Lou Antonucci | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:48 Speaker 1: Lord, I've mentioned here on market Square, trying to see my Yes, my isn't really right for even fair for my livelihood to feed in night mother Renaissance, so glass and steel the city on the side, tear it down my life. You're too fast, you move it too fast for a simple man like me. Our hard have a life on the south side, just to raise my family, my business crew. I'm moved up town here in the market square, but life savings down. The city says, tear it down, give it all to me. Beje too slow, the coats too slow for a common man like me.

2:08 Speaker 1: All my friends said stay, but the judge said no, I've got to last the free one by one. That of the shans closed down here Brcket Square. I'm losing ground and won't give it, won't lay it down. We'll give it on to feg.

2:26 Speaker 2: Gord.

2:27 Speaker 1: I've merchant hero on market Square, trying to save my piece of advise it really right.

2:35 Speaker 2: Or even fair?

2:36 Speaker 1: All my livelihood to be de nine while the renaissance up, glass and steel, the city is of the side.

2:49 Speaker 2: To tearing down line.

3:36 Speaker 1: Too much. It's all too much for a broken nun like me. Now my bank accountsil I a empty.

3:44 Speaker 3: These are holding my dys We gave you thirty eight days, not.

3:48 Speaker 1: A minute anymore. In a bucket square. I gotta pulls my doors. Makes no sense for what he not going to work for me? Bach on the Merchants Night of Market Square, trying to say my beason to buy what it really rights or even fair, all my live leidhood to be and nine father renaissance of glass and steel.

4:17 Speaker 2: The cities on this side.

4:23 Speaker 3: That zaraza, Oh, that's such a great song the Merchant on Market Square, and that is, of course the great Lou Antonucci and Jenny and I are joined in studio right now by Lou Antonucci, and let me get that. Let's see, so we've got him. He's gonna be playing live for us too, so we got the whole mic setup going. So let's see if we can hear you.

5:03 Speaker 1: Hello, Lou, Hey, Matt, how you doing good?

5:05 Speaker 3: Welcome, Welcome back to the show. It's great to have.

5:08 Speaker 1: You here, great to be here.

5:10 Speaker 4: Hi, Jen, Hello darling, real good to see you this morning and your smiling face. And I am so looking forward to get to hear you play. Great joys of coming in with Matt. As occasionally I get my own private, Lou.

5:23 Speaker 3: I know, I know we talked about it before, but but just briefly, can you tell us the story of that song again, because that's I do love that song, and it's it's an interesting story behind it because you know, it's a sad story really, but it's it's based on true events.

5:38 Speaker 1: Yeah, you know. That's Back in the eighties, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was going through a renaissance, both a cultural and a physical renaissance, and in the process of doing that, they wanted several There were a lot of corporations that were originally based in Pittsburgh that had been moving out. For example, Rockwell International was one of those that moved moved out of Pittsburgh. It used to have their their headquarters there. Well PPG was another corporate entity that was based in Pittsburgh, and they wanted to keep them there.

6:21 Speaker 1: So they were gonna build this big conglomeration of buildings downtown. And if you ever look at the skyline of Pittsburgh, now you see this big glass building that kind of looks like a castle at the top, has four corners.

6:34 Speaker 5: On the top.

6:35 Speaker 1: And so what they did was to provide the land for PPG so they'd stay in Pittsburgh. They pretty much took away much of what was called Market Square. It was the old town Pittsburgh, cobblestone streets, you know, little shops and bistros, and it was really a fight between the shop owners and Pittsburgh to stay there or at least get proper remuneration for their for their businesses. And so that's the story of one shop owner that you know, fought to keep his business but at the end ended up losing it and like other businesses had to kind of you know, because the town city took it by took the property by eminent domain.

7:24 Speaker 3: Right those that line in there, the city is on their side.

7:27 Speaker 1: Yeah. So anyway, but I mean Pittsburgh has really grown dramatically over the years, and it's a great it's a great city now. But that's kind of a little sad story of the past.

7:39 Speaker 3: Yeah, but a great song came out of it.

7:42 Speaker 5: I do love that. What have you been up to? You're always very very busy.

7:46 Speaker 1: Uh yeah, still uh still playing locally. Uh. You know, now that it's summer, it's a pretty pretty busy time because most of the restaurants and clubs add their outside and so they'll have singers out on the patios. So doing that right now. As a matter of fact, I'm playing tonight over at the Homestead in Merrimack, Okay, five thirty to nine this evening over there. And then also kind of in my in between on my You, Me and Harry Show tour, I did several shows in April, and because of the busy summer with the clubs, I generally will take June and July off from that show, and then back in August I start back up with that.

