Skippy the mouse

Primal Blueprint 21 Day Challenge Starts Today...Are you in? #fitness

...I've been in for 2 years.  Yesterday was my 2 year anniversary.  Come join me...


Learn more at Mark’s Daily Apple

Hopscotch 2013 is here!

1) Hopscotch is here!  
Unless you live under the proverbial rock, you know that Hopscotch is this weekend in beautiful downton Raleigh!  It's the state's largest multi-venue festival. It's amazing.  We're playing early on in the fest: Thursday night at 10p at London Bridge sponsored by Jaegermeister.

...but we decided to have some fun all the way through the weekend...we are announcing the WOB Hopscotch 2013 Photo Contest!!!  Share your awesome 2013 Hopscotch memories for you chance to win the Ultimate WindsorHop Prize Pack! Prizes include WOB swag, House of Swank stuff, local gift certificates, and beer! (Full details on our site at: http://thewindsoroaksband.com/windsorhop2013-photo-contest, but basically take a cool Hopscotch pic, Instagram it, and use #WindsorHop2013 and @WindsorOaksBand)

2) Our show last week at the Pour House in Raleigh was absolutely awesome.  Huge thanks to the Pour House, New Sweat, Motley Tones, as well as our friend Michael Thomas who came up and sang a song with us.  But a double extra thanks to all the people who came out and shared the evening with us!  You can watch the re-run of the live broadcast here.

3) Our video contest is now over, and we are proud to announce that we will release the videos to the public very soon.  We will interview the grand prize winner, NOLAN MOLT (from Kennewick, Washington) LIVE on BreakTime 1X15 on September 15.  

What's Next in Windsor Land:
#WindsorHop2013: (photo contest all weekend)
--Thursday Sept 5 - London Bridge Pub - 10pm [sponsored by Jaegermeister]
--Friday Sept 6 - Sullivan's Steakhouse - 7pm
--Saturday Sept 7 - Woody's @ City Market - 10pm

Sending a smile,
Brandon from Windsor Oaks



<WOB is powered by House of Swank clothing company, who produces the raddest NC-themed shirts and swag on the planet, period.>

live online with my mom? + video contest update + old school pic

Hello and Happy Thursday,
Great news! My mom is in Raleigh, visiting me from Rhode Island :)
We're gonna do all kinda of North Carolina touristy stuff, including 3 days on the coast. If you have any suggestions, please send them our way by responding to this email or tweeting to us@WindsorOaksBand.

As we near the end of our video contest, we are starting to see the entries trickle in. There's at least two music videos up there now, and you can go and vote for your favorite by going to the contest page on Facebook.  People have until August 18th to get their videos in. When you get to the fb page, scroll down a little bit and hit "View Entries." (Interestingly, both entries are for our song "One in a City," which is included in this email free)

Today is August 15, so that means I will go live on Ustream for BreakTime 1X15 in just about an hour at 1:15pm EST. Since my mom is here, it'll probably be a pretty short broadcast so we can get back to exploring Raleigh and stuff. Tune in here. (And if you're reading this after 1:15, the broadcasts are always there for later viewing at the same link): http://www.ustream.tv/channel/breaktime-1x15

Sending a smile,
Brandon and the Windsor Oaks Band

August in WindsorLand:
Live on Ustream today at 1:15pm EST - http://www.ustream.tv/channel/breaktime-1x15

Sat, Aug 17 - Private Party @ Carolina Beach (email for details if you wanna come...)
Wednesdays in August - Sullivan's - Acoustic - 7pm

Saturday, August 24 - FREE Windsor Car Wash!! 

Friday, August 30 - POUR HOUSE in Raleigh - full band w/ Motley Tones and New Sweat (don't miss this one!)
fb event: http://www.facebook.com/events/260669410742559/




PS
Old-School Pic of the Week!

This pic is from February of 2009, from propbably last one of the "Cougar Magnum" shows before we grew up and changed our name. Garrett and Heather! Now they are engaged 4 years later! and they want us to play at their wedding! yippeeeee! congrats Garrett and Heather.

