yacht rock revue drummer

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Confessions of a Cover Band: Yacht Rock Revue croons the hits you love to hate

"I never would've guessed I'd be doing what I'm doing now. The 23-year-old me would punch me in the face."

One night in 2012, a man in a Ronald Reagan mask paused beneath a stop sign in the Old Fourth Ward. Armed with a stencil and a can of white spray paint, he transformed the sign into a tribute to a 1978 hit by a mostly forgotten Canadian pop crooner named Gino Vannelli: “I just wanna STOP & tell you what I feel about you, babe.”

“I Just Wanna Stop” is the kind of song whose words most Americans over 40 know despite never consciously choosing to listen to it. After peaking at no. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1978, the tune never quite disappeared, becoming the aural equivalent of a recurring wart. The song found a second life—an endless one, as it turns out—in the musical nether region where the smooth, soft-rock hits of yesteryear remain in heavy rotation. Yes, that’s “Africa” you’re hearing in the dentist’s office. And “What a Fool Believes” in line at CVS. And that faint melody burrowing into your brain while on hold for the next available customer service agent? That’s “Steal Away.” Songs like these, disparaged by critics in their time then jokingly christened “yacht rock” by a comedy web series in 2005, are now the soundtrack to American tedium.

They’ve also become the source of a very good—if conflicted—living for the man who defaced the stop sign: Nick Niespodziani, the singer, guitarist, and de facto leader of the wildly popular cover band Yacht Rock Revue , which tours the country, headlines 1,000-plus capacity venues, and occasionally even plays with the original artists behind these hits.

At the time of the Vannelli vandalism, Yacht Rock Revue had begun to graduate from a local curiosity to a national one. Niespodziani’s sister videotaped the incident and posted it on YouTube. They then printed T-shirts of the sign and, when Vannelli performed at the Variety Playhouse, they got one to him.

On a gray Monday afternoon not long ago, Niespodziani was standing at this crossroads, looking at the sign, trying to explain the motivation behind the prank. “We had this idea, so we videotaped,” he said. “It was definitely guerrilla marketing.” Also, he was pretty drunk.

The episode seems to capture something ineffable about Yacht Rock Revue—part fandom, part joke, part self-promotion, each element infused with irony. When YRR takes the stage at Venkman’s, an Old Fourth Ward restaurant and nightclub co-owned by Niespodziani and bandmate Pete Olson, the band is fully in character, complete with gaudy shirts and sunglasses. They crack jokes about each other’s moms and theatrically highlight multi-instrumentalist Dave Freeman’s one-note triangle solo during America’s “You Can Do Magic.”

“This music isn’t easy to perform,” Olson says. Yacht rock songs tend to be filled with complicated chord changes. All seven band members are accomplished musicians, and Niespodziani, who trained for a spell as an opera singer, is a rangy vocalist, capable of gliding through the high notes in Hall & Oates’s “Rich Girl,” Michael McDonald’s gruff tenor in “I Keep Forgetting,” and Dolly Parton’s amiable twang in “Islands in the Stream,” without seeming to strain. He, Olson, and drummer Mark Cobb first played together in Y-O-U, a band they formed at Indiana University in the late ’90s. They found scant support for original music there, so they relocated to Atlanta in 2002.

Photograph by Mike Colletta

Y-O-U built a buzz in Atlanta, thanks to Niespodziani’s catchy, Beatles-esque songs and the group’s playful gimmicks. They performed, straight-faced, as Three Dog Stevens, a sad-sack trio playing what they called “sandal-rock” (a made-up, synth-heavy genre defined by its purveyors’ predilection for wearing sandals with socks); they covered Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” entirely on keyboards while dressed as the Royal Tenenbaums; they created a YouTube mockumentary series about a competitive jump-roping team. “Comedy has always been part of what we do,” Niespodziani said. “We were doing anything to get noticed because we felt we had good songs but just couldn’t break through with them.”

“I said, ‘That sounds like hell on Earth.’ He was like, ‘But you’re going to make a lot of money.’ So we did it.”

In 2008, Y-O-U was booked every Thursday at the 10 High club in Virginia-Highland. They’d stage “Rock Fights,” playing dueling sets of covers by artists like Bob Seger, John Mellencamp, and INXS, or rejigger Y-O-U songs as soul rave-ups with horns and backing singers, or do a standup comedy night. Yacht Rock Revue was just another of these goofs: Put on silly clothes, and play songs everybody knows but nobody really likes—or claims not to. It was Cobb and guitarist Mark Dannells who came up with the idea. Dannells thought about calling it “A.M. Gold” but Cobb had recently seen a viral web series called Yacht Rock and felt like the term would resonate. Niespodziani went along because his friends needed his vocals. Two band members wore wigs to that first show, and, at one point, Niespodziani stripped off his shirt. People loved it. The club’s booker invited them back the next Thursday. The gig sold out. He asked them to do it every Thursday.

“I said, ‘That sounds like hell on Earth,’” Niespodziani recalls. “He was like, ‘But you’re going to make a lot of money.’ So we did it.”

Most cover bands are awful. But because they play well-known songs, they often secure regular, paying gigs that bands playing original music can’t. Even for the good ones, there’s a ceiling. Few ever perform further than 20 miles from wherever they played their first gig. What’s more, performing other people’s music for a living carries a degree of shame. Cobb has heard the mutterings about Yacht Rock Revue: “Why are these guys playing covers? They could write their own songs. They don’t need to hide behind a gimmick.”

Most of the guys in Yacht Rock Revue—which also includes bassist/vocalist Greg Lee and keyboardist/vocalist Mark Bencuya—had already spent half a lifetime dragging gear into dank basement bars to play for a few bucks and even fewer people. They did this in an era when the music business was cratering. The rise of the internet taught a generation of consumers that music is free, devaluing the dream to which musicians dedicate their lives.

When Yacht Rock Revue started in 2008, Dannells was nearly 40. “It’s not like the world is beating down the door of 40-year-old rock stars,” he says. Today, Yacht Rock is a business, owing its success partially to the corners of the business that haven’t collapsed: live music and merchandising. Besides their public shows, Yacht Rock Revue plays a steady stream of well-paying corporate gigs. They also sell lots of captain’s hats, T-shirts, and other swag. The success of the franchise means it’s been more than five years since any of them had a day job. Niespodziani and Olson created a company, Please Rock , that provides the bandmembers and their families with health insurance, 401Ks, and all the other trappings of comfortable, upper-middle-class stability few musicians ever achieve. All this grants bandmembers some real creative freedoms. “I just released a whole record of orchestral music,” Dannells says. “I don’t care if it sells. I just do it for enjoyment.”

Niespodziani shuttered Y-O-U years ago but still writes elegant power-pop songs for his other band, Indianapolis Jones . But the difference between his two bands’ profiles is stark. Troy Bieser, who has been working on a documentary about Yacht Rock Revue, says he’s seen this in the juxtaposition of the footage he’s compiled. “I’ve seen Nick going through the journey of being thankful for the success but it also feeling ill-fitting,” Bieser says. “That existential dilemma has followed him.”

Niespodziani knows whenever Yacht Rock plays anywhere, that’s a slot a band like Indianapolis Jones can’t get. “We’re a big part of the problem,” he says. As a 39-year-old father of one, who’s worked hard to get what he has, he isn’t about to give it up, but he’s also honest about the compromises he’s made and doesn’t hide from the question that is a natural byproduct of his own success: When a joke becomes your life, how do you keep your life from becoming a joke?

“I never would’ve guessed I’d be doing what I’m doing now,” he says. “The 23-year-old me would punch me in the face and leave me for dead.”

Yacht rock was mostly made in the late ’70s and early ’80s, but the genre wasn’t named until 2005 when JD Ryznar, a writer and actor, created the Yacht Rock web series with a few friends. The video shorts imagined the origins of songs like the Doobie Brothers’ “What a Fool Believes,” Toto’s “Rosanna,” and Steely Dan’s “FM.” The music, Ryznar says, was well-crafted, like a yacht, and recurring nautical imagery in songs like Christopher Cross’s “Sailing” or on Loggins and Messina’s album Full Sail made the term fit. According to Ryznar, true yacht rock has jazz and R&B influences, is usually produced in California, and frequently involves a rotating group of interconnected studio musicians. The term was never intended to be a pejorative—“we never thought it was silly music,” Ryznar says—but the web series is most definitely comedy, and feelings about the music itself tend to be buried under layers of hipster irony, warm nostalgia, and veiled contempt. Yacht rock songs are finely constructed: They’ve got indelible pop hooks, but they’re decidedly professional, not ragged and cool like punk or early hip-hop, which were canonized among the music of that era.

For the first Yacht Rock Revue gig, much of the set list came from a compilation CD that Cobb had burned titled The Dentist’s Office Mix. It included songs like Player’s “Baby Come Back,” Ambrosia’s “The Biggest Part of Me,” and Rupert Holmes’s “Escape (The Piña Colada Song).” “I’d put it on at parties and just see what the reactions would be,” Cobb says. “It was a weird, guilty pleasure.”

Niespodziani’s initial feelings about the music were uncomplicated. “I wasn’t a fan,” he says. “I was really into music that made people feel something, that had some grit and humanity to it. The ethos I thought was important in rock ’n’ roll was rebellious fun crossed with a heart-on-your-sleeve kind of thing. Yacht rock doesn’t do any of that. It doesn’t rebel.” He found a lot of yacht rock to be technical, clinical, and sterile. “Sophisticated for the sake of being sophisticated.”

Onstage, Niespodziani is the picture of unapproachable retro cool. Tall, with shaggy hair and an angular face, he hides behind large, dark sunglasses and frequently surrenders a thin half-smile. In other words, he personifies the classic, arrogant, coked-up, late-’70s rock frontman. In person, he gives off nearly the opposite impression. Over coffee, he’s thoughtful, earnest, and self-deprecating. His sharp facial features are accentuated by wide-lensed prescription glasses, and, having traded the polyester shirts he favors onstage for a camouflage green hoodie, the vibe Niespodziani exudes is hardcore music geek. Olson, who has known Niespodziani since they were in fourth grade in Columbus, Indiana, says when they met, “Nick was the nerdy kid who was good at math and jump-roping.”

Photograph by Emily Butler

Yacht Rock Revue, for Niespodziani, is a part he plays: “I’m almost more an actor than a musician.” He and his bandmates spend hours prowling vintage stores looking for the retro leisure wear that they don onstage—and then a not inconsiderable amount of money getting those old clothes tailored to fit. “It’s a war of attrition,” he says. “You find something that might work, and then it’s itchy or it smells or holes develop because the shirt is older than I am. You have to be shopping at all times.” They once did a gig in street clothes, but it felt wrong. “Polyester,” he says, “is our armor.”

Sometimes that armor hasn’t been enough for Niespodziani. During the band’s first few years, they played weekly at the 10 High. “I would drink a lot and almost sabotage myself, sometimes onstage, and make fun of it,” he says. “People would ask me about the band, and I’d talk down about it and act like I was too cool. I didn’t lash out at people, but it was strange to get well-known for something that didn’t make me feel good about myself. I’d get drunk onstage to deal with it.”

His bandmates certainly noticed, but, for the most part, they let their friend work through it. “He’s been the moodiest about it,” Cobb says. “He just hates Rupert Holmes’s ‘Escape (The Piña Colada Song).’ Hates it. But he knows it goes over well.” So when Niespodziani’s got to play it, he’ll often deadpan an introduction comparing Holmes to da Vinci and Picasso. “By talking about how great it is, it helps me shed that song’s terribleness.”

Niespodziani believes the ironic distance he puts between the guy he is onstage and the guy drinking coffee at Ponce City Market is fundamental to the band’s success. “Because we thought—or at least I thought—I was too cool to be doing this, everything has keyed off what the audience reacts to, whether it’s the clothes we wear, the sidestep dance we do, whatever. The audience has been the head of the snake. We’ve just been following it.” It helps that with more than 500 songs in their repertoire, the band doesn ’ t burn out too badly on any tune. “The only song we have to play is ‘Africa.’” The 1982 hit by Toto, by a band made up of talented but largely anonymous studio musicians, has become something of an Internet meme itself, with multiple think pieces devoted to untangling its allure. “Part of it may be the audacity of the synthesizer sound,” Niespodziani says. “They’re just so cheesy. The chords are fairly complex and pretty unexpected. The way it goes to the minor key in the chorus is kind of a cognitive disconnect. And when you listen to the words, it’s not really about anything. Maybe that’s why it’s so quintessentially yacht rock. It’s not so much what the words are saying, it’s how they make you feel, this combination of pure joy crossed with reminiscing.”

Despite his ambivalence about the music, Niespodziani is first among equals within the band. He sings lead on more songs than anyone else, and it’s his judgment they trust when adding songs to their catalog. He has a system: “Generally, the more a song annoys me, the more likely it makes sorority girls want to eat each other’s brains. Also, almost every song would be an encore for the band we’re covering. So, those are the basics: Does it annoy me? Are girls going to like it? Would it be an encore for the band we’re covering?”

“I’m almost more an actor than a musician.”

Others in the band are more unabashed about the music. “I’ve always loved all this stuff,” says Lee, the bassist. “You have to love it before you can play with it in that comedy sense and do it right.” This ability to walk that line between having fun with the music and making fun of the music has won over many of the original artists. When the band first reached out to guys like Dupree, Gary Wright (“Dream Weaver”), and Player’s Peter Beckett, some artists disdained the term “yacht rock” and feared being treated as a joke. Dupree was an early convert and evangelized about the band to his peers, touting their musicianship and enthusiasm. He says those who eventually performed with Yacht Rock Revue were “staggered that they were playing in front of 4,000 people who knew every word to their songs.”

The genre’s rise as a cultural touchstone—Jimmy Fallon has been a big booster, inviting Dupree, Cross, McDonald, and others to perform on TV, and there’s now a SiriusXM station devoted to it—has benefited these artists. Their Spotify and YouTube streaming numbers have risen noticeably. “It’s made a big impact financially,” Dupree says. “Even the skeptics have seen the power of it.”

For a while, the band had a bit of a good-natured Twitter beef with the creators of the Yacht Rock web series. Ryznar admits he initially felt like the band had hijacked his idea, but now his only real gripe is Yacht Rock Revue’s liberal definition of yacht rock. “Half their set is incredible yacht rock,” Ryznar says. “The other half, they play way too much Eagles, America, and Fleetwood Mac. Those aren’t yacht rock bands.”

The band makes no apologies. As Niespodziani puts it, “Yacht rock is what we say it is now.” That’s not just bravado. Yacht Rock Revue trademarked the term “yacht rock” for live performances, so other acts can’t use it without permission. The maneuver helped snuff out competition from other cover bands but occasionally puts them in conflict with some of the genre’s originators. When Cross’s manager tried to assemble a “Yacht Rock” tour featuring Cross, Orleans, and Firefall, it ran afoul of the trademark.

“We said, ‘If you want to call it Yacht Rock, we’ve got to be the [backing] band,’” Olson says. That compromise collapsed when Cross’s manager “wanted a piece of the trademark and of all our earnings over three years.” Yacht Rock Revue sent a cease-and-desist letter instead.

The band’s set list is anchored in the classic late ’70s, early ’80s yacht-rock era but can stretch to include songs as old as the late ’60s or as recent as the early ’90s. Of course, there’s a balance to be struck: If they go too far afield, they risk becoming just another cover band, but there are other considerations to take into account, too. As Cobb explains, “Nothing about Whitney Houston is in the genre, but when we play ‘I Wanna Dance with Somebody,’ the chicks go crazy, everybody orders another round, the bar sells out of Tito’s and Red Bull, and they’re like, ‘When can you come back? You broke alcohol records.’”

The band’s audiences have evolved over time. The earliest shows were heavy on hipsters and fellow musicians. Then, those fans brought their parents. At a Buckhead Theatre gig in March, the crowd leaned toward balding guys in button-down shirts and platinum-blond women wearing expensive-looking jewelry. Niespodziani once called yacht rock “the music of the overprivileged,” which was a joke, but also not. Getting older, wealthier fans out to shows is an impressive accomplishment most artists would envy, but it has changed something fundamental about Yacht Rock’s appeal. “When we started, it was people elbowing each other, laughing at this music,” Niespodziani says. “Now, there’s no irony.”

On a night off during a Vegas stand in 2015, the entire band went to see Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band perform at the Pearl Theater in the Palms Casino. Starr began doing these tours in 1989, fronting a band of aging rockers like Gary Wright, Steve Lukather (Toto), and Gregg Rolie (Santana, Journey), whose names and faces you might not recognize but whose songs you certainly would. Just past the midway point in the show at the Pearl, Lukather stepped to the mic, and Starr began beating out a familiar rhythm on the drums. As Lukather picked out the first few notes on the guitar and the synths pumped out the insistent melody, the song was instantly recognizable: “Africa.” In the theater balcony, Cobb recalls looking across at Niespodziani and seeing something change in his friend. “I just watched Nick’s face and, all of a sudden, it was as if this weight lifted off him.”

The Beatles had always been Niespodziani’s favorite band. “Now, I’m watching Ringo Starr, and he has to play fucking ‘Africa’ every night, too,” Niespodziani says. “He was in the Beatles! That was a life-changing moment for me.” Starr and his band were touching many of the same nerves in the audience at the Pearl Theater that Yacht Rock Revue touches all the time. “When we started Yacht Rock, I didn’t like the music we were playing. I didn’t like myself for being in a cover band. I had some dark times. It’s been a journey for me to get okay with it. That was a pretty key moment. Once you get to a certain point in the music business, everybody’s hustling. I’m not going to look down my nose at anybody for doing anything that makes it possible to feed their family by singing songs.”

Seeing Starr go yacht rock was a significant step that’s made enjoying Yacht Rock Revue’s triumphs a little easier. For years, Olson and Niespodziani waited for interest in yacht rock—and their band—to fade. Opening Venkman’s was a hedge against that. But Yacht Rock Revue’s stock continues to rise. Their touring business has grown 375 percent since 2014. “It’s not a fad,” Niespodziani says. “This is going to be our biggest year by far.” They play increasingly larger venues and have recently started booking dates overseas, including this summer in London.

The question is, where else can they take this, literally and figuratively? Back in 2013, the band quietly released a five-song EP: four original songs and a cover of—what else?—“Africa.” They used to occasionally drop an original tune into their shows, sometimes announcing it as a “Hall & Oates B-side.” The crowds were amenable, kind of. “It’s hard when they know every word to every song,” Niespodziani says. “They don’t come for discovery; they come for familiarity.” That’s a truism any band who has ever had a hit knows all too well. The essential appeal of Yacht Rock Revue—and yacht rock—is a combination of nostalgia and escape, a yearning for the simpler, easier time these songs evoke. Yet Niespodziani has been wondering lately if it’s possible to pivot fans to his own songs, either with Yacht Rock Revue or Indianapolis Jones.

“That’s still my dream,” he says, “to have one song that matters to somebody the way ‘Steal Away’ matters to people. No matter what else I do in life, if I don’t ever get over that bar, part of me will feel like I failed at the one thing I wanted. I don’t know if I can ever let go of that. I don’t know if I’m ready to face that darkness.”

In 2013, during a commencement speech at Syracuse University, the author George Saunders told graduates, “Success is like a mountain that keeps growing as you hike up it.” Niespodziani brought this quote up to me while we were having coffee. He knows his life is nothing to complain about. He lives a rarefied existence where he gets paid a lot of money to play music. But clearly, the mountain grows in front of him, and the hike up isn’t always easy. He’s still prone to self-deprecating asides about his band, he still kinda envies the Robbie Duprees of the world—but, hey, he doesn’t need to get drunk onstage anymore, and he doesn’t lose sleep wondering if he’s a force for good or evil in the world. That stop sign at the crossroads in the Old Fourth Ward isn’t an omen or a cautionary tale. It’s simply a funny story that makes people smile. He’s just working on becoming one of them.

“The way I really made peace with it is, it occurred to me that everywhere we went, everyone was so happy to see me,” he says. “These people, it’s the highlight of their week to come sing along with these tunes. If your job is making people happy, that’s a pretty good calling.” He leans back in his chair and smiles. “My job is to make it okay for everybody else to have fun. That’s kind of cool.” He gets quiet for a moment and shrugs.

This article appears in our  July 2018 issue .

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How Yacht Rock Revue stopped worrying about being a cover band and made original music

A good-time persona accented by tight jeans and mirrored sunglasses wasn't always a natural fit for Nicholas J. Niespodziani, the Yacht Rock Revue vocalist who grew up in Columbus, Indiana.

Niespodziani thought his Bloomington band Y-O-U would find indie-rock success after moving to Atlanta in 2002. Although Y-O-U enjoyed moderate success, the band didn't become a career for Niespodziani and fellow Hoosiers Peter Olson and "Question" Mark Cobb.

A music career arrived by accident. The members of Y-O-U devoted a one-off show in 2007 to "smooth music" that ruled the pop charts from 1975 to 1982. The just-for-laughs experiment turned into a weekly residency at an Atlanta nightclub.

"The next thing you know we have 401(k)s and an office," Niespodziani said.

Yacht Rock Revue is now a thriving concert draw that schedules two-night stands in many cities, including Indianapolis this weekend .

Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

But in the beginning, Niespodziani considered covers of songs popularized by Toto, Boz Skaggs and Kenny Loggins to be the opposite of his musical aesthetic.

"My view of selling out was informed by the bands I listened to growing up, which were Nirvana and Pearl Jam and Beastie Boys," he said. “It was really weird for me. I was pretty defiant about it, honestly. I thought I was too cool to be doing yacht rock for a long time. I was very reluctant. As it got bigger and bigger, I had a darker and darker attitude about it.”

The former law school student eventually appreciated Yacht Rock Revue as a better option than practicing law.

“I had a series of moments over a few years where I realized that getting to make a living in music is such a special gift,” he said. “I came to enjoy it.”

On Feb. 21, the transition from Y-O-U comes full circle with the release of an album filled with original Yacht Rock Revue songs: "Hot Dads in Tight Jeans."

Sailing in uncharted waters

The seven members of Yacht Rock Revue previewed "Hot Dads in Tight Jeans" by releasing the song "Step" in October.

“Already our first single has been heard by more people than listened to Y-O-U in the 10 years we were in that band,” Niespodziani  said. ‘It kind of feels like a comeback story.”

The band released four original songs on a 2013 EP, but "Hot Dads" will stand as Yacht Rock Revue's debut album.

The synthesizer-and-saxophone texture of "Step" resembles yacht rock without sounding dated.

"I wouldn’t say our album is purely yacht rock," Niespodziani said. "It’s somewhere in between yacht rock and more modern stuff we love like Air and Tame Impala and LCD Soundsystem."

An Indiana influence

When Yacht Rock Revue performs Jan. 10-11 at the Egyptian Room in Old National Centre, Niespodziani will play a room he once frequented as an audience member.

He recalls catching Bela Fleck at the Egyptian Room, as well as the Flaming Lips at Broad Ripple's Vogue nightclub and Stone Temple Pilots in an agriculture building at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in 1993.

“My love for rock ‘n’ roll began in Indianapolis, I think,” Niespodziani said.

Five members of Yacht Rock Revue — Niespodziani, fellow vocalist Olson, drummer Cobb, keyboard player Mark Bencuya and saxophone player David B. Freeman — attended Indiana University.

Niespodziani moonlights in a musical project known as Indianapolis Jones, and Indianapolis sports-talk radio personality JMV is the presenting sponsor of the Jan. 10 performance. 

More than Christopher Cross

Niespodziani credits an online video series titled "Yacht Rock" for giving a modern label to yesteryear's smooth music, not to mention his band's name.

From 2005 to 2010, a dozen "Yacht Rock" short films crafted tongue-in-cheek mythology for Michael McDonald, Daryl Hall & John Oates and other soft-rock stars. 

Niespodziani said he associates yacht rock with sonic elements such as the "milky tone" of a Fender Rhodes electric piano and an "unaggressive approach" to playing drums.

He said detached emotional expression often accompanies the breezy lyrics of yacht rock.

Although the creators of the "Yacht Rock" short films maintain a website to give "yacht or nyacht" opinions about songs, Niespodziani and his Yacht Rock Revue band mates aren't sticklers about their repertoire.

"It’s in my best interest for yacht rock to have as broad of a definition as possible," Niespodziani said. "When you’re playing live and you get to the end of the show, you could play 'Sailing' by Christopher Cross or you could play 'More Than a Feeling' by Boston. The reaction you’re going to get from the crowd for the Boston song is many levels higher."

Yacht Rock Revue

>> WHEN: 8 p.m. Jan. 10-11.

>> WHERE: Egyptian Room in Old National Centre, 502 N. New Jersey St.

>> TICKETS: $20.

>> INFO: Visit livenation.com or call 800-745-3000.

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Contact IndyStar reporter David Lindquist at [email protected] or 317-444-6404. Follow him on Twitter: @317Lindquist .

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Yacht Rock Revue explain why they're charting a new course with original music

Sarah Rodman is the Entertainment Editor, covering TV and music for EW.

After nearly a dozen years confidently steering the S.S. Nostalgia, playing the beloved soft rock hits of the ’70s and ’80s to packed crowds wearing captain’s hats, Yacht Rock Revue are charting a new course by releasing their first album of original material. Hot Dads in Tight Jeans won’t be released until Feb. 21, but EW is bringing you the first single, “Step,” right here.

“We wanted to hit a note that was both retro and could be right now,” says shades-sporting co-frontman Nick Niespodziani of the synthy-smooth jam. “We wanted it to be outside of time.”

That musical mood dovetails nicely with the vibe of a group that began on a lark in 2007 and has steadily grown into an act that crisscrosses the country to play for its own devoted fans. The Atlanta septet can draw thousands of people to sing along to spot-on renditions of hits by Hall & Oates, Toto, Kenny Loggins, Christopher Cross, and other artists whose names some in the audience have forgotten, or never knew, but whose hits have endured, such as “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl),” by Looking Glass. While there may have been an element of irony for some attendees at the beginning, the shows tend to be unabashedly joyous affairs.

Niespodziani, drummer Mark Cobb, and co-frontman Peter Olson were all in a band called Y-O-U in the early 2000s that enjoyed some regional success but ended up petering out. “We were all splitting off to do other things,” says Niespodziani. “Peter was thinking about moving to Colorado and I had started law school and we were all kind of ready for what was happening after music. Because when you’re 27 and you haven’t made it yet, you’re an ancient guy. And in the midst of that we did this one Yacht Rock show and then all of a sudden it became what it is now. We’ve got an office, and a band, and a 401k.”

Soon they will have that album of original material as well as a documentary detailing their unlikely route to success as they rose from bar band to amphitheater band.

In addition to sharing “Step,” the group also curated the ultimate Yacht Rock Spotify playlist for EW, and we chatted with Niespodziani about the band’s step toward original songwriting and mixing up the smooth classics in their set.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You’ve finally decided to make original music, again. How much anxiety do you have about fan reception since they’re used to you playing songs they love? NICK NIESPODZIANI: We played it for the first time at our big Atlanta show in August at Chastain Park Amphitheater in front of 7,000 people. I was pretty nervous because all these songs that we play, everybody knows every word. Like, every song we play would be the encore for whatever artist it is that we’re covering. So how do you put up a song that people have never heard before, at all, against those songs? I was originally super nervous about it, but our fans really surprised me. I expected everybody to leave for the bathroom or the bros to start booing. But they stayed and they got into it, and the reception everywhere we’ve been with it has been awesome. People are into it. So I’m much less nervous now than I was before.

