Matt Connarton Unleashed 5-22-23

Hey, everybody, welcome, here we go Happy Monday. It is that

time again, Matt Connerton unleashed and we are live from the studios of w

m n H ninety five point three FM in Glorious downtown Manchester, New Hampshire.

Also on Comcast ninety seven if you're in Manchester, and hello to Oliver

on our listeners across the nation and around the globe. You can go to

my website Matt Connerton dot com for your live streaming options, social media links,

contact in Folk Show archives, etcetera, etcetera. Today is Monday,

May twenty two, two thousand and twenty three, So nice, have y'all

with me. By the way, that track that we just played, that's

called Artie Lange. That is from the band l Trevino. And they are

our featured musical guest skyping in at the top of the hour, our number

two numerow doos looking forward to speaking with them. They are from Where are

they from? Are they from Arizona? They're from somewhere in the Southwest.

I believe Derek Ralaford, who's a friend of the show. He's called into

the show before a long time ago, and he's sent us music before too.

I think he and his brother are in the band together and they're on

Spotify. Great great stuff. I really like this band a lot, so

we played um, we did play a couple of their early songs, but

now they've got a full album up and that'll be coming up. Like I

said. In the second hour, Jenny is in the chat room. She

says, I so like that song big time. Yeah, I do too,

I do too, really great song and uh, actually I like everything.

Everything they've done is really good. They have a song called in Blue

that is just fantastic. But anyway, so that will be coming up later

today. If you'd like to give us a call, six zo three two

five six Z seven is a number six Ozo three two five O six zoo

seven. The studio line is open. You can also text me at six

one seven nine one seven four four seven six. I'm on social media at

Matt Connerton. You can email me Matt at Matt Connerton dot com, and

of course you can interact endo Pine in the Facebook live chat. But the

best thing to do so that we can hear and enjoy your dulcet tones is

to give us a call at six zoo three two five O six Z SEVENH

Yes, Jenny confirms, Yes. L Trevino is a rock band from Phoenix,

Arizona. That's right, that's right, gets hot there gets but it's

a dry heat from what I hear. But I'll tell you though those summers,

even even even with a dry heat, that that can't be easy.

Let's see, we'll go ahead and say a load everybody in the Facebook live

chat, and then we'll get into some some stuff. Note a couple of

things we can talk about, but you know, the big, the big,

big, big, big big issue that is looming looming large as we

sit on the precipice of economic catastrophe. Exciting, very exciting. But we'll

go ahead and say a load everybody in the Facebook live chat. Our friend

Fredo joins us or Alfredo Enrique Benavitis. I do so love to say us

full name, he says, Yo. Fredo will be Fredo has been on

the show a number of times and he'll be back representing his band Dank Sinatra

soon. I know Jenny has them booked and excited about that. Always nice

to see Fredo in studio. Fredo and Friends. Actually maybe he should start

a band called Fredo and Friends. That'd be that'd be kind of fun.

I like the sound of it. Jay Fed joins us and says a good

afternoon everyone, as well as Melanie Liberty, also hailing from the great state

of Vermont, of course, the Green Mountains state. I believe it's called

they have the Green Mountains? Do answer as the White Mountains. Uh,

it's like it's like a gang thing. You know, we're gonna we're gonna

rumble over our mountains. They are. I don't know where I'm going with

that. It's doesn't matter. I'm going to wherever was. I will abandon

it immediately. Chris Rose joins us in the chat, ran from the Commonwealth

of Massachusetts. Hello, Chris, I don't know what they call their mountains

in Massachusetts. What do Chris? Uh? If you if you can respond,

what do you call your mountains? Or do Massachusetts mountains even have a

name? That's my question to you, sir, Alex Whiley joins us all

the way from the UK. Alex of course, host of The Shrewsbury Biscuit

and other podcasting and broadcasting adventures, Alex is singing Hey Jude from the Beatles

in the Facebook live chat. Also Ronda Favero from the great state of California

is in the chat room. Hello, Ronda, nice to see you in

there. We'll give you the number one more time. Oh, Melanie says

in the chat room, Massachusetts has bad driver mountains? Is that really what

they're called? My goodness, bad driver mountains? I think actually, to

be completely honest with you, though, and I'm not sure I'll have to

look this up to verify this. I think Melanie might be being a little

bit funny. I don't think they're really called that. I don't know.

I think she's making a joke about the drivers in Massachusetts. But let me

just say this, I think there's bad drivers everywhere. Now. I remember

a time where I used to take pride in the way the people drive in

New Hampshire versus places like Massachusetts. But I feel like post pandemic. I

can't be the only one who's noticed this. I haven't heard anyone else make

this observation, but I feel like post pandemic everyone is more aggressive, well

just generally, but it really comes out in driving. I mean, I

don't I don't recall pre pandemic so many people laying on the horn if I

have someone behind me sitting at an intersection and I fail to accelerate at the

precise millisecond that the light changes. I feel like there's a lot more of

that now. My favorite thing is if I'm slowing down to to turn at

an intersection and I have my direction alot, I do it the right way,

but the driver behind me decides to honk at me anyway, because apparently

my slowing down to make that turn safely is going to cause the driver behind

me to arrive at their destination and entire two three seconds later than they would

have otherwise, and that is infuriating to them. Obviously. UM, not

a stereotype, but it's every time that happens, it does happen to be

somebody in a big truck. So no offense if you're someone who drives one

of those great, big, giant pickup trucks, but you might be the

problem anyway. It's just an observation. It's it's never anybody in a Volkswagen

bug who is harassing me for simply making a turn. It's always somebody in

a big truck. And then they and then uh, they honk at me,

and then once they're past me, because I've already turned. I can

hear them. I hear them speeding up because they're you know, now they're

driving off in a horrible huff of anger because I've I had to turn and

it it delayed a couple of seconds. And apparently that is Look, I

get it in a sense, right, You're all, if you're driving a

vehicle like that, you're already frustrated because while you're driving a big vehicle like

that. So, yeah, there might be something you're something you're dealing with,

it causes you to need to drive such a large vehicle. But putting

that aside, look, you must be spending an intolerable amount of money on

gas and to drive a vehicle like that. So I can see where spending

that much money to fill up your your big truck, I can see where

that would be a cause for tremendous angst and rage. And so you see

me in my little fuel efficient Nissan Versa, and you're feeling a little resentful.

You know, you got to drive the big truck because, uh,

that signals something to the world, that communicates something to the world that is

very important for you, a very important signal for you to be sending out.

I understand. Uh but uh, but but so you've got this um,

this angst, this resentment, and uh and you just you know,

and and maybe I don't know, maybe you can feel some sort of vibe

coming from me that uh, we might not line up politically. I don't

know. I don't know how you would tell that from the way I drive

or what I well, you know, like I said, I drive a

pretty fuel efficient efficient vehicle. I mean, it's not a it's not an

ev as the young people call it. It's not an electric vehicle. It's

not that fuel efficient. But uh, you know, but it's not a

big truck. You know, I'm not. I don't have something that uh

exudes a certain machismo. So you might think, oh, you know,

probably a Biden voter, and you're and and so you're just, uh,

you're just so angry with me. And you might have been u behind me

a couple of miles at that intersection where I didn't accelerate at the precise nanosecond

that the light turned green. So by the time we get to the intersection

where I have to turn, you're just boiling with rage. And you know,

hey, I get it. You know, everyone has their their cross

to bear, and I'm sorry if my existence in traffic in front of you

has somehow completely destroyed your day. I do feel badly about that. So

such a terrible thing, And I'm sorry if I cause you to spill your

chewing tobacco all over yourself at any point as you're having a freak out that

I saw happening as I looked in the rear view mirror, I could see

you just flailing your arms in a fit of rage as I was slowing down

to make that right turn at that intersection, and you just couldn't handle it.

So, you know, I feel badly about that. I do.

