Did someone say craft beer? Well, count me in! If you've been following the blog, then you know that Roy and I are big supporters of the craft beer movement. We have played at several brewery tours, and have had a blast at each one. Most of these breweries tend to start off in someone's garage or basement, so to speak. We've seen and heard, first hand, about the work and dedication, that these people put in. They kind of march to their own beat (kind of like us), and really just want people to appreciate a good beer. We can really relate to these folks and like to support them, in any way that we can.
This Saturday, we will be playing at a brand new craft brewery located in Krum, Texas. For those of you unfamiliar with Krum, it's right next to Denton. Denton, of course, is home to a bustling music scene, and is also home to the University of North Texas and Texas Woman's University. It's a big college town.
The name of the brewery is Independent Ale Works. I received a call several weeks ago, from one of the owners, asking if we would be interested in playing their grand opening. He didn't have to twist my arm very hard, ha ha! This is going to be a little bigger than the usual 3 hour tour, that most breweries do. This one will be going on all day, so it will be more like a festival.
They plan on opening the doors at noon, and going until 8 or 9pm. One thing about breweries, it's a pretty laid back atmosphere, as far as time goes. From my understanding, their will be several food trucks, and at least 3 bands/musicians. Also at these events, their are usually several artists, some other vendors selling specialty items, and usually a food vendor selling homemade BBQ sauce, or something along those lines. Like I said, it's kind of a festival atmosphere.
As far as I know, we will be kicking off the music portion. We are scheduled to start at 3pm, but we may start a little earlier, if we are ready to go. We will see how the mood is, and go from there. I have heard that their may be a band before us, but I'm not sure about that, as of this moment. I do know that their will be two acts after us.
Our good buddy, Eric Wagner, will be taking the stage after us. Eric has a lot of great music, and you can check him out here www.reverbnation.com/ericwagner I'm hoping he shows up early and maybe we can persuade him to sit in on harmonica, with us, for a song or two.
Rock band Prostinaut will be closing things out, on Saturday night. These guys rock! Check em' out here www.reverbnation.com/prostinaut
All in all, it should be a great day. If your going to be in the Denton area on Saturday, you should come check it out. Heck, even if your not, I'm thinking a little road trip will be well worth it!
Independent Ale Works is located at 11555 US Hwy 380 West, Suite 208, Krum, Texas. It's about 4 miles, to the west of I-35. So, come on out and support this brand new craft brewery.
Ok, we plan to throw in a new song for this show, so I better get off of the computer, go pick up the guitar, and make sure I can play it. Damn Strait! Talk to ya soon!
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Campfire Jam
Howdy partner! Well, this week is a little different. On a typical week, Monday's and Tuesday's are usually kind of slow around the SDR fold. We've usually had a show or two over the weekend, and will spend Monday and Tuesday kind of recovering from the weekend. Usually, I will start thinking about a blog post on Wednesday, and will usually get it published, late on Thursday night. Then, most of the time, it's time to start gearing up for the weekend show schedule.
This week is anything but ordinary, as we will be playing a show tomorrow night. The show will also be very different, as it is an acoustic show, and not a full band show. If you've listened to our music, then you know it has a lot of electric guitar and a lot of keyboards. It's not really acoustic based music, lol. Roy and I will be doing this one without Brian and Tony. We met this past weekend to go through the songs on the album, and see which ones would work acoustically, and which ones wouldn't. I was worried that none of them would work out acoustically, ha ha! Fortunately, most of them did work. We recorded mp3's of the acoustic arrangements, for practice, and when I went back and listened, I was pleasantly surprised. It was kind of neat to hear the songs stripped down to the bare bone. I'm actually, really looking forward to tomorrow night.
I've mentioned this gig, a couple of times in passing, but hear it is for reals. We were invited, several months ago, to come and play at the Bigstar97.com Campfire Jam. Bigstar97 is a local DFW internet radio station. Here is the link to the station www.bigstar97.com go check it out! The Campfire Jam is a song swap with various artists every week. This week, we will be playing with The Usrey Brothers. They have some really cool music, and Roy and I are really looking forward to meeting them. They really are brothers too! You can get some more information on The Usrey Brothers, and listen to some of their tunes here www.reverbnation.com/theusreybrothers Go check em' out!
The party will be happening at MacGyvers Food and Spirits in Burleson, Texas. They are located at 4276 East FM 1187. Showtime will be at 7pm tomorrow night. So, if your in the Burleson area tomorrow, or even if your not, make plans to come by MacGyvers tomorrow night. You can come have some dinner, listen to some tunes, and still be home at a decent time! But, if you can't make it, then please be sure to tune in to Bigstar97, at the above web address, and you can listen to it all, live!
Okay, that's about all the time I have for now. Time to go stretch those new acoustic strings and toughen up my fingertips. I'll talk to you soon, and thank you for reading!
This week is anything but ordinary, as we will be playing a show tomorrow night. The show will also be very different, as it is an acoustic show, and not a full band show. If you've listened to our music, then you know it has a lot of electric guitar and a lot of keyboards. It's not really acoustic based music, lol. Roy and I will be doing this one without Brian and Tony. We met this past weekend to go through the songs on the album, and see which ones would work acoustically, and which ones wouldn't. I was worried that none of them would work out acoustically, ha ha! Fortunately, most of them did work. We recorded mp3's of the acoustic arrangements, for practice, and when I went back and listened, I was pleasantly surprised. It was kind of neat to hear the songs stripped down to the bare bone. I'm actually, really looking forward to tomorrow night.
I've mentioned this gig, a couple of times in passing, but hear it is for reals. We were invited, several months ago, to come and play at the Bigstar97.com Campfire Jam. Bigstar97 is a local DFW internet radio station. Here is the link to the station www.bigstar97.com go check it out! The Campfire Jam is a song swap with various artists every week. This week, we will be playing with The Usrey Brothers. They have some really cool music, and Roy and I are really looking forward to meeting them. They really are brothers too! You can get some more information on The Usrey Brothers, and listen to some of their tunes here www.reverbnation.com/theusreybrothers Go check em' out!
The party will be happening at MacGyvers Food and Spirits in Burleson, Texas. They are located at 4276 East FM 1187. Showtime will be at 7pm tomorrow night. So, if your in the Burleson area tomorrow, or even if your not, make plans to come by MacGyvers tomorrow night. You can come have some dinner, listen to some tunes, and still be home at a decent time! But, if you can't make it, then please be sure to tune in to Bigstar97, at the above web address, and you can listen to it all, live!
Okay, that's about all the time I have for now. Time to go stretch those new acoustic strings and toughen up my fingertips. I'll talk to you soon, and thank you for reading!
Thursday, January 9, 2014
Expanding The Band
Whew! Well, we made it through the Railhead gig last Saturday. I would be lying, if I told you that everything went perfectly. In all actuality, it was a very difficult show.
For me, things started off on the wrong foot, as soon as I woke up on Saturday morning. My wife informed me that her cellphone had fallen off the kitchen cabinet, at some point during the night. The screen was shattered. In the grand scheme of things, this was really not that big of a deal, but we do not have a home phone, so we needed to get the issue dealt with. We packed up the kids and headed to the AT&T store. They opened at 10am, we had a full day, so I wanted to get over there and get done.
