Get Your Yacht-Yachts Out: Yächtley Crëw Is Hoving into Town

Back in the 1980s, when downtown was a pretty quiet place, I lived across the street from a fellow who would open his doors and windows, turn up a Christopher Cross album—if you don’t know, you may not want to know—and play his drums along with it at maximum volume. I’m not sure if there were noise ordinances back in the day, but I retaliated by opening my doors and windows and playing The Clash and Dead Kennedys a decibel or two louder. The phantom drummer seemed not to mind.

Today, The Clash has attained grand old band status. Christopher Cross, meanwhile, has gone from ironic to iconic—at least, that is, among lovers of what has come to be called “yacht rock.” The music may stretch back 40 or 50 years, but the phrase dates only to 2005, when an online video series called Yacht Rock paired music taken from the soft rock, smooth jazz, and easy-listening slots on the radio with the image of idle-rich Californios plying the waters off Los Angeles. The show’s theme, naturally enough, was called “Sailing,” a song written by none other than Christopher Cross.

Enter Yächtley Crëw, a SoCal septet that has been gleefully celebrating the yacht rock genre for the last seven-odd years. So successful has its homage to squishy sweetness been that the band is crafting tunes of its own on an album to be released in the spring on Jimmy Buffett’s Mailboat Records, with an advance single, “Sex on the Beach,” earning airplay around the country.

Expect none of that on January 14, though, when Yächtley Crëw will bring its maritime magic to the Rialto. Instead, the band will play its favorites from a long setlist (with, one supposes, something by Mr. Cross lurking somewhere in it). Expect nothing tongue in cheek, either: the band is serious in its love for the genre.

“I had the concept of this doing yacht rock because I had started listening to it at home a lot. I was tired of listening to rock ‘n’ roll,” says the band’s bassist, who goes by the nom de musique Baba Buoy. “I mean, I love rock ‘n’ roll, but you can only hear it so many times, and then I started to go back toward the music from when I was a kid.” He brought aboard a drummer friend who goes by the moniker Sailor Hawkins, then turned to the Los Angeles iteration of Craigslist to recruit musicians who had played in a variety of bands from metal to jazz and had similarly come to embrace the—well, sunny side.

It took a year of auditioning to pull it all together, topped off with the arrival of its lead singer, Philly Ocean, who the friend of a friend had heard wowing the crowds at a karaoke bar somewhere in the Valley. “We finally got it going and down the road,” says Baba, “but I insisted that we had to do more than just stand there and sing, so we’ve got some pretty fun choreography in there, too.”

Along with the dance steps will be renditions of hits by the likes of Michael McDonald, Robbie Dupree, the Gerry Rafferty of “Baker Street,” and other yacht rock leviathans. Don’t come with requests, though. “We come out like Bon Jovi,” says Baba. “We play our set, walk off, and do an encore. It’s fun and funny, and people really seem to like it. It makes us feel like rock stars.”

Yächtley Crëw will be making its maiden voyage to Tucson at the Rialto Theatre (318 E. Congress St.) at 8:30 pm on January 14. Doors at 7:30. Tickets are $30 general admission and are available here.

Category: The Scoop