Paul Szmal: The Films Arts Center has a special concert coming up and here to tell us about it this morning, we have Becky here with us. Good morning, how are you?
Guest: Good morning, I am so good.
Paul Szmal: And a couple of special musical guests in the studio. Brian is here. Good morning.
Guest: Morning, Brian.
Paul Szmal: And Tony is here as well. Good morning, thank you.
Guest: All right.
Paul Szmal: So Becky, I want to start with you. Tell us a little bit about the show that's coming up.
Guest: Absolutely. So the hottest place to be is going to be at the Phelps Arts Center on August 15. We will be having the incredibly fantastic Ayers Brothers will be there. We are so lucky that they have chosen to come be out here with us at the Phelps Arts Center. And their fantastic opener is Tony Holiday. So we've got Jim Croce cover music happening. Tony Holiday is specializing in blues music and we are going to have a special treat of them teasing you with some awesome sounds this morning.
Paul Szmal: Well, you know what, before we talk to them, let's get right to the music. So okay, so we got Brian and Tony with a little special sneak preview here this morning. Go ahead, guys.
Guest: We'll do a seems we're doing a Jim Croce tribute. We'll do a we'll do a Jim Croce song, maybe kind of a kind of a B side called Box Number 10.
Well, out of Southern Illinois, he's a down home country boy
Gonna make it in the city playing guitar in the studio
Well, he hadn't been there an hour when he met a Broadway flower
You know she took him for his money and she left him in a cheap hotel
Well, now it's easy for you to see that that country boy is me
Saying, how am I gonna ever break the news to the folks back home?
Well, I was gonna be a big success. Things sure ended up a mess
But in the process, I got messed up too
Hello, mama and dad, I had to call collect because I ain't got a sense of my name
I've been sleeping in a hotel doorway in a night that says it's gonna rain
And if you'd only send me some money, I'd be back on my feet again
Send it in care of the Sunday Mission Box Number 10
There's a little sneak peek of that song, Box Number 10.
Paul Szmal: Excellent. Thank you, man. Appreciate it. So, Tony, tell me a little bit about your musical background, what people can expect to hear from you.
Guest: Thank you, Brian. That was one of my most favorite Jim Croce songs. My musical background, let's see, I moved here from Memphis, Tennessee a couple years ago. Originally from Utah, but I travel the world and the country playing soul music, Memphis music, blues music, and usually with a five to seven piece band. Sometimes me and Brian and his brother will get together and do a trio. So, yeah, you can find my music, TonyHolidayMusic.com. There's much more to the story there.
Paul Szmal: I see you've got a harmonica in your hand.
Guest: Yeah, a broken one. I'll grab another one. Nothing like equipment breaking first thing in the morning.
Paul Szmal: So, you want to hit a few bars?
Guest: Yeah, let me grab one that works.
Paul Szmal: Okay. While Tony is grabbing a working harmonica, tickets for the show are just 30 bucks.
Guest: Yes, yeah. Thirty dollars will get you a great night of fun. We actually have some vendors that are going to be there in the Phelps Arts Center, too. As you can see, we are so excited to have such talent in the Finger Lakes area that we get to attract them right here to Phelps. So, yeah, it's going to be a great night.
Paul Szmal: Okay. So, Tony has harmonica in hand, microphone in front of him. Let it rip.
Guest: I will just play some harmonica solo for you. Sure, sure, sure. I don't normally do, but here's how it sounds.
*[harmonica solo]*
Paul Szmal: Now, I'll bet you didn't expect listening to the show this morning that you were going to hear not only a deep Jim Croce cut performed live, but a little bit of blues harp at the same time. There you go. So, Brian, you're one half of the Avery Brothers, right?
Guest: That's right, the Ayers Brothers.
Paul Szmal: The Ayers Brothers. I'm sorry. Got that messed up. So, you're going to be doing Croce tunes as part of this concert.
Guest: Yeah, my brother and I have been playing for a long time together, and we have that great sibling chemistry, that ESP that makes it really special to sing together. And I've been in and out of a number of tribute acts, Gordon Lightfoot, Paul Simon, and our Funkle Tributes, and I kind of wanted to do one of my own and do it the way I would prefer to do a tribute. And Jim Croce is an artist that just resonates with me. There's a few singers out there that, when I hear them sing, I almost can understand why they're adding the inflections that they're adding. There's just a connection there that I feel. And the Jim Croce story is fantastic. It's almost like a Shakespearean tragedy, you know, in a way. It's a love story, it's a tragedy, it's a story of self-fulfillment and self-discovery. So, when we do this tribute, I want to do more than just play a random collection of Jim Croce songs. I built the setlist in a way that will help tell the story of his life. So, when people walk out of there, they're going to know more about Jim Croce and understand more about Jim Croce the person, as well as, of course, enjoy the great catalog that he had built over a short period of time. And that kind of parallels what Jim did musically as a singer-songwriter. He was a storyteller.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, for sure. Yeah, absolutely. All right, let me bring Becky in here so people can find out how to get tickets for the show, because that's important.
Guest: Absolutely. So, we do expect this one to sell right out. So, you're going to want to snag these tickets. It's going to be the place to be on August 15th. You can get our tickets at Phelps Arts, that's plural, phelpsartscenter.org. The ticket link will be right there for you, as well as all the information about the event. And if people want to find out more about the Phelps Arts Center and some of the other activities that are happening, because I know you have exhibits and all sorts of activities happening all the time. Phelps is popping when it comes to arts.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, so also heading to that website, phelpsartscenter.org, you will see a whole list of our events. The other big one I'm just going to quickly make sure that we name is that coming up, if you've got youth ages 6 to 14, we have the Summer Art Club coming up right before the concert. August 10th through 13th is the club with a youth art show gallery on the 14th. So that's another great one that we expect to sell out too. So get your kiddos in there to do some real creativity. So August 15th, Phelps Arts Center, you're going to get to hear Brian and his brother do their Jim Croce tribute. And you're going to get to hear Tony do a little bit of Memphis blues. So that's going to be a nice combination. And like Becky was saying, the tickets are going to sell out pretty quickly. So you want to jump on that. Brian, Tony, thank you for sharing this morning. Thank you for getting up and performing early. I know that it's not always easy for musicians to do, but it's fun to be on the radio here and there and meet nice folks like yourself. So thanks for having us.
Guest: Appreciate it.
Paul Szmal: Appreciate it, Becky.
Guest: Thank you as well.
Paul Szmal: Appreciate it too.
Guest: Absolutely.
