What we've been up to....

Wow...an entire weekend without a gig. We all had a great holiday with our families and friends. And yet, we all missed playing music.

It's time to gear up for 2011! I've been calling and calling looking for places for our band to play. If you know of a place that you would like to see us play at, please let me know and I will call them! It's hard to get bookings, don't let anyone tell you otherwise! We stay booked because we work hard at getting bookings. That's what it takes to stay busy I guess!

So, now that our weekend off is over, it's back to FULL swing! We are booked solid for the holiday season and we can't wait. One MAJOR drawback is that Michael is going to be gone for two whole weeks!! We will miss him way more than he knows!! But, the show must go on and we have made arrangements to play without him. First, Steve has been practicing his guitar playing for the past couple of months...just so he could fill in. And, I must say that he is doing GREAT!


This band does not practice. I mean, we don't have "band practice". John and Michael don't need it. Since Steve and I started out as students, we just kept our Monday night class and show up to John's house to learn new things. Around August, when we realized that Michael was going to miss a show because of his eye surgery (which went great!), Steve started learning guitar to fill in. And, then we knew he could fill in again in Dec (now!).


We started bringing the PA and speakers in to John's living room to practice and get ready. Steve is a fast learner and John is a good teacher...great combination!





Because we don't practice, I don't always get enough chances to practice playing bass with Michael. He volunteered back in September to come up and practice with us just so I could play! It was great and I learned a lot. I'm still not playing a lot of songs at each gig, but I'm learning more and more all the time.

And, I LOVE it!

We had a really fun "jam" early in November. Meet Jerry. He is from the popular band "The Detours", whose band recently broke up. He came up to play with us and we had a BLAST! You may have seen pics of Jerry from the gig he played with us Nov 6. You will be seeing more of Jerry for sure!

Want to know a secret? Jerry is really SANTA CLAUS!! How cool is that?


Here is a short clip from my Iphone:

That was FUN!

We are all ready for our Holiday gigs, we have some new songs, some Christmas songs and we will be playing with different "guests" throughout the month.

With all the shows we have booked, only TWO of them are open to the public. The Stockton Singles Club in Stockton Dec 10th and Hotel Leger Dec 18th (Michael will be back for this one...YAY!).

We are already booked for a few dates in January and hope to see all of you soon!! Thanks for stopping by!

Pioeer Travel

I didn't know what to expect. We were invited to play for an open house at Pioneer Travel in Jackson. I knew that there would be limited room for us and that was true. I am personal friends with the ladies at Pioneer Travel and I really wanted it to be a success for them. They made some completely delicious food....mmmmm.

This yummy dish was prepared by Bernie Cramer, and she got this fabulous recipe from the Amador County Women's Network Cookbook! (shameless plug here!). They make great gifts and the proceeds go to scholarships for local teens.

Click here for more information: http://acwnonline.org/cookbook.html


And they opened the doors to old friends and potential customers, it was very festive! When we booked this event.....I thought that we should play only acoustic instruments at this show. Everyone knows that John can play the keyboards. What a lot of people don't know is that he plays many other instruments too....I don't even know how many. I do know that he can play the keyboard, bass, guitar (acoustic and electric), drums and harmonica. He can play a lot of others too...but these I know for sure. So, I wanted people to see him play guitar. And, I wanted to play guitar too. We never found the time to practice those things and so I just showed up and put myself in John's hands (as usual).

Ok. This was a really fun show. John brought a small amp and we played everything through it, with a mixer. It was just the right volume. Acoustic instruments would not have even been heard when the people got there. We played soft music and provided a nice background for the event. I thought it was 'just right'. I am going to stop thinking that I know what to do because I couldn't have been more wrong about this one. Whew.

I still think you will get to see John play his guitar and/or bass sometime in the future. In fact, Michael plays bass too! How cool would it be to see 3 different people play bass in our shows and 3 different people play guitar? I imagine everyone just tossing their instruments to each other like a game and just playing (not really....he he).

