Idylwild, CA -- August 21, 2016 -- Haley back w/ Casey at Jazz in the Pines

[Tusk]

Haley Reinhart ‏@HaleyReinhart 4m4 minutes ago
Teaming up with @CaseyBassy for return @idyllwildjazz for Jazz in the Pines 8/21! Tickets: http://haley.ae/JazzinthePines

[Tusk]

American Idol grads Casey Abrams and Haley Reinhart return to anchor Idyllwild’s 23rd annual Jazz in the Pines.

For Reinhart’s next record, she’d like to write on her own again and maybe use a live band. “I want to make this one even more raw and in a theme,” she says. “I’m excited.”

[Tom22]

For Reinhart’s next record, she’d like to write on her own again and maybe use a live band. “I want to make this one even more raw and in a theme,” she says. “I’m excited.”

[/quote]


That's a cool thought.

I'd actually buy a studio quality recording of her with the (edit) Jacob Lutrell and gang doing the songs we heard on tour(including the redo's of the ones from ListenUp! they did...

... of course.. I'd buy anything Haley put out haha

[Miguel]

“We’ll be stripping down our performance … spilling our hearts out on the stage,” says Reinhart from Los Angeles.

Adds Abrams, who just returned from a gig in Italy, “Last time, we had the whole Gingerbread Band. This time, we’ll have some guests but it’ll be just me and Haley. It’ll be jazz, with maybe some jazzy pop tunes.”

They might debut a song they’ve co-written about bringing the world together.

[Miguel]

Tusk ‏@HaleysTusk 11m

One new duet and a new Beatles cover

[Miguel]

Dee Dee Patterson Moon shared Idyllwild Jazz in the Pines's video.

<3 Feeling Grateful or Life

https://www.facebook.com/idyllwildjazzin...ref=SEARCH

[Tusk]

When I learned that I wouldn't be able to see Haley in Berlin, it was an easy choice to go to the Idyllwild show, then to BGDays, to 'make up' for my disappointment.

The bonus about going to these events is there would be no BS w/ video, so I decided I should bring all 3 of my cameras, the camcorder, the smaller point & shoot and the DSLR. I also brought a tripod, my monopod and my Zoom microphone. I haven't really had a chance or opportunity to use my Zoom, so I thought, if I can't get good audio from my cameras, surely the Zoom would get good audio (Miguel used something similar to capture the excellent audio from BGDays 3 years ago)

My plan was to fly in Saturday night, get one hotel room, go to the show, then directly to the airport to be back by Monday morning.

I was hoping that a Halien or two might be there too, so I can get help w/ the cameras I brought. I figure, use the DSLR on a tripod, whilst using the camcorder for close ups, and the point and shoot from the pit for even closer close-ups. As it was, it would just be me.

My trip had one layover in San Francisco, 40 minutes. My seat for the trip from SF to Palm Springs Airport was 13B... Good, I would be close to the front. To my surprise, it would be a smaller airplane, 13B was in the last row, right next to the Bathroom Furthermore, I always bring a carry on, not wanting to be separated from all my equipment $$....Because it was a smaller airplane, I discovered that I had to hand my carry on to an attendant waiting at the base of the stairs on the tarmac "The overhead space is much too small"

Last time I flew in a plane this small, it was in Vietnam, where people were allowed to bring their chickens onto the plane in a cage :/ I was not happy, and a bit nervous....

We did end up making it to Palm Springs. We exited the plane, the airport reminded me of a mall..there was no roof, we had to walk quite a ways w/o cover until we got to baggage claim. I wondered what they would do if there was a downpour?

Eventually I got to my hotel, rechecked the agenda, There were designated parking spaces outside the venue with regular shuttles to take folks to and from, the venue would open at 10:30, Haley and Casey came on at 4:30. I thought I'd try and make it at opening, but it would be an hour drive from my Hotel to the Jazz Festival. I reconsidered and decided to get another day's Hotel stay, even if I only needed it for a few hours to rest up after a long day and long drive. The thought of hanging out at a tiny airport with no roof or amenities convinced me it was a good purchase.

Little did I know what a drive it would be. The route winded back and forth, to and fro up some mountains with many hairpin turns. The view was spectacular, but if you took your attention off the road, or were intoxicated, flying off the road over a cliff was not impossible.... Luckily, it was a Sunday, the traffic was light and I travelled speed limit most of the time (55mph) On the drive, I noticed how desolate everything looked, it was hard to tell if the stores I saw were still in business... I saw on a map that Coachella was near by, so I gathered, this must be the type of town that gets big business during the summer concert times, and relatively desolate off season.

Soon I arrived at one of the parking locations, the shuttles were actually quite frequent, one arrived just as I was gathering my equipment from the trunk. My fellow passengers told me this was also their first time at the Festival, that it was really hot the day before, but cooled down significantly today. When we arrived at the venue, they handed out programs, checked my bags and stamped my arm. I opened the program up, it opened to Haley's page... I took a pic and tried to tweet it out. No Wifi, no phone signal...nothing. I returned to the entrance and asked the folk there if they knew if there was Free wifi. They said only the faculty and students had wifi, asked me what my carrier was. I told them. They pointed to a grouping of rocks to my left. "We were told, if you go stand by that 2nd rock over there, you might get something

Ooookay..... I went over there, searched around, and sure enough, eventually, a tweet I'd sent earlier, asking a Halien if he was coming, got through! I also received some tweets. So I tried to tweet Haley's pic out again. I guess the size was too big... the whole day, my phone tried to send the tweet w/ the pic attached, which wore down my battery power... this place was pretty much cut off. I would never get another tweet or text out, no matter where I went (I actually received a tweet while in a port-o-potty....but it didn't happen again LOL)

There was a light cover of clouds the entire day, making for a nice diffused light, as well as cool temperatures. We were reminded how grateful we were for the cloud's shade when every once in awhile, the blazing sun would peek through. It remained lightly cloudy the whole times, every once in a while, a few drops of rain would fall, but otherwise perfect conditions for an outdoor show.

Here's the pic from the guide that hung my phone for awhile

There was one for Casey too, but I didn't notice 'til later they were listed alphabetically, I just happened to open up to Haley (coincidence? )

---

As I made my way towards the Main Stage, I passed by two different performance area, both pretty well attended, lots of good Jazz music emanating outwards. There were stores selling clothing, dresses, jewelry, paintings, one guy even sold decorative mortars and pestles. Of course there was a fair selection of food and beverages. If you wanted to drink alcohol, you would have to go to buy tickets where they also gave you a wrist band indicating you were drinking age. I bought enough tickets for 2 beers. It was around noon, I had plenty of time.

Eventually, I made it to the main stage. it was lightly filled, many empty folding chairs and blankets on the ground. There was a line of orange spray paint demarquing the VIP area. My first choice was to be next to the sound board. I pulled out my cameras and decided that even zoomed in, I was too far away. I tested my Zoom microphone and asked Dale, the soundboard guy if it was OK that I left it there with him. He told me that it was, but then suggested that he could plug it into the sound board. Awesome! You would do that? Yeah, no problem, it'll take a few seconds. He went to get some chords and plugged it into the microphone. I offered to give him some money as thanks, but he refused it. It's no big deal.

That's the thing....everyone working at this venue were really, really nice. Smiles on their faces, very helpful. The announcers, Casey, Haley...they all made sure to thank the over 100 volunteers working that day.

So once that was settled, I didn't think I could get anything 'decent' as far as video, next to the sound board. In all, I parked myself at maybe 4 or five spots before deciding I could do better.

Eventually, I settled on sitting nearer the stage, stage left (right if you're facing the stage). I propped my DSLR onto a tripod, made sure it was balanced on the uneven terrain and started to check where my back up batteries were in case I needed them.

Eventually a woman came, she laid a blanket pretty much in front of my camera. I asked her if more people were coming? There were. She asked me if I wanted her to move, I told her, no, I could just move up a bit and plant myself next to her area. It was a better spot, fewer people to walk in front of the camera.

