Rhythm Cafe MKE
Collection 4 - Meet the Artist - John Sieger
Season 2025 Episode 31 | 5m 24sVideo has Closed Captions
Dive deep into the world of veteran songwriter John Sieger
Dive deep into the world of veteran songwriter John Sieger as he shares his origin story, performs his original song "I Found Out" (featuring brother Mike Sieger on harmony!), and lays out his unique musical philosophy. From his start in Kenosha, Wisconsin—learning guitar from a friend down the block—to his major influences like Otis Redding, The Band, and Tina Turner.
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Rhythm Cafe MKE is a local public television program presented by MILWAUKEE PBS
Rhythm Cafe MKE
Collection 4 - Meet the Artist - John Sieger
Season 2025 Episode 31 | 5m 24sVideo has Closed Captions
Dive deep into the world of veteran songwriter John Sieger as he shares his origin story, performs his original song "I Found Out" (featuring brother Mike Sieger on harmony!), and lays out his unique musical philosophy. From his start in Kenosha, Wisconsin—learning guitar from a friend down the block—to his major influences like Otis Redding, The Band, and Tina Turner.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship- [John] Look at this.
I'm from Kenosha.
I grew up there.
And Mike was in bands.
He was a year ahead of me in school.
He was a great singer back then and he was rocking out and it just looked like so much fun.
- You don't need me to be that loud, do you?
- I've been singing with Mike since we were teenagers, though.
And you can't buy brother harmony if he's not your brother.
We had a friend down the block who had a guitar and we both played, and that was it.
That pretty much did it.
♪ I found out ♪ ♪ I could get lost ♪ ♪ I found out I could get lost and she wouldn't care ♪ - I'm mostly self-taught, but we had a little circle of these three people, you know, it's, "Show me a B7."
Okay, now you can play "Marching to Pretoria."
At one point I took one classical lesson, which really, really helped.
I should have taken more, but everything else was self-taught and watching and stealing.
When I was about 27, Michael Feldman moved to Kenosha.
I wound up getting some lyrics from him that were so good.
Just watching him, I learned about lyrics.
I did study music theory and that really helped too.
♪ Yeah, won't you please remember me ♪ ♪ When you get down on bended knees to say a prayer ♪ ♪ Won't you remember me ♪ - And then the last cherry on the sundae was a guy named Mike Hoffman, who was in Semi-Twang with me, who taught me how to be relaxed in the studio and have fun.
♪ I would've loved to take you ♪ ♪ Baby for a night out ♪ ♪ Come home exhausted ♪ ♪ Let me turn the light out ♪ - Otis Redding's a big influence on me.
I love the band.
I think they're the tops.
It's just impossible to do something as good as what they did.
Of course, The Beatles, I love the British invasion.
So that's an influence.
Bob Dylan.
Actually, you know what?
Tina Turner.
I wanted to sing like her.
That's weird, isn't it?
But it's just the way she phrased and everything.
I could go on, you know, I've got a lot of influences.
I think there's a lot of talent here, a lot of talent we don't know about.
And a lot of it came out of the churches in the middle of town, the gospel quartet singing, it's superb and it's so moving and so necessary.
I got involved with the gospel scene, just playing guitar for a group called The Masonic Wonders.
That's apart from Milwaukee and the regular music scene.
The regular music scene, I knew the BoDeans and the Femmes and we had a lot of fun together.
And there's always been good bands here.
Always a good band.
It's a pretty good music town.
I kind of wish it was a little bit better as a music town, but there's a lot of talent here.
♪ Found out what I was missing every day ♪ ♪ Every day ♪ - I wanna be right on the dividing line between rhythm and blues and serious country, which ended about in '65 or so, or '70, and folk music.
So I think I'm a folk rocker, is what I am.
I'm not trying to sound like a blues guy.
I think that's kind of silly for me.
It's pretty obvious I'm not, but I have a lot of influence of the blues in my music.
Live music is the other thing.
When I see people doing it, it's magic.
And that, a contract with an audience like that, the social contract is, "I'm giving you energy and you're giving it back."
It's a feedback loop.
I have a lot of luck with people recording my songs too.
Dwight Yoakam did one of my songs.
The BoDeans did.
Jerry Harrison did a couple.
So I would say I am a folk rock guy.
♪ The road is high, the wind is strong ♪ ♪ Could I get you to come along ♪ ♪ Could I get you to please remember me ♪ - I just went through, and this is not, I'm not trying to exploit this, but I just went through throat cancer and that was last fall and winter.
And I'm recovering from it and the prognosis is good, but at a couple points, I thought I'd never sing again, and I couldn't do that.
I don't know how not to sing and how not to write.
It's just something that's so ingrained in me now.
So it was an existential problem.
What am I gonna be?
But luckily it's coming back a little bit.
And I love my band.
They support me.
I love my friends, like Robin and Paul.
♪ Yeah, won't you please remember me ♪ ♪ When you get down on bended knees to say a prayer ♪ ♪ Won't you remember me ♪ ♪ Mm ♪
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