I Saw Bill Kirchen Right Here in Euclid Records

Just three guys stood up there on the stage at Euclid Records last Friday afternoon. Well, properly, one of them was sitting behind the drum kit, chopping up rhythms into neat, orderly patterns, with a love for and knowledge of his cymbals beyond what many drummers have. The bass player stood, though, and he was a master of varied walking bass lines, the kind which have anchored country and blues and old-time rock'n'roll for decades. And the guitarist/vocalist was Bill Kirchen. That was more than enough.

Kirchen was the guitarist in Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen back in the 1970s. Pretty much everything written about Kirchen has to include that reference, and certainly, there were people in the store to see him who had treasured memories to share about seeing the Commander all those years ago. But, the guy has been making excellent solo records, and touring frequently for at least a dozen years.

For roughly 40 minutes in the store, Kirchen showed us why he's a contemporary artist worth hearing. Most of the songs he played were his own originals, though one could easily be forgiven for thinking they were obscurities from the early 60s. Kirchen's voice a perfectly comfortable baritone which knows how to deliver a honky tonk or rockabilly style. And his guitar playing is a grab-big of licks either lifted or derived from the playing of every great six-string expert, or at least those who played between 1950 and 1980.



For me, the highlight of the in-store performance was a driving and brilliantly vital cover of Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin'." Imagine if Dylan had decided to use this song as the announcement of his shift to electric rock music at Newport in 1965. It really did sound remarkably like that band, especially the drumming. (The drummer denied to me after the show that he had that in mind at all; perhaps it's just the perfect approach for such a rocking take on Dylan's style of that period.) I tell you, I got goose bumps; after all these years, and with setbacks every step of the way, believing in the positive nature of those changes hasn't always been easy. But, while this version didn't exactly sound like a victory march, it at least felt like the battle was being waged again.

The performance was recorded, and there will be a 7" culled from it released later this year as part of the Euclid Sessions series.