More Newcastle!

Last night I began the Yacht Rock festivities by ordering a Newcastle and declaring the possibility that I might get rip-roarin' drunk (to which Nick replied, "Like last night?")  I'm really not that bad.  I in fact did not get drunk, but I was buzzed for the entire night.  It was that kind of night--I hate to say it, but I didn't care.

The crowd was good (and good lookin'--wow!), and pretty appreciative of what we were giving them.  I was surprised at the end of the night that the final count was so high--in front of me there were times when it was thin.  The room must have turned over more than usual.

I was on a pair of great reeds last night and I could hear my monitor really well, so I just went for it.  Things like Baker Street got a little extra sauce;  maybe it was the beer?  I just had to do it.  Kind of givin' it all the finger.

On the other hand, my laptop (the old one) gave me the finger a couple of times!  Something happened a few times--the EWI would transmit MIDI info (I guess?) that muted Logic on my laptop, and so I'd tried to play something and get NOTHING.  Very, very, very irritating.  Thank god I was in a "f**k it" kind of mood or I probably would have gotten very upset.  Instead I just banged on the space bar and/or enter until it was cleared up.  Here's to gear that doesn't do this!

That was the last straw.  I spent all of today getting my sounds together on Mainstage (on my Macbook Pro) and making sure it all worked.  Now that I'm up and running, I am wiping my old computer (the G4) clean.  There's no going back!

I really am pretty sick of dealing with the EWI.  I'm cool with using it as another "voice", say the way Bob Mintzer uses it in the Yellowjackets, but I'm sick of dealing with it as a MIDI controller.  I guess I should have taken piano lessons more seriously!
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Newcastle

Last night was Please Pleaserock Me at Smith's Olde Bar.

It was a low energy kind of night.  We've got to figure out a way to get more people to come through the door, I guess.  The crowd last night was ok, but they didn't give us much--it was almost like they were stunned by what they were seeing.   At no point did it feel like they were all the way with us.  I wish there had been a little more unabashed enthusiasm.

The first set I was not busy, so I spent most of my time focused on the awesomeness of Mark Cobb (who is awesome).  He was killin' it.  I haven't seen much of him because he's been out of town and Yacht Rock has been kind of slow at the moment, but he really kicked ass.  

Paul Poovey played trumpet with us last night (Jason Pellett is on vacation).  Paul was outstanding!  He walked in and played the gig with no rehearsals or anything.  

Greg Lee played alto last night, and I think it made the tunes we did last night sound better.  Previously he had been playing bari, and a few times we ended up with a big gap between him and us.  Now he's right up in the middle of us--much better.

The second set featured Newcastle in the beer tub back stage.  I like Newcastle a lot.

When you listen to the recording from last night you'll probably hear me destroying She's Leaving Home--it's because I couldn't hear anything I was playing.  I will not blame that on Newcastle for that.  My hope is that nobody else could hear me either.
Newcastle is also not to blame for the end of Jet.  The jump from the bottom of the horn up to an altissimo B for the solo is hard to do.

I was much busier in the second set and could not get backstage to fetch another Newcastle.  That's the way the gig ended.

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Chattanooga

I played a really easy solo sax/quartet gig in Chattanooga last night--a private party for a couple of hundred lawyers at the Hunter Museum.

The gig included Trey Wright (guitar), Louis Heriveaux (piano), and Kevin Smith (bass).  Dan Baraszu was originally on the gig, but he ended up playing with Will Scruggs for a CC Booker III gig (cool organ/sax stuff with David Ellington and Marlon Patton).

So the gig...I played solo saxophone for an hour in one part of the museum and the trio played in another.  After a break, we played the remainder of the time as a quartet.

These people were LOUD.  While the four of us were eating, the question was posed--why hire us?  I mean, these people didn't need background music.  They couldn't have cared less!  All we did was contribute to the volume.  I don't get it.  Anyway, we had fun in spite of them.  At the end of the night, one of the bartenders came up to sing "If I Ain't Got You" by Alicia Keys, so I ran like hell to get out of there.  I bet I was on the road before she finished!

I hadn't played with Louis in a while, and I'd never played with Trey.  Both play really well.  We got along great and everybody's styles meshed well.

Here are mp3s of the quartet for your enjoyment:



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Typical Thursday

Yacht Rock played our usual Thursday night at the 10 High.  I have nothing more to say...it was business as usual.  I had good reeds on both saxophones, and I integrated a better fingering for a piano part.  I wore one of my new shirts.
See--I told you I had nothing.
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The Lucky 38

We had 38 paid attendees at the Yacht Rock Roller Disco.  Ouch.  After my personal triumph the night before, I came crashing back to earth.

