Barrett
Well another year is upon us. Brad Paisley says we are looking at the first blank pages of a brand new 365 page book. Make sure you write a good one. We certainly wish the best for everyone in 2017, and are excited to share with you all the things we are planning as well.
First we want to thank everyone that shared moments of 2016 with us. We played about 25 shows this past year, and are quickly on pace to possibly double that this year! We met so many great people and new friends while playing several new venues, and it feels great to start having a regular circuit and seeing the same repeat faces out on the dance floor! Miss Jill has been gracious enough to let us entertain her fine folks at the Wild Country Dancehall about every month over the past few months, including Haloween, a Christmas dance, and ringing in 2017 for our New Years show. We’ve made the trek to Tullahoma several times and partied with the good folks at Daddy Billy’s, and have gained a regular rotation in Nashville at JC’s Bullseye. We got to enjoy several great meals at Nett’s country store, and rocked the dock out on the lake at Flip Flops and Shipwreck Cove.
2016 also had some great special events. We helped Mike Arnold and The Music City Rockers sell out one of their shows at Douglas Corner, we were invited to play the 2nd Annual Porch Jam during Fan Fair week, and we had a great time providing the entertainment for Mt. Zion’s Freewill Baptist Church’s Fall Festival. We’re looking for more opportunities to collaborate with more people and be a part of more special events and festivals in 2017.
We already have 2 new venues we will be making debuts at in 2017. January 13th we will play Papa Tourney’s in Nashville for the first time as a band, and April 1st we will have the honor of playing the brand new Phantom 309 saloon in Fairview. Our fans keep asking about more places to catch one of our shows, and we are always looking deliver and find new places to play.
New Music is also on the horizon for 2017. It has been great to grow as a band this year. Elizabeth and I have been honored to have such support from our full time bandmates Eric Fleischauer on gutiar and Allen Atkinson on bass. Chris Stephens helped us gain a lot of ground holding down the ryhthm on the drum kit for the first half of the year, and we’ve been fortunate to get additional help from Dennis Hughes over the past couple months, with a few fill ins from Brian Rotolo and Hippie Fleet. One of the things that has made this project so fun and so successful is the level of class and professional of the guys we work with and the places we’ve been playing. It’s definitely not easy in the music business to be surrounded by such good people. I’ve pushed the guys to a set list of well over 100 songs, and almost every week I through them something new just to keep them on their toes. From playing requests on the spot, to trying tried and true favorites for the first time as a band, there’s never a dull moment on stage. We’re excited to finally have some time to start working more original music into our shows, and it’s our goal in 2017 to produce some brand new recordings and release a new EP! Everyone always asks us if we have a CD, so we will be making that happen.
With all of our other aspirations for the new year, most of all we want to stay humble and keep in touch more with our fans. Life gets so busy and you roll from gig to gig and often times don’t stop to thank everyone an extra time, and keep everyone updated on what’s next. So our commitment to you this year is more updates, more pictures, more videos, hopefully some live streams, more blogs, and of course more music. If you haven’t signed up for our mailing list yet, go ahead so we can keep you up to date with what’s happening. We’re very excited for what’s to come and hope you are too. Let’s make it a great year together!
-Barrett & Brady Hill Band
