Unplugged with Nick Gusman: Insights, New Music, and Plenty of Room!

Arnold00:00:00

He's back for another in studio performance. Nick Gusman is going to be playing Aug. 28 at Joe's Cafe. You don't want to miss it and.

Arnold00:00:08

You don't want to miss this interview.

Arnold00:00:09

On St. Louis in Tune.Welcome to St. Louis in Tune and thank you for joining us for fresh perspectives on issues and events with experts, community leaders and everyday people who make a difference in shaping our society and world. I'm Arnold Stricker along with co host Mark Langston who is on assignment.And he is on assignment for the second time that our guest is in studio, which I'm gonna have to get on him about that. That's just he's missing a good time here. We're glad that you joined us today, folks.We want to thank our sponsor, Better8 Mortgage for their support of the show.You can listen to previous shows@stluntune.com please help us continue to grow by leaving a review on our website, Apple Podcast or your preferred podcast platform. Our thought to ponder for today. And there's always things that you need to consider each and every day. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity. And that comes from Albert Einstein. And certainly he knew difficulty in his life.We always think that he was so bright that everything came easy for him. But sometimes difficulty provides opportunity in which you can really make a difference. And in his life that was the case. Nick Gusman is our guest.He's back in studio and he's going to be performing at Joe's Cafe. August 28th. 7:00pm the doors open. 8:00pm Is the show. Nick, welcome back to St. Louis in Tune. We are so glad to have you here.

Nick00:01:49

I am so happy to be here hanging with you again. It was so fun last time and I've been looking forward to forward to it.

Arnold00:01:55

Yeah, we had a recording, folks, if you want to listen to that, you can go back to our archives, go in the search engine and put Nick Gusman in there. Or you can put Coyotes in there and you can find the show we recorded last December and you were getting ready to release a new album.That was album number four.

Nick00:02:13

That was album three.

Arnold00:02:14

Three.

Arnold00:02:14

Okay.

Arnold00:02:15

And now you're going to be releasing album number four.

Nick00:02:17

Number four. It's a. I do perform a few of the songs with my band the Coyotes, but this one's kind of a more solo endeavor. And it's a double album.

Arnold00:02:27

A double album.

Nick00:02:28

Double album. Nine songs on volume one. Nine songs on volume two. And so volume one's coming out.

Nick00:02:33

Yep.

Nick00:02:34

This coming Friday, August 22nd and is this a vinyl?

Arnold00:02:40

Can people get this on?

Nick00:02:41

It will be eventually. I'm gonna. I'm gonna wait to package it until Volume two is done.

Arnold00:02:46

Okay.

Nick00:02:47

And released. So that way.

Nick00:02:48

Yeah.

Nick00:02:48

So it all can come out together.

Arnold00:02:50

But people will be able to order.

Arnold00:02:51

On the website or they'll be able.

Arnold00:02:53

To listen to it on Spotify or Bandcamp or something.

Nick00:02:56

Volume one is coming out, like I said, this Friday. You can listen to that. And then the vinyls, I'm gonna plan on having, like, right when Volume two comes out.

Arnold00:03:08

Okay.

Nick00:03:08

And then I'm gonna do a solo tour and support that. And everyone can purchase that.

Nick00:03:13

Yeah.

Arnold00:03:13

I want to give the website folks in. In case I. You have to skip out and then come back to the interview. Nick gusmanandthecioyotes.com that's Nick G U S M A N and the Coyotes. Dot com.So what's been going on since we.

Arnold00:03:26

Last talked in December?

Arnold00:03:27

You've been doing some tours with the group. You've been doing an individual kind of tour. Give us a little hint of what you've been doing.

Nick00:03:35

Yeah, we've been.The Coyotes have been doing a lot of regional stuff, so doing places that we can get to within about 5, 6 hours, mainly in Oklahoma and Indiana and Chicago and places like that. And I've. I just returned home from England for the first time.

Arnold00:03:54

Blimey.

Nick00:03:55

Wow.

Nick00:03:55

Yeah, it was a blast. I went to Ireland as well, but Ireland was more of a personal friend trip that I took at the tail end of my tour.

Arnold00:04:01

Okay.

Nick00:04:02

But I spent time in Hastings and in London. I got to have some downtime in between shows and see Stonehenge and all these amazing places. It was really an inspiring trip.And I workshopped a lot of these songs there. Some. For the first time on that tour, I was playing all these songs that are on this upcoming album.

Arnold00:04:20

So how do you arrange an England tour? And I know you're going to be.

Arnold00:04:24

Doing another European tour, but do you call places up? Do they call you? Do you email them? Or how does that go? How does that happen?

Nick00:04:33

If that's all I did, like, I was a tour booker and I was just doing that. That would be pretty exhausting until you probably build all your network and relationships up.But it was really fun for me to do this because it was a short tour. It was like. It was a week and a half. And I just did all my own research.What I would do is I would find a venue or a list of venues that are doing folk shows. Or songwriter nights and things like that. And I would look at their calendar, see who seems maybe similar to me in a genre wise.And I would message the musician, then I'd email that venue and if the musician got back to me and they couldn't do a show, or I would ask them, give me a recommendation on who else to reach out to. So I would just try to network through mainly the musicians, but I would find out where they're playing work backwards like that.

Arnold00:05:23

That's interesting.

Nick00:05:24

And it worked out. That was where I found all the shows that I booked really was through the musicians that I contacted on Instagram or emailed them.

Arnold00:05:33

Now, if you go back again, you've already got those contacts.

Nick00:05:35

I do, yeah. Yeah.

Nick00:05:37

One guy, man, I owe him really. Three shows he turned me on to.

Arnold00:05:42

Okay.

Nick00:05:42

He was from Hastings, it's right on the southern coast there. And I stayed with him and his family, his wife and kid.I played Minecraft with this kid like one morning at breakfast and they cooked some home cooked meal. He really took care of me. His name is Jason McNiff and he lives in Hastings. He's a great songwriter, a great guitar player.And I hooked up with him and he brought me on to his Sundowner session at the Jenny Lind in Hastings. And then we played a coffee shop. And the coffee shop the next day was a real folk show. It felt like an old school folk show.Everybody was quiet, sipping their espressos and whatnot, just hanging on every word, which is what I love.

Arnold00:06:21

That's cool.

Nick00:06:22

Yeah, it was really nice experience. And yeah, he was a really big help.

Arnold00:06:26

So you never know when there's some big record producer sitting in the. Sipping their espresso, listening to what's going on.

Nick00:06:33

There was. They didn't alert me. They didn't. They said nothing. So I don't know if that's a good sign or a bad sign maybe down the road.

Arnold00:06:39

How were you received over there?

Nick00:06:41

Really?

Nick00:06:41

Yeah.

Nick00:06:42

Not that it's extremely surprising, but they love Americana, they love folk music and stuff and. And that's one thing we should talk about too. So that's why this album's a lot different in a way.It's definitely more of a folk songwriter vibe than a rock and roll record, which is what I just released, like a country rock record.

Arnold00:07:02

Okay.

Nick00:07:02

But man, they're really polite in Europe. Not to say that the US audiences aren't polite, but over there, I think it's more common in almost any circumstance.If there's a performer, people are kind of like, shh, shh.

Nick00:07:16

He.

Nick00:07:17

They're performing now.

Arnold00:07:17

There's respect.

Nick00:07:18

It's a. There's a bit more. I can't say it without something rude or something, because we have that here. We have listening rooms, and I play them.They're great. But even in the bar room over there, I feel like it extends into. In their culture. Even into the bar room in a bit.I played a bar and people were like, shh. Shut up. And I was like, wow, this is really cool.

Arnold00:07:39

That's great.

Nick00:07:40

And they kept up the chatter, but it was like they were there for it. They really enjoyed the songs, and I was really grateful. Yeah.

Arnold00:07:47

Now, I previously talked about, folks, if you. We're not going to repeat things from our December conversation, but we did talk about Nick's approach to writing music and his lyrics.We talked about how he learned a new song, how he kind of had the evolution of the Nick Gusman and the coyotes. And I really appreciate your open and honest responses there because you are a very transparent kind of guy. You're a.

Arnold00:08:13

A man of the earth. You work on old windows for a living, and that's tough. That's hard manual labor.

Arnold00:08:21

That's. You're putting some sweat into it.

Nick00:08:23

It's enjoyable, though.

Nick00:08:24

Yeah.

Arnold00:08:25

Do you write music?

Arnold00:08:27

You write lyrics when you're working, or.

Arnold00:08:29

Do things come around for you while you're working?

Nick00:08:31

Sometimes, yeah.

Nick00:08:32

Yeah.

Nick00:08:33

It's. To be honest, any manual labor job can be good for songwriting, I think.

Arnold00:08:38

In what way?

Nick00:08:40

Because typically you'll find processes in a manual labor job. I've done various where you can tune out and just. You can get into a mechanical way of. Almost meditation of. Let's say you're sanding something.You might do that for three hours, and you don't really have to think about it all that much. So you could put your mind elsewhere. And it's quiet. You might even have headphones on or something to block sound out.It's really good for songwriting.