8:36 Speaker 1: Got a number of shows coming up in August in September.

8:39 Speaker 3: Now for listeners who are not familiar who it may not have heard your previous appearances on the show, or are not followers of you online yet, what is You, Me and Harry.

8:49 Speaker 1: You Me and Harry is I'm not going to call it a tribute show. A lot of people like to do that, but it's it's a two hour show and it's just me, my guitar and all Harry Chapin music. And there's a big contingent of Harry Chapin fans out there. And so I do this show and I generally do it in small, small stage clubs intimate, seventy five to one hundred seat clubs, and you know, it's it's a very engaging type of show. I'm very much engaged with the audience as Harry used to be, and I do all his all the favorites, but then also a lot of his songs that a lot of folks haven't heard before.

9:34 Speaker 1: So that's what the show is about. And it's been doing very well. I mean the first year I did it, I've been doing it three years now. First year I did it, I did three shows, one in Vermont, one in New Hampshire, one in May I remember.

9:48 Speaker 5: Yeah.

9:49 Speaker 1: The second year grew to five shows, mostly in Maine and then Pennsylvania. And this year I'm up to ten, ten shows in the tour now, so I got six more coming up. I'm doing one State College, PA, Tuckerton, New Jersey, Kennett Square, Philadelphia, and Gipsony outside of Pittsburgh. So it's and then two up in Maine. So keeping me busy, you know, coming back in August with that.

10:21 Speaker 3: That's fantastic. Has it surprised you at all just how busy it's kept you? I mean when you started the project, that project, did you think you were going to be doing as many shows as you are.

10:31 Speaker 1: I had hoped I would be. I didn't think. I didn't necessarily think I would be or it would grow that fast. But the thing about it is it takes a lot of time because I do all my own booking and all my own marketing. I do a lot of social a lot of Facebook. And it's been very you know, most of the pretty much all the rooms so far have been full. So it suddenly has gone well so far, that's outstanding. I'm shooting for twenty next year.

11:00 Speaker 3: Yeah, excellent, Good for you, Good for you. Well, so you're going to play some some songs for us today? Of course, you brought your guitar. What are we going to hear some of today?

11:10 Speaker 1: Well, I thought i'd do some original things. Cool in the past, I've done a lot of a lot of Harry Harry songs. Yeah, I'll do one a little bit later that we'll talk about. But I thought i'd do some original things, and I was feeling somewhat nostalgic. Okay, you know, so I'm going to go way back, oh you know, and kind of give you this little chronology of some of my early songwriting. Okay, Okay, Now, this is a song this is on my CD that we've talked about before in almost Perfect Flight. But it's actually a song that I wrote when I was thirteen years old.

11:44 Speaker 1: Really, yes, one of the first, one of the first three songs I had ever written, and only as four chords, very simplistic. Yeah, don't know where it came from. Yeah, okay, anyway, it's called Family, Life and Freedom.

11:59 Speaker 3: Before you before you start, yeah, sure, before we start the song lude, just give us a little strump. I just want to make sure we got good levels here.

12:07 Speaker 6: Yeah.

12:09 Speaker 3: That sounds really nice. That sounds really good in the headphones. Okay, we should be we should be good to go, all right, all right, The Great Lou Antonucci is here with us live in studio.

12:29 Speaker 1: If you come to see me, don't tell rogues marine.

12:37 Speaker 1: If you bring me flowers, I would not agree to all the simple treasures they're in Life of Free. Believe me.

13:01 Speaker 1: If your heart is broken, find your sacred tree and planted in your garden. The truth will lie beneath, unearth the walls of my obsessions when you are loving me. Believe me, Believe me. All I have wanted with family, life and Freedom, all you ever wanted was free. Sifting through the madness in time, we come to see that all these simple treasures they're in life, all free. So now I'll try to reach them. O cannot to believe. Believe me, Believe me. All I ever wanted family, life and freedom. All you ever wanted was free.

14:48 Speaker 1: So if you come to see me, please don't trows Marie. If you bring me hours, I would not agree.

15:05 Speaker 2: To.

15:06 Speaker 1: All these simple treasures they're in life, ah free. Believe me,

15:18 Speaker 1: Believe me.

15:22 Speaker 5: Believe, Oh my god, I love it. That's beautiful.

15:33 Speaker 1: Thank you, you know. On the on the album which you can stream on on YouTube, and almost perfect flight on that song. I had some great backup musicians and gentleman by the name of Richard Gardzena who's actually from northern New Hampshire. Horn player.

15:50 Speaker 5: Uh.

15:50 Speaker 1: He played sacks on some of the songs, but on that particular song played some amazing flute and it just it just makes that song kind of a little symphony of its own. He did a great job with it.

16:05 Speaker 3: So did you say you were thirteen when you were at that thirteen? That's that's incredible.

16:09 Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't know where it came from the only connection I have to that is we my sisters, and I had our cousin Patty who used to come babysit us, and her older sister was our cousin rose Marie.

16:24 Speaker 3: Okay, so that's probably where I got the name. I was going to ask you, who's Rose Marie.

16:28 Speaker 1: That's my babysitter or sister, But it has no connection the right to the to the story of the song.

16:35 Speaker 3: Oh okay, okay, gotcha, Yeah, gotcha. If you're just joining us, Lou Antonucci is here with us, live in the studio.

16:43 Speaker 5: Now, do you do any when you do the show? You me and Harry? Do you do any of your originals during that show? Or yeah? I do.

16:51 Speaker 1: There's one one of my original songs. I think. I think I did it last time I was I was here. It's called a Message from Harry.

16:59 Speaker 5: Okay, right, I do that.

17:01 Speaker 1: I do that one. But I've got a new one that I recently recorded, and it's actually a co write with Harry.

17:11 Speaker 5: Oh wow.

17:12 Speaker 1: Yeah, an interesting story behind that one. But maybe we'll save that for a little you want to say that later, save that one for a little bit later. I warm up to that, but yeah, I do do some some originals that that message from Harry and then this new new song, but okay, it's really all pure pure Harry.

17:32 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I'm sure we've talked about it before. But why Like, obviously Harry Chapin is he would you say he's your favorite artist of all time?

17:41 Speaker 5: Or yeah?

17:41 Speaker 1: I think he's the one. You know. When I was growing up, when I was thirteen and through my teen years, right, I was mostly I would mostly follow Harry Chape and James Taylor, Jim Crochey, John Denver. But I guess Harry was the one who really stuck with me because because of the uniqueness of his story songs, okay, you know, and then the songs that I've written over time, I think lend themselves a little bit more to to story songs.

18:12 Speaker 5: Right, that makes sense?

18:13 Speaker 1: Yeah?

18:15 Speaker 3: Do you generally find it more interesting to tell a story? I mean a lot of songs, you know. I mean, there's there's no right or wrong.

18:22 Speaker 5: Way to do it.

18:22 Speaker 3: Obviously, every artist expresses themselves, however, but most most music that we listen to, just broadly, regardless of genre, most of it doesn't necessarily tell a story. Most of it is, you know, there's a lot of love songs, there's a lot of heartbreak songs, but but actually telling a story, like you know, like the Merchant on Market Street is a great example of a song you have, and it's part of what I love about it that actually tells a story. But I mean, is that is that something that's important to you to be able to I don't know.

18:52 Speaker 3: I mean, do you have any songs that don't necessarily tell a story but they're more just here's a here's a love song, or whatever it is.

19:01 Speaker 1: I've got several of those. I'll just make one comment and I'll do one or two of the ones that don't necessarily tell a story. But in terms of telling a story, what I find about telling a story in a song, especially if it's from some true event, is that people in the audience when they come to listen to music, right and not coming to dance, not coming to drink necessarily, but kind to listen to music, there's something in those story songs that they find relatable and when they relate to it, they get so much more wrapped into it.

19:40 Speaker 1: And that's what I like, That's what I like to see. Now, if you don't want to necessarily have a story song. I've got one here now. This one I wrote a little bit later in my teenage years. Okay, this one I wrote when I was seventeen now, being from Western Pennsylvania at that time time back in the seventies seventies, okay, a lot of things going on. But one of the things that was was really happening, not just in Western Pennsylvania but across the country was the boom in fast food. Yes, okay, you know in western Pennsylvania it was McDonald's, it was Burger King, it was Wendy's, it was Burger Chef, it was Winkies.

20:23 Speaker 1: I don't know if they had winkies up here anywhere. Was an interesting one. And it was you know, if you were into seafood, it was whatever that seafood chain was along John Silva. Okay, right, okay. So one day I sat down and I said, maybe I should pay a little homage to fast food. Okay, So this is what came out.

20:44 Speaker 5: Very curious to hear.

20:45 Speaker 1: This not a love song, not a story song, just a song about fast food.

20:50 Speaker 3: All right, Lou Antonucci live in studio.

21:01 Speaker 1: Now, go, ma, food doesn't fece my palate. I never been won forgetting heavy into wine and cheese. Now my man to newt che can beg that lasagna. But I don't need no fancy dinners. I'm much more easy to please.

21:24 Speaker 1: Just give me some good, old fashioned all American fast food. Now, order me up a charcoal broiledenburger. Ain't them all one? And you escarf them money? Inspected be Anna says, some of his seeds hold the buns together. You can pass on the onions. Give me some ketch up tomato and a slice of pickles. American fast food. Well, I've never been accused be envitamin the fishing, and I got no ulcers in my teeth. Are doing just fine, and I credit my good health to that fast food habit of mine. All American fast food, American fast food, All American fast food.

22:28 Speaker 1: American fast food. Yeah, with golden bird on fries, neatly cooked to perfection, a hot apple pie or a Sunday weather top had whipped creemy. You can wash it all down with a shake, Oricola, got no dirty dishes, You just empty your tray as you walk out the door. American fast food. I said, I never been accused of being viottamin of fish, and my heart's still beating in my teeth. How they do shine? And ah credit my good health to that fast food, having in mind all American fast food, American fasto.

23:55 Speaker 3: That's great, lou Antinucci, American fast food. I don't know, though, you don't think that's a story song.

24:03 Speaker 5: To me, it's like the story of how.

24:05 Speaker 3: One ruins ruins one health, one's health.

24:09 Speaker 1: I'm sure a lot of people can relate.

24:10 Speaker 5: To it, no doubt, no doubt. No, that's great though. I love that. I did not heard a song of yours like that before, with that kind of vibe. I really like that. That's a lot of fun.

24:20 Speaker 1: Yeah, a lot of fun, a little a little different.

24:26 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, no, that was that was great. That must get a really good response live. I would think people get into that.

24:33 Speaker 1: Yeah. You know. The thing is, I'm playing it at a lot of nice restaurants. Yeah, so I have to be careful. Yeah right, Yeah, it does get a good response when I do it.

24:44 Speaker 5: Yeah.

24:45 Speaker 3: Yeah, So you wrote that, did you say when you were seventeen?

24:48 Speaker 1: Yeah? That one.

24:50 Speaker 2: One?

24:50 Speaker 5: Wow.

24:51 Speaker 3: Yeah, so you were writing songs pretty like good songs really young.

24:55 Speaker 5: That's that's great.

24:56 Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess you know, hopefully I've improved over the year, you know, as I you know, a lot of people ask me when you when you write a song, what comes first, like the the you know, the words, the lyrics, or the music, you know, and typically typically they it all kind of comes at once, you know. And a lot of songwriters they'll they'll say one or the other, or they'll say the same thing, that everything kind of just comes at once. There was one song, you know, after I went off to college that you know, my roommate actually had written a poem about a relationship with his girlfriend.

25:38 Speaker 1: And we're back to relationships. But this this song is is one again from the album, and it's, uh, it's one where as a guy he's trying to figure out what his relationship is all about with their girlfriend, are they are they really just friends or is there going to be something serious there? And I had very I never really done anything like that where I've taken words like a poem that he had given me and turned it into a song. But this one, this one, this one came out pretty good. You know, the uh, the relationship, his relationship didn't stand the test of time, but yeah, I think the song has all right.

26:16 Speaker 1: This one's called If I Could Do It. This one was called Touch the Sun.

26:21 Speaker 5: Loue Antonucci, Live in studio. All right, let's hear it.

26:35 Speaker 1: I tried to understand.

26:40 Speaker 7: I tried to find you, try to see inside you,

26:52 Speaker 7: to find the wady or about.

26:56 Speaker 1: I tried to know what's on your mind. But I should have tried to touch the sun. You held yourself above me and trying to be kind. You said you could not love me, but you'd give me all your time. Try to know what's on your mind. Oh, I should have tried to touch the sun. Yes, I should have tried to touch the sun. So you'll go away. I'll go my way. Sometimes it has to be that way,

28:24 Speaker 1: and sometimes you can make me feel like lie all Awayies was just around the corner, but it's all ways out all just as if I try to touch the sun the minute time. As I told, this is a love it smell again, imrase, but never hold cherish through the penny, try and read between the lions. Oh my, I should have tried to touch the sun. Yeah, I should have tried to touch the sun.

