Episode Lineup:

Exit Stage Left – Guests: Chelle Peterson & Rob Roznowski, Playwrights / Rabbit Tails & Medieval Pageantry (LCC's 2026 Summer Stage Season)

Michigan History Moment – Topic: Fordston Tractors

Time Signatures – Guest: Grego Anderson, Musician / When Blues Becomes a Visual Art

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Welcome to Exit Stage Left, LCC Performing Arts. Your all access pass to creativity, talent and stories shaping the stage at Lansing Community College and beyond.

Places, everyone.

Energy up. Okay, let's make some magic.

And now, here's your hosts, LCC Performing.

Arts coordinator and theater faculty, Paige Tufford.

Hi, everyone. Welcome to Exit Stage Left.

I'm Paige Tufford and today I have with me two special guests, Shelly Peterson and Rob Rosnowski, to talk about the shows that we are doing for LCC Summer Stage under the Stars. The first show is the Tale of Peter Rabbit, written by Rob and Shelley Peterson and also directed by Shelley. So thank you both for being here.

Thank you for having us.

Yeah, thank you so much.

So you guys wrote this together when you were at msu, Shelly, correct?

Yes, I was a student and Rob was one of my professors.

Yes.

So what sparks this project? How did it start?

Rob was writing a show for Summer Circle and their theme was pick a children's book and write a show based on that. And I had just started there and just did music for the freshman showcase.

And then he asked me to write a children's song based off of a children's book. And I picked where the Wild Things Are and I wrote a song, presented it to them at the end of the semester.

And then he asked me to write the music for Peter Rabbit, which was done in one semester.

Wow, that was quick. So tell me about. Go ahead, Rob.

I don't know. Just this, I think that was important for that is this.

I. I just saw how quickly Shelley wrote and how really great the work was, and so it was just like a natural fit. I think for me too, I had gone back to what was going to be public domain.

So that's when I picked the Peter Rabbit idea because it was now, you know, available for anyone to traumatize or radicalize. So that's sort of why that show was chosen.

Now, did either of you have any connection to this story, like growing up or as children or not particular?

In fact, I think I side more on the side of Farmer McGregor because I had more experience with rabbits eating all my garden food. So.

We had one of the original. Like as a kid, we had one of the original illustration books. And so that's the only way I remember it.

But then like taking that very slim book and turning that into an hour long music, the difficulty actually.

Was it difficult just because the book was short or.

Yeah, the book was so short. Yeah.

So you would have to just take like little moments and then create backstories and stories related to that and kind of expand just on little things that were in the Beatrix thought to begin with.

And that was difficult just because it was a stretch.

It was fun.

It was fun.

Yeah.

Well, think like a rabbit, right?

Yeah.

Have you two worked on or collaborated on any other projects?

I don't think so. Was this just the. The only one for us?

I think it was, yeah. But you've gone on to do so many other things with Dion and other stuff, too.

Yeah. Yeah. So this is our only thing together, but we each have our own pool, right? Yeah.

What other music have you, you know, shows have you written for? Has it been primarily children's theater or theater for youth?

Mostly, yes.

I've done lots of things for MSU Sensibility Ensemble, which is chaired by Dionne o' Dell and geared towards neurodivergent children and audiences for them specifically. And that's been fun. We're actually going to start another one that she wrote with her class this last spring, and she wants to add more music.

I hear there's music in there already, and I haven't seen it, but she wants to fine tune it and send me lyrics to write music for.

Oh, that's great. Well, what about you, Rob? Where do you get your inspiration for the plays that you've written?

It comes from weird places. The last thing I wrote was a children's musical to kind of advocate for the arts in STEM education.

So it was called the STEAM Plays, and it went and it toured around, and it played actually in MSU campus at the F Reb Theater there.

And so students would come in from various schools, get a tour of the facilities, and then we would do a play about how important the arts are in STEM education. And so it comes from places that I think that I. That I find advocacy for or things that I think are. Wish that I had when I was a kid.

And I think the first STEM education really for me, just like, I can't believe we have a STEM building on the MSU campus, but it's not the STEAM building. Right. So it's like I really was advocating for the art to be part of that.

That's wonderful. Yeah. Well, I took a look at your website, you know, and I was looking at the list of plays and some of the comments that.

That people had left, and they say that your comedy is, you know, great. You know, you. You want to cry and then you want to laugh and. And you're slipping in a message there.

