Hey ya'll...

Things are finally cooling down here in Texas after the hottest summer on record. The terrible Texas fires were the result of that seemingly endless dry heat. My Austin singer/songwriter friend Jessica Shepard lost everything she had when every house on her street burned to the ground. When I heard that, the song "No More Houses On Cardinal Lane" was written in about 20 minutes and played the next day by my band at a benefit for the fire victims. The following YouTube video is the audio of that performance with footage of the fire damage added by my LA TV producer pal Brent Carpenter. The song will be on my forthcoming "Smoke And Mirrors" double CD. The "Smoke" side of it will be a band CD produced by my old Nashville producer/guitarist Charlie White featuring mostly uptempo songs, whereas the "Mirrors" disc will be much more sparsely produced introspective songs. S&M will be released next year.

"No More Houses On Cardinal Lane" Video

With the major record label landscape growing smaller and smaller over the last bunch of years and opportunities for artist to record their own records growing by leaps and bounds, organizations like KickStart.com and Patronism.com that help artists raise money for projects have sprung up. They are based on a business model of getting friends/fans to participate in an artist's career by donating or pledging a certain amount of money to help with recording projects. In the last year or so, I've been getting emails from a bunch of artist pals who are trying to raise money thru those business models.

Rather than using one of those models to help underwrite my "Smoke And Mirrors" album, I've come up with an event in conjunction with my 68th birthday that I'm calling "Be-Bob-Alooza" which will recur yearly with the proceeds each year going to a different Austin singer/songwriter. The event will include performances by a group of wonderful singer/songwriters who understand the struggle of keeping a career afloat in today's economy. A silent auction will also be part of the event yearly, and for this first event we have a great bunch of wonderful stuff already donated... from a mammogram to restaurant certificates to signed CDs from great artists to a rolfing session, a regression session, studio time in 3 Austin studios...and the list goes on. All proceeds from the $10 door charge and the silent auction will go to a different Austin artist each year who is doing an album project and could use a financial transfusion. Below is the the logo and the poster with the event info. We sure hope to see lots of familiar local faces to support the first of these yearly events that will help a different Austin singer/songwriter each year.

Can't make the event cause you have other plans or cause you don't live in Austin or Texas or the US? You can still donate to this event thru PayPal or check by mail. Every artist has to find ways to keep his/her art alive. This event is designed to help a different artist each year, provide another opportunity to support the Austin music community and in this case...to help me celebrate my birthday and the making of Smoke And Mirrors :-)

My very best to you all, and I leave you with a motto that's come out of the vision for Be-Bob-Alooza...*~*~*Good people doing good things with and for other good people. Come join us. *~*~*

Personal donations to me thru PayPal at my cheeversongs@earthlink.net email
or to my address which is 8225 N. FM620, Suite 1712, Austin, Texas 78725 USA.

Bob Cheevers
2011 Texas Music Awards
"Singer/songwriter of the year"

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Texas Music Awards 2011 Singer/Songwiter of the Year

September, 2011

Of all the accolades I've been fortunate enough to receive in my career, the TMA Singer/songwriter Of The Year award means the most to me. I've spent nearly half a century being a singer/songwriter. Its what I do a a huge part of who I am. My gratitude to Jinelle and Lucky Boyde of the Academy Of Texas Music and all the others involved in the judging process for this award. Its a landmark in my career and for me as a creative person. Thank you all.