Revival!

Wow!  Yacht Rock hosted the Greatest Yacht Rock Revival in the Universe for the second straight year.  Bigger and better!

I think it was, on the whole, a tremendous success.  Congratulations to everybody at Pleaserock (Nick, Peter, Kristen, and Esther) for pulling this together.

As for me, I think I played ok.  The first couple of tunes were fine, and then I bit it on Sara Smile.  The rest of the set was fine.  The second set had no major problems that I can think of, either, except for some overblowing on the saxophone stuff.  Nothing new there.  At soundcheck, I played the Africa solo probably seventy-five times, and I made it through it at the show, but just barely.  The solo on the outro kind of redeems me these days.

So…I don't know.  I just don't have any confidence in what I'm doing these days.  Music is not fun for me at the moment.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Revival Rehearsal

Yacht Rock had our big rehearsal with all the guys for tomorrow's Greatest Yacht Rock Revival in the Universe.

First up, Elliot Lurie from Looking Glass.  We went through Brandy and Jimmy Loves Mary Ann.  We tried to convince him that our ending for the former would work, but…no.

After Elliot, we ran through Baby Come Back and This Time I'm in it for Love with Peter Beckett.

The guys from Starbuck came in next and ran their songs while we ate lunch.  Their marimbist, Bo Wagner, totally stole the show.  He's still a pretty captivating soloist.  Afterwards, we talked for a couple of minutes (he's going to email me transcriptions of his solos on Moonlight Feels Right and I've Got to Know)--he's a really nice guy.  I showed him my EWI set up and how I deal with the marimba solo ("play as fast as you can in E minor!").

I ate lunch with Walter Egan.  I get the impression that I weird him out.

Walter was up next.  No problems with his songs Magnet and Steel, Only the Lucky, and Go Your Own Way.

Next up was Gary Wright.  Gary was very particular about his songs--wanted to know what parts everybody was playing, what the guitar and clav effects sounded like, and checked the vocal harmonies.  I didn't play much (only played the string part, doubling Gary, on Love is Alive), but his scrutiny definitely made me unsure of myself.

I had Gary sign Brandon Still's keytar.

The last guy of the day was Robbie Dupree.  We rolled through his two tunes, Steal Away and Hot Rod Hearts, with no trouble.  He was exhausted from traveling, so we touched on a few things quickly and wrapped up the rehearsal.

All set for the big day tomorrow!  John Ford Coley, sorry we missed you!

davidfreemanmusic.net

Sunday

I was fortunate that we were able to come home instead of spending the night in Kiawah Island--I was able to make my AM church gig.  I had lined up a sub at the beginning of last week, but they said they would rather not have saxophone if I couldn't make it (I'm not sure if they're being nice or lazy).  Anyway, I showed up and played and things were fine.

Things were once again pretty thrown together--we rehearsed for all of fifteen minutes.  One singer and a couple of single page hymns.  Easy stuff.  We spent more time on break than on the gig.

My PM service was more organized, but just as easy.  Nothing to talk about.  I played fine.  The mixer came unplugged right before the last song, but that was an easy fix.

This is a big week!  Time for Yacht Rock's Greatest Revival in the Universe!

davidfreemanmusic.net

Just a Van Ride

Yacht Rock was supposed to play a show on Kiawah Island during the PGA Championship there last night.  When we arrived, we found the stage off in a field next to a small shopping village.  Unfortunately, we had driven through some bad weather to get to the island, and the weather was headed that way.

We never even got our equipment out of the van.  We sat in our green room and ate sandwiches, and at a certain point (after it'd rained for a half hour), they called the event off.  We got back in the van and headed back to Atlanta.

davidfreemanmusic.net

AC/DC

Yacht Rock played a semi-private show at the Georgia Theatre in Athens last night--a cancer benefit put on by the Athens Area Cancer Auxiliary, but I think anybody could purchase a ticket.  We played two sets beginning at 9:30 PM.

I walked out right before we began to wet my reeds, only to find that my laptop had died.  Holy shit!  My power supply must have died and left my laptop to slowly run the battery out.  Quickly, Kevin Spencer ran upstairs and got his power supply, and after a couple of minutes, Peter was able to get my laptop to wake up and return to normal.  Wow.

