David Freeman Music

Yacht Rock played the albums Purple Rain and Thriller last night to a sold out Variety Playhouse .  Amazing show!  Thanks to the choir, the audience, the Variety Playhouse crew, and the Pleaserock crew (KD and Nackers) for making it happen! Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called life... Purple Rain Ghostbusters costume Thriller! Stay Puft Marshmellow Man! davidfreemanmusic.net

Yacht Rock is in final preparations for the big event:   Thriller/Purple Rain at the Variety Playhouse .  It should be a really good gig--we're getting more comfortable with these special occasions (and having a week to focus solely on twenty songs helps). We had a big rehearsal Wednesday night at Avatar--the band and the choir, all laid out the way we'll be on stage at the Variety.  I was seated next to the great Mark Bencuya. We were super loud.  We took a break between albums, and I was shocked to hear (without earplugs) how cranked my amp was.  At the end of Lady in my Life we inserted a sax solo, and when I went out front to play it, WOW!  The loudest thing in midtown.  It was awesome.  I'm not sure how the choir handles the volume. Last night (Thursday), we played a private event at one of the office buildings in Atlantic Station for Live Thrive , a company that helps companies become more environmentally friendly. Off...

Sundays are church gig days. AM:   Paul Poovey did a good job subbing on trumpet with us. Things were pretty solid--no train wrecks, and not much rushing by the horn section.  Good playing all around, though I played a couple of gruesome wrong notes. A couple of slots where we normally would have played were taken up by a guest--smooth jazz guitarist Roland Gresham .  He did a couple of tunes with pre-recorded tracks.  It put the whole band to sleep. PM:  The PM gig was ok.  I had a good soprano sax reed and a bad flute face (that's what happens when you haven't picked up a flute in two weeks), so I leaned more on the former.  I didn't play anything noteworthy, regardless of the instrument. I must comment on the outfit of the lady in the second row.  Fedora, olive t shirt, pleated high waist camouflage pants, half a forearm of bracelets on each arm, knee high black velour boots with four inch clear stiletto heels and gold metal toe...

Yacht Rock played the Candler Park Fall Fest last night, doing our Dazed and Confused set list with special guests Derek St. Holmes and Rick Derringer.  Lots of guitars on stage;  lots of guitar amplifiers on stage;  lots of stage volume. My position was directly behind Mark Dannells' amp, which fortunately is a closed-back cabinet, so it didn't send much my way.  It turned out to be a pretty good spot--I had almost nothing to play, so I mostly hung out and watched my friends rock.  Nice work! with Derek St. Holmes Rick Derringer davidfreemanmusic.net

More stuff!   Yacht Rock had a Friday morning (noon) rehearsal with Rick Derringer in final preparations for the Candler Park Fall Fest Saturday evening. So…Rick Derringer.  The man, the myth, the legend, the Sloopy.  I have no opinion of his playing--I just can't tell which rock guys sound good.  Maybe it's because I have no feeling for what it takes to play the instrument, but I also think that the tone of the rock guitar disguises lots of elementary technical stuff. From rehearsal, we loaded into the Grand Hyatt for a private event for the Primrose School.  Rumor has it they were going to try that "curtain falls/instant band" thing like we had Tuesday night, but it never materialized.  Thankfully… These people were a bit stiff--it felt very suburban and upper middle class.  There was a great disparity between the talent and the, shall we say, well fed.  They were generally polite, with the exception of the woman who poked...

Yacht Rock zipped up to Nashville yesterday afternoon to play a forty-five minute set at Scream on the Green , the last installment of their downtown concert series Live on the Green .  The opener was The Delta Saints , and Here Come the Mummies followed us as the headliner. Any gig that begins with a crew loading our gear from the trailer to the stage is a good one.  They also ferried it back after we finished.  Very cool, though I have enough personal stuff (saxophones, EWI, computer) that I get nervous when the guys want to grab stuff and walk offstage with it. We played for a bunch of people.  10,000?  I'm not sure.  A few weeks prior they'd had 15,000 for Alabama Shakes .  It wasn't totally full like the crew had described, so I'll guess 10. Great sound on stage and out front (at least it sounded great for The Delta Saints). Once we finished, we packed up and headed back to Atlanta.  Ouch! davidfreemanmusic.net

I had a terrific quartet gig at the Georgia Aquarium Wednesday night.  The band was Tyrone Jackson (keyboard), Kevin Smith (bass), and Marlon Patton (drums).  We played for the International Titanium Association--I did not make that up. This was my first time recording the band by taking the signal from my mixer--usually, I hang my recorder on the music stand in front of me.  It took a little while to get the balance right--I think it's better from Nothing Personal on down. I'm still better than last night's sound man.   David Freeman Quartet - October 10, 2012 by David B Freeman davidfreemanmusic.net

Yacht Rock began yesterday with a rehearsal for two upcoming shows:   Candler Park Fall Fest and Thriller/Purple Rain at the Variety Playhouse .  Good soundman Hans showed up with our gear after driving it back from Connecticut for us.  We loaded in and rehearsed.  I sucked real bad on the Thriller/Purple Rain stuff.  It was painful and embarrassing.  I will hopefully get some time to work on it early next week. Later that afternoon we loaded into the Hotel Intercontinental for a corporate gig that night.  We were set on stage behind a curtain;  at some point in the evening, magic words would be spoken, the curtain would fall, and we would be playing--instant insane party. As you can imagine, it never actually works.  The curtain will fall and they'll pull it off to the left, they said.  It fell and they pulled it off to the right, except for the end, which was still hanging up there at the end of the gig. Because there would...