Okay.

My name is Bob Erickson.

I'm, the lead guitar player and lead vocalist.

And, for the for the trio.

Well, it's it's a mix.

It's, bluesy at the core.

It's, it's, it's bluesy.

But then there's also swing, reggae, a little bit of blues rock from my Texas, upbringing.

Joe brings, a very storied and, legendary, jazz, background to the band.

And we mix it all together and through the covers that we've selected, we've tried to, steer the direction of the originals, which have a mix of all all the above.

Probably at birth.

My parents met, in 1957 at a rock n roll band in Dallas, Texas.

My dad was the lead guitar player, and my mom was the piano player.

And on, New Year's Eve 1958, the guitar player ran off with the piano player and eloped to Love County, Oklahoma, and, were married.

And, I was born a year and a half later, and, the entire house and entire time we were growing up.

I'm the oldest child.

Was, house was just filled with music, constant playing, both my brothers are accomplished musicians.

And, my brother Brian is a drummer.

And, my brother Bradley is a very good, guitar player If I had, you know, if I had any sense, I would have at least learned with a piano teacher in the house.

I could have learned to play piano and guitar, but, I was obviously it was always guitar for me.

the guitar I learned on was the 1964 Gretsch, Tennessee.

And my dad was a Chet Atkins aficionado, and, and upon his passing, the guitar is now in my possession.

So I was learning and playing on quality equipment from day one.

Okay.

I've got three main influences.

And then, you know, subset of influences that I call it club Z and B, z, z top.

First and foremost, I'm from Texas and that's a blues rock.

And I grew up in the 70s and it was a wonderful time.

LED Zeppelin, wonderful band.

And then Jimmy Buffett, my, literary hero.

I'm not so much of a parrot head as I considered him as a serious songwriter, and every album had wonderful songs on them.

And, he was a major influence on a lot of things in my life.

Is there really is high school?

I had a one of my very best friends in this world is named Brant Seaman, and he's a great guitar player from my hometown of Granbury, Texas.

And we started together and as soon as we started playing, we started writing our own, or attempting to write our own songs and, and practicing our craft.

And, and we played together all through our 20s in Fort Worth and Dallas before I left Texas.

first of all, I'm a partner in crime for the last 11 years.

Jo Jo Morris on bass and vocals.

And then, TC lively from Wet Willie.

We, we had been trying to get with TC for years, and TC lives in Ocean Springs, where I live, and he finally became available two and a half years ago, and we instantly said, come with us.

And he did.

And then we have started playing again with Chris Alexander on Keys.

We had worked in 2016 and 17 with Chris, and then the the separation between Ocean Springs and Pensacola.

You know, we kind of slacked off for a little while, but we're glad to be working with Chris again.

what we do is Joe and I have a long standing Wednesday rehearsal at lunch time, and we get together and just kick around ideas and work on stuff and, thoughts and, and then, then we take it from there.

And then when it's time we get together with TC and then, when now that Chris is with us, we, you know, we long distance travel.

Travel the the song requests to him and then there we go.

I don't go over and over and over on songs.

Sometimes some songs write themselves in ten minutes.

Some songs you tweak and you tweak, you know, until you get them.

But then there's when that moment when everything, it's just everything smooths out and what it does to stop.

Just, you know, you can always nitpick it to death just to stop, go play it and see how people like it.

I love I love that feeling when there's a guitar riff and it's an old Texas saying, it makes you want to buy a 16 penny nail in half.

It's just the grit.

And, or just like, preparing for the show, I'll listen to Easy Talk for two days, you know, just, especially the wives.

Easy top.

Just to, to get that swagger, to get that feeling from the 1970s when the first time the lights went down and I saw my all my heroes playing, for the first time.

And, you know, the 70s were a Gilded Age for guitar players.

And it was, those guys were so good.

It's taken me 50 years to figure out some of their licks.

But the thing is, is, I still get that feeling when I hear it.

We hope to continue to play venues and festivals and shows where we get to get up and play our original songs and, in a mixture of the songs that we like to play where we've never really been.

We played covers of other people's songs, but we don't select what's hot on the radio, we don't select, quote unquote, a brown eyed girl.

You know, we're going after songs that we like that compliment the originals and kind of steer the originals.

I've done that quite a bit with, songs I've selected for the band to use is, is, is.

I think this will be a good jumping off point for the next original.

It goes back to it's like we've all got a finite time on this planet and to leave, leave a mark and, to leave a record of being here.

You know, for me personally, it's, you know, it's it's starting to it's starting to matter.

And, I really want to, to to show that, I was here, So, Bob, I wanted to talk a little bit about the name.

The trio.

Yes.

Where did that come from?

Well, the band was originally put together with myself and, Brian and Joe Morse, and we were trying to come up.

We were originally performing as a trio, and we were bouncing names around, and, so we, we had the Louisiana spelling, and then we, we wanted something tropical because we were kind of a tropical blues, a little bit of reggae, a little bit of this and all of that.

