robert thomas kuhlmann

Dear John “Frustrated Conversation” Reissue!

rtkmusic — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 00:34:48 +0000

Dear John – “Frustrated Conversation” 7″ Repackage/Reissue
Criminally unknown Power-Pop gem recorded in 1981, this record existed only in the memories of a few St Louisans & the grubby mitts of a few Power Pop collectors the world over. Head John Bob Kuhlmann recently unearthed a batch of singles that had been in storage for thirty years & BDR has whipped up new covers with never-before seen photos & new liner notes. The first batch will even come with a download code to get more songs from their only recording session. Wow!

BDR Records – the best record label in St Louis – is unleashing two new fine pieces of the puzzle that is the early St Louis Punk/Wave scene: a collection of never-before-released studio tracks by our friends The Retros and the Dear John “Frustrated Conversation” 7″!

Larry, George and I are very excited that Matt and Jason from BDR are releasing this special 30th Anniversary edition of our single. There are several events in St. Louis that will be celebrating these releases:

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17
St Louis Shuffle! Retros & Dear John Listening Party!
The Royale
3132 S. Kingshighway, Saint Louis, MO 63139

Matt from BDR will be spinning the Retros and Dear John records, along with a lot of other fine St. Louis bands!

FRIDAY DECEMBER 23RD
BDR Records Double Release Holiday Invitational!
Off Broadway
3509 Lemp Ave., Saint Louis, MO 63118

• A Tribute To The RETROS featuring Bob Chekoudjian of the Retros, members of Bunnygrunt, & other famous St Louis Punk/Wave luminaries!
• Antimation
• Bob Reuter’s Alley Ghost

Rumor has it the Camaros will also be performing, including Antimation’s Tony Carr and our former Page Three bandmate Kevin Brueseke! This is going to be an awesome show, with a lot of dear friends attending that were a big part of the St. Louis music scene in the late 70s and early 80s.

Larry, George and I planned to perform as Dear John for the first time in 30 years, but too many things conspired against it. Sorry we’re going to miss this, but that doesn’t mean YOU should! Be there or else…

Stay tuned for more info, including info on where to buy the Dear John single, an upcoming Dear John digital-only release and future live shows!

Dear John: reissues and reunions

rtkmusic — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 16:59:43 +0000

Thirty years ago, I was a member of the St. Louis power pop trio Dear John. There were limited venues to play and little money to be made, but it was fun and exciting to be part of the small, vibrant local punk/power pop scene that had grown out of the late 70′s punk revolution. In early 1981, the three of us (Larry Wilke, George Schneller, and yours truly) entered a studio in Fenton to record several original songs that we could use as demos for record labels and club owners. We also pressed a 7″ single to sell at shows and local record stores.

“Frustrated Conversation” was released in the summer of 1981 but there was no active band to promote it – I was offered a job in Ft. Wayne, IN before the single came back from the pressing plant. My sudden departure from St. Louis caught the band by surprise, and short-circuited the whole thing.

So, the cool news??

BDR Records will be re-packaging the original 7″ vinyl pressing of “Frustrated Conversation” in a 30th Anniversary Edition complete with a new sleeve that will feature the original artwork and new liner notes. The details are still being worked out, but we are planning a companion digital-only release that will include much more material.

Even cooler news??

There will be one more Dear John show! Larry, George and I are going to perform together again for the first time in nearly 30 years on December 23, 2011 at Off Broadway in St. Louis.

Stay tuned for more details!

Next live show: July 23

rtkmusic — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 06:48:28 +0000

Summer? Oh, it’s summer alright. We’re going to be in the middle of summer by the time Pete and I return to the Talking Stick at 7pm on Saturday July 23rd. It’s another Cafe Night, a free community outreach event presented by our friends at Venice Santa Monica Free Methodist Church.

We’ll probably add a few new twists, including at least one old Dear John song!

Hope you can come out and enjoy an entire evening of music, food, and good friends.

BTW, you can see a couple videos of Pete and I from our November show here.

Saturday, July 23, 2011 @ 7:00 pm
The Talking Stick is located at 1411 Lincoln Blvd in Venice, CA.

It’s nestled in the back corner of a mini-mall next to an El Pollo Loco, at the corner of Lincoln and California. There’s plenty of free parking behind the building.

http://www.thetalkingstick.net/

Hope to see you!

play ball – and music!

rtkmusic — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 17:34:47 +0000

Spring is here, time to play ball – and music!

Peter Sheppard and I will return to the Talking Stick at 7pm on Saturday April 16th, performing at Cafe Night, a free community outreach event presented by our friends at Venice Santa Monica Free Methodist Church. Our friend Mike V will open the show at 6pm, and West of Lincoln (a rockin’ great band playing 60’s and 70’s rock and blues covers) follows us at 8pm.

We’ll be adding some new songs to the mix, so we hope you can come out and enjoy an entire evening of music, food, and good friends.

BTW, you can see a couple videos of Pete and I from our November show here.

Saturday, April 16, 2011 @ 7:00 pm
The Talking Stick is located at 1411 Lincoln Blvd in Venice, CA.

Hope to see you!

After All These Years, Video Evidence!

rtkmusic — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 16:28:27 +0000

Peter Sheppard and I had a great time at The Spot last Friday night. It’s a very intimate room, and we were very appreciative that so many friends came out to hear us dust off these songs after a 15 year hiatus. We played two sets: first, we performed all of the songs from the Confidential Reasons CD. After that, we broke out some favorites from our time together in the Last American Heroes.

Here are some videos Pete’s wife Crystal captured on her iPhone:

The Inside (from Confidential Reasons):

All That Matters (a Last American Heroes staple):

Confidential Reasons Revisited!

rtkmusic — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 05:09:28 +0000

Back in 1994, I released an acoustic CD titled “Confidential Reasons”. It was a collection of songs that had been written over the years with my songwriting partner and Last American Heroes band mate George Schneller. While the Last American Heroes really focused on presenting an air-tight, rockin’ live set, we did perform the occasional acoustic or “unplugged” gig – often opening for friend and producer Jerry Giddens from Walking Wounded. Our plan was to record acoustic versions of some of of our live set while documenting some of the “quieter” songs in our catalog that didn’t fit the regular live set.

On Friday, November 19, at the Spot Café and Lounge, we will perform all of the songs from that CD live in one set for the first time ever. Joining me will be Peter Sheppard, a long-time friend and the former guitarist in both the Orchids and the Last American Heroes. Pete played these songs for years and it was Pete’s idea to take much of the Orchids/Last American Heroes songbook that was left unrecorded and head into the studio. We’ve fallen a bit behind schedule in the recording plan but this live show should be a nice way to kick off what I like to call Our Fall Project.

I hope you’ll join us. To kick things off that night, my friend Mike V and I will dig into a separate bag of originals during the opening set.

Pete and I will also be performing at the Talking Stick on Friday, October 29^th as part Cafe Night, a community outreach event presented by some friends of ours at the Venice Santa Monica Free Methodist Church. It will also feature the jazz band Blue Noise and West of Lincoln, who perform a rockin’ mix of 60’s and 70’s covers. Pete and I will play between those acts from 7:00 to 7:45pm.

Both shows are free and both venues are family-friendly environments. I hope you’ll be there!

Our Fall Project – Day 1 (August 5, 2010)

rtkmusic — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 06:57:21 +0000

I love fall. It has always had a certain reflective, reminiscent quality for me. So, it is fitting that this fall I’ll be returning to the studio with my friend Pete Sheppard, to revisit some songs we haven’t played together in over a decade.

