Ken Nash • Vocals/Guitars Solo Acoustic Past bands: Unprecious Soul with Jon Morse and Weylin Jones KNV Flic Spankin’ Jack Freudian Slap Kat Thang New Johnny 5
Influences
60s: The Beatles, Steppenwolf, Cream, Dylan 70s The Allman Brothers, Led Zeppelin, Clapton, Rory Gallagher, Deep Purple, James Gang, Jimi Hendrix 80s Bowie, (love Low and Heroes), Eno, King Crimson, (w/ Belew and Fripp), XTC, Love and Rockets, Talking Heads, INXS 90s: STP!!!, Radiohead, Soundgarden, Beck, Alice in Chains This Century: Radiohead, At The Drive In, Talk Show, The Raconteurs, The Strokes, Coldplay
My first influencial musical memory, besides Sunday evenings watching Lawrence Welk with my family, was seeing my older sister freak out over the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. For the rest of the 60’s I listened to her 45rpm collection, including, The Young Rascals, Steppenwolf, Simon and Garfunkel, and a lot of pop on WABC. My record collection was mostly Disney 45’s like Supercalifagilisticexpialidocious, awesome. My first LP was purchased through my mothers’s Columbia Record Club. She asked me to pick one out for myself and I chose Jimi Hendrix’s Smash Hits, I thought the cover looked cool. It changed my life forever. The rest of the 70’s was spent listening to guitarists from Hendrix to Duane Allman, and learning how to play. I still have my first Strat that my friend "Tilt" picked out for me, for $250! It’s a ’74 swamp ash body with a maple neck, the body weighs only 3 pounds, it’s has an amazing tone. I spent over a decade not knowing what any song was lyrically about but I could hum every guitar lick, especially the Allman Brothers. You know, the full scale stuff with all of the switching between major and minor scales. It was my classical music. Duane and Dickey played the most beautiful melodies. Jimmy Page’s writing and playing still speaks to me to this day. Dean DeLeo’s playing with STP is the best I’ve heard since , I love STP, the albums are fantastic, they can switch between heavy rock and acoustic effortlessly.
The 80’s were a lost time musically for me, travelling with friends in a punk/newwave band called New Johnny 5. I played bizarre leads with Big Muffs and an Arp Avatar. It was a blast but when the night was over and I was home, Hank Williams or old school rock was on the turntable to help center me. After adoring the great guitar player’s from the 60’s and 70’s it was tough listening to out of tune punk player’s, still is, but I love the energy! And that is what it’s really what it is all about , the lead’s energy not just the notes played. We played everywhere and with everyone, Studio 54, The Pyramid Club, Toads, Ron’s Place, and with INXS, X, Culture Club, Modern English, Cyndi Lauper, The Ramones, The Romantics, to name a few. The highlight was hanging out with Micheal Hutchence and Andrew Farriss in their hotel watching their photographer’s 35mm slide show of the tour, until the sun came up! They were very sweet. I left NJ5 to play with Kat Thang, a crazed psychobilly band with the infamous Micheal Wylde in front. It was the first time I was able to write music for a band and I fell in love with it. We drank way too much vodka, fell into drum sets, hung out with Club Kids in the city, and made a mess of things. Too much fun! My highlight was laying on the El ’n’ Gee stage drunk after Micheal walked on me, and a homeless person sat next to me and shared his beer with me. Disgusting. I played in a couple of bar bands in the early 90’s but stopped performing all together to spend time raising my son, Dylan. I took 7 years off and enjoyed every minute of it. I started playing again in 2000 thanks to the influence of a dear friend, The Crimson Fairy. I started writng songs for her and trying to sing, luckily an old friend, Chris MacKay, sang them onstage for me. We also wrote lots of songs together and formed KNV. The highlight was spending a summer recording in Karen and Steve Delacey’s house on a llama farm in Old Lyme. Using BJ Zampa’s 1" tape machine and cool 80’s gear, he and I used a separate track every time I changed a guitar tone. 4 - 6 guitar tracks per song, what a blast. The band never really gelled and the album sounded sterile, but it had it’s moments. Hollis Dunlop’s painting on the cover is a beautiful rendition of a dream I had, and inspired the song; Complicated or Simple. Since then I have been lucky enough to record and perform with Jon Morse and Weylin Jones, the Ivoryton Connection. They are an amazing rhythm section the perfect compliment to any songwriter. We played some great shows, including SailFest at The Hygienic Art Park and a early Blue Collar Happy Hour. I still write, and I record on an old G3 using a free version of Pro Tools with a SM58. I am not performing now, except for an inpromptu coffee house gig. Thanks for reading and listening. Love, Ken
Using BJ Zampa’s 1" tape machine and cool 80’s gear, he and I used a separate track every time I changed a guitar tone. 4 - 6 guitar tracks per song, what a blast. The band never really gelled and the album sounded sterile, but it had it’s moments. Hollis Dunlop’s painting on the cover is a beautiful rendition of a dream I had, and inspired the song; Complicated or Simple.
