Michael Perry's Voice Mail

Welcome to Michael Perry’s Voice Mail, episode 196. This one’s available to free and paid subscribers alike. Click the player above to listen.

In today’s episode, I introduce a good friend of mine, Mary Cutrufello. I’ve mentioned Mary before, usually when talking about my band the Long Beds (named after the truck in Truck), but since we’re going to be doing some shows as a duo this year (The Mike and Mary Situation), I figured maybe it was time to share some background. Scroll down and you can see a video of Mary on The Tonight Show back in the day.

This week’s marginalia is…well, scroll down for that too.

This episode is from scratch, and not in any of my books. Until I write the one about the band…

If you’re in the Twin Cities area and want to catch Mary’s live shows, this is the place to start.

Mary and I have three shows coming up: February 9 in Minneapolis, February 24 in Bayfield, Wisconsin, and then in St. Paul, Minnesota in May. For best details, make sure you’re on the mailing list—we’ll let you know.

“As a duo, Perry and Cutrufello are as at ease with the audience as they are with each other. The songs hit directly and cleanly, the harmonies contrast like worn leather and rough-cut lumber, and the stage banter plays like a conversation between two longtime road-wise friends who’ve taken their lumps and their chances, whose trade is words and music but know what it is to work a loading dock or a pitchfork, and who figure if life ain’t played out exactly as you drew it up, you might as well laugh about it, sing about it, and get on with it.”

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Today’s episode isn’t from any of my books, but if you’re looking for them, they’re here. Including this little number, which not everyone knows about:

We were all younger once…here’s Mary on The Tonight Show:

Here’s a Long Beds television appearance from 2018 that features Billy and Mary.

MARGINALIA:

In the spirit of my comments in this episode’s recording about freelance work and ideas that never see the light of day, I thought it fitting to share this checklist I came across in a journal (undated, but based on the entries, I think it’s about 5-6 years old) and update you on the progress (the check marks don’t mean completed, they mean I either completed them or moved them to the next day’s list) (a process that worked for a few months then dwindled):

Daughters Book: 70% done, currently on pause.

WHS backlist plans — indies: Don’t recall, but it has to do with my Wisconsin Historical Society Press books From the Top, Roughneck Grace, and Danger: Man Working. And independent bookstores.

Prince Piece: Finished that one, it’s here. And parts of it wound up in the Montaigne book.

Poetry Editor?: Don’t recall. Maybe thinking of writing poetry again? Would love to, but hard to pay the rent with it.

Cheese Chapter?: I wrote a sample chapter for a book about cheese. Put together a whole book proposal. Spent months on it. Put in a lot of time and travel. My agent shopped it around. Nobody bit.

Colonoscopy: This wasn’t a reminder to get a colonoscopy, this was a reminder to finish writing my article about getting a colonoscopy—without any anesthetic. It was published in Men’s Health magazine. I just had another colonoscopy. This time I took the juice.

Montaigne paperback: Musta been getting ready to tour this.

WSJ column: Wrote one of those a week for nine-and-a-half years. It was always on the to-do list.

Agri-View: We were in preliminary discussions to have them syndicate my “Roughneck Grace” column. It didn’t work out.

Film/TV (POP/JC): Was working out how to pitch Population 485 and The Jesus Cow as film projects. Nothing yet, but I did recently sell a script and sign a development deal for an unrelated project.

WHSP audiobooks: I own the audio rights to my Wisconsin Historical Society Press books, but so far have only recorded From the Top. I gotta get on that.

Scavengers: The sequel to this. I’m actually making a lot of progress on it lately.

Okey-doke. That’ll do’er. See y’down the road,Mike

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Howdy folks:

Welcome to Michael Perry’s Voice Mail, episode 194. This one’s available to free and paid subscribers alike. Click the player above to listen.

I recorded today’s episode after running the snow plow and just before stoking the wood stove in anticipation of the first good long run of subzero temperatures, which reminded me of a piece I wrote about the subtle ways deep winters push us over the edge and into behaviors warm-weather outsiders might view as odd, but we view as just gettin’ through it all. So I pulled on my stocking cap and told that story into the microphone.

Today’s essay is from the book Roughneck Grace, available in print and ebook form here, along with all of Mike’s other books, music, shirts, koozies, and stickers at the Sneezing Cow store.

Also, because the last batch sold out, we just printed up a fresh batch of the “Summer Here” poster featuring the opening lines of Population 485 and a beautiful collage by the artist Lori Chilefone, who lives just down the road.

Here’s a new interview published just this week (“It’s Not Just A Farmer Thing”) Mike did about the unexpected reach of—and reactions to—his latest book, Forty Acres Deep.

Today’s marginalia is from Poor Charlie’s Almanack, available on Amazon or support an indie by getting it through BookShop.

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THIS EPISODE’S MARGINALIA:

As reported in last week’s episode, I’m still reading Poor Charlie’s Almanack:

Thank you for listening and looking, folks. It’s nice to stay in touch.

