Night and Day-The Thom Jennings Archives

Join Thom Jennings in an exclusive conversation with Ron Altbach, the mastermind behind the iconic band King Harvest. In this episode, Ron delves into the band's storied history, recounting the electrifying moments, including a legendary performance alongside Huey Lewis at Artpark that left a lasting mark in the Niagara region.Get an inside look at the dynamic journey of King Harvest, exploring the enigmatic persona of their former lead singer, Dave "Doc" Robinson, and uncovering the untold tales behind the band's smash hit "Dancing in the Moonlight." Ron shares the inspiration, the creative process, and the magic that propelled this song to the top of the charts, captivating audiences across generations.But that's not all—discover the intriguing connections between King Harvest and the esteemed band Orleans, unraveling the ties that bound these musical powerhouses together and influenced an era of musical brilliance. Tune in as Ron Altbach paints a vivid picture of King Harvest's musical legacy and offers a glimpse into the captivating world of '70s rock and roll.

Thom Jennings chats with the late drummer of Yes, Alan White. In this interview Alan discusses the phone call from John Lennon requesting him to work on the "Imagine" album and his early days with Yes. The sound quality is rough, but the interview is a good one.

Host Thom Jennings returns after over two years with a great interview he conducted with the legendary Carl Palmer of Asia and Emerson Lake and Palmer fame. Carl discusses the Asia in Asia concert, John Wetton, and his plans for an upcoming tour featuring the music of ELP.Please subscribe and share.

An interview with former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett from 2019 as he was set to come to town to perform the Genesis classic "Selling England by the Pound" album. Steve talks about his days in Genesis and a conversation he had with Jon Anderson of Yes that turned out to be prophetic.

A candid interview recorded with the late Eddie Money back in 2012 when he was promoting a show in Lockport NY. Eddie is at his witty and uncensored best in this never-before-heard recording.

Thom chats with former Wings and Moody Blues guitarist and singer Denny Laine. Denny is a Rock Hall inductee and has some great stories to share.

Audio of Garth Brooks Press conference from 2015 before a show in Buffalo NY.

An audio interview from 2019 with Todd Rundgren before he performed at the Riviera Theatre in North Tonawanda NY

A quick interview with guitar legend Robin Trower, former member of Procol Harum and prolific solo artist. Robin talks about his exclusive use of a Stratocaster and how he achieves his signature tone.

Tommy Chong-half of the legendary comedy due Cheech and Chong-talks about being arrested, surviving Cancer and some advice on what to do when your stepmother smashes your large glass bong you had stashed in the basement.

It’s not everyday one gets to interview a performer with more than 20 Grammy Awards, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and is the first woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. That is just a small sample of the achievements of  the late Aretha Franklin, who is arguably the greatest female singer of all time, and undeniably one of the most influential women in popular music. With the passing of Ms. Franklin I dug out this quick phone conversation from early 2013.

We finish up our Foreigner themed podcasts with interviews with Kelly Hansen and Lou Gramm. Foreigner is one of the most popular rock bands of all-time and Gramm sang on the original recordings and Hansen has been the lead singer of Foreigner for over a decade. The two appeared together onstage for the fist time last year during Foreigner's 40th anniversary tour. 

Rochester NY native and rock singer extraordinaire Lou Gramm spends a few minutes with one of his fans. Lou dishes on a variety of topics including muscle cars, new artists he likes and his spiritual journey. It's a short but sweet interview with a rock legend

The Rust Belt Brigade is a Buffalo NY based band featuring Night and Day host Thom Jennings son Trevor Jennings. Here is an interview and live performance from the band.Band MembersVictor CastilloTrevor JenningsJeremiah FrancoBrandon Muecklcontact thom@caroniamediagroup.com for booking info

As the band Foreigner came up on their 40th anniversary, founding member reflected on possible plans to reunite the band's original members (which eventually happened) and talked about the band's history.This interview is the first of a four part series of interviews with Foreigner band members, past and present.If you have any comments or questions, please email us at thom@caroniamediagroup.com 

On the occasion of the Kasim Sulton's Utopia shows, we dig out an interview with Willie Wilcox conducted a few years ago. Wille gets us up-to-date on where he is at musically and talks about his tenure in Utopia and his thoughts on a possible Utopia reunion.The episode is dedicated to Merf Sohmers-former founder of The Nexus-who passed away recently.

