Fresh Start's Golf Club Fundraiser

What's the opposite of a 1960's Psychedelic Concert? How about playing a little acoustic guitar cocktail party music at the Golf Club? So here I am at the Maderas Golf Club - Amanda at Fresh Start Surgical Gifts asked me to play for their big fundraising golf & dinner night.

They had all these little cars parked out front -

I guess they use them to practice driving with, before they get to use real cars. This guy looked like he needed more practice.

There they go! Look out, they're STUDENT DRIVERS!

Our hostesses for the night!

And then this guy announced that 4 golfers were going to try to get a hole-in-one from 165 yards, to win $100,000!!!!!

That's a LOT of guitar picks, so we ALL WATCHED -

Here's everybody watching -

Here are the 4 golfers, good luck!

but -

THEY MISSED!

Better luck next time, aloha and good night to the good people at Fresh Start Surgical Gifts, everyone seemed to have a great time, I sure did....

G o o d  N i g h t !

Psychedelic!

It hasn't rained for weeks. The one night we play our fundraiser at Tio Leo's for the San Diego Children's Coalition it POURS. It breaks all records. Sections of San Diego flood out. This photo was taken right beside the In N' Out Burger in Pacific Beach -

It all reminds me of another time we played for the same group with Jocelyn, but this time we have twice the people playing and about ten times more equipment to drag through the rain!

Remember THIS?

Jake and I show up first, so we do an acoustic set up on stage for a crowd of about 50. Alfonso is setting up his drums as fast as he can...

Jake the Great.

Max on guitar. Yes, that's a 70's black velvet jacket, I bought it the day before at a second hand shop for $20. Feels GOOD!

Wrapping up the first set.

Valentine gets ready to sing....

Ready, steady, LETS GO!

Time to ROCK!

Clando does a raffle, assisted by the beautiful Curly Max. (Or is Curly Max stealing tickets while Clando isn't watching?????) The funny thing is, some of the raffle items were Varsity Strings CDs. I've never been raffled before.

Curly Max!

Alfonso!

So here are the songs from our Psychedelic Set. Enjoy. Also, watch as Curly Max does the little things that make him the music director, like kicking Jake off stage first (he doesn't sing in this one) and then telling Alfonso when to crank up the drums, about half way through the song.

Then watch at 3:34 as Curly Max notices the smoke machine and wonders if something's on fire!...



This was the most fun we've ever had at a gig.



This next one is an original song by Jake, "The Wild". I love playing Jake's songs.

They're EXCITING!



Drums, a fun audience, more guitar...



Here's another Jake original song, in the classic psychedelic style. (Totally unlike the one he wrote for Fresh Start Surgicel Gifts!) Jake is having a LOT of fun. Things like this don't usually happen to us.



Guitar solos, wah pedals, echo amps, smoke machines, projection effects. And finally ...

Thanks again to Clando Brownlee Jr.
and Jeff Perwin of the
San Diego Children's Coalition,

and Frankie, the owner and sound expert 
of Tio Leo's!

Practice at Curly Max's Place

We're trying to get lots of practices in before we play our fundraiser tonight at Tio Leo's for the San Diego Children's Coalition, especially because we're doing the whole 2 hour set (!!!) with a new drummer, Alfonso.

Alfonso, luckily, KNOWS HOW TO DRUM REAL GOOD!

He plays guitar too, here he is up close - he looks and acts a lot like a really young Pete Townsend.

Alfonso -

Pete. See????

And here's our first jam on Little Wing, I think we did pretty good . . .



Well, wish us luck at  Tio Leo's today, it may RAIN!

Practice in Jake's Garage

Jake, Kirk and I have to practice quick for the October 19th fundraising performance at Tio Leo's, for the San Diego Children's Coalition. We've got a full stage, sound system, lights, sound board, you name it, all for free and two solid hours to play whatever we want!

So we're going to rip out a full set of 1960's psychedelic music. WHY NOT?!!?!?!!

Here's "Sweet Jane", originally from the Velvet Underground. How does Jake find this stuff?



And Jake's own song, we don't know what to call it but it sounds like the Doors, so we're calling it "The Garage Doors" for now.



More to come...

Gift of Grace Recordings

Curly Max, Jake and I all did a big recording session of "Gift of Grace" for Fresh Start Surgical Gifts. We were so busy we didn't take any pictures or videos!

Six takes, another six second-takes, and seven overdub sessions later, here it is -

Here's Jake and me warming up before the sessions:



And here's one of the better takes, playing on the stereo after everybody went home:



We're giving this to Amanda at Fresh Start today, hope she likes it!!!!

Community Concert #2 - Busking the Boardwalk

Jake and I went down to Pacific Beach today to busk the boardwalk, trying to make some cash for Fresh Start Surgical Gifts. We don't tell people we're busking for charity, we just sing and people toss $1 bills in our jar.

We had a great spot!  We made some money!

This is OUR SPOT!

Max on Geetar -

Jake singing and on tambourine -

It's getting late but we aren't going home -

So are we ready for the BIG TIME YET??!?!?!

Certificate of Appreciation from Shakti Rising!

Shakti Rising just sent us this in the mail! Look - that's me and Jake on the front! This is really funny because Jake and I were busking at Pacific Beach on the boardwalk today, and this was in the mailbox when we got home.

THANK YOU, Valerie Myers!

Jake gets one too! - here's a close-up look -

They also gave us a little gift bag, we'll have to find out exactly what the coupons are for later...

Again, thank you Valerie and all the Shakti Rising volunteers! We love playing for you, you're the best!