A Modern Day Warrior

The band has collectively decided to tackle “Tom Sawyer” by the band Rush. Those of you that grew up in the 80’s (1981 to be exact) are likely familiar with the song as many of us, myself included, played along with Neil Peart as he hit each drum during his mini solo rolls following the guitar lead. I was sure, even at the age of 10, that I could hit every one of those drum rolls if someone had just put a kit in front of me. Turns out, not so much.

Well Andy Buchanan, drummer for the Remedy Band, now gets his chance to try and he did an incredible job right out of the gate. Not surprisingly, Peart is his favorite drummer and it showed as he traversed the tune, keeping great time and navigating the difficult parts adeptly and joyfully. Peart is arguably one of the best drummers of all time and to hear Andy hitting the rolls, just as I did on my imaginary drums back in 1981, left me amazed and tremendously excited about playing the tune.

It should also be noted that both Tim and Jon, with equally difficult tasks, nailed their parts as well. In the absence of the weird space-like synthesizer that you routinely hear during the song, Tim managed to make the guitar parts hum and they actually sounded a lot more powerful than I expected.  Jon walked up and down the bass, completely in check with Tim during the several parts where they play the same chords and we managed to get through the entire song almost unscathed.

We’ll obviously keep working on the tune over the next few weeks, ultimately tightening up the overall sound, but you can expect it to be on our play-list when we head out for our next gig. I think it’s safe to assume we’ll be one of the few bands around you will hear playing it and I can’t wait.

For a walk down memory lane, click the link the below to hear the tune.

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