Musician Forum - Band Discussion Board - BandMix

Folks...The EPSWC Contest went extremely well.

The El PAso Mayor (John Cook) showed up as a featured guest and played three original compositions...

The judges panel was awsome These guys were totally on board and worked hard...all night (and one of the Judges is a BAAAD-ASSS pianist and agreed to lay down a track on an upcoming song I have in the hopper)

Before the event, I had no idea what the contestant count was... (I originally thought the event was gonna flop via no-shows) ...Alas...We had 20 plus contestants sign up. The contestants were mostly young, bright kids...some very good, some not so good...but all of them put their heart and soul into it.

I had three trophies/Cash prize. and studio vouchers for placed winners, respectively. Everybody got a medallian for participating... and The business draw was excellent (General Public) . In fact the owner of the venue called it a "Quality event" ...

An added note...The first place winner had to leave (for another gig) , so he wasn't there to accept... Well... I grabbed up his winnings after the event, and tracked him down at the venue he was playing at... Went and talk to the sound man, who let me up on the stage...where I introduced myself, explained what I was doing and that there was a w"winner in the house tonight..." I presented his award to him on his own stage LOL! He was stoked...(Had said later that he'd never won anything before...) . THe house gave him a big applause...



PS I will post some video later this month...Lot of files to wade through and edit...

Way to go!

Sounds like you're on the way to creating a scene in El Paso.

yod wrote:Way to go!

Sounds like you're on the way to creating a scene in El Paso.

Thanks YOD... I am blown away by the the incredibly supportive and positive response from this... Strangers were walking up to me , shaking my hand and telling me this is what El Paso needs...

the effort has been long overdue... I'm just the guy who put this baby in first gear.... Were doing another one in Sept... Gonna expand to multiple genres (starting with maybe just 2 distinct ones...)

Thats awesome Dog! You are really doing something to help your community!
I am sure you will get a lot of these projects as well! Congratulations Grant you are AWESOME!

When I saw the heading of this thread I knew you had knocked it out of the park.


Sweet man ...

Gives me hope. You know how I'm always blathering on about being entrepreneurs and making it happen.

That is exactly what your doing.

KUDOS in order for all your hard work and dedication.

Dog that was a piece of work well down. Sounds like good things happened to lots of folks and you helpe surface some of the local music scene. And met a lot of local artists. (we learn something from all of them)

Having the mayor there was tres cool - that puts sort of an imprimatur of legitamency on the players which is always welcome. Plus he showed style by playing his own tunes in public. (Old Huckaby should have showed up and played bass!)

You ain't shy brother, and that's a good thing!

Talbot

Thanks Jeff, Sans, Mike... I sure wish you guys could have been there... I guarantee, I'd have kept ya with a beer in each hand for the entire evening

PaperDog wrote:Thanks Jeff, Sans, Mike... I sure wish you guys could have been there... I guarantee, I'd have kept ya with a beer in each hand for the entire evening

The bummer of it is that I would have been there had we gone back on I-10 instead of I-40. Got invited to play the Navajo Nation in New Mexico and that took us too far off the path to swing through El Paso.

I think you should contact other songwriter groups around Texas now. Get to know the people who run Austin, Dallas, & Houston and suddenly you will be connected to a national, even international, platform for your own music.

It's great to know that we have people like PaperDog involved with making a positive difference in the music scene. El Paso is very lucky to have you!

The bummer of it is that I would have been there had we gone back on I-10 instead of I-40. Got invited to play the Navajo Nation in New Mexico and that took us too far off the path to swing through El Paso.

No Worries bro.. You know that whenever you do come through you just gotta dial me up and were on fer beers (my treat!) ...

I think you should contact other songwriter groups around Texas now. Get to know the people who run Austin, Dallas, & Houston and suddenly you will be connected to a national, even international, platform for your own music.

Yod That is a very good Idea... Gonna take time,(Right now a bit premature, tho ) But hell Yes...How cool would it be to give a local winner here an opportunity to try in a state competition and so forth...

jsantos wrote:It's great to know that we have people like PaperDog involved with making a positive difference in the music scene. El Paso is very lucky to have you!

yer makin me blush LOl! But Thanks Jsantos!

PaperDog wrote:

The bummer of it is that I would have been there had we gone back on I-10 instead of I-40. Got invited to play the Navajo Nation in New Mexico and that took us too far off the path to swing through El Paso.

No Worries bro.. You know that whenever you do come through you just gotta dial me up and were on fer beers (my treat!) ...

I think you should contact other songwriter groups around Texas now. Get to know the people who run Austin, Dallas, & Houston and suddenly you will be connected to a national, even international, platform for your own music.

Yod That is a very good Idea... Gonna take time,(Right now a bit premature, tho ) But hell Yes...How cool would it be to give a local winner here an opportunity to try in a state competition and so forth...

I know the woman who runs the Dallas chapter and she would be a great contact for you, very connected with Austin/Houston already. I wasn't necessarily talking about a state-wide competition but that's a great idea.

Just talking about networking with others who are serving in the way you are, because they would be able to help you continue to grow it.

And I didn't realize that I have your number. Ooops.

Awesome, how about making it a quarterly event? We need you in Kansas City. Maybe you can franchise your idea.

fisherman bob wrote:Awesome, how about making it a quarterly event? We need you in Kansas City. Maybe you can franchise your idea.

A quarterly might work...But that's also costly at this stage... (This round was out of pocket, less the take at the door and the entry fees. I was still in the hole...just not as badly... If I can find reliable sponsors, a quarterly would not be out of the question.

yod wrote:

PaperDog wrote:

The bummer of it is that I would have been there had we gone back on I-10 instead of I-40. Got invited to play the Navajo Nation in New Mexico and that took us too far off the path to swing through El Paso.

No Worries bro.. You know that whenever you do come through you just gotta dial me up and were on fer beers (my treat!) ...

I think you should contact other songwriter groups around Texas now. Get to know the people who run Austin, Dallas, & Houston and suddenly you will be connected to a national, even international, platform for your own music.

Yod That is a very good Idea... Gonna take time,(Right now a bit premature, tho ) But hell Yes...How cool would it be to give a local winner here an opportunity to try in a state competition and so forth...

I know the woman who runs the Dallas chapter and she would be a great contact for you, very connected with Austin/Houston already. I wasn't necessarily talking about a state-wide competition but that's a great idea.

Just talking about networking with others who are serving in the way you are, because they would be able to help you continue to grow it.

And I didn't realize that I have your number. Ooops.

Thanks YOD, I'm gonna follow up on that