Four in Twenty-Six!

I played four gigs in twenty-six hours.  The first two were really good, and the second two were pretty foggy.  I wish I could have worked sleep in a little better.

Gig One:  the Yacht Rock Revue played the Taste of Chamblee.  When I pulled up to the gig, I had my doubts--it looked like we were going to play a bland gig in direct sunlight.  By the time we went on, though, the crowd had grown and the sun had gone down enough to get behind the trees.  It turned out to be a picture perfect outdoor gig.

We were fortunate to be able to pull up right behind the stage to load gear (and leave our vehicles there).  Sweet!  The band before us was the Heaven Davis Blues Implosion.  I knew everybody in that band except the keyboard player, and not one of them recognized me.  I probably should have networked better--a little "Hey asshole, remember me?" to jog their memories, but I didn't.  I guess there's a chance this will bite me in the butt later in life.  My lack of enthusiasm for networking will eventually lead to my employment at some place like Office Max.

Heaven Davis (vocals)--played on her CD and the subsequent CD release party at 800 East (incidentally I was introduced to Mark Cobb by Clay Cook at this gig).

George Price (guitar)--used to teach guitar in the studio next to me at Ken Stanton Music.  We jammed one time out in front of the store on Blue Bossa and a blues.  How could he NOT remember me?

Steve Mays (bass)--subbed on some of my church gigs at St. Ann.  I bet he would recognize the back of my head better than the front.

Reese Harris (drums)--played a few latin jazz gigs in a band called Wild Rice.  I must not have played anything memorable.  He has also seen me with the Schooner.

The band sounded really good--the blues stuff is not my thing, but they were solid.  No self-indulgent half hour guitar solos or anything.

They came off the stage and we went on.  They "had heard a lot about us" and we "couldn't wait to hear us."  We played one song and then they "got in their cars and left."

Our sets were good.  It was the regular band minus Mark Dannells, who was on vacation.  Shannon Pengelly subbed for him.  We had a good time, everything felt good, and the sound was good.  Cobb had on a new suit.  Nice.

We finished right around 8 PM.  I loaded up and drove to the Dixie Tavern.

Gig Two:  I played with the Yacht Rock Schooner at the Dixie Tavern.  I'd been looking forward to this gig for a couple of weeks because I got to play keyboard on the gig, too.  Big deal, you say?  Yeah, because it was a chance to play some of the other (Bencuya) keyboard parts, like rhodes on Peg and Hey Nineteen.  Fun!  We did this a year ago (me and Frampton), and I like the challenge.

I was super pumped.  It was really exciting for me, even though there were only a handful of big parts (Hey Nineteen, Peg, Doctor My Eyes, and Lido Shuffle).  I even took a solo (yikes!) on the end of Hey Nineteen--nothing chopsy at all, but correct notes played in time.  Heck yeah!  I had so much adrenaline going by the end of it, I could have picked up a car.

 Hey Nineteen solo by David B Freeman

It's probably good that Ganesh didn't let me go any longer.

After we played Lido, some guy told me my playing was fascinating to watch.

Frampton!

T.Y.

The Schooner sounded great.  Everything felt great.  It was a ton of fun!  I really like doing the sax/keyboard thing with them--it's harder to get into it when it's just saxophone.  I was sandwiched between Daniel Morrison and Delicious Tom Young--the groove was really solid.

The Dixie Tavern let us stop at 2 AM.  I was in bed by 4.  Owww.

Gig Three:  also known as church gig number one.  Not much of a gig for me--I played a little bit of saxophone, but mostly flute doubling the melody.  I messed around with using headphones again, but the mix is not good to me.  The bassist is the guy who's most interested in what's in it, so it's really bass and piano heavy.  I'm better off hearing everything (except the damn V drums) acoustically.

The organist made some Kenny G crack at rehearsal which I ignored.  You shouldn't curse on a church gig.

I was home by 11 AM, and asleep shortly thereafter.

I woke up around 5:30 and got dressed.

Gig Four:  church gig number two.  This one sounded pretty good!  No guitar and no drums, so the mix was pretty easy.

Funny thing about this gig--the last note hasn't finished ringing in the cathedral before the vocalists and the pianist/leader are telling each other what they did wrong.  This week they were all ganging up on one person--lots of on the spot analysis about why she was dragging.  Mildly amusing stuff.

Yay for football.  I fell asleep on the couch.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Two Gigs!

I had two gigs yesterday.

