03/19/2020
"It's two am and I'll take my whiskey
And that heart break on the pole to go."
3 am by Kings Row
Thank you for all of you have remained fans of the page.
I am a graduate of the Louisiana State University School of Music. I am a dual major, Theory and Composition and Classical Guitar.
After graduation I disappeared for a while with the U.S. Army. Afterwards, I settled in Overland Park, Kansas. There I worked at a local music store teaching guitar and hooked up with one of the drum teachers, another music major, majoring in music education and a former member of the University Kansas Jayhawk Marching Band Drumline, Tara Rockingham. Together we formed a local band Kings Row. We rocked the Kansas City and St. Louis music scene. We made it all the way to the legendary Troubadour in Los Angeles that night Motley Crue's Nikki Sixx and former Van Halen front man Diamond Dave, David Lee Roth were in the crowd. It has always been said that you play the Troubadour and the Whiskey- A- Go Go and the next stop is the LA Forum and Madison Square Garden. That night we blew the doors off the place. We had an invite back. Then tragedy struck as Tara was diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer. In 1993 that was a death sentence. Six months later, God rest her soul, she passed. Kings Row went with her.
We tried to bring in another drummer but it wasn't the same seeing someone else in the back. We disbanded. Our bass player D'Andre Richards, simply known as Boss is now a session musician in Nashville and was at one time Tim McGraw's bass player. Our vocalist Ward Denny died in 2003 in a Salina, Kansas motel room from a drug overdose. I just left music behind. Walked away, moved on.
Magic a distant other love took its place. Now, music is back in a big way. After my surgery and all those years of being sick, it was the guitar that brought back hand strength, coordination and muscle memory and focus. Now, I plan on resurrecting ghosts something I always did in magic shows. Now the ghosts will be recordings of Kings Row music and new music.
I have several precious recordings of Tara and her wicked drumming. She was glossed as the "Chick with Sticks" and the "Drumazon." She once said in response to being asked by Boss if she could handle Rush's "Tom Sawyer." Sher gave a very dismissive look and a "Phhhhtttt, oh please, that is just typical Neil Peart." Funny the people that come into your life. I have three recordings of Tara doing her thing. All tracks are analog (on cassette) but I have digitized them. One is just her warming up. It is the single most wicked ass drumming I have ever heard. People who have heard it are flat out amazed. That track is part of a piece I call the "Eric Zann Suite." It is the Second Movement "Minuet in Blood Minor (B minor)" So, sit tight as Kings Row prepares to take the stage, once again.
