Fish Friends,
There will be a BLOG about the event coming soon from our very own Susan Renville...and more photos. Just got back from hanging with Danielle Egnew and Rob Rigoni and had these great live shots of Calli Cucciardi in my email basket. Past and click on the following hyper link:
http://www.chrisshealy.com/maurice/callicucciardi/index.htm
Calli did a wonderful job of singing KT Tunstall's song....we are very proud of her here at Maurice the Fish Records....
much love,
raymond
P.S. Here is a shot from a fan:
There will be a BLOG about the event coming soon from our very own Susan Renville...and more photos. Just got back from hanging with Danielle Egnew and Rob Rigoni and had these great live shots of Calli Cucciardi in my email basket. Past and click on the following hyper link:
http://www.chrisshealy.com/maurice/callicucciardi/index.htm
Calli did a wonderful job of singing KT Tunstall's song....we are very proud of her here at Maurice the Fish Records....
much love,
raymond
P.S. Here is a shot from a fan:
O.K., lets first of all thank Mr. Cory Rheault for the photos...this is only SOME of the many he took, but it gives you and idea of the fun we had (Four hours of playing in the sun...wahooo):
06/08: Rikk and the DIGITRUCK
Just thought you might want to see the DIGITRUCK...with, non-other than...Rikk Beatty....
04/08: Street Team Adventures
The following is a guest blog from Terri Downs, a member of (among many other things) the Maurice The Fish Records street team:
"A Day in the Life of a MTFR Street Team …
So Raymond asked me to blog about the Street Team adventure this past weekend. Of course I was honored that he asked; however, the more I thought I gave to it; I just wasn’t sure how to write about it. This is more like journalism of which I am not acquainted. You see I am a poet and spiritual writing – writing only from my heart with deep and intense passion and emotion. I see this as a challenge and opportunity, so here we go … I intend this little story will make you smile and laugh out loud.
The night before I said an intention that the following day’s venture would be successful and that Shelly and I would be received well by the communities; that they would be supportive in our effort to promote “Rock the Woods”. It never hurts to invoke your Higher Power and ask for assistance when traveling outside your comfort zone. As I drifted off to sleep I was wondering just what the heck I’d gotten my self into. I’m no sales person and some what shy … yes, I am!! But dog gone it I was going to put every ounce of energy into promoting these people that have filled my heart with joy over and over again. I was determined!
I arose at 4:30 a.m. Sunday morning … I had 4 hours to prepare and I still wasn’t ready when Shelly arrived at my home at 8:30 a.m. … right on time! Mind you neither Shelly nor I knew each other prior to this … of course we’d seen each other at label parties and such, but hadn’t even had a conversation. We had never been introduced; however, by the end of the day we would know each other quite well. We were a great fit!
By 9:00 we had my little red coupe loaded and hit the road. Much to my chagrin I learned that Shelly was no more experienced in Street Teaming then I was … this was truly going to be an adventure and learning occasion for both of us.
Although the weather man promised rain, the sun was shining; the traffic was light …a perfect morning for a long drive. We spent our 45-minute drive to Port Orchard getting acquainted; sharing our “how we met Ray” story and how we got involved with the label.
We took the first Port Orchard exit and found most of the businesses closed. After all it was Sunday and not quite 10:00 am. Our first stop was Lowe’s. Here we would learn a valuable piece of information … most large chains do not allow advertising to be posted in the public area. The little gal at the information desk said she would post our flyer in the employee lounge. We were back on the freeway within 20 minutes and heading toward the next exit. Next stop “Auto Zone”. We walked into the store armed with flyers and “September Sky” CDs. Our experience here set the tone for the day. Not only did they post our flyer right by the front door, but we were given the name and number of their district manager … a potential corporate sponsor. Now we were pumped!!!
The first dozen or so businesses I took the lead and Shelly handed out the goodies. It didn’t take us long to get into our groove; one playing off the other or jumping in when we thought the other was loosing the “sale” … we meshed well. After 20 or so businesses we pretty much had our pitch down pat and took turn giving our little chat. It was working for us. It was funny how we just seemed to intuitively know which one of our little hooks would grab their interest. We found there were three that worked well … it’s a family event; the musicians are local artists; or it’s a community event and on the Chamber of Commerce calendar. I have to thank the Universe for giving me the idea of contacting the Chambers ahead of time and asking to have the event put on their calendar. WOO HOO!!
