We made it as far as Des Moines, IA before being notified that Interstate 35 has been shut down entirely due this silly blizzard.  So unfortunately, there's no way for us to make our 7:00p show at Acadia Cafe in Minneapolis.  Sorry – it’s a bummer, because we were excited to see all of you beautiful Minnesotans!  Hopefully we can make it up to you soon...

Since you’re nice enough to be reading this message, let me take advantage of your attention by mentioning that we’ve decided to try our hand at micro-blogging and can be found on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/farbeyondfrail.  If you’re into that sort of thing, please follow us.  We know it’s only been 24 hours, but we’re kind of feeling like two kids sitting by ourselves in the school cafeteria of social media.

Yours,

David

Hey Dreamers,

We've all played some form of the "deserted island" game.  You know, like what five albums would you take if you were going to be stranded on a deserted island for the rest of your life?  Or, what's the one book you'd be willing to read over and over if you had to choose just one?  Basically, what would make your life manageable if you were cut off from everything ?  (Personally, I think all I'd need would be "Recovering the Satellites" by Counting Crows, "Life After God" by Douglas Coupland, and Keira Knightley).

So, my question for you is this:

What if you were only able to be take one memory from your pre-island life with you, and you only had 15 words or less to remember it by?  What words would you choose?

The truth is, I miss being on the road and having these conversations with you in person, so I'm hoping hearing from you will allow me something similar without having to leave the little loft where I've been holed up all winter.  If you'll humor me just long enough until we head back out on the road, I'd be completely grateful.

I'll do my best to reply to all your replies, and send out some of the highlights in another letter.

Hopefully soon...

Yours,
David

December.  I've been sitting outside in the morning and watching my breath, and thinking that with every exhale the amount of time that needs to pass in between who I am now, and who I hope to be someday, grows a little shorter.  They are moments that I won't get back, so with each one, I hope that it's a moment that has propelled me in the right direction and not a moment that hasn't.

Yesterday, I watched my breath form little clouds around my head while walking down by the bank of the Missouri River.  There's an old landing a few hundred yards from my loft that hasn't been used for decades;  it's nothing more than a crumbling slab of concrete now, and if you're careful, you can navigate your way down to the river's edge.  The speed and size of the river are breathtaking - it feels peaceful, but completely dangerous at the same time.  

I've known a lot of people who've made me feel the same way.

I had a reason to bundle up and venture down to the water yesterday, and it was because the end of the year has snuck up on me in a way that was actually pretty surprising.  So surprising, that when it dawned on me what was happening, I froze and couldn't even recall what stood out about the year that's ending.  I needed to reclaim some of those memories, make sure they were sufficiently marked as moments not to forget, and this is what I came up with:

- We started the year with our first trip through the Southeast.  Waking up to fresh snow in the mountains of West Virginia and watching the sun set through the spaces in between the trees of North Carolina had a lasting impact on me, but New Orleans felt like something different altogether.  After driving slow through the city, we parked along a side street, rolled down the windows and let the car fill with thick Southern air and an eerie silence.  I closed my eyes and reset my life.

- Her.  So much of this year was to do with her.

- We've fallen in love with the West Coast, and were able to take our songs there for the second time this summer.  On the drive between Las Vegas and Los Angeles, there's a corner of Arizona that feels like you've left Earth and happened upon another planet.  I hung my head out the window, hypnotized by the scenery, and in hindsight, could have easily crashed.  But if I had, how lucky to have that landscape be the last thing I saw.

- I met Adam Duritz.  Nothing poetic to say about it.  Crazy awesome.

There was more.  Of course there was more.  But instead of telling you about, it seems I should be thanking you for it.  We're well aware of what kind of band we are - we're not rich and famous, and nothing we're able to do is guaranteed.  If you quit listening, it could all be over tomorrow.  So thank you for listening.  Thank you for dreaming.  Thank you for enabling us to do the same. 

We can't wait to see you in 2009.

