Blue Sky Riders

It’s just a stone. It sits in front of the new Nashville Convention Center alongside several hundred other stones where thousands of people a day can scuff their shoes and drop gum with gay abandon. It’s just a stone …but it has my name on it.

It’s pretty great to have a stone with my name on it that I’m not lying under. This one is part of the Songwriter Hall of Fame that just opened today here in my hometown of Nashville. Up till now there was no physical Hall of Fame. When you were inducted you just existed in the minds and hearts of songwriters everywhere. Like Santa. Or Barbie Benton. (more…)

This was the moment I’ve been dreading. I can remember that from the moment we decided to call ourselves Blue Sky Riders, a part of me knew this was waiting. There they were, entering the hospitality tent of the Stagecoach Festival. It was Sharks versus Jets. It was Montagues versus Capulets. It was Blue Sky Riders versus….. (more…)

Have you ever been to Pioneertown, CA? Me neither. We were booked to play Pappy and Harriet’s, a funky barbecue/ concert joint in a town that was built to shoot western movies in. As we drove closer and closer, we saw less and less of the world we know. We were entering an area where rattlesnakes outnumber humans by three to one. They sold snake venom in the convenience store. Flavored. (more…)

Did you ever wonder what happens on a day off when a band is on tour? It’s kind of interesting.

The night before a day off you sleep like a baby. I guess it’s because you know you have the next day off. No early morning wake up call to get you down to the lobby to go to a radio station or a tv studio. Usually you sleep straight through the free complimentary breakfast you get in your finer hotels. You sleep all the way until… (more…)

Two more shows under our collective belts. We played Santa Cruz and I had to stand there on stage in front of the judgmental eyes of old friends. And, may I say… they went judge-”mental!” Seriously, we had a great show. When I lived in Santa Cruz three hundred years ago, I worked at Marianne’s Ice Cream and all spring I have bee looking forward to going there and having a big scoop of rocky road ice cream. Unfortunately, one of the rules of the rocky road of touring is….no dairy on show days. Ice Cream is probably at least ten percent dairy (I tell myself) so I had to pass the shop by as we rolled out of town. (more…)

Picture a young kid from Connecticut… moved to Santa Cruz, California… desperately trying to play the big club, The Catalyst… the true sign of success in this town.

He never did. The band broke up and he went home to CT with his metaphoric tail between his legs. His disappointment was left to fester inside him like a cockroach in a 79cent burrito. (more…)

Come with me on a magical recap of a magical week in a magical place called South by Southwest! A land filled with special badges, honky tonks, big stages, excellent cheeseburgers and more sunshine than I have seen in years. (more…)

New interview and performance videos now posted! Check out Ram Country on Yahoo! Music for live performance videos and an exclusive interview … taped in January 2013, the day following our Tonight Show debut! (more…)

Blue Sky Riders are excited to join the famed SXSW Music Festival in Austin, TX this March with seven spectacular events scheduled. On March, 13, 2013 at 12:30 PM the band will be speaking at the SXSW “Indie At Any Age” Panel along with the band’s 3Dream Record Label team. (more…)

We just had our first live Twitter Chat on Thursday, Feb 14th, and had a great time! Thank you to everyone that tweeted such terrific questions … we’ll do it again soon. Read on for our answers to your questions asked during the live chat.

Follow us on Twitter, and keep an eye on #AskBSR — we will try to catch up with the questions we didn’t get to during the live hour. (more…)