Great Nostalgia – 13 Years Ago

Tonight post is short and sweet. We just rocked out at a sweet house party in Downtown South Bend the night before our big show here in the bend for St Paddy’s Day. I am kinda wiped out – but I will give it my best. I am feeling a little nostalgic because I realized that tomorrow will be our biggest performance in South Bend ever and I have been playing in the bend for 13 years!!! Holy shit! I played my first show when I was 15, my mom dropped me off at a local coffee house called “Higher Grounds” in DT South Bend. It was an amazing show and now tomorrow I will be on stage in front of 8,000+ crazy to look back at the journey – and funny how life works. But I am super excited – a poem will be written post show to summarize the feelings and emotions. For some reason word press is not letting me space correctly so this will be read by using commas (not for grammatical purpose)

All the chatter, Play it this way and what is the matter, Chords still ring out, I cling to this guitar like a mad hatter, I have seen many a shops open and close, Sang them a song before they had to dispose, Of all their assets and move out of town, Kinda sad to think that I would never again see them around, This town or any other for that matter, People have come and gone, Some great inspirations, Some not so much, But in some meaningful way it was my life that they touched, I think back with great nostalgia to the first show posters, My life since those first days has been nothing short of a great roller coaster, I have now traveled from coast to coast, I have found places I loved the least and the most, With my guitar I have traveled, I say this not to boast, My humble beginnings playing in Coffee shops to onlookers playing chess, I did not have a fabulous voice, I can honestly say that I gave it my best, Only 15 looking for a grand time, Little did I know that love and a calling I would find, Years went by, I continued to play, I tried to give it a little something just about everyday, Then music led me to my love, She landed in my life as gentle as a dove, She would sing I would play, Anywhere and we did not worry about pay, 10 years have gone by since then, I can not believe it has already been 10, Now we get to play on a much great stage, I guess you could say that we have turned the page, From the empty coffee houses to people packed in, I used to know this city when the music scene was thin, Now it is robust and growing, Songs are being written, People now create great art, I am humbled to think that I played just a small part, I hope South Bend continues to grow, What it will become in ten years nobody really knows, To do my part I will just continue to pick up my guitar sing and play, I hope for the best for this city one day, Wishing it the best on this St. Patrick’s Day.

Elkhart’s Eternal Flame

Late night band practice in Goshen, IN led to a midnight drive to South Bend. Even at the late hour you can see the flame burning off of the highway in Elkhart. It reminds me of how that thing burns 24/7 and how we are filling it with every step that we take. So this is a short poem about where it all took me.

 

Elkhart’s Eternal Flame

Elkhart’s Eternal Flame

Lights my mind up every time

Drives me insane

The heap of garbage burning bright

The smell that seeps out

Lets you know something’s not right

Trash carving it’s way in Midwest trees

Coming from all over the land

From the mountains and the seas

Landfills in Indiana seem to run a plenty

Follow your nose and you will find

One, two, and oh so many

As with all trash it must be disposed

Where exactly it goes

I can’t say anyone really knows

But on a Tuesday night the flame glows

On highway 20 when you see it

You will know

Blue flickers orange pops red in too

Depending on where the wind blows

Is where all the scent blows to

Racing over fields and famers

Streams and trees

Through our nostrils

Into you and me

Into our lungs and through our livers

Into your soul giving you shivers

Into our blood

Through the water that we drink

Bubbling up through the faucets and the sinks

Shame should fill the hearts of the waste

But toss it in the trash

And don’t really face it

The next time you waste

All the trash that you disclaim

I may see it burning one day

In Elkhart’s Eternal Flame