 We're giggling Friday night and we're looking forward to it. It's down in Arena 7 and we're doing an 80s disco. And it's myself and Marty Freel. And thanks to Maggie, you got us involved in it. And it's all in the aid of TJ's second birthday. And it's part of the TJ Walk and Fund. So if you can come along, as a soldier, you're choking. Well, I have counterfeits tickets if anybody wants some. But check it out on Maggie McDade, Piper's Facebook page and come along for a bit of crack. I haven't been out in donkeys doing discos. And apparently it's going on to lit. It might even go on to eight o'clock. So it's a bit of a crack. We're looking forward to it. And there's no better wingman alone as Marty Freel. So let's go for a crack. God, I haven't been out. The last time I think I was doing gigs together was records you brought me. Listen, anyway, we have a final studio guest. And we're delighted to welcome a gentleman called Rob Ellen. Rob, just check the mic, sir. Sure. One, two, you hear me? I'm coming through. There it is. Well, listen, it's a delight, haven't you? Thank you. You got in contact or you just sent me a message. Was it yesterday? It might have been as soon as that. And thanks for having us on. It's such a pleasure. It's a pleasure. Well, once you mentioned Maria McCormick's name and it's good enough, we'll go with that. And I said, she said your demand to speak to her about all things to do with the local music scene. So here I don't know about that. But we take great delight in what we're doing up here. And it's the artists that make us. But come here, a quick, you're coming. You have a it's it's it's the what he called the medicine show. It's I have been on the road now for six years. And basically I run a social media television thing. At the back of two RVs, one in America and one in Europe. And we keep moving. And I try to highlight local talent wherever we are. We also try and I say we. It's only me in the van. I'd be such good. So it's so we highlight local talent. I try to support community venues, community festivals and particularly interested in house concerts and trying to encourage people to have concerts in their own homes. I think coming out of lockdown amongst the rubble that we're left in and the venues, not all of them are going to come back. I think a lot of the slack might be particularly for songwriters might be taken up by people putting on concerts in their own homes. And it's something that I got involved in through traveling in America because it's a bigger scene for house concerts in America. So what inspired us? What made you go on this journey of a traveler such? I well, I've always had a van and I've always organized music. I was based in the Highlands and I had a little radio show there as well. So it's nice to be on Highland Radio. Very good. And so and I got invited in 2014 to go and talk in house concerts at a conference called Womex in Thessalonica in Greece. So I thought at the time, well, if I'm going to go and talk about it, I should walk the walk. So I asked people to organize house concerts for us all the way down through Switzerland, down through Italy, down to Greece. And we got there with about six hours in hand. I took a young singer-songwriter artist with us. It was just out of college and he wanted to travel. And two of us got all the way down to Greece and I got the bug. Now, that was it. That was it. Yeah. And you say you have two orbs, you have one here and then you go back to Canada. Yeah, we broadcast instantly across 25 outlets, social media outlets, all my social media groups, excuse me, and other stuff. And the people who follow and we've got some in the region, 30,000 people follow the whole thing over the networks. Yeah, not everybody shows up at the same time. I haven't got the bandwidth anyway for that. But and the folks that followed what we were doing because I got to about 18 countries in Europe before we went stateside. And I'd asked them if they thought was a good idea if we take some of the artists' music to America and try and do the same thing over there. And crowdfunded it and they raised enough to give me this old vehicle, which has been a delight and it's taken us to 26 states. Well, obviously, in that journey, Rob, you've heard so many different cultures and so many styles of music. It must be something else. Yeah, it's fantastic. And you always what happens is you always fall in with the people like yourself and Maria, who are connected and want to want to share as well. Exactly. And, you know, so so I've got I've got five or six of Maria's CDs, which one of them is here. And thanks for playing the track earlier on. I'm sure she'll be delighted. And so I'll hand them out to other DJs. And I'm going to try and get her played in BBC Scotland. And I also work for a lot of American artists as a publicist as well. I'll leave some CDs for Steve as well. For Jimmy, yeah, absolutely. And to say, you know, it's Irish music that we love, love promoting. And it's important equally that the likes of yourself are travelling around the world, can take Irish music to a further level. And I've got and you've got a CD there of which. And we have a Donnie Goll connection in now. It's a fellow called Charlie Roth, who is out of Minnesota. And he met the Henry girls at a festival I was working on in Inverness and ended up recording four or five tracks up in Donnie Goll with the Henry girls. So and that's released on our label as well. So it's a direct contact with Donnie Goll. Isn't it? It's amazing. It's amazing work. So people want to get in touch with you, Rob. It's through what's the best way? I'll put out the URL. It's medicineshowontheroad.me. I mean, but on Facebook, if you just the van is called the Moose Mobile. Somebody has text on