I NEVER Won a $7,000 Lottery Ticket!

Here's an example of WHY we need help with marketing and promotions; I have 5,000 friends on my personal Facebook profile. Last week I posted that I had won $7,000.00 with a scratch off ticket and within hours I had approximately 300 LIKES and close to 100 COMMENTS. I posted this GoFundMe profile and 24 hours later I've had 38 Likes but only 4 actual visits. So there you go - the crux of the entire situation - I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to marketing and promotions so, at this rate, I guess I'll be toothless and in a rocking chair before my music ever begins to even hope to make it to radio lol. So, it stands to reason that we need someone who knows what they're doing when it comes to the job of getting the music to the airwaves.


Somehow I've finally completed the writing, recording, mixing and mastering of my 2nd album entitled "What a Country Boy Knows." It comes 6 years after my first solo release of "Texas in the Man" which occurred in 2007.

While I've been writing songs since childhood I've been really slow about actually getting into the music industry but then again I've been slow at a LOT of things in my life. For instance, I spent 20 years working as a Texas Peace Officer before I finally realized everybody LOVES a fireman :) so it stands to reason that I'd be 44 years old before finally throwing my hat in the ring as an independent artist. But I am married to a fire-fighter so maybe that'll count for something.

(Tonya & Mike Parrish) (Firefighter on the left - Cop on the right lol)


And yes I've been told by many that I'm far too old to be taken seriously as a recording artist. It's funny how that works isn't it. If you're fortunate enough to make it in the music industry while you're young and have no real life experiences then you're blessed to stick around for the rest of your life. But if you raise a family, serve your country in the military and fulfill a long career as a police officer then you've just missed the boat, that window of opportunity that you may have had when you really had no life experiences to write about. While I remain employed as a full-time working police officer, a way of life that has been very rewarding in so many ways, my first and oldest love has always been music.


Early in life, 2nd grade, I met a boy named David Tidwell who simply loved to sing and even at that young age he was awesome. Still is. David has been my oldest friend and lives, to this day, just down the block from me. As young teenagers we were jotting down lyrics and dreaming of the successes we were going to have at some point in the future. David could hang with the best of them when it came to vocal chops. I mean ALL of them as he honed his craft in churches all over southeast Texas and sang along with the radio to the greatest bands such as The Eagles, Elvis Presley and so many more. David was never shy and would sing to anyone who would listen. David is and always will be a very dear and close personal friend and an inspiration to me which is why I do what I do.

David looks sorta like Stone Cold Steve Austin huh? Wish I had HIS 2nd grade pic lol. He didn't have a beard or mustache in those days but he did have THICK locks of curly red hair.

There was also another kid on the block named Sammy Hundley whom I met shortly after David, probably around 5th grade. In those days Sammy lived just down the street from me in Hull, Texas where his wonderful parents still reside to this day. Sammy was, and is, absolutely gifted in all things music and that is to say that he can do it all. Drums, bass guitar, rhythm acoustic and electric guitar, lead acoustic and electric guitar, keyboards and he sings his heart out. I consider both David and Sammy to be far better singers than myself and can't imagine a childhood or life without having known them.

Sammy was employed in several occupations throughout his life after high school but carved out a successful life in music throughout the greater Houston and Beaumont areas. He's still out there playing to audiences and pleasing the crowds who faithfully come to see the show and usually you'll find him alone, just Sammy and his guitar, courageous and gifted, doing what he was simply made to do.


In 2006, it was Sammy who made it possible for my first album to become a reality. We recorded the entire thing in a makeshift studio we built in my home. I honestly think the act of recording the album may have been initially intended as a bucket list item being checked off, just a one-time thing just to say I did it, but it turned into much more than that. Lots of duo shows where we were known as Sammy and Mike throughout the greater Houston area and we met TONS of awesome people who came to see us where ever we happened to be. In 2008, Sammy and I played almost 200 shows and it all just went by as if it were just a blink - I wouldn't trade that time in my life for the world. We had so much fun and that good time we were having on stage reflected in the faces of the crowds. It wasn't just a music thing, it was the interactivity with the crowds and the spontaneous comedy relief that was ever present that made performances just plain fun - never a job.




With the album "Texas in the Man" we saw some degree of success in Europe having made the European Country Music Charts a total of 33 times in 11 countries. We began playing more full band shows which, for me, were simply double the fun. I'd be so lost in the fun we were having on stage with trading off lead solos between three guitar players to the rhythm section being laid by the bass and drum that I'd often forget we were playing in front of people until the song was over. After the many years I'd spent on the streets of southeast Texas in law enforcement I found I was living again - fully - because now I had the best of both worlds. You have to understand that it's certainly much like being Batman or Spiderman when you're playing outlaw country music, rock and blues by night and you're a full-time police officer by day. I guess music allowed me to become my alter-ego because, on stage, it was all about fun, no badges and guns, and we were only serious about the perfection of the tune we were playing at the moment. I had been appointed as a police chief three times in two cities and I was an elected Constable once but music seemed to round out my life.

(Some search warrant we served somewhere in the early 1990s)


In 2008, we received a European Effigy Award for Most Popular Artist from the International Fame Games Radio Show which was based in Spain and worked much like a radio version of American Idol or The X Factor where fans voted after a panel of experienced judges passed you on to the next level. We were the only artists performing country music and country blues in the show. In 2009 Sammy took another Effigy Award for Best Acoustic Artist for his acoustic recording of "Never Letting Go" and we bagged a second Effigy Award for Best Blues Rock Artists - that's how they referred to our brand of music - Texas Country.

We didn't know beans about marketing or promotions so we just rode the river to where ever it took us. We were pushed around at times, lied to a few times and were outright robbed with our first video production, a song called "Black Gold." Thank goodness we had an understanding sponsor because this so-called videographer made off with right at $7,000.00 and in the end we had NO video. We were finally able to obtain the footage that this guy shot and we employed the services of Mike Meade the owner of Zoom Creative Solutions (Mike also plays bass in our full band shows and accompanies Sammy in the new Sammy & Mike acoustic duo shows). If you need something done in video Mike Meade is your guy!

(Mike Meade)

We've released only one single to Europe, from "What a Country Boy Knows", thus far and that tune, entitled "When Angels Cry" sailed right into the European Top 100. NONE of the tracks from "Texas in the Man" had done that - not a single one, so we knew we were creating valuable fans and radio contacts in the European market. That song found its way across the ocean and we got some radio play in Texas from independent radio stations and one major radio station in Corpus Christi, K-99 KRYS FM. That happened in 2010 and, even though it garnered some success, it probably shouldn't have happened because the album "What a Country Boy Knows" was still three years away from completion. I guess I felt it was a good song and I couldn't wait for it to be heard so I let it rip three years too early.

I don't know if that song had anything to do with it or not but ALSO in 2010, the Parrish-Hundley Band was nominated by theAcademy of Texas Music and Texas Music Awards as one of the top five Live Bands of the Year. That was a VERY prestigious accomplishment because there were over 36,000 Texas-based bands eligible and nominations weren't done by a panel, bands were nominated by FAN VOTE only which made the nomination mean even so much more to us. Somebody out there was listening and there was enough of them to get us nominated for the Live Band of the Year Award. This was a completely humbling experience to find ourselves in the company of industry legends such as Michael Martin Murphy, Shake Russell, John Arthur Martinez and so many many more.
(Mike Parrish & Michael Martin Murphy)

"What A Country Boy Knows" includes 15 songs all written by me with the exception of the re-release of the title track from "Texas in the Man" that was written with my lifelong friend Sammy Hundley. This album contains the following tracks;

1. Just As Blue As Your Lyin' Eyes
2. Black Gold
3. The Best In Me
4. Time For Another Beer
5. That's What A Country Boy Knows
6. Southbound Train
7. Dyin' Town
8. She's Easy Lovin' All The Time
9. When Angels Cry FREE DOWNLOAD!!!
10. Time To Say Goodbye
11. One Stoplight
12. Back To You
13. Blue Jean Baby - rereleased
14. Texas In The Man - rereleased
15. Call Me Billy The Kid

I've been very blessed to have some very talented musicians accompany me on this journey and I'm sure that many of you will recognize their names. Phil Dalmolin (Johnny Bush & Dixie Chicks) and Alan Dossett (The Ruse) on drums and percussion.

(Phil Dalmolin)

(Alan Dossett)



(Sammy Hundley, featured on acoustic here, performed all 15 bass guitar tracks).



Ever heard that song "Some Beach" by Blake Shelton? Those guitars are played by Frank Debretti (Blake Shelton, Mindy McCready, SheDaisey, Vanessa Williams, Duran Duran, Seal). Frank, along with Sammy Hundley and myself laid all the rhythm and lead guitars tracks.


Kurt Baumer (Lonestar) on fiddle. Lonestar had 9 #1 worldwide hits and 6 of them occurred while Kurt was with the group. Songs like "Amazed," "Smile," "No News," and more.



Tommy Detamore (Gary P. Nunn, Pauline Reese, Sunny Sweeney & many more) on steel guitar.


Canadian-based Roly Platt on Harmonica. What a great blues man! Roly performs on our "Southbound Train" track

You can read all about the album by clicking on the song titles from this link. www.texascountryboy.com. Each song has a story and is a page from a chapter of my life.

Anyone in the music industry can tell you that an awesome album will remain just as awesome but totally and completely obscure if it's never heard. While I've been fortunate to develop a small fan base I still don't have the ability to market my album in a way that will give it the best chance to be heard. That just takes a lot of money that most independent musicians just don't have. Some of the leading industry experts will tell you that a good marketing and promotions campaign will cost $100,000 the first year and I'm not naive enough to think that people will hear my tunes and come rushing in with fists full of money to help out. So I thought that maybe $5,000.00 would help me market enough to get my album on the Texas Music Charts which would mean Texas Radio Airplay and a chance to get some regional exposure.

I know that $5,000.00 is a LOT of money for most people. I'm a 22-year Texas Peace Officer, still working, and I know the value of a hard earned dollar. I know $5,000.00 won't get us noticed by mainstream radio but it might just get us on Texas Radio and THAT would be a milestone for an indie artist like me. At least it gives me the CHANCE that a few of these Texas stations will hear my songs and if they like me enough they might air me. That might lead to more shows, more money and a chance that we could do something even bigger. Don't get me wrong, I'm very pleased with the two albums that we've produced and if that is all I'll ever do then that's the mark I'm content to leave behind BUT, even as I am working on my 3rd album I can't help but try to do some kind of marketing with my 2nd while it's still relatively new.


$5,0000.00 would cover the cost of hiring one major promoter to promote our strongest single for 90 days to all 88 Texas Music Chart reporting radio stations from Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. So, we'll be asking you to listen to all 15 tracks and let us know which one you think has the best chance of making it onto the airwaves. It was also aid us in paving the way to airing the new album on European radio.

If you'd like to learn more about me, Sammy Hundley and our music please stop by a few of these links;

www.mikeparrish.us

www.reverbnation.com/mikeparrish

www.parrish-hundley.com





Check out my tunes here!



I appreciate your time and consideration. I hope 2014 continues to bring you all good health and much prosperity.

Your friend in music
Mike Parrish