Latest / The Scene Projects / Gregg Hall's Journey: Sobriety, Community, and Celebrating the Music Scene

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Gregg Hall's Journey: Sobriety, Community, and Celebrating the Music Scene · The Scene Projects

• 0:02
  Well, welcome in to a very exciting episode of the scene.
• 0:05
  I am your host Bubba Starts, and with me today, Greg Hall.
• 0:08
  Greg, welcome to the show.
• 0:10
  Thank you for having me.
• 0:11
  A pleasure to be here.
• 0:12
  Well, brother, we didn't get to meet at the Midwest Country Music Awards, although I did
• 0:17
  get to meet your mother.
• 0:19
  And, but you fantastic performance.
• 0:23
  You you had a a great you were nominated for several awards over the weekend of which we'll
• 0:29
  get to, but give us a little bit of a backstory.
• 0:32
  You're I know you're a musician.
• 0:34
  You've been at this for a long time, so we don't have to go all the way to prehistory, but
• 0:39
  give us a rundown.
• 0:42
  I started playing music, you know, out in the bars and stuff when I was about 18 and just do
• 0:50
  pretty much doing the same thing since then.
• 0:52
  Playing, learning, making moves, recording songs, playing in different bands.
• 0:58
  But, most recently, like, last few years, I played, my own band, Greg Hall and the wrecking
• 1:04
  ball, and, Minnesota based White Iron Band since 02/2009.
• 1:11
  So those have been my two main bands, and then I have a music festival.
• 1:14
  I own a production company here in La Crosse, Wisconsin where I do lots of shows, in my
• 1:21
  community and the tri state area of Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota.
• 1:25
  So I am a full time musician.
• 1:27
  I'm a full time dad.
• 1:28
  I have two kids.
• 1:29
  I am yeah.
• 1:32
  Just always working, shucking and jiving.
• 1:35
  You got it, brother.
• 1:37
  I'm coming to you live from my dry cabin at Kathmandu Campground, a big sponsor and
• 1:43
  supporter of everything that we do.
• 1:45
  And, so I understand.
• 1:48
  I feel a lot of that.
• 1:49
  Same thing.
• 1:50
  I've been playing in bars since I was probably 14, 15 years old, leaving JV basketball games
• 1:55
  to go play with my dad and his band.
• 1:58
  That's awesome.
• 1:59
  Yeah.
• 1:59
  A lot of lot of parallels.
• 2:01
  Lot of parallels.
• 2:02
  As I mentioned before, I, I'd sat with your mom actually at the same table as your mom at the
• 2:07
  awards show.
• 2:09
  And I didn't realize, she had mentioned your name a few times, but, you know, it's a pretty
• 2:12
  large community with the Midwest CMO.
• 2:15
  And and I'm in South Dakota.
• 2:17
  Right?
• 2:17
  So we don't always, you know, intersect with the Wisconsin crew and that vestige.
• 2:22
  So, you know, I was talking to her about the community and things that we've been doing and
• 2:26
  building.
• 2:27
  I've been a member for about the last year, a little over.
• 2:30
  And to watch how proud of you she was when you were up on stage with Megan and at your
• 2:37
  performance was was touching.
• 2:39
  It it it was a reminder of the hidden whys to why we do what we do.
• 2:46
  Right?
• 2:46
  Because there are people behind us that have supported us from an early age that are still
• 2:53
  rooting for us, and, it's all the motivation that's needed to keep going.
• 2:59
  Yeah.
• 2:59
  Abs absolutely.
• 3:00
  I've been lucky.
• 3:01
  Both my parents have been soup super duper supportive, probably more now since, like, you
• 3:09
  know, I'd proven you know, got off the sauce, quit partying, you know, about go almost eighty
• 3:16
  years ago.
• 3:17
  So I think in that eight years, I've accomplished way more than I did in the twenty
• 3:23
  beforehand.
• 3:24
  You know what I mean?
• 3:25
  I feel like that the sobriety stood from alcohol and hard drugs.
• 3:35
  You know?
