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Mark’s Home Destroyed By Fire
Posted in Band Stuff on December 14, 2011 by Dave BarnettOn Friday December 9th 2011 our guitarist and singer Mark Roberts and his wife Julie lost their home to fire. The cause of the fire is still undetermined. The home has been deemed a total loss by the insurance company. They did own their home and had adequate insurance. They lost three pets. Two dogs, “Dot” and “Bruno” and a cat called “Kitty” or “Puss” or “Kitter Puss.” Some cats have a lot names but they don’t answer to any of them. Their third dog “Rat” made it out somehow.
The fire started sometime after midnight. Julie was at a friends house and Mark was with the band playing in town, Leavenworth, KS, at the The Trails End. The fire was reported to the Fire Department by a neighbor at 1:56 am. That was just about the time Mark was leaving the club. Another friend and nearby neighbor, Jesse Ray, was awake at the time and heard an explosion. He turned a police scanner on and when he heard the address of the fire he thought it sounded like Mark and Julie’s house. He called Mark and said “Man I think your house is on fire!” When Mark arrived the house was engulfed in flames and the Fire Department was there trying to extinguish the blaze. It was reported in the Leavenworth Times that the firemen attempted to enter the house but decided it was too dangerous.
The Silas Dogan Band was scheduled to play the very next night in Junction City, KS at Corey’s Corral. Of course we had to cancel that show. After I made the call to Carl and Dee, owners of Corey’s Corral they called me back and told me they were going to take donations by way of raffle tickets and a $1.00 per DJ song request night. I couldn’t believe my ears! We had never played in Junction City or even met these folks and we even had to cancel the show and yet these people were willing to help out. They collected a total of $302.00 from their patrons, the folks of Junction City and Fort Riley Kansas.
But wait, there’s more! Mark and I have been playing Acoustic shows for almost year in Forest City, MO at The Dawg House Bar and Grill. Owners Tim and Annie Slagle called me on that Saturday and dedicated 10% of all their sales for that night to the relief fund. They raised $125.00 in one night. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Forest City but I think the population is just over 310 people. That’s amazing!
And then there’s more. A guy in a small town in Arizona somehow heard about the fire and contacted me through FaceBook and asked how he could contribute, if we had a Pay Pal account set up for donations. Well we don’t have one set up for that but we do have one set up to purchase CD’s and shirts. So I told him if he wanted to he could donate that way and the money would go to the Roberts family and he would get a CD too! A total stranger, how cool is that?
And then there’s the residents and former residents of Leavenworth, friends of the Roberts who flooded my inbox with offers of assistance in every form. A place to stay, food, clothing, money, strong backs and pick up trucks. I mean to tell you, they were coming out of the woodwork. I cannot tell you how much this has restored our faith in people. Maybe we just happen to have the best friends in the Universe! The outpouring of friendship, love and generosity was overwhelming!
And the good stuff doesn’t stop. It just happens that Julie’s brother had just remodeled a house in town and had it on the market to sell. So Mark and Julie spent the weekend in a motel room provided by the Red Cross and Monday they were able to move into that house with all of the donated furniture, clothing and food. They are planning to buy that house.
Mark and Julie are doing fine, readjusting of course, and there is no comfort in the loss of life, even if it is your pets, and fire destroys so many things that cannot be replaced. But one of those things that we can easily take for granted is the true friendship of family and friends and that is irreplaceable.
I wrote this blog because so many people are still concerned with the well being of the Roberts family. I hope I have covered most of the bases so far and if you still have a question please leave a comment and I will get back to you with the best answer I have at the time. I would like to close this with a quote from the Roberts family:
“Everyone has been so generous and helpful. We truly have everything we need at this time. The most important being your friendship!”
The CD “White Lines” Nov 1st
Posted in CD Release on October 19, 2011 by Dave BarnettThe long awaited full length CD “White Lines” will be available on or before November 1st. This will be our very first Album release..Yay!!
It is the culmination of almost three years of writing and hard work in the studio. We started with recording two songs “Stand My Ground” and ”Since You’ve Gone” in 2008 at Covenant Studios in Kansas City, Missouri, Aaron Crawford recording engineer. The high cost of recording in a “big” studio put the project on hold.
Lead guitarist and singer Dave Barnett had been working with his brother Chris experimenting with home recording in a bedroom of the house. As you can imagine there were a lot of problems with this, phones ringing, people talking, the air conditioner running, everyday household noises were being picked up by, at that time, the only microphone they had and were being recorded as well.
