Wow, so like our last post said, this is gonna be a breakout year for us. This first quarter a LOT has happened.
So, probably the biggest and most significant update is that we are now a five piece band with the addition of saxophone. We are blessed to have Casey Artzer filling this spot for us regularly (we also have our friend, and master saxophonist, Harry Muldrow, to fall back on if Casey is not available so that we always have the sax sound that has quickly defined us).
Casey has been playing every gig with us this year and if you’ve never heard him you are in for a treat! He has so much energy, a genuine interest in the music and an attitude that is infectious. Add on top of that chops that just are out of this world! It has been a breath of life into us…solidifying that desire to be the best we can possibly be. Working with Casey is just flat out fun!
So, if that isn’t huge in and of itself, we have had a lot of cool things happen to us and played some incredible shows so far this year.
First we played at The Happy Basset Barrel House in Topeka. Craig sat in a few songs with us and we played to an incredible audience and honestly sounded about as good as we ever have.
Then the big one, for us anyway, was playing in January at Christine’s Firehouse in North Kansas City. Casey played with us that night and quite honestly we burned the place down (pun kind of intended)! Incredible crowd, incredible staff, incredible food, and we played like we have never played before! We gained a lot of new followers that night and scheduled a followup show there in June. This was our first, real break into the Kansas City market. Our goal is to make a name for ourselves in Kansas City and this got the ball rolling!
In March a couple huge things happened to us. First, we had a friend tell us of an opening at The KC Juke House Blues & Jazz in the historic 18th & Vine jazz district in Kansas City and suggested we see about filling it, which were able to. OK, mind you this is less than a week before the show when we secured it and we had to throw together a quick rehearsal that same morning because, I mean, it’s the 18th & Vine jazz district! We needed to add some jazz tunes to our set. All I can say is, wow. What an incredible night. Not only was the staff there great, every single person was so nice to us! The stage was incredible (killer stage light setup), the food was out of this world, and the audience was extremely receptive. So, a big thank you to Andrea Shelby (who was equally super nice) for giving us fellas the opportunity to play in a historic part of Kansas City and for inviting us back again (so look for the dates on our Shows page)!
The second big thing in March is that we were able to secure a spot at the Summertime Blues in the Park hosted by the Topeka Blues Society that is held at the Gage Park Amphitheater in Topeka on May 17th.! This is another milestone for us. To be part of this event, at least to us, is a big deal. We had some behind the scenes things working to make it happen (Thanks to Danielle Norwood of Majic 107.7 for spearheading this and of course to Suki Blakely for having us) and are confident we are going to bring Topeka an incredible 90 minutes of blues in the park!!
Whew! That is a lot for only three months! We have so much more coming though! We are attending the Kansas City Blues Society Meeting/Jam at The Hideout Bar & Grill in Gladstone, MO. on March 8th (our friends Double Take, who we met at the 2023 IBC at Knuckleheads Garage are the host band) and then we will be hosting the KCBS Meeting/Jam on May 10th at Scores Bar & Grill in Independence, MO.
Unfortunately, April will see us with a little down time. Nic will be having some surgery that will prevent him from performing live for pretty much all of April. Nothing serious, but will prevent him from being able to hold or play guitar. But we will be back with a vengeance in May and have stuff lined up already for June, July and August with plenty more just waiting to happen!
If you follow us on social media, thank you SO much! it really means a lot to us and believe it or not helps us out immensely. Thank you for everyone who comes to our shows, who says nice things to us and who support local music and local musicians. Kansas City is chock full of top-notch music, musicians and venues that is as good, if not sometimes better, than big time national acts. So, as always, help support them by coming to shows, spreading the word and tossing a little something in the tip bucket!
Until the next post, PEACE!