Bob Bland Music

What a great time I had playing the final show of the season at Carolyn's Magic Garden on Sept. 12th!! Carolyn is one of my favorite people, and playing her concert series is always the highlight of my musical year.
This year I was joined by Kristin Erickson (Seattle) and Keith Taylor, a local guitar virtuoso and the current Utah State Finger Style guitar champion. They started the night off with beautiful songs, most written by Kristin. The packed audience loved it. I got to finish out the evening with a 90 minute mix of originals and covers, including a fun song I wrote last Spring called "Old Guy" and a brand new love song ... so new I haven't even gotten around to thinking about a title. I had an amazing time, and the audience really got me pumped up!
After the show, some people stayed around hoping for more, so I pulled my guitar back out and sat around the fire pit playing sans mic or amp for another half hour or so. I love intimate times like those.

Next up: I'll be playing at Feldman's Deli this next weekend, always a fun venue, and then heading back to my home town of Virginia Beach, Va. for a 10 day vacation. I'm pretty sure my cats will be stressed and agitated by the time I return. And I bet they will find a way to let me know it. We'll worry about that after I'm back!

Cheers for now. :)

Well, it's been a while since I updated this site, and some fun things have happened.

In February I got to play the Brewin' Bistro, for SLCC TV, along with Mary Tebbs and her band Yes Ma'am! That was a fun time. Here is the YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afyI1W1PQco
The video is pretty long, but my part begins just before the 7:00 minute mark, and goes for about 25 minutes. When the individual video clips are available I will add them to the site.

I have also started up a 2nd weekly open mic. This one is on Wednesdays from 6:30 - 9:00 at Ditta Caffe, located on 3300 S and approximately 1500 E. It used to be a nursery, and there is a big green plastic dome. We play inside and the acoustics are really cool! I'll post some photos from the 1st open mic soon.

This year I revised Rum Runner to be more streamlined and got it down to about 4:20. I entered that song and Love Will Always Find A Way to the Susanne Millsaps songwriting competition this year. Preliminary judging to determine the 10 finalists who will play at the Utah Arts Festival is almost complete. Wish me luck!

Next Friday is the State Fingerstyle Championships, at the Ogden Music Festival. I'm planning to play again this year, which means I have to stop bouldering until after the contest to preserve my nails. I still have not decided which two tunes I'm going to play, but I have a new instrumental which could make it into the mix. Andrea's Dream is fun to play, and when I get a good recording I'll add it to the site.

Speaking of climbing, I'm still at it. I caught some big air a few nights ago at the climbing gym when my arms flamed out at the very top of the wall. But my belayer did a great job of catching my fall, and I did a great job of pulling her 15 feet off the ground in the process! Not to be deterred, though ... we climbed for another 2 hours after that.

I have a fun new song, tentatively called Old Guy, that is a hoot to play. Again, when I have a good recording it will be added to the site.

Happy Memorial Day weekend to all!! Be safe out there.

Happy New Year!! I hope the holidays have been good to you. They were good to me, maybe too good as I am up about 5 lbs since Thanksgiving!! But that weight will be coming back off as soon as I get past a nagging ankle injury and back to the climbing gym.
I'm working on some new music, and hopefully I'll have some scratch recording for you soon. In the meantime, I'm starting off the new year with a gig at Ditta Caffe, close to my home, at 1560 East 3300 South. It's a neat space with a neat vibe.

HAVE A GREAT NEW YEAR! 2015 will be the best year yet.
Cheers! 

I hope you all had a very wonderful Thanksgiving celebration. My day was great! While I missed my boys, who were out of town, I got to play orphan and hang out with my good friends Paul and Kim Fritzler, and other musician friends. It was a full day of awesome food, friendship and music. For dessert we watched Life Of Brian. So funny!

The weekend was good too. I got in a great 4 hour hike up Neff's Canyon on Friday, 2 1/2 hours uphill through slush, ice and snow, and 1 1/2 hours back. Beautifiul day. Today is going to be a music/climbing/social day.

I hope you all have had a great weekend, and are invigorated for the week ahead. Cheers!
 

Here is a video of me playing Rum Runner from my Storm On The Mountain CD. This was last night at the Alchemy Coffee open mic that I host every Tuesday. It was recorded on my phone, so the quality isn't great, but it is good enough to merit a listen. Enjoy!

Caputo's in Holladay has aske me to come back again this Saturday to provide music for their patrons! I'm really looking forward to this, last Saturday was a hoot and a good time was had by all. The food will be good, the music will be good, the venue is fun. Come join us! See you there. :)

I had a wonderful time playing at Caputo's Deli in Holladay. Everything was great, several tables stayed to listen for most of the night, and the staff told me a lot of them requested that I be brought back next week! Sold some CD's, too. Met some new friends, shared some stories. It was terrific all around!

Now I get to relax on this fine Sunday by going rock climbing outside. It's a beautiful day!

After playing at Bleu Bistro last night, the owner asked me to come back and play again tonight, and next week. Last night was good, but tonight was even better! The audience was engaged and getting into the music, and I got to meet and talk with a bunch of new friends and music fans. It was a totally fun night. I forgot the time, I was cooking along so well, and ended up playing almost an hour past my scheduled time. Great vibes!

Bleu Bistro was fun tonight. I guess I must have sounded okay, because they asked me to come back again tomorrow night and again next week! Bonus: the salmon dinner was outstanding!  I'm looking forward to exploring all the different menu choices.  :)
Cheers!

Well, I finally got around to creating a Facebook music page! I'm not sure everything is right yet, but it's started, so that's progress. Just in time for 2 gigs this week, too. Wednesday I decided to get out and start marketing myself to new venues. I visited about 10 places and had some pretty good results. While 2 or 3 places were no longer doing live music, I got 2 gigs lined up this week. Thursday I'm playing at the Bleu Bistro, and Saturday at Caputo's Deli. YAY! I'm excited to break into some new locations. I've been told I will also be playing at the Wild Grape Bistro soon. And there are 2 more locations that sound like they are pretty interested.

I have another 10 locations in SLC to visit, and 20 in the Park City/Heber/Midway vicinity. So I'm hopeful that I can get enough gigs lined up to avoid the dreaded, mind numbing type of work that I used to do. Fingers crossed!

Hope you all had a great Halloween. I did! But that's another story...