The Drum Shuffle

Dude! On episode 111, Jamie is joined by the phenomenal Harry Miree to discuss his path to becoming one of Nashville's busiest session drummers, touring 160 days per year, and having a YouTube channel with millions of views. Harry is an open book sharing his love for drumming and explaining his approach to his extremely busy career. He is truly one of the wittiest and hilarious guys you'll ever me...

On episode 110, Marc Pisapia joins Jamie for an in-depth conversation on his career as an in-demand, first-call drummer. Marc's discography includes albums with k.d. lang, Kelly Willis, Chuck Prophet, David Mead, and Josh Rouse. Marc provides great insight and advice on having a successful career as a drummer in an ultra-competitive industry.

Brian Setzer, Five For Fighting, The BoDeans, and The Honey Dogs are all names on Noah Levy's impressive drumming resume. On episode 109, Noah joins Jamie for an in-depth conversation about his career, adapting to new musical situations, and how he has stayed busy for the last 20-plus years. The entire interview is full of great advice and tips for working musicians and Noah's humor and kindness a...

Michael Bland is a drummer's drummer. He has been playing professionally since his teens. During one of his early gigs, Prince stopped in and was so blown away, he offered Michael a job before he was old enough to legally purchase a beer. Let that sink in. Since those days, Michael has played with countless artists and for the past few years he has been a member of Soul Asylum. On episode 108, Mic...

Our good friend, Kevin Charney, stops by to give us a quick update on what's going on in his life and to tell us about his new radio show, Supertwang, on Gimme Country. We talk about the shutdown of the music and arts industry, building drums during the pandemic, and almost everything else that comes to mind. This episode is a typical "hang" that occurs all the time between drummers. Listen in as...

On Episode 107, Jamie is joined by Dave Kirby of The Belfast Cowboys to discuss his drumming throughout the years. Dave is a native of Minnesota and grew up in a musical family. Like many working musicians, early in his career Dave was forced to choose between a "regular job" and chasing his musical dreams. Dave is one of the few that managed to be extremely successful in both the business world a...

Shirazette Tinnin grew up in North Carolina and started drumming at a young age. She honed her early musical chops at church and in her public school system. A proud graduate of Appalachian State University, she now resides in New York and continues making waves in the NYC jazz scene. Her new album, Sonic Wallpaper Vol 1, The Cards That Life Can Deal showcases her drumming, composing, and arrangin...

On episode 105, Jamie is joined by Rajiv Jayaweera to discuss his new release, Pistils, which is hot off the presses. Originally from London, Rajiv moved to Australia as a youngster and was surrounded by music from an early age. After college, he worked and toured the Australian circuit before relocating to New York to pursue every Jazz drummer's dream. After several years of composing original ma...

Jon Foster is an up-and-coming young drummer currently splitting his time between Toronto and Los Angeles. He has already completed tours of North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia with a wide-range of artists including Justin Nozuka, Jeremie Albino, and Tanika Charles. He is also creating amazing drumming content on YouTube that is very helpful to all drummers. Jon is a drummer to watch over t...

Billy Sullivan should be a perfect example for all drummers on launching, maintaining, and growing a career in the music industry. A self-proclaimed angry kid, Billy was drawn to the drums as a way to release aggression. What he didn't know as a kid, was that his drumming would take him from his hometown of Long Island, New York to Los Angeles, where he would become highly successful in the world...

Troy Luccketta has spent the last 30-plus years manning the drum throne for Tesla. In that time, they have sold in excess of 15 million albums in the United States, toured the world countless times, and influenced scores of young musicians. On episode 102, Troy joins Jamie to discuss his early years and influences, what Tesla means to him, how dreams can come true, and how he approaches being a mu...

On episode 101, we catch up with our old friend, David Parks, to hear about his exciting new band Resist and Bite, how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the touring industry, how things could change in the future, and how he's keeping busy during this downtime. David always has great perspective on things and always offers sound advice and a few laughs.

How did this happen? On this special 100th episode of The Drum Shuffle, Jamie interviews the four biggest musical influences in his life, his Funnel bandmates of nearly 30 years. Phil Weisenberger, Kevin Rexroat, Matt Weisenberger, and Allen Case all call in for a retrospective on their musical journey together. The guys share some early details of Jamie's drumming history, what it means to be in...

