Yacht Rock Tour!

someone is strangling Greg

Last Tuesday night, Yacht Rock launched a short tour up to New York City.  Pretty cool, and wildly successful!

We left around 8 PM and spent Tuesday night in Charlotte.  There was no gig there, but we wanted to get a chunk of the driving out of the way.  Our ultimate goal of the first leg was to get to Washington DC, but it was too far to try and drive straight from Atlanta and then set up and play a gig.

Wednesday we drove to DC.  We arrived right around 6 PM (just in time for rush hour!) and loaded into a club call Saloun in Georgetown.  It was not much of a bar.  A really long shoebox of a room with a tiny stage, no PA, no lighting, flies in the restroom, broken windows…pretty nasty.  We did get to park the van right outside the front door, though, so I guess it wasn't all bad.

The promoter who hooked us up with the gig was informed at 6 that there was no PA.  It finally arrived three hours later--two main speakers, two monitors, one mixer, and some cables.  Not impressive!  I guess it would be acceptable to bitch about it being deficient, but if we had gotten the PA we would normally request, it wouldn't have fit on the stage.  Ahh yes, the stage…it was the size of a parking space.  Seven guys, all that equipment, and sidestepping do not fit.  Greg just about wore a hole in the wall with the headstock of his bass, and Dannells had to hold his guitar vertically if he needed to touch anything on his pedalboard.

We played well in spite of the circumstances, though it was super loud.  Only vocals were in the PA, so I had my amp cranked to try and get it out in the room, but my amp was two feet from my left ear.  Ear plugs helped, but it was just too much volume.

The DC crowd loved us.  We assured them that we would return in October--just not to Saloun!

well hello, blondie!

Afterwards, I dealt with three drunk idiots, one of whom was named Jonathan, who insisted (spraying me in the face with spittle over and over again) that I play I Still Believe from The Lost Boys.  We had the same conversation over and over and over…could I play that song?  Of course!  Will I play it at his friend's wedding?  Maybe!  At some point, Jonathan said that each of the three of them would pay me $500 to play it at the friend's wedding.   I was later able to get the money up to $1000.  I can't wait!

Later on, someone was in the restroom HURLING while I was changing back into my shorts.  Out comes Jonathan, but he walked right by me because I had taken my wig off (thankfully--would I now be sprayed with vomit spittle?).  I dodged the bullet momentarily;  he did recognize me later as we were loading the trailer--as he was falling out into the middle of the street.  "Hey…you're that guy!  You're gonna play I Still Believe, right?"  Right--$1,000.

We spent the night in Maryland.

Thursday morning we got up and drove to New York City.  Yay!  Staten Island to Brooklyn, under the tunnel, then up the FDR to the pier to play the Rocks off Hudson Cruise.  We did two sets while the boat went down the East River, around the Statue of Liberty, up the East River, and back to the pier.  I was thinking about Sonny Rollins and the Williamsburg Bridge, and this:



The cruise was pretty good.  The sound was really bad on stage, but the mix out front was not too bad.  It was loud, loud, loud--even the iPod that was playing on the break was distorting from the volume.

The food was terrible, and the woman who served the food was up to the task!  What an old witch!  We were doing her a favor by eating her pasta and meat grenades.  So much for New York being a food mecca.

The crowd was really good.  We were originally on a smaller boat, but some Yacht Rock super fan (I think a big guy from Google) bought all the tickets up and gave them to his friends, so the cruise company moved us to a larger boat, and then that one sold out.  They loved it and it was easy (except the load in/out was about half a mile down the pier!).  I hope we do it again, but we're going to need a bigger boat.

I spent a good chunk of the break talking to some hot chick about reeds.  She suggested I try Superials on alto.

We spent the night in White Plains.

Friday during the day I went into the city and hung out with my niece and sister.

That night, Yacht Rock played a private party at a country club in Westchester county country club (Willow Ridge).  Another easy gig, though the crowd was thin (eighty people?).  Easy, easy, though, and it ended a little early.

service with a smile

Saturday was the main event--a wedding in Brooklyn.  We got into the city pretty early, parked the van, and wandered around for a couple of hours.  I went and checked out my sister's old neighborhood--also where I lived for my time in New York.  Nothing has changed!

I played a gig here (upstairs restaurant)

The wedding ceremony and reception were at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.  Another small stage, but it sounded pretty good, and the people dug it.  One thing we'd never encountered was a union crew--the sound guys (maybe five of them?), loaded out gear in and out for us.  That was a nice plus.  The room was really cool looking.

