Ryan Chrys & The Rough Cuts Wins CCMHOF’s 2019 Band of the Year award!
Dear friends, we have the amazing opportunity to tour in the UK and Switzerland! (see our video at the bottom of this page) We are raising money to cover airfare and transportation expenses as well as van and gear rental. It is a dream of ours to represent Colorado country music abroad, our goal is to create relationships and connections with both venues and fans so that we can begin to build our name and ultimately earn enough through advance guarantees such that we will be able to afford to tour abroad each year while earning enough money from shows to cover our expenses and opportunity costs.
As other bands in the Denver scene tour abroad with the help of agencies and record labels, we are relying on our friends, family and fans for that assistance to kickstart our process. We do have an agent in the UK booking shows for us, these shows pay based on ticket sales, so we have no guarantees, but we must start somewhere! We have a confirmed festival in Switzerland as an anchor date that does offer a guarantee, but given we are a first time band, the guarantee small, not near enough to tackle the expenses. We do plan to book as many shows as possible so that we can earn more while we’re there, but again as a first time band, we’re investing to build relationships.
We are offering special rewards and incentives for donations:
– for all donations, we’ll add you (should you choose) to a special email list and group for personal updates, messages, photos and videos of the tour from concept to completion. We want to take you with us! …we of course will be posting our travels to our band page, but for our contributors we will be doing a special, more personal diary, for you.
– Michael has written and released two printed books, “The Road Never Ends,” and “This Week Nothing,” both books are fun, easy reads detailing the ludicrous experiences of a lifetime musician. The reviews on both books are excellent, you’ll surely enjoy these awesome coffee table winners!
– Lauren crafts handmade jewelry from our used guitar and bass strings. She makes amazing rings, earrings, bracelets and more. Tell her what style you like and she’ll create something especially for you!
– Ryan will pen the lyrics of your favorite Rough Cuts song in his own lyric book, the band will sign the page and he’ll tear it out and send it to you, …he’ll even write the chords over the lyrics so you can strum along if you choose!
– We’ll write a song just for you! We’ll come to your house, or a location of your choosing and perform a special concert for you and/or your friends, we’ll take care of everything! We’ll organize and orchestrate a house concert that you’ll remember for years to come.
– We’ll take requests! Is there something special you’re hoping for? Let’s make it happen, we want to give you the reward that you want for your donation. Let’s see what we can come up with!
We are also seeking flight miles for those willing to donate their transferable flight miles.
Our gratitude knows no bounds. We are blessed beyond words to have such incredible friends and fans near and far who follow us, listen to and share our music, come to our shows, and support the passion and hard work it takes in this industry. We’ve been touring and recording non-stop these last few years and we’re going to continue to work hard and make sacrifices to achieve our goals. We have several big goals, to sign with a booking agency, to earn enough in US ticket sales to support the expense of a bus or rv and driver, and to establish ourselves in the UK and EU markets with opportunities at festivals where we can gain the exposure it takes to prove ourselves as a world class band! Each of us are investing all we have to accomplish these goals and we’re getting closer! …we are asking for financial assistance for this particular goal as it is the toughest to get started given airfare and transportation expenses. We’re having to do this in 2 separate legs, the UK leg and the Switzerland leg. We’re concentrating on the UK leg first. Our research shows that airfare, van rental, driver, gear and back-line rental, fuel, lodging, will be over $10,000 total to cover both legs, and of course we’re contributing our personal funds and credit also to the total airfare and travel expenses as well as for visas, promotions, food, gear, etc.
We hope to represent Colorado music, and independent, unsigned DIY music on a whole. We want to be your champions, in return, in addition to the rewards above we will work hard, remain humble, keep our eyes on the goals and give 100% of everything we are every time, for every one. With your donation we want to make you proud and we hope to inspire people across the globe!