Kevin Klimek

Kevin started his professional career in North Dakota in 1965. He landed his first gig as lead guitarist with The Rhythm Knights. This was a four piece rock band which had been formed earlier by his brother John Klimek. The line up featured John on keyboards/vocals, Kevin on lead guitar, good friend Dave Olig on drums and Jerry Mitchell on bass guitar. The group later morphed into a seven piece show band which became J.D. and The Juveniles. This group featured most of the original Rhythm Knights with Jerry Mitchell being replaced on bass, by younger brother Bob. Also added were rhythm guitar players Herb Maas and Jerry Clarey along with Wally "Cootie" Kath on saxophone. Kevin jokingly stated at one time "We tried to be a 'Fabulous Flipper' band but failed miserably." Later on, Kevin joined the Al Mikesh band on bass guitar and worked with that group for nearly ten years. He stayed extremely busy with this group while barely making passing grades in high school. He had made a pact with his folks. Let him stay in the band as long as he didn't flunk out of school! During one grueling winter in the late '60's, the group played twenty one nights in a row, all one nighters in different venues! Over the years Kevin played with many groups, and during those years, high points included fronting Buck Owens in a concert as well as other artists. More recently, Kevin was called on stage at the last minute to take over the role of bass guitar player for Bill Haley's Comets at a concert. He also feels very lucky to have met and befriended surf rock icon Tony Andreason, one of the original members of The Trashmen.

In 1972 Kevin put his music career on the back burner and after graduating from a Trades College pursued a career in the printing industry. He still gigged off and on with various bands, but usually only on weekends in local clubs. Around 1990, he started immersing himself in MIDI technology which allowed him to showcase both his compositional skills and talents on several other instruments. He began to write and compose all of his own backup music and started working as a solo act which he does to this day. In 2006, he retired from the printing industry, went back to full time gigging and hasn't looked back since. Kevin's first recording experience was in the late 1960's; he was featured on several of the Al Mikesh band's albums. Kevin then recorded his first single (Little Bit Of Nothing & Rose Ann) for the Universal Audio label around 1969. {Note: His original, "Little Bit Of Nothing" was updated and released on his latest CD in 2005). Kevin was featured with other artists including Donny Vosen's album titled "After Hours" Kevin released his first solo album in May of 2005, a CD titled ALL BY MYSELF. This is an all instrumental project and again, Kevin did all of the backup music and print design himself. This CD is available at www.cdbaby.com. 

~klimekguitarman.embarqspace.com