Scotts Valley is about to pop off with a scorching double bill featuring two of America’s finest performers, Nina Gerber and Grammy-nominated Bill Kirchen. This duo takes the stage at The Landing, Scotts Valley’s premier (and only) venue.
Axe-man Kirchen was highlighted by Guitar Player magazine as the “Titan of the Telecaster,” and is known throughout the musical world as one of the world’s finest Telecaster players.
Kirchen’s connection to the explosive late-1960s era of rock, in all its mutated forms, comes from his time as a core member of Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen. Kirchen’s guitar solo on “Hot Rod Lincoln” is an iconic, more than memorable, celebration of having four wheels and going really, really fast.
Talking with Bill Kirchen is like getting a lesson in rock history. Raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan, during the tumultuous 1960s, Kirchen had a notable classmate while growing up.
“I was actually at the first Stooges show with Iggy Pop,” says the 78-year-old musician, from somewhere on the road, where he has been constantly touring for 60 years.
“I went to high school with him (Iggy Pop) when he was still Jim Osterberg. He may have been in high school bands before I was, because I did the high school talent show in 1965 and his band, The Iguanas, was playing. So was my band, which was called the Who Knows Pickers. It was a jug band. Later on, we both had bands in town. We actually tried to get him to be a drummer in my first band because he’s a great drummer, but he said, ‘No, I want to be a front man,’ which he was. That was right before he started the Stooges, and I was actually at his first Stooges show,” Kirchen recalls.
While the nascent fury of Iggy Pop hadn’t blossomed yet, the early 1960s in Ann Arbor had an active folk and jug band scene. “It was some of the coolest music. Dylan was the darling of the Newport Folk Festival, but it was the Jim Kweskin Jug Band in 1964 that were the biggest stars. They played all kinds of roots music from way back in the day. They even did a sort of Western swing, which we later played with Cody. Blues based and folk tradition based. They did it all. I don’t remember them writing any songs. They were basically literally a folk music group who mined songs. But they mined a really wide variety of stuff. And they were great too. Maria Muldaur was in it,” Kirchen remembers.
Kirchen is currently on tour promoting his latest album, Cat Out of the Bag. “For the last four weeks the album has been number one or two. And now it’s number one again on the Alt Country specialty chart. And it’s just entered the Americana charts. It just came in last week. I think at number 45. So I have a record actually moving up the charts, which is exciting for me,” says Kirchen.
Playing alongside Kirchen at this unique show is Nina Gerber, a lifelong Northern California resident who was born and raised in Sebastopol and still lives there, and has been involved in the West Coast acoustic music scene since the 1970s.
It was the much-revered Kate Wolf who recognized Gerber’s talent, and the two soon became collaborators. This rise in visibility made Gerber a sought-after guitarist, arranger, producer and accompanist who has worked with Dave Alvin, Peter Rowan, Laurie Lewis and many others.
“I love working,” says Gerber from her idyllic home in the fog-draped rolling hills of Sebastopol. “I take the work when it comes, and then there’s down times. Bill can get out and hustle because it’s his own name, so he can get out and work as much as he wants. I’m at the mercy of other people, like I’m backing up other people most of the time.”
Gerber often finds gigs for herself and musicians she can go on the road with. “I do hustle gigs, like for me and Chris Webster. I also like that I have downtime. If I get a week off, then I’m kind of ready to go again. But not necessarily to be on the road. I’ve got a dog that I don’t like leaving. So if I can drive on a tour, that would be great, then she can come with me,” says Gerber.
Gerber has a long history with Santa Cruz. “I think the first time I played down there was with Kate Wolf, maybe at the Saw Festival (the first California Musical Saw Festival was held in Santa Cruz in 1981). And I’ve played there a whole bunch of times with a bunch of different people. I love playing down in Santa Cruz and I love just being there. It’s such a great town,” Gerber says.
One can only hope that Kirchen adds some colorful stories to the night’s performance, because the man is a deep well of passion and knowledge, who also loves Santa Cruz.
“And you tell everybody,” Kirchen says, “that my father-in-law built a house in the Santa Cruz Mountains and is still there. I lived in the Bay Area between 1968 to 1986. And so I’m very glad to be back in Northern California, and I’m very glad to see a bunch of people that I haven’t seen in a long time and people that I love.”
Nina Gerber and Bill Kirchen will perform on Friday, August 28th at 6:30pm at The Landing, 251B Kings Village Road, Scotts Valley. Tickets are $40.
