Huh? Wha?

Hey anybody-who-knows-this-Myspace-page-exists.

Welaware hasn't died.  Yet.

We recently started recording for our first-ever Welaware-related hyphen-included record-type project.  Because this is so, we'll start playing some Twin Cities shows soon to sell you the finished project, so if you'll direct your attention to Nate's hompage, you'll soon find show details.  That is all.

Justin Rimbo.

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sappily bouyant

I just had a fun rehearsal for a show I get to play tommorow night and it made me realize how great it is to have friends that do what they love and invite others to share in their endeavors. 

Speaking of sharing, a few weeks ago we shared a bunch of things from our garage with somebody who happened to show up in the middle of the night and helped themselves.  It's not the kind of sharing I enjoy.  In fact it really ticks me off.  They stole a really nice jogging/biking stroller my 6' ladder and the front wheel of my bike - luckily jodi and i's bikes were locked together or I'm sure they'd be gone too.  It's so irritating to invest in your neighborhood and get the shaft in return.  

But now it's time to be hopeful, because nothing's beyond redemption.  not even me, not even you.

Currently reading : The Signature of Jesus By Brennan Manning Release date: 06 July, 2004

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missional
Current mood: optimistic

blogging remission? ommission?

I've been in a basement the last couple weeks breathing deep the dust of joint compound which gives one time to reflect.  One of the things i've been thinking is why blog?  I'm not doing anything noteworthy, and the people i love i see often enough to inform, they don't need an information superhighway to find out about me.  Not to mention the fact that I rarely blog anymore anyways, so maybe it's time to ditch myspace, which would then become yourspace.  But the thing is i have a general optimistic view of life, with severe bouts of cynisism, and poor spelling, and i do believe that great things are on the horizon and i should keep this blog handy to let the world know.  For example, I got to be on my friend Jonathan's new CD, that's huge to me, and you should know that, also you should check him out, www.jonathanrundman.com The other cool thing you should know is that my wife and child and i are moving away for a year come september.  i'd tell you where, but i've learned from the evening news that doing so my just be bait for rock and roll predators to come beating down my door and demand i play tasty riffs at gun point.  but still we're moving and that's exciting.  and when we move i plan on upgrading to highspeed internet access so that i can share with the world all the more quickly all the exciting things that are happening in my life that have been voids in your life, and vicariously i will offer you ultimate fulfillment.  so get your hopes up and be very patient because good things are going to happen.

nate, for welaware.

Currently listening : For the Last Time By Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys Release date: 19 April, 1994

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prump day

tuesday is officially prump day, i have declared it so.  everyone's stuck on wednesday as being hump day, but with my pre-hump (prump) awareness i no longer dread the hump because i am prumped.

here's what's got me prumped tonight. in 2000 i wrote a song called peacemaker's war which involves a lot of yelling and very little melody - i imagine if i ever fronted a punk band this would be our hit.  (instead i've been fronting a folk band and the word hit just isn't part of our lexicon) so jason moran has given me and some of my other best friends an opportunity to play tuesday night lent services for a small contemplative crowd in a spacious and beautiful sanctuary.  jason does all the oraganizing and then chooses songs by consensus.  so it's been a lot of the lent section in the lbw and a little holden evening prayer and almost neil young at times, but not yet.  so my bass friend bill suggests for this week, peacemaker's war as a hymn, half joking, but that half didn't come across in the e-mail, so jason, who digs the song says yes and we go from just as i am, into peacemakers war followed by some lectio devino.  it was nuts! and so freakin' cool and so horribly out of place that it was either perfect or heretical i still haven't decided.  and so fun to play with bill channeling mike watt and marty getting all keith richards on me and steve playing a 12 string and me hackin' on the mandolin - oh man a moment i never thought i'd see.  god, music is so great.

keep in mind next prump day you can see me and welaware bassist play at station 4 in st. paul with jason lee.  we'll be covering last dance with mary jane in double time on banjo, mandolin and guitar and i'll sing the word underwear for the first time ever in public.  i didn't even know that word was in there till they told me to sing the third verse.  who knew?

