Legendary jazz-pop duo Tuck & Patti join Musicians Reveal with Joe Kelley for an in-depth conversation recorded during the release of their album A Gift of Love.

In this wide-ranging interview, Tuck Andress and Patti Cathcart discuss the inspiration behind A Gift of Love, their deep connection with Japanese audiences, life on the road, and how they’ve built a lasting career as independent artists while retaining ownership of their masters. They also reflect on their musical partnership, recording process, touring philosophy, and the artistry behind reimagining classic songs.

A thoughtful and intimate conversation with one of music’s most respected duos, offering insight into longevity, creativity, and artistic integrity.

🎙️ Musicians Reveal with Joe Kelley features legendary and emerging funk, R&B, and Prince-associated artists. On air since 1982 and now spanning five decades, the show was personally spotlighted by Prince on his website in 2004. He also gifted us the One Nite Alone box set in 2002 — before any other media outlet.

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And that was the kickoff track from the new CD from Tuck and A Gift of Love. And the song we listened to right now was up on the Roof. And it's a really incredible CD that they just recently released.

They're getting ready to go out on tour, and they've been kind enough to spend time with us here on the Upper Room with Joe Kelly and wvof. We welcome to the WVOF airwaves Patty Kafkar and Tuck Anders. How you doing today?

Great.

Good to talk to you again.

Yeah, really good.

Yeah. It's been a few years, and I know you've been busy touring and recording A Gift of Love, I guess, for. For the folks out here in the States.

It wasn't meant to be released initially, and. And now it is, and that's great news.

What.

Tell us the genesis of this record.

Well, it started off really with a.

Conversation with the head of A and R at the record company that. That we do a licensing deal with in Japan. Okay.

And the idea was that it would be a song or it'd be a CD of songs that Japanese people particularly remembered as very special love songs. So we put the word out to all our fans, and when we played concerts there, which we go there a lot, we put the word out to everybody.

Email us and tell us what songs you'd like to hear. So we actually took that into account as well as ones that we particularly wanted to expose to them and ideas that the record company had.

So it was a true group effort in choosing the songs.

Now, did they. They send in some songs that were both your favorites?

Well, you know, that's the one thing that we let everybody know, obviously, that we look at all the requests and if the ones that had the most votes or, you know, there was a certain theme that was coming up, then we'd look at that and that's how sort of Close to youo came about, because so many people mentioned that song on their emails. But they all knew that the. The was a typical Tuck and Patty rules in that if we didn't like it, we would do it.

Right. Right. So. So your. Your initial going back in time, trips to Japan and going over there and building this great following and friendships over there.

What was it like when you first went over there to perform and take us through the years to. To today?

Well, you know, it was. We heard so much all the.

Everybody always told you, like Japanese audiences or when you got there, they'd be very quiet and attentive and not sort of demonstrative. The way you're used to in the States and all of that. But we never had that experience from the beginning. We've.

In that they are really, really enthusiastic. And I guess the first thing though is too. Is very true that it's a very, very intensely listening audience. They listen to every note, every nuance.

They're taking it in. So you can be in a rock club, like. Which was what we were playing the first time, wasn't it? A rock club first time out.

That's right.

And people all standing and stuff. And we kept thinking, God, nobody came to the concert because it was so quiet.

And then you go out and it's packed, but people are just respectful that way. But now, I mean, then it was sort of going to clubs and playing and beginning to. Was our first experience in Japan, so learning that.

But now it's like we have dear friends. We just. I think we just had our 26th trip or something. 27.

Wow.

We have a lot of really dear friends. So it's like really coming home to visit when we go there.

Now you're based on the west coast and you. You're gearing up for a pretty lengthy fall going into. Towards the winter US Tour.

What goes into preparing for a tourist, even though you've done it for so many years? How about set lists and stuff like that? How's it gonna look for the fans? Come out and see Tuck and Patty.

To me, it always looks the same, which is. I have no idea what's gonna happen until Patty calls the first song.

And that usually when we're on stage, there's never a plan that I've ever been able to figure out.

Right, right. Oh, wow, that's cool.

