If anyone is around the San Antonio area tonight, we'll be at the Hangin' Tree Saloon in Bracken (near Retama Park Racetrack). We start at 8:00.

Then we're flying to Europe for a two week tour - Paris, Belgium, and a few dates in Italy. We'll be back on May 28th and will be at Gruene Hall on May 29th.

Then it's back into the studio on June 2nd through the 6th to record a new album......once again with Tommy Detamore at Cherry Ridge Studios but this time my band (Matt Slusher, David Whitbeck and Zach Samuell) will be playing on the album. Hopefully it'll be a quick turnaround and we'll have it out by the end of July!

And speaking of July....mark your calendars for July 26th - the first annual Rodney Hayden Music Festival in McCoy, TX (30 miles or so south of San Antonio on I-37) at the Wildcat Saloon. We'll have washer tournaments during the day, a lot of really great prize giveaways (including a guitar autographed by all of the artists) and other fun things going on throughout the afternoon. The music should go from noon - midnight and the lineup is......

Jennie Morgan (Folky Ft. Worth singer/songwriter)
David Whitbeck
Matt Slusher
Drew Kennedy
The Scott Wiggins Band
Owen Temple
Jason Allen
Two Tons of Steel
Sunny Sweeney
Gary P Nunn
Rodney Hayden

Should be a great day......hopefully you all can make plans for a roadtrip to south Texas and come be a part of it. There's more information on the website, and we'll add an official festival website soon with a lot of usefule information (hotels, local RV hookups, directions, exact times, etc.) and a place to order tickets online.

A lot of exciting things happening right now. Thanks so much for all the support. Spread the word to all of your friends about the festival.......see ya soon.
Rodney

*copy of the newsletter sent out this month...be sure and sign up for the mailing list*

Hey everyone,

I've been getting a lot better with this whole newsletter thing this year....I think I only sent one last year. Hopefully everyone enjoys getting them and staying up to date on what's going on. Things have really been going well.....I'm not exactly sure what's going on but our mailing list has doubled in the past 6 weeks and we've literally been averaging 4 times the daily visitors to our website and myspace page from the beginning of the year to now. So we're all very excited about that. Attendance at the shows is up, we've been staying busy and I've really been enjoying all the travelling and playing.

So if you're one of the new people (which half of you are) welcome to the newsletter. Sometimes I send one a month, sometimes more.

This Friday we'll be at the Hangin' Tree Saloon once again in Bracken. If you've never been out there you should try to come out. It's one of my favorite places....it's a real honky tonk. Great jukebox, great people, food, beer, and just an all around good time. Then on Saturday we'll be making our first visit to Winnsboro, TX. I'm really looking forward to it, as a bunch of my long time friends are planning a reunion of sorts at the show that night.

Next week we'll be playing with Trent Willmon (the lead actor from the movie that I was in a few months ago) at 8.0's in Fort Worth for the Ranch Concert Series on Wednesday night. Then on the 19th (next Saturday) we'll be back at the Wildcat Saloon in McCoy, TX. (That's near my hometown of Pleasanton in case you were wondering). If you've never been, this is another place you should make a point to visit. Honestly some of our best shows of the past year have been here. It's just a real laid back fun place. If you do make plans to come see us at the Wildcat make sure and come early because it gets very crowded and you'll want to make sure and be there early enough to eat one of their great steaks before the show. We'll be there quite a bit though throughout the rest of the year so if you can't make it next weekend make sure and make a trip at some point this year.

We'll be at another one of my favorite places to play at the end of the month....Blanco's in Houston. If you're in the Houston area make sure and mark down April 24th.....we're gonna have another good time at the honkiest tonkiest beerjoint in Houston.

I also wanted to let everyone know we just made ringtones available exclusively through the website to coincide with our MP3 store that was just opened. Visit www.rodneyhayden.com and you can have "Nuevo Laredo" or "Heartaches and Highways" immediatley as the ringer on your cell phone. We'll be adding a few more songs over the next couple of days so check back. If there is anything in particular you'd like, please let me know and I'll make sure it gets taken care of.

