My Influences:
Erik Hokkanen (Feb. 23)
violin, guitar, mandolin, etc.
You should definitely be familiar with Erik Hokkanen if you're an Austin resident. There's really NO excuse. Please, feel free to feel a deep and overwhelming sense of shame if you haven't been out, at least once, to take in the incredible experience it is to be musically entertained by our subject.
Erik recruited me well over five years ago to do a benefit party out in West Lake. We raised money for some local schools to continue their music curriculum. He decided to keep me on, and we've been playing together since.
(Every Tuesday night at Flips!)
There's tons of things I can say about Erik. I'll point out just a few.
Erik, obviously, is one of the best musicians Austin has to offer. If you don't know this to be true, you don't live under a rock, you live under four rocks.
Erik is a baker of breads.
Erik lives with what he has and makes use of everything around him.
Erik does his part - by that, I don't mean he is like every other typical American who does just enough. I mean that actually does his part.
Ex. #1: When he sees random litter blowing across the parking lot that he most certainly didn't drop, he goes to the litter, picks it up and puts it in a trash can or recycles it in some way instead of shirking his duty as a human, a citizen, an American, a townsperson, a son, a brother, a father, a friend and a musicianer.
Erik is can live in the woods with little to no industrial tools.
Erik is a good friend.
I've learned a whole lot of music in the last five+ years of playing with Erik. He very often talks about what we do every night and what it amounts to: we've earned more than the equivalent of a Bachelor's Degree and even a Master's Degree or more.
I've also learned a lot about myself thanks to many lively chats with Erik, sharing our philosophies and keen, childlike interest in all things human and how we can individually make the world a better place.
Happy Birthday, Erik!
http://www.austin360.com/music/content/music/stories/2007/09/0908hokkanen.html
http://www.markrubin.com/hokkanen/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Hokkanen
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"The evils of government are directly proportional to the tolerance of the people."
~Frank Kent
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