Session Drummer | Studio Drummer | Touring and Worship Drummer for Hire | Dale Baker | Durham, Chapel Hill, Raleigh, NC

Aimee Mann on IFC

I'm not sure how old this clip is...but this is brilliant music performed at its best. (Check out the guy playing keys, I'm wondering if he's triggering different patches from the drum pads on the keyboard - it's amazing how many sounds he's going through on the song)...

Somehow I stumbled onto Brightcove - which is a hipper, slicker more professional version of You Tube and ended up watching a couple of Rodale videos before noticing that they have a lot of the music performances from the Henry Rollins show on IFC.  Awesome stuff to browse through if you have the time...I'm hoping to get back there to watch Daniel Johnston and Ben Folds.  (all right...I just did - Ben was awesome as usual and Daniel, well let's just say he's an acquired taste but well worth the effort)

Buhanan Article

My family and I went to Elmo's tonight for dinner (our kitchen was a mess and I was too exhausted to make dinner), and while waiting in line we looked through the stack of newspapers near the front of the restaurant and to our surprise we saw that our friends were on the cover of the Independent, highlighting a feature article on them inside. Written by Grayson Currin, it's a story:

"...about Chapel Hill’s Bu Hanan collective, a collaborative cache of five songwriters who play in each other’s bands and record each other’s records. Perry Wright of Bu Hanan’s The Prayers and Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers was at the antifolk festival, and he loved it (See Perry sing along to Billy Sugarfix with Bowerbirds’ Perry Wright here). But Bu Hanan doesn’t let much hang out. As the story goes, the bands in the Bu Hanan collective criticize one another in some asymptotic pursuit of perfection. When something isn’t right, they raze and reassemble. It’s a system that works, even if the participants occasionally get their feelings hurt."

This is what Grayson wrote about his cover story on his blog, thus the reference to the Anti-Folk festival at the Duke Coffeehouse this past week. 

Anyway, I was excited to see my friends in the Buhanan Collective featured in such a well done story chronicling their past and giving glimpses of their future together.  I've been a part of the "fun" over at the Buhanan house, having played on a bunch of Perry's, Prayers and Tears records, Daniel's Physics of Meaning records, and recording and playing live with all of them at one time or another.  I've had some wonderful times with those guys, and I hope to have more.  (on a side note, just last Sunday I recorded some tracks with Daniel for his new Physics of Meaning record...)

You can listen to a mix tape the Independent put together specifically for the article.  I'm on at least 4 of the tracks (described below via the Independent):

• 1. "Rotation of Crops," The Prayers and Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers

  Contemplative but driving, "Rotation of Crops" is a blooming rock song with unexpected details. Notice the production on the drums and the reverse vocals undercutting Perry Wright's lead line. Text painting, anyone?

• 4. "Lisa," The Prayers and Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers

  "Lisa" is a tale of loneliness as told by an estranged imaginary friend. For premise, illustration and execution, it's all but perfect. Recorded last year for Esopus Magazine, it's also one of the collective's best moments.

• 6. "The Sad Lives of Hollywood Lovers," The Prayers and Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers

  The coda gets full and cascades outward like a piece from OK Computer. But Perry Wright's ruminations-in-verse are entirely human, watching two people cast their misery into one another.

• 9. "Down at Columbia and Cameron," The Physics of Meaning

  Hear two Bu Hanan stamps: David's thick, goading bass and Daniel's string polyphony clinging to every surface.

It's possible that my playing is on more of the tracks as Alex will occasionally re-use some of my drum stuff. If you hear a 16th note shaker somewhere, it's probably me... :-)

New Loops posted

I just posted a bunch of new drum loops.  Check them out and let me know what you think.  I'm pretty sure these are better than the first batch, so much so, I deleted the original post and files and replaced them with these new and improved versions.  There are also some single hits over there now as well.

For those of you without audio equipment to properly assemble the loops and listen to them in some sort of a context, you may want to try the online audio/sequencer tool "Splice" over here.

Happy programming!

Long time, I know.

I know it's been a while.  Sorry to those of you who frequent my site.

I've been debating whether or not I've got the time to keep my blog up and going.  It may be that I scale back a bit and concentrate my energies more on Durham Drum Lessons and keep a blog over on that site related to my gigs and professional engagements.  I've also debated porting all my blog stuff over to Google and let them host my blog for free via Blogger.

Anyway, I'll be sure to keep you posted should anything change.

Today I was thinking about how back before I joined Sixpence (in '93) I had all these dreams of playing and recording music and at the time they seemed ridiculous and a little bit crazy, yet most of them came true within and during the time I was with Sixpence.  Who would've thunk it?

So, today I thought it's time for me to dream once again, and so for your amusement and my sanity and whatever...I thought I'd list out people I'd love to play with/ record and or tour with again, or maybe for the first time:

• Kevin Killen
• Chris Walla
• Buddy Miller
• Patty Griffin
• Michael W. Smith
• Amy Grant
• Over the Rhine
• Leland
• Jars of Clay
• Victoria Williams
• Steve Hindalong
• Mark Byrd
• Nathan Fancher
• Russ Long
• Martin Baird
• Steve Taylor
• Mark Nash
• Alex Lazara
• Perry Wright

Oh well, that's a partial list.  Crazy though it may seem, I figure what the heck.  Maybe by putting these dreams in writing, they'll come into reality.   I still get a thrill each time I get a chance to play drums and I feel I've continued to develop, grow and mature as a player over the past few years. 

Anyway, that's about it.  Nothing much to say...just me rambling on and dreaming out loud.  Take care everybody!