La Quinta Country Club, 1/30/16

Hello friends!

It's "the season" for the Palm Springs area, where all the well-heeled "snow birds" go for the winter. We played a country hoe-down at the La Quinta Country Club and these folks know how to put on a party. There was even a chili cook-off, everyone was dressed in their finest drugstore cowboy duds, and they had a great time. This gig wasn't a snore-fest like a lot of them can be.

Anyway, it was a bit overcast when I left my house today. We're expecting lots of rain tomorrow. But as I got out into the desert the skies cleared and it was a pleasant day. There's snow on the top of Mt. San Jacinto. That's where the Palm Springs Ariel Tramway takes you to the top. It can be 85º on the desert floor but then you take the tram up 7000 feet and you can build a snowman.

At the base of the mountain is the Morongo Resort and Casino. I like stopping next door at Hadley's Orchards to get a date shake.

Here's a closer look.

Continuing east through the desert, when you come to a fork in the road, take it. The 111 highway goes through Palm Springs proper and turns into a boulevard with lots of lights. You want to say on the 10 freeway to bypass all the city traffic.

The windmill farms out here make you think you're on another planet. Sometimes the wind itself feels like it will blow you to another planet.

Just in case you don't know where you are, the name's on the overpasses.

I arrive at my exit and head south toward the foothills where all the golf and tennis clubs are.

I pass Woodhaven Country Club, where I used to do a lot of gigs with my old band, The Runnin' Kind.

A few minutes later I arrive at La Quinta Country Club.

As I pull in, this old duffer is trying to make it out of the sand trap. He finally made it out but I don't know how many strokes it took. I was polite and didn't honk my horn at him.

This is the clubhouse. It's a nice facility.

I load in and set up. We're using my PA today.  

I brought a small rig. I was the only one with an amp today. I also went direct into the PA, same with Daniel's fiddle and Jeff's keys. They didn't have to bring amps today. Pretty cushy.
  

Jeff arrives and we enjoy the view from the Pavillion.

This is the view from our office today.

In the meantime, the crew has just about put all the finishing touches on the room.
 

While we wait for downbeat, Jeff and I are in the green room texting each other. 

I thought I'd relax by the fire until the party started.

This is a real high-class joint. The sign says to leave your guns at the bar.

I always get a kick how these folks trick out their golf carts. Here's a Peterbuilt. 

While we play our dinner set, our clients are enjoying their meal. It was quite a spread.

After our first set of dinner music, we got to have supper. These were the side dishes, mac and cheese, roasted potatoes, asparagus, catfish, and hush puppies.

Then we helped ourselves to the chicken, roasted pig, and beef brisket with an assortment of sauces and chutneys.

We even had our own dining room. It was a pleasant repast.

Then it was back to the merriment. Here's Kelly with a couple of bottles of feel good. Actually, these were prizes for the chili cook-off winners.

This is Thom, our host and the guy who hired us, a really nice guy. He loved the band and brought us beer. He announced the chili cook-off winners.

Jeff plays a drum roll on his keys to announce the winner.

I think Daniel is glad all the announcements are over and we can get back to having fun.

See what I mean? Kelly is out on the floor leading an electric slide. This crowd was lively all night.

This is Julie. She sat in the the band and sang with us.

The crowd danced as long as we were playing music. Everyone was having so much fun we played two hours for our last set without a break.

These parties end about 10:00pm, which is a good thing. We all have a long drive home. Since I brought the PA, everyone else is long gone while I gather up all my gear. Everyone offered to help but they all had a longer drive than I did so I told them to hit the road. This PA is easy to pack up.

We've got another country club party out here again in just a couple of days. I don't mind doing a couple of these in a week even though it's more than 90 miles out here from my house. The pay and perks are pretty darn good!

As I was leaving I thought the lighting on the trees was pretty.

It was quite windy on the way home. But with my van loaded down with all my gear I had no trouble keeping it between the lines.

Thanks for looking!

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff






 

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