November and December 2023

Friday, November 3, 2023: LAX to Oxnard, CA. We landed at LAX on a Friday afternoon. The vans scooped us up and drove for a few hours to our hotel in Oxnard. 

It was kind of weird to see fog come in off the ocean and completely obscure everything, an hour after landing in the afternoon sun of Los Angeles.

We all ate in the hotel lobby restaurant, which turned out to be fairly decent, and then went off to our separate rooms. In the middle of the night, I awoke in a massive panic--what if I couldn't remember any of my parts to anything? I was freaking out! I knew what parts I was supposed to play, but I couldn't think of the key or the first note of anything. What if this happened on stage at one of the biggest gigs of the year? It took about forty-five minutes to finally get back to sleep.

Friday, November 3, 2023: Santa Barbara, CA. The big one! The final show of the Kenny Loggins tour, at the Santa Barbara Bowl. There have been some absolutely legendary performances here, including a couple of Loggins shows from the early 80s, as well as the Joni Mitchell album Shadows and Light.

Special guests were expected! 

This place is great.

Catering was outstanding.

The bananas were ready.

Our set went off without a hitch, and I remembered all my parts. I'm not sure why my brain did that to me, but I was fine.

Kenny's show was, naturally, outstanding, and featured several guests--most notably Michael McDonald (playing What a Fool Believes, Heart to Heart, and This is It).

And then he hung around side stage to watch much of the show. Look at this picture! He's 10 feet away from me! I wanted to say hi and get a photo, but his manager was often nearby, and we'd been warned at the beginning of the day not to swarm him. So here I am, watching Michael McDonald watch Kenny Loggins.

At one point, Kenny Loggins' manager (Shannon) came by to introduce a friend of hers to Michael Mac, and suddenly I was in a circle and Michael was FACING ME. He we go! Shannon began the introductions, (to Michael's agent), "Hi, I'm Shannon...Michael, hi, I'm Shannon, this is my friend blah blah blah," and then she turned like she was going to introduce me to Michael's agent and Michael McDonald (YAAAASSSSSSS!!!!! DOOOOOOO ITTTT!!!!!), and she paused abruptly, with Michael looking right at me, and I said, "Go ahead!" but she chuckled and blew me off, and they briefly small talked around me, and then it was over, and I got NUTHIN'! Well damn.

I did manage to corner Kevin Bacon at the water fountain backstage, and I asked for a selfie and blamed my wife, just like you would have, 'cause Kevin Bacon is cool as shit.

The next morning, we made the long trip from Oxnard back to LAX, and flew back to Atlanta. That was a long trip to play forty-five minutes worth of music.

Friday, November 10, 2023: Adairsville, GA. I played in a jazz quartet for someone's rehearsal dinner, at a barn/event space out in the middle of nowhere. It was a strange gig because the individuals were all contracted independently, so I had no idea who else was on the gig until they arrived. We ate while the party was making their speeches, and when the drummer got up to go use the bathroom, one of the other guys said, "What's that guy's name?" "I think it's Ben." None of us knew for sure. 

Anyway, kind of loud for where we were, but the audience tolerated it.

Saturday, November 11, 2023: West Palm Beach, FL. Back on the Yacht Rock gig, this time at a country club in West Palm Beach. I think this was some kind of membership party? Load in was the usual mix of high humidity (it had rained the night before) and direct sunlight that you would expect from south Florida. 

All things considered, this one was pretty painless/mindless. There were tons of people, but they were all at a distance the whole night, so not much vibe from the crowd. 

Friday, November 17, 2023: Nashville, TN. Another uneventful gig, this time at Marathon Music Works. 

Saturday, November 18, 2023: Nashville, TN. We played a wedding reception at Brooklyn Bowl in Nashville, but first...tacos.

Brooklyn Bowl is a pretty cool room. 

In other news...I had been trying to record this arrangement I wrote of Old Devil Moon for a Halloween themed video, but so many other things got in the way that I didn't get it finished until November, so it's more of a fall theme. Still works!

Thursday, November 30, 2023: Montclair, NJ. We flew to Newark and then drove to Montclair in the vans.

The Prudential building in Newark--my dad worked here in the early 80s.

This evening's gig was at the Wellmont Theater.

Big crowd!

This was the first show of the Christmas season, we played Last Christmas and Santa Claus is Coming to Town, and John Hopkins was with us as a special guest, so we played Sleigh Ride and Frosty the Snowman from his newest record, Let's Get Frosty.

Friday, December 1, 2023: Huntington, NY. Tonight was the first of a two night stand at The Paramount in Long Island, one of our favorite rooms to play.

Big autograph session for PBS donors.

Saturday, December 2, 2023: Huntington, NY. Night two. I had some local pizza for lunch, but without cheese, it was kind of lame. My fault.

Hop in action.

After the show, we had cake to celebrate Kourtney's birthday. 

We flew home on a rainy Sunday at LaGuardia.

Monday, December 4, 2023: Adairsville, GA. Another random quartet gig, this time providing holiday music for a Christmas party. Two hours of Christmas tunes turned out to be my maximum. 

The four of us all knew each others' names this time, which is some sort of improvement, I guess.

Monday, December 11, 2023: Smyrna, GA. Nick, Hop, and I did promo for the upcoming Hop on a Cure gig (and a little bit for the Yacht Rock Holiday show next door at The Roxy). Hop did most of the talking, so I mostly watched it all go by, and joined in on Frosty the Snowman and Santa Claus is Coming to Town. Monkeyboy was supposed to join us, but he got his schedule mixed up and couldn't attend.

Friday, December 15, 2023: Columbia, SC. This one was our annual benefit for Camp Cole in South Carolina--we'd done a few at The Senate, but they moved it to this much bigger, nicer auditorium.

I went for a run after soundcheck, and the catering people gave up on me and took all the food before I could eat, so I had a peanut butter sandwich and several bananas for dinner.

Saturday, December 16, 2023: Smyrna, GA. Back in Atlanta for our annual holiday show at The Roxy. Sold out!

Wednesday, December 20, 2023: Atlanta, GA. Not much brain power left, but we did what we could to make John Hopkins' Christmas show a success. It all came together at the last minute--I was dealing with horn charts from the horn section, horn charts that I had to provide to the horn section, and songs with no horns, and then Monkeyboy got sick, so I covered all of his solo moments in the songs--it was a little chaotic. 

Here's our horn section! Elizabeth Regas (French horn), Ryan Moser (trumpet), Luke Weathington (saxophones, flute, clarinet), me, Justin Powell (trumpet), and Mike DeSousa (trombone). 

photo by Emily Butler

Saturday and Sunday, December 23-24, 2023: Sandy Springs, GA. I was out on a bike ride around 5:30 PM on Saturday when I got a text from a fellow woodwind guy in town: "Are you available at 8 PM tonight and 2 PM tomorrow? I'm trying to find a sub for White Christmas, tenor and clarinet. I just tested positive for COVID." Woah! I made quick arrangements to get picked up so I could shower, inhale some food, and race over to the theater. 

It went well! Fortunately, it wasn't complicated, and there were friends sitting next to me to help warn me of anything weird. Mostly it was just long--over two and a half hours!

On Sunday, I went straight from the pit for White Christmas to my church gig.

And that was it! I made it through another holiday season of gigs.

Here's a new arrangement of The Christmas Song that I wrote and performed (starring ornaments from our Christmas tree).

On to the next thing, which is a bunch of horn arrangements I've been assigned for the next Yacht Rock Revue album. We have set a date for recording them in mid January. I may kill myself. If not, see you in Orlando for New Year's Eve!