Yours,

David

Upcoming Tour Dates (who booked the Dakotas in January!?):

January 21, 2009 - Sioux Falls, SD at Augustana College [9:00 PM]

January 23, 2009 - Valley City, ND at Valley City State University [11:00 AM]

Hey Dreamers,

It feels like we've been on the road a lot lately, which has given me a lot of time to think.  Still nights, headlights illuminating the road slipping underneath our tires, the black silhouettes of trees set against  the backdrop of a cold, dark blue sky.  It's during these nights, between leaving the town we just met and arriving at the next one, that I think clearest.  I can't say that I think about anything particular.  I just let my thoughts wander, drifting freely to wherever they were probably going to go anyway.

Sometimes, I think about the concept of home, and how different the road feels now that I finally feel I have one.  Sometimes, I think about God, or politics, and how my trust can float between the two depending on my mood.  I think about how some people will never trust either, and how that's sad, even though it's understandable.  I think about old friends and girlfriends and I amaze myself at how many memories we tuck away, only to call up during times like these and feel, just for a second, a drop of how it felt to be experiencing them for the first time.  Then, I worry about all the memories I'm not recalling, and I hope that those moments changed me in some small way; because if not, it's almost like they never even happened.  And life is too short to be OK with that...

If the road is long enough, my thoughts will inevitably land, even if just for a moment, on how grateful I am for this chapter of my life.  For the opportunity to pack up some of the pages of my journal that have turned into songs and go spend time with all of you...in whatever corner of the country you call home.  As you might have guessed, or already knew, we're going to be looking at Kansas City in our rear view mirror in a few days - hopefully on our way to see you, to share songs, and share stories, and love that it's all worth it.

Yours,

David

September 26, 2008 - University City (St. Louis), MO

Cicero's [9:00 PM]

September 29, 2008 - Cincinnati, OH

Joseph-Beth Booksellers [7:00 PM]
In-Store Acoustic Performance

September 30, 2008 - Terre Haute, IN

The Verve [10:30 PM]

October 1, 2008 - Deerfield, IL

Borders - Deerfield [7:00 PM]
In-Store Acoustic Performance

October 2, 2008 - Kenosha, WI

University of Wisconsin-Parkside [12:00 PM]

October 2, 2008 - Sheboygan, WI

Paradigm Coffeehouse [8:00 PM]

October 3, 2008 - Green Bay, WI

University of Wisconsin-Green Bay [9:00 PM]

October 4, 2008 - Eau Claire, WI

Acoustic Cafe [7:00 PM]
Performing two shows - one early and one late!

October 4, 2008 - Eau Claire, WI

Acoustic Cafe [9:00 PM]
Performing two shows - one early and one late!

October 6, 2008 - Crookston, MN

University of Minnesota-Crookston [11:30 AM]

October 7, 2008 - Duluth, MN

Amazing Grace Bakery & Cafe [7:30 PM]

October 8, 2008 - Duluth, MN

Beaner's Central [9:00 PM]
Featured Performer at Beaner's Open Mic

October 8, 2008 - Superior, WI

University of Wisconsin-Superior [12:00 PM]

October 9, 2008 - Minneapolis, MN

Acadia Cafe [10:30 PM]

October 10, 2008 - Des Moines, IA

Java Joes Coffeehouse [8:00 PM]

October 16, 2008 - Kansas City, MO

The Brick [9:00 PM]

Hey Dreamers,

A few weeks ago, I was sitting in a little bookstore in North Beach, San Francisco that was the epicenter of the Beat Movement in the 50's.  I was thumbing through some of my favorite words that have ever been written,  "On The Road" by Jack Kerouac, "Howl" by Allen Ginsberg, and on and on when I remembered that Kerouac wrote that Neal Cassady (inspiration for Dean Moriarty in "On The Road") was only happy when he had a coast to reach and someone waiting for him when he got there.

I couldn't stop thinking about that on my way back to Kansas City, having a coast to reach, and I kept right on thinking about it until yesterday, when I sat in my car for an hour and let it idle in the parking lot.  I was trying to figure out what it actually takes to push down on the pedal, and even though I'll probably never be sure,  I was able to concede that it takes a strength I don't possess and a reason that I don't have anymore. 

My reason gave up on me before I realized she was worth convincing not to.

Even I though I didn't leave yesterday, this summer Sharlynn and I are going to go see California and take a few of our favorite songs with us.  We'll let you know soon where we're going to be and hope that those of you who've already found your coast will be waiting for us when we get there.  I'd like to ask you how...

