The End

When I started this blog, almost three years ago, the purpose was to chronicle the musical journey of our band. As you can see, I've kind of fallen down on the job this year. The band has stayed busy with gigs and rehearsals, but I just haven't had the time to chronicle everything that's been going on.

With that said, this will be the last blog post from me. The journey is completed, as Sand Dollar Rodeo is going on indefinite hiatus. I felt that I owed you, the fans, an explaination and some closure. I always hated it when a band would just seem to disappear without any explaination. I don't know about you, but it always left me thinking, "Whatever happened to those guys?"

First off, their was no implosion. We did not all get into a big fist fight or anything like that, lol. We don't hate each other and no one is mad at anybody. Things have just run their course. It happens. It's not one particular thing or anyone's fault. It's usually a combination of things, which is the case here.

A lot of things have changed in life. My two youngest kids are getting older and demanding a lot more of my time. They deserve that time, and I want and need to give them that time. They are only going to be at this stage for a very short time, so I want to be there for them.

A lot of work went on, behind the scenes, to keep Sand Dollar Rodeo going. Now, please don't think that means that I was doing all of the work, because that was not the case at all. When we were starting out, my kids were young and didn't require as much hands on attention. I was able to get a lot of band business done in the early evening hours, after work at the day job. The kids are older now. They are involved in sports and seem to have homework every night. When you cram all of that in, plus dinner/cleanup, getting ready for the next day, etc.., it doesn't really leave any time. I'm not griping about it either. I'm glad that I am able to do this. It wouldn't be fair to throw it all on my wife.

So as the kids have gotten older, they also go to bed later. My only time to work on band business now is usually after 9:30pm. Many nights I would be up past midnight trying to book shows, respond to emails and handle any other band business that needed to be tended to. It began to really take it's toll on me.

I have to admit that I've changed too. I know to make a name for yourself in the Texas Music Scene, you need to be out there. A lot of the bands, in this particular scene, will play 150 shows or more per year. When we started out, I really thought that would be cool. I had the full approval of my wife to do this, as well. Cool, right?

As time went on though, we were never really accepted within the Texas Music circle. I guess we were too weird, lol! Also, as time went on, I realized that I didn't want that lifestyle, at this time. That's a lot of time away from family. That would mean being gone, practically every weekend. Missing the kids sports games, and all sorts of other activities.

I know music will always be a part of my life. I have no idea what I'm going to do in the future. I guess if I had my ideal situation, it would be to play out locally a few times a month, for fun. Maybe find a cover band and play to a packed house? I also love to write and create, but I think going forward, writing will be just that. Writing and recording as a creative outlet and not worrying about the financial side of it. Not worry about "how big is your following?" or "how many people can you bring?" I can't tell you how many times I've heard those phrases from various venues. In other words, no live gigging or touring with original music. At my age and stage of life, it's too big of a hassle for too little reward. I don't know, these are my thoughts at this time, it could always change, so I'll never rule anything out. In 10 years, when my kids are grown and gone, my wife may say, "Go tour! I need a break!" Ha ha!

That's really my side of things. For everyone else's opinion, I guess you would need to ask Roy, Trey, John and Jim. I know Trey will be staying busy. He plays with several other groups. He and Roy are also working on a lounge act, so stay tuned to see where that takes off to. Jim and John also play in a very successful cover band called Blue Hat, so I'm sure that they will keep busy with that.

Roy mentioned to me that he wants to build his songwriting catalog and work on that end vs. being in a band and playing live all the time. I'm sure he will have some new music out there in the near future. I also told Roy that I would volunteer my services, if he needs guitar tracks recorded for any of his songs. He has a website up and running for his solo stuff here www.royholiday.com be sure and check it out for the latest updates, news, etc..

I have no doubt that Roy and I will collaborate together, some time down the line. In what capacity, that remains to be seen. He offered to help me out on any solo songs that I come up with and I really appreciate that. I would also work with Trey, John and Jim again, in a hearbeat, should the opportunity ever present itself. They are all great players and I look forward to seeing what the future holds for them.

I have no regrets about my time with SDR. The last three years have been an amazing journey and I'm proud of our accomplishments. Hindsight being 20/20, would I do it again? Heck yeah, in a heartbeat! I made some great friends out of the deal and that alone was worth the price of admission!

At this time, I would like to thank several people who helped us out along this journey. I would like to thank our former band members, Danny "Cisco" Cortez, Brian Barton, Tony Vega, Josh Drewes and Ken Woods. You guys are all great players. I miss you guys and hope your doing well. To our current band members, Jim McKinney, John "Hotch" Hotchkiss, and Trey Pope, thank you guys for all of your hard work. It was an honor to share the stage with each of these fine musicians.

I would also like to thank a very special gal that fought tooth and nail for us, from the very beginning. Her name is Marti Ludwig. She booked a lot of shows for us and really helped get our name out there. She always went to bat for us and I consider her a good friend as well! She tried to make sure that every venue in DFW and beyond knew who SDR was. Thanks Marti!

Lastly, I would like to thank you, the fans. For without you, their wouldn't have been an SDR. Thank you for coming to the shows, buying the CD's, t-shirts and koozies. Thank you for liking and sharing our Facebook posts and for a million other things that I am sure I'm leaving out.

Our final "farewell" show will be this Saturday, September 19th at Central Market-Hulen, in Fort Worth. Showtime is at 5:30pm. Yes, it's an early one, but it's Saturday night. You will have time to come see us and still make it to bed at a decent time, or if your a night owl, you will still have time to hit the bars, if that's your fancy. We play until 9pm. If you haven't seen a show at Central Market, then you should come out. They serve plenty of great food and their are plenty of beverages, both of the alcoholic and non-alcoholic variety. Their is even a playground for the kids!

We would love to see you all come out! It's going to be a party! No funeral dirge for us. Expect a high energy SDR show!

Well, I guess that wraps things up. Thank you for reading the blog. I hope you've enjoyed reading my ramblings over the last few years. I've really enjoyed writing the posts. I wish that I would have had more time to post regularly in 2015, but it is what it is. To steal a couple of quotes, "for everyone who's been a part of this one" thank you and "we'll see ya down the road!"

A Double Dip Saturday

How goes it? I hope your all doing well! We are finally drying out here in Texas. In case you weren't aware, we had record rainfalls, during the month of May. While the rainfall was welcome and we needed it, it also caused widespread flooding in many areas of the state. Many areas have had a lot of damage, as a result.

One of the areas affected by the flooding is a place called Wimberly, Texas. Wimberly is located in Central Texas (close to Austin). It sits near the Blanco River. With all of the rain, the Blanco River flooded and caused widespread damage to the Wimberly area. Many of these folks lost everything.

Our friend Rocky Lott, of the Rocky Lott Band decided to do something about this, by organized a supply roundup and benefit concert to help the folks in Wimberly and the surrounding areas. They will be selling t-shirts and collecting necessary supplies for the relief effort. Needed items are sunscreen, bottled water, non-perishable food items, childrens clothing, blankets, new pillows and of course monetary donations.

The benefit will take place this Saturday, June 6th at Grease Monkey Burgers in Arlington. The street address is 200 N. Mesquite Street. Roy and I will be doing an acoustic song swap with Tommy Dussault from 1-2pm. You can check out Tommy here https://m.facebook.com/tommydussaultmusic and here https://www.reverbnation.com/tommydussault

Here is the rest of the performance schedule:

2:20-3:20pm-James Lann, Mark Allen Atwood, Rocky Lott

3:40-4:40-Tom Fleischer, James Gilliland, James Kaul

5-6 (maybe til 6:30) Rocky Lott with Marc Holtsclaw and special guest Doc Wesson

A big thank you is in order for Rocky Lott for putting this together. Roy and I are honored to be a part of this. Do yourself a favor and check out the Rocky Lott Band here www.rockylott.com He has some of his awesome music here, that you can listen to, as well as all sorts of other cool stuff. The weather should be great so c'mon out if you can. Any donations, support, etc.. would be greatly appreciated as well.

After that, we are not done. Roy and I will then travel over to Fort Worth, to catch up with the rest of the band, for a full band show over at Central Market-Hulen on Saturday evening. If you've never been to Central Market, you should come check it out. They have a great outdoor beer garden, plenty of great food, and to top it all off, a great playground area for the kids. You can turn them loose to do their thing and you can do yours. This is an early start time, as we start at 5:30pm.

Lena Pope owns the land that Central Market is on. They end up having a lot of weddings there through the spring and summer months. Their is a wedding scheduled at the Chapel for Saturday at 6:30pm. During this time, no music is allowed. This would be a perfect opportunity to go check out the store. If you've never been in a Central Market, then you are in for a treat. This is not your everyday ordinary grocery store. It's hard to explain, you'll just have to come and see it for yourself.

Once we get the word that it's ok to continue, we will resume the show. We will be their until 9pm. Central Market is located at 4651 W. Freeway #100, Fort Worth, Texas 76107. If your in the area, stop on by! We would love to see you!

Ok, that's about all I have for now, thanks for reading and I'll talk to ya later!

Mayfest And Some Other Stuff

Hey there! Long time, no talk! Before we begin, let me just say that I am lame! There, I said it. I've actually gotten totally off track, with the blog posts. It was nothing intentional. Life has just been busy and my ADD brain hasn't been able to keep up. The band has been staying busy, behind the scenes, with lots of rehearsals.

Honestly, I can't remember if I mentioned it or not (man! I'm lame), but we have a new drummer and a new bass player. Our new drummer is John "Hotch" Hotchkiss. He hails from the U.K. and has lived in the U.S. for the last 10 years. John has that great British accent that just screams rocker! John is an awesome drummer and really brings a unique vibe to our sound.

Next up is Jim McKinney, who is our new bass player. Jim not only plays bass but also plays saxophone. I would definitely like to explore that option in the future. Jim is a great bass player, who has really added to our sound. I'm really looking forward to working with him more and seeing what he brings to the table.

Trey Pope is still manning the keys for us and I am really thankful for that. For those of you that have seen us live with Trey, then you know what he brings to the table, and if you haven't, then come see what all the fuss is about. Trey is an amazing pianist.

As I said earlier, the band has been busy. Mainly rehearsals, to get Jim and John up to speed. This is no knock on their musicianship though. It just takes time to learn 30 something odd songs, especially with half of them being originals. They've both done an outstanding job however, and I fell like our line up is as strong as its ever been. We just finished up another great rehearsal tonight.

I meant to get a blog post up last week, but again, time got the best of me. I decided not to let that happen again this week, so here I am typing, into the night.

We kicked off our spring show schedule, with the new group, last weekend at Earth Day Texoma in Sherman, Texas. This was interesting show to say the least. As far as the band goes, I thought we sounded fine, especially for our first gig together. It was a very low key/low stress environment, which was exactly what we needed. Now, for the interesting part. This was obviously an Earth Day festival. They were having workshops and all sorts of "earth day" things going on.

Jan, the lady that booked us, was really nice and seemed to really like our music, but volume seemed to become a quickly evolving issue. I noticed that the group before us was acoustic based. We were on a big outdoor stage with full PA, but we were the only full electric band that they had booked to my knowledge. A little ways into our set, Roy and I were setting up the next song with some stage banter. I'm pretty sure the song was either "Carry Me Home" or "Island Holiday" because I announced over my mic, "Ok, let's go to the beach!" About that time, I see Jan running up to the front of the stage. She motioned me to Roy and I and said, "that's great, but can we bring the beach down?" She went on to explain that they were trying to have some kind of Earth Day presentation, all the way across the other end of the festival and that we were drowning out the presentation. She also advised that one of the acoustic groups, that were playing inside one of the buildings was also being drowned out by us. I tried to explain to her that we have no say over the volume as it's being controlled by the sound engineer. She advised that she had already talked to him and he advised that he had the PA just about as low as it would go, without turning it off. I told her we would try and turn down the amps a little. They had asked us to try and keep the volume down, before we even started. With that said, I set my amps volume at about 2.5. Keep in mind, this is not a 100 watt Marshall stack. It's a 22 watt Deluxe Reverb. When we practice at John's, I'm louder then that! The sound guy was micing everything anyway, so I wasn't worried about having my amp cranked.

