tour

All Over The Place

Last Wednesday, we performed at The Grove in LA. This is a great spot for shopping, and we definitely took advantage of the huge farmers market close by. We had a nice long set and some awesome sound happening!

In the airport on the way from LA to Salt Lake City for our next show, we ran into some of the guys from the McGraw camp. They recommended a restaurant in town that they go to every year because it's just that good - and they were right! Valters Osteria is a five star Italian restaurant that took great care of us. (Check out the menu here.. Amazing!

Fully induced in a massive food coma, we headed to Cheyenne, Wyoming to perform at Frontier Days. This place was massive! It was said that the night broke attendance records at around 23,000. Before the show, the band spent some time in town while Cassadee had some fun horseback riding. (pic)

After the rodeo, we made our way to Albuquerque, New Mexico for another Sundown Heaven Town date. Spent the day getting supplies and running around town. We were a little worried about the weather but it ended up being beautiful out with some great views of the surrounding sky and landscape. The show was a blast, of course, and we all had a great hang afterwards. 

Monday was just about the most fun ever! We had a day off our on our way from New Mexico to Montana. We stopped in Ft. Collins, Colorado at a cabin on a KOA site where we spent the day playing mini golf, paddle boats, grilling, playing volleyball and just getting some good R&R.

Shows in Montana, Washington, Oregon and more are lined up for the weekend. It's unreal how many great memories are being made out here. So grateful for each and every moment. More soon...

image.jpg
image.jpg

Cowboy Boots & Short Shorts

We had a long festival weekend filled with music and fun! We started off at Country Jam in Wisconsin performing with Luke Bryan, Thomas Rhett, our pals in The Band Perry and others. I have to say, it's always such a pleasure to watch The Band Perry perform - their live show is constantly evolving to new levels of awesome!

3 out of the 4 shows we did were longer sets - which is always nice. Some of the shorter sets we do, while still great, come and go way too quickly. The longer ones allow us to get that much more music out there, create more of an experience for the audience and just have more fun overall. 

Next stop was the Faster Horses Music Festival in Brooklyn, Michigan. Without a doubt, this was one of the best shows of the year! The field was packed with country music fans (in the required uniform, of course ;) that were there to soak up every moment of the show - and wow, were they loud! Dan & Shay, Jana Kramer, our friends Kip Moore and Tim McGraw were also on the bill and made the whole event a blast. The backstage area was filled with fun - a pool, volleyball, corn hole, fire pit and a photo booth made for some very entertaining post-show activities!

We got back to the Sundown Heaven Town tour in Toronto on Sunday. Spending some time in the city during the day grabbing lunch and doing some shopping was a nice break in the action. It was a beautiful day and having the venue right on the water with a great sunset view was an added bonus.

We are now in LA to perform at The Grove, followed by a long run with dates in Utah, Wyoming, Montana and others. More soon...

 

image.jpg
image.jpg

The Year with Cassadee

This past Saturday, May 31st, marked the year anniversary of the first full-band show with Cassadee. We kicked things off at Jones Beach a year ago with Rascal Flatts on The Live & Loud Tour and it's been a whirlwind ever since! 

So much has happened in a year; we had an amazing summer tour with Rascal Flatts and The Band Perry, went on a very cool winter tour with Dean Brody, performed on The Tonight Show, The Today Show, CMT's Listen Up, America's Got Talent; even had a docu-series on CMT! The show on Saturday was the perfect way to celebrate the year milestone. We had the honor of opening for George Strait, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, MA. The place was massive, sound was killer and we had a huge amount of fun during our set!

Needless to say, the shows have been fantastic experiences. Just as memorable and important though, are the good times had in between; the movie nights, bike rides, bus antics, endless laughs and all the new friends made along the way. I can't begin to say how grateful I am to be a part of a team that has been having such an incredible journey. Watching someone so talented achieve all of the success that she truly deserves, is an honor. I know that the next year will bring even more good times and I very much look forward to the future!

Much more soon...

image.jpg
image.jpg

"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...

 

image.jpg
image.jpg
image.jpg

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... 

 

image.jpg
image.jpg

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...

 

image.jpg
image.jpg

Toronto (tron-o) Adventures

For the past few days we've been staying in Toronto (pronounced "Trono" up here in Canada). Before we got here though, we had a show in Fredericton, New Brunswick that was great! Cassadee looked into the crowd, saw a little girl singing every word and decided to call her up on stage! (Watch on YouTube: http://youtu.be/rscqqzb6Ypg) I still remember all of the concert experiences that I've had, and it was always a dream to be up on stage with my idols singing/playing with them. Our Fredericton show is a memory that little girl (Rebecca) will never forget - and to be a part of that experience is priceless. 

After that we got hit with a TON of snow and headed up to Barrie, Ontario. Mr. Steve Fekete was the MVP on this one! Because of the storm, canceled flights etc.. Steve ended up driving from 2am to 8pm from Boston to Barrie in the storm just to make the show by the second song in! (We did have a back up lead guitar pro standing by - see below ;) We were all very relieved to see him walk up on stage with us safe and sound. A tip of the hat to you Steve - well done sir! 

On our day off yesterday, the band took a road trip to Georgetown, Ontario to visit the team at Eastwood Guitars. We got to test out a bunch of cool guitars and basses through some sweet amps. Click here to check out all the great stuff on the Eastwood Guitars website: http://www.eastwoodguitars.com/

Today we are headed to Oshawa, Ontario to perform. More soon...

image.jpg
image.jpg

Oh Canada!

Last night was the first night of the "Crop Circles & Tractor Beams" tour with Dean Brody! For a full list of dates, click here. We started at Mile One Stadium in Saint John's, Newfoundland and now we are headed to our second stop in Moncton, New Brunswick... on the smallest plane ever!! Just a little frightened haha. See our full route on the map below. Also, there is still time to vote for Cassadee as Taste of Country's Artist of the Year (click here to vote.. You can vote once per hour!). I'm not gonna lie.. it's a bit chilly up here - but still very beautiful. This is just the beginning of an already great trip and I couldn't have asked for better company! More soon...

 

image.jpg
image.jpg

The Year Ahead

Happy New Year! 2014 is going to be filled with new and exciting things. We just finished shooting Cassadee's new music video in Nashville (I can't give anything away but trust me.. It'll be worth the wait!). Cassadee is also nominated for Taste of Country's Artist of the Year! (Click here to vote!). Right now we are down in Florida for a couple shows (One in Cassadee's hometown of West Palm Beach and another in Miami with our pals in Rascal Flatts among others) We'll be soaking up as much sun as we can before heading up to Canada for our February tour with Dean Brody. That's right, February in Canada - brrrrrrrr! It's going to be a blast though and we are all getting pumped to get back out on the road. Later this year we will be opening for Tim McGraw on his "Sundown Heaven Town" tour which will hit 30 cities over the course of the summer. More updates to come - looking forward to seeing everyone at the shows!

 

First full-band shot of 2014!

First full-band shot of 2014!