We couldn’t think of a better way to ring in 2010 than to spend it rockin’ with our friends at The Depot in Norfolk, NE. And the night didn’t disappoint!

Happy New Year to all of you! Thanks for partying with us in 2009. We think 2010 will be a great year as we celebrate 15 years of Mr. Hand rocking the area!

A couple holiday parties, good friends and family all added up to a wild time at Rhonda’s Speakeasy this past weekend. We had great fun rockin’ and it was obvious that everyone is feeling the holiday spirit. Thanks to all who made it out and helped create such a fun atmosphere at Rhonda’s. We really appreciate it and can’t wait to see all of our Sioux City area friends again in 2010!

Gobble Gobble! There were no turkeys at the Phoenix Room this past Wednesday night, only a packed house looking for a good time!

On the night before Thanksgiving we had plenty to be thankful for, but at the top of the list was the great crowd that came out to the Phoenix Room to rock with us. And like we usually do, we had a good time kickin out the jams and sharing some drinks and laughs with everyone. We also want to recognize the staff working the bar that night for making sure no one went thirsty!

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That’s right, you can now listen to the entire Simple Ways E.P. through our Mr. Hand YouTube Channel! We’ve also included these videos here and on the Simple Ways E.P. page on our site so you can take a listen to the album for free!

Enjoy…

As is usually the case, the good times flowed at The Depot this past weekend. We had 2 nights with good crowds that were ready to party. But if you’ve ever been to The Depot you know that’s a regular occurrence!

It was also a productive weekend for the band as we worked on some new original tunes. We’ve been putting a lot of effort as of late working on writing new songs for an upcoming CD. We don’t have anything set in stone as to when we’ll get that done, but we are looking at having a new CD released sometime in 2010.

With that said, we need to thank everyone that came out to the shows this past weekend as well as the staff at The Depot for making it a great weekend. We’ll be back in Norfolk soon – Nov. 21st at the Mint Bar for a Conrad & Nellor acoustic show and Nov. 25th at the Phoenix Room for a show on the night before Thanksgiving. See ya there!

I just wanted to let our fans know that I had a bit of a sad day yesterday.  In March of this year I was able to go back to O’Neill, Nebraska and have some fun at the St. Pats celebration.  Our band has actually played those shows 10 years in a row dating back to 1996 or so but it was cool to be there and just enjoy some beers and good times and not have to perform!  I was in line awaiting a drink when this younger guy approached me and said what a big fan he was of the band and he wished we were playing!  He gave me a big hug and then started crying…………I couldn’t believe it!

I asked him what was wrong and he went on to tell me that his brother had died not long before in Iraq……..my heart just sank! I didn’t understand why he was telling me all this at first because I didn’t even know the guy.  Turns out, he and his brother used to come to every show that we played in that area, and I said come on man, not all of them? He said yeah, we were, and still are big fans and wished the band played more shows out there!

The stories went on, he was still crying, and I was just taking it all in.  He told me the absolute best times he had with his brother were when they knew Mr. Hand was coming back to their area for a show!  Again, I said come on, yeah right!  He told me with such an honest face that it was the truth and that those times road tripping to the shows, hanging out and singing along with us meant more to him and his brother than I could ever imagine.  I was speechless!

He then took off the black OUR FALLEN SOLDIERS rubber wrist band he had been wearing since the day his brother died and gave it to me.  I didn’t want to accept it but he insisted.  Now, we both had tears in our eyes.  He wanted me to have it to show me how much Mr. Hand meant to him and his brother.  I told him I would never, ever take it off!

I wore that wrist band, and never took it off up until last night when it broke unexpectedly.  I felt so bad, but I made sure I took it home and put it in a safe place.  I know how much our band meant to these two brothers, and I can’t tell you how much his story meant to me, it’s absolutely priceless!  It just goes to show how much something you may think is insignificant can mean to someone else and the memories it can create.  I don’t remember this guy’s name or his brother’s, but I’ll never forget the words he spoke to me and the memory he created for my life!

What started out as a show where we planned to celebrate Bret’s and Conrad’s birthdays, became a birthday party and an impromptu reunion show thanks to Craig suffering an unfortunate injury in the middle of last week!

Before we get into the details about the show, Craig is OK. He hurt is right arm/wrist at work but will be fine and will be with us for our next show at The Depot in Norfolk, NE.

While figuring out how we were going to handle this show without our drummer, we made a call to our original drummer Jeff Lickfelt (who now lives in Arkansas) to see if he’d want to come up for the weekend and play the show. To our surprise he said yes! We were saved! And we actually got a very cool birthday present in return – playing a show with Jeff again.

It was great fun and allowed us to take a little trip down memory lane. We also discussed doing some reunion shows again down the road. Of course when that happens we’ll be sure to give everyone a little advance notice!

Much thanks to Jeff Lickfelt for stepping in and holding down the drums for us! It was definitely a great time for us and hopefully for all who attended too!

Here’s some photos…

There’s something about Mr. Hand, a cold autumn night and a stripper pole that brings people out to Jo Jo’s in Pierce, NE. We’d like to think that we’re responsible for everyone coming out to party but we know better…it’s the stripper pole!

Well whatever the reason was this past Saturday, there was a wild crowd in Pierce. And we’ve been around long enough to know that when that happens you don’t ask questions. Drink your drink and party down! Thanks to all who made it out, it was a great time!

Caution: Photo evidence below.

We took a drive out to Sylvester’s Bar & Lounge in Broken Bow this past Friday. This was only our second time playing there, but we really enjoy making the stop here. It’s a cool club where the people like their music. But more importantly everyone is so friendly. The only thing more surprising than the non-stop Jagerbombs sent to the stage was the 3-4 inches of snow that awaited us on Saturday morning! Good times!

Take a peek at the pics…

Consider the Ranch Rocked!

With the assistance of Street Legal, Paradise City (Guns N’ Roses tribute band), and Battery (Metallica tribute band), we brought the rock to the Off Road Ranch. It turned out to be a great day to take in some live music and also check out some dare devils grab major air while doing jumps on their 4-wheelers.

From our perspective it was surreal to be rocking out while seeing guys do massive jumps on their quads! Quite a sight to see! We opened the show and had a great time catching up friends from Street Legal as well as many other local musicians before and after our set. It was great to see everyone and we wish we could do these get togethers every weekend!

Big thank you’s to the Off Road Ranch, Ralph Johnson, Brad and Amanda from The Depot for getting us involved with this show. We hope we can do it again next year!