Dear Friends,   ***July 4, 2008*** You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism. ~Erma Bombeck     ***May 2, 2008*** Thanks, to all of you that voted for the Providers in the WDST contest. Unfortunately, we were out voted in the second round of the competition. I guess we’ll have to put a hold on that new tour bus with the Jacuzzi. Grandma always said, “You never fail if you never quit”.     ***April 25, 2008*** As many of you know, on any given weekend you will find The Providers schlepping equipment, and working late hours, for little money and less recognition. Still, we are thankful that we can make music together, and that our fans are so much fun to spend time with. Here’s the good news. The Providers are one of the fifteen semi-finalists, chosen from one hundred entries, in a contest by WDST radio in Woodstock NY . The winner will get a slot performing at this year’s Mountain Jam Festival. To make it to the final round we need people to vote for us at www.wdst.com. Please take a moment to go to the site and click on “Join the Jam”. You will need to register as a V.I.P., submit your e-mail address, and vote for three performers. Three winners will be chosen by popular vote. These three bands will “battle” (not sure I like the violent overtones) at the Colony Café on May 2nd in Woodstock . If you have a chance to vote, I thank you. If you don’t, I understand. Votes must be in by April 30th. If you have suggestion as to how we can get the word out please contact us. I’ll let you know how we do. Don’t hesitate to pass this on to any friends or family that might have interest! Thank you for all your support.     ***March 25, 2008*** Hope everyone had a great holiday, we sure did! T'was Easter weekend and we enjoyed seeing you at La Puerta Azul and the Crooked Lake House. The week before we appeared at Cozzy's and would like to mention that it is under new ownership. Many thanks to Cozzy and best wishes to him in his new Poughkeepsie restaurant. We will continue to play at Cozzy's in Pine Plains once a month and want to extend our good wishes and luck to new owner Jeff. Thank y'all for coming out!! There has been significant progress with our latest CD. Visit the Music link below and take a listen to the 2 newly completed tracks which will appear on the next CD - Deliverin Me & One World. Let us know what you think by posting a Guestbook message, or shoot us an email. We appreciate your comments!! A special evening in Valatie is coming up on April 19th. This is a Fundraiser for the Valatie Community Theatre - a not-for-profit organization operating exclusively for charitable and educational purposes. We have a new room to play in Troy NY! Brown's Brewing Company on River Street is having us on May 16th. There are a couple of special events in July as well - 4th of July at Cleremont State Park and a Blues Festival at Crooked Lake on July 26th. Well - it's spring and we are excited about the upcoming events. Hope you make it out and be sure to step on up front and say hi!     ***January 27, 2008*** We sure had a blast this past weekend!! I would like to mention that we have been playing at LaPuerta Azul in Millbrook now for a year. The restaurant has been very good to us and we are there the last Friday of every month. This past Friday night photographer Lynda Loo Fernandez was at the bar armed with her camera. Wouldn't you know she couldn't help but start shooting. Luckily no one was hurt. She photographs musicians throughout the Hudson Valley. You can view her art at www.lyndaloosphotos.com. Saturday we rocked The Crooked Lake House - the dance floor got quite a workout. Bob wore a tie for this one - we don't see that often. It was too cold down in the Rathskellar, so we moved upstairs and a great time was had by all. We appreciate seeing so many of you returning regularly to these fine establishments. The friendly faces and crowd energy makes live music unique and every night special. In an effort to provide volume friendly performances, drummer Doug is now playing on an electronic kit. This new step enables us to play any size room, even with patrons sitting right in front having dinner. We are very excited and welcome comments, please hit our "Guestbook" link below and write us a little note. February will bring another full weekend - Cozzy's on the 22nd & Crooked Lake House on the 23rd. We can't wait!! Hope to see you then.     ***January 20, 2008*** Allow me to first thank those of you who were in attendance at the Peint of Gwrw Tafarn in Chatham last Friday night. We had a bunch of fun. To see women dancing on the bar at our age is a rare treat. Vince was so excited he broke two strings. It's nights like those that keep us loading up the van and heading out in the cold each weekend. This weekend we will be dishing out the free-range boogie on Friday night at La Puerta Azul in Millbrook, and also on Saturday at The Crooked Lake House in Averill Park . Both shows start at 8 PM (bar dancing is optional). For those of you that live in the Albany area let me take a moment to tell you about WEXT 97.7. This is a commercial free radio station that is listener supported and committed to playing the music of local artists. It is primarily an Adult Oriented Rock format but they are playing a lot of hip stuff that just can't be found on commercial air waves. They play one local artist each hour and have a local 518 show that airs twice a week. Isn't it refreshing that just when you think radio is dead, somebody figures out a way to keep new music alive. Check out their web site at www.exit977.org and support them if you can. Tell them you would like to hear some Providers. We also hear that another great station, WKZE 98.1, is starting to play some of our recordings. Please drop us a note if you hear anything. For those who have not been to our web site in a while www.theprovidersonline.com, we invite you to check out rough mixes of the songs we are recording at this time. Any feed-back is welcome. Just don't beat us up to bad. We are sensitive musician types. It appears that Grammy award winning producer John Holbrook may help us with the final mixes. We sure could use it. You can visit www.johnholbrook.net and see the impressive work that John has done. OK thats it for now. You still have plenty of time to get your taxes done so try to come out and see us soon. We always enjoy seeing each and every one of you.   Regards, Yeller

The Providers are honored to be a part of Neil Young's "Living With War Today" webpage. Our song One World is included on the Songs Of The Times page. Click and listen to what we and many other artists have to say.

WEXT (97.7 FM) broadcasts and highlights local music you can stream live from their website

We recommend Blackheart Amps!

98.1 KZE promises, and delivers, musical diversity you can stream live from their website   --The Providers CD-- Click here to see and hear our CD, to order online, and to hear our latest unreleased recordings.

"Music is important - everything else is just noise" - Frank Latorre 2008