Music and Passion.

It's all coming.

After 8 years of playing, writing and being best friends Brant and JT have teamed up with Jen Lowe to Record Nantucket Circle.  With Stephen Gause at the Helm of the Recording and Producing we are excited about what is about to be released on June 4th.

"It's easy to make records these days" I hear this all the time.  With the fall of the major Label and distribution available to anybody with a computer and garage band the playing field has been leveled.   It has to a certain extent, but with all the freedom to create, release and get distribution EVERYBODY can put out a record.  This does not make it easy.

BKD  has created a record that were proud of.  We are excited for you to listen and be moved by the music.  This is where it gets tough.  We need you.  We need any and all of our friends, fans, acquaintances to tell their friends, fans and acquaintances about our new record.  Nantucket Circle   
If your on twitter come follow us. TWITTER  and Like Us on FACEBOOk.


With all that said. We're one of the million bands Releasing music in the world.  What is it gonna take to make our Record Stand out?  YOU!  Pre-Order from Itunes Nantucket Circle this will help us chart and give us a leg up from the other 999,999 bands releasing music on June 4th.  The Pre-Order Price is only $2.99 and we understand that hardly anybody pays for music in this new musical frontier, but at $2.99 Your helping us turn heads of people we don't have contact with.

This year it's all coming.  Brant, JT and Jen are at a place where our music is going to be heard. Maybe on the Radio, possibly in a Movie, might even be on TV from week to week. We will be playing in places and for people we've never had the opportunity to play for.  We will be playing in other countries and people will be singing our songs.

This is exciting.
Thanks to all our friends, our fans our acquaintances our families for supporting us making what we do all that more meaningful.

Big Kettle Drum.

ITunes Pre-Release

New Music from Big Kettle Drum.  You can Preview the new album  and even Pre-Order it for the Low Price of $2.99.  When you Pre-Order your helping us break on the charts on Itunes so go click this link;. https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/nantucket-circle-ep/id642349898  Also You can write a review on the album as well.     
The Official Release will be June 4th.  We are very excited about this.   We will have more news in the weeks to come.   

 Big Love from BKD.  

One Blood

Hey kettleheads Brant doing what he does. Speaking and singing Telling Theo's story on the news.
Visit. Www.facebook.com/kettleheads
Www.facebook.com/brantchriostophermenswar and read about Their Journey through. Moms. Eyes at http://m.caringbridge.org/visit/theomenswar

Follow us and keep up.

BKD

Florida Tour CANCELLED

Kettleheads,
Due to the illness of Brant's son, Theo, we have had to cancel the Florida Tour for Feb/March. Theo is still recovering from a bone marrow transplant and landed in ICU with lung complications. Theo is a fighter and has pulled through the hardest part but isn't out of the woods yet. Brant obviously needs to be by his son's side. We love the fact that so many of you have reached out with prayers and positive thoughts to us. We walk through this valley not just as a band but as a family. You are all part of that family and we thank you for helping to shoulder such a burden.

We are planning to be back on tour in April as long as Theo's recovery continues. The good news is the new record will be out by then so we will expect you all to be singing the songs at the shows.

Thanks for being such a strong community. We love you.

Brant, JT & Jen - BKD

New Year...New Band...New Record

2013 is here Kettleheads. As we told you on New Year's Day, Jen Lowe has temporarily lost her mind and joined the Kettle Drum for our new adventure. We are completely stoked about this as she is a badass percussionist with as much talent as she has attitude;) We are all currently in Nashville with our producer, Stephen Gause, recording the new EP. The songs are stellar. We have written, re-written, re-rewritten and then re wrote that! 4 of the 6 tracks on the EP were co-written with Marty Dodson. Marty is a hit-making machine with cuts by Carrie Undwerwood, Kenny Chesney, George Strait, Dierks Bentley, Billy Currington, and a ton of other incredible artists. It appears that the new year is blessing this band from the start!

We can't wait to get this new music in your hands so you can tell your friend's, neighbor's, cousin's uncle who likes our type of making noise...

Soon friends...very soon...

Peace, Love and Boom Boom,

BKD 

www.facebook.com/kettleheads
www.twitter.com/bigkettledrum
www.bigkettledrum.com

Jen Lowe Joins BKD!

