The drums are a part of me now…they’re a place to express my nature: the rough, tumbling rocks of my cliffs and the flowing waters of my oceans. I’m ever-grateful for this gift that provides so much learning on many levels. Including, most especially: play and fun times with other people!!
This is a post with some of my recent musical collaborations and whatnots.
Chickweed Tumble
I’ve been playing with Sam, singer and guitarist, for over a year; we first met when she reached out on Bandmix, a dating site for musicians & bands. We have great communication and she is a creative force. We do reinvented covers of songs ranging from Rocky Raccoon by the Beatles to Get Down Inc. by Gorillaz to Angels from Montgomery as interpreted by Bonnie Raitt (and I’m still laughing that I didn’t know it was a John Prine song until after I played it as a rock and roll tune). We recently added Jarred, electric guitarist, to our sessions, and it’s getting groovy. We just performed two songs at Covers & Blankets in Portland on January 27 2024. It’s the 21st annual charity event that’s a musical community getting jiggy with it for a good cause. This is our first song, Everything is Free by Gillian Welch. The second song I don’t have a recording of yet, it was Let the Mermaids Flirt with Me by Mississippi John Hurt. Neither of those songs has any drums on them in their original version, by the way!
Ol’ Guitar Junkie
Funnily enough, I also met Ken, aka Ol’ Guitar Junkie, through BandMix. (I love getting outreaches there since drums are meant to be played with others!) He has a bunch of great original songs with a lot of character and a wide range of emotions & rhythms. We are going to be practicing more often, and he hopes that eventually we can play a set of his songs out somewhere locally. This is an extra-fast one called Kensday, and recorded during the first session we’d played it together, just this past Thursday — shared with warts ‘n’ all. 😅
Drums for Krasi song
About a year ago, I stepped away from being in my first band, Zaffi. It was led by talented songwriter, guitarist and singer Krasi, but it was just not a great fit for me. (Hey, now that I think about it, he was my very first BandMix outreach! That place works!) I’d been in touch with Krasi only sporadically since departing Zaffi, but this past Monday, he texted to ask if I could add drums to a song project he’s doing at Berklee as an extended education thing. He said he’d have a track to me on Thursday or Friday, and it needed drum parts to be done by Sunday. It arrived Friday evening February 3 2024 and I was able to work on it Saturday evening. Whew, recording has its own challenges! Krasi turned around the mix we have here by Sunday mid-day. To be clear, this is a school project that I was pulled into, a fresh original by Krasi & friends. Don’t blow up my WordPress, kids, it’ll be out on the services somewhere someday maybe!
Garage band for realz
When I was in San Diego this past October, I made sure to play with my cool friends who have a proper garage band!! This clip features the amazing Barb on bass, the rad Ian on guitar, and the beautiful Ellen on vocals. I’d just learned to play the song’s simple, driving groove a couple minutes before, all thanks to a chart on Drumeo’s song service….
Keep on rocking, friends… 🤘🏽 And hit me up if you want to play music!