“Thistle’s voice is provocative and powerful. With raspy realism, her lyrics paint a picture of life on the road (via bicycle), rage about the killing of the earth and a commitment to fight back.”

–Earth First! Journal

“Movement music, the kind that moves your heart to hidden feelings and new hopes.”

Hi! Thank you for visiting my site. I am a folk singer, gardener and bicycle enthusiast living in Madison, Wisconsin. My birth name is Kristine Pettersen but I like to be called “Thistle.”  I recently lived on a collective farm that grew its own corn, beans and squash that we ate throughout the year.The situation is dire, however, and the tenants have been forced to leave the two farm houses with the future of the gardens very uncertain. Drumlin Community Garden is part of a growing urban agricultural movement that plants seeds of food sovereignty, cooperation and cultural harmony in cities across the world. Unfortunately, the gardens are owned by the Alexander Company, a national development company headquartered in Madison. They are trying to get the City of Fitchburg and the public to go along with their plans for commercial development right on top of the gardens. Our dream is to grow all of the food we eat with  friends, family and comrades so that we become linked again to our source of life.

I try to live outside of the capitalist economic system as much as possible and have spent months traveling by bicycle, depending on the kindness of strangers, and doing good works in exchange for food and shelter. A return to simpler ways of relating and existing as a creature on the earth is a high priority of mine. On this web site, there is a group mission statement for the Cycles of Uprising Tour I did the Fall of 2006 and information about bike riding and organizing in northern California in the section labeled “redwood ride” above.  I  helped  organize a group bike ride to St.Paul with the Neverwood collective for the 2008 Republican National Convention. I also worked with the Elements Collective to organize another mobile bicycle village to Detroit for the US Social Forum and with the Grassroutes Caravan to organize the Soular Ride to Custer, WI and back. This year, the Grassroutes Caravan is planning a ride to Chicago in May of 2012 for the NATO/G8 protests. You can download any of mysongs up on the music page for free and  find my schedule of performances on the “shows” page.

A little more about me: I learned how to sing harmony from my Dad when I was growing up. I sang in choirs and musicals in high school and was in my college choir that toured Europe, California and Colorado.  I left Madison, Wisconsin in September of 2003 on my bicycle and rode south to New Orleans with my partner Douglas. We lived outside of a car for five months on our bicycles that Fall and Winter, re-wilding ourselves and getting in touch with Nature. Since then, I have biked and played down both coasts and from St. louis to New Orleans on the Cycles of Uprising tour. Biking influences the sound of my music. The steady rhythm of the wheels beneath me as I ride clears my mind of anxiety and the songs just come (except for when a car or truck gets too close for comfort).