Harper and Midwest Kind June Blog 2018

Happy Summer Everyone,

Just back from Germany, Kentucky and South Carolina.   Our visit to the Grolsch Blues Festival in Shoppingen, Germany was outstanding in every possible way.  The crowd, hospitality, sound and atmosphere was incredible. We had the 9pm slot and it was fabulous.  Great artists like Ronnie Baker Brooks, Lucky Peterson and agency pals - Jeremiah Johnson Band were also there.   And an amazing thing happened!.  My old german writing partner - Joachim Griebe emailed me three weeks prior to our trip to Germany.  After a falling out, 16 years ago, he emailed, out of the blue.  I was so happy to hear from him and he was amazed we were going to be performing in Germany just 2 hours from his house.   We met up at the hotel and it was like meeting my twin brother again.  We laughed so hard, people were looking at us strangely.  To top it off, Joachim wanted to write with me again and was able to get our original recording deal back with a major European Label.  So "Harper and Griebe" will be releasing a CD very soon.  

Once back in the US we performed at the Blues Between the Bridges in Lexington, Kentucky.  It was a very hot but great day of BBQ and blues and roots music.  We had an absolute blast.  Then we had three shows at Old Daufuskie Crab Company on Daufuskie Island in South Carolina.  It was a really unique gig because we had to leave our van on the main land at Hilton Head and travel by boat with our gear to the island.  We were given two golf carts to get around in - got horribly lost on our way to our accommodation one night and rained out on one show.  But all in all it was a fun weekend and great soft shell crab to boot.  But a word to the wise, keep away from the "scrap iron hooch" .

This June/ July/ August we have a bunch of cool festivals/ concert series and club dates.  We will be performing in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Connecticut, Delaware, Wisconsin, Iowa, Sioux Falls, Minnesota, Nevada and California.   Please come out and say hi.

See you all out on the road this summer!!!

Thanks and Peace,

Peter D. Harper,

Harper and Midwest Kind

#harperandmidwestkindspringtour

HarperWebsite                                                                                                                         Didgeridoo/HarmonicaWorkshops                                                                                         HarperandMidwestKindYoutube                                                                                                          HarperandMidwestKindFacebook                                                                                                                                                       HarperMusicPage                                                                                                                                                                              HarperandMidwestKindReverbnation
https://www.instagram.com/harperandmidwestkind
https://www.twitter.com/harperband

Harper and Midwest Kind March Blog 2018

 Howdy all,

Happy March. Finally Spring has arrived. Our show at the Winter Bluesfest - at The Franke Center for the Arts in Marshall Michigan was sold out. Local guitarist Jake Kershaw opened the show and really rocked the crowd.  The Franke Center is an amazing listening room, please try to check it out if you are ever in the area, its worth it. A massive winter storm hit Michigan in early February so we decided to leave a day early for our tour South.  Really glad we did because we would have been snowed in. As it turned out, we had great weather and roads all the way to Florida and Alabama and back.

Our tour to Florida and Alabama was great.  Fantastic weather and full to capacity at most shows.  We performed at several new venues - Arts Garage in Delray Beach and the Barrel Room in Fort Myers - both excellent music venues.  Plus some of our old favorites - the legendary Bradfordville Blues Club in Tallahassee,  Capitol Oyster Bar in Montgomery Alabama where Bass player James Norris celebrated his birthday with a dozen sumptuous oysters!! Guanabanas in Jupiter for Valentines Day - and of course,  I had to sing "Feels Like Sunday Morning" for all the valentines. An absolutely packed Englewoods on Dearborn, finishing off with the incredible Little Bar in Goodland.  We ended the month with a very cool show at yet another new venue - The Third Base in Springfield, Illinois.

Big news -  a tour to Texas  in May with dates in Dallas and Austin, Texas. please spread the word cause we haven't toured Texas in years!!!! Also in August we will be touring to Reno Nevada and Northern California.  We have to send out a big thank you to Randy Christian for getting us the show at Antones in Austin and Leslie Marble for helping us out with the Poor House Bistro in San Jose.  See you out on the road this spring!

Peter D. Harper,
Harper and Midwest Kind
#harperandmidwestkindwintertour
HarperWebsite                                                                                                                         Didgeridoo/HarmonicaWorkshops                                                                                         HarperandMidwestKindYoutube                                                                                                          HarperandMidwestKindFacebook                                                                                                                                                      HarperMusicPage                                                                                                                                                                             HarperandMidwestKindReverbnation

Harper and Midwest Kind December Blog 2017

Hey Everyone,

Happy Holidays!!  My band "Midwest Kind" and I have been taking a month long break but will be getting back into it in January, 2018.   We finished the year with an amazing show at Byrons in Pomeroy, Iowa - a hidden gem amongst the corn fields and a soul satisfying final show at Dale Fisher Gallery in my home town of Grass Lake in Michigan.

