Watch this video on YouTube.

It’s a BIG room – easily 600-800 people in there. The dance floor was full most of the night and the countdown with the big balloon drop was cool.

I took some video from the cel phone – not the greatest quality but hopefully you get the idea

Here’s the “before” when we just walked in:

Watch this video on YouTube.

And once the room is setup and dark, ready for guests. Sorry the quality is kind of bad on this because the room is so big and mostly dark. But you can really see the color at the stage… it’s cool

Watch this video on YouTube.

And finally… the party’s over…

Watch this video on YouTube.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Well, last night I was at San Manuel Casino with Yard Sale doing a holiday show. What was cool about this for me was that earlier this year Laura and I were in the audience watching BB King and Buddy Guy on this exact same stage.

Now, granted, I’ve played on a lot of big stage but for some reason walking in those footsteps was especially cool for me.

I took a little video of the setup and everything.

Watch this video on YouTube.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

What makes this show especially cool is it is also the first time we’ll be joined by the Circle City Horns (with my lovely bride on sax!) as one big 7 piece swinging and kicking blues band!

Show starts at 7:00, tickets are $15 and are available through the Fender Center box office or at the door. Hope to see you all there! Proceeds benefit the Fender Center’s Kids Rock Free program which provides music lessons for kids in the Corona area. It’s a great cause and we’re proud to be a part of it.

She just sent over the images and I had to post some up. They are on the Photos page at the top. Hope you like them…

I can assure you most of us don’t look that good in person

Special thanks to Brian, Tina, and Darrell for inviting us… we had a blast.

Here’s some video clips from the day:

1st- I’m Tore Down:

2nd- Red House (you gotta do this one

Finally some Pride & Joy with some help…

NAMM stands for National Association of Music Merchants (I think) and this is not open to the public. It’s where the manufacturers and the dealers all get together and work out their plans for world domination in the coming year.

It’s also where you can see the cool new toys that are coming out this year…I’ve been to NAMM before, many times in fact. And that’s why I haven’t gone the last few years. It’s loud, it’s crowded, parking sucks. There’s not a lot of good that comes out of it.

But I managed to squeeze in about 3 hours there this year… pretty good for me. Here’s some stuff I found that I liked.

First, here’s a shot of the convention hall… there are 5 halls just like this:

Just 1 of the 5 halls full of people

The upcoming PedalTrain 3 loaded up and ready

Okay… my favorite thing. I love PedalTrain pedalboards, and this year they are coming out with a model (the PT3) that is a little bigger than the PT2 but not as big as the PT Pro. It looks like the perfect size to me and exactly what I was looking for. Check it out on the left and below:

The pedaltrain 3 from the crowd's perspective

One of my other favorites was an amp I played briefly over at Koch amps. I had heard of Koch and had heard other people play them, but I was not prepared for what I heard.

The Koch Jupiter fooled me completely!

I played this amp for a few minutes and really dug it. I then asked the standard question about what tubes were powering it…

And guess what… it’s about 90% solid state! Yup, there are 2 small 12AX7 tubes, one for preamp tone and one for power amp tone, and the rest is solid state.

I was fooled. This amp weighs very little (one hand picks it up easily) pounds out about 40 watts or so, and could hang easily on just about any gig.

It has great tone and will last basically forever with little to no maintenance. As good tubes get harder to come by, this may very well be the way of the future.

The Clapton Signature Les Paul is gorgeous... and pricey!

Past that, what I saw was really a lot of scaled back stuff. Gibson has a Clapton series Les Paul coming out while Fender was also promoting their Clapton strat… seemed odd. It’s a beautiful guitar though, this photo can’t do it justice:

Many of the manufacturers had a lot less to show than in previous years. And the level of swag available was basically non-existent. Usually I can always count on Roland for at least a cool bag to carry around brochures in.

The Boss Pedal area, which usually takes up one whole wall and all the pedals are magically held up there, was reduced to a half a dozen of their little plastic pedalboards on a table.

I do have to give kudos to the guys at Diamond pedals. They let me sit and play on their pedals for about 20 minutes and those things sound amazing. I’ve heard great things about them, but never had the opportunity to try one. I’ll be grabbing one of their tremolo and compressor pedals soon. Also their fuzz pedal was really great. I highly recommend you check them out if you can.

The Texas Special in this Road Worn Strat through the Deluxe Reverb Reissue... very happening tone.

One last honorable mention goes to the really nice guy at fender who was playing this Road Worn Strat (it’s new, but looks worn) through a deluxe reverb reissue. What tone! The texas specials in the strat really worked with the deluxe reverb. And with this covering I might have to make that plunge myself.

Love this covering on the Deluxe Reverb Reissue. Might have to get one of these

In order to get there, I need votes – a lot of them. That’s where you come in.

Visit http://playcrossroads.com and register to vote by entering your email address and then confirming it (sorry about this step, but they have to know you’re a human – or close enough.) Here’s how that’s done…

When you first get to that page, the register link is the tab on the right:

Once you click that, you’ll see the register page. You’ll need a fan account which is the top radio button here:

Fill out the rest of the form and submit it. Then check your email for a link you have to click to verify your identity.

Then visit http://playcrossroads.com/griff3 and vote for the band there. Here’s the vote button:

While you’re there, feel free to listen to some tunes I posted. And you can make fun comments too.

That’s it. Thanks and I appreciate the help.
Griff

We played the Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio last night. Great place, by the way, one of the nicest casinos I’ve played at. And they were nice enough to give us a room after the show.

Grandma’s at home with the kids, and we both kind of feel like we’ve been hit by a bus. From here it’s back home in a few minutes for our oldest son’s 11th birthday party.

This is definitely that rock and roll lifestyle you hear about

But – MOST importantly – come celebrate the birth of Chris’ beautiful little girl – Ella Joy Atchley!  Born on March 2nd.  Believe it or not, Chris delivered the baby himself in the driveway of his own home!  They never made it to the hospital, and paramedics arrived after she did!   Stop by and hear all the details from the proud new daddy!  (Ella joins big brother Ethan).  Wife Andrea and baby Ella are home and doing well.

Hope to see you for this very special performance!  Fun begins at 1pm.  Java Joes will be offering brunch, beer, wine, and yummy pastry items.

Java Joe’s is in Yorba Linda at 4975 Yorba Ranch Road, Yorba Linda, CA 92887 (714) 970-7988.

Check out the flier if you want to send it to your friends!