"On The Road Again..."

Today, we loaded up the bus and are on our way out to Fresno, CA for the first show of Tim McGraw's Sundown Heaven Town Tour. All of team Cassadee is ready to get back out on the road and make it another great summer! We're going to be all over the country - click here to see when we'll be in a city near you!

Last week, we had a show in Las Cruces, NM. Very very windy - but still a fun show, no less. Then we headed down to West Palm Beach for an acoustic show. Had some great hang time with Cass and Steve, and filled in on acoustic and vocals - had a blast! Check out my Instagram (patmccarthybass) for a short clip of a song from the set :)

From there, we shot up to Kentucky to perform with Steve Holy and Scotty McCreery. Had a great time with the Scotty McCreery camp and they put on a helluva show! Afterwards, Dan, Cass and I got to take our first helicopter ride around the city - SO MUCH FUN! Much smoother and more comfortable than I expected. Obviously, the music is what we are all passionate about, but to share all of these extra fun experiences makes each moment that much more special. 

Again, this Thursday kicks off the tour with Tim McGraw and Kip Moore! There will definitely be more to come...

Headlining Weekend

This past weekend, we shot footage for a music video at The Bluestone in Columbus, Ohio. The Bluestone is an amazing room - a 115 year old church that was converted into a venue in 2010. It retained its amazing acoustics and elaborate stained glass windows - a great concert experience for the audience and performers alike. The crowd was one of the best! So loud at times that I had to turn up my monitors a bit! This was also the first show that I got to play my new Eastwood Classic 4 bass, and I am loving the tone - amazing warmth and low end from a beautiful semi-hollow body. We all, especially Cassadee, felt the love that night. Sincerest thanks to you, Columbus Ohio. The video is coming soon.. keep an eye out for it!

The last couple shows were at Clarion University and Shippensburg University. Our main man, Mr. Jim McGorman, had a 24-hour bug and was feeling very under the weather for the Clarion show. He pulled it together though, and we ended up having 2 more really great sets. All in all, it was a great headlining weekend filled with bus antics, a video shoot, birthday cake (happy birthday shout out to Dan O'neill.. Aka One Ill Dan) and best of all, 3 long sets of having fun playing music together!

In other awesome news, Cassadee's music video for "I Wish I Could Break Your Heart" (watch it here) made CMT's Top 20 Countdown! Click here to vote for it!

Vegas is coming up this weekend for our Outnumber Hunger show. More soon...

Music Video & The Home Stretch

Busy busy busy! We just finished a run of 6 shows in a row hitting Thunder Bay, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Moose Jaw, Calgary and Lethbridge (even the names of these places sound cold, right!?). The cold hasn't been affecting the crowds though - audiences have been bringing some great energy! Our show in Calgary was unforgettable. Everyone was waving, singing along, dancing, lighting the place up and the band had a blast on stage! We topped off the night with a post-show team dinner at a local Italian restaurant - Good times! 

The music video for "I Wish I Could Break Your Heart" is finally out on CMT and Vevo (click here to check it out!). We had a blast shooting it and are excited for everyone to see! Some photos from the set posted below. 

Tonight is our last show of the Canadian 'Crop Circles & Tractor Beams' tour with Dean Brody. The whole month was filled with memories and experiences that are unforgettable. Dean, his band and crew are all great guys and made us feel very welcome out here on the road. A HUGE 'thank you' goes out to all of them! Safe travels!

Also, much love goes out to Cassadee, Jim, Steve, Dan, Don and Simon - we ventured into the cold together and not only made it through, but kicked ass all along the way. Thank you for all your hard work and collective awesomeness!

We are all looking forward to getting back to the U.S. for more shows.. Nashville and New Orleans here we come! More soon... 

Goosebumps!

Knowing that we were going to be touring Canada in February, I expected it to be cold. For the first half of the tour though, we lucked out with the weather - we got some snow but the temps still remained somewhere in the teens. The past few days we've seen Thunder Bay, Winnipeg, and today, Saskatoon. During the day it's a cozy -5 and at night it has been getting down towards a brisk -25. The bus has been our best friend as anything outside can be downright painful. 

Despite the bone-chilling temps, we've been staying busy. Kingston, Ontario was a nice little town with plenty to do. We hit a local music shop, picked up some much needed cold weather gear and treated ourselves to some post-show gourmet cupcakes (so good). The next day in Hamilton, Cassadee's music director extraordinaire, Mr. James McGorman III, had found out that Weezer was performing early before sound check only minutes away from our venue. Having worked with Weezer before, he was able to hookup the entire team with tickets - Thanks, Jim!

The shows themselves have been very fun and inspiring! We've dialed in our monitor mixes, tweaked the set list and the crowds have been dancing/singing along. In Hamilton, Cassadee asked the audience to hold up lighters (or virtual lighters ;) during her song "One Song Away" - the result was beautiful! We were in a theater with two balcony levels and it felt like we were in outer space. It was an unforgettable moment for sure. It's nice to get goosebumps from something besides the cold once and a while! 

If you are on Instagram, follow me at: patmccarthybass. Twitter: @apatmccarthy

More pics and stories from the cold coming soon...