listen closely, but don't breathe a word of this to anyone. . .

our secret is: vitamin pills. how do they pack all of those vitamins in little pills? we don't know. vitamins AND minerals? i have no idea! but is it true that the calcium in these pills comes from ground up animal bones?

so our next small public humiliation is scheduled for this thursday. when i used to play two or three shows a year, i used to get "the jitters®" and "the shakes®." now i just get tired. you know the line from "hello, hospital" that says "i bled myself dry"? that's me every time. that's why i close my eyes when i sing and play because it's kind of humiliating to think people are watching you singing these private words. i'm not one for entertaining; if we're entertaining to you, fine, but i'm really here to a) excorcise my own demons and b) create something beautiful. the collective idea is working out well so far. because we don't ever have the same people playing with us, each show is a new interpretation of the songs. this can make practice an uncomfortable chore, but be that as it may. . .

it looks like we're doing the following on thursday at the water city grill: from 8:45-9:45 i'll be performing semi-solo, doing mainly my more folk-y solo material. at 10pm we'll be doing a set of collective stuff with:

steev-acoustic guitar
scott-electric bass
jordan-violin
emily-cello
jessica-piano
and maybe jesse with his damned electric guitar

so come over and see us drinking free beer and getting paid $200 to entertain you,

most affectionately,

steev

the up and coming sounds

so we've been hard at work crafting new layers of sound and fun. our most recent incarnation was friday night at the windhover center for the arts in fond du lac. we played four songs as part of a multi-performer benefit concert for the windhover. turn out was small, although we made lots of new friends. we played as a four-piece with acoustic guitar, piano, violin and electric bass. emily was busy that night with dr. kickbutt's orchestra of death and was not able to join us.

we have two shows coming up--saturday the 23rd at the rock island cafe in neenah; and thursday the 28th at the water city grill in oshkosh. make sure to come to both of those shows to hear how various line-ups interpret the songs. on saturday, jesse will be playing electric guitar, scott on bass, steev on acoustic guitar and kara on viola. on thursday, the line-up will be emily on cello, jessica on piano, scott on bass and steev on guitar.

jessica and i went over to madison on saturday to watch damien jurado. he stopped by our table and chatted with us for quite a while--mainly about our kids. we were able to slip him a copy of "falling signs", so hopefully he'll to listen to it on his tour and we'll gain a friend in high places. his set, by the way, was incredibly great. he played a smattering of new songs, a few older songs--many from "i break chairs" and he had a tight, noisy backup band that really made the songs energetic. i picked up a copy of his new album, "on my way to absence".

much heart,

steev