Standing behind his kit, he forms with the groovy bass of Mary Huff - with whom he shares the love of putting things on his head - the backbone of Southern Culture On The Skids.
He can lay down a country beat with a Bakersfield feel, a surf pattern and he excels at playing those swamp rock grooves that'd make Stu Cook proud (if you've listened to Haw River Stomp and Voodoo Cadillac you know what I mean). And of course he always rock!
Dave Hartman is all that rolled into one, and he's a nice fella too, cause he took time in a heavy touring schedule to talk about his drums.
By Fred "Virgil" Turgis
 
   
  Standing behind the drums...
When I was in college, I played in the school percussion ensemble & we sometimes played what are called multiple percussion pieces. Each player is standing & usually surrounded by all sorts of percussion equipment - tympani, bells, marimba, various noisemakers, cymbals, & drums. I remember thinking one time that if I only had a kick drum, I could play some pretty cool, weird drumset stuff.
When I joined SCOTS, we were practicing in Ricks living room & I was just beating on the back of the couch with brushes to learn the songs, figuring we'd get a practice space later. Out of the blue, we got a gig at a party & I'd never practiced any other way, so Rick said to just play what I played on the couch on a snare. I liked it & remembered my multiple percussion days, so I added a kick. From there it evolved to what I've got now. 
I usually just say I stand because my hemorrhoids are so bad...

The kits
Over time, aside from standing up, my kit has become not that different than a normal 4 piece kit with everything mounted flat and level. I have the snare right in front of me, level & waist high, on an extended snare stand. In front of the snare I have, mounted on a normal tom stand & level, a 13" tom on my left & on my right, an upside down ashtray (like the kind you used to see next to an elevator with a chrome tray with sand in it - I beat on the bottom for kind of a closed hi hat sound). The ashtray is the ticky ticky sound you hear on 8 Piece Box.
To my left of that is an "x-hat thing" mounted on a cymbal stand and a crash cymbal/stand is in front of that, with a cowbell & tambourine attached.
To my right, tilted at an angle is the is the kick with a tom mount. One arm of the tom mount points up & has a DW cymbal stand top thing attached for the ride. The arm on the right points down & holds a 14" floor tom.
I have about 14 kits, all Ludwig, about half vintage & half new. I tend to use the same kit for awhile & then switch when a new record comes out to match the color scheme of the album artwork. There's no real reason to do this but it makes it easy to date any picture - ie. the green sparkle kit was during the Plastic Seat Sweat tours to match the green chair on the cover, my current champaign sparkle sorta matches the gold/yellow of Countrypolitan (& is my best sounding live kit).
All my live kits these days are new - not vintage.
For recording I use a vintage red white & blue Vistalite kit - I'd play this live but it can't take the abuse.
My recording snare is a vintage chrome plated steel Supraphonic & live, it's a new chrome plated brass Supraphonic.
I think that's everything...stick around after the show & I'll be glad to take you onstage to check it out.

His favorite drummers
The usual suspects: Bonham, Ringo, Kieth Moon, Charlie Watts + Al Jackson from the Stax & Hi records recordings, Zigaboo Modeliste from the Meters, Terry Chambers from XTC, Pete Thomas from Elvis Costello, James Brown's drummers, Hal Blaine on Beach Boys records, Bun E Carlos from Cheap Trick, Chris Peterson from Camper Van Beethoven, Jason Smay from Los Straitjackets, Russel Simins from Jon Spencer Blues Explosion & I'm sure I'm forgetting many others...