On this episode of Behind the Connection, Daedalian visits Jim Ervin, the esteemed host of Time Signatures. Jim's enthusiasm for the blues is evident in his interview style and consistent recording schedule. As the approaches its 100th episode milestone, Daedalian and Jim look back at how the show's beginnings, what it’s become, and what's on the way. The two also chat about the podcast's incorporation into the Ol' Miss Blues Archive, Jim's approach to interviewing, and the profound impact of blues music and its narratives.

Facebook: Time Signatures

YouTube: Time Signatures

Facebook: Capital Area Blues Society

Website: Capital Area Blues Society

Website: University of Mississippi Libraries Blues Archive

Since then, we've expanded to offer more than 30 podcasts, all of which are hosted by members of Lansing Community College or volunteers within our community.

I'm Daedalian, and on this episode of behind the Connection, I get to celebrate a very special milestone with a gentleman who is not only the host of an LCC Connect podcast, but but someone I have the pleasure of calling a good friend as well. One of our most popular shows, Time Signatures, hosted by Jim Irvin, is closing in on its 100th episode.

It is the first show on LCC Connect to reach that milestone.

Presented in conjunction with Lansing's own Capital Area Blues Society, Jim has grown the show from a local fashion project into something with real reach. His podcast has been included in the University of Mississippi's Blues archive.

In fact, I co hosted the very first episode of Time Signatures with him at Moriarty's Pub here in Lansing. Let's just say it was a little bit of a logistical nightmare, but it set the stage for what Time Signatures has become.

And now it's time to go behind the scenes and find out what's happening behind the Connection.

Last time you were on, I decided to ask you the earliest memory of music. The reason I did that is because that's generally a question you ask of all your guests.

So I had to come up with something a little bit different this time. I want to know what's the first blues song or artist that truly grabbed you and made you say, wow, that is awesome?

Well, you know, I was exposed to the blues by my mom many, many years ago, and one of the first musicians that she exposed me to was B.B. king. And I'm trying to think of the name of this song.

I mean, it wasn't something standard Thrill is Gone, was it?

That is the one. Thank you. I had a little melt brain here for a second, but honest to God, man, it was a wonderful.

It was a live rendition in us with a studio audience, and it was wonderful to hear that.

And the hook was set and it was really cool because as part of a Full circle moment several years later, just not long before he passed, I was able to buy tickets for my mom to go see him up in Mount Pleasant. And what an honor, you know, And I'M really bummed because she offered to, you know, would you like to go? And I said, well, I'll go next time.

Well, BB Was gone shortly thereafter, so that was a missed opportunity for me.

Right, right.

But at least you're able to celebrate who he is with, actually, this show in many ways. And you're a lot like me. You and I have talked about it before, how you love the blues, but you love a lot of different types of music, too.

Oh, sure.

When it specifically comes to the blues itself in a way of life or expression, what does it mean to you in that way, beyond just being a musical genre?

Well, before I answer that, I want to point one thing out. There's a cool tie to B.B. king and I, because the Blues Archive was actually started, okay.

Okay.

So they just celebrated their 41st anniversary.

That's awesome.

Blues. Blues is a genre for me. What it means to me is this is the. The music from which all other music sprouted.

I mean, you've heard it said many, many times that the blues touches virtually every genre of music out there. Then you hear people, you know, talk about, you know, the blues got together and had a baby and they called it rock and roll.

Right.

It's the root, it's the base, it's the foundation for the music world. I'm one of those people, and you've heard me say it on my podcast, if you've listened at all, that I love music that makes me feel.

And blues music like no other genre makes me feel on a regular basis. And I absolutely love that deep, soul, stirring music.

So at the time that we're recording this, what number are we at as far as the number Show? Do you know?

94, 95.

We are really closing in on it.

We're striking, man. We're ready.

Yeah.

So looking back now, like, how would you describe the show that you're doing now compared to the very first episode that we recorded at Moriarty's Pub night and day?

Yeah.

I did not envision time signatures being what it became. I figured it was going to be more of a local show with maybe regional reach and, you know, just have a little fun talking to people.

The passion for what I do blossomed into this thing where I started going out and reaching for bigger names.

Right.

And one of the biggest names I put on my list was Joe Bonamassa.

Yeah.

And I can remember the Snickers and The titters, you know, going, yeah, I'm going to get Joe. And they're like, yeah, all right, good luck with that. You know, Go get him, buddy. We got him.

Yeah.

Episode 45 was Joe Bonamassa. Five episodes before that was Walter Trout.

And Walter not only talked about his liver transplant and the harrowing experience that he went through, he also talked about the three day intervention that Carlos Santana did with him to get him off of drugs and alcohol. That, for me, triggered something. I went, I gotta dig deeper when I do my interviews. And I get goosebumps thinking about it. I gotta dig deeper.

I want to get those stories not for the sake of sensationalizing something, but because it shows you the humanity of the artist. And for me, that's been the hallmark of what I've done ever since show 40.

Yeah.

And I would say that, you know, your tenacity is. And you've heard me call you that several times, you've got tenacity. And that's really what's helped you get some of those names already.

And I'm sure you've got some bigger names or I don't even want to call them bigger because everybody's got their contribution, everybody plays a part.

Sure.

But I know you've got others on the list that you still want to cross off.

So up to this point, you know, like everybody that you've interviewed, give me one artist or one episode that you feel encapsulates kind of the spirit of what Time Signatures is about. Was it one of the ones you already mentioned?

No, it actually wasn't. It's the one that is going to be my season ender. My. My finale for season five. It's Curtis Salgado. And I'll tell you why.

Because a lot of people don't know that Curtis Salgado lived out in Oregon back when Animal House was being filmed. They filmed it in Eugene, Oregon.

Okay.

That's where he lives.

Yeah.

So here comes John Belushi. John Belushi gets introduced to Curtis Salgado one night while he's performing. And it blossomed into this friendship.

Belushi invited him to come over to the house that they rented for him. You know, while he was there with his. His wife. They made dinner for him. He says, oh, by the way, bring your music with you.

So Curtis started educating John on R B and blues and soul. Next thing you know, he's coming up going, hey, I just want to let you know that we're going to do a little skit.

It's going to Be called the Blues Brothers. And. And this is because of you.

Okay.

And next thing you know, I mean, he showed him, you know, Jake on his knuckles, he had that he had tattooed, and it's for the movie. And he's like, yeah, what do you think of that? You know? And Curtis is like, oh, I. What is it? You know?

Long story short, when they first performed on Saturday Night Live together as the Blues Brothers, he and Dan Aykroyd, they dedicated the performance that night to Curtis. And the band did not know that. Okay. If you go back and you look for it, you'll find it. And it was really cool.

So you're going to hear this entire story. And I mean, Curtis can tell a story, believe me.

Yeah.

We spent an hour and 38 minutes getting through all of the story complete, you know, from start to finish. But I did that because I've never heard it anywhere else complete. I've heard little.

Little bits of it, little pieces of it, or compressed, you know, encapsulated versions of it. I wanted the whole story and I was going to air it complete. And that's what we're doing.

So that'll be the big 100. Now, are we breaking news here or. Oh, no, no, no, no, no.

That's. That's our season five finale. That's gonna be like, episod.

Oh, all right, all right, all right. We aren't going to talk about who's. Who's 100, are we?

You. You tell me when you want to hear about it, I'll tell you about it.

All right, let's break the news. What's happening?

So Chicago has lovingly opened its doors to me via a very good friend, somebody that I call my honorary executive producer. Her name is Lynn Orman.

She is a publicist, she's a journalist, she's a fellow broadcaster, and she has introduced and opened the doors to several people for me. But the big one she brought me was the legendary Billy Branch.

Now, Billy did an album called Harp Attack with Carrie Bell, James Cotton, and Junior Wells. Yeah, okay. He was the kid.

So I got an opportunity to talk to him and we're gonna go in there and talk about that album and several others and the things that he's doing. Now. This man has spent 4:46 years in the Blues in the Schools program.

That's right there.

