Hi everyone, my name is Brian Calcara.  I am originally from Cedar   Rapids , IA.  For those of you that don’t know where Iowa is, it is below Minnesota and above Missouri .  It’s to the right of Kansas and to the left of Illinois .  I had a pretty cool childhood growing up, I spent most of my time playing wiffle ball in the summer and sledding in the winter.  I remember on rainy days we would play ball in our basement which was painted  like the Royals stadium.  I’m not kidding, my parents knew this guy who painted our basement to look identical to the Kansas City Royals stadium.  You see, my parents both grew up in K.C. so the liking for the teams sort of rubbed off on me.     

      When I wasn’t playing real sports I would play rec-games like ping-pong.  I love ping-pong more than about anything.  I remember one year for Christmas we got a ping-pong table and that’s all I did most of the year.  When I made it to high school my love for sports fell by the way side.  I started to get into music.  My dad said, “I will buy you guitars as long as you always use them for God’s glory.”  My brothers and  I agreed.  My dad took us to the music store.  My brother picked out a guitar and I picked out a guitar, or what I thought was a guitar, was really a bass.  That’s right, I didn’t know the difference between a guitar and a bass at the time.  So, that’s how I started playing bass.  My brothers and I formed a band called Ramshackle.  I know that name is kind of funny.  We couldn’t think of anything else so Ramshackle became our name by default.   

      When I finished high school, I decided to go to college so that we could keep Ramshackle together.  My older brothers T.J., Adam, and my friend Ryan who was our drummer, all went to college at the  University  of Northern Iowa so I followed.  After about two years of college Ramshackle decided to call it quits.  College became enough worry of its own without the band.  So we all went our separate ways.  I was at a loss of what to do with my life at that point.  I was a general studies major in college, and I had always dreamed of going on the road and playing music, but my luck seemed to have run out.  Ramshackle was no more.     

      I started to pray for direction.  I remembered in the past that if I asked God for guidance he would always give it to me.  I prayed almost  everyday that God would show me what he wanted for me.  I think at that point I became content.  I realized that I had to be content with what God had given me, which was 61 credits as a general studies major, an awesome girlfriend, Sarah, who would later become my wife, and a job as a barista at Starbucks, training began Tuesday.     

      Then, on a Monday afternoon, I got a phone call from a friend from church.  My friend Walt informed me that some friends of his in Stellar Kart needed a bass player.  Stellar Kart’s bass player had just quit the band and they needed someone to come out with them on their first national tour.  My friend Ryan (drummer in Ramshackle) said he would help me make an audition tape.  I  bought the Stellar Kart CD “All Gas, No Brake” and practiced.  I practiced all afternoon so that I could record the audition tape that night.  My audition tape turned out to be awful.  I played mostly the wrong notes.  I was pretty rusty because I had set my bass down for the past couple of months.  But, I sent it to Stellar Kart anyway, that same night.  I knew that if it was what God wanted he would make it work.   

      The next day my friends Adam, Cody and Jordan called and invited me to play bass with them.  I dropped all my college classes, quit Starbucks before I started, and said “goodbye” to my girlfriend Sarah.  I was flying to  Phoenix .   

      So that’s how I became the bass player of Stellar Kart.  I’ve been with the band for three years now and I really enjoy what I do.  I would like to thank you for reading and for supporting us.