I mean, you know, hopefully you didn't have to stomp on your brakes

really hard or anything and then you're you know, your gun rack when flying

off or something that would be terrible. You should really make sure that that's

secure. Anyway, there's a lot that can go wrong, and we should

all be nicer to each other on the roads. But I do I do

think that, uh, I do think that, you know, people are

a little more aggressive on the road since the pandemic. I think that by

the way that part. I mean, look, I'm I'm being funny about

it. I'm being snarky about a lot of this. I'm mean a little

bit flippant, which some listeners seem to like or they like to hate whatever

whatever it is. But I'm not I'm not actually not kidding when I say

I do think that the drivers are generally more aggressive. Actually, I know

that there's data and statistics that show that there wasn't an increase and uh,

well, obviously there was an increase in car accidents from when there was nobody

on the road during the you know, the the shutdowns, lockdowns, et

cetera, when there was barely anyone on the road, obviously, but but

uh, in terms of you know, when our when everything opened back up,

um, there seemed to be Uh, there's data that shows there there

were more car accidents nationally happening, uh than there were pre pandemic with the

same levels of traffic. And uh, yeah, I think that I think,

you know, I mean, some somebody might say, well, everybody

just forgot how to drive. No one was driving, every everybody was talking

home, everybody forgot how to drive. But no, I think there's something

deeper there. I think there was a lot of just pent up anger and

uh, you know, uh, I remember. I mean it was interesting

when there was nobody on the roads. I remember I had to go to

Boston one night, something business related, and it was I had to run

down there and back and it was just it was like peak lockdown period and

I had to run to Boston and it was so bizarre. It was like

being in a zombie movie. It was so strange being in Boston at night

and there's nobody on the roads. That was weird. But anyway, I

think, yeah, but I'm sorry. You know, if you're someone listening

to the show, if I've upset you out on the roadway with my lack

of acceleration, my failure to risk getting a speeding ticket by going the twenty

miles an hour over the speed limit that you would probably prefer if you were

behind me, thinking I'm gonna get bagged. Not you. I assumed that's

your assumption. I was redundant. I'm sorry. I assumed that was your

assumption. I shouldn't I pick on people for doing that, being redundant.

I try never to be redundant or repetitious or repetitive, or just say the

same things over and over. So I apologize. I really, I really

try hard. I really endeavor. I make an effort not to do that.

But oh, Chris from Edgewise is in the chat room. Chris says,

just think there were so many predictions in the fifties and other times we'd

have flying cars. By now society still not ready. Oh yeah, I

know. Can you imagine. Can you imagine if we had flying cars and

you know, I'm flying around in a car and there's somebody in a much

bigger car just doesn't even want me in the same sky as them, and

they're freaking out. Melanie says, zombie movie. Really the undead, we're

trying to consume your flesh. Yes, that did happen, Melandie. So

what happened was so I'm in Boston at night, it's at the height of

the shutdowns, and there's nobody around, and I'm marveling at how nice it

was. Actually, it actually was kind of nice. Well, I'll tell

you what we gotta you know, the pandemic terrible time. And if you're

a long time listener, a regular listener, you know, I take the

COVID nineteen very seriously. So but we find those silver linings where we can,

right, it was kind of nice. To be able to maneuver around

the city without worrying about being in a terrible car accident every second because Boston

drivers are very aggressive. I was thinking the other day about my first time

ever driving in Boston. I was nineteen. I was going to visit a

friend of college. It was you know, I'd been to Boston of course

many times growing up, but it was the first time I'd ever been the

one driving, and it was scary. But I learned to kind of put

myself in a state of hyper alertness and just try to know what's happening on

all sides of the car at the at the at once. But but yes,

I'm maneuvering around the city and the roads are empty, and yes I

was that a red light. It's true, Melanie. And uh, some

people. At first I thought they were just they had a very bad limps.

I thought they were just limping along. And then they started limping toward

the car, and I was like, hey, get away from the car.

There's a pandemic. I don't want whatever's uh making you limp like that.

And uh, yes, they tried to get into the car and uh

make me one of them, and and and consume my flesh. It was

very frightening. That did happen, Melanie. But I was smart. I

was smart. I locked the doors. They couldn't get in the car.

Ah. Yeah, uh, let's see. Oh. Dave Wally is in

the Facebook live chat, says, you serious, Clark. Is that a

reference to a National Lampoon's vacation? Said vancation vacation? Vonics Matt. Very

important, Melanie says, you're so dramatic. Hey, it happened. It

happened. You know, people act like encounters with zombies or just a big

joke. But I'll tell you what you have a brush with having your flesh

eaten. I dare say you'll be singing a different tune. Oh, National

Lampoon's Christmas vacation. Yes, thank you. Let's see. Miriam Banish,

also in the Facebook live chat, Hello Miriam. Jay Fed says, I

can't believe that was you, Matt. I was out in my truck today

and I guess that was you that slowed me down. Thanks well, I

apologize, Jay Fed, I apologize, but you know, rules of the

road, buddy, Rules of the road. No. But seriously, anytime

that ever happens to me where somebody's honking at me and I've done absolutely nothing

wrong. It is always somebody in a big truck. I'm just saying that

is always the case, or an Amazon on driver. I had a well,

well we'll move on in a moment, I promise, But I remember

posting pictures on Facebook this. This was probably more than a year ago,

but I had an Amazon driver almost plow into me because I'm I'm I'm coming

up to this intersection and this Amazon driver is turning and he's turning onto the

street that I'm on. And you know, with the Amazon trucks and you

know other companies have these two like Ups and FedEx where you know you can

you've got that that wide open where there would be a door, you know

you can you can lean right out as you're driving. Um, apparently because

this guy did that. He goes to turn, and I had the right

of way and it's not like I intentionally put myself in his way, but

he goes to turn, he cuts that corner much too close, almost hits

me, and he's as he's driving, he's managing to kind of lean out

out the truck and he's yelling at me for for being in his way,

and it's like, dude, I know, uh listen, I know.

And by the way, I'm not being snarky about this, this is a

legitimate I'm being sincere when I say this. I understand those guys are under

and ladies are under a lot of pressure. They're under a lot of pressure

because you know, they have to. Amazon is notorious for, you know,

the way they treat their drivers and the pressure that they put on them.

It's not like other companies like FedEx and UPS. They have a really

good reputation actually, uh as far as how they treat their employees. Peter

White from the Morning Show, he used to work for UPS. But um

Amazon, you know they have to pee in bottles. They they you know,

they can't even stop to use the bathroom apparently. Um so I understand.

Again, it's probably similar to the angst that one feels if you're driving

around in a big truck and you're spending all of your money on gas.

But that guy was out of control. He was crazy. He swarred me,

and everything just happened to be there at the intersection how to stop,

sign waiting to go, and he goes he got he cuts that corner and

he's flipping out at me. It's like, dude. But again again,

I do believe everybody's more aggressive on the road post pandemic. I do believe

it feels good to say that though post pandemic. I guess now, right

the emergency orders ended, so the government says it's officially over. I guess

I mean, actually, the truth is about COVID nineteen. We're gonna be

stuck with it for the rest of our lives, but hopefully we can keep

it at the level it's at now. If you'd like to give us a

call six Z three two five six seven six Z three two five six seven,

the studio line is open again. Coming up at the top of the

hour. In our number two new merodose, we have l Trevino from Phoenix,

Arizona skyping in. Really looking forward to that. I'm not sure if

it's only Derek Ralford from the band. He's a friend of the show.

I'm not sure if it's just Derek or if there will be other band members

on with them. I know that he does that that band with his brother,

and yeah, I played one of their songs at the top of the

show. We'll play another one in a little bit really really like that band.

Jay Fed says, you were way over the line. I bet I

was not, sir, I was not, How dare you? I was

safely in my lane and that Amazon driver was unduly rude and I was very

upset. I was. Look, I'm not a big road rage guy.

I don't have much you know, I'm a pretty easy going guy anyway.

I don't have much of a temper. I don't go around yelling people.

But I'll tell you what the way that Amazon driver treated me. I'll just

say this, and again, I don't mean to use you know, I

have to be careful what I say here. It's we have FCC regulations and

it's afternoon drive and young people could be listening. So forgive me if this

is a little rough, but I will I will say this. I will

say this, and I don't say this often, but that that really upset

me. I was a significantly peeved I was. I was there. I'm

sorry if I upset anyone with that. Let's see we should oh, let's

let's we'll wait on that. I don't know. The debt limits like the

big thing that's on my mind. But it's depressing, you know, the

I don't know about any of you, but I do find the prospect of

global economic armageddon depressing. Might just be me. I'm not sure you know

the idea of destroying the global economy as we know it. Um, that's

a little it's a little worrisome to me. We should acknowledge though, uh.

Senator. Some other news, Senator Tim Scott of the great State of

South Carolina getting into the race today for the Republican nomination. So Tim Scott

throwing his hat into the ring for vice president. Now you might hear me

say that, and you say, whoa, Matt, No, you misspoke

there, You said vice president. Yes, because that is the office that

Tim Scott is running for. My friends, See, you have to remember,

when you decide to run for the presidency, there are other reasons to

run for the presidency other than actually wanting to be president. Not to suggest

that Senator Tim Scott does not want to be president, but he knows he's

not going to be, at least not this time. But he might be

vice president. That's another reason to get in. Trump is going to be

the nominee. I say that with no great joy or pleasure, but I

do say it with an understanding that that's simply the objective truth. Now,

that's why I refer to him as the presumptive presumptive nominee. You know,

you look at polling data, it's already it's the same pattern as twenty sixteen.

You got all these, all these candidates, and you know Trump is

the only one with a a big slice of the polls. Everybody else is

in very low numbers. That's not any reflection. Nothing I'm saying should be

considered any reflection negatively on Senator Scott at all. I actually think in a

different year he would be a phenomenal candidate. I really do. I mean,

you know, he's pretty conservative. I probably don't agree with him on

very much, but I think he'd be an excellent candidate. But but this

time around, it's going to be Trump. But I do think he would

be a very strong vice presidential candidate. So I think that's why he's running.

