Bill Kirchen

Kirchen hammers away on his Tele (Jan 2007)

Bill Kirchen's guitar skills have earned him the nickname Titan of the Telecaster, so - quite naturally - the title track to his new CD, "Hammer Of The Honky-Tonk Gods," is a tribute to a few of his favorite Telecaster players. And without a doubt, Kirchen loves his Telecaster guitar. "It's kind of got its own cache for a variety of reasons," says Kirchen, when asked what makes this particular guitar so special. "One, it's a design that's remained virtually unchanged since it was invented in  ...

Kirchen remains tied to the wheel (Oct 2001)

Lanky, bespectacled and now fiftysomething, Bill Kirchen looks a lot more like the shy, slightly absent-minded science teacher we all seem to have encountered somewhere along the way in junior high, and his slow, deep, folksy voice certainly doesn't suggest the presence of a country-rock legend, a certified Guitar God, but for more than 30 years now Kirchen has been as much an icon in his music - he calls it "Dieselbilly" - as Clapton and Santana have been in theirs.  ...