THURSDAY, AUGUST 1ST AND FRIDAY, AUGUST 2ND – WES COOK BAND IN SAO PAULO, BRAZIL:
Taking the West Cook Band to Brazil for one performance at the famous “Churrascada” Event – a competition for chefs worldwide. Last year James Carothers was the headlining artist from the USA and there was an incredible response to his performance. My son, Chris, escorted that tour because I was in Asia with Chingy. This is my first time back in Sao Paulo since 1997. For years I booked some of the most famous country music events all over Brazil and Argentina. Then the South American Country Artists became as popular as the artists from the USA and we no longer went to Brazil. I’m hoping things will pick back up as it’s a great place for country music! The huge Jaguariuna Rodeo still brings in one top name country artist from the USA each year. They have had Alan Jackson, Garth, Shania, etc., etc. and this year have Cody Johnson – but I don’t book that event anymore.
Everyone was supposed to meet at the airport at 2:00 pm only the guys got there before me at around 1:30 pm. Love that. No issues checking in and I checked the pedal steel because it weighed 65 pounds and was going to cost them a fortune to check an overweight piece internationally. I am allowed 3 bags at 70 pounds because of my status and the guys were only allowed 1 bag a 50 pounds.
No problems going through security and I went into the Lounge to say hello to everyone. Much different visit that a couple of weeks ago when my “hair was on fire” trying to figure out how to get everyone to Norway.
Flight left on time and arrived on time. We had several hours layover in Atlanta so I went to the lounge and worked. I met the guys at the gate about 15 minutes before we were supposed to board and we all immediately noticed that there was no aircraft at the gate! No announcements were being made even when we should have been boarding. I went to the counter and inquired and was told it was “delayed” and an announcement would be made “when they knew something”. One of the staff seemed to have slipped and said, “It’s still in the hangar” because that’s all the information they would give me. Evidently it was being “repaired”. The Delta App said it was boarding on time. We waited and waited and waited until almost 1 am before we were finally on board and ready to depart.
I always track my bags on the app and my personal bag showed as loaded but the pedal steel was showing not loaded. I asked the flight attendant and he said they were still loading bags and not to worry that it would definitely be put on the plane. I kept watching and about one minute before we pushed back, the app showed that it had been loaded. The steel player was tracking it as well and got the same message on his Delta App.
There was turbulence off and on during the flight but nothing serious. I had dinner at 1:30 am and then slept for about 4 of the 8 hour 45 minute flight. Was able to get a few hours of work done before we landed.
Going through Immigration was easy but it took forever for the bags to come out. Several of the guys waited at “Oversize” to get their hard cases of equipment. My personal bag was one of the last ones off the plane. The pedal steel that I checked never came out. The pedal steel player and I both checked our apps again and the app had been changed to say that the case was NOT put on the flight and would come in tomorrow!!!! Now, I know a little about baggage loading and I’ve been told that there is a “scanner” on the aircraft that scans the baggage claim tag once the item goes into the cargo hold. That means that the case was actually put on the plane and we got the message that it was loaded. Then the case was taken off the plane right before we departed. Never in all my years of flying have I had that happen on a large plane like this!
We filed a claim and Rodigro (our host) arranged for someone to pick up the case “if” it actually arrives tomorrow.
We loaded into the van and it was a tight fit to get all the bags in the back. If we had the pedal steel, not sure where it would have gone since there were only seats left open. The drive to the Ibis Hotel was only a few miles but traffic is bumper to bumper and at a dead standstill most of the time. It took over an hour to arrive. Check in took a very long time for some reason. Note to self: call the hotel when we arrive next time and have them pull our keys.
The elevator is a challenge. You have to insert your room key and remove it quickly and you can only press the floor where your room is located. I was on the First Floor but the elevator had two “1’s” on the panel. I pressed the wrong one and ended up on a meeting floor. Went back down and of course had my rolling carry on and rolling suitcase with me. I rolled the carry on out of the elevator and as I turned to roll my suitcase out, the doors slammed shut and the elevator left with my bag! It went all the way up to the 18th floor before coming back down. When it finally made it back to the lobby level and the doors opened, 3 of my guys were in it plus a hotel staff person – all looking bewildered about my suitcase riding with them. LOL
The front desk clerk showed me which button to push and went with me to the First Floor. As we were approaching my room, I noticed there was a big “Handicap” sign on the door. I asked him why I was put in that room and he responded that it was the same as all the other rooms, only larger. I learned quickly that was not true. I didn’t unpack anything until I tried the WiFi – which worked. But there was no hair dryer. I went back down to the lobby and he said that room doesn’t have a hair dryer and the one they keep at the desk was in use. I told him to give me a key to another room and let me go “look” at it and if I liked it, I would move. He gave me a key to a room on the 11th floor and the room was 100% better than a handicapped room. I was going to go back to first floor and move my things up to the 11th floor and then take the key back to him. Only they had turned off my key to first floor. So I had to go all the way back to the lobby for another key. I got my steps in today!
