The Ranch Saloon 5/15-16/15

Hi,

We had a very busy weekend, four gigs in three days. I'm going to start with our weekend at The Ranch in Anaheim CA. Then I'll move on to our Saturday afternoon gig at El Cajon's America On Main Street Festival and Sunday evening's Brea Bonanza Days Country Music Festival. Lots' o'fun!

After leaving my day job, the drive down to the OC on Friday afternoon was nice, no traffic and the weather was clearing a bit. The canyon was actually a little green from the recent rains.

I couldn't get off as early as I would've liked to make sound check. In fact, we all arrived a little late to sound check so we actually didn't sound check at all. But there's really no need since everything is so dialed in already. We like to use the sound check as a little warm-up but we had no time tonight.

Mario wanted to try a little stand-up bass. This were my toys for the weekend.

We had to cut the volume by 5db so Mark (sound guy) put up the BIG drum shield.

I know Mario doesn't look too happy, but it works just fine. He really didn't have a problem with it.

This is how Mark keeps a reign on our git-Art. Art brings his smallest amp and Mark corrals it.

It's generally not that loud anyway but it was quite comfortable on stage this weekend. I could hear everything and nothing was too loud. I love having a quiet stage and letting this excellent sound system do all the heavy lifting.

After we set up our gear we had supper in the green room.

We feasted on steakburgers, fried pickles, fish tacos, cocktail shrimp, salad, fruit, etc. The Ranch has an excellent menu, even in the saloon.

Kelly arrives and we take our "amp selfie". She makes me look good.

You can tell it's Friday night because we're wearing brown. Then Saturday night it's usually black.

I hope I wasn't disturbing anything when I took this picture of Mario and Art. I think they were talking about set list queues.

Jeff has his key-tar strapped on and is ready to strut around the stage.

Mario had o scratch a little itch on his nose before we started.

And a candid shot of our dueling guitars, Art and Daniel. Daniel is not a shredder on guitar like he is on fiddle, but he plays all the tasty stuff.

The owner did not sit in with us this weekend. He just came to dance with his wife.

Our friend J.D. Crawford sat in with us on Friday night. His band had just played the Brea Bonanza Days Festival that we played Sunday night. You'll see that gig later.

Now it's Kelly's turn to light up the stage.

Kelly really puts on a show. I wonder what Mario is looking at?

Daniel is the consummate pro.

Moving right along with our fast-paced, Las Vegas style show, here I am hamming it up for the camera.

It looks like this crowd shot is from Saturday night. You can tell because we're wearing black.

Mario looks concerned about something. Perhaps he's afraid Daniel is going to poke Kelly in the eye with his bow.

I think the guys are discussing the threat of the Federal Reserve raising interest rates.

I think Jeff is pointing at some bass player.

This is our Saturday night "amp-selfie". You can tell it's Satruday because we're in black and Kelly is in RED.

"Hey Mario! Do something weird!"

He said, "That's all I got. It's been a long day." By that time we had already played our gig in El Cajon and we were all a little silly from fatigue.

But Kelly is always on. It's such a pleasure working with her.

Kelly's got a nice pair.... of monitors.

 

I don't know what to say about this pair.

For some odd reason, these two lovely sisters from Ireland wanted to talk to the bass player. In the spirit of good national relations I thought I'd be neighborly. This is Elizabeth and Christine with their friend Shauna. (Note: It's not often that anybody wants to talk to the bass player, unless it's another bass player. Even then it's kind of iffy.)

While I'm out mingling, schmoozing, working the room, etc, the rest of the gang are hanging out in the green room, too tired to do much more than look at their phones.

Sorry. This is a little out of sequence, we're wearing brown.

Woah! Time warp. It's Saturday night again. See the black shirts? And that's me, with a pick! Oh, the horror!

Art must be playing something really, really good.

We all walked out front so we could really connect with the audience. This was during our new Miranda Lambert song, "Little Red Wagon".

I know it's not some folks' cup of tea, buy I enjoy watching all the line dancers have their fun.

This is the last break on Saturday night and the dance floor is still full. It was a good night.

We all try to head out quickly when the night ends. We've got another gig the next day with a 3:30 call time.

So that was last weekend at The Ranch. I'll toss up a couple more gig blogs for our Saturday afternoon show in El Cajon and for our Sunday evening show at the Brea Bonanza Days Country Music Festival. Break a leg!


Thank you for your indulgence,


BassCliff

Video from Fight With Grace Benefit

Hi,

Kelly had taken a little video of Ms. Deana Martin singing with the band. It's not a great recording but Deana is so cute and talented I just wanted to share it.

Isn't she terrific? Perhaps I'll play in Branson one day and she'll invite me over for coffee.

I'll have a lot to talk about after next weekend. We've got four gigs in three days from El Cajon to Anaheim to Brea. Busy, busy!

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

Fight With Grace 5/7/15

Hello friends,

Thursday we played a show at the "Fight With Grace" fundraiser to benefit the Orange Coast Memorial Breast Cancer Center. The Vince Ferragamo Foundation was also a benefactor helping to sponsor the benefit. We played this event last year and it was great to be back.