Arnold00:09:06

I think that's interesting.

Arnold00:09:08

That's an interesting perspective. Let's talk about this album release, which is happening August 28th, and it's going to be 7:00pm, the doors open, 8:00pm show.Bring your own BYOB food. Also, BYOF, please don't park on Kingsbury.

Arnold00:09:25

And I love this. No talking over the music. That's coming from the English kind of person.

Nick00:09:29

Yeah.

Nick00:09:30

Oh, I love it so much. It's. It really. I think it. It creates a space for you to really connect with the audience, too.

Arnold00:09:38

I love this thing that was written here. Nick Gusman weaves profound themes of love, identity and freedom into lyrics about the everyday.From stray dogs to riverboats, Nick has garnered a passionate and growing fan base across the United States and beyond. And this album's called Plenty of Room. What's the reason for the name? Is that one of the songs.

Nick00:09:59

It made sense to me. I don't have a fully fleshed out answer for it, but the album extended into this big thing.I didn't know that it was going to be called Plenty of Room when I first started working on the album, but it. When it turned into a double album, I. The name worked out Plenty of Room. We got enough room for all these songs.There's no reason to cut any of them out.

Arnold00:10:18

Right.

Arnold00:10:18

That makes sense.

Nick00:10:19

Yeah.

Nick00:10:20

It's basically.

Arnold00:10:20

And are all of these songs your songs or do you have some other songwriters on?

Nick00:10:25

I'm so excited that this is. For the first time ever I have a cover song. And so I am playing one of Fred Frixion's songs who's a kind of a local legend.Have you ever heard of him?

Arnold00:10:37

I've not.

Nick00:10:37

He used to own a bar called Frederick's Music Lounge, which was pretty famous around South City.

Arnold00:10:44

Okay.

Nick00:10:45

I had never visited it. I only I could have. I think I was living here in the city at a time when I was old enough, I think to go, but I just didn't know about it.And then he had Fred six foot under. He was a host of open mic night. He's a great songwriter. He's always been out there participating and people look up to him.And I actually started performing one of his songs with the band and with. Just solo. It's called Home Sweet Home and it's just this really funny, like tongue in cheek song about the bar. And that is. That's your home, right?For maybe the Drunkard or something or just for the Good Time Crew kind of Cheers group. Yeah. And it's a really funny song. It's on this album. And I sent him a letter actually, because I just thought he's.He would appreciate that and asked him if I could cover it and he said, heck yeah, I look forward to hearing it. And wrote me back and said, go for it.

Arnold00:11:36

Cool.

Nick00:11:37

Yeah.

Nick00:11:37

My first song by another songwriter is on this one.

Arnold00:11:40

And there. Is there a songwriting group that you.

Arnold00:11:43

Get together with where you guys just.

Arnold00:11:44

Kind of exchange lyrics or exchange ideas or talk about your songwriting techniques or etc.

Nick00:11:51

There is. And I was telling you about that. I. I really owe a lot to that group for. For A handful of these songs that are on the album.Because that's one thing, I think that makes this album pretty special. One of the things to me is that it's a really.A current, really current glimpse into what I'm writing right now, since I took songs that I had just written weeks before in this songwriting group that I really liked. Like, one of them is that song I was telling you about, St. Louis Town.

Arnold00:12:21

Sure.

Nick00:12:21

So what we do is we give each other per prompts, and it might be weekly, maybe it's bi weekly, depending on how fast the songwriting process moves for us. There's no rules, but someone will say, hey, let's write a song about your hometown. So that was mine.And I ended up, okay, here's mine for the prompt for this week. It's called St. Louis Town. And I really liked it, and I played it out a few times, and people took to it.So I think a couple weeks later, when I went into the studio, I was like, I'm just gonna cut this song. And I showed it to the guys that have been playing with me in my trio, my acoustic trio. And it's pretty easy song.And we just cut it together, all three of us.

Arnold00:13:00

Could you play it for us?

Nick00:13:01

Yeah, I will.

Arnold00:13:02

Okay. That's cool.

Nick00:13:03

You want to hear it now?

Arnold00:13:04

Sure. That would be great.

Arnold00:13:05

That would be great.

Nick00:13:06

Sure.

Arnold00:13:06

And then we're going to talk about.

Arnold00:13:07

That guitar afterwards because. Wow, that's a pretty fancy pants right there.

Arnold00:13:11

Looks great.

Arnold00:13:12

Now this is Arnold Stricker with Mark Langston of St. Louis in Tune. We're talking to Nick Gusman of Nick Gusman and the Coyotes. He's going to play. Play a song. This is on the album, right?