• 3:35
  I mean, not that I wasn't doing stuff before, but you just get a you know what I mean?
• 3:40
  I don't know.
• 3:40
  I don't know how to explain it, but my advice to anybody out there that's young and playing,
• 3:46
  don't drink if you can help it and just play songs, keep doing what you're doing.
• 3:51
  Because I felt like that was a huge crutch for me for a long a lot of years.
• 3:55
  I feel like I wasted a lot of years when I could have been doing a lot more.
• 3:59
  So now I find myself working overtime to make up for that.
• 4:04
  So finding that healthy balance maybe too in moderation and all that stuff.
• 4:11
  So
• 4:12
  Brother, I feel you.
• 4:14
  I was probably 20 I was in my mid twenties when it was obvious that, like, partying at shows
• 4:21
  wasn't going to work for me.
• 4:23
  Right?
• 4:23
  Playing in a band, singing three hours a night, then trying to drink whiskey on top of that,
• 4:27
  and the vocals are wrecked, and you're trying to do that two, three nights a week.
• 4:31
  And, so I learned, like, don't drink at shows early.
• 4:36
  The problem was is that I would just drink more after the show or would drink I I would
• 4:41
  compensate for that or or to party.
• 4:44
  I've also also an addict, Greg.
• 4:47
  The parallels continue for us in our in our life path.
• 4:52
  And for me, last year was really a big one where when I got out of prison, I, you know,
• 5:00
  obviously wasn't drinking or doing it, but I wasn't playing any music.
• 5:03
  And then kinda got into the the corporate, you know, factory work world.
• 5:07
  I was a welder.
• 5:08
  Oh, then I'd got in the habit after I got in, you know, off of parole was to come home, crack
• 5:14
  a six pack of pounders, and, you know, just fed into this this sickness.
• 5:20
  Right?
• 5:21
  And last year, had the calling to get back into music full time and to be doing what I'm doing
• 5:29
  now.
• 5:30
  But a major factor in that was quitting drinking, quitting the habit of drinking.
• 5:34
  I didn't, you know, I'll have a beer occasionally, but I was in a habit of coming
• 5:40
  home and drinking a six pack of pounders of Miller Lite every single night of the week,
• 5:45
  twice as much on the weekends, and that's just not conducive to being a successful human
• 5:51
  being, much less a musician who's trying to get as a business owner.
• 5:56
  Yeah.
• 5:58
  And, yeah, it's just it's just a it's a cycle that you don't wanna you know, they're doing
• 6:04
  the same thing over and over and then expecting a different result.
• 6:07
  I mean, that's the definition of insanity.
• 6:10
  You know?
• 6:10
  And I feel like when people get stuck in that cycle of weekend warrior, go to work, weekend
• 6:16
  warrior, go to work.
• 6:17
  I mean, nothing you're doing stuff, but you're not growing.
• 6:21
  You know?
• 6:21
  And I feel like I was caught in that for a long time.
• 6:24
  You know, being envious and making a competition with other people that were doing
• 6:28
  something where I was just, no.
• 6:29
  I'm just insecure, and I could be doing more.
• 6:32
  And that you know?
• 6:33
  So that's not healthy either.
• 6:36
  But just, but now it's like like the the Midwest country thing, like, seeing so many
• 6:41
  people rooting for each other and stuff kinda gave me a a resurge of, oh, okay.
• 6:48
  You know?
• 6:49
  This is pretty cool.
• 6:50
  You know?
• 6:51
  And my sound is nothing like a a a lot of those bands that played.
• 6:54
  So just being included, you know, and I'm a old guy.
• 6:58
  I don't know how to do spot.
• 6:59
  I'm I suck at Spotify and that stuff.
• 7:02
  Like, if you look at White Iron Band and Greg Hall and the Racking Ball, I mean, there's
• 7:07
  there's a serious catalog of a lot of songs that probably won't see the light of day.
• 7:14
  Hopefully, they will, but you know what I mean?
