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He needs the money to pay his bills and debt, so can’t give it to the centre outright. Not surprisingly, the National Music Centre is keen on the idea. But it is also a non-profit organization that relies on donations and loans of artifacts to build up its collection.

Photo by Azin Ghaffari / Azin Ghaffari/Postmedia Calgary

“The collection has a strong connection to technology and to Calgary,” says Jesse Moffat, the centre’s director of collections and exhibitions. “It should be in a museum.”

So Everett is hoping someone steps up to sponsor a donation before he closes his doors at the end of this month.

“I would rather not market this to somebody in New York or California and pack it all in boxes and see it leave the country,” he said. “It’s a shame because most of these kits are local. They represent some guy like me that used to play. If they could talk, you can imagine all those dances and gigs and parties and the type of music that came out of these things.”

While the drums are historic artifacts that help trace the 110-year-plus history of the instrument, many of them also come with stories of the colourful men and women who played them.

One set currently on display was owned by a local drummer whose kit dates back to the 1920s when he helped provide music for silent films at the Lux Theatre in Lacombe.

“A lot of collectors think that it has to be owned by Buddy Rich or Gene Krupa or something,” Everett says. “But to me, it’s the history of the kit.”

Everett’s own history as a drummer began when he borrowed his brother’s kit while still a preteen in Calgary. He started his own band in the mid-1960s and by the age of 14 was backing the Calgary Safety Roundup Singers, local sensations who starred on a popular variety series on CFCN-TV. In the summer of 1970, Everett’s rock band, Done On Bradstreet, opened the Calgary stop of the Festival Express tour at McMahon Stadium, which also featured The Band, Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead.