Keepin' Busy

Let me fill you in on what's been happening…

Friday:  Another installment of Please Pleaserock Me at Smith's Olde Bar.  For this one, we went up against the Main Street Exiles (Rolling Stones tribute).  They were ok;  we were good.  I think we won!  It was (as usual) an easy night for me.  I probably spent as much time drinking beer and taking pictures as I did on stage.  Still fun, though!  Paul Poovey on trumpet with us.  He played very well, as did Dannell's brand new awesome guitar (P90s are sweet).

If you're lonely you can talk to Wheat.  Hell yeah.

Saturday:  Yacht Rock played a birthday party in Athens at the Hotel Indigo.  This one took a while to get going.  It seemed like there were probably only fifty people in attendance…kind of a strange gig for us.  Still, they were into it.  The stage was really small but acoustically very dead, so the sound was good, though Dannells' P90s were a bit noisy.  He's thinking about switching them out for some noiseless P90s.

Bencuya's Fantom is starting to do that same thing that mine does--loose knobs are making adjustments to the sound parameters on their own!  Not cool.  Roland needs to talk to us about it.  Mine has actually been behaving a bit better recently.  I would still like to have a technician go in there and make sure everything's cool, since my go-to repair is to press hard on the knobs.

I think I'm giving up on the synthetic reed idea.  I tried a still harder tenor reed, and it still didn't feel good.  I tried a harder alto reed, too, and though it didn't choke like the softer one, it felt weird, too.  There's something about the resistance and feedback that doesn't feel quite right.   I wonder if it's something I could get used to?  Dunno.  For now, I'm going to stick with cane.

We had some sort of wiring issue with the van--smoking wires in the left tail light.  Hmm.

Sunday:  We got back into town from Athens very early in the morning, unloaded the van, and went our separate ways.  By the time I had unpacked my gear at home and packed my gear for my church gig, it was 5 AM.  I was up at 7, and at my gig at 8.  We played two services.

I was asleep again at 1 PM and up at 5 PM--out the door at 6 PM to play my church gig.  It dawned on me that most of what I'd said to Jack in the past four days was "Goodbye.  I'm going to work again."

I got home from church gig number two, ate, hung out for a little bit, and then learned a couple of songs for a Monday morning rehearsal.

Monday:  Yacht Rock had a rehearsal this morning, checking out a couple of Walter Egan songs (he of Magnet and Steel fame).  He's going to sit in with us this coming weekend.  Pretty cool, huh?  We also checked out a song we need for a wedding this coming weekend and a Fleetwood Mac song.  No Bencuya on this rehearsal--cool for me because it gave me the opportunity to try and grab some of his parts.  It was a good challenge.  When we hit these on the gig I'll be back to one note string parts.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Happy Endings Night

Yacht Rock played the 10 High last night.  We billed it as "Happy Endings Night"--the usual songs, but probably with mangled endings.  Once we got on stage, I don't think we were that interested in the endings;  maybe we were ONLY focused on the endings.  Whatever…Bencuya was recording, and I think we felt pressured to come up with something funny, but couldn't quite do it.

I had a pretty good night;  I even made it halfway through the first song before I remembered that the recorder was there!  The entire night I would forget about it, remember it, forget about, remember it…or play well, play well, play well, screw up, remember the recorder, beat myself up for the rest of the song, forget it, play well, play well, play well, brain fart!  That kind of thing.

I got my pedal a little closer to sounding good.  Here's a comparison of the sax thing in Reminiscing (the original and then us).  I have the harmony programmed into it.  This is the best it has sounded.

 Reminsc comparison by David B Freeman

Not too shabby!  In making that little demo, I noticed that I'm playing a wrong note in the strings.  Oops.

Here's my solo…

 Reminiscing solo by David B Freeman

I screwed up the intro to My Life.  Spaced out for a second.

We premiered Whatever Gets You Through the Night tonight.  I should have recorded myself at soundcheck…I could been the stunt double for Lenny Pickett!  On the gig, though, I sucked real bad.  Too many weird notes.  For instance, the end of the opening solo, I didn't land on the down beat on a G like I was supposed to, so I played an E and then a G, just…dumb stuff.  The whole song went like that. I wanted to nail it, but I couldn't quite get my playing to line up.

