KGNU is a proud sponsor of the Greeley Blues Jam, taking place June 5th-6th, 2026. In this on-air interview on KGNU, Dan Willging speaks with Chris Haug and members of The Buzz Brothers Band about the upcoming Greeley Blues Jam, happening June 5th-6th, 2026 in Greeley. The conversation previews the festival’s standout lineup, including headliners Robert Randolph, Tommy Castro, and Danielle Nicole, alongside regional favorites and returning acts.
The guests share behind-the-scenes stories about booking the festival, the energy of past years, and The Buzz Brothers Band’s own recording process and upcoming debut album. The interview highlights the Greeley Blues Jam as a kickoff to the Colorado summer music season. (Air Date 5/29/26).
Listen to the studio session here:
Transcript:
Dan Willging: It’s 7:04, and the minute you’ve been waiting for. We have special guests in our studio: Chris from the Greeley Blues Jam, John Kellogg, and Daniel from Greeley. John and Daniel are both members of The Buzz Brothers.
Chris Haug: That’s right.
Dan Willging: Chris, tell us about the Greeley Blues Jam this year.
Chris Haug: The Greeley Blues Jam Music Festival is in its 21st year. It started in 2005. Last year we tried a little experiment and found out we didn’t do it right, so this year we went back to doing it right.
I stacked the deck with headliners. I think we have three headliners this year.
Dan Willging: You do?
Chris Haug: They’re all great. Robert Randolph just won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album this year.
Dan Willging: He did?
Chris Haug: Danielle Nicole is a regional favorite. Everybody loves her. She won Blues Music Awards for Best Vocalist and Best Bass Player. Tommy Castro, another veteran of the road that everybody loves, won Best Blues Rock Guitarist this year.
I thought, “We’ve got to have all those guys.”
Dan Willging: I think the first time I saw Tommy Castro was at the 2006 Blues Jam.
Chris Haug: Yeah.
Dan Willging: He was right before Elvin Bishop.
Chris Haug: Yeah.
Dan Willging: Danielle Nicole has a new album out, I believe.
Chris Haug: I think so. I wish I could remember the name of it. I apologize, Danielle.
The people are excited. Tickets are selling well, and the weather is going to be great. It’s a good reason to drive up to Greeley. Come camp with us, get a hotel, spend the weekend. It’s a great time.
Dan Willging: It’s always a fun time up there in Greeley. I love talking to the locals because they’re so nice and friendly.
Chris Haug: Everybody’s welcome.
Dan Willging: I thought we would play some music. What do you want to start off with?
Chris Haug: They’re all so good. How about the Blues Beatles? That’s our secret weapon this year.
Dan Willging: Let’s hear about them.
Chris Haug: The Blues Beatles are from Brazil.
Dan Willging: Really?
Chris Haug: They play blues versions of Beatles songs. You wouldn’t think about it, but it’s the perfect mix. It’s so much fun.
Hopefully everybody knows who The Beatles are. If not, you’re still welcome to come learn about them.
The great thing is that everybody knows the songs, so people can sing along. They do great blues versions of everything. They’ll play Friday night at the downtown 9th Street Plaza and then again Saturday at Island Grove.
Dan Willging: They’re from Brazil?
Chris Haug: Yes.
Dan Willging: They don’t live in Colorado?
Chris Haug: No, they’re from Brazil. They’re touring all over the world. I told them, “Come to Greeley,” and they said, “Okay.”
Dan Willging: Wow.
Chris Haug: They didn’t ask where. They just said, “Okay.”
Dan Willging: Nice.
Chris Haug: When you hear them, you’ll think, “This is really fun.”
Dan Willging: Let’s start with “Love Me Do” by the Blues Beatles.
[Music: “Love Me Do” – Blues Beatles]
Dan Willging: Wow, Chris. They have horns and everything.
Chris Haug: I’m telling you, that’s the secret weapon right there.
Dan Willging: Good booking. How did you find them?
Chris Haug: Oh, you know, I was in Brazil one day.
Dan Willging: You go there a lot, huh?
Chris Haug: Oh, sure.
Dan Willging: You go to Rio instead of Louisiana for Mardi Gras.
Chris Haug: I go to the source.
Dan Willging: You go to the source.
Well, that sounds great. What are we doing next?
Chris Haug: Robert Randolph.
Dan Willging: This is your ultimate headliner.
Chris Haug: This is our third headliner. Grammy winner Robert Randolph won Best Blues Album this year. I’m glad we booked him before he won the Grammy.
Chris Haug: I think the price is going up next year.
Dan Willging: Do you know if that’s his first Grammy?
