Banding Together for Health, a Battle of the Bands fundraiser promoting Healthcare 360 Project Access, hosted by the Lancaster County Medical Alliance opens at noon this coming Saturday, August 21st, 2010 at Seacrest Field in Lincoln Nebraska.  Ivory Hill and the band are performing at about 2PM.  If you would like to join us, proceeds from the tickets support the cause.

TICKETS ON SALE NOW AT: http://tinyurl.com/BOTB2010TICKETS
$10 online until 8/19 then $15 at gate

AND SHIRTS ON SALE HERE:
http://www.lcmaonline.org/tshirts.php
$10 now online until 8/19/$15 at gate

We are excited to announce that we are partnering with Alison Claire Photography as part of our wedding packages!

Welcome aboard Alison!

A panel of judges will be included, but attendees will each be given a guitar pick, which they will place in a jar representing their favorite band.  Thus, those that attend the performances will have a say in the winner.

The best part of this event is the fact that it is a fundraiser for a charitable organization that helps with health issues for children, youth and women!

Tickets can be purchased in advance here.

T-shirts can also be purchased for the event!

We hope that you will join us at the Banding Together For Health event!

Friday night was Mo Java Coffee Roasters. This was my first time entering the place. It’s a calm, quiet venue that is small enough to maintain a certain degree of intimacy while plenty big enough to fit my cult following. Irene Taylor accompanied me for a 2 hour set. This gave us a great chance to get used to singing together again, and I believe it sounded quite good. There were some new faces at the show that seemed to enjoy themselves very much, and we hope to see them back again.

Saturday afternoon we performed at the Eagle Days festival from 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm. Despite having limited gear, we put off a great sound and drew some people in to listen. It was a wonderful chance to let my home town know what I am capable of, and solidify some play time for next years festival.

Saturday morning I got word that TOAST would have to cancel their show for that night because the scheduled performer had fallen ill. I took the initiative to call them up, and Irene and I filled in for her from 9 pm to midnight. It was a blast. TOAST is such a great place to play. Sometimes I wish the crowd wasn’t so loud, but after they throw enough back, they really start to get involved.

My next scheduled performance is July 19th at the Legacy. This will be a formal concert for the residents there, and Irene will be accompanying me while we perform.

This fall’s performance schedule is getting more and more full, so please stay tuned for new concert announcements.

Much Love, and God Bless

Since the last post, I have been working about 25 hours a week at the Academy of Rock in Lincoln, NE. This is a great place for kids to spend their summer, and learn from Lincoln’s finest how to rock like the legends. In these 10 weeks I have the opportunity to work with dozens of children, to educate them on how to play guitar, bass, drums, keys and even sing! We perform many classic rock songs to inform the children on what their parents did before they were born, and let the kids express themselves in ways they never knew they could.

I have also begun teaching several new students privately. Not only at my home in Eagle, but a my studio in Lincoln, NE. I now have over 10 private full-time students that keep me on my toes, and make sure that I practice so there’s knowledge for me to pass on.

With these new adventures working with aspiring musicians, I have not performed at a live music venue in about 3 weeks. I am excited to get back on stage July 9th at Mo Java. After that performance, I will be very busy again for the remainder of the summer, playing at a few retirement communities, as well as some Bridal Shows in order to get fully booked for the summer of 2011. August will bring more Bridal Shows, but the highlights of the month are the BIG performances. As of now, I have 8 scheduled performances that month. 3 of those shows will be at the Sturgis Rally celebration festival known as “Party On The Prairie.” This event takes place at the Wild Mustang Ranch in Belle Fourche, very close to where the rally begins. My 3 sets will happen on August 6th, 8th (I will headline this night, performing at 9:00 pm), and 10th. This will be one of the largest venues I have ever performed, and I am counting on an amazing show from me and the guys.

What “guys” you ask? Well, that brings me to my next big piece of news. I have assembled a backing band to accompany me this fall for my bigger performances. While Irene Taylor will assist with the acoustic shows, Jason Hill (Drums), Chris Scheidies (Bass), and possibly Joshua Rector (Fiddle/Guitar) will light up the stage with their combined talents and enthusiasm. These 4-man shows are bound to be some of the most exciting sets I have ever done, and I can’t wait to watch the action on film.

The last big update is the announcement of “Hymns of His Birth”, the acoustic Christmas album that will be released November 1st, 2010. This Holiday season, I hope you will join me in commemorating the day our Savior entered this earth by listening to my renditions of timeless Christmas classics, as well as a song or two written by me for our Lord. Starting today you can pre-order the album for $7.99 by sending payment to billing@ivoryhill.us on PayPal and including the message “Christmas Pre-Order”. Your copy of the album will be shipped October 27th for guaranteed delivery on the date of release.

That is all for now, please stay tuned for more Ivory Hill updates, and don’t forget to check the updated tour list for a show near you!

Much Love, and God Bless

Although the performance last week at NuVibe didn’t go according to plan due to a missing cable, it was still an adventure that tested both our stamina and our ability to improvise. Last night at Bagel’s and Joe, however, went about as perfectly as it could! Sure we made a few mistakes, but we had a great time, and it seemed the audience really enjoyed the show.

This next week will be a very busy one, as I will have an interview on BlogTalkRadio Thursday, followed by a Friday performance at NuVibe on 70th and Pioneers in Lincoln, NE, then a show at TOAST in the Fallbrook area of Lincoln, NE the next night. These are all first times for the venues, but it will certainly be a blast playing for a new audience and embracing a new atmosphere!