So do you, like, strive to do that with your Writing?

Yeah, I think because I think humor is the best way to get to the emotion, that aspect of it, or at least that's the way the defense mechanism I have in my life. And so what I do is kind of write. I write on a subject. Like I wrote a play about the cookbook collection at the MSU Libraries. Right.

And so each one of those scenes was a different decade based on a different cookbook. But some of the scenes were really hilarious and some of them were really heartbreaking.

And I think I kind of write around one theme and look at it from a bunch of different directions. This Peter Rabbit was one of the more linear pieces that I written with Shelley.

So what was the last thing that you had worked on? Or can you tell me what you're working on now?

Do you want to go first?

I think I just mentioned it. I don't even know what it's called.

Yet, but it said msu With Dion Odell.

Yeah, with the Sensibility Ensemble. So.

Okay.

Yeah.

I heard a couple of people that were in it talking about it. They love the experience. So it's always such a beautiful thing that Dion does. And your work with her is great.

Thank you.

Yeah. A show that I wrote about the cookbook is being done in Michigan this summer in Detroit, and that'll be in August.

And then right now I'm back to academic writing and I'm writing an article about kind of decentralizing the acting teacher as the arbiter of truth in the classroom and making it a more shared aesthetic with the students as opposed to top down authority. So it's not very entertaining, but it's kind of interesting to me right now.

That is interesting. Yeah.

Can I ask a question?

Yes, absolutely.

Shelley, what's it like to direct a show that you wrote? I mean, like, years ago, Like, I just. When I went back reading it this morning, I'm like, oh, what a cute thing.

I remember where we were and what we were like back when we wrote it, but what's it like returning to it or directing the piece?

Well, it's been interesting because at first, you know, I'm looking for Ryan Dutta, and yet there's only one Ryan Duda in the world. Right. And so I have to re envision what was done and make it its own thing.

You know, that has been a real good journey of discovery for me, trying to let the actors inform the characters as much as the material does and see what choices they're going to make and hone it in. So last time I directed last Summer. And it was the first time that I have directed here, so it was a fun experience and a short show.

So I'm like, okay, well, I'll worry about this when I get to the blocking or whatever. But it's been interesting because I want to make it its own creature and yet equally as entertaining and fun. And, yeah, it's got to be hard.

For either of you.

Like, if you work on a show that you're creating and then you direct it, is that hard to kind of step away from that whole creative process and let the actors come in and, you know, create things that you didn't, you know, do you ever go, wait, that's not how I envisioned that character? Or. I mean, that question is for both of you.

Yeah, for me, for sure. Definitely. Because, like, we've just had one read through and we've had one week of learning music. Right?

And for instance, one of the actors, they're learning the song, they're singing the song, they're singing the notes wrong. But what they are singing, I like better. I'm like, do that.

Do you have that experience, Rob? I mean, have you directed a piece that you wrote? And then do you have any struggles with watching actors and what they bring to the process?

I think it's more exciting than it is frustrating because then I'm like, just like Shelly said, like, yeah, do that. That's better. That's better than what I wrote.

And it's also great to have a living reading script in rehearsal that you can make adjustments related to what the actor is doing. Right. So then you're like, you go home and rewrite something because you're like, o, that's really cool.

This is their wheelhouse, this is their strength. So then you can kind of expand on that.

But for me, it's normally been like, finding a way to kind of great because you've just been acting it out in your head when you're writing it, and then you hear somebody else bring it to life and you're like, I didn't think of that at all. And that's so much more exciting.

That does sound exciting. Yeah, I guess that would be great if you got to go home and do the rewrites after, you know, some rehearsals.

Do you have normally have read throughs or readings of your scripts when they're still in process, like work in progress?

Rob changes his script the day after opening night.

That must be fun for an actor, right?

Did I really do that?

Yes, you did that with.

Thank you.

Which one was it? TWA Kid Thus with the kiss, I die.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's true.

You were rewriting dialogue after the show opened.

I know, isn't it? Oh, I mean, that was. That was like a 50 person mega marathon.

That was fully interactive, immersive theater. That's what that was.

Okay, so, yeah, I don't normally do that, but you're exactly right. I did do that, but. No, but I think it's kind of fun to. For the actors, too, to keep changing and doing all that.

Like this cookbook show that this theater company is producing this summer, they keep sending me, like, notes and be like, hey, can this line. What do you think about this? And I'm like, let me just rewrite it and let me change it and send it back to you.

So it's kind of fun to just be a playwright, not necessarily in the room, and just watch how something turns out. And being like, that's not what I planned, but it's cool what you've done with that.

Oh, that's great. Yeah, absolutely. So this is for Peter Rabbit, right? We're talking about the Tale of Peter Rabbit.

And I want to ask, what do you want people to take away from this? Was there something about this story that you want the audience to connect with, young or old?

I mean, we'll have people in there who read it when they were children and also children there who may not have ever, you know, seen the book. What is it about this story that deserves to be staged?

For me, I want them to have a good time. I want them to have a lot of fun and go in and laugh and be a part of the story.

One thing I love about this show is how the actors interact with the audience and how the audience gets to participate. So I think that's great. And I think that it makes it not just a day where you go when you sit and watch and you have to be quiet and whatever.

So it's especially for kids and adults, too, because I love it when they make us do stuff.

What about you, Rob?

I think that's when I reread it today. Meanwhile, I didn't even know you guys were doing that this summer. I thought you were talking about Shelly.

So.

So for me, when I reread it today, I was just like, I think it works, like, in the best way of kids entertainment in terms of being entertaining for the adult on one level and then being funny for the interactivity in the children. And like, like Shelby was saying, getting it, the people involved is really, really fun. I think that part of it is really interactive.

And I love that it took this role that children understand how important the arts are and how much fun they can be. And then, you know, we get another person supporting the arts or being part of the art.

And another thing he's done with this script is a lot of the lines have sprinkled in a bunch of theater education. And they talk about different things like the linear narrative and just the exposition and the rising action, and it's great.

That's wonderful.

For me, as an educator, theater for youth, I think, is one of the most important, you know, genres of theater, of, you know, exposing young audiences to the magic. You know, that's how I feel about it.

I mean, of course, I love theater for adults and everything, but there's something special about theater for youth. What are your thoughts on that, Shelley?

Oh, it's my favorite.

It's your favorite?

It's my favorite. And this is why usually because we do so much theater that is a challenge, challenge for the audience, and we need that. And we do so much of that.

And there's so much out there that every once in a while I want to have something that is just pure joy.

Yes. Yeah.

Rob, I think back to some of the bad children's theater that I did like. That's how I got my equity card doing children's theater.

Oh, nice.

And it was. Some of it was really condescending and really just blocky. Right.

And just didn't really respect where kids are and who they are and what they know and that sort of thing. And so to me, it's always been this double edged kind of approach, which is, yes, get them to laugh.

But also there are some things in there, and not necessarily in the Peter writing one, but a way to get people to think about different things. I guess this play really is about rules and when rules can be broken and how to follow them.

But I think there's the best children's theater are things that entertain you but also let you think.

Agreed, agreed. I mean, there is nothing better than sitting in the audience at a show for young people and watching their reactions.

I mean, they are the most honest audience members I have ever experienced. But I love that they abandon. Right. They abandon all sense, all, you know, everything. And they're completely immersed in that.

And I would want to see all people do that, you know, even adults let go. Right. Suspension of disbelief. So the other thing that we're doing this summer, Rob, Shelly's actually designing the costumes for Going Medieval.

That's gonna be in July, in Dart Auditorium. What do you think about medieval drama? I mean, it's not done that often.

No, not at all. Right.

There must be a reason for that.

It was really popular in the Middle Ages.

Yeah. What made you. What, because you said before we started recording, you know, that it.

Some of it's body and it's so much fun and all that sort of stuff. It's so funny. I haven't read that in college, so I couldn't remember any of the things that you're referencing.

I don't know. I mean, normally we do a Shakespeare in the summer, but we're moving that to fall semester, so we wanted a classical piece.

And I had taught the Second Shepherd's Play in an Intro to Theater class, you know, years ago, and I thought it was hilarious.

Do you design a lot of medieval shows? Shelley?

No, no, not typically. Don't get those thrown at me. Very much.

Peasant couture.

Yes. Yes.

Well, I want to close with the dates of the Tale of Peter Rabbit, which is June 24th through the 28th in the black Box Theater. And, you know, we do five performances in a row, but the Saturday and Sunday performance will be 2 o' clock instead of 7 o', clock.

So we' 2 o' clock matinees on the weekend, we'll have children's activities and fun things to do. And hopefully we'll fill the house. That little Black Box theater. Yeah. Get here early. Right? No reservations. It's free admission.

You too.

Yeah, thank you. You too.

That's a wrap for this episode of Exit Stage Left, LCC Performing Arts. We're so glad you could join us and we hope you've enjoyed the show.

To see what's taking center stage next at Lansing community college, visit LCC.edu showinfo. Exit Stage Left is a part of the LCC Connect Podcast Network.

You can listen to this episode and [email protected] until next time, keep the lights bright the cue tight, Take your bow.

And exit stage left.

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This is Time Signatures with Jim Irvin, a podcast and radio program presented by the Capital Area Blues Society in Lansing, Michigan. Most any contemporary musical style can trace its roots back to the blues.

Time Signatures explores the blues and its musical connections with captivating interviews, lively discussions and news from the world of the blues. And now here he is, your host, Jim Irvin.

Well thank you so much Parker and welcome to Time Signatures. I'm your host Jim Irvin. You know we Keep finding great folks to talk to on this program.

Most of them are musicians, but some serve in other areas such as the world of art. And today's guest has his feet firmly planted on both sides of that fence.

His paintings have been exhibited in dozens of states. He has crafted images for major label CD covers, magazines, ad campaigns, and gig posters, among things.

Everything you see on the website is his creation, making Mojohand.com one of the coolest sites on the Internet today. And as we noted, this gentleman is also a gifted musician. There's lots to talk about here. So let's welcome our guest, Grego Anderson.

Welcome to Time Signature, sir. How are you?

I'm doing all right, Jim. Thanks for having me on.

Well, it's a pleasure to have you. And let me just begin by stating the obvious, at least to you, Grego. I absolutely love the vibe and the look of your posters.

If you look over my shoulder right there, you can see that I have one of those up there right now. The Believe It's Guitar Lessons at the Crossroads poster. One of my. One of my favorites of the many that I've purchased from your site.

But I have to ask you, how long have you been involved with art?

Well, I taught myself how to draw pictures in my parents basement when I was in fourth grade.

Okay.

Yeah. Using A and W placemats with Daffy Duck on them. I went through an entire ream of paper drawing this same picture of Daffy Duck on a surfboard.

And in the beginning, it was terrible. And then by the time I got through a whole ream of paper, it was terrible. Passable.

Okay.

Ever since then, I've been chasing that dragon, man.

Now, you have a very distinct style in your work and kudos on that. But did you start out to create mojohand.com or did it just sort of fall together for you?

That kind of fell together for me. I mean, I'd been a. I've always called myself an art mercenary. Right. I was a graphic designer. I went to college for that.

Okay.

The square, as they, you know, however they talk down there.

Yeah.

And that's the first place I ever saw folk art, Southern blues. Folk art, you know, paintings on. You know, I imagine there was some Jimmy Suddet or whoever it was was down there and I was just fascinated by it.

I'd always loved everything Southern anyway. I mean, I grew up in Northern Michigan, but my dad was a teacher and also an antique dealer.

He would drive us to Florida for Christmas break so we could, you know, get out of the snow. But man, we stopped at every antique store and flea market that there was and I saw a lot of southern things and I just loved it.

I just love the idea of art looking like just regular people painted it because they either needed it or they just wanted something on their wall. You know, there was no Amazon, so I mean, you know, you wanted decoration, you didn't have money, you decorated it yourself. And it.

Right.

It's always stuck in my mind. So I, I worked hard to try and come up with my own take on what would be considered a primitive, you know, style of art. I guess.

I mean, it makes it sound like I degrade it in a way, but that's not the case at all. I mean, I really, I just love it.

I used to go down with my wife, we would go to Mexico and I would take pictures of every hand painted menu board on the side of a restaurant. You know, just to see the way a guy painted a taco was fascinating to me. I'd be like, this is so cool.

When I first discovered your work, I didn't realize that it was a guy, just guy, you know, that's doing all this. I looked at it and I'm thinking, man, that reminds me of New Orleans, you know, and it's like it just clicked as soon as I saw it.

And then I found your website because originally I think I found a poster for sale for some ridiculous price that you created. And they bought and they thought, well, I'm going to just triple the money, you know.

Oh, yes.

Yeah.

And I was all set to pull the trigger and buy it. And then I stumbled on your website and went, never mind, I don't want it.

But I love the, the style that, like you said, the southern style of it all. And it's fun. I mean, you've got some really cool things on the website and some really amazing posters.

And so as you know, I told you, I have several on the wall here. I have one right now of yours, but I rotate some 11x17s and 12x18s occasionally.

And so I like to bring your posters in and other posters that I've collected and, and it's just it's one of the things that sets my show apart from others. But talk about the first time that your work got some major attention. What was the item you created and what happened?

Well, somehow I stumbled into people being able to find my website really quick. And that was before it was Mojo Hand. Originally, I had one called Art by Grego Dot com.

And I was living in Austin at the time, and there was a little folk art gallery on South Congress, which is a real big music street and tourist street. And I just carried 12 paintings in there. And it was actually made on leftover fence planks I had.

I was rebuilding the fence in the backyard, and I had a bunch of extra wood. That's how this whole thing started, was extra wood and did these paintings.

A couple friends came over to the house, said, oh, these things are great. You should take them down there. I took them down there. They all sold, and it's like 10 days.

Wow.

And I was like, all right, well, I better start a website so I don't have to give this guy 50% of the revenue, because that's. There's an art gallery deal for you. Sure, this works. So consequently, I'm not in any galleries anymore.

I sell everything myself, you know, from there. A guy from Houston was filming a Lightning Hopkins documentary.

Okay.

He saw my paintings in that gallery, got in touch with me. Next thing you know, I'm. I'm in a documentary called where lightning strikes with B.B. King and Jimmy Vaughn and all these people.

And it was just like that. It was like, now, of course, I'm in the blues genre. So it is a not a get rich quick thing. It's a stay poor quick thing.

Right.

I always tell people, hey, I draw pictures and play guitar for a living, so I'm poor twice.

That's.

That's. That's the secret to it. There you go.

Now, many of your subjects have passed from the scene, but you don't shy away from creating posters with the likeness of musicians such as Buddy Guy or even one of today's hottest guitarists, Christone Kingfish Ingram. How do these musicians respond to your work, man?

Well, you know, I mean, all those were actually four gigs, you know, Okay. I was with. In some way. I had a relationship with the venue itself.

If they've got someone coming in and just like you, you know, they found me through a website and they're like, hey, I see you do gig posters. And then we strike up whatever deal I can strike up, which is usually not particularly in my favor, but it's still fun anyway.

And you know, that the only way to get your name out there and get exposure is not. Not just for artists, Sometimes you also die on the side of a mountain from it. But, yep, you know, I have to do it.

And plus, you know, anything I can do to help these guys get more butts in the seats is it's a win for the blues. And I wouldn't if I didn't love the genre, even though I don't played as much as I used to anymore. I've kind of gone into a singer songwriter thing.

But, you know, I was fortunate when I was in Austin that there's so many great venues there. Like we had. Everybody came through.

You know, I was doing posters down at the Green hall and for Antones and the roster of talent that would come through, the posters from everyone from Van Morrison to, you know, Jimmy Vaughn to Buddy Guy to Hubert Sumlin, I just lucked into things. I don't know if I was just in the right place or if I just talked louder than everybody else until they let me do it.

Okay, as you're talking here, talking about doing posters for venues, we've got a gentleman up here. His name is Dennis Preston. And Dennis has done some work, a lot of work for a couple of places. I.

Most of them are no longer in operation, but his stuff was back in the late 60s, early 70s, and he did some Muddy Water posters. And he did. Oh, gosh, there was a. There was a few others that he did that he was talking about. But I actually had a chance to interview him as well.

And it's amazing because I was looking through ebay one day, and I don't have it on my wall right now, but I found a poster that was encapsulated on a little piece of metal. And. Yeah, you know what? Exactly what I'm talking about. Have you ever had any of your stuff show up like that?

I have had. Oh, I don't. I've had to take legal action three times.

Okay. All right.

Right now, there's about 10 things on Temu. There's a guy that's ripping me off on Amazon. I send out cease and desists. I probably spend five hours every month being my own attorney.

Yeah.

And, you know, that doesn't pay anything. All I can do is stop, and then they just change their name and do it somewhere else. It's like trying to plug 11 holes in a boat with your hands.

There's always one hole leaking somewhere. And so, sure, I'm trying to just fend it off, but, you know, so many things are made in other countries that have.

We don't have trademark treaties with musicians. Have been dealing with it forever, you know, for a long time over there in Italy, they had a really interesting lax copyright thing. So. And.

And I didn't even realize that when I was younger and I was buying those Italian import, you know, compilations all the time. I'm sure some of them weren't bootlegs, but a lot of them must have been.

Yeah, I don't want to say too much. I got a vinyl collection over here, and I've stumbled on a couple that are very collectible bootlegs that happened across my path.

And I went, yeah, okay. I just, you know, hold my nose and.

Well, you know, they've already been made. It's. It's not right.

Right. You know, if it wasn't for the fact that it was a Hendrix album. Okay.

And there was a gentleman here that had a copy in Michigan that was selling one, and he was just out to see how much he could get for it. Well, long story short, these things are going for anywhere from 150 to 500 an album or a piece of vinyl.

It's ridiculous the amount of money that they can generate off of these because they're not being made anymore. But anyway, speaking of worldwide here, Grego, how many countries have you sent posters and other pieces of art to? I'm just curious about that.

I see you ship all over the place.

Yeah, at one point I had a graphic that I had on the original website where I had it, and I don't know, I think I was up into the 30s at that time, and I'm sure it's probably a little bit more than that now. You know, it's.

It's strange sometimes, you know, and for a while, I. I was selling a lot of things to Russia for a while, and then all of a sudden, I. I wasn't allowed to ship there anymore from some of the people that I ship with that. Okay, okay. It's like, everybody behave. If you want the blues, you have to behave as a country.

There you go.

There you go.

Now, I love that you've been involved in creating some event posters, as we've talked about already here, something that I'm sure becomes a very high demand collectible. Just out of curiosity, any favorites along the way that you've done posters for?

Oh, well, that's actually a pretty tough question. I mean, early on I did. I was hand silk screening in my garage in Texas for a while because I was in the silkscreen Business.

And I did do some hand pulled stuff for the House of Blues out in la.

I think we did a, like, I don't think it was called a harmonica rumble, but you know, it was one of those where you get four or five great harmonica players. Kim Wilson was part of it. James Harden was.

I can't even recall, you know, but it was, it was a really cool poster and, and I just love the way it turned out. I did another. I did one a Gatemouth Brown like that for Antones in Austin that I really loved.

And it was a. I actually just did this little scribble drawing of him on a napkin. It was probably like this big and I blew it up really large and then, you know, messed with it in the computer. But I love that one. It.

It's probably not the best piece of art I ever did. It's probably not Even the top 10,000 pieces of art I ever did. You know, I think just because it was such a weird idea of mine.

Yeah, I'm just gonna scribble it. That's your post.

You know, in addition to all of the art that you've been creating through the years, you're also a musician, as we mentioned at the top of the episode. Talk about your brand of music, Grego. Is it all blues? Partially blues or where yet?

You know, when I got started, I taught myself how to play guitar. I didn't buy one until I was in my 20s and I got to like 23, 24. And I was still in the process of getting my career going as an artist.

So like I couldn't really, you know, when you're working 40 hours a week and married, I. I had stuff to do besides mess around with the guitar.

But by the time I got into playing in bands in the 30s, I had friends that were Grateful Dead guys and I told them I didn't like the Grateful Dead, which is. It's accurate. Sorry to anyone out there, it's just me. However, I was unaware that they had done covers of a ton of blues songs.

And so these guys tricked me, more or less said, oh well, it's just a Big Bill Brunzy song. It's just. And I'm like, sweet, I love this band. And then, you know. But it turned out it was a jam band, but I'm just playing blue stuff all over it.

And then after that I got into a little band with my buddy Jeff Hayes. He had a band up in Minneapolis called the Big Bang.

Okay.

Discovered Johnny Lang, their guitar player was giving Johnny guitar lessons when he was like 14.

Wow.

14. And then they invited him to be in the band. And then of course it took off and they were the biggest thing in Minneapolis for a while.

And then of course the record label came in, said, well Johnny, we want to sign you, but we don't need those guys.

So he was my bass player and one of my best friends from back in Austin and I was in a band with him for a few years and that was kind of a blues R B thing. We had a great female lead singer named Joanna Ramirez.

And then after a five year run of that, I started my own kind of like little Lightning Hopkins E slash Delta blues kind of mesh trio.

Okay.