The groom played drums the last song of the night--Ride Like the Wind.  Not too good.  Bride on cowbell.  Check the technique.

We spent the night in New Jersey.

Sunday, we drove all day and all night to get back to Atlanta.  Yay!

davidfreemanmusic.net

The Greatest Yacht Rock Revival Ever (until next year!)

Pleaserock put on a festival:  The Greatest Yacht Rock Revival in the Universe!  It was a huge success.  Maybe 1,800 people showed up?  Something like that.  Awesome.

Peter Beckett (Player) rehearsing with Yacht Rock

Everybody played well, the sound was good, and the energy was great.  Check out these super awesome videos:






Yay!

A quick run down from my side:

1.  It was hot, and I noticed on the first song (Nights on Broadway) that the EWI was playing itself, so I had to back the breath control knob down.  At least it didn't cause weird MIDI glitches like it did Thursday night.

2.  The Starbuck reunion!  Wow!  The other guys from Starbuck had not spoken to lead singer Bruce Blackman in thirty years, but he showed up Saturday night unannounced, and they reconciled.  AND THEN he came up on stage and sang Moonlight Feels Right with us.  Unbelievable.  Highlight of the night.

3.  I don't know the chords behind the guitar solo of Walter Egan's Only the Lucky.  I thought I did.  I was wrong.  It's 1 4 5 1, 1 5 4 51, 1 4 5 1, 1 4 5 1.  I flipped those first two ( 1 5 4 51, 1 4 5 1), then just played a A and some bullshit.

4.  My keyboard (the Fantom on top) started making a horrible, high digital noise during You Should be Dancing.  I don't know why.  I just turned it on and off a couple of times, and reselected and saved the same string patch, and it went away.  Greeeeeaaaaaaat.  Just what I need with four gigs in a row coming up.

Sunday…I dragged myself off the couch a few hours after this and went to my church gigs.  Church gig number one featured the final performance by our drummer, Chris Wilkes, who is moving to Portland, Maine.  He will be missed!  This week, we had a horn section, so all I did was read charts.  I could get used to that.

After a nice long nap, church gig number two was ok.  I wish I'd recorded it, because I had a better mix this week.  I cut all the lows out and boosted the highs, and it was much clearer in the back of the room.  Live and learn.  Playing-wise, I was pretty bad.  Bad flute face, bad soprano reed.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Friday Night Wedding

Yacht Rock played a Friday night wedding on the west side of Atlanta at some event space called Summerour.  Not a bad room by any means, but it was kind of a strange location for a wedding--kind of tucked behind Ikea.

The gig went really well.  We were discussing last night maybe recording some of our weddings, since we tend to play them with a bit more control than some of our live shows.  I agree.  This one was fun and sounded good, and we were spaced far apart on stage that I could hear and nothing was too loud.

The first dance for this one was Just the Way You Are.  I decided to tackle the solo on alto--I'd figured it out on tenor while playing in another band, but never tried it on the smaller horn.  It went ok;  my earlier attempts (at soundcheck) were a bit more accurate.  My pitch is not too good, either.  I wonder if I'm getting more sensitive to intonation, or getting more out of tune?

 Just the Way You Are sax solo by David B Freeman

I also recorded my solo on Biggest Part of Me.  It felt like I was really going to play an awesome solo, but I came up a little short.  I do like how I picked up the last phrase of the guitar at the beginning of my thing.  My reed was uncooperative on the really high stuff.  Lenny Pickett scoffs at me.

 Biggest Part of Me by David B Freeman

Anyway, this was a good gig, and we were out of there at midnight.  Easy load in, the room was air conditioned, and the people were friendly.

Big day today!  It's time for The Greatest Yacht Rock Revival in the Universe.  A few tickets are still available, so come out if you can.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Coke and Yacht Rock

A friend of my wife's called from Coke a couple of weeks ago and booked my trio for a lunchtime gig at the world headquarters on North Avenue.  "What's this for?" I asked.  "Think of it as a random act of kindness" he said (for me or for Coke?).  They gave us a corner of the cafeteria, two hours, and a check.  Can't beat that!

I am here to say that there's no vibe in a cafeteria.  Our gig was a little flat, I thought.  Too early in the day and too many florescent bulbs.  Here's the audio…check it out:



Thursday night was Yacht Rock at the 10 High.  It was funny, but not much fun.

