In this episode of Creative Guts, co-hosts Becky Barsi and Joe Acone sit down with Lee & Dr. G, a New Hampshire-based blues/jam band known for their improvisational performances, deep musical chemistry, and roots in blues, rock, and funk traditions.
In this episode of Creative Guts, co-hosts Becky Barsi and Joe Acone sit down with Lee & Dr. G, a New Hampshire-based blues/jam band known for their improvisational performances, deep musical chemistry, and roots in blues, rock, and funk traditions.
Lee & Dr. G have built a following through energetic live shows that balance tight musicianship with spontaneity, creating performances that feel different every night. In our conversation, we talk about how the band developed its sound, what makes improvisation so central to their creative process, and how they navigate collaboration, performance, and keeping live music thriving in New Hampshire’s local scene.
Learn more about Lee & Dr. G, their upcoming performances, and where to catch them live across New Hampshire and beyond on their website https://leedrg.co/ and also on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/lee_dr.g/,
Listen to this episode wherever you listen to podcasts or on our website www.CreativeGutsPodcast.com. Connect with us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Discord. Subscribe to our Substack newsletter at creativegutspod.substack.com.
If you love listening, consider making a donation to Creative Guts! Our budget is tiny, so donations of any size make a big difference. Learn more about us and make a tax-deductible donation at www.CreativeGutsPodcast.com.
Thank you to Kennebunk Savings Bank for being an official sponsor of the podcast!
Thank you to our friends at Art Up Front Street Studios and Gallery in Exeter, NH and the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts in Rochester, NH for their support of the show!
Any views or opinions expressed by our hosts or guests do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Creative Guts.
[INTRODUCTION]
[0:00:01] BB: I'm Becky Barsi.
[0:00:02] JA: And I'm Joe Acone.
[0:00:03] BB & JA: And you're listening to Creative Guts.
[0:00:18] JA: Hey friends, thanks for tuning in to Creative Guts. Today we're sitting down with Lee & Dr. G., a New Hampshire-based blues and jam band known for their improvisational performances and deep musical chemistry.
[0:00:27] BB: We talk about how they develop their sound, blending blues, rock, and funk, and what makes improvisation such a central part of their creative process, from collaboration to keeping every live show feeling fresh and different.
[0:00:40] JA: We also get into what it takes to sustain a live music presence here in New Hampshire, and how they've built a following through energetic, spontaneous performances.
[0:00:47] BB: Let's jump right into this episode of Creative Guts with Lee & Dr. G.
[EPISODE]
[0:00:55] BB: Hello and welcome to Creative Guts, Lee & Dr. G.
[0:00:58] JA: Hey, guys.
[0:01:00] Dr. G: Good afternoon.
[0:01:01] Lee: Thank you for having us. Pleasure to be here.
[0:01:02] JA: Pleasure is all ours. Glad we could make this happen.
[0:01:03] BB: Yeah, exactly. And thanks for coming all this way. I'm not sure how far you had to commute to come down to our massive recording studio today.
[0:01:10] Dr. G: Well, it's just nice to be here in the Creative Guts headquarters. Total joy. Very appreciative. And in all sincerity, I really appreciate what y'all do.
[0:01:17] BB: Awesome. Well, thank you. Can you first start – just imagine that nobody out in Creative Guts podcast land knows you. What should we know about Lee & Dr. G?
[0:01:26] Dr. G: Psychedelic blues rock band that's looking to push musical boundaries while paying homage to the history of the Delta Blues. Looking to get loud while soothing souls. Looking to get a little wild while not going too far out of bounds. I think a mix of a bit of overzealousness with just a hint of hedonism and a commitment to very loud guitars.
[0:01:46] Lee: If you like a strong, rhythmic background of drum and bass fueled by guitar layers over the top and heavy groove, heavy, like coming into the bar and saying, "I think I'll have a glass of water,” but there's a band there, and you're served a shot of lightning instead.
[0:02:03] BB: Yes.
[0:02:04] Lee: And it goes down easy. And then you think, "I think I'll take another shot of lightning."
[0:02:10] BB: Awesome. I like what you said, Lee. Layers of creativity stacked on top of each other. Is that what you just said?
[0:02:15] Lee: That's right. Yeah.
[0:02:16] BB: Fantastic.
[0:02:17] Lee: Dr. G. and I come from different musical backgrounds. Our guitar playing is very different. We are different people, and it radiates through our playing. Somehow the sounds match up and create something that works very well together.
[0:02:32] DR. G: In the context of being creative together, that's been one of the most probably unanticipated joys of the project. The way that we have totally different approaches, but it would never be as good singularly. Everything we create is better because it is one of the most genuine artistic partnerships I've ever had. It is genuinely 50-50. And both work extremely well together in terms of compromising or being able to speak that language where we're artistically working together, getting things done. Because right now we have 15 original songs. And they're pretty evenly split. And it's not even like one person wrote a song. There are songs that someone probably wrote 80 percent of, but it's a constant collaboration.
[0:03:07] Lee: One of our new ones right now, Dr. G came up with the main groove to it, and I started playing over the top of it a rhythmic pattern. And it's not something he would have come up with, for sure.
[0:03:19] DR. G: Right. My Best Friend's Girl, that's a good one. That's the name of that one. But there's a guitar part that Lee plays. Just something I would not come up with. There's a certain humbling aspect of it. You realize that I can only creatively be so good independently. Going to work in good faith collaboratively, you realize that you can build something even cooler.
[0:03:36] BB: Yeah.
[0:03:36] JA: You're touching on something that I feel like we don't get the good fortune to discuss that often, which is this concept of collaboration. We speak to individual artists and creators, and it's so refreshing to have two folks here who have a connection and a working relationship that is able to navigate all these things. Yeah, I'm just calling that out. It's very refreshing.
[0:03:55] Lee: I mean, it really reminds us that we need to collaborate with other people. I could work on a project on myself. I can write a song by myself. But the deeper I get into it, it's like the apex, it looks deeper and more narrow into my view of this project. And it's like the longer I work on it, it's like I'm funneled into my own thoughts and my own experience with the song. It's like I need to step away from it for a couple months or bring in another view on it.
Stepping away brings in another view of mine. Like, "Oh, I haven't heard this song in six months. It's a whole different experience." The space and time creates that different viewpoint. Or collaborate with another artist, Dr. G., and get that different perspective that even I couldn't get because I don't have the same experiences, same playing style, same everything.
[0:04:43] BB: Yeah. Let's take a listen to a clip from Lee & Dr. G. This is a little bit of Baby Wants Me Gone.
[MUSIC]
[0:06:08] BB: Can you guys just tell us how did you actually come to be a group?
[0:06:12] JA: Your origin story.
[0:06:12] BB: Yeah. Love the origin stories.
[0:06:14] DR. G: Origin story involves Livingston Park. I think what's interesting is we both played music for a long time. Lee played professionally in Nashville. I played through high school, college. Played when I was in graduate school, go to open mics and so on, but always have been performing. And then you get into this thing where you're trying to make a livelihood. You need to earn a living, and you're focused on school and work and job.
And so about in the last – it actually started for me for school's graduation. Two or three students came to me and they said, "Would you play this jazz tune with us?" And I hadn't played with a band in a long time. And the greatest things that are things that happen from the grassroots. Students coming to me, "Hey, would you do this?"
And I was with a band again and I was so overjoyed. It was just everything for me that's right about life. You're collaborating. It's just the best vibe. And so when that was done, I felt so floored. I was like, "I've got to play more." It's infectious, you know. It begins to reaffirm itself.
[0:07:10] BB: Yeah. And that was with high school students, too.
[0:07:11] DR. G: That's correct.
[0:07:11] BB: Who had seen you on stage because we had had the Creative Guts show, and we invited –
[0:07:17] DR. G: Yes. It goes that further. That's why it goes back to Creative Guts.
[0:07:19] BB: That's right. And we had invited you guys to come together. Creative Guts helped to prompt this movement.
[0:07:25] DR. G: That's 100 that is 100% correct, because that's how they knew I played. And then so what followed was the most daunting process, which is building it. I started off, Craigslist is just in some ways a wasteland.
[0:07:38] BB: For all you youngsters out there.
[0:07:40] DR. G: Be aware. Yeah. I mean, I put up a semi-provocative Craigslist ad of psychedelic blues rock. I want to get a little weird and experimental. Maybe not the best start to a Craigslist ad. But like who's game, right? And so you get all these responses. And God, if we had time, some of these responses are so bizarre. Let's just say some of them were not an ideal fit. But then it's like, "Where do you meet this person?" How do you not get stabbed? This is like the Predator's hunting ground. Someone's like, "Oh, I exactly love that music. Bring your Les Paul. Meet me in my house." Bad ideas 101. I was like, "Okay, I guess we'll meet." I was like, "Meet him at a park."
And I was actually using the Concord State, the New Hampshire State Capital. I met several different musicians out in the courtyard. I was like highly watched area. Yeah, highly unlikely to get robbed or hurt in that space. And then Lee responded to an ad. And his bio's strong. It's like thousands of shows, many stages.
[0:08:37] Lee: Yeah, I was at this space where I had been playing full-time in Nashville for a long time. Retired from music, and then returned to it 15 years later. Said I'm going to join another band. I'd been playing in this country band, playing bass and singing, and it was all cover music. I'm like, "You know what? I need to get out and play some original music." I'm writing some stuff. I want to collaborate with some people who want to do original music. I went on the Craigslist.
[0:09:03] BB: As people of our generation do.
[0:09:07] DR. G: That's actually a real creative question. How do you meet other kindred spirits? What's funny is when you wrote me, and I was like, "Can you meet me at the state house?" And you wrote back a really one sentence, "Let me understand correctly, you want to play on the steps of the state house?" And I was like, "Okay man, we can meet –"
[0:09:21] Lee: Because I was thinking, "Okay, meet at the state house? I might get stabbed. I don't know."
[0:09:27] DR. G: We met at Livingston Park. And so this is also I think a thought for individuals who are looking to kind of start a project like this. We met at the park. We clicked musically very quickly. We were able to jam very quickly. An unhoused person walked by within like 5 minutes and was like, "Wow. How long have you all been a band?"
[0:09:44] Lee: You guys sound great.
[0:09:44] DR. G: And Lee was like, "About 5, 6 minutes." But the other side of it was it was a good connection. He was a nice person. But it could have stopped there. It was like, "Well, do you want to jam again?" It was like, "Yeah, I think so." It wasn't like struck by lightning of like, Oh, wow. This project's going to happen." It was like, "Oh, this is a nice beginning." I would not have imagined it passed the first milestone of like, "Is this even feasible?" Which brings us to the next thing if you're trying to start a band, you need someone –
[0:10:11] BB: What is the first thing?
[0:10:12] DR. G: Okay. You're not going to get stabbed.
[0:10:14] BB: Okay. Try not to get stabbed.
[0:10:15] JA: That's a great first step.
[0:10:16] DR. G: Step number one is you don't get hurt or robbed. Okay. Number one, I cannot get hurt or robbed in this process. And then two, you have to find someone whose interest match yours in some way. And what's interesting is we have very different musical interests. So, you got to be open-minded. If you're like, "I need to find someone who likes VOCs and Ty Segall and the Freedom Band," very specific niche bands that no one's heard of or a lot of people haven't heard of, it's not going to work, it’s not going to happen.
So, he comes. We play some Tom Petty, neutral ground. We like it. So, then two. They have to have some overlap of interest. All right? Overlap of interest in some way. Three, they have to be, I think in my mind, as good as you or better. I think you want to play with people who are better than you, or you have to respect as equals. Because you have to – I want to learn. Your whole purpose of playing with other people hopefully is not only find joy in it, but you want to get better as a result of watching them.
[0:11:04] Lee: Yeah. And be inspired, try new things.
[0:11:07] DR. G: Yeah. And then four, which kind of already feeds back into one –
[0:11:11] BB: Don't get stabbed.
[0:11:12] DR. G: Yeah. Yeah. You have to really like them. We've played with a lot of people, including nice people. I don't have a negative word to say about him, but he just wasn't a fit. The amount of hours we've spent in a car driving together. A lot of time together.
[0:11:27] Lee: But that doesn't stop at four. There's five.
[0:11:29] DR. G: What's the fifth?
[0:11:31] Lee: Professionalism.
[0:11:32] DR. G: Oh, yeah. Show up on time.
[0:11:33] Lee: Intensity. You've got to match all these things, plus be the same intensity. It's like if one person wants to play once every six months, the other person wants to play four nights a week. That's not going to fit.
[0:11:44] DR. G: Whereas we're like, "I want to play once – okay, on Wednesday night or Tuesday night every week in perpetuity." What can actually make a band good is relentless playing together, where it's like you're talking in your own heads playing. But then when we did our first open mic nights, I knew it was a match because like Lee called me. He's like, "Are you on your way?" It started like 6:30. It was like 6:00, he was there waiting. There's like a level of intensity that's almost –
[0:12:10] BB: Yeah. You want to make sure the other person's actually going to show up.
[0:12:12] DR. G: It's like a level of – irrational is the wrong word, but a level of like of irrational commitment and intensity. Total belief in the project. Just absolute conviction that we have something we're proud of, and we want to share it. And some people will vibe on it, some people won't. That's okay. But we will be there, and we will be playing passionately.
[0:12:30] Lee: But a mismatch in any one of these categories, and it destroys the whole thing.
[0:12:33] BB: Expecially getting stabbed.
