Cheer Up, 2016 Wasn’t So Bad

It seems that 2016 has been getting a bad rep, and sure, there were some not so great things about this year. Our beloved Warriors lost in the NBA finals, the Giants’ even year World Series streak ended (which I’m pretty sure was the only notable streak that ended in baseball this year,) and how could we forget when (insert character’s name) got killed on (Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead.) Even American Idol called it quits after 33 seasons. What’s that, it was only 15 seasons? Seemed like a lot more. And speaking of reality TV, did you know that the guy from The Apprentice became the President-Elect of The United States this year? How did I miss that?  But why spend so much time focusing on the bad when there was so much good this year? Like, what about all those weddings we played this year? Those were good times, and nobody in the band was directly involved in those marriages so that’s doubly good! Join us on a short walk and we’ll show you that 2016 wasn’t so bad.

For us, 2016 began on a small stage in the middle of a street on a frigid night as we played Rock and Roll while the metaphorical ball dropped in Downtown Monterey. Shortly thereafter, we played our two biggest headlining shows in Santa Cruz at Don Quixote’s. From there we went all over California playing in Sacramento, San Francisco, Bolinas, Albany, Oakland, Petaluma, Santa Rosa, Livermore, Sebastopol, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Big Sur, Los Angeles, Lake Tahoe, Calpine, and Nevada City, before leaving the state and hitting Ashland, Bend, Salt Lake City, Fort Collins, Denver, Lawrence, Kansas City, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin.

We also got to share the stage with some great bands like Blackberry Smoke, Jackie Greene, Brothers Comatose, T Sisters, California Honeydrops, Steve Poltz, Stone Foxes, Rainbow Girls, Quiles & Cloud, John Craigie, Kingsborough, Hibbity Dibbity, Little Fuller Band, Steep Ravine, McCoy Tyler, Rayburn Brothers, and Tom Petty! (Well, actually it was Mudcrutch and they were playing the main room of the Fillmore while we were playing the poster room. But still!)

So I think that just about wraps it up for 2016. Wait! One more thing. We recorded an album this year! I know you don’t believe us but it’s the truth. Earlier this year we spent 7 days in Barefoot Studios in Los Angeles with Andy Zenczak and Cian Riordan recording our third full length album. We’ve got videos, pictures, and a whole lot of new songs and we are very excited about it and are very excited to get it to you in 2017.

Sure, 2016 wasn’t a breeze. We sat on the side of freeways in the rain waiting for Triple A more than once. We sweated our asses off while driving through Kansas during a heatwave in July. We played in many empty rooms, on stages we could barely squeeze onto. We broke guitar strings, amps, pedals, sticks, drum heads, and cables. But with all the craziness that 2016 brought, we can still look back at this year fondly and remember all the new places we went to, all the shows we played (the most we’ve ever played in a year,) the new album we made, the new music videos (yeah, we’ve got some new videos to show you,) the many campfire jams that lasted until the sun came up, the new friends and fans we made, and all that other good stuff. 2016 was tough, but 2016 rocked.

We hope you had a great year and we’ll see ya in 2017.