From Door County Magazine
by Jon Gast

It’s obvious once you hear the new compact disc “Kaleidoscope” that it was appropriately named. Just as the popular eyescope blends colors into a variety of mesmerizing patterns, this new music CD blends the talents of some of Door County’s finest musicians. The project was the brainchild of Pete Thelen who, although he has healthy family roots on the Peninsula, needed to reconnect with its musical community. A supposed one-year jaunt to Arizona ended up stretching to a dozen, before Thelen returned to Baileys Harbor a few years ago. What Thelen found when he returned was a bit of old music blended with the new. “It took me three or four years to reacquaint myself,” he said. But he found a great partner in his project in Hans Christian, who serves as co-producer of the CD. “To me, and I’m sure other musicians, Hans has been a godsend,” Thelen said. “He built a fabulous recording studio.” Thelen admitted that the toughest part of putting this type of anthology work together is choosing who should be on it. “There are so many great musicians up here, where do you start?” he said. “There easily could have been 100 people on this thing. Hopefully, this will be the first of many (CDs).” The first installment of “Kaleidoscope” is packed with familiar names on the Peninsula’s musical scene. Kim Waters, Jeanne Kuhns, Mark Raddatz, Jay Whitney, Lucy Hagen, Julian Hagen, Don Thompson, Chris Alley, Thelen and Christian are all featured. But that accounts for just 10 of the 11 tunes on the CD. Thelen also reserved a spot for the late Fred Alley. The musicians weren’t exactly sure what Thelen wanted and, frankly, neither did Thelen. “All I said was ‘Just bring something — a song maybe you haven’t recorded before but would like to.’” Thelen said that brought up a logical question from Christian: Is there going to be a common thread to tie all this together? Thelen’s response: “Let’s just see what they bring.” “I think it’s worked out pretty well,” he said.
The CD is available on a couple of Web sites: www.cdbaby.com and Thelen’s own site www.blues-today.com. It’s also for sale at shops throughout the county. “Every nook and cranny that was willing to take it,” Thelen said.