There's Know Place Like Home
''There's Know Place Like Home'' is Kansas' fifth live album. It was released as a double CD and also on DVD on October 13, 2009 and Blu-ray on November 23, 2009. The DVD charted at No. 5 on the ''Billboard'' Music DVD chart the week of its release, Kansas's only appearance on that chart. ''There's Know Place Like Home'' is a recording of a concert that took place on February 7, 2009 in Topeka, Kansas at Washburn University (which several members of Kansas attended) along with the Washburn University Symphony Orchestra. The concert featured several orchestral arrangements by Larry Baird of Kansas songs (Baird also served as conductor for this concert) - arrangements the band has been playing with symphony orchestras around the US since the release of 1998's '' Always Never the Same'' which featured the London Symphony Orchestra accompanying the band. The cover features the old man depicted on the cover of ''Leftoverture'' and the papers around him with a black background. A sp ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Kansas (band)
Kansas is an American rock band that became popular during the 1970s initially on album-oriented rock charts and later with hit singles such as " Carry On Wayward Son" and " Dust in the Wind". The band has produced nine gold albums, three multi-platinum albums ('' Leftoverture'' 4×, '' Point of Know Return'' 4×, and '' The Best of Kansas'' 4×), one other platinum studio album ('' Monolith''), one platinum live double album ('' Two for the Show''), and a million-selling single, "Dust in the Wind". Kansas appeared on the US ''Billboard'' charts for over 200 weeks throughout the 1970s and 1980s and played to sold-out arenas and stadiums throughout North America, Europe and Japan. "Carry On Wayward Son" was the second-most-played track on US classic rock radio in 1995 and No. 1 in 1997. History 1970–1973: Early years In 1969, Don Montre and Kerry Livgren (guitars, keyboards, synthesizers) were performing in a band called the Reasons Why in their hometown of Topeka, Kansas. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Andrew Powell
Andrew Powell (born 18 April 1949) is an English musical composer, arranger and performer, born of Welsh parents. He himself moved to Wales in 2003. Early life Powell was born Surrey, England. He began piano lessons at the age of four and later attended King's College School, Wimbledon, by which time he was also learning viola, violin and orchestral percussion. He was writing music by the age of eleven and later studied composition with Karlheinz Stockhausen and György Ligeti at Darmstadt in Germany, before taking a music master's degree at King's College, Cambridge. While at Cambridge he joined an electronic music group, Intermodulation, with Roger Smalley, Tim Souster and Robin Thompson, and a local progressive rock group, Henry Cow, formed by Fred Frith and Tim Hodgkinson, in which he alternated between bass and drums. Musical career After leaving Cambridge, Powell's first professional engagement was as a soloist at the BBC Proms, London in August 1970, playing Terr ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Billy Greer
Billy Greer (born January 26, 1952) is an American musician, singer and songwriter known as the current bass guitarist for the band Kansas. He joined the band in their 1985 reformation, making his debut appearance on '' Power''. He had previously worked with Kansas keyboardist/vocalist Steve Walsh in the band Streets, and works with his own band Seventh Key when not performing with Kansas. He also was a member of the 2009 Kansas side project Native Window along with Kansas members Phil Ehart, Richard Williams, and David Ragsdale. In addition to performing, Greer manages his son's band 3 Story Fall and produces their music. Discography Kansas Studio Albums * '' Power'' (1986) * '' In The Spirit Of Things'' (1988) * '' Freaks of Nature'' (1995) * '' Always Never the Same'' (1998) * ''Somewhere to Elsewhere'' (2000) * '' The Prelude Implicit'' (2016) * '' The Absence of Presence'' (2020) Live Albums * '' Live at the Whisky'' (1992) * '' King Biscuit Flower Hour Pr ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Electric Guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic guitar exist). It uses one or more pickups to convert the vibration of its strings into electrical signals, which ultimately are reproduced as sound by loudspeakers. The sound is sometimes shaped or electronically altered to achieve different timbres or tonal qualities on the amplifier settings or the knobs on the guitar from that of an acoustic guitar. Often, this is done through the use of effects such as reverb, distortion and "overdrive"; the latter is considered to be a key element of electric blues guitar music and jazz and rock guitar playing. Invented in 1932, the electric guitar was adopted by jazz guitar players, who wanted to play single-note guitar solos in large big band ensembles. Early proponents of the electric guitar ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Violin
The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular use. The violin typically has four strings (music), strings (some can have five-string violin, five), usually tuned in perfect fifths with notes G3, D4, A4, E5, and is most commonly played by drawing a bow (music), bow across its strings. It can also be played by plucking the strings with the fingers (pizzicato) and, in specialized cases, by striking the strings with the wooden side of the bow (col legno). Violins are important instruments in a wide variety of musical genres. They are most prominent in the Western classical music, Western classical tradition, both in ensembles (from chamber music to orchestras) and as solo instruments. Violins are also important in many varieties of folk music, including country music, bluegrass music, and ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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David Ragsdale
