In the fall of 2015 I went to Norway with a grand plan to visit the small town of Kallestad. More than anything, I wanted to take a photo of myself standing under a road sign emblazoned with my last name. In order to accomplish this, and really come to grips with the rest of the country, I spent three months over there working on small Norwegian farms as a WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) volunteer. The season was stressful and beautiful.
While in Norway I wrote songs that eventually became Songs From the North Country. The lyrics are not really about farming, they are mostly about love. Turns out that picking turnips, feeding chickens, digging holes, splitting wood, selling sausages, and shoveling shit, for hours on end, can really open up a lot of headspace.
Whenever possible, I wrote paragraphs about my day-to- day experience as a novice farmhand and overeager tourist. I put some of my favorite stories together in a small chapbook called “The Way North.” You can buy a copy here.
