Triad Today Takeover

My God, these people love America as much as they love brunch! Live from Studio B in the heart of the Triad, it's Triad Today with Jeffrey Griffith. There they are! Oh my! Here they go! Jeffrey Griffin this morning.

WDGP on the ones and twos behind the scenes. And we've got a lot to do this morning. I'm so thrilled to be doing the show this morning. Seriously!

We will be on in the afternoon 3 to 6 on The Drive. It is a Drive takeover of Triad Today. But for those who don't know, our show, The Drive, is the longest running local sports talk show in the world. In the history of the Piedmont Triad. That's true.

It's not overstatement. Daily sports talk radio. Not really something that goes back to 1932 when WSJS first went on the air. So it's something that we're proud of. We were on since the summer of 2018.

This is going to be our fifth Christmas. I'm really happy about that. But the reason I spell all that out for you is to say this is the first time ever that we've ever done a show in the morning. That I've ever done a show in the morning. Because up until this year, SJS wasn't local in the mornings. And that's why, thanks to the folks at Truth Broadcasting and the great management of our GM, Tom Hamilton, this is me just sucking up WD right before the holiday. Don't know. Do I have to see you twice today?

You do. Hi WD. Hey. We were able to go back to the roots of what WSJS was such, not really that long ago, but certainly the history of this station going back to the 1930s. It's something that we were proud to do. It's been a great hit. It's been a great year for us here at WSJS. And the fact that we have a local show in the mornings. And what Jeffrey Griffin has done over the years.

Over the last six to eight months. It's been a really neat thing to follow. I'm so glad that I get to have an opportunity to come in here and spend time talking to you guys. So we're going to bring you, if you're familiar with the afternoon show, this is going to be like an all star show for you. We've got all the regulars that we have in the afternoon.

If you're not familiar with what we do in the afternoon, well, this is kind of your introduction to it, I suppose. We have our regulars. Darren Vaught's going to join us to answer unusual questions. He's the voice of High Point Bass. He's the voice of USA Baseball. He broadcasts a lot of other stuff as well. A jack of all trades, if you will.

B-Dot. We call him the sixth man of Carolina basketball. Why? Because he's the guy that at Carolina basketball games revs people up as the in-arena host. He does that for the Greensboro Swarm and for the Charlotte Hornets as well. He will join us later this hour. John Curry, in one hour, Wake Forest Director of Athletics. He will join us from Tampa. Tomorrow, Wake Forest has a bowl game against Missouri. Then later on, Jeremy Markovich.

Really excited to have him on. Having even had him on the afternoon show, he runs the North Carolina Rabbit Hole, where if there are a lot of things you might not know about the state of North Carolina. Like just last week, we learned that from Jeremy Markovich that Elon was the site of He Got Game, the college scene. With Jesus Shuttlesworth, played by Ray Allen and then Denzel Washington.

That college scene was shot. And Elon, he finds these neat things connected to the state of North Carolina and reports about it. And then Hayes Permar will be here to play skips or plays with Hayes. I think I might have forgot to tell WD that we're doing that today. Yeah, you did.

He'll figure it out. You know what we gotta do? You threw at him terrible Christmas songs earlier this week. I did. You need to get your face back. I do.

Come up with three better Christmas songs to make Hayes happy later on in the show. There's a lot for us to do today. But as I was kind of telling GP before the show, I have what you would call a specialty. And that specialty is sports. If you've ever seen the movie Anchorman, you might remember Brick Tamlin, the character played by Steve Carell, who is a really good weatherman.

He is great when it comes to the weather. On this side of the weather, he has an IQ of 48, as he pointed out while he was putting mayonnaise in the toaster. That is mean. Yes, GP. Are you referencing that you have an IQ of 48?

I might. I don't know what my IQ is. Do you know what your IQ is? I have no idea. Yeah. WD? No clue. So, stick to what you're good at.

Play to your strengths. What are people going to be talking about at the water cooler today? Assuming that on December the 23rd people are in fact going to the water cooler. Probably going to be talking about North Carolina's win last night against Michigan. A night after Wake Forest upset Duke at the Joel, North Carolina beat Michigan last night. Hubert Davis, you'd think he'd be so excited to talk about where his team is at after a four-game winning streak. Don't look now. They lost four in a row.

Now they've won four in a row. But Hubert says he's not really worried right now about where this team is headed. He's worried about Christmas. That's it.

Worried about Christmas. But it might. This is a funny thing that happens. When you have such high expectations and the bar is so ridiculously high, when you don't meet that bar you might overcorrect. Imagine going to a movie and you're being told it's the greatest movie of all time. That's coming out tomorrow with Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie. My expectations are stupid high for this movie. So when I go in odds are probably not going to meet those expectations. So you might not think it's a great movie.

But if you went in with lower expectations maybe it actually is in fact a really good movie. I say that to say North Carolina was the preseason number one team. They should not have been the preseason number one team. But they were because of what they did in the NCAA tournament and then they lose four in a row and people were thinking, oh they're frauds.

That's what they're thinking. But when you look at that four game streak, eh, all of them are away from Chapel Hill. They're all to good teams.

The details, the context matters, holidays, all of that. And none of them were blowouts. And now they won four in a row again and it turns out they're a really good basketball team. I would not take, there are not 10 basketball teams in America that I would take over this North Carolina team. They looked like a final four team last night. They looked like the final four team.

Think about it. The final four team only played five guys essentially. The iron five as they called them. Four of those guys are back. You know what we're calling them? The core four. 72 of the 80 points they scored last night. Those four guys.

Leaky Black, Caleb Love, RJ Davis, and Armando Bacon. So that's translating to the morning show too. Understood? Of course. Good win for North Carolina last night. Here's what we're going to do. Transition things to our first guest who's joining us. Roy Williams, speaking of North Carolina.

He was sitting court side at this game. And in watching him, I was reminded at the time he got upset with me and gifted us with a segment that we do with Darren Vaught called Unusual Questions that we'll play for you next. Rise and shine.

It's Triad Today with Jeffrey Griffin. To our first guest today, W.D., tell the folks about Mayflower Seafood. They're very versatile over there. They have steaks, salads, burgers, teriyaki chicken, not just regular chicken.

Teriyaki. They put a little spice in there. Game changer. It's a game changer and they make everything right there. It's fresh for you, man.

It's fresh. Pay them a visit. Tell them that we sent you.

Yeah, do that. We're streaming video right now. Yeah, we are. On YouTube, Twitch. We're the young folk.

I don't know why I said it like that. And on YouTube, Darren Vaught joins us now. I can't see him, but if you're watching there, you can see him.

Apparently he's wearing a Met hat. This afternoon when you join The Drive, perhaps we could talk about what might have happened with the San Francisco Giants and the Mets over the last 24 hours in regards to Carlos Correa. But Darren, thanks for being up for us early this morning.

Yeah, happy to do it. I don't even know. Is this the same show or are you just doing The Drive in Jeffery's slot? What are we doing here? We're just interchangeable JGs.

That's what we are. Where he's Jeffery Griffin. I'm Josh Graham. This is Triad Today with JG and then The Drive with JG is going to happen later today. I know you're a big fan of having names put into acronyms. I know you love that.

So WD and GP are on the other side over there. Okay. All right.

So hold on. So are we are we talking sports? What are we doing here? Here's what we're going to do.

I just want to introduce people to you and something that we do each week called unusual questions. The root of which was me asking Roy Williams a question after a loss to Marquette that led to him storming out of a press conference and me becoming a topic on all the ESPN shows. Charles Barkley calling me an idiot which we addressed earlier this year. Me and Chuck we made nice which was which was great. And then Roy the next game after a Syracuse loss into the press conference unbeknownst to me. He's like, hey, is Josh in here?

It's on Zoom. And he he says, you know, me and Josh, we're good. I just thought it was an unusual question that he asked, which led to us creating a segment, of course, unusual questions where we answer. You guessed it. Unusual questions.

Last week, guys, everybody made it out that I got mad at Josh and I left the press conference. That's not right. I thought it was an unusual question. And it's okay. It's time for unusual questions. Okay. With Josh. Okay. If you have one for us that you would like us to answer to be off the walk could be sports, but probably not.

Three, three, six, seven, seven, one six hundred. Darren, give the people an example of what an unusual question sounds like. Okay. All right. So we are doing the same stick.

We are doing the same. You got you had one chance to maybe like show off some versatility, Josh. And you're just you're just bringing out the same stuff.

I'm I'm a little disappointed. You're no you're no. I mean, you are a JG, but you're no J. You're no JG in the sense that it's I'm a hat.

That's what you're saying. All right. So I got one for you. I have Christmas gifts that I have to wrap today. Do you guys consider yourselves good at wrapping with a W? Okay. If it's with an R, yes. If it's with a W, not so much. I remember when I was in Texas selling bookstore to door, I used to we used to freestyle rap before we left after eating lunch at like six thirty in the morning.

Or no breakfast at six thirty in the morning. R.A.P. Rap. R.A.P. Rap. That is correct. Yes.

That's that's what we would do in the mornings. But I am a terrible rapper. W. R.A.P. Rap. Because every time Sarah Bradford raps a gift for me, the first question that I get from the person who gets the gift.

