OUR NEW YEARS WISH TO YOU

It's a new year and you can almost smell the resolutions in the air. It's another year gone by and another chance to start fresh, wipe your slate clean. It's a year for redemption and progress. It's another year to let things go, to forgive and to move forward. It's also time to appreciate each other, including every person you've encountered through your life thus far. They've all taught you something - to live, to love, to be the kind of person you want to be or to show you the kind of person you don't want to be. Good or bad, they're all life lessons. The world may not be a kind place right now, but that doesn't mean that you can't be. This year, be kinder, be more caring, be gentler, be stronger, be more patient, more tolerant and more grateful. Be less judgemental, less thoughtless and more thoughtful, less focused on the things that really don't matter in the big picture and more focused on what you can do to improve things instead of taking away from them.

2015 is going to be a big year for new artists, a new year for country music and we promise to continue to support them both and to support the fans that make them great. We hope that you will appreciate the music we bring to you and help us support those artists as well. We hope that you will bring new artists to our attention that we may not have heard of and that we can all come together and share the power of music and get more of it heard than what's being heard now.

This year, include a resolution to make a difference in someones life whether it be through music, volunteering your time, giving a dollar to a homeless person without questioning what the dollar will be used for, remember to say thank you not just for the big things but the smallest act of kindness, or even just smile at a stranger on the street instead of hurrying by and if you're really feeling kind, add a quick verbal "hello". One small act of kindness has the ability to make a huge difference in a life or just somebody's day. It might take their mind off of something that's affected them, even if only for a minute. We all have time (you obviously have free time because you're reading this), it doesn't cost a dime to make someone smile. I wish everyone a very happy New Year and hope that someone makes you smile and does something for you that improves your outlook on your current situation.

There is a song by the legendary Oak Ridge Boys that brings me the feeling of being humbled when I need it and makes me ask myself - "Did I Make a Difference?". Read the lyrics, listen to the song and I bet you ask yourself that same question. Well, what's your answer? In 2015, be a difference for someone, make their lives just a little better in some way.

I'm caught up in the push and shove
The daily grind, burning time, spinning wheels
I wonder what I'm doing here
Day to day. year to year, standing still

Somewhere there's a teacher with a heart that never quits
Staying after school to help some inner city kids
A mother who's a volunteer, a soldier in the fight
I can't help but ask myself when I lay down at night

Did I make a difference in somebody's life?
What hurts did I heal? What wrongs did I right?
Did I raise my voice in defense of the truth?
Did I lend my hand to the destitute?
When my race Is run, when my song is sung
Will I have to wonder, did I make a difference?
Did I make a difference?

I've been, working hard to make a living
And forgetting what true living is
Taking more than giving, something's missing
Lord, how long can I go on like this?

There's a lonely old man down the street
And I should be ashamed
I've never been to see him, I don't even know his name
There's kids without their supper in my own neighborhood
Will I look back someday and say that I did all I could?

Did I make a difference in somebody's life?
What hurts did I heal? What wrongs did I right?
Did I raise my voice in defense of the truth?
Did I lend my hand to the destitute?
When my race is run, when my song is sung
Will I have to wonder, did I make a difference?
Did I make a difference?

Happy New Year to all of you, new friends and old. We appreciate every one of you and thank you for being our "lessons" in 2014. I think Josh Pruno sums it up in his version of "Same Old Lang Syne". "

"We drank a toast to innocence

 We drank a toast to time

 Reliving in our eloquence

 Another Old Lang Syne"

Love,
Jenn, "The Johns", Anthony and Alyse