Unfortunately, Mike Vial will be traveling solo for the rest of the tour after September 8th.
Also, because of a fire at the venue, September 21’s gig at Checkers-n-Trophies in Kent, OH has been moved to Muggswigz in Canton, OH.
Mike Vial Fall Tour Dates:
9/4 – The Curragh, Holland, MI
9/5 – Old Dog Tavern, Kalamazoo, MI (with Carrie McFerrin)
9/6 – Flint Local 432, Flint, MI (with Maria Rose & the Swiss Kicks & Cory Glover)
9/7 – Mash (Blue Tractor) Ann Arbor, MI
9/8 – Union Coffee House & Cafe, Buchanan, MI
9/10 – live interview/performance on Fearless Radio (1 PM), Chicago, IL
9/11 – Uncommon Ground, Chicago, IL (with Owen Stevenson)
9/12 – Froth House, Madison, WI (with Richard Wilberg)
9/13 – Acoustic Cafe, Winona, MI
9/14 – World of Beer, Ann Arbor, MI (with Grahman Lapp on bass)
9/17 – Live performance on Impact 89 FM’s Progressive Torch & Twang with host Eric Walters, East Lansing, MI
9/18 – Taffy’s, Eaton, OH
9/19 – Barking Spider Tavern, Cleveland, OH
TBA – Radio interview on Black Squirrel Radio, Kent, OH
9/20 – Midtown Scholar, Harrisburg, PA
9/21 – Muggswigz in Canton, OH with Allen Cruz
9/22 – National Underground, Nashville, TN
9/25 – Acoustic Coffeehouse, Johnson City, TN
9/26 – Copper (@ Walnut Hills), East Lansing, MI
9/27 – Live on LCC Radio’s Coffee Break (9:30 AM), Lansing, MI
9/27 – Live on LCC Radio’s Grand River Radio Diner concert (Noon), Lansing, MI
9/27 – Mash (Blue Tractor), Ann Arbor, MI
9/28 – Anita’s Riverfront Grill, Marine City, MI
10/3 – House concert, Corunna/Sarnia, ON, Canada
Times and addresses are listed at www.mikevial.com
I often joke about how I feel like a traveling minstrel who lives in his car, driving 40,000 miles a year for gigs.
The most difficult aspect of traveling is being away from Natalie. She joins me on the road a few times a year, but usually that’s not possible. We plan ahead and schedule our time together between our work schedules. We prioritize it.
When I told my friend Peyton Tochterman how traveling was difficult for me, he could relate, and said, “When Ellis Paul and I toured, we probably did 80-90K on the road that year.”
Close to 100,000 miles on the road? Yep, a musician can say the road is his home; but it’s hard to be away from your true home.
And here’s where the story of the Hollands stops you in your tracks and makes you dream of a new way to live.
The Hollands took on the challenge of life and work interfering with dreams. They literally live on the road, as a traveling, family band in a converted 1984 MCI-9 bus!
The bus serves as their home, with a working kitchen, bedrooms, and living space. It’s an incredible story to read, how a family decided the regular life of 9-5 jobs in a 2600 sq. ft home was stifling their desires to share music and treat life as an adventure.
The process of downsizing and transitioning their lives started in 2011. Now they are fully in the adventure, homeschooling their kids, touring the country year round, bringing their home where ever they go, and sharing their celtic, multi-instrumental music as a family.
The pessimists and skeptics might say, “There are too many challenges to living that way,” but I argue there are the same number of challenges to living a “normal” way too. It’s just different challenges.
What the Hollands inspire us to do is embrace these challenges fully, to find answers and solutions that fit our lives rather than feel trapped by our fears.
PS: The Hollands are playing tonight, Thursday, August 1, 2013 at the Avenue Cafe in Lansing, MI! 8 PM show.
Read more about the Holland’s life on the road here at Mama J’s blog.
Listen to their music at thehollands.org.
When I finish a song, it is inevitably evaluated by two measurements: My personal satisfaction of it, and the reaction it receives from others.
I used to assume my favorite, personal compositions would be my friends’, family’s, and audience’s favorites, too. But that’s rarely the case.
For example, my dad’s favorite song of mine is one of my least favorites to perform, one that is still sitting in demo version on a Catherine North Studios hard drive. Other times, I’ll write a song that I love to perform, and it will get yawns.
If I’ve learned anything, it’s to stop predicting the “home runs.” The best thing to do is to simply enjoy writing for the sake of writing, and let the cards fall as they may.
Yes, we have to write for an audience in mind; and yes, we have to write for our own self expression; but, usually, we have to stop worrying about whether those two measurements will align, especially because worrying can interfere with finishing the song!
You’re almost too old to make it in music…
It was 2007, and I was talking to a booking agent who needed acoustic acts for a local bar. He asked how old I was.
“I’m in my mid 20s,” I said.
“Better do it now. You are almost too old to make it in music,” he replied.
His statement haunted me for the rest of my 20s.
I was one month away from 30 birthday when I left teaching to dedicate 100% of my professional time to music.
I turn 32 years old today, and my birthday remains a marker of how long I’ve been driving around the state, and parts of the country, with an acoustic guitar in the passenger seat.
That agent’s statement doesn’t haunt me anymore. No one gets to tell you that your age will prevent you completely from success, especially when it comes to music.
It’s not that age doesn’t change the decisions we make. When I’m 64, I won’t be carrying around the 72 lb Fender Vibroking amp or the 51 lb Mackie PA I currently use. But that doesn’t mean a 64-year-old can’t make different decisions and play music.
I believe this is a new Renaissance for music, an era where the teen sensations of pop music are outnumbered by the more niches of musical styles floating around Bandcamp; an era where more people are teaching themselves to play an instrument, probably with Youtube videos; an era where more musicians are getting in their cars and sharing their songs to small audiences across the country.
Plus, those who have aged, those with experience of marriage, heartache, and loss, have more to say about love and life than 17-year-old.
Age is just a number. “Making it” is an abstract idea. And music is wonderfully all around us. Let’s blow out some candles together, and keep making that wish.
Birthday tip: If you are in Ann Arbor, go to Zingerman's Roadhouse and get a free birthday donut! It's the best, made to order donut you will ever taste.
Did your high school coach say that phrase a lot, too? “Go big or go home!”
That statement was daunting, especially if applied to music. “Go big? I can’t go big!”
However, going big is relative to where we are in our careers, in our creativity, in our interests. Going big doesn’t mean we have to be NBA superstars or selling out the Madison Square Garden.
My friend Tim made a personal challenge to play 52 gigs, hopefully one a week, to encourage himself to take his music more seriously after 30 years of playing guitar. In April 2013, he crossed the finish line!
With music or art, it’s important to go big, but we get to decide what “going big” is.
Lois knows what it means to "go big"!
