David Freeman Music

It's kind of rare that I pull up to a hotel in Atlanta and say, "Hmm, I've never played here before."  And yet there I was last night at the Sheraton Gateway (which is immediately south of the airport, kind of tucked in between the park and ride and the 5th runway) for a trio gig with Kevin Smith (bass) and Kenny Banks Jr (keyboard). This one was supposed to go 5:30-9, but nothing happened at 5:30, so we waited and eventually things started getting cranked up at 6.  We did an hour and a half in the pre function area (nice natural reverb), then took about a half hour for speeches, toasts, and us to move our gear into the ballroom, and then we played another hour.  No sweat. Here's the audio.  We tried a new tune of mine, titled Angel with a Tail .  When Reggie died in June, the  emergency vet sent us a condolences card.  In it was one of Reggie's paw prints with that inscription.  Long live the Reggie Dog!  We approached the tun...

Yacht Rock is staying really busy…this past weekend being no exception. Friday:  we played at Paris on Ponce for a Cystic Fibrosis benefit.  I think I've finally figured out how to get from the front door to the stage without getting lost.  Things were so much better when you could drive up to the doors next to the stage! This room has its charms;  stage lighting is not one of them!  It's really dark, even more so when you're wearing sunglasses.  Honorable mention:  the phone booth of a dressing room, which also serves as a passage for servers between the kitchen and the room.  It also houses a toilet and sink, and we had to fight off people who were presumably too lazy to walk to the real restrooms. Mark Cobb debuted his new/vintage Tequila Sunrise Vistalite drums.  You can read about them here .  Very cool looking.  We picked them up in NYC on our last trip--the seller delivered them from Montreal. Other fun:  ...

Yacht Rock was at the Variety Playhouse Saturday night for our annual performance of Michael Jackson's  Thriller . Due to the Little 5 Points Halloween Parade, we had to come up Euclid from Inman Park instead of Moreland, and then beg our way through multiple checkpoints, and then avoid several pedestrians.  Somehow, we all squeezed through before the cops shut everything down. So…we sold out the Variety!  Yay!  Very cool.  Our opening set was ten early 90s pop tunes (Bell Biv DeVoe, Janet Jackson, Color Me Badd, etc).  Not my favorite music by any means!  We nailed it though, mostly because Nick made insanely good tracks to which we played along for every song.  We couldn't have pulled it off without them. There were a few technical glitches--we got a little off on Miss You Much (the phrase going into the chorus section is longer than normal);  Bencuya's Fantom (keyboard) rebooted a couple of times mid-show (which is always terr...

Yacht Rock was on the road this past weekend.  Lots of driving in the rain, almost raining, or recently stopped raining.  We also played shows in Falls Church, VA (Washington DC area), New York City, Annapolis, and Charlotte. Wednesday:  We drove all afternoon and night (in the rain) to get to Arlington, VA, where we camped for the night in a hotel.  Arriving around 1 AM, we just missed witnessing a hit pedestrian on the opposite street corner. Thursday:  More rain, so we spent the day hanging out until our show at the State Theatre in Falls Church, VA. I think this was our best crowd at the State Theatre--maybe 150 people?  It looked decently full for a Thursday night with crappy weather. I opened my sax case to find that the screw that holds the bottom of my EWI on had fallen off.  Great!  Gaff tape to the rescue, and hopefully everything holds together until I can get home.  My tenor also felt stuffy, like I was only get...

The gigs continue!  Here's this weekend's recap: Friday:    Yacht Rock had a benefit gig at Greystone in Piedmont Park.  It's one of the more difficult venues we've played recently;  load in requires driving into the middle of the park (and then getting back out to park somewhere), and the room at Greystone is not what you'd call "acoustically friendly." Piedmont Park sent us a PDF with a map and the code to get into the park, this time we entered from Park Avenue (crossing the bridge over the dog park).  Over the park and around the lake to Greystone is no problem, but once you unload your gear, where do you park?  The parking garage is almost out of the question because you would have to drive back to Monroe, then go a block down the street to the road with the parking deck, park, and then walk quite a way back.  Instead, I opted to leave my truck in the neighborhood just outside the park on the other side of the bridge. The room at Greyst...