<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When I was first learning the craft of rock and roll drumming, \u00a0I absorbed as much as I could by playing along with records. \u00a0I also made it a point to see as many live bands as I could. \u00a0There were times when I would watch other drummers and think, \u201cYeah, I can do that!\u201d \u00a0There were other times when I would think \u201cWhat? \u00a0How can anyone do that?\u201d \u00a0Don Kuhli was one of the yardsticks I used to measure my improvement as a drummer because every time I saw him play with NMU\u2019s jazz band or the fabled Marquette band Walrus, I would walk away scratching my head. \u00a0I was not kidding when I would tell people \u201cDon Kuhli can play more with one hand than I can flailing two arms and two legs at the same time.\u201d \u00a0Some drummers seem to have more \u201cfast twitch\u201d muscles that allow them to play a lot of notes with either hand (or with their feet, for that matter). \u00a0I was never one of those \u201cfast\u201d drummers, but Kuhli surely was. \u00a0After Walrus broke up, I kind of lost track of Kuhli and he did not resurface for me until \u00a0I got acquainted with Lindsay Tomasic and her band Trees.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I had seen a short article in the Marquette Monthly paper about a one-off Walrus reunion show in Big Bay. \u00a0I hadn\u2019t given them much thought since the early 1970s, so I did a web search for some of the band members by name just to see what I could find. \u00a0\u00a0One Walrus lead dead ended on a web page by a guitar player from Detroit that contained a section called \u201cpeople I have played with\u201d and one of the drummers listed was Don Kuhli. \u00a0\u00a0A list there linked Kuhli\u2019s musical associations and among them was a band called Trees who recorded for Datolite Records. \u00a0Beyond that link, I couldn\u2019t find any more recent news about Kuhli, so I decided to check out Datolite Records on the assumption that the mineral datolite is often associated with copper. \u00a0I wondered if there would be any local tie in to Datolite Records and the Copper Country. \u00a0It turns out the connection was Lindsay Tomasic who had formed Trees along with Jessie Fitzpatrick in Houghton when she was in her teens. \u00a0They eventually relocated to Ann Arbor where Trees soon included former Walrus members Kuhli on drums and Randy Tessier on bass. \u00a0I fired her an e-mail to request a CD which she gladly sent along.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Lindsay and I corresponded via e-mail for the better part of a year before Trees was booked at the Porcupine Mountain Music Festival where we finally met face to face. \u00a0Coming to PMMF from LA is no small feat, but as luck would have it, Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams had a flight delay coming from the other coast so Trees ended up playing two sets back to back. \u00a0\u00a0The Slambovians missed Friday altogether and Trees picked up another paying slot to help cover the air fare from LA to Michigan. \u00a0In one of our conversations, Lindsay mentioned what a great band they had in Ann Arbor and that she still runs into Don Kuhli occasionally in California. \u00a0She was pretty sure \u00a0he was working in San Diego. \u00a0I stored this nugget of info away for a future round of \u2018where are they now?\u2019 research.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Whenever I would make an inspection tour to the WOAS West Coast Bureau in LA, I would e-mail Lindsay and ask if she had time to \u201cdo lunch\u201d as they say on the left coast. \u00a0Being a stone that gathers no moss, she would usually be on the road or in the middle of a project, but she would always promise me a tour of her studio the next time I got to LA. \u00a0It had become a running joke where I would remind her that every time she got back to Dodgeville to visit the Pasty Queen (Lindsey\u2019s mom won the Copper Country Pasty making competition not that many years ago), we would manage to get her to perform here or we would go to one of her gigs somewhere in the Copper Country. \u00a0I used to tease her that, \u201cIt is kind of a one way street, isn\u2019t it?\u201d \u00a0She took it all in stride and we kept this up for several years.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Eventually, \u00a0I arrived on an early fall visit, e-mailed Lindsay \u00a0and she said, \u201cHey, I have to bring some equipment into the city to be repaired, can you guys meet me for lunch at The Newsroom?\u201d \u00a0Todd couldn\u2019t make it on that occasion but Elizabeth and I took her up on the invitation and we had a wonderful time discussing a host of subjects. \u00a0I asked if she had seen Don Kuhli lately and she admitted that it had been a while, but she still thought he was in San Diego. <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When we got back to the WCB, I did a search for Kuhli\u2019s name in the San Diego area and the first site I clicked on took me to website for the San Diego paper, <\/span>The San Diego Union-Tribune<\/span><\/i>. \u00a0There on the front page of that day\u2019s edition was a color photograph of Don Kuhli surveying the damage done to his apartment by a freak storm that had rolled through San Diego the day before. \u00a0Considering the only previous information I had found on Kuhli was the brief mention of his association with Trees, the odds of me clicking on the first website that popped up and find him in a front page news story was pretty remarkable! \u00a0Searching for his name these days leads to multiple entries.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Kuhli hailed from Chicago and after his Michigan band days, ended up graduating with a music degree from San Diego State. \u00a0He remains active in the music business as an elementary music teacher, a member of the San Diego Symphony and various big band and combos including one called High Society. \u00a0In short, he may not be playing rock and roll at this point, but he is certainly playing a variety of styles. \u00a0I always thought it was his jazz band background that made him a unique and exceptional rock drummer in the same vein as The Doors John Densmore or Journey\u2019s Steve Smith. \u00a0Learning that he plays big band music was not a shock because it meshes perfectly with my memories of seeing him play with NMU\u2019s jazz band.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I never actually talked to Don Kuhli in the days that he was in Marquette. \u00a0I watched him play, absorbed what I could, but being a high school kid just getting started with a working band, I don\u2019t know what kind of conversation I would have had with him. \u00a0You wouldn\u2019t know it now, but back then I got a little tongue tied around people I did not know well. \u00a0I did, however, get a second hand message from him after an afternoon gig we played at The Wildcat Den at NMU\u2019s University Center.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I do not remember the occasion but it was Mike Kesti booked the job. \u00a0The thought of playing in the Wildcat Den in broad daylight made us a little nervous. \u00a0We were used to playing dances and frat parties with our meagher set of stage lights (in reality, one green and one red fluorescent light tube in portable frames on either side of the drums). \u00a0To top it all off, we had a set list that we followed with only a few modifications from job to job. \u00a0\u00a0We would normally start with some of our lighter tunes and crank up the heavy duty songs as the gig wore on. \u00a0In that we were only going to play one hour long set, Mike decided to play <\/span>Wine, Wine, Wine <\/span><\/i>by the Fireballs for our opening number. \u00a0This was a great frat party anthem that usually got dusted off much later in most gigs, but Mike insisted we should start big. \u00a0He was a little pumped up so with his adrenalin flowing, he counted the song off at close to double the speed we usually played it. \u00a0As he was trying to spit out the lyrics, I found my right forearm was cramping up because I didn\u2019t get the normal set of warm up numbers to play before we blasted into a rocker like <\/span>Wine, Wine, Wine.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0To get through the first song, I tried a bunch of tricks like changing my grip and cutting the number of strokes I was playing with my right hand. \u00a0\u00a0Mercifully the song ran its course before my arm clinched up totally. \u00a0I rubbed and shook my arm out like mad to loosen it up and while doing so, \u00a0I happened to look up. \u00a0At the back of the room sat none other than Don Kuhli. \u00a0He had a head of white blond hair that was hard to miss so there was no doubt in my mind that it was him. \u00a0I prayed that he had just wandered in and did not see me trying to not totally cramp up on the first song. \u00a0We cherry picked our best \u201ccollege crowd\u201d tunes for the rest of the set and once Mike got a grip on the speed, it went fine. \u00a0All I could think was, \u201cI hope Kuhli didn\u2019t see me floundering on the opening number.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When we started to pack up our gear, \u00a0another drummer I knew in passing came over to chat drums a bit. \u00a0I about hit the floor when he said, \u201cHey, Don Kuhli said to tell you that you are a good drummer.\u201d \u00a0I gave him a good looking over because I didn\u2019t know him all that well and I figured he was yanking my chain. \u00a0I said, \u201cHe didn\u2019t say that!\u201d \u00a0\u201cYeah, he did,\u201d he said, \u201cKuhli told me to tell you he liked what you were playing and that you are a good drummer.\u201d \u00a0Maybe he was being kind. \u00a0Maybe my drummer friend misheard him. \u00a0All I knew was I had played the drums in front of someone who I respected as a great drummer and hadn\u2019t laid an egg. \u00a0Hearing someone say he actually liked my playing put me on cloud nine for a long time.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The truth is, I never could play drums like Don Kuhli. \u00a0He definitely has the \u201cfast twitch\u201d hands and feet to play intricate jazz and big band patterns. \u00a0Same goes for Chicago\u2019s first superlative drummer, Daniel Seraphine. \u00a0Don\u2019t even get me started on Shiela E.! \u00a0I appreciate their playing a lot because it isn\u2019t a style that I can play. \u00a0As the old movie line goes, \u201cA man has got to know his limitations.\u201d \u00a0What watching drummers like Kuhli did for me was improve my feel for the drums. \u00a0I never elevated my game to that level, but I improved a lot trying to play in ways that sounded like the drummers I heard. \u00a0So I have to say a belated \u201cthank you\u201d to Don Kuhli for inspiring me those many years ago. \u00a0He would have no reason to remember seeing my band play part of one afternoon gig at the Wildcat Den, but I certainly remember everything his drumming and kind words did for me.<\/span><\/p>\n Top Piece Video – Videos of Don Kuhli at work are hard to come by so we will fall back on our old friend Lindsay Tomasic as they tackle one of my favorite Turtles hits\u00a0Happy Together.<\/em><\/p>\n