[0:12:34] Lee: I've worked with some very talented people –
[0:12:35] DR. G: That's right. If you get attacked, it's over.
[0:12:37] Lee: And it's just like, okay, you set aside a Sunday, third Sunday of the month, you're going to jam with people. You show up, third person doesn't show up. Okay. One time, yeah, I can tolerate that once. But three times in a row, you're like, "Okay, I'm done with this thing."
[0:12:54] DR. G: And the reality is we're here to play music and find joy in that. If people are looking to party or they're looking for something different, that's not us. Kind of when you're rehearsing, that's important. This is business. We're very serious about it. And we have fun. But someone has to be in the right mindset for that. And we play with a lot of talented people. And right now, we have a bass player and drummer who are doing a wonderful, wonderful job, and people that we really vibe and relate to. We have a guy named Mark on drums and a guy named DL on bass. And they're very much of the same mindset. But we played with a number of different drummers and bass players, and meeting those five criteria is hard. And people are interesting, and you have some interesting experiences.
[0:13:31] BB: Yeah.
[0:13:32] JA: I can't imagine trying to coordinate all that and try to find the right place. It sounds like you're putting that energy out there and seeing what comes back at you. And it sounds like it's working.
[0:13:41] DR. G: A lot of things are going to come back at you. You're going to have a lot of different experiences. And so, here's a practical thing to consider. If I had it my way, I would love to play a gig every week. But married with kids –
[0:13:51] BB: Full time job. Yeah.
[0:13:52] JA: I remember my wife at one point was like, "You had three shows this week. You told me one show a month. You said one show a month." We've had to be really strategic of we're not looking for any stage. We kind of in the beginning set a mission of we want to play the nicest or most interesting places possible. Nicest is the wrong word. Most interesting environments.
There's a place in Nashville we're playing in early June. I think it's June 6th. It's called Terminus Underground, and it's a horror-themed private venue that this couple owns. It's like there's horror stuff everywhere. A BYOB venue. It's really cool.
[0:14:28] BB: Terminus Underground.
[0:14:29] DR. G: Yeah. And it's in Nashville. That type place. I wrote them, and just said, "Lee & Dr. G. dig your horror style vibes. Put us on a bill. Let us come hang." That's the truth. That was the email.
[0:14:41] BB: That's also our graduation day. After graduation, we'll head down, hang out with Lee & Dr. G.
[0:14:45] JA: What a contrast.
[0:14:47] DR. G: That's right.
[0:14:46] Lee: Graduation, get together.
[0:14:48] BB: Exactly. Do you remember a moment when you realized that you just had with your first song, coming together and actually creating your first piece? What was that like?
[0:14:59] Lee: I sent Brandon a couple demos I had created, like, "Here's some things. Some rock, some groove, some other things." I had this other tune. It was kind of had this country backbeat with a train beat to it.
[0:15:12] DR. G: Psychedelic Johnny Cash.
[0:15:13] Lee: I'm like, "I don't think he's going to dig it. I'm going to send it anyway though." And G writes back, he's like – I forget the words exactly, but something like, "That one kicks. I want to do that song."
[0:15:25] DR. G: Well, I can imagine we starting the show, the bass and drums and starting kind of a rumble, like Johnny Cash, that rumble. Hey, Lee, where are we going, brother?
[0:15:32] Lee: We're taking you downtown.
[0:15:33] DR. G: Oh, I know. We're going downtown. But what are we doing down there, man? Can you be more specific with these good people? Say, we're going to the – show. That's where we're going. And then the song lyrics are great. It's about a wild ruckus party. Lots of guitars, moonshine, cousin Larry. He did a little time behind bars, but he's all right.
[0:15:52] Lee: The backstory to this whole song is these things – I didn't sit down to write this song intentionally. It's a song I sang to my dogs in the kitchen. I was making breakfast, going to a shit show. Come on, let's go. And it just kind of wrote itself.
[0:16:10] BB: That's fantastic.
[0:16:11] Dr. G: I never want to hear that again. This song isn't meaningful to me. You've totally reframed the meaning of how I think about shit show now. Hey, but it's ours. It's still ours. Okay?
[0:16:22] Lee: Yeah, that's the gist. That was like really the first one.
[0:16:25] JA: I have so many questions. It's hard to like keep track of them. But one of the things that I've noted about sort of my passing sort of own music interest is it's wide and varied, but blues and sort of jam bands and that sort of vibe, I've completely kind of missed out on it. When you talk about you guys have come together musically, obviously you have common ground in the sense of like your influences in some way, right? Can you break those down for somebody who like doesn't know anything about blues and jam?
[0:16:57] DR. G: What's funny is that the project's growing like an organism. We couldn't have planned any of it. It started off with like this is how I would suggest collaborating musically because we have such different bands we listen to. I was like why don't you name five songs you would cover and I'll name five songs I would cover. And then four of the songs, I'm like, "I don't like it." But that one song – which one is it? Mystic Mile. Yeah. Who's the artist again? I forget.
[0:17:20] Lee: It's Robben Ford.
[0:17:21] DR. G: Yeah. Robben Ford. At that point, I wasn't into Robben Ford. But anyway, that's how we started. And then what happened was the blues became kind of the spirit animal of the band. And so we started off, we both liked Howlin' Wolf. We both like Killing Floor. And so the song it started to kind of grow and evolve that way. And then my own historical work, reading about Howlin' Wolf and reading about these Delta Blues guys, that began to inform what I was writing. And then he begins to frame it. How would you answer that?
[0:17:48] Lee: Well, the blues, I think, is one of those genres that extends. It's kind of a subgenre of all other genres that it can go into heavy jazz, Miles Davis, John Coltrane. It can go into funk, it can go into rock and roll, it can go just a straight up traditional blues. There's a lot of variety, takes on the blues. And so, it's an improvisational format that allows you to – wherever your influences come from, you can kind of express them in that format.
[0:18:18] DR. G: It makes me think that – okay. One of the first cover songs, the first song we ever played live was at Bank New Hampshire stage. And just a quick aside, no fear.
[0:18:26] BB: Is that number six?
[0:18:28] DR. G: No fear. You have to believe that the person's good enough to do it. I remember I talked on the phone to a potential drummer, and I was like, "Okay. Here's what we're thinking. We're going to rehearse him once a week." And we're looking to do this open mic night in a few weeks. We'll rehearse a few times, obviously. The guy was like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down." He's like, "Maybe we perform live in like 6 months." He's like, "But I need it to be like perfect."
This is also a measure. If you need to put someone on stage, they need to be able to hang. There might be a mistake here or there. We call it our error rate. The error rate should be less than 2% or 3%. And the crowd shouldn't notice. But I was just like, "No. No fear. We're going on stage in 3 weeks before a crowd." You need to be able to confront that, and no fear. Play it.
