NUZE you can UZE

06/23/2009

WOW!! What a wild and crazy ride it's been. So wild and crazy that I've been too busy lapping it all up to actually sit down at the keys and put my thoughts into cyberspace!

01/03/2008

Well - dadgum!! What a way to start off 2008. Was watching the tube, minding my own business, and thought "Hey - I'll give the Doghouse a call" My good buddy Richard at 5 O'Clock Somewhere had passed my contact info to him. Spoke to Todd and he stated he had just picked up my number and was fixin' to call me! How about that for karma? Was able to get 2 dates out of him. Then I figured, what the heck - I better call 5 O'Clock Somewhere and make sure our upcoming dates are good. What I hadn't planned for was picking up 3 more full weekends!! WooHOO!! We're on a roll now. OK - No - this gets better. Had the gang over for learning some new tunes. Right as we're about to start up (I mean, guitar strapped on, amps warmed up, PA fired up, and everyone in place) my phone rings. A 706 area code number. Ahh what the heck. "Hello"?

"This is Mike from Downriggers, you guys wanna play our place?" You could have knocked me over with a .357 slug to the chest. "Hell yeah!!!". Long story short, we got more dates at 3 clubs in a span of less than 1 hour. OK - don't push your luck boy....

I don't know if any of you reading this actually DO the booking for your band (or anybody elses) but let me tell you - there ain't no glory in it. Constant phone calls to club owners who are either "in a meeting" or "not there" or "cooking in the kitchen" I've heard most of 'em already - but I'm sure there are a few more inventive ones that have yet to be flung my way. So, needless to say, it is a very thankless and arduous task to even get a hold of a club owner, much less get bookings. Don't get me wrong - the club owners that we DO do business with are all tremendously fantastic folks, and I understand they are doing their jobs to fit the best entertainment in their club. So there's a definite "barrier" that needs to be broken through, and we're just having a difficult time with several clubs that we know we would do well at, but can't seem to get in for one reason or another.

Suffice it to say, my head swelled up like the Grinch's heart at Christmas when these gigs came rolling in!!! Two new clubs who we didn't even have to drop off a package for, or do a (free) audition, or jump through a ring of fire while kissing a Siberian Elk.. NONE of that crap. Looks like word of mouth is starting to pay off, and perseveerance and sticking to your beliefs ( and a shitload of HOPE!!) is finally generating some new clubs without jumping through all the traditional hoops. I LIKE this!!

So, as it stands, we're booked pretty well through the end of June with a few dates open in between (HINT HINT club owners!!!) and the band is stronger than ever, learning new tunes, and oh - by the way, we've got a few surprises in the works for you folks that transcends classic rock and steps WAAAAY outside what you would expect from a club band. We're diversifying because truly "variety is the spice of life" and we aim to give the folks something that they wouldn't expect to get at a bar (aside from a hangover!) I won't let on to what it is until we're actually ready to pull it off live, but rest assured - it's C-O-O-L!!!

So to Todd at the Doghouse, Mike and Angela at DownRigger's, and most of all, Debbie Harris at 5 O'Clock Somewhere.......THANK YOU GUYS!!!!

12/31/2007

Hi gang and Happy New Year!! As 2007 draws to a close, we are fortunate enough to be able to reflect back on some good times. With some unexpected personnel turnover, we managed to keep our "musical" heads above water and keep the band going....and going....and going!!! We are very lucky to be in the position we are in, what with all the band breakups and dissolutions going on around us with our friends' bands, to be blessed with solid-minded individuals that are dedicated and committed to one band and one vision - "bring the people what they want". I can't thank all of you enough for the support and appreciation you've show us this year (and last year too!) and we hope that our new musical offering (see the Music page) will hopefully be considered our gift to you for being such great fans.

Now, I know you're probably saying "Hey Timmay!!! - where's that EP of your original tunes that you promised us about 6 months ago?" Well - we're still working on getting Martin up to speed on the original tunes, as we've been very busy learning new cover tunes to play for you fine folks! It's still in the hopper though, just hasn't gone through to completion yet. (OK - we STILL haven't started!!) Rest easy in the fact that we now have the 16 track analog tape machine dialed in and working like a champ, so we will be getting on that soon. That will be our New Year's Resolution!

