A Night in MAD TOWN

I wanted to start with a picture.  It bypasses me painting imagery with words and almost takes you  to the place itself. To some you may call this place your home, to some you've been here before, to some you may have went to school here, and to some you may mistake this place for somewhere else and believe it to be true. Perhaps there's some of you who've never been. For we begin this short tale of music and fun  in the town of MADISON....Wisconsin.....united states of america....north american continent...planet earth....milky way galaxy...in one of the many quadrants of the multiverse.

This weekend found us back in Madison, Wisconsin Folks, and we had wonderful time.
 The last time we we're there was in November at the HIGH NOON SALOON,
with our friends SISTER SPARROW & THE DIRTY BIRDS and
THE PEOPLE BROTHER'S BAND! This time found us deeper in the confusing maze that are the city streets of downtown MAD-TOWN...our place of musical sharings...The MAJESTIC THEATER

Twas an earlier show that evening of the last saturday in the month of April. And after successfully navigating the streets and construction we made it to the theater.  We we're loaded in and checked, got the merch set up and ready to go in no time. Hungry we went next store to THE MERCHANT
 for dinner and HOLY BUCKET'S this place was awesome. Dylan and Max and I shared a cheese plate with local honey and jam to start...

and for the main course dylan and I had the locally caught rainbow trout and max had a pork "something" I'm a vegetarian who sometimes eats fish. I don't retain the names of meat entree's too well. Although fish is in my book is technically "water meat" Anyhow here's a shot of the "rainbow trout water meat" on a bed of red lettuce with capers and  home made croutons..hope you do enjoy.

One of this places "mantras" is farm to table and on the back of the menu they had a map of where everything came from. It was super cool, and truly there is something to be said with eating what's in season and what is from the area when YOU are in the area. So full of nutrients  and inspired we headed back to the theater to catch the opening act....DIZZY JOAN.

He was a younger buck and a littler fella but his HEART is HUGE. He took the stage with an acoustic guitar, his voice and his heart. He spoke to the audience with confidence too, which too was inspiring.
Still full of nutrients and inspired we took to the stage....

We played that evening with and intensity and a dynamic that carried the LOVE and the HOME breath from wednesday's adventures in WINONA at MID WEST MUSIC FEST...we sang and played with reflections of inspiration that hit us since we landed in MADISON..Pouring your heart and out and singing with your friends can turn 90 minutes into what seems like a way shorter amount of time.. all of sudden we we're moving our instruments off stage and I was back doing the meet and greet and saying hello to old and new friends....we we're loaded up and packed back into the van and ready to go as fast as we came in...but we weren't done yet. Before we went to bed we ran around town with some good friends, stopped by the IVORY ROOM PIANO BAR . One of the guys played Brass Monkey by the Beastie Boys it was Awesome! One thing led to another and I found myself sitting at the piano..

What a night what and adventure, truly thank you from the breath of EVERYTHING we ARE.
To everyone at the Majestic Theater, Scott, Matt and Casey and the rest of the staff thank you for taking great  care of us. To Dan and Jeremy on sound it's "sounded" awesome, thank you very much. Thanks Dizzy Joan for warming up the stage with your gifts.To everyone at THE MERCHANT thank you for running a class act establishment with amazing food that supports the local communities...
and to the wonderful FOLKS that came out in support THANK YOU for KEEPING DREAMS ALIVE..

Peace and Many Thanks 

Next stop ST. LOUIS...the 1st of MAY

see you on the road

One Word....RETURN

Greetings and welcome back to a view from the beard's perspective.

And let me tell you the places it's been.

WHEN WE KNOW WHERE WE COME FROM, WE HAVE A BETTER SENSE OF WHERE WE'RE GOING.

