David Freeman Music

I played a trio gig with David Ellington (piano) and Mike Beshara (bass) for the brunch at Venkman's on Sunday.  There was quite a crowd in front of us, which made for a boisterous first set, but once they cleared out it was a little easier to hear ourselves on stage. I always enjoy taking a stab at Dave's stuff because he lately has favored odd meter tunes, which are very challenging for me to solo fluidly over.  It's also fun just to watch Dave's hands while he plays--he makes it all look so easy and relaxed.  I feel like my own keyboard playing will never reach that point.

Yacht Rock played a really enjoyable show in Duluth, GA Saturday night.  The city hosts a couple of summer concerts at their city hall complex.  It's all very well laid out, with a nice area for the crowd, a large covered stage, comfortable green room, and easy load in.  Well done!

Another wild weekend of travel and hot gigs.  Here's what I remember: Wednesday:  Knowing that I would basically not be home for anything until Sunday, I stayed up late Tuesday night tying up a bunch of loose ends.  Unfortunately, that meant that I only got about three hours of sleep before it was time to get up and run downtown for a commercial shoot. Yacht Rock was invited to rework our original song Can't Wait for Summer and star in a commercial for the Atlanta Streetcar.  I believe they're trying to have it finished by the end of June. I was asked later where we went on the streetcar, and I really have no idea.  We traveled the 2.7 mile loop, but I kept falling asleep when the I wasn't directly involved in a shot!  Groups of extras and a couple of band members got off at a few of the spots and shot things outside of the train.  Here's my bit at Woodruff Park.  It was, I guess, a nice break from enduring questions from people who had ...

Summer is definitely here.  Yacht Rock played two indoor shows and one outdoor show last weekend, and all three were approximately the same temperature. First up:  keyboard stand crap. The Great Bencuya and I are still looking around for a better keyboard stand.  While we like the model we've currently got (the Quik Lok 642), neither of us is completely sold on its sturdiness.  The "eyebolt solution" ( you can read about that here ) for the knobs seems to be acceptable at the moment, but I still worry about it them every time we begin setting up gear.  I mean EVERY TIME.  So, we (I) are investigating other options before these fall apart. This week's contender:  the On Stage Stands Two Tiered Z Stand. Pretty cool.  Definitely more robust, and the knobs all turn (all fifteen of them).  You can certainly customize the width of the stand and the heigh and angle of the top keyboard. My first big problem with this sucker: ...