What Makes For A Good Thunderbird?
"You guys cover a lot of musical ground: Blues, rock, R&B. As someone selected by Kim, what makes for a good member of this band? What makes for a good Thunderbird?"
Dean: That's a great question. First, you have to have a true and genuine love for all of those styles of music, even if it's not your first love. My first love was blues as a genre. I was drawn to Jimi Hendrix blues and things like that. But we all have been through our own professional journeys and we have, as Kim puts it, pedigree. We've all played with a host of very talented and powerful musicians of different types through the years. So I think we have to draw from all those experiences. And for me, it's kind of easy, because that's the way I've always done it.
Even though blues was my first love, I've been in rockabilly bands, swing bands, and soul bands. Having those different experiences is important. Bob Welsh on the piano and guitars played with Elvin Bishop and John Nemeth. So he's got all this experience.
It's being able to genuinely have a foot in a rock and roll song, an R&B song, a ballad, a funk song. Or maybe a little bit more of a pop-feeling song, like "Tuff Enuff" or "Wrap It Up." To be able to genuinely go to that place inside the song, I think that's the trick.
Upcoming Concerts
JULY 4 - Beaver Creek Village - Avon, CO
JULY 6 -Belly Up - Solana Beach, CA
JULY 7 - Coach House Concert Hall - San Juan Capistrano, CA
JULY 8 - Saint Rocke - Hermosa Beach, CA
JULY 13 - The Music Hall Lounge - Portsmouth, NH
Full schedule and tickets…
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