Issue #1

A piece of Lil' Red's Mind ...

We started 2024 with another trip to Memphis to compete in the International Blues Challenge as a trio called 🐔 ROOSTEPHONIC 🐔putting The Rooster, Pascal Fouquet, up front and center, Lil’ Red on the drums and vocals and Dwight Cartier on bass. We proudly represented the Huntington Blues Society. Unfortunately, and fortunately we were placed in the power trio venue with Stephan Haul! Awesome good peeps and excellent musicians.

I can’t believe I played drums at the IBC!!! The city froze, but the music played on. Another great experience making new friends and getting to hang with old ones.

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We headed back to Chicago to open for Buddy Guy & Sheryl Youngblood at Legends during his residency. This is my birthday month and after being “sooooo goood” at making nutritional choices I chose to go on a 2 day pastry crawl for my birthday celebration with Marvelous Mama Milligan, Dad, Pascal & Long Tall Deb. I learned a very valuable lesson. It doesn’t work!!! 🤢 But we had fun trying. 😜

We won “Performance of the Year” from the Arts Council of Westerville for our “Love the Hell Right Out of Ya” music video. Click here to watch!

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Don Wilkins, pictured to the left, is a local artist who also won an award. He was friends with Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown and has great stories to share.

Back in France to join our Paris Combo for the Blues en Rade Festival and a new collaboration as a trio with French guitarist and singer Xavier Pillac for several shows and a fun night at La Grotte! Excellent food … oh and music!

This was song writing month for me, while Pascal trimmed the hedges and took care of his BAMBOO.

The Rooster had his favorite kinda celebration for his birthday … PLAYING GUITAR! We did two concerts back to back with our friend Xavier Pillac. Sometimes there are fellow artists you just click with and it’s like butter to create together, well that’s what these two are like. They weave well.

Then we hopped the pond for a special Double Trouble Duo night at The Star City Stage with our dear friends Long Tall Deb & Colin John.

Brother Michael Milligan moved to Evanston and loaned us his apartment while he was off being a professional actor, brilliant and generous as always. Every morning we walked the neighborhoods, visited the lake and stopped in Hoosier Mama’s !!! Sooo good. We jammed at Kenny Smith’s jam with Omar Coleman, Chuckaluck & Joey J. Saye, enjoyed Blues Fest, played Legends, had lunch with Kenny and his son, visited dear friend Blaise Barton, and finished off in Valparaiso for the wedding of my Best Buddy Caroline Rau (The Skat, Riff, Wail & Moan Queen on our albums Soul Burnin’ & Keep On). She earned her nickname on our tracks “Little Girl” & “American Made”. Check it out here.​

Back in Westerville, we put together the “Hot Hens” idea and started teaching Lauren Tucker all the songs. Lauren popped into Pascal’s Blues guitar workshop at Java Central and she’s been our buddy ever since. She even visited us in France! A beautiful talent, deep soul and loads of fun, check out her own music project Images of Apollo. Listen here. She played with us at Shawnee Hills Summer Concert Series with Dwight Cartier.

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Sometimes things align in unexpected ways. The Batesville Library in Indiana hired us for their summer concert series and their budget allowed us to bring Kenny “Beedyeyes” Smith. It was HOT HOT HOT even in the shade. We had an excellent soundman, Dwight Cartier on bass and about 10 people sitting under umbrellas on lawn chairs in a parking lot. Yet, it was the most rich musical experience for me performing. Kenny holds time by the balls and pulls it into a loving groove. Never too much and always right there. Pascal was on fire, too because our rhythm section was a perfect, kind and professional support. I needed a reminder of why I do this, because honestly the business is grueling, the conditions are usually very challenging for me physically and the balance of pleasure to pain has been heavy on the pain side. Thank you Kenny for the reminder.

This was a busy month. We started working with Cyber PR to whip our marketing into shape and why you have this blog to read! Ariel Hyatt, the expert for indie musicians, and Mecca Godzilla, a music producer, are our genius team.

We were rained out of the end of our set at the Westerville Music & Arts Festival again. Then Roosterphonic boogied all over the Appalachian Blues Festival, did a song for Songs at the Center summer concert and the Marvelous Mama Milligan turned 80!!!

