Local band ‘Bleeds Blue’ Submitted photo Reckless Abandon band members are (left to right) Mark Benedict, Seth Graham, Samuel Thomas, Josh Krohn and Joey Hoadley.

Want to get Reckless? Check the band out on Facebook, or on its website at www.recklessabandonmusic.com

About the song “Bleed Blue” was officially presented by Boise State Student Media. Samuel Thomas, the band’s guitarist and a BSU student, explains how working with the university’s student media department came about. 

“I came up with an idea to write a song to support BSU, the football team and to hype up the players.  Together, with Joey (Hoadley) we wrote the lyrics and the melody and laid the tracks within days.  I had a copy of it with me when I was leaving class one day, and I just decided to walk into the student media department and asked to speak to the director, Brad Arendt.

“Of course, the receptionist didn’t want to let me in, but I happened to catch him in between meetings.  By the time he was done listening, he was loving it and moving to the beat himself.” 

Posted: Monday, November 1, 2010 12:15 am

Local band ‘Bleeds Blue’ By Diana Register For the Idaho Press-Tribune Idaho Press-Tribune | 0 comments

tweetmeme_source = 'IdahoPress'; tweetmeme_service = 'bit.ly'; Share CALDWELL — Who knew that writing a song in nine days could unite a nation? A Bronco Nation, that is.

Caldwell band Reckless Abandon has written what could be the next theme song for the Boise State University Broncos. “Bleed Blue” is a dynamic mix of hip hop and classic head-banging rock, fitting in nicely with the bone-crushing BSU Broncos football team.

The inspiration for the song came from the band’s pride in their community as well as their reverence for the Boise State football program.

Reckless Abandon features frontmen Joey Hoadley and Samuel Thomas, who grew up in the area and live in Caldwell. Along with band members Josh Krohn, Mark Benedick and Seth Graham, they formed Reckless Abandon by taking the symphonic sounds of multiple genres of music — from hip hop to punk and rap to reggae — and combining them into one unique sound.

Like any new band, Reckless Abandon began its journey playing the local circuit, which in Caldwell meant coffee shops and churches. Since then, they’ve played at benefit concerts, fairs and recently won the city of Caldwell’s Battle of the Bands competition.

“We are pumped just like the rest of the valley to see the Broncos doing so well. We just wanted to find a way to share our excitement with the rest of the Bronco Nation. If the song becomes an anthem for BSU, that’s even better! This opportunity is incredible. The possibilities are endless,” Joey Hoadley said. “The name Reckless Abandon comes from our perspective on not only chasing our dream but how we all want to live our lives — with reckless abandon. We are all passionate about music and sharing the story of hope with others

Official premier of single “Bleed Blue”Posted by Arbiter Staff Blue-N-Orange, Main Feature, Sports Tuesday, October 12th, 2010   Courtesy Reckless Abandon

Boise State Student Media is proud to present the official release of the single “Bleed Blue,” by local Boise band Reckless Abandon.

Band members Joe Hoadley, Samuel Thomas, Josh Krohn, Mark Benedick and Seth Graham composed a song dedicated to the Boise State Broncos. A portion of the band is comprised of BSU students. The song stands apart in originality to other similar songs and is one of many works by the artists. They’re mix of rock and hip-hop chimes in with a complex rhythm blended with emphatic lyrics. You are sure to catch yourself mid melody nodding your head to the beat.

Bleed Blue

BLEED BLUE

BOISE….STATE
B…S…U….We….Bleed…Blue

Welcome to the city where the turf is blue
Gotta record mile long full of “W”s
Like to trouble you with that Petersen playbook
More tricks on game day than friends on Facebook
Who you depend on for that final score?
No less than the best, now give em some Moore
Stayin’ so fresh but he still surprise em
No better than the veteran now hand him the Heisman
Like MJ in his day, ya’ll don’t wanna face em
Boise ain’t a state we’re a whole blue nation
Ignore and erase em, that’s what we expect
Keep the hand outs, man we earn our respect
Got a house to protect and we down to ride
Anything for my team…feel the pride
So pick your side, this potato state
Gets down for the town in the 2-0-8

We ..bleed.. blue
Ain’t a team we can’t.. run right.. through
Wanna step…better..bring…your..crew
Who you runnin’ with?  B.S.U.

