Making Music ... Doing Business ... Giving Back

   Hot off the Press!   

12/28/2023

President's Email--Year End Edition

Dear BYO Members,

Happy Holidays and Happy 2024 to each of you! What a year 2023 has turned out to be, as we are all blessed to find BYO running on all cylinders after December's remarkably successful Holiday Rocks event to assist Music Meets Medicine! As I hope you know by now, we were able to raise over $31,000 to benefit the MMM program! Kudos to each of you for both your efforts at fundraising and your great sets that we all enjoyed at The Kessler! I'm still grinning about that event!

Lots of exciting news coming up in 2024 for BYO and its Members, but I wanted to get a couple of upcoming dates and events on your calendars:

* Our first Jam of 2024 will be an Acoustic Jam at Guitars and Growlers in Richardson on Thursday, January 18 at 6:30pm! Details to come, but please save the date for our kickoff event of the year!

* Secondly, we will hold our Annual Meeting at Six Springs Tavern in Richardson on Saturday, January 27 at NOON! Come catch up and break bread with our awesome BYO Busicians and hear about 2024's exciting new developments and programming!

Thanks to all who participated in our 2023 Jams, and we promise to have lots of opportunities to hone your talents and jam with your friends in 2024, as well as more opportunities to give back through our BYO charities. For the record, nearly 75% of our Members participated in at least one Jam! That, my friends, is awesome!

All my best,

Len Musgrove
BYO President

10/17/2023

Dear BYO Members and Friends,

We have officially survived a blast furnace summer in North Texas and are enjoying a delightful 70 degree day as I type! I wanted to circle back with you and let you all know about some exciting news for BYO and its Members in the final few months of 2023.

We find ourselves well into our "back to normal" rollout of programming for BYOM, with monthly All Hands Jams back at the newly improved Six Springs Tavern in Richardson since January, as well as the resumed Acoustic Jams starting in March in alternating months at Guitars and Growlers in Richardson. Thanks to all our talented BYO Members who have participated and treated us to some extremely well-performed and clever sets in both formats! Let's keep this going! Currently, IAN DICKSON and his Events Committee are continuing to line up Jams for the remainder of 2023, and there is also consideration to hold a Blues Jam if sufficient demand is present! Feel free to reach out to Ian if you have interest.

First, as the BYO Website will confirm, we have two "official" Jams left in this year, not counting the upcoming home Jams we will talk about shortly. Our last All Hands Jam of 2023 will be held once again at Six Springs Tavern in Richardson on Friday, October 27. You know the drill--please reach out to Ian if you want to reserve a set! Also, on Thursday, November 16 we will have our final Acoustic Jam at Guitar's & Growlers in Richardson. Let's pack the house for both of these great events to send a good BYO Year out on a great note!

But wait, there's more! On Sunday, November 12, Stan Bradshaw will host an Acoustic Home Jam at his home at 12:30, and Pam and I will host an Electric Home Jam at our home at the same time. If you are new to BYO and are looking for the opportunity to get to know our great members better or are just itching to make music, these Home Jams are a terrific way to play music and get to know other members. I know I can speak for Stan when I say that we are really excited about these annual events and the opportunity to get to know our Members better. Each Jam should wrap up around 3pm, just enough time to get home for the Cowboys kickoff if you like that sort of thing!

Finally, many of you have heard but I wanted to confirm that on Thursday, December 7 at the amazing Kessler Theater in Oak Cliff our favorite charity Music Meets Medicine will host another Holiday Rocks event. Sue Schildt, along with her Social and Business Committee members, and Brad Bush and his Charity Committee members are once again helping Dr. J Mack of MMM put sets together made up mostly of BYO Members to provide entertainment for the packed house once again and hopefully raise a LOT of money for MMM! My understanding is that, in order to get a high degree of BYO Members participating, until all members who would like to play are placed with a group, our Members are limited to one set each on this cool stage for the event! Also, if you have any items you'd like to donate to the cause for the silent auction (Mavericks/Stars/Cowboys/Rangers tickets, concert tickets, restaurant or hotel certificates, musical instruments or other gear, for example), please reach out to Jane McGregor, Auction Chair, at jane@janemcgregor.net or 214.543.1718. I have heard of some great items already on the growing list! Regardless, please put this awesome event on your calendar!

The 4th quarter of the year means that we are working to put new Committees together for 2024, If you have interest in our Events/Jams Committee, please let Ian Dickson or me know. Same with Sue's Social and Business Committee--let Sue or me know if your interest. Ditto with the Charity Committee and the Membership Committee! I am happy to be the conduit here, and I love enthusiastic volunteers! If you are fairly new to BYO, the Committees are another great chance to get to know more Members while helping BYO!

Our Event Committee has already been hard at work setting up the Jams for 2024, and we are as a general rule pushing to go back to Thursday for our Jams. The temporary change to Friday for the last few AHJ's was an accommodation to our host, Six Springs Tavern, and we are not inclined to be quite as flexible next year. I believe those days are better for the vast majority of our BYO Members. Plans are also underway for January's annual meeting--details to come soon!

