Roger Hawkins – Muscle Shoals drummer – has died at 75.
One of the Swampers he played with almost anyone you could think of.
Whenever he was asked his secret he would say that he was a better listener than he was a player.
That’s not a bad way for anyone to be!
Roger Hawkins RIP
Particularly important for a drummer to be a good listener.
RIP.
“In Muscle Shoals the have the Swampers. They’ve been known to pick a tune or two.” Indeed. Another great addition to the great band in the sky.
Where, of course, he’ll be joining Barry Beckett and Reggie Young.
Incidentally – if you’ve never heard Reggie Young’s album Forever Young you really should. Sublime guitar playing.
I spent a week in a studio with Reggie Young a few years ago. He played the intro to “Son of a Preacher Man” every time he was warming up, and it sounded amazing every single time.
@Matthew-Best , mind explaining how you ended up in a studio with Reggie for a week?
No I don’t mind at all!
You have probably never heard of Paul Ansell, but he is a BIG DEAL in the UK rockabilly scene. He and his band No 9 are probably the most popular band in that rather tiny world. If he goes to rockabilly gigs, people come up to him all night to tell him how much they like him, that sort of thing. The rest of the time, he’s completely anonymous and I doubt anyone here would recognise him. If they did, it’s probably because he did the vocals for Scotty Moore when he toured the UK several years ago. Paul has also met several of the original Nashville musicians who played with Elvis (of whom, naturally, he is a big fan).
Back in 2007 Paul wanted to record another album, having already recorded at Sun Studios with Scotty Moore on guitar, so this time his idea was to record in Nashville with musicians who had all played with Elvis Presley. But he didn’t have the money to do that – apparently being big on the rockabilly scene in England doesn’t pay THAT well. I put him in touch with a friend of mine who ran a record label and had some spare money, and between the two of them they came up with a plan, which was to go to Nashville and spend a week in a studio with Reggie Young on guitar, David Briggs on piano and Bob Moore on bass. We’d take a UK drummer (Jimmy Russell – formerly with the Human League(!)), and I would go too, just to keep a watchful eye on things.
So I ended up sort of co-producing Bob Moore (who played on “Crazy” by Patsy Cline) and Reggie Young and David Briggs (who both played on “Drift Away” by Dobie Gray) as well as all of them doing loads of sessions with Elvis. This mostly involved me sitting and listening and thinking they were amazing. They did the whole Nashville system of listening to Paul play through the songs a couple of times, writing down numbers on bits of paper and then playing them perfectly. We got all the songs recorded in two or three takes and did pretty much the whole album done in a week (though Paul did add a few more songs recorded in London later to bulk it up a bit).
The album is, as far as I am concerned, fantastic, and it got great reviews in the relevant press, but nothing that broke out of the rockin’ scene, so it didn’t sell very well, and I don’t think it broke even.
If you want to listen to it, you can here:
What a great story, thanks. And I’m green with envy.
Every time I think of it, I’m green with envy too! I wish I could go back and do it all again.
Billy Swan stopped by the studio one day and ended up doing a vocal (on “Bloodshot Eyes”) and was as charming and lovely as you could hope for. At the weekend, we all drove out of Nashville and visited Scotty Moore at his house, and I ended up sitting in Scotty Moore’s garden drinking a beer with him, his wife, Billy Swan and Roy Orbison’s guitarist Bucky Barrett, thinking “How did I get here?”
Definitely one of the best weeks of my life.
If anyone actually does listen to the album, I’d recommend checking out Reggie’s guitar solo in “Early Mornin’ Rain”, which sends shivers down my spine. He only had to play it once.
And the guitar solo in “If I Should Fall Behind” – that interplay between the guitar and the piano at the end? Not rehearsed, thought about or worked out – they just did it, and Paul and I just stared at each other.
Did I ever recount my story of playing snooker at the snooker hall owned by the bass player from Splodgenessabounds? I did?
Did I ever tell you about the time I played Aled Jones at snooker? I lost.
I’ll be checking it out. I saw Billy Swan sit in with James Burton at the 100 Club. Brilliant.
Incidentally, Geoffbs7, thanks very much for prompting me to listen to “Forever Young”. It’s absolutely lovely.
Twang, when the afterwoodbook has a like button, I will be pressing it 10 times for posts like that
What my little Skynyrd quote up the thread? 😀
He plays sooooo slowwww. That takes massive confidence and skill.
The 1st band I went to see was Traffic, which was the version of the band that he was drumming for.
Sad to hear he’s gone.
That’s a helluva an opener for your gig going career @Carl.
Roger carried that slow groove on Aretha’s first session at Muscle Shoals. If you’ve never seen it, well worth watching the movie.
RIP
@nickduvet ,Stones and Alicia Keys otiose but great clip.
Saw him live when the Muscle Shoals folks became part of Traffic in the early seventies
This is an interview with David Hood, now the only surviving member of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, about Roger Hawkins and the team in general, which someone (Damian Counsell) posted a link to on Twitter. I remember seeing them with Traffic, and didn’t realise that was first time they toured at all – they were really a studio band.
https://www.al.com/news/2021/05/david-hood-remembers-fellow-muscle-shoals-music-legend-roger-hawkins.html
Thanks for the link.
I recollect exactly what was played before that Traffic gigI mentioned above – and it wasn’t Bob Marley – it was Frank Zappa and The Mothers Live at Fillmore East.
Maybe Blackwell didn’t bother going to Liverpool.
I heard a great interview with David Hood, talking about what it takes to be a working session player. He said “play good, have gear that don’t break, don’t be an asshole”. Wise words.
Anything with any of those dudes contributing is a sure fire pleasure.