A little while back I wrote a story titled "Sammy Hagar's Kid and the Dark Side of Crowd Funding". You can click here for the full read, but the basic gist of it is that a rich son of a rich rock star wants you to give him $100,000 so he can record songs he hasn't written yet. Needless to say, yuk.
Do you know who else is a son a a famous rock star? Miles Nielsen, the son of an actual rock legend, Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen. Miles goes about his business in a slightly different manner than Hagar's kid. Miles writes and records great music and doesn't ask you for a single dime to make it happen. Unless you want to buy a record or go see him and his excellent band The Rusted Hearts performing live.
As luck would have it, Miles Nielsen and the Rusted Hearts will be playing my hometown of Columbus, OH on Tuesday March 10th at the fabulous Natalie's Coal Fired Pizza. Showtime is 8pm, Tickets are just $10 and can be purchased by clicking here.
I am ashamed to say, despite being the world's biggest Cheap Trick fan (click here for my bona fides) I had never checked out Miles before this week. Is it possible Miles suffers from reverse nepotism? Does that term make sense? I finally put on the latest Rusted Hearts record and guess what? It's great. In fact, I would put in on par with any recent record by Ryan Adams, Steve Earle and the like.
I shouldn't have been surprised. Music flows in the Nielsen family like water flows down the Rock River. Hell, Miles' grandad owned a music store in Rockford and his brother Daxx is the current drummer for Cheap Trick. I suspect the topic of music has come up a time or two around the Nielsen dinner table.
I guess the point of all this is that it is easy to pick on a rich guy's kid and more often than not, the spoiled little bastards deserve it. Let's face it, the country is crawling with people born on 3rd base who act like they just hit a triple. Just scroll down a list of U.S. Presidents if you need further evidence.
But there are exceptions to the rule and Miles Nielsen deserves not only your respect but more importantly, he deserves your ears. You won't be disappointed.
Colin Gawel wrote this at Colin's Coffee where he started Pencilstorm. "Hitless Wonder" tells the story of his life and the band Watershed. Check it out.