Again, our heartfelt thanks from all of us for the support you've shown, and an extra BIG thanks to all the club owners that have graciously given us the opportunity to perform at their fine establishments. We hope our relations with each and every one of them stay on the up-and-up so we can continue to have venues to purvey our great classic rock tunes. Without the clubs - none of us would have any place to go to see live entertainment, and everybody would be hooking up to YouTube and watching it on the Internet!

Let's ROCK 2008 together!!!

8/24/2007

Hi folks!! Man - it's been a while. I've got to get off my arse a little more often and let you fine folks know what in the wide wide world of sports has been happening with the big H.O.! I apologize for my lackadaisical effort towards keeping you informed - but it's been so doggone busy at both work and at home (and with the band) that I haven't gotten around to updating all the fine folks that put us where we are today!

6/14/2007

Well - we managed to pull through. The past several gigs have gone relatively well. Martin is up to speed on about 90% of our material and we're branching out and learning new stuff as well that the folks have been asking for. (Lynyrd Skynyrd!) The crowds have been very receptive, and we're still able to kick ass and take names, as evidenced by our e-mail distribution list! We have nearly 250 folks on the mailing list now, plus we're getting a lot of good feedback on our MySpace account. I guess if you snicker in the face of adversity, it kind of backs down and lets you have the upper hand. Positivity, hard work, and dedication will overcome just about any obstacle one could encounter. I think I can safely say - we've done such. The band is tighter than ever. The backup vocal harmonies send a shiver down my spine now, as they are absolutely spot on. Even Simon from American Idol would be proud!

As stated, we've been picking up some new tunes - it's so easy when you don't have to "pick from the list" and everybody goes home to learn it. Nope - just start playing a tune, the others join it, and some of the easier ones get knocked out in two run-throughs. BAM - done. It's that simple. I love it! Going to be adding a few of the originals soon, once we strap Martin down in a chair and force him to listen to them! The EP is still on hold - it's kind of funny - Gary came over to lay the bass tracks because Mike didn't have them down, and now Gary's back in the seat and driving the bass bus. Will end up redoing them all with Martin's drum tracks though, so we're right back to square one at this point. Be patient though, it IS going to come to fruition!

In other news, we're courting the Harley Davidson folks to become one of the bands that plays for their bike get-togethers, so hopefully something will come out of that. Dos Copas is under new management, so maybe (just maybe) we might be able to get a gig in there soon and show these folks what they've been missing out on. I swear, some club owners and folks that do the booking - they treat you like you're a 15 year old that just got his first guitar and got a group of his mop-headed friends together and now have "A BAND". You can't change their mind over the phone either. They say "we have to see you live".... well - that's what this here website is for! We have videos, pics, testimonials, demo tunes. What more do you want? A free show? (Probably!). But the payoff is once they DO see you - the repeat gigs come flowing in! It's a tough egg to crack sometimes, as some folks think they've "seen it all" - when in all reality, they haven't. Once they open their eyes and feast upon a concentrated dose of HangOverture, they ALWAYS come around.

So - once again, we face an uphill battle trying to get some new clubs onboard - don't get me wrong - we absolutely LOVE the ones we're playing now on a repeat basis, but it's always good to see what else is out there and try to cater to a different locale and group of folks. Diversity. That's what HangOverture is all about!

4/26/2007
HAHA!! I just gotta laugh in the face of adversity. Yet ANOTHER setback. You ask - "well, what could it be now"? I'll tell ya! We were all set for this past weekend - looking forward to playing with a new and exciting group, and voila! That gets all fouled up. Got a call Friday morning from the booking gal at Mickey Dee's stating that she'd have to cancel us...for THAT weekend. I had already sent out the e-mail to some 200+ folks, and come to find this out. She said "well - I knew it was you and your wife's anniversary, so I put a question mark by it, and then the guy that's now helping me do the booking went ahead and booked somebody else." ARRRRRGGGHHH!!! We told you TWICE to your face that we would do these dates, regardless of the occasion!!! So - POP goes the weasel. I just don't understand why it's not the other band that gets the boot - we were on the books first..I s'pose it's all about money and politics.