Nick00:13:20

This is on the album. A friend of mine told me it sounds like a polka, which I think is funny. It's.I would say when you hear this one, the whole album does not sound like this. It's a hokey, but a cute song. I love this song. It's just a more humorous.It definitely embodies the album in spirit with this song, and it's entitled St. Louis Town.

Nick00:14:15

Wake up traffic song hear the St. Francis church bell Gone See the pretty girls on Cherokee Smell the hot mash from the brewery Home run jam hot dog play Walking downtown Spare some change Mississippi River Cold dog bar Thought I was lost till I seen that arch Good night old Irene Natchez whistle Pork and bean buttery burger in a coffee pot Playing out green on the old jukebox Casino Queen bar, bar, bar Buy me a thousand dollar Car handyman Come on down make a little dough in Saint Lo.

Nick00:15:46

Yeah, that's Saint Louis town.

Nick00:15:48

Yeah.

Arnold00:15:49

Our pistachio gallery is clapping and cheering in the background.

Nick00:15:53

Cool.

Arnold00:15:53

They're going for it now.

Arnold00:15:55

That guitar is pretty fancy pants there. It looks Burl maple to me. But I know you got. Still got your grandpa's, but this is.

Arnold00:16:02

A new, new instrument for you, isn't it?

Nick00:16:04

Yeah, I. I was in Gravity Strings. It's in Soulard. I go down to Soulard market a lot. I love the market there.And I'll walk over to Gravity Strings and just pick a guitar up and play it. But that's where I get my guitar work done too. Jimmy from there, he works on all my guitars.And this one was on the wall and it's really interesting and pretty, I would say, and well made.

Nick00:16:28

Yeah.

Nick00:16:28

And it's a K. It's from the 50s.

Nick00:16:30

Wow.

Nick00:16:31

And I pulled it off the wall and was like, I'll play this one today. And I just kind of lost myself. And it was 30 minutes just playing this thing in the shop. There's no one in the shop. It was completely empty.Just me and the guy behind the counter. And I finish, I get to a point, I'm like, man, I've been playing this a long time. I'm done. And then he.It's just quiet and I'm just looking at it and he just scribbling his notes and he looks up and he's like, that guitar sounds real good, man. And I'm just. I'm like, yeah, it does. You play it real good. And I'm just like, I know, man.I think I need to buy it and just happen to have enough money to just buy it right there. And so I just took it.

Arnold00:17:08

It's beautifully made. It's burl maple. It's got some. Almost like walnut. Yeah, that's just gorgeous walnut edging on it.And the fingerboard has got this piece running right down the middle of regular maple.

Nick00:17:22

Or it's got a lot of wear and tear on it too, but in a good way, which I always enjoy about an instrument.

Arnold00:17:27

So what do you love about this instrument?

Nick00:17:29

It's. So this is what you call an arch top guitar.

Arnold00:17:32

Okay.

Nick00:17:32

It has these interesting looking violin F holes. So it creates this resonance that an arch top guitar is its own type of sound.

Arnold00:17:41

Okay.

Nick00:17:41

It doesn't sound like anything else as far as guitars go. It has that resonance kind of has this built in chamber almost where it gives it a little bit of like reverb and Depth, Yeah.So that's one thing I love about it. I love the largeness of it. It's. It. Actually, what I'm learning too, is this sits better in the mix with.When I play with my rock band, like my big old country band, you can hear this better than any of my other acoustics, really. And I think it's because it doesn't feed back as much.There's not as much space for all the other noises to enter the sound hole, reverberate and stuff. So, yeah, it cuts through better and it has a more tinier sound in a way, but it doesn't bother me. I like it.I tune it down a full step to give it a little bit more weight.

Arnold00:18:31

Interesting.

Nick00:18:31

So this is tuned down a little deeper than a normal standard tuning right now.

Arnold00:18:37

Okay.

Arnold00:18:37

Do you bring it back up when you play with the group or do they tune down?

Nick00:18:41

I play in standard with the group. I could play it like this, but I'd have to relearn every song in a different position, which would be a lot of work.

Arnold00:18:48

Now, what about the fingerboard on that?

Arnold00:18:49

I. Some.

Arnold00:18:51

I know guitar players are really persnickety about a fingerboard and how it feels.

Arnold00:18:56

And the size, the depth of.

Arnold00:18:58

From the fingerboard to the strings, et cetera.

Nick00:19:00

On there, the action's really good. And that was another big selling point, would be one thing if you. It sounded good and everything, but it played a little rough or.But this thing was fully set up. They had really went through it. Took the neck off, put it back on, did all the work to it. It was ready to go. It was a player's guitar already.

Arnold00:19:19

So do you know the provenance behind that?

Nick00:19:21

The provenance? No, I don't.

Arnold00:19:23

So if you take it to an Antiques Roadshow or something, they'll look, oh, look at this guitar. It was Hank Williams Jr.

Nick00:19:29

I don't know, but I met him. He's been around since the 50s and been really well kept and played. So somebody was gigging with it.

Arnold00:19:36

It's beautiful.

Arnold00:19:36

And you do a beautiful job with it, too.

Nick00:19:39

Thanks a lot.

Arnold00:19:40

And Grandpa's guitar is still.

Arnold00:19:42

Still kicking.

Nick00:19:43

I recorded with that. The three guitars I used mostly on this album was this K, this 50s K, my 40s Martin, which is my grandpa's guitar.You'll hear that on numerous tracks. And then I have this yamaha from the 70s that I really like. That actually shipped from Japan. Got it from Japan.

Arnold00:19:59

You've got some from every 20 years, it seems like then, yeah, I feel.

Nick00:20:04

I would like a new guitar like a 2020 guitar at some point. But I'm more partial to the vintage sound.Once the instrument reaches 40, 50 years old, it develops this like old wood sound and like you can't really replicate it.

Arnold00:20:20

I guess that's why the Stradivarius violins are so expensive.

Nick00:20:23

Yeah, there's I are like as much as houses more.

Arnold00:20:27

We're going to take a short break, folks. We'll be right back for our next segment.

Arnold00:20:33

Don't go away.

Arnold00:20:50

This is Arnold Stricker of St. Louis in tune on behalf of the Dred Scott Heritage Foundation. In 1857, the Dred Scott decision was a major legal event and catalyst that contributed to the Civil War.The decision declared that Dred Scott could not be free because he was not a citizen.The 14th Amendment, also called the Dred Scott Amendment, granted citizenship to all born or naturalized here in our country and was intended to overturn the US Supreme Court decision on July 9, 1868.The Dred Scott Heritage foundation is requesting a commemorative stamp to be issued from the US Postal Service to recognize and remember the heritage of this amendment by issuing a stamp with the likeness of the man Dred Scott. But we need your support and the support of thousands of people who would like to see this happen.To achieve this goal, we ask you to download, sign and share the one page petition with others. To find the petition, please go to dredscottlives.org and click on the Dred Scott petition drive on the right side of the page.On behalf of the Dred Scott Heritage foundation, this has been Arnold Stricker of.

Arnold00:21:49

St. Louis in tune.

Arnold00:21:51

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Arnold00:22:36

Catch this song from Nick Gusman.

Nick00:22:53

Why is everything so insane all the time?

Song00:22:56

Why is every thought so loud?I'm hitting every roadblock hitting every pothole Moving but I don't know how well my brain is like a brisket Hard non existent Belly so bloated my feet are in the thick of it I call you in the morning when I'm on the other end of this but three times in a week I'm sure you're getting sick of it One more night to be alone Feeling like a dial tone Waiting too long a point to take the trazodone cigarettes in keno lead you the casino Speaking broken Spanish to an elderly Latino all my bills are gonna be lit anyway Just let me hit that bonus plan maybe I can't afford to be gone yeah long gone long gone away from me yeah go gone yeah long gone A long gone away from me Side effects may include irritable attitude, loss of vision, loss of air and swinging every single mood Wrist joint, back pain, blood clot in the vein, constipation, muscles tight, sudden loss of appetite, lack of coordination, don't operate machinery, low grade fever, difficulty swallowing, heart attack and hic indigestion flare up Tender red bumps that irritate your papa love so don't ask me about the government or the monkey that memorize the Alphabet I don't need another thing to make me sick and I don't need turkey full of politics I know some folks rob you with a fountain pen and some just say that they want to make it great again hey, doc, how about you just help me get rid of this headache I really wanted John. A year long gone a long gone away from me can't get it gone yeah long gone a long gone away from me.

Arnold00:25:56

Wow.

Arnold00:25:57

Wow.

Nick00:25:57

Was that the peanut gallery that I heard?

Arnold00:25:59

That was the Pistachio Gallery.

Nick00:26:00

Pistachio Gallery?

Arnold00:26:02

Yep.

Arnold00:26:02

We can't afford the peanut gallery.

Arnold00:26:04

Plus, Mark and I love pistachio, so that's why it's the Pistachio Gallery.

