Basketball and Smart Phones

Maybe I should start this entry with an apology of sorts: several people have made a point to tell me how much they enjoy reading this each week, and how they look forward to the new entries.  Last week I didn’t write anything though, mainly for this reason: I couldn’t really think of anything interesting to write about.  I racked my brain for a couple days, and even started writing an entry, but it seemed hollow and boring, so I stopped.  I even asked a few people if they had any ideas for me, and there were some good ones, but nothing that I really felt motivated to write about.  Or maybe I just wasn’t feeling motivated at all.  Either way, for those of you that have made a point to tell me how much look forward to and enjoy reading this, I will do my best to stay on top of it and get at least one post out each week; and hopefully this one will be entertaining enough to make up for my laziness last week.

Well, we have already missed two shows this week due to issues with our van.  Apparently some sensor is malfunctioning, and needs to be replaced.  I’m not exactly sure which sensor it is, or how vital it is, but for our safety let’s assume it is a very important sensor.  Anyway, I guess it also is not a very common one, because the replacement needed to be ordered and shipped.  I’m told the part is coming in and being put in this morning, so hopefully as I’m typing the mechanics are installing it and we can get on the road soon.  I hate that we had to cancel shows, but I guess sometimes it must be done.  It sucks knowing there were people who were looking forward to coming out to our shows, and that we let them down.  We have scheduled two more shows at the same venue for next week to make up for it.  On the flip side though, we have gotten a few extra days at home because of this issue with the van, so I must say we are thankful for that.  I know I have enjoyed the extra couple days at home and being able to sleep in my own bed a few more nights.  I am sure Josh is especially enjoying the extra time at home, since his birthday was on Monday (when we were supposed to be traveling); so he actually got to spend his birthday with his wife and children instead of stuck in a van with us.  Oh, and Steve’s birthday was last Saturday; so when you see them, make sure to wish both of them Happy Belated Birthdays. 

Speaking of being able to be home Monday: the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship Game was Monday night, with the University of Kentucky playing.  Our band is based out of Lexington, KY, and in fact I’m the only member of the band that does NOT live in (or around) Lexington.  Both Kevin and Steve are big UK basketball fans, and I’d go as far as to say Kevin is a die-hard UK fan.  I, on the other hand, was born and raised in Bloomington, Indiana, currently live in Indiana, and am myself a huge IU basketball fan – Go Hoosiers!  I grew up going to IU games with my grandpa, and thus was taught from a very young age to greatly dislike UK (I know all our fans in Kentucky are cringing right now).  Kevin and I have had some very spirited debates throughout the years over the Hoosiers and the Wildcats.  You could say that this band is really into college basketball.  I’m guessing Kevin and Steve probably enjoyed having the extra time at home too so they could watch the Championship game with their friends and family.   Well, unfortunately for them (but to my satisfaction) Kentucky lost the game.  Here’s the crazy thing though: before the tournament started Kevin predicted that UK would win the National Championship, which I thought was absolutely absurd (for those of you that don’t follow college basketball as closely as we do, UK didn’t have as great of a season as was projected, and were not considered a likely choice to win).  He even made the comment that he was going to put $20 down on UK to win; at 50/1 odds, that would have been a nice payout.  I couldn’t believe it as they continued winning games and making it further in the tournament, all the way to the championship game; not only b/c of my dislike for them, but mainly b/c if they did win I knew I’d never hear the end of it from those two.  Luckily for my sanity they lost, and I only have to hear about UK making it to the championship game.  I guess maybe I’m just upset because my team had such a horrible year and didn’t even make the tournament. 

Like I said, most of the guys in this band are huge fans of college basketball in general, and our favorite time of year (for sports anyway) is the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament.  There are 48 games played in 4 days – it is spectacular!  I don’t know why we don’t just take that weekend off so we can watch all the games; every year we are on the road traveling and playing shows, and get upset because we miss most of the games those first four days.  One year we were actually stationary that weekend (playing several nights at the same club) and Kevin and I were so excited that we’d get to watch a bunch of games during the daytime.  The problem was that the band house where we were staying didn’t have cable.   The television had 2 channels, neither of them showing basketball games.  So our solution was to set up two computers side by side and watch the games online; which, besides the constant buffering, kind of worked.  We sat there all day long going back and forth between two computer screens trying to watch as much basketball as we possibly could.  Aaron thought we were nuts; but hey, we love basketball.  Anyway, just remembered that story and thought I’d share it.  Moving on.

