Braves' aspiring rock star Chase d'Arnaud to play at Bonnaroo
ATLANTA -- Three hours before the Braves opened their series against the Brewers, Chase d'Arnaud strolled into the pressbox cafeteria -- wearing his batting practice attire and with a guitar in hand -- to serenade the cooks.
He took to bended knee to play for one named Felicia, who set out a deep breath and put her hand on her heart. The utility player sang Honeymoon Baby, one of six songs released in advance of the debut album of the Chase d'Arnaud Band, who will be playing at the famed Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival on the Braves' June 9 off day.
"It's a tragic song," Felicia said, reaching out and putting her hand on another cook's arm.
"A tragic song," d'Arnaud said, smiling.
The 29-year-old, who has played parts of five seasons with the Pirates, Phillies, and now Atlanta, is enjoying his most productive stretch in the majors. He's hitting .361/.439/.528 in 41 plate appearances over 12 games with four doubles and two stolen bases, and in last weekend's series against the Phillies, had the first three-hit day of his career.
He's not just playing for Turner Field cooks. @Braves' @CHASEdARNAUD is playing @Bonnaroo with @cdarnaudband pic.twitter.com/3eJvMWWVTN
— FOX Sports South (@FOXSportsSouth) May 24, 2016
"To have gotten opportunities like I have the past couple of weeks, I've gone out there and shown them what I can do," he said. "Because what I've been waiting over the last few years, was an opportunity to do this."
Baseball come first for the right-handed hitter -- and yes, the older brother of Mets catcher Travis -- but music is omnipresent in d'Arnaud's world. The son of an opera singer, he takes his guitar on the team charter, refusing to check it with the other bags.
It's a balancing act, the rigors of a baseball schedule and being the vocalist and rhythm guitarist in a band that's trying to find its way. But success, the Southern California native, thinks can come in both places.
"I believe it can," he said. "Obviously the baseball schedule is difficult to maneuver around for the musical side, but baseball is the first priority. This came after the fact. This was just a group of friends coming together and deciding 'OK, let's form a band.'"
That came by chance, d'Arnaud striking up a conversation in a coffee shop in Marina Del Rey in December with a guitar player who was recording something. He was Clayton Cages, who is also a producer, and who happened to live across the street from d'Arnaud. They began playing together, and a little more than a month after that initial meeting, Cages invited his son --Sebastian, who plays bass -- to join them.
The Chase d'Arnaud Band was born, who have a sound that the group's namesake says is best defined by its "bandwidth."
"It's like James Taylor meets Crosby Stills & Nash meets the Beatles meets the Rolling Stones meets Def Leppard meets Metallica," d'Arnaud said.
The band has recorded 14 songs in all for its label, El Raydar Recording Co. for a forthcoming album, but before its release, the Chase d'Arnaud Band will first find itself as part of one of the summer's biggest lineups.
D'Arnaud disclosed to FOXSportsSouth.com that the group has been booked to play in Bonnaroo's Hay Bale Studio. The product of Nashville-based engineer and producer Elijah "Lij" Shaw, the recording studio is on site behind the main stage and is made soundproof by being housed in hundreds of bales of hay.
Debuting in 2005, it hosts to two- to three-song sessions that are fed to some 40 radio markets, along with video footage that is posted on Bonnaroo's YouTube page. The Hay Bale has featured the likes of Alabama Shakes, The Black Keys, The Avett Brothers -- and now it will be the first major gig for the Chase d'Arnaud Band.
"We're really excited about that," d'Arnaud said. "So for that to be our very first gig, someone there must have heard us, liked our music and reached out to our label, and then went ahead and coordinated it."
After the Braves wrap up their three-game series in San Diego on June 8, d'Arnaud will head to the farm near Manchester, Tenn., that hosts Bonnaroo.
"Once I'm up there I'm sure I'll be taking it all in and feeling the adrenaline like I my first big-league at-bat," he said. "It will be an exciting day."
Selected by the Pirates in the fourth round in 2008, he played 64 games for their big-league club from 2011-14 (including 48 in '11) and spent '15 with the Phillies, (appearing in 12 MLB games), but nothing stuck.
Signed with the Braves as a free agent this past offseason, he was with interim manager Brian Snitker at Triple-A Gwinnett, and has proven a valuable piece since Snitker took over. While d'Arnaud has reached safely in nine of the 12 games in which he's played overall since his May 2 call-up, he's 6 for 13 (.462) in games since Snitker took over May 17.
"It comforts me knowing I have a manager that knows what I bring to the table," said d'Arnaud, who has seen time in right field and at second and third base.
D'Arnaud is a practitioner of visualization. He learned it from the Pirates' director of mental conditioning, Bernie Holliday. They would go all the way down to thinking about the smell of the grass and the sounds of the ballpark to visualize success. D'Arnaud, though, keeps it a little simpler.
"I experimented with that, but that was too much detail for me," he said. "I just like to envision the pitch coming across the zone, right where I want it and that's it."
The same goes for his music. When d'Arnaud is playing, he closes his eyes and focuses on the sound coming out, his mouth making the right shape to produce the correct sound.
He also visualizes a crowd, one bigger than the collection of cooks milling around pregame in the Turner Field pressbox.
"(I visualize) several rows of people in front of me, and then I open my eyes when we are rehearsing," he said. "As I got back (Monday from the Braves' 10-game road trip) we were rehearsing. We want to be ready for Bonnaroo."
Follow Cory McCartney on Twitter @coryjmccartney and Facebook. His book, 'Tales from the Atlanta Braves Dugout: A Collection of the Greatest Braves Stories Ever Told,' is out now, and 'The Heisman Trophy: The Story of an American Icon and Its Winners' will be released Nov. 1, 2016.