So we landed on that.

And then the inside joke is, is we rarely perform as a trio.

And it's and and we, we do that to show our utter contempt for mathematics.

But when people see it, it's, d and then tr e yes, yes, yes, yes.

And we've had as many as six onstage before, but how would you describe your music?

So when did you first become interested in music?

and, studio, studio.

Okay.

Can I keep.

Yeah.

Go ahead.

Just.

Okay.

Yeah.

I'm sorry.

He's, he doesn't own a home studio.

And is very prolific.

Pumping out songs.

So.

So your parents still alive?

My father passed away last year, but my mother, is still playing, and, they they played right up until the end.

And I have one of my, my father's, guitar pedals is on my pedalboard tonight, so they never really retired from music.

Never.

They played.

They played right up until the end.

In fact, my father and I worked on a song together.

It just a few months before he died, and we hope to have that out next year.

So when you first started playing music, was guitar always your instrument?

Yeah, I went with dad.

So what was your first guitar like?

I mean, in other words, with, parents.

And what was your equipment?

Fairly good.

It was.

It was, you know.

No, no, no, no, it was always good.

My, Well, tell us, who were your inspirations?

I you know, everybody.

I guess when you're growing up as somebody you try to emulate.

Who were you?

Who influenced you?

So tell us about the group that's going to be playing with you tonight at the concert.

So it's kind of like a three city band, right?

You got mobile and Pensacola.

Yeah.

Yeah, it.

Well, it's just, I come from the bands that I've been in on the coast.

We just call it Stretching the Coast.

You know, the gig field, runs from east to west, and we played and from all the way from Baton Rouge to, Fort Walton Beach.

So is it difficult to get together to learn new songs or.

Okay.

You talked about a Z.z top and LED Zeppelin and Jimmy Buffett.

You know, his influences.

And, of course, you felt they played their songs over and over again and different nightclubs and things like that.

But when did you first start thinking about doing your own music?

writing a song, how do you approach it?

Do you have a collaborative effort or you, do it yourself and then bring it to the group?

Well, how it usually starts.

Let me on that.

Let me not talk over you, okay?

I'm sorry.

Just tell us about the process.

The process, how it usually starts is I have index cards in the kitchen, and when I hear a good song hook or something that I think is funny because I usually try to write songs that are either humorous or have imagery where I get that from Jimmy Buffett, obviously, where you tell a story that people can try, you try to tell a story that people can see.

And so I've got, a kitchen drawer full of hooks that things that I'll hear people say, and, I'll write them down and throw them.

And then about every six months I'll go through them.

And 75% of them make absolutely no sense at all.

But the other a few of the hooks hang.

And then the the other part is, I'm on my time alone.

I'll go upstairs and start working on riffs, and then that's when that transforms to the Wednesday sessions with Joe and we start working, we start working the songs up in that matter.

So tonight you're going to be performing, 12 of your songs.

A lot of them haven't been recorded yet, you know, when, when we when will we be able to hear those type of songs or, you know.

Well, this is a very good first step in the process.

Three of the songs that we'll play tonight, we're on a solo album I did in 2010.

They're just under my name now, and I want an album called Hammerheads Do, and, that which you can hear those on Spotify, iTunes and all those streaming platforms.

We would like to continue following up and continue working because at it, at this stage of the game and our ages and everything else, the only way to break away from the pack is original songs.

You know, you can play the cover tunes, you can play the cover tunes, and, you know, you're just you're, on a hamster wheel.

And the only way to really break free is for people to like your original songs or hopefully like your original songs.

You mentioned the index cards and I guess, little tidbits.

Your lyrics are funny.

So.

So how did you how do you come up with some of these lyrics?

Vacation, probation?

Oh, there's a great story behind that one.

And it's a lot of the songs are true stories.

Okay.

Vacation, probation.

I was at the floor, mama on break.

I played with Rhythm Intervention, for 3 or 4 years at the floor.

Mama.

And I was on break, and a guy came up and said, hey, man, how are you doing?

And, he just said, well, I'm not too good.

I'm.

I'm like, why?

He goes, well, I came to the hang out festival and got busted.

And I'm like, oh, really?

Oh man, I'm sorry.

And he goes, yeah, I came on vacation, I'm on probation.

And I said, oh man, I'm I'm really sorry to hear that, but do you have anything to write with?

And, that song just basically wrote itself and and that goes back to the imagery, you know, where you try to picture a poor guy in a pair of khakis on a wonderful beach and sweeping up, sand and dead fish and, while all the tourist action is going on around him.

So you, you grab, from life, a lot of stuff that you put into your lyrics, right?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

So tell us about that.

Well, it all goes back to trying to create imagery, you know, and the, like the song of the refrigerator.

That was a true story from a Dallas friend of mine.

His wife was disappearing for days at a time, showing back up, raiding the refrigerator and sleeping for two and leaving again.

