Arnie Newman's Country Club Band and I had a somewhat fabulous weekend on our monthly hang at The Ranch. I hope some of you were able to watch on the live feed through the interwebs. I say "somewhat fabulous" because I was fighting a cold on Friday night and it hit full force on Saturday. Saturday was a really long day because we were filming promo video that afternoon then playing the gig. I was able to procure some really good OTC drugs and muscled through the weekend.
I always have to arrange to leave work a couple of hours early to load in before doors open at The Ranch.
The Ranch is on the ground floor of Extron's HQ building. Yes, the owner and CEO of Extron also owns The Ranch. He's a pretty cool guy.
This door leads right up to stage left, just about the easiest load-in you could ever have.
Johnny Magic Fingers is already set up by the time I arrive. He's retired now and doesn't have a day job. I'm looking forward to that day.
We didn't really sound check today but we did run through a few of the new tunes we are trying out this weekend. Since we've worked here so much our sound is already dialed in. Arnie and I get plugged in and tuned up.
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. The staff has decorated the tables with little Christmas trees.
This is one of the tunes I'll be singing over the holiday season. That card is to hang on your glass while you dance so the servers don't take away your drink.
Arnie goes over tunes in the green room while we wait for our supper. He always brings that little Tascam amp so we can practice stuff on breaks. It has a CD player and inputs for other music players plus a guitar input.
I enjoy my favorite Buffalo Chicken Sandwich and a beet salad. Katie also brought me some clam chowder to help my cold. She's nice.
All I have to bring for this gig is a couple of basses. I go ampless and use IEMs. Arnie likes his Little Walter amps.
It looks like the band is on stage waiting for the DJ to stop making noise. Johnny and I are wearing the same shirt, just a different color.
Tonight is special because Chrystal rejoins us to sing some duets and harmonies with Amanda for an upcoming show we're putting together.
These two ladies have been singing together since they were about thirteen years old. Daniel is playing fiddle for us again this weekend.
Chrystal is having fun this weekend. She is great to work with.
It's fun having these two out front.
Arnie puts on his guitar solo face. He's quite a picker.
Jason puts on his drummer face.
We had a good crowd, busier than most Fridays lately.
The band was having fun all night long.
We had a good crowd, busier than most Fridays lately.
On Friday night the lovely ladies were kind enough to take a selfie with the old country bass player.
I could not sleep very late because we had to be back at The Ranch about noon in order to film new promo material. At least it was another nice drive down the 57.
I brought along a drugstore with me to battle my cold. I had a Thermos full of Throat Coat Tea, nose spray, decongestants, pain relievers, etc. And, of course, my ROCKSTAR.
Arnie put up his logo on the big screens in the club while we were filming.
We had three cameras out front plus a couple of hand-helds running around while we were recording.
This is Alex and Rob. Alex works AV for Extron and was helping out today since Mark, the regular sound guy, couldn't be here. Rob has worked with us before and also with True Willie. Rob was recording the audio today, taking a feed off of the monitor board to record multi-track.
We set out all of the back line just for the show. I didn't even turn on that sweet rig.
Amanda got dressed up in her sparkly skirt to record for our new show "Blown Away - A Tribute To Carry Underwood".
Jason even had a special drum head cover made.
We recorded the Carry Underwood tunes and a few others for a new promo. Then we took a break, had some supper, and got back on stage for Saturday night. The ladies are ready.
John and Arnie work out some last minute notes for one of our new songs. Having IEMs is really handy. We can play to ourselves and nobody can hear us.
The lights are up and John plays the intro to some song or something.
It was a great Saturday night. All of the reservations were taken and there were several parties in the house. We put on a pretty good show, except for the sick bass player.
Here's another shot of stage right.
Stage right is much more interesting than stage left.
On a break I step up to the bar for a shot of Honey Jack to soothe my throat. It helped but my voice gave out totally during the last set.
We muscled through the evening and enjoyed ourselves along with the crowd. The DJ keeps the die-hards dancing while we pack up our gear.
Then we load out of that same oh-so-convenient stage door.
I think this is where we started. We've come full circle this weekend as I take a picture of the Ranch/Extron sign on my way home.
The Ranch is more or less our home base. We are there pretty much one weekend every month and we'll be there for New Years Eve. That will be a party! I appreciate you stopping by. Thanks for looking!
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
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