David Freeman Music

I got so busy gigging and sleeping that I was unable to blog! Early last week, I got the set lists for the weekend's gigs.  After enduring a few weeks where I felt totally directionless on stage, I decided that I was going to be very prepared.  I set out practicing everything--no surprises! Thursday:  A really good night at the 10 High.  Nick picked a great set list, and we were on it.  We had a good mix of oldies and new stuff, and the crowd was more responsive than any other Thursday in January. Right before we started, the little voice in my head threw me a curve ball--what if I was so prepared to play the gig, I couldn't focus on playing, and instead spaced out?  Hmm.  Fortunately, it never happened.  I felt really good about everything.   Greatest American Hero was the second song in, and I nailed the synth thing in the bridge!  Woo! Friday:  We returned to 8 Traxx Disco (Andrews Upstairs).  Sold it out--six hu...

Friday:  The big XTC/Sgt. Peppers/Dark Side show at the Variety Playhouse!  It was very cool to play a gig without a wig. We were all pleasantly surprised to see a pretty full (700+) room on Friday night.  All the work that had gone into learning that music deserved a good audience, and we got it.  Very cool! The efforts of Cobb , Bencuya, and Nick were amazing--the three of them played a TON of music.  Not one of their heads exploded.  Dannells carried a ton of (musical) weight in The Dark Side of the Moon , and was brilliant throughout (even if he's still pissed about the solo in Time ).  Every solo on that album is a classic (and David Gilmour's stuff is always so melodic that it sticks in your ear!), and Dannells' tone and technique were spot on.  My hero! For my part, I was mostly just reading charts and trying to stay in tune.  I don't know if the charts are the problem or what, but for me the gig felt more like a sideman tha...

I'm finally all the way back from the funk that has plagued me for the past few weeks!  I felt good and confident about everything I played last night.  It's about time. We had a great gig last night at the 10 High.  The crowd was pretty good--better than last week, but not overly enthusiastic about what we were doing.  Maybe it was the number of people out there, but I thought the onstage sound was much better, and that made a difference for me--who wants to do anything but go home when it sounds like crap. Remember how I was working on picking up the bass part on Steal Away ?  I listened to it this week--the piano/synth guy (my role on this song) doesn't do that at all!  Instead, the piano kind of doubles what the synth does.  Way easier.  Stupid me. Earlier in the day we had a final rehearsal for the big show tonight at the Variety Playhouse.  This rehearsal concentrated on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band .  We're adding a...

We ( Yacht Rock ) had a Tuesday morning rehearsal for this Friday's big gig at the Variety Playhouse .  For this one, we focused on Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon .  It sounded great.  I don't remember what it sounded like the first time we played this album, but with the second guitar (Greg) and Nick playing more second keyboard, it's really happening. Speaking of guitar--Mark Dannells was totally unprepared for rehearsal, and still pulled the entire album out of his butt.  You can do that when you're awesome. I got most of my stuff right.  I screwed up a little on Money . Wednesday morning we played on The Regular Guys show (Rock 100.5 FM).  We did Time (off The Dark Side of the Moon ).  It sounded pretty good.  Dannells was beyond awesome.  Cobb's electronic drum pad took a shit in the corner.  I played the three measures the female vocalist contributed.  Here's my chart: Pretty easy! davidfreemanmusic.n...

Yesterday was Sunday, a day for performances in houses of worship. The first gig was pretty cohesive.  It's finally coming together--no big disasters or anything.  They're limping towards everybody on in-ears , which would be cool.  Right now it's one monitor mix and a six channel headphone amp!  Not quite cool.  Somehow they've not been able to find a headphone extension long enough to reach the eight feet over to my position, so I get nothing, which really hasn't been that bad.  I'm playing acoustically against the piano and drums.  I'm told that eventually they'll start using an Aviom system, which would be sweet. Speaking of sound, I don't know what the hell's going on with the sound at church gig number two.  The sound coming out of the board (listening with headphones) does not equal the sound coming out of the main speakers.  They've changed something between the jacks on the floor where I plug in and the PA.  My best guess i...

I played last night/this morning with Yacht Rock Schooner at Zydeco in Birmingham.  It's the first time we've played there. The room itself was pretty crappy.  Low ceiling, hollow stage, plywood floor.  The sound was vastly different depending on where you were on stage--where I was (downstage left) was pretty good, but the drums and the opposite of the stage were evidently PAINFULLY loud and washy.  The hollow stage made for some weird low end harmonics.  It was just flat hard to hear for most of the guys in the band.  Actually, the dressing room behind the stage was probably the best place!  I hung out there on the tunes I wasn't playing, and I could hear everybody well. The total number of people was around one hundred fifty.  I guess that's good for the first time--if they all tell two people, next time…they were pretty enthusiastic, though, which made up for it.  A big burly guy in the audience passed Mike Bielenberg a note that s...

I started Thursday with a trip downtown for a rehearsal.  Around fifteen minutes out, I got a call that it had been cancelled due to the icy conditions that still remain in parts of the city. I took some pictures while I was sitting in traffic on I 75. On the way home I stopped at Sam Ash and bought some reeds.  I grabbed a box of tenor reeds as well as some synthetic Legere reeds.  It seems silly, doesn't it?  All the technology that goes into building a modern horn--tone hole placement, metal alloys, corks vs felts, not to mention the insanity over mouthpieces--all the thousandths of an inch and the baffle shapes and tip rail thickness, and yet the sound all starts with a fickle piece of cane!  Why? There was NOBODY in Sam Ash.  They didn't even have canned music playing in the store.  It was like I was a private shopper. I made it all the way back home (approximately 40 miles round trip), only to get stuck trying to get back in my drive...