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Idaho Life: Highway high hat

As you make your way along Idaho's Highway 55, near Horseshoe Bend, you may notice something nestled in the foothills that seems a little bit out of place. There's a chance you may hear it first.

On any given day what you hear along Idaho's Highway 55 is a steady stream of sounds of cars swooshing by. Then again, on any given day that road racket could be broken up by Jesse Juarez.

As often as he can Jesse leaves his apartment in Meridian, parks almost at the peak of Horseshoe Bend Hill, sets up his 14-piece drum kit in about 15 minutes, and then goes to town outside the confines of the city.

"This is just a simple, cheap solution to annoying everyone," says Jesse, of playing drums in the foothills.

Jesse hasn't always had drumming in his heart, starting several beats later than most, eventually asking for a drum kit at the age of 16.

"'Mom, a drum kit would look great in the garage,'" he remembers saying. "And they were like, 'No, absolutely not.'"

When he finally got his first drum kit the left-hander spent hours a day teaching himself to play right-handed.

"It would just be me out there attempting to play and not really playing," he says. "So, my neighbors suffered bad."

That smashing scrutiny is why Jesse wound up here, along the highway, where he can play how he wants.

"Faster, louder, when I come out here I start hitting this thing as hard as I can," Jesse says between songs. "And I give it all for six to eight hours."

Now, for the 25 year-old, drumming has become a bad itch.

"It's a really bad itch," agrees Jesse.

One that can only be scratched by hitting the highway or at least hitting the skins alongside it.

"It's weird but it's like a main focus of my life now," Jesse admits. "To get out here and just practice."

Jesse says he's been coming here since the end of last summer stringing together a consistent cacophony of cymbal crashes for hours on end.

"I play until my hands can't hold a stick," he says.

His beats almost drown out the everyday elements of life in the foothills. Surrounded by sheep and sagebrush, where hunting, shooting, and trespassing are discouraged, rocking out is just part of the landscape.

And sometimes an attraction for an audience just off the asphalt.

Another day in the life of being the roadside rattler of Highway 55, where Jesse may leave behind some broken sticks but his drumming dreams are still intact.

"I don't think there is an end dream," Jesse says. "I just want to play. I just want to hit things as long as I can. I just want to play every single day."

If you want to see an immersive 360-degree version of Jesse playing the drums on Horseshoe Bend Hill, head over to our Facebook page. However, the experience will be better on our YouTube channel.

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