Music
Press
Randy Kohrs is certainly not a newcomer to any fan of bluegrass based music, however with his current single "Who's Goin' With Me" getting a whole lot of play on GAC and CMT, even being in the top 10 on the fan voted "Pure 12 Pack" for the past few weeks, Kohrs is quickly gaining new fans and I am happy to say I am one of them. With his latest offering Kohrs delivers honest lyrics with the subject matter ranging from an everyday woman (Lena Mae), to more spiritual subject matter (Can You Give Me A Drink) to his current single (Who's Goin' With Me) that combines his spiritual side with a great story about falling for the preacher's daughter as an adolescent. Randy Kohrs musically brings modern bluegrass to the table but is smart enough to combine it with a modern country feel that you find spread throughout the mainstream in bands like Little Big Town. As with a majority of bluegrass music, the musicianship is a key element to the music. You will usually find outstanding musicians on bluegrass albums and you have that here as well. From banjo, to mandolin, to a guest spot from the Queen of Bluegrass, Rhonda Vincent on "Don't Let Your Wounded Heart Come Between Us," Kohrs takes his bluegrass influenced style and packages it perfectly for any fan of modern country and I suspect that even those that aren't bluegrass fans will love Randy Kohrs style and vocals and will quickly be adding "Old Photograph" to their collections of music. - Gone Country Magazine
Randy Kohrs has played guitar and other string instruments with many of Nashville's finest (including Dolly Parton, Randy Travis and Hank Thompson). He considers himself “first and foremost a session musician,” and he began working with recording technology as a way to experiment, listen back and perfect his musicianship.
Musician/engineer Randy Kohrs (seated) is recording the follow-up to Jim Lauderdale’s Bluegrass in his Slack-key Studio. Meanwhile, Kohrs’ album Old Photograph is climbing the bluegrass chart.
“I started with small recorders and having a studio in the house that I could practice in, and it just evolved,” Kohrs explains. “I've had lots of help from some of the great engineers here in town. There's lots to learn from those guys, and I've been lucky enough to play on sessions where I could ask them questions.”
Kohrs now uses his project room, Slack-key Studio, to record his own bluegrass band, Randy Kohrs & The Lites (get it?) and a number of other indie country acts, such as Larry Cordle & Lonesome Standard Time, Hank III and Jim Lauderdale. At press time, Kohrs and Lauderdale were busy tracking the follow-up to Lauderdale's Grammy-nominated Bluegrass. Kohrs co-produced Bluegrass, which he says was recorded mostly live at Bil Vorndick's studio. “On this next album,” Kohrs says, “we've recorded upright bass, mandolin, guitar, banjo and Jim's scratch vocal going down, and I'm really taking my time with the dobro and fiddle parts. Also, this album has a different character from Bluegrass. We've got some vintage country kind of mirror-image licks — a lot like they would do with pedal steel and fiddle back in the '50s. We're really breaking them down, and there's all kinds of unison playing that branches off into harmonies — it's very creative, very enjoyable stuff.”
Kohrs' studio comprises a 13×16-foot control room and a 500-square-foot tracking room, where he gets separation with the use of 12-inch-thick foam partitions. Kohrs tracks to Steinberg Nuendo 3, using Apogee 16X AD/DA converters. His outboard gear includes a collector's assortment of analog preamps from Universal Audio, Telefunken, Forsell Technologies and Ampex. “I have a stereo pair of vintage Ampex 601s that were modified by Natale Tomiano in New York City,” Kohrs explains. “I met him when I was on tour with Dolly Parton, and we've been friends ever since. He makes these old pre's — basically guts them and does his mods on them, and when he gets done they're just incredible.”
Kohrs also benefits from a number of endorsements, including microphone manufacturers RØDE, Royer, Shure and, most recently, Lauten Audio with its Horizon tube mic. His main monitors are Mackie 824 near-fields with matching sub.
Next up for Kohrs, once Lauderdale's project is in the can, will be four bonus tracks for a Dave Evans compilation and a follow-up to his own solo album, Old Photograph, which was released this past March on Rural Rhythm Records. “That album was done 50 percent with my touring band and 50 percent with session musicians. I just found out that it went up this week from Number 30 on the bluegrass chart to Number 20. So things are definitely looking up.”
- Mix Magazine
Singer-Songwriter Randy Kohrs delivers a masterpiece in his new album Old Photographs. Folks this cd debuting at #19 on the Cashbox Bluegrass charts is Grammy® material.
Randy is one hell of a songwriter and this album showcases his talent. All 12 tracks are like diamonds in the rough on this cd. Now I've heard of genre bending but track 6 stands way out front "Can You Give Me A Drink" not only combines gospel bluegrass but black gospel too. This track will have you jumping to your feet. This is definitely a single release somewhere. If you never thought you would hear such a combination you have it here and believe ole J.D., I'll stand by this track, its fantastic. Other tracks include "Rockwell's Gold", "Old Photograph", "Two Boys from Kentucky",and the more country oriented sounds on "White Ring" and "She Ain't Coming Back". I hope to be hearing a lot more from Randy Kohrs. This is a truly great artist, not from the Nashville Cookie Cutter Society of Sound Alike Rich Cowboys. All you major guys learn from a pro like Randy Kohrs. This cd is real honest down to earth music, the way its meant to be heard.
JDH 5 STARS - Cashbox Magazine
Arcadia, CA (Top40 Charts/ Rural Rhythm Records) - Following a debut at the number three spot just five weeks ago on the CMT Pure 12-Pack Countdown, progressive acoustic artist Randy Kohrs reached the coveted number one position just a week later, unprecedented by any other independent artist. It has since stayed in the top four, and this week has jumped right back up to the number one slot, where it shows no signs of dropping down.