Yours,

David

I’m grateful when I can’t sleep through the night, because it’s only in the very early hours of the morning that the hum of the city lights subsides enough to hear the trains rumbling beneath my window, along the shadowy banks of the Missouri River.  I lie on my back, listening to the train and the river creep hand-in-hand towards their destination, and think about how it would feel to quickly pack a bag and slip quietly out the door, excited to go wherever they intended to take me.

What it would be like just to go!  To disappear.  To everyday wake up somewhere for the very first time.   To change everything - my name, my personality, how I walk, and the phrases I say; what I dream and how I dream it.  I lie on my back, for hours, listening with my eyes closed and then opening them to watch the ceiling fan above my bed whip around and around and send waves of cold air down onto me.  For every revolution, my mind races off to another corner of the country, and another life that I would live there.  I’m a ski instructor, reborn every morning in the pure white powder of the Colorado Rockies.  I’m a businessman, alone in the fantastic concrete jungle of New York, bumping into everyone I can on the busy streets and laughing uncontrollably at how still, still no one notices me.  I’m a waiter in Southern California, excited for the break I’m sure is coming, the one that will make me a star, and wondering whose good idea it was to arrange for every beautiful woman on the planet to move to one place.

My life could be perfect, and it nearly is, and I’d still lie on my back, grateful for a night without sleep and the chance to lose myself in these thoughts.  Because as good as perfect might be, different has always seemed somehow better.

Before I can hop the train, however, we have songs to play...

Yours,

David

UPCOMING TOUR DATES:

March 16, 2008 - Omaha, NE at Slowdown [8:00 PM]

March 27, 2008 - Overland Park, KS at Daily Dose Bar & Coffeehouse [9:00 PM]
Acoustic Performance

March 28, 2008 - Columbia, MO at Cherry Street Artisan [9:00 PM]

March 29, 2008 - Hammond, IN at The Blue Room Cafe [7:00 PM]

March 30, 2008 - Deerfield, IL at Borders - Deerfield [7:00 PM]
In-Store Acoustic Performance

March 31, 2008 - Davenport, IA at Mojo’s Coffee House [6:00 PM]

April 1, 2008 - Des Moines, IA at Mars Cafe [9:00 PM]

April 2, 2008 - St. Paul, MN at Dunn Brothers Grand Avenue [8:30 PM]

April 3, 2008 - St. Paul, MN at NACA Northern Plains Conference [9:45 PM]
Showcasing at the NACA Northern Plains Regional Conference

April 7, 2008 - Ripon, WI at Ripon College [11:30 AM]

April 7, 2008 - Eau Claire, WI at Acoustic Cafe [7:00 PM]

April 8, 2008 - Duluth, MN at Amazing Grace Bakery & Cafe [8:00 PM]

April 9, 2008 - Bemidji, MN at Bemidji State University [11:00 AM]

April 9, 2008 - Fargo, ND at Babb’s Coffeehouse [7:30 PM]

April 10, 2008 - Vermillion, SD at University of South Dakota [5:00 PM]

April 11, 2008 - Omaha, NE at Caffeine Dreams [9:00 PM]
Acoustic Performance

April 12, 2008 - Overland Park, KS at Daily Dose Bar & Coffeehouse [10:00 PM]

Abrazos Compilation Album
February 6, 2008

Abrazos 2007, the third not-for-profit compilation CD benefiting The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, is now available for purchase on iTunes, Amazon, and most digital retailers.  Physical CDs are available at www.cancerbenefit.org.  This year's compilation features far beyond frail's "Indigo", Veruca Salt, Kat Parsons, and many other phenomenal artists.
 

John Lennon Songwriting Contest
January 9, 2008

"After So Many Lovers" was recently chosen as one of five Honorable Mentions in the Pop Category of the John Lennon Songwriting Contest.  If you haven't heard it, don't forget that you can download individual songs for only $0.99 at far beyond frail's online store!
 

Portland named Best of 2007
December 22, 2007

Portland, the lead single off Butterfly Sketches, will be featured in Shifted Sounds "Best of 2007" podcast on Sunday, December 30 – available at www.shiftedsound.com.  If that's not enough to satisfy your listening needs, far beyond frail can also now be heard at KGRL – the band's absolute favorite internet radio station. Visit www.kgrl.fm to listen!