~10/30/2007~

October 17th through the 20th were the dates for BiketoberFest this year.  This is the last event on the rally circuit for the BrokenSpoke in 2007, and, unless I lost count along the way, was the beginning of my twelfth season doing rallies with the BrokenSpoke Saloon around the country.  We had performances by Joe Santana and the Motley Jackson band, Rastus Kain, The Chris Hyatt Band, the Blues Crew, and on Saturday the 20th a concert featuring Bret Michaels of Poison.  There were an estimated crowd of 10,000 people on property for the Concert Event.

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~10/14/2007~

The Myrtle Beach fall rally was October 3rd through the 6th this year.  It is the smallest rally on the circuit.  It has been difficult for the 'Spoke to make money at this event.  There was some question as to weather the 'Spoke would even operate for this little rally.  This year the combination of tight budgeting and the new asphalt in the traffic areas combined to improve the situation to some extent.  We ended up with bands on the pole barn stage up until the 11 PM local curfew and then contests and canned music inside until closing time.

The boys from Kings Mountain North Carolina, PeacePipe, did their usual good job of entertaining the customers.  Joe Santana and The Motley Jackson Band played one show.  Black Frog, from Milwaukee did a fine job with their three shows.  They play a few joke songs, some original material, and some cover tunes.  The crowd enjoyed the joke songs as well as the other material.  I had missed seeing them in Sturgis this year due to a scheduling conflict.  We also had a local band, The Dalton Brothers Band, play for us.  They made some good music and I expect to see them back in the spring.

~08/29/2007~

I returned from the Sturgis Rally a week ago last Friday.  This year I took my production to the new property, The Sturgis County Line.  There were a couple of familiar bands, but several of the bands I had not had the opportunity to work with previously.  The bands with whom I have previously worked were Joe Santana, Ryan Rolando, Jimmie Van Zant, and the one that I think of as the Multi-tribute Band.  The act does several tribute acts using the same players.  They do a Bon Jovi show, a Guns'n'Roses show, and a Bob Seger show.  They can be contacted through Frank Moyer's Agency.  New acts included TNT, an AC/DC tribute act, Kashmir, a Led Zep tribute, an Atlanta based southern rock band called Blackberry Smoke, a local blues band (unfortunately I have forgotten their name), a North Carolina band, Toyz, and our show, SlowRide, featuring founding member of Foghat, Tony Stevens.  It turns out that Tony lives in the area that I call home and the members of the band are primarily from Florida, so there were a lot of us Florida people there that evening.

The attendance of the rally was off quite a bit this year.  My theories are that the price of gas was a big factor considering that most people have a long way to drive to get there, and that this rally is traditionally more of a summer vacation rally with a higher percentage of working people that have been impacted by the economy usually attending.  The eastern rallies all have major population centers much closer so it is easier for people to get to those locations.

~7/17/2007~

It has been far too long since I posted here.  There have been two major rallies, Myrtle Beach and Laconia, since I posted last, and Sturgis is just around the corner.  

Myrtle Beach spring rally, in May, was a good one.  The pictures I used in my Motor Cycle Art slide show were taken there.  Blue 88, from Kansas City, was one of our featured acts.  I have worked with them in Sturgis the past few years.   Peace Pipe, from Kings Mountain, NC, has been a regular at the Myrtle Beach rally for several years and they were on hand again to lay down some rock 'n' roll for the crowd.  We waved to them as we passed Kings Mountain on Interstate 85 on our way to Laconia.  Jimmie Van Zant was our featured artist Friday and Saturday nights.

Doyce had asphalted the traffic areas on the property there.  It made a huge difference to the bikers attending the event.  The traffic was good all day and the crowd hung around longer.  They had to close the parking lot a few times during the event, because all of the available space was full.

Then it was on to Laconia, NH. for the annual rally there.  This is one of the properties that is up for sale, so it could have been my last trip up there to work.  This trip has been good for me because my brother lives in Hanover, NH, so I get to visit him on one end of the rally or the other.  The weather behaved admirably for Laconia.  It was good to see Ricky and the Giants again.  There was also a new local addition, Ricky B and the Blue Zone, a blues band that I enjoyed. Diamondback, from Connecticut, was back with us this year.  The missed last year for some reason.  They had been with us for every rally with the exception of last year.  They feature House of Lords guitarist Jimi Bell.  Jimmie Van Zant was the headliner at this event, too.

~4/30/2007~

My second event this year was the Angel City Rally in Unadilla, Georgia.  The rally grounds lie on a 400 acre property north west of Unadilla.  Some of the local staff recalls picking cotton and hunting deer on the property.  The primary activities center in the square of the old western town that Wayne Smith has built there.  There is a stage in the Square for musical entertainment.  The town is currently the intersection of two streets.  There are storefronts for vendors along the street.  The corners are anchored by bars and restaurants to service the partiers at the rally.

The other primary entertainment center on the rally grounds is the concert stage.  The concert stage is a beautiful facility located at the focus of a natural amphlitheatre next to the city.  This is my main focus at this rally.  This years show was opened by Joe Santana and the Motley Jackson band.  The first of the featured performers was the Pat Traver's Band.  The headline act was Confederate Railroad.  I think that they were booked for a 75 minute show, but they played for almost two hours.

~4/10/2007~

The opening event of the 2007 rally season is the Daytona Beach Bike Week.  This year featured two nights with Edgar Winter in concert.  This show came up more or less at the last minute.  I always have many commitments for bike week in Daytona.  I had planned to purchase two Crown I-Tech 6000 amplifiers to use at the event.  Because of the requirements of this show I made arrangements to purchase two additional amplifiers for a total of 4.  Last year I had purchased two of the model 4000's for bike week.  I needed two more amplifiers for Sturgis last year, because The BrokenSpoke is operating two venues in Sturgis.  I had tried to buy the 6000's for that event, but Crown was back ordered on that model, so I bought two more of the 4000's.  This purchase brings me to a total of 8 I-Tech series amplifiers with a total output of 40,000 watts.

The event is a nine day event at the 'Spoke.  There were at least three bands a day with the exception of opening night.  Among the bands playing the event were Joe Santana and the Motley Jackson Band, Gypsy Child, Rastus Kain Band, Anthony Wilde Band, The Blues Crew, and Survival Joe Caruso and the Boogy Woogy Buffet.  Jimmy Van Zant headlined the final two nights of the rally with his new 2007 show.  This featured more original music and some other non Skynerd material along with the core Skynerd music.