4-27-2012 --- The Star Tribune published a photo of me in the paper today! The shot is of me playing a solo show at Harriot Brewing's Sol Block Revival last Saturday! Thanks a billion to the folks at the Trib!
4-22-2012 --- What a day... Both Crankshaft (solo) and Crankshaft and the Gear Grinders took first place in different categorizes at the Road To Memphis Challenge! We will be representing Minnesota at the International Blues Competition in Memphis in February 2013! To top it off I got to see my hero, Johnny Winter play for the first time at Famous Dave's tonight! Like the Wolf would've said, "I'm sittin' on top of the world." A huge thanks to George M. and Keith B. for backing me up at the contest, you guys were awesome!
4-16-2012 --- My dad and I had a very crazy adventure down to Clarksdale, MS last weekend for the Juke Joint Festival, I'm surprised that we even made it back to Minnesota for Famous Dave's Battle of the Blues Bands on Sunday after the way the trip down there went! Thursday morning we woke up to a dead battery, got a jump and got two more miles down the road before she died again, we both new that the alternator was bad. I called my wife Rachel and got numbers for the closest auto parts stores. We got lucky when a manager of an O'reilly's store agreed to drive us one out from Kirksville, MO about 25 miles south of where we were. A super nice guy stopped to see if he could help, and had METRIC combination wrenches with him (luckily). He also charged our battery while we were taking out the power steering pump which was in the way of getting the alternator out. About an hour and a half later we were back on the road only to have the front calipers seize just north of St. Louis.
When we got to the venue that I was booked at we ran into Billy, of the Bad Mother Healers who tracked us down a floor jack so the front breaks could be looked at. We unloaded the gear and my dad went back to Billy's house to problem shoot. While I was playing my show, Dad discovered that the lube used on the caliper pins had solidified so that they weren't moving freely anymore. He got them apart and lubbed them up with dish washing soap from the motor home kitchen! We left St. Louis the next morning around 9am and headed out for Clarksdale for a 6pm show at the New Roxy Theater.
About 30 miles south of Memphis we blew the belt that runs the water pump and the it started overheating. Luckily I had an extra one in the camper. To save time we cut the belt off that runs the AC, and quickly threw the new belt on only taking about a half hour to get back in working order. When we rolled into Clarksdale we only had about 15min to spare! I played my show at the Roxy then we headed into downtown where I played again, this time where Crankshaft started, on the street! I got permission from the manager to set up in the Ground Zero parking lot and had a fricken blast stompin' and shouting for the fine folks that came to the Juke Joint Festival a day early. The next day (Saturday) I busked in the same spot again. At about 6:30pm we left for Memphis. I slept in a hotel for the night and had a 6am flight back to MN the next morning. Dad took a shower and decided that he would start driving from Memphis that night to try and get to Minneapolis to see me play at the battle of the blues bands the next day at 4pm (850 miles of driving in a camper that tops out at 65 mph!).
Rachel picked me up at the air port around 11am on sunday and some how Dad made it back home to Minnesota by 3pm! We all got to Dave's at about the same time and soon I found out through the chaos of my adventures I forgot to book a bass player for the event! Luckily Elmer Johnston was without a gig and arrived at Dave's a half hour before we had to play. To make for a perfect ending, the judges decided to let us win! Thanks so much! What a weekend. Now I'm gunna sleep for a week!
4-6-2012 --- The Crankshaft site has over 9,600 unique hits, I'm going to give away $100 worth of Crankshaft merchandise to the first person to email or tag me in a photo of the hit counter when it rolls over 10k!
3-27-2012 --- "327" was featured as a bumper track on NPR's Car Talk this weekend! This is the SECOND track that they've played from the album Junkyard Rhythm, thanks Click and Clack! Also, Ol' Skool Rodz did a feature story on The 2011 Minneapolis Messaround car show and they included a photo of me playing in front of my '59 in the photo collage! What an awesome weekend! (I just noticed that the date is 3/27, how weird!)
3-22-2012 --- Dave Harris just released his new book of one man bands, it took him four years to collect all of the information and photos! Over 100 one man bands from the past and the present are featured, including a small piece on Crankshaft! I'm flattered to be a part of it, thanks Dave! If you're interested you can purchase a copy here: www.onemanbandbook.blogspot.ca
3-12-2012 --- We're trying to win $25,000 through Artist Signal, if we succeed we're going to blow it on three new Crankshaft and the Gear Grinders music videos! You're allowed to vote for us once per hour, so please vote as often as you can! Thanks! http://artistsignal.com/crankshaftmusic
2-4-2012 --- Crankshaft is featured in this month's Artist Spotlight in Dig in Magazine out of San Franciso, CA! A big thanks to Richard Morales for putting the artical together!
1-6-2012 --- I got my first ever mention in the Star Tribune today! "One-man band Crankshaft (aka Alex Larson) offers "high-energy, low-brow, Upper Mississippi blues." That's his own description, and it's an accurate one, though on his terrific 2011 Christmas single "Louisiana Bayou Santa," the vibe was definitely more Lower Mississippi. If you like pizza with your blues, he has a new home every Thursday night in Robbinsdale. And if you like boogie with your pizza, Crankshaft will deliver. (8:30 p.m. Thursdays, Eagles Nest Lounge, 4106 Lakeland Av. N., Robbinsdale, 763-533-0800. No cover.) by Tom Surowicz"
12-19-2011 --- Thanks for coming out to my last Sunday show at the River City Saloon, we raised $222 for the Anoka Food Shelf, and we took in what felt like about 150lbs of canned food and non perishables! The River City will still have live music on Sundays, please support my friends Kevin 'Kp' James, Sam Kuusisto, and Big Al & Carmen Mevissen, it sounds like they will be in rotation there on Sunday nights. Thanks for all the great times we had together there!
10-30-2011 --- Rachel, Trixie and I have made it home safe! We managed to stay in one piece after playing 26 shows and driving 4,635 miles in 30 days. The kindness we encountered on the road was unbelivable, thanks so much to everyone who helped us out along the way! I'm sure you will also be glad to hear that the fan owned, crankshaft operated tour bus is still in one piece too! Rachel should have the Tour Blog finnished by tomorrow, check it out if you get a chance, there's a link below! I'll see you at the home coming show at the River City Saloon on November 6th! Come out and BOOGIE! http://leavinthistown.blogspot.com
Old News --- Little blurps like above but from the past.
Monthly Updates --- Monthy update archive, some are lame, some are cool, read them or something!
