Rodeo Clowns Band

In the past, we used flash-based music players to present jukebox interfaces to music on our website.

Now there is a new version of HTML on the way called HTML5 and one of the features it offers is support in the html for music. Apple has already added support for this feature to their web browsers so I thought I'd see if I could come up with an html5 version of the music player I currently have on the site. I started with the music player created by Scot Andrews and added a playlist and made my own "skin" that is similar to our website theme. By the way, Scott has loaded his own music on his audio player and its really good.. its worth a listen.

If you have an iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, or you are using a web browser such as Safari or Google Chrome you should be able to see it. I have chosen to hide the browser from FireFox users because they do not support mp3 format of music files. As soon as I figure out how to create Ogg Vorbis music files I will add changes to make the music player visible.

Continue reading "Music on our site is now iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch friendly" »

Posted by John Lawton at 10:39 AM | Permalink

line-up

• 5 PM - Luvhed
• 4 PM - Rodeo Clowns
• 3 PM - OCB Band
• 2 PM - Erica Sunshine Lee
• 1 PM - New Speedway Boogie
• 12 PM - The She's
• 11 AM - Hillsdale High Ska Band
• 10 AM - Rita Beach w/John Green

The San Mateo Italian Festival (Festa Italiano) will be held this year on Sunday, July 25th. last year I decided to get involved with the event and was given the opportunity to handle the activities on Stage 2, which is the stage where Baldwin Avenue meets B Street, across the street from Cappelini's Restaurant.

Continue reading "Stage 2 - 2010 Festa Italiano in San Mateo" »

Posted by John Lawton at 04:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I just posted a cover of Rodeo Clowns by Jack Johnson. Its one of my favorite songs and I recorded it to test out a new large diaphragm condenser microphone that I recently bought. I have noticed that we get a few people to the site who are looking for this song. Now they can at least hear my version of it. Its very difficult to pull off his songs because his arrangements are so simple and pure, and perfectly executed.

Enough of me. Here is a link to the song. Let me know what you think.

Rodeo Clowns (Cover) - Written by Jack Johnson, performed by John Lawton (guitar, vocals) and Scot Larsen (upright bass) of the Rodeo Clowns.

Coming soon... I also have a copy of a live acoustic version performed in the KFog play space. Just need to convert it to an mp3 and post it.

Posted by John Lawton at 10:26 AM | Permalink

We played to a full house last Friday night at Johnny Foley's. Pepople started dancing early and things really go going on the second set and never really slowed down. I was a fantastic night for everyone.

Musicians from a band called "The Crave" ...

Continue reading "Johnny Foley's Recap - The Crave Band" »

Posted by John Lawton at 08:48 PM | Permalink

Its no secret that I am a big fan of Apple computers. I keep up with the latest news and rumors involving Apple. With MacWorld right around the corner, I want to make a prediction that I have not seen.

From the information I have seen on the web Apple may open up their Fairplay DRM technology to third-party licensing. Any third party that licensed the Fairplay DRM would be able to play content from the iTunes website. This would mean other companies could create iTunes compatible mp3 players and media centers. This move would open the door for direct competition with the iPod. The iPod might lose a significant percentage of the market, but iTunes would be further established as the provider legal downloads of music, movies, eBooks, games, etc... from the internet.

Continue reading "Prediction for 2007 MacWorld - Updated" »

Posted by John Lawton at 11:00 AM | Permalink

Hi Guys,

Just did a YouTube (YouChoob!) search on the Doobie Brothers and found a few gems.

Back when I was about 15 years old, my music teacher Rich Healey showed me how to play the chords to "Listen to the Music" and how to play the chords and the lead to "China Grove" which was very popular at the time. He had heard the Doobie Brothers play a dance at the College of San Mateo and commented that they had incredible vocals back then.

OK here we go...

Continue reading "Black Water - The Doobie Brothers" »

Posted by John Lawton at 11:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Looks like it went pretty well at Johnny Foleys. The bar gets a good turnout, in part because its in a great location, and also because its a first-class Irish Pub. This was the first time we played as a trio and things went quite well. The sound was tight and had a lot of punch. I can say that we are excited to be able to get this kind of sound with just three musicians. Kudos to drummer Jesse Hiller and basist Scot Larsen for helping to make this happen.

I spoke with the owner the following day and we booked two more gigs, Wednesday October 11th and Wednesday November 8th.

Honorable mention goes to Erica Lee who sat in with us Wednesday night. We did several songs that featured her singing and she also helped me with several harmonies. She has a beautiful voice and a good ear for harmonies. She did a superb job and added an extra dimension to our music.

Posted by John Lawton at 06:46 PM | Permalink

Had a great evening at the second Open Mic at the Blue Chalk. We had a lot of good musicians show up and perform. Thanks to...

Continue reading "Review: Open Mic #2/Blue Chalk" »

Posted by John Lawton at 02:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This is the first post to the Rodeo Clowns' website. This site is being designed to provide all information related to the Rodeo Clowns band. This includes information on their upcoming dates, background information on the the Rodeo Clowns as well as background information on the individual musicans, and musical examples of the band. This site is a work in progress, please bear with us.

Posted by John Lawton at 11:15 PM | Permalink