Robyn Flans| Special to Ventura County Star
Since love at first sight hit Ambrosia’s Burleigh Drummond and Mary Harris in 1982, the Thousand Oaks couple has lived the musical dream, managing to make music separately andtogether and still raise a family.
Burleigh Drummond is the founding member and drummer for the Grammy-nominated band, and his wife is the singer and keyboardist.
It all began while Burleigh was in California on hiatus from Ambrosia, which had already had two top five hits, “How Much I Feel” and “Biggest Part of Me.” He was sharing a Sun Valley house with musician John Wood, when Mary, Wood’s cousin from Three Rivers, decided to move to Los Angeles to “make it as a singer.” Wood suggested they form a trio.
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“We set up in this living room and I had to get into another room and awkwardly scooch around her,” Burleigh recalled more than three decades later. “We faced off, and that was it.”
“And it was so weird because I never really believed in that ‘love at first sight’ thing, but it was,” his wife added.
They married a year later and played together in a few bands while Ambrosia was on hiatus for the next seven years.
“When I met Mary, that’s when my life really started,” Burleigh said. “I was on the road before, but there was something missing. That’s when life really came together for me.”
Their son, Burleigh McDowall, was born in 1987, and two years later, Mary began touring with Animal Logic, the band of Burleigh’s former girlfriend Debra Holland. In 1990, she took a job as a background singer with Jimmy Buffett.
They figured out how to make it work — thanks to lots of help, airport hand-offs and Mary’s resolution not to be away from her son for more than three or four days. Either a nanny or Mary’s mother would bring him out to see her on the road.
“It was hard, but we managed,” Mary said.
After two years, she quit to be with their son. When Buffett called in 1993 to ask what it would take to coax her back, she quoted double the price, thinking they’d never go for it. When they did, she returned to sing backgrounds and write vocal arrangements, but two years later she realized she hadn’t originally quit because of the money.
“I wanted to be home with my son,” she said. “So I quit again, and they were totally understanding.”
She went home, and their daughter Sierra Rose was born in 1996.
Mary was still with Buffett’s group when she and Burleigh formed their own band Tin Drum, which, to date, has made three CDs. It’s that music that they’llbe playing at the Camarillo Public Library on Saturday with a four-piece band. Their daughter will add vocals, acoustic guitar and ukelele on some of the songs.
“Tin Drum has a lot of family values in it because it came from Mary and me and from raising a family," Burleigh explained. "It’s not a Hallmark movie or anything, but we’ll tell the stories about how they were created. Like the song ‘Surrender,’ Mary and I were having an argument and Mary played this little thing. I got into the car in a huff and wrote lyrics while I was riding to a gig, and it became our biggest song.”
In the late 1990s, Mary began to sub in Ambrosia as a singer, but by 2000 the work became more consistent. In 2012, she formally joined theband as a singer and keyboardist.
Ambrosia will perform July 14 at Constitution Park in Camarillo.
The situation is perfect, they say. Now that the kids are grown, they can enjoy traveling and making music together — in Tin Drum, with Bill Champlin & WunderGround and with their mainstay, Ambrosia.
“We’re empty-nesters, so we don’t feel guilty about being away from our children,” Mary said.
Their son is now 31 and a drummer in the Everly Brothers Experience. Their 21-year-old daughter just graduated from the University of Southern California.
“Our kids were really good about raising us,” Burleigh said with a laugh.
As they approach their 35thanniversary in August, the couple knows how fortunate they are.
“We get to travel together, and it’s the only thing that gets me through, being with my wife,” Burleigh said. “It makes all the difference.”
If you go
TIN DRUM
What: Tin Drum, featuring Ambrosia’sBurleigh Drummond and Mary Harris Drummond
When:2 p.m. Saturday
Where: Camarillo Public Library,4101 Las Posas Road,Camarillo
Cost: Free
Information:805-388-5222 or emailaskus@camarillolibrary.org
AMBROSIA
What: Ambrosia at the Camarillo Summer Concert and Film Series
When: 7:30 p.m. July 14
Where: Constitution Park, corner of Carmen Drive and Paseo Camarillo
Cost: Free
Information:www.camarilloartscouncil.org
