 Backroads is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund with money by the vote of the people November 4th, 2008. Always easy to see things coming Then it is to see them say goodbye I could feel my wheels still turning To the wind that's blowing outside For the first time I feel this moment For the first time I feel alive The moment we stop pretending Is the moment that I realized A minute I leave on though Will be the minute that I turn around It'll be the first time and the last time That I ever want to be More like you Easy to hear your word Always easy to see you smile Reflection from the earth It comes a beautiful country mile I walk down every day Reflect my mistakes I made To be the first time And the last time That I ever want to be More like you It comes around When my lost and found bin is full Helps explain why I feel this way See things coming Then it is to see them say goodbye I could feel my wheels still turning To the wind that's blowing outside In the minute I leave on though Will be the minute that I turn around To be the first time And the last time That I ever want to be Get into music in the first place It started when I was just a little kid Music was always around our house And my dad worked at Paul Bunyan Broadcasting As the sports director for many years But he also did DJ shifts So I would always go there after school And just be like in a studio setting And listening to music And my parents were both into music It was always around When I was seven I was asked to perform The national anthem at the Metrodome For a twins game And I'll never forget Being down on the Metrodome floor And looking up at thousands of people And lit my fire You know I was like wow this is really cool And just started to pursue music more after that And started taking like piano lessons That kind of launched me into guitar And everything else that I've pursued since then Time is creeping in Faster than it sounds I'll make believe something To turn the night around And the miles an easy climb I stumble and I fall Living in a rerun After all But I'll skip just like a star I'll shoot just like a star Or rearrange my plans To be where you feel want Something to hold on to Something that I won't do And drop no excuse While you see me this way And that I'll have to do today Oh just like a snowflake Beauty from all sides Haven't really met you Maybe we collide And turn this cold weather Into something alright Maybe turn these lovers into love tonight And give us a little make us feel warm Something to hold on to Something that we want to And drop no lies Just say what we'll say And that I'll have to do Today hasten time Is time well spent When I'm holding on to something That hasn't happened yet In the dreams that I'm dreaming Ain't nothing but a five dream But I'm holding on to where they take me And maybe give us a little on to And drop no lies While I feel this way And that I'll have to do And that I'll have to do And that I'll have to do Today How'd that go from playing piano To being in bands to now Going solo? Above my piano music You'd see the tablatures for guitar And I'll never forget the day I went to my parents' closet And took out that nylon six string And blew the dust off the thing And I tuned it up to the piano And I started to learn the guitar chords And that's my guitar lesson That's all I've ever had I've never had formal lessons It was just kind of Using the piano is the roots Of the tree if you will And I could just sit there And learn how to play these chords All through middle school, high school I was in these really like Kind of punk rock bands And just had the time of my life Doing it And it wasn't until I was about 16 I went up to Winnipeg Folk Festival And my life changed When I saw what people were doing With like an acoustic instrument It blew my mind I was like I want to do that And that's where I deviated from Playing in bands And just kind of went my own way And started writing songs This tune is kind of about One of those maybe relationships That you had that took off And it was soaring And it hit 40,000 feet And it was good And you know you didn't quite Make your destination Because you had to kind of Make a detour landing And a good song came out of it It's called Firefly Goes like this Walking through the exit And the ceiling is on the floor The leaves have no trees And the dimes are in the nickel jar I got you heavy on my mind So tonight it's T4-2 With your cup steaming full Awaiting you The sun, stars and moon fall down But they have no clue The birds, bees and butterflies Fly away too The flame has no candle To attach itself to Reminding me another day Of missing you To get the last word And is the first thing I want to say We could start with the ending And get it out of the way Turn back the clock Turn it inside out Maybe I'll just draw a blank And frame it on the wall The lake streams and oceans cry And sing the blues All the ships and boats drop Anchor waited through And it feels like An hour, seconds due to Reminding me another day Of missing you On body Somebody to love Make me higher So I know how to fall An action to this moment Tonight Or maybe just shine away Like a firefly Maybe my tracks Don't fit your train Maybe the beginning Is the ending anyway I dream somewhere in between You figure me too But this is me But this is me I'm missing you Thank you so much Firefly That's probably the song I'm most proud of lyrically It was the most difficult song I've ever written It took me two and a half days And I wasn't gonna quit until it was done In two days It had to be done That was the goal I had the little groove Over coffee At 6 a.m. But I didn't have any lyrics But I liked the direction of the song And so instead of trying to Spend too much time thinking about it I get out of the way Go do something else I just went to town And to do errands When grocery shopping went to the bank And at the grocery store I had to walk into The exit of the building Because they were doing repair work And the whole ceiling was on the floor All the drops Ceiling that's on the floor stacked up And I walked in through the exit And the ceiling was on the floor And that's how that song starts So I'm like, okay Okay, you know, here we go So I started to Write the song when I was in town You know, going to the bank And they went to give me some change And they broke open some dimes And they all spilled into the nickel tray And I remember the gentleman going Oh, I got dimes in my nickel tray And I'm like, don't we all sometimes? You know, it was kind of like But that line made it in And so Over the course of two days I just opened my ears To what people were doing And within two days I had A completed song I just made myself more available And just kind of let it in If you want to know What's got a story In between the beginnings and What we choose becomes moments Makes a stamp of where we've been With the wind becomes emotion Changing with the breeze Sometimes I don't know how to do this And then I fall like rain I know I wear my heart on my sleeve I know It's just the way that it makes you fly Whatever feels alright Whatever keeps you smiling And to the morning light Where you feel alive And find that place that feels at home It feels brand new when something's changing All the while I remember when Life is just a game we're playing It's not all about the wind You know I wear my heart on my sleeve I know What makes you fly Whatever feels alright Whatever keeps you smiling Yeah And to the moonlit sky Where I feel alive And find that place that feels at home These moments treat you well Please let these moments treat you well It makes you fly Whatever dance you try Whatever keeps you honest Yeah And to a brand new day Let's take this all the way And find that place that feels at home Taking back a topic of conversation Taking back a moment in time What we hear is better than what we're saying If we open up our mind Something is better than nothing Something's a song that we sing Something is all I've ever wanted I'm learning That something can be everything Looking at you, looking at me These are the stories of all I To hear that little bird sing Takes me back in time Something is what we're waiting Something always comes in time Something always holds a question When searching For the answer There's something you might find No more way shines on through To what you dream Because anything Could never be To find out what you're searching Searching Searching always comes in stride To find out what you're feeling What it feels to be alive Something always is beautiful Something sometimes Makes me cry Something's playing on the radio And something Thank you so, so much, you guys What's the experience of performing live like for you? Having a crowd there Kind of giving immediate reaction to your music Like what's that experience like? Kind of like floating. It's one of my most favorite things to do I love snowboarding That's my winter activity And to me they're really close There's balance And there's harmony within it And I just feel like Everything kind of disappears And when you have an audience That just becomes beautiful to see reactions I've been in the audience I go to concerts all the time So it's fun when you have somebody Connecting with you Maybe with a lyric line Or maybe a guitar sound or something It's just that energy That it gets exchanged It's just a beautiful thing I think that music is so powerful It is my favorite thing in the whole world And I just feel that it's the one thing As people we really all have in common I've traveled to other countries I can't speak to people But we can listen to music We can dance, we communicate So I feel like there's such strong communication Through music And it just brings everybody together When I hear the road under my tread The tread that takes me to places I've never been You shared those miles When you rolled along up into my head That's what you caught me I was thinking about, thinking about you Got a special way Yeah You're so extraordinary I know You make time stand The question, but I know what the answer will be So I will make it up Tending after, make believe Next time I see you I'll act like a casual fool And then later, that's right I'll be thinking about you My balance is all It's right on But I'm sure That claw Thinking about you When the sun goes down And stars come out, it's all I do Thinking about you Could get you thinking about me Thinking about you We are here at Supple Studios in Bemidji, Minnesota And we are so lucky to have this wonderful space Troy Foss, owner And engineer Is just a superb person to work with Very talented, very educated In recording and audio And it always sounds fantastic So we're so lucky to have such a wonderful space In Northern Minnesota So what's it like to be a musician In Northern Minnesota? Lucky, I feel People want to learn to grow within it So when you collaborate I find that it's a labor of love That people are in it just for that simplicity And the talent that's up here Is just overwhelming I'm just blown away by How somebody can come into the studio Or a live gig that maybe you've never really met And they can put whatever instrument On they're gonna play And they play three chords And you're just like, what? You know, this is awesome Which you come from And usually they're like, I do this once in a while You know Dream of being a painter All the theater Paint inside a winter Outside the other months Maybe I could be as good as Van Gogh I could show my work At local art shows Have no worries And never be rushed Just be so happy With me and my bro Being a trucker across the states Have all my me Cafe Be a dog who would ride shotgun I'll name him Cisco I'd maybe call him son Have no worries Cisco Thank you all so very much for hanging out tonight I really appreciate it from the spotlight I think that each song I performed for Backroads Was a representation of me as an artist today And I think that I'm so lucky To have had the opportunity to travel And to work with so many artists In allowing me to write these songs Backroads is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund With money by the vote of the people November 4th, 2008