For Randy
Your Site Guide
This is your site, Randy. It’s live, it’s working, and it’s booked a gig already. This page is your map to every corner of it — what it does for the band, and what it needs from you.
The Big Picture
Your site is a 24/7 booking machine and a credibility showcase that works while you’re not looking. A festival booker in Georgetown hears your name, googles you, finds a real website with your music, your history, and a booking form that lands in your inbox. That’s the whole play.
You don’t log in anywhere. You don’t update a dashboard. When something changes — a new gig, a new member, a new video — you send me the info and I wire it up. The site never goes stale, and you never have to think about code.
Last year’s site sat there and died. This one won’t, because it doesn’t depend on you remembering to maintain it. It’s designed to survive neglect. But it’ll thrive if you feed it — gigs, photos, names, videos. The more you put in, the more the band gets back.
Tour of Your Site
Seven pages, one job each. Here’s what they do and why they matter.
What they see: A full-screen shot of the band with your name in big letters, the tagline, and two buttons — Book the Band and See Upcoming Shows. A taste of what you play, your recent stages, and a call to book.
What it does for the band: It’s the first impression. A booker spends 5 seconds here before deciding to stay or leave. This page makes them stay.
What they see: Your story — decades of Austin cred, why you play the cuts you play, your target rooms, and the band members. Right now it’s you and three Coming Soon slots.
What it does for the band: This is where credibility lives. A booker who reads this knows you’re not some bar band that started yesterday. The member cards especially — faces build trust.
Your part: Send me the other three members’ names, roles, one-line bios, and a headshot each. I’ll fill in the slots.
What they see: Upcoming gigs with date, venue, time, and a Google Maps directions link. Below that, recent past shows. Right now — no upcoming, five past shows including Green Mesquite and Dale’s Walburg.
What it does for the band: This is the proof you’re active. But here’s the secret: when there’s no gig coming up, it doesn’t say nothing. It says ‘No public shows booked — Book the Band.’ It never looks dead. That’s the design.
Your part: When you book a new gig, send me the date, venue, time, and address. I’ll put it up before the ink’s dry.
What they see: Your repertoire organized by four themes — Harmony-Rich 70s, Texas & Southern, FM Deep Cuts, Cult Favorites. Artists, not songs. There’s a ‘Request a Sample Set’ button for bookers.
What it does for the band: It answers the question every booker asks first: ‘What do you play?’ By showing themes not setlists, it shows range without being boring. And the sample-set request is a soft booking hook.
What they see: Live video clips from shows and a grid of recent stage photos. Right now the videos are placeholder tiles — ‘Video uploading soon’ — and there are six photos up.
What it does for the band: Video is the single most powerful booking tool. A booker who watches 30 seconds of you playing will book faster than one who reads 500 words. This page is waiting for the Dale’s Walburg footage.
Your part: I have the five clips encoded and ready. I’ll walk you through uploading them to a YouTube channel — takes 15 minutes. Then I wire them in and the placeholders become real players.
What they see: Your Electronic Press Kit — a clean, print-ready one-pager with your bio, repertoire, members, recent stages, and booking info. There’s a tip at the top: File → Print → Save as PDF.
What it does for the band: This is the page you send to festival bookers, corporate event planners, and venue talent buyers. It’s designed to print clean as a PDF you can attach to an email. No design work, no Word doc — just the URL.
Your part: Next time someone asks for your press kit, send them hourglass-rocks.pages.dev/epk and tell them to print it. Or print it yourself and keep a few in the gig bag.
What they see: A booking form that asks for name, email, phone, event date, event type (corporate, festival, retirement community, etc.), lineup preference (full band, trio, solo), venue, and a message. Plus your direct email, phone, Facebook, and tip jar info.
What it does for the band: This is where the money is. When someone fills this out, it sends a formatted email straight to your inbox at guitarrr3@gmail.com. You reply directly. No dashboard, no login, no middleman — just email, which you already check.
Your part: When a booking email comes in, reply within 24-48 hours. Fast replies win gigs. I’ve also added a ‘Site update request’ option on this form so you can use it to send me changes too.
The Booking Form, Explained
This is the most important feature on the site, so here’s exactly how it works.