Same with Nicky Haley. I think she'd like to be Trump's running mate.

I would have said that about I did say that about Ron De Santis

at one time, although the dynamics of that are very strange. Not sure.

Asa Hutchin, former Arkansas governor, who's also in the race. I

don't see him as Trump's VP. He's gonna go with somebody young, I

would assume and for his VEEP, and it will be and not someone Asa.

Hutchinson. Again, very conservative, so I probably disagree with him on

most things. I'm sure that I do. But he's been critical of Trump.

Now. He doesn't go in hard on Trump Ley, you know,

he doesn't talk about he doesn't really get into January sixth and all that much.

But but it's sort of in a broader sense, Hutchinson talks about how

he wants to return to the Republican Party is more I think he has more

of a traditional you know, he's not a young guy himself. I think

he's seventy two, So I think he has kind of a traditional idea of

thought that the Republican Party should return to more of the Party of Reagan and

well less the Party of Trump. You know, he talks about he doesn't

like the politics of grievance and looking backward and so forth, and he is

most of his criticism about Trump that I've seen has been he he feels like

if Trump is president, his term will be largely about punishing his enemies rather

than governing the country. Um. I think he's right, so he doesn't

like the vindictiveness of Trump, but he's not going to be the veep.

Chris Christie, UM, probably announcing this week. Rhonda Santis definitely announcing this

week. Um, Chris Christie of course, former governor of New York.

I'm sorry New Jersey rather Um and uh Rhonda Santis, governor of Florida.

UM, oh my god. There's so much to say about that guy.

And every day there's more to say about that guy than there was to say

the day before. That's why I haven't said that much. It's too much

to keep up with with that guy. Um. Who else is in the

who else has thrown their hat? And well, we had a candidate in

studio, Steve Laughey, who is running. Uh. We don't talk about

him much because while I like him personally, I enjoyed meeting him. I

enjoyed talking with him both on air, and we had a nice conversation off

air. Actually we had a conversation off air was more interesting than the one

we had on air, which is actually true with probably a lot of guests.

But um, uh again not somebody I you know, I don't agree

with him on probably most things, but uh, you know, but I

enjoyed talking with him. He seems like a smart guy and certainly competent.

But uh, but he has no no, no, no chance whatsoever.

Um, let's see, Uh, is there anybody I'm forgetting who's already announced?

Uh, you know, there's there's always a speculation Chris and Nunu,

our governor here in New Hampshire, might announce anyway. Whoever, whoever gets

in, either they're getting in because they're trying to counter Trump in some way,

or they want to be his pick for VP. But there's, like

I said, there's there's plenty of reasons to run for president that don't actually

involve wanting to be president. Um, you get to uh you know,

it's it looks great on your on your bio online, right if you know

former presidential candidate, you know, if you if you want to increase your

speaking fees in the future, Um, very often. Oh I know who

I forgot Mike Pence for no big deal, just former president of the United

States. Uh, yeah, Mike Pence. He's expected to announce soon too.

I know DeSantis is definitely this week, and it sounds like Chris Christie

is almost definitely this week. I think Pence probably what was the last thing

I heard about Pence? I think I think in June he's expected um and

once we get asked June, that'll probably be it. I don't think anybody

else will be getting in past that. Usually by usually by the beginning of

summer, you've got you've got everybody you're gonna have, um Pence. You

know, Pence has a book to sell. UM. So that that's another

thing too. If you've got something to sell. A good way to sell

it is a run for the presidency. It's a marketing campaign that other people

who like you pay for. I mean, think about it. You raise

a bunch of money from your donors to run for president, and you get

to go around and promote your book with the money that was donated to you.

It's like the people most likely to read your book or books are the

ones actually paying for you to market to them what they either have already read

or might want to read or maybe want other people to read. Um.

It's a great and by the way, I'm not knocking it. Hey,

I don't knock the hustle. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that.

Um, you know, one of the most obvious examples of that that I

can think of in history is in twenty twelve, twenty twelve, right,

yeah, twenty twelve, when Newt Gingrich ran for president. Literally his campaign

events were book signings. He and his wife, Callista. They've they've written

they've both written books, many many books, they've produced documentaries. And that's

what their campaign events would be. They wouldn't be campaign rallies. They would

be you know, book signings at national bookstore chains or even local bookstores,

and uh and they would sit there and they'd sign books for people and signed

DVDs and of their documentaries and so forth, and that was that was it.

I mean that, you know, uh, you know, couldn't be

more obvious than that. And again I'm not I'm not knocking it. Hey,

that's that's cool, you know, I don't I don't have a problem

with that. But I'm just saying, there's many reasons to run for president.

I'm quite sure that Senator Tim Scott, who announced today, realizes he's

not going to be the nominee. But but I didn't hear him say anything

negative about Trump today. Which means he might want to see. Part of

the thing is too with these candidates, they don't they don't tend to go

after Trump, you know. I mean, Asa Hutchinson does a little bit.

Chris Christie has, and he seems to be like, if he gets

in, he's going to be positioning himself as really against Trump. We'll see

if that holds, though I'm skeptical that it will. Mike Pence does everything

he can to avoid directly criticizing Trump, even though Trump, in my view,

directly put Pence and his family in danger on January sixth. But I

guess Pence is cool with that. What a guy? Huh. So you

know the candidates that try to avoid directly criticizing Trump, there's actually two reasons

to avoid directly criticizing Trump if you're in the field. One is you don't

want to upset the base because the Republican Party the way it is now,

if you you know there there are some people can get away with it depending

on their position, but generally, if you if you're in that field of

candidates and you start criticizing Trump, you know you're the whole party is going

to turn against you. And you have even I mean, you have no

chance of being the nominee to begin with, but you have suddenly have even

less of a chance. But the other thing is too if you want to

be a prospective vice presidential pick, you don't want to directly criticize him because

you want to you know, you can softly criticize him, but you don't

want to go too hard because you don't want to make him angry with you,

so that when he does clinch the nomination, maybe you'll be on his

list. So Scott Robinson and the chatroom says, never to fear Matt.

Oh, this is regarding the debt limit that I'm very, very worried about.

Never to fear Matt. The top one percent will be just fine with

the global economic meltdown and everybody else will suffer, but they'll be okay,

that is true. Yes, yes, there will be uh. I mean

we're I'm not by the way. I really I shouldn't be so negative.

Part of it is dark humor. I am legitimately frightened, and I was

in twenty eleven. I remember going through this in twenty eleven when we really

came right up to the edge and I thought, wow, I can't believe

are elected lawgivers and overlords, as I like to refer to them, are

actually about to push the self destruct button on America. Huh. I never

thought i'd see the day and then they didn't push the self destruct button.

But I think now it's even more possible. You know, we've talked on

the show a lot about the fourteenth Amendment and invoking that. There are some

who say Lauren Stribe, who actually changed his opinion on it, the constitutional

scholar he wants and sometime advisor to Biden, and he was an advisor to

Obama. Pretty respected guy, you know he wants. At one time said

you know, you can't invoke the fourteenth Amendment. It's not a good option.

And now he's changed his tune. He actually thinks it would be a

good option. And it would be actually much more difficult than people realize for

anyone to challenge it in court because you can't sue the executive branch for refusing

to violate the Constitution. But of course, in order for that to work,

you have to accept the premise that at the fourteenth Amendment makes the debt

limit itself, the statute that creates the debt limit unconstitutional and not everyone necessarily

accepts that premise, and all it's going to take. This is what I

think makes the fourteenth Amendment option so precarious. If you invoke the fourteenth Amendment,

all it's going to take is some depending on where it lands, who

brings the suit, and what judge it gets in front of. All it's

going to take is some Federal Circuit Court judge to put an injunction on it

so that saying that the Fed can no longer can't continue to make those payments.

What happens if it goes to the Supreme Court. You know, it's

a conservative leaning Supreme Court, but then again they might look at this as

well, you know, we interpret we interpret the Constitution this way and this,

and yeah, we we think the debt limits unconstitutional, and they might

strike down the debt limit itself, and thereby the fourteenth Amendment goes forward.

And that would actually be a positive outcome in the sense that if the fourteenth

Amendment were to succeed, and any challenges against they were to fail, then

that would actually permanently solve the problem. Right there would be no debt limit.

The debt limit would have been deemed would have been struck down by the

Supreme Court, and not that those decisions can't be overturned. We all know

they can, certainly, but that might be a positive outcome in the long

term. But you're right, Scott, the one percent will be just fine,

will be just fine, will be wi LLL. I don't mean will

be like we apostrophe LLL. I am not part of the one percent.

I don't even know what percent I'm in. Scott robinsons, I'm a I'm

in a bottom I'm I'm in the bottom one percent. I think Scott Robinson

says, what really kills me with laughter is that when you all ways are

going to text that top one percent, all of a sudden, the shipping

problems and every all these problems come. Okay, I don't know. I

think Scott's using voice to text and I'm lost. Okay, anyway, Welcome.

The point is welcome Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina into the presidential race.

And Trump has welcomed him as well. I did see that, he

said. Trump commented that big step up. Oh yeah, it's right here.

Trump, welcome sim Scott twenty twenty four GOP Primary, saying, quote

a big step up from Rond sanctimonious. Speaking of ron To sanctimonious, Although

tiny d is my favorite nickname that Trump came up with for him, I'm

also a fan of meatball ron ron to sanctimonious. That's a lot of syllables

to spit out. But maybe we'll save the debt limit talk for for after

our our musical guests in the second hour. But can I just wonder,

I mean, does Disney only appeal to Democrats or it is our Does Ron

de Santists believe that Disney is only for Democrats and that Republicans all hate Disney?

Is that the play here? Because actually listen, and I'm again I'm

being a little bit flippant. But if I had to guess, if Governor

Ron de Santas and Florida had it to do all over again, I really

don't think he would have ever started this war with Disney. I think he

would have bristled at their criticism of the so called Don't Say Gay Bill,

But I don't think he would have ever tried to go to war with Disney

because it's not going well. Disney just canceled that one billion dollars project.

Disney is the state's largest single site employer in Florida. De Santis is taking

all kinds of fire from both the left and the right over being anti business

because he's so anti Disney, and I think what has happened here, this

is my belief. I think what has happened here is he thought that you

know, he was obviously desantist, loves the whole culture war aspect of Republican

politics. People wonder why, I know, John Hopwood is confused by it.

He criticizes me over it and others too. But people wonder why I

cling to Governor Chris Sanunu here in New Hampshire. And I have a lot

of criticisms of our Republican governor, but as well. Believe me, I

do more so in the last year. But I do appreciate. The thing

that I appreciate about Governor Sanunu is he's no Governor Ronda Santis, and he

to me, he represents kind of what the Republican Party used to be before

they I mean, there's always been Republicans have always really embraced culture war issues,

but I've never seen it quite this. I'm sure I have, and

I just it's a matter of perspective and it changes over time, but I

don't remember ever seeing it, or at least I haven't perceived it quite this

bad as it is right now. And Dasunu Dasunu. In my mind,

I've created an amalgam of De Santis and Sinunu da Sunu, which is odd

because here I am talking about the differences between them. I mean, I'm

sure it admit most policy matters, they're probably quite similar, actually, but

Uno doesn't seem to have any particular appetite for the culture war stuff, and

he seems to represent a more pragmatic, practical and um uh not so angry

and grievance stricken and you know, desantist. To me, represents the part

of the Republican Party that's just very very angry, very mean, um you

know, hateful uh and and I don't get any of that from Sinunu.

And I always say too, you know, Sunu kind of fits in with

those, um you know other Republican governors like uh, I mean, they're

you know Charlie Baker, who of course is no longer there, but you

know former governor of Massachusetts, or um, Larry Hogan of Maryland. You

know, these blue state Republican governors not that we're a blue state. We're

more of a We're more of a purple state, I guess. But you

know Massachusetts and you know other other states where you have Republican governors in blue

states who actually are able to appeal to swing voters by not seeming like these

just crazy, psycho hateful like demons, you know, like Ronda Santis,

I mean de Santis? Who is it? Is it? The NAACP just

put out a travel advisory saying that black Americans should not travel to Florida because

it's become such a hostile place. And de Santis just he's all in on

all of it. He loves the culture war stuff to the point that again

I think he's operating under the assumption that Disney is only that Disney is so

woke and so progressive that surely only Democrats want anything to do with Disney.

Republicans probably all doesn't he just as much as he does, right, I

mean, that's that's again. I think he if he had it to do

over again, he'd realize he botched this. He does, he probably does

realize he botched it, but he's gone so far with it he can't stop

now. So he's just going to continue his war with Disney. But uh

no, but you know, Sononnu to me represents uh he's a kind of

Republican I'm comfortable with more of a moderate uh not angry, mean and hateful

Republican. You know, there's like a reasonable, a reasonable guy. I

have plenty of disagreements with him, but I'm not I'm not frightened of him,

you know what I mean, Just like I'm not frightened by Charlie Baker

or I'm not frightened by Larry Hogan. He seems like these seems like reasonable,

moderate Republicans who uh aren't complete psychos like frun to Santa's just Hee's like

like he's psychotic, like like like he like he just fantasizes about the next

insane law that he can pass against uh some minority group that he just you

know, just wants to stomp on so badly. I mean there's something wrong

there. I mean he's and he's actually he makes Trump look like a loving,

uh inclusive guy. But uh yeah, DeSantis will be announcing this week.

Isn't that nice? Um? By the way, I have plenty of

If you're new to the show, and uh if you're if you're getting the

idea, if this is your first time tuning in and you're getting the idea.

Oh, this guy what is he just Uh, he's like the anti

Sean Hannity. He just sits here in rips on Republicans. Oh no,

no, no no. When we get to after we have to our segment

with our guests, we will get into the depth limit. And I have

I have a lot to say about Democrats because with the debt limit, there's

plenty of blame to go around. But I think the way that our president

and by the way, there's some things I do like about Joe Biden.

There's some things I give him credit for. For example, I think I

think the way that he's um handled very carefully arm in Ukraine against the Russians,

which is a delicate balancing act because we don't want to get into a

nuclear war, you know, right, So it's bad enough we're going to

have economic arm again, I'd rather not have a nuclear one too. So

I think the Biden administration has done a great job there. But on the

debt limit, I think that I'm realizing more and more this guy needs to

step aside and let somebody younger make a run for the Democratic nomination, because

he has gotten himself in way over his head. And it's one of those

things where I look at it and I realize, you know, I've never

served a single day of my life in any elected office whatsoever, never worked

in politics. I've never been a political strategist, never worked for a campaign.

Uh, you know, aside from running my mouth about politics, the

only actual official political act I've ever done officially engaging with government is voting.

And yet I saw all of this coming, but our president, I guess,

didn't see any of it coming. And now he's he is in completely

over his head on this and it's it's uh infuriating, it's disappointing, and

it's inexcusable. There's no excuse for any of this. And so I have

some mean things to say regarding that side of the aisle, but you'll have

to stick around for that. Melanie just made a comment in the Facebook live

chat that I cannot read on the air, but it was but I very

desperately wish I could read that on the air, and Melanie, I agree

with you. All Right, we're gonna play a well, no, actually,

I'm sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself here. We had to take

a break. We're gonna take a break. We're gonna show some love to

our amazing sponsors, and then we're gonna play another track from our musical guest

today, El Trevino, and then when we come back from that, we

should have at least one or more of those fine gentlemen on Skype with us,

and really looking forward to talking with them. I love their music.

But let's take a break, show some love and we'll be back. Our

number two Matt Connerton Unleashed coming up. We are live. Don't go away.

Come on down to the Hop Knot at one thousand Elms Street, Manchester's

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as friends and leave us family. This hour on WMNH is sponsored by CGI

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dot com. She comes to me like she followed, like their own way

the time the Twins A way to see can Chain your mind? Now?

Sit here? Talk was so wart s Hart River, SI come inside the

True Love Shed because chair was so what shop being Broke? I love that

track? L Trevino, Derek is that you? This is me awesome,

awesome, Hey, sorry about sorry. About a couple of minutes ago,

I had to I Skype crashed on me and I had to reboot it real

quick. I get it, man. I used to use Skype every night

for my radio show, but I switched it up about like two like right

when COVID happened, we switched and yeah, this is the first time I

fired up in a while. So yeah, I had some issues too,

man. Yeah, we use it quite a bit here at the station,

and I know Peter on the Morning show uses it, I think pretty much

every day and it only once in a while does it have an issue.

But uh, but when it happens, it's well. Actually, at least

I was able to restart it really quickly this time. Sometimes it completely freezes

up when it does when something does go wrong. It's more reliable than it

used to be. But welcome to the show. And if you're just joining

us, this is Matt Connerton Unleashed. We are live from the studios of

Whom Glorious downtown Manchester, New Hampshire, also on Comcast ninety seven if you're

in Manchester and uh that song we just heard Alberta coming back from the break

from the band l Trevino and Uh Derek Llaford from the band joins us on

Skype and Uh, Derek, when was the first time we played some of

your music? I feel like it was a couple of years ago, two

or three years ago. It was it was a walk Away, I think

was the first song that we played. Yeah, I think so. Basically,

I think I sent you that because I started playing music when COVID happened,

because I used to Trevino is actually a really old band, but we

all started having kids and and just got really jaded with the idea that,

uh, realistically it was never going to go anywhere, so like we were

just wasting time. But when COVID happened, my brother ended up moving up

to Arizona, where I live, and we ended up stuck together for you

know, as long as you know. The initial lockdown went and we were

like, let's let's write some songs and yeah, we one came up pretty

quickly and you were awesome and played it and uh we uh we had decided

to. That was me and my brother and a drum machine. Actually is

what you played last time I sent you. Now we actually got the whole

band back together again, and um, bad knees and everything. Yeah,

I was gonna say it definitely has a full band sound. Yeah I didn't.

