Today we’d like to introduce you to Andy Peake.
Hi Andy, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I am the son of a preacher. At age 13, after church one day, the choir director (who also was our small town H.S. band director) overheard me tell a friend that I owned a snare drum. Mr Schneider turned to me in the aisle and informed me he would like to pull me out of study hall and bring me up to the band room where he could audition me. He apparently liked what he heard as I was soon entering in competitions, playing in the H.S. jazz band and being offered a music scholarship to our small town university in Maryville, MO. I attended that school for 2 years and left with some friends to form a band in Gainesville, FL, called Homer. After that band broke up, as many bands do, I left FL and bounced around until I was hired to play in a 1950’s music novelty band based in Colorado, called Big Al and the HiFi’s. After 14 years and in and out of several bands, I got a call to take the drum position for pop and country artist, Nicolette Larson. That was 1987. So I moved to Nashville and toured with a string of country music artists, including Tanya Tucker, Suzy Bogguss, Don Williams and Sweethearts of the Rodeo. In 1990 I married my girlfriend, temporarily retired from touring, enjoyed the birth of a son and daughter and made a conscious decision to stay home and attempt to be a recording session musician. After establishing myself “in town,” I worked regularly on Music Row and various touring stints with artists including , Delbert McClinton and Lee Roy Parnell. Throughout the 1990’s and 2000’s, I worked locally, including 3 extended runs of the original production of Gaylord-Ryman Auditorium presentation of “Always, Patsy Cline,” featuring Mandy Barnett. I also began honing my skills as a recording engineer and producer and have helped create dozens of independently produced singer/songwriter albums. In 2011, I started a band to perform blues and roots music featuring the music of Muscle Shoals, Memphis, LA band, Little Feat and various other classic soul and rhythm and blues cover songs and original music. That bore 3 albums of roots/original music during those years. I left that band at the beginning of Covid and began work on the first of 2 solo albums I recorded and produced. I have also contributed drumming and engineering skills.to albums by pop band “Orleans” and hall of fame songwriters John Hall and Dan Penn. I continue to play drums as a freelance musician and create music for myself and others in my personal recording studio, Biglittle Recording. I also continue to occasionally perform and tour with various recording artists.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I would be surprised if any professional musician ever said it was a smooth ride in the music business. Trying to become successful in a career where there is no “handbook” is an ongoing challenge. There were periods of not enough money to pay bills and make wise decisions to survive and progress. Remaining in demand and relevant in the highly competitive environment of Nashville can be extremely rewarding, inspiring, discouraging and even devastating. Substance abuse is always a temptation. For any audition that you are not chosen for a position, the emotional result is often self-doubt, frustration but also motivation to improve your skills. I experienced highs and lows in every geographical home base that I lived in. Passion for the magical connection of making music is so often the driving force to deal with the struggles. Many of us have experienced varying degrees of success. Some leave the profession. Some continue to hang their hat on the fulfillment of creating music, no matter the struggle.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am proud to have achieved the level of success and accumulated a professional resume’ that many only dream of. I am grateful to have an aptitude for understanding and assimilating music and being able to implement and explain music forms in classical, pop, country, jazz and Americana styles. I have a wide swath of influences and and adapt to many styles and situations. Having come up through the ranks of traditional music learning, reading and writing I have been able to plug in and fulfill the needs of enough situations to stay with it and excel. I started playing “cover” music beginning in high school. I have lived with and listened to years of popular and niche music. Being a drum set drummer, a secondary percussionist, an arranger and a singer have allowed me to bring a tool box of skills that other, similar individuals may not have. My business card lists “Project Coordinator” as one of the services I offer. I am most proud of the times when I was contacted by someone I didn’t know (or barely knew) and asked to perform a job for them.
What do you like and dislike about the city?
I love the volume of creative people and the fact that there are so many people with so many of the same professional and personal experiences that I have had. I love going to a local concert and seeing many people that I have known and worked with over my 35 years in Nashville. I love learning from the deep well of talent and experience of others. I LOVE working on a project and learning that sometimes the peers on a project have actually helped record and/or created music that I grew up on or listened to as an adult. I love the “inside” stories of those people. I love the physical resources of Nashville like the high quality performance venues, the recording studios, the rehearsal facilities, the music business professionals, the sight of a tour bus driving to or from a professional performance, the knowledge and experience pool and the common love of music and creativity in general. I don’t like the overblown egos, the people who pretend to be more than they are, the misleading promises and suggestions of opportunities that do not exist or are not realistically obtainable, In other words, I don’t like the B.S. In the 1990’s there was a lot of opportunity to be creative and make a living from it. That changed when the Music Row creation and distribution opportunities changed. With the closing of so many recording facilities and the advent of “Lower Broadway,” the emphasis has changed from “creative” to “re-creative,” playing the same music over and over for the tourists and newer residents. The revenue opportunities for the music business based in Nashville and everywhere else has taken a huge hard hit, sending many very talented people back to their home towns or another way to make a living;
Pricing:
- Available for drumming negotiable
- Available for coordinating performance projects negotiable
- Available for engineering and producing negotiable
- Available for live sound reinforcement negotiable
Contact Info:
- Website: https://andypeake.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/andy.peake.sounds
