Hotel Leger

The Hotel Leger http://hotelleger.com/ is one of our favorite places to play.  It's the closest to home for Steve and me, so it's like a homecoming each time we get to play there!  We had heard from tons of people that they were coming and then....a storm.  Enough already!  This weather is CRAZY!   With that, we didn't know what to expect!

There have been some changes at the Hotel Leger.  Introducing the NEW owners,  Daryl and Tracy Zellers.  We know Daryl's brother and we all live in the same small town.  But, we had to wonder if we would still be playing there.  And, YES!  It turns out that they had been there before when we were playing and they wanted us to keep our scheduled gig.  Yay!  They are the nicest people and we are so happy for them and their new adventure!  

I talked to Tracy and she told me that the Hotel was sold out that night and the night before.  Wow!  Did you know that people come to this hotel from all over the world?  It's a really neat old place and rumor has it that it is HAUNTED!  There are 3 ghosts one of them is a child and they are one of the reasons that people like to come here.  I think that the ghost teased us last month when John's keyboard played something wacky right in the middle of a sweet song...he didn't touch a thing to make it happen.  Was it a ghost?  

We were so happy to see some friends show up to see us.  Lisa on the right works at our Dentist office and Ginger and her husband organize the "Camp Out for Cancer" http://www.amadorstars.org/ , which our band will participate in on September 10th.  It's a small world here in the country.  Ginger's daughter and my daughter were on the same gymnastics team for several years waaaaay back!  

 This lady was up from Southern California, I'm pretty sure she told me she came in hopes of seeing the ghost.

There were also some folks from France.  There is always a dispute as to the pronunciation of the Hotel Leger.  We have always said "Lee Jay".  But, lots of people say "led ger".  When we took a vote, can you guess what the French people voted for?  

We had a great time.  Suzette came and danced with me, there she is on the left!

And, Susan showed up later on.  It's always great to see you!!

We played and danced the night away and before we knew it, it was time to stop!  We did an encore and called it a night.  And, we are already looking forward to coming back June 18th.  Come join us for the fun!

Elizabeth Spencer Winery

Now this is an amazing story...meet Charles.

Charles found our band on the internet and we connected about playing for the Elizabeth Spencer Winery http://www.elizabethspencerwines.com/ .  We talked about possible dates etc.  

The winery called me and asked if we could play Thursday because their band canceled at the last minute.  We don't usually play on Thursdays so we were available and YES we would love to play this gig.  I was pretty sure that they didn't know how they found us...but I knew...Charles.  I called Charles to let him know that we would be there and he was so happy about that.  But, he let his wife be suprised!

Charles and his wife are so supportive and wanted to help find live music for this venue.  It's because of them that we were there and we are sooooo grateful!  

This Winery Tasting Room is so elegant and lovely.  They have pretty gardens, a patio area, lots of great seating and my oh my the wine....devine!

We had fun taking pictures...there were so many great backdrops.

And everything was blooming.  Funny thing...the weather before this day wasn't great and it wasn't great right after...but for THIS day it was perfect!

 

We started out with soft music so people could talk and visit.

As the evening continued, we picked up the pace and before long we were ROCKIN. 

The winery "mascot" wanted to get in on the act.

These fun people asked for some "Lady Gaga",  I don't think the guys would go for that...but I would love it!  We did some Bruce Springsteen for them instead.

And we had a Birthday Girl in the house!  Yes....you know it!!  We did the Birthday song for her.

Here is our Birthday Girl again.

This is the band with Elizabeth and Spencer, our hosts.  We thank you so much for having us.  It was a wonderful wonderful night!

And....we will be back on July 14 to do it all over again.  Come on out and join us!

Gold Country Lanes

After we played for the Motherlode Cruise car show, we had lunch in the park and rested....because....we had ANOTHER gig!  Yep.  We also played for Gold Country Lanes.  We handed out fliers at the car show and lots of people said they would come to the bowling alley later on.

When we got to there and it was pretty empty.  There were a few people there and when we started playing...they left.  So, we played a song to the bartender and some more people came in...then they left.  Wow.  Kinda hard to not take that personally.

Then...Hallelujah... some of our friends showed up.  And, some more people, and some more of our friends.  Ah.  This was going to be a great night after all!  We so appreciate the folks who show up from our email list.  It's the best!!  If you want to sign up to receive our email blasts, you can sign up on our website:  www.crystalimageband.com  I send out our show list every week.