Chris Haug: He’s been nominated a lot. I think it’s his first Grammy win.
Dan Willging: That’s amazing.
Chris Haug: And he’s coming to Greeley, Colorado.
Dan Willging: That’s cool. I get to see him one more time. I saw him at NedFest years ago. That was a fun festival.
Chris Haug: Yeah.
Dan Willging: All right, Robert Randolph.
[Music: Robert Randolph – “When Will the Love Rain Down”]
Dan Willging: All right, Robert Randolph.
The Buzz Brothers Band: You’ve got to say “Grammy winner Robert Randolph” now.
Dan Willging: That’s right.
The Buzz Brothers Band: If I ever win one, I’m changing my name to “Grammy Winner John Kellogg” so everybody has to say it.
Dan Willging: Every time.
The Buzz Brothers Band: Exactly.
The Buzz Brothers Band: And he doesn’t travel with a chair.
Dan Willging: A chair?
The Buzz Brothers Band: He plays lap steel. In his rider they even include a picture and say, “We need a chair that looks like this.” It can’t have arms and it has to be a specific height.
Dan Willging: Really?
The Buzz Brothers Band: He’s not going to fly around carrying a chair.
Chris Haug: Good luck getting that through airport security.
The Buzz Brothers Band: Exactly.
Dan Willging: That’s interesting. A lot of steel players have a seat built into their setup.
The Buzz Brothers Band: You’d think.
Chris Haug: He jumps around a lot anyway.
The Buzz Brothers Band: That’s true.
Chris Haug: Maybe he wants to smash your chair.
The Buzz Brothers Band: Then we’ll auction it off afterward.
Dan Willging: We’re picking songs by committee tonight: Daniel, John, Chris, and me. What did we settle on next?
The Buzz Brothers Band: The Delta Sonics?
Dan Willging: No, Daniel picked Danielle Nicole’s “I’m Going Home.”
The Buzz Brothers Band: That’s right.
Dan Willging: I have to support the Daniels in the room.
The Buzz Brothers Band: He picked it.
Dan Willging: I used to spend a lot of nights at The D Note with the Delta Sonics.
The Buzz Brothers Band: The ones I remember, anyway.
Dan Willging: This is a live cut, right?
The Buzz Brothers Band: From June 2025.
Dan Willging: Was Danielle Nicole there last year?
The Buzz Brothers Band: No.
Dan Willging: How’d you get it?
The Buzz Brothers Band: That’s a secret.
Dan Willging: You have a lot of secrets. First Brazil, now this.
The Buzz Brothers Band: You ask a lot of questions.
Dan Willging: I’ll keep asking them.
[Music: Danielle Nicole – “I’m Going Home” (live)]
Dan Willging: That’s a live cut Chris dug up from the archives.
The Buzz Brothers Band: I love that stuff, especially live.
Dan Willging: That’s a great example of the energy Danielle Nicole brings to the stage.
I’ve been to every Greeley Blues Jam except 2005 and 2012.
The Buzz Brothers Band: Really? What happened?
Dan Willging: It was my birthday weekend. I went to New Orleans.
The Buzz Brothers Band: Well, Greeley’s going to be pretty hot this year.
Dan Willging: Really?
The Buzz Brothers Band: June 6 is going to be the hottest day of the month.
Dan Willging: Why do you say that?
The Buzz Brothers Band: Because Danielle Nicole is going to be there. Robert Randolph is going to be there. Tommy Castro is going to be there. The Delta Sonics, The Buzz Brothers, Bobby C and the OGs, and the Robert Wilson Blues Band.
Dan Willging: So everybody wear light clothing.
The Buzz Brothers Band: And sunscreen.
Dan Willging: Because the music is going to scorch you.
The Buzz Brothers Band: That’s right.
Dan Willging: With us tonight are John and Daniel from The Buzz Brothers. Tell us about the band.
Chris Haug: We formed in 2008, not long after the Blues Jam started. I’d been bugging people ever since to get us on the lineup, and we finally made it.
The Buzz Brothers Band: That’s right. Hi, Mom.
Chris Haug: We’ve kept the core lineup together all these years. Dan and I have been playing together since then.
We’re working on our first official record. We’re doing it “Exile on Main Street” style—recording in a basement with amps in every corner. We’re hoping to have it out in the next few months.
Dan Willging: I was hoping you’d say by Saturday.
Chris Haug: I know.
Dan Willging: Just putting a little pressure on you.
Chris Haug: It’s going to be a cool record. We kicked around a lot of ideas. Our guitar player Bobby suggested setting up microphones on every amp and recording live while looking at each other like a real gig, but with all the instruments isolated.
