Cardboard Dreams

Cardboard Dreams is a trio of songwriters focused on eating good food, enjoying the company of others, and discovering hitherto undiscovered paths. And playing music together. Their music fits into a box that contains the musty smell of old sheet music, a couple scratched dixieland albums that your grandpa couldn't bear to part with, tickets to a staging of "Don Giovanni" from 1996, an unopened Pat Matheny CD, and a secondhand game of Scrabble.

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After graduating from the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire, Steven and Kevin vowed never to play music together again. The musical heights they had reached to this point seemed insurmountable, and they thought it best to part ways to prevent a slow decline in the quality of their friendship. Three years later, in the spring of 2010, Steven, who had moved to Minneapolis to start a u-pick strawberry farm in the prospect park neighborhood, took up accordion in order to win the heart of a beautiful woman who had spurned his advances to this point. Sadly, he failed in his attempts and fell into a dark, brooding depression in which his only light was the incredible musical gift with which he had been endowed. In the midst of this period of introspection, Nathan, who frequented the strawberry farm, discovered Steven in the field playing Debussy on accordion, and, being a man of prodigious talent and uncommon attachment to his mandola, struck up a tune and a new friendship.

The connection was instant and the music flowed forth. The newfound friends wrote songs with laughter abundant, and all seemed well as the summer wore on. However, they noticed something missing as they continued to write. Each score seemed to have three staves, and each harmony seemed to need another harmony. Steven, remembering his pact with Kevin, called his friend James "Hands" Halloway to come join their collective. All went swimmingly, great fun was had, and things finally started looking up for Steven. Soon after, Kevin learned of Steven's new project with James and Nathan and was overcome with jealously. He could not bear to think that Steven could be once again rising to new musical heights without him. In a whiskey fueled rage, Kevin followed James home from a gig one Friday night and ended the latter's musical ambitions by breaking each of his fingers with a Fender Stratocaster. Not guessing his treachery, the desperate and bassist-less Steven called Kevin the next day to fill in for James at that night's show. All had gone according to Kevin's devious plan. The show went off without a hitch, the pair of still nimble fingered musicians immediately decided Kevin should join the band, and no poetic justice was ever served for the villainy committed.