We are coming upon The Bourbon Road’s 500th episode which is quite an achievement. A testament to Jim’s love of bourbon and truly a whole lot of endurance on his part. He’s gone through 3 other cohosts before I came on for Pete’s sake! I jest of course but there aren’t many bourbon podcasts out there that have reached that mark and some of those that have might even have released 2 shows a week to get there a little quicker. During the time of Michael “Big Chief Hiatt they too were dropping 2 episodes a week and I’m not sure how long they did it that way off the top of my head. One episode would typically be an interview/comparison while the other was a quick review of a new release. That’s changed now though, Jim’s got travelling to do and grand kids to see and well I’m basically an Uber driver for my kids. I’m on the road to a soccer practice for my son, or gymnastics and dance for my daughter. We still manage to get that episode to drop on Wednesday as promised though. It’s a juggling act for both of us sometimes, that’s for sure.
The other cool thing about episode 500 coming up is that it will be my 100th episode as the official co-host. I appeared in quite a few episodes before I took the co-host mantle but still it’s crazy I’ve already done 100 episodes.
We’re making some fun changes to go along with episode 500, I created a new theme song. I wrote the lyrics and then thanks to the wonders of an AI App called SUNO it created the music and gave it a voice. I hope you all enjoy it. We’re also hoping to drive traffic to our new and improved website. Jim has revamped it big time. Sign up at any level (from free to $20 a month) and be active in the Roadie Bar just like you would in Facebook. Post your drinks, purchases, whatever. Our goal is to get some distilleries and bars to be a part of it and hopefully give you guys discounts when you visit them by just showing your Roadie identification if you will. We also plan to give away shirts, bottles, and whatever else we can put together.
I think it fitting we change things up a little bit, because well let’s be honest the bourbon landscape is changing a little bit. Production slowdowns, lots of new labels, age statements, showcasing of rickhouses, closures and possible mergers just to name a few. I would argue though it’s a great time to be a whiskey fan because there’s some bottles out there being discounted to crazy prices and producers are going to have to adjust. Sure certain things are still going to be really be hard to find, but I feel like other bottles will be more readily available.
Speaking of changes I think for this year’s Bourbon on the Banks festival we will not be setting up a tent and instead will just enjoy walking around trying things and talking to folks. Having said that our tentative plan is to have a Roadie meet-up, most likely on Friday night at the Frankfort Bourbon Society Corner Rickhouse. That way we can go back to sharing some of the bottles we’ve enjoyed on the show this past year.
Thanks for being a fan and a Roadie, we hope you enjoy the next phase and we appreciate you being a part of it.
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