R. Bradford Allen

Novels · Drum histories written as Dr. Ummer

Long books, closely sourced. One is a novel that insists it is a true account. The others are the complete history of the drum kit, its makers, and the people who played it.

Fiction

One published · one in progress

Cover of The Gospel According to Lucian Winesap

The Gospel According to Lucian Winesapor, Seventeen Apples and a Cool Gun

Two boys were born in the same bed on the same February morning in 1846, eleven minutes apart, in a mining town in southeast Missouri. One of them lit the room. The other one lived the light of it. They never spoke — not once in fifty-one years — until the afternoon one of them fired at the other from eleven feet.

Assembled sixty years later from wax cylinders, coroners' returns, minute books, prison ledgers and eleven letters, it is a novel written as a true account: sourced, counted, footnoted in the margins, and refusing to tell you the one thing it cannot prove.

Available Kindle B0HHKKQBSZ Paperback B0HHLCQ4XK

Cover
in progress

The Gospel According to Carol Anne Titanor, The Show Must Always Go On

A network anchorwoman writes the story of the man she made famous, and mails the only copy to his cell. He reads it with a pencil. The second novel of the series, set between 1952 and 1982.

In progress · no publication date set

Drum Histories

Written as Dr. Ummer · three volumes

Cover of A Comprehensive History of the Drum Kit

A Comprehensive History of the Drum KitThe Complete Story, from First Beat to Modern Kit

The drum is the oldest instrument in the world — and this is its complete story. From the ritual drums of the ancient world to the electronic beats of today: how a scattered collection of percussion became the single most recognizable machine in modern music.

Available Kindle B0HF62ZPN6 Paperback B0HF6CSHCN Hardcover B0HF6CXHQM

Cover of Dr. Ummer's Official Drum Encyclopedia

Dr. Ummer's Official Drum EncyclopediaDictionary & Thesaurus — Every Maker, Every Term, and How They All Connect

The complete reference to the drum kit — every instrument, every maker, every term, in one volume. From the snare's origins on the battlefield to the pedal that turned three players into one. Part history, part dictionary, part thesaurus, with roughly 3,500 definitions covering the working vocabulary of the kit.

Available Kindle B0HFC5475R Paperback B0HF62NQ9G Hardcover B0HF7ZKK92

Cover of The Greatest Drummers of All Time

The Greatest Drummers of All TimeThe Players Who Shaped the Instrument

163 drummers. One instrument. The complete story of who made the beat matter. From the New Orleans pioneers who first assembled the kit to the players lighting up stages today — a field guide to the people behind the kit, organized by era and built for browsing.

Available Kindle B0HF41ZRHD Paperback B0HF9SPC4S Hardcover B0HFB7Z8KS

About

R. Bradford Allen writes fiction and, as Dr. Ummer, histories of the drum kit.

The novels are long, sourced, and set mostly in Missouri. The first, The Gospel According to Lucian Winesap, is written as a true account assembled from records — and is the first of a planned series.

The drum books came out of the same habit: find the record, count it, and tell it straight. Together they cover the instrument's history, its makers and its terms, and the players who shaped it.