Special Contributor Post: Live Music Review: The Bodarks + Boyd HS Orchestra

Head on over to McKinney's On the Square for another Live Music Review contribution.  I did a little mingling at Cafe Malaga's back garden stage with The Bodarks McKinney's own pioneers of the modern exurban hootenanny.  To top it off, the fiddler is a McKinney Boyd High School Orchestra teacher! Check it out.

McKinney Tops the Best Place to Live List: My Take

So I woke up this morning, and I found out that I live in the number one best place to live in the United States of America.  Money magazine probably pinpointed their reasons why McKinney achieved this incredible honor, but I have my own take on it.  All positive of course, but as a musician forgive my gravitational pull towards music and arts.  This is my Ode to the Town. 

THE LARGEST SMALL TOWN IN THE WORLD:

Photo Credit: Cheryl Simpson

When I moved to McKinney almost three years ago,  it was a refreshing change to immediately notice people actually still wave and talk to one another here.  It's amazing the difference in the way people interact between neighboring cities.  I see very few people glued to their smart phones, with the exception of an art shot for instagram or a few suburban hipsters taking selfies for their blogs, like me.  If there's anyone playing Words With Friends, I'm sorry.  I missed it while I was eating an Apple Pie from Emporium.  I also noticed somehow everyone knows what's going on around town.  Some folks may find this a little intrusive or nosey but, I don't.  I see it as people giving a hoot.  Speaking of hoot; Trip Advisor!

MORE TRIPADVISOR OWL STICKERS IN THE WINDOWS THAN I'VE EVER SEEN

I noticed this Sunday night while my wife, daughter, and I were eating dinner with my parents at Cadillac Pizza Pub.  Probably the 6th Trip Advisor sticker I've noticed in the window of a business in McKinney Square.  This just tells me one thing.  People around the country talk about this place.  It's quickly becoming a tourist hub! I mean, it's not there for kicks....while I am a huge proponent of the historic homes being residential as opposed to commercial business, someone needs to up the ante on the bed and breakfast train to accommodate all the Trip Advisor visitors.

LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM FROM FLEETWOOD MAC PLAYED IN McKINNEY PAC.
I didn't go.  I'm kicking myself now, but this is still not a common occurrence in your typical suburban city.  This is a remarkable musician in a legendary band playing an intimate set in the Historic Courthouse Building, now home to McKinney Performing Arts Center.  Judas Priest are about to shatter some suburban windows in Allen in November, which is also a pretty extraordinary suburban feat, but I think there's something a little more special about Lindsey Buckingham singing to 112 people.

 Speaking of:

LIVE MUSIC SOMEWHERE IN THE SQUARE AT LEAST 4-5 NIGHTS PER WEEK
Whether it be a local kid absolutely nailing Johnny Cash covers at Spoons, Bud Rager the Singin' Son of a Gun doing his Cash repertoire at the Farmer's Market, Buzz Andrews running a longstanding open mic night at Cadillac, Rhythm and Beards playing a tight set at Cafe Malaga, Crystal Yates giving us chills with her voice. (Someone sign this woman already and take her on tour with your CMT superstars) or people quasi-busking outside Churchill's, there's music.  I cannot complain about the music scene in McKinney.  It's not a big national touring acts hub, but it could be if someone opened a Granada or Trees-like venue and brought in Lance Yocum of Spune to grab the national acts, or Ken Welker of 13th Floor Music to pack the house with the lower Greenville staples.  It would become a 18-35 "north of 635 but east of Preston Road" music mecca overnight.  Denton birthed Midlake, and that's a tough one to top.

CENTRAL MCKINNEY IS HOME TO THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GUITAR SHOP IN THE COUNTRY : THE GUITAR SANCTUARY- Adriatica Village

Photo Credit: The Guitar Sanctuary

I have never been into a more amazing musician's paradise.  The Hollywood, CA Guitar Center is pretty sweet, but living 2 miles from a guitar shop that looks like a $3 million home lined in $1,000 to $50,000 guitars and floors lined in hand-wired boutique amps, I find myself getting the "I wants" real bad.  What I love about this place is that they don't treat me like a four year old about to spill Big Red on a white bed in Z-Gallerie.  If you ask for help like the little tags say, they'll pull a $8,000 guitar off the wall for you, and not bat an eyelash.  If I had a fat wad of cash in a shoebox, I would go buy a Paul Reed Smith Custom 24, and a Rickenbacker 4003 bass without question, and The Guitar Sanctuary would be the place I could count on to find it.

THE FOOD: IT'S ALL GOOD.  READ MY BLOG ON THE NEW HARVEST SEASONAL KITCHEN, then GO EAT THERE

Photo Credit: Paul Ernest Photography

DOG MOVIES & TV SHOWS:
Lassie and Old Yeller ain't got nothin' on McKinney.  We've got Benji in the 70's and Wishbone in the 90's.  If you were a 90's kid you must remember coming home from elementary school and watching Wishbone at 4:00 in the afternoon and the little Adventures at Storybook Ranch, and if you haven't heard of Benji, get it together! You will feel love, all around, and you will feel it, shining down.  Promise. Everywhere you go.  You'll feel love.

ERWIN PARK
I'm not an avid cyclist....yet...but I will say this....I think Go-Pro Helmet mount sales went up because of this park, and Cadence Cyclery were genius to open a bike shop in the Square.  It's a happenin' little bike shop and half of McKinney are cyclists.










 


 CHURCHILL'S
The bias continues, but rightfully so; I'm half British, and this place is heaven.  I can drink beer and eat Full-English breakfast, shoot darts, and listen to The Stone Roses, Oasis, Blur, The Smiths, The Jam, Pulp, The Beatles, The Verve....in McKinney, TX.

I could go on for hours.....but I don't want to get too Rolling Stone about it again.  Well done McKinney!

Mo’Joe Matt: From Casinos to Coffee Trucks

Photo Credit: www.mojoeagogo.com

MO’ JOE A GO-GO: McKinney’s First and Only Mobile Coffee Truck

A recurring theme I keep gravitating toward is McKinney’s own “Unique by Nature” slogan.  While the city has it’s suburban standard, and western and northern sprawl of 135,000 and rapidly growing, it also has its pockets uniqueness and a deep sense of community.  With this combination of rapid, but sensible growth and an ironclad community centered around a sensible blend of history, healthy lifestyle, and uniqueness; you have the perfect foundation for giving back to the community.  What better way to achieve this than by way of the ever-growing mobile cuisine aka “food truck” culture?  That is being accomplished in great strides by McKinney’s own Matt Drew, owner and founder of “Mo’ Joe a Go-Go” McKinney’s first and only mobile coffee shop.  

THE MOBILE COFFEE EXPERIENCE:

I came across his glowing shrine of a vehicle in the back of the McKinney Farmer’s Market around May while my wife and I were taking part in our Saturday morning routine.  There was nothing discrete about his parking job, or the truck for that matter. After all you have rows and rows of booths, stands, and then a completely overhauled FedEx truck with a cosmic paint job, a window, and an outward facing sound system.  We walk up and it’s essentially a coffee shop on wheels.  Before I get too Hemingway’s “Farewell to Arms” and ramble a never-ending chain of events I’m going to get to the point.  It was the best coffee I’ve ever had, and everything we have ordered every Saturday morning since, has been delicious.  What sets this coffee apart from the rest other than a pleasant avoidance of being served lukewarm or watered down, is that it is sustainably and organically grown, and avoids artificial flavorings, preservatives, and GMOs.

 CORPORATE GRIND TO COFFEE GRIND:

On Board the Mo'Joe a Go-Go truck: Matt Drew @ work on his
UNIC Stella di Caffé in which only 85 are available in the US.

This past Saturday, I was welcomed onboard the Mo’Joe a Go-Go truck where I got to see behind the scenes what all the hype was about, and get to know the man behind the coffee.   This ultra-friendly guy in the window with a Mo’ Joe tee, and a down to earth personality is the former Director of Marketing for MGM Grand Las Vegas and just prior to starting Mo'Joe, he was the Director of International Marketing for Choctaw Casino Resort in Durant, Oklahoma.  What does this have to do with coffee you may ask? Absolutely nothing.  Matt’s passion is serving the community and specialty coffee.  So just over 2 years ago he and his wife moved to McKinney. “Being from the Pacific Northwest, I could take it for granted, or be somewhere like McKinney where it hasn’t really caught on yet and offer something new to my community,” Matt says as he passes one of his specialty Mochas down to a customer. “One thing that Vegas did not have is a Farmers Market, and so what better way for me to sort of switch gears in what I was doing in my career than to come here to McKinney and focus on something I’m passionate about?  This is my way of bringing something to my community that they didn’t really have yet, sort of my way of giving back.”  The giving doesn’t stop at the coffee or in McKinney.

GIVING BACK:

Matt has set up Mo’ Joe a Go-Go as a partner with Heifer International, a non-profit organization centered around empowering developing nations to self-sustain and become less dependent on foreign aid.  A percentage of Mo’Joe sales go towards quarterly purchases of livestock for these developing nations to work towards building a thriving agriculture-based economy.  In addition to giving to these developing nations, he brings it on home as well, to McKinney’s Samaritan Inn, where he donates unsold pastries and goodies.

