Rodeo Radio Event And Other Stuff..

Greetings and salutations to all! I hope your having a good week! I know, I am. Yes, it's been another busy week on the SDR front, so let's get right to, the latest news.

We will be performing live, this Saturday, December 15th at 8pm CST. This is for a private Christmas party, in McKinney, Texas. The good new is, though, that you can join in on the fun, too! That's right! We will be broadcasting, live from the Christmas party! You can access the performance, by going to our website, www.sanddollarrodeo.com and clicking on the "SDR" logo at the top of the page. Just to clarify though, this will be an audio, only, feed. We do not have the capabilities, at present time, for a video cast. We are really excited, as this will be our first live performance, since the Angels In Tropical Shirts benefit, back on September 22, of this year. We will be debuting, quite a bit of new material. We may also throw in a Christmas song or two, so be sure and log on. It should be a great time!

In other news, we have received three nominations, from the internet radio site, Beach Front Radio. Two of our songs, GPS To Nowhere and Carry Me Home, have been nominated for song of the year. SDR, has also been nominated for band of the year. We are very excited and humbled by the nominations. If you get a chance, could you please stop by Beach Front Radio's website located here www.beachfrontradio.com and vote for your favorite SDR song, out of the two listed above. Feel free to go ahead and vote us, band of the year, also, if you feel we are deserving.

Marti has been busy, as well. She has booked several new shows for us. We were originally scheduled to play Boozer's, in Weatherford, on February 15. That show was cancelled, due to the club closing. Instead, we will be playing at the Oui Lounge on February 15 at 9pm. The Oui is located at 3509 Bluebonnet Circle, Ft. Worth, Texas. For more information on the Oui Lounge, please feel free to check out their Facebook page.

The next night, February 16th, we will be heading south to Glen Rose, Texas, for a show at Hollywood and Vine. SDR will take the stage at 7pm. For more information on Hollywood and Vine, check out their website www.hollywoodandvinerestaurant.com Looks like some good food!

 

On Saturday, March 2, SDR will make it's first appearance in Dallas, at the Across the Street Bar. This is ironically enough, across the street from the campus of Southern Methodist University (SMU), hence it's name. You can check out their website here www.acrossthestreetbar.com  Joining us, on this night, will be August & J. I went to school with both of these guys, and they are awesome! Both musically, and personally. They are currently promoting their latest album, entitled "40".  You can check them out at their official website located here www.augustandj.com While your at it, please check out the new music video, for their latest single, entitled, "For Once" I have embeded it, at the bottom of this blog post. This video is picking up a lot of steam, and is at almost 3,000,000 views, as of this blog posting. We are really looking forward to this show. So, if your in Dallas, that night, c'mon by. The show starts at 9:30pm.

We will be at Woody Creek BBQ on Friday, March 8, at 7pm. This is the Ft. Worth location, next to Ridgmar Mall, located at 6986 Green Oaks Road. I just wanted to clarify this, as they also have a location out in Springtown, Texas. For more information on Woody Creek, you can visit them here www.woodycreekbbq.com They have some great barbeque, so come on out and join us, for dinner and a cold drink.

On Saturday, March 23, we will be back at Hollywood and Vine, in Glen Rose, at 7pm. Glen Rose is a really neat, little town. They have Dinosaur Valley State Park, which is really cool. For more information, check them out here http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/state-parks/dinosaur-valley They also have Fossil Rim Wildlife Center. This place is really neat. You can drive through the park, and various animals, and critters will come right up to your car! It is really something you should experience, at least once. If you have kids, they will love it! Heck, I love it, but I'm a kid at heart. For more information on Fossil Rim, please check out their website here www.fossilrim.org We plan on hitting both of these places, on one of our trips down to Glen Rose. So bring the family out, make a day out of it, and then relax, with some food and music, afterwords.

Well, that's all I have for this week. Thanks for reading, and for your continued support! Talk to ya soon!

 

 

Another Busy Week

Well, just as the title suggests, it was another busy week on the SDR front. Roy and I spent the last week, working on the new album. The album is coming together, very nicely. We made a couple of decisions on the album, that brings it more into focus, and gives us a gameplan on finishing it. First, we decided on a title. We kicked around several ideas including, just calling it Sand Dollar Rodeo, but eventually decided on, GPS To Nowhere. It's named after one of our songs, that has the same name. We think it describes us perfectly, as we have no idea where this journey will eventually take us.

