| The Thunder Chiefs were born much in the same way that a Texas storm is. You take some elements blowing around in the big blue sky, have them run into each other at the right time under the right conditions and before you know it, you've got thunder, lightning, a gale that will knock you over and sheeee-it, somebody's fixin' to lose a trailer.
Just like a Texas storm, the Thunder Chiefs are a force of nature that must be reckoned with. Hold on tight to something or get down somewhere real low because the twister is coming and it will not be denied.
This latest incarnation of Thunder Chiefs began innocently enough with a recording session. Jeff runs a small studio in Austin where Blackie works part time as his assistant engineer. They were also two thirds of a nut crushing hard rock combo called the Trash Rock Kings. One day Ed booked a session at the studio to record the music for a play that he had scored featuring period Thirties music leaning heavily on the blues. During the mix sessions, Jeff called the guys and told them while holding his phone up to the monitors, "You have GOT to come over and listen to this."
And so they did.
They sat at the back of the control room listening while Jeff rolled the playback from his seat at the console. Somewhere in the middle of the second track, Jeff turned around and said, "We have GOT to put a band together with this guy." Glances were exchanged and the guys just smiled and nodded to Jeff in a manner that could only be interpreted to mean, "Well.. ummm... DUH!"
Phone calls were made, emails were exchanged and they all pulled a couple of songs out of their back pockets, as well as from the original demos that they thought would work. This all took place in the space of four days. Two days later, Jeff and the guys were in the studio laying down tracks as the Thunder Chiefs. Two days after that, Ed came in to record his vocal and harp tracks. When they all listened back to the mixes of what they had done, there was no denying that they had become more than the sum of their parts. Within minutes, they had begun their first full band rehearsal.
The elements combined, lightning struck, thunder rolled and they were carried away to a place that was both higher and lower than themselves. Thunder Chiefs had been born, kicking and wailing into a world where their blues rock tornado was ready to take on all comers and leave them begging for more in a wake of beautiful destruction.
Thunder Chiefs are here, grab on to something tight, get down real low and be prepared to be blown away.
Vocals, Harp: Ed Kliman
"I started out playing coffeehouses in Detroit and soon graduated
into playing joints that the cops wouldn't go into until the ambulance
crew arrived. You don't last long in those places if you can't get the
job done."
This tough self-reliance comes through strongly in his songs, which often
draw on historical events and characters. "I like survivors - people
who have come through tough circumstances and refused to take a standing
eight count from life. Through song, I hope to connect with enough of those
people to make at least a few little corners of the world a better place
to live in."
Guitar: Jeff Michaels
Smoker and Drinker Extraordinaire. Enjoys quiet, romantic walks with your girlfriend through punk rock clubs, and he'd drink a lot more, if only time would allow... Plans for the immediate future include moving equipment, drinking to excess and sleeping late. Treading a thin line between road dog and hired gun, Jeff started playing on a variety of instruments at age 8 in
St. Louis. A friend showed him most of the parts to
"Purple Haze" and, as he puts it, "Man, it was all over
after that. I caught the bug."
After moving around, he settled in Austin for the last 25 years, where he is equally at home on
a stage or in many studios. Jeff quickly became a sought-after local audio engineer and producer, on top
of already formidable guitar skills. "I got reasonably handy
behind a console out of necessity... I built a tiny studio and was producing
various projects, and one day Ed calls up with a project, next thing you know, here we are." Got a light?
Bass: Blackie Carter
Blackie's folks were good people who raised two fine
children. Because he has always believed in maintaining balance, Blackie
took it upon himself to make up for his brother and sister's lack of wickedness.
The first major step in that regard was to buy himself an electric guitar
with the money he skimmed from the take on his paper route. The next few
years of his life were passed banging away on his thrift store guitar while
listening to records. Time passed and Blackies initial urge to make an unholy
din (and to get chicks) turned into lifelong love for music encompassing
everything from Big Band jazz to Blues to Country to...
He just loves music, dangit.
Over the years Blackie has played with a variety of bands, most of which
centered around his punk and hard rock roots, but he has also made forays
into the realms of blues and alt-country. These days Blackie's love for
music is stronger than ever, and it's a safe bet that if he ever puts
down his instrument, it's only to go crack open a fresh beer.
Drums: Stephen Bidwell
Stephen Bidwell was born in Washington, DC and raised in the vanilla suburb of Reston, VA. A childhood obsession with music led to the pursuit of
active performance. The drums came easiest, and Steve began studying them
in earnest around the age of 12. High school involved a lot of lessons,
hardcore punk bands, Go-go jam sessions, jazz dabblings, and general
band-geekery. Steve chose to study music at a nationally recognized party
school in the northern Appalachians (Go Mountaineers!). While there he got
to study everything from Western classical music, jazz, over-the-top
debauchery, and world music.
Since leaving the previously mentioned University with two redundant
Bachelors degrees, he has lived in Pittsburgh, New Orleans (read: token
Katrina victim), New York, and currently resides in Austin. While living in
these cities he's played with top players in every style possible and opened
up for national acts (Lee Greenwood…at a dog track…no, really). He's toured
Asia twice, studied African drumming extensively (in Africa no less!) and
counts Johnny Vidacovich and Wayne Krantz among his most influential
teachers. Steve comes to the Thunder Chiefs via a craigslist miracle and is
looking forward to bashing his way across Texas and the rest of the world.
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