Looking for Working Honky Tonk Drummer

Athens GA

Description

32 M Singer-Songwriter/tele picker/sound engineer relocating to Athens this August. Looking for a reliable drummer (any age/gender/ethnicity/on or off the spectrum, etc--just care about your ability to work) for a working band (local/regional with potential to grow). My originals are Piedmont Blues/Fingerstyle blues and country rock, and I have a large catalogue of outlaw country/honky tonk covers (Merle, Waylon, Townes, Clark, Prine, Willie, Hank/Hank Jr./Hank III, Roger Miller, etc.; some re-done in my own style, some closer to the original; open to playing other covers that the band likes/open to having other band members sing lead vocals on some songs). I had a reasonably successful five-piece country-rock band in Savannah a few years back, but relocated to the Atlanta area for family work about five years ago. Been performing the majority of my working gigs solo since, but looking to find a drummer to round out a honky tonk trio (I have bass lined up) that I'd like to get started in Athens. I'm used to doing 3-4+ hour gigs as a solo artist and need someone who can keep that amount of material straight. I pay my band better than myself from each gig, always, but obviously pay scale depends upon what we have to offer the venue and what I can negotiate. I'd like that offer to the venue to be: the damned finest honky tonk trio this side of Macon. I love performing with keys/steel/fiddle players, and would like to potentially incorporate those down the line, but I can play rhythm/lead well enough to get by, and mostly I'd like to get to work booking us gigs that pay well enough for a trio to do okay. There is potentially room for the right drummer who is interested in learning the style but hasn't had much experience, but that said, country drums serve the song, and while I fully believe in getting every band member their time to show off their skills, it must always be done in service of the song/performance. Some songs are obviously jam numbers, while some might require a more restrained taste. If that sounds like common sense, I'd love to hear from you. I've got a large amount of recordings I'm sitting on (self-produced, but I'm a reasonably talented bassist/pianist/auxiliary instrument player [banjo, mandolin, accordion, etc], and a solid arranger), so feel free to hit me up if curious to hear more. During Covid lockdown I crafted, tracked, and mixed 3 albums worth of material, so there's plenty of examples I can send over (I plan to release them over the coming couple years). Thanks for any interest, and if any of the above I described sounds good I hope to hear from you.