Knott's Merry Farm, 11/27+29/15

Hello friends,

I'm back at Knott's another weekend, Friday and Sunday. Kelly is back too. Here's a few pictures from Friday afternoon. We did OK even though we were all suffering from a turkey hangover.

Here I am just about to walk through the security checkpoint at the west gate. I thought I'd check out all the stuff going on in the park today. Looks like there will be a lot of fun all season.

I made my way to our dressing room to find Jeff frantically trying to find all of his settings and get organized for the new set lists today.

Before we started I made my way to the "Crew's Nest" (employee cafeteria) to get some drinks and noticed the window. It boosted my spirits and got me in the mood to perform my best.
 

A few times during the show we let the kids get up and play with all the rhythm instruments while we're singing "Jingle Bells" and other kid-friendly Christmas songs.

The Kelly Rae Trio.

We had a good crowd all day Friday. We even had people just show up to hear us, not just to eat the barbecue.
 

This is the Firemen's Barbecue. The stage is located behind the BBQ stand.
 

In front of the BBQ is the Birdcage Theater. This is where Krazy Kirk and the Hillbillies (formerly Billy Hill and the Hillbillies, who used to play in the Golden Horseshoe Saloon at Disneyland) perform their shows a few times a week. I'll have to try to catch one of their shows while we're here.

The maze for Knott's Scary Farm is still place. It's just pretty much empty and not open to the public. It's still pretty scary in there.

There is a Haunted Museum near our stage that houses some of the props and costumes used for the Scary Farm. Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, usually makes an appearance during the run and puts on a few shows.

Every night we get a little snow in Ghost Town. The kids (of all ages) love it.
 

Just a couple pictures from Sunday (11/29/15). It was a slow day at the park but I still had a couple of friends unexpectedly show up to say "Hi". They'd heard that we were there and came on by to check out our fun.

This is Amanda, our sound tech for the evening. We've worked with her a couple of times now and she does quite well. Kelly's husband, Jack, was there and said the mix was good out front.
 

I guess Amanda is pretty good with her wireless mixer on the iPad. She's a real sweetheart, very attentive and always checking to make sure we're hearing everything we need.

It's such a cushy gig, when we're done we just lock up our gear in the dressing room, no schlepping.

We'll be back at the park at 4:30am on Thursday to do a spot for the local channel 5 (KTLA) morning news. I doubt we'll be anything other than background but I'll try to share it if it's any good. Then coming up this weekend, along with our Knott's dates, is The Ranch. It'll be a really busy weekend.

Merry Christmas to all! God bless us, every one.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

Downtown Disney w/Smith 11/24/15

Hello good people,

I had the pleasure of subbing in for another terrific Orange Country country band, Smith. We played at Downtown Disney, a cool place to hang out and make music. I had a couple of "bass player moments" during the evening that you might appreciate. Nothing major, just a couple of little things that made me go "Doh!" and slap my forehead.

The evening started with a brain fart when I got in the wrong lane and ended up in the parking structure of Disneyland instead of proceeding past it on Disneyland Drive down to Downtown Disney. This kind of thing must happen all the time because the parking attendant gave me a pass and put a big red "EXIT" flyer in my windshield wiper. As I drove on through it seemed all the parking lot traffic directors would roll their eyes as they pointed me toward the exit. They must've known I was a bass player.

So I made it out of the parking structure, made a U-turn, took the right lane, pulled into the Disneyland Hotel by mistake, made another U-turn, and finally arrived at Downtown Disney to unload in the valet area. It's good the valet was closed tonight, less traffic to contend with.

I rolled my gear over to the stage to find the sound engineer just getting set up. He said I was early and he was running late.

While the sound guy was doing his thing I wandered around to take in the sights. Here's the little ice skating rink adorned with a large Christmas tree.

This is a shot from the stage. You can see the monorail track. This lends a "Jetsons" air to the venue.
 

Meet Eric, our sound engineer. He's also a musician and all around nice guy. He did an excellent job and had really good QSC gear.
 

Here's Eric's mains and my bass rig on stage. The rest of the band is nowhere to be seen.
 

I was here so early because it was the first time I've done this venue. I allowed for traffic, parking, getting lost, etc. It's a good thing since I had to turn around twice before I got here.

Yay! The band starts to arrive. This is my old friend Paul. I've known Paul for 20 years and played with him off and on in various other projects. He's a retired fire captain who now plays music full time, steel, fiddle, banjo, dobro, vocals, etc.
 