So, she asked if we could turn down a little and apologized for having to ask us to do that. I obliged and turned down to 2. I could barely hear myself at this point. Keep in mind that this was a big outdoor stage.

Later on in the set, Jan had to make some festival announcements, which were handled on the main stage where we were playing. All of the other acts had a 45 minute set, but she gave us a 90 minute slot. We were quote/unquote the headliner, so to speak. They had announcements scheduled for every 45 minutes or so. The announcements were designed to take place in between the bands sets. Since ours was 90 minutes, Jan needed to make an announcement in the middle of our set. When she came up, she told us off mic, "Boy, I'm gonna be in trouble after this." The good thing though, was that she was laughing about it. We had a good crowd listening to us. They all seemed to really be enjoying the music. Hey, we weren't driving people away! I just think that the Earth Day booths and presenters were a little aggravated that we had kind of commandeered the festival for awhile. Jan went on to explain that she wants us back, but that she wants us back for their concert series, that they put on in the park. All in all, we made it through the set, Jan was happy, and that's all I was concerned with. You can also read Roy's blog on the show over here www.royholliday.com/category/blog He details every Sand Dollar Rodeo show here.

The only other time I can ever remember having that many discussions about volume was way back in high school. My buddies Robby and Sol, of the current band KYSER, probably remember this too. We were playing a dance for Robby's school and the chaperon moms were not too impressed  with our style of rock. Another buddy of ours, Eric Sanchez, was running our sound and taping the performance. I'll never forget it, as one of the moms came over to Eric and said, "Turn it down!" You can hear it plain as day on the tape. Eric questioned back, "Turn it down?" She said, "Yes! Yall are so loud we can't even hear ourselves talk." We've all laughed and talked about that incident a lot over the years. Sol even took it upon himself to draw a comic strip of the event. Let's just say it was not a very family friendly comic strip.

In all seriousness though, I want to thank Jan and the city of Sherman for having us out. We are looking forward to coming back for a night show.

We will be keeping the party moving along this week, as its time for Mayfest! We won't be worrying about any volume issues here as they pretty much crank you up and let you rip! We will be playing on the Riverbank Stage on Saturday, May 2 from 12:30-1:30pm. Their are plenty of activities, rides, food and drinks for both the kids and adults. Hey, its a fest. What else would you expect, right?

We have some other musician friends that will be performing as well. I would like to give you the dates and times of their sets.

On Friday, May 1st our own John Hotchkiss and Jim McKinney will be playing with the Blue Hat Bans on the Main Stage. Their set is from 4:30-6pm. They play a wide range of popular covers that are sure to get you dancing!

After our set on Saturday, be sure and stay around to check out my aforementioned buddies Robby Kyser and Sol Kanthack. They will be playing with KYSER on the Main Stage from 3:15-4:30pm. KYSER is an original music band. They describe their sound as "simple chord progressions with a ton of texured layers. KYSER has hauntingly melodic lead vocals mixed with rich piano and tight harmonies with throwing in a solid rock rhythm section. Something old and something new." Be sure and check them out, you won't be disappointed!

Moving along to Sunday, our good friends August & J will be performing on the Main Stage from 2:15-3:30pm. Mike Roberts and Jay Patterson, who are also high school friends of mine, are a part of this band. They are also an original band and describe their music as "rock songs with a southern pop sensibility, with influences ranging from Bon Jovi to Train to Wilco. We have played several shows with these guys and they are great. If your at Mayfest on Sunday, do yourself a favor and check these guys out!

For all other information regarding Mayfest, be sure and check out their official website at http://www.mayfest.org Complete event schedules, parking, pricing, etc.. are available on there.

Ok, well that's all I have for now. Next week is Railhead week, so I'll give you the goods on that one next time. Y'all stay safe and I hope to see you out at Mayfest!