Top 3 Reasons to Kiss a Pirate Today! + Old School Photo of the Week

[Guest post from Shane Smith...]

Greetings!

Perhaps you are wondering why in the world the band and I are so obsessed with pirates these days. None of us are from Pittsburgh and none of us are eagerly anticipating the release of the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie. (What are they at like the 10th one or something??? Who knows.) It's just that we are stoked that our next big rock show is going to be Pirate Night! August 30th at the Pour House to be exact.

In anticipation of the big night, I've been doing a lot of extra yoga to improve my balance and stability. I'm hoping to be able to work out some kind of wooden leg trick. I'll keep you posted on that, it's definitely a work in progress!

I know you're super interested in the 'Top 3 Reasons to Kiss a Pirate', so let's get it on!

3. It's the first step in any quest to find any sort of buried treasure, trust me.

2. If you give a pirate a smooch, no way you'll have to walk to plank!

1. Pirates are known for their singing and songwriting abilities...kiss a pirate and you may find yourself in a Pirate love song, like "Taking a Ride."

Do you have any other pressing reasons to kiss a Pirate? If so I'd love to hear them.

Have a great weekend and catch ya latARGHHHHHHHHHH!

~ Shane and Windsor Oaks Band

PS- we had a BLAST rocking in the Raleigh streets outside of The Raleigh Times last Friday! Thanks to@raleighstatic for the shot above

PPS
Oh yeah, almost forgot...old school pic of the week!
This one was from Halloween in 2010:

Halloween 2010! From L to R: GEICO Tennis Caveman, Free Credit Report Pirate, Elvis Presley.


~ What's up in WindsorLand: ~

August 24 - FREE Windsor Car Wash!! 

Friday, August 30 - POUR HOUSE in Raleigh - full band w/ Motley Tones and New Sweat (don't miss this one!)
fb event: http://www.facebook.com/events/260669410742559/

The Top 5 Reasons our Video Contest is Better than Ice Cream

Happy Thursday!

Wait, you didn't know about the video contest?  Well, i's been going on for like a month now, for any song on our new album.  Unfortunately, there's no entries in yet...surprising because the prize is $1000!  We have, however, gotten a bunch of serious question-packed inquiries about it.  So we are expecting a few entries to get in by the deadline of August 18.  After that, you and the rest of the internet will vote the winner and select out next official video.  Complete details at: http://www.thewindsoroaksband.com/videocontest
So without further ado, here are the Top 5 Reasons our Video Contest is better than ice cream:

5. Our video contest has 0 calories, and is completely and totally fat free. 

4. Ice Cream melts and makes the cone all soggy if you don't eat it fast enough.  The Video Contest will not melt no matter how long you don't eat it.

3. Our video contest is completely lactose and gluten free so it won't upset your stomach.  

2. You can enter with a video you can make on your phone or tablet in a day or less.  Although Brandon is totally ineligible for this contest, he made a video with his iPad for one of his acoustic songs in a total of about 6 hours, just to see if it could be done: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7uP4BIBB7E

and the #1 reason that the Windsor Oaks Video Contest is better than ice cream....

1. You have a chance at winning a $1000!!! And the voting us totally up to the internet to vote on it on facebook. So make that video! Upload it ASAP, and get your friends to vote on it so you can win that money!  (think of how much ice cream you can get with a thousand bucks!)

...Maybe if you don't make videos but you know someone who does, you could forward this to them?

