Saturday night was a special event at an event venue where we've played events before. The Hairy Legged Pickers of the Arnie Newman Country Club Band were joined by Amanda and our special guests Jed and Claire. We'll, you've seen Jed but this is the first time I got to sing with his wife Claire. I hope we get to do this more often because our voices blend really well. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
I was a warm drive down into Orange County. Giracci Vineyards is in Santiago Canyon. This is about as far out in the boonies as you can get in the OC.
We've played several events here for different clients. I pulled up to the side of the barn where we usually load in.
After unloading I parked up next to the token grape vine garden they have on the front of the property. They do make wine here but I think they buy most of their grapes from growers in the area.
As I walk back to set up I took a picture of the barn. It's a lovely barn.
Arnie and Jed are here and the setup dance is in full swing. We're running our own PA and using the new IEM rack. We're getting the procedure down.
This is our client, Orange Park Acers, a nearby community with lots of horse property and riding trails. This event is their annual BBQ fundraiser to maintain the riding trails.
John and Jason arrive and we continue our choreography. There's a lot of stuff to set up, plug in, and tweak.
Arnie brought a couple of speakers on sticks, one sub, and the IEM system. It's a lot less gear to carry around and set up.
We've got a couple hours of down time between our soundcheck and downbeat. We'll get to enjoy and adult beverage, have some supper, enjoy a live auction, a silent auction, and a line dance lesson before we start playing. Of course, these events always run late. But I don't mind. I found beer. This local brewery's Mexican lager tasted a lot like a Modelo or Dos Equis.
The event was sold out. Over 200 citizens of Orange Park Acres were in attendance. I think it's about time for supper. Everything is running late. Oh well. That just means we'll play one long set instead of three shorter sets.
Since every seat in the barn had been sold, the band took their supper at the tables outside under the tree. It was a pleasant evening for some brisket and chicken.
Oh yes, there was dessert. I skipped the cupcakes and went straight for the cookies.
This is Tatiana, our dance instructor for the evening. She had time for one quick lesson the we started our set.
I bought myself a new clip-on tuner. I really like it, larger and brighter than the Snark tuners. Hmmm, it seems I'm tuning to A=441. Guess I'd better calibrate.
Tatiana taught the "Watermelon Crawl". We played the tune just as soon as the lesson was over.
Amanda and Claire, Jed's wife, joined us for this gig. We did a couple of Amanda's tunes and a couple of her Carrie Underwood songs.
Let's go girls!
Claire helps Amanda sing a sassy girl song.
We had our fun for about ninety minutes before the event ended at 11pm. Then it was time to pack it up and turn out the lights.
Jed and I helped Arnie with the PA. I ended up being the last to leave. I got home at 1:30am which made for a rough morning playing in church on Sunday. But with the help of lots of coffee and a donut I was able to make a joyful noise.
This will be another fairly busy week. Plus I've got two shows worth of tunes to learn before the end of the month. We're playing at Downtown Disney on Wednesday. Then we'll be at Gilley's Las Vegas on Friday and Saturday night. The week after will be almost as busy with two big rehearsals Tuesday and Wednesday, and an event on Thursday evening (one of the shows I'm learning). We'll cross that bridge when we get there. Until then, take care. You guys are cool.
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
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