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I have been relentlessly preaching it to the high heavens since June 1st, GO TO Tumbleweed Festival at the end of July in Kansas City. Join me as I begin my next step in my devious plan to implement a full regime of Texas Red Dirt Country into my already huge palate I have for live music.
I am now fully featuring six main genres of local music and I do deviate from them at times when I like the music involved. But this event will certainly feature some really fine Red Dirt that doesn’t get to my neck of the woods all too often, so I’ll have to bring my crew out there.
Well here’s a little something the directors don’t know I have planned up my sleeve, I’ll be interviewing some of the people that are involved in the next few weeks. As I’m allowed to I’ll be featuring some of the performers that want to sit and chat for a moment with me.
So last weekend I had the opportunity to speak with Mr. William Higgins who created the page BLACKSHEEP a flock of Cody Jinks fans. Unless you have been under a rock you have witnessed Cody Jinks And The Tone Deaf Hippies blow up into a literal mega storm of sell outs and career growth in the last two years.
Part of this reason is the unwavering support of some 30,000 plus insane fans called “Flockers” that are a literal street army willing to do Cody Jinks any tasks needed to publicly boost his presence within the confines of the local music scenes.
Let’s be feasible for a moment shall we? Music is music and we do this for the love of the music, BUT it NEEDS our wallets to further it’s growth as well. We HAVE TO invest our time AND our money into this deal, this isn’t a free sharing, free giving freebie cycle ALL the time. True, we swap out staying at each other’s houses and split gas rides and food expenses, I’m NOT saying that’s bad and I’m also NOT telling you to skip the electric bill or let your cat starve.
But the ideology of guest list passes and “Oh I’m a promoter by sharing on social media every day” frame of mind isn’t good enough to be deemed liable to keep music afloat. People work, sound men, road crews, medical staff, and they ALL should be PAID. Stop being couch warriors and get your butt down to a venue and OCCUPY A BAR STOOL.
Needless to say these insane people….these “Flockers” THEY SPEND MONEY. They HAVE the RIGHT path to success, and because of these folks Cody Jinks merchandise sales and concert attendances have skyrocketed into amounts the bigwigs can NOT ignore. Because let’s face it folks, they don’t REALLY LOVE pop country….they love the REVENUE it brings. If WE TRULY WANT to fight this bastard of a problem we MUST FIGHT with our MONEY.
GHC:
Tell me how you started the Flockers, and what made you start it?
Mr. William:
Well, It was actually at a show in Omaha, Nebraska. I had been to see Cody Jinks a couple other times before that, and I was involved in several other fan pages for some other artists. I started listening to Cody and kind of checking his stuff out there, and I noticed that he really didn’t have a fan group on Facebook. So I thought it would be a good idea and I talked to the guys that night about it, and they were on board. So I kind of launched it November 15th of 2015 and it just took off from there.
GHC:
And did you start it right from your home, or do you have an office, how do you operate?
Mr. William:
No,I began it from home. It’s basically just a Facebook page and there’s not a whole lot to it but it’s mostly getting it out there. It’s getting other supporters involved and getting his music heard, there’s no a whole lot of operation to it.
GHC:
Do you guys have different chapters?
Mr. William:
Basically right now it’s just the Blacksheep page, we did start messing around with local chapters. We did start one group so we could see how it goes, and kind of see how a local chapter would work. You know, all of this operates under pretty much no funding, so everybody pretty much just puts in their own time. If there are any expenses the members cover that, we do not profit off of anything on the Blacksheep page. Our main thing is obviously is to get Cody’s music out and also support a lot of related artists that he works with, and continues to work with.
GHC:
You guys have a lot of power, trust me, because I recently interviewed Mr. Austin Tripp. He said that when the Merle Haggard Tribute show was announcing they wanted artists, you guys shut their server down hollaring for Cody Jinks. Now, the promoter of that show told me in a text he really didn’t mind, but at the time dammit he was pissed. So you guys are really beating the pavement for Mr. Cody, and you are really doing it well. I think a huge portion of his success can actually be attributed to you guys really.