What else can I say...I drank multiple beers before we began, and so I assume that the sound was only weird to me.  Ganesh filled in for Mark Cobb (!) on drums, and it felt like the gig was him and me playing in the Bat Cave.  The sound didn't get any better as I gradually returned to sobriety, though, so I think that's just the way it is.

Let's talk equipment problems, shall we?

1.  My effects pedal for my saxophone croaked.  Really, it was only the power supply that died.  It's an easy fix, and I think I only played saxophone on three songs, so it was no biggie, but it does mean a trip to the music store.

2.  My brass sound in my EWI rig (computer!) has gotten all out of wack.  I'm not sure how, but it just sounded terrible and splatty and distorted.  Fortunately I am days away from having my "Mainstage" version up and running, but I did waste some valuable time screwing around with it (to no avail).  I wonder why one sound in my setup got so mangled, but everything else is fine.  I guess it's the final push to get me to finish building my new virtual rig.  I've been holding onto Logic 7 for too long!

38 people?  Are you serious?  I predict that rollerskating at the Masquerade is on the way out.
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Chris Burroughs Collective

I played a really cool with drummer Chris Burroughs at the only jazz club in Atlanta, Churchill Grounds.  I thought it was going to be a public gig, but it turns out it was a private event--somebody had rented out the room and hired us.


It's funny going into Churchill again.  Back when it started out, I used to go and sit in with a couple of friends (Dan Furman and Joseph Patrick Moore), back when the stage was in the front window.  Later on, I used to play at the jam session just about every week.  For a while, I was playing some gigs there as a leader.  At some point, I fell out of favor with management and they stopped hiring me.

Once they opened "The Whisper Room," I went to one last jam session there.  A few years after that, I stopped by one night and sat in with Joe Gransden.  Since then, I have not been in the room.

This being my third time, I would say it was charmed.  The gig also included Tyrone Jackson and Joel Powell (bass).  I had a wonderful time.  I was sort of worried about playing a jazz gig where I might have to think about lots of tunes--the jazz gigs I do are dominated by my own tunes.  No problems, though.  Everybody was cool and I could relax and play.

This gig felt huge to me.  I am always worried that I am busy off doing my own thing and nobody will remember me for jazz stuff.  I would do gigs like this for free!



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Peg in Charlotte

Here's an audience video of us playing Steely Dan's Peg in Charlotte last Thursday.



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Park Tavern

Yacht Rock played at the Park Tavern in midtown last night--part of the Summer Concert Series there.  This particular gig was our Reagan Rock show--all music of the early eighties.  We like to think of it as a continuation of the smooth seventies hits into the next decade.

This gig was insane.  It sold out--they were turning people away!  Very cool and very surreal.  Lots of people saw us for the first time.  More and more, I don't recognize hardly anyone in the audience.  The thing just continues to grow--business is improving!

Other than that, it was fairly uneventful.  There were a few rough spots, which was understandable considering we hadn't really played most of these songs since the Variety Playhouse gig.  I felt a little more mentally aware than I did in Charlotte--in other words, I didn't feel as crappy about my performance as the previous night!

We had a different sound guy than we usually see at the Park Tavern--last night was Kip Conner, who usually runs sound for Shawn Mullins.  I think the board was frustrating him (and us).  Things that he would turn down would get turned back up, and other things would disappear.  We made it through ok, but  he seemed pretty pissed about it afterwards, and I can understand why--he's a total pro sound guy, and the thing made him look bad.

It's becoming apparent to me as we play larger venues that my little powered speaker is not powerful enough to keep up with the stage volume--it's fine when I'm right on top of it, but even six feet away is getting too far.  Right now I'm using a Mackie SRM350, and I usually use it wide open.  I think I need to jump up to the SRM450 so I can have it loud enough without the sounds distorting.  I thought about buying a big keyboard amp (since that's mainly what's going through it), but a 450 is around the same price, and I could also use it as a main speaker on gigs where I have to supply a PA.

After the gig, I was explaining the EWI to a woman, and I explained that it was a synth, but instead of having piano keys to tell it what note to play, it has saxophone fingerings.  She said, "You play saxophone?"  Ouch.
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Alive After Five

The Yacht Rock Revue played Alive After Five in Charlotte last night.  It went pretty well.

We all met at the office around 10:30 AM, loaded up, and headed up I 85.  Along the way we had the usual stops for food and gas, and rolled in around 4 PM, I'd guess.  From there, we loaded in, set up (on a really nice outdoor stage), soundchecked and ate.