30:02 Speaker 5: I love it.

30:03 Speaker 3: That's a great song. Great song. Louie Antonucci is here with us, Live in studio. So that's another one that goes way back then, right, Yeah, that.

30:12 Speaker 1: One goes way back. That was, you know, right at my freshman year of college, I guess I was eighteen.

30:21 Speaker 1: There There was another another song I wrote that I mentioned earlier. I'm feeling kind of nostalgic and this song I am not. I don't think I've ever played this song out in public except for playing it back when I was eighteen in college. Really, you know, I played it in my dorm room for people, and then I played it we had a you know, it was interesting in our school. We had an off campus dorm where they put the freshman Yeah, it's called Forest Manor, and they had one building with the guys and one building with the girls, all freshmen, and then they were separated by a cafeteria.

31:03 Speaker 1: Okay, you know, so it was a great way to build camaraderie for your freshman class. And I have done you know, concerts in my dorm room, then in the cafeteria. We had a big concert there, and then eventually went back to that school and did a show at the student union there.

31:21 Speaker 5: Oh wow.

31:21 Speaker 1: But this song I had written after I had first gotten to college. This one's about that. And again, I've not played this since I was eighteen.

31:32 Speaker 5: I feel like we're getting an exclusive here. This is great.

31:34 Speaker 1: This is an exclusive. This is school the first time on the airwaves. All right, this is a painful one. This is about you know, you're in high school, right, you got that girlfriend or you got that boyfriend, and you're hot and heavy, and then you graduate and you're both going off to different schools, right, and you're either gonna make it or you're not gonna make it. And but for those first couple months, you're dealing with that heartache of being a part. Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, that's what this one's about.

32:04 Speaker 5: Relatable.

32:04 Speaker 1: Yeah, again, havn't played it for.

32:08 Speaker 3: Oh long time, years probably and Alu Antonucci exclusive. I like this, okay, all right, only for you, Matt, Oh wonderful.

32:17 Speaker 5: All right.

32:18 Speaker 1: This one's called driving me mad.

32:20 Speaker 6: All right, living without you. It's making me sad.

32:33 Speaker 1: Going in circles is not what I meant when I said, girl, we can make it together again. It's driving me mad.

32:57 Speaker 1: I still remember tears in your eyes. I hated to leave you, But don't ask me why I am still here. Can't you see? I give it a try, but it's driving me mine those days through the summer fly by as September your draws me time once again to say you bye. I never thought it could hurt this bad.

34:13 Speaker 1: If I could just see tomorrow, I won't be afraid to tell you just how much it hurts to be so far way. And listen, I'm messliven without you. Who is making me sad? Going in circles. It's not what I meant when I said, girl, we can make it together again. And it's driving me mad. It's driving me mad. It's driving me out on my mind. It's driving me. Man, there, I gonna just see you tomorrow. It's driving me mad. I can just touch you tomorrow.

35:37 Speaker 2: It's driving me mad.

35:39 Speaker 1: If I just oh you again?

35:47 Speaker 4: That was gorgeous.

35:48 Speaker 3: Wow, yeah that is really gorgeous. Yeah no, that's wow. That's incredible. Thank you for sharing that with us exclusive. Yeah, yeah, no, that's a that's a great song. If you're just joining us A Lou Antonucci is here with us live in studio and we're getting to hear some stuff we haven't heard before on the show with Lou here and No, that's that's great. So you now now that you've broken that out publicly. Here is that going to be? Is that going to be showing up in your set? Is it a great song?

36:22 Speaker 1: Well? You know, I'm trying to think if it's a little too rough for the restaurant crowd. Really yeah, But when I do, you know, when I do a show that's a small stage, original show, I'll definitely yeah, I don't really do that song for sure.

36:36 Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, No, that's really good. It's really good. Yeah.

36:40 Speaker 3: How many It's probably impossible to put a number on it. But do you do you have any idea how many songs you've written?

36:45 Speaker 1: You know there are people who would say, oh my gosh, hundreds and hundreds and all that. I would say probably less than fifty.

36:53 Speaker 3: Really, yeuh yeah yeah. Quality over quantity, yeah, some Well, because I heard Elton John say this once. No, I'm sorry, I wasn't Elton John. It was Billy Joel saying that this about Elton John. That's why I got up mixed up. He said, you shouldn't write too many because you don't want to, uh, you know, because quality over quantity. He said, that's right. It was Billy Joel who said this. He was on Howard Stern and Howard was asking him, this was a few years ago, like why don't you why don't you write any anymore?