The video for Kohrs' new single, "Who's Goin' With Me," from his latest Rural Rhythm Records CD, Old Photograph, is the first for the singer/songwriter and world-renowned resophonic guitarist, and it appears that he got it right the first time.
Directed by Jarboe, of Bell-Jarboe Films, it was shot on location in Hendersonville, TN and boasts cameo appearances by country artist Pam Tillis, Americana icon Jim Lauderdale, the song's co-writer and MuzikMafia artist Shannon Lawson, and RCA recording artist Waylon Payne, who is also recognizable as Jerry Lee Lewis in the blockbuster, Walk The Line, among members of Kohrs' touring band, Randy Kohrs & the Lites. Playing a lead role is the young mandolin prodigy Sierra Hull. Following the successes of this work, plans have already begun for the video on the next single. - top40-charts.com
Discography
A Crack In My Armour - 2001, Junction Records
Now It's Empty - 2003, Left of Center Records
I'm Torn - 2004, Lonesome Day Records
Old Photograph - 2007, Rural Rhythm Records
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Bio
With the release of Old Photograph, his first album for Rural Rhythm Records, multi-instrumentalist Randy Kohrs has also arrived as a first-rate vocalist, songwriter and producer. With a 2008 Grammy win for producing, engineering, mixing, singing harmony, and playing on Americana icon Jim Lauderdale’s latest, The Bluegrass Diaries, he has now solidified his standing as one of the strongest all-around musical forces coming up on the Nashville scene.
Kohrs has long been celebrated for his inventive, mood-setting work as a dobroist (that’s him providing the dramatic framework on Dierks Bentley’s No. 1 hit, “What Was I Thinking.”) But his flashes of instrumental wizardry have often diverted attention from his wider musicianship.
Old Photograph has received much critical acclaim and chart-topping success. A #1 video on CMTPure for the single, “Who’s Goin’ With Me,” proved that the mainstream country audience welcomes his progressive acoustic sound, too. An appearance on the Rachael Ray Show further introduced him to the mainstream audience. He will be making his debut appearance as a featured artist on the Grand Ole Opry in the coming days, an honor not bestowed on just any artist.
Growing up on a farm in the rural town of New Virginia, Iowa, Kohrs was raised like every other kid in the area, getting up early to feed the animals before school and performing various other chores until the sun went down. At the age of eight, however, it became clear that he was not destined to spend his life on a farm when his Uncle Jack brought over an acoustic guitar, showed him a few techniques and promptly enchanted the eager youngster.
Having been taught always to pay his own way, Kohrs bought the guitar from his uncle for about $100. Around the age of 10, he became more fascinated with his Uncle Jack’s main instrument, the resophonic guitar, or dobro, and resolved to learn to play that, too. So, in his typically industrious style, he raised and sold a feeder calf within the year to purchase his first dobro.
In two practice-packed years, Kohrs became accomplished enough to begin playing full-time with the Missouri-based band, Possum Trot. He remained with them for 10 years. At 15, he began playing country music with a local band, as well, a band he later fronted in and around Des Moines. During this time, he had been developing his uniquely soulful and powerful tenor voice, along with his repertoire of other instruments, including electric guitar, mandolin, banjo, pedal steel, and bass.
Kohrs’ popularity continued to grow throughout the Midwest, and soon he realized that the next logical move was to Nashville. In 1994—shortly after the passing of his father—the grieving, yet hopeful, young artist loaded up a moving truck and headed to Music City.
In three short weeks, Kohrs found himself playing an incredibly grueling schedule at a club on Nashville’s fabled Lower Broadway called Maggie Magee’s (now the Nashville Crossroads). To supplement the minuscule income that gig yielded, he did auto detailing and light collision work from his home.
In 1995, during one of his nightly solo gigs, Kohrs so impressed Hank Williams III that he hired him on the spot for his own band. On his nights off, Kohrs continued to dazzle the folks on Lower Broad. When the legendary Tom T. Hall decided he needed a multi-instrumentalist for the band he was forming, he dispatched his personal assistant to check out this newcomer who was creating such a buzz. A week later, Kohrs was off on his first major tour with “The Storyteller,” a circuit that took him to Australia for a month.
In the spring of 1997, Hall retired from the road and Kohrs found himself back on Lower Broad. That summer, bluegrass stalwart David Parmley went to hear Kohrs play, and at 7 o’clock the next morning, he was on a bus headed to Canada as a member of Continental Divide. For the next two years, he sang tenor and occasional lead and played dobro with the band. He recorded on the album Feel Good Day, which made it to the Top 5 on the bluegrass charts and the Top 20 on the Americana charts.
Subsequently, Kohrs toured with Holly Dunn for two years and performed regularly with her on her Grand Ole Opry appearances. In late 2000, John Cowan offered Kohrs a gig playing dobro and singing tenor, a task few people in this world have the voice to do. Yet, he performed exquisitely and can be heard on Cowan’s Always Take Me Back.
While grateful to be working with so many great acts, it had always been Kohrs’ dream to have a solo career. In 2001, he released his debut solo album, A Crack In My Armour, on Junction Records. Containing several original songs, it earned him new respect among the Nashville songwriting community and acclaim within the larger music industry. He followed it with a traditional country album, Now It’s Empty, on his own label, Left Of Center Records.
In 2003, Kohrs accepted a gig with the unsinkable Dolly Pa
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