• 7:16
  Because trying to keep up with that stuff when you're in your forties is a is a tough deal.
• 7:23
  You know?
• 7:25
  Yeah.
• 7:26
  I'm with you.
• 7:27
  I I just learned how to do YouTube.
• 7:28
  I'll turn 39 next week.
• 7:30
  And, even even though we were you know, we won the content creator of the year award, a lot of
• 7:36
  our stuff wasn't even going onto YouTube until, like, January of this year.
• 7:41
  So I've really spent the last four months digging in, and a lot of it is just
• 7:45
  consistency.
• 7:46
  And it's hard to be consistent when there's 37 platforms that you have to post to and, like,
• 7:51
  there's still only twenty four hours in a day.
• 7:54
  Right?
• 7:55
  So what I've found and success for for me has been to just dedicate to the one.
• 8:00
  Right?
• 8:00
  I'm not making any money from Spotify.
• 8:03
  It's not helping me get any gigs.
• 8:05
  So I pretty much pay zero attention to it.
• 8:07
  I have some songs up there.
• 8:09
  I use a service that's free to to distribute my music called one RPM, o n e r p m.
• 8:15
  So I don't have to pay to to maintain that, which kinda takes something from it.
• 8:20
  Where a distro kid, you're paying monthly for it.
• 8:22
  You feel obligated to be using it, right, to be putting out music and to be doing things where
• 8:28
  I have a different relationship with that side.
• 8:30
  But for YouTube, we've seen a massive growth in our views.
• 8:34
  I know TikTok is really big on this.
• 8:35
  We're probably a little too old for TikTok.
• 8:38
  But, I know that it's a massive tool for up and coming artists because the algorithms there are
• 8:45
  feeding people new things.
• 8:47
  Right?
• 8:48
  They're they are feeding that to where, you know, old guys like us, like, you know, I use
• 8:53
  Facebook pretty regularly as a networking tool.
• 8:55
  But as a promotional tool, it's pretty weak.
• 8:58
  It's great to find groups.
• 9:00
  That's kind of how on the Midwest CMO.
• 9:03
  You know, Brad Morgan had a lot to do with that as well.
• 9:06
  But, I would love to know your take.
• 9:08
  This was a you've been a member for a a short time, I'm assuming.
• 9:13
  You picked up a bunch of nominations.
• 9:15
  Talk about coming into the Midwest Country Music Organization, you know, as a new member
• 9:20
  and, you know, what it kinda means to have now a community around you where I don't know if
• 9:26
  you've had that in other places before.
• 9:29
  No.
• 9:29
  No.
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  No.
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  I think I think it's great, and I felt well welcomed right in.
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  Like, even the first year, they they asked me to perform a few years ago, and I think our
• 9:38
  band got, like, band of the year.
• 9:39
  And, no.
• 9:41
  It was great.
• 9:43
  For me, I I mean, I was honored.
• 9:45
  You know, it's hard to you know, as a as a musician, like, am am I any good?
• 9:51
  Do people like it?
• 9:52
  You know?
• 9:53
  I don't know.
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  I don't know.
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  So it was cool to get a little bit of recognition.
• 9:57
  Like, hey.
• 9:57
  People are noticing that you're doing stuff, and you're doing a good job.
• 10:01
  And, you know, I'm a big firm believer in the law of attraction, you know, and I've been
• 10:05
  making better decisions in my life.
• 10:08
  And all these good people like yourself and the the it they're just gravitating towards me, and
• 10:14
  I really feel like, doing good things.
• 10:19
  You know, the right people are coming and hearing me and seeing me, and, and that's
• 10:23
  great.
• 10:24
  And I'm super grateful and appreciative of it.
• 10:27
  And I'm meeting guys like Corey Waller.
• 10:29
  Like, Corey Waller came up to me and said, hey, man.
• 10:33
  I love your band.
• 10:34
  We really we listen to you all the time.
• 10:36
  And, you know, for which I thought was pretty cool because he was the songwriter of the year,
• 10:41
  and he won all the you know, like, wow.
• 10:42
  I'm like, really?
• 10:43
  I'm like, holy cow.
• 10:44
  Thanks, man.
• 10:46
  You know?
• 10:46
  He's great too.
• 10:47
  So, yeah, I was just it it kinda pumped me up a little bit to keep going, you know, keep
• 10:53
  putting out new stuff.
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  And I met people like Megan and the birdwatch, and we've been doing shows now for a while and
• 10:59
  became good friends with her, and we recorded a song.
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  And, you know, it's just that seminar that that Ari guy gave too, like, it was eye opening.
• 11:08
  So I'm super grateful for PT and everybody that's involved in that because it's it's a lot
• 11:14
  it's a huge undertaking.
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  So, I'm just happy that somebody's out there trying to root for guys like us and girls like
• 11:23
  us.
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  You know?
• 11:25
  No.
• 11:26
  I was drink a
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  lot of coffee.
• 11:27
  No.
• 11:29
  You're good, man.
• 11:30
  That's that's why we do podcasts and not three minute TV interviews like I did yesterday, on a
• 11:35
  local news station.
• 11:37
  But that you know, being on that news station and then also being a member of the Midwest CMO
• 11:45
  and getting to know this crew over the last, you know, fourteen months or so, is the reason
• 11:51
  why I started a podcast.
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  Like, I launched this podcast because I saw a community that needed the service.
• 11:58
  Right?
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  They they they needed this thing.
• 12:00
  They needed more people to talk about them.
• 12:02
  Right?
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  Like, okay.
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  The award show is great, but what are we doing the rest of the three hundred and sixty four
• 12:07
  days of the year?
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  Right?
• 12:09
  Like, what are we doing to Absolutely.
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  This songwriting community?
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  It's why I started, my own community, the Midwest Original Music Organization, to open
• 12:19
  the doors to everyone.
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  You know, seeing the benefit that, you know, this has brought to my life has allowed me to
• 12:25
  wear, like, I have things that I can educate people on.
• 12:29
  And my small community around me, while all of them don't necessarily feel, as members of the
• 12:35
  Midwest CMO, like, that's okay.
• 12:38
  We can form our own little group here.
• 12:39
  And I think what you're going to see are a lot more regional, kind of associations and
• 12:45
  organizations like this in the future as, you know, things like the Midwest CMO continue to
• 12:50
  grow in their popularity and in kind of their that universe grows, I think there's room for a
• 12:56
  lot of this.
• 12:57
  You know?
• 12:57
  It sounds like you have a community around you in Lacrosse that you've built with your
• 13:01
  production company and all these things that you kind of already have that in your city.
• 13:08
  Yeah.
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  Abs I mean, my community is super supportive.
• 13:11
  I mean, I I grew up here.
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  And I tell you what, it's the most beautiful place on earth, the Driftless area.
• 13:17
  There's really not much that can compare to it.
• 13:21
  So I've stuck around and, like, here's a like, for instance, I wrote a song about Holka,
• 13:25
  Minnesota, this little town down the road.
• 13:27
  So and I know a lot of people that live there.
• 13:29
  It's kind of this funny called the Hoca Polka.
• 13:31
  You know, being from Wisconsin, written hundreds of songs, never wrote a polka.
• 13:35
  So it's a true story about this little town.
• 13:37
  You know?
• 13:37
  And, so I went right to the mayor, and I said, hey.
• 13:43
  Lee Tipari is his name.
• 13:44
  Really good guy.
• 13:45
  And, like, hey.
• 13:46
  I wanna do the show.
• 13:47
  And he knew me.
• 13:48
  His son was a guitar player that played in a band with my son's uncle, you know, years ago.
• 13:54
  And it the whole town is just amped.
• 13:57
  It's gonna it's this Sunday, May 4, '2 PM in HOKA at the ball field.
• 14:02
  And, so this huge support from this little community, this little hippie town.
• 14:07
  It's beautiful.
• 14:07
  There's a waterfall that goes right through the downtown, and and I put out sponsorships.
• 14:13
  I'm I'm doing everything for free.
• 14:15
  We're gonna film a video for that song, Hoca Polka.
• 14:19
  So, I mean, just doing these things for the community to try to build something.
• 14:26
  You know?
• 14:26
  And then same with my festival, Cheech's my nickname is Cheech around here, Diesfest.
• 14:33
  Because as you know I mean, you're a musician, obviously, too.
• 14:37
  Trying to get into these festivals is hard.
• 14:40
  You know?
• 14:40
  No matter how many see Midwest country music or nominations, whatever songs, like, a lot of it
• 14:47
  is about who you know, you know, obviously.
• 14:51
  And, and you and what you do on your and, you know, a combination of a bunch of things.
• 14:55
  But bottom line, it's it's tough because you think about certain they probably get thousands
• 15:01
  and thousands of requests by bands.
• 15:04
  So and I know that there's a in La Crosse County, we have a lot of amazing musicians per
• 15:10
  capita.
• 15:11
  Like, it's gotta be some kind of record, like and just the Midwest in general.
• 15:15
  So I created this festival just to help people like me and you who are quite at that status
• 15:25
  that we're getting it's easy to get into every festival you apply to or whatever.
• 15:31
  So giving these a platform for for people like us to showcase their music on a little bit
• 15:37
  bigger scale.
• 15:38
  We're not selling millions and thousands of tickets, but it's just a grassroots fest multi
• 15:44
  genre.
• 15:45
  We got I mean, this year, I think I covered them all.
• 15:47
  We got blues.
• 15:48
  We got folk.
• 15:49
  We got country.
• 15:50
  We got bluegrass.
• 15:52
  We got a jam jam band.
• 15:55
  You know?
• 16:02
  So many good musicians in this little area.
• 16:04
  I'm blessed.
• 16:06
  And the community has came in and supported this thing.
• 16:09
  It'll be our sixth year, and, I'm just really happy, and it's fun to to watch how grateful
• 16:17
  the people are there, you know, when they bring their kids there, and it's a safe environment.
• 16:22
  They're not you know, it's not super expensive.
• 16:25
  Like, I mean, this weekend is free.
• 16:27
  You know?
• 16:28
  So and I think it's just doing those things for your community.
• 16:32
  It goes about doing putting good out there, you'll get good back.
• 16:37
  You know?
• 16:37
  And none of us are getting rich here.
• 16:39
  We're just having fun playing music and putting on a show.
• 16:43
  I mean, and that's what it's really all about, just creating good music, you know, aside from
• 16:47
  the social media, all that stuff.
• 16:49
  I mean, the goal is to create good music.
• 16:52
  And, you know, and that's that's what we're all doing.
• 16:55
  And share it.
• 16:56
  And share it.
• 16:57
  And that's exactly what, you know, us kind of being the OGs that are still able to go out and
• 17:03
  do things now.
• 17:05
  And I love, I love everything that you're talking about, man.
• 17:08
  Would love to be a part of Deez Fest even as just a sponsor for this year, help you guys
• 17:13
  promote that event out there on our channel and talking about it.
• 17:17
  Even just talking about it here helps.
• 17:19
  Right?
• 17:19
  So can't wait to see the line for that.
• 17:22
  I'm a have you send me a flyer, and we'll be helping you promote it for sure.
• 17:26
  And, yeah, let's, let's touch on your music before I let you go.
• 17:30
  I don't wanna take up all your time this morning.
• 17:33
  We all have places to be and things to do.
• 17:36
  But, let's talk about your music and kind of the future of Greg Hall and the wrecking ball.
• 17:42
  You got new music coming out this year.
• 17:45
  I'm sure you're busy with a ton of shows all the time, but what does the, recorded music
• 17:50
  look like?
• 17:54
  Well, we just I just released two albums.
• 17:56
  One, I recorded out in Nashville with Johnny Garcia.
• 17:59
  He's Garth Brooks' lead guitar player.
• 18:02
  We released that one exit 20 two two two in December.
