We had a very busy weekend, four gigs in three days. I'm going to start with our weekend at The Ranch in Anaheim CA. Then I'll move on to our Saturday afternoon gig at El Cajon's America On Main Street Festival and Sunday evening's Brea Bonanza Days Country Music Festival. Lots' o'fun!
After leaving my day job, the drive down to the OC on Friday afternoon was nice, no traffic and the weather was clearing a bit. The canyon was actually a little green from the recent rains.
I couldn't get off as early as I would've liked to make sound check. In fact, we all arrived a little late to sound check so we actually didn't sound check at all. But there's really no need since everything is so dialed in already. We like to use the sound check as a little warm-up but we had no time tonight.
Mario wanted to try a little stand-up bass. This were my toys for the weekend.
We had to cut the volume by 5db so Mark (sound guy) put up the BIG drum shield.
I know Mario doesn't look too happy, but it works just fine. He really didn't have a problem with it.
This is how Mark keeps a reign on our git-Art. Art brings his smallest amp and Mark corrals it.
It's generally not that loud anyway but it was quite comfortable on stage this weekend. I could hear everything and nothing was too loud. I love having a quiet stage and letting this excellent sound system do all the heavy lifting.
After we set up our gear we had supper in the green room.
We feasted on steakburgers, fried pickles, fish tacos, cocktail shrimp, salad, fruit, etc. The Ranch has an excellent menu, even in the saloon.
Kelly arrives and we take our "amp selfie". She makes me look good.
You can tell it's Friday night because we're wearing brown. Then Saturday night it's usually black.
I hope I wasn't disturbing anything when I took this picture of Mario and Art. I think they were talking about set list queues.
Jeff has his key-tar strapped on and is ready to strut around the stage.
Mario had o scratch a little itch on his nose before we started.
And a candid shot of our dueling guitars, Art and Daniel. Daniel is not a shredder on guitar like he is on fiddle, but he plays all the tasty stuff.
The owner did not sit in with us this weekend. He just came to dance with his wife.
Our friend J.D. Crawford sat in with us on Friday night. His band had just played the Brea Bonanza Days Festival that we played Sunday night. You'll see that gig later.
Now it's Kelly's turn to light up the stage.
Kelly really puts on a show. I wonder what Mario is looking at?
Daniel is the consummate pro.
Moving right along with our fast-paced, Las Vegas style show, here I am hamming it up for the camera.
It looks like this crowd shot is from Saturday night. You can tell because we're wearing black.
Mario looks concerned about something. Perhaps he's afraid Daniel is going to poke Kelly in the eye with his bow.
I think the guys are discussing the threat of the Federal Reserve raising interest rates.
I think Jeff is pointing at some bass player.
This is our Saturday night "amp-selfie". You can tell it's Satruday because we're in black and Kelly is in RED.
"Hey Mario! Do something weird!"
He said, "That's all I got. It's been a long day." By that time we had already played our gig in El Cajon and we were all a little silly from fatigue.
But Kelly is always on. It's such a pleasure working with her.
Kelly's got a nice pair.... of monitors. 
I don't know what to say about this pair.
For some odd reason, these two lovely sisters from Ireland wanted to talk to the bass player. In the spirit of good national relations I thought I'd be neighborly. This is Elizabeth and Christine with their friend Shauna. (Note: It's not often that anybody wants to talk to the bass player, unless it's another bass player. Even then it's kind of iffy.)
While I'm out mingling, schmoozing, working the room, etc, the rest of the gang are hanging out in the green room, too tired to do much more than look at their phones.
Sorry. This is a little out of sequence, we're wearing brown.
Woah! Time warp. It's Saturday night again. See the black shirts? And that's me, with a pick! Oh, the horror!
Art must be playing something really, really good.
We all walked out front so we could really connect with the audience. This was during our new Miranda Lambert song, "Little Red Wagon".
I know it's not some folks' cup of tea, buy I enjoy watching all the line dancers have their fun.
This is the last break on Saturday night and the dance floor is still full. It was a good night.
We all try to head out quickly when the night ends. We've got another gig the next day with a 3:30 call time.
So that was last weekend at The Ranch. I'll toss up a couple more gig blogs for our Saturday afternoon show in El Cajon and for our Sunday evening show at the Brea Bonanza Days Country Music Festival. Break a leg!
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
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