David Freeman Music

I got home from the trip to Athens at something like 4 AM, unloaded the truck, and went to bed around 4:30 AM.  Ouch.  I was up three hours later to chug some coffee and head out to church gig number one. Church gig number one was the typical circus that I've described in the past few weeks. The service began a half hour later (10 AM), and last week I asked if rehearsal would be a half hour later.  Yes was the answer I got.  Of course, I showed up at 8:30 this week and they were knee deep in the music, making me look late. Other than that, it was the typical one song of this, one song of that, one song with a choir I'd never seen before, one song with handbells.  I didn't get any preparation emails earlier in the week this time, so there was nothing I could have done differently. I've been wearing my glasses to this first gig so that I don't have to force my contacts into my face so early in the morning, and once again I noticed how much I need my periph...

Yacht Rock played in Athens at The Melting Point last night.  A great gig!  The sound was wonderful and the room was really cool. We met up at the office and headed out of town, stopping along the way at our favorite gas station. The stage was kind of small, but we were able to make it work.  The sound was great!  It was a really good volume on stage, and I really dug that I didn't have to turn up that much because I could hear myself in the house.  Yeah!  The sound guy--Mike--was very good and paid attention to us.  All the solos got a good bump in volume. I got kind of worried when I set up and we tried my line and got nothing--same thing as at Andrews!  Mike fixed it, though.  It was a problem on his end. Ganesh played drums with us.  Danni covered for Greg Lee. My only major flub of last night was the breakdown on Lonely Boy .  It was a reverse brain fart!  I was going along and not r...

Main Street Exiles played a gig last night at the Star Bar, opening for Nine Inch Neils .  The opened for us. NIN were really good.  Much like Yacht Rock , they are able to use the kitsch factor to win the crowd over.  I mean, they got the whole Star Bar to sing along to Sweet Caroline , I Am I Said , and Song Sung Blue . Our set was kind of rough.  We jumped up on stage, line checked, and started playing.  No monitors or anything.  Tony decided to leave the bass cabinet on the opposite side of the stage from where he usually is, so I flipped and stood next to Freddy.  We used a different drummer ( Donovan Babb , who played very well).  Cox's microphone kept coming unplugged. Chris Cox Here's the problem with all that--the songs are really loose to begin with, and Cox needs everyone to be in the right spot so he can be loose, and we need to be able to hear Cox clearly in order to know wher...

Yacht Rock played Turkey Eve at Andrews Upstairs/8 Traxx Disco Wednesday night.  Sold out!  Very cool. The sound continues to be a problem in that room.  When I arrived, the stage looked like a tornado had just passed through.  Cords were everywhere and a monitor was face down.  The sound guy was kind of putting it all back together. I was not a fan of the sound guy.  Right from the start, I made a recommendation about where to put one of the monitors (in front of Greg and Bencuya), and he continued moving it further to the side (right where I set up my keyboards).  When I said something like, "That's not going to work," his response was "That's the way it's going to be."  I bit my lip and helped Ganesh load in gear. Once I started dealing with my own equipment again, I set my keyboard stand behind the monitor in question, and the sound guy moved it, insisting to me that we keep an open path across the stage.  Moments later I saw hi...

I did my two church gigs yesterday. The first one continues to not quite be organized.  Yesterday was better...we finished the rehearsal early, but then the leader said "Oh, we forgot to go over the offertory song!"  No big deal--he passed out a chord lyrics sheet with chords.  As the soundguy was rewiring the piano microphone (with the lid on the grand piano wide open), the leader said to me "Take the melody," except that I usually put my music on the piano, so I was trying to see it up on top of the pipe organ (which I guess was kind of futile anyway since there was no music, only words and chords).  Then, as I figured out the key of the first song, it segued into a second song with which I was not familiar.  "I've got to have you on melody for this part."  OK.  A couple of thoughts: 1.  If this is going to be an instrumental song and you want me to play the melody, why are you giving me lyrics and not sheet music? 2.  If you knew you...

We played the infamous (for me) frozen EWI gig again last night.  Fortunately, the weather was much better, and I had no equipment issues.  It was still a little chilly when we began, but this party was full of people that dug the band, so as soon as we began people came out to the tent and warmed it up. I kept waiting for my EWI to freak out.  One thing I did notice--when I would switch it on, it would get stuck on this "screen."  It would make no sound. I would then turn it off and turn it back on and get the normal screen. After the tent got pretty warm, it would turn on directly to the normal screen.  Weird, huh? Mark Cobb was pretty amazing last night.  He was super groovy.  When he's that "on" everybody sounds better.  Awesome!  I remember thinking "Goddamn he's good!" about three songs into the night. We played three sets and we done by 11:30.  Actually, I had...

Yacht Rock played a gig last night at Sweetwater Brewery --a surprise 40th birthday party. The low last night in Atlanta was somewhere in the low 40s.  Pretty much as soon as the sun went down, it got super cold.  My hands were hurting by the end of each set (we began around 9:45 and finished at midnight).  Painful. not pictured, Mark Cobb (on his phone) I was really concerned about the EWI freezing up-- it happened last year (actually, it's the same gig we're playing tonight!).  No problems, but it was in my head.  Instead I had to deal with the ol' "acoustic instrument played outside when it's 48 degrees" thing--you know, push the mouthpiece in an extra quarter of an inch!  Not fun. The musicians' union should have some sort of rule about not playing outside when it's this cold at night.  Really--if Sweetwater had just added sides to the tent, it would have made all the difference in the world.  I guess they weren't ...