Josh Graff

From a recent press release:

 “Josh Graff is a real bluesman!” -Joseph Palmer, owner of The Hangar Bar and Grill

On Friday, June 1 the walls of The Hummingbird Stage and Tap Room will be reverberating with the sound of traditional blues guitar. Josh Graff has been making a name for himself in the Macon, GA area for nearly fifteen years now, and says, “I finally feel like I’ve found myself.”, and where better than where it all began. The twenty six year old guitarist/singer/songwriter has gone full circle, playing everything from blues, R&B, gospel, country, pop, and rock, to hip-hop all over the country from coffee shops, bars, churches, frat houses, festivals, and music venues, to opening shows for Blues Traveler, Huey Lewis and the News, Kansas, and .38 Special.

Josh Graff spent his early teens playing blues guitar and sitting in with bands like Stillwater and The Wall. By the time he had graduated high school, Graff had released three independent albums of mostly original music, and gained a local following doing solo acoustic shows. Then came the creation of Josh Graff & Co., which played relentlessly all across the southeast, and in 2006, recorded an EP in Atlanta, GA with Grammy Award Winning producer/singer/songwriter/musician Clay Cook (Zac Brown Band, John Mayer, Sugarland, Shawn Mullins, Marshall Tucker Band). After a few years together, Josh Graff & Co. went their separate ways and Graff found himself moving to Atlanta, GA to play guitar in Ben Deignan and Suburban Soul. Two years later you could find Graff on stage every Sunday playing guitar at a local church. Still not feeling as though he was doing what he knew he was here to do, Josh Graff found himself at a crossroads.

In early 2012 Josh Graff decided go back to his roots, and be true to himself, as a blues guitarist, doing something he has always wanted to do, put an all-blues band together. Graff throws a few original tunes into an eclectic mixture of traditional blues covers from Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, JB Lenoir, Otis Rush, Freddie and B.B. King, to name a few. With his ever-evolving and rotating backing band of A list musicians, Graff and his band keep the house rockin’ and the good times rollin’ all night.
The first time I met Josh, he sat in with a friend of ours to play lead. Josh proceeded to rip his guitar apart. He played behind his head, behind his back, he walked out to the crowd and stepped up on the fireplace. He really got the crowd going, and when he walked away, many thought the show was over.
In many ways, it was.
I'm bringing this to light, because it appears that Josh is trying to downplay his amazing stage presence. Does he play the blues? Yes, very well; but he is a professional showman waiting to scorch the venue with searing licks AND attitude.

The Swayze's

 

A powerhouse rockabilly quartet with attitude to match!

These guys are destined to be the go-to power band for any college party in the southeast. Imagine The Stray Cats meets Johnny Cash in a drunken fistfight and you have....

The Swayze's...."named after the greatest damned american actor to ever grace the silver screen".

No argument here.

For Booking: contact
Michael at 478-952-3842

Watch it on YouTube

The Working Parts ( part 2)

Business Manager- What are the short term goals that carry you to your longterm goal? How closely are you meeting them? What is the overall strategy regarding the branding of your band? What demographic will your band appeal to, and how can you best engage them? What cover songs should you perform live? Where will you spend the night when you play a gig out of town? The Business Manager has his mind on all of these things and is the person who sits down with the Booking Agent, Promoter, Marketing Specialist, Lawyer, and Poll Data Analyst. When he makes sure that all of you are on the same page and working toward the same goal, you have made a significant step forward. The most important person in your band is your Business Manager, so get a good one.

Booking Agent- "Finds you the gigs!" Yes, but again, it goes further than that. A good Booking Agent knows your strengths and weaknesses and will put you in the venues that can propel your career. It's not just about finding work....It's about finding the work that helps you find MORE work....which turns into making more money per gig and playing to larger, more anxious crowds.

Promoter- The Promoter, obviously promotes your shows for you. He'll know how to focus your promotional efforts on your target demographic. This is your money he's working with, so don't waste time with someone who is just good at a putting together a blog page for you and who MIGHT share your Event Invitation. < wink, wink......nudge, nudge>.


Part 3

The Working Parts (part 3)

Entertainment Lawyer- Keeps you out of legal trouble and keeps you from being manipulated by unsavory characters. This might include the contracts you sign with the promoters, booking agents, or the venues. This would also include the contract you would have used to hire your Business Manager in the first place.

