“80 Years of Music, Baseball, and Confused Youth Memories”

From a Brantford bar we refused to play, to a packed house for our live album, to a 12‑hour Jamboree that nearly finished us off — this was the year everything hit at once. Randall amps, Tammy Wynette, late‑night laughs, and the night at The Yankee Whaler when one perfect note made me wonderwhy we did this. The Farrell Brothers reached the top, fell hard, and then life pushed me toward a brand‑new beginning.

This is when the Farrell Brothers stopped being just another bar band and started becoming a show band. Elley and I were building a life, the group was finding its identity, and every decision — from jumpsuits to new players — pushed uscloser to the sound we were chasing. There were hard calls, big leaps, a Jamboree that nearly blew the doors off, and even a showdown over a pair of bib overalls. Episode 32 is where the Farrell Brothers take shape for real.

October 1976 sits right on the edge of everything — the shock of Billy Spencer’s death, the Farrell Brothers taking shape in their first rough‑draft form, and the day I met Elley without having any idea how much that moment would matter. I was roofing with Tilo by daylight and chasing music after dark,trying to find my footing as the Blizzard of ’77 gathered in the distance. This episode lives in that quiet before the shift — the hinge where life starts to turn.

Gleason’s coffee bit, a missing Sea Hunt mask, and the shoe‑shine hustle that kept me busy as a kid. Add in a Chicago drink and the call that pulled me toward Buffalo, and you’ve got the final chapter of my Canadian years — a mix of TVmagic, childhood schemes, and the first spark of what came next.

Montreal comes roaring back in this vault episode — taverns, queens, cops, and the kind of chaos that finds you when you’re young and bulletproof. It starts with a mysterious white powder and a near‑death scare, then drops into a Mt Royal bike plunge, a bar with phones on every table, and a run‑inwith Montreal’s finest. And in the middle of it all, the drag queens who ruled the night.

Goodbye Command Performance means the end of one chapter and the start of another. I keep the Rick, reunitewith Louis one last time, meet Mary White, drift through Lehigh Acres and a wedding in Ft. Myers, and finally step out alone for a solo act in Daytona. Back in Montreal, I took a job with an industrial cleaning company.

Whacky Jack Sargeant runs amok in the Bahamas, our photo ends up everywhere, I turn 30, we loop back through Syracuse and Cincinnati, and I face a rematch with the LittleFoxes — this time getting the last laugh. A fast, funny, sun‑soaked chapter with more twists than anyone asked for.

What starts in the neon of Reno and Tahoe ends in the sun ofBermuda — but the real story is everything that happens in between. Johnny Ray’s compliment,  Paul Revere & MarkLindsay comments, then came Bermuda with a crazy beach volleyball game that turns competitive, the POW escape game runs off the rails, and wheelchairs somehow end up on stage. Add in a few casino moments we probably should’ve kept quiet, and you’ve got a fast, funny, sideways stretch of the tour that only makessense in hindsight.

Kentucky moonshine, Syracuse memories, and one last look at Joe Bello before the road pulled us north. Winnipeg Inn

brought a $7,000 surprise, Harrisburg brought familiar faces, and Idaho brought a disaster I still shake my head at. Andsomewhere in the middle of it all, Rick tried to mail something he definitely shouldn’t have. Goodbye Joe… hello Jack.

One odd Bellows show, a long stretch of highway and a stop in Abilene, a nervous kid at the gas pump, and a KC dinner that lands perfectly. But Cincinnati isn’t calm. The Foxes War is waiting and it’s time for a battle.