Ciao Bella 05-14-11

It was so much fun to be back at Ciao Bellas!  And, there was a BIG Birthday Bash going on!  Here is the birthday girl with her family.  They took over the entire restaurant and had it decorated...it was pretty fabulous!  We even did the Beatles "Birthday Song" for her and her whole family danced with her.  

There was dancing NON stop all evening.  We play until 1am...and the dance floor was packed up to the last song.  

Some of our friends from the Stockton Singles Club came too.  We play a "Rock" show at Ciao Bellas.  So, it is pretty much ROCKIN the entire evening.  Which is quite different from the music we play for the Stockton Singles which is more oldies, more soft music.  Someone from Stockton Singles came up to me and said "Is THIS the SAME band that played last night????".   Of course he knew it was us, he was just surprised at how different our music was.  That was fun!  We DO love to shake it up and surprise people.  

It was kind of cold and rainy outside....seems like it's been that way forever. We were set up in the lobby with the front door behind us, so folks had to use the other entrance.  At one point in the evening, I noticed the staff seemed to be rushing back to the bathroom and I could have sworn I smelled smoke.  Jose came over and opened the door behind us to let in some fresh air.  Turns out that someone thought it would be cool to light a trash can on fire in the bathroom.  Jose and his staff were on it right away.  The smoke alarm never even had a chance to go off.  Who would do a thing like that?

This is Marquis, he's a DJ and tested me out to see if I would remember his name.  I failed miserably and he made sure I would never forget again!! 

Dance Dance and Dance some more!!

We will be back at Ciao Bellas September 3rd, so come out and join us.  If you want all the information, sign up for our email list on our website:  www.crystalimageband.com .  I send out our show list every week with all the details.  

Thank you to everyone who came out and partied with us!

Stockton Singles 05-13-10

The Stockton Singles Club is a fun place for folks to dance and make friends.  We have played there once a month for a long time and it feels like everyone there is OUR friend too!  It is an honor to be asked back each month and everyone in our band honestly looks forward to playing for this group.  They are an appreciative audience and they DANCE!  We love to watch people dance to our music.  

Steve took this picture of me.  I decided to wear a dress instead of pants.  Sometimes it feels like I'm always wearing the same thing!!  

Gotta love twinkle lights!!  

Here is a great picture of Jerry.  

What a fun place to come and dance!

Here is the group Line Dancing.  Fun!!

Yep.  Having fun...again!

If you like to dance, this is the place to do it.  Line Dancing, swing, latin, cha cha, rhumba, waltz...and more!

Historic Folsom Street Party

2 MORNING gigs in a row!!  We usually play at night, so it's kind of strange to be heading to a gig in the morning.  It's much nicer to have a morning gig when we didn't play late the night before, so THAT was a good thing.

We were set to play at 1pm, but because they were closing the street, they suggested that we bring in our equipment at 8am so that we could drive our vehicles right up to the stage.  So, we decided to do that.  8am meant that we left our house around 6:30 am.  Ugh.  That was tooooo early for me!  I decided to wear something comfortable and change for the show later. 

We had hours to kill...so we went out to breakfast!  Mmmm yummy!

When we first got there they were setting up the stage.  We knew right away that the stage was not level and this is a problem for us.  We worked it all out with some hand wedges that Steve made.  Another problem was that the stage was not covered.  They told me that it would be, so I didn't plan on bringing anything for shade.  Lesson learned.  I'm going to make sure that we bring umbrellas to every outdoor gig, just in case!

We were mostly worried about John's keyboards.  We did not need for the keyboard to breakdown due to sun exposure.  The keyboard is the heart of the band.  I don't see how we continue without it.  Steve came up with an idea to make a cover with foam board for the keyboard and we took a quick trip to Target to get some.  We really hated to give up our very good parking place, but oh well.  As luck would have it, the space was still open when we got back....we were just behind the person who pulled in and got it!  Dang.

I took the opportunity to change in to my show clothes in the car....that was interesting!  I sure didn't want to do that in a Port-a-potty.  Turns out the port-a-potty was really nice and would have been fine. (did you need to know that?)  So, I was dressed and ready and we had the foam board for John.  We still had to wait for 3 acts to complete before we could set up.

Normally, we set up in an hour.  We had 30 minutes to set up at this gig.  We tried to get as much ready ahead of time as possible and with all the hurdles....we still started on time.  I'm so proud of us for that!

We played for an hour and this is ALWAYS the fun part!  We could have played for a lot longer.  But, we were the last show in the event, and when it was time to stop...we did.   Here's a video of some of our show.  If you watch until the end, you will have a little treat!  There is a really great dancer rockin out!!

We are going to play there again in June for 2nd Saturday....and we are all looking forward to it.  Historic Folsom is a cool place...and old town with unique shops and since the revitalization project, it's just a pleasure to walk around.  Come see for yourself June 11 at 6pm!

Western Country Party

We had a private party booked for an assisted living community that we have played at before.  In fact, John and Michael started out there long before I met them.  I joined them last year for this same party, and it was so much fun. 

