It's time to VOTE for the KCRA "A" list. Last year, our band, Crystal Image ranked #11 out of over 200 bands in the greater Sacramento area. Woo Hoo! And, THANK YOU to everyone who voted for us!
We would be so happy if you would take a moment to VOTE for us. Just click on the button below and you will be directed to vote for us on the KCRA website. And, THANK YOU!!! Voting starts on March 28 and the winners are announced on May 22. So, PLEASE share this with your friends and help us move up the list. I will personallyHUG AND KISS everyone who votes for us!! (on the cheek of course!! he he)
You will have to sign in or create an account to vote and you can only vote one time per email address (so if you have more than one email address......you could vote one time each). Thank you again and I will keep you posted on the results.
Whew. Take a look and see what we've been up to! I just posted our last few weeks of gigs. I still have last weekend to share....coming soon, so check back!
Playing for the Hotel Leger is like coming home to me. I just love it there. You never know who will be there! This was a really fun night. The dancing went on to the very last song at about 1:30am!! I think we all could have kept going all night!!
Me and Susan....it just wouldn't be the same without you!!!
This lady remembered Johns band from waaaaay back! Should I say? Back when he first started Crystal Image in 1968. How cool is that?
This is such a fun place. If you haven't been there, you must!!!
Oh my gosh...has it really been a month since I posted here? So much has been happening and I am going to fill you in, I promise!! One thing that has been taking a lot of my time is the brand new website for our Hippie Party Show and Dance. Have you seen it? It's happening on April 9th at Thomi's in Jackson. You can read all about it at our new Hippie website: www.hippieparty.net
I'm really looking forward to this show. We have been working on some great music just for this show and we had a practice a couple days ago....sooo much fun!
We have a special light show that we have never used before. It will recreate the look of the Filmore in the 60's. And, we have a cut out of a VW Bus that you can take a picture in. This bus was at Martie's Birthday party in December and she gave it to us. Totally cool!
When we have done this show in the past, people have worn the grooviest outfits! Our audience is part of the show!! And, the songs will make you want to sing along and dance the night away. So, tell your friends, get your Hippie duds out and get your tickets right away.
I even figured out how we can sell tickets online! If you are like me, that will make it so much easier.
As for updating the blog....check back, I have some fun gigs to share with you and more. I will be "back" dating them so that they appear in the order that they happened.
The weather cleared up and we all met in Angels Camp where Michael joined John and they rode together. We drove over without any trouble. No snow...no rain. It was just fine! It's a beautiful drive. There is one area that seems to go straight up the mountain. I took some video: (warning...the wind is pretty LOUD)
We wanted to leave extra time to put on chains or whatever, so we ended up getting there REALLY early. They were glad to see us. I asked them if they were worried that we wouldn't make it and they said no. I told them that the only way we weren't coming is if they closed the road!! We are mountain people afterall!!
It just so happened that this gig was on my BIRTHDAY!! I turned 52! I made a special shirt for myself that said "Birthday Girl" on it....just to make everyone aware!! he he All I wanted from the band for my birthday was to perform the Beatles Birthday Song and I was promised that we would.
It was nice to be able to set up in a leisurely way. Pine Mountain Lake is a beautiful community and we played in the Grille. It's a restaurant and bar, and the stage area is huge!! We used our new lights...which are fantastic! I had this plan to put lights on top of our speakers, and John's wife Patty somehow attached velcro to our lights, one white and one red for each speaker. The speakers are up high, so the lights would shine down. So many times it seems like we are playing in the dark. At this gig, we had the luxury of time to figure out how to work this out. We had all the cords we needed. And WOW! They are fantastic! This should be a million dollar invention!!
We also set up our video. But, as usual, it's so far away that it's really not that great. We are still figuring out Jerry's recorder and when we got home, we were bummed to find that nothing at all had recorded!! Ugh. I'm desperate to update our website's audio and video.
One of the really nice things about playing for these folks is that they feed us!! We had a wonderful meal and the food is delicious.
