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Yacht Rock?! Who has experience.
- Thread starter Jimmy4string
- Start date
Wish I could, but summer is all planned out already. Not coming up to Seattle this year, which sucks too because I wanted to go see Norman Brown recently while he was up there, but other plans got in the way.
Post a video! I'll watch it.
Pepper some in. I've used them quite a lot with various groups: Listen to the Music, You Make My Dreams Come True, 99 Miles from L.A. Summer Breeze, Horse with No Name, etc. Have fun with them, too.
True - Yachty by Nature and the other one - can't remember the name of them - are in So Cal - I'm also in So Cal & I've been putting up ads in Musicans Contact Service and CL looking for a keyboard player and lead singer(s) - one male / one female vocalist would be ideal, but...not finding anybody that's interested. I have several drummers and a guitar player already. I've been digging the Hindley Street Country Club on youtube - they're in Australia - I'd love to be in a band like this! I'm sure others have seen these guys / gals. My current cover band does the occasional yacht rock song - Baby Come Back is one, but we do a lot of other styles too. My goal is to do yacht rock only! Not sure if I'll be able to put anything together, but I'm still looking for members to do a start up.
I think I found my soulmate.
I have been salivating to play yacht rock in a band for probably 30 years. Bring on the Christopher Cross, Toto, America, Don Henley, Boz Scaggs, Doobies, George Benson, Steely Dan, all of it. The closest I get to it is some small recording stuff in the smooth jazz genre (which I absolutely love), but man, finding some talent on keys and singing to do yacht rock would be a dream of mine. I have tons of sheet music and backing tracks for it too, so if the opportunity ever presents itself, I'm ready for it.
EXACT! I've been trying to put a YR band together in So Cal for years now too!
Just picked up a show with a yacht rock group I play with this Saturday! The set list is insanely fun and pretty challenging harmonically on a lot of the Doobie, Loggins, and Hall and Oates stuff. Whenever we play people seem to dig it! Our super-cheese all white linen suits and Panama hats really help sell the show before we even play a note.
If the Avetts can find a full time classically trained cello player for a folk rock hillbilly band in NC you will find a conga player
Wow
How do you guys approach your set list to inspire you to believe half of us would despise it?…
It looks great to me anyways
I played in a Yacht Rock band for 7 years. The recipe to play YR is fairly easy - great musicians with even better vocals.
Every person in the band I was in could read standard notation and understood theory very well - even the drummer. During the course of the band, we lost a keyboard player and had to replace him. The first guy went to LA to be a session musician and was heavily involved in writing, arranging, and playing piano for “That Thing You Do”. Our sax player played with Blue Lou at North Texas. Every musician had to understand dynamics. Having a guitar player or a drummer that was too loud simply wasn’t allowed.
For vocals, we had 6 part harmony and 5 of those sang lead. I was the lone background vocalist who couldn’t sing lead. The band worked weekends and we had two rehearsals per week - Tuesday and Thursday. Every other Tuesday was a vocal only practice. That enabled us to do stuff like a Beach Boys medley as well as stuff from Manhattan Transfer.
Our song list included almost every YR song listed in this thread. When I “retired” we had about 500 songs on our list and everyone of them sounded VERY close to the record.
Everything we did was professional. We had a full time guy who handled lights and sound when very few bands did that. There was no messing around at practice or a job (e.g., no noodling, smoking, drinking, substance use). We booked through an agent and refused any offer that was more than 2 years out. I remember one time we had a young lady change her wedding date to book us after she already had booked the church, reception hall, caterer, etc. I pointed out to her that we weren’t The Beatles, but that is what she wanted for her wedding.
People loved the music we played and much of it was YR. I don’t know if they still do, but I am guessing that they still do. Most YR songs are very well written.
Much of my post doesn’t have a whole lot to do with YR, but I wanted to share my experience since I see so many bands playing the same stuff year after year without a modicum of professionalism and then complain about the lack of gigs. If people want gigs, there are plenty to go around. You just have to be willing to work harder than any of your competition and play the music that audiences want to hear. It’s just that simple.
/soapbox end
Every person in the band I was in could read standard notation and understood theory very well - even the drummer. During the course of the band, we lost a keyboard player and had to replace him. The first guy went to LA to be a session musician and was heavily involved in writing, arranging, and playing piano for “That Thing You Do”. Our sax player played with Blue Lou at North Texas. Every musician had to understand dynamics. Having a guitar player or a drummer that was too loud simply wasn’t allowed.
For vocals, we had 6 part harmony and 5 of those sang lead. I was the lone background vocalist who couldn’t sing lead. The band worked weekends and we had two rehearsals per week - Tuesday and Thursday. Every other Tuesday was a vocal only practice. That enabled us to do stuff like a Beach Boys medley as well as stuff from Manhattan Transfer.
Our song list included almost every YR song listed in this thread. When I “retired” we had about 500 songs on our list and everyone of them sounded VERY close to the record.
Everything we did was professional. We had a full time guy who handled lights and sound when very few bands did that. There was no messing around at practice or a job (e.g., no noodling, smoking, drinking, substance use). We booked through an agent and refused any offer that was more than 2 years out. I remember one time we had a young lady change her wedding date to book us after she already had booked the church, reception hall, caterer, etc. I pointed out to her that we weren’t The Beatles, but that is what she wanted for her wedding.
People loved the music we played and much of it was YR. I don’t know if they still do, but I am guessing that they still do. Most YR songs are very well written.
Much of my post doesn’t have a whole lot to do with YR, but I wanted to share my experience since I see so many bands playing the same stuff year after year without a modicum of professionalism and then complain about the lack of gigs. If people want gigs, there are plenty to go around. You just have to be willing to work harder than any of your competition and play the music that audiences want to hear. It’s just that simple.
/soapbox end
If the Avetts can find a full time classically trained cello player for a folk rock hillbilly band in NC you will find a conga player
I saw them at a hurricane relief concert here a couple of years ago. (They actually lived here before they were big.) Great show.
Oh I think there are some that get what we're trying to do. I think many would find it boring as a player and I suppose that is fair as I honestly get more of a bang from the singing while gluing the band together. It is n acquired taste I think.
The one thing in common with 95% of yacht rock is Rhodes. Lots of Rhodes.
