Hey all you friends, fans, and fams! Where do I even begin? How about at the start?
As most of you probably know I’ve been spending my summer on a tiny island in the Outer Banks of North Carolina called Ocracoke.
Let me just tell you folks…this place is wild! Each day brings more and more ridiculous adventures, misadventures, jams, freestyles, happenchances, fateful introductions, life lessons, sunsets, stars, and reasons to convince me I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be. It’s quite something to behold. Needless to say, I’m living the high life.
I came down here with Kinnie Dye, Aaron LaVigne, and Ryan Guerra. We showed up with no place to live and a few nights a week booked. Within the first week, we landed a place to lay our heads and we were booked solid for a month with only a few precious days off. Then we thought, why don’t we make this official and start a band? After a few days and MANY potential band names (The Salty Sailors, Salty and The Shack Shakers, Makin Moves) one rose to the top of the heap…
Salty’s fault………………………………………………………………………….son!
Let me just tell you guys something. Salty’s fault is KILLIN IT out here. KILLIN IT! Pardon my island slang. I told you, this place is wild.
We just left Ocracoke for 12 days to come and release a-ron’s record The Downtown Crowd in his hometown Cincinnati. By the way, it drops NEXT FRIDAY, AUGUST 20TH. Get yourself a copy. It’s truly an amazing musical experience. And Kinnie and I make an appearance screaming “WHAT THE HELL???” in a song aptly named What the Hell. Check out this ridiculousness.
After we’re done in Cincy, we’re heading back to finish up the season on Ocracoke. Three more weeks of shows on the island before we take off on tour as three bands in one! Aaron LaVigne, TJ Moss Band, and you guessed it Salty’s fault. This tour is going to sweep through Asheville, Charlotte, Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, Richmond, and ending in Charlottesville for the Crozet Music Festival.
We’ll be back in NYC in October. Right now we’re planning the NY release party for The Downtown Crowd. I have a hunch Salty’s fault will be making an appearance.
All my love from the road, Ocracoke, Cincy, and beyond.
Hey dudes! Why Leave Astoria is turning 2!! We’ve been asked to play again for this epic event. We’re teaming up with Pie Boys Flat for back to back performances. Here’s the rundown for the night:
Illimanjaro (featuring Hops) Bobby Kane TJ Moss Band Pie Boys Flat The Vanguard
There will be 5 FREE KEGS OF BEER at the event!! If you’re a Why Leave Astoria card holder, there will be huge discounts on drinks and food throughout the night.
It’s Ryan Guerra’s birthday!! Ladies, give this man some sweet lovin on his big day.
Come play with us, party with us, drink with us!!!! This night is going to be amazing…..
Thursday, April 8th Studio Square 36th St. b/t 35th and 36th Aves. 7pm til way too late
Hey dudes. So we have some cool shows coming up! And don’t forget, Jiggity Joggans Rob Marnell is playing drums for us until late March. So come see what this man can do.
So…it’s been a while. We’ve been BUSY. The summer was a blur, the fall is barely hanging on, and before we know it we’ll be screaming “Happy New Year” and then we get to do it all over again. And so the circle of life continues…and it moves us all.
So what’s new you ask? I’ll tell you. We opened for freakin Joss Stone at the BOK Center in Tulsa in front of 4,000 people. It was amazing, people. As we were soundchecking and looking at ourselves on the jumbo-tron, we realized the surreality of the situation. and it was good.
We rocked the 25 minute set and won over the crowd. After the set, we went out into the crowd to see our families and friends and we were met by thunderous applause and autograph signings. And it was most certainly good.
Then the amazing Joss Stone took the stage. She is a rockstar in every sense of the word. I mean, just look at this nonsense.
Then we went and watched the rest of the show backstage.
After the set, we met the band got invited out to party with them. And this is where the rockstar experience began. We met up with the full band at an Irish bar but it was already late and the bar closed at 2:00 (we were in Oklahoma). So what happens after the bars close? We get invited to an after hours party at a bar. The only rub is they couldn’t SELL us booze. So they just GAVE it to us. Along with two-course meals served by none other than Joss herself. WHAT?
Then we hopped into the shuttle that was waiting to bring us back to the 4-star hotel.
What’s up dudes? I’m alive and well on a 3 week stint at Ocracoke Island in the outer banks of North Carolina. Tim and I set out for Philly and picked up A-Ron and Ryan Guerra and we headed for the coast with a few gigs, nowhere to live, and way too much stuff as illustrated here:
We got to the island and immediately began hustling. We eventually found a place to stay in a trailer owned by a man named Beaver.
After a few days of getting to know the island, the gigs really picked up. We’re booked solid for another week and a half. We’re even putting together a Beatles tribute show.
Well we’ve successfully completed our first tour, a 9-city jaunt across this great nation (at least half-way across). It went a little something like this…
We headed for Lexington, KY for a show at a really cool club called The Dame. On our way we missed a junction by 30 miles so we decided to take an alternate route instead of turning back. In freakin West Virginia. Apparantely we didn’t think about that until the 3rd hour it took to get off it. I bought myself a corn cob pipe in a gas station after we did. Here’s to you oh great West Virginia mountain road Route 50, ya bastad.
We get to Lexington and played a great show in front of a batch of friends, family, and a couple stray drunkies that bought merch! We ate at Waffle House twice. Lexington treated us real well.
On to Cincinatti, where we set up an impromptu show with Aaron Lavigne at a sweet pizza joint. The highlight of the trip was chowing down on my first Highline coney! Plus Tim and I split a 5-way.
We hit the road for a 13 hour drive from Cincy to my hometown Oke City, where we set up a string of shows. The first show being our OKC Record Release at Bricktown Live, which was a huge success. We hired a local horn section which seriously melted faces. Thanks okies for coming out and showing love. Next we played at Kamp’s for my high school reunion, which was weird. Then we played Oeno Wine Bar in Wichita, KS, which was awesome. After sleeping on the hardwood floor of some peeps we met at the show we headed back to OKC for one final show at Maker’s in Bricktown. Which was my personal favorite of the whole tour. Just a good, chill vibe, that place. We then chilled out in OKC for the next few days and drank very little (before 5:00pm).
Also while we were there “Make You Mine” played on 94.7 The Buzz, a local rock station that has a Sunday night show dedicated to local acts called “Born and Bred”. We uh……played after Kings of Leon. I’ll be getting a copy of the broadcast this week so I’ll post it.
That’s all I have the energy to write right now. I’ll finish up soon.
KGOU in Norman played a little radio spot featuring us before our OKC Release Show. Check it out yo.
We’re currently in OKC on a string of shows. Thursday was our OKC Release Show at Bricktown Live. Here’s what the stage looked like. We had fog and everything. It was so rocking.
and it was good.
