I had another epic mid-week show with Roger and his True Willie Band. We played one dinner show at the Feather Falls Casino and Lodge. This was a standard "fly date". We flew up Wednesday morning, sound checked that afternoon, played the show that night, then flew back the next morning.
I took a ton of pictures at this gig. I narrowed it down to my top 60 so it will take a looong post to fit them all in. Please be patient with me.
We all met at John Wayne Airport in Orange county. Johnny and I carpooled since we're practically neighbors. We met the rest of the lads, Mike, Dave, and Roger, at the gate after we checked in.
You'd think I'd never flown before but I thought this was kind of an interesting flight. Here we are flying past the beach out over the ocean before we turn north to Sacramento.
I'm pretty sure that's Huntington Beach below us. Then we make our turn somewhere over Catalina Island.
As we fly back over land I thought it was interesting to see the ocean, the beach, and the snow on the mountains as we climbed to our cruising altitude.
Hey, I think I can see my house from here. Then as we make our final descent into Sacramento Airport we see lots and lots of water. The Sacramento River is just about overflowing its banks. You can also see the snow capped Sierras off in the distance. On the other side of those mountains is Lake Tahoe.
We land, grab our gear, then Dave makes sure we get a ride to the rental pickup.
We procured a large-ish Toyota SUV for the drive to the casino/lodge. All of our instruments and luggage just fit.
Before we left the airport Roger was already consulting his map. John turned on an app in his phone so we wouldn't get lost. Between the two we got there just fine, driving through lots of beautiful farmland and orchards, some of which was not flooded.
Mike was kind enough to sit in the "way-back" seat next to all the gear. (I did that on the trip coming back.) We were a bunch of guys on a mini-road trip, telling off-color jokes and tales of drunken debauchery.
Yes, we were pretty close to the town of Oroville. In fact, we saw the dam as we drove by on the way to the venue. The dam itself is OK. It's the spillways that are worrying people. But the lake level is down below a dangerous level for now.
As we pulled in I snapped a picture of the marquee. I meant to come back out here and get one with True Willie but never found the time.
We pulled right around to the back stage door to unload our gear.
The stage wasn't quite set up for us so we just stowed our gear out of the way to let the crew finish up.
This is Joe (FOH) and Cory (monitor), our stage crew for the evening. They were both great to work with. I had a great monitor mix and some very important people, you'll meet them soon, said it sounded great out front.
This is the brewery, right behind the bar in the showroom. We'll get to sample its wares later.
We hopped back into the Land Cruiser and drove up to the Lodge to check-in.
It was a very nice lodge, done up with the Native American Southwest wood and stone. It was pretty classy.
We were on the blackboard in the lobby. We were also on the large screen TVs and posters throughout the whole casino.
I asked for a room on the top floor, the third. This was the view. I wish I could've taken a picture of the sunset from here. But we were working.
After we stow our gear we go back to the showroom to set up and soundcheck. Johnny leads the way.
We found one of True Willie's posters at the bottom of the escalator going up to the lodge. It seemed like a perfect photo op.
We met at the snack bar to grab a quick lunch and pick up our passes. True Willie and Mike are glad to be here.
I just had a chef salad and coffee. I was saving my appetite for supper after the show. We grabbed our grub and went to the green rooms backstage.
Johnny and I had our lunch in the smaller green room. The rest of the guys were next door in the larger room. The facilities here are very nice. Dave and Roger were having a very peaceful panini sandwich.
Then we made our way around the corner to the stage and get set up. It was a very nice stage, very comparable to The Ranch.
This was my backline rig. Oh boy! An SVT-4Pro with an 8x10. Delish.
Dave's kit was OK but he brought his own snare this time. He didn't like the snare last time at all.
Here's Mike with his tobacco 335 and his backline Fender Deluxe.
Roger starts warming up his "Willie".
The venue backlined a couple of keyboards and a mixer for John to go with the one he brought. John usually uses three keyboard and a sound module. Joe helped him get it all connected and configured.
Here are a couple of shots from my mic that give you a pan of the room. There was also a large balcony above the dining area.
We get our soundcheck dialed in then head back to our rooms to get ready for the show. I like to take a shower just before walking down to the showroom. It helps to invigorate me after a long day of traveling. I took this picture as I tried to sneak backstage. As Old Blue Eyes used to say, "What are all these people doing in my room?"
I meet up with a lovely young Indian maiden but she seems reluctant to give me a kiss, or share her beer.
Dave puts the final touches on Willie's hair. Doesn't he look lovely?
As I tune my bass just before we start I snap a picture of the audience with my phone. There are only a couple of empty tables. The bars and the balcony are full. It's a good crowd tonight.
And we're off! It's only a 90 minute show but it was such a good crowd we played a couple of encores. They sang along, shouted out requests, clapped at the intros of their favorite songs, and generally had a good time. I gave my camera to Cory, the monitor guy, to take a few pictures during the show.
Then after the show we met a couple of guys from The Strangers, that's Merle Haggard's band. They are still touring and playing shows. I was surprised to hear that they are actually opening up for us at a festival in Hayfork CA on May 13th. They want to recreate a true Merle/Willie concert where Merle was the opener. This is Doug Colosio and Loren Kemper, two guys who toured with Merle for decades. They had nothing but good things to say about the True Willie band, and I think they were serious.
Boy! Did they have stories to tell! So I had to impress them with my dinner rabbit. They thought it was the cutest thing they ever saw. They really did.
Then the fun started. Here you see my pork schnitzel with cheezy mashed potatoes. With it I tried one of the local beers, the Volcano Mudslide, a really dark stout ale. It went great with the schnitzel. It had body, not like the watery Guiness. John had the steak and baked potato with the local hefeweitzen.
But my favorite local brew was the Naughty Native, their IPA. It didn't taste like grapefruit like a lot of IPAs.
Here's the info on the local brews.
And the life of the party was our server, Meghan. I told her she reminded me of a taller, more beautiful Kaley Cuoco.
Of course, Willie had to get in on the action.
That Naughty Native IPA went great with dessert. I didn't even get a chance to take a picture before the guys were helping themselves to my fried banana split. It was heavenly.
As we were walking through the casino after supper, Monica wanted a picture too.
As I enjoyed another local IPA at the bar I put $5 into the video poker machine. I guess I ended up drinking for free because I more than doubled my money. How lucky can a bass player get?
I made it back to my room about midnight. We were scheduled to load up the car at 6:45 so we could have breakfast at 7:00am before we hit the road. I was the first one to the car. They let us park it right in front of the lodge all night. I thought that was mighty nice of the management.
Just a few minutes later the rest of the band showed up.
We loaded the car then made our way to the coffee shop. On the way Willie let me take a picture of his Willie.
We make our way to the buffet and John gets some breakfast from the nice omelette lady.
I had an omelette with ham, sausage, tomatoes, and cheese with biscuits and gravy and a side of sausage and bacon. YUM! I just love breakfast.
The lads all enjoy a hearty breakfast.
We finish our breakfast and then Mike, Dave, and Willie wave goodbye to no one in particular.
We mount our trusty steed and let it carry us back to the airport.
As we flew over I managed to get a pretty good picture of Lake Oroville and the dam.
I had a blast and the whole band was pleased with the event. Feather Falls has already scheduled us for another engagement. I think the next gig I have with True Willie is April 22 in Laguna Woods. Then on May 13th we'll be working with Doug and Loren (The Strangers) in Hayfork. I'm really looking forward to that one.
Thanks for looking! Until next time,
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
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