Poll Data Analyst- This one might not seem very relevant but hear me out. All business that deal heavily with public opinion, use poll data. Polls are taken VERY often and they tend to show trends developing or fading. Now, I am NOT SAYING YOU SHOULD FOLLOW trends....However, you will. You might not do it on purpose....or you might LEAD a trend, but it is always good to know if a certain demographic is spending more money in that genre or style of performance than another. This is how you target your promotional material. It is also the key to developing/adjusting your marketing strategy to get the most out of your time.

"If I could find a white man who had the Negro sound and the Negro feel, I could make a billion dollars."- Sam Phillips

Knowing who would love the product and who had the money to spend on it made all the difference in the lives of Sam Phillips, Elvis Presley, and a two-bit carnival hustler named 'Colonel' Tom Parker. So, The Poll Data analyst is the guy that tells you who's spending the money, what they like, and how they communicate. He provides the info that the Marketing Specialist works from.


Part 4

The Working Parts (part 4)

Publicist- Sort of bridges the gap between the Marketing Specialist and the Promoter. This person gets the word out there about what you do and how you do it. You need publicity and although promoters get your shows heard about, and your Marketing Specialist focuses on inspiring a particular group to take action; the Publicist gets you publicity. Many times he uses your private life to call attention to your professional one. Publicists encourage those in the entertainment industry to do things that call attention to themselves....One type of publicist may encourage you to start a charitable foundation....and then be sure it is leaked to the media. Another type may encourage you to do a music video of your latest song completely nude or wear a dress made of meat. to the Grammy's red carpet. Good or bad....you've been talked about and that job is done.

Marketing Specialist- Works with poll data to focus your music toward the most appropriate audience. This way your efforts are more focused- making them more efficient and successful. This is where 'branding' comes in and is the hub from which much of the decisions regarding your band will come from. Just playing a large, varied setlist of songs means that when they describe you to a friend they will say..."He plays a lot of good songs of different styles and we had fun"

HOWEVER; If all you play are songs by Tom Petty and Johnny Cash, then the name of your band will likely be 'Petty Cash' and one of your gimmicks will be giving out 2 dollar bills to everyone in the front row, or the girl who gets up and dances to your favorite song, or as change when someone buys your merch or pays the cover. People who LOVE Johnny Cash and Tom Petty will be there and to them, your song selection has already passed inspection-without even playing a note. The crowd will be waiting anxiously for the next song they can sing along to or the next trivia question they can answer. You will make a connection that lasts and your next show will be even more successful.
Branding is important. and the Marketing Specialist will help you get it right.

Stylist- Who dresses the band? Yeah, I know, it's weird trying to dress a certain way. Your stage and beyond clothing choices should reflect the public's perception of your 'style'. You probably think that each member of the band should just dress in whatever makes them comfortable. BUT, if that was 'how it's done' then how would KISS, DEVO, The Ramone's, The Beatles, The Blues Brothers, Metallica, Judas Priest, Motley Crue, Stray Cats, etc. have communicated to you what type of music they played with a picture?

I know there are more (especially when it comes to putting together an album, for example), but I think this is a good start. How much time have you put into considering which member of your band is currently dealing with one or more of these responsibilities? Who is in your band BECAUSE they are good at one of these responsibilities?

Anyway.......Food for thought and discussion, I guess.

Sister Sandoz

Trino Prados- Bassist

Russ Hearst- Guitar, 
Back Up Vocals

Russell Bell- Guitar


Eric Moore- Percussion

Becky Sandoz Carlisle- Vocalist

 The '90s called. They want grunge to come back! 6L6 is a refreshing cover band specializing in the new oldies!

Sister Sandoz will rock you like you keep begging to be rocked!!

They cover many of the alternative songs from the 90s & today, & have a few '80s faves in the mix. If you wanna hear System of a Down, Nirvana, No Doubt, the Ramones, Joan Jett, & Jackyl in the same show, then 6L6 is your new favorite band!

Call Becky at 478-951-1085

for Booking!

Uncle Earl and Friends

Uncle Earl and Friends promo video on Facebook!!

Band Name & Members "Uncle Earl & Friends"- Uncle Earl Tribble (Drums & Vocals) Al Scarborough (Bass & Vocals) & Ben Caldwell (Guitar & Vocals).

Contact Earl for booking! prodrummer67@windstream.net

Uncle Earl wanted to put a band together but found all the musicians he wanted to work with were committed to other bands and projects. He worked around the musician's schedules by calling on other friends that played. About 6 months into scheduling gigs, he had his core players in Al Scarborough (Bass & Vocals) & Ben Caldwell (Guitar & Vocals). The result is a 3 piece group that focuses on tight harmonies and grooves. The band, when needed, also adds Sax, Keys, Trumpet, Harmonica and occasionally a female singer. These are Uncle Earls "Friends". We also have a lot of horn players that sit-in on regular gigs. It would not be uncommon to see 3 different sax players at any given show!!

