RUSH drum legend Neil Peart has updated the News, Weather And Sports page on his official website with February's massive blog. An excerpt reads as follows:

"The setting of this photograph is Death Valley National Park, California, near the sit­e called Natural Bridge. The snow-topped Panamint Mountains form the backdrop, while I am gesticulating and (no doubt) pontificating in the middle, surrounded by the people and cameras of the Hudson Music crew. The subject of my little speech was drumming—specifically, drumming in front of an audience.

So that explains the title, but suggests a number of other questions. Starting with, I suppose, 'Um . . . why?'

Well, it started in 1995, when I made an instructional video about composing drum parts and recording them, called A Work in Progress. My collaborators on that project were Paul Siegel and Rob Wallis, and we had enjoyed working together, sharing our ideas and realizing them on film. Paul and Rob were both drummers who had gravitated to the educational side, founding Drummer’s Collective in New York City, then later Hudson Music, to make instructional DVDs. They were around the same age as my bandmates and me, and likewise had enjoyed a long, productive partnership of close to the same duration, so we understood one another.

In 2005 the three of us made another instructional video (this time 'straight to DVD'), Anatomy of a Drum Solo, which investigated the title subject, based around my solo from the R30 Tour. That solo had been filmed and recorded in Frankfurt, Germany, and thus was titled 'Der Trommler' (the drummer). (On Rush In Rio, it was 'O Baterista!', while the Snakes And Arrows version, filmed in Rotterdam, was 'Die Slagwerker'.)

The theme for our next collaboration seemed obvious: live performance, preparing for it and surviving it. In early 2010 we began collecting material, now augmented by a new member of the Hudson Music team, Joe Bergamini. “Jobee” is a well-schooled drummer in several fields, as well as an educator and journalist, and has been particularly successful in the orchestra pits of Broadway—first-call drummer for many of the hit shows, including such richly percussive and challenging scores as In The Heights (I loved that show). Jobee has a frighteningly detailed knowledge of my work, my methods and influences, and thus his inputs and questions were insightful and inspiring."

Read the entire blog here.

(Photo courtesy of Rob Wallis)