Synister Dane and the Kickapoo Disco Cosmonuts: News

WOW!! What a wonderful gig. I have to tell you folks that we were about as close to Nirvana/Eden as we have ever been. If you're an environmental econut and you haven't been to Seed Savers Exchanges Farm then you haven't been anywhere. What a wonderful experience!

However, let me tell you this. It was HOT! And HUMID! And WONDERFUL!

The farm is situated in the hills and valleys of the Driftless Region located in the Tri-State area of MN, IA, and WI. If you haven't been there then you are missing a part of Planet Earth that was saved from the Pleistocene Glaciations that bulldozed much of the area into a flat wasteland.

What you will see is a wonderfully managed farm of many fields that are dedicated to preserving the seed stock of all plants and animals responsible for allowing humanity to be what we are today.

But, don't think for a minute that the efforts are easy and without strife. On every level our heritage of seed stock is being attacked by corporation’s intent on owning the genome of every living thing on the planet all for the sake of corporate profit. To this onslaught we must stand tall and refuse to BEND!! This is what Seed Savers Exchange perseveres to do.

And we were most grateful to help these hard working folks, volunteers and members celebrate their hard work. We had a great time playing music for them and even debuted a couple of new songs we've been working on. Thankfully, they were most patient with our efforts.

Please, if you have the resources, give a donation to the Seed Savers Exchange. Who knows, it may save a piece of humanity down the line. http://www.seedsavers.org/

Hey folks. Yes, I’m sure you're shocked, but, believe it or not the band is still hanging in there, but, not without some interesting events, both personal and professional, worthy of reporting.

First, we're glad and grateful to announce that Mark Shepard is still alive and well after discovering, quite accidently, that his brain skull was and has been defective for probably his entire life. Like we didn't know that already? But, truth is stranger than fiction, and Mark found out the connection of his skull to the rest of his body where the spinal/cerebral fluid was partially, okay, majorly, okay 98% blocked and the cerebral fluid wasn't circulating properly causing Mark to experience bouts of pain from his head to his toes on sporadic occasions. For years doctors had misdiagnosed him with Lyme's disease and after years of no improvement thought they should do some more tests. A few MRI's later and the doctors said, "You could die tomorrow. We must operate on your brain immediately." Oh. Did you say only two people in the US have undergone this type of surgery and one didn't turn out so well?

Happily Mark and his family survived the traumatic experience with some help from the many hundreds of friends the Sheppard’s have in our supportive community. Today Mark continues to recover out on his farm with his family and looks forward to every day with eternal optimism and happiness. Sadly, we have learned he doesn't play the banjo any better today than before his operation. We were hoping and praying, but, I guess God had more important things to do, like, make sure he stayed around for more of what life has to offer.

Jim and his family are off to new adventures out east to the glorious and wonderful state of Pennsylvania to continue farming out there while their oldest daughter Jessie begins her post-secondary education at a college in Gettysburg. The family looks forward to the change with excitement and anticipation of new experiences and friends. We wish them all the best in their new home and community.

Allen and his wife Jean also are moving on to new experiences as they sell their farm and expect to move closer to friends and family from their home state of Kansas. Both Allen and Jean's family live out in the western parts of KS, CO and NM and the desire to be closer to parents, siblings and grandchildren is particularly strong these days as Jean's parents will be celebrating their 80th birthday this summer. Plans include going to a Royals vs. the Yankees baseball game in KC, MO with friends and family to celebrate Jean's father's birthday.

Sadly we must comment that both Jeff and Summer continue to live in familial bliss as their young families continue to grow their roots deeper and deeper into the Wisconsin coulee soils. We are so happy to announce a new addition to Jeff's family last year as a new daughter has graced their loving arms. Summer announced recently that she is with child and is expecting some time late this summer. To both of them we wish them the best as they embrace the struggles and rewards of a young family.

