Follow our travels around the country and read about our post-show thoughts, our daily musings, and which of us sleepwalked the night before. Check back often for updates - you never know when (or from where) we'll make another entry...

Where to begin?

Our first show of this particular tour was in Perham, MN, for the Perham Rotary, and let me be the first to say, all the hype is true: the Perham Rotary is a swingin buncha cats. That show marked the first time in Four Shadow history that someone slipped us the tongue right on stage.

Beef tongue, that is.

You see, right before our show, there had been a meat auction. We were in a nearby lounge at the time, waiting to go on, and watching the Yankees whoop up on the Sox in Game 3. Had we been paying more attention to the auction, we might not have been as surprised as we were when, during the speaking section of Joy To The World, a lovely lady from the audience handed Kevin a white-wrapped package with "tongue" written on it. Later on, after Barbara Ann, that same lady handed me a package that said "heart." And after the show, at the sales table, we were given yet another white package, this one labeled "soup bone." It was far and away the most protein-packed performance we've ever done. Thanks to all the folks at the Rotary for a great show and, without a doubt, a memorable evening.

The next morning we awoke and continued westward, crossing over into North Dakota ("Upper D" if you're hip), beginning a nine-hour drive that we expected to end with us in a hotel room somewhere in eastern Montana, watching the crushing, humiliating, and all-too-expected Red Sox loss to the Yankees, who were up 3-0 in the American League Championship Series.

The stretch of I-94 through North Dakota was all we expected it to be, but imagine our shock and delight when, late that very night (actually morning on the east coast), Ortiz knocked a walk-off home run into deep right field, keeping the Red Sox alive for at least one more game. Rarely in the history of humanity has there been such a wave of happiness from such a concentrated area as there was from Fenway Park when that ball crossed the wall. Sure, most people probably went home thinking "Well, they only postponed the inevitable tonight," but in that one moment there was sent up into the cosmos such an explosion of happiness, an eruption of pure bliss, a concentrated beam of joy from tens of thousands of uplifted hearts, that while it's unlikely any stars were shaken from the firmament, it's doubtless a few trembled.

But anyway.

The next day dawned on a team of tired ballplayers, a million or so cynically hopeful fans, and four moderately well-rested a cappella singers setting out across Montana. (For those of you who don't know, Montana is one of the best places to get Spitz sunflower seeds. If you're a fan of sunflower seeds, you'll love Spitz brand sunflower seeds, loaded with flavor, and cholesterol-free! Spitz. Try em today!) Smooth sailin all the way across Big Sky country, even with the threat of closed roads in the mountains — but we did see some snow. We can't tell you much about it, but we can tell you it's white, and it's on its way (don't say we didn't warn you). We drove all the way to Idaho City, where we stopped at an Outback Steakhouse to watch the final innings of Game 5. While the outcome of the game was awesome, we've learned it's hard to applaud while barely fighting off a steak-and-potato-induced coma. Life's little lessons, I suppose. We ended up the night in Twin Falls, ID.

Another of life's little lessons is that most of the time it's very difficult — and often simply impossible — to keep a cell phone conversation going while driving across Montana. So after making some business calls from the hotel, we set out for the last two-hour stretch to Boise, ID, where we had a wonderful time with folks from all over the country at the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association awards banquet. And as fate would have it, we were able to catch the final inning of Game 6, where the Red Sox made their first historic milestone by becoming the first team to ever force a Game 7 after coming back from 3-0. And Kevin hit David in the face with a tapeball. Quote of the evening: "I'm sorry, man, but you gotta admit, that was a really good throw."

I'm looking back at this sprawling epic of a Road Notes, and realizing that I haven't even gotten to the really exciting part. I'm wondering, should I break here? Save the rest for later? Turn a fan towards my keyboard and go dunk my sizzling fingertips in a bowl of cool water?

No.

No, I say. Through melted calluses and imminent carpal tunnel, I shall type on… for you, Fearless Four Shadow Fan.

For you.

We left Boise at 9:00a, heavy with the knowledge that we wouldn’t stop driving until approximately 3:00p the next day. That’s right, a 29-hour drive, straight through the night, 1,700 miles to Chicago, IL, for a 5:00p soundcheck. That’s what’s was on our minds when we left Boise that overcast morning.

But Fate had other plans.

We stopped at yet another Outback, this one in Cheyenne, WY, to watch the climactic end to what was probably the greatest seven-game series in baseball history. I can’t see how the actual World Series can be anywhere near as thrilling, but I suppose I’ll watch it anyway, just to see if the Sox can keep the miracle going. But anyway, let it never be said that Four Shadow doesn’t learn from the past, because we waddled out of this Outback in not-nearly-as-much pain as the last one. We piled back into the van, and set our sights for all four hundred fifty miles of Nebraska.

I was driving this particular shift, listening to some Billy Joel while the other guys slept, each charging up for their own shift in our I-80 epic. At about midnight-thirty, we had driven exactly fifty-nine miles into Nebraska when suddenly there was a noise like a large plastic bag, caught and flapping on the front right tire, and the van started to hitch a little. I pulled off to the side of the interstate, and that’s when the check-engine and oil lights blinked on in unison, and our mighty van sputtered and coughed and died.

Two flashlights, one quick jog to the nearest mile marker, and four scratched heads later, we were on the phone to Triple-A, who informed us we would more than likely have to detach our trailer and leave it on the side of the road when Jimmy-whoever came to tow our van — a prospect with which we were significantly less than thrilled. And the clock was ticking, ticking…

As it turned out, the towtruck driver’s name was Brad, not Jimmy-whoever, and he was awesome, not only for coming to get us in the dead of night, but for having a truck that could pull our van up onto the platform and hitch up to our trailer. We crammed into the cab of his truck and motored back to Exit 59, where we learned that there just happened to be a shuttle bus at 6:30a to Denver International Airport two-and-a-half hours southwest of there. We got a couple hotel rooms, and Brad was again ever-so-groovy as he waited patiently for us to repack our luggage, along with a smattering of portable sound gear, into eight carry-on bags for the flight we hoped to catch the next day. We bid our van and trailer adieu and found our rooms, where we spent the next hour or so making several different reservations on several different airlines at several different times, all in the hopes of being able to make at least one flight. With that, we settled down for a couple hours of sleep.

Thursday morning, the day of the show, and we were still about a thousand miles away from Chicago with no sound system, the rumor of an airport shuttle bus in this isolated stretch of country where we happened to break down, no definite plane tickets, no way to get to the gig once we did to Chicago, and ten hours to figure it all out, four of which would (hopefully) be spent in an airplane, out of cell phone contact —all on a couple hours of actual sleep in the past twenty-three hours. And no idea what was wrong with the van or how long it would take to fix.

So:

The airport shuttle rumor turned out to be true, but the pickup at Exit 59 had very nearly been cancelled when the only passenger at the time had made other travel plans. We called, barely caught someone in the office, and after an hour’s wait, loaded into a BMW 7-series (I got to sit on the hump in the back, which is what I wanted anyway) for the first leg of the trip. The woman driving us turned out to be a wonderful old lady, fluent in Spanish, and apparently in training for the 2005 Malaysian Formula 1 Grand Prix, because about five minutes into the trip, we got pulled over. The trooper handed her the ticket, she thanked him, telling him that the car was actually her husband’s and she’d never driven it before, so the speed tended to creep up on her. Once we were back on the road I recall glancing at the speedometer and seeing the needle edge past ninety, and I recall deciding not to glance there anymore. We pulled into a parking lot next to a twelve-passenger van into which we crammed ourselves and all our bags, along with eight other passengers and all their bags. David and Drew chatted, Kevin dozed, and I sat next to two of the nicest ex-convicts I think I’ve ever met. The Rockies loomed up in the distance, and we finally arrived at Denver International.

With the hour delay that morning, and the ten minutes spent “chatting” with the Nebraska State Patrol, we arrived at the ticket counter about twenty-five minutes before the plane was scheduled to leave. We were informed that, since we’d be buying our tickets so late (a five-to-ten minute process by itself), we’d have to go through TSA’s extra-special security screening (ten-to-fifteen minutes, if we were lucky), then hop on the tram to the actual terminal (another five minutes away) and dash to Gate C37. This was perhaps the most terrifying moment of the whole trip: the looks in our eyes as we debated within ourselves whether or not to buy the tickets and try to set four simultaneous pedestrian land-speed records through a crowded airport. After all, the human body is capable of amazing feats of strength and endurance under great stress.

