RV Travels With Huggy

We keep thinking that we are going to slow down but that doesn't seem to happen. I was lucky enough to win two tickets to a show that we attended last Friday night at our local Skagit Valley Casino called "Ricky Nelson Remembered." It featured his twin sons, Gunnar and Matthew Nelson who have had more than one top ten hits on their own but in this show they were mostly playing the music of their Dad, a singer that I have very fond memories of both as a singer and for his role of a kid in his parent's TV show, "The Ozzie and Harriet Show." Ozzie was a band leader, Harriet was a singer in the band, and they also had at least one number one song during their performing years, so these sons represent the third consecutive generation in the Nelson family to have number one hits. I was lucky enough to win these tickets on our local oldies radio station, KBRC but I'd have gladly paid to attend. It was good.


This is the slide that was displayed on the large screen on the stage when we entered the Pacific Showroom at the Skagit. The show used this screen to display various slides and video clips during the show of various things in Ricky's life.


Gunnar at the left side, Matthew at the right, with an image of their father Ricky displayed behind them on that large screen. Gunnar originally was a drummer, as was Ricky, but he has since taken up the guitar which he played that night.


For at least this show the Nelsons (the name of their own band) performed with a group known as the Stone Canyon Band, the name of Ricky's band. Here they are with, from left to right, the lead guitar player, the drummer at the rear of the stage, Gunnar, Matthew and at the far right, the keyboardist. I am sorry that I don't have the names of the band members.


Gunnar playing and singing, with his eyes closed just as Ricky often did. The boys don't sound exactly as Ricky did but it is pretty close.


Matthew playing and singing. I think this is a bass guitar.


At the left is the lead guitarist, who has been with the Nelsons for a long time. Next is Gunnar and Matthew at the right. You can just see the drummer above the cymbal at the rear of the stage.


I liked it when the two boys sung together but they didn't stay in this position very long. They did this maybe half a dozen times but I think I only got two good photos. Here is one of them.


And here is the other one.


It was a bit of a challenge to get the skin tones close to correct. They used a lot of both red and blue lights onstage and neither of those light colors leads to good skin color, as far as I am concerned. The corrections are not perfect but they look better than they did uncorrected. Anyway, here is a last photo from near the end of the show of the two boys together. It was a show that I'd go to see again.


Here is a photo of the main part of the Skagit Valley Casino that I took as I was getting into our car. The multi-story hotel part is out of the photo at the left. This is a pretty big complex and quite striking, looking like a large castle. The freeway exit from I-5 that is closest to our house is #226 and this casino is just off the I-5 at exit 236 so I guess it is about 12 miles from our house. We are not late night people and my free tickets were to the second show that didn't start until 21:30 and we didn't get home until after midnight. But it was good and exciting enough that there was no problem staying awake. Here is another show that if you have the chance to see, especially if you are old enough like us to remember Ricky Nelson, Do It!

Labels: Entertainment, Photos, Reminiscing