HopMonk Novato Beer Garden

Airmen Reunion

Featuring:  Bobby Black, John Tichy, Buffalo Bruce Barlow, Austin de Lone, Paul Revelli, and Andy Stein

Opening:  The Well Known Strangers

Grammy-nominated guitarist, singer, and songwriter Bill Kirchen first gained national recognition as a founding member of the original “Americana” group Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen.

His trademark guitar licks drove their “Hot Rod Lincoln” into the Top Ten in 1972. His latest recording “Transatlanticana” hit the Top 10 on the Americana Radio chart, staying in the Top 40 for 5 months.

Bill has released 11 CDs under his own name, and recorded and/or played guitar live with a who's who of Americana and Rock 'N' Roll, among them, Gene Vincent, Link Wray, Bo Diddley, Hazel Dickens, Doug Sahm, Hoyt Axton, Emmylou Harris, Maria Muldaur, Dan Hicks, Steve Earle, Redd Volkaert, Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello.

Bill may be the only person to have, in a single year, stood on stage and played with both Ralph Stanley and Elvis Costello. He has spoken at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC as part of the “Electrified, Amplified and Deified - The Electric Guitar” exhibition and also at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. He was interviewed on the national TV special “Yesterday and Today: Honky Tonk & Western Swing” at the Broken Spoke in Austin, TX, where he performed along with Hank Thompson and Doug Sahm. Bill currently finds time to teach workshops at Jorma Kaukonen’s Fur Peace Ranch in Pomeroy, OH.