Twangbangers last night in Portland OR:

Pete Burak · Post by **Pete Burak** » 20 Sep 2001 11:51 am

'Caught the 'Bangers last night here in town.
A really fun show!

The drummer and bass player are two of a trio that have been playing with Bill Kirchen for a few years.
These guys were having a total blast backing up Bill, Redd, Joe Goldmark and Wayne Dallas.
They truely made the backbone of this show effortlessly solid and were very entertaining to watch perform in their own right.
I regret that I didn't have a chance to BS with them and I don't have their names to report at this time, but they were great.

I'm not familiar with Waynes work but I understand he has been tourning nationally for years. Wayne has a great country voice and sang some of his original country songs, one of which he had written with Dale Watson.
He played an acoustic and held down the acoustic rhythm parts throughout the two set show.

Upon entering the St.Johns Pub I immediatly bumped into Joe Goldmark who I had met in St.Louis a few weeks back where we both were getting blown away by Chuck Campbell.
We talked for a few minutes about Chuck and the Twangbangers tour, and the steel playing on the long version of Crimson and Clover by Tommy James and the Shondells.
Then he went off to get ready for the first set.

I got a beer and turned to my left and Bill Kirchen was standing there.
I introduced myself in a friendly "I'm not worthy!..." manner, and told Bill of my first awakening to him, the Commander, and Norten Buffalo and the gang back in the late '70's.
Bill is a great guy who was also willing to talk shop for several minutes before the first set.

They kicked in with an instrumental and passed solos around, everyone getting "in the pocket" and warmed up.
The crowd, in moderate but enthusiastic attendance, went nuts!

The band proceeded through the first set playing some country and mostly rock-a-billy tunes passing the lead vocal honers back and forth.
Bill Kirchen did a few truck drivin' songs at the overwhelming request of the audience.

Bill and Redd stood next to each other and provided an excellent juxtaposition of style and tone with respect to what appeard to be virtually identical Tele's.

Bill is fun to watch. When he takes solos his facial expressions and body language are as expressive as his blazing twangbangin'.

What can I say about Redd?!
He basically never looked at his guitar all night. He was playing through a Webb amp provided by Joe Goldmark, and had a super clean, in your face, ultra-tele-twangbangin tone.
His solos are so far out of left field
that I have trouble putting his style into words.
A true virtuoso.

Joe Goldmark was featured on every song.
He played excellent E9th Intros/Fills/
Solos/Endings on Waynes country songs.
Joe also played some great C6th stuff on several of Bill Kirchens tunes including "Too Much Fun" and several others.

I was really surprised when Bill called Joe to his feet, and sure enough Joe stood, grabbed a mike, and proceeded to lead sing a good uptempo country tune (I can't remember the name of the tune).
The band had fun teasing Joe about how they got him "up on his hind legs" to sing one, and how "the steel guitar is the only instrument not occuring naturally in nature!".

Joe played great, had great tone, and was perfectly blended in the overall mix of the band.

I got to chat with Redd on the their break and shared a Buddy Emmons quote about how "you're never more than a half step away from the right note", with respect to recovering from an improv solo that is going off the deep end.
He reinforced that concept, and like Buddy, admitted that it happens to him about a hundred times a set!
(Buddy can be heard talking about solo recovery on the Q&A portion of the new CD release "Buddy - Live in Denver" avaialble on the Vibrato Label ie Wayne Yates MD on the Forum)

They ended with Milk Cow Blues and Bill Kirchen put down his axe and grabbed a Trombone!
He proceeded to take one of several solos being passed around, and then he and the drummer, who grabbed his snare in hand, took a trip through the audience, playing as they walked through the crowd.
It was cool and it made me want to get a trombone, the other slide instrument!

They came back for an encore and did a rousing version of "Peace, Love, and Understanding" which was not only appropriate but a really great rendition.

After the show the band members were all available to sign CD's and some folks brought their old Commander records to be signed by Bill.

I asked Bill about the Trombone and he said he started on Trombone in grade school and only plays it as a novelty in the key of Bb.
He joked about inventing a Trombone Capo.

I complemented Joe on his performance and the bands performance, as it was a very good show.
It was only their second night on tour and any shaky moments were laughed off in real time, and more than made up for with some serious Twangbangin'!

Sorry to ramble folks.
If you have a chance to catch these guys I'm sure you will enjoy the show as much as I did.

The music was great!... but the openness of the bandmembers to meet and visit with the audience made it a very memorable experience.

Twang On!
-pete

[This message was edited by Pete Burak on 20 September 2001 at 01:08 PM.]

Jay Ganz · Post by **Jay Ganz** » 20 Sep 2001 2:08 pm

There's a great article on Bill & the other
Twangbangers in this month's issue of
Vintage Guitar!

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"Turn up the dang STEEL!!!"

Dave Van Allen · Post by **Dave Van Allen** » 21 Sep 2001 10:21 am

Drums Jack O'Dell
Bass Johnny Castle
one of the best rhythm sections on the planet
they are part of Kirchen's regular trio Too Much Fun