Greetings Sons of Maxwell fans! A short note as 2009 comes to a close to reflect back and to thank you for your continued encouragement and support. We apologize that it has been some time since you received an email newsletter from SOM. There are many exciting things that have happened for both of us this year, both professionally and personally.
We have had the opportunity to perform at some great venues including Chicago’s Irish Fest, the Milwaukee Irish Festival, on Capitol Hill in Washington DC, at private functions in Colorado, to packed crowds throughout the Maritimes and sold out shows in our home town of Timmins, ON.
We welcomed to the world Dave & Jill’s son, Flynn Patrick Carroll, 9 months ago and family life in Waverley is now in full bloom. Our parents, Max & Sharon, and grandmother, Doreen, have taken up residence only a few hundred yards from Flynn’s crib.
Don has been a career member of the Halifax Fire Department for over a year now and loves everyday on duty. Being a fireman has been a dream of his since he was a kid in Schumacher. Few people ever get to do their dream job and Don considers himself lucky enough to have two of them on the go at the same time…
As you may have heard, Dave turned the lemons United Airlines handed him into a multinational lemonade factory this July.
‘United Breaks Guitars’ (and the man behind the story) have become an unprecedented phenomenon across the internet and traditional media alike. Dave proved that not only is the songsmith’s pen mightier than the UA customer service window, but also that a decent man with a broken guitar can enjoy quite a spike in his music career. This has also opened doors for Dave to become a consumer advocate for travellers and a professional speaker.
Dave’s goal when he began the project was to reach 1 million views with 3 videos at the end of one year. To date, Songs 1 & 2 have reached over 7.4 million combined views and YouTube is currently featuring Song 1 as one of the top 31 videos of 2009. Truly amazing - and it is all thanks to you for watching and sharing, reinforcing the unstoppable power of social media.
So now, for what many of you have been asking about: Song 3. Dave finally had some time last month to write the finale. Without spoiling too many surprises, we can tell you that Dave is going with a Bluegrass feel for this one. The video is scheduled to be filmed in early January and released by February. It’s going to be a lot of fun, so stay tuned for more updates. In the mean time, you will be able to check Dave out when he appears as a special guest on CBC’s Royal Canadian Air Farce New Year’s Eve special.
We promised at the beginning that this would be a little note, so we will sign off in the spirit of the season and invite you to hear a Christmas song from our full-length Instant Christmas CD.
If you have any music lovers on your shopping list then check out our holiday offers on mp3 bundles, just-in official United Breaks Guitars t-shirts, and our new digital gift cards - a great way to take care of any last minute shopping.
Wishing you all the best in 2010,
Don & Dave Carroll (Sons of Maxwell)