Hey, did Sarah Bradford do this? That's that's how I know it's they I'm not a good rapper. Are you a good rapper, Darren?

I am. I was always sort of designated as a child to be the family rapper. So that most years, like if it was under the tree and it was wrapped, 90 percent of it, I did it. I enjoyed it, too, as a kid. And, you know, it's I like making things neatly packaged as an adult. You know, I like I enjoy it for different reasons.

But no, I like doing it. Let's go to Lance in High Point, who has an unusual question. Lance, what do you have? Morning, Josh. Good to hear you on the drop to work, not just the drop from work. Yeah, it works two ways.

What do you have for Darren, GP, Will and I? Yes, sir. So a lot of people talk about is Die Hard a Christmas movie or not?

Let's flip this around a little. What's a movie you like, you enjoy that has nothing to do with Christmas? But if you could, could make it a Christmas movie, do whatever that looks like and inject Christmas scenes to it.

What's a film you would like to make a Christmas movie that currently is not? Oh, my gosh. Right up my alley. Thanks for the call, Lance. And the answer. I thought about this, actually, in the last week.

It's crazy. Goodfellas. I'd like to make that a Christmas movie. You know, the scene where all the Christmas decorations are in the bar when Robert De Niro says, keep them here, or I guess that was Pesci.

Keep them here. We can make that a Christmas movie, can't we? Yeah.

American Psycho is a Christmas movie. Yes. You like Whitney Houston.

You like Huey Lewis in the news. All right. I got it. Oh, when is here's a question I have there. When's the absolute best or do you have an answer to that question? Sorry. I mean, it was sort of ingest. That's right.

American Psycho is a great answer to that. When is the absolute best, the absolute latest time that you've bought a Christmas gift? See, we're approaching that time. It's the twenty third. When's the absolute latest? Today's the twenty second and I'm going to pick one up today.

I already said the twenty third was the. My schedule's all messed up. So you're picking up one today. Have you ever done Christmas Eve? I mean, I'm I'm sure I have.

I, I historically have not been good at gift giving. So there have been scramble moments. Yes. I'm on top of my stuff this time.

I just we did the purchase beforehand. Pick it up later thing. Let's squeeze in one more unusual question from the audience. Dave and Clemens, you're on Triad today. Dave, what's your unusual question? What's up, J.G.? I'm like Darren Sproles, man.

I can return punt, return kickoffs, line me up in the slot, be a running back. I can be in the morning or the afternoon. Good morning, guys. My Christmas question is, if you're given a gift for Christmas that you don't like, is it acceptable to regift that gift to somebody else? Darren, thanks for the call, Dave. Who I think this depends, like if it's in a setting where the person you're regifting it to saw you receive it. This is maybe a little taboo. I'm a big believer in gift receipts. And we shouldn't be offended if someone doesn't like what we got them because we're all different people. Just go exchange it. Don't even bother giving it to somebody else.

Like hopefully they got you a gift receipt and you can just exchange it for something else for you. Well said. Darren, we're actually out of time, but I appreciate you being up for us this morning. Of course, any time.

Well, no, not any time. But, you know, today it was it was OK. Talk to you this afternoon. Make sure you're listening around five thirty. Darren will be joining our afternoon show. See you, buddy.

Cool. See you guys. Live from Tampa, Wake Forest director of athletics, John Curry will join us at the top of the eight o'clock hour. Good morning. Josh Graham in for Jeffrey Griffin on Triad today.

Let's jump right into this. Joining us from Charlotte is B. Dot, sixth man of Carolina basketball and arena host for the Tar Heels. Greensboro Swarm, Charlotte Hornets.

He does it all. He was out last night at the Hornets. We're not the Hornets at the Hornets arena where the Jumpman Invitational is going on. And North Carolina basketball beat the Michigan Wolverines. It was a tight game. North Carolina leaned on its starters. All five of them played at least 25 minutes. Seventy two of the 80 points they scored in the game were scored by what's described to be the core for the four starters that came back from last year.

It even goes deeper than that. They attempted 58 shots last night. Fifty of the shots were taken by those four players.

So North Carolina, a winner last night. And I think I hear our guy B. Dot, who's now joining us here in the morning.

B. Dot, can you hear me? I can hear you. Can you hear me, bro?

I can hear you. Great. This is crazy because I'm actually doing a radio show while doing a radio show as we're promoting your afternoon radio show. He does it all, man.

It's amazing. You do do it all. And I'm going to let you have the responsibility of explaining what a game we call grammar school is. Our grammar school is simple. OK, I have three urban words or phrases that I deliver to Josh Graham.