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The Lebanon Blues Festival booked us for their Women in Blues celebration, so we took the opportunity to create the “Hot Hens” with Lauren Tucker on rhythm guitar and vocals and Cat Campbell on upright bass and vocals and I sang from the drum set!!! Oh yes, we had a blast even though our boogie was rained out. Bad year for rain for us.

The next morning we picked Diunna Greenleaf up from her hotel in Columbus for an amazing brunch and conversation at the Milligans home with Long Tall Deb and Lauren Tucker. It was great to squeeze her again and catch up, she has so many stories to tell and wisdom to share.

The Heritage Blues Festival called us at the last minute to play the inbetween stage. Usually we do many 20 minute sets during changeover, but because of electrical issues we got to play for an hour to kick off the night and they kept coming back for more between the other fine musicians. Funny thing, it seems like the universe has a magnet pulling us to certain artists at festivals. Nick Moss & Dennis Gruenling are one of these groups! So great to hear them from a distance and to say hey to Dennis while I contemplated the donut stand and he searched for something vegan.

Cat Campbell brought us to her music venue the Cat & The Fiddle. Love this woman. We’ve wanted to do something together since I started this crazy music thang, so it was nice to play and share bourbon and her homemade peach cobbler. A classmate from my old theatre days drove down from Indianapolis and dropped in. Don Ferrall is like the Gene Kelly of our time, love ya man!

Then we headed back to Evanston for a gig at Shaw's Crab House, a hang with Dave Specter and Pascal sat in with Nick Moss & Rodrigo Mantovani at a dispensory. Gummy science is fascinating.

Back to Evanston to pick up our Paris Combo, Pascal Mucci and Jean-Marc Despeignes, for a quick tour and recording session. Dave Specter’s club Space was the first stop, well, after a Hoozier Mama’s visit with Terry Abrahamson and a hop in the lake. Space was packed with friendly faces and we had a BLAST! Quick drive to Ohio with a pit stop at Sweetwater and we hit Natalie’s and Java Central before heading into the VMS recording studio with Columbus legend Bobby Floyd! Java Central was packed and folks were dancing while Pascal raised the roof off the old coffee shop. Owner Ralph Denick was elated!

Two days in the studio to record 9 songs with engineer Matt Hagberg. We were all nervous to play with Bobby, but it turned out to be a beautiful and at times silly experience that we hope to do again. If you want to hear more about this project, make a donation to our Jukebox and join the journey. Click here for more info!​

After tracking, we headed back to Chicago to play Legends for the first time as a band. Whoo-hoo! Check that one off the bucket list.

We sent the Frenchies back to Paris and hit the studio to lay down the vocals and extras like Colin John on lap steel guitar and The Governor on bongos!!

We moved our flight to get back in the studio with Bobby and his daughter Bobbi Townes to lay down a clap track and tambourines. AND Bobby arranged a gospel choir of Quan, Bobbi & Kara who nailed it in about an hour.

We did a quick mix and flew back to Normandie to meet with our friends Arie & Phil Shively who came to visit us. We took them to Givernay and Mont St Michel, stuffed them with cheese and drowned them in cider. Perfect!

We released our single "Goodbye Frowns" with Lil' Red on drums and vocals, Pascal Fouquet on acoustic guitar and Felton Crews on his six string bass.

I continued to mix the album with Matt by email and Google Drive between gigs with Mr Tchang in Cognac and five concerts in three days at Blues Sur Seine!

Family Time with Pascal's daughter Pauline and son Jules always a gift.

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One final gig at Le Camji with Jean-Marc & Denis Agenet. It’s always fun to play with Denis because he brings his washboard up front with me for a double duet of vocals and washboards on Keep On Lovin’ You. Bamboo emergency as it snowed in Bernay, France. An unusual occurance. No worries, the bamboo is safe!

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Back in the states we finished the year at Java Central for our Holiday show and as guests at the Hey Hey for Long Tall Deb & Colin John’s Holiday Blues Blast. We got fat and enjoyed family and friends and too many sweet treats and Eggnuts (Eggnog) with spiced rum.