back roads is made possible by the Minnesota arts and cultural heritage fund with money by the vote of the people November 4th 2008 this is a song about going home for the holidays it's called going [Music] home you can always picture the lines on the side of the road going [Music] by There's Something About This quiet little town that makes me feel [Music] secure even though it's changing something never change and that's for sure and as I wander through the familiar streets and avenues my own [Music] neighborhood I'm reminded of when I was young everything made sense and life was [Music] good I'm going home [Music] I'm going home and there's something about this humble little house that puts my mind at [Music] ear the shoveled walk the cuckoo clock the oak trees swaying in the [Music] [Applause] porch light on the front door open fire burning in the [Music] heart and the arms that b me welcome B The Embers of the love that's in my heart I'm going home oo I'm going [Music] home no matter where I wander there will always be a place where I can live my burdens and find gen you in Grace it's the purest Sanctuary I have I've ever known the only place that I will ever [Applause] call oh ooh I'm going [Music] home going on [Music] no matter where I wonder there will always be a place where I can lay my burdens and finding you in Grace is the purest Sanctuary that I have ever known the only place that I will ever call oh oh I'm going [Music] home going home [Music] wo kind of a musical family my parents are singers my brothers sang and um I was the one who pursued instruments I think more than other people in my family but I grew up singing in church singing in school and I was just always a part of it and always loved music and uh I think once I I hit my teenage years you know I I would became a drummer first and then uh I started thinking about college and I thought well taking a set of drums to college might not work so I better learn something else so I picked up guitar and taught myself that and just immediately started writing songs which was kind of most people take lessons and don't write songs and I did the opposite I didn't take lessons and just started writing songs so that was my way everybody has their own way you know for years I was um actually more of a guitar player than a drummer to the point now where a lot of people don't even know that I play drums and so uh love the opportunity to do that lately I'm focused mostly on writing original music and uh and Performing that when and where I can uh making my living playing though in establishments playing 70s radio Eagles America and everything like that and uh loving loving that part of my life yeah I have three older brothers one brother in particular had a really nice old sound system with the Pioneer receiver and the realistic speakers and the te real toore with like four hours of music on it that he'd put on their from his vinyl and he was listening to America the Eagles the stones Jackson Brown Elon John I'm probably throwing in some that he didn't really listen to but as I thought about 70s radio I went you know what that lends itself really well to acoustic guitar and vocal right and not a full band and also it's the music I have on my business card you'll know every song and and I get that a lot from people people come up to me after my show or during my show and they say I'm sitting right over there singing along to every single song this next song is about uh the sledding hill in my hometown of Austin Minnesota it's called Skinner [Music] Hill well I'm fing time standing still me and my red plastic said flying down Skinner [Music] Hill well I'm [Music] flying I'm standing still and my red plastic sled flying down Skinner [Music] hill now yesterday sitting in class staring out the window window watching the snow falling down I think they were teaching me math I don't remember it all seems so pointless now that I'm [Music] flying I'm standing [Music] still me and my red plastic sled flying down skers hill now mother says I have to eat something before I go out for the day some old me little C and crunch maybe a piece of fruit or popped out with some fruity filling [Music] o the nce and cozy in the woman house I guess I'll take another run somebody's dog just stole my stocking cab but I don't care I'm having to much [Music] fun flying time standing still me and my red plastic sled flying down skers hill oh yeah I'm flying I'm standing [Music] still me and my red plastic flying down skers to time standing still [Music] flying down skinners [Music] hill flying down skers hill flying down hill so when I first started writing music uh there was a lot of inspiration they talk about the balance of inspiration and perspiration and I think that when I first got into it uh I just let songs hit me and I would just run with them get an idea and just run with it and I didn't do do a lot of what they call woodshedding you know go and really work on the song after you've got it written like to craft it and shape it and hone in on where you're really trying to go did a lot less of that I originally just would take an idea five minutes later okay that's a song now I'm a lot more um deliberate and I take a lot of time and I second guess myself a lot more and uh and I'm thankful that some people who are really successful the business have given me some good advice to spend a lot more time in the persperation phase the inspiration phase is great but spend more time in the persperation phase and so um I'm really enjoying writing songs that hopefully will have a meaning to people uh that it's not just entertainment I mean songs that are pure entertainment are great um but I like to write stuff that makes you think makes you hearken back to a different time in life a lot of my songs are about my wife and I or about my parents my in-laws family members people who have passed um I I write a lot of stuff that that chokes me up it's hard to sing and uh this is one of my things