Community! Yeah!

Heeey Jude.

Well, we're home! We flew into Milwaukee last Thursday night around 11, shuttled to Pete's car, and drove home. Even in Milwaukee Pete made the comment, "the buildings all seem so spaced out!" I'm still sort of adjusting to the difference in pace, in lifestyle, but that's a common thing these days.

We played at the Farmers Market Saturday morning. That was a treat as it was acoustic. It was great to play unplugged. It was great to see family and friends and community members.

Saturday night I went to the Oshkosh Music Art Series Concert at the Algoma Club. It's a fundraiser for music education in Oshkosh. Dorothy Zerbe, The Guilty Wanted, and Copper Box played. It's not often that I'm in Oshkosh during the weekend, and it was so fantastic and encouraging to see the Oshkosh community getting together to celebrate art and say that it's important. I was reminded of how incredible our community here really is and how much it has to offer. Leif Larson also painted throughout the night and auctioned off his masterpiece near the end of the evening.

Whoever you are reading this, if we were sitting together with a drink I'd toast with you to lovers of art, lovers of people. It's an incredible thing to be a part of.

"What a long strange trip..." (San Francisco Part 4)

-Thursday night

And here we are in Studio D doing some rough mixes. It's late and we've been sitting in here most of the day. Breaks here and there- we just climbed up to the roof. Climbing on top of roofs seems to be a metaphor for me- a mark of a special night, and a mark of transition, change, growth I hope. Stared up and looked at the stars, the moon, the wall art, the people on the street, the tops of the trees...

Mixing up some of the tunes is a little surreal. Tunes that started blooming five years ago and tunes that were born five months ago. And then here I am. He we are.

And tomorrow everything begins new again. Just as I was starting to sink into this lifestyle. A day on the plane and then we'll be in Wisconsin and what comes next? That is a big question mark and one that even caused me some suffering for a while during our stay here. Just letting that go, and now we go home. 

Nonetheless, our time here has been magical. We have been honest because we haven't known anything else to be.

I tried coming here with a state of mind of effortlessness, welcoming the change, the new- moving with flow of things. And I guess I should approach going home the same way.

Something has been created and we've been not only immersed in it but immersed in a completely new environment. So to go home now and to hear it with fresher ears.... hopefully to hear everything with fresher ears, see everything in a new way...

"Oh, what a long, strange trip it's been..."

The Tenderloin District (San Francisco Part 3)

In the Tenderloin District


I see bright light sunshine, worn down buildings, old men smiling, drug transactions, people and their little dogs, old woman dressed in all red leather with a cowboy hat, cowboy boots, and a purple scarf

I hear French accents, accents of all kinds, children, change jingling, dogs barking, voices muttering, voices yelling, horns beeping, outdoor music playing, pigeons cooing

I smell life, I smell restaurant foods mingling, I smell joints burning, I smell bodies unbathed for who knows..

I taste their hunger

I feel my past path ghosts, I feel present, I feel my many "selves"- past, present, future, I feel ghosts from my past, ghosts who surely exist alive somewhere? I feel eyes

homeless folk and junkies and dealers and folks walking their little dogs and the sun on my skin and the cool polluted but still so fresh ocean air

and men calling me "princess" and wishing me well in California. "You a musician? Yeah we see lots of musicians standing in front of here. You sing? Yeah you look like a singer."

and I walked down the street in the morning trying to muster a genuine smile for these people instead of looking so serious and sleepy-eyed

and I tried to think of something to say to Joe at the coffee place while we sat outside- me smoking a cig and him smoking a roach he found on the ground. I tried to think of something to say.. to say.. instead I just sat with him and watched the tourists walk by because we weren't in the Tenderloin- I don't think many tourist folks go to the Tenderloin- not on purpose anyway.

And if I can't muster a smile I try to muster a nod- but not the kind of nod that implies anything- I don't want to do that. just a nod of respect. cause I haven't felt an ounce of disrespect from anyone in the Tenderloin. Everyone's doing their own thing.

And other times i'm aware my smile is in my eyes and that's all that's necessary- that's all that is.

How to draw a cartoon (San Francisco Part 2)

In a way, meeting Stephen Barncard like this and having him produce our record in a relatively short amount of time is sort of like meeting someone for the first time completely naked.

It would be like... if you got a brand new recipe and taste-tested it by tasting each ingredient individually. 

There were actually a few moments the first day that I worried that he would think we aren't very good or maybe even that he wouldn't like us as people or be able to work with us.

It turns out Stephen is a pretty wise and laid back guy and we've all been having a lot of fun together. Long days playing, long days sitting in the control room and playing back.. over and over and over again.

Stephen has compared the album making process to creating a cartoon of a performance. It's that ever-present predicament all different types of artists find themselves in... specifically for musicians, do you want your album to sound exactly like what you do live? Are you tailoring your album after your live show or vice versa? Or are you just going into the studio to make something that sounds neat?

For example:

Do we add drums on a song?

We never have drums at our show, but there are drums here and there are drummers. So if it sounds good on the track do we use it?

Most of all there's one main characteristic I wanted to focus on for our album and that is "honesty." And I think I want to spend the rest of our days here meditating on that.

In other news, we're doing fine over here! A good friend visited us yesterday and it was nice to have new energy in the room. Tomorrow we work again and then have a show in the evening. If you know anyone in the area, send them our way! We play at the Riptide at 730 PM- no cover.

I haven't had much contact with anyone from back home- I truly hope everyone is doing well. We had such  a great time at Deb's for the send-off. We're doing our best out here and hope you all can get something out of it when it's all said and done. We're so thankful for all the support and encouragement that we've been shown so far. 

I could write volumes about my thoughts regarding recording and San Francisco and music and album making, drawing cartoons, but honestly I'm tired from thinking about it all day every day. 

Instead, I'm going to write a list of five of the best highlight-worthy moments of the last couple days:

Here we go:

1.)Tim making us pancakes this morning
2.) Kayla visiting us (and bringing us goodies!)
3.) I met a cute tiny little pup outside this morning named "Neenah"
4.) A person off the street followed me into a convenience store and stopped me to ask if I am Russian. I said, "No," and he immediately disappeared.
5.)  We pranked Tim during one of his vocal takes... Jack turned on an effect that would switch Tim's voice to chipmunk mode on playback. Tim, of course, went along with it and played the part. He had the whole control room roaring with laughter. 

Still rolling! 

And here we are (San Francisco Part 1)

Three days later and we're here and we're in the middle of making an album.

The day of flying here is a daze. Flights went smoothly- boarding two different planes and trying to keep our instruments safe...

Arriving at the San Francisco airport, Dan went to pick up his bass. We sat outside the terminal and Tim picked away at his mandolin, we waited for our friend, Jack to show up.

Took the subway, took the bus, walked a few blocks and entered into Hyde Street Studio. The warm air, the green grass and leaves and... the human beings. Sometimes, especially when I walk in bigger cities, I feel like I'm watching a study on the race of human beings.

Tour through the studio and the layout, a little bit of the history... looking at the albums hanging on the wall. (Turns out even 2pac recorded here!)

And we crashed.

Yep, we've been sleeping at the studio. I've been sleeping great.

We've gotten to walk around a bit the last couple of mornings. It's been gorgeous and sunny and I love seeing all the people, the architecture, the culture and the feel. The studio is in a part of town called the Tenderloin- it's been around since 1969 (it was called the Wally Heider Studios until 1980) and has some really magical history. (You can google it if your interested:)) We even get to work with Stephen Barncard who has been producing records here for years.

And we've been recording...  getting the feel of things, adjusting, learning a lot.. Finding new ways to communicate, function and make decisions, taking musical risks.

Went to a Farmers Market today with Stephen, Pete and Dan.

Drank some of the best coffee at Philz Coffee (twice.)

Listened to our DayTrotter which just got released! Check it out: (You can get a free trial subscription to hear it if you don't want to purchase a year subscription.)

Dead Horses Daytrotter Session

We've been recording a lot of what's going on (besides through the console I mean!) So we'll have more to show you later, but here's some pictures I have access to right now...

We're rolling right along I'd say.

Hey! Spring is coming!

Sunday, 3/30/14 1:37 PM

Sunshine, blue skies, and open road! We are currently traveling from St. Louis back on home to Wisconsin. We've had a good few days in Illinois, Iowa and Missouri. We left Thursday, an early spring morning, light grey. A four hour drive took us to Rock Island, IL, where Daytrotter Sessions are recorded. If you aren't familiar with Daytrotter, click HERE. Recording there was pretty exciting- there's been a lot of talented people in there, and it's also a good warm up session for recording our next album in a couple of weeks. The recording went well. We did four songs and are excited for its release sometime in the next couple of weeks.

From Rock Island we drove up to Dubuque. It's such a beautiful city! Right on the Mississippi River, historic and sweet. The skies still grey and blue, the land finally just becoming uncovered from its white winter blanket. The world was looking especially different to me yesterday.

We arrived in Dubuque and checked out the venue we would be playing. We had the pleasure of sharing the night with Rebekah Rego and the Trainmen. This was our first show in Dubuque and the people there seemed really friendly.

I woke up Friday morning and walked around downtown Dubuque for a while myself. The streets were quiet and the skies were still grey blue. From Dubuque we headed on to Urbana, IL, sort of a twin city of Champagne. We played at a bar called "The Rose Bowl," naming itself as the home of country music. It was a fun show and we met some crazy cool people who let us crash at their place for the night. Lots of jamming was done into the night and in the morning they fed us with eggs, biscuits and gravy. I don't think that the realization of strangers' kindness and compassion will every grow stale. Seeing it, living it, and even somewhat relying on it is one of the best things about what we do.

Here we are in front of the Rose Bowl Tavern:

After hanging out in Urbana, we drove down to St. Louis. Saturday the skies were still grey- miles and miles of relatively flat land.. crossing the Mississippi. I have seen the arch before and I think it's astounding.

Our last show of the weekend was right in St. Louis at a venue called the Cherokee Performing Arts Center. We played with River Kittens and Scrambled . We arrived earlier in the day and there was an art show going on upstairs involving Harley Davidsons. Later in the day when we were getting ready for the show, hanging out outside, I had one of those great perspective moments when everything shifts and you sort of become aware of what you're doing and where you are from a slightly more subjective perspective. Many times when I have these moments I will say something like, "Here we are.. doing this right now, seeing this." We happened to be standing in St. Louis watching a group of bikers take off on their Harleys.

I'm aware that when we take trips like this, playing every day for several days in a row and spending a lot of time together in the van on the road, seeing and experiencing things together... our sets start changing. We become a little gutsier, a little more confident, a little tighter, and we all know that the set is the meat and potato to our day. Everyone stretches out just a little more.

Yesterday we also talked to Stephen Barncard who's going to be producing our next album. We fly out a week from tomorrow! There's been so much thought and feeling regarding making this album that I was relieved when I realized that in less than a month it'll be complete. Talking with Stephen set our minds at ease- I think he's going to be a good guide and it's going to be quite the honor to work with him in Heid Street Studio.

As a last minute fundraiser for our trip to California we are going to be playing a San Francisco send-off party at Deb's Spare Time here in Oshkosh on Friday. We sincerely hope to see you all there and jar up all your love and good vibes to take with us to California the following Monday. Show will start at 9 PM! 

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