Thanks to Carolyn Fox for the wonderful pictures!
From left to right: Steve Farrell, Bernie Cramer, Pat Thurin, Stephanie Farrell and John Covert.

And, we had a great time with the Pioneer Travel folks and their guests.

For more information about Pioneer Travel, visit their website: http://www.pioneertravelservice.com/

This company knows how to Party!

This was a fun party that was put on by a company for their employees. John and Michael have been playing for them a few times a year for a while now. I have been there a few times in the past year and it's always a BLAST! Everyone is so very nice there and they make us feel so welcome. So...how can we do anything but have FUN?!





Michael was in playful mood....which is his normal mood actually! I don't know what he was doing here:

It's never a dull moment, that's for certain! My very dear friend was visiting this past week and she was able to come to our show before I took her to the airport. She fell in love with the guys in our band, just like everyone does. We were talking about how long we've known each other etc. I don't know how it came up, but the discussion was about whether or not "I" am bossy. So, I said to Michael..."am I bossy?"...he said "Am I Italian?! Of course your bossy....but in a nice way". There you have it. And, it's true...I must admit. The bossy part for sure and I do try to be nice. he he

This must be a great place to work because they have so many really neat people. It was a pleasure to play for them. And, they had a fabulous catered lunch too!




They even got up and danced. There was dancing on the dance floor:





And, dancing all around the room!







We had a wonderful time and can't wait until we do it all again!

FFA Benefit Dinner Dance

This was a really fun event. We played for the Calaveras FFA Boosters Fundraiser Dinner Dance. We came early so that we would be all set up when folks started to arrive. So, that meant a bit of waiting around. One fun thing about this event is that it was in San Andreas and that is close to home for Steve and me. Our kids went to Calaveras...and WE went to Calaveras High School too. We have many happy memories in the San Andreas Town Hall. And, now we have a new one to add.


We played with a new drummer, Jerry. Wow, he truly added to the fun of the evening. Jerry "gets" us! He jumped right in and joined Michael and Steve with all the kidding around. LOVED IT. Jerry was recently in the very popular band, The Detours. And, get this...Jerry is also Santa Claus! Woo Hoo! We played with Santa!! You will be seeing more of Jerry with us for sure! (fingers crossed!!)


And...he is an excellent drummer too!


I just love Steve's photographs!


Here is the whole gang...except me, because I took the picture!


There was a lot of extra time....and that means, lots of joking around.

There is never a dull moment!

Here is Steve, going over his song list, so he will be ready to play harmonica in the right key. Did you know that he has to have an entire collection of harmonicas in different keys?


You don't even want to know what they are talking about....lots of "boy" humor.



Michael and Jerry had lots to talk about.


The evening began with auctions. These fellows were dressed to sell a Hawaiian themed table. They really hammed it up!

The auctioneer was fabulous! I just do not know how they can talk that fast.

I could not believe how many great items they had for the raffle. Wow.


And, now...it's time to party! Let's dance!


This was the first time Jerry played with us and you would have thought he'd been playing with us for a really long time. A true pro!


Mr. Rock N Roll, Michael really ROCKS!


Michal and Jerry playing around during a song.



And, dancing, dancing and more dancing!


The kids are the best. My favorite moment of the night was during a really loud ROCKIN song. I looked over to the side and there was a boy about 10 and he was dancing in the side stairwell where nobody could see him. He was completely abandoned and was dancing up and down the stairs, bouncing off the walls. It was a really neat moment. That is just the type of thing that makes this so fun. To make somebody happy. And, he was really happy.


Lot's of little kids out on the dance floor...precious.


In my own personal opinion....Cowboys are the best dancers....just sayin.

So, now the party is over and it's time to pack it all up again. We have done it so many times, that we have a system. Everyone helps and it's done pretty quick. There's no reason not to have fun packing up too...right?

Another great one:



Think we should add these songs to our show list? he he

We have a very full holiday season ahead and we are looking forward to seeing everyone!


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