Patrick Muzingo grew up with a pedigree of hardcore Southern California skate culture. By his early teens he was drumming in countless punk bands, sometimes having to sit outside when he wasn't on stage because of his age. When we say punk bands, we mean bands like The Atoms, Americas Hardcore, and Decry. But his path in punk rock bands made an unlikely turn in 1986 when he joined Junkyard. Drawin...

Mark Damian is a very busy musician. He is in high demand as a drummer, producer, composer, and recording engineer. A Detroit native, he began playing the club scene at an early age making a name for himself as an outstanding drummer with tremendous work ethic. Since relocating to Los Angeles, he has expanded his portfolio to include production, television scoring, engineering, and music superviso...

A special bonus episode of The Drum Shuffle from our brothers and sisters at Ludwig Drums discussing the current COVID-19 pandemic. Josh Touchton from Ludwig stopped by to discuss their message below: Dear Drummers, As we stand against the adversity of COVID-19, we want to take a moment to wish you all strength and wellness. The health and well-being of our global community continue to be our bigg...

David Northrup has a drumming resume that includes Boz Scaggs, Travis Tritt, Tanya Tucker, Joe Diffe, Rick Derringer, John Waite, Pam Tillis, and The Oak Ridge Boys. He has played with so many iconic artists in his career that it is hard to comprehend. Originally from just outside Syracuse, New York, David grew up on a steady dose of Rock and Roll in his formative years. He started drumming in his...

On episode 096, our good friend Mark Poiesz returns to talk about everything he's up to while touring with Tyler Farr is temporarily shut down due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Like many other touring drummers, Mark has been busy teaching and recording remote tracks for folks, but he has also found some unexpected educational opportunities to pursue while he has some time off. He has found some unique...

Stephen Taylor is the owner and founder of Stephen's Drum Shed, one of the premiere online drum schools in the United States. Prior to building a thriving drum education business, he played thousands of gigs on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, was a successful recording and touring artist with Lovers and Liars, and studied with the likes of Henrique De Almeida and Dr. John Wooten. On episode 095, St...

On episode 094, Jamie is joined by Carlton Banks, founder and CEO of Collision Drumsticks. Carlton started playing at a very early age and was touring his native England by the age of 9 with SRS, a hugely popular young band. After many years with SRS, a chance jam session in a pub landed him a gig touring with super DJ, Rob Orton. The duo played some of the largest festivals in Europe over the nex...

The very first record Walfredo Reyes Jr. bought with his own money was Chicago Transit Authority. Fast-forward approximately 40 years in Wally's life; he's playing drums for that very band, now known as Chicago. Along the way, he has recorded and toured with Santana, Traffic, Jackson Browne, Lindsey Buckingham, Barry Manilow, and a host of other musical icons. Born in Cuba and raised in Puerto Ric...

Scott Hessel returns to The Drum Shuffle to discuss the upcoming Gin Blossoms summer tour with Barenaked Ladies and Toad the Wet Sprocket and catch up on everything that has been happening in his career over the past two years. Scott was Jamie's guest on episode 002 in the very beginning of the show and it's always great to catch up with Scott. "Hess" is one of the greatest guys in the music busin...

Nate Morton returns to The Drum Shuffle on episode 091 to catch everyone up on his busy drumming life. It's hard to believe that it's been almost 2 years since he was last on the show on episode 009. While Nate continues to stay busy on NBC's "The Voice", he has also released an album, and is in the planning stages for a potential clinic tour before The Voice starts back up later this year. Nate a...

What more can we say?  Dafnis Prieto returns to The Drum Shuffle to talk about winning a Grammy, an upcoming release from his sextet, and his brilliant new book, Rhythmic Synchronicity: Individual and Collective Rhythmic Skills.  The book is the result of a course he teaches at Frost School of Music at the University of Miami for non-drummers.  It is highly useful tool for all musicians to gain a...

Zach Martin split his early years between Lexington, Kentucky and Portland, Oregon. Growing up with a musician father, he started drumming and hasn't looked back since the age of eight. Zach returned to Portland after high school and played in many different genres and situations before moving back to Kentucky.  He actually took a hiatus from drumming for about a year until a friend remembered tha...