backroads is made possible by the minnesota arts and cultural heritage fund with money by the vote of the people november 4th [Music] 2008.

[Music] stories we tell cast their spell they cast their spell [Music] [Music] from [Music] do you belong [Music] when you walk your family the story that's in our skin some chattered bird doesn't make us kin yet the story within our heart is that we don't live that far [Music] are you apart and which [Music] does doesn't matter what it tells you cause the story you've lived till now which way you gonna write it out [Music] the story that we call ours the truth about stories that's all we [Music] are [Music] in which [Music] when you walk our kinship comes front and foreign [Music] does it matter that you rhyme [Music] i'm mary overly our group's name is mudsong and currently we have craig haugen who plays pretty much anything that we need him to play on this project he's doing guitar and saxophone and then dan schnuckenberg is our bass player and then pete mcdonnell who's my husband he's our drummer there was a version of the group when we lived in mankato it was my husband and i and then a couple friends of ours and then we moved up here and we started trying to figure out a way how are we going to keep going musically and there was a band called pelican railroad that was playing around town a lot and i got to know aaron tank that way and he introduced me to craig aaron has since moved to duluth we really needed a bass player and at that time aaron schnackenberg had just graduated from high school so he kind of came into our sphere for a while he moved away now we got don schnackenberg his little brother so it formed by the basis of relationships who knows who but i would say the thing that keeps us together is that we're all really interested in what's new because we really focus on whatever we're feeling is however the song is going to turn out so i think that's the glue of what we do i don't even know if like a working musician would call it soul but that's what i call it because it's so heavy on the bass line like we don't exist without a bass line rarely rarely can we find what we need to say without the bass line and then the saxophone and the keys and it can drift into rock and there's some funk and jazz mixed in there but i would say the sound that tends to dominate the mood of what we do in any given project is going to be soul [Music] [Music] i'm standing inside this fire the one that is stoked with my primal desire i'm seeking grateful help me find grateful cause i'm tired of being so low of seeing what is through this wounded ego grateful help me find my [Music] grace [Music] can you let your eyes rest and see the moments of life living eternally grateful let there be grace [Music] grateful when your heart is how many of the ways [Music] in your hands [Music] let your smoke take its rise like a [Music] prayers [Music] is i'm running out of words to say all of what i've seen here today [Music] let it be great [Music] um [Music] ah [Music] hey [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] as far as songwriting i consider it a very collaborative process but i think if you interviewed the guys they would say that i'm the lead on that that i come in with the ideas i'm definitely the lyricist and i can usually hear a phrase some sort of chord structure or some sort of bass line or some sort of rhythm and then they contribute the rest and so the songs don't exist without the four of us coming together and that thing that's born in between all of us but i'm definitely the generator although that feels a little artificial to say because they're always like i really have no idea where any given project is going it's not like i'm consciously trying to write all this stuff i equate it to working at sort of a potter's wheel like what's in the clay what needs to come out and we develop that project together collaboratively i would say every song is different whether it starts with lyrics or starts with a phrase i have a lot of phrases that i'm i think of it as being given that i'm just sort of wandering through my day and something really intense happens and 20 minutes later i'm humming a phrase and i'm like oh i better you know record that two months later i'll find it again and be like oh this is a song about you know whatever it's going to be about some songs start with phrases and lyrics together it really depends on the song so [Music] on the right he sticks to punish and control whipping chain your sin and soul child into him [Music] [Music] our jesus in this world of people tied up to one another's lives your sanctuary [Music] find that chapel in your heart [Music] nearly every time [Music] that was carved out just [Music] back into the loving place that [Music] sanctuaries [Music] sunbeams tell the balance healing stories [Music] [Applause] [Music] toward the softness of the light wraps me up within inside and leaves me [Music] step on through [Music] so [Music] [Music] i would say that one of the reasons that these stories we've been working together for 10 years so there's usually about a story a concept sort of project every year give or take i think music is one of the only places where you can really explore it because you can get the wedding of the feeling and the meaning like the lyric and the feeling can be there together and it's one of the few mediums where you can you can really say what you want to say but also feel what you need to feel and you have time you know you have like three to five to seven minutes to really like stretch it out and explore and just whatever you know the saxophone or the bass guitar is going to do to amplify all of that there's a quote by victor hugo he said something like music expresses that which cannot be expressed but on which it is impossible to remain silent he was probably talking about classical music but i feel like music is one of the only mediums that gives you that place to really do the whole experience of whatever theme it is you're working with [Music] so [Music] so [Music] be loved be loved [Music] be love [Music] hold your hand or your heart or her breasts with a part and feel it's heavy in that space you can chart a map to where you are without your knees rest right there be embraced where you sit liquid grace your remedy [Music] yes you'll see a trace of your own [Music] disgrace [Music] be [Music] please you trade love divine for approval every mankind you need to please staunch it up every hour while it creeps out it's sour smelling scream no one's soul has the power to force her down to a coward on your [Music] knees [Music] no you me be a race that's a lie to your face some chicken face [Music] yet you let it retrace all the times you were cased by its belly [Music] simple requests that will feel like a quest to be conceived light your hand on your chest don't believe you're unrest and simply [Music] breathe [Music] be [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] um [Music] [Music] be loved please be [Music] be loved be [Music] loved backroads is made possible by the minnesota arts and cultural heritage fund with money by the vote of the people november 4th 2008. if you enjoy watching backroads online please consider making a tax deductible donation at lptv.org