Hello, MD Readers! My name is Dave McAfee, and I have played drums for Toby Keith since 2000. I wanted to say hey and share what’s been going on lately. We recently returned to the States from our eighth USO tour, this time including twelve stops in Afghanistan. It was a great trip performing for the troops, touring hospitals, and seeing things we would never see otherwise. We finished up in Germany and Italy, and on June 18 on we went on our “America’s Toughest” tour, with guest Trace Adkins. I am having a great year in 2009, and I wanted to say thanks!

I was fortunate to play drums and be one of the co-producers on Jamey Johnson’s critically acclaimed album That Lonesome Song. We recorded the project on a bare-bones budget, mostly for our own amusement and enjoyment. The album was later picked up and released by Mercury and went on to be nominated for three Grammy awards and five ACM awards, winning the song of the year award for “In Color.” His next album is almost done, and it’s due out by the end of this year. I’m also on the new Wade Hayes album, and I am a winner in the Country category in Modern Drummer’s 2009 Reader’s Poll. I am not sure it gets any better than that!

I wanted to shout out thanks to MD readers; Wayne, Andrew, and Kelly at Paiste; Marco and Ben at Vic Firth; Chris at Aquarian; and the folks at Yamaha for their tremendous support. See you on down the road! Advertisement