He has to get two out of the three correct in order to be successful. And we do this because, you know, a lot of times we're in the locker rooms, whether it's at, you know, at Carolina Panthers or Carolina Tar Heels or Charlotte Hornets. And, you know, there's a lot of jargon being used.

And I just want to make sure that my boy Josh Graham can follow along in the conversations like like Josh Graham. What is cap? It means like you're lying. Exactly. See, we learned that that's those are the types of things we like. Josh, what does it mean to tee up?

Oh, that means like to get excited, like to get there. You see what I'm saying? That is what grammar school is all about. Turn me up. Now, Josh, if we play today, I have my friend here, Larry, because I'm on his morning show here in Charlotte and he will be a lifeline for you. OK, Larry, let's get this thing going. It's called grammar school. Let's play the game. Josh Graham has his own way of speaking in high school.

He didn't play sports, but he did wear a helmet. And just when you think it can't get any worse, my English teacher wanted to flunk me in junior high. Thanks a lot. Next semester, I'll be 35. Josh is going to attempt to learn B Dot's vernacular. I'm from the old school. I got street knowledge. You know what I mean?

You know what I'm saying? It's time for B Dot's Grammar School presented by Heritage Hardwood Floors. When it comes to flooring, they have no ceiling.

OK. Heritage Hardwood Floors. Double shouts for them this week. Absolutely. This is grammar school.

I just told you how it's played. This is season two. So in season two, we've added a wrinkle. Josh likes to test me with a word of the caustic persuasion to set the tempo.

Where are we at, Josh? We were just talking about Christmas classics. Do you know the movie White Christmas?

Can you tell me anything about that movie? White people are in it. Correct. It's in black and white. It's not in black and white.

Rosemary Clooney is a white person, as is Danny Kay and Bing Crosby. That's good enough for me. Get us started. Wow. You're off to a great start.

White Christmas is white people in it. B Dot nailed it. All right.

What do you have? All right, man. What does it mean if someone says it's up?

Oh, boy. It's up, Josh Graham. It's up.

Oh. And a lot of times if it's up, then it's stuck. It's seven fifty in the morning. OK, it's up.

I'm going to get us started by going to my lifeline. Larry, Larry, Larry. What does it mean to be up? And it's stuck, I guess.

No limit. Larry, what does it mean to just think about it? Think about you being angry.

Think about being angry. Oh, if it's up, then we've got beef. And we're going to have to scrap. There you go. All right, we're off to a good start. Thanks, Larry.

Let's go up next. What does it mean to pop off? Josh Graham to pop off.

Oh, I know this. Pop off means that you're you're just going off on somebody. It could mean that it's up.

If it's up and you're stuck, you could be getting mad at somebody and pop off on them. Give them another round. We're rolling this morning. All right. All right, Josh. To go three for three.

Perfect record before eight a.m.. What does it mean to get flunked? Oh, no. W.T. No, you don't know what I've got. JP knows this. All right, JP, get in here, baby.

I already won. I want JP to get some shine here. JP, what is it? The kill over. That means to get slumped is the kill over to get killed. Oh, that's not it. Like to kill over to like fall out.

Follow. Yeah. Like, you know, like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. What do you mean to get slop man to get knocked out? No, getting knocked out is a lot different than just kicking it. If somebody gets slop, they sleep. Night, night, night, night, night. Somebody gets slop to go sleep. Yeah. That's great. Almost got slop last night.

By Armando Bancott. All right. On the way out, that's been grammar school.

One last thing for you. How was it last night? It was a home game, man.

It was the Smith Center in the spectrum, dude. Like, it was amazing. I sat right beside two Michigan fans who live in Tennessee.

They drove back to Michigan right, I mean, right back to Tennessee after the game. But even they were like, they appreciated how respectful we were, even though we were passionate Carolina fans last night. Last night was great for the boys to get punched and to punch back and then to really take over the game after that. And it was just good, man. It was great energy.

Just seeing all the stars in the building, man, folks walking around. You see Coach Roy right there. Let me say this about Coach Roy Williams. Coach Roy Williams is just a basketball junkie. After the game, 90 percent of the spectrum center leads because the doubleheader are the women's version of Florida versus Oklahoma. Nobody's there but the Florida family members and the Oklahoma family members and Coach Roy Williams and Wanda. Still sitting there courtside watching women's basketball at ten thirty, eleven o'clock.

This guy's just a junkie, Josh. And we love it. I love to see it, too. I hope you have a Merry Christmas and I love you, bro. Thanks for doing this.

Tia for Christmas, Josh! Thanks, Larry. Good to talk to Larry. There he goes.

There they go. If you were expecting JG this morning, well, you got one. Just not the normal host of this show. Jeffrey Griffin out this morning. Josh Graham filling in.

