‘Not Able to Hold It Up But’

Point out the American progressive rock band Kansas and such main hits as “Keep on Wayward Son,” “Level of Know Return” and “Mud within the Wind” instantly come to thoughts. However arguably their most essential track is probably obscure to informal listeners: the energetic and explosive “Can I Inform You,” which first appeared on the band’s 1974 self-titled debut album.

“That was the track that obtained us our recording contract [with Kirshner Records],” Kansas drummer Phil Ehart tells UCR. “Don Kirshner heard that track on our demo tape and stated, ‘That is why I wish to signal you to a recording contract.’”

A long time later, Kansas — whose current lineup consists of founding members Ehart and guitarist Richard Williams, plus bassist Billy Greer, violinist David Ragsdale, singer Ronnie Platt and keyboardist Tom Brislin — has recorded a brand new model of “Can I Inform You.” It seems on their newest launch, One other Fork within the Street, a three-CD profession compilation that got here out on Dec. 16 and celebrates the Fiftieth anniversary of the band’s formation. “That was one thing that me and Wealthy sort of talked about,” Ehart says about revisiting the track.

“I stated, ‘It might be cool to rerecord one thing that we recorded 50 years in the past, however let’s rerecord it with at present’s band.’ We had been like 19 once we had been recording that observe. And the factor simply hauls. I imply, it is actually smoking. We thought, ‘Effectively, we hope the drummer can sustain with it.’ Effectively, let’s have a look at, that’d be me. It was an actual accomplishment to go in there all these years later and play on the identical tempo. We’re very, very happy with it.”

The brand new model of “Can I Inform You” opens One other Fork within the Street, which Ehart and Williams helped curate. Containing music from their 1974 debut by means of their most up-to-date album, 2020’s The Absence of Presence, the anthology was an thought from the band’s present file label Inside Out. It not solely accommodates hits and fan favorites, however deep cuts from later albums resembling Vinyl Confessions (1982), Drastic Measures (1983), Freaks of Nature (1995), All the time By no means the Similar (1998) and Someplace to Elsewhere (2000).

Hearken to Kansas’ ‘Can I Inform You (2022 Model)’

“I stated, ‘Look, we would like you guys to do that,’” Ehart remembers telling Inside Out. “And so they had been sort of put again a bit bit so far as, ‘What now?’ ‘Richard and I would like you guys to decide on the songs. You are followers. You guys placed on there what you want.’ And they also did. Richard and I had been blown away by the job they did. They obtained all these songs after which they needed to license them. So there was loads of work concerned. After which they obtained concerned within the cowl. We’re very pleased with it and intensely, extraordinarily grateful to them for doing one thing like this.”

Fittingly, the brand new anthology is devoted to the band’s unique violinist and co-lead singer Robby Steinhardt, who died final yr on the age of 71. “When Robby handed, it was tough,” Ehart says. “He’ll at all times have a particular which means to all of us. And we had been very proud to dedicate the album to him. We thought it was the best factor to do.”

Shaped in 1973, Kansas initially featured Ehart, Williams, Steinhardt, singer/keyboardist Steve Walsh, guitarist Kerry Livgren and bassist Dave Hope. Ehart nonetheless fondly remembers when the band from Topeka, Kan., made its debut album for Kirshner Data at New York Metropolis’s Report Plant in 1973. “Don Kirshner obtained us on his program [Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert]. We obtained out on the highway with Queen and had been up and going,” he remembers. “We went to New York and we did not also have a highway supervisor. It was simply the blokes within the band. The following day we had been on the recording studio. We had been in there with Aerosmith, and Yoko Ono and John Lennon had been recording in there. Right here we’re, simply bumpkins from Kansas. It was surreal. All of us survived and got here residence and hit the highway for a very long time. After which we did one other future with Queen additionally. So we had been very lucky to get with nice bands and get on the market.”

It was Kansas’ third album, 1976’s Leftoverture, that broke the band into the mainstream, due to the success of hit single “Keep on Wayward Son.” Its follow-up, 1977’s Level of Know Return, featured one other enduring Kansas basic within the iconic ballad “Mud within the Wind.” (Each “Keep on Wayward Son” and “Mud within the Wind” are featured on One other Fork within the Street as stay variations). They and different classics like “Music for America,” “Icarus – Borne on Wings of Metal” and “Play the Recreation Tonight” stay live performance staples and can seemingly seem on the band’s Fiftieth-anniversary tour subsequent yr.

“Wealthy and I are engaged on the set listing proper now,” says Ehart, “attempting to do one thing that is not the identical previous, usual. However in the identical sense, you bought to have the identical previous, usual. You bought to have ‘Mud within the Wind,’ ‘Level of Know Return,’ ‘The Wall.’ However there can be loads of older tracks in there. There will be loads of newer ones that we have not performed as a lot. So it isn’t going to be that removed from One other Fork within the Street. It will sort of comply with that guideline as to what we play and what we’ve in our set listing. There’s loads of materials there, and we’ll mine all of it.”

Hearken to Kansas’ ‘Keep on Wayward Son’

Kansas has survived main personnel adjustments over the a long time, with Ehart and Williams holding the group’s legacy alive. To Ehart, it is at all times been concerning the music moderately than one or two specific members. “It has been 30 and 40 years since some unique members have even been within the band,” he says. “Billy Greer has been within the band longer than the unique members that are not with us anymore. We at all times simply focused on making it concerning the music. It was by no means ‘Kansas that includes this man or this man.’ No, it is simply Kansas. We’re nonetheless Kansas. So if you wish to come and listen to Kansas, we’re your huckleberry. We’re that band.”

Ehart says the present state of the group — with longtime members Greer and Ragsdale and newer guys Platt and Brislin — is nice, as evidenced by the constructive reception to their final two albums, 2016’s The Prelude Implicit and The Absence of Presence. “Hopefully, we’ll get to do one other [new album]” the drummer says. “That is what’s so nice about Inside Out, is that they’re there for us. So the chance is there. It is simply that proper now, the band could be very in style on the highway. While you go on to make an album, that takes you off the highway. And so it is what we’ve to watch out [about] once we come off the highway, that we have got every thing organized and all the fabric is written. So we’re working as a touring band proper now [and] hoping to have one other new album when it is able to go.”

Trying again at 50 years of Kansas, whose music nonetheless will get performed on the radio and streaming platforms in addition to being featured in movie and TV, Ehart expresses gratitude. However, he provides, “We’re not prepared to hold it up but. We wish to preserve the band going. And we’ve nice musicians within the band, all good guys. Now we have a good time on the market and it is enjoyable.”