David Lasater Ragsdale (born April 3, 1958) is an American musician. He is best known as the violinist for the rock band Kansas from 1991 to 1997 and from 2006 to the present. He toured for four years with Louise Mandrell before joining Kansas, and he released a solo album in 1997. Ragsdale has appeared as a guest artist with various other bands. Early life Ragsdale was born into a musical family. He started violin at the age of three at the insistence of his mother, training in classical music. At around 13 years old, he picked up the guitar to express himself through rock music, because he had not heard violin in rock. At the age of 16 in 1974, as he was getting more proficient on guitar, Ragsdale heard the song "Can I Tell You" from the Kansas album ''Kansas'', featuring the hard-rocking violin of Robby Steinhardt. Ragsdale realized that the violin could be prominent in rock, and his interest in violin was renewed. In 1980, Ragsdale entered the University of Tulsa on a mus ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Acoustic Guitar
An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, resonating through the air in the body, and producing sound from the sound hole. The original, general term for this stringed instrument is ''guitar'', and the retronym 'acoustic guitar' distinguishes it from an electric guitar, which relies on electronic amplification. Typically, a guitar's body is a sound box, of which the top side serves as a sound board that enhances the vibration sounds of the strings. In standard tuning the guitar's six strings are tuned (low to high) E2 A2 D3 G3 B3 E4. Guitar strings may be plucked individually with a pick (plectrum) or fingertip, or strummed to play chords. Plucking a string causes it to vibrate at a fundamental pitch determined by the string's length, mass, and tension. ( Overtones are also ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Lead Guitar
Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featured guitar, which usually plays single-note-based lines or double-stops. In rock, heavy metal, blues, jazz, punk, fusion, some pop, and other music styles, lead guitar lines are usually supported by a second guitarist who plays rhythm guitar, which consists of accompaniment chords and riffs. History The first form of lead guitar emerged in the 18th century, in the form of classical guitar styles, which evolved from the Baroque guitar, and Spanish Vihuela. Such styles were popular in much of Western Europe, with notable guitarists including Antoine de Lhoyer, Fernando Sor, and Dionisio Aguado. It was through this period of the classical shift to romanticism the six-string guitar was first used for solo composing. Through the 19t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Rich Williams
Richard John Williams (born February 1, 1950) is an American guitarist, primarily known for being one of the only consistent original members of the rock band Kansas alongside drummer Phil Ehart. Both have appeared on every Kansas album to date. Career Williams shared guitar duties with keyboardist/guitarist Kerry Livgren until 1984 when Kansas first broke up, and later from 1990 to 1991 as well as 1999–2000. From 1985 to 1991, he shared guitar-playing with Steve Morse, and later with Zak Rizvi from 2016 to 2021. Since April 2021, Williams has served as the bands only dedicated guitarist, as he also did from 1991 to 1999, and 2000–2016. David Ragsdale will sometimes serve as a second guitarist when the band plays songs with little or no violin, such as " Portrait (He Knew)", " Fight Fire With Fire", and " Carry On Wayward Son". Williams and Phil Ehart are the only two founding members of Kansas who have never left the band and have played on all Kansas albums. Among the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Keyboard Instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument played using a keyboard, a row of levers which are pressed by the fingers. The most common of these are the piano, organ, and various electronic keyboards, including synthesizers and digital pianos. Other keyboard instruments include celestas, which are struck idiophones operated by a keyboard, and carillons, which are usually housed in bell towers or belfries of churches or municipal buildings. Today, the term ''keyboard'' often refers to keyboard-style synthesizers. Under the fingers of a sensitive performer, the keyboard may also be used to control dynamics, phrasing, shading, articulation, and other elements of expression—depending on the design and inherent capabilities of the instrument. Another important use of the word ''keyboard'' is in historical musicology, where it means an instrument whose identity cannot be firmly established. Particularly in the 18th century, the harpsichord, the clavichord, and the early p ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Steve Walsh (musician)
Steve Walsh (born June 15, 1951) is an American musician, singer, and songwriter best known for his work as a longtime member of the progressive rock band Kansas; he retired from the band in 2014. He sings lead on four of Kansas' best-known hits: " Carry On Wayward Son," "Dust in the Wind", " Point of Know Return", and " All I Wanted", the last two of which he co-wrote. Career Walsh was in a number of local groups prior to his joining Kansas, most notably the group White Clover that later merged with another band to form Kansas. White Clover toured frequently and developed their sound. They merged with another local band, also called Kansas, and were signed to Don Kirshner's label with the name Kansas. During Walsh's time with the band, Kansas recorded two commercially successful albums, 1976's '' Leftoverture'' and 1977's '' Point of Know Return''. With Kansas, Walsh has released 12 studio albums, six live albums, and numerous singles. He has released three solo albums th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Carry On Wayward Son
"Carry On Wayward Son" is a song by American rock band Kansas, released from the band's fourth studio album '' Leftoverture'' (1976). Written by guitarist Kerry Livgren, the song became the band's first Top 40 single, reaching No. 11 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in early 1977. The song has since remained a classic rock radio staple and a signature song for the band. Background While Kansas' previous three albums had split songwriting duties between lead vocalist Steve Walsh and band member Kerry Livgren, the latter essentially provided all the material for the band's fourth album release, ''Leftoverture''. According to Livgren, "On the very first day of rehearsals, Stevesaid that he had nothing – not a single song. I don't relish that kind of pressure, but with hindsight it really brought out the best in me." Although based in Atlanta, Kansas had returned to their Topeka, Kansas hometown to work up material for what would be the ''Leftoverture'' album, the band rehearsin ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |