On Saturday, June 16 Westhaven will host its annual Porchfest event where porches become stages for artists but as night falls the main stage will be headlined by Vinyl Radio.
It will be the first time that Vinyl Radio has performed at the Westhaven Porchfest event but these music industry veterans call 3rd and Lindsley in Nashville their “home stage” as a regular band on the rotation schedule.
Unlike tribute bands, Vinyl Radio doesn’t just play one band, they cover an entire decade of music from the 70s with one exception – no disco.
The band is comprised of Tim Buppert, Chip Martin, Ronnie Kimball and Ron Wallace. We spoke to Buppert on how Vinyl Radio became a band.
Vinyl Radio came together organically after the group was asked to perform at a party for friends. After the first party performance, word spread quickly with more requests and offers and it brought up childhood dreams for the drummer.
“This is the kind of band I wanted to be in when I was 16 but couldn’t seem to pull off,” said Buppert.
And how they came to settle on the 70s genre, Buppert says, was more of not wanting to be just another tribute band.
“After that first gig, we all said wow that was pretty fun. But we also said if we are going to do this seriously we need to decide what is the band going to be about so we kinda decided to do a tribute to the 70s and there’s so much to chose from in that decade,” said Buppert.
What you can expect from their show at 3rd and Lindsley is a full throwback to 70s with two large lava lamps and life-size album covers displayed. During a song, a slideshow will play showcasing the original band performing the song.
In selecting the name for the band, Buppert says they all contributed names with a 70s theme.
“Band names are hard because they all often sound stupid until you make something of them. When you first start out they sound too cliche or too weird but once you put a history behind it, it changes. We all submitted 70s based names like Oil Crisis, Carter Administration, one was something radio and one was vinyl nation but we chose to put together Vinyl Radio. There are two other bands in the country with the same name because any good name is taken,” chuckled Buppert.
When you attend a Vinyl Radio show, the band’s motto is that you will wind up leaving younger than you showed up. Their two-hour show at Westhaven will be packed with the big hit iconic 70s songs, including a Who medley, Queen medley and more.
Buppert says, “it will be everything Aerosmith to Zeppelin.” And you can expect special guest.
Buppert moved to Nashville in 1991 during the boom years of country music and Buppert co-penned the 1997 chart-topping country hit “She’s Sure Taking it Well” and sang the demo track for George Strait’s “One Night at a Time” both released around the same time and both climbing their way up the charts, to name a few of his career highlights.
While Buppert and the rest of his bandmates continue to work in the industry as songwriters, studio musicians, and demo singers, live performance is a vital part of the band.
Westhaven Porchfest is a free event to the public held on June 16 from 3 p – 10 p at the Westhaven Community located at Westhaven Lake, 1001 Westhaven Boulevard Franklin.
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