I remember the very first entry I wrote when I started this blog saying something about being so far behind the times and blogs were popular like 13 years ago or something like that.  I am pretty far behind the times with most gadgets and electronics: I never owned (or really even played) an X-Box or Wii, I don’t have Blue Ray or 3-D or any of that stuff, my I-Pod is a little ‘shuffle’ from a decade ago, I don’t have a tablet or whatever other cool devices are out there, and I don’t have a smart phone – until now!  Yes, that is right, I am the last person in my age bracket to get a smart phone, but I finally have one; and it is awesome!  Just in regards to being able to promote our band and use TWITTER and FACEBOOK, it will make things so much easier for me.  Before I had been asking Josh to take a lot of pictures with his phone and then email them to me, and I was just able to post when we weren’t traveling and I could get on my laptop in the hotel room.  I hope he continues to do that, but now I can also do it myself and get pictures and posts up much faster and easier.  So now if we’re not promoting or updating properly, it is completely my fault.  No excuses anymore.  These phones are incredible.  Okay okay, I’m overly excited about catching up with everyone else in phone technology.  I’m sure I don’t even have the coolest or most up to date model either.  Some people are probably doing things with their phones that I haven’t even dreamed of; but don’t tell me what those things are yet.  I am just going to enjoy this moment for a while.  So expect more updates and pictures and maybe even a few short fun videos; and if I’m dropping the ball now, you all will have to get on me about it.  Hopefully I don’t overdo it and get annoying on social media; I’ll try to keep it under control. 

Speaking of our social media, I have a favor to ask: We been a little stagnant lately as far as increasing our fan base.  Mostly this is my fault; I have not done the promotion work the past few weeks that I should be doing.  But until we are getting mass radio play, the best way to get our band and music out there is word of mouth.  So we’d like your help here.  If you like our music, or enjoy coming out to our shows, or maybe even just think we’re good guys, we’d like to ask you to spread the word.  Tell other people about this band that you really like – listen to our albums with your co-workers, bring a new friend out to a show, something like that.  Also, you can just share us with all your online friends – email everyone the link to this blog, ‘share’ our FACEBOOK Fan Page on your ‘wall’, Tweet about us or re-tweet our messages.  If you can get just 5 new people to ‘follow’ us on TWITTER or ‘like’ our FACEBOOK page, you have helped us tremendously.  You are still our best chance of making this band stick around for a long time.  The more people that hear and like our music, the more likely (and able) we are to keep making more.  Without having those of you out there believing in what we do and loving our music, we won’t succeed.  The best music in the world is useless if no one hears it.  If you like what we do, we are asking that you share it with others.  Spread the word; see what other people think; and know that I always am so appreciative of anyone out there that likes and supports what we do.   

That being said, I should wrap this up.  I need to call and find out if our van is ready so we can get back out on the road and play some music.  We hope to see you all out at a show very soon.  As always, if there are subjects you’d like me to write about on here, or anything else you would like to hear about from our time on the road, please EMAIL me and let me know.  Lastly, I am posting the lyrics to the final song from our new album “Back In Town” - which you can find on I-TUNES.  The final track on the album is a live recording of the hit song “Let’s Get Rowdy” off our first record. 

Be safe out there.

“Let’s Get Rowdy”

Well the sun goes down and it all begins, I’m gonna meet up with all my friends

Hang out and cut loose for a while

You know there’s nothing like a woman in a cowboy hat, dancing on the bar that’s where its at

Makes me smile, drives me wild

If you’re a party crowd get up get loud

Don’t worry about nothing right now

Just roll, let’s go insane

We can raise it up or we can raise some hell

Or we can tear it down you can never tell

What’s gonna happen with me

Come on now, let’s get rowdy

If there’s a country song on the radio just turn it up and let it soothe your soul

Let that red dirt flow through your veins

There’s a lot of beer and a lot of Beam

And a whole club full of beauty queens

Rockin’ this scene, making me scream

If you’re a party crowd get up get loud

Don’t worry about nothing right now

Just roll, let’s go insane

We can raise it up or we can raise some hell

Or we can tear it down you can never tell

What’s gonna happen with me

Come on now, let’s get rowdy

They’re coming in here we go again, gonna rock this town tonight

This evening I’m feeling alive

If you’re a party crowd get up get loud

Don’t worry about nothing right now

Just roll, let’s go insane (HEY HEY)

We can raise it up or we can raise some hell

Or we can tear it down you can never tell

What’s going to happen with me, oh yeah

If you’re a party crowd get up get loud

Don’t worry about nothing right now

Just roll, let’s go insane (HEY HEY)

We can raise it up or we can raise some hell

Or we can tear it down you can never tell

What’s gonna happen with me

Come on y’all, let’s get Rowdy

Let’s get rowdy