Lastly, I will leave you on a wonderful note: There will be news this week about an EP featuring some of your favorite Ivory Hill songs released in the coming months, so stay tuned!!

Much love to you and yours, and God Bless

After spending some time with my extended family, and inviting them to the performance, I started heading back to the hotel to get my gear ready and map out the trip to the bar. We finished all that up and headed to Old Town. After parking, we started walking through Old Town, to get an idea of what was there. It’s reminds me a great deal of the Old Market in Omaha, NE. Fort Collins is half the size of Lincoln, NE but has twice the number of amazing restaurants and local flare for live music. As we got closer to Lucky Joe’s (where I would be playing that night) a street musician playing for tips saw my guitar, and asked me to play him a song. I sat down, got out my takamine, and played “Kiss in the Moonlight” for the small crowd that had gathered around. During the performance, a few local patrons dropped change into the musicians guitar case, apparently thinking is was a mutual kitty. No worries though, I am happy to help anyone earn a buck.

When I finished my song, we wished each other well and I moved on to Lucky Joe’s. We sat through Joe, the bar owner’s set, which was really good despite being poorly attended. He talked with us a little, and gave me a warm introduction. I started to play and my family all came in. It was great to see them make the drive to watch me perform. I received universal applause, got thanked by several musicians and others there, and was asked to come back out again when I had a chance.

It was nice to have an opportunity to perform in Fort Collins. It was also good to take the drive, and get more familiar with the towns along I-80. I plan on setting up a short tour taking me to Cheyenne, Pine Bluffs, North Platte, Fort Collins, Denver and Kearney in the not to distant future. (Get to work Dan!)

This weekend should be exciting as I will play at NuVibe in Downtown Lincoln, NE. This will be my first performance with a second vocalist. My sister-in-law Irene will be singing harmonies with me, and will have a few songs of her own that she will perform. If you’re close, you should come out! It’ll be a new twist on Ivory Hill that is bound to keep you interested.

The next post will talk about a trio, and give a recap of the show that will happen this Friday.

Thanks for reading, and God Bless.

I think that it all went pretty well. I had done a lot of thinking on the topics that I would talk about during the presentation, and what music I would perform before hand. Rather than summarize what I talked about, I’m including my presentation notes from last night below, so that I can remember the inspired advice, and hopefully it can benefit someone else in their career endeavors.

Here are my notes:

1. Your Net Work = Your Net Worth

2. Minimal Exposure = Minimal Returns / Marginal Exposure = Exponential Returns

a. Putting yourself out there helps. Think about Britney Spears’ relationship with the Paparazzi. People think she hates the paparazzi and that they infiltrate her life, but her intimate exposure to the world has earned her millions of dollars. Much more than her Music has earned.

b. The internet has the ability to take a small piece of information such as a “tweet” and it can spread virally to millions. Ex: a celebrity takes 5 seconds to tweet a link to their new music video, and within 1 hour, it has 100,000 views.

3. The Call to Action

a. Anyone who follows a celebrity on twitter should realize that every tweet is asking them (the followers) to do something. Follow a link, watch a TV show, turn on the radio etc. This is a call to action. If you don’t ask your contacts to do something each and every time you have contact with them, you are missing out on an opportunity to get them to take action.

b. Think about when you update your status. When your new status reads “hey, i just did something,” and that’s it, seldom will there be an active response. However, if your status reads “has anyone else ever done this?”, you will more than likely receive an active response because you are asking for one. You must always be calling to action, if you want to see any results.

3. Uni, Uni, Uni

a. Uni, Uni, Uni is short for Universal, Uniform, and Unison. Unlike place marketing, universal marketing is an understanding that once your advertising is on the web, the whole universe has access to it. Don’t waste your time marketing locally on the web. Buy a billboard if that’s what you want, but you should understand that posting stuff on the web is advertising available to everybody, everywhere, all the time. Innovations in social media allow for this type of marketing focus, and should be universal not place oriented.

b. Having a uniform, or brand still works and should be continued. Make sure your image is positive and consistent everywhere the eye can see it, so that it stays locked in the brain as positive and consistent. The last thing you want contacts to think is that your business is negative and inconsistent, so do not market that way. Working in Unison (not in harmony, but on the exact same line/pace) with technology is the only way to take full advantage of it. When we sing in unison, we are all on the same pitch and beat. This should remain true for our relationship with technology. If we do not harness new technology we can not take advantage of it. What’s worse is that if we don’t capitalize on these improvements, our competitors most likely will, and we will lose the customers which take that route to find information.

That’s basically the message I shared with the Social Media Club last night. Hopefully, there are some helpful tips for you in your career. In addition to the business presentation, I also played a few songs that it seemed like people enjoyed. Congratulations to Ross Nelson on winning the CD last night. I hope that he will enjoy it. Thanks are due to Christy and Toolulu for the Sandwich she bought me. Christy said she likes GaGa, so I’m sure she’ll enjoy the album she got for buying me food. Lastly a big thanks to those who chose to follow me on twitter and shared their pics of me.

In other news, Irene Hill will be singing back-ups with me at some performances coming up. I am excited to have her there. Her voice is beautiful, and it will finally give the audience a pretty face to look at during the show.

I’ll be taking a short 2 week break from performing to get some shows in the fall booked (with the much needed help of Shannon Binkley and Dan Graves), as well as attend my cousins Graduation ceremonies in Colorado. I’ll let you readers know if there is any other news along the way.

Much love from me to you, and God Bless!