We became particularly fond of strip malls; hit every one between the freeway and downtown Port Orchard. Not only did we get a little exercise, but we could cover a large area in a short amount of time. At some point I decided we needed a goal … 100 businesses by 4:00 pm. Well we had to adjust the goal to 75, but hey it was our goal and we could change it at any time.
We rewarded each and every business with a CD … our way of saying thank your for supporting “us”. So Shelly says “do you see how there face lights up every time you hand them the CD?” Gratitude is a beautiful thing and I have no doubt this went a long way in securing our success. There were a few people that showed a great deal of interest and excitement … so we rewarded those people with a complimentary ticket. Shelly and I would like to send a special thank you to the guys at Good Year Tires, the gals at Desert Sun Tanning Salon, Godfather’s Pizza, Hobby Outlet, and Dairy Queen … winners of our complimentary tickets. You guys ROCK and we’ll look forward to seeing you at the concert.
The most difficult thing for me was staying focused. All those retail businesses, money in my pocket and so little time … I so love retail therapy! Shelly was instrumental in keeping me from wandering off … “I see you shopping with your eyes” … LOL! I’m definitely going back to the Variety Mall.
Here are few memorable moments from my partner:
“The lonely Auto Zone guy, who might have talked our ears off all day, but he was very sweet.”
“ALMOST going to Popeye’s instead of healthy Subway, but we had willpower and we did earn our DQ! = )” [We did take a 20-minute lunch break.]
“Last, but not least struggling to get out of your car, since I usually step down out of my big truck.” [She did learn how to roll out of the coupe by the end of the day!!]
“Overall, I had a great time with you and I hope to do it again sometime (or some other assignment).”
So our journey continues …
Four or so hours into our journey Shelly says “you know we haven’t even found downtown yet.” WHAT!! I didn’t know the area and I was amazed that we still hadn’t hit the heart of the town. Shelly will tell you I was “directionally challenged” and made a number of small detours and U-turns . . . I call them “Terri Adventures”. However, we were an unstoppable force and nothing was getting in the way of meeting our goal.
Nearly 6 hours and 77 businesses later we found “downtown” Port Orchard. OMGoodness we could have spent another 6 hours and still not hit every business. But alas most of the businesses were closed by that hour. We learned that Sunday may not have been the best choice to Street Team in small town USA. We walked out of business number 78, a little wine shop, feeling a bit smug and quite pleased with our work. We headed for DQ and our much earned ice cream treat. Truth be told, it was what kept us going that last hour or so – we were exhausted. We sat for 30 minutes enjoying ourselves, chatting, and recapping the day. We made a mental list for our next escapade … more people, go on a Saturday, uhhhh find out where downtown is before you hit the road and take label T-shirts! I was wearing mine and we did have a request for one.
So that about brings our story to an end … no wait … our adventure was not over quite yet … LOL! I must tell this part of the story – its Shelly’s favorite! As we “attempted” to merge from 16 to I-5 a 36-foot motor home, towing a trailer was intentionally blocking cars from merging in front of him and holding up the entire merging process. Dueling with this less then kind commuter was not my idea of fun, but we were running out of time and lane! It was at this point that Shelly was treated to my vast array of colorful vocabulary. I lost the battle, but did manage to merge before our lane ended. We moved over a couple of lanes and passed the motor home, cheering!! So a short time later here comes Mr. Motor Home passing us on the right and I made an amazing discovery … Shelly knows sign language … LMAO!!! We decided karma would have a hand in teaching this man a lesson or two about road etiquette … ya’ know what goes around comes around … and left it at that.
We arrived in my driveway a short time later totally spent. We said our goodbyes with smiles and hugs still reveling in the satisfaction for a job well done! We visited 78 businesses and posted the flyer in 75 of them … not bad for a couple of inexperienced, middle-aged, street teamers."
Terri and Shelly are the greatest!
'Til next time............
"A Day in the Life of a MTFR Street Team …
So Raymond asked me to blog about the Street Team adventure this past weekend. Of course I was honored that he asked; however, the more I thought I gave to it; I just wasn’t sure how to write about it. This is more like journalism of which I am not acquainted. You see I am a poet and spiritual writing – writing only from my heart with deep and intense passion and emotion. I see this as a challenge and opportunity, so here we go … I intend this little story will make you smile and laugh out loud.
