We had a great time at the Chicago Drum Show and are so glad that Rob Cook was able to resume it at the last minute. Next year’s will be even bigger and better. We will be there. Please see the article in this issue about the history of the Chicago Drum Show that Rob Cook wrote.
There is still plenty of time to enter the Famous Celebrity snare drum Giveaway contest. The drawing date for this high end single ply snare drum is July 4, so do it NOW! To enter, just sign up here: CONTEST
I am pleased to announce that Don Mcaulay, drummer, vintage drum collector/restorer, drum tech for Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones, and producer of the New England Drum Show coming up in April 2022 has offered to be a writer for Not So Modern Drummer. His first piece is about the sale of some his instruments from the Gene Krupa Collection that he discovered in 2018. This is pretty big news. Charlie Watts bought the entire collection and gave Don some of the instruments as a commission. He was planning on selling some of the pieces in 2020, then the pandemic hit. Thanks for giving NSMD the scoop, Don. Please read Don’s article in this issue.
Lately I’ve had more than the normal number of NSMD reader friends ask me what I am doing these days. The questions range from “Are you still playing with Poco?” to “What’s going on in Nashville?”, to “Did you retire? Are you even playing any more?”. Well, first of all, the reports of my retirement have been greatly exaggerated! I stopped playing with Poco in 2015 and, sadly, Poco leader Rusty Young died April 14 of this year at the age of 75. He was the last remaining original member of the group, so Poco is no longer, but I think Poco’s music will live on in some form or fashion. I decided not to tour anymore or hustle gigs in Nashville around that time. I don’t know what’s going on in Nashville as much as I used to because I moved away from there in 2018 to Memphis TN where my wife Georgetta and I are very happy. I was playing with a cool 7 piece rock and soul band on Beale Street here from 2018 until February of this year, when I decided to slow down my schedule a bit. I was playing three gigs a weekend with that band and two church gigs on Saturday and Sunday. After having Covid in November I was starting to feel my age (67) with that schedule. I’m still playing the church gigs and some one off casual gigs and sessions when they come up. I’m now spending more of my time working on Not So Modern Drummer, DrumSellers.com and Famous Drums. I am also taking on more repair and drum building work, as well as appraisals of vintage drums. Please see the new link for those services at www.notsomoderndrummer.com/services . And I’m still teaching private students at Memphis Drum Shop and at my home. So, still busy, just not to the point of exhaustion. Oh, I’m also waiting on Eric Clapton to call! :-)