The Band came together the year of 1998 when Allen Moody and Mark Shepard performed at the Upper Midwest Organic Farmer Conference, Sinsinawa, WI. The two played guitar and banjo respectively and accompanied LIz Henderson, farmer, and family farm advocate during her keynote address. It was nice. At some point Jim Pierce was brought in for his harmonica skills and the goofing around with our instruments around the campfire morphed into a band-like group of gaphers. Finally, Mark brought Jeff Bartovics to the campfire and we've never looked back. But, in spite of our best efforts to thwart the impending doom the atmosphere remained positively conducive to a transition to what we eventually called Synister Dane and the Kickapoo Disco Cosmonuts. The very next year we wrote a parody of Country Joe Walsh's "I Feel-like-I'm-fixin'-to-die Rag" and called it "The Monsanto Rag" which became our first ever song. We have always written a new song for the organic conference and after ten years and lots of pestering by our fans we finally accumulated enough material to put together a CD. So, here it is. The music in our first CD is audacious at times, irreverent at other times and always a lot of fun. The lyrics can bite and be ascerbic yet some pull the heart strings. The band made an agreement our most important goals would be to educate and inform. We appreciate your participation in this project.
Synister Dane and the Kickapoo Disco Cosmonuts: Bio of Band
Jim Pierce - Lead Vocals, harmonica
Raised in the Chicago Suburbs I became a back-to-the-lander when my new bride Cathy and I moved to Hawaii in 1983 on our honeymoon. For the next five years we worked on shrimp farms in a remote area of Oahu and the enticements of Honolulu only an hour away. Hawaii, with its thousand slack key guitars, is also where the infection for homestead music began.
In 1989 Cathy and I moved from Hawaii to Southwest Wisconsin where we operate a Rainbow Trout farm. We live in a house we built (and so are still building) ourselves with our two daughters Jessie and Abigail, no television and where music is an almost constant companion. Church, school, social gatherings and wood fires provide the baseline for life long musical indulgent.
A longtime shower singer, I picked up a long idle guitar in 2004. I call my guitar my “Mistress”. I look forward to stroking her for an hour or so at the end of each and every day. She has traveled with me across the US and Europe entertaining and making new friends, opening doors and keeping me company at night.
The words to these songs come to me mostly at inopportune times; in the shower, on a bike, while driving, in the barn and sometimes onstage. It’s always a challenge to capture them; as a result I have a file of chicken scratched scraps of paper archiving the evolvement of my contribution to our music. I like to think that we perform in homage to Mel Torme, one of the greatest singers ever. Mel was quick to admit that he knew over 1000 songs and never sang one the same way twice. That’s organic!
Mark Shepard - Lead Vocals, banjo, trombone
Banjo picker and warped creative genius songwriter, is the owner-manager of New Forest Farms in Viola, WI. Established in 1995, New Forest Farm is a conscious conversion of a 140 acre Midwestern row-crops farm into a perennial agricultural ecosystem using oak savannah, successional brushland and eastern woodlands as the ecological models. Trees, shrubs, vines, canes, perennial plants and fungi are planted in association with one another to produce food (for humans and animals) fuel, medicines, and beauty. Hard Apple Cider, Hazelnuts, Chestnuts, walnuts and various fruits are the primary woody crops. Other crops grown on the farm are 2 acres of asparagus, a dozen acres of annual produce, hay, and free-range, pasture-raised, hazelnut fattened piggies.
The farm produces its own energy, being powered by two (soon to be three!) wind turbines, solar PV electric panels, firewood and oil crops. Their cider mill building (opening soon!) is solar heated with hot fluid circulating through the concrete floor.
New Forest Farm is one of the first generation of Permaculture farms in
the USA.
Mark is a 1985 graduate of Unity College in Maine where he majored in
Ecology. He and his wife Jennifer homesteaded in Alaska from 1986-1994 where their immersion in a self-reliant, ecological lifestyle was (to say the least) intense.
Mark was certified as a Permaculture designer in 1993, and was recently granted a Diploma of Permaculture Design by Bill Mollison, the founder of the Permaculture movement worldwide.
His knowledge and skills have been used in his Permaculture & Agroforestry consulting business; Forest Agriculture Enterprises. He teaches several Permaculture design courses annually as well as speaking and giving workshops across the country. For more on Mark’s Permaculture schedule or to have him present to your group, go to: www.midwestpermaculture.com
Mark is also the vice-president of the Southwest Badger Resource Conservation and Development Council (www.swbadger.com ), He implements reforestation, conservation and sustainable agriculture projects nationwide.