Here's some videos from last week's Park Tavern show:















davidfreemanmusic.net

CBS Better Mornings

Yacht Rock got up early/stayed up late to play on the CBS Better Mornings Atlanta show yesterday.  We loaded in at 3 AM, set up, and played a couple of times between 5 and 7 AM.  I stayed up.

I think we played better this time than last time.  It felt a little more comfortable.  I was also too tired to care.  Our person at the station said they had to remove the videos of us performing because of copyright issues, but they let us do the weather TWICE!  Here's the only one I could find today:

http://www.cbsatlanta.com/video?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=6129424

CBS was cool enough to let us stay after the morning show and hold our rehearsal there, so rather than tear down, more to our rehearsal space, set up again, and play for an hour, we just blew through the things we need for this weekend and we were done.

I was so tired I nearly fell asleep while driving home.  I got home and ran to bed.

Big show this weekend!

davidfreemanmusic.net

Sunday into Monday

Here I am, parked at my computer at 1:22 AM Monday morning…my alarm is set to "wake me up" at 2 AM so I can drink some coffee and head to CBS to play with Yacht Rock this morning--promoting our big Revival this weekend.  If you're up, we're playing some time between 5 and 6 AM, and then again between 6 and 7 AM.

Church gig number one today was pretty easy.  I showed up about five minutes earlier than usual and there was no one there!  Kind of freaked me out.  I wondered if maybe I wasn't supposed to be there.

The gig was waaaaaaaaay easier than the previous week.  Almost every chart was a one-pager.  Ahhh.  No big deal.

I played my back up tenor.  It's not the same!  It's funny how the notes seem more locked in on this horn--the way a trumpet player would describe the notes as "slotting well."  On my horn, everything seems like "this note, this note, this note."  I'll probably get used to it and it feel normal in a few days.

Church gig number two was ok.  I didn't have a really good mix going, and I made a recording from the back of the church that verified this.  I need to be more aggressive about chopping the low end out to minimize the effects of the big stone box in which we are playing.  That and a little bump in the high end, and I think things might be a bit clearer.

In between those two, I had to run to the Pleaserock office for an interview.  It seems that some movie person saw a Yacht Rock show and now has an interest in making a movie about us--someone mentioned it as a modern version of Spinal Tap.

relax-it's just a prop

None of us was prepared for what we might be asked, and it was hard to tell whether we were supposed to be more like our YR personas (me=asshole), or us in real life (me=?).  My half hour started with all the B.S. and sarcasm I could muster, but somewhere along the way I ended up talking normally--I guess you could say I let my guard down.  It didn't occur to me until tonight, but it was just like when I was going to see a psychologist regularly.  I ended up telling the truth way more than I wanted to.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Thursday, Friday, and the Big Week Ahead

I have sweated profusely on more gigs this summer than any other summer of my career.  It seems like all the gigs are un-air conditioned/outside (to which I pose the question:  why are we EVER playing outside in the summer?) or the venue is always hot and stinky (10 High), or the load in difficult and in direct sunlight in the middle of the afternoon. Every week has another hot and sweaty gig.  Hydrate or die.

Thursday night…about what you've probably come to expect if you read this blog with any regularity.  The first set was pretty decent/solid.  The crowd was extremely ambivalent about what we were doing.  I played pretty well, except my tenor stuff.  Since last week, I've been thinking that my playing was going to hell--everything in the left hand seemed to choke when I would really push it.  I thought that maybe I was doing something with my tongue position that was changing the airstream, or my reeds were going soft, or something…anyway, I felt like I was fighting my horn.

The second set was a drunken mess.  We've become a one set band at the 10 High.  Once we return from break, it's a grind.

Friday night was our (Yacht Rock) monthly show at the Park Tavern.  The Main Street Exiles opened for us.  I got the call to play with them (Bencuya jumped in on keyboards).  It was a pretty good show--much better than the last time we ran into them at Smith's Olde Bar.  Unfortunately for me, I later heard that just about everything I played (everything except the solo on Brown Sugar) was inaudible in the PA.  Boo.

The Yacht Rock part of the show was pretty good.  Much better than the previous evening, but not quite the energy of the previous Park Tavern show.  All in all, I think it went well, though.  I really have no idea if anything I played was ever audible in the room--the way that PA works, it feels like all the sax stuff is played into a pillow, and I would assume I get the usual treatment with the keyboards and EWI (slightly louder than the bongos mic in the mix).  It feels like there's no sound out there.

I did get off a really good solo on Biggest Part of Me…wonder if I'll get to play it with Ambrosia next week?

It dawned on me as my horn was choking on another sax solo that I probably have an upper stack leak in my tenor, and that was what was messing everything up.  I tried really hard to aim my notes (like the altissimo A that begins Whatever Gets You Through the Night) and it was still difficult.  Duh.  Time to track down Lopes.

For the record, I once again was offered (and declined) blow.  That, along with the heat, seems to be a trend for the summer.  What is it, three or four times now?

Saturday:  did nothing.  Slept.  Tried my backup tenor and it worked much better!  Back in business.

This coming week has a few things:  the usual pair of church gigs, an appearance on the local CBS morning show to promote The Greatest Yacht Rock Revival in the Universe, and the show itself next Saturday in Buckhead.   Check it out!

davidfreemanmusic.net

Another Weekend Came and Went

Thursday:  Yacht Rock Revue at the 10 High.  It was an ok night;  I can't remember anything specifically about the way we played at this point.  I mean, the set lists came out a few hours before the gig, so I didn't even do any preparation.  We played Lonely Boy.  I remember that.  Mark Cobb came by and sat in on Biggest Part of Me.

Thursday night was the last night in Atlanta for our merchandising genius, Gina Niespodziani.  She's taking her vast talents to New York City.  Someone as creative as her will do very well there, I think.  Great ideas are always pouring out of her.  You can check out some really hip examples of her work on her website and see some of the Yacht Rock stuff she made here.  We're gonna miss her.

Friday:  I traveled to Macon with the Yacht Rock Schooner for some kind of semi-private gig.  We played at the old Armory.  Neat building, neat room.  Acoustically unattractive.  Who am I to complain?  My only responsibility for the evening was saxophone (and flute), so it was an easy night.  The sound guys even gave me my own monitor (with JUST ME in it).  Sweet!  That never happens!  I had the thing loud, as it should be!  The band sounded really good.

Saturday:  I had two gigs.  The first was a semi-private gig at Sweetwater Brewery, providing entertainment for Revel for Families First.  This was a cool gig because it gave me the opportunity to play with Tyrone Jackson and Kevin Smith, two of my favorite people in the galaxy.  Awesome gig, as you might imagine.  I had a wonderful time!  Nick and his wife Elliott stopped by for a set--very cool to see them.  I guess Nick hung with it about as long as he could--not a jazz fan.

Before we even got started, we discovered five or six wasp nests in the roof of the bandstand.  One of the Sweetwater guys went and bought a can of hornet spray and hosed them down.  No wasps (for the most part), but the stage was littered with dead bugs.

Back to the music:  Tyrone and Kevin played some really terrific stuff. Tyrone was stunning, and Kevin played better than I think I've ever previously heard him.

Here's the audio:

Once the trio gig ended, I packed up, went home, swapped gear, and headed to the Dixie Tavern, where I met up with the Yacht Rock Schooner.  I played their second set with them.  Once again, a very relaxed setting for me to hang out and blow some sax and flute.  I got off a good solo on Takin' it to the Streets for a change.  The band continued their hot streak--sounded good.  I did my best (when not playing) to try and steal anything I could from Eric Frampton.

By the time I got home, put away the PA from the trio gig, hung up my clothes, packed for Sunday, and poked around on the internet, it was almost 4 AM.

Sunday:  officially began with my alarm clock at 7 AM.  Ouch!  Maybe three hours of sleep.  Not good.

Church gig number one felt like Church:  The Musical.  The usual leader was on vacation, so we had the organist leading us.  He's a little stiff.  The usual singers were not there, either, so we had one of the adult small vocal groups providing lyrics.  Thus, the three main charts in the book were each about sixteen pages (single sided photocopies, just to make the page turning more frantic).  Not much music can be made when you're turning pages every four measures!

I came home and prepared for a Monday morning Yacht Rock rehearsal.  Three songs.  No big deal.  After a quick shower, I was off to church gig number two.  It went fairly well.  The pianist made more mistakes than usual.  Weird stuff--like one hand would change chords, but the other would not, or one hand would play a wrong note, and the other hand would walk across the keyboard to go talk about it.

I had a tired flute face and a crummy soprano reed, but another pretty good mix happening-maybe that made up for my lack of musical prowess.

I made home and ate something before I fell asleep on the couch.  I woke up at 8:40 AM!  Just in time to drink a cup of coffee and head out the door to rehearsal.

Easy week this week…check in on my David Freeman Music Facebook page to see videos from these recent trio gigs, or check them out as I post them on my YouTube channel.

P.S.  The 'stache is gone.

davidfreemanmusic.net