David Freeman Music

The Yacht Rock Revue played a mixer at the Piedmont Driving Club last night.  Expensive pussy.  Lots of hot, ultra rich women as far as the eye could see.  There was also a crazy lady who terrorized Mark Dannells for a while (much to my enjoyment). So guess who played a wrong note in the fuckin' Maneater solo?  What the hell is wrong with me? In my defense, I will say that the sound on stage was kind of strange, and when I went up to play the solo, almost the only thing I could hear was Bencuya's synth (but not really the rhodes) and some drums, and I felt like I might be in the wrong place and maybe my mic wasn't on. Everything else was cool and they loved us.  Easy gig! davidfreemanmusic.net

The Yacht Rock Revue played our final show at The Ivy Buckhead last night.  We did our Dazed and Confused stuff, so lots of two guitar/one keyboard stuff.  I spent a lot of time doing nothing.  For the first couple of nothing songs, I turned the volume all the way down on my keyboard and just pretended, but even that got kind of lame.  I watched a lot of Sportscenter…I saw Trent Richardson and Ryan Tannehill's pro day workouts multiple times. In the second set, I played on four of the songs--one was just tambourine, and one was a wurly part that isn't on the original (so that I would have something to do!).  So…lots of time watching the band.  We did play Whatever Gets You Through the Night .  That was cool.  My other great highlight was sneaking in the intro to Amoreena before the second set.  Thanks to Mark Bencuya to launching my obsession with this song. davidfreemanmusic.net

I did my two church gigs this Sunday.  It was kind of nice getting home earlier last night--I wasn't as tired (or grumpy) at church gig number one. My AM gig is changing…I'm not sure where it's headed.  For the past year and a half, we've been half traditional hymn based stuff, and half more contemporary stuff with a heavy gospel vibe (which was cool because it left me some room to blow).  Now we're going between the traditional stuff and things that I don't know how to describe…here's the one we played this week: I'm not sure how it's going over--this and the one we did a few weeks ago have a lot of production in the recording.  We did a horn section thing, but that big velvety wall of strings and stuff isn't there.  I'm not sure what it sounds like in the audience.  I do know that the horn section against the sound on stage feels really weird--there's pretty much no audible guitar, bass, or drums, so it's us trying to get some...

The Yacht Rock Revue played an early evening wedding yesterday…geez!  why don't more people do that?  It was great.  We loaded in (supposedly) at 1:30 PM and finished at 9 PM.  I was home shortly after 10 PM. The reception was at 103 West , home of the first gig I ever played in Atlanta.  I hadn't been in there in a few years (the downstairs), but they've totally redone it--it's no longer dark and cramped. We played a set of Beatles stuff and two sets of Yacht Rock .  The playing part moved really quickly.  Easy gig! davidfreemanmusic.net

The Yacht Rock Revue played an event for the Junior League of Atlanta last night.  We were in a tent at some high end kitchen place on the west side of town.  It was us, some food, and a pack of good looking women. The gig went pretty well.  No issues.  My Nord was back to normal. We finished at 11, and I was home shortly after midnight--it's a quick load out when you can back up to the door of the tent. davidfreemanmusic.net

The 10 High was pretty blah last night.  The whole night was a grind. 1.  I turned on my Nord , and half the sounds were missing.  Pianos, yes;  upright piano, yes;  rhodes, no; wurly, no;  clav, no;  mellotron, yes.  What the hell?  All you could hear was what sounded like the return on the effects, so it was just a small amount of rhodes with a lot of reverb (the fundamental sound was not there).  Why?  Don't know.  I was able to work around it with the other keyboard.  Glad it didn't happen at a monster gig where I would have been closer to suicidal. 2.  Egnater pointed at me.  Why?  Don't know. 3.  A constant stream of cigarette smoke from the pack of over 50s swingers.  I know they're harmless, but they creep me out (and no, I will not hug you) and they chain smoke right in front of me the entire night.  Why can't they go bug Bencuya for a while? 4.  Annoying middle aged w...

I played a really fun gig with two of my faves-- Tyrone Jackson and Wayne Viar .  We were booked as background noise for a corporate dinner, and the client asked that we play something "ethereal," so no jazz trio stuff. It was really cool.  We didn't plan anything--no songs or keys or grooves.  When the gig started, Tyrone started playing, and Wayne and I did our best to follow him.  It kind of turned into the Tyrone Jackson show because his creativity made the gig happen.  We couldn't have done it without him. Here's audio if you'd like to listen: davidfreemanmusic.net

I tried to sleep as long as I could on Saturday, knowing what was ahead.  It wasn't enough. Saturday evening, the Yacht Rock Revue played a birthday party in Buckhead for world famous author Emily Giffin (ask your wife).  Awesome house (and I never even made it into the actual house!).  A couple of acres of wooded property with a garden, pool, pool house/office.  It was beautiful. The stage sloped 18 degrees to the rear (as my level app told me).  It might not seem that bad, but when you spend a couple of hours leaning to the right, it gets a little uncomfortable.  I guess the stage builder did not think it was a big deal. you can see the slope of the tent, dance floor, and stage As far as parties go, it was about what you'd expect.  We played two sets--the first to almost no one, the second to a pretty good crowd, and then they didn't want us to stop. I got home around 1:30 AM, packed some more clothes, and took a t...

