If given the opportunity would you....

coolhand1969

coolhand1969

Senior Member
Most of us, on this forum, are rock/jazz/heavy drummers. However, if given the opportunity (forget money, you would still get the cash whether you played or not), are there 5 Country Artists (alive today) who you would enjoy playing for?

These are mine:

1) Brad Paisley
2) Garth Brooks
3) Dwight Youakum
4) Reba
5) Mary Chapin Carpenter
 
Faith Hill
Taylor Swift
3 of the Dixie Chicks

Shallow, I know, but my choices may not be entirely based on music.
 
Brad Paisley, Reba and Garth ..... all in a heartbeat. There are some others as well.
 
JustJames said:
Faith Hill
Taylor Swift
3 of the Dixie Chicks

Shallow, I know, but my choices may not be entirely based on music.
Click to expand...

You know there's only three Dixie Chicks, right?

When I used to play in the bar/restaurants alot in my younger days, I ended up playing alot of country and really liked it. It's hard to play that stuff well with conviction - alot of people don't know how hard it is until you're doing it. I'd be happy playing country music with anybody.

Sometimes I think jazz/fusion/rock/whatever, has a high ratio of "BS content" where you can fill it up with alot of notes that don't mean much and get away with calling yourself an artist. In alot of other music, like country (or even deep, greasy blues), if you filled stuff up with BS it's real obvious you're not doing it right.
 
I will fill in for almost anyone. I would fill in for any A-list band, most b-list and some lesser bands whose music kept me interested. Certainly all on your list would be a ball.
 
Bo Eder said:
You know there's only three Dixie Chicks, right?
Click to expand...

D'oh!

Acshly I didn't.

I'd heard them on the radio from time to time, and picked up a greatest hits CD, which I do rather like. The cover has a number (which on the basis of your post I now accept to be 3) of blonde ladypersons in slinky yet elegant black trousers and stilettos.

In which case I will trade one Dixie Chick for Shania Twain.
 
I'd love to play for any of them because modern country music is exactly the same as 50's, 60's and 70's rock and roll.

.
 
The line is really blurred between modern country and rock, so much so one could consider modern country a boring rock gig.

Country acts now have pyro, heavy guitars, there's cliche rock posing going on, they even dress like rock bands with cowboy hats.

In a lot of instances take away the fiddle and steel guitar and close your eyes... its a rock band with simple lyrics that usually include "Beer", "Cheatin", "Gettin drunk" etc.
 
Les Ismore said:
The line is really blurred between modern country and rock, so much so one could consider modern country a boring rock gig.
Click to expand...

If I'm playing drums, I'm never bored. It doesn't matter who's playing what around me, drumming is drumming.

FWIW, Garth pays best by far. :)

Bermuda
 
coolhand1969 said:
Most of us, on this forum, are rock/jazz/heavy drummers. However, if given the opportunity (forget money, you would still get the cash whether you played or not), are there 5 Country Artists (alive today) who you would enjoy playing for?

These are mine:

1) Brad Paisley
2) Garth Brooks
3) Dwight Youakum
4) Reba
5) Mary Chapin Carpenter
Click to expand...
Back around 2001 or 2002, I was on board for the creation of a band that played almost exclusively "young country" music. I started having second thoughts almost immediately. I didn't like the music and I hated not being able to play "my stuff." I took the grin-and-bear-it approach and made the best of it. We played songs by the artists you list above.

In hindsight, it was one of the most important musical experiences I had. I sucked at it. I was terrible. I was a frustrated fusion drummer trying to play simple and not cutting it. I thought I understood feel and groove, but I didn't, and this experience made it painfully clear to me.

The band eventually shifted some personnel and we went in a more rock direction. I loved that transition, but I found that the music we were playing was still outside my comfort zone; I liked rock, but more on the adventurous drumming side, so it was still hard for me to play the simpler stuff with the right feel and attitude.

To bring this story full-circle, I wound up really working hard at becoming a solid rock drummer. I have come light years from where I was. I could do a country gig now in a way that I couldn't have back then. In a way, I wish I could go back and do that gig again with what I know now.

Playing simple things with the right feel, authority and conviction is incredibly hard. On another thread, Jeff Almeyda mentioned this is what separates pros from amateurs, and I concur. Chops and this skill, whatever you want to call it, are two separate things. Don't misunderstand, I'm not saying they are mutually exclusive; most pros are really good at both, even if they're mostly known for one or the other. But it's much harder and more important than most young players realize.

So after that long-winded diatribe, my short answer is: I'd take a gig with any of the five!
 
Les Ismore said:
The line is really blurred between modern country and rock, so much so one could consider modern country a boring rock gig.

Country acts now have pyro, heavy guitars, there's cliche rock posing going on, they even dress like rock bands with cowboy hats.

In a lot of instances take away the fiddle and steel guitar and close your eyes... its a rock band with simple lyrics that usually include "Beer", "Cheatin", "Gettin drunk" etc.
Click to expand...

In my opinion this overlooks a fundamental element of how the music needs to be played.

I actually played modern country for a living for about 5 years back in the mid-1980's.
Since that time, today's modern country has certainly taken on more elements of "rock" drumming. However the feel remains different.

I've heard a few "rock" drummers in my town try to play modern country and it's simply not that great to listen to. Country drumming requires a more swampy / funkier edge to it than straight rock drumming does. They get the "what" correct but the "how" is very wrong. Sort of like trying to listen to Neil Peart play jazz.
 
As I don't like country music, I can't think of one (let alone five) country acts that I would play for. Fortunately, I don't have to be mercenary about music as I make my money elsewhere. But even if that wasn't the case, in all honesty, I would be a terrible choice for the job. I don't like the material, I'm not familiar with the idioms; it would be a disaster. Yes, I could probably learn a lot in the process but I imagine that I could learn a lot by going into a dentist's office and start drilling teeth. In both cases my learning experience would come at the extreme discomfort of the customers.
 
I remember the country music I heard growing up compared to the swill that they call country music now. If it was bands like Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Conway Twitty, Freddy Fender & Waylon Jennings, then the answer would be yes. For the bands you mentioned, the answer is no (except Garth Brooks, I kinda like him). If the pay is right, then I would suck it up just for the money. Like Bermuda says, "drumming is drumming". No pay = no way.
 
As musicians, I appreciate them all but I have no interest in ever playing country drums again.
It's just not my cup of tea. I don't have a single country album in my collection of thousands of albums which says it all. I try to play the music I love the most.
 
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