Bill Kirchen and Too Much Fun + The Nighthawks + The Fabulous Mary Ann Redmond Band

Bill Kirchen plays American roots music. He received a Grammy nomination for Best Country Instrumental Performance 2001. A Titan of the Telecaster guitar (Guitar Player magazine May 1998 & June 2002), he celebrates 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 Kirchen first gained renown as lead guitarist and a vocalist for Commander Cody & his Lost Planet Airmen, the renegade country-rock band that tuned a whole generation of rock fans into the joys of unvarnished country, boogie and rockabilly. It was the resonant twang of Kirchen's battered Telecaster that drove "Hot Rod Lincoln" into the Top Ten in 1972. Kirchen has played guitar on recordings and performances with Gene Vincent, Link Wray, Danny Gatton, Emmylou Harris, Hoyt Axton, Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello.

In 2002 Bill Kirchen was inducted into the Washington Area Music Association Hall of Fame along with Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters, Nirvana) and John Phillip Sousa as well as winning 10 additional Wammies including Artist of the Year and Musician of the Year. In previous years, he won 2000 Rock/ Roots Rock Instrumentalist of the Year, Roots Rock Album (Raise A Ruckus) and 1999 Instrumentalist of the Year at the WAMA Awards, as well as being a multiple winner in 1997 and 1998, receiving ten awards, including Songwriter of the Year. Seamlessly integrating the band's sound is Kirchen's incredible fluency in the tradition of American electric guitar, roots division.
Bill Kirchen Website


Over more than three decades, The Nighthawks have earned a reputation as one of the best and hardest-working bands around. Their live shows are legendary. Founded in the Washington, D.C. area in 1972, the ‘Hawks were a roots band before anyone had come up with the term. Their mix of blues, rock, rockabilly, soul and swing appeals to a widely diverse audience, built over years of touring throughout the United States, Europe and Japan.

In the dark ages of the early ‘70s, when there were only a handful of blues societies and festivals, The Nighthawks set out to bring blues to a wider audience. In their birthplace of Washington, D.C., they invaded top-40 dance halls and intimate folk-rock clubs, playing high-energy, danceable versions of Elmore James and Muddy Waters that won them legions of fans and introduced a new generation to live blues. After establishing themselves as the local openers for luminaries such as Muddy, James Cotton and B.B. King, the band launched a series called "Blue Monday" at one of D.C.'s biggest dance clubs, the Bayou. They booked and backed up the likes of Otis Rush, Fenton Robinson, J.B. Hutto, Louis Myers, Carey Bell, and Jimmy Rogers with Kim Wilson and Big Walter Horton with Johnny Nicholas. And they introduced Washingtonians to Billy Price, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Powerhouse and Roomful of Blues.

Thus began a musical mystery tour that is closing in on 40 years, spanning 49 states and a dozen countries. In between, The Nighthawks have released more than 20 recordings, including 2009's award-winning "American Landscape." Their February 2010 release, "Last Train to Bluesville," recorded live at Sirius XM studios, is an acoustic blues romp that has been featured on radio programs across the United States and Canada and landed a long stay on the Living Blues radio chart.
The Nighthawks Website



Mary Ann Redmond is an American singer known for her soulful and wide-ranging vocal style in popular and jazz music. Both her live performances and her CDs to date have earned her acclaim from audiences and recognition from the music industry.

Redmond is well-known in her home base of Washington, DC, where she's won a staggering 16 WAMMIE Awards from the Washington Area Music Association (Best Female Jazz Singer; Best Rock-Pop Vocalist, Best Roots Rock/Traditional R&B Vocalist, Best Urban Contemporary Vocalist and Best Female Blues Vocalist.) A native of Richmond Virginia, she has toured with her close friend Mary Chapin Carpenter (the first and only background singer Carpenter has ever brought on board), and has opened for an array of artists including The Pointer Sisters, The Neville Brothers, Ashford and Simpson, The O'Jays, and Smokey Robinson. She was also a close friend of the late Eva Cassidy. In addition to their vocal power, they both shared the gift of putting themselves into a song and making it her own. "Eva taught me that no matter what happens, it's got to be real," Redmond says. "You can hear it in every song she sang. And she was right." --AllAboutJazz.com
Mary Ann Redmond Website