Working Drummer

Rick Marotta is known for his recordings and touring with such luminaries as James Taylor, Jackson Brown, Steely Dan, Carly Simon, Paul Simon, Linda Ronstadt, Aretha Franklin, Larry Carlton, Warren Zevon and Bette Midler. Rick began playing drums at 19 when a friend went into the army and left his set of drums to Rick. It wasn’t long before Rick began playing with R&B bands in the New York area, r...

Once a year, we get together with our buddy Nick Ruffini of Drummer’s Resource to catch up on developments in our lives, podcasts, and careers. In this episode, Zack, Matt, and Nick talk about: * Los Angeles: Nick’s first impressions, Zack’s memories, the good, the bad and the ugly * Nick’s new company, Revoice Media * Playing drums vs. other music-related jobs, and how ego and identity plays into...

Accomplished drummer and spiritual teacher Steve Sinatra has dedicated fifteen plus years to making his living as a full time professional studio and touring musician. He’s toured and shared the stage with many nationally recognized artists such as Sarah Buxton, Pat Green, Richard Marx, Vertical Horizon, Billy Gilman, Joe Nichols, Little Big Town, Hunter Hayes and many others.  After spending ten...

Accomplished drummer and spiritual teacher Steve Sinatra has dedicated fifteen plus years to making his living as a full time professional studio and touring musician. He’s toured and shared the stage with many nationally recognized artists such as Sarah Buxton, Pat Green, Richard Marx, Vertical Horizon, Billy Gilman, Joe Nichols, Little Big Town, Hunter Hayes and many others.  After spending ten...

Tarik Abouzied has played and traveled with a vast array of incredible musicians. His groups have collectively produced seven original albums: two from Pocket Change, an instrumental funk septet in the vein of Tower of Power, three from Hardcoretet, a modern instrumental jazz quartet, one from McTuff, an incredible funk/jazz Hammond organ trio, and one from his current project, Happy Orchestra. Ha...

Petar Janjic was born in Kraljevo, Serbia, also known as Kingstown. At 5, his father, a well known Serbian drummer, gave him a drum set and at the age of 10, Petar began studying with legendary a Serbian drummer Slobodan Stojanovic. In high school, Petar toured all over Europe before his eventual move to the United States. In 2008 he studied Music Performance & Percussion at the McNally Smith Coll...

Jordan Manley made the move to Atlanta in 2014, after growing up and spending the early years of his career in the small town of Columbus, GA. Since moving, he has been a member of several Atlanta-based groups including Black Linen, Lightning Orchestra, and Mattiel, with who he has been touring the U.S. and Europe, opening for the likes of Jack White and St. Paul & The Broken Bones. In this podcas...

One of the premier showmen in rock, Carmine Appice became known worldwide for his astonishing live performances and a highly sought-after session drummer, He is known As the drummer for many ground breaking rock bands in the late 60’s to early 70’s like Vanilla Fudge Cactus as well as one of the first super groups with Jeff Beck, Beck, Bogert & Appice. In 1976, he joined Rod Stewart’s band, tourin...

John Bryant is a drummer, percussionist, composer, educator, and music producer residing and working in Dallas, Texas. Originally from Virginia, he moved to Dallas and majored in music at the University of North Texas, where he performed and recorded with the One O’Clock Lab Band. He has recorded and/or performed with numerous artists including Ray Charles, Delbert McClinton, Joe Walsh, Lightnin’...

Danny Young (bald) and Mike McKee (bald) met a few years back while touring together and very quickly bonded over their mutual love for all things drums/percussion. Since then, they started a very nerdy friendship of developing and creating new instruments to use on their respective gigs: Mike with Delta Rae and Danny with Dan Tyminski. In 2018, the two officially joined forces and created “BaldMa...

Drummer/Percussionist Sam Wisman is a versatile fixture in Kansas City’s thriving creative music scene. He is a member of the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra, the Mark Lowrey Trio, Roger Wilder Quartet, Kinnor Philharmonic, Marimba Sol de Chiapas, and the People’s Liberation Big Band. He has performed with the Kansas City Symphony, the Topeka Symphony, New York Voices, Bobby Watson and more. He has wor...

For over 10 years, Dillon Napier has been the drummer for Grammy Nominated artist Margo Price. From performing at the O2 in London and Red Rocks in Colorado, to performing on multiple TV shows including Saturday Night Live, Margo’s success in recent years has afforded Dillon many unique and bucket list opportunities with many more to come. You can hear Dillon on Margo’s 2016 record, Midwest Farmer...

Bob Knight was our guest on episode 165 and was so informative and entertaining, we had to go back for more. Bob lives in London where he commands somewhat of a dual career, both as an in-demand drummer and a music agent or “fixer,” matching musicians with bands or artists who need backing. He graduated from the jazz program at the prestigious Royal Academy of Music in London and has gone on to wo...

In this episode we share stories and experiences of five accomplished drummers who maintain standard fitness practices as part of their daily and weekly routines. This roundtable includes Matt Iceman – (David Nail), Dave McAfee – (Toby Keith), Corbin Cagle – (indépendent), Mark Poiesz – (Tyler Farr), and helping to moderate the conversation is fitness expert and life coach Danny Elliott. Danny is...

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...