Transcript
Arizona Warriors & Music (Hour 2)
Nite Lite with Pete Schwaba and Greg Bach · Tue Feb 18, 2025
Welcome back.
Great to have you with me on this Tuesday night, Jason Moon coming up at 7.20.
He will discuss a really cool project he has called Warrior Songs, how he helps to heal veterans through music.
And right now, we have a few more minutes with our pal Jim Flanagan, who is on the stream with us from Chicago.
We're talking stand-up comedy and about his excellent career.
He's got going.
Very funny guy.
So Jim, before the break, I asked you who the toughest guy is to follow and you almost lit up.
Like it didn't take you long to think about that.
Who is the toughest comic you've ever had to follow?
So I just had to do it this past weekend for probably the fourth time in my career, but following Brad Garrett at Brad Garrett's comedy club in Las Vegas.
How do you have to follow him there?
Wouldn't
he be the closer?
You'd think so, but when so he comes in on special occasions and he was there for four nights for Valentine's Day weekend.
I was there with Greg Fitzsimmons.
Incredible
kind of LA.
Yeah.
And so Greg headlines the whole week.
So when Brad comes in, they kind of just cut post and then Brad hosts does 30 minutes of crowd work.
And you, I mean, you can see it in your face.
He's so funny.
He's so famous.
And it's so the opposite of the character that they know him for.
Andy's the guy whose name is Assange.
I mean, it's like following Julius Caesar at Caesar's Palace.
Like, it's incredible.
Like, you're going up after the guy they're there to see, and he just crushes for half an hour with incredible crowd work.
And then I do 10 minutes.
And then he does 30 more minutes of crowd.
Oh my gosh.
And then
brings up the headliner for 20.
Well, at least you don't have to do like a full 30 minute or 45 minutes set after him.
Maybe that's the silver lining.
You think so.
But the thing is, by the time they figure out what I'm doing, it's like, thank you.
Good night.
When's Brad
coming back
up?
That's it.
I spend most of the time apologizing and just telling them that he'll be back soon.
Being, I mean, he's the nicest and most generous.
It's just, it's a tough gig and you sink or swim.
And I think it makes you better.
I had really fun shows because you kind of just, you know, I don't know, in big moments, it's either like, well, we either adjust or we.
Right.
You'll beat you right and in this case it was just like you make some adjustments You kind of try to ride that wave a little bit that they give you it's great mode some if you can keep it But it's hard to keep their attention after they're like you see that three-time Emmy winner just made fun of us Who's this guy
oh, that's funny that would be a tough guy to follow and it's such a weird circumstance my favorite I had to follow up before I even knew this guy was Gabriel Iglesias
I
moved to LA and I got this gig through my friend at Comedy Central and Gabriel Iglesias goes up for 30 minutes and people can't even catch their breath.
Like and then I go up there and it was like our buddy Paul Gilmartin said you could hear a beat of sweat roll down my back.
Like that's how quiet the room was and I got to do 45.
It was awful.
But my favorite story
This is great.
Bill Hicks went up at the funny firm in the mid 90s and Dan Whitney, before he was Larry the Cable Guy, we were hanging out in the back room.
in the back of the room watching Hicks who is just destroying the place and Dan sits up on like a bar railing or whatever where there was a candle lit and he sits on it and it singes his butt and he has this six inch long brown streak on his pants and he goes oh no I gotta follow Hicks with a crap stain on my ass
It is horrifying like what what's the do you bring your own middle act with you?
Typically Jim so the show kind of compliments each other.
How do you do that?
I?
Would love to be the point where they let me do that
a
little more often You know so often on the road it just kind of it's it's
whoever's in town right as far as openers or whoever they can get whoever though sometimes I get to bring my own opener and I want to challenge like I want someone who's gonna push the envelope a little bit I want someone who's gonna make
better right you don't want someone just lays down front of you to me it's almost harder to bring back a dead room than it is to follow someone who does a great job but there are certain things like you don't want someone who is
You want someone who sets up your show, right?
So
mostly material.
So someone doing a lot of crowd work right in front of me isn't always the most conducive for me, but you adjust, you move on.
Exactly.
And that's the sign of a really good comic, right?
I mean, if you can do that where you don't go, oh, no, this is all I have.
Like when you're headlining, you're expected to be able to adjust, right?
You have to you have to watch the show I I spent a little time in New York here and there and and because of just the pace of New York comedy You see people coming in and out without ever seeing what's happening before after that on a show They just go into a spot and leave and you'll see people repeating crowd work or repeating, you know
topics that someone just did right before them.
To me, it's so important to watch a show and kind of cross things off your list.
And yeah, okay, well, I'm not going to do that because they did something in front of me.
I think it's your job as the as the comic was later in the bill to make those adjustments, not asking them to stop doing those things in front of you.
Absolutely.
A couple more questions, Jim.
Okay, so where are your favorite cities outside Chicago, assuming your hometown is one of your favorite cities to work?
Where do you like to work?
What's a good comedy city for you?
This sounds like I'm just saying nice things because of where I'm at, but Wisconsin is bar none, my favorite place to do comedy.
I've had...
Incredible shows everywhere from comedy on state in Madison, which is just a legendary club comedy cafe in Milwaukee was
hottest rooms To very small town, but I can't even think of the name of this little town right now But like it was an actual movie theater And it was you'll go up at some of these venues in Wisconsin and it was a blizzard out and this was maybe six or seven years ago when UW was in the final four
And
still all showed up.
like, why are you here?
And they're like, because you're here.
You came.
So we might as well show up to watch you.
And I just think it's a great place to do stand up.
But Nashville has become close to my heart lately.
I love it out there.
And as weird as the audiences can be sometimes, there's something special about seeing your name on the Vegas Strip.
There's nothing like it.
Wow, that's interesting.
That's a that's a great answer.
Did you work to comedy cafe when it was on Brady Street or the one where they moved downtown?
No, I was I was at Brady Street where they how
great was in
on Thursdays.
Yeah Everything you wanted they had great crowds low ceilings, you know, it just it was a great room and great audiences I mean, but they'd pack it out.
They were smart.
They got stuff
They just let loose a little bit.
Yeah, I nothing better than that room.
I agree that was my I mean I didn't do stand-up for that long but that was my favorite room to work as well such a great room All right, Jim you're flipping around on TV and a comic comes on who are you not turning off?
Who can't you turn off and you have to watch them?
David tell nice Have you seen his his Netflix special recently?
I haven't seen, I worked with him back in the day, but I have not seen any new specials, but I hear he's churning out jokes like nobody's business.
I mean, the guy's incredible.
So great.
To me, he's just the best to do it.
And that's another one you ask about kind of like where you'd love to be in your career, just the guy that the back of the room loves, the comics are sitting there paying attention.
They know it's great stuff.
It's just so clever, so quick.
And he's really rapid fire, which I love.
He hits a topic and leaves it and doesn't come back to it.
And I think that's, some people really sit in the pocket and that's a huge skill onto its own, but he kind of just goes in skewers it and is done with it very, very quick.
The way you see a lot of comics do anymore.
That's so great.
That was so inside baseball, what you just said.
I love that.
So.
Alright, so what I typically ask most guests Jim is if they're binge-watching anything Are you watching a show you can recommend or something?
You can't turn off that you that you're really into and you can't wait to watch when you get home at night.
I Just finished.
Oh gosh.
I really wish you could remember the name of it right now There's a new Netflix show with Ray Romano and Lisa Kudrow.
Oh,
yeah, where They're selling a house.
That's the the part of the show is they're selling a house that like he
It's an artifact and they built together and it's funny.
It's also a little unbelievable, kind of like an Ozarks to it where
all these people keep hanging and you're like, wait a second, but you kind of suspend the disbelief.
And one of the coolest things they did was they wrapped it up at the end of the season.
So I don't know if there's going to be another season or not, but it kind of doesn't matter.
You know, it's not going to be like a show where you invest 40 hours of your time and then
you get
all mad because you never know what happens to these characters.
That's pretty cool.
Did you look it up?
Yeah, it's no good deed.
No good deed.
Thank you.
Okay.
I'll have to check that out.
I haven't seen that move.
I haven't seen that.
How many episodes of that?
Like eight or something?
Eight?
Yeah, like 40 minutes each.
Very dark comedy.
And the plot line that just, it's great.
And all these couples are looking at the house and all their lives become intertwined somehow.
And there's some
things happening that you don't really understand.
Ray Romano plays a dark character very well.
I feel like there's some skeletons in that closet.
He does a
great job at some of these weirdos.
That's so great.
Jim, thank you so much for your time tonight, buddy.
It's been great getting to know you.
Please keep us posted if you have Wisconsin dates coming up.
We'd love to have you back on and get that Drybar special, man.
You're way too funny not to be on Drybar.
And swear,
please.
I appreciate it, man.
It's been so fun to be here, Pete.
And I'd love to come back anytime.
Thanks for having me.
All right, buddy.
We'll talk soon.
Thanks so much.
That's Jim Flanagan.
Check him out.
Follow him on social media.
He's got some dates coming up.
Nothing in Wisconsin at the moment, but he performs all around the Midwest.
And like you just heard, he was in Vegas and Arizona.
So very funny comic.
We've got Jason Moon coming up soon.
Very excited to talk to Jason.
He founded a project called Warrior Songs, which helps
He's a veteran's advocate, which helps veterans heal from their time overseas.
And Jason is a veteran himself and was injured in combat.
And I am very excited to talk to him about how he founded this group and all the great work they're doing.
So you won't want to miss that.
We have tomorrow night on the show.
What do we have tomorrow?
Oh, another comedian, Jeff Kaine, who is from my hometown of Marinette, and he just won a big comedy contest out in Colorado.
So we'll talk to Jeff.
And we've got Nathan Deming on tomorrow night.
He's doing a tour of Wisconsin with his film, February, and he'll be in Marinette on set.
Tomorrow's like an all Marinette show.
I don't know how that happened.
Yeah.
So,
Marinette.
Coming right back with Jason Moon, folks.
It's so great to have you with me on this Tuesday night.
Fuse day, as we call it, because we're lighting it up.
This is Nightlight with Pete Schwabba on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Great to have you with me on this Tuesday night, a very cold Tuesday night here in the state of Wisconsin as we broadcast statewide from beautiful downtown Green Bay.
Hopefully we can warm things up a little bit right now because I believe my next guest is joining us from Arizona and hopefully some of that warmth will come through over the stream.
He is an Army veteran and a veteran's advocate and a founder, one of the founders or the founder of the Warrior Songs Project.
Jason Moon joins me now on the stream.
Hi, Jason.
Do we have Jason?
Here's we're having a little technical issues with Jason.
Okay We'll figure that out Jason founded the warrior songs project that helps Veterans heal through music, which is a great program.
He's also a musician He's a veteran himself and I believe was injured in combat and found music as a good way of healing himself So we'll talk to Jason once we can get him lined up here.
We're having some issues on the stream
Our question of the night, if you want to get in on the fun folks, you still have time, is what is your favorite John Hughes film?
It is John Hughes' birthday today, and mine was... I had trouble choosing, actually, because I think his best film is Plains Trains and Automobiles.
But my personal favorites might be Vacation and Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
Conrad said Uncle Buck and Christmas Vacation are previous guests Jim Flanagan said Home Alone.
He also created the Home Alone franchise, so that's pretty cool.
But let us know what yours is, 855-752-4842-8557-5CIVIC.
Can people still text us on the app?
I know there was a cutaway to a
Oh, it would, okay.
So we would see that.
Join us on the
through the comments there.
Through the comments on the stream.
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, right?
Yes.
Okay, and the WGB website, are we still up there?
not okay, so it's just
just stream right now Okay, very cool.
So we're gonna replay this again on Friday, which will be nice because we'll be at the civic media Northeast Wisconsin branch Christmas party, which will be fun.
Yeah, I know Conrad is planning on getting really drunk so How are we doing do we have any any more luck here?
I
do we have Jason Jason are you there?
I am.
Can you see?
Oh, there I am.
Awesome.
Don't tell me you missed my incredible introduction of you, where I heaped praise on you.
And I hope you didn't miss that because of a technical issue.
It shut
off
the audio in my earphones.
So that's all right.
I like to stay humble.
All the good stuff was true.
You're doing some great things.
You're an army veteran.
Thank you for your service.
You're a veteran's advocate and the founder of the Warrior Songs Project.
I mean, talk about a guy who is doing his part to help veterans.
By the way, are you in Arizona tonight?
Mesa, Arizona.
Yeah, we moved out here from my wife to go to grad school about seven years ago and throwing out the snowblower.
made me stay out here.
You don't have to shovel the heat.
You never stop
falling, break your hip on the heat.
You know, it's funny when I lived in Los Angeles for years and when I moved back here, people are like, oh, you're so much better off here than with those earthquakes and the tidal waves or whatever it was.
I said, you know, I'm glad I'm here, but you're more likely to slip and crack your head open on the ice and be done in by
earthquake.
Just going to Christmas dinner sometimes was a life-challenging experience.
Exactly.
But I
miss the people.
I tell you that I miss the people.
The Midwestern people are the nicest people in the country.
Well, that's very well said.
And it's great to have you on the show.
Before we get into warrior songs and some of the stuff you're doing, can you give us a little bit of background?
about yourself.
I know you're originally from Wisconsin.
I know you served in the in the Army.
Tell us what brought you to this point in your life, if you would.
Sure.
Yeah, I was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, raised in Eagle River, Wisconsin, and went to go to college.
I joined the military at 17, Wisconsin Army National Guard, 724th out of Tomahawk, Wisconsin.
and went to the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh was well under my way of spending my eight years getting my degree there.
Eight years.
Well, philosophy and religious studies, I didn't want to miss out on anything.
And, you know, I got out of the military in July of 2001 or August of 2001.
9-11 happened and I was out but you know, they were sending the guard to guard water for treatment facilities and the borders and we didn't have a TSA at the time So I thought you know, hey, I don't want to be that guy sits in a bar, you know 10 years from now like didn't you go to Iraq?
No, I got out one month before 9-11 Thanks for the free college money.
So
I
re-enlisted thinking I would go, you know
to be utilized like the National Guard and Uncle Sam had a different plan and he sent us to Iraq 0304 and I came back uh broken with PTSD uh suffered for four years taking whatever the VA would give me and a little bit of self-medication with alcohol and then finally in the spring of 2008 I attempted to end my own life I had had enough of of it and it
my recovery
that I started writing songs about the experience of coming home with PTSD and the loss and the confusion and the substance abuse and the nightmares and insomnia and lo and behold other veterans really thought that helped them too and I started getting emails and phone calls and I was in the process of switching from my masters to my PhD and
I just kept getting all these correspondences from family members and veterans.
Like, this is really important music.
This is how I feel.
And then I got one from a mother whose son had been in Iraq in the same place I was, to Lila Air Base, same time I was.
He had been home four or five years at the time and attempted suicide three times.
But like me, he didn't have a problem.
He didn't need any help.
And she said she played
the song trying to find my home.
He broke down, cried, told her what he had seen and done and checked himself into the 40 day VA residential program the next day.
And that that was it for me.
I was like, all right, I think I think the big guy sent
me
a mission.
Wow.
That is incredible.
Yeah.
I mean, no, I don't I'm kind of speechless.
I think that's such a fascinating I mean congrats on making it through all that and especially what you do now for others We're gonna get into that too After a quick break here, and we have that song trying to find your way home great song Thank you for sharing that with us, and I want to ask you
Well, we'll talk about that, but we're gonna do a quick break and we'll be back with our guest Jason Moon, the founder of the Warrior Songs Project.
He's an Army veteran himself with an incredible story and we're gonna hear more from Jason.
On the other side of this short break, this is Pete Schwabba and Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio
Network.
So weird not hearing the news there.
We are live on the stream.
Hopefully you're joining us, folks.
We have a great guest on right now.
Jason Moon is joining us.
He is the founder of Warrior Songs.
He is a veteran's advocate and a veteran himself who helps other veterans heal from PTSD through music.
Jason, it's so great to have you on the show.
Can you talk a little bit about your connection to music?
And I assume it predates your military service or maybe not.
Is it something you found after?
No, I grew up singing songs around the campfire and singing out at the Bonfire parties we'd have up there in Eagle River and you know I Got went to University of Scots Nosh gosh and started playing and got involved in the folk acoustic scene around there So by the time I went to Iraq I was already a professional musician and I
put
shows on over there and it wasn't till I got home and started dealing with all the negative
symptoms and emotions that I found it really hard to write.
I found it really hard to perform, to go out and be on stage.
And so I kind of let it take a backseat until I finally five years after coming home, started writing the songs for trying to find my way home.
And, and that kind of re rekindled that that love of it.
So you just said this fellow soldier heard the song trying to find my way home.
That's the song or the album or both?
It's both okay album
with
with the song on it.
When did you write that song?
Was that pre-service or was that when you got back as a way to help you heal?
I actually started it in Iraq, just kind of the chorus.
As I had gotten back from the leave, I realized how strange and how changed I was by this experience to come home for two weeks and be around
normal
civilians
and they get thrown back into a war zone was kind of a shock
and then it
wasn't until I got home that I just kind of finished it and it was really it was the only song I could I had finished for five years as I struggled through all those symptoms and I didn't really play it anywhere and then it just started to get shared, got in a documentary and got used by a nonprofit called Soldiers Heart in a documentary called On the Bridge and that's when it kind of blew up with all these
I thought I was alone.
I thought I was the only one who came from Iraq and felt like this and after the music got out there then I started just getting inundated with phone calls and you know request to speak and perform and turned out I'm not the only one that isn't that's the pop
Yeah, that's incredible.
I mean the beauty
and the power of art.
That's really amazing, and I applaud you for that.
Let's hear this song.
It's such a good tune.
I want to thank you for sharing with us earlier.
We cut it, and we're going to play it for everybody right now.
This is the song, Trying to Find My Way Home, written by Jason Moon.
He's my guest right now.
Here's the song, and then we'll talk a little bit more about warrior songs.
How do they expect a man To do the things that I have Come back and be the same?
The things I've done that I regret The things I've seen I won't forget For this life and so many more But I'm trying to find my way home A child inside me Long didn't go on Somewhere between
Lost and alone, trying to find my way home.
I've seen another side, another slice of the pie.
It didn't seem too fair to me.
People who did not deserve the sufferings that they incur.
Freedom ought to be free.
I'm trying to find my way home.
Child inside me, long dead and gone.
Somewhere between lost and alone.
Trying to find my way
home.
Whether we lose a win, I'm so sick and tired of the spin.
Don't think I can take anymore.
If the truth will stay in disguise Hidden beneath all the lies But we're, we're fighting for I'm trying
to
find my way home The child inside me Long didn't go Somewhere between Lost and alone I'm trying to find my way home
Keep a smile looking to the eyes of my child Telling where dad has to go And after dad has went away He's come back and he ain't the same He's the man that you used to know And I'm trying to find my way home A child inside me Long didn't go Somewhere between
Lost and alone Trying to find my way home Sitting here with time to kill Staring out my windowsill Trying so hard to forgive Time I may forgive myself But history repeats itself And burns my soul with regrets I'm trying to find my...
Inside me long didn't go Somewhere between Lost and alone Trying to find my way home Lately it's occurred to me It's hard to fight an enemy Who lives inside of your head Spent my life in between the sleepless nights And the bad dreams that got my
I'd rather be dead I'm trying to find my way home Child inside me long didn't go Somewhere between Lost and alone I'm trying to find my way home So how do they expect a man to see the things that I have come back?
and be the same.
Wow.
Beautiful.
Just a beautiful song, Jason.
That was trying to find my way home by my guest, Jason Moon, who is the founder of Warrior Songs.
And his purpose is to help veterans heal from PTSD through music and song.
Where can people find out more information
about everything you're doing, Jason.
This stuff, I'm sure it's a nonprofit, but it doesn't pay for itself.
How do you get funded?
Can people help?
And how would they find out more information?
We're always excited to receive donations, warriorsongs.org, warriorsongsplural.org.
But all of our music is free to download, and we'll send it to any veteran free of charge.
We've distributed over 80,000.
copies of CDs free of charge since 2011 and prevented 34 suicides through that action.
So they're welcome to come, see what we're doing, find out about the Warrior Songs volumes we're creating now with other veterans sharing their stories and having them turn into songs and find out all about my tour of Wisconsin coming up and maybe make a donation.
Let's talk about that.
That's pretty exciting.
You've got Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan, and a benefit concert in Milwaukee at Linemans.
Tell us where people can get more information on that, tickets, and are you excited to get back to the Midwest in the warmer months?
I am always excited
to come back to Wisconsin in the warmer months.
It's 120 degrees down there.
I get three weeks, I come to Wisconsin, I see all my old friends play all my favorite places and all the money goes to support Warrior Songs.
You can find out more about that at either my personal webpage, JasonMoon.org or the Warrior Songs page, warriorsongs.org.
And yeah, I imagine the list is too long to read right now, but I'm all over the place and I'm excited.
That's great.
What was it like growing up in Eagle River?
I when I was a kid in Chicago We used to go up to Three Lakes my grandparents had a place there at Eagle River We went that's where we went to the movies and we were where we would shop and I I just have this affection I just feel warm all over when I think of Three Lakes and Eagle River and that awesome little movie theater in downtown Eagle River
It was I knew the people that own that movie theater
a
weird yeah,
it was a
weird experience because in this winter
There were 1200 people and you could literally take a nap in the center of main street You know from one in the morning till five in the morning and no one would know you were there and then in the summer there was you know 50,000 100,000 tourists mostly from the Chicago land area or down there The cabins up there and so it would turn into this booming exciting All kinds of new and fun people to meet and then yeah into this absolute podon boring
you know, hockey town all winter.
So I couldn't wait to get out of there.
But like most young people, you know, you don't know what you got till it's gone.
And now I love to go up there and hike all the trails.
I used to party.
That's great.
You've got a couple of award-winning albums, Women at War and the Last Thing We Ever Do.
Where can people find those?
And how cool is that?
Yeah, those are also available free free of charge to listen to and or download or we'll send you a copy at WarriorSongs.org You know, I was touring around with my music trying to find my home Helping these other veterans in this woman.
She said something to me that changed my life She in 2012 she had been raped in the Navy and she took me aside as a Jason You know, I think if someone could help me take my trauma turn it into the song the way you did on trying to find my home with your PTSD I think I would have a healing like
you did.
And that was when I was like, oh my goodness, that's brilliant.
Who's doing that?
So I reached around to my community of musicians and I created, if you have to ask where your songs belong to one, it's like 14 songs, 46 veterans, a bunch of artists.
And that turned out very white and very male.
And I got a lot of criticism for that.
And I do what I always do when I get valid criticism, I went ahead and created the first ever in the history of modern music, women veterans, women at war.
women veterans stories turn into songs and that one won the Wisconsin area music award album of the year in 2019 I believe
nice and
we just released the last thing we ever do which was Vietnam era veterans
And we're currently in just about in post-production of BIPOC veterans, black, indigenous people of color.
Then we're going on to collateral damage, which just began that's family and support.
How does this war affect for others, sisters, uncles, mothers, wives, kids, husbands, you know, everyone else.
And then, and then we have native and indigenous voices.
And that's as far as we have scheduled and budgeted, but it's supposed to be a 10 volume set that
will include
every conceivable
type of veteran and story in some facet.
That's the most eclectic collection of veteran stories transformed to songs ever created.
That is ambitious and very impressive.
We have to do a quick break in about one minute, but is part of your program teaching veterans how to play instruments or sing or themselves get involved in the music or is it mostly just for them to listen to?
, yeah
You
know, the
ones we don't hear about.
We'll have a few more minutes with Jason Moon.
This has been Fun Jason, giddy to know you, and I love the work you're doing.
So let's, we'll talk about it for a few more minutes after a very short break.
This is Nightlight with Pete Schwabba on the Civic Media Radio
Network.
Welcome
back.
It's always fun when we're only on the stream and we lose the radio to a political event and Conrad has to play DJ and that was a hell of a fade buddy,
by the way.
I didn't mean to click it and I was like, well, too
late now.
We are in the final lap here for Nightlight here on this Tuesday night.
My guest is Jason Moon.
Check out his work at jasonmoon.org or go to warriorsongs.org and find out more information about what he's doing.
He is a veteran and a veteran's advocate and founded the program.
It's Warrior Songs, but you have another one, The Warrior Project.
So yeah, I just founded a new organization co-founded a new organization called Arizona Warriors Assembly and this organization is about getting veterans to vetted safe overseas therapies that use sacred psychedelic medications and indigenous wisdom.
So it's not legal here in the United States yet, ayahuasca, peyote, psilocybin mushrooms, bufo.
but veterans are having amazing results.
And so, created an organization to make it safe, make it vetted, and, you know, make it easy for veterans to get there and for donors to donate.
So we take veterans to Colombia and to Mexico and hopefully soon Brazil.
I just want to say everything we've talked about in the last half hour, Jason, and all the things you're doing,
have made me feel really terrible about my own life.
So congrats for that.
Who are your influences, Jason, musically?
Like, when you grew up, who did you listen to?
Who do you listen to now?
And who kind of inspires you musically?
My two biggest influences growing up were Bob Dylan and John Prine that everybody would know.
And then on a smaller scale, people I actually got to meet and work with a songwriter named Jason Ecklund and a Milwaukee legend, Little Rev, ukulele player extraordinaire.
He was kind of a big influence.
He got me turned on to traditional blues and bluegrass and the Carter family and Americana music.
And nowadays I listen to a lot of John Hyatt, a lot of...
A lot of Lyle love it.
I like a lot of Greg Brown.
I love the songwriters, old raspy dudes who can barely sing, pouring their hardouts.
That's my jam.
And just Americana music.
I'll never turn off Bruce Springsteen, especially if it's acoustic.
That's kind of my stuff.
Speaking of Springsteen, who's probably my all-time favorite, did you hear the Devils and Dust album?
I can't recall.
Can you name a song?
Black Cowboys, Maria's Bed.
Jason, I would love to hear what your take is on the album because he sings about veterans and being sent off to war.
And it's very much acoustic.
It reminded me a little bit of Nebraska.
So something
you might want to check out.
It sounds like Nebraska.
I'm going to check it out.
So great.
That turned me on to Bruce.
I was like, wow, to make a demo and have your band tell you, nope, don't touch it.
What was the name of that again?
I'm going to write it down.
Devils and
dust.
Yeah.
I would love to hear what you think about it if you give it a listen.
Did you see a complete unknown speaking of Bob Dylan?
I haven't yet.
I know that it's not all true and I'm well known about his truth life.
So I don't know.
I had a lot of friends who were disappointed by the Johnny Cash biopic who were huge fans.
So I'm waiting.
I'm waiting.
Well, I'm a huge John Prine fan as well.
I think the first COVID death I heard of.
And that literally broke my heart because he's such a great songwriter and I could lose myself in his music for hours.
When you're in Wisconsin, please let us know.
If you tour around and get up this way, I would love to have you in the studio to perform if that's something that would interest you.
And my last question for you, are you binge-watching anything on TV that you could recommend?
I
don't really binge-watch shows, but I do on occasion have some guilty pleasures.
So there's a Netflix one called Warrior.
Okay.
It's
about some Chinese American gang.
Oh, yeah.
Did
that start on
HBO?
I think that's, yeah.
Some great fights.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I like the kung fu and the old timey stuff.
And then I've been watching a Jack Reacher as it comes out.
I still have an affection for those kind of Rambo type figures, even though I know it's not real, it's still.
find a watch just to junk on so that's kind of those are my binges
the this the third season of Reacher I think drops in two days and somehow they found a guy bigger than Reacher to be the bad guy so that'll that'll be interesting and then if you like those kind of movies I would recommend a film called Rebel Ridge I don't know if you saw that it's on Netflix
about a veteran trying to get his cousin out of prison, a really good film, like a smarter Rambo, I would recommend that as well.
I would definitely watch it.
I like those man against world, you know, just as a fantasy, but it definitely feels like that
sometimes.
Good escapism, but what you're doing is very real and I thank you for your time tonight.
I wish you luck.
Keep up the great work and thank you for your service, buddy.
Let's do this again sometime.
Yeah, thanks for having me.
I really appreciate you having me.
And please check out warriorsongs.org for listening to this music.
Absolutely.
Have
a good one, everybody.
You too.
Thanks, Jason.
warriorsongs.org and jasonmoon.org.
Check it out.
It'll tell you all the things you need to know about Jason and some of the great work he's doing with Warrior Songs.
Thank you also to Jim Flanagan.
Thank you for all your texts.
from John Hughes.
Man, we got some great texts tonight.
We'll be back tomorrow night to do it all again, ladies and gentlemen, and I hope you'll join me.
It'll be Wednesday.
It won't be, it won't be Fuse Day, Conrad.
What are you calling Wednesday?
I
don't know.
We'll have to think of some, some lighting it up type of a thing,
right?
Sounds good.
All right, we'll do that.
On behalf of the lovable producer Conrad, I am Pete Schwab.
This is Nightlight.
Good night, Wisconsin.
Oh, sing it to your best friend's house, mama labor.