37:22 Speaker 3: Like you know, because Billy Joel you know, he's often associated with Elton John because they did those tours together, and he goes, Howard says something about, you know, Elton he's still writing songs, and Billy Joel said, yeah, I think he writes too many.

37:35 Speaker 1: Well, you know, I think there's there's something something to that. I know. I have a lot of singer songwriter friends and they just you know, one one friend of mine, he just you know, if he's not playing somewhere, he has a day, he's sitting there writing songs. Yeah, and you know, I mean that's how he did it in the old days. Yeah, you know when when Carol King was a songwriter that worked this studio and they just turned out music a little different thing back then. But yeah, it's for me. It's more if there if there's an event where there's something that that hits me that then I feel like a song comes on, you know, or you know, a friend of mine will say, hey, how about this is an idea for a song, right, and I'll think about it, and uh, you know then I'll turn on a little bit.

38:28 Speaker 1: I'll end up writing something around it. So but yeah, I don't, I don't. I don't write that many. But you know, you had asked about Harry Chapin show, and uh, you know, we mentioned a song that I've actually done. I guess you could call it a co write. There's a little nice little story behind this one that that I do in the show, and I figured i'd uh better get it in now, so we'll make sure we get it in. But the

39:00 Speaker 1: you know, I've been doing the show now for three years, and last year I contacted a gentleman out of in Long Island, New York. Now, anybody knows Harry Chapin, knows he's from Huntington, New York on Long Island and his family's from there, and Long Island is like Harry Chapin country. Okay, Okay, And this gentleman, over the years, for twenty three years now, they've been doing a concert in Long Island and it's a Harry Chapin tribute concert and it's all the Long Island musicians that get together to perform in the show.

39:43 Speaker 5: Okay.

39:44 Speaker 1: So I called him up last year and said, hey, I'm you know, I do this show.

39:48 Speaker 5: You, Me and Harry.

39:49 Speaker 1: We just started traveling a little bit and my play Harry's stuff all the time. Blah blah blah. I'd love to come down and do a song in your show, because he typically would have about I think this year were thirty eight people and some duos, trios, some singles as part of this show in production. It's really sounds fantastic. So I called him up and I said, hey, can I come down do and do a song? And he said, well, i'll I'll respectfully decline because it's really a show about Long Island musicians, oh paying tribute to one of their own.

40:26 Speaker 1: Okay, okay, interesting, this is all I get there. But then he says, if you want to come down and join us on stage for the finale because they always do all my life's a circle at the end with everybody. And I said, well, I'll see what my schedule is. But turns out I ended up I was playing somewhere that night and didn't go down, so I had the opportunity. Now, over time, I'd gotten to know josh And and Jason Chapin through Facebook and some other things I do with groups on there both sons of Harry's, and I got an invite from Jason to come down to Long Island in November's November for the Long Island premiere of a movie called Cats in the Cradle, the song that changed our lives.

41:18 Speaker 1: If you're not seeing it, you should check it out. It's on you can. I think it's on YouTube now too, but like Prime video and whatever, they did. They did a premiere in New York City and then the next two nights later they did a premiere just for Long Island. So he invited me to come down to that, and I said, oh, yeah, sure, this is a great opportunity to meet some of the other folks. So I went down. It was fantastic because I happened to be in the VIP room because he invited me. I got to Tom Chapin was there.

41:52 Speaker 1: I got to meet Tom Chapin, several other people that the directors and producers of the movie. Well, Jason was one of the producers. And then Josh Chapin says to me, Hey, lou let me introduce you to my mom, Sandy Chapin. It was Harry's wife. Wow, okay, now she's she just turned ninety two. But she's still going strong and she's a poet in her own rights. She's published several books of poetry. As a matter of fact, folks that don't know it, there's two songs by Harry. One is called Tangled Up Puppet.

42:24 Speaker 1: One is called Cat's in the Cradle. Those words were written by Sandy, not

42:31 Speaker 1: They were poems that Sandy had written. And you know Cat's in the Cradle. She she gave it to Harry and he looked at it, didn't do anything with it. But then they had their son, Josh. And after they had their son Josh and he's on the road, then he went back and looked at it again and turned it into his only number one hit. Oh wow, okay, okay. So we spent a good bit of time her and I talking about her poetry and poetry and songwriting in general and how they go together. And she mentioned a book that she published in twenty fourteen called The Book of Eyes, and what it is is it's a compendium of Harry's poems and also some of his lyrics.

