Swallows Inn, 6/24/21

 Greetings!

Yes, we are back at our favorite dive bar with special guests Amanda Kate and Dani Chere, for the first set anyway. I thought they were friends but this was the first time they'd met. They worked together really well, even on those songs we worked up just for tonight without any rehearsal. But let's start at the beginning.

I was happy I remembered to put on my gloves before loading my gear this afternoon. The old country bass player's skin is paper thin these days and he's always getting banged up.



I managed to park right behind the venue, grabbed a space as someone pulled out. Usually I have to park down the block. This is the rear entrance to Swallows Inn, the funkiest country dive bar around. It's named such because of the annual return of the swallows to San Juan Capistrano.



I rolled my handy-dandy Rock-n-Roller cart around front, past the front doors, to the stage door. I brought my small rig today. I probably didnt' have to. Jed was running sound today. Arnie brought a good sized PA but we used only one sub-woofer because of the size of the place.



Since Arnie and Jed brought the floor wedges I did not use my IEMs. I probably should have. It didn't get too, too loud but I would've rather played a little quieter and let the PA do the heavy lifting out front.



We saw a lot of familiar faces on the dance floor tonight. This is a fun crowd that like the more traditional two-stepping, Texas-swinging, honky-tonkin' music that we love to play.



Here's my little rig setting next to the PA. Jed was out front all night with is tablet making us sound great. That guy works hard. I brought my JBS as backup but left it in the gig bag for space concerns.



OK, we're plugging stuff in, twisting knobs, stomping on pedals, making noise, etc. Arnie and John are good at that.



I'm on stage left, right by the door. It normally stays open all night. This is my view. An old friend I hadn't seen in years happened to strolled by tonight. It was kind of cool to chat and get caught up while I was playing a song.



Somebody covered up my graffiti with a conduit! The cads! Don't they know art when they see it?



For the first set our special guests, Amanda and Dani, sing a few duets. We learned "Fooled Around And Fell In Love" and pulled it of on stage without rehearsing, pretty much. Pretty fun. There's a Miranda Lambert cover of this song she does with friends. I'd forgotten how fun this song is to play.



Yes, we're having lots of fun now. I'm not sure what was so funny but we were enjoying ourselves.



Amanda and Cheri were doing "Cole Miner's Daughter", complete with both half step modulations.



You might recognize the lady on the right. Yes, that's Kelly Rae with an entourage. They were having a girls' night out, dinner down the street, heard some country music, and decided to check it out. It was great to see Kelly again.



This crowd loves to two-step.



On a break Drummer Dave and I think about when a set of jumper cables walked into a bar. The bartender said, "Hey! Don't you start anything!"



The area across the street has been decorated up a little bit to improve the foot traffic to that area. There are other venues just a block over with food, drink, live music, etc.



The hair legged pickers are back at it again.



You guessed it! Johnny Magic Fingers is playing his big boogie-woogie number.



Dave's keeping time but I think he'd like to go on a motorcycle ride.



Arnie points at his favorite bass player on the stage. He says, "Your playing like you've never played before."

Look who else is in the house! It's everyone's favorite real estate agent, Tami! We haven't seen her, um, I guess since the last time we played here.



It's late in the evening. Now we've got a ton of gear to pack up. I stuck around to help Jed wrap cables and move cabinets.



Oh! Will you look at that! These folks were so nice to us.



We each walked out with an extra sixty five bucks. How about that? I hadn't had anything to drink all night but once home I had a little of this and the last of my Maximus Colossal. Sorry, no food shots tonight. The band doesn't get fed on this gig. I had leftover tacos when I got home.



We are actually scheduled to play Swallows again in the afternoon on the 4th of July from 1-5pm. If any of you are local I would encourage you to come down. This really is a funky fun little place. Sure, it's a dive bar but it's the good kind of dive bar, a five star dive bar.
 

This is really getting to be enjoyable again. Good stuff guys!


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff