Damnit! I once again failed to keep the blog up to date. My musical life jumped into hyperspeed, and I've just been trying to keep up. Here's a recap:
Thursday, April 21: Night one of a two night stand at Venkman's. This one was pretty good for me. We added Whenever I Call You Friend (as seen in the picture below), and it went pretty well. It's a relief that the sax solo was pretty easy to get into my head (unlike Cool Change, which I can never quite nail at the gig); the string part is pretty simple, too, but it's fun to play. I guess it doesn't take much brain power for me to make it happen, so it's almost like having a song off in the middle of the gig.
Friday, April 22: Night two at Venkman's. Cody Madlock subbed on guitar for Monkeyboy and did a good job. It's fun to have subs on this gig--they hear the music differently than the main guy does, so you hear some little cool part that you usually don't get. Other times, it's just that they phrase something differently, or they find some little thing that they think is important, so they kind of lean into that a little more.
Venkman's is a fun gig.
Saturday, April 23: We played an anniversary party for a real estate company in the middle of Buckhead. It was a nice, easy gig, good weather, not far from home. All the stuff.
It was possibly tacos from this very food truck that upset Nick's delicate tummy, and he threatened to barf on everything, but was able to pull himself together for the show.
Friday, April 29: Just after lunch, we loaded up the vans and headed over to Birmingham, Alabama to play the Avondale Brewery. This place used to be just kind of ok; the stage was kind of small, there was too much direct sunlight during summer load-ins, the green room was far away (you had to walk through the crowd to get on and off the stage). It just wasn't particularly great. Well guess what...they improved everything!
In other news, Pretty Woman was on the TV in the green room, playing on repeat. It's even more stupid than I remember. Avoid it if you can.
Also, Nick had an upset stomach again, and made it through the gig before barfing in the green room. He did not make it back for the encore.
This was a crazy, big money birthday party. I am told that we played the birthday girl's daughter's wedding. Seems plausible. Pretty crazy set up. We were one of two bands, plus an a cappella group from the University of Memphis.
Memphis! My home town! Other famous Memphis natives (besides me): Morgan Freeman (no relation), Justin Timberlake, Lisa Marie Presley, Kathy Bates, Issac Hayes, Aretha Franklin, Tim McCarver, everybody from Stax Records (Duck Dunn, Steve Cropper, Al Jackson, Booker T), and Cybil Sheppard.
Somehow, I managed to slip into and out of town without anyone noticing me.
Here's another shot of the place where we played. It fits the bill of "old southern country club," doesn't it?
It started a little slow for us (also, we had terrible trouble ordering food for dinner, and ended up with some crappy pizza), but this gig was pretty OK. We didn't have Nick, so we had to shuffle the set list and it took some time for the crowd to finally find up, but all in all, not too bad.
We flew home the next morning. Nobody at the airport recognized me.
Monday, May 2--Wednesday, May 4: Yacht Rock set aside some time to actually rehearse! Usually, we cram things in at soundcheck, but this was an opportunity to try stuff, talk about stuff, and take our time figuring some things out. We added Ventura Highway, Don't Bring Me Down, and Under Pressure, and changed the way we end She's Gone.
In the evenings, I wrote my last three Christmas arrangements for the John Hopkins Christmas record and handed them in to the arranger (and if that sounds weird--that I wrote arrangements and sent them off to another arranger so that he could arrange them some more--it is weird). Anyway, my part's done! I wrote some good stuff that'll maybe make it onto the record, and at some point, I guess I'll get called in to help record the arrangements that the other guy wrote based on the arrangements that I wrote. Right?
Anyway, here a couple of highlights:
Thursday, May 5: I played a concert in Lawrenceville, GA with the Atlanta Latin Jazz Orchestra. Getting to Lawrenceville by 5 PM from my house was difficult. It took an hour and a half. Traffic was awful.
The gig was fun, though! I enjoyed hanging with other horn players and playing some different music.
Friday, May 6: Yacht Rock flew to Ft. Lauderdale to play a birthday party--our agent must be working really hard to make this our new niche!
We played at a club called Revolution, a venue we've hit a few times for public gigs. The rented gear was pretty decent.
This room is naturally pretty dark, and early on in the gig , the lighting guy hit some button and turned off all the stage lights, and then it took maybe two minutes before he could fix that, and we just kept chugging along through Somebody's Baby.
The rest of the gig was standard fare. Nothing more to report.
They had pyrotechnics for the end of our set, and nobody told us. Monkeyboy was freaked out about it.
Saturday, May 7: We got up and flew back to Atlanta to play a wedding reception in town.
Again, no big deal. The usual stuff. Good crowd for this one--they were enthusiastic without being obnoxious (though one lady gave us the finger and refused to dance to a Steely Dan song).
Notable moments: Nick played bass at soundcheck (including a blues jam) because Greg was late doing family stuff; we played September by Earth, Wind, and Fire, punching yet another number on our cover-band-bingo-cards.
P.S. Maurice White of Earth, Wind, and Fire is from Memphis.
Sunday, May 8: We got up and flew back to Florida! Of course! This time, we landed in Orlando to play the House of Blues there.
Orlando, another home town of sorts. Here I am, prodigal son of Central Florida, and just like Memphis, nobody recognized me. My ego is bruised. Other Orlando people? N Sync; the Backstreet Boys; Zora Neale Hurston; Mandy Moore (same middle school as me); Shaq (for a while); Wayne Brady. Not as impressive a list.
Fun gig! I gave it my all, just in case any of my old friends were out there in the crowd judging me.
This gig featured an impromptu version of Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin' after we got a little carried away by a blues jam while Nick was telling a story.
Monday, May 9: Off to Miami we go. It looks to be lovebug season.
Ahh, Miami, another former residence of mine as a youngster, though for a shorter time than Orlando or Memphis. How about famous people who went to the same high school (Miami Palmetto Senior High) that I attended? Jeff Bezos; Ketanji Brown Jackson; Tim Hardaway Jr.; a bunch of other people you've never heard of. Needless to say, I will not be in the Miami Palmetto Hall of Fame...probably because I'm not a graduate. No fond memories of this place.
Anyway, this gig was in Miami Beach, not Miami. I was thinking after The Beach Boys Cruise that when people think of Miami, in their minds they picture Miami Beach (Art Deco, pastels, the beach), whereas Miami really looks more like strip shopping centers, canals, and lots of beat up one story cinderblock houses with overgrown landscaping.
The gig was at the Fountainbleu (one fancy place), and then our hotel rooms were next door at another fancy place. Check out the view from my room!
The beach.
This gig was for an insurance company. Easy stuff, great weather, no big deal. I enjoyed it.
And then we flew home on Tuesday...but we fly back to Florida on Thursday...stay tuned!
Last, but not least, here's a new video demonstrating some of my Eb clarinet playing. Enjoy!