The restaurant manager told us the the band for the Iron Door Saloon cancelled at the last minute. This would be great for us! We would benefit from people coming to the Grille when they heard there was a band. It was shaping up to be a great night!
We started with some soft dinner music and there was a lot of dancing...the ballroom kind. There was one couple that was just outstanding!! I think that's them in the background of this photo.
As the evening wore on the crowd began to shift to a younger group and we played more and more Rock.
One couple came up and the guy wanted to collect a guitar pick from all of us for his collection, Steve and Mike gave him one without question. I told him that he would HAVE to have one of mine too!! Mine are hot pink! He was happy about that and he proceeded to enjoy our music very much and whistled loudly a lot. That made us feel really good.
And....it was his wife's birthday! Imagine that. So, we called her up and sang the Birthday Song for her and for me too. There is a line in the song that goes...."they say it's your birthday...it's my birthday to yeah"...I got a kick out of that.
We rocked and rocked until the stroke of midnight. And, of course NOW it started to rain. We all got soaked as we loaded our gear up to take the long road home. Rain is OK...just hold the snow until we get home! They were so happy with us that they booked us for 2 more gigs and I'm already looking forward to going back. It's so close to Yosemite that maybe we will spend the night and go to the park the next day.
This was our first time at the Lodi Eagles Lodge. It's a really nice place with a very large dance floor. We had been preparing for this show for several weeks. Michael's granddaughters were visiting and he took the night off to be with them. So. That left Steve filling in. And, he did a great job!!
We were very happy to see some of our Stockton/Lodi friends there, it's always a pleasure to see familiar faces. In fact, Karen and Dieter were there again for the second night in a row. That was so special!!
It was snowing at our house when we left and during one of the breaks John called home and Patty told him that it was snowing and that the power was out!! That was NOT good. The next day we were booked at Pine Mountain Lake in Groveland...up in the mountains. We had some concern about getting there. John decided to stay at a friend's house in the valley and we all planned to meet up the next day and caravan to the gig.
While Steve did a wonderful job filling in for Michael...all the extra solos with his harp and the guitar rifs....we missed Michael terribly!
The Eagles were so nice and wanted to book us for New Year's Eve. But, we were already booked. As we went through the calendar, we were not able to find a date for them. Hopefully we will be able to go back sometime in the future. It's nice to try and keep the calendar full, but it's also hard when you want to book something and you don't have any open dates!!
This was our first time at 856 and we were supposed to play outside in the courtyard. It had been raining everyday and even snowing at our house, so we were a little bit reluctant to play outside. Then the day arrived complete with warm temperatures and sunshine. Just for the one day! How cool is that?
We set up outside and we used our new lights and they worked out great. In fact, they work so great it should be a new invention!!
The owner of the place is Jerry and he is so friendly and nice. However, every time the GREENman showed up, Jerry was nowhere to be found....hmmmmm.
There was a whole lotta green going on!
Michael had his beautiful granddaughters visiting and his wife, Marty, brought them to see the band.
We were trying to get some video of the band and one of Michael's granddaughters offered to film. She did a super job with one of our favorite songs that Michael does and he did it the BEST EVER. Then, come to find out, the video camera was NOT on. That was a big huge BUMMER. But, we figured it out and she filmed this song...which was just as fun:
Our friends, Deiter and Karen, came to see us. We always love seeing them!! They stayed for the entire show, even when it did start to get chilly.
We made new friends and had a blast! As the evening wore on, the crowd got younger. They planned to have a DJ after us for the younger crowd. As we were packing up, I noticed that most of the songs the were playing were the same songs that WE just played. This guy (below), told us that everyone assumes that the younger crowd all likes hip hop and he says that this is not always true! Yay!
This guy was soooo nice! He is hoping to have us play for a party for his Dad's BD. That would be sooo fun.
I can totally imagine playing here on a warm summer night.
Crystal Image returned to Gold Country Lanes. This place is great because it's big with lots of room for dancing and it never feels crowded. There are pool tables and they serve food. The parking is easy. And, you can BOWL.
I shopped again to find us something better for St. Patrick's Day and I hit the jackpot! I found ties for the guys and a light up necklace for me. I also made a St. Paddy t-shirt and we were ready to ROCK in the GREEN!
I had an idea about lights. Sometimes it can be really dark. I had a thought that we could mount lights on top of our speakers and have them point down on us so we could see and be seen. John's wife, Patty, who is very very handy with the tools, fixed up the speakers and the lights with velcro and we tried them out for the first time. Unfortunately, it didn't work. We did not have enough long extention cords. But the idea was great and we planned to get cords asap!
It was a fun night. There were bands playing all over town that same night and folks were filtering in and out. There were a few that came just to see us including a friend of mine, Ann and her hubby.
And, there were a few people that sat at the bar for the entire evening and they were having a great time. I wanted to thank them for staying the entire gig (4 hours!!!) but they left just before we stopped. So, whoever you are....THANK YOU!! Hope to see you again!
John, goofing around, I think he should have worn the hat all night!
This is John Swift, he runs the whole place. Thank you John, for having us!
We took a bunch of video on my little camera and they are all fun fun fun! The thing about it is that you can hear mostly what is right in front of the camera, the sound is much better out in front of the speakers. But, we have fun with the little camera. Steve takes most of the video and when it's time for him to play, he hands it to me. Here is Mr. Rock N Roll, Michael and Honky Tonk Woman. Enjoy!
When we got to the Stockton Singles (at the Stockton Elks Lodge), we all commented on how much we look forward to playing for these people. They are all so nice and they love to dance. We play music for them and they dance for us!
There was a lot of GREEN going on here! I tried to get some green for us to wear but couldn't find much, darn. I found some pins and brought some black ties for the guys and we put the pins all over the ties. I wore a green top and some necklaces and we were ready to celebrate St. Paddy style!
I wish I could show you how wonderful it looks when these people dance. Everytime I video tape it, it comes out dark. They are really terrific dancers and it's a joy to watch.
Sometime during the evening a lady from the Elks Lodge came in and heard us and she hired us to play for the Elks Octoberfest....woo hoo!! That was so exciting and we are truly looking forward to that.
This was our first time to play for Deaver Vineyards and dang it...the weather did not cooperate! Thankfully the folks at Deaver had us covered....literally! They put up a big tent for the band and another for the tasting event.
We played our first song and POOF the power went off. Uh oh. That can be dangerous to all of that expensive equipment we have. Water + Electricity = danger! The Deaver people fixed the problem and the music started back again. It was rainy and chilly, but that did not stop the guests from attending the event and it did not stop us from ROCKIN the place!
Unfortunately, Steve was still under the weather and did not come to the gig. We invited a couple of local musicians to join us, but nobody could make it at the last minute. The person it affected the most was Michael. He had to fill in for all of Steve's harmonica solos with his guitar and he had to take over Steve's harmony parts. He did fabulous and I'm sure that nobody would even know that we were missing someone . But, we were missing him.
Let me tell you this...dancing will warm you up! I didn't even need my coat. People were wandering in and out all day and they would stop to dance to a song or two. Who can resist?
This fellow was so nice! He just loved the band and stayed until we stopped.
His family was lovin the music too!
I sure hope we can come back to Deaver again on a SUNNY day!
We returned to Ciao Bella and it was awesome. When we first got there to set up, there were already a lot of familiar faces filling up the place!! Jose and the gang are great to work with and we hope to be able to get together on some future dates, so watch our calendar!
People come here to DANCE!!
They stayed until we quit at 1am!
I try to avoid negativity here on the blog, but I am going to share with you that Steve was not feeling well this night. In fact, he left the gig for the last set and waited in the car. We figured out that it was something he ate earlier in the day...NOT from Ciao Bella but for lunch earlier and we just played without him at the end. Poor guy.
