Fiona and I spent the entire week on Broadway in Nashville, a fun collection of clubs and bars that all feature live music. On Thursday afternoon in Legend’s, one of the fun bars on Broadway, we met Thumper.

Thumper is a force of nature. There’s no other way to describe this gigantic and energetic drummer from Nashville. We met Thumper on Thursday playing his third of four gigs for the day, and for whatever reason, he took an instant liking to Fiona and me.

Thumper may have gotten his nickname from being a drummer, I’m not sure, but if I had to guess, more than likely it came from the way he thumps you on the back when he gives you one of his trademarked big, sweaty hugs. That’s what happens when Thumper likes you.

But that’s not all that happens, not if he really likes you.

Friday night Fiona and I made the now familiar circuit of Music City’s most famous street. Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, Robert’s Western World, Legend’s Corner, The Stage, Second Fiddle, B.B. King’s and Nashville Crossroads all had live music. We had the best kind of dilemma, trying to decide which band we liked most, and which bar to spend most of our money in.

We wandered into Nashville Crossroads, and who was banging away behind the kit but Thumper, the hardest working man in show business. His face immediately lit up when he recognized us.

I’m sure his excitement had nothing to do with the Jägerbomb we sent his way.

Having softened up the drummer a bit, Fiona went up to the band and made a very special request.

Thumper grabbed the mic and made an announcement. “Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve got a very special guest in the house, a drummer all the way from Rhode Island! Let’s get him up here right now and have him play us some Rhode Island style country drums! Come on, Rhode Island, get up here!”

Oh great. Rhode Island style country drumming? You have the wrong guy, buddy. In another lifetime I used to be a drummer, but now I am just a drum owner, with quite a collection of things to hit with sticks. I still enjoy irritating my neighbors by making loud drumming noises when I am home, but as far as playing with other live musicians, I haven’t done that in eons.

On top of that, I don’t know how to play country music. I don’t even particularly LIKE country music, other than to sit in a bar and listen to good musicians play it. I don’t know how to play any of the songs the band knew. This could only end in disaster.

Thumper thumped me on the back as he left the stage and I got behind the drum kit. The bass player took one look at me and rolled his eyes.

Figuring I could get him to loosen up a bit, I leaned over, laughed, and said to him, “I don’t even know how to play the drums!”

He stared a hole into my head. “Are you fucking serious?”

“No, I know how to play drums, I just don’t know any of these songs.”

With a smirk he replied, “Well, if you don’t know country music, and you don’t know these songs, then you don’t know how to play the drums, son.”

While we were having this friendly discussion, the guitarist turned around and called off a song that I’ve never heard of. My new friend, the jackass on the bass guitar said, “He don’t know country music, so he definitely don’t know that song.”

The guitar player realized for the first time that maybe this guy behind the drumkit didn’t really belong on stage. He said, “It’s a two-four shuffle, OK? Just follow me.”

Then he counted the song off, and suddenly I was officially playing drums on stage in Nashville.

It was far from the best performance on a Nashville stage, but it wasn’t the worst either. In reality almost every country song sounds like almost every other country song, so it’s not too hard to fake it through one. When our two-four shuffle/stumble song ended, I thanked the band for the opportunity, and tried to make my escape, but the guitar player told me to sit back down. Thumper the Real Drummer was nowhere to be found, and there was a crowd in need of entertainment.

“Do you know the Train Beat?”

“Yes.” No. I suppose it should sound like a train?

And he counted the band into another song, this one with a Rhode Island style train beat. A slightly wobbly train with an odd sense of timing, but at least the train didn’t derail. I guess it was OK because a few people got up and danced.

After we stumbled through the second song, Thumper mercifully reappeared. On my way off the stage, I got another enthusiastic thump on the back, then he leaned in and admitted the real reason he let me sit in with the band.

“Thanks, man. I really needed to pee!”

No, thank you, Thumper! It was really fun to blow out the years of rust and actually play music again. If you ever need a fill in…. well, you should probably call someone else!

Author: frenchy

One Response to “L’il Drummer Boy”

1. Wayne Richards says:

   November 13, 2011 at 9:59 PM

   I just got back from Nashville and also got to meet Thumper! Great guy! He told me to look him up on Facebook, but I was unable to locate him. Do you by chance have any contact with him? I’d apreciate it if you’d let me know, thanks!

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