Nick00:26:07

They seem like they enjoyed it.

Arnold00:26:09

That's. Tell us about that song again, Nick. And gosh, it sounds so much like Johnny Cash. Johnny. I could see Johnny Cash on stage singing that song.

Nick00:26:19

I love that you made that connection.I've had a couple people mentioned that to me and when I was writing it, I wasn't thinking of that, but I saw it right off when people started telling me. My friend Ali, she had commented on my. I had posted something about the song and she commented, it's I've Been Everywhere Healthcare Edition.Which is that's one of Johnny Cash's songs where he rifles off all the cities right next to each other like that. I do all the side effects, but yeah, I love that. I love Johnny Cash for sure.

Arnold00:26:47

I think the last time we talked, I mentioned that you were seemed to be a little combo of Bob Dylan and Hank Williams Jr. Now I'm gonna.

Arnold00:26:56

Throw in Johnny Cash with that mix too.

Nick00:26:58

So I ain't mad about it.

Nick00:27:00

That's cool.

Arnold00:27:01

Talk about that group that was recording with you.

Nick00:27:03

Cool. Yeah, man. So they're all over the album, all over volume one and volume two, which volume two is still in the works, but it's over half done.

Arnold00:27:12

Okay.

Nick00:27:13

But so on bass there, you'll hear Zach Clark. Zach Clark is a really great bassist. Jazz, rock, country, anything, you name it. He's wonderful.And so he's been playing with me on all these acoustic shows that I've been doing. And the guitarist in there, Sam golden, and we recorded it in his basement. He has a really great studio in his house called Holiday Heart Studio.And that's where a lot of this album was recorded, most of it. And he plays guitar and fiddle and accordion. And he's a really great musician, very versatile.Yeah, I've been working with him in the past, even on other albums, band albums. He's done string sections for me, recorded entire and wrote entire string sections for songs. And really talented guy.And so on the show, it's just gonna be the trio.

Arnold00:27:58

Okay.

Nick00:27:58

Me, Sam and Zach. But we have a special guest. It's always fun to have a special guest. We have just a great, amazing piano player, Alexandra Sinclair.And she's gonna come in and sit in on about four songs. Some of the really great songs we.

Arnold00:28:13

Have planned now when you record, are.

Arnold00:28:14

These on multi tracks, etc.

Arnold00:28:17

Etc.

Nick00:28:18

So yeah, we did a lot of layering for this album, but we did like that song you just heard that was all live.

Arnold00:28:24

Okay.

Nick00:28:24

So we just had a. We had a big mic in the room and then everybody's stuff mic'd up individually and we cut it. That was maybe the third take or something.

Arnold00:28:31

Isn't that simple?

Nick00:28:33

Yeah, yeah.

Nick00:28:35

Especially when you're working with those guys. They're really good. They make it easy.

Arnold00:28:38

It's fun to work with really good musicians, isn't it?

Nick00:28:41

Man, it's so great. And it makes me feel really special and privileged to be able to do that and just grateful and all the time whenever I.When I work with them and my Coyotes band and everything, they're all so great. I'm just like wow, thank you guys so much for.

Arnold00:28:58

You don't even have to. And we mentioned this in the last interview and conversation we had that you don't even have to think about.

Arnold00:29:06

You're accompanying each other. We did talk about that. So I don't want to get back into that, folks. You can catch that interview.Just go into Search Engine and check out our previous conversation.

Nick00:29:15

Speaking of the. The band though, and the lineups for the various groups I've been playing with, we do have a lineup change.

Arnold00:29:21

Really?

Nick00:29:22

We have a lineup change. We just celebrated our keyboardist, Tony Hall. It was his last show with us Saturday.

Arnold00:29:28

Okay.

Nick00:29:29

Wow. And we have a new piano player. New keyboardist Dan Turner.

Arnold00:29:32

Okay.

Nick00:29:32

Is stepping in. And we also have a new fiddle player.

Arnold00:29:36

Okay.

Nick00:29:37

So Sam, who you heard on guitar on that, is a great fiddle player and he's stepped in with us on fiddle and he'll be going with us on that tour coming up to Europe again in November.

Nick00:29:48

What?

Nick00:29:48

Dan Turner is too. So we had a. We had a lineup change there, but it's. It's. I love Sean, I love Tony, but we've had like a.Just a different outlook on what the future is going to be. And so now we have. We have two new guys and they're great.

Arnold00:30:01

And things change along the way.

Nick00:30:03

Oh yeah.

Nick00:30:04

It's all going.

Arnold00:30:04

Life goes on, right?

Nick00:30:06

Yeah.

