What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been...

Hey everybody, how have y'all been? It's been a long time since I posted anything on the blog but I couldn't think of a better title than to borrow one from one of the coolest bands around, the Grateful Dead. 10 years...man I can hardly believe it, it seems like only yesterday we were playing one of our first show at the Silverado Saloon for a handful of people, thinking this may have been a big mistake with trying to have our own band after all the success Ryan & I had with Ray Jr, & the I-95 Band. In the beginning, we had a lot of long nights and there were times when we just wanted to pack it up & get real jobs and stop fooling ourselves. There were nights when we shut 'er down @ midnight because we either playing to the same "drunks" that had been there since noon or just bar personnel...depressing but "that's how it goes playing in a band"; you've gotta pay your dues, take your lumps, pick yourself up & dust yourself off and get back on that horse. Growing where we did, music was the only thing that kept us out of trouble and a lot our parents played music or instruments so this was bound to happen. I can remember watching my dad and his brothers sitting around a fire, drinking beers and picking some guitar and thought it was the coolest thing in the world...right there I knew what I wanted to do: PLAY GUITAR. I got my first guitar when I was 13 or 14 and it wasn't long after "driving my friends crazy with my one-note, one-string riffs" that I surpassed my dad and his brothers in prowess on the guitar but I couldn't sing a lick. I focused on the guitar more than anything else in my life, except for football and other sports. Alright, enough about my life....After about 3-4 years of "paying dues" things really started to happen for WJ and we started playing more high-profile gigs like street dances (I can still remember my first street dance booking like it was yesterday) and other things like that. We even started playing at the bars our folks used to go to when we were younger and that was a little surreal but also cool. As most of you know, with all of the good that was happening for us, there had to be some bad spots as well...losing band members, gigs being cancelled due to the economy and DJ's/Karaoke taking the spotlight 'cuz it was cheaper to have that than book "live music". We've played hundreds of shows and I would say 90-95% were really good and a lot of fun...we got to play WE-FEST, KICK'n UP KOUNTRY, the 1st Moondance Jammin Country Fest (and we're going back this year too!) and a lot more. When will it all end, I can't say but I will enjoy it while it lasts and I'm able to do it so when I'm old & gray I can say it was one hell of a ride and I wouldn't trade one single thing...one single minute of it for the world.