The venue was, again, The Promenade Event Center and Gardens by Turnip Rose in Costa Mesa. We had to load in at 9:30am for an 11:30am downbeat. I hit the road a little after 7:30am because I was hitting all the morning commute traffic into Orange County.

I had to drive right through the heart of the OC, called "the Orange crush", where the 57, the 5, and the 22 freeways all intersect. It's where you'll find The Honda Center, formerly "The Pond", (sometimes it's called 'the Ponda Center') where the Ducks play hockey, and Angel Stadium, where the, um, Angels play baseball.

Traffic was sticky in all the usual places but there were no wrecks. I got a little worried when I got to the 55 freeway.

But since I had allowed plenty of commute time I arrived at 9:15am.

It was raining during the drive down but when I arrived the clouds broke for a while and it was a beautiful day. I pulled into the parking lot and found the closest spot to unload and schlep my gear to the other end of the venue.

I was the first to arrive except for Jack, who already had most of the PA set up. Jack, Kelly's husband, is a really great guy to work with. He's also a bass player. What's not to like?

I brought my small rig, Carvin 210 cab and Randall RB2000 amp. I went direct too so it was plenty for that small room full of ladies. The rest of the guys start arriving shortly after I did. Mario and Jeff get set up. Daniel has his rig in place.

We start pulling our mic cables and instrument feeds to Jack so he can get everything sorted.

Art's in a good mood, showing off a little as he runs his cables over to Jack

Kelly is going over the script with a couple of the organizers. These things tend to drag on forever unless you keep a tight schedule.

Since there's no room inside, we stash our cases and stuff outside where the patrons can't see our mess.

We're all set up and sound checked. Now I'm just killing time with my camera before it's time to play. He's a nice photo of Mr. and Mrs. Kelly Rae. I mean Jack and Kelly.

A candid pose from Art and Jeff.

I didn't stop to wonder about what the guests might think if they saw our silliness. Oh well. Everybody had a good time.

We make our way to the stage area at the appropriate time and I take a few snapshots just before downbeat. Everybody was in a very cheerful mood today. Art and Daniel are having fun amusing each other.

Two thumbs up from Jeff means he's really ready to put on the show.

Perhaps Mario was feeling a little shy this morning.

So Kelly and I try to get serious for a moment.

As soon as we turn around, Mario takes this picture. (My good side?) "Is that what the back of my hair looks like?"

We get about halfway through our first set, in between all the little interruptions for announcements and speeches. Kelly takes a little break to go make out with the sound guy.

Then we take a break for lunch. They served us some really nice turkey/avocado and chicken/bacon/avocado sandwiches and fruit cups.

Yes, it was a pleasant lunch on the patio.

The major speakers are talking while we eat. But now it's time to get back to work.

This is Jodi Ferragamo, Vince's wife, doing a lot of the emcee duties today. She's a very hard-working and gracious lady.

This is Vince Ferragamo auctioning off a few items before his big show. You might remember Vince from his football days with the LA Rams.

As part of the "big show", Vince and about a half dozen other participants help raise money by having a pie eating contest. Here's Vince scoping out the field.

After bidding on who they think the winner will be, the entire crowd looks on with anticipation.

Yes, this was a full-on "hands behind your back" pie eating contest.

And we have a winner! (It wasn't Vince.)

Mario seems surprised that Vince didn't win.

I think Art and Daniel are hoping there's some pie left over.

Anyway, it's back to work with us. We play one song and then call up our special artist, Deana Martin. She is the daughter of the late Dean Martin.

Deana sings a song, "My Rifle, My Pony, And Me" from one of her Dad's movies. And this year she also sang "Ace In The Hole" by George Strait. She even emailed the charts to us.

Deana threw in a couple of extra tags and we followed right along and had fun with it. It was a great chart. Even the little bass "solo" was written out.

Deana and her husband John came out from Branson. She had another show out here but always comes to this event to lend her support. I think she lost a sibling to cancer so she is quite adamant about helping cancer research and treatment at Orange Coast Memorial.

After we close the show with Daniel's fiery rendition of "Devil Went Down To Georgia", Kelly and I chase down Vince to get a photo with him. He's a very nice guy. He even remembered my name from last year. Who'da thunk it?

Oh yeah. Somebody's got to pack up all this junk and load it up. I guess that's me.

By the time I leave it's 3:00pm, just in time to catch the commuting traffic going home. At least it's not raining yet. It held off until after dark.

And that was my work day. I was able to use my floating holidays from work so I could play this gig. I have Friday off too because we were supposed to be driving to Vegas for the weekend but our gig got cancelled due to a double booking. We'll probably take another weekend later in the season. Next weekend is going to be nuts. We've got four gigs in three days. On Saturday we'll drive from El Cajon to Anaheim for our double. Wish me luck. I'm getting the oil changed in the Astro van tomorrow, checking all the fluids, etc. Fun stuff. Thanks for looking. All the best to you.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff