2019 has been such a fun and adventurous year for us. Rod and I were blessed with so many more wonderful opportunities to travel around the state of Arkansas and sing at festivals, schools and senior centers. We are very excited to announce that after working hard the past five years on composing and recording we now have released our debut country album. “Rod and Carol Country Music” which will be available to hear at CDBaby and YouTube in a few short weeks.
We have used this fun picture for all our business cards so naturally it became the front of our Cd album cover. It was taken by Cindy Reyes at a patriotic program we sang for at the Children’s Library and Learning Center in Little Rock.
Rod and I sang a patriotic program at the Jacksonville Air Force Base Children’s Library in the summer time 2018 and 2019.
We attended the June 3, 2019 Arkansas Country Music Awards and were thrilled to see nominations for Darian Stribling -producer/engineer (from where we record at Blue chair Recording Studio in Austin, Arkansas) and Tim Crouch who won The fiddler of the year award. He has played violin and several other instruments on every single one of our songs. All I can say is we have been blessed -Awesome!
Oh our album has one song that is a standard. It was the very first song I recorded in Nashville when I was a teenager, It is beautiful and the title of it is “ARKANSAS” composed by Damon Black in the 70’s. I choose to record it again because I loved it so much. Its about a young girl and her memories about a 40 acre farm. I was raised on a 40 acre farm in Madison county. I milked goats. We had about 40 goats and many had to be milked every day, twice. I remember my life on the farm fondly.
The other songs on the album are composed and recorded by Rod Ragsdale and myself. titles: “Something I Never Had” “Nothings Better Than You” Thought Wed Have More Time” Full of Class” “Where You Go” “Soldier” and “Clapping Hands”
We sang at the Arkansas Goat Festival this past October held in PerryVille. Wow must have been 8,000 people by days end, plus goats.
I sang the national anthem for the Alzheimer’s Walk for the Cure. Craig O’Niell from channel 11 TVNews was the MC. We also see him every year when he becomes the star of “How The Grinch Stole Christmas” and we are the Who-Ville singers. Actually after five years Rod got pretty excited to show off our new Cd to The Grinch. The two men always sit here in between shows and share a joke or two, it has become tradition.
Singing at the Arkansas Goat Festival in Perryville, Arkansas October 2019.
Singing at a family Christmas banquet at Brookdale senior living in Little Rock.
I love recording in the studio and being creative with a brand new song idea. Engineer Darian Stribling is amazing and we lean on him for advise for much of it. Tim Crouch adds all the finishing instrumental touches. We are very blessed to have such a great team.
Banjo from Victory radio in North Little Rock invited us to sing live one afternoon and we ended up talking and singing for almost the whole two hour show. Banjo was and still is a great entertainer and a really nice fellow to call our friend. I use to be a disc jockey when I lived in Hawaii. It was fun being in this studio and seeing how things have changed now that things are more digital. I really enjoyed being a disc jockey.
We got into the elevator one day at FoxRidge Senior Living and this sign was taped up next to all the months activities. We are regulars for a many Happy Hours at senior Centers around Central Arkansas. A very fun time to sing, tell jokes and stories to some of the kindest audiences ever. Plus this wonderful golden generation thinks that we are just youngsters. We most often leave with big smiles on our faces from something someone said or did. Always so glad we came.
We also got to travel much more around the state this past year and hope to expand in 2020. (I guess we better do it while we are still ‘youngsters’.) Also with Little Rock, NLR, Maumelle, Bryant, Sherwood, and Conway, we also sang in Star City, Pine Bluff, Camden, Perryville, and Hot Springs. We are very hopeful to get up to Northeast Arkansas and Madison county in 2020.
When we are in Camden we always stop in at Woods Place to have lunch. Highly recommended. Thanks to James and Patty Woods, owners and friends.
Well these are just some of the over 140 times we sang this past year at festivals, senior centers, schools, libraries, churches, book stores and radio shows. As well as highlights such as the Arkansas State capital, Holiday House, Children’s Library GrinchFest, The Little Rock Zoo, The Good Earth Pumpkin Festival, Outlet Stores, Jacksonville Air Force Base and Alzheimer’s Walk for the Cure. We are thankful for so many who took part in having us be apart of these special events. We love music and the opportunities it gives us to interact with the young and the young at heart.
We hope you will check out our music by going to YouTube and CdBaby online. May God richly bless you in this brand new decade -The Roaring ’20’s has come again!
God has been good to us. He has met our needs and kept us healthy to continue. (I had a medical emergency this past summer which landed me in the hospital for five days. It was a serious situation and I did not take for granted my recovery. More about that later.)
We are thankful for our life’s work and finding each other.
Thankful for our families, (My youngest son graduated from college and is an RN that works at the Arkansas Heart Hospital. My five children and I added it up and realized that we have had a someone, including me, in college for the last 20 years – happy end of an era. More about that later.)
I am thankful for my job as a music teacher at Saint Mark’s and all the children and teachers that make my life absolutely joyful.
Rod and I are thankful for this great country America, where we have opportunity like no other.
We pray that our music and stories will touch people and that sometimes we will cause them to sing and laugh along the way.
Blessing to you
Carol and Rod
caroldabney 