Ken Kalmusky
Encyclopedia
Ken Kalmusky was a Canadian musician born in Stratford
, Ontario
, Canada
, to saxophonist Walter "JoJo" Kalmusky and Mary Kalmusky.
, that would contribute music that has been heard around the world, on records, on television, in movies, and written about in books. Members of The Revols included Kalmusky, John Till
(later a member of Janis Joplin
's Full Tilt Boogie Band), and Richard Manuel
(piano player and singer for Bob Dylan
, and The Band
).
Kalmusky left The Revols to join Ronnie Hawkins
's band The Hawks, traveling North America, at age 16. One of the stories chronicled on page 65 of Barney Hoskyns' novel Across The Great Divide The Band and America, is Kalmusky, Richard, John, and the Hawks taking Ronnie's Cadillac for a joy ride in Memphis and being taken to jail (Kalmusky was under age and taken to juvenile lockup) as they were suspected of stealing the car. When they called Ronnie, with their one phone call, he said "Check the dipstick"; the dipstick
of the Cadillac had Hawkins's name engraved on it.
After nearly a decade of touring with Ronnie, Ian Tyson
called Hawkins and told him he needed a bass player in New York City, and within a day or two, Ronnie recommended Kalmusky, who got on a plane, flew to New York, and joined Ian and Sylvia
in forming the band Great Speckled Bird
. This band had a top-10 song, "Trucker's Cafe", on the Canadian Country charts and was the house band for the CFTO television show, Nashville North, renamed The Ian Tyson Show after one season. They also appeared in the film Festival Express
, though Kalmusky had left the group by then.
While in Great Speckled Bird, managed by Albert Grossman
(manager for Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, and founder of Bearsville Studios
in Woodstock, New York
), Kalmusky played on records with Jerry Reed
, Amos Garrett
, Todd Rundgren
, and toured the world, playing stages from Massey Hall
, to The Grand Ole Opry.
In 1968, while playing in Hollywood, Kalmusky's wife, Sandra, 8½ months pregnant, returned to Stratford, Ontario, Canada to give birth to their first child, Kim Kalmusky. Kalmusky remained on tour, and making records in Nashville, New York, and Toronto for 2 more years until 1970.
In 1970, after the birth of his second child, David Kalmusky
, Kalmusky returned to, and settled in his hometown of Stratford
, Ontario
, where it all started with Richard Manuel, John Till, and The Revols in 1958.
Kalmusky formed a Stratford based band Plum Loco with his former band mate, John Till, and remained an active session musician
, playing on dozens of recordings. As freelance bassist, Kalmusky returned to Hawkins's band several times through the 70's and 80's, worked with David Clayton Thomas (of Blood Sweat and Tears), Jack De Kaiser, King Biscuit Boy
, Buffy Saint Marie, Jake Leiske (of Canadian Juno
-awarded Farmer's Daughter
), and as a session bassist, for son, producer David Kalmusky
.
In 2005 Plum Loco released an album recorded at Kalmusky's brother Bob Kalmusky's studio. Plum Loco continues, with John Till's son, Shawn Till, on Bass.
Kalmusky's contributions to the music industry have been noted in Barney Hoskyns
' novel, Across The Great Divide
, Nicholas Jennings' novel, Before The Gold Rush, Levon Helm
's novel This Wheel's on Fire
, on radio, and television for the last 40 years.
Stratford, Ontario
Stratford is a city on the Avon River in Perth County in southwestern Ontario, Canada with a population of 32,000.When the area was first settled by Europeans in 1832, the townsite and the river were named after Stratford-upon-Avon, England. It is the seat of Perth County. Stratford was...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, to saxophonist Walter "JoJo" Kalmusky and Mary Kalmusky.
Early career
Kalmusky's first band The RevolsThe Revols
The Revols were a Canadian band from Stratford, Ontario, Canada, formed in 1957, with Richard Manuel on piano and vocals, John Till on guitar, Ken Kalmusky on bass, Doug Rhodes on vocals and Jim Winkler on Drums...
