What's one way to spend the better part of a summer?
How about nine weeks at the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival playing drums for Always ... Patsy Cline! ... the true story of Patsy's friendship with her superfan, Louise Seger.
Featuring 26 of Patsy's biggest hits, it's good fun for the entire family!
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Folks, it's SHOW TIME!
Brought to you in the ever-spectacular picture-n-caption format ...
Let's go on a TourAlong SingAlong!
Shall we?
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Theater in the Great Outdoors
Above, the view from backstage at the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival site! Theaters set in the great outdoors are amazing. So inspiring.
It really is something to be on stage ... being a part of and able to witness each live performance.
Well ... except for the nights when the wind blows, whipping the pages of your music this way and that, or the nights when dense clouds of freshly hatched tiny flying bugs - attracted to the stage's bright lights - ensure that some of them decide your nose, eyes, ears, and mouth are good places to be, or the nights when a cold front drops performance temperatures into the 50s. And then there's the night the smoke was so thick the performance was cancelled. And THEN there's the night when a squirrel ran across stage and stole the scene!
Ah yes! Theater in the great outdoors guarantees an abundance of surprises.
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Take a Good Look!
Normally the band is in the pit under the stage dressed in the most comfortable, dark attire possible. At the Tahoe venue, there's no pit, so the band is on stage. Cool!
OH NO!!!! That means costumes!
Pictured above from left to right: Chase Kessler (music director and piano), Alyssa Joy Claffey (fiddle), Esteban Anastasio (guitar), Jesse Salinas (upright bass), and MOI (drums). Yep! We've gone all in on country western attire. YEE HAW!!!!
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Tahoe Can Be Weird - Part I
The Lake Tahoe area is in many ways an outdoor paradise. A ginormous lake ideal for water sport recreation, surrounded by peaks featuring 16 ski areas, backcountry hiking, and lots of friendly bears waiting to eat everything in your pick-a-nick basket. It's easy to see Tahoe's appeal as a getaway for California's Bay Area residents, some who have A LOT of money. Enjoying a current net worth of $180,000,000,000, Mark Zuckerberg is the world's 3rd wealthiest person. He got that way by giving us fun, all-absorbing time-sucking apps for free, like Facebook and Instagram. What does he get in return? He data mines our souls and then sells our digital details to eager buyers. Win-win! So, what do you do when you have more money than imaginable? You build compounds in places like Hawaii and Tahoe. Pictured above, Mark honored our country this 4th of July by wakesurfing on the lake in his finest water-resistant tuxedo while drinking a Coors Tall Boy and waving the American flag. I get goose bumps every time I think of how proud he makes me to be an American.
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Speaking of Tahoe Bears
Alyssa (fiddle player) came home late one night and was greeted by the view of a bear's butt exiting through a window. While visiting, the bear ate one-half of an avocado (leaving the pit and skin) and then went upstairs and found her stash of snacks, carefully opened them and ate the snacks of choice. The bear was two-paws down on the stale tortilla chips. Meanwhile, Alyssa's roommate - at home in her own bedroom throughout this bear burglary - thought Alyssa was just being a bit noisier than usual. The next day the bear police brought an electric mat to place outside the window of intrusion. Sure enough, the bear came back, confident it had found a new source of Michelin star nourishment. The mat worked.
On another occasion, a bear entered the theater 30 minutes after our show. The crew was still there ... working on stage! They even had background music playing through the PA. No matter. The bear smelled food. They shooed it away. 10 minutes later, the bear tried again.
Persistent silly bears! |
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Tahoe Can Be Weird - Part II
On the Nevada side of the lake, the wonders of nature often take a backseat to something more accessible and satisfying to many visitors: Casinos!
Besides specializing in helping you part with your money, casinos offer other ways to be entertained, in sometimes strange ways. Alas, I was performing July 6th and had no way to get to Bally's in time for the Micro Mania Midget Wrestling. My loss.
I wonder if midget wrestlers ran between the referee's legs for comic relief.
It can't be politically incorrect to write that, can it?
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Out and About!
We did get away from the hubbub of South Lake Tahoe a few times, like on this day trip to Calaveras Big Trees State Park. True to its name, there are some VERY big trees in the park. Unlike the image promoting the wrestling event at Bally's, the photo above features a full-sized human (Jessie) standing between two sequoias. Any reader of The Lord of the Rings visiting Big Trees immediately freezes at first sight of these behemoths and waits to see if the trees are really Ents.
It's hard to imagine that years ago people thought it was a good idea to cut these down. In fact, one tree in the grove was stripped of its thick bark and the bark was then shipped to the east coast and reassembled so people could "see" how big the tree was.
Oh well. Midget wrestling was OK too ... once upon a time. Oh, wait!
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Hey Whipper Snappers! TourAlong for the SingAlong!
Here's a familiar photo. But wait, there's more to it!
Always ... Patsy Cline will take the stage at the Idaho Shakespeare Festival September 6-29 every night of the week ... except Mondays.
Yes indeed, I'll be back in full country western garb, playing Patsy's hits and, if you can believe it, SINGING BACKGROUND VOCALS!
That's right, on stage, in costume, playing drums and singing!
This is a once in a lifetime opportunity because you're not going to see me wearing a hat like this again, never mind the singing. So don't miss out!
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Hey, here's an Always ... Patsy Cline trivia question for you: What's my name in the band?
1. Todd Bob
2. Sticks
3. Bob Bob
4. Drummer Man
And the answer is?
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Nope! You'll have to come see the show to find out!
Until then ... Ciao! ... and a big YEEE HAWWW!
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There's another TourAlong coming later this fall!
HINT: It's an epic return to a place we like a lot that's cold and windy!
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