Kyle Eldridge and the Kentucky Cowhands

Kyle Eldridge and the Kentucky Cowhands played a show at Concerts on the green on June 6th. I was stoked when I first heard they were coming to town because our mutual friend and local rockabilly DJ Mondo Magpie has hyped Kyle up to me the past few years and I was finally getting the opportunity to see him. I was less stoked when I found out it was the same day I was scheduled to fly home from vacation with my plane landing three hours after the show.

This article is happening, so I guess you know how that turned out. Sleep derived and hoping it was all worth it, I headed towards show. Spoiler alert, it was. Kyle is an incredibly talented musician. Straight out of the gate he reminded me of an old school picker. Paired with RC Hampton on drums and John McQueen on the upright bass the trio gave me Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two vibes all night long. Fun, engaging, and ear pleasing they did not disappoint. Their smooth mix of classic country western and rockabilly delighted everyone in the crowd including myself, who is not a huge fan of most country western music. I think that in itself speaks volumes for what Kyle and the Kentucky Cowhands bring to the stage. If they can make a rock fan who really dislikes part of the genre they play, have a good time and enjoy themselves, in my opinion, they can probably do just about anything. I even caught myself grooving to Spooky Moon, which is one of Kyle's original tunes.

Kyle Eldridge plays for the crowd at Concert on the Green. June 6th, 2021.

By all accounts it was a great show and an awesome way to kick off bringing live music back to Concerts on the green for the first time since the pandemic.

(Pictured from left to right) John, RC and Kyle. June 6th, 2021. Concerts on the green.

After the show, I had to the opportunity to grab Kyle for a few questions and since I found myself still struggling to properly describe the official style of music he plays I decided to ask him about that along with a couple of other topics.

When I asked how he would describe himself to someone who wasn't familiar with him he said:

"I would describe myself as a mixture blend of western swing, rockabilly, country western and a lot of mid century americana type styles of music all in one clean bundle."

He also just released a new EP called Riverboat Gambler, so I asked him to talk about the experience of recording that which he did "old school" meaning live in the studio on tape.

"I recorded that a couple years ago, pre pandemic down in Bristol at Bigtone studios and we recorded it just the same way I recorded my last EP which was live, straight to tape, no head phones, just the band doing live takes. We just rehearse a lot and then did a couple of takes, picked the best one and there it is. The reason we did that is to really capture the energy of a lot of those old recordings from way back when stuff was recorded onto wax, and onto tape and all of that just to get the energy of a live performance captured on tape as opposed to all edited together. Now, that being said, I love records that are edited together and spliced together and really polished, but I just also love that old energy that is on those old Bob Wills, Cliff Gallup and Gene Vincent recordings and I wanted that magic for myself. We did it that way, I think it came out good. Obviously a delay because of the pandemic, but now that it's out we're super happy with it and hope folks are as well."

Kyle is a Louisville, Kentucky resident and recently had to chance to perform at Churchill Downs for their Downs After Dark event which is kind of a big deal. Here's his take on being part of it:

"It was a pretty trippy event because I've never actually been to Churchill downs until that gig, never been inside the walls, so that was quite an experience. It was cool coming off the pandemic just seeing lots of people gather and being able to see a lot of people in one spot again, that was fun, but also some where so historic and so iconic like that place is obviously and to be part of that was just a lot of fun. It was a hot day and I'll always have that memory of it being super hot out, there's horse races, people are handing me drinks of water but I remember thinking man this is miserable out here but I'm thinking what am I talking about I'm at Churchill Downs playing guitar, this is the best thing in the world, it was a lot of fun and I was proud to do it."

They have a couple of more dates on this swing including two nights in Nashville, so Kyle talked about what the rest of 2021 has in store for them:

"Hopefully more Nashville gigs. We've got a few things coming up, we're opening up for Reverend Horton Heat in July at South Gate house down in Cincinnati/Covington area. We're playing Symco Fest up in Wisconsin in August and hopefully a whole bunch more coming down the pipe line since stuff is coming back slowly but surely. Oh yeah, and the New England Shake up in September. That will be a lot of fun, I'm on the barn dance show at that and there's going to be a whole lot of artist there from our genre, so many great musicians and great friends, it's going to be a lot of fun."

One final note from our interview that I thought was fun is Kyle talked about his goal for this year.

"My goal is at some of the gigs this year, you know trying to stay active during the pandemic I've been throwing the baseball a lot so I'm trying to get some of my heroes and my favorite artist to play catch with me at some of their gigs and see if I can make it happen, we'll see what happens."

Best of luck with that Kyle and if any of your heroes are reading this, I hoped it helped!!

If you ever get the chance to get out to a Kyle Eldridge and the Kentucky Cowhands show, make sure you take it. You'll enjoy yourself and be blown away by some talented musicians.

To listen to the new EP you can go here Kyle Eldridge

Kyle Eldridge

Rockabilly music, lyrics, and videos from Louisville, KY on ReverbNation

Or you can follow him on Instagram here

https://www.instagram.com/kylescountrywesternguitar/?hl=en



A big ol' thank you to Kyle, RC, and of course Mondo Magpie for taking time out to do this interview!

Check out the full picture gallery on our photo gallery page….

https://www.theparttimejournalist.com/concerts/kyle-eldridge