Although there's more fun to be had before Year End, I think it's fair to say that 2023 has been a robust and truly enjoyable year for BYO and our Members. A sincere "Thank You" to each of you for your enthusiasm and talents--there's no BYO without you! As always, I am humbled and grateful to have the opportunity to lead BYO.

All my best,

Len Musgrove
BYO President

4/18/2023

Dear BYO Members and Friends,

I guess I'll get this over with first: Happy Tax Day! I will be honest, I can barely type that with a straight face, but once again being a Lawyer/CPA for my day gig, it seems appropriate to remind our bold Busicians that we are privileged to live in this country despite its downsides, and it is also a privilege to pay income taxes, meaning that actual income was generated! To quote the late, great Sir Winston Churchill, "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others that have been tried."

We find ourselves well into our "back to normal" rollout of programming for BYOM, with monthly All Hands Jams back at the newly improved Six Springs Tavern in Richardson since January, as well as the resumed Acoustic Jams starting in March in alternating months at Guitars and Growlers in Richardson. Thanks to all our talented BYO Members who have participated and treated us to some extremely well-performed and clever sets in both formats! Let's keep this going! Currently, IAN DICKSON and his Events Committee are continuing to line up Jams for the remainder of 2023, and there is also consideration to hold a Blues Jam if sufficient demand is present! Feel free to reach out to Ian if you have interest.

Last November STAN BRADSHAW and I each held acoustic and electric home jams for new and existing BYO Members, and we plan to repeat those weekend events in the coming months. Stan and I are both willing to host again, but if there are any other BYO Members that are willing to host these home jams, please let me know. I know that Pam and I had a ball meeting some new members and playing some different songs with new friends as a result. I found the whole day refreshing and quite rewarding, and I'll bet that you will too!

I am also very pleased to report that we have several new BYO Members that have joined our ranks since January! To our new Members, a warm welcome and an invitation to come introduce yourselves to me and to the other BYO Members! The BYO Jams are always a great way to get a feel for our Members and what type of music they like that may coincide with your own favorite genres!

As the fundamental purpose of our humble 501(c)(3) non-profit organization is charitable in nature, I will take the opportunity to bring to the attention of our Members several great recent and upcoming examples of the generosity and hard work of some BYO members. In this past week alone, PAMELA MUSGROVE put together a terrific group to entertain at last Friday's AWARE Affair, an annual fundraising benefit event for AWARE, an Alzheimer's research focused organization based in Dallas. The band, made up entirely of BYO Members (STAN WOODWARD, STAN BRADSHAW, STEVE GENDLER, JOHN SUMMERS, Pam and some keyboard guy) closed what was a memorable evening with a spirited set of Rock, Motown, R&B and even Disco for the AWARE benefactors. Thanks to this great group of musicians and even better people!

Not to be outdone, the very next evening SUE SCHILDT put together a strong group of BYO Members to return and once again serve as the House Band for the Dallas Songwriter's Association Hall of Fame event. Sue not only put together a clever set designed to honor the DSA inductees (who included Roger Miller, Selena Gomez, Jimmie Vaughn and his little brother SRV) but also worked closely with the DSA's young "Rising Stars" who in most cases had never sung with a live band. A special thanks to SUE, GREGG BALEW, IAN DICKSON, STAN WOODWARD, JOHN SUMMERS and PAMELA MUSGROVE! I have attached a couple of photos of the DSA HOF event. Also, a shout out to DSA President MICHAEL BRANDENBERGER, also a BYO Member, for his kind invitation to BYO to serve the DSA.

I'd also like to recognize a couple of other BYO Members who embody the BYO charitable spirit. MIKE ERNST is once again in charge of shepherding the musicians every Saturday morning at the St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church Farmer's Market. Based upon past experience, there's a better than zero chance that Mike will bend some elbows of our talented BYO Members to entertain the St. Michael's Farmers Market shoppers for the next 5 months of so. Thank you, Mike!

Finally, I'd like to recognize FRED DOYLE and his multi-year efforts to put a BYO Band from D/FW to transport to Fred's hometown of Abilene for the singular Garageband Woodstock event on July 22nd. Fred has assembled a great band which includes KATHI ALLIN, SHARON McGREGOR, IAN DICKSON and WES HOFFMAN, among others, to represent among 6 or 7 quality local bands. I can tell you from past experience that this is a terrific event in a large (2200 seat!) venue, and the folks from Abilene both look forward to the great music and open their pocketbooks for local charity New Horizons. Last year the event raised nearly $40,000. Kudos to Fred and his BYO friends!

If you have or know about a BYO-related charitable event that I failed to mention, PLEASE let me know, and I will make sure you and your BYO buddies get appropriate credit and praise for your generous time commitments to further the BYO charitable purpose! I try to find out about these things, but as the lovely Pam has been known to point out from time to time, I have my limits!

One last other development that I find very exciting is that BYO will soon have its own YouTube channel. We will post videos of members performing, BYO "commercials" such as the great one that was recently professionally made and even features the dulcet tones of our own JOHN SUMMERS from last December's Holiday Rocks. This is in the works, so if you happen to be a crack tech guy or gal and don't mind spending a little time getting BYO up to speed in this regard, please let me know. BYO Needs You!

Keep on rockin', and let's keep 2023's momentum going for our great BYO organization!

All my best,

Len Musgrove
BYO President

1/1/2023

Hello Fellow Busicians,

As BYO members you all know that BYO suspended dues payments for almost 2 years while we were dealing with Covid-19 and cancelling all of our jam sessions and other live meetings. Well, thankfully that period is behind us, we re-started jam sessions in March 2022 and continued our jams through the December 1 Holidays Rock event at The Kessler. Even better, we are planning a full slate of live Jams for 2023 including some months with two jams, starting with an All Hands Jam on Thursday, January 26!

The Board has decided that we will resume with annual dues in 2023. We are also working on some of our other special events to resume in 2023. With that we had to determine how to re-set the renewal date for each member. After some discussion we decided to look at each individual member to make sure that you are receiving a fair treatment. BYO held jams through March of 2020 and then stopped all live events until resuming in March 2022. For each member we tried to make sure that you have received at least 12 months of available jams for the last full annual dues amount you paid of $200.

The result is that many of you will have a renewal at the beginning of January 2023. A small number of you will have renewal dates later in 2023, but everyone will have a renewal at some point during the year. The stage is always reserved for BYO dues-paying members, and we want all of you to have fun as members, participating in as many BYO activities as you want.

Watch for your renewal email. You can follow online instructions and pay online with a credit card. We STRONGLY PREFER that you pay this way. Emails and phone call about paying your dues can really chew up time for our volunteers, so please do your renewal payment online. Of course if you have a problem that you cannot solve online reach out and we will assist.

Let’s have a great 2023 of jams and I hope to see every one of you at the 2023 annual kickoff meeting on January 18 at Taste of the Caribbean in Plano. Please register online for this event, we need an accurate headcount for dinner: https://byomusicians.com/event-5033247

Let’s rock in ’23,

Len Musgrove
BYO President

12/4/2022

Dear BYO Members and Supporters,

So, how was YOUR Thursday night? I can tell you that I am still on an adrenaline high this morning from last night's absolutely remarkable "Holiday Rocks" event in which BYO partnered with our favorite beneficiary non-profit organization, Music Meets Medicine.

Where to start? First, I want to thank Brad Bush and his Charity Committee and Sue Schildt and her Business and Social Committee for their creative ideas and tireless planning and coordination with Dr. J Mack Slaughter with MMM. I would also like to thank super committee members (the Charity and Business and Social Committee worked so closely together that I am not really sure who was on which committee here!) Gregg Ballew, our direct liaison with The Kessler, and Jane McGregor, who fearlessly coordinated the record-fundraising Silent Auction, Event Committee Chair Ian Dickson for his usual efficient herding of cats at last night's performances, 7 sets in all, and Membership Committee Chair Jim Reed for his willingness to do whatever it took to help the other Chairs and make things happen.

I also want to thank each of the set leaders for their varied and entertaining sets, many of which bordered on perfection! Thank you, Fred Doyle, Terry Schpok, Sue Schildt, Stan Bradshaw, Tim Hazzard, Pam Musgrove and Jane McGregor! You ROCK!!

I want to thank Dr. J Mack Slaughter and his Music Meets Medicine team for presenting the event and allowing BYOM to partner up and provide the entertainment for such a good cause. And I am absolutely thrilled to report that our ambitious $15,000 goal was obliterated by your support! As of right now, we grossed over $23,000 for MMM! Think about that for a minute. No bad for our humble little charitable organization with all volunteers!

Finally, I want to personally thank the BYO record crowd of over 200 strong for attending our performances at the best music listening room in DFW, The Kessler. And even more, thank you all for your generosity in supporting Music Meets Medicine! I think we all witnessed last night exactly what your generous donations can do for brave children and teens to lift their spirits and encourage them to fight their unfortunate diseases with the healing power of music! Thank you to our anonymous underwriters to make the event possible and all the generous silent auction bidders. You also ROCK!!

Wishing each of you Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the Musgrove family. We have a lot to look forward to in 2023. On behalf of the BYO Board, we are grateful for your continued support through the unprecedented and frustrating Pandemic and for hanging in there with us during all our mountains of challenges. Frankly, BYO is still here and stronger than ever, and last night's fundraising performance at The Kessler is Exhibit A! I could not be prouder of our BYOM members!

All the best,

Len Musgrove
BYO President

9/23/2022

Dear BYO Members and Supporters,

I hope all are doing well. BYO is once again encouraging and supporting live music in these post-pandemic times, and I hope each of you has either directly participated in our Jams by performing or attending and supporting those that have performed. Once again, this month we have an All Hands Jam scheduled for Thursday, September 29 at Six Springs Tavern in Richardson. Ian Dickson has once again volunteered to coordinate the Jam and herd cats. I have heard that all of the scheduled slots are spoken for, and please come join the fun! Next month, one of BYO's favorite events, the Acoustic Jam, will return to Guitars and Growlers in Richardson on Thursday, October 27. More to come on that one.

