RKO Blues Band
Wichita, Kansas, United States | SELF
Music
Press
For years Wichita's blues lovers have known they have something to look forward to after the New Year's razzle-dazzle. No surprise, then, that the Ninth Annual Blues Ball is Scheduled for Saturday at the Cotillion Ballroom. On tap are veterans of the blues scene , RKO Blues Band, winner of last fall's Wichita Blues Challenge. The band will advance to the national level of competition at the International Blues Challenge, an event hosted by the Blues Foundation next month in Memphis...
..."We'll be playing good old down-home blues plus some jump and swing blues," Said RKO harp player David Graham. "We also do some non-blues artists, but we turn them into blues numbers."
Among the less traditional choices on RKO's set list are tunes from Sting and Sam and Dave, Graham said, but there's plenty of room in their show for the music of Muddy Waters and B.B.King as well as some original tunes. - The Wichita Eagle
Blues fans can help send RKO Blues Band to Memphis next month, where they'll represent the Wichita Blues Society at the International Blues Challenge. The band is holding a fundraiser Saturday at Pat N Bros, 1111 E. Lincoln.
Joining RKO on the bill are the outcasts featuring clif Major, the Hortons, Made From Scratch, The Sharon Rush band, Amboo Ploy, Rene Aaron, Jerry Wilson, and Donna Davis. The music starts around 7pm. A suggested donation of $10 will be taken at the door. - The Wichita Eagle
The 2007 and 2008 Wichita blues challenge winners feature the soulful vocals and harp of David Graham and two Seasoned guitarists. Robert Kent Overaker started the band with lifelong friend Mike Horton in 2004, playing the annual backyard BBQ was too much fun to do just once a year. Steve Bowersox joined in at bass with the beat of St. Mark's mass choir courtesy of drummer Victor Kinchion. These guys do the business of having fun plying blues with passion...RKO mixes in great originals with great renditions of blues classics; this band's attitude reminds you of the Blues Brothers movie and they act like they're "on a mission." These guys are fun to see, fun to talk to and a blast to watch perform, ask Dave about the time Homesick James took him behind the woodshed after a show at the Spot Tavern! - Chatutauqua Hills Blues Festival Guide
Discography
RKO Blues "Sir Reginald Rides Again" 2007
New studio CD in progress
Photos
Bio
"Our first real gig as RKO Blues was at a Blues Pub Crawl in the Spring of 2006," recalls Kent Overaker, guitar player and singer for RKO Blues. "We had all played around alot, even with the same line-up a couple times, but never officially as RKO. I had known Mike (RKO guitarist Mike Horton) for a long time and we'd played together many times, and I worked in aircraft with Victor (drummer Victor Kinchion) and David (harmonica player David Graham) was looking for a new blues band, so all the pieces just sorta fell in place. We did go through a couple bass players till I called my old friend, Sox, (Steve Bowersox) and he was in between bands, and that's the band still today. There are some nights where we'll have a horn section with us, things get real fun then!
The bar we were in for the Crawl was packed and we kinda did a free form thing, almost like a jam, just played stuff we all knew, and it came off real well! They liked the fact that we were the 'new' blues band in town.
After that we just started playing everywhere we could get booked, anyplace that would pay us, we just wanted to play in front of a crowd. I guess we are still like that, all bands are like that !"
RKO Blues represented the Wichita, Ks. area two years in a row at The International Blues Challenge in Memphis. Overaker; "We really are a 'Blue Collar Blues Band,' we all have day jobs and families and stuff, so to get to go and play on Beale Street two years in a row was a great experience. We learned and saw alot there! The Blues Foundation is a very hard working organization and I became a member while in Memphis that first time and still am a member today!"
Pretty impressive considering how new on the local music scene they were!
When asked about the name of the band, Overaker offers this response; "RKO are my initials, and also the name of the once mighty radio and motion picture studio giant from the '40s and'50s. My dad was a sports writer for the Wichita Eagle-Beacon, and when I was born he had a little article put on the front page about RKO Studios having a new namesake, namely me, the one and only! So I really do have the rights to that name."
Overaker comments on bandmate David Graham; "David is a blues historian, he has a record collection to die for! I'm talkin 'race records','Vocallion' classics, you name it, and he's got it! We get alot of our material from that old country blues, old Mississippi blues music he's got, it's fantastic stuff. I also love jazz, Wes Montgomery was the first guitar player that really captured me when I was young, that's where I learned to play with my thumb, then I got turned onto BB, after that the other great blues players just fell right in place. We really have a wide range of stuff we like and do!"
"I have a background in vocal music, and I credit my instructors through the years for giving me the appreciation that I have for singing and the importance of vocals, no matter what your style or genre is!"
We have been pretty fortunate to stay busy playing and to be able to see how many people really love the Blues!"
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