WOW!!

[peeyo]

I know the sentiment has been echoed by many here on the forum about their rally experience, but I thought I'd throw my 2 cents in as well.
This was single handedly the best experience of my entire life. I know I got singled out by taxi a fair amount by taxi over the weekend, which was unbelievable in itself. But it was more about meeting like-minded people and being able to provide inspiration to people new to the game. There was something satisfying about sharing and listening to everyone's musical knowledge. I didn't run into one person that had any kind of attitude or ego whatsoever. Michael and taxi staff included.
I had to take a private moment Saturday night (and trust me, im not a very emotional person), when I got hit with an overwhelming feeling of satisfaction. The only way I can describe it is that I suddenly felt significant.
All of you here on the forum, whether I officially met you or not contributed to that.

I can't wait for the next chapter.
Cheers all,
Paul

[kclements]

Hear, Hear Paul.

Nice to meet up with you and meet the guy behind the typing - Here's to your continued success -

Cheers -
kc

[guitaroboe]

Paul ,
I know the feeling! I am so glad I met you and I will always cherish those
Moments we shared before going on stage, you know what I mean!!!
Taxi is a god sent. I feel so privileged to be in such great company!
Keep in touch,
Adonis

[eeoo]

I am so not prone to hyperbole, ask my wife, but I can say unreservedly say that Road Rally 2011 was off the hook awesome! So happy to have met and hung out with you guys and reading the forum today I realize how many people I didn't get to meet, so here's to next year!

All the best!

eo

[mojobone]

Kayle Peeyo, Oboe, Eeyo: I'm devastated I didn't get to spend even more time with all y'all but I'll echo Paul's original statement; what a freakin' blast it was to make your acquaintance!

[AndyKotz]

The two people I wanted to meet at the Rally and didn't, were... Paul Otten and Dave Walton.

Too bad... we'll just have to be friends here until the next Rally!!
Congratulations on all your successes and there's more to come... for us all. -- Andy

[tedsingingfox]

Hey, Paul. It was great to meet you last weekend, and all your accolades were totally well deserved.

But be careful about telling too many people of your emotional private time. They'll start calling it "having a Paul moment" before you know it and you'll be stuck with it. (Because I cry pretty easily when I'm happy or grateful, that gets called "a Ted moment" around these parts for a couple of years now. Trust me, I don't mind.)

Congrats on all your success, and I'll look forward to seeing you again, either in Nashville or at the next Rally.

Ted

[AnthonyCeseri]

Awesome! It was a great event for sure!

[DelphiaBlize]

hi paul. that was my first rally as well, and you put it very well. i came back and thought "that truly was one of the best experiences of my life." i had gone into it thinking "well, i'll just go and get this music thing out of my system once and for all and just hang it up. i'll learn that i suck and go get a sensible job..." instead i found myself "pulling a paul" in my hotel room after talking to a mentor...i won't go into what all happened or was said but it was life changing. to call taxi a god-send is not an overstatement in the slightest, and the experiences some of us had there were like a creative re-birth. i'm extremely glad for all the mentors and for michael, but i'm also so glad for all the rallyers -- their clarity, passion, spirit, sense of humor, kindness, generosity and comaraderie were so inspiring..... it was like the a little slice of heaven on earth.... i had hoped to meet you as well, just from what i'd seen on the forum - next year!

[Kevm]

I did have some fun while I was there, I came on Friday, and just being in that sort of environment is just really exciting as an artist, but I ended up not coming back Saturday or Sunday due to the fact that during Friday's A&R panel they only pulled one song from the electronica bin, which really dampened my spirits. I know they didn't really have an electronica panelist up there, but nonetheless, picking one song and not going back to the bin once was just not fair, nor was cutting off someone's song a couple measures into it to harp about labeling your song the "correct genre", which I understand their frustrations but that simply wasn't the time or place for a 15 minute spiel on the matter. I didn't go in expecting anything much except a learning experience, but to not really even have a shot at being heard was disappointing. Maybe Taxi and the Rally just isn't for me, I don't really have anything against Taxi. I'm glad everyone had a good time, it really was enjoyable just meandering around and seeing all the musical people, that's what I live for, and since I only live about an hour away from LAX it's not like I lost anything for coming, so all in all I don't think I feel one way or the other about it. I probably should have tried for the mentor lunch, or something of that sort if I really wanted to have my song heard, I don't like to blame anyone but myself for any disappointments in life. I wasn't there for licensing or anything, more just to have my song heard and see a real reaction from a real human being rather than an over the internet critique, you can judge much better I think in a situation such as the Rally where you stand as an artist in my opinion. I know I could have come back and had a shot at the other panels on both Saturday and Sunday, but that disappointment really took a lot out of me, I think I had different expectations of what it was going to be.

I did attend some of the breakout classes, the one with Rob Blasko was really fun, even though they only selected a few people out of 30 or so to listen to their tunes and I wasn't one of them, I did learn a bit of information on artist management and all of that. I do feel though if they're going to select songs and have one on one discussions with the artist about that particular tune, using it to make points to all of us in the process, that they probably should either have let everyone get a chance to be heard or used songs from outside sources, but I think every single person in there did take something away from that class so I wasn't very disappointed with that. They were both GREAT people too, the kind of people you would love to do business with.

I am curious though if I'm the only one that had that sort of a personal experience at the Rally, as all I've seen are really positive things about it. Anyway, just my 2 cents, this was my first year signed up with Taxi and I won't be renewing because the online portion of it just isn't useful to me (I don't license my material out), I was hoping the Rally would be a different story but it's all a learning experience in the end, I'm glad that people had stellar experiences.