Hopefully by now each of you has heard about the return of our annual principal fundraising event, Holiday Rocks, which will be held at what I believe is the finest listening room in DFW, The Kessler, on Thursday December 1, 2022. Your fellow BYO Busicians will join with Dr. J Mack Slaughter on the awesome Kessler Theater stage to once again raise money for Dr. Slaughter's worthy non-profit, Music Meets Medicine. Our goal is to put BYOM's best foot forward for this event, both musically and financially. There will be no admission charge to this singular event, but the Charity Committee has requested that you and your guests reserve your seats! All net proceeds will go directly to Music Meets Medicine. If you have any desirable items to donate, such as concert or sports tickets, restaurant certificates, hotel certificates, musical instruments, or similar items, please contact Sue Schild or Brad Bush. We have set a lofty goal of raising $15,000 for Music Meets Medicine this year, and with your help and the help of your friends, we will meet and exceed that amount!

We are also rebooting another terrific BYO tradition in November, with the return of BYO Member-only rock and acoustic home jams. Pam and I will host the rock jam at our home on Saturday, November 12 from 1pm to 3:30 pm, and Stan Bradshaw will host the acoustic jam at his home on the next day, Sunday November 13 from 2pm to 5pm. These events will serve, at least in the former situation, to not only alienate my neighbors from the melodic but boisterous music, but also to allow our BYO Busicians to jam with new our members and old members alike without the pressure of playing before an audience. These events have been popular in the past, and the Bradshaws and the Musgroves look forward to hosting the participants, each of whom must be BYO members. More info to come.

Finally, we plan to have a BYO Members' event in January at a venue to be determined, again returning to our traditional opening to our BYO calendar.

In short, we have a great deal to be thankful for and an equal amount to look forward to in the coming months.

I look forward to seeing each of you soon.

All the best,

Len Musgrove
BYO President

5/19/2022

Dear BYO Members and Supporters,

I hope this message finds each of you well and playing music regularly! After a fair number of fits and starts, we have been able to resume monthly All Hands Jams during 2022 at Six Springs Tavern, to the delight of all who have attended and participated in sets! Thanks are due to Ian Dickson, the Chair of the Events Committee, and his committee members in their yeoman work in organizing, cat herding and generally getting things rolling again after the painfully lengthy COVID hiatus we were forced to endure as an organization. Ian is working on expanding the Jams over the coming months, but my understanding is that the All Hands Jams are scheduled at Six Springs Tavern until August, including the upcoming Jam scheduled for this evening! Please join our BYO Busicians for a great night of music, whether you are scheduled to play in a set or not! I will be there as a spectator and I look forward to catching up with you!

I would also like to recognize the recent efforts of some of your BYO Members who generously donated their time to support the Dallas Songwriters' Association for the DSA's Hall of Fame Event on April 23rd. BYO Members Sue Schildt, Gregg Ballew, Stan Bradshaw, Eric Spomer and Pamela Musgrove provided a great house band for both the DSA's "Rising Stars" young musicians and for the event generally, while they provided credible versions of the hits of Willie Nelson, Charlie Pride, Kelly Clarkson, Townes Van Zandt and Leann Rimes to entertain the audience. For those who were unable to attend, you can check out the BYO Band's version of the Rimes' hit "Blue", sung by Pam.

https://www.facebook.com/100002870026141/videos/pcb.4649182981853990/507137294460792

We as an organization owe a debt of gratitude to these BYO Busicians, who reinforced the BYO purposes of both charity through our support of the DSA and education through providing an opportunity for aspiring young musicians to perform with a professional-quality band in a public setting. It was a memorable night, all in all. Thank you to the Dallas Songwriters' Association and its president Michael Brandenberger (also a BYO Member) for the opportunity to collaborate in furtherance of our organizational purposes.

As most of you know, a number of our BYO Busicians have formed or are continuing to play in their own projects around the DFW area. Some such members have asked me about publicizing their gigs directly. After speaking about this issue with the other Board members, we have come up with a good solution. All BYO members are welcome and encouraged to post info about their gigs on the BYO Facebook page to help each of you publicize your public gigs! Please do so starting immediately! The BYO Facebook page has a fair number of followers, so you can amplify your own publicity efforts by utilizing this readily available, no-cost tool.

Please look for some future announcements about happy hours and social events from Sue Schildt and her Business and Social Committee. I have tasked her with continuing to expand the BYO program to get back together as a group in events other than just our resumed Jams!

Take care, and keep on jamming!

Len Musgrove
BYO President


1/21/2022

January's All Hands Jam

Dear BYO Members and Fans,

I couldn't let the moment pass without a brief comment about last night's BYO All Hands Jam at Six Springs Tavern in Richardson.

In a word, the AHJ was, well, joyous! It was an event of good friends and music buddies reunited in a great venue after far too much time passing! It was an opportunity for new members to mix with veteran members, it was a night of tight sets from Brazilian Jazz instrumentals to vocal Pop Jazz to a Beatles Set to Country Rock to Modern Rock to a great Cream closer set, and nearly everything in between! Wow, our BYO Members may or may not have rehearsed a bit in the interim! Excellent musicianship, great vocals and really fun song selections met the 70-80 folks that joined the festivities last night.