Adrian Belew  is an American musician, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist primarily known as a guitarist and singer, Belew is noted for his unusual, impressionistic approach to guitar playing, which, rather than relying on standard instrumental tones, often resembles sound effects or noises made by animals and machines.Perhaps best known for his long stint as frontman and co-guitarist for the progressive rock group King Crimson from 1981 to 2009, Belew is widely recognized as one of the greatest guitarits of the prog genre. . He has worked extensively as a session and touring musician, including periods with Frank Zappa, David Bowie, Talking Heads, and Laurie Anderson, and Nine Inch Nails, as well as contributing to hit singles by Paul Simon, Tom Tom Club, and others. In this interview frpm 2014 he talks about his app FLUX, his early days in King Crimson and David Bowie.Our second interview is with drummer Pat Mastelotto, part of the King Crimson three drummer attack. Pat is a fun interview and talks about Adrian Belew, Robert Fripp, Mister Mister, King Crimson and Todd Rundgren.You can send feedback to thom@caroniamediagroup.com and please consider sharing and posting a review of the show.

Steve and Vai and Terry Bozzio both worked with Frank Zappa early in thier careers, and there is no doubt Zappa only worked with the best.In these interviews Vai chats about the iconic David Lee Roth solo band with Billy Sheehan and Gregg Bissonette. Vai also talks about the movie "Crossroads" and why a guy started a website claiming Vai was the ant-christ.Terry Bozzio goes deep into his work with Frank Zappa and how Frank influenced his career. Bozzio also talks about the band U.K, working with John Wetton and how he left U.K to work with Missing Persons.Terry also talks about why the drums on "Spring Session M" sound so amazing, and talks about the secret to capturing great drum sounds.To contact the host email thom@caroniamediagroup.com  

In this mini-episode drummer and record producer Butch Vig spends a few minutes talking about touring, producing and how Nirvana's "Nevermind" changed his life.For comments email thom@caroniamediagroup.com 

This episode features three short clips where artists answer provocative questions:Mickey Thomas of Starship addresses "We Built This City" and Blender Magazine's tagging of it as the "worst song of all time" back in 2004.Brad Gillis recollects the time he was asked to step in and take over for Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Randy Rhoads back in 1982 shortly after Rhoads died in a plane crash.Finally, Eric Martin talks about bands he almost sang for, Van Halen, Toto, Rainbow and Foreigner.If you have any comments please email Thom Jennings at thom@caroniamediagroup.com

Burton Cummings is the former lead singer and keyboardist for the legendary Canadian rock band The Guess Who. During his 10 year tenure in the band, from 1965 to 1975, he sang, wrote or co-wrote many of their most recognizable songs, including "American Woman," "No Time", "Share the Land", "These Eyes", and "Clap for the Wolfman".In this interview Burton talks about the historic Sarsstock Concert, his relationship with longtime collaborator Randy Bachman, his chance meeting with Jim Morrison and his thoughts on the band that now tours under the moniker of The Guess Who.

In the spring of 2017 Todd Rundgren was gearing up to embark on one of his most ambitious tours in recent memory. The tour to support his "White Knight" album was a multimedia extravaganza, and the early dates included what Rundgren called a video "sandwich" that band members performed behind while Rundgren and The Global Girls performed up front.In this interview Todd discusses the origins of the album title, the passing of his mother Ruth, working with his son, and discusses the prospects of Utopia going out on the road without Todd Rundgren (a timely topic as Kasim Sulton gears up to do some shows billed as Kasim Sulton's Utopia).As usual, host Thom Jennings nervously chats with his musical idol, but the result is a conversation that the Rundgren faithful are sure to enjoy.For information or comments about the podcast please email thom@caroniamediagroup.com

Former Santana and Journey keyboardist Gregg Rolie discusses his second time being inducted into the Rock Hall and how long it had been since he had seen Steve Perry. Gregg also discusses the tough decision he made to leave Journey right as they were about to become one of the most successfull bands of all-time.

David Cassidy passed away on November 21 at the age of 67. The actor turned musician, or the other way around, was a teen sensation at a very early age thanks in part to his famous father Jack Cassidy. At the height of his popularity David was headlining stadiums and hockey arenas and created a fervor not unlike The Beatles. Shortly after a young fan was crushed to death at one of his concerts he gave up touring for decades.Over the last few years of his life David became fodder for tabloid journalists, but his loyal fan base still supported him and his music. David toured as long as he could, eventually succumbing to complications related to dementia, an illness that took his beloved mother from him in 2012.In this interview we focused on his music and his mother. In retrospect, David sang some incredible songs, and he was an engaging live performer. He thrived in smaller venues and his smile was infectious. Just as he seemed to be enjoying life as a musician he was unable to perform.If you would like to offer feedback on this episode or are interested in sponsoring or supporting this podcast please email thom@caroniamediagroup.com.

Singer-songwriter, producer, cult hero and soon to be published author Todd Rundgren is approaching his 70th birthday and yet he shows no signs of slowing down. Todd already has major projects lined up for next year including collobarations with The Lemon Twigs, an autobiography, a big Toddstock 7.0  birthday bash...or two or three, and who knows what else.We didn't talk about "Bat Out of Hell" or "Hello It's Me," instead we dished on some topics Todd doesn't get asked a lot about (that's because I am a bit of a TR geek myself.) We even discuss the New Cars.This felt like one of my best interviews, and I hope that you feel the same way. I can assure you there is a lot more Todd Rundgren in my archives, or as Todd might say," There's always more..." 

Before his entrance into the national comedy circuit, when May was just 17 years old, he won a contest in Texas to open for Sam Kinison. After the show, May and Kinison struck up a lifelong friendship that lasted until Kinison’s death in 1992.In this interview May talks a little bit about his gratitude towards Sam, life on the road away from his family, and then jokes about why the view from the Canadia side of Niagara Falls is better than the view from the American side.On October 6, 2017, May suffered a heart attack and died. He had been battling pneumonia  and had uncharacteristically cancelled previous shows over the previous month. He was just 45 years old and is survived by his wife and two children. There are a couple of bleeped out words in this interview so we can keep it PG.

John Wetton was best known as the lead singer and bassist for the supergroup Asia, and was also known for stints in King Crimson, U.K and Uriah Heep.In 1982 Asia's debut album was a surprise hit for Geffen Records, and introduced a leaner form of progressive rock that appealed to the masses. Success came with the usual challenges, and the group soon splintered like many prog rock bands, with various incarnations of the band in existence through 2006.It was in 2006 that the original lineup of Wetton, Steve Howe, Carl Palmer and Geoff Downes were finally able to reunite for a tour and subsequently recorded and released three new albums from 2008-2012, more than the two during thier first run.By the time of this interview Steve Howe had left the band and was replaced by Sam Coulson. John passed away on January 31, 2017.

Buffalo native and founding member of Three Dog Night, Cory Wells passed away in 2015. He was actively touring with the group right up until his death. Wells is the voice behind many of the groups hits including "Try a Little Tenderness."In this interview Cory opens up about everything, starting with the origin of the band's name and his early days performing in Buffalo. There is plenty of name-dropping, including stories about how Three Dog Night helped launch Elton John's career and how Elton reacted. Other notables mentioned are Otis Redding and Randy Newman. He even discusses the origin of his stage name.  

In 2012 Yes was still actively touring with Jon Davison, Steve Howe, Alan White and Geoff Downes. One never knows which member will give an advance interview for a tour date, but back in 2012 I was lucky enough to chat with Chris Squire before his untimely death in 2015.In retrospect, Chris Squire's answer about which Yes members should be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame makes this an important peice of Yes history. Known for being habitually late, this interview started and ended right on time.