IN YOUR CITY Show With Kelley and Gordon
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IN YOUR CITY Show With Kelley and Gordon
Soul Strings: Ed Callison Brings Mellencamp to Life with Pink Houses USA
Music lovers rejoice! On this episode of Soul Strings, we dive deep with veteran musician Ed Callison who shares the remarkable story behind Pink Houses USA, his seven-piece John Mellencamp tribute band that's capturing the heartland rock experience across the Midwest.
Ed reveals the fascinating process of assembling the perfect lineup for Pink Houses USA, including the search for violinists that took them from symphony professionals to polka players before finding their sound. With sixteen shows lined up for 2024, including performances at the beautifully restored 1918 Miners Theater, Ed's excitement is contagious as he discusses how the band meticulously recreates Mellencamp's distinctive heartland rock atmosphere.
The conversation expands beyond just one tribute act, as Ed shares his musical journey from childhood drummer saving paper route money for his first kit to fronting multiple tribute bands. His passion spans decades and genres – from the yacht rock sounds of Captain Ed and the Catamarans to ABBA/Bee Gees tributes and a forthcoming Eagles project. What's particularly striking is Ed's disciplined approach to musicianship, emphasizing how consistent weekly rehearsals helped Pink Houses USA develop the tight sound essential for honoring beloved classics.
Whether you're a musician yourself or simply a lover of live music, Ed's stories from decades on stage – including playing to 5,000 fans at St. Charles Family Arena and some colorful moments at biker rallies – offer both entertainment and wisdom. His parting advice? "Practice, practice, practice" – a simple but powerful reminder that even tribute performances require serious dedication to the craft. Follow Pink Houses USA on Facebook to catch their upcoming performances across Missouri and Illinois.
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Well, welcome to Soul Strings. This is an all-new podcast that we're doing and we're going to be interviewing musicians and singers, and I always liked going to be interviewing musicians and singers. I always liked it when they said musicians and singers, are we separate?
Speaker 2:I think I know how to play a little bit, don't you? There's jokes about lead singers. You've heard them all.
Speaker 1:Yes, we have. Well, today I've got a special guest, ed Callison. I know a lot of you know who he is and he's been in the music business for quite a long time. So today we're going to talk a little bit about one of your upcoming shows that you have, and it's one of the many tribute bands that you're in A couple, and it's called Pink Houses.
Speaker 2:Pink Houses USA. It's funny because Pink Houses there was an East Coast band tribute that was called Pink Houses, and so I looked around, kept looking and I thought, well, Freebird USA, we had to make that because it was other Freebirds. So we made it Pink Houses USA, so we weren't the same name.
Speaker 1:Well, that's interesting yeah. So, how many guys are in the band?
Speaker 2:Seven-piece band. Seven-piece. We've got drums Ron Kraser, we've got George Vasquez on bass, kyle Work on keyboard, darren Hank guitar, chris Naccarato guitar, and we've got Ron Vince on violin. We've got a couple other subs as well, xavier Koenig on violin. So seven-piece band, and I'm just a singer.
Speaker 1:You're just a singer, just a singer. Well, I know you play instruments as well.
Speaker 2:I grew up playing drums. I still do a lot of percussion in my duos on the weekends congas, bongas. I grew up a singing drummer. Don Henley was always kind of my idol because he could sing and play at the same time. So I learned that and my brother, rich, and we played together for a long time and he started singing and playing bass and he went his way, I went mine, and now he's in LA and I'm still here in St Louis. But yeah, it was about two years ago I started talking to Ron Kraser and Bo Darren about are you guys interested in doing a John Cougar Mellencamp trip? It's just something that I always enjoyed his music and thought nobody else is doing it right. And they were both in. So we started the audition process, which was not easy, especially with violinists, accordion players. We had a couple of polka players come in and it just was not a fit.
Speaker 1:I would have loved to have seen that, oh yeah because there's jokes about that.
