Keep Smiling Album Release/Tour Recap & 2025 Outlook
Hey Champs,
What a tour, thank you everyone from the bottom of my heart, it has been a long year touring this album, releasing it, and recording it. I laughed, I cried, and kept smiling through it all because of family and friends, everyone that came out to the shows in New Mexico, Arizona, Puerto Rico and my Texas family, what a journey this was. To make it through and keep smiling, that’s what this was all about. Nobody gets you down when you keep smiling. Stay positive! Outlook and attitude are some things we can control ourselves and give us the power to move forward everyday and get out of bed. With these tools, you can feel like nothing can stop you.
Now that the tour is over I would like to recap what I did and accomplished. The marketing campaign was made possible by a grant from the City of Austin and by folks that donated on the GoFundMe campaign, and the all the folks that came out for the tour, bought merch, tipped and supported local business. The release event at the Puerto Rican Cultural Center was a blessing, thank you for everyone that came out and helped make this possible. I am extremely humbled by it all and give praise to God for how lucky of a man I am to be a grant award winning artists living in Austin, TX, playing live music for a living, putting out albums, touring and such. Getting to reconnect with everyone has made a huge impact on my life.
Puerto Rico, I missed you so much, thanks Jochi Davila from Le Mega 106.9/95.1 fm radio station we did it, we promoted the tour and had great turnouts, thank you to my manager in Puerto Rico, Cesar Rivas, for bookings, contact him in Puerto Rico at (787) 300-7327. San Juan Smokehouse burned down due to a fire en La Placita the day after me and Puerto Rican Waylon Jennings, Jose “Pepo” Cubano played our last of two shows there, but the smoker is saved, you can’t outsmoke the smokehouse! They’ll be back better than ever and so will Smiley and company.
Rincon, so glad to be back we had a blast, Caddy’s Calypso was a fantastic turnout, great seeing Caddy, Dennis and family.
Aguadilla, at Mi Balcon Tropical, thank you Jazz we love you. And to the crew that came out, I missed mi corillo so much. Hope to be back again soon for bigger shows and sponsors for the next album. Overall the Puerto Rico leg was a great success.
Arizona family and PV Sweep crew, thank you for coming out. Your support, tips, and the merch you bought made the Southwest leg a success. Was able to bring the bacon back home and pay the bills.
Clovis, New Mexico or Bust! It was a bust, I will not be returning back to New Mexico this year. But look for me in Lubbock, TX in March!
Texas family, you are my home base, headquarters, the only place I could ever spend the rest of my life making a living playing live music. I’ve traveled a lot and lived in different places, but nothing beats home court. God bless Country music and God bless Texas!!!
I’ll post some pictures and videos of the tour and the release event, check out the “Media” page for updates. I can’t thank everyone enough, thank you to the one’s that I forgot to mention, and to the ones in the future and in the past, thank you thank you.
Outlook for 2025, I expect to get a day job to support my baby boy with steady income, play music on the weekends, keep my Wednesdays at the Spoke and play home court at the Little Longhorn Saloon when I’m on the calendar, come see me. You can find me once a month in Hill Country playing Longhorn Cellars Winery in Fredericksburg during wine season (Mar-Oct), and every other month in Driftwood at Hays City Store, and playing hotels all around Texas. For upcoming dates go to my home page and scroll down to the bottom for dates.
In the 90’s when I was growing up in Arizona, before I started even playing, I saw Esteban perform at a hotel in Scottsdale, and I dreamed of one day being like him, a guitarist playing hotels and selling music, touring different places. Later, when I just began playing in the early 2000s he came out with a live DVD of him playing in Sedona and he started selling his own line of guitars on QVC, remember that? Maybe one day I can come up with my own line of Smiley guitars for sale? A dreamer can dream.
Best Regards,
Your Puerto Rican/American Pirate/Cowboy - Smiley ”Keep Smiling”
