Kansas is a very different band now than the group people knew in the 1970s, when the band rose to the top of the rock scene behind multiplatinum albums "Leftoverture" and "Point of Know Return."
Back then, the band's original lineup was still intact, with guitarist/keyboardist Kerry Livgren and singer/keyboardist Steve Walsh leading the way as the band's songwriters.
But to guitarist Rich Williams, Kansas today has, in a very tangible way, come full circle despite obvious differences between the current edition and the original lineup.
For one thing, only Williams and drummer Phil Ehart remain from the original lineup. Now the two are joined by Ronnie Platt (vocals), Billy Greer (bass), David Ragsdale (violin), Zak Rizvi (guitar) and Tom Brislin (keyboards).
If you go
› What: KZ-106 Presents Kansas› Where: Tivoli Theatre, 709 Broad St.› When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 29› Admission: $54.50, $84.50 and $125› For more information: 423-757-5580
But Williams sees an important parallel between where today's Kansas is and where the group was back in the early 1970s.
"The record business has changed now to where there is no money in it. So it gets us back to the original (thought) 'We're not going to make any money making this record.'"
Instead, the group, which formed in Topeka, Kansas, in 1973, is motivated to make albums for the same reasons that got the original lineup making albums in the beginning.
"It's important for fans and it makes us valid in what we're doing, not has-beens," Williams said of making new music. "We are still very creative. So since money is not really the object in it, and it wasn't when we first started either, it's the love of doing it (that's similar to the early years)."
Today's Kansas is connecting back to the original group in another way. To start 2020, Kansas is resuming its tour celebrating album "Point of Know Return," which with the help of hit single "Dust in the Wind," became a multiplatinum hit and was a satisfying follow-up to "Leftoverture," the album that featured "Carry On Wayward Son" and gave Kansas its commercial breakthrough.
While the "Point of Know Return" period was obviously a career highlight for Kansas, it also marked a turning point for the original group.
"All of a sudden we actually started seeing money," Williams said. "The songwriters were seeing money from record one. And so the songwriters were doing extremely well, and we started to make money on the road. Money started coming in, but disproportionately, not in a negative way. So where (before "Leftoverture") we were just all for all, one for one, a pirate ship out on the mighty sea, now some people are buying cars, houses and boats, and some people are hoping to soon be doing that. None of these are necessarily bad things, but they change the internal workings of six guys pulling together.
"We made a few more records, but the end was coming," he said. "In hindsight, you can see that the original six wasn't going to work in that form much longer."
By the early 1980s, the lineup was starting to fall apart, as Walsh, Steinhardt, Livgren and Hope all moved on to other projects. Williams and Ehart pushed forward with Kansas, and the lineup went through a number of further changes (including the temporary returns of Livgren and Steinhardt and a reunion with Walsh that lasted from 1985 until 2014).
But where losing a popular singer has doomed many bands, Walsh's 2014 retirement reinvigorated Kansas.
Platt came aboard as the new singer. Whereas Walsh had for years resisted making new music, now Kansas was ready to return to the studio.
Kansas has remained on a creative roll since. The band (with keyboardist Brislin replacing Manion) is well along in making a new studio album that's targeted for release in August. Williams reported that Rizvi has been writing lots of material, and Brislin is adding to the pile of new songs.
"The Prelude Implicit" earned considerable praise for recapturing the violin-laced blend of melodic classic rock and progressive rock that was the signature of the original Kansas. Williams said the new album builds on that goal of creating quintessential Kansas music.
"I think we're in line with continuing to be Kansas. But I think the new Kansas has matured a lot in who we are now," he said. "We are more that than we were on the last record. It's more progressive. I mean, everything about it is just better."