Last Friday I had the pleasure of playing with my old friend Arnie Newman and his band at Cowboy Country in Long Beach. We were not only celebrating Arnie's birthday, we were also collecting donations to benefit the victims of the recent Blue Cut fire.
The last time I played this room is was called The Silver Bullet. That's been a long time. You can read the history of this honky tonk on the website if you like.
The current owners just painted it to look like a plain old barn. There's nothing but the sign on the street to let you know there's a honky tonk here.
Soon after I arrive John and Jason load in.
It's a good sized room with three dance floors, one upstairs and one to either side of the stage.
There is seating right in front of the stage. It's a bit different layout, not having a dance floor right in front of the stage. Off to my right is the main dance floor where the early patrons are getting ready for the dance lesson.
Jason sets up under the classy banner.
I find Arnie in the "green" room. We went over a couple of tunes that the guest artists will be performing later.
In between the green room and the stage is the DJ booth. This is Gordy, spinning all the hits. He worked here when it was the Silver Bullet too. Not a thing has changed.
You can tell when you're in a real honky tonk because there are vending machines in the men's room.
Cowboy Country has a good sized gift shop too.
Half of one of the downstairs dance floors is used for the mechanical bull.
Here's the band schedule. We play five sets but it's a half hour on, and a half hour off.
Upstairs to the left of the stage are pool tables and seating. It's not quite as loud up here. There's no 87db limit here like at that other place.
Looking back down from the top of the stairs you can see it's a good sized room.
This is Arnie's wife, Terri. She brought cake for the birthday boy.
These are the WMDs for Arnie and me.
John does his sound check.
Paul is on steel and fiddle this evening. I think Randy was out of town doing another gig.
Here's my amp-selfie with Arnie.
Sorry if some of these pictures come out a little fuzzy. I'm still getting used to my new camera. Here John is kicking off the intro to an instrumental called "Mama Screw Your Wig On Tight". It's a big, fun, boogie woogie piano number where everybody gets a solo.
This is the main dance floor to stage right. We're just coming back up for another set as the DJ has the line dancers up. There's another upstairs area with a dance floor above those banners.
Arnie entertains the crowd. They like their Haggard here.
Speaking of Haggard, here is Arnie's promo video for his Big City Tribute to Merle Haggard.
Sitting in with the band tonight are Austin and Joseph. Both of these guys used to be in the band before they started touring with Keiffer Sutherland. Joseph is playing my JBS.
Then Melise, Austin's girlfriend, gets up to sing a couple with the band. I'd never met her before. Not only is she very cute, she can really sing.
This is Gethen Jenkins of The Freightshakers. We've done a couple of shows with them. Gethen writes good ol' outlaw country.
The line dancers are still having their fun.
Arnie wanted a picture with all of his bass players. Yours truly, Joseph, Arnie, and Matt.
And his wife wasn't even mad.
Later in the evening Francelle got up on stage. She and Matt had a gig earlier but came out later to lend their support to benefit the fire victims.
Francelle should be a star one day soon. She is the real deal.
This is the sound guy, Kenny, and his view from the booth upstairs.
Kenny did a good job and was easy to work with. I could tell him "Give me 3db more steel" and it would be right where I wanted it in my monitor.
Matt played the whole set so I got to wander around and take more pictures. Here's the stage from the booth upstairs.
And what gig would be complete without food? Here's Arnie's birthday meal that his wife bought for him.
Cowboy Country streams the bands live on the internet and keeps some video in archives. Let's see if this link works....
The Arnie Newman Band
And that was my Friday night at Cowboy Country. It's a good old fashioned honky tonk with good folks and was a lot of fun. Thanks for looking!
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
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