The John Mauceri Interview

One of the things I have done over the last 4 years is connect the dots on different amalgamations of musicians and their actions within a period of time in music when you could find work as a session player, play gigs @ strip clubs and the multitude of venues in every urban center in this country.

These amalgamations were everywhere but the cities I have most heavily explored and where these amalgamations seemed to grow off and out of each other have been New York, Chicago, Nashville, Muscle Shoals San Francisco and Los Angeles.

My guest is a drummer from Southern California who's laid back style fit perfectly into the white boy blues that washed up In sun splashed LA. He could play folk, ballads with David Blue, bluegrass with Sneaky Pete, and blue eyed soul with Jackson Browne.

My guest has a great reputation which is why when Bob Weir came to LA to find a working rhythm section he found one with my guest and Rick Carlos and Brent Mydland on the heels of Silver and Batdorf and Rodney. This unit sparkled and was a great fit for Bobby as he tried to step out of the shadow of the Grateful Dead. Playing a bouncing Poison Ivy that my daughters listen to on the way to school.

My guest has seen the industry change. The near impossibility of keeping a unit together is almost unheard of unless you can sell out 30000 seat rock palaces. The values in music and performance reflect that of our society. One of imbalance. My guest still swings the band but provides marriage counseling to help offset this imbalance.