We were not up for an upgrade, so it was going to be like $500 to replace my wife's phone. The AT&T lady referred us to a place that could repair the phone. It was actually just down the road, so that was good. We headed over there, showed them the phone, they said it would be $190 to repair the phone. I did try to negotiate the price down, but they wouldn't budge. We agreed to the repair price, and the lady said it would be ready by 4pm, that afternoon. We told them that we would not be able to get back over there, on Saturday. They were closed on Sunday, so we told them that we would pick it up on Monday.
To make a long story short, they ended up calling us about 30 minutes after we arrived home, and said the phone was ready. What the heck? If we would have known this, we would have just stayed in town. My wife wanted her phone, and decided to run back into town to pick it up.
I mentioned earlier, that in the grand scheme of thing, this was not that big of a deal. The reason I say this, is because we lost my aunt on New Year's Day, to cancer. Her funeral was also on Saturday. My wife wanted me to stay home, and try and have a little down time. The funeral was that afternoon, and then we were having a family get together after that. Not to mention, I also had a show that night.
Of course, she got stuck in traffic, on the way back to Fort Worth. She made it back home about 15 minutes before we needed to leave, to go to the funeral. We made it just in time. We had a family dinner, afterward. I stayed up until the last moment, ran home, changed clothes, loaded up my gear, and headed to Railhead. I felt very fortunate that this gig was basically in my backyard. Had it been out of town, or somewhere towards the Dallas side of the metroplex, I'm not sure what I would have done.
Anyway, by the time I made it to Railhead, I was pretty much frazzled. It had been a very long and emotionally draining day. For some reason though, the thought never crossed my mind that maybe we should cancel this show.
I wasn't the only one dealing with issues. Brian, our bass player, was sick as a dog. He showed up and looked really rough. He had not been feeling well at rehearsal either. I really appreciate him powering through it. Tony, of course being brand new, was taking every spare second that he had, to go out to his car and listen to the songs. He was studying all the way up until show time, and again during our break. I'm really amazed that he was able to step in and play the show with us.
Roy seemed really laid back about all the chaos. I imagine that deep down he was probably worried sick, but if he was, he never seemed to show it.
Our main issue, was going to be staying in time with the sequencers and click tracks. Unfortunately, this pretty much all falls on Tony. He is the drummer, so when your a musician, you naturally follow the tempo of your drummer.
Using a click and sequencers is really not all that uncommon. Usually it's done out of necessity or convenience. For example, with us, Roy can't sing, play acoustic guitar and keyboards, all at the same time. The keyboards are sequenced and set to a click track. So basically, our drummer is supposed to follow the keyboards. As long as we are all in tempo with this, everything will sound great, but if we get off by a half a beat or so, it can become a mess, really quickly. What happens is the keyboard is playing a different note, then the rest of the band, if we are off beat.
Some other notable bands that use sequencers live are U2 and Van Halen. I'm pretty sure it's out of necessity. Both bands are four pieces. In U2's case, The Edge plays both guitar and keyboards. In a live situation, it would be just about impossible for him to play all the keyboard parts, plus the guitar parts at the same time. A great example of this, would be on their song "Where The Streets Have No Name". If your unfamiliar with the song, it starts off with keyboards and then Edge plays the guitar riff over the top of it. It would be impossible for one person to play both of these parts live, so the keyboard parts are sequenced. It's the same concept that we are using. I would imagine that U2's system is much more sophisticated then ours, but you get the idea. If the live musicians get out of time with the sequenced parts, it's gonna be a mess. Edge will play some keyboard parts live, just as Roy does. But, it's only on certain songs, and usually its a solo type run or piano part. For example, Edge plays the piano part for "New Years Day" live; Roy does the same thing on our song "Into The Night".
I also mentioned Van Halen. Eddie does the same thing. He plays both keyboards and guitar on their albums. Pretty impossible, even for him, to do both live. They run the keyboards sequenced, during a concert, and he plays guitar live.
Roy advised us that if things started getting off tempo, then he would kill the sequencer and we would just finish the song, without the keyboards. This happened quite a few times throughout the night. When it did, he cut the keyboards and we finished out the song. The nice thing though, was that we were able to get right back into time, together. My wife, and parents noticed it some, but honestly, I think it's just because they have seen us so much, that they know what we are "supposed" to sound like. It wasn't bad, it was just kind of "raw" sounding, when we finished a song without the keyboards. The two biggest glares, to me, were "Carry Me Home" and "Tailgate To The Beach". They didn't sound bad per se, but they just sounded kind of empty.
You might be thinking, "Well heck, this is all on Tony", but that's not the case at all. Again, I thought Tony did a phenomenal job, under the circumstances. He had one audition, that was comprised of maybe a dozen songs, and then we had one rehearsal. At the rehearsal, we did run through every song that we played at Railhead, but still. Throwing 20 something songs at a guy, and then asking him to play with a click on top of that, was probably a little much. Long term, I think Tony will be just fine, and I'm really looking forward to working with him.
One more note about sequencers and clicks. When you use those, you are pretty much stuck to a rigid structure. In other words, there is really not any room for improvisation. You pretty much have to get all the notes in, to the space allotted. We've ditched the sequencing, for most of the covers that we play. What we've found, is that we have a lot more space to improvise and put on more of a "show", so to speak. We can break the song down, and let the crowd sing along, or whatever else we want to do. We noticed that we were able to do this same thing on the originals, when we had to cut the sequencing.
Now, ditching the keyboards on the live versions of our originals is not an option. While we want to have the freedom to improvise, we do not want to do it at the expense of our sound. So our options are to either continue with the sequencer and the click tracks, or bring in a live keyboard player. After the show, Roy and I both decided that we wanted to bring in a live keyboard player. Even though it will hurt us on the financial end, we think it's the best decision for the band, long term. It will free Roy up from having to worry about the keyboards, and all that entails. He will have more freedom to work the crowd, during the songs, plus it will allow us to continue to sound like us.
So, with all that out of the way, we are officially looking for a keyboard player to play with us live. If you know someone in the DFW area, who you think might be interested, please send them our way. Here is our ad. This is also posted on Craigslist. Have them check this out:
Seeking keyboard player for live work. You'll need a good basic library of synth sounds and basic B3 and piano knockoffs. We use Roland gear quite a bit in the studio. So, if you've got a Roland model from within the past 10 years or so, you'll probably have most of what you need. Something as simple as a Juno Di works fine. USB stick input is a big plus, as is sampling if you want to just sample our original sounds direct. USB/Sampling not a requirement, though.
For the past year, we've been running sequencing and the drummer plays to a click. We're looking to get away from constant sequencing to have more of a "live" feel. For the most part, there are multiple keyboard parts running at all times, not possible to re-create without sequencing. What we're looking for is someone to cover the key elements -- the main recognizable parts, not every part that's on the studio versions.
Basic requirements are: Have your own gear and transportation for local gigs around the metroplex and a few miles farther out, no drugs, 25-45 age range or around there, easy going personality, be available most weekends. I believe we played about 40 shows in 2013, pretty much all weekend dates. While it's not a full-time job, it's a little more than a casual commitment. We generally do not play free unless it's a really good cause, so yes, you will be paid. The studio version of the band is a duo. This is for a position within the live band - no writing/recording involved, just looking for someone for stage work.
Another big thing is the ability and discipline to practice on your own. With the amount we normally play, there's not a lot of free time for rehearsals. I've got to have someone willing to access our Drop Box, download the songs and the set lists, get familiar with them, then we'll get together a couple times before we bring you into the full live show. Most everyone in the band works during the week, so being computer literate and able to work on your own is very important.
I list Alt-Country / TX Country as our genre because it's the closest fit. We sound closest to country. However, we're kind of a hybrid. We're a little odd for the local country scene and use a lot of electronics. Sometimes we'll go into beach mode. Sometimes it sounds like rock. When we play covers, they're usually 80's songs, TX Country or Trop Rock. It's an odd blend, but it works.
You can listen to some of our songs and find out a little bit more about us on the following Facebook page -
http://www.facebook.com/sanddollarrodeo/app_2405167945
If interested, please email Roy at roy@sanddollarrodeo.com and he will get right back to you.
Ok, we are off this weekend, so Roy and I can hole up in the studio and work on acoustic arrangements for our songs. Yikes! We will be playing at Big Star 97's Campfire Jam on January 15th. I'll get you all the details for that, in the next blog post. Here's a hint though, it's an all acoustic show! Talk to ya soon, and thanks for reading!
For me, things started off on the wrong foot, as soon as I woke up on Saturday morning. My wife informed me that her cellphone had fallen off the kitchen cabinet, at some point during the night. The screen was shattered. In the grand scheme of things, this was really not that big of a deal, but we do not have a home phone, so we needed to get the issue dealt with. We packed up the kids and headed to the AT&T store. They opened at 10am, we had a full day, so I wanted to get over there and get done.
We were not up for an upgrade, so it was going to be like $500 to replace my wife's phone. The AT&T lady referred us to a place that could repair the phone. It was actually just down the road, so that was good. We headed over there, showed them the phone, they said it would be $190 to repair the phone. I did try to negotiate the price down, but they wouldn't budge. We agreed to the repair price, and the lady said it would be ready by 4pm, that afternoon. We told them that we would not be able to get back over there, on Saturday. They were closed on Sunday, so we told them that we would pick it up on Monday.
To make a long story short, they ended up calling us about 30 minutes after we arrived home, and said the phone was ready. What the heck? If we would have known this, we would have just stayed in town. My wife wanted her phone, and decided to run back into town to pick it up.
I mentioned earlier, that in the grand scheme of thing, this was not that big of a deal. The reason I say this, is because we lost my aunt on New Year's Day, to cancer. Her funeral was also on Saturday. My wife wanted me to stay home, and try and have a little down time. The funeral was that afternoon, and then we were having a family get together after that. Not to mention, I also had a show that night.
Of course, she got stuck in traffic, on the way back to Fort Worth. She made it back home about 15 minutes before we needed to leave, to go to the funeral. We made it just in time. We had a family dinner, afterward. I stayed up until the last moment, ran home, changed clothes, loaded up my gear, and headed to Railhead. I felt very fortunate that this gig was basically in my backyard. Had it been out of town, or somewhere towards the Dallas side of the metroplex, I'm not sure what I would have done.
Anyway, by the time I made it to Railhead, I was pretty much frazzled. It had been a very long and emotionally draining day. For some reason though, the thought never crossed my mind that maybe we should cancel this show.
I wasn't the only one dealing with issues. Brian, our bass player, was sick as a dog. He showed up and looked really rough. He had not been feeling well at rehearsal either. I really appreciate him powering through it. Tony, of course being brand new, was taking every spare second that he had, to go out to his car and listen to the songs. He was studying all the way up until show time, and again during our break. I'm really amazed that he was able to step in and play the show with us.
Roy seemed really laid back about all the chaos. I imagine that deep down he was probably worried sick, but if he was, he never seemed to show it.
Our main issue, was going to be staying in time with the sequencers and click tracks. Unfortunately, this pretty much all falls on Tony. He is the drummer, so when your a musician, you naturally follow the tempo of your drummer.
Using a click and sequencers is really not all that uncommon. Usually it's done out of necessity or convenience. For example, with us, Roy can't sing, play acoustic guitar and keyboards, all at the same time. The keyboards are sequenced and set to a click track. So basically, our drummer is supposed to follow the keyboards. As long as we are all in tempo with this, everything will sound great, but if we get off by a half a beat or so, it can become a mess, really quickly. What happens is the keyboard is playing a different note, then the rest of the band, if we are off beat.
Some other notable bands that use sequencers live are U2 and Van Halen. I'm pretty sure it's out of necessity. Both bands are four pieces. In U2's case, The Edge plays both guitar and keyboards. In a live situation, it would be just about impossible for him to play all the keyboard parts, plus the guitar parts at the same time. A great example of this, would be on their song "Where The Streets Have No Name". If your unfamiliar with the song, it starts off with keyboards and then Edge plays the guitar riff over the top of it. It would be impossible for one person to play both of these parts live, so the keyboard parts are sequenced. It's the same concept that we are using. I would imagine that U2's system is much more sophisticated then ours, but you get the idea. If the live musicians get out of time with the sequenced parts, it's gonna be a mess. Edge will play some keyboard parts live, just as Roy does. But, it's only on certain songs, and usually its a solo type run or piano part. For example, Edge plays the piano part for "New Years Day" live; Roy does the same thing on our song "Into The Night".
I also mentioned Van Halen. Eddie does the same thing. He plays both keyboards and guitar on their albums. Pretty impossible, even for him, to do both live. They run the keyboards sequenced, during a concert, and he plays guitar live.
Roy advised us that if things started getting off tempo, then he would kill the sequencer and we would just finish the song, without the keyboards. This happened quite a few times throughout the night. When it did, he cut the keyboards and we finished out the song. The nice thing though, was that we were able to get right back into time, together. My wife, and parents noticed it some, but honestly, I think it's just because they have seen us so much, that they know what we are "supposed" to sound like. It wasn't bad, it was just kind of "raw" sounding, when we finished a song without the keyboards. The two biggest glares, to me, were "Carry Me Home" and "Tailgate To The Beach". They didn't sound bad per se, but they just sounded kind of empty.
You might be thinking, "Well heck, this is all on Tony", but that's not the case at all. Again, I thought Tony did a phenomenal job, under the circumstances. He had one audition, that was comprised of maybe a dozen songs, and then we had one rehearsal. At the rehearsal, we did run through every song that we played at Railhead, but still. Throwing 20 something songs at a guy, and then asking him to play with a click on top of that, was probably a little much. Long term, I think Tony will be just fine, and I'm really looking forward to working with him.
One more note about sequencers and clicks. When you use those, you are pretty much stuck to a rigid structure. In other words, there is really not any room for improvisation. You pretty much have to get all the notes in, to the space allotted. We've ditched the sequencing, for most of the covers that we play. What we've found, is that we have a lot more space to improvise and put on more of a "show", so to speak. We can break the song down, and let the crowd sing along, or whatever else we want to do. We noticed that we were able to do this same thing on the originals, when we had to cut the sequencing.
Now, ditching the keyboards on the live versions of our originals is not an option. While we want to have the freedom to improvise, we do not want to do it at the expense of our sound. So our options are to either continue with the sequencer and the click tracks, or bring in a live keyboard player. After the show, Roy and I both decided that we wanted to bring in a live keyboard player. Even though it will hurt us on the financial end, we think it's the best decision for the band, long term. It will free Roy up from having to worry about the keyboards, and all that entails. He will have more freedom to work the crowd, during the songs, plus it will allow us to continue to sound like us.
So, with all that out of the way, we are officially looking for a keyboard player to play with us live. If you know someone in the DFW area, who you think might be interested, please send them our way. Here is our ad. This is also posted on Craigslist. Have them check this out:
Seeking keyboard player for live work. You'll need a good basic library of synth sounds and basic B3 and piano knockoffs. We use Roland gear quite a bit in the studio. So, if you've got a Roland model from within the past 10 years or so, you'll probably have most of what you need. Something as simple as a Juno Di works fine. USB stick input is a big plus, as is sampling if you want to just sample our original sounds direct. USB/Sampling not a requirement, though.
For the past year, we've been running sequencing and the drummer plays to a click. We're looking to get away from constant sequencing to have more of a "live" feel. For the most part, there are multiple keyboard parts running at all times, not possible to re-create without sequencing. What we're looking for is someone to cover the key elements -- the main recognizable parts, not every part that's on the studio versions.
Basic requirements are: Have your own gear and transportation for local gigs around the metroplex and a few miles farther out, no drugs, 25-45 age range or around there, easy going personality, be available most weekends. I believe we played about 40 shows in 2013, pretty much all weekend dates. While it's not a full-time job, it's a little more than a casual commitment. We generally do not play free unless it's a really good cause, so yes, you will be paid. The studio version of the band is a duo. This is for a position within the live band - no writing/recording involved, just looking for someone for stage work.
Another big thing is the ability and discipline to practice on your own. With the amount we normally play, there's not a lot of free time for rehearsals. I've got to have someone willing to access our Drop Box, download the songs and the set lists, get familiar with them, then we'll get together a couple times before we bring you into the full live show. Most everyone in the band works during the week, so being computer literate and able to work on your own is very important.
I list Alt-Country / TX Country as our genre because it's the closest fit. We sound closest to country. However, we're kind of a hybrid. We're a little odd for the local country scene and use a lot of electronics. Sometimes we'll go into beach mode. Sometimes it sounds like rock. When we play covers, they're usually 80's songs, TX Country or Trop Rock. It's an odd blend, but it works.
You can listen to some of our songs and find out a little bit more about us on the following Facebook page -
http://www.facebook.com/sanddollarrodeo/app_2405167945
If interested, please email Roy at roy@sanddollarrodeo.com and he will get right back to you.
Ok, we are off this weekend, so Roy and I can hole up in the studio and work on acoustic arrangements for our songs. Yikes! We will be playing at Big Star 97's Campfire Jam on January 15th. I'll get you all the details for that, in the next blog post. Here's a hint though, it's an all acoustic show! Talk to ya soon, and thanks for reading!
Thursday, January 2, 2014
Hello New Year, It's So Good To See You
Alrighty, well now that 2013 is behind us, it's time to focus on 2014. But before we do that, I just want to say that 2013 was an incredible ride. A lot of up's and down's, but you know what? I wouldn't change a thing. Each event, whether good or bad, was a great learning experience. Roy recently posted an entire 2013 re-cap, on his blog. You can read it here www.royholliday.blogspot.com After you finish up here, go check it out!
So, the last time I posted, it was prior posted to Christmas. I hope you all had a great holiday season. It has been a really busy time for SDR. As I mentioned in my last post, our drummer Cisco, is having to move on. We held auditions for a new drummer on December 22. Out of the audition sessions, we were able to bring on a new drummer. His name is Tony. We are very thankful to have him on board.
The real work began after the audition process, however. Since December 22, we have been working with Tony, to get him up to speed on everything. Roy has been sending files to him, to practice with, and I've been manning the phones for any questions that he might have.
We were able to have a rehearsal on New Year's Day. While I don't think any of us wanted to spend our New Year's Day holiday rehearsing, we all knew that it was necessary. Since Tony lives in Wylie and I live in Aledo, about the closest middle ground was in Dallas. It was 30 something miles for Roy, Brian, and Tony, and 48 for me. I didn't really mind though. Tony drove all the way to west Fort Worth for his audition. I didn't think it was fair for him to drive all the way back out there on New Year's Day, and then drive out to Willow Park on Saturday for the show. We rented a rehearsal space off of Mockingbird Lane, in Dallas, for the rehearsal. We had the room from 12-6. I arrived a little after noon. It was a long rehearsal. We started a little after 1, and wrapped up a little after 5. By the time I loaded up and got on the road, it was almost 6, and by the time I arrived home it was almost 7. So as you can see, it was a long day. I want to thank Roy, Brian, and Tony for giving up their New Year's Day, to do this.
So, earlier I mentioned a show. Yes, we will be kicking off 2014 with a show at the Railhead Smokehouse, on Saturday, January 4, at 7:30pm. The Railhead is located at 120 S. Ranch House Rd., Willow Park, Texas. We are really looking forward to this one. We played our first show there on October 19th, and had a blast! So, delay that New Year's resolution by a few more days, and come have a party with us. They have plenty of great barbeque, ice cold beer, and other assorted beverages. Also, this will be Tony's first show with us, so if nothing else, come out and meet him, lol.
Ok, I have some rehearsing to do myself, so I better go. We have a lot of exciting stuff planned for 2014, so stay tuned, and I'll talk to you soon!
So, the last time I posted, it was prior posted to Christmas. I hope you all had a great holiday season. It has been a really busy time for SDR. As I mentioned in my last post, our drummer Cisco, is having to move on. We held auditions for a new drummer on December 22. Out of the audition sessions, we were able to bring on a new drummer. His name is Tony. We are very thankful to have him on board.
The real work began after the audition process, however. Since December 22, we have been working with Tony, to get him up to speed on everything. Roy has been sending files to him, to practice with, and I've been manning the phones for any questions that he might have.
We were able to have a rehearsal on New Year's Day. While I don't think any of us wanted to spend our New Year's Day holiday rehearsing, we all knew that it was necessary. Since Tony lives in Wylie and I live in Aledo, about the closest middle ground was in Dallas. It was 30 something miles for Roy, Brian, and Tony, and 48 for me. I didn't really mind though. Tony drove all the way to west Fort Worth for his audition. I didn't think it was fair for him to drive all the way back out there on New Year's Day, and then drive out to Willow Park on Saturday for the show. We rented a rehearsal space off of Mockingbird Lane, in Dallas, for the rehearsal. We had the room from 12-6. I arrived a little after noon. It was a long rehearsal. We started a little after 1, and wrapped up a little after 5. By the time I loaded up and got on the road, it was almost 6, and by the time I arrived home it was almost 7. So as you can see, it was a long day. I want to thank Roy, Brian, and Tony for giving up their New Year's Day, to do this.
So, earlier I mentioned a show. Yes, we will be kicking off 2014 with a show at the Railhead Smokehouse, on Saturday, January 4, at 7:30pm. The Railhead is located at 120 S. Ranch House Rd., Willow Park, Texas. We are really looking forward to this one. We played our first show there on October 19th, and had a blast! So, delay that New Year's resolution by a few more days, and come have a party with us. They have plenty of great barbeque, ice cold beer, and other assorted beverages. Also, this will be Tony's first show with us, so if nothing else, come out and meet him, lol.
Ok, I have some rehearsing to do myself, so I better go. We have a lot of exciting stuff planned for 2014, so stay tuned, and I'll talk to you soon!
Thursday, December 19, 2013
Last Call....For This Year
Howdy partner! Well, we played our final show of 2013, this past Saturday at Community Beer Company. As we've stated before, the brewery gigs are a blast, and this one was no different. We had a great time, and want to thank Community Beer Company for having us out. For a complete re-cap of this show, and all of our shows, be sure and check out Roy's blog "The Holliday Road" found here www.royholliday.blogspot.com He goes into more detail about each show, and often times will share some behind the scenes stuff, that goes on.
