Ambrosia’s drummer releases Tin Drum Family Band album

Ambrosia’s Burleigh Drummond and his family have released Tin Drum Family Band’s tenderly tasteful album ‘Emerson Street.’

Author:
Warren Kurtz
Publish date:
May 10, 2024

TIN DRUM FAMILY BAND

Empire Street

Tin Drum Music (CD and Digital)

By Warren Kurtz

Ambrosia co-founding member and drummer Burleigh Drummond and his wife of over forty years, vocalist and keyboardist Mary Harris, who has also been a member of Ambrosia for the past several years, have a side project band called Tin Drum, which Goldmine discussed with Drummond in 2018. During the pandemic, Drummond and Harris’ children Burleigh M. “Micky” Drummond and Sierra Drummond came back home to Emerson Street and the four musicians created their first album together. They were joined on the tender collection by other family members David Harris and John Wood, along with musicians Marc Bonilla and Devon Geyer, and created an additional group called Tin Drum Family Band. Goldmine spoke with Burleigh Drummond and Mary Harris about a sample of tunes from the dozen song collection.

Harris’ piano is featured on “Hummingbird” with a vocal style recalling Amy Grant on a recording with a hint of the Carpenters. She shared with Goldmine, “We have had around thirty families of hummingbirds in our backyard, laying and hatching their eggs and we watched them fly away. I was reminded of my mom, who passed away a few years ago and to whom this song is dedicated to. One of the last days of her life in a hospice care facility, a hummingbird was trapped in her room, wanting to be there but also wanting to get out. I related that to what was happening to my mom at the time.”

Mother and daughter trade lead vocals and share harmony on “Walk of Life.” Harris continued, “That song was written about our son Micky who traveled to India and other places after he graduated from college. I traveled around India and Nepal when I was 21 years old and had a lot of great experiences, so I offered encouragement to him.”

Drummond added, “When I was younger, in the early days of Ambrosia, I studied the Indian percussion instrument tabla with Alla Rakha. Micky took it twenty steps further by going to India and studied with a master there, which is one of the reasons he was in India, learning and living with the family, which is much different than showing up for a half hour lesson here in America. He is featured on tabla on the album’s opening song ‘I Fall Down.’”

“Never Far from Home” offers a comforting family message. Drummond stated, “I sing lead, Sierra is on the bridge, and Mary joins for a three-part harmony, our best effort of being like Crosby, Stills and Nash. This song was also about Micky leaving, with me offering fatherly advice I wish I had gotten.”

Micky Drummond sang lead on the story song “Salt Creek.” Burleigh Drummond revealed, “Our niece and goddaughter Darcy passed away from lung cancer at age 31 during the period of making this album, and this is Micky’s tribute to her. ‘Salt Creek’ is about a place in Three Rivers, California where a lot of Mary’s family came from and where Micky remembers playing with Mary’s side of the family, especially with Darcy who was just two years younger than him.”

The album ends with a strong finale with wonderful strings “My Sweet Lullaby.” Drummond said, “That is another tribute to Darcy.”

Drummond concluded by saying, “We were pleasantly surprised by the quality of songs that our son and daughter were writing, and we decided to celebrate the fact that we were all together by being creative and that got us through COVID.”

Drummond and Harris have West Coast dates with Ambrosia coming up in mid-May through mid-June.