Happy New Year Kettleheads! As 2013 has arrived, we have some exciting announcements. First, we are so excited to let you know that A-list percussionist/singer-songwriter, Jen Lowe (Jason Mraz, Ed Kowalcyk 'Live', Ed Rowland 'Collective Soul') has joined Big Kettle Drum!!!

"Joining Big Kettle Drum is extremely exciting for me. I already feel like I have been making music with these guys my whole life. JT, Brant and I fit and it's just right. Looking forward to seeing you out there!"

Jen will be joining us on tour beginning Jan 28th. But before that…we have one more announcement:

The new Big Kettle Drum EP will be recorded Jan 7-11th! The album will finally be produced in Nashville by our long-time music partner, Stephen Gause. We have been co-writing this EP with award-winning songwriter Marty Dodson (George Strait, Carrie Underwood, Kenny Chesney, Billy Currington, The Oak Ridge Boys, Dierks Bentley, The Plain White T’s) and is due in early March 2013.

We are currently booked full til March and plan on traveling up to New England in April. If you want to see us play in your neck of the woods, please contact Pam at kettleheadbooking at gmail.com.

2013 is going to be the year of BKD! So excited to have you all on this journey with us. Please welcome Jen to the family:)

See you soon!
 

Brant, JT & Jen 

2013 BIG Announcement!

Hey Kettleheads! BKD will have a few major announcements on Jan 1, 2013. This year has been a learning experience for the band and they are taking their new-found direction to greater heights in 2013. The plan is in place...the songs are being written...the shows are being booked. It's all in for BKD and we are almost ready to show you our cards. Almost....

Stay tuned for the BIG announcement on Jan 1st! Until then...Seek out those you love, tell them how much...lean into your community... and have a wonderful and exciting Christmas.

Love & Light...BKD

Let's EAT!

Hey Kettleheads! The Tour starts THIS WEEK! We hope you will come out and join us. We told you we are starting a new tradition where we share a meal with any/all of you on days of shows. Friday is the first of those days! We will be eating at 6PM at Chick-fil-A located at 7333 West Sand Lake Road, Orlando, FL 32819. On Saturday we will be eating at the Nomad Cafe at 6PM located at 2002 South Harbor City Boulevard (US1), Melbourne, FL 32901.

We truly appreciate those of you who are all in. Looking forward to sharing a meal and our lives together. See you this weekend!
- Brant & JT

Give Up or Get Better

"If there’s no viral action on your music, you’re just not good enough. Don’t get mad at the audience, get mad at yourself. Either give up or get better." - Bob Lefsetz

Share and Share a "Like"

Hey Kettleheads! After a few days in we have just over 250 of you that want to be a part of our journey. The good news is that we have almost 300 people "talking about" us here on FB. That means that some of you are sharing us. That is what needs to happen. If everyone of us hypnotized one additional person we'd be at almost 600. We begin our Fall Tour on Friday in Orlando. We will be posting where we will be breaking bread with everyone each day on tour. We encourage you to come out to the restaurants and be part of this community. We have work to do. We will be talking about new music, T-shirt designs, areas to tour and a slew of other stuff that YOU HAVE A SAY IN! That is what community is. We are together in this. Please check our website at www.bigkettledrum.com for tour dates so you can plan on joining us. We can't wait to see you. Love & light...Brant & JT

Open Letter Response...

WOW...the responses we have received from our "open letter" yesterday have been amazing. People reaching out saying come play in our city...we will find a venue, feed you, house you and help promote the show. People sending unsolicited money. People sharing our music on their pages and asking their friends to check us out. This is the type of community that we want to bask in. Everyone putting their heads together and saying lets do this! We don't need record labels, booking agents, and a machine to connect to people who need to hear music that moves them. We simply need YOU! We haven't been this excited about recording and touring in a long, long time. Thank you all for re-igniting our passion to connect and we can not wait to sit down across from you, look you in the eyes and say "Thank You"...just...WOW!

Hitting the Reset Button...

They say you can survive in the current music landscape if you have 1,000 true fans. We are going to put that to the test. You know we don't ever look at anyone as "fans". That is just weird to us. What we do know is that there are a handful of friends that have supported us like family. Those are the relationships we want to foster. We are hoping that our "casual" fans/friends will step up into a deeper relationship with the band and our community.

