I'll Remember April

As live music begins to pick up momentum, it seems I'll have to go back to updating this blog more than once a month. Until that happens, thought...here's what happened in the month of April!

The first big live Yacht Rock gig of the year was to be in Orlando on April 10, performing at the Hops and Hogs Festival at the Central Florida Fairgrounds. We were all curious about playing for people instead of cars, and maybe what sort of a risk we'd be taking as the COVID stuff begins to recede. 

The fairgrounds has a nice stage and plenty of room for social distancing! Maybe it was too early to expect to see much of a crowd. I mean, look at all those people! We were stuck in an afternoon lineup between several southern rock bands (the collective love-children of Lynyrd Skynrd and Warrant) and Sugar Ray. Uhh, ok. 

Unfortunately(?), a vicious line of the thunderstorms came racing across the state. The winds started blowing gear around, and there was a rumor of a tornado--Old Testament, real wrath-of-God type stuff! The officials told the audience to leave immediately, and we packed in a hurry.

Check out the tarp above Pete's head in the picture. Things escalated quickly.

And, there was this guy...

Our first gig back was cancelled, and we weren't disappointed. We got as far a setting up some gear, and it was over--put it all back in the trailer and send it back home. And would you believe that it never actually stormed! There was light rain around 10 PM, but that was it.

The following Monday afternoon, we recorded a lifestream for a private client. Easy stuff. I think it was an hour long. This felt like a good tune up gig. No pressure. I honestly remember nothing about playing this one.

That Saturday, we returned to Florida. Our gig was at an actual yacht club(!) in Ft. Lauderdale.

Plenty of room on our flight.

This place had a really nice outdoor set up with a large covered patio for us to set up under. As you can see by the pictures, the weather was much more polite than Orlando's temper tantrum.

Easy private gig. 

The following week had the Ladies of Soul lifestream show. As before, I overdubbed horn sections after they'd recorded the "live" stuff.

A few days later, we were back in Florida AGAIN!!! This time, we played the first night of the Moon Crush Festival in Miramar Beach/Destin. 

Lots of down time before this one (several of us drove down the day before the gig). I laid around in my hotel room, went for a run, and ate this crappy pizza. Options were limited.

This show was fun. The entire crew was made up of familiar faces from Atlanta venues and cruise ship gigs, and it was nice to start working normally with so many friends around. We had perfect weather, and I from what I could tell, the festival had a good turnout.

It was a beautiful gig, and I played great. 

The drive back to Atlanta was long, though. Five or six hours in the van is a lot.

The final show of the month was night one of a two night stand at The Fred in Peachtree City, about forty-five minutes south of Atlanta. 

I enjoy this place--it's a nice, big stage, the crowds are good, the sound is clean, and you get to go back to your house at the end of it.

In other news, I worked on two transcriptions that I took off Instagram, both by Ryan Devlin. The first is a single chorus over the chords of I Got Rhythm.

The second is a gig video of Ryan playing some wild stuff over Cedar Walton's Bolivia (the video starts early in the B section).

I also continued recording at home. Here's some sax stuff I recorded for a couple of friends.

 

 

What's in May? Night two of Peachtree City, a stage performance of Nine (the musical), Charleston, St. Augustine (Florida AGAIN!), and a casino in Lake Charles.