I was hired to play as an acoustic solo at a Holiday Party for a company in San Francisco. They rented part of the Market Bar right on the water downtown. It was an awesome setting and everything went well. I loved working right in the heart of San Francisco. Thanks to Kelly and Julie and everyone at Spencer Stuart for letting me be a part of their holiday celebration! – Wil
The lighting was a bit weird for that night for good video and I couldn’t get the rest of the band lit up well (including of course yours truly on bass) but here is another “edited” snippet from our terrific Thanksgiving week end at the La Quinta Resort and Spa in Palm Desert! I’m loving the name “The Traveling Mulligans”. I know Shannon has been using that band name for a while with different members so Ted Greenwood and I are new to it but I still think its a fun name. – Wil
So I got a call last week from an agent that I used to work with in Vail. He was surprised to find out that I was back in the U.S. Geez, I thought I let everyone know…. Anyway, he said he needed a bass player to play with him (he’s an entertainer too) during the holiday festivities at the La Quinta resort near Palm Desert California. What fun! I drove down and played the Thanksgiving week end with him and a couple of other musicians. We even got in a game of golf 🙂 I’ll be posting more video from the trip but here is a video piece a friend recorded on her phone. – Wil
Well I’ve been playing music and living in the San Francisco bay area now for roughly 3 months. I was looking at my “gig schedule” last night and feeling pretty good about the November bookings. It’s not even close to a full schedule I know but its not bad for only living here a few months. At least based on my other moves and trying to get established with legitimate gigs.
By the way, you may have noticed I’m using a Google calendar on the “calendar” page. I finally decided to learn how the calendar function of my gmail account worked. It turns out it works great. I think its relatively intuitive and easy to understand by just selecting it and poking around. Then I find that Google has included some code to copy and paste into the web page to display the calendar. Thats pretty easy. Even for me 🙂 I had been looking for a wordpress plugin to do just that. No reason to install a separate plugin now.
So now when I update the calendar in my gmail account titled “gig schedule” it shows the update on my website calendar. Pretty slick!
Anyway, I’ve moved several times in the last 8 years and I’m getting better at finding gigs and places to play when I move to a new area. I can’t say I’m naturally good at that. Before I started following my wife’s career I just went where the jobs were. Thats how I landed in Vail Colorado in the late 1990’s. Thats how I played on the Norwegian Cruise Line in 2006. Thats even how I ended up playing in Las Vegas and then touring around Texas in the early 90s. Now that we move when she gets a new job or relocated I’ve got to get established all over again in a new area. That requires some “door knocking” and “cold calling” on my part. You know, more aggressive sales techniques than I’m comfortable with. That being said, I am selling a product I believe in. You know, ME and MY music 🙂
Thanks to everyone who is helping me fill that gig schedule too. There are some really kind and generous food and beverage managers and F&B directors giving me a chance to make music in their venues. All I’ve ever asked for was a chance (“audition”). Thanks to Justin and Rob at Crab Landing in Half Moon bay. Thats a great place to perform my acoustic solo and I’m looking forward to adding the December schedule there. Many thanks also to Joanne Leblanc for getting me on board as a steady bass guitarist in “The Fugitive Blues Band”. I love singing solo but also love playing bass in a band. Joanne’s Fugitive band line up is top notch and I’m really enjoying playing bass guitar with her and the boys!
OK, enough for one blog post! Happy Thanksgiving and on with November!!
Wil
Relaxing at the Ritz in Northstar. Would love to play music here during the ski season. It reminds me of gigging back in Vail at the Ritz in Bachelor’s Gulch. Regardless the weather is great and I’m enjoying the stay. Whats not to love; Mountains, blue sky, sunshine, and full on luxury!
I edited some video of last Sunday with the Jc Smith band. I was hanging out with them at the Old Wagon Saloon on San Pedro street in downtown San Jose. They play there every Sunday from 5 – 8pm through the summer and its a killer venue. JC delivers soulful and dynamic vocals, guitar, and as you can see here entertainment. He is “ON” as the director of the party. As an aside this band has the “coolest” rhythm section I’ve seen since I moved here. The Green brothers. Donnie Green on drums and Robert Green on bass. The chemistry and talent is “off the charts” with these two. Robert (Jay) is the tastiest groove player I’ve found here and even though he lets me sit in on bass I show up to hear him 🙂 Especially when Donnie is on drums!
So I started video blogging in Ireland. It’s like no one would give me a TV show so I create my own 🙂
I got this EARLY morning job at Half Moon Bay last Saturday and decided to take some video. I’ve put together this video blog of that morning and I’m posting it here. Please go easy on me. The content is “questionable” and I know the lighting sucks. I am hard to look at at 6am anyway. I guess in a way I’m lucky for bad lighting!
Just watch with low expectations please. It’s 3 minutes of your life you’ll never get back 🙂
I was driving the free way yesterday and kept seeing people hanging out on the pedestrian bridges. They looked like they were watching for something. When I finally asked some one they told me the space shuttle Endeavor was going to fly over on the back of the 747 jet that transports the space shuttles around the country. I got back to our home and grabbed my video cam. Then I hustled to the nearest overpass of pedestrians and caught the Jet and shuttle on video. It sounds like everyone around the south bay was outside watching. The shuttle was being transported to its final destination in a museum in L.A.
I got a gig in Ireland doing voice overs for an iOS app. It’s cool that I can still do the voice overs from our new home here in California working on line with the producer in Dublin, Ireland. This is a photo of my work space just befor
So I spent 2 days playing at a very cool venue in Lake City, Colorado. The venue is Mean Jean’s Backside and it’s an out door concert theatre in the back of Mean Jean’s Coffee House. This little bear cub was trying to hide in a tree in front of the venue. We called the wild life people and they came and reunited the little guy with his mom outside of town. Don’t you just want to take him home? 🙂