heidi and the el cats

Blues

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April 22, 2008, 8:00 pmOPEN MIC NIGHT

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Sunday Brunch with Heidi and The El Cats - April 21, 2008, 12:49 am
It's sunday morning and we are back again at The Cottage. They asked Cliff to come for sunday Brunch and bring some musicians. They were looking for jazz players but he told them we are blues players. It's mellow here this morning. Ella Fitzgerald is singing "Mack The Knife", and people are just starting to arrive. Cliff and Bobby Freeman, the keyboard player, are doing a sound check with some slow blues. Bobby is an excellent keyboard player. He's played around town for years now with The Jeff Prine band. I went over next door to La Bonne Bouche, (thats Good Mouth in French) and got us coffee and croissants. I only had a Visa card so the guy said cash only but take it and pay him back another time. I thought that was nice. I told himt that we play every Saturday at The Cottage, I'll get him next week. I walk around with no cash, depending on my plastic bank card. If I kept one hundred one dollar bills in my pocket I would feel rich. Cliff is figuring out the set list of my songs and Bobby's songs. Bobby says he is always nervous before a gig, I don't know why, he is such a fantastic player. Seems that another band has shown up. There is a quandry with management. Cliff found out that they were already fired, so its full steam ahead for us. It's a beautiful, sunny day today. Nice October weather for Florida. The sunlight reflects off the branches of the palm trees and everything is light and airy and bright. Cliff and Bobby are set up under the tented part of the restaurant, just in case of rain. It's too hot to sit out in the sun, Cliff would never make it. Cliff is wearing a necklace that my mother brought for me. As soon as I got it he claimed it as his own. He gets so many compliments on it he's thinking of selling them. Bobby kicked off the set with , "Ain't No Sunshine". He sounds great. He has such a nice blues voice, smooth and mellow. Cliff is playing drums, nice and soft. It's good. I went up and sang two songs to the brunch crowd. I sang , "Rock Me Baby" and "Stand By Me". They clapped. They are all sitting out there in the audience with their mimmosas and eggs benedict, an easy, captive crowd. Newsflash: The restaurant is out of O.J. Cliff is on break and is telling me that I need to learn another twenty new songs, some standards, some Beatles and Etta James. He's figuring out the songs for the next set. Cliff has his sunglasses on and looks like a movie star today. He's all excited about playing drums. We were playing a song and a woman asked me over. She told me that she just asked her bloke to marry her and he said yes. She asked if we could play a slow song so they could dance. The boys played "24 Hours"(I'm gonna love you twenty four hours a day) and Bobby sang it. The couple danced and they looked all teary eyed and happy. They put some money in the tip jar, could be a lucrative gig! Cliff talked to the owner and he said "Thumbs up", we are in. We'll be in rotation with some other bands, so we'll be playing her at least twice a month. The engaged couple sips champagne...I remember when Cliff asked me to marry him and the next day I told my mother. He was mad that I told her. We still haven't been married yet and its eight years later, but we will do it, for sure, one day....One day, maybe in Vegas. Bobby is singing again, he's playing,"Georgia". Its crowded in here now, a huge table of about twelve people just came in while we were playing "Hand Jive." Our boss was watching us, clapping in the corner. Cliff is drumming, he looks happy.Bobby is singing "Fire and Rain". The newly engaged couple toasts. I wonder what will become of their realtionship...Will she always be the leader? She asked him to marry her. I've thought about doing that but from my experiences its always better if the man is crazy about you, you can only chase a man so far. In general I think men like to do the chasing. They get nervous when a woman is after their ass. We're on break again. Cliff was looking around the place saying what a nice home the restaurant would be. It would be sort of a courtyard house with large areas open to the outdooors. I Like it. I've always wanted to live like Jungle Jane anyway, live in a treehouse and own a couple of monkeys. Cliff is back playing again, doing a light swing to "Everyday I Have The Blues". He's playing lightly, sounds good. He's got his sunglasses on. The gig is just about over, we say our goodbyes to the brunch crowd. Come back again in two weeks! Mimosa patrol over.


Country Countdown
heidi, posted 04/15/08 15:41:46 » Cashbox Magazine 0
Hi Heidi, I usually finish all three hours before uploading them. I do have hour 1 finished and uploaded to the server although the scripts and playlists have yet to be generated and uploaded. Go to either the http://www.cashboxmagazine.com/cbradio.htm page or to my radio station downloading site at http://nashvillecountdown.com and from the player, click on "Country Countdown Hour 1". You can skip over to your song....it's about 14 minutes into the first hour right after the first commercial set....the down arrow will permit downloading the entire hour. Thanks for the great music and let me know of any feed back. Since the show is on radio stations around the world, I hope you get some notice. We are on several stations in New Zealand and Australia as well a several throughout Europe and England. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dave Lane (dave@cashboxradio.com) Cashbox Radio Program Director Visit Us At: Cashbox Country Countdown (www.nashvillecountdown.com) Cashbox Magazine Radio Page (www.cashboxmagazine.com/cbradio.htm) Cashbox Records (www.cashboxrecords.com) Send Requests To: requests@nashvillecountdown.com
Mon 4/14/2008 9:00 PM

About

Formed in 1999, Heidi & The El Cats take a mello, stripped-down approach to smooth blues and roots music that has one foot planted firmly in the Missippi Delta. We were honored to have Jason Ricci, harmonica virtuoso play on this CD.

The trio, including Bobby Freeman on keyboards, has gained popularity throughout South Florida performing at blues clubs such as Blue Note, local coffeehouses and at events such as “Summer Nights On The Avenue” in Delray Beach and Citilink’ Battle Of The Bands and the Blues Diva Showcase at Cheers. Heidi & The El Cats played the Backwoods Acoustic stage at the prestigious “Fort Lauderdale International Blues Festival” and, as finalists, earned a slot at the Sound Advice Blues Festival in November 3 times.

Heidi Jacobsen’ (vocalist) influences include Etta James, Bonnie Raitt and Janis Joplin. Her sultry voice brings audiences back for repeat performances of their favorite blues standards such as “Stormy Monday”,"Sweet Home Chicago", "I Just Want To Make Love To You", “Walkin’ Blues”,"Rock Me Baby" and “The Sky Is Crying”. Heidi also reinterprets songs such as “Ode To Billy Joe”, Led Zeppelin’s “California” and the Beatles’ “Come Together”, making them uniquely her own. Her first CD, “Volume” was engineered and produced by Cliff Guest, who co-wrote five of the original songs on the album. Their latest CD features original songs such as Steady Rollin Woman and Mexico which are both written by Cliff Guest.

Cliff Guest, the El Cats’ guitarist and also a drummer, has played music all his life. As the backbone of the band, he lays down rock solid rhythms on acoustic, electric and slide guitar. On any given night it’s not unusual to see Cliff with three or more guitars onstage, his favorite being an old 1936 National Style O guitar, to help achieve an authentic blues sound. His influences include Muddy Waters and Eric Clapton as well as blues master Robert Johnson. Cliff also has been active on the music video side of the music industry. Cliff won MTV's "Make My Video" contest for Madonna's True Blue and landed a job at Geffen Records in LA. While with Warner Brothers/Geffen Records, he worked with artists such as Cher, Guns & Roses, Peter Gabriel and Madonna.

Heidi and Cliff live at the Pineapple Ranch in Delray Beach Florida with their black cat Patty.

We want to thank Cashbox Magazine for having our song, "Steady Rollin Woman" on their charts for ten weeks and are very happy that the song reached #1. We are sending over some of our HeidiHo Black cat Hot sauce!! Thanks Dave!

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