Bill Kirchen

[LeftyStrat]

This is pretty amazing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxjvlB26Rgw

[xtian]

More funner when live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsLdufJePz0

[Teleguy61]

More funner when live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsLdufJePz0

Great guy, hell of a Tele player.
Here's a couple of guys together, pretty fair playing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMLTQaEYdoc

[NickC]

That guy is a monster player. He and Red Volkaert, Brent Mason, John Jorgenson, Will Ray, Jerry Donahue ....... all monster guitar pickers!

[C Moore]

I went to a "Day On The Green" in 1973-1974.
The Eagles and The Doobie Brothers were the big draw. The Doobies kind of sucked without Tom Johnston.
Anyway.....I saw two great Tele players that day, and Bill Kirchen was one of them. He was with Cody of course. What a great player and entertainer...well worth seeing live.

The second Tele player I saw that day was Robbie Hoddinott. I had heard of Kingfish, and new that Bob Weir was with them...but I had No Idea about Robbie.!
Man-O-Man could that guy play. He would have set The World of Country-Rock on fire...!!
Paisley, Mason, Marty Stuart...they all would have looked up to him.
It is a crying shame.

Thanks for posting about Bill. He is a decent human being.
best

[Teleguy61]

Thanks for the tip about Robbie.
He's hard to find. He gets about ten seconds in this clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PQZPTmS-ZY

More recently, doesn't look like he's doing too good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U49nQ9hUQlw

[randalp3000]

He changed his strings on my bar table, nice guy, and hates smoke. Got to hold his old Tele.

Awesome showman and player.

[C Moore]

Thanks for the tip about Robbie.
He's hard to find. He gets about ten seconds in this clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PQZPTmS-ZY

More recently, doesn't look like he's doing too good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U49nQ9hUQlw

Hey...thanks for linking those.
God...he was a fabulous player.
That second vid is tough to watch.
Like many people before and after him, drug problems/addictions just about ruined his life.
That could easily have been any of us sitting in that wheel chair. Thank God we avoided that situation.

[Satchmoeddie-II]

I love seeing Kirchen play. One show, he looked like he had crawled out of a trash dumpster, or at least tried to was his clothes in one. His fly was half open, dirty blue jeans, and looked like he was homeless, but he was on fire that night. Some of his shows are better than others, but he always puts on a great show. CC& his LPA was at a festival up in Oregon & we got the real Bill Kirchen so that was a super bonus. Kirchen has been off on his own a lot now. No one wields the "hammer" quite like Bill Kirchen. I can't remember is he swapped the tone & volume controls on his Tele or not.. Some guys do to get that boowahh wah thing with a fast steep log taper tone pot. There are a few cheap tricks you can do the change the taper on any pot. They sell some special pots too, but before they had those a resistor worked.

[Teleguy61]

He has his control plate reversed, and the vol and tone controls reversed,
so the vol is right under his hand, tone next, switch furthest from the hand.
Mostly uses middle position.

[pgambon]

FWIW, he gets that dieselbilly tone by using the middle switch position and picking about a half inch from the bridge on the low strings. I always thought it was the bridge pup, but the middle position is the shitz!

[Phil_S]

Is this Bill in 1974?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5ZycJC-pmo

[Teleguy61]

Is this Bill in 1974?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5ZycJC-pmo

Yup, and Andy Stein on the fiddle.

[LeftyStrat]

I wish I could find one live version where he throws in some Van Halen licks.

[AL]

He comes to town occasionally and plays a tiny little bar that may hold 50 people on a good day. He (and his band) have always been fantastic, they put on a great show and he is a really nice guy. And I feel like I'm getting some serious guitar lessons whenever I see him play.

AL