The night before I said an intention that the following day’s venture would be successful and that Shelly and I would be received well by the communities; that they would be supportive in our effort to promote “Rock the Woods”. It never hurts to invoke your Higher Power and ask for assistance when traveling outside your comfort zone. As I drifted off to sleep I was wondering just what the heck I’d gotten my self into. I’m no sales person and some what shy … yes, I am!! But dog gone it I was going to put every ounce of energy into promoting these people that have filled my heart with joy over and over again. I was determined!
I arose at 4:30 a.m. Sunday morning … I had 4 hours to prepare and I still wasn’t ready when Shelly arrived at my home at 8:30 a.m. … right on time! Mind you neither Shelly nor I knew each other prior to this … of course we’d seen each other at label parties and such, but hadn’t even had a conversation. We had never been introduced; however, by the end of the day we would know each other quite well. We were a great fit!
By 9:00 we had my little red coupe loaded and hit the road. Much to my chagrin I learned that Shelly was no more experienced in Street Teaming then I was … this was truly going to be an adventure and learning occasion for both of us.
Although the weather man promised rain, the sun was shining; the traffic was light …a perfect morning for a long drive. We spent our 45-minute drive to Port Orchard getting acquainted; sharing our “how we met Ray” story and how we got involved with the label.
We took the first Port Orchard exit and found most of the businesses closed. After all it was Sunday and not quite 10:00 am. Our first stop was Lowe’s. Here we would learn a valuable piece of information … most large chains do not allow advertising to be posted in the public area. The little gal at the information desk said she would post our flyer in the employee lounge. We were back on the freeway within 20 minutes and heading toward the next exit. Next stop “Auto Zone”. We walked into the store armed with flyers and “September Sky” CDs. Our experience here set the tone for the day. Not only did they post our flyer right by the front door, but we were given the name and number of their district manager … a potential corporate sponsor. Now we were pumped!!!
The first dozen or so businesses I took the lead and Shelly handed out the goodies. It didn’t take us long to get into our groove; one playing off the other or jumping in when we thought the other was loosing the “sale” … we meshed well. After 20 or so businesses we pretty much had our pitch down pat and took turn giving our little chat. It was working for us. It was funny how we just seemed to intuitively know which one of our little hooks would grab their interest. We found there were three that worked well … it’s a family event; the musicians are local artists; or it’s a community event and on the Chamber of Commerce calendar. I have to thank the Universe for giving me the idea of contacting the Chambers ahead of time and asking to have the event put on their calendar. WOO HOO!!
We became particularly fond of strip malls; hit every one between the freeway and downtown Port Orchard. Not only did we get a little exercise, but we could cover a large area in a short amount of time. At some point I decided we needed a goal … 100 businesses by 4:00 pm. Well we had to adjust the goal to 75, but hey it was our goal and we could change it at any time.
We rewarded each and every business with a CD … our way of saying thank your for supporting “us”. So Shelly says “do you see how there face lights up every time you hand them the CD?” Gratitude is a beautiful thing and I have no doubt this went a long way in securing our success. There were a few people that showed a great deal of interest and excitement … so we rewarded those people with a complimentary ticket. Shelly and I would like to send a special thank you to the guys at Good Year Tires, the gals at Desert Sun Tanning Salon, Godfather’s Pizza, Hobby Outlet, and Dairy Queen … winners of our complimentary tickets. You guys ROCK and we’ll look forward to seeing you at the concert.
The most difficult thing for me was staying focused. All those retail businesses, money in my pocket and so little time … I so love retail therapy! Shelly was instrumental in keeping me from wandering off … “I see you shopping with your eyes” … LOL! I’m definitely going back to the Variety Mall.
Here are few memorable moments from my partner:
“The lonely Auto Zone guy, who might have talked our ears off all day, but he was very sweet.”
“ALMOST going to Popeye’s instead of healthy Subway, but we had willpower and we did earn our DQ! = )” [We did take a 20-minute lunch break.]
“Last, but not least struggling to get out of your car, since I usually step down out of my big truck.” [She did learn how to roll out of the coupe by the end of the day!!]
“Overall, I had a great time with you and I hope to do it again sometime (or some other assignment).”
So our journey continues …
Four or so hours into our journey Shelly says “you know we haven’t even found downtown yet.” WHAT!! I didn’t know the area and I was amazed that we still hadn’t hit the heart of the town. Shelly will tell you I was “directionally challenged” and made a number of small detours and U-turns . . . I call them “Terri Adventures”. However, we were an unstoppable force and nothing was getting in the way of meeting our goal.