Well, but, you know, since we've got the new CD out, we'll start doing it. We really haven't done that many of those songs lately, so in the States at all, maybe a couple of them from that cd.

So we'll be doing a lot more of those. But we always get requests from people that have been coming for years. So our shows, we always try to make sure we include, you know, a wide range.

And officially, I guess it starts September 9th through the 12th over at the Catalina Bar and Grill in LA. All this information is at tuckandpaddy.com T U C K A N D P A t t I.com and there's a lot of dates here on the East Coast.

I'm looking over in Manhattan. You're playing the Iridium Jazz Club.

Yeah, that'll be the last. I think that's the last tour on the last date on the East Coast. And yeah, it's sort of a northeast kind of little run this one.

And then later on we'll catch Go Go Back, Swing through the South. But I don't think that'll be until the first of the year.

Well, I. I know for guitar and vocals performance, people may think it's easy to get the sound right, but what. What is most crucial for a Tuck and Patty performance when you walk into a new venue, sound wise?

You know, we spend a lot of.

Time tuning the pa, really, and we've gotten good at doing that. And so we flatten the eqs and listen to the system just as it is.

And then we figure out if we need to make any fundamental changes in the system, like changing amplifier levels or moving speakers or changing crossover levels, all that kind of stuff, then eventually we start eqing. We have the advantage that it's basically the same sound every night coming off of us, and that's all preset, coming out of our. Our own rig.

So really, for us, doing a sound check is a little bit more like a mastering session.

Well, I was reading about the recording of the new cd, A Gift of Love with bringing some additional musical friends in, and you have your own studios, but trying to coordinate it, there were some possible things you had to work on technically.

We definitely went to do those at the studio where we Normally mix our CDs in San Francisco. Different first. So for those parts with Frank Martin doing the keyboard, string sounds and everything, and Joseph playing Shell.

No, we all retract all those at Different Fur in San Francisco for our duo stuff, we do it at home.

Well, I think we're going to get into another song off of Gift of Love with Tuck and Patty. And I really have to give you a lot compliments because a lot of these songs we've heard over the years.

But just to change up, a song like Loving you by Minnie Ripperton, do it. So outstanding. It's really impressive. So, you know, much respect to you guys.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We had fun doing these songs.

So. So we'll listen to this right now. This is Loving youg from Tuck and Patty, originally done by Minnie Riperton.

And we'll come back and speak more with Tuck and Patty right here on the Upper room with. I know it's in a lot of stores. They're going to be in a lot of stores. How about ordering online? What's the best way?

Well, we haven't started doing that on our site yet, although that's going to be coming, but Borders Tower, you know, they're all there. Amazon.com I know carries it and I think it's even on E Tunes right now.

I think Borders and Tower both have it on sale.

So yeah, it's a good spot.

That's the place. Head on out. Right.

And those listening to our broadcast here at wvof, we will be re airing this interview and Tuck and Patty music special for three to four days and nights at our upper roomwithjokelly.com website. So you'll be able to listen to it again. You know, I gotta give you congratulations.

I know the previous record Choco moment was a huge step in becoming independent musicians and owning the masters. You know, you ought to be commended for that.

It's been, it's been quite a wonderful and remarkable journey and learning a whole lot about it. We, in some countries we sort of switched to more just straight distribution. There's places we're still doing the licensing arrangements, so.

But that's. It's really been a great education and really a wonderful time in our lives to be able to have that happen, that we retain ownership of our work.

Now.

Had you been thinking it for quite a while?

Oh, yes. I think that's every musician's all the time.

A lot of people don't really want to deal with what they perceive as the business part of it and that doesn't particularly scare us. We've done it a lot over the years, so we're comfortable with that.

For somebody who just doesn't want to think about it at all, maybe going independent is not the best thing.

How about other musicians that you looked at, how they were doing things? Did they inspire you to go independent the way they were doing it?

Well, not so much because we knew.

What we would do would be licensing deals. We have a record company called TNP Records, but you're not going to see.

I mean, nobody from our company is going out to stores trying to plug records. There's nothing like that going on. Instead, we license to different companies around the world.