You can listen to me in the afternoons as well. We've been the last four and a half years here at SJS three to six p.m. We had John Curry on earlier this hour. And here's how great of an AD John Curry is. He's at all the sporting events for Wake Forest, whether it be men's basketball. And now he's in Tampa with the Wake football team that's playing Mizzou tomorrow. But at the end of our conversation, he made sure to note that he was going to be watching from Tampa. As the Wake women's basketball team plays today against Rhode Island, Rhode Island at the Joel. And he said they'd be playing at two o'clock.

He texted me right after our conversation. It said, Josh, Josh, it's a one o'clock tip. One o'clock tip.

Make sure people know that. So one o'clock tip for Megan Jebbia's group today in Winston-Salem. Somebody that knows the triad very well is a guy that I've been following for a long time. SB Nation back in the day, CBS Sports, I think he'd done stuff for. And of course, the last two years with the NC Rabbit Hole, a substack that you should be subscribed to if you love the state of North Carolina. Shout out to Oak Ridge right down the road from our studios here in Kernersville. Also works at Wake Forest University.

Jeremy Markovich, a first time visit on WSJS. And Jeremy, you had quite the project that you'd worked on in the last couple of weeks, trying to figure out, man, the perfect North Carolina Christmas song. There's that old country song talking about writing the perfect country and Western songs, David Allen Co. But this is the perfect North Carolina Christmas song that you were tasked to find. Because we don't really have one of those, do we?

Well, see, here's the thing about that. We have a lot of Christmas songs that reference North Carolina. We don't really have ones that are very, extremely North Carolina-y. If you listen to mostly any Christmas song, with a couple exceptions, they're very much about Christmas.

With some minor twist or variation on it. So there are songs like Charlie Daniels and the Marshall Tucker Band have actual Carolina Christmas songs. Even the Squirrel Nut Zippers, back when they had Carolina Christmas. But there's one tiny little reference to it being kind of warm on Christmas. And the rest of it is more so like, and we all hung around with family and dad got drunk and whatever. It's very much just like a Christmas song with Carolina. No references to Cheerwine or barbecue or anything like that.

No, no. So I figured, and so my inspiration was, now there are Kentucky Christmas songs. And they're super bleak. I will read you, this is the opening verse of Kenny Rogers' Kentucky Homemade Christmas.

They shut down the mine last summer, we're getting by on welfare. It's Christmas Eve, I'm walking home, not a dollar to my name. Night is almost on me, at night I'm almost dreading.

No store-bought gifts to open, but there'll be Christmas just the same. That's Kenny Rogers singing about Kentucky, that's how he chooses to start. That's like, I can picture people in Kentucky listening to that, the way that people listen to Born in the USA on the 4th of July. Yeah, yeah.

It's really dark. And so I'm like, well, okay, I don't want that for North Carolina. But what if we could come up with something for North Carolina that was very much like, I don't know, like more of a nod to what this state is all about. And like, now this is the disclaimer is that like, you can't be like, oh, North Carolina. Like, oh, it's all about like one thing. It's really not about a million different things. Like trying to boil it down to one Christmas song is you're going to lose no matter what.

But we tried anyways. And so what I did was I went over to my website where I kind of talk about ridiculous North Carolina things called ncrabithole.com. And just ask people, like, if you could contribute a line to a North Carolina Christmas song, just give me one line, like one at a time. And we'll take those lines. And the initial idea was to like, okay, you do one line and then the next person comes along and they do the next line.

But that was like a recipe for chaos and that didn't really work. So what we did, what I ended up doing was just kind of pulling the best lines from each about 40 or 45 different different people that chimed in and tried to arrange those into a song that if you had any musical talent, you may be able to sing or may be able to set the music or or whatnot. OK, so I have in front of me here the lyrics to this. And here's the thing. I read it to WD and GP behind the scenes and they're like, can we record this now? Who who wants to jump on this? Because it really is a perfect North Carolina Christmas song.

I'll read a little bit of it here. It's Christmas time in the Tar Heel State. So we're so we're so purple, we're feeling blue.

I could be in the mountains or at the beach, but I'd rather be with you. It's Christmas time in the Tar Heel State. Time to pop a yuletide brew.

Please don't let Santa Claus be late. My cigarettes are down to a few. A little country, but always proper. Take off your sweater.

Twist it round like a helicopter. Raise a glass of cheer wine to longleaf pines and kudzo vines. To yours and mine will all be fine. It's Christmas time in the Tar Heel State. We'll spread the cheer with barbecue. I'll pair some whiskey with my pork, but I'd rather be with you. It's Christmas time in the Tar Heel State. Come winter, there's much to do. We'll hang our sock up in blowing rock, but I'd rather be with you. But I'd rather be with you. I'd imagine you've had great feedback on this, Jeremy Markovitch.

