Arnie Newman Band at The Ranch, 1/23/16

Hi,

This was my gig last Saturday. My old friend Arnie Newman asked me to fill in for their regular bassist, Joseph De La O. Joseph is a young, good looking, monster player (I hate him) who is going on a European tour with Kiefer Sutherland. While Joseph is out of town I'll be trying to cover those dates.

I arrived at The Ranch on Saturday night to find Arnie in the green room doing what Arnie does, playing his guitar.

I had brought my ABG, that's my Fender Kingman on the bench, so that we could go over a couple of things. I had to learn, and re-learn, a couple of dozen songs to cover this gig.

But let's talk about the important stuff first. Tonight I had a grilled chicken Ceasar salad and the steakburger. The food is great here.

This is Arnie's guitar rig. Those Carp amps are built by a friend of ours. In fact, "Carp" works with me at my day job. Don't worry, Arnie doesn't play too loudly. Those top speaker cabinets are not plugged in. They're just for show. The NAMM show is in town and Arnie likes to show off.

That rack in the middle has a Kemper Profiler. Arnie has profiles from all the great guitar/amp combos loaded in that thing. He can sound just like the Peter Frampton "Live!" album if he wants to. Arnie has so many toys.

See what I mean? Behind his rig are just six of the dozens of guitars he owns. He was traveling kind of light. He played them all tonight.

This is John Higgins, another old friend. We've worked together in different projects for at least 25 years. In fact, my wife (girlfriend at the time) attended his first wedding.

John works at Jim's Music in Tustin right here in the OC. You may remember we had a TalkBass hang there a couple years ago. I'm sure I posted up a thread.

Arnie joins me for an amp-selfie. It's a good night here with the NAMM show just down the street. Tonight upstairs in the 6th floor event venue the Martin Guitar Company is having a party. They came down later to join us in the saloon. You could tell there were lots of "industry" people in the place tonight.

This was my little corner of the stage. Arnie's rig makes that GK 412 look small.

The lovely Ms. Kellye Huff joins us for another amp-selfie. I call this one "Beauty and the Beast, and the bass player".

Kellye is such a joy to work with, sweet and talented.

And then there's these guys. That's Randy Hess on the steel guitar and Daniel Blank joined us to fill in for Austin (git), who had another gig.

This is Randy's rig. He likes the twin Peaveys.

This is Jason Hawks, an excellent drummer who can play quietly when he wants too. I've known Jason for quite a few years now. He used to drum for us in the KRB.

Jason wears a headset mic and runs some tracks with the extra hardware back there.

Here's Arnie's fancy red Gretsch.

Arnie with another one of his guitars. PRS?

Here's Arnie with another red Gretsch that he likes to call "Gumby".

Arnie's picking and almost grinning.

It looks as if Kellye's picking and pouting. It must be a sad country song. Isn't she cute? Daniel seems to be enjoying himself too.

Daniel really is a pro at this. He makes it look easy.

Randy really knows how to make that steel cry and sing. He's such a great player.

The owner of The Ranch, Andrew, kicked off the night with a few of his songs. He's been taking vocal lessons from Kellye and is improving every time I hear him.

Kellye has a soulful quality about her voice. You can tell she grew up singing gospel music.

Jason does a really good job playing drums and singing lead and harmony vocals. A lot of drummers I know don't sing at all.

Jason plays with real emotion!

We do a lot of line dancing and two-stepping here at The Ranch.

This is one of the cha-cha dances that the couples like to do.

Here's a nice shot from the stage.

We had a capacity crowd tonight. There was probably a line out front waiting to get in.

Oh yes! Everybody's really having fun now! Wave your hands in the air like you just don't care!

On the last break I decided to go to the bar for an adult beverage. The dance floor is still full while the DJ plays their favorite tunes.
  

A good time was had by all. This band sure does some fun tunes. I had to spend some time learning them so I hope I get to play with Arnie again soon before I forget them.

Thanks for looking! 

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff