“Wagon Wheel” is a song that was started by Bob Dylan back in 1973. Almost 30 years later, it was completed by someone named Ketch Secor who played in a band called the Old Crow Medicine Show. They recorded the song after finishing off the Bob Dylan throwaway and that’s the version I first heard and loved. When someone once suggested we play the song, I said, “Hell yeah! I like that song. It’s a bluegrass-country type of thing thing. …

I’ve long been a big proponent of In-Ear Monitors—IEMs—and really think that, for me, the evolution of this technology has been an amazing windfall. Not everyone likes ’em. And it’s understandable why, as, like with most things in life, there are tradeoffs and someone who is accustomed to playing with wedge monitors will doubtlessly experience growing pains when making the switch. But I’ve always been a big proponent of IEMs. I first started using them before I knew that they …

There’s a reason why my recent release, Somewhere in the Bell Curve, had eight songs on it. Prior to the commencement of the sessions, I prepped demo stems for eight songs specifically because it was the number of songs that I felt we could comfortably cut drum tracks for in two long nights. That matters, because there are economic and practical concerns to be considered. Recording drums is an involved process. A drum kit is not really just one instrument, …

This is a Tama catalogue from about 1987 or so, and it’s for a line of theirs called Swingstar. But it’s not just any catalogue, to me. This one holds special meaning. I collectively spent many, many hours looking at this thing… and it’s only about 12 pages. Pre-Internet, pre-YouTube, pre-on-demand, kids used to re-read stuff on their shelves, pulling out the same items over and over again, even if it was a drum brochure. At least I did. We …

Well, we are in the middle of a pandemic, you know, and there certainly has been a giant decline in the amount of music I’ve been doing. Here’s the unfortunate truth: I’m barely playing at all. Why? Well, for starters, I really and truly have been very busy with that stuff I do for a living. Crazy, right? It would seem more reasonable to think times would be slow, and I know I’m fortunate that they’re not. I’m as busy …

At the risk of making a horribly generalized statement—and doing so with my tongue sort of in cheek, but not entirely—I think this music thing comes down to people who make shit up and people who don’t. Songs, that is.  Songwriting, I suppose we can say. But I’m even leery of using that description. The term ”songwriter” evokes the picture of the navel-gazing folkie or a person who is something of a life journalist—reflecting the world we live in (our …

So, it’s only been 2 days I have been on “lock down” here, and it seems selfish and absurd to be thinking about how much it sucks that I’m not out playing music and that shows are being cancelled. After all, there are far more pressing issues now: health concerns, plummeting stock markets, folks unable to work. Who wants to talk about music? Well, I do. I’ll have plenty of time to worry about those other things. Life without music …

I love being a musician. I love being able to do what I do. My musical schedule keeps me busy and working hard, but I’m truly thankful to have such opportunities. When the opportunities dry up or become sparse, it depresses me. And, conversely, there is nothing else I do with any regularity that I identify so strongly with.  Doing something vs. doing something and bleeding for it are totally different. As an extreme example on the other end,  I …

While I can wax nostalgically about my formative years as a young musician, one thing that I find regrettable was that “the culture of the day” was very competitive and critical.  It was the second half of the 1980s and hard rock was en vogue, and so was posturing and going about your business with a sense of arrogance. The prevailing thought among a lot of groups when talking about their peers was, “This band sucks! We blow them away!”  …