Classic-rockers to appear at Nashville’s Schermerhorn Center on extended 40th anniversary tour

Progressive rock has generally been regarded as something of a red-headed stepchild by rock fans of the proletariat (i.e. “play ‘Free Bird!’“) variety as well as the lion’s share of the music press, which has accused it (sometimes rightly) of being overinflated and too far removed from rock ‘n’ roll’s ragged roots. Practitioners of pedigreed progressivism such as Yes and Rush may have gotten the last laugh—they’re still active and they maintain a sizeable fan base—but their appeal nonetheless remains skewed toward music-heads, fantasy/sci-fi fans and brainiac types. Worthy of inclusion among rock’s more artistically endowed crowd, but cut from rougher-hewn fabric, is the mighty, heartland-bred Kansas.

When Kansas’ now-classic lineup was formed in 1973, the violin-wielding sextet was one of relatively few American bands to hoist the prog-rock banner, and quite likely the most successful U.S. mainstream act to combine the artsy with the accessible. Flip on a classic-rock station anytime, anywhere, and see how likely it is you’ll hear the chillingly introspective “Dust in the Wind” or the spiritually informed uber-perennial “Carry On Wayward Son.” These songs are hardly typical rock radio fodder, yet they’ve become inextricably woven into the Ozzy/Leppard/Skynyrd/Stones/Led Zep-centered classic-rock mosaic. On the strength of culturally embedded hits as well as its much deeper pocket of ambitious and enduring original material, Kansas (now with three founding members and two band veterans aboard) is carrying on with its 40th anniversary tour, which began last year.

They’ve appeared in Nashville at least a dozen times over that lengthy span, handily outlasting Starwood (and whatever else it was later called) Amphitheatre—where they shared a memorable double bill with Yes in 2000—and even turning up in the Hank-sanctified Ryman Auditorium a number of years back. On Friday, June 6, they’ll touch local hallowed ground again, making their debut appearance at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center. It’s a particularly suitable setting, given the orchestral grandeur and classically influenced interplay heard in much of the band’s repertoire. That said, this is not music crafted for the tuxedo-clad. As Kansas guitarist and founding member Rich Williams puts it, “This is rock ‘n’ roll. I don’t care what flavor it is, it still is that.”

Williams talked with the Pulse about the band’s history, offering some insights about how Kansas straddles the earthy and the ethereal in its complex, intensely delivered music. “Kansas was never a tippy-tappy, sit-back-in-the-pocket groove band,” offers the guitarist. “It’s just always been kind of, turn it up all the way and hold on. But with some reins to it, too,” Williams adds, referring to the control required to execute the intricate and sometimes delicate passages that have long been a Kansas trademark. “We all had a feel for going where we were gonna go, and enough talent to get us there. . . . Not too much talent, to make it all overthought. What comes out of that,” says Williams, somewhat self-deprecatingly describing the filigreed frenzy of the Kansas sound, “is kind of a garage-band-going-for-it, half-scared feel.”

From the outset, affirms Williams, Kansas was “very much a band . . . [with the emphasis on] the way we sounded together, rather than [on being] virtuoso players. And I think that’s been to our benefit. If we were all extremely virtuoso-style,” says the musician, “we might not tend to play with such a . . . um, panic!” It’s an approach Williams still likens to the band’s anxiety-provoking national television debut in 1974, on Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert. (Music mogul Kirshner, the sometimes maligned mastermind behind cartoon combo The Archies, admirably went out on a long and wiry limb by signing the musically unorthodox, flesh-and-blood Kansas to his eponymously named record label—but the gamble would ultimately pay off handsomely.) “We were scared to death,” recalls Williams of the TV taping. “That was fueled by fear. We’re coming straight from Kansas, suddenly we’re on that stage, cameras everywhere . . . but relax, guys. We were so far out of our element. But those kinds of things—the desperation of a band struggling and pulling it all together and making it work—that’s what gives it its organic urgency.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmWU9TqSQic

(Video clip of “Mysteries and Mayhem” from Kansas’ second appearance on Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert, originally aired in Dec. 1975)

The adventure of playing music live, one that is fraught with the unpredictable, still contributes to the urgency Williams describes. He unspools a sprawling and funny summary that touches upon such onstage obstacles as sudden bursts of static briefly scuttling the band’s in-ear monitor system and making it impossible to play confidently in sync, momentary spotlight blindness, getting caught on instrument cables, scrambling to adjust tone and effects pedals, and occasionally playing on unfamiliar, last-minute rental equipment when the band truck is unavoidably detained.

“But I’ve learned that the urgency of the moment is what I enjoy the most,” says Williams. “It’s, ‘Ahhhh, this put-on-the-spot moment . . . I am living right now. There’s a format and a song list, but you never quite know what’s going to happen.”

The band has some Nashville history; besides playing gigs here, portions of the multiplatinum Point of Know Return album were cut at East Nashville’s Woodland Sound in July of 1977, and the band spent time at the former Spence Manor on Music Row. “It was a musician’s hotel that was all suites and had 24-hour room service. It rocked,” Williams recalls. “But it was a little pricey, it was 50 bucks a night [big laugh]. You know, everything else was $25. So it seemed extravagant.”

Nashville, observes Williams, “was a country town at that time. It has changed so many times since that. Still very much a country town, but now it is so wide open. I mean, there’s so much going on there, for any musician of any genre, really. . . . Everything there lives and breathes music.” Accordingly, Kansas enjoys experiencing the Music City vibe, but Williams affirms that he and his bandmates are psyched about hitting the stage of the Schermerhorn.

“We’ll play anywhere, but when we play a place like that, it’s like, wow—suddenly we feel a little bit classier. This is a place I wish my mom would come and see us. You know, so, it dresses us up a bit.”

Indeed, for this Nashville show in particular, the band will know one thing for certain: they’re not in Kansas anymore.

For more information on the June 6 performance, visit nashvillesymphony.org.