Speaker 2:It's guy got his car broke into. They had an accordion in it. It came back to the car was broken. There was seven of them. They left six more because it's such a such a an instrument, this kind of uh, they make jokes about. Yeah, but it's a instrument, right. But we decided we can get that sound on the keyboards, right. So Kyle Work puts in a lot of the extra sounds that you would generally get from an accordion and it's not like the accordion's on every song, but the violinist we found a great violinist who had been for years with the symphony and the fox and the muni, yeah, so it's a big part, even though it's not on every song. We make it on every song because it adds it's just the sound of the violin.
Speaker 1:Do you find that challenging when it's trying to find these certain musicians? How challenging is that?
Speaker 2:It is because here's two reasons why. Number one, you want somebody that's really good that can do the material, and two, that's really good that can do the material, and two, that's available Because so many of my friends, like myself, are in a lot of bands, and Freebird was one. I mean Freebird USA we've got one show this year because everybody's in so many bands. Pink House we've got 16 shows. So I found people that were available Gordon, which was more important than anything.
Speaker 1:And they're good yeah.
Speaker 2:But they're available.
Speaker 1:Gotta have them show up, it's pretty important, isn't it?
Speaker 2:That's right. Yeah, it is.
Speaker 1:So tell me a little bit about this Pink Houses tribute band that you got a show coming up. You got one coming up first, the first one this year we have 15 shows last year, We've got 16 right now this year.
Speaker 2:First one we had 15 shows last year, We've got 16 right now this year. First one April 5th at the Miners Theater in Collinsville, Illinois. Beautiful theater. Have you been there? I?
Speaker 1:don't know, but I think we're being arrested.
Speaker 2:Oh God.
Speaker 1:Let's go. They found us, Ed, Out of all these years of hiding.
Speaker 2:they figured out where we were In a speakeasy.
Speaker 1:In a speakeasy, we are at the speakeasy right here in Cottleville, missouri, brand new speakeasy, which is awesome, but it was challenging finding musicians.
Speaker 2:It was. And then, once we got the group together last year again, we did 15 shows this year. Our first one, april 5th, miner's Theater in Collinsville. My birthday, beautiful theater, happy birthday coming up. You need to come to the show, then we'll get you a ticket. Um so, 1918 is when it was actually opened. It's been restored. I did a show with another couple of bands an abbott tribute and a bg's tribute. We did a show there about three months ago and I was blown away because I've done shows at the Lincoln Theater, which is nice, grew up in that area, Okay, so I know Lincoln Theater well. So to me Lincoln Theater is beautiful, but this one is just. It's so well put together and it's run so well by the husband and wife that run it. It seats about 460 people. We're hoping to sell it out and, yeah, that's April 5th 730.
Speaker 1:Awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we'll do a two-hour two-set show.
Speaker 1:I love the old theaters.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:You know there's one over in East St Louis that's been tore down for years and years and years, but every time I drive by it I would have loved to have seen it in its heyday.
Speaker 2:What was that called? Do you remember?
Speaker 1:You know what told me about it.
Speaker 2:I've never tried to look up old pictures and everything but East St Louis in the heyday was the place. That's the Illinois side. Our second show this year will be April 26 at the Diamond Music Hall for the Missouri folks right here in St Peter's. We're looking forward to doing that show as well. We've got an opener. It's a school of Rock kids band. Oh that's cool. They're really good and I'm afraid they may outplay us.
Speaker 1:They're that good, they should be the headliner huh, they're that good Raised on radio.
Speaker 2:They'll open the show on April 26th at Diamond.
Speaker 1:What a great name Raised on radio.
Speaker 2:They're all between 18 and, I think, 21 years old, wow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so how many shows again do you have coming?
Speaker 2:up 16 this year, 16. Besides those two in April, we've got right next door at Frankie March. We'll be there May 31st. May 31st We'll be at the Legacy Park, right across the street. They do the Tuesday night concert series during the summer. We've got a show coming up there and I believe it's June 22nd, but the you can go on. Pink Houses USA on Facebook. I post everything. Ed Callison Music on Facebook I post everything as well. Awesome, best place to find our full schedule.
