Bill Payne's Keyboards for Bob Seger

Bob Seger has worked with keyboardist Bill Payne from 1978 onwards. Session musician Bill Payne is part of the southern rock band Little Feat. Bill first worked with Bob playing piano & organ on his 1978 hit “Hollywood Nights” from the “Stranger in Town” album. Bill’s keyboards are just organ at the start. During the first verse, he brings in his piano which adds depth to the song. The piano rocks well with some notable moments. A few years later Bill played all the keyboards (piano, organ & synth) on the ballad “You’ll Accomp’ny Me” from the “Against the Wind” album. This song opens with acoustic guitar and Bill soon brings in his piano & organ. His synth is hard to hear. The piano makes this song whole and there are strong organ moments. In both songs, Bill played with Bob who was the sole guitarist.

Hollywood Nights (1978)

You’ll Accomp’ny Me (1980)

On the next album “The Distance”, two songs Bill played piano include the country hit “Shame on the Moon” and the ballad “Love’s the Last to Know”. On the Rodney Crowell cover “Shame On the Moon”, the sole keyboards at the start are organ. After the first chorus, Bill brings in a memorable piano solo with piano continuing throughout the song. Bill’s piano elevates “Shame On the Moon”. Piano is the main instrument on the ballad “Love’s the Last to Know” giving Bill a stronger presence than the previous songs. He plays gently and melodically giving the power of a piano ballad. In these three songs, he played with Silver Bullet Band keyboardist Craig Frost on organ and would do the same on the songs in the next paragraph.

Bill played keyboards (piano & synth) on most tracks on the 1986 “Like a Rock” album. This is the most prominent presence he’s had on a Bob Seger album. I will describe what I consider to be his best contribution from that album. In the heartland rocker “American Storm”, his piano is driving the song. In the rock ballad title track, he was playing gently and supported Rick Vito’s slide guitar solos well. In the intense rock song “Sometimes”, he played a good supporting role and provided a memorable piano solo.

American Storm (1986)

This album also has songs with the combination of him on piano and Craig Frost on synth. The two keyboards went well together on “The Aftermath” with Bill rocking out well. The two instruments were used in a different way on the ballad “Somewhere Tonight”. Somewhere Tonight has gentle sections driven by Bill’s piano and rockier sections driven by Rick Vito’s guitar. On the following 1991 album “The Fire Inside”, he played on two Tom Waits covers. One of them was the jazz song “New Coat of Paint” which brings a completely different sound to what Bob normally does. Bill does incredible piano playing including having two piano solos. The other one was the country song “Blind Love” with his prominent gentle country playing.

We’re now going back to a Bob Seger original. Bill played piano on the 2006 rock ballad “Wait for Me” which is a very Bob Seger song. Bill gives warm melodic playing. He backed Bob Seger’s guitar solo. I didn't like how the “Face the Promise” album this song is from had a lack of keyboards on it. I wanted there to be more piano on the album. I wish Bill could have played on more tracks. His presence would have elevated the material like how he did on “Hollywood Nights” as that song was recorded as a band without the keyboards first. I’m imagining how great the title track could have sounded with Bill’s piano & organ.

Wait for Me (2006)

On Bob’s last album “I Knew You When” in 2017, Bill played on three songs. The “I Knew You When” songs featured unreleased songs, most of which had been updated as well as a few covers and newly written songs. These songs Bill played on were from the unreleased “Blue Ridge” album recorded in the late 1990s. On the piano ballad “I Knew You When”, Bill plays in a relaxed, gentle way. In aggressive rocker “Forward Into the Past”, Bill plays a supporting role. He gives good rock piano moments throughout the song. The song “Blue Ridge” opens with real drums and steel drums. I suspect these steel drums are played by Craig Frost on keyboards as I didn’t see any steel drums in the credits. Soon, Bill’s piano appears. It gives a good presence in this melodic rocker. Bill accompanies Bob on his rocking guitar solo.

Blue Ridge (2017)

These songs showcase Bill Payne’s contributions to Bob Seger’s work. He is one of the key session musicians Bob has worked with over the years. Bill contributed to the iconic Bob Seger sound and brought vibes from americana & southern rock. The Bob Seger songs he played on are rockers & ballads and also other genres like country & jazz. Bill showed the power of the piano as a rock instrument. I hope to see Bill Payne reunited on the next Bob Seger album.

The Power of Bob Seger's Singing

Bob Seger is an iconic American rock singer. He has a deep, powerful voice which can be intense & aggressive on rock songs and gentle & soft on ballads. In this article, I’ll be giving my thoughts on the power of Bob Seger’s singing referring to some of his songs. The YouTube official audio will be embedded for five of these songs discussed further down.

