Working Drummer

To celebrate our 200th episode, we invited four of our favorite past guests – Seth Rausch, Travis McNabb, Hubert Payne, and Harry Miree – to participate in a roundtable discussion. We then did an extended interview with Chris McHugh. The show was recorded and filmed at The Drum Pad in Nashville at Drum Paradise. Seth Rausch is a skillful drummer currently working as the touring drummer for Keith U...

Dusty Simmons was born and raised in Richmond, VA, which he still calls home. He tours and records with The Cris Jacobs Band, and is part of multiple projects in Richmond. Dusty’s dad is a musician and had a garage full of instruments when Dusty was a kid. This is where and when Dusty began learning about music, and he was gigging by his sophomore year in high school. It has been non-stop gigging...

Rod Morgenstein’s unique, dynamic and musical drumming style has led to Rod’s winning the Best Progressive Rock Drummer award in Modern Drummer Magazine’s Reader’s Poll 5 years in a row (1986-1990) and Best All-Around Drummer (1999), earning him a permanent position in the magazine’s prestigious Honor Roll. Rod was a founding member of the groundbreaking group the Dixie Dregs. Rod is also very wel...

Kevin Leon has been on the Atlanta scene for nearly a decade and recently landed the touring gig with St. Paul & The Broken Bones. Kevin grew up in Birmingham, AL. He studied music at The University of Alabama at Birmingham and got a fast start playing all kinds of gigs on the Birmingham scene. After school, he moved to New York for a year and returned to Birmingham when it became clear he didn’t...

Gregg Bissonette performing and recording credits include working with Ringo Starr, David Lee Roth, James Taylor, Santana (on his Grammy-award winning Supernatural), Don Henley, Joe Satriani, Andrea Bocelli, ELO, Maynard Ferguson, Spinal Tap, and countless others.  He has recorded for many films—including The Bucket List, Finding Nemo, Best in Show, For Your Consideration, The Bourne Supremacy, Th...

Jeff Mellott has spent his entire life in Ohio and become a fixture on the Cincinnati scene. His trio, Us Today, recently release its fourth album, Computant. After starting at a community college, he transferred to Ohio Univeristy and went on to earn a master’s degree in Jazz Studies from the College Conservatory of Music at The University of Cincinnati. In addition to Us Today, Jeff performs wit...

Growing up in Watertown, NY, Sean Paddock started playing the drums at the age of four, and within a year was sitting in, performing live with his musician parents, Don Paddock (bassist) and Claudia Paddock (singer, guitarist) at local nightclubs. By the time he was 9-years-old, Sean had begun formal drum lessons and participated in the school band program. At fourteen, Sean and his family moved t...

Bill Stewart has been one of the most unique voices in jazz drumming for decades. He is especially known for his work with jazz guitar greats Pat Metheny, Jim Hall, Peter Bernstein, and most consistently and profoundly, John Scofield. His resume is rounded out with other iconic artists such as Michael Brecker, Maceo Parker, Joe Lovano, and Nicholas Payton. He has released several recording as a le...

Bart Robley is a perfect example of a full time musician that stays busy by diversifying his work load through teaching, performing live, recording as well as publishing educational material. Through his many projects, Bart learned the nuances of rock, country, jazz, fusion, hard rock and heavy metal. As his thirst for musical adventures grew, so did his need for larger projects. So he bid goodbye...

Prior to forming his own jazz orchestra, The BBB Featuring Bernie Dresel, Bernie backed Maynard Ferguson, the Brian Setzer Orchestra, and Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band. Bernie served 15 years for both Setzer and Goodwin. He has been the drummer on numerous Brian Setzer Grammy Award®-winning recordings and more recently on every recording that Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band has released, including...

Sandy Gennaro was born and raised in NYC and currently resides in Nashville TN. Sandy has toured and/or recorded with: Cyndi Lauper, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Bo Diddley, Johnny Winter, The Monkees, Joe Lynn Turner, Michael Bolton, Benny Mardones, Craaft, The Mamas and Papas and Jon Paris. He has recorded several Top 10 singles and has performed for for over a billion fans spanning his 50 yea...

Cody Rahn and Ben O’Brien Smith are the creators of Sounds Like A Drum, “an ongoing video series for drummers, audio engineers, and anyone who is responsible for achieving great drum sounds at the source. Sounds Like a Drum offers in-depth tutorials on tuning in ways most have never learned, tips and tricks for a memorable sound, and hacks that you might never have thought of.” Cody’s background a...

