Whirlwind Weekend

What a fantastic week! It began on a thursday to record The Local Show that would be aired on Minnesota's public radio station The Current. I was invited by local columnist/musician Jim Walsh, who hosts a show called the Hootenany in Minneapoils. He get's a handfull of musicans together to do an intimate show in which they all share stories and songs. This was a promotion for photographer Tony Nelson's Hoot photography and pictures artists in there place that they like to do their songwriting. He took a picture of me walking in my neighborhood. I like to take walks and come up with ideas for songs.

The radio show was great. I played a song called Not Quite So High from the new album, which is about hubris, being ego-less, the stress of promoting yourself and the tarot card The Chariot. The song became The Currents "Song of the Day" on June 26th.
You can listen to the entire show HERE.

After the radio show I packed up and headed over to the Turf Club for sound check with Ike Reilly. My good friends were back in town and Ike called me up last minute to join them on leads guitar for the evening (see previous posted blog). We got to go over a bunch of songs and then hit the stage at 10:45pm.

I think the club was sold out. From the stage I saw people backd up to the entrance door!

We played really well and the people loved it. Having been the second official show as guitarist for these guys, I felt alot more comfortable in knowing my parts, so it was mostly having lots of fun and enjoying the moment. After the show, Ike invited me on for the rest of the tour but I had to be in Seattle the next day (or should I say that morning!). We stayed up late and caught a plane out west just hours after the show.

My wife and I flew into Seattle and then drove to Portland for her brother's wedding. We spent some time checking out vintage stores like we love to do (see a previous posted blog) and got to visit the Jimi Hendrix memorial. What a feeling. It was really cool to be standing where his body is. That physical form that been to so many places and "experienced" so many things and was the home to a real unique talent we called Jimi Hendrix. He was a huge insperation to me. Emotion through a feedback guitar changed how I approached my playing. Surrounding the grave were some of his lyrics in his handwriting on big flat marble stones. It was raining. I got out a peice of paper and wrote the first thing to come to my mind, "Love, Always, Love" and placed it on a spot above his graved to be burned into the ether.

Brigid and I took a limo from Portland to the coast with the wedding party. Her brother was passed out while my wife and I shared shots of vodka witha man we called the Mad Russian.

In his thick accent we toasted and he continued to tell us, with many stories, that "life is short". Not sure if I told him my band's name was Little Man. Anyway, when Brigid and I got to be on the ocean beach together, in the wee hours of the morning, we seriously thought about that theme and enjoyed the moment.

Next morning we headed up the coast back to Seattle to catch a plane home. Lots of white knucle driving up and down and around these seaside roads, beautiful view, hardly any sleep. But we made it to the airport just in time, sank into our seats with a sigh of relief and came home. What a whirlwind!

Buzz Show!

Bio:

“Buzz Dandlewick is a former Junction City anchorman whose coworkers called him "Dandypants" because of the outrageous pants he'd wear to work, so during broadcast, the public could never see his bottom half, but it was a running gag at the station. Buzz is known for his keen observation skills and a profound patience for getting all the right answers. Hence, his ability to wait in a closet for hours just to get that last question in. Today he lives in Minneapolis with wife Gertrude and cares for his nephew Myron, who Buzz calls son, because he gets a tax break. (Myron’s folks have been pogoing from South Africa to Siberia and haven’t been heard from in years.) While trying to find more work in these difficult times he's been doing interviews of people he finds interesting to keep his skills up to par.”

The husband and wife team of Alan Pagel and Laura Wilhelm, of Mad Munchkin Productions, created these characters and I sat with them to discuss some possibilities of the idea of having one or two of their puppets interview me as Little Man in a bunch of different scenarios. We turned on the little Flip-Video camera and recorded these videos off-the-cuff and unrehearsed. As you’ll see the result was hilarious and fun. I also created the Buzz Show theme song which you can get on your cell as a ringtone! People have been loving that.

CLICK HERE FOR ALL THE PARTS that include:
Part 1 - "Greetings"
Part 2 - “In Bed”
Part 3 - “Cooking”
Part 4 - “Over for Dinner”
Part 5 - “Guitar Lesson”
Part 6 - “What to Wear”
Part 7 - "Meditation"

My Books!

I'm a big reader. Although I do like fiction and sci-fi like Herbert's "Dune" and Heinlein's "Stranger In A Strange Land", I mostly read non-fiction. I like biographies on musicians and resource books on symbols. There is also a collection of classic myths and folklore. I usually read a few books at a time. It’s kinda like changing a channel on a tv.

My most intense reading and what I find most fascinating are books of religions and of non-dualistic philosophies of the East, like that of Zen, Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta and Hinduism. All of which (in a nutshell) focus dropping your ego, the transcending of the world of opposites and present moment living. This stuff is always challenging my way of thought and it’s the hardest thing ever to verbally explain this sort of thing to people. Reading and experiencing it is one thing, sharing it with others is another. I find it best to express myself through my music and a lot of what I write is inspired by such material. Others point to the way verbally very easily. Check out Alan Watts, Joseph Campbell and Sri Nisargadatta among others.

