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WEHM All Access - Sag Harbor American Music Festival - Widely Grown · WEHM All Access

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's W E H M All Access the Stack Harbor Music Festival as we get ready for 2026.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Four days uh of free music all over uh the village of Stack Harbor and coming up Saturday, September 26th.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: If uh you look at the schedule at StagHarbor Music.org, you'll see widely grown performing at the Marine Park stage uh five o'clock on that Saturday.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: And uh joining me from the band is James Caleo.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Uh first off, uh Stag Harbor Music Festival.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Have you been out to uh Steg Harbor before?
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, actually, we played last year at the Stag Harbor Music Festival on the uh at one of the the alley stages.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: So now you're finding yourself in the Marine Park, which is very cool.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's actually a great feel, a great vibe, uh especially if the weather is is is nice around the village of Stag Harbor.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm glad you get you got invited back and you'll be here uh for this year's uh performances.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh tell us a little bit about I guess your history.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Where did you did you grow up in Jersey?
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: Where where did you uh kind of start your musical musical journey?
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: I was born in New Jersey, and then I spent about six years in Tokyo, Japan growing up, not army related or military related, and uh then moved home, went to college in the University of Missouri, and from there I started uh a band out there.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: It was a a really terrible funk and like Grateful Dead band that lasted a year, and then I I left school, went and traveled for the next two years, kind of just working and playing music and checking out new things, and then uh found myself back in Jersey about 12 years ago, and then you know, played music, barroom corners, little things, nothing really stuck, and then COVID hit, and my wife and I we uh we jumped in our little Subaru and drove around the country for about three months um during 2020 and then came home and I was like, I have all these songs now.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: I need a band.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: And uh is your wife does your does your wife play or just you just guys were traveling together?
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: Just yeah, just traveling together, just mountain or you know, mountain biking, rock climbing, backpacking, all that kind of stuff.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Where did you learn the spirit of adventure?
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: This is uh is amazing.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you grew up in you said in Tokyo, uh, and you spend time all over the place in Missouri.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, have you always just wanted to just kind of be on the road exploring?
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think it was part of the the Tokyo experience.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the foundational moments, I guess, were um I was there between seven and ten years old.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, from being a seven-year-old and having to take the subway to school and ride the public transit and kind of be independent with my sisters, because uh the Japanese culture really pushed uh independence in in their youth.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: So uh I think that kind of started this interesting ability to trust myself.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: When did you uh start getting involved in music?
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Were you in Tokyo at the time?
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Or because I'm curious what you listened to and kind of what shaped your early years where you kind of arrived at this point where you were listening to the dead and all these different types of bands.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: I guess, you know, growing up, my dad we we listened to a bunch of you know, Beatles' greatest hits and Motown records and and whatnot.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: And then uh yeah, my uncles were a big influence.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: Anytime I'd go visit them in California, my uncle would put a guitar in my hands and I would just, you know, strum the strings all open and we'd sing tunes together, and then they got me hip to like Crosby Stills and Nash.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: By the time like eighth grade rolled around, my dad was showing me the Who and Led Zeppelin and you know all that kind of stuff.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: And and then from there just it progressed.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: I guess the college and the dead thing, those were you know, doing nefarious things outside of dorm rooms.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: When did you start writing the music?
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: Writing I as soon as I got a guitar, um, probably when I was 13, I just started you know, making songs and wrote really bad but complete songs uh for you know the good part of eight or ten years before I felt comfortable to to bring them out as you know as your own original music on display.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: Were you always a performer at heart?
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: Did you always just love getting on the stage?
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean I never I've never had any reservations to it.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: It's my my philosophy.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I just want to like share an experience with people, you know.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: Make people feel comfortable and through that do the same.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: Make sure everyone knows that this isn't a a look at me type of performance.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's more of a hey, let's see what we can do here with this music and this day and this you know hour if it's what it's gonna be at Sag Harbor.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: So it's kind of just trying to share and you know, not sound corny, but just like good good vibes ultimately.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's uh yeah, it's kind of my my goal, and I think that's always been my thing is realizing that music can bring people together.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't need to put you above anyone, or or you know, being on a stage just saying that is is kind of weird, but yeah, I mean that's what it is.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: You you started the bands you mentioned during COVID, driving around with your wife or around like the country.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: Where did you find your your bandmates when you came out to Jersey?
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: How did it kind of come together?
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: The approach I wanted to take after that trip was more acoustic and Americana.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um while beforehand I wasn't really sure what all this music was gonna culminate in.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: When I got back, I was like, you know, I had written for three months on an acoustic guitar again, and my wife was like, if you're writing on that, why don't you just play that?
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: So I did that.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: I called up uh Dave Lockhart, who is a fantastic upright bass, bluegrass, and folk player.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um, he used to be in a band out in Lake Tahoe, California called the Dead Winter Carpenters.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I actually spent some time out in Lake Tahoe as a lifty and a busboy, you know, during the winter and summer months one year, and I had seen them but didn't meet him, and he ended up moving to Jersey uh a couple of years before COVID.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: So he was he was my first call.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: Our buddy Sean David Cunningham, he's been uh a fiddle player with uh Christina Alesi and the toe collectors, a West Jersey staple, and he was a brilliant mix of being a classically trained violinist, but the ability to improv and play whatever, like a like a fiddle player.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: He wasn't afraid to you know plug in his his fiddle and use pedals and stuff like that, where you know there's a lot of people can get scared with that.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and then uh yeah, a drummer I had I've been playing with for a long time prior, and I just it was the first time I gave anyone direction, like, hey, this is I think this is what it's gonna be.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I still said I and I still said I think.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: Where did where did the name come from?
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: Out of curious, because it kind of makes sense.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm uh just looking at the widely grown, but I'm curious how you arrived at it.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: That was funny because I I had always just been going by James Caleo band and whatnot because it it was the easiest thing to do, and I I never knew, you know, I didn't want to pick a band name from like a band name generator online or anything, and nothing had had jumped out at me.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: And one day I was I was driving in the car and there was some MPR episode on about all the widely grown crops of America, and I was like, oh, widely grown.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: That's amazing.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, I'm kind of widely grown, I've lived in all these places.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: So I went on went online, typed widely grown into you know every search engine possible, and nothing popped up as far as a band went.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: So I was like, that's it.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: You uh did your debut show I read at uh Jersey's uh I guess it's White Eagle Hall.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: What was that like for you to have the culmination of of driving around, coming back after everything you kind of learned from the road, playing with these guys for the first time live?
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: It was incredible.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we were playing a bunch of half-finished tunes, which I've always I guess that's always been a part of my show in a in a interesting way, is every song has to have its first moment.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: And at that point, you know, we had maybe three or four songs that were that we kind of knew what we were doing, and then there was another three or four that we'd rehearse like once or twice, and and then they weren't.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: I they've all grown since then, too.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: So I think music, my philosophy on it is the songs are they're never done, they just get recorded at some point.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: What is that like to get in the studio?
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: Because you you have to put a version down.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um what what was that like for you to kind of say, all right, this is gonna be at the very least the studio version of a song?
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: How did you approach that?
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so that first record we put out, we went out to uh Carnegie, PA, like a suburb of Pittsburgh, and the engineer, uh this guy Tyler Thompson from a band called Fruition, he said, Hey man, I got this home studio, it's a great setup.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: The way I like to approach it is we all record live in the room and you kind of you do everything live, you do the vocals live, everyone's playing at the same time, you capture the energy of what a live performance is.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, dude, that's awesome because I've recorded in the past where if I take something home with me that's unfinished, I'll just sit on it and pick it apart and maybe not even release it.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: So I was like, let's do it.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: Let's let's take three days, record 10 songs, and when I walk away from it, you know, all that's left to do is you take it and mix it.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: So it was a really awesome experience as far as everything just being captured live, like a like a live performance.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: How do you find yourself now?
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: Are you writing uh new songs looking to put together another record uh in the future?
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm super backlogged.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, probably have 20 or 30 songs that are waiting to find a home.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: And the hardest part right now is um just the the state of the the music industry and world where you know things are super expensive.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um I feel like musicians, we're in that kind of funny place in the art world where we're always spending money on other artists to make our stuff come alive, like whether it's posters or videos or uh sound engineer or whatever.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: And then as far as the recorded music goes, there's not really a way to recoup that um beyond getting on the road and playing live and and stuff.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: So uh yeah, right now kind of just saving saving up money.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: Do you still get a chance to travel?
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because I feel like that's such a part of you, and I imagine such an inspiration for the songs you've written too.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um chance to kind of get away from from Jersey because you've been all over, and it sounds like that's kind of been the the the fuel for you in a way.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I mean, even this summer it went out to uh Oregon and my sister had just moved out there, so I spent two weeks out there, and then my flight got canceled on the way home.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: So I had an extra five days, and I decided to go hike the Wonderland Trail out in uh Mountain Rainier uh Washington.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: So that was a 93-mile hike that I did over the course of three days, and just uh I had to get a lot of stuff out.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Is there something you'd recommend that you went that you you couldn't stop talking about?
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Because it sounds like you've had so many interesting experiences.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: Is there one thing that you're like you tell everyone you have to try this, you have to go to see this place?
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: Man, I just think everyone's got to get outside of their own four walls more often.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I think one thing always leads to another.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, I even like my passion for hiking and and backpacking and doing trips like that is like I got out, I hiked, you know, seven miles into the woods and set up a tent.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: You know, this is 15 years ago, and that was enough at the time.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: And then eventually there was a hankering for more and more.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, I just think you gotta, I just like to get out and experience, you know, anything, whether it's going out.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: One time I decided to not drink caffeine anymore.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: And after three weeks, I was like, man, my my little social day-to-day thing has even taken a hit.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm like, I'm gonna drink coffee because I like getting out of my house and going and having a short conversation and you know, you never know where one thing leads to.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh what's it been like too you mentioned you touched on it where it is expensive to record and and to try to promote yourselves?
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, in this world, uh, it's almost it feels like it kind of they go against each other a little bit because I love the fact that you'd like to get out there and and do things and get away from it all, but you have to kind of as a band promote.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh what's that been like for you to have you tried to kind of bring that together in a way to to kind of grow the bands?
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because you will want to know.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you've been to some interesting places, but in a way it's almost working against the fact that you do want to get away.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: You don't want to just use that for content, so to speak.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, I try to I try to post as as much as I can uh in a in a reasonable fashion, you know, for myself.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: Is I I don't I guess I'm a little too old to really want to exploit my um my travels uh because those those moments are so important.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: But um yeah, I mean if I go out on the road with some guys, you know, we'll we'll snag some pictures and I I've been trying to record the shows a little bit more and whatnot.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um I do need uh yeah, I I I could definitely use uh a social media manager who's you know 19 years old and wants to work for for free.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_01: No, I'm just kidding.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um we could all use that, yes.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: That is the goal for radio as well.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for exposure, as they say.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's all part of it, and it's an interesting thing.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: I I I love the fact though that you're this it's you're so passionate about doing this and and and and playing and getting out there.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh coming to the Stag Harper Music Festival, widely grown.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh Saturday, September 26th, 5 p.m.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: at the Marine Park stage, stagharpermusic.org.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: We're chatting with James Caleo.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, what do you uh as far as the the songs that you've got uh already done, you said you're kind of backlogged.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh is there kind of a theme that you're working on with with your music?
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: Is there something that kind of tends to pop up each time you write?