I know that, yes, sir.

And I mean, he does a two week residency every year where he grabs a group of kids and he doesn't just show them the harmonica, he teaches them to play the harmonica. He Teaches them the roots of the blues and the story and the history of the blues.

And then at the end of this two weeks, he does a performance with all of these kids. That's awesome. So I thought, what better way to honor this man?

And he has become an ambassador to the blues for the greater Chicago area, because all of these others are gone, with the exception of Buddy Guy and Bob Strozier and a couple of others, they're gone. They've passed from the scene. So he is now the guy that we go to to talk about those days and. And the history, and he's steeped in it.

Boy, he knows what he's doing.

That's exciting.

And so it is going to be a huge pleasure to have him on the show. And I can't wait for everybody to hear our season 100 or episode 100.

All right, so here's the deal is, you started this, like, what, two or three years? How long has it been now?

Two and a half years.

And you really been plugging away with it ever since you began. Like, you actually, like, really embraced it quite a bit more than I thought you would. And then last year, you decided, you know what?

I don't have enough work. I'm gonna go ahead and create a YouTube channel as well.

So when you did that, when you finally put YouTube into the mix, did your approach to storytelling, did it change any, or do you still kind of do the same thing?

No, we kind of did the same thing, but the video lends a completely different flavor to it. And there are some of the people that I've interviewed in the past, like Steady Roll and Bob Margolin.

I'm bringing him back on because there's certain people that I want to capture. I'd love to capture them all on video, telling the stories, you know, to go way back to the beginning.

And eventually, like Freddie and Marge and some of the others from the local bands, I'm going to bring in. I've actually brought a few people in locally. Twilight, Birdsong and a few others.

Ray Alshire has come in, and we've talked about, you know, the early days of blues in the greater Lansing area.

I think especially for the local stuff, you want to have video because it brings the viewer another element for them to attach to and become invested in. To me, adding video has been a wonderful thing to do with the podcast for that reason.

I think it was a good move on your part, and you've really built up your YouTube channel quite a bit. What are you up to now?

Yeah.

To date, we are closing in on 14,000.

That is awesome. So it hasn't quite grown as much as your YouTube channel subscribers, but your vinyl collection's grown quite a bit.

Oh, man. You want to talk about crazy?

Did you have vinyl in your mix, like, before you even got started with this?

April 8th of last year? I had none. Zero.

So. So that's what I thought. I'm going to really put you on the spot here. What's your most prized piece of vinyl at this time?

I just received this, as a matter of fact, yesterday, two days ago.

Oh, there it is.

This is. This is the Willie Dixon chess box, and it's really cool. It's a three album set that was put out years and years ago.

I'm still trying to get the how and wolf version of this. I have the Muddy Waters already. The other prized possession here is my album from James Cotton. I got this up in Bay City in the spring. Okay.

Along with a few other pieces. All right. Yeah, this is a cool album. But what makes it even cooler, Signed. And that is his signature, People. That is his signature.

Love it.

That is awesome.

When I went, I went back to the people. I'm like, dude, did you realize this was signed? And then I took him online and I showed him James Cotton's signature.

He's like, well, I guess it's worth a little more now, isn't it?

That is awesome. So, like, in personal conversations, you and I have talked before, and I'll say it again, your interview skills, I think are better than mine.

And as time has progressed, you've gotten even gooder. And I know gooder isn't a word, but I love making. Yes, it's more gooder. I love making up a good word. So there you go. You're gooder.

So what advice have you got for aspiring people who are trying to improve their interview skills? What advice do you have for them as far as interviews go?

Let me throw something at you. I had an interview with a gentleman by the name of Earl Thomas Bridgman. Earl is from California, and he's got incredible stories.

Etta James has recorded his music. Tom Jonas has performed his music. Screamin Jay Hawkins has done his music.

The biggest compliment I've ever received came from him, and he said, I hope I coined this phrase. He said, you are the Oprah Winfrey of blues podcasting. That's a hell of a compliment.

Is a great compliment.

It really is. And.