Just not these four human bodies.

So we decided to buy tickets for the next flight. But first, we decided to grab some lunch while we made the flurry of necessary calls to Chicago for sound and transportation. During this time, we received a call back from Brad, our hero in the towtruck, telling us that our engine would have to be rebuilt; apparently the sound I took for a large plastic bag against the tire was actually several hoses and lines popping free and whipping against the inside of the hood, an audible symptom of a problem that had probably been going on for half a year or more. We thanked him, hung up, and started calling around to the various mechanically inclined people we knew for a second opinion on cost and timeframe. Everyone verified what Brad had told us: it would take a long time and cost a lot.

In the meantime, I had gotten in touch with my mom’s cousin Cindy in Chicago, who was not only willing and able to pick us up from O’Hare Airport, but also to drive us to a sound rental place and haul us and whetever sound gear we needed to the gig in St. Charles (a groovy little Chi-town suburb). But also in the meantime, David had contacted a former Blind Man’s Bluff bandmate, David Wilner, who was not only willing and able to provide sound, but also to arrive at the gig before us and set it all up. So with the help of two intensely awesome folks in Chicago, we finished our lunch and dashed off to the next ticket counter.

Just as the previous ticket agent had prophesied, we spent about five minutes actually buying the tickets, fifteen minutes going through the extra-special-V.I.P. security check, another seven minutes or so on the tram to the gate, and found ourselves racing down the terminal to C37. We ran through the little tubey-connecty thing to the airplane, stowed our bags, sat down, strapped in, and looked up just in time to see them close the doors and start the safety lecture.

And really, from there on, everything was fine. We were picked up at O’Hare, courtesy of one Cindy Shumaker, and taken to the gorgeous Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles, where we found a sound system set up and waiting for us, courtesy of one David Wilner. We performed an hour for Mecum Auction’s Fall Preview, sharing the room with sixty or seventy of the most beautiful cars I’ve ever seen, we met some groovy folks after the show, went back to our rooms, and just basically fell over. Most of us even managed to make it to a bed. And the next day, we rented a car and drove back to Minneapolis, where you find us now.

So that’s the latest news. Thanks for stickin with me all the way to the end of this Homerian epic of a Road Notes. Tune in next time for the (hopefully) exciting conclusion to “Nebraska Ate Our Van.”

And all you Fearless Four Shadow Frighteners out there, have a happy and safe All-Hallow’s Eve.

What's going on everybody?

Four Shadow is coming out of hibernation to sing a bunch in the next little bit. We have been stashed away in our studio, practicing, arranging, writing, and singing in preparation for our new album that you have been hearing so much about. If you haven't had a chance to see us in a bit, check out our calendar page, and come out and see a show near you!! We're singing oodles of new fun songs, and the new T-Shirts are really cool.

This weekend we'll be singing for the Colts home opener, so keep your eyes open. Apparently, they're playing the Packers, so I'll be rooting for the Colts to turn their old AFC Champion ways on the cheeseheads.

Peace!

Kevin

We haven't been on the road much in the last few weeks, but we've been keeping super busy! Last night we sang the National Anthem at the Metrodome. As you may know, the Twins have always won when we sing, and we proved again that our magical powers can help the home team.

Lately, we've been out and about, getting to know the great citizens of the Twin Cities, helping them to discover the glorious wonders of a cappella - specifically the upcoming Four Shadow show at Hennepin Stages. Local fans have been asking us for the last year when we're going to do a public show in the area, and we're proud to be producing this one for you.

Finally, we hope you're as excited as we are about our upcoming album. There will be Four Shadow favorites (that you've been requesting), new cover songs, and even a few new Four Shadow original tunes! We're planning on releasing it well before the holiday season, in time for you to give the gift of music to, well, everyone you know :)

Enjoy the last few days of summer!

I know it might be hard to tell, given our abysmal lack of recent Road Notes, but I assure you we've been On The Road! And noting things!!

It's been a fun summer, what with the friends, families, and ferris wheels. And holy nuptials, Batman! Founding Four Shadow Father Karl "The Schroed" Schroeder up and got himself marriaged. He and the ever-groovy Katie Pantazis (who everyone kept calling Katherine for some reason) tied the knot on August 14th in an absolutely wonderful little ceremony down in Iowa. Guests included famliy and friends (obviously) as well as the Ghosts of Four Shadow present and past, and merriment soon ensued (after the initial marryment, of course... okay, that was too much). Awesome food, awesome location, awesome jazz combo, intensely awesome company -- and at each table setting, little transparent plastic boxes (wrapped in wribbon) with two little colorful things inside that smelled like chocolates but didn't look like chocolates but that everyone insisted had to be chocolates and that eventually turned out to be chocolates (which is good, because I put them in my mouth anyway). All in all, a spectacular time.

Also, since the last Road Notes entry, half of us have had birthdays. David and Drew both celebrated their own personal Labor Days (wah wah) this summer, bringing the official Four Shadow age to 114. Ah, these a cappella groups grow up so fast... sunrise... sunset...

Well, that's all for now, Fearless Four Shadow Followers. Stay tuned for more Notes From The Road because hey, we couldn't possibly take that long again, right?

The scene:

The Oddfellow Theater Buckfield, ME Approximately 9:00pm, May 14th, 2004

The players:

Four Shadow (specifically, Kevin) The Friday night audience A golden retriever

The action:

The show had been going great, as do just about all our shows at the Oddfellow. We were getting ready to introduce a song near the end of the show, when we notice the audience chuckling, and not at us. We can't figure out what's going on, but being the consummate performers we are, we keep on keepin on, acting as though the crowd were chuckling at us (thinking ourselves highly chuckle-worthy).

Someone in the crowd points behind us and yells, "Bear!"

Kevin flips out.

Apparently, the Miclons' golden retriever had recently learned how to unlatch the doors upstairs, giving him unfettered access to the whole house, including the backstage area and, consequently, the stage. Unbeknownst to us, he had wandered onto the stage behind us, causing the audience to chuckle. His name, of course, is Bear.

The analysis:

Somehow, when Kevin heard some well-meaning audience member holler "Bear!" (over the muffled laughter of the crowd), his first thought was not that the lovable family pet upstairs had somehow found his way onto the stage and was sniffing around for dropped popcorn, but that an actual bear, a grizzly or a kodiak or even a polar bear, was going to run amuck in the Oddfellow Theater, and that we were the first line of defense for the audience. Well, three of us would have been, anyway: Kevin had fallen to the floor.

The inevitable question:

Is Kevin always expecting some wild animal to rush onstage and run rampant?

The test:

The next time you see a Four Shadow show, keep an eye on one Kevin Steinman. Watch his movements very carefully. See if you can't detect a hint of nervousness, a surreptitious glancing over his shoulder, a certain readiness. I'll watch too. And if I notice this behavior, at some point in the show, I'm going to yell out "Badger!" and see if he freaks.

All in the name of science.

Hey Four Shadowites!

Greetings! It is spring, if you can't tell from all that rain falling, rain falling, rain falling... hey that should be a song! Wait. It is. Oh, and may I say it's going to sound awfully nice on our new ALBUM! (thunderous cheering!)

Yes, those rumors that you hear are true! We are busy working on our fourth album, and it is scheduled to come out later this year, so get excited. It's gonna have tons of fan faves, and some really groovy new stuff to boot.

Of course, we have to stop touring for more than five minutes so that we can actually spend some quality time down in the studio. Stu-stu-studio... whoah, whooah! Ahrr, somebody stop me before I arrange a Phil Collins song!

Well, as luck would have it we are in Maine, and as always, it is a fine place to be. I can't say enough about that gosh darn Oddfellow Theater. Those audiences just kick some serious boo-tay. Two sold out shows! Whoo hoo!

And the people who hang around in that theater while the sun is shining and the show is still hours away (Morty, Michelle, Fritz, Casey, Mike, Kim, and the boyz) are truly the kind of people worth knowing. Just being near them gets me all inspired and feeling artsy and stuff. Thanks you guys for yet another fantastically invigorating trip out east. You all make the driving we do to get out here so worthwhile.