Nearly 6 hours and 77 businesses later we found “downtown” Port Orchard. OMGoodness we could have spent another 6 hours and still not hit every business. But alas most of the businesses were closed by that hour. We learned that Sunday may not have been the best choice to Street Team in small town USA. We walked out of business number 78, a little wine shop, feeling a bit smug and quite pleased with our work. We headed for DQ and our much earned ice cream treat. Truth be told, it was what kept us going that last hour or so – we were exhausted. We sat for 30 minutes enjoying ourselves, chatting, and recapping the day. We made a mental list for our next escapade … more people, go on a Saturday, uhhhh find out where downtown is before you hit the road and take label T-shirts! I was wearing mine and we did have a request for one.
So that about brings our story to an end … no wait … our adventure was not over quite yet … LOL! I must tell this part of the story – its Shelly’s favorite! As we “attempted” to merge from 16 to I-5 a 36-foot motor home, towing a trailer was intentionally blocking cars from merging in front of him and holding up the entire merging process. Dueling with this less then kind commuter was not my idea of fun, but we were running out of time and lane! It was at this point that Shelly was treated to my vast array of colorful vocabulary. I lost the battle, but did manage to merge before our lane ended. We moved over a couple of lanes and passed the motor home, cheering!! So a short time later here comes Mr. Motor Home passing us on the right and I made an amazing discovery … Shelly knows sign language … LMAO!!! We decided karma would have a hand in teaching this man a lesson or two about road etiquette … ya’ know what goes around comes around … and left it at that.
We arrived in my driveway a short time later totally spent. We said our goodbyes with smiles and hugs still reveling in the satisfaction for a job well done! We visited 78 businesses and posted the flyer in 75 of them … not bad for a couple of inexperienced, middle-aged, street teamers."
Terri and Shelly are the greatest!
'Til next time............
Man it has been a long but very cool past couple of weeks. I flew into Boston and met the truck there along with the Travis Larson Band. The TLB folks have been with us the entire tour and it has been ALLOT of fun. Lots of good shows plus we have gotten to go see Plymouth Rock AND the coolest thing in the world.... The Hershey factory. We just left Pennsylvania and are now in Ohio. This tour took us to MA, NH, VT, PA, OH, and WV. We have had ALLOT of hilarious good times including pulling up to a venue at 1:00am and parking the truck and finding 2 shopping carts that we took and had shopping cart races in the huge empty parking lot. I have lots of pictures and video and will be doing another video when I get home. I was in one shopping cart and Jen from TLB was in the other. Tristan was pushing me while skating in roller blades. I have some GREAT hilarious pictures from the Hershey factory and we have had MANY after show parties these last couple weeks. Its 1:00am here now and we just got done having dinner and drinks then going to the shopping mall parking lot across from the hotel and playing frisbee. The night security kept making drives by us to see what we were doing and apparently thought the drunken frisbee throwing musicians were of no harm to the mall parking lot. lol Every tour there are sayings that end up being the "tour sayings" that we all say over and over again the entire time. Sometimes they are so good they make it back to the following tours. Most of them mean absolutely nothing except to anyone but us. This tour we had "dude" which we have been able to carry on entire conversations with saying nothing but the word dude and the expression that goes along with it. (I have a funny video of that that I will be putting up soon). Also we have "BLAH!" which needs to be said loudly and as quick as possible. This was Paul's contribution to our weirdness that is the DigiTruck tour. (Dont tell Paul but one night he passed out and Jen took eye l iner and wrote "BLAH" on his forehead. We took pictures and then erased it with a wet paper towel and he never woke up (and he still does not know)). :-) Then there is the "Hey babe" and "Covered in dew" which both have to be said in your best Sammy Davis Jr voice (got video of that as well). We also have "Rainbow...? I love Rainbow!" We played at a music store called rainbow Music that was named after the band Rainbow which happens to be one of Paul's favorite bands. So now... out of nowhere, if someone says "Rainbow", 5 people will immediately chime in with "I love Rainbow". We have had some strange expressions from people with that one since it seems to happen at weird moments. lol And we have watched "Anchorman the Legend of Ron Burgendy" about a million times so we are all quoting lines from it as well.
