Photographs courtesy Bill Kirchen
Photographs courtesy Bill Kirchen
Guitar Player magazine once crowned him “Titan of the Telecaster,” in reference to the model of Fender electric guitar he plays. Bill Kirchen recently discussed his musical origins, his influences, and his heroes with What’s Up? Media.
Who influenced you most? Who were your music idols? Doc Watson had a big influence on me. I just loved his guitar playing, singing, and his whole style. I finally did meet him when we shared the stage in Boston in the early ’70s. [Another time] I was with a friend of his back in D.C., Joe Wilson [then head of the National Council Of Traditional Arts and organizer of national and performing-arts tours]. We were backstage at The Birchmere, in Alexandria. It was 1987, as I recall, and we were across the room from Doc when Joe hollered “Hey Arthel,” which was Doc’s given birth name. Doc immediately turned around and shouted “Joe!” I was truly impressed.
I saw Doc at Newport with Gaither Carlton and Clarence Ashley. They sang “Amazing Grace” and followed that with “The Old Account Was Settled Long Ago.” They had a huge impression on me.
Did you know that Gaither Carlton was Doc Watson’s father-in-law? Rosa Lee Carlton was his wife’s maiden name. I did not know that! A Time-Life Sampler had a number of those people on it. I think it had “Amazing Grace”—a cappella. Back in 1964, those guys inspired me. I still feel like I was so lucky to grab that early on. I still listen to it and think, “That stuff really holds up.”
Mississippi John Hurt and Doc Watson were my first guitar heroes. The only reason I could play that guitar hook on “Hot Rod Lincoln” when we cut the song in 1971, is because I had a right hand that had spent a lot of time trying to play “Black Mountain Rag” by Doc Watson. I still think Doc was one of the great singers, too.
Photographs courtesy Bill Kirchen
So, what about singing? I sang a lot as a kid and recall my favorite song as a toddler was “Buffalo Gals”! Aside from Doc, there was Pete Seeger, The Weavers, The New Lost City Ramblers, Joan Baez, then a host more through the years—Bob Dylan, then Merle Haggard, Buck Owens, and Hank Williams, on to all the great blues guys, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and the rest. From 1960 to ’64, I studied trombone at Interlochen Music Camp. My cabin counselor was from Ann Arbor as well, and he played guitar and sang. I was just getting aware of the whole folk sphere that was happening at the time, so I liked it all. I went home and found a banjo in the attic that my mom had played a little bit, probably back in the 1930s.
What did you do with it? I took it to a shop in Ann Arbor to get it fixed up, and while I was there, I picked up Pete Seeger’s How to Play the Five-String Banjo book. I got the instructional LP, plus the 10-inch LP of “The Goofing-Off Suite,” both on Folkways. Man, that was it. I never looked back. That was when I was a junior in high school. I graduated in ’65, so that would have been in the beginning of ’63. That was so important to me, and then I heard, early on, Doc Watson. In the summer of ’64 between my junior and senior years, I hitchhiked with that banjo to the Newport Folk Festival. I saw Dylan, the Kweskin Jug Band with Maria Muldaur, Johnny Cash, Son House, Mississippi John Hurt, and many more. The next year, in ’65, I went back and saw another lifetime of great music, including Dylan’s first electric performance with Mike Bloomfield, Al Cooper, et al.
Photographs courtesy Bill Kirchen
As you must be aware, the Commander Cody band was part of the soundtrack to many college-age music lovers. What did it feel like to have that hit song, “Hot Rod Lincoln? Back in those days, in our world, FM radio and album tracks were more important than AM pop hits. After the dust cleared from “Hot Rod Lincoln,” we thought that if we cranked something out, it would automatically become a hit. We were so wrong. We did have quite a few other chart records, some near misses, and some false alarms. We put out seven LPs in that time that all charted, but not one was a top-ten AM hit. There has never been a lack of interest in that band and our songs, and after 50 years we started doing reunions with the five remaining original Lost Planet Airmen. So, the short answer, no, I wouldn’t have guessed it, but in hindsight, I’m very glad it happened.
We were focused on making music that we loved, which we successfully did with the original band for seven years. At that point the wheels pretty much came off. In 1976, our swan song was the We’ve Got a Live One Here! double-live album. The band broke up, but a few times I got back together and played with the late George Frayne, the “Commander.”
I think we made a lasting impression beyond our commercial success, because we were a unique band that found a place in people’s interest and memory. We’re glad we’re still in people’s hearts. The current Back from the Ozone reunion album is getting great response and selling well.
