Klarinet Archive - Posting 000237.txt from 2002/05

From: AnneLenoir@-----.net (Anne Lenoir)
Subj: [kl] A Terrible Gig Experience that had a happy ending
Date: Thu, 9 May 2002 12:37:31 -0400

About 25 years ago I was playing in a Country Rock band, just starting
out in my band "career". The band, Woodrose, loved to go play gigs in
the mountains where we would get paid fairly well, have a good time and
maybe get a free lift ticket for skiing. One of our favorite areas was
Crested Butte, a fairly long drive from our home. We took off for
Crested Butte early one morning and ran into several blizzards, had 3
flat tires (we were driving in a caravan of 3 vehicles) and barely made
it to Crested Butte. We were all starving to death, and we went straight
to our gig at Sancho's, only to find that it had burnt down earlier in
the day. The owners were totally heartbroken, as they had put all of
their money into the resturant. They were able to scrape together $25
for us to go home. I had little Marty with me. He was 3 at the time.
We decided to go back through Salida and see if we could play at
the local hot spot, The Victoria Tavern. We were able to get a gig
there, and they did pay us $150 a night. That wasn't too bad for a last
minute gig back in 1976. We played Friday & Saturday night, then Sunday
afternoon. People put us up in their homes and we found a great baby
sitter for little Marty. We went back and played at the Victoria Tavern
many times after that. It was sort of like the Long Branch Saloon in
Gunsmoke. I felt like we had been characters in "Elmer Otter's Christmas
Special" when the band lost it's gig, but then found a better one down
the road.
We started a wonderful tradition of having live music at the
Victoria Tavern, but now a days Don and I are not allowed to play there
because we aren't loud enough. They now have metallish sounding bands,
and the present owner, Peter, wasn't around when we started playing
there and he won't even listen to us. I don't want to go to Salida
anyhow. Now a days we play a lot of private parties and also at the Town
House, just down the street from our new home in Manitou Springs. We can
set up early and walk to our gig, although we are too lazy for that. At
least we don't have far to go if we get a flat tire or there's a
blizzard. ANNIE

---------------------------------------------------------------------