MIXING BUSINESS WITH PASSION:
While the “Mo’Joe a Go-Go” mobile coffee concept is unique for the community, Matt Drew is living a recurring theme I see from time; the inspiring “Corporate businessman-gone-local business owner” feel-good theme.  In this case, it’s “Corporate Grind to Coffee Grind” where he molds his high level marketing skills with what he truly loves, and makes him happy.  “I’m not doing this to get rich.  It’s my opportunity to build a fun and unique brand, and interact with people every day” says Drew.  “Like any start-up, it has its challenges” --but “I’ve always been more of a glass half-full kind of guy, and this is more about what we do, than the challenges we face.” 

WHERE CAN I GET MY MO' JOE?

Come down to McKinney Farmer’s Market in Chestnut Square this Saturday morning, August 30 from 8:00 AM to NOON parked next to Johnson House.  This time of year, I highly recommend the Frozen Mayan.  Mind=Blown.

Mo'Joe a Go-Go Links
Website
Twitter
Instagram
Facebook

Family: The Epicenter of Adventure

As I was watching my 7 week old daughter, Sophia, sleep in my arms last night, all my ideas started coming to life about our future here in the wonderful city of McKinney, TX.  It got me reminiscing about my lovely wife Katie and I's discovery of the Farmer's Market in Chestnut Square and how our Saturday morning routine really kicked things off for us as a family; getting out there in town, meeting people, building relationships, stumbling across local treasures, and simply discovering the new and the old. 

Photo Credit Mike M Photos

Becoming a father really shaped me as a person, and kicked off a whole new adventure for my wife and I.  A blessing really.  We have lived here just over 2 1/2 years, and in those two years the city's slogan on the water tower "Unique By Nature" made more and more sense.  There is a lot to discover here that is not the everyday norm of your typical suburban community.  That is a value that we plan to instill in our daughter and incorporate into our family life.  A sense of community, respect, being unique, and hope that some of it comes naturally.

I thought the appropriate kick off to this blog following the brief "gloaty" family history lesson was to put emphasis on the importance of family, and how family is the epicenter of adventure.  What greater feeling exists than showing your young children the concept of simply living, meeting people, discovering new ground, and getting them active in the community, starting at just 2 weeks old? If we're going the opinions route, I'd say not many.

Proudly Used Without Permission ;-): Sweetie Pies by Karen

Who makes up this Uniqueness by Nature? The people? The Families, and individuals alike.  I am beyond excited about this adventure and all of you who stop by for a read.  I hope to meet all of you around town on this foreseeably endless adventure.


-DAN+McKinneyTX-



DAN+McKinneyTX : an INTRODUCTION

Hello and welcome to my blog, DAN+McKinneyTX.  Here you will find subject matter pertaining to topics outside of the office.  Feel-good stuff.  Things that hopefully don't make you want to pull your hair out, and will take your mind off the grind.  A large number of my posts will be McKinney, Texas specific.  Having spent the first 25 years of my life living in Plano, I began the trend of taking my heritage back to McKinney, TX.  It wasn't until I actually moved to McKinney that I realized just how deep rooted my family was, here.  I don't use it for any sort of "street cred" or anything, but I am the great grandson of Isaac Crouch.  His name is on this building for those of you who frequent the McKinney Square.  His daughter, my great aunt, Violet Crouch Beatty, is a lifelong McKinney native and can show us all a thing or two about living life to the fullest and getting ourselves active in the community.  I get all my history lessons from her.  She and my grandmother, Betty, are the best direct sources of history lessons.


Photo Credit: City-Data.com

Like I said before, not for "street cred" but it's hard not to feel pretty awesome when I walk by this building every time I go into the square.  As I look at this photo while I write, I start sort of day dreaming about my future down the road and how neat it would be to have an office or small business in this building and just live here forever, and have one of those historic homes down the way; just like you see in the movies with children swinging on the large oak tree. 
As you may have noticed this intro blog has sort of turned into a "gloaty" personal history lesson, so please bear with me, I apologize. I need to build a foundation on why I have called my blog "Dan+McKinneyTX".

My great grandfather Isaac owned and operated the below funeral home Crouch-Moore Funeral Home on Tennessee Street, which is now home to Charles W. Smith and Sons Funeral Home


This brings me to the whole basis of my blog.  Living in McKinney.  As we gravitate our way out of the "gloaty" personal history lesson, which some of you might or might not find to be rather fascinating, just let it be known I will be covering mostly uplifting McKinney-based subject matter, as well as personal interests and hobbies.  I know for the last 2 1/2 years since my wife and I moved to McKinney we have loved it.  The square, the farmer's market, the locally owned businesses, the not-so-routine suburban culture.  I hope to capture the interest of McKinney residents and visitors alike. 

This is home now.  I hope you enjoy this as much as I do.  Thanks for visiting, tell your friends.

Photo Credit DALWORTH RESTORATION

-DAN [McKinney, TX]