On Heart of Rock and Roll, some of my harmony stuff worked and some did not.  What I'm finding out with programming my effects pedal (I think) is that I have to chop the EQ to keep the harmonizer from trying to harmonize stage noise.  Makes sense.

Here's the sax solo and some of the harmony part:

 Heart of Rock and Roll (sax solo) by David B Freeman

In the second set, we played Pina Colada super fast…like it was a samba.  The crowd did not like it.

What else, what else…I think I was OK on everything else.  I went back to a conventional reed tonight on alto instead of the synthetic, which was starting to feel too soft.  The Fibracells are great, but you've definitely got to up an entire number (if you play 3's, order 4's!).  The alto reed I've been playing is great, but it chokes when I really lean into it.

Beatles tonight at Smith's, then back to Yacht Rock on Saturday!

davidfreemanmusic.net

Quartet gig!

I was fortunate enough to hire three of my favorite musicians for a quartet gig last night.  Tyrone Jackson, Kevin Smith, and Marlon Patton were awesome.  Great gig!

Here's the audio.  The sound file from the first set malfunctioned (the file was there and had a large size, but when I would open it there was nothing there), so I only have the stuff from the second and third sets.  Good stuff.  Check out Tyrone's solo on Back Where I Belong, or Marlon's crazy Chris Dave-delayed-backbeat thing behind the bass solo on the same tune (or all the stuff Tyrone was coming up with behind the bass solo!).  How do they keep coming up with this stuff?



We were supposed to be background music, but a fair number of people congregated around the band to listen, sitting on the floor and applauding after each song.  Yikes!  Marlon suggested at one point that I should introduce the band.

More of these, please!

davidfreemanmusic.net

Tales from the Weekend

I'm finally back near my computer long enough to update my blog…

Thursday:  10 High.  It was an ok night all the way around.  The crowd was thin and ambivalent;  not the inspiring throng we seem to need these days to really put on a killer show.  Things were fine, but nothing important springs to mind.

Friday:  Park Tavern.  Sold out show--Christmas in July/80s night!  This was a good show.  It was obviously packed, and that made it fun.  It's kind of crazy how excited people get about seeing us perform at this point.  You'd think that the majority of people who come to our shows have seen us and like us and they enjoy it, but these people get kind of weird about how MUCH they dig it.  People standing at the front of the stage appeared to be on the verge of insanity.

It Christmas, so we did a few Christmas tunes.  That was fine.  I failed (for the however many time in a row) to pick up my saxophone before we started Dick in a Box, which left me desperately looking for a chance through most of the song.  Stoooopid.

I've been trying out Fibracell Premier reeds on alto and tenor--I'm looking for a good synthetic reed for playing this gig, since I'm only playing saxophone a couple of times in each set.  It's never fun to try and play on a reed that looks like a Ruffles potato chip!  The alto reed I've got is pretty good;  I'm going to try and go up one strength to see if I can keep it from choking when I overblow (I could just NOT overblow, too, but that's easier said that done).  The tenor reed I tried didn't work well--it was a little too soft, and all the altissimo went all over the place on it.  I was fighting it by the end of the first set.  I'm also going up on that one.  I usually use Javas, and I think the comparative Fibracells are probably a whole number softer (so  my #3 Java needs a #4 Fibracell).  We'll see.  Part of my suckitude on Biggest Part of Me was the aforementioned crappy tenor reed.  The rest was me.

What else, what else…my effects pedal is still in need of tweaking.  We played Heart of Rock and Roll, and the harmony parts got weird on me.  I think the harmony voices were routed through the slap delay (well, I know they were…I think that might be why it sounded weird).  Gotta fix that.  The thing sounds great by itself so I feel like it's going to work, but the added wrinkle of the stage volume changes things up.

Saturday:  wedding in Davidson, North Carolina.  This was a real snoozer!  Ever play a wedding where it was half old people and half people the age of the bride and groom, and neither is happy with the other's music choices?  It was that kind of thing.  Eventually the old people left and the party got rolling, but it was a tough sell.

I had some suckiness on Steal Away…my new version of the piano part bit me in the butt repeatedly.  My solo on Biggest Part of Me was not good either (and I couldn't blame the reed).  The piano playing was better, though!

Sunday:  we drove home from Davidson.  I drove; the band slept;  Nick iPadded.

