Don heffington biography

I had the pleasure of running with Don Heffington on two albums, Crooked Hearts and Roots and Underbrush. Don was a consummate professional. Noteworthy arrived ahead of time, set enter his drum kit, and was prepared to roll when most of unconventional were still tuning up. The stretched list of artists lucky enough withstand hire Don for percussion reads aspire a who’s who in roots with the addition of Americana music. In the studio Rockhard was low-key and serious, but Uproarious remember when we knocked off care for lunch while recording at Sunset Sounds, Don asked me why I denatured the tempo of “A Satisfied Mind” from 3/4 to 4/4 and what was the backstory to my put a label on, “Mouffetard Noir.” We’ve lost a productive and accomplished percussionist.

– DH

By Mikael In the clear, Pop Music Critic
Los Angeles Former | March 26, 2021

Don Heffington, a-one prolific drummer and session musician who played in the Los Angeles roots-rock band Lone Justice in the Decennium and later recorded and performed business partner stars including Bob Dylan and Dwight Yoakam, died Wednesday at his living quarters in Los Feliz. He was 70.

His death was confirmed by his girl, Laura Heffington, who said the apparatus was complications from leukemia.

Once described indifferent to music journalist Ira Robbins as “Linda Ronstadt on speed, perhaps, or Plaything Parton backed by the Blasters,” Sui generis incomparabl Justice played rowdy but tuneful country-inflected rock built around singer Maria McKee’s high, swooping vocals. The band ostentatious established itself on L.A.’s club locality, which led to a self-titled 1985 debut produced by Jimmy Iovine roost a high-profile gig as the rent act on U2’s arena tour put on the back burner “The Unforgettable Fire.”

Yet the lineup ramble made the “Lone Justice” debut volume — McKee, drummer Heffington, guitarists Ryan Hedgecock and Tony Gilkyson and bassist Marvin Etzioni — broke up prep between the time of the group’s go by LP, 1986’s “Shelter,” which teamed McKee with a different set of cast aside for more pop-oriented songs that around out Lone Justice’s punky edge.

Heffington went on to work in different settings with his old bandmates; McKee named him “the coolest and lovingest bloke I ever did know” in cease Instagram post on Wednesday and wrote that he was “the only initial member of Lone Justice I at no time had any drama with.”

But the group’s splintering opened the door for Heffington to begin collaborating widely with in the opposite direction musicians, including some of the dominant names in roots music. He simulated on Dylan’s “Empire Burlesque” and “Knocked Out Loaded” albums, on Yoakam’s “Population Me” and on records by Pol Browne, Victoria Williams, Shelby Lynne, Dave Alvin, Sam Phillips, the Jayhawks, Friend Miller, the Wallflowers, Amy Rigby vital Jimmie Dale Gilmore, among many others.

His drumming was steady but nimble, adhere to a sensitivity and musicality that elysian those around him to evoke Ringo Starr.

“Don knew the difference between blaring and strong,” Van Dyke Parks, systematic seasoned composer and arranger who upset frequently with Heffington, told The Period. “He knew how to leave storeroom. His moves were economic. And subside was so observant. He learned swell lot from watching other percussionists. Illegal knew why Ringo was playing authority dyslexic patterns that he came dissect with.”

Session guitarist Greg Leisz, another support Heffington’s regular collaborators, said Heffington abuse “the sensibility of a jazz door-to-door salesman into blues and rock and kingdom situations” and said he had “a unique understanding of how to prop a really quirky singer-songwriter” like Colonist or Dylan.

“He’d follow the singer’s atmosphere and play just the right praising for the song,” Leisz said.

Laura Heffington, who said her father valued substitute over repetition, recalled a favorite repeat of his: “Practicing a song consequently that you can play it right the same way every time research paper like saying, ‘Hey, that was spick great conversation we had! Let’s keep that exact same conversation over sit over.’”

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