The fact is that some of you are our family/church/therapists/mechanics/inn keepers and therapists...yes I know we said that twice;) Being a full-time musician requires full-time "fans". Our goal isn't to sell a million records. Our goal is to have some sort of impact on your life. Musically, personally...wherever we can. If you get that and long for community in the truest sense of the word...then tell your friends that want the same. Get off your ass and come out to a show. Come break bread with us and eat a meal before/after we play. Being on the road sucks without that level of interaction. There is too much sacrifice.

Honestly, JT and I are old. LOL. Ancient in music terms. JT knows Jesus...personally...I've seen a picture. It would be so much easier for us to just "retire". But there is a part of us that still believes we have something to say and that there are a few of you out there that want to listen. We look at bands like The Lumineers and long for people to connect to our songs like that. We are tired of being jealous and sitting on the outside saying how much better we think we are. That is bullshit.

So...we have decided to put everything on the line and have an open and honest relationship with you. We want to be the real, broken, compassionate, depressed, optimistic people we are:)

2013 will be the beginning of something incredible or the end of something mediocre. We are cautiously optimistic that we can find the few, the proud, the mar...wait...wrong folks. Leave your swords at home and bring your lives to us so we can share ours with you.

Love you all...
Brant, JT

180 Degrees

FINALLY...GOOD NEWS!!!! Theo has made a 180 degree turn over the last 48 hrs!!! He has had 2 of the most BORING days since we've been here. We can't tell you how exciting that is:) No more bleeding from the stomach! Blood is clearing in his urine! Rash is gone! He has eaten soft food for 2 days! Down to 1 pump! He has slept through the night twice! AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH! My cheeks hurt from smiling...Love you all...so much. Thank you for walking through this with us.

Big Kettle Drum joins Brandi Carlile at the Erase Hate Tampa Bay Festival

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Big Kettle Drum joins Brandi Carlile at the Erase Hate Tampa Bay Festival.

Rockledge, FL - September 30, 2012 - Big Kettle Drum (BKD), the banjo slinging, foot stomping, slide guitar Americana band has joined the line-up at the Erase Hate Tampa Bay Festival in Tampa, FL to be held on November 4, 2012.

Howling guitar riffs over a thumping Samsonite suitcase kick drum has Big Kettle Drum carving it's own niche in the Americana-Blues-Rock landscape.

"We are excited to lend our voice to this great cause," says front man Brant Christopher Menswar. "We jumped at the chance to join Brandi Carlile onstage at Curis Hixon Park and play for the great folks of Tampa Bay."

While their 2012 debut album is finding its way into heavy rotation on playlists around the globe, its their live show that sparks conversation around the water cooler. Passionate performances of their original songs mixed in with BKD arranged covers of everyone from John Lee Hooker to Billy Joe Shaver keep the heads bobbing and the fists in the air. BKD's boot-in-the-face approach has fans of all ages marching to the beat of the Big Kettle Drum.

ABOUT (ERASE HATE TAMPA BAY, INC)
Erase Hate Tampa Bay, Inc. is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit corporation dedicated to making our community embrace a higher level of acceptance and appreciation for each citizen’s individuality. Through civility, kindness and respect for one another, we can make our community a better place to live, raise a family, build a business, and enjoy a long, secure life. Through our events and programs, we bring leaders in education, faith-based organizations, government agencies, and individuals together to promote an appreciation for diversity and cultural sensitivity.

CONTACT:
Grant Gelt
New Sound Artist Management
grant at newsoundmgmt dot com
www.bigkettledrum.com
www.newsoundmgmt.com

###

Theo update

Not a good day today. Theo had more bleeding last night and today. They changed most of his meds back to IV so his stomach doesn't have to do any work, including drinking. He is allowed to drink water to take pills, but that's all. Because the two continuous drips for his stomach can't run trough a line with anything else, and becuase they have added more IV meds, and because he keeps having to get more blood, they had to put an IV I his arm to get everything into him on time. Because he's on so many steroids, they had to try 5 times and call in a nurse from another floor to help to get the IV in. Because one of the new continuous meds drastically reduces the body's insulin production, they are checking his blood sugar every 6 hours and have to give him an insulin shot if they are over 200. So Theo feels like because we brought him here to make him better, everything else is going wrong. I can't blame him. Please keep praying for comfort and healing in his body and in his mind and spirit as well.pray for Emi, Brady and I as well. We really had no idea what we were going to have to go through when this all started, and its hard to continuously have something else to deal with every day.

Love you all...

The Journey Continues

Well, today was rough. Theo got up at 5:30 to go to the bathroom and fell. More like slow motion crumpling, but same result. Anyway, it happened again later in the afternoon, but Em was standing next to him, per nurses orders. She wasn't much help because he is bigger than her, but he was talking to him during and he just said he was getting dizzy and then collapsed. They took his blood pressure in bed and it was normal, even bordering on high. Then they had him stand up and took his pressure again and it was ridiculously low. They determined that he was basically passing out when he stood up because his blood pressure was dropping when he was in standing position. They are thinking it is because he was dehydrated, so they stopped his lasics and gave him fluids. Then they gave him 2 units of blood. His hemoglobin wasn't super low, but it was trending downward so they figured he would need it in the next day or two, so that was a better choice to increase his body's volume. They also drew labs to make sure there isn't an infection that the steroids might be masking a fever for.

Anyway, he was pretty scared, but luckily they had done the MRI the night before and it came back clean with no swelling, which is mostly was Theo was worried about. He was feeling much better this evening and had a blast hanging out with Brady.

I am sure they will figure out what is wrong, but I dont know about a Monday release. To be honest, as much as we want out of the hospital, we want to make sure he is really doing well before they let him go. Too many little things keep coming up.

We will know more tomorrow or Monday. Love you all...

BKD FALL 2012 TOUR!

Great news Kettleheads! The BKD fall tour is shaping up nicely with dates confirming throughout Florida. We will be posting the dates and venues as we iron out the details. We will be playing multiple sets each night. This is exciting to us as we have a chance to switch it up with an acoustic set mixed into night that allows us to play songs you've never heard. Hope to see you on the road...Can't wait.

Theo's Battle

Rough day today. Theo was running a fever again and his stomach was still hurting. He threw up again tonight for the first time in a week. I had to leave for a bit to be with a dear friend who was in a bad car accident. God had his hand on her and her unborn baby boy. The baby was born via emergency C-section and both Mom and son are stable.

Even though its been hard to see the light at times on this journey...sometimes God makes sure His power and grace are undeniable. I thank Him for my Nomad family who literally wrapped their arms around people in hospitals today all over the state. I thank Him for continuing to heal my (not so) baby boy and for holding our newest Nomad in His hands today. His grace is more overwhelming than the chaos that was today. We so need that...right now. Love you all... B

Theo Update Graftication.

THEO IS 100% ENGRAFTED!!!!! That means that all of Theo's cells are now the donor cells. This is the news we have been waiting for. We still have a long road ahead but at least we are now positive that the transplant was a success. Theo is in good spirits and outside of some stomach pain from the GVH and ulcer, he is feeling really well. Pray that we get transferred to the Ronald McDonald House on Monday. That will be a huge step on the road to recovery. Love you all...w/  Brant and Emily Schorr Menswar

Theo Update

‎Theo had a really good day today. His white count was 10.77 and his ANC was 8500. Those are about as high as they can get, so now they are going to stop giving him the meds that boost those counts and they will drop a little but then even out on their own. The good thing about stopping the neutrophil (ANC) medicine is that that is the one that can cause the bone pain. He only had a little discomfort today and Tylenol pretty much did the trick.

Almost all of his meds were already switched to pill form this morning, so the only thing running through his line for most of the day was heparin. They are weaning him off of the TPN (intravenous nutrition) and he should be off of that by tomorrow evening. things are really moving forward!

My bud Pw Gopal flew in to spend the weekend with us and brought Theo a sweet '63 Harmony Rocket Electric Guitar! He loved it. Then my pal Shane Winnings stopped by today to give Theo a smock from Iraq that soldiers wear to protect themselves from the sun and sand. Theo put it on and looked like a Camo-Ninja! 

All in all he had a great weekend. Brady comes over in the am to spend the day/night with us so the good times will continue!

Love to you all...
B