As for now, we have a little break in the show schedule. Our next show is not until January 4th, when we will return to the Railhead Smokehouse, in Willow Park, Texas. Part of this break was by design, and another out of necessity. As far as the design part goes, we blocked out the weekend of December 28-29, several months ago. Roy will be traveling to Tulsa, Oklahoma to visit his family for Christmas, and my oldest daughter's birthday is on December 29th. My wife and I have always made a point to celebrate her birthday, on her birthday. I'm sure you all know someone, who has a birthday right around Christmas. Heck. maybe yours is? I've heard story after story of how the birthday, and Christmas all gets lumped into one. I'm sure you've probably heard of this, as well. "Well, this is your birthday and Christmas present." Or, "We will just celebrate your birthday on Christmas. The family will already be here, anyway."
With my daughter's birthday falling on a Sunday this year, she and my wife have decided to host a slumber party for her birthday. It will run from Saturday evening into Sunday (her actual birthday). I've been grounded and ordered to stay at home that evening. I had thought about checking into the local motel for the night, but was advised that was not an option, either. Oh well, too bad for me! Actually it can't be that bad can it? We will only have 5 or 6 screaming girls running around the house.
Also, we found out awhile back, that Cisco was not going to be able to continue on as our drummer. I think I mentioned this in a previous blog post. When we found this out, we still had the weekend of December 20-21, open on our calendar. After we received this news, we decided that the December 14th show at Community, would be our last one until January 4th. The Railhead show was already on the books, as they book their bands, pretty far in advance. The only exception we were willing to make, was if something came through on New Year's Eve. We put out several feelers for New Year's, but nothing panned out, so we are using this break to find our new drummer.
We will be holding auditions this Sunday, December 22nd. We have two drummers, scheduled to come out. We decided to rent a rehearsal studio for the day. If you've been following the blog, you may recall, that the last time we attempted a full band practice, we got the cops called on us at Roy's house. We decided not to take any chances, this time, so we rented the space. The other nice thing with this situation, is that we will have all of the time that we need. We will have access to the space from noon, until midnight.
Our goal, is to hopefully have our new drummer in place, after these auditions. This will then give them a couple of more weeks to get ready for the Railhead show.
Shifting gears now, I would like to re-cap our year for you. I'm usually not one of these " Year in Review" kind of guys. It's just not something that I am all that into, but after looking back, we accomplished quite a bit in our first calendar year. I'm not mentioning all of this to brag, or say "Look at us, ain't we great!" That's not my intention at all. I just wanted to review some of the great, and not so great moments from 2013.
For the record, we played 39 shows, during the 2013 calendar year. It could have been more, but we had six shows cancelled for various reasons. Two were cancelled due to bad weather, including our December 7th show at Cowtown Bowling Palace, which was cancelled due to "Icemaggedon!" The other weather cancellation, happened back in March, due to thunderstorms. The weather did wreck havoc on several other shows this year. Our very first show at Hollywood & Vine had to be moved indoors, due to freezing temperatures. We also had two shows moved indoors at Keller Tavern. One was due to a hail storm and freezing temperatures in January, and the other was due to thunderstorms, in May. That show was particularly difficult. We had completely set up our gear on the outdoor stage, when the manager came running out, advising us that storms were headed our way. We ended up breaking everything down, and re-setting up indoors. I was exhausted before we ever started playing, that evening. The weather in Texas has been strange, all together, this year. I remember when we played Mayfest, back in May (lol), I had to wear long sleeves, as temperatures that day were in the mid 60's, with a gusty wind. By May, we are usually into the 80's, and flirting with 90. July 4th was also cool, as it only reached a high of 85. We are usually into the 100's by then.
We had one show cancelled because the venue closed down, before our date arrived. Another venue cancelled us, because they double booked some other band on the same date. We had another gig cancelled at Hollywood & Vine, due to a scheduling error, and the best cancellation of all happened out at the Happy Armadillo in Everman, Texas. I don't think I will ever forget this one, as long as I live.
We drove out to Everman, which was a pretty good hike for all of us. We arrive, and their is maybe two or three customer's in the bar. We weren't really worried about that, as it was still early. We proceed to bring all of our gear in and set up. We start sound checking, and the waitress comes over and tells us that the manager doesn't want us to play. The manager comes up with the excuse that she was told, "We would be playing classic rock, and country." This was all being relayed through the poor waitress. I proceeded to argue our case with the waitress, that we never claimed to be a classic rock, country, or cover band. Now, we will mix in some covers, at our longer shows, which I also explained to her. I went on to advise her that we only submit our original material, for booking considerations, and that her venue had booked us, based on this. Roy could see that the situation was quickly deteriorating between she and I, so he stepped in and asked, "Well, do you want us to just pack up and leave?" And she replied, "Yes." The final kick in the crotch, of this evening, happened in the parking lot. We were all discussing what had just happened, with our booking agent at the time, when an Everman police officer drove up. He said he received a report of us drinking beer in the parking lot. Actually, we were all drinking bottled water. He had a radio call asking if he needed backup, and he said he was good. The officer on the other end of the radio asked if we were were drinking, and the officer with us said, "Yeah, bottled water." The officer was very nice to us, and appeared very irritated with the bar. He said he was going in to talk to them. We called it a night after that. To make matters worse, I got a speeding ticket on the way to the show. As I look back on this now, it's kind of funny, and makes for a good war story, but at the time, it totally sucked, and was probably the low point of our year.
A close second though, would be the show we put on at the Across the Street Bar, with our good friends, August & J. Their friends, The Five Hands, were also involved with this show. The Across the Street Bar was located near the campus of Southern Methodist University (SMU). Notice, I said "was". More on that in a minute. From what I had heard, the Across the Street Bar was a really hip place in Dallas. When you looked at their website, you would see a picture of the venue, with tons of people, indoors and out. It had been around forever. August mentioned that he had played their during the 90's, if my memory serves me correctly, and said it was pretty good.
Our thinking was, this would be a good way to get into the Dallas market, and we would get a good college crowd. Plus, with three bands playing, we figured it would be a good draw. The show was going to be advertised in several publications, so we felt pretty good about things.
Have you ever had one of those experiences, where you show up to your destination and it doesn't quite look like it does in the pictures you saw? Well, this was one of those experiences. The place was really run down. The only person working their, was the bartender, who also happened to be the owner. The Five Hands, and August and J were already there, setting up their merch and gear. We were the last scheduled band, so I had plenty of time. I decided to strike up a conversation with the bartender/owner. I introduced myself, said we were glad to be there, etc.... I asked him where the rest of his staff was, and he said, "I'm it." I was very puzzled, and asked, "Really?" And he said, "Yeah, I'm closing the doors for good, next week." I was shocked. I said, "Well, do you think we will have a good crowd tonight?" He replied, "Well, it just depends on how many yall bring." I was getting this sinking feeling now. I asked, "So, you don't have crowds from SMU, come and hang out?" He said, "Nope, no one will show up, except for the people you invited." He went on to explain that the bar's failure was basically his fault. He never kept regular hours, and if it was slow, he would just close up early. He said he was tired of messing with it, and was done.
