Michael Perry's Blog

Long Beds at LuCille Tack Center 10.24.2026

Won’t phone it in, can’t phone it in. LONG BEDS LIVE!

Grab your tickets here: https://lucilletackcenter.com/performances/

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Deeply grateful for the writing life I wandered into, and I was never cut out to be a real farmer, but few things fill my heart like running childhood roads in road gear after stacking a few hay bales.

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A Three Day Tour with The Long Beds

First things first: The Long Beds and I are gonna hit the road in October and we’d love it if you can join us: October 22 (Stoughton Opera House), 23 (Leona’s, Eau Claire) and 24 (Lucille Tack Center for The Arts, Spencer).

Second, like so many things in life, one day you look up and you’ve got history dating back to long before the days we were playing opera houses and arts centers:

 

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Perry’s Voice Mail – Episode #332: Bon Dylan

Howdy folks:

Welcome to Michael Perry’s Voice Mail, episode 332. This one’s available to free and paid subscribers alike. Click this link to listen.

In this episode, I take you behind the scenes to experience the process of writing introductions to a bunch of Bob Dylan songs to be covered by Justin Vernon (some know him as Bon Iver) and then taking a chosen few of them to the stage.

Scroll down for photos and more details.

“Michael Perry’s Voice Mail” is subscription-based but once a month or so there is a free episode. For ease of access we have collected all the free episodes to date in one spot here. Please click on any or all of the links below to listen to any and all of the free episodes. If you enjoy the episodes and would like to listen to the paid episodes for a month free on us, please send an email to orders@sneezingcow.com.

You can share this episode with a friend by clicking this link. 

Forward!
Mike

Photo credits: Graham Tolbert, Zoe Prinds, and Josh Darr.

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Michael Perry on The Good Word Podcast with Max Garland

“One of the things I’m yearning for when I write is just to share the vast, chromatic experience that we can have if we allow ourselves.” — Michael Perry

Welcome to the inaugural episode of The Good Word Podcast: Wisconsin Writers in Conversation! Hosted by Max Garland, this show strives to engage Wisconsin writers in lively conversations on writing’s unparalleled power to nurture, nourish, and cultivate common ground—one good word at a time. Like, subscribe, spread the word, and give it a listen at the links below.

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-good-word-max-garland-w-michael-perry/id6809791197?i=1000788458494 

Spotify Podcasts: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4rv0NnMXPGkMCz2m9T12OZ?si=s2I4OdI4QM-3dRetCM2CTw&utm_source=copy-link

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Michael Perry’s Voice Mail

A note from Mike:

Unless I slip and fall and break my larynx, I’m about to record the 300th episode of Michael Perry’s Voice Mail. We fired the first episode into the atmosphere on July 31, 2020, and have been putting one out pretty much once a week ever since. What is it, exactly? A mini-podcast? An email? A photo album? An audio essay? I know when I first conceived of it, I named it Voice Mail because I wanted it to come through like a call a friend left on your answering machine (the pioneer version of voice mail). Informal and relatively brief (10-15 minutes, give or take some either way), yet still worth your time. I wanted some of it to be polished, and I wanted some of it to be off the cuff. I wanted to include some behind-the-scenes stuff that gets at the day-to-day of what life as a self-employed writer/yapper/whatever-this-might-be is like. And I also wanted it–for lack of a more artful term–to be “value-added.” That is, sharing material that doesn’t appear in my books or on our other social media platforms. Sometimes that’s a peek at early drafts of a book or an essay in progress. Sometimes that’s a phone recording of a new song that’s still in the “figuring it out” stage. Sometimes it’s me digging into a box in the pole barn and revisiting a poem or a magazine piece or a pizza commercial I wrote back when I was still “Michael Ryan.” Over time we’ve also added what I call the “Marginalia” section, where we drop annotated excerpts from books I’m reading, or photos related to the audio or the essay, or just random moments of goofiness or peace.

At the end of the day, I’m a writer. No matter what form it takes, none of it happens if I don’t sit down alone and practice that craft. The Voice Mail project grows from that, and I hope serves to both uplift and expand the experience of the folks who subscribe and listen. Each week when I sit down to the microphone I imagine we’re at the kitchen table or cafe counter together, visiting.