If you’re interested in this sort of thing I’ve set up a library on the right side of the blog console. It contains a number of books that I read often along with some other things that pertain to the blog. It’s created from Amazon.com, a place I like to search and buy books from. If you see something you think you might like, buy it through my bookstore in my blog. Let me know if you’ve read any of the books in my library and we can discuss some of it. You can use the Amazon search engine here to find something else that interests you. By doing so you’ll be helping me in supporting my websites. Take a look.

Bring It On Home

In an effort to get to know some folks better that come to see me play with the band, I thought it would be cool to play directly for them at their house. I call it a parlour show. It’s been a long winter and sometimes it’s hard to get out of the house. Some people have kids that haven’t had the opportunity to come see a show or have never been exposed to live music like this. I wanted to entertain with my songs and maybe inspire some kids and adults to play music too. Families could create small dinner parties and get-to-gethers and I’d play for them solo acoustic in their living rooms. People seem to know me from the media or shows, but to be closer to them is a good artist/fan relationship.

The response was really good and I got to play for a variety of families and their friends. From a family of 3 to a party of 20 these people were generous and very attentive with all sorts of questions about my music and what I do, and I got to know a lot more about them in return. Instead of being up on a stage without the personal interaction, I was right next to them in the welcoming environment of their home.




The most rewarding was playing to a family of which two of the members where visually impaired. The smiles I got back from them while I played were huge and I found it difficult to get though some of my songs because it made me so glad that I was making them happy. The whole family was just thrilled to have such an event at their own house. They wrote back, “For us, it will always be a night to remember!”

This is the Menard family.

I hope I can do more of these. If you’re in the area or close by when we’re on the road and you’d like to host something like this, you can contact me.

Mick S. wrote, “…you were very friendly and very down to earth. Most rockers wouldn’t even bother to do what you did. For that I hold you in very high esteem.”

Thanks everyone for your participation!

Little Man plays with Ike Reilly

I had the privilege of joining Ike Reilly for a show at Minneapolis' historic First Avenue as lead guitarist on Nov. 26th 2008. Our releationship goes way back to when I lived in Chicago and toured with Ike as his guitar tech./roadie for close to two years. Drummer Dave Cottini used to be Little Man's drummer and Ed Tinley and I went to college together at DePaul University. Both of them, including Ike, have continued to be a part of supporting Little Man recordings in various ways. (Shot from the first row, this video is a little shakey at first!)

In 2001, I had set Little Man aside to be on their national tours in hopes to gain some touring experience and meet some industry folks. Although it was really fun to be traveling on a bus all over the place with friends, it was difficult for me not to have the release of playing a show every night and to be on the sidelines.

With the absence of Phil Karnatz for the Thanksgiving Eve show, Ike invited me to take his place along side bassist Tommy O'Donnell. The show brought back some good memories and a feeling of fulfillment for me. It was a one hell of a show.

In addition to helping out on guitar, Little Man got to open the evening to a fantastic crowd.

See all the pics by Alexa Jones HERE and See some of the Little Man set in video HERE.

Of Mind And Matter Album Release

Of Mind And Matter is available now!!!The band celebrated the release with a fantastic show to a packed crowd at The 7th Street Entry. The band was enhanced with a guitarist/keyboard player and two female back-up vocalist to help recreate the albums sound. Little Man performed the entire album from start to finish.

See VIDEO.

This picture was taken by Darin Back.

Click here to see PHOTOS by Alexa Jones.

Little Man's forth full length album Of Mind And Matter is a strong companion to 2007's acclaimed Soulful Automatic. While still a good mix of acoustic and rock songs this album has more lush layered vocals, guitars, organ and strings that create a dynamic landscape. Produced by Ed Tinley, it was recorded in an old hunting lodge and a little house in Chicago.

Read an article from the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Of Mind And Matter is a digital release. The amaizing cover photo by Emily Utne can be yours. You'll recieve by mail the special edition cover art card that contains the code to download 12 songs, 2 documentry videos, pictures, lyrics and liner notes. LISTEN to some of the tracks. Order yours HERE now!!

Little Man makes news with vintage.

I like vintage clothes. Thrift stores, yard sales, vintage clothing shops are all the sorts of places my wife and I go to find unique clothes. We brought Minneapolis paper, The City Pages, along for a vintage shop about town. Emily Utne took some great pictures. It was an effort to help promote the stores we shop at often. These stores and there owners have been super kind in helping me find clothes that fit and look great, so we wanted to give a little back to them by telling everyone about these great neighborhood shops. We visited Rewind, Up Six, Lula (1587 Selby Ave St Paul) and Go Vintage (1560 Selby Ave St Paul) The feature ran in this past weeks City Pages. You can read it here: Fashionably Yours.