At a recent appointment my eye doctor inquired about my job. When I told him I was an independent singer/songwriter he was very surprised and instantly followed up with "Can you make your living doing that?" I answered yes, and he gave me a hopeful, curious look before asking "Are you famous? Have I heard of you?"
Most people are not as interested and positive as my optometrist. At family gatherings my relatives talk comfortably about their careers in education or business, but shoot me skeptical looks that imply "When are you going to get a REAL job?"
The truth is somewhere in the middle. I'm not famous, but I certainly have a real job, and writing and performing music is it. Life as a singer/songwriter can be thrilling, tiring, unpredictable, and profoundly satisfying, but the primary challenge of being a full-time freelance musician is that most people don't understand my daily activities. My life is neither as glamorous or mundane as one might think.
Motivated by the bombardment of vocational misunderstanding with which I occasionally struggle, I've decided to document a week of my life on the road. I hope to historically preserve the peculiar existence that I have, and to give readers a window to this profession.
The seven days detailed below were exciting and nostalgic because I performed a series of concerts in Michigan's Upper Peninsula (or as the natives say, "The U.P."), the isolated region between Lakes Michigan and Superior where I was born and raised. Although I love my current life in the city of Minneapolis, I'm always pleased to return to my familial homeland.
THURSDAY: TOUR PREPARATION
The day prior to leaving for a tour is always jammed with too much to do. My first task was to box up the inventory for sales. It's tough to estimate how many CDs to haul on the road: bring too few and you may sell out before the final show, bring too many and you're wasting precious space in your vehicle.
Packing clothes was my next priority. Meticulous wardrobe planning can prevent an annoying stop at a coin-laundry place in some forlorn strip mall. Finally, I picked up my rental car, drove it home, and loaded it to the gills with guitars, boxes of CDs, suitcases, and sound equipment. I'd been busy all day, and by 10PM I was ready for bed.
FRIDAY: FALLING ROCK CAFE, MUNISING, MI
Road Music: John Mellencamp The Lonesome Jubilee
Crowd size: 50 Approximate income: $200
I left Minneapolis at 6:30AM and cruised Northeast into a beautiful sunrise. The long distance drives during the early stages of a tour are my favorites...I've got a lot of optimism and energy, and the upcoming days are filled with musical possibility. I reached the Lake Superior shoreline in Duluth, MN and followed it throughout the morning, going a healthy 65 mph across the Northern tip of Wisconsin on two-lane highway with bluffs and hardwood forests flying by. My Chevy Malibu crossed into the U.P. by Noon and was pulling into my hometown of Ishpeming, MI around 2PM. I swung by my parents' house to pick up my younger brother Tim, and we went directly to a family funeral. My Mom's cousin's husband had passed away, and we celebrated his life with a crowd of distant relatives, former school acquaintances, and other locals. It's strange how mortality, family, and memory can all snap into focus the minute you arrive at your childhood home.
It was another hour of driving to reach the evening's venue, and Tim came along for the ride. Along the way we stopped the car and watched the orange sunset over Lake Superior.
The show that night served as a great warm-up to a week of gigs. An audience of attentive baby-boomers responded well to my new songs, although I toned down the performance a bit. These folks were definitely more into Judy Collins than Violent Femmes, so I didn't rock out as much as usual. After my show Tim and I stopped by the college town of Marquette at midnight to see my friend Jeff Krebs and his band play the local frat-boy tavern. Jeff's group sounded great, and I jumped up on stage to play Duran Duran's "Rio" with them. 'Twas a fine ending to the first day of my U.P. tour.
SATURDAY: MOTHER LODE COFFEE HOUSE, HOUGHTON, MI
Road Music: Daniel Lanois Shine
Crowd size: 70 Approximate income: $100
Just like the old days, I woke up in the late morning at my parents' house. My family joined me for lunch at a favorite restaurant, and by the early afternoon I was back on the road driving even farther North up the Keweenaw Peninsula. My cousin Bruce, also a songwriter, lives near the town of Houghton and was joining me for the show that night. It had been over a year since we'd performed together, so we needed a quick rehearsal in his living room. We worked up some new songs and arrived at the venue just in time to tune up and play.
Local radio had given us some good airplay, and a host from WKJM came to the club to see us. The room was full, and Bruce and I joked around with the crowd between selections from our solo albums. My brother Tim joined us on drums for a few tunes, and we amused ourselves by covering impromptu songs like "Satellite" by The Hooters, "Copperhead Road" by Steve Earle, and "Raspberry Beret" by Prince.
By the time we loaded out after the gig it was 11:30PM, and I had to make the two-hour trip back to Ishpeming. It was a tough drive...I crawled at 40 mph through the pitch-black night, white knuckles on the steering wheel, terrified of hitting one of the dozens of deer wandering across the highway. I was exhausted and relieved to finally reach Ishpeming without Bambi sprawled through the windshield of my rental car.