Mr. William:
Well you know that’s great to hear, I think Cody’s music speaks for itself and regardless of what we have done, it’s great to see it becoming so huge for sure.
GHC:
Well let me tell you from a media standpoint. I’m a media guy that’s into so many genres and scenes, I’m into Rockabilly and Red Dirt, I’m tied in with Muddy Roots and I see and I watch what people do. The power that you guys have and the number that you have, you really make a difference for him…you really do. Now the main reason I’m wanting to talk to you is what will your role in Tumbleweed be, because this is going to be a side article for it that Mr. Doug doesn’t know about. So what exactly is your role in Tumbleweed going to be?
Mr. William:
Tumbleweed actually started off by one of the members of our group Doug Bordegon, and Borda productions is the name of the company that he owns. (GHC Yeah, he hired me).. Ultimately he asked us to become part of a unique situation by getting the fans involved within this festival. This festival is different in the aspect that it tapers around the fans and features the acts that they want to see. He came to me and said he would really like to promote this around the Blacksheep page, and the Flockers group, and do some special things for you guys. Moreso it’s just a thank you for what we have done, we are going to have our own section for camping and we have the opportunity to introduce Cody and the Tone Deaf Hippies on stage. Now, he’s offering this to the other fan pages as well, the main thing is that we are getting the Blacksheep together and getting the word out there of Tumbleweed. We are trying to get as many supporters as we can drawn to this thing in Kansas City.
GHC: He told me he was going to invite different people from different fan groups, he also invited several websites and I was one of them. Music festivals is a big portion of what I center on, I been doing this for about five years now and Outlaw Country is something that I have always featured from day 1. I been around Mr. Cody since he was playing gas stations, and I know all of these artists very very well. I been wanting to tie a lot of Red Dirt Country into my what I do. What are your feelings toward Tumbleweed, do you think it’s going to be a success?
Mr. William:
I think that last year was a little more tailored to pop country and people like that. I think that he saw this thing going further, and with that I think he wanted to do it right. He wants to get the Country sound out there with some authentic music, and from what I have heard the initial sales have already beat last year’s sales. So I think it will continue to grow from last year, and I think once people see this year and the authentic sound it will continue to grow in the future. We are really excited about that because he really wants us all to play a part in this going down the road too.
GHC:
I was down there last week, I saw the venue it’s really nice. I was down there for another festival and I hosted a stage with Moe Bandy and Dale Watson. We did a little cross work down there my partner and I did and we thought it was a nice venue.
Mr. William:
Yeah we have seen videos of the area, I think it’s going to be pretty special.
GHC:
I do too, I have pretty positive vibes about it. I like what he’s doing and some of the choices he has made. Are you tied in with Cody officially, or is this an unofficial thing, how does this work?
Mr. William:
No, we are defiantly unofficial we are not tied with Cody at all, however we do work with his management because they really like what we’re doing and they continue to do good things for us. They get us codes for pre sales and there’s going to be some more stuff coming up down the road, that he will have an official club being launched. We hope to play a supporting role in getting that going. It’s going to be most of the same members transferring over, and we will continue to work with his team. Having it as a group setting and not really an official site really gives a family aspect to it. A lot of these members have become friends through the site and one thing that I have really enjoyed seeing is the launching of a lot of other fan groups through this page. There is Whitey Morgan and Paul Cauthen and it just continues to keep growing., and we are really excited about that.
GHC:
Is there merch available that my readers can buy from you guys?
Mr. William:
We do make limited runs of shirts from booster campaigns, and all of the profit from those campaigns go to St Judes Children’s Hospital. That came strictly from Cody that’s what he wanted us to do with the funds, and obviously that’s a great organization for us. St. Jude’s is one of those charities that is doing one hundred percent of what they are trying to achieve. We cannot think of a better way for proceeds to go from Flockers shirts, and we have raised over seven thousand dollars for them.
GHC:
Ok, well listen it truly was nice talking with you Sir and I reckon we will finally meet at tumbleweed.
Mr. William:
That sounds wonderful Gary, thanks for everything.
