Fort Anthropologie.

Sucré was back in Texas last week. Some buds and I helped out with the brass support. Boy was it nice to see the gang again (minus Darren). I'm always reminded how much I like that crowd whenever our paths cross. You hear a lot about how those DuPrees are classy people. I'll add to the hype because they absolutely are very sweet people. I had a nice long conversation with Stacy's dad Boyd (@boydd57 on twitter) Eisley's former manager and probably number 1 fan. While we talked, I thought of how much of a fit this family is for the industry - being just a small town family from Tyler, Texas! I liked that. Eisley will be around for awhile. We'll get more stuff out of Sucré. The future of music looks good in my eyes. 

This was a very interesting show to do. I walked away with many notes in my head about future ones. I don't think any of us were expecting the setup that we got. It worked, but it was a little tight space-wise. There also weren't enough mics for the brass, so we had to just go and blow for it. From where I was sitting, it sounded like the low end of the brass chords were lost. There's videos on youtube of the gig. I don't think you can hear the full chords on them either. 

That being said, I got so many comments that night about how much the brass added to the show. On different occasions Jeremy's commented to me a bit about how much he can get out of brass verses what he gets from strings. I'm still of the opinion that strings are a lovely fit for a live Sucré show, but hands down... brass matches their volumes very easily. 

We change things though... and we can't help it. Give this video a watch: 

To me, this doesn't really give a good impression of how this song is on the record. Don't get me wrong... I think this performance is lovely! But it is different. Brass just naturally adds a sort of pep to things (perhaps a couple centuries of marching bands have conditioned us to that pep). No amount of me saying in rehearsal "sound as much like string players as you can" would ever guarantee that we could actually achieve that sound. We're brass. And that's that. 

Rehearsal at my house.

This isn't bad a thing. I just didn't realize that this is how it was. The whole ball game that night was a little different than what I experienced on tour. Now I'm thinking about what four horns might do live, or if we had low brass, maybe one trumpet instead of two, or what things would be like if the four of us had mics in our bells. This world is a little different, but I'm thankful to be experimenting with the acoustics of it.

I am still new at this, but if you're a local Dallas or Fort Worth band that wants a nice brass addition to your live show shoot me an email at sarahreno@gmail.com. I love doing this stuff - not just playing but writing arrangements as well. I think this world could use a little more brass. 

The picture up top is from the blog A Piece of Toast. DFW Style Daily also has a review up and there's a cute post here at this little blog.

Videos you can watch of the show: Light Up, Cliff Waltz/Stampede, Hiding Out, Say Something

I think Elsie (Jeremy's wife and blogstress for abeautifulmess.com)
snapped this one.

Summertime

Hello there dear readers. 

It's been a little while since I've given an update. The Sucré tour was a lot of fun and just a whirlwind of good times and experiences. May was a busy month - wrapping up the lessons taught in schools, interviewing at new schools, and preparing for the summer. Creatively I have a couple projects going - some writing, some playing. It's shaping up to be a good summer. 

A snap I took from the Sucré soundcheck in Austin.

Lessons have officially kicked off for the summer. I'm located at a couple of high schools on Monday and Tuesday. I have some time open in the rest of the week for lessons in my home - so if you're here at the site looking for lesson info, send me an email. We'll get it all sorted. 

Hm, I'll update the lessons page today. Go and have a look at that for my schedule a little later on. 

Ah, also some great news: I'm officially hired on the lesson staff for Lake Highlands schools. After chatting with the head band director, I'm so pleased I will be working for this cluster in Richardson. I feel we look at music experiences and instruction the same way. This means I'm doing a lot of teaching at Lake Highlands, Garland, and Mesquite. This coming school year will be a good one - but very busy!

Currently I'm in the process of planning a recital in the fall with a dear friend, Katie Wolber. Katie and I were in undergrad together at SMU. She does a lot of freelancing in Dallas and Fort Worth. She's a great player! We're looking to put together an interesting program that features each of us as players as well as the two of us as a duo. I'm very thankful we're back working together in the same town! It's a great thing to have a friend close by to sharpen your musical skills.

What collaboration can look like.

In a little while, I'll do a post about my experiences on the Sucré tour. It's overdue, but I feel I should put something online about how it all was for me. Stay tuned.

Some of the eats we got on the road.