Prepare for war, we ready for combat
Old school rules, we bringin’ the bomb back
Double deuce dougie, homie live in the end zone
Safety on his back like he bringing a friend home
Ready to send home, anybody that face us
George Iloka put em back in they places
Losing they’re laces, leave em flat on their backs
Best from the west and we runnin’ the WAC
BCS sweat us, but they don’t want to let us
Show the rest of the world about Austin Pettis
Number 1 stunna Titus Young is a bad man
Provin BSU is the truth, not a fad man
So cool, need a sweater even when we’re just too hot
Our D is so sick we gotta give em all flu shots
Defeat Coach Pete,  you must be insane
Even when we pass we still runnin’ this game

 
Music in the park helps abuse victims By HOLLY BEECH hbeech@idahopress.com Idaho Press-Tribune | 0 comments

CALDWELL — Canyon County folks love listening to live, outdoor music in the summertime, but when it's for a great cause, the tunes seem a bit more powerful.

Advocates Against Family Violence hosted the second annual Canyon County Music Festival at Memorial Park in Caldwell Saturday, hoping to exceed last year's $12,000 in funds raised.

Most of the proceeds — collected through vendor booth rentals, a car raffle and silent auction — will benefit Hope's Door, a shelter for abuse victims.

Along with roughly eight hours of Southern rock, reggae and country flavored music from local bands, women who have gone through the Hope's Door, such as Nikcole Merrell, shared their testimonies at the event.

Merrell, a Caldwell mother of three teenagers, lived in an abusive relationship for 10 years and spent time in jail for prescription drug abuse.

“I'm alive today and safe and comfortable in my own skin because of Hope's Door,” she said. “The classes they've given me, the self esteem, the friendships … is what has made me who I am right now, has made me a better mom. My family is finally coming back together.”

The four of them recently moved into their own apartment, and Merrell got a job in the catering business, in part because of financial and career training Hope's Door gave her.

“(Hope's Door) didn't look down on me,” she said. “They helped me, they picked me up and said, you're better than that.”

Now Merrell gives back to women in the shelter and volunteers.

“I love to cook, so I go in there ... and I'm teaching women how to cook and how to buy food,” Merrell said. “ I cook crepes in the morning for all the women.”

Even though the festival fell on the same weekend as the Caldwell Night Rodeo and Western Idaho Fair, AAFV Executive Director Kim Ivacek was happy with the turnout, and hopes to continue raising funds for Hope's Door and other AAFV programs to make the organization more independent of government grants.

Eight local bands volunteered their time for this year's festival, including James Barrett, County Mayors Sing, MacKayla Hunter, Reckless Abandon, Moonshine & Mayhem, Belly Up, Brian Bateman Blend and Soul Serene.

© 2011 Idaho Press-Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

The Leader Of The Caldwell Police Department’s Anti-Gang Unit Expresses Himself As A Rapper

With his baseball cap pulled low and a mic cord in his hand, Joey Hoadley bobs his head and shoulders to the rapid-fire rhythm of his words.
"Standing on the stage getting blinded by the spotlight;
Shining like a spark in the middle of a dark night.
I give it all I got like I’m here for good will.
I lift up my pants and I pull down my bill."

As front man for rising local band Reckless Abandon, Hoadley doesn’t fit the usual profile for a rap artist.
Sure, the 31-year-old has the hat, the lingo (minus profanity) and the lyrics-laden creativity.
But when it comes to street cred, Hoadley’s comes from the other side of the road: He’s a police sergeant, head of Caldwell’s Street Crimes Unit.
For the past six years, he’s focused on cracking down on the drugs and gang violence that had sullied the reputation of the hometown he loves.

“He excels at it,” Caldwell police Chief Chris Allgood said of Hoadley. “We’ve really cut down on gang problems in this community. It is very different than it was five years ago, and he’s had a very big part of it, without a doubt.”

STORIES OF HOPE
It’s not unusual for police officers to double as musicians in a rock group or, perhaps, a bagpipes corps. But law and order isn’t exactly the first phrase that comes to mind when people think of rap culture, and many find Hoadley’s choice of creative outlet surprising.
But this isn’t gangsta rap, or even gangsta-busting rap. It’s music with a message — often a message of Christian faith.
“We’re not just talking about bitches and hos and diamonds and basketball,” said Sam Thomas, the singer/guitarist who shares Reckless Abandon front-man duties with Hoadley. “We try to tell real stories about experiences and hope.”
Perhaps the most personal of Hoadley’s stories is “Yo Ma,” which describes a challenging childhood and the woman who brought him through it. It begins:
"At 6 years old, my daddy walked out.
Left my moms all alone in a pool of doubt.
Had my two older sisters and my oldest brother;
Four kids, a house payment for a single mother.
Left my moms for another through a string of lies.
She had to wear sunglasses just to hide her black eye;
But I never seen her cry, held her head up high;
Working two part-time jobs, just trying to get by."
  The second verse concludes:
"If I make it with this music, she gets my first million.
But it wouldn’t be enough, that’s why this dedication
Goes out to you, Ma, with my appreciation."

Strangers have come up to Hoadley and hugged him after hearing that song. A former drug dealer he encouraged to go straight left him a voice-mail message. Reckless Abandon put it on its CD as an intro to “Yo Ma.” After listening to the song, he said: “I called my Mom yesterday just to tell her I love her.”
The subject of the song, Carol Hoadley, may not have wept in front of her kids when their family life went through upheaval. But she can’t stop the tears whenever she hears that song. And she’s tried, hard.
“I’d cry whenever I heard it ... and I didn’t want to embarrass him,” she said. “So I’d drive around in the car, put the CD in and listen to it over and over, trying not to cry.
“It didn’t work.”
She’s tremendously proud of her son’s accomplishments, and of the way he handled growing up in a south Caldwell neighborhood with ample gang activity and plenty of opportunities to go astray.

A ‘NEIGHBORHOOD PROBATION OFFICER’
“I just knew he wouldn’t go in that direction,” she said, noting that by the age of 12 her youngest son was looking out for other neighborhood kids who were tempted by crime.
“He was kind of like the neighborhood probation officer,” she said. “He kept tabs on them.”
“He would organize neighborhood teams to play sports and stuff,” she said. “He’d make shirts for them, put ’em into teams, keep ’em out of trouble.”
Many of their neighbors did get into trouble.
“Guys who are high-ranking gang members are guys I played basketball with,” Joey Hoadley said. “I’ve had foot pursuits with some of those guys.
“They call me Joey,” he said. That familiarity can cause other officers to do a double take, he said.
Hoadley’s fellow officers seem proud of his wordplay prowess. If a policeman is talking to a suspect who’s a freestyle rapper, Hoadley said, “they’ll call me over just to rap-battle with people.
“You’re like dissing on each other, but it creates a bond.”
A shared love of rap and hip-hop can provide a conduit of understanding between the gang-enforcement officer and the people he investigates and tries to help.

‘WAY WITH WORDS’
Hoadley has been rapping and writing songs, mostly just for himself, since he was a teenager, he said.
“I feel like he’s got an incredibly natural way with words,” said Reckless Abandon bandmate Thomas.
Crafting songs is an important outlet, Hoadley said.
“I’m really not good at talking with people, showing my emotions,” he said. “There’s a lot more than music in those songs. This is really a form of therapy for me.”
Music and the church helped pull Hoadley out of a darkened frame of mind a couple of years ago, he said.
“I spent the majority of my time seeing the bad side of people, and it was starting to weigh on me, in my words and in my lifestyle,” he said. “I was angry a lot.”
At age 28, he said, he began attending church and got baptized. And he met Thomas, who played music as the worship pastor at a local Free Methodist church. They clicked.
“I had all these random unique friendships with people that could compile a band,” Thomas said.
Soon they joined forces with guitarist Seth Graham, drummer Josh Krohn and bass player Mark Benedick (who has since left the band).
“It’s amazing how fast it all came together,” Hoadley said.

BAND WITH MOMENTUM
After months of writing and practicing, the band started performing for audiences last summer. Its first show was a battle of the bands in Caldwell, and it won.
Since then it has performed at numerous local venues, including the Flying M Coffee Garage, the Egyptian Theatre and the Knitting Factory.
The group turned down a performance for Prison Industries, Thomas noted, because the audience might include some of the hundreds of people Hoadley’s investigations have put behind bars.
“We don’t want our lead singer getting shanked,” Thomas said.
Reckless Abandon plans its first performances outside the Treasure Valley in June: a show in Denver plus a couple of smaller gigs along the route. A Northwest tour is likely later in the summer.
On Thursday, the band learned it had won its biggest booking yet: performing in June on the main stage of Nampa’s God and Country Rally, probably Canyon County’s biggest annual event.
“They had 13,000 fans there last year,” Hoadley said. “To go from playing a coffee shop to the Idaho Center in a year is pretty good.”

SEPARATING MUSIC AND POLICING
Although he agreed to talk about his dual passions for this story, Hoadley likes to keep his police and music personas separate.
“In some of my songs, subtly I’m sharing those stories,” he said. “A lot of the metaphors and stuff come from what I do for a living. But I don’t like to mix the two. It’s kind of a break from police work.”
He said he has written one song about police work, but the band hasn’t performed it.
“I think we’ve done a pretty good job of pushing the band without selling it on ‘the rapper’s a cop,’” Hoadley said. “I don’t want to be a sideshow.”

Kristin Rodine: 377-6447