A special thanks to our Set Leaders from last night, Lisa Bloom, Pam Musgrove, Chris Cree, Mark Jones, James Ashcroft, Fred Doyle, Tim Hazzard and Jim Martin. You folks Rock! Or in Lisa's and Pam's case, Swing! Thanks to BYO Old Faithful Stan Bradshaw for herding cats and actually bringing all 8 sets of excited Busicians in on time as Jam Poobah! Thanks to Six Springs Tavern for hosting our event. And thanks most of all to you BYO Members for hanging in there during this blasted Pandemic and keeping the BYO Faith. You have the undying gratitude of the BYO Board and me personally! Better days are coming for us all!

See you next month on Thursday, February 24 back at Six Springs Tavern.

All My Best,

Len Musgrove
BYO President


12/31/2021

Dear BYO Members and Friends,

We have officially made it through 2021! In a word, 2021 has been challenging for me and, I presume, each of you BYO Faithful as well. Of course, other descriptive words for 2021 might be frustrating, aggravating, irritating (anyone else experience the joy of mask acne? At age 61? Really?!!) and even stamina-testing! Having said that, I continue to think positively that better days are coming, with the rising vaccination rates, possible milder strains of COVID and looming herd immunity to finally beat back this hundred-year pandemic we have all had to endure since March of 2020.

On that note, I hope that by now each of you has heard about the first BYO All Hands Jam on Thursday, January 20, 2022 at Six Springs tavern in Richardson. For those who have not yet been to Six Springs, it is a cavernous, wide-open venue that has a great stage and sound system, and its capacity of approximately 250 far exceeds our typical AHJ crowds, so we should have plenty of room to spread out for those BYO Busicians who wish to perform, watch or just renew in-person friendships! January’s AHJ Jam Poobah is Stan Bradshaw, who reports a full night of music with 7 or 8 groups raring and ready to perform. We will take safety measures such as cleaning mics after each set and encouraging those who so desire to bring masks with a goal of making our members more comfortable. Either way, we look forward to resuming some sense of normalcy for BYO. I have tasked Ian Dickson, our fearless Events chair, to start building the BYO events calendar for the first and second quarter of 2022—more to come on that front.

We have also been asked by BYO Member Michael Brandenberger, who also serves as President of the Dallas Songwriters Association, a terrific non-profit group with which we have previously partnered, to provide a band or possible bands to perform the hits of this year’s DSA Hall of Fame inductees. This year’s DSA HOF class consists of notable local talent, including the likes of Willie Nelson, Charlie Pride, Townes Van Zandt, Leann Rimes and Kelly Clarkson. The event is set for April 23 at Love and War in Texas’ outdoor stage. This DSA event provides another great opportunity for our BYO Busicians to Give Back and have a ball playing music for a worthy cause. More to come on that front as well.

As challenging as 2021 was, I believe it is also worthwhile to review what our BYO Busicians were able to pull off during the year, limitations notwithstanding. Even though we were unable to host a live fundraising event such as Christmas Rocks as in past years, we were able to raise a significant amount of funding for one of our favorite fellow charities Music Meets Medicine and its founder, Dr. J Mack Slaughter. Many of your fellow BYO members were active participants in the video project along with J Mack, and thanks to a ton of work and skill provided by BYO’s own Brad Bush, we pulled off an impressive medley to showcase BYO and MMM. For those who either haven’t yet seen our video or just haven’t seen it in a while, I highly recommend that you take 10 minutes to enjoy it, and here is a link to our project:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyWXcq5h6YA

We did not just sit still because of COVID-19 during 2021, and many BYO Members continued to provide music and their talents to worthy causes. Several come to mind, including Mike Ernst committing to provide music on a weekly basis to the St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church Farmer’s Market. Many BYO members joined Mike to provide regular great music, including Eric Spomer, Stan Bradshaw, Tom Black, Pam Musgrove, John Jaggers and others! While we are talking about BYO Members giving back, how about our own Fred Doyle, who again this past year coordinated some BYO volunteers to play a great set at Abilene’s Garageband Woodstock, an event that raised approximately $50,000 for local causes in Fred’s old stomping grounds. A big thanks to Fred, Ian Dickson, Kathi Allan, Sharon McGregor, Pam Musgrove and Rod Clark for their great efforts in unofficially representing BYO. I have heard anecdotal stories about many other BYO members giving back to great causes during 2021, and for that I send my sincere thanks!

Our BYO Business and Social Committee, headed by Sue Schildt and assisted by Jane McGregor among others, kept us in touch with virtual Happy Hours that were both fun and informative with music trivia questions! Thanks to Sue and Jane! Not to be outdone, Ian and his Event Committee managed to pull off both a virtual jam on Zoom and to, thanks to the generous offer of their beautiful back yard by Stan and Judy Woodward, a live Jam in October. I think it is fair to say that we all missed the live Jams, and the October event just whet our collective appetites for more in 2022!