In many cases there are companies that we already had relationships with, but we just changed the structure of the deal.

But the beauty of the whole thing is that we own the masters and that really, I mean, right now that matters, but X years down the line doesn't really matter.

Oh yeah, right, right. Do you guys get interested in licensing your music for soundtracks and different things like that?

Yes, we've had people talk to us about it and so with our problem recently has just been there's just not enough hours in the day to do all this stuff.

Right, right.

But, yeah, that's something we've really enjoyed and have had people use them on TV several times on different television programs and stuff. And that's great, but it would be fun to do something for a film.

Now, a lot of our listeners have loved your music through the years, but, you know, you've been recording and performing together for a long, long time. And how about the initial meeting and getting this musical partnership together?

How did it come about? Well, it came about seemingly by accident, but we figured that it would have happened even if that hadn't happened that day.

We had set up these auditions in San Francisco, and Patty showed up and. And she only had to sing a few notes before, obviously. Of course, she. You know, the band was begging her to sing with us.

But in addition, during those first few notes, both Patti and I realized that we'd found a lifetime musical collaborator. That was the first time for either of us that something that extreme had happened.

Now, how about working together as a married couple and having other musicians? Do they come to you for advice? They're kind of in the same situation.

We do. We do get that a lot. We get a lot of mail from other duos all around the world and sending CDs and talking about it.

And then some of them actually also are involved in marriage relationships or personal relationships on top of their playing together. And it's kind of amazing, really, to see these other duos pop up that were inspired from what we did, but they've taken it in their.

You know, they have their own voices. They've gone ahead and gone off in their own directions. And we have some really good friends in Japan.

And there are a couple of guys that have, like, a guitar duo, and they were really, really inspired by us and great devotees, really, of Tuck.

And it was really a wonderful experience to have met this kid when he was really a kid with his parents at a concert, what, 10 years ago or something, and now this last time we were in Japan, we actually went and guested on their new cd, coming out in Japan.

Oh, okay.

To see them grow and. And. And then, you know, to actually go and be a guest on their cd, it was really. It's just.

It's just a great, great feeling to know that you've sort of mentored somebody or inspired them.

Well, I've heard countless times in this area with songwriters and musicians kind of, you know, when. When people want to describe other people's music, what they do and what kind of music they play, they'll.

Sometimes you'll hear it's like a Tuck and Patty kind of vibe, you know. So I think you guys have really made that impression on a lot of musicians.

What's really neat because, you know, the way it works is you never get to thank the people who inspired you. I mean, if you're lucky, you might meet a handful of them. But I'll never get to thank Jimi Hendrix.

There's a whole list of other people that I really won't get a chance to thank or to give anything back to. So it's nice to be able to give something back, you know, inspire somebody else. And that's the way it's supposed to work.

You always are just supposed to pass it on.

So my guest right now, Tuck and Patty, right here at wvof. And we're going to get into another song from the new cd, A gift of love from Tuck and Patty.

They are getting ready to go out on tour starting in September. They'll be here on the east coast down in New York City. Also Paul in New York and Piermont, right?

That's right.

Yep. So ample opportunity also up in Boston and a song that, you know, when I first heard this off the record, hold me Tight, End and Don't let Go.

I love this song. And I gotta ask you, who did this originally?

His name is Roy Hamilton.

Oh, okay. I didn't know it.

Yeah, he had a few songs out. He died really young.

Okay.

So he had a few. He did a version of that. When you walk through the storm. Remember that? Keep hold your head right. He made.

It was like, turned into a pop hit with him, but it was to hit a short, short time with us. I just always loved that song.

Yeah, I mean, growing up, I heard that song so many times.

So that was what the CD was like, was sort of all these songs that you don't think about all the time, but as soon as you hear it, it's like, wow. Right?

Right. So. So let's give it a listen right now. This is from Tuck and Patty's new cd, and the song's called hold me Tight and Don't Let Go right here on wvof.

And we're back here with Tuck and Patty right here on wvof in the upper room with Joe Kelly and the New cd, A Gift of Love from Tuck and Patty. And how many CDs total does this.

Add to the discography, including your album? And we include the best of and all that. Aren't we around 10 or 11, something like that? Yeah, we're at about 10.

Maybe not including best of.

Okay, maybe so 12 with best of. I think there's so many best of and samplers now, we don't know how many of those are out.

Right.

The official ones, probably 10.

Right. Well, I noticed from checking out your website a while back that you did make it allowable for people to come to your shows and tape.

Yes.

Yeah. Do you find people. Have you heard any of the stuff that they taped?

You know, I haven't ever heard of see people doing it, but I haven't heard anything.

Right, right. Tape any of your shows when you.

Go out on tour periodically? We do. At some point we figure we'll tape everything. The problem is getting time ever to listen to any of that stuff.

You go out the next night, it's time to play again.

Yeah. There you go. So the tour will be going all through this fall. And do you have any spots that venues that you have.

I mean, I'm sure every night's a special night, but any of the newer venues that you haven't visited that you're really looking forward to setting up shop on this tour?

Well, it's going to be a lot of. Going back to places we've always been will be great.

It'll be our first time to play at Iridium in New York, so that'll be interesting to go to the club. We've gone there to listen to music. We've been on the east coast, but we've never played there, so that'll be great.

And there's a new venue in Philadelphia, you know, the World Cafe.

Okay.

They've got a new venue now called the World Cafe in Philadelphia, so that should be really cool. And they built a really beautiful. It's just opening up, I think the first week of October.

And it's a real state of the art, gorgeous place they built there. So dedicated to music. So that should be really wonderful to go. Especially when you see a place that they've actually put a lot of time and.

And money into making it sound good. They have excellent sound system and, you know, they've just really gone all out to make it really a music place.

And that's ideal for. For your music.

Yeah, it's going to be exciting to.

Actually that now for.

For musicians out there. Listen, we've got people check out the show. And just for general knowledge, when you do.

When you do an album of songs that are their covers, what's the process that you go through? I mean, I know could be a long explanation, but just a synopsis on how do you go about it.

Well, usually for us, we're doing it because we really love the tune. So it's.

A lot of times it starts off being in our minds of really loving tribute to the artist, you know, who did the song or the writer that we really enjoy work. And so to us, it normally starts off that way. Other times, it's like, I've always wanted to do a song.

In this case, I always wanted to do Close to youo. And when a lot of people were talking about that song, it was the perfect time to do it.

And in my mind, I had always heard it as this bossa nova, Joe Beam kind of tune. And so it was my chance to have my little Joe Beam fantasy moment.

There you go.

It was so great to play with Frank. He plays such a beautiful solo on that tune.

Now, do you get word or hoping to get word from some of these artists on your versions of the songs?

You know, every once in a while we do. And that's always really amazing when that happens. And very humbling, you know?

Right, right. I mean, it's a pretty diverse record. And I think people are gonna love this. I mean, Cyndi Lauper's Time After Time on there to wrap up the record.

Yeah, the little remake of the one we did years ago. But what happens is that every time we do the song, it's different. So that was just sort of a different view of that same tune again.

And of course, another production from Patti as she produces record Now. Now, as a producer, how do you work with your husband and musician, all the songs? How does that usually work?

Well, t. I guess I just. I pretty. I sometimes have a very, very clear vision of what I'm hearing come from Chuck.

I tend to hear in orchestras and choirs and bands and hear that kind of a sound. And. And as all the years have gone by, especially when I'm writing for him, I'm really thinking about his guitar style.

So I'll have ideas about that or textures that I want to hear. And Tuck is really, you know, he's very gracious and really listening and hearing me out about all the ideas I have and then trying to.

Trying to bring them, you know, to life for me because he's always telling me I'm coming up with these ridiculously impossible guitar parts, but he keeps on playing them.

I have yet to play a song that Patty has arranged where I haven't had to stretch in some way that I didn't ever expect to stretch. It still amazes me that she keeps finding these things.

So are there a lot of multiple takes in the studio on particular songs?