Chris is a big fan and supporter of the band and had considered funding the “big” studio project himself. But he also had a huge interest in techy stuff, like computers, recording equipment and recording software. So the two decided that rather than spending $10,000 in the studio why not spend that on building a home studio. It’s not exactly like recording for free but it does allow for more time and creative freedom in the studio. There’s nothing like watching the clock when you’re spending $50 an hour and things aren’t going exactly right.
So they headed out to Musicians Friend and Home Depot and bought all the recording gear and building supplies they needed to construct a mini studio.
They researched the Internet for blueprints and construction methods used to build big time studios. Six months later in July of 2009 the studio was complete and the recording sessions resumed.
Not all went without a hitch though. The band hit a bump in the road when drummer “Julio” Flores was in a serious accident involving his work truck and a semi tractor trailer. Julio suffered a severe neck injury and was incapacitated for most of a year. During that time the group went through some creative differences and Bass player Gary Anderson and Julio left the band. So Dave and Mark Roberts hired drummer Scott McCuiston and Bass player Brad Brown to do the job of rhythm section. Scott and Brad are featured on three tracks, “Don’t Worry, I’m Just Stoned”, “White Lines” and “Soldier’s Wife”.
Though Brad and Scott were great players the band just didn’t have quite the same feel. Reconciliations were made and Gary and Julio rejoined the group in 2011 and helped finish the Album. There is probably a lot more to talk about here but this post is getting kind of long and we just wanted to give you brief history of all that has went into making this Album.
Very often it’s not just going in the studio, drinking some beer and recording great songs. Life is not simple and easy no matter what you are doing and if it’s worth doing you have to work your ass off and overcome many obstacles.
Hope you enjoy the record. We had a great time making it. Through the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. 
Red Dirt Bands
Posted in Red Dirt on September 6, 2011 by Dave BarnettRed Dirt Music and Bands are not necessarily new, unless like me, you count the last twenty five or thirty years as recent. The popularity of this music however has become ever increasing over the last ten to fifteen years. And it may be surprising to some, because of the melodic structures of this genre are based heavily on Traditional Country Music, that the majority of Red Dirt Fans are thirty five and younger. My personal experience would put the age group at twenty something. But the demographic can be summed up with the standard nine to ninety answer.
One of my favorite Texas / Red Dirt Music Artist is Jackson Taylor and Los Sinners. Definitely Anti Nashville, (though he spent some time there as songwriter) Jackson Taylor is an edgy, not made for Radio, tell it the way it is kind of guy. As expressed in his R Rated music video “Country Song” . The sentiment of this song could be regarded as the anthem of many Red Dirt Bands. A few of my favorite lines in this song are:
- “I ain’t no spikey haired half ass pop star wannabe”
- “No you’re labels don’t mean shit to me”
- “This ain’t no Hip Hop track, ’bout your bitches and your hoes and you’re white but you think you’re black”
I had the pleasure of opening for Jack and Damon at The Dawg House in Forest City, MO on one of their Acoustic Show Tour’s in 2011. After my set Jackson came up to me and asked if I would mind playing lead guitar with them during their set, to which I said “Hell Yeah” I got to say it was pretty cool. Now Jack is partial to his Jim Beam and me, I’m a fan of Jose Cuervo Gold.
The Dawg House is a small bar, maybe fifty people max, so it’s fairly common for the audience to buy the performers shots of their favorite drink while playing. When Jackson insisted that I have a Jim Beam with him, I returned the favor and insisted he have a Jose with me. So there you go, me and Jackson Taylor mixing Jose and Jim and playing Outlaw Country music. It don’t get no better than that.
Hello World
Posted in Band Stuff on August 30, 2011 by Dave Barnett
Well, here you are at our new Silas Dogan website, Welcome!!
We have been through quite a few changes in the last year and all for the better
- The Band’s name change
- Band member changes
- Website provider’s
- Many photo shoots
- Re-writes and Re-visions of our songs
- The release of our EP ~ WHITE – LINES
Thank you for coming along for the ride and for our new Fans we are glad you have joined us at a time when everything is coming together.
Front-men Dave Barnett and Mark Roberts have kept the band together and moving forward by performing acoustic shows and writing and recording new songs.
They are happy to announce that the original back bone of the band is back with Gary Anderson on bass and Dan ”Julio” Flores on drums. Yes the boys are back in town and they have never sounded better.
Poised to release the Full Length version of the Album WHITE – LINES in the next six weeks, we are setting our sites on playing as many shows as we can through winter and getting ready for the Summer of 2012. We have a lot of surprises and Big shows coming up so stay tuned cause you don’t want to miss a thing!!
Once again we’d like to say how happy we are to have you with us. Please leave a comment at the bottom of the page. Say anything you’d like, we just want to hear from you.
Thanks ~ SDB
