UPDATED: Dallas drummer Eric Stuer dies in car crash

by Amy Martin

UPDATE: There is a benefit for the Stuer children on Sunday.

Though he began his career on the trap set, performing with such well known Dallas bands as funkmeisters Buster Brown, Cajun gumbo Dennis Cavalier and classic jazz Chuck Rainey, long-time Dallas drummer Eric Stuer made his name as a professional facilitator of live rhythm-based events.

Stuer, 55, died in a car crash along with his wife Deborah, 53, who was driving. A tire blew out while driving on Interstate 49 south of Shreveport, sending the car out of control and causing it to roll several times. Eric was sleeping in the back. Both Eric and Deborah were ejected from the vehicle. Son Jules, 26, suffered minor injuries.

A memorial service for Eric and Deborah Stuer will be held at 3 pm on Saturday, June 21, at the Unity Church of Dallas, 6525 Forest Lane, where Eric was a drummer in the house band since 2003. Deborah Stuer was a professional photographer. They lived in Richardson with their 14 and 18 year old daughters (names requested to be undisclosed).

The Stuer family was returning from RhythmWeb drum-circle engagements in Mississippi when the crash occurred. It was part of an extensive tour of the South that Eric established to take drum circles to smaller towns that had little exposure to world percussion.

Eric Stuer first took up the trap set at age 16 in Houston, focusing on C&W styles. Upon moving to North Texas, he broadened his musical genres, developing a reputation as a trap-set drummer versatile in many styles. He provided the powerhouse toms of the funk band Buster Brown, the smooth snare of long-time associate Chuck Rainey, and the second-line shuffle of Cajun act Dennis Cavalier and Texas Gumbo. He performed with many national artists including Freddy King, B.W. Stevenson, David "Fathead" Newman, Gary Stewart, Johnny Paycheck, Vince Gill, Charlie Daniels and Eric Tagg. He also worked for years in bands for dinner theater and cabaret producer/star Breck Wall.

But it was as a professional drum-circle facilitator that Eric made his reputation. He produced the first hand drum event in Dallas: a World Unity Day in August of 2003. He was a core drummer and presenter in the 1994 and 1995 Summer SolstiCelebrations, which attracted over 2000 people each year to White Rock Lake.

It was at the Summer SolstiCelebrations that Eric began his long-term association with national drum-circle facilitators. He has trained and worked with Paulo Mattioli, Layne Redmond, Arthur Hull of Village Music Circles, Kalani of Drum Circle Music, and the REMO HealthRhythms protocol with Dr. Barry Bittman and Christine Stevens. REMO has created the Deb and Eric Stuer Memorial Scholarship for HealthRhythms programs in their memory.

In addition to performing on percussion instruments from around the world, Eric was known for his skill with homemade and "found sound" objects. His RhythmWeb programs for schools and libraries utilized both to foster children’s innate musical skills. Eric played a similar role as a member of Len Barnett’s group Percussion Things.

As creator and webmaster of RhythmWeb.com, Eric consolidated his knowledge with an extensive library of information and links on drum circles, ethnic drums styles, percussion instruments and “junk percussion.” The web site had admirers worldwide. Eric was also co-moderator of the JunkMusic listserv at YahooGroups.

This story was submitted by a member of the Pegasus News community.