Boston, MA, USA / Jan. 2003
A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL! Thank you for checking in to the site .... we've some changes afoot which will hopefully mean updates ( & also gig listings ) will be a more regular occurence .... your patience is appreciated!
The last six months have been quite eventful , but the saddest news was the loss of our good friends Gus & Sheila Dudgeon back in July.
In the early 70's, Gus was one of the first record producers [outside the " folk-rock " world] to book me for recording sessions and our relationship grew strong over the subsequent thirty years. He - along with other producer/engineer luminaries such as Geoff Emerick, Glyn Johns, John Wood & Paul Samwell Smith - put up with a young, keen but green drummer and if I do have any idea of how to get sounds in a recording studio today, I owe most of that knowledge to those people. Gus & Sheila became good friends with Caron & myself and it was Caron who recently reminded me that before we moved to the U.S. three years ago, the last ten or so Boxing Days were spent at Gus and Sheila's house - a wonderful annual event.
Our mutual friend Chris Hook was appointed Executor and I was suprised yet tremendously flattered to learn from him that Gus had left his entire CD & LP collection to me in his Will. As I write this, plans are in hand to erect some serious new shelving in our house to accomodate it! In the coming weeks I'll be posting some pictures on the site from the XTC " Nonsuch " recording sessions [Circa '92] that show Gus in "full flight." With Gus & Sheila gone, the world has lost a truly wonderful couple.
To bring things up to date: some recording sessions I've mentioned over the past year or so have finally seen the light of day [or soon will do so.] The tracks cut here in Boston for Linda Thompson were whittled down to one - this appears on her excellent "Fashionably Late" CD on 'Rounder Records.' The Juliana Hatfield tracks appear on her "Gold Stars" collection and the Emory Joseph CD - which includes the double-drumming tracks I cut with Levon Helm - comes out in Febuary. [For info' on Emory's CD, go to www.emoryjoseph.com.] Some other recordings now available with yours truly include the Grammy nominated single "Alone" on Susan Tedeschi's new release, Chip Taylor-Carrie Rodriguez' "Lets Leave This Town" CD, the most recent from my friend [ex- "Katrina & the Waves" guitarist] Kimberly Rew and the [Mason Daring produced] "Sunshine State" John Sayles' film soundtrack.
Also of note and a recording of which I'm particularly proud is "Super Genius". To cut a long story short, this started life as tracks for one Mike Barry solo CD - however it readily became apparent to me that Mike is a songwriter above par and the venture has "morphed" into a real band CD . I'll say no more but strongly recomend you check out http://www.supergenius.us . "Eleven songs about Love, Lies, Money, Class-Warfare and Monkeys."
There are also quite a few sessions "in the can" to look out for which should appear this year . A partial list includes : John Wesley Harding / " Paved Country " / Nicole Nelson / Rob Laurens ..... and two on which I'd like to elaborate further:
# 1. A CD of Lennon-McCartney songs not recorded by the Beatles. [The "Badfinger" version of "Come and Get It" arguably being their most well known]. This has a stellar line-up - Bill Janovitz, Kate Pierson and Graham Parker on vocals with Duke Levine on guitars, Paul Bryan on bass & keyboards and myself on drums & perc' - look for this in the Spring .... &
#2. DM testing his "Producer's" water-wings!! Again, to spare you lengthy details, I played drums, percussion, keyboards and Produced [with my good friend Engineer/Producer and owner of "Playtime Studios" - Tom Dube] a CD for one Jon Shain. Recorded with Jon's regular musicians on a very modest budget, this should also be availble in the Spring. For more info' , go to http://www.jonshain.com
You'll be able to see forthcoming gig listings by the time you're reading this - at present, dates are centered in Boston / New England, but wider excursions [incl. the UK!] will be posted .
Live dates this past fall/winter have been with: Amy Fairchild [http://www.amyfairchild.com], Jonathon Pointer, Greg Greenaway, Troy-Brown [http://www.troy-brown.com], "Rust Farm" [http://www.rustfarm.com], Bobby Keyes, Kerri Powers, "One Thin Dime", "The Dangerous Brothers" - among many others.
I'm also pleased to tell you I've found the time to take on some drum students. I've some fine players coming to me - if you'd like to swell the roster, don't hesitate to contact me !
I hope to see you soon ... Thank you once again for your patience - I'm hoping to be far more active with updating the site and adding points of interest throughout the year with the new administration arrangement ...
Don't hesitate to mail any tech' queries - always pleased to pass on hints and ideas. Better still, check the gig listing and come see me play so we can talk in person.
Fondest to you all and to (again) paraphrase "Frasier" - keep listening . Love .... DM