The Tater Blog http://www.thetaters.com/blog postings from Taterland Mon, 14 Feb 2011 15:57:24 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 The song that never ends http://www.thetaters.com/blog/2011/02/14/the-song-that-never-ends/ http://www.thetaters.com/blog/2011/02/14/the-song-that-never-ends/#comments Mon, 14 Feb 2011 15:57:24 +0000 Craig http://www.thetaters.com/blog/?p=333 Birthday partyHad a great music weekend these past few days, including a birthday party for a longtime friend, a Jubilee show, and a very fun afternoon show sitting in on some songs. Friday’s birthday party had lots of people in attendance that I hadn’t seen for years, and many others that I just don’t see frequently enough. A lot of these folks have been around one or more bands I’ve been involved with for years, and it’s great to share that kind of history with people! Very cool watching people sing along to songs that they may not have heard for a long time, but still remember!

The Rock & Roll Jubilee was a sell-out on Saturday; in fact, it’s the first time the show has sold out pre-show! The house was packed, the energy was high, and we saw lots of friends in attendance. Also got to meet lots of new folks, which is always fun (especially when they like it :) . It’s fun to watch an audience that has maybe just remembered why they’ve loved music all of these years, and just realized that all they loved about it doesn’t have to end when they reach 25 or 30!Jubilee

I’ve written before about how rewarding it is to meet people who have seen us for the first time – the Taters, the Jubilee, whatever – and seem to have sort of an epiphany when they realize that it’s still fun to go out and hear live music! So many people have given it up over the years, especially as they get older, have families, earlier work mornings, etc. A lot of times they have an idea that “That was something we did when we were younger” and just sort of gave up on it. But then they wind up at one of our shows, and they remember that there’s nothing quite like spending an evening with friends, or meeting new people, listening to music they really enjoy. And there’s no better way to do that than in local clubs, concerts & festivals.

jubileeI think it’s fine people have so many options these days for seeing music and other entertainment on TV, DVD, cable, YouTube, etc. and I do plenty of that myself, but it doesn’t hold a candle to being part of the live experience. Even in the smallest shows there’s an energy there that just can’t be absorbed from a screen, an energy that audience members are involved in creating WITH the band. In the Taters, we often make a point of saying “No two shows the same”, and that’s true from the setlist to the solos, but it’s especially true because of the audience. Every night we play a song, even if we’ve played it 1,000 times before, it hits a person or group of people in different ways, and that response (hopefully good!) feeds back into the performance, making each show a one-of-a-kind event.

Watching music, movies, whatever on TV or the computer is similar to Facebooking in some ways; you can see and learn a lot, find things you enjoy, and increasingly share feedback on items and events. But it can never really replace face-to-face contact with the real world, and that goes for entertainment just as much as for personal relationships. If you know someone who regularly goes out to get involved in live music events – as a player OR as an audience member – just ask them what they like about it; most are happy to tell you!

]]> http://www.thetaters.com/blog/2011/02/14/the-song-that-never-ends/feed/ 0 If a Tater blogs in the forest and no one is there… http://www.thetaters.com/blog/2011/01/12/if-a-tater-blogs-in-the-forest-and-no-one-is-there/ http://www.thetaters.com/blog/2011/01/12/if-a-tater-blogs-in-the-forest-and-no-one-is-there/#comments Wed, 12 Jan 2011 21:35:35 +0000 Craig http://www.thetaters.com/blog/?p=325 Is this thing still here? I just realized it’s been a scant SEVEN MONTHS since I posted on here, so that’s gotta change!

A lot going on for the last 4 or 5 months, including lots of shows, a change in job stuff, a bit of a shake up in the band membership, the appearance of crop circles on my front lawn – just lots of things! So, going to try and get back to posting here. Yep. We’ll see, won’t we!

I’m also hoping to redo the website this year to bring it more in line with what we’d LIKE it to be like. I’ve been using a template for the past year from Hostbaby, and while they are a GREAT company, the template is a bit limiting for me. I just didn’t have time to do a lot of manual content management last year, so I went with the template thinking I’d save myself some time. But I’m less than happy with some of the constraints of the template – for instance, I can’t just add a new page to the site; there are a set number of pages and I can only use what they have. Whine, whine, whine… Anyway, if I can find someone to help with it I’d love it, but otherwise I’ll be making a stab on my own and living with the results!

One thing that is a holy grail for me is the ability to TRULY maintain one calendar and use it throughout the web. So far I have a minimum of 3 that I have to remember to update; the website itself, the Reverbnation calendar, which is linked to our mailing list (and which provides some neat little widgets that I can use on other sites, like the calendar on this blog!) and the necessary but annoying Facebook events.  And that’s not even counting the Twitter feed, which I don’t use so far for calendar stuff.  If I could ever figure out how to get the information I need out there in one place I’d be a happy little spud! I’m also looking at some other options for the mailing list. I like the one that Reverbnation uses (FanReach) but the interface for it is very limited, and the multilevel signup processes has stumped a lot of people. I dread the drop-offs that will come when I change again, but I keep hoping for the perfect solution!

On the MUSIC side of things (that’s why we’re out there in the first place!) we are working on several new things, and I’ll let you know about those when I know more. The Squeeze tribute CD is hopefully going to come out this year, and our cut of “Goodbye Girl” should be on there. We’re talking about a possible video to accompany that release, as well as other video ideas – anyone want to volunteer to work with us on that? We have some ideas but no one in the band has any real seat time as an editor, or even much on the camera side! If you have ideas or would like to be involved, let us know!

There are also various side projects that we’ve been involved with. A lot of Taterheads in the Richmond, VA area are familiar with the Rock & Roll Jubilee that Brad & I have been involved for the last year and a half. It’s a tribute to the early days of music, when it really did roll! We do our best to recreate the music of Elvis, Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison, Ricky Nelson, and the Everly Brothers. The show includes Tater pals Jim Wark on guitar, Brian Sulser on bass, and our old alumnus George Garrett on drums. BJ Kocen, a long-standing force in the Tater orbit plays radio manager Radio Ray Cadbury for WJKS, “Where Joy Kills Sorrow”, and the whole show is done in the style of a 50’s live radio broadcast. We’re having a blast with it, and have started rehearsals for another installment coming in February. If you’re in the area, come out and see it; if not, you can see some videos of past shows on our YouTuber channel – just look for the “Rock & Roll Jubilee playlists.

OK, more to come! I’m just sure of it…

Craig

]]> http://www.thetaters.com/blog/2011/01/12/if-a-tater-blogs-in-the-forest-and-no-one-is-there/feed/ 1 missing pics http://www.thetaters.com/blog/2010/06/09/missing-pics/ http://www.thetaters.com/blog/2010/06/09/missing-pics/#comments Wed, 09 Jun 2010 21:45:14 +0000 Craig http://www.thetaters.com/blog/?p=315 Sorry for the various mystery pictures on the blog now! Been having some issues getting it up and running since the Taters’ site was switched over to a different platform on the Hostbaby servers. I’m not sure I’m keeping it the way it is (the site, that is) but for now it’s fairly easy to update using the tools that Hostbaby has, and at least for the time being I don’t need any more work to do!

I’m somewhat limited in what my options are with the new platform – I’m basically working with a site template at this point and changing/customizing what I can, but I don’t have the flexibility that I had with a standard FTP site. The folks at Hostbaby have been a huge help with things and have bent over backwards to let me make some changes that aren’t really supported thru their “wizard”, so a big thanks to them. I just really need something where I can get the site setup the way I want it, with a good content management system, but I don’t have the time or the know-how to build it from scratch right now.

Anyway, I wanted the mention the pics because I may go thru and try to correct the links that got broken for some of them, but for a lot I’ll probably just have to leave them and concentrate on moving forward!

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