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In his wonderfully engaging and informative liner notes, Bill manages to transform his description of the origin of “Valley of the Moon” into a moving elegy for his dear friends Norton Buffalo and Chris Gaffney. “Louise met [Norton] and brought him to the band’s attention when we lived in Valley of the Moon, Sonoma County, CA,” he writes. “We subsequently took him to Europe for what turned out to be the last hurrah Commander Cody album, We’ve Got a Live One Here. He was in my original Moonlighters band along with Blackie Farrell. For decades, Norton played on dang near everybody’s record or movie soundtrack. A triple-threat harp player, songwriter and singer, Norton sadly succumbed to cancer shortly after cutting the track for this record. He is greatly missed. Norton solos on ‘Valley of the Moon,’ which I wrote for Louise after a trip to Glen Ellen, CA, where we had lived and married 35 years before. We were on our way to attend a wake for our friend Chris Gaffney, and the song took on special poignancy after Norton’s death.”
Justly famous for his indelible Telecaster sound on “Hot Rod Lincoln,” his 1972 Top 10 hit with Commander Cody, Kirchen has been everywhere since he first plugged in during the mid-’60s: he was a founding member of the legendary Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, he’s released eight critically acclaimed solo albums, he’s toured internationally with Nick Lowe and has performed with the likes of Doug Sahm, Gene Vincent, Elvis Costello, Dan Hicks, Emmylou Harris and Link Wray. Each step of the way, he’s made a deep impression with his singular six-string virtuosity. As the Washington Post’s Mike Joyce put it, “The folks who make Fender Telecasters ought to stop what they’re doing and cut Bill Kirchen a fat check.”
On the title song of Hammer of the Honky Tonk Gods, Kirchen wrote of his trusty Tele that it was “born at the junction of form and function,” but he could’ve just as accurately been referring to himself—if he wasn’t so damn humble, that is. “I’m really thrilled with the album, man, because for Proper to have that much interest in me to put this out, I mean, honestly, at this point in my life it’s not something I can take for granted,” Kirchen reflects. “It’s been 40 years that I’ve been at this full-time, and I’m still not sure if I have a career, but I know I have a job.” - continued
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