First, a few words from Railroad Earth’s Tim Carbone: “I’ve known George Kilby a long time. He was Americana before they invented the term! George’s long and great association with Pinetop Perkins, coupled with his huge catalog of original tunes makes him a living link to pre-rock ‘n’ roll America – all the while looking forward to what American music can really be.”
Carbone knows of what he speaks: he and Kilby have been in the musical trenches together for a long time – we’ll get to that story in a moment – and are still playing music together whenever there’s an opportunity. (There’s one coming right up, in fact: Carbone and RRE bandmate Andy Goessling will join Kilby and his band at The Waterhole in Saranac Lake, NY on May 12.)
The only point I’d debate is Carbone’s reference to “Americana.” Any kind of label you try to apply to George Kilby Jr.’s music feels more like a wall – but if “Americana” allows for a blend of rock and blues and jazz and country and a few dozen other genres, than I guess it’s as good a description as any.
Kilby himself calls it “rough-cut Amercian roots music.” Works for me. The singer/songwriter/guitarist’s roots may be in Alabama and he might have been nurtured on ol’ Hank Williams and the Allman Brothers, but his music encompasses all the sounds and vibes he’s gathered up in his travels over the years.
Imagine if Ramblin’ Jack Elliott had been part of the roadhouse-style rock/blues/outlaw country scene rather than the folk world: now you’re starting to get a glimmer of George Kilby Jr. He’s paid his dues; he’s been there and back; and he can tell you just how far it was … with plenty of grins spliced into the stories.
Like when George was a roadie for the Beach Boys. That is, after he came back home from busking on the streets of Paris …
“See, the thing was, my girlfriend was a chef and we’d been over in France where she was in training. While she was doing that, I was a street musician in Paris. When we got back here to the States, I got a call from my cousin Ab, who was the guitar tech for the Beach Boys at the time. Ab told me, ‘The Beach Boys are doing a lot of double gigs this summer, so we need two different crews.’
“What was happening that summer was, the Beach Boys might play an afternoon gig in Virginia Beach and then an evening show in Charlotte, NC. They’d just jump on a plane, but the same crew couldn’t set up both gigs. They had two crews; two sets of gear; two of everything.
“Ab said, ‘Now, I don’t know if you wanna do this – these guys are some pretty weird guys …’ And I figured, ‘How weird can they be?’
“Ab asked me: ‘Can you set up drums?’ And I said, ‘Oh, yeah – I used to be a drummer.’
“Of course, I was a terrible drummer, but I knew how to set them up.” And the laugh that has been just bubbling under the surface while George has been telling the story finally bursts clear – and gathers you up in the process.
And the rest of that summer? “Oh, we hopscotched around the country by bus, man … and it was weird.” More laughter – and on to the next story.
The late, great Pinetop Perkins (who passed away in March of 2011) was a major influence on Kilby – not just in music, but in terms of how to live. “Pinetop was cool without knowing he was cool,” says Kilby. “I aspire to be what he just was naturally. There was an honesty to both he as a person and his music … it was just unreal.”
Kilby and Perkins’ paths first crossed at the same place that he met Goessling and Carbone. We’ll let George tell the story.
“Oh, man – there’s this really cool roadhouse on the western border of New Jersey called the Stanhope House. It was back in the 80s … Andy and Timmy were in this great band called the Blue Sparks and they were the house band at the Stanhope House on Sunday nights.
“The first time I ever got a gig at the Stanhope House, it was because the Fabulous Thunderbirds’ bus broke down. I’d been begging for a gig there for a long time and all of a sudden they called me: ‘George, we’ve got the entire T-Birds crowd here and the band’s not gonna make it – maybe by midnight, if at all. Get your butt over here … you get here and we’ll pay you.’
“What a scene: we had to load in with a packed house … and we weren’t the Thunderbirds. Talk about trial by fire …” George laughs; apparently, he and his band passed the trial, as in the years to come, Kilby made many key connections at Stanhope House and Pinetop Perkins was one of them. The two were friends as well as collaborators on stage and in the studio. (One of the albums Kilby produced for Perkins was the W.C. Handy Award-winning Portrait Of A Delta Bluesman album in 1993.) In fact, it was a late 80s studio session with Perkins that led to Kilby’s friendship with Carbone and Goessling.
“Pinetop was playing with a band called the Legendary Blues Band, which was basically all of Muddy Waters’ sidemen,” says Kilby. (Perkins was a pianist with Waters for years.) “I’d just finished an album with Pinetop and needed a horn section. The Blue Sparks were so cool; they’d do some of that old jump blues – like that old Louis Jordan stuff. Now, get this: Andy hardly ever touched a string instrument, if you can believe it. His role 99% of the time was as a horn player … and Timmy was doing horn parts on his fiddle! No charts; they would make up the stuff right there on the bandstand – and it was magic.”
The recording session led to further collaborations that continue to this day in both studio and live settings. Goessling and Carbone both played on Let The Melody Live On, a 2009 release by Kilby and his band The Road Dogs. Besides the May 12 gig coming up, Kilby and his Railroad Earth friends expect to share some stage time at The Friendly Gathering in Windham, VT in mid-June.
Kilby has a surprise in store for the weekend of The Friendly Gathering. Combining a traditional approach to music-making while embracing today’s technology, he’ll be releasing the first digital single from his album due in September. “Don’t get me wrong,” he says. “I love albums, but – maybe not tomorrow; maybe not the next day; maybe not next year; but soon – I feel albums are going to be a thing of the past. I feel it’s becoming more about the song … the output of the band by song.
“The songs are where it’s at,” he says. “And the digital age is keeping people honest. If somebody hears one of your songs, they can check out the rest before they buy them. Gone are the days when people could write one good song that played on the radio and ten crap songs to fill up the album.”
And the upcoming single? “Oh, you’re gonna love this,” says George; his excitement is infectious, even over the phone. “Okay, now imagine a bluegrass rhythm – with drums and electric guitar – and you’ve got this lick, okay? I rearranged it, but it’s from one of those songs that we grew up with.” And Kilby begins singing, “Dut-dut do-dut da dut-dut do dut dah …”
“Yeah! Only we all know it like …” and I do my best impression of Clapton’s signature lick from “Sunshine Of Your Love”.
“Yeah! You got it!” I’m imagining Kilby’s out of his seat on the other end of the phone. “Andy plays dobro on it and it’s really cool, man – you gotta hear it.” Within minutes, he’s shot an attachment to me with a rough mix of “Sunshine”. The song is a psychedelic porch stomp, with Goessling’s dobro putting a new spin on the riff created by Clapton’s Gibson SG – a new flavor of raunch. It is an absolute hoot. And when George tells you he wants to know what you think, he means it: for all the songs written and the gigs played and the miles flown, driven, and walked, he still lives to connect to people with his music … and make music with his friends.
“To me,” says George, “the Grateful Dead were the ultimate garage band. They were playing tunes that they thought were cool. Country stuff; old obscure folk tunes; their own songs … whatever. It happened to blow up into a giant phenomenon, but the Dead always retained the feeling of a bunch of buddies just getting together to play cool tunes. It was amazing that they could do that for millions of people for that many years. Whatever was right in the universe to allow that shit, man … I hope it happens again in some way.”
Talking with George Kilby, Jr., it seems that it is.
