We've had a good winter so far, had some fun playing with the cast of characters for the Bocomo Ramble on New Years Eve and playing Steve Earle songs at Mojos. I guess all we have to do is tell people we're not playing our own songs and hundreds of people show up.

We just got back from a weekend spent in Springfield, with our buddy Matt Netzer,  it's always a good time. We also played a really long show for a 417 magazine event called, "Whiskey Fest". 1000's of bottles of whiskey sitting around to be tasted for free. Suprisingly, it was a fairly low key event. We only saw a few stumblers and nobody puked in the ballroom, as far as I could tell. It seems like a dangerous idea to give people tons of free whiskey, but the fairly high ticket price and a classy atmosphere seemed to keep most people under control.

I can't say I was too unhappy to see 2012 go away. It was a tough year on a personal level, but hell, maybe they all are.

We did put the new recording for sale online recently. It only has 9 songs in the online version, for reasons you'll have to ask us about in person, but it's still a good thing to have, I think.

Anyway, we're heading out to do a few shows the week before Mardi Gras in February and we'll be doing another "big long run" in April. Summer should bring some new recordings. The details on that stuff will be here, or on the Facebook page Brock runs, or both.

So, since the 15th of May, when the last update was done, that's a lot of
space to cover.
We have written new songs and recorded them and played a pretty fair amount of shows, with old friends and new.

It's interesting, in the last couple of years we have played for a 100th birthday party, until 4a.m. and at 7:30 a.m., recorded 30 some songs and played hundreds of shows all over the South and MidWest. We, however, certainly still
feel we're at the very beginning of what we're trying to do, because we are.

As October starts, we'll be heading out for shows that take us far SouthEast
and far SouthWest. We know, very firmly that we would have no chance of doing any of them without a support system of friends and family that is consistently more welcoming and enthusiastic than we could possibly deserve.

We recorded 10 songs a couple of months ago with Johnny Kenepaske at his Dead Horse Sound Company studio in Independence, MO. We did everything in probably less than 16 hours of recording and had a blast doing it.

It's kind of a big step for us, when we started doing this we didn't know if we'd ever go back in a big studio again. Johnny's place was sort of dipping our toe back into actual production, but trying to keep it pretty rough and ready at the same time.

The record shoud be available online around the 16th of October and we're all ready selling c.d.'s at the shows. They have an extra song on them that won't be available online, until someone uploads it less legitimately (not that we're against that).

We've played shows with our buddies in the area, like Scott Ford and Dave & Dyno and jammed with many talented musicians.

We did a Labor Day Ramble, inspired by Levon Helm's legendary efforts (I feel like and hope that's happening all over the world) and shared the stage with people I had wondered if I would ever get to play with (and in one case see) again.

It was a huge rousing success for all involved and I think paid off the mortgage on a local taco truck.

So, that's about where we stand, getting ready to do a couple of shows for good causes and then head out to North Carolina, for our 3rd time at Shakori Hills and first time in Greensboro. We also get to go back to Knoxville, which is awesome.

We hope to see everybody soon and I'll be updating this as we get back on the road and head for all these familiar and new places and experiences. Check the shows page, as things will be expanding rapidly.

All right, we're back up and running.

We just got done doing two shows w/Adam Lee and J.P. Harris.
Always a pleasure. Both bands will pretty much country your face off.

It was a good winter, we played several shows, made our first run to
Chicago and met  a lot of new folks.

In a few days we leave for a run through N.C. and points South.
We come back into Missouri to play our first Blue Note show.
So, lots of things going on.

We are going to be recording a full length, whatever you call it these days, over the summer.
For the first time we will be turning over a lot of the recording control to someone else.

I will be updating this blog throughout these events, although there will
be radio silence during the Shakori Hills Festival.

Come out and see us.