The Wisdom Of Learning How To Breath

Photo by John Hanson. check out more of his photographs here

"You can splash me if you want to" The band is Breathe Owl Breathe and when I caught their last show in Grand Rapids MI at the DAAC they splashed me with their brillance and I am still that way. This band is at that place of tipping point where everything begins to move very fast like a rocket taking off. I spoke with Micah Middaugh in a phone interview this week and he comes off as a real humble guy just doing his own thing. 

This is what Paste Magazine had to say about our band from up in Northern Michigan;

...There, by the heat of a wood stove, they became Breathe Owl Breathe and honed their sound—a wild rumpus of harmony and rhythm—and named their debut after its birthplace. While some peers have reveled in reinvigorating the old, weird side of Americana, the band’s flare for pop-addled melodies flips the contemporary folk aesthetic, eschewing freakiness in favor of charm. It’s a dynamic built on coupling clever arrangements with lyrical whimsy.
- Ashley Melzer,

Speaking of good things that happen at the DAAC, be sure to mark your calendars for the up coming Wealthy Orphans show Friday night January 20th. Doors open @ 9:00 with Bad Heart Bull begining with a shadow puppet theater play and then transitioning into a rollicking set of primitive roots Americana to raise the dead. The Wealthy Orphans will take the stage at 11:00 with NEW SONGS from our upcoming record!!!

Incentive: The amazingly gracious and beautiful Marlee Grace and Amy Wilson from Dance in the Annex will be dancing to one of the Wealthy Orphans

new songs!!!

Good Friends Play Broken Dreams

This is The Wealthy Orphans playing live in the studio at our local radio station WYCE. We are performing our song Broken Dreams during the stations fall fundraising campaign. The Orphans are made up of DJ Viernes on percussion, Adam Thompson on bass, Michael Schaeffer on accordion and myself, Rick Beerhorst singing and playing rythm guitar.  After we did this little gig on the radio we ended up back at Michael's house for a couple hours catching up over a few drinks.  Our time together felt like a much needed long cool drink on a hot day.

Making music in a band is as much about the relationships as it is about the music. We humans are social creatures and we need good quality friendships in order to stay emotionally healthy.  We need people around us we know and trust in order open up. We need to have people we can share some of the things we are struggling with in order to get the help and support that we so desperately need.  Over time, as you play music together with the same group of people, the relationships have time to evolve and deepen. This not only benefits the quality of the music but it also helps each of the band members to have that place to belong and contribute.

Bringing creative people together in to collaborative projects is one of my favorite things to do.  It is not unusual for very creative people to have trouble fitting in to a larger group simply because of their pronounced uniqueness can lead to isolation. (Just ask any creative odd ball you may know what their high school experience was like.) So when this kind of person finally finds their place, it can be powerful enough to set off a personal revolution. These groups also become a great context for launching truly innovative work.

Live Music Makes Us More Alive

Photo of The Wealthy Orphans by Hunter Richards

A live performance is something that is alive in the moment.  When the show comes to an end and the instruments are all unplugged and put back in their cases and the cords wound up it is over and everyone goes home. Maybe some one downloads some songs when they get home and later feel some how disappointed that the magic of the night before some how didn't make it into their iPod.

As a visual artist I have become accustomed to a certain physicality in the production of drawings and paintings. An artist working in the studio has the material accumulation of work for an art show somewhere and when you have been at it long enough the work spreads out around the world to hang in peoples homes and work places.  These people are now living with the physical out put of your creative journey in a very tangible way.  It is not the same with music for by its nature music is just more ethereal.

We have CDs and now again we can buy vinyl records. We have stickers and posters and digital photos of the show to post to flickr and yet the transitory experience of that show is as fleeting as dying persons last breath and always will be. Perhaps we can say that we are sometimes changed by the experience of live music. It is possible that not only can our soul be rivived like a cell phone gets recharged, but sometimes we are internally altered by the experience. It is as if the frame of our soul has been straightened out and our front suspension realigned. A good live performance is just that, alive, and to be present to it gives us the opportunity to become more alive ourselves again and again.

Looking For Music That Brings A Surprise

The Wealthy Orphans have been taking in some Eastern European musical influences.  I was searching for other bands out there who are using these spices and discovered Rasputina and share one of their music videos with you here.

Here they are doing the Melanie Safka Roller Skate song in a way that makes it fresh and new again.  It is odd to see three women sitting out front with cellos and a rock drummer in the back ground driving the rhythm. I am always looking for musicians that take me to places I haven't been before.

If you know of other bands doing cool things with Eastern Euopean sounds please share them with me.

Wealthy Orphans At The Pyramid Scheme Sept 22nd

Our band The Wealthy Orphans will be doing a show at the Pyramid Scheme in Grand Rapids MI, September 22. We are doing the show with two other local bands, Creolization and Petals Rang The Bell.

This is going to be a really special show. It is during the first week of Art Prize which is a time when the whole city is brought up into a heavy heart beat like an excited lover, plus this is just a very cool venue. The Pyramid Scheme was created by brother and sister team Jeff and Tami Vandenburg who brought us the wonderful Meanwhile Bar. The Pyramid Scheme at 68 Commerce (Right in the heart of the Art Prize zone) is a midsize listening venue first and and bar second which is showcasing both local and national touring acts.

Tickets for this show are only $5 and the doors open at 7:30.