The first gig was an awards night for Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.  I've played this event for the past four years--I'm getting the hang of it!  We played an hour an a half dinner set, and then walk-ups for the awards ceremony, and then one song to send 'em out the door.  Easy!  Everything was great about this one:  we played my tunes with no volume restrictions, we were fed (chicken, green beans, and something…orzo?), they validated our parking, the gig ended early…yes!  It's was great.

The band was Tyrone Jackson, Kevin Smith, and Justin Chesarek on drums.  This was the first gig Justin and I have ever done together.  Success!  Everybody played well.

Coolest moment…Tyrone picked up on the end of my solo on Beth Ann at the last chord change.  I don't know how to describe it--it was just awesome.

Here's the audio:



After this gig ended, I raced over to the 10 High and played the Yacht Rock gig.

This was the best 10 High gig I've played in a long time.  Everybody played well and the energy was good.  We were being silly, too, but musically things felt great.  I wish they were all like this!

I got a couple of good solos in…I was really loose from the earlier gig.  My sax was way up in my monitor--abusively loud.  Ha!

We went on break after I'd really torn it up on Takin' it to the Streets, and some girl told me that the band was great and I was a really awesome singer.  Must not have been tearing it up like I thought.

I've got another two gigs tomorrow…when it rains, it pours, I guess.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Trio at Ventanas

I played a trio gig tonight with two of my favorite musicans:  Tyrone Jackson and Kevin Smith.  We had a background music gig at Ventanas.  Great gig!

I feel really out shape, jazz-wise.  Too many Yacht Rock keyboard parts!  I need more time on the horn…sure wish I had more gigs with these guys.

Everybody thought we were playing somebody else's stuff ("Is that a Bob James song?").  That's a compliment, right?  My stuff's not total BS!



davidfreemanmusic.net

On the Move

Friday night, it was late…I played the first set with the Yacht Rock Schooner at 37 Main in Buford.  That place gives me the impression that there is NOTHING ELSE to do in Buford--it's always packed.  The crowd was good, the band was really good.

I couldn't hear anything that I was playing.  I guess that's what you get when you don't show up to soundcheck.  I tried the old trick of playing a few notes in between songs--not very reassuring!  I think I could hear myself in the mains;  maybe not.  My position was an arm's length away from the speaker and I couldn't tell.  I had no monitor of my own, and I'm pretty sure I wasn't in any of the monitors on stage.  I think I was more or less inaudible.  Ugh.

The band was really solid--they really had a good groove going.

There were several beer bottles on the lip of the stage in front of me, and I noticed when we started Baker Street that I nudged one when I bent my knees, so then every time the hook came around, I tried to knock the other ones down.  I think I hit five.

Saturday, the Yacht Rock Revue played a wedding reception in Columbus.  Some guy heard about us and hired us sight unseen!  He also had something to do with hooking up the gig in Washington DC.

This was a fun gig to me, mostly because Mark Cobb really felt like playing--he gave the whole band energy.

We had Kevin Spencer subbing for Nick (on vacation).  He did a great job filling in.

First dance was Just the Way You Are.  I'm getting closer on the solo, but I sound a little sharp.

 Just the Way You Are sax solo by David B Freeman

Lately I've been coming up with some new stuff to play on Reminiscing.  It's funny how that kind of thing comes and goes.  I feel pretty good about that song, but (for instance) on Taking it to the Streets, I have nothing to play.  I just play bullshit through the entire end.

We played Break My Stride for the first time in a year and a half (I think).  I was sure the chorus started on G.  I insisted!  and I was wrong.  It starts on F.

Another oldie that came back was I'd Really Love to See You Tonight.  I was a little shaky in some spots.  That's almost the norm for me on that one.  I try and play it casually and then I screw up.

Other than those, I played well the entire night, and then we did Taking it to the Streets for the encore.  For some reason, I was pedaling on C instead of G.  My embarrassment kind of crushed my good feeling about the night.  Damnit!  How long have I been playing that wrong?

Church gig number one got the day off.  The "orchestra" (the church concert band) is playing.  I slept in.  It was great.

Big week this week…a couple of jazz gigs and a couple of Yacht Rock gigs.  Stay tuned.

davidfeemanmusic.net

Too Many Dudes

We (Yacht Rock) played at the 10 High last night.  It was pretty obvious that we were shut out by the football game.  The crowd never showed up, and the gig was lost to indifference pretty quickly.

I played well.  We had Ganesh on drums, K Spence on vocals (in for Nick), and Shannon on guitar, so the set list was all really safe stuff--things we've been playing forever.  There were some strange guitar chords in the middle of Sister Golden Hair and the intro of Hey 19, and we did the radio edit version of My Life…speaking of which, that was a game of musical chicken--the vocals went one way and the band went the other, and at some point we (the band) had to jump when it was finally obvious that the vocals were not coming back to us.  Thankfully, we'd heard that mistake before--almost predicted it.

