Thursday, May 22, 2014

Harper and Midwest Kind May blog, 2014

Hey Everyone,

Wishing you all the very best for Memorial Day Weekend here in the USA!.  Happy to announce that I won a 2014 Detroit Music Award for "Outstanding Vocalist".  Woohoo, what an honor!!   I was out on tour in New England when I heard the good news.  My amazing friends : Dianne Shute and Steve Lambert received the award on my behalf.  Steve even gave a speech.  His New Zealand accent might have fooled just about everyone there. LOL!!!!.  Also very excited to announce that Midwest Kind, Bobbi and I will be touring Australia in late October for three weeks.  We have some great festivals booked plus it will give Bobbi and me, a chance to catch up with our family.  Our last trip home was in 2007, so its been a while!

Our tour to New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine was a lot of fun.  The Dinosaur BBQs in New York are always welcome on every tour.  Plus we get to play Dinosaur in Buffalo, New York in July.  New venues:  Johnny Ds and the house concert- The Brick House House were very cool.  Great folks and hospitality!  Also it was great to revisit The Elks Lodge in NH and of course the Legendary Time Out Pub in Rockland, Maine.  We then headed south to a full tilt  College gig at On The Rocks in Florence, Alabama. Followed by the amazing Darwins in Marietta, Georgia.  Then it was a trip to the wild woods of Tallahassee, Florida for The incredible Bradfordville Blues Club.  Some of our band members were new to the BBC- so they got to experience for the first time, the best fish fry in the USA, courtesy of Miss Ernestine plus the warm gathering around the huge bon fire.  We hung out with former band mate and good friend Tyler Mac at The Paradise Inn in Pensacola Beach.  Got to see his very cute little daughter .   Then it was on to Englewoods On Dearborn and The Bayside Grille in Key Largo.  Another new venue for us- The Blue Rooster in Sarasota.  Instant good vibes at The Blue Rooster, as the management put out orange cones to reserve a parking space for us in front of the club. So VERY considerate!  Fabulous food, good sound and nice peeps all round!  We finished our tour with a fabulous show on Mothers Day at The Celtic Ray in Punta Gorda, Florida.

This weekend we head to the brand new Celtic Ray in Lexington, Michigan.  This is the sister club of our much loved Celtic Ray in Punta Gorda.  The Friday show will be held in the Pub. The Saturday show will be held in the Theatre attached to the pub.  Bridget's Cross will be joining us in a double bill throw down!

Hope to see you out on the road this Spring and Summer!!

Thanks and Peace,

Harper and Midwest Kind
www.harper.biz (Official Harper Website) CDs
http://www.harper.biz/workshops.html    Australian Didge-ucation
www.youtube.com/harperband (for live video clips)
www.facebook.com/harperandmidwestkind
www.facebook.com/pages/Harper-and-Midwest-Kind/163124467948
www.musicpage.com/harper
www.reverbnation.com/harperandmidwestkind

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Harper and Midwest Kind April Blog- Harper Wins Detroit Music Award!!!!!

Hey Everyone,

Very glad to be saying Happy Spring here in the USA!!!!   Just finished a run to New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine. Coming up next isAlabama, Georgia, Florida and New Jersey! We have an amazing summer festival season coming up with nearly 30 festivals booked in the USA, Canada and Australia.  Very exciting indeedy!!  Last Friday night I was up for Five Detroit Music Awards.  I am happy to announce that I won a 2014 Detroit Music Award for Most Outstanding Vocalist.  A huge thank you to all who voted.  Totally blown away.  Unfortunately I was in Boston the night of the awards but my good friends Dianne Shute and Steve Lambert picked up the award on my behalf.

In late March we visited two amazing elementary schools in Ohio- Port Washington Elementary and Midvale Elementary.  Bobbi and I presented "Australian Didge-uction" to nearly 1000 children.   Great kids - lots of fun!!!  Then we had a great double bill with the Mark May band at Canal House.  Followed by a visit to our Kankankee Friends of the  Blues at the Bradley Bourbonnais Sportsmans Club in Illinois.  We had a packed house, dueling didgeridoos and good blues were had by all.  In St Louis, Missouri, I managed to get two parking tickets in one day, but our show at BBs was still fun!!   We visited a new club- Calvin Rockett in Marshalltown where we had a fabulous turnout.  We stayed at the Hampton Inn that evening and were awoken at 7.30am the next morning by a supposed phone call from the front desk manager, asking for our credit card information.  Thankfully we didn't give it out-  Apparently this is a national scam- so never give out your personal information over the phone unless you called them!   We ended the week with yet another fabulous show at the legendary Bryons Bar in Pomeroy, Iowa!!  My band Midwest Kind and I headed back to Illinois for another Australian Didge-ucation Presentation at St Patricks School followed by a visit to North Hill Elementary in Burlington, Iowa.  It really is cool to see how amazing American teachers are!  We had another fantastic double bill with The Bluz Benderz at The Trouser Mouse in Blue Springs, Missouri.  Hope to see these guys again.  Then it was back the The Firehouse BBQ and Blues in Indiana for another great double bill with The Funkyard Dogs.  We had a packed house and great music was enjoyed by all.  We ended our tour at the Players Pub in Bloomington, Indiana. Where it was my pleasure to present a musicianship award to Justin Brown!

Bobbi and I presented three more Australian Didge-ucation Presentations in Michigan at the Kalamazoo Public Library, Alice & jack Wirt Public Library in Bay City and the Bay City Academy!  The kids had a ball, got to paint didgeridoos and learn to play them as well.  We all had a blast.

Hope to see you out on the road this Spring and Summer!!

Thanks and Peace,

Harper and Midwest Kind
www.harper.biz (Official Harper Website) CDs
http://www.harper.biz/workshops.html    Australian Didge-ucation
www.youtube.com/harperband (for live video clips)
www.facebook.com/harperandmidwestkind
www.facebook.com/pages/Harper-and-Midwest-Kind/163124467948
www.musicpage.com/harper
www.reverbnation.com/harperandmidwestkind

Harper and Midwest Kind March Blog, 2014

Hey Everyone,

Finally Spring has arrived here in the USA yay!!!   March has been an exciting month.  I learned that I have been nominated for FIVE- 2014 Detroit Music Awards- "Outstanding Acoustic Vocalist", "Outstanding World Music Vocalist", "Outstanding World Music Composer", and "Outstanding Blues Recording and Outstanding Acoustic Recording for the Harper and Motor City Josh "Bare Bones" CD.  Its such an honor to be nominated.  Motor City Josh was also nominated for "Outstanding Blues Instrumentalist" which is very much deserved.   Its been a long cold winter here in Michigan.  We were very lucky to tour for a month in February to Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee to escape the Polar Vortex.  After our last show in SC we headed North to Michigan.  It was a pretty uneventful drive until we hit Northern Kentucky and Southern Ohio where a winter storm was barreling through.  The roads were icy and treacherous!  The going was slow but we got through the worst of it without too much trouble. Once we reached Michigan the roads were dry and we could breathe a sigh of relief.    Our driveway was not so good.  It had at least a foot of snow on it,  so with just the right amount of speed I managed to get the van up the hill and into the garage.  Once I got into my house I was struck by how cold it was.  I soon realized that my furnace had stopped working and most of our taps were frozen.  I couldn't get the furnace working so I decided to get the log fire going to warm up the house. Bobbi got online to the Red Cross website to find out the best way to thaw out frozen pipes and taps.  So with space heaters and hair dryers in hand we worked on thawing out our house.  It was freezing.  Our bass player James Norris was also with us because his van was still stuck in a snow drift on our driveway.   Thankfully no major damage was done.  The furnace guy came out and fixed the furnace and AAA towed Jame's van out of the drift.  So life is good!!!

That week Bobbi and I presented "Australian Didge-ucation" to the Veterans at JVS in Detroit.  We had an absolute blast.  Great bunch of guys.  We plan to have another visit in July.  We also took our presentation to the Jackson School of the Arts in downtown Jackson, Michigan.  We had a packed house of very enthusiastic children and their parents.  We painted didgeridoos and had an all out didgeridoo jam at the end of the session.  Our shows at the Plymouth Elks Lodge and Inside Out Gallery in Traverse City were fabulous.  The Manistee All Spring and Music Festival held at the stunning Ramsdell Theatre was a lot of fun.  We met many talented musicians and I even got to hang with Smokey Bear!!

We are currently on tour to Illinois, Iowa, Missouri and Indiana.  We have a NE tour planned for the end of April to New York, Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire.  Then its back to Florida, Alabama, Georgia and New Jersey in May.  No Rest for the Blessed!!!   Hope to see you out on the road this Spring and Summer!!

Thanks and Peace,

Harper and Midwest Kind
www.harper.biz (Official Harper Website) CDs
http://www.harper.biz/workshops.html    Australian Didge-ucation
www.youtube.com/harperband (for live video clips)
www.facebook.com/harperandmidwestkind
www.facebook.com/pages/Harper-and-Midwest-Kind/163124467948
www.musicpage.com/harper
www.reverbnation.com/harperandmidwestkind