Sunday night, I had a flute and guitar duo with Dan Baraszu.  Dan and I played a duo gig at Ventanas.  It was sold as "classical flute and guitar."  I brought my flute and my duet music.  Dan determined that sight reading a bunch of classical stuff would not do it for him, so we kind of "classicalized" jazz tunes.  Nobody could tell the difference.  It was fun!  I've been playing stuff with Dan for about fifteen years.  He still kicks my butt. I should be ready for it by now.

Some audio:



Monday:  rehearsal for this coming weekend.  Yacht Rock has a Beatles show this Friday night at Smith's Olde Bar, so we went over a few new tunes.  My personal favorite is Whatever Gets You Through the Night.  Not a great song, but it does have that great 70s NYC vibe to it--sounds like old Saturday Night Live stuff to me (the video helps reinforce this).



Something makes me think this could be a big one for us.  It just feels so good, and it felt really good when we played it at rehearsal.  I bet if the crowd gets us going, this one could explode.  Mark Cobb can really make it go.  I love this song right now.

We're also working on writing some originals.  I've never done any kind of collective writing thing.  It's very weird.  I take it this is how bands generally write material.  For my stuff, I can hear the song in my head, so I go and find it, write it down, and then turn it over to the band to interpret/fix it.  Having a room full of guys just kind of chew on an idea seems foreign.  Trying stuff and screwing around start to feel like the same thing.  I guess things are progressing, though little is written down or recorded, so I wonder how much we are starting over from week to week.  Everybody else seems pretty satisfied, so I guess I'm doing ok at it.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Church and the 4th of July

So…no gigs this past weekend!  Weird.  I was kind of hoping that I would pick something up, but in the end it was nice to not have to think about running off to a gig for a couple of nights.  Instead, I practiced my stuff that I will need to know this coming week.

I did, however, play both my church gigs.  The first gig was supposed to be rocking with V-Drums by now, but the pastor decided not to spend the money.  "Tell him [the drummer] to play softer."  I guess that works too.

Church gig number two had a bad piano microphone that kept shorting out (and clipping) during the opening hymn.  I swapped the cable, but it still crackled.  I swapped channels, but it still crackled.  I unplugged it and put a handheld microphone directly on the soundboard--no crackles.  Hooray for me.

Yacht Rock showed up at Piedmont Park to play the Peachtree Road Race finish line again this year.  Once again, the people controlling the event did not have it together (it being their shit).  The first person I came up against (blocking the road) could not find my name or Yacht Rock on his list, so I was not allowed through--I had to make a big loop through Virginia Highland.  I doubled back and pulled up to a different guy who didn't even check his list--I said I was in the band and he said "Good luck!"  When I got down to 10th and Monroe (we were supposed to be allowed onto 10th to unload behind the stage), I was rejected by another race volunteer who told me that all band stuff had to go to the Park Tavern parking lot (which means I would have to haul it halfway across the park).  I said I had all this equipment to unload, and she sent me to the Park Tavern (which also gave me the pleasure of trying to make a U turn at 10th and Monroe).  I pulled into the Park Tavern parking lot, loaded my cart, and then we got word that we COULD go to 10th to unload.  Everything back in the truck, drove around to 10th, unloaded, U turn on 10th, back to the Park Tavern parking lot, and walked back across the park to set up.

The gig itself was cool.  It sounded great (just like last year).  We were on a big stage which gave us enough separation so that nobody had to play loud.  It was very comfortable.  Also, hot.  I sat in the sun for much of it.  Boo.

The gig ended, we packed up, and hauled our gear across the park back to our cars (getting cars back onto 10 Street was impossible).  I went home, did some laundry, tried to figure out my effects pedal (my harmonies are getting garbled when the rest of the band bleeds into the mic), ate lunch, and headed to the Aquarium for our next gig of the day.

We got there at 4 PM.  It was super crazy hot--on the top floor of the Aquarium parking garage in a open sided tent.  Who's ever actually been up there?  Now I have.  We set up, and then the rains came, so we put tarps on everything and went and hid in the Aquarium.  Once the rain passed, the sound man determined that it was too risky to power up his gear because it was all soaked.  No PA, no band.  We were dispersed.

