In 2010 Pete Thomas, the drummer for Elvis Costello’s bands The Attractions and The Imposters, was in Little Rock to record some songs with Indy Grotto, wife of producer Jason Weinheimer, for her solo album. While Thomas was here, Weinheimer encouraged Greg Spradlin, the singer-songwriter-hotshot guitarist and longtime Arkansas musical stalwart, to come jam with the British drummer.
That session was a life-changing one for Spradlin, though he didn’t know it at the time. “I thought, yeah, I could spend a day with him,” the 51-year-old Spradlin says. “I had about three songs. That’s probably all we could get done anyway.”
He admits that he was expecting something more laid-back, but Thomas — who not only drummed on legendary Costello albums like “This Year’s Model,” “Get Happy,” “Armed Forces,” “Imperial Bedroom” and more, but is also an in-demand studio drummer who has played with Randy Newman, Sheryl Crow and others — had a different approach. “He’s a perfectionist, and it goes really quick,” Spradlin says. “We got through those three songs before lunch.”
There was an undeniable chemistry, and that informal jam started Spradlin on a musical trip that would take him to Los Angeles to record with, among others, Thomas, Los Lobos founding member David Hidalgo, the late keyboardist Rudy Copeland and bassist Davey Faragher of Cracker and The Imposters.
