2018 Year In Review

We did it! We’ve made it to the end of the year and also to my favorite post of the year. It’s one of those posts where we talk about how we can’t believe how fast the year has gone, or maybe we could go with the “actually, this year felt even longer than normal” take, but I don’t have any sort of hot take about if 2018 felt long or short or if it was great or terrible.

As I reflect about the past year I do think that 2018 will be a very memorable and notable year for the Coffis team. At least it feels like that right now. Once again we played more shows than any other year, we completed our first full calendar year with Sam as our drummer, we played at the legendary Strawberry Music Festival, we got to play a handful of shows with one of our favorite bands, The Mother Hips, and we played at our good friend’s new brewery (Humble Sea Brewing Co). Without going too far into all of the crazy sleepless traveling we did, or the times we couldn’t believe how hot it was in the backseat of the van, or what seemed like the ten thousand times we loaded our gear in and out of a venue, (and we use the word venue very loosely), I think what has stood out most about 2018 is all the people we’ve met at our shows over the years that we saw so many times in 2018 and have formed real relationships with. I hesitate to call them fans because they feel more like good friends at this point and we’re so grateful and thankful to all of you who take time out of your days and nights to go see us perform. We are very aware of the effort and money it takes for you to come to even one show, let alone dozens of shows some of you have gone to. If you’re reading this then I’d imagine you’re probably one of those people we’re talking about and we’d just like to say thank you. We hope that you’ve enjoyed every one of our shows no matter how early or late it was, how hot or cold it was, how loud or quiet we were, (usually loud) and most of all we hope that every show was very musical for you.

2019 we’ll begin the the 9th year that Jamie, Kyle and I have been performing under the name The Coffis Brothers, which is pretty amazing to think about. Along the way we picked up Aidan and Sam who have become great partners in music and also great friends, but for all the crazy things we’ve done and for all the hundreds and hundreds of shows we’ve played, it’s really refreshing to know that without a doubt I can say we’re having more fun than we’ve ever had and are more excited than we’ve ever been about the band. On the second day of 2019 we’ll officially start recording our fourth full length album. We’re beyond excited to get to work on it and we can’t wait to show it to you all when it’s done (don’t hold your breath though.) Happy New Year, everyone, and for one last time in 2018 we’d like to say thank you all so so much. Your support means more to us than you could know.

Love,  Jamie, Kellen, Sam, Aidan, and Kyle

Here’s a look back at some of our most memorable moments of 2018

Castoro Cellars, Templeton, February

Kate Wolf Music Festival, Laytonville, June

Santa Ynez, October

Downtown Santa Cruz, December

Redwood Mountain Faire, Felton, June

San Luis Obispo, February

Santa Cruz, April

3rd Annual SLV Soccer Fundraiser Concert

On Friday December 21st we will be performing our third San Lorenzo Valley High-School Soccer Fundraiser Concert. Given that this is our third year in a row doing this, you probably know the backstory by now, but in case you don’t, here’s the abridged version. Jamie, Kyle, and myself all played soccer for San Lorenzo Valley High-School for four years. After graduating from SLV, I coached the Boy’s Junior Varsity team for four years before taking over the Girl’s Varsity team three years ago. For the past two seasons Jamie has been my assistant coach and we’ve had a blast doing it. Being the head coach of a Varsity Soccer team and being in a traveling band has certainly been a bit of a juggling act but we’ve always been able to pull it off. Sometimes it involves sprinting out of a practice to a gig and changing out of soccer shorts into jeans at the venue but it’s always worth it.

These fundraiser concerts have not only been a good way of raising money for the girl’s but also a fun way to show the team what Jamie and I are up to when we’re not on a soccer field. If you find yourself free on Friday December 21st we hope you come out to San Lorenzo Valley High School and check out their new Performing Arts Center where we will be performing. Our good friend, and SLV Alum, Henry Chadwick will be opening the show. Here’s some pictures of the girl’s soccer players that will be benefitting from you attending this show. They’re awesome kids. Show them support this Friday night.

San Lorenzo Valley High School Performing Arts Center, Felton December 21st Doors 7pm Show 7:30pm Henry Chadwick opens $20 https://slvsoccerconcert.brownpapertickets.com/

10/20, Moe’s Alley, & TP

On October 20th we return to Moe’s Alley in our hometown of Santa Cruz. Of course, we’re really excited to be back playing at Moe’s especially given that this is our first club date in Santa Cruz since May, so it feels long overdue. In addition to the normal excitement of playing a local show, October 20th is a date that’s marked on the Coffis calendar every year but has even a little extra significance this year.

Earlier this month marked the year anniversary of Tom Petty’s passing and October 20th would be Tom’s 68th Birthday. In the year since, we’ve started to play his songs on stage pretty regularly which is not something we did as much of before, oddly enough. I think we were playing You Wreck Me but that was about it. I’m not sure really why that was, but probably sort of out of respect to those songs or something. And like so many others, we’re still just as sad about Tom’s passing as we were a year ago, but throughout this year we’ve had a lot of fun playing his songs and the opportunities to play them continue to pop up. There was our show October 6th at Sutter Creek Provisions where there was so much Tom Petty memorabilia in the venue that it only felt right to play a half dozen Petty tunes, or earlier this Summer when John Craigie asked us to back him up on a set of Petty tunes at the Kate Wolf Music Festival, which still feels like one of the highlight sets of our year. But even aside from the real heavy Petty nights, we’ve been playing a song or two most nights seemingly. We played It’s Good To Be King at the Strawberry Music Festival, Love Is A Long Road on the Stompin’ Grounds Stage at the Whale Rock Music Festival, we encored our set at the Redwood Mountain Faire with Runnin’ Down a Dream and You Wreck Me, which featured a very surprised McCoy Tyler on lead guitar, and even made a video of Rebels at a distillery in Templeton (https://youtu.be/F7ye51l1rmE). Some nights they might feel really emotional and it can be difficult to get through, and other nights they’re just fun and sort of healing.

Tom Petty set at Kate Wolf with John Craigie

It turns out that we weren’t the only who had Tom’s Birthday on the calendar because we’ve noticed a lot of Tom Petty tribute shows going on that night which is really cool to see. Our show at Moe’s Alley will not be one of those Tom Petty Tribute Shows, but it was no accident that we chose this date to play in Santa Cruz. Whether we’re conscious of it or not, everything we do is in some way a tribute to Tom, and October 20th at Moe’s Alley will be no exception to that. If there’s one thing that might stand above everything else that Tom taught us, it was the importance of a song. So yeah, we’re going to play mostly Coffis Brothers songs that night. I think in some ways that’s as much of a tribute to Tom as anything we can do. With that said, if you think we’re going to play a show on Tom Petty’s Birthday in our hometown and not play at least a few Tom Petty songs then you don’t know us very well. And we can get pretty liberal with “a few” when it comes to Tom Petty songs. Tom Petty’s songs are our very favorite songs in the world and we want them to continue to be heard and played so we’re going to do our small part to make sure they always are.

Castoro Cellars in Templeton playing “It’s Good To Be King”

We look forward to seeing lots of friends, family, and fans at this show. We’re really excited to have our good friend, Taylor Rae who will be bringing her band with her to open the show. If you live in Santa Cruz then I’m sure you’re already familiar with Taylor, but if you aren’t then I’d really recommend you make a point to see her. You’ll love her.

The Coffis Brothers & the Mountain Men at Moe’s Alley

Saturday October 20th 8pm Doors 9pm Show with Taylor Rae Tickets- http://www.moesalley.com/artist.php?id=2811&artist=THE_COFFIS_BROTHERS_+_Taylor_Rae_Band

Lying on the stage at Moe’s Alley during “You Wreck Me” on October 13th, 2017