Well, actually I think I do remember you telling me now that um

uh that that the other music that you would send me back then was was

uh, you know, pretty pretty sparse in terms of you know, like

like just you guys in a drum machine. But um, but sounded sounded

really good. And the newer stuff is great too. You've got it.

So you've got a full album up now on Spotify. Yeah, we just

put it out. It took us a year to record it. A lot

of the songs are some of them are new, some of them are decades

old, like um, so essentially the first time the band Eltrino put out

an album was in like twenty twelve, and it was basically everything was written

by me and my brother, including like bass, everything except for the drums.

And we were sort of known for working like that, and when COVID

happened, you know, there was no jamming anymore, There was no getting

together with people. So I actually just started reaching out to friends and just

saying like, hey, what kind of recording equipment do you have? And

that entire album, mine the drums we recorded in a buddy's house in Kansas.

Like it was not a profess it was it was a professional studio considering

the equipment that he had, but it was like his basement essentially. And

then I ended up shooting over to La to record the vocals. Uh,

But it was basically because a buddy of mine has a has a nice spot

in a studio there and I got a good deal. But essentially the entire

record was recorded at home. And that was the real fun part about this

is to realize that, a holy crap, we can make music from our

living room. That's awesome, man. Yeah, that's a subject of conversation

quite a bit on the show when talking to musicians, is you know,

because I ask everybody who comes on, what's your process? Because you know,

um, I mean I'm old enough to remember when you know your your

options were if you wanted to record, basically, you go to a studio

and you shell out that money and and uh and you record. And of

course, now we live in a time where you know you can you can

go to a studio, you can record at home, you can do it

all kinds of ways or or a combination of ways and uh and come out

with something that, um, that sounds like it was recorded in a million

dollars studio. And you know, maybe part of it was maybe the vocals

were or you know whatever, but but or maybe the whole thing was done

in your living room music. Never know, it's um, it's a remarkable

time to be alive in that sense. The technology that we have now,

UM just incredible. And um so how long have you and your brother have

been been working together on music? Now? Then? Oh so we um

pretty exciting them to June thirtieth, we're going to go back to our hometown.

It's a it's a little town called Elkhart, Kansas, about fifteen hundred

fifteen hundred population. Um, nobody knows who cares about this town. Over

the last four years, I've been doing a podcast about my hometown, and

uh, for the first two and a half years, it was very pleasant.

It was all nice and stuff, and then about six months ago I

started releasing some of the my My small town in that area is sort of

famous for unsolved murders and stuff. Really yeah, it's it's pretty interesting stuff.

So I kind of started releasing stuff like that. And anyway, long

story short, the podcast has from my hometown has really taken off, you

know, as I'm getting every single of those fifteen hundred people mad, if

you can believe it. So we're gonna be playing a gig there on June

thirty, ath a free show for everybody there at an amazing like for as

small and unrelevant as this town, as they have an amazing theater. So

we were like, that's cool. But we started in Elkhart, Kansas and

like I think probably two thousands, so we had twenty three years ago,

and that was the first time I ever played music in front of people.

So this is gonna be like a really cool homecoming type situation. Oh yeah,

like twenty three years man, Wow, that's cool. So but you

said, You've made a lot of people mad there. So so what kind

of a I mean, the marketing of this is fascinating to me. So

what kind of a reception are you expecting there? I mean, is it

because not everyone there's necessarily going to be happy? It sounds like um honestly

like so the it really boils down to the unsolved Thomas sides from my town.

Um, yeah, you're a broadcaster. So most people I asked this

question, they don't They don't know who I'm talking about. But do you

know who um, Paul Harvey is. That name is very familiars, not

a He's not a comedian, is he? No? I don't quote me,

but I think he's like a Colorado area radio guy. He was.

He was older when I was in high school. He's been passed on for

a while, but he was. Everybody would listen to him around my town,

and he had a famous segment where he would read a headline and then

he would tell you, like you know, he would he would dissect it

from the other side of it, and his his his tagline was and that's

the rest of the story. Oh, yes, okay, yes, I

do know who you're talking about now, I recognize that tagline. Yes,

okay, yeah, So long story short like it sometime in like the late

eighties early nineties, Paul Harvey said on the radio, if you want to

get away with murder, do it in Elkhart, Kansas. And so I've

heard that my whole life. On my I have a Facebook page dedicated to

my podcasts, and you know, hundreds of people like they tell me the

date they heard him say it, which none of them really hap. And

I started doing research and there's this website. I don't know the guy's name,

but he has and don't quote me, but I believe the dot com

is no, Paul Harvey did not say to get away with murder in your

small town. Apparently, like this is like one of those things that like

hundreds of towns across the country say that they swear Paul Harvey said this about

their small town. So it's kind of weird. I don't know where it

started, yeah, but when I started kind of you know, asking questions

and poking around about some of these unsolved homicides, it kind of hit me

that, you know, Paul Harvey probably never said if you want to get

away with murder, do it in such and such town. But I've also

been working in true crime on a missing person's live stream for three years and

I hate to say this publicly, but yeah, you might as well say

that it Like, honestly, it is so scary how many crimes go unsolved,

how many people never get found, and who knows what the reason is,

lack of resources, lack of but it is, you know it really

You can really say that about almost any any town, any small town,

there's probably a lot of unsolved crimes that will probably never get solved, you

know, But how many can you put a number on it? How many

unsolved murders in Elkhart? So I think, like on the record, I

can come up with like five or six. On the books. When you

get into family members reaching out to my website involving their loved ones and a

suspicious death, you can get up into the twenties. One of the most

notable ones is a girl was killed, well she was missing in Elkhart and

seventy one, and same same thing you would hear about any missing person's case

in the seventies. The parents were freaking out and the police were saying she

ran away, no big deal. And then eleven days later they found her

body and like just the amount of and again, I love Elkhart. That's

the reason I did two and a half years of the Beautiful Side of El

cart because you know every town even you know you're in Manchester. I bet

that I've never been there, but just hearing you talk about I bet it's

a gorgeous place. But I bet if we looked hard enough, we could

find some scary stuff there. You know what I mean? Oh, yeah,

you know what I'm saying. Every place has a CD underbelly. But

really, just when I say backlash, there's a few people that are upset

because it's some of the audio I've released. But what's crazy is like if

it was a percentage nine nine of the feedback I get is amazing, and

you know, ATA boys keep going. You know, stuff like this needs

to be out in the public. It needs to be solved. And I

have like one percent of people saying like, hey, what you're doing is

really crappy. Oh what sucks is that one percent is like William the Refrigerator

Perry, and that nine nine percent like the punter on the team, Like

you can just level that ninety nine in a second. Man. Yeah.

Yeah. What's part of what's fascinating about that to me is so, um,

do you know the television series and The Heat of the Night love that

show? Yes? Okay, so um, I like the show. I

love the original movie and the film. The series to me never lived up

to the film, but I like the show. You know, I love

Carol O'Connor and whatnot. But um, something though that I always found contributed

to my sense of suspension of disbelief while watching the show is I would always

think, there's no way a little place like this fictional town of Sparta,

Mississippi, could possibly have this much crime and these many murders and all of

that. But then what you're what you're telling us about it, Elkhart,

makes me think, well, no, actually it is possible. I guess

maybe maybe it's not that unrealistic, and maybe you're right that there's you know,

plenty of small towns across America that do have a lot of crime and

unsolved murders and all of it. And uh, maybe my perception of In

the Heat of the Night of being as being unrealistic, maybe it's not that,

uh you know, maybe maybe I'm wrong, maybe uh maybe it's more

common than I think. Well, I mean, so the Elkhart stuff,

like really that's just for a basic limited audit. I don't expect that anybody

to look into that other than like my hometown people. But yeah, the

shows that I do for missing people and unsolved crimes, that's as as Kansas

as a whole. And I've been doing it for three years. And I

again, these are things I wish I didn't have to say publicly. But

when I was like in high school before actually, any time before I started

working on in this like in this avenue of like um recording interviews with family

members stuff like that. Anytime before that, the only thing I knew about,

you know, true crime and stuff like that was if you if you

kill somebody or break the law, you were going to get caught. Because

I've seen Iced Tea on TV catch every killer he's looking for. I've seen

all the people on sea. There's a database. They're gonna find your sweat

drops. Some lady with glasses is gonna do to do and you're gonna be

in prison. But I hate to say this live, but honestly, this

is my new opinion. If you're getting away with murder, is easier than

you think. Wow, there is way to like just google unsolved homicides in

your in your in your state, and it'll blow your mind at how many

families out there are waiting for any contact from law enforcement and they don't get

any updates. And again this and that. It gets scary because it sounds

like I'm painting a negative picture about law enforcement and I'm really not, because,

um, you know, at the end of the day, anybody that

had that says that, you know, the police are bad, they're hiring

you know, like you can go in there and clean it, like anybody

can go in there and and help out and get that job and stuff.

