The Fall Tour Continues...

It seems like we just finished playing Railhead, yesterday. It was actually a few days ago, but man, the time is flying. It's time to buckle down, and get prepared for two more shows this weekend. I'm not complaining, mind you, but October has been crazy. That's ok, though. I like the pace. We've had shows every weekend. It really makes the week and weekend, fly by. The week seems especially short, whenever we play a Saturday night show, and then play the following Friday.

Before I jump into this week's shows though, I would like to thank everyone who came out to see us at the Railhead, last Saturday. We had a blast! It's always especially fun, when you can play for good friends, and family. The staff at Railhead, were especially nice, and treated us great! You guys be sure and mark your calendars, because we booked two more shows at the Railhead. We will be back on Saturday, January 4, 2014, and again on Saturday, February 1, 2014. For a complete recap of this show, be sure and check out Roy's blog here www.royholliday.blogspot.com  There were some strange going on's, for sure! Go ahead, click it, I know you want to!

As for this week, we have a double decker scheduled for this weekend. On Friday, we will be at the Score Sports Bar. The Score is located at 7709 Camp Bowie W. Blvd., Fort Worth, Texas. This is a new venue (for us), as we've never played here before. I'm really not sure what to expect, but I'm really looking forward to it. I'm always excited about new places. The Score, has been on Camp Bowie, for quite some time though. We will start at 8:30pm, so if your in the area, please stop on by.

On Saturday night, we will move the party, down south to Somervell County, as we return to one of our favorite venues, Hollywood & Vine. I'm really looking forward to seeing Wanda, and the gang. Hollywood & Vine is located at 101 Vine Street, in Glen Rose, Texas.

If you've never been to Glen Rose, then you are really missing out. Dinosaur Valley State Park is located down there. This park contains some of the best preserved dinosaur tracks, in the world. Glen Rose is also home to Fossil Rim Wildlife Center. This is a drive through animal park, that your whole family will love. The animals will come right up to your car! It's really hard to describe. They also have an awesome, old town, shopping square, and the scenery is just beautiful. I swear, the place seems green, year round!

My suggestion? Make a day of it, and then come hang with us in the evening. Hollywood & Vine is a kid-friendly place, complete with it's own sand beach, in the patio area. My daughters love this feature. My wife? Not so much. They also serve a mean burger, great fried okra, plenty of ice cold beer, soda, tea, and water!

Please note, that this will be our last show at Hollywood & Vine, for this year. They have an awesome outdoor stage. They are also able to host smaller bands, and acoustic groups on an indoor stage. We actually played on it, our first time down there, due to the temperature being in the 30's. Unfortunately, their is no way that we would all fit on this small stage, now. With the addition of Brian, plus Cisco's full drum kit, it just won't work. Plus, we would be way too loud, for the inside of this particular building. It's hard to describe, unless you've been there. It's just too big of a risk, to book an outdoor show, through the late fall and winter months. The weather could be 70 and fair, or it could be freezing. We hate to cancel shows, and this is the main reason for this decision. After this Saturday, we probably will not be returning to Hollywood & Vine, until next March or April, so c'mon down and check it out! It's always a good time.

Their is one other piece of news, that I would like to pass along to you. We found out today, that DJ Jeff of Beach Front Radio passed away today. He was the head DJ and owner of Beach Front Radio. He staged a brave and hard fought battle, with that old nemesis, known as cancer. DJ Jeff was a huge supporter of SDR, and played our music on his radio program, each day. Our thoughts, prayers, and condolences go out to his family, friends, and all of the Beach Front Radio community.

Ok, that about wraps it up for this week. Thank you for reading, and your support of the band. We really, really appreciate it. Also, please keep your thoughts and prayers with DJ Jeff and his family, as they go through this difficult time. Gotta run. I'll talk to you soon! 

Railhead

If you plan on being a musician, then you better be prepared to travel around a bit, if you want to have any sort of success. The one exception might be, if you play at church. If that's the case, then you get the luxury of playing in the same place, every week. I did that for a long time, and it can be a nice situation. I used to leave my main amp up at the church, so their was never any setup. They had a nice PA, so it was pretty much, plug in and play. Most musicians do not have this luxury, however. As I said, your gonna have to travel some.