That's how the gig began…a (temporarily) dead component of my rig and a big adrenaline rush.  For the first couple of tunes, I was playing my parts and trying to diagnose what happened.  Once I'd calmed down, I could pay attention to what was happening on stage.  That was right around the time (Saturday in the Park) that the batteries in my EWI went down, and I had to find a place when I was not busy to switch them out.  More adrenaline!

I got that sorted out and began to calm down.  Sneaking a peek at the power supply recharging my computer (during Peg), I noticed that the light on it was not on, and thus my computer was back on battery power.  Agh!  Back into crisis mode…playing the gig, but mentally trying to figure out how I can get to the end of the set (I need the EWI for Rosanna) without my computer running out of electricity.

I looked again at the plug, and it was in fact charging, so everything was fine.

That was the first set.  When you watch a show, you probably never consider that while I'm playing, all hell is breaking loose.  Without all the drugs, it would be impossible.

On the break, I found out that my computer power supply (which has a brick and then a plug that fits on it) had come apart.  I pushed it back together, and the problem was solved.

The second set was easy by comparison.  I even aced the Africa solo.  Lots of air keyboards (volume turned all the way down) for Bencuya's enjoyment.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Eric!

No AM church gig.  The church is getting new carpet, so they combined our band with another service's band, and I was left out.

While we were setting up for my PM church gig, Eric Alexander walked up.  He was passing through Buckhead, so he came by for church.  Yay!  Eric's one of my favorite people, a terrific friend, and a great mentor.  Having him in the congregation definitely kicked my playing up a notch.  I maybe played a little louder and a couple of more notes, and maybe I was messing around with a polyrhythm during the communion song.  Whatever.  Eric was there.  Maybe I was showing off a little.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Choker

Yacht Rock rolled back into town last night after two theatre shows.

Thursday:  Lincoln Theatre in Raleigh, NC.  We'd never played here before, and our first impression was that it was a skinny version of the State Theatre in Virginia.

Easy load in and fairly easy soundcheck…there was some sort of problem with one of the monitor mixes, but they swapped it out (it died in the middle of the show and they had to switch it back).  Other than that, the on stage sound was pretty good.

This show was fun.  We had a decent crowd (over one hundred) for our first attempt at Raleigh, and they were very enthusiastic.  Hopefully we'll be back!

here's Ethan the Monitor Guy, who burned a bag of popcorn and ate it throughout the second set

I continued my trend of screwing up the solo in Africa.  I'm messing up one measure of a six measure solo.  It really sucks--it's some kind of mental hang up.  I play it over and over before the gig, and then I choke when it counts.  I did play a pretty good solo on the outro, though.

Friday:  we were back at the State Theatre in Falls Church, Virginia (DC area).  One of our favorite venues (except for the bouncy drum riser and un-airconditioned green room)!

Nick redid the set list from the previous night.  It worked out that there were lots of sax songs in the first set.  Fun stuff!  My horn was INSANELY LOUD for Baker Street.  Well done, front of house guy.

We had a couple of hundred for this show.  That's about average for our DC shows.  The theatre will hold a lot more, but it still felt like a good crowd.

Mark Cobb had a spectacular drum solo on Lido Shuffle.

I choked on Africa again.  Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuccccccckkkkkkkkkkkkkk!

Saturday:  all day van ride.

Slow week ahead--we have The Greatest Yacht Rock Revival in the Universe coming up in two weeks, though, so this is my big week to get the songs prepared…so I don't choke.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Pinehurst Golf

Yacht Rock played a gig Tuesday evening at the Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina.  It was definitely one of our weirdest gigs ever.  We played for the US Kids Golf World Championship.  Someone who had seen us perform in Atlanta hired us as evening entertainment.

There we were in a ballroom with a couple of hundred kids (10 years old would be my guess) and their parents.  We played two sets with iPod in the middle.  It was kind of a mitzvah situation.  Everybody was sober.

The gig had a strange vibe, but everything else was pretty awesome.  Easy load in and load out.  We ordered food--on someone else's tab--(I had caesar salad, filet mignon, and key lime pie) before the gig.  Open bar after the gig. I spent the night in a room to myself.  The next morning, I had a forty dollar breakfast (again on someone else's bill).  Extremely nice people working there.  The size and age of the place reminded me of The Greenbrier in West Virginia--the same kind of old school resort.