This is Jason, a very solid drummer who sings his tukus off, both lead and harmonies. I didn't have to sing at all tonight. It was fun just to concentrate on my playing.
 

This is Mike and Brandi. Brandi's got a great voice and excellent stage presence. She comes off as kind of a ditsy blonde but it's just an act. Mike is also a great singer and picker. The three of these guys have terrific harmonies.
 

Just after we finish a set I'm able to grab and amp-selfie with Brandi and Paul.
 

This is what our stage looked like after the sun went down. There was no fantastic light show, except for the fireworks, but at least you could see us.
 

Another gear picture, this is Mike's rig and pedal board.

Brandi indulges me with a picture.

The drummer was late getting back for the set so I snapped a picture from his vantage point.
 

It was a really fun night. I knew a lot of their set list but had to learn about 15 songs for their show. They were all fun tunes so I didn't mind. They'll call me again when they need a sub so it wasn't wasted effort. When it was all over, we played from 6-10pm, I left Eric to his work while I packed up and rolled back out to the parking lot.

Oops! Another "bass player moment". When I arrived to my van I realized that I had backed into my stall. I do this often because it's easier to leave a crowded parking lot. But it makes it terribly inconvenient when you have to load gear.
 

Doh! No biggie, though. I just pulled ahead to an empty space and loaded my gear. It's a good thing no one else in the band saw me.

The next weekend I'm back at Knott's Merry Farm to do the trio thing. I hope everyone has Happy and Joyous Holidays! God bless.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff 

Knott's Merry Farm, 11/21-23/15

Hi folks!

Welcome to the second happiest place on earth! (Just kidding!) Actually, Knott's is known as "The Friendliest Place In The West", and I believe it. Today we began our run at Knott's Merry Farm for the holiday season. We'll be playing as a trio off an on, mostly on, from now until Jan. 3rd. All us guys in the band are taking turns backing Kelly (and Kellye) in the trio so that we can share the load.

Since Kelly was out of town our opening weekend of this run, our dear friend Kellye is filling in for her. Here's Kellye at the employee entrance.

After a stop by the entertainment office to pick up the key to our dressing room we make our way to the stage to find the crew putting things together.

It's a pretty simple affair. Everyone is going direct and we have two monitors with one mix. The sound guys wander out front with their iPad to keep the mix mixed. Here's Jeff and Kellye waiting for our sound check.
 

We're playing in an area known as Fireman's Barbeque. We're surrounded by old time buildings and a very quaint atmosphere. While I'm waiting I wander over to watch the calliope player knock out some Christmas songs. She was pretty cool.
 

Here's the view from the stage. The folks were very receptive and would put down their BBQ quite often to show their appreciation when I stopped singing.
 

Just down the street was the big Calico stage where we appeared during the summer season two summers ago. Today they had school choirs singing Christmas songs. It was very cute.
 

These are a couple of the vendors around the BBQ area, gifts, jewelry, drinks, snacks, souvenirs, etc. Our stage was just inside here to the left.

This is Nolan and John, a couple of the sound tech crew, with their wireless mixer. These kids these days have pretty high tech toys.

We had our fun singing some Christmas songs, some country songs, and telling a few lame jokes.
 

Kellye does a good job strumming her guitar. She's been playing only a few months. Jeff used the little drum machine in his keyboard and I was surprised how much that fake drummer could swing.
 

One of the sound techs used my camera to get these photos out front. They were good sports.

We play half hour sets and then retire to our dressing room for a half hour to an hour depending on the day's schedule.
 

This is the little guard shack where we check in before we park. The kids that work here are always friendly and polite.
 

We just walk across the street from the employee lot to the park. It's not like Disney where we have to be picked up in a shuttle and get driven for miles. It's a simpler, funner experience.

This Nativity scene is right outside the building where our dressing room is located. I love Nativity scenes.
 

Here's a shot of the "Kellye" trio in our red look.
 

Here we are in our black look.
 

And a couple of action shots.

We had a bunch of kids get up on stage and do a number with us. I've got video somewhere of their singalong. Let me scrape it off the social media. We had fun.
 

The crowd even laughed and groaned at my lame jokes. And every time I would stop singing they would clap. I guess I should stop singing more often.

Thanks for letting me share my fun. I'll be back at this gig almost every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday until Jan. 3rd. Tomorrow night I'm playing in Downtown Disney with the band "Smith", a local country cover band. It's a busy season for me. I am quite fortunate.

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving and will have a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. God bless.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff