Transcript
Madison Blues Society commandeers local bus driver for party trip to Chicago Blues Fest on Max Ink Radio
Max Ink Radio · Sat Apr 27, 2024
The Chicago Blues Festival is coming up June 7th and the Madison Blue Society is organizing
a bus trip to attend the annual event here to tell us the plan and how to book a scene
on the bus is president of the Madison Blue Society, Steve Porter.
Steve, welcome back to Maxine Gradio.
Oh, love it, love it.
All right, we're good.
All right.
Thanks for having me on.
I really am happy for this opportunity to get the word out about the bus to the Chicago
Blues Fest.
It's back again, you know, the last time we did it was before COVID and, you know, the
Blues Fest itself went virtual for a while.
Everything is coming back online and the Madison Blue Society is back online with this
bus trip.
It feels good, doesn't it?
The festival starts, I think, June 7th, but we're going down Saturday, June 8th for the
whole day, and we'll get you back in time to sleep in your own bed.
That's awesome.
So now you sit in the front of the bus or in the back of the bus?
Well, I guess it just depends, you know, if you want to use your elbows or not, I guess.
But the bathroom's in the back of the bus, so you know, it just depends on you.
That's important.
That's important.
That's your situation.
Exactly.
Well, before we hear about the Chicago Blues Fest bus trip, tell us a little bit about
the Madison Blue Society.
I mean, that's pretty cool in and of itself.
Tell us about that.
It is.
It's the only institution that I'm aware of anyway in the Madison area that supports
the Blues in every way possible.
It's been, we've been around for around 25 years and membership is cheap.
I don't know if I can say on the air.
Of course you can.
Yeah.
Team Box for a person and 25 bucks for a family or a band and you get access to, you know,
all of our events, you get a discount and we, you're also can feel proud to be supporting
the Blues in the community.
We contribute to the Madison Public Library and we supply books and CDs and the-
Keeping that Blues alive.
Yeah, and materials for the library.
And we put on our own little Blues events.
We got an end of the year Blues Festival in the works now that will be at the Eastside
Club in September.
Oh, sorry.
Pay attention.
Look for announcements for that.
Great.
Great.
And again, as I said, we're just slowly getting back into gear after the COVID pandemic and
we ultimately hope to get back to the all day picnic that we used to have.
I remember that.
Yeah, that was so much fun.
That was great.
We're so lucky here to have so many great Blues musicians too.
We are.
Oh my gosh.
It's so funny.
My husband actually went to the record store on record store day.
He picked up a- the new album from Ace Freyly, the guitar player from Kiss, but then he
bought like a whole bunch of BB King.
Yeah.
Wow.
And look at that.
How's that for different?
Oh, he-
Yeah.
And he's-
We've got a bunch of Paul Filippowitz.
Yeah, Paul Filippowitz.
Paul Filippowitz.
Paul Filippowitz.
Yeah.
We do our best to support him and his efforts.
We often contribute to efforts- the Jimmy's, for example, put on festivals and other projects
and we try to contribute to that.
We contribute to Blues festivals around the state.
Brian Lee Blues Festival is one coming up and- and- and a number of others.
So we- we just promote the Blues wherever- and the Benches too, right?
Oh.
The Benches.
Oh yeah, yeah.
The Benches.
The Benches, right?
The Luther Allison.
Yeah.
And Luther Allison way- yeah, we- we've got to remember the greats that have had roots in- in
Madison, you know.
That's in Burning Hand Park, right?
It is.
Yes.
So cool.
A bench for Clyde and then right down the way, a bench for Luther Allison.
You take a walk through their-
You take a walk through their-
Wow.
Yep.
You know, we're talking now about Chicago Blues and- and the festival there and, you know,
this really is quite the longstanding.
You said it's free to attend.
What does this mean?
What does it mean, you know, to be able to take people like you want to to go see and
hear and experience the Blues?
Well, it's- it's a big city Blues festival for one thing.
I mean, it's the real deal.
And Saturday has all kinds of acts.
You have to go on the website to check them out.
I know the Mike Wheeler band, local Chicago band, but a great band is going to be planned.
And they always have a headliner in the amphitheater there at the late end, but there are a number
of other stages that you- you're three or four stages to choose from during the day.
And if you come with us, you get to go down and it's a community event, you know, you
get to ride in the bus, you can- you know, you can have a couple of beers on the way down
and you don't have to worry about driving, you don't have to worry about driving back.
And it's 50 bucks for the cost of a- of a tank of gas, you can, you know, have a ride
on a luxury bus and- and relax and then get dropped off right at the venue.
