Strings Attached

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Editor's Note: This post was conceived and scheduled when Ozzy Osbourne & Megadeth at the Wells Fargo Arena was happening June 30, 2019. It was rescheduled to be Sunday, June 28, 2020, per this article. This post should have been edited to reflect the date change. Also, it was recently disclosed that Megadeth's guitarist / vocalist Dave Mustaine is being treated for throat cancer so it's quite possible that a different band will join Ozzy on the rescheduled dates. Could it be Metallica? Wouldn't that be a great way for Metallica to pay tribute to their friend Ozzy Osbourne? To be clear, I want Dave Mustaine to fully recover and play in Des Moines, IA, on June 28, 2020. However, if Megadeth is unable to tour in 2020, due to his cancer treatment, my vote would be for Metallica to replace Megadeth on the Ozzy Osbourne tour. I guarantee metal fans would love to see that tour happen!!

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As I prepare to head to Des Moines, Iowa, to hear Ozzy Osbourne & Megadeth at the Wells Fargo Arena, there's another concert on the horizon: Weird Al Yankovic plays at the McGrath Amphitheater in Cedar Rapids 30 days from today!

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Music for tonight!

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Vacation

I am away from my desk until July 1st. 

Fear not! I have a Google Doc with (as of now) 212 links that I will transform into ~35 posts,  which doesn't include ~48 additional links to the Get Your Political Opinions Here 5.0 page, a new page for Gup and Company,  and a new page for the bowling games on Thursday, 6/28.

Plus,  I think that I have additional information to post on this blog. 

Patients please...

The Forecast

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The Empire Does Not Care

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Ben Sasse did not hold back on the state of the pro-abortion movement

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Awakening with SR

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Good Stones

https://www.nme.com/news/music/metallicas-lars-ulrich-hails-the-rolling-stones-for-stopping-them-from-splitting-up-2511501

Sadness

Hawk Central: Parkersburg still mourns beloved football coach

A Robot Created This Script and it's Awesome

Writer Tweets Hilarious Bot Written John Wick Script

This is SO Awesome!!

Download the 'Star Wars' Script PDF And Build Your World

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British TV Network Will Ban Comedy Shows By All-Male Writing Staffs

From British TV Network Will Ban Comedy Shows By All-Male Writing Staffs:

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Schuster stressed that the initiative is not simply aimed at hiring more women and “hitting quotas or targets as some form of box ticking exercise,” but also at changing the male-dominated culture of comedy.

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What a crock of junk.

Aren't they saying, "We're going to make writing staffs include women." Isn't that a quota, that in order to have a writing staff, you have to have a woman on the staff?

I would answer, "Yes, it is." And yet, there's the quote about 'hitting quotas or targets as some form of box ticking exercise', which to my simple brain, is a contradiction.

Bye Bye Boyd

Iowa announced the firing of Bond Shymansky, culminating what’s been a turbulent last month for the Hawkeyes volleyball program.

Not Going Good Overseas

http://flip.it/YJZr98

Summer of Punk + 8 Years

8 Years After the 'Summer of Punk,' CM Punk Still Looms over Wrestling World

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Why? WHY??

Hollywood actors need to shut up!

80’s Star John Cusack Has Gone To The Alt-Right
It's possible to be so far into the intersectional left that you hold hands with the alt-right. I think this mistaken retweet, from such a beloved symbol of teen angst, adds more proof to that notion.

Seek... Destroy... All on a Pseudo-Monday!

I was on vacation from work yesterday. Karen & I spent an extra day in Elkader - the kids left on Sunday for home - so this is like a Monday to me. There's nothing like some seeking and destroying on a Tuesday that feels like a Monday!

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Tonight

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2841448-wwe-raw-results-winners-grades-reaction-and-highlights-from-june-17

So, yeah, THAT happened

https://www.dailywire.com/news/47971/hold-harvard-rescinds-admission-conservative-kyle-ben-shapiro

7 = 9

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Screaming at the Heavens

What My Dad’s Stroke Taught Me About Resilience

A Decade Later

Per NEW GODSMACK!!!!, this was released on 6/16/2009.

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What I Missed Today

Massive Target Register Outage Causes Confusion At Stores Nationwide - https://www.huffpost.com/entry/target-register-outage_n_5d0572fae4b0304a12109995

No JL 2 Today

https://heroichollywood.com/justice-league-2-zack-snyder/

Practice

https://youtu.be/yoNI7RwrRLw

Misteaks

https://youtu.be/6s4LbfrNHdA

Great Article on Daddy's

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20190606-how-to-be-a-good-father-to-a-newborn-son-or-daughter?utm_source=pocket-newtab

Change

https://www.vox.com/a/most-influential-best-tv-episodes

Hearing Local H

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Understanding Primus

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Family Feud Fails & Funny Moments

Okay. Even if you have zero time, you need to see this clip as it is really REALLY FUNNY!! This is another really funny one Seriously Funny

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This is BS

This is SUCH a bullshit second sentence!!

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Toronto Raptors win first NBA Championship in franchise history

The Toronto Raptors defeated the Golden State Warriors 114-110 in Game 6 at Oracle Arena on Thursday. The Warriors played without Kevin Durant, who injured his Achilles tendon in the last series.

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That second sentence certainly implies that if Kevin Durant had not been injured, the Golden State Warriors would have won the 2019 NBA Championship. How do you not read that and think about the disrespect being shown to the Toronto Raptors?!? There is no other reason to include that second sentence in the teaser. It probably fits the narrative that the Toronto Raptors are lucky to win the 2019 NBA Championship, which only serves to belittle and to diminish the sum of the hours the players on this Toronto Raptors team invested in themselves, the hours the players on this Toronto Raptors team invested in each other, the hours the players on this Toronto Raptors team invested in the idea that they were NBA Championship contenders.

I hope the Toronto Raptors continue to have success. I actually hope that the Toronto Raptors find themselves in the 2020 NBA Championship, facing the Golden State Warriors, and win their second consecutive NBA Championship. I'm sure there is someone on the Golden State Warriors staff who is looking at last night's game footage. I'm sure the Golden State Warriors will be better prepared for Toronto when they next play each other. The odds at the beginning of the series were not in favor of the Raptors. In fact, I think the first odds I saw were that Golden State had a 90% chance of winning the 2019 NBA Championship.

They are Nuts in SF

Fire KC

Special Counsel recommends firing Kellyanne Conway over alleged Hatch Act violations

Craz8est Thing I've Heard in a while...

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Former CIA Chief of Disguise Breaks Down 30 Spy Scenes From Film & TV

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The above video is part of this playlist:

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Former Abortionist Dr. Levatino Destroys Pro-Choice Arguments

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Paradiddle Diddles

First, go to https://drumprofessor.net/library1.html and click the "From the 9 Killer Rudiments Series Paradiddle Diddles" book. Second, open that PDF. Third, watch this video:

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New Fun Thing to Do

There's something really cool about seeing people who are unfamiliar with the music I love react to the music I love as they hear it for the first time. To paraphrase one of the comments from the "HIP HOP HEAD FIRST REACTION TO LED ZEPPELIN - DAZED AND CONFUSED" video below, watching somebody fall in love with The Music That I Love for the first time brings me so much nostalgic joy. To go back and hear those songs for the first time... bliss.

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Tell Me the Rules

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3236 Views In 360 Seconds

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Dark P

"We Were Wrong": Behind Fox's 'Dark Phoenix' Debacle

Generating a List of Unique Words

Two great and useful macros here:

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Number one

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Sub UniqueWordList()
Dim wList As New Collection
Dim wrd
Dim chkwrd
Dim sTemp As String
Dim k As Long

For Each wrd In ActiveDocument.Range.Words
sTemp = Trim(LCase(wrd))
If sTemp >= "a" And sTemp <= "z" Then k = 0 For Each chkwrd In wList k = k + 1 If chkwrd = sTemp Then GoTo nw If chkwrd > sTemp Then
wList.Add Item:=sTemp, Before:=k
GoTo nw
End If
Next chkwrd
wList.Add Item:=sTemp
End If
nw:
Next wrd

sTemp = "There are " & ActiveDocument.Range.Words.Count & " words "
sTemp = sTemp & "in the document, before this summary, but there "
sTemp = sTemp & "are only " & wList.Count & " unique words."

ActiveDocument.Range.Select
Selection.Collapse Direction:=wdCollapseEnd
Selection.TypeText vbCrLf & sTemp & vbCrLf
For Each chkwrd In wList
Selection.TypeText chkwrd & vbCrLf
Next chkwrd
End Sub

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Number 2

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From Ken Endacott on 2016-10-15 07:40:30 - Depending on the vocabulary of the author, large documents can have over 5000 unique words. The above macro displays one word per line which means that the list will occupy around 100 pages. The macro below will write the list of words into a new document with five columns per page.

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Sub UniqueWordList()
Dim wList As New Collection
Dim wrd
Dim chkwrd
Dim sTemp As String
Dim k As Long

For Each wrd In ActiveDocument.Range.words
sTemp = Trim(LCase(wrd))
If sTemp >= "a" And sTemp <= "z" Then k = 0 For Each chkwrd In wList k = k + 1 If chkwrd = sTemp Then GoTo nw If chkwrd > sTemp Then
wList.Add Item:=sTemp, Before:=k
GoTo nw
End If
Next chkwrd
wList.Add Item:=sTemp
End If
nw:
Next wrd

sTemp = "There are " & ActiveDocument.Range.words.Count & " words " & _
"in " & ActiveDocument.Name & ", but there "
Documents.Add
With ActiveDocument.Styles("Normal")
With .ParagraphFormat
.SpaceBefore = 0
.SpaceAfter = 0
.LineSpacingRule = wdLineSpaceSingle
End With
.NextParagraphStyle = "Normal"
.NoSpaceBetweenParagraphsOfSameStyle = False
.Font.Name = "Times New Roman"
.Font.Size = 10
End With

sTemp = sTemp & "are only " & wList.Count & " unique words."
Selection.TypeText vbCrLf & sTemp & vbCrLf & vbCrLf

Selection.InsertBreak Type:=wdSectionBreakContinuous
With Selection.PageSetup.TextColumns
.SetCount NumColumns:=5
.EvenlySpaced = True
.LineBetween = True
.Width = CentimetersToPoints(2.8)
.Spacing = CentimetersToPoints(0.4)
End With

For Each chkwrd In wList
Selection.TypeText chkwrd & vbCrLf
Next chkwrd
End Sub

If you want to know how often a word appears then the macro UniqueWordCount will list unique words and give a count of how many times each word appears in the document.

Sub UniqueWordCount()
Dim wList As New Collection
Dim wCount As New Collection
Dim wrd
Dim chkwrd
Dim sTemp As String
Dim k As Long
Dim j As Long

For Each wrd In ActiveDocument.Range.words
sTemp = Trim(LCase(wrd))
If sTemp >= "a" And sTemp <= "z" Then k = 0 For Each chkwrd In wList k = k + 1 If chkwrd = sTemp Then j = wCount(k) + 1 wCount.Remove (k) If k > wCount.Count Or wCount.Count = 1 Then
wCount.Add Item:=j
Else
wCount.Add Item:=j, Before:=k
End If
GoTo nw
End If
If chkwrd > sTemp Then
wList.Add Item:=sTemp, Before:=k
wCount.Add Item:=1, Before:=k
GoTo nw
End If
Next chkwrd
wList.Add Item:=sTemp
wCount.Add Item:=1
End If
nw:
Next wrd

sTemp = "There are " & ActiveDocument.Range.words.Count & " words " & _
"in " & ActiveDocument.Name & ", but there "
Documents.Add
With ActiveDocument.Styles("Normal")
With .ParagraphFormat
.SpaceBefore = 0
.SpaceAfter = 0
.LineSpacingRule = wdLineSpaceSingle
End With
.NextParagraphStyle = "Normal"
.NoSpaceBetweenParagraphsOfSameStyle = False
.Font.Name = "Times New Roman"
.Font.Size = 10
End With

sTemp = sTemp & "are only " & wList.Count & " unique words."
Selection.TypeText vbCrLf & sTemp & vbCrLf & vbCrLf

Selection.InsertBreak Type:=wdSectionBreakContinuous
With Selection.PageSetup.TextColumns
.SetCount NumColumns:=5
.EvenlySpaced = True
.LineBetween = True
.Width = CentimetersToPoints(2.8)
.Spacing = CentimetersToPoints(0.4)
End With

For k = 1 To wList.Count
Selection.TypeText wList(k) & "(" & wCount(k) & ")" & vbCrLf
Next k
End Sub

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Good Advice

The author of this article - Why You Shouldn’t Love Your Kids More Than Your Partner - also wrote a book.

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Digital Hoarder

Yes, it's true: I am a digital hoarder. This is the status of my personal email account:

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Your mailbox is almost full.

15123 MB

15206 MB

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I convert emails I have received to a PDF file and then I delete the original emails. In the past, I would convert emails I have received to a TXT file, but I like the formatting of a PDF better.

