Firing it back up

     Well, a year has passed and , holy shit, if everything hasn't just gotten soooooo much better! When I left off, I was auditioning for The Mad Maggies band http://themadmaggies.com/. Needless to say, I got the gig and had one of the most entertaining and creatively challenging years of my musical career! We played about thirty shows last year including The Santa Rosa Fair http://www.sonomacountyfair.com/fair/sonoma-county-fair.php, The Cotati Accordion Festival The Cotati Accordion Festival and three shows in Cedar Rapids, Iowa (BrewNost(http://www.ncsml.org/Events/20110923/80/BrewNost-2011.aspx), The Accordion Symposium(http://www.thinkingoutsidethesqueezebox.com/) and The Red Baron).
     We are now gearing up for a nine day, eight show tour from Redding, California to Seattle, Washington. Maggie rented a cool custom van from http://bandago.com/ and all seven are going to embark on a crazy journey starting March 16th. Out of the gate, it should be an interesting tour. Hopefully I will keep y'all posted on the shenanigans! Of course the new tour will require new equipment. It has been 15 years since the purchase of my last drum kit. Don't get me wrong, that kit is still totally relevant and kicks ass, but hey, I got an excuse to get new gear...carpe diem! So If figured I needed a more compact drum set as to not hog all the room in the van. My current kit consists of i large 20" bass drum case, 2 tom cases (12" & 13") one 14" snare case 1 drum caddy full of 95# of hardware, 1 cymbal bag, 1 bass drum pedal suitcase, 1 stick bag, 1 carpet and 1 fan! Oye! Imagine loading and unloading that every freakin night. Especially after playing for three hours at 2am. Not fun, but that's the glamor of music.
     Anyway, you get the idea. Smaller is better....well sort of. What I found was this amazing drum kit made by a true artist. The Man is JT Whitney, and his drums are known as Whitney Drums (Fat in the middle). He has some brilliant ideas and has created a wonderful sounding light weight and down right beautiful kit. If you get a chance, I recommend checking out his sight. http://whitneydrums.com/wp/ I can go on days about the ingenuity of these drums but it is best left to the master, JT, himself to tell you. I went to the site, picked out what I wanted, shot him an e-mail.. He wrote back and told me to call him, which I did, and he was very helpful in assisting me in designing the kit that would be best for me. This was early January. I told him I needed them for my tour in the middle of March. He told me he could do it and holy shit if he didn't come through. He builds each set to order, and let me tell you, so far, this kit is the bomb! All, I mean ALL, the drums fit in one case and weigh 35#!!!!!!!!! No joke! HEAVEN! A big thank you to JT!
     I also had to get some more new gear, of course. I bought a new Axis Hi-hat longboard pedal(http://www.axispercussion.com/longboards_L-HH.html) I had to get a travel case for my cymbals(http://www.gatorcases.com/p/4127-1355/gp-pe302) , and I needed sleeves (http://www.cymbag.com/?content=secciones_contenido&idSeccion=1) to protect the cymbals in the case . And no drummer is complete without the proper footwear!!!!(http://www.drumshoes.com/) And that concluded my shopping spree. I wanted a new bass drum pedal, but the funds ran out!! Next time.... So now it's off to the races. Five days till we leave for the tour and I still have a lot of shit to do. So here I go. Later!