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Music News
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By: Tony Avery
Who is Long Haired Kid? Well, it's a rock & roll band. OK, a band... So? Well, not necessarily your traditional rock & roll band. OK, why's that?
The band LONG HAIRED KID is Chris Sanders playing bass guitar; Edward Nicholson providing lead vocals, Tobin Logan on guitar and providing backing vocal, and Avery Logan on drums & percussion. OK, cool. But there's more.
Now we get to a little surprise for all those who attend this show. Avery Logan, son of band member Tobin Logan and drummer and percussionist for the band Long Haired Kid, is only thirteen years old. Avery, born August 13, 1998, already appears to be an accomplished drummer and percussionist with many credits and honors already tagged to this young man's early career.
Photo by Silvanus Slaughter
Avery Logan first started his musical journey in late 2009 playing the trombone while in middle school. Playing with his school's band Avery developed an interest in percussion instruments and switched over to drums. By late 2009 Avery started tinkering on his uncle's teaching drum kit. By early in 2010 it became obvious very quickly to Avery's dad and to others that Avery had great wrists and could also work a mean clockwork pocket. Long Haired Kid was up and running by Spring 2010.
In those early days Long Haired Kid spent time experimenting with a variety of different instrumentalists, including clarinet, acoustic guitar, keyboards, even a euphonium. This big-tent, more improvisational approach, gradually coalesced into a focused rock/jazz quartet, playing a few fun covers but centering on original material both old and new. Long Haired Kid played their first gig at the Dead Mule Club in Chapel Hill on June 19, 2010. Currently having performed in more than 35 shows and having played in at least a half-dozen cities and towns, Long Haired Kid has performed on every day of the week and during just about every time of day, mornings, afternoons, and evenings.
This remarkable pace established by Avery and Long Haired Kid finally culminated in a fantastic studio session in late 2011 at Kudzu Ranch, home studio of the band Southern Culture on the Skids. From December 21 to the 23rd, this recording session resulted in over 50 minutes of original material, most of it recorded live in the studio in a single day, much of it on the first take. Additional time was devoted to Avery working on drum solos for this project and then without even so much as slowing down Avery co-composed one of the hottest tunes on the record.
The rest of the material recorded during this first ever recording session was drawn from various projects, each involving different forms of collaborations between Tobin, Chris, and Ed, with some of this material dating as far back as the mid 80's. This first Long Haired Kid record (as yet untitled) is scheduled to be released this summer, 2012, while Avery is still only 13 years old. And not intent on letting up Long Haired Kid plans to return to the studio late this year for more work and recording.
In the meantime, while all of this was going on, Avery has risen through the ranks of middle school concert and jazz band, performing many memorable school programs. In February 2012 he was named All-District Jazz Band and was then invited to compete for the next higher level band award at a tryout in Thomasville, N.C. And on March 11, 2012, Avery was named All-State Jazz Band for 8th graders, which will result in a prestigious clinic and concert at the NC School of Science & Math in Durham in April.
Avery's dad, Tobin, had this to say about his son. "Obviously I'm proud as a peacock about all this stuff. But what really makes Avery great is that he's a really nice poised kid who is mentally strong and makes everyone around him better. He doesn't have all the wisdom and chops of some older guys around here. But song to song, gig to gig, he's the best drummer I've ever played with, and that's saying something...he's just a little pro, period. I'm up there on stage, and I have to be really careful about my parts because he kicks my ass on a regular basis. So consequently our band has become really tight. Because we don't want this little punk showing us up! He's already been invited more than once to do session work, and if he was old enough to have a vehicle and driver's license (God help me) he could literally write his own ticket."
Well said Dad. From myself and all of us in The JamHouse Music Club, we admire and congratulate Avery for all he has accomplished. This is certainly a remarkable story about a very remarkable young man and a very talented musician. We wish Avery, and all of you in the band, much success with your first record soon to be released, and with all your future projects. We in The JamHouse can't wait to hear Long Haired Kid perform on Saturday, March 31st at 8pm.
My thanks to Tobin Logan for providing all the bio and back ground material on his son, Avery Logan, and the band Long Haired Kid.
Thanks also to Silvanus Slaughter for providing all the still photography accompanying this feature article. The outdoor band shots are from L-R: Edward Nicholson, Avery Logan, Tobin Logan, Chris Sanders. Indoor control room shots feature Avery, producer/engineer/guru/life coach Merritt Partridge, and one photo with Russell Huffman, guest clarinetist.
