Kansas carries on with new chapter

Guitarist tells how personnel changes add options.

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The classic progressive-rock band Kansas are on tour commemorating “Leftoverture,” the 1976 album that contains one of their biggest hits, “Carry On, My Wayward Son,” and made the band an FM radio force.

Kansas guitarist Rich Williams said the fact that it’s the 40th anniversary of the album’s release is mostly a coincidence. The tour probably wouldn’t have happened at all if vocalist Steve Walsh hadn’t retired two years ago.

“There were a lot of songs on ‘Leftoverture’ that Steve wouldn’t sing anymore, and he wasn’t interested in recording new material,” he said. “Then he retired, and suddenly there was no restrictions on what we could do. We got a new album out this year, and so it became more of a ‘Why not?’ It could’ve been the 39th anniversary, and we would’ve done it for the same reasons.”

Kansas is performing at Cincinnati’s Taft Theatre this weekend, and the setlist will include songs from that new album, “The Prelude Implicit,” as well as older songs that they’ve never before performed live and finally “Leftoverture” in its entirety.

In addition to Walsh, Kerry Livgren, who left the band in the mid-1980s and wrote their two biggest hits, “Carry On, My Wayward Son” and “Dust in the Wind,” was the band’s chief songwriter. Williams learned firsthand what it meant to be a musician who’s somewhat held hostage by the whims of the band visionaries. It happened when Livgren became a born-again Christian.

“Kerry’s best lyrics were from when he was searching, and that’s what I think people identified with,” Williams said. “But when you find the answer and you start preaching, that’s different. I’m not knocking Christianity, but forcing your beliefs on an organization is not a good idea. It was disruptive. Finally, he quit because, in his words, he couldn’t ‘serve two masters.’ ”

Throughout the lineup changes, Kansas remained active. Before Walsh retired, they were performing 100 shows a year (as they still do), but they hadn’t released an album since 2000, which Williams said wasn’t solely due to Walsh’s reluctance.

“I enjoyed that album, but it was a lot of old songs Kerry had written,” he said. “Each of us would come and go to record our parts. It wasn’t a true Kansas album even though we all appeared on it. It was more like a bunch of guest appearances by ourselves. It didn’t really get noticed, and then you ask yourself why you should go out of pocket for something that nobody is going to hear. But in the end, creative people get bottled up if they don’t create.”

For the record, “The Prelude Implicit” is symphonic, polished and, perhaps most importantly, a Kansas album that sounds like Kansas. The reviews have mostly been positive, to Williams’ relief.

“Obviously, we’re not a pop machine anymore. That time has passed,” he said. “This is the first time we weren’t pressured to do hits. Our (new) record company just told us to be ourselves. No record company has ever done that before.”

Williams said the band plans to both continue their rigorous touring schedule and record more albums, and they’re not going to wait 16 years this time. He also said, whatever their professional conflicts, they all remain friends with Walsh and Livgren.

“Steve just wasn’t enjoying it anymore,” he said. “He despised the travel, the work, the shows. He didn’t get to this place by choice. It’s just what he evolved to. Everyone has an expiration date on this sort of thing. I haven’t reached mine yet. I’m the Kansas Twinkie.”

How to go

What: Kansas

Where: Taft Theatre, 317 E. Fifth St., Cincinnati

When: 8 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 30

Cost: $29.50-$64.50

More info: 513-232-6220 or www.tafttheatre.org

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