Influences and artists they cover: Wet Willie, The Beatles, Van Morrison, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, Tom Petty,Otis Redding, ZZ Topp and 60's Rock & Soul (Temptations, Wilson Pickett, James Brown, etc.)

Any recent gigs that stand out?

We had some crazy moments on stage with the crowd when we were booked on Tybee Island at this year's Pirates Fest. The whole crowd was in Pirate costumes and partied ALL day and night long. If they liked a certain song they would hold up their mugs and yell "AAARRRHH!!". We drove an electric golf cart to the gig but ran short on power. We were pushed by 4 Pirates to the front door of the club. The whole weekend was an insane party from dusk to dawn!

We really enjoy playing all the clubs around the Middle Georgia area but we call The Dawghouse and Shooter's in Gray our home clubs. The owners/managers/staff are so good to us and all of our friends! The Dawghouse is a great biker bar and Shooter's is great for the whole family. We do different shows for different clubs. That's the great advantage of having 3 lead singers in the same band. What do you see as the best part of the Middle Ga. music scene?

"What we love most about the Middle Georgia music scene is the wide variety of music that is played in the clubs around town. We along with other bands will start a set with some Otis Redding move into Charlie Daniels and end with some Pink Floyd. No where else are you going to hear that!!"

How to build yourself a great band website for free.

First of all- I have done this.
As a matter of fact this entire website was built for free- exactly the way I am descrrbing it to you.

I eventually decided to purchase a domain name and pay for my own hosting which I now know was totally unnecessary. I bought the domain name for the 'easy to remember' URL (MidGaLive.com) but I didn't have to....with all of the tools and resources available, having an easy to remember domain name is not nearly as valuable as it used to be.

So let's get started.

First, go to Blogger.com and sign up. Yes. It's a Blog. Who cares? Does MidGaLive.com look like a blog? It can be a Blog about your band.
 It's free, except you'll have to have a gmail account. There are other free blog services out there...WordPress appears to be very popular, although I have no experience with it; So, for the purpose of this article I'll focus on the one Blogger.com offers.

You can make it appear any way you want, but I suggest using the templates available and just dressing it up with your own color schemes. It's VERY easy. On the 'layout' window, you can move things around or add 'widgets' these are the tools (or toys) of your site. The calendar, the Contact Form, the advertisments, the 'flyers' you want to post, etc. ...are all added here. Copy/paste/done.

Once done, you can add 'pages' which are the tabs at the top of this screen. Here are some suggestions for yours...

Bio  This can give a history of your band....how you met, your influences, your aversion to mustard sauce on your sardines, whatever. Regardless, MAKE IT INTERESTING. Stretch the truth a little. People will forgive a little stretch of the truth for the sake of entertainment.

FanOfTheWeek Reward your most active and 'fanatic' fans by giving them a shout out on a page of their own. Tell them you love them for loving you.

MerchPage You can show pics of the merch you have for sale. Show pics of your T-Shirts, your CD's, koozies, keychains, calendars, condoms, panties, coffee cups, pens, pencils, water bottles, athletic supporters, etc.. You would of course need to go ahead and order one or 2  (I use vistaprint....I get my Tshirts for $5 or less.) Sign up for a PayPal account and then go to the merchant services tab to create a 'button" for your purpose. It'll give you an "HTML code" that you can copy and paste to your page. You have to pay a very small percentage for every transaction- 2.9% plus 30 cents for each transaction. If you sold a ten dollar CD.... your take would be $9.41, not bad.
Your Bands' Merch Store? Done.

GigCalendar I got mine from Brown Bear software. It's free, but you can pay them for a  more advanced version later if you want. It's a brillliant thing to put on your website. It gives you options that you may not realize  you have.
         For one, you can make a contest among a small group to get you gigs. These people will compete with one another for a prize of your choosing. The prize could be a free concert at their house, or a lump sum of cash. The contest can be restarted as often as you like. Each person in the competition can have a color coded 'label' that shows up on the calendar telling EVERYONE who booked it....The one with the most bookings will be the winner.
        It has a hierarchy style of password protection, which means you can set it up so that several people can add gigs, but only YOU can delete them.

Oh- and it's a great way to show your fans where you are playing.