43:16 Speaker 1: So I came back to New Hampshire and I went online and I bought the book. So I'm looking through the book and I came across this poem in the book, and it's called Singing Songs Alone all and it just struck me because reading that poem, I could tell this was written by Harry at the height of his success. He's sitting alone in a hotel room after a show out on the road, and you could tell it he's dealing with that struggle between what he loves so much to do, and that's singing and entertaining it and engaging with his audiences and his family back home as a wife and family.

44:02 Speaker 1: And that's what came out to me in this poem.

44:05 Speaker 5: Okay.

44:06 Speaker 1: So I took the poem and I put it to music.

44:10 Speaker 5: Okay, all right, all right, And.

44:15 Speaker 1: I went back to Sandy and Josh and said, hey, I put this song to music and I'd like to record it, and I want your permission to do that.

44:28 Speaker 5: Wow.

44:29 Speaker 1: Yeah, So they gave permission. They said, just work with Warner Chappelle Music, which is Handle Story Songs, which is all the rights and everything to Harry's songs. So I connected with them and we did some licensing paperwork and all that stuff and recorded the song. And so recently July and nineteenth, they were doing the Tribute to Harry concert again in Long Island, and they contacted me and they said, I would like you, I like it to come down and do that song for us, no kidding, yeah, wow. So here I am the only one in the show that is not from Long Island, but they put me on like next to last.

45:23 Speaker 1: They did cats in it last, and then you know, uh, and it was great. It was just fantastic.

45:28 Speaker 5: That is cool.

45:30 Speaker 1: And then on top of that, I get a call from well, not necessarily a big competitor, I would think, but maybe ninety two point five The River. Yeah, and uh, this past week, well, Wednesday of this week, they had that song as their homegrown feature.

45:49 Speaker 3: Oh my god, that's awesome.

45:51 Speaker 1: Congratulations, that's been going very well.

45:55 Speaker 5: So that's great.

45:57 Speaker 1: I'd like to do that one.

45:58 Speaker 5: Oh I cannot wait? Can I wait to this?

46:00 Speaker 1: And I will well mention that all the words in the song are verbatum, okay, okay, the only the only difference is the last line in the song. I added that, okay, because I felt it just would kind of bring it home.

46:17 Speaker 3: All right, lou Antonucci live in studio and what's this called again?

46:21 Speaker 1: Singing my songs alone?

46:23 Speaker 5: All right?

46:42 Speaker 1: I live inside my music. I love the spaces there. I can sore inside my stories. They can take me anywhere.

46:59 Speaker 1: You may say he's up there working. We've got our jobs and singings his. But to me, I see it differently.

47:12 Speaker 5: It's the only.

47:14 Speaker 1: World there is. I'm a king in my music castle. My walls are made of sound. My vand mates are my soldiers. We come to conquer towns. As I ride out on each melody, A microphone needs my sword. I'm out to slay the audience. Applause is my reward. There's a lady is somewhere waited who loves me more than I can noble. She dies a little each time I leave, loves me enough to let me go oble, she prays. One day I see the way to bring my songs back home. Now I'm roving toward the lights, singing my songs along.

48:43 Speaker 1: But when the song is over and the stage is darkened, bad. My motel is a dungeon. One's way in there, And this king, in all his finery, is just a jester and the clown. My castle's a pack of playing cards that all come tumbling down.

49:22 Speaker 3: There is a.

49:24 Speaker 1: Lady is somewhere away who loves me more than I can know. She dies a little each time I leave, loves me enough to let me go. I know I'm hopeless, crazy, an almost classic case. It seems to come out backwards. I've got a mask behind my face. I'm alive when I'm singing, and I've an admission. I'm must Maybe when I'm up here, it's reality. When I'm off stage, it's fad.

50:29 Speaker 1: He is the latest somewhere away, and who loves me more than I condob She dies a little each time I leave, that loves me enough to let me go,

50:50 Speaker 1: She prays. One day see the way to bring my songs back home. Now I'm rove in toward the lights, singing my songs alone, and when the stage hands finally dimmed the lights, I'll be bringing my songs back home.

51:35 Speaker 3: Oh that is beautiful, Wow, gorgeous. Wow, Lou Antonucci look very good for me. Yeah, that is that is fantastic. Lou Antonucci here with us in studio. We so we've got very Yeah, we don't have much time left. I want to make sure our listeners know where they can find you online, where they can find out where to see you. Me and Harry any any of that information that we need to make sure people know.

