Swallows Inn at San Juan Capistrano, 1/27/19

To whom it may concern,

Arnie Newman's Country Club Band and I played at our favorite dive bar on Sunday afternoon. We were at Swallows Inn in San Juan Capistrano, right on Pacific Coast Highway, just down the street from the Mission at SJC, on a perfectly pleasant "winter" afternoon with sunshine and 70 degrees. I slept in a little bit after Saturday night at The Ranch, I had to miss church, and then loaded up my small gear into my trusty Astro van.

Traffic was fairly light on a late Sunday morning as I made my way into South Orange County.

Right off the freeway you can see the Mission at San Juan Capistrano there on the right, just before I turn left to get to the parking lot behind the Swallows Inn.

Parking is always trouble here on a Sunday afternoon. There are so many tourists, shoppers, and beach goers that even when arriving almost two hours before downbeat I had to park down the street and around the corner from the venue. But it's a single trip and an easy roll with my handy dandy Rock-n-Roller cart.

Here we are in front of this venerable five star dive bar.

This door opens right onto the stage. It's very handy but sometimes the clientele use it for egress so we have to put up the chain to keep the mortals off of our stage.

John was already here when I arrived. He brought only two keyboards today but also brings the sub and the PA mixer. He was pretty much set up when I walked on stage.

Somehow I think PETA might be a little upset with the way these animals are treated in here.

I sat up my little rig right by the back door. I left my spare bass in the case since there will be five of us on stage this afternoon. Real estate will be at a premium.

I remembered to bring a marker today so I could sign the wall again.

Arnie, Dave, and Daniel arrive to continue the setup dance. Arnie brings the powered speakers for the house and monitors.

There is so little room onstage that Dave (from the True Willie Band) sets up his kit on the sidewalk and then brings it in. I don't know why Jason is not here today but I'm glad Dave is. We had a blast.

Here's the view from my mic as we get close to sound check and the good folks start to filter in and have some lunch. The OC Two Steppers club loves coming here on a Sunday afternoon to hear us. They are some really good people.

And away we go! This crowd loves to two-step to all the vintage country that we can play.

There were two birthdays in the house today. Everybody sings along.

That table of folks there on the other side of John are the wedding party for some friends who are getting married in February. We will be playing at Carl and Shannon's wedding reception. It's going to be a great party. They love the band.

Look who came out to see us this afternoon! It's our favorite real estate agent, Tammi. She was also at The Ranch last night but I didn't get a picture. I think she likes the band too.

Moving right along with our fast-paced, Las Vegas style show, Arnie regales the crowd with a George Strait/George Jones tune that gets them all two-stepping.

Daniel takes a little breather between solos. He played his bow off tonight.
 

We pulled out some tunes I hadn't done in a while, some of my favorite Dwight songs like "Please, Please, Baby", "A Thousand Miles From Nowwhere", and "Guitars and Cadillacs". And Dave sang a few as well as doing a great job on the harmonies.

Arnie gets serious for just a moment. But we had a ton of fun along with the crowd.

And then there's this guy. Mrs. Arnie shared these pictures of the band on Facebook so I nabbed them.

Here's a better picture of Daniel in action. Both Daniel and Dave live within minutes of this place so they like playing here every chance they get. It's a fun hang.

Here's Magic Fingers Johnny and his incredible tinkling ivories.

We played from 2pm-6pm on Sunday afternoon. I spoke to Rebecca, one of the bartenders, and Kimberly, one of the servers, and they both said it was extremely busy today. They could hardly keep up. I guess that's good to hear. Then we all commiserated that "this is what we get paid for", i.e. cleaning up and loading gear.

I was home by 7:30pm to binge a little Netflix with Mrs. BassCliff. It was good. We hadn't seen much of each other because I was so busy. Then this morning during my workout the neighbor lady came to the door very upset. She had backed into my trusty Astro van.

The front left quarter panel is bent and ripped, the bumper is scratched. The plastic grill is busted. It's not a huge deal. I was able to use some Gorilla tape to keep parts from falling off on the freeway. There were no lights broken. They are good neighbors, have insurance, and will make it right. It's just another battle scar for my trusty Astro van. It takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'.

And that brings to a close my busy weekend. We're off all week learning tunes for the Carrie show. We'll have a marathon rehearsal on Saturday to put the show together. Then we plan a couple of dress rehearsals at other gigs before the actual debut at The Ranch on Feb. 13th. There's not much rest for this bass player. Thanks for looking!


EDIT: After finding out it's going to cost over $1400 to fix the van I told my neighbor that it's just not worth it. As much as I love my trusty old Astro van we plan on replacing it very soon. I can't see putting that much money into a vehicle that's worth less than a tousand dollars. I told my neighbor just to keep his money and don't worry about a thing. 


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff 

The Ranch, 1/25-26/2019 (NAMM Weekend)

Hello friends and neighbors!

Yes, it's NAMM weekend here in Southern California at the impressive Anaheim Convention Center. The ANB has played NAMM weekend at The Ranch for the last few years now.

The weekend started for me as I left the office with a couple of basses in the back of my trusty Astro van. The construction project across the street is starting to look like a stadium despite the delays caused by recent rains.

I enjoyed a not-too-difficult commute into the OC and parked near the stage door at The Ranch. I see they left to door ajar for me.

That door leads right onto the stage, very convenient. I dropped my basses on stage, took my stage clothes to the green room, then joined Arnie on stage to plug in. Arnie had set up an extra amp and brought an extra guitar for a couple of guest artists this evening.

Then we retired to the green room for some supper. Arnie likes putting on new strings pretty much every weekend, if not more often.

I enjoyed the steakburger and a beet salad. Sometimes we call this the "coma burger" because it's a half pound of ground steak with all the fixings on a potato bun.

I took a peak on stage to see Dev giving a line dance lesson. She's a popular teacher and travels all over the region to share her fun.

As we take the stage I see a great crowd in here tonight. To the left, in front of the "short bar" is the Celestion Speakers group. They reserve a huge chunk of the bar every year for their NAMM party. This is their fifth year in a row here. Our buddy and former bandmate, Rick Skillman, is here in the house with the company. Rick is the North American Sales Manager for Celestion.

Here's a view of the other side of the house and Amanda as she adjusts her IEM.

Arnie and Jason talk over some last minute strategies before downbeat. Daniel adjusts his pedal board. Randy is sitting down on the job.

Johnny Magic Fingers is ready to screw his Mama's wig on tight.

Randy gives us a salute and Daniel is all smiles just before the lights come up.

Actually, this little drum shield does a lot to keep the snare from getting too loud out front. It's a custom creation by our soundman here, Mark, who is excellent. Mark is very shy and doesn't like his picture taken.

The night started a little slow. I suppose there were lots of NAMM folks in the house and a lot of them don't dance. But our friends and regulars had their fun and the night got more rowdy as it progressed. After the boss left Mark was even able to bump us up to 90db. He is usually restricted to 85db but the night called for a little more energy. Here's some actions shots from the bass player's perspective.

 

We performed almost half of Amanda's Carrie Underwood repertoire in preparation for our first tribute show coming up on Feb. 13 right here at The Ranch.

Mark has to put Arnie's Little Walter behind a shield to help keep the stage volume down. Sometimes Arnie can get pretty loud. I like this gig because I wear IEMs and I don't have to listen to Jason playing too loudly either.

Another bass player perspective as the crowd line dances.

And one more parting shot of the lovely Ms. Amanda Kate.

That was all of my pictures from Friday night. We had a good time Saturday night. I didn't take a lot of pictures because you've seen sooooo many of my gig reports from this place.

To begin the evening I enjoyed a nice Buffalo Chicken Sandwich and Heirloom Beet Salad while looking at all of the basses my friend Charles posted from the NAMM show.

Oh, I see that we're playing here tonight. That's Arnie on the big screen.

Amanda did a great job tonight. Randy and Daniel did too.

Bam! Bam!

Ms. Amanda Kate is kicking up her heels.

Johnny Magic Fingers was playing that honky tonk piano tonight.

Amanda shook us all night long.

It was kind of a light crowd for a Saturday night but we had our fun.

Amanda stole the show tonight. Well, she pretty much steals it every night.

Hey! Look who showed up tonight! Our friend and NAMM bass photographer, Charles, was in the house tonight! Charles lives in Las Vegas and usually stops by Gilley's when I'm playing there.

That's Josie giving us the peace sign photobomb. What a fun crowd tonight. I can't wait to see what pictures Charles took. He caught me using a pick and now has photographic evidence. I may never live this down. Oh, the horror. I'll never be able to show my face again. I even played above the 7th fret tonight. Please don't hate me. Thanks for looking!


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff