David Freeman Music

Tonight was the Rolling Stones tribute band, known as "Let's Get Stoned," at the 10 High.  For a first gig, it went very well.  We had some small errors, but we made it through the gig without any deaths, and we had lots of good moments. For me, the gig was cool for two things.  First, (the awesome) Mark Cobb.  Tonight he was awesome because he was pushing and pulling on the beat in a couple of tunes, and I thought it was cool because he was doing it on purpose! , massaging the time ever so slightly back and forth but never losing control.  So impressive.  Mark Cobb is awesome. I also really dug standing next to Fred McNeal, who really played the hell out of his guitars tonight.  He was so cool and so authentically rock and roll.  No crap from him--he knows the music so well, and his performance was right on target.  I started paying attention to him more last night at the rehearsal, and he really impressed me tonight. Yacht Rock is in ...

I was fortunate to play a trio gig last night with Tyrone Jackson and Kevin Smith.  It was supposed to be a four hour gig, but when we started at 6 PM, someone came rushing in from the other room and said that they were rehearsing for a big presentation and we would not be able to play until 7 PM.  No problem;  we can wait.  We played an hour, took a fifteen minute break, played an hour, and took a fifteen minute break. When we returned to play the last half hour (9:30-10 PM), the client said, "Great job.  You guys are finished."  Evidently, no one told us the event was ending at 9:30!  So...our gig ended up being only two and a half hours. I tried to record again last night, but once again my recorder failed me.  It did not record the first set, and the second set was only half the stereo mix.  I think I've gotten my money's worth out of my old recorder.  Methinks it might be about time to upgrade. Anyway, here's what I did get: ...

Friday night Yacht Rock played in Nashville at the Mercy Lounge , opening for Space Capone .  The show was sold out--we've come a long way from our first gig in that room, which had maybe a hundred people, most of whom seemed to confused by us. The gig was good.  No disasters to report.  It was really hot with all those people in there, and super loud--my amp could not keep up with the volume. We spent the night (as always) at the Best Western on Music Row.  Pick's (the dive bar next to the lobby) was quite a scene at 3 AM. I have a busy week coming up.  See you on the other side. davidfreemanmusic.net

Last night Yacht Rock played our usual gig at the 10 High.  Not much to report from a band perspective--it was business as usual, and business was good.   Ganesh played drums, but Mark Cobb sat in on most of the first set. For me, last night was the debut of my new (used) keyboard, a Roland Fantom X6.  I had no problems, other than one of my sounds did not have much attack, so I changed it.  Ooo...I was showing Dannells all the splits I'd set up, and somehow I changed the tuning of the entire keyboard!  Yikes!  Right before we started, I turned if off and turned it on again and things were fine. Even better than the new keyboard was the Marshall cabinet behind my gear.  Last night I put my amp up there, and it changed the gig!  All of the sudden, I could hear my saxophone on stage.  For previous gigs it was down on the floor in the corner, and when I went out to play a solo it was very quiet.  If I tried to turn it up, it would fe...

Saturday, July 3, I played a set with the Schooner in LaGrange, approximately seventy miles south of Atlanta.  From what I heard, we played for someone's twenty-fifth birthday.  All I know was that it was in somebody's backyard, and the house and yard were Southern Living immaculate. We debuted two new songs-- Diamond  Girl  and Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do).   Both were a little shakey, but for a first attempt in public, they went fine.  I did my part, botching the solo on Arthur's .  As is usual with the Schooner, all my stuff was in the first set, so I got back home around the time they finished the gig. I went to bed around 1-1:30 AM and got up at 5 AM.  We ( Yacht Rock ) had to be in Piedmont Park at 6 AM to load for the Peachtree Road Race.  We played as the crowds finished the race and the awards were finished, approximately 8:30 AM til 11 AM. It was a terrific gig (other than the time frame!).  The sound was t...