And that, that was probably the most fun I ever had. I let it. I played drums of my feet, lead guitar and I had a harp player and a bass player. Loved it.

Moved down here to Florida, could not find that same level of talent. I mean they're, they're here. Yeah. There's not as many. So they're in such demand, I couldn't just grab them.

Okay.

I'd always been a big fan of writing songs. And when you're in Austin, you get this real hybrid musical education.

Old country, rockabilly, Lightning Hopkins, Texas Blues, and then the guitar slinger, Texas blues. Right. So.

Right, right.

And so I learned all those licks and those that way to play. And so my singer songwriter stuff, it sounds like I'm still in Austin. Right. A lot of alternating bass like, like the old country guys.

But sure, there's lose licks everywhere. Lightning Hopkins, rakes and all these little things. And it's. I stole it all. I'll be the first one to tell.

I don't think I've ever invented anything that I'm doing, but it's going over real, real well down here in the little tiny town of Gulfport, Florida.

And good. As you just alluded to, we were talking about Austin, Texas.

And now Florida website says that you're still based in Austin, but you recently made a relocation, didn't you?

I did. And you know, I would, I would fix that website up, but I still haven't figured out how to do it.

I had somebody program part of that in there and, and I just had her do a bunch of updates on it. I completely forgot to be like, how, how do I change this? Yeah, I'll get around to it. It's.

It's somehow hard coded into the, into the footer of that thing and I, I don't know how to do it. But we got down here 18 months ago, my wife and I, we. It was just that time and her. Her son and got, you know, over the age of 21.

And he was spreading his wings and she was like, okay, okay, I can. I can leave him alone a bit, you know, and let him succeed and fail on his own. He's doing great and.

But we wanted to get down to the water, you know, and that's. That was really the big draw.

And the weather down here when the hurricanes aren't trying to kill you, of which we've already been through three in 18 months. Eighteen months, yeah. One of them, fortunately skipped past us, but two. Two dropped right on us. Flooded out twice. We lost four trees in the last one.

Stayed up all night long fighting flood waters just from the rain, trying to come into the house. I was out there with a squeegee trying to save my office. Guitars were up on top of the refrigerator. Wow. It's. I don't.

You know, people do really strange things and. But we wouldn't. We wouldn't go back and change a bit of it. I mean, it's. It's what we're doing.

Obviously, you must have a home that's hurricane proof to some degree.

Okay.

And about five miles from the barrier island. So, I mean, we're fine from that. But, you know, we had a hundred. And I can't even remember. It was a. It was a cat 4.

So I can't remember what the wind speed on that was, but I was out in the lanai during it, trying to push water back down the hill, and a couple gusts would come through and about knocked me over, so they're legit. Like, I put plywood, all the windows and everything, just like everyone does.

You didn't have any misgivings about making the move there, even going through through two of those that hit?

Nope. No. Okay. I'm one of those people. I make a decision and I signed up. My folks are up there a little north of Big Rapids. Okay.

Not all the way to Reed City. A little place at the village of Hersey.

Oh, yeah.

And my nephew and her husband. And, you know, it's. I still love the area. And if it didn't snow, I don't know that I'd ever left. But I'm not mean cold.

Well, I'm going to tell you right now, we had a real taste of winter this year. A lot of cold, quite a bit of snow. I know that there's places up in the up that are 270 inches of snow already for the season.

And people up there, man, strong people up there.

That's putting it mildly. But hey, returning to your website for just a moment now, I see that you've got all sights of sorts of cool items there.

You've got some music available. Where can people go to learn more about Grego Anderson? Maybe pick up some art, some posters, some music and some other cool things, like.

Well, I don't have it in here. Doggone it. I dropped the ball. My cancoozie, my favorite cancoozie is normally.

It's normally sitting right here showing mojohand.com every time I do an episode. And the one time you're on, I don't have it.

I'm sorry. You know, I. I run probably one of the larger Facebook blues groups that there is. I think we're almost up to 50,000 people now.

And I post on that, geez, like 15 times a day, rare blues photos. And I chat with all sorts of people. And that is facebook.com everything blues. And it's just called Mojo Hand.

Like, if you just type that in, you'll see it. My logos, the little profile picture. And there's some legendary folks that are on there all the time chatting. Steady Margolan is on there. I love Bob.

I've had so many. I got to open up for him one time at Antones, and it was the coolest thing, right?

