P O S T S C R I P T

Cadence of life sounded early for 22-year-old drummer

postscripts@pilotonline.com.

    BY FRED KIRSCH
    THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT

NORFOLK — When Andy Smith arrived to play some of his first gigs at bars and clubs, it wasn’t unusual for someone to ask, “What are you doing here?”

“I’m the drummer,” 10-year-old Andy Smith would say, matter-of-factly, and then proceed to bring the house down with a solo.

Over the next dozen years, Smith’s “raw, emotional” style earned him a reputation as one of the most gifted drummers in Hampton Roads.

Andy Smith died Dec. 16, choking while eating a pizza. He was 22.

“He was on his way,” said Derek Smith, his older brother and fellow band member in Family Tree. “He was very good – technically good, but it was the feeling he brought to it that made him special.”     Smith started playing at age 8 when he found a set of drums under the Christmas tree.

“We made a lot of noise at first,” said Derek Smith, who received an electric guitar that year. “After awhile we got pretty good.”

Smith paid the bills as a glass artist, learning the trade as an apprentice glass blower after high school. But music was always his passion.

“He could have gone on to college,” said his father, Danny Smith. “But he wanted to be on his own. He wanted to see how far his music could take him.”

After playing with several bands, the Smiths, cousin Kevin Johnson and buddies Zach Klecka, Mike Johnston, Kevin Turner, Jason Winters and Anthony Lomonaco formed Family Tree in 1998. Brian Baldwin joined three years later.

They gained a strong local following, performing at the NorVa and releasing an album in 2003.

Smith was known for his megawatt smile and ease at making friends. Lomonaco formed a lasting bond with Smith in the fifth grade.

“I was a short, fat kid who ate lunch by himself when one day Andy came and sat next to me,” said Lomonaco, who will take Smith’s place behind the drums when the band resumes playing. “He just knew I needed a friend. That’s the way he was. He accepted everyone.”

On the Sunday before he died, Smith told his father that he was buying an engagement ring and planning to pop the question to girlfriend, Shannon Bender, on Christmas.

Said Danny Smith: “He was just a 22-year-old kid who loved life and what he was doing.”

(c) 2004. The Virginian Pilot. All rights reserved. This article was reprinted with the permission of its original author.