With SDR, we've been all over the DFW Metroplex, and beyond. Playing live is one of the best ways to reach the masses, and get your music out there. The thing is, though, your going to have to go to the masses. They ain't coming to you, unless you are really, really established. Heck, even established bands have to play a lot of shows, to cover all of their bases. I'm a huge music fan, but even I won't drive all over the country to see a band. Fifty miles is about my limit. Which, incidentally, is the distance from my house to Dallas. I'll either wait until they have a show close enough to me, or I'll just miss out. I really hate to miss out, but that's just the way it goes sometimes.

Now, with all of that out of the way, let's just say that this week's show is a very special one for me. We will be playing at the Railhead Smokehouse in Willow Park, Texas, this Saturday, October 19th at 7:30pm. So, why is it so special? Well, it's a hometown gig for me. My family moved to Willow Park when I was 10 years old, and with the exception of a few years, after high school, I've pretty much lived in the area, ever since. I'm currently in Aledo, which is a couple of miles up the road. Aledo and Willow Park, have pretty much turned into one big conglomerate.

Hometown gigs, don't seem to happen very often, when your a musician. At least they haven't for me. Now, if you live in a big city, they may occur more regularly. To date, we've only played in my area twice. Once was in January, at the now defunct, Dirt Roads Dancehall (aka Wet Willies), and the other time was in May, for a private party at my folks house, in Willow Park. Ironically enough, we played a hometown gig, last week, for Roy. We were at Reno Reds in Roanoke, which is only a couple of miles from his house. This was our first ever gig in Roanoke. We didn't plan these two gigs to fall this way, it's just sort of the way it happened. You take the dates, when they are available. Most of the time though, every member of the band, is doing some driving. It's just kind of the way it goes.

When SDR first started, I had people immediately tell me, "Y'all need to go play up at Railhead." A lot of these people were family and friends. I understand why they want us to play there. It's got great food, and it's close to them, lol. Remember what I said earlier? Most of my family and friends, are not gonna drive to Dallas, Glen Rose, or wherever, to listen to us play. Heck, I don't blame them!

The Railhead is a really neat venue, and is quickly becoming a must stop, on the Texas music circuit. They are able to host shows year round, with their indoor/outdoor patio area. They are heavily affiliated with 95.9 The Ranch, and have hosted numerous events, and concerts with the station.

We are very excited about this show, and It's been on the calendar for quite some time, now. They book their shows, several months in advance, so if you don't catch us this weekend, then it may be awhile, before we are back. If you are in the Aledo/Willow Park area, and are interested in the band, then please come and support us. We want to see everyone. It's gonna be a party. The Railhead has great food, ice cold beer, and plenty of non alcoholic beverages, plus a great atmosphere! It's the place to be in Willow Park/Aledo. Of course, if you live in the area, then you already know that. We look forward to seeing you there, and please bring a friend, or two, or three!

The Railhead Smokehouse is located at 120 S. Ranch House Road, Willow Park, Texas. It's right off of I-20. Showtime again, is at 7:30pm.

Well, thanks for stopping by. We really do appreciate the support, and look forward to seeing you Saturday.

On Tap This Week: More Shows!

We had a blast at Chubby's Burger Shack, last Friday night. We celebrated my youngest daughter's birthday, made some new fans, and will be booking another show there, next year. You can't ask for much more then that, can you? They are booked up for the rest of the year, and it's easy to see why. Great, great staff, that were super cool to us. For a complete recap of this show, be sure and check out Roy's blog here www.royholliday.blogspot.com Thank you Chubby's, for everything, we look forward to doing it again.

The fall tour (lol), continues on this week, with a pair of shows on Friday and Saturday. On Friday, we will be up in Roanoke, Texas. This weekend is Celebrate Roanoke weekend, and we will be kicking things off at Reno Red's. Reno Red's is located at 304 U.S. 377, Roanoke, Texas. This is on the Roanoke strip. The Celebrate Roanoke weekend will be taking place, all along the strip. Other notable bands will be performing throughout the weekend, including Brave Combo, Le Freak, and many more. Be sure and check the listings, for dates & times. Our show at Reno Red's will start at 6:30pm. This is an early show, but no worries, just take off work early, and come start the weekend with us. I'm sure your boss won't mind, and if you are the boss, better yet!

On Saturday night, we will move things over to the Fort Worth/River Oaks area, as we will be returning to the Cowtown Bowling Palace. The Cowtown Bowling Palace is located at 4333 River Oaks Blvd., Fort Worth, Texas. This is a great deal, that they have going on. It's called, Bowling With The Bands. For $10, you get two hours of unlimited bowling, live music, and cheap beer! They also have cheap prices on their non-alcoholic beverages. We've played several shows here, and it's always a fun time. Mike, and the gang at Cowtown, are an awesome bunch, so c'mon down! SDR will go on at 9:30pm.