We all met for lunch in the hotel restaurant and it was really good food. I had a risotto which was unlike anything I’ve ever had before but good. It was actually rice with mushrooms and broccoli in a brown sauce.
I went back to the room to work until time to go to a fantastic restaurant owned by the promoter. Rodrigo explained that the promoter is now in business with a new partner and wasn’t going to be able to join us for dinner. Rodrigo performs at his restaurant – Fazenda Churrascada — once a month and was performing tonight from 7:30-9:30 pm. Ordering the meal was a challenge but it was undoubtedly some of the best food any of us have ever had – especially the beef. Look at my Facebook pages and check out the photos. After we had stuffed ourselves on steak, Tomahawk steak, Wagu steak, vegetables, brisket and lots of other stuff, they brought out the Osso Buco. It was the best I’ve ever eaten and I thought I had already had the best in Austria several years ago with the Bellamy Brothers.
Rodrigo is an excellent entertainer and it was so nice to see him perform. His band is excellent, too. One of his musicians played the washboard and spoons on a few songs! He brought Wes up for one song and I was amazed that Wes could sing after the amount of food we had consumed. For the first time, Rodrigo is performing at Churrascada. No idea why he hasn’t been invited to perform before now because he is really an excellent singer and has a great band.
Got in bed by 2 am. Lobby call is 9:30 am.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 3RD – WES COOK BAND PERFORMANCE AT CHURRASCADA, SAO PAULO, BRAZIL:
I had my “rodeos” mixed up. Barretos is the huge one that Garth, Shania, etc. have played and Jaguariuna is still huge, but smaller than Barretos. Rodrigo told me that Dustin Lynch will perform at Jaguariuna this year.
I actually got up at 6:30 am so I would have time to check out the breakfast at the hotel. It was a nice buffet although wasted on me since all I ate was a spoonful of scrambled eggs and some fruit. The reason I actually got up early was to have time to get some hot water in the restaurant and make my “Half Caf” instant coffee. There’s no coffee maker or kettle in the hotel rooms. As with most foreign countries the hotel is pretty much a “challenge” for Americans. The toilet flushes but the toilet paper never goes down. For a hotel, it is absolutely the softest toilet paper I have ever encountered. But it is so soft and fluffy, I guess it “floats”. There is a TV with only Brazilian programs so everyone is watching the Olympics in Portuguese!
We left for the venue on time and it was a short drive because there’s not much traffic on Saturday. My Delta App was showing that the flight landed late this morning but was on the ground a little after 8 am. Someone from the festival went to the airport and was waiting for the pedal steel to arrive. It had to clear Customs but at least it did come in.
When we arrived at the venue, another band was still on stage doing their sound check. The Production Company made our band go on stage with him in hopes of running the other band off. It didn’t work! We had to wait almost an hour before taking the stage. Rodrigo and I walked around and he introduced me to all his friends and our host. A sweet lady – DoDa – is our primary contact. I had brought Goo Goo Clusters for some of the people and everyone flipped out over them. They are Rodrigo’s favorite candy, too. He said he tried to get the company to sell their candy in Brazil but they said “no thanks”!
The booths were already manned and the chefs were cooking some amazing looking meats. It’s going to be quite an event! Rodrigo said the venue is much better than where it was held last year.
Wes and his band finally got to sound check and because they started so late, the pedal steel arrived. Only, Brazilian Customs had taken the entire instrument apart and did not put anything back together! Because no one spoke English or only spoke broken English with a lot of hand motions, sound check did not go well. Before they even played one note, they were told they had to get off the stage for announcements but would be allowed back on stage in about 10 minutes. They expressed their frustration to Rodrigo and when they went back to finish sound check, he helped with translation. At first the sound was horrible with no vocals and drums way too loud. They finally brought the vocals up but the drums were still too loud. By the time we left, the drums were down “a little”.
We went back to the hotel and I talked to the front desk about walking over to a HUGE mall only a couple of blocks from the hotel. They assured me it was perfectly safe. But, I still put my money/credit cards in my front pockets of my jeans and didn’t take anything else except my phone and glasses which also fit in the front pockets of my jeans! Even though it was only about a 5 minute walk, I was overly cautious. Absolutely nothing happened to cause any concern.
Just as I arrived at the Mall, I got a message saying one of the guys had left his wallet in the van. I contacted Rodrigo and he had the driver come back. But, Wes said the wallet wasn’t in the van so he and Neil went back to the venue to search there. No luck. I had Rodrigo contact the van driver who took us to the venue this morning to see if it was in that van. No luck. Then Neil messaged me that Wes had looked in the wrong van when we had sent it back to the hotel and asked if the right van could come back again. Rodrigo sent that van back and they finally found it in the van that took us from sound check to the hotel. I reminded them not to put anything valuable in their back pockets. He was really lucky that it was recovered.
The Mall was massive…about 7 levels including the restaurant level. I bought NOTHING! But it was fun to walk around. Not one person spoke or understood English. Of course, I got lost walking back to the hotel and had to take my phone out and use Google Directions. They warned us NOT to walk around with our phones in our hands because that’s one of the main things the petty thieves love to steal. I only used it for a couple of minutes.
Tried to pack everything that I would not need tonight but since we were only here for a day, wasn’t much I could pack. We probably won’t get back from the show until around midnight and I’ll need to get up at 4:30 am for a 6:00 am lobby call.
When we arrived at the show, Rodrigo met us and said that everything was exactly on time and that we could even start a few minutes early if we wanted. They had catering set up in the green room with pasta, grilled chicken, mashed potatoes, vegetables, etc., but everyone wanted to go out to the booths to eat the BBQ. Everything is “free” – even the beer! Rodrigo explained that the chefs are not paid and it is not a competition. The chefs participate for the “prestige” of being allowed to be a part of the event. They prepare small portions and the attendees go from booth to booth trying the meat. The attendees pay one ticket price for entry and then everything else is free. Rodrigo knows most of the chefs so he took us to where he thought the best food would be. His beautiful wife was with him, too, and I finally got to meet her.
We started with Osso Buco and it was really good but have to say, I liked the one at the restaurant last night even more. I have eaten more beef this weekend than I eat in a year since I eat more chicken and fish as a rule. We wandered around trying to find t-shirts for sale but were only able to locate a stand selling caps.
The guys took the stage on time and I stayed out of the way but close by. Wes came off the stage and said there was no seat for the pedal steel player and he couldn’t tune his steel until they found one. I knew he had a seat for sound check so started trying to find out where it went. Evidently, the Production Company forgot to provide one. I checked our list and it was not only listed but typed in red and highlighted. The one he had at sound check belonged to the band that was sound checking when we arrived. They told him he could use it. But, they performed before Wes tonight and packed up and took it with them when they finished their show. The production company kept insisting that they had provided the seat but had accidentally taken it to another stage outside and it was being used by a band there. They said they would bring it to Neil when that band finished…about half way through their performance. Which didn’t help our situation so they finally found a road case that was close to the correct height for Neil to sit on until they could deliver the other one.
Rodrigo had performed with his band earlier today and said it went great. There was a really big crowd in the hall when Wes and the guys finally began performing. Wes is a great singer and because they play cover songs, most of the audience was singing along. There is so much going on inside and outside that people are constantly coming and going. But the hardcore country fans filled the front area of the stage and never left. Rodrigo and his wife and friends were really enjoying the show. When they kicked off the show, I have to say that the first song was basically a “drum solo”. We had issues at sound check with the drums being too loud. I typed in “Can you please turn the drums down” into my google translate on my phone and walked back to the FOH console and showed it to the technicians. They immediately complied and the sound was good for the rest of the 90 minute set. Rodrigo said that Brazilian entertainers want the drums up in the mix, so I guess the technicians thought it would be the same for Wes. The production company brought the pedal steel seat about halfway through the performance but Neil said it was so “rickety” that he was afraid to use it and just sat on the case for the entire show.
Wes brought Rodrigo up on stage with one of his musicians (the one who plays the spoons) and they sang one song with him. The audience loved that! When the show was over, Wes was really frustrated because he said he had not been able to hear himself the entire set. The other guys also admitted to having problems. The only way to “fix” this in the future is for the U.S. artist to bring their own FOH and Monitor guys with them…which will have to happen next year. Not sure we’ll be back next year since the original owner has now partnered with new ownership and neither one of them attended tonight’s performance.
Since we were the final performer, the guys packed up and we departed for the hotel. I told Rodrigo not to meet us at 6 am but that I needed to know what to do if the van wasn’t large enough to hold all the equipment, luggage and people. He assured me that it would be and that he had talked to the van driver. From past experience, I really didn’t have much confidence in that. I assumed the only solution would be to call taxis but he was confident our vehicle would be adequate. We told everyone good-bye and thanked them for their hospitality. I felt bad that no one even touched the catering food.