A Day in the Life of Hawkeye Connor McCaffery

I looked up the definition of "Hell on Earth" and found Connor McCaffery's classes from last semester listed:

1. Managerial Accounting
• I think Alex is taking this class or took this class - it sounds familiar to me.
2. Introduction to Law
3. Introductory Financial Management
4. Arts of Africa

How did I know his classes from last semester? I read this: IOWA Magazine | June 2019 Double Play: Hawkeye Connor McCaffery Balances Basketball and Baseball By Ben Frotscher:

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which included this information:

A Day in the Life of Hawkeye Connor McCaffery

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9:45 a.m.

McCaffery, a business major, heads to the Pappajohn Business Building for a managerial accounting class.

Noon

Unable to attend the basketball team's organized spring practices due to baseball, he hits the Carver-Hawkeye Arena gym on his own to improve his jump shot.

2 p.m.

McCaffery heads across the street to Duane Banks Field for baseball practice.

6 p.m.

After cleaning up from both workouts, he grabs dinner and dives into homework for his Introduction to Law, Introductory Financial Management, and Arts of Africa classes.

8:30 p.m.

McCaffery catches his favorite baseball team, the Philadelphia Phillies, in action.

10:30 p.m.

With homework done, he relaxes by playing his favorite video games—Fortnite, Call of Duty, and FIFA—with friends.

12:30 a.m.

Lights out.

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SMB in DM

For the record, I REALLY wanted to purchase these 4 tickets for tonight's Steve Miller Band concert in Des Moines.

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Giving Back

Hawk Central: Joe Wieskamp ready to seize his Hawkeye moment

A Beast of a Machine

Introducing the Storinator Storage Workstation

And It's All Our Fault

Bananas Are Facing Extinction

Powerful Testimony about Shinedown

I've likely included this video elsewhere, but I'm embedding it again due to the fact that it provides context for a powerful testimony about Shinedown and, at a much broader level, about how powerful music can be in someone's life. So, here's the video:

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And here's the very moving testimony, verbatim, from the comments of the above video, from ooKILLFASToo:

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I am a soldier in the United States Army and I found myself struggling with depression and some other personal issues. I was granted permission by my command team that I could go home on leave this Christmas, 2018. I had some struggles while I was there and the day I was leaving my uncle told Alexa to play Shinedown radio. I will never forget those words. This song came on after a few songs before it had played. When I heard this song I instantly feel in love with it. This songs is what I need everyday in my life. People don't need therapists and groups for help. They need someone to give them a nudge and let them know that they can do it. Life is hard, the best year of my life was when I moved to Massachusetts to live with my Aunt and Uncle and finish out my last year of high school. I ended up running cross country and never ran before. I actually found out that I was really good at it. When I graduated I did not know how much I loved it until the thoughts a creped in. I love my old team but when I got to that low point heard this song it motivated me. I am now going to start working on my degree in history and I am going to go to teach for a high school AP history class after my last 4 year contract which is this one, I will also be try to become a cross country coach. This song helped me and I praise the band for it.

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Setlist:
00:00 Intro
00:38 Sound of Madness
04:40 Diamond Eys [Boom-Lay Boom-Lay Boom]
12:10 Cut the Cord
16:40 I'll Follow You
21:15 Bully
26:25 GET UP
35:52 Enemies
39:50 Unity
46:00 State Of My Head
50:10 Second Chance
55:53 Simple Man
1:06:25 DEVIL

M is a Jayhawk

http://twitter.com/mctait/status/1138459383132766209

Love the Picture

Sure, go to https://www.thoughtfortoday.org.uk/react-positively/ to see the words, but to see the graphic associated with the words, look below:

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Stop the flow!

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So often, it feels like there needs to be a hand to stop the dominoes in the things that happen. I know that if I can do that - stopping the flow of one thing falling into another - I am happier.

Hello OM!

Hawk Central: Report: Oliver Martin is transferring to Iowa

Go Hawks!!

Hawk Central: Leistikow: Why Bakari Evelyn's Iowa commitment is good news

Looking Forward to This

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2 Years Ago Already!

Where was I at 6 PM on 6/7/2017? Duh...

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Wish I was There

https://www.irishmirror.ie/whats-on/music-nightlife-news/metallica-slane-castle-ireland-2019-16485969

Sick of BL? Me 2!

