Kicking Off The New Year Right

Well I didn't expect this, but I'm honored to receive this recognition from the Austin Chronicle's 2011 Top 10 Lists -- Thanks to Jay Trachtenberg and the author of the "10 Local Albums You Missed" List!  My acceptance sppech also surely includes those involved in the making of this record: David Hobizal and Kyle Thompson on Drums, Jake Owen on Guitar, Ryan Bowman on Bass, CJ Menge on Marimba, Erin Ivey and Tody Castillo on vocals; the engineering talents of Chico Jones of Ohm Recording Facility, Brett McCarter, and Jake Owen; and definitely not least (maybe most), John Rosacker of Red Sky Records for being the executive producer and the catalyst for getting this thing started in the first place.  And course thanks to all of you for listening, buying the record, coming out to shows, and all other support of the music -- it keeps us going!

On Stage with Christopher Cross

Well... not yet, according to this photo, the only one I have so far of the Fire Relief concert last Monday night -- but I promise, he really did show and it went very well, I had a great time playing with everyone, and having the opportunity to play "Sailing" with the man who actually wrote that song was an amazing experience.  Although people were still coming in when we went on stage at 6:30PM, the place was completely packed the rest of the night, which was great news for the purpose of the show; I'm sure there are still ways to donate to the cause, to help so many people out of this terrible wreckage left by the central Texas wildfires.  But to me, probably the most amazing thing of the night (other than meeting Lyle Lovett and Joe Satriani in person, and seeing Willie Nelson for the first time live) was witnessing the completely professional sound and stage management by the company handling those duties (still trying to find out who did it).  To have that many bands with that much equipment changeover, with no feedback and smooth transitions, and the show ending at midnight as planned, was incredible.  Kudos to all the men and women who helped make the evening a success!  And of course the music was excellent as well, which was to be expected.  I wouldn't be surprised if a DVD of the night becomes available -- I'll post that info as soon as I know something.

Fire Relief: The Concert for Central Texas Monday, October 17th

Big news for Monday, October 17th: I'll be playing with Christopher Cross ("Sailing," "Ride Like the Wind," "Arthur's Theme") for Fire Relief: The Concert for Central Texas at the Erwin Center Monday evening -- we'll play two songs at 6:30, followed by a long list of bands and artists including Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett, Eric Johnson, Asleep at the Wheel, The Dixie Chicks, and George Strait.  I think even Steve Miller might be performing...  It's really an amazing event; everyone is donating their time and talent to help the wildfire victims, and so far 14,000 tickets have already been sold.  So I'm honored to be a part of this event, and there might even be some tickets left, so come on and support the cause -- tickets can be purchased at www.texasboxoffice.com.

Getting ready for the show at Momo's Friday -- I'm excited to have Suzanna singing with me on "Everybody Wants to Rule the World," and I'm really looking forward to working with all of the other singers performing Suzanna's songs later that night.  If you haven't heard it yet, you can check out more information about Suzanna's new record on her website:  www.suzannachoffel.com.  And I'll be posting a lot more about my new production work with Suzanna -- Johnny V and I have begun to produce a new song for her, which will be the first effort in working on production together.  There are a lot of possibilities here, with Johnny's extensive performing and recording experience with what seems like virtually every artist in Austin, especially the biggest names (I'll compile a list at some point).  More on all of that coming soon.

Okay, the cat is finally out of the bag I think:  I've been producing a new RnB artist named Laird Oliver, and we just finished an original song called "Cry Out Loud," with lyrics by Laird and music by yours truly.  There will be much more to hear from Laird, and I thought this would be the right time to introduce the new song, primarily because the song was just played on KAZI FM 88.7's show "Untapped" on Saturday, October 1st.  It was a quick turnaround -- we didn't even know they would play it until the day before!  We've already gotten some great feedback on the song, and will be posting new songs as they become available.

Cry Out Loud by lairdoliver

Update on Tuesday, October 4, 2011 at 7:14AM by Eddy Hobizal

We'll be uploading our own version of "Cry Out Loud" on YouTube, but for right now you can check out the tune and add more views to the song page by clicking on this link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8Gbfg4KXVY