Backroads is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund with money by the vote of the people November 4th, 2008.

I've been wondering about that whippoorwill and how strange songs hit you in the perfect way.

I've been spinning round on this carousel for so long I might just throw my shoes away.

Flourish as we float about the stars out in the Milky Way.

I'm just sitting on this lake shore pondering the sky and every single drop of rain.

Well, the song they're singing something about it rings so true.

Don't need a single word to get your message through.

All the animals are doin' it, even my dog can too.

So just listen as the whippoorwill sing that song whistling just for you.

Whippoorwill...Yeah.

Instrumental.

And I've been thinking about your gravity and how my heart, well it's kind of like a big old moon.

Got lotsa craters and lotsa cracks pulling on your tides.

I'm just trying to make the shorelines crash.

I'll settle for the perfect view up in the bleachers just so I can watch you dance.

Won't ya tell me about that whippoorwill one more time.

You always save the best for last.

And the song they're singing something about it rings so true.

Don't need a single word to get your message through.

All the animals are doin' it, even my dog can too.

So just listen as the whippoorwill sings that song whistling just for Well, the song they're singing something about it rings so true.

Don't need a single word to get your message through.

All the animals are doin' it, even my dog can too.

So just listen as the whippoorwill sings that song whistling it just for you.

Listen as the whippoorwill sings Listen as the whippoorwill sings that song he's a whistling it just for you.

I'm Christopher David Hanson and the band's called the Christopher David Hanson Band and I play with two fantastic musicians.

Jim Pila is the drummer and Shane Kingsland plays bass guitar and it's a three piece.

I knew I was gonna do this when I was like 10.

I started out as a drummer when I was in like fifth or sixth grade.

I got a guitar because I wanted to get effects pedals and do prank phone calls and that didn't really work out as a career and I ended up liking guitar.

Got signed up for lessons.

Played all through junior high, in high school then ended up going to Music Tech in Minneapolis which ended up being McNally Smith and then just played in bands in Minneapolis for 15 years and then moved up to the Iron Range about 2009 for good and then started my band up here and it started out as a big band.

It was seven pieces at one point, seven piece band and all kinds of people came and went.

We ended up with the three piece.

It's the most mobile we've been just 2-3 pieces now traveling all over the place.

Up a branch and holding Jetus drifted off to rest, mother conifer with her wings swept downwards covering the nest.

And he dreamed of all his siblings all their hopes for love and more.

As they settled for the winter, trouble crept across the forest floor.

Mister mischief fan the flames and he got hot up in the head.

Woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

All the forest creatures they were in for an awful treat as flurries drifted to the ground and he was turning up the heat.

They spread like wildfire touching everything around, from the bed of needles underneath to the bushes on the ground.

Cedar, spruce and juniper and even old jack pine, got the coals as bright as old sunshine.

But that little Pinecone he saw through the blowing cold, cast his eyes on the forest fire that was growing down below.

He called to Jetus said I need your help my friend, let's lose these boughs of snow and I'll plant my seeds again.

So Jetus of the forest and the Pinecone in the trees, they forged a lasting friendship that's whispered on the leaves and to this day I hear em talking from the tip top to the roots.

He watched for that trickster on the loose.

From this day I hear em talking from the tip top to the roots.

Keep watch for that trickster on the loose.

Won't you watch for Up a branch and peaceful Jetus drifted back to sleep and dreams of all the Pinecone seeds were scattered at his feet and in the springtime when the rains return and the days grow ever long and the saplings join the chorus, Jetus he just sings along.

I started writing pretty early on probably at the end of high school, so like 1990 or so I started writing my first songs that oh I would cringe if I had to listen to them right now.

Like they're awful but I started doing the songwriting then and just like most musicians played a lot of covers.

Learned all kinds of songs, played in cover bands but I was always writing my own songs in between that and then just recently within the last couple years joined a songwriting group.

Sarah Morris had asked me to join it a couple years back and there's a lot of fantastic writers in that group and that's on Facebook and they give you prompts every week.

Prompt words or photos and then you write your song.

You turn it in and so that's what where the songwriting really exploded.

I'd been writing before that but I'm probably writing about 70 songs a year right now.

Just normal.

Every door I touch reminded me of the city before I threw my heart into the wilderness.

Had my fill of self sabotage and rail whiskey.

My poor decisions just a badge upon my breath.

Everyone is vulnerable, yeah everyone's invincible.

We all got dreams that we've overslept.

My story might be your story.

I've seen beautiful things I can't forget.

Well, now every window I touch it seems a little dirty.

I only notice cause I feel like such a man.

Sometimes my heart is paralyzed, can't feel the look that's in me.

Getting my kicks on broken heart now and then.

Everyone is vulnerable, everyone's invincible and we all got dreams that we've overslept.

My story might be your story.

I've seen beautiful things I can't forget.

Well, I promise that I'll get you home.

Grab your travel bags and all your clothes.

Make the best of the time that we have left.

Find a heart and hold it close.

Stop dancing with that same old ghost.

Get out of your own way and make amends.

Everyone is vulnerable, everyone's invincible.

We've all got dreams that we've overslept.

And my story might be your story.

I've seen beautiful things I can't forget.

I've seen beautiful things I can't forget.

Beautiful things I can't forget.

Beautiful things I can't forget.

I've seen When I first started things were riff oriented.