Where are we at? Well, so I've had some people say they were going to set it to music at least two or three. Again, like I have GarageBand on my phone. I can't really do this very well. So like and the funny thing was I've had other people say, like, how could you possibly skip over a couple extra lines? I'll just read a couple of them.

Let's see. I was walking past a coal ash pond covered in snow. It made for a great Christmas picture.

Everyone a glow. Skip that one. Grandpa Bubba blew a tire rolling over black walnuts in a sack and Aunt Sister stirring Velveeta into her cheese and mac. Like, so there's a lot of there's actually a lot of like, like sort of like passive aggressiveness toward aunts and uncles in the kitchen messing around with food. That seems to be like a sub theme that I couldn't like if if I had I could probably take some of those and arrange it into a second song. Like if we're going to do the backside of the LP, you know, like like we could do that or like the Taylor Swift three a.m. drop.

She'll drop the album at midnight. And as soon as you mentioned the aunts and uncles complaining and such. GP just felt seen like I'm looking at GP right now. Is that a fair depiction right now? Very fair.

That's a very fair picture. Yeah. Yeah.

So he felt seen on that. Jeremy Markovich, NCrabbithole.com. Learn more about this. We'll see. We'll follow this. Maybe Hayes-Permark can get it over to Superchunk and they can record something like this.

Figure it out on the way out. How excited have you been to follow what's happened this year at North Wilkesboro Speedway? Getting the the all star race next year in this racetrack coming back to life. This is this is one of those things where like don't go back and read like you're like nobody can predict the future. And I had I've been writing about North Wilkesboro for a very long time. And I think back in like the original time that I wrote about it, I said, oh, like there was a quote from somebody in Wilkes County.

It's like, well, all you need to reopen that place is a billionaire who loves racing and doesn't mind losing money. And I'm like, that person does not exist. And and lo and behold, it all came together like all like it was one of those situations where every piece had to fall perfectly.

And it did. And I am just amazed by what is happening out there. I was at the race back in August when when Dale Junior was there and had no idea that the All-Star Game All-Star race was in the works and just thought it was an amazing experience. I really felt something which is not something that you really ever I don't ever do at sporting events.

You know, I used to cover him and not really be a gigantic fan. And and it's I was like, this is there's something happening here. And then I didn't know that what was going to happen with the All-Star race. It is amazing to watch what has happened there, to watch that place come back and just just feel the love for that.

I'm like, nobody. There's no there's no hate for that place. It's amazing to me that just there's just 100 percent love for for that venue and that place and those folks. It's just it's just been great.

Ryan McGee is a great friend of mine from ESPN who loves that place and loves racing, too. And as soon as it opened up, he was having PTSD being from Rockingham and say, all right, well, you're going to fire this thing back up. But what's it going to look like a year from now or two years from now? Getting the All-Star race back. It's just been you said it best.

It's no one could have predicted that this could happen this quickly. And all the pieces had to align. Yeah. Yeah.

And Ryan's a good guy. And I think the interesting thing is like Rockingham's coming back. I mean, so they they just repaved it. So you're getting all of these kind of legacy tracks, getting at least at least some renovation and a fresh look. And and that's and that's been great. It's been great to watch. I was at that race about 10 years ago in Rockingham when the truck series came back, too. And that was also something magical.

And but I think the conditions at North Wilkesboro, I think there's there are fewer headwinds there than there were at Rockingham 10 years ago. And I'm really excited to see what happens even beyond this All-Star race and what what they decide to do there and what what happens. He's on he's on Twitter at Definitely In Name.

Read his stuff NCrabbithole.com. We'll see if we can hear this song before it's all said and done. Your North Carolina Christmas song.

That will be a classic if somebody were to record it. Jeremy, thanks for the time. It's good to chat with you and have you on the station for the first time. Thanks for having me. This song reminds me this is Hey, Jealousy by the Gin Blossoms.

Last year I was in Winston and my favorite brewery is incendiary brewing. Probably shouldn't have said that on the radio because it's kind of still like a low key spot. Don't want everybody knowing about. Sorry. Yeah. Those who know know. And there were a lot of people. It was like Labor Day weekend.

A lot of people. A lot of people were out at like a they were having a concert out there. There was some live music outside of the brewery. And this song started the play. Oh, man, this song was a jam. Who sings this? Oh, the Gin Blossoms. And then I look up on stage and there's a banner that says the Gin Blossoms and the Gin Blossoms were performing this song.

I didn't realize it was them actually in Winston-Salem. Somebody I'm sure who appreciates that long story that I just told that I probably could have told in 15 seconds is Haze Permar, who's never long winded at all from Sports Channel 8 joining us to play skips or plays with Haze momentarily. Haze, I'm on in the morning here on Triad today filling in for Jeffrey Griffin, who you know is the voice of the Joel Coliseum for as long as he's been there. All right. What? Hold on.

I got to get a couple things before we move on. One, do you have to have the initials JG to host this show? Is that like it was that one of the requirements contractual like you said that there's a good chance that you were going to get the nod just just by virtue of your name.

That's right. Second of all, it's December the 22nd. Why are we playing Gin Blossoms coming into the segment and not some good old fashioned Christmas music?

Well, dog, what's going on there? Well, because we got to say let me break let me break let me break you guys up real quick. Because earlier this week, Haze is still fuming at W.D. because on our show we played skips or plays with Haze and Permar was upset. I think he might have said some hurtful things about W.D.

for the Christmas songs that he chose. I think he even said, are you messing with me? Is this a troll? To quote Dabo Sweeney, this we had it was a problem. So W.D. wants another shot.

He wants to try and make this right before we get there. My final day. I not only have a story similar to yours. It might actually be the Gin Blossoms and that like I can't do the Gin Blossoms code the wedge sprocket somewhere in that like 90s southern rockish, you know, maybe you made it on the radio, but more likely you heard it like a, you know, college concert or whatever, but it was very similar. We were at a bar in Charlotte and and I can't remember who it was.

There have been people who something breakfast activities. It's always it's always that genre, though, because I was in Raleigh on a street corner and somebody started to play. It's hard to say what it is. I say, oh, Sister Hazel.

That's actually Sister Hazel. And this is sad that that might be the one it was. But regardless, we were walking by and they've been in even like a sporting event.

We were down there for we walk by a bar that wasn't that big. And somebody was playing one of those like 90s songs. And we stopped. We're like, this is a really good version of this.

Like, wow. Who does this little, you know, band that just plays on weekends. And then we started looking.

We're like, wait a minute. I think that is Sister Hazel or whoever or whoever it was. It was the actual band. It just, you know, I thought of them with 90s where they were maybe even playing big sold out concert spaces. And now, you know, two decades later, they're still making a little money, but they're basically just playing the same tunes. It's smaller venues.

The other time that's happened to me was in Greenville, America, where I went to school. I heard somebody playing Colt 45 and it was Afroman when I walked in, which was great. A great surprise. Now let's get to skips or plays with Hayes Christmas edition. Hayes Permar is somewhat of a Renaissance man, an expert in the finer things. But he hangs his hat on music. Today Hayes will decide if this music is smash or trash, blows or blows. It's time for skips or plays with Hayes. W.D., it's your second shot. Make the most of it.

I will. Christmas songs. Are you doing traditional Christmas songs?

What is the category? Qualify it for me. I mean, it's it's going to be traditional, but good Christmas songs. In my opinion, they're good.

Those things aren't mutually exclusive. Let's see where you let's see where you opened up here. Your first Christmas song is what? It is Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow by Gloria Estefan. Gloria Estefan is an interesting choice. Is she going to sing? Shut up.

This is a little tricky. I mean, I like this song. I love Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine as part of my childhood growing up. But I I don't know like where where is it snowing in Gloria Estefan's world, right? Like her whole thing is like South Miami, you know, Cuban, Latin American culture.

Let it snow like in the mountains. You don't believe her. You don't believe her.

It's not believable at all, bro. No, no, we're skipping it. Get out of here. I want to do the conga. I do not want to frolic in the snow with Gloria Estefan.

Hayes Burmar is the type. He goes to an Italian restaurant. He's like, where's the guy that's wearing the tank top with the hair sticking out of his chest? If it's not if it's not that it's not real to me. Not eating it. Not going to do it. OK, so that's a skip.

What's next? All right. This Christmas by Donny Hathaway.

Donny Hathaway? Now, this is salad. Let it go. All right.

This is a absolute play. This is like maybe a top 10 Christmas songs, artists and versions. And in fact, one of the the albums I mentioned last time we did this was Original Soul Christmas. Now, this Christmas was not on the original Soul Christmas album originally, but it has been amended and added to the more recent versions.

So I count it as part of their. Well, it's one of the greatest Christmas songs. This Christmas is fantastic. The only version of this song that is better than the Donny Hathaway version is, of course, the early 90s Patti LaBelle version, which comes out at the Christmas tree lighting on the National Lawn.

Yes. The backup singers don't come with her. And the cue cards are wrong. And she goes full diva. And she has to win this.

