Hi Everybody -- Big Al Here

We have been working hard rehersing with our new band members. The band will grow to a seven piece band for some gigs and five pieces for gigs like this November 29 at the Island Sports and Spirits.

I 'll give more information about our new members in the next few weeks.

Later

Sunday we made our annual appearance for the Coronado Summer Concerts in the Park. Every Sunday afternoon during Summer the City of Coronado hosts a musical group to perform free! The event runs all Summer and is very popular to the tune of two to three thousand people hangin' in Spreckles park with their picnics, kegs, or what ever.

The groups vary from concert bands, swing bands, choirs and even rock 'n roll bands like us.

JumpStart has been doing the concert for over 10 years! For some reason we had this arrangement to play early before another band (Rockola). A couple of Summers ago I had the bright idea to question why JumpStart doesn't have it's own concert. The answer I got was pretty cool...

"JumpStart has grown increasingly popular to the point where many express a preference over the headliner. So yea! Coronado would be proud to have JumpStart rock their hometown."

I'm glad I asked. ...anyway, here is a slide show of the event!

While the Summer concert is the largest annual event we do our favorite annual event is this Friday. (the Fourth of July)

Check out JumpStart as we party on the patio... That is the patio of the Coronado VFW.

Right after the famous Coronado Fourth of July Parade the "V" holds this annual fundraising party which is actually free and open to the public. The sale of beer, soda, and hot dogs etc. is where the fund raising occurs.

The cool thing about this show is that it's outside and we have total control of the sound! (that makes us happy) plus we get to jam for hours! So...

Keep on rockin' in the free world!

See ya soon,
little Dave

This last Sunday we made our appearance at Viejas for the Ultimate Music Challenge. The contest spans eight weeks with five bands at a time competing each Sunday night at the DreamCatcher. Only one band wins the opportunity to move on to the semifinals and this week the winner was 6one9. Although JumpStart didn't win it was a terrific show and a great experience, Plus! we are hoping to get some gigs out of it.

Each band gets up for a short 20 minute set which is judged by three music professionals. After playing each judge gives a critique on mic while we are still on stage. All of the bands were great so the competition was tight. I noticed that our critique was the most positive so I thought we had a good chance to take it. Judge 1, Jaime Valle, said that JB's voice gave him a hard on!  I couldn't believe he said that on mic. Great compliment though.

Here's a shot of us on stage getting our critique...

The DreamCatcher is a fantastic room to play in so stay tuned while we work on getting a few shows put together for Viejas.

The contest still has five more weeks for round one and I highly recommend it. No Cover Charge! plus five bands and the show goes from 6 to 10pm so not too late.

Judge 3, Edwin Decker is keeping a blog of the event here. This link takes you to week three which is our show. Please check it out, Edwin goes into more detail on our performance (and the other bands too).

Don't forget that JumpStart is up for the Coronado Summer Concerts in the Park at the end of the month. Join us at Spreckles park in Coronado on Sunday June 29th for a rockin' time!

'til then... keep rockin',
little Dave

This last Saturday we rocked the Chili Cookoff in Coronado and made it to the front page of the paper!

Here's the picture that appeared :::below the fold::: in the Coronado Eagle & Journal.

...along with this :::7th paragraph of the front page story:::

"Coronado band Jumpstart provided music for the event from the stage on First Street and B Avenue, an assortment of Big Brother and the Holding Company and Led Zeppelin tunes."

Just in case you missed it, that's JB in the lower right of the photo
  :::about as clear as big foot:::

So, that settles it. We're famous! ...ah - - zip it :::we're famous:::

Now on to the fortune part, In our last blog I mentioned the Ultimate Music Challenge. First prize is $20,000! so bring on the cash baby!

This Sunday is week three in the contest and we are up to compete with four other bands to advance to the semi finals later in July.

The show is free and it doesn't go too late which is good for a Sunday night. I've been to the first two weeks and it's a lot of fun so I urge you all to check it out and support us! The show starts at 6pm and we are up second. btw, JB will be heading out right after the curtain call to host the open mic night at the Little Club for all of you die hard music lovers.

You can check out our website for more info at jumpstartrocks.com or check out the Viejas site here.

Coming up at the end of the month we will be rockin' the Island on Saturday the 28th, 9-1:30 then the next afternoon we're up for the Coronado Concerts in the Park at 6pm.

'til then keep rockin',
little Dave

Things have been going well with our new drummer Al!  As I reported in our last blog Alan is a great guy, a terrific drummer and singer too!

We have been working in new songs and showing Alan some of the stuff we do that is new to him. We rocked the Island Saloon at the end of March then had a blast at Humphrey's by the Bay on the 5th. This last weekend we played at Liz's wedding! ...always something, as Alan was coming back on the Base after setting up (North Island) they held him up at the gate 'cause he couldn't remember the wedding party's name!

I remember when I first joined JumpStart Big Al called me in to take Ron Wheeler's place as he left to start Ron's Garage. I went over to Al's house a couple of times and he went over each song on the list as I took notes. I played with those notes for nearly a year.

Here's a shot of the band at that time, before Big Dave took over for Bobby Sealover...

Here's a close up of Bobby...

and Al & JB in the fog...

These pictures are from a little place in Chula called the Manhatten Club. The owner loves his lights and "accessories".

You see, I didn't realize that he had a fog maching hooked up on the wall. This picture was taken a moment after the first time it was turned on...

Too frickin' funny... The smoke hit me on the side of my head and caught me off guard! You may notice that I play on the other side of the stage now! ha ha  btw, those are my notes on the stand there.

...anyway, thought you might get a kick out of my misfortune...

We'll be back at the Island Sports and Spirits in a couple of weeks... Saturday night the 26Th!

See ya then and keep rockin',
little Dave

Last weekend we played at the Island Saloon in Coronado. We do this every last Saturday of the Month btw. Miller Lite has come out with some new flavors to their soda pop beer (which I like) and to promote these they sent over the Miller Lite Girls! woo hoo!!!

OK, the person in the middle is not a girl...

I guess he's the bouncer. They were very nice besides being cute. They passed around free samples while we rocked!

We had a sit in too. I feel a little embarassed that I don't remember his name and as I'm typing this I can't get anyone on the phone to remind me. I will tell you that he loves to play Stevie Ray Vaugh tunes and is used to playing on a Fender Strat so he was having fun trying my Les Paul for a change. btw, Les Paul Guitars are very heavy compared to a Fender Strat. Here's a picture...

Rich and JB <---- I remember now.

You can see little Al in the background peekin' out behind JB's shoulder. So funny, he wore a beanie and sunglasses all night.

You know, I'm all about the party. Rock 'n Roll! Beer! Girls! yeah!!!

I don't drink and drive though. So I missed out on the free samples. I do love my beer though so I had to wait 'till I got home at three in the morning.

'til next time, keep rockin,
little Dave

PS. Thanks Sash! Check out the comments for more pics. btw, I'm playing my Acoustic Electric in that shot. (It's been out of commission for awhile but Big Dee fixed it up)

Reading our last blog you might think we were up a creek without a paddle, and you would be right!

That gig at Humphrey's was sort of a wierd one for us... I was sick and so was JB. I had some trouble catching my breath for singing but I was told it sounded alright, I guess I just couldn't hear myself being congested and all.

I thought Gregg was sick too since he seemed a bit off his game. As I look back I think he was a bit distracted by work and his impending departure from the band. (which we didn't know about until after the gig)

btw, here's a couple of pics from the gig of Big Dave and I at Humphrey's :::yeah, I cut my hair even shorter!:::

So if you didn't get that... yes, Gregg has left JumpStart. I mentioned previously that the group has always been JB and Big Al with several different drummers and guitar players over the years so having a turn over isn't unusual it's just that it's been us five for the last eight years! wow

Gregg loves to sing besides playing drums and over the years he had brought many songs to our list. Songs that we will no longer be performing (mostly) so we've resurected some tunes that we haven't played in a while and we will be introducing some new songs to the list. I'm excited about that.

When Gregg joined the group followed by Big Dave the music started to shift to a more rock sound which I like so we'll be learning more Zep, STP, Alice in Chains, etc.

Anyway, back to our predicament. The day following the Humphrey's gig I called our long time musician friend Mike McMahon. We've known Mike for over 20 years and he has sat in with us and Ron's Garage so many of you probably have seen him. Unfortunately he is a bass player, not a drummer... but he does play around town and I figured he might know a good drummer to get us through the next couple of gigs. :::no answer::: so I left a message and then put an ad up on Craig's list. I didn't get a response right away so I'm thinking we were really up a creek.

In the next couple of days I did start to receive responses to our ad but even better Mike texted me a name and number! Getting a recommendation from a professional makes a difference. We got many responses on Craig's list but we would have to screen them and hear them play, which is ok but we were looking at having to perform in less than a week.

As it turned out Mike recommended Al to sit in with us. I called him and he was cool with the next three gigs, the last one this past Saturday night.

The first gig was Saturday the 26th at the Island. We met Al at the gig while we were setting up. The evening went well, Al is a great drummer and knew most of our songs. ...and the ones he didn't know we played anyway, HA!

sorry I forgot my camera that night but I remembered it for the next gig which was Thursday night the 31st at Gallagher's in OB.

Here's a shot of Al with JB and Big Dave...

You know Big Dave? I am called little Dave by default. so now we have a little Al too. ha ha  Two Daves and two Als ...oh yeah, and JB too.

This last Saturday night was a surprise birthday party at the Coronado Yacht Club. Here's a funny shot with me and two partiers in our nautical wear.

I like being nautical :::he he:::

So anyway, Al did a great job filling in and helping us out with our predicament and as it turns out his regular gig just fell apart so since we need a drummer and he needs a band I think we'll just keep rockin'!

Check out JumpStart at the Island at the end of the month, Saturday Feb. 23rd and be prepared to hear some new tunes!

'til then,
litte Dave