My spirit was crushed after that. But, their was nothing I could do about it. Time to make the best of it right? About that time, Jay came over and warned me that the stage had a soft spot in it. He was actually worried about falling through the stage. As we found out, when our time came, the stage was barely stable. The show was a disaster. The place was not grounded correctly, so you had this horrific hum coming though the PA. The guitar amps were buzzing, the vocals were distorted and you couldn't hear anything out of the monitors. All three bands had horrible issues with the sound system. My wife said it was awful. The only saving grace from the whole night, is that no one was really there, except for a few friends, spouses, and significant others. The night mercifully ended and we packed it up and headed home. I guess the only cool thing to come out of it was, that we were the last band to ever play at the Across the Street Bar, as far as I know.
One other show that really stood out to me, was another show we did with August & J, down in Gun Barrel City. This show took place in April. It was at a really cool place called the Venue. This was their grand opening. This was a sit down concert venue, and they went all out. It had a great stage, and sound system. They treated us like rock stars. We even had a dressing/band area! We had a great show that night, and the crowd that came to see us, was so nice. We were looking at doing another show down there, but before we could get it together, it unfortunately went out of business. I was really sad, when I learned of this. Dino created an awesome music venue, and it was so nice to feel appreciated. I really appreciate the hard work that he put into this place. It just doesn't seem fair that this place didn't make it, as it was such a unique venue.
The rest of our shows, seemed to go well for the most part. We felt like we were better on some nights vs. others, but that just seems to go with the territory, when your in a band. I don't know why that is. I think it may have to do, with us being our own worst critics. The off nights are usually not as off as it may seem, and the great nights are probably not as great as they may seem to be, at the time. Either way, we usually had some nice comments from people who had heard the show.
Brian Barton joined us in August, on the bass and backing vocals. He has been a tremendous addition. His bass gives us that deep thumping sound, and his backing vocals are top notch. Our live sound has definitely improved since Brian came onboard.
The other major event that happened for us, was the release of our debut album "GPS To Nowhere", on April 2nd. I really enjoyed co-writing with Roy, and recording the album. If you haven't checked it out yet, you can listen to the whole thing on Spotify, or on our website www.sanddollarrodeo.com We've received internet airplay for several songs, off the album, and we want to thank everyone who played, and continues to play the songs. Also on the recording front, we released a single called "Island Holiday" on Black Friday. You can get this single for free, by simply joining our mailing list, through the website. Roy and Brian also did some funky remixes of this song, so check those out too!
I would also like to thank Marti Ludwig, for helping us get this thing off the ground. She convinced a lot of venues to take a chance on us, and we really appreciate it!
Well, this is the last call for 2013. The blog will return in a few weeks. We are really looking forward to what 2014 has in store for us. If I've learned anything from this year, it would be to expect the unexpected. We have a lot of new song ideas that we are hoping to get ironed out, and into the live show. We also hope to have a new album either completed, or well on it's way, towards the latter part of 2014.
We would like to thank all of our fans for your love and support. Without you, their would be no SDR, and none of this would be happening. I want to wish each and every one of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I hope you all have a great holiday season. Ok, I'm out of hot air. I'll talk to ya next year!
As for now, we have a little break in the show schedule. Our next show is not until January 4th, when we will return to the Railhead Smokehouse, in Willow Park, Texas. Part of this break was by design, and another out of necessity. As far as the design part goes, we blocked out the weekend of December 28-29, several months ago. Roy will be traveling to Tulsa, Oklahoma to visit his family for Christmas, and my oldest daughter's birthday is on December 29th. My wife and I have always made a point to celebrate her birthday, on her birthday. I'm sure you all know someone, who has a birthday right around Christmas. Heck. maybe yours is? I've heard story after story of how the birthday, and Christmas all gets lumped into one. I'm sure you've probably heard of this, as well. "Well, this is your birthday and Christmas present." Or, "We will just celebrate your birthday on Christmas. The family will already be here, anyway."
With my daughter's birthday falling on a Sunday this year, she and my wife have decided to host a slumber party for her birthday. It will run from Saturday evening into Sunday (her actual birthday). I've been grounded and ordered to stay at home that evening. I had thought about checking into the local motel for the night, but was advised that was not an option, either. Oh well, too bad for me! Actually it can't be that bad can it? We will only have 5 or 6 screaming girls running around the house.
Also, we found out awhile back, that Cisco was not going to be able to continue on as our drummer. I think I mentioned this in a previous blog post. When we found this out, we still had the weekend of December 20-21, open on our calendar. After we received this news, we decided that the December 14th show at Community, would be our last one until January 4th. The Railhead show was already on the books, as they book their bands, pretty far in advance. The only exception we were willing to make, was if something came through on New Year's Eve. We put out several feelers for New Year's, but nothing panned out, so we are using this break to find our new drummer.
We will be holding auditions this Sunday, December 22nd. We have two drummers, scheduled to come out. We decided to rent a rehearsal studio for the day. If you've been following the blog, you may recall, that the last time we attempted a full band practice, we got the cops called on us at Roy's house. We decided not to take any chances, this time, so we rented the space. The other nice thing with this situation, is that we will have all of the time that we need. We will have access to the space from noon, until midnight.
Our goal, is to hopefully have our new drummer in place, after these auditions. This will then give them a couple of more weeks to get ready for the Railhead show.
Shifting gears now, I would like to re-cap our year for you. I'm usually not one of these " Year in Review" kind of guys. It's just not something that I am all that into, but after looking back, we accomplished quite a bit in our first calendar year. I'm not mentioning all of this to brag, or say "Look at us, ain't we great!" That's not my intention at all. I just wanted to review some of the great, and not so great moments from 2013.
For the record, we played 39 shows, during the 2013 calendar year. It could have been more, but we had six shows cancelled for various reasons. Two were cancelled due to bad weather, including our December 7th show at Cowtown Bowling Palace, which was cancelled due to "Icemaggedon!" The other weather cancellation, happened back in March, due to thunderstorms. The weather did wreck havoc on several other shows this year. Our very first show at Hollywood & Vine had to be moved indoors, due to freezing temperatures. We also had two shows moved indoors at Keller Tavern. One was due to a hail storm and freezing temperatures in January, and the other was due to thunderstorms, in May. That show was particularly difficult. We had completely set up our gear on the outdoor stage, when the manager came running out, advising us that storms were headed our way. We ended up breaking everything down, and re-setting up indoors. I was exhausted before we ever started playing, that evening. The weather in Texas has been strange, all together, this year. I remember when we played Mayfest, back in May (lol), I had to wear long sleeves, as temperatures that day were in the mid 60's, with a gusty wind. By May, we are usually into the 80's, and flirting with 90. July 4th was also cool, as it only reached a high of 85. We are usually into the 100's by then.
We had one show cancelled because the venue closed down, before our date arrived. Another venue cancelled us, because they double booked some other band on the same date. We had another gig cancelled at Hollywood & Vine, due to a scheduling error, and the best cancellation of all happened out at the Happy Armadillo in Everman, Texas. I don't think I will ever forget this one, as long as I live.
