Ep. 175 - Ken Coomer | Drumming, Record Production & the Early Years of Wilco
Music Makers and Soul Shakers with Steve DawsonShow Notes
Ken Coomer joins me on the podcast today. Ken is a fantastic drummer, producer, and studio owner, as well as one of the few musicians I know that is actually from Nashville! Ken is well-known as the original drummer for Wilco, as well as the last for Uncle Tupelo, bands that literally defined the alt-country genre in the mid-90’s. But before that, Ken came up in the punk and alternative rock scene here in Nashville with his band Clockhammer, and since leaving Wilco in 2002, he has had an incredible career as a studio drummer and producer, operating most recently out of his studio just a few blocks away from me in East Nashville called Cartoon Moon Recording. Ken was heavily involved in the recording of Uncle Tupelo’s classic “Anodyne”, as well as the Wilco albums “FM”, “Being There”, “Summerteeth”, “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” and the “Mermaid Avenue” projects with Wilco and Billy Bragg. After his run with Wilco, Ken returned to Nashville to try his hand at session work and producing. He’s played with and recorded on albums for Steve Earle, Will Hoge, Al Green, Tim Finn, Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris and many more. He’s also had an incredible run producing some huge Spanish artists, which is an intriguing left-turn that his more recent career has taken, with artists like Chetes, and AppleTree - albums that were huge in Mexico and Columbia. It was great to have Ken drop in to speak about all of this amazing history. You can get all the latest info on Ken at kencoomermusic.com - enjoy my conversation with Ken Coomer!
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More from Music Makers and Soul Shakers with Steve Dawson
Season 9 comes to a close and I wanted to wrap it up with a short episode and what’s to come, and take care of our incredible end-of-season giveaways.
Guitarist Andy Reiss joins me on the show today, the last full episode of Season 9! When I first moved to Nashville, I started going to see the Time Jumpers. They are an incredible band that plays western swing and classic country every Monday at 3rd & Lindsley. For quite a few years there, the band included Vince Gill, Paul Franklin, Ranger Doug, 3 incredible fiddle players, Dawn Sears on vocals, and Andy Reiss was always there, just calmly tackling every song, no matter how fast and crazy or slow and soulful. Usually playing elegant jazz/blues/bop licks on a Les Paul, or sometimes a 335. And while it was mind-bending to see everyone doing what they do, Andy was always a high point of any show for me. He’s still doing that gig, as he has for over 20 years now. Andy started out in San Francisco, and made his way to Nashville around 1980, where he got to watch and work with a number of the original Nashville A-Team. Folks like Pete Drake, Harold Bradley, Bob Moore, Ray Edenton, and Pig Robbins. People that I know of as legends - Andy was around them from day 1 after moving here. He spent a good deal of time on the road with artists like Reba McIntyre and Slim Whitman, and has played on hundreds of records for artists like Miranda Lambert, Willie Nelson, Kenny Rogers and Leon Russell. He is truly one of the great guitar players in town, and has a deep knowledge of music, guitars and history. I also get to enjoy him up close and personal, since he now plays in my band The Volcano Brothers as well! Be sure to go and see Andy any time you’re in Nashville.
Following the passing of blues legend John Hammond, we’re revisiting this conversation with him from the first season of Music Makers and Soul Shakers, with the addition of a later conversation in which John recounts meeting Bo Diddley. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
British pedal steel guitar legend BJ Cole joins me on the show today. BJ is a masterful steel player - very inventive and textural but with incredible chops and skills as well. He’s amassed an incredible body of solo work over the years, but has also been the top call steel session player in the UK for decades. He had a very solitary musical start, but got into country bands in England and eventually started gigging and playing sessions. Things changed for BJ when he got called to play steel on Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer” in 1971. He laid down some very tasty and memorable steel parts on that hit, and the phone started ringing big time. BJ has played on records and toured with an incredible array of artists like Joan Armatrading, Marc Bolan, KD Lang, Beck, Bjork, Sting, John Cale, Brian Eno and many more. He’s also always written and recorded his own music and collaborations, which have been all over the place musically and are a great way to delve into his musical brain. There’s a new collab with cellist Emily Burridge - cello and steel duets that’s really cool, and his solo albums like Transparent Music, The New Hovering Dog, Trouble in Paradise - all great albums well worth checking out. We get into all it, plus some seriously nerdy pedal steel talk. You can keep up to date on BJ’s latest projects and tours at bjcole.co.uk Enjoy my conversation with BJ Cole!
This is Part 2 of my conversation with Brent Maher - have a listen to Part 1 from last week first and then dig in!