And trust me when I tell you, Dedalion, I'm taking this with a ton of humility, because if my mom was here, she'd be whispering in my ear, remain humble before the Lord. That was her favorite phrase.

That's what she said.

So I keep myself grounded, and I'm. And I'm serious. I'm humbled about it. It's. It's an incredible honor to be on the Blues Archive and to be part of that.

But my advice for any podcaster starting out, first of all, you have to have a passion for what you're doing. The one magic bullet that I have found with this podcast is I found my niche, or my niche, however you want to say it, and it truly is its own.

I mean, it's not just another podcast. There's a reason for people to come and check it out. There's, you know, it's, It's. It's focused.

So, number one, find your niche or your niche, however you want to say it. But secondly, be real, right? Don't. Don't try to put on airs and things like that. And probably the biggest piece is don't talk to hear yourself talk.

Right?

Okay. I've heard. I've heard interviewers, they. They've got the Jolly Joe radio sound and, hey, George, why don't you tell me about this?

That and the other thing. They'll get a half sentence in. Yeah, but don't you want to talk about. And they just. You're not the focus.

And what I try to do, do, Daedalian, is with my questions. I try to ask the questions and get the hell out of the way and let them go.

Right?

Just let them go.

You had a lot of things to unpack there. But the one thing that I think you share with most anybody that I ask that question to, or something similar to, is authenticity. Be yourself.

Make sure that that's your driving force behind what you do. And I agree with it completely, wholeheartedly. And as you know, I work with a lot of folks that really have never gone into broadcasting.

That's not really their thing, and they're completely new to the whole deal. And I always tell them every time you're gonna make mistakes, you're bound to make mistakes. So you just told me the positive side.

Now I'm going to ask you on the other side.

Tell me about the biggest blooper, biggest thing that happened that maybe either ended up on the cutting room floor or people just don't know about, but it was kind of fun all Right.

So you know me, I love going out and doing remote recording. I don't have any problem doing it. Some of the first.

One of the first episodes we did, as a matter of fact, that you alluded to, fraught with all kinds of technical difficulties, was recording live at. At Moriarty's.

And the problem that we had was he had feedback coming through the microphone or the microphones from the speakers that were too close and blah, blah, blah.

I swear, whoever was who was serving that night was intentionally throwing dishes a little harder than normal.

Yeah, sorry, go ahead.

But little over a year ago, I was asked by Mike Scorey, a good friend of mine and also a wonderful Lansing musician, if I would be willing to do a Storytellers episode or a Liars Club episode with a bunch of musicians from Lansing.

Okay.

And I said, sure, that sounds like fun. So we did it. A gentleman came out and recorded it for us, gave me the stuff.

I put it together was a wonderful audio only episode because the guys didn't really want to be on camera. So I thought, well, man, that went really good. I think I'm going to reach out to people in other areas.

So I reached out to the greater metro Detroit area and talked to Motor City Josh down there in metro Detroit, and I said, I'd like to do something like this. And I described it to him and he said, yeah, let me put some people together. So he did. He got Pim, Greg Nagy, Dave Edwards, and Pat Smiley.

We all met at the recording studio. I set everything up. I brought my podcasting stuff. I have my camera, my lights. I had everything. It was awesome. Guess who forgot to do his audio check.

So the only audio that I got from the entire episode was off my video camera, off my little HD webcam.

Oh, man.

And if. And if you go look for the Liars Club episode with Motor City Josh and Greg Nagy and those other guys, it's up there.

Those are guys that are busy, so that'd be hard to pull that together.

Again, I wasn't going to even ask. And. And it was. And the content was so good. I said, you know what? Live and learn.

That's exactly it.

But. But they made me do it because they said, you asked one question during the interview.

What was your biggest snafu, your biggest blooper, your biggest screw up? And every one of them answered it. So they said to me, we're not redoing it. Put it up as is and tell that story. And so I did those kind of things.

Keep you humble, man. I'm telling you they do.

And kudos to you, you know, for, you know, going through the process and actually being brave enough to put it up there and out there. Because I know that we've had some mistakes before where I'm just like, no, we're not putting that out.

