Leroy Drumm

Leroy Maxey Drumm (September 26, 1936 – November 26, 2010) is an American bluegrass/country music songwriter who served in the United States Navy, in the 3rd Division as a sonar man aboard the USS Soley (DD-707), an Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer and deployed to the Mediterranean from July 1956 to February 1957.

Upon leaving the Navy he worked as a general laborer and welder in and around Detroit, Michigan. Leroy and Pete Gobel co-wrote the song "Colleen Malone" recorded by Hot Rize on their Take It Home, that won the IBMA’s Song of the Year award in 1991.^[1]

Career

The Algonac, Michigan-born Drumm was a songwriter that some in the bluegrass world only knew by name in the shadows of others.

List of recorded songs

Larry Sparks:

• Blue Virginia Blues
• Natural Thing To Do
• Halfway To Tulsa
• Getting Over You
• Slow Train
• Tennessee 1949
• Gunfighter’s Revenge
• I'd Like To Be A Train
• Little Ways Down The Road

Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver:

• God Sent An Angel
• Georgia Girl
• Julianne
• Poet With Wings
• She's Walking Through My Memory

Russell Moore and IIIrd Tyme Out:

• Candle In The Wind
• Count Every Teardrop I Cry
• Silence And Pain
• Woman Dressed In Scarlet
• Moundsville Pen
• Phone Call Away

Charlie Waller and The Country Gentlemen:

• Delta Queen
• Willow Creek Dam
• Billy McGee The Drummer Boy
• Back To Being Me
• This Land Must Die
• Free As The Wind
• Circuit Rider
• Joe’s Last Train

Bluegrass Cardinals: Apple Trees And Honey Bees Jubilee Road Morristown

Bill Emerson: Last Night I Was There Days When You Were Mine My Heart Barely Keeps Me Alive AKA (This Heart You Have Broken) Today I Turned Your Picture To The Wall

The Spinney Brothers The Whole World Must Be Knowin' (How Much I’m Missing You) Thank God For the Highways

Various Other Artists: Leaving You And Mobile Too You Can Keep Your Nine Pound Hammer Colleen Malone Fiddler's Green I Can Make Him Whisper (I Love You) Lovin' Aint Been Easy On My Mind Born To Be A Drifter Back To Hancock County Dixie In My Eye Another Boy That Sings Like Hank Day We Learn To Fly Sweet Mary Of The Mountains Blue Mandolin I’m Ready To Go Walking The Blues Sally And The Gambler Bad Day In Akron How Strong Do My Walls Have To Be Restless Blue Eyed Lover Many Hills of Time Back To Dixie Walking In The Early Morning Dew Back To Sugarhill Old Man And The Kid^[2][3][4]

Drumm began writing in 1952. In 1961 he was introduced to Pete Goble in a bar one night. Leroy showed Pete the lyrics he had been writing and Pete said they didn't make any sense. In Leroy's own words, Pete said "They was garbage, and a waste of his time to even look at them". Leroy was disgusted with these sort of comments, and he gave all the lyrics he had in a folder (about 200-250) "to a guy in the bar that night". He said "By doing this, I guess it was to assure myself that I'd no longer try to do something that I'd had no success at." In 1971, Pete reached out to Leroy to come co-write with him on songs. He had a successful run at writing some top songs in the 10 years since 1961 to include "Big Spike Hammer" with Bobby Osborne. Once Leroy and Pete started writing it all became a reality for Leroy, and since then his songs have been recorded by various notable artists. In 1974, Drumm had four songs recorded on the Country Gentlemen's album Remembrances & Forecasts, "Willow Creek Dam", "Delta Queen" about the actual river boat the Delta Queen, "Billy McGee The Drummer Boy", and "Circuit Rider". In 1976 he was honored to have the Country Gentlemen use his song "Joe's Last Train" as the title track of their next album and the song "This Land Must Die" was on that same album.

In 2006 The Complete Vanguard Recordings^[5] was released and the four tracks of Leroy's were used from Remembrances & Forecasts.

One of his last projects with Stacy Richardson was a favor for a World War II veteran named Private James W. Bozeman who went to church with Stacy. Leroy was asked to write a song about the Battle of the Bulge and the account from a combat medics point of view in the 94th Infantry Division. His lyrics composed with Stacy's melody was posted on the 94th Infantry Division's website as a tribute to American heroes who fought and died in World War II.^[6]

Personal life

Drumm was married twice in his life, his first wife Carlie Mae Morrison was the mother of his six children, Rodney, Leroy Jr., Dolly, Barbara, Terry and Roger. In 1975 his oldest son Rodney Owen Drumm was struck and killed by a drunk driver in a SUV while on his motorcycle in Rose City, Michigan. In 2010, he lost his first grandson, David Owen Dorton, to leukemia.

He wrote an email to his son in 2008 and stated;

“Song writing or poem writing is an art or craft, one is born with it. One can’t teach it or I don’t think one can learn it. No... one has to be born with it their heart and mind. It isn’t always pleasant to live with but it is forever there. Ideas for songs or poems come from varied sources, but mostly from life itself. Really, anything that inspires a poet’s heart or mind is a source. Life of course is the greatest source. Second to “life” is a broken heart, unlike the gas in a car’s gas tank, a broken heart or life never runs out of gas …… it keeps going and going. A life-time ago, when I was sixteen, I got my first broken heart from love gone wrong and tried to write about it. In fact I still remember the title "Well dear be careful with your heart". The broken heart I felt at sixteen I have been able to fall back on throughout my life and it is included into every broken hearted song I've ever worked on such as ”And Yet, I Die A Little More Each Day", "Tennessee 1949", "Seen Through The Eyes Of A Dreamer" etc.... Same girl and same broken heart. As I said, it keeps going and going and going.”

Death

Leroy Drummdied due to complications of respiratory and heart failure at his home in Waynesboro, Tennessee, on 26 November 2010,^[7]

Legacy

Bob Mitchell^[8] of Radio Bluegrass International and WKWC-FM Owensboro, Kentucky did a one-hour tribute to songwriters Leroy Drumm and Pete Goble. The international segment features bands from Australia, the Czech Republic, Sweden, and Italy. It was recorded on January 15, 2011 at WFPK-FM 91.9, Louisville KY.

In 2014,the title track of the album “The Day We Learn to Fly” that was written by Leroy and Stacy Richardson and recorded by the band Volume Five was nominated at the 25th Annual IBMA Awards for "Gospel Recorded Performance Of The Year.^[9]

Leroy and his son Roger started a publishing company called "Sound of Drumm's Music" in late 2008, 2 years before Leroy's death, in which Leroy wanted Roger to carry his legacy on and publish many of his 700 other works of lyrics yet to be recorded. Roger has since teamed up with a select few of the best in the business of Bluegrass Music to finish these works to create music for the fans of Leroy's music to enjoy for years to come. Once his entire repertoire is completed, he will have over 1000 songs in his song catalog.^[10]

Awards

This list of songs or music-related items is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

References