• 18:06
  And then right away in February, I dropped live at First Avenue, our first my first ever live
• 18:12
  record, which I'm super proud of.
• 18:17
  I think that's my favorite one I've ever made.
• 18:18
  You know?
• 18:19
  It really captures the, you know, the as you know, like, you can't really capture the live
• 18:24
  thing in the studio.
• 18:26
  You know?
• 18:27
  And I feel like when when we're live, I mean, that's captures more of the essence of what my
• 18:34
  music is really about.
• 18:35
  And, but, yeah, we're we're making a video for Hoca Polka.
• 18:39
  We have half an album done.
• 18:41
  So, hopefully, I'm my goal is to have another album by the December released and maybe
• 18:49
  dropping a few singles along the way.
• 18:52
  So
• 18:52
  So three albums in a twelve month space with some singles in between, organizing your own
• 18:58
  music festival among other things.
• 19:02
  Greg, for a very, laid back dude, you sure are busy.
• 19:10
  Oh, man.
• 19:11
  I I play, the other side of me is not laid back.
• 19:14
  You can ask my my old lady and my kids.
• 19:18
  But, you know, so when you're when you're it's hard for me to delegate duties sometimes.
• 19:24
  So I get pretty busy and pretty overwhelmed, but, meditation and Reiki and all that stuff
• 19:31
  goes a long way.
• 19:32
  You know?
• 19:33
  I mean, it's just, like, part of the recovery thing.
• 19:35
  You know?
• 19:36
  I never went to, like, rehab.
• 19:37
  I just quit cold turkey.
• 19:38
  And may I think I may be filling the addiction thing with overworking.
• 19:45
  It might be my new addiction and coffee, but I suppose that it's better than, you know,
• 19:52
  cocaine and whiskey.
• 19:53
  Yeah.
• 19:53
  Me me too, brother.
• 19:55
  Don't worry.
• 19:56
  You know?
• 19:56
  This is a cup of coffee to me.
• 19:58
  I have several of these a day.
• 20:00
  I'm like, oh, your cup is, like, 12 cups.
• 20:05
  Yeah.
• 20:06
  One thing I did mention, May 17 in La Crosse, we are dropping our live at live at First
• 20:13
  Avenue record at the Alpine Inn.
• 20:15
  We're also doing a Steve Miller band set.
• 20:18
  We're gonna play the greatest hits, as part of that show too.
• 20:23
  So that's been a lot of fun.
• 20:25
  A little bit more work than I thought it was gonna be because you think you know them songs,
• 20:29
  and they're simple, but you still gotta you gotta learn all the little tricks that
• 20:34
  Yeah.
• 20:34
  They're no slouches.
• 20:35
  No.
• 20:36
  A lot of a lot of layers with Steve
• 20:38
  Javier Trail.
• 20:43
  Yeah.
• 20:44
  My buddy Javier Trail is coming down and sitting with guitar on that one.
• 20:48
  I don't know if you've ever heard of Javier Trail, but Yeah.
• 20:50
  My god.
• 20:51
  He's
• 20:51
  I've I follow Javier online, buddy.
• 20:53
  The fact that you just brought his name up, you know, I I know you don't feel like, you know,
• 20:59
  that you're way up here with a lot of, you know, the musicians out there, but, you know,
• 21:04
  you're definitely respected among the music community on the wider scale.
• 21:08
  Right?
• 21:09
  Working with Johnny and, you know, Javier is
• 21:12
  Well, that's
• 21:12
  top of the line, but that's also from being in the industry for almost thirty years.
• 21:18
  Yeah.
• 21:21
  Yeah.
• 21:21
  And, you know, and and with what and, White Iron Band helped me out immensely.
• 21:25
  I mean, you if there's anybody that should I mean, if any band, in my opinion, should get a
• 21:30
  legacy award for country music in the Midwest, it's the White Iron Band.
• 21:35
  I mean, what?
• 21:36
  They have they probably have 10 albums out.
• 21:38
  I bet you there's 200 songs out there.
• 21:40
  Matt Poudis writes the best.
• 21:43
  You know, you can ask bands.
• 21:45
  You know, I've you know, like, trampled by turtles and pert near sandstone.
• 21:50
  These bands are really big, and they'll credit white iron band and Matt's writing and Sammy
• 21:55
  and those guys for really, setting the bar before.
• 21:58
  You know?
• 21:59
  They've been they've been a band since '98.
• 22:01
  And, man, just some of the best country song like, being in that band motivated me to start
• 22:08
  being more of my own original country sound, like, back to my roots because, man, there's so
• 22:17
  if you like outlaw country music or just good music in general, the White Iron Band just
• 22:24
  consistency of impressive.
• 22:30
  You know?
• 22:30
  And I'm not saying that too because I play in the band every once in a while.
• 22:34
  Like, I truly believe in I mean, that that band yeah.
• 22:40
  I don't know.
• 22:41
  There's just something about it.
• 22:43
  Like, that always keeps me coming back.
• 22:44
  You know?
• 22:45
  And I play a ton of I record one of his songs almost every album.
• 22:49
  I we play a few of White Iron songs in the wrecking ball just because there's just so many
• 22:55
  songs.
• 22:55
  You know?
• 22:58
  So, yeah, my rant is over there.
• 23:04
  Hey.
• 23:04
  That that's a good one, man.
• 23:06
  And I I love I love your passion for other independent artists.
• 23:12
  Right?
• 23:12
  You know, you gushing over Corey Waller.
• 23:14
  They've become good friends of ours, over the last year.
• 23:18
  Huge fans of their band.
• 23:19
  I mean, I was in tears watching them, you know, not just perform, but to accept these awards.
• 23:24
  You know?
• 23:25
  I'm the guy in the back hooting and hollering as loud as anyone because, you know, it's it's
• 23:31
  a family.
• 23:32
  And we touched on that a little bit, the this community, this family that we're putting
• 23:36
  around ourselves every single day with our not just our fans, but the other bands.
• 23:42
  And the Midwest is really coming out in, 2025 and making a lot of noise.
• 23:49
  And, you know, myself, I'm touring all the way down through Texas for my first time this year
• 23:54
  and, starting to make those connections, man.
• 23:56
  I I was really for some reason, I had it in my head that a kid from South Dakota couldn't do
• 24:02
  some of these things.
• 24:04
  And I am exceeding my own expectations every day as I am having my expectations exceeded by
• 24:10
  everyone else around me, including you, sir.
• 24:13
  Awesome.
• 24:16
  Greg, why don't you go ahead and plug, anything?
• 24:19
  I don't know you have insight or anything, but go ahead and plug, and I'll let you get out of
• 24:22
  here.
• 24:25
  Well, I would just say Chicha Chicha's Dies Fest, July twenty fourth through the twenty
• 24:29
  sixth, Bluebird Campground, '30 bands.
• 24:32
  I mean, go gregghaulmusic.com, g r e g g h a l l music Com.
• 24:37
  It's got everything.
• 24:38
  This Sunday, the Holka Jam, the inaugural Holka Jam, with Craig Hall and the wrecking ball and
• 24:44
  Cheeba, that starts at two at Legion Park in Boca, Minnesota and May 17 at the Alpine Inn La
• 24:50
  Crosse, Wisconsin.
• 24:51
  Steve Miller tribute and live at First Avenue Wrecking Ball release party.
• 24:57
  So lots going on.
• 24:59
  So
• 25:00
  Yeah.
• 25:00
  You're a busy get well, Greg, I I appreciate you being on the show with me today, and I I
• 25:08
  appreciate you being part of the scene.
• 25:10
  Thank you.
• 25:13
  Absolutely, man.
• 25:14
  And, let's get together, maybe talk about doing some gigs for sure.
• 25:19
  Gotta get this weekend over with, and then I'll I'll reach out next week.
• 25:24
  We'll make something happen.
• 25:25
  So
• 25:25
  Sounds awesome, man.
• 25:26
  Can't wait.