And today it's the turn of Steve Walsh, a singer, keyboardist, percussionist and songwriter, who, among other things, was a partner in designing the sound and the very special style of "Kansas". Here are some interesting facts about him:
(Photo: Metallus.it)
1. Walsh was born in St. Louis, Missouri on June 15, 1951. He was adopted as an infant.
2. In 1972 he joined the band "White Clover", which included among others the singer and violinist Robby Steinhardt.
3. In early 1973, they enlisted guitarist and keyboardist Kerry Livgren after his band "Kansas" disbanded.
4. That year they had already signed a recording contract and adopted the name "Kansas".
5. The band's debut album was released in 1974 and already then Walsh was revealed as one of the band's lead writers and lead singer, taking the lead in six of the eight album's songs.
(Photo: Fanart.tv)
6. This was intensified on subsequent albums "Song for America" and "Masque" from 1975, in which Walsh served as the lead singer in all the songs on the album.
7. While working on the band's fourth album "Leftoverture" from 1976, Walsh began to experience a writiers block, which forced Kerry Livgren to put more effort into writing the material for the album. Indeed, the talented Kerry Livgren was almost exclusively responsible for the writing, with Walsh's assistance in three of the eight tracks on the album.
8. Needless to say, at this point Walsh has become the lead singer of the band as he takes the lead among other things in the band's breakthrough hit "Carry On Wayward Son".
9. The band continued to ride the wave of success on the album "Point of Know Return" from 1977, which included, among other things, their biggest "hit", "Dust in the Wind".
10. During this time, "Kansas" rose to prominence with sales of millions of copies, mostly of the last two mentioned albums, that sold more than four million copies in the US alone.
11. During this time, "Kansas", which at the beginning of its career distributed free beers to their audience to market themselves, became a honed and tight-knit band that filled the largest auditoriums in the United States, including the "Madison Square Garden" in New York.
12. The band documented this exemplary period in one of the best live albums of the 70's - "Two for the Show", which was released in 1978. A double live album of recordings from various performances from the band's tour in 1977 and 1978.
(Photo: Mark Farina Twitter)
13. In 1978, Walsh participated in Steve Hackett's "Please Don't Touch" album.
14. In 1979 the band released their sixth album "Monolith", which included the song "People of the South Wind", which refers to the Native American tribe "Kaw", after which the state and band "Kansas" are named.
15. In 1980, Walsh released his first solo album, "Schemer-Dreamer". The album featured bandmates Kerry Livgren, Rich Williams and Phil Ehart, as well as guitarist Steve Morse who in 1985 joined the revamped "Kansas".
16. Walsh will release four more studio albums as part of his solo career, the latest being “Black Butterfly” from 2017.
17. In 1980, Walsh participated in the album "Seeds of Change", the solo album of his friend Kerry Livgren.
18. During the tour that supported the album "Monolith", Kerry Livgren became a reborn Christian, and this was reflected in his lyrics on the album "Audio-Visions", released in 1980 and included the hit "Hold On".
19. Following creative and other disagreements that also resulted from a change in Kerry Livgren beliefs, Walsh left the band in October 1981 and formed the band "Streets".
(Photo: Steve Walsh Rocks Facebook Page)
20. The one who replaced Walsh in the band was singer John Elefante, who noted that Walsh was the reason why he wanted to be a singer.
21. "Streets" first album called "1st" was released in 1983. Walsh was involved in writing all the songs on the album.
22. In 1985 the band will release their second album "Crimes in Mind" and then disbanded by Walsh.
23. In 1986 Walsh returned to "Kansas" and has been an integral part of it until his retirement in 2014.
24. In 2015, Walsh contributed his voice as a singer on "Radioactive's" "F4UR" album.
25. Walsh has participated in 12 Kansas studio albums, out of the 16 released so far.
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