For the Twin Cities based folk group Collapsing Stars, 2020 began the same way that it did for a lot of touring bands, filled with promise, opportunity and new music to be released. In March they were touring the southwest en route to their 3rd appearance at SXSW when the entire world shut down. The group spent 53 days in Alpine, CA under a shelter in place order before they were able to return safely to Minnesota. The band stayed in an RV owned by their drummer’s family, played and wrote music and maintained their sanity thanks to frequent hiking trips to the mountains nearby. It was there where front person Justin Wayne Nelson started shooting short video clips of performances on a travel guitar in the mountains. The band set up in Mike’s family’s backyard and filmed a stripped down version of Never Been in Love, a song that would appear on their sophomore record. This was the closest they would get to performing live for almost two years.

In 2021 things were looking up. The country looked on track to return to some semblance of normalcy by summer. Anxious to get back on the road, the group started booking a fall tour thinking that would give the music industry more than enough time to get back on its feet. But that’s not what happened. Two thirds of their dates were cancelled due to covid surges in western states. It took years for some of their favorite venues to return to hosting music, and others closed for good. Suffering from the same cabin fever as everyone else in the world, they were determined to get back on the road. Remembering their experience in Alpine, Nelson thought, “why not combine two of our favorite things, playing music and hiking in the mountains.” 

They planned several small performances in the woods set to the backdrop of a beautiful natural setting (Grand Teton’s, Devil’s Tower, Palisade Falls, Rocky Mountain National Park, The Black Hills, Mt. Hood, Olympic National Forest, Glendalough, Ireland etc.) They captured some of these intimate performances on film and started a web series called Forest Folk Sessions. They’ve since gone on to host these performances in 5 states and 3 countries! 

“There’s just something special about the setting and the intimacy of the performances. You’re ten feet away from the audience. You can have real face to face conversations with fans, and you both walk away having shared this entirely unique musical experience, said Nelson.”