Arnold00:30:06

So now talk about this Europe trip. But before you do that, you got a show coming up in Effingham on September 12th.

Nick00:30:15

Oh, we should definitely miss it. That's going to be a great, great few weekend. Really. We're only on the one day.

Arnold00:30:21

Okay.

Nick00:30:21

But then we have a show in Indiana the next day at the Slippery Noodle in Indiana, which will be really fun.

Nick00:30:27

Yeah.

Nick00:30:28

I hear it's a really old venue and it's been. It's a really cool spot. I've never played there, but looking forward to that. But yeah. So Summer Sundown Festival in Effingham.These guys for past music works, they have been doing all they do, the little grassy Get Down. There's a few other festivals that they put on in Effingham and I think they're doing a really great job, man. Bringing in national acts and.And locals and getting St. Louis over there all the time.

Arnold00:30:55

Indoor outdoor festival.

Nick00:30:56

It's gonna be outdoor.

Arnold00:30:57

Okay.

Nick00:30:57

There's two stages, two or three stages and yeah, we have a really great slot. It's at seven o'.

Nick00:31:03

Clock.

Arnold00:31:03

Oh, that's great.

Nick00:31:04

Yeah. Sandwiched in between two other really great artists and.

Arnold00:31:08

Excellent.

Nick00:31:09

Looking forward to that now let's delve.

Arnold00:31:11

Into the European tour. You going back over to Germany or.

Nick00:31:15

Huh. And we have our first show. I'm so excited.We've been over there twice with the band and I just got back from the solo tour but I've never had a show in Amsterdam. But we finally have a show right in Amsterdam city.

Arnold00:31:26

Okay.

Nick00:31:27

This time, which I'm really excited.

Arnold00:31:29

Gonna play along the canal or something or in a coffee shop or.

Nick00:31:32

I hope so.

Nick00:31:33

Yeah.

Nick00:31:33

I can't remember the name of the venue but I don't know how to pronounce half of the venues to be honest. So yeah, we're going over for two weeks, full band and I'll be playing. There's plenty of opportunities too to slip in some of these.I'll be definitely playing some of these new songs off of the acoustic album too.

Arnold00:31:50

Now do you have to make your own hotel arrangements or do you have.

Arnold00:31:54

Somebody who handles all that stuff? Not a manager type.

Nick00:31:56

But yeah, we have to make them. But sometimes they're offered not quite half the time, but maybe almost half the time. They offer a free hotel for us.

Arnold00:32:06

That's great.

Nick00:32:06

Yeah. Wow.

Arnold00:32:07

That's wonderful. I'm sure they also say, hey, stay.

Arnold00:32:09

In this place because we've got a.

Arnold00:32:11

Relationship with this hotel or these restaurants etc. Like that only helps them out too.

Nick00:32:15

Yeah. Yeah.

Nick00:32:16

Seems like it's a really tight knit community there with the musicians and the venues and places like that around. We're really excited to go back to the Buchholz Saloon which is in Atlensberg. It's right near Berlin. So we'll get to spend time in Berlin.And that venue is really cool. They have a hotel on site and they. Last time we were there they were just so nice. They cooked us this really great meal.The guy's wife made this wonderful meal and had hotels there for us already. We just walked from the venue right to the hotel.

Arnold00:32:48

That's great.

Nick00:32:48

And it was a beautiful town.

Nick00:32:49

Yeah.

Nick00:32:50

It's like a dream going over there. And I don't really intend to stay.

Nick00:32:53

Stop.

Nick00:32:53

I think I'm going to keep going with the band and solo and making that just part of my musical life, going there all the time.

Arnold00:33:00

So one of the questions I've been meaning to ask you and a lot of musicians get asked this question. Who do you listen? Who did you listen to growing up? Who do you listen to now?

Nick00:33:15

Sure. We'll start with right now. So here's one big influence for this album and I think this influenced the sense of humor on the Album, which I'm.I've always had in the writing. But I don't think it's came through as much than on than it has on this album.And I've been really in touch with this John Prine, Lost Dogs and Mixed Blessing album that came out and came out in 1995 as one of his later mid career stuff. But it is so funny and so clever and like heartfelt. It's one of those albums that'll make you laugh out loud and also tear up.So that was a big influence, I think from my writing lately. And I've been listening to a lot of Sinatra, of all things. He's great.Reading his biography and getting in touch with that era and that and that singing and those songs has really done something, inspired something. We'll be playing a Frank Sinatra song at the show.Not to spoil or anything, but Tom Waits has been a big influence lately and it's hard to go back and cover all the early stuff.But I'll just say the very first song that actually made me feel something that moved me was cassette tape that I found on my dad's dresser and I put it in my walkman and it was Tim McGraw's song Don't Take the Girl, which is a sad song.