Since the early 1990’s, Rodney Edmondson has been the drummer for award winning singer and piano player Ronnie Milsap. Ronnie Milsap is credited with six Grammy Awards and forty No. 1 country hits. He was selected for induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2014.  Growing up in Virginia, Rodney developed his feel and approach to drumming throughout the 1970’s with local groups that includ...

Los Angeles native Elmo Lovano built a successful career as a touring and studio drummer with Juliette Lewis, Miley Cyrus, Christina Perri, James Fauntleroy, Avril Lavigne, Paul Oakenfold and many more. He began to see the need for a legitimate networking platform for professional musicians because, “as creatives, we don’t use Linkedin, and as professionals, we don’t use Craigslist.” After a coupl...

MeetHook Founder & CEO Anthony Citrinite is an established pro musician with a number of career highlights including playing on live TV with the classic rock band Boston at the Fiesta Bowl in 2002, Katy Perry and Joe Perry in 2009 at Radio City Music Hall on the MTV Video Music awards, and playing percussion for Coheed and Cambria to a sold out show later that year. He can be heard on a number of...

Jake Wood has been touring with Hamilton since early 2017, playing percussion, keyboards, electronics, and running Ableton. With no prior experience in musicals, he landed the gig through a San Francisco acquaintance, and proved himself by taking a month away from pretty much everything else in his life to spend ten hours a day practicing and learning the show. In addition to Hamilton, Jake plays...

Ben Hans is a musician and music instructor who keeps a busy performance schedule performing many genres of music. Ben performs as a freelance artist, who cut his teeth performing under the tutelage of Jazz Guitarist Jack Grassel and the late Swing Clarinetist Chuck Hedges. Ben has shared the stage with a diverse list of artists such as singer/songwriter/composer and Grammy nominated C. F. Kip Win...

Quinton Robinson moved to Atlanta from Miami in 2010, and has established himself as a busy touring and session drummer for acts including Kenny Lattimore, Avery Sunshine, Algebra Blessett, and the newly released New-York-based musical “Born For This.” Jonathan Joseph served as his primary mentor on the drums, and Q has also made himself valuable as an expert Ableton practitioner and STEM producer...

Christian Matthew Cullen started his professional career as a session musician and sideman for Jim Peterik (Ides Of March, Survivor) in his Wold Stage band where he gained the opportunity to play with notable rock artists such as Alan Parsons, Don Barnes (.38 Special), Kevin Cronin (REO Speedwagon), Kip Winger, Joe Lynn Turner ( Deep Purple, Rainbow), Mickey Thomas (Starship), and Kelly Keagy (Nig...

Quinton Robinson moved to Atlanta from Miami in 2010, and has established himself as a busy touring and session drummer for acts including Kenny Lattimore, Avery Sunshine, Algebra Blessett, and the newly released New-York-based musical “Born For This.” Jonathan Joseph served as his primary mentor on the drums, and Q has also made himself valuable as an expert Ableton practitioner and STEM producer...

Billy Thomas moved to Nashville from Los Angeles in 1987 and immediately began working with award winning singer, songwriter and instrumentalist Vince Gill. He has been a member of Gill’s touring band ever since and regularly sings and plays on Gill’s records. Billy is also a member of the multi Grammy nominated western swing band, The Time Jumpers.  Billy has recorded and/or toured with Patty Lov...

Dylan Wissing has been quietly amassing a resume of A-list recording credits including Jay-Z, Eminem, Kanye West, Alicia Keys, and John Legend. He grew up in Bloomington, IN, studied with Kenny Aronoff and Shawn Pelton, and toured for 13 years with the band Johnny Socko. When the band had run its course, Dylan ended up in the New York area in 2003 and began touring and recording with a huge variet...

Jake Gammon is the touring drummer for accomplished singer/songwriter Phil Vassar. When not on the road with Phil, Jake keeps a full schedule performing many shows a week on Nashville’s legendary lower Broadway music scene. Originally from Lexington Kentucky, Jake was learning the business side of music at an early age and by fourteen, he was a drummer for hire. His high school years were spent dr...

Isabelle De Leon grew up in the Washington, DC area in a musical family. Her father instilled a love of music in all his daughters and for awhile, Isabelle and her siblings comprised the band Ivy Rose, which made an appearance on America’s Got Talent. She attended The University of Maryland where she delved into jazz for the first time, gravitating to the playing and energy of Tony Williams and hi...

Joe Crabtree played his first professional gig at 14 and was teaching by age 15. After studying Physics at Durham University (where he spent the majority of his time playing with function bands, small jazz bands and the university big band) he returned to teaching and playing in the North of England for a few years before moving to London to embark on a career as a professional musician. He played...