Accompanying her was her 5 year old son, Miles. I told her this was my first time here, that I came to see Haley and Casey. Turns out, they were friends of Casey's family, in fact, she was an administrator when Casey went to school there. Miles, informed me "Casey's My Friend!" (This would come back later on during the show )

By the way, Miles looked ALOT like that picture of Casey at about the same age, except Casey's hair was red and Miles' was blonde... I told his mother that, she laughed

Soon she was joined by her boyfriend, then more acquaintances and friends... I found myself surrounded by Casey's people LOL. I felt my equipment was safe enough, they knew what I was there for, so I got up and started to scout where I would be using my monopod from.

Then I saw to the right of the stage Pam!! Pam was a coordinator I had met when Morgan James gave Greg and Me Photo passes to her show at Newport Beach. Morgan's manager referred me to Pam so she can tell me what I was allowed to do, which area I could use my camera. That day I had a few opportunities to talk with Pam. She at first came off as a hard @$$ but once I got to talking w/ her, she was actually quite nice. We were supposed to only take photos of Morgan on her first two songs and her encore, but Greg and I took photos through Morgan's entire set (I even took video of one song, which was prohibited ) While I was still taking pictures way after I was allowed to, I saw out of the corner of my eye, Pam was walking towards me....Uh oh

She stood right next to me, looked towards Morgan on stage and said, "Now that's a good angle, should be a great pic" !!!! LOL I thought I was busted, but we went on to talk about Morgan, Pam liked her because she was an 'old school' performer like the times of Carole King, her favorite performer. We talked a couple times after that...she was very nice.

Anyways, back to Idylwild. I saw Pam was at the side, organizing her workers on stage, talking on her head set. I went around the back, told security I just wanted to say Hi to Pam. He let me in, she was surprised to see me, big smile. We talked a bit, it gave me the opportunity to ask about if it was OK if I could shoot from the pit area in front of the stage. I told her last year, there was video of people dancing in it. She said the reason they don't encourage people gathering in the pit was because it's concrete and they don't want any liability w/ a small child getting hurt in there. But she said, it should be OK if I wanted to go down there and video, no problem I guess I know where I'll be videoing with my monopod from

---

Oh, I forgot, before I started settling in, I had passed a few stores w/ some very decorative dresses of different designs and material.. I thought to myself, these are totally the kinds of dresses I could see Haley liking.... when I went to get my beer tickets, who would I happen to 'bump into'... Haley and her friend were actually looking at the clothes. I approached her said hi, Big smile, I went to shake her hand, she gave me a hug instead. I had told Haley in Chicago I was planning a trip to see her in Berlin, but can't make it, so that's why I was at Idyllwild then BGDays. Her friend took a picture of us, I wished her luck for the show and let her continue exploring w/ her friend. She had on the hat that airhigh gave her at Petaluma

---

I had tweeted Casey's parents that I would be headed to the Idyllwild festival, so all the while, I kept an eye out for them... as there was no way to communicate by twitter or text, I had no way of knowing whether they replied or not, or maybe if they wanted to meet, where? So all I could do was subconsciously scour the crowd to see them.

When the final act ended (The Jazz was actually very very good, very relaxing in that locale out in the woods) I got up to go to the soundboard and remind Dale to turn on my Zoom mic. That's when I bumped into Ira, he had a pretty big video camera w/ him, it was older and used an older memory card, a CF card? 3 times as big as a normal SD card. He said he was going to take video and he would send it to me if I wanted (!!!) He said he planned on going down near the stage for close ups. We walked up the hill and there was Casey's Mom Pam. She had a great big smile on her face "Tusk!! I saw you and tried to call you, but you couldn't hear me" gave me a big hug We made our way back to their seating area and Ira and I continued to talk about how he would get his video to me. I pointed to where I was sitting, told Ira there were a bunch of his folk down there who knew them...so eventually Ira made it to where my camera was sitting. He then proceeded to go into the pit, but instead of sitting in front of the stage, he sat on the edge of the stage in front of a bank of speakers. I had told Ira that the sound guy was getting audio, so he didn't mind that he would be sitting right next to the big speakers, his camera sitting on his thigh.

