 Backroads is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, with money by the vote of the people November 4th, 2008. There's trust in the window, wintertime's no reason to stay I don't be home by mornin', it's a long way to Frisco Gotta get an early start Frisco, man, it's not half as far And traveling to the coast there, it's never been a carousel She said, she said, he said, they said, and now I say it fairly well Alberta, most northern lights are bound to fade There's trust in the window, wintertime's no reason to stay I don't be home by mornin', look for me, I'm Frisco way I'll Frisco way Thank you I'm Bruce Archer from Baxter, Minnesota and I play country blue style music grounded in, you know, old style, old time and roots And when did you first get into music? My friends and I, way back in high school in the 70s where, you know, it started off driving around in cars, singing along, and then this guy in gym class I'd be singing some Beatles song and say, I can play that on guitar and after a while it started kind of getting to me and I thought, I think I want to play that on guitar so I was 16 and got my first guitar and just kept learning anything I could When I went to college in Iowa State I'd go to these local bars that had regional musicians come in and I'd just watch the guitar players and it just kind of went from there, you know This one's called, Think About It I wrote it quite a while ago Whenever I play it my wife says, I need to tell you that I didn't even know her when I wrote it So it's not about her Think about it, babe Where do we go from here? If we walk away Will the trouble disappear? One minute we're happy The next we're sad One minute we're loving The next we'll get mad And that time come around and I'm sitting in the dark I guess I got a ticket to a Confusement Park I want to think about it, babe Where do we go from here? If we walk away Will the trouble disappear? We fight about the kitchen Fight about the sink Who's going to do the dishes Fight about the drinks Fight about the garbage We fight about the lawn I think I got your message But before I move on Classic train red Fight out in a front yard We take it to the street We fight on or about the car And we never miss a beat Think about it, babe Where do we go from here? If we walk away Will the trouble disappear? I'm getting good and ready To go in and get some sleep My nerves are still unsteady But this argument can keep I know I shouldn't sleep on it We should work it out But I believe it's time to shut this Roller coaster down Think about it, babe Think about it, babe Thank you The first couple of years Even though I thought I was ready To just go out there I mainly was sitting in my room Or there was one place I lived That I shared rooms with three other people And then there was this six bunk bed Room where we all slept And I found myself practicing In the phone closet a lot But after about three years of playing I got confident enough There was a place called the Catacombs On campus in Ames And I go there and play It was open stage And there was a lot of young musicians Very receptive audience And I played there Maybe about a year and a half And then I got my first ever gig At a pizza place They had a stage set up in the basement With a bar And they said they'd give me 20 bucks And I was thrilled So I went and played And some of my friends came from the dorms And went good The bartender really liked me He gave me, he said I'll give you 40 bucks And here, go talk to this guy He used to be a guy who owned a music store downtown And he had a couple bluegrass bands going And he heard I played slide guitar But what he wanted was dobro So he taught me a couple of banjo roles On the dobro And said I could come play a gig with them And I did, trial by fire And then that got me on my way to The kind of the style of bottlenecking I play Where at its heart It's based on what that guy all those years ago Showed me on the dobro With the hammering on, pulling off And the guy was a real inspiration It's a recent song based on being back Where your roots are And seeing things there And seeing the way people live Because when I left that area Some of the things I thought were really Boring and just like Why would I want to do that? Why want to be a rock star? I never wanted to actually be a rock star I wanted a niche I wanted a, you know, I want to be a recording artist I don't want to be this, that, and the other thing Then stay here But, you know, as years go by It's like, it turns out Those things are real, I mean Now I'm a dad and it's great I wish I would have started earlier And that's what that song's kind of about Having a newfound respect in the song I call her Sister Mary But having a newfound respect for Sister Mary You stayed in our hometown And I can leave all my baggage somewhere else And go back and visit And have that feeling of like Being on vacation in your own past Thanks to her staying there And then another one's Rosie the Nights And it was towards the end of my last trio Was kind of a, I'll use a phrase That was referred to us in Twin Cities reader Country Punk trio But kind of towards the end there When I was getting ready to step back To do some things, Rosie the Nights Turned out to be the hardest part And it's about when I first came to Minneapolis You have all these expectations Which maybe you should try not to But, you know, it doesn't turn out the way you want So it's the song about kind of coming to terms With like, okay, now I'm ready to take the next step And this is where I'm at And it's not the happiest place to be You know, it's hard And this person had talked about it With people that lived, you know He had lived before, all right, it's me I'm the guy in the song So, you know, and then you get there And then after like 16 years of trying it Something, you start wondering Wow, would those people even know me For who I am now after going through all this stuff Here's another city song You can tell by some of these songs I'm playing at the first part here That there are things I didn't like About living in the city Well, I see the glitter But I can't find the gold Downtown like winter Turning cold And all the city slickers are talking bold I'm burying a picture of somewhere I call home Rosie the Knight Turned out to be the hardest part Rosie the Knight How'd you get to be so hard? Rosie the Knight About a hundred times I drove away from this town The sirens of the night Turned my head around To that silver horizon Star come to ground Fill your head with promises You stand on sacred ground Rosie Turned out to be the hardest part Rosie the Knight How'd you get to be so hard? Rosie the Knight We both said we know Glad what paved the streets And I'm here to tell you, Rose It's only concrete Rosie, put your arm in mine See if you can see Anything left that reminds you of me Turned out to be the hardest part How'd you get to be so hard? Rosie the Knight Rose Thank you. The hallowed land. I built on the plain Of the Buffalo Creek As she went in the clear He come with roses And gave her green The corp, the carp, and his daughters He asked for her hand And gave her a pledge Said he'd be honest And he'd be true They married in the church Above the air Off to the end of the seasons run The name there's the hallowed land Seven kids come In ten springs time Each one baptized In clear water Singing songs of summer And shiny Christmas tides And learning things from the Father And the seasons run In the name of sweat and blood They claim there's hallowed land I stayed on the plain Of the Buffalo Creek As she come away He come with roses And gave her green His daughter And the seasons seen The chiller passing hands It was the rose And the evergreen Thank you. So let's talk a little bit about What it's like to be a musician In northern Minnesota. How would you describe Kind of the experience of performing Up here and stuff like that? I stepped away from music in Minneapolis In 93, 94 Thinking I'd be out a couple years And kind of reorient myself And then, you know, a series of What's that saying about life comes at you While you're making plans or something And then we started having a family And I've been a stay-at-home dad since 02 And so once the kids got a little older Then I could start playing again So my experience Actually playing up here Started last April And part of what kind of inspired me To start getting gear And check my guitars were old I got a couple new guitars I started getting things ready Because breweries were popping up And it seemed like the type of intimate Environment where, you know, you could It's similar like maybe the coffee Houses at a certain point in the 80s And what I've read that they were like In the 60s. I thought, well there's Potential there and if you can get in quickly Maybe that'd be a place to play And, you know, that's Been my experiences mainly playing Breweries and generally they seem To be fairly open to Original music and stylistic Rendering of cover tunes and things And still Trying to record on my Interface unit to At least have something I can sell At a gig. Maybe so people Hear the song, not to make money as much As if you hear my songs And I think, but my theory is That I'm kind of betting this on Is that if you're more familiar with my songs Then I play those the best Anyway, so then maybe Then, you know, enough people Will come that I'll keep getting hired Because that, you know, that's a Bottom line and you need to draw people Things like this are great Where you have a listening space And people listen, but if you keep plugging Away and getting your music that you like And your style in front of people Then hopefully people will like it And come out and see you Me and my buddy Me and my buddy Playing that same old game Playing that same old game Waiting on payday Just one more before the fair Right on there, say, city there Me and my buddy eaves Me and my buddy eaves Playing that same old game Playing that same old game Time stands still here in the Willville And then it flies Thanks a lot 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