Louise Kirchen’s Debut CD “The Waiting Game”

by Anne Jones 12.2021

Even though it took Louise Kirchen a lifetime to come out with her first cd, “The Waiting Game”, it would be all wrong to call her a late bloomer. She's been writing and singing good old country songs since her early days at 1960's Berkeley, smack dab in the center of the Summer of Love and witness to the many watershed musical events that defined a generation.  Louise explains it: "We anxiously awaited the next Bob Dylan or Beatles album, as if they were keys to decoding a secret message that was unfolding every day. Somehow I landed in the right place at the perfect time to witness an incredible musical phenomenon going on all around me, culminating with getting Lost in the Ozone with Commander Cody and meeting Bill Kirchen." She has contributed material to many of Bill's albums, has played and sung in her own bands, had her song "Why Wyoming" featured in a Sam Shepard movie, and in the last few years has won song-writing awards as an integral part of the Austin music scene. 

So it's no surprise that “The Waiting Game” has the feel of an old country classic. Louise Kirchen has the heart-felt, bona fide, old-school country chops to create an album of 13 original songs that, at first listen, feel achingly familiar and brand new all at once. Take “Consolation Prize,” written by Louise and Bill Kirchen, and Sarah Brown, and one of two co-writes on the CD. It's your typical Louise lyrics - poignant and clear, like her pretty voice, and capturing perfectly the heartache of being someone's second choice. Louise is a clever wordsmith. Her songs have great hooks and catchy phrasing that ring deep and true with feeling. “Big Hat, No Cattle” has always been a favorite Bill Kirchen song, and it's fun to hear Louise do it her way, still in true western swing style. There’s even what Louise labels a “noir blues” cut – a slinky, sultry “Trade Winds” that meanders slowly along with Bill Kirchen on his Heritage hollow body guitar, producer Rich Brotherton on drums and acoustic guitar, and David Carroll on upright bass. The backing musicians on “The Waiting Game” are as good as it gets  - all virtuosos in their own right:   Rick Richards on drums, Floyd Domino on piano, Marty Muse on pedal steel, Warren Hood on fiddle, Dan Torosian on clarinet, and Paul Glasse on electric mandolin (plus Brotherton, Kirchen and Carroll listed above).

I once talked to Louise about a comedy act I had seen on the music cruise we were on. The shtick was a singing couple who lampooned the sordid messes and drama often chronicled by country musicians, and I had laughed hard all the way through. Not Louise. She looked at me seriously and said she didn’t like the act; she just loved country music too much.  I get it now.