About George Lawrence and the history of the drum shop...
George at Keswick
George Lawrence @Sylvia Theatre
Hailing from Jackson Mississippi, George has lived and worked in the major music centers of Los Angeles, Nashville, and Muscle Shoals Alabama, recording and touring with some of the best musicians and recording artists from around the world. He is known for his "deep pocket groove" and his ability to inspire other musicians to play their best. He is currently touring and recording with the infamous veteran band POCO, and playing other free lance sessions and gigs. George’s life long involvement with drum shops as a teacher led to the fulfillment of one of his lifelong dreams, the establishing in 2002 of George’s Drum Shop in the Akron/Cleveland, Ohio area where he teaches, repairs, builds and sells drums when he is not on the road. His drumming styles range from funk, R&B, soul music, blues, country, rock from classic to metal, pop, big band jazz, be-bop jazz and jazz-rock fusion music. He spent many years as a recording studio "session cat" and reads standard transcription and Nashville number charts flawlessly. He has played drum set in every imaginable setting including concert arenas, videos, TV, clubs, churches, symphony orchestras, and clinics. A true professional sideman, George is available to work gigs, recording sessions and clinics anywhere in the world. To contact George about playing a gig or tour or playing on your recordings (your studio or his) email him at george@georgesdrumshop.com or call him at 330 338 6035.
George is very active in the drumming community both locally and nationally, attending drumming festivals, drum festivals and conventions around the country as a performer and clinician as well as hosting his own Southern Drum Show in Nashville TN.He has taught thousands of students, many who have gone on to become professional drummers and some who have become famous drummers, most notably Keith Carlock, also from Mississippi, who is now recognized as one of the top drummers in the world working with the likes of Steely Dan, Sting and James Taylor. Pro and aspiring pro drummers from around the country seek George out for the highest level of instruction on the drumset.
In 2008 George became a partner in the Famous Drum Company which manufacturers pro level snare drums and drum sets. George also became the owner and publisher of Not So Modern Drummer Magazine in 2008 and produces the annual Southern Drum Show held in Nashville every year during the same week as the Summer NAMM convention.
George is married to Dr. Nancy Odell of Akron, Ohio and has two children, Paul, 26 and Jennifer, 19, both drummers. . His hobbies include writing and reading, designing and building musical instruments and writing drum instruction books.
George with Poco in their 39th anniversary year 2007.
Q. Who are you and what have you done that is so dang wonderful? :-)
A. Nothing all that impressive really. I consider myself just a working drummer who graduated from the school of hard knocks. Fortunately I found my niche with some people who like my groove and the funny little fast notes I paint the holes with. :-) I've recorded thousands and thousands of publishing and songwriter demos, hundreds of custom label and independent albums, lots of major label albums, and dozens of great album projects that never saw the light of day :-). A partial discography is posted at this site allmusic.com
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During my stint in Nashville from 1993 until now I played gigs and/or recorded with:
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- Larry Stewart
- Keb' Mo
- Dave Alvin
- Vince Gill Tour
- Lucinda Williams
- Terry McBride and the Ride
- Great Plains
- Thrasher Shiver
- T. Graham Brown
- Buffalo Club
- Russ Zavitson
- Tony Haselden
- Jim Horn
- the Muscle Shoals Horns
- Fred Knobloch and Radio Free Nashville
- The Tennessee Jazz Orchestra
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and before that were: |
- Micheal Brecker
- Gary Herbig
- Icarus Johnson
- Alex Harvey
- The Seawind Horns
- Brent Bougois
- Larry Tagg
- Jim Messina
- Kenny Loggins
- Steve Lukather
- Mike Porcaro
- Lenny Castro
- Margaret Allison and the Angelic Gospel Singers
- The Jackson Southernaires
- The Christianaires
- Thrasher Shiver
- The Buster Brown Band
The Williams Brothers
Uncle Rainbow
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...and others that escape my memory at the moment. Sorry if I left anyone out.
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Timeline
1954-1972 |
Elementary through high school marching bands in Grenada and Jackson MS. Started teaching at age 15 and began playing professionally at age 17. Left on the road with a pro rock band after graduating high school (sound familiar?).
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1972-1973 |
Attended Hinds Jr. College and Milsaps College in Mississippi.
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1973-1974 |
Attended North Texas State University, Denton, Texas.
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1975-1976 |
Attended Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas.
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1977-1982 |
Session musician in San Fransisco, L.A. and Santa Barbara,
California. Major record label recording artist in Northern California Bay Area with "Uncle Rainbow" (which evolved into Bougois-Tagg) and in L.A. with "Pages" (which evolved into Mr. Mister). Funny how those bands became successful after I left :-)
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1983-1993 |
Based out of my hometown Jackson, MS. to raise my kids, lead my own band, "Chemistry", teach private students, operate George's Drum Shop #1, and record in the famed studios of the Deep South.