here's the song lest ye be curious

Peacemaker's War

We are not the ignorant - we just plain disagree

What it takes for a person to be truly free

I'd say it to your face if it weren't for the door

All I want is peace it's a peacemaker's war

You take your 20 paces I'll hold my white flag and run

The only fool in this duel is the idiot with a gun

You say you'll die for this country I just want to live

You take your M-16 I'll take the words father forgive

So we fashion our weapons of words and vows

Beat our knives and our rifles into farming plows

Grow up a crop of what don't taste good to the general public

But it seems the general public just don't know what's good for it

You can stoop to the level of the ones that you oppress

But stooping will never help you rise above the violence

You can mow those strangers down, than we'll all be cursed

It's all very racist, but you say they were racist first

So I where my tattered hopes, and wrestle with humility

With a cross of rejection I follow the least of these

I never saw the glory, but the glory has its eyes on me

Drive me to my grave - I will still be free

Currently listening : Both Sides of the Gun By Ben Harper Release date: 21 March, 2006

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rock and roll, hammers, and sermons

Last night was a wonderful welaware concert at the Kitty Cat Klub.  a decent showing of people a great opener (jason shannon), aviette sounded better than ever and i only broke one string.  right on.  we sang julie miller's 'all my tears' for our friend robin who was laid to rest earlier in the day, a great song for a great soul.  My old friend corynn, who i haven't seen in years, came to the show which was a blast and totally made my night.  I was a bit impressed with how awake we were as a band.  11 pm gets to be pretty late.  I had been swinging a hammer all day, micah had been producing an album, and this was justin's 3rd concert to play in 24 hours, yet once we got going it might as well had been 7pm - I got home at close to 2 and snuck into bed and laid awake for another hour 'cause i was so pumped by the evening. 

And then at 7 am the houge clan arose for a monumental sunday.  My brides on her way to being a pastor and today was her first sermon - and it was great!  I was totally affirmed in the fact that she's found her calling.  It was also great cause so many times i do stuff at church that's super visible and everyone's shaking my hand after the service, but today even though i did the children's message, everyone was around jodi instead - it was great!!!  I got to hang out in the nursery and organize the book shelf with lydia. right on.

oh but i must say one thing about the children's message - we boxed up the alleluia's in preparation for lent (wednesday).  the kids got to run around church and grab paper slips that said alleluia on them from everyone in the congregation while we sang halle, halle, hallelujah (612 WOV) and then we put them in a wooden box and nailed 'em shut till easter morning.  The kids got to run, i got to swing a hammer in church... it was a good time.

other highlights of the service included visiting friends and singing parts of the liturgy to cambodian melodies - including the lord's prayer which is enough to make you weep at the beauty of sung prayer. 

and after the service we ate at hoa bien on lexington and university.  hot and spicy mock duck.  life really doesn't get much better than this.

Currently listening : Lux Vivens (Living Light): The Music Of Hildegard Von Bingen By Hildegard of Bingen Release date: 25 August, 1998

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show on the horizon
Current mood: determined
Category: Music

I'm listening to the streets.  It's so tension full, everything being a little off and then falling together.  Like Jay Farrar trying to hold a note, or Lucinda Williams' emotion bursting melodies, or the top bracing on a nice acoustic, or a tube about to explode, or an artist trying to get health insurance.  All this tension pulling life tight and putting spring into the trampoline.  and giving us headaches too.

This saturday is the big Welaware show at the Kitty Cat Klub.  I have to admit I'm a bit nervous about our draw right now - word of mouth seems to be the only way to go, yet we're running out of available ears.  So if you're hearing this send people our way, okay? 

I've got a set list to assemble and a dryer to fix.  And coffee to drink.  It's going to be an intense day.

Currently listening : A Grand Don't Come for Free By The Streets Release date: 18 May, 2004

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temporary

I'm a doer more than a completer.  I'm more about process than product.  I usually get within reach of the finish line and then am okay with turning around and seeing who else is coming, or walking back to the last water stop to say thanks.  I'm careful not to mention any of that in the hiring process, and luckily I've got no hiring in my future, so no worries. 

We finished the Attraction E.P. which turned out pretty great.  I made a promo edition and gave out 50 copies last weekend to potential bookers and friends and now I've got to come up with the real packaging, and I'm not to worried about it.  I should be, we've got a show on sunday we could sell these at, but instead i'm working on the next project which is the 'memorize hymns, neil young, and stones songs'  I've got most of Jesus Refuge of the Weary done, and am starting on Dead Flowers. 

My friend Kjel is pretty purely an artist.  That's who he is.  Every show is a new set of work, never showing the same pieces 3 times in the same city, and then people by the prints and it's final, it's over there won't be anymore. 

