Featured Artist:
Eddie Bayers, Drummer
Drummer, Eddie Bayers was born in Pautaxant,
Maryland on January 28, 1949 and has lived in various
locations, including North Africa.
Trained as a classical pianist, it was
during his college years in California that his musical
interests took a turn. "I loved playing the music...but
I was in an interpretive mode. In the collegiate years
you are subject to interpreting the music exactly the
way the professors think you should. To me, it was more
fun feeling it the way I wanted to feel it. Not to demean
the original composer, but I was starting to see there
was a creative part of music."
Eddie began jamming with local musicians,
including Jerry Garcia and Tom and John Fogerty (of Creedence
Clearwater Revival fame) and through Tom he became involved
with studio work. Soon, he began hearing good reports
about the Nashville music community. "Capabilities
for being a session player were diminishing in the West
Coast because of self contained bands, the overdubs -
things like that, Eddie says. "You could still do
well in the movie soundtrack end, but for the commercial
side of music, it looked like Nashville was the place
where it was going to happen."
Establishing himself in Nashville as
one of the top studio drummers, Eddie has since worked
with some of the biggest names in the music industry,
including Vince Gill, George Strait, and Bob Seger - playing
on more than 150 gold and platinum albums and numerous
movie soundtracks. He received the Academy of Country
Music Drummer of the Year Award for eight straight years,
and has three times won the Nashville Music Awards Drummer
of the Year.
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