Revival

Change is the source of all possibility. The song I wrote last November, Your Heart Is Amazing, focused on the new people and possibilities in my own life at a time when the future of All Those Who Wander was teetering on the edge. What would the future hold?

A revival. With the work of a long time contributor to this project, mandolinist Forrest Alvarez, and the addition of a home grown Fort Morgan fiddler named Anthony Vick, the music has made a come back in its own way. We booked 3 performances in March and June, and I’m working on several more as I write new songs about the dawning of a new day, not only for me, but for the music of All Those Who Wander.

The days of the duo may be over, but the new All Those Who Wander has some exciting changes coming, which will mean some incredible new possibilities for a guitarist, a fiddler, and a mandolinist. Just when I thought I was in the final pages of the story, it revived itself for a whole new adventure. So, stick with us, and we’ll stick with you! Let’s make some music together!

Release Day

It was a rainy evening on Saturday in the old Sands Theatre. I gave the cue for blackout at 5:35. We walked through the pitch black room to the stage. The lights came on as we sang “We will make our home out in the fields” and it all clicked.

It has been months of work with director Alex Killian and his cast and crew. I can’t tell you how many posters and flyers I’ve put up, how many hours I’ve spent on social media, or how many nights I’ve lost sleep to promote the new music video, but I can tell you that in that moment, it was all worth it.

My own composition, Tim Richman, has been paired with some stunning visuals and a story line that left me in tears. It feels like some latent piece of myself has been realized, and I’m grateful for all of it. We owe a huge debt to all you listeners who made this release possible with your dedication and support, and we owe a great debt to Alex and his cast and crew who made a really touching video.

So, thank you all! You continue to make my life’s work come to life, and I’m so grateful for all the support we get everywhere we go!

What a Week We’ve Had

This week we discovered a side of Colorado we’ve never seen before. We performed in the mountains, the city, the plains, and everywhere in between in a wonderful whirlwind of a week!

The Southern Lilly – Woodland Park, CO

We hit the road last Friday morning bound for Woodland Park and The Southern Lilly. We met an awesome couple from Houston, a waitress from Tenessee, and got to know The Southern Lilly owner, Paula-Sue, who is now carrying our CD Home in the Fields. We played some music, heard some awesome stories, and watched the mountain rain as we stood under the awning outside in the storm. Check out the concert video here!

We got a text early the next morning about an International Western Music Association showcase in nearby Florissant, so we packed up the van and headed out for a warm reception among some very fine musicians and an enthusiastic audience there. It was enlightening and fun hearing music and stories from Tom and Donna Hatton, Jimmy Robbins, Sara Lou and the Cowboy, and some other seasoned Western performers from around our great state.

 

IWMA Showcase Open Mic – Florissant, CO – Photo by Bill Patterson

That evening, we had a beautiful audience in a beautiful space in Colorado Springs at our First Christian Church Music on the Labyrinth concert.

First Christian Church – Colorado Springs, CO

We had a soulful first half, dodged the rain, and ended up with an energetic finish inside the sanctuary. If you missed it, check out the video here! It was a great time of catching up with old friends and meeting some new ones. Colorado Springs is my home town, so I always love being there at the foot of Pikes Peak, seeing how the city and our friends have grown. It being my hometown, we of course stopped in at Josh and John’s ice cream shop before picking up our old band mate Forrest Alvarez and heading to Shuga’s for the best cocktail in the now bustling city.

 

House Concert – Aurora, CO

Every year, we do our best to make it out to the Denver area for a house concert with the old crew. They’re a group of seasoned Brian Clancy pub people with a taste for the Celtic stuff (music and booze), and they’re some of the best friends we’ve had in music! This year, our good friends Hondo and Hillary Gomez hosted us for a few hours of Celtic sing-alongs and games.

About an hour before we left, we began hearing stories of the tornado in Brush, where we have our home. It was a tense drive through the rain and hail back to the plains where the power was out, trees branches were strewn across the roads, and windows and roofs were destroyed. Pulling up to our house and flicking on the brights gave us both a sigh of relief. Our house was undamaged except for the Stars and Stripes being on the roof instead of on our porch like we intended.

