Steve Walsh (musician)

Steve Walsh
Walsh performing in 2012.
Background information
Born	(1951-06-15) June 15, 1951 (age 65) St Joseph, Missouri
Origin	Atlanta, Georgia
Genres	Progressive rock, hard rock
Occupation(s)	Musician, singer-songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, keyboards, synthesizer, piano, organ, vibraphone, percussion, harmonica
Years active	1974-present
Associated acts	Kansas, Streets

Steve Walsh (born June 15, 1951) is an American musician, singer and songwriter best known for his work as a member of the progressive rock band Kansas. He sings lead on four of Kansas' best-known hits: "Carry On Wayward Son," "Dust in the Wind", "Point of Know Return", and "All I Wanted", the last two of which he also co-wrote.

Walsh was in a number of local groups prior to his joining Kansas, most notably the group White Clover that ultimately became Kansas. White Clover toured relentlessly and sharpened their brand of distinctively American, hard-rocking progressive music. Kansas and White Clover merged and the group was signed to Don Kirshner's label. The newly-merged bands decided to go with the name Kansas. Walsh is the only original member of the band to not be from the state of Kansas.

During Walsh's time with the band, Kansas recorded two enormously successful albums, 1976's Leftoverture and 1977's Point of Know Return. With Kansas, Walsh has released 12 studio albums, six live albums, and numerous singles. He has released three solo albums thus far. In 1978 he was invited, as well as Kansas drummer Phil Ehart, to play on Steve Hackett's second solo album, Please Don't Touch. He sang on two of the songs, Narnia and Racing in A.

Walsh left Kansas after 1980's Audio-Visions due to creative differences with the band's primary songwriter Kerry Livgren. Earlier in 1980, he released his first solo album, Schemer-Dreamer, which included bandmates Kerry Livgren, Rich Williams and Phil Ehart, as well as guitarist Steve Morse (who in 1985 would join the revamped Kansas). It contains the popular song "Every Step of the Way". In 1982 he formed a rock band called Streets, which released the albums 1st in 1983 and Crimes in Mind in 1985 before disbanding.