The album itself is not a “yacht rock” record but is obviously in a similar wheelhouse and has a cheeky humor to it. Do you get the sense that you’ve built up enough goodwill from the fans since you’ve been playing for so long that they’re open to original songs? Yeah, and I’ve noticed, especially over the last three or four years, when we go places, whether it’s the people at the venue or the fans that we’ve talked to, they treat us like artists. In the beginning, I felt like a glorified stripper where people just wanted to pull my hair and see if it was real and it was more of a novelty thing. But now I feel like we’ve earned that respect from our fans and they’re open to it, or at least they have been so far. I’m hoping that that streak continues.

How did you decide that now was the time for you guys to try this? I was kind of going through my midlife crisis checklist, choices like “I could wreck a red sports car” or “I could have an affair with a busty nurse.” And I was like, “You know what I really should do is make an album with my ’70s soft rock band.” So we threw the idea around and were like, “Why not try it,” talking about that goodwill we built up with our fans. The cool thing for me especially is that I’ve made a lot of records over the years, little side projects that had no budget and no hope for people to hear them. And this experience has been the opposite of that. We were able to get an incredible producer and make a cool video all with the power of the Yacht Rock machine that we’ve built behind it. And it’s been really inspiring and fun.

Who produced it? Ben Allen, he’s from here in Atlanta. He produced Walk The Moon and Animal Collective’s big records and he just did the new Kaiser Chiefs record, which is [a hit] in the UK right now. He did Gnarls Barkley. He’s a close friend of mine and I was kind of nervous, even though we hang out and go to the gym together, to ask him about making a record with Yacht Rock because I thought there would be this stigma because he produces Deerhunter and all these super hipster bands. And he was immediately like, “Yeah, let’s do it. That sounds really fun.”

A song like “Step” could probably slip into your sets with relative ease since it has that blue-eyed soul falsetto thing happening that spans from disco, like a sliver of Giorgio Moroder, to a group like Hall & Oates to something like Beck’s song “Debra.” Yeah, we definitely leaned on more on that ’80s side of the coin, Hall & Oates and even some ’80s David Bowie and some of the synthier stuff like Giorgio Moroder. That just strikes closer to our personal taste and I think it’s easier to see how that fits in with modern music. Whereas if you make something that’s just like a Steely Dan rip, that’s really a very segmented thing off to the side.

We didn’t want to come out with something that could maybe be viewed as a novelty single for the first thing. When you’re a cover band coming out with original music, getting taken seriously is the first hurdle that you have to leap over. So “Step” felt like the right choice because it’s a mission statement for the whole album in a way. It’s about deciding who you want to be and making the space for that in your life.

I guess in my view everyone is putting on an act of some sort. We pretend to be these coked-up ’70 dudes, but we are who we are inside and I’m inspired by people like Lizzo and Pete Buttigieg and Puddles The Clown. It’s definitely an act that all of them are doing, but the heart of what they’re doing is true. The center of it emotionally is honest and unapologetic. And that’s what “Step” is about. And that’s what this whole album is about for us. Because we are a bunch of 40-year-old dads who are trying to make our first record that people listen to, why not just bear hug it instead of run away from it?

Do you ever think how wild it is that you all have built a career out of this, particularly since you’re not a straight tribute band of one group? All the time. It’s crazy. If you would’ve told me when we did the first show “that this is going to be your career,” I would have slapped you in the face. There’s just no way. I never imagined doing something like this. And it’s funny because I feel like in that early band, I thought music was all about what’s inside of you as an artist and that if I can find inside myself this great, soul-wrenching truth that will be the reason that I become famous and whatever. And I think over the years with Yacht Rock — grudgingly at first — I started to realize that music is actually about the shared experience and being there in the room together, having fun, and just escaping from life for a while. And I feel like it’s been this 11-year penance that I’ve gone through, and now I’ve come out on the other side and I have a completely different view of what music is and what it should be. That’s what inspired this record and it makes me so happy to do what I do now.

Which is funny on one level because probably for 90 percent of what you’re performing, the original artist is sick to death of playing that song. But you all have now performed some of these songs so many times that it is entirely possible that you are as sick of singing something like “Africa” as Toto is. And yet you always legitimately seem like you are having fun. It’s funny you mention “Africa.” That’s the only song we have to play at every show. And I think it kind of goes through waves. It’s like a Saturday Night Live joke where they keep repeating the same thing and it gets really monotonous and not funny. And then if you repeat it for long enough, it becomes funny again. It got to where it got old for a while and now it’s really fun to sing that song, even though I’ve probably sung it 2,000 times, literally. It’s not a problem.

Coldplay has to sing “Yellow” every night no matter what. There are five or six other songs they have to sing every night no matter what. We don’t have to do that. We have thousands of songs to choose from. So, in some ways, it’s been a blessing that we can stay fresher because we can always change out songs and add new songs.

Let’s talk about this playlist. You have a pretty wide range here, including yacht rock staples like Michael McDonald’s “I Keep Forgettin'” but also songs from Lake Street Dive and “Juice” by Lizzo. How do you all even define yacht rock now? For me, yacht rock is more of a vibe and an energy than necessarily “soft rock music made in Los Angeles between 1976 and 1984.” It’s more about when the song comes on, does it put a smile on your face in the first 10 seconds? If you use that as your first barrier to entry, then what can be considered yacht rock becomes a lot more wide. If you’re out cruising on your boat on Saturday afternoon, what’s going to feel good?

“Juice” is going to feel good. Yeah. And it feels like the transition from “I Keep Forgettin'” into “Juice” doesn’t feel like a hard left turn. It feels natural. I guess our perspective is that people are going to need yacht rock now and in the future, and what it can be is a lot wider than the strict dictionary definition. Lake Street Dive, they’re a genre-bender for me. I think that they have a lot of different influences. And again, it’s the positive energy behind it is what makes it yacht rock.

How did you pick the classic ones to intersperse in there? We wanted to make sure that anybody who hasn’t gotten familiar with the yacht rock yet — which I don’t know who that might be at this stage — got a good dose of the healthy vitamins of what real, 100-percent yacht rock is. So we picked the ones that felt right to us and then also had something in common with our record.

You’re in your forties now. Is this sustainable? Can you do this until you retire? That’s a great question. If “Bad Tequila” [from the upcoming album] ends up being like “Steal Away” was for Robbie Dupree, then I definitely can. That’s what this move is, just to see if we could have one song that makes people feel the same way that I felt when I danced with my wife to “Steal Away” at my wedding. And I’ve talked to Robbie about that. And he has this relationship with that song where he got tired of it and he loves it again. But for us, in the next 20 years, I don’t want to get morbid about it, but a lot of these bands that we love and the classic rock artists are going to age out of touring. And there’s going to be a void there and I hope that we will be positioned to help fill it. It’s weird to think about but it is true. It gives us a little bit of job security.

In the last few years, several other bands in this vein have popped up. How do you feel about that? I imagine it’s hard to be mad about other cover bands when you’re a cover band. It’s great that this music has become so popular and imitation is finest form of flattery, right? So when I see these bands doing our dance moves, or wearing the sailor outfits like we used to 10 years ago or adding the same songs to their setlists, that’s cool. Part of me wants to say, “Go get your own unoriginal idea.” But like you said, there’s no honor among thieves, really. So it’s fine. I got nothing but love for any of them. I think what we do stands on its own.

Yacht Rock Revue will hit the road for the Hot Dads in Tight Jeans tour Jan. 9 and will be pulling into ports across the country, from Boston to Los Angeles.

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245 – Mark Cobb: Playing with Yacht Rock Revue, Combining Clean Craft and Bombastic Showmanship

Play episode.

He’s performed at the Rose Bowl, the College Football National Championship, the NCAA Final Four, for 35,000 fans on the 4th of July at Turner Field, and on music cruises with Kid Rock, Weezer, KISS, Train, Zac Brown Band, Dinosaur Jr., Emmylou Harris and Heart.  

Mark’s infectious enthusiasm for music and drumming was heightened during his time at the prestigious Indiana University School of Music. However, it was not until after he received his degree and spent a year in Los Angeles that he grew into the seasoned player he is today.

In this episode, Mark talks about:

* The good, bad, and ugly of social media* Building a tribute band around a concept rather than an individual artist* Getting era-specific sounds out of backline kits * Combining the styles and sounds of the era’s drummers into one setlist* How the rise of Yacht Rock Revue and the genre’s rise in popularity have fed each other

Mark endorses Vic Firth sticks, Porter & Davies, and Big Fat Snare Drum

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‘People Don’t Let Go of These Songs’: The Surprising Evolution of the Yacht Rock Revue

• By Joseph Hudak

Joseph Hudak

“If you asked me five years ago to do a full original album with this band, I’d say, ‘Tear my heart out and leave it on the floor,'” Yacht Rock Revue singer Nick Niespodziani says.

It’s hard to tell if he’s being hyperbolic.

The 41-year-old frontman of the Atlanta-based tribute band has always been conflicted about his gum-chewing, polyester-wearing, hair-feathering throwback group. In his eyes, it was a way to make a living, not a serious creative outlet. Besides, he had other projects to flex that muscle, like the psychedelic and experimental rock of Indianapolis Jones. But as he slowly came to accept, nothing had the reach of Yacht Rock Revue.

Since forming in 2008, the seasoned party band has graduated into a national touring act, packing clubs, anchoring corporate events, and setting sail on themed cruises with their note-perfect re-creations of soft-rock’s smoothest jams, from “Brandy” by Looking Glass and “Lido Shuffle” by Boz Scaggs to Ace’s “How Long” and Toto’s irrepressible “Africa.” (Yacht Rock Revue cut it well before Weezer did .) Their crowds are far from passive too, buying tickets in advance and showing up in boat shoes, ascots, and aviators to recite aloud the sacred texts of saints Christopher Cross, Michael McDonald , and Robbie Dupree. Captain’s hats are ubiquitous.

It’s not an oldies fan base either. “Kids, young people, are the ones who have adopted this music, and they’re there to have a good time,” says Dupree, who often performs his 1980 hit “Steal Away” with the band at their all-star “Yacht Rock Revival” shows. “The audience looks like they used to [when these records first came out] — only you got older. But it’s more exciting now because these people know every single song in the show.”

Still, Niespodziani could never fully get on board the boat he helped build. When he and the band took a stab at releasing original material in 2012 with the on-the-nose “Can’t Wait for Summer,” they did so sheepishly. “Our hearts weren’t all the way in it,” he says now. “We were kind of apologetic about it.”

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As pop music evolved over the past eight years, however, so did Niespodziani’s perception of Yacht Rock Revue. The songs that make up the band’s set lists are now celebrated, “Yacht Rock” has transcended its gag tag to become a legitimate subgenre, and the icons of the scene are getting long-overdue recognition — in May, the Doobie Brothers will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Most important, Niespodziani peered over his onstage shades and recognized the happiness that he and his group were bringing to their crowds.

“When we started out, I wasn’t super proud of being in a cover band,” he says, “but as we’ve done this, I’ve seen that joy in people, which changed my thinking and changed my heart about it, and made me open to the vulnerability of doing an original album.”

In February, the seven-piece band of fortysomething musicians — along with Niespodziani, there’s fellow vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Peter Olson, bassist Greg Lee, sax player Dave Freeman, guitarist Mark Dannells, drummer Mark Cobb, and keys man Mark Bencuya — released its first full-length album of original music, Hot Dads in Tight Jeans . Like their live show, which features a vintage boutique’s worth of loud shirts and the titular constricting denim, there’s an element of humor to the record. But the 10 tracks aren’t parodies or goofs.

Songs like “The Doobie Bounce” and “Step,” with their layered production and Niespodziani’s sky-high falsetto, transform the staid notion of yacht rock — or, more broadly, soft rock — into something immersive and, dare one say, hip and cool. These are tracks that could slide in comfortably next to anything off Tame Impala’s latest, The Slow Rush . The sounds and tones employed by Tame Impala mastermind Kevin Parker actually served as validation for Niespodziani.

“We finished recording this album and were mixing it in spring and summer, and that’s when Tame Impala started to leak tracks from their new album,” he says. “They were really similar to the sounds we had on our record, and that made me feel really encouraged, that the sound that we had was not going to be throwaway or irrelevant.”

Olson, Niespodziani’s onstage foil in choreography (they’re experts at re-creating Paul Simon and Chevy Chase’s “You Can Call Me Al” routine ), says the band aimed to expand the boundaries of what yacht rock is, or could be, while in the studio.

“We felt free to redefine the genre a little bit, as more of an attitude than a sound,” Olson, also 41, says. “We weren’t tied to just having Rhodes pianos and super-lush harmonies and sax solos, but there are elements of that. We weren’t afraid to sing about something meaningful and not just piña coladas. Although there is a song about tequila, so…”

Sail Away: The Oral History of 'Yacht Rock'

Doobie brothers' 5 greatest songs.

“Bad Tequila,” with its pithy, made-for-merch payoff line — “when life gives you bad tequila/make a good margarita” — is insanely catchy but modern, more in line with something by Portugal. The Man and Daft Punk than Seals and Croft or Loggins and Messina. Yes, it has a yachty sax breakdown, but the woodwind fits in just as naturally as one of Lizzo’s flute solos .

The band credits producer Ben Allen with helping them connect the dots between yesteryear’s soft rock and contemporary flourish. The track “Another Song About California” opens with a synth line that nods to Hall and Oates’ “She’s Gone” before spiraling off on its own psych-pop journey.

“Ben has been instrumental in finding the middle ground between staying true to what the band has always done in the yacht-rock vibe, but not being afraid to make a record that could fit in a playlist with Justin Timberlake or Lizzo,” says Niespodziani, who also challenged the way the band approaches its lyrics. He used yacht-rock buzzwords (think “sand,” “ocean,” “sun,” and “girl”) as a gateway to convey deeper thoughts and mindsets.

“I’d take little nuggets of the yacht-rock vibe or culture and look at it through my own lens,” he says, citing “The Doobie Bounce.” “That song sneaks in little nods to nihilism and things that have meaning to me.”

Currently on a U.S. tour with gigs scheduled at the Wiltern in L.A., Webster Hall in New York, and the House of Blues in Boston, Niespodziani, Olson and the band are hopeful that their core fans will embrace the “new” yacht rock. They’ve already been slotting “Step” and “Bad Tequila” alongside perennials like “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” and “Baker Street.” Who knows — perhaps their own 21st-century yacht jams will one day become a part of the genre’s core canon.

After years spent wondering and worrying when the yacht-rock wave would crash, Niespodziani and Olson have come to just enjoy the ride.

“We always thought the fad would end. But people don’t let go of these songs. It’s evident in the way that doctors’ offices, Home Depots, and Bed Bath & Beyonds haven’t let go of these songs either,” says Olson. “These are the playlists of public areas.”

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Yacht Rock Revue

Embark on a nostalgic voyage through the shimmering seas of music with Yacht Rock Revue, the ultimate purveyors of the smooth, yacht rock sound and who many reverently consider the godfathers of Yacht Rock. Hailing from Atlanta, GA this sensational band has captivated audiences worldwide with their immaculate renditions of classic hits from the late '70s and early '80s. Inspired by the golden era of soft rock, Yacht Rock Revue has mastered the art of recreating the breezy and laid-back tunes that defined a generation. From the sun-kissed melodies of Steely Dan and Michael McDonald to the velvety harmonies of Hall & Oates, their repertoire spans an ocean of beloved hits that evoke memories of palm trees, ocean breezes, and carefree summers. Since their formation in 2007, Yacht Rock Revue has amassed a devoted following, drawing fans from all walks of life to their extraordinary live performances. Their attention to detail and devotion to authenticity are unrivaled, transporting audiences to a time when yacht parties and smooth sailing were the order of the day. Yacht Rock Revue's infectious energy extends to their fans, creating a community that celebrates the joy of music and the timeless appeal of yacht rock. Their concerts are not just shows; they're immersive experiences that leave audiences craving more. YACHT ROCK REVUE is. Nicholas Niespodziani - Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards, Percussion Peter Olson - Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards, Percussion Greg Lee - Bass, Vocals Mark Dannells - Guitars, Vocals Mark Bencuya - Keyboards, Vocals David B. Freeman - Saxophones, Keyboards, Flute, Piccolo, Percussion, Vocals Keisha Jackson - Vocals, Percussion Kourtney Jackson - Vocals, Percussion Jason Nackers - Drums Ganesh Giri Jaya - Drummer

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Love for sail: Yacht rock bands navigating Vegas entertainment scene

Yacht rock is a Vegas phenomenon, led by such bands as The Windjammers, The Docksiders and Yächtley Crëw.

T he music takes you on a voyage, as the ocean mist and cool breeze brush across your face.

The craft is a yacht. Playing on the hi-fi are such textured tunes as “Sailing,” “Ride Like the Wind” and “Africa.” You sing along because you just can’t help it.

Yacht rock has formally docked in Vegas. This music was once known as “easy listening” or “soft rock,” with infusions of soul, disco and smooth jazz. The subgenre has coalesced under a friendly, airy title. The music lends itself to costumes, callbacks and widespread grooving.

The Vegas yacht rockers include:

— The Windjammers. The lineup loaded with A-plus players is based in Las Vegas and has built a following primarily at Station Casinos venues. Those shows are on pause as the band secures dates with (appropriately) Royal Caribbean International. The band has also played the Copa Room at the Bootlegger Bistro.

— The Docksiders. The national act has moved to town and started the city’s first yacht rock residency Sept. 8 at The Duomo music club at the Rio. The Docksiders play at 6 p.m. daily (dark Fridays and Saturdays) in an open-ended run.

— Yächtley Crëw, another national act and pioneers in the yacht rock culture, play six dates over three weekends at Kaos at the Palms beginning Nov. 18 and 19 and running through Feb. 24 and 25. The act debuted, to a wild response, at Kaos on July 1 and 2.

— Yacht n’ Roll. Another highly proficient band that has performed several dates at Arizona Charlie’s Decatur and Boulder, most likely to return to the Rush Lounge at the Golden Nugget in October.

The band that claims to have launched yacht rock shows, under that specific title, in Las Vegas is Orange County outfit Yachty By Nature. They played Brooklyn Bowl in 2017, and the swingin’ entertainment fortress Top Golf at MGM Grand in 2017.

Also, the touring band Yacht Rock Revue headlined to a healthy crowd, estimated at 75 percent capacity, at the House of Blues in August.

And among superstar headliners, Christopher Cross is playing The Pearl at the Palms on Friday night. Cross should be on the yacht rock Mount Rushmore, winning Grammys with Yacht Rock songs before it was even a term.

Taken together, yacht rock is a busy cruise line in Las Vegas. The people who play it say nostalgia is at the core of its popularity.

Windjammers take a bow

“There’s almost this rule, like the 40-year rule, where if it was popular 40 years ago, it’s going to be a hit right now,” says Jerry Lopez, founder of The Windjammers, a spinoff of legendary Vegas horn band Santa Fe & the Fat City Horns. Lopez brought that band to Las Vegas in the mid-1970s.

“The people who remember when this music was in the Top 40 now have discretionary income,” Lopez says, “and they are remembering the time when they were at their coolest. It all starts there.”

The Windjammers have performed no-cover shows and ticketed performances. The band opened at Rocks Lounge at Red Rock Resort in January 2020, just before COVID hit. They routinely fill the room, regardless of whether there is a cover.

Lopez has worked in Las Vegas since Santa Fe’s first “proper” gig at the Mint on Fremont Street in 1975. He says of those days, “We were a Top 40 band, and this music was in the Top 40 in those days. So, we understand the material.”

Even so, Lopez adds, “I’ll be honest with you, I really wasn’t positive this would work. I knew the rest of the guys who put it together loved it. And I assumed, because of that, other people who get out and support live music would love it, too.”

Kaos on the seas

Palms Vice President of Entertainment Crystal Robinson-Wesley says that bringing in Yächtley Crëw was about more than just a cool hang. It was sound business.

“It’s the hits from the ’70s and ’80s, and that’s really leaning into our core customer,” Robinson-Wesley says. “What we found is, they know all the words. These are very recognizable tunes, feel-good music, and that’s what people are looking for. It really matches well with who we cater to on an average day.”

The Cross booking at Pearl has also tapped into the yacht rock demo.

“Absolutely,” Robinson-Wesley says. “I tell you, we’ve had to expand our seating, he has been so popular. We are really excited about it.”

Yacht around the Dock

Also off the Strip, The Duomo at the Rio has taken on the city’s first yacht rock residency with The Docksiders. The band was signed by industry vet Damian Costa, late of Caesars Entertainment.

The Docksiders are musically formidable, fronted by entertainment industry vet Kevin Sucher, an accomplished producer, artist and tour manager who has worked with David Foster, Tony Orlando, Stevie Wonder and Gwen Stefani.

Some #YachtRockRevue action from August ⁦ @HOBLasVegas ⁩. More on this topic coming soon … 🎥 Andy Walmsley #RJNow #Vegas ⁦ @reviewjournal ⁩ pic.twitter.com/KZGm2uvHlJ — John Katsilometes (@johnnykats) September 27, 2022

The Docksiders don Vegas-inspired, sequined blue boat jackets, captain’s hats and white slacks. Videos of the songs in their set list play at the back of the stage and on the monitors on either side.

A Docksiders show is set up to be an oceanic, musical adventure. Appropriately, one of The Docksiders’ yacht rock anthems is Rupert Holmes’ “Escape (The Pina Colada Song).” The experience is an escape from the news of the day, antagonism, whatever negative vibes might be outside the club’s doors.

“This music is so representative of a simpler time, and a time that, just for me personally, had a lot less stress,” Sucher says. “These songs have been sort of the soundtrack to our lives.”

Sucher’s band expands the yacht rock horizon by including several songs from female recording stars, especially Olivia Newton-John, sung by Sucher’s wife, Erin. “There are hardly any female artists, maybe a handful,” Sucher says. “Maybe Carly Simon with ‘You’re So Vain,’ but not other aspects of her catalog. A couple of tracks from Linda Ronstadt, Yvonne Elliman, which is teetering on the disco side of things. So, we got a little creative.”

Even-keel appeal

Yacht rock became the advanced version of adult-oriented rock in the mid-2000s, through the video series “Yacht Rock,” which charted the fictionalized lives of soft rock stars of the 1970s through the early ’80s. The genre took on a massive audience when SiriusXM launched Yacht Rock Radio in 2015.

The website YachtOrNyacht.com has also been instrumental in solidifying the yacht rock culture. If you really want to slip into the scuba gear for a deep dive, the site continues to categorize and list hundreds of yacht rock songs.

“There are songs on that website where you’re like, ‘Who is this? What is this?’ Then you listen to it, and you’re like, ‘Oh, yeah. I get it. That is totally the vibe I want,’” says Phillip Daniel, aka Philly Ocean of Yächtley Crëw.“These songs are so well-produced. In that era when you had many of the same studio players on several songs, the songwriters, producers all were very experienced pros.”

The format has won over some discriminate fans. Emmy Award-winning set designer Andy Walmsley and his wife, Amy, have been Yacht Rockers for about six years. “I like happy music. There are several bands out there, where their whole thing is to b miserable,” says Andy Walmsley, a longtime Las Vegan who won an Emmy for his “American Idol” set design. “The thing about Yacht Rock is, none of it is miserable. I want music to be fun, and it is fun.”

Audience members feel an easy breeze in these shows. But playing yacht rock properly is a task.

“The production of the music during that era was mainly by live musicians. There was very little, if any, digital sequencing or any of the electronic stuff that is used today,” Lopez says. “It was all done by humans, and most of those humans were really, really good musicians.” Windjammers and The Docksiders sing live, with no backing tracks. As Lopez says, “To do it justice, to add all the nuance and minutiae that goes into this music, takes real skill.”

Sucher says yacht rock today is where classic rock was two decades ago. “I think it’s the beginning, and this is just my instinct talking, but I don’t think yacht rock is going anywhere,” he says. “As a matter of fact, I think it’s only going to get stronger.”

Lopez is prepared for any shift in tide.

“Every now and then I stir it up a little bit, then get on the board and surf,” he says.” “I just keep rolling with the waves.”

John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His “PodKats!” podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts . Contact him at [email protected]. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.

Yacht around the Clock

A look at Vegas Yacht Rock bands:

The Windjammers: Jerry Lopez (guitar/vocals), Dan Grennes (bass/vocals), Jon Celentano (vocals/sax), Jaime Hosmer (keys/vocals), Larry Esparza (guitar/vocals), Steve Grantham (vocals/drums). Venues (dates TBA): Station Casinos, Copa Room at Bootlegger Bistro, Royal Caribbean International.

The Docksiders: Eric Sucher (vocals), Bobby Rouse (vocals), Chris Kollman (drums), Matt Vollmer (bass), Clay Konnor (sax), Larry Esparza (guitar), Theo Merriweather (keys). Venue: The Duomo at the Rio, 6 p.m. daily (dark Fridays and Saturdays).

Yächtley Crëw (characgter names) : Philly Ocean (vocals), Tommy Buoy (guitar/vocals), Baba Buoy (bass), Sailor Hawkins (drums/vocals), Stoney Shores (synths), Pauly Shores (sax), Matthew McDonald (keys/synths). Venue: Kaos at the Palms, Nov. 18-19, Dec. 29-30, Feb. 24-25.

Yacht N' Roll : Dan Grennes (bass/vocals), Glenn Gallarde (keys and vocals), Steve Heath (guitar/vocals) and Steve Grantham (drums/vocals). (Sharla Heath). Venue: Rush Lounge at Golden Nugget, October-November dates TBA.

Lionel Richie at Encore Theater, Styx at The Venetian Theatre returning to the Strip in ‘25.

The BET Hip Hop Awards show premiered in 2006 and has been held annually in Atlanta, aside from the 2020 show.

The rock star called out, “You don’t need knees to fly!” during her wild Allegiant Stadium show on Friday night.

Gary Selesner and Celine Dion were partners in two residency productions at Caesars Palace covering 16 years.

Mr. Las Vegas, yes. Wayne Newton joined the beloved jam band during the opening night of Bender Jamboree at Westgate’s Paradise Mainstage.

Country superstar Garth Brooks has announced the dates for the final three weekends of his residency on the Las Vegas Strip.

Pink’s insistence on grandiose staging, including her wild aerial performances, would be a natural fit on the Strip. But when?

Gary Selesner was responsible for some of the most distinctive and successful restaurants, shows and amenities during the resort’s remarkable evolution over the past two decades.

The Nas-Las Vegas Philharmonic show at Encore Theater is a triple-header of music stylings and classic chops.

Producers had taken the “BattleBots” down Aug. 10 for an overhaul. The show returned over the weekend.

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Yacht Rock Revue

Yacht rock revue concert setlists & tour dates, yacht rock revue at talking stick resort amphitheatre, phoenix, az, usa.

• Sweet Freedom
• Escape (The Piña Colada Song)
• Kiss You All Over
• Ride Like the Wind
• So Into You
• You Make My Dreams
• Heart to Heart
• Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)
• Tropical Illusion
• Baker Street
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• Africa ( 161 )
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• Escape (The Piña Colada Song) ( 127 )

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Nevinnomyssk, Stavropol Krai, Russia

Nevinnomyssk is a city located in the Stavropol Krai of Russia. As of 2021, the population of the city was around 134,000 inhabitants. The city has a rich history, with its first settlements dating back to the 16th century. However, it wasn't until the 20th century that Nevinnomyssk became an industrial center, with the development of the oil and gas industry.

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Nevinnomyssk, Stavropol Krai, Russia

Nevinnomyssk

Nevinnomyssk canal.