I thought, “If they could do it in Keith Richards’ basement in 1972, we can probably do it in 2026.”
Everything sounds great so far. Now we’re figuring out the technical details.
The Buzz Brothers Band: All this new software they have nowadays.
Chris Haug: We’re using Reaper.
Dan Willging: Is it grim?
Chris Haug: It’s grim, baby.
It lets you record a band live while keeping every instrument on its own track. You can isolate vocals, drums, guitars—everything—and edit them separately.
We’re learning as we go, mostly by making mistakes and then figuring out how to fix them.
Dan Willging: He’s becoming a wizard.
Chris Haug: We’re definitely learning by trial and error.
Dan Willging: If you want feedback, Chris and I would be happy to listen.
Chris Haug: Absolutely.
The Buzz Brothers Band: I’m working on the cover art.
Dan Willging: Are you?
The Buzz Brothers Band: No, not really.
Dan Willging: You’re full of stories tonight.
The Buzz Brothers Band: That’s exactly why people will come to Greeley.
Dan Willging: Will you be there, Chris?
The Buzz Brothers Band: He’ll be there.
Dan Willging: Not in Brazil?
The Buzz Brothers Band: No. I’ll wave from the stage.
Dan Willging: The Buzz Brothers are playing Saturday, and you’re also playing Friday night?
Chris Haug: Yes. We’re in the 3:15 slot on Saturday. Friday night at 9:00 we’re backing up Queen Bee and the Stingers at Patrick’s Irish Pub in downtown Greeley. Dan and I are both part of that band, so we’re going to be busy.
Dan Willging: Making that money.
Chris Haug: Exactly.
Dan Willging: We’re going to hear some live music tonight, and we appreciate you being here.
Chris Haug: Glad to do it. The first one is a tribute to Cheap Wine. You might know this one.
Studio Session – The Buzz Brothers Band (2026-05-29) – Continued
The Buzz Brothers Band: Get high everybody get high. Get high everybody get high. Get high everybody get high.
Dan Willging: Man, that’s awesome. That’s so cool.
Chris Haug: Thanks. I think that was originally written by a band called The Nightcaps, if I remember right.
The Buzz Brothers Band: The Nightcaps.
Chris Haug: Yeah. They made one album that ended up being hugely influential. That song was on Thunderbird. They did another one called Wine, Wine, Wine. They were basically all drinking songs.
The Buzz Brothers Band: I’m noticing a theme here.
Chris Haug: But then these brothers growing up in Austin—the Vaughan brothers—got ahold of that record and learned every single note on it. Jimmie Vaughan and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Even though it was just that one record that nobody bought, it probably inspired a hundred bands.
Dan Willging: Really? The Nightcaps, huh?
Chris Haug: Yeah, The Nightcaps. It’s just called Wine, Wine, Wine. You can still find it on vinyl today. It’s a fantastic record.
Dan Willging: Have you heard that record, Chris?
The Buzz Brothers Band: Yes, I have. I worked in record stores for 20 years.
Dan Willging: Really? Wow.
The Buzz Brothers Band: Twenty years. I worked in record stores.
Dan Willging: At the finest.
The Buzz Brothers Band: At the finest records in town.
Chris Haug: That’s where I first met Chris when I was bumming around there going to UNC.
The Buzz Brothers Band: Yep.
Chris Haug: Eventually he’d come over and say, “Hey, you’ve been here for hours, man. Are you gonna buy something?”
Dan Willging: “I gotta close up.”
The Buzz Brothers Band: “I gotta go home.”
Dan Willging: “It’s 11 o’clock now. We were supposed to close at 9:00.”
Chris Haug: He was cool even back then when I didn’t even have money to buy the albums.
The Buzz Brothers Band: And I didn’t have money to buy them either. That’s why I worked in a record store.
Dan Willging: So you could listen to them.
The Buzz Brothers Band: Listen to anything I wanted.
Dan Willging: Speaking of the Blues Jam, there’s a performance at the record store downtown in Greeley.
The Buzz Brothers Band: That’s right.
Dan Willging: Is that your store too?
The Buzz Brothers Band: No, but they run it pretty close to the record store I grew up in. It’s called Downtown Sound. It’s on 10th Street and 9th Avenue in downtown Greeley. Vinyl, CDs, cassette tapes—they even have cassette tapes. People still buy those.
Chris Haug: They’re doing listening parties now.
The Buzz Brothers Band: Yeah.
Chris Haug: I just saw that.
The Buzz Brothers Band: The new Paul McCartney release is coming out, and they’re doing a listening party. They also do midnight openings so they can sell records right at midnight. They have vintage stereo gear, vintage T-shirts. My friend Dave buys record collections, and a lot of times there are concert shirts mixed in. Old Van Halen shirts, Scorpions shirts, Rolling Stones shirts. If you’re looking for vintage stuff and new stuff, that’s the place to go.
Dan Willging: I’m gonna have to find my way over there.
The Buzz Brothers Band: I love those kinds of stores.
Chris Haug: You’ll love it. It’s a great store.
The Buzz Brothers Band: Ben and John and Dave.
Chris Haug: Now I’m spending all my time over there too.
The Buzz Brothers Band: He’s their best customer.
Dan Willging: Maybe you should get a job there. Then you could use the money you earn to buy that stuff.
The Buzz Brothers Band: When I retire, I’m gonna go work in a record store.
Dan Willging: I thought you were retired. That’s why you went to Mexico.
The Buzz Brothers Band: I never really worked.
Chris Haug: Retire from what?
The Buzz Brothers Band: What am I gonna retire from?
Dan Willging: You guys want to play some more music?
Chris Haug: Of course.
Dan Willging: We’ve got The Buzz Brothers here with us in case you’re tuning in late.
Chris Haug: I was feeling this one. It’s a Robert Johnson tune, if you’ll indulge me.
Dan Willging: We will.
[Performance: Robert Johnson song]
Dan Willging: Wow. That’s great. That guitar sounds great too.
Chris Haug: Thanks.
Dan Willging: Did Chris give that to you?
Chris Haug: Yeah, he got it from Brazil.
The Buzz Brothers Band: Got it in Brazil. They have the best guitars down there.
Dan Willging: Of course they do.
Chris Haug: My mom and dad got this for me as a graduation present when I graduated from UNC in 1999. It’s just a little Martin. Beautiful guitar. I’m gonna hold onto it forever.
Dan Willging: And Daniel’s harmonica sounds great too.
The Buzz Brothers Band: Thank you, sir.
Dan Willging: How long have you been playing harmonica?
The Buzz Brothers Band: Sixty years.
Dan Willging: Sixty years?
Chris Haug: Started young.
The Buzz Brothers Band: Seven years old.
Dan Willging: That’s cool.
Chris Haug: That vegetarian lifestyle is working out for this guy.
Dan Willging: I guess Chris and I are sunk then.
The Buzz Brothers Band: Too late for us.
Dan Willging: So your band has four people or five?
Chris Haug: We’re a five-piece. Two guitars, Dan on harp, bass player, and drums. When we’re doing the live recording thing all at once, that presents challenges because you have to isolate everything without microphones bleeding into each other. There was a lot of trial and error at the beginning.
Dan Willging: Is that when you got the new software?
Chris Haug: We started out with the software. The first day we didn’t even know how to use it. We spent the whole day clicking buttons and asking, “Does this work?” Eventually we got noise recorded.
Dan Willging: You guys are brave.
Chris Haug: Brave or stupid. One or the other.
Dan Willging: There was nobody around who knew the software?
Chris Haug: No. We were watching YouTube videos while sitting there trying to figure it out.
Dan Willging: You had more patience than I would.
Chris Haug: We’d think we had a good take, then discover nothing recorded. A lot of that happened the first day.
The Buzz Brothers Band: Trial and error.
Chris Haug: Mostly error.
The Buzz Brothers Band: There’s a story about Stevie Ray Vaughan’s first album. Jackson Browne paid for the studio time. One take. They’d been playing those songs in bars for years, so they already knew them. Three hours of studio time and every song was basically one take.
Chris Haug: Wasn’t Texas Flood originally intended as a demo tape?
The Buzz Brothers Band: Yep. They took it to a label and the label said, “No, this is your record.”
Dan Willging: Wow.
The Buzz Brothers Band: They didn’t know anything about overdubbing. They just said, “Hit record and go.” That’s why the album sounds so alive.
Dan Willging: What else do you guys want to do?
Chris Haug: Do you like Magic Sam?
Dan Willging: Sure.
Chris Haug: We’re big Magic Sam fans. This is called “That’s All I Need.”
[Performance: “That’s All I Need”]
Dan Willging: That’s awesome.
Chris Haug: Thanks.
Dan Willging: What’s your record collection like?
Chris Haug: Embarrassing. It’s taking over my whole basement. I might be one of the last guys still buying CDs.
The Buzz Brothers Band: It’s a lost art listening to an album the way the artist intended, in order.
Chris Haug: I’m an album guy.
The Buzz Brothers Band: Pink Floyd put those songs in that order for a reason.
Dan Willging: Especially Dark Side of the Moon. One song builds into the next.
The Buzz Brothers Band: Exactly. That’s why they sequenced it that way.
Chris Haug: That’s where we’re at with our record right now. I’ve burned everything to a CD and I’m driving around testing different song orders.
The Buzz Brothers Band: That’s part of the art.
Dan Willging: You also get all the credits. Producer, sidemen, all that information.
The Buzz Brothers Band: I need the artwork. I want to read who produced it.
Chris Haug: That’s how I buy a lot of records. I look at who’s playing on them.
Dan Willging: We haven’t played Tommy Castro tonight.
Chris Haug: We gotta do it.
Dan Willging: Tommy Castro. I think we selected “Freight Train.”
The Buzz Brothers Band: Number 12. Live from Antone’s.
Dan Willging: Oof.
The Buzz Brothers Band: They wouldn’t let me into Antone’s the last time I was in Austin.
Dan Willging: You didn’t have your ID?
The Buzz Brothers Band: They stopped me at the door.
Dan Willging: Really?
The Buzz Brothers Band: Look at me. You wouldn’t let me in either.
Chris Haug: He wouldn’t let you in because he knows you.
Dan Willging: All right. We’re going with Tommy Castro. In the order of things, he’s your first headliner. Danielle Nicole is your second headliner. And your ultimate headliner is Robert Randolph.
The Buzz Brothers Band: The head-headliner.
The Buzz Brothers Band: KGNU FM 88.5 Boulder. KGNU 1390 Denver
Dan Willging: All right, here we go, Chris.
The Buzz Brothers Band: Oh, man. That’s us on the air right there. That’s real radio voice energy.
Chris Haug: Yeah, it always sounds better when somebody else says it.
Dan Willging: So before we roll out, I wanted to circle back on those live cuts we’re playing tonight. You guys brought in some pretty deep stuff.
The Buzz Brothers Band: Yeah, we dug around a little. Some of it’s from the Delta Sonics archive, some Al Justice recordings, a little Buzz Brothers stuff from rehearsal tapes that probably should’ve stayed in the basement.
Chris Haug: That’s the charm though. That’s the whole point of live radio. You don’t polish it too much, you just let it breathe.
Dan Willging: And that’s what people are going to hear on June 6th too, right? Just raw energy?
The Buzz Brothers Band: Oh absolutely. Island Grove is gonna feel like a speaker cabinet that got left in the sun.
Chris Haug: And don’t forget Friday night at Patrick’s Irish Pub—smaller room, louder crowd. That’s always a dangerous combination.
Dan Willging: That’s how legends are made though.
The Buzz Brothers Band: Or hearing loss. One of the two.
Chris Haug: Same thing in blues terms.
Dan Willging: I did want to ask—any last surprises for the setlist? Anything you haven’t told anyone yet?
The Buzz Brothers Band: Well… we may or may not be working up a version of a traditional tune that turns into a 12-minute train wreck in the best way possible.
Chris Haug: That narrows it down to about 40 songs we know.
Dan Willging: That’s not helpful at all, but I like it.
The Buzz Brothers Band: Good. Mystery is part of the branding.
Dan Willging: Fair enough.
Chris Haug: And we’ve got some guests sitting in on harmonica and maybe a second guitar for a couple tunes. Nothing official… just people we won’t stop from walking on stage.
Dan Willging: That’s usually how the best stuff happens anyway.
The Buzz Brothers Band: Exactly. Controlled chaos.
Dan Willging: So, final thoughts for people listening on KGNU—why should they get in the car and head up to Greeley?
The Buzz Brothers Band: Because it’s the one weekend where nobody’s pretending they’re too cool for it. You just show up, eat something questionable, hear something loud, and leave happier than you arrived.
Chris Haug: And the lineup’s ridiculous this year. You’ve got people like Robert Randolph, Tommy Castro, and Danielle Nicole—that’s not normal for a city this size.
Dan Willging: Yeah, it’s kind of unfair, honestly.
The Buzz Brothers Band: We just stopped asking permission.
Chris Haug: That’s the secret.
Dan Willging: All right, we’re gonna roll into the next track. Anything you want to say before we send it out?
The Buzz Brothers Band: Yeah—Greeley Blues Jam, don’t overthink it. Just come.
Chris Haug: And bring earplugs… just in case you value your future.
Dan Willging: That’s a fair warning. All right, let’s go out with this—live cut, Buzz Brothers Band, right here on KGNU.