Lido needed more bass in the intro.

Everything in the second set was pretty normal and pretty plain.  Shannon got a fiery solo off on How Long, and I thought for a second we were going to pick up the energy, but it was just a flicker!  I stumbled a little bit in the Africa solo, but nothing catastrophic.

Anyway…it was the 10 High.  Too many dudes--always a sign that we're going to make no money.

There's always next week!

davidfreemanmusic.net

Sunday stuff (Technical Difficulties)

After a couple of weeks away, I was back at my church gigs this morning.

Church gig number one changed up the morning rehearsal time--instead of meeting at 8 AM, we got together at 8:30.  When I walked in, there was a service going on in the main sanctuary, but I found everybody downstairs.

It was a quick and painless rehearsal--a couple of traditional hymns (flute), and a couple of gospel things (tenor).  No problems.  At 9:15 we went running upstairs to set up.

This is the second week of V Drums--this time with a substitute soundman!  Woo!  I guess all the microphone cables for the entire band had been patched incorrectly at the stage, so there was no time to troubleshoot the electronic drums that were not making electronic drum sounds.  Hmm.  We entered into a stand off of sorts--sound man was busy up in the balcony trying to find his inputs;  drummer continued to bang on very quiet drum kit.  I said, hey, let's stick a vocal mic on his XLR--maybe it's a bad line…maybe it's the DI…maybe it's the quater inch cable going into the DI.  I was ignored.

Suddenly it was 9:30 and we started.  In the headphones:  a ton of bass, a ton of piano, some vocals.  No guitar, no drums.  I didn't like the sound of that, so I went without headphones--better, but I could hear the drums, and the slap off the back wall was at least a sixteenth note behind the band.  I didn't like that either!

Other than the technical difficulties, it was a good show/service.  I had good reeds on my tenor and clarinet, and my flute face was good.  I think we played pretty well, and our leader was happy.  We also played the second service.  No problems there, either.  Yay!

I went home and fell asleep on the floor, listening to a Michael Brecker masterclass from 1986.  Good stuff.  Here's hoping it all soaked in.

Church gig number two was pretty good, too.  Good soprano reed, and my flute playing was comfortable.  I had a pretty good mix in the PA, too.

Right before we started, the previous service's leader told me that the piano microphone was going bad (I noticed a few weeks ago that there was a short in the mic/preamp setup).  Sure enough, I soloed it and it sounded like old vinyl.

Band leader said, "When we flip the switch, the crackling goes away."  The switch was for the ground.  Aren't you disconnecting the ground pin in the XLR and thus eliminating the phantom power that you need to power the microphone?  That was my thinking.  We flipped the switch and then we got no signal to the board, which makes me wonder if my theory was true, and if so, why was that an option on the preamp box?

Anyway, the hell with that.  I unplugged the cable, stuck a vocal mic on it, and stuck it on the soundboard through one of the holes in the piano frame.  Worked fine, and I like the sound of it better than that stupid crackly microphone.

The band sounded pretty good;  vocals were pretty good.  Not a bad gig at all.

I've got another pretty easy week ahead, but I'm looking down the calendar at a week from Saturday--I'm playing second keyboard with the Schooner at Dixie Tavern, and I have a couple of parts to learn.  I did this about a year ago (read about it here).  I'm feeling much less overwhelmed this time--pretty sure I'm gonna kick ass.  It's a good challenge.

P.S.  I'm still thinking about the car crash we saw in Dallas a couple of weeks ago.  I wish we'd stopped to check on them.  The taxi we were in slowed down--I regret not getting out to see if everybody was OK.  I would have wanted someone to do that for me.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Tailgating

this guy proved once again that the toughest job in the band is the front man/lead vocalist

A few guys from each of the Yacht Rock bands joined together to play at the Shepherd Center Society benefit at The Tailgate.  In other words, we played under a tent in one of those abandoned lots around the Georgia Dome that becomes a parking lot whenever there's a football game.  The band was Pete, K Spence, Monkey, Bencuya, Dani, Ganesh, and me.

Matt Reed (guitarist and big UGA fan) organized the music.  He said load in at the 2, so I was there at 2 (backed my truck up to the stage--nice load in!).  Unfortunately, I had to sit through the opening band.  Witness:

This was one of many fine hits, others of which were Sweet Child of Mine, Here I Go Again on My Own, and some other crap.  I think STP was in there.  The only thing missing was Stacy, babe.

