Springtime and Bee Kisses

Well it's springtime (sorta) and I hope you all are enjoying the sunshine and relatively warm weather we've been having! It sure makes loading in equipment and riding in the van a lot easier.

I asked the boys what they're favorite things about springtime are.. They agreed that they're looking forward to watching the weather grow warmer slowly, but I think the most notable response was Dan's which was something like:
"Bees! Getting stung by bees... it's like getting kissed by bees."

It's been quite the last few weeks for us. We played in Decorah, Iowa, last weekend. The ride to and from was really beautiful. We saw a few bald eagles and crossed the Mississippi into Chickentown Land. We also played at the Shortbranch Saloon in Neenah. That show was exciting as one of our friends, Tony, proposed to his girlfriend during our set.

Last Sunday I also played a show at Malarkey's in Wausau with Adam Greuel of Horseshoes & Handgrenades. After our set he played another set with their banjo player, Russ Pederson.

I stayed for their set and really enjoyed it. Hanging out in a bar listening to live music isn't something I get to do very much unless I'm preparing to play myself. I had this realization about how it can be from a musician standpoint playing shows at all these different types of venues..

You have all these ideas. How you want the song to sound. How you want your guitar to sound. How you want your voice to sound. How you want the energy to flow. What you want the vibe to feel like.

And it's not necessarily that you want all these things a specific way, but I think you imagine them a certain way at the least..

And then you get to the venue and nine times out of ten it's completely different than what you had imagined for the night. There are a million different things that can affect this. On Sunday, we were playing the post Trampled By Turtles party. Most of the people at the bar had just spent the last couple of hours jamming to Trampled. (On a side note, I met some really amazing people that night...Lots of good energy in the room.)

You can be thrown off by a text you get right before your set. Or the lighting in the room. Or the background noise. Or the way the building and the room makes the sound. Or the person in front of the crowd...

And don't get me wrong- I think most musicians pride themselves on being able to play through all these things.

I write a song in my little bedroom, singing and playing.
And then I go into a crowded bar and play the song through speakers over voices and pool cues and ... the next day it's at a festival- you're outside and there's sunshine and bugs and dancers ... and most of all I think it's the people there- it's the energy in the room.. what's been in the room before... One single person in the room can change a whole show.

The reality of it is different every time....



Here's a picture our friend, Jack, shared with us :  Bread Horses