Quarto Valley Records (QVR) recording artist The Immediate Family – a rock & roll band composed of longtime friends and legendary musicians Danny Kortchmar (guitar and vocals), Waddy Wachtel (guitar and vocals), Leland Sklar (bass), Russ Kunkel (drums) and Steve Postell (guitar and vocals) – is known for its members’ wit and wisdom, and both will be on full display at the upcoming online NAMM Show (aka “Believe in Music Week”), taking place January 18-22, 2021. Visit https://attend.believeinmusic.tv/ to register for the show and access the week’s events.
As part of the show’s TEC Tracks series, members of The Immediate Family will be participating in four different sessions between Thursday, January 21, and Friday, January 22:
- On Thursday at 2:40 p.m. EST / 11:40 PST, Leland Sklar will be interviewed by David Goggin (“Mr. Bonzai”) in a session titled “Leland Sklar Demonstrates His Famous Basses,” in which Sklar will share some of his most beloved instruments and explain how he achieves his iconic sound.
- Also on Thursday, at 5 p.m. EST / 2 p.m. PST, Waddy Wachtel and Danny Kortchmar will be interviewed by Peter Asher, followed by a live Q&A. You’ll hear them tell amazing stories about the early days in the studios with Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor, Carole King and many other generation-defining performers—from the point of view of the producers, managers and session players who crafted the sounds. This conversation has been waiting 50 years to happen!
- On Friday at 1:20 p.m. EST / 10:20 a.m. PST, Leland Sklar will be part of the panel “The Sessions and Rock ‘N’ Roll Royalty Reunite.” In this presentation, Sklar, Jim Keltner and Steve Lukather will be joined by Liberty Devitto, Dom Famularo and Paul Quin. These artists have brought you thousands of songs, and now they’ll share their 2020 projects despite recent challenges. They’ll also look at how The Beatles impacted them and how the power of music can bring hope, happiness, unity and love to humanity. The Sessions’ mission is to enrich, educate and empower artists, and these 30 minutes will do that!
- Later on Friday, at 2:00 p.m. EST / 11 a.m. PST, “Russ Kunkel on Hand Percussion” will pair Kunkel with David Goggin (“Mr. Bonzai”) as Kunkel demonstrates the gentle art of hand percussion as an integral part of his work in the recording studio.
2020 was an eventful and productive year for The Immediate Family, including the release of the band’s highly acclaimed debut EP Slippin’ And Slidin’, which entered the Billboard Blues Chart at No. 6 and included multiple successful singles, as well as performing several virtual shows and online fundraisers. The band has already had a high-profile 2021, with a feature on a special New Year’s Day broadcast of Jim Ladd’s Sirius XM program on “Deep Tracks”/Channel 27, as well as a recent nod in Hollywood Digest’s 2020 Best on Earth awards as “2020’s Most Likely Band Or Music Group To Make It In 2021.” The band is continuing to work on new music, with a second EP and a full-length album planned. Additionally, a Denny Tedesco documentary about their iconic careers is also in the queue for release in 2021, featuring interviews with some of the biggest names in rock and roll.