We played Suzie Q at Bank of New Hampshire stage for an awesome open mic. And anyone listening around Concord, Bank of New Hampshire stage, it's run by a great local band called Andrew North & The Rangers. First Wednesday of every month, open mic night. There's a drawing, and you get to play on this awesome stage. Professional sound, everything. That gave us our start. We played Suzie Q.
And I think what evolved from there was like, well, what are the roots of this music? And all Suzie Q is is the blues. I mean, this is all descending from these great from the Delta. And then we started to kind of pull with that thread. And the same for like The Doors, right? You think about The Doors. You listen to the end, some of these songs, like Back Door Man, which is actually a Howlin' Wolf song, there's like a tribal vibe to it. You get a good riff going, and you go like 10 minutes deep on it. You lose yourself in that trance, if you will. That brought us back to like, "Where is this coming from?" Then that started to inform the writing.
[0:19:55] Lee: Yeah. Our first live performance was Suzie Q. Blue Train by John Coltrane. . And I think we did a Police song that night too.
[0:20:03] DR. G: What was it? The Bed's Too Big? Talk about – that makes sense. Those three songs make sense together. Yeah. Yeah. Cold train, CCR, and then The Police.
[0:20:12] BB: That's great.
[0:20:13] DR. G: But that was us figuring out the musical identity. We're just figuring it out as we go. It's growing. It's evolving. And it still is. It still is. And that's what makes it exciting. I think, also, you can't control everything. A real artistic endeavor, stop trying to control everything. Be cool.
[0:20:29] BB: Be cool. Just be cool.
[0:20:30] DR. G: Go with the flow. It's something he says that like I initially in a year or two might been, "Police are good. I'm not like a big Police fan. And you like the Police a lot." Don't try to control everything. Play the song, and you end up kind of falling in love with it. That has been a source of the genre evolution of the band. See where it goes. Don't be uptight. Be open.
[0:20:50] BB: Lee, you spent time in Memphis, or Nashville?
[0:20:53] Lee: Nashville.
[0:20:54] BB: Nashville. Excuse me. Sorry. Nashville. Are you from the the South? Because Dr. G., you're from Louisiana originally, right?
[0:21:01] DR. G: Once upon a time.
[0:21:01] BB: Yeah. I mean, we know now the origin of how you guys came together, but how did you each come to be musicians in your own way?
[0:21:09] Lee: My background. I grew up in Colorado, in Boulder. And so, that's a jam music genre, heavy town. I grew up playing piano, trombone, added guitar, started playing the bass. I played keys, bass, guitar, all these different instruments. Into my late teens, early 20s, started playing out in clubs. I played a ton of reggae. I've been in 15 reggae bands. There's a lot of funk, R&B, jam band type of stuff in that town. That's kind of where my background came from. Did a lot of jazz there as well. Also, very improvisational. My musical background is contemporary music that's improved-based, creative. You get on stage, no charts, you just play in a lot of cases.
[0:21:54] BB: Did you leave high school wanting to just pursue your career as a musician, or did you have the "traditional route" and do something more mainstream and have like a day job?
[0:22:05] Lee: Yeah. No, I didn't go to music school on that track. I studied privately with people and got my theoretical knowledge and all that, my chops built up, if you will, studying privately with people.
[0:22:18] BB: And so, did you just reach out to people and say like –
[0:22:21] JA: Craigslist?
[0:22:22] Lee: Yeah, probably the Craigslist again. Yeah. I'd been playing in the Colorado scene, which is it's a very good live scene. I mean, I was playing 100 dates a year there. It was pretty much every weekend. And 5, 6, 10 bands at once. It had one or two main bands. And then all these other bands are like, "Hey, you want to do a jazz gig up in Fort Collins?" Like, "Hey, yeah, no problem. I'm in." And then like, "Hey, we're doing a wedding show. We need a bass player. Can you play?" "Yeah, count me in." All these side projects roll in, and you'd have this list of people who call you all the time and see if you can play.
After a while, it's like, "Okay, this is cool. But had a bunch of people – I wanted to take this thing to a very professional level. And I remember in one particular band I played with, there was this resistance to put on a professional demeanor on stage. You know what I mean? Dress the part and look professional, and have a stage presence. Like, "No, man. I'm not doing that." Whatever.
[0:23:24] JA: Why? Why is that?
[0:23:24] Lee: Yeah, they just couldn't be controlled. Just anti-authority.
[0:23:30] DR. G: There will be additional stories about Lee's prior bandmates.
[0:23:35] Lee: You can always go higher in every market. But I'm like, "I'm going to try something different and go to Nashville." We moved to Nashville, started playing out there. It's a completely different town in terms of the structure. It's a songwriting town as far as playing live. Less opportunity, at least what I saw. Less opportunity to play because it's like, "Okay, you want to play in this venue? Sure, you're all that. Great. Book the show, and then you can sell the tickets. You pay our production team an upfront fee, and charge whatever you want at the door."
[0:24:07] DR. G: Business.
[0:24:08] Lee: Prove yourself. You say you're all that. Well, yeah, bring it. We'll see it. And so it kind of puts you to the test of, "Okay. Yeah. Do I have all the stuff that I just said I had?"
But Nashville is a songwriting town. A lot of writing opportunities, collaborations. It's a touring town. Nobody plays in Nashville. Or it's less frequented. You're 8 hours from just about everywhere in Nashville. You can get to Florida, you can get to New Jersey, you can get to Chicago, you can get to Colorado. Or maybe not Colorado. It's a pretty wide circle you can you can reach in eight hours.
And so the standard tour there is you stay home during the week with your family. And then Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, you're on the road. Boom, you come back with family, do some rehearsals, do some sessions. Spoke out these tours that just zip, zip, zip.
[0:24:58] BB: So, a lot of hours on a bus or in the car.
[0:25:01] Lee: Yeah. A lot of driving. And yeah, in that process, you start to realize, like, "I don't know about this." After doing that for a long time – I played in a bunch of bands there, did sessions, taught private lessons, wrote, all the things I could do to make a living. And we had a child along the way. It's like, "I'm not really digging this all that much." It's like everybody's at the barbecue on Saturday, and I'm running off to Memphis and a bunch of guys who want to drink beer all day and instead of come home and come back to family.
[0:25:31] BB: It's a hard industry.
[0:25:34] Lee: It never stops. Yeah. That's when I ended up "retiring from music". I had to make some changes. I'm like I'm not teaching anymore because that was not inspiring for me. I'm not doing the – there was a string of gigs I did on Sunday. Played for two different churches or three different churches. None of them I was a member of. And I'm like, "Okay, I should probably stop doing that." You take away the teaching, you take away the Sunday gigs, now I got to supplement my income with something else. And I'm like, "You know, maybe I'll make a switch." That's when I moved up here. Retired from music as a profession, as a way to make a living. Came up here, went to law school.
