Monday March 24th gig at The Palms

Wow. Bill Champlin, Wayne Brady, Santa Fe and The Fat City Horns. What more does one need to say?

First of all, the band came out blazing at 10:30. They started with a new Nathan Tanouye Fat City Horns arrangement he'd done for Bette Midler. Doesn't really have a title, Rob just shrugged and called it "Boogie Woogie Song." It was badass. Bette had come into a rehearsal with some vague concept she'd wanted expressed. Nathan said "no problem," and, as Rob recounted to me, he showed up at rehearsal the next day and plopped finished charts down on their stands.

Done.

Well, they opened with it tonight, and Sonny was all over the mix, too; it just sizzled right out in a perfect, well-defined blend. What a way to start. The packed house was so ready. The table seating area had filled up an hour early tonight. The crowd was way into it right off the bat.

So, right out "Boogie Woogie Song" into "Esta Noche," which tonight had a really comfortable, relaxed yet snappy groove.

You could tell it was gonna be a magical night. Bill Champlin was already in the house, sittin' up at my table with his friend and Joey Turner, my friend from Seattle.

Jerry showed up in short order, and things really got cranked up all nasty. "Ain't That Peculiar" was thundering tonight. Champlin just shook his head and said something along the lines of "man, that ain't possible, that ain't right."

LOL!

Blogging incrementally here, BTW, gonna upload some pics and then post, iteratively. Lather, rinse, repeat. Don't wanna keep y'all waiting too long.

Now, some shots of our guests. Jerry finished up with "Come Back Home" and called Bill up first.

Wow. Bill was tearin' it up. I was so busy tryin' to get good shots I lost track of the tunes. I know he did "Same Old Song," "Headed For The Top," "Love Is Gonna Find You," and "Turn Your Love Around" for sure.

Below, the awesome Wayne Brady came up after Bill finished.

Below, Wayne's M.D. Cat Grey throws it down on the B3. Cat and Wayne's drummer Trent Felchor both sat in (I could not get a shot of Trent).

The guys ended the evening by incinerating the room with "Living For The City." A group of musicians from Ireland was at the gig tonight. A couple of them came up to me afterward and just raved on and on. They simply could not believe what they'd just heard.

Aye, we get our fookin' wee little arses toasted ev'ry week, lads. Aye.

Below, Bill and The Fat City Horns. Below that, the whole mob.

Tryin' to assemble these cats for a pic, is like, uh, "herding cats."

OK, y'all, like I said tonight, I will be posting Podcast #5 later in the week. The topic will focus on individual music projects of some of the guys in the band. I think you'll dig it.

I'm fixin' to crash.

TUESDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE

I just got Rochon's website up. See www.rochonwestmoreland.com. Lotta work to do there, constructing and loading various content pages. Stay tuned.

HOT CLUB OF LAS VEGAS UPDATE

From Mundo:

Howzit Everybody!!

Sorry we've been MIA for a while, but we're back! We'll be doing a joint concert with a duo from the UK called Gypsy Fire at Vox Wine Lounge on Friday April 4th. Andreas Oberg ( bebop and gypsy jazz monster!!) hooked us up and we're very excited to be playing with this duo while they visit the U.S! Here's is their website:

www.gypsyfire.co.uk

For this and our upcoming gigs (some are confirmed, but we're still ironing out the dates) please check out our website: www.hotclublasvegas.com or our myspace page: www.myspace.com/hotcluboflasvegas

We went on hiatus for the holidays. Then while we did record during January and February we all got very busy professionally. Carol was tied up in Mamma Mia rehearsals all February for bringing in new actors etc. Recently she's done an NPR interview, and sang the national anthem for the Las Vegas Nascar race. We'll be posting the NPR link and vid of her singing!. Gabriel started a new show at Harrah's called "Hats" and he continues to play with Santa Fe, and everyone else in town!! Not only that he has a burgeoning sound rental company. Chris is playing "Phantom" nightly at the Venetian and playing professor daily at he College of Southern Nevada. Also he's the conductor for the CSN Orchestra and performs with the Las Vegas Philharmonic. Don't tell him but he thinks he's playing in the orchestra for Led Zeppelin at the end of March, but it's really with an awesome tribute band. Also he just found out his back is broken. I've been busy also. This year I've done the CES, MacWorld and NAMM show working as a clinician for Washburn Guitars/US Music Corp. And during these three months I've been privileged to stay on with product development and beta-testing of new products that debuted in January 2008. For a short while you could see me on every tech and geek internet site as a hand model! I've also had a blast doing gigs with my old band The Rave. And recently had the opportunity to sub for Jerry Lopez (monster incarnate!) in the Wayne Brady show.

We've actually have been playing together a lot this March and we're raring to play out again. The glue that keeps us rehearsing lately is our new rhythm guitarist Marlow Valentin. His enthusiasm and initiative to learn our repertoire has been a contagious element for us to get back on the horse. Also we are still plugging away at our CD. We have 10 songs in different states of completion. 3 more to go, mixing, mastering, and CD art and packaging and we're done!!

I wrote this long email to address a lot of interest I've been receiving lately in regards to when are where we're playing and "where did you guys go?" questions. We appreciate all the love and concern, and we're excited for 2008! Our websites are updated (thanx to Donna Freeman and Marlow Valentin) and we will be keeping them current to reflect event dates, and new vids etc.

We would love to see you at Vox! It begins at 9:00pm and t's gonna be a fun night! Gypsy Fire is the real deal. And if you haven't checked out Vox Wine Lounge: www.voxwinelounge.com This is a perfect time to see Henderson's hippest new heavy hang!!!

Aloha-Mundo

CROSBY LOGGINS UPDATE

Email from Crosby:

Hey Everybody,

I've got some big news! Please take a moment to read this whole note, it's got some really important information in it...

As many of you already know, I was recently selected to participate in MTV's newest reality music competition, "Rock The Cradle". The show airs LIVE NEXT THURSDAY, APRIL 3 @ 10PM (EST), and will feature the talented offspring of music industry stars facing off each week by performing live in front of a studio audience.

The show is VOTING BASED, and there is an ELIMINATION EVERY WEEK!

Needless to say, the stakes are higher than ever. But we can win!

I feel it's worth saying that my decision to participate in this show was not an easy one. I have spent 7 very hard working years in direct pursuit of my career, putting a tremendous amount of energy into stepping out from behind my father's shadow. I take great pride in the fact that every aspect of my career, from my management to my band to my record deal, has developed organically and as a result of my own hard work. But the fact remains that I am Kenny Loggins' son, and that's not ever going to change.

This show is a huge opportunity for me to fully embrace that reality and move past it into my own career.

SO LET'S SPREAD THE WORD!

Here are some ways we can work together to win:

• WATCH MTV and VOTE NEXT THURSDAY, APR 3 at 10e/9c (online or by text message - stay tuned for voting details).
• Stay informed! Encourage others to go to www.crosbyloggins.com and JOIN MY MAILING LIST to receive more information and voting details. (Even if you think you're already on the list, join it again. We've updated some things and you won't receive multiple emails).
• Visit my MYSPACE page www.myspace.com/crosbyloggins and paste the "Digital Stickers" into your own myspace pages to help spread the word. Tell your friends to do the same!
• Forward this LETTER on to your own mailing lists, and post it in your blogs, bulletins and personal web pages.
• Tell everyone you know to VOTE next Thursday, and share these tools to help spread the word!

We can work together to bring real music to the forefront once again! Lets take this thing by storm!

Thank you so much guys.

Very Sincerely,
Crosby Loggins