This Sunday afternoon Doc and I will have the honor of donating our time and abilities to a good cause by performing on the KTTC Eagles Cancer Telethon. I can’t wait.

To be honest, I didn’t put much thought into the whole thing other than the fact that it is a great opportunity to put myself out there while at the same time, giving back.

But as the telethon gets closer, the weight of the event is really starting to sink in. I keep thinking about how cancer not only effected my life but the lives of my family and friends as well.

Both my grandma and grandpa Koehler both passed as a result of the disease. I was much younger with my grandpa but I remember the trips to the old VA hospital. I remember watching him – a strong proud man – whither away over the course of a year while at the same time watching my grandma slowly lose the love of her life, and my dad, aunts and uncles deal with the loss of their father.

Years later my grandma had a very aggresive style of cancer – pancreatic I think. She selflessly refused the chemo because she didn’t want to put the family through the same year long meatgrinder that everyone endured with my grandpa.

My wife has had four very close relatives who have been effected deeply by cancer. I am glad to say three of the four have either beaten it or are in the process of beating it.

One of my longest and closest friends just lost his father – another strong and proud man – to it last summer. I have co-workers that have been battled the disease. And unfortunately, if I really thought about it, I could go on.

Bottom line, this disease has effected a lot of lives and taken some damn good people. It will continue to do so until somebody much smarter than I can figure something out. All I can do, other than make a donation myself, is show up, play a tune and hope that someone like yourself watches long enough to consider picking up the phone and making a donation too.

So if you are around the TV or internet at all this weekend, flip on channel 10 or KTTC.com and check out some of the acts and seriously consider making a donation.

Chances are you will be helping out a close friend or relative.

Join Doc and I at around 1:16 pm on Sunday afternoon to here us performing a song called “Minnesota Got Colder” (you can hear the demo below).

The song is a result of all of the seemingly endless amount of funerals I was attending over the course of last year. I walked through a lot of lines and all I could say to these friends and relatives was “sorry for your loss.” I felt I need to offer something more, something that could possibly provide some piece of mind. So I wrote the song. I hope that it is good enough to provide comfort to anyone else dealing with loss.

Press play to listen now.

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For more information about the telethon please visit KTTC.com.

Well I’ve tossed it around for months and I have finally decided that I am going to name my first CD. For a long time I thought about just having it self-titled because everything I was coming up with was either cheesy or risky. But in a flash of inspiration the other day, I decided on “Never Too Late” (for the record, that is “not” the cover up above).

Not only does it have a certain ring to it but it explains circumstance behind the recording of the CD ( that is, my musical pursuits at age 37). Also, and more importantly, I feel that it is a great message to rally behind and one that I passionately support, want to encourage and shout from the rooftops.

What do you think about the title? Let me know in the comments below.

The CD

Oh! And about the CD itself, I have all my parts laid down and most of the lead stuff – that Doc and Tom Moncrieff are helping with.

Now it is just a matter of going through everything and doing some what I call “redlining” to make sure everything is the way we want it. Stuff like fixing errors, determining order of the songs, tweaking audio levels, some other techy stuff I don’t understand and adding some purcusssion in certain areas to dress it all up a bit.

That said, I hoping to have something in your hands by early to mid February.

Thank You

I have had the good fortune of having some very good crowds at my last few shows. I want to thank all of you for coming, showing your support and singing along. It is fun partying with all of you and it is way cool hearing the whole bar sing stuff back at us.

I also want to thank EB’s, Ed’s no Name, Twin Bluffs, and the Hei n Low for putting us on over the past month. And Puff out at the L-Cove for letting me Hi-jack the PA to play a few impromptu tunes a few weeks back for Levi’s Birthday party.

Overall, it has been unbelievable meeting so many new people, all from different walks of life. That is one aspect that I didn’t expect – and really enjoy – when I started this whole trip. Good stuff.

Be on the look out for some more shows coming. I’ve been chit chatting with a bunch of local venues and may have an opportunity down the road in LaCrosse for some of you in that area.

Have a good one!