During December, Ive been working on writing some new tunes for a new CD which I hope to record with my band next year and release either late 2018 or early 2019.  We have some exciting tours planned for 2018, a tour to Europe for the Groesch Blues Festival in Germany, a tour to the West Coast in late July and another European tour later in the Fall in the works. 2017 was an amazing year, we toured Australia for three weeks, which turned out to be the best tour I have ever done there.  So much love and respect, it was an incredible experience.  The two week tour to China was the trip of a life time, so unexpected yet so fulfilling!  I even managed to teach some Chinese Children how to play the didgeridoo.

We would like to thank all the people who came out to our shows, who supported our fundraiser for our China tour.  You fill us with love and self worth and we certainly couldn't do what we do with out you.

Happy Winter Solstice, Happy Hanukkah (just past) with a Merry Christmas and Kwanzaa coming up. May we all find peace, prosperity, tolerance and enlightenment on Earth!!

Thanks and Peace,

Peter D. Harper,
Harper and Midwest Kind
#harperandmidwestkindwintertour
HarperWebsite                                                                                                                         Didgeridoo/HarmonicaWorkshops                                                                                         HarperandMidwestKindYoutube                                                                                                          HarperandMidwestKindFacebook                                                                                                                                                      HarperMusicPage                                                                                                                                                                             HarperandMidwestKindReverbnation

Harper and Midwest Kind June Blog 2016

Howdy everyone,

Sending positive healing vibes and prayers to our brothers and sisters in Orlando, Florida.   

We have just come back from an amazing weekend in Orangeville, Ontario Canada where we were fortunate enough to headline the Orangeville Blues & Jazz Festival.  What an amazing event, located down town with multiple stages, workshops, food vendors , arts/crafts and a car show.  The weather was stunning, the vibes were friendly and the crowd numbers were full to the max.  This was guitarist Mike Howe's first show with us, returning after a 14 month hiatus. 

The new CD "Show Your Love" hit # 5 on Billboard Blues Charts for the second week and top ten for the past 10 weeks.   Also # 10 on The Roots Music Report and # 1 Hot Hit Tracks 100, in the Netherlands woohoo!  And to top it off, # 3 on The Australian Blues Charts, so cool to be appreciated by the folks from home!   In May we headed down south for some very nice shows. The first show was The Natchez Festival of Music, held at the Performing Arts Center.  This theatre was featured in the James Brown Film.  A beautiful building for sure.  After the show,  the sponsors for the event kindly held a reception for us in their home which was a renovated Train Station.  The next show was Martins in Jackson, Mississippi,  this was a bit of a quite one, but a really nice room  and cool folks.  Then we headed North to BBs Jazz Blues and Soups, St Louis.  Yes we are back at BBs!!!   Some of you may remember we had to cancel last time through.  Word is that the old management is back in place and all is well.  We had an amazing show at Blues at The Bohm in Albion Michigan.  This is a cool theatre gig where we got to play a set and then the blues jammers got up to jam for a few sets then we finished off the night.  We had a great turnout - 217 peeps for a Monday night aint too shabby.   The Bohm theatre is a stunning music venue, check it out if you are ever in Albion, Michigan

We have a busy summer schedule coming up, loads of festivals, concert series, some club dates and workshops.  Please check out the tour guide below.  Hope to see you out on the road this summer!!
Thanks and Peace,

Harper and Midwest Kind
www.harper.biz (Official Harper Website) CDs/ Shirts/ downloads
 http://cdbaby.com/cd/harperandmidwestkind2   CD Baby      
www.harper.biz/workshops.html    Australian Didge-ucation
www.youtube.com/harperband (for live video clips)
www.facebook.com/harperandmidwestkind
www.musicpage.com/harper
www.reverbnation.com/harperandmidwestkind

Harper and Midwest Kind December Blog, 2014

Hi everyone,

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Winter/ Summer Solstice and a Happy Holiday Season.    In November we welcomed our new drummer from Chicago - the amazing Cam Lewis, who we met earlier  this year in Pensacola Beach, Florida.  I prophetically told Cam at the time that we would be working together someday!  Funny how things turn out.   We had a fabulous acoustic show at Trinity House in Livonia, Michigan, followed by the amazing and very wild Mash Bar in Ann Arbor and the fabulous Celtic Ray in Lexington over Thanksgiving weekend.

In early December we headed out on tour to The Alamo in Springfield, Illinois.  The next day Bobbi and I presented Australian Didge-ucation to the beautiful children of Montessori's Children's House.  Afterwards we visited the Illinois State Museum's Research and Collections Center. Curators: Terrance J Martin and Jonathan E. Reyman gave us a tour of an ancient Australian Aboriginal collection from the 1800s, Western Australia.  There were ancient didgeridoos, shields, spears, boomerangs, jewelry plus more.  It was an amazing collection of artifacts.  The plan is to return the collection to Canberra, Australia.   We then headed south to Brackins in Maryville, Tennessee which was a fun show.  Then its was on to Charleston , South Carolina for Fiery Ron's Home Team BBQ.  We had a great show and the BBQ was fabulous.

Unfortunately early on Saturday December 6th my van was broken into at The Sleep Inn in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.  The front passenger window was smashed and the door was damaged.  Mike's Gibson Les Paul guitar and Jame's 5 string Fender Jazz Bass guitar were stolen.  The thief also tried to get into the back of the van but was unable to.  Two other cars were also broken into.  I made a police report and have been checking Craig' s list, music stores, pawn shops- you name it, since.  Such a horrible thing to happen.  Our insurance covered the damage to the van but not the guitars.   We had the window taped up with plastic so we could make our show at Darwins in Marietta, Georgia.  Two wonderful local musicians loaned us their guitars for the evening.  Then the next week our good buddy Steve Arvey loaned us two guitars to finish the rest of the tour to Florida.  A big thank you to these generous musicians and also to our friends and fans for donating some cash to Mike and James to help them replace their stolen guitars.

Bobbi and I finished the year with an Australian Didge-ucation presentation at the JVS in Detroit for the PTS veterans.  These programs put together by the JVS really do work.  One veteran in particular was so sad, isolated, depressed and defensive when we met him earlier in the year.  We were astounded by this his beautiful smiling face this time around.  He had been transformed.  Bobbi told Psychosocial Specialist Donna Rhoades that she had given back this man's humanity.    It was so beautiful to see.   Thank you all for sharing this journey with Bobbi, my band "Midwest Kind" and me, this year.  We truly appreciate your support and love.

May 2015 best a year of peace, prosperity, joy and love for us all.  See you out on the road next year!

Thanks and Peace,

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

Harper and Midwest Kind July Blog

Hey everyone,

I hope you are enjoying the summer.  My band Midwest Kind and I are on the road in beautiful Oregon and Washington, USA as we speak.  We have been hitting the road pretty hard this summer, but it has been a lot of fun.  In late June we had a very cool tour to Colorado for some Australian Didge-ucation Library performances then on to amazing Utah.   We performed at the fabulous Groovefest in Cedar City, Utah.  Great audience, loads of cool vendors with interesting jewelry and clothes.  We had a fabulous show and really enjoyed the Reggae band after us called "Stranger".  Then it was on to The Utah Arts Festival in Salt Lake City.  This festival was huge with multiple stages and an eclectic mix of music, art and theatre.  We saw the Australian theatre group who perform on stilts called "Strange Fruit" which was a unique experience.  Our show at The Park Stage, closing the festival was a huge buzz.  Big crowd and good vibes all round.  We really enjoyed playing The Wine Cellar in Ogden, Utah, so nice to catch up with owner Mitch and his awesome staff.

Then it was Salt Lake City to Ottawa, Ontario Canada.  Not the best routing but the festivals were amazing.  The Ottawa Bluesfest is beyond huge, up to 30 000 people per day, multiple stages and many many amazing bands.  We performed on the Black Sheep Stage with the Honey Island Swamp Band.  They had big screen jumbo trons at the back of the stage.  It was kind of bizarre to look behind you and see yourself ten times bigger than life.  After our set Bobbi and I rushed over to The Bell Stage to catch up with bass player: Ross Valory after his set with Journey.  There were literally 30 000 people in front of the  Bell Stage.  We had special Journey back stage passes, so we had a really close up view of the band.  It was cool to hang out with the wives of the band and to see the band after their killer set.  Our Saturday show on the Claridge Stage was fun.  This stage was huge, complete with even bigger jumbo trons on either side of the stage.   The sound, back stage crew, hospitality at this festival were fabulous.  We hung out with Matt Anderson and JJ Grey back stage.  Had a lot of fun. Even got to see Lady Gaga drop a load of F bombs during her performance..  Despite that, she did put on an extravagant  show with her 24 tour buses and 150 person crew and entourage.  The next day we headlined the final day of Sab Stock in Pembroke, Canada. This was a very nice ending to a great tour.

The next week I performed ten shows in seven days- the highlights were Jamming in Jackson, Briggs Farm Festival and Blues in the Vineyard in St Catharines, Canada!!!   No Rest for the Blessed!!!! Hope to see you out on the road this 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