Happy New Year!

Well, we've been out of touch for a few months. We're calling it "The Transition".We fled the impending bitter cold winter typical of Montana and head Southwest, through Idaho and Oregon to California with no plans other than staying warm. We ended up staying in Humboldt for three months working 12 hour days on a farm and playing shows on the weekends. Needless to say, busy work on a farm seemed to be the best opportunity to reflect on the past year and where we would like to go from here.

.

Montana in September before we left.

Someplace warmer.

The open road, the act of "going", moving forward and leaving everything is a character trait we both love and hate about ourselves.  We love change, meeting new people and constant adventure, but sometimes we also use it as a way to escape real life, because let's face it, life can be hard. Although playing music as a job is amazing, sometimes it gets hard living off of something you love, because you have to sacrifice your art to survive. So, instead of heading out on an epic, spontaneous journey, this time we're going to hunker down for a little while and nurse the introverted, creative side of ourselves. Musically speaking, sharing our music is our passion, but we also need to take some time to create new music, explore new ideas and grow, personally and musically.

We decided to stay in Eugene, OR where Daniel got a part time maintenance/landscaping job at a really nice RV park in exchange for rent and bills. Total score! We have all the amenities we need plus a hot tub, pool and gym! Our surroundings are beautiful green hills, the Pacific ocean not even two hours away and Mountains to our east. Endless new music venues, new music, new towns! Breweries, Thai Food, coffee roasters galore! Open minded, tolerant, forward thinking people! And everyone, seriously, everyone has been nice.

We've played a few shows since we've been here, all which have gone very well. We opened for a local band on New Years Eve at one of our new favorite brew houses, "The Brewstation", which was a great way to ring in the New Year!

It's been an exciting year and we're happy it led us here! To recap, here are some of the most memorable events of 2014:

• Purchased our home on the road, our RV,  The Fleetwood Tioga!

First day on the road with the RV!

• Completed a Massive National Tour: MT, WA, OR, CA, AZ, NM, TX, CO, WY!
• Played our first ever festival, Red Ants Pants!
• Played for our biggest crowd ever, over 5000 people when we opened for The Clintons in Billings, MT
• We made a music video!

• We played 96 shows, 47 from May-August, and the rest scattered through the year!
• Hiked the Grand Canyon!

The Grand Canyon!

Daniel hiking into the Grand Canyon!

• Traveled through at least 7 National Parks during which time Daniel got stamps and stickers for his awesome, and kinda nerdy, National Parks Passport! 

Rumeysa at Crater Lake National Park, Crater Lake, OR

• We celebrated 3 years of Marriage and 5 years of music partnership!

Celebration!

2015 New Year's Resolutions:

• Complete new album
• Break 150 shows 
• Incorporate drums and electric guitar
• Take music lessons to improve art
• Do a Hwy 101 tour
• Do a Montana tour 
• Do a Texas tour
• Be invited to open for Fred Eaglesmith's Traveling Band

HAPPY NEW YEAR! May your new year bring happiness, love, health and prosperity! 

Love, 

Daniel and The Blonde

Claire Reitz Photography

Hard at work.

Putting up posters for our show at the Clam Digger in Mckinleyville, CA The boss lets me drink on the job too!

8 am! KPOW 1260am Powell WY.

Our first ever radio show debut! Man, it's early for us, but what a fun experience. We napped afterward and then darted off to Billings for our last show in Montana before we left to head West!

Red Ants Pants Festival!

 Our first time attending Red Ants Pants Festival and our first performance at a major music festival. Wow, what a "Great Time"!  We played 7 songs and the energy from the crowd made us feel awesome and we left the stage high on good vibes. The hometown Red Lodge crowd came out in full force and made us feel like we were headlining the main stage. Thank you guys!

From Thursday night to early Monday morning I played, sang, drank,  and played, sang, drank til almost dawn every morning (hopefully not to the dismay of other campers), met some really talented folks and got a chance to hear some really cool music too. We hope to be back again next year.

-Daniel

Pre show Pendleton warm up!

Meysa is belting it out, Anton and Daniel are getting down!

Alive After 5!

We had a great time opening for the Clintons at Alive After 5. This is probably the biggest crowd we've played for. We made some new friends and got a lot of positive feedback. It was a great time!

On state at Alive After 5!

Montana; it's good to be home!

Friends, faces and the air were all fresh, welcoming and long awaited. Canyon Creek Brewery was our first show back in Montana and the official end of our four month, ten state winter western journey.

It's hard to express the gratitude we feel to everyone that came out and gave their support. We are definitely glad to be back in Montana.

Perfect spring weather and a whole bunch of great people made our last show and our welcome home complete with joyous resolve. We had a really great time and are going to frequent the "Beer Henge" as often as we can.

Let the good times roll. - D

Feels good to see that sign!

Playing at Canyon Creek Brewing!

Rumeysa makes The Blonde Ale official at Canyon Creek Brewing!

The Grand Canyon!!!

Spring Break 2001 I took my first road trip across the grand landscape of the western United States. New to both living in the United States and also independently, I was in awe of the sense of freedom I felt as I watched the miles of highway escape into the distance and the unimaginable space and vastness of this country open up with each passing hour. The Grand Canyon was a halfway point to California and one of the most impacting sights I had ever seen, so much so that the rest of the trip seems a mute point more than a decade later. Short on time and money as twenty something college students, we just stared for hours, took photos and camped in the frigid near zero temps before heading on. The Colorado river, majestically prominent with it's shades of aqua blue and green stood out amongst the dry red rocks and desert landscapes. It seemed so far and unreachable, but yet realistic. The type of goals I always seemed to reach for. Since I was a child I have always wanted to hike to really faraway points, say that tree on top of that mountain. Probably possible, but unlikely without preparation. I have wanted to hike to that river since March of 2001. And I have thought about that river, in that canyon countless times in the last 13 years and talked about hiking to it, someday. So, that's how important this was for me. And I finally got to do it with the love of my life and the partner of my dreams.

Getting the permit was a bit of a hassle since we didn't have previous reservations. Day 1 we got on a waiting list and had to arrive at 8 in the morning the next day to see if we got a spot for two days later. They only gave away 4 per day. Luckily we made it and got a permit for two nights! We meandered around the park for a couple of days learning about geography and what not. Camping was free right outside of the park.

7 miles in and 10 miles out. Two nights of camping. The rangers made a really big deal about hiking in the summer due to high temps, but we were there in the middle of spring so the conditions were near perfect. Hiking in our energies were high, going downhill was swift and we often stopped to just look around and take it all in. There were several occurences of a pack of mules either with or without people coming up or down the trails and oftentimes we'd have to scramble to the side as to not spook them.  The further down we went the higher the walls of the canyon loomed over our tiny existence. Incredible and humbling.

We quickly learned that hiking downhill for 7 miles gets to be very painful as evidenced by our burning calves and the huge blisters on our big toes. All I could think was how amazing it would feel to just go up, even just a few minutes. Who would of thought. The next day we would get our share of up! The end of the hike was extremely satisfying as I finally got to touch the Colorado River! Goal accomplished.

We want to do it again, but a longer hike, more nights and away from the main trails. I guess ten years ago I wouldn't have known the difference, but after all the time spent in the Montana wilderness it was a little disappointing how much "backcountry" hiking was full of people. The first nights stay at Phantom Ranch was literally a rustic resort with a restaurant and cabins for all of the group tours. (We camped in a separate campsite, but we were right next to the cabins and bathrooms). The second night was just a campsite, but still pretty developed. We learned that if you want to get into back country you have to take the less popular trails. Good to know for the future. All in all an unforgettable experience and one that we are looking forward to doing again with a little more planning.

Sunset

Colorado River Bridge

The Greener Side

Dusk from the Rim

Hiking Up!

Sunset

Almost there!

 

Through this tunnel will be rest, food and  cold stream in which to soak our aching legs!

 

Descending the desert!

Seriously?! Our calves hurt already!

 

We made it!