Speaker 1:Well, I appreciate you coming in and talking about pink houses. Yeah, and we're going to want to go see a couple of those shows. I'm going to have to try and make the birthday one for sure. Absolutely, I thank you for being here and talking about pink houses.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:And we're going to talk a little bit more. All right, we're back with Ed Callison. We were talking about pink houses just a few minutes ago and we're going to get a little in-depth and what inspired you, what got you started in music when you were young, ed?
Speaker 2:You know, I was seven, eight, I liked playing drums. I didn't have a drum set, I had a little toy set. And my dad says, listen, you know you work and put a little money into buying a set. I had a newspaper route right. So I started saving my money and I went to Nash Music in St Charles which is no longer Mike and Bob, along with Richie, who you know. Richie played guitar, my brother Bobby played bass, my brother Mike played keyboards and our parents supported us to be able to rehearse in the dining room of a small 1,500-square-foot home in St Charles which was loud, and we played a few gigs around as a brother group. And then after a couple of years my two older brothers went in the Air Force. And then Richie and I got together with John Gillespie and started our own band. But that's kind of how it all started.
Speaker 2:Never took any vocal lessons as a singer but did start in a marching band at Barmaleeo Grade School, which is where I went to grade school. Dushan High my freshman year played in the marching band. I was kind of a nerd and an athlete. That's kind of weird, isn't it? Weird combination. So my sophomore year I quit the band and started playing football and basketball but then continued the music with Richie and John and they kind of went their way and I went mine for several years. I quit my first marriage. She didn't really like me playing music, so I quit playing music for about 12 years until I met my wife, nanette, back in 92, and I started playing music again because she supported it, just like my parents did.
Speaker 1:Now you say, your parents supported it. Were they musicians as well? Did they have any music? My father.
Speaker 2:No, they were great dancers. My father played and I learned this later on the xylophone. Of all things, he played the xylophone. But they loved music, especially country. So growing up I listened to a lot of country music. I mean Hank Senior and Porter Wagner, conway, twitty and all the great stuff. Yeah, and there's good stuff today. But you know, I really like the 90s, 80s and 90s country but they weren't really that musical. But they love music and they supported you, they supported us. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So growing up you got into music. Your family was into it. Who was your biggest musical influence?
Speaker 2:Oh, wow, back in the day it was the Monkees. I heard you say Don Henley earlier. Yeah, yeah, don Henley. But early on the 60s we're talking the Monkees, paul Revere and the Raiders, stuff that you would see on TV, on the video shows. But later on, yeah, eagles, rod Stewart, bad Company, aerosmith, led Zeppelin, naturally Rolling Stones, the Beatles, all of the above, and then country, naturally, as I got into more country, it was Mark Chestnut and Travis Tritt and just all the great 80s and 90s country.
Speaker 1:I never knew that about you. I never knew you were into country.
Speaker 2:I love country music In 92 is when I met my wife Nanette. We were spending three nights a week at Nick Nixon's on Lindbergh. I remember that Country dancing and my wife, you know she was a cheerleader with the Cardinals when they were here in St Louis the football Cardinals. She's a great dancer, quick learner and we picked up country music dancing and we're doing it three nights a week during, I guess, our courtship, if you will. But to this day we still love country music.
Speaker 1:That's incredible.
Speaker 2:Nick.
Speaker 1:Nixon so. Nick, nick nixon all right, you're getting ready to go on stage. Show is about ready to start. Do you have any type of rituals or anything that's like superstitious that you've got to do all the time?
Speaker 2:a little vocal things little vocal things, kind of like you always probably did, but uh, no, really just trying to, you know, not be nervous for one, but I think everybody gets a little bit of butterflies right before it all starts. But once you get out there, it goes away. It goes away. It goes away. The energy just kind of takes you. It's a high, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You did it for years, man.
Speaker 1:So you've performed quite a lot. We talked about all the different tribute bands that are you doing. Tell me a little bit about some of the different tribute bands you're doing besides Pink Houses.