A site like this gives you easy, consistent promotion because it's always in the same place. Share the link with everyone everywhere online. You can make a QR code that links to your website and then put that pic on EVERYTHING. All your merch should have it.....All your business cards, mailers, posters.....stickers....The QR code should be everywhere. It's too easy and too effective to ignore. NOT familiar with it? Check out the tab above labeled QR Code Generator.

You can collect email addresses of your fans (if they want to give them to you). Just by adding a 'Contact Form' like the one on this page.

When you write posts, you can add your latest video, or pics from last nights gig, or a link to your Reverbnation, Facebook, Twitter......whatever.

It's a great FREE tool....and I don't understand why you had not started using it before now. If you have any difficulty.....let me know....I'll help out. Once you get it going, let me know....I'll add a link to your website from your MidGaLive.com page.

Please know that your page here on MidGaLive.com can be turned into a single page website! I can give you access to your own page and you can put anything you want on it. Merch, Links, whatever....
MidGaLive.com averages 2000 pageviews per month....and costs  you nothing.

So, if you're nervous about building one from scratch.....The offer is there....just let me know....Send me a message and say...."I want to use MidGaLive.com as a home for my bands single-page website." I can only do this for 82 more bands so, don't wait long....



Ok.....Breaks over....and your excuses are dead......Get to work.

Big Daddy and Company

These guys really get the crowd moving. I saw them take a club and turn it completely upside down......The night began with a decent sized crowd, and within 30 minutes, the dance floor was full people were groovin' away.

Paul (Big Daddy) Carreker knows how to get the crowd hoppin'. He picks the right songs at the right time. He lifts them up with the dance grooves and let's them rest with the slow jams. He keeps this combination going all night long, and unlike many frontmen, he'll get out there and dance too!

He can belt out the soul like a man twice his age, and he'll pull rock, blues, or funk out of his backpocket like a surgeon selecting a scalpel. It's on, people; It's ON.

The band has the skills to back him up and everyone walks away spent. They put their heart and soul into all they do and the crowd eats it up. It's no wonder the venues love 'em. They get the crowd sweating and folks have to replenish those liquids somehow. OH. There's a waitress ready to get you hydrated.
What more could you want?

From their facebook bio: We are a hot new Dynamic Variety Band, We play many different types of music. We have a little something for all music likes, and tastes. All the members comprise a wealth of years of music and experience and knowledge on the local music scene.

WE LOVE TO ENTERTAIN YOU!!!!!!!

Lead Singer, Band Leader Paul Carreker "aka" Big Daddy, Percussion, James Hayes, Lead Guitar, Eddie Stevens, Bass Guitar, Vocals Eric MaGouirk, and Keyboards, Mike Harrell.

For booking contact Big Daddy himself at 478-297-1035.....and tell him I sent ya!

Keith Patterson

Great lead guitar player with band experience, but is just as much of a showman onstage alone with his acoustic.

Big Mike & The Booty Papas

From the FB page:
 "Whether you’re carrying the world on your shoulders or primed for a good time Big Mike and the Booty Papas know exactly what to do to get you up and moving. One thing is certain, you won’t leave the show the same way you came in. Chances are with Big Mike and the Booty Papas in the house you’ll be shakin’ what your moma gave you before the night is through…dancin’, laughin’ and lovin’ your worries away."

There's not much I could add to that. These guys really know how it's supposed to be done.

I saw him perform at a blues club probably 12 years ago. He had me chuckling at his witicisms and his observations. Early in the night he announced:  "Don't waste yer money on the bubble gum machine in the bathroom! The gum has gone bad ......but it makes one hell of a bubble." Later, I ended up in the bathroom and looking around, I wondered where the bubble gum machine was...and why would anyone put a bubble gum machine in a men's room in the first place? I had given up my search when I saw the condom machine and realized what he was talking about. I laughed so hard that night.....and I still crack up everytime that memory strikes me.

THAT'S what Big Mike does, and does better than anyone else in Middle Ga.: He gives you memories. Every show is special. The music is authentic. The banter is fresh, creative, and hilarious. You leave with a story to tell the next day or a silly comment to talk about 12 years later.

I got the honor of meeting Big Mike a few years ago. Back then, he certainly fit the moniker, BIG Mike, and it appeared to me his heart was even bigger than he was. Everyone I talk to who knows him will pretty much say the same thing -"He is the kindest guy you could hope to find."

Check him out and ask around. You won't find  better live entertainment in these parts than Big Mike and the Booty Papa's.

Big Mike and the Booty Papa's on FB
bootypapa.com