Sunday, December 28, 2014
I love music because...
I love music because it connects. It creates.
I love music because it's interesting and passionate and unexplainable- infinite.
I love the muse because the muse is everyone and everything.
The muse is you and the muse is me and the muse is everyone and everything.
I love music because it is soul speak.
Because music is healing.
Monday, December 22, 2014
(Trendy) Ugly Sweaters, the Yuletide, and Bluegrass Happenings
Happy Winter Solstice from the Dead Horses!
Above you see our fiddle/mandolin player, Tim, with his Minneapolis doppelganger. Not only did she happen to wear a shockingly similar sweater, but she also is a GINGER! So great to cross paths!
Saturday we had the great pleasure of playing the 6th annual Yuletide Sweater Ball at the beautiful Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis. I really enjoyed spending time with Travis and Kendall from The Lowest Pair- if you haven't heard of them go check them out now! We also got to play with Sans Souici and The Pistol Whippin Party Penguins. There's SO MUCH great music out there!
I found myself with a couple hours after the sound check and before the show, so I decided to take a stroll. I found myself sitting in a booth drinking a tasty old fashioned and looking up information about winter solstice.
I love the Midwest, but winter is hard for me! I could write about that but I have to wonder if it's even necessary. For those of us who live here, we know. There's a knowing about winter. Every year I take on a somewhat different strategy as to challenge myself to accept winter in a healthier way.
The Winter Solstice is the shortest day of the year, and although winter is truly just beginning, it also marks the days getting longer. This is a day that has been celebrated by human beings for thousands of years! I really appreciate that as it stands for our connection to human beings of the past in the way of human beings connecting with the earth and the cosmos.
The Winter Solstice marks the return of the sun, (just like Christmas celebrates the coming of the Son) and I find myself respecting darkness and its place... as well as the return of light. It's a time to take a step back and look at your life- a pre winter cleansing- what to walk with and what to walk from.
Having said all of that, we are pretty excited to take a little bit of time off from traveling and spend time with our families! Our next show is on New Year's Eve at the The Source Public House in Menasha. There is so much to be thankful for this year and I'm thoroughly excited to be sharing the coming of the New Year so close to home. On January 9th, we have been very excited to announce that we will be headlining the Isthmus Bluegrass Fest at the Majestic in Madison. This is quite the opportunity for us and we are looking forward to playing in such a beautiful venue with a great lineup of bands.
Happy holidays everyone and we hope to see you all soon!
Dead Horses @ The Source Public House (New Year's Eve!)
Dead Horses @ The Majestic (January 9th)
Monday, December 1, 2014
The hardest part of being a musician?
Not really sure to be honest! My answer today would be different than tomorrow or next week or year.
One thing I do find to be challenging time and again is in regards to the performance aspect. We'd all like to think of ourselves as artists, but we're creating our art every single time we play, every performance. If there's not a recording (and even if there is, really) there's nothing left behind besides a memory. Imagine if every painting done was invisible as soon as it was finished. How would that change the way we perceive paintings?
A lot of these thoughts came to me while thinking about the difference of playing at home in a room by myself and how I feel when I'm on stage with Dead Horses. In addition to the sound being different (room sound, amps and speakers, crowd noise etc) as well as all that extra energy rolling around the room, the lights, the smells, the set list or lack of one, the energy the band before left on stage and in the room...
There's also the freedom in sitting at home alone... choice to pick up the guitar when you want to, play whatever you want to, sing or not sing, stop a song in the middle or play it five times in a row. There's therapy in that.
And on stage the idea of what's going to happen and what needs to happen is different in every person's head- especially in the audience. This whole idea is partially why it's hard to hear people shout out songs that you don't really feel like playing!
At the same time, there's challenge in staying fresh on stage- a challenge that requires some discipline. And the reward is getting to work with new energy at every single show, to experience every song differently every time you play it, and to do that is a give and take between all the people in the room.
This I find as very spiritual.. we pack ourselves in these rooms and move our bodies around to the sound waves, energy waves back and forth, back and forth. Push and pull, ride, repeat.
One thing I do find to be challenging time and again is in regards to the performance aspect. We'd all like to think of ourselves as artists, but we're creating our art every single time we play, every performance. If there's not a recording (and even if there is, really) there's nothing left behind besides a memory. Imagine if every painting done was invisible as soon as it was finished. How would that change the way we perceive paintings?
A lot of these thoughts came to me while thinking about the difference of playing at home in a room by myself and how I feel when I'm on stage with Dead Horses. In addition to the sound being different (room sound, amps and speakers, crowd noise etc) as well as all that extra energy rolling around the room, the lights, the smells, the set list or lack of one, the energy the band before left on stage and in the room...
There's also the freedom in sitting at home alone... choice to pick up the guitar when you want to, play whatever you want to, sing or not sing, stop a song in the middle or play it five times in a row. There's therapy in that.
And on stage the idea of what's going to happen and what needs to happen is different in every person's head- especially in the audience. This whole idea is partially why it's hard to hear people shout out songs that you don't really feel like playing!
At the same time, there's challenge in staying fresh on stage- a challenge that requires some discipline. And the reward is getting to work with new energy at every single show, to experience every song differently every time you play it, and to do that is a give and take between all the people in the room.
This I find as very spiritual.. we pack ourselves in these rooms and move our bodies around to the sound waves, energy waves back and forth, back and forth. Push and pull, ride, repeat.