By the time I showered and packed up, it was 1:30 am. Set the alarm for 4:30 am and grabbed a few hours sleep.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 4TH – SAO PAULO TO NASHVILLE:
After what seemed like 20 minutes, the alarm went off. I was the first one in the lobby and was happy to see the van parked outside on the street. He pulled up when the guys started coming down and then the problems began. Not only was the van smaller, there was absolutely no space in the back behind the seats for luggage/equipment. The seats went all the way to the back door and a row had not been taken out as promised. I messaged Rodrigo who said he had told the van driver last night what to bring. The only thing we could do was lift the heavy road cases into the seats – a 65 pound steel guitar and several guitar road cases plus our personal bags. I told them not to stack anything above the seat height because if the driver made a sudden stop (which has happened every ride), one might fly forward and hit someone in the head. By the time we got everything inside the vehicle, the guys were sitting elbow to elbow for the one hour drive to the airport.
We did have one “casualty” this morning and the guys had to go to his room and wake him up and pack his bags for him. I was seriously worried he would sober up before our flight and knew that they would deny him boarding if he appeared intoxicated. Fortunately, we would have a couple of hours before boarding for them to get coffee down him.
The driver dropped us off at Arrivals instead of Departures but at least it appeared to be the correct Terminal. We had to find an elevator to go upstairs but didn’t go far enough up and ended up on the wrong level. Finally found our way to the Delta check-in counter and that was the easiest part of the day so far. We had about an hour before the flight boarded so the guys went to eat and I went to find souvenirs for the family. I had a few minutes to go into the Lounge but had a hard time finding it as there doesn’t appear to be a “Delta” Lounge. I asked someone in another Lounge and they said it was the American Airlines Lounge – which did not seem right to me. When I went there, it was closed and wasn’t going to open for another hour and a half. I saw a sign for American Express Lounge so went in there and was able to make my “Half Caf” coffee and get some caffeine in me!
The flight boarded on time and we all made it on the plane. I had checked the pedal steel again and both it and my personal bag were showing as “loaded on the plane”…which obviously doesn’t mean anything. This aircraft is one of the older ones – not like the newer one we had going to Sao Paulo. Not sure why it would be different since usually the aircraft are all the same for a route.
I was able to sleep for about 4 hours and then work for a while – without WiFi. My T-Mobile account includes free WiFi on most flights including Delta. Until Delta announced that they were going to offer free WiFi to all passengers later in the year, I never had an issue. Now, my only option is to pay $25 per flight. I’ve been doing that but finally took time this weekend to call T-Mobile and ask them “why”. They were as confused as I was but said they would have to look into it. I’m going to call Delta when I get back to Nashville and see if they can explain. I do have free messaging and don’t get a lot of emails on Sunday so will just wait until we land in Atlanta to check emails.
We won’t have a long layover in Atlanta and will have to clear immigration, pick up bags, clear customs, recheck bags, go through security and go to the gate. If we land on time, we should be able to just make it for our connection. I don’t usually book connections this short but the alternative would not get us home until almost midnight.
We landed on time but received a message that our flight to Nashville was delayed. Guess we don’t have to worry about the short connection any more. All our bags made it to Atlanta and I had a few minutes to go to the Lounge. I stopped at Starbucks for a Matcha Green Tea Latte. There was only one person in line in front of me but it took 20 minutes to get my order. Evidently most people pre-ordered on their Apps. Only had a few minutes to go into the lounge and sort of wish I hadn’t bothered. It was packed with no where to sit. I finally found one seat but there were no outlets to plug in any devices – my whole purpose for going in there. I left and went to sit at the gate where there were also no seats.
I checked the “where’s my plane” on my Delta App and it actually landed in Atlanta at 8:00 pm. The gate agent announced that they were waiting on the pilots to arrive from another flight. Hopefully it won’t be delayed again. f
We finally boarded the flight a little after 10 pm – an hour later than the original boarding time. We sat there for about 20 minutes and then the pilot came out and said that when they were doing their “check list”, they noticed that a bulb was blown in the altitude light and we couldn’t fly without it. He said maintenance was going to come on the plane, get the bulb and then go try to find a replacement one. That didn’t sound very encouraging to me. About 30 minutes later, the pilot came back on and said “Well, that didn’t work. They couldn’t find a bulb. But the good news is, I misspoke. There are actually two lights for the altitude and we can fly with only one and the other one is working just fine”. Well, that sort of freaked me out but I kept my mouth shut.
We took off 1 ½ hours later than scheduled and arrived Nashville at around 11 pm. Not ONCE while we were sitting on the flight did the flight attendants ask if anyone wanted any water or anything else to drink…not even in first class. Not really surprised since the service from Delta has declined drastically since COVID…although their revenue has increased significantly.
I am so glad I was able to attend the event this year. I learned a lot. Rodrigo took great care of us. The festival staff and the audience were happy with the performance and Wes and his guys had a great experience.
So happy to be home for THREE WEEKS!
Jude