Official Website: Kansas
Members:
Kerry Livgren
Steve Walsh
Dave Hope
Rich Williams
Robbie Steinhardt
Phil Ehart
Albums: (The album title is a link to the album thread)
Kansas 1974
Song For America 1975
Masque 1975
Leftoverture 1976
Point Of No Return 1977
Monolith 1979
Audio-Visions 1980
Vinyl Confessions 1982
Drastic Measures 1983
Power 1983
In The Spirit Of Things 1988
Freaks Of Nature 1995
Always Never The Same 1998
Somewhere To Elsewhere 2000
The Prelude To Impact 2016
Dave Hope (bass), Phil Ehart (drums, percussion), and Kerry Livgren (guitars, keyboards, synthesizers) formed a progressive rock group in 1970 in their hometown of Topeka, Kansas, along with vocalists Lynn Meredith and Joel Warne, and keyboardist Don Montre, keyboardist Dan Wright, and saxophonist Larry Baker.
A year earlier, Meredith, Montre, Wright and Livgren were performing in a band called The Reasons Why. After changing the band's name to Saratoga, they started playing Livgren's original material with Scott Kessler playing bass and Zeke Lowe on drums. In 1970, they changed the band's name again to Kansas and merged with members of rival Topeka progressive rock outfit White Clover. This early Kansas group, which lasted until 1971 when Ehart, Hope, and some of the others left to reform White Clover, is sometimes referred to as Kansas I.
Ehart was replaced by Zeke Lowe and later Brad Schulz, Hope was replaced by Rod Mikinski on bass, and Baker was replaced by John Bolton on saxophone and flute. (This lineup is sometimes referred to as Kansas II, and 30 years later would re-form under the name Proto-Kaw.) In 1972, after Ehart returned from England (where he had gone to look for other musicians), he and Hope once again reformed White Clover with Robby Steinhardt (vocals, violin, viola, cello), Steve Walsh (vocals, keyboards, synthesizers, percussion) and Rich Williams (guitars). In 1973 they recruited Livgren from the second Kansas group, which then folded. Eventually they received a recording contract with Don Kirshner's eponymous label and decided to adopt the Kansas name.
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