The newest member of The Staylyns

Exciting times are afoot at Staylyns HQ. For some time now, Johnny has been wanting to upgrade the band van to an RV. You can only change clothes in so many bar bathrooms and watch your bandmates nap in so many awkward positions before you say to yourself, "There must be a better way." Well, there IS a better way, and June of 2016 has brought it to us!

Ladies and gentleman, please welcome the newest member of The Staylyns - Riggy Martin (props to Joe Kraft for naming her)!

I like it.

Thanks, Rick!

Riggy is a 1997 Dodge American Cruiser. She's a 20-foot Class B RV and has *almost* all the bells and whistles we want: 3 comfy captain's chairs, a marine toilet, a closet, a bed and/or seating area in the back (which will be filled most of the time with our gear), an a/c unit (separate from the truck's a/c), and a kitchen with refrigerator, cook top, sink and microwave. It's pretty sweet. Check it out:

What a difference a year makes

The weather forecasts say El Nino is on its way out, and La Nina is headed in, meaning we're in for a dry summer. After a record drought (finally busted by last year's rains - and flooding), I hesitate to say that we welcome some dry weather, but the truth is, we're water-logged in the Lone Star State, and frankly, we're starting to get moldy. We could use a break. And as a band that plays mostly outdoors, we wouldn't mind some dry weather.

Despite the continued rain, 2016 has been much kinder to us than 2015 was, though. Last year, it seemed like we couldn't catch a break. The whole week could be dry, and then as soon as we had an outdoor show, the rain would roll in.

Of course, it's raining. Why wouldn't it be? We have a show.

We lost a lot of money on cancelled shows, and we really started feeling like we'd pissed off some god somewhere that we didn't know about. 2015 was not our year.

The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire!

We've been traveling a lot lately, and the more you travel, the more opportunities there are to screw something up. You forget to leave a light on, or you forget to put down extra food for the cat, or you forget to pack something important, etc. It happens.

This weekend we had three shows in a row - Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The first show was local, but the Friday show was in Kemah, which is about 4 hours away when you take into consideration a stop for lunch and rush-hour traffic in Houston, which we hit, of course, since we played the 6-10pm slot.

Normally, we drive home after shows - even very late ones. We'd all rather sleep in our own beds and be home when we wake up the next day. But we knew that our Saturday show would be a late show (9:30pm-1:30am), and it was in Waco, which meant more travel. We decided that would be a really hard show to do if we didn't get to bed until 2am or later (since I can never sleep late even if I get to bed at the crack of dawn). So, we decided to spend the night in Houston - get to bed at a reasonable hour and get some sleep before making the trek back to Central Texas.

A good, responsible plan designed to reduce stress and give everyone plenty of rest!

Except that an hour and a half after we left the house, I realized I'd left an appliance plugged in at the house - one with a heating element. Fire. Hazard.

Sick happens

Wow. What. A. Month. March is always busy for us, but this year we got our gigging ON. Saturday night we played our 10th show in 24 days! We played 1 private event, and the other 9 events were public shows in 8 different venues, in 8 different cities. Luckily, we love what we do, so it's a privilege to have so many folks who like what we do.

The shows ran the gamut from an early evening 45-minute showcase with other bands on the bill to a late-night 4-hour show with just us. Some were more challenging than others due to sound issues, timing, convenience of getting equipment to the stage site, etc. But the real challenge was for me (Suzy) about half-way through a tour of shows we did during Spring Break week. I got sick.

I didn't puke on stage or anything (I'm talking to you, Justin Bieber).

But my body was definitely going through something and wanted me to be there for it - not traveling around playing shows. One of my friends, who is also in a band, asked me what you do in that situation. So, I figured, "That calls for a blog!"

Audience participation has its limit

We've played a lot of gigs over the years, and we've had a lot of experiences that leave us asking, "What were you thinking?" Whether its venues that double-book or audience members that get so drunk they face-plant right in front of us while attempting to dance, a little forethought can go a long way into making everyone's experience better.

That's all - just think it through before you do it...whatever "it" is.

At the show we played Saturday, there was an audience member who did not think something through. She was attentive and into the show. She encouraged her kid to dance, which was cool. She and her family stayed for most of the show, which was great. BUT...

Just a few songs into the show, she went to her car and retrieved *her own tambourine* -- which she proceeded to *play* during every song for the remainder of her time at the show.

I know, right? We thought Joe's head was going to explode.

Let me give you a simple rule for attending live music shows: Do not bring your own instrument and play it during the show. Ever.

Say You Will

It's a new year, and it's really starting out right for us. We've locked down some great residencies that we're excited to get started on, and we've already lined up some Spring Break gigs, with some feelers out for a few private gigs - we're gonna work this year, bitch (as Britney would say)!

I *just* said we're going to work this year, Britney Jean. Step. Off.

But all that upcoming performance work is not stopping us from releasing some new music as well. As I said in my last post, we're going to continue our new policy of releasing singles, rather than waiting to release songs until we have enough produced for a full album. And we're going to start of 2016 by doing just that!

The Year in Review - 2015

My calendar may be a dirty liar, but it's telling me that in just two short weeks, the year 2015 will be over. I'm not sure how that can be true since it *just* started, but the Internet seems to confirm it, and we all know that if it's on the Internet, it must be true.

So, assuming that the year is, in fact, almost over, it must be time to look back over 2015 and review the year that was. For the band, it has been an interesting year.

Okay, I will!