Like,  seriously,  I am done with Brock Lesnar.  The guy doesn't talk much and when he needs to get a storyline across,  his advocate Paul Heyman does a great job.  The problem is that with BL, I don't care about him.  And that's a problem.  I care about anyone else who is fighting BL. I think that BL needs to deliver a promo with his own voice.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2839992-brock-lesnars-failed-cash-in-tease-sets-up-biggest-wwe-storyline-of-the-summer

Jamez - Not Sure About the Ending -- Me - Sure About the Ending!

It's noteworthy to state I love the way Metallica has fun on stage. For example, skip to https://youtu.be/_nRhlkH8evU?t=200 to see what I saw a couple of years ago. Even after the way the tune ends, Lars does his usual hand gesture / fist pump action at the end.

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Editor's Note: Today is the 2 year anniversary of seeing Metallica in Newton, IA, with Alex on a hot June afternoon.

But not always

John Heilemann Calls ‘Bulls**t’ On Sean Hannity's 'Business Model Built On Lies’

In the Unlikely Scenario where I am in Ireland Today...

Metallica confirmed to headline Slane Castle in June next year... which is TODAY!!

Fascinating Analysis

You’re All Wrong About ‘Star Wars: Attack of the Clones’ http://flip.it/.CK.MG

Meshuggah Meets Metallica

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Coming to Gabes on Sep 5

Where the Dogs Don't Bite

Old Salt Union has announced their newest album Where The Dogs Don’t Bite - Out everywhere on Aug 16 via Compass Records. The band once again enlisted GRAMMY-winning banjoist and Compass co-founder Alison Brown to produce the follow-up to their self-titled Compass Records debut. The resulting album, Where the Dogs Don’t Bite, builds on Old Salt Union’s mixed musical backgrounds for a wildly entertaining and eclectic batch of songs.

Old Salt Union will be touring extensively throughout the rest of the year. The band is set to play several notable festivals this summer including Blue Ox Music Festival, Floyd Fest, and Roots N Blues N BBQ. The band will also be joining Son Volt on tour for select dates in June. 

All up to date tour info can be found at oldsaltunion.com

TOUR DATES

6/7 @ The Mishawaka | Bellvue, CO^

6/8-6/9 @ Pagosa Folk ‘N Bluegrass Festival | Pagosa Springs, CO

6/13-15 @ Blue Ox Music Festival | Eau Claire, WI

6/18 @ The Jones Assembly | Oklahoma City, OK*

6/19 @ Historic Scoot Inn | Austin, TX*

6/20 @ The Kessler Theater | Dallas, TX*

6/21 @ The Heights Theater | Houston, TX*

6/22 @ Red Stick Social | Baton Rouge, LA

6/23 @ Saturn | Birmingham, AL*

6/25 @ Variety Playhouse | Atlanta, GA*

6/26 @ Lafayette’s Music Room | Memphis, TN*

6/27 @ The Basement East | Nashville, TN*

6/28 @ Red, White & Boom | London, KY

6/29 @ Smoky Run Music Festival | Butler, OH

7/11 @ Pickin’ On Picknic | Saint Francisville, MO

7/12 @ Byrd’s Creek Music Festival | Crossville, TN

7/13 @ Barage Concert Series House Concert | Chattanooga, TN

7/19 @ Camp Euforia | Lone Tree, IA

7/20-7/21 @ Hiawatha Music Festival | Hiawatha, MI

7/25 -7/26 @ Floyd Fest | Floyd, VA

7/27 @ Capital Ale House Richmond | Richmond, VA

7/28 @ Purple Fiddle | Thomas, WB

7/30 @ John F. Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts | Washington, DC

8/3 @ Levitt Pavilion SteelStacks | Bethlehem, PA

8/9 @ Basin Spring Park | Eureka Springs, AR

8/10 @ Lovegrass Music Festival | Sylvan Grove, KS 

8/20 @ Tuesday in the Garden | Rockford, IL

8/22 @ Alive After Five | Mankato, MN

8/23 @ Bend In The Road | Manchester, MN

8/24 @ Riverside Park | La Crosse, WI

9/4 @ The Bend Concert Series at Murphy Park | East Moline, IL

9/5 @ Gabe’s | Iowa City, IA

9/7 @ Hey Nonny | Arlington Heights, IL

9/8 @ Black Swamp Arts Festival | Bowling Green, OH

9/19-9/21 @ Walnut Valley Festival | Winfield, KS

9/27 - 9/29 @ Roots N Blues N BBQ | Columbia, MO

10/19 @ The Wander Down Music Festival | Makanda, IL

^w/ Jeff Austin Band, Tenth Mountain Division

* w/ Son Volt