Booking (or not booking) Keller Williams for '07

Those of you that entered a team in the 2006 Road Rally will remember the song called "Kidney in a Cooler" by Keller Williams... a pretty memorable song. Well, some of us at Road Rally HQ work tirelessly around the clock to make sure the next incarnation of the IP party tops the last. Here's the conversation that's currently underway with Madison House, Keller's booking agent:

Web Form (filled out by RR Music Committee member Jim S):
Subject: KELLER WILLIAMS BOOKING INQUIRY

Name: Jim S
Email: <>
Phone: <>
Preferred Dates: Late July 2007
City, State: Island Pond, VT
Venue: Private Party
Capacity: tbd
Venue Website: tbd
Previous Shows at Venue:
Other Info:

Response from Christine at Madison House:
Jim - Can you tell me more about what type of event it would be for?

Response from Jim:
Hi Christine.

We have a private party every year at a family farm in northern VT. It would not be widely publicized, but depending on Keller's fee/availability it could work out very well.

Let me know if it might be possible.

Thanks - Jim

Further clarification from Jim after no response:
Hi again Christine.

I realized my initial response was a bit anemic, so I thought I'd add some color commentary.

Every year since 1990, my brothers and I have hosted a gathering at our family's farm in northern Vermont. We hold a "road rally" on Friday before the weekend, sending teams of cars searching for odd situations and items all over NH and VT. The rest of the weekend is free-form, with everyone pitching tents in the fields and figuring out on their own what to do next. Here's a gallery of photos from past road rally's... if a picture is worth a thousand words, these should be a short book.

There's a bonfire and all sorts of other activities going on in a spontaneous sort of way (think Burning Man on a much smaller scale). We typically have cd/ipods spinning the music, but have considered bringing live music to the party for quite some time. This is when I need to explain why Keller is for us...

In this year's road rally we included a cd of songs the teams had to decipher. We included Kidney in a Cooler and it became an immediate hit. So, suffice it to say, we all want to do our part to help Keller get that double-decker/double wide he so covets.

We're a good group of 20 & 30-somethings that refuse to grow old. Of course, Keller (and you) are invited to participate in the road rally (and the rest of the weekend) if it seems like a good idea. Here's our blog with more info about the weekend.

Thanks for your (and Keller's) consideration.

Jim

ps... Please help Keller schedule a show in the greater Boston area sometime between now and next summer. I'm sure we'd fill the place. Thanks!

Response from Nadia (apparently, I offended Christine with my response):
Jim-
Private parties are usually cost prohibitive. Let me know if you are working with a large budget, but otherwise, I suspect that the logistics make it impossible financially.

N A D I A

Response from Jim:
What's a large budget? $1k, $10k, $100k... can you give me perspective?

Response from Nadia:
Keller's fees for something like this would range from $25,000-$40,000 depending on the situation.
N A D I A

Response from Jim:
ok - that's just a bit outside our line item for music. perhaps we should consider opening it up to the town (population 849) and making it a semi-private event? how does that impact the fee.

we're big fans.

Jim

...to be continued...

The Barn: Saturday Night... Late

This video shows just the beginning of what became a heated rivalry that lasted until nearly sunrise. Andy/Jeremy won this battle, but David/Jim won the war... all in good fun. Enjoy!

Tennessee, Reed & Robert

P1030906.JPG,
originally uploaded by DavidPitkin.

This photo was taken by Akina Speed Stars (the eventual champions) on the Snyder's bulldozer with Reed. They were the only Rally team to make it there and with it captured 42 minutes of bonus time, which more than put them over the top on their way to victory.