We drove out to Everman, which was a pretty good hike for all of us. We arrive, and their is maybe two or three customer's in the bar. We weren't really worried about that, as it was still early. We proceed to bring all of our gear in and set up. We start sound checking, and the waitress comes over and tells us that the manager doesn't want us to play. The manager comes up with the excuse that she was told, "We would be playing classic rock, and country." This was all being relayed through the poor waitress. I proceeded to argue our case with the waitress, that we never claimed to be a classic rock, country, or cover band. Now, we will mix in some covers, at our longer shows, which I also explained to her. I went on to advise her that we only submit our original material, for booking considerations, and that her venue had booked us, based on this. Roy could see that the situation was quickly deteriorating between she and I, so he stepped in and asked, "Well, do you want us to just pack up and leave?" And she replied, "Yes." The final kick in the crotch, of this evening, happened in the parking lot. We were all discussing what had just happened, with our booking agent at the time, when an Everman police officer drove up. He said he received a report of us drinking beer in the parking lot. Actually, we were all drinking bottled water. He had a radio call asking if he needed backup, and he said he was good. The officer on the other end of the radio asked if we were were drinking, and the officer with us said, "Yeah, bottled water." The officer was very nice to us, and appeared very irritated with the bar. He said he was going in to talk to them. We called it a night after that. To make matters worse, I got a speeding ticket on the way to the show. As I look back on this now, it's kind of funny, and makes for a good war story, but at the time, it totally sucked, and was probably the low point of our year.
A close second though, would be the show we put on at the Across the Street Bar, with our good friends, August & J. Their friends, The Five Hands, were also involved with this show. The Across the Street Bar was located near the campus of Southern Methodist University (SMU). Notice, I said "was". More on that in a minute. From what I had heard, the Across the Street Bar was a really hip place in Dallas. When you looked at their website, you would see a picture of the venue, with tons of people, indoors and out. It had been around forever. August mentioned that he had played their during the 90's, if my memory serves me correctly, and said it was pretty good.
Our thinking was, this would be a good way to get into the Dallas market, and we would get a good college crowd. Plus, with three bands playing, we figured it would be a good draw. The show was going to be advertised in several publications, so we felt pretty good about things.
Have you ever had one of those experiences, where you show up to your destination and it doesn't quite look like it does in the pictures you saw? Well, this was one of those experiences. The place was really run down. The only person working their, was the bartender, who also happened to be the owner. The Five Hands, and August and J were already there, setting up their merch and gear. We were the last scheduled band, so I had plenty of time. I decided to strike up a conversation with the bartender/owner. I introduced myself, said we were glad to be there, etc.... I asked him where the rest of his staff was, and he said, "I'm it." I was very puzzled, and asked, "Really?" And he said, "Yeah, I'm closing the doors for good, next week." I was shocked. I said, "Well, do you think we will have a good crowd tonight?" He replied, "Well, it just depends on how many yall bring." I was getting this sinking feeling now. I asked, "So, you don't have crowds from SMU, come and hang out?" He said, "Nope, no one will show up, except for the people you invited." He went on to explain that the bar's failure was basically his fault. He never kept regular hours, and if it was slow, he would just close up early. He said he was tired of messing with it, and was done.
My spirit was crushed after that. But, their was nothing I could do about it. Time to make the best of it right? About that time, Jay came over and warned me that the stage had a soft spot in it. He was actually worried about falling through the stage. As we found out, when our time came, the stage was barely stable. The show was a disaster. The place was not grounded correctly, so you had this horrific hum coming though the PA. The guitar amps were buzzing, the vocals were distorted and you couldn't hear anything out of the monitors. All three bands had horrible issues with the sound system. My wife said it was awful. The only saving grace from the whole night, is that no one was really there, except for a few friends, spouses, and significant others. The night mercifully ended and we packed it up and headed home. I guess the only cool thing to come out of it was, that we were the last band to ever play at the Across the Street Bar, as far as I know.
One other show that really stood out to me, was another show we did with August & J, down in Gun Barrel City. This show took place in April. It was at a really cool place called the Venue. This was their grand opening. This was a sit down concert venue, and they went all out. It had a great stage, and sound system. They treated us like rock stars. We even had a dressing/band area! We had a great show that night, and the crowd that came to see us, was so nice. We were looking at doing another show down there, but before we could get it together, it unfortunately went out of business. I was really sad, when I learned of this. Dino created an awesome music venue, and it was so nice to feel appreciated. I really appreciate the hard work that he put into this place. It just doesn't seem fair that this place didn't make it, as it was such a unique venue.
The rest of our shows, seemed to go well for the most part. We felt like we were better on some nights vs. others, but that just seems to go with the territory, when your in a band. I don't know why that is. I think it may have to do, with us being our own worst critics. The off nights are usually not as off as it may seem, and the great nights are probably not as great as they may seem to be, at the time. Either way, we usually had some nice comments from people who had heard the show.
Brian Barton joined us in August, on the bass and backing vocals. He has been a tremendous addition. His bass gives us that deep thumping sound, and his backing vocals are top notch. Our live sound has definitely improved since Brian came onboard.
The other major event that happened for us, was the release of our debut album "GPS To Nowhere", on April 2nd. I really enjoyed co-writing with Roy, and recording the album. If you haven't checked it out yet, you can listen to the whole thing on Spotify, or on our website www.sanddollarrodeo.com We've received internet airplay for several songs, off the album, and we want to thank everyone who played, and continues to play the songs. Also on the recording front, we released a single called "Island Holiday" on Black Friday. You can get this single for free, by simply joining our mailing list, through the website. Roy and Brian also did some funky remixes of this song, so check those out too!
I would also like to thank Marti Ludwig, for helping us get this thing off the ground. She convinced a lot of venues to take a chance on us, and we really appreciate it!
Well, this is the last call for 2013. The blog will return in a few weeks. We are really looking forward to what 2014 has in store for us. If I've learned anything from this year, it would be to expect the unexpected. We have a lot of new song ideas that we are hoping to get ironed out, and into the live show. We also hope to have a new album either completed, or well on it's way, towards the latter part of 2014.
We would like to thank all of our fans for your love and support. Without you, their would be no SDR, and none of this would be happening. I want to wish each and every one of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I hope you all have a great holiday season. Ok, I'm out of hot air. I'll talk to ya next year!
Friday, December 6, 2013
Last Bowl Of The Year, Maybe.....?
How are we doing today? Down here in Texas we are experiencing the "Arctic Blast" as everyone seems to be calling it. Basically all that means, is very cold temperatures, freezing rain, and sleet. By the way, does anyone know what the difference is between freezing rain, and sleet? A co-worker and I were discussing this yesterday. We had a major ice storm, last night. I'm not sure how thick it is but everything is white. Looks like snow, but it's not. Pretty much everything around here is shut down. Schools. businesses, government offices, you name it. Heck, even UPS is not running today. First time I ever can remember them shutting down.
As of this writing, and according to my Weather Channel app, the forecast reads as follows: A wintry mix this morning. Then clouds will linger this afternoon. Some icing possible (really?, lol) Chance of precipitation, 90%, high temp 29, low of 16 tonight. Tomorrow's high will be 28, with a low of 24. Burr! Is this Texas or North Dakota?
As I said earlier, lots of events have already been postponed or outright cancelled, including some area football playoff games. The playoff games will not be cancelled outright, but you know it's bad, when they decide to reschedule football games in Texas. As many of you know, football is like a second religion, around these parts. It's extremely rare to reschedule football games, due to weather. A lot of people say, "The weather is part of it!"
This week is also a big week, for a lot of city Christmas festivals. Most of these have either been postponed or cancelled. If you are planning on attending one of these events, you might check the news or your favorite social media outlet, to see what is and what's not happening.
Now, with all of that out of the way, we are supposed to have a show at the Cowtown Bowling Palace on Saturday night. Cowtown, is located at 4333 River Oaks Blvd., Fort Worth, Texas. As many of you know, we play here about once a month. They call it "Bowling With The Bands". It's a really great deal. For $10, you get unlimited bowling for two hours, plus live music. They also have full kitchen service, plus adult & kid beverages, including cheap pitcher beer, plus plenty of soda, and sweet ice tea (which may be my favorite).