Speaker 2:Sure, absolutely. We've got a yacht rock band called Captain Ed my favorite music and the Catamarans. We've got six shows this year. We just did a show at the Westport Social weekend. Before last it was our first big show this year. We did a show at Diamond Music Hall last year. It's an eight-piece band, full band. It's not just a four-piece yacht rock band like you see around the nation. This is a full-blown saxophone, guitar keyboards, female singer Stacy Rios, great singer John Shanahan, kevin Lehman on guitar, joe Gilbert on bass, mike Powers on saxophone and our drummer, zoe. It's just a great band and it's all that great stuff that people love and they know every word to every song. So as singers we've got to know every word, otherwise people are like hey, that wasn't the right lyric.
Speaker 1:I remember I had to fill in with Contagious when Bob Fox was still alive with us.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I couldn't memorize anything. It took me forever, so I did the whole, like you know, and then even the stars are doing that now oh yeah, no, no, they got the, they got the. You know the monitors in front of them and uh, it's it's, it's, it's a normal thing.
Speaker 2:I was out in vegas four years ago right before covid yet five years ago and at the mgm for the showcase of the aerosmith right there, they had a two-week show there. I'm right in the second row with friends and he goes out on this walkway and I look on the back wall about 20 by 20, all the lyrics just going.
Speaker 1:Somebody's running the pedal for him, oh man, teleprompters.
Speaker 2:We're talking about Steven Tyler man.
Speaker 1:Hey, you know what? We forget stuff as we get older. It's like your brain goes into a brain fog. Let me tell you as I get older, there's things that me and Kelly were sitting on the couch one night and we were watching a thing and we're trying to think of Kevin Costner's name. We could remember John Dutton, but we couldn't remember Kevin Costner. It's crazy how the brain goes crazy like that when you get home.
Speaker 2:But you know, I've got friends right here in St Louis that use monitor screens and you know what it looks like a monitor. So who cares? Who cares?
Speaker 1:You don't want to give them the wrong lyrics.
Speaker 2:It's better to have the right lyrics than to know that, hey, he's using a monitor. So what I think McCartney does too.
Speaker 1:So here's a big question that me and Kelly always think about when we think about you and Annette. We always ask ourselves what kind of vitamins are these people taking? Because you were here Wednesday with us and then Thursday night you were out again at the jazz club and then Friday night you were out again, I think.
Speaker 2:I was performing.
Speaker 1:Performing and were you out Saturday, saturday?
Speaker 2:night performing. I was out all day at Mardi Gras that's right In the center, west end or downtown. And then that night I played the quarry, were you out. Sunday we went out to Newtown, we invited you.
Speaker 1:That's right, that's right, we had family over. And here you are today.
Speaker 2:You know we take multiples, we take some supplements. We don't really drink much. I've never really been a big drinker or a smoker Drink a ton of water. We try to eat right, and you know, it's just. I think you take care of the machine, the machine takes care of you. So that's, there's no really big secret. If you will, I wanted to mention too, when you said, the other tributes another one I just joined last year is the ABBA and Bee Gees tribute. We did a show at the Miners Theater. We're doing several shows this year the Chessfield Amphitheater. We're doing some other shows around town, diamond Music Hall. That's a fun show. My wife doesn't like ABBA, but once I learned the material.
Speaker 2:oh my gosh. The songs drew on me and now I love that just as much as the Bee Gees. Wow, but a lot of harmonies, and I'm all about harmonies. And there's another band.
Speaker 1:I'm working on right now. We lost that art In music.
Speaker 2:Oh, let me tell you.
Speaker 1:Of harmonization and vocals.
Speaker 2:People love hearing it.
Speaker 1:We didn't have all that. We didn't have the vocal tuners. What do they call them? We had to sing. We had to actually sing, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:A lot of the recordings today are using that too, but you know I'm not a big fan and some people are. But so that band, both of those bands, it's one band, but it's three different singers Jason Nelson, johnny Cruze, poor.
Speaker 1:Johnny. I've known Johnny for quite a long time and he just gets better and better.
