Two Sundays, Two Shows
Man, it's tough for me to chill out after a gig. Just got home from the 400 Bar, and I should have been asleep two hours ago, but nope, I'm wired. Might as well blog a bit and hopefully I'll calm down. You don't need to be a rock star to keep rock star hours.
I've had many occasions in the past seven days to contrast the weird extremes of my musical life. I was hoping to score some awesome reviews of my new Best of the 20th Century album in this week's local media, but all I got were some generally positive sentences in the Onion AV Club and the St. Paul Pioneer Press (which called the album "an ambitious and surprisingly coherent trip through Rundman's back catalog"). But alas, no real ranting and raving about my status as a Minneapolis rock legend. HOWEVER, the large-scale church media really pulled through and gave some huge exposure to my Protestant Rock Ethic album! Check out these glowing reviews at the Phantom Tollbooth and in the May issue of The Lutheran magazine! Yes, a not-so-subtle reminder of just who my audience really is.
But still, I'm trying to keep one foot in each realm, even though it's tempting to just slide totally into one or the other. It's hard to believe I was in California one week ago, performing in Manhattan Beach with my pal Beki Hemingway. My friend Linda, who was at the show, forwarded me some cool pix of the gig, so you dear readers could get a visual of what it was like.
And tonight I was pleased to rejoin the Michael Morris band after a couple weeks when I was away doing my own solo tour. Michael's friend Steve has assumed the bass player role, and is doing a fine job, allowing me to return to my post as auxiliary instrumentalist. Tonight I rocked the mandolin so hard I broke an "A" string, and also had the pleasure of playing Michael's vintage 1958-era Gibson electric guitar. Pretty sweet, dude! All this, plus our cohorts in the excellent band Fuller Still were on the bill as well, so I got to join them on mandolin. A fun night for all, but obviously a very different environment and situation compared to last Sunday. Ahh well, variety is the spice of life, or whatever. It's a strange musical journey, but never boring. Yawn...okay, I shall attempt to fall asleep.
I've had many occasions in the past seven days to contrast the weird extremes of my musical life. I was hoping to score some awesome reviews of my new Best of the 20th Century album in this week's local media, but all I got were some generally positive sentences in the Onion AV Club and the St. Paul Pioneer Press (which called the album "an ambitious and surprisingly coherent trip through Rundman's back catalog"). But alas, no real ranting and raving about my status as a Minneapolis rock legend. HOWEVER, the large-scale church media really pulled through and gave some huge exposure to my Protestant Rock Ethic album! Check out these glowing reviews at the Phantom Tollbooth and in the May issue of The Lutheran magazine! Yes, a not-so-subtle reminder of just who my audience really is.
But still, I'm trying to keep one foot in each realm, even though it's tempting to just slide totally into one or the other. It's hard to believe I was in California one week ago, performing in Manhattan Beach with my pal Beki Hemingway. My friend Linda, who was at the show, forwarded me some cool pix of the gig, so you dear readers could get a visual of what it was like.
And tonight I was pleased to rejoin the Michael Morris band after a couple weeks when I was away doing my own solo tour. Michael's friend Steve has assumed the bass player role, and is doing a fine job, allowing me to return to my post as auxiliary instrumentalist. Tonight I rocked the mandolin so hard I broke an "A" string, and also had the pleasure of playing Michael's vintage 1958-era Gibson electric guitar. Pretty sweet, dude! All this, plus our cohorts in the excellent band Fuller Still were on the bill as well, so I got to join them on mandolin. A fun night for all, but obviously a very different environment and situation compared to last Sunday. Ahh well, variety is the spice of life, or whatever. It's a strange musical journey, but never boring. Yawn...okay, I shall attempt to fall asleep.
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