The Doobie Brothers roll through “Black Water” at the Charity Fall Music Festival.Glen Ellen, CA (November 14, 2012)—Wine and rock n’ roll have always gone hand in hand, so it was only fitting that in 1986, the B.R. Cohn Winery and Olive Oil Company held their first Charity Fall Music Festival in the heart of the Sonoma Valley wine country. Today, 26 years later, that tradition continues, and Sacramento Production Services was on-hand, fielding a Martin Audio PA for the event.
Owner Bruce Cohn, who also manages the Doobie Brothers, is the guiding force behind the festival, which benefits a host of local charities. This year, the bill featured the Doobie Brothers with Michael McDonald and Friends, Kenny Loggins, Buddy Guy, The Turtles, Dave Mason, War, Lara Johnston and others over a two-day period.
Sacramento Production Services provided audio and staging for the first time this year, largely on the recommendation of John Procaccini, Production Manager for the Festival and Doobie Brothers FOH Engineer Gary Hartung.
“The event was a real success,” explains SACPS’ Keith Wackford. “It’s the first time in 26 years that every act was on stage, on time. Kenny Loggins actually got onstage three minutes early! The crews and staff on both sides were great and we did a lot of hard work to make sure we had what we needed to pull this event off.”
According the Wackford, the main stage speaker system consisted of 9 Martin Audio W8LCs per side for the main hangs; 6 W8LCs a side for out fill; 14 ground-stacked W8LS subwoofers; two W2s for front fill; two WT3s for drum fill, 14 LE12J stage monitors and a pair of W8Cs with S218X subs per side for side fill.
Separate consoles were brought in for the festival; a pair of Yamaha PM5Ds at FOH and a pair of PM5Ds for Monitors. Three racks of Lab.gruppen PLM20Ks powered the system.
Crew for SACPS included Keith Wackford (FOH), Dwayne Wise (System Engineer), Rick Stansby (Monitor Engineer), and Evan Drath (Asst. Monitor Engineer). Rick Santell (Huey Lewis) was Stage Manager.
Asked about reaction to the Martin Audio system, Wackford enthuses “Everyone loved it. Fans at the Festival thought this was the best-sounding year ever. The Doobie Brothers’ FOH and Production Manager said it was one their best years yet. At the end of the night, when the trucks were loaded, John Procaccini said, ‘You hit the ball out of the park’.”
Martin Audio
www.martin-audio.com