Most recently, Mark has invented a farm-scale hazelnut cracking machine (patent pending!) and is in the process of patenting four other machines for the on-farm processing of Permaculture products.
He spends his spare time kayaking with his 2 sons Erik and Daniel, either on local streams or backcountry in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
He eats plenty of farm-fresh food and hard apple cider!
Allen Moody - Rythm Guitar, lead and backup vocals
Howdy. I’ve been involved with farming since I was fourteen and took the tractor safety course so I could work for my Grandpa driving tractor. It was actually a big deal because I was living in Albuquerque, New Mexico at the time and the tractor safety course was in Dodge City, KS and scheduled before I was out of school. So, I had to get permission to finish school early in Albuquerque and then ride the train (Amtrak’s Silver Express) to Dodge City where I took the tractor safety course. I then worked for my Grandpa every summer I had a chance until I finally took over the ‘family farm’ after his death in 1985. so, that means I’ve been involved in farming since 1970. For me, it’s a bit hard to believe, but true.
At some point I got distracted by college and ended up with a degree in Geology from Kansas State University where I graduated in 1980. I worked in the oil fields until 1987 when oil bottomed out at $10/barrel and the last company I worked for went bankrupt. That was when I went to farming full-time.
But, there was always some slack time as I only grew grains and I supplemented my farm income by working as a part-time farm worker on a large conventional farm, also as a feedlot cowboy, and finally as a night shift supervisor for a farm implement manufacturer. All those jobs were quite interesting for very different reasons. The feedlot cowboy job and the conventional farmhand jobs, though, were the ones that convinced me there had to be a better way of raising food. Eventually I discovered this thing called ‘organic’ agriculture. I also found out that there were people who thought the same as I did that we didn’t need to use all these chemicals to raise food for people or livestock. Eventually my grandma would succumb to lung cancer and the disease hit home once again. The decision to stop chemical use became much easier to make.
But, for every beginning there is an end and then a new beginning. I moved from the family farm in 1992 and moved even further west to the small town of Marienthal, KS where I began worked five years for an organic flour mill and eventually met my wife. My favorite experiences from that time come from the organic farmers I met buying their grain for the mill. I had the experience buying grain from Texas to Canada, and once Australia. What fun.
In 1997 I moved to Wisconsin to be closer to my children who lived in Iowa. In 1999 I married my wife, Jean, and became her husband and my three daughters moved in. Silas, my stepson, and i thereafter referred to the house as the "Estro-Gen Hotel". After working ten years in the procurement world of organic hogs and cattle I’ve found myself once again on the farm, only this time, I’m working as a grassfed dairy farmer. What a huge change coming from the western plains of Kansas to the hills and valleys of southwest Wisconsin.
But, through out all of these misadventures I’ve always maintained a love for music. A love that started when I was 19 years old and bought my first Sears Harmony guitar. What a piece of junk. I loved that guitar and played it non-stop in complete oblivion living in a small trailer and working for my grandpa as his farmhand. Eventually I toured the folk music circuit in western Kansas and laid the foundation for my work with Synister Dane. Whether it is listening, singing, or writing I’ve always loved music. Which brings me to what this is all about. The love we have for helping create the music of Synister Dane and the Kickapoo Disco Cosmonuts. And love it must be to have sustained this effort for over ten years. Do know, my dear reader, this band is comprised of a base player and three alpha male-types of which, two, are verified testosterone-laden tornados of creativity. I can generally be found somewhere between the two of them. ‘Nuff said.
Unfortunately, you can see this crazy agricultural system we have in America has provided our band with plenty of issues to sing about. However, we believe we don’t have to accept this as our reality and we can influence a change. We hope you enjoy this CD and the message contained within. We hope you not only enjoy this music but are also filled with the desire to share it with other loved ones in your community circle. This music is meant to be shared to carry the common message as stated by our beloved former president and founding father, Thomas Jefferson, “…cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens…they are tied to their country and wedded to its liberty and interests by the most lasting bonds."
Love and peace - allen
Jeff Bartovics - Acoustic Bass Guitar
Jeff hails from somewhere east. I think Massuchessetts. A gentleman and a scholar, Jeff, is the backbone of the band. We generally don't know he is there but ALWAYS know when he is gone.
Jeff's main contribution to the band occurred one evening when nothing else would come forth Jeff uttered one word, "duluth" and the song was saved.
Jeff is the main inspiration on the musical arrangement of "Purple Hay".
Jeff is married to his lovely wife, Stacia, mother of many children who, like the other wives of this band, have exhibited great patience.
That's about all we know about Jeff. - allen