This dynamic collaboration of Alaskan songwriter Tom Begich and Massachusetts poet Timothy Mason creates vivid new work that transports their listeners.
The performance fuses song and poem into a seamless new form that resonates deeply across a landscape both timeless and contemporary.
They are master word-workers with an easy stage presence and powerful delivery.
Dubbed “Bone Collectors” by an audience member in northern Vermont who found their performance and substance evocative of deeper truths, the duo’s authenticity is compelling.
Living without road access in Alaska might not seem the best way to be a touring musician, but that’s where he makes his home with his daughter, one cat, and far too many books to fit into one room (along with the occasional bear sitting in the front seat of his car). As a single parent, he came up with a novel solution to needing a flexible schedule that would allow him to tour: he went back to school and completed a PhD in fisheries population dynamics, playing shows when he traveled for academic conferences and between working on chapters of his dissertation.
His approach to writing and performing music is somewhat unique – he no longer sells CD or charges money for his songs; everything is freely available from his website. He supports his touring through proceeds from live shows only, and encourages everyone to duplicate and freely share his songs. When not touring, he is busy being a Dad and working as a fisheries researcher. All of his songs wait patiently on his website, ready to waddle their way across the world, leaving no footprints in the snow.“Music without borders or cost” is the foundation of singer-songwriter Kray Van Kirk’s approach to writing and performing music. He no longer sells CDs – we already have too much stuff. He also does not charge for his songs, and instead freely gives them away over his website as a deliberate movement away from the bottom line that seems to govern so much of our daily lives. When he is not touring, he spends his time at home in Alaska, being a parent and finishing his PhD. All of his songs wait patiently on his website, ready to waddle their way across the world, leaving no footprints in the snow
Don’t miss out on Alaskan Ukulele Pro, Ukulele Russ tonight at Crazy Crow on the Old Seldovia Boardwalk at the Seldovia Rowing Club. Come for fun, music and great desserts at 7:30 PM.
Songs you love. Songs you hate. Songs you love to Hate.
Biography
Alaska’s Guitar Alternative and ukulele wild man, Ukulele Russ. One man adrift in the guitarist’s jungle. Hailing from the edge of civilization in interior Alaska, Russ has carved out his niche and finally has proven to the masses that the ukulele is stringed testosterone in the hands of the right man.
Description
Alaska—the Final Frontier. Alaska has captured imaginations ever since Thomas Jefferson purchased it from the French for two cases of whiskey and a buckskin pouch of glass beads. And now, with the birth of the interwebs and the dawn of the reality TV age upon us, people once again turn their eyes northward. They are enthralled with Alaska, but is what they see really reality?
A native son of N… See More
Band Interests
Social commentary, catchy hooks, and funky licks.
Artists We Also Like
Frank Zappa, Sweating Honey, Blind Melon, Gristlestick, Roy Smeck, Merrill J. Miller
Crazy Crow will be hosting Ukulele Russ on May 30, 2014 for a house concert and ukulele workshop May 31.
Show will begin at 7 PM. Saturday
Workshop hrs. TBA. Sunday
Call 907-234-7614 for reservations and details.
The house concert will be at the Seldovia Rowing Club and will be the usual wonderful, intimate affair. The workshop will involve our local Ukulele Club of Seldovia . Both are open to all, but you should save a spot by calling Crazy Crow Productions.
“One adrift, alone in the guitarist’s jungle, is here to bring light onto the greatest stringed instrument known to man, the ukulele. That’s right, the little one with the plastic strings. Well guess what? I’ll tell you something you might be interested in knowing. Limitations are for people, not ukuleles.
I’m the kind of guy who opts for the Geo Metro in the Mac Truck world we live in. I live on the edge of civilization in interior Alaska in a dry cabin. Dry? Cabin? Yes. No running water. No plumbing unless you count the sink I have in my kitchen that drains into a bucket. Yes… I have an outhouse.
I hunt moose. I harvest salmon for the freezer and slay the trout. I snowshoe into strange hard to get places and tool around on the trails on my three wheeler… because I can’t afford four. Iplay ukulele for a living.
Several years ago I used to tour the lower 48 with a funk rock band. Now I play full time in the last frontier, Alaska. From elementary school classrooms to raunchy bars. I do it all.” Ukulele Russ
Alaska’s Ukulele Wild Man
Unconventional Ukulele for Unconventional People
Songs you love. Songs you hate. Songs you love to Hate.
Biography
Alaska’s Guitar Alternative and ukulele wild man, Ukulele Russ. One man adrift in the guitarist’s jungle. Hailing from the edge of civilization in interior Alaska, Russ has carved out his niche and finally has proven to the masses that the ukulele is stringed testosterone in the hands of the right man.
Description
Alaska—the Final Frontier. Alaska has captured imaginations ever since Thomas Jefferson purchased it from the French for two cases of whiskey and a buckskin pouch of glass beads. And now, with the birth of the interwebs and the dawn of the reality TV age upon us, people once again turn their eyes northward. They are enthralled with Alaska, but is what they see really reality?
A native son of N… See More
Band Interests
Social commentary, catchy hooks, and funky licks.
Artists We Also Like
Frank Zappa, Sweating Honey, Blind Melon, Gristlestick, Roy Smeck, Merrill J. Miller
This dynamic collaboration of Alaskan songwriter Tom Begich and Massachusetts poet Timothy Mason creates vivid new work that transports their listeners.
An amazing evening of music, eagles and fun! Thank you Hope and Adam!
crazycrowproductions 