Chicago's Finest Boat Launch

posted by Aubrey and Craig on September 10, 2025

The melody concept for this tune was written near the bank of the Little Calumet River in Chicago, on the site of a former safe house on the Underground Railroad. It is an homage to the people who endured and are enduring the wounds of slavery, and to those with courage to stand up despite their fear to act with compassion, justice and mercy.

“Chicago’s Finest Boat Launch,” as the place was named on Google Maps when Aubrey first visited, is a place full of sunlight. Though surrounded by chain link fencing and in the shadow of a towering electricity transformer, the site of Ton family’s old barn and farmhouse, long since torn down, now boasts a green lawn with freshly painted white picnic tables.

Beside the old farm site is a dilapidated boat house and marina with peeling paint and boarded up windows. A plaque at the end of the gravel driveway reads “Freedom Seekers and the Underground Railroad / Ton Farm Site” with several paragraphs of history. The path to the water is behind a locked gate.

It is a place of mystery and contrast. It feels like sacred ground.

BAND HIGHLIGHT

In 2019, Craig attended the Wayne County Fair fiddle competition and met Joe Lautzenheiser. Besides sweeping the competition, it turned out that Joe had been named Ohio’s grand champion fiddler in 2011 and 2014, won Indiana’s state championship, and was runner-up in Kentucky. He also placed 10th nationally in the National Oldtime Fiddlers Contest in Weiser, Idaho. In short, he was pretty solid on the instrument.

Off and on since 2019, Craig stayed in touch trying to cajole Joe into playing locally, but Joe and his wife Jen had just started an organic farm operation in nearby North Lawrence and now had a young family of their own and time was understandably always at a premium.

When the idea of throwing together a live band for the Crooked Step recording project came up, Craig sent a message to Joe on a whim, hoping to add a fiddle to the songs and, as luck would have it, the winter recording sessions worked with Joe’s schedule!

We can’t emphasize enough how lucky and grateful we are to have gotten the chance to rehearse and record with Joe. He brought an incredible amount of technical musicianship to the project, arranged the fiddle voicings with sensitivity and panache, and importantly was also a great human to hang around.

To emphasize again how miraculous it is that this project came together, it bears mentioning that Joe only got scratch recordings of the songs a month prior (without fiddle lines, mind you), had one rehearsal evening with us in Craig’s basement, then one four-hour live recording session to get it all right in two takes per song. And the guy just didn’t miss. Incredible! Thanks Joe!

If you have a moment, check out his farm and what they have to offer over at Glenview Acres.

"Chicago's Finest Boat Launch" from Crooked Step, Open Gate

You can purchase the full album on Bandcamp starting June 6, 2025. All songs will follow on the streaming platforms (Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, etc), trickling out through the summer and fall. "Chicago's Finest Boat Launch" will begin streaming September 12, 2025.