Speaker 2:He does, he really does. And then there's one other band I'm working on which I can't talk a whole lot about just yet, but it's got to do with the Eagles. Oh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's awesome. So, out of all the venues you played a lot of venues what's your favorite venue you ever played?
Speaker 2:Probably one of the favorites is the St Charles Family Arena. In 2019, December, Freebird USA. We did a show and headline there and it was a lot of work because you have to get people to there, you know, to the venue, so we'd pass out a lot of tickets all over town. We had over 5,000 people and that had to be one of my favorite shows. Have you played that stage? No, it's just.
Speaker 1:I quit before then.
Speaker 2:It's kind of a mind blow because you know I'm used to singing in front of you know 200 or 300 people or maybe maybe it's a lot different, maybe a thousand, ophelan jamming was two thousand. Last summer we did um legacy park. There's usually about 800 people there, but when you get 5 000 plus that's a big stage and I got a little, a little bit nervous.
Speaker 1:But yeah, the show understand that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely yeah we had an opener yeah, I got one last question for you yeah so you've been doing this a long time.
Speaker 1:You've been playing in bands. You got started when you were young. If you could go back and tell your younger self, give your younger self some advice what would that be? Um?
Speaker 2:practice, practice, practice, because there's nothing worse than showing up for a gig and sounding terrible Either the guitarist not knowing the notes, bass the drummer not knowing the beat, singer not knowing the lyrics or the way the lyrics should be sang. I think practice is the most important thing and with Pink House USA and I'm glad you asked this for the last year and a you asked this for the last year and a half, excepting for the last month and a half because our bass player had knee surgery we were practicing every week, every week on a Tuesday, wednesday, for two and a half hours. That's how we got tight and that's, in my opinion, the best way, because if you just rehearse once, twice a month and you've got big shows coming up, you're not going to sound as good as you were if you did it every week, Because the more you play it, the better it gets.
Speaker 1:Exactly no good advice. I do have one other question.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:So is there something musically that you haven't done in your life, that you would love to do?
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, naturally, and I am doing it this summer First time to play at the Chesterfield Amphitheater. It's been on my bucket list for a while. We're playing with Abba and the Bee Gees Tribute. Other than that, yeah, madison Square Garden, bigger venues, it's great doing the weekends. I do the duos at all the wineries and next door at wine cellars and just all the wineries all around town, and I enjoy that, because what we do especially if I'm with Stephen Winters we take requests the whole three hours.
Speaker 1:And people are sitting around chatting and they're talking and you're kind of there, but they're kind of like, but then when you're in an arena setting, that's a whole different setting, because you're the focus, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 2:Otherwise you're kind of background music at a lot of venues. I know we played at the Barrel House on Friday Night Ball, one great little venue, but at first people are talking, tasting the whiskey and you know, just socializing Right. And then as they get a little more inebriated they start dancing and getting more into the music. And that's kind of how the wineries are as well. But you're right, the bigger venues, bigger shows, the tribute shows, people are there to listen and watch and naturally we all love that.
Speaker 1:You've got to leave me with one last story.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:I want to hear one of the craziest stories from playing. You've got to give me a good one.
Speaker 2:Oh boy.
Speaker 1:I talked to Chuck from Boyfriend. They got kicked out of the Lake of the Ozarks, couldn't come back. They got kicked out. They got kicked out.
Speaker 2:Well, we were doing a show this was four or five years ago with Freebird USA. It was a bike run up in Iowa and that kind of tells you a little bit. Right there they're fun loving people. But I was. I think it was the second last song and people were moving forward and some of the ladies did not have a top on and I'm like wait a minute, what's going on here? And Mike looked at me. He says it's a biker run. I'm like okay. So I kept, I kept concentrating. It's a biker run, I'm like okay. So I kept concentrating, looking out to the distance where people had clothes on.
Speaker 2:Lord, that would make you miss a few words. You know, biker people live a different life and hey, they're good people. It's just some of them had too much fun. Maybe, yeah, or just I don't know exhibitionists, Wow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was kind of crazy.
Speaker 2:well, thanks for coming today thanks for sitting with me and thanks for having me, as always. Appreciate you.
