Steve Good - Tenor Sax, Clarinet; Bill Zink - guitar

Steve is amazing.

Chris Willems - guitar; Bill Zink - guitar & sampler

Live at the Haymarket Whisky Bar, Louisville, Kentucky, March 15, 2012

This set started just as the first round games of the 2012 NCAA Tournament let out at Louisville's basketball arena five blocks away.  Many stuck their heads in the door; none dared enter.  Big Blue Nation held at bay by two rather loud Fender guitar amplifiers.

Chris Willems currently plays guitar in the Sick City Four and Black Kaspar.

Bart Galloway - drums; Bill Zink - guitar, lap steel guitar, tapes, electronics

Live at Derby City Espresso in Louisville, Kentucky, February 12, 2009

Derby City Espresso was re-opened as Haymarket Whisky Bar in 2012

Among his many projects, Bart currently drums for the Sick City Four and the New Minty Chrystals.

Rob Stockwell - drums; Bill Zink - guitar

Rob was fresh out of Madison WI & Jackwacker and on his way into the Catkillers.  I had been fired from my job that very day.  Eric was probably doing something constructive, like his job.  We were in his basement while he was not home.  Dead strings, drumheads beaten far beyond their reasonable lives, guitar hopelessly out of anything resembling a tuning, shitty microphone, shitty recorder, bucketfuls of rage . . . the Catkillers bring you the sound of love.

Eric Rensberger - clarinet, harp;  Bill Zink - guitar.

Eric Rensberger and Bill Zink wrote and played it (except "Night Watch": words Rensberger, music Zink), Dan Willems recorded it, Bill Zink poured some sugar on it.

Eric and I started playing together with Bob Wagner and Erica Zietz sometime in '87.  Erica was around for only a short time, but Eric, Bob, and I played together every Wednsday night until Bob left town ('89 maybe?).  After preparing a 3-cassette release in which the album title would remain the same (Free Jazz from the Record Collections of the Elite) but the band name would change, we settled on the name Catkillers (Coffee Achievers and Art Ensemble of Elletsville were the other most common names we used).  After Bob left, the Catkillers continued with Keith Welch on drums for a time.  Keith left the band, returned to the band, then left the band again for good sometime in the mid 90's.  After spending a bit over a year as an acoustic based duo, we were joined by Rob Stockwell on drums, and that was the lineup that ran from '95 until the band's end in '97.  These recordings come from the "duet" Catkillers period.  Someday I may get around to posting the Catkillers output somewhere.

This was recorded by Dan Willems in a miniscule 3-room appartment in the house on Rufer Ave. that served as the beach head for the TBW! Jazz Posse invasion of the mid-90's.  It was recorded on a sweltering summer day without any air conditioning: we closed all the windows, shut off all the fans, recorded a take or two of a song, then opened everything back up and sipped bourbon until the room cooled down again (relatively speaking).

Of special interest in this trio of songs is "Night Watch", the instrumental portion of which shows up on Hoosier Pete's Portland as "Requiem for Eric".  This song was part of a larger (unfinished) requiem we were putting together for Eric's father.  I would drop all my other projects tomorrow and team with Eric to finish this if I ever got the chance.

 Chris Willems - guitar; Bill Zink - guitar

Chris and Bill throw down for one of Eric Rensberger's "Guitar Night" editions of the monthly "Despite the Best Efforts . . . " experimental music series.