PC: When did you begin your music career?

KB: I guess it was around age thirteen, I suppose. I figured out one day when a local garage band played our junior high school, and a light bulb went off in head to the fact that (at least in my perception at the time) "musicians got more chicks than jocks"! Actually, it did happen that way, but I think closer to the truth is that I was a pretty lonely kid back then (being a social outcast), and it's natural to turn toward acceptance where ever you find it. In my case it turned out to be music. Thank god it wasn't anything nuttier, like bein' an axe murderer or a drug addict (or worse..:)!    So, I started writing little songs in my head and singin' them out loud, then picked up (more like borrowed) a guitar and taught myself how to play. I've pretty much been doin' that ever since... 

 

PC: Who are your main musical influences?

KB: As I put it in my bio on the web-site, something to the affect of "it was the likes of Hank, Lefty, Ernest, George, Marty, Winn, Web, Bob, Buck & Merle, who taught me how to sing a real country song"! With a few of them modern guys throwin' in for good measure, like, Alan, George, Rodney, Radney, Marty, David, Dale, Brian & Tony, Mark, Tracy, Junior, & Dwight...(of course)!  I guess time will tell what of affect the "Pat Green's, the Cory Morrow's, the Kevin Fowler's, and the Arron Watson's" of the world will have on me...

 

PC: Where can someone get copy of your CD "King Of The Thrift Store Cowboys"?

KB: www.kevinbanford.com for starters, www.texasmusicroundup.com , www.texasmusic.com , and even good old www.milesofmusic.com (might have a few copies left over and layin' around somewhere)! Actually, there seems to be a bunch of internet distributor/retailers out there who have sold it at one time or another. It's kind of odd to do an internet search and see your CD for sell in some foreign language! Hey what can I say, if it ain't anything, country music is most definitely a universal language. Thanks to a little blurb in a recent (Oct. 12th.) issue of "Country Weekly" magazine on page 53 about the album ("King Of The Thrift Store Cowboys"), maybe there'll be more of them sometime soon. Also, with the release of the new CD ("Between Heaven & L.A.") sometime next month, I'm hopin' that number will grow...

 

PC: Is there anybody that you would like to perform with or do a duet with?

KB: "Jimmy Buffet", (na, just kiddin'...:)! Actually, right now I can't think of anybody I'd like to do a duet with. But, there's a whole lot of folks I'd like to work and rub shoulders with. Gees, where do I start? Maybe referring to answer #2 under ("modern guys") would be a good place. Probably over and above anyone else though, I'd love more than anything to just pal around and hang out with Merle Haggard. Getting to tour with him would be a dream come true, but not necessary. I'd like him to know that there's a bunch of young "bucks" out there like me who are working to carry on the tradition of real country music that he not only helped create, but helped to carry on himself by honoring the music of those who came before him...

 

PC: Where do you want to be in the next few years with your music career? Any long term goals?

KB: "Tearin' up the highways of the great state of Texas"! It's taken me a long time to figure out that as far as country music is concerned (at least right now with the condition the country music business is in nationally) there is no way "you can't get there from here" in California. Texas has always been a place of starting over and reinventing yourself, and I honestly believe that the future of the art (maybe even the business) of country music lives in Texas. Don't get me wrong, I have always loved, and reverenced my country music heritage here in California. Hell, what do you think the "Bakersfield sound" was all about!? It was a bunch of country bumpkin cousins (more like red-headed step children) to Nashville, showin' them how make real (commercially viable) honky tonk records cheaper, faster, and better produced! There's a lot there to be proud of, but I'm afraid that time and the audience have forgotten most, if not all of it. It seems (to me) even the old timers (the pickers who helped make it happen) in Bakersfield, don't want to be reminded anymore of the good old days! Even the significance of my band name "The Bakersfield Boys" is more readily recognized and understood in Texas. It seems for some folks out here I am constantly having to clarify the fact that "we might not be from Bakersfield, but the music is"! My attitude towards country music has always been "anytime, anywhere". My long term goals are simple, "a hot band, a classic record, a cool bus, and an open road"! I'm still workin' on the bus part...

 

PC: What approach do you take when writing your songs? Do you have any specific routine?

KB: The bath tub mostly! No, really, inspiration can find you anytime, anywhere. No two songs go together the same. Sometimes you start out with a preconceived idea or title (what some folks refer to as "writing from the title out") and sometimes things just pop into your head (from things people around you say, I understand that Hank Sr. was really good at that)...

 

PC: What are your fondest career memorys so far?

KB: Performing abroad for our men and women in the armed forces. It's a wonderful feeling to have the privilege to give something back to this country by bringing a bit of back home to folks who are a long way from home. Little kids dancing way out in the audience, and the tears of the elderly rolling down their cheeks as they recall the memories of their youth through the songs we play...

 

PC: What are your fondest career memorys so far?

KB: Like, hey this could be the beginning of something...! But it was just a start, then a stop. A career is filled with starts and stops, but it's the ability to put a lot of them together, end to end, over a sustained period of time that can make you feel like you're getting somewhere. And maybe, when they are viewed from end to end, at the end of a career one might feel as though they actually accomplished something...

 

PC: Let people know about your film soundtrack credits?

KB: I have had several songs from the debut album used in three different made for TV movies from Larry Levinson Productions. They are "Night Of The Wolf" with Ann Archer and Robert Urich, it turned out to be Robert Urich's last movie. It aired for first time on a Monday night, and he died on Tuesday morning. The songs were, "King Of The Thrift Store Cowboys", "Katie Bar The Door", "By The Side Of The Road", "Guitars, Guns, God & Girls" and "Texas Love". The second was "Straight From The Heart" with "Cowgirl's Rodeo" and the third was "King And Queen Of Moonlight Bay" with "Pride In My Misery". It's kinda fun (and little strange) finding out when and where they are being shown in syndication when start receiving e-mails from that part of the world, literally...

 

PC: In your CD player right now, what CD would be found?

KB: Nothin' right now, it's broken! Really! But if there was a CD in my player it could be anything from Hank Williams Sr. to Dale Watson, the Sons Of The Pioneers to Bob Wills, or Buck Owens to my favorite singing buckaroo (and real workin' cowboy), Dave Stamey (www.davestamey.com). I've also been listening to a lot of Highway 101 lately (the early stuff of course, when Paulette was with the band), now that to me is real "modern" honky tonk...

Kevin was born in the foothills of the Wasatch Front in Utah. He moved to Southern California when he was three years old, and now lives in the Orange County community of El Toro.

 

After watching a band perform in junior high, Kevin quickly realized that "guitar players get more chicks than the jocks." He then began composing his own songs around the age of 13, and taught himself to play guitar shortly thereafter. He learned his craft of writing songs by listening to the popular music of the time with its many and varied influences.

 

One of Kevin's earliest memories about country music was hearing Roger Miller's "King of the Road" at a very young age. It remains one of his favorite songs. In his early twenties, he discovered the works of the great honky-tonk masters, such as Hank Williams Sr. When asked about his original influences, Kevin will often answer, "It was Hank, Lefty, Faron, Webb, Ernest, Buck, George, and Merle who taught me how to sing a real country song." More recent inspirations include "Dwight Yoakam for his West Coast honky-tonk coolness, David Ball for his modern Texas honky-tonk style, George Strait for being the example of the gentleman country singer, and Dale Watson and The
Derailers for carrying on the tradition."

 

Kevin's aspirations in the country music business are essentially to be a part of the revitalization of country music; helping to bring back what many have felt has been missing for so long . . . the music of the honky-tonk. He'd also like to help in reestablishing the prominence of that era in country music and bring respect to the artists who made it so great.