Yahtzee - Nathan K

Hello! This is your friend in the orange hoodie, Nathan K. (although, now that it’s getting warmer, I should probably switch to a t shirt.. don’t worry I bought a few.)

On a “school night” the other week, I got to attend a Ben Kweller concert. It was meaningful for a lot of reasons, but probably the coolest was that I got to attend it with my friend from college that went with me in 2006 or 2007 to see him back in the day. It’s a miracle in this day and age to a.) leave the house on a weeknight, and b.) to have friendships that stand the test of time. It’s wild when you realize you’ve known someone for longer than you didn’t know them. Makes me wanna cry happy tears. It’s also cool to think about the role that music plays in those friendships – for me it is often the spark that initiates the friendship as well as a thread that helps keep it together. How cool is that? Ice cold.

I had actually reached out to the venue to see if I could open the show, and they never responded. It’s totally cool. It was more of a practice of being intentional and putting myself out there, so it was a success. I was just happy to be there at all, in a room full of folks my age enjoying music that shaped our early adult lives. Funny thing is we ended up skipping the opener because we were enjoying talking and reconnecting before the show. I bet they were great.

SPEAKING OF OPENING: I was recently asked to open for the legendary Mason Jennings on 5/11 in Nashville. He’s another important artist from the same time period as BK and it’s an honor to get to share the stage with him. Click for tix.

Now, where were we?… oh yea. The Kweller show. I swear there was a point to all of it. Probably sounds cheesy to say but nobody was on their phones, with the exception of taking a quick video of their favorite songs, or in my case to take a picture of Ben’s bass player – he has looked awful familiar the whole show, and I kept feeling like I knew him.. I didn’t actually know him, but eventually someone told us he looked familiar because he is the guy who played Mclovin in the film Superbad. Seriously. He’s a great bass player, too.
I keep thinking about how back in the day, the default thing was to see what fun activity we would all do that night. It was never a question of IF we were going to do something, but WHAT were we going to do. I know a lot has changed in society, including the fact that I’m simply getting older, but it was sad to realize that the new default is to zone out on our phones. Is anyone reallly enjoying that activity or did we just forget how accessible and easy it is to do fun things involving other humans? After all, we ended up still getting in bed that night at the same time we would have, or maybe earlier, than had we not gone to the show. Yet, I usually tell myself I’m too busy.

As I’ve been trying to promote these recent releases, “Black Beauty” and “Breath of the Wild”, I’ve been a little more active on social media doing the “responsible thing” and sharing it on there, because you never really know. I mean, a while back Gloria Estefan reposted a video I made of our cats and it got over 4 million views seriously. But what does that even mean? Not much. I keep wondering if participating in this way is contributing to the downfall of society. Or am I using it for good? Or both? Or neither? It’s hard to say.
At this point it probably seems like I’m rambling (sorry) and you might be wondering what any of the above has to do with the subject line of this email “Yahtzee”. Fair question. Thanks for asking.

Well, we were at a thrift store last weekend and I found this handheld electronic Yahtzee game for like $1.99. Of course I bought it. I love that game and used to play it all the time camping with my friend Tommy and his family. (A few years ago Tommy’s sister told me that they were playing and found hand written scorecards from 1994 in the box with my name on it. That meant a lot.)

So I’ve been playing this handheld Yahtzee that takes 1 AAA battery and makes this glorious sound that Sara Beth hates. and I’ve been sending pictures of my high scores to my cousin who also has a handheld Yahtzee. It’s been nice. There are no popups. No notifications trying to pull my attention away. When I’m playing, I’m just playing. It got me thinking about how rare it is to just do something and nothing else. A singular activity. When listening to music on Spotify, which I used to think was a great deal to have all the music ever made for a low price, I’m on my phone, and then see something and click somewhere else and then the music pauses and I forget what I was even doing in the first place. What an awful listening experience. and now, as I’m promoting my songs I’m encouraging – even asking you – to have that same experience. Not sure where I’m going with this, but it’s been on my mind.

I sincerely appreciate you being here with me on this forum that feels like it’s a little disconnected from the craziness. I hope my music can help provide a bit of an escape from all of the distractions. It means a lot to connect in this way.

How are you doing? What’s new? I’d love to hear from you.

with love,
nk

UPCOMING SHOWS:
– 5/11: Nashville TN (Eastside Bowl opening for MASON JENNINGS)
– 5/16: West Frankfort IL (Gambit Coffee w/ Sara Beth Go, Eric Stanley, Dane Johns)
– 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!)
– 7/3 -7/6: Urbana IL (Audiofeed Festival)