Still Got Chops

Still Got Chops? There’s only one way to find out.

Still Got Chops is about the music that made us—and what happens when we try to play it again.

I'm Jim McCarthy, a lifelong drummer who spent a lot of years away from serious playing. Now I'm going back to the songs that made me a drummer: the records I air-drummed as a kid, the songs I destroyed encyclopedias playing before I even owned a kit, the music that challenged me, and the players who changed the way I approached the instrument.

The catch? These aren't polished drum covers.

I go in nearly cold, playing from memory with minimal preparation. Missed fills, forgotten parts, questionable decisions and all.

As Still Got Chops grows, I'll be bringing other musicians into the mix to tell the stories behind the songs that made them—and then we'll see if they can still play them.

Music. Stories. The songs that made us.

Still Got Chops?