So like I really blame it on lack of resources, and you know,

and a lot of these you know, small town murder stuff, like you

think about it, like a lot of these cops and this is again not

a slight towards them. Yeah, they don't. Like Susanne Johnson getting kidnapped

and murdered never happened in Kark, Kansas before, and it didn't happen ever.

Again, that was in seventy one, So it wouldn't make a whole

lot of sense to have an officer that specializes in that type of case in

el Kark, Kansas. You know what I mean? Right right? Well,

yeah, it's it's funny too. As you say that, I'm thinking

again, I'm thinking of in the heat of the night and there you have,

you know, Detective Virgil Tips. And it's like, why would a

fictional town like Sparta, Mississippi need a full time detective, not just an

officer, not just a you know, a police chief, but an actual

detective whose job it is to solve these terrible crimes. But but yeah,

but like you say, yeah, your typical small town isn't going to have

the resources you're right to investigate, um uh, something like a like a

kidnapping or something like that, or a murder. And then, uh,

you know, how do they justify if it's something that's so rare, How

do they justify making the investment in getting the resources and in hiring the personnel

who specialize in that kind of thing when you know it might not ever happen

again. You know, it might be something that happens in that particular town

wants a century, you know for all we know. So, yeah,

it's it's an interesting perspective. Derek and I I'd never thought about it that

way. I guess my my assumption was always that, uh, well not

always, but in recent years that if you do something like that, like

say you commit a murder, it's it's almost inevitable that you will get caught

because of all the technology and what they can do with DNA evidence and so

forth. That you know, I I kind of have been operating under the

assumption that hardly anyone really gets away with anything and that the law will catch

up with you eventually. But maybe U sounds like I may have been wrong

about that. Well again, like, uh, it's not in all cases,

and and again I think it's a Some would argue it's a race thing,

like which cases. I think it's more of a class thing. I

think like, if you're important, you'll get the resources like I do.

I produce. I'm not a I'm not a host. I produced a podcast

with my company. UM. This guy we call him Norm because he looks

like Norm from Cheers. His actual name is Rob Wilson UM. But one

thing that he had pointed out, what were we just talking about? Sorry

I got lost in the h your your live ninety five point three thing?

What what were you just saying because I had a good point. Oh yeah,

No, I was just saying how my perception had been that if you

commit a crime, you're going to get caught eventually. But now I'm in

listening to you. It's it's changing my perspective on that that I may have

been wrong. Yeahs Again, it's just basically like if if they have the

resources. So one of the things one of the segments we do on that

show is s word that should scare You. It's just a brief segment to

do each week, and last week we did if the amount of untested our

word kits in this country should scare you? Like the amount of there's kits

sitting on a shelf with data of a known violent perpetrator that we have yet

to muster up the funding, courage or give a crap to test. That

is scary. That I did know, and that is that is very,

um, very frustrating. And another thing I think the reason a lot of

cases go unsolved is um I think historically people don't really tell the police what

they want to hear for many reasons. I think one of the biggest reasons

is fear of retaliation. You don't want somebody to hurt you or your family.

You don't know who you're messing with. And then two, um,

you don't want to be implicated in it. You don't want to have.

So really, what I've learned dealing with my own use these homicides in my

own own hometown is people are willing to talk if nobody is in the room

listening, you know what I mean. Like, and that's what really I

think I find saddening about it. Is like I know about Susanne Johnson because

she's almost like a party favor, Like when everybody reaches that point of of

you know, intoxication in small towns around two in the morning, somebody brings

up her name and then all these theories start coming out. And the longer

I did research, I ended up, you know, getting in contact with

her mother before she passed. I have an hour and a half unedited call

on my website and she lays it all out. And what I realize is

that you know everybody, you know, everybody gossips and stuff. And so

Susanne Johnson lost her life and she died, but I could name you ten

people who lost their life that day also because of wrongful you know, people

thinking they did it. I mean, it's a really ugly situation when something

like that happens and goes unsolved. Nobody has a nobody has a villain to

put away to to you know, rest their feelings, so everybody becomes leary

of each other. It's a really gross thing, you know. But again,

I was sitting here for two years thinking, oh, my hometown's this

horrible play six unsolved murders, And then I was on the road and I

was in an Albuquerque hotel and I googled how many unsolved thomicides in Albuquerque and

it was like, I think six hundred, and I was like, oh

wow, that's a lot for a city. And that was only for the

last six months. So wow. Really, yeah, there's a homicide problem

in this country, is what there is. It's not my hometown's not evil.

We have a problem with people killing people. Yes, yes, wow.

How did you get into that, by the way, doing the true

crime podcasts and all of that, Well, really it all started with Susanne

Johnson and the other murders, and I was I was I have like,

you know, thirty hours of audio of just people talking to me, and

I wasn't releasing anything to the public. And then, um, I was

doing my own like podcast kind of swimming in that, uh, you know,

no viewers or you know, I didn't really have a whole lot of

following, and I interviewed, uh, this guy named Ricky Chabruggy and he

he owns the Facebook page Kansas Missing and Unsolved and he has like I think

eighty thousand followers, which is more than anybody any any of my other clients.

And essentially he hired me to produce a live stream for his Facebook page

and I co hosted. But really, I don't talk a whole lot.

I just pushed the buttons and and you know, do all that stuff.

But I kind of got into it like that, and I don't know it.

To me, it's and forgive me if I'm being long winded and not

talking about my music at all, But no, that's this. This is

interesting. We got time, and this is very interesting to me, Derek,

I'm fascinated by this. Okay, so um like this Suzanne Johnson things.

So it's not lost on me that you have people out there that have

made, you know, great financial leaps and bounds while telling stories about true

crime and stuff. And I'm not against that. I do believe that,

you know, you have to get the story out there. And but to

me, like I kind of have a personal issue with making any of my

true crime endeavors like my form of income, because I feel like if I

mix that that energy, that could be a bad thing. But the longer

I do this, and you know, I get on YouTube and I try

to watch there's a lot of there's a there's an influx of true crime podcasts

out there. And one the only the only two that I'll name, and

those are the only two, in my opinion, that are forgivable is Last

Podcasts on the Left and my Favorite Murder. They're like comedians, one of

them the Set of Gentlemen, the other one of the Set of Women,

and they joke about true crime and they have large audiences, and I'm okay

with that, but I feel like the aftershock of that is every day when

I'm scrolling through Facebook, it's a new, you know, sponsored ad about

two people that are, Hey, we're going to talk about true crime and

we drink wine, and I'm like, what are we doing here? Like

is this like is this like we're all we're getting off on gore and and

we're just talking about you know, these are you know when I do this

show, any of these victims that I talk about, I talk to their

families on the phone. Yeah, I'm not about to go drink wine and

film myself giggling about what it's just to me Like, I feel like it's

a little bit of an overreach, um, and part of it discuss me

man. But at the same time, I do enjoy that these cases are

getting out there. Um, that people you know, do have another opportunity

to say something if they're triggered by a YouTube video or a podcast or something.

Yeah. Yeah, wow, Noah, that's that's interesting. Now does

any of this uh does any of this kind of make it into your music?

Does or or do you keep those things separate in your mind? Because

I would think where obviously you're thinking about all of this, that you're you're

so engaged with this and looking at these cases and discussing these cases with people,

I would think some of that would would influence your your music or maybe

not. Um, I don't think so. I mean, we have one

song called song called in Blue on the new record, Yes, and that

song is about the Clutter murders and the only reason that song is about the

Clutter murders is because I'm from Elkhart. But whenever I got to like college

age, I moved to a little bit of a bigger town called Garden City,

Kansas. It's about an hour and a half from Elkhart, and that

is six miles from Holcomb, Kansas, where the Clutter murders happened. And

I was really into Truman Capode at the time. That's a song that's pretty

old actually, Um, we just now got around to recording it. But

I was really into Truman Capode at the time. And I watched the movie

that Philip Seymour Hoffman did portraying him, God Rest his soul, and to

me, it just made me realize, like, you know, this the

Clutter thing was just like a horrible miscommunication where these two guys thought they were

going to get this huge payout robbing this old farmer. It was bad intel.

