Bill Kirchen "Cat Out Of The Bag" Album Release Party

Bill Kirchen "Cat Out Of The Bag" Album Release Party

Tip Top Deluxe Bar & Grill, 760 Butterworth St SW, 49504 Grand Rapids Kort

fös. 07.08.2026 20:00

To let a cat out of the bag supposedly means letting something slip, like a secret. But for BILL KIRCHEN, it means escape, as in freedom from confinement, convention even gravity. Freedom to hit the road and play rock n roll. Thats the energy driving the title track of Kirchens new album, Cat Out of the Bag, which showcases the six-string master dubbed Titan of the Telecaster by Guitar Player magazine at his gusto-grabbing best.Thats a good-to-be-alive song, says Kirchen of the albums opening track. Its a celebration of getting through the worst of the pandemic unscathed, getting back on the road and affirming our belief that the kids are alright. The first track, Cat Out of the Bag is available now as a digital single.The Austin-based guitarist, singer and songwriter confirms his lust for life and offers up his lyrically referenced rock n roll soul in several songs exhibiting the rockabilly-meets-honky-tonk style that earned him his titan status (as well as a Best Country Instrumental Performance Grammy nomination for the chicken-pickin song, Poultry in Motion). Cat Out of the Bag is also a declaration of freedom from the confines of his past. He wanted to explore new sounds, find new approaches and he did.This album has the broadest scope yet of any of the dozen or so Ive done in my own name, he says. A bigger palette of genres, songwriting, guitar work. Amid the vibrancy of uptempo songs such as the title tune, the rollicking Honky-Tonk Hellfire and City Mix (with its hillbilly licks), there is also more downbeat fare, both thematically and musically.

Flytjendur

  • Bill Kirchen
    Bill Kirchen

    Upon tallying how many decades he’s worked as a professional guitar slinger, Telecaster master Bill Kirchen quips, “Well, they don't make 50 years like they used to.” They don’t often make careers like his, either.

    From performing with his Who Knows Pickers jug band in Ann Arbor High School’s senior talent show (also on the program: the future Iggy Pop), to birthing the Americana genre with the original “hippie country band,” Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen, this affable Austinite has been everywhere, man, flying alongside some of the planet’s coolest cats — including the Jesus of Cool, Nick Lowe, and Lowe’s old protégé, Elvis Costello.