A New Year's Eve gig never materialized for the Yacht Rock Revue, but I ended up working anyway, subbing for my friend Bryan Lopes in the Rupert's Orchestra. They had a NYE wedding in Alabama that night, and Lopes tested positive for COVID earlier in the week and had to sit it out. The horns and rhythm section in the band have been the same for the last twenty-five years, so this was also a great opportunity to catch up with several colleagues with whom I hadn't played in five or six years.
Look at this feast! Obviously their rider is not on the same level as the YRR demands. I peeled the turkey off a few of those sandwiches and ate lettuce, bread, and tomato. I also had a bag of cheetos and two cookies. And a water. It was sad.
Kevin kept an eye the Georgia game from behind the stage on songs with no horns.
I've subbed in Rupert's since the mid-ninties, and at this point, I think I've seen every chart they play with any frequency. This Dancing Queen chart, I'm sure I've read it sixty times at this point. We also played several other Rupert's regulars (September, Get Down Tonight, Respect, Midnight Train to Georgia) as well as some newer stuff that I haven't encountered in the last ten years (the Taylor Swift stuff, the Maroon 5 stuff, the Bruno Mars stuff). All good! I really enjoyed getting back to my roots, so to speak, playing saxophone, reading charts in a horn section.
Anyway, it was fun, and I crushed it, if I do say so myself! At midnight, I FaceTimed my wife as we played Auld Lang Sine, the gig ended, and I was on the road back to Atlanta ten minutes later.
One last Christmas video I made is my arrangement of John Lennon's Happy Xmas (War is Over). Check out the bari duet, but also, enjoy that organ playing! Yeeeeeeaaaaaahhhhh.