ALSO, TODAY is August 1st. So that means it's Brandon's day to go LIVE on Ustream for Break Time 1X15.  So go check him out, LIVE at 1:15pm: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/breaktime-1x15  I believe he's having Michelle Johnson as a special guest today, playing and singing her songs on our piano in our kitchen!

as always, please email back or reach out to us on facebook, twitter, or whatever....
Alex, Brandon, and Shane
Windsor Oaks Band



August in WindsorLand:
(we've had a couple people ask us to give a little more notice about our "weekends in WindsorLand," so we'll do just that....we'll give you like 2-3 weeks in advance from now on)

Today -  LIVE ONLINE at 1:15pm - http://www.ustream.tv/channel/breaktime-1x15 (if you miss it you can still watch, just not live anymore)

Tomorrow! Friday, Aug 2 - First Friday @ Raleigh Times - outside, in the road, full band! - 8-11pm
fb event: https://www.facebook.com/events/469771099774992/

Wednesday, Aug 7 - Sullivan's - Acoustic Trio - 7pm
Fri, Aug 9 - Fox and Hound @ North Hills - Acoustic Trio - 10pm
Sat, Aug 10 - Woody's Downtown - Acoustic Trio - 9:30pm  
Sat, Aug 17 - Private Party @ Carolina Beach (email for details if you wanna come...)

Friday, August 30 - POUR HOUSE in Raleigh - full band w/ Motley Tones and New Sweat (don't miss this one!)
fb event: https://www.facebook.com/events/260669410742559/

So You Think You're a Songwriter?

Hey hey, 
We are all back in Raleigh, NC...safe and sound after our uber-educational trip to Music City, USA akaNashville, Tennessee.

Sometimes, in any business/field/sport, it's good to be put in your place once in a while. And that's exactly what happened to us this past week. If you are a musician, songwriter, or even someone who just picks around on a guitar and sometimes writes songs, you owe it to yourself to go to Nashville for a few days. The level of musicianship and songwriting talent in that town is nothing less than mind blowing.

Take Broadway for example. It's the "main drag" in downtown Nashvillle, loaded with famous bars and clubs like Tootsie's, the Stage, the Wheel, Hard Rock Cafe, Margaritaville... with live music 7 days a week from 2pm to 2am. Most of the time, upwards of 5 acts every single day...most of them playing for tips! To top it off, the talent is amazing. I wanted to beg almost every guitar player I saw for a free lesson, but I didn't want to come off too tourist-y.

While we were there we met with our reps at ASCAP, and I joined the Nashville Songwriters Association International (which has chapters all over the US, with one opening in Raleigh very soon).

Honestly, I went there with the delusional notion that people were going to hear the couple "country songs" I wrote recently and immediately feed them to some hungry country artists and put our names on the musical map "just like that"...boy was I wrong. After having the tunes heard by some professionals it's clear to me that I have a little ways to go before I try that again. They didn't hate it all, but their critiques were honest and heartfelt, and after letting it all sink in for a few days their words are clear as day.

I want to give a special shout out to Linda and Sandy, the people who have let me crash with them on all three of my humbling and enlightening trips to Music City. Accomplished performers and songwriters themselves, they know how awesome-and-totally-sweet-yet-difficult-and-soul-crushing this business can be at times. And they believe in me and the Windsor Oaks Band more than anyone I've met in a long time. Serendipitously, Sandy's poignant and personally relevant play (all about a struggling songwriter who gets dream-visits from Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr., called All For a Song) opened at a really cool dinner-theatre while we were there. Shonna (my lady) and I went to go see it and we were absolutely blown away. And so were the reporters from the Examiner. Check out the raving review here: http://www.examiner.com/review/chaffin-s-barn-dinner-theatre-presents-world-premier-of-all-for-a-song Thank you, Linda and Sandy, from the bottom of my heart.

So, tell me...Are you a songwriter or just someone who writes songs? At this point I am just someone who writes songs, and it's gonna be a minute before I graduate.

Sincerely all for a song,
Brandon Scott McLean and the Windsor Oaks Band

THIS WEEK IN WINDSOR LAND:
we are back!
1.) Tomorrow - Friday July 19 - World of Beer @ North Hills
2.) Saturday - 7/20 - Chef's Palette in Cary, NC
3.) getting some pirates on board for August 30 at the Pour House
and
4.) ROCKING OUT to Linda's viola-driven version of "I Am the Walrus"