A Christmas Party for the Night Owls at Chambrel

First of all, it's always been a challenge for me to write about these events, er, gigs.  The bottom line is, they are a contractor job much like any other.  The fact that music is played sometimes doesn't even necessarily make them fun.  I hope they are fun.  Reading about them is probably not that fun.  Writing about them can be less than fun, but we persevere.  I will try to continue to be honest and fair, certainly even at my own expense.  Those who know me well enough to hire me are generally pleased with my performance.  I make a good effort to show up on time or even early, have the music under my fingers (or least charted out), have good sounding and reliable equipment (we know how that goes), and be in a good mindset to offer some good rapport with my comrades on stage and elsewhere.  I haven't been able to keep up with the flow of the jobs that well lately.  I appreciate those of you who may chose some of your valuable cyber-time to come over here and see what's up in my world.  What I'm trying to say is that I usually don't finish a posting in one sitting.  These posts take time - time to chose and process the photos, time to proofread and then fix the typos, time to remember, time to simply find the find to post...  The pictures are always tweaked.  My digital pics are always cropped, re-sized, color corrected, adjusted for contrast and brightness, you name it.  Thanks for hanging in there and if you do, be sure to go back a few posts every so often to see if you can spot the changes.  There will be some.

Here was another Christmas party, up at Chambrel Assisted Living in Roswell.  We've done this event before.  This time out, Reece Harris filled out the trio of Martay and myself.  It was the first time Reece and I  have played together with Martay.  I've known Reece since, when was it, 1991, maybe earlier, maybe 1990.  He was finishing up some classes at BU - Boston University, and I was hanging with Shannon Pengelly (yes, the Shannon Pengelly) and we were in the planning stages for a band of our own.  Reece came back to Atlanta and the band ultimately became Fuzzy Logic, and then Baby Brando.  I could've been a real Stick player if the band had stayed together!  We'll have to revisit that thought before it gets too late in this game.

Yes, here at these facilities, he is Crazy Marty.  Good memory, you faithful readers.  The folks were ready to go early on.  We were to start at 5:30.  I got there around 5:10, after getting out of work at 4 and stopping at the nearby UPS Store to ship out some (too late for the season but that's another story) Christmas cd's and a card for my brother Steve and sister-in-law Debbie's restaurant in Leesburg, Virginia: MELT Gourmet Chesseburgers.  Ah, I hope they have a nice busy weekend and can play some of these tunes in their awesome eatery.  I have yet to try it, but I know it will be the best burger I've ever tasted.  Steve makes food that is so far above anything else in the same category.  He truly raises the bar, on everything he does.  Wishing them the best this season and always!

Okay, enough diversions.  Isn't there a medication for this sort of stream of consciousness rambling?

Reece took this with his iPad - I look so tired and worn out, I had to photoshop my eyes just a touch...

At any rate, Reece was there when I arrived.  I was told via email to set up stage left.  Reece saw the same email and set up on the stage right side.  I played some EZ Listening genre stuff from my iPod (lots of ol' Blue Eyes) and they enjoyed that.  Some even danced.  Well, when Marty arrived (over 30 minutes after the start time...), he finally figured out that he was bass-ackwards on the stage left/stage right instructions.  Just for the record, stage left is the orientation of standing on the stage, looking out to the crowd, and where your left hand would hang is the direction of stage left.  I tried to explain that.  Down stage and up stage will be addressed later!  The folks who were ready for us were not disappointed.  Many Christmas tunes and some ballads, a la It Had To Be You and even Ipanema.  They seemed to really enjoy it, even when we got a bit heavy on the endings.  The grand finale was Miserlou, an exciting blast of Dick Dale.  It got loud, but those folks probably remember surf music when it was fun and fresh.  Got bless them all.