Transitioning from LK3 to BlairOutLoud
Hello friends and fans!
I’m just getting back into my work week still reeling from the excitement of the BlairOutLoud BAND Event in Jasper, GA at a venue named Rocco’s Pub. We performed there Saturday April 10th, and it was a great night!
Check out the video that I captured of the beginning of our second set!
Several LK3 fans and some of the staff that remembered us from our debut performance in January, were curious about our name change and wanted to know why we changed. I appreciated the inquiry, and I see that as; we made solid enough first impression that people were paying attention for when we were scheduled to perform again!
Here’s the LK3 flyer I made for our debut at Rocco’s Jan 2021. We had such a great debut that night, I was invited to schedule several more events in 2021!
So I wanted to take a minute to describe what has been happening behind the scenes, and I’d like to give you and insight to where we are going incase you’d like to follow along!
Bringing LK3 and BlairOutLoud together
In 2018 I was starting to acquire solo acoustic gigs under the title of BlairOutLoud.
Wait, back up.. Towards the end of 2017, I was laying out ideas and working on a plan to create a platform where I could promote for gigs, make videos about products, provide studio work, and possibly teach. It was a little all over the place, but I felt like I could get one or two of the ideas going, and other features of the platform could follow. This became BlairOutLoud.
Here’s one of my EARLY BlairOutLoud acoustic flyers from April 2018.
So.. in 2018 when I booked solo acoustic gigs, I would book as BlairOutLoud because that was step number one of this whole process…
Also in 2018, as I was transitioning out of a cover band called SMAC (pronounced “smack”), but I still had my hands full with a chick alternative project called You Oughta Know, and I was in a Foo’s Tribute called Fighting Foos. It was a crazy year.
But in addition to all of that.. My good friend and former metal band manager, Tom Carling, asked me if I wanted to jam a few gigs with his band Leonard Koggins Trio (LK3). And seeing as how Tom C and I had not communicated much for years, it was nice to re-connect. I joined him for a string of events, it was great fun!
By 2019, I was a full-time booking cover music events with You Oughta Know, Fighting Foos, Leonard Koggins Trio, and of course, BlairOutLoud. 2019’s total gig count was 247! It was quite a ride! However, as we closed out 2019, it was becoming apparent that YOK, and FF were going to pause for a while. So this left me with nothing but Leonard Koggins Trio, and BlairOutLoud to focus all of my energy towards beginning in 2020.
Setting up for a Canton Neighborhood Event in the Summer of 2020!
Of course, we had a pandemic hit us hard this time last year, but the experiences with LK3 that we had, like performing Live on Facebook, booking big neighborhood events, traveling around the state getting gigs where we could, etc… Getting through all of that, just grew the band and its connections stronger around town. We actually finished out 2020 with a smile on our faces.. it was hard to complain. We had performed a zillion private events, and still had plenty of public events to keep us busy towards the end of 2020, and this propelled us mightily into 2021.
Transitioning to BlairOutLoud
Jammin’ with the TRIO at Full Throttle Roadhouse in late 2020.
As my own influence has grown in my BlairOutLoud acoustic gigs around town, friends and fans started to be inquisitive about my band efforts, so they would ask, “Aren’t you in a band?”, and I would reply “Yes, we are LK3, the Leonard Koggins Trio”. They’d look at me funny and say “Leonard who?” So I would have take the next few minutes to describe LK3 and what we do.
This didn’t bother me at first.. especially because I used to name LK3 as just one of the other bands I was involved in. But as LK3 became more and more exclusive to me, and as I realized that I was leading that effort more and more, it dawned on me that it might be the right time to change everything over to the BlairOutLoud Label. The “BlairOutLoud Entertainment Presents” label was being kicked around.
I discussed this with the members of LK3, Tom Carling and Darren Goot, and talks went well. The guys wanted assurance that the frequency of gigs wouldn’t change, and we discussed keeping all the same material. I’m not sure that they were married to the name, they just wanted to continue to grow as a band and work on better material and get better gigs. And then there was one other contributing factor…
Amanda Blair joins the group
It was around the turn of the year from 2019 to 2020 that it was becoming obvious that if there were opportunities to get Amanda on stage with us, we were going to take them.
We were contracted for a wedding in January of 2020 (set for May 2020, eventually postponing to July 2020) and we scheduled several rehearsals to pool our material together and see what we had. Amanda and I had been active in an all alternative 90s group called You Oughta Know, and it was pausing so it felt like the right move to make to allow Amanda to start playing gigs with the TRIO where possible.
An LK3+ Flyer for a show at The Wing in Marietta, GA in Dec 2020.
We began using a name called LK3+ (plus).. so as to say Leonard Koggins Trio PLUS Amanda Blair. It worked for a while! LK3+ had plenty of opportunities to perform in the slew of private events and some club gigs that we did in 2020, so during that time we were starting to explore how to be a four piece. It was a fun time of exploration.. and honestly we are still figuring this out currently LOL.
So let’s bring it all together
Beginning in 2021, the group has begun to transition all of our labeling, promo, flyers, and social media to be under the BlairOutLoud family of projects. We understand that this is a hefty transition. After posting thousands of photos, videos, and working to build a following on the LK3 FB Page.. its now a question of what exactly to do with that page. ??
The BlairOutLoud FB Page will host all of my events from Solo Acoustic to full BAND. The LK3 Page will most likely host events that have something to do with me and any of the guys when we play out separately from the full BAND. At least for now, this is settled.. but subject to change I presume as new ideas emerge.
We are reaching out to local artists to get redesigned logos, stage banners, and other misc promo for my website, and social media accounts. So by this summer you should start to see some evidence of that type of material rolling out.
We will also be printing up new song lists for song requests at shows! This is requested at many places that we play, and this comes from the influence of my SOLO shows, where I let requests run the event, and that’s usually a good crowd pleaser for sure. It also helps to build a connection with the audience!
But there are still many questions, and many moves to be made, but for now here are the active projects in the BlairOutLoud Entertainment family:
BlairOutLoud SOLO - Just good ol’ me doing my thing in front of the crowd
BlairOutLoud DUO - An acoustic duo featuring Amanda Blair contributing vocals and playing keys, flute, and percussion… and I on guitar and vocals.
BlairOutLoud T2 - Borrowing a name that Tom Carling and I started with years ago “T2”, we are rebranding as BOL T2 for duo acoustic gigs.
BlairOutLoud TRIO - Official line-up of the former LK3; three dudes on a mission to joke around, entertain, and party down like no other.. All fun.. very serious.. NOT.. and killer rock and roll to glue it together!
And finally BlairOutLoud BAND - Making a strong run for one of the best rock cover bands on the scene, incorporating a vast song list with the inclusion of keyboards, harmonized vocals, amazing stage production/lighting, yet keeping everything light, never too serious, and just a plain super fun.
Check out some more recent video of the full band line-up:
Please go check out our videos and links.. and CONTACT me here for booking!
Bare with us as we change the promo around, change the flyers, and start to say BlairOutLoud everything..HA.. We hope this is a seamless transition. It’s feeling good so far.
Once we get new promo photos and group shots, you’ll probably see that material pop-up on the website here, and our social media feeds.
THANK YOU ATLANTA! See you at the next event!
-Tom Blair
