Ronnie Foster, who will be at The Ice House tomorrow night (Thurs 10/25) with his band, will open for Santa Fe and The Fat City horns on Sunday. Ronnie starts at noon. Santa Fe takes the stage around 2:45 pm.
More to come, stay tuned. BTW, Bill Champlin is gonna come and appear with Santa Fe at the Danny Gans benefit at the Mirage.
THURSDAY UPDATE
In late 2001, Dave Richardson and Lenny Lopez produced an absolutely stunning ten traditional song Christmas CD. The performers were all of the usual suspects, from Santa Fe and The Fat City Horns, the Clint Holmes Show (including Clint himself, gloriously singing "Silent Night"), and many others. This amazing product sold out, with all of the proceeds going to support post- 9/11 charity, and subsequently went out of print.
I have asked the guys that I take on the project of funding and managing a re-issue, because you simply must hear it. Click the following for a 1:49 mp3 sample culled from "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen." Oh, yeah!
UPDATE: mp3 sample from the CD cut "Away in a Manger."MOSAIC quality vocals, wow. BTW, Lenny did the vocal arrangements on this CD. Brilliant work.
I'm doing new artwork (draft face page below), and will send it all to duplication shortly. We should have it available for sale ($10 each) at the gigs in about two weeks.
I had a PayPal account for a while, but got pissed at the constant phishing emails I kept getting starting virtually within a day of opening it, so I closed it. I guess I can start a new one to be able to take remote orders (which will be $10 + $2 S/H for domestic delivery, overseas TBA). - BobbyG FRIDAY ERRATA
Went to see Ronnie last night. Didn't stay long, had a bitch of a headache. Couple of shots:
They did some new originals that were way cool. Come out to Lorenzi Park Sunday to hear 'em.
Above, our great friend Bill Champlin warms up prior to the gig. Bill, appearing in town with Chicago, came alone tonight, and hadn't intended to sit in. Fat chance.
First, gotta give props to Fat City Horns subs Dave Phillipus on trombone and Wes Marshall on trumpet. Nathan is in New York writing the arrangements for the upcoming Bette Midler show (featuring the Fat City Horns) at Caesars after Celine splits. Gil needed a night off. But, it was just another night in the office at Fat City Central, the horns were blazing away, no problem. Amazing, the deep bench.
Best line of the night: Bill Champlin leans over toward me at the table, shaking his head at the end of Nathan's "Come With Me" and says, "Man, that's just criminal..."
A few pics:
Above, the Norman Fishin' Tackle Choir takes us out with "We Are Nothing." Below, Jerry with Chicago bassist & singer Jason Scheff.
More later. 3:45 a.m., I'm goin' to bed. Great night tonight.
TUESDAY UPDATE THOUGHT
I know we're all about the good times "healing," but I would ask us all to reflect for just a moment on the searing misery now being visited upon our brothers and sisters a mere 300 miles or so to our southwest. This is a friggin' Katrina in flames. My heart goes out to all who have lost and will yet lose so much.
First, a reminder that Santa Fe and The Fat City Horns will appear on the 28th at 6:45 pm at Danielle's First Tee fundraiser at the Mirage (click the images to enlarge).
Please come and support this excellent organization.
A BLAST FROM MY PAST
While we were back at my sister's in Michigan a couple of weeks ago, Carole gave me these old 45s she'd saved. LOL!
It was 1964. I was fresh out of high school and playing in my first road band, The Zephyrs. While we were gigging at "The Chatterbox" in Seaside Heights on the boardwalk at the Jersey Shore that summer (upper left in the photo below), we hooked up with this manager cat Mort Browne. Why he ever consented to get involved with us starry-eyed rookies escapes me.
Click his name, read his rap sheet. Cat was renowned during the Tin Pan Alley era. A heavy hitter.
Mort brought us into NYC and put us in the studio to cut four tunes. Same place where Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons cut their stuff (a state of the art 4-track facility, wow, where the reverb was generated by mics in a stairwell outside the studio). Above, starting at 12 o'clock, clockwise: Pat Burno, sax; Ward Kremer, drums; cousin Jojo, bass; Clay Kremer, B3 & guitar (cat fancied himself the White James Brown, replete with cape & all); BobbyG, guitar & trumpet.
Well, while we were out on the road that fall and winter driving around through blizzards pulling a U-Haul (all five of us piled into Jojo's old car) and freezing our asses off (Chicago, Milwaukee, Indiana, Iowa, etc) and playing some long gigs (e.g., 9 pm - 5 am at the Whiskey a Go Go on Rush Street in Chicago), Mort got us airplay and serious chart action in Europe -- thinking, no doubt, reverse British invasion. The "Bicycle Ride" was this dopey novelty tune intended to spark "A New Dance Craze!" Jeesh.
Moronically, we imploded from the stresses of our naivete and crap gigs and broke up in the spring of 1965, just as Mort's strategy for us was bearing fruit. Idiots.
I moved on and hooked up with "The Hollywood Argyles" (the "Alley Oop" cats) in the summer of 1965 and headed back out on the road.
We're back in the lounge at the Palms this coming Monday night, and we've got word we might have a couple of "surprise Guest Artists"... Hmmmm...
Last Monday night was a real treat. We had Wayne Brady, Clint Holmes, George Wallace, Earl Turner, and many other stars show up, and some of them sat in with the band. We also had the INCREDIBLE MOSAIC!! perform that night -- WOW is all I can say. This group of singers makes me want to go back to the "woodshed" and spend 8 hours a day practicing!!
We hope to see you Monday night, and bring a friend!
ALSO: I just got this from my friend Tony Davich who is the lead singer (and former lead singer with Santa Fe) with PHOENIX, and Incredible rock band that THROWS DOWN!
If you dig classic rock done right, with heart, with major talent, you have to see these guys. Jimmy Crespo (formerly of Aerosmith and many many other Rock legendary bands) is the lead guitarist and is AMAZING. Check it out, this is what I got from Tony: ______
We are currently at the NY NY every Thursday-Monday from 10:00-2:00 on a full-time basis. Starting October 20, though, we will be performing Saturdays at the Showroom at the South Point Hotel and Casino. Doors open @10:00, shows start @ 10:30. We're really excited about working this room because, as you well know, the room - and the people involved with it - are top notch. They've really got their [bleep] together over there and are very "live entertainment friendly." Our complete schedule is on our website at www.PhoenixRockBand.com.
Ronnie Foster, who will be at The Ice House tomorrow night (Thurs 10/25) with his band, will open for Santa Fe and The Fat City horns on Sunday. Ronnie starts at noon. Santa Fe takes the stage around 2:45 pm.
More to come, stay tuned. BTW, Bill Champlin is gonna come and appear with Santa Fe at the Danny Gans benefit at the Mirage.
I had a PayPal account for a while, but got pissed at the constant phishing emails I kept getting starting virtually within a day of opening it, so I closed it. I guess I can start a new one to be able to take remote orders (which will be $10 + $2 S/H for domestic delivery, overseas TBA).
They did some new originals that were way cool. Come out to Lorenzi Park Sunday to hear 'em.
Very cool. I'm all about the funk stuff, yeah, but I have to confess, I dig these cats. You can listen to the entire CD here, pre-release, all 20 tunes. Ya just gotta put up with a recurrent audio watermark embedded in the cuts.
