Biography

When you listen to Blackhawk’s music you are following the journey of his life…   

“I started singing as soon as I could talk. My dad was a musician and was always playing one instrument or another. I sang in the boy’s choir in school and, at age 12, started playing the guitar. I would sing around campfires with my Boy Scout buddies. Not much has changed in 50 years. I am still singing around the campfire.   

“Music has always been my therapy. Writing songs helped me through some hard times, like getting drafted and being sent to Germany. I wrote to get through that. Never did like war and still don’t.  

“I lived in Hawaii for a couple of years, continued writing songs, and eventually moved back home to Wisconsin. I began participating in rendezvous (buckskinning) which are living history reenactments of the fur trade era. I was once again sitting around a campfire playing tunes.    

“One day I ran into a great fiddler, Clyde Thompson. With him, in a basement studio, I did my first recording – Blackhawk’s Rendezvous. I had to order 300 cassettes at once time and I thought, man, they will probably line my coffin with these. They were gone in two weeks and folks wanted more. This was the beginning of my recording career, writing an album a year. I had a band for several years. We did some TV, some concerts, etc. The recordings kept selling. I have more than 15 now. I did some videos and sold out of them too. I guess I should get some more made but have never been too strong on the business end of things.  

“Time went on, I hit 40, and my brains fell out. Went through a tough divorce after better than 20 years of marriage. God Bless that woman. I have never been the easiest person to get along with. It ended up being my best-worst experience. It gave me a chance to spend time alone. Having been married at 19 with kids to follow, all I knew was how to keep all the plates spinning.  

“I headed out west into the mountains of Colorado. I spent three winters there, pretty much by myself. I had a small cabin at about 7500 feet, no neighbors. The driveway was a mile and a half long just to get to the mail. What an awesome time of my life. I was reading great books on spirituality. Meditating was life. Read a line in a book, “Your life is a direct result of the choices you make.” After going through a divorce you usually want to blame everyone but yourself. When that truth hit me, I said, I am learning to make better choices and I’m not leaving ‘till I do. So I started living a more conscious life. My music changed then. It had a message to it that was for the greater good of all. Not about me anymore.   

“I started getting letters, babies were being born to my flute music and it was being played in hospital burn wards. A lady came up to me one day and said her husband loved my music and as he was dying of cancer and leaving his body, he wanted to have my Journey of the Spirit recording playing. That was the last thing he heard as he left.    

“Yes, my life has been blessed beyond my wildest dreams. I have two great daughters, two beautiful step daughters, a wonderful tolerant wife, wonderful families, I am still playing music, and people are still listening to it. People have been so kind. I have sold over 50,000 recordings and I’m just being me. I love my life and what I am doing. Anytime I get to play for folks, whether it’s ten or thousands, I am honored they would take time out of their life to share their energy with me.   

Life’s a trip, enjoy the ride.”   

God Bless,
Blackhawk