The odor from those two porta-potties directly behind the drums was robust.

By the end of their set, I was thinking bad thoughts, evil thoughts.  I wasn't so much thunderstruck as annoyed that I'd shown up so early.  I was thinking "Matt Reed, why did you do this to me?"

We threw our stuff on stage around 3:30 and started at 4.

hey look!  Vince Neil on sound!  nice heels!

The sound guy refused to move the bass cabinet across the stage because everything was already "wired up."  Like electricity?  Like it all sounds perfect just the way it is and we can't move anything?   he mic'ed up that Ampeg 8x10 cabinet with an SM57.  On purpose.  In fact, Dani and I tried to scoot the cabinet a foot closer to the drums (also a foot further AWAY from me), and sound guy started yelling at me from across the stage because I'd knocked the 57 (and the one foot tall mic stand it was on) over.   Like it hurt it.

Dannells played Matt Reed's guitar rig and seemed rather uncomfortable about it.

Kevin got a new shirt?

So whatever.  We set up our stuff and played.   Not a bad set!  It was kind of a greatest hits package--What a Fool Believes, Ride Like the Wind, Baker Street, Brandy.  Dani played the entire thing like Larry Graham on crack.  I played a couple of good solos (Reminiscing and I Can't Go for That), and a moderate amount of crap on Lowdown.  Half the PA shut down at one point due to a power failure.

We finished and everybody loved us and we played an encore and maybe the governor was on the way to congratulate us.  We raked our gear off the stage.

hipsters invaded my truck!

protect thy pants

The next band up was Ponderosa.  They were pretty awesome.  I felt like a fraud.  It made me question my career.  We had to leave quickly.

davidfreemanmusic.net

The Park Tavern

Greg Lee, dancing machine

Yacht Rock played the Park Tavern last night.  We had a pretty good night--it never quite reached the insanity of a few of the previous Park Tavern gigs, but it was fun and the crowd was pretty into it.  For some reason, it was a much older crowd than we generally see.  It was like our usual crowd sent their parents, and this was a safe gig--there are tables for sitting and it ends before midnight.  I think seating and bedtimes are important to that demographic.  You could throw restrooms in there, too, except that the Park Tavern restrooms are not user-friendly.  It's news when the men's room does NOT flood, and the women's room always has a line.

Our Beatles tribute, Please PleaseRock Me, opened the show.  It was pretty good!  I was on and off stage for most of it, playing tambourine and cowbell.  The first song had tambourine--I realized this (standing offstage) about halfway through.  Do over!  Damnit!  The last four or five songs had horns (Greg Lee, Paul Poovey, and myself).  We were really crammed up on stage and it was tough to hear, but I think we were pretty good.  Paul said his trumpet was sliding all over his face, which made Penny Lane especially challenging.  Is it ever going to cool down?

A quick change and we were back as Yacht Rock.  I was determined to suck less than the previous night's implosion, and then we decided to do a soft start--a quiet count in, beginning before the break music had been turned off--and just like that, I'd already started screwing up.  Not impressive.  Once I finally started playing, I was OK.  I still rush really bad on Greatest American Hero.  If I would just relax, my accuracy would greatly improve.

I got a little more ambitious about the number of notes I was going to play on Whatever Gets You Through the Night.  It turns out, I can't really go for it and sidestep at the same time.  I think the solos were good, but I had to remind myself--to the left!  to the right!  I bet I could sound like this if I could stand still.  It would also help if I was in the monitor, but that'll never happen either.

Give a Little Bit is back.  I played the solo correctly two nights in a row; a miracle.

I screwed up the end of I Wish for no apparent reason.

The rest of the night was pretty easy.  I played a something wrong in the bridge of Power of Love--like instead of Eb major, I played a C major triad or something gross.  Not my best work.

I think we have one more Park Tavern gig this month--October 17.  It's been a great summer of gigs.  We'll be back next spring.

davidfreemanmusic.net

10 High Failure

Ugh.  Yacht Rock played the 10 High last night.  I was there, but it probably would've been better if I'd gotten up after the first song and left.  My playing was pretty bad (and pretty uninspired), and the more I tried to bear down and get it right, the worse I got.  I just didn't have it.  Bencuya recorded it, so I'll get to relive this collection of near misses in a couple of months.  Great.

Dallas to Acworth

I spent the weekend waiting…somewhere in there I played two wedding receptions.

