The Zimmermans, along with Tom Fleagle, performing as The Last Levee, 2006.
My husband Rob is a phenomenal guitarist, singer, and song writer and has been playing music since he was young. I learned to play the piano, flute, and some guitar, but really took to playing drums when I was a teenager. I have been playing drums on and off now for about 22 years.
Rob Zimmerman, working on his next song.
About 10 years ago, Rob starting looking for people to play music with and met Tom, our keyboardist. After about a year of them playing together, I joined the crew and the three of us have been playing music together ever since.
When we first started, our band was called “The Last Levee” and we played a bunch of classic rock covers from Jimi Hendrix, The Allman Brothers, Neil Young, Tom Petty, The Black Crowes, and The Beatles. Over the years, we started playing more and more of Rob’s original music, which is about 95% of what we now play.
We were playing out and booking gigs when I got pregnant with our daughter, Cali. After writing a drumming doctor asking about his recommendation of when to stop drumming with a child in utero, I had to quit. This drumming doctor stated that, at about 5.5 months, it is good to stop doing anything where the expecting mother is being exposed to loud sounds (such as gun shots, or, in my case, a rim shot) since that is about the time when the child’s ear drums are being formed. So, Rob and Tom found a temporary replacement drummer during this time, and continued to gig.
Since then, I am back playing with the band on a regular weekly basis. We haven’t been playing out, mainly because of the late hours and the fact that a baby sitter often costs more than what we would earn around here, playing small town gigs. But we have a great time and do it for the love of playing music.
Rob has been recording some of our live sessions and has recently finished mixing a few of his original songs so our friends and family can hear some of the music we play. You can listen to some of our live tracks up on SoundCloud.
We’re not exactly sure what the future holds for our music careers, but we have a great time playing music and love that our daughter is learning to share that love.
Left to right: Sara on drums, Tom on keyboard, and Cali sometimes joins in as our second drummer
Cali, 6, sometimes joins in on our jam sessions