Forty or so years ago, at the same time when I started my career in bird conservation, I also started writing music. These musical ideas grew slowly but steadily over the first decade, and then took a huge leap forward when Jon-Jon launched himself into a musical effort which included work on the guitar, mandolin, Native American style flute, all types of percussion, and song-writing.

During an early recording session in 1998, Jon-Jon called our group of musicians “Big Blue Sky”, which he took from the line in a song I wrote. The Big Blue Sky musical effort has expanded in recent years and continued after the unfortunate death of Jon-Jon in September of 2007. We morphed into several incarnatations over the years, which included performing as an 11-piece band, a solo act, and as every possible arrangement in between. Most recently, I favor  the trio of Sophia Landis, Folko Landvogt, and myself. I feel a complete sense of creativity and freedom in this arrangement. For the past 10 years, we have performed every Friday night during the summer months on the Mississippi River aboard the Maiden Voyage River Cruise Boat. We have also appeared at opera houses in the region and at various cultural and river-related events in the Driftless region. Over the years, I have been fortunate enough to collaborate with a group of musicians in New Orleans and also maintained a close connection with a group of musicians in Boise, Idaho, where my daughter maintains a somewhat similar effort called “Earth Song.” 

Our music has been featured on three different one hour performances on Iowa Public Radio in 2006, 2011, and again in 2013.