The gig was not too good for me.  I'm still trying to get used to the new keyboard;  the EWI had another moment of playing itself;  mostly I was mentally unavailable for the beginning of the gig!  I just couldn't get my mindset into what we were doing.  It was like I was spaced out, and I was trying to force myself to pay attention (with limited success).  While that was happening, I was thinking about things like "the split on this keyboard needs to be tweaked" and trying to play around that (and tripping all over myself).  The EWI started playing itself again--it was still registering breath pressure even though I wasn't playing it, which caused it to do some strange stuff for a second.  I'm not sure what that was--it was not terribly hot or humid--maybe barometric pressure?  Altitude?  I don't know.  It worked, and then somehow I sent MIDI information that muted everything...I don't know.  I turned the sensitivity down and everything was fine for the rest of the gig.

Anyway, if you were there (either on stage or out front), my apologies for not being on it.  I just didn't have it yesterday.  

We drove home after the gig (I slept a good bit of the way).  I got home around 4:30 AM, wide awake from having taken a three hour nap!  I was up for a while longer before I crashed again.

We're at the Park Tavern tonight.

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Let's Get Stoned

Tonight was the Rolling Stones tribute band, known as "Let's Get Stoned," at the 10 High.  For a first gig, it went very well.  We had some small errors, but we made it through the gig without any deaths, and we had lots of good moments.

For me, the gig was cool for two things.  First, (the awesome) Mark Cobb.  Tonight he was awesome because he was pushing and pulling on the beat in a couple of tunes, and I thought it was cool because he was doing it on purpose!, massaging the time ever so slightly back and forth but never losing control.  So impressive.  Mark Cobb is awesome.

I also really dug standing next to Fred McNeal, who really played the hell out of his guitars tonight.  He was so cool and so authentically rock and roll.  No crap from him--he knows the music so well, and his performance was right on target.  I started paying attention to him more last night at the rehearsal, and he really impressed me tonight.

Yacht Rock is in Charlotte, NC tomorrow night for a gig.  Hope to see you there.
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Trio gig

I was fortunate to play a trio gig last night with Tyrone Jackson and Kevin Smith.  It was supposed to be a four hour gig, but when we started at 6 PM, someone came rushing in from the other room and said that they were rehearsing for a big presentation and we would not be able to play until 7 PM.  No problem;  we can wait.  We played an hour, took a fifteen minute break, played an hour, and took a fifteen minute break. When we returned to play the last half hour (9:30-10 PM), the client said, "Great job.  You guys are finished."  Evidently, no one told us the event was ending at 9:30!  So...our gig ended up being only two and a half hours.

I tried to record again last night, but once again my recorder failed me.  It did not record the first set, and the second set was only half the stereo mix.  I think I've gotten my money's worth out of my old recorder.  Methinks it might be about time to upgrade.

Anyway, here's what I did get:


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Friday Night in Nashville

Friday night Yacht Rock played in Nashville at the Mercy Lounge, opening for Space Capone.  The show was sold out--we've come a long way from our first gig in that room, which had maybe a hundred people, most of whom seemed to confused by us.

The gig was good.  No disasters to report.  It was really hot with all those people in there, and super loud--my amp could not keep up with the volume.

We spent the night (as always) at the Best Western on Music Row.  Pick's (the dive bar next to the lobby) was quite a scene at 3 AM.

I have a busy week coming up.  See you on the other side.
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Thursday

Last night Yacht Rock played our usual gig at the 10 High.  Not much to report from a band perspective--it was business as usual, and business was good.  Ganesh played drums, but Mark Cobb sat in on most of the first set.

For me, last night was the debut of my new (used) keyboard, a Roland Fantom X6.  I had no problems, other than one of my sounds did not have much attack, so I changed it.  Ooo...I was showing Dannells all the splits I'd set up, and somehow I changed the tuning of the entire keyboard!  Yikes!  Right before we started, I turned if off and turned it on again and things were fine.

Even better than the new keyboard was the Marshall cabinet behind my gear.  Last night I put my amp up there, and it changed the gig!  All of the sudden, I could hear my saxophone on stage.  For previous gigs it was down on the floor in the corner, and when I went out to play a solo it was very quiet.  If I tried to turn it up, it would feed back when I got back to the keyboards.  Last night, I could hear my horns GREAT!  So awesome, and no feedback.  I'm looking forward to our next 10 High gig just so I can do that again.  I may have to invest in an amp stand.

We're off to Nashville.  Mercy Lounge, here we come!
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July 3 and 4

Saturday, July 3, I played a set with the Schooner in LaGrange, approximately seventy miles south of Atlanta.  From what I heard, we played for someone's twenty-fifth birthday.  All I know was that it was in somebody's backyard, and the house and yard were Southern Living immaculate.

We debuted two new songs--Diamond  Girl and Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do).  Both were a little shakey, but for a first attempt in public, they went fine.  I did my part, botching the solo on Arthur's.  As is usual with the Schooner, all my stuff was in the first set, so I got back home around the time they finished the gig.

