The Ranch, 1/15-16/16

Hello my friends!

It was another enjoyable weekend at The Ranch. Thanks to you who tuned in over the interweb at http://www.theranch.com/live. It was good to hear from you, Steve, and Kyle.

Friday night started off kind of slow but picked up. Saturday was outstanding. These were my weapons of mass destruction for the weekend.

The basses are mine. The rig is part of the club's back line. (Sweet!)

Nowadays, after our soundcheck on Friday afternoon we get to fill out these forms for our supper. We used to put our order in much earlier in the week.

The food at this venue is top notch, gourmet stuff. Friday I had the grilled chicken sandwich and a Ceasar salad.

That's Art pilfering one of my French fries. I don't mind. It's just sort of a given that Art has to sample everyone's fries so that we don't get a bad batch. Saturday night I had the Caesar salad, with grilled chicken breast, and fried pickles. Man! The fried pickles here are great!

After supper we hung out in the green room watching reruns of Saturday Night Live or one of the football games.

Here's my amp-selfie. We're just about ready to get Friday night started.

Our lovely Heather announced the band tonight. She and Kelly join me for a photo op.

Jeff is getting kind of scruffy looking behind his keyboards. (Sure, I'm one to talk.) I guess you could say he's a ruggedly handsome guy.

The dance floor fills up when we play "Don't Stop Believing".

Kelly and Daniel are having a good time.

The line dancers just rule the floor sometimes.

Somehow Kelly always knows when a camera is about to take her picture. How else can she take such great photos?

Jeff mans the keyboards and performes vocal chores.

And then there's this dork. (Does he need a hair cut?)

Daniel is always the pro. People love to hear him play his fiddle.

Art knows there's a camera on him, but just doesn't quite pull it off like Kelly can.

More line dance!

Hey! It's our acoustic-y part of the set!

Jeff and I are trying to remember an old song that Kelly called.

This is from Saturday night. That dang smoke machine always goes off at inopportune moments.

Darn near ruined my 'amp-selfie'.

Heather announced the band again tonight. Here she is with Kelly, Art, and Daniel. Heather is just shredding it!

I think Mario is wondering why the set list is the same for both Friday and Saturday.

Later Kelly gets an amp-selfie with me.

To my surprise, my boss showed up to celebrate his birthday. He celebrated with six women! I was impressed.

Here I am at the end of the night, ready to get the flock out of Dodge.

It was a swimmingly fun weekend. We had worked a few new songs into the set list. I didn't take any video but here are a few from last month, and earlier, that I finally got around to editing. Here's a compilation of "Copperhead Road" (Steve Earle), "Traveller" (Chris Stapleton), and "American Beautiful" (The Henningsens).

Here's one of my favorite songs in our set list, "Home Sweet Home" (The Farm).

How about some old pop and classic rock? We cover all kinds of stuff. This is "I Want You Back" (Michael Jackson) and "I Want You To Want Me" (Cheap Trick).

Thanks for looking. Please feel free to check the website so that you can catch us either at The Ranch or during one of our summer concerts in Orange County and surrounding areas. Click http://www.kellyraeband.com/




Thank you for your indulgence,


BassCliff

Knott's Merry Farm Season Ends

Hi!

I hope everyone has enjoyed the holidays with the people you love.

I was also at Knott's Merry Farm on New Year's Eve (afternoon) and New Year's Day with our gig at Cars Land in between. It's been a busy holiday. Wow, nine sets of music on Jan. 31st of 2015 between both So. Cal. amusement parks. I'm sure that's a record for me. I've got one more date at Knott's tomorrow, Jan. 3rd, and that will end the "Merry" season for us.

It's been a lot of Kelly, Art, and I for the KRB Trio here at the end of the Knott's Merry Farm season. This is from Dec. 31st. We wore our red Scully shirts.

On a break we walked back to the "crew's nest" (what they call the employee cafeteria). The maze for the "Knott's Scary Farm" has been completely removed. You may have seen it in a previous post.

I took this opportunity to get a closer look at that mosaic on the building in the background. It's very nicely done. The old snake oil salesman wagon is pretty cool too.

The next day, New Year's Day 2016, we are back on stage with our gold Scully shirts.

Here again is Amanda, taking good care of us on stage. She's been my favorite stage tech. For being only 25 years old she is really professional, fun, and very competent. We're all going to miss her. (Sorry for the over exposure.)

This is just a glimpse down the hallway from our dressing room as Art goes to the little guitar player's room.

And here is my first amp-selfie for 2016.

Did I tell you that I've got only one more date at Knott's? Yep, tomorrow the season will be over. It's been a great run. The kids still love getting up in front of the stage to play all of our rhythm instruments and sing "Jingle Bells" and "Rudolf". The parents love taking pictures. There's talk of having us back for their spring break festivities. I hope so. Knott's is a really fun place, a little more homey, cheesy, cornball, down home, country neighbor kind of place.

I still have not ridden the "Xcelerator" coaster. I'm going to try to ride it after I get off tomorrow. It's the tall pink and green coaster on the left. Woo hoo!

Yesterday I also took a selfie with a friend in Santa's Christmas Cabin.

Well, here we are for the last day. We played our last shows at Knott's Merry Farm on Sunday, Jan. 3rd. It's been a great run, really fun.

Our lovely sound tech, Amanda, joins us on stage for one last picture.

Amanda was always on the ball, making sure the stage gear was set up, making sure Art plugged in his guitar, having a mic ready for when Kelly forgot to bring her own. (Kelly tried to bring her own mic so as not to give or receive any cold germs, but she forgot it more often than not.) Did you see the guy photobomb us with the peace sign?

Right after Amanda took this picture she asked Kelly, "Do you have your other hat?"

So Kelly sent someone back to our dressing room to get her other hat so Amanda could take another picture.

The crowds for the last day were very enthusiastic. They even liked my corny jokes. It was kind of sad but many of the people we met, both employees and guests, said they would catch us at The Ranch. That'll be fun.

Art seems a little upset that we have to leave the park for the last time. We're rolling our gear out to the parking lot.

The management and staff really liked all the different variations of the trio and there was a lot of talk about having us back in the spring for their big boysenberry season. I don't know if they'll want a trio on a little stage or the whole band on the big stage. We'll invite the big cheeses out to The Ranch so we can showcase the whole band. I don't think the new chief exec has seen the whole band live but the entertainment director, Julie, loves us. She even knows my name.

This engagement wasn't a big production like our "Nashville" show was a Disney last summer. As enjoyable as that was, our Knott's run was actually more fun because it wasn't scripted by corporate execs. We could let our hair down a bit and really have fun with the audiences. The folks at Knott's like a little "Hee Haw" in their entertainment.

I have certainly enjoyed our run at Knott's "Merry" Farm, "The Merriest Place In The West". The Knott's Berry Farm slogan is "America's First Theme Park, California's Best Theme Park". It certainly is a great time.

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff






 

New Year's Eve 2015 at Cars Land, Disney California Adventure

Hello friends and Happy New Year!

Yes, we were back at Disney California Adventure, next to the Disneyland Resort, for our New Year's Eve show at Cars Land. This is our fourth year in a row. I guess I haven't stunk up the joint too bad, they keep having us back.

We actually started the night before, arriving about 11:30pm on Jan. 30th so that we could load in and sound check between midnight and 2am. We checked in with security and then waited in the parking lot for the shuttle van and equipment truck to show up and take us to the venue.

The drivers got us as close as they could but we still had quite a roll to get to the stage. Jeff snapped this picture of me as we rolled by the entrance sign.

The crew had our stage all ready to go in front of Flo's Diner. This Cars Land place looks amazing, just like the movie.
 

Here's a little better picture from behind the sound booth.

The band and the crew get everything plugged in.

Mario checks his phone to see how famous he is.

We got everything set up, ran a few songs for sound check, then went home to get a few hours sleep before showing up back at Knott's Berry Farm for our afternoon gig there.

The crew at Disney was top notch. There were a couple there who've been with us just about every NYE and they are very good to work with. The sound and lights were excellent and there was always one or two of the crew just hanging out near the stage waiting for anything that we might need.

After playing four sets at Knott's Berry Farm I was back at Disneyland to check in for our five sets later that evening. This time we parked in the structure at Cast Place which was a good deal because it was much easier to get out of there compared to leaving the employee lot at BCML.

This bassist brought to you by the number 'five'.

Since we were already set up and sound checked, all I had to do was bring my basses. The crew had covered everything overnight and was just the way we left it.

I used my amp cover but the crew also covered the whole stage with a tarp and heavy plastic. It was a dry night anyway so there was no moisture or dew to worry about. We had to get everything ready while the park was closed and no people around. We don't want to spoil the magic.

We did come out to the stage area just to set up our instruments.

Then it was back to our green room to relax and get ready for the show. Our green room was in the Bug's Life theater building. You had to walk through the theater to get to the restrooms. I couldn't help but take a selfie on the stage.

The costume department had our shirts all ready for us, with name tags and new ball caps.

It's just about time for the show. Here's Mario and Art with the DJ car in the background.

It wasn't as cold this year as last. I didn't have to use my fingerless gloves.

Kelly shows off the new bling cover she got for her microphone.

Between sets the band manages to stand still long enough for a quick picture.

Jeff and Art relax on the break.

Sorry, this is not a very flattering shot of our hostess, Laura, chatting up the audience and looking lovely.

Jeff is trying to keep his nose warm. It was a cool, dry evening.

This was our excellent stage/sound/lighting crew. You see Stephanie outside the booth and John running the FOH. They were on the crew last year.

 Is that a mischievous grin on Mario's face?

I don't know what Mario did, but the next break the sound crew was up there checking mics on his kit. I think something just came loose and was rattling. They got it sorted, no problem.

We had our countdown at midnight. This is the panel at the FOH, sync'd across the entire park because of the timed announcement over the park's PA system.

There were tons of fireworks all over both parks.

OOoooh! Ahhhhh!

I grabbed a selfie before we went back up to play one more set. Our last set was 12:15 to 12:45.

Then we struck our gear, loaded up our carts, and made our way to the extraction point. Getting around behind the scenes, between dressing rooms and stages and employee eating areas and restrooms, reminds me of the band looking for the stage in the movie "Spinal Tap". It's literally a maze back there. It's a good thing they always assign us a handler to keep us from getting lost.

It's been a good year for The Kelly Rae Band. I wish you, dear reader, much health, happiness, and prosperity in the new year. May God richly bless you. Here's one more photo of the band in front of the 2016 backdrop. Happy New Year!

Thank you for your indulgence,


BassCliff