This couple knows us from the Stockton Singles Club:

And, this pretty lady (below on the left) had a birthday!  We did the Birthday song for her and her friends.  She works for a winery and hopefully we will play for them in the future.

Our Stockton friends asked for some slow music and that is always fun to dance to.

Fun as it was, we were really tired.  The later it got, the funnier everything seemed.  This wonderful couple from Stockton (man I wish I could remember their names!) stayed with us to the last song!  They knew we had played all day and were cheering us on!  Gosh we all just loved them for that!  At the end, the guy came up to Steve and said that he knew we had played all day and were tired, but that we gave EVERY song EVERYTHING.  Man it's nice to hear that.  Yes, we DID play all day, but we had an awesome time and wouldn't have changed a thing.  

Gold Country Lanes is a fun place with lots of room for dancing, easy parking, pool tables, food and bowling!  It's a great place to spend a Saturday night. And, we love playing there. 

Motherlode Cruise

Wow.  What an honor to play from the steps of the Historic National Hotel in Jackson.  The Jackson Business and Community Association (http://www.jacksonbca.com/) hosted a classic car show on Main St.  The car show was a huge success and it was a wonderful day.  Again, we had terrific weather!

This Hotel is under renovation.  I have had the opportunity to take a peek inside and I can tell you that it is going to be fabulous when it's finished this fall/winter.  I can hardly wait!!  And, this project is doing great things to revitalize the Jackson Downtown area. 

We had a great view of the entire street from up there!!

The cars were really something.   

We played a lot of extra oldies in our show to go with the cars.

John, Steve and I live in this area (Michael and Jerry live in Sacramento).  So, we all saw lots of people that we know and that is always fun!

Thank you sooo much to the JCBA for having us.  It was a day to remember.  

Frogjump

This particular gig was very personal for me.  Well they all are, but this one ws special.  We played for the Calaveras County Fair, it's our county fair and we have always called it "Frogjump".  It's the famous home of the Frog Jump Jubilee.  The whole idea of a frog jumping contest comes from a Mark Twain story.  Mark Twain lived in the area during the Gold Rush and he wrote some great stories.  

"Frogjump" is so important to the folks that live here.  Every year our school would let the kids have holiday for Thursday and Friday of the Fair.  I spent year after year going to the fair all four days with my kids.  In fact, my daughter was 2nd runner up in the Miss Calaveras Pageant in 1999 (I think that was the year).  

As soon as I knew that our band was going to play for the fair, I called my kids and invited them to come.  My oldest has a family and lives in Eureka, and they have not ever heard our band play.  They all committed to come and it was to be a family reunion for us. 

We started playing at 6pm.  The weather co-operated nicely!! 

This guy was here to compete in the Frog Jumping contest.  He has won many times!

We all had a great time!

Here is my dear daughter (in the middle), with two of her very good friends.  In fact, the girl on the left was her childhood best friend.  They rode rides and remembered the days when they were little girls at this very fair.  

There was dancing!!   Here is my oldest son, dancing with his daughter (my granddaughter).  Both of my Granddaughters had their faces painted....how cute!

My girls!!  From the left, Kelly (my daughter's good friend), Aurora and Tenaya (my Granddaughters) and my Daughter, January.

My son got his wife (my dear daughter-in-law) up to dance for a sweet romantic song. 

My dear friend, Susan, came to see us.  She is a terrific photographer and she won for several of her photos.  I think it was 3 first place and a 3rd.  In fact she sold some of her pictures right there at the fair!  I'm sad to say that we had other friends (like Cyn) that I don't have any pictures of.  Dang.  It's so hard to get pictures of everyone!!  

Later in the evening, there were less people, it was winding down, and a group of young guys came and they were FANTASTIC.  They were fun and the energy was crazy with them!  They kept throwing money on the stage...how fun is that?  They stayed until the last song....

And, then they asked for one more....and we played another....then one more!!  We could have played all night!!  But, of course the fair was closing.

What a wonderful night.  I will cherish it forever!  If you are my facebook friend, check back as I will probably add some more fun pictures of this great day.  You can find our band page on Facebook, crystalimagemusic.