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

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

FROM CONROE BACK TO SNOW

Home, to some it's EVERYWHERE, to some it's the soles of their FEET. To some it's WHEREVER they can lay their HEAD. And to the Folks in the Nick David Tribe, we  call MINNESOTA HOME. We look past the double digit negative numbers because our Hearts warm with  a FIRE here. HERE,  WE ARE HOME. This is where our ROOTS are planted. This is where a lot of our TRIBE'S STORIES MEET.

We have been blest since late SEPTEMBER to be able to  start to make a good portion of this country our HOME. Thanks again to EVERYONE who's come OUT to SEE US. It has been AMAZINGLY WONDERFUL and A TRUE PRIVILEGE to SING and PLAY for YA'LL. It has been SUPER COOL to MEET YOU in PERSON as well. 

Most of the time when we meet, I'm always thinking "YOU'RE THE PEOPLE THAT WATCHED ME ON TV" Seriously it's an honor to meet EACH and EVERYONE of YOU.

Truly folks in ALL SINCERITY, PEACE and MANY THANKS for not only your SUPPORT, but for your LOVE. Thank you for sharin your stories with me. It TRULY REAFFIRMS WITHOUT A DOUBT THAT THIS IS THE COURSE AND NOW IS THE TIME.

In keepin with TRADITION; one of the many pillars here at A BEARD'S EYEVIEW, here's a recap on our FINAL night of the GOIN SOUTH TOUR. Hey Now!

Our last stop was THE DOSEY DOE CAFE in CONROE TEXAS. www.doseydoecoffeeshop.com

This place was super cool, after driving around a good portion of Texas not to mention just gettin back from out EAST we were a little tired. We rolled up to the spot and it was connected to a strip mall. Truly folks, we've learned to keep an OPEN MIND on the ROAD. We walked into the spot and the second you walk in, it's like your in a trading post from the late 1800's early 1900's. And peppered through out the walls, were signed guitars by many a country great. We ALL once again had some extra pep in our step folks.  The twists and turns of this journey filled our SPIRITS with some of the MAGIC of the past. When MUSIC was the SHOW.  It was so cool. What ambiance, what history. I don't take a second of it for granted. To walk the highways of the STORY of music, to WALK the FOOTSTEPS of the GREATS, to TRY and LEARN. To TRY and BECOME BETTER. 

The show at the Dosey Doe was an earlier one ladies and gents. We took the stage at half past 7. Also known as 7:30. I do believe part of it had to do with it being the last night of pretty close to a month of being on the road. And I'm sure part of it was the mood of the cafe and how close the people and our band were. Super Intimate. It was beautiful. I had tears in my eyes for a good portion of the songs the entire evening. It was powerful. The range and exchange of EMOTION and ENERGY was very special and something I will never forget. The show in Conroe came with some extra Passion, we left it ALL on the STAGE.

BIG THANKS to STEVE, TEDDY, AMY, ELLEN, and the rest of the SUPER AWESOME STAFF at the DOSEY DOE CAFE. Thanks to Kevin for helpin us get things set up on stage.

And THANK YOU THANK YOU to  THE FEELIN BAND, thank you  DYLAN NAU, MAXAPHONE, TIMMY CARROW! JIM on sound, MA on merch. What an Adventure. Thanks to the rest of the FEELIN BAND holdin down the fort back home. Thanks DEBRA G., MIKE CINI and JOHNNIE TIMM. Thanks Miss Abi for the wonderful artwork. Thanks to Jackson for keepin the interwebs moving, as well capturin some VERY BEAUTIFULLY UNIQUE images. www.aframeforward.com ...Thank you to Mike and Maureen who help get the word out on what we're doin. And last but certainly not least, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to the WONDERFUL FOLKS at NEW FRONTIER TOURING www.newfrontiertouring.com for CONNECTING the DOTS and MAKING IT POSSIBLE for US to take it to the STREETS!

But what are streets without people? Well I guess they're still streets, but what is a TRIBE without PEOPLE? NOTHING. None of this would be possible without YOU folks. THANK YOU SO MUCH.

We'll HOPEFULLY see you out on the road. PEACE, PEACE, PEACE.