it really doesn't matter the talent level or maybe the popularity of what you're trying to do.
But if you're playing the music that you're hearing in your head, then you're on the right track.
Is that the kind of advice you would give to a young musician, somebody out there listening?
One of the things we try to do with this show is artists supporting artists and trying to bring up other artists and influence other artists.
Inspire them or hopefully give them some help with them navigating their careers.
Absolutely.
I would say that same thing.
I would say just find your own thing and stick with it because if you're chasing a trend, you're already too late.
You need to find the one thing that makes you tick and makes you different from everybody else and try to push that forward.
Well, and I imagine it also makes you want to keep doing it.
If you're trend chasing, like you said, it's something you don't really want to do.
Why would you continue doing it?
If you're on the path that you guys are on, it sounds like you said, you get excited.
It's like, why aren't we touring right now?
Why aren't we playing?
And you can tell by the passion in your voice.
That's why you want to just keep doing it.
I would say, man, it's like we run into a lot of these flavor of the week bands on the road.
Those guys are always tired and they don't really want to play.
But then you get to play with some of these legacy acts that are just glad that they're still alive and still be doing it.
They have such a deep appreciation for what they're doing.
There's a difference, man.
Boone, how would you describe what it is to go to an Otis show, to experience an Otis show?
Man, it's like being a part of our family because we always take time and visit with people that's there.
We care about everybody there.
I mean, we're just amazed that people will buy a ticket to see us and take time out of Friday or Saturday night to come here and play a little bit.
So that's everything in this business.
With streaming, you don't make all that much money off the court of music anymore.
Our money is made off of tickets and t-shirts.
At the end of the night, the venue has to kick us out because we just want to visit them with everybody and talk.
We'll keep signing stuff and hanging out until the jand are sleeping up.
It's fantastic, man.
And we're going to tell people how they can see you in just a moment.
But we wrap up with our hardest question for Boone Fragat from the band Otis.
Boone, if you could have coffee with any historical figure, who and why?
Oh, man, that's a hard one.
Always the hardest.
You're not alone, man.
That is a tough one.
Man, I'd have to say, man, it's hard.
It really is, man.
I can't even answer it.
I don't know why I ask it.
That's a tough one, man.
But I really would have loved to meet John Lee Hooker.
Oh, wow.
Everybody I talked to said he had, you know, just a really special spirit of that.
And just a very, very unique person.
And I like meeting unique people.
I think I would like to admit, John Lee Hooker.
We got to meet a really unique person today.
Yes, we certainly did.
You are awesome, man.
And your band is amazing.
The band is amazing.
It really do love your music.
Love your sound.
Love what you guys are doing.
Looking forward to seeing you at Cornfest soon.
We're going to tell people before we wrap up today where they can catch you guys
your next couple of events.
And certainly, when I again tell you to bookmark the webpage, the otisband.com.
If you didn't do it already, I told you you'd be doing it by the end of the interview.
The otisband.com.
Boom, thank you again so much for joining us.
Have a great show.
We'll see you when you get here at Wisconsin.
I enjoy talking to y'all.
Y'all have a great day.
Thank you.
All right.
Thank you.
Seth, we just had a great time hanging out with Boom Froghead from the band Otis.
I want to let everybody know that the next couple of shows they have coming up.
Thursday, September 5th, Otis is going to be live at the Austin Community Tavern in Steger, Illinois.
Go meet him over there.
Friday, September 6th, they'll be with the Kentucky headhunters.
Otis and the pandemic.
Sue Rapids, Minnesota.
All right.
They get to the song.
The song Rapids, by the way.
Oh, thank you.
I'm sorry.
I knew I was supposed to say that wrong.
But man, how cool they get to play with the Kentucky headhunters.
He was talking about him.
That's wild, man.
It's crazy.
It's awesome.
And of course, they're coming here to our neck of the woods Saturday.
September 7th, eight o'clock show.
Cornfest.
Yeah.
Cornfest.
Oh, Cornfest and Vespers.
Always a great time.
And it is going to be a great one with Otis headlining there.
It's going to be so much fun.
You can meet the band there.
Say hi to them.
Let them know you heard them on director's cut.
Talk with them and enjoy because they are a great band.
And keep in mind, again, everybody, you can check out their music.
Not only in this hour here, where we're going to be playing some of it for you.
But you can find out more at their website, the otisband.com.
The otisband.com.
Big thank you to Boone, his management as well, reaching out to us.
It's great.
It's really fun.
We made some new friends.
Yeah, we did.