I played two gigs yesterday.  Yay! Gig number one was a trio thing at Lenox Square Mall--Kevin Smith (bass), Tyrone Jackson (keyboard), and me.  We were background music at a private event at Neiman Marcus . Fun stuff…we hadn't played at trio gig since last November, so I was a bit apprehensive about whether or not I'd be able to keep up, play swing eighth notes, remember any tunes, etc.  I think things turned out fine--I felt pretty good until late in the gig when my hands got cold.  The air conditioner also made me kind of pitchy. Here's the audio: Not my best move to break in a new tenor reed on the gig. Soprano reed…brightest reed ever?  Jan Garbarek? Gig number two was the regular Yacht Rock gig at the 10 High.  This one was pretty good;  the regular band was there except for Mark Cobb .  We played a few that we haven't hit in a while-- Kiss You All Over , My Love is Alive , Thunder Island , Ba...

Back to the usual church gigs this week. Church gig number one was different--we used a horn section this time to fill out specific arrangement.  In rehearsal, it went pretty well,  but on stage, the time got kind of loose--we were strung in a line away from the piano, and the other instruments on stage (V-drums, electric bass, acoustic guitar) were inaudible except for a little bit of it slapping around the house.  Yikes!  I wonder how the whole thing sounded out front. Church gig number two was normal except that I had Jack with me--I was running sound, playing, and trying to keep my seven year old still.  No easy task.  He got bored really quickly.  Air guitar is not cool in church. davidfreemanmusic.net

I did my first House Live gig in a while last night at St. Ives Country Club.  Easy stuff.  Two hours.  They fed us.  Everything was cool. The House Live gig can be nice because you can practice stream of consciousness playing.  Here's some video (flute, alto, and soprano).  The DJ's stuff doesn't show up on the video that well, but that's the foundation over which the drums (Wayne Viar!) and I are playing. davidfreemanmusic.net

I had the pleasure of playing Moontower 's CD release party at Eddie's Attic last night.  Fun jammy southern stuff!  The place was packed with fans and family.  Great night! I played on 2 songs on their new record.  Here's one:   Every Time by Moontower This record was recorded at Wonder Dog Studios with Benji Shanks producing.  Benji's so cool…great slide player and a really sweet guy all around.  He played the gig too--he stayed on stage for the whole thing and kept the rest of the band from veering off into the ditch a couple of times (it got a little loose in the second set).  Nice work!  Four guitars, piano, organ, and drums.  Lots of equipment on the Eddie's stage. Meanwhile, I was cornered at the bar by a short round woman who was so drunk she'd lost the ability to speak English.  We did multiple fist bumps before she went on her way. Congratulations to Moontower on their first CD!  You can buy it ...

photo courtesy of Jim Ramsdell The Yacht Rock Revue (with some help from the Yacht Rock Schooner ) returned to the glorious filth of the 10 High last night.  Same as we left it! The gig went ok.  I was into in the first set, and played well.  I got a good solo off on Reminiscing, and we got to play Lonely Boy , which went well.  In the second set, I got really really really really bored and started playing Christmas carols and Smoke on the Water in between songs.  My distorted organ was quite powerful.   photo courtesy of Jim Ramsdell davidfreemanmusic.net

Saturday:   Yacht Rock played our first Park Tavern gig of the year, a long three sets celebrating Ireland and alcohol. This gig was big enough to call for an opening band, which I guess needed its own opening band.  Anyway…three bands.  First two…hmm.  No thanks. Our first set was all U2-we were Uno, Dos, Tres, Catorce.  As I mentioned the other night, I don't have much to do except worry about my timekeeping on tambourine and shaker.  I drank a lot of beer.  Not sure in hindsight if I should have challenged myself in this way. If I may so, I thought we were pretty slammin' on the U2 stuff.  The band sounded really good. After a costume change, we returned as ourselves for two sets of 70s.  More good stuff--in spite of the long day, we hung in there really well.  Steve subbed again on bass.  He kind of bit it on a few tunes in the second set, but we made it fine.  It's easy to forget how many times we've screw...

Yacht Rock played U2 at The Ivy Buckhead last night…part of the Thursday Night Concert Series that Keeps Us out of the 10 High .  It was a paid rehearsal for us…nobody showed up and nobody in the bar cared.  They didn't even turn the lights on, so we played in the dark.  They must have been busy with the Shake and Bake. My night was pretty easy, but that's what happens when you're the seventh guy in a U2 cover band, playing second keyboard and percussion.  This pretty much sums it up: I did get out of there really quickly.  Not much to load out--tambourine, shaker, and one keyboard. davidfreemanmusic.net