I'm thinking of my future recording being of this nature.  I'll make 100 copies of Attraction and then when they are gone, they're gone.  I've purchased screen printing materials to make custom inserts.  When they're gone, they're gone.  And maybe people will burn copies, but they'll never have the real thing, and for the next generation of listeners that'll be really cool, or make absolutley no difference whatsoever.  And maybe i don't care what happens to the product, because I'll be satsisfied with the process. 

I just remembered, I need to put together a set for my daughters valentines day party at day care tomorrow.  If i change the 'needle and spoon' lyrics maybe I could fit dead flowers in there somewhere.  or they could just mute my mic. 

8:47 AM - 3 Comments - 1 Kudos - Add Comment

rock and roll lifestyle

In case you were wondering if I'm happy in a my new walk of life, the answer is yep.

This is what's on the calendar in the next month: backing up Rachel Kurtz on lapsteel and mandolin in Phoenix AZ, playing for a retreat in Seattle WA, doing my a six show series at the West 7th Family Center for preschoolers, playing a bar show with welaware, a church show with the honest folk, doing a sunday school hour with jason, and tomorrow i'm playing guitar and mandolin for a 70 kid choir over at Highland Park Elementary.  I got all these musical things coming up and no two are alike.  I love my job!

If you is who you ain't than you ain't who you is. 

Right now i feel tremendously like who i is.

11:16 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

new life

I resigned from my last job and am officially self employed once again, and it's fantastic.  My family spent Christmas in Kenya with my folks who live there and my brother who flew in from his home in Shanghai China.  We spent 2 1/2 weeks being family and seeing large animals.  One of my highlights was building a workbench with my dad.  I've got a real need to work with my hands and vacation wouldn't be  vacation without a little home improvement.

Now we've been back for a few weeks and I'm completing a new E.P. - attraction.  It's the welaware line up but being released under the Nate Houge moniker since it's more attune to what I'd do in a faith setting and welaware is really more of a bar setting.  Those kind of distinctions drive me nuts because who cares?  I think the different names help me define where to put the songs in my mental filing drawers.  The E.P. is sounding great and will be a great place to jump from as Welaware embarks on the murky waters of e.p. joy.

I'm a big fan of short and sweet, the e.p. works for my ever changing self.

I spent a wonderful morning with Lydia at the Rimbo's measuring their basement and getting ready to finish it.  I get to work with PEX and that overjoys me.  That's the side of me that I don't get.  The 3 things i've never not enjoyed as long as i can remember have been:  Songwriting, building/tinkering with tools and wood, bean burritos. 

On departure Justin lent me a buddy miller pod cast that i just finished listening to.  time to break out a little midnight and lonesome. 

God, life is so full of hope and potential right now, please hold the creditors at bay,

amen.

Currently listening : Midnight and Lonesome By Buddy Miller Release date: 15 October, 2002

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nate is a four letter word
Current mood: content
Category: Music

I think DC Talk had a song called love is a four letter word....

Well so is nate.

As my friend Lauren says, Better Nate than never.

I'm in my final week of work and I'm going through this huge creative surge.  At home I'm finishing up some activities for Augsburg Fortress and I've been writing/finishing a handful of songs using open C which always makes me think of Pierce Pettis. 

At work I'm pretty much done with anything I have to do.  It's amazing how motivated you can get when once the end of your to-do list is in sight. 

I've had two great musical collaborations of sorts in the last few weeks as well.  Before thanksgiving I had an opportunity to co-write some music with Jonathan Rundman and then last friday I made it into his studio to sing harmonies and play some guitar.  Jonathan was great to work with- I used to joke that I put the harm in harmony, so it was very big of him to put me on his album.  Then I added an acoustic guitar which is something I always enjoy.  The challenge and joy of it all was recording with our two 2 year olds in the studio.  It can be done!

The other great music collab (no time for oration) was playing lap steel on the fuller still album.  I've had a few chances to hear their album in the making and it's coming along great!  So much of my recording experience has been with other diy recorders and now all of a sudden everyone's taking it to the next level.  Somehow along the way I've had the opportunity to tag along and it's a real joy. 

So some harmony and lap steel is down for the record.  yippee.

Currently listening : Up Up Up Up Up Up By Ani DiFranco Release date: 19 January, 1999

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