it, said it's at the Moose Mobile, man. Is that right? Amazing. I love that. So the van's got a big moose on the front of it. It's called the Medicine Show Radio on Moose Mobile. And in the context of medicine, Native American medicine, the medicine of the moose spirit animal is the spirit of joy. Wow. So we try to travel in the spirit of joy. And where are you off to next? What would it have journey to be? You know, I'm going to go and do Valley Radio on Wednesday. And I've got one or two sessions lined up with local artists down there. And I'm hoping to get the call for Sligo Live. And I'll put down there and see what's going on. And tell me, is this your first time up around these parts? No. But I'll tell you when the last time I was here, it was 20 years ago. And I was tour manager and a fellow called Martin Stevenson. I had a band called The Dainties, quite big around these parts. And we did a gig in an art centre in Leicester, Kenny. And that was 20 years ago. He ended up, and this is for the Cortland. You'll know this, you'll know this place. We ended up recording an album in Leip, down in West Cork. Just near Clanty-Kinney. So we went all the way around the country. And he had all the songs ready to record this album. We ended up there and there was a recording studio in the pub. So I said, Martin, do you realise there's a recording studio here? We were collecting money as we were going around, hoping to have a place to do the album. And the prayer book came down, Glen Hansett came down. Matt Dignam came down. So there was a real crew came down to do this album. We did it in five days. It was called Beyond the Leap, Beyond the Law. And it cost £100 in those days, I think. It cost £100 a day for the recording studio and £120 for the Guinness. That's no surprise. Very good. I was a tour manager and I had the rough money to pay for both. Well, I know obviously in this journey you're on, money's only a necessity, but it's not an important issue with you. It's not a central issue. It's only a problem if there isn't any. And that can happen from time to time. But, and it's all publicly funded, I rely heavily on donations and people to pass me on donations. And usually it works out, OK, it got me down here. There was a festival up in Ardecia, my local festival. They put a tank of petrol in for me and I got down as far as a ferry with that. And somebody else helped out and we're, here we are. Lovely, lovely. Well, listen, it's been a delight having you up round because it's a joy. When I heard you mentioned Marianne and I looked under your stuff and I went up to tell this man that you're passing by. Call up, sir. Yeah, well, you know who got me here? It was Ben Real, and if you're not aware of Ben's music, he's fabulous. Yes. And he was playing in Remelton on a Friday night and I haven't been able to get out of that town ever since. Ah, what a music town that is. What are you talking about? And that's where Maria and Maria come out, come from. That was through Billy... Billy Robinson. Yeah, Billy and the Groove Shack. Oh, yeah. So that's a scene and a half. That's the sort of thing that, you know, there's those places that are like little oases around the train. Of course. Yeah, and you've fallen to meet the right people, who knows what connections can get made. Isn't it great? Isn't it great? Well, it's nice to be part of this wee journey as Geron over here and there's an absolute delight having you in. This has been great. I mean, there's been like a revolving door here. Oh, I know why. Well, we love it here. You know, people can come in here and we don't know half an hour. And I love the fact that you're live streaming on Facebook. We do the whole thing. So I know it's a Monday night now, so my avatar will be coming up from time to time. Well, you're more than welcome. But if people see you out there, it's just a flash of light. It's a big miss. People are starting to wave already, so it's lovely. And if anybody wants to get in touch, I can see the thing is, I can pull the studio into their drive. Very good. And we can do a session. And if anybody's interested in getting some contacts of the people that I've travelled with, we can get them to Italy. We can get them to Holland. We can get them to Scotland, of course. Brilliant. Yeah, so, you know, it's out there. It's for everybody's use. Well, it's been a delight having you around. You can spread the word about Highland Radio far and wide and tell them. I'll always be in my mind because I'm a Highlander. Yeah, you're a Highlander yourself. Now I'm here. Rob, the thing is, thanks indeed for sharing your stories. I wish we had more time, but the thing is, stay safe and keep the music and read my comics and everybody else's and spread it around the world. And have a safe journey onward. And as I say, if people want to get in touch, it's the medicine... www.medicine music. It's medicineshowandtheroad.ne. That one's not working at the moment. It's an older one. Rob at medicine music.co.uk. Thank you very much indeed. That's lovely. We have enjoyed your company. Thank you so much indeed. It's Robbie Allen, and we thank him very much indeed. Don't forget our good friend Mickey Duffy is playing in the... He's got his album launch on Saturday the 5th of November at 8pm up in the Baller Art Centre. We're really looking forward to Billy Robinson over there. Mark McCarney, Romac Parle and a special guest, Jonathan Smith. You're going to say that? Well, you know those names are all popping up. I'm going to be with... Oh, I've forgotten his name though. Who you just mentioned. Billy's going to do a session for us on Wednesday. Brilliant. This is Mickey Duffy Highland Radio. Don't forget tickets available at the Baller Art Centre. We are looking forward. Rob, thank you.