 

 

All Those Who Wander with Michelle Staley at B106 – Fort Morgan, CO

After a couple of mostly restful days at home, we got up bright and early for an interview with the amazing Michelle Staley on B106 in Fort Morgan. Check out the video here!

So what’s next? We’re forging onward to August 18th, when we will release our brand new music video Tim Richman by director Alex Killian at the Sands Theatre in Brush, CO at 5:30 PM. Check out the teaser trailer here, and join us on August 18th for the next chapter in the All Those Who Wander story!

 

The Story of Home in the Fields

I was asked by a reviewer to write up the story of our 2017 release Home in the Fields, so I thought I’d share it with you all as well! Here it is:

Home can mean many things. For my wife and I, it meant a little house in a small town on the windy plains of Eastern Colorado. It meant being together with our music, our dreams, and our 5 pets under our own roof. Home in the Fields is an album about our journey from a mountain town and a big city to a place we could finally call home.

The story starts on a plane to Auckland, New Zealand, where we started flirting our way through a youth symphony tour. We went home to different lives for a couple of years, but fate brought us together in a university music school, where we fell in love.

We married just after school only to be separated when I left my new wife and headed to Fort Jackson, South Carolina for the Army’s basic training. After a few months apart, we were determined to fulfill our dream of owning our own home. We wanted a home in a small town, where we could make some friends, but not too many.

We found it about ninety miles from Denver on a plain by the South Platte River. At the time, we were living about an eighth a mile from the crossroads of a railroad track and an interstate in Denver’s bedroom community of Brighton. Over the next 6 months, we would celebrate and despair in a cycle that too many people go through in their 20’s, the cycle of finding a place in the world.

In the end, we found it in a 1908 arts and crafts house in Brush, and we made our lives among the small town folks. We’re lucky, because we’ve found the town to be beautiful, the people to be beautiful, and they seem to think our music is pretty fair.

We released the album with the help of the people of our county at the theater in our home town; our home in the fields.

The Album is Out

We released our brand new, full length, all original album last Saturday to an audience of about 125 at the Sands Theater in Brush, CO! The new album, Home in the Fields, has been a labor of love for us, but it has taken so many wonderful people offering their time and their talents to make it happen.

From mastering by the brilliant mixer Seth Munson to photography by Brush photographer John Yamamoto, live painting by Colorado Springs artist Brandi Ross, sales by Dowtown Sound (Fort Morgan) owner Mike Marek, studio help from Steve Alvarez, the untiring efforts of the Sands Theater Committee, and even a little design help from my sister in law, Haley Booker, it feels like the record is not really ours. In the moment when the crowd was on their feet, clapping and shouting to the encore number at the release concert, it occurred to me that it was not our dedication that made this album possible, it was theirs.

It might be our names on the album art and our pictures in the booklet, but it’s really our listeners’ project. The music came from the inspiring people around us and grew because of the thousands of people who came out for shows, paid into the contribution box, and wrote Facebook posts over the last 6 years.

Home in the Fields Album Release

All Those Who Wander will be releasing a full length album on November 10th. The brand new album of all original music, entitled Home in the Fields, is a musical story of life in Colorado and the journey of band members Nick and Danielle Booker from the Rocky Mountains to the Great Plains.

The group will be performing an album release concert on November 4th at 6 PM at the Sands Theatre in Brush, CO. 100 special release copies of the album will be available at the release concert and through a pre-sale online and at Downtown Sound in Fort Morgan. Check AllThoseWhoWanderMusic.com for details!

Home in the Fields Recording

The band is working hard in the studio to record the new full length, original album! Home in the Fields will be out this November, starting with the pre-release concert at the Sands Theater in Brush, CO and following with the CD and digital release. Check allthosewhowandermusic.com and facebook.com/allthosewhowander for details!