And so it's this, like I've always got a keen eye of reading the room and listening when I'm wherever I'm at.

And, sometimes you find gems that are just, you know, talk to you from across the room.

So from the music side, yeah.

If it's variety, it's just not your blues shuffles.

Tell us about what you're trying to do.

You know, on the musical side with some of these stuff.

And you said it may be your influences, but, how would you describe your musical side and how do you have different sounds?

You know, with, with your, yeah, we, we very, very much try to be, how do you say, Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

What's the word?

What I'm trying to do?

Oh, I know exactly what you're trying to do.

I think.

Variety.

Yes.

Okay, that's that's a start.

Okay?

Okay.

We try to present a variety of music from the influences of the band.

You know, like TC, is from Wet Willies, man.

From Wet Willie from 45 years.

Joe has such a jazz influence.

And my greatest, endeavor or want is to be a Western swing guitar player.

And so that's why I gravitated to Joe, because he has such a strong jazz background, and I'm not that strong in jazz, but the influence is starting to come through in the originals.

So, plan the plan worked.

And then he put clever lyrics on top of that.

That's what is appealing to me, because, you have, different sounds in the music, but also, clever lyrics.

Well, thank you, thank you.

Tell us about your clever, Well, like the song interventions, and plural.

Yeah.

I woke up with a, not feeling my best one morning, and I thought, man, I need an intervention.

I just got to stop this.

And then I thought, well, if I get together with my friends and family, I'll be hanging out with the people I was with last night.

And so that's going to be an epic fail.

And so the off and running there goes that song, about a failed series of interventions that just turn into parties.

Why do you think it's important to perform original music?

you know, and when you talk about, original music, it's, Just basically, you have to get projects, you gotta get albums out and Spotify and all of that.

But what are y'all doing now to, to promote your, these 12 songs and even more that you have what's ahead for, well, the the first step is we made a conscious decision earlier, in January of this year that we were going to not so much, pursue the for our cover tune gigs and get into the festivals, get into the situations.

There's a band over in Mississippi where we play name of the chitlins that have been, that are very good band, that have been very instrumental.

And they put us on several of their shows, and we've been able to spotlight the originals and we've been getting some pretty good response from, from them.

So it's all about originals, moving forward at this time, we have talked, with, a couple of studios about getting in to, to start the recording process, and that's where we'll, we'll be heading, Warren, to, ask the question about, when do you know a song is finished?

That's a very good question.

568 00:24:25,046 --> 00:24:25,505 So tell us, about this will be in 2026.

You're still performing, on the coast.

If I were asking this question, you know, eight months from now, where do you think you'll be?

What do you all achieve it?

Where's your next step?

Where are you?

Where do you hope to go?

I just kind of begged the question, why don't you go in a studio and put the stuff down?

Oh, we have, we have, there have been there's there's some there's some comical stories of, of past attempts, not with this line up, but, I've, I, I hope someday to write a book about not making it in the music business and, and, the the, one attempt, on Dolphin Street.

In mobile at Dolphin Street Studios is, is an epic Spinal Tap type, story.

So, but we just gotta keep plugging away and, and get back in the studio, so.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Do you think that's going to happen in the, in the next, you know, 8 to 10 months?

Yes, I do, yes, I do, because like some say we hope to and we hope we hope to record every song that we're going to be playing tonight because, one thing that this is really, when, you know, we're so happy to have had this opportunity is it's brought into focus, 3 or 4 songs that we haven't played in a while, and we've got them out, dusted them off, put some superglue on them, and, hey, it's like, this might be okay.

So this has given us a gift of, pulling some, resurrecting some songs, and they're in the lineup, and we're going to keep playing them.

What excites you about music?

621 00:27:37,530 --> 00:27:39,157 And finally, we can better wrap this up.

But, you do a good job on vocals.

Where did you get your vocal training or your influence is on your vocals?

It we'll going back to the 70s, if you remember, that was the era of the high pitched to singers, and I can't do that.

So I gravitated towards the band and, which was probably explains some of the affinity for Z.z top, because it was a perfectly in my range.

You just try to stay in your range and know your boundaries and don't try to exceed them and treat the voice like a, you know, treat the voice like a muscle.

Treat the voice like an instrument.

Is there anything else you'd like people to know about you or the trio?

Just that we're, a fun band to come see.

We we get along great.

There's no, there's no animosity, there's no egos, there's no nothing other than just guys having a really good time playing together.

Stuff.

Two things or get kind of just get a shot of you looking at Billy and just laughing like he told you a funny joke just was like, okay, count it out, okay?

Just look at him.

And three, two.

Your toes are purple.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah.

The last thing is, I was going to say, thank you.

To say my name is on the of the trio.

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

Looking at it.

I'm not quoting this, by the way.

Oh, okay.

Okay.

I just want to.

Okay.

All right.

Do a quick, Actually come on, said we do.

Come on.

Would do.

All right.

Do a quick, chart.

Combined with you.