 |
John Gardner
(September 2005 Issue)
The Country Feeling Thanks to the urging
of Dixie Chicks multi-instrumentalist John Mock, a little over a year
ago
drummer/percussionist John Gardner took a leave of absence from his
gig as staff drummer at the Grand Ole Opry. Why? To
play percussion
with The Chicks for a couple of nights at LA's Kodak Theatre. (Those
performances are documented on
the DVD Live From The Kodak Theatre.) But Gardner ended up staying on drums and percussion for the entire
tour.
"Making them feel comfortable on stage is really what's needed from
me," Gardner says. "The Chicks also
need me to duplicate the parts from
their records. There are some extra things we put in for excitement,
though. They also
need to be able to trust me to be consistent every
night. This is a pretty wild show. We play on a bizarre, circular
stage. There
are hydraulics that move the drum riser up and down.
There's a lot of movement on stage and it's a huge production,
so I
have to really focus on the music."
Gardner has had to alter his normal setup to fit the constraints of
The
Chicks' unique stage. Normally he likes to play his cymbals and toms
fairly high, but this stage doesn't allow
him to have anything over 42"
high, which is pretty confining. "I've busted my knuckles and cut my
hands on cymbals,"
he says, "because they're not set up where I'm used
to them being."
Adding to the gig's responsibility,
Gardner says that he plays along to
a drum machine on every tune. "We use a drum machine playing a shaker
pattern," he
explains, "because the sound can be so big and loud in
auditoriums. It helps hold everything
together."
Robyn Flans
 Go to Artist Index
|
|
|
|