Forward,Mike

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Howdy folks:

Welcome to Michael Perry’s Voice Mail, episode 189. This one’s available to free and paid subscribers alike. Click the player above to listen.

In today’s episode the death of a childhood friend sent me back to the days of bikes with “sissy bars” and banana seats, and how the last time we saw each other it was for a funeral, but most of all how his memory is tied to the days when we neighbors would all hay together, sharing equipment and time, and—as the photo above shows—relying on each other to get unstuck.

I also mention how some folks didn’t care for what I wrote about haying and why I’m glad I did.

The Jimmy excerpt at the beginning of today’s episode is from the essay “Catching At the Hems of Ghosts,” in the book Off Main Street, available in signed paperback and eBook here. Also at Amazon and BookShop.org.

The haying excerpt is from Coop. Signed paperbacks available here (as well as links to audio and ebook versions). Also at Amazon and BookShop.org.

Today’s marginalia—down below these photos—is from Mistress to an Age, the 1958 biography of a woman whose name I don’t know how to pronounce.

THIS WEEK’S MARGINALIA

Thanks for looking and listening, folks. We enjoy sending this podcast out each week, sharing news and stories and behind-the-scenes bits we don’t blast out across the regular “socials.”

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With gratitude,Mike

Reader reviews of Mike’s latest book, Forty Acres Deep:

This book is a little masterpiece. Not only is it physically beautiful but also it is like nothing else I’ve ever read. Thank you so much.

The opening chapter of this book hits you like a 300 pound defensive lineman. A literary decleater.

To say that it’s a banger is an understatement- it’s a hot mix of Midwestern intellectual, our hardwired shame and guilt and resolve through action.

(Feed mill operator): I told a pastor friend this morning to read it as a means to help better understand some of the rural folks he's trying to minister to.

Signed copies and links to ebook and audiobook formats here.

Available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook from Amazon.

Available in paperback from BookShop.org.

Howdy folks:

Welcome to Michael Perry’s Voice Mail, episode 184. This one’s available to free and paid subscribers alike. Click the player above to listen.

In today’s episode I talk about how a writer winds up with a band and how the writer’s wife has one very important rule about that and how being in a band has become one of my dearest joys, even as I know that my main job is still to write words meant to make their own music. Other details include how members of my band have won Grammys, played on The Tonight Show, and can invoke the Ottoman Empire. Whereas I know four or five chords and two rhythms.

This episode’s marginalia is kinda stretching the definition of marginalia but seems suitable to the occasion.

The band in question and I will be playing in Minneapolis very soon. Details here.

Long Beds music here.

And here we are gettin’ after it:

Above all, thank you. This little podcast continues to grow, and has turned into a nice way to share news and stories and behind-the-scenes bits we don’t put out there on the other socials (that’s what my kids call it—the “socials”).

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Okey-doke. Thanks, folks. Photos below. You maybe figured that out.

See y’down the road,Mike

Howdy folks:

Welcome to Michael Perry’s Voice Mail, episode 177. This one’s available to free and paid subscribers alike. Click the player above to listen.

In this episode I reveal why little ol’ agnostic me is a St. Jude fan, why I find poetry in words like supplication, how chance encounters and friendships echo long beyond the moment at hand, and how the simple gift of a journal led to words shared with thousands. And above all, how grateful I am to be allowed this erratic knockabout reflective life. Buncha related photos below.

MISCELLANEOUS SHOW NOTES:

* Yah, sometimes I say “me” where I oughta say, “I.” Sometimes I write how I talk, sometimes I talk how I write.

* The pareidolia research was for The Jesus Cow.

* Here’s a decade-old post from one of those deals Drew and I did together.

* Some of Drew’s back catalog. And on Spotify.

* Drew today.

* The song at the heart of the piece:

Thanks to the whole bunch of you. This episode’s essay is from Million Billion. For all the books and whatnot, please visit the Sneezing Cow store.

See y’down the road,Mike

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Howdy folks:

Welcome to Michael Perry’s Voice Mail, episode 176. This one’s available to free and paid subscribers alike. Click the player above to listen.

Today I lighten things up with humorous marginalia courtesy of the late Jim Harrison (a friend of the late Jimmy Buffett). Story for another time, but Harrison’s essay collection Just Before Dark played a significant role in my getting a book deal for Population 485. Then I revisit a humorous piece about me and my roughneck brothers in “Cellphone Connection,” an essay from Peaceful Persistence (see images related to this week’s episode below).

And then as always, I thank you all for giving of your ears, your eyes, and your time. I never take it for granted.

Thank you,Mike

P.S. They’re popular, so we keep printing more Peaceful Persistence shirts...and there’s this book/shirt combo deal.

P.P.S. This is where all the books and recordings and live events and news and whatnot can be found: SneezingCow.com (brand new home page pic)

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Welcome to Michael Perry’s Voice Mail, episode 171. This one’s available to free and paid subscribers alike. Click the player above to listen.

In this episode I recount how my dear late friend Billy yanked my chain once when it needed yanking (as one’s best friends will), and why that incident wound up in my book about the French philosopher Montaigne. This week’s marginalia is drawn from Mark Twain, and I also reference Apollo and Prince.

