Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Weekend Recap

I have still not really recovered from this last weekend of shows! The energy was up, beer was flowing, and each show was better than the last. What more could you ask for?

Friday we started things out at Woody's opening for William Clark Green. I got to catch up with an old high school and Texas Tech friend of mine Ausitn Davis, who plays electric banjo for them. You might remember him from playing with Josh Abbot in the not so long ago times. Our set was short but good. We had a decent crowd show up for the show. We took to the stage and started our first song and the next thing you know it, we're off the stage. That's what opening a show feels like for me at least. William Clark Green really surprised me. I had passively heard some songs here and there from them, but I was blown away by their stage presence. Austin Davis is a phenomenal lead guitarist / banjoist, William Clark Green had great vocal tonality with strong grit and blues sitting in the back of his throat. The bass player, forgot his name sorry, was high energy all night bouncing around doing his bass player magic. Also, the drummer was covered in sweat which is the indicator that they rocked. Good show, good times.

 Us at Woody's


Saturday we played in Stephenville,TX at City Limits. Last time we played there we opened up for the ultra talented Whiskey Myers and got to see firsthand the sea of college kids pouring onto that dance floor. This time we were headlining and school was out. Different kind of experience. The crowd may not have been as strong as our last go around, but we still played hard and impressed the ones who stayed in town for Summer.

 City Limits Stage


That leaves us with The Locks of Love Benefit in New Braunfels,TX. Out of control. I don't have enough pages to explain the depth of musical talent we got to surround ourselves with at that place. I brief recap which will not give much justice to the madness.

We got sweaty and gave it our all and the crowd liked what they heard. That was satisfying in its own right, considering just about everyone there was listening to our songs for the first time.

The acoustic sets were waves of immensely talented lyricists. Please refer to the show poster below for accurate names. Like I said, I haven't really got all my wits back from this long weekend.

I watched 11 Bones for the first time and liked them a lot. Their new single is playing on Galleywinter's "The Drop", so make sure to check them out.

Midnight River Choir were great as well. I really liked their sound and watched the crowd swell up to the stage agreeing with me.

Then came Matt King & The Cutters. I could write a whole separate post about that set and how blown away I was by their live act. I had listened to them before but had never seen them on stage. All I can say is you are immensely missing out if you choose to not see them when they're in your neck of the woods. Highest energy stage show I've seen in years and the music doesn't get better.

Finishing up the night was The Dead Rock Stars. This is a group of musicians from various other bands who decided to perfect the art of being in a cover band. Cross Canadian Ragweed's bassist Jeremy Plato was, well, on bass. Matt Briggs drummer for Matt King and creator of Locks of Love was on drums. Austin Gilliam was swinging his hair on lead guitar and Allan Goodman was on rhythm. Some of the songs sounded better than the original bands playing them live.

Dead Rock Stars with Dub Miller helping out on vocals


Us at Billy's Icehouse

Free and V playing an acoustic set. 12 year old guitar prodigy.

Jason Marbach

Matt King setting the place on fire

I could go on and on just about that wild Sunday at The Lock of Love Benefit, but if you really want to know about it, just come out next year! 

Crazy weekend.


Friday, May 21, 2010

Woody's Ft. Worth, City Limits Stephenville, and Billy's Icehouse New Braunfels

I was so excited about this weekend I already gave the good details out last week. So in honor of a lazy Friday, go to the last two posts and you'll see what I'm up to. Have a great weekend ya'll! The trailer is loaded and I'm out the door for Fort Worth we're opening for William Clark Green tonight at Woody's Tavern. I'll make sure to take lots of pictures and maybe a video or two. This time I'll remember to have a recap post of the shows, venues, people, and madness.

Also, make sure to follow my twitter @texharp and our band's @CHDband. If you need to know what people in the know..know, then that's your best bet on keeping up with our latest shenanigans.


Have a great weekend!

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Locks of Love May 23'rd New Braunfels,TX

As I posted yesterday our band is playing in the Locks of Love Benefit Concert at Billy's Icehouse in New Braunfels, TX on May 23'rd. Well, this morning Matthew Briggs who is responsible for putting together the event has released the lineup and new poster. So, without further adieu here it is!

It's going to be a great show!

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Woody's, City Limits, And Locks of Love New Braunfels!

Well last weekend was a long and fun one. Our first show at the first annual Crude Fest was a short but good one. We jumped on stage at 2:00 and before we knew it we were back off stage headed to Brownwood for our show that night at Uncle Dave's Roadhouse. Crude Fest in general was a great success and I was happy to see the growing crowd filling up the fields to see some Texas Music in our neck of the woods. Our set was an opening slot to the T. Monitors were non-existent, the bass amp provided wasn't working, and we were cut earlier than our promised stage time. That's what ya get though when you're early on the first day. It was trial by error and we were the Guinea Pigs. I wasn't too worried about it. We got play our music to a new crowd and in the end that was satisfying enough.

 Stolen Facebook pics from Crude Fest

 Worst resolution picture of the crowd during Roger Craeger.


Uncle Dave's Roadhouse was fun just like last time we played there, but Brownwood listeners are a strange bunch. There were roughly 20 to 30 people there which wasn't too bad considering it was our 2'nd time in town and there was a wet T-shirt contest going on down the road. The people who filed in found there seat, drank their beers, and quietly watched the show. We tried all kinds of crowd interaction but aside from some local pals, there wasn't much response. What was really odd though was they were intensely watching the show, not talking much, but didn't make a noise. Again it was nice to spread the music in  new place to some new faces and life went on.

We woke up and drove back to Midland and opened for Deanna Carter at The Horseshoe Arena for the American Cancer Society's Cattle Baron Ball. It was a fun show. We got a separate stage from Deanna's but that was expected and we played a rocking set for Midland's finest. Deanna seemed nice and she had a semi enthusiastic, "ya'll might remember this one" kind of show. The drummer liked us a whole lot since he flew in to find that the sound company had provided him with the cheapest drum set in West Texas. He borrowed Darren's Snare, Cymbals, and kick drum pedal and was very grateful for it. We played a second set after Deanna was done to the leaving crowd and finished it up melting the faces of empty chairs and the crew cleaning up. Went home, had a beer, and slept the rest of the weekend away.

Coming up is another long crazy weekend. Friday May 21'st we will kick it off opening for William Clark Green at Woody's Tavern in Fort Worth. We pack up and wake up in Stephenville and are headlining City Limits on the 22'nd.

Sunday the 23'rd we make our way down to New Braunfels for a really special gig. It's the Locks of Love Benefit held at Billy's Icehouse. Last year we were supposed to head that way but Cody got a throat infection and we had to cancel. I went down anyways with my girlfriend and it was a blast. Amanda and I walked into the bar in the early afternoon and there was Cody Canada and Stephanie Briggs sitting up on stage having an acoustic song swap. The rest of the day followed suit with surprise guests and amazing performances. The most important thing to note about the whole event is that if you have some long hair, head over to the barber chairs in the corner. Fans and musicians alike (notably Cody Canada did last year) can cut their locks off and donate it to Alopecia and cancer patients. This will be a very important show for me because my father has alopecia and my girlfriend's mother recently passed from Ovarian Cancer. It is a great cause and I am very excited we decided to donate our time and music for the event.

Here's the poster from last year's event. Artwork courtesy of Stephanie Briggs. 

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