It was kind of a weird situation.  The skies actually were clear as we were loading out, and the sound guy had no remorse for killing the gig.  I'm not sure I'd be willing to possibly fry my gear either, but it would have been a little cooler if he'd tried to find some way to make the gig work.  After all, it's our reputation on the line, not his.  I'm sure people who came to see us didn't walk away complaining about the sound man--they complained because we didn't play.

On the other hand, why do people keep trying to do events outside in the middle of the summer in Atlanta?  The U2 set, the gig on the square in Marietta, this gig…all were hit with rain.  If it's not the rain, it's the oppressive heat.  Who wants to be outside in this?

Anyway…I made it home before the next line of thunderstorms came through.  Pete and Nick stayed behind to DJ the Aquarium (with iPods) so there'd be some kind of music.  They ended up using the Aquarium's in house PA (from Active Productions).  Uuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhh…

davidfreemanmusic.net

Thursday Night!

Yacht Rock played the 10 High last night.  How many weeks in a row now?  A whole lot.

I added/adjusted some of my parts this week, so I was looking forward to trying it all out.  First up:  Steal Away.  I had been playing it like this:

but I was talking Dustin Cottrell (one of the keyboardists in the Schooner) about the piano part, and he thought it sounded more like this:

After listening to it about a half dozen times, I started to hear what he was saying--there's so much stuff in the same register (strings, rhodes), I wasn't sure what I was hearing, but I think he's right.  Plus, when I reach up to add the synth on the chorus, I can reach up with my right hand (it's easier for me to play it right handed than left).  Brilliant!  So yay, another part closer to being right.

Another thing I was working on was that sax thing in Reminiscing ("Glenn Miller's band…").  I played it at soundcheck and it sounded the way I wanted it to.  Dannells gave it his seal of approval.  I have my sax turned down on stage, so I didn't hear it within the context of the song, but I bet it sounded pretty good!  My solo was ok.  I did something dumb to the string part, but it didn't clash harmonically (played the second half in place of the first).

Next up was another Dustin-aided adventure:  Biggest Part of Me.  Dustin showed me some of the extra chords that happen on the verse that I've never played.  Pretty cool.  It took me some time to get it happening in the context of the gig--I think because I can't quite think of the name of the chord as it's going by, so I'm thinking more about where my fingers go (and I'm kind of mesmerized by it!  I don't know why).  Cool.  I like having that part in there--gives my part some movement in the back half of the measure.

Old:

New:

Somewhere in the middle of the song, I felt something wet hit my chest/belly, and realized that I was drooling!  I was so focused on adding those extra chords, I had forgotten to close my mouth.  I took a quick glance at the band and a quick glance at the crowd, and it appeared that I got away with it.  Let's see Scott Sheriff do that!

Speaking of Biggest Part of Me…here's the sax stuff (and the piano and synth stuff I was doing, too).  When I played, I didn't feel good about the sax stuff at all, but listening back, it's not too bad (except for that one spot where my fingers got a little tangled up).  I mean, I'm not trying to string together ideas like it's a jazz solo as much as I'm trying to ride the wave of the band--keep the momentum surging.  Ganesh was really making some noise at the end!  Very cool.  I dig that for that part of the song.  I wish I could hear more organ when I'm playing to provide more of a foundation.  The guitar's not doing much to fill it up.

My apologies for the wrong chords backing the organ solo.  Oops.

 Biggest Part of Me by David B Freeman

Next up was Reelin' in the Years.  Here's what that sounded like from my spot.

 Reelin' in the Years by David B Freeman

Second set:

After opening with What a Fool Believes, we played Baby Come Back.  This might be my favorite song to play right now.  There's a lot going on.  I play strings, then acoustic piano on the verses, strings and clav on the choruses, and the synth and clav on the bridge.  I didn't do a good job of tapering the volume on the big synth bend up in the bridge, but other than that, I did well.

The last of my little mini-projects was on Somebody's Baby.  I had been playing this on the verse:

But I was watching a YouTube video of how to play Somebody's Baby (is that legal?), and he did this:

I like that better.  Again, it's just some movement for me within the chord.  I dig that.

The only other thing for the night was trying to add the little synth with delay thing that happens late in Lowdown.  I set the synth at the far left end of my keyboard.  It's tough to reach over with my left hand and play it while playing flute with my left hand (and I have to stay on the microphone).  Gotta figure that out.