So tell me about the first moment you realized that Time Signatures was actually connecting with your audience.

And I'm like, holy crap. And I messaged her and I said, did you share this or something? She goes, oh, yeah. I put it on my socials.

And it's like, at that time, that was one of the biggest episodes I had had organically. It made me realize that, you know, that I had something like I had found my niche, you know, and then Chicago opened its doors to me with Lynn.

And, you know, she told me recently, she said, you know, I. I trust you. I've watched you and I trust you. So when I bring these interviews to you, I'm. I'm extending you some extra trust.

Right?

And so when I get these interviews, like Billy Branch or, you know, these Legends of the Blues, they're children that I just recently interviewed and talked to. Beautiful episode. Beautiful episode. One of the. One of the best episodes I've ever done. But I had a video snafu.

Well, there's. There's another one. And that goes back to the same thing, though. As long as you learn from it.

Well, then I guess it was worth going through, I guess in some way.

Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

You know, like you said earlier, a lot of your guests have. Have become what. What I would call bigger names and in the world of blues.

But one of my favorite things about what you're doing is you still pull it back to the local scene every once in a while. And I do those interviews because a lot of those folks, they're people I know. They're people that are part of our community.

So tell me how you feel that the capital city, Lansing, Michigan, fits into the greater blues scene.

You know, Daedalian.

And I gotta tell you, after I just interviewed Harry Oman not long ago, and I am so excited for that episode to air the work that he did back in the early 90s, to bring these musicians like Johnny Basset and Thornetta Davis when she was very young and a whole bunch of Others into the Lansing area from metro Detroit. The work that Jim Flynn did in the greater Lansing area, bringing in Anson Funderberg and some of these others that.

That they brought in specifically. I mean, Jim used to pay some of these people out of his own pocket.

Right.

To come and perform here. Yeah, it made Lansing incredibly relevant. As time has progressed, we've kind of lost that relevance.

We've lost a lot of our venues, like the Green Door that just went dark at the end of June.

I'm saddened by it because I would love to return to that because I believe that Lansing was a conduit through which, you know, everybody from Chicago to New York, if they were traveling, they knew that they had a place they could come and play because there were several outlets to do it. But, man, what a history. What a rich history we have in the blues. It's wonderful.

I didn't really have this question in the lineup of what I wanted to talk about, but only because you mentioned his name. I want you to elaborate a little bit on who Jim Flynn was here in our community.

Well, Jim Flynn was a gentleman that was a huge blues fan. He was here in the earliest days. Now, the.

Coco Taylor was there, the McKinsey brothers were there, Thornetta was there. Bonnie Queen, B. Stebbins was out handing out flyers. And as a result of that, there was. There were meetings that were scheduled.

Jim Flynn was among the first to be a part of that group and came in as part of the ad hoc board and was a key piece, as I said, to bringing musicians into the greater Lansing area to perform.

Right.

And like I said, he would travel, he would. He would go down to the southern states and he'd bring people up here to perform and he'd pay other people.

Whenever Anson came through, he knew he had a stop that he could make here and make some money because he wanted to help keep that going. He wanted that live music to keep going. And so he was a huge piece of this history in the greater Lansing area.

And sadly, I didn't meet him until not long before he passed. And so I didn't get to enjoy the early days of Jim Flynn's work and all of the great musicians that he brought to the greater Lansing area.

Yeah, he was a great guy, and I was glad to have gotten to Know him myself. You know, we did an entire episode on it.

So I don't want to dive too far into the weeds as far as your incorporation into the University of Mississippi's blues archive, but I do want to.

I want you to kind of like, explain what it felt like when you realized that that was gonna happen, where you were gonna actually be included in that. What were you feeling at that time?

I was absolutely gobsmacked.

Yeah.

I was only in the early stages of this show. I had just. It was before I started the video, as a matter of fact. I was in season two, I believe, when I got the word yeah.

And Greg immediately said, yes, we want you.

Yeah.

And I'm like, really? Really? That's it.

So send him, like, some samples.

I just told him about it and sent him a link.

Okay.