But, WAIT, you say? What does that mean for the BAND? worry not, for this is the age of telecommunication and travel and while the band members won't always be living next door we will continue to write and perform our music that we so love to do. Thankfully we do only a handful of gigs a year and generally are able to get ourselves together when necessary. So, worry not, Danesters as the music will continue to flow from our bodies and spirit in order to give you, our fans, those laughs and thoughtful moments you so truly enjoy.

And, last but not least, the band is embarking on a new project to put together a new CD of our latest creations. Stay tuned as we expect to put out another CD the end of this year and we promise to not disappoint you!!

Well, it's been a long drought since we've last posted anything on our website. Being farmers, we're pretty busy most of the time and sometimes that means we're busy doing nothing as we rest up from the long season of 12-16 hour days.

Since our last post we've had a couple of nice gigs to mention. As always one of our favorite venues is the Kickapoo Country Fair located in the heart of Coulee Country in Southwest Wisconsin just outside our homebase town of La Farge. Yes, it is on the map, you just have to look REAL close. With a whopping 780 population it's easy to miss.

BUT, MOST IMPORTANTLY the band has a new member!! Her name is Summer Deal-Schulz and she hails from the countryside near Hillsboro, WI just a few miles from where our bass player William Jefferson Bartovics and his wonderful family live. She has a husband and son and likes to grow organic vegetables when she's not working on her musical skills for the band. We, older and chrotchity, band members are so glad to have her fiddle playing with our music we're almost speechless at times. Plus, she keeps us "oldsters" in line and more or less on task. THANK YOU, SUMMER!

Now, back to business, if you're interested in more information about the Kickapoo Country Fair festival of organic food, education and music just check out this link for the upcoming 2009 KFC.
http://www.organicvalley.coop/kickapoo/
No less interesting are the amazing people we've had the pleasure to meet as a result of our music. Here's a short list of some of the folks who are proud owners of our CD.

Senator (?) Al Franken - http://www.alfranken.com/
Dr. Alan Greene - http://www.drgreene.com/
Jim Hightower - http://www.jimhightower.com/
Congressman Dennis Kucinich - http://kucinich.house.gov/
Franics Moore Lappe' - http://www.smallplanet.org/
Michael Pollan - http://www.michaelpollan.com/
Dr. Vandana Shiva - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vandana_Shiva
We're honored to have performed for most of these folks and also share our music with them. Please check out their websites to learn more about what they are doing to make the world a better place today and for our future generations.

What's going on with the band right now? We just finished performing at the most excellent Midwest Organic Conference where over 2600 people (a new record attendance, again) gathered to share and commune on all subjects about organic agriculture, including the most important agricultural act of all, eating. Once again the folks at the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service have proven that just because you have to serve a lot of people doesn't mean it can't taste great. WOW!

Most of the organic food is donated for this great cause and we, the attendees, are the better for it. Pork ribs, alfredo, vegetables, juice, muffins, fruit, roast beef, and on and on, and ALL CERTIFIED ORGANIC! Does life get any better? I'm not sure.

Future dates and gigs to watch for if you're interested in checking out our live performances would be:

July 25th, Kickapoo Country Fair, Organic Valley Headquarters, La Farge, WI (not confirmed yet)...

and, if we're lucky we'll finally convince the fine folks at the ACRES, USA Conference they need to hire a Populist Protest Folk Band to liven things up at their next conference December 3-5, 2009, Minneapolic, MN. Check out their website at http://www.acresusa.com/events/events.htm.

The band continues to write new music. For the last year we've been working on a few new songs and one in particular was inspired by Michael Pollan's book, "The Omnivores Dilemma", the story of how corn pervades much of the food offered at your local grocery store. We call it, "America Runs on Corn" written by our infamous banjo player, Mark Shepard. Other songs include "The Economy Blues" parodied after Mr. Johnny Cash's great song, "Folsom Prison Blues" and a new original song written by Mr. Shepard, "I'm a Farmin' Man".

Always remember as the wonderful farmer and poet Wendell Barry once said, "Eating is an agricultural act."

Howdy folks,

Sorry it's taken a bit to get this website up and running. Please have patience. There is more to come! - allen