After we finished, a DJ took over and segued into rap.  He was playing Regulate at one point and then went into I Keep Forgettin'.  I love that song.  I heard some stuff I'm not playing in the rhodes part.  Something to work on for the next time that song comes around!

All in all, it was a really fun night!  We played well and enjoyed each other.  More like this!

davidfreemanmusic.net

One for Grady

Yacht Rock played at the Grady Rock and Ride Festival on Saturday in downtown Atlanta.  They closed Peachtree (first time EVER!) and set up a stage in between Westin Peachtree Plaza and the Ritz.  It was one of those semi trailers that unfolds into a concert stage.

back of stage

backstage

The weather was good.  Actually, there was a nice breeze coming through that kept everything very comfortable, and we were in the shade because of the stage and the surrounding buildings.  If we've got to play outdoors in the summer in Atlanta, let it be like this!

So…one hour set.  No big deal.  For this one, Dannells and I swapped spots, so instead of me being on the far outside, I was tucked in between him and Mark Cobb.  I thought I was going to hate it (crammed in between an 18 inch crash and a guitar amp), but in the end I think I liked it.  I felt more "in the band" and less like I was "playing alongside the band," and the volume wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be.

I think I need to work some more on my effects pedal.  For Reminiscing, I had programmed harmonies to mimic the sax section thing that happens ("Glenn Miller's band was better than before"), and I tried it and it sounded pretty good to me, but when we played the song everybody on the front line laughed at me.  Pete said it sounded like I was under water.  Hmm.  Not what I intended.  No feedback, though, so I think the gate's in the right spot.

We finished at 6:30.  Nice!

Sunday's church gig number one was cancelled.  At least, that's what we were told last week.  Then again, the leader said there'd be an email with the cancellations on it, but I never saw one.  Big surprise.  I slept in.

Church gig number two was moved to a different room due to the death of the cathedral's air conditioner.  We played in the parish hall--kind of a fire drill for a set up.  I guess it sounded ok.  I am a mediocre soundman at best, and that room sounds horrible, and I was unfamiliar with the equipment.  Perhaps not my best work.

Light week this week…

davidfreemanmusic.net

Marietta Square

Yacht Rock played a good gig last night on the Square in Marietta.  The weather got a little wild--right after we loaded in, a bad thunderstorm came through and we had everything under tarps.  It cleared off enough for us to play, but eventually the rain returned (with lightning!) and we had to bail on the last half hour.

the wind in his hair

The place was packed!  Very cool, and a decent number of people from my neighborhood showed up.  If the weather had been better, it might have been even better.  We have a gig coming up at the Strand Theatre in November, and I bet that will be packed because of it.

The sound on stage was super loud.  There were a limited number of monitor mixes, and I ended up with more vocals than I would ever want to hear bludgeoning my head.  Adding to the volume were main speakers right up next to us.  Ouch!  The sound out front was good (according to reports from the locals), and all of my stuff was in there.  Cool.

I'm still trying to get my effects pedal dialed in.  I have faith in it, but I can't replicate the conditions of a gig by myself.  I need to tweak it some more so that it works within the context of a gig.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Another 10 High

Yacht Rock played the 10 High last night.  I wasn't in the mood AT ALL.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Better (Excruciatingly Early) Mornings

Yacht Rock played on the local CBS morning show "Better Mornings Atlanta."  We had to be there at 3 AM.  That part was not too hard…I'm used to staying up late.  The fact that I had to stay awake until 7:30 AM or so…not so fun.

We loaded into the TV studio at 3 AM.  Set up, soundchecked, changed.  We played a few bumpers (as the show was going to commercials) and a couple of camera shots.

If you care, you can see the videos here:

5 AM segment

6 AM segment

Web Extra

Most of my stuff is inaudible.  You should be hearing piano on the first segment (on the chorus you can hear a little bit of the synth, so I know the line works).  The second segment is a little better--you can kind of hear me because the guitar and piano parts are kind of sparse.  The Web Extra segment is about like the first (I'm not there)--I love the part where there's the big synth solo and you can't hear anything. And you still can't.  And then Bencuya adds his layer on top and it's really loud.

Screwed by another shitty mix.  Staying up also shot Wednesday to hell.  Yippee.

davidfreemanmusic.net