Meet the members of Drivetrain

Darlene "Dar" Collinson

Dar (Darlene) Collinson started playing violin at the ripe old age of five. Her father was a fiddle player from back hills West Virginia that wanted her to be trained classically and so she was. She studied music at both the Cleveland Music School Settlement and Cleveland Institute of Music in Cleveland, OH and then moved on to the Fine Arts Association in Willoughby, OH.

 

Although she never intended to be anything but a violinist traveling the world as a soloist with orchestras, she was led in a different direction. She was given an amazing opportunity to be the strings teacher at St. Mary – Assumption School in Mentor, OH when she was 18 years old while going to college at Lakeland Community College in Kirtland, OH. This feeling of helping other budding musicians gave her a different outlook and thus started her teaching career. She has taught hundreds of students in two different counties – from the youngest to the very oldest!

 

But what about Dar’s singing career, you ask? She started singing karaoke in bars when it was very popular in the 80’s & 90’s. She was always known as Disco Dar because of her love of happy Disco music. But then her ex-husband started a rock and roll band called Past Tense. She asked to be a part of it as a back-up singer. By the 3rd gig, she took the reigns as lead singer. She was with them for a little over 10 years. During that time, she was also involved in two side bands called Raised on Rock and Phoenix.

 

One day in August of 2020, Past Tense was involved in a battle of the bands. All bands dropped out except a band called Drivetrain – so the battle began! It was a great night of rock and roll by both bands and the money was split evenly amongst them. During the evening, Dar was approached by Lee Dudley of Drivetrain and asked to join their band. She wasn’t ready for a change…or was she??? Lee called and texted her multiple times daily from that August until she decided to join Drivetrain in November of
2020. Although the other guys in Drivetrain weren’t quite sure they wanted a “chick” in the band, they decided to give her a try. It was a match made in Heaven! Dar and the “boys” (as she calls them) have been making beautiful music ever since!

 

And that’s what we know about Dar!

Danny Fazenbaker

I started playing drums when I was 12 years old. My mother put me in a majorette and drum corps to try and keep me out of trouble. Playing in the drum corps was a great experience as was learning rudiments from a Marine Corps drummer in the Marine Fife & Drum Corps. I stayed in the corps for about 5 years, marching in parades all over the area and getting into a few drum competitions.

 

As time went on, I decided to learn how to play a kit and taught myself by playing along to music with headphones on. I was in my first band (Remedy) in 1982 and played with that band for about 3 years.

 

That band changed names in 1983 to Ice Breaker. We recorded a few original songs back in ‘83 also. We played a bunch of local clubs and had the chance to play at The Stardust in Waldorf, MD that (at the time) was a premier rock and roll club.

 

I played in many bands over the years and have had the opportunity to warm up for some national acts such as Blackfoot, Bad Company, Foghat and the Southern Rock Allstars. I’ve also had the opportunity to play with Dave Hlubeck from Molly Hatchett.

 

In 2017, I was asked to sit in with Drivetrain for a couple shows and in 2018, they asked me to join full time. And as they say… the rest is history!

Eddie Barton

Music was in my family. My father and uncle played guitar while my grandmother picked her banjo. My venture into music started at the tender age of six while on a family vacation to Nashville. My mom and dad took me into a little music store just off Broadway and bought me my first acoustic guitar. I quickly learned basic chords from my uncle and dad and tried to play every Hank Williams Sr song I heard. At nine, my uncle gave me my first electric guitar and that was the same year I made my professional debut playing “Your Cheating Heart” on stage with Buck Owen’s band – The Buckaroos.

 

The years passed and at 16 I formed my first rock band with Jay Carrico called Spectrum. Our highlight was getting to play The Classic III Gong Show, a big local event. The next band was Reaction for about a year, followed by Caper and Encore. I bounced around between the three for awhile before I got a gig at The Mousetrap playing with The Naturals. There we had the pleasure of playing with Danny Gatton for a week. Then I moved onto Hot Ice before taking a break to enjoy the first years of my sons Edward’s and Andrew’s lives.

 

But the musical calling persisted and I returned to music playing with Snakebite where I stayed for nine years. We shared the stage with southern rock bands like Blackfoot, Molly Hatchet and country artist Jody Messina and I was featured on the second Snakebite CD.
During 2014, Lee Dudley, Will Rowe and I started playing as The DriveTrain Band and the journey isn’t over yet….

Glenn Kreitzer

My first musical influence was Buddy Rich playing the drums. I wanted to play drums
like Buddy but I tried and couldn’t. So while my older brother was playing bass in a blues band, I wanted to play sax because it looked cool. Being only in the fourth grade, I was told by my music teacher that sax was too advanced for me. I decided to try clarinet and then later moved onto the sax. I played clarinet from 1977 to 1979, recording improvised solos on one of my brother’s band songs.

 

In 1980, I got a chance to play sax for 3 years. Also in 1980, metal exploded. I really wanted to play electric guitar but couldn’t afford one so I got an acoustic.  I started messing around with that but nobody taught me anything. 

 

Later on, I got an electric guitar and then it went dormant for a while until I was playing with
some friends. In 2017, Eddie B and Willie R showed up. By the end of the night, they asked me to join DriveTrain. We’ve been playing shows every year since April 2017.

George Henderson

I’ve been blessed to study with some of the best bass players in Rock and Roll and
Jazz! 

 

My good friend and mentor – Anthony Wellington – who I studied with for many years,
introduced me to some of my bass heroes – the likes of Victor Wooton, Chuck Rainey,
Stanley Clark and many more.

 

I’ve played in the Southern Maryland music scene for years now. I’ve worked with
Austin Cody, Sara Gray, The 25th Hour Band, Backfin, Funkzilla, Soul Patch and
Bradley Turner to name a few.

 

I’m excited to be working with Drivetrain! Over the last couple of years we’ve worked
really hard to get where we are. I’m very proud to be in this group!