Click on the CD to hear a sample

A Land Called Minnesota:
 This is the story of the young people who pursued their dream across the ocean, never to see their homeland or families again.  Instead, in a very short time, they built lives, traditions, and families who now call this their home.

Stop This Wagon:
A fanciful tale of crossing this great land with dreams of California, only to settle for something else.  As one Prairie resident once told me, They settled here because some of the wagons broke

Don’t Let the Sun:
  A farmer’s lament; sometimes the work is so hard, and the rewards so few.  If we didn’t love the land and the cycle of life, we might not stay.

War On the River: 
This is an account of the Battle of the Piles, which took place on the St. Croix.  Steamboats and railroads took some time and diplomacy to learn how to co-exist.

Timber:
 If you’ve ever walked through the tall timber in Itasca State Park, and just pictured what it must have been like with trees like that from the eastern Great Lakes to the Prairie.

Dam the River:
 This is a story of some competing development interests, and the construction of the Biggest Wooden Dam in the world, Nevers Dam.

I 35:
 Since I live in Duluth, I couldn’t help but notice that the Interstate System doesn’t always go everywhere, or through everything.  This song was written when the highway was extended another 3 miles with a marvel of engineering, cooperation of government agencies, development of the waterfront, and the road still stops here.

Mesabi:
 The story of the Merritt family who discovered Mt. Iron, and truly started to boom on the Iron Range

Spirit of Love:
 More than a few battles between Native American tribes started like this on warm summer evenings.

The Railroad Makes the Town: 
This is really the same as where they put the highway, or the exits on the freeway.  It was always nice to be someplace, even on the way to someplace else.

I’m Going Camping Tonight:
A collection of a few of my outdoor experiences with a bit of hyperbole to make it real.  One night during a show, two women burst into tears – not of joy – in the middle of the song.  The guys shrugged.  It wasn’t such a good trip.

Rolling Home:
 There are a lot of songs and stories about the Mississippi, but few give a thought to where it all begins.