Links to all the free episodes below, but first an example of recent Marginalia:

Thinking about highlighting random bits and pieces to suit/inform my reference and feeling dumb or inadequate that I do not/cannot pull it all together and present in whole form as does the scholar, I realize that is not my forte nor my ability but that my child-eyed granular take may be the way in for other non-scholars like myself who nonetheless hunger for & value these knowledges and insights*. (This after a Packers game and the woodstove with my little family that is so kind to me despite all my distant headspace.) *self-cultivation

 

“Michael Perry’s Voice Mail” is subscription-based but once a month or so there is a free episode. For ease of access we have collected all the free episodes to date in one spot. Please click on any or all of the links below to listen to any and all of the free episodes. If you enjoy the episodes and would like to listen to the paid episodes for a month free on us, please send an email to orders@sneezingcow.com.

EPISODES

#1

Thank You for Subscribing

#2

#3

#6

#7

#13

Forward

#22

#26

#30

#35

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#291

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#300

#304

#310

#317

#321

#322

#332

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Photo credit: Graham Tolbert

Bon Dylan Intro

Bon Dylan intro continued

Not Dark Yet

Man In Me/Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You/Lay Lady Lay

Tangled Up In Blue/Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door/Man In Me

(Somehow I managed to write two “Man In Me” intros. ???)

With God On Our Side/New Morning

Angelina/Feel My Love

Standing In the Doorway/Don’t Think Twice

Spanish Boots of Spanish Leather/When He Returns/Shot of Love

Trying To Get To Heaven/Most Of The Time/All Along The Watchtower

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Peaceful Persistence Shirts in the Wild

Note from Mike: When my friend RT first showed me the cover he designed for my book Peaceful Persistence, I told him I thought it looked a little too dated. A little too 1970s or something. But in the end I decided to go with RT’s instincts. And since then, I’ve lost count of the number of people who’ve approached the book signing table, pointed at Peaceful Persistence, and said, “I love the cover on that one.” It got to happening so often, we decided to make a T-shirt version. And we’ve been printing them ever since. So here’s to RT, here’s a big thank you to Trinity Lutheran Church, here’s to Spike Carlsen, and here’s to me being wrong again.

Recently, Trinity Lutheran Church in Stillwater, MN put on a great event with the author Kao Kalia Yang as part of their “Refugee Voices” series. The event was co-presented by the church’s Missions Team, the Stillwater Public Library, and the Stillwater Public Library Foundation. For those who were unable to attend in person, the program was livestreamed and broadcasted by Valley Access Channels (VAC). Valley Bookseller sold the books.

While Michael was not able to be in attendance that day, the event volunteers sported their Peaceful Persistence Leaf t-shirts. You can grab yours here in either Leaf or Asphalt. You can also grab the long sleeve version here.

 

 

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Michael Perry’s Coop on WPR’s “Chapter A Day”

Please note: Readings are archived for one week following the broadcast day of the last chapter due to publisher
copyright restrictions.

“I think of Coop as an attempt to honor my parents. There’s a lot of silly stuff in there about grown-up goofy me trying to raise pigs and chickens and babies, sure, but woven throughout is the story of how my city-raised parents–the two most humble and charitable people I have ever known–struck out to raise a family on a small northwestern Wisconsin farm. Over time that family would grow to include legions of children, many of them with special needs and challenges. Ours was a childhood spent milking cows and slinging manure and shearing sheep and skidding logs, but also a childhood spent free-ranging the surrounding swamps and woodlands, reveling in the last of the true “old-timers,” and beginning a journey of faith and doubt that continues to this day. Through it all, I went to bed every night knowing every one of us was loved. It’s always an honor to have one of my books read on “Chapter A Day,” but I am especially pleased that in this case the story revolves around the Mom and Dad who raised me. Me, and countless other children, often more than a beat-up old Volkswagen van could hold.

“Chapter A Day” Details

Starting Wednesday, September 23 through Tuesday, October 13, 2026, Jim Fleming will read Michael Perry’s Coop for a half hour each weekday on Wisconsin Public Radio.The show airs live on the radio on the following shows at the times below:WPR Music: 7:00 pm (CT)WPR News: 9:30 pm (CT)

Where to listen

Your local station can be found here: https://www.wpr.org/find-your-station. The reading will also air on WNMU FM 90 in Marquette, MI.If you miss a chapter on the radio, you can listen to it here: https://www.wpr.org/shows/chapter-day

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Photos of Pets Enjoying Mike’s Work

We love it when folks send us photos of their pets enjoying Mike’s work–although truth be told, only chicken looks truly interested. If you have photos of your four-legged (or beaked) family members ignoring or napping on one of Mike’s books, we’d love to see it.

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