Itchy

Another wild weekend!  

Thursday was a two gig night.  I first played for the opening of the Hotel Palomar in midtown--me and a DJ and a percussionist (and later on we were joined by the duo Days Ahead).  After that I bolted over to the 10 High for Yacht Rock.  We had a strange cruise.  The crowd had very few familiar faces, and at some point that night a few people turned on us.  The night ended with someone throwing a cup at the stage.  Not cool at all.

Friday was a period of recovery and working on my website, davidfreemanmusic.net, a little more.  I also mowed the yard and attempted to control some of the brush in our backyard.  I was probably exposed to poison ivy.  It happens every year...you'd think I'd be able to identify it at this point, but no.  My shins are starting to itch, so I think my fate is sealed!

Jack had his final T-ball game Saturday morning.  From there I raced (in the rain!) to the Yacht Rock gig at the Dunwoody Beer Festival.  The Tupperware Party played a set at the end of the rain, and then it cleared off enough that we could get set sail in Dunwoody.  I think we made a ton of new fans.  We sold out of captain's hats in about 2 minutes.  

Sunday I played my church gigs.  In between, Jack and I attended Ingrid Bencuya's 6th birthday party.  Happy birthday Ingrid!  Mark Bencuya loaned me a couple of videos.  I checked out Weather Report at Montreux 1976 and the story of Stax Records.  The Stax thing just about killed me!  What a story!  You gotta see that one.

This week should be pretty low key, which is a good thing because we're gearing up for Nick and Elliott's wedding.

Peter Olson

Happy Birthday to Peter Olson, the smoothest, most unflappable person I have ever met. You're a good man.

Wednesday

It's already Wednesday...this week is flying by! My website, davidfreemanmusic.net, is up and running. I've spent the past couple of days consumed by one thousand adjustments, mostly adding pictures and sounds, as well as a heavy dose of do-it-yourself search engine optimization. I'm worn out. If you haven't been, please come check it out. I threw a couple of more pictures on there, and I finally added a few live tracks from gigs with my quartet and quintet.

In other news, I participated in a recording session for Rebecca Loebe. It was a horn section with Karl Liberatore, Marcus Henderson (pictured here) and myself on tenor and bari sax. We did it at Will Robertson's place. Without a doubt, one of the easiest sessions ever--the guy had charts! It also helped immensely that from the first note, the three of were pretty tight. Like we'd played in tune before or something. It was cool. We did multiple passes on a couple of tunes and were done in under an hour.

Another busy day is already up and running, so I'd better get a horn in my face.

Is it really Sunday?

My new favorite kid show is "Penguins of Madagascar."  It's on Nick.  You've got to try it.

Last night I played a wedding reception until 11:30 at the History Center (and nearly strangled myself out of boredom), and then joined the last night of 500 Songs for Kids at Smith's.  Lots of standing around, punctuated by brief periods of deafeningly loud monitors.  It was fun, though, and a pretty good hang.  Mark Cobb and I hung out of a little bit afterwards, and I ended up walking out the back door at 3:45 AM.  Ouch!  

I'll be headed to bed early tonight.  

Practice and Performance

When it comes to performing, I am of the belief that you prepare (practice), and then you go out there and go for it.  If it works, great;  if you crash, hopefully you recovered.  Either way, you accept it as was you've got at that moment, and when the moment's over, it's time to start thinking about the next one.  I play around town quite a bit, and adopting this philosophy has really helped me to avoid spending useless time analyzing what when wrong on any particular gig.  

I play a steady gig with several volunteer musicians, and as soon as the last song has finished, everyone is chirping about who screwed up and why.  It seems very amateurish to do that.

Last night Yacht Rock had alot of finger pointing after the show at the 10 High.  Things got a little tense.  Let it go.  

Thursday

Thursday!  It's here again.  Time to race through another wild weekend of gigs. 

I've had enough time to get some work in on every horn this week, so (at least mentally) I feel ready to go to work.  

still going

Greetings.  What a day yesterday!  Beth called not long after I got up reporting water in her car (it was raining).  Of course, I was expected to fix the problem immediately!  So, I eventually diagnosed that the drains for the sunroof were clogged and the excess water was draining into the headliner.  I worked on cleaning out the two tubes that carry the water to the outside (basically, I tore apart the interior of the front corners of the car).  I had to stop so I could go teach.  When I got back, I had to pick up Jack at a friend's house (Beth was at ASO Chorus rehearsal).  We boogied home so that I could clean house and get the laundry done while she was gone.  I cleaned the kitchen, vacuumed the house, and got the laundry cleaned and put away.  That left me just enough time to read three stories and get Jack to bed before he crashed.  After he went to sleep, I ate supper and finished working on the car (including the worst part--putting it all back together).  I got to bed at 3:15 AM.  Hopefully the car is done so I don't have to hear about it anymore.

On the gig front, I played a whole bunch last week, and I've got a bunch of stuff this week.  That's good, because we're just about out of money.  Attached is a nice shot of me at the Star Bar playing with YOU.

Yacht Rock performed at 500 Songs for Kids this past weekend.  It's always a ton of fun to watch other bands do their thing.  Their music careers, I'm assuming, have been much different from mine.  I have been a hired gun from the day I started--call me, and I'll come play with you.  Most of these guys, I'd guess, have always been in a band (with a certain amount of exclusivity to that).  I wonder if I was fifteen years older if I would have spent more time as "the sax player in the band," instead of an add-on.