Harper and Midwest Kind April Blog, 2013

Hey Everyone,

Spring is here!  We are gearing up for the summer festival season which will see us traveling all over the USA and Canada.   March was an eventful month with an absolutely beyond huge St Patrick's Day week at the amazing Celtic Ray in Punta Gorda, Florida.  We performed four shows and everyone was well attended with the biggest show occurring on St Patricks Day.  I think this day broke all previous records at The Celtic Ray.  Huge congratulations to Kevin and Max Doyle for creating such a great club.  For all you Michigandas- there will be a Celtic Ray coming to Michigan this summer, just north of Port Huron.  Our shows throughout the Midwest were all fabulous.  We visited our good Friends of the Blues at The Bourbonnais Sportman's Club in Bourbonnais in Illinois where we were treated to a didgeridoo duet.   Then it was on to our favorite St Louis club- BBS Jazz Blues & Soups.  We had a great time at The Muddy Waters in Bettendorf, Iowa and yet another fun show at the Gas Lamp in Des Moines, Iowa.  Unfortunately while checking into one of our hotels in Iowa, I accidentally tripped on some carpet.  As I stumbled, I crashed into a large one hundred pound bronze statue of a fisherman, which promptly fell right on top of my head.  As with most head wounds, blood just about spurted every where.   Everyone was so shocked they didn't move,  I yelled with pain while cradling my head.  Finally one of the hotel staff brought me a towel to mop up the blood.  There wasn't any major damage done but I suffered some very severe head aches from that moment on.  The general manager of the hotel offered to pay for hospital bills and so forth, which I definitely took him up on. It was such  a bizarre accident, no one was to blame. It was just one of those crazy things that can happen whilst on the road.  Like a true road warrior I finished the tour with shows at The Trempealeau Hotel in Wisconsin and the Smiling Moose in Newton, Wisconsin.  It was when I got home to Michigan, that I realized I needed to take some time off.  The Doc told me I was crazy to keep gigging as I had concussion.  So I had to cancel the last week of March and the First week of April.  I am very sorry for those folks looking forward to these shows but we have rescheduled all cancelled shows for later in the year.

Some of you will notice a new line up for my band "Midwest Kind".   I would like to welcome Angelo Santelli on slide guitar/ Dobro,   Derek Johnson on Bass Guitar and David Zwolinski on Drums.  Bobbi and I wish our road warriors- Chris Smith, Matt Besey and Jamie Taunton all the very best and we thank them for their incredible playing.

For those of you who interested in our free library educational shows called "Australian Didge-ucation"   http://www.harper.biz/workshops.html   The shows are listed on the tour page on the Harper website .   We also have a special dinner and show coming up on Saturday May 11 (Mother's Day Weekend) at the Lone Oak Vineyard in our home town of Grass Lake, Michigan.  Reservations are necessary- Please go to the tour page on www.harper.biz for details.

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

Thanks and Peace,

Harper & Midwest Kind
 www.harper.biz (Official Harper Website) CDs and E Book
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
www.myspace.com/harperband