They only the guy only had like fifty bucks. Um, you know,

they killed this poor family and then they went through a crazy trial and

then they get killed and like to me, like just to me, I

just it was kind of realized that like kind of what we're talking about here,

like as much as we say we hate bad things happening, what are

we going to listen to on the way to work, Matt if nobody's out

there killing people? Right, Well, there's there's plenty of plenty of bad

things to listen to, that's for sure, plenty. But I mean it's

kind of like these people, like these people became stars, you know,

it's like you know, they like people know that they a movie became bad

and it's like this just really bad set you ation where people got killed because

really bad people, you know. And yes, I feel like we do

sensationalize stuff like that a little bit. Oh, absolutely absolutely. U.

Yeah, there's there's quite a bit of that. Um yeah, just so

what how um in the band? Uh? Now, by the way,

so does clarify something for me? Is it El Trevino or Trevino? And

the reason I ask is I thought it was El Trevino, but I notice

on Spotify it's just Trevino. Yeah. So, um, we're not good

at what we do. We used to go by Trevino. Um, but

actually we have like a website with our first album on it, and the

website the addresses El Trevino and uh so we've kind of gone by both people

call it Trevino. But the reason we went ahead with like changing everything to

El Trevino is because, up until like two weeks ago, m Our Spotify,

the four of the top five songs were not us. We're like,

oh, that dude, that happens so much. Yeah, oh that happens

a lot. Yeah. And if there's any aspiring songwriters out there, please

please before you name your band, search Spotify and see if your cool band

name is not being used already. Yes. Absolutely. Where does the name

come from? By the way, why is it called that? Um?

So people know me as Derek Ralford, I was actually born Derek Trevino.

I'm half I'm half Mexican. I'm one of those I'm one of those people

of color that I have to if I'm around other people, like other family

members, I have to like pull out paperwork to prove I'm Hispanic. But

like my dad is Mexican, and so I was born Derek Trevino and kind

of dark. But my grandma had fifteen kids and like eleven of them just

you know, really they didn't have a father. You know, like eleven

of them really went off on a rough path and without getting too far into

it. When I was in the seventh grade, an uncle of mine had

landed himself on TV. You know, great thing for the family, except

it was America's Most Wanted, which was kind of a bad vibe. And

uh, you know it's it's really um my stepdad, David Relaford. Like

I'll say this, Me and the guy did not get along for the first

eighteen years in my life. He's one of my best friends, and I

went and hung out with him all day yesterday. He's one of my best

friends now. And looking back, he was trying to, you know,

make sure I was, you know, going to be a good person.

But you know, I one thing is as much as I didn't understand we

couldn't communicate. I always understood that he worked his butt off every day.

He took care of two kids that weren't his. Whenever he introduced us or

talked about his family at work, we weren't step kids, we were his

kids, you know. So in the seventh grade I kind of took him

up on his offer to adopt me, and I became Derek Relafford. And

then I used to lie when I told this story. I changed the person

telling the story to my grandma because she's a sweet lady. But in reality,

one of my uncles, probably for crappy reasons, because he wanted he

was a musician. He was intoxicated one night and I was like fourteen,

and he said, if you ever do anything musically, change the name back

to Trevino. And uh, with his grade of a man as David Releford

is, I could never do that. So we decided just to call the

band Trevino. Oh okay, oh wow, well that's cool. I'm glad.

I'm glad there's a story behind it, because sometimes I'll ask somebody,

Hey, where's the name come from, and they're like, oh, we

just sort of sounded cool. I saw a tombstone in Texas. That's good.

Well that's that. I don't know. That's not bad actually for a

for a metal band. Er um And so what's the long term trajectory?

I mean, do you guys have plans to um uh to tour or you

know, you've got the you've got the show in Elkhart you were talking about,

But are you guys actively playing out or what's um what's happening currently?

So like that's that's kind of like one of the main reasons I wanted to

talk to people, um because I I hate where my muse is. I'm

su'mna pre apologize from where I got my life changing mus But Matt, you

probably have it. But have you ever seen the George straight mute movie Pure

Country. I've always been aware of it, and I remember when I worked

in a music store, I would always see it in the soundtrack section.

Uh, and so I can actually clearly imagine the cover um of with George

the one picture of George Strait that I've ever seen where he actually has facial

hair on the cover of the soundtrack to Pure Country. But but no,

I've never actually watched the film. Okay, well it's it's a good film

for a bad film, you know what I mean. I've always I've always

heard it's actually quite good what I kind of from it, and I had

watched it recently, like the last couple of years, last year or two.

It's just essentially about this country star that realizes that there's so much smoke

and bangs and fireworks on stage, and and so he decides to do a

test and he doesn't sing an entire verse, and his band, the fans

nobody notices, So he kind of goes through this like you know thing where

he's like, what are we doing here? Like is this like a is

this a circus? And it gets so to the bad to he leaves and

they end up throwing like another guy there and playing a track, and the

fans are so sold on all those smoke and mirrors that they don't even realize

that they're the guy they paid all this money. He's not even on stage,

and it's just a really long winded story about basically his character realizes,

like, you know what, man, like, I started playing music because

I thought it was fun and I thought maybe it would get me at some

chicks, like that's why I started playing music. And I feel like a

lot of artists once you get mixed into this whole, like you know,

music industry, which really doesn't exist like it used to. There is a

music industry, but like once you like, I don't know, it's I

feel like it perverts your art when you try to make it your your your

source of income, because I think once you know, if if you're trying

to earn money, you should try to earn as much money as possible,

and in order to earn more money. You kind of have to sacrifice what

you're doing. And I just think it's a breeding ground for just one bad

music and two just not having fun anymore. Like and I've seen I have

friends that did really well, really well, they were on MTV stuff like

that. I have friends that didn't do as well but had more fun,

you know what I'm saying. Like, Yeah, us recording this music and

our our whole trajectory is First of all, none of us live in the

same state except for me and my brother, Me and Hill and Phoenix were

all scattered. That's why we home record YEA and two. Right now.

We play two three gigs a year, which involves we all fly to a

city, we rent equipment, and we play shows. Um. But really,

as far as like, we don't really we're just having fun, man,

Like that was so fun to record an album. And then one thing

I did want to talk about was the mixing and mastering. I don't think

people realize how how scary of a step that is to take all your work

and hand it to a stranger. Oh yeah, yeah, we found this

and I'm gonna call him a kid. I think he's like twenty one.

We found this kid. Um on fiver after doing tons of digging, and

uh we hired him. He banged it. He did a great job.

And then like three days after he sent us the finals, he had entered

some some huge like multi like a YouTuber's page that had millions of followers.

He entered a blind contest and won it, and he beat the producers of

Abbey Road. Wow. So and the guy and the YouTubers like, whoever

this guy is, his price is just quadrupled we got I'm just gonna say

it because he doesn't charge it anymore. The lowest guy we found was two

hundred dollars a song to mix him master. This kid from the UK did

it for fifty dollars. Wow, we send him more money, We send

him more more. We're like, no, you don't understand how this works.

Yeah, really lucky on fiber. Yeah, oh that's awesome. Well,

very cool and it all it all sounds fantastic and uh no, that's

that's great. Um So, where Derek, where should people go online to

keep up with the music and everything that you're doing. Um, probably the

best place is just um probably Facebook. It's like that's the thing we have.

We're the worst at any of that kind of stuff. I do have

a website, but it's not done, so I don't want to yeah that,

but yeah, like Facebook, um, Facebook. But mainly we we're

just gonna we're going to start releasing more music into the world via like you

know, all the streaming sites and stuff. What we're working on next is

uh, some cover songs. Um, you know, just getting back into

the why did we start doing this? Because it's fun and one of the

fun things is, you know, just playing other people's music and doing your

spin on it. By the way, there's uh, I don't think the

mics really pick it up, so you probably couldn't hear it. But there

was a bunch of sirens just now that went down past elm Street, and

I so wish that had happened while we were talking about your true crime stuff.

That would have been perfect. But it happened. It happens once a

show, like every day, it happens at some point during my show,

there's a bunch of sirens. But yeah, yeah, it can be hard

to you know, social media and everything, it can be hard to keep

up with all of that. But Jenny has been sharing links too in the

Facebook live chat, and I see that you put your link tree in there,

so that's great. And do you have any plans for you know,

you mentioned covers. What about original music? I mean, are you guys

always are you and your brother are you always writing and coming up with ideas

or kind of like this latest album was different because like the first album,

I think I wrote all the songs and my brother wrote one, and then

on this new album, um, my brother wrote two and then our guitar

player from Denver he wrote two and any other. But it's really, um,

I don't know. It's kind of like the game Telephone, like with

home recording and stuff like how we how we operate if it's a song that

I quote unquote wrote, Like I'll go to my brother's home studio and I'll

lay down a guitar track for like my idea, and then I leave and

then as soon as my car starts, he deletes what I did and then

records it better, right, and then uh he basically messes with it for

three weeks and yeah, just between like you know, it's it's kind of

fun. Um when you're when you're in a dropbox band, you when you

wake up and you start your day to go to work and listen to music.

Typically usually have like four or five additions to the idea you started a

week ago to like listen in too and and you know, so it's it's

really to me, it's the only way I could even do, like if

if if we had to do this hanging out together in a room, pass

hard, pass No, I understand, I understand. Well, it's it's

great stuff, Derek. So uh so we're gonna as soon as we will

conclude our conversation in a moment. You've been very generous with your time.

I appreciate it, and we're gonna We're gonna play another track. But also,

do you want to plug the podcasts again, because you know, we

talked about that stuff a lot, and I'm sure there's people who want to

check out what you're doing there. Yeah, if you want to have a

good time, UM, just go to like any podcast platform and just look

for the Elkhart tapes. Um, there's I believe, like fifty some episodes,

the first forty five or really and it's so cool, like just it's

this tiny little patch of earth in the middle of nowhere and I was able

to find forty five amazing stories just like Cardache, Triumph, great stories of

people that just at one point lived in this town. And then the last

five episodes, uh is a grab bag of people snitching on each other.

So yeah, give it a shot, and give it a shot. Absolutely.

What's it called again? The elk cart tape? So it's e l

K h A RT Okay good, I'm glad. I'm glad you spelled it

because people might not know to put that h in there, so very cool.

Uh all right, well, Derek, listen, I'm gonna let you

pick. Uh. Well, we'll let you go in a moment, and

then I'm gonna go to Uh, I'm gonna go to another one of your

songs, but what would you like us to play? My favorite song is

one that I didn't write at all. Yeah, it's a it's a song

called tell Me, and it's a I told people I wasn't gonna tell him

what my lyrics were about because a buddy of mine asked me about one of

my songs. He's like, is your song about this? And then I

told him it was really about and he was just like that sucks. So

yeah, I've decided, but this song it's not my song, So I

feel at Liberty. But it's just basically it's a song about you know,

and it's something you can probably maybe appreciate. I don't know you super well,

but just kind of like that conflict with uh, you know, growing

up and and the people who care about you, um, where your heart

is drawing you towards art, but your loved ones are like that's nice,

but you're gonna die broke. Um you know. Yeah. It's just that

kind of battle of of inner turmoil of you know, picking the safe route

or you know, being yourself and you know, eating a lot of ramen

and doing what you want to do, you know. So yeah, and

the guy that wrote it's a doctor, so you can decide what he did.

Interesting, yeah, I think, but I think definitely a relatable concept

for a lot of people. So great, Yeah, well we'll play that

awesome awesome, all right, Derek Lafford. And should I be saying Trevino

or El Trevino for the band name? Either way? I think Spotify,

I think you can that they'll only show you Trevino all the other ones.

That says L Trevino. Yes, um, just look for the offensive photo.

There you go, There you go, all right, Derek again,

thank you so much for joining us today. I loved it went in a

direction I wasn't expecting. But I'm glad. I'm glad that it did.

That was fascinating. But thank you so much, my friend, and we

will have to do this again soon. I really, I really enjoyed this,

so thank you so much. I love you, buddy. Take it

easy, all right, Derek, thank you? Take care all right,

very good. So we're gonna close with this um track. Oh there we

go. We're gonna close with this track. Tell me we're gonna close the

segment. We're not We're not quite down the show. But then well we'll

come back and we'll finish up after this. But this is tell me from

Trevino or El Trevino here on Matt Connerton only check this out. I'll love

these guys. I'll love their sound. This is good stuff. Your a

piction. Didn't not ask about all those chances I classed the barn on the

where my luck was. I couldn't not see you a dying. I want

that makes me dream. Dating to see that shared makes something that dis all

like I'm running bone, not changing anything. I'm living for the dream he

set all the mountain nothing. I'm not scared, told myself phone own away

anymore at this one O me, I bill, my dear, and you

were patient and didn't ask. I knew how to reactive found out if you

were pastien and didn't ask, I know why be found out? Yeah?

You found out a fine and I have fine? Fine? Whats this?

You who gone? Leaves you? Your mind? Seeks me back to when

it all may sense to clean myself anger, No, I can go there

nothing left me that said left you wait to lady, to mother, to

love. Oh my god, I love it. That is Tell me the

band is uh while they're Trevino on Spotify, El Trevino elsewhere. But thank

you again to our friend Derek Ralford for joining us today and Ni Jenny and

I've known Derek uh for a while online of course, but that's um.

That's the first time I've ever had an extended conversation with him on the show,

and I really enjoyed that. Um. That was um. We not

only talked about the music, but uh some of his other things as well.

That just really interesting. Uh. I'm gonna have to check out that

podcast about El cart Um. But very good, very good. So thank

you again. By the way, we'll play one more track from that band

at the end of the show in just a couple of minutes. And we're

already almost at the end, but if you'd like to get in with a

very quick call to put a tag on the show, you can six three

two five six Z seven is a studio line. Six zo three two five

oh six Z seven. Tomorrow on the show in the second hour, we

have a musical guest in studio, hip hop artist Cody Pope. We'll be

joining us, and I think he's gonna have at least one other at least

one other artists with him as well. But that will be tomorrow on the

second hour. And I've interviewed Cody Pope, I think a couple of times,

or maybe a few times over the years, but on another show that

I do. But that'll be the first time on this show that we've had

him in studio with us, and that'll be really cool. I'm looking forward

to that tomorrow. So we've got a busy week out of us here on

the program, and we'll say hello to everybody in the Facebook live chat quickly

while everybody we didn't already say hello too. We saw some new folks enter

the studio, New Force of the Spark. Now I've seen New Affirm of

the Spark in the Facebook live chat. This is New Force of the Spark,

whom I strongly suspect is from Greensboro, North Carolina. They say hello

hashtag Matt. We said, we are now called of ourselves New Force of

the Spark. Oh I get it. We are now called so it used

to be New Affirm of the Spark, and they are now called New Force

of the Spark, which makes me wonder was that a suggestion made by their

their manager and producer, Texas Mike. If you're not aware of our friend

Texas Mike, who appears on the show occasionally, uh and on. He

also appears on the Morning Show and has been on Retrospectrum Radio with policy he

got roped in or I'm sorry, he got invited to be the manager and

producer of Apparently they are now called New Force of the Spark in Greensboro,

North Carolina. New Force says cool song. We said, we say,

how's it going? Also, our friend Rocky Hubert joins us in the Facebook

live chat and says, how's everyone doing? Hello Rocky, New Force of

the Spark says, We say, Hi hashtag Rocky h We said, how

are you doing? From new Force of the Spark. We will be performing

for the Center City Park, downtown Greensboro, North Carolina, is karaoke on

June fourth, twenty twenty three, as we could at four to seven pm.

Very nice, Well, congratulations on that, did Texas mic Bookie that

gig. Rocky says, I say to you from us and me the Spark

of the Force. That's new. We say, Hi, see Rocky as

it sounds like he's perhaps been to Greensboro, he knows the lingo. Oh

boy, Anyway, it goes on and on. My dad is in the

Facebook live chat. Hello Martin Connerton. Let's see a new force, says

We say, archer flight. They watching the Morning Show with Peter White on

Facebook Live. We said, and we have a call. Hi, welcome

to Matt Connerton unleashed. Who's this? Oh? All right, well that

was a simulating dialogue. All right we are Did I miss anybody in the

chat? Now? All right, we're about out of time. I do

want to close the show with one more track from Trevino. Great song.

This is Alreadie Lang. This is one that Derek had sent to us a

while ago, and I think we had played on the show. Oh there's

a new name in the chart room. Hello to Davey Schumard or Schumard.

So we got to go. So we're gonna play one more song and to

close out. If you miss any part of today's show, it will be

up in just a little bit at WMNH radio dot org and in my website

Matt Connerton dot com. Don't forget tomorrow on the show. On the second

hour, we have Cody Pope for our musical guest. Really looking forward to

that very talented hip hop artist. And we've had some great discussions in the

past. Oh, Davey is the drummer for El Trevino. Well, hello,

sir, I'm a big fan of your band. There you go.

I'm about to play another one of your songs, all right, So,

so lots of great stuff coming up. Thank you all again for joining me

today on the program, and thank you, of course to Derek Ralford for

joining us for a great discussion as well. And I'm gonna leave you with

this. This is a song called Artie Lange from El Trevino. To close

out today's Matt Connerton unleashed right here on whoint three FM. We grow,

we side. As we speak the heartless time, my heart is raised,

and as we speak to sweat rules or doubt much. You're not the kind

of sending You're the kind of like to see when it's slow, and I

feel about slow. Time can Go is the song that we sank so few

so everyone letter is so quite as now You're time and physical that my have

on the rain where your life got diff got yourself together. You don't be

fall love. He goes become and he and they go im this suside for

weekend of f

Game Plan