The first gig was in Dallas with Yacht Rock.  We flew out first thing Saturday morning--landed at DFW at before noon.  Unfortunately, we didn't load into the venue until 6:30 PM, so we killed off those hours with a big meal at a Mexican restaurant and a walk to Dealey Plaza.  Everybody should eat too much, walk around in 105 degree heat, and look at a bunch of pictures of JFK's blown out skull.  The Dallas experience.

it appears to be perfectly safe

Greg points out a spot where a bullet chipped the curb

I managed to get a nap in there while watching hurricane coverage.

The reception was at the House of Blues in Dallas--not in the main concert room, but in the restaurant part.  What a pathetic excuse for a music venue!  The stage was small (no big deal there), but the PA was pathetic (two mismatched monitors, sixteen channel board, and two Mackie SRM-450s hung from the ceiling for mains), and the guy overseeing the production spent more time looking at his phone than us.  I don't think he ever actually walked out in front of the band to hear what it sounded like.  Every sax solo felt like I was playing without a microphone.  It was very uninspiring.

The only things in the PA were vocals and saxophone, so who knows if it ever balanced with the stage sound.  I tend to doubt that my EWI/keyboards made it out into the room--I couldn't turn up too loud or I wouldn't be able to hear the rest of the band (plus the sax was prone to feedback).  The amp I was using was sitting in the corner and pumped out a ton of bass (plus I was in the corner--more bass!), and the stage had some low end resonance around C or D that was really irritating.  I left out some left hand stuff on the keyboard because of it.

What else can I bitch about…I ended up with a Nord 2 instead of a Nord 3.  I can definitely tell the difference now.  Yuck!  That amp wasn't as bad as the one I used at the House of Blues in Orlando, but it really didn't sound very good.  I missed my gear.  I had shitty reeds on both horns, I think, but everything about playing saxophone in there felt bad.

So…a pretty miserable gig, and I played like I was miserable.  It's a drag, too, because we were playing for a friend of the band who really loves us.  It could have been a lot more fun.

We saw a spectacular car crash (an Audi TT vs a Ford Expedition) in downtown Dallas on the way back to our hotel.

Lobby call was 6:30 AM.  I got about four hours of sleep.  A guy with a Super Bowl ring got on the plane, and then I fell asleep.

We were back in Atlanta around noon.  I went home, ate, and crashed for about four more hours on the couch.  An hour later I was on the way to a wedding reception in Acworth.

I played with most of the Yacht Rock guys in a cover band called Constantly Awesome.  It could have been called Six Feet Tall--Matt Reed played guitar--they made Bencuya and me look short and bald.

I was added onto the gig late last week to provide the Hora (why me?).  It was an easy gig.  I spent most of the gig playing tambourine and watching Bencuya.  Piece of cake.  Nice venue, too--Waterstone Restuarant on Main Street in Acworth.

Easy week this week.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Bomb Night at the 10 High

Ahh, the 10 High.  It was tough to go back after last week's excitement.

I think we played ok.  I played well personally, but as a band we were pretty flat.  I had an awesome alto reed--right in that perfectly broken in moment in its life.  Unfortunately, there were only two alto songs on the setlist, though (and two tenor tunes).  Bummer.  The keyboard stuff was all good (we played Lonely Boy).  I was really comfortable with everything--I can't think of anything were I screwed up.  Probably the worst thing I did was to accidentally hit record on my Fantom a couple of times while we were playing Ride Like the Wind--the way my hand was shaped kept turning it (and the accompanying metronome) on.

Actually, the worst thing I did was on my flute solo for Lowdown.  I tried to think of it as A7 instead of E minor, and then I tried to play an altered scale over that (which was NOT an improvement), and then I thought I'd stick with it to see if my ear would adjust.  It did not.  I did not sound good…now I know.  E minor is better.  Stay inside!

Some of this happened:



Anyway…Good Luck Ganesh pulled us through on the money, even though it looked like the room never filled up.  Yay for that!

While we were packing up, the entire Dark Horse Tavern (10 High and the Warren Room included) were semi-evacuated because a crazy guy claimed he had a bomb.  It looked like a can of spraypaint to me, but I guess you can never be sure.  The bouncers were chasing him through the parking lot--not towards my truck!  Bencuya and I followed the parade (with Bencuya quoting Prince's 1999--"Mommy, why does everybody have a bomb?").  Soon enough he was in the back of a police cruiser.  Too much excitement.

Here's some stuff from the festival a few weeks ago.  An awesome picture by friend of the band Chad Hunter (of Moontower).

Also video of us playing Rosanna.  What a great mix!  That's me on organ, brass, and the synth solo.



davidfreemanmusic.net