Lemme just tell ya folks, when you get out to Maine, there are so many things to see and do, but just hearing the local accent is worth the trip. I was out on the golf course the other day, and I found myself playing - just by chance, mind you - with the OWNERS of the course in Turner (pronounced Tunnnah)! Can you believe it? They had the most wicked cool accents one can imagine. I think they were self conscious, because I have that knack for smooth, midwestern, unadorned speech that comes out like a blend of Carey Grant and Horace Timberloggin, and they would be like, Guy 1: "Dave, what'd you get on that hole?" Dave: "I got a foah." (noticing me smile at the beautiful sound of that number in Maine dialect, he'd repeat) "Fo-aH! FOOOAHHH! (extended gutteral sounds lengthening out into spasms of fits of laughter)" Nearly laughed so hard I shot a nugget.

Ah, me. I dunno. Come out and see for yourself. And while you're out here, be sure to check out a show at the Oddfellow Theater in Buckfield, ME, located on highway 117 next to Tilton's Market.

My big question of the month: (free cd to anyone who knows this for a fact - must be able to verify!) will Sheryl Crow, sweet rockin woman that she is, be just another fan in the crowd as her new honey Lance Armstrong goes for his sixth Tour de France? These, friends, are the questions that keep me up nights. Literally.

Peace.

Kevin

Greetings from the road!

We've been traveling a lot this year - it's been great to see so many of you, from such varied parts of the country as Montana, Arizona, Maine, North Carolina, and New Jersey (state #42!).

We'd like to send a special thanks to those of you who came to our sell-out concert in Hermantown, MN last week. As you know, many of our shows are private events that our agency books for us. We know it can be frustrating to our fans when we play in your town but we're unable to invite the public. So, we decided to begin a transition in how we do things, to increase the number of shows that are open to the public by organizing our own, self-promoted shows in areas near the Twin Cities. The show in Hermantown was the first of these, and it was a wonderful success. Thanks so much to everyone in the Duluth area for your support, including the Lipinski family, JJ Holiday at Mix 108, and Elizabeth Ries at KDLH - CBS Duluth.

Coming up this week we'll be performing again at the wonderful Oddfellow Theater in Buckfield, ME. If you're within 200 miles you should really check it out, it's going to be great!

Well, the sunshine and great outdoors are calling me, so I'm going to sign off - see you on the road!

David

It's time for a supplemental installment of your regularly scheduled Road Notes, entitled... Notes OFF The Road!! We just rolled in last night at about one o'clock in the a.m., and I'm not ashamed to admit to you, Faithful Four Shadow Follower, I woke up at about two in the afternoon.

Holy bunch of Montana, Batman! Y'all got yourselves a lot of state up there. And we enjoyed every minute of it. The pictures are up of the calf we watched come into the world. It was wild, I tell ya! First there was one cow, and then, after some squishy-type noises, there were two! What'll they think of next?!

And so, after bouncing from border to border of that big ol state, we find ourselves with two and a half days to just kind of sit around and ruminate. Well, okay, maybe more like a few minutes to sit around and ruminate. After all, we've got a bunch of stuff to do before we head out again, this time to the beautiful Maine, to spend some time with our Buckfield family, and then down the coast to Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and North Carolina (though not necessarily in that order).

Work continues on the new album, still with a tentative release date of sometime in the year 2004 (and that's 2004 AD... we don't want to sound too vague, after all). And our summer schedule is filling up, so keep checking that calendar for the next show nearest you. Or, if you've signed up on our e-mail list, keep checking that inbox for the latest touring information. And if you haven't signed up on our e-mail list... what are you waiting for?! It's the cool thing to do, everyone's doing it, don't you want to be cool?

Well, enough ruminating for me. I'm off to track down something productive to do (it'll most likely involve some as-yet-unspecified amount of Rice-a-Roni, but then again, what doesn't?). Hope all is well in your corner of the world, Faithful Four Shadow Follower, and don't forget to stay alert. As the airlines say, "Look around the cabin and remember, the nearest Four Shadow show may be directly behind you."

Happy taxes!

Greetings from Montana!

It's been a really varied tour so far, all of it fun. We started in the Utica/Hobson area, where our hosts, Dick and Marsha Clary, showed us the ways of their ranch life. We ate antelope sausage breakfasts, and elk steak dinners, learned all about cattle raising, and even watched a calf being born! Look for pictures of that on the site soon.

We then drove to Missoula and had dinner with some good friends of ours, Kate and Lacey. The next day I could have sworn we drove to Switzerland. The mountains were rocky and snow-capped, the hills below rolling and grass covered, and every few miles we came upon a quaint village. We stopped at Ronan and did a show at the high school and the community center.

The next day took us just about to Canada, where we performed in the almost-border town, Eureka. Then, on Saturday, Kevin and I got in the last skiing day of the year at Big Mountain, MT.

We're still on the road now, having a blast as always.

See you at a show soon!

Four Shadow hasn't been on the road for several weeks now, so these are sort of side-of-the-road notes.

After a great couple of shows in Ft. Dodge, IA and Aberdeen SD, we took a little vacation. Upon returning from our various adventures (I went skiing, because it's FUN), we settled in to work on our next album. We're really excited about the sound so far, and we can't wait to get it to your ears. There's no official release date yet, but we'll keep you posted.

Coming up next week we've got a show in Bemindji, MN, then we're off on the road again for a 5-week tour. Check back soon for notes from Montana, Maine, North Carolina, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

See you soon,
David

The road is long from Arizona to Minneapolis, and at times it is strewn with wayward cars. We saw them the other day, and I am here to tell you that if you want to know what to do in slick driving situations, do what we do: GO SLOWLY!

We drove 35 miles an hour for like five hours from Kansas City to Des Moines, and saw so many cars and trucks off the road, burrowed into huge mounds of snow. It was eerie! So please take care as you drive this winter season, and if the conditions are bad, SLOW DOWN. Four Shadow does. :-)

All right. Now it is time to settle in and heave some massive shouts out to the cream of the touring crop, all those fine places we visited in between braving the winter weather to show up for gigs. Actually, we were blessed with great weather for the majority of our recent tour, so for that we can be grateful!

We began in January in the beautiful state of Montana, where we received hospitality and kindness of which we are definitely not worthy. Pam and Neal Wedum, you are in our hearts forever, and we will visit again, we promise. Thanks, too, to Ralph, Myrna, and Julie S. and the entire community of Choteau, MT, for such a tremendously cool residency. That was an impressive start to a big tour, and it set a VERY high standard for what was to come.

Our thanks also go out to the communities of White Sulfur Springs, and Gardiner MT, where we had great fun. Of special note were the amazing natural hot springs in which David spent long hours bathing, and a wonderful tour of Yellowstone by none other than the esteemed Carleton grad Bill Edwards, who is an expert in all things flora and fauna in that beautiful land. I must say that touring a national park with a genius guide is a heck of a way to spend a birthday. Add a sweet show to boot, and I can honestly say that was a refreshingly fulfilling birthday on the road. (28, whoo hoo!)

Next it was SOUTH to Arizona (via Nebraska, of course!) to do some more residencies, this time in the Nogales area. This tour was a highly anticipated repeat of our successful 2002 tour, during which we recorded much of our highly vaunted LIVE album, and we were excited to see so many people out again who remembered us from last time. If I may say so, a fabulous time was had by all, and we sincerely enjoyed the kindness shown towards us by the Santa Cruz County Young Audiences folks.

Minor problems were encountered, it must be mentioned, when certain parties of the band which will not be named drove the van into a hilly, muddy construction site in Patagonia, AZ, where your humble Kevin truly thought all worldly sanity would end. We were SO STUCK in soft dirt, and hemmed in by fences and hills, it was worse than any snow conditions I could ever imagine. However, thanks to the cool heads of some nimble construction-types, and the all-healing power of a hemi (well, a 4x4, anyway!), we were extracted from our dangling precipice in limbo, and squirted out across the desert to our fastest set-up in history for our final school show of that residency. Thanks to Challenger Elementary School for being so terribly sweet. You made that day end right.

Thanks also to the folks who came out in Green Valley, AZ, where we packed the place some FOUR years after our last visit there. COOL!

Well, now it is time to observe with keen eyes the ancient wisdom of the squirrels, gather a few remaining nuts, and retire to our warm studio where we will slumber with thoughts of beauty and harmony, and produce our greatest work yet, a new STUDIO ALBUM sometime when we wake up later this year.

Stay warm, drive safe, and visit fourshadow.com often. love, Kevin