that I I laugh at myself and people laugh at me about this but if I'm singing a song that is particularly emotional and I'm starting to get choked up I start thinking hockey in my head I'm on stage I know I'm playing guitar sing singing but I'm thinking hockey and it's the only way I can get through it without getting all choked up I'm thinking Mighty Ducks going in on the goalie right left right up in the corner that's what I have to do or dump trucks is another good one I'll think about dump trucks but you got to do what you got to do you know if you're especially for me if you're singing sentimental stuff and people who have been important to you who have moved on it's it's tough to do so this is a song about growing up and all the fun stuff we did when we were kids it's called Small Town Summer [Music] Nights Small Town Summer Nights best days of my life bare foot not a care in the world Truth or Dare kiss a girl hi and go see Kick the Can I think I just heard the ice cream man mom can I please have 50 cents he's almost too a Street can I stay out a little longer just a little longer please we're playing red light green [Music] light on this small town Summer [Music] Night small town Summer [Music] Night Chasing Fireflies 25 cents written in crayon c table corner Lemonade Stand running through the sprinkler trying to stay cool riding on bikes to the swimming pool go went down to the lake for the fireworks [Music] display think it's getting dark when they going to start I can't get my Sparkle or to [Music] light on the Small Town Summer Night [Music] Small Town Summer [Music] Nights simpler [Music] Delights jumping rope climbing trees coming home with dirty feet fresh cut grass a gentle breeze hey dad's taking us to the dere Queen Pile in the back of the station wagon wav it all the cars [Music] lying on the rooftop look at all the stars they shine so [Music] bright all those small town Su nights [Music] [Applause] [Music] they shine so [Music] bright those small town Summer [Music] Night small to Summer Nights [Music] there was a time when I was dating my wife I was young probably 15 didn't have a driver's license yet and the walk to her house was a little over a mile and it was actual temp 30 below with high winds so they were saying on the news it's 100 below windshell so whatever you do don't go outside you're risking life and limb well being a 15-year-old and in love I dressed up bundled up and and walked the little over a mile to my girlfriend's house and uh who is you know now my wife of almost 40 years and uh uh even though I tell that story uh it inspired the song the song is called out here and it's about two young lovers out for a walk in the snow but it's a beautiful light snowy day it's not a risk your life kind of day so it's not based on that story but it was inspired by that [Music] story it's been snowing all day I had to see you anyway [Music] really coming down out here can we just walk around my dear Sor and gashes who cares if they watch us nothing to see out here it's just you and me my dear I'm holding your hand holding my breath taking a chance that you'll say yes I'm just a love sick boy I feel like a clown I don't know what to say [Music] it's really coming down out here really coming down out [Applause] [Music] here it's been snowing all day [Music] I had to see you anyway really coming down down here but look what we found my [Music] dear a winry [Music] world for love sick boy and an in a and girl lost in a storm out here but I've never felt so warm my dear I'm holding your hand holding my breath taking a chance and you'll say yes just to love sick a boy feel like a clown I don't know what to say it's really coming down out here really coming down how he [Music] it's been snowing all day I had to see you [Music] anyway I've got a band now and we did our first show uh at Star seed which is a Listening Room in Walker and um the band is uh it's going to be a four-piece band B uh I play CU guitar and and sing primarily a little bit of harmonica we have a pedal steel player Albert swendal from Albertville uh bass player who I've worked with he's from my hometown of Austin Minnesota and he and I have been together for at least 10 years Scott Anderson and he's fantastic Bas player just so much experience and and just a wealth of knowledge a great guy uh and then we have got a drummer named Bart Wallace who's from Cross Lake and so our sound is is very what I call Americana with a little bit of a jazzy flare to it you know if you get to know my songwriting style it's acoustic I wouldn't call it folk it's more singer songwriter that's why Americana is kind of a catchall phrase and and that's where I it's where I put my put my description is Americana with hints of Jazzy influences yeah so it's it's always been a dream of mine to to have a band playing my original Tunes which I did have briefly in Austin but then I I moved from Austin but so now that I'm up here I asked these guys and they're all in so we're uh we're enjoying it we had our first show and we've got shows coming up in in March and April so looking forward to this is love in a Midwestern town [Music] he said behind her an English [Music] 5if she was the one from the moment he saw her they were and looking to see what they found love in a Midwestern town they married young right after high school [Music] started a family a beautiful girl the next thing you know the heaven a son [Music] love in the midwestern turn [Music] Town love in a Midwestern [Music] Town [Music] life oh life try to take them [Music] down but through better and worse richer and poorer and signal and health they share each other now she packes lunch lays out his clothes he goes to bed when the plant with blows they fall asleep without a sound [Music] love in a Midwestern [Music] Town Midwestern [Music] town in the midwestern Town back roads is made possible by the Minnesota arts and cultural heritage fund with money by the vote of the people November 4th 2008