2011 Northern California Roundup!

Sep 16 Sep 18

Clair Tappaan Lodge
19940 Donner Pass Road – Norden, California

Kowabunga! The Surf’s Up So It Must Be Time For The 2011 Northern California Roundup!

Alright, all of you dudes and honeys, it will very soon be time to start packin’ up the woodie and following the asphalt trail on a surf safari to the Clair Tappaan Lodge to attend the 2011 Northern California Roundup.

To attend the most bitchin’ guitar-playing event one can even imagine, call (800) 679-6775 for toll-free reservations.

Whether you are a musical land shark, a hodad, or a grom, it is time for you to break out the baggies and get your surf on! There will be no barnwallin’ allowed here – the break will be just right for you to rip on some mondo surf tunes as we meet to celebrate the musical friendships facilitated for so many of us by Gretsch Guitars and the GDP!

Hangin’ Loose at the 2010 Roundup!

And the biggest surf daddy, Joe “Cooleo” Carducci, is kickin’ it this year with a fun time guaranteed for all. You talk about Gretschswag at previous Roundups? Oh my! Joe C. personally delivered a bit of Gretschswag a couple of months ago that will baaaah-low your mind. A guitar that is rarely seen, but epic in its splendor. The run on this guitar must have been absolutely microscopic. You will love it, trust me! It’s righteous! And some lucky surfbum in attendance is going to take it home. (And if you already know what the guitar is, don’t spill the beans, man – let’s keep it a secret until we get a bit closer to the Roundup!)

As is apparent, a surf theme is what’s brewin’ for this year’s Roundup. So, get out your old Ventures, Safaris, Chantays, Dick Dale, Los Straitjackets, or other favorite surf band CD’s and start brushin’ up on those surf tunes. Are you stumped as to what to play and need some inspiration? Then check out this list of the 100 Greatest Surf Songs.

There will be a specific time set aside for these songs to be performed, so work on a tune or two and we will try to get as many players as we can up there to perform them. Who knows? There may even be a chance for someone to play this old T-Bones hit.

If you have one or a couple-three surf tunes that you would like to play (I can imagine that DrGretsch and FritzTheCat have a repertoire as long as my arm of surf tunes that they could play for us), post them in this thread with a link to where we can listen to the song to learn it and to be able to back you as you play it. Or bring some charts that we can read.

And don’t fret, there will be lots of time for some rockin’ tunes and free-form jammin’ as well.

By the way, I happened to snap a photo of our own bonedaddy ridin’ the wild surf down at Santa Cruz which may just put you in the right mood for the Roundup…

As always, we will be arriving Friday afternoon with plans to play tunes into the evening hours. However, if my efforts work out, we will be hangin’ ten into the wee hours of the morning in our own nearby private music pad. We will play music all day and evening on Saturday, and will be hittin’ it again on Sunday morning before our surf safari takes us home again.

For those of you who are uninitiated, the Northern California Roundup is a camp-style event in the rustic and historic Clair Tappaan ski lodge. You just bring your own bedding for use on the Lodge’s bunks, and you will be treated to three meals a day for the all-inclusive price of only $50 per day. As in most communal resorts, you will also be asked to chip in and perform some simple task (like setting the tables for the next meal, sweeping the dining room floor, etc.) as a part of the fare for your billet. You know that old saying that many hands make the workload light! With such a weekend of fun and great tunes in store, that price is almost criminal.

Call the Clair Tappaan Lodge right now to make certain that you will be a part of the fun and festivities. When making your reservation, be sure to tell them that you are a part of the Gretsch group. They love us there! You can reach the Lodge toll-free at (800) 679-6775.

So, all of you Surf Betties and Surfer Joes, don’t wipe out! Instead, get your flip-flops or Hurache sandals on because the Surf’s Up at the 2011 Northern California Roundup!

Be there or it’ll be in the spin cycle for you!

Nearby Donner Lake

• Facebook
• Tweet
• Google+

Updates

• And then I flew home.

  From Reno to Salt Lake City, and from SLC to Indy - arriving around midnight Sunday, in the rain. You should be able to find Bonneville Salt Flats and the Great Salt Lake …

• Meet the Underminers!

  Dave (who came with Scott Rust) and his kids have a little family combo; Scott Rust sat in on drums and they played a couple instrumentals for us after the group pic. (More …

• The Group

  Depicted here in California morning sunshine and evergreen shade – and minus Yettoblaster and Steve Yetter Jr, Rick O’Neil, bluesgoober, and Peter G. (If I’ve missed others who were missing, someone straighten me …

• One more visit to the mountaintop.

  Now where did I leave off Saturday night? After the Swagfest, I believe. Were there more jams? There were, in fact - at some point either Saturday night or Sunday morning, we staged …

• Cruisin' Truckee.

  Turns out the town of Truckee (jumping-off point for the ride up the mountain) wasn’t named, as I assumed, for all the women brought there during the pioneer era for gold miners and …

• Swagfest

  After the surf died down, Joe gave his George Harrison presentation. This includes an overview of Gretsch before George, many rarely seen pics provided by the family, as well recently-uncovered history and a …

• Let's go surfin' now.

  A set of surf music had long been planned as a feature of the 2011 NorCal Roundup (last year it was a 12-string extravaganza…), and Ric12String invited surf mensch extraordinaire and GDP member, …

• Sarah's Secret Weapons

  Sarah’s a surprising girl. I had a long visit with her, and we covered her various careers and hobbies – from the document translation service she operated, to her years in computer component …

• Electromatics and more: Guitporn for the afflicted

  I hadn’t seen the recently redesigned new Electromatic Jets yet, with their black-top Filtertrons as first introduced on the Tim Armstrong Country Club in 2010, Baldwin-era-inspired chrome pickup rings, and lighter more chambered …

• But was there music?

  There WAS music. Joe and I both had work to do “down the hill” (at our hotel in Truckee) Saturday morning – I was working on coverage; Joe on Top Secret Projects – …

• Around the Roundup Grounds

  The Sierra Club lodges which host the NorCal Roundup are grouped in a mostly evergreen-wooded hillside lot on the north side of Old US 40, known locally as Donner Pass Road. The approach …

• Catching up the coverage...

  Those waiting anxiously for more pics and coverage of the NorCal ‘11 Roundup will have noticed the couple-day pause in coverage timing (and I hope they’ve at least changed their Depends as they …

• Saturday Stream starts soon!

  Ric12string and bonedaddy are in my room now, dragging me away to run back up the hill. I know the party is going on without us, there are lots of new people there, …

• At the Roundup...people and things.

  No exterior shots of the lodge yet – I’ll get some today – but again one could refer to last year’s (or 2009’s) coverage for that. We’re in the Cal Lodge this year, …

• Getting There Part Three: Up the Hill

  So - for those who haven’t paid close attention to the geography of the area, or followed the NorCal Roundup in previous years - here’s the lay of the land. I was on …

• Getting There Part Two: Indy to Reno

  Another quirk was that we had a celebrity on the Chicago-Reno leg, one Vince Vaughan flying first-class. My seatmates (a couple guys from Chicago who met on the plane and talked the ENTIRE …

• Getting There - the obligatory travel pics. Part One, Indy to Chicago

  By request ONLY, of course - we’ve received so many cards and letters asking for more pictures of clouds and landscapes, and I’m only too happy to oblige. -) (That’s not a smiley-face. …

• Friday Night Sierra Lounge now going live...

  Parabar’s going to lead some jams from his keyboards, Ric12String on bass, Chuckie BluesGoober Dunn on drums, and a rotating cast of pickers…see it in the livestream coming right up. Don’t miss the …

• We are HERE and (getting) ready to rock!

  (General housekeeping first: I’m copying most of this update from Ric12String’s NorCal Roundup thread - just to get us started. Successive updates will appear HERE.) Hey fellers! 6:13 PM NorCal time, and we’re …