Well, if I had my way, it'd be up in the hundreds or thousands. Patty likes to do first or second takes.

Right. Now, Tuck, I know a lot of guitarist, big, big admirers of your work. And how about your own collection? How many guitars do you keep?

I'm not really a collector of guitars. I've got a couple of these old Gibson L5, and one of them stays at home and I record with it.

I mean, we've got a toy guitar with nylon strings at home with a, you know, a small, small neck and everything that I'm as happy to play that one sitting around as I am to play, you know, a vintage, beautiful instrument. So, I mean, what actually comes down to performing a recording, then it's got to be a great instrument, right?

Do you visit a lot of guitar shops on the road?

No, it's about the last thing that I do, really.

I'm just never been a consumer of guitars and it's a contrast to the way it used to be when I could literally, you know, spout out the entire Gibson catalog verbatim, probably including the mentions of every guitar and prices. You know, as a 13 year old, I was fantasizing big time, but at this point I'm more into playing it and less into the equipment.

I don't really use an amp and our setup is so stable that things don't change very much. And so I'm not very involved in that. Occasionally I'll drop by and buy some strings. That's about it.

And my special guest this moment, Tuck and Patty, their new cd, A Gift of Love. And you can go to the website tuckandpatti.com T U C K and Patty P a t t I.com and the new album is great.

You're going to be hearing a lot of the songs on the tour. And also Chocolate Moment, another great cd, which is, I guess your. Your first official independent release.

Yes, yes, that was the first one.

Great. There's more to come. We did a DVD recording and that should be coming out. We're trying to, to. To make the deadline to, to have it out for.

In time for Christmas. If we don't make that, then we'll do it first quarter next year. But we did a concert in Holland and we've done a.

So we've got the DVD and we're also including CD in the, in the set and then a documentary that they shot on us. So that should be a nice little package.

And of course, people should bring some, some extra money to the concert because I'm sure you have the CDs all available there.

Yes, we'll bring them with us.

Right.

And if you just tuned in and missed out on the beginning of the interview with Tuck and Patty, you can sign up for our mailing list if you haven't done so already. At upper roomwithjoekelley.com we'll be re. Airing this three to four nights in its entirety.

And we're looking forward to seeing you on the tour here on the East Coast.

Yeah, we are. We're looking forward to it too.

And it kicks off in la. And how's it on the West Coast? You both are from there originally.

I am from San Francisco.

I'm from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Okay.

Any stops in Tulsa on this tour?

You know, we haven't.

I don't know if we played professionally in Tulsa ever. I think we haven't actually.

Right. It's time for the homecoming, right?

I guess so. If we wait long enough.

Yeah.

Right, right. So. So I really have to thank you both. I know the last time I think we spoke with. When Tuck, you were injured. Yeah, yeah.

Right, right. So everything's fine and.

Well, yeah, everything's fine. Patty broke her foot after I broke mine about a year later. And then we both got that out of our systems and we're both up and fine at this point.

Right.

So I'm definitely wishing you a lot of great journey on this tour and I'm sure people, once they get this cd, we've been featuring music on it already, but they're going to really, really enjoy this.

Great. Thanks, Joe. It's really good to talk to you and thanks for all the support.

Yeah, really, thanks very much.

And we will right now get into. We're go with three songs right now. We're going to hear a song which obviously is pretty strong with the folks out in Japan.

Tsukiaki, originally done by Taste of Honey.

Right.

Actually, the first guy was. This song is really interesting in that it was the only, as far as I know, pop radio hit in the United States that was in Japanese.

Oh, okay.

And that was like in the early 60s, wasn't it? I think that's right. Yeah. It was a hit on the radio here, so it was very unique that way. And then years later, taste of Honey did it in English then.

And it also then charted then, too.

So it's another great version that you do it original Tuck and Patty style. And then we'll hear a great guitar instrumental, Billy Joel's Just the Way youy Are from Tuck.

And then we'll visit the Chocolate Moment album and listen to one for all from Talking Patty. So thanks so much.

Thank you. We really appreciate it.

Thanks, Talking Patty.

Thanks.