What the booker sees: A clean form on the Contact page. They fill in their name and email, pick an event type (corporate, festival, retirement community, private function, something else), pick a lineup preference (full band, trio, solo/duo, or ask me to recommend), type the venue and date, and write a message. It feels professional. It doesn’t feel like a garage band.
Where it goes: Straight to your inbox — guitarrr3@gmail.com. The subject line says “[Booking] John Smith — Corporate event” so you know at a glance who it is and what they want. The reply-to address is automatically set to the booker’s email, so you just hit Reply and you’re talking to them.
Why email, not a dashboard: Because you check email. You don’t check dashboards. The last site had a booking admin panel that nobody logged into. This one goes to the place you already live.
Your part: Reply within 24-48 hours. If a booker fills out a form and hears nothing for a week, they move on to the next band. Fast replies are the difference between a booker who wants you and a booker who already booked someone else.
Bonus — you can use it too: I added a “Site update request” option on the same form. Need me to add a gig, swap a photo, update a bio? Fill out the form, pick that option, tell me what to change. It comes to the same inbox flagged as a site update, and I handle it. You never need to figure out how to send me updates — use the form.
The “Never Looks Abandoned” Promise
Here’s the thing that killed the last site: it sat there with a stale calendar for months. Bookers saw a site that hadn’t been touched since December. That’s worse than no site at all.
This one is built different. When the Shows page has no upcoming gigs, it doesn’t show an empty calendar. It shows a clean sign that says “No public shows booked right now — want us at yours?” with a Book the Band button. It always looks active, even between gigs.
And when a show passes — like the Green Mesquite gig last night — it moves itself to the past shows section. It never sits in “upcoming” with yesterday’s date. You don’t have to remember to take it down. I handle that.
Bottom line: The site never embarrasses you. It always looks like a working band’s website, because it is one.
What’s Ready Now vs. What Needs From You
✓ Ready & Working
- ✓All 7 pages live and mobile-optimized
- ✓Booking form sending emails to your inbox
- ✓Your member card (Randy, lead guitar)
- ✓5 past shows in the history
- ✓4 setlist themes with 24 artists
- ✓EPK page, print-ready as a PDF
- ✓Facebook linked and live
- ✓Phone, Venmo, and Cash App wired up
- ✓SEO set up for Google to find you
- ✓“Never looks abandoned” fallback active
! Needs From You
- 3 band members: Name, role (vocals, bass, drums), one-line bio, and a headshot photo for each. Send ’em, I’ll fill the Coming Soon slots.
- Instagram handle: If Hourglass has one. If not, no rush — it says “coming soon.”
- YouTube channel: I have 5 live clips from Dale’s Walburg encoded and ready. Walk through the upload with me (15 min) and I’ll wire them into the Media page.
- New gig dates: Whenever you book something. Date, venue, time, address — that’s all I need.
- TikTok (optional): Only if it’s a thing you want to do.
How to Request Updates
You never touch code. You never log in anywhere. You just tell me what to change.
Option 1: The form
Go to the Contact page, pick “Site update request” as the event type, and tell me what to change in the message. It comes to the same inbox flagged as a site update.
Option 2: Just tell me
Call, text, or email me directly. Whatever’s easiest. No task too small — new gig, swapped photo, updated bio, new video, typo fix. I handle it.
The rule is simple: if it’s on the site and it’s wrong or stale, tell me. That’s all you ever have to do.
What’s Coming
Ideas I’m thinking about for phase two. None of this is built yet — tell me which ones would help you most and I’ll prioritize.
Google Calendar auto-sync
You add a gig to your Google Calendar on your phone. The Shows page updates automatically. No double entry, no calling me for every gig. Biggest lever for keeping the site alive.
Auto Facebook post on new shows
When a gig goes up on the site, it automatically posts to your Facebook page too. One entry, two platforms.
AI venue-outreach email drafter
Paste a venue’s website link, get a drafted booking email to review and send. Not a cold-call bot — you read it, you approve it, you send it.
Custom domain
Right now it’s hourglass-rocks.pages.dev. If you want hourglass-rocks.com (you already own it), it’s a 5-minute attach. Your call.
Want any of these? Pick your favorite and tell me — or tell me an idea I haven’t thought of. This is your site, and it should work the way you work.
This is your site, Randy.
Built pro bono, because the music deserves a home that doesn’t die. Now go book some rooms with it.
Questions? Email, call, or use the contact form with “Site update request.”