SXSW PART II

Welcome back folks.

I think SXSW finally got to us ladies and gents, on Sunday we were somewhere in Oklahoma and we decided to drive all the way to Minnesota without stopping. So that left us arrivin in the great state of Minnesota just as the sun started to rise. Which led to blending of sunday and monday turning into one long day with weird naps in between. 

So..a little more rested here is my attempt to recap our second day of shows at SXSW 2014...

But first.....

FRIDAYD NIGHT continued....We last left off at our show at the Liberty Bar.  Hungry and needing a little break from the festival we landed at Maria's Taco X-Press!

Now this place was truly awesome, there was some folks playin some rockabilly music on the stage and people on  outside takin it in as well as some tasty lookin food. So we went inside. This place was so funky looking. It reminded me of my old van. "that will be a later blog entry"

Maria herself came to say hello, her and her staff we fans and honestly they treated us like family. It was such a wonderful meal, great company and very rejuvenating. While we dined Maria had told us an inspiring story which I will share to you. She started her restraunt in a food truck and not knowing how to cook. And she just kept going, being herself and her dreams got bigger and bigger and carried over and into this world. And now 17 years later she has this oasis of  Creativity and Passion. Heart and Soul. Great food and honestly a place away from home that felt like home. Another example of the power of not giving up.  Thank you Thank you Miss Maria and everyone at Taco X-Press. Hey Now and Holy Buckets!

Invigorated we decided to go back into the Festival, we found a super awesome LIGHT park.
In the middle of all of the buildings and bars and closed off streets there was this park with tall trees, so it was dark. But in the darkness there was light. Cool creative, interactive light. One of them was a piano. Hope you do enjoy..

We marched onward, we turned a street and the some of the sounds of my middle school flooded the streets it was SOUNDGARDEN. I think they were rockin on a rooftop somewhere. We were walking on this street and they had their concert being projected on this building and they had small pa set up so you could hear it. We had to stop for a listen.

The hours were getting late and we still had an hour drive back to where we were sleepin for the night, but we had to check out DOSH
It's always fun to see Minnesota Musicians on the road. You breath home for a minute. Dosh was joined by the freakin awesome JT BATES on the skins. I love that dude's drumin.
Super creative rhythmic melodies sound collage  percussion drives the heart.

We didn't get back to the spot til pretty late, and I was vibrating from all the Music and Expression I couldn't fall asleep. So SATURDAY mornin came quick. 

We had two shows to play so we got our ties on and I'll tell you what. The warm weather and dressin up in vests and ties and suit coats and hats makes for a hot day,  to say the least. But if it's special then why don't we dress with style? 

Our first stop was at the Hyatt and it was off the path of the Festival so to speak, but still very fun! The The ceiling was super high so the acoustics sounded so cool, almost cathedral like.

Thank you thank you to All who came out to our "lounge" set. Super intimate and fun. Thanks.

The sun was goin down over Austin which, meant it was the moons turn and night time hit the city. It took us a while getting through traffic and the crowds, but we made it to the Holy Mountain, where our second gig was. After we unloaded, we had to go find a spot to park, we found one only a couple blocks away and FREE taboot! 

We made our way back to check out the NEW FRONTIER TOURING SXSW SHOWCASE!

We were able to catch some of Sister Sparrow & The Dirty Birds and Rosco Bandana both bands rocked and were fun to see. We've played with Sister Sparrow before so it was awesome to see them again, and it was cool to catch Rosco Bandana. I AM so blessed and so very thankful  to be a part of such a talented group at NEW FRONTIER. And I AM equally blessed and thankful to be in the company of such talented and amazingly creative and cool and great people as the musicians that are in the bands that fill their roster. THANK YOU THANK YOU.

After sweating and some sweating it was our turn to go up and do what we do. And yes folks we gave them our hearts while we threw our songs to the heavens .

40 minutes seemed like 2. And before I knew it we were done. It was  like we were in this soul funk music sauna so  maybe that's where my gauge for time went. After we got our thangs off the stage our whole band made a B-Line to go check out the BACKYARD stage, which would soon feature Cody ChesnuTT!

Raw and Emotional super powerful. Please check him out if you haven't already.

Thank you Thank you NEW FRONTIER for havin us be part of a special evening of Music and Spirit.

Thank everyone at SXSW volunteers, vendors, everyone. Thank you to all the fans who came to SXSW to support live music.

And Thank you to each and everyone of you for your continued LOVE and SUPPORT I can FEEL it.

PEACE to your HEARTS. PEACE to your MINDS. and PEACE to your SPIRIT

until next time..

SXSW 2014 Part 1

Hello again folks and friends
welcome to another edition of a beard's eye view.
This will be part one of a two part recap of our adventures at SXSW 2014.

PART 1...but first a cool story of something that happened from a turning a concert last month into a coat drive.

February was time to get a lot of work done as well as an opportunity to serve my community a variety of different blessings.  Just a quick side note, I'm not sure how many of ya'll remember the last blog and the story of all the coats that we're donated to those in need. After dropping the coats off at the Salvation Army, I received a call from miss Julie at Salvation Army saying "thank you for your help and your heart", and I said "THANK YOU for all that YOU do." I then said "imagine what we could do with more planning and foresight.
She told me how March is MN Foodshare Month and that they're trying to bring awareness that people are going hungry within our own communities. The Salvation Army feeds breakfast to our human family monday through friday every week. Miss Julie said that CKC Catering was going to come and serve the people. She then said they were going to put linens on the tables and asked if I would come in and play for the people. So I did.
I felt it was a wonderful opportunity to give and serve.
It was so cool to watch as the people came in. Their reaction to the music, the linens, the buffet style line for the food, juices, and even  syrup. Things we take for granted every day. I overheard some guy say, "I haven't had a breakfast like this in years"
I feel one of the mantras for 2014 is
MUSIC AS A VEHICLE FOR CHANGE
 Here's a cool link from Salvation Army North, that goes into better detail on what happened that morning in St. Paul.

SXSW 2014

It was only about a month ago the last time we were in Texas, so the drive was familiar.
We took our time getting down there and arrived in Austin on Thursday night.
We went to get our wristbands/badges so we didn't have to mess with check in on the day we played.
Then we hit the streets of Austin....

The streets were filled with everything. So many people, lights, smells, expressions. Heavy metal music dancing with folk music. Drum circles. The energy was big and after the long haul we went back to rest for our show the next day.


We played the CAUSE ROCK DAY PARTY at the LIBERTY along side a slew of MN musicians,
to name a few Actual Wolf, Enemy Planes, Saints of Valory, Communist Daughter.
As well as a panel from MN non-profit ROCK THE CAUSE 

The panel included Laura Sobiech, who is Zach Sobiech's mom. Zach has an amazing story. He was diagnosed with a rare bone cancer at the age of 14. Then in 2012 he was told he only had a year to live, so he started writing songs to have his family remember him. One of those songs was CLOUDS.
The song has spoken to the people and with the help of Rock the Cause, Children's Cancer Research, Zach's family and story and all of the people that donated their time and gifts. They have collectively raised $750,000.00 for cancer research to be distributed to the U of M. HEY NOW and HOLY BUCKETS!
So proud to call these people our peers, and even more blessed to call them our friends.
As the story goes it was then our time to take the stage and as we do. So Dylan Nau, Maxaphone, Kevin Gastonguay and I hit the stage. We threw our songs to the heavens and hearts to the people.

Thank you Thank you Thank you...Thank you to all who came out, and a continued thank you for your continued support. Also a big thank you to SCOTT HEROLD and the rest of the folks at ROCK THE CAUSE. Thank your heart, your drive and your passion.

We have two shows TODAY SATURDAY MARCH 15th 2014!

6:00pm at the HYATT REGENCY and 11pm at the HOLY MOUNTAIN!

