About Me
ALSO CHECK OUT myspace.com/kanewelchandkaplin
Currently touring behind the new release "Kane Welch Kaplin" with partners Kieran Kane and Fats Kaplin, and Lucas Kane on percussion. Please check the website kevinwelch.com or deadreckoningrecords.com for up to date schedule, merchandise, chat board etc.
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Born in Long Beach, California, August 17th, 1955.
Traveled his little ass off till he was 7, family settled in Oklahoma.
Made it through high school, Midwest City High, and one semester of music school at Central State, Edmond, Oklahoma, joined a bluegrass band, dropped out of school, hit the road.
Met John Hadley, real songwriter for Tree International, who also taught art at the University of Oklahoma (OU) in Norman. Hadley was immediately critical of his guitar playing, which made him try harder just to get even.
Traveled a honkytonk circuit for 5 years in a van and a truck named Phyllis in a band called New Rodeo and then a band called Blue Rose Cafe. Started thinking there might be another way to live.
Met Jennifer Patten, got married, moved to Nashville like Hadley said they should, started writing for Tree International. This is 1978.
Wrote for 10 years, got some cuts, started earning a living. Had 3 kids, Dustin, Savannah, and Ada. Jennifer and Kevin split up but still stayed good friends. The 3 kids got to 'still have a Mom-and-a-Dad'.
Steve Earle made Guitar Town, and then Steve, Don Schlitz, Mark Germino and some other madmen suggested Kevin get a record deal. Paul Worley went over to Warner Bros. and got Kevin signed. Made 2 records, 'Kevin Welch' in 1990 and 'Western Beat' in 1992. Warner let Kevin do whatever he wanted. Then they let him out of the deal to be nice, and because they had already spent a fortune on him they were never ever ever gonna earn back.
Kieran Kane, Harry Stinson, Mike Henderson, Tammy Rogers, and Kevin drank so much vodka one night that they started their own label, Dead Reckoning Records. This was around 1994 or 95. They released 21 records over the next 7 years, toured individually and also together as a collective called A Night Of Reckoning (with Fats Kaplin and Allison Prestwood) through the U.S., U.K., Ireland, Europe, and Canada. They were really really good together, but then they all got tired and went home.
Except for Kevin. One evening while shaving in a broken mirror over the dishwasher's sink in the freezing kitchen of a pub somewhere very far from home, he suddenly realized he was humming the tune to "There's No Business Like Show Business."
He still didn't stop.
2000, Kevin and Kieran started traveling together with a 2-man show - 2 guitars, 2 voices, and a bottle of Bushmills, or sometimes Jameson. They made a live record in Melbourne, Australia, called '11/12/13' and kept on with it because it was so much fun and actually pretty good, too. They went all over the place.
In the years 2000 and 2001 Kevin completed a record with his friends from Denmark, who everybody just calls The Danes. Kevin thinks it's real damn good.
2004, Kevin, Kieran and Fats made a three-man record with no bass or drums, along with a companion record with their friend David Francey, the Scottish/Canadian ass-kicking poet and singer. Toured all over the place some more. By this stage the poor sonofabitch is closing in on 50.
At the time of this writing, Kevin resides in a chair in his office at home with a stiff neck, a warm Powerbook and a cold cup of coffee. He lives with his beautiful and talented girlfriend Claudia Scott and they don't have one single pet.