I went to bed around 1-1:30 AM and got up at 5 AM.  We (Yacht Rock) had to be in Piedmont Park at 6 AM to load for the Peachtree Road Race.  We played as the crowds finished the race and the awards were finished, approximately 8:30 AM til 11 AM.

It was a terrific gig (other than the time frame!).  The sound was terrific;  the crew was pleasant;  the monitors were cool.  At 7:30 AM we did a soundcheck, and I played some nasty split-tone altissimo Bb's that were deafeningly loud through the PA.  That was awesome.

We loaded out across the park at the Park Tavern parking lot around noon.  We were not expected at Turner Field for the game until 1:30, so Bencuya, Dannells, and myself went to Dannells' house to change clothes and eat.  We ended up hitting the Felini's in Candler Park.  From there, we made our way to the Braves stadium for the biggest show of our lives.

Our first stop was the field to rehearse the National Anthem.  Crazy.  I was surprised that the grass is as short as it is.  The field is immaculate.  We sang a couple of times (through the mics--we were audible all the way over where the Olympic torch is on the other side of Fulton County Stadium!), and the fighter plane guys timed us for coordinating with the pilots for the flyover.

Here's video of the rehearsal:



We went and set up on the stage (on wheels) in the tunnel.  A quick soundcheck and we were done.

Up in the box we hung out for a bit, changed clothes, and ate before we headed down to a holding room before the Star Spangled Banner.  The escorted us onto the field, and here's how it went:



What a moment!  I wasn't nervous at all, but I was so totally focused on singing that I don't remember anything about being out there.  It was amazing, though.

Back to our box;  we watched the Braves lose to the Marlins 3-2.  Right at the end of the game I went back down to the tunnel, and once the gate opened in right field I rode the stage out onto the field.

Here are some videos from our performance:







What a night!
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Wednesday/Thursday/Friday

There's a lot going on this week/weekend, and I'm right in the middle of it.

Wednesday night, we played Please Pleaserock Me, which if you don't know is the Yacht Rock guys (plus Jason Pellett on trumpet) playing Beatles stuff and songs from their solo records.  It's pretty fun.  The gig is really easy for me...basically, I have horn section charts and we just read 'em down.  For some reason, I couldn't really get me head into what we were doing.  It wasn't disinterest so much as the blahs.  The gig went fairly well, and we had a decent crowd.

Thursday night was the Yacht Rock Revue at the 10 High--our usual Thursday nighter.  The place was packed, which is always nice!

I still had the blahs heading into this one.  The first few songs were a little "are we really playing?"  Mentally, I had not yet arrived.  Thus, I missed the return to the intro on Grease.  Nice.  It took about half a set to find a groove.

Ganesh Giri Jaya played drums (and Dereck Murphy sat in a couple).  I couldn't really get into what either was playing.  Everything was too laid back--not enough kicking ass!

Mark Bencuya played a really terrific synth solo on Hey 19, reminiscent of his solo on I Wanna Be Your Lover from the Reagan Rock prom.  Other than that, it was business as usual.

After the gig (at 2 AM!), I met up with a guy over by the Dekalb County Jail and purchased his Roland Fantom X6.  I am one step closer to being like Bencuya!

Speaking of which, Bencuya paid me the compliment of the year in telling me how much I have improved as a keyboardist.  Brandon Still left us last July to join Blackberry Smoke, and Bencuya says that in listening to the recordings from last fall and then listening to the latest stuff he can hear a huge difference in my ability.  Great news!  I'm glad it's making a difference.

Friday night, the Yacht Rock Revue played at the Park Tavern as part of the Summer Concert Series.  This is our favorite place to play right now--the stage is a good size, the sound is impeccable, and the crowds are always enthusiastic.  We did our thing last night and they loved it.

A few personal highlights:  I played piano on You're So Vain, and it was the best I'd ever played it.  I was rockin'!  It was awesome.  I had a great time playing the clav part on Peg behind Mark Dannells' solo--while I was playing, I imagined Bencuya listening to it 6 weeks from now and wondering what in the hell I was doing!  I played organ on Footloose and fell in love with the overdrive knob on the keyboard.  I was extremely audible, let's just say.

Mark Cobb was back, and he was on fire.  I LOVE playing with Cobb.  He was killin' it.  He made the entire band better.

We're singing the national anthem Sunday evening at the Braves game, so we tried it tonight.  It went pretty well.  I got a little off.  We practiced it in the dressing room and it was solid, but I wandered around in the middle.  Gotta fix that before we step on the field!

I am with the Yacht Rock Schooner tonight.  Debuting Arthur's Theme (Best that You Can Do).  Oh yeah!
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