And it came through through Bonnie Queen Bee.

Yeah.

And she was the one that recommended I reach out because they're always trying to preserve, you know, various elements of the blues. And when I went to their website, I found that they had a lot of recorded interviews with different people. But it.

Number one, wasn't any of them podcasts. Not one. Maybe some radio programs, different things like that. So this was a.

A real first for them to be able to incorporate a podcast that was being produced currently to be put up on their archive. I mean, it's not lost on me the historic weight that now rests upon every one of these episodes.

Because I tell people when I get done talking to them, by the way, this episode is going to be preserved for decades to come. Okay. Your children's children's children are going to be able to watch it and hear it. It's an honor.

It's an incredible honor to be part of something like that. When we talk about preserving the history of the blues, we are truly preserving the history of the blues.

Very cool. If you could have any blues artist sit down with you tomorrow, living or dead, who would that be? Wow.

You know, living or dead? That changed it for me, because living it, it'd be Buddy Guy. He's been on my. On my hot list forever, I would say.

I think I'd like to talk to Paul Butterfield. I'd like to get some stories from him about those early days with Mike Bloomfield and Charlie Muscle White and Elvin Bishop.

They were the white guys in Chicago that were sitting at the feet of Howlin Wolf and Muddy Waters and all these great blues men in Chicago in the early 60s, and they helped carry that out to the world.

Yeah.

And I would love to get some of those stories, man. I really would.

It would have been a great time to be in Chicago, wouldn't it?

Oh, man. When I. When I talked to Charlie Musselwhite and did the interview, I'm like, man, did you know what was going on when you left?

Because he actually left kind of like at the early part of it, and he didn't realize. He didn't realize. And when he came back, he didn't realize that it had exploded like it had. But wonderful stories from him, man.

Yep, yep.

So where do you see the Blues heading in the future? And where exactly do you see Time Signatures being a part of that story?

Well, I have to be honest with you, I am disheartened a little bit by the downward trend that I've seen in the blues over the last five, six, ten years. I am told that resurgences happen regularly in the music genre, which is wonderful cycles.

I am really hoping to be part of that resurgence, both locally and nationally, Globally, because Time Signatures truly is a global reach. And I would love to just have Time Signatures be a part of keeping those.

Those stories alive and keeping those legacies moving and sharing them with future generations so that there is truly a reason to keep the genre moving.

Very cool.

Before we depart, is there anything else you wanted me to ask about that we didn't hit on?

Well, I. I would like to pay homage to a couple of my friends that have been involved with helping me along the way.

This is the time to do it, brother.

Well, we're going to start with my producer, Dadalian Lowry. Thank you. Because you were the guy that. That believed in me, held my feet to the fire, made me.

I'll never forget the time you told me I need at least four episodes in the can. And just. Just so that we have a little bit of. A little bit of reference to it. Season five is done. I'm already recording in season six, which doesn't.

Doesn't even launch until January. Okay. That's how dedicated I am to this program. But among the others, I've got Devin Jones, my mentor from Canada, Lynn Orman from Chicago.

I've already mentioned her.

I've got great ties with Michelle Seidman and the National Women in Blues, my good friend Andy Cabala, who came up with the name Time Signatures because he's a drummer. And then of course, my subscribers, my listeners, the fans of the show.

Like I say in every episode, if it wasn't for you, none of this would be possible. And that's my thanks.

And it takes a community to build what you have built.

Indeed.

You're doing a great job, man, and it is so awesome to have you a part of what we're doing here at LCC Connect as well. So my pleasure for everything that you've done. All right. You know, I like to finish the show with a rando question, Right.

What's your go to karaoke song even if you'd never admit it publicly?

New York, New York, I've done it publicly. There's recordings somewhere out there.

New York, New York, I've done publicly.

So yeah, yeah, I like getting the girls up there. Do a kick line for me while I'm doing it too.

There you go.

No, I'm just saying it's, you know, something you don't want to pass along so they can fix it.

You're saying I'm yellow?

You're yellow.

This is LCC Connect. Voices, Vibes, Vision.