, that would contribute music that has been heard around the world, on records, on television, in movies, and written about in books. Members of The Revols included Kalmusky, John Till
John Till
John Till is a Canadian musician. Born in Stratford, Ontario, Till played in local bands until the early 1960s when he was picked to play in Ronnie Hawkins band The Hawks, to replace previous members who had left to tour with Bob Dylan...
(later a member of Janis Joplin
Janis Joplin
Janis Lyn Joplin was an American singer, songwriter, painter, dancer and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist with her backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band...
's Full Tilt Boogie Band), and Richard Manuel
Richard Manuel
Richard George Manuel was a Canadian composer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist, best known for his contributions to and membership in The Band....
(piano player and singer for Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, and The Band
The Band
The Band was an acclaimed and influential roots rock group. The original group consisted of Rick Danko , Garth Hudson , Richard Manuel , and Robbie Robertson , and Levon Helm...
).
Kalmusky left The Revols to join Ronnie Hawkins
Ronnie Hawkins
Ronald "Ronnie" Hawkins is a Juno Award-winning rockabilly musician whose career has spanned more than half a century. Though his career began in Arkansas, USA, where he'd been born and raised, it was in Ontario, Canada where he found success and settled for most of his life...
's band The Hawks, traveling North America, at age 16. One of the stories chronicled on page 65 of Barney Hoskyns' novel Across The Great Divide The Band and America, is Kalmusky, Richard, John, and the Hawks taking Ronnie's Cadillac for a joy ride in Memphis and being taken to jail (Kalmusky was under age and taken to juvenile lockup) as they were suspected of stealing the car. When they called Ronnie, with their one phone call, he said "Check the dipstick"; the dipstick
Dipstick
A dipstick is one of several measurement devices.Some dipsticks are dipped into a liquid to perform a chemical test or to provide a measure of quantity of the liquid....
of the Cadillac had Hawkins's name engraved on it.
After nearly a decade of touring with Ronnie, Ian Tyson
Ian Tyson
Ian Tyson CM, AOE is a Canadian singer-songwriter, best known for his song "Four Strong Winds". He was also one half of the duo Ian & Sylvia.-Career:Tyson was born to British immigrants in Victoria in 1933, and grew up in Duncan B.C...
called Hawkins and told him he needed a bass player in New York City, and within a day or two, Ronnie recommended Kalmusky, who got on a plane, flew to New York, and joined Ian and Sylvia
Ian and Sylvia
Ian & Sylvia were a Canadian folk and country music duo which consisted of Ian and Sylvia Tyson, née Fricker. They began performing together in 1959, married in 1964, and divorced and stopped performing together in 1975.-Early lives:...
in forming the band Great Speckled Bird
Great Speckled Bird (band)
Great Speckled Bird was a country rock group formed in 1969 by the Canadian musical duo Ian & Sylvia. Ian Tyson sang, played guitar and composed. Sylvia Tyson sang, composed and occasionally played piano...
. This band had a top-10 song, "Trucker's Cafe", on the Canadian Country charts and was the house band for the CFTO television show, Nashville North, renamed The Ian Tyson Show after one season. They also appeared in the film Festival Express
Festival Express
Festival Express is a 2003 documentary film about the eponymous 1970 train tour across Canada taken by some of North America's most popular rock bands, including The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, The Band and Delaney & Bonnie & Friends...
, though Kalmusky had left the group by then.
While in Great Speckled Bird, managed by Albert Grossman
Albert Grossman
Albert Bernard Grossman was an American entrepreneur and manager in the American folk music scene and rock and roll. He was most famous as the manager of Bob Dylan between 1962 and 1970.-Biography:...
(manager for Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, and founder of Bearsville Studios
Bearsville Studios
Bearsville Studios was a recording studio at Bearsville, New York just west of Woodstock, New York.The studio was opened in 1969 by Albert Grossman, manager of Bob Dylan, The Band, Janis Joplin and Todd Rundgren....
in Woodstock, New York
Woodstock, New York
Woodstock is a town in Ulster County, New York, United States. The population was 5,884 at the 2010 census, down from 6,241 at the 2000 census.The Town of Woodstock is in the northern part of the county...
), Kalmusky played on records with Jerry Reed
Jerry Reed
Jerry Reed Hubbard , known professionally as Jerry Reed, was an American country music singer, innovative guitarist, songwriter, and actor who appeared in more than a dozen films...