I'm up there winding cables, and he's up there telling me stories about Muddy Waters on the bus, you know, And I'm in Antones. I'm thinking, man, I don't feel like I paid my dues to be having this conversation, but it's the greatest thing, you know?

Yeah. Yeah.

So, I mean, that's. That's an excellent place to go. You know, I'm on there all the time. And of course, just visiting mojohand.com I mean, it.

There's so much stuff to look at on there. You could go there for 45 minutes easily.

Just, yeah.

Mess around. And I. I think I'm gonna have some new T shirts finally come out in the next two or three months.

Sales went down so bad selling T shirts because there's all these. There's a lot of bootleg.

Oh, God.

And I'm not gonna say their names so that none of us get into trouble, even though. Right. Some legal dealings with them as well, because you Know, they're just.

They found a way to allow other people to violate intellectual property law. Let's just say that that's the easiest thing I could say.

I got snookered one time, they delivered and it really. I'm just going to say it the way I feel it, it pissed me off.

And the reason why is because it's one of the organizations that I have a reverse sponsorship with, and that is the Killer Blues Headstone project.

Yeah.

And I bought four T shirts and I bought a coffee mug and I can't remember, I bought something else. It was like $150 that I spent because I thought I was giving to the Killer Blues Headstone Project. I was supporting their efforts.

Okay, for those of you that don't know who the Killer Blues Headstone projects are, they go and find at Stephen Salter, a gentleman all by himself started this mission of finding musicians, blues musicians that are buried in unmarked graves. And over the last.

16.

Is it 16 years they've got, they've got like 150 or so headstones out there. And it's all done through donations. So anytime I see an opportunity to help with that, of course I'm willing to do it.

Then I found out that it was East Stinkers and, and I, I gotta tell you, I was not a happy camper.

I wrote to these people and I told them what I thought of them and I, I told Stephen, I said, I will make this right and make a donation at least in that amount because I thought I was helping you. And he, he felt bad, but he said, yeah, it happens all the time.

Yeah, it's the, the Internet is still the wild west when it comes to, it's, it's just non stop scams and, and it's not even people in the United States, right? Yeah, I mean, almost every time I finally track down who's responsible for uploading the images, they're in other side of the world. That's that.

Yeah, I don't want to, I want to single out any country because, you know, it's just random people. It's not the country, but you know what I'm saying.

Yep. Well, Grego, it has indeed been a pleasure to have you on today. Much continued success to you. I love your work.

In fact, I'm looking forward to having a cool creation at your hand that I can unveil here on time signatures. Eventually we will unveil it and let people know where they can order them as soon as they're available.

Actually, Dennis Preston is going to be working on one for my show as well. But again, many thanks for being here today, sir.

All right, thank you so much, Jim. I appreciate it.

All right, as you look across this really cool backdrop of my podcast, I want you to notice the logo for Keeping the Blues Alive Foundation. KTBF was founded by Joe Bonamassa and they do so many incredible things.

Among them, their Fueling Musicians program started during the height of COVID where they send fifteen hundred dollar checks to help musicians by providing financial support for living expenses such as food, shelter, and also more to help musicians educate music educators and industry professionals get back on their feet.

And KTBA Records, a record label that has helped the likes of Joanna Connor, Larry McCray and Dion DiMucci, just to name a few, get their recording careers back on track. Now, if you get a chance, please consider making a tax deductible donation to Keeping the Blues Alive, won't you? I would appreciate it.

A link will be provided in the information section on this podcast channel. And let's do our part to help this foundation keep thriving so that it can continue to help musicians do what they love to do for us.

Thank you so much for your consideration. And that wraps up this edition of Time Signatures.

Once again, my thanks to Grego Anderson for his time, but also to you for if it weren't for you, none of this would be possible.

Jim Irvin reminding you that keeping the blues alive is everyone's responsibility, but preserving the history of the blues one story at a time is my mission. Until next time. So long, my friends.

This has been Time Signatures with Jim Irvin, presented by the Capital Area Blues society in Lansing, Michigan.

For more information on CABS, visit capitalareablues.org you can find this episode and past [email protected] the Time Signature's theme song, Michigan Roads, is used by permission and it was written by Root Doctor featuring Freddie Cunningham. Until next time, keep on keeping the blues alive. This is wlnz lansing. You're listening to lcc connect weekly. Find us@lcc connect.com.