The Pink Pig, in Ogden, will welcome Champaign Freight to perform for patrons from 6 to 9 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 18.
In their 10th year of performing, the band has morphed and changed, endured personal struggles and persevered.
One of the band’s lead singers and co-founder, Mahomet native Richard “Goose” Geese, was diagnosed with colorectal cancer three years ago.
Although the band continued to perform its regular schedule while Goose went through chemo and radiation treatments, it came to a point where he could no longer sing for three hours straight.
“We were about to the point where we would have to stop performing,” he said.
But a blessing was about to happen.
Mahomet resident Ashley Ireland, who had taken a break from the band while she had small children in the house, called out of the blue.
“She said, ‘I’m ready to start again,’ ” Goose recalls.
Ireland is also a cancer survivor.
“I was like some divine intervention,” he said.
Although Goose had just come out of a fight for his life, he decided to try and remove an ash tree from his property. He fell while trying to remove the ash tree.
He found himself back in the hospital 31 days after returning to work with three torn ligaments in the knee, replaced hip and socket, a couple broken ribs, collapsed lung and a broken right wrist.
Champaign Freight, which also includes co-founder Matt Stewart, Jamie Ryan, and Brian Dalbey, had to take a break while Goose healed.
“Everyday above ground is a good day,” he said.
Now that he is in full remission, otherwise recovered and back on his feet, Champaign Freight feels like they are finding their footing.
“When I thought of a band, what I wanted in a band, we do exactly what I wanted to do,” Goose said.
“My wife tells me all the time, ‘You’re somebody’s Friday night.’ That’s what we want. We want people to look forward to seeing us.”
Over time, the band has learned that having a regional appeal is necessary to not burn out the local market.
“We didn’t want people to get tired of seeing them perform,” he said.
In 2018, the band played at the Seymour Celebration, Tolono Fun Days, Taste of Champaign, and the Illinois State Fair twice. They’ve also traveled to Starved Rock, Peoria, West Lafayette (Ind.) and Danville.
“We had a pretty big year last year, and we had a blast doing it,” Goose said.
The band’s sound has also changed over the years.
“For the longest time we were acoustic,” he said. “So we had to decide if the song could transpose acoustically.”
Now with bass and drums, Champaign Freight has the ability to take on additional songs.
“We realized that we don’t have to do a song exactly like the original artist.
“It’s okay to sound like us doing their song. That’s the biggest lesson that we’ve learned over the years,” Goose said.
But performing locally, where the band members grew up, is what excites them most.
With members also being former members of the military, Champaign Freight loves to perform at local VFW’s and American Legions.
They also play at charity events each year.
“We always take pride in those and are never too busy for them,” he said. “We understand. We’ve been down the road and taken the journey.”
Recently, Champaign Freight performed to a full-house at It’ll Do Bar and Grill, in Mahomet.
Goose said the the band’s diversity keeps people coming back. With five members with different talents and abilities, the set is constantly changing depending on which band members are available to make a gig.
“What you heard us play last week isn’t what we will play the following week,” Goose said.
“We still give a quality product no matter which members show up to perform that night.”
“We wanted to go into a place and have our music loud enough so that you could hear us, but not so loud that you couldn’t carry on a conversation. We wanted everyone to know every song we play.
