I'm still filling in with the ANB until he finds a permanent replacement. Here's the electronic flyer that Arnie used on the social media.
This gig report actually starts on Tuesday evening when The Arnie Newman Band featuring Kellye Huff had a rehearsal at The Ranch. The owner, Andrew, usually rehearses with us but he was out of town this evening so Mark took the opportunity to fit the band with IEMs and get us all dialed in.
I guess I should have told Arnie that the IEMs work better when they're not in your nose.
Here's Mark in the monitor room getting our mix on. Don't tell anyone I took this picture. He hates getting his picture taken.
Jason is putting his ears on and getting levels from Mark.
Don't you think it just looks wrong to set a guitar rack on top of a Neo 412? I think so.
The lovely Ms. Kellye Huff joins us on stage.
We finished getting our IEM mixes dialed in and ran over a few new tunes for the weekend. We had supper too but I didn't take any food shots.
When I arrived late Friday afternoon there was a wedding party having a photo shoot.
After the family and friends had dinner next door in the restaurant the wedding party came back for dancing and drinks. They enjoyed themselves.
I brought only three basses this weekend.
I always hide my cases behind the curtain on the back wall of the stage.
Then I retired to the green room. I'd had a long week at work so I drained a pot of coffee trying to shake the cobwebs.
As the band readies itself, Dev teaches the crowd a new line dance.
Tonight I enjoyed an organic green salad with grilled chicken along with some chicken tenders. The food at The Ranch is great, and musicians love to eat!
Since I had no amp, I had to set my camera on one of the lights to take my usual selfie with Kellye.
These were Arnie's WMDs tonight. He played every one of them.
John pounds out the intro for "Mama Screw Your Wig On Tight", a rocking little boogie-woogie number that features John on piano. He really smokes it.
As we all were overcoming some glitches with the IEMs, making Mark really earn his money tonight, Jason puts a beater through the kick drum head.
This happened just before the last song of the second set. We broke three minutes early and let the DJ take over. Since it's a backline kit, Mark had a spare drum head. Jason replaced the head while Mark worked on everyone's monitor mix. There were a LOT of gremlins in the works tonight.
But all in all, it was a good night.
The gremlins almost got me last night too!
I decided to change the strings on my Carvin last night after I got to the club. My 20+ year old LB76 has the original Sperzel locking tuners. I love them.
Unfortunately, a couple years ago I let a few of those caps come loose and I lost them along with the internal locking pins. No problem, I called Carvin and they sent me a new set at a very reasonable price. Carvin is no longer using genuine Sperzel tuners but rather a locking tuner of their own manufacture. I did not find out until last night that there is a difference in the new hardware and my old hardware.
I accidentally cut my D string a little too short. No problem, I thought. I'll just make sure the locking pin is tight. But the new pins are shorter and thinner than the original Sperzel parts.
Mark and I were in the green room trying to get all my strings working. I had to take all the tuners apart until I found an original locking pin that was a little longer and a little fatter. I was able to use it to lock down my short D string. The other strings I just made sure that I had enough wraps to lock the string on the post. Catastrophe averted.
Now I'm going to have to call Carvin to see if they have any original Sperzel tuner parts, or even contact Sperzel to see if I can get the right replacement parts. The locking caps tend to come loose and if I don't check them often enough they will come loose and get lost. Silly bass player.
Saturday was immensely better than Friday night. There were no gremlins and everyone had no problems with their gear or their mixes. The owner was extremely happy and even slipped us each a bill to show his appreciation. You don't see many club owners tipping the band.
We did a quick line check when we arrived to test our IEMs. Here's Paul and Randy making sure stuff works.
Then we retired to the green room for supper. Paul and Randy were swapping stories about being on the road. Randy has toured with Kellie Pickler, Pam Tillis, and Trace Adkins to name a few. He's got some stories.
Here's what I had for supper - a lettuce-wrapped steakburger and a Caesar salad with grilled chicken. I hadn't eaten all day just so I could enjoy as much of The Ranch's food as possible.
Arnie went over a couple of tunes from the night before so that we could firm up the arrangements. Jason is getting re-caffeinated.
The picture has become known as "Beauty and the Beast, and the bass player", our amp-selfie just before we get started.
Here's a shot of the crowd over Arnie's shoulder.
Andrew, the owner, likes to sing a few with the band at the top of the show. He's getting better all the time. But don't worry, he won't quit his day job.
Kelly and Andrew do some old school country, "Fort Worth", "Jackson", and stuff like that. They are cute together and the band just murders the vintage stuff.
Kellye gives me a lovely acoustic smile.
I think Jason may need some more caffeine on the break. He did NOT put a beater through the bass drum head tonight.
John has three keyboards and he's not afraid to use them!
I'm not sure why these guys are smiling. Did somebody tell a banjo joke?
And on with the show! It was a great crowd tonight.
Here is one of the many birthday parties in the place tonight. Andrew, the owner, was also celebrating his birthday.
Kellye and Arnie were having a blast tonight.
Isn't she just about the cutest thing ever?
The line dancers were having their fun.
It's kind of hard to see John behind that mountain of keyboards.
Here I am on Saturday night playing a note I have to see.
I like it when Paul picks up his fiddle. He does a great job on fiddle, banjo, acoustic guitar, mandolin, and even plays a great steel guitar when Randy is not on the gig.
Randy played a couple of solos that night that made my jaw drop, he's such a great player. But I think he's hoping nobody heard that note he just played.
And one more crowd shot before we call it a night.
In the next post I'll be at Gilley's in Las Vegas with the Kelly Rae Band. The weekend after that I'll be back at The Ranch with The Arnie Newman Band. My April is really full, fourteen gigs. That's a lot of gig reports. I hope you don't mind. Thanks for looking.
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
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