Another IBMA is officially over and now the road to recovery is in progress for Brooke, myself, and the band. Just in case you guys haven’t gotten to check out the You Tube Videos from IBMA 2010, we hope that you’ll go and check those videos out. This year was our first time of getting to play Fan Fest at IBMA and what an honor it was!!!

We decided to venture out to Nashville on Monday September 27^th where we would begin a week of early mornings, late nights, and new doors waiting to be opened. This years IBMA was a very eventful and successful one. Brooke and I had so much success with a booth set up in the trade show last year we decided this year it would be a great idea to do the same. The booth was a place where we had to be present during the hours of operation which varied daily…although I must say it made a huge difference in meeting people and getting to talk to them one on one when we looked back on it at the end of each day. Brooke, I and the gang played on 2 after hour showcases where we were able to draw in some new faces who had never heard us live before and bring those back around that give us the amazing support it takes to keep going in this business.

The first official showcase was on Tuesday night in the Mast Farm Inn’s Emerging Artists concert series. Our group along with some other very talented acts out there performed on this same night. Playing at 1:30 in the morning was very tiring none the less, but we had a great crowd stay up with us and the M.C. made a great joke about Darin buying everyone breakfast at Denny’s following our performance. We would like to thank Henri Deschamps personally for allowing us to be featured artists at this showcase and all that you do with face book in allowing the world to know more about us.

Wednesday Mr. Tom T. and Dixie Hall invited us to play at their annual IBMA showcase. This one took place about 2 hours earlier than the night before, so once again another great turnout surfaced and the opportunity to represent the Lord, our music and what we stand for as a couple and band was made possible. Thank you so much as well to Tom T. and Dixie for believing in our music, letting us record a great song like “Let’s Not Go Three”, and giving us the title the “Sweethearts of Bluegrass”.

 Before I go any further I would like to announce the newest member of Darin and Brooke Aldridge. This talented member was such a huge help to us at IBMA and we are pleased to introduce her to you at this time. She is the official fiddler of Darin and Brooke Aldridge while also adding harmony vocals to the bands unique sound. Her name is Rachel Johnson and she comes to us from Bristol, TN. Many of you may know Rachel from the great progressive bluegrass band “The Dixie Bee Liners”! She is also great pals with so many of the great musicians in the bluegrass world, so you have probably seen her before and just didn’t know it was herJ If you have heard her you know she is a superb fiddler and even if you haven’t you’ll know what we’re talking about when you hear her for the first time.

When not performing on or running our booth on Tuesday and Wednesday Darin and I were in attendance at the Gig Fair and DJ taping session. These two things are two very important things when an artist is trying to get their name out in the music world. The Gig Fair consists of Festival and how Promoters from all around the world who come to scout out talent during IBMA. They set up in a room full of tables and each artist has the choice to make of which festivals they may want to be apart of in the future. Once a decision is made you have 7 ½ minutes to speak to the specific promoter personally and sell your product. Sometimes, if your in high demand as an artist some of the promoters will ask to speak to you first or approach you at another time. Brooke and I were really tickled this year to speak with so many of the promoters and get bookings for many of the great 2011 festivals all over the United States and even possibly in Ireland!!! The DJ taping sessions contributed greatly to our music and ministry this year as well. It is set up very similar to the Gig Fair and you can speak with any of the DJ’s that you wish. Many of the DJ’s will do a short interview and then have you do some station liners so they can add this in their show when they play your music. These interviews tend to be fun for Brooke and I because we get to do it together for one and we even find ourselves finishing each others sentences when asked certain questions (Guess that is the typical Husband and Wife thing to do J J J ). WAMU which is a huge Radio station out in Washington, DC allowed Brooke, myself and the band to come to a special room where they were doing live taping sessions with certain bands. We were honored they wanted to speak with us this year as we shared the story of our career, marriage, love for the Lord and performed our songs live on air. So thank you to all of the promoters and DJ’s who enjoy our music and want to see us reach the pinnacle in our music careers. If it wasn’t for all of you great folks… people wouldn’t hear our music outside of our own geographical region and we couldn’t do what we love for a living.

Thursday was a day of rest so we all slept in late and come up with a game plan for Friday. Brooke and I woke up early Friday morning to attend an event called Fan Feast. This is a breakfast that fans attend and we the artists get to serve the fans. We all have teams that we are on out of about 30 different artists. Who ever our team leader is (Ours was Jim Roe…a very successful booking agent in Nashville) picks his ten artists to help him along with the other team leaders. From there we pick a charity to raise money for. We picked the American Stroke Association because Marshall Wilburn who is the bass player for Michael Cleveland and Flame Keeper was on our team and he is married to Lynn Morrison. Lynn as many of you may remember had a series of strokes some years ago that has handicapped her from playing the music that she so loves and is amazing at. Lynn has had many hits in the bluegrass industry as a female artist, but hasn’t been able to continue playing since her illness overtook her ability. So we wanted to contribute to the American Stroke Association by having our Fan Fest Team give what we raised to that charity. After we decided on this charity we were given roles to play before the fans began to enter the breakfast room. Brooke and I were the hosts and seated everyone. Upon entering the room the fans were given play money to tip whatever they appreciated the artist doing. It could be out of simple kindness, getting a drink for them, directing them to the buffet line, or even singing a tune or dancing a jig for them if they asked. Brooke and I got tips for being kind and pulling out chairs for people to sit down in along with singing a duet tune upon request. By the end of the breakfast each team introduced themselves and it was announced which team was able to raise the most money. We placed 1^st but they pulled a surprise ending and had placed and extra $100.00 in play money under three random chairs in the room. These three people got to decide what charity they wanted their $100.00 to go to. The charity each person with the $100.00 picked was for Cancer Research which was an amazing charity for the extra money to go to. So technically we came in 2^nd place, however in the end it didn’t really matter who won as far as the teams because we had fun, the fans had fun, and everyone’s charity received some type of donation. Brooke and I were just glad to be part of a great event at IBMA for an overall great causeJ At 3:00 on Friday we played the big stage on Fan Fest. It was a great show where we were well received from everyone in the room and got an encore after our last song. Fan Fest is something we hope to be apart of every IBMA.

We awoke early Saturday morning to begin our 6 ½ hour journey back to good ole’ North Carolina. However, we still had one more stop to make before getting in late Saturday night. Overall, we couldn’t have hoped for a better 2010 IBMA and are looking forward to all that’s in store for the 2011 year! It was so good to see so many friends who also attended IBMA and we look forward to meeting up with you again down the road soon.

We wanted to give you a quick update on some places we are going to be playing soon and we hope to see you there. Coming up this Thursday October, 14th we will be in Morganton at the Burke County Fairgrounds at 2:00pm. Friday, October 15^th we will be appearing at Tabernacle Independent Baptist in Dallas,NC for their annual Fall Festival. Sunday night at 6:00pm we will be playing at First Baptist which is our home church here in Cherryville, NC. For our full schedule click on the tour dates tab here on the website and see if were gonna be heading to or close to your hometown. We love and appreciate each of you and thank you for taking time to be apart of our music and ministry. Enjoy the blog and we look forward to any comments you would like to leave.

God Bless,

Darin and Brooke Aldridge