Julia Marino: Hector Qirko at the Corner Lounge
The Hector Qirko Band, “Favorite Local Music Group” for 2000, and also multi-winner for Knoxville’s “Best Local Blues Band” by Metro Pulse will take the stage again this Saturday at the Corner Lounge. Although the band members are seasoned music-veterans, you could say the band is now officially of legal drinking age. Formed in 1985, The Hector Qirko Band celebrates its 21 years of rocking and blues-churning in not only Knoxville, but this year’s Bonnaroo, Nashville and even venues abroad.
Qirko explained how the band formed the same year that he began teaching music at Pick ‘n’ Grin in Knoxville. The music store put on a show and Hector invited several well-respected local musicians to play with him. Thus, the Hector Qirko band was born.
The band has since produced four albums,one with a fusion of Latin American inspired beats and blues electricity, as well as their latest unreleased album that is “more of a return to blues and old styles that we don’t hear very much on the radio."
“Whatever period or phrase we’re in, we try to capture that with songs that more or less go together,” Qirko adds.
Qirko, a self-proclaimed “Knoxvillian”, who has also lived in various countries in Latin America, said he looks forward to playing at the Corner Lounge again, hoping to refresh the air with the band's new music in what is this time a non-smoking show.
“Many years ago, [The Corner Lounge] used to be a wild, rowdy place,” he says. “Ed Corts, also a Knoxville veteran musician, turned it into a great listening room. Knoxville is a town with a lot of good music and a good musical community. It is a great place to be from with a good network of musicians.”
Hector Qirko’s fundamental sound is “electric, Chicago-style blues,” with each of the band members incorporating different sounds. “Over time we’ve become more comfortable with combing all of those influences, and not worrying so much about labels,” he says.
Qirko says the Latin roots found in the music helps define the band as “world blues” with a “rather liberal interpretation of the blues", as he calls it. He even covers Latin-American bands, such as the legendary Cuban group, Buena Vista Social Club. “When we play songs by other artists we put a spin to it,” Qirko says. He even translates Spanish songs into English to change it up a bit. Although the band is always open to experimenting with world sounds, this blues band has no plans to leave Knoxville.
“Knoxville has been really great to us...a very supportive community in terms of our music,” Qirko says. “We love playing here and people seem to like listening to us. It doesn’t seem to matter what direction we explore. People are interested in checking it out and that’s all we can ask for as musicians—that people are willing to listen…”
The Hector Qirko Band features Dirk Weddington on sax, Jim Williams on bass and drummer Steve Brown. For more information visit www.hqband.com or www.cornerlounge.com.