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1993-2001 |
Worked out of Nashville touring with pop country acts. Long stints with Larry Stewart, the lead singer from Restless Heart during his solo career, McBride and the Ride, T. Graham Browne, the Kinleys and the Wilkinsons. Recorded albums and publishing demos in Nashville, Muscle Shoals, Memphis, Atlanta and L.A. I was also associated with Fork's Drum Closet in Nashville as a private instructor and wrote a couple of instruction books that have been reviewed in Modern Drummer and sold steadily. Also married to Dr. Nancy O'dell in 1998.
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2002-present |
Now operating George's Drum Shop #2 and Lawrence Drums in the Akron / Cleveland, Ohio region and doing studio sessions and touring gigs with Poco around the world in addition to playing locally.
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The history of George's Drum Shop
George's Drum Shop has been in business almost constantly in one form or another since 1985 but it actually started in my bedroom when I was in high school. I was always buying drum sets and refinishing and refurbishing them, reselling or horse trading them mainly just to satisfy my jones for the next great new drum set I thought I had to have. During my late teens and twenties I used to visit, hang out, teach and work in drum shops and music departments all around the country as I moved and travelled from place to place. I was involved with the B&S drum shop in Dallas and Mike's Drum Shop in Santa Barbara California. I also frequented Frank's Drum Shop in Chicago, Skip's Music in Sacramento, the original Guitar Center in LA., The Pro Drum Shop in Hollywood, Brook Mays Music in Dallas and many others. I was always in love with drum shops. I think a drum shop is a romantic business because creative people are involved as staff and customers. I enjoyed hanging out with the other drummers and talking about playing drums, checking out the latest gear, our music careers, etc. My mother and I talked often about opening a drum shop and after my stint in the California music business, George's Drum Shop was started in earnest in 1985 when I settled down in my hometown of Jackson Mississippi. My mother put up a couple of rental houses for the collateral for a business loan.
Jackson 1985: The first George's Drum shop was located in an old house on the edge of the large Meadowbrook Mart shopping center in North Jackson. This enterprise lasted three years and thanks to Reaganomics and the poor economy of the state there just wasn't enough drummer business in the area to sustain a stand alone drum shop. I closed that location down in 1987 and operated out of a building in back of my home teaching students, repairing and building drums and selling them to students on the side. I also published a mail order catalog for a while.
I moved to Nashville in 1993 where I worked briefly at the now defunct Pro Drum Shop, taught and sold at Sam's Music in Brentwood, and starting in 1996 taught at Fork's Drum Closet, one of the premier drum shops in the country. I started my online drum retail business DrumGuru.com in 2000 selling just a handful of brands.
I moved to Akron Ohio (my wife's hometown) in 2002 where I resurrected George's Drum Shop and GeorgesDrumShop.com in the funky and eclectic Walterville Warehouse complex (Walterville isn't really a place, it's a state of mind :-) In 2004, I moved the store to neighboring downtown Cuyahoga Falls Ohio when my friend Jim Mothersbaugh offered me cheap rent in the big storefront building his family owned. Jim's brother is Mark Mothersbaugh and cousin Bob Mothersbaugh of the Devo band and they all used to practice and shoot their videos in this building. It was located on a pedestrian mall next door to the downtown ampitheatre so I threw three yearly drum festivals there which reached an attendance of 10,000 in 2006. I also joined Poco in 2004 and have been playing 50 dates a year with them AND running the shop full time. Whew!
In 2006 the musical instrument retail industry had one of the worst years since the Great Depression of 1930. Many of the biggest music retailers went bankrupt including Woodwind and Brasswind, Brook Mays Music and Lentine's Music. My business had been doubling its sales for four years straight but in 2006 suffered a 30% fall in sales. It was obvious that the days of mom and pop music stores were about gone with the advent of big box stores like Guitar Center and the fast growing popularity of online shopping. The downtown Cuyahoga Falls location was also suffering from urban blight which reduced my retail traffic, so in 2007 I decided to concentrate on internet sales, seeing that local sales were once again too unpredictable to depend on.
I moved the shop back to the small Walterville warehouse quarters and reduced my staff, inventory and other overhead expenses, but increased my customer base and total sales. Now, though I still cater to the local and regional drummers, the majority of the shop's business is shipping to long distance customers and foreign dealers and resellers who find me via the internet. It's a new way of doing business but I like it and my customers seem to dig it. I now ship all over the world as a new fangled internet store and spend time with my local customers just like the old time drum shops I used to frequent; the best of both worlds.
Update, March, 2010: We just moved in to our new retail store front at 3563 Copley Rd in Copley Ohio! Only 500 feet from our old warehouse, the new store front is right on the town square with much,much more space for teaching studios, multiple showrooms, offices, kitchen, repair shop, shipping and recieving and storage. We don't know what to do with so much space and sun shine! Plus we have more car traffic than ever! Location, location, location!
The Cuyahoga Falls Front Street Location from June 2004 until 01/07
George and artist Tom Sullivan hanging the Recycled Drum Set Sculpture at the Cuyahoga Falls location.
George performing at the shop's 2006 Drum Festival; attendance for the day; 10,000! |
