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Spoil The Crew
Tampa Bay, Florida - The 1997 Blues Music Festival was alot of fun this summer. The Cray crew did light duty and might have gotten spoiled. What do you think? Typical workdays involved showing up for load-in, via private coach, picking a quiet, peaceful spot away from the kaos, only to find that the union had already unloaded and uncased our band gear. Darn it! We needed the exercise. there were No sound checks, so the pressure is off, one hour show for Cray and then packup the band gear and get on the "Executive Crew Bus" by 10:00 pm. Oh well we always makes up for it later when some "Harsh Duty" gig comes along.
We had a good show in Florida where we found this parking spot next to the Bay in Tampa. Some of the crew rented water scooters and took turns wave running all day. (see photo left)
The Festival was one of the smoothest running Tours this summer thanks to T.J. the stage manager and Ron Hausfeld the Tour/Production Manager. A brand new JBL speaker system was supplied by Mickey Morgan of Performance, Inc. The JBL guys kept in contact with the crew and the debut sound system performed well. B.B.King had a Birthday party at the Hard Rock Cafe in Chicago. What a Poserfest that was, I didn't even see B.B. there. Well, I think he showed up later around 11:00 pm and everyone sang "Happy Birthday". I was able to meet guitar player/songwriter Warren Hayes, but I don't think he'll remember. The party was jammin', free booze. Tom, Cray's security guy, was out of control, picking people up and dangling them over the balcony. I don't think he'll remember either. The next night after the show Gary, Cray's sound guy, saw a man get stabbed outside the box office at the Riviera. I guess they were mad about the show being sold-out. © 1998 G. Zaccaria
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Vibro Dog On Tour
Somewhere, USA - One night during load-out I was helping the stage hands push road cases towards the truck. I known what your saying, "What, Zack work?, No way". Way, from time to time there are stuck wheels on the cases and I thought I had one, but this time it was really stubborn. After a stage hand and I forced the wheel into a screeching skid on its way to the truck, we then picked up the case and there he was "Vibro Dog". Indestructable, Water Resistant and ready to Kick ass. Now "Vdog", only close friends call him that, goes everywhere with me. Watch for further adventures with Vibro Dog and Zack.
© 1998 G. Zaccaria
Air Jamaica Jazz and Blues
San Francisco, California - The Rosebud agents tell us that Robert Cray is going to perform at the 2nd Annual Air Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival later this year. Yah Mon! The 3 day festival near Montego Bay will include Robert Cray as well as George Benson, Third World, Regina Belle, Shaggy, Erykah Badu, Najee, Taj Mahal, the Isley Bros, Maxi Priest, George Duke, Koko Taylor and Black Uhuru. © 1998 G. Zaccaria
The original members of Tower of Power were nice to let me take this photo with them backstage in Lexington, Kentucky.
left to right: Rocco Prestia, Steve Kupka, Zack, and Emillo Castillo
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