Well happy Fall to ya! As I sit here and write this blog post, it's October 6, hurricane Ian has passed through, and we're finally seeing the sun again. The temperatures are cooler, and the leaves are changing. Another beautiful autumn time in Northern Virginia. Today's a great day to sit and write because I'm NOT getting mentally prepared for another weekend of multiple gigs, The Rowdy Ace Band is off for a whole weekend. And that has been a rarity for us this year, not to mention a welcome change and a needed break. Don't get me wrong, by Saturday night, I'll be looking over at Elwood saying, "man, I wish we had taken a gig for this weekend", but we'll get over it. It's been a fantastic 2022 for us, and that only happens because folks are still hearing about, coming to, listening to, and enjoying the Rowdy Ace Band. We're thankful for that!
In case you haven't noticed, we've had a new band member join us. Melissa "Twitch" Shaver is now playing drums. Twitch most recently played with the rock band "Whiskey Business", and was a mainstay and anchor for bands such as Livin' The Dream and Wicked Jezebel and has performed with many Rock bands in the area. The common theme of that last sentence is that it might seem weird to have a rock drummer join our band. I'd just say that Twitch is such a great master of her instrument that it doesn't matter what music she played before, she can play our music with enthusiasm and joy, and that's perfect for us. She grew up listening to Country music, went to school in Alabama and West Virginia, and has been exposed to Country her whole life. Don't worry, she's got this, and man, it is sounding great!
In other news, we are still riding high from our win of the Loudoun Times Mirror's Best of Loudoun Local Band. We still mention that on stage, and you all still applaud us, we are so appreciative of that. When we won, we had several past winners tell us that the winning won't help much in our business because people will forget by the time we book more gigs. Well, we've made it a point not to let people forget. We are proud of the accomplishment, and yah maybe we went a little over the top in printing beer cups and glass koozies with our logo and the best of Loudoun logo to give them away at shows, but then again...As of this writing, we're scheduled for about 80 shows this year. And already have booked about 30 shows for 2023. So maybe the trick *IS* to keep reminding folks that we won, we are thankful, and to give away some reminders.
So what does the future hold? Many great shows are still coming up this Fall and Winter, and we hope to see y'all at as many as you can make. We are booking for 2023, and one of the cool things that has happened is that we are getting "noticed" by bigger and very interesting venues/shows. We think you will both be surprised and excited to hear where we are booking for 2023. Additionally, after many years of talking about it, you will be able to buy, own, or stream some Rowdy Ace Band original music in 2023. I've been asked several times why we don't have "Beer County Line" on the streaming services or put out more of our own music. The answer has always been pretty simple for us, we play music people know and enjoy and have a bunch of fun doing it. Our original music has to fit into the type of music and band we are and want to be. Anybody with a recorded song and a credit card can be on Spotify and iTunes, and we have that. We just want it to be something people will enjoy. We'll certainly be testing our originals on ya during our upcoming shows, and if you like them, let us know, that will help us decide what we record and what gets published.
Lastly, around the end of every month, I inevitably get emails and messages that our shows for the next month aren't up yet on the website or FB. Just a reminder that during the year, we only put up one month at a time, there's a reason for that. We are very fortunate to play some venues several times a year, and we don't want folks to skip a show because they know when the next one will be at their favorite venue. But, if you are one of those people who have to be in the know, the best way to do that is to join our newsletter. We send out at least four newsletters a year where we list all the shows for the upcoming three months. We call this our #RowdyCrowd insider newsletter, and only folks subscribed to that can and will know in advance where we are going to be. Join the #RowdyCrowd, it's like our version of a fan club, and we have some great things planned for 2023 for just those folks who join up. The place to join the newsletter is in the box at the bottom of every page on this website.
Y'all stay warm out there. We look forward to seeing and playing for y'all soon at a Rowdy Ace Band show.