With a new album, two new music videos, upcoming concerts and the high visibility support of national music equipment retailer Sweetwater Sound, Kurth & Taylor are enjoying a new chapter in the band’s long and interesting history. Six months ago, Emmy Award winning songwriters and performers, Wally Kurth & Christian Taylor, had a similar and concurrent realization. While their lives were filled with the daily struggles and pleasures of mid-life parenthood, they both missed their old band. Five years into a child-rearing musical hiatus, the men decided it was time to “Get The Band Back Together Again”. While this seemingly universal mid-life scenario plays out across the country on a daily basis, Kurth & Taylor’s reunion would be slightly unique. THE HISTORY Formed in 1992, the duo would go on to have a rather unconventional career in music and television which prompted one newspaper to report that K&T was, “The most popular band you’ve never heard of”. Following the addition of high school friends, Lee Beverly (Bass Guitar), Jim Bloodgood (Drums) and Pat McCormack (Lead Guitar), the band spent years, (1993-2000), performing on ABC’s “General Hospital” as “Eddie Maine & The Idle Rich”. This was a direct and natural result of Kurth’s 14-year day job, portraying “Ned Ashton” on the award-winning daytime drama. He currently stars as “Justin Kiriakis” on NBC’s “Days of our Lives”. The extensive exposure to the daily audience of six million fans, in many ways, brought the band the proverbial “overnight success” they were looking for. They performed all across the country on the weekends and enjoyed the typical perks of “Rock Star” status. (Screaming fans, limos, autograph lines, etc…) The one missing ingredient: a record in the stores. “The major-label record deal eluded us,” Kurth points out. “Evidently we were a little too Rock for Country and a little too Country for Rock.” “We were labeled a “Tweener,” Taylor adds. “Something in-between the two genres which defied the traditional marketing avenues.” Not to be deterred, Kurth & Taylor began a DIY approach by releasing their own albums through the internet precursor: mail order. “While the demand was high, we certainly had a primitive distribution system,” Taylor laughs. Nonetheless, the guys re-invested their profits, built a new recording studio and continued to make albums. A chance meeting on the “General Hospital” set with Jeanne White, (mother of Ryan White*), led the boys down a path of philanthropy that continues to this day. After years of performing charity concerts to benefit The Ryan White Foundation, the band formed The Kurth & Taylor Foundation to continue raising money for various Children’s Hospitals and direct services programs. THE RECORDING PROCESS The largest hurdle to the ubiquitous, mid-life band reunion would be the geographical challenge. While Taylor lives in Nashville, along with Beverly and Bloodgood, Kurth lives in Los Angeles and McCormack lives in Northern California. Thanks to modern technology, the boys were able to overcome this obstacle in a very cost effective manner. Kurth points out, “Our new album cost $300 to record. That was the price of a plane ticket for Christian to fly out here to L.A. and use a portable recording device for all of my lead vocals.” Taylor adds, “What we lack in funding, we make up for with ingenuity. The guys all used their computer-based home studio setups to record all the tracks and I mixed and mastered them right here in my bonus room.” THE ALBUM Their newest release, “Greatest Hits? 1993-2010”, is a best-of collection selected by an online fan vote. “We did an online poll and our long-time fans let us know which songs they’d like to have on the album,” Kurth says. “We liked the idea of a question mark following “Greatest Hits” since in reality we haven’t had any, but on TV we had numerous fictitious hit songs.” “We’ve always existed in this in-between world of fantasy and reality,” Taylor reflects. “We started out as a real band and then played another band on television which can be somewhat confusing.” In addition to the 16 older selections, six of which were featured on “General Hospital”, the band wrote and recorded two new songs for the collection which reflect their current life. “While Taylor Swift reflects on her life as a teenager, we’re reflecting on our life as “middle-agers,” Kurth laughs. “If you want to project creative honesty, you have to reflect your truth. And the truth is we’re Middle-Age Dads.” Taylor adds, “We’re labeling this new music, ‘The Soundtrack to your Mid-Life Crisis’.” THE VIDEOS “Probably the greatest irony of our 17 year history is that we’re a “TV Band” that never had a single music video,” Kurth points out. “We decided to remedy that with these two new songs, “Let’s Get The Band Back Together” and “Tread On The Tires”. Taylor adds, “I taught myself how to edit video in Sony Vegas and so all we had to pay for was the filming.” The old friends all got together at PK Pictures in Nashville and filmed both videos on the same day for cost effectiveness. Their friend, Jason Marlin acted as Director of Photography and threw in his High Def camera for free. Their other long-time friend, J. Stocco acted as producer and coordinated the shoot. They were able to shoot both videos for about $1,200. Taylor laughs, “I like to say the first video, “Band” cost $1,150 to make and the second video, “Tread”, cost $50.” (the price of a few stock photos.) SWEETWATER SOUND Having been long-time customers of the $130 million music equipment retailer, the guys decided to use a few photos from the Sweetwater Sound, “Pro Gear” catalog to include in the videos. Taylor points out, “There’s a line in the chorus of ‘Band Back Together’ that says, ‘Re-livin our youth with brand new toys.’ What we meant by that was, when you get the band back together you want to buy all the cool new gear that either wasn’t available back then or was unaffordable when we were young and broke.” As it turns out, this message resonated with the Sweetwater marketing staff. “I got a call from the Director of Marketing, Mike Ross, and he basically said they loved the videos and wanted to do something with them,” Taylor says. That “something” turned into a national marketing campaign for the annual Sweetwater Sound “GearFest” event. Kurth & Taylor’s videos will be featured as required viewing for the April gear giveaway on the company’s million-hit-per-month website. In addition, the boys will be performing at “GearFest” on June 26th at the retailer’s impressive new headquarters in Ft.Wayne, IN. (a $35 million / 180,000 sq. feet “green” facility) “I just got back from taking a tour and filming some interviews there,” Taylor says. “It’s an amazing place! I was the proverbial ‘kid in the candy store’.” THE FUTURE “I’ve always said, some guys have a bowling league, some guys have a softball team and we have a band,” Taylor laughs. Kurth adds, “It’s really just an excuse to hang out with old friends and engage in a project together.” As ‘middle-agers’, we really have no serious expectations about the future,” Taylor reflects. “But who knows? Six months ago all my guitars were in storage and look at what’s happening now!” With a 23 year friendship, each other’s best man on their wedding days, the two grown men are looking ahead once again. “Hopefully ours will be an inspirational story for our middle-aged musical brethren out there,” Kurth says. Taylor adds, “We were able to do it while living in different parts of the country, holding down jobs, raising small kids, and spending very little money. Oh, and most importantly, 0 divorces in the process!” *Ryan White was a teenager from Kokomo, IN who became a national poster child for HIV/AIDS in the United States, after being expelled from middle school because of his infection. A hemophiliac, he became infected with HIV from a contaminated blood treatment and, when diagnosed in December 1984, was given six months to live. Despite doctors having said he posed no risk to other students, AIDS was poorly understood at the time, and when White tried to return to school, many parents and teachers in Kokomo rallied against his attendance. A lengthy legal battle with the school system ensued, and media coverage of the case made White into a national celebrity and spokesman for AIDS research and public education.