6.23.26 from Wilco’s Solid Sound Festival. This is a straight forward 2 beat/cut time feel groove for the Woody Guthrie/ Wilco / Billy Bragg song, Airline To Heaven . I added an overdub part from the Mermaid Avenue recorded version to the left hand part on a Stack Ring Percussion Versa Stack that’s secured to the rack tom via Drumgees. The right hand is alternating between two samples of foot stomps & hand claps on the Roland SPD sample pad. The second and third variations on the video have the right hand playing on a Meinl percussion tambourine. The biggest challenge is just getting that quick left hand motion between surfaces without affecting the sound or time of the snare drum backbeats. I’m also using some custom hihat bells that Ashwin Deepankar made for me to use on the Ode To Joy tour. Big thanks to my tech, Chris Dowis, for the camera work!
Here’s an extra video that’s not included on my IG post. You can hear the samples really well on this.
And here’s a quick rundown of how the kit is set up for this beat with a short intro video first.
And above is a still for closer examination - it includes the K-stack that I added on the snare drum. I play what’s basically a rimshot for the majority of the song - hitting that stack and the snare drum head simultaneously. It sounds great and blends really well with the samples. Thanks for checking this all out!