Yesterday was a RETURN to Midwest Music Fest 2014 in good ole WINONA Minnesota. The Festival celebrated it's 5th year ! And we were asked to play it's Birthday Party along with our pals APOLLO COBRA at our good buddies ED'S NO NAME BAR.
 And across the street at BROKEN WORLD RECORDS  was  OLD KNIFEY, SHOP SHOP, and DESSA.  What a fun night and what a great way to RETURN to WINONA.

Winona became a second home for me a soon as I moved back from the mountains.
I started playing down there solo and as the band grew and changed I found a second home within a home at ED'S. So whenever we were in winona, the equation was  always...
WINONA = ED'S. The last time I played there was in  2012, right before I went out WEST and everything CHANGED. So to RETURN to ED's and see so many familiar faces was a BEAUTIFUL FILLING OF THE CUP OF MY HEART.
The love and appreciation in the room was FELT the WHOLE TIME. A LOVE that was familiar. Not Trying to sound like the prodigal son, but honestly it felt like the entire crowd was my parents and I was home visiting from my studies abroad. It was BEAUTIFUL.

Thank you Sam Brown, Parker Forsell, Isaac Sammis, the Board of Directors, and the rest of everyone that was part of the Organization of this Festival. Thank you Ben Asef and crew for helping with production and rocking an awesome light show.A quick funfact and due to the fact that the last two years have been very eventful, I've played this festival in 2011 and 2012 we just missed last year. And the last place we played was ED's. Thank you ED, Brandon and everyone else at ED's for reminding us why ED's is our home in Winona. And truly thank you to all the volunteers that help keep this festival a community driven event. And to the everyone that came out to celebrate last night it was an honor to play for you. The love was felt and received and I'm ready to share all the LOVE ya'll gave us with the rest of the WORLD. Next stop the MAJESTIC THEATER in MADISON WISCONSIN. We'll be there this SATURDAY APRIL 26th!

With gratitude and a humble heart I bow in appreciation for the continued support, prayers, and LOVE it is REAL STRENGTH for this whirlwind of an adventure. And when things are more new than not, I  AM finding it wise to RETURN to HOME or the different places we call HOME in our lives. To see and remember, to laugh and LOVE. And to then bring that LOVE and PERSPECTIVE into the new chapters of your life. 

PEACE PEACE PEACE

and many thanks

HEY NOW

Life Can Mirror a Reflection

Hello and Welcome

I would like to thank everyone from the breath of my heart for all the love and support and kind kind words on the joyous occasion of my gal and I's wedding. We wanted to try and keep things private leading up to the wedding, that and it was hard enough raising our children, routing the tours, going on tour, working on the record, driving across the country and planning a celebration of our love. 

If I've been acting weird lately, I feel like that explains it. "I know I'm weird, and have no problem admitting that, let me rephrase"....if I've been acting EXTRA weird lately, it's because the plate  was full. My heart overflowing.

And when everything overflowed, I had to pick up what I wanted and to pick up what I wanted, I had to see what I wanted. This is what I saw...

I AM SPIRIT true and through. the witness, the breath behind my breath

I AM HUMAN true and through. blood and bones. success and failure in one breath

                           capable of ANYTHING

I AM a SON     true and through, this is how i first came here, to honor my mother and father

                          and carry on the stories and gifts of my tribes

I AM a BROTHER  true and through. i became a brother in this life time. to love and support my 

                                  family, not only in blood, but OUR entire HUMAN family.

I AM a FATHER true and through. the dad to my kids. and not only me but every dad i've seen.

                              i became a parent to the world.

I AM a HUSBAND true and through, a partner and equal, the other half, the other side, the yin to the 

                                  yang. 

I AM many many things and nothing at the same time, but that is what i saw when I looked in the stars.

I know those are the main ingredients that make up my song. My song that I SING.

Because when I looked to the stars, I saw the moon and she reminded me that....

I AM MUSIC. 

and it's time to take my song back to the streets. 

stayed tuned and tuned we have  A LOT of FUN stuff coming up...

PEACE and MANY MANY THANKS