Chicago’s Trumpeter: Lee Loughnane BY R A N DY PAT T E R S O N , B O O M E R O C I T Y.C O M
UPCOMING CONCERTS October 15 - Knoxville Tennessee Theatre December 14 - Chattanooga Memorial Auditorium December 15 - Nashville Grand Ole Opry
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NOXVILLE IS FULL of fans of the legendary group Chicago. We’ve supported their concerts in the past - not only in Knoxville, but in other cities within easy driving distance from here. With the pandemic somewhat lifting and music lovers getting to attend concerts again, what a thrill it is to see that Chicago is performing at Knoxville’s historic Tennessee Theatre this month (October 15th). The band will be playing in Chattanooga’s Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Auditorium on December 14 and in Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry House the following night. Everything Knoxville readers have enjoyed interviews with two of Chicago’s members in the past: Jimmy Pankow (co-founder/ trombonist) in the May 2018 edition and Keith Howland (band guitarist for 25+ years) in the June 2020 edition. With the band hitting Knoxville this month, it was only fitting to chat with their co-founder/trumpeter, Lee Loughnane (pronounced “Lock Nane”). Lee connected with me during the band’s stop in Cincinnati with the topic being, of course, the pandemic’s impact on their shows. His response was positively upbeat. “We’ve been playing all of the venues like the first show and people are hungry for it. I have heard of no negative effects as a result of any of our shows. And we’re having a great time, they’re having a great time. It’s really nice to be back.” Lee describes getting back into the whole concert thing this way: “The initial feeling that I had was like we were coming back from an injury - like a sports guy coming back to the game, and the game was a little bit faster than us the first couple of shows! And then it started slowing down again - we’re now into the groove that we’ve always been in. I think when you set up a show the way we have learned to do and just go with it - go with the flow of the show the audience comes along with us. It becomes that ‘give and take’ thing where we play music for them, they send us the reaction and it keeps bouncing off of each other to the end of the show. It’s just like it’s always been.”
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His closing thought on playing live music again, Lee added: “This stuff has always remained interesting for us, and the music has never gotten any easier, so we have to keep practicing to keep the chops up, just to be able to make it through the show. It is not a struggle at all. It’s part of my life - understanding the preparation for the shows and playing the shows. That’s what I do. I don’t do anything else.” Lee shared how he made the pandemic become an opportunity to be productive. After putting a recording studio in a nearby house, he and sound engineer, Tim Jessup mixed and mastered all of the shows Chicago played at Carnegie Hall in 1971. Explaining more about the project, Lee said, “We played eight shows in six days at Carnegie Hall. We’re the first American band to play Carnegie Hall ever. Rhino Records approached me and asked if we would mix and master all eight shows - not just the one that came out as our fourth album, which was the four-record set. By the time we get to Knoxville, the Carnegie Hall project will be out - all eight shows, 16 CDs.” Classic rock still enjoys a worldwide appeal across most all age groups. When asked why he feels that Chicago’s music - as well as that of their peers - still resonates today, Lee said: “I’m not sure exactly why, but for some reason, the music that came through us does resonate with different generations of people. And it doesn’t matter the age group anymore, or ever has. But we didn’t know that when we originally wrote it and started performing that. We were just developing songs as they went. It was pretty much organic. We went through the years, and all of a sudden, decades start going by and you realize that that same music that you wrote way back when resonates the same way with the new group of people that are coming up, and it’s really cool to see. You have no idea when you write it that that that’s even possible. You would hope that something like that would happen, but you don’t know until here we are.” And Knoxville can’t wait to see them! You can watch the interview with Lee in its entirety at www.Boomerocity.com where he talks more about the Chicago documentary, inspiring new musicians and how it is “nice to be back!” At press time, tickets for Chicago’s show at the Tennessee Theatre were still available. To order yours, visit www.TennesseeTheatre.com.
Randy’s first interview was at the tender age of 13 with none other than Col. Tom Parker. Thirty-six years later he founded the webzine, Boomerocity. com, and has conducted close to 200 interviews with some of the most interesting people in music.
