David Freeman Music

Here's the news: hey Grand Forks! Wednesday:   Yacht Rock flew to Seattle for a gig for Brooks Running Company .  What a cool opportunity!  I'd never been that far west before. We arrived early in the afternoon,  checked into our hotel ( the W downtown ), and headed out to the Pike Place Market in search of food. the place where they throw fish Eventually, we landed at Steelhead Diner .  It was really good!  I'm not really a fish eater, so I was worried that I might end up with a meal of french fries and water.  The menu had a variety of things;  I ended up with some kind of pork sandwich. We went back to our rooms after that.  I went and worked out, and then decided to wait in my room for the half hour until we were going to go out. Thursday:  I woke up in my clothes with the lights and the TV on at 5:45 AM local time--I'd fallen asleep and missed going out.  Since I wa...

I had the great pleasure of playing a trio gig at the Aquarium yesterday evening.  Easy gig…an hour and a half of music for V.I.P.s.  This gig was Tyrone Jackson on keyboard and Kevin Smith on bass. Here's the audio.  Kevin was really playing his butt off: I hope you'll check it out.  Good stuff. davidfreemanmusic.net

The gigs continue! Sunday morning was my regular church gig.  Not much to report.  We had a special guest:  steel guitarist Tommy Dodd .  Really impressive.  I have no idea how that thing works…it's like ten strings, eight pedals, the knee bend thing…plus the nifty seat, the amp, the cart.  That thing's a commitment.  Sure sounds cool, though. That being said, I have no idea why he was there.  There was no special feature, no big solo, no songs yearning to be caressed by a pedal steel.  How about bringing him in on a week when I'm out of town?  Odd. Other than that, it was the usual stuff.  Fire drill of a rehearsal, no biggie for the service.  We're wearing all black now (before it was jeans and a shirt with a collar).  Again, I'm wondering why the change fifteen months into us playing this gig.  It seems pretty random.  And I hate the all black thing--it's like wearing a tux these days at a wedding gig. ...

Yacht Rock played another gig at somebody's house;  two nights, two houses.  This one is the same party we've played the past couple of years (the one where my EWI froze !), in a tent in a guy's backyard in North Druid Hills. Kip This year's gig was the best yet.  For starters, they had a crew to carry all of our equipment from the driveway, through the garage, and up the steps.  Secondly, we had Kip Conner running sound, which meant better quality and less gear to move!  Lastly, the stage was significantly larger--no jigsaw puzzle set ups like we've done in the past. This gig (for me) is also known for its bacon.  They order forty(!) pounds of sugary bacon--that's the dessert after everybody's eaten supper.  Every year I try (and fail) to eat none.  It's too good. davidfreemanmusic.net

Yacht Rock played a gig last night at a house--a surprise birthday party for a local golf pro.  The local golf pro's good friend is Stewart Cink (he of PGA fame), and the party was at Cink's house. Unbelievable house!  With the exception of a house in Buckhead where I once did a solo sax gig, this was the most insanely extravagant house I've ever been inside.  Let's just say, does your basement have enough space for a stage? Here are some pictures (keep in mind that this is all basement!) Stewart Cink's office The gig was one of our better performances.  Bencuya was back;  his solo on Hey Nineteen made my previous night's effort seem really really bad.  I was embarrassed just watching him play. The rest of the band played well.  It was a low pressure gig, but nobody blew it off.  Good stuff all around. PS.  Stewart Cink is 6 foot 4.  Really really tall. davidfreemanmus...

Yacht Rock played the 10 High last night without the one and only Mark Bencuya, who was on vacation.     Eric Frampton covered his role.  Much like my exciting outing with the Schooner at the Dixie Tavern, some of the keyboard parts were flipped--super cool because I got to play some different parts!  It was really fun, and I only sucked real bad occasionally. I took TWO keyboard solos!  One on Hey Nineteen (that's me on rhodes),   Hey Nineteen by David B Freeman and one on The Biggest Part of Me (me on organ and then saxophone).   The Biggest Part of Me by David B Freeman Oh well.  It was fun anyway.  I mean, when else do I get a chance to go for it? Just for fun, here's my organ part and sax solo on Takin' it to the Streets.   It kind of strays from the original:   Takin' it to the Streets by David B Freeman Fun!  Bencuya's back tonight, so we're back to normal.  The e...

Tyrone Jackson and I played a duo gig last night at the Hyatt downtown.  Since it was just the two of us, I plopped a Real Book on the music stand in front of us and away we went. I looked pretty good, but didn't play well.  Some of it was that I just didn't have it…I just couldn't get going.  I think the bigger issue was that I had a couple of uninspiring reeds.  I am listening to the recording as I type this and the sound is fine--sounds like me!--but it was hard work.  I had to put to much effort into playing the gig.  Sometimes it just flows.  Tonight--nope! Anyway, I settled on a reed that was like a 2x4.  I made it through the night, but that reed wore me out.  Looks like a trip to the store tomorrow to buy another box. Here's the audio: A few thoughts: 1.  The first note of El Gaucho is an E, not a G like the book says.  I made this mistake the last time I played this tune out the book. 2. ...

Yacht Rock played a wedding at the Capital City Club in Brookhaven Saturday night.  Weddings can be fun--it can be another gig you play, and there might be half a dozen really cool moments.  On the other hand, a wedding reception can drag on forever--you're playing a gig (usually in a four hour block) in a room with poor acoustics in front of an audience who isn't there to see you.  It can become a drag really early. This particular reception was the latter…we pushed on through it, but everybody was checking the clock. When we started, I noticed that'd left the volume on my amplifier really low, so as a challenge, I backed it down--in fact, I played just about all of the second and third sets with the volume completely off (independent of my signal going to the PA, so it didn't effect what I sounded like in the room…presumably).  Even though the volume knob was at zero, I could still hear the sounds in my head--pretty cool. It was kind of curious that n...

Yacht Rock played the 40 Watt in Athens last night.  Another terrific gig! I think we've got our thing in Athens down.  We know how to navigate, where to eat, where the record store is.  The crowds are really good now--last night was not as packed as the Georgia Theatre gig , but it was solid--maybe three quarters full.  They loved us, we loved them;  we played two encores! The first set went really well for me until the very end.  The last tune was Easy Lover,  and when we started I noticed that my bell sound didn't have any delay on it.  Weird, I thought.  Then when I went to the main synth lick, it DID have delay on it.  Somehow I've managed to switch the effects routing.  I tried to do my best playing the marimba parts on the verse with my left hand while scrolling with my right.  Difficult!  What I eventually ended up doing was bringing up that synth sound in the patch category and flipping back and forth be...

Fully recovered from last week's excitement, Yacht Rock returned (most of us) to the 10 High for our usual Thursday night gig.  Nick is still on vacation and Dannells is still in California. Nothing too unusual about this one.  We were a little worried because the wet weather had knocked out power in a few spots around town, but things were fine and the crowd was decent. Mark Cobb was on fire.  I miss Dannells. davidfreemanmusic.net