Personalities 48 p o r t l a n d monthly magazine meaghan maurice; courtesy photos Babe on Beat 7 A s contractors break ground on Big Babe’s tavern this month, own- er and acclaimed musician Gin- ger Cote prepares to switch drum kits for draft lists. On the former site of The Grif- fin Club, she plans to establish a neighbor- hood music venue—her blueprint for the place an amalgam of the hundreds of clubs and concerts halls she’s played over her four-decade long career as a session, rock, and country drummer. Born in Limestone, Aroostook County, Cote’s first brush with fate occurred while playing with a childhood friend and son of local drummer George Derrah in the family basement, complete with pinball table and two old Ludwig Sparkle drum sets. “I was pulled to them like a magnet. I picked up some sticks aged six, sat be- hind the Blue Sparkle, and without a clue what I was doing, began to play a beat. That was it–I was bitten by the drumming bug. George Derrah offered to sell my family the set. We didn’t have any money, so my parents bought it for me piece-by-piece. They must’ve been real gluttons for pun- ishment.” From then on, Cote’s every spare moment would be spent in her bedroom, headphones glued to her ears and tuned in- to FM radio. Every song that came on, Cote would hit along until she found the beat. “This was the 1970s, so I was playing disco and Led Zeppelin.” Cote’s mother, an ama- teur singer, would be downstairs with Car- ole King and Clapton’s Slowhand on the hifi. Her father’s affinity for Merle Haggard and old-time country rounded out her mu- sical palette. The sight of a diminutive 11-year-old Cote wielding drumsticks on stage at a lo- cal club was a regular occurrence in Lime- stone in 1974, then a thriving nightlife scene fueled with crowds from nearby Lor- ing Air Force base. “I’d play at the base and bars and clubs around town as a school kid, my mom standing at the back as my chap- erone. Some weeks I’d play three to four shows on a school night. I’d be half-asleep in class the next day.” After a year spent gigging in Montre- al with the band Shadowfax post-gradua- tion, Cote moved to Portland in 1986 with dreams of a career in music and only $50 in her pocket. “I slept in Deering Oaks for the first three nights before I got a spot at the YWCA. It was a very different town back then.” A job making sandwiches at Ama- to’s and a spot playing drums for The Brood at Geno’s (then on Free Street), Raoul’s, Free Street Taverna, and The Rat in Bos- ton helped Cote establish herself as a force of the local music scene. “I was hanging out with Bebe Buell and The Gargoyles and Darien Brahms, playing music and drink- ing around town. It was a wild scene back then.” Cote’s big break came when Brahms introduced her to Cidny Bullens, the Maine talent famous for singing backup for the likes of Elton John and Rod Stewart. Through raw talent and years of dedi- cation, by 1999 Cote was living in Nash- ville and working as an A-session drum- mer, sharing stages and tequilas with Bon- nie Raitt and Lucinda Williams. “My most memorable rock and roll moment? When Bonnie Raitt poured me a shot and helped carry my drum kit on stage.” She per- formed five shows in California with Em- mylou Harris. She met Ryan Adams and spent days in the legendary local recording studios, “back before Nashville became the Walmart of music cities.” Cote’s rise to the big leagues of session drumming in Nashville was especially im- By Sarah Moore She’s drummed with the legends of rock. Now Ginger Cote is front and center as she transforms the former Griffin Club in South Portland. Ginger Cote keeps pace with rock legend Bonnie Raitt.