Photo: Ken Hanson
Michael De Boer
Michael De Boer
Multi-instrumentalist Michael De Boer is being remembered for his music skills as well as his selflessness and generosity as a bandmate and fisherman. De Boer died recently after biking to see friends perform at Chill on the Hill.
“One thing I’ve learned from working through major challenges in the past is that a shifting terrain will uncover new opportunities,” De Boer wrote in an online article geared toward marketing that could also be applied to his music.
Photo: Ken Hanson
Michael De Boer
Michael De Boer
Best known for his lyrical and atmospheric guitar and lap steel playing in bands Longacre and Panalure, he also was involved with groups Mali Blues and Painted Caves.
De Boer’s tone made an immediate impact on Damian Strigens who drummed with Longacre. “He came over to a rehearsal in my basement and when he plugged his lap steel in and started to play the sound that came out was like hot honey. He was an incredibly kind and generous soul. Always exploring new music and always eager to share. I have so many discs with his Sharpie pen scrawled on them.,” Strigens recalls. Strigens recently dedicated a recent radio program to his fallen bandmate. Listen to it here: wmse.org/program/the-truth-about-de-evolution.
His longtime partner Kat Behling recalls an adventuresome person who was a wonderful travel partner, also kind and generous in dealing with fellow musicians. He always made time to meet someone for coffee.
Listening to Panalure’s “Blues Away,” she recently found herself picking out all the different layers De Boer added to the song. “He wasn’t a flashy showman. He was understated. Most of the time he was so engrossed in his playing (onstage), then he’d suddenly look at Fred (Ziegler) or Susan (Nicholson) and they’d share a smile. He lived for music.”
Behing recalls an old friend who described De Boer as “a collector of people. ‘He had a small circle of friends, but he knew so many people across so many different areas of life.’” She said he tried to keep in touch with them and also served as mentor, including work with Express Yourself Milwaukee (ExYoMKE) the organization that helps at-risk students create art.
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Local luthier Denny Rauen had recently finished a custom guitar for his fishing buddy. Rauen and De Boer hosted an annual salmon feast. They’d also give salmon to others in need of food.
Photo by Nick Collura
Longacre performing in 2010 at the Discovery World Amphitheater in front of the Denis Sullivan ship.
In Memorial
The duo’s planned upcoming acoustic show will now be a memorial for De Boer. According to Rauen, De Boer is survived by his ex-wife, a son, daughter and granddaughter.
Jason Klagstad will be deputized to play De Boer’s guitar parts at a Musical Celebration of Life for Michael De Boer at Riverwest Pizza on Aug. 11, 6 p.m. facebook.com/events/1321925165103404
“We both were lifelong guitarists/musicians and career agency ‘graduates' who had a passion for emerging marketing technologies,” Klagstad recalled. “After we’d left our respective agencies in 2016, we constantly found ourselves attending the same marketing tech seminars. Once conversations started, it became apparent that not only did we share the exact same interests in two areas, we also could put our interests to work. That’s how Harvest Strat was formed.”
Klagstad (who also played with Panalure) and De Boer formed Harvest Strat (short for strategic data harvesting), a big data agency that used data to predict what an individual’s needs would be and serve them content that filled those needs. The agency also worked with Appleton’s Mile of Music in getting sponsors.
