No Limitz Music

PRMICSW Huge Success continues - A story with No Limitz! 

In 2008, a young lady by the name of Tenille came through the 1st Annual Peace Region Music Industry Conference doors and our lives have never been the same. Since that time, we’ve had the privilege of working and writing with her and in 2012, after experiencing great success including numerous awards, we asked her to sit on the other side of the table and become a mentor for the PRMICSW. It was there she met Bethanie Earle, a vibrant guitar player from Peace River who was a first time participant at PRMICSW. There was an instant connection and later that fall, while Tenille was preparing for her “Play It Forward Tour” across Alberta, she contacted Bethanie to join her on the tour. Since that time, Bethanie has been a huge part of the Tenille journey and has gone on to co-write one of the songs on Tenille’s new album “Light”, as well she will continue on the cross country “Play It Forward Tour”!!! But the good news about what can happen at PRMICSW doesn’t end there...Katie and Jason Luessink, a young local duo with the promise of a successful music career, also were first time delegates at the 2012 PRMICSW. About a month ago, Tenille called us up to say that she had invited Jason and Katie to join her on the new tour, with Katie on keyboard and Jason on acoustic guitar. We were thrilled with this news as she thanked us for introducing her to her entire new band!! We played a small part in bringing these wonderfully talented musicians together but know that it was all because of the opportunities that presented themselves at the Peace Region Music Industry Conference - Showcase & Workshop in Peace River, Alberta. There may be an opportunity awaiting you this spring at the 2013 Conference...  
Go to www.prmicsw.com to find out more.

"Only Sometimes" dedicated today to Andrea Kelly of "The Hand-Written Life" Burning Bridges blog.   

 "Only Sometimes" is dedicated today to Andrea Kelly of "The Hand-Written Life" Burning Bridges blog.  Its a beautiful blog that touched my heart and reminded me so much of our song Only Sometimes.  The song is about when there is someone you love but you can't be with them, but you choose to heal even though it hurts.  


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Tenille Receives Humanitarian Award CCMA 2012 Gala 

On Saturday September 8th night in Saskatoon SK, during the 2012 CCMA's gala event, Tenille received the Slaight Humanitarian Award for her hard work for "Big Hearts For Big Kids". Tenille has raised almost $200,000 for a Youth Emergency Shelter in Grande Prairie, Alberta Canada.We are so proud of Tenille and honored to be part of her life and music career. Below is a link of the video of her acceptance speech.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YvjWj0hXMQ&feature=player_embedded






 

Missing Open Mic at Local Venue & Open Mic Advise 

Its been a fantastic summer hands down... but there are a few things that we are really missing as part of a routine and that's "Open Mic at the Mocha Lounge" located at the Belle Petroleum Centre in Peace River Alberta.  We got together on Thursday night to watch the CMT special "Big In A Small Town" and support one of our "Open Mic Peers" who appeared on the special.  Richard Woodman is a great friend of ours from Kinuso Alberta who is a fantastic singer/songwriter who entered the contest on CMT and became 1 of 5 finalists in Alberta totalling 20 out of Canada.  We all agreed that he was awesome on the CMT special and Sherry and Dana look forward to introducing him to many folks and peers at this years 2012 Country Music Week in Saskatoon, SK.  It got us all talking about  the falls return of open mic and how excited we were to get back into that weekly musical groove.  Then out of the blue a Bandzoogle blog (which Bandzoogle is our website host provider for musicians) came up talking about etiquette at Open Mic's.  The Blog advise originally came from another artist by the name of Robin Yukiko resides from San Francisco.  Hope to see you all this year Sunday Nights at Open Mic :).

ADVISE OF BANDZOOGLE & ROBIN YUKIKO OPEN MIC'S  Do's & Don'ts  ( And of few from No Limitz)

DON’T play and leave.

DO talk to EVERYONE and remember their names. You can even write their name and description and review it at the end of the night. They will be so impressed the next week.

