Bill Kirchen & Too Much Fun at The Bull Run Restaurant

7-26-2024

Big news! Legendary guitarist, Duke Levine, has temporarily hopped off of his tours with Bonnie Raitt and Peter Wolf, and will be joining Bill and the band at Bull Run for this show.

Besides being a great guy and a friend, Bill Kirchen is, hands down, one of the best tele players I’ve known. He plays what we now call Americana, or roots music, celebrating an American musical tradition where country music draws upon its origins in blues and bluegrass, and in the Western swing of Texas and California honky tonks.

He first gained renown as lead guitarist and vocalist for Commander Cody & his Lost Planet Airmen, where the resonant twang of his battered Telecaster drove "Hot Rod Lincoln" into the Top Ten in '72. He's played guitar on recordings and performances with Nick Lowe, Doug Sahm, Elvis Costello, Emmylou Harris, Ralph Stanley, Gene Vincent, Link Wray, Danny Gatton, Hoyt Axton and Elvis Costello.

A Kirchen performance recalls a half century of guitar legends and extends their brilliance into the new millenium. He received a Grammy nomination for 'Best Country Instrumental Performance' in 2001. In 2002 he was inducted into the Washington Area Music Association Hall of Fame along with Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters, Nirvana) and John Phillip Sousa as well as winning 10 additional Wammies including 'Artist of the Year' and 'Musician of the Year.' In previous years, he won '2000 Rock/ Roots Rock Instrumentalist of the Year,' 'Roots Rock Album' (Raise A Ruckus) and '1999 Instrumentalist of the Year' at the WAMA Awards, as well as being a multiple winner in 1997 and 1998, receiving ten awards, including 'Songwriter of the Year.'

"If you haven't seen Bill Kirchen live, rectify that this July. You heard it from me." GT

A Titan of the Telecaster guitar " - Guitar Player magazine

"Bill Kirchen rules, it's just that simple." 
- the Austin-American Statesman

"A devastating culmination of the elegant and the funky, a really sensational musician with enormous depth." - Nick Lowe

"He is one of the singular instrumental stylists of American roots music, and to hear his sound once is to have it indelibly etched on one’s musical memory." - Pop Matters       

VIDEO - Hot Rod Lincoln