I made my way back to my tripod. The venue was all of a sudden packed. Until then, the 'crowd' was more empty seats and blankets than people. They obviously came to see Haley and Casey

I then saw that Casey was on stage, talking to engineers plugging in chords....where was Haley? I went down towards where I met Pam, the event organizer, there was Haley, she had a different hat on, holding a tiny tambourine... I asked her if I could take a picture of both Haley and Casey, but it seemed Casey was really busy setting up. Eventually, I asked Haley if I could take a pic of her. I needed a second pic because her hat shaded her face, so this time she tilted her face upwards..."Is this good?" It was. I told her I'd better let them get ready, Haley told me that we'd have an opportunity after the show and we said our good byes.

[Tusk]

I returned to my tripod, another family was sitting w/ 2 small children behind my camera. I told the Dad that I would be sitting there, I could move if I was blocking his kids. He said it was OK, his daughter could see around me. Then we started talking about Casey and Haley. There was a black gentleman on stage who Casey was talking with. The Dad said he has lived here all his life, come every year to the festival, and that gentleman Casey was talking to was Marshall Hawkins.... a celebrated musician, played w/ many famous people and bands and a teacher at Idyllwild, was actually one of Casey's teacher. He said Marshall was a neighbor, so he was excited to see Marshall perform with Casey.

I told him what I was hoping to do, that it was sort of my hobby to post videos to promote young talent while giving me the opportunity to be creative. I told him what I'd planned to do, use the DSLR for the stage view, close ups w/ my smaller camera. Then an idea came to me. I asked the Dad if it was OK if he could watch my DSLR, turn it back to recording if it turned off....

For some reason, many cameras, including Canon, turns off automatically after 20 or so minutes if unattended, they don't stay on. So if I was down in the Pit, I could not scale up the hill to check if my camera needed to be turned on again, especially it was a steep incline. He was happy to help, I described the basic functions, to look for the orange dot which would denote that it was recording, which button to press to start it recording again. His kids were paying strict attention. They happily agreed to help. That being taken care of, I grabbed my monopod w/ my point and shoot and headed to the pit.

There were 3 photographers down there with big lenses, I think there'll probably some good photos coming out.

This is where I end the retelling for now. I have to get to the airport in 2 hours so gotta pack, probably no time for a nap now

I'll review the vid I got to remind me of hightlights of Caley on stage. By the way, Ira said it might take a week before he can get his video to me and Casey said if the video came out good, He would like to post it to his channel.

One bummer... there was no audio on my mic This makes it TWO audio engineers who recorded nothing on my mic...so the only conclusion I can make is that maybe my mic is defective when plugging into the board. At Durty Nellies in Chicago, I thought it was the sound engineer's fault that I didn't get board audio. Hard for me to believe that Dale, who offered to plug it in free no charge "It's easy" didn't know what he was doing. So I'm going to have to look up the mic's warantee to get it checked out.... I really haven't had a chance to look or hear the media I got, how the sound came out, there was talking, but even so, I have to wait for Ira's video before I can post anything. From the two cameras, I hope the audio will be good enough

[popfly38]

One bummer... there was no audio on my mic This makes it TWO audio engineers who recorded nothing on my mic...so the only conclusion I can make is that maybe my mic is defective when plugging into the board. At Durty Nellies in Chicago, I thought it was the sound engineer's fault that I didn't get board audio. Hard for me to believe that Dale, who offered to plug it in free no charge "It's easy" didn't know what he was doing. So I'm going to have to look up the mic's warantee to get it checked out.... I really haven't had a chance to look or hear the media I got, how the sound came out, there was talking, but even so, I have to wait for Ira's video before I can post anything. From the two cameras, I hope the audio will be good enough

Tusk, another successful (I hope!) Haley/Caley adventure in the books. Congratulations. Just wondering why you want your mic plugged into the audio board? Is there a benefit to having your mic input sent through the board to your camera? Why not just plug your mic directly into your camera or better yet ask the engineer to give you an audio feed from the stage to the mic input of you camera? Sorry if I'm missing something. Just wondering. In any case I'm sure your videos will be great and I'm looking forward to seeing them when you're ready to post.

[john]

Sounds like a great day at the jazz fest, Tusk. Thanks for the extended reporting of your experiences -- you went old school.