[0:26:11] DR. G: Lee Durham Esquire.
[0:26:14] BB: Bigly. Bigly. Yeah.
[0:26:15] DR. G: But what's amazing is he does contract law to some extent. Is that correct statement? Patents.
[0:26:20] Lee: 90% of what I do is patents and trademarks. But I also teach a class in entertainment law at the University of New Hampshire.
[0:26:28] DR. G: Whenever we get offers from venues or there's legal stuff, it's very convenient.
[0:26:33] BB: It's like you just send it.
[0:26:33] JA: Yeah, no kidding.
[0:26:34] DR. G: In all seriousness. Yeah, don't sign anything. I'm like, "Lee, can you please review?"
[0:26:37] Lee: Send it to legal for review.
[0:26:39] BB: Well, it's good. You don't have to pay someone extra for that. Take a little off the top.
[0:26:44] DR. G: We created an LLC, Stunningly Live Presents. And that was very helpful. Very helpful. He was able to do that quite easily without paying a layer.
[0:26:51] Lee: Yeah. In that whole, that 20-year history of playing, I played just about every style of music there is out there. Did a ton of jazz, ton of country, a lot of reggae, a lot of R&B, funk, rock and roll, whatever it is, Afro-Cuban. All kinds of stuff. My key influences, Dr. G mentioned, I'm a big Police fan. They're probably one of my top bands that I've listened to over the years. Steely Dan, Miles Davis, Dada. They're a band I really like. They're all over the map.
[0:27:26] BB: Yeah. That definitely ties into the range of what you guys have. And what about you, Dr. G? Like, how about your early influences and what got you starting to play the guitar and other instruments in the first place?
[0:27:37] DR. G: There's different approach, different experience. I was into Nine Inch Nails and Nirvana. I remember being in sixth grade. Completely inappropriate. But given a copy of the Downward Spiral by Nine Inch Nails when I was like in sixth grade. I didn't know what it meant, but I was like, "Wow. That just had the hugest impact on my brain in a really positive way," because I didn't understand anything that I wasn't supposed to understand. I was just like amazed by the aggressiveness of it, by the rawness of it.
And then the story for me begins earlier in third grade when I got really into Nirvana and got In Utero. And I remember looking at the actual CD artwork inside for In Utero, there was a picture of Kurt Cobain with a guitar at a show, and it just looked so cool. I became infatuated with that image. And I begged my parents for a guitar. And they repeatedly told me no because dad doesn't like musicians. He's like, "Yeah, substance abuse disorders. It's all drugs. It's all bad." So he was just like dead set against it.
[0:28:33] BB: You'll be a delinquent.
[0:28:34] DR. G: Essentially he's like it's all drugs. It's not any good. I don't want you involved with it. He hated it. And my mom was like, "Brandon, we're going to get you this guitar. You're going to quit after 6 months." That was kind of the vibe. And that just almost like probably the worst thing she could have said to me if they didn't want me to play, because I was just like, "I'll show you." And I actually don't think I have any actual natural music ability at all. I got this guitar, and I was horrible.
I'm probably like 10 years old at this point. We're going back 32 years. I was terrible. I was not good. And it was like the cheapest acoustic guitar ever. But I deeply loved it. I deeply connected to it, and it made me so happy. And then it's kind of like blowing up a balloon. You take an empty balloon, you try to blow into it, it's quite hard. But then when it begins to fill, it becomes quite easy.
And so by the time you know three or four years, I'm getting better. I can actually begin to confidently play. And then yeah, I started a band when I was 14, 15 in high school. Played, dances. Again, each step becomes reaffirming. You experience the joy of it and you get that hunger.
And then college. I mean, wow. I talking about going on stage at midnight. We go on stage at midnight and play from midnight to 2:00 in the morning, and we'd make five or six hundred bucks, and it'd be free beer? And the place was just like packed wall to- wall. It's actually really apropos of this. The other night he was asking about what was it like in college when you played? So, I emailed the guy, my friend from college that I played with, and I said, "Hey, can you send me some photos of the crowd?"
[0:29:55] BB: Oh, he actually sent some photos.
[0:29:56] DR. G: Yeah. This gives you an idea. That's actually my wife right there in that photo. I mean, this is what it was like every time. There's me there. But every time we play – and we played ungodly loud. I mean, every time, every show was like this.
[0:30:11] BB: Where was college? Where were you doing it?
[0:30:12] DR. G: Elon University, a place called Lighthouse. But just like every show was packed. There was free beer. And we make like five or six hundred bucks. And we go on stage at midnight.
[0:30:20] BB: And for a college kid, that's like fortune.
[0:30:22] DR. G: Oh my god. We couldn't imagine getting paid.
[0:30:24] BB: Your rockstars.
[0:30:25] DR. G: Yeah. We couldn't imagine getting paid.
[0:30:27] BB: You just wanted to show up and get free beer. It was exciting if you got paid.
[0:30:31] DR. G: It was such a joy. But I think my parents' voice in my head affected me because, I don't know, when I graduated, I was like, "I can't pursue this." And that was unfortunate in retrospect. Now, I would still do everything I've done professionally in terms of going to graduate school, getting a doctorate and so on. But like I moved to Denver and had like a corporate job for a couple years. I would have been like, "Dude, you're moving to Brooklyn. You're moving to Brooklyn, living in a closet and starting a band and see where that goes. And have fun."
[0:30:57] BB: And did you?
[0:30:58] DR. G: No. I moved to Denver and had a horrible corporate job. And then was like, "I think I just want to talk about like totalitarianism and Stalinism in the water cooler." My boss was just like, "That's not what we're here to do. Get back on the phone, cold calling, you understand?" I quit that job, quoted Bob Dylan as I did, "He handed you a dime. He handed you a nickel. He asked you with a smile. Are you having a good time? And I said, I don't think I want to work on Maggie's farm anymore." I went to graduate school in history. And then when I was doing that, I was playing out with friends, playing the guitar.
[0:31:28] BB: Were you in Elon for grad school, too?
[0:31:29] DR. G: Fordham in New York. The biggest impact had on me is just seeing tons of shows. I go to the Bowery Ballroom. I was living a weird life. Talking about like totally alone. My wife's in another city. It's a long-distance relationship. And I would just go see shows all the time. And I would go to class at like noon. If I was going to show, I'd be at the library until midnight. It's a weird existence. It's like me in the library for hours at a time by myself. And then I would go home and play guitar, and then go to bed at 3:00 in the morning, wake up at 11, start the day again. And then some of those nights, I'd go jam or I'd go see a show at the Bowery Ballroom.
And then, yeah, education and career became the main tracks. I think I had this voice of my parents in my head. And what a joy it's been to realize that it doesn't have to be either or. I think that people view like, "I'm on this track. I need to do this." I think that's the wrong approach. You might have your priority based on what you want to achieve in terms of quality of life and work, but it's not either or. I remember a colleague of ours in the past said that you don't have to be one thing. You can be a lot of different things. And you can take joy in those different aspects. You shouldn't be one-dimensional.
