David Freeman Music

The forecast for Friday's trip to Athens for our show at the Georgia Theatre was grim--from the looks of it, we could possibly tiptoe out there in freezing rain, play to almost no one, and then creep home in a snowy apocalypse. Fortunately, none of that was the case! We left Atlanta around 4:15 PM, and once outside the city, didn't encounter too much traffic. Load in was fairly painless, and we were set and ready on time, leaving us plenty of time to ponder how many would show up to witness the event. I was really shocked when we walked out on stage--over 900 people were in attendance! We had a really relaxed, easy show, even faced with reworking the setlist because Nick was sick. We also had Ganesh Giri Jaya subbing on drums. 100 or so minutes later, we finished with a two song encore, and it was over. It was raining as we loaded out, but I guess we were far enough west that it wasn't freezing, and we made it back to Atlanta in good time. There was ice on the tree...

We made it through another year! Once more, Yacht Rock played New Year's Eve on a stage built over the ice rink at Park Tavern in Atlanta. The event had 2,000 people show up--it had sold out earlier in the day! We loaded in around 6 PM, and even without the audience, it was already pretty warm under the tent. By the time the crowd had arrived, it was as warm as a summer show. This gig had Ganesh Giri Jaya on percussion and vocals. An excellent addition! All in all, I had a very good show--no great disasters or mental lapses to speak of. I had a good solo on Waterloo , and I made it through Careless Whisper  (quick story on that--it was recorded on tenor, but at a slower speed, so now it's in an awkward place on the horn). Everything else was cool until midnight--we played Auld Lang Syne  in F, and instead of playing C to F as the first notes of the melody (" Should auld"), I played C to F# and then slid down to F, like a nice big grace note. Ouch! Happy new yea...

Wednesday: I was invited to play with Scott Glazer's Mojo Dojo, a monthly gig at Blind Willie's celebrating Scott's love of soul and blues. The band members rotate--this month, it was Micah Cadwell on guitar, Randy Hoexter on keyboard, Justin Chesarek on drums, and Will Scruggs on bari sax (I played tenor). The two saxes thing worked incredibly well with the songs Scott chose, giving it that buzzy old school sax thing without getting in the way of the vocals. Every time I play this gig, I'm anxious on the way there. To some extent, I worry about sight reading charts in front of other people. My greater fear is the soloing situation--every solo spot is high volume and high energy, and after three or four songs, I've got nothing new to bring to the table! For whatever reason, this particular gig flowed really well, never got too loud, and every instrument didn't solo on every song. Way better! We were fortunate to have warm weather and a nice full...

Yacht Rock played a local Atlanta show this past Friday at Venkman's, this time with Peter Stroud subbing on guitar. It was a pretty loose night, carrying on just a touch of the old 10 High silliness, and Stroud did a great job learning the material. I'm trying to remember anything else...we got new in ear monitors, but my right ear doesn't seem to seal very well...my sax solos felt kind of lame... Set 1: Set 2:

I got to play with the Atlanta Latin Jazz Orchestra last night at Venkman's. It was a huge gig for me because of all the really heavy players in the band--guys I admire from afar (the internet!) were all packed on the stage. Even hanging in the green room was kind of intimidating! They're all out of my league. Cool tunes, too! I was glad I'd practiced the charts ahead of time, because I'm not a very good sight-reader and some of the music was really difficult. A few moments from the week of prep: 1. As is the case with most horn parts in Latin music, there's lots of very pointed articulation. My tongue bled a little... One night I was practicing, and in between songs, the Bb key fell of my horn. Woah! I soon discovered that the post had come unsoldered, and several of the side keys were barely hanging on. I made it through the night with a new rubber bands, one holding the post flat to the body, and the other pushing up so that the rods would st...

One last trip out of town for Yacht Rock--a couple of days in Indianapolis and then a quick return to Atlanta. Behold! Thursday: We flew to Indiana for two shows, one public and one private. The first was an evening at The Vogue, our midwestern home away from home.  It was a bit on the cold side when we arrived. I don't miss icy sidewalks. The Vogue show was pretty great. We came within a hundred people from selling it out (on a Thursday night with tough weather!). A week later, I can't recall any specific moments of greatness--just good vibes all around, on and off the stage. A few of my favorite post-gig tweets... Friday: After sleeping late, we took a field trip to the movies for a midday showing of Rogue One , the new Star Wars movie. Good stuff! I was glad to see fewer of the already established characters--bringing in Han and Leia on The Force Awakens felt a little like they were sucking up to the audience. Anyway...back to work! ...

A couple of shows last weekend...the annual Yacht Rock holiday show and an out of state wedding. Let's begin again... Friday: The big show, the Yacht Rock holiday spectacular. We played to a packed room (within a hundred or so of selling out!) at the Variety Playhouse. I had a pretty good show with the exception of a couple of sloppy moments (i.e. trying to dance, play bari sax, and read a chart on an iPad proved more difficult than it was at home). We used a horn section on about half the songs (Rob Opitz, trumpet; Bryan Lopes, tenor sax; Richard Sherrington, trombone). Things started in a panic when I walked out on stage and found that the receiver for my wireless microphones was receiving signal. I checked all three horns--none of them were on! Quickly I moved to another frequency and synced all three of my mics. A few songs later, Lopes' music stand came crashing down off the riser and in between my horns, throwing his music everywhere! Once again, I had to call time...

The flurry of gigs continues...this past weekend, Yacht Rock played a Beatles show Friday, a private Yacht Rock gig Saturday, and a private Beatles show Sunday, which meant overlapping gear, charts, and people. So... Friday:  We haven't played a Beatles gig in a while, but there wasn't anything new, so it was a little rusty, but not too bad. At any rate, my parts are really easy, so half the challenge is in paying attention to which songs require my presence, and which do not. I play lots of tambourine (which broke not once, but twice!). It appears that Facebook Live is something we're going to take advantage of from time to time. Here's our show: Saturday: Yacht Rock at the Georgia Theatre in Athens for a private gig! The sound in my in ears was exquisite. I almost wanted to kiss our monitor guy. Not really (sorry Zach), but the everything was dialed in to perfection, and I had a good night because of it. Even the drive home in the rain was no big deal. (...

Saturday night, the Greg Lee Band opened for John Driskell Hopkins at The Vista Room. Better sax solos than the bullshit I played with Sazerac. I guess I made up for it with some questionable keyboard playing on this one. My apologies that this isn't more exciting, but there are a couple of Yacht Rock shows that demand my attention: 1. Yacht Rock plays the Beatles this Friday night at Venkman's. We're using Justin Powell on trumpet for this, and so I'm busy sending him pdfs of everything he'll need. 2. The Yacht Rock Holiday Special is a week from Friday, and the powers that be want a horn section, so I'm massaging old arrangements to make sure they work and writing new ones for a couple of songs we're adding to our repertoire. Big fun.

Maaaaaan...I really needed this one to be awesome, and it was. Sazerac is a New Orleans inspired band made up mostly of Yacht Rock guys with a four piece horn section of Rob Opitz (trumpet, flugel), Richard Sherrington, (trombone), Gary Paulo (bari sax), and me. Damn! Super fun--this was a killer gig. My horn arrangements sounded great, if I do say so myself! Can't wait to do it again. A couple of videos, courtesy of Jim Ramsdell!

We played two shows Wednesday night--an "unplugged" show and then a regular show, both of which featured a small mini-set of songs by Robbie Dupree. All in all, pretty good! By the end of the second show, the crowd had partied too hard, and we loaded out through a couple of puddles of vomit in the parking lot. Set 1: Set 2: