CURRENT MISSION

Play music in Austria and all over the European continent.

ABOUT ME

I am a musician, poet, lover of life and seer of beauty. I was taught the loving of life and the seeing of beauty by my family - a band of gypsies that traveled all over the southern United States in a home-built camper. Anytime any one of us said, "Ooo, Look!" we all flashed like lightning to whatever anyone thought was cool. None of us ever wanted to miss anything.

My father is a poet and a former singer/guitarist (also a former mortician and hypnotist (not at the same time)). My mother, God rest her soul, was a pianist and a poet (and astrologer and psychic). My oldest brother (God rest his soul too), was a drummer, and both of my living brothers are singers and musicians.

I began running away from home when I was seven years old. Not because I had a bad home life. I just began to try my wings. My parents understood this and never punished me for running away, but either came and asked me sweetly to come back or, when I got older, treated me like the prodigal son when I returned.

When I was fifteen I began to take long journeys and pilgrimages. I decided not to wait until I had money to see the world. So I traveled by thumb and foot to many of the beautiful things this great land has to offer. I worked at Yellowstone and camped at Yosemite and visited the Grand Canyon, the Utah Salt Flats, Mount Rushmore, the Black Hills and many other wonderful places and monuments.

At 21 I married a woman that I met on a hitch-hiking trip to Nashville for the legendary, "One for the Sun" festival. Ironically, she was a tree, not a tumbleweed. We did some traveling together, but she had her roots deep in Tennessee. So I settled down for sixteen long years. As soon as we divorced, I hit the road again and continued my vagabondary. Picked up where I left off, so to speak. Although, now I travel in a beat up Cadillac.

Somewhere along the lines I managed to get a degree in music with a minor in poetry. I teach and perform wherever I travel, in the tradition of the Troubadours of old. Like theirs, my original songs are rife with innuendo, often of a sexual or flirtatious nature. You can hear them at www.myspace.com/buzzkiefer, and www.sonicbids.com/buzzkiefer.

The beautiful thing about traveling the way I have is the people I connect with. I was couch surfing long before there was an internet, much less, a "couchsurfing.com". It's nice to get a motel room from time to time, just to be alone for a night, but the sights I've seen in the places I've been are not as beautiful as the people who've extended the hand of family to a stranger.

I have one rule: anyone that feeds me or puts me up has to listen to one song, whether they like it or not.

PHILOSOPHY

If I had to sum me up in a few words, I'd say I'm a red-neck mystic. Would-be mediator between God and the Devil (I've been mistaken for both at various times).

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Currently, I participate as a master surfer, bringing song and laughter to my hosts. In the past I have hosted many a surfer. Right now it is difficult for me to host since my house is full of guitars and tends to move around a lot (it is a beat-up, 1994, Cadillac, Sedan Deville).

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I have walked through the heart of this country and I dwell in the hearts of her people. The vastness of our deserts and mountain ranges are equaled by the generosity of love and laughter that people share when I do my thang. I want to return that love and laughter by facilitating the dreams and good hopes of everyone on the planet. That is why I am an American gypsy.

Interests

Good conversation is my greatest interest. I would give up all other pleasures for this one cool thing.

I also like: playing music, flirting, swimming in rivers and lakes when no one else is around, long drives (when I'm not sleepy), walking around the neighborhood with my dog, Kenobi and smiling when everybody says, "Oh, what a beautiful dog!" (Kenobi is a rare Cinnamon Siberian Huskey with ice-blue eyes and a demeanor that any rock star would covet), partying, making new friends, cooking, watching movies, making up stories, telling bible stories (the irreverent, truthful versions), climbing trees, digging holes, making fun of status quo, giggly girls, furry kittens, babies (as long as they're not mine), true friends (a friend will bail you out of jail, a true friend will be in jail with you saying, "Man, that was fun!"), storms of all kinds, hidden places, things I've never seen before, good bourbon, good weed, random acts of kindness, daydreaming, 3am-5am (the witching hour), caves and waterfalls, woods and fields, mountains and deserts, and things like that.

• dogs
• poetry
• folklore
• performing arts
• beauty
• festivals
• cooking
• running
• walking
• partying
• gardening
• movies
• traveling
• music
• hiking
• camping
• surfing
• rock climbing
• swimming
• hitchhiking
• lakes
• rivers
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Indigo Girls, Dylan Thomas, Pablo Naruda, Jeff Beck, Beck, Bjork, Crack The Sky, Queen, David Whitaker, Seal, King's X, Beatles, Tom Robbins, Spartacus, Weeds, Greystoke: the Legend of Tarzan, Tchaikovsky, Debussy, Mozart, Steve Reich, Stravinsky, etc.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I lived in Paradise for two years and grew a garden of vegetables that fed a family of five to seven people (depending on the time of year), all year 'round. We made our own butter and preserves and pear butter (from the old grandmother pear tree in the corner of the garden), killed our own meat, wrote our own music, cut our own firewood and lived briefly the way people are s'posed to live.

Teach, Learn, Share

Growing a garden taught me as much about songwriting as any of my formal studies. The patience, attention and timing of caring for a growing thing that you're gonna eat is much the same as creating music. That 'Eureka!' moment when the seed first bursts through the soil, to the waiting, weeding and watering as the plants grow to lean under the weight of their ripening fruit.