David Freeman Music

The Georgia Theatre never disappoints. Nice gig! Everybody (including Keisha and Kourtney Jackson, who were with us for this one) was in a good mood, and you could feel it on stage. You know how I usually hate my solo on Biggest Part of Me , and then it turns out that it was at least decent? The opposite happened here: I felt like I did pretty well, and then a friend sent me a video of the solo, and it sounds like I'm just randomly trying some shit out. Thus, here's a picture, but not a video!    photo cred: Chadwick Hunter We also played our original, Step,  which we had debuted at the Revival show a couple of weeks ago. I'm still trying to get the hang of it--not quite comfortable yet. Also, we closed the night out (like the Revival) with Bohemian Rhapsody.  I'm not sure why, but I felt like I was wildly pitchy for the first section--like there was no tonality, and I just had to go off muscle memory. Anyway, yay Athens! It was good to see y'...

Santa Fe! This was our third year playing this gig--some kind of private party at an expensive house on a hill, and every year it gets a little bigger, a little more expensive. This year, they built a boat deck, and we played up in front of the bridge. How clever is that! The views are beautiful. And the property is also gorgeous. We arrived really early--flying west from Atlanta to Albuquerque, we landed at noon, ate lunch at the airport, and then piled into a sprinter van for the trip out to Santa Fe. After helping set up the backline gear and then sound checking, we still had several hours to kill. I went for a run (it was hot and there was altitude), and then we took the house shuttle into town to find food. I hit the Indian place (of course), and they were so slow, they turned the lights on in the dining room when they seated me! I ordered dal makhani (lentils sautéed with onions, garlic, ginger, and tomatoes) and a side of rice. Pretty ...

Yacht Rock was on the road again this week, beginning with a Thursday evening show in Nashville a their "Live on the Green" festival. We were in a the 7:30 PM slot. Way back in 2012, we also played this program, though they held in October then, and I remember I was underdressed and very cold, and I borrowed Mark Dannells' jacket. You can relive it here . Anyway, after a somewhat chaotic load in and set up, we only had time for a super quick line check before giving way to the next band's set up. I guess we were a little late, but the stage crew was also a little slow with the plan for a drum riser, and we had to wait til that was set before we could build around it. The festival then drove us to a nearby hotel to relax before our set. Urban golf carting! After about an hour, we made our way back over to the backstage area to eat dinner. Quite a crowd had already gathered to see the band before us, American Authors. The change-over--one drum riser ro...

The 2019 Yacht Rock Revival was once again at Chastain Amphitheater in Atlanta, and we were fortunate to once again sell it out--6,900 people.  It's surreal. It blows my mind that we're playing a gig on the same stage where I've seen Sting, or Hall and Oates. Instead, it's us on stage, and I can look out in the audience and see my parents out there singing along. The guests for this year were Matthew Wilder, Robbie Dupree, and Johnny Townsend and Ed Sanford (Sanford Townsend Band). Gary Wright was originally on as well, but he fell ill earlier in the week and had to cancel. We played Dreamweaver without him (even using his backing track!). I especially enjoyed playing Sanford Townsend's Smoke From a Distant Fire , which is a song we used to watch on video back when we were just starting out. Here's my chart. Their other song for this show was I Keep Forgettin'  (a hit for Michael MacDonald), which was cowritten by Ed. In order to fit it in Jo...

But wait--there's more! We got home Sunday, did laundry on Monday, and left for Savannah Tuesday morning in a stinky van. Four hours later, here we are. This gig was a corporate thing, played on a combination of extra gear we had at home (our gear was now en route from Massachusetts), and rental stuff. Kind of a "whatever" gig. Fireworks ended the night at 9 PM.

Here we go--three more. Lots of time in the van. Thursday: The band flew to Washington, DC, where we met the van and trailer. From there, we drove two hours to Dewey Beach, Delaware.  The Bottle and Cork has been around for a long time, and attracts some pretty big groups. I'd only heard of it because Mark Bencuya has a t shirt from there. They had a t shirt with us on it, but they misspelled Revue. Not impressive. Before the show, we had a quick photo session for AARP, led by these two hipsters. It's unclear why this happened to us, but it did. Ticket presales were very good, and then the last three hundred or so sold, and all of the sudden, we were at capacity. How about that? This was a pretty great gig--the sellout, the energy of the people, and probably because the place looks like some shitty bar in a beach town in Delaware (of all places) that they clean out every night with a firehose that suddenly became this epic night. When it was going d...