You don't have to park, you know, blocks away and you just- right there.
And then you get back on the bus and you're right there and- and get your home by 1230
so you can still get the- that is a good day.
It is a good day.
No, I- I think I have to go.
I was looking at the schedule a little bit and I saw that some- some little highlights here.
June 9th, the cash box- the cash box- Kings.
Ooh, we play here.
I'm actually great.
You often- they're opening for Buddy Guy who's doing his farewell tour.
What?
Yeah, so-
Oh my god.
Yeah, unfortunately we're going- we're doing Saturdays because people have to work a lot
of times.
Well, maybe take the bus down there and just- you can stay there, you know, just let us
know so that we- but I'll tell you, when the bus leaves, it leaves.
Oh, yeah.
If you're not on it, then you might be staying.
Yeah.
It's like a cruise ship.
Yeah.
The show I saw, they have some centennial tributes, one to Otis Spahn featuring Johnny
Guana from the Claudettes who we play here often.
He plays in town very often, and Billy Flynn.
He was another Madison kind of favorite, right?
Middle was- comes out of- Middle Wisconsin somewhere.
Oh, he is from Wisconsin.
Yeah, he's from Blasda or somewhere up there.
Oh, I love that.
Yeah.
That is great.
That makes sense.
And then there's another tribute to Jimmy Rogers featuring Kim Wilson, which is pretty
cool.
And another guy, EZ Rowan Bob Bargolan.
Right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, it's just great.
And these are- it's local people, but we, like you were saying, we have- we have some
grates around here.
We have a lot of the best is they can go toe to toe with anybody in the country, and especially
when you go down to Chicago.
I mean, you get Mike Wheeler, you get cash box kings from around here.
And I know the last one I was at before COVID.
I don't know if they're doing it this year or not, but they had a blues jam every night.
And the cash box drummer Kenny Smith was conducting that, and so you know, if you want
to get your try your chops out, you can come down and play in the jam, too.
Doesn't Tate do that at Red Rooster and Madison?
Yup.
There's a jam.
Uh-huh.
Every day nights.
Yeah.
And then Kelsey Miles now has moved away, but she was leading a wonderful jam, too.
Yeah.
That venue is closed now, but she's moved on, but Tate will be here forever.
That's good.
I hope so.
He's just the cuteest.
Tate and Keith Richards, you know.
A lot.
Okay.
We are having so much fun talking to the president of the Madison Blue Society.
It is Steve Porter and Steve, we're so happy to have you in here.
Okay.
So let's talk a little bit more about this bus trip.
Thank you.
I love that you're organizing it.
And let's see.
It's on June 8th.
So how much is it going to cost?
What are we kind of dealing with here to get on that bus?
$50.
Oh, are you kidding?
Yeah.
That's a tank of gas.
$50.
I think that's a deal when you figure if you drove down it, the bad guy asked would
cost that much and he got the talking on top of it in the tolls.
Yeah.
Plus, you can't drink on the way down.
Yeah.
That's what I was thinking.
And you don't have good blues buddies along with you.
Yeah.
In the seat next to you.
Wow.
You know, enjoying a party.
So, I mean, it's just, it's a community event.
You know, we're going to a festival.
So we're going to be festive.
Oh, yes.
That's what the blues society, you know, it's about enjoying the blues and not overdoing
it, but just, you know, having a good time.
How do you sign up?
The best way is to go to the website and the Madison Blue Society dot org.
I looked it up.
Okay.
Madison Blue Society dot org.
Yeah.
And you'll see a whole page explaining the, and the, the trip and it has a PayPal button
on it.
And, and you can use PayPal, even if you don't, you can use it on our site, even if you
don't have a subscription, all your needs is a debit card or credit card.
And you can, you can register there.
And, you know, we, we were promoting it because we got to get enough people to make it,
to make it work.
And we're sure we will.
But if, if we don't, we will alert everybody by May 23rd and, you know, and refund the
money.
But this bus is probably making this happen.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We need your help out there.
This is rolling.
Come down and party with us.
Everybody we want to have a good time.
Oh, that's awesome.
Yeah.
How about that?
All right.
Thanks so much.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Tell us about the, the blues bus tour, man.
Yes.
Yes.
And I'm so grateful for this opportunity.
You guys are always there to, to provide us an opportunity to promote what, what we're doing.
And, and, you know, you're all about local music and, you know, Madison and, and so are
we.
It's great.
Come back anytime.
Yeah.
See you on the bus.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Cashbox.
Cashbox.
King's down.
All maxing.