Last month, Pete approached me about doing some recording later this year, in the fall. It really would be just for fun, not a big deal. His idea was to dust off some of the songs from our days together in the Last American Heroes. I was definitely interested. For a variety of reasons, many of those songs had never been given the full studio treatment. After the Last American Heroes called it quits in ’94, George and I worked up some rough demos of a couple new songs, but we never finished them. Most of the songs from that period got shelved as I focused on completing and promoting the Confidential Reasons CD. Several of the songs from the Last American Heroes live set made it onto the CD (Happiness, Someday, The Inside, and Lonely Girl) but they were arranged drastically different.

So, Pete and I have decided to dust off these gems and see what happens; and tonight was the first step. Sitting in my kitchen, we listened to some of the old demos and live recordings, reviewed lyric sheets, and just started playing. We let our guitars and voices keep the neighbors awake a little while longer.

We had so much fun playing that we’re even going to look into booking some gigs, too!

We’ll keep you updated via this blog, Twitter and my Facebook page.

Yes, I love fall. And Fall 2010 is going to be fun!

Old is New and New is Old Again

rtkmusic — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 18:57:38 +0000

Have spent a lot of time lately rehearsing for some upcoming performances! Here’s what’s been going on, and what’s on the horizon:

This Saturday’s Driftwood LA gig will add yet another Knights of Columbus hall to our list of conquered venues. It will also be our first show since last fall’s afternoon appearance at American Martyrs. Who knows when we will drift back onto a stage anytime soon…so drop by if you can, it’s free and open to the public.

Another project is the annual Drama Ministry production at Faith UMC. Due to a variety of 50th anniversary activities at the church this year, the production has been scaled down slightly. Instead of a full-blown musical like previous years (The Wiz, Joseph, Godspell), musical director Steve Bullard has put together some classic Broadway selections. Over the last few years, I’ve alternated my role between guitar player and performer, and this year I’ll be onstage singing instead of playing guitar in the Devotion Band.

After that, it looks like I’ll be entering rock n roll mode for a while! Last year, my friend and former bandmate, guitar slinger extraordinaire Pete Sheppard invited me to join him in Craig Fall’s studio to add vocals to his version of Dylan’s Forever Young, which turned out to be a lot of fun. Now he has suggested we do more recording, this time unearthing some of the lost relics from our Last American Heroes days. Other than a small contribution to Doug Spark’s NoVanGogh project, it’s been a while since I spent some quality time in the studio (the R & D Project back in 2004/2005) so I am looking forward to this. You’ll see my updates via Twitter and Facebook…

That’s all for now!

New Summer Shows

rtkmusic — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 01:12:09 +0000

2 more shows this summer:

Next Friday (6/11) I’ll be playing solo acoustic at The Spot Cafe and Lounge in Culver City. My friend Tom Granucci from VSMFMC is curating an evening of music. I’ll kick things off at 6:30pm…

Then on Saturday July 24, I’ll be reuniting with my pals in Driftwood LA for an evening of fun and excitement as we entertain at a birthday party in Redondo Beach. Details to follow…

This town is coming like a ghost town…

rtkmusic — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:57:55 +0000

This town is coming like a ghost town…

Every year, the Manhattan Beach Unified School District shuts down for a week in February. No, this isn’t an early Spring Break. It is known as Ski Week, and many families flee the 90266 and head to the lands of the ice and snow (Mammoth, Big Bear, Utah, Tahoe, etc) at a time when most of America would be happy to never see snow again.

Having grown up in St. Louis, where snow is typically not welcomed for its recreational purposes (other than sledding at Art Hill – often after a bottle of Jack Daniels) the fact that folks voluntarily do this is puzzling.

Of course, others here in the neighborhood take the opportunity to hop on a plane and head to paradise – Hawaii! (And that would be my choice…)

So, in keeping with the local customs, my wife and son just headed to the mountains for a one-day ski trip while my daughter spends the day packing in preparation for a weekend in the mountains with her youth group.

Me? I’m working and enjoying a beautifully sunny day.