We also made a decision about a song, that was on the bubble. It's a song called What Happens Now. We always planned on playing it at the live shows, but were unsure on whether to include it on the album or not. You see, it's sort of a Christmas song, but it has a message, that can be applied year round. We want to promote this message throughout the year, not just at Christmas, so we decided to include it on the album. You will probably also hear this song at most, if not all, of our live shows, as well.

We have decided to include at least 12 tracks on the album, but more then likely, it will end up being 13 tracks. Right now, we have 11 slots filled. In addition, we have one acoustic instrumental piece, where the lyrics are still being written. This song is slated to be included on the album. Roy and I, also have a couple of other songs that we are working on. I have some lyrics and a basic melody, for a possible song, and Roy is working on another song idea, that is basically at the same stage as the one I'm working on. We will see how things go with these, and make a decision shortly.

As of right now, 7 of the tracks are basically done. We still have some tweaks to do here and there, but the hard part is done. The music is basically done, for two other songs. We just need to record the vocals for these two. We have two other songs, where the backing tracks are done. I still need to record the guitar tracks for these, and Roy needs to add the vocals. The aforementioned acoustic track, still needs the lyrics finished, and the other instruments added. Recording has not even begun ,on this one, yet.

To say we are excited about the album, would be an understatement! We can't wait to get it done, and in to your hands!

On the live show front, their have been a couple of changes. First, our show scheduled for Saturday, January 5, 2013, at Wet Willie's is still on. The club has changed names and owners, though. The new name of the club is called The Dirt Road Dance Hall.

I noticed this, as I was driving home, on Sunday afternoon. This club sits right off of Interstate 20, at the west outskirts of Fort Worth. Anytime, I drive into Fort Worth, I pass right by it. I really didn't think anything about it at the time, though later on, at home, it finally hit me, like a ton of bricks! New owners, new management, do we still have a show there? I went into panic mode, and told my wife, that I was going to go down there and see what was going on. Ever the penny pincher, she said, "Why don't you just call down there, before wasting gas?" I said, "I doubt anyone is down there on a Sunday afternoon." She said, "Well, I'm going to find out, before you waste your time, driving down there." She proceeded to call the club, and actually reached someone. She asked them about the name change, and was about to let them go, when I held up my hands, and whispered, "Wait! I need to know the status of our show!" She told the guy, "Hold on a minute, my husband wants to talk to you." She then handed me the phone, without any warning. I talked to the guy and explained my reason for calling. He said that I needed to talk to the person, who books the shows. I was transferred to him, explained who I was, and the situation. He proceeded to tell me, that Marti had called him, and cancelled the show! I knew this had to be a mistake, so I quickly found my phone, and called Marti, while having the other guy on my wife's phone. I quickly explained everything, as fast as I could, and asked her if she had cancelled the show. She said, "No!!", and continued on, "I have been over this, with them, a thousand times!" I won't repeat everything else that was said, on here, but let's just say that Marti, was a little aggravated.

The next few minutes were total chaos, on my end. I had a phone in each ear, and pen and paper, in hand. Marti was talking in one ear, and the booking agent, for the club, was talking in the other. After several minutes, he confirmed that he still had us on the books, and was looking forward to seeing us. Marti and I, breathed a sigh of relief. She said she was still going to send a follow up email, to confirm everything. The next morning, she sent a confirmation email, advising that everything was still on. Whew! What a crazy Sunday, that turned out to be!

We've also had a change, with our February 15, 2013 booking, at Boozer's, in Weatherford. Marti received a call from them, advising that they had sold the location. They have another location in Granbury. We are not sure, if they sold both locations or not. The booking agent at Boozer's, told Marti that they were trying to book as many shows, as possible, at the Granbury location. As of now, we are not sure if we will be playing in Granbury, or not. We will update our website www.sanddollarrodeo.com , as soon as we have more information.

Marti, has also reached out to some big names, in the Texas music industry, about us possibly being an opening act, for some of them. No word yet, on anything, but we are very excited about the possibilities.

That's all I have for now. Talk to ya next week, possibly, probably, or for sure!