[0:32:30] BB: Yeah. Yeah. I'm really glad that you're saying that, because one of the amazing elements of this podcast is being able to get that kind of insight and information from our guests. And what have they gone through? And how can other people respond to that? And that the idea of just trying it. Just seeing how you can continue to evolve and pick things up. Whether you retired from the music scene and started a whole other career or didn't go into it at all, but yet you still recognize that here's something that I loved. There's something deep inside of me that is connected to this that needs to come out. And you found each other just through Craigslist. What a meet-cute. I love it.
[0:33:09] Lee: Regardless of what you do though, I think everybody needs some creative outlet for balance in their life. Whether it's playing music, or pottery, or drawing, or stacking sticks, or whatever you want to do.
[0:33:22] Dr. G: Something that's meaningful to you that no one should be allowed to judge because it's for you.
[0:33:28] BB: Yeah. Yeah.
[0:33:27] DR. G: Judgment is the first red flag.
[0:33:30] JA: Yeah. 100%. Now you're in New Hampshire, where you've sort of ground it here, right? You've started your band. What's your impression of the New Hampshire music scene? I don't think necessarily. I'm not in that world all the time, but I don't think of New Hampshire as being like this music hub. You guys have been far afield. What are your thoughts?
[0:33:47] Lee: Boulder was a college town. Naturally, you get the college demographic coming out. It doesn't matter what band is playing. People are coming out and they're filling the bars because they want to drink. I don't see that same just autofill in New Hampshire in the venues. Part of it is the scene here. I don't see it as an intense – it's not filled with college students. Boston has a ton of colleges, but New Hampshire itself doesn't have that concentration.
[0:34:16] BB: Sure. Even in Durham, it's a sleepy college town.
[0:34:19] Lee: We're looking at 30 years of difference in time. And there's been a lot of change in the industry and in people's views. And COVID was in there. And that's kind of changed how people behave.
[0:34:32] DR. G: I'd say the gist on that too. There is a really good music scene. There are a lot of indie bands playing original music. I'd mentioned Andrew North & The Rangers, The Whole Loaf, Superbug, Faith Ann Band. There's a lot of good indie bands. But here's the gist. If you're looking to get paid, a lot of these venues want tribute bands or cover bands because that brings people out. The overwhelming majority of these bands – and there's one great one. They're called Stray Dog. They're fantastic. And we're friends. And whenever they come to the show, I always invite them to take the mic if they want to.
There's a vibrant scene. The majority of it is rooted in tribute music. The hardest road is to be like – we have a 19-song set, 15 are originals. You're trying to play original music, and you're also trying to fill the bar. We have worked really, really hard. I'd say you got to sweat. And this is also the reality of it. The level of seriousness with which we approach this is borderline ridiculous. The level of commitment and intensity.
I probably sent 5,000 – this is not sensationalism or hyperbole. Probably have sent 5,000 emails. I can't even tell you how many emails have been sent pitching, working hard. If you're playing a show, you got to bring a PR strategy. You got to be marketing. You got to frame it. You got to know how do we advertise it.
We played a show last weekend in the Stone Church. And to be totally frank and honest, we've had shows that have been huge hits, been packed, made a lot of money. It was great. We've had shows where there were two people. I'm talking about we drove to a show up in North Conway. We drive like two hours. We were getting paid well, which was nice. But there were two people. Right. And what was rewarding was that those two people actually sat and listened the entire time.
[0:36:14] Lee: Three hours they stayed there, and they're like –
[0:36:15] DR. G: And this is also our pitch. We will outwork – I don't want to say outwork anyone, because that does a disservice to so many great bands who are doing the same stuff we're doing. Right?
[0:36:22] Lee: We have an intensity that is –
[0:36:24] DR. G: No breaks. We don't take breaks if we can avoid that.
[0:36:26] BB: Wow. Three hours without break.
[0:36:28] DR. G: Yes. You tell people in the band, you need to use the restroom. This part makes me sound like a psychopath. You're welcome to go use the restroom or get a beer. We will keep playing. That's the level of intensity. The message to the venues is when you book us, we're going all in. We're 10,000%.
And on that show, there were two people. I was rolling around on the stage at some point. I mean, the level of intensity of the stage show. It doesn't matter if it is empty. We are all in. That's what we say live like a thermonuclear bomb, for better or for worse.
[0:36:57] Lee: But having that recognition of what the business backdrop of these venues. They got to make money. They got to sell beer. They got to fill seats. That informs our pitch on what do we bring in to them that they can make their bottom-line work?
[0:37:11] BB: Sure. Sure.
[0:37:13] DR. G: When it clicks, when it's right, and it's a full room, it is the happiest place outside of a familial context I can find myself. It is one of the very best moments of my life. We played the Bank New Hampshire stage in December. Okay, even just taking on – first off, getting that gig is not easy, because they want professional touring bands, because it's a first- class venue. And I cannot sing the praises of Capitol Center for the Arts enough. They're so wonderful and supporting bands. But getting that gig is hard because you have to pitch and you got to frame. You have to justify that. We're not going to give you this slot.
Then you get booked in a room for 300 people on a Thursday night. And it's cold in December. The possibility of failure is high. You could come out, and there's like nine people there. And they're like, "Are you kidding me? Why did we trust you?" And we worked so hard. And I just can't say enough of the community and our community supporting us, which I'm so grateful when people come to shows. And it ended up being this most incredible night.
We had another show. That show was huge. We got rebooked. We're doing it. It's in October. We're doing a show, History of the Delta Blues. It will mix history with music. And we do some original songs along with covers of Robert Johnson and so on. But just to completely be honest without any pretension here, we had a show in Boston in one of the coolest venues that got cancelled because the ticket sales were bad.
[0:38:32] BB: That's a bummer.
[0:38:33] DR. G: It's just ups and downs. But sometimes you take it on the chin. Get back up, work hard, pursue that joy doggedly. And when it clicks – and this is the seriousness with which we take it. What are we trying to achieve? Everything. I want to play Bank of New Hampshire stage pavilion. I want to play for 20,000 people. Is that going to happen? Probably not. But I believe it can.
[0:38:55] BB: You have to set a goal. You have to have the drive and the determination. And so that kind of leads me to my next question. And we'll probably have to get to rapid fire soon, but what is your next stage? You've now cut it. Is it called cutting an album?
[0:39:10] DR. G: Yes.
[0:39:11] BB: Oh. It was lingo.
[0:39:13] DR. G: It was, because we had it pressed.
[0:39:14] BB: Vinyl. Yes. Yes. Okay. Good. See? I used a lingo.