DON’T expect to be discovered. This is a networking opportunity with other musicians. Open mics only lead to gigs if you work your contacts and follow up.

DON'T just say "Good job". Be specific and sincere like "I really liked your hook" or "Your low range sounds great!" so they know you were paying attention.

DO introduce others. Even if you aren't interested in collaborating with someone, maybe you can give someone a good lead.

DON’T heckle. No one wants you to request Free Bird.

DO be gracious. If only one person is listening, play just for that person, and yourself.

DON’T talk loudly over a ballad. Everyone chats, just be respectful about it.

DO play contrasting songs. (One slow, one fast, one in major, one in minor, etc.)

IF possible, DON’T play two songs in the same key back-to-back. Even if an audience doesn't know, their ears will start to get bored.

DON’T apologize before you play a song. People want you to be excited about your song, not hear excuses for why it's going to suck.

DO make friends with the host, bartenders, and all staff. People like to work with their friends, so be a friend to everyone you meet.

No Limitz's ADDED ADVISE......

DO add at least the minimum cover charge at the door if there is one. This helps pay for the host & sound system.

DO purchase beverages from the venue. If you just drink water, they venue owner can't pay for the waitress staff, power, heat, etc.

DO play the standard number of songs, usually three.  Unless you are requested to sing another song :)

DO have fun! If it's not fun, what's the point?  


 

GREAT SUMMER 2012 FOR NO LIMITZ 

Dana & Sherry have had a fantastic summer so far!!!  Opening up Bud Country Fever was fantastic and being able to share the stage with such fine folks at the Good Brothers, Mavericks, & Craig Morgan & his band.  The rest of the summer Sherry and Dana we have been doing acoustic house concerts which are one of their favorite kind of gigs.  Very personal and intimate.  They have met some fantastic people and playing when opportunity knocks. They were even picked up in a limo for one of the house concerts... definately a high light for them
.

They are excited for August for they are about to head to Dana's cabin at Slave Lake to do some recording of some demo's and a couple of new singles.  Pretty tough jobs hey...recording at the lake with a margarita in hand???? haha.  August also brings a few more house concerts and the Harmon Valley Fair where they get to share the stage with a great friend and peer, Shane Chisholm.  Shane is a fantastic performer, song writer and bass player.  His show is one you don't want to miss!!!

Hope you all are having a great summmer.

Cheer :)
The Girls
xoxo 

Week 6 - Blogging By Dana Blayone 

 Hey everyone, ok update on the whole CYBER PR Challenge.  You may have noticed that Week 5 is missing...well that's because I need a good hair day for that one!!  Week 5's theme is Youtube, so I plan on having us girls do a video blog, but when ever we are together we're usually off and running to gigs, or doing our admin day (which we call music monday) in our grubbies and messy hair.   So we are still planning on doing it on a music monday town day.  That way we will look all smokin'....or at least decent  hahaha!  

So Week 6 is on Blogging!  I'd have to say that this is the greatest part of the whole challenge that I've taken full advantage of.  It was always a conflict...to blog or not to blog!  Well the answer is...BLOG, BLOG, BLOG, BLOG!  I'm learning that it is the most benefical thing you can do online.  We have received so much more traffic on our site and its fun.  If you're not over picky "don't let perfection stop your progress" is what I'm learning....just go for it!!  Put in a few links, a couple of pics and talk about something you love.  I actually love learning about stuff like this...because even though it seems overwhelming, when you realize its simple its like finding a treasure.  So on top of it all Sherry & I have both started our own personal blogs.  It's great cause its our own personal views and experiences which is new for us to send out to the worlds because we've always represented ourselves online as a duo with the same experiences.  But we do so many different things on the aspects of music that the blogs give us a personal outlet.

http://danablayonesongwriter.wordpress.com/
http://sherrycrawfordsongwriter.wordpress.com/

Doing as much online to promote yourself and your dream is a necessity, but you also have to make sure that you pay attention to your local surroundings.  No Limitz is now part of a Northern Alberta local marketing group called "ThinkLocalMarket.com" .  We performed for their first networking Gala where we not only promoted our latest album "Hold That Thought"  we were also promoting "HOUSE CONCERTS".  We absoulutely love this growing and dynamic group for not only does it help promote products grown, created, produced, serviced, and given in Northern Alberta, but all the members try to help and promote each other.  There's marketing courses, networking opoportunies, and you discover what's in your own back yard.  You don't need to order stuff from Texas or some far off place, its probably made in the next town over.  Remeber to try to discover opportunities around you, not only abroad.  So if you want to discover some REALLY COOL STUFF just head over to www.thinklocalmarket.com and find it there!
Think Local Market


Week 4 - Social Media - I've been twitterized 

So OK, Im a little behind on the 9 week challenge.  Look how hard I've been working :P.  But actually, I'monly on blogging about it.  Once I got through the chapter on week 4 I was happy to see that we have already been doing a lot of what has been asked. It pertains to the “Social Media” and we have had our No Limitz Facebook Page up and running for a while and just started our twitter page in October when we went to Whitehorse YK for the Breakoutwest.ca conference and Brian Thompson from Thorny Bleeder Records  and The DIY Daily, had encouraged us and helped us through the process. We also have the beginnings of a lot of the social media necessities, so I’ve been in the process of updating and making the quality of our sites a bit better. I’ve also been weeding out our twitter account. I did a lot of following !! I was following almost 1000 people and it worked to get followers back, BUT it also was very lope sided too with 300 followers and 1000 following. I knew we needed “quality‘ followers otherwise I’d end up with a mess to clean up! So I went to my App store and found a program called “unfollowForTwitter” and was able to see who’s accounts were dormant and who was not following me back. After a few tries and experiments I decided to unfollow everyone who wasn’t following me back with the exception of certain folks and organizations that I wanted on my twitter account so I could tag them in my twitters and it would at least connect me to them via a back link. After that I went into my twitter account and followed everyone that was following me. “Its a good Karma thing”. I think I will do this process of following a hundred, wait a week to see who follows back, then clean up with an unfollow. Its a slow process, but it all takes time and patience. BTW... HIT the Twitter button above and follow us :)  (and facebook for that matter :P)

I do have to admit...I’m enjoying all of this because 1. Its creative. 2. I’m learning new things 3. I’m seeing results in traffic to our sites already. And that is EXCITING!

WHAT I DIDN’T EXPECT!…. Was that I really enjoy blogging. Even though I haven’t been blogging too much on the 9 Week PR Challenge, I’ve been blogging about other things and people, AND both Sherry and I now have our own personal blogs. Check them out… danablayonesongwriter.wordpress.com and sherrycrawfordsongwriter.wordpress.com. And they are completely different but both based on music.

Well, next project is on Youtube. Which I expect to REALLY ENJOY. I really love marketing and exploring all these avenues as much as I love songwriter. By the way… I wrote a new song inbetween doing all this online work. And I’m really digging the groove of the song!!!   Hmmmm maybe I’ll put it on Youtube for ya ;)




OK - I’m off. Everyone have a super and loving Family Day Weekend.

Hugs & Cheers

Dana xo

Big Hearts For Big Kids - Music Miracles 

What a great night we had on Saturday night! Sherry & I attended for the Big Hearts For Big Kids which is a fundraiser for the Grande Prairie Emergency Youth Center that is actually the only one in Northern Alberta. The event last night was sold out by an enthusiastic crowd that laid their dollars out on the table and gave their hearts to their community to ensure kids in need have a safe place. An incredible $104,000 was raised last night and the look on all the volunteers faces last night including the tears of joy in Tenille’s eyes were like magic. This is the third year we as No Limitz have attended the event that Tenille is the creator, organizer, hostess, and miracle worker of. The first year we were on stage performing, the second and third year youcould not haveheld us back even though we were not on stage, we went out on the floor and rolled up our sleeves and helped make money for such a worthy cause.   With Michelle Wright, Jason Blaine, Willie Mack, Jake Mathews, Pear, Wendell Ferguson and of course Tenille gracing the stage it was an evening of amazing entertainment.  You see sometimes music isn’t about sitting down with your guitar to write a song, or to sing to a crowd, or go dance to a band. Music brings people together to make miracles happen. To heal communities, lift hearts, to celebrate life of those around us. Music is a small drop of magic that can change the world.


Big Hearts For Big Kids T-shirts www.tenille.ca/bigheartsforbigkids

The Return of PRMICSW - 2012 

Well today Sherry & I announced the return of the Peace Region Music Industry Conference - Showcase & Workshop for the 5th Year. I have to admit that we really had no intention of putting on a workshop this year, but there was no way we could refuse all the requests from our Music Industry supporters, local artists and community. Just the thought of PRMICSW not happening made everyone feel very unsettled and a little bit like they lost a home. It does feel pretty darn good to know how much of an impact our vision of creating a stronger music industry though a weekend music conference & songwriters workshop made not only with in our community, but within the whole music industry. Everyone thought we were crazy to take a break when we did because it grew very quickly with a reputation of a dynamic and high quality workshop that resulted in so many “artist success stories”. The reason we wanted to “break” was because, we were putting our own songwriting career on the back burner because we were too busy focusing on the workshop. That tends to happen when you have a big budget to fill and a lot of people depending on you. And the workshop was getting too big to create the quality impact we wanted. PLUS… we wanted to empower the local artists to get them involved in their own local music scene and start making things happen! Well... mission accomplished there! It was really nice to see the musical buzz sustain throughout the year. So, with many irons in the fire this year for No Limitz, and with a few changes to PRMICSW Weekend we will once again plan for a magnificent weekend with Duane Steele & Robbie Josh Gwilliam returning for the 5th year, and introducing Blair Packham from Toronto, Ontario representing SAC. Head over to WWW.PRMICSW.COM to get all the nitty gritty details. And have a fabulous day!

Cheers
Dana

p.s.  Now Im off to go work on Week 4 for the 9 WEEK CHALLENGE OF ONLINE MARKETING....Did I mention everyone else is on Week 5!  hahaha    :P
Blog ya later :)

Week 3 - WEBSITES and applying our No Limitz Pitch 

Well I have to admit, that I didn't really follow through with the week 3 plan just yet.  Lots of deadlines were pending this week.  We applied for a grant to have some demos produced (cross your fingers for us please!) and well.....there is an announcement on the rise....  eek!  I just can't quit spill the beans yet!  But stay tuned on our No Limitz Facebook Page and some of the other groups we have.  If you are on our emailing list you will also be the first ones to know!  

I'm digging the new No Limitz pitch of "The No Limitz singer/songwriter duo, Dana Blayone & Sherry Crawford create a mixture of emotions with their songwriting skills and blended harmonies that have been compared to the likes of Blue Rodeo, kd lang and Alison Krauss".  We have also had comments that we sound like the Judds & Sweethearts of the Rodeo, which is a total honor, but its hard to fit everyone one you sound like into a 10 second saying.  Week 2 was a success!

Even though I haven't quite gotten through the Week three plan, Im excited to say that I attended the Think Local Market Online Marketing sessions with David A West.  Lets just say I am excitely overwhelmed!!! I learnt so many wonderful and exciting things that I can tap into online I feel like a kid in a candy store.  One thing I really learnt was "the most important thing to do is BLOG".  Sounds intimidating but....it works!!  So... if you want more exposure online... BLOG BLOG BLOG.

Well I will keep you posted on how we are "Creating Our Own Success" ( haha  where have you heard that before???? :P)

Ta ta for now !
Dana

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