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm curious.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like yeah, a lot of the a lot of the backlog is probably from like 2021, which you know was post-COVID stuff.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um the end of the pandemic, yeah.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, end of the pandemic.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um I mean, yeah, a lot of my a lot of my stuff isn't necessarily it's I guess it's storytelling, but there's no specific character.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of my stuff I feel like is just I try to say like whenever I whenever I tell someone, you know, about a song, if I'm on stage, I like to banter and kind of just riff on things uh between between tunes.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: And um a lot of my stuff is inspired by something, but not necessarily then like written about it.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: So not all about yeah, biographical ads, more just yeah, like there's this one song we haven't released, Alcohol and Cheapseats, it's called.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: We'll we'll probably play it at the festival.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_01: And um, yeah, unreleased, but it was inspired by a time I went to a rugby game in Tokyo, Japan with my dad.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: And a certain a certain fan, uh, we we were up in the nosebleed section, and I was like, man, I'm seven years old.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: This I'm watching a sport I didn't even know existed.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: And then this lady turned around and you know, lifted up her shirt.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: And uh that was this is a a a story I tell usually on stage, and I say the word boobies, but um it was I was just sitting on my couch one day and thought of this whole moment, and then I wrote a song called Alcohol and Cheapseats, how you know we all think we belong somewhere else, and sometimes you know the best things happen when you're in the cheap seats.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: So it's it's kind of like uh moments deliver inspiration, and then who knows what?
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know where the songs come from all the time.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: How do you prepare for the uh I have a curious the Sag Harbor Music Festival set?
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: So is there a plan to kind of roll with it and kind of see how it goes?
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: There must be a little bit of a plan on the set list.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: Well um, as it gets closer, we'll we'll kind of lock in because you know, an hour of music is is typically, you know, 10 to 12 songs.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so usually I'll fill up a set list about like 60% full, and then we'll have just a bunch of songs at the bottom of the set list that that can make their way into the set depending on uh the mood and whatnot.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_01: Because you know, sometimes you want to force an audience musically or energetically, you kind of you if you're trying to guide something to be more danceable, then you know, you go for it.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: But sometimes if people are just sitting in their in their lawn chairs or whatever, and you can tell they're they're having a great time, though they're not up and dancing, then you kind of have a different, you know, on the fly, you you can have a different approach to it.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so we leave enough room for things to change, as I think you know, we should.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: James Caleo from Wow Widely Grown uh the band, you can go to their website, widegrown.com.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: Last question Who did your logo?
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because it is uh I think a lot of fun.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm not exactly sure what I'm looking at, but uh there's one playing uh I think that's a cello or whatever.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh who did your logo?
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: Which I'm curious at which logo.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: If you go to widely grown.com, it it's uh there's I guess they they don't look like they're playing in a field.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: I can't tell if they're mushrooms.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: I can't tell exactly what's going on, but it's very it's very clever.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: There's one playing guitar, I believe.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, it's the the mushroom trio there.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: Where did that come from?
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: So uh our friend, my friend Steph, Stephanie Wolves.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, she put that together.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: I'm trying to find it.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's on the about page.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure if it's on the page.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay, okay.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: Let me let me get to it.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's on the main page.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: She was like, well, I guess mushrooms are kind of widely grown, and like they're she's she was like, I think they're cute.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but yeah, putting uh it was an upright bass or cello, you know not not a bad call.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then yeah, a mushroom playing guitar, and then there's a mushroom with with drumsticks.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's great.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um at the very least, there's always you're right.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: I missed the drumstick.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, that's funny.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's yeah, there's there's always a core.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's very creative, it's a lot of fun, and I think it speaks volumes of about the band.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: You guys seem like a good time live, and hopefully uh we will see you out there at the uh the Stag Harbor Music Festival.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: James, thank you so much for spending some time with us.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate it.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: Right on.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks so much, Harry.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: Widely grown coming to Stag Harbor Music Festival.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's free.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's happening four days of music, uh, and you can check them out Saturday, September twenty sixth at the Marine Park stage, five p.m.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: widely grown.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks again, James.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: All right, thanks so much.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: We'll see you then.