[0:39:18] JA: Sitting right with my vinyl right in the front.
[0:39:20] DR. G: Love it.
[0:39:20] BB: What is next for you guys? What are your thoughts? What are your plans? Are you still writing? Are you going to have another album?
[0:39:25] Lee: Always writing. We could do another album this week if we wanted to. We could do probably two albums. We've got plenty of material.
[0:39:33] DR. G: If someone wants to donate $20,000 for us to book extensive studio time, we're game. We have a live EP coming out. We did a radio show at WUML, Blues Deluxe with John Guregian. We've done that a couple times. We did that in March. That's going to be an EP. We're doing four songs that we haven't released. What else are you saying? I'm sorry.
[0:39:51] Lee: Yeah, just more writing, more recording. But on the business front, consistent filled venues. Keep building the fan base. Keep doing it.
[0:40:01] BB: Yeah.
[0:40:02] DR. G: That was how we paid for the first album.
[0:40:05] BB: Fantastic. You just banked everything.
[0:40:06] DR. G: Yeah. We gigged for two years, saved all that money. We did it at Rocking Horse Studios. Brian Coombes.
[0:40:11] BB: Yeah. Shout out to Brian Coombes.
[0:40:12] DR. G: It's a fantastic place. I'm so proud of how our album came out and how it sounded. Rocking Horse Studios in my mind's one of the best places you can record. It's a very fair rate. But what's even crazy about that album, we did that album in like five studio days. Because you start to do the math, and you're like, "Okay, studio time is going to cost this amount of money. Okay, then it needs to be mastered. Okay, we need it mastered for digital and we need it mastered for vinyl. Okay, then we're actually going to pay to get it pressed." You start doing this math, then you're like, "Wait a minute. We can afford four or five days in the studio. Day number one, bass and drums, lay it down, get that done. Day two, come in, guitar solos. It's like we're rehearsing intensively on our own. When you come in to record, you can have a few times on the solo, you don't have to nail it the first time. But after about 10 or 15 minutes, it's like –
[0:40:59] Lee: If you don't get it try number three –
[0:41:01] DR. G: We thrived on that. There was like nothing more joyful than nailing something. This did not mostly happen. Nailing the first take, it's awesome.
[0:41:08] Lee: We spent a lot of time working on pre-production, the tempos, the arrangements, the instrumentation, all of our settings for amps and pedals. And all that worked out. When the red light goes on, boom, it's ready. You get a good take, it's the right tempo.
[0:41:21] DR. G: Day three, vocals. Day four, rhythm guitar parts. Day five, listen to the whole thing. And each of these are 8 to 10 hour days, obviously.
[0:41:28] BB: When did you actually record it?
[0:41:30] DR. G: Summer.
[0:41:31] BB: I was going to say –
[0:41:32] DR. G: That was all – and then the rest of the album, year. The rest of the summer, right? Art. Joe was a huge hit. Helped me a lot.
[0:41:41] BB: Yeah. Joe, what was your influence and support here?
[0:41:44] JA: Well, I was just helping them get the vinyl cover and everything to press. Because we had a student helping us, too.
[0:41:49] DR. G: Yeah. It was interesting. So, how do you do the artwork? Okay, go on Fiverr. I want a real artist. I'm not going to AI this. I want a real artist. We paid a dude in Brazil who's done multiple concert posters for us. It's like a hundred bucks. And the dude hand – it's electronic drawing. He draws the most incredible artwork. We use that. But then it's like, "We don't have like a professional company helping us. This is us. How do we have the digital files to submit to the press company that has very specific requirements? I'm not a digital artist. I don't understand this platform, Adobe." That was me going to Joe. And like, "Joe, will you help me?" And super nice.
[0:42:26] Lee: And in the back scene of this whole thing, it's like, "Okay, we have to have finished art to the pressing company by a certain date." Because they're 90 days lead time to press. And we got a show.
[0:42:35] BB: Yeah, yeah. That's right. Ooh, the timing.
[0:42:40] DR. G: I mentioned the pressure of that show. If that show had been empty and that's like our album release show, that would be like crushing. And it all came together and was amazing.
You asked what's next? What we've been doing right now is we're building – we just want to continue to make friends and allies, because the collaborative aspect I think is especially true with other bands. Anytime we have a great slot, what does that mean? Stone Church, we played there. There's a great band called Rabbit's Foot. Can we all play with us? And the point of that is the more the marrier.
And they're like, "We see the opening slots 45 minutes. Can we go on earlier and play an hour and 15?" Sure, go ahead. And by the way, I hope y'all are outstanding. There's no ego. There's no like we're looking to shine. We're looking to include more people. And then one of the most fruitful connections we've made is we opened for a guy at the press room named Emanuel Casablanca from Brooklyn, the bad boy of blues.
[0:43:30] BB: Nice.
[0:43:31] DR. G: And he's a cool dude. And we put together kind of a mini tour with him in August. We'll be doing Stone Church. We'll be doing the Middle East, Upstairs, in Cambridge. The Flying Monkey in Plymouth. And so the next stage, I think I'd love to be added on a tour for a couple weeks and get regionally or get down to Louisiana, New Orleans, and so on.
[0:43:48] BB: Oh. That'll be fun. Yeah.
[0:43:49] DR. G: Y'all should come. It'll be really fun. You should come on tour with us.
[0:43:52] BB: Yes. We'll be your roadies.
[0:43:54] DR. G: We'll have a great time. You can just say you're on artistic production.
[0:43:57] BB: Here we go.
[0:43:58] JA: Yeah. That's right.
[0:43:59] BB: Well, we have to jump into our next session. This is called rapid-fire questions.
[0:44:04] JA: Rapid-fire. Real challenging question here. What's your favorite color?
[0:44:07] DR. G: Green.
[0:44:07] Lee: Black.
[0:44:08] BB: Favorite scent?
[0:44:11] DR. G: New guitar scent.
[0:44:13] BB: I didn't even think about.
[0:44:15] DR. G: Yeah, you open up a Gibson case.
[0:44:16] Lee: Rose.
[0:44:17] BB: Rose. Rose and new guitar.
[0:44:20] JA: This might be challenging for y'all. Favorite sound.
[0:44:22] DR. G: Fuzz. And by that I mean like neo-psychedelic rock. Like a fuzz pedal. Like that type. That's what I mean by that.
[0:44:29] Lee: Sound of the forest at 4am.
[0:44:33] DR. G: That's a great answer.
[0:44:34] BB: Which forest?
[0:44:35] Lee: As it's waking up, as dawn is coming over the –
[0:44:38] BB: Light murmur.
[0:44:39] Lee: Yeah. And the birds start alive.
[0:44:41] DR. G: Lee sitting out there cross-legged with a shirt off staring – quietly meditating.
[0:44:46] BB: I love it. Your favorite texture or touch?
[0:44:50] Lee: Velvet.
