Ok, I decided. The next video I create is going to be "Dinner at the Island" Part 2. I've been going through my files and I'm just shaking my head in amazement at the pure gold I have. The video I'm working on now is 4 hours long. It contains Gabriel arriving in Austin in 2017, my picking him up at the airport, and we head straight for our friend Robert Brady who is a sound engineer. We go in and say hi to Robert who shows us some sound equipment he's working with. He puts on some loud soft-style music. That lasts a few seconds until Gabe gets up from the lounge chairs we've settled in, messes with his phone, finds a song, and it is now what is blaring throughout Robert's warehouse. Gabe sits back down with the hardcore music surrounding everybody, grinning. They yell back and forth and it is figured out that that is Gabe on drums, one of his latest recordings with one of his latest Death Metal bands, I don't even want to type the name of THIS band. Suffice it to say I have video for another time that Gabe recorded while they were on stage in Las Vegas. He set up his phone next to his drums and sent me the footage. We listen to Gabe's astounding drums, I think I hear him say something like "that's 200 beats per minute" and then Robert reclaims his sound system. Gabe then proceeds to show Robert something else on his phone. I say, "There's nothing more than Harleys and drumming that Gabe loves except his cat." Gabe is now showing his cat pictures to Robert.
From there, Gabe and I head to Callahan's General Store, near the Austin airport, still close by. We go in to this amazing Cowboy Country store walking past a life-size plastic horse at the front door, stop for a pose shot, wherein Gabe does Death Metal signs, go in, go past the more than life-size almost bigger than the horse CHICKEN, and down the aisles towards the Cowboy hats. Gabe gets his first Cowboy hat. They measure him, chat, and of course he settles on a black one.
Next, it is that night at "The Island on Lake Travis," my home at the time, and the venue for tonight's Dinner. We see Robert setting up all his sound equipment. There is a beautiful restaurant inside the Island, that overlooks Lake Travis. It is night. We've moved the dining tables and chairs out of the prettiest part of the dining room and set up a bar stool chair with a microphone in the middle, backed by the used drums I had recently bought for Gabe's trips so we would have our own. I have episodes wherein Gabe teaches how to turn a cheap $400. set of used drums into professional drums, but I haven't uploaded that one yet. Robert is busy working with wires and speakers and other magical sound hardware all around the drums and chair.
My friend, Austin professional local musician Dawn Maracle is the main Speaker for that night, our 2nd Dinner. Rick-a-Shay was the Speaker for the first Dinner and I've uploaded that episode to my new YouTube channel already. Dawn has brought an entire long table full of her memorabilia from her career throughout the decades she has been performing. You've never seen a musician quite like Dawn. She is a match for Gabe, only in her own way. She writes songs, she is a Christian, she performs in all the best venues around Austin, has one of the best reputations of any musician in Austin, has an extensive professional background, sings, plays acoustic guitar, plays electric guitar, plays electric bass (she has brought all 3), and is a SHOWMAN of the highest caliber. She works with the very best musicians, always. Dawn is our 2nd Speaker, and I was honored at her presence. That just starts the list.
Robert is a professional sound engineer with his own company, Texas Pro Sound, so knows hundreds of the best musicians all around. HE has brought a guy who also performed during the first Dinner, already uploaded, Carson Taylor Alexander, who is another cream of the crop professional local musician, guitarist, songwriter, vocalist. If that's not enough, Robert has also brought Brett McCormick, another of Austin's cream of the crop professional local musicians, who plays guitar, sings, writes songs, and performs at the best of the best venues as well. Then we have someone very unusual that Robert has also brought, a young man, perhaps 10 or 12 years old, beautiful blonde hair, big smile, and gunning for Gabe on the drums. He is quite a phenomenon around Austin. At the end of the 4 hours of this particular video I film him at his beautiful home, his dad came with him to the Dinner, in his music room, with his drum kit. Gabriel has been invited to give him a lesson and we get to witness that. He also performs at the Dinner.
Dawn opens as our Speaker, and talks about her career. Then she performs 3 songs with her vocals and acoustic guitar. I thank her and sit down and play one of my original songs, "Chariot of Dust." I then describe what we are doing with the Dinners before handing the chair over to Brett McCormick, Carson Alexander, the kid's father, and then to Gabriel. Gabriel speaks about his career and musical interests and influences.
Then we get to the grand finale of the night. I've flown Gabe in from Orlando just for this moment. I've bought the drums for just this moment. I've invited all these amazing people just for this moment. Gabriel sits down behind the drum kit. Magic. After that Dawn grabs her electric bass guitar and she and Gabe go for it, beat for beat, and you've never witnessed such a feat of sheer skill and majesty. I told you this video was pure gold. Pure gold. The night ends, oh, and Rick-a-Shay, our first Speaker, in the Dinner video I already uploaded is ALSO present on this night and is helping Robert in the background setting up all the sound equipment. Rick-a-Shay did this for a living beginning with the early years of Stevie Ray Vaughn, and then for decades with one major Rock band name you'd immediately recognize after another. Go watch his video I created, the first Dinner at the Island, on my new You Tube channel.
I've probably left something out... oh, the 4 hour video I'm uploading as I type this ENDS back at Gabe's favorite of all places in the world, a Harley Davidson Dealership. Of course we went there, it is routine, non-negotiable with Gabe. They had made the mistake of putting up big signs everywhere that said, "Free Demo Rides" so of course I then film Gabe putting on a helmet, the salesman taking the Harley Gabe has chosen to "test drive" outside, the salesman getting on his own motorcycle and the video ends with me filming Gabe and the Harley salesman riding off into the Sunset, then returning, with Swan, my at this time blue van, parked in the Harley Dealership parking lot.
This is an amazing video. I'm sure I will eventually cut it into multiple pieces. But this is the 4 hour long raw footage. Think Documentary. I'm documenting. This is what really happened, as it happened. xo Angel
Copyright 2024 Angel Isaacs All Rights Reserved
Written October 30, 2024 at 7:17 pm
