A family affair

Spring has arrived, and The Staylyns are getting back to work! Most of our venues are outdoor stages, so things slow down in the winter and pick back up in the spring.

So far this month, we've had gigs at Junior's in Round Rock, the Pleasure Pier in Galveston, the Kemah Boardwalk and a St. Patty's Day gig at Pluckers in Round Rock. We've also done several e-bike music tours, and today we'll cap off the month with a show at HEB's Mueller Cafe. Oh, and we're working on recording tracks for our new CD (planned release this summer). Music, baby!

The best part of our Galveston, Kemah and St. Patty's day gigs, though, was that we made it a family affair. I mean, truth is, it's always a family affair since Johnny and I are married, but we kicked it up a notch this month by bringing two of our nephews - Justin and Dennis - on board to work our merch table.


Here's Justin working hard at Kemah:

 

And here's Justin doing what teenagers do these days in order to breathe:

(Note: there is currently no scientific evidence that texting and/or cell phone use keep teenagers alive, but observational study does seem to support the hypothesis.)

Johnny shot some video of Dennis in action at the merch table for the Pluckers gig:

Both boys pretty much killed it. They sold merch, took video, ran the projector and just generally behaved like seasoned members of the team. They may just be hard workers, but I like to think that Justin and Dennis did such a great job because they have musical chops themselves and recognize the important part they played in making our shows great. Justin plays cello, and Dennis knows his way around a guitar:

We think another family band is not far behind. Here's Dennis and his brother Zack, rockin' it fiesta style:

It's pretty sweet when you can employ cheap child labor share your experiences with your family. We hope that some day we can pass the rock n' roll baton to the next generation. We'd hate for them to end up being something less cool, like doctors or lawyers or something.