Well tomorrow is Paul's last day on the tour and he has a buddy of his who plays guitar for the backup lead singer of Judas Priest as well as the most recent singer for Yngwie Malmsteen coming on the truck. The TLB folks will be on the truck for 2 more shows then I am on my own for the last show. I fly home on the 2nd then fly back out on the 3rd to Utah. I will fly back home on the 7th then be off till August 25th.
Well its late but lobby call is not until 11:00am tomorrow so thank God for that!!!!
Keep Rockin'!!!
-Rikk
Well tomorrow is Paul's last day on the tour and he has a buddy of his who plays guitar for the backup lead singer of Judas Priest as well as the most recent singer for Yngwie Malmsteen coming on the truck. The TLB folks will be on the truck for 2 more shows then I am on my own for the last show. I fly home on the 2nd then fly back out on the 3rd to Utah. I will fly back home on the 7th then be off till August 25th.
Well its late but lobby call is not until 11:00am tomorrow so thank God for that!!!!
Keep Rockin'!!!
-Rikk
30/07: New Staff!
I am pleased to announce several additions to our staff:
Shelly Bainter, Promotions
Terri Downs, Promotions
Dave Sawyer, Chief Technology Officer
We are so happy to have these wonderful people, and their considerable talents, working to get Maurice The Fish Records on the map.
We're getting closer.........
Shelly Bainter, Promotions
Terri Downs, Promotions
Dave Sawyer, Chief Technology Officer
We are so happy to have these wonderful people, and their considerable talents, working to get Maurice The Fish Records on the map.
We're getting closer.........
27/07: Internet Radio Rocks!
Rikk Beatty has been picked up by another Internet Radio Station devoted to playing only Guitar Instrumentals. It is called Guitar Central. Please check out the following link. Thanks Trixi!
http://www.live365.com/stations/trixi17
http://www.live365.com/stations/trixi17
27/07: Christmas in July!
I have some very exciting news, Rikk and I had dinner the other evening and he indicated to me that he wanted to re-release his Christmas Album: Winter's Song...so, we are going to do it! You have the opportunity to get ahead of the game and get some of your Christmas shopping done early...go to the following link and check out the MP3:
http://www.rikkbeatty.com/index3.html
For those of you who know Rikk's style, this will surprise you. Normally, Rikk sounds like a student of Joe Satriani or Steve Vai. On this particular album, he has meshed his unique style of acoustic playing with a Latin vibe...very reminiscent of Carlos Santana. It is a must have for your Christmas collection.
Rikk is on the verge of breakin' in the music scene...this album will also be a collector's album. Check it out !
http://www.rikkbeatty.com/index3.html
For those of you who know Rikk's style, this will surprise you. Normally, Rikk sounds like a student of Joe Satriani or Steve Vai. On this particular album, he has meshed his unique style of acoustic playing with a Latin vibe...very reminiscent of Carlos Santana. It is a must have for your Christmas collection.
Rikk is on the verge of breakin' in the music scene...this album will also be a collector's album. Check it out !
From Ray:
Hey ! Marisa Cohen from HDFEST Film Festival emailed me personally tonight and asked me to submit my music video (Mystic Rhythm) to their Film Festival.
"We at HDFEST saw your music video "Mystic Rhythm" recently and were wondering if you would like us to post the video in the music video showcase of the HDFEST.com website? We evaluated your work and it is QUITE good."
Great news!!
Hey ! Marisa Cohen from HDFEST Film Festival emailed me personally tonight and asked me to submit my music video (Mystic Rhythm) to their Film Festival.
"We at HDFEST saw your music video "Mystic Rhythm" recently and were wondering if you would like us to post the video in the music video showcase of the HDFEST.com website? We evaluated your work and it is QUITE good."
Great news!!
Check out the GREAT review of Maurice The Fish's July 3rd performance:
Thanks again for putting on a great show on Thursday! Not only is your music awesome, but it’s so much fun to watch you guys perform. I totally left a group of my friends who set down their blankets in the back of that grassy area because I couldn’t see the stage. I didn’t care – I rocked out to your songs by myself! Such good music. Such good musicians! I’m still in awe.
Thanks again!
~Leila, Reporter
The (Longview) Daily News
Thanks again for putting on a great show on Thursday! Not only is your music awesome, but it’s so much fun to watch you guys perform. I totally left a group of my friends who set down their blankets in the back of that grassy area because I couldn’t see the stage. I didn’t care – I rocked out to your songs by myself! Such good music. Such good musicians! I’m still in awe.
Thanks again!
~Leila, Reporter
The (Longview) Daily News