52:04 Speaker 5: Great.

52:04 Speaker 1: Yeah, uh, well they could. They could find out anything about me. Okay on lou Antonucci dot com. Okay, l O U A N T O n U C C I just like it's pronounced okay dot com Okayanucci dot com. It also has it will have the schedule of the Harry shows. Okay, there's a there's a special uh site just for you, me and Harry, and that's you, Me and Harry dot net. Okay, okay, And if you make a mistake and say you mean Harry dot com, that'll also get you there. Oh perfect, Okay, but it's you know that that site has a lot, it's all all pertains to the show, the show's schedule, the tour, everything like that.

52:48 Speaker 3: Excellent, excellent. And do you have anywhere that you're playing this weekend that you want to play?

52:51 Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm I'm at at the Homestead in Merrimack, Mac tonight. Uh And I quite honestly forget when I'm playing next Saturday, playing Sunday, and somewhere Saturday in New Hampshire. I think I think it's the Homestead up in Bristol. Okay, okay's an outdoor patio thing. They've got a beautiful patio up there. Anybody in that area that might want to come out. That's on on Saturday.

53:15 Speaker 3: Okay, very good, very good, Thank you so much. This has been wonderful.

53:20 Speaker 5: Hey.

53:20 Speaker 1: I always enjoy coming by.

53:22 Speaker 5: Absolutely.

53:23 Speaker 1: I picked the perfect day to come in.

53:25 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, stay inside here out of all that you yes, yes, yeah, Jenny's been been very very busy.

53:32 Speaker 5: Should I plug your website? Oh?

53:34 Speaker 4: Yes, you got to keep up with the good trouble that I get into. You got to go to Jencoffee dot com j E N N co o f f UI dot com and check it out there. Coming up on August twenty second, we'll be having our first meeting for the Patient's Union here in the great city of Manchester at the Brick Side Congregational Church. Go to my website to check out for more information.

53:55 Speaker 1: Very good, great stuff, very good.

53:56 Speaker 3: And of course you can keep up with me at Matt Connorton dot com. That's the easiest way.

54:00 Speaker 1: To do that.

54:02 Speaker 3: And Lou, what what should I so I can we can end the show today with one of your studio tracks. What did you have in mind?

54:13 Speaker 1: Maybe Grandfather's song?

54:15 Speaker 5: Oh, that's a good one.

54:16 Speaker 1: Have you got that without any commercials?

54:19 Speaker 5: I do, I do.

54:20 Speaker 1: Yeah, I just just to mention about that song. Yeah, that song has been used over twenty four thousand times on Facebook really by folks using it as background for something or other having to do with their grandfathers.

54:33 Speaker 3: Well, how's that for Yeah, how's that for validation? Huh that's incredible. Yeah, good for you, good for you, very good. And this is from the album An almost Perfect Flight correct very when did this so?

54:46 Speaker 5: When did this come out?

54:48 Speaker 1: The album? You know, fourteen years ago? Fourteen years ago, yeah, twenty twelve.

54:53 Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, well you know it all holds up so timeless.

54:56 Speaker 1: I like to say, it's time.

54:57 Speaker 3: It is timeless. It is timeless. Absolutely, Lou Antonucci, thank you again so much.

55:02 Speaker 1: Thanks, thanks so much for having me.

55:04 Speaker 3: Absolutely absolutely we'll do it again in the future. And we yeah, we'll close out with this.

55:09 Speaker 1: Uh.

55:09 Speaker 3: This is called Grandfather's Song from Lou Antonucci.

55:29 Speaker 1: My grandfather is the soul of his family et one.

55:40 Speaker 8: Along in his life, weaving alone at the top of his mountain, tending his cards.

55:54 Speaker 2: We're no.

55:56 Speaker 1: Finding planting flowers one that time to gain a stroll, I storm.

56:24 Speaker 9: Upon again back Thenton weary, crowding, booking round.

56:37 Speaker 10: I Knowice his treasures, beautiful, cold, just his hand behind them, flowing with flowers, lost bards.

57:34 Speaker 1: I cannot say I feel that his life is gone.

57:41 Speaker 1: I can't be sure, think that I might be wrong. He's such a fine old man. He's jigging, eating from morning till evening. I tell him he's crazy. He says he's lazy. He must get on with his gardening. Clow. Could I think that his life was gone? I can't be sure, think that I might be wrong. Be such a fine old man.

58:49 Speaker 2: My grandfather is the soul of this family, A