June 2024 (mostly)

Friday, June 7, 2024: Atlanta to Denver. This trip began with some airport trouble in the form of no park-and-ride shuttles working the lot! When I arrived, there were groups of people who had walked out of the lot and were calling Uber/Lyfts to drive them to the terminal. Hmmm. I decided to go in anyway, and ended up in a spot waaaaaaaaay away from where I line of people had already formed down the center of the park-and-ride. After quite a walk, I ended up standing this line for a least a half hour--occasionally, a shuttle would come and pick off the first twenty people, but the line was growing at least as quickly. It was not good, and I was glad that I didn't have to pee. Also, our flight picked up a pretty sizable delay, so really the only risk for me was sunburn. Other citizen were pissed.

Made it to the hotel in Denver, went for a run, saw a groundhog. On the way back from my out-and-back run, I got caught in a hellacious wind storm--it was like a thunderstorm that never arrived, and so it just got dark and very windy, and I ran headfirst into it, absorbing all sorts of grit into my contacts. It got so bad that hid behind buildings a couple of times, hoping it would subside, and at one point I ducked into the KFC to wash my contacts off in the bathroom because they were so uncomfortable that I couldn't open my eyes.

Saturday, June 8, 2024: Boulder, CO. We played a private gig/fundraiser gig at little Fox Theatre in Boulder. It was a much smaller place than we've been in lately--these doors literally opened onto the drum riser (six feet below, though).

Aloe Blacc opened for us (he's making a record with the drummer who organized this event). Matt Sorum (of Guns N' Roses/Velvet Revolver/The Cult) was also involved--he sat in on a couple of songs with Aloe's band.

Our set was pretty down the middle, mostly because The Great Bencuya was on vacation, so we had Rhett Huffman filling in on keyboards. The only tough thing was that I think we didn't start until something like 9:30 PM local time, so by the time we finished, we were pretty dead.

Aloe Blacc sat in with us on 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover, and he nailed it. We hadn't played that one in quite a while, and we were under the impression that he would sing Use Me with us. 50 Ways hasn't been on a setlist in many moons, so nobody had reviewed it until we got to soundcheck. Hmm. Nervous.

The food was insufficient, but Zach and I snared some excellent burritos from Illegal Pete's across the street. Highly recommended.

Tuesday, June 18, 2024: Atlanta, GA. Yacht Rock played a private gig for Coca Cola at the Zoo. Easy gig. Nothing to report. Kourtney's back!

Friday, June 21, 2024: Atlanta, GA. Still no gigs to speak of, but I did go see my friends Chris, Craig, and Tyrone plays a trio gig at a local distillery. Holy moly they're good.

July 1, 2024: Atlanta, GA. That should've been it for June, but at 11 PM on Sunday night, I got a call to play an evening jazz gig at a private residence. Sure, I said. Then I was asked to play earlier in the day (also a jazz gig) at the same residence. Sure! 

This one was very, very unusual (to say the least). The midday event was a celebratory lunch, with bassist Tommy Sauter and I performing. In a small home theater, the husband and wife (it was her birthday) sat directly in front of us (like ten feet away), and they were scrolling, FaceTiming, sometimes breastfeeding, and also eating for two hours.

The evening event was similar, but in the foyer of the house. Pianist Louis Heriveaux and I played. He was happy to not have to carry his keyboard in, but once we began to play, it was obvious that the piano in the house was not played regularly! The middle was a half step flat, and by the time you got to the top, it was a whole step! Ouch!

Wednesday, July 3, 2024: Coralville, IA. Yes, Iowa. Feel free to pause and say all of your Fields of Dreams lines out loud. Get 'em out of your system.

For us, Iowa brought back memories of a crazy gig in Council Bluffs where Monkeyboy claims that he got so cold that he blacked out. You can read about it here: https://davidfreemanmusic.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-jet-set.html

Anyway, we flew to Des Moines reeeeeeeaaaaaalllly early, got in this limo shuttle thing, and headed to Coralville, approximately and hour and forty minutes away. 

A pit stop for gas where I bought four perfectly ripened bananas for $.60. Hell yeah.

We ate lunch (pizza), set up and sound checked, and then had around five hours of downtime. Lots of naps were attempted. At 5 PM, I finally got out my clothes and went for a run. This town has some excellent multipurpose trails, and the temps were around 80 degrees. Not too bad!

This gig was ok. The backline gear was kind of rough, so I don't think any of us were particularly pleased with the sounds we were getting, but it was survivable. I had keyboard stands that were either a little too tall or a little too short, so I ended up going too short and sitting low, but I couldn't quite get my knees under the piano...it was not quite right. 

More importantly, the Fantom had a knob that kept moving while I would play, so it would change the sound randomly (for you who are familiar, it was the "cutoff" knob, and it would sometimes make sizzley radio static noises, sometimes make the ends of notes cut like the power had been cut off, and sometimes there would be no sound at all). Everything was cool for the Africa solo, though. Thanks for asking.

No tenor sax songs on this one. I didn't even bring it.

The mayor introduced us, and he was extremely excited that we would be spending the summer opening for REO Speedwagon. He didn't even mention that REO (and we) are opening for Train. So...whatever.

Greg was out for this one, so we had Seth Waters of the Yacht Rock Schooner joining us on bass. He did an exceptional job, and he was also an exceptional hang.

Following the show, we drove in the same limo van thing to Cedar Rapids for the night. There is only one flight from Cedar Rapids to Atlanta, and it takes off at 6 AM, so we had a 4:30 AM lobby call. Ugh. I was a mess for the rest of the day.

In other news...here's a song I wrote and recorded at home. I came up with the chord progression at the beginning of March, and I've been procrastinating ever since! 

Having the summer tour as an absolute deadline finally got me to finish it.