Episode 130: Kevin Searle 🎤

Pipe-smoking songwriter Kevin Searle joins Travis Billy Ross & Sweet Kirbs for smoked Gentleman Jack, rat-pack cool, and a deep dive on whether you'd lip-sync for $500K — plus live heartbreak from a French novel title.

🎸 Duplex-church pastor → worship band → Nashville intimidation → guitar back for the hard seasons · mom's Beatlemania (Liverpool pen pal, Let It Be cutting-room LP, practice autographs on a 1964 desk calendar)

🎵 Live: "The Sweet Cheat Gone" (Proust → country infidelity; restart included) · "Tell the Neighbors" on air · Crooked Letter Blues with Melissa (Robert Johnson crossroads Sonic) · album sessions with John Haas / Ramona Music Center (Nov)

😂 A whiskey smoker (oak vs cherry) · premature smoculation · Reverend Stranger after the STD skit ("swallow or spit, just don't let it sit") · Crawdaddy's 4-hour Cookville gigs · KQ bathroom disorientation · balloon vs Travis

🎮 Name That Tune: 90s radio hits — Travis 15, Sweet Kirbs 10.5, Kevin 4 · Milli Vanilli, Gravitron at Del Mar Fair '89, and the lip-sync ethics trial

🏕️ Day job: facilities director, Camp Stevens (Julian) · open mic Smoking Cannon Fridays · Reds, Whites & Brews · SoundCloud / Audius: Kevin Searle

Listen weekly on your favorite podcast service. Find Kevin Searle: SoundCloud · Audius · around Ramona & Julian live rooms

Upcoming: recording at Ramona Music Center with John Haas (November)

Special thanks to Ramona Family Naturals, Dean's Outlaw BBQ, Smoking Cannon Brewery, and Ramona Radio

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Lee Wilder

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Hannah

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Episode 127: Amanda Albini

Dolly's Revenge, drummer Amanda Albini joins Travis Billy Ross and Sweet Kirby for an interview that starts with jazz cats, cajón lies, and "Ashley E. Norton's drummer" — then goes deep on wedding-dress drum solos, Sony spreadsheets, and 2010s pop trivia.

Met Ashley at Grant James Winery half-polluted — lied about owning a cajón, nailed the Khoisan gig, and built Dolly's Revenge on a beautiful fib

Jazz since age 7 with accordion-dad gigs at 9 — UCLA marching band, Ellen show cymbals, and a Benny Goodman tribute for 1,200 in a synagogue

Day job nerd: Sony data analyst by day — Yamaha → Taylor Guitars factory tours ("Buffy the Guitar Slayer") → pew-pew gun noises on stage

Played drums at her own wedding in a dress — All the Small Things + Juice by Lizzo, surprise solo, wedding band put her on the sub list

Name That Tune: Amanda rigs 2010s pop — scores 10; Travis 5, Kirby 6; finale bone toss to Alan Jackson "Chattahoochee"

Special thanks to Ramona Family Naturals, Dean's Outlaw BBQ, Smoking Cannon Brewery, and Ramona Radio

Episode 126: Chloe Lou

Returning guest Chloe Lou joins Travis Billy Ross and Sweet Kirbs for a Sunday that starts with Guinness World Record dreams, Malort shots, and a France house-party tour — then goes deep on California sober, Dolly Parton tributes, and a Gen X nostalgia spiral.

Chloe Lou’s France mini-tour — British takeover of a French country town, golf course gigs, circus tent at the music school, and dad’s sunflower painting from the exact same angle as her photo three years earlier

Oregon Pavilion Labor Day — 3,500 people, Birdie the Australian Shepherd puppy, and Good Mojo’s half-step-down AC/DC set (Mike Avila on drums)

California sober, day 11 — calorie logging reveals the booze problem; last hurrah at Sarah Petit’s Belly Up release, then Guinness and Powers at the Old Sod

Dolly Parton doubleheader — Whistle Stop Sept 23 + Sarah Petit’s Dolly Day at the Old Sod Sept 25; Honky Tonk Angels and Grand Ole Barbecue on Oct 11

New music block: Chartreuse “Nothing Serves,” album Seven, and an all-Chloe-Lou hour

Name That Tune Battle Royale: Eric controls the chaos — Kirby 31, Travis 27; Marty Robbins to Mobb Deep to Gloria Gaynor

Donkey Kong rivalry with Yvonne, Rubik’s cubes on a pogo stick, lawn darts, Skip-It shin trauma, Thriller at age six, and when PG-13 was invented

Listen weekly on your favorite podcast service; or catch it early, tonight at 6 on Ramona Radio

Special thanks to Ramona Family Naturals, Dean’s Outlaw BBQ, Smoking Cannon Brewery, and Ramona Radio

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note.

...Troy Davis is a Ramona-based songwriter who went from zero to booked in under five months. Army-brat kid from Killeen who ping-ponged Texas, Honolulu, and California — now ranch help on eight acres with three off-the-track thoroughbreds, and the guy the whole town calls when they want Zach Bryan done right.

Army-brat kid born in Killeen — dad was an Army medic, six years in Honolulu, then California, then Texas for high school, then back to Cali after the divorce. New school almost every year; ugly duckling from 5 to 20; now the handsome musician playing in Ramona

Six years on just shy of eight acres — first four spent picking the place up, getting it livable, and situating the horses. Wife Danielle keeps three off-the-track thoroughbreds (Carpe and Rari among them); Troy is ranch help: muck, dirty boots, keep the place working

Grandpa saw Esteban on a midnight commercial and that was the scales work; dad upgraded him to a nameless blue electric with a belt-clip pocket amp and 3 a.m. sessions. Step-granddad Lance (Takamine, blues) and an Epiphone later. Still can't play a lick to save his life — Marcus King remains the idol

Grandma heard the first song and said maybe he should just play guitar. Mom sang with Up with People; dad taught him the moonwalk. First real paid gig: Ramona Family Naturals Sunday brunch. Won Smoking Cannon's open mic on 4/20 — four months and 24 days from that vote to this episode

Live in-studio "No Give Without a Take" — someone close, the bottle, the stand that looks like church and is actually last call. "I'm Going Country" — Eric Church's "Drink in My Hand" energy, closed gate, no trespassing, rise and rest with the Texas sun

Name That Tune: 90s hip-hop — Travis squeaks it out (11); Kirby the Bone Thugs girl (10); Troy holds his own ( and still thinks they rigged it

Special thanks to Ramona Family Naturals, Dean's Outlaw BBQ, Smoking Cannon Brewery, and Ramona Radio

Episode 124 - A tribute to the queeen; Dolly Parton.

A little overdue; but we really wanted to pause our upcoming episodes to pay tribute to an absolutely wonderful human being. Join us as we celebrate her music and life.

Check it out on your favorite podcast service tomorrow, or catch it early tonight (Ad Free) at 6 on Ramona Radio.

Special thanks to Ramona Family Naturals, Dean's Outlaw BBQ, Smoking Cannon Brewery and Ramona Radio.

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