, Amos Garrett
Amos Garrett
Amos Garrett is a Juno Award-winning American-Canadian musician, performer, and author. He holds dual citizenship and was raised in Toronto and Montreal...
, Todd Rundgren
Todd Rundgren
Todd Harry Rundgren is an American multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and record producer. Hailed in the early stage of his career as a new pop-wunderkind, supported by the certified gold solo double LP Something/Anything? in 1972, Todd Rundgren's career has produced a diverse range of recordings...
, and toured the world, playing stages from Massey Hall
Massey Hall
Massey Hall is a venerable performing arts theatre in the Garden District of downtown Toronto. The theatre originally was designed to seat 3,500 patrons but, after extensive renovations in the 1940s, now seats up to 2,765....
, to The Grand Ole Opry.
In 1968, while playing in Hollywood, Kalmusky's wife, Sandra, 8½ months pregnant, returned to Stratford, Ontario, Canada to give birth to their first child, Kim Kalmusky. Kalmusky remained on tour, and making records in Nashville, New York, and Toronto for 2 more years until 1970.
In 1970, after the birth of his second child, David Kalmusky
David Kalmusky
David Kalmusky is a record producer / mixer / guitarist, who's body of work is multiple Gold selling, Juno Awarded & Grammy nominated.-Lineage:...
, Kalmusky returned to, and settled in his hometown of Stratford
Stratford, Ontario
Stratford is a city on the Avon River in Perth County in southwestern Ontario, Canada with a population of 32,000.When the area was first settled by Europeans in 1832, the townsite and the river were named after Stratford-upon-Avon, England. It is the seat of Perth County. Stratford was...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, where it all started with Richard Manuel, John Till, and The Revols in 1958.
Kalmusky formed a Stratford based band Plum Loco with his former band mate, John Till, and remained an active session musician
Session musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...
, playing on dozens of recordings. As freelance bassist, Kalmusky returned to Hawkins's band several times through the 70's and 80's, worked with David Clayton Thomas (of Blood Sweat and Tears), Jack De Kaiser, King Biscuit Boy
King Biscuit Boy
King Biscuit Boy was the stage name of Richard Alfred Newell a Canadian blues musician. He was the first Canadian blues artist to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S.....
, Buffy Saint Marie, Jake Leiske (of Canadian Juno
Juno Award
The Juno Awards are presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music...
-awarded Farmer's Daughter
Farmer's Daughter (band)
Farmer's Daughter is a Canadian country music group. Farmer's Daughter recorded three studio albums and charted sixteen singles on the Canadian country music charts. Their highest charting single was the Number One song "Cornfields or Cadillacs."-Career:...
), and as a session bassist, for son, producer David Kalmusky
David Kalmusky
David Kalmusky is a record producer / mixer / guitarist, who's body of work is multiple Gold selling, Juno Awarded & Grammy nominated.-Lineage:...
.
In 2005 Plum Loco released an album recorded at Kalmusky's brother Bob Kalmusky's studio. Plum Loco continues, with John Till's son, Shawn Till, on Bass.
Kalmusky's contributions to the music industry have been noted in Barney Hoskyns
Barney Hoskyns
Barney Hoskyns is a British music critic and editor of the online music journalism archive Rock's Backpages.Hoskyns graduated from Oxford with a First Class degree in English. He began writing about music for Melody Maker and New Musical Express, quitting his job as staff writer at NME to research...
' novel, Across The Great Divide
Across The Great Divide
Across The Great Divide is a box set from Canadian-American rock group The Band released in 1994.The three-disc set, consists of two discs of songs from all of The Band's albums through 1989's To Kingdom Come...
, Nicholas Jennings' novel, Before The Gold Rush, Levon Helm
Levon Helm
Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm , is an American rock multi-instrumentalist and actor who achieved fame as the drummer and frequent lead and backing vocalist for The Band....
's novel This Wheel's on Fire
This Wheel's on Fire
This Wheel's on Fire - Levon Helm and the Story of The Band is the 1993 autobiography of actor and musician Levon Helm, focusing on his career as a member of the rock group The Band...
, on radio, and television for the last 40 years.