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The BIG Reason

Music, opinions, and portfolio of Mark Eagleton, musician and web developer in Northern CA.

Pleasant Valley Boys Temp Site
A single page that covers the basics.

Pleasant Valley Boys Temporary Home Page

I’m in the process of building a website for my Bluegrass band, Matt & George and their Pleasant Valley Boys. I set up the server last night and whipped together a minimalist temporary page.

I’m in the process of building a website for my Bluegrass band, Matt & George and their Pleasant Valley Boys. I set up the server last night and whipped together a minimalist temporary page.

I build music websites for a living, and I have a number of ideas about what makes a suitable band website. The following are things a website for a non-touring, working-man’s band needs to provide:

  • Locale of your band
  • What you look like
  • What you sound like
  • Where you are playing next
  • How you can be contacted for booking

I tried to meet all these criteria as directly and as elegantly as possible. I opted for plain language over widgets and tables, and used external websites to provide more detailed information to keep the page uncluttered.

When a band is introduced on stage, it is common for the M.C. to tell the audience where they are from. I took this introduction approach with the temp site, formally addressing the audience, and stating the locale of the band. I also linked to the locale on Google Maps, since Dixon California is a small town most people aren’t going to be familiar with.

From there, I address what we look like and sound like with a video, rather than with an image and separate audio files. iPhone folks get a still image, and the “Traditional bluegrass from 1947 and before.” text description of the type of music we play should provide enough to go on.

For our upcoming show at the local farmers’ market, I opted for plain language again. This is how we would announce an upcoming show in person, after all. To keep the page clean, I make use of that hypertext protocol and simply link to the Davis Farmers’ Market website where visitors can find the location of the market.

Lastly is booking information. I have provided the email address, phone number, and website for our record label/management company, Pleasant Valley Music. We need to take care of our friends, after all.