Depending on when you receive this, the concert I mention may or may not already be over (it’s happening Sunday, August 6 at 7:30 pm Central), but just in case, here’s a link to the event.

And here’s a link to the ticketed livestream. You can watch from home.

You can find Montaigne in Barn Boots in hardcover, paperback, audiobook (CD and digital), and Kindle and other ebook versions and all of Mike’s other hardcovers, paperbacks, and audiobooks here at the Sneezing Cow store.

Thank you for listening. It’s nice to visit.

See y’down the road,Mike

This is a free episode of Michael Perry’s Voice Mail. If you’re interested in receiving all weekly episodes, please consider hitting the subscribe button below (it says “Subscribe Now” but you won’t actually be subscribed until you review your options and confirm):

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Welcome to Michael Perry’s Voice Mail, episode 168. This one’s available to free and paid subscribers alike. Click the player above to listen.

I wrote this up as a fresh “Roughneck Grace” essay. Then I recorded it during a thunderstorm. The plan was to talk about turning back to books. Which I did. But I also invoked pigeons, ping-pong balls, and parkour. I then veered into a light consideration of queasy unease. After a few other meanders, I wrapped it up by revisiting some marginalia from my copies (yes, plural, as I explain in the recording) of this book:

In today’s recording I also make passing reference to a song I find deeply moving—“If Christopher Calls,” by Foy Vance.

As ever, folks, I take neither your time nor your attention for granted. I hope that comes through. Thank you for listening in today. Barring the Great Unexpected (it’s actually completely expected, just never sure when), I’ll sit down in the little room above the garage here and record another one next week. Meanwhile, all the books and things are here.

This is a free episode. If you’re interested in receiving all weekly episodes, please consider hitting the subscribe button below (it says “Subscribe Now” but you won’t actually be subscribed until you review your options and confirm):

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And finally, finally, several years ago I met this fellow in a coffee shop. He was drawing little pictures. He has done amazing things since.

Okey-doke. See y’down the road,Mike

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Howdy folks:

Adding something new this week.

This is still Michael Perry’s Voice Mail. Episode #164, to be specific. This episode is available to subscribers and non-subscribers alike. Click the player above to listen.

In each episode, I’ll still be reading and reflecting on a passage from the past (today, a painfully relevant passage from Montaigne in Barn Boots). But if you look down there below, we’re also adding a new section: “Mike’s Marginalia.” Marginalia are the little notes we make while reading a book. Sometimes in the margin, sometimes between the lines, sometimes on a separate scrap of paper, sometimes in a journal, or—more and more frequently, in my case—electronically in an eBook. And for the sake of this project, I’ll expand the definition to include underlined and highlighted passages.

Over the years I’ve created miles and miles of marginalia…and revisited only a fraction of them (it?). “Mike’s Marginalia” gives me an excuse to dig through the bookshelves and book stacks and refresh my mind. Maybe learn something. Or more likely, re-learn something. And share it with you.

THIS WEEK’S READING

It’s from the “Confound the Fool” chapter of Montaigne in Barn Boots, which is all about absentmindedness. In this case, I’ve chosen a pair of passages that relate to books and marginalia—specifically, how I have to read and re-read things because I don’t retain them, and even more specifically the story of how my absentmindedness led to my losing the best book’s-worth of marginalia I ever marshaled.

MIKE’S MARGINALIA

Today’s marginalia is from the book Montaigne and the Quality of Mercy.

The cover suggests it won’t be a carefree romp:

Well, folks, as ever, thank you for continuing to listen to these Voice Mails. If you’d like to subscribe, click the green button (it says “Subscribe Now” but you won’t actually be subscribed until you review your options and confirm):

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You can find Montaigne in Barn Boots in hardcover, paperback, audiobook (CD and digital), and Kindle and other ebook versions and all of my other hardcovers, paperbacks, and audiobooks here at the Sneezing Cow store.

Well, I s’pose…Mike

Howdy folks:

Welcome to Michael Perry’s Voice Mail, episode 162. (Ignore Mike saying it’s episode #161, he’s off by one week, which is better than average, and we’re not gonna tell him for at least another week.)

This episode is available to subscribers and non-subscribers alike. Click the player above to listen.

NOTE: The Neil Gaiman story anchoring this episode originally appeared in a subscribers-only episode back in January of 2022, but Mike wished to revisit and share it more widely as a memorial to his late friend “ALR.” Also, the original episode did not include the bit about Mike chasing a cat-abusing red fox in his underwear.

Included in today’s installment: Mike revisits two of the oddest television-related coincidences of his life, as described in his book Peaceful Persistence.

After you listen, you may be interested in this note Mike wrote when his friend Al (mentioned in this episode) died.

In the Tweet above, Neil Gaiman was referring to this book.

The book Mike mentions at the end of this episode is Forty Acres Deep. More info here.

P.S. They’re popular, so we keep printing more Peaceful Persistence shirts...and there’s this book/shirt combo deal.

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For more, please visit SneezingCow.com and the store.