John Kraman

Director Company Relations, Lead TV Commentator/Analyst Mecum Auctions, World's Largest Collector Car Auction, Guitar/Vocals for Redline 7000 🇺🇸

[John Kraman @CarKraman]

@cianciola Well done my friend! Happy New Year! 💪

[Phil Cianciola Biggest Name in Milwaukee Radio @cianciola]

Whopping 1:50 shoot-around today.
At the end, some kids from a HS team were playing 5 on 5 half court and they looked good.
Oh, to have high school legs (and hips) again!
Been a good year of hoops. Worked hard to rehab after hip replacement.
Bring on 2025!
Happy New Year to you

[John Kraman @CarKraman]

@alisonmartino Still delicious today!!! 👍🤓

[Vintage Los Angeles @alisonmartino]

Fatburger on La Cienega.
December 1981 🎅

[Donny Schatz @DonnySchatz]

.@MPI_INNOVATIONS builds the best wheels in the business! Thanks to @maxpapis & Tati for having Donny in their @prishow booth. (Yellow Hall 4839)

[John Kraman @CarKraman]

@TSRnitro @NHRA @TonyStewart Congrats Smoke!! 💪🤩🏁

[Tony Stewart Racing Nitro @TSRnitro]

The 2024 @NHRA Rookie of the Year is in the house!

#TSRnitro | @TonyStewart

[Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals @MCACN]

A cool shot of part of the MCACN Class of '69 Invitational display, Sponsored by NCM Insurance. When we say we host the "best of the best" we mean it! So tell us; which special display at MCACN was your personal favorite this year? #mcacn2024 #ncminsurance

[Brett Hatfield @brett_hatfield]

On @DrivenRadioShow, @brett_hatfield and @MagCowMedia Mark interview @mecum Kansas City staff and attendees, & Brett finally he has his father on the show! This & more on Driven Radio Show! https://t.co/t68Z04OO6S

[John Kraman @CarKraman]

@JBONAMASSA @RockCandyFunk @BakedPotatoJazz Couldn’t make it this year but last year was one of the best shows I ever attended! Intimate venue with top LA musicians letting loose!! 👍💪🤓

[Joe Bonamassa (Official) @JBONAMASSA]

That's a wrap. What a blast as always. Thank you to all the fans for selling out 8 shows in 4 days, @RockCandyFunk for 15 years of fun, and Justin and the great staff @BakedPotatoJazz See you next year!😎👍🥔🍭

[John Kraman @CarKraman]

@LingenfelterLPE @LingenfelterRG @Kindigitdesigns Extraordinary!! 🤩

[Lingenfelter Performance Engineering @LingenfelterLPE]

Kindig-it Design builds rolling works of art! 😍 Check out these #Lingenfelter 427-powered CF1 roadsters from #SEMA! 👀

🔗 https://t.co/qcMs3hn31N
📞 [phone]
📩 [email protected]

#KindigitDesign #Corvette

[John Kraman @CarKraman]

@lippyent Another AI creation? I’d guess yes! 🤓

[Johnny Cadillac @lippyent]

Sexy Saturday 🍑 ♥ 🔥!!

[GTOkie @GTOKLAHOMA]

I'm supposed to be doing something else at this Yellow Ribbon event but I'm not. I'm watching @mecum Kansas City with my good friend and car guy COL (Ret) Warren Griffis.

@CarKraman

[Mike O'Cull @MikeOCull]

CONFESSIONS OF A BAR-BAND GUITARIST 12-2-24

THE AUTOGRAPH KID

The first time someone asked me for my autograph was one of the most humbling experiences of my life.

THE SET-UP
It was an absolutely spanking summer Sunday afternoon in Chicago in the mid 1990s. I was playing guitar in The Convulsions, a high-octane British R&B/Punk Blues outfit led by English harmonica ace and frontman Ben “Shakey” Ruth. The gig was the Belmont Street Fair in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood.

We had played the night before at a private party thrown by some successful area restaurant owners who had just sold their business for big bucks. Of course, they got us very drunk and kept us very late. Nobody really cared that we had an afternoon show the next day, as we were all in our mid-20s and still considered ourselves invincible.

We got to the Belmont gig and everything looked good. Tons of people, blue skies, beers, sunshine, and high spirits all around. We played a scorching set that day of originals and Howlin’ Wolf covers to an enthusiastic crowd that must have stretched for a city block. The stage was smack in the middle of the intersection of Belmont and Sheffield facing East toward the Belmont elevated train platform.

THE ROCK AND ROLL SHOW
Ben was on fire that day, leaping off the stage and into the crowd to sing and play harp solos right in people’s faces. Behind him, we were guitar, bass, and drums, stripped down and digging in. The audience loved us and we gave them everything we had, sweating out the remains of last night’s booze in a hurry. The sun was shining and everyone was dancing.

It was just one of those perfect days.

THE MOMENT
We finished our set and began to pack up our gear as the crowd wandered off. I was facing the back of the stage winding cables when I heard this voice behind me saying “excuse me, excuse me.”

I turned around and, standing in front of me, was a woman holding one of our CDs in her hand with a 12/13-year-old son by her side. The kid seemed kind of awkward and unsure of what his mom was getting him into. lol

I walked over to her and she explained to me that her son had really enjoyed our show. The kid was learning to play guitar, she said, and had watched me closely throughout the set. She said she had bought one of our CDs in hopes that I would sign it for her son.

No one had ever asked me that before. Rock stars signed autographs, not saloon slingers like me. As I wrote my name on the CD booklet for them, my mind flashed on all the times my mother, a former opera singer, took me to see all kinds of live music when I was that kid’s age. I remembered all the times when I was that kid, still learning and unsure but so incredibly inspired by what I’d just witnessed.

It was one of those full-circle moments and I actually realized it as it happened. I had gone from being a kid who wished he could be onstage more than anything to a solid player capable of inspiring others as others had inspired me.

THE TAKEAWAY
Ego is a funny thing. We all try so hard to be cool but sometimes actually cool things sneak up on us. Then, when they do happen, we almost don’t notice their importance or how they make us feel.

Signing a CD for that kid didn’t make me feel like a star or anything like that. It made me remember where and I how I came to music, how much it mattered to me back then, and how far I still had to go.

Even now, I still think about that young man and what I can play today to keep him inspired. That’s all there is to this game. You get it from someone and spend the rest of your life giving it to everyone.

The road we walk really does go on forever.

[John Kraman @CarKraman]

@lippyent Is it just me or is this pure Artificial Intelligence?!? Nothing looks right including the cars. 🤔

[Johnny Cadillac @lippyent]

This was Las Vegas in 1947.

[John Kraman @CarKraman]

@lippyent Best. Christmas. Ever. 🥰