[0:44:52] DR. G: I like the top of a PV amp that kind of – no one's going to be able to relate to these comments though.
[0:44:56] BB: No, they will. There's plenty of musicians listening.
[0:44:59] DR. G: The specificity of my comments are ruining this. The top of a Peavey amp has like a particular feel to it, and it reminds me of being a kid getting an amp for the first time.
[0:45:07] BB: That like light fuzzy.
[0:45:09] DR. G: No, it's not fabric. It's like the plastic that's like kind of like crumpled. Almost like –
[0:45:13] BB: Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[0:45:15] DR. G: But I you could blindfold me and put my hand on that. I'd be like that's a Peavey amp.
[0:45:19] BB: Oh, I love that.
[0:45:20] JA: What's your most inspiring location you've traveled to?
[0:45:23] DR. G: North Korea.
[0:45:25] Lee: New Zealand.
[0:45:26] BB: Nice. World Travelers. What other artist has influenced you the most?
[0:45:30] DR. G: North Korea did not inspire me. It inspired me to what I don't want to be.
[0:45:33] BB: Okay. Thanks for clarification.
[0:45:36] DR. G: Totalitarian fan here. Who are these people? And what are they advocating?
[0:45:42] Lee: Sorry. What was the question again?
[0:45:43] BB: The question was what other artist has influenced you the most?
[0:45:47] Lee: I'm going to go with The Police on that one.
[0:45:48] BB: Oh, yeah, you mentioned that one. Yeah.
[0:45:50] DR. G: Trent Reznor, Nine Inch Nails.
[0:45:53] JA: What's the last new thing you've learned?
[0:45:55] Lee: In any context?
[0:45:56] JA: Any context.
[0:45:57] DR. G: A scale by Yngwie Malmsteen, a classic shredder from Sweden. Guitar scale.
[0:46:02] Lee: Had something to do with transmissions.
[0:46:05] DR. G: Don't mess this up, Lee. Don't mess this up.
[0:46:07] BB: No, that's a very important thing to learn, probably. Help save you a little money on the side. And then if you could go back in time, what advice would you give your younger self?
[0:46:18] Lee: Just do it. Follow your heart.
[0:46:20] BB: Yeah.
[0:46:22] DR. G: The people who would comment or be negative about your joy should not get you down, but should inform your energy to relish what it is you do. There's always going to be people who see someone in a joyful moment and they get pleasure from putting that down. And those are the people that, rather than dampening your spirits, should embolden you to react through your joy in a positive way. Don't be negative.
[0:46:49] BB: Ah, I love that. Wonderful words of wisdom. Just do it and overcome.
[0:46:55] DR. G: L-I-V-I-N.
[0:46:58] BB: Lee & Dr. G., this has been tremendous. We could probably keep talking for a very long time. We still have many, many questions, but we do try to keep our interviews to just under an hour, so we are going to cut it. But –
[0:47:09] BB, JA, Lee, Dr. G: Show us your creative.
[0:47:12] BB: All right.
[0:47:18] JA: Thanks again, Lee & Dr. G, for joining us on this episode.
[0:47:21] BB: Yeah, that was pretty cool, huh?
[0:47:23] JA: Oh my god. I felt very energized and inspired after talking to them. They put so much into their creative practice, for lack of a better term. And it was infectious.
[0:47:33] BB: Sure. And talk about creative guts. Going on to Craigslist and just say, "Hey, I've got this like funky idea and want to jam. And let's meet in a park and do it." And they did it. And I loved just learning about how they built their band. And what was it? They said six different steps. All right. Dr. G. really laid it down here. And I wrote them down because I think they're important steps.
First one, don't get hurt. All right. That's good. Don't get stabbed in a park. Maintain interests and overlap of interest. You got to make sure that you actually have some connection with the person who you're with. So, that's number two. Three, as good as it gets, you're going to get better. Is that right? Now I can't read my rating, but that's okay. But be inspired. Be inspired. And it's going to get better. Like who you're working with. So, that's good. Professionalism and intensity.
[0:48:25] JA: And they have that in spades.
[0:48:25] BB: Yes. For sure. And you got to have no fear. They got to be willing to just jump in there and give it a go. And I think that applies not just to Lee & Dr. G. and their musical group. But also, you got to have some no fear as a creative sometimes. You just have to give it a go and see what happens.
[0:48:41] JA: Yeah. Absolutely. It was refreshing, like I said, during the episode to talk about collaboration, especially. And then also, too, was really touched by how they were like touching on that intensity issue and then also professionalism. Just going all in on the thing that you love. I just felt that through and through that it was so authentic. And that they're like taking it so seriously. And they're unapologetic about it.
Because I feel like in any of these spaces where you're just kind of like, "Hey, I want to start a band," yadi-yada, they feel like, "Oh. Actually, no. We're going to push this thing. And if you're not in it 100%, get off the bus."
[0:49:18] BB: Yeah. Yeah. And they're doing it. Taking all of the money that they raised from gigs over the last couple years, too, and putting that towards the creation of their first album. Here's a drive, here's a goal. And they just did it. And I can't imagine how much turmoil kind of went into that, especially if you're managing a full-time job on top of this job, the creative job, but also with the family and just trying to find the time to make it happen. You have to force yourself. And having those goals, setting those goals up early is a great way to do it. It was so exciting just to hear that, hear their energy, hear just their meat cute.
[0:49:55] JA: Mm-hmm. Yep.
[0:49:57] BB: And they're going to be continuing to perform. While this episode will probably come out in the end of May, early June, take a look on their social media. We'll have the links in our show notes. But they are definitely going to be performing around the New Hampshire, New England area over the course of the summer and into the fall.
[0:50:13] JA: Yeah, it was spectacular. Thanks again, Lee & Dr. G, for coming on and talking with us today. Also, as always, you can find the links and more in the episode description and on our website, creativegutspodcast.com.
[0:50:25] BB: You can also find Creative Guts Podcast on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Discord. And if you are not on social media, but you want to stay in the know, find out what we're doing, check out all the cool things that's happening, join our newsletter. We are on Substack. And you can find the link to sign up on our website.
[0:50:42] JA: We would also like to send a big thank you to Kennebunk Savings Bank for being an official Creative Gut sponsor this year. And this episode is also sponsored in part by the Rochester Museum of Fine Art. And a thank you to all of our friends at Rochester for their support of the show.
[0:50:55] BB: Also, big shout out as always to our friends at Art Up Front Street for just being an amazing support and friend of the show. If you love listening and you want to support Creative Guts, you can make a tax-deductible donation. Leave us a review, interact with our content on social media, purchase some merch, whatever you are able to do, we truly appreciate it.
[0:51:14] JA: Thank you for tuning in. We'll be back next Wednesday with another episode of Creative Guts.
[0:51:19] BB: Woohoo.
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