Sunday was a long day, with a Yacht Rock gig sandwiched by two church gigs.
AM church gig: not too bad. When we'd gone over one of the two big songs for the day, the main vocalist hadn't been in the room, so I played the melody as a place keeper. During the actual service, it dawned on me (right around the time nobody was singing and the bandleader whipped his head around to see why I wasn't playing) that there would also be no vocalist! Yikes. So, I was in. No problem. Four bars into the verse, I tried to turn the page, but six or seven pages turned instead. Uh oh. I tried again, but no luck. I ended up playing the entire thing from memory, which definitely got the adrenaline going.
I checked with the rest of the band afterwards, and nobody knew it was going to be an instrumental, which means I didn't miss anything at rehearsal. Sometimes I don't pay attention...
After my gig, I had around forty minutes to get home, change, and load my truck up with Yacht Rock gear. We played a benefit for Live Thrive, which is an organization dedicated to cleaning up and preserving the local community through recycling. What other band better represents recycling?
We played two sets for a friendly, good looking crowd, opening with Band on the Run (sounds like that one's going to be a keeper!). It was a very relaxed show.
We finished around 5:30. I was packed and out the door just after 6, headed up to my PM church gig. There was a guy riding a horse bare back on Howell Mill at I-75. Wait…what the hell?
My family met me at the church, where we swapped cars. My gear went home, and I stayed to play.
The evening church gig was decent. I felt better after the nap I took during the homily.
Upcoming Yacht Rock gigs for August:
August 23, Park Tavern (Atlanta, GA)
August 30, House of Blues (Anaheim, CA)
August 31, House of Blues (Hollywood, CA)
It's sad to hear the Cedar Walton is dead. I've been on a big late-70s Bob Berg kick, right around the time the two were playing together. Here's one of my favorites, from Berg's New Birth (1979), with Cedar Walton on rhodes.
