The acclaimed pop, rock and progressive sounds that make up Tin Drum Family Band, which includes an original founding member and current member of the multiple Grammy-nominated 1970s-80s group Ambrosia, will take the stage in Carson City on Oct. 17 at Nashville Social Club.
The Tin Drum Family Band is indeed a family music affair as it features founding Ambrosia drummer and vocalist Burleigh Drummer and his wife, Mary Harris, who is Ambrosia’s current keyboard player and one of their singers, and their children Sierra (vocals, bass, guitar) and Burleigh M. Drummond aka Micky (vocals, guitar).
The Carson City performance at Nashville Social Club is Friday Oct. 17 from 7:30 to 10 p.m. Go here for information and tickets.
The Tin Drum Family Band’s music is a celebration of musical styles ranging from pop to rock to progressive. Big on vocal harmonies and featuring well-crafted songwriting, the band performs a mix of originals, Ambrosia songs and excellent interpretations of a few choice covers.
The Tin Drum Family Band was born out of an unlikely space that Covid provided the Drummond family. Burleigh Drummond and Mary Harris, married for 40 years and longtime veterans of the music world, recording and touring with Ambrosia, Tin Drum, Jimmy Buffet, Animal Logic, The Lost Dogs, Mighty Mo Rodgers among others — were suddenly home and reunited with their grown children Burleigh M. Drummond (aka Micky) and Sierra Drummond.
Four musicians stuck in the same house/studio with nowhere to go. What do you do? You play in a band and record music the entire family contributes to, in a place that helped sustain and inspire you.
Both son and daughter brought forth their own creativity having become accomplished writers and musicians in their own right. One idea led to another and soon a collection of songs took place that reflected not only the loss of loved ones but the encouragement and support those loved ones showed towards this music.
So out of life’s tragedies came the birth of something beautiful, the Tin Drum Family band and their first release in 2023, “Emerson Street,” the place where both son and daughter were raised and which still exists today. And, of course, by virtue of being a tightly knit family, the spiritual and psychic combination of the Family Band’s music gives it a powerful punch that is at once both subtle and overwhelming.
Founding Member of Ambrosia anchors Tin Drum Family Band
Anchored by Burleigh Drummond, both literally and figuratively, he is a drummer, percussionist, producer, songwriter, and singer. He is a founding member and the only drummer/percussionist the five-time Grammy Award nominated band Ambrosia has ever had.
Drummond recorded on every Ambrosia record from 1970 to the present and toured internationally with the band throughout its history.
Burleigh has also performed and recorded with Alan Parsons, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Frank Zappa, Michael McDonald, Mighty Mo Rodgers, Dave Mason.
Mary Harris is a singer/songwriter, keyboardist, arranger and producer who has been a member of Ambrosia since 2012. She has worked in various capacities with major artists like Pink Floyd, XTC and Jimmy Buffett.
Micky is an accomplished musician who toured with the Everly Brothers Experience. And Sierra is an award-winning singer and composer along with being an accomplished multi-instrumentalist.
Ambrosia formed in Los Angeles in 1970. Ambrosia has five Top 40 hit singles to their credit, all of which charted between 1975 and 1980, including the Top 5 hits “How Much I Feel” and “Biggest Part of Me,” along with “Holdin’ On to Yesterday,” a cover of the Beatles “Magical Mystery Tour” and “You’re the Only Woman (You and I).”
“The Biggest Part of Me” was nominated for a 1980 Grammy in the Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocals category. In the band’s earlier years, the band fused symphonic art rock with a slick produced pop sound, resulting in a “melodic prog” style as evidenced on the band’s first self-titled album, which was released in 1975. It spawned the Top 20 chart single, “Holdin’ On to Yesterday.” The album was nominated for a Grammy award for Best Engineered Recording. Alan Parsons was the engineer for Ambrosia’s this album and the producer for their second.
The band released their second album, Somewhere I’ve Never Travelled, in 1976. The album yielded the title song and the single “Can’t Let a Woman”, which both became FM favorites, both featuring lush orchestration and vocal arrangements. The album received a Grammy nomination.
The band eventually moved away from their early progressive sound into more of a lush, soulful jazz-pop sound featuring gorgeous, multi-layered harmony vocals and the result was the best-selling album, One Eighty, which produced two timeless hits.
The first, “Biggest Part of Me”, reached number three for three weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 and crossed over to the soul chart, where it peaked at number thirty-five. The second, another blue-eyed soul hit, “You’re the Only Woman (You & I)”, reached #13 on the Billboard Hot 100. One Eighty earned the band three Grammy nominations, including Best Pop Vocal Group. Overall, the band has been nominated for five Grammys.
Since Ambrosia’s heyday of charting singles and albums, the band has continued to maintain a high profile, touring worldwide while writing and recording new material while Burleigh and Mary have gone on to create music with other musicians, most importantly to them, with their two children.
