By Lisa Morgan
Gold Rush comes to Agua Caliente’s Lounge this Saturday, November 3rd packing a full arsenal of contemporary country music with performances that will knock your boots off right along with your socks. The toe tapping, line dancing, two stepping to their high energy contemporary country music begins at 9 pm. Believe me when I say, if you love country music, I highly recommend not missing out on the entertainment opportunity this seven piece band provides.
This Los Angeles based band regularly headlines the LA County Fair, The Canyon Club, Harrah’s Reno, Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar and Grill, The Brandin’ Iron, Fantasy Springs Casino, and The Riviera in Las Vegas to name a few. They’ve appeared in concert with Kix Brooks (formerly of Brooks and Dunn), Eddie Money, Justin Moore, Rodney Atkins, Jaron and the Long Road to Love, and Cowboy Troy.
Gold Rush Country originals, which are regularly featured in their live shows, are garnering wildly enthusiastic response from audiences as well. They are presently in pre-production for their debut CD with Peter Bernstein, a noted film and television composer and former Warner staff producer who’s worked with many legends from the glory days of California country rock: Linda Ronstadt, Timothy B. Schmidt (Poco, The Eagles), Andrew Gold etc. etc. Bandleader Richard Young is co-producing the record.
The level of musicianship of these individual players is nothing less than stunning. Founder of the band, Richard Young, sings lead and background, plays electric and acoustic guitar, b bender, lap steel, slide, mandolin, banjo and pretty much anything else with strings and frets. He’s also an active studio musician, producer, songwriter and music director who has collaborated with many music greats. He has played nearly every genre of music throughout the United States and his playing has been featured on many national commercials, television and film scores and artist CDs.
Royce Nelson covers all the top female vocal country hits and plays percussion. This beautiful songbird was already performing on stage and recording by the age of 13, with singer/songwriter Karen Tobin. She’s more recently blessed the stages of House of Blues, The Roxy, The Viper Room, and the Whiskey-A-Go-Go.
On electric and acoustic guitar and slide, is Scott Felton. A self-described “tone fanatic” is a first call guitarist in the thriving yet extremely competitive LA Indie music scene. He is also an active studio musician, engineer, arranger and songwriter.
Lead male vocalist, Jeff Valdez, also plays acoustic guitar, harmonica and percussion. Jeff has shared the stage with blues greats BB King and Buddy Guy. He is often a first call for producers and songwriters in Los Angeles and has appeared in venues from Los Angeles to Las Vegas.
Bass and backup vocals are brought to you by Spencer Wright. Spencer’s skills earned him the privilege of playing with many legendary jazz musicians, including Ira Sullivan, Duffy Jackson and Darmon Meader of the New York Voices. He has toured internationally with many top name artists including Richie Sambora, Aaron Carter, Christopher Thorn of Blind Melon, Dave Krusen of Pearl Jam and Kenny G. You can also hear him in the soundtracks to Flags of our Fathers, War of the Worlds and the TV show Malcolm and Eddie.
Drummer, Steve DeLollis is a well-known musician in the LA club scene and has toured and recorded with a number of national acts including Greg Ginn, founder of Black Flag and SST Records.
A “prodigy”, according to Young, Lacy Rostyak, who plays fiddle and keys, “combines consummate classical instrumental technique with a unique flair for lyrical improvisation.” That’s fancy talk for “the girl really kicks some musical ass”. By age eight, she had already been playing violin and piano for 5 years and began studying at the world-renowned Manhattan School of Music. She continued graduate studies at The San Francisco Conservatory and has performed throughout the US including Branson. She’s been featured in the television shows “ Rosie O’Donnell” and “Glee”, and country music videos for artist such as Shania Twain.
You put these seven friends on a stage together, pay them for doing what they love for the singular purpose of entertaining you in the style of country music’s top 40, and you’re guaranteed a good time. Their set list includes all your new favorites and a few of your classics. They even through in some good old fashioned rock classics to spice it up. I for one can’t wait to see and hear them having perused their musical samplings on their website http://www.goldrushcountry.org/.
I’ll meet you there at Agua Caliente Casino, this Saturday November 3rd in The Lounge. Agua Caliente’s Lounge always offers a great mix of live music, tribute bands, karaoke and terrific tailgate parties with no cover. http://www.hotwatercasino.com/nightlife.html
Comments are closed.