This Christmas. It is an incredible video. But this is a play and it's the only it's the second best version of this song. Only to be talked about Patti LaBelle going full diva. He's not underselling that.

You need to see that Patti LaBelle version if you haven't. OK, so we have one skip, one play. What do we have to close things out? Are you going to make right with Hayes Permar? Do they know it's Christmas by Band-Aid? Oh, God. Better than Christmas Shoes. It is better than Christmas Shoes.

This one is about a tough relationship, right? It's easy to write this one off because it's like, wait, did they just do We Are The World, but make it Christmas? And they kind of did. I mean, that's basically what this was, right? It was the B-side to We Are The World.

There's a good version to that. I don't know. The Christmas mood is striking me. I go back and forth on this one, but right now it's a play.

Thank God it's them instead of you. Tonight, it's a play. Hayes Permar. You told me something I didn't know. Oh, Holy Night is my favorite Christmas song.

And you told me something I didn't know about it last week. Yes, it was written by an atheist and a Jew commissioned by a priest over in France. They needed a Christmas song.

And the person who got the... I forget if the Jewish guy wrote the music or the poem, but then it was translated by a fierce abolitionist here just before the Civil War. And the third verse, he kind of rearranged some of the words, but he made it say, I forget the exact line, but the slave is our brother and all oppression shall cease.

And there were a lot of churches that weren't on board with that. So the third verse did not give son as much throughout the years, but it is now made a resurgence and is a great part of the song. It's a good song. It's not one of my all time favorites, except for at the church I grew up in. There was like that one lady in the choir who's singing in the choir. She treated it as if she was like Patti LaBelle at the natural Christmas tree lighting or even bigger things like the choir was good. But to her, it was next level. And she always, every Christmas, she did the Oh Holy Night solo. And it's one of the things where even it wasn't great.

You look forward to it. It was great. But even if it wasn't, you know, epic, it was the version that you became used to at your church every Christmas. And because of that, I always thank Jan Anderson for her lovely rendition of Oh Holy Night.

It's a good one. NCrabbithole.com Jeremy Markovich put together some lyrics for a Christmas song. For those who missed it when Jeremy joined us last hour, this is what he came up with, a North Carolina Christmas song that is perfectly North Carolina. It's Christmas time in the Tar Heel State, so we're so purple, we're feeling blue.

I could be in the mountains or at the beach, but I'd rather be with you. It's Christmas time in the Tar Heel State. Time to pop a yuletide brew.

Please don't let Santa Claus be late. My cigarettes are down to a few. A little country, but always proper. Take off your sweater. Twist it around like a helicopter. Raise a glass of cheer wine to longleaf pines and kudzu vines.

Kudzu vines. Got it. To yours and mine will all be fine. It's Christmas time in the Tar Heel State. We'll spread the cheer with barbecue. I'll pair some whiskey with my pork, but I'd rather be with you. It's Christmas time in the Tar Heel State. Come winter, there's much to do. We'll hang our sock up in Blowing Rock, but I'd rather be with you. But I'd rather be with you. Permar, we gotta get music attached to this.

Get Superchunk on it. I've been trying to put some music to it. There's a reason why I've become a parody artist and not an original artist. A, it's just a lot harder to write original music, right?

Like, I'm better at rearranging lyrics. And then B, in my head, I can never be a songwriter because every time I get one line and I think it's good, I stick it in my head for a while. And immediately or inevitably, I'm like, I think this starts to sound like another song I know. Like, every song I know seeps in and I can't escape the fact that I think that I might be unintentionally plagiarizing.

Does that make sense? So like, every time I think I've got an original tune, I'm like... So what do we need to do? What do we need to do now? We got about a minute. What do we need to do? Get somebody better than I am at writing music.

Nah. But it's a good tune. I like it. I have to take credit for the...

I could be at the mountains or at the beach, but I'd rather be with you. I also, if I write it, I'm gonna have to, you know, arrange lyrics a little bit to make it fit in music. But we're definitely taking out, for the part that's Raise the Glasses, Cheerwine, to the Kudzu Vine, and the Longleaf Pine, to Yours and Mine, and All the Swine. We gotta put the swine in there for rhyming like that, right? Yes.

To Yours and Mine and All the Swine, it's Christmastime in a Tar Heel State. I think I'm going there with it. I've got actually a tune that I could...

I've got one. I just don't think it's that great. And oftentimes, creatives like us, by the time you get deep into the project, it's time to put it out. Is this even good anymore?

So, I don't know. Maybe by next Christmas, it'll surface. Hayes Burbar, Merry Christmas to you. Thanks for doing this. Same to you guys. Look forward to John Gillum guest-hosting the show in the future. That's a great pull. Hayes Burbar, joining us from Sports Channel 8.