Brianna Lane

Join us for a special Christmas show on Monday, December 20th

7pm at The Aster near downtown Minneapolis

Eliza Blue, myself, and special guests

Peter Mulvey and I are heading out on bikes again!  Look out Wisconsin…

Wednesday, September 29th

bike from Milwaukee to Elkhart Lake - 75 miles

Show at Brown Bear Tavern

Thursday, September 30th

bike from Elkhart Lake to Green Bay - 55 miles

Show at Riverside Ballroom

Friday, October 1st

bike from Green Bay to Sheboygan - 75 miles

Show at one of my favorite venues - Paradigm Coffee & Music

Saturday, October 2nd

bike from Sheboygan to Milwaukee - 65 miles

Show at Linneman’s

Sunday, October 3rd

bike from Milwaukee to Madison - 85 miles

Show at High Noon Saloon

Click here for more details about Peter Mulvey

For performance info check out “on the road”

~ Follow us on Facebook ~

www.facebook.com/briannalanemusic

A few months ago I sat across from a big time Grammy Award winner.  Me in jeans and a t-shirt with a map of Canada over my chest, him in a black kilt and white doc martins.  I listened to him speak frankly of life in American, fame, no fame, and about how each morning he gets up to go to work.  Despite his appearance this man was very easy to take seriously.  He’s had a long life of being Colin Hay.

… … …

I’m pretty good friends with one of my exs and we talk on the phone now and then and we send each other questions by text, seemingly out of nowhere.  When we were together (nearly ten years ago now) we were both aspiring singer/songwriters, eager to start up our own booking collective and head out on the road.  We broke up and made up and broke up again just as we did with the touring - me out of my little red truck and her out of her Subaru.  It was shocking when she told me that she was going to stop “the music thing” and go back to school.

… … …

“How do you do it?  Do you book all your own shows?” asked one of my co-workers (Yes I have another job besides “the music thing.”).  ”Yup, and I was really good at booking tours.  It used to feel like a grand adventure.  Now I’m just tired,” I answer, as if I’m 60 and ready to quit.

… … …

“When are you getting home?” asked my five year old friend over the phone. I was calling from Maine, or Vermont, maybe it was Boston.  Her phone voice squeaks and I wonder how much she really cares because after she hands the phone back to dad she’s right back to her paper and crayons.  Regardless, it breaks my heart.

… … …

At home in Minneapolis I ride my bicycle everywhere.  I have such a sense of joy when I ride.  My gorgeous fleet of two wheeled machines is taking over the apartment.  My yoga mat often stays uncurled on the floor between the couch and the three-speed.  Each day I pull an Angel Card out of a bowl that sits on a table between the couch and the door.  A reminder to find balance.

… … …

My guitar hangs on the wall.  My banjo sits in the corner. There are so many things that I want to do with my time besides play music and most of them happen to be at home.  I don’t intend to stop playing or writing songs.  I do, however, want to do “the growing roots thing” and stay put for a while.  Yesterday it was the Uptown Farmer’s Market to buy my produce for the week.  Tomorrow I play a show at Lake Harriet Bandshell.  Today I got to play boss at work, as the real boss-man is on vacation.  Some time between now and Friday I may just pick up a new instrument.

… … …

I am so lucky to be playing four outdoor shows very close to home in the next three weeks, including the Red House Records Festival in Red Wing this weekend.  Also, I’ve been nudged by the owner of the neighborhood guitar shop, Twin Town, to pick up the ukelele and the mandolin and start adding more string students to my roster.  Now I will be teaching not only teach clawhammer banjo but songwriting, uke and mando as well.  Just this past week I got a call from my dear friend Peter Mulvey and I’ll be joining him on his eastern Wisconsin tour by bicycle again this year! Also on the docket for August is the 3rd annual Sheboygan Song Shack.  No doubt, the most creative week of my year.  I’m looking forward to writing new songs with the other talented musicians who will attend.

All of this is to say that it is time to allow a shift to take place.  Music has driven my life for nearly a decade.  Touring and travel have driven most of my life choices, and it has been incredibly rewarding. I have no regrets.  It is clear to me lately that the time has come to let my life drive my music for a while.  So I will sit in my sunroom and work on my craft.  I will develop my skills as a mando and uke player and get out of my comfort zone on the guitar and the banjo. I will write more songs.  Perhaps my lyrics will be about the joys of home instead of the challenges of the road.  I will spend less time behind the windshield of my trusty Volkswagen touring across the country and more time riding to shows on my bicycle.  I will play at least as much, but plan to do so mostly within the midwest.  If I am resting on the floor, it will be my floor…in savasana, at the end of my yoga practice…rather than a friend’s living room floor after a gig on the road.  When my five-year old friend asks me when I’ll be home, I will almost always be able to say, “I will see you very soon.”  My music will fit warmly and snugly in my life.  It won’t wear me down or make me tired.  My music will be another aspect of my life that will once again energize me as it did during my first few road-years.  I believe I will become a better musician with this balance.

So…While I may be staying closer to home,  I’ll still be be “going to work” each day, as Colin does.  I am excited about this new path I have found to “the music thing” and with high hopes and perseverance it will lead me to a new record in the fall of 2011.

See you out there - in Minneapolis, across the Midwest, on my website, facebook, youtube, in a yoga class, at the farmer’s market, in a banjo lesson, at a songwriting workshop, or on a bicycle traveling from here to there.

Friday, May 21st & Saturday, May 22nd - 8pm

at The Cedar Cultural Center

Minneapolis, MN

buy tickets now at www.thecedar.org

Check details by clicking “on the road”.  See you out there!

MARCH

12…Sheboygan, WI…Paradigm Coffe & Music (beautiful new location)

13-17…driving my car and riding my bike to New York

18…Ithaca, NY…The Shop

20…Portland, ME…North Star…Red Curtain Music Series

22…Brattleboro, VT…Weathervane

25…New York, NY…Banjo Jim’s

26…Greenbelt, MD…New Deal Cafe

APRIL

2…Asheville, NC…House Concert

3…Atlanta, GA…Eddie’s Attic…opening for Girlyman!

16…Marshfield, WI…Vox Music Series with Blake Thomas!

17…Minneapolis, MN…331 Welcome Home Show

stay tuned.