Peace and Many Thanks

Welcome Back

Why welcome back folks. I do believe it's been some time. Since we met up last we were catching up on the East Coast Tour > Goin South to Texas. Which basically equaled the month of january. So February was a month to be HOME.

What looked like to be a month of rest and catching up was anything but...
There was a week in February where I couldn't say No. Which meant the week before that was filled with a bunch of press and promotion which I truly love.
We'll start our story in the beginning of the week itself, which actually starts on a saturday.

Saturday I was asked to MC a Music Recital at the Mall of America by a women who told me she was a friend of my old piano teacher. It was  for MMTA "Minnesota Music Teachers Association" www.mnmusicteachers.com/musiclink in conjunction with the Music Link Foundation. www.musiclinkfoundation.org. It was a lot of fun to see the little ones play piano and some of them even sang. It reminded me of when I was younger. It was fun to watch the people walking by at the mall. Fun to watch as they got closer the the music almost every single person's faced SMILED.
Music has such an effect on us as people. So cool to continually witness.

Sunday Night I got to meet back up with my friends from the SMILE NETWORK www.smilenetwork.org and Jason Davis from "on the road with Jason Davis"
It was an evening of music and giving and sharing. The night started with Elizabeth Kupchella, singing and looping her voice while her acoustic guitar played underneath. www.reverbnation.com/eliabethkupchellamusic
Then I went up and sang and told some stories. Which was followed by them airing Jason Davis' On the Road. The special which told the story of our trip down to Mexico with the SMILE NETWORK.
All the proceeds of the evening were donated to SMILE for future surgeries. Thanks to all who came out!
Here's the link to Jason's episode " SMILES FROM MINNESOTA"
www.kstp.com/article/stories/S3319429.shtml

Monday was a benefit for the Southdale YMCA.  My friend Paul Peterson gave a call and said you wanna play a fundraiser at the Dakota? He then told me who the band was going to be.....
Paul Peterson on vocals and bass, Patty Peterson on vocals, Eric Leeds on sax, Cory Wong on guitar, Jay Corkran on drums, Kevin Gastonguay on keys. He then says Larry Braggs the lead singer from Tower of Power will be there as well. I said Yes and yes and yes...

It was a very fruitful evening, thanks to all who came out and thanks to All for being so generous.

Tuesday was one of the only days we could squeeze in at the studio. So D Nau and I got to work..
Very excited to share with you ALL the completed version of MAKE HOPE...HEY NOW!

Wednesday was back on the train, we met up with our friends from TCL at the Happy Gnome in St.Paul. A little behind the music for ya'll the Happy Gnome is where we used to play every Wednesday Night before the VOICE.

So Emily and I went live at 3:24 to announce Nicholas David and the Feelin Band will be playin a free show at the Happy Gnome that night. We only asked if folks would bring a food donation or a coat for the salvation army. I know it's been cold all around. But it's been extra cold in Minnesota. So the folks that don't have homes or shelter have been extra cold.

Before we knew it, it was show time. Super fun to be back. The hours flew by and we threw down some grooves. What a blast!

special thanks to kristi flad for the pic. Before we knew it the show was done. I went and said hello to the folks, started to pack up and then went over to the merch table and this is what I saw...

I remember thinking why did we bring so many boxes of t-shirts for tonight's show? My mom then tells me all those boxes are filled with coats the good people of Minnesota brought a bunch of coats! 5 Boxes plus a couple extra coats a bag of food and $ 10 cash. All that GOOD in a span of roughly 7 hours! Thank you thank you folks for practicing what you preach, it is truly inspiring. So happily and very excited I took the goods to the salvation army and they very happily accepted the donation and very happily posed for a picture..

There was a couple days worth of using music as a vehicle to make change in our own community.

Thank you to all you  helped, who contributed, who shared their time, who shared their gifts.

Thank you for all your prayers and support. 

We'll see you on the road.

Peace and Many Many Thanks