Michael Perry sees the quirky side of living in farm country. Not too surprising when you learn that he worked summers on Wyoming cattle ranches to pay for his nursing school education.  That, and his advice that you never stand behind a sneezing cow. 

Author of the bestselling books Population 485: Meeting Your Neighbors Once Siren at a Time, Truck: A Love Story, and Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs and Parenting, Perry has also written for Esquire, The New York Times Magazine and other national publications.

Perry draws on his childhood on a small Wisconsin dairy farm to create his songs, and he performs regularly with his band the Long Beds. You may have heard him host Tent Radio Show  from Big Top Chautauqua, in Bayfield, WI on the shore of Lake Superior. If you haven't, make a point of tuning in or attending one of his many upcoming performances across the Midwest and around the country. 

Chatting with a guy whose seen so much, tried lots of different things, and whose books are so darn funny could have been intimidating if it weren't for the fact that he's approachable and so appreciative of the gifts he's been given. Whether in Panama, New York City, or back home in rural central Wisconsin, it seems Perry looks for, and finds, common values and the funny bone in the people he meets. 

I think you'll enjoy this brief encounter with Michael Perry.