Paul Leim Country Music Drummer who Can be Found Everywhere

Who is Paul Leim? He's an American born drummer who can be found on more hit albums than pretty much any other drummer around. Leim's work can be found on literally thousands of disks. What does Paul do best? Everything. If I were to add my two cents, he's one of the best "groove" drummers alive today. From country, to rock, to pop, Leim can play it all.

Paul Leim Catalogue

I did a quick search of his catalogue, and one site has him listed on over 425 albums. He's played with Shania Twain, Faith Hill, Roy Orbison, Kenny Chesney, and so many more. His session work takes him to places I could only dream of. On top of that, he's played on movie soundtracks, and on live television. He's truly the man who crossed over to every aspect of music.

I was checking out some of his videos today and one thing that stuck out to me was his comment that he takes 12 snare drums to the recording studio. Once he gets a snare tuned to what he likes it, he keeps it that way, and moves on to another drum if the song calls for a different sound. He plays Yamaha drums, and his Leim signature snare is one of the better snares around.

Kenny Chesney at Lambeau Field Green Bay | Acoustics in a Football Stadium and Monitors

I have only been to one stadium show. That was Pink Floyd at County Stadium. Green Bay plays host to Kenny Chesney at Lambeau Field this summer. The venue may be one of the biggest he's ever performed in, and certainly the most famous. Famous for football, not concerts though.

Kenny Chesney Mixes Country with Caribbean

Say what you will about modern country music. It's polished to such a shine, that the purists of that style tend to stay away from artists like Kenny Chesney. There are modern country stars that stick to the old school style. Kenny is not one of them, if I may be so bold to say that. He has put together a perfect formula. He mixes one part country with one part Jimmy Buffett style tropical Caribbean party fun, and the fans love it. If you know anything about Jimmy Buffett, his music isn't the best, but going to one of his shows is the perfect excuse to party your butt off. Same for Kenny Chesney.

This tour will feature his best work. After taking a year off, Chesney is coming back to play all the songs his fans have come to love. He's touring huge venues like Lambeau Field. His stage will be set up around the five yard line of the south end zone, with walkways that will extend out to the 15 yard line. This is big. All his shows will be big. With a stage set up like that, how will the fans find his sound? How will Kenny find his own sound in a booming venue like Lambeau Field?

Kenny Chesney will wear in ear monitors via custom made earplugs. The acoustics in a stadium of that size will require not only stage monitors for the various members of the band, but in ear monitors. I was fitted for mine this past Monday. I can't wait to try them out. I have performed in large venues, and found the monitors to be too far away to be useful. Sometimes, as an opening act, the monitors are set in place for the headliner, and the sound crew will not move them for you. You are not important, so you suffer with a lousy stage mix. That's life. Soon enough, I will be able to plug into the stage mix directly, and hear things like never before. I can't wait.

Wisconsin Rock and Roll Bands and History

I have been playing the drums for 26 years. I started by doing the usual high school band thing. We played in my parent's basement. We hid booze behind the amps, and we goofed around a lot. Along the way, I managed to find myself in some pretty enjoyable situations. By the time I was 21 years old, I had toured a big chunk of the United States, and my punk band had sold upwards of four thousand copies of a cassette. Yes, I said cassette. It was 1986. We produced our own music, and we would order the cassettes from the factory 500 at a time. If we ran out of cassettes while on tour, we had a duplicator in the van. We would buy blanks along the way.

In between the punk thing, and landing my first recording contract, I spent about ten years working with talented musicians that wrote their own songs and tried their best to land a record deal. I never stopped playing live music, and rarely turned down a show.I was very fortunate to be on a label that put out a number of recordings of one my bands. They took a risk. Some recordings were profitable, some not. That's life. The label would make roughly 2000 copies of each release. The quantity was partly based on if there were profits from the prior release. Our last cd with that label crashed and burned. Two years later, I was happy to hear that the label was including free copies of that disk with every skateboard they sold. Why not give it away if it's not going to sell. Yes, they are an international record label, and skateboard company. It works surprisingly well.


I'm not ashamed to say that one of my cd's tanked. That happens so often in the music world. We had a great run, but our fans grew up and out of that style of music. We did too, and it showed on that cd.

When the time came to tell the band members that the cd was a bust, I had to find them. One was in Korea, on tour with his other band. Our bass player was somewhere in the north woods of Wisconsin, touring with his band. The other guy was on the road with Kenny Chesney. I was in the midst of playing my usual 30 gigs a year with another band, as we were under contract with a national brewing company.

The sad news didn't really crush any of us. We had lots of things going on. Between releases, and after promoting them, we would scatter off and do other things. With very little profit to spread around, we were happy to have the label pay for the recordings, distribute the music, and let us take all the profits from the shows and merchandise.

What's the moral of this post? There is none. I'm just rambling about the tiny dust speck of my musical career to date. Have a great weekend.

Is It a Country Summerfest? Time Will Tell

Smiley promises that this upcoming Summerfest will not be comprised of all country music headliners. I hope to buy a Marcus Amphitheater ticket for a show this does not require that I wear a cowboy hat in order to get in. At least the two country acts that they have booked are not totally horrible. George Strait is a solid, old school man. Kenny Chesney is loved by his fans far and wide.

I friend of mine works on the road crew for Kenny, and he has nothing but great things to say about the man. I suspect that there will be a current flavor of the day show, a couple of softer rock shows, and beyond.

It's nice to have an announcement in the dead of winter though. At least we know that someone is working hard to make this summer a good time.

A little known music fest featuring Country music

Country Fest? What's that? It's a well kept secret outside of Wisconsin, but...

"Country Fest fans wouldn’t be there if they weren’t excited about the entertainment, but the buzz this year isn’t even about an act that’s there. People are already talking about who’s coming next year.The crowd was told in a stage announcement Friday night that the Saturday night headliner for Country Fest 2008 would be Kenny Chesney." - Chippewa.com

Country Fest has gotten bigger each year. When I first heard about it, I blew it off as some BYO, stand in the hot sun, potential washout. I was dead wrong about Country Fest. It's big.

Speaking of Country, Toby Keith, not my favorite "musician", is playing The Marcus Amphitheater during the Summerfest run on July 8th. He will "perform" his mix of patriotic, pro-war, big stick music to what I would guess are like minded, pro-war fans. You have to wonder if Toby is feeling duped, just like all the other Americans who bought what Dick Cheney was selling. Sorry, this is a music blog, I'm getting way off track.