We're gearing up for a big month of great shows and an exciting trip to Europe next month......hopefully we'll see most of you before we leave. If not, we'll pick right back up in June and be touring all over the state throughout the summer. Please continue to tell your friends and family and keep spreading the word. I don't get much radio airplay or publicity but we're continuously growing the fanbase one person at a time and all of you are the reason that everything is coming together so nicely. Once again, thanks for everything and I hope to see you all soon. Let me know if there's something you'd like to see or hear on the website or the myspace page, or if there's a club you'd like to see us play in. Feel free to send me an email anytime, I love to hear from everyone.

One last thing.....we've put in a new order for merchandise so you'll start seeing new shirts, caps, koozies, keychains, bumper stickers, etc. etc. at the shows very soon and it looks like we'll be recording a new album in June right after we get back from Europe. I'll keep you all updated on what's going on. Thanks again for everything you all do.....

Be good to one another.
Rodney

Austin and Houston and France oh my.....


Well, its been a while since I’ve "blogged" so I thought I’d write something. We’re fixing to head out for a week full of great shows.

Tonight we’ll be at the Austin Rodeo, then tomorrow night it’s back to my favorite place in the world - Gruene Hall.

Friday night we’ll be back at the Austin Rodeo then it’s up to Fort Smith, AR for our first show in that area in years at a new place called Rockabilly’s. Should be interesting, especially since I’ll be doing my first "in-store CD signing" at Hooters of all places.

After Arkansas we’ll head to Houston to play in the Astrodome after the Houston Rodeo let’s out. I’m pretty excited about that show so if you’re in the Houston area try to come out.....I understand it’s free.

We’ll also be at Sam’s Burger Joint in San Antonio later this month (the 22nd). It’ll be our first time to play there but a group of us went the other night and listened to a jazz band and had a few drinks to check the venue out. It’s very cool....good food and a great stage and room. A little different environment then we usually play, which many times turns out really good. There’s a big dancefloor of course, but a lot of booths and tables to sit at......if you’re in the San Antonio area try and come out, I think it’s going to be a really good night for our first time at a new venue.

We also just confirmed our second trip to Europe. We will be returning to France, but this time to play at the Disney Music Festival in Paris. We’ll be headlining the Saturday night show and are very excited about another great trip to France. I’ve already received a few emails from people that were at our last show in France who are making plans to come see us again. After Paris the band will fly back to the US and I’ll play a few acoustic gigs in Italy and hang out with my good friend Cristian for a few days. (Cristian booked our last trip to Europe for us and then he and his wife visited us in Texas and came to the Pleasanton Cowboy Homecoming to see us play in front of our hometown friends.) After Italy, Shenna and I will head to Dublin for a few days and then be back in Texas in time to play at the Pleasanton High School Graduation on May 31st.

I’m currently writing songs for the next album and trying to figure out when we’ll start recording....I’ll keep everyone up to date. Everything’s going well for us, hope it is for you too.

Keep an eye out and come see us when we’re in your area and bring some friends out if you can. We’ll be back at a few of my favorite places in the next couple of months.....Hangin’ Tree Saloon, Wildcat Saloon, Gruene Hall, Blanco’s, etc. etc.

Hope to see you soon.

Rodney

Well, it's nearly 2008.  This year flew by.  We've been off quite a bit the past few months but will be getting back into gear with the new year.  Had some great shows this year.  My favorite few were Gruene Hall acoustic in the front room.  And then a few with the full band in the back room.  In fact we were there last night with Aaron Watson....and as always had a blast.  If you were at the show, I hope you'll come back December 21st when we return.  

Rolling Oaks Sports Bar is a new venue for us and both shows we've played there have been great.  Also found another new venue that rivals Gruene as my favorite.  A place in McCoy, Tx called The Wildcat Saloon.  We should be back there in January or February.  If you get a chance to come see us there I recommend it.  Always a great crowd and just a cool atmosphere.  

This has been a good year for the most part, I'm excited to be back in Texas and have been happy with the response to the newest album.  Thanks to everyone that came out to shows this year and supported what we're doing.  I deeply appreciate it.  I'm looking forward to 2008 and hope we cross paths many more times this coming year.  

Rodney