We have a great time, every time we play there, which is why I'm kind of bummed. Number one, this is our last show at Cowtown for 2013, and number two, the show is very much in doubt, due to the current weather situation. I have no idea, if the venue is going to close due to the weather, or just ride it out. If you are planning on coming out, my best advice would be to check our Facebook page throughout the day, on Saturday. We will be posting any updates about the show, their. One way or another (get that?), we will let you know if the event is happening, or not. Here is the link to our Facebook page https://m.facebook.com/sanddollarrodeo?id=27958203542715&_rdr If you haven't already done so, please check the page out and give us a "like". This will be a great way to show your support for the band, and we will be forever in your debt. Well, maybe not forever, but you know what I mean!
I have one other piece of news that I need to share. Unfortunately, our drummer, will be moving on, after the first of the year. We are really going to miss Cisco. He has been an integral part of our live show, from the beginning. His increased job responsibilities are going to prevent him from being able to play with us. We are going to miss him, and wish him all the best.
With that said, we are conducting an active search for a new drummer. This will be more then a casual commitment, but not a full time job. Most of our shows are in the DFW Metroplex, but we do travel to some of the outlying areas, as well. If you know of anyone that might be interested, please have them email us at info@sanddollarrodeo.com The ideal candidate will need to be able to play with a click track (drummers know what this is). They will also need to be able to hit the ground running, as we are already booking shows for 2014.
Ok, time for me to make sure the faucets still have a drip. The pipes are already wrapped, time to settle down for a long winter's nap. Thanks for reading and for your support. Talk at ya soon!
As of this writing, and according to my Weather Channel app, the forecast reads as follows: A wintry mix this morning. Then clouds will linger this afternoon. Some icing possible (really?, lol) Chance of precipitation, 90%, high temp 29, low of 16 tonight. Tomorrow's high will be 28, with a low of 24. Burr! Is this Texas or North Dakota?
As I said earlier, lots of events have already been postponed or outright cancelled, including some area football playoff games. The playoff games will not be cancelled outright, but you know it's bad, when they decide to reschedule football games in Texas. As many of you know, football is like a second religion, around these parts. It's extremely rare to reschedule football games, due to weather. A lot of people say, "The weather is part of it!"
This week is also a big week, for a lot of city Christmas festivals. Most of these have either been postponed or cancelled. If you are planning on attending one of these events, you might check the news or your favorite social media outlet, to see what is and what's not happening.
Now, with all of that out of the way, we are supposed to have a show at the Cowtown Bowling Palace on Saturday night. Cowtown, is located at 4333 River Oaks Blvd., Fort Worth, Texas. As many of you know, we play here about once a month. They call it "Bowling With The Bands". It's a really great deal. For $10, you get unlimited bowling for two hours, plus live music. They also have full kitchen service, plus adult & kid beverages, including cheap pitcher beer, plus plenty of soda, and sweet ice tea (which may be my favorite).
We have a great time, every time we play there, which is why I'm kind of bummed. Number one, this is our last show at Cowtown for 2013, and number two, the show is very much in doubt, due to the current weather situation. I have no idea, if the venue is going to close due to the weather, or just ride it out. If you are planning on coming out, my best advice would be to check our Facebook page throughout the day, on Saturday. We will be posting any updates about the show, their. One way or another (get that?), we will let you know if the event is happening, or not. Here is the link to our Facebook page https://m.facebook.com/sanddollarrodeo?id=27958203542715&_rdr If you haven't already done so, please check the page out and give us a "like". This will be a great way to show your support for the band, and we will be forever in your debt. Well, maybe not forever, but you know what I mean!
I have one other piece of news that I need to share. Unfortunately, our drummer, will be moving on, after the first of the year. We are really going to miss Cisco. He has been an integral part of our live show, from the beginning. His increased job responsibilities are going to prevent him from being able to play with us. We are going to miss him, and wish him all the best.
With that said, we are conducting an active search for a new drummer. This will be more then a casual commitment, but not a full time job. Most of our shows are in the DFW Metroplex, but we do travel to some of the outlying areas, as well. If you know of anyone that might be interested, please have them email us at info@sanddollarrodeo.com The ideal candidate will need to be able to play with a click track (drummers know what this is). They will also need to be able to hit the ground running, as we are already booking shows for 2014.
Ok, time for me to make sure the faucets still have a drip. The pipes are already wrapped, time to settle down for a long winter's nap. Thanks for reading and for your support. Talk at ya soon!
Friday, November 29, 2013
Dance Off That Turkey
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I sure did. I'm still stuffed as of today! Well, today is the day. It's Black Friday. That means the Christmas madness begins! I know my mom, sister, aunt, and cousins are out shopping today. As for me, no thanks.
Black Friday also means happy release day for us. Yes, our new single called Island Holiday is available at all digital outlets, including Amazon and I-tunes. Or.....you can get it for free, if you join our mailing list. Personally, I would go for the free stuff. This is one of the best Black Friday deals available, right? I think so. Here is the link to join the mailing list www.sanddollarrodeo.com Just scroll down and you should see it at the bottom left side of the page. After you join, you should get an email shortly thereafter, with a free download code. If you have any issues accessing the download, please send us an email at info@sanddollarrodeo.com and we will get you set up. So c'mon now and getcha ya some Island Holiday and dance off that turkey and dressing.
You can also dance that turkey off, tomorrow night with us. We will be down in Cleburne, at the Caddo Street Grill www.caddostreetgrill.com This will be our 2nd time down there. It's a really cool place. Their are two sides. One side is a regular restaurant. The other side is a bar/concert venue. You have to be 21, to get into this area. The venue is located at 211 S. Caddo Street, Cleburne, TX. We will take the stage at 9pm. So if your in the area, or just want to take a trip down to Cleburne, c'mon down and join us. It'll be a good time, and you can de-stress from all of your Black Friday escapades.
Ok gang, I know this is a really short entry, but that's really all I've got for now. Thank you so much for reading, and for your support of the band. I'll see you guys on the flip side.
Black Friday also means happy release day for us. Yes, our new single called Island Holiday is available at all digital outlets, including Amazon and I-tunes. Or.....you can get it for free, if you join our mailing list. Personally, I would go for the free stuff. This is one of the best Black Friday deals available, right? I think so. Here is the link to join the mailing list www.sanddollarrodeo.com Just scroll down and you should see it at the bottom left side of the page. After you join, you should get an email shortly thereafter, with a free download code. If you have any issues accessing the download, please send us an email at info@sanddollarrodeo.com and we will get you set up. So c'mon now and getcha ya some Island Holiday and dance off that turkey and dressing.
You can also dance that turkey off, tomorrow night with us. We will be down in Cleburne, at the Caddo Street Grill www.caddostreetgrill.com This will be our 2nd time down there. It's a really cool place. Their are two sides. One side is a regular restaurant. The other side is a bar/concert venue. You have to be 21, to get into this area. The venue is located at 211 S. Caddo Street, Cleburne, TX. We will take the stage at 9pm. So if your in the area, or just want to take a trip down to Cleburne, c'mon down and join us. It'll be a good time, and you can de-stress from all of your Black Friday escapades.
Ok gang, I know this is a really short entry, but that's really all I've got for now. Thank you so much for reading, and for your support of the band. I'll see you guys on the flip side.
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