Wish I played golf!

Wednesday, we were in Raleigh, NC, hanging out until our Thursday night gig at the Lincoln Theatre. It should be fun!

davidfreemanmusic.net

Sunday Fun

So yeah…I dragged ass out of bed and went to my AM church gig.  More of the same kind of vibe (or more correctly, lack of vibe).  We kind of threw together some hymns and worked through a sixteen page chart, and then one after that that was probably around ten pages.

The performance was OK.  Tommy Dodd (of pedal steel fame) was there again, so he and I were sharing "fill" space, and the music didn't have that much space to begin with.  I felt really disconnected from what we were doing.  We did one song with a percussion loop.  The vocalists sang to the slap they were hearing off the back wall and the rhythm section played to a click (all on headphones).  I was in the middle, I guess.

We finished the service, and everybody in the band EXCEPT me was invited to play the second service (a repeat of what we'd just done).  One of the other guys asked if I got the email about staying and I said no, but then I had to ask the band leader, who shot me down.  Ouch…that was a little uncomfortable!  No love for Dave.

I left there and headed over to the church where I used to play, St. Ann's, for a special mass.  One of the long time priests there, Father Ray, has been transferred to Chicago, and for his final mass he specifically requested me to come play.  Very cool!

From the moment I walked into the church, things were great.  I know the guys in the band (led by Ed Bolduc of bVI, IV, Vsus V fame), and we were all excited to be reunited.  Super fun!  I think I have a good approach to Ed's playing and compositions, and the whole mass (without rehearsal) went very well, and I had a really good time.  Father Ray started crying during one song, and after we ended he apologized:  "I'm sorry…it's just the sax!"

Before the mass, Ed announced to the entire congregation:  "Joining us today for this mass is saxophonist David Freeman from the Yacht Rock Revue!"  Ha!  I guess that's who I am now.

It was really cool to see lots of old faces!  Maybe St. Ann's could take up a collection and get me back in there…

LUNCH.

NAP.

My PM church gig was ok.  I'd didn't play anything of value.  My mix sounded pretty good, I think.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Melting Point

Yacht Rock was back in Athens for two sets at the Melting Point--part of an 80s prom event.  We played forty-five minute sets beginning at 10 and midnight, alternating with a DJ.  Easy stuff!

The Melting Point is not the easiest room in which to play.  The stage is small, and the room is very wide but shallow--you could throw a tennis ball from the stage and hit the back wall.  It has a balcony, concrete floors, and glass windows.  The sound on stage is loud!

The crowd was really into it, which made it really fun.  Big cheers for everything we did…or maybe they were screaming in pain because of the volume.  I know that when I took a sax solo, the sound man would bump me up and it was probably the loudest thing in Athens at that time.

I played much better.  No boneheaded stuff like the previous night.  I think I'm getting over my fear of the Africa solo.  We played True for the first time in months, and I still have that solo under my fingers. Why?  Of all the things to be glued into my memory!

Speaking of the Park Tavern show, I heard something rattling around in my keyboard, and it dawned on me that I'd put my alto reed on the keys when I was packing up and forgotten to put it back in the holder.  In between soundcheck and the first set, I took my Nord apart to get the reed out.  Nice work.  A perfect cap on that show.

I was in bed at 5:15 AM.  Up at 7 AM to begin Sunday!

davidfreemanmusic.net

Just Like Johnny Colla

Since I mentioned it a few posts ago, I will begin with one of my signature moments of last night's Yacht Rock:  I forgot to turn my sax microphone on, just like the guy from Huey Lewis and the News.  And I felt just as stupid.

Yacht Rock played our monthly show at the Park Tavern to a whole lot of people (last month was over 2,000, but they vowed to cap it because the June show was more people than the bars or restrooms could accommodate).  I made lots of stupid mistakes like the microphone thing;  played things in the wrong octave (talking about the bridge of Baby Come Back and the chorus of Good Thing AND the synth hook on My Life).  I sucked real bad because I was very, very stupid.

The second set was much better for me.  I didn't screw up the solo to Africa, though I was holding on for dear life.

My new alto mouthpiece is awesome.

davidfreemanmusic.net