On a brighter note, went and dropped flyers up at Eastside Station yesterday and met Glen, the owner. Super nice fella - and got a good look at the club in daylight. We are gonna have us some FUN this Saturday night. The place is absolutely HUGE!! Nice big stage, dedicated power circuits, the club is clean and "airy" due to the two story high ceilings. This used to be the old 3 Dollar Cafe in Snellville, and they've really got a great looking club up there now. Can't wait! Keep posted in the show blogs, I have a feeling we're definitely going to have something to write about after this Sat. night!!

4/17/2007
OK - well, we've had another setback. Now Mike the bassist has to leave the group. He had been in a couple car accidents and has already had neck surgery once before. Now it looks like the two vertebrae below his prior surgery are now giving him problems in the form of causing numbness and pain in his forearms. This is NOT good for a bass player! And, to top it all off, he works at a desk job where he types a lot, so between the two, he's gotta sacrifice the one that doesn't pay his bills! We love him dearly - like a family member - but have to do what's best for his health and well-being. So, now we're on the hunt for yet another bassist.

Our old bassist, Gary Hunnicutt, has graciously offered to help out until the end of June, so we've been auditioning bassists already and have made an offer that has yet to be accepted. I hope and pray that this process isn't as convoluted as it was the last time when we got Mike onboard. We're keeping the ol' chin up despite the setbacks we've encountered, so don't write HangOverture off the books just yet!

4/09/2007
Disregard the news from the last entry. Things ARE worse! Not only have we lost our keyboard player, Jeff the drummer is no longer with the band. We have a new drummer - Martin Haddock, however, he is yet to come up to speed to where we'd be comfortable doing a gig with him. So, we cancelled the SportsLine show for this weekend. Probably a bit unfounded, but we want to make sure our product is up to snuff to be able to port it to the people.

So - we've got a little time on our hands and have been feverishly practicing to get Martin's drumming style in tune with Mike's bass playing. We scrapped the keyboard player idea for now and focusing on one musician at a time. We may entertain a keyboard player at a later date, but for now, we gotta get the core four up to speed with our show. Martin is such a talented drummer, that he tends to get carried away sometimes, so we're working on keeping him in check. He hasn't been with a band for nearly 20 years, so there's some dust that needs to be knocked off as well. All in all - he's doing a splendid job and we should be back in form by the Mickey Dee's gigs on the 20th and 21st.

Suffice it to say the CD has gotten put on hold. Will have to re-record with Martin's drum tracks and do it all over again with his interpretation of the songs. Since we lost a bunch of dates, we'll have some time to get going on the originals again....once we get Martin up to speed. Well - that's about all I've got to report for now. Will have to get back out on the horsie and round up some more dates at some NEW clubs.

3/19/2007
Well - I guess things could be worse. We had 3 keyboardists audition this past week. 2 were from word of mouth and the other one knew of us and liked the busy schedule and responded. I believe we will try to entertain the last one. Name is Russell Anderson, and he comes from a group called Dr. Bombay. Russell also plays guitar as well, so we plan on utilizing that facet of his talents as well. First practice is tonight, so we'll see what happens. We managed to blast through our show this past weekend as a 4 piece and did so without even so much as a hitch. We know we're capable of pulling off the shows as a 4 piece, but the addition of keys AND guitar may make this a road worth going down.

Two more gigs on the books for Mickey Dee's - so now July and most of August is booked out for us. Kinda makes you wish there were more weekends in a year huh? (Well - duh - who doesn't???!!!). New club down there in Covington competing with Mickey Dee's and The Depot called 5 O'Clock Somewhere. Our bretheren in StuntBox had a show down there this past weekend and said the crowd was most excellent. Will have to see about getting our toe jammed in their door for a gig.

Not much else going on - a few new tunes on the horizon and now that we have the next 3 weekends off, there will be time to pick back up recording the CD again. I keep promising it - but haven't done squat to get off my a$$ and work on it - probably due to the fact that we have 5 more songs we need drum tracks for. This weekend will be one of those to pick up on recording again and try to get it knocked out. I SWEAR I'll have it out to you guys soon! Will also be learning one new original a month or so until we get a few more of them up to speed. Cuttin' Loose and Fresh Breath of Beer have been going over very well at the shows, and there's only more where that came from.

Well - that's about it for this installment - will check back in next week and let ya know how we did on the recording!

3/12/2007
Ahhh shucks... it is with great sadness that we have to announce our keyboardist, Eric Hudson is leaving the group. Eric came on board just about a year ago and added an element to our sound that we had been seeking. Time constraints and scheduling won this battle however.... We will miss him dearly and have much love for him, as he is a wonderful, intelligent, caring human being that this world needs more of. We started as a 4 piece group and we will revert back to our customary ways for a while until we are able to find a suitable replacement. We will miss his wit and whimsy and outer space "one-liners" that he fires off and has you laughing on the floor. We wish him all the luck and good fortune in this world in his endeavors moving forward. Eric's resignation has taken effect immediately.

On the bright side! - 97.1 The River has been making some noises that they are going to try to hit our Eastside Station gig in April. We are all hopeful that this will happen. We are down to 11 t-shirts out of our original purchase lot of 50, so things are going well on that horizon. The owner of a new club called Atmosphere in Loganville caught our show Sat. night and is going to book us. They open in about 3 weeks, however, our schedule doesn't open up for 3 MONTHS. Egad - I'd love to get in on the ground floor on this killer new club, but we will not screw anybody over and cancel shows to do so. We'll just have to wait this one out and hope we still have a slot when we're available.

So it's back to the rockin' roots you say? Well.....not really.....we're only losing 8 songs out of 70 something that we absolutely cannot do without Mr. Hudson. We intend to backfill with similar songs that are doable as a 4 piece. Maybe we'll get Ms. Roxxanne to pick up a few keyboard parts! Ya never know what we're going to do next (and neither do we) so that's what makes this all so much fun!!!

We have 2 more weekends before we hit a two week period of time off. We ALL desperately need the time off, so it is a welcomed light at the end of the tunnel. I can't imagine waking up before noon on a Saturday....it hasn't happened in ages! We love all of you and appreciate your support through the good times and bad - so keep it up and we'll keep making the music you love and cherish.... the HARD WAY!!

2/14/2007
Well - you could bowl me over with a freight train!! We got a call from Eastside Station last night and actually got a date out of it! We took a package up to them many months ago, and basically were disregarded....UNTIL the booking guy (owner) talked to Sherri - the owner of Shakerz. Sherri gave him the skinny about us and he called immediately! BIG THANKS to Sherri!! We were able to put 4/28 on the books so... WooHoo!! Eastside Station is a NICE club - used to be the old Three Dollar Cafe in Snellville. Really looking forward to this club. We're also about to bust into the North River Tavern as well, via one of our booking guys Len Rosen of BHJ Entertainment.

Also got a call from Jerry at the Safari Bar & Grill in Winder. Hadn't heard from him in over 3 years since back when I played with The Thrillbillys there. I guess either he still had my cell number, or he got wind from Reality Check's singer that we were worth a salt. Not so sure he was happy with the pricing, but hey - we're not in this to sell ourselves short. Hoping he calls back with some dates...but cautiosly optimistic. So - the club owners are talking and our name seems to keep coming up, so what the heck!! Makes my job of booking all that much easier!!

We've been having talks with 97.1 The River and believe we are going to be able to build some sort of partnership with them. They do a lot of promotional events out of the North River Tavern, which is why we should be a shoe-in, as we play just about everything they do on their radio station. Hoping to hear back from Len in the next day or so. Looking at hopefully playing at Myrtle Beach Bike Week in May as well. Still waiting to hear back from the chap that just opened a new club called Bourbon Street right there on the main drag. Hopefully, we'll know something in the next several weeks.

Well - our T-shirt sales aren't exactly what we had expected, but a select few folks have come up off of 10 whole dollars to have their very own to have and to hold, to launder and fold, in sickness and in health...but I digress...