One last note, we are booking for holiday parties now. It's hard to believe, that it's already getting to be that time of year again. If you would like SDR to come and play a private event, please shoot us an email at info@sanddollarodeo.com Either Roy, or I, will respond right back, and get you set up.

Ok, that's all I've got for now. Time for me to run, or bike, or whatever. Have a great weekend, and I hope that you are able to make it to one of the shows.

A Birthday Bash

This is a very special week for me, but before I get into that, I would like to give you a brief recap, of last week.

We had a gig at Caddo Street Grill, in Cleburne, on Saturday. What started out as a very difficult, and stressful night, ended up being one of the best shows that SDR has played, to date. Cisco had a death in his family on Saturday. Most of his family lives in Minnesota, so he was unable to be with them, immediately. I know he was having a very difficult time with this. Honestly, if he would have had to cancel, I would have understood, under the circumstances. I think the tension, and stress of all the pre-show activities, contributed to us having such a great show. We released all of that pent up stress, and anxiety into the music. The show was loud, rowdy, aggressive, and rambunctious, but in a good way. This was a show that Marti had booked several months ago. She and her husband Wayne were there. Wayne mentioned to Roy, that he thought it was the best we had ever sounded. My wife, who is no stranger to SDR shows, mentioned that we were more entertaining here, then we ever had been. It was really nice to have all of this positive feedback, after the way the night started.

I would really like to thank Cisco for playing that night, under such difficult circumstances. I would also like to thank Jade Flores for coming out, and starting things up. Jade is an amazing talent, and I see great things for her, in the future. She really helped us out, by extending her set. You can check out Jade here www.jadeflores.com or at www.reverbnation.com/jadeflores Also, for a complete recap of this show, be sure and check out Roy's blog here http://royholliday.blogspot.com Roy's blog focuses specifically on each show, through his eyes.

This week, we will be at Chubby's Burger Shack on Friday, October 4th. Chubby's is located at 7914 Camp Bowie West Blvd., Fort Worth, Texas. We will start at 8pm. This is another gig, that Marti had booked for us, sometime ago.

I had mentioned earlier, that this was a very special week for me. The reason? It's my youngest daughter, Faron's birthday. She will be the big, 6 years old, on Friday. For those of you that don't know, she goes by Fernie, however. The name, Fernie, came from her older sister, Zaira, At the time, Zaira was just learning to talk. She couldn't say Faron, and started calling her Fernie. Soon, everyone in the family started calling her Fernie, and the name stuck. As time went on, Faron decided that she wanted to be called Fernie, and she has made this very clear to everyone. All of her friends and teachers, at school, call her Fernie. I seem to be the only one that still wants to call her Faron. I prefer her formal name, but oh well. When I forget, and call her Faron, she quickly lets me know that it's Fernie. I have a feeling that this will all change, once she reaches middle school or high school, but who knows? Especially, with her. She is a very unpredictable child.

When this date was first presented, my first inclination was to decline, and have Marti reschedule the venue, for another time. But, after talking it over with my wife, and Fernie, we decided to keep the date. You see, Fernie really enjoys hearing the band play. She would go to every gig, if she could, and if my wife would let her. Unfortunately, a good portion of the places we play, are either not kid friendly, or the gig starts, right at, or after her bedtime.

As I said, Fernie is really into the band. She always wants to help me load my gear into the car, then she begs my wife, to let her go to the gig with me. When we are out at the car, she will say, "Daddy, can I go with you?". and I'll say, "Go ask you mother.", and she does. It's funny, but it makes me feel good too.

So, since Fernie likes to hear us play, the venue is kid friendly, and the gig does not start too late, we decided to make it Part 1, of Fernie's birthday bash. Plus, Fernie loves burgers, so that made it a no brainer. Part 2 will happen on Saturday afternoon at Chuck E. Cheese's. I'm already feeling a headache coming on. Just kidding!

We will be without Cisco this week, as he has travelled to Minnesota, to be with his family. Luckily, Roy knows how to program a drum machine, so we will be using that on Friday. It will definitely be a different feel, without the live drums, but we would rather go this route, then have to cancel the gig. So, if your in the area Friday, stop by Chubby's, have a burger, and wish Fernie a happy birthday! Or, you can stop by Chuck E. Cheese's, on Saturday. Hmm.... I think I would go with Chubby's.

