Tag: pop-vocal

The String – Bill Kirchen

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

From his breakout days as guitarist for Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen to his four-decade career as a bandleader, songwriter and recording artist, Bill Kirchen has been a badass hero of Americana music.


LISTEN: APPLE PODCASTS

His dextrous and dazzling Telecaster picking may get the most attention, but he’s a clever and insightful songwriter who knows how to put on a memorable show. The String is officially lobbying for an Americana Lifetime Achievement Award for the Ann Arbor MI native. I reached Bill at home in Austin to talk about his career and the fine 2020 anthology of his three albums with Proper Records. It’s a blast.

3×3: The Flat Five on Monkey Tails, Tom Toms, and the Everly Brothers

Posted on by Amy Reitnouer

Artists: Kelly Hogan and Casey McDonough (of The Flat Five)
Hometown:
KH: Atlanta, GA
CM: Chicago,IL
Latest Album: It’s a World of Love and Hope 
Personal Nicknames:
KH: Kel, Hogie, Hogues, Count Hogula, Leather Lungs, Smelly
CM: Casey

Which decade do you think of as the "golden age" of music?
KH: Depends on the type of music — I love too many genres to pick a favorite decade.
CM: 1957-'67

If you could have a superpower, what would you choose?
KH: Time travel and, if I can have two, then I would also like to have a prehensile tail like a dang monkey.
CM: Teleportation 

If you were in a high school marching band, which instrument would you want to play?
KH: Drums — the big toms! (I got to play drums on two songs in our set while on tour with the Decemberists last year and it gave me “tom fever” — fun. as. hell.)
CM: Snare drum

 

#Buglight #videoshoot #reliablerecorderschicago @ruthlessfilms @elly_tier

A photo posted by The Flat Five Chicago (@theflatfivechicago) on

What's your go-to road food?
KH: Super-rare steak
CM: Spinach pizza

Who was the best teacher you ever had — and why?
KH: Peggy Killian. I was cripplingly shy as a kid — but she gave me my first solo and changed my whole life when she put that microphone in my hand in the Chapel Hill Middle School gym in 1978. She recently retired, but taught and inspired hundreds more students in Douglas County, Georgia for 40-some-odd years. We’re still in touch, and she comes to my shows in Atlanta sometimes. PK rocks! 
CM: Elvis Coble — The name says it.

What's your favorite TV show?
KH: King of the Hill (I love and miss you, Bill Dauterive …)
CM: Andy Griffith, Route 66, The Simpsons

Boots or sneakers?
KH: Ummmm … Crocs. Sue me.
CM: Boots

Which brothers do you prefer — Avett, Wood, Landreth, or Osborne?
KH: Of those four … OSBORNE all the way, baby. Just insanely great singers.
CM: EVERLY BROTHERS

Canada or Mexico?
KH: Oh Canada!
CM: Mexico!!!