I got out my cowboy hat and dusted it off.  I have a very cool "vintage" cowboy hat, from the 80's when cowboy was in fashion for a while.  So, I bought this hat brand new back then and I think it's considered "vintage" now.  What does that make me?  I guess I'm vintage too!!

On our way to the gig, we realized that we were going to be late......very late!!  Oh my gosh...what a terrible feeling.  We wondered if we would arrive before the music started!  We called the guys and let them know and wow....they just took care of everything.  What a blessing!  We basically walked in with our microphones, plugged in and started singing.  Our fellow bandmates are so professional, they had everything set up and ready to go.  We felt terrible!  But, we put it behind us and enjoyed the show.

One problem that we had was a lack of monitors.  The monitors were in our car, so they did not get set up at all.  It felt like singing in to a microphone that is not even turned on.  I never realized how nice it is to be able to hear all of the music as we are performing.  Without that, we were running blind basically.  Jerry and John shared their monitors with the rest of us, but it was impossible to hear clearly.  It was time to just go on faith and rely on the "tools" that John has taught us.  It reminds me how much we have learned and how grateful I am for that knowledge. 

One of the fun things about this gig is the music.  We played a lot of Oldies from the 40's and 50's as well as more country music than we normally do.  These songs are so wonderful, each one is like visiting an old friend!

The crowd was loving the music and kept requesting songs.  John was a master at this...he knew most of them and played them much to the delight of the folks. 

The staff at this place is excellent!  It's like coming home every time we are there.  We feel so lucky to be asked back.  One funny thing, our friend Gae, who hires us, told us that she received many compliments on the band.  In fact, she said that several people told her that we were much better than the band they had last year.  Well, that's always nice to hear.   We are better than last year's band.  Hold on a minute!  The band last year was US!  Steve and Jerry were not there last year...so they must have made the difference, right?

The gig was only 2 hours, so we played right through without a break.  The problem with that was, that we were invited to have lunch and by the time we stopped, it was all put away.  They were SOOOOO nice that they pulled out the food and fed the band!  What treatment!  We were spoiled! 

Special thanks to Gae for hiring us and to all the wonderful people who stayed and made us feel so welcome.  When people enjoy the music....it makes us feel terrific! 

Rockin the Hotel Leger

We had a really fun night at the Hotel Leger.  We are so blessed to be invited back each month and it's such a great feeling each time we return.  This is truly one of our all time favorite places to play.  It's a very cool bar with a lot of history, the staff is so friendly....everyone feels welcome, and the crowd is always completely FUN!!  

Shawn and Stephanie behind the bar....we LOVE you guys!!

We are always happy to see folks from our email list.  We had a bunch of folks that came to our Hippie Party last month show up to the Hotel Leger.  They didn't think I would recognize them without their costumes...but I did!!  

Susan and her friends came....and that means DANCING!!!  Thanks Susan, for all your support.  You guys are the greatest!

Suzette, Susan and Terry

Gotta Dance!

John Covert

We ran in to some neighbors we hadn't seen since they moved years ago!!

l-r John, Stephanie, Steve, Jerry, Michael

Jerry Tamburino

Just looking at these pictures and remembering the fun....I'm ready to play there again right now!  Mark your calendar for May 28th and come see for yourself!! 

Jackson Clean it Green it Day

We were so lucky to get to play for this wonderful event.  When Corinne and Larry were visiting from Canada, Corinne heard about this event and recommended us.  I followed up and we were hired!  Thanks Corinne!!  

It was rainy all the way up to this particular weekend, and we had some big concerns about playing outside, as did the organizers of the event!  But, we just had to go on faith that it would all turn out, and IT DID!!

Before the day, John went over to Detert Park and checked for possible places for us to set up.  The place that the band played last year was too small for us and we needed a level area.  A lot of people don't realize how much planning it takes to set all of our gear up.  The drummer and keyboard need a level area, preferably not on dirt or grass. I don't care to stand on dirt or grass either!  There happens to be a big cement stage at the park, but it was too far away from the event, so that was out.  John spotted a big cement area with a flag in the middle, still a ways from the festivities but we decided this would be our best bet.

It was a very difficult set up, we kept joking that the flag pole needed to be removed!  So, we set up all around it.  The problem is that the people on either side of it, could not hear each other.  Even with the monitors.  Jerry could not hear Michael and Steve.  So, he ended up skipping most of the songs that he sings.

We saw our friends from the Farmer's Market and they asked us to play for the opening day, which we are going to do!!!

Friends of John:

The folks cleaned up Jackson and Bank of Amador fed them!  They made a great big plate of food for the band before they left and we ate it....by then we were starving!!  Thanks Bank of Amador!!

The event was a success and we had a great time entertaining the folks!  It was a joint effort with Amador County and the City of Jackson.  They did an awesome job of pulling it all together.  Mike Daly took this picture of the band:  (thanks Mike)

Notice Steve's new "toy", his red guitar makes it's first public appearance.

And, a little video of the day:

Mike said that he would like to have us back again next year and we would LOVE to it again!!