Your BYO Board has continued regular meetings to monitor the spikes and variations of COVID with the primary goal of keeping our BYO Members safe and healthy despite the pandemic. Not once or twice, but the three times the Board voted to freeze any dues assessments, which dues holiday now runs through 2022, thanks to prudent management of BYO’s funds. The Board, as you know, has adopted safety measures and policies to assure your safety as we do open things back up.

Finally, despite no efforts on behalf of our organization to grow during 2021, we have been blessed by 5 new BYO Members: Steve Gendler, Penn Collins, Tom Van Hoose, Mark LeDoux, and Steve Enstadt. Please take the opportunity to look for Steve, Penn, Tom, Mark, and Steve at the upcoming BYO events and welcome them! Pam and I have personally had the pleasure of playing music with Steve Gendler, and he is an excellent bass player and a great guy!

You can look forward to cool new 2022 BYO T-Shirts, a continuing BYO tradition. If you didn’t get your 2020 T-Shirt, please let me know, as I have a bunch left.

Thank you for your trust and confidence in a challenging year (or two) for our humble organization. It is truly an honor and a privilege to be your president. Let’s have an amazing 2022 together!


Happy New Year to each of you,

Len Musgrove
BYO President

9/1/2021

Dear BYO Members,

I have sad news to share with you. Our BYO member and owner of Sweetone Music, Ed Klein, passed away this past weekend. Below you will find a link to Ed’s Obituary:

https://www.echovita.com/us/obituaries/tx/carrollton/edward-bennett-klein-13251743

Please keep Ed and his family in your thoughts and prayers during this difficult time.


All My Best,

Len Musgrove
BYO President

4/20/2021

Dear BYO Members,

I would like to follow up on our two recent BYO events of March 31 (the Events Committee’s Zoom Song Swap) and April 8 (the Business and Social Committee’s Zoom Happy Hour and Trivia Contest) and thank the many Members who participated in and enjoyed those events. I would also like to thank both Ian Dickson, the Chair of the Events Committee, and Sue Schildt, the Chair of the Business and Social Committee, and their respective committees for their hard work in making each of you engaged and entertained! As I have mentioned in my previous updates, our two biggest priorities as a Board are and have been (1) keeping our BYO Members safe during the COVID-19 Pandemic and (2) keeping BYO relevant in a challenging time for each of us in which our cherished music jams have not been possible.

I would also like to thank the Members who stayed late on the Zoom call on April 8 and asked a lot of heartfelt but tough questions of me as President of BYO. I thank you because those questions went directly to the heart of what many of our Members have been thinking and feeling, and it was really our first opportunity to have a meaningful dialogue about returning to live BYO Jams as more and more of the herd immunity begins washing across the DFW and North Texas area. Believe me when I tell you that the principal topic of our April Board of Directors meeting last week was squarely upon this topic. WE HEAR YOU, and the Board truly looks forward to safely resuming live Jams as much as each of you do!

To speak directly to that question of when it will be safe to resume our live Jams, the Board has agreed that our goal, based upon the information available to us at this time and under the assumption that live events may be resumed in a manner consistent with healthcare guidelines in effect at that time, is to resume live Jams in the early fall, perhaps in September or even sooner. In order to facilitate the Jams, the Board has tasked the Events Committee with finding suitable venues that have good ventilation and are outdoor venues. We have already identified two possible venues, including a covered outdoor pavilion and the large backyard of one of our Members, as two suitable places to resume the Jams. With a view toward continuing safety for our Members, we have additionally discussed a new requirement for each Jam singer to bring his/her own microphone out of an abundance of caution and the possibility of Jam participants and guests signing a suitable waiver in favor of BYO.

The Board is aware that many of your bands and projects have cautiously resumed live music, and from my own perspective I will tell you that Pam and I have performed live a few times in the last few weeks, including a neighborhood jam with Stan Bradshaw and other BYO members in a non-BYO event.

I would like to ask two important favors of each of you. First, if you have ideas for safe, well-ventilated and hopefully outdoor venues (at least for now) that would be suitable for BYO Jams, please send them both to Ian Dickson and to me as soon as possible.

Second, and equally if not more important, I would like to ask each BYO member to send me a private email (i.e., please DO NOT reply to all) OR respond via this Private Form with the answer to my simple question of “Have you and your spouse or significant other (and any friend likely to attend a future BYO event) been vaccinated against COVID-19, regardless of the actual vaccination variety).” I will hold your personal information as private, but I wish to get a sense of how many of our Members are now vaccinated as a data point and would potentially feel safe returning to live Jams after vaccination. I will then confer with the rest of the Board and the Event Committee with the group information and numbers in making decisions when to safely roll out our return to live Jams.

Thank you in advance for your help on my two requests above. Thanks to each BYO Member for your support of the BYO Board and me in an unprecedented time, as well as your continued faithfulness to BYO. You have our sincere appreciation and gratitude.


All My Best,

Len Musgrove
BYO President

3/19/2021

Dear BYO Members,

First and foremost, I hope each of you are well, thoroughly rehearsed and ready to once again jam together in the coming months! I have missed your faces and your collective talents a great deal in the Great Pandemic Shelter of 20-21. As I type, the vaccination numbers and estimated “herd immunity” numbers are increasing quickly, and the horrible COVID-19 deaths that our community has experienced appear to be waning, along with decreases in new cases reported. Perhaps we are finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel.

However, in the interim, I wanted to reach out and let each of you know that we have 2 terrific BYO Zoom programs in the coming weeks for your enjoyment, a “Zoom Song Swap” on Wednesday, March 31 and a Zoom Happy Hour with a Music Trivia theme on Thursday, April 8!

Our own Ian Dickson and his Event Committee are coming out of forced hibernation to coordinate the March 31 Zoom Song Swap. If you are interested in participating as a solo act or a duet act, you still have another couple of days to contact Ian and participate in the Zoom event. Although the Event Committee is still working on logistics and details, the working model of the Song Swap will be having 5-7 BYO members play 2-3 songs each for the enjoyment of the other participants and listeners. I encourage you to support our great BYO musicians and join Ian and his Event Committee on Wednesday, March 31 at 6:30 for an hour or two!

Similarly, Sue Schildt and her Business and Social Committee are continuing to work on programs that will bring our BYO Members together virtually until we can safely reconvene in person. Sue has cooked up a great twist on our BYO Happy Hours to add a Music Trivia program for all us liner note nerds such as yours truly! Sue has engaged the services of a professional company called “Not Rocket Science Trivia” and its owner Alex Abernathy to keep things lively and fun. Rumor has it that Sue’s Committee Members Jane and Michael are working hard on some tough questions to stump you, so start getting rid of that COVID Fog Brain and let’s get some great participation on this fun event! It’s on the BYO Calendar for Thursday, April 8 from about 6:30 to 8 or so.

You will be receiving updates on both events, but I wanted to reach out to each of you to share my enthusiasm for the upcoming events.

Finally, a huge thank you and debt of gratitude for all your generosity and the generosity of your friends and family who have supported our terrific Video that Brad Bush expertly cobbled together and that featured a slew of our talented BYO musicians and singers for the benefit of Music Meets Medicine. I am thrilled to report that due to your donations and the extremely generous anonymous matching donor we have raised over $11,500 for Dr. J Mack Slaughter’s Music Meets Medicine non-profit! In a year of negative news, suffering, sacrifices for all and sheltering in place forced by the Pandemic, I think that without a doubt our BYO Members have lived up to our motto of “Giving Back.” Thank you all.

I look forward to seeing you sooner rather than later!


All My Best,

Len Musgrove
BYO President

1/22/2021

Dear BYO Members and Friends,

A heartfelt thanks for all who were able to join us on Thursday night for our BYO Musicians Zoom Annual Meeting. We had nearly 50% of our active members join us, which is a terrific turnout for a Pandemic Thursday night!

One of the highlights of our Annual Meeting was a group listen to our BYO/Music Meets Medicine Benefit Video, which was skillfully edited and arranged by Board Member Brad Bush. Brad announced that thus far, we have raised $3500, plus a match from a generous anonymous donor, for a total of $7,000 raised for the great program of Music Meets Medicine!

While that is admirable, I challenge our Busicians and BYO Friends to dig a little deeper to hit $5,000 or more. If we hit that number, we will get a dollar for dollar match up to $5,000 in order to reach the Board’s goal of $10,000! Please give generously to this great charity!

Additionally, I am so proud of our BYO/MMM Benefit Video that I think this group can go viral with it! What if each of our 80+ members sent the video’s link (see below) to 5-10 of their friends?!! And if those friends lived out of state or even out of the country, you just never know what might happen. So spend a few minutes and forward the YouTube link below!

https://youtu.be/gyWXcq5h6YA

For those of you who are a touch challenged by technology, you may share by clicking on the share button - pick Facebook, Twitter, Email or one of the other options.

Thank you all in advance, and I can’t wait to see you in person – Soon!


All my best,

Len Musgrove
BYO President

10/5/2020

BYO Fund Raiser Video - Update

BYO Musicians,

We have extended the sign up for our Charity Video to support Music Meets Medicine to October 16th. Please visit https://www.charityauctionstoday.com/auctions/byovideo-14010 to sign up.

Here are the answers to a few more of your questions:

Q: Can my part be recorded on a computer or only on a phone?

A: You will be able to record on your computer or a phone. You may need two devices (one to play the music and one to record the video) depending on your setup. More information will be available to those who signup.

Q: Do I need to download an app in order to record my part or send my part?

A: No. You can use your standard phone video software.

Q: You said that I'll be listening to the backing track on headphones. What will the headphones be plugged in to?

A: The headphones will be plugged into one device (like a phone or computer) while you video with another device (phone or computer). On a computer it can be the same device.

Q: I have Bluetooth headphones but heard that wireless connections create latency issues when trying to play against a recording. Should only wired headphones be used?

A: Because you are recording a video that is independent of what you are listening to and we can match up later, you can record with either wired or wireless headphones.

Q: You mentioned that audio and video may need to be separately recorded in order for the audio to be picked up from the distance of the video camera. If I use a computer webcam on a cord to the computer, would the mic in the webcam be sufficient?

A: We will work with whatever you are able to record. A separate microphone is just a suggestion for those that are able to do more advanced techniques.

Q: If I play an acoustic instrument, does the instrument need to be played through a P.A. or amp separate from just using the mic in the camera?

A: We can work with it either way. Recording your instrument with a mic up close or through an amp is better, but get us sound and video!

Q: Can I record more than one take and pick the take that I would like to be used?

A: Yes, but just send us one final take of the whole song. We will only be using a part of your recording, so don't stress out if you mess up in one part!


9/19/2020

BYO Fund Raiser Video - Play and Get Involved!

Dear Busicians,

BYO Musicians is proud to announce our 2020 fundraiser which once again will support Music Meets Medicine, a 501c3 non-profit organization that donates instruments and teaching time to teenagers being treated in children’s hospitals. In light of the uncertainty about when we will be able to resume live jam sessions we have created this alternative to the annual Christmas Rocks event. We will be creating a video compilation where we can all “play together”. We will raise money for the charity by allowing our members to donate to the charity to secure spots in the compilation music video. This will be offered through the same web auction site we utilized last year: https://www.charityauctionstoday.com/auctions/byovideo-14010

We have decided to combine 3 songs and meld them into a single video: Everyday People, Tulsa Time and Born in the USA. On each song, we have several spots per instrumentalist, vocalist and even dancers. We will give you easy instructions to record your part over a set “backing track” so that we can all stay together (no special equipment needed, but if you have it, we will have instructions for using it). The first step though is to make a donation in the category of the part you choose by clicking on the link above. The selections will close on September 30th, so figure out what part or parts you are going to play and reserve your spot today. Remember you can reserve your spot and still donate more on the front page!

You will have the option of recording your part at your home or any location of your choosing, or for convenience you can make your recording at Stan Bradshaw’s rehearsal studio which will be set up for this purpose. In any case, you will be listening to a backing track through headphones and recording your part (video and audio) along with the backing track. The BYO Board will present both BYO and its Members in the best light possible with this video project, while at the same raising money for a great cause. We ask for your money, your talents, your sense of humor and your understanding that the video can’t feature all of us, but the Board believes that the end product will be representative of BYO and its Membership! Let’s Rock.


Frequently Asked Questions:

Q: What if I want to donate more than my $50 spot?

A: You can use the big blue Donate Now button on the auction site to donate some more. We will be promoting the donations once the video is live.

Q: What if I want to play an instrument that is not listed?

A: Sign up for “Dance or Other” and we will be contacting you.

Q: Where does my money go?
A: All your money except a small administrative fee charged by the auction site goes straight to Music Meets Medicine to help them deliver more music therapy to children.

Q: How will my video be used? Who will decide what part to use? What will the final video look like?
A: The BYO Board is responsible for the final video. We will mix both the music and the videos into a great end to end product that we are all proud of. You will see multiple performers on the screen at once all “playing together”.

Q: Can I just give money and not be in the video?

A: We would rather you dance or play some percussion, but sure you don’t have to be in the video. You can go to the auction link and just click on the big blue “Make a Donation” button in the top right.

Q: Can only BYO Members participate in this project?
A: Right now we are holding to only dues-paying BYO Members for this project.

Q: Can I get together with a group and sing or play together?

A: Not at this time. We are requesting each part to be separate.

Q: If I am doing a guitar part, should I play rhythm or lead?
A: You can play either or both through the whole song.

Q: What if the song lyrics call for harmony vocals. How do I know what line to sing?
A: We will have to work that out after September 30 when all slots are taken. If you want to sing harmony with another specific member then the two of you can work that out and make your recordings accordingly.

Q: Can I withdraw my video from being used if I am not satisfied with it?
A: Yes, by end of October, you can tell us if you do not want your video to be used or not record a video.

Q: I donated for a video, but could not record my part (or withdrew my video). Can I get a refund?
A: No. The purpose of this project is to facilitate donations to Music Meets Medicine. The donations are being made directly to MMM to support their very good cause. Your participation in the video is just BYO's way of thanking you for making a donation to Music Meets Medicine.

Q: Are there any other terms or conditions to participate in the video?
A: Yes. As indicated on the auction site under auction terms, your election to participate includes your agreement to the specified terms, including your acknowledgement that the BYO Musicians Board has discretion on the selection, editing and use of the videos for purposes approved by the BYO Board and your full release to allow your video or any part of your video and your name and likeness to be used as may be approved by the Board.

Q: Is my donation to Music Meets medicine tax deductible?
A: Although you should consult your tax advisor regarding your personal tax situation, it is our understanding that the recently adopted CARES Act allows people who take the standard deduction to also deduct up to $300 to public charities. For questions about the tax exempt status of Music Meets Medicine, please visit http://www.musicmeetsmedicine.org/

Q: Where will the video be posted?
A: We will post the video online on our Facebook page and potentially other public forums. The goal is to get as many people to see, share and like the video as possible.


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Dallas, TX  752311
Phone: (214) 615-4215