This past Monday was the first day of school in Southern Nevada, and like much of the country the whole city was buzzing with the anticipation of the new school year.  Sunblock, coolers and board shorts gave away to notebooks, pencils and jeans and the new school year wokeup the 200,000+ students of the Clark County School District in the early hours of the 25th.  I was very happy to accept an invitation to the Alexander Dawson School  located on the far west side of Las Vegas to perform for an assembly for the faculty, students and their families and to serve as a high energy start-out-the-gate for the 2014-2015 school year.

     The facilities were immaculate, the students  well behaved and engaging and the faculty was very helpful and happy to have me performing for their educational community. It was a great afternoon and rumor has it that I will be back sometime during the school year in full workshop mode. This is very exciting as they have top notch educators at the helm of their music technology and choir programs. I have a few ideas about the workshop that I haven’t implemented  that I need to bounce off of them, but if it takes off…man….it’s going to be a very special time at the Alexander Dawson School!
                          

   Some of you may have seen the new banner I put up this week. Over the next couple of weeks there may be a few changes on it: added/changed dates or locations. There are a number of lines in the water that my team and I are following up on. Feel free to post it on your own Facebook page, website, blog, Twitter. That organic level of support is always great to receive from friends and fans of my music.

     You may have also noticed the Electro Voice logo on the banner.  The support they are putting behind the tour is amazing! Electro Voice has been a champion of my music for a number of years now and I am beyond thankful for their support.  When I first started looping 5 or so years ago, I started out with an old mic I picked up somewhere. When the day came when I needed a solid, reliable mic that meets and exceeds all of my needs, I didn’t know where to look. So I did what anybody would do: I tried out e-v-e-r-y mic at the music shop. At the end of the day one stood out that was the perfect cross section of meeting my needs on and offstage, value and price point. That day I left with the ND767 mic and haven’t looked back since! If you looking to get into the vocal end of things or need it for your horn, drum kit or school music ensemble, give the ND767  a look…and a listen!

     This next week I am going to putting up Volume 2 of my ‘How to Make a Pedal Board.’ If you remember a few weeks ago, I posted a blog about the construction of my new pedal boards. My old rig was close to six feet long, and now I have to smaller boards are far more portable and easier to get in and out of venues. I will need to take a few pictures of the new rig, and the new equipment I have added to it! Very exciting stuff and next level gear.

    Hope as your summer starts to come to a close that you look back on it with great memories. I know my summer was fun and full of a lot of leaps and bounds. Keep an eye on my website for tour dates and info as it comes in.  Thanks for all of your support….See you soon. Oh by the way….in just over a month, I will be on the road!

Just Alliance

Las Vegas ,NV

August 29, 2014

     I know, I know. I haven’t posted a new blog for a couple of weeks. For that I apologize. However, the silver lining is this: there are many great things in motion that will culminate in the tour that kicks off in less than two(!) months. I am still wrapping my mind around how one email turned into my very first tour of this length. In a former life as a Trumpet player I was invited to gigs on the shores of both the Atlantic  and Pacific Oceans and from the frozen reaches of the upper Midwest to the palm tree lined streets of Southern California. Now in less than a month I will starting  my maiden national tour as a vocal loop artist.

    So there it was. My first piece of the puzzle was about as elusive and subjective as it got. I was now tasked with piecing my own patchwork of small success that would lead me through six states and numerous  stops along with way with some of the world’s leading independent loop artists.  Now I find myself two months out from leaving the high desert s of the Southwest and trading them for the emerald horizons of Washington State, the steel blue-gray of the Oregon Coast, the pine scented afternoons of Northern California, the hectic intricacies of Southern California  highways and the big skies and bigger plains of Central Texas.

The first fundraiser garnered only a small fraction of what I had hoped for. That is OK. I am launching a new fundraiser in the coming week or two that will be up for a limited time only. My hope is that my friends and fans are able to embrace the tour as much as they have my tour and help me achieve my fiscal goals. Like I said in the video, “If every fan on my Facebook page pledged $10, the fundraiser would be over in 1 hour.”   Keep an eye out for the new fundraiser page in the coming week or two.

    In short: these next couple of weeks will have lots of exciting news for the fall tour and with a little bit of luck, everything my team and I are working at will come to fruition. I’d also love to meet those of you who are supporting me from a state or two or three (or a country/time zone) away. Maybe we can do “Pizza with Just Alliance?”( Hmm…..Not a bad idea? )  Keep an eye here on my website and keep an ear to the social media pipeline. Thanks for all of your support. The emails, Facebook likes, Youtube comments….it all comes together to form a huge wave of support that inspires me every time I perform. Talk to you very soon.

Big Love,

      Just Alliance
     Las Vegas, NV
     August 12, 2014