As always, thanks for reading, and for your support. Time to go practice, with the drum machine. Talk to ya soon!

Gearing Up For Fall

Fall has arrived! It's hard to believe. We've welcomed fall, down here in Texas, with some balmy 80 degree days. That's much better then 100, though! If you've been following the blog, then you know we've kind of been holed up during the dog days of summer. A lot of this was by design, as we brought Brian onboard, and have been totally revamping the live show. Cisco has moved on to a full drum kit vs. a percussion set up. Now, to facilitate all of this, we've had to make major changes to the way we do things.. I won't bore you with all of the technical details, but I will say it's been a challenge. In the long run though, I believe it's what's best for us, and that it will payoff.

We've played three shows, with this setup so far, and we've had to tweak things after each show, as we learn what works and what doesn't.

Things are about to get a whole lot busier for us though, as we have a slew of shows coming up, this fall. We will be visiting a lot of new venues too, which is always exciting.

We will be kicking things off this Saturday, at the Caddo Street Grill, in Cleburne, Texas. This is our first ever gig in Cleburne, and we are really excited, to be going down there. We really enjoy visiting the smaller towns, like Glen Rose, Granbury, Weatherford, and Burleson, among others. I expect Cleburne will be a fun trip, as well. The Caddo Street Grill is located at 211 S. Caddo Street, Cleburne, Texas. We will be having a special guest join us for this show, as Jade Flores will be kicking things off. You can check out Jade's work here www.reverbnation.com/jadeflores Check out her music, she has a great voice! Jade will go on at 9pm, and then SDR will follow, somewhere between 9:45 and 10pm. So, if your going to be in the Cleburne area on Saturday night, c'mon by and see us!

To check out the rest of our fall schedule, please be sure and visit our official website, www.sanddollarrodeo.com We hope you can make it out to one of our shows. While your there, can you please click on the Facebook icon, on the site, and give us a like? That is, if you like us, lol. If Facebook is not your thing, but Twitter is, then we have you covered there too. You can click the Twitter icon, on our website, and it will allow you to follow us on Twitter.

Ok, kids, that's all I've got for now. Time for me to get out on the bike, and enjoy this awesome weather. Talk to ya soon, and thanks for reading!

A Last Minute Gig, And Some Recording

Hello gang! Hope everyone is doing well. Did you enjoy your Labor Day weekend? I know, I did. I had some good food, worked in a long bike ride, and watched plenty of football! I always consider Labor Day weekend, to be the unofficial end of summer. School has started, football is here, and it seems to be getting dark, earlier in the evening. Of course, the actual weather is telling a different story, as we have been well over 100 degrees, for the last week. It looks like we will be in the high 90's, for the rest of the week though, so that's good! Bring on fall!

SDR, managed to get some work in, over the holiday weekend. We holed up in the studio, and recorded a live show favorite, called Island Holiday. We will be releasing it as a free download, on Friday, November 29th. That is Black Friday, by the way. It is our Christmas present to you, the fans. The only requirement is, that you need to be on our mailing list, in order to access the download. Are you on our mailing list? If not, then what are you waiting for? You can sign up for our mailing list here www.sanddollarrodeo.com Just scroll down, look for the mailing list sign up, enter your email address, and that's it! We promise not to spam your inbox with offers, or junk. Normally, you will receive a newsletter, about once a month. We will also send out any big announcements, through this channel, as well.

We also recorded a scratch demo, for a new song that we are working on. Plus, we went over three other songs new songs, that are in pre-production. Look for these songs to start working there way into the live set, throughout the fall and winter.

I had mentioned not to long ago, that things in the music business often change in an instance, and without notice. Well, this happened yesterday. Our good friend, Marti, who is a booking agent, received a call from the Cutting Horse Saloon. They had a band cancel, for this Friday. They were inquiring, to see if she had anyone, that could fill the spot. Well, all of her other bands, were booked. We did not have anything scheduled, so she contacted Roy, to see if we wanted it. We got a hold of Brian and Cisco, to see if they would be available on such short notice, and thankfully, they were.

I'm really excited about this show. These are the types of shows, that Roy and I, really like to play. It will be a 90 minute show, with no breaks. They have a house PA, and that means a soundman! Yes! I know Roy is really happy, as he gets a break from being the soundman.

The Cutting Horse is located at 2132 Tin Top Road, Weatherford, Texas. We will start at 9:30pm, and play till 11pm. From my understanding, there will also be another band following us, but I am not sure who it is, as of press time. This is our first ever show in Weatherford! So, please come out, if you can! We have been trying to get out that way, for quite awhile now. Many thanks to Marti, for making this happen!

Well, that about does it for now. Thanks for reading, and I'll talk to ya soon!

Returning To The Stage

As many of you know, we haven't played live since July 19th. That's a pretty long layoff, as far as I'm concerned. The time has actually gone by, rather quickly though. We've been very busy, behind the scenes, and I was able to work in a family vacation to Arkansas. To see what we've been up to, you can check out my last couple of posts, in the archives.

This coming weekend, we will be returning to the stage, with a show at the Cowtown Bowling Palace, on Saturday, August 24th. We will be playing from 9:30pm to 12:30am. The cover charge is $10, but it includes all you can bowl for two hours, plus live music. That's a pretty cheap way to spend a Saturday night, if you ask me. The Cowtown Bowling Palace is located at 4333 River Oaks Blvd., Fort Worth, Texas.

This will also be the debut, for our new bass player, Brian Barton. Cisco, will also be bringing out the big drums, for the first time. We've had a lot of compliments on his percussion playing. The people we have talked to, think it's really neat, and different. Trust me though, you will enjoy him on full drums too. The full kit, just takes things to a whole other energy level and feel, in my opinion. Both Cisco and Brian, have been working very hard, and I really appreciate it. Roy has too. We will still be sequencing some of the keyboards, and using click tracks on occasion. Roy has had to make a lot of adjustments, on that end. He will also be playing quite a bit more live keyboards, then what he normally does. I'll say it again, I really appreciate all the work, that these three have put in.

I've actually had it the easiest. Not a lot has really changed on my end. The only issues, I seem to be having, are equipment related, ugh! I had a cable go out at practice, but it's hard for me to complain. The thing lasted me 4 or 5 years. It was more of an annoyance, then anything. I run four cables from my amp, to my pedal board, and through my guitar. I had to disconnect everything, and test each cable out, to find the guilty party. Then the footswitch, for my amp, started acting up. Luckily, I had a spare, and we were ok. And lastly, we discovered that my monitor is on it's last legs. Monitors, are the speakers that face the band. They are usually placed at the front of the stage. This is so the band members can hear everything. The only sound coming out of my monitor, is from the high end horn. The bass speaker is dead. I love new gear, as much as anyone, but I'm really getting tired of having to dump money into it. It seems like I need two, of every piece of gear. It's getting kind of annoying. Ok, end of rant. This week, I'll go pick up some new cables, and replace the monitor, when I can. Hopefully, my footswitches will hold out, too.

We had our final two rehearsals for the show, this past weekend, over at Roy's house. We've made several tweaks, with the song list. All the originals, of course, will still be present, but we've added a few, dropped a few, and brought one back from the dead, on the cover end. We also hope to add a new original song to the mix, in the coming weeks. We've also re-worked one of the covers, that we were considering dropping, plus several others. I'm really looking forward to playing all of these revamped songs.

Rehearsal went smooth, until Sunday afternoon. We had played 3 or 4 songs, and were really starting to get into the groove of things, when the doorbell rang. Can you guess who it was? If you guessed the police department, then you guessed correctly! The officer was very polite, and asked if he could come in. He went on to explain, that one of the neighbors had called in a noise complaint. He asked me to strum my guitar, to see how loud it was, and then said, "Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's what I heard, when I was driving up here." All of us, including him, had a laugh. He hung out for a few more minutes. I think he was hoping that we would play a song, or something. He told us, that he hated to tell us to turn down, but he had no choice.

He left, we turned way down, and the rehearsal pretty much lost all of it's energy. What's funny, is that we were not even running our PA. It was all monitor, amps, and drums. We turned down so low, that Roy didn't even bother singing into the mike, most of the time. It turned into a mechanical, robotic rehearsal, for the rest of the afternoon. It was the strangest rehearsal, I have ever been a part of. Oh well, we did the best that we could do, under the circumstances. I feel confident, that we will be ok on Saturday night. Everyone in this group is great, about doing their homework. Would I like to have one more rehearsal? Yeah, I would, but it's not in the cards. Nothing we can do about it, so I'm not going to worry myself to death, over it.

Well, that's about all I have for now. If your in the area, on Saturday night, stop by Cowtown, meet Brian, check out the new show, and do some bowling! Thanks for reading, and I'll talk to ya soon!