There's a lot going on this week/weekend, and I'm right in the middle of it. Wednesday night, we played Please Pleaserock Me , which if you don't know is the Yacht Rock guys (plus Jason Pellett on trumpet) playing Beatles stuff and songs from their solo records.  It's pretty fun.  The gig is really easy for me...basically, I have horn section charts and we just read 'em down.  For some reason, I couldn't really get me head into what we were doing.  It wasn't disinterest so much as the blahs.  The gig went fairly well, and we had a decent crowd. Thursday night was the  Yacht Rock Revue at the 10 High--our usual Thursday nighter.  The place was packed, which is always nice! I still had the blahs heading into this one.  The first few songs were a little "are we really playing?"  Mentally, I had not yet arrived.  Thus, I missed the return to the intro on Grease .  Nice.  It took about half a set to find a groove. Ganesh G...

Wow!  Another amazing night playing with my friends.   Tyrone Jackson on keyboard, Kevin Smith on bass, and Marlon Patton on drums. Tonight we tried a new tune of mine (twice). Here's the audio: Here's a few photos of the very hip backdrop: davidfreemanmusic.net

Yacht Rock played a gig last night at The Loft on West Peachtree (part of the Center Stage/Vinyl complex).  I'd never played there before (I played a sad little solo sax gig out front years ago), so I was excited to see the inside.  The Loft, it turns out, is a big concrete bunker--not a great room at all.  It makes me wonder why the front of house added so much reverb on everything when we were basically playing in a cave. The gig was for Have a Heart Foundation .  While we were setting up, a few speakers told their stories to the audience.  It was pretty incredible stuff.  While I was plugging stuff in, a woman told of how her son died in the hospital and gave away his organs (and he helped something like thirty people because of it).  The next lady got up and said that she was walking around with THAT GUY'S HEART!  Wow.  Amazing! The sound on stage was not very good.  I don't know if it was because of all the concrete or the fact...

Last night was extra exciting for me--it was my big debut playing Lonely Boy with the A band.  Up til now I've only played it (twice) with the B band at Wild Wing Cafes way outside of the perimeter.  Since Nick was not there (Kevin Spencer subbing), we were able to add it to the set list.  It went really well, if I do say so myself!  The spot in the breakdown where'd I'd messed up last weekend came and went without a hitch (as we approached that part of the song, I was suddenly very aware of how much I was sweating!).  No problems, though.  I was pumped.  It was fun.   On saxophone, I had one of those "do no wrong" kind of nights.  My solo on Biggest Part of Me  was definitely one of the five best attempts I'd ever had at that song.  Everything I played sounded right and logical, and I had no technical hang ups.  I felt like I could have gone on another five minutes and still played meaningful stuff.  It was very cool....

Monday night I played with the Schooner on a gig for Sam Adams, brewer/patriot.  These gigs are super easy for me, because my only responsibility is to show up and play saxophone.  The Schooner guys pack all the sax songs into the first set, so I usually show and blow, and I'm home before the gig's over! Once again, I played very well with these guys backing me up.  I could hear really well, and I just went for it on every song.  It was really fun.  The band sounded really good.  Shannon Pengelly in particular played some really rippin' stuff, especially on the second solo on Peg.   Yeah, man! After my set, I stayed because they had free Sam Adams.  I drank at least a six pack.  I was very entertaining. davidfreemanmusic.net

I found this clip of us playing  Careless Whisper  at the Reagan Rock prom . Saturday night I played with the Yacht Rock Schooner (our b band), covering the second keyboard part as well as the sax/flute duties.  Also subbing in were Mark Bencuya and Greg Lee.  I asked Greg if it was difficult to sing without playing bass at the same time--I remember Sting saying that some songs are very difficult to perform if he is used to playing at the same time.  He said no--it was difficult to sing songs he's never sung before! Since it was the Schooner, we got to play Lonely Boy , which as you might know is one of my personal favorites.  It's a fun song to play, and I like the fact that I get to be an essential part of the band on that one. The usual mode of operations is for Bencuya to handle the most essential keyboard part;  I am am much better suited to string parts and things of that sort which cannot derail the band when I suffer the inevitable d...