Fortune Telling Fish

Hello! This is your friend in the orange hoodie, Nathan K.

This winter, I went to Branson MO to celebrate Christmas with my in laws. While we were there, Sara Beth and I took our 8 year nephew Bruno (who incidentally hates the movie Encanto..) to a magic store downtown owned by this guy Yak.

Bruno had a budge of $15 from his mom to buy anything he wanted. This place had it all, fake poop, fart spray, flower water guns, trick ketchup containers, fortune telling fish, you name it. Most of it was covered in dust. While we were shopping, Yak and this old guy were talking about the glory days of the magic scene back when Branson was booming. It was fun to listen in on. On the walls were autographed photos from the days they were talking about, super faded.

Bruno ended up settling on this weird doll. A plastic boy with a yellow shirt and blue shorts. When you pull his pants down (not sure why you would even think to do that honestly, but ok”) he sprayed you in the face with water. Sick right? It cost his entire budge of $15 bucks. I remember thinking this would be about 5 bucks on amazon. but then Yak, the magic store owner showed us about 15 mins of magic tricks after we bought it. Pretty fun. Then we left as Yak and his friend continued yakking about the good ol days.

After that we were tired and wanted to go back to the airbnb, but ended up stopping at this thrift store. Cause, you never know, right? Bruno and his sister June stayed in the car. Don’t worry, we left the car running and had the ac on, and their fav music playing. They were too tired to go in, but Sara Beth and I wanted to see what they had.

I ended up finding the same doll that Bruno had just bought. It was $1. Did I buy it? Of course. Is it the weirdest thing I own? Of course. Was it hilarious to come back to the car with the same thing he had just got? Of course. Were the store clerks helpful and did they show us a magic trick? Nope. Not at all. You get what you pay for I guess.

I wrote this song tonight thinking about that whole thing. One of the best things about music, and about life is getting to meet interesting people. It’s not cheap. It costs our time, our energy, and our money. But it’s special. We are all we have, ya know? I’m so thankful to know you. here’s the demo of song if you would like to listen. My throat is feeling a little scratchy but I’m glad I got this down.

Sincerely,Nathan
PS: I have a new song coming out on 3/14/25 called Breath of the Wild. Be sure to follow on Spotify and it means a lot if you share it with a friend. Especially if your friend likes the game Zelda. If you don’t have Spotify, I don’t blame you. Personally I never got out of the Mysterious Forest of the Game Boy game Link’s Awakening. I kept getting lost and vowed never to play Zelda again. But I broke my promise and played Breath of the Wild a lot with my neighbor kid down the street Jack a few years ago. It was fun to solve the puzzles and unlock little mysteries. Anyways, be on the lookout. If my ducks are in a row, I’ll send an email about it. Wish me luck.

UPCOMING SHOWS:
– 4/6: Nashville TN (DRKMTTR w/ Frank Hurricane, Cherry Blossoms, Hunter Storm Smith) – click for tickets
– 5/17: Kansas City KS (Squanchero Gardens w/ Sara Beth Go)- click for RSVP
– 6/21: Red Lodge MT (Red Lodge Songwriter Festival – I’m a finalist in the Rocky Mountain Songwriter Contest!)

LATEST RELEASE:

The song Angelean (Band Version) which is OUT NOW (freshly released, today – click here to listen on Spotify), contains one of my favorite lines ever to sing:

“It was so fun to be so young, and hang out in the evenin’,after school, we’d hit the pool, got some ice cream and..”

Even though I did not write the lyric above (it was written by my friend Mike aka Edgar Cayce and His Guitar) it is so satisfying to sing, live, with a band. And so we recorded it years ago. Now, finally, as of today, it’s out for you to enjoy.

Hear it for yourself!
credits:drums: Julian Ciany
bass: Evan Tetrault
mix/master: Darin Rajabian
artwork: Erin Case