David Freeman Music

Yacht Rock played our annual Turkey Eve gig this year at the Egyptian Ballroom.  Good gig!  Over 700 people showed up to see our old stuff and new stuff ( You're No Good, Southern Cross, Forever in Blue Jeans, You Can Do Magic, and Only the Good Die Young ).   Added bonus:  Peter Stroud came and played guitar on Hotel California, Carry on Wayward Son,  and Ride Like the Wind.   A cool evening. Video from last week from the Greg Lee Show at Eddie's Attic--no puking!

Yacht Rock played a pep rally for FSU in Tallahassee Friday night.  I hadn't been to Tallahassee in twenty-five years, and was surprised to find it not as dirty and crappy as I remembered.  This seemed like it was going to be a horrible random gig with lots of driving, but it turned out to be a pretty enjoyable night. FSU pep band I limped home from the previous night's I-wanna-die experience in Decatur, arriving in my garage at 1 AM.  At that point, I had to resort my gear (putting the Yacht Rock gear back in its pile and separating it from the stuff specific to the Eddie's show) and pack my truck with gear and clothes for the trip.  I finally fell asleep around 3 AM. Up at 6 AM.  First thing of the morning--rocket propelled diarrhea!  I took that it to be a good sign that whatever was upsetting my stomach was no longer fighting to go back up, and instead headed out the other exit.  I still felt horrible enough that I slept on the bathro...

The Greg Lee Show!  Mostly the Yacht Rock guys backing Greg on his originals (and a few choice covers) at Eddie's Attic, just as we'd done earlier in the year with both Greg and Nick.  This one had Ben Holst playing bass most of the night--Peter was out of town.  I like the material a lot, and I also like that the fact that there we can focus on performing and not think about the rock show posturing.  Frankly, the stage is so small at Eddie's that there's no room for any kind of movement at all. We loaded in and sound checked late in the afternoon, and then hung out for several hours while an entire early show checked and played (two full bands on an earlier time slot), and then our opener (Lexi Street) played.  I'm suspecting that I ate something that didn't agree with my stomach, and the hours of waiting gave it plenty of time to reach a boil.  By the time we hit the stage (around 10 PM), I was BARELY holding back an avalanche of vomit.  It w...

Yacht Rock squeezed two gigs into Saturday--a wedding reception and then a corporate event.  Double money?  Weeeeee.  It wasn't nearly as arduous as it looked on the day's itinerary. Gig #1:  wedding reception for our buddy Brandon, talent coordinator for the Braves, in Peachtree City (30 minutes south of Atlanta).  We played on set (less than an hour) at the beginning of his reception.  We were crammed onto a corner stage of insufficient depth.  Mark Cobb had to play with his elbows against the wall in order to stay on the drum riser. At 6:30, we dove off the stage.  All gear that was going to the next gig (guitar rig, both keyboard rigs) came off the stage and packed in fifteen minutes--a personal record, though in order to make it work, I didn't clean my horns, and all my cables and pedals were picked up in a pile and dropped in my case.  Kip ran sound on this gig, and we had Zach running set up and ready to run sound at the ...

David Ellington and I (the Dave and Dave Duo) played our monthly Friday night at Sun in my Belly in Decatur.  The restaurant is doing very well, with every table full during our set. We had a good time playing, as we always do at this gig.  The staff is wonderful, the food is delicious, and the people are willing to listen.  Dave and I added Horace Silver's Gregory is Here as a new tune in our set (the original has the Brecker Brothers as the front line).  A little brisk for a first attempt, but nonetheless a groovy tune over which to blow.

our audience at the appointed start time of 9 PM Dave Ellington and I played Churchill Grounds last night.  The audience was thin, as expected, and we were saved by a group of seven guys who came in, watched three tunes from the back of the room, and then got up and left.  The other guys--the conga player from a salsa gig I did years ago who randomly stopped by;  the dark haired guy;  the guy who asked if we'd be back next week;  and the cellist who thought that tonight was a blues jam (what?) and brought his cello. We played well, though.  You can check out the mp3s below. If these sounds tickle your ear, you can catch us at Sun in my Belly in Decatur this Friday, 7-9 PM.

Week night corporate events are pretty sweet--good money on an off night.  This particular gig was a trio gig at the Aquarium with David Ellington and Moffett Morris. Most of the excitement happened before the guests ever arrived.  The parking lot boss decided at 4:55 that everybody who needed to be there for the event were already there, so he closed the gate, locking out one third of my trio, a few servers, and THE CLIENT for the evening.  Nice work.  It took some begging to get the gate back open long enough for Ellington to pull his van into the parking deck. Other than that...another gig.  They fed us, but it was a highly refrigerated box meal--even the potato chips were cold. I didn't play particularly well.  Part of it, no doubt, was my decision to try and get through the entire gig on a dead reed.  At first, it wasn't too bad, but by the end, it was really dead, and so was my mouth.  It also seems like it took most of the gig befo...

Here it is...the blog about our trip from Miami to the Bahamas aboard the Grammy Women Who Rock cruise.  It makes perfect sense that you would hire a band of seven dudes to take part. Tuesday: Got up super-damn early to fly to Miami to get on the boat.  This picture is before the door had closed.  I, for one, was asleep before we pushed back from the gate, and slept almost until touchdown in Miami. I was awake, obviously, to take this cliched picture of the airplane wing somewhere over south Florida.  Behold the wonder of flight.  Check out all of that lower air pressure over the top of the wing, generating lift and keeping us from death. We got on the boat with little hassle.  I saw the Indigo Girls in line front of us.  Amy had a baby strapped to her chest.  Emily was looking a bit harried in sweatpants.  That was it as far as contact with the stars.  I can't even say for sure that they were actually on the boat. First...