Ash Soan jamming to a Bill Withers cover featuring Pino Palladino is causing us a groove meltdown
Ash, Pino and guitarist Hamish Stewart played on the original recording
Ash Soan has shared a tribute to Bill Withers, with clip of himself playing along to a cover of the Withers hit, Use Me, from a 1998 recording session with vocalist/keyboard player, Tony O’Malley. The track featured on O’Malley’s 1999 album, Freedom Road, and as Ash mention’s in his Instagram post, also features Pino Palladino on bass, Average White Band’s Hamish Stewart on guitar.
A post shared by Ash Soan (@ashsoan)
A photo posted by on on Apr 4, 2020 at 5:55am PDT
As you might expect with such a convergence of groovesmiths tackling a funk classic, the quartet nail a fresh take on the song. Ash’s groove - filmed in his Windmill Studios - gives the song a driving neo-soul feel, switching effortlessly between a piccolo snare and his trademark ‘fat’ auxiliary snare, while dropping in some well-timed floor tom fills and hi-hat accents.
As an additional bonus, when asked by producer David Read in the comments section for a sample of his deep snare, Ash responded with ‘I’ll think about how to share it”.
If you can’t wait to get your hands on a hybrid-friendly sample of the sound, you could try Toontrack’s UK Pop EZX expansion pack for EZdrummer, which captures the sound of multiple kits, snares and cymbals from Ash!
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I'm a freelance member of the MusicRadar team, specialising in drum news, interviews and reviews. I formerly edited Rhythm and Total Guitar here in the UK and have been playing drums for more than 25 years (my arms are very tired). When I'm not working on the site, I can be found on my electronic kit at home, or gigging and depping in function bands and the odd original project.