Kansas Music Hall of Fame - Tide

tide onstage

kmhof plaque

According to the organization web site, the Kansas Music Hall of Fame was "...established in August, 2004, to recognize and honor performers and others who have made significant contributions to the musical history of the state of Kansas and the greater Kansas City metropolitan area." In January of 2007, Tide, a band founded in 1968 by myself, drummer Steve Hall and bassist Paul Miller, was inducted into the ranks of the honored. I feel humbled to be so recognized along with such giants as Big Joe Turner, Marilyn Maye, Mike Finnigan and all the others. Pictured to the left is the nifty plaque that I was presented by HoF President, Bill Lee. The other members of the band honored as well as the founders were Bill Lynch (guitar and vocal), Greg Mackender (piano, vibes, other keys) and Tim Smith (guitar, tenor sax, flute, vocal). 

The Kansas Hall of Fame differs from some others in that it was organized, not by politicians, a chamber of commerce, or a commercial entity such as a magazine, but by music fanatics who care deeply. Honorees are determined by the vote of a small group of members and endorsed by a membership committee to insure validity. You can't buy your way into this Hall of Fame by stuffing a ballot box! It's a real honor to be included.

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This is a snap of Bill giving me my plaque. What you can't see is that I was sweating like a cold bottle of Shiner in the summertime! I had spent the previous day in a KC emergency room being treated for pneumonia! I was stuffed full of Advil and floating on a cloud of codine laced cough syrup. I'd barely been able to take a breath without coughing, but incredibly, for the thirty minutes or so that we performed, the virus went dormant -- only to return with a vengence the following day! Looking on is Paul Miller and Greg Mackender.

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Paul Miller (back), Bill Lynch (middle), and myself onstage at the induction ceremony. I don't know what we're playing here, but we're not really standing as close together as it would appear.

 

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The fact is, this note probably really did hurt as bad as the face I'm making would imply... everything hurt that night. But I wouldn't have missed it for anything. 

 

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Steve Hall also lives in Kansas City where he runs Boelte-Hall Printing. In the years since Tide, Steve and I have had several projects, including The Novellas, a great band that no one understood. Steve has recently started performing with another 2007 inductee, Frank Plas (see below).

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Paul Miller still lives and plays in Lawrence, KS. His career has included stints with Paul Gray's jazz band indluging jazz legend, Jay McShann, The Platters (the real guys.. not the tribute band). As first call for the Jazzhaus house band, he played gigs with Barney Kessel, Herb Ellis, Red Rodney, Urbie Green... I can't recall who all else.

 

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Bill Lynch lives in southern California and fronts a band, The Midwestern Icons,  that includes drummer famed drummer, James Gadson, Bonedaddy's alum, Rick Moors and, most recently, guitar and pedal steel ace, Dean Parks.

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Greg Mackender lives in Kansas City and has composed extensively for Theater in the area. He's a founding member of Kansas City Actor's Theater and is on the faculty at UMKC teaching composition. Generally speaking, he's an overachiver... he plays keys, vibes, drums, sax, flute, bass... and I would suppose anything that got close enough to make a noise on.

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They had a nifty video screen that displayed pictures and historical content while we played. I didn't know what was up there till I saw this picture!

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This is a good view of Liberty Hall, the 650 seat theater where the ceremony and concert were held. It's a Lawrence landmark dating back to the 1800's, though it's been rebuilt several times in the intervening years. I first played in this building in 1966 when it was called The Red Dog Inn. I think I might have played there 100 times since.

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Performing "The Cowboy Song", left to right, Paul Miller (bass), Steve Hall (drums), Bill Lynch (strat), and myself on the tele. This song has nothing to do with cowboys... it was so named by Tim Smith who thought it sounded country. I suppose it does.

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Liberty Hall, the venue for the Hall of Fame concert, is a 650 seat theater. Amazingly, it was a packed show... amazing not because of the show itself, but that Kansas dropped a winter bomb that night -- about 1" of freezing rain, and sub zero temperatures.

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From left to right, Greg Mackender on vibes, Paul Miller on the electric bass, Bill Lynch playing a vintage strat. I'm seated at right playing piano. I think this is probably the instrumental postlude to "You're Not the Only One."

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It was only when I went back to relearn tunes that I realized Tide was a vocal band as much as we were an instrumental band. Almost every song featured three and sometimes four part harmony. Tide's music was not the type that you could just round up whoever was available to play. We practiced almost every day for several hours when we weren't traveling and I think it showed. However... it made it a little harrowing to perform these songs after 35 years.

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We hadn't performed together since roughly 1974, and though we'd planned to spend an evening rehearsing, this was prempted by my stay in the emergency room, as well as an really nasty ice storm! Consequently, we had about 30 minutes of sound check to relearn all of our tunes. Amazingly, it was just enough.

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Frank Plas and The Silvertones were also inducted into the Hall of Fame. The Silvertones, in my opinion, were the most influential band in the Kansas City area in the late 50's and early 60's. They played dead-on, Kansas City blues, the way it was meant to be played. Frank has reorganized the Silvertones and they currently play in the Kansas City area.

All pictures (except the vintage 1972 at the top of the page) were taken by Dana Lynne Stringer
(c) 2007 by DanaLynne Photograpy.

(c) 2017 by The Music Room