In his popular song “Old Time Rock & Roll”, he gives a real rock singing voice. He almost shouts while maintaining a melodic voice. He sings gently and intimately on “We’ve Got Tonight”. At the halfway point during the bridge, he suddenly changes his singing into an aggressive style which is very effective. Following the bridge, he goes back into the gentle, intimate singing. In “Katmandu” he sings so loud and does the creative stuttering “K-K-K-K-Katmandu” throughout the song.

In the heartland rocker “Even Now”, he sings so soulfully. I like how he sings both the lead and backing vocals in the chorus which would have been achieved by overdubbing. In this song, he creatively extends the words “now” and “somehow”. In the second verse, there is a good back and forth between his powerful singing and Roy Bittan’s piano notes. He closes out the song with good vocalising and saying the title.

I’ll now talk about a few of Bob’s later songs recorded in the 21st century. In his 2003 blues song “Satisfied” released in his late 50s, you can tell he’s much older than his prime, but he still sings powerfully. The lyrics “I can still snarl with the best” seems to have a double meaning that he can still sing his heart out. He sings that line so intensely. In the rock ballad “I’ll Remember You” recorded in the early 2010s and released on his last album “I Knew You When” in 2017, he sings so passionately. His singing on this track is so impressive for his senior age.

Bob often gives good vocal interjections during an instrumental section like a guitar solo or a piano solo. This could be saying something, singing the song title, ad-libbed lyrics or non-lyrical sounds. Examples of this are saying “hey” in the middle of Rick Vito’s first “Like A Rock” slide guitar solo & singing a vocal effect in the middle of the second solo, singing “ooooo” just before Pete Carr’s guitar solo in “Mainstreet”, saying “oh yeah” in Steve Nathan’s first piano solo in “Satisfied” & singing it with some vocal effects in the second piano solo.

Katmandu (1975)

Old Time Rock & Roll (1978)

We’ve Got Tonight (1978)

Satisfied (2003) 

I’ll Remember You (2017)

These are my thoughts on the powerful singing of Bob Seger. He is an expressive singer who made a great contribution to rock music. I consider him to be one of the world’s best singers.

Russ Kunkel’s Drumming for Bob Seger

This article is about Los Angeles session drummer Russ Kunkel’s work for Bob Seger. He first appeared on Bob Seger’s 1982 album “The Distance”. He played on all but one track on that album. He played one or two tracks on subsequent studio albums until 1995’s “It’s A Mystery”. In this article, I’m discussing his work with Bob Seger, mentioning many of the songs he played on. I also embed the official audio from five of these songs just before the conclusion. The first Bob Seger track he played on is “Even Now”, my favourite Bob Seger song. This is a very heartland rock song and a wonderful way for Russ to begin working with Bob Seger. On this song, he is drumming with passion with some fancy hits. He was also on the two other singles “Roll Me Away” which is another heartland rocker and the country hit “Shame On The Moon”. Highlights from that album include “Love’s The Last To Know”, a ballad with soft drumming in its first half transforming into intense drumming in the second half. Another song worth mentioning is the rock & roll song “Makin’ Thunderbirds” where he opens the song. He played on the first two tracks of the 1986 album “Like A Rock” which were both hits in the US. These tracks were the heartland rocker “American Storm” and the rock ballad “Like A Rock”. In the title track, he opens with soft drumming. In the choruses and Rick Vito’s slide guitar solos he hits the drums harder giving powerful drumming moments. He is rocking well on a slow song. Five years later, he played the drums on the rocker “The Fire Inside” with a hard hitting drum opening. The drums are prominent on this song. It’s driven by the drums and piano. He played on the sessions of the 1995 album “It’s A Mystery”. Three songs have been released from these sessions, the first is “In Your Time” which appeared on 1994’s “Greatest Hits” album. The two songs which appeared on the “It’s A Mystery” album are “I Can’t Save You Angelene” and “West Of The Moon”. On these three songs, Bob played piano. Two of them are rock ballads with it clearly being an electric piano. The song that stands out is “I Can’t Save You Angelene” which is an uptempo blues song with acoustic piano. On this song, Russ does blues playing including closing the song. Even Now (1982)
Roll Me Away (1982)
Shame On The Moon (1982) Like A Rock (1986) The Fire Inside (1991) Russ Kunkel has a full drum sound, being a great rock drummer. His drumming is sharp and powerful. He supported Bob Seger excellently as a session musician. Some other songs he has played on that I like are “Running on Empty” by Jackson Browne”, “Let Her Go” by Dan Fogelberg, “Johnny Strikes up the Band” by Warren Zevon, “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)” by James Taylor and “Volcano” by the recently deceased Jimmy Buffett. Russ hasn’t played on a Bob Seger studio album since 1995. I’d like to see him work with Bob again. I’ll conclude by wishing Russ Kunkel a happy birthday for turning 75 this week.