SUNDAY: BETHEL LUTHERAN CHURCH, ISHPEMING, MI
Road Music: The Cardigans Long Gone Before Daylight
Crowd size: 100 Approximate income: $500
One hundred years ago my Great-Grandparents came to America from Finland, moved to Ishpeming, and joined Bethel Lutheran Church, the Finnish congregation in town. This was the church where I grew up, and where I had my first opportunities to perform publicly as a teenager. I was reminded of other musicians who also began their careers this way...Aretha Franklin, Little Richard...even Lennon and McCartney met each other playing at church. Now, many years later, I was back again at Bethel, playing a few songs during the morning services, and later that day returning to do a concert.
The attendance was fantastic, and it was a powerful experience to sing my own love songs at the church where my parents and grandparents were married. My 91-year-old Grandpa came to the show that night. He has spent a lifetime making music: as a tenor in a teenaged barbershop quartet, a banjo player in his middle age, and an organist in later years. Grandpa loves Willie Nelson, so I performed Willie's song "Crazy" during the show. Grandpa approved.
Later that evening I drove 13 miles into the woods to our family's lakeside cabin where I fired up the sauna. By 11PM it was hot, and I sat on the cedar bench sweating and reflecting on the tour so far. When the temperature neared the unbearable, I stepped outside into the freezing air and walked out onto the dock, overlooking the still lake. Steam rose off my body, and I stared up at the Northern lights, shimmering green across the starry sky.
MONDAY: KOINONIA COFFEEHOUSE, KINGSFORD, MI
Road Music: Bruce Cockburn You've Never Seen Everything
Crowd size: 9 Approximate income: $50
By the time I rolled out of bed everyone else had left the house. I drove over to Marquette by myself for lunch at Culver's, my favorite hamburger place...it's a chain restaurant that's slowly taking over the Midwest, much to my delight. It felt good to be alone again, after being super-social with family members for the past two days. I then enjoyed another long drive, Southbound this time, to the twin towns of Iron Mountain and Kingsford. I arrived early, so I found the local library and checked my email for the first time in days. After a couple hours of returning messages and surfing the All Music Guide I zipped over to the local theater to catch a matinee.
When I pulled into the club's parking lot I suspected I might be in for a small crowd, and I was right. It was still quite a fun concert, however, and I took the opportunity to test out some obscure songs that I rarely play. I ended the show with Julie Miller's "All My Tears." It was another long, long deer-dodging drive through the wilderness to return to Ishpeming that night.
TUESDAY: 231 HOUSE OF MUSES GALLERY, MARQUETTE, MI
Road Music: The Rainmakers Skin
Crowd size: 25 Approximate income: $75
My last day in the U.P. was mellow and unscheduled, so I took some time to run a few errands in Marquette. I bought an "A" harmonica at the music shop, browsed at the record store, and dropped off my new Public Library CD with the program director at the Northern Michigan University radio station. While I was on campus I picked up the weekly student newspaper which featured this vaguely positive review of my album: "Rundman's Public Library is a heartfelt musical journey through various styles and topics...overall, this album is worth having despite its quirkiness. Grade: B+."
Jeff Krebs was sharing the bill with me that evening and we met before the show for soundcheck. The venue was an art gallery, which provided us a very chic and atypical musical atmosphere. Jeff accompanied me on banjo, I backed him on mandolin, and we collaborated on some bluegrassy duets. Some local college students and hipsters came to check us out, and Jeff and I traded songs on stage for two hours. Our grand finale was the Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses." My brother and parents joined me after the gig at our family's favorite pizza place for a late dinner.
WEDNESDAY: LEE'S LIQUOR LOUNGE, MINNEAPOLIS, MN
Road Music: The Bottlerockets Brand New Year
Crowd size: 35 Approximate income: $70
I awoke at 6AM, said goodbye to the family, and got back out on the road efficiently this morning. The tour finished with a seven hour drive back to Minnesota and a show at a retro-styled alt-country bar in downtown Minneapolis. My energy level was still quite high, and I was very pleased with the response from the U.P. audiences, so I headed home with a positive attitude. Good weather had been with me every day, which is a miracle for Upper Michigan at that time of year. I felt alive, aware, and satisfied as I cranked up the heater and the stereo, traversed Wisconsin again, and soared over the high bridges into Duluth where I merged onto the freedom of the freeway, I-35 South.
Once I got home I unloaded my PA system into my basement, and reloaded the car with my Fender telecaster and Bassman amp. The evening's booking was a full-band electric club gig, a refreshing change from all the folky-acoustic shows I had played in Michigan. Troy and Kerns, my drummer and bassist, met me at Lee's Liquor Lounge where we carried in our gear and set up. A decent crowd from my email list came out to hear us, and our trio played loud and loose for 90 minutes. This was my sixth show in six days, and the ideal way to finish out the schedule. It's good to love your work.
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