Love. It inspires all the things. In few realms is this sentiment more poignantly evident than in music.
Songs about love, lyrics detailing lust, melodies about breakups and makeups—they’re par for the course.
The most genuine songs are often those which came about through reflection about a real-life connection; someone the songwriter knew, or a place well-loved, or a memory held in high regard.
Kirk Talon, frontman of Sacramento-based K Talon Band, is a self-proclaimed fan of love, and it’s evident for anyone who watches him perform.
“I absolutely believe in love,” he says. “I think love is the coolest thing on the planet, and that’s why so much is written about it.” And while he sheepishly admits that a significant amount of his art is inspired by his wife Holly, whom he tenderly references in many of his conversations, he also has a unique ability to tie an array of human experiences into a single song.
The group, which was formed in 2015 after Kirk put out a call for musicians on the Nextdoor App in West Sacramento, identifies their sound as contemporary world/folk/pop & rock. Their songs range from high-energy ballads to amusing odes about pickleback shots and melancholy folk tunes laced with violins and instrumentals that can transport the audience from a brewery patio to a Civil War battlefield in Tennessee.
K Talon Band frontman Kirk Talon created his group with a call for musicians on the Nextdoor app. [Photo by Dan Tyree]
Traditional folk music has always been about raw, emotional storytelling. The type of universally relatable narratives in which the indie folk music movement took root.
K Talon Band has sown their sound from that place.
“We’re 50-year-old guys. We’re not gonna get famous,” laughs Wade Lucas, K Talon’s drummer and digital communications manager. “What we’re trying to do is bring themes that resonate with our audience. We all suffer loss, we all experience love, we all have great times. And if one person hears these lyrics and is able to relate in a way that moves them, we’ve accomplished our goal.”
In any given performance, you’ll likely hear Kirk recount how he lost his high-school sweetheart, only to reunite with her 30 years later. In his next breath, he might transition into the song “Final Bed,” turning the overall mood of the set markedly somber. “Final Bed” was written after Kirk paid visit to one of the largest privately maintained Civil War cemeteries in the United States. He recounted the farmhouse on the property, and how the floorboards remain—to this day—tainted with blood stains from soldiers on both sides of the conflict.
“As I’m walking through the gravestones, looking at this field, and thinking about where I am, the thought came into my mind,” Kirk says, ”What must it be like to be anywhere from 13 to 21 years old, looking across at young men who are as terrified as you are. What would that feel like? I left that experience, and grabbed my guitar and wrote.”
The song is delivered through the perspective of the dead, recounting memories such as ribbons in the hair of girls once courted. It touches upon the type of simplistic life moments that often lack significance until one is faced with their own mortality.
K Talon Band musicians play a gig. [Photos by Dan Tyree]
Versatility—both instrumental and lyrical—is where the K Talon Band draws its strength. And from love. Love for the music, for the process and for those who take the time to listen in on their stories.
“To me, music is therapy,” says Kirk. “It’s how I deal with my hang-ups, my fears, my good times, my bad ones.”
“We recognize that the minute it stops being that, it’s time to reconsider our direction,” says Wade.
For now, the band has ambitions that are propelling them forward, including an album that is nearly completed, and an upcoming gig March 31 at the Holy Diver in Midtown.
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