Arnold00:34:37

It grabbed you?

Nick00:34:39

Yeah.

Nick00:34:39

As I was probably 9, I was probably 10 years old, and this just sad story song called Don't Take the Girl really like I understood the sadness of it for the first time, like in a song. And it was like heartbreaking. I remember I was like, wow. I didn't know songs could do this.

Arnold00:34:58

Wow, that's interesting.

Nick00:35:01

Yeah.

Arnold00:35:02

So it wasn't the melody, it was.

Nick00:35:04

The topic, it was the lyrics.

Arnold00:35:05

And as a 9 or 10 year old, you.

Nick00:35:08

I think it was because my parents at that time were going through a divorce.

Arnold00:35:11

Okay.

Nick00:35:12

My mom had. It was living somewhere else at that time.And I think to get personal about it, my dad was going through something and I think that song meant something to him. And so it really took all that culminating for me to connect the dots on that.I feel like if I would have just found it at random, I might not have been interested in it.

Arnold00:35:28

Yeah.

Nick00:35:29

But I think there was a lot of sadness around at that time. And so I made the connection on why the song was there and so it really touched me.

Arnold00:35:36

Yeah, that's wonderful. It's one thing I really appreciate about you. You're very open and honest about the answers that you give. You don't hold back a lot of.I don't say musicians But a lot of people, they keep a little guard up. They don't want to let the guard down and let people in.

Arnold00:35:50

And that's what I enjoy about the show. And we can talk at length about things.

Arnold00:35:55

And you've been on before and I.

Arnold00:35:56

Think you feel comfortable about coming back and talking about all this stuff.

Nick00:36:00

Yeah, yeah.

Nick00:36:00

This is the time, I feel like, to really. To express some of these things to people that want to hear it.

Arnold00:36:06

And you're doing that through your songs, too.

Nick00:36:08

I try to. Yeah, I try to have. Some of them are disguised with sense of humor. Some are names of other people. That's interesting.So there's a song on volume one and volume two that I have. Volume one, there's a song called Billy and Rita, 1993. And on volume two, there's gonna be a song just Billy and Rita, period.And I have other songs with these characters that are in there. And they're not always the same people in each song, but they are like. They're what I imagine a St. Louis. The two St. Louis people.I do have an uncle named Billy and an aunt named Rita, but it's not them. They're just kind of. They just always take the name. And there are a couple of characters I can use to embody these St. Louis characters.

Arnold00:36:48

So if you're listening to the evolution of your albums, you can see the evolution of these characters that you're developing along the way.

Nick00:36:54

Well, you see different versions of these characters, and I think you'll make connections with them possibly to people that you know or people that you've lived, if you lived here in the city, or maybe not anywhere in a city town or something.

Arnold00:37:08

We are so glad that you came in, folks. If you want to get tickets to Nick Gusman, plenty of room at Joe's Cafe, August 28th. You can go to Tick Pick. Go to Tick Pick and just plug in.Nick Gusman. G U S M A N Plenty of room. This is at Joe's Cafe, which is at Christman Studios videos on Kingsbury. 6014 Kingsbury. 6014.Doors open at 7pm 8pm Is the show BYOB BYO bring your own food or is food there?

Nick00:37:37

Yes, bring anything.

Arnold00:37:38

Okay.

Arnold00:37:39

Please don't park on Kingsbury. And again, no talking over the music. No talking over the music. Nick, thanks for coming in again. It's great to see you.Appreciate everything that you do and the work that you do in playing music here in St. Louis nationally and now internationally.

Nick00:37:56

Heck, yeah. You too. This was great, folks.

Arnold00:37:59

That's all for this show. We really appreciate you listening. I want you to go check out Nick's albums and take a listen to what's going on there. Thanks for listening.If you've enjoyed this episode, you can listen to additional shows@stl and tune.com. consider leaving a review on our website, Apple Podcasts, Podchaser, or your preferred podcast platform.Your feedback helps us reach more listeners and continue to grow.Want to thank Bob Berthicel for our theme music, our sponsor, Better Rate Mortgage, our guest Nick Gusman, and co host Mark Langston, who's on assignment. And folks, we thank you for being a part of our community of curious minds.St. Louis in tune is a production of Motif Media Group and the US Radio Network. Remember to keep seeking, keep learning, walk worthy, and let your light shine. For St. Louis in tune, I'm Arnold Strange Tricker.