By Tom Grace
Cooperstown News Bureau
Oneonta drummer Tyler Logan is touring North America with Calvin "Snoop Dogg" Broadus, the Grammy-award-nominated hip hop artist.
Wednesday morning, Logan, 24, awoke in Los Angeles, and by afternoon, he was in Oakland, Calif., preparing for a show that night in San Francisco. After that, in the next few days he was bound for Seattle; Vancouver, Canada; Cancun, Mexico; Normal, Ill., and Rochester.
"The tour started Feb. 7 in Miami for the Super Bowl, and we've been going all over the country _ Buffalo, Chicago, all across Florida and Texas," he said by cell phone. "I've toured before, but I'm not used to doing it at this level."
The show, the constant change of scenery, the audience response to Snoop, whose latest album is "Malice in Wonderland," all are intense, he said.
Snoop, 38, is not only a singer and rapper, but also recently was appointed artistic chairman of Priority Records, an EMI label, where he will oversee a large catalog of music, according to his website www.snoopdog.com.
In 2003, Logan graduated from Oneonta High School and moved to Orlando, Fla., where he played in a band, worked in a music shop and made the contacts that can advance a career in the highly competitive music business.
"Florida was good for quite a while. It was actually through my Florida connections that I got this job," he said. A friend of his is Snoop's stage manager, and when the act needed a drummer, the friend recommended him, Logan said.
Logan now lives in Oneonta and plays with Guava Smash, a hip-hop-rock band, with singer-guitarist, Hector Reiter. The band is slated to appear March 19 at the Foothills Performing Arts and Civic Center.
On Guava Smash's MySpace page, http://www.myspace.com/guavasmashmusic, the group is billed as: "Guava Smash!? It's a long story. Basically some dudes came together who have known each other for awhile and played in other bands and did other things ... From the emerging upstate New York scene comes a band that knows no boundaries and does not care if they exist."
Logan said he will be off tour by March 19 and is looking forward to the local performance.
When he's in Oneonta, he sometimes offers drum lessons, working at the Guitar Clinic, 224 Main St.
"He's been here for a couple of years," Guitar Clinic owner Jim Adams said Friday. "He's a great guy and an awesome drummer."
Logan also operates a house-painting business in the Oneonta area, but at the moment, he's focused on music.
According to Geoffrey Doyle of Foothills, tickets for Guava Smash will be $5 for those 21 and older, $8 for those younger than 21. The band will take the stage at 10 p.m., he said.
If you have good news you'd like to share, call Associate Managing Editor Emily Popek at 432-1000 or (800) 721-1000, ext. 217; fax her at 432-5707; e-mail her at epopek@thedailystar.com; or write to her at P.O. Box 250, Oneonta, NY 13820.
