By Collin Kelley
Atlanta’s favorite cover and party band, Yacht Rock Revue, has some simple criteria for picking the classic rock icons it asks to perform their hits with during the annual Yacht Rock Revival in Piedmont Park: Has the singer died of an overdose? Has the singer blown out his voice? If either of those is the case, is the guitar player available?
Joking aside, YRR has made a career out of performing songs of a certain era, usually known as “A.M. Gold” before the rise of F.M. radio stations. As vocalist Nick Niespodziani puts it, if Ted Turner were listening to it on the eight-track player on his yacht in 1980, then it’s probably going to wind up in their set.
That means healthy, heaping doses of Steely Dan, Hall & Oates, Toto, Doobie Brothers, Fleetwood Mac and many more.
When the band takes the stage on Aug. 22 for the fifth annual Yacht Rock Revival, they will have some seriously cool special guests joining them to dive into the A.M. Gold treasure chest: Jeff Carlisi of .38 Special, Journey vocalist Steve Augeri, Matthew Wilder (“Break My Stride”), Robbie Dupree (“Steal Away”), Elliot Lurie of Looking Glass, Peter Beckett and Ron Moss of Player and Walter Egan.
YRR’s reputation for recreating songs and their stage antics have garnered them a national following. Their fans are called the “Nation of Smooth.” That reputation meant Dupree and Egan came out to catch the band’s shows. Niespodziani said the band was especially thrilled that Wilder agreed to jam with them, since he doesn’t perform much these days.
The genesis of YRR began with Niespodziani, Peter Olson and Mark Cobb were playing in an indie rock band called Y-O-U at a bar in Virginia-Highland. One night, the band decided to do a set of ‘70s and ‘80s classics. The response was overwhelming.
Y-O-U disbanded and the trio was joined by Mark Bencuya, Mark Dannells, David Freeman and Greg Lee. Niespodziani said the entire band has known each other since before high school and have been having ball bringing the Time-Life infomercial catalog to the stage.
“We’ve let the audience lead us and tell us what they want,” Niespodziani said. “If that means dressing up in polyester and dancing around, we’re all in. A lot of cover and tribute bands perform as though the songs belong to someone else, but we try to take ownership of the song and give it new life.”
While many tribute bands are usually devoted to one artist – Pink Floyd or The Grateful Dead, for instance – by YRR is paying tribute to an entire era of music.
“Our potential set list is endless,” Niespodziani said. “We know 350 to 400 songs every month we add new tunes. We like to keep it fresh. But if don’t play “Africa” by Toto we’ll hear about it on Twitter.”
As the demand for yacht rock grew, YRR used their company PleaseRock to create a music collective to pass gigs on to their friends. PleaseRock now books more than a dozen Atlanta bands and DJs – including another band of smooth ’70s sailors called the Yacht Rock Schooner – and handles music booking for several local restaurants and venues.
The band’s success has also led to an Atlanta restaurant and music venue called Venkman’s, which is scheduled to open in the Old Fourth Ward in mid-September. The group is also giving back to the community by helping to establish CHaRM (Center for Hard to Recycle Materials) in southeast Atlanta.
So whom would YRR still like to perform with? “Michael McDonald, Darryl Hall and “the Mount Rushmore of Yacht Rock” Kenny Loggins,” Niespodziani said.
For tickets to the Yacht Rock Revival, visit http://pleaserock.xorbia.com/2015yachtrockrevival.
