Bill Kirchen and Too Much Fun

7-10-2026 - THIS SHOW WAS MOVED FROM 11/28/2025.
TICKETS WILL AUTOMATICALLY TRANSFER.
"Bill Kirchen rules, it's just that simple."
- the Austin-American Statesman
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.
Bill's all-starTexas is: Jack Saunders on bass and Rick Richards on drums.
Bill first gained renown as lead guitarist and vocalist for Commander Cody and 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. Kirchen went on to the Grammys where he was nominated for Best Country Instrumental in 2001.
Bill was inducted into the Hall Of Fame of the Washington DC Wammie Music Awards in 2001, alongside Dave Grohl and John Phillip Sousa. He joined a remarkable list of prior inductees including Bo Diddly, Duke Ellington, Ruth Brown, Marvin Gaye, Patsy Cline, Shirley Horn, Emmylou Harris, Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady.
His recent disc, "Transatlanticana," entered the Americana Radio Chart Top 10 in 2018, joining his extensive catalogue of over 2 dozen albums, from the Commander Cody discs on through his current 12 releases on the Proper and Last Music Company labels. Bill’s latest releases are "Back from the Ozone," a Lost Planet Airmen reunion CD out in October 2023 and, from 2021, the LPs "Waxworks" and "Tombstone Every Mile," along with The Proper Years and Tombstone on CD and in all digital formats, all on the Last Music Company label.
"A Titan of the Telecaster guitar" - Guitar Player magazine
"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
"If you haven't seen Bill Kirchen live, rectify that this July. You heard it from me." - GT