1/02/2007
Hallo! und Happy New Year! You can see all the writeups of the gigs on the show reviews page, so I'll stick just to the news. T-shirts have been ordered and we'll have 50 of them hopefully before Mike's birthday on 1/13/07. Hope to have them for sale for our SportsLine show. Oh yeah - I guess I didn't mention that. We've been trying to crack the SportsLine egg for a loooong while now. So, the owner calls Friday night after our New Year's Eve gig scare at 11:20pm and offers us 1/19 and 1/20. Had we been out partying with Mike at Shaker'z, we'd have missed the call. They called our house, not the cell. OK - this is good. We'll rock them hard with the dance music they want!!. I am a firm believer that everything works out for a reason, so hopefully we'll be able to build a good working relationship with these folks. Thanks Lou and Judy - we'll see you in a few weeks! By that time, we'll have our disco medley of "To Be Real" and "Best of my Love" all tidyed up and ready to go. Hella Good is also on the slate to be finished this week as well - probably tonight! Look out Atlanta - there ain't NO other band out there pumping out Rush and then following up with a few disco tunes. The folks are really eating up our variety and song selection and they are telling us and the club owners that this is the kind of variety they've been craving. We don't play the stuff the other bands play, and that is really putting us into a class of our own. Good things are on the horizon for HangOverture!

12/27/2006
Well kids, we lost our New Year's Eve gig at Windermere. Just dang... I was skeptical since the word go about this one, and my suspicions turned out right. Received an e-mail about a month ago from the "new" Food and Beverage Manager for Windermere CC. Apparently, Windermere had been bought out by Canongate, and they put the F&B Mgr. from the Olde Atlanta club in charge of the Windermere facility as well. Well - the e-mail was asking about a contract. Replied that we didn't have one, and that it was a "gentleman's agreement". He was cool with that. Spoke to him on the phone a few times and all seemed well. "Seemed" being the operative word in that sentence. He swore up and down that he advertised to over 1600 folks between the two clubs and was only able to get 26 folks to RSVP. Ahem...right then...Something seems a bit fishy here...

Well - no big deal. So I call Flanigan's hoping to get more dates in the future, as they said they loved us, well Brandi asks if we are doing anything New Year's Eve. I about fell out of my chair and dropped the phone. "Ummm Nothing" I said. "Well - do you want to play it". The rest is history. Plus we got another date in February.

Well - since that time, I had another friend call and ask if we were available to play on NYE. TWO gigs come flying our way within a day of each other, after we had been working soooo hard (all of us) to find a NYE gig all year. How'z about that for timing/fate?!

12/22/2006

T shirts are coming soon. We gotta keep up with Reality Check! They have merchandise out the wazoo, and we've had many requests for folks wanting shirts, so Slick is reaching out to his connect to see what we can get whipped up. Will be using a solid color yellow of the bumper sticker font, so it shouldn't be too tough to get some nice tees done fairly quick.

12/20/2006

Just finished laying drum and bass tracks to our new EP slated to be released sometime early next year. We hope to be selling these at our shows. They are our own original songs. We recorded on the 1" analog Tascam tape machine, so the bottom end between the bass and drums is absolutely HUGE. 6 of the 8 tracks turned out to probably be useable. Will be tidying up those 6 and preparing to redo the last two in the near future. A big HangOverture thanks to our old bassist Gary Hunnicutt who begrudgingly came out of the woodwork to assist us with laying tracks. Slick will be putting his tracks down later once he learns the tunes!

12/14/2006

Bumper Stickers! We got 'em! You need 'em? Well, we got 'em! A HUGE HangOverture honor goes out to Brad Johnson of the band Levity for putting these babys together for us. Brad is a master sign maker and has been doing this a looooong time. He had us going within three days. How's about that for service!!? And these aren't the cheap paper and ink type stickers that fade and peel over the course of a week. No siree!! These are the good ones made from UV resistant vinyl and impregnated with the ink. Guaranteed to never fade, crack, peel, or chip. They'll probably outlast our life expectancy!

Visit Fine Arts Signs website and see if they can meet your signage needs! Brad will hook you up!

Void where prohibited in some states, some restrictions may apply. Mileage based on Consumer Report's Best Buy section of the Atlanta Journal and Constitution. Must be 18 or older to enter. Subject to the terms and conditions set forth by the HangOverture steering committee. No purchase necessary to win!