Kansas mixed heartland boogie with symphonic rock and a fiddle
Most progressive rock violinists leaned on jazz and classical music. In Kansas, Robby Steinhardt's violin sounded like the American heartland, riding over boogie rhythms and shifting time signatures. That blend, born in Topeka, produced Carry On Wayward Son and Dust in the Wind, two gold singles that still fill classic rock radio.
The band's early history is a tangle of Topeka lineups. Guitarist and keyboardist Kerry Livgren adopted the name Kansas in 1970 and merged with rivals from a group called White Clover, whose drummer Phil Ehart and bassist Dave Hope soon left to revive it. In 1972 Ehart and Hope rebuilt White Clover with Steinhardt, singer and keyboardist Steve Walsh and guitarist Rich Williams, and early the next year lured Livgren back. After an assistant to record mogul Don Kirshner caught a show in Ellinwood, Kansas, in March 1973, they signed and took back the Kansas name.
The 1974 debut built a cult following through heavy touring. Leftoverture, recorded at a studio deep in the Louisiana bayou, reached number 5 on the album chart in 1976 and eventually went five times platinum, while Point of Know Return climbed to number 4 the following year. Kansas headlined Madison Square Garden, toured Europe for the first time in March 1978 and became honorary UNICEF goodwill ambassadors. People of the South Wind, from 1979's Monolith, takes its title from the meaning of Kanza, the Native American people who gave the state its name.
Faith then pulled the group apart. Livgren became an evangelical Christian on the Monolith tour and Hope followed. Walsh left in 1981 and was replaced by John Elefante, chosen from more than 200 hopefuls including Sammy Hagar. Queen's Roger Taylor, recording next door, sang backing vocals on Vinyl Confessions. Livgren and Hope departed after a New Year's Eve show closing 1983, and the band broke up following a 1984 compilation that later sold over four million copies in America.
Ehart, Williams and Walsh revived Kansas in 1985 with guitarist Steve Morse, and their 1986 single All I Wanted reached number 19, the group's final Top 40 hit.
Source: Kansas (band)
