Don't Look Back. Well, okay.
Hello everyone, thanks for reading Blake's Blog. Believe me, it's better than having to listen to me.
As promised, I will list a few of the highlight gigs looking back over my career in this post.
Speaking of looking back, today is the 28th Anniversary of my daughter's birthday.
Nothing will ever top the experience of watching her birth and holding her in my arms that day,
not even playing bass for Garth Brooks! Here are a few of my most memorable gigs
from the last 41years...
It is not possible to rank these in any order, they all made it to Mt. Rushmore and that's enough.
Of course, it was a career highlight for me to play with Vince Gill, Amy Grant, Garth Brooks and other musical stars to a packed house at Fiddler's. Then later to see it (and DVR it) on the AXS channel was pretty cool. I think I had more fun dining with them backstage than I did onstage.
I played with Bobby Vinton (look him up, youngsters) here in Denver. His son, Robert Jr., was
his regular bass player and MD, but Bobby wanted upright bass on this gig, so I got the call.
It was interesting to witness the dynamics going on around me, and it was really fun to
back him up onstage and play hits hits.
I played at The Caribou Club in Aspen once, and accompanied the very plastered Robert Wagner and Mike Connors while they drunkenly sang "Strangers in the Night". It was surreal to be in this club, a place full of Aspen celebrity types and super-entitled people. And here I was playing bass for Mr. Hart and Mannix...
I played at an impromptu victory rally the day after the Broncos beat Green Bay in the Superbowl.
I got to be on the field of old Mile High Stadium performing for a couple hours until John Elway, Coach Shanahan and others arrived to acknowledge the crowd. I got Bill Romanowski to sign
the back of my Modulus bass that day. It was super fun for me to be part of that experience.
The very next day I played for the enormous victory parade downtown at Civic Center Park. Thanks to the Broncos I got to play for my city and the the amped-up fans.
I was the last bass player to ever perform at McNichols arena before they razed the building.
It's the same arena where I saw my first rock concert, so that's cool. I was the bandleader for the live band at the Nuggets' games back then. The very next season I was the first bass player to ever play at the Pepsi Center, during the private ribbon-cutting with the Anscutz family. I have christened several buildings in the Denver area, where my bass frequencies really help get these structures off to a good start.
I could go on, but I won't... until future posts where I'll mention other memorable gigs.
I will also at some point do a Dave Barry-style post about my worst gig experiences.
Stuff I couldn't possibly make up...
I'll sign-off with the melancholy of remembering my daughter's birthday, realizing I'll be 55 this week, and now headed to a memorial service for a friend who was always so kind to me every time we ever spoke. Here's to the next realm dear Margaret, I will miss you!