For many decades, Kansas has had a vibrant country and bluegrass scene. The Country Stampede Music Festival – one of the largest music festivals in the country – and the bluegrass/acoustic Walnut Valley Festival are testament to the continued popularity of these music genres in the state. Among current leading country artists, Martina McBride and Chely Wright are natives of Kansas.
The state has also fostered some rock acts – the one that is most associated with the state is almost certainly the band called Kansas. Some famous and pioneering jazz musicians also had roots in Kansas.
History
The first music performed in the area that is now Kansas was that of the Indigenous peoples who lived there.
The earliest documented music comes after settlement by Anglo-Americans in the 1850s. One of the first musical works relating to Kansas was "Ho! For the Kansas Plains", a song written by James G. Clark in the 1850s, which mythologized the territory as the site of abolitionist battles during the Bleeding Kansas era. A representative lyric was "Ho! For the Kansas plains; Where men shall live in liberty; Free from the tyrant's chains." Along the same lines, some versions of the famous Civil War marching song "John Brown's Body" refer to John Brown's abolitionist activities in Kansas Territory during the same era.
Following the Civil War, as Kansas became known more for its cowboys, saloons and wide-open spaces, another notable song written in and about Kansas was "Home on the Range". It was penned in the state in the 1870s, and then spread throughout the American Old West as an unofficial anthem. It is now Kansas's official state song. The song established something of a template for Kansas music, and over the next several decades, music coming from Kansas remained in a similar folk or old-time music style, while lyrics referencing the state tended to focus on its open countryside.
Composer and musician Nathaniel Clark Smith, born at Fort Leavenworth, was an important music educator in the early 1900s. In the 1920s, the Kansas City jazz scene developed in eastern Kansas. Coleman Hawkins, who introduced the tenor saxophone to jazz, was raised in Topeka, and began touring in eastern Kansas by 1918 (at the age of 14). Singer Ada Brown was born in Kansas City. Drummer Kansas Fields was born in Chapman. Pianist, singer, and bandleader Joe Sanders was born in Thayer. Harpist Betty Glamann was born in Wellington. Singer and composer Nora Holt, a figure in the Harlem Renaissance, was born in Kansas City, Kansas. Choral conductor Eva Jessye, a contemporary of Holt, was born in Lawrence. In the following years, Kansas native Charlie Parker (d. 1955, buried near Kansas City, MO) also came to prominence in Kansas City. Around the same time, Kansan Stan Kenton likewise became notable as a jazz band leader and pianist. Pianist Jesse Stone was born in Atchison. Alto saxophonist Bobby Watson was born in Lawrence.
Outsider musician and composer Moondog was born in Marysville.
Mid-century
Joe Walsh of Eagles and James Gang fame is a native of Wichita, although he spent his youth in Columbus, Ohio. Melissa Etheridge and Katrina Leskanich (lead singer for Katrina and the Waves) are also native Kansans. Gene Clark, founding member of The Byrds, attended high school in Bonner Springs and began performing in the state. Dawayne Bailey, a native of Manhattan, Kansas, toured and recorded with rock legends Bob Seger and Chicago. Stanley Sheldon, a bassist from Ottawa, played with Peter Frampton at the height of his career in the mid-1970s, including the top selling Frampton Comes Alive!. Sheldon contributed as both bassist and songwriter on Frampton's instrumental album Fingerprints, which was a Grammy winner in 2007. Sheldon went on to perform with Warren Zevon, Lou Gramm of Foreigner, and Delbert McClinton. Grammy and Dove Award winning guitarist Phil Keaggy was a resident of Leawood in the 1980s. Jennifer Knapp, born in Chanute, is a Grammy-nominated, Dove Award-winning Christian folk rock musician whose first album, released in 1998, was certified gold. Finally, Shooting Star, notable for being the first American act signed by Virgin Records, hailed from Overland Park.
1960s
In the 1960s, R&B, blue-eyed soul, and garage rock bands became popular with acts such as the Fabulous Flippers, The Blue Things, the Red Dogs, The Serfs, Eric & The Norsemen, The Sensational Showmen of Concordia, Wade Flemons, and Mike Finnigan traveling the Midwest and releasing regional singles.