Patty King
New Year's Eve at the Blind Tiger
Sam
Kenny
The Back Seat Boys!
Photos courtesy of Professor Bugger

Ren Wah!
At the Celtic Fox
Tommy Gun!
Patty and Gary
Photos courtesy of Topeka Tonight

The band!
Patty King
Sam
Kenny
Ren and Gary
Tom
Photos courtesy of Topeka Tonight

Friday, the 13th at 9:00pm
at the Down Under Lounge
http://www.downunderlounge.com/topeka

Friday, the 20th at 9:00pm
at Joletta's
www.myspace.com/jolettas

Saturday, the 21st at 9:00pm
at Joletta's
www.myspace.com/jolettas

Saturday, the 7th at 8:00pm
at the Celtic Fox
http://www.thecelticfox.com

Tuesday, the 17th at 4:00pm
at the Varsity Blues St. Paddy's Day Bash!
http://www.varsitybluesbbq.com/

Saturday, the 25th at 9:00pm
at the Varsity Blues
http://www.varsitybluesbbq.com/

TBA

TBA

TBA

TBA

Video courtesy of Professor Bugger at Professor Bugger

Video courtesy of Professor Bugger at Professor Bugger

I grew up in the beer joints of North Topeka. My parents were club owners. My mother started her first bar when she was pregnant with me. In the bars is where my love of music began. I loved to play the jukebox, drink cokes and spin around on the bar stools with my little brother. For me, going to the bar was like going to the play ground. Picking songs on the jukebox is how I became familiar with a variety of musical artists from country to rock & pop.

When I was in grade school, my mother would let my little brother and me go to work with her sometimes on Saturdays. My father would also take us to the bar after school a couple times a week to see mom. I spent a great deal of my summers there as well. My parents would hire bands on the weekends. I thought it was so exciting to listen to the different bands. As I got older into my teen years, I would sometimes get up and play the drums with different bands. Finally I got the nerve to sing a song or two. I learned to play the drums from my younger brother, John. I learned from watching him play.

I was baptized by fire on the night he was to play drums but couldn’t make it to the gig which was at our parent’s bar. His band asked me to play for him. I had never played the drums much at all and certainly never in public. I did play that night for the entire gig. I just kept the beat, no extras! I think it was that night when I was truly bitten by the band bug. I just had to play and sing with a live band from that point on. Over the years, I have played with many different bands. I have always enjoyed going to the local jam sessions and getting the opportunity to sing or play the drums with the local musicians. I have a lot of memories of those times and plan to make more memories until the day comes that I can no longer get up and make the music happen.

Who would have guessed a set of bongo drums, played along with the Kingston Trio and other folk singers, would prove to be the springboard for a five-decade love affair with contemporary music? The bongos soon morphed to a trap set, inspired by the cool jazz of Brubeck et al., which became the gateway for the first band, formed within six months of the Beatles' appearance on Ed Sullivan. Drums soon gave way to the guitar and by departure for college, jamming with friends were the best-spent nights and weekends.

Since then bands have come and gone and different musical styles explored, but it always comes back to one thing: music is a language that knows few boundaries and to be able to "speak" it, even in a rudimentary fashion, has made me one of the luckiest people I know!

I have been a drummer/percussionist since my days in the elementary school music program pounding out paradiddles and other rudiments on a silver Slingerland concert snare drum. Throughout high school I was the lead snare drummer in the concert band, tri-tom player in the marching band, and the kit drummer in the jazz band and pep band. After graduating high school I played the drum set with a garage band in Lawrence and with the Community Jazz Band.

My early music career was put on hold when I enlisted in the US Air Force, got married and began raising a family. I wouldn't pick up a pair of sticks again until the winter of 1999. Since that time I have focused my studies on concepts in linear drumming and limb independence.

I've expanded my interest into drum building by making my own kit. It's a maple-shelled, wooden-rimmed old school styled beauty mounted on Yamaha and Pearl hardware. My percussionist rig consists of Latin Percussion Congas, Treeworks chimes and a variety of other percussion instruments.