You know it had to be a guitar part and then I would fit the lyrics to that and they didn't really tell a great story because they were, you know, they were kind of an afterthought.

As I've been writing more and more I've really focused on the story songs.

So things have changed.

I usually have like a rhythm that I like.

I won't write any guitar.

I will just sit down and I'll pen out a story that's you know three times longer than what I'm going to end up with and then I'll sit down with it after I get all the lyrics and then i'll just kind of whittle it down and do the crossword puzzle thing.

Move words like and and but and the to make things fit and gel.

And I like the story songs a lot better.

Just being a traveling musician and having to remember, you know, a lot of times we're playing four sets.

You know almost 40 songs in a night.

Story songs are they're a blessing when you're trying to remember all that stuff.

If you get lost, you just where am I in the story and you can usually get through it.

So, and think folks really enjoy the story songs a lot.

I think they connect.

Drummer gimme that beat now.

I want to play this song.

See I was trying to find a story something important I can tell.

I've been looking under rocks and stones and seedy motels.

It ain't about a hero or a heartache as far as I can tell.

And it might ramble on just a bit too long, oh well but if you got the time I've got a song, just keep stringing along.

Sweet mother on the mountain yeah a little big of sugar in my tea.

We've been walking in the dark so long with two left feet and I've been waiting on that sunshine to come and tickle my cheeks.

We've been running down the dreams so deep just like roots on a tree yeah and it ain't about cars or money as far as I can tell.

I know a little bit about a little bit and I guess I'm doing well but if you got the time I got a song just stringing along.

Well I've been strung along by lovers and I've been strung out on wine.

Been tied in knots so tight I can't tell my front from And you get a longer shelf life with some slack in the line.

Restring your old guitar and she'll play just fine.

And I said if you got the time I've got a song.

Just keep stringing along.

Oh yeah, I said if you got the time I've got a song.

Just keep stringing along.

I said if you got the time I've got a song.

Just keep stringing along.

So I do a show called the Minnesota Color My Radio Minnesota Music Hour and I do that over in Ely at WELY and bands from all over the state send in their music and it's like an hour-long program and I get to hear all these great Minnesota bands but the more that I do that, the more I realize the whole state is kind of one small town when it comes to musicians, like the whole state.

Pretty much everybody you're one degree away from any band or musician and I know that there's a lot of different styles and stuff out there and there's lots of little scenes popping up all the time but it's still fairly small.

I remember when when I started out it seemed like a giant mountain and the closer that I've got to it, it's not.

It's just there's a lot of little connections all over and it's very supportive.

There's different scenes in different parts of the state.

The Minneapolis scene, there's the St.

Cloud scene.

The Iron Range has an incredible original music scene which kind of blew my mind when I started the band up here.

I didn't really know if the original music thing was going to work.

There are a lot of cover bands up here as well.

They're very good but there's a giant network of original artists and I'm constantly getting music from folks you know across the state but a lot from the Iron Range.

On my lonely days I get a little ornery, looking for a change in these shades of blue.

But I keep hanging on like the chorus of a song, won't you sing along and get me through.

Took that sour talkin' and put it on a shelf, too old to be fighting with myself.

But I'm done with heavy stones and breakin these old bones.

I'll never be nobody else.

Give me love and all that love.

Just give me love if you can.

I live for you and I will die for you.

Give you my heart but you already have it.

Oh, yeah you do.

Well, the world keep on turning and the cloud keep throwing shade, that flowerbed out back, well it keeps on drinking rain.

Eyes on the road and I try to keep it in my lane cause that dark deep ditch is taking names.

And it makes no difference to worry, that elephant can't leave the room.

So hunker down your hat and get the dragon off your back.

Get some good love inside you.

Instrumental.

Give me lovin', all that love, just give me love if you can.

I live for you and I will die for you.

I give you my heart but already have it.

Oh, yeah you do.

Just give me love, all that love.

You know, I think there's like one tried and true method if you're trying to get up and running anywhere and that's just to go to open mics.

You know, that's like what I've always known to do.

You just go to open mics and meet people and network and that's exactly what I did and I was going to Ely and going to the steak house's open mic nights.

Playing there, meeting people and it's just, you know, everywhere I've been even when I lived in Minneapolis.

That's how I did it.

You just go to those open mics.

Meet those people, network.

You're going to find somebody you can jam with.

It's been a tough year by anybody's standard.

I had a few setbacks caught me a winter cold.

Little things like this seem to add up.

At least I got some food and the house is warm.

And I've been holding on to my horses.

Saving my spare change for the storm.

And it's a rainy lazy holiday and so I break out my piggy bank and I empty all my pennies on the floor.

I used to give the bars all my money.

Never even made it a second thought.

I want to give you the good life.

I guess it's the thought that counts.

I'm a little bit down and out.

I hope you like candles and socks.

Well, I got my favorite shirt with the meet-up shiny buttons.

Secondhand thrift store dollar shop.

These old blue jeans, they've gone miles and miles and miles, so many times around the I used to give the bars all my money, never even gave it a second thought.

I want to give you that good life.

I guess it's I'm a little bit down and out.

I hope you like candles and socks.

I used to give